If there is one thing that I have learned in my time with the ENERGY STAR program, it is that it takes the collective effort of many people to achieve real gains in the fight against climate change. ENERGY STAR is a great program, but without the power of partnership and the help of millions of American families and businesses, our program couldn’t succeed. Saving our environment from harmful greenhouse gas pollution is a big job and on days like today I am proud to spread the word about ENERGY STAR’s biggest advocates.

Today EPA is celebrating the hard work of the top ENERGY STAR pledge drivers from our 2011 Change the World, Start with ENERGY STAR campaign. The overall top pledge drivers are:

• Georgia Power Company
• Girl Scouts of the USA
• Samsung Electronics
• Ameren Illinois
• Nissan North America

So, what does it mean to become an ENERGY STAR top pledge driver? It means that these supporters incorporated the ENERGY STAR Pledge into their public outreach during the 2011 campaign year, and signed up thousands of people to make a public commitment to protecting our climate by saving energy. Together with those pledge takers, these partners helped to prevent to 600 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions!

These partners make our job here at EPA a lot easier and we thank them for all of their support. Are you interested in becoming a pledge driver and helping others to learn simple ways to save energy and protect the climate? Sign up here. If you have yet to take the pledge, make today the day to get started! Just click here and we will take you step by step into a more energy efficient future for you and your family.

For a list of all top pledge drivers, please go to ENERGY STAR’s website.

About the author: Brittney Gordon is a communications team member for EPA’s ENERGY STAR program.

Looking for ways to demonstrate your commitment to protecting the environment this Earth Day? There are plenty of ways you can help save energy, reduce the pollution in our air, and protect our climate for decades to come. Here are some of my favorite tips that my EPA colleagues recommend for making a difference at home, school, or work.

• Change a Light! The average home has approximately 30 light fixtures. By replacing your home’s five most frequently used light fixtures or the bulbs in them with models that have earned the ENERGY STAR, you can save $70 each year. If every American home did this, we would save $8 billion each year in energy costs and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from about 10 million cars!
• Reduce your carbon footprint! Leaving your car at home twice a week can cut greenhouse gas emissions by 1,600 pounds per year. Save up errands and shopping trips so you need to drive fewer times. If you commute to work, ask if you can work from home at least some days, and you’ll reduce air pollution and traffic congestion – and save money.
• It’s electric! You can check how much of your electricity comes from clean, renewable sources, such as wind or solar. Green power produces less carbon emissions, reduces air pollution, and helps protect against future costs or scarcity of fossil fuels. If green power is a consumer option, check price differences from suppliers before you buy.
• Breathe easy! On unhealthy air pollution “action alert” days, wait to mow your lawn until it’s cooler in the evening or early the next morning. You help reduce air pollution for everyone near you if you run gas-powered equipment, like lawn mowers, when it’s cooler. You also protect your health by avoiding ground-level ozone during the warmest part of the day. Check your air quality now.

You can find more suggestions at Environmental Tips, but don’t limit yourself to these suggestions. If you have a unique way to celebrate Earth Day, share your tip with us!

About the author: Shanshan Lin is an intern for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation communications team. She is also a graduate student at George Washington University.

Earth Day 2012 has come and gone and many of us marked the day by making private commitments to become better stewards of the environment. These lofty goals are a lot like New Year’s resolutions–and sadly they are usually completed with the same dismal success rate. This Earth Day I have a challenge for you. Put your energy savings were your mouth is and make a public commitment with ENERGY STAR.

EPA’s ENERGY STAR program just kicked off its 2012 campaign and we are making it easier than ever for you to make changes both big and small to protect the climate. If you are looking for a way to become part of the solution, we have everything you need to stay in check all year long.

Step One: Take the ENERGY STAR Pledge! The pledge is a great way to commit to making simple energy changes in your home and community. Over 2.8 million other Americans have already signed on, so you will be in great company. The pledge even links to special offers by ENERGY STAR partners that will help you accomplish your goals.

Step Two: Check out the Map! The ENERGY STARs Across America map is brand new for 2012 and includes energy efficiency education events all over the country. Find one in your area and get the support you need to fulfill your goals.

