Super Bowl Sees Green

2010 Super Bowl - Super Bowl 44 (XLIV) - will be played on Sunday February 7, 2010 at 6:30 PM Eastern Time
Jack Groh is the first and only director of the NFL Environmental Program. The mission of this vast environmental program is to reduce solid waste and increase recycling and landfill diversion, as well as tap renewable energy for game-day usage, and for the two weeks of events leading up to the game. Now in its 18th year, the NFL has developed an array of standard programs that can carry over despite the Super Bowl's annual change in venue,...

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Bio for Jack Groh

Jack Groh is Director of the National Football League's Environmental Program and a principal in the consulting firm of Groh Associates. Mr. Groh has been a communications and environmental consultant for more than 19 years and has worked on Super Bowl since 1993. He has been involved in environmental projects for the US Department of Energy, Argonne National Laboratory, the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, the American Solar Energy Society, the State of Rhode Island, the National Clean Cities Coalition and the United States Consortium for Automotive Research. He has also worked on a number of environmental projects sponsored by General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Chrysler.

His environmental work has been recognized for its high level of community, government, and sponsor support and participation; its practical approach to environmental problem-solving; and the significant return on investment (ROI) it provides to an event host community. He has helped event organizers develop environmental initiatives that cut costs and and provide measurable community benefits.

Mr. Groh has delivered presentations on environmental project development to academic and corporate audiences across North America and Europe. He has been a featured speaker at environmental conferences organized by the United Nations and by the International Olympic Committee.

Prior to working in the environmental and communications field, Mr. Groh was an award-winning journalist. Associated Press, UPI, and the Society for Professional Journalists have presented awards for his investigative journalism work.

Mr. Groh is a nationally licensed soccer coach and director of coaching for his hometown club in Warwick, RI. He serves as an adult leader for the Boy Scouts of America and as an on-air fund raiser for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

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Super Bowl Sees Green

Blue Green Angels And Green Peppers

The Blue-Green Angels

By Matt Sloustcher, GreenPepper

Watching The Blue Angels soar over the San Francisco skyline this weekend was an amazing sight, one that I look forward to annually. This year, however, there was a new sound in the air. Since practice sessions began on Thursday, greenies have been grumbling about wasted jet fuel and the general environmental degradation caused by the event. I witnessed most of this online, but others mentioned it as we stood on my roof watching the sky. It should come as no surprise; in this new era of social responsibility, everything is being called out. There was tremendous fallout last week when the President and first lady took separate jets across the Atlantic to lobby on behalf of Chicago’s Olympic bid, for example.

On gut reaction alone, my feeling is that the tradition should live on. In addition to pure entertainment value, arguments can be made that the show boosts the Navy’s recruiting potential and inspires people to think about public service. But I wonder, shouldn’t the Navy use this opportunity to educate people on the efforts it is taking to clean up its act? For example, the Navy is pouring millions into researching alternative fuels and other forms of energy, but the Website makes no mention. If I had my way, the Navy would showcase its current efforts and make a pledge that they will work to make the event carbon neutral within a decade. That’s leadership.

From GreenPepperBlog

"Companies in all sectors now feel..competitive pressures to launch green programs, as markets across the globe acknowledge their ability to seriously effect the environment and climate... including many sophisticated Fortune 1000 firms."

For More Information please see Eco Consulting * Eco Media

Survey Results

A survey conducted by GreenPepper and Media-Screen in 2007 of nearly 500 consumers and corporate executives showed that 75%t of respondents indicated that efforts seem more credible when endorsed by environmental groups that have programs designed to have a direct impact on local communities. In addition, most companies interested in going green have not figured out which environmental groups they should partner with, citing lack of trust or common goals, and uncertainty on which NGOs to seek out.

To receive a copy of the complete survey findings, please send an email to greenpepper(at)peppercom(dot)com

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Blue Green Angels And Green Peppers

Film Finds Environmental Friends Across The North and South Borders

Green Filming North And South: A Comparative Analysis

The following is a quick comparison of two popular areas to film with Hollywood productions who take their film dollars out of Hollywood.  Both areas, New Mexico and British Columbia, have green agendas and promote best practices when it comes to film production and responsible stewardship of the local environment.

