Hmmm. You may be wondering what this post is about. Well, it’s about Adobe Systems. I coined the word Adob-E for them as a double monicker: E for their industry e-business and E for environment. I laud them for their great work in making their headquarters as energy-efficient as possible. They started to replace their energy-inefficient practices in 2001. Adobe identified 64 ways to end unsustainable practices. They began by replacing all the bulbs in their HQ with energy-efficient ones. After realizing the benefits of that action, they intensified their conservation and efficiency practices. Because of this, the company saves US$1.2 million annually and gets an additional US$400,000 in rebates. Neat, huh?

Guess how much they spent on their energy retrofitting, $1.4 million. And in a little more than a year, the investment already given its returns. It does not only give financial savings, it also helps the environment. So, cheers to Adobe!!

More photos and descriptions (Credits: Adobe Systems, CNET News)

This is how the building looks at night. Adobe HQ is America’s greenest building.

Adobe has tied digital electric meters to software that displays ongoing energy usage visually and in real time, allowing building engineers to respond quickly to any unusual spikes. Adobe estimates that this system has saved a total of $96,000 since 2001.

This is an example of their waterless urinal. It filters waste though a liquid sealant within replaceable cartridges. At the sinks, motion-controlled dispensers pump soap that is free of toxic fragrances and dyes.

Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Redford, and Alanis Morissette. Let us call them celebri-green, celebrities who have stepped up to the challenge of helping the planet. They are not just green endorsers, as you may think. They do really have an environmental lifestyle.

Harrison Ford. Some of his Movies: “Air Force One”, “The Fugitive”, and”Clear and Present Danger.”

Vice chairman of Conservation International, won the Global Environmental Citizen Award in 2002, has a Central American ant named after him (Peidole harrisonfordi).

Cate Blanchett. Some Movies: “Elizabeth”, “Notes on a Scandal”, “The Aviator”, “Babel”

Plans to put solar panels and add rainwater collection systems in Sydney Theatre Company building to make it eco-friendly. Her home in Sydney is powered by solar energy entirely, donates to an organization called Forest Guardians.

Blanchett’s co-actor in “The Aviator,” Leonardo DiCaprio, also takes the environment seriously like his acting. He was launched to stardom by the silverscreen rendition of one of the world’s most tragic sea accidents “Titanic. Other movies: “The Departed”, “Blood Diamond.”

He is presently writing and producing a documentary on global warming called “11th hour.” He put up the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998 to promote environmental issues. Drives a hybrid car.

Robert Redford, recipient of an Honorary Academy Award in 2002. Known for movies such as “The Quiz Show”, “The Horse Whisperer”, and “Indecent Proposal”.

Devoted 30 years in the Natural Resources Defense Council. 1993 Earth Day award Recipient. 1987 United Nations Global 500 award. Founder of Sundance Preserve. To launch weekly three-hour slot called “The Green”, dedicated entirely to the environment, on his Sundance TV channel this coming April.

The voice behind the phenomenal hits “Hand in my Pocket,” “Uninvited,” and “Ironic.” Her Jagged Little Pill album reached worldwide sales of 28 million copies.

Drives a hybrid car. Has solar panels on home. Received the 2003 Environmental Media Association Missions in Music Award. Lobbies against oil drilling in Alaska.

For more info on other green celebs, click here.

###

Lately, I’ve been dwelling on the greener side of things in this blog. Today, I realized that I should pink this up a little more with a dip of fashion and an ounce of nature-lovin’ rolled into one.Have you heard of eco-fashion? It’s the kind of fashion that has an environmental sensitivity. Don’t be misled, though, that eco-fashion is all green and leafy. Of course not! Eco-fashion is still stylistic and chic.

According to a nonprofit group called Sustainable Technology Education Project (STEP), these are clothes “that take into account the environment, the health of consumers and the working conditions of people in the fashion industry.” What exactly am I talking about? Then, check these out:

1. Refashioned from vintage men’s clothing by designer Angela Johnson. It is a button-down party dress made from men’s thrifted shirts.

2. Wedding dress of Judith Selby Lang. All are recycled materials. She shares in her online journal: “from white shopping bags for the dress; translucent dry cleaner bags for the shawl, pieces of white beach plastic on the trim of the skirt, tiny swirls of pink plastic bags for roses on the tiara.” Interesting. Why didn’t I think of that?

