This is a cool story about a local school district investing in wind…because it’ll save themmoney over the next 25 years (probably more so with rising oil costs):

The board first heard of the opportunity in January when Performance Services, an engineering and construction company that specializes in sustainability projects, said in January that public entities could make a $7.2 million net profit per turbine from a 25-year project by signing onto a project with them. Performance Services said the participants could choose between building turbines in Elkhart County and building turbines in a “wind farm,” most likely in west-central Indiana. Because that area has extremely high winds, representatives from Performance told the board, the profit from a turbine in the wind farm would be larger than the profit from a turbine in Elkhart County.

Of course, especially when you have a long email thread where you’ve replied to each other over and over, those signatures really add up. You can have a one line response and a 20 line signature — trying to find that one line in a long thread can be hopeless.

So today (for some reason this occurred to me today) I made the drastic decision to make all my email signatures one line. Why I thought it was necessary before to put my physical address, email address (I mean come on, you know what my email address is if I’m sending you an email, it’s right in the header!) and a short, legally unenforceable confidentially statement with every email I sent is beyond me. This is now what my signature is:

Eric Kanagy, CEO (877-REDPOST)

Let’s examine the benefits:

• How much time do you think you spend every day reading/filtering out email signatures? 5 minutes? That’s over a day a year just dealing with email signatures!
• How many extra gigabytes of data do you think are zipping around the world just to deliver all those email signatures? Well, at 4 bytes a character x 300 characters in an email signature x 183 billion emails a day x .3 (70% are spam) x 3 (for all those email threads with so many signatures in them) = 197,640 billion bytes = 180 terabytes of email signatures EVERY DAY. Ridiculous!
• Using Amazon S3′s data pricing, 180 terabytes a day x $.14/gigabyte = $25,804 wasted each day on email signatures (that’s a whopping $9,418,752 a year)
• I couldn’t figure out a way to calculate how much energy sending that 180 terabytes of day uses, but I’m sure it’s a lot

And, to top it all off, we have to store, backup, and access that 180 terabytes a day so over many years it becomes a huge, huge waste of all things electronic.

So go ahead, shorten your signature. Let’s start a movement!

Used to be in here:

We’re doing a trial run with ADEC, a local non-profit who’s mission is “Enhancing the lives of people with disabilities.” ADEC disassembles the electronics at their facility in Elkhart; they recently received a grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation to do so. After the trial run, we’ll see if we can work out a more long term arrangement.

• ?Get up-to-the-minute updates on cashed checks, electronic transactions, in-bank cash deposits, a account transfers and Bill Pay transactions (up-to-the-minute ATM/debit card transactions coming in the near future)
• ?View transfer history
• Make overnight bill payments
• Originate stop payments
• View stop payment history
• Access up to six months of account statements with download capability
• Download account information into personal financial management solutions such as Quicken® and QuickBooks products

Sounds great to me! The online banking product they use is used by many, many banks and has been the same for about 5 years, with some upgrades to the Bill Pay feature, but I believe that’s been through another company (the one that runs MyCheckFree). Anyways, here’s the funny part of the email:

To benefit from these added features, we will be converting your current Internet Banking account to the new Personal Online Banking system.  Our first priority is to ensure that your transition is as easy as possible; therefore, we will send a letter via U.S. Mail outlining important dates and other information regarding the conversion.  As an added measure, you can also visit our Web site at www.goshenbank.com for additional information.

Wait. I got an email to inform me I’ll be getting a letter in the mail? Sigh (hat tip to Pasta&Vinegar for the image).

• Have you measured your corporate greenhouse gas emissions?
• If measured, please report the total amount of solid waste generated from the facilities that produce your product(s) for Walmart for the most recent year measured.
• Do you know the location of 100 percent of the facilities that produce your product(s)?
• Do you invest in community development activities in the markets you source from and/or operate within?

