Eco-Friendly Moving Tips

• Plan ahead! Planning ahead of time for the best route to travel, how you’ll pack everything up, and how many trips you’ll have to take can save you a lot of headaches. It will also keep you from wasting time and fuel making unnecessary trips!

• Don’t feel obligated to move everything you have! Having a garage sale or donating items to charity can easily help you downsize your load and make the moving process much easier. You’ll save on fuel costs by lightening the weight that you have to haul, plus you may even be able to score some extra cash to help finance your move!

• Figure out how you’ll handle moving boxes. Two solid options are either getting high-quality plastic containers that you can use over and over again, or searching around for used cardboard boxes in your area so that you don’t have to buy new ones. Then, when you are done with them, see if you can recycle them or put them to use around your home.

You can also ditch the bubble wrap and use old newspapers (recycle them when you’re done) or towels/clothes that you were already going to take with you.

• Try to find an eco-friendly moving company or alternative. Depending on how far you will be moving, there are a few different options that you should consider. For a local move, search for a local eco-friendly moving company; there are many around the country. However, if you are moving across the country, you may want to consider a more energy efficient and eco-friendly option. For example, you might try a service like Move America or sending your belongings with freight on a train.

• Use green cleaning products when you are tidying up your old place or making the new one shine!

• Don’t forget your mail! Moving naturally means having to sign up for mail forwarding and a change of address with the USPS. While you are thinking about your mail, consider cutting down on your junk mail by cancelling those subscriptions to magazines you hardly read and for coupons and flyers that you ignore. What’s more, take a look at how many bills you receive through the mail and see if any of them have a paperless option. Taking these steps can seriously cut down the amount of paper that is sent to your home, thereby lowering your overall carbon footprint.

Here’s some more advice that you might find useful during your next move!

• 33 Brilliant Moving Tips from BuzzFeed
• Great Moving Tips from moving.com

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How can I live a green lifestyle?

If you want to talk the talk, then you’ve got to walk the walk! But don’t worry: You don’t have to live in a 100% renewable energy home and recycle every single thing you use to “live the green life.” Start with some of these simple suggestions!

• Start composting. There are many items around your home that are compostable (food waste is one obvious example) that can be put to good use. For example, in the spring you can use your compost as powerful fuel in your garden.
• You can purchase electricity that was generated using renewable energy sources. In fact, we offer our customers green-energy options that include renewable energy credits (RECs) for that very purpose!
• Switch to a laptop instead of a desktop computer. Generally, a laptop consumes only a quarter of the power that a desktop would. If, from time-to-time, you find that you need a bigger display, try plugging your laptop into your TV as a second monitor.
• Cook a healthy dinner at home instead of going out to eat. Not only does this allow you to eat a healthier meal with your family, but you can also support local businesses and entrepreneurs by purchasing local and organic products. It’s a win-win!
• There are even several home improvement tips available on our Bright Insights blog that you can make around your house to support a green lifestyle!

Hungry for more tips? Check out Green Living Tips for some more great ideas on how you can make nearly every part of your life green and eco-friendly.

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Everyone loves that renewable energy is great for the environment! So why doesn’t everyone use it already? Some people just don’t believe that renewable energy is a reliable long-term option. Will renewable energy be able to affordably lead us into a bright new future?

“Yes” was the consensus reached on a recent GreenBiz webcast according to reporters Sureya Melkonian and Barbara Grady. An article on GreenBiz notes they talked about long-term sustainability and how renewable energy can prepare us for a clean, green future.

“Renewable energy can reduce your energy costs—full-stop,” said Blaine Collison, managing director of Altenex, succinctly summarizing the thoughts of a great deal of the energy industry.

The sticking point here is economics. The benefits of renewable energy for the environment are widely known, but many people still question whether or not renewable energy is truly affordable.

On the side of renewable energy, another consensus was reached during the webcast: “The business case is straightforward: volatility in the price of fossil fuels represents nothing but massive, massive risk exposure for anyone who is responsible for an operational portfolio.”

