Green Business Strategies: June 1 - 8 - 15

Green Business Strategies
Lecture Series
June 1, 8, and 15
Community Services Bldg
150 N Third

This Burbank Green Alliance series is designed for ALL businesses seeking economic and environmental sustainability. Learn to design and apply a green business plan, as well as, save resources and money !

June 1st: 3-5pm
Greening Your Restaurant/Food Service Business
Speaker: Leslie VanKeuren Campbell, LEED GA
Founder and Zero Waste/Sustainability Consultant, Sustain LA

June 8th: 6:30-9pm
Energy and Water Savings for Businesses
Speaker: Natalie Freidberg, Sustainable Building Advisor
and Certified Green Building Professional

June 15th: 6:30-9pm
Sustainable Business Strategies
Speaker: Brad Cracchiola, Senior Sustainability Engineer
BMW Group Designworks USA

Must Register for each course separately @ or 818.238.5198
$10 Residents
$15 Non-Residents
FREE Chamber Members

Green Day Planner: June 2011

Burbank Library Green Pages
June 2011 Calendar

Calendar of Green Events in Burbank and Greater LA. Check out State and National events on the Green Day Planner.

Burbank
Jun 1: Greening Your Restaurant – Burbank Green Alliance @ 3pm
Jun 7: Urban Water Management Plan – Public Meeting @ 6pm
Jun 8: Energy & Water Savings – Burbank Green Alliance @ 6:30pm
Jun 15: Sustainable Business Strategies – Burbank Green Alliance @ 6:30pm
Jun 20: Sustainable Task Force @ 4:30pm

Los Angeles – Southern California
Jun 4: TreePeople’s Green City Fair – Beverly Hills @ 10am
Jun 5: Green Jobs Fair – LA State Park @ 1pm
Jun 11: Green Long Beach @ 10am
Jun 15+: West Coast Energy Congress – Long Beach
Jun 23: Valley Green Building Educ Conf/Expo – CSUN

California
Jun 4+: Eco-Urban Festival - SF
Jun 7+: Sustainable Brands 2011 – Monterey

United States
Jun 12+: American Water Works Conf - DC

Recycling

8 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Recycle
Care2.com: 5.19.11
posted by Mel, selected from Divine Caroline via EcoSalon

1. Wine Corks
Send them to Yemm & Hart Green Materials started an experimental wine cork-recycling program that processes the old bottle stoppers into environmentally friendly cork floor and wall tiles.

2. Books, DVDs, and CDs
Swaptree.com is a cool Web site that allows you to essentially keep a constantly fresh, rotating selection of reading material, movies, and music for zero dollars.

3. Shoes
Nike is happy to take your rubber-soled shoes—no matter who made them—and recycle them into new athletic surfaces like basketball courts and running tracks. Find your nearest dropoff location at the Nike Reuse-A-Shoe website.

4. Foam Packing Peanuts
EPS recyclers. Polystyrene packing peanuts and molded foam cushioning can either be dropped off at a local location if you have one or sent in the mail.

5. Carpet
Check out the map at CarpetRecovery—you could be able to give that shaggy rug new life as composite lumber, roofing shingles, railroad ties, or automotive parts.

6. Holiday Lights
Send them off to HolidayLEDs to be recycled and you’ll get more than just do-gooder satisfaction. They’ll gift you with a 15-percent-off coupon for anything on their site, so you can get the twinkly LED lights of your dreams.

7. Bras
Bosom Buddy Recycling will take your old bras and give them to deserving women around the country including women’s shelters, transitional housing, and breast cancer-survivor support groups.

8. Prescription Medication
L A County Sheriff's Dept. Drug Drop Off Program
Our water has a drug problem, and as a result, we’re all taking in way more medication than we bargained for. Drinking water in many major metropolitan areas is contaminated with all kinds of pharmaceuticals—from antibiotics to antidepressants—and it’s not just the result of them passing through our bodies. Instead of flushing your prescription meds down the toilet, donate drugs that are still usable. Not every state has a recycling/redistribution program or allows patients to donate directly.

Book Watch: Burbank Library

New Green Books @ Burbank Public Library

Aerotropolis: the way we'll live next

John D Kasarda – Farrar, 2011

Eye-opening look at the new phenomenon called the aerotropolis gives us a glimpse of the way we will live in the near future and the way we will do business too.read

307.0112 KASAR

Earth, the operators' manual

Richard B. Alley – WW Norton - 2011

Explores the history of energy use by humans over the centuries, gives a doubt-destroying proof that already-high levels of carbon dioxide are causing damaging global warming, and surveys the alternative energy options that are available to exploit right now.

333.79 ALLEY

Mindfully green: a personal and spiritual guide to whole earth thinking

Stephanie Kaza – Shambhala, 2008

In three parts, she guides readers through the principles of Buddhism as they apply to taking responsible action toward the earth: reducing harm, understanding suffering, seeing the big picture, letting go of desire and being in the moment.

