Last Saturday night was Earth Hour. Organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature in 2007, Earth Hour encourages people and businesses to turn off lights and non-essential electronics to raise awareness about climate change.

Since 2007 the Earth Hour movement has spread throughout the world to include over 1,000 cities including Minneapolis. Though – I have to say, in my humble opinion, the word didn’t really get out beyond the Wedge coop member, counter-culture types (guess where I shop).
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We are pleased to announce the launch of our latest makeover!

Southview Design came to us several years ago (through our friend Kristin Kowler at Genius to Go) in search of a clean, professional site that reflected the caliber of work which they were producing in landscapes. The new site not only improved their image, but made their team proud to share it. That was the site design “version 1″

Just yesterday we launched the all new Southview Design, while the previous site was plenty good they sought a more interactive and engaging user experience – and to continue to their already strong search engine presence. The new site features a striking new look, continually updated project slideshow on the home page, and intuitive navigation scheme. The project gallery allows visitors to explore by image – or quickly filter the list of landscaping projects by Service or by Price.

With this new site Kristin has again provided powerful and effective search engine friendly content, which will continue to build upon the already strong search engine presence Southview Design enjoys. Coupled with the ultra-clean site code and site optimization techniques employed in this go-around we wish them much happiness and success with the new site.

And just in time for Spring!

Although everyone is on the green bandwagon now, ArcStone is no Johnny-come-lately. We have been striving to lessen our environmental footprint for years, and encouraging customers to do the same.

With Wonderfile we help clients convert paper processes to electronic ones. Clients benefit from increased productivity, safer backups, effortless file sharing, and when a virtual document gets deleted it doesn’t end up in a landfill.

E-Brochure lets customers dump paper mailings for a superior electronic equivalent. Not only does electronic mail save paper (and trees), it does things paper can’t, like tell you how many people actually read your message and followed up on it.

We work with a lot of professional associations, many of which used to offer printed member directories. With AMO members can search the directory on-line and on demand. No more waiting for next years updated version, printing thousands of copies, and shipping them across the country.

To learn more about ArcStone’s role in the green revolution see our other green blog posts and visit ArcStone.com for more information.

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Remember the tired, worn adage – “If everyone went and jumped off a cliff would you do it?” Well…. to do what we can to try to stem the flow of the impending tidal wave of global eco-disaster, ArcStone’s officially going green.

Not that we weren’t green before, it’s just that our past policy was implicit and somewhat lazy. It’s past time to make it explicit and clear to everyone who works here or comes in contact with us.

So please forgive me for jumping on the green hybrid bandwagon, but it’s truly too important to remain complacent and do nothing. Imagine if every business did this. With enough critical mass, I’m sure we’d make an impact.

It starts with one household and one business at a time. As Lisa (my bride) so eloquently put it yesterday, “Action creates clarity.” We’ll clearly see results only if we act and adjust accordingly.

It’s time to act now – here’s the public unveiling of ArcStone’s First Greenification Agenda…

(I’ve written this in mostly general terms so others can copy and paste and use it themselves – ArcStone is following these guidelines and we will adjust as required and get feedback.)

1. Buy REC Offsets – Determine the amount of energy used within the last year. Here’s a calculator that can be applied for business (most seem to be for households). ArcStone generates approximately 103,000 pounds of CO2 per year. So we purchased RECs – Renewable Energy Credit) to offset our usage. View our certificate.
2. Consciously Consume – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

   Reduce
   – No paper plates, plastic forks, wax paper cups, etc.
   – Buy in bulk when applicable.
   – Favor local products with less packaging purchased from green suppliers.
   – Print only when necessary.

   Reuse
   – Sell and/or donate old office equipment.
   – Reuse draft paper printed on one side – set-up a station for this by each printer.

   Recycle
   – Black personal cans for trash – green for recyclables.
   – If there’s no recycling pick-up where you are – sponsor it (ArcStone is doing it for our building – good PR).
   – Dispose of waste / electronics properly.

3. Conserve Electricity / Gas – Use common sense. Turn on lights only as needed. Plug everything into power strips and turn off power strips when leaving the office. Program the adjustable thermostat, if you don’t have one, install one.
4. Encourage Sensible Commuting – Allow employees to telecommute as sensible. We typically allow non-support staff to telecommute two – three days a week. Encourage car pooling, mass transit, and muscle power alternatives for the work commute – at ArcStone green commuters (at least 3 / 5 day per week green commuting average) get earth day off and other special treats.
5. Meet Virtually with Clients / Vendors when Possible – Subscribe to an online virtual meeting platform and learn it well. We currently use – Adobe’s Acrobat Connect Pro which doesn’t require a software download for meeting guests. We like it.
6. Use Good Cleaning Supplies – Don’t buy cleaners with nasty chemicals – there’s really no reason for it. I like to ahere to the rule – if you can’t pronounce it, don’t buy it.