It turns out that there are certain aspects of sustainability that run counter to continued fossil fuel use, especially when viewed through the eyes of an investor. The unpredictability of fossil fuel costs in the coming years means they may not be a good long-term investment—especially when you consider that it’s possible we’ll run out of fossil fuels altogether!

In comparison, renewable energy is quite predictable. Given the large amounts of data and experience we have with weather forecasting, we can accurately predict how much energy can be obtained through renewable energy sources. This kind of control makes renewable energy a safe and predictable investment: you know what you’re going to get!

Want to learn more about renewable energy and green energy products? Learn about the green products that we offer at our Green Energy page!

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Recently, the NHL began a partnership that involves purchasing Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) and other Carbon Offsets to the degree that they will match the estimate carbon footprint of the collective NHL. The NHL has already offset 550,000 metric tons of carbon, the expected amount of emissions from the NHL’s 2014–2015 season. The RECs purchased by the NHL used renewable energy sources for their electricity generation.

In fact, the NHL’s actions are the largest by any known U.S. sports property. The EPA recognized the NHL’s commitment to sustainability by naming them 17^th on their National Top 100 list of largest green power users. This was the first time a professional sports league made the list, which is impressive.

At Star Energy Partners, we are delighted to see the NHL setting a good example for their fans, as well as the rest of the sports and entertainment industry.

This partnership with Constellation isn’t the first time that the NHL has made huge strides in terms of supporting the renewable energy industry. During the summer of 2014, the NHL announced the release of the 2014 NHL Sustainability Report, a document designed to outline the benchmarks and successes of the entire league’s effort to increase their sustainability.

Also during the summer of 2014, The Green Sports Alliance honored NHL commissioner Gary Bettman with the 2014 Green Sports Alliance Environmental Leadership Award, due in large part to his work in establishing NHL Green. NHL Green is an initiative aimed at completing five goals: tracking impacts, reducing waste, offsetting impacts, supporting environmental programs, and inspiring environmental progress.

Star Energy Partners offers several green energy products as well, including RECs. Visit our green energy page to learn more about the green energy products we offer.

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Overall top 10 sustainable cities

1. Frankfurt
2. London
3. Copenhagen
4. Amsterdam
5. Rotterdam
6. Berlin
7. Seoul
8. Hong Kong
9. Madrid
10. Singapore

In review, European cities appear to be the winners of this study, accounting for seven out of the top 10. Asian cities round out the other three spots in the top 10. According to the study, each continent’s cities appear to have their own distinct “flavors” when it comes to the results of the study:

• Europe: European cities lead the world in the sustainability category.

• North America: North American cities fare best on profit factors because of their relatively high income per capita and ease of doing business, even though no North American cities cracked the top 10.

• Asia: Asian cities show the most divergence, with three cities in the top 10 and four in the bottom 10.

• South America: South American cities performed especially poorly in the people and profit categories.

• Middle East: Middle Eastern cities score better in the profit category than planet category.

What do the findings of this study mean for the renewable energy industry in the U.S.? At the very least, it means that there is room for improvement. The first American city on the list was Boston at number 15. There are also a few more cities in the overall top 50 (Chicago at 19, NYC at 20, Houston at 21, Philadelphia at 22, Washington, D.C. at 25, San Francisco at 27, LA at 28, Dallas at 29). This study shows that the U.S. is well on its way to becoming a powerful name in the global renewable energy industry, but there is still room for improvement and development.

This list was compiled by the London-based Center for Economics and Business Research, and it bases its ranking on how cities fare in three critical areas: social (people), environmental (planet), and economics (profit).

“Our world is changing at a faster pace than ever before,” says John Batten, global cities director of the consultancy firm ARCADIS, which funded the index. “Developing technology, population growth, and the emergence of a truly global economy mean that the notion of national borders is becoming less relevant. Instead, we see the concept of the ‘global city’ taking hold.”

About Great Energy Challenge

National Geographic’s Great Energy Challenge is an ambitious project designed to educate the world about the current state of energy. This project is made possible by a partnership between National Geographic and Shell.

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