October 2010

October 2010

Topics in this months newsletter

Keys Energy Rebate Program Returns!

Trade and SaveReplacing old energy-hogging appliances can create major savings on monthly energy bills, but investments in energy efficient appliances, while cost-effective in the long run, may not be affordable in the short-term. To once again help its customers invest in energy efficient appliances and equipment, Keys Energy Services (KEYS) is re-launching its rebate program for energy efficient appliances on October 1st.

Rebates for residential customers include those for: Programmable Thermostats ($25); Dehumidifiers ($50); Dishwashers ($55); Room Air Conditioners ($75); Refrigerators ($75); Freezers ($75); Clothes Washers ($100); Duct Leak Repairs or Replacement ($150); Central Air Conditioners ($250); and Solar Hot Water Heaters ($450). Commercial customers are eligible to apply for an LED Exit Sign rebate ($10 each) with a limit of five per account.

KEYS’ customers looking for more information on the rebate program, and how to participate, should log on to www.KeysEnergy.com and click on the “Growing Greener Every Day” icon. Once on the page, KEYS’ customers can select from the 11 rebate options available and download the applicable forms and applications. Rebates will be awarded to eligible KEYS’ customers on a first-come, first-served basis.

“KEYS’ rebate program is made possible through a joint partnership with the Florida Municipal Power Agency and our fellow public power utilities throughout the state,” said Lynne Tejeda, KEYS’ General Manager & CEO. She added that, “the money earned from rebates will help offset the initial cost to customers to purchase energy efficient appliances.”

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FKEC Offers Members Education, Launches New Website

FKECIn preparation for Energy Awareness Month, Florida Keys Electric Cooperative is giving away “Energy Savers” books, available in English and Spanish, to be picked up by members at either the Marathon or Tavernier FKEC offices.

Also available from FKEC are fuel economy guides, so that members considering a new vehicle purchase can compare the most fuel-efficient vehicle.

To promote awareness of FKEC online resources, the U.S. DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy information available in print, can also be found here. This website offers downloadable information on many green topics. Viewing the information online is one small “green” step anyone can take to be better informed on energy issues.

Next week FKEC is rolling out its new website which highlights FKEC’s green initiatives, links to the GLEE website and has nearly all of FKEC forms available for electronic submission. Members will be able to type into the forms, click submit, and the forms will come to FKEC electronically. This will help save valuable resources like paper, the water and energy used in production and the fuel you would use to deliver the form.

Curious? Take a “sneak peek” here. 

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GLEE Expos Seeking Sponsors and Exhibitors

There are many reasons to become an Expo Sponsor or Exhibitor, including the visibility your organization will receive as a benefit. Check out the Sponsor benefits below and click on the easy-to-use electronic registration to support the education and all efforts of the Florida Keys "green movement."

Exhibitors and Sponsors of the 2010 GLEE Expos, now have four events to choose from, all taking place during EcoWeek, Nov. 1-7.

GLEE is a Sponsor of EcoWeek, so all GLEE Expo Sponsors of $250 or more also receive the benefits of EcoWeek promotion funded by the Florida Keys Tourist Development Council.

Want to be an Expo Sponsor but the options offered don't quite meet your needs? Contact us and we'll work with you!

Read more about Expo events with locations and themes to reach the entire Keys community as well as our visitors.

Check out our Exhibitor & Sponsorship Opportunities and Register for this annual celebration of green living now!

Toyota Prius Challenge Promises Fun & Prizes during EcoWeek

GLEE and South Dade Toyota are joining forces to bring a uniquely fun event to the Upper Keys during EcoWeek 2010. On Sunday, November 7 the first-ever South Dade Toyota Prius Challenge will rally in Key Largo. The rally is specifically for Prius hybrids, driven by their owners on a 50-mile course of discovery through the Upper Keys. Winners of the challenge, those with the best MPG over the total of the course, will receive prizes. Prius drivers can be competitive about their driving skills as they apply to MPGs– you know who you are! This fun and popular rally is a wonderful way to end your EcoWeek celebration in the Florida Keys.

Participants will check in at 11 a.m. at the South Dade Toyota tent at the EcoMarket site at Sundowners Restaurant, mile marker 104. There, participants will receive an official send off and a map listing stops along US 1 where they will to take specific photographs and collect tokens and small gifts at each stop. The course ends back at the EcoMarket. Stats will be tallied while the drivers and their teams enjoy the EcoMarket festivities. Prizes will be awarded at 1 p.m.