Step Three: Share Your Story! We know that many of you are already saving energy and striving to fight climate change. Well grab the video camera (or a still camera) and show the world how you are doing your part! We will put your story on the map for everyone to see.

Step Four: Join Team ENERGY STAR! Sign your kids up and let them see how easy it is to save energy at home. EPA is providing fun tips and tools to help spread the energy saving message to team members and their families. Kids can share their stories too, and they may earn cool rewards!

Ready to get started? Just go to ENERGY STAR’s website and get ready to make a difference! While you are at it, check out our brand new video that shows you exactly how to get started.

About the author: Brittney Gordon is a member of the ENERGY STAR communications team. She has worked for EPA since Fall 2010 and manages ENERGY STAR’s social media channels. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Solar PV array at Brockton Brightfields installation in MA

As a solar person, I am always on the look-out for prime sites for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. In addition to solar resources, I look for a few simple things: clear southern exposures, flat or gentle grades, and close proximity to power lines. In general, I am looking for space, whether it is an open rooftop or an abandoned rail yard.

With over 13,000 sites and nearly 22 million acres of EPA-tracked potentially contaminated and underutilized properties nationwide, I see an untapped potential for large-scale deployment of renewable energy. That acreage receives a whole lot of sunshine and, in some cases, gets its fair share of wind. For communities interested in renewables, these sites offer a unique value proposition.

In many cases, these properties have blighted the community for years. From the perspective of a renewable energy developer, these sites are attractive due to their proximity to existing distribution or transmission lines, favorable zoning, and potentially lower land costs.  With this redevelopment approach, I see the potential to turn these liabilities into community assets by remediating the site and deploying pollution-free energy facilities.

Wind-Turbines-at-Steel-Winds-facility-in-NY

Partnering with DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and remediation experts here at EPA, the RE-Powering team converted our collective knowledge into new tools to guide state and local governments, site owners, clean-up project managers, and other stakeholders through a process for screening potentially contaminated sites and landfills for their suitability for future redevelopment with PV or wind energy.

This knowledge is now bundled in a simple decision-tree format to enable communities to screen sites without needing renewable energy expertise. We built the screening tools to provide quick feedback on whether or not a site could be viable based on technical or economic criteria. The tools provide a thorough check than my quick check during a site walk. Throughout the process, we provide context for each of the criteria and point to additional tools and references to work through the evaluation process. Our goal is to empower communities to bring their vision of a solar array or wind farm one step closer.

While site walks at brownfields and landfills don’t always offer inspiring views, they are the next step in an inspired approach to expanding our American-made, renewable energy generation. Screen your sites. Take a walk. RE-Power America’s Land.

About the author: Katie Brown is the AAAS Science & Technology fellow hosted in the Center for Program Analysis in the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. Prior to her fellowship, Katie worked in the solar industry in product development and at NREL on device design and government-industry partnerships.

Environmental protection takes hard work. Doing the right thing for your environment and your health involves tough choices. Whether you want to save water, save energy, protect natural resources, reduce toxic chemicals, all these actions involve making a choice between a greener option or a less environmentally friendly option. Let me explain.

The greenest option is not always the easiest. For example, you want to save water? You can’t let the water faucet run without end. You can’t take a shower mindlessly. Want some suggestions for water conservation?  Turn off the tap while shaving or brushing your teeth. Take showers instead of baths and the shorter the better.

Over the years, many of us have gotten used to recycling used bottles and cans. However, reducing waste from the outset involves a greater effort. What can you save today? For example, instead of using disposable plastic bags for saving food, save leftovers in reusable durable containers. Look for products that have less packaging. These are some suggestions on how to make greener choices for the environment.

Want additional suggestions on how you can help protect natural resources like water, air, land, and energy? Please visit our Website.  The choices may seem simple, but there is no doubt that they require a conscious decision if you want to incorporate these actions into your daily lifestyle. Doing so will go a long way to having a healthier environment. What have you done for the environment lately? We would love to hear from you.

About the author: Lina Younes is the Multilingual Outreach and Communications Liaison for EPA. Among her duties, she’s responsible for outreach to Hispanic organizations and media. She spearheaded the team that recently launched EPA’s new Spanish website, www.epa.gov/espanol . She manages EPA’s social media efforts in Spanish. She’s currently the editor of EPA’s new Spanish blog, Conversando acerca de nuestro medio ambiente. Prior to joining the agency, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and an international radio broadcaster. She has held other positions in and out of the Federal Government.

