IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!

OK, so at 55 I recognize I’m not really old (quit laughing kids), and that everyone has birthdays and not all of us appreciate them at this stage of life. But I digress.

What can I do for my birthday that may be more environmentally friendly than the past?

Maybe some comparisons are in order when considering some options.

• Fly to Florida and visit Disney World for the weekend, eat out at restaurants, turn the A/C down in the motel room...or the Earth Friendly Alternative...Take a bike ride locally, or visit a nearby amusement park. Visit a local restaurant or buy locally grown foods and cook them at home.
• Take a group of friends on a deep sea fishing trip...or the Earth Friendly Alternative...Have friends over, grill fish and veggies on the back deck and watch Jaws on DVD.
• Fly to Costa Rica, camp out in the rainforest...or the Earth Friendly Alternative...Load camping gear up in a car and camp out within a 3 hour drive of home.

One thing is for sure at this age, I don’t need more stuff. So maybe instead of a shirt, a tie, or a gag gift that will be given to someone else (maybe you) consider a gift that has continuing value and may help the environment.

Give a gift that keeps on giving:
Heifer International has a list of animals that you can give to areas that are trying to improve their food resources in a sustainable fashion. Donations range from about $10 for a share into the $1000s.

Support a worthwhile cause:
Use the American Institute of Philanthropy’s guide to help aid your decision of which organization(s) to support.

Visit charitywatch.org to find organization ratings on how efficiently they spend their donations. Listings sorted by topic. Some personal environmental favorites: Conservation Fund, Trust for Public Land, The Nature Conservancy

VirginiaOutdoors.com

If you’re into Mother Nature and you live in Virginia (or, want to travel here!), check out Virginia Outdoors. It's a one stop shop for all parks and the outdoors. Trail maps, park maps, weather forecasts, calendar of events, registration, and driving directions are packed in this comprehensive site.

It’s been created by the Virginia Association of Parks to encourage people to explore Virginia’s natural resources, better yet, reaching a new target audience of internet users.

You can search by explore by activity or region, and then dig into each niche even more. One of the coolest features about the trail is a virtual video tour you can take, and view a GPS based trail map.

For all you techies out there, Virginia Outdoors has a bunch of podcasts talking about the Best of the State Parks from different authors, really neat stuff!

Also, don’t forget to Join the Outdoor Community and receive emails about cool trails, fun activities, and new features!

Take Control Of Energy Usage With New Programs

We have just launched a total of 5 new energy conservation programs!

Dominion received Virginia State Corporation Commission approval in late March to offer 5 energy efficiency and demand-reduction programs to help our customers gain better control of their energy usage.

These programs will benefit our customers by helping manage energy usage and costs while also addressing Virginia’s growing energy needs.

The programs that are available help both home and business customers include:

Home

• Lighting Program: Receive an instant discount on the purchase of energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs.
• Smart Cooling Rewards: Initially offered in Charlottesville,VA, program participants receive an incentive payment for allowing Dominion to cycle their air-conditioning on and off for short periods during times of high energy demand.
• Home Energy Improvement: Income-qualifying households will receive an energy audit and energy-efficiency improvements.

Business

• HVAC Rewards: Earn a rebate when your business upgrades their HVAC system to a higher efficient system.
• Lighting Rewards: Earn a rebate when your business retrofits existing inefficient lighting with more energy-efficient lighting.

For additional ways to save or to calculate how much energy your home is using, you can visit our website.

Green Triathlons

Triathlons are one of the greenest sports there are and the 2010 season is right around the corner. The swimming, biking, and running are all low impact sports on the environment. Even the infamous IRONMAN, a race of endurance (a 2.4-mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bike, then a 26.2-mile marathon) is high impact on your body, but low impact on the earth.

Many triathlons are making their way to being even greener, and you can help support the effort. Some of the things you can do to help reduce or eliminate your impact on the environment include:

• Don’t throw the ‘energy bar’ wrappers on the ground during the race, send them to TerraCycle and they’ll donate money to your charity of choice
• Better yet, make your own nutrition bars with locally grown food
• Pick up trash along the route, like the Eco-Runner
• Buy powered sports drink and mix it yourself in a reusable water bottle
• Recycle your retired running shoes with Soles4Souls
• Start your workout rides/runs from your home or office, and ride/run to the pool instead of driving
• Give away your old swim caps as jar opening grips
• When buying your matching cycling and running outfit, purchase goods made from natural fibers.
• In the winter, use your cycling jersey twice before washing it (and make sure to wash laundry in full loads)

Many of the races people are signing up for are also going green. ReSport, the Council for Responsible Sporting, aims to encourage race directors to implement environmentally responsible activities in their race. One race, the Hartford Marathon, had a ‘water bubbler’ which helped rehydrate thousands of runners and avoid the need of 10,000 plastic water bottles!

The effort put in by both the race directors and the athletes has the potential to make a huge difference in the endurance sport world!