Sheriff Joe is notorious for his tuff rules and pink shirts but is this Arizona prison on to something? This might be a great idea for people to install in their homes to save money and loose weight. I can already envision an informercial for this thing! Moreover I think Sheriff Joe watched one of the Team Green Videos we did for Microsoft Hohm to get this idea =) .

Working on some post for Microsoft Hohm and flying to San Francisco for the web 2.0 conference, I’ve been plagued with the thought this morning on how social technologies can better support the green movement. This thought process came about when I’ was posting an article from Planet Green about the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and how your can individuals can help with this 30 mile oil slick. All of the ways to help are kind of clunky and old school, just what social technologies help to better interface with these problems.

So a few questions -

In what ways do you see social technologies and marketing fostering interaction and help with environmental issues?

What social technologies are currently available to help take action on environmental issues?

Make Your Own Wrapping Paper

Most mass-produced wrapping paper you find in stores is not recyclable and ends up in landfills. Instead, here’s a great chance to get creative! Wrap presents with old maps, the comics section ofa newspaper, or children’s artwork. Or use a scarf, attractive dish towel, bandana, or some other useful cloth item. If every family wrapped just three gifts this way, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.

Buy Energy-Saving Holiday Lights

Now you can decorate your house with LED lights that use 90 percent less energy than conventional holiday lights, and can save your family up to $50 on your energy bills during the holiday season! LED lights are available at many major retailers, including Target, CostCo, and Ace Hardware.

Add Organic and Local Foods to Your Holiday Feast

Support local family farmers who grow sustainable meat and produce. Not only does it taste better, you’ll be doing your part for the planet too. Looking for an organic turkey or ham for Christmas dinner? Find out where to get local green products in your neighborhood.

Stocking Stuffers: Test Your Eco-Knowledge

Do you have a family member who loves the outdoors? Stuff their stockings with Sierra Club Knowledge Cards, which come in a variety of outdoor themes ranging from survival skills to baby animals. Another great stocking stuffer is “guilt-free” chocolate! Give the gift of organic, fair-trade chocolate and you can eat your way to a better planet.

Give a Gift the Gives Back!

Help support the critical work of the Sierra Club and give an eco-friendly gift at the same time!Sponsor a Wild Place this holiday season and share our country’s most special wild places and national parks with friends and loved ones. Sponsorships start at $20 and come with a range of special gifts, like a photo, plush animal, certificate of sponsorship, or a backpack. For last minute shoppers – or the most eco-conscious person on your list – download a virtual version and print or email your gift right from home

Get a Pesticide-Free Tree

Demand is on the rise for Christmas trees that are not covered in chemicals; some growers use 40 different pesticides, as well as chemical colorants. The good news is that there are now a number of tree-farms that sell pesticide-free trees, so ask your local Christmas tree seller, or search for an organic tree farm near you.

Recycle Your Christmas Tree

Ninety-eight percent of Christmas trees were grown on farms, not in forests, so at least it’s not as if you’re cutting down an ancient tree. Each year, 10 million Christmas trees end up in the landfill. While your tree won’t fit in the recycling bin with your newspapers and bottles, you can recycle your tree: many cities offer programs to turn your tree to mulch or wood chips. Call (800) CLEANUP or visit www.earth911.org to find the tree-recycling program near you.

Donate Your Time or Money to an Environmental Group

Get into the holiday spirit by volunteering! There are countless ways to help improve your community – and the planet – from cleaning up a local river to helping inner city kids experience the outdoors for the first time. Contact your local Sierra Club to find out about volunteer opportunities near you. A donation in honor of a loved one can also be a special holiday gift.

Do a “Cool Home” Tour with Our Energy-Saving Checklist

Take a pledge this New Years’ to reduce your home energy use by buying energy-efficient light bulbs. Installing only 6 compact fluorescent light bulbs will save the average American family $60 per year. You can also use our handy “Cool Homes” checklist to see what easy things you can do in your home to save energy. If there’s a fire in your fireplace this Christmas, turn down that thermostat! Lowering the temperature even five degrees can take 10% off your energy bill. Check out Microsoft Hohm for energy saving tips.

