Safety Tips for Tomorrow's Bike-To-Work Day at Guidance

Before Your Ride:

• Plan your route. The Guidance office is a great central location for riding. Bike paths lead to Marina Del Rey from the South Bay, the West Side and Culver City. Two good resources for mapping a bike ride are www.mapmyride.com and www.gmap-pedometer.com.


• Check your bike. Do you have air in your tires? Is everything working properly? If you will be riding in the dark, are your lights working?


• Do you have everything you need? Be sure to bring a bike lock if you are parking your bike outside! If you need a change of clothes, it will be easier if you pack them the night before. If you are using the shower here, don’t forget your towel. If you don’t have a helmet, pick one up tonight. Be sure to ride with a cell phone, money for emergencies, ID and an emergency contact.

On Your Ride:

• Wear a helmet. A helmet is to riding a bike as a seatbelt is to riding in a car.


• Watch for cars. While there are lots of bike paths in the area, you will be riding on the streets with cars in part. Do not assume that they see you, even if you have the right of way.


• Watch for obstacles and slick streets. Tomorrow’s forecast is sunny, but the streets might still be wet, so ride carefully. Also keep an eye out for potholes and debris. If you are riding by parked cars, be extra careful for people opening their doors.


• Wear comfortable clothing. The morning might be chilly, but you will warm up as you ride. Layers will help keep you as warm or cool as you need to be.


• Enjoy your surroundings! You will notice a lot more on your bike ride than you do when driving into work. It’s spring and Ballona Creek is blooming! The ocean looks great from the strand, and there are lots of people out and about.

Have a great ride!

Rachele
Guidance Green

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*Participation is completely voluntary.

Guidance Shows Support for Hopenhagen, Provides Virtual Hosting Services

You’ve seen the billboard ads. You’ve heard the buzz. It’s Hopenhagen.

Hopenhagen is a movement seeking to encourage global citizens to voice out to world leaders attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark (COP15) the need to establish better sustainability policies. Their Web site, Hopenhagen.org, calls on visitors to become citizens of Hopenhagen by signing the “Climate Change” petition and sharing their messages of hope. The petition – along with every name signed to it – will be presented to world leaders at the COP15 meeting.

In early September, Guidance was approached by Hopenhagen stakeholders looking for application support services as well as eco-friendly solutions to host their site. Guidance presented them with two alternatives: our green hosting solutions using energy-efficient HP servers, and our virtual hosting solutions using VMware software. For both, Guidance offsets all remaining electricity-related CO2 emissions by purchasing renewable energy credits (RECs) through BeGreen Business, the carbon offset brand of Green Mountain Energy. The credits are made from wind and biomass sources located throughout the United States.

Hopenhagen stakeholders chose to host their site virtually with Guidance. The site went live on September 15th, and shortly after its launch, Guidance employees went on to show their support by signing the petition.

Leaders from more than 180 nations will meet in Copenhagen from December 7th to the 18th of this year to ratify a new international global climate treaty, which will take effect when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Hopenhagen was created by the International Advertising Association (IAA) in support of the UN’s call for marketing assistance to sign “Climate Change” petition.

To find out how to become a citizen of Hopenhagen, sign their petition before December 7th, 2009 at http:/www.Hopenhagen.org. To learn more about Guidance’s hosting solutions, please visit our Web site at http://www.guidance.com/services/hosting.

Guidance has significantly reduced its overall consumption of electricity and paper as a result of a company-wide commitment to sustainable business practices, known as Guidance Green. Guidance’s purchase of renewable energy credits offset 100 percent of the carbon emissions associated with its business activities.

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Jon Provisor
Guidance

2nd Annual Guidance Green Picnic - Eat. Learn. Live Green.

Last week, Guidance hosted its 2nd Annual Guidance Green Picnic – Eat. Learn. Live Green. The event brought together Guidance employees and those of about seven other companies in our business park, for an afternoon of healthy eating and environmental education.

