What if you could buy a lightbulb that would last for 20 years, so you would rarely ever have to replace bulbs in lamps and light fixtures?

Photo courtesy of Philips.

As it happens, such a lightbulb has just come on the market. It’s the new 20-year LED lightbulb developed by Philips and the winner of the U.S. Department of Energy’s L Prize, which is an initiative to develop alternative sources of lighting.

According to Philips, the bulb will use only 10 watts of power and will save $8 per year if it’s used four hours a day. It’s expected to last 30,000 hours, which is 30x longer than incandescent bulbs.  (Not that it matters, since those are being phased out anyway.)

Compared to compact fluorescent bulbs, the energy savings are similar, but the Philips bulb will last three times longer than a CFL and gives off a more natural-looking light. It doesn’t contain the mercury vapor that’s inside CFL’s and which creates a toxic hazard when they break.

One thing that is problematic is that this new bulb will cost significantly more than CFL’s, which average around $5. The new bulb costs $60 but Philips is discounting it to $50 and looking for other ways to bring the price down, including making deals with electric companies. The eventual goal is to price the bulbs in the $20-30 range.

What do you think fellow Eco Warriors? Would you spend that much money on a lightbulb if it meant that it would last far longer?

But there are always nifty ways to turn that eco-style up a notch. Here are a few you may not have thought of to put into practice in your workplace:

If your office has a vending machine, make sure it uses recyclable products. But a far better option is to ditch those machines altogether and allow workers to make their own beverages. You will be surprised at how much you cut down on recyclables by ringing in your own mug, too. And toss in a few volunteers from your cabinet lurking at the back that no one uses at home anymore for visitors. Even Starbucks gives a cup discount for customers who bring in their own mug!

Start a carpool at your office for co-workers who live within range of reach other. Better yet, ask your employer to provide a bicycle rack outside so those who live within cycling distance can take advantage of saving money, gas, and emissions while they get their daily exercise.

Try soy-based inks if you use a commercial printer. Besides being better for the environment, soy-based inks support US crop growers The good news is they produce shaper colors, too, without the same level of emitted toxins from petroleum inks. These also allow for better recycling as their ink is removed easier.

Finally, turn off the machines you can when you leave for the night. Activate the sleep mode for things like printers and copiers. Some fax machines have a sleep mode, too. Use power strips for ease in turning machines and things like your desk cell phone charger off when you go home. Just hit the “off” button on the power strip and you’re set.

It’s easy to conserve, recycle and save when you take stock of your environment.

If you step outside at night, can you see the stars in the sky?  If you can’t easily pick out the Big Dipper, it’s due to light pollution.  It’s true–too much light is an environmental hazard, causing problems beyond making urban stargazing a difficult hobby.

Light pollution is simply too much light at night, usually unnecessary light or wasted light, that disrupts the habitat of all kinds of creatures.   Why is too much light at night a problem?

For starters, it’s often a waste of energy.  What’s the point in completely illuminating an entire area reaching up to the clouds?  Sure, some night lighting is essential for safety reasons, but much of the light we create at night serves no useful purpose.  Enviro Girl has several outdoor light fixtures at her house, but she only turns them on as they’re needed, not every night.  And inside her entire house, only one windowless bathroom has a small nightlight that turns on when the room grows dark–all of the other lights go off at night.

Energy use aside, too much light at night disrupts human sleep patterns because light is part of the biological prodding that wakes us up just as darkness helps us sleep.  Light at night messes up migrating birds, feeding patterns of nocturnal creatures and insect breeding.  Take a firefly for example.  A firefly finds a mate by flashing at night–when there’s too much light, there’s no way a firefly can find a mate.  Many firefly populations have disappeared because they’ve no safe place to live.  Nocturnal mammals rely on darkness for cover–when everything is bright at night, they become easy prey and their numbers diminish. Nesting sea turtles rely on the cover at night to lay their eggs–but the bright artificial lights on many beaches confuse the turtles, who now cannot find a safe spot to nest.  According to National Geographic, this results in hundreds of thousands of lost hatchlings a year--just in Florida!  It’s easy for Enviro Girl to pull a shade and restore darkness so she can sleep at night, but the animals, birds, insects and fish do not have this capability.

