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It’s another one of those simple things that so many of us could do to save money and energy -- turn off your computer! As incredible as it sounds, even when your computer is on the “sleep” or “hibernate” mode it is still using energy, and it’s costing you over $70 and putting 744 pounds of climate-warming carbon dioxide into the air each year.
We know we are each creatures of habit. So, when you have checked your last emails for the night, try to remember to click “shut down”. (And hit the switch on the power strip it’s plugged into.) Your screen saver and your electric bill will thank you.
Pretty amazing and easy energy saving tip, huh?
This SmartTip is just one of numerous energy saving tips you can read about on our Blog starting this month!
For over a year and a half now, the SmartPower Blog has become the “go to” site for the latest in news, views and opinion on clean energy and energy efficiency. Willy Ritch, our blogger, has been relentless in his pursuit of interesting, creative stories that not only entertain, but also help make clean energy and energy efficiency easy to understand. If you don’t already subscribe, sign up for our email alerts at the SmartPower Blog.
And now, SmartPower is further utilizing the marketing potential of the web by posting these SmartTips on Yahoo Shine!
Yahoo Shine is a smart, dynamic place for women to gather, get informed and to connect with each other and the world around them. Yahoo Shine seeks to inspire women of all ages to laugh, think, get mad, empathize, and be surprised and entertained. And now, Yahoo Shine will seek to speak to women around the world about how they can be energy efficient and become leaders in the clean, renewable energy revolution. With our weekly blog postings now on Yahoo Shine, we will be offering “SmartTips” on how to make your home energy efficient, how to inspire your teenagers to become part of the solution, and how to make your life more energy independent.
This is a tremendous opportunity for SmartPower to get a clean energy and energy efficient message out to a worldwide audience. And as we know from our work across the country, it is very often women – as heads of households or leaders in business – who are embracing clean energy and energy efficiency and helping to solve some of the world’s toughest problems. Yahoo Shine will now be another great, mainstream avenue that SmartPower will work with to message the energy smart way to a climate change solution!
Log onto Yahoo Shine – and we’ll keep seeing you on-line!
Let’s Get Energy Smart!
Brian F. Keane |
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Credit: AP
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Have you ever considered the environmental impact of a rock show? Sure great bands like Pearl Jam, Coldplay, Dave Mathews Band, and others have made the commitment of buying carbon offsets to help negate the carbon produced during their concert tours. But what about the tens (and hundreds) of thousands of fans who drive, or even fly, to big rock shows. That’s a lot of energy used, and a lot of CO2 dumped in the air.
Now RADIOHEAD has decided to actively challenge their fans to find creative ways to use less energy to get to and from the band’s shows.
Arguably the most popular and influential band in the world, RADIOHEAD for years has had an intriguing and engaging Web site that has connected their enormous fan base to news and information on pertinent issues and problems in the world.
Now, at the start of their months-long world tour, they have launched a new, interactive page within their site called, The Most Gigantic Flying Mouth For Some Time. There, fans can access a carbon calculator to compare the environmental impact of different ways of traveling to any of the band’s particular shows, find mass transit travel options for shows where it is available, and offer ideas, feedback, and brainstorm energy efficiency ideas in an ongoing discussion group. They even provide site visitors with guides on how to lobby elected officials for wiser, cleaner energy policy.
At the same time, the band has promised to continue to try and discover different, practical ways to lighten the carbon load on their end, and to keep the fan community updated on it so everyone stays engaged.
It’s great anytime someone with major influence in the world of “what’s cool” tries to inspire an audience into doing things better. But RADIOHEAD, and the intensity of their fans, tends to be far from ordinary. Keep an eye out for a potential energy efficiency ripple-affect (hopefully) within the music touring industry.
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to learn how to sign up in your state. |
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SmartPower
info@SmartPower.org
202-775-2040
1120 Connecticut Ave., NW
Suite 1040
Washington, DC 20036
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On April 24th the official launch of the Renewable Energy Marketers Association (REMA) was organized by SmartPower as a cosponsored event with The Energy Daily at the National Press Club, and featured a keynote address from Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM). Sen. Domenici is ranking member of the senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and key supporter of the Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008.
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| SmartPower President, Brian Keane, with Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) |
Formed as a trade association for companies across the renewable energy industry, REMA members are involved with clean energy creation, supply, purchase, sale, advocacy and education. The mission of REMA is to be a central representative body for the promotion of the renewable energy marketers industry. The association will work with the media, federal, state, and local elected officials and agencies, and other stakeholder organizations.
SmartPower is a founding member, and will serve as the manager of REMA.
“A unified and cohesive voice that represents and champions the needs of the clean energy industry has been something we all knew was critical, yet missing,” stated SmartPower president, Brian F. Keane, at the Press Club launch. “REMA will ensure that policy makers and regulators are well informed about what will help consumers across the country realize a greater clean energy world today and into the future.”
REMA was formed to establish a favorable operating environment for clean energy marketers by providing a forum for them to discuss non-competitive issues, and by providing to them information to assist in their business.