Recycle Your Old Cellphone

Getting a new cell phone for Christmas? Not sure what to do with the old one? Now, you can drop off that old phone at any Staples store, as part of the Sierra Club cell phone recycling program. Each year, 130 million cell phones are thrown out, weighing approximately 65,000 tons. Recycling your old phone prevents hazardous elements like mercury, cadmium and lead from ending up in our landfills. Find out more.

A slew of social networking tools put people on the same page to reach sustainability goals.  CarbonRally approaches the effort of saving the planet with sportsmanship by inviting users to team up to rack up points for reducing emissions. Make Me Sustainable also aims to help groups green their habits. Care2 has been around so long that it often gets left off of lists of the latest, greatest and greenest sites, but it’s one of the largest hubs for those who care to make a difference.

JustMeans takes a novel tack by getting corporations and individuals to share stories about social responsibility. It’s also got job postings, as do the global StopDodo portal, Green Dream Jobs and GreenBiz.

Facebook(), of course, is home to burgeoning do-good networks, notably Causes. The Lil Green Patch may be irksome, but its makers claim that users’ clicks have saved more than 90 million square feet of rainforest. Other apps with green themes on that alpha-omega social network include Green My Ride, with which users try to out-green one another.

Ning enables anyone to create a custom social network around just about anything.

Write your own green history by contributing to the more than 700 articles on Wikia Green, or its granddaddy, Wikipedia().

Biofuel & Agriculture

Amyris Biotechnologies
Aurora Biofuels
Evolutionary Genomics
Genomatica
Joule Biotechnologies, Inc.
KiOR
LanzaTech
LS9
Mendel Biotechnology
Performance Plants
QterosSegetis
SG Biofuels
Synthetic Genomics

Clean Energy (not solar or biofuel)

Bloom Energy
CoaLogix
exro Technologies
FloDesign
GreatPoint Energy
Hyperion Power Generation
Luca Technologies
Nordic Windpower
Oorja
Potter Drilling
Rive Technology
TerraPower

Clean Manufacturing & Clean Products

EoPlex Technologies
GlycosBio
PAX Streamline
Widetronix
Wildcat Discovery Technologies

Energy Management, Smart Grid & Energy Efficiency

BridgeLux
eMeter
Kaai
Optimum Energy
Positive Energy
Renaissance Lighting
Silver Spring Networks
SmartSynch
SuperBulbs
Tendril Networks
Trilliant

Energy Storage Systems

Deeya Energy
Firefly Energy
Ice Energy
Imara
Premium Power
ReVolt Technology
Seeo
Simbol Mining

Green Automobiles & Transportation

Achates Power
Aptera Motors
Bright Automotive
Coloumb Technologies
Tesla Motors

Green Materials, Green Buildings & Green Nano/Micro-Tech

Integrity Block
NanoSteel
Nanostellar
Novomer
Serious Materials
Soladigm
Tobias Stucco

Resource Recovery & Waste Management

adaptiveARC
Chemrec
ION Engineering
Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies

Solar Energy

Abound Solar
Ampulse
Cool Earth Solar
Enphase Energy
eSolar
Flexcell International
Signet Solar
Solar Junction
Solexant
SolFocus
Solyndra
SunEdison
Suniva
Wakonda Technologies

Water Technology & Treatment

BioPetroClean
Clean Water Technology
Epuramat
Oasys Water
Ocean Pacific Technologies
PMC Biotech
Purfresh
SolarBee

Who else do you think should be on this list???

The First Wave: Conservation

Starting in the 19th century, environmentalists worked to identify, protect and extend those
parts of our land that needed to be kept intact for future generations and for our current
civic health. They worked mainly with governments, and via NGOs such as the Nature
Conservancy, to establish the parks, refuges and preserves we treasure today. Over time the
vision of this first wave has expanded from saving single sites in isolation to protecting entire
functioning ecosystems – a goal which remains a significant challenge.

The first generation of environmentalists has called themselves “conservationists.” The goal
has been KEEP WHAT WE HAVE.

