green communities

The Green Spotlight’s Facebook Page: Recent Posts

You can find fresh, daily morsels of information and inspiration on The Green Spotlight’s Facebook Page. Anyone can view the page, even if they don’t have a Facebook account. But if you do have an account, we hope you’ll click on the Like button (if you haven’t already “Liked” the page).

Please visit the Page to get a sense of the wide variety of topics that it covers, and you are welcome to comment on the posts and share your own recommended links.

Here’s a sampling of topics that we’ve spotlighted on the page over the last month or so:

  • Mosaic’s successful solar crowdfunding platform
  • Hybrid Vehicle Scorecard
  • Global Green’s K-12 Green School Makeover grants
  • The ultra-green, newly built Bullitt Center in Seattle
  • Fossil Free: a divestment campaign for campus endowments
  • Farmigo.com: a virtual farmer’s market that delivers to workplaces, schools +
  • Webinar on community/neighborhood/bulk solar projects
  • How to opt out of receiving the printed Yellow Pages
  • New books: Clean Break; Carbon Zero; etc.
  • New films: You’ve Been Trumped; Promised Land; etc.
  • Organizations: 350.org, Rural Renewable Energy Alliance, etc.
  • Cartoons, photos, graphics
  • Great quotations from Martin Luther King Jr., John Burroughs, Rachel Carson, Ross Gelbspan, Mary Oliver, etc.
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January 21, 2013
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Lesser-Known Organizations that are Worthy of Support

There are a number of large and well-known environmental organizations (e.g., NRDC and the Sierra Club) and other broad-based sustainability groups that do good work. But there are also many lesser-known, smaller, local, or more issue-specific environmental organizations that I believe also deserve attention and financial support. You might not have heard of all of these groups before, but they’re worth knowing about. They include:

  • A local Land Trust / Conservancy (or state or regional parks; or other local land conservation or wildlife protection group)

It was difficult to narrow down my long list of favorite organizations to this small set; there are so many other effective organizations and initiatives that deserve support, as well. If you have a favorite organization to recommend, please mention it in the Comments section.

Remember that you can always give a donation to a group or a cause in honor of someone else—as a gift. It’s a wonderful type of gift to give for the holidays or any other occasion. You can also give someone a charity gift card (such as the TisBest Charity Gift Card) that allows the recipient to spend the funds on a charity of their choice.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to mention a few other non-profit groups that you might want to learn about, though they are not directly/explicitly related to environmental issues. I hope you will look into and support some of these groups, as well:

Also consider making donations to local organizations that serve your community (e.g., food banks, homeless shelters or affordable housing groups, senior centers, child abuse prevention or foster care groups, veterans support groups, animal rescues/shelters, rural/volunteer fire departments, disaster response/relief groups), as well as to local and nationwide public radio/TV programs and other user-supported media outlets.

Also see:  Non-Profit Organizations of Note

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December 7, 2012
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Solar Generators and Electric Backup Power: Clean, Quiet, Portable

Generators are typically used to provide electricity during power outages (e.g., during storms, emergencies, or related disaster-relief operations) or in off-grid situations or areas where there is no access to a built-in power source (e.g., on construction sites, on camping trips, or at outdoor events—for concert stages, food booths, etc.). So, in a nutshell, they’re mostly used for temporary, portable/mobile, back-up, or remote power needs.

Conventional generators have a number of downsides. They require gasoline (or diesel fuel), which can be expensive—especially during emergencies, when there can also be gas shortages. The stinky emissions from gas-powered generators also contribute to air pollution and climate change, and they can cause carbon monoxide poisoning when placed inside a home or building, or too close to doors, windows, or vents on the outside of a building. (In fact, several people who were using generators due to Hurricane Sandy died from carbon monoxide poisoning.) Furthermore, gas generators are very loud.

Solar (electric) generators provide a smart, silent, safe, and clean alternative that uses renewable energy (no fuel = no emissions), and there are a number of products available to choose from these days. NOTE: The electric power backup battery/stations can also just be charged up by plugging them into an outlet when the electricity is on (prior to an outage); you don’t have to use solar panels to charge/recharge them, but solar panels could help keep them charged up during an extended outage.  (Biodiesel or hybrid generators are other options to consider.)

