Going Green Cartoon - Blondie and Dagwood

I found this wonderful Blondie and Dagwood cartoon showing Dagwood's idea of going green. I thought you might like seeing it.

More Easy Ways to Cut Your Energy Costs and Save The Earth

We are always on the lookout for ways to cut our energy costs and help save the Earth's environment. Here are 5 ways that we can all cut our costs and cut down on the strain that is put on the environment.

1. Use a laptop instead of a desktop. Did you know that a laptop will use 75% less energy than a desktop and that more people will turn off a laptop when not using it than people who use a desktop?

2. Wrapping your water heater in an insulation blanket will save 1,000 pounds of C02 a year. Use insulation on any pipes that are exposed.

3. Each degree you turn down the heat You can save 3 percent of heating costs by turning down your heat thermostat by just 1 degree. Each degree you raise the temperature of your air conditioner saves 3-4 percent of cooling costs. You can save about 2,000 pounds of C02 a year by changing the temperature by just 2 degrees.

4. You can save up to 80% of energy used to wash your clothes by merely switching to cold water washing. There are a number of cold water detergents that are very effective. If you hang dry your clothes instead of using a dryer, you will save almost 1000 pounds of CO2.

5. You can improve your gas mileage by 3 percent by keeping your tires inflated to the recommended pressure and that will equate into more savings in CO2 emissions.

References: climatecrisis.net and The Home Energy Diet

An Easy Green Living Tip - Ice Cream In a Cone Instead of a Disposable Cup

We sometimes discuss and vent on the bigger issues in the green living movement. Should we look into home wind turbines, buy a hybrid, unplug the fridge, build a rain catchment system, etc? Today, let's go back to the often overlooked but really easy ways to go green. You know, not everything we do in life has to be so ground breaking. Sometimes we can do something we like and it might have a small impact, but remember, if a bunch of us do these small things it adds up to a huge impact for the environment.

The next time you are out shopping or dining and you decide that you need an ice cream, get it in a cone instead of one of those disposable cups. Yes, the cone is a few more calories, but now you do not have to be guilty about those extra calories. You can eat the cone for the sake of the environment. Small sacrifice but one that you can feel good about.

Of course, if you are dining at a restaurant and are offered an ice cream dessert, you can ask for a dish but that dish does have to be washed in hot water, and often with chemicals, so the cone is still a great idea.

Do you have any great little eco-friendly ideas like this one? E-mail me at bruce@bruzzbuzz.com or just leave a comment at the bottom of this post. Also, there are links to the right where you can bookmark this blog so you will have easy access to stay up to date with new articles. You can also subscribe and receive all updates in your e-mail inbox.

What Is Frito Lay Doing to Make a Greener Planet?

A lot has been said recently about how Frito Lay is planning on producing a 100% fully compostable package for its Sun-Chips by Earth Day 2010. I visited their website and was surprised at just how much Frito Lay is doing to make our planet healthier. Here is a list of all the things they are doing:

It actually comes from their site and has the year that each step was implemented. You might be surprised at how long they have been doing some of these steps.

Steps to a Healthier Planet

Began reusing and recycling our shipping cartons. (1939)

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Began recovering the starch left in the water after washing potato slices to keep that water from having to be treated by cities’ waste water systems. We now recover 64 million pounds of starch per year. (1979)

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Built headquarters facility in Plano, TX. Committed to maintain 39 acres with organic fertilizer and preserve the remaining 249 acres in its natural state. (1985)

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Cogeneration system built at our plant in Kern, California to provide both steam and electricity. The cogeneration technology recycles waste heat to increase our energy efficiency in Kern to 74%. (1986)

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Green Teams of employees assembled to ensure a high level of environmental compliance and awareness at each plant. (1993)

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Set 10-year resource conservation “BHAGs” (Big Hairy Audacious Goals): reduce water consumption by 50% per pound of production, natural gas by 30%, and electricity by 25%. (1999)

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Began using gas from a nearby landfill to reduce our use of natural gas at our Rosenberg, Texas plant. (1999)

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Began recycling the water used to make potato chips. As a result of these efforts, we saved more than 570 million gallons of water in 2007 alone. (2001)

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Eliminated 150 square miles of packaging by reducing the film we use by 10% from 2002-2007. That’s enough to cover more than 72,000 football fields. (2002)

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Received first national award for our environmental sustainability efforts from the Alliance to Save Energy. (2003)

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Our Rochester, NY distribution center was certified at the LEED Gold level, one of only 50 in the country at the time. (2005)

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Joined EPA’s Climate Leaders program, pledging to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions by 14% per pound of production from 2002 to 2010. (2005)

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Improved the performance of our bags to extend the shelf life, enabling us to save 5 million pounds of packaging and product each year. (2005)

