Take the Punch out of Paper

Recycling paper is considered one of the easiest means of preventing green house gases like methane, which is 23x’s more potent than carbon dioxide, from entering the atmosphere-the 4^th largest cause of gas emissions. In America, the average person consumes over 700 pounds of paper a year, the world’s highest per capita, than fast developing countries like Latin America and Eastern Europe which averages close to 100 pounds per person per year. Emerging economies like China and India are the fastest consumer of paper products on the planet. While the populations growing consumption will outpace paper recycling programs, implementing daily steps can always make the difference in how we address this situation.  

By recycling paper which can then be used in products like tissue, paper towels, newspapers, game boards, egg cartons, insulation and packaging material, products made from 100% recycled content will have used 44% less energy, produce 38% less greenhouse gases, 50% less water and 100% less wood. If 1200 pounds of paper equal 1 ton, the amount of resources saved if per ton of paper recycled would estimate to save 17 trees, 60,000 gallons of water, 225 kilowatts of energy, 275 lbs of sulfur and 350 lbs of limestone. That would take 40% of commercial and residential paper waste from going into a landfill.

Think about how many times a day you touch paper-books, napkins, paper dishware, magazines, cereal boxes, labels, catalogs, packaging, copier paper, tissue, money, businesses cards-now just imagine the impact it would have if you recycled all that paper you handled. It is possible to achieve a significant reduction in paper waste if everyone begins to take an active role in recycling paper in our lives. Simple steps can start with you. Remember to recycle your paper waste today. Together, we can all make a difference.

A future demand for 'green' products and services

With the U.S. economy climbing out of a historic recession and consumer spending slowly gaining confidence, many Americans are rethinking their purchases and are buying eco-friendly products, services and apparel offered by their local community. New Entrepreneurs are finding creative ways to reboot the retail and service industry by catering to a growing green consumer. Organic products, energy efficient home remolding, eco-friendly jewelry and apparel, gifts, health and beauty, skin care, baby products and home décor has never been more mainstream. Choosing to go green in not only good for the planet, but good for the community and your wallet.

In the past, the average person associated ‘green’ products or living to be expensive, only affordable to Hollywood and the very rich. It seemed a premium was necessary in order to be part of the movement-but now with tax-friendly credits for businesses and consumers, a steady supply to retailers are having a larger role in offering products as well as being fiscally responsible to the environment. Still, the overall awareness of green products and services remains miniscule compared to its opposite means of conventional products, but the green sector has been steadily increasing over the last several years. Americans are still the largest consumer in the world and an increase in the green movement will have a positive impact on the local and national economy. A lower cost margin on green supplies is driven not only by the consumer, but the retailer who takes a higher margin on eco-friendly brands, because fortunately, price premiums have been shrinking in this area. The wallet crunch has shoppers saving money with their purchases, but living and doing business in a more socially and environment way.

One market in particular that has shown a steady increase is cleaning supplies. Conventional cleaners have harsh chemicals that can aggravate individuals with respiratory conditions and are often made from nonrenewable ingredients like petroleum and phosphates. Chemicals that actively damage the environment. Consumers, especially parents, are having a growing concern what products in their homes and in their daily lives that are made from chemicals which can have a direct result to their child’s health well-being. 

Going green will not only be better for the environment, or your health, but purchasing green products and services will create a market that can only supplied by local businesses. The direct result of supporting the green sector will expand a growing market with an upward of 6 billion in the U.S. and across the globe. The national conversation about going green could not have been easier.

"Brave New Bus – Moving Forward"

All material and picture provided by Jamie Schultz and BraveNewBus

"This is more than a bus, this is a movement. This is more than a project, it’s a lifestyle. We have dedicated our lives to sustainability. This is what we do, this is who we are. There is no time other than now. Our future depends on the choices we make today and this is the choice we are making. We must evolve, it is in our nature. We must seek out and practice methods of living that work with the world. We must support ourselves and those around us. There is no other way. For now, we only have one world and we’re all in."

"The Brave New Bus” is an organization dedicated to providing a model of sustainability for others and disseminating resources to make changes.  We dedicated to making tomorrow brighter through today's actions. This pervades every part of our lifestyle from our environmental impact to our social and humanitarian responsibilities. We simply leave things better than we found them. We travel in our 38 foot school bus that we converted to run on used vegetable oil and have crossed the country several times in the past year for more than15,000 miles travelled on recycled kitchen grease! Our Activities include online educational resources, school visits, sustainable transportation (Party Bus) and bi-annual trips with a goal in mind.   

Please check out our website for our updates on our projects and adventures at BraveNewBus.org

For decades, Michael Hoy has searched far and wide for the best that life has to offer.  From Los Angeles to Las Vegas to Brooklyn down to Tampa and every beach and national park between, Mike has planted his seed of inspiration. Where good times can be had, Mike can be found.  Sparked by his intense desire for MORE of what life has to offer.  His life philosophy is borrowed from life lessons, family, and strangers that just seemed to make so much sense. Always optimistic, Michael reminds the rest of the crew to always look on the bright side.

Click here if you are interested in partnering with greenbugz



Feeling better about your cup-holder never felt so good

Meet the not to distant cousin of George Jetson’s flying saucer car. Debuted originally at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2007, Volvo launched a revolution with their concept car named: The Recharge. Competing for a slice of the hybrid demand against the giants of the Japanese manufacturer Toyota, Volvo introduced a whole new take on engine design in the next step of the automobile evolutionary ladder.