Light pollution makes the night sky impossible to see in many parts of the world, it also makes it impossible to study.  The constant haze of light separates people from amazing views of the night sky just as much as noise pollution can separate people from the sounds of nature.

What’s both frustrating and encouraging about light pollution is that it’s an easy problem to fix.  By redesigning light fixtures, we can save energy, preserve our view of the night sky and reduce disrupting nature.  The worst kinds of night light include globe lights, billboards, under-lit signs, wall-mounted non-directional fixtures and mercury vapor lights (commonly known as “barn lights”).  A small detail like designing night lighting to light from above to below instead of from below to above makes all the difference.  Check out these two images:

See how the “globe” fixture lights up the road–not only are there TOO MANY lights illuminating the area (Enviro Girl is hard-pressed to find any value in making it look like broad daylight 24/7), half of the light produced goes into the night sky, serving no discernible purpose.

This image shows a well-lit sidewalk.  Almost all of the light produced is targeted to a specific area and very little is escaping into the night sky.  The area is safe without much light reflecting above or beyond where it’s needed.

Enviro Girl appreciates the need for some night lighting to keep people safe, but most of the night lighting she encounters is purely for cosmetic or commercial purposes.  She’s happy to do her part by keeping her neck of the woods dark and welcomes nocturnal creatures who need darkness to survive.  By keeping her lights off at night, bats, owls, rabbits, mice, toads, frogs, raccoons, foxes, skunks, coyotes and yes, even those wonderful fireflies can survive.   She also saves on her electric bill, reduces her carbon footprint and preserves the incredible view of the starry sky.

Enviro Girl encourages you to do nature a favor and examine your use of night lighting.  Can you help reduce light pollution?

On a related note, Mr. Recycla has an old flip phone that does not have a texting function. Once the daughter has a phone, Recycla thinks that everyone in the family with a cell phone should be able to send and receive texts in order to aid communications. Therefore, Mr. Recycla is going to have to upgrade this phone too.

And that’s what this post is about — what to do with old cell phones. Whatever you do, don’t throw it in the trash! Since cell phones contain lead, cadmium, mercury, beryllium and arsenic, they become toxic waste when they end up in a landfill. By recycling your phone, you help to protect local water and food supplies from toxins, while making industry less dependent on destructive new mining for metals. And did you know that it’s illegal to drop cell phones into the trash in California?

Luckily, more and more places are accepting old cell phones, which are then sent off to be recycled. You can drop your old phone off at Best Buy and Staples, as well as other electronics stores. Some stores accept old phones at no cost, while others charge a small fee. You can also check Earth 911 and the EPA for other places where you can recycle your phone. Recycla just checked Earth 911 for cell phone drop-off spots in her zip code and found many options, including a few that are walking distance from her house.

If you want to do good while recycling, there’s another option. Send your old cell phone to Cell Phones for Soldiers — a nonprofit founded by two kids that accepts all models of phones (even really old ones) and sells them to a recycling company. Proceeds  go to buy calling cards for U.S. soldiers abroad so that they can call their families. Go to the website to get more information, as well as print a free postage label for mailing your phone.

Recycla just realized that she already has two cell phones sitting useless in a drawer; she’ll be sending them off for recycling soon!

Imagine Enviro Girl’s delight to discover a company bringing this technology to homes around the world to power lights and charging stations–Nokero has committed to the task of developing low-cost solar-powered technology.

Most interesting to Enviro Girl is the Nokero 200, a solar-powered lightbulb that costs $20 and gives up to 6 hours of light.  She’s buying a couple of these lightbulbs, one for camping and another for her sons’ tree fort.  She’s going to check her husband’s cell phone for compatibility with the P101 Power Panel, too.   Enviro Girl will watch this company with interest, she’s confident they’ll develop even more low-cost solar solutions for home use.

