buygreensavvy.com Blog

We are moving to a new home on Wednesday and are very excited about the change. What a great opportunity to green our new home with all the government rebates available. Caution read the fine print.

First, we are in the Sunshine State and what a great opportunity to leverage the sunshine with solar panel installation on the roof. Well, here is where the fine print, or should I say the large bold print comes into play.

On the website, myfloridaclimate.com, there is information relative to what a residential installation can receive insofar as a rebate is concerned. $20,000 is alot of money, surely enough to cover the costs of materials and labor. Lets look at the bold print shall we.
Solar energy system rebates are issued by the Commission pursuant to Sections 377-801-377.806, Florida Statutes, and Chapter 27N-1, Florida Administrative Code, contingent upon an annual appropriation by the Legislature of the State of Florida for the specific purpose of funding solar rebates. The Commission, in accordance with direction from the Governor and/or Legislature, shall be the final determiner of the availability of any funds. REBATES CAN ONLY BE ISSUED IF FUNDING IS AVAILABLE, and the requirements of Sections 377.801-377.806, Florida Statutes and Chapter 27N-1, Florida Administrative Code, are met.

THERE IS NO FUNDING AVAILABLE.

What a downer. The governer has this big law passed but there is no funding available. What happened to the Obama program. What about Al Gore, where is he in the mix of this? Ok, I get it, the state is in a recession and there clearly are unemployed persons on the state rolls, but surely all of our tax dollars are going somewhere.

Think Energy Star products. Now there are rebates available for these products, up to $1500 / year. I can’t think of a better way to jump start the ecomomy then by buying one of these products manufactured in the good old U.S. of A.. What’s that, these are manufactured in China? Say it isn’t so? Is anything made here anymore. Toyota’s sure, I mean who wants to slow down on the interstate.

Luckily, there are a couple of things available to green our new home that are made in the United States. First, Hemp shower curtains. Hemp you say, made here? Well the hemp is grown elsewhere but we buy this fiber and craft the nicest hemp shower curtains right here in the U.S.

What else?????? Oh yes, the gold standard of home water filtration, the multipure water filter is made in the U.S.. Gotta have a new one of those. Leaving the old one behind for the folks buying our home.

Till next time…..

I know I talk about this alot, but I have found yet another good use for biodegradable dog poop bags.

Yes we have a dog and yes we use the biobag dog waste bag for every trip with her. Recently, well over the past 2 days I have discovered a couple of good ideas. Sort of like a hint from Heloise.

First, and I am talking about the biobag large dog waste bag specifically, is that I can put the dog food bowl in the bag and wrap it up. This serves two purposes. First, it keeps out ants or any other insects that may have found a way into our home. Second, when she is done eating and needs to go for her walk, well the biobag is readily available.

The second item worth mentioning is in regards to the larger biodegradable dog poop bag. Some background first. We have a small dog, like 15 lbs so the small biobag works great in general. But I am sure that all of us that use biodegradable dog poop bags can attest, sometimes our best friend makes 2 deposits on the walk, often minutes apart. This is where the second benefit comes in with regards to the larger biobag biodegradable dog poop bag. After the first deposit, I pick up and seal the bag in a knot as close to the bottom as possible. Because of the bag’s larger size, I in essence have another bag for that second deposit.

till next time…..

Over this past weekend, my church held its annual festival and while working the beer booth (a coveted position), I asked myself, how does one make something on this scale green?

Some background. This event has been held for the past 27 years and is a huge money maker for the church and more importantly, the school. Over the 3 days, we have over 10,000 people attending the event. We sell lots of beer, soda, food, etc and consuming is part of the norm. By my estimation, we served over 20,000 cups of beer, at least double that in soda(poured by cup from 2 liter plastic bottles, and probably served over 40,000 meals. That is alot and judging by the 3 industrial dumpsters on site, we also put alot of recycleables in the trash. So, lets go through the greening checklist:

1. Biodegradable trash bags: Present in the 33 gallon form
2. Recycle bins for 2 liter bottles an beer cups. Nope
3. Recycle bins around the festival for festival goers to use? Nope

So today I am reaching out to my readership. How can an organization effectively (both cost and convenience), green a festival on this scale?

Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day. Did you know the full name? Most people refer to it as Valentine’s day leaving the Saint part off perhaps due to policitical or religious correctness. Hard to tell. The question on this Saint Valentine’s Eve is, can the red holiday be green? Is there an eco friendly gift that still say’s “I Love You”.

With all the type on going green ranging from Green Cleaning Products to Biodegradable trash bags, one just needs to peel back the onion a bit. Going green is fashionable beyond the commodities in the home.

Take for example Eco Friendly Handbags and purses made from, well, your garbage. Aghast you might be, but what you throw away has become an industry, specifically repurposing items such as soda can tabs and making them into purses that are eco friendly and fashionable. These recycled purses are great gifts for younger recipients as well.

