Hello everyone and welcome to Earth Day 2010!

We are very excited about the MI Earth Day Fest in Rochester. It will begin Friday April 23rd and end on Sunday April 25th. We will be selling our new book Larry the Litterbug. If you came to the show last year and were unable to see the book, don’t miss out this year!

Larry the Litterbug is a children’s book telling the story of Larry who learns to keep his home clean so his friends will stay and play. This book contains puzzles that allow children to use their imaginations and find items in the book.

At the MI Earth Day Fest we will also be demonstrating games for children that can be made from household recyclables. We will also have prizes for playing the recyclable games.

For more information about how to get to the MI Earth Day Fest, check out the website: http://www.miearthday.com/

Some time ago, I wrote an article about a company that makes environmentally-friendly cleaning products called Method. At the time, I had just heard about the company from friends, but never actually used the products myself. After writing the article, I was inspired to try them out for myself, so I ordered a few things from their website. I was very impressed with the quality of the products and also the interesting packaging of the products. I’ve recently discovered that their products are sold at Target, which makes them even easier to get a hold of. 
      I also recently have seen commercials for other environmentally-friendly lines of cleaning products. S.C. Johnson has been running ads to show what they are doing to make their products more environmentally-friendly. They call the process to improve these products, Greenlist. Clorox has also introduced a full range of cleaning products called Green Works Natural Cleaners. They use plant and mineral components to make up these cleaners and vow not to test them on animals. I have no experience using these two lines of products from Clorox and S.C. Johnson, but if anyone out there has used them and would like to send us your feedback, please email me your comments and I will write a follow-up article with testimonials from readers. 

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Method 
S.C. Johnson 
Green Works Natural Cleaners

Usually when you think of a pencil, you think of the old, trusty, yellow number two. But at Smencils, they want you to look at and smell pencils a new way. Smencils are pencils that you can choose one of ten different smells for. Smells like orange, cherry, and watermelon, or even chocolate and cotton candy. They say the smells last for a remarkable two years even if you don’t keep them in the included “freshness tube”. The best part about Smencils though, is that they are made from 100% recycled newspapers. They give some fascinating statistics on their site such as “172,000 Smencils can be made from 430 newspapers” and “recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times saves about 75,000 trees”. The idea to make recycled newspapers is a great one and we can only hope that as a society, more brilliant ideas like these will be developed and successfully turned into alternatives to the way things are done today. 

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Smencils

The greatest advancements in technology are when you create a product previously though impossible at a price that seems impossible all while making a profit not thought possible. These things don’t come around too often but when they do, they stick out like a sore thumb… well a happy sore thumb. 

An example of this is the Wii which allows the player to experience a game as if they are part of it, while selling at a low price point compared to its competitors and making a profit in the process. There are many of these cases that change how the game is played in that market, making it difficult for traditional companies to catch up to the new innovative ideas. 

Another example is Nanosolar. Although Nanosolar has not started to ship their product yet, they seem to be on the right track. They have just completed their manufacturing facility and are preparing for production of their new solar panels. What makes them different you ask? Well they have gone and changed the game. They figured out a way to make solar panels cost effectively. These new solar panels are created using a similar technique to a computer printer. You start with a roll of foil and some ink and end up with a super large rolled up solar panel. 

The beauty of this new design is that it makes the creation of solar panels much much cheaper, which in turn makes them cheaper for the consumer. Also these new solar panels do not require silicon that is increasingly hard to find. This new solar panel is also so thin that it will create a new market for solar energy that never existed before. This could create markets such as solar shingles or a solar panel that could be built into the roof of your car. 

This new technology promises many things including some of our favorites. These solar panels should be cheep and allow people to get them easily while also making your electric bill go down. As with all new cool technology that has not actually gotten to the market yet, there is a possibility that it will not be all that it is said to be. This new solar technology is said to be launching late 2007 to early 2008. So lets keep our eyes pealed for this awesome new advancement. 

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Nanosolar

If you didn’t see this past week’s episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, you missed an episode dedicated to making a new “green” home for a Navajo family. This episode was full of innovative ways to conserve energy and help ensure that the family would never have to pay an electricity bill for this big, beautiful new home of theirs. They had solar panels outside that moved throughout the day to follow the sun across the sky. This way, they are always collecting the maximum amount of sunlight all day long. Also, they had a wind turbine on their property to produce even more electricity for them. After all was said and done, they were able to produce more energy than was needed to power the home and were even able to put the excess back into the power grid to help the rest of the community. They also gave the family all Energy Star appliances in their home and really pushed for viewers to follow their example and do the same in their own homes. They even had plants growing on the roof of the home, which I had never heard of before, but apparently it helps cool the home and keeps the roof last much longer. In addition to all of the environmentally friendly parts to the home, they also handed over the keys to a brand new Ford Escape Hybrid to the family (not to mention there were several Escape Hybrid commercials throughout the TV broadcast). They showed off the car to the family as well as the viewers and educated people about what the environmental advantages are of having a hybrid. The show itself was quite entertaining and educational, but most importantly, it was of great importance that a popular TV show made a point to put the word out there about ways that we can all help the environment and keep our energy costs down at the same time. This may prove to be of huge significance if other shows follow their lead and especially if people start to learn more about the techniques used in the show and want to do more of it to their own homes. 

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Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 
Ford Escape Hybrid

Two men are joining the fight against environmentally harmful chemicals and in the least likely of places… under your kitchen sink. As you may know, many household cleaners are very bad for the environment, but you may not have known that there is a fairly new company called Method whose goal is to create nontoxic, environmentally friendly household cleaning products. Founders Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan (Gross Pointe, MI natives) began Method in 2001 with a mission to revolutionize cleaning. They began by creating an all-natural, biodegradable, household cleaner and have continued on from there to create many other household items. They have now even developed environmentally-friendly candles and laundry detergent among other things. Method is today one of the fastest growing private companies in the US and you can buy their products at many stores such as Target, CostCo and CVS. And just to give you an idea of what the company’s philosophy is, check out their “Humanifesto” here… 

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Method 
Candles 
Laundry Detergent 
Stores 
Humanifesto

      Were you aware that local stores such as Home Depot (link shown below) carry a large variety of products which can improve the quality of the environment as well as save you plenty of cash? Well they do! 

Most recently Home Depot has stepped up to the plate in its efforts to do its part to be Earth-friendly and added a whole new section to its line-up. Eco-Options features many products that can enhance a home and help out in a green way. Green being environment… and money.

Using a label it deems the “Eco Options” label, Home Depot shows customers which of the offered products have less of an environmental impact compared to others. Categories include sustainable forestry, energy efficiency, healthy home, clean air, water conservation, and a tour of the eco options virtual home. 

Lowes can also be of assistance with its wide variety of Energy Star products which can be found here. Between these and a plethora of helpful guides, there should be no problem finding the products you need to create the perfect green home.

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Eco-Options
Lowes
Home Depot