I consider this a draft of a living document – please feel free to comment and make suggestions….

Next time you make a run for the border don’t forget to bring along all the old decrepit cell phones from your junk drawer. As our rock-n-roll programmer Shawn demonstrates, recycling your old phones is easier than ordering two bean burritos.

Taco Bell’s new marketing slogan is “The only thing greener than our guacamole is our phone recycling bin.” Although catchy, I think “The only thing greener than our guacamole is any other restaurants guacamole” would be more accurate.

All joking aside, it’s nice to see big companies making an effort to help out the Earth, which has given so much to them.

Pardon the diversion, but I have to share.

Gas prices are steadily rising and the AC on my 1998 Honda Civic is teetering on the brink of a nervous breakdown. So as of June 1st, I decided to embark on a mission to get through the summer* on one tank of gas**. (Driving is for sissies!)

With approximately 11 gallons in a full tank, and let’s say conservatively I get 25 miles to the gallon around town, that leaves me about 275 miles of driving through the end of August. That’s approximately 20 miles per week.

In the 20 days since I’ve started my quest, I’ve already burned through maybe 1/5 of a tank. Fortunately, if you can call it that, divine intervention is preventing me from burning through any more gas at the moment. I very flat tire. I’ll probably just let my car chill till the weekend and get it fixed then. In the meantime, I am getting used to walking and biking just about everywhere — the grocery store, the gym, work.

Not only does the flat tire prevent me from immediately driving, it also forced me to clear out all the junk from my trunk in order to access the spare and jack. I bet I’m at least 40 pounds lighter back there. I knew I had junk in my trunk, but not that much junk.

I realize that this is nothing. Many people take the car and gas problem totally out of the equation all together. Still, I think for me, this is a reasonable and positive goal for my wallet and the planet.

Take that, oil cartels of the world!

And check out Nick’s post on Gas Saving Tips for some more ways you can save on gas.

*My “summer” will run from June 1st to August 31st.
**I’m also cheating — I can’t count the one trip to Duluth I have planned (which pretty much burns exactly one tank of gas.)

With gas prices soaring and no end in sight, many drivers are adopting new habits to help ease the pain. Lifehacker, The Consumerist and many other sites offer great millage stretching tips, but some of my favorites are not usually mentioned.

#1 – Order At The Counter
If you frequent fast-food joints, or anything with a drive through window, don’t idle in a long line of cars. Instead, park and order inside. It will probably take about the same amount of time, and you won’t be sitting in your car getting 0 MPG.

Keep reading for the rest of my tips.

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The hunt for alternative fuels is heating up, with corn-based ethanol seemingly the front runner to replace oil. Mexican farmers are even destroying fields of the rare Blue Agave cactus, which is used to make premium Tequila, in favor of planting corn.

However, there is another crop that can be grown easier and yield more ethanol per acre — grass. Specifically Switchgrass, nature’s shag carpet. This native US crop grows in tall bunches all over the country, and needs very little fertilizer.

With a high ratio of energy in vs. energy out, and carbon dioxide absorbing properties, Switchgrass could be the energy of the future. It has my vote, the last thing I want to see is Tequila prices skyrocket.

If you are like me and have built a multitude of computers over the years, you surely have a box or two of spare parts lying around. I call mine “Nick’s Box Of Wonders.” When desperate enough I reach into this treasure trove of outdated RAM and ZIP disks to bring a sickly machine back to life, upgrade an old clunker, or even build a Frankenputer.

Some parts however, I find myself passing up each time I dip into the collection. I eventually give up on these unique items, and they get squired away forever or tossed. One such item is a really cool XEON heat sink. I couldn’t imagine just throwing it out, so instead I found three new uses for it:

A Business Card Holder – very classy

An iPod Dock – just add any sync cable

An Inbox – No one else in my office sorts mail like this

A pretty interesting view of of our culture and environmental issues through art. Artist Chris Jordan is working on a series called “Running the Numbers : An American self portrait” – where statistics are converted to images in the form of large format art works. As the description states, I can imagine they are even more impressive when seen in person but these works are pretty astonishing (and startling) at any scale.