The Second Wave: Environmental Activism

Starting mainly in the 20th century, many environmentalists became political activists,
publicly identifying the ever-more-obvious sources of environmental degradation and
working with both governments and the private sector to minimize and curb the damage.
Their work has produced regulatory authorities such as the Environmental Protection

Agency and legislation such as the Endangered Species Act and the California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Through lawsuits and direct action they have also
helped to stop or reverse specific activities damaging key environmental assets. Their work
did not supplant the need for conservation, but has very helpfully supplemented it.
The second generation of environmentalists has called themselves “environ-mental
activists.” The goal has been STOP THE DAMAGE AND DESTRUCTION.

The Third Wave: Restoration and Co-Creation

The 21st century is witness to a rising third wave of environmentalists: people who realize
that we need both to repair and remediate damage begun in the past and also to help build
sustainable systems and communities for the future. Their most salient driving issue is
global warming – a looming environmental catastrophe to which we all have contributed to
some degree.

This third wave is broad in its scope, ranging from urgent global and national
action to a focus on more localized environmental threats, opportunities and actions.
This third wave understands that companies and governments still bear major responsibility
for allowing environmental damage to continue, but also that we collectively need to mend our
ways and contribute to personal and political solutions to environmental challenges. “We
have met the enemy and he is us.”

The main focus of work that supplements but doesn’t replace second-wave environmental
activism is local action to create and build positive solutions, not just to curb the damage.
These solutions must be crafted within a sustainable model and oriented primarily towards
enduring community benefits rather than transient private profit. Improved and efficient
infrastructure and more compact and more community-oriented development have been
explicit working goals of this third wave.

The third generation of environmentalists might now call themselves “environ-mental co-
creators.” The goal we have recently defined is FIX WHAT WE BROKE AND BUILD
SUSTAINABLY.

1. Stay home
   There’s a reason Jane Fonda made a fortune from those exercise videos: working out athome is easy and convenient. Plenty ofroutines—like weight training, yoga, or Pilates—require nothing more than a mat and some room to lunge or squat, so it’s possible to put together a cardio and strength training combination that you can do while watching Friends before dinner.




2. Get outside
   More intense cardio-like running, biking, or jumping rope-works better with a little more space, but why waste the energy required to run a treadmill or stationery bike when the whole world is waiting for you? Lacing up a pair of running shoes and going for a jog is the simplest do-anywhere workout; all you need are the shoes. If you’re not a runner, you still have options: hit your local hiking trails, take your two-wheeler out for a spin, or just add a daily walk to your lunch hour.




3. Capture your energy
   Don’t let all your hard work on the stationery bike go to waste; hook it up to a generator or battery and save it to power household appliances from iPods to televisions and laptops—as Ed does to make toast in the morning on Living with Ed. These kits are simple to install and give you an extra motivational push to make sure you don’t skip your daily workout.




4. Join a gym
   Gyms use a lot of power, water, energy, and resources to give you an experience that you can get on your own for less. But we know that sometimes there are factors that make it nearly impossible to start your own program—winter blizzards, cramped apartments, and late hours all make working out at home much trickier than hitting the gym on your lunch hour. And we’ll admit, using the machines already manufactured at the gym is better than buying your own (especially if you’re the type to drift away from a workout routine after just a few months). But try to green your gym experience as much as you can: don’t use two towels when one (or zero!) will do, bring a reusable water bottle, and set the treadmill to a higher incline so it uses less energy.




5. Team up
   Working out with other people is one of the most effective ways to stick with your plan; keeping each other accountable helps you both get fit faster. Finding a jogging partner or a tennis opponent makes it easier to schedule your workouts (and harder to skip them); even better, sign up for a group race or join a larger team to play soccer, softball, volleyball, or any other sport you love. Bonus: The team will likely have a lot of the equipment already, so you can skip buying your own or share.




6. Get energized
   Fuel your body with fresh, organic food, and skip the processed aisles at the store. Go for organic energy bars that don’t include ingredients like sugar or artificial colors and flavors, and that are made from fruit, nuts, fiber, protein, and natural (not trans) fats. Before you exercise, fuel yourself with a snack that’s high in carbs and low in fat—like pretzels—and drink lots of water. After your session, snack on a combination of carbs and protein to replenish your energy supplies.