3. Multi-strand necklace and bracelet by British designer Rebecca Crawford. Round plastic discs cut from shampoo bottles, handmade.

4. Coconut triangles and seeds belt by Ecofashiobrazil.com.

5. This may look pretty normal to you but the fabric used here is 100% organic cotton from Loomstate. This is called Chino (cotton, relaxed fit, low rise, wider leg).

To know more about the difference of organic and conventional cotton, click this link.

=======

Have a sustainable style!

Germany is one of the countries that prioritizes environmental health. They do that, not as a luxury, but because they have learned from the past.

It was in the 1980s when Germany and neighboring countries experienced great environmental loss. A disastrous fire at a chemical giant, , broke out spitting around thirty tons of highly toxic and hazardous agro-chemicals into the River Rhine. River Rhine, according to Wikipedia, “is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe” with nine basin countries (Belgium, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, France, Luxembourg, and Netherlands).

Rainer Durth, Senior Policy Advisor of the German Development Bank, said “For many Germans, this catastrophe proved to be traumatic: fishing was stopped, waterworks were closed, drinking water was rationed, and walks along the Rhine were forbidden.”

Thus, as a restoration project, the River Rhine Basin countries cooperated and took on a change of paradigm. It was coined “Bring back the salmon,” since the return of the salmon to the river was Germany’s most important perimeter for environmental improvement.

Germany learned it the hard way. But the good thing is that they learned. The question now for the rest of us is, “Will we ever learn or shall we wait for nature to hit us so hard, so hard we can no longer stand?”

==========================================

When I went to Germany in 2004, I was aboard Max Pruss and cruised the Rhine River. The sight was breathtaking and yes, the salmons are well and thriving.

With environmental envoys from China, Singapore, and India

Other scenic views of Germany:

Train ride from Frankfurt to Cologne

From this side, you can see the tall Cologne Cathedral, tallest building in the world from 1880 to 1890 (Credits: www.ambrosiasw.com). Really wanted to share this because the shot is sooo beautiful.

Here’s the shot of an amateur. Haha. I took this shot using my mobile phone. This is the facade of the Cologne Cathedral. The temperature there during that time was around 3 degrees Celsius.

The issue of climate change and global warming have been on the forefront of environment news lately. Erratic changes in the weather and hot days continue to surge unexpectedly. Storms are fiercer. Hurricanes visit often like a close relative. Extinction of species are on an upward trend. The consequences of man’s invasive actions towards nature are now being felt.

I saw an article at Bloomberg.com, saying that Thailand has decided to intensify its coal-burning capacity. The news saddened me. I remembered my fellow environmental youth advocates from Thailand. I met them in 2004 in Germany and I sensed that there was so much passion in them to make a change in their country. But with decisions such as this, it will just make the task too arduous for them.

This was the entire batch of environmental envoys in 2004.

If you want to know more about the news story, read on:
Thailand’s Coal-Power Drive Sparks Health, Environment Outcry
By Beth Jinks and Suttinee Yuvejwattana

March 20 (Bloomberg) — Suratin Maleehuan has seen cases of respiratory disease climb 70 percent in two years at the 30-bed hospital he runs near Thailand’s biggest factory complex. He’s horrified by plans to boost the kingdom’s coal-burning capacity.

“The health problems are already too much to handle,” said Suratin, a doctor in the town of Map Ta Phut in the east, where a third coal-fired power plant opened in October to help fuel more than 200 smokestacks. “For sure when we have new coal plants, the problems will be more.”

(more…)

Samuel Coleridge authored the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in 1797-1799. It talked about the events in a mariner’s long sea journey. The most famous lines from the poem reads:

Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.

Come to think of it. What used to be plain word and imagination play became a reality. Who would have imagined decades ago that we will be drinking from bottles and not straight from nature?

Allow me to walk you through the water distribution of the Earth. According to the United States Geological Survey, there is just a small percent of the water around us that is usable by humans. Thus, water is considered as a scarce resource. Today, of the 0.3% that’s available to humans, a great percentage had already been exploited and considered unfit for drinking.

Scenes of a weary traveler drinking from a stream is an image that belongs to the past. One can no longer linger in the bounty of nature, unlike before. Things have changed and they have changed a whole lot. Look around you. Are you seeing the world the way your grandparents saw it before? Rich vegetation, pure water, thick forests, clean air. Will all remain a memory?