New Mexico's Green Filmmaking Initiative is a voluntary program to encourage environmentally sensitive film & television production.

The New Mexico Film Office offers online materials to productions about the use of alternative materials and environmentally friendly practices in the production office and on-set. This would include information on: recycling; purchasing locally made and/or organic products; donating unused/unwanted items to local school, church

Reel Green B.C.

Already known as a ‘green’ industry sector, BC’s entertainment production community understands that a light footprint on our environment means a longer life for our valued resources and a longer welcome in BC communities.  The production industry also understands there is more that can be done to make its activities green and Reel Green BC captures a grassroots movement within the industry to do just that.

Meet Me Half Way

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Film Finds Environmental Friends Across The North and South Borders

Planet Earth, Poem By P.K. Page

Originally published in Ms. Page's collection, The Hidden Room, Collected Poems (in two volumes), 1997 by The Porcupine's Quill Inc., 68 Main St., Erin,  Ontario, N0B 1T0 Canada.

In 2001 her poem Planet Earth was read simultaneously in New York, the Antarctic and the South Pacific to celebrate the International Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations, by special resolution of the U.N.

P.K. Page became a scriptwriter at Canada's National Film Board, where she met W. Arthur Irwin, a former editor of Maclean's magazine, whom she married in 1950.

Planet Earth was inspired by four lines of a longer poem by Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet and writer. The poem expresses her feelings and pain for what humanity is doing to the Earth. 

It has to be spread out, the skin of this planet,
has to be ironed, the sea in its whiteness; 
and the hands keep on moving, 
smoothing the holy surfaces. 

                          ----- In Praise of Ironing          by  Pablo Neruda

 It has to be loved the way a laundress loves her linens, 
 the way she moves her hands caressing the fine muslins 
 knowing their warp and woof, 
 like a lover coaxing, or a mother praising. 
 It has to be loved as if it were embroidered
 with flowers and birds and two joined hearts upon it. 
 It has to be stretched and stroked. 
 It has to be celebrated. 
 O this great beloved world and all the creatures in it.
 It has to be spread out, the skin of this planet. 

 The trees must be washed, and the grasses and mosses. 
 They have to be polished as if made of green brass. 
 The rivers and little streams with their hidden cresses 
 and pale-coloured pebbles 
 and their fool's gold 
 must be washed and starched or shined into brightness, 
 the sheets of lake water 
 smoothed with the hand 
 and the foam of the oceans pressed into neatness. 
 It has to be ironed, the sea in its whiteness.

 and pleated and goffered, the flower-blue sea 
 the protean, wine-dark, grey, green, sea 
 with its metres of satin and bolts of brocade. 
 And sky - such an 0! overhead - night and day 
 must be burnished and rubbed 
 by hands that are loving 
 so the blue blazons forth 
 and the stars keep on shining 
 within and above 
 and the hands keep on moving.

 It has to be made bright, the skin of this planet 
 till it shines in the sun like gold leaf. 
 Archangels then will attend to its metals 
 and polish the rods of its rain. 
 Seraphim will stop singing hosannas
 to shower it with blessings and blisses and praises 
 and, newly in love, 
 we must draw it and paint it 
 our pencils and brushes and loving caresses 
 smoothing the holy surfaces.

© 1994 P.K. Page

P.K. Page passed away on January 14, 2010.  God Bless this sacred soul.

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Planet Earth, Poem By P.K. Page

Greening Hollywood: Avatar Vs. Santa Barbara's Sustainable Seeds

By Green Blogger

The film is a David and Goliath story that introduces those who stand at the source of humanity’s diverse food heritage.

It is a story where resilience and persuasive logic triumph over seemingly invincible forces that control much of our food.

