Tonight: Sustainability Toolkit for Condos & Apts

Check out this Fresh AIRE event in Arlington tonight:

Please join us for the unveiling of Fresh AIRE’s sustainability toolkit for condos and apartments. It will include a demo of the new utility tracking software and comprehensive signage package.

What: Multifamily Toolkit Unveiling

Where: Arlington’s Central Library (1015 North Quincy Street, near Ballston Metro)

When: Wednesday December 7, 7:00-8:30pm

Arlington Celebrates Green Businesses

Arlington County has announced its Fresh AIRE champions and recycling award winners! Here are the Fresh AIRE champions:

• Vornado/Charles E. Smith for earning the ENERGY STAR at:
• 2231 Crystal Dr.
• 2345 Crystal Dr.
• 2451 Crystal Dr.
• 2300 Clarendon Blvd.
• 2200 Clarendon Blvd.

• FAP Arlington Square LLC for earning the ENERGY STAR at 4401 North Fairfax Dr.
• Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Inc. for
• TIAA CREF for earning the ENERGY STAR at 4350 North Fairfax Dr.
• Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, LLC for earning LEED for Existing Buildings Gold Certification at One Potomac Yard
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for earning LEED for Existing Buildings Gold Certification at One Potomac Yard
• Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority for the provision of outstanding commuter benefits to employees at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport

Monday: Arlington Green Living Gala

Coming up on Monday:

The Arlington Green Living Gala!
Monday, Nov. 26^th, 7–8:30pm

Join Arlington County leaders for an environmentally friendly celebration to premier the documentary Upclose: FreshAIRE and present the Green Living Challenge Awards to Arlington’s greenest residents and neighborhoods. The festivities will celebrate Arlington’s efforts to reduce emissions and honor Arlingtonians committed to protecting our environment. Meet and learn from your neighbors who are leading the way in greening their homes and lifestyles. Special guests will include Paul Ferguson, Arlington County Board Chairman, the Green Living Challenge winners and Professor Rob Farr, the rakish and affable star of the Fresh AIRE Tips Free. Refreshments will be served.

Courthouse Plaza County Administrative Building
2100 Clarendon Blvd., 3^rd Floor, Arlington, VA

Hope to see you there!

Can a Traffic Light Help Lower Your Taxes?

Caught a beautiful late-summer sky recently at the corner of N. Monroe and Fairfax Drive (sorry for the low quality of the cell phone camera). But there's a little environmental beauty in the foreground, as well:

Arlington County has retrofitted more than half of its signalized traffic intersections with light-emitting diode (LED) traffic lights. These LED traffic lights are brighter and only use 25% as much electricity as traditional traffic signals. LED traffic lights also last ten times longer than incandescent bulbs, so the maintenance cost of these new signals is sharply reduced. All of our traffic signals will be LED lights by 2010, saving enough electricity to power about 250 homes.

Info comes from the Arlington Fresh AIRE site. The electricity savings are only a tiny fraction of Arlington County's total power usage, but the cost and maintenance savings will really add up. Always nice when the right environmental move and the right economic move converge!

Attention Cheapskate Treehuggers: Save on Gas, Give a Free Gift

I was listening to NPR yesterday as they talked about how some cities aren't waiting for the federal government to finally act on carbon emissions. They're trying to meet the Kyoto protocols themselves:

But it won't be easy. Boulder and other cities face a problem with tailpipe emissions. After electricity generation, the second-biggest source of greenhouse gases is vehicles. Even in Boulder, where you can bike or take a bus anywhere, Cohen sighs, "People like their cars."

I heard this story as I was driving in my car. Awkward. At least I was ride-sharing and carrying back a full carload of stuff from Target, so it was a worthy use of a car trip.

But a new program from Arlington County's Fresh AIRE may be just the thing to get you to change at least one of your unnecessary trips:

Looking for a special gift to mark a birthday, anniversary, wedding, or graduation…or just because? How about a gift that honors a person or milestone and helps our environment at the same time?

As part of Arlington’s Fresh AIRE Initiative, Arlington County has designated 1200 “giving trees” for planting this year. Trees will be planted by the Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Resources in various locations in the County. There is no charge to “gift” a tree, but you must be an Arlington County resident to participate.

Trees will be planted by County staff on public land. The recipient will receive a handsome electronic certificate praising your environmental effort and announcing your gift. Although we will not be able to identify the exact tree you are giving, the County Parks department has committed to planting one tree for every certificate sent.

All you have to do to be eligible to gift a tree is commit to reduce emissions by NOT driving!

Here’s how to gift a tree to someone:

1. Choose whom you would like to honor by having a tree planted
2. Commit to reduce your own emissions by not driving somewhere
3. Tell us the specifics of your commitment so we can calculate the savings.
4. Bask in gratitude from your recipient when they receive their electronic Gift a Tree certificate from you!

To gift a tree, go here!

Change of Job Leads to Reverse in Commute

I've recently landed a new job at the National Wildlife Federation in Reston! It's quite a contrast to my last office. Instead of the drywalled office buildings and hot dog stands in McPherson Square, I now work in a green building next to Lake Fairfax Park. I've already spotted turtles, groundhogs and several deer, and the NWF even has a footbridge out front over a small waterfall.

One drawback -- instead of a quick and easy Metro ride, I now have to sort through several options to get to and from Reston. You can read all about it in a guest blog post I just did over at Arlington County's Fresh AIRE blog!

ACE Executive Director on Living la Vida de Un Coche

Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment Executive Director Elenor Hodges has a guest post up at Arlington's Fresh AIRE blog. Check it out & leave a comment!

