A Green New Year’s Eve

Another year has come and gone. With 2010 coming to a close, it’s a time to reflect on the passing of another decade but also to celebrate the exciting times ahead.

While you are planning New Year’s Eve parties, consider these ways in which your party can “go green” and start your year off on a green note:

• Keep it simple with electronic invitations.
• Use biodegradable party streamers or soy candles as the décor.
• Pop the cork on organic bubbly.
• Keep it simple and try easy-to-fix, locally grown appetizers as a way to satisfy appetites.
• Rent champagne flutes, instead of buying plastic.
• Enjoy! You and your friends can enjoy the improved brilliance of the Times Square New Year’s Ball, which is now lit with LED bulbs.

And after the party comes time to consider goals for 2011. Find a resolution you can keep! There are some popular New Year’s resolutions, but also consider money saving and energy efficient resolutions (like lowering your kWh usage each month).

Alternative Mode of Transportation this Holiday season…Segway

I have caught the Segway fever!

This year, I discovered how fun it is to glide on a Segway to see big city sites and landmarks. I have become somewhat of a regular at the Richmond Segway dealership. Besides looking awesome gliding the streets of metropolitan cities with ease, you are also being energy efficient in your choice of transportation.

The company prides itself on being an eco-friendly mode of transportation. The Segway runs on electricity, a plug-in vehicle of sorts. The range of a fully-charged Segway is 16 – 24 miles, depending on factors like terrain and riding style. To cruise about 20 miles means the Segway needs 1040 kWh of electricity. The company has a white paper that details the emission reduction and energy efficiency of its product. The Segway can move at speeds up to 12 mph, make zero radius turns, and navigate with ease.

Besides supporting my own local Segway dealership, I’ve also enjoyed sneaking in 2 hour Segway tours in cities I have visited. Almost every major city including Boston, Portland, Chicago and Denver will have an authorized dealership or a tour company offering a site-seeing thrill while on Segway. My total Segway tour count is up to 9, including the one I took last weekend – Christmas Light Tour. It was the coldest tour I’ve been on, but worth the experience.

I encourage everyone to consider a Segway tour on their next vacation as a way to experience the city first hand while choosing an energy efficient vehicle.

Vacations, Energy Shut Down List

The holiday season means vacation and a break from usual routines.
For students, it means enduring exam week before packing up a suitcase and heading home for the holidays. Before you completely leave your dorm room for winter break, take a minute to do an “energy shut down” to ensure there isn’t wasted energy lingering while you are away.

• Make sure the desk computer is shut down, not just in sleep mode,
• Turn the monitor off,
• Check to see that TV’s, VCR/DVD players, computers are turned off and unplugged,
• Are other appliances like microwaves, coffee makers, alarm clocks unplugged?
• Turn the lights off,
• Lock the door. Have an enjoyable winter break and bask in the phrase “I’ll see you next year”.

For families travelling through the woods to Grandma’s house, there is a household checklist to follow as well.

• Adjust the thermostat. A recommended setting is 68 degrees but if there isn’t anyone home for a few days, you can lower a couple more degrees. Just not too cold (below 55 degrees) because you don’t want pipes to freeze. If you have a programmable thermostat you can set it on a “hold” setting and program it to a comfortable setting for when you expect to return.
• If the holiday decorations are still up, ensure the lights are on a timer and not left on for the entire duration of your trip.
• Set the water heater on “vacation” setting, or turn it down.
• Unplug the entertainment center and computer desk to save on the phantom load from all the electronics plugged in.
• Make sure the gas logs are turned off and chimney flue closed.

By following a few energy saving tips, you’ll save some green on the utility bill to help pay the holiday shopping bills.

Last Minute Stocking Stuffers, with a Green Twist

By now, the holiday checklist is dwindling:

• Boatload of LED lights strung: Check
• Overeaten at every holiday party: Check
• The big gifts for the kids: Check
• The stocking stuffers for the person that is the sparkle in your eye: Oops, forgot that one!

Even though you forgot about the stocking stuffers, we didn’t. We’re here to help generate some fun and swanky gift ideas that don’t break the bank…and can make your house energy efficient and trendy.