In recent years, the car industry has been looking for ways to stretch our fuel consumption, from the efficiency of our vehicles, to finding ways to cut global emissions using alternative fuels and new designs. A tooth aching campaign, coupled with added pressure from Congress and an ever-growing public demand for new and innovative ideas, the major players of the car industry are jumping on board to appease the rising number of green consumers and the reduction of reliance on foreign fuels.

Volvo has redefined the engine with its design by completely removing the transmission that is said to waste up to 20% of the engines energy and fuel consumption-a dirty little secret auto manufacturer are reluctant to mention. By cleverly removing the transmission all together, Volvo has installed a lithium-polymer battery, commonly found in Iphones and other modern conveniences. Volvo has also placed electromagnets within the wheel, which can give better maneuverability than the standard wheel and chasse and allow all those low riding enthusiast thinner wheels and lower profile since the electromagnets in the wheel take up more room that is normally customary.

A staggering 160 mpg, the Recharge is still an exciting concept car not slated for immediate production, but a positive sign of things to come. Volvo’s engineering think-tank in sunny California has been trying to transform the scope of the auto industry by changing their tune which will coincide with the shifting consumer market.  Volvo plans to wait after 2012 before it commits fully to the green market by releasing a plug in hybrid based on the Volvo Recharge concept with a projected 60 mile-per-charge battery.

If Every American...

If every American used an energy-efficient light bulb in the most frequently used rooms of their home, an excesses of 6 billion a year in energy costs would be saved. This would be like taking 8 million cars off the road.

If every American shut off the lights in unoccupied rooms, unplug appliances when not in use an upwards of $10-$30.00 dollars could be saved a month. (This depends on wattage of light bulb as well as your states rate for kWh. The Nation average is 0.10.) With a standard 40 watt bulb, which can cost $7.68 if left on for 48hrs in one room, can easily be avoided if the average person spent 2 minutes to walk through their home and shut off lights. Practicing these simple habits can add up to a very significant greening in your life and your wallet.

If every American purchased a CFL (Compact Florescent BULB) or a LED (Light Emitting Diodes) bulb, the reduction in energy consumption would be up to 90% and last around 100,000 hours than the standard 5,000 hrs a 40 watt bulb can produce.  Generally, a CFL and LED cost more, but after 500 hours of use, it begins to pay for itself. That is money back into savings.

If every American considered for one minute their daily impact on simple daily activities like remembering to shut off lights in most used rooms, purchasing and using LED and CFL bulbs, the world would be a greener place.

Bee-Ware!!!

In the early weeks of April 2007, very little media attention was given to an environmental issue that just may now reemerge in the coming months and years following the devastating earthquake in Japan. As continued detections of radiation and contamination levels across globe at present, the question then asked by most scientists in the spring of 2007 was, what was causing a mysterious illness killing thousands of honey bee colonies across the U.S. and Canada. With now reported contamination found in Japanese Beef and just recently in milk from the state of Washington, rising radiation levels may play a role in further crippling an already fragile species. 

Late in the month of November 07, David Hackenberg, a Pennsylvanian Beekeeper, was the first bee farmer who reported this phenomenon to researchers at Penn. State University. He stated that he had lost about 2,000 hives which housed anywhere from 50,000 to 60,000 bees during the summer months. Researchers scrambled to find the cause of this disease naming it Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. Scientists started to believe this epidemic was the equivalent of HIV/AIDS to humans.  Reports began coming in from all over the country, totaling 20 states that were affected with CCD as well as  recent losses in some European countries.

In the past, bee colonies faced decline from two parasitic bugs. The Varroa and Tracheal mite caused widespread viruses affecting the U.S. bee population since the mid 1960’s. What was being face in the fall of 2007 was complete abandonment of the hive. Normally the bodies of dead bees are often littered around the hives or sometimes carried away by worker bees. In these cases, no bee remains were found around the colonies struck by this mysterious disease. Scientists believed that these bees had left the hive before dying to preserve the remaining colony.

 Another baffling mystery was that in situations where a hive was weakened, competing colonies or pests did not attack to steal the honey supply. It was if the mark of the plague hung over theses hives, warning others to stay away. After dissection of the insect, the bee remains revealed high numbers of fungi and bacteria and a weakened immune system.  Questions are now being raised that if radiation levels from the Japanese reactors continue to rise and detection is found all over the planet, this may speed up the bee’s already downward spiral, eventually having a domino effect that will not pale into comparison to the debate on global warming and shrinking polar caps.

The steady drop in bee colonies will have a devastating effect on the agricultural economy. Along with being producers of honey, a staple to the diet of the entire planet, bee colonies are important to agriculture as pollinators. The National Research Council stated that three-quarters of all flowering plants rely on pollinators (bees) for fertilization to bear fruit. Certain fibers, drugs and even fuels rely on the strength and survival of the bee. The very lives of farmers who cash in on crops such as apples, blueberries, tomatoes and strawberries depend on the honey bee. Bee farmers alone estimate a loss of over $350,000 dollars each due to CCD. With the now potential of radiation poisoning an important and fragile part of their lives, farmers are playing even closer attention to news from all across the world.