Enviro-Girl suggested that her mother-in-law get an energy evaluation — most utility companies will send someone out to audit a household or business at no cost. While in college, Enviro-Girl and her roommates did this and got loads of free stuff to winterize their slum — plastic for wrapping windows, caulk and tape to keep the drafts sealed. Mr. D’s mom had never heard of such a thing, which does not speak well of the electric company in Iowa. In Wisconsin many utility companies heavily promote these services. By reducing customer use, utility companies keep their customers’ bills down and have an easier time meeting energy demands.  Enviro Girl also learned that many public libraries will check out electric meters that you can plug into any outlet to gauge the amount of electricity you use for various appliances.

Web sites like National Grid and Energy Right will allow you to self-audit your energy use and suggest ways to save money and energy.

Assessing energy use and suggesting ways to reduce it is best handled at a state or local level — in Wisconsin we spend more keeping warm than folks in Florida — and they spend more keeping cool. Obviously some fixes like improved lightbulbs or Energy Star rated appliances will help lower your utility bill regardless of where you live.   An energy audit doesn’t take much time, an hour or less, and can improve your energy efficiency by pointing out ways to conserve all over your home–from bedroom to attic.   Click on one of the links above or call your utility company and schedule an evaluation TODAY!

I am very honored and proud to announce that Team Eco Etsy has partnered with Sprint, one of the highest ranked green telecom companies, to link our team’s site to its select Android devices for easy green handmade shopping experience for its customers right at their finger tips.

On April 15^th, Sprint announced its newest ID Pack called, Green ID pack  that “automatically loads apps, widgets and shortcuts tailor-made for users who want to live a more environmentally sustainable life and help others to do the same.” This awesome feature is already available for owners of the LG Optimus S™, Sanyo Zio™, Samsung Transform™, Samsung Epic™ 4G* and Samsung Galaxy Tab™ on their devices with one simple click. Sprint’s newest environmentally preferred phone, the Samsung Replenish™, also will offer the Green ID pack when it becomes available on May 8.

The team has worked tirelessly to create a very successful and engaging blog that more than 14 members contribute regularly. The topics we share are everything green, including eco-tips, tutorials, and eco news. In addition, we cover tips on building and managing our handmade businesses, feature our creative members, and review members’ Etsy shops.

But what Sprint was interested in was not just our content, but also the amazingly creative green handmade crafts that our talented members make and sell on Etsy. It wanted its Android customers to be able to click from their mobile devices to our Etsy shops to buy our eco crafts via our website.  It was more than thrilling to hear that a big corporation like Sprint would be interested in a team of eco-friendly handmade artists. It was definitely an inspiring news.

What is Green ID Pack Exactly?

The Green ID pack has four screens; Green Shop, Green Now, Live Green, and Take Action.

“Green Shop” screen will feature our team’s logo that will directly take the users to our website. From the website, they can click the category tabs on the left, which will bring them to members’ items on Etsy. We will be sharing the screen with some prominent companies like eBay Green, Green Deals.org, Seasonal Harvest, and Light Bulb Finder.

Other screens on Green ID Pack include, Green Now which has TreenHugger, Earth911, and GreenBiz.com; Live Green that has a widget that delivers weekly tips from Green America, link to the Green You app, and shortcuts to TreeHugger; Take Action which has the National Audubon Society, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Green Education Foundation and more.

As you can imagine, we are extremely proud and excited about this recognition and the opportunity to work with one of the greenest telecom companies that ranked at No. 6 as America’s Greenest Companies by Newsweek in 2010.  Sprint was also ranked highest among the wireless carrier industry on the Carbon Disclosure Project’s “Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index.” In addition, Sprint received the “Sustainability Leadership Award” at the 2010 International Electronics Recycling Conference and Expo for its leadership among wireless carriers in the recycling of mobile handsets.

As small business owners, this recognition is beyond what we dreamed of since we regard Sprint as big corporate America that does not notice handmade crafters’ humble mission of keeping the planet clean and safe for our children.