What’s this have to do with the 2009 Federal Transportation Bill? Apparently (I didn’t know this before this weekend), every 6 years Congress creates a Transportation Bill that lays out federal transportation spending for the next 6 years:

• Congress spends about $60 billion a year on transportation.
• Nearly 85% of that goes to expanding or maintaining highways.
• Only 1.5%—about $3 per American per year—goes to support walking and biking. About 15% goes to support public transit.
• 83% percent of Americans live in metropolitan areas, yet only 5% live within walking distance of decent public transit.

I try to keep this blog a-political but this seems like a not-so-controversial cause, spending more money on non-car transportation. In fact, it seems vital to both our long-term health and our national security. They have a petition:

Help reduce our vulnerability to oil prices by tripling—or more—the share of funding for walking, biking and public transit.

Build a world-class rail network—both between cities and within them—that links our communities and transports people and goods more efficiently.

Require that roads are safe for everyone using them—including pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users, as well as motorists.

Sign it!

This may sound all bad, but it’s not. I’ve been getting awesome gas mileage, about 45 MPG, which is much higher than the typical 35-40 MPG. Also, as someone who usually drives pretty fast, I’ve learned a lot about humility and patience.

However, this past week I put on about 1,000 miles between a trip to Chicago and 3 days in Indy. If you were one of those people who was extremely annoyed by the slowly accelerating white Jetta on the highways between Chicago, Indy and Goshen, I apologize, especially to the trucker who flipped me off and tried to run me off the road. I really was accelerating as fast as I could and was not trying to ruin your day.

My mechanic, Eckhert, a somewhat crusty old German man, will be tending to the TDI this week. If my working theory that it’s just a cracked air tube is correct, it’ll just be a $25 or so fix.

Essentially, his message boiled down to the fact that just in the past year or so, scientists have determined that 350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere is the upper safe limit. We’re currently at 387 and rising 2 a year. Changing light bulbs, buying electric/hydrid cars, all these things don’t matter — they can’t get us back to 350. The only thing that can is building the political will to take on 350 as a goal. Nothing else will get us there.

Overall, a fascinating look at climate change and how we’re potentially already screwed, unless we can change the whole paradigm. Here’s his speech:

There was just one bid, from All American Homes, a division of Coachmen. Overall, an interesting bid on the project, surprisingly very green-focused with 50% of energy generated by on-site reneweable resources, including a water turbine from the company we share office space with, Lucid Energy.

The disappointing part to me was that Coachmen handed off/punted on what could potentially be the most interesting parts of the project, including the 3 story abandoned Frederick Tool building and a portion of the 22 acres that’s right on Lincoln Ave. by the Farmer’s Market and river.

But hey, in a down economy, we got a bid! Maily, Coachmen is interested in putting their pre-fab homes, which are really nice, with lots of green features, onto ready-made property. Not exactly what the city was looking for, I believe, but a good start to the process.

Here’s a link to the PDF of the Coachmen proposal (it’s 35MB).

A little background: we posted a poster for Melissa’s monthly event, Sound of the Environment, a lunch meeting to discuss current environmental issues (Melissa works for the Goshen Parks department). However, we just posted it on Sunday — the event was Wednesday. So it just ran for 4 days on our little 12 Sign network, which, by our rough estimates, would have meant it got a couple thousand views. But did it work?

Here’s Melissa’s email:

From:     Melissa Kinsey
Subject:     RedPost Feedback
Date:     February 5, 2009 5:05:41 PM EST
To:     Eric Kanagy

Hey Eric -

Thanks for promoting Sound of the Environment (SOE) on RedPost this week.  The post only ran 1 or 2 days prior to the event and I had people tell me they learned about SOE from RedPost.  That’s pretty fast action.  One guy came to Rieth today to learn about the March SOE … he is new in town & saw the ad yesterday but could not attend.  He now plans to attend the March event, as well as some other upcoming activities.

I know you know RedPost works.  But it’s always good to hear it from others.

Thanks, Eric.  Keep up the good work.  RedPost is an excellent community resource.

I’ll try to get announcements posted for future events.