Gabe Petlin, of the Renewable Energy Credit provider, 3Degrees, was elected president of REMA. He will work as head of the eleven-member association that includes: 3Degrees, Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Community Energy, Conservation Services Group, Constellation NewEnergy, FPL Energy, Renewable Choice Energy, SmartPower, Sterling Planet, SunEdison, and SunPower.
Thomas Rawls, President of THR Associates, Vice-President of REMA, and SmartPower Board Member, introduced Sen. Domenici and addressed the need for REMA: “The central focus of our work is to make sure that people understand that climate policy and renewable energy policy must be fully integrated to be rational.”
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Connecticut residents, CPTV viewers and followers of SmartPower will remember that last year SmartPower teamed with Connecticut Public Television to help sponsor the documentary, The Warming of Connecticut, produced by Jennifer Boyd.
It is a show that elevated the discussion of climate change in Connecticut, and also spurred community organization on the subject. Now it has received deserved recognition for simply being good television.
The one-hour documentary program received an Emmy nomination for “Best Environmental Program”. The nomination came from the Boston/New England Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
In the program, Boyd shows studies done by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Goddard Institute for Spaces Studies regarding the effects of high fossil fuel emissions on Connecticut’s natural climate patterns. And though the findings are stark, significant, and alarming, Boyd says the film is also hopeful. It tells about the problem solving efforts people around the state are undertaking to try to curb emissions while inspiring others to do the same, including using clean energy and maximizing personal energy efficiency habits.
Through the support of the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, SmartPower is proud to have sponsored a program that has provided such a meaningful contribution to the dialogue involving energy and the environment.
Congratulations to Jennifer Boyd and CPTV on their quality work!
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Who says adults never listen to kids? As an example of how young people across Connecticut are respected voices and leaders in the clean energy industry, two inspired and dedicated, boys from Wilton, CT—Alex Scaperotta and Jordan Reichgut—are recipients of Connecticut Governor, Jodi Rell’s 2008 Climate Change Leadership Award. Reason being—they got adults to listen to them, and to sign up for clean energy through the CTCleanEnergyOptionssm program.
Alex and Jordan started the club, “Little People, Big Changes”, over a year ago. The organization was, from the beginning, dedicated to helping the community. When the boys learned of the SmartPower 20% by 2010sm campaign, they took it and ran with it—signing up over 50 homes for the clean energy option in a matter of months! (There are now approximately 135 homes in Wilton buying clean energy.)
These 4th grade clean energy marketers extraordinaire went around to the different class rooms at their school to explain to all the students why they needed to get their parents or guardians to support clean energy. They moved on to setting up tables at events and talking to everyone they could about the opportunity and importance of buying clean energy.
Later this month they will travel to Hartford for a ceremony with the Governor, along with this year’s other recipients: the City of Stamford, City Seed, Curtis Packaging, Green Council at Whitney Center, ING and Ridgefield Action Committee for the Environment. SmartPower congratulates Jordan and Alex for the job they’re doing in trying to show their community how to get energy smart.
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With deep gratitude for a job well done, Molly Tsongas, SmartPower’s Pennsylvania State Director, and Director of the Pennsylvania Clean Energy Communities program, is moving on (and moving West!) to continue her pursuits in social marketing in the great state of California. For the last two years, Molly coordinated and provided tremendous leadership for SmartPower’s clean energy marketing work in Pennsylvania.
Her diligence, energy, and ability to inspire others led the campaign beyond the goal of signing up 20 communities for clean, renewable energy. Even without the incentive of free solar PV, towns are still signing up for 20% clean energy—testament to Pennsylvanians’ desire for clean energy, and to Molly’s hard work.
Best of luck, Molly! You did a wonderful job helping to bring more clean energy into the homes and communities of so many who may have never made the purchase without your leadership.
We think the phrase should be....You Made More!
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There’s a new, friendly face in the SmartPower DC office. Andrew Voris has joined the SmartPower team to help with the many different aspects of the messaging and marketing mission. Andrew hails from Southern Illinois, where he graduated from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in journalism news/editorial.
He brings to SmartPower his well-developed communication skills, fueled by a dedication to an America that depends less on coal and oil, and more on the clean energy sources that will strengthen the economy and the environment.
Welcome aboard, Andrew! We’re glad to have you.
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Our friends at the Barr Foundation and the Cambridge Energy Alliance are promoting a very “cool” challenge this month . . . with a $30,000 prize!
As many of you know, the Cambridge Energy Alliance is working to dramatically reduce citywide energy use through a comprehensive energy efficiency program. Their goal is nothing shor of sensational: to reduce peak demand by 50 MW over the next 5 to 7 years.
To help motivate further energy efficiency ingenuity and enthusiasm, the Barr Foundation has joined with CEA to offer a reward for the best, most energy efficient way to effectively cool and dehumidify a home.
The following is an excerpt on the challenge from the Barr Foundation web site:
“With the present challenge, the Barr Foundation would like to identify an air conditioning solution, which supports the goals of the Cambridge Energy Alliance but is also applicable to areas with similar climates anywhere in the world.”
“Since space cooling and dehumidification is such a significant contributor to peak energy demand, achieving breakthrough improvements in efficiency of space cooling solutions could present real opportunities for peak demand reduction, delaying or eliminating the need to construct new power plants.”
Learn more about the Boston Innovation Challenge here.
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