Marlborough 2010

At the M.E.E.T (Marlborough Energy Environmental Taskforce) meeting a large focus of the time was dedicated to talking about the 2010 vision. A long list was generated of where we would like to see Marlborough in 2010. Some example highlights where:



Green jobs,

Mass transit including regional and local rail and bus systems

Mixed spaces provided business and residential zoning

More incentive programs to build green, clean, and renewable

Bike lanes and walking paths linking

Affordable renewable energy sources for home and businesses



Do you have any ideas or comments of what you want Marlborough to look like? If you do post a comment.



In line with this vision Rohm and Haas electronic materials has gone solar. They installed a grid of panels from Evergreen solar, a local marlborough solar company.

Pack light this summer

Spring is here which means that summer vacations are around the corner. With the growing cost of fuel everyone is looking to get better gas mileage. Packing light will help you save. The less weight your car or an airplane has to carry the more fuel efficient it will be. To get ready for your summer trips I would suggest the following fuel saving tips:

For Road Trips:


Keep your tires properly inflated

Keep your air and fuel filters clean

Clean out your car. Extra weight reduces your cars efficency

On the highway drive 65mph (every 5mph over is ~ 7% loss in fuel efficiency)

Remove your roof rakes if not in use to reduce drag on the car

When Flying:

Travel light

Help the airlines use less fuel by bringing less stuff on the trip. For packing advice I would recomend reading the one bag project. They highlight a lot of great tips for packing light.

Edible Estates

Edible Estates is a project by Fritz Haeg with an enviromental and social purpose. The project proposed to replace a standard grass lawn with a productive and interactive edible landscape. 6 prototype yards have been built. Each is a different climate zone.

#1 - Salina, Kansas, 2005 / commissioned by the Salina Art Center
#2 - Lakewood California, 2006 / exhibited at Machine Project, produced for Fair Exchange at Millard Sheets
#3 - Maplewood, New Jersey, 2007 / sponsored by Garden Supply
#4 - London, England, 2007 / commissioned by Tate Modern and exhibited in the Turbine Hall for Global Cities
#5 - Austin, Texas, 2008 / commissioned by Arthouse for the exhibit Fritz Haeg: Attack on the Front Lawn
#6 - Baltimore, Maryland, 2008 / commissioned by Contemporary Museum Baltimore for Cottage Industry

Along with the environmental issues addressed by the project many social issues of community, family, and urban and suburban neighborhoods. So check out her site and learn more.

As for the plans for my yard... I am still working on them. I want to add some fruit trees, and Terrace one area for a full garden. I will update with plans, pictures, and comments in the weeks to come. Its spring and time to get outside.

Eco - Lawn--

Good for the planet and good for your wallet. Last year I did not keep up with watering and fertilizing my yard and in turn I have several large spots of dead grass. Over the winter I did research to figure out what to do about this. I came up with two great green solutions Eco Lawn and Edible estates. This post will update on Eco-lawn and the next will be edible estates. Both of which I plan on incorporating into my yard

Eco - Lawn

Eco Lawn is a grass strain developed by Wildflower Farm founders Miriam Goldberger and Paul Jenkins. It is fast germinating, deep rooted, and slow growing. The deep roots allow the grass to thrive with being watered. The slow growing means you do not have to mow as much. This allows for easy care and cuts down on your green house gas emissions from your mower. The seed does cost more than regular grass seed 29.99/5lb bag vs 21.99/5lb bag(home depots price). But when you take into account the savings on fertilizer, gas or electric to run your mower, water, and your time, you quickly make up the money. I stopped by a dealer in Tolland, CT this weekend to by the seed. They where charging 44.95 for a 5lb bag so I have ordered it off the website and will update everyone with the instillation and growing progress in future posts.

Note: Shipping for 1 bag of eco lawn is $14.95 but 2 bags is $15.70 so ordering more is economical.

Prime time for the Planet

The sundance channel has starting to bring us THE GREEN. This is a series of shows, blogs, interviews, movies, shorts... you name the media they have it.. All dedication to being green. I spent my lunch break today going through a large amount of their content and would recommend you check out the documentary section and I love the series "its not easy being green".

Link to some promos for this show on Youtube(I'll try and get some full videos to download) :

Its not easy being green

If you where a fan of the British show "Junk Yard Wars" you will recognize the father as the team caption of the team "Brother at Arms". He is a master with a welding torch and got plenty of experience there converting trash into useful machines.

Please check out all their content and let us know what you liked.

Reuse vs Recycle

Recycling is great for the environment, keeping materials out of land fills and supplying manufacturers with a high grade of starting material. It costs most companies less energy to make a product out of recycled material then having to start with standard raw materials. This is good but if you reuse an item that keeps the material out of the landfill and costs zero energy. So think Reuse then Recycle. There are several online communities dedicated to this concept. They allow people to trade or give away stuff that they would normally throw away or just have cluttering up their house:

freecycle
Craigs List(post or search under the for Free category)

This concept can not only be applied at home but also in the office. At work we started a program of saving all the packing material that gets shipped to us. Packing peanuts, Bubble wrap, Air bags.... We then use these materials to pack and ship our own products. Shortly after this program was put into place we where able to stop ordering packing supplies. Not only did this program greatly reduce our trash it also saved us money. That's Green and Cash Green.

Simple Reusing Ideas:

With the great success of this program at work I applied it to my person life. My wife and I shop online a fair amount. Both for connivance and price. The down side to this is it generates a large amount of cardboard box and packing material waste. I started saving the boxes and packing material in my attic. Now when we need to ship something or box up a present we go upstairs to our own little shipping center. This takes almost no effort to do and saves you money.

Putting in a little more effort:

We put new counter tops in our kitchen last year. The old ones where warn out but still provided a nice flat surface. I kept the in the garage figuring I could come up with some project for them. Recently I started to convert one of the pieces into a new desk for my home office. I even got some left over paint off of "free Craigs list" to paint it.


Do you have a story or idea about reusing something? Leave a note in the comments and share your ideas!!

Earthday fair over but more to come

The Earthday fair has come and gone with great success. Even with the wet weather there was a good turnout and an overall positive response from the community. My wife and I purchased a composting Earth Machine which I setup in our backyard on Sunday. I will follow up a full review post later this week.

What is next for the Green Marlborough group? Keep this paged bookmarked for local updates and articles. I will also be posting information of some green projects I am working on, local environmental news, and upcoming events. So keep reading and keep Marlborough Green

Earth Day Face Painting

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Packing up

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Energy

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Pets

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Oil car

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Staples

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Mary

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Banner

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Earth Day Fair this weekend

Marlborough

Earth Day Fair

Free, Fun and Educational !

11am-3pm, Saturday, May 3
at Ghiloni Park
239 Concord Road, Marlborough

=See a Veggie Oil car and Evergreen's solar panel display
=Eat solar-oven-baked cookies
=Walk with Wayside
=Learn from Energy Experts!

=Exhibits on local green efforts by business, city departments, and organizations
=Energy experts
=Free food
=Activities: solar oven-baked cookies, wild animal puppets, walking with pedometers, face painting, toss-the-trash game
=Music, art/posters
=Education on energy, water, waste, food & transportation.

The Fair follows Clean Sweep, a city clean up which is 9am to noon at Memorial Beach parking lot on Hosmer Street.