Green Gazette (Issue 15) Eco Friendly Toys, Green Hospital Energy, Sustainable Sites
ByWelcome back to a new edition of the Green Gazette. As I type this I noticed the date is Nov 5th, this used to be my favourite night of the year as a kid. A drizzly rain and standing in the cold looking up at the sky waiting for colour and noise. If you wonder what I’m rambling about just check this link to Guy Fawkes night. Anyway enough of that, let’s see what Green news is worthy today….there are some good ones!
Well with it being November it’s a good reminder that Christmas is just 8 weeks away and if children are part of your world then some toys are in 
order (for the well behaved). Reuters published this list of the top ten eco-friendly gifts for children which is worth your perusal. The full list has a number of good ideas but amongst my favourites are:
Desert Hothouse: This kit includes seeds for Cacti and Succulents, gravel, sand and a mini greenhouse. The price is right and your child can have an eco-friendly slice of Arizona wherever they might live.
Hugg-A-Planet: Pretty much as it sounds, a soft educational ‘earth’ which helps little ones learn about islands, oceans, rivers and more. Educational if not as appealing as a furry bunny.
Recycle Truck: Little lads and lasses love a truck at the best of times, so this one is a recycling truck made entirely from recycled milk containers. Activism can start as young as age three! The truck has a sortable container and no metal parts.
From there we head to New York City where the NY Presbyterian hospital has officially transferred it’s power source to a green one. With the 
addition of the power from the new plant, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center will generate between 60 percent and 100 percent of its own electricity. Hospitals (like factories) are huge energy consumers and the changes made at this facility equate to reductions in carbon emissions equivalent to taking 3,600 vehicles off of the streets. The 7.5-megawatt power plant burns natural gas in a turbine to generate electricity continuously for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Heat from the turbine, which is usually wasted as exhaust gas, is captured and reused to generate steam for heating and cooling.
I enjoyed this article as it’s both a fantastic idea but also a topic I find truly interesting. Living in the desert southwest people often mistake a perfect green lawn and well maintained shrubs 
as a sign of an eco-friendly home or business. The reality is that a green lawn can take so muc maintenance in energy and chemicals (golf courses take note) that nothing could be further from the truth. This article in the Washington Times brings awareness to a new organization that will make a true and impact driven assessment of a property to establish how well it performs/can perform on a ‘green scale’. Part of the initiative’s mission is educating the nation about little-known sustainable-landscape practices. The ‘Sustainable Sites Initiative’ will rate and benchmark a variety of locations that are eligible. It’s bold, ambitious and can make a real change in the way a landscape (even if it’s our own garden) can be more efficient. According to a 2008 survey conducted by the American Society of Landscape Architects, 96 percent of U.S. adults have instituted some type of sustainable or energy-efficient measure at home, but just 58 percent use energy or water-saving techniques in their yard or garden.
A final quick story that I will expand upon soon as I think it is really useful for those who travel often. The Sutton Place hotel in Toronto has just become the 1,000th hotel certified under the ISTAYGREEN program. More about this soon…it’s really cool.
Related Posts
- Green Gazette (issue 43) Hotel guests to provide green energy, Puma kicks away shoe boxes and recycled glass ideas
- Recycling Truck Proves to be an Eco-friendly Toy Hit
- Green Gazette (Issue 5) Bettersphere, Green Milk and PC energy tips
- Three great solar toys
- Green Gazette (Issue 23) The ECO UN, Google Earth and The Path to Green Energy
2 Comments
February 25th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
I live in AZ, and I will tell you that if people have green grass and an abundance of shrubbery, it’s not “green”. AZ has been in a drought for 11 years, the amount of plants are making the weather awkward and humid around here. The PHX metro area is giving incentives for switching to a low water landscape (rocks, gravel, dirt, turf etc..) But I personally switched to turf and got a rebate from the city.
February 26th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Agreed, people in Phoenix often forget it is a desert after all - adding humidity and wasting water don’t make sense.