7. Change your routine
   Finding the time to fit in a dedicated exercise session every day isn’t always easy, but replacing sedentary parts of your daily life with activity lets you cross both to-dos off your list at once. Try walking or riding your bike to work (even in the winter) or walking to the supermarket or post office and you’ll save gas while getting a workout.




8. Gear up green
   If you’re going to make working out a regular part of your life, you might need some gear—even go-anywhere workouts (like yoga) are easier with a mat, and a biking routine is impossible without a bike. But you don’t have to buy all new products: Check the web or your local sporting goods store (or your closet) for deals on used bikes, weights, and other equipment. Eco-friendly yoga mats, which are made of non-PVC materials, are easy to find, and you might be surprised at how good your workout can be two water-filled jugs, a dining room chair, and an old crate.




9. Dress appropriately
   Serious athletes wear all those fancy fabrics for a reason: They help sweat evaporate before it sets on your skin, they keep you cool, and the shoes are cushioned according to your sport. But there are eco-alternatives, too: sneakers made with recycled rubber soles (just be sure to recycle them when you’re done), tops and pants that combine soy and organic cotton blends, and coconut shells transformed into breathable fabrics. Look for companies with sustainable business practices, like Patagonia, REI, and Nau, and hit the Planet Green Shop when it’s time to gear up.




10. Inspire change
    If you’ve decided that joining the gym is the best way to go (at least for the winter) you can still encourage your local health club to make some green changes: restrict the use of towels, invest in energy-efficient machines, offer recycling bins for water bottles (or, even better, stop selling them altogether), set up the televisions to shut off when the machines aren’t in use. Some gyms are even harnessing human power to supply energy and reduce bills. Every little bit helps. Then talk to your workout partner about switching indoor workouts for weekend hikes or bike rides; you’ll be able to switch up your routine and get a better workout while making everyone a little greener.

Most Americans have no idea where their power and utilities come from. We’ve been blessed with the ability (for those that pay their bills) to turn on the lights with a flip of the switch. However to transfer this amount of power to your home, neighborhood, city, county and state is a massive undertaking, and frankly it’s being questioned if it’s a sustainable model, or in other words, it’s not working anymore. There are 6 colliding trends- a stressed grid infrastructure, global warming, energy costs, customer expectations, down economy and technology – that are creating a tidal wave for the consumers, utilities, and America as a whole.

The first three trends are pretty straightforward. First, the energy grid is becoming maxed out in capacity. Second, the major ways we’re creating energy are damaging our environment, and third the overall cost of producing energy is growing at an extraordinary rate, forcing us to look for new ways to produce and use energy. The last three trends are subtler. Consumers’ expectations have changed from just getting cheap energy to getting cheap energy that is produced with minimal impact to the environment. Technology has changed the consumer and the way energy can be used. Consumers are now looking for technologies to help them minimize their consumption while (the user) using minimal effort. The down economy is a perfect time for a whole new industry to arise where a capitalistic economy can latch onto and grow in new ways that haven’t been seen before. Also the technology is finally there in homes where a smart grid can actually happen. Example, for a long time many household appliances were made with 8-bit chips since a 16-bit chip was much more expensive and harder to produce. With the cost of these chips decreasing, most appliances and household products now have 16-bit chips installed since they’re faster, more efficient, and cheaper. But the biggest part of this transition from an 8-bit to a 16-bit chip is 16-bit chips can talk to each other allowing them to be networked to actually allow people the ability to create something as intricate as the smart grid. Simply put, Smart Grid is moving the electric grid from a “static” to a “dynamic” state.

Looking at all of these factors, the green revolution is moving ahead in full force, and I’m personally glad to be part of it by being involved with Microsoft Hohm. We are in extraordinary times where we’re faced with the threat of massive environmental problems. Just like other social economic problems faced in the past, the solutions provided by the new green revolution lie in the ability for individuals to change their view of the world. Join the conversation and don’t be afraid to ask questions, give constructive criticism, and share your thoughts on how we can improve as we all take this journey into a new era.

Recently I was able to head up to North Dakota to do interviews with a variety of people in the town. This video was just used in the announcement for the Microsoft Hohm partnership with Excel Energy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF-rIgzIFTs&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

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