This year my husband and I went on vacation to Boise, Idaho to visit his parents, and then to San Francisco to attend my husband’s boss’s retirement party. The last time I was in Boise was before I started with the ENERGY STAR program. At that time, while I recognized the ENERGY STAR label, I didn’t know that the program qualifies more than 60 product categories—from TVs to dishwashers to light bulbs. Now that I help the program promote ENERGY STAR qualified consumer electronics, I am always looking around at what products people have in their homes to see if they are ENERGY STAR qualified.

I was pleased to see that my in-laws recently replaced their kitchen appliances and washing machine with ENERGY STAR qualified models. I also noticed that their electronics were ENERGY STAR qualified– the TV in the kitchen, the computer in the den, even the digital-to-analog adapter in the bedroom all had the familiar blue label.

When we went to our hotel in San Francisco, I also looked around at the electronics. Again I was pleased that not only was the television qualified, but so was the DVD player. The one electronic that did not have the label was the MP3 docking station. Since the hotel was built in 2006, perhaps they purchased these docking stations before the program started covering them in 2010.

My in-laws and the hotel in San Francisco have both taken small but important steps that make a big difference in protecting the climate. These little steps add up: if every TV, DVD player, and home theater system purchased in the United States this year earned the ENERGY STAR, we would prevent more than 10 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to the emissions from about a million cars. We would also save more than $700 million in annual energy costs. So the next time you are in the market for a new electronic, consider ENERGY STAR in your purchase.

About the author: Una Song works for EPA’s ENERGY STAR program focused on consumer electronics marketing. In her free time she plays tennis and likes to try new restaurants.

Have you ever had trouble sleeping at night and the next day you feel drained?  Well, it may surprise you to learn that your computer may be experiencing insomnia as well.  In fact, it may not be getting any sleep at all resulting in a big energy drain.  While it may still perform with no problems, your electricity bill may not fare so well.

Did you know that you can save energy, help protect the environment, and shave up to $75 off your annual electric bill by activating the power management features on your computer? Get step by step instructions here to learn how easy it is to set your computer to automatically switch to sleep mode, which also allows it to run cooler and last longer.

You can shave the energy use of your laptop too, by activating your laptop’s system standby and hibernate features in the AC power profile—which will save power when the notebook is plugged into the wall.

I also recommend against using a screensaver when your computer monitor is not active (let it switch to sleep mode or turn the monitor off instead). Today’s monitors no longer need screen savers to help extend their life and certain screen savers can double a computer’s energy use.

If you really want to save some more energy (and looking for a potential raise), check to see if your office computer is going to sleep. Even if there are only 50 computers in your office, you could possibly save your employer up to $3,500 in annual energy costs by making the switch. Work for a bigger organization? General Electric activated the power management features on 75,000 computers and saved an estimated $2.5 million in one year.

But don’t feel like you have to save the whole world. Start at home and just take one simple step that will save you money and help the environment…helping you sleep better at night!

For more tips and information about computer power management, visit ENERGY STAR’s website.

About the author: Steve Ryan joined EPA’s ENERGY STAR program in 1999.

As a guy who has been trained for so long to look at sustainable manufacturing through an environmental lens, it was refreshing to hear what the “workforce side of manufacturing” was saying about a sustainability program I and representatives from five other federal agencies work on called E3: Economy, Energy and the Environment or, more simply, the E3 framework. At a panel discussion at the National Association of Workforce Board’s Forum in Washington, D.C. March 12, I learned how E3 has helped position several small manufacturing companies in North Carolina increase their work force, while improving their environmental and energy footprints.

By the way, Workforce Investment Boards or WIBS, for my environmental friends, are regional entities created to implement the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 and direct federal, state and local funding to workforce development programs.

E3 brings together experts from number of federal and local community organizations — like workforce boards — to help small-to-medium sized manufactures grow and thrive within this new era of sustainability. At the conference, I was particularly impressed with some of the workforce statistics that are being reported from the North Carolina E3 effort. Companies there are starting to hire again which is great! Kudos to the Work Force Investment Boards and the fine work that continues in North Carolina.