Below is a list of the U.S.-based solar generator/electric battery backup-power brands that I’ve looked into so far; this is not a comprehensive listing. New products have been coming out every year. If you know of other brands of solar generators and would recommend them, please let us know in the Comments. Thanks!

SolManSmall-Scale, Compact Units

These solar generators and electric backup-power units are designed to provide a modest amount of electricity for temporary, emergency, or low-use power needs. The smallest units can easily charge gadgets and power lights, but do not have the capacity to run large, power-hungry equipment or appliances (e.g., refrigerators or heaters) for more than a short time. (For example, a 1500-watt unit can generally only run a small space heater for up to 2 hours or so at night, when the unit is not being recharged by the sun.) The cost of solar panels continues to go down, and battery and photovoltaic technologies are evolving rapidly. More products are sure to come out, so do an Internet search for “solar generators” to find additional offerings beyond these:

Jackery (based in California) [added in 2022]

Lycan Powerbox (from Renogy, based in Southern California)  [added in 2019]

Yeti (from Goal Zero, based in Utah)  [added in 2015]

CM from Coyle Solar (based in North Carolina)  [added in 2021]

SolMan (from Sol Solutions, based in Northern California)

Ready2Go (from E.A.R.T.H., based in Hawaii and Southern California)

SUNRNR (A.K.A. Sun Runner, based in Virginia)

And people who have solar photovoltaic panels installed on their property can add battery storage via products like Tesla’s Powerwall; the SolPad; or other competing storage products on the market. That way, a solar array can be used even when the power grid is down, or in off-grid settings.

Larger Systems

Some of these are intended for use on construction job sites or public works projects. Most are mounted on trailers that can be towed. While many of these generators are meant for commercial/industrial uses, some could also potentially be used to power an entire off-grid homestead or to help with disaster relief and emergency services.Mobile Solar Power

Sesame Solar Nanogrids (based in Michigan) [added in 2024]

Ecos PowerCube (based in Florida)  [added in 2014]

CM from Coyle Solar (based in North Carolina)  [added in 2021]

Mobile Solar Power (based in Central California)

Solarrolla solar trailer charging stations (based in Wisconsin)
[added in 2024]

SolaRover (based in Colorado)

 

Some companies offer hybrid systems that allow for back-up generation using biodiesel, if solar power is not providing enough power for a user’s needs.

Please chime in with additional info and recommendations based on your own experience or knowledge of solar or biodiesel generators!

Related posts: Resilience: Disaster-Resistant, Adaptive, and Restorative Design and Planning [Feb. 2013] and Tips for Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response [2019]

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November 12, 2012
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Voting for Our Environment

[NOTE: See our updated, more current version of this post on the 2014 election.]

If you would like to be represented by more elected officials who support environmental safeguards for our air, water, and land, take a good look at the resources provided by the League of Conservation Voters (LCV). LCV “is a national non-profit organization that works to turn environmental values into national priorities. To secure the environmental future of our planet, LCV advocates for sound environmental policies” and works to “elect pro-environment candidates who will adopt and implement such policies.”

One of LCV’s flagship reports is its annual National Environmental Scorecard, which shows how each congressperson voted on every environmentally relevant piece of legislation. You can search the Scorecard by state, zip code, a congressperson’s name, or by year. Or you can download a PDF of the entire Scorecard.  Congressman Paul Ryan earned a very low score of 3% in LCV’s 2011 Scorecard, and just 13% the year before.

LCV endorses pro-environment candidates (or at least candidates who are far more green-leaning than their viable opponents) in Congressional, Gubernatorial, and Presidential races. See their list of current endorsements here . The Senate candidates whom they’ve endorsed for the upcoming election include: Tim Kaine (VA), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Jon Tester (MT), Richard Carmona (AZ), Martin Heinrich (NM), Elizabeth Warren (MA), and Chris Murphy (CT), among others. A few of the House candidates they’ve endorsed include: Tammy Duckworth (IL), Ami Bera (CA), Jared Huffman (CA), Dina Titus (NV), Raul Grijalva (AZ), and Ron Barber (AZ), among many others. LCV has also endorsed Barack Obama for President, and Jay Inslee for Governor of Washington. [A post-election update: Almost all of the endorsed pro-environment candidates won their races. LCV has created a webpage they call Environmental Facebook, with profiles of all of the newly elected, LCV-supported congresspeople.]

