National bike month

It's National Bike Month and this week is Bike-to-Work-Week. But if you can't hop on your bike every day this week and ride it to work, perhaps you can do it just one day - Friday - on Bike-to-Work-Day. You've got a lot of bike riding opportunities here.

Do you have a bike that's been a little neglected for a while? It's time to dust the thing off and hop on. You'll feel just like a kid again when you're gliding down a hill with the wind in your face. Unfortunately, you might feel very much not like a kid when you're going uphill at first, but that's one of the reasons to dust the bike off. It's a fun way to get some exercise. 

Add to that the fact that biking is environmentally friendly - it uses no gasoline and creates no greenhouse emissions - and you know you need to do it.

May is the perfect month - it's not too hot yet in most places so you can start easing your way back in to riding around town and maybe even to work while the weather is beautiful.

I don't need to ride my bike to work. I work from home. But when I need to run an errand, I often hop on my bike and pedal off. Yesterday, I went to the bank on my bike. There's a small market in the next town over that's a nice bike ride if I just need to pick a few things up. 

If you're a little rusty on your rules of the road, The League of American Bicyclists has some tips for you to brush up on.

Image: Frank Steele

Database of Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency

I just found out about the www.dsire.org database through a client. I can't believe I didn't know about this before. It allows you to search by your state what rebates and other incentives there are if you make energy efficient upgrades to your home (among other things).

The DSIRE project tracks information on state, utility, local, and selected federal incentives that promote the use of renewable energy technologies. For more information on federal incentives, see What federal incentives does DSIRE track. On the DSIRE website, incentives are grouped into two categories as follows:

(1) Financial Incentives: tax incentives, grants, loans, rebates, industry recruitment, bond programs, and production incentives.

(2) Rules, Regulations, & Policies: public benefits funds, renewables portfolio standards, net metering, interconnection, extension analysis, generation disclosure, contractor licensing, equipment certification, solar/wind access laws, and construction & design standards (including building energy codes and energy standards for public buildings), required utility green power options, and green power purchasing/aggregation policies.

When I search by my state, I see that there are quite a few incentives for solar power, which is good because when we FINALLY get around to putting the addition on the house (there always seems to be a good reason why now is not the right time), that is one thing we are strongly considering.

This is a fabulous resource. I hope you find it helpful.

Helping to Create Renewable Energy Through Facebook (Seriously)

If you're a Facebook user or a tree hugger who has considered having a Facebook account, my most recent post at Sustainablog will interest you - New Facebook Application, Green My Vino, Will Help Vineyards Go Green.

I've already installed the application and started the process of helping vineyards go green.

Two of my favorite things - wine and going green. You know I'm all over this.

Proud of my Hometown

I went to a meeting last week at our borough hall because I've been invited to be a committee to researching the possibility to green our municipal energy. At the meeting we had a question and answer period with someone from a company that would do an energy audit of our municipality and then come back to us with a "sustainable energy master plan." They would make recommendations as to how all of the energy that our municipality uses (borough hall, police station, fire station, traffic and street lights, etc.) could be changed to use sustainable energy sources.

It was a very educational meeting. I'm really proud that my little town is investigating these options and that the powers that be are really interested in seeing if it's possible to make this happen. 

It's also got me thinking about the renovations that my husband and I are planning for our home in the near future. We've already started talking about perhaps going a little smaller than originally planned to save on energy. But maybe we can have solar panels put on the roof. There are lots of other options that I don't know anything about, YET. But I am definitely going to do some research before we forge ahead with our plans.

One thing I definitely learned at that meeting the other night, I've got a lot left to learn.