Interested in reducing your electricity bill and experiencing more natural daylight in your home or office? First Day Natural Lighting is a local company focusing on indoor natural lighting and a premiere dealer for Solatube innovative daylight systems.
More about First Day Natural Lighting:
Sell and/or install Solatube Daylighting Systems and Solar powered attic fans.
Have a showroom just north of Monroe on Cincinnati Dayton Rd. The Grand Opening of this location was September 5th and 6th, 2008.
Will offer Do-it-Yourself workshops for homeowners and contractors through out the year.
Want to save money and help reduce resource use and reduce carbon in the atmosphere? Try ebilling.
eBilling is the process of paying your bills online electronically.
Online bill payment saves you the cost of stamps and paper checks. Paying your bills online also reduces paper waste and transportation costs, which in turn reduces the carbon footprint of your payment.
As a consumer, paying 12 bills a month, you can save $75 a year in postage and checks by switching to eBilling. The reduced costs for businesses can be much larger.
The real savings comes in making bill payments green. According to the PayItGreen web site, if you pay an average of 12 bills by mail each month, switching to ebilling means in a year:
4.5 pounds of paper saved
43 gallons of wastewater prevented from discharging into lakes, streams and rivers
178 pounds of greenhouse gases avoided
For local consumers, Fifth Third, PNC, US Bank and National City all offer free online bill payment with online banking accounts. Businesses can contact their bank provider for more information on electronic bill payment.
Thanks to those of you who took the Live Green Cincinnati reader survey!
Live Green Cincinnati LLC cut a check last week to the Cincinnati Parks Foundation as promised. 50 cents for every completed survey.
With the economy in a slump, we sometimes forget to make these types of contributions, but we all need to remember that projects like public parks benefit everyone in Greater Cincinnati.
Findlay Market, Ohio’s oldest surviving municipal market house, has proved itself over and over again of it’s historic forward thinking. Case in point: Findlay Market recently installed 114 solar panels on the roof.
Findlay Market is a gem in the city. The perfect mix of past, present, and future.
Findlay Market has taken an exciting step to reduce its carbon footprint by installing 114 solar panels on the south-facing roof of Ohio’s oldest public market. This is the largest photovoltaic installation in Ohio on a building listed on The National Register of Historic Places and, we believe, the second largest in the nation. The panels will generate electricity for use in the market house and route any excess power generated to the utility grid. The solar array has an expected life of at least thirty years. By replacing electricity generated by coal or natural gas, the Findlay Market solar energy system offsets 52,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year, or more than 780 tons of CO2 during the life of the array.
The Findlay Market solar energy project is made possible by a generous donation to The Corporation for Findlay Market from Duke Energy Corporation and by a $73,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Development Advanced Energy Fund. The Corporation for Findlay Market also receives significant financial support for operating Findlay Market from the City of Cincinnati, which owns the market. We thank them for helping us be a leader in promoting environmental sustainability.
On Thursday, October 16, 2008, a Findlay Market Solar Energy Project Dedication Ceremony and press conference will take place at 1:00 PM. Sandra Meyer, President of Duke Energy Ohio and Kentucky, Mayor Mark Mallory and other City officials as well as representatives from the Ohio Department of Development, Green Energy of Ohio and other community stakeholders will attend the celebration.
Two housing developments in Over The Rhine are pursuing LEED green building certification. The buildings are part of a pilot program for green building in multi-family, mid-rise residential projects.
The US Green Building Council’s LEED program currently covers these types of projects:
new construction
commercial interiors
existing buildings
core & shell
schools
healthcare
retail
homes
neighborhood development
Green building standard guidelines are constantly expanding to be able to fit into many aspects of and uses for buildings. Contact a LEED Accredited Professional to find out who LEED may guide your next new construction or remodel project into an environmentally friendly one.
Ever wonder what the middle-schoolers in your life are learning about the environment? Here are a few more insights from my 11-year old niece Cary.
Have your teachers used any good lessons or demonstrations that helped you learn about the environment? Yes we all recycle. We also plant tulip bulbs.