Organized by Guidance’s green committee (appropriately named Guidance Green), our annual Guidance Green Picnic events seek to celebrate Guidance’s green achievements for the year while educating Guidance employees and the community in general about environmental initiatives, tips, and programs that aim to improve the wellbeing of our planet. This year’s event counted with the participation of various environmentally-active guest speakers, including actress and comedienne Mindy Sterling (best known for her role of Frau Farbissina in all Austin Powers movies), actor and singer Joseph Culp (son of legendary actor Robert Culp, and best known for his appearances in Mad Men, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and ER), Dave Chameides (also known as “Sustainable Dave” and his website 365DaysOfTrash.com), and Mary Beth Trautwein (Director of the reDiscover Center in Culver City).




Mindy Sterling educated us on animal wildlife and how our everyday activities can affect their lives. Sustainable Dave emptied out the contents of his backpack to show us that by carrying with a few essentials like a reusable thermal mug, a reusable water canteen, a set of utensils (stored in a toothbrush case), a reusable shopping bag, and other items, we do our part in helping reduce the billions of pounds of waste that are collected every minute. Mary Beth Trautwein spoke to us about reDiscover, a community art center, reuse warehouse, gallery and event space that promotes creativity while encouraging environmental responsibility. Joseph Culp talked to us about the first solar power-based theater, The Electric Lodge in Venice, CA, where his musical play, The Hound – An American Poem, is being performed. Joseph also introduced us to Dr. Joel Shapiro, owner and creator of The Electric Lodge. Dr. Shapiro is also an environmental activist who in 2008 took a three-day journey down the 52-mile L.A. River along with a dozen kayakers to show the river was indeed navigable, therefore preventing the rollback of the Clean Water Act and allowing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to safeguard the river.



Guidance CTO and co-owner, Jon Provisor, also addressed the audience, encouraging everyone to join Guidance's commitment to sustainability and corporate responsibility, by following the advice shared at the event.



Businesses like Whole Foods (El Segundo), The Veggie Grill, and Buddha’s Belly were among our event’s sponsors, treating our guests with giveaways, gift cards and prizes. In addition, organizations like Project Aware and the Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church were among the supporters this year. And for the second year in a row, Go Earth Central donated its innovative line of compostable, sugarcane-based plates, utensils and cups for us to use at the event. We genuinely appreciate the generosity of these organizations and their support of our mission.

Guidance is proud to be an environmentally-aware, 100% carbon-neutral company that has significantly reduced its overall consumption of electricity as a result of a company-wide commitment to sustainable business practices, which we share in detail in our Green Toolkit. To learn more about our green commitment, and our committee Guidance Green, visit our website at www.guidancegreen.org.

You can check out photos from our picnic at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=83180&id=11521514227&ref=mf. Drop us a line or become a fan while on our Facebook Fan Page!

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Alejandra E.
Guidance Green

Guidance Green Announces New Coffee Grounds Recycling Program

Did you know that the average American consumes about 3 cups of coffee a day? That’s a lot of used coffee grinds going into the trash.

Guidance Green is announcing an in-house coffee grounds recycling program. Guidance employees and visitors can pick up pre-measured bags of coffee grounds that are being saved and packed by Guidance Green members.

Coffee by-products can be used in the garden, as an exfoliant for skin, as a hair polisher to keep it shiny, as a deodorizer for your freezer, as ant & flea repellant, and to keep cats away from plants and the garden. To learn more tips on how to use post-consumed coffee ground, check out our Coffee Grounds Recycling Program document.

Save the Blue Butterfly!

Guidance Green Volunteer Opportunity

Who:
Everyone is invited to join us, including spouses, children, friends, family.

When:
Saturday, February 7, 2009, 9:00 AM to Noon.

What to bring:
Restoration supplies will be provided by the Palos Verdes PLC. Please wear sunscreen, dress appropriately and bring a bottle of water.