How about Hemp? No flashbacks please from the Cheech and Chong days, but rather go way back to the time of George Washington when Hemp was a common fiber used in making rope for example. Nowadays, hemp shower curtains are all the rage. Probably not so much in Washington’s time, that was likely cotton shower curtains based on the fact that Washington grew cotton. It wasn’t as popular as tobacco in those days, but who ever heard of a tobacco shower curtain.

As we celebrate Saint Valentine’s day, remember, going green on the holiday most associated with the heart doesn’t make you a Grinch, it makes you smart.

till next time

We are moving tomorrow to a new home that was built in 1964, so it seems that it hardly qualifies as a new home. None the less, my wife, children and I are motivated to make this one special. First things first however, we aren’t actually moving into the home for 2 weeks as there are a number of things that must be done before we will inhabit the new location.

First, remove all of the 40 year old wall paper and paint. Not just any paint however, but a non VOC paint that is guaranteed to be friendly to the home and us.

Second is removing 20+ year old carpeting. When we peeled back the carpet, we found the original terrazzo flooring. This was popular in the 1960’s and it looks great. A little sanding, then a nice sealant and we are good to go.

Third is the removal and replacement of the bathroom vanities. These also are original like everything else in the home, but years of leaks and repairs have left the wood warped and smelly. Out with the old and replacing with a local Fort Lauderdale companies product that is made from recycled warehouse pallets. Hard to imagine I realize.

Fourth is the water filtration system, there isn’t one. Rather than take our existing Multipure Water filter, we are going to invest in a new one for the kitchen. These really are the best water filters available.

Fifth, and last before we move in are the closets. Were people smaller in the 1960’s or do we just have so much more stuff now a days? Hard to say, but these closets need work.

Now we can move in. Did I mention that we have to do all of this in 2 weeks? Don’t laugh, because that is not the end of the fun. We have to replace the roof, it leaks. We need to put pilings under parts of the house that is sinking. Does this sound like a Tom Hanks and Shelley Long movie? Hmmm, seems to ring a bell.

Once we move in, we want to be good neighbors so we are bringing along our biodegradable Dog Poop Bags for our dog Abby. Nothing says good neighbor that someone that picks up their dogs’ poop.

More to come on this as the budget allows, but suffice it to say, windows need replacement, there are multiple low efficiency appliances currently, but natural gas is available. Also, it might be time to truely delve into what solar power can do residentially if we push the envelope.

till next time…

This past week I was at an Intern recruiting event at the University of Florida looking for Summer interns. For the immediately curious, Bill Clinton was not present. These events attract most of the schools population as there are many companies looking to fill both Summer intern as well as full time positions. Unfortunately, there are more students than jobs available, but the upside is the free stuff being given away by the companies to the students.

One popular item at this event were stainless steel water bottles. I picked up 2 from different booths mostly because, these are great items to use at home, just full up with water from my multipure water filter and store in the refrigerator for use later. Definately better than plastic water bottles. But, I was disappointed in the performance of these bottles right away.

First, these bottles were single wall stainless steel water bottles, meaning the user, me in this case, got to hold a cold, sweaty (condensation) bottle to drink from. Worse, and for those of you familiar with the concept of entropy, my 98.6 degree hands warm up my cool beverage fast, so the the water didn’t stay cold for as long as I would have liked. Worse, since I was driving, when I drank from this stainless steel water bottle, the condensation dripped right on the front of my pants. Not so bad while driving, but when I got out of the car, well it looked like I was late for trip to the restroom.

So for stainless steel water bottles, there is a difference. My preference are stainless steel water bottles that are double lined/insulated, like a thermos. At home, we use the H2O on the go stainless steel water bottles from Multipure. These water bottles don’t condensate water on the outside, have an easy sports water bottle type of lid, and frankly are superior to single wall stainless steel water bottles. Yes they cost a bit more but not that much. I definately recommend the multipure water filters companion product.

till next time

I can tell you that one of my favorite activities on Sundays is reading the newspaper. Today, there was a small article regarding a Florida statewide poll that is being conducted as an effort to reduce the effect of plastic bags on the environment.

The city of Lake Worth (South Florida, Palm Beach County) is administering the poll, and asks people whether a ban or fee should be enacted ont eh use of retail plastic bags as an effort to help improve the environment. I have attached the survey link and ask you all to participate.

One of the sad things about this poll is how short it is and worse, the information link provided on the dangers of plastic bags on the environment is dated from 2003, or 7 years ago.

So while participating in the poll which seems heavily in favor of a fee rather than a ban, you ask yourself what you can do. The answer is simple. Buy biodegradable trash bags that truely leave no impact on the environment. Not only compostable, these biodegradable garbage bags from Biobag are easily the best product on the market. Why stop there? There are 3 gallon versions of these biobag products available as well.

