Tag Archives: Sustainability

Report: Fairbanks should invest in energy efficiency instead of new sources

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Thursday, January 6, 2011:

We try to get the most mileage out of our cars, clothing, food and other commodities before buying more. But we don’t make the most of the electricity we have, a new report states of Fairbanks.

The report states it can be cheaper to invest in energy efficiency than in new sources of energy. It shows Fairbanks can cut its energy demand almost in half by investing $100 million in efficiency. That doesn’t mean turning down the heat but rather insulating and installing more efficient appliances and patching up other electricity-sucking devices.

A panel of state and local officials and energy experts convened Wednesday morning at the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center to discuss the report and the potential of energy conservation in Fairbanks. They said energy efficiency would save money, improve the local business climate and create jobs.

“Energy efficiency and conservation will always be our best economic value and most secure investment. It comes with a high, tax-free rate of return,” said Todd Hoener of Golden Valley Electric Association.

The report, titled Fairbanks First Fuel, was commissioned by the non profit Alaska Conservation Analysis. It explores how Fairbanks residents, businesses and industries use electricity and how they could reap savings by investing in efficiency. It recommends measures for different sectors and gives costs and paybacks of various technologies.

Indoor winter ‘farm’ is producing micro vegetables

From The Anchorage Daily News, Tuesday, January 4, 2011:

In Alaska, giant cabbages and other huge plants generally rule the garden.

But a couple of local growers are going the opposite direction — they’re cultivating micro produce. Sioux-z Humphrey Marshall and Rusty Foreaker have teamed up to create Northern Latitude Controlled Environment Agriculture.

In a 1,300-square-foot warehouse on Arctic Boulevard, they are growing “micro greens” indoors in a custom-designed hydroponic system. Among the greens they produce are broccoli, pac choi, arugula, beets, cress, endive, basil, cilantro, radish, pea shoots and corn shoots.

“People are familiar with sprouts,” Marshall says. “If you wait a little longer, you have micro greens. You harvest them when they are between five and 20 days old.

Continue reading: Indoor winter ‘farm’ is producing micro vegetables

Our Alaska: Living off the grid

From Alaska Dispatch, Sunday, January 2, 2011:

When general contractor David Doolen and his wife Dale bought land far up Rabbit Creek Valley more than 25 years ago, they weren’t planning on disconnecting from the municipal power grid. But back then the muni would have charged the Doolens $60,000 to run up a line to connect the house to city power, so they decided to keep the lights on using solar power and a generator. Today they’ve got two solar panels in addition to the diesel generator, which is connected to a 300-gallon tank that needs filling about twice a year. One side benefit of this unique setup: When the rest of Anchorage suffers through a blackout, the Doolens’ lights stay on. “We always feel pretty smug when that happens,” David said.

Watch the video: Our Alaska: Living off the grid

Green Gift Wrap Ideas

From eartheasy.com:

Gift wrapping is fun and necessary for many occasions, but there are the environmental costs of resource extraction, manufacture and waste disposal to be considered. You can create attractive gift wrap yourself by reusing paper, fabric or even using the Sunday comics. If you prefer buying gift wrap, look for recycled content gift wrap paper whenever you can find it.

Continue reading: Green Gift Wrap Ideas

Group developing efficient homes for rural Alaska

From Alaska Journal of Commerce, Saturday, December 10, 2010:

With high fuel prices and harsh winter climes, constructing energy-efficient housing in rural Alaska communities can be a difficult task that is compounded by the prohibitively high costs.

In Fairbanks, Jack Hebert and a team of engineers with the Cold Climate Housing Research Center are rising to the challenge, designing and building prototype homes and empowering communities to build more of them for themselves.

In 2008, the CCHRC began its Sustainable Northern Shelter Program. CCHRC designs sustainable home technology, with its aim being to reduce the amount of fuel used to heat rural homes.

The group contracts with local crews to get the homes built. In fact, CCHRC officials don’t actually build the homes; with input from the locals, they design it and the locals themselves build them.

Consultations with the community help establish what their cultural needs are, among other things, Hebert said.

The goal, Hebert said, is to enable local residents to build their own sustainable homes without the aid of outsiders.

 “The wisdom of the people who have lived here for 10,000 years is important,” Hebert said.

Continue reading:  Group developing efficient homes for rural Alaska

How to have a green Thanksgiving

From marketplace.publicradio.org:

Holidays usually don’t provide for the most environmentally-friendly options. But Marketplace’s Adriene Hill is offering her tips on how to have a green Thanksgiving without having to compromise your holiday fun.

