Michael is currently on vacation, but I don’t think he would mind me posting some useful ideas for his Green Office theme. I came across an article in the Toronto Star by Shelly Sanders Greer (I can’t find it online, please help me out if you find it, its entitled “Energizing, naturally”) that has some great ideas for utilizing alternative green energy. The article mentions a Canadian Tire website (www.canadiantirepower.ca) that summarizes renewable energy systems and gives prices for these products that can be purchased online or at their stores.
I am pretty excited about this article and Canadian Tire’s initiative because with all the talk and discussion going on about global warming and the cost of energy, there is very little in the way of suggestions for what the everyday consumer can do. My fiancée and I saw Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” a few weeks ago and we were very impressed (and depressed, and scared frankly) with all the proof of global warming and how catastrophic it is going to be, but unfortunately there was very little in the way of suggestions and ideas on what we can do, and how we can reverse this trend. Finally, here are some small items that anyone of us can afford and that will actually help with the problem.
If you can’t find the article, here are a few of the items Shelly noted:
- Solar panels selling for between $350 and $1,000
- Wind turbines selling for $800
- Power inverters for $200
- Solar radios for $15 (at www.eddiebauer.com)
- Mini solar panel and light (at http://www.mec.ca/) …this is a humerous one, can anyone tell me why you need a light powered by a solar panel? Something smells fishy there!
None of us here at FreshBooks have tried out any of this new technology, but I am hoping we can at some point. If anyone out there has tried this stuff, please ping us.
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7:41 pm
Levi,
I wish we had tried some of the above, but the closest we’ve got (still being home renters, not that thats a complete excuse), is starting to pull on board some sustainable businesses as customers. We did a bit push around NZ contacting everyone selling solar panels for homes and thintegrated home energy systems (wind, solar, battery) and all of them reported very big increases in sales in the past 2 years.
In New Zealand also, the government provides 5 year interest free loans for home solar panel installations, giving you a chance to make the payback very easy, the loans are provided by a local ethical finance company (recently a new customer of ours).
With energy prices rising, the economic argument is becoming easier, and people are starting to understand that its actually an asset, as you can market your property as having lower ongoing operating costs, like $800 a year lower electricity bill.
just some input anyway,
cheers,
tim.
9:55 am
Hi Tim,
Sounds like New Zealand is a little further ahead than our government. A five year interest free loan is quite an incentive, not even student loans go interest free for that long!
Thanks for the feedback,
Levi
5:32 pm
[...] Following up on Levi’s last green office article, here are some additional energy saving tips that any office can try: [...]