So while Avatar and its message of sustainable living and natives being saved by the White Alien continues to dominate the worldwide box-office, we suggest catching a screening or ordering the DVD of Our Seeds, a film that tells a story of tiny little things that have great impact on all of us here on Earth.

Three minute trailer of "Our Seeds: Seeds Blong Yumi"

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Greening Hollywood: Avatar Vs. Santa Barbara's Sustainable Seeds

Green Blog Network: Restaurant Chef Pitches In

By Green Blogger

 

A new Food TV show, Pitchin' In, focuses on where all the deliciousness comes from...our Blessed Mother Earth and her beauteous bounty of natural resources. This show features gobs of goodness for "local" foodies.

 

Here's an excerpt of Chef Lynn Crawford's new show, Pitchin' In.

 

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Green Blog Network: Restaurant Chef Pitches In

Greening Hollywood: Mother Nature Approves...

By Sandhi Schimmel Gold Eco-Friendly Fine Art   Every American receives close to 560 pieces of junk mail each year.  Those billions of pieces of junk mail - if laid end to end - would circle the globe more than 240 times. About 50% of it ends up in landfills. Your mailbox overflows with essential communication - and unsolicited catalogs, postcards and an assortment of advertising ephemera. Add to this your growing collection of old greeting cards, calendars, menus, fliers and business cards, and the amount of paper you have to recycle swells. http://greenblognetwork.blogspot.com/ http://greenblognetwork.wordpress.com What do you do with your junk mail?

"Mother Nature" On canvas, this amazing portrait was created by upcycling junk mail and other advertising ephemera to create mosaic "tiles,"  utilizing only eco-friendly and non-toxic materials. 24x48." The final image in the artists' "Icon" series, is Mother Nature. Her face mimics the various tones of the earth; her hair extends upwards like ferns in various shades of green while her gaze reflects her concern for her planet. Add this unique piece to your collection of eco-friendly fine art! Or, view the collection of original art for sale. "My pictures are made of thousands of incongruent pieces - images and text. Assembled like a mosaic; the tiles create an entirely new image - a portrait, a landscape, a fantasy - directly from my imagination, utilizing materials that would otherwise go to waste." See the art now at Springs Preserve Museum in Las Vegas, Translations Gallery in Denver, Bella Studios in Valparaiso, Indiana Eco-Centricity in Phoenix, or make an appointment to visit the artist's studio. Important Links: The Artist's Web Site Email the Artist Follow on Twitter

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Greening Hollywood: Mother Nature Approves...

Public Swimming Pools Get 30% Solar Tax Credit

by Susan Kraemer

[ Originally published on Clean Technica ]

When the 30% tax credits as cash grants were instituted with the American Recovery Act, I was doing solar estimates for a small solar start-up in California. I was surprised to find that the 30% solar tax credit (available as a  cash grant for businesses) was available for solar thermal - only when it was not used for heating swimming pools. Heating water for showers, dishes, radiant heating system in buildings with solar thermal was eligible, but swimming pools were excluded.

Yet I found that heating the swimming pool was the greatest need that the apartment owners I was contacting had, and it was such a staggering source of greenhouse gas emissions, that I wrote up my suggestion that “like heating apartment pools” should be instated as the measure we use when we say doing something is like taking some number of “cars-off-the-road” to  “measure” carbon reduction.

• » See also: New Carbon Footprint Calculation Accounts For Country of Consumption
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For example, the Maintenance Supervisor at The Bay Street Apartments in the East Bay told me that every month, $6,000 of his $11,000 a month gas bill went just to keeping this relatively tiny swimming pool at the sort of modest temperature that apartment pools are kept at. Hot water for all the apartments in the complex took less gas than this tiny swimming pool.

