Archive for the ‘Solar Car’ category

Letter published in local paper about phone books

November 22nd, 2009

A quick update on my Week 2 challenge of trying to stop junk mail.  I sent in a letter to the editor at our local paper (The Fargo Forum) after being sent phone books shortly after requesting to be removed from the list.  It was published and wanted to share it with you all!  The link is here, but for those having problems with the link, I am copying the text here:

Quit sending me phone books

It would really be appreciated if the phone companies would stop sending me phone books. I have asked to have my name removed from Dex, Yellowbook and 702 Communications lists, and, not more than two weeks later, I have received phone books from Yellowbook and 702 Communications.

As I stare at the eight phone books sitting before me, I really wonder how necessary all of these are. I have used a phone book probably three times in the past year, and it was certainly handy to have on those occasions, but I do not think I need this many. Really, I could just as easily have used the Internet. I do understand why households want phone books, but can you please allow me to find numbers on the Internet?

All I really want is the ability to be removed from your lists. The resources taken to create, print and deliver these phone books are annoying for me, costly for you and a detriment to our environment. More than 100 million trees are cut down every year for junk mail, and it has been reported that 40 percent of that goes straight into the garbage. I don’t want to add to that waste.

Even if you do not agree with environmental agendas, I hope we can agree that this is wasteful. Just give me an opportunity to save you money and stop sending me phone books.

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Gas guzzling machine to super green – I drive an electric car

November 20th, 2009

eco webGuygoesgreen Note: This is the first guest post on Guy Goes Green and am happy to have this Eco Hero tell me his story.  Jason (EcoGeeco) can be found here .  Thanks for sharing!

I have decided to drive electric. I drive a 2008 GEM E6. It is all electric and it replaced 1996 Dodge Caravan. A lot of people were very surprised when they found out that my new car is like a big golf cart. But I look at it as an investment in my kid’s future. They are the biggest reason for the car plus it’s a lot of fun to drive around.

A few years ago my wife and I owned a ’96 Caravan not the greenest of cars but it got us from A to B. We decided that it was time for a new car. I started to think of the world around us and realized that we had an opportunity to help out with the planet and make sure that our kids had a clean planet to live on when they got to be our age. I started to look around at all the options we had. The first thing I looked at was hybrids but most are small for a family with 5 people in it and still burn fossil fuel that produces Co2. Biodiesel is a better option but there is no place to get it where I am. So I started looking at the facts. The average family drives 32 miles or less a day. There are all electric cars out there that are street legal and they are essentially big golf carts. But they do not produce any pollution at all! That was deal maker right there. I looked for my best option and came up with the GEM (Global electric Motors owned by Chrysler). They are made in America, go 30 to 40 miles on a charge and are street legal (in most states).

After receiving my electric car I started really going green. I just made a giant leap in the right direction Iecoweb2 couldn’t stop there. I had to start planning extra time into my jots around town because when I got to the parking lot of most places I would draw a crowd of people asking about the car. Some even asked how good the gas mileage was. I would laugh and then just tell them it was electric and the “gas mileage” was GREAT! One of the things that I was asked and told a lot was that I couldn’t be green with this car because our local electric company is powered by coal so all I’m doing is moving the pollution to a central location. Even though my car only uses 6.7 cents (yes that 7 pennies) a day to charge, people still didn’t think I was doing any good. So I built a small solar array in my backyard to offset the Co2 emissions that are produced by the coal plant. $25 a year to charge the car and $100 a year saved on my electric bill with the solar array.

I took a giant leap to change the way I effect the planet but all it takes is a small step to start to help. All in all it’s the best thing I have ever purchased and yes my wife owns a “normal” car that is not a hybrid or electric but it normally sits in the driveway most of the time unless we go on a long trip somewhere.

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