Recent Green Living Posts | By Steve Rypka on November 3rd, 2011  Seven years ago, Southern Nevada experienced its first Solar Home Tour. At the time, I was involved with a great non-profit group called Solar NV, the Southern Nevada chapter of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES). I had attended a few solar home tours in Arizona and they were always a great experience. Our group decided it was time for folks in our local communities to have that same opportunity. That first tour was a resounding success and everyone had a great time. Thus, a tradition was born.
This year marks the seventh anniversary of the Southern Nevada Solar Home Tour. It will take place this Saturday, November 5th from 10 AM until 4 PM and is open to the public. Organized by the dedicated volunteers at Solar NV, this year’s tour will be another great opportunity to meet face to face with neighbors around the valley who live with renewable energy on a daily basis. Sponsors include Bombard Renewable Energy, Geary Company, and Southwest Gas. Continue reading Tour of Solar Homes. By Steve Rypka on March 24th, 2011  Lately it’s difficult to think about anything except the recent horrific events in Japan. My heart goes out to everyone involved. Disasters like the earthquake and tsunami are mostly unavoidable; they are a natural part of our planet’s evolution. The ongoing nuclear disaster is another story.
The world would be quite a different place without modern technology and I enjoy most of it as much as the next guy. But when a technology holds so much potential for severe, long-term damage, we must know when to alter our course. Even without accidents like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and now Fukushima, many have known intuitively that nuclear energy is just too risky. Often wrongly touted as a carbon-free source of energy, it is actually far from it. The life-cycle of nuclear energy production produces tremendous amounts of carbon emissions from plant construction, mining, fuel processing, plant decommissioning and waste handling, including transportation and storage (over both the short-term of decades and long-term of thousands of years). Renewable energy is orders-of-magnitude cleaner and infinitely safer. Continue reading The Insanity of Nuclear Energy. By Steve Rypka on January 13th, 2011  I got to the gym a little late yesterday and it was already dark outside. After checking in at the desk at Sun City Anthem’s Liberty Center, I headed for the locker room. As I opened the door, the lights were out and it was pitch black inside. It wasn’t that late and the place was not closing down. The lights had been shut off automatically by a sensor that had not detected anyone in the room for several minutes. I smiled at the reminder that this was a LEED certified facility. Energy efficiency is part of its DNA. After one step through the door, the lights came on, acknowledging my arrival.
Continue reading Getting a Green Workout. By Steve Rypka on December 2nd, 2010  Winter approaches. The sun is tracing a lower arc in the sky while cooler temperatures turn leaves to gold and cause us to bundle up against chilling winds. The days are accented with longer shadows and darkness comes earlier with every sunset. Nothing makes a home feel more inviting at this time of year than a good dose of holiday cheer, especially when it’s of the deep green variety.
Gift-giving is at the core of the holiday season and the best gifts also happen to be the greenest, but perhaps not in the way you might think. Green gifts can represent the best we have to give while reducing the more harmful aspects of our collective consumption. Continue reading Green Gifts From the Heart. By Steve Rypka on November 4th, 2010  When we have a choice to make, taking the high road means choosing the honorable or ethical course over some lesser alternative. In terms of housing efficiency, Nevada has a choice to promote an ethical path toward increased home energy efficiency and savings, or to maintain the dismal and expensive status quo.
I’m referring to legislation passed in 2007 to require a professional home energy audit whenever an older home is sold in Nevada. The requirement could be waived if both seller and buyer agreed to do so. To allow time for the industry to prepare, the activation date was set for January of 2011. I won’t bore you with the torturous details, but the bottom line is that due to opposition from industry trade groups, primarily the Nevada Association of Realtors, it may not happen. This would be a tragic outcome for the citizens of Nevada. Continue reading Energy Audits are the High Road. By Steve Rypka on April 12th, 2010 Want to make sure that you don’t miss out on any of the events that are being scheduled for Earth Day? The Southern Nevada Group of the Sierra Club (Toiyabe Chapter) has created a special website just for EarthDay – check it out at EarthDayLV.com. The site is aiming to list all the local events that will be happening around Southern Nevada to celebrate Earth Day. Events are being added every day so check …(more) Continue reading Earth Day in Southern Nevada By Steve Rypka on December 17th, 2009  Children will benefit most from the lessons we learn now. 2009 has been a year of learning. With economic challenges at every turn, many have been forced to do more with less. People have downsized, minimized, economized and localized. In a sense it could be considered a sort of natural correction. As we move forward into the New Year we should not forget these important lessons. For example, average home size has been growing for decades. Now there is a greater appreciation of the “smaller is better” concept. Homes that provide for our needs without being lavish or oversized make a lot of sense, not just for the occupants but for all of society. It’s much easier and less expensive to make a small, efficient home completely energy independent. I can’t count the number of people that have complained to me about high energy costs but who fail to make the connection to the size and efficiency of their home. Continue reading Lessons Learned. By Steve Rypka on October 8th, 2009 By now, the concept of sustainability is one that most people are familiar with. Though there are many ways to define a sustainable society, there is really only one alternative to it. Basically, you’re either on or off the bus. By definition, being unsustainable only lasts for so long. It’s the ultimate dead end. What does that mean in the current context of our lives, our homes and communities, and life as we know …(more) Continue reading Transition Town By Steve Rypka on September 24th, 2009 O ctober is National Energy Awareness month and this year’s theme is “A Sustainable Energy Future; Putting All the Pieces Together.” The idea is to encourage everyone to see how they fit into the big picture. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s website, “No matter how large the problem may appear, the fact remains that each of us is a part of the solution. Every day, each of us makes decisions that can stimulate sustainability and a new energy economy.” It sounds as if they may have borrowed those lines from one of my earlier columns! There are a lot of pieces to the energy picture. As I’ve mentioned previously, the Southern Nevada Solar Home Tour will take place on Saturday, October 3 and that’s no coincidence. It’s a part of the American Solar Energy Society’s 14th annual National Solar Tour, the world’s largest grassroots solar event. Last year’s tour was attended by over 140,000 people in over 3,000 communities across the country. Continue reading 2009 Solar Home Tour. | The Clark County Library District is sponsoring a series of five presentations on Green Living to be held at the West Charleston Library. I hope you can join us!
Download the flyer (PDF). Green Transportation: Getting Over Oil Thursday, May 31 6:30 p.m. The future of transportation is exciting and changing rapidly. Learn how people are saying adiós to the gas pump, saving money and helping the environment. |
Seven years ago, Southern Nevada experienced its first Solar Home Tour. At the time, I was involved with a great non-profit group called Solar NV, the Southern Nevada chapter of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES). I had attended a few solar home tours in Arizona and they were always a great experience. Our group decided it was time for folks in our local communities to have that same opportunity. That first tour was a resounding success and everyone had a great time. Thus, a tradition was born.
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