My Guest Post at Fresh AIRE on the Green Living Challenge

Arlington County invited me to post at its new Fresh AIRE climate change blog! Check it out and leave some comments.

UPDATE (1/30/07): Nice little writeup of the blog over at ReadExpress.com!

Fresh AIRE Blog Goes Live

Arlington Co. has created a blog for Fresh AIRE! Board Chair Paul Ferguson has the first post talking about the inspiration for the initiative. Post some comments if you like what the county is doing!

The Post Profiles Arlington's Leading Green

In the wake of his Fresh AIRE proposal, the Washington Post profiles County Board Chair Paul Ferguson today. Arguably the best part of the article -- the attached photo, which in my limited experience with Paul's kids perfectly captures their energy and its contrast to their dad's laid-back style. As Paul was delivering his New Year's Day address, his boys were hovering over the compact fluorescent display in the lobby, their mere interest menacing its survival. Ah, to be young and maniacal.

I got to talk to Paul during last year's ACE Hike & Happy Hour, and I was struck by many of the same things the Post reporter was -- very unassuming guy, easy to talk to, never preachy.

The profile raises an interesting question for all environmentalists. What's the best way to advance green causes? Are you better off gently pushing on the macro level for slow, sustainable change as Paul has? Or is it more effective to attack wasteful habits on the micro level, even calling out friends & family who drive gas guzzlers or don't recycle?

I don't think the two are mutually exclusive, and fortunately it doesn't seem like Arlington County does either. It's working on both broad initiatives like Fresh AIRE, and trying to push individual apartment/condo complexes and businesses to recycle at the same high rate single-family homes currently recycle.

On a personal level, I'm both a member of ACE working to back Fresh AIRE, and willing to urge my friends & family to be more environmentally conscious. Just yesterday, a college friend told me she drove an SUV, but by the tone she used, you'd think she was telling me she'd accidentally flushed my winning lottery ticket. I don't wave my environmentalism in people's faces, but I guess if you know The Green Miles, you feel the guilt!

Recapping Reaction to Fresh AIRE

Here's a quick recap of the reaction Paul Ferguson's Fresh AIRE plan has received in DC-area media ...

* The most impressive coverage came from the Sun Gazette, which had two articles up within minutes of the meeting's close.

* Apparently trying to prove true the criticism that the Washington Post's Virginia coverage is shoddy, the Post's recap of Ferguson's proposal quotes only one person outside the County Board ... Takoma Park, MD resident Mike Tidwell, who wasn't even at the New Year's Day meeting. Mike's a great guy and as head of CCAN he's one of our region's leading environmental voices ... but there were dozens of people who actually live in Arlington who were actually at the meeting the Post reporter could've talked to.

So they'd have to correct the mistake in the follow-up article, right? Nope. Wednesday's article on the cost of the program quotes ... another Takoma Park resident! Two articles on an Arlington environmental initiative, zero quotes from Arlington residents not on the County Board.

Today the Post editorializes in favor of Ferguson's proposals, saying, "We hope that more cities, counties and states take note while the federal government fails to lead."

* The DC Examiner mentioned the plan within an article on the County Board's first meeting.

* The Washington Times, not surprisingly, ignored the County Board's New Year's Day meeting altogether. And you wonder why they're giving them out free at Metro stops.

* The Arlington Connection previews Fresh AIRE within a broader profile of Ferguson and look ahead at his year as chair.

* Lowell at Raising Kaine praises Arlington for taking the environmental lead among Virginia communities, and several commenters question why Fairfax County is so far behind.

* Jim at Bacon's Rebellion offers cautious praise for Fresh AIRE, correctly pointing out the proposal is still short on specifics when it comes to financing.

Arlington Co. Board Begins 2007 with a Breath of Fresh AIRE

Just got back from the Arlington County Board's traditional New Year's Day session. It was loaded with red meat for the tree-hugging crowd (and yes, I'm aware of the irony of connecting those two political phrases).

Just how green was it? Three different board members referenced An Inconvenient Truth (official site, my review, buy the DVD).

My biggest bone of contention with the County Board -- and I don't have many -- has been that in a green-and-getting-greener community like Arlington, there's no reason it shouldn't be pushing the envelope of environmentally-friendly policy. Yet DC gets the headlines for requiring green buildings and innovating on things like rubber sidewalks.

But today's meeting marked the start of a new era for Arlington's environmental policies, with new Board Chair Paul Ferguson kicking off his Fresh AIRE (Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions) program. Arlington County has already reduced its emissions 2% since 2000, and Fresh AIRE aims to cut emissions another 10% by 2012 from that 2000 baseline.

Ferguson pointed out several ways Arlington residents could quickly, easily, and affordably contribute to the effort, though he was careful to avoid nannyism, citing Jimmy Carter's sweater speech (not to be confused with Weezer's Sweater Song). The county will be providing some incentives for people to get started:

* Giving out 2,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs at county events over the next year
* Exploring personal property tax (car tax) discounts for drivers of hybrid vehicles
* The county and Dominion Virginia Power will pay for dozens of homes to get energy audits

You can watch video from the board meeting on the County website, or read the text of Ferguson's address.

The elephant in the room, as always, is funding. The dichotomy is visible in the Sun Gazette's coverage of the meeting -- separate articles detailing Ferguson's initiative and the possibility of a tight budget ahead, without mentioning how either might be affected by the other. Obviously I'm not the one writing the budget, but I'd certainly be willing to pay more (in my case, through higher property taxes via higher rent) to make sure the environmental initiatives have the money they need.

Please email board members to let them know you support all the new environmental initiatives and want to make sure they're fully funded!