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Frito-Lay named the Energy Star Partner of the Year for the first time, the only Consumer Packaged Goods company to receive this award. Frito-Lay’s parent company, PepsiCo, has been named an Energy Star Partner of the Year in 2007, 2008, and 2009 earning the Sustained Excellence distinction. (2006)

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Installed the first “oven heat recovery” system at our plant in San Antonio, Texas. Some of our plants use the exhaust heat from our ovens to heat the oil in our fryers while other plants use it to heat their buildings. (2006)

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Frito-Lay leads parent company PepsiCo’s purchase of renewable energy certificates (RECs) to match 100% of the electricity used by PepsiCo’s US facilities marking the largest RECs purchase in history at the time. (2007)

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Our plant in Jonesboro, AR is named to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Environmental Performance Track Program for its superior commitment to continuous environmental improvement. Since 2007, seven other facilities have earned the Performance Track distinction. (2007)

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Began testing technology that captures and condenses the steam emitted when cooking our chips so the water can be reused. (2007)

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Installed Arizona’s largest corporate solar power system at the time at our Arizona Service Center. In 2008, The Gatorade Company, another division of PepsiCo, installed an even bigger solar power system at the Gatorade manufacturing and distribution facility in Arizona. (2007)

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Reduced the diesel fuel we would have used in 2007 by more than 13 million gallons through driver training and by making changes to our trucks like idling technology and increased aerodynamics. Our reductions in 2007 would be enough to fuel more than 11,000 school buses for a year. (2007)

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Finished converting our fleet of 650 sales cars to hybrid vehicles. (2007)

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Successfully tested a package made partially from renewable materials as a first step to a fully compostable bag. (2007)

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Successfully reached our first resource conservation “BHAG” (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) by achieving a reduction of 30% less natural gas per pound of production compared to 1999. By 2008, we had also achieved reductions of 39% water and 22% electricity per pound of production compared to 1999. (2008)

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Achieved 96.8% shipping carton reuse rate – nearly 97 of every 100 cartons used to ship our products is brought back to be used again. We reuse each shipping cartons an average of five times before recycling it, an effort that now saves 5 million trees every year. (2008)

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Solar power is used at one of our plants in Modesto, CA to help make SunChips snacks. (2008)

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Earned the Sustainable Forestry Initiative’s certification on our Miss Vickie’s brand’s paper packaging guaranteeing that our paper is sourced from sustainable forests that help fight deforestation. (2008)

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The temporary in-store displays holding our bags are now made from 90% recycled material. (2008)

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Began piloting a “zero landfill” program in 4 plants with the goal of reducing waste to less than 1%. (2008)

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Launched the LEED Certification Challenge at our Headquarters in Plano, TX. Employees helped save energy and eliminate waste to earn points toward LEED certification for our Headquarters building. We hope to finalize the certification by Summer 2009. (2008)

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Installed a solar hot water heater at our Headquarters building to heat the water in our kitchen and dish room. (2008)

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Tested new Sprinter trucks that get 50% more miles per gallon than the trucks they will replace. (2008)

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Reset the resource conservation BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) we originally set in 1999. The new goals are to reduce water usage by 75% per pound of production, natural gas by 50%, and electricity by 45% by 2017. (2008)

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Began installing the technology at our plant in Casa Grande, Arizona that will help reduce our fresh water use by up to 90%. (2008)

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Introduced a partnership with TerraCycle to reward employees and consumers for helping to keep our used chip bags out of landfills. TerraCycle gives the used packaging a second life by turning it into new consumer products like tote bags and clipboards. The products will be available in retailers in Summer 2009. (2009)

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All Frito-Lay plants are currently working toward “zero landfill” with the goal of diverting at least 99% of waste from landfills. (2009)

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Introduced 1,000 new Sprinter trucks that get 50% more miles per gallon than the trucks they replaced. (2009)

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33% of our 10 ½ oz size SunChips snacks package is made from renewable resources. (2009)

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Began piloting a program to encourage and equip employees to adopt “personal sustainability practices.” (2009)

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Began operation of our cogeneration system to produce electricity and steam at our plant in Killingly, Connecticut, raising our energy efficiency at that plant to 90%. (2009)

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Expect to receive LEED certification for our Headquarters building. (2009)

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Expect to begin building the solar field and the renewable energy generator at our plant in Casa Grande, Arizona. (2009)

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In 2010, we plan to start using fully compostable packaging for our 10 ½ oz size bags of SunChips snacks. (2010)

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At our Casa Grande, AZ plant we are working to cut our electricity and water by 90%. By early 2011, we’ll complete the retrofit to enable our Casa Grande plant to run almost entirely on renewable energy and recycled water while reducing waste going to the landfill to less than 1%. (2011)

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We will continue working to find more opportunities to utilize renewable energy, reduce our water usage, and eliminate waste. (TBD)

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We will continue developing the technology to enable all of our packaging to utilize renewable materials. (TBD)

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We intend to eventually make all of our packaging fully compostable. (TBD)