Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- And Now, Back to Your Local News…Since the weather’s getting better, I’m sure we’re all totally jonesing to get onto the trails, but in general, they’re a mess. It’s a bummer to see nice singletracks get trashed and widened, so like all of you, I’m grinding my teeth in annoyance while I try to be patient. The good news is that you [...] […]
- Downieville, Take ThreeOkay, well, things went pretty haywire in race promotion after the registration debacle. The organizer received so many hateful emails and comments about the mishap that it made him wonder if he should even bother putting the race on. I can’t blame him, really. In his shoes I might do the same thing. It sounds [...] […]
- And Now, Back to Your Local News…
- Edgy Veggie
You are viewing the archive for the Energy, G.I.Y. category.
CU’s Environmental Center offers free energy visits for students
Jimena Zamora, left, who is part of the University of Colorado Student and Community Outreach on Renter Energy (SCORE), checks the temperature of the hot water in a student house on Monday. Resident Mariko McMillan, right, watches. Photo by Marty Caivano, Camera.
In a city where there are tons of renters, it’s tough to motivate people to spend money on saving energy. That’s part of why the University of Colorado’s Environmental Center is helping students living off campus chip away at their energy bills by visiting their homes to show them how:
Hosted by CU’s Environmental Center, Student and Community Outreach for Renter Efficiency — or SCORE — teaches students living in certain Boulder neighborhoods how to lower their energy bills by making their homes more efficient through simple and inexpensive adjustments, such as using energy efficient light bulbs or setting thermostats to optimal temperatures. Read more
Saying no to phone books in Colorado
Where's the scroll bar on this thing?! | flickr user recyclethis
We were just talking about this in the office and, sure enough, it comes up in the news — Coloradoans might have a way to say no to phone books if one state rep has anything to say about it:
Democratic Rep. Mark Ferrandino is looking at two possibilities to help people whod rather look up a number online or dont want multiple books.One would set up a registry of people who want to permanently opt out, an approach similar to the do-not-call list. The other would require each directory publisher to allow people to opt out for at least five years online and post the Web address on the front of each book.
Green career panel at CU in two hours
Sorry we didn’t get this posted earlier, folks, but here’s some notice in case you’ve got the evening free –
CU’s Career Services will host a green career panel at 5 p.m. Tuesday in Eaton Humanities, Room 1B50, to help students interested in joining the industry find their edge and break into the growing market. Panelists include speakers from the Colorado Department of Transportation, the Boulder Green Building Guild and the Governor's Energy Office.
Colorado's renewable energy and energy efficiency industries created more than 91,000 in-state jobs in 2007 and generated $10.2 billion in annual revenue with the potential for the industries to grow sixfold by 2030, according to the American Solar Energy Society.
Read more at the Colorado Daily.
As for us, we’ll be at Bacaro for Green Drinks Boulder tonight. See you there!
Save gas and money by taking care of your car
I just asked our Facebook fans if they were missing bike-all-the-time-weather as much as I was. It’s pretty sleepy over there today (where are you guys?)!
Still, this story on taking care of your car so it’ll take care of your pocketbook seemed timely, since we’re stuck with four wheels for now:
A properly tuned car can improve its gas mileage by an average of 4 percent. Some fixes, like replacing a faulty oxygen sensor, can earn you as much as a 40 percent improvement in miles per gallon, according to the DOE’s Web site fueleconomy.gov.
Maybe the easiest way to ensure your car is getting the most miles out of the fuel put into it is to keep your tires inflated on the high side of manufacturer recommendations.
Also nice:
“Nothing’s as effective as driving less,” Hathaway said
Aquaponics: Fish poop makes for good vegetables
Fish poop makes good vegetables. That’s what I learned about aquaponics from the Camera this week.
You know about hydroponics, but here’s the picture with aquaponics: you’re growing veggies and raising fish at the same time:
The vegetables and the fish work together in a sustainable loop. The fish waste provides fertilizer, which is made accessible to the plants via bacteria that convert the ammonia to nitrates, which feed the plants. Once the system reaches bacterial balance, the only work is tending the plants.
That way, you’re not using chemical fertilizers, like you might in hydroponics.
Boulder’s Sylvia Bernstein uses aquaponics to grow pepper plants, six kinds of heirloom tomatoes, English cucumbers, peppers and herbs “with nothing but fish waste and trout chow.”