So my message to you, readers, is that keep your mission to live green. No one act is small. If you continue your cleaner lifestyle, it will pay you back in many ways. Look at our little handmade team. We would have never thought that our little handmade business would be noticed by a big corporation like Sprint and look where we are now.

Team Eco Etsy is a moderated team of over 400 active members that are dedicated to managing our Etsy shops in an eco-friendly manner by keeping our environment safe and sustainable. We participate in team events such as Annual Handmade for Earth Day Auction*, Green Holiday Giveaway, and support each other in team forums. We are planning on our first Meet Up at Etsy Headquarter in June.

*Team Eco Etsy’s Second Annual Handmade for Earth Day Auction is going on now and will end on April 24th. The winners will be announced on April 25th. The auction is to celebrate and raise awareness about Earth Day. The proceeds from the auction is to be donated to a non-profit organization that members vote on annually. This year, the proceeds will be donated to Habitat for Humanity in Japan to support the relief effort, to help rebuild and to aid Japanese earthquake survivors. The auction is open worldwide and you can bid on three separate categories – Welcoming Baby, Eco Happy Kid, and Going on a Picnic – in the comment section of the auction pages until April 24th.

That’s great stuff, Eco Karen! To further celebrate this week before Earth Day, the Eco Women are giving away a 4-pack of wool dryer balls, a Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Kitchen Basics Set and two Envirosax shopping bags.  Each comment telling the Eco Women how you plan to celebrate Earth Day this year is an entry to win–we’ll announce the lucky winner next Monday!

The beauty of solar panels is how still and quiet they are–absorbing the sun’s rays, creating energy to be converted to the grid, not moving and not calling any attention to themselves.  All of these reasons convinced Enviro Girl and her hubby to narrow the field strictly to solar energy.

What they’ve learned is that solar panels are expensive–no two ways about it.  Yet their electric bill shows no signs of flagging and as long as they don’t plan to move within the next ten years (they don’t), they’ll earn back their investment.

Some fun things Enviro Girl and her husband learned from a contractor this past weekend include:

1.  Installing solar panels will earn a tax credit equal to 30% of the entire cost–including installation and tax.  This tax credit can be rolled over into another year if maxed out the first year.

2.  Focus on Energy grant money is available–a cash rebate worth $3000 or more 60 days after installation.

3.  Solar panels have a 25 year warranty and the contractor they’re working with has only replaced one in his career.  Pretty impressive.

4.  Installing solar panels CANNOT affect their tax assessed value of their property, but it will increase the value of their home.  Win-win!

5.  There’s a groovy program called SRECTrade which allows homeowners to double-dip into their energy production by selling the worth of their solar-generated power to buyers required by law to purchase a certain percentage of their energy from “green” sources.  By signing up for this program, homeowners can sell their solar power to the grid they’re connected to directly and sell their Solar Renewable Energy Certificates via SRECTrade for their market value each month.  Doing this allows a homeowner earn additional cash for the energy output of their system.  Factoring this program into the equation means Enviro Girl and her husband could get their solar panels to pay for themselves even sooner.

They also learned that they can install nearly any size of system to provide for any percentage of their electric needs.  The key to solar is access to sunlight.  By mounting solar panels on a roof, space is not a factor, but Enviro Girl’s husband is partial to a ground-mounted system (less expensive and since they live on 60 acres, not unreasonable either).  The contractor agreed that the ideal spot lies south of their house in a field clear of trees.

Stay tuned as Enviro Girl and Mr. D continue their solar adventures!

It  started with the microwave oven in the kitchen.  For years it seemed fine to use a conventional oven, but when microwave ovens came on the scene, Enviro Girl’s family added one to their kitchen, along with a dishwasher and several smaller appliances like a toaster, blender, griddle and crock pot.   In the living room it seemed enough to have a TV and  a stereo back in the 1970′s.  Now her family has a TV, stereo, DVD player and Wii system plugged into the wall.  Their electronic office technology once included a desktop computer and a phone.   Now Enviro Girl’s household has two cell phones, a regular phone, laptops and iPod Shuffles.  Everything’s plugged in, draining the grid on a daily basis, contributing to global warming and for what?

