Free Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb

Home Depot will give away one million compact fluorescent bulbs on April 19 in honor of Earth Day 2009. We don’t encourage you making a special trip just to pick it up. Do it on your way to grocery shopping or church on Sunday. We expect a lot of people are going to show up, so you may want to call ahead to check availability right before you stop by the store. The free bulb is an EcoSmart 14-watt compact fluorescent. Limit one bulb per customer. [Home Depot lacation]

Fisker Automotive’s debut model, the 2010 Fisker Karma, is anticipated to be the first plug-in hybrid car to market when early production vehicles come off the assembly line late this year.

The 2010 Karma, planned to retail for $87,900 before tax credits, is designed to travel roughly 50 miles emission-free, powered by a Lithium-ion battery that can be charged in a few hours from any 110- or 240-volt household outlet. After 50 miles, a 2.0 liter gasoline engine runs a generator that can power the car’s electric motors for another 250 miles before refueling.

Most people don’t drive more than 50 miles for a typical roundtrip between home and work, so the gasoline generator may never kick in for a common workday. This balance of electric and gas range makes it possible that Karma drivers who charge their car in the evening and commute fewer than 50 miles a day will achieve an average fuel economy of 100 mpg over the course of a year. [Fisker Automotive]

Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. Corporation (SEV U.S. Corp) recently announced its plan to assemble all-electric zero-emission commercial vehicles in the US. The very first green commercial truck is scheduled to roll out of assembly line in third quarter of 2009. The company will initially focus its production on battery-electric-powered vehicles for depot-based predictable-route delivery.

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Thousands of pounds of plastic end up in our landfills every day. Much of the plastic comes from one time use of bottles and plastic bags. As we know it, most plastic can last up to 1,000 years in an enclosed landfill!

Using lunch bag made from 100% bamboo is another great way to live green and do so affordably. These bamboo lunch bags are light, soft, and tough. Best of all, they are renewable, reusable, and easily decomposed.

Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on earth. A 60 foot cut takes only 59 days to re-grow. It can regenerates without planting. Furthermore, bamboo never requires chemicals and pesticides to keep it growing healthily. [New Wave Enviro Products]

Just a few weeks after President Obama asked Congress to send him legislation “that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America,” The Discovery Channel will air an original one-hour special on the power and potential of cutting-edge green energy breakthroughs poised to take place when Congress rises to the challenge. “Earth: The Sequel,” premieres Wednesday, March 11 at 10 PM (ET/PT) and features Fred Krupp, President of Environmental Defense Fund, as well as numerous clean energy entrepreneurs working to build a viable and highly profitable future for our planet.

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By simply replacing fluorescent lighting with high-efficiency LED in frozen food reach-in cases and refrigerated dairy and beverage cases, a single Kroger store in Peoria, Illinois is anticipated to slash annual energy costs of more than $9,000.

“Kroger is to be congratulated for their aggressive electric energy efficiency initiatives, which will benefit their customers, employees and the communities they serve,” said Stan Ogden, Ameren Illinois Utilities vice president of Customer Service and Public Relations.

The utility company presented Kroger with a $5,000 incentive check for participating the program called Act On Energy™. In addition, Kroger will receive incentive payments totaling more than $100,000 when the company finishes the installation of LED high-efficiency lighting in a total of 22 Central and Southern Illinois stores serviced by the utility company. It pays to be green! [Act On Energy]

The newly redesigned Stella keyboard mechanism has earned Cradle-to-Cradle Silver Certification. Almost all keyboard systems have assumed a cradle-to-grave life cycle, what it means the you use a product until it wears out and then bury it in the landfill. Cradle-to-Cradle certification confirms that a product has been developed to be eco-friendly and designed under the assumption that it eventually will be recycled. The Stella keyboard system made by Details is the second keyboard support mechanism from the entire industry to earn C2C certification.

More than one in three honey-bee colonies in the U.S. have mysteriously died over the last three years; a staggering phenomenon scientists have named Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD.

Because honey bee pollination is required to produce one-third of all the natural foods we eat, honey bees play a critical role in ensuring we have enough food to feed our growing population. Therefore, we must do our part to solve this dire puzzle threatening our food supply and stumping scientists from around the world. Continue Reading…

This year at Oscars™, many celebrities will trade in their luxury limos for hybrids and alternative energy vehicles. Stars such as Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, Rosario Dawson, Adrien Grenier, and many others will ride in the new 2010 Toyota Prius Hybrid collaborated by Toyota and Econation green ground transportation.

The new Prius includes a solar panel on the roof to power cooling fans when the car is not running is among a long list of upgraded features. Although the cooling fans may not come to good use in this time of the year, the biggest names in show business will sure make a strong environmental statement with style. [Toyota, Econation]