My estimate for an Apricus system for Santana Row came in at $227,790, and $1, 256,373 money saved over 25 years (not spent on gas, which if its average annual cost rise -of 9% a year till this year- were to continue over the next 25 years would have been an estimated $2,473,605.)
The greenhouse gases saved over the twenty five years came to 90,000 tons of carbon.
Although the apartment complex was eligible for a utility rebate in my utility district (PG&E) based on the (in this case) 13,045 therms saved in the first year, they were not eligible for any other incentives, (although Southern California was looking into expanding solar thermal incentives at that time).
This is the kind of money and greenhouse gas emissions that apartment complexes are literally pouring into pools, for heating that evaporates into the cool night air every night. It is probably one of the biggest energy waster we have. I am sure that it is costing community swimming pools a similar amount.
Commercial pools at hotels and motels, health clubs, municipal pools and school pools would all be covered. Approximately 189,000 commercial pools nationwide use fossil fuel or electricity to heat an estimated 27.25 billion gallons of water nationwide.  If the heating systems were replaced with solar water heating systems, 1.23 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions avoided annually.
Senator Feinstein’s measure [with Sen. Merkley D-Ore.] would extend the 30% solar tax credit which is set to expire in 2010, and expand it to include solar thermal for commercial and community swimming pools, and also would expand it to include manufacturing equipment needed to manufacture solar water heating systems.

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Public Swimming Pools Get 30% Solar Tax Credit

Greening Christmas: We're Dreaming Of A White (And Green) Christmas

Looking for a last minute stocking stuffer?  Need some home decorating or festive recipes before the guests arrive? Check out the new book from Chronicle Books by Anna Getty, I'm Dreaming of A Green Christmas, with video vignettes available on YouTube...suitable for good friends and family.

Now, if only all of us had such luck with good friends and stocking stuffers!

 

Happy Holidays! Wishing everyone Health and Prosperity for 2010!

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Greening Christmas: We're Dreaming Of A White (And Green) Christmas

Greening Copenhagen: A Climactic Fairytale

by Paige Donner

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger addressed the leaders attending the Global Climate Conference in Copenhagen earlier this week, he noted Copenhagen's Little Mermaid, its famous statue in the city center that is drawn from a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale. He also noted that his favorite fairytale as a child was "The Ugly Duckling" because of its theme of transformation.

The California Governor is lobbying hard to maintain our focus on the fact that "this conference is automatically and already a success."

In these final hours of the historical summit, much focus is being placed on a global agreement being signed by all the world's leaders, the developing nations and the developed nations; And in particular whether China and the U.S. can come to an agreement about emissions reduction inspections and national sovereignty. Much focus is also being placed on which leaders B.O. is including in his pack and which ones he is snubbing.

Schwarzenegger's emphasis continues to focus our attention on the integral role that subnational governments and leaders - and individuals and entrepreneurs - play in this transformation of our environmental practices and some of the industries upon which we base our global economy.

Governor Schwarzenegger:

"...the world's governments alone cannot make progress, the kind of progress that is needed on global climate change. They alone cannot do it. They need everyone coming together, everyone working together. They need the cities, they need the states, they need the provinces and the regions. They need the corporations, the activists, the scientists and the universities. They need the individuals whose vision and determination create movements. They need everybody out there.

So ladies and gentlemen, let us regain our momentum, let us regain our purpose, let us regain our hope by liberating the transformative power beneath the national level.

That can be the great contribution of Copenhagen -- that could be the great contribution of Copenhagen.

Some examples he gave of industry and entrepreneurs leading the way: A German company in Texas building and operating the world's largest wind farm; a renewable energy company in China stating that they feel that renewables are "good business, not a burden." Solazyme, the firm that derives its renewable energy from algae and its recent U.S. Department of Defense contract is more evidence of successful private-public partnerships.

He also spoke about his late Mother-in-law's pioneering efforts to create the Special Olympics. This was an effort of individuals and people. This was not an effort set forth by governments.  He pointed out that it is people, friends and family, who are there at the finishing line to give the athletes participating in the Special Olympics a big hug, not governments.  The Special Olympics is now in 180-plus countries.

Without the dedication of individuals, activists, entrepreneurs, there would be no environmental movement.   "Movements began with the people, not with governments," concluded Schwarzenegger.

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Greening Copenhagen: A Climactic Fairytale