LCV also makes anti-endorsements. This year, LCV named five incumbent House candidates to a group they’ve dubbed the Flat Earth Five: five of the most staunchly anti-science, climate-change deniers (AKA denialists) in the House of Representatives. LCV is encouraging voters to vote against the Flat Earth Five, who are: Dan Lungren (CA); Dan Benishek (MI); Joe Walsh (IL); Ann Marie Buerkle (NY); and Francisco Canseco (TX).  LCV issues an annual Dirty Dozen list, as well, which includes the Flat Earth Five this year, as well as other candidates who consistently vote against clean energy and conservation. Among this year’s Dirty Dozen are: George Allen (VA); Heather Wilson (NM); Dennis Rehberg (MT); Josh Mandel (OH); Linda McMahon (CT); and Mitt Romney.  Since 1996, 60 percent of candidates named to the annual “Dirty Dozen” lists have been defeated. [A post-election update: 11 out of the 12 of the “Dirty Dozen” and 4 out of the 5 of the “Flat Earth Five” were defeated.]

More than 30 states now have their own state-level LCVs, which hold state elected officials accountable on various environmental issues. Click on the map at that link to find the website for your state’s LCV and learn about your state and local candidates.

LCV features several petitions and actions that people can participate in.  Some other ways to get involved with and support the League of Conservation Voters are to: join their Facebook page or follow their Twitter feed; share their videos; sign up to be on their mailing list; or donate to LCV or to specific pro-environment candidates.

Patagonia (the company) also has a Vote the Environment project, which is affiliated with LCV, along with the band Wilco, the group HeadCount, and others.

[NOTE: See our updated, more current version of this post on the 2014 election.]

Other important info for the upcoming election:

Make sure you are able to vote:

  • Verify that you are still registered to vote: Go to CanIVote.org and click on your state and follow the links, or contact your county’s elections office.  Thousands of voters have been purged from the voter rolls in several states. Make sure you aren’t one of them.
  • Register to vote, or re-register to vote (if you’ve moved or changed your name or been wrongfully purged from the registration system): Pick up a voter registration form at a Post Office (or a library or government building) in your county; or go to RockTheVote.com, 866OurVote.org, or to your county’s election office to register. Be sure to register before the deadline for your state. And if you think you might not be able to get to the polls on election day (the upcoming national election is Tuesday, November 6), fill out the absentee ballot form to receive a mail-in ballot before the deadline.
  • Get info on your polling location and hours, as well as voting requirements in your area (e.g., voter ID requirements), and report any voting problems: Go to Election Protection’s 866OurVote.org website, or call 1-866-OUR-VOTE, email help@866ourvote.org, or download their free Smartphone app.

  • Find out whether your state’s voting systems are reliable and publicly verifiable: Go to VerifiedVoting.org: working for election integrity/preparedness, i.e., reducing the odds of electronic and physical vote tampering, to try to ensure and verify that every vote is counted as cast.

And last but not least: please vote—not just for your own sake, but for the sake of your family, future generations, and the environment and atmosphere that we all share and depend on for life.  Thank you.

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September 25, 2012
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Modular, Prefab, and Compact Options for Green Homes and Structures

Below is a listing of companies that offer green dwellings in the form of modular, prefab/manufactured, compact and/or mobile structures. These days, there are many such options available that are not only green, but also beautiful, well-made, and often low-cost. Some of these structures are homes or cabins/cottages, while others can be used as an addition, a backyard studio, office, in-law unit/guest house, or some other type of “accessory dwelling unit.”

They come in a wide range of sizes, from teeny-tiny one-room spaces (e.g., 100 sq. ft.) and small units (see the Tiny/Compact Structures section below) to conventionally sized homes. They are also available in a wide variety of styles; some have traditional designs, while others have a very modern look. Some are available as plans and/or DIY kits, and others have designated builders. Many can be modified or customized.