Compounding the issue of consumption is grasping exactly how much it costs to run electrical gadgets and appliances.  Enviro Girl struggles to comprehend kilo watt hours and wattage and voltage and whatnot.  She’s thankful for websites like Saving Electricity and Energy Savers that explain in specific terms the most energy-greedy appliances and gives tips for how to reduce electric consumption.   To save electricity, Enivro Girl uses clotheslines for laundry, unplugs seasonal equipment, installed power strips and invested in energy efficient light bulbs.  All of their appliances are newer and have great Energy Star ratings.

When Enviro Girl’s not badgering her family to “Turn off the darn lights already!” and “Unplug that if you’re not using it!” she’s taking a huge step back from the consumer model of modern living and asking this question:  “Do I really need (this electronic device) to make my life better?”   She’s learning the answer is “NO!”  Recently she decided NOT to upgrade her six-year-old digital camera, despite the fact that it takes almost 3 seconds to take a picture with it, rendering action shots a blur.  She’d love to get an iPad someday, a device that would include a decent digital camera and recorder.   For now she thinks it’s wiser to hold off on purchasing several electronic devices and buy one that bundles many features like camera, e-reader, phone and DVD player together.

The other solution to her family’s energy consumption involves switching to renewable resources for power.  The world currently runs on electricity, so Enviro Girl has begun exploring wind and solar options to fuel their plugged-in lifestyle.  So far solar looks like the best bet, and as her family’s electric bill keeps rising each month, investing in a solar electric system does not seem terribly expensive anymore.

Tell the Eco Women:  what are you doing to reduce your electric consumption?  Are you plugging in less stuff or looking for alternative ways to power your lifestyle?

Instead of tossing and buying replacements, you can make more environmentally friendly choices and leave less environmental impact.

First, consider whether you really need the latest, greatest gadget.  Can you reduce your electronic use? Is it possible to do without a GPS or a digital camera?  Can you buy a single gadget with the capacity to make phone calls, take pictures and play games?  According to this New York Times article, Americans spend over $2,000 a year on the support services for their electronics.  Time Magazine brashly suggests the average household might consider doing without.  Enviro Girl suggests you really consider your array of electronics.  Perhaps you don’t need to purchase another DVD player or TV set.  Maybe a Nook or Kindle isn’t practical for your reading style.  Maybe you don’t need to pay for Cable or Direct TV if you watch TV shows on your laptop.  Fewer electronics doesn’t necessarily mean you’re less connected.  It can mean less on your monthly electric, phone and cable bills, however.

Second, when you replace a gadget, don’t throw away your old/broken electronics.  Be responsible and recycle your e-waste.   Most cell phone stores and kiosks will take your old phones when you order new ones.  Lots of stores offer recycling programs for all nature of electronics for free or for a nominal ($10 or less) fee, including:

Best Buy Recycling

Dell Recycling

Office Depot Tech Recycling Service

Staples EcoEasy

And of course, the U.S. EPA has a website that explains how and where you can donate or recycle your old electronics.

Finally, many well-intentioned people will suggest you reuse your old electronics by donating them to charities or schools.  Enviro Girl suggests otherwise.  Often, old electronics are outdated, incompatible and expensive to fix (if the parts are even available).  They create a lot of headache for the recipients–and often the recipient is put in the position of having to dispose of your electronic waste.  How unfair!   If you want your favorite charity or school to have new technology, Enviro Girl suggests a direct cash donation is a more effective way to help them out.  Besides, the links she’s given you for recycling your electronic waste often handle donations of this nature far more efficiently.  Leave your electronic waste–the recycling and the reuse–to the professionals!

Be an eco-warrior:  reduce your electronic gadgetry and recycle them when you’re through!