Green Blog

If you have a credit card with a mega-bank but wish your credit-card purchases benefited communities instead, now is the perfect time to switch to the Green America card. 

With the Green America VISA® credit card, offered in partnership with One PacificCoast Bank*, your everyday purchases support green jobs and healthy communities. Even the card itself is green, made of 55 percent recycled plastic.

Credo Mobile is the official phone company for GreenDeals. We use the Samsung NEXUS Android phones. The phone is great but you can also get a blackberry, traditional flip phone or other smart phone. 
Credo is offering deals to GreenDeals members and this month you can get 25% off your monthly bill from CREDO Mobile. Click here to signup for Credo mobile.
 

What are some ways to recycle old clothing?

Here are some tips for how to put your old clothes to good use to save money, resources, and make a difference to others.

We all find ourselves with clothes that have gone out of style, no longer fit, or look like they've seen better days. But think twice before gathering up your closet's misfits and heading for the nearest dumpster. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that textiles make up approximately five percent of landfills. However, 99 percent of those textiles are reusable, and options for reusing old clothing abound.

Green America and Equal Exchange have released the Green Festival calendar for 2012! Green Festivals will be at the following cities in 2012 and GreenDeals will be there promoting our wonderful green businesses.

PlanetSave.com put together a list of seven Solar Energy and Solar Panels Myths which are not true. Here's the list of their 7 Solar Energy and Solar Panel Myth busters.

1. Solar panels are unreliable because they don’t work at night.

No, solar energy panels can’t generate power in total darkness. But home solar systems frequently generate more energy during daylight hours than a home even needs, when demand is highest. This excess energy can be sent back to the grid, lessening the demand on the power utility for everyone else’s fossil-fueled electricity. Almost all states allow solar homeowners to either sell or get credit for surplus energy.

A Solar System Can Reduce Your Electric Bill By 70% Or More. Our solar energy installers can help you save money with solar energy!

3 easy steps to a solar power quote
1- Submit your information in the form below
2- Get qualified estimates from local solar power installers in your area (no obligation)
3- Choose the best solar power installer and start saving money with state and federal rebate programs (financing also available)

Starting next year, companies that make and sell chargers in the state of California will have to meet efficiency standards that will cut the waste by about 27 percent. Once fully implemented, the new rules should save 2,200 gigawatt hours of electricity per year, roughly enough to power Bakersfield. California consumers will save about $306 million per year, by the commission's estimate.

Green America exposed in their first report on airline recycling that there's a huge amount of trash generated each and every time we fly, more than 881 million pounds every year. That's 9,000 tons of plastic, enough aluminum cans to build 58 Boeing 747 jets, and enough paper to cover a football field 230 meters deep. What's worse is that our report found only about 20 percent of this waste being recycled.

We asked GreenDeals Members to give us their favorite green tip (or two) for 2012. We had a tremendous response and we have put together our favorite in this top 10 list. Tell us your Green Tip at Facebook.

• Cut your tube of toothpaste in half when it seems like it's empty. You can usually get at least another several days of use by scooping out from the inside.
   
• Try to use smaller quantities of everything. Most of us use too much toothpaste, shampoo, and conditioner -- I've found that using a little less makes them last longer, and I'm still just as clean and fresh!

Happy 2012 from Mother Jones! Mother Jones polled their readers and asked them to submit their 2012 new years resolutions. Here are the top 10 from the editorial team of Mother Jones:

1. Going red meat free. I am not quite ready to take the next step into full-on vegetarianism just yet, but this is a big start. The beef industry, while very important to my state (Kansas) is a lead producer of waste, greenhouse gases, and more. Plus, the stuff they put IN beef these days is really not good for the human body. As a cancer survivor at 32, I'd really like to avoid having to go through it again.
     
2. Ride bicycle or walk to work more often (commute is 4.2 miles).