Melissa.

People don’t filter our Signs out. The ads are simple, unobtrusive and actually work. And only cost $19. What a bargain!

Retraction: apparently, I was incorrect that the County Landfill dumps e-waste collected at the monthly drop-off into the landfill. They do properly recycle it. E-waste brought outside of the monthly drop-off is dropped into the landfill. I misheard at the solid waste meeting in December.

From Kim Davis, manager of the landfill:

I’m manager of Elkhart County Landfill and, as such, suffer no delusions about this nations disgraceful generation of waste or about the imperfect solution which is landfilling.  However, it is the current best unfortunate solution until education and or thermal depolymerization, etc. make “zero waste” a reality.  In the meantime, I want to clear up some misrepresentations that you all seem to disseminating.  First Hannah, you made a statement at the District meeting that since e-waste from private individuals was going to the landfill, heavy metals were going in to the groundwater.  That possibility does exist if and only if the HDPE 60 mil flexible membrane liner should fail and if the twice yearly third party monitoring of 23 up and down gradient groundwater monitoring wells showed groundwater drinking standards were compromised and we did nothing about it, which is a regulatory impossibility.

Secondly Eric, you lamented in your letter to Tim Neese that e-waste from the Household Hazardous Collection was going to the Landfill.  That is absolutely not the case.  The only e-waste entering Elkhart County Landfill is from uninformed homeowners who mingle e-waste with residential trash and are unregulated by EPA rules.  We discourage that practice and refer them to the Hazardous Waste Collection and to RedPost.  We accept no commercial or business e-waste.

Finally, given the fact that matter can be neither created nor destroyed, are you sure toxic e-waste from your own collection efforts are not ultimately to be found in the drinking water of Guangdong Province China.  Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about waste disposal in your own back yard.

Here’s the letter I sent to the Solid Waste District along with the updated, round 2 proposal. From my letter:

Essentially, RedPost profits off of selling hazardous waste. This is normal for the elec-
tronics industry. Operating a drop-off point enables us to offset our hazardous waste products (like carbon credits). We operates the recycling program at a financial loss, even when receiving reimbursement for e-waste fees. It’s still worth it for us, if we can minimize that loss.

I was shocked to hear that the e-waste collected at the County’s monthly household hazardous waste program is buried in the land?ll. It does not make sense that items like paint, solvent and weed killer are treated properly while lead, mercury and cadmium go into the ground.

However, as long as a free option exists, namely the trash can, residents will continue to throw hazardous waste into our landfill. Indeed, the Solid Waste District itself currently makes this same choice by burying e-waste from the monthly pick up in the landfill. Clearly, e-waste is a much greater issue that one drop-off point cannot alleviate. I hope that the State and County can move forward on this issue, as someone will pay for e-waste processing whether it’s now or in 100 or 1,000 years.

I’m not always sure why I “fight” these battles, it’d be easier to just let people responsibly keep taking their e-waste to the monthly drop-off and then having it thrown out without their knowledge. But maybe we can have some small impact and I can sleep a little better at night, despite profiting from hazardous waste sales.

Because of this, all of the e-waste that the county collects at its monthly drop-off is buried in the landfill.

The council moved that we submit a proposal to their board, which we did in May and we’ll do again. But the bigger problem is that it’s free to dump mercury, lead, cadmium, PCBs, PVC and other heavy metals in your trash can. So of course no one wants to pay to dispose of it. It easier to throw it out or give it to an Amish guy who does who knows what with it.

This is not my battle to fight. I’ll be dead in 1,000 years when landfills across this state and country are massive toxic waste problems. I’ve stirred the pot enough here in Elkhart County — we’ll submit our proposal for the County to provide residents an alternative to killing their children’s children’s children and if it’s not funded, close down RedPost/Recycle. It’s a distraction at worst and a “we-sell-lead-laden-products offset” at best.

We live in a market economy — you can’t effectively charge for something that’s completely free. Sorry everyone 1,000 years from now. Don’t drink the water!