Prefab (factory-built) homes have many benefits. They can be built more efficiently (e.g., less material waste), more quickly, with more precision and durability (i.e., higher quality), and they typically have more predictable costs (and often cost less) than site-built homes.

Note: The levels of greenness vary among the following options, but all of them tout some green features.

This is not a comprehensive listing; there are many other companies that make similar types of green structures. I’ve provided links below to other directories that list additional options. If you know of another green modular, prefab, mobile, or small home designer or manufacturer that you would recommend, please share it in the Comments.

Note: The asterisk (*) shown after certain listings indicates that those companies seem to offer at least one low-cost/affordable option. Some of the other companies might also offer such options, but specific pricing isn’t available on all of the websites; in some cases, one must contact the company for pricing information. Scroll down to the second half of the post for a listing of companies that specialize in tiny/compact homes or structures.

Acre Designs (based in CA)

Blu Homes (offices in CA, MA, and MI)

CaliPassiv (based in CA)

Clayton i-house

Clever Homes (based in CA)

Deltec Homes (based in NC)

FabCab

Flex House (by Shelter Dynamics; based in CA)

GreenTerraHomes (based in Canada; steel-framed)

IdeaBox (based in OR)

Jot House *

Lindal Cedar Homes (see Mod.Fab and Lindal Architects Collaborative; Lindal has an international network of dealers) *

Living Homes (based in CA)

Marmol Radziner Prefab (based in CA)

Method Homes (based in WA)

New Old Green Modular Home (from New World Home)

OHOME (Healthy Buildings Technology Group; based in CA)

OMD (Office of Mobile Design; based in CA)

Piece Homes (Davis Studio Architecture + Design; based in CA)

Plant Prefab (multiple design partners; based in CA)

Rocio Romero LV series (based in MO) *

Stillwater Dwellings (based in WA) *

Studio 101 Designs (based in CA)

2morrow Studio (based in VT) *

weeHouses (Alchemy Architects, based in MN, with factories around the country) *

ZiaHaus (based in CA & OR)

ZipKitHomes (based in UT)

For a listing of MANY other types of modular/manufactured homes (some of which have green features), see this compendium.

Books on green prefab homes:

Prefabulous + Almost Off the Grid: Your Path to Building an Energy-Independent Home, by Sheri Koones

Prefabulous + Sustainable: Building and Customizing an Affordable, Energy-Efficient Home, by Sheri Koones

Prefab Green, by Michelle Kaufmann

Prefab, by Allison Arieff

Tiny / Compact Structures  *

Many of the companies listed above offer one or two options for small dwellings, while the following companies specialize in small structures (some of which are mobile):

Ecopods (based in Ontario, Canada)

GreenPods (based in WA)
[See this 2016 article on these homes.]

kitHAUS (based in CA)

L41 Home (based in BC, Canada)

Leaf House (based in the Yukon, Canada)

Little House on the Trailer (based in CA)

Modern-Shed (based in WA, with dealers in all states)

Tumbleweed Tiny House Co. (house plans and some pre-built homes; some are mobile)

Wee Cabins (based in MN)

weeHouses (Alchemy Architects, based in MN, with factories around the country)

YardPods (based in CA)

ZipKitHomes (based in UT)

m-ch (Micro Compact Home; based in Germany)

To see many other types of small homes (some of which have other green features), see the Tiny House blog.

Also take a look at this article on 3 prototypes of Tiny Houses that Let You Live Green and Off the Grid.  [Added to this post in 2016]

Resources on small homes:

Tiny House Blog

The Small House Book, by Jay Shafer

Little House on a Small Planet: Simple Homes, Cozy Retreats, and Energy Efficient Possibilities, by Shay Salomon

And here’s a listing of other books on compact design.

 

* Low-cost/affordable option(s) available

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July 30, 2012
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Goldman Prize Winners, 2012

The Goldman Environmental Prize is the world’s largest and most prestigious annual award for grassroots environmentalists.