I hope not. The earth is beautiful if people know how to take care of it. What else do you want to take in using bottles or packages? What’s next? The air? It’s your choice.

Make a change on Earth Day.

I know that Earth Day is still more than a month away and a lot of people think it is just a day for environmentalists. I don’t see it that way. For me, it’s a day to do something for the environment, how small the act may be.

Step down on your energy habits!

1.) Most people do not know that chargers still chew up power even if their device has already been charged. For energy hogs, uplugging your chargers once the battery is full is already a huge step. According to a European-led Commission, if this simple habit is practiced by even a tiny fraction of the globe, enough energy can be saved to power thousands of households. Do check your gadgets when charging and help reduce your utility bill and unwanted carbon emissions.

2.) Proper ethics in using your computer is another way to have a power diet. In an article entitled “Do you need to turn off your PC at night?“, Microsoft rolled out a few myth breakers.

Turning your PC off uses more energy than leaving it on. Not true. The small surge of power you use when turning it on — which varies per PC make and model — is still much smaller than the amount you use in keeping it on for lengthy periods.

Turning your PC on and off wears it out. A decade ago, there was something to this, but not today, say Hershberg and others. It used to be that PC hard disks did not automatically park their heads when shut off, and that frequent on/off cycling could damage the hard disks. Today’s PCs are designed to handle 40,000 on/off cycles before a failure, and that’s a number you likely won’t reach during the computer’s five-to-seven-year life span.

Screen savers save energy. Not true. Screen savers, at a minimum, can use 42 watts; those with 3D graphics can use as much as 114.5 watts, according to Don McCall, a Dell product marketing manager who does power measurement studies for the PC manufacturer. “It’s absolutely wrong thinking that a screen saver will save energy,” he says.

Your computer uses zero energy when “off.” That’s true only if it is unplugged. Otherwise, the PC utilizes “flea power,” or about 2.3 watts, to maintain local-area network connectivity, among other things, McCall says. In “hibernate” mode, your PC uses the same 2.3 watts; in “sleep” mode, your PC uses about 3.1 watts. Monitors do use zero energy when turned off.

3.) Electric fans use more energy when they are oscillating. It is advised to focus the electric fan on one spot.

4.) The louder the volume of your television sets and radios are, the more energy it sucks up.

5.) Change your incandescent bulbs to energy-efficient compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. Fluorescent bulbs give out approximately four times as much brightness per watt. Use a 25-watt CFL bulb instead of a 100-watt incandescent bulb. It makes you save energy. CFLs also last about ten times longer.

Lose carbon calories. Start your power diet now and gear up for Earth Day!

 1.) I turned off the faucet while brushing my teeth.

Did you know: Faucets can spout 2 to 3 gallons per minute.

2.) I walked a short distance from my place to the bus stop and commuted to get to work, instead of riding a car.

Did you know:According to the British Heart Foundation, walking around 10,000 steps a day will keep your heart healthy. So walk, walk, and walk. Take one step at a time. It’s the most doable and cheap workout.

3.) I placed the air conditioner on timer mode last night. I used an electric fan to keep the room cool when the aircon went off.

4.) I turned off the radio when I switched the television on.

5.) I purchased a cloth bag for shopping instead of using plastic.

6.) I threw candy wrappers in trash bins.

Source: www.sanriotown.com

Sanrio Town is definitely an ideal community to live in. Not only does it have friendly, fun, exciting and oh-so-cute characters, it also has lush greenery around. Most of us would probably want to live in such an environment. It’s just sad that our environment now is no longer as livable as it used to be. Take for example the condition of our air.

Source: www.unep.org

“A breath of life” fittingly describes clean air. However, with polluted air, this phrase becomes doubtful. Breath of life? Or otherwise? On the average, we breathe around 20,000 times a day or approximately 35 lbs of air. It is, in fact, the most vital resource that we have. Without air, a person can die in just a few minutes.

A lot of potential problems result from inhaling polluted air. Sneezing, itchy eyes, dizziness and coughing are just some of the symptoms resulting from contact with unhealthy air. Coughing and sneezing are the body’s mechanisms to rid of the foreign dust particles.

Cars contribute around 70% of the air pollution in cities. A diesel-fed vehicle that idles for more than 30 seconds spits around 40 hazardous substances, of which 11 are carcinogenic/cancerous.

Anyway, I am reposting an article from CNN.com about simple steps to help the environment. Read on.

(more…)