Where:
Defense Fuel Supply Point (DFSP)
3171 N. Gaffey St.
Los Angeles, CA 90731

View Larger Map.

What to Expect:
Volunteers will be enhancing endangered Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly habitat by planting Lotus scoparius (deerweed), which is the food plant for the butterfly, and/or removing non-native plants that may be overtaking the habitat. This will also help the threatened California gnatcatcher, a small gray bird that is also on the endangered species list.

Signing Up:
Please let our Guidance Green team leader, Catherine know by Wednesday, Feb. 4th, if you will be participating and whether or not you will have additional adults and/or children joining you, along with their names.

We hope to see you on Saturday!

Ale Espinosa
Guidance Green

California Coastal Cleanup Day

September 20th, 2008
9am to noon
Over 70 coastal sites throughout
Los Angeles County, Calif.

For the 18th consecutive year, Heal The Bay, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to making Southern California coastal waters and watersheds healthy and clean, has organized the Coastal Cleanup Day. This year's event will take place at over 70 different locations throughout Los Angeles County on Saturday, September 20th from 9am to noon.

As expected, Guidance Green will be there to help collect what Heal The Bay predict as the 1-millionth pound of trash they have collected in 18 years. The Guidance Green team will report at Dockweiler State Beach in Playa del Rey, CA.

If you'd like to join us, here's how:

• Download and print a copy of the Coastal Cleanup Day flyer to display on your car dashboard to benefit from the free parking from 9 to noon.
• Download and print the event's waiver and sign it. Bring it to the event with you.
• When you arrive at Dockweiler State Beach (or any of the 70 CCD-participating sites), turn in your waiver at the registration table or station #1.
• Proceed to station #2 to receive a safety and education talk with instructions for the day and to know where to clean, what to clean, and why.
• Once you are instructed you'll be ready to receive your cleanup supplies (trash bag, recycle bag, data card, pencil, and glove) from station #3.
• Please return everything at the wrap up of the event at 11:30am. Each site will have special instructions to follow day of, so pay attention to your cleanup captains.

Please note:

• All minors under the age of thirteen must be accompanied by an adult.
• All toddlers and babies must be with their parent at all times.
• All scouts, cubs, and youth groups should follow a reasonable adult-to-kid ratio for the safety of all participants at this event.

If you're wondering what to bring to the event, here's a list:

• a water bottle
• a hat
• sunscreen
• close-toe shoes
• appropriate clothing for a day of cleaning (if you plan on attending a beach site like Dockweiler State Beach, wear layers; if you're going inland to clean, wear clothes that will allow you to work in creek beds and rivers)

Cleanup supplies are provided by the California Coastal Commission at all sites.

For more information, contact Heal The Bay at (800) HEAL-BAY or visit their webiste at http://www.healthebay.org/.

See you on Saturday 9/20!

Take the Guidance Green Eco-Trivia Quiz!

Ever wonder how many trees does the average American consume in paper or wood materials over their lifetime? Do you know how many plastic bottles are used every hour in the U.S.? What percentage of car journeys are made with only one occupant in the vehicle?

Find out answers to these and other greenteresting questions in the Guidance Green Eco-Trivia Quiz! Click here to download.

Guidance Offers Green Hosting for eCommerce Websites

Guidance (http://www.Guidance.com), which helps online retailers achieve market domination by creating captivating and engaging online shopping experiences, today announced that it is now providing its clients with hosting solutions that are 100 percent carbon-neutral.

The move will not require any upgrades or additional investment on the client's part. It's a new standard practice for Guidance - the latest in a series of changes undertaken over the past year to help the company achieve its goal of operating as an environmentally aware, carbon-neutral company.

To reduce overall energy use, Guidance bought and is now using energy-efficient servers and processors to host its clients' websites: HP's energy-optimized ProLiant(R) servers (DL360 G5 and DL380 G5), with the low-voltage Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) Processor L5420. Guidance also is moving to more virtualization in the company's development environment to reduce internal energy consumption.