Tomorrow morning at 7:30 am Hannah and I go before the Elkhart County Solid Waste District Board. Sounds exciting, right? Actually, I get a somewhat weird pleasure out of public meetings and processes like these: I guess it’s that I like knowing the inner workings of decision making at all levels. And these boards, councils and public meetings are how a lot of government in the U.S. operates. Usually, of course, no one shows up.

Here’s the situation: We’ve operated RedPost/Recycle since October 31st of 2007, diverting the e-waste you see in the widget to the right from the landfill. Over 16 tons, by my rough estimate. This past May, we partnered with the Solid Waste District to become an official county drop-off point for e-waste. The District paid for the fees for county residents and we handled the collection of the waste. Up until that point, we were charging everyone a fee to recycle their e-waste, $12.50 for CRT/LCDs and $20 for TVs. This is what Chesapeake Recycling, the company that processes 100% of all their e-waste right here in Indiana, charges us — we just passed the fees through, until, of course, the county started covering the fees for residents.

What we found was that, once there was no fee, the e-waste brought in quadrupled. So the money the county set aside for us for a year we used up in 4 months. When that money was gone, we started charging again, which dropped the amount brought in back to the level it was at before everything was free for residents.

So we’re going back to the Solid Waste Board to ask for more money. I’m not sure they’re going to approve it, because of budgetary reasons and because I don’t think they get why we’re operating RedPost/Recycle. I think there’s the perception that we’re somehow ripping them off or directly benefiting from it. Why else would we be doing it?

Two points:

1. E-waste is nasty stuff. Mercury, lead, PVCs, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and cadmium are the worst, but there are up to 38 chemical elements in electronic devices. Not anything you’d want to drink in 100 years. The problem is, the cost of processing e-waste isn’t built into the products themselves and no one wants to pay for it. It’s much easier to throw it in the trash than lug it to RedPost and pay $12.50 or $20 for a TV to take care of it. I mean really, you’ll be dead by the time the lead and mercury you threw away leeches into the groundwater and your great-great-great grandchild drinks it, right?Here’s what’s really scary: just yesterday, I heard about a free drop-off point for e-waste at MapleTronics here in Goshen. “Awesome!” I thought. But then I found out (but don’t quote me on this, I haven’t actually verified it with MapleTronics) that an Amish man picks up their e-waste from them and processes it. I’ve actually heard of this Amish guy before from another firm here in Goshen.

   I highly, highly doubt he has a license to handle hazardous waste AND no way of knowing what he actually does with all the nasty stuff in these computers. But it’s free, right?

   When offered “free” vs. $12.50, people will choose free. This is scary. I’d like to provide a good alternative that is “free” but processed by an actual, licensed hazardous waste company.

2. RedPost manufactures/distributes electronics. The industry hasn’t gotten to a point where it’s worked out the nasty chemicals, although there are strides in the right direction, but there is a long, long way to go. E-waste is a growing problem and will continue to be so, especially as landfill liners start deteriorating (the EPA itself acknowledges that liners will fail). RedPost/Recycle is a way for me to clear my concious about selling nasty things that hurt people in the long run. So by accepting and properly disposing of 16 tons of e-waste, I sleep a little bit better knowing I’m selling hazardous waste. Essentially, the e-waste carbon credit equivalent.

I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow. I made sure the local newspaper sent a reporter, just in case there’s drama :-)

I watched Friedman’s interview on Meet the Press (which I watch now that NBC video podcasts MTP thru iTunes) and was impressed, especially by his answer to the question “What if global warming is a hoax?” which was along the lines of “Then it’s the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the U.S. in that it’ll renew our country and economic/technological/innovation leadership in the world.” Here’s his interview:

The book came out Tuesday. I txted Brad, owner of Better World Books’ retail store in Goshen, on Sunday and he had the book for me Wednesday, at a price lower than Amazon when accounting for shipping. Thanks for beating Amazon, Brad! Buy local AND buy less expensively. I like it.