“The Prize recognizes individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk. Each winner receives an award of $150,000, the largest award in the world for grassroots environmentalists. The Goldman Prize views ‘grassroots’ leaders as those involved in local efforts, where positive change is created through community or citizen participation in the issues that affect them. Through recognizing these individual leaders, the Prize seeks to inspire other ordinary people to take extraordinary actions to protect the natural world.”

The Goldman Prize ceremony (which is held in San Francisco) is one of the best events I attend every year. The recipients are models of courage, and their stories are powerful and inspiring. This year’s six prize winners (one from each of the six inhabited continental regions) are:

  • Caroline Cannon (Point Hope, AK, USA) – Issue: Oil and gas drilling
  • Sofia Gatica (Argentina) – Issue: Toxic/lethal pesticides
  • Ma Jun (China) – Issue: Pollution from manufacturing plants
  • Edwin Gariguez (Philippines) – Issue: Nickel mining
  • Ikal Angelei (Kenya) – Issue: Large dam development and water security
  • Evgenia Chirikova (Russia) – Issue: Highway development in a protected forest

Click on each recipient’s name to read about—or watch a brief video about—their remarkable efforts and achievements.

Here’s the three-minute video about Caroline Cannon, who has been “bringing the voice and perspective of her Inupiat community in Point Hope to the battle to keep Arctic waters safe from offshore oil and gas drilling.” Shell and other oil companies currently have plans to drill in the Arctic.

Last year’s recipient from the U.S. was Hilton Kelley, who has been fighting for environmental justice for communities along the Gulf Coast of Texas.

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April 19, 2012
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Visit The Green Spotlight’s Facebook Page for Fresh Daily Links

Please take a look at The Green Spotlight’s Facebook Page to see our daily green blurbs and links. You can view the page even if you don’t have a Facebook account. But if you do have an account, we hope you’ll click on the Like button (if you haven’t already “Liked” the page).

Visit the Page to get a sense of the wide variety of topics that it covers, and feel free to comment on the posts or add your own.

Here’s a sampling of topics that we’ve spotlighted on the page over the last month or so:

  • One Planet Living principles
  • The Great Animal Orchestra, a new book by Bernie Krause
  • 2012 Cleantech Forum
  • Buckminster Fuller Challenge 2012 semi-finalists
  • The Future of Hope, a film about Iceland
  • Waking the Green Tiger, a film about China
  • Urban Roots, a film about Detroit
  • Physicians for Social Responsibility
  • Rural Renewable Energy Alliance
  • Good Jobs, Green Jobs regional conferences
  • Wastewater treatment technology that uses renewable energy
  • Evolve electric motorcycles and scooters
  • Better World Books
  • GMO food labeling
  • The growth of clean energy markets
  • The top B Corp businesses
  • TED talks (e.g. urban farming and enterprise in a school in the Bronx)
  • Quotations from Thomas Edison, Wendell Berry, Barbara Kingsolver, etc.
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March 27, 2012
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Green Building Information: Recent and Future Posts

Green Building & Design is one of this blog’s main content categories. The following are some of the posts on green building-related topics that have been published on The Green Spotlight or on its sister site (M. Landman Communications & Consulting):

On green building projects:

On green products and materials:

On other green building topics:

A lot of new green building content will be added to the blog in coming months. These are some of the topics that we’ll cover in upcoming posts:

  • Green product certifications, eco-labels, standards, and lifecycle data
  • LEED ND certified projects: Update of completed neighborhood developments
  • One Planet Communities
  • Green operations & maintenance practices for households (and for building managers)
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February 28, 2012
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Green Business, Corporate Social Responsibility, Ethical Finance, and Sustainable Economies

This post provides a list of links to green-business-related organizations, associations, websites, books, and other resources, which are useful not only to people who own, manage, or work for companies, but to all of us—as consumers and citizens who are affected by business decisions and corporate practices every day. The resources are organized into the following categories:

  • Green Business (general)
  • Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Environmental & Social Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Financing, and Investing
  • Clean, Green Jobs
  • Local Economies / Community Investment and Resilience
  • Confronting the Corporate Corruption of Government
  • Ecological Economics
  • Online Media
  • Books

[Note: New links were added to this post in April 2012.]

Green Business (general)

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February 20, 2012
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