Green Living Archives - Page 10 of 12

Do Electric Vehicle Price Drops Signal Doom or Boom?

Consumers can expect lower prices on EVs (electric vehicles). Recently, Nissan lowered the Leaf’s price by $6,400. Chevy slashed the Volt’s price by $5,000, and Ford took $4,000 off the Fusion price tag. In response, sales for EVs are picking up. The Leaf and Volt set records for monthly sales in August 2013. What do EV price drops mean? Keep reading to find answers before you open your wallet and drive away with one.

Nissan’s Leaf

This past year, Nissan slashed prices on the Leaf. The car will carry an MSRP of $28,000 with tax incentives of $7,500 from the U.S. government and additional $2,500 credits in California. You can take one home for around $18,800, a price comparable to many mid-size sedans. Throw in the combined 115 mpg gas rating and 129 mpg, and car buyers can save hundreds more a month on gas, depending on how much you drive.

Why Your Roof Is A Missed Environmental Opportunity

You may think your roof is simply there to keep you dry at night, but it can do so much more than that. In fact, your roof can be a major contributor to the environmentally-friendly nature of your entire home.

Your roof can add significant environmental value to your home. If you are interested in making your roof work for you, try one of these ideas to make your roof earth-friendly.

Prevent Leaks

Stopping leaks does more than keep you dry. Preventing leaks in your roof can actually contribute to the environmental friendliness of your home. Much of the air that cools and warms your home eventually ends up in your attic. If you have leaks in your roof, the air generated by your HVAC system escapes from your home.

This causes you to spend more money and energy cooling and heating your home each year. The more energy you use, the more drain on the environment you cause. Simply by stopping leaks in your roof you can cut down on energy use by up to 40 percent.

Add Insulation

If your roof is not insulated, even if you no longer have any leaks, you will also use more energy than necessary. Attics and roofs act as heat traps in the summer, which leads to a large increase in the amount of energy that you use. The opposite is true in the winter.

Sustainable Brands/Products You Should Consider

Using products made from sustainable materials or manufactured through sustainable processes can reduce your impact on the environment. The next time you go shopping, look for these products. Choosing them could help you make the world a better place.

Sierra Nevada Beer

You might not equate brewing beer with saving the planet, but Sierra Nevada has combined these two pursuits in every conceivable way.

Sierra Nevada creates 20 percent of its own power needs with 10,573 solar panels. The company also has hydrogen fuel cells that create about 40 percent of the brewery’s energy needs which is an extremely an inventive way to make its factory more sustainable. Sierra Nevada doesn’t stop there. Some other innovative measures include:

Composting organic waste to fertilize the company’s gardens and fields
Using the CO2 produced through fermentation in its factory
Convertible its restaurant’s used vegetable oil into biofuel for its fleet of delivery trucks

Not many companies make that kind of commitment to the environment. Think about that the next time you go out for a six-pack