A Sense of Urgency: It’s Too Late to do Nothing for Earth

I try to keep the tone mostly warm and friendly here but what drives me to write is very serious. We are facing… no, strike that. We are creating a planetary emergency. Let me state a few facts and then tie them all together. The Earth has an energy imbalance due to added greenhouse gasses […]

Electric Vehicle Charging Station Map for Nevada

Electric vehicles are hitting the road in ever-increasing numbers. Most are conveniently charged at home but when you’re on the road and need a little juice, it’s nice to know there is a growing network of public charging stations available around the valley. Here at GreenDream, we’ve been tooling around town on sunshine for over […]

Solar Hot Water – Be the Change!

We live in interesting times. Never before have we witnessed so much change in so little time. Whether we resist or embrace change, it is still inevitable, but if we actively embrace the changes we like we can often minimize the change we’d prefer to avoid. For example, almost everyone in this country uses some […]

The Insanity of Nuclear Energy

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 […]

Passive House – Ultra Efficiency

This column often explores the exciting transformation taking place in the building industry. Green building programs have grown and multiplied at an amazing rate in recent years. We’ve looked at Energy Star, LEED and even the Living Building Challenge. These programs are important because they raise the bar and provide real-world examples of what is […]

Looking Back on 2010

As 2010 comes to a close, I thought it would be interesting to take a quick run back through the year’s Green Living column topics to reflect on what where we’ve been and perhaps get a glimpse of where we might be going.

Solar Cooking: The New Barbeque

Renewable energy can be fun, easy, inexpensive – and good tasting. Yes, it’s all those things and more when you get into the joy of cooking using a sun oven. We’ve had our sun oven now for about five years and this summer we’ve been using it more than ever (they work during the winter […]

Carbon-Neutral Nevada

I think it’s time to set a big, audacious goal for Nevada. Let make it the nation’s first carbon-neutral state. That doesn’t mean we have to stop driving, cooking or heating our homes. It does mean that we would make a major commitment throughout the state to reduce energy consumption and increase renewable energy production. […]