Monkey Talk

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is offering a $5 credit for customers that enroll for electronic bill payment.

Electronic bill payment provides customers a way to pay bills on-line, check water and energy usage, and access environmental information.  Paying bills is also good for the environment because it reduces paper and printing and gas to get the bill and payment to you and then back to the DWP.

The $5 credit will be provided only once on each residential or commercial account when you register. It would be nice if it was more than a one-time deal, but we take what we can get.  To register on the website, you will need your Customer Access Number from your bill, the last four digits of your Social Security Number or Tax ID, and an e-mail address. Click HERE for additional info.

Morgan Freeman, is teaming up with Sierra Club for some public service announcements on climate change and storm preparedness.

Freeman is the founder of Plan!tNow, a non-profit storm preparedness organization that provides people and communities in high risk regions the information they need to help protect their families, lives, homes and businesses.

It’s no Shawshank Redemption, but it has a good message.

I admit I don’t love summer. I know it’s the time of lemonade, watermelon and Slip-n-Slide, but I have an aversion to heat and this weather makes me homicidal. The only thing that gets me through this triple digit drama is a gigantic tub of Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Peppermint Castile Soap. It’s frosty, winter goodness in a bottle.

Used in the shower or bath, Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Soap is like a refreshing breath mint for your skin. It’s fresh and chilly and leaves an ice-cold tingle long after the soap is gone. Plus the bottle is clad in a label that provides non-stop entertainment and a shower-full of interesting reading including tidbits like: “The intensity of a man’s emotions is a greater driving force and more decisive than the sum total of his education, his money, plus the size of his brain. Proof: Einstein!”

Here’s what else I love about this magical peppermint concoction:

• It’s a certified Fair Trade product and good for at least 18 other soap-related uses including laundry, household cleaning and shampoo (best on short hair). Even my pup loves a minty bath!
• It’s made with natural, certified organic oils like coconut, olive and peppermint oil for irresistible softness. Did I mention it’s vegan and biodegradable?
• The bottle is made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic.
• It comes in a never-empty one-quart bottle.
• There’s not one harsh detergent ingredient and it’s never animal tested.
• Dr. Bronner’s Magical Soaps have been around for 60 years. I’ve been utterly devoted for almost 20 years!
• It also comes in lavender, eucalyptus, tea tree, almond, rose, orange and baby soap varities.
• Dr. Bronner’s has a long-standing tradition of community activism, including a wide array of social and environmental causes.
• It prevents me from committing hari kari when the temps rise to a buck sixteen.

I get my Dr. Bronner Soap supply from the local Trader Joe’s, but you can find it in any good grocery or health store. For a good time, you’ve just got to see the Dr. Bronner website, packed with wacky insight, the Dr. Bronner movie and off-the-wall philosophies. Soap is a religion for this company. For me, it’s a summer lifesaver.

The hot news today is the new, sexy redesigned milk jug now being used by Costco and Wal-Mart stores. The one gallon plastic container boasts an environmentally friendly design that uses less plastic, is cheaper to ship, costs less to manufacture and gets fresher milk to you faster.

It’s an irresistible combination of reducing carbon emissions, cutting labor costs, slashing fuel usage and serving up a frosty beverage with all that Vitamin D. Plus it looks all fun and funky. Sounds rad, right?

It is rad…except that apparently milk jug designers neglected to include one minor feature in their eco-friendly design: a pour spout that pours. Users are bitterly complaining that the clumsy container dumps milk unceremoniously, upending unsuspecting bowls of cereal, tumbling tumblers and dousing the kids.

The retailers are undeterred, though even offering demonstrations on how to pour milk without flooding the kitchen. And when paired with a nice chocolate chip cookie, consumers will eventually be lulled into using and loving the green jug. Because at the end of the day, the fact that we have to adapt a little to a new way to fill a glass is a small price to pay for a happier planet.

I have praised and touted the use of CFL bulbs for a long time. I have done everything short of actually coming to your house and changing your bulbs for you. The main concern from many people I talk to is the fact that they contain mercury and you must recycle them. Home Depot has jumped on the CFL recycling bandwagon so you now can take your old bulbs to any of the company’s stores.

Bring in your unbroken CFL bulbs next time you make a trip to the Depot, and give them to the store associate behind the returns desk.

