Instant Messaging for a Good Cause

Members of the Guidance Green Committee recently became aware of a really cool initiative ongoing at Microsoft that makes it easy to contribute to your favorite social and environmental causes.

Tied to Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger, the “I’M INITIATIVE” gives a percentage of the ad proceeds from your instant messages to the cause of your choice. Since starting the initiative in March 2007, Microsoft has raised more than $35,000 for these worthy causes.

Here’s how it works:

• Make sure you’re using Microsoft Windows Live Messenger version 8.1. If you’re not currently using version 8.1 you can download it here.
  
• From your Contacts window, click the arrow next to your name and select "Options".
  
• Next to your name, type one of the following codes (including the asterisk) for the cause you'd like to support, and click OK.

To select American Red Cross code = *red+u
To select Boys & Girls Clubs of America code = *bgca
To select Humane Society of the United States code = *hsus
To select National AIDS Fund code = *naf
To select National MS Society code = *mssoc
To select ninemillion.org code = *9mil
To select Sierra Club code = *sierra
To select StopGlobalWarming.org code = *help
To select Susan G. Komen for the Cure code = *komen
To select U.S. Fund for UNICEF code = *UNICEF

It’s that simple.

So take five minutes today to choose an organization to support and add it to your Windows Live Messenger. If you’re not currently using Windows Live Messenger, you can download it by clicking the banner below.

Guidance Achieves Carbon Neutrality

Guidance is excited to announce that we have achieved a goal we set for ourselves in early 2007 to achieve carbon neutrality by 2009. We did it – a full eighteen months earlier than expected!

For 2007, Guidance’s purchase of renewable energy credits offset 100% of the carbon emissions associated with our business activities. The renewable energy source derives from wind and biomass production facilities.

Our commitment to utilizing renewable energy credits helps avoid over 99 metric tons – or 219,000 pounds -- of CO2 per year, which has the equivalent impact of not driving over 243,000 miles.

We are extremely proud to have reached this important milestone and will continue to look for other ways to lessen the impact our activities have on the environment. Our environmental policy, published as a Declaration, details the many ways in which we are working to reduce or eliminate our impact on the environment.

Acknowledgement and thanks goes out to Green Mountain Energy Company who worked with us to calculate our carbon footprint and secure the renewable energy credits to offset our carbon emissions.

Tree Musketeers: How the Provisor's spent a Saturday

My son Alex and I took a Saturday and participated in the Tree Musketeers "Trees to the Sea" event off the Imperial Highway median. The objective on that day was to spread mulch across a two mile section of the median; the mulch helps the trees by preventing weeds and trapping moisture. It was a hot day and a messy job, but our team spread 1000's of pounds of wood chips (mulch).

Alex felt great helping out and we met some very friendly people.



Tree Musketeers is a non-profit organization with a mission to help young people become leaders of environmental and social change in the Earth's Communities. For more information you can visit their Web site at http://www.treemusketeers.org/

Volunteer Opportunity

Nothin’ but Sand

Saturday, June 30
9:30 a.m. to Noon
(bottled water and lunch will be provided)
Guidance has Adopted a Beach in Marina del Rey
Who: Everyone is invited to join us for some fun in the sun, including spouses, children, friends, family.
When: Saturday, June 30, 2007, 9:30 AM to Noon.
Schedule: 9:30 a.m. arrival; 9:45 a.m., Heal the Bay Speaker presentation; 10:00 a.m., begin clean up; noon, lunch provided if you can stay.
What to bring: Supplies will be provided by Heal the Bay. Guidance will provide bottled water and lunch. Please wear sunscreen and dress appropriately.
Where: Mother’s Beach, 4101 Admiralty Way, Marina del Rey.
What to Expect: A free educational presentation by a member of Heal the Bay’s Speakers Bureau 15 minutes prior to starting at 9:45 a.m. Volunteers will be picking up trash and compiling data on trash they collect.
Signing Up: Please let Catherine know by Wednesday, June 6, if you will be participating and whether or not you will have additional adults and/or children joining you. Guidance Green T-shirts are being ordered, so please let Catherine know how many and what sizes for you and your party in your email response.
Catherine Lanzarotta Office Manager310.754.4000 direct clanz@guidance.com Guidance www.guidance.com
4134 Del Rey Ave Marina Del Rey, CA 90292310.754.4000 main 310.754.4010 fax

Carbon Footprint

Your carbon footprint is a representation of the effect you, or your business, have on the climate in terms of the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emissions you produce. Many of your actions generate carbon emissions, which contribute to accelerating global warming and climate change. By measuring your carbon footprint, you can get a better sense of what your individual impact is and which parts of your lifestyle deserve the greatest attention. Over 88% of Guidance's carbon footprint is a result of electricity usage! Remember to power off your computers and turn off lights when not in use.

Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel

Ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) is diesel fuel with substantially lowered sulfur contents. As of late 2006, most diesel fuel sold in the US and Canada is ULSD.

Moving to lower sulfur content will allow the application of newer emissions control technologies that will lower emissions of toxic gases from diesel engines. These new emissions standards will extend to some US states in 2007.

ULSD was proposed by the EPA as a new standard for the sulfur content in on-road diesel fuel sold in the US since late 2006, except for California and rural Alaska. This new regulation applies to all diesel fuel, diesel fuel additives and distillate fuels blended with diesel for on-road use, such as kerosene, however, it does not yet apply to train locomotives, marine, or off road uses. By December 1, 2010, all highway diesel will be ULSD.

The allowable sulfur content for ULSD (15 ppm) is much lower than the previous U.S. on-highway standard for low sulfur diesel (LSD, 500 ppm), which not only reduces emissions of sulfur compounds (blamed for acid rain), but also allows advanced emission control systems to be fitted that would otherwise be poisoned by these compounds. These systems can greatly reduce emissions of oxides of nitrogen and particulates.

Because this grade of fuel is comparable to European grades and engines will no longer have to be redesigned to cope with higher sulfur content and may use advanced emissions control systems which can be damaged