About the author: Tom Murray joined EPA way back in 1971 and has never lost the passion for pollution prevention and helping manufacturers become more sustainable

These past two weeks has brought unusually high temperatures to the D.C. area and I am taking full advantage of the sunny weather. I am always excited about the coming of spring and this early start motivates me to shake up my normal routine and start to do some of the things that I have been putting off. For me that includes some energy saving moves that will save my family money and help protect our environment from climate change.

If you are feeling inspired to do the same, here are a few easy tips:

• Change to More Efficient Light Bulbs: I still have a couple of incandescent bulbs hanging around the house and it is high time that I change them to Energy Star qualified models. Energy Star qualified lighting not only uses less energy, but also produces approximately 75 percent less heat than incandescent lighting, so your cooling bills will be reduced, too.
• Find the Best Thermostat Settings: If you have a programmable thermostat, program it to work around your family’s spring schedule—set it a few degrees higher when no one is home, so your cooling system isn’t cooling an empty house.
• Use Ceiling Fans: Run your ceiling fan to create a cool breeze. If you raise your thermostat by only two degrees and use your ceiling fan, you can lower cooling costs by up to 14 percent. Remember that ceiling fans cool you, not the room, so when you leave the room make sure to turn off the fan.
• Maximize Shade: Pull the curtains and shades closed before you leave your home to keep the sun’s rays from overheating the interior of your home. If you can, move container trees and plants in front of sun-exposed windows to serve as shade.
• Check Air Conditioner Filters: Check your cooling system’s air filter every month. If the filter looks dirty, change it. A good rule is to change the filter at least every three months. A dirty filter will slow air flow and make the system work harder to keep you cool—wasting energy. Also, remember to have your system serviced annually to ensure it’s running at optimum efficiency for money and energy savings.

For more information on how you can save energy this spring, check out Energy Star’s website for lots of great tips.

About the author: Brittney Gordon works on the communications team for EPA’s ENERGY STAR program. She began working for EPA in 2010 after a career in broadcast journalism.

As the Department of Energy’s Environmental Justice Program Manager, I am committed to making environmental justice a reality. That means ensuring that all stakeholders are informed about the issues affecting their communities and have the opportunity to meaningfully participate in environmental decision-making.

To help achieve this goal, we sponsor the 2012 National Environmental Justice Conference and Training Program (NEJC), which will take place in Washington DC, April 11-13, 2012. This year’s conference will focus specifically on youth outreach and how we can enhance communities through capacity building and technical assistance.

One speaker I am very excited about is Nancy Sutley, who has provided leadership across the federal government on environmental justice in her role as Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Ms. Sutley will be the morning keynote speaker for the conference on Friday, April 13th. And, while, you may know her as the Congresswoman of the United States Virgin Islands, the Honorable Dr. Donna M. Christensen (D-VI) has been a big champion for the environment and a cheerleader for eliminating health disparities for years. She will be leading a panel discussion on Thursday April 12th.

For those of you who are most interested in sharing best practices or garnering a few, we also have selected Lisa Garcia, Senior Advisor to the Administrator at the EPA, and Daria Neal, Deputy Chief of the Federal Compliance Section for the U. S. Department of Justice, to lead interactive sessions over the three-day conference. Native Alaskan Jacqueline Shirley from the Zender Group and Vernice Miller-Travis of the Maryland Commission on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities will also share their best environmental justice practices for community capacity building and collaboration. And, we have added an online environmental justice training module, which will not only provide useful information, but also allow participants to receive continuing education credit.

Registration is almost at capacity. With only a month to go, you should register today! For more information about conference and the list of speakers, visit

About the author: Melinda Downing joined Department of Energy’s Washington, DC headquarters office in 1978 and currently oversees the Department’s Environmental Justice Program. Working in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency, a partnership was established with various communities around the country to provide them with training, resources and education to address their environmental concerns and issues and to give them a voice at the table to be a part of the decision-making process. The Department of Energy along with the Environmental Protection Agency is a member of the Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice which consists of 17 Federal agencies committed to the principals of Environmental Justice Executive Order 12898.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.