The main appeal of CFLs in my opinion is they use up to 75% less energy, last longer and cost less over time than incandescent bulbs. The average household can reduce its energy bills by $12 to $20 a month by using CFLs.

Within a year Home Depot plans to introduce more dimmable compact fluorescents. Home Depot’s bulbs contain 2.3 to 3.5 milligrams of mercury, which is below the National Electrical Manufacturers Association recommendation of 5 milligrams or fewer.

Roxanne, Happy Monkey Planet

Save the planet - Buy a dirtBag

I’m trekking to Michigan this July to attend a family wedding and because I simply don’t have the time or the fortitude to walk there, I’m getting to Grand Rapids via one big, gas sucking, CO2 spewing, toxic offender of an airplane. For all the talking we do about reducing our carbon footprints, what’s a girl to do?

I bought a TERRAPASS!

A Terrapass is a handy little program that allows you to balance the environmental damage we do when we use energy we can’t mitigate. Because even though we’re doing everything we can to conserve energy and reduce our carbon footprint by driving less, using less air conditioning, buying local products and recycling like maniacs there’s some energy use we can’t avoid…like airline travel.

“Planes use a lot of fuel. A cross-country flight burns more than 100 gallons of fuel per passenger. Airline travel already creates a significant proportion of the world’s global warming pollution, and it’s growing faster than any other single source.”

Here’s how Terrapass works: For this particular cross-country flight I’m taking this summer, I bought a Terrapass for $16.99. Terrapass takes that money and invests in clean energy, like wind energy farms, to balance the environmental drama I’m creating by getting on a plane. The Terrapass funded projects result in verified reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. It’s so easy that when I bought my flight on Expedia.com they offered a Terrapass at checkout! You can also buy directly from the Terrapass site.

And Terrapass isn’t just for airline travel…you can buy a carbon offset pass for everything from home energy to every day driving to weddings! Use the site’s handy carbon calculator to find your personal carbon footprint.

So for those times it feels like there’s nothing you can do about the energy you’re using, now you can be all proactive and helpful…even when winging to Grand Rapids, MI or some other sexy summer getaway destination.

To find out more about Terrapass, go HERE.

Yes, that sexy state afloat in the Pacific, the one with all the sun, has declared that solar water heaters will be required in all new construction in the state. Basically this means that as of 2010 the state will not issue building permits to single-family dwellings unless they have solar water heaters in the mix.
Forbes weighs in, saying “The solar water heater bill, in particular, is groundbreaking: Hawaii will be the first state in the nation to mandate the technology in new homes when that legislation becomes law.”

Those crazy kids in Hawaii, what will they think of next?

We’re hoping Santa has a nice pair of Bermuda shorts, because National Geographic is reporting that the North Pole may be ice free this summer. Alarming, no? All that global warming we keep talking about is not just a theory, it’s a reality…a hot, toasty, environmentally decimating, ice melting reality.

“We’re actually projecting this year that the North Pole may be free of ice for the first time [in history],” David Barber, of the University of Manitoba, told National Geographic News aboard the C.C.G.S. Amundsen, a Canadian research icebreaker.

Don’t picture grassy green slopes just yet at the Earth’s most Northern spot, NG says “The melt would be mostly symbolic–thicker ice, pushed against the Canadian continental shelf by weather and Earth’s rotation, would still survive the summer.”

Even so, this is dire news. To read all the scientific documentation, environmental consequences and what the smart people have to say, check THIS out.

If you are looking for some sustainable green home remodeling ideas, look no further than the LA Convention Center this weekend. The Living Green Tour a 2,500 square foot movable eco-friendly home is going on display this weekend.

Better Homes and Gardens and Green Works sponsor the Living Green Home. The house features countertops made from recycled glass, cork and bamboo floors and energy efficient appliances. Experts will even be there to help teach you how to make small changes in your life that can make a positive impact on the environment.

If you want to go: Los Angeles Home Remodeling Show at the Los Angeles Convention Center 1201 S. Figueroa St, Los Angeles in Kenita Hall. Adult admission is $6.75 and kids under 12 are free, be advised you will have to pay for parking, $12 if you park in the South Hall lot. The show’s hours are Saturday 10am to 8pm and Sunday 10am to 6pm.

Roxanne, Happy Monkey Planet