Trout chow! Mmm! Read more
Bike maintenance classes make your bike last longer
This bike is still going!
It was six decades ago that Owen Hook fell in love with the shining bicycle in his local department store window.
But today, the Raleigh push bike is still going strong.
Mr Hook, 72, who paid for the top-of-the-range, three-speed Raleigh bike in 36 monthly installments of just ten shillings (50p) 57 years ago, said yesterday that it showcased British craftsmanship at its best.
Pretty impressive, but surely it didn’t come without a little work. I’ve been tempted to take a class with Community Cycles for just that reason. The next six-week bike mechanics course starts March 3.
Did WSJ just give Boulder the big green beatdown?
Even Boulder Finds It Isn't Easy Going Green, by Stephanie Simon, WSJ
Last Saturday, the Wall Street Journal published a story about Boulder on its front page: “Boulder Struggles with Green Dream: Even Boulder Finds It Isn’t Easy Going Green.”
This spring, city contractors will fan out across this well-to-do college town to unscrew light bulbs in thousands of homes and replace them with more energy-efficient models, at taxpayer expense.
City officials never dreamed they’d have to play nanny when they set out in 2006 to make Boulder a role model in the fight against global warming. The cause seemed like a natural fit in a place where residents tend to be politically liberal and passionate about the great outdoors.
Instead, as Congress considers how to encourage Americans to conserve more energy, Boulder stands as a cautionary tale about the limits of good intentions.
Ouch.
The article, in general, focused on the fact that since individuals wouldn’t motivate to make energy-efficient upgrades to their own, the city of Boulder (like a cross, eye-rolling nanny) planned to do it for them. By Monday, Boulder’s supposed fall from green grace had made its way around the Internet echo chamber, showing up on a handful of high-profile blogs. Take, for example, this joke that introduced a post on the Time magazine Web site:
How many residents of Boulder, Colorado, does it take to screw in a light bulb? 100,000: Taxpayers foot the bill for teams of techies to go door-to-door and caulk windows, swap old light bulbs for compact fluorescent ones, and install programmable thermostats, all in the name of energy efficiency. Should saving energy—and money—be this difficult to achieve?
Even in an exceptionally progressive, environmentally sensitive town like Boulder, it seems nearly impossible to get residents to lift a finger, spend a buck, or change their habits to save the planet.
So is this true? And if not, what’s the real story? Is Boulder green or isn’t it? Read more
Make a lamp out of a bottle
DIY bottle lamp kit
Today’s inspiration to reuse (or I guess it’s upcycling, really) comes from this crafty little item that’ll help you turn your wine bottle (or maybe certain fine local beer bottles) into lamps.
- Cork is 7/8″ Top, 5/8″ Bottom, Brass Cap is 1″ Dia.
- Fits Most Wine Bottles
- 6 ft. Brown Cord
- Socket Prewired
- Complete and Ready To Use.
- via Cork Stopper Lamp Kit : Remodelista.
CU recycling, now twice as nice
A couple of CU seniors get serious about smashing down cardboard boxes at a recycling dumpster on campus | Daily Camera
The University of Colorado is making changes to its recycling program that will make participation twice as easy. (Actually, 2.5 times as easy, if you’re a math person.)
Now, recycling locations around CU still have five bins — which to a lot of us Boulderites seems, well, pretty old school. (Read more about they city’s single-stream recycling on BigGreenBoulder.) The plan, according to an article in the Daily Camera, is to implement “dual-stream” recycling, which would cut the number of bins to two: one for paper and one for pretty much everything else.
Read more about it at DailyCamera.com.
Love watching the Super Bowl? Love snacking? Consider yourself a greenie, veg-head, sustainability devotee? We have what you need.
Super Bowl XLIV | From Flickr user RMTip21
This Sunday, millions of people will sit down to watch the Colts and the Saints battle it out at Super Bowl XLIV. However, all the Boulderites out there are probably looking for a way to make their Super bowl parties a little lighter and a little greener.
From watching the game on a more environmentally friendly TV, to cooking with sustainable ingredients, to eating vegetarian, greening your Super bowl can be simple.
Here are a some guilt-free, game-appropriate recipes that will please any football enthusiast, whether they care about sustainability or not. Read more