For those who own pets and say that they use the storebags to pickup dog poop. No worries. biodegradable dog poop bags are available as well. Take some time to check out these products and more importantly, take the poll. I am quite sure your tax dollars are paying for it.

till next time….

In today’s Sun Sentinel newspaper, writer Seth Liss wrote a great article on group buying and its popularity growth with Social Media. It makes sense really and we have wrote about that topic on this blog previously. Check out the article here on the Sun Sentinel Website.

One of the areas that was not explored in the article which largely focused on the price negotiation, is the shipping costs. In general, the cost of shipping represents 20% of the price of an item, but buying in bulk as a group makes alot of sense if only due to the offsetting cost of shipping.

I use biodegradable dog poop bags as an example. These dog poop bags sell for $4.99/box and the shipping cost for 1 box in nearly 100% of that, or $5.00. Surely that can’t be right? But it is the cost of shipping itself that has components not related to the weight of the item, but rather the packaging and administration of that item. I bought some used books from Barnes and Noble over the holidays with a gift card I received. The books were only $1.99, the shipping cost, $3.99($2.84 postage, the balance handling charges) is another good example.

Anyway, back to the dog poop bags. If you and your friends are dog owners, you could buy an entire case of these, 12 boxes, which only cost $4.74/box when purchased by the case, and the shipping cost is only $9.97.

So lets do the math on this. If 12 individuals buy 1 box of dog poop bags at $4.99 per box and $5.00 for shipping, their unit cost to purchase is $9.99 and as a group of individual buyers, the cost is $119.88. Ouch! If this same group of individuals bought as a group a full case which is already discounted to $56.99 per case of biodegradable dog poop bags, add $9.97 for shipping, the total cost is $66.96 or a unit cost of $5.58. I am not a math genius, but I think that group buying when you take shipping costs into account, would give the buyer a 45% discount. Now that is power.

My hat is off to Seth Liss and the Sun Sentinel for their article. Don’t forget, you don’t need to employ a group buying website to get great discounts. Often, what you need to do is look at your circle of friends and find the similarities. You can generally contact a website owner directly through their emails or phone numbers and negotiate, or, just comparatively look at the shipping costs.

till next time….

For the past 6 years, I have have made the MS society of South Florida my charity of choice. Not because I knew someone with MS, but simply because I enjoy bike riding and one of the societies largest annual fundraisers is the MS150. This is a 150 mile bike ride that attracts about 3000 riders each year and since I have started supporting this charity, I have met more people , friends of friends, children, aunts and uncles of colleagues that I care to mention. It is perhaps one of the most frightening diseases that I can think of simply because it has no boundaries or target audience. Simply speaking, it can happen to anyone no matter the station in life or whether you are a “green fiend” or an environmental hog.

I am simply asking this for those who wish to go green in 2010. Click here to pledge money towards my ride, or as we call it, the “tour for the cure”. Last year, economically was a tough year for the society as it was for many of us. When you donate and I will thank you properly, thank yourself and take 15% off of any of our best selling items. Multipure water filters are a huge hit as well as our biodegradable trash bags and biobag biodegradable dog poop bags.

Really want to go retro, check out our new ecofriendly handbags. You won’t find these at the mall.

In closing, thanks for reading our blog. Your comments mean alot.

till next time…

All,
As I sit here at 12:08 a.m. eastern standard time, I want to reflect back upon the year that was 2009.

Copenhagen? Who knows. The media is back and forth on the outcomes geared toward the reduction of CO2 and the pending disaster attributed to global warming. The very simple fact is that mother earth has warmed and cooled numerous times beyond the time of homo sapiens and will continue to do so with or without our help.

Biodegradable trash Bags? These have made a turnaround in terms of mainstreams popularity. Still not available on a mass market level, but based on sales, the tide is turning I am happy to say. Green is the new black, but how can we maintain longer term sustainability?

Water purity? Well, in Miami at a very popular hotel, there was an outbreak of e coli infections based on contaminated water. How is it possible in today’s day and age? Blame the infrastructure. How much of the TARP money went upgrading our basic national infrastructure? An amount so miniscule that it is embarrassing. That is why the carbon block multipure water filter is still a hot item not just in rural areas but right in our neighborhoods.

Are we still leaving dog poop on the neighbors lawns? You bet. I had mentioned earlier in the year about a neighbor that walked his dogs without a biodegradable dog poop bag or any dog poop bags for that matter. Christmas morning was no exception.

So what did I do on New Years Eve? I spent some time with friends until about 10:30 and then stayed up with the children playing Wii. Lame in some eyes I am sure. But to my daughters, worth an eternity of love.
Here is wishing you all the best on what was 2009 and looking forward to a great 2010.

till next time….