Use a Plastic Bottle to Save Money

Have you ever had a bottle of something, lotion, soap, shampoo, etc. and that last little bit never comes out? Either the pump doesn't grab it or turning the bottle upside down makes it just tip over. In an effort to get every last drop and not waste, I have tried to teeter one bottle on top of another in hopes a brisk breeze doesn't tip the top bottle over. More often than not I am presented with a mess on the counter and no savings what so ever! But I found a solution that eliminates mess and uses every drop. It is a recycle, reduce double doozie! Just use an empty plastic bottle as a funnel to "connect" two containers. Confused? Below are some quick and easy steps to saving money, product and recycling!

Here's How:
1. Get a plastic bottle out of the recycle with an opening that is smaller than the bottle you want liquid in.
2. Cut the bottom portion of the bottle off.
3. Put the top of the plastic cut bottle inside the container you want the liquid in.
4. Put the bottle with the small amount of liquid upside down into the plastic cut bottle.
5. Watch as the liquid easily goes from one bottle to the next!

Here are the two bottles with the cut plastic bottle in the middle.

From RecycleReuseReduce

Here is a close up of the cut bottle, "funnel".

From RecycleReuseReduce

New Jersey's Clean Energy Leaders Recognized by Board of Public Utilities

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) announced the winners of the 2009 NJ Clean Energy Leadership Awards in seven categories at a special dinner held during Clean Energy Now, the 2009 Clean Energy Conference & Leadership Awards. These awards honor individuals, local and county governments, businesses, institutions and organizations that have improved New Jersey's economic competitiveness and have demonstrated effective solutions for climate change through the effective and innovative use of energy efficiency and renewable technologies.

Trade Ally Award - Nautilus Solar Energy, LLC
Open to suppliers, retailers, designers and installers, the Trade Ally Award recognizes an organization for its part in driving the growth of green jobs and for supporting the clean energy infrastructure.

Outreach Partner of the Year - HelpLight NJ
The Outreach Award recognizes efforts to build awareness of energy efficiency and renewable energy measures by extending the message of clean energy to a wide audience in the hope of influencing others to make wise energy decisions that reduce our impact on climate change.

Market Innovator of the Year - Petra Solar
The Market Innovator Award provides recognition to the organization demonstrating new opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions with viable solutions for large numbers of residential, business and/or government facilities.

Local Government Partner of the Year - Bergen County Utilities Authority
The Local Government Partner Award recognizes the role the state's local government officials play in promoting the wise use of energy to residents and businesses in their community. These officials' commitment to spread the message of clean energy and build awareness of programs that reduce energy use has been described as "critical" to the success of New Jersey's Clean Energy Program.

Energy Educator of the Year - Rutgers University
The Energy Educator Award recognizes a school, college or university for its efforts to improve the energy efficiency and use of renewable technologies in their facilities and for implementing specific programs and activities to involve students and include energy education in their curricula.

Business Leader of the Year - Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.
The Business Leader Award recognizes an organization that sets solid goals and follows through with real solutions to reduce energy consumption. The Business Leader of the Year Award also recognizes the importance of promoting the message of saving energy to workers and driving a corporate culture shift that extends to employees' homes.

Clean Energy Advocate of the Year - Daniel Cohen
This newly established award was created to honor an individual that has pursued an agenda to support the development or utilization of clean energy in New Jersey.


Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A do-it-Ourselves Guide - $12.49

Day 10-14: ACL Fest Grass Sprouts Up in Just a Day

Ok, I think this will be my last daily post of the ACL fest grass. It seems to be doing well but daily pictures of grass are hard to put in my routine! plus, they are being less interesting by the day, don't you agree?! I missed a few days and you can hardly tell.

I did over water it so it is a bit waterlogged right now. I'm hoping I don't have to do anything to soak up the water. If you have pictures of acl fest grass, I would love to see them! 

Day 10

From ACLFestGrass

Day 13 

From ACLFestGrass

Day 14

From ACLFestGrass

Day 8-9: ACL Fest Grass Sprouts Up in Just a Day

I started to post Day 8 yesterday and my internet connection was so slow I fell asleep waiting for it to load the pictures! That is somewhat of an indication of how my day went yesterday.  So here are today's and yesterday's views of the grass.

Day 8 and 9 of the ACL Fest grass growth. Not all the blades are growing as fast so it is looking a little ragged. I gave it a good trim today. I think it is happier. It has a great smell when you cut the blades, makes me think of being in a field of freshly cut grass in the morning when it is all dewy. I hope I can keep my grass growing all year, I 'm not the best green thumb.  If anyone else has the ACL Fest Grass, tell me how it is growing!

Day 8: 

From ACLFestGrass

Day 9 Before Haircut: 
 

From ACLFestGrass

Day 9 After Haircut: 

From ACLFestGrass

Day 7: ACL Fest Grass Sprouts Up in Just a Day

I decided to not cut the grass today, I'm going to see how it does tomorrow. And I am going to slow down the watering so it doesn't grow like a weed! Here is what it looks like today.

Day 7:

From ACLFestGrass

Top 20 Green Jobs

Green jobs might be rare these days due to the economy but recent data shows green/eco friendly jobs are on the rise. Varying skill levels are needed as well, from executives to manage green initiatives to auditors to conduct green audits.