TEXT OF INTERVIEW

Steve Chiotakis: Grocery stores will be packed this weekend, as people grab up Thanksgiving fixings. What does all that eating, traveling and family visiting mean for the environment?

We’ve called on Marketplace Sustainability reporter Adriene Hill to help us out. Good morning Adriene.

Adriene Hill: Good morning, Steve.

CHIOTAKIS: So a big green thumbs up or green thumbs down on Thanksgiving?

HILL: You know, it would be super easy to apply the whole bummer environmental vibe to yet another American tradition.

CHIOTAKIS: Like a Debbie Downer.

HILL: But it’s no fun. I don’t want to be that reporter. Yes, the best thing you can do on Thanksgiving is to sit at home, alone in the dark, without any heat, don’t eat anything — you’ll save a ton of carbon that way. But I really like Thanksgiving. So instead I want to focus on how you can make the holiday more environmentally-friendly.

Continue reading: How to have a green Thanksgiving

Nissan Will Sell 500,000 Electric Cars a Year by 2013, Says Chief

From The New York Times,  Tuesday, November 16, 2010:

On the eve of the market debut of the Nissan Leaf electric car, Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of the Renault-Nissan alliance, said the only constraint on sales for the next three years will be how many battery packs the factories could churn out.

Deliveries of the Leaf are scheduled to start next month. Mr. Ghosn, speaking to reporters in Washington on Monday afternoon, did not say just how many he expected to sell in the first three years. He said, however, that the Leaf would hit 500,000 units a year in three years. Mass production, he explained, would lower costs enough to make the car a sales success without subsidies sooner than once expected. He said he once thought that number was a million cars a year, but now believed it was from 500,000 to 1 million.

“We’re going to have to put some efforts into selling the car, but the kind of spontaneous demand is going to be driving the sales for the next three years,” Mr. Ghosn said. “There is such a curiosity about the car and attention to the car.”

He predicted that 10 percent of the world car market would be electric vehicles by 2020. “There is no doubt in the minds of anyone in the industry that this is going to be a big factor in the industry,” he said.

Continue reading: Nissan Will Sell 500,000 Electric Cars a Year by 2013, Says Chief

UAF makes progress on sustainability score

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Saturday, November 13, 2010:

 The University of Alaska Fairbanks is making some progress in its efforts to go green.

UAF got a C-plus on the 2011 College Sustainability Report Card this month, a grade that attempts to measure an institution’s commitment to sustainable practices. That was an improvement from the C-minus scores the campus received in 2010 and 2009.

The annual survey of more than 300 college campuses is made by the Massachusetts Sustainable Endowments Institute, and are based on a survey about recycling practices, food service and energy efficient building.

UAF established a Sustainability Task Force this year, and also got solid grades for the administration, recycling and transportation.

UAF still lags behind its neighbor to the south, however. The University of Alaska Anchorage saw its score this year climb from a B-minus to a B.

Experimental vegetable oil kiln helps UAF potters stay environmentally friendly

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Monday, November 15, 2010:

Art students huddled around a 2,400-degree grease fire behind the university experimental farm in 13-degree weather on Thursday. A big tank of vegetable oil fed the flames inside a fire box and heated their pottery within one of Fairbanks’ newest artistic achievements — a vegetable oil-fired kiln.

A University of Alaska Fairbanks ceramics class designed and built the kiln during the summer at “kiln city,” an outdoor clearing between the reindeer pens and the university ski trails. Kiln City also contains four wood-fired kilns.

Few universities have vegetable oil kilns because they are a relatively new concept and take up lots of space. Most use indoor electric kilns.

The kiln, which was paid for with a $6,000 grant from the university sustainability committee, will lessen the carbon footprint of ceramics and offer a new aesthetic to artists. The experimental design also tests how the technology fares in cold weather.

Fairbanks churches try energy audits to save money

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Monday, November 15, 2010:

It’s a sign of the times in religious circles — caulking and sealing parties.

This new congregational activity will soon begin at Christ Lutheran Church and University Community Presbyterian Church.

Both houses of worship underwent sanctuary energy audits this past week, and as soon as they receive itemized reports, they will begin performing the simpler energy-saving tasks to reduce their energy consumption. Some larger projects might have to be contracted out.

“We found we were leaking like a sieve,” said the Rev. Susan Granata, pastor at Christ Lutheran.

Each church was motivated to take a closer look at its aging buildings for both stewardship and financial reasons.

“It was kind of a hard decision to have this audit. It was not inexpensive,” Granata said.

The financial drain of fuel and electricity costs became painfully apparent a couple years ago, when oil prices skyrocketed.