• Compact Florescent Lights (CFL Light bulbs) – This is the easiest one on the list. We all know the light bulbs use about a quarter of the electricity of standard incandescent bulbs and are just as bright. Dominion even has a program where there’s an in store discount at Walmart, Sam’s Club, Costco, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, and BJ’s Wholesale. For added CFL fun, consider using them outdoors in holiday colors.
• Programmable Thermostat – These are all the rage. The price of these has really dropped and they’re easy to install. Most have settings where you can set the temperature for when you go to work, return from work, go to bed, and wake up. It took me 10 minutes to program mine, and it’s the perfect temperature in the house whenever I’m there.
• Lighting Timers - These are becoming standard throughout the year. Set both outdoor and indoor lights on timers and it becomes a hassle free way to cut energy usage.
• Organic body wash – If you are one to shop online, but still want to be eco-friendly, organic body wash is a refreshing way to go. Smell good and have minimal impact on the Earth.
• Subscription to online newspaper – One of my personal favorites. People want to know what’s going on in the world, but many people want to read it on their laptop or other mobile device while eating breakfast or riding the metro. Not a newspaper reader, digital books are growing in popularity (and they’re cheaper!)
• Reusable coffee mug – As humans, we love routine. We like to do the same things, at the same times, and often only like little change at a time. Many humans go to work, grab a styrofoam cup, drink their coffee, and pitch the cup. If they work Monday – Friday (but take two weeks of vacation) they’re tossing away nearly 250 cups a year, that’s 7,500 cups over a 30 year career!!! But if you get them a cup they can drink their coffee in, and then wash it out, that’s only 1 cup over a 30 year career. Easy change for a big difference. And there are lots of outlets that give you money off your purchase for bringing in your reusable mug, like Starbucks, Einstein Bagels, and Panera Bread all offer 10 cents off if you bring your reusable mug into their store.
• A certificate to make them dinner – If you’re the master chef, give your stocking receiver a gift certificate for a homemade dinner, but not just any dinner. The certificate would let them know that the ingredients will all come from a 100 mile range. Farmers markets are a great place to shop to get fresh local in ingredients.
• A tree – While it might not fit in a stocking, a great gift idea is to plant a tree. Look around your yard for a place to plant one. When you plant it, consider where your HVAC unit is. Trees planted on the south and west sides (page 15) will help keep your house cool in the summer and allow sun to shine in the windows in the winter.
• Donate your time – If whoever you’re getting the gift for has everything they could possibly need, put an invitation to donate both of your time in their stocking. There are plenty of community gardens, soup kitchens, libraries, animal shelters, Habitat for Humanity locations, Big Brother Big Sister organizations to spend quality time with.

Now with all of these ideas, there is plenty of time to get the gifts and be ahead of the shopping schedule this year!

Double Boost for the Environment

Supporting renewable energy is great… and when it’s combined with other sustainability efforts, you can feel twice as good about helping the environment.

A recent promotion encouraged Dominion Virginia Power customers to enroll in the Dominion Green Power program -- for every 100% Option enrollment between October 1 and November 15, Dominion Green Power would donate a tree to Project Plant It!, a Dominion program that provides tree seedlings to 3rd graders to plant while learning about the environment in school.

Customers were really excited to know that not only did their enrollment in Dominion Green Power support renewable energy, but it also resulted in a donation to The Arbor Day Foundation which meant that there would be more trees for kids to plant in Virginia next Arbor Day. All told, 889 trees were donated to Project Plant It!, and in just one year 10.7 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy will be supported by customers who enrolled in Dominion Green Power during this promotion—a double boost for the environment.

For more information about Dominion Green Power, visit www.dom.com/VaGreenPower. For more information about Project Plant It!, visit www.projectplantit.com.

Richmond Holiday Calendar: Mark down Dominion GardenFest of Lights at Lewis Ginter

One of Richmond’s largest holiday light displays can be found at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. The annual light display, coined Dominion GardenFest of Lights, sports 23 miles of LED strands in its 700,000-light displays, which runs now through January 10, 2011.

The Dominion GardenFest of Lights should become your family tradition (if it hasn’t already). The staff is wonderful and the work that goes into the event is spectacular. We visited Lewis Ginter late September to get a sneak peak at this year’s light festival. Each year there is a new theme.

This year’s is “Fire and Ice”. Like last year, they also had a lot of spiders scattered throughout the lawn (see my picture). There is also a Children’s Vegetable Garden with fruit and vegetable light displays that are not to be missed.

For a glimpse at the 2010 brilliance, you can see a video here. But don’t miss out, make sure you visit and see for yourself.

And don’t miss the fun festivities this weekend at the Dominion Christmas Parade. It’s this Saturday (December 4th) starting at 10:00AM. check out RichmondParade.com for details, including the Parade Route.