Guidance has successfully offset all of its remaining electricity-related CO2 emissions from its servers by purchasing renewable energy credits (RECs) through BeGreen Business, the carbon offset brand of Green Mountain Energy. The credits are made from wind and biomass sources located throughout the United States, helping avoid an average of more than 52,500 pounds of CO2 emissions annually.

This has the equivalent environmental benefit of not driving a car roughly 58,500 miles, or of recycling almost 130,000 aluminum cans and more than 21,000 pounds of newspaper.

"We're giving online retailers an easy way to embrace green hosting," said Jon Provisor, Guidance co-owner and CTO. "We've been working for more than a year now to make our business operate in a more sustainable, environmentally responsible way. We're especially excited about this achievement, because it's something we can offer our clients - making sustainability a shared effort." Data centers account for 1.5 percent to 3 percent of electricity consumption in the United States, according to CIO Magazine's special report, "Green is Better." A recent report by Stanford University researcher Jonathan Koomey says worldwide energy consumption for servers, cooling equipment and related infrastructure doubled from 2000 to 2005, and could nearly double again by 2010 - unless companies make a concerted effort for change.

Guidance has significantly reduced its overall consumption of electricity as a result of a company-wide commitment to sustainable business practices, which Guidance shares in detail in the Green Toolkit offered here. For 2007, Guidance's purchase of renewable energy credits offset 100 percent of the carbon emissions associated with its business activities.

About BeGreen
Carbon Offsets BeGreen Carbon Offsets (www.begreennow.com) is a division of Green Mountain Energy Company, the longest serving green power provider in the U.S. BeGreen provides education about the serious effects of harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and offers businesses and consumers simple and effective ways to reduce their carbon footprint through the purchase of renewable energy, forest sequestration and other project-based offsets. BeGreen's carbon calculators follow the EPA Climate Leaders methodology, which is based on the World Resources Institute's Greenhouse Gas Protocol (WRI GHG), a widely accepted industry standard. All purchases and sales of BeGreen's carbon offset projects are also verified by an independent auditing firm to ensure their quality and effectiveness.

About Guidance
Since 1993, Guidance (www.guidance.com) has helped companies seize opportunities and solve problems through the innovative and practical use of technology. Guidance designs, builds and maintains eCommerce websites for retailers that are pure-play online or multi-channel - creating captivating experiences so consumers will buy more, come back often and value greater engagement with the retailer. Guidance software systems facilitate $500 million in online sales every year. Members of the Guidance team are seasoned professionals, passionately committed to providing technical leadership and powering ingenuity.

Guidance Green at Polliwog Park April 19

Guidance Green Table at Manhattan Beach Earth Day Fair

Date:
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Time:
11:00am to 4:00pm
Set-up: 8:00am – 11:00am
(cars for unloading won’t be admitted after 10:00am)
Breakdown: 4:00pm
Location:
Polliwog Park
1601 Manhattan Beach Blvd.,
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Parking:
Street parking (there are plenty of side streets near the park)
What to expect:
Your typical town fair; food kiosks, artisans, live music, etc.
Objectives for attending the event:
To incentivize booth visitors to join our movement in favor of eco-friendly practices that can be carried out by companies and individuals.
To get visitors to sign up for our raffle and ask them to check out the links printed on their end of the raffle ticket
To promote Guidance as…
…an environmentally-friendly company committed to serving its community by supporting local events and green initiatives
…a first-class provider of custom eCommerce solutions for companies seeking to dominate their markets
…a great place to work!
Earth Day Fair Schedule of Events:
· 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Stephen Michael Schwartz (Children’s Entertainment)
· 1:00 PM - 1:30 PM Environmental Hero Awards Presentation
· 1:30 PM - 2:15 PM Fab Forever (Beatles Tribute)
· 2:15 PM - 2:30 PM Awards and Raffle
· 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM Pretzel Logic: A Steely Dan Revue

Catherine