The grand prize is a two-night stay at the fabulous GLEE green certified Travelers Palm Inn in Key West.  Complete with one bedroom, living room, kitchen, flat screen TV, private Jacuzzi, heated pool and off-street parking, Travelers Palm is located in a quiet area, within walking distance of all attractions, dining and Duval Street. Other prizes will be awarded to other top performers and all who register will receive coupons and tokens for fun in the Keys.

To register for the event write to PriusChallenge@gmail.com. An entry fee of $20 is payable online or at the event.

Sombrero Beach clean-up set

Local volunteers have joined with the Ocean Conservancy in an effort to clean America’s coastline by scheduling a beach cleanup at Sombrero Beach in Marathon.

Local adults and children are invited to join the cleanup, set for Saturday, October 9 at 9 a.m., as the group picks up litter that has washed ashore or been discarded by beach visitors. All recyclable material will be deposited in appropriate recycling bins and trash in biodegradable bags. Participants will be given data cards so that an inventory of the type of debris collected will be recorded and become part of the Ocean Conservancy’s data base for this national event.

“Even though the city of Marathon picks up trash at Sombrero on a regular basis, the beach is still littered with bottle tops, cigarette butts, plastic beverage carriers, and bottles and cans,” said cleanup organizer Michael Welber. “Much of this debris is not only unsightly but is harmful to wildlife.”

Organizers will be stationed at the first gate to the beach to hand out bags, data cards, and provide water. For more information, contact Michael Welber at Michael.welber@gmail.com.

Fantasy Fest Seeks Recycling Monitors for Duval St. Events

Fantasy Fest organizers are pleased and proud to announce plans for recycling during the festival’s Friday Street Fair and Saturday Promenade.

Coca Cola has most generously donated 100 recycling barrels for use on those days, which when coupled with the bins provided by the City of Key West, should cover the Fantasy Zone very well.

Volunteers are being sought to help educate partygoers and spread the word that there are recycling bins throughout the festival area, describe the bins and the materials to be recycled. The recent addition of plastics #1-7 will add to the ease of recycling considerably.

"This is a big step toward making our event clean and green, but volunteers are needed to make it work," said Betsy Dietz, who is leading the effort.

Public Works will monitor and empty all receptacles as needed. Fantasy Fest monitors will distribute trash (dark green) and recycling (blue) bags to all vendors who have been instructed on how to separate and store trash, and volunteers will be on the streets guiding the public on how and where to recycle at the events. A positive outcome will set the stage for all future street events If you'd like to serve as a Recycling Monitor for either event, please contact kwfanfest@aol.com.

GLEE Community Garden – Expert to lecture on Organic Pest & Disease Control

Key West Community Gardeners at Work

Key West Community gardeners at work.

Organic farmer Andres Mejides will provide a lecture on controlling garden pests and diseases using organic methods at 1 p.m. Saturday, October 16 at the GLEE community garden in Key West.

Mejides has been farming organically in south Florida for 50 years and owns Elfin Farms in Homestead, as well as teaching organic farming at Miami-Dade College and writing for Organic Gardening Magazine. A great friend of GLEE since his keynote address at the 2009 annual meeting, we are excited to welcome him back to the Keys.

The one-hour lecture is free to all community garden members, and $10 for non-members. RSVP is required by all to Jody Smith Williams kwjody@yahoo.com.

For anyone interested in joining the community garden, individual plots are full for the season. Communal plot memberships are available for $75. Contact Jody to inquire about communal plot membership, or to be put on the wait list for an individual plot.

Redland Organics Seeks Keys Members

Too busy to grow your own organic veggies? Margie of Bee Heaven Farms who heads up the CSA, is currently seeking a few more Keys members. Please do check out the Redland Organics website, and if you have any questions, contact Margie: office@beeheavenfarm.com. Or for details, check out the attached application.

EcoWeek Speakers offer Film, Green Building Expertise and Humor

Bill MacdonaldMark your calendars and reserve your tickets to attend EcoWeek presentations by three noted individuals. The opportunity to learn, laugh and love with EcoWeek presenters Bill Macdonald, Dr. Jennifer Languell, and Swami Beyondananda offer discounts for GLEE members.

Environmental film producer Bill Macdonald will be presenting on pelagic plastics problem in our oceans and the effects on marine life on Monday, November 1 at the Murray Nelson Cultural & Government Center at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $25, $20 for GLEE members. VIP tickets are $35, $30 for GLEE members, which include a cocktail hour preceding the presentation.

