Thursday, October 30, 2008

We're Bullfrogged!

We're now officially BullfrogPowered! In an ongoing effort to reduce our impact on Earth and teach our children about sustainable living, we have signed up with BullfrogPower. It is one of those completely selfless acts of green living. It costs us money and we benefit in no direct way. This is how it works: BullfrogPower tracks our power usage through our regular electricity provider. At the end of the month they add up how many kWh of electricity we used. They then send us a bill for $0.02/kWh. What does this pay for? In return for what we pay them, they inject the exact amount of kWh we used in electricity onto the grid from a renewable source. In Alberta, they have produced a large wind energy generation system. So if we use 500kWh in electricity one month in regular electricity, they then produce 500kWh in wind energy and inject it onto the grid. Now a larger portion of Alberta's electricity is coming from a renewable source. Since most of this power is generated down south I benefit in no way and it adds $10 to my monthly bills, but it sure feels good knowing I'm supporting the growth of the renewable energy industry in Alberta.

While you are signing up for BullfrogPower as I know you'll do, hop on over to OneMillionActsofGreen. It's a social networking site for greenies! You setup a profile and then document all the green acts you've done. It gives you a running total of how many kg of carbon emissions you've prevented from entering the atmosphere by your acts. I've listed all acts that I've done recently that I would think the average person has not. I have done a total of 81 green acts and saved 10473kg of carbon emissions. That's 10 tonnes of CO2! That's almost the equivalent of taking two cars off the road completely. Not bad for one person!

By the way, I'm not trying to toot my own horn or trying to make you green with envy (oh, that was a lame joke). I'm just trying to show how easy it is for us to change our ways to make for a more sustainable future for our children. I'll leave you with a wise phrase from the Great Law of the Iroquois:

"In every deliberation we must consider the impact on the seventh generation."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love that Iroquois quote. Excellent.