Has your school or scout troop ever done an environmental field trip or service project? Yes. I wasn’t able to go but my class went on a field trip to clean up Sharon Woods lake. Our scouts have gone on a field trip to clean part of a forest.
What in your house would you run with human-power (aka riding a bicycle or turning a crank to power something) if you could? I would power the garage door opener or things like that.
Are any of your school supplies made of recycled paper or materials? Yes they are we always use both sides of paper and all of our paper has already been recycled.
The American Planning Association recently named the Village of Mariemont one of the Great Places (Neighborhoods) in America.
Their reasons?
“The American Planning Association (APA) is designating Mariemont one of 10 Great Neighborhoods for 2008 given the village’s unique character, compact and walkable design, and strong citizen participation and engagement.”
“An enduring model for compact, sustainable neighborhoods.”
Take a look at the article to find out more. Does your neighborhood have any of the qualities of a smart, well-developed community?
In response to the GreenED Challenge in this month’s newsletter, Holly from Mt. Washington offered a number of other ways to incorporate green in your life. She is working hard to be conscious of her environmental impact. Check out some of her ideas to see if you’re up for adopting any of these tips:
Hi! I often feel like a misfit in Cincinnati, probably because I’m from the opposite corner of the state. I try to be green. Regarding the idea of skipping the straw, here’s what I’ve done at work:
To avoid using plastic utensils, I stopped at a yard sale and was lucky to find a perfect set of cheap flatware for $3.00, and that’s what I use now at work. Nothing new had to be made, and I just bring them home to wash.
I use washcloths for napkins instead of the paper napkins; same thing, bring them home to wash.
I took hand towels from home to work, and use those instead of paper towels when I wash my hands - it feels like you’re at camp first walking to the restroom with a towel, but you get used to it.
When I decide to purchase lunch at the Mark Pi’s restaurant in the UC hospital, I take a stainless steel bowl for the food so that i avoid the Styrofoam pack.
I recycle at work, even sugar packets and straw papers if I use them; I will take it to heart to be more conscious of not using straws.
When i go to lunch, I turn off my lights, monitor, and copier.
At home, I hang my laundry - everything - on a clothesline; I am bottle-free in my shower area by using J.R. Liggett bar shampoo, no conditioner, and locally made bar soap; I recycle at home, and have committed to reduce what comes into my home; I spin my own yarn from wool that I buy from a local Ohio shepherd. There’s more; just thought I’d share.
Thanks Holly - excellent ideas! How are you doing in your first 30-day GreenED Challenge efforts? If you have more of your own inspiration and experiences, please feel free to leave a comment on the blog or send us an email.
The Civic Garden Center and the Architectural Foundation of Cincinnati are hosting an Architectural Foundation Lecture today that focuses on making the business case for Green Building.
Gary Jay Saulson, Director of Corporate Real Estate, The PNC Financial Services Group, discusses the positive economic and productivity impact of Green (Sustainable) Buildings and why building green makes sense for corporate America. He provides details on the design and construction of PNC’s Firstside Center, one of the largest certified green buildings in the world, and the collaborated efforts to obtain a LEED(TM) Silver Certification. PNC has adopted a green building policy and has developed a new bank branch prototype that follows LEED(TM) building standards. PNC has built the first LEED(TM) certified building in the state of Delaware and the first green bank branch in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio. PNC currently has the most certified green buildings of any corporation in the United States and is the first company to qualify under the USGBC volume build program. PNC also has the largest corporate LEED(TM) certified green building in the world and currently has under construction a 780,000 sf mixed used project in downtown Pittsburgh including office space, hotel, condominiums and parking garage that will be LEED(TM) certified. The Fairmont Hotel will be the country’s first major flag Green Hotel.
When: Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Where: Held at the historically significant First Unitarian Church,
536 Linton Street at Reading Road
Time: 4:30 pm registration
5:00 pm Mr. Saulson’s Lecture
6:00 pm Reception
Across the street at the Civic Garden Center 2715 Reading Road
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