333.72 KAZA

Plastiki: across the Pacific on plastic-an adventure to save our oceans

David de Rothschild – Chronicle, 2011

Explorer, global green leader, and eco-TV host David de Rothschild recounts the extraordinary journey of the Plastiki, an innovative and mostly untested sixty-foot catamaran that floats on 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles.

910.9164 ROTHS

Girls gone green

Lynn Hirshfield – Participant Media, 2010

Filled with stories from real girls who made a difference, plus lots of celebrity green girls who are doing their part to help out, Girls Gone Greengives girls everywhere the inspiration to do something to help their world.

333.72 HIRSH

SB 2X: 33% Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard

What Stands in the Way of California's 33 Percent Renewables Goal?
Renewable Energy World: 4.13.11 by Lindsay Morris

On April 12, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 2X into law, requiring that 33 percent of the state’s electric generation come from renewable sources by 2020.

Under S.B. 2X, all load-serving entities must meet a 20 percent renewables target by Dec. 31, 2013, a 25 percent target by the end of 2016, and achieve the 33 percent criterion by the end of 2020.

S.B. 2X applies to all electricity retailers in the state – investor-owned utilities, municipal utilities and independent sellers. The current 20 percent renewable energy requirement applies only to investor-owned utilities and independent power producers.

One municipal utility, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, has already reached the 2013 goal of generating 20 percent of its power from renewables. Smaller municipal utilities like Glendale, Anaheim, Pasadena and Burbank, are behind at this stage in terms of how much renewable power they have in their portfolios, said Dario Frommer, partner at Mayer Brown law firm.

Most investor-owned utilities in California are hovering just under 20 percent renewables now. While it may seem that investor-owned utilities are close to meeting the 2013 goal, many of these projects are in litigation over siting issues and may not be completed in time to meet the 2013 target, Frommer said.

“It’s incumbent on the political leaders to address the siting issues that are creating problems for financing,” Frommer said. “Those issues are an impediment to realizing the 33 percent goal.”

6 6 6 6 6 6 6

Since it was passed during a special legislative session, S.B. 2X is not expected to take effect until early July. READ MORE !

Green Day Planner: May 2011

Burbank Library Green Pages
May 2011 Calendar

Calendar of Green Events in Burbank and Greater LA. Check out State and National events on the Green Day Planner.

Burbank – Valley
May 5: Heal the Bay Presentation-Stough Canyon Ctr @ 6:30pm
May 16: Sustainable Task Force @ 4:30pm
May 22: WorldFest Earth Day Festival – Woodley Park, Lake Balboa

Los Angeles – Southern California
May 1: Autry Museum Celebrates Earth Day @ 11am
May 4+ Alternative Clean Transportation Expo – Long Beach
May 4: Spring Green Expo – MWD HQ @ 8:30am
May 5+: California Clean Innovation – San Diego
May 14: Women of the Green Generation Conf – Culver City
May 22+: Windpower 2011 – Anaheim
May 22+: World Envir. & Water Congress – Palm Springs

California – National
May 21+: Greenlife Eco Fest – Grass Valley CA
May 30+ Aspen Environment Forum – Aspen CO

State of the Air 2011

State of the Air 2011

For 12 years, the American Lung Association has analyzed data from state air quality monitors to compile the State of the Air report. The more you learn about the air you breathe, the more you can protect your health and take steps to make our air cleaner and healthier.

The State of the Air 2011 shows that the air quality in many places has improved during 2007-2009. Still, over 154 million people—just over one half the nation—suffer pollution levels that are too often dangerous to breathe. Despite great progress, air pollution lingers as a widespread and dangerous reality. It is important to note this progress, even as some seek to weaken the public health law that has improved the air we breathe since 1970, the Clean Air Act.

Overall findings:

Roughly half the people (50.3%) in the United States live in counties that have unhealthful levels of either ozone or particle pollution. Almost 154.5 million Americans live in the 366 counties where they are exposed to unhealthful levels of air pollution in the form of either ozone or short-term or year-round levels of particles.

Roughly one in 17 people–more than 18.5 million in the United States–live in 10 counties with unhealthful levels of all three measures covered in the report: ozone and short-term and year-round particle pollution.

Cleanest and Most Polluted Cities:
by Ozone
by Year Round Particle Pollution
by Short-term Particle Pollution

Cleanest: Honolulu, HI
Ranked 1 for cleanest metropolitan areas in the country for Ozone
Ranked 1 for cleanest metropolitan areas in the country for 24-hour particle pollution
Ranked 4 for cleanest metropolitan areas in the country for annual particle pollution

Most Polluted: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA
Ranked 1 for high ozone days out of 277 metropolitan areas
Ranked 2 for annual particle pollution out of 277 metropolitan areas
Ranked 4 for 24-hour particle pollution out of 277 metropolitan areas

Compare cities by:
Total Population
Pediatric Asthma
Adult Asthma
Chronic Bronchitis
Emphysema
Cardiovascular Disease
Diabetes
Children Under 18
Adults 65 & Over
Poverty Estimate