Macdonald is an environmental film producer and CEO of Bill Macdonald Productions and stock footage archive. Producer of the popular “Synthetic Sea” educational series that chronicles the devastating impact of marine debris on the world ocean ecosystem, Bill has a B.S. in Political Science from California State University, Long Beach. He has some 45 years of filming and video experience, including a six-year period as a member of the Cousteau Society’s Calypso diving and filming team. Bill has been diving in the ocean for over 50 years, and working with Kungkungan Bay Resort in the Lembeh Strait in North Sulawesi, Indonesia for some 12 years. Tens of thousands of viewers have tuned in to Bill’s You Tube site to see exotic dive destinations.

Bill Macdonald Productions mission is to document aquatic resources, marine life, and watersheds. Macdonald employs video archive of over 1000 hours to produce educational programming on watershed awareness. He makes broadcast quality promotional videos that capture the very best in underwater experiences at the world’s foremost dive resorts and live-a-board dive vessels.

Dr jennifer Languell

Founder and President of Trifecta Construction Solutions, Dr. Jennifer Languell is a nationally recognized leader in green building education.

For over a decade, Dr. Languell has been one of the country’s preeminent consultants in the creation of healthy, efficient and sustainable projects in the residential, commercial and land development sectors and with green building demonstration centers.

Languell holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Materials Science and Engineering, a Master’s in Civil Engineering and Construction Management, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and Sustainable Construction. She conducts approximately 100 educational trainings, seminars and workshops annually for the building and development industries. As a renowned authority on green building, she regularly appears as a speaker at national and international conferences.

Dr. Languell was named the National Association of Home Builders’ Green Advocate of the Year in 2006, and also won the Council for Sustainable Florida Leadership Award that same year. In 2007, Trifecta received the Small Business Award from the Council for Sustainable Florida. Dr. Languell is an award-winning author, and has been featured in numerous publications such as Business Week, and on television programs including: CNN Headline News, HGTV, and CNBC’s “Bullseye” and is a co-host on the Discovery Channel “Project Earth.”

Since founding Trifecta, Dr. Languell has certified approximately two-thirds of the green homes in the state of Florida using the existing Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC) Green Home Certification Standards. In addition, she has worked on more than 250,000 square feet of ongoing USGBC Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and FGBC commercial projects, and more than 30,000 acres of FGBC Green Development projects.

Dr. Languell serves on the Board of the Florida Green Building Coalition, is a LEED Accredited Professional of the USGBC, a Certifying Agent with the FGBC and is a certified trainer for the NAHB. Dr. Languell and Trifecta are also affiliated with numerous organizations including the NAHB, Urban Land Institute, the U.S. EPA, U.S. DOE, and Green Globe.

Dr. Languell will be presenting on the most current green building regulations and designs available in Florida on Tuesday, November 2 in Key West, Location TBA. Tickets are $25, $20 for GLEE members. VIP tickets are $35, $30 for GLEE members, which include a cocktail hour preceding the presentation.

Swami Beyondananda

Steve Bhaerman is an internationally known author, humorist, and workshop leader. For the past 23 years, he has written and performed as Swami Beyondananda, the "Cosmic Comic." Swami's comedy has been called "irreverently uplifting" and has been described both as "comedy disguised as wisdom" and "wisdom disguised as comedy."

As the Swami, Steve is the author of “Driving Your Own Karma” (1989), “When You See a Sacred Cow, Milk It For All It's Worth” (1993), “Duck Soup for the Soul” (1999) and “Swami for Precedent: A 7-Step Plan to Heal the Body Politic and Cure Electile Dysfunction” (2004).

In his "past life" (before Swami), Steve started an alternative high school in Washington, D.C. and co-authored a book about his experiences, “No Particular Place to Go: Making of a Free High School.” A political science major, he later taught history to autoworkers at Wayne State University in Detroit as part of the Weekend College. In 1980, Steve co-founded Pathways Magazine in Ann Arbor, Michigan, one of the first publications bringing together holistic health, personal growth, spirituality, and politics. Subsequent to Pathways, Steve was a freelance writer and co-author with Don McMillan of “Friends and Lovers: How to Meet the People You Want to Meet” (Writer's Digest Books, 1986).

Since 2005, Steve has written a political blog with a spiritual perspective, “Notes From the Trail,” hailed as an encouraging voice "in the bewilderness." His latest book, written with cellular biologist Bruce H. Lipton, PhD is “Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There From Here” (Hay House, 2009). Steve is active in transpartisan politics and the practical application of Spontaneous Evolution. He can be found online at www.wakeuplaughing.com.

Swami will have two performances: Tuesday, November 2 at the Marathon Garden Club and Wednesday, November 3 in Key West following the Environmental Summit, location TBA. Tickets are $25, $20 for GLEE members. VIP tickets are $35, $30 for GLEE members, which include a cocktail hour preceding the presentation.

More event information and ticket purchases can be found at www.EcoWeekFloridaKeys.com.

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Clean Energy, Solutions to Climate Change, Job Creation, Energy Security

Green America Lobby’s for Clean Energy Bonds

What if Americans could easily invest in all of the above? With Clean Energy Victory Bonds, this would be possible!

Clean Energy Victory Bonds would allow anyone with an investment of as little as $100 to help create energy efficiency and renewable energy projects around the country.

In the past, when America has needed to mobilize public commitment and engage citizens in underwriting the costs of collective challenges, we have often turned to a simple financial solution: Bonds. Like Woodrow Wilson’s Liberty Bonds and Franklin Roosevelt’s Victory Bonds, Clean Energy Victory Bonds would provide much needed financial capital for ensuring acceleration towards a clean energy economy.

Clean Energy Victory Bonds will enable millions of Americans to invest small amounts in clean energy technologies by buying bonds from the federal government. The $5 to $10 billion in proceeds from the bonds will be invested in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects around the country that will help to replace fossil fuels. The bonds will pay an annual interest rate back to the buyer, based partially on the energy savings or climate change emissions reductions generated by the investments from Clean Energy Victory Bonds.

Clean Energy Victory Bonds aren’t yet available in the US, but Green America is working with White House and Hill staffers to create CEVB legislation.

If you’d like to support this effort, Act Now for a Just Planet! 

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Send Your Elected Official to the Regional Climate Summit!

Last year, the counties of Southeast Florida partnered in the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Leadership Summit and announced support for Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact. The Compact commits each of the partners to coordinate in climate policy development and advocacy, dedicate staff to a regional climate team, coordinate in the development of a regional climate change action plan, and host annually a Climate Leadership Summit for the purpose of maintaining coordination and enhancing our efforts with the sharing of new information and opportunities.

This year’s Summit will be hosted by Miami-Dade County on Friday, October 29 in the Miami Dade County Commission Chambers, Stephen P. Clark Center, 111 NW First Street, Miami. The focus is on municipal partnerships. While the agenda is still under development we hope that you will “Save the Date.” Please feel free to contact Patti Webster or Donald Burgess with any questions.

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THUMBS UP

Key West Climate Action Plan in Action Gains Praise

Key West's annual sustainability report shows that greenhouse gas emissions from government operations were 5.6% lower in 2009 than in the 2005 base year. The reduction shows significant progress toward the city's goal of 15% fewer emissions by 2015. Some of the changes that led to this reduction are:

  • 18.9% reduction in electricity use by city buildings, street lights and traffic signals
  • The waste water treatment plant reduced electric use by 6.1%, saving 253 metric tons of CO2
  • Fleet operations changes, including use of bio-diesel and ethanol, decreased emissions by 622 tons of CO2

In addition, residential and commercial recycling rates increased 15% from 2008 to 2009, preventing 278 tons of CO2 equivalent emissions. Waste from Key West is hauled 200 miles to a landfill on the mainland, so this saved the city $33,000 it would have had to pay to have that waste hauled away and disposed of.

Key West adopted a climate action plan in October 2009, and has allocated over $3 million in the 2010-2011 budget for implementation of projects in the plan. The bulk of that funding will go to bike paths, sidewalks, and other improvements to make the city more bike-able and walkable. Other projects include a comprehensive solid waste study and replacement of lighting in the Park and Ride facility with LED fixtures.

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Divers’ Clean Up Celebrates Ocean Conservancy Anniversary

A Deep Blue Dive Center, Key Colony Beach, participated in Ocean Conservancy's 25th Anniversary International Coastal Cleanup on Saturday, Sept. 18.

The dive shop has been participating in underwater cleanups with Ocean Conservancy, Project Aware and World Ocean Day since owner Jeff Neidlinger took over in 2003. The project was prompted by a potentially dangerous incident during a dive on the Thunderbolt Wreck -- a diver's regulator was ripped out of her mouth because it became entangled in monofilament line.

The less than desirable conditions: winds blowing 15 to 20 knots, high seas, 4 to 6 feet, scared away six of the confirmed 15 divers set to volunteer for the cleanup. Nonetheless, A Deep Blue Dive's Boat "Tortuga" left dock with nine dive professionals determined to get the job done.

The volunteer team of divers had to work quickly in a swift current; they descended down the line attached to the bow and began snipping away at the masses of monofilament line. In total they collected about 30 pounds of monofilament line, lead weights, steel leaders, large hooks, lures, and one spear shaft. Luckily, no animals were found entangled this year.

Those interested in volunteering for future cleanup and preservation endeavors can e-mail adeepbluedive@aol.com.