"The leading job tiles show the breadth of green positions across the economy," says Rona Fried, Ph.D., CEO of SustainableBusiness.com, which runs Green Dream Jobs. "Most people think of energy auditing and renewable energy as green jobs, but leading non-profit organizations are major employers, and people needed to run projects and analyze data are in demand, as well as those in sales and business development. Engineers are also in demand for renewable energy operations and even in this economy, we're still seeing many job openings in green building."

    Top 20 Green Job Titles

1.     Executive Director, Nonprofit
2.     Project Leader/Manager
3.     Sustainability Program Director/Manager
4.     Sales/Business Development Associate or Manager
5.     Marketing Manager/Coordinator
6.     Community Crew Leaders/Supervisors, Conservation Associations
7.     Business/Data Analyst
8.     Research Analyst/Manager
9.     Environmental Educator/Naturalist
10.     Account Executive/Manager, Sales
11.     Professor (various academic fields)
12.     Sustainability Analyst/Consultant
13.     Operations Manager
14.     Wind Energy Engineer
15.     Administrative Assistant
16.     Trainer, Training Specialist or Training Coordinator
17.     Electrical/Design Engineer
18.     Green Architect
19.     Green Building Project Manager
20.     Solar Process Engineer/Process Integration Engineer

About Green Dream Jobs
Green Dream Jobs is the leading green jobs service on the Web, online since 1996. The site hosts green jobs across the spectrum of employers including: multinationals hiring sustainability practitioners, green NGOs, government agencies, renewable energy, green building, green mutual funds, green private equity firms, the organic and recycling industries, etc. Green Dream Jobs is a service of SustainableBusiness.com, the voice of green business on the Web. www.greendreamjobs.com or http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/greendreamjobs.main

Source: PR Newswire

Day 7: ACL Fest Grass Sprouts Up in Just a Day

This stuff is amazing! It grows faster than a weed! Here are today's photos, day 7 of the ACL Fest grass growth. My cutting skills are not the best I guess, for some reason the "haircuts" are a little uneven, poor grass...it probably wants a professional straight cut and all it will get is a jagged cut with cheap scissors. Hmmmm, I wonder if Greenie is getting jealous...

Day 7 Before: 

From ACLFestGrass

Day 7 After:

From ACLFestGrass

Day 6: ACL Fest Grass Sprouts Up in Just a Day

Could this stuff grow any faster?!  Wow, I wish this was money!!!

Day 6, grass shot up like it was on a sprint! WOW! I cut it yesterday and it is as tall or taller today! I cut it again, sorry for the uneven cut...bad angle I guess. I trimmed it up after I took this picture. This quick growing experience gives me hope that Zilker will be back to luch green lawns before you know it.

Day 6 before: 

From ACLFestGrass

Day 6 after haircut: 

From ACLFestGrass

Day 5: ACL Fest Grass Sprouts Up in Just a Day

I decided to give the grass a haircut. Here are photos of the before and after.

Day 5: Before Haircut

From ACLFestGrass

Day 5: After Haircut

From ACLFestGrass

Day 4: ACL Fest Grass Sprouts Up in Just a Day

Wow, this is day 4 of the ACL Fest/Zilker Park grass! I might actually have to cut it with some scissors soon.

Day 4

From ACLFestGrass

ACL Fest Grass Sprouts Up in Just a Day

ACL Fest, the 3day music festival in Austin, Texas is held at Zilker Park each year. In previous years the festival has had issues with the lawn being dry; one year there was a dust cloud and people came to the festival with medical masks. So last year the folks at C3 Productions who put on ACL Fest and the City of Austin Parks and Recreation folks got together and installed a sprinkler system and new grass in Zilker Park. In honor of this monumental event, ACL Fest gave out to VIP's a canister with dirt and Zilker grass seed, a little memento to take back.

At Threadgills they had free pre festival live music and they were giving the tins out to VIP's. My mom was able to snag me one of the tins that was left behind. So, I planted the seeds and set it on the window sill. Here are the pics from Day 2 and Day 3. It is amazing how much it grew from one day to the next!

Day 2

From ACLFestGrass

Day 3

From ACLFestGrass

No More Business Card Waste! Take a Photo - Add it to Your Contacts

This is wonderful, I can't wait to use this new product from DYMO Cardscan Mobile.  DYMO Cardscan Mobile is lauching today which coincides with Windows (R) launch of Marketplace for Mobile and will allow a person with a smart phone to snap a picture of somone's business card and the information will instantly transfer to the correct fields in a contact list. How cool is that?!Now you can have all your contacts without the hassle and waste of business cards.

How it Works
To use DYMO CardScan Mobile, after a user has taken a picture of any business card with a Windows(® )smartphone camera, CardScan Mobile automatically inserts all information from the card into the proper fields in the phone's contact list. The application works with Windows Mobile OS 6+ smartphones with a 2 mp or higher camera with autofocus. A CardScan business card scanner and software are not required to operate the application.

Learn more here. 

National Press Club Increases Sustainability Efforts with Composting

The National Press Club is composting? It's true! The National Press Club has contracted with EnviRelation of Washington, D.C. and separates all food waste into different containers. Food scraps and post consumer food waste are picked up daily and taken to a nearby composting facility. They expect the program to save two tons of waste from going into the landfills.

The club added this service as the next step in increasing its level of sustainability. By keeping the food waste out of landfills it decreases the greenhouse gasses caused by its operations. Food waste put into landfills permanently takes it out of the life cycle, unnecessarily loads landfills and is a contributor to greenhouse gasses. Food waste in the anaerobic state of a landfill creates methane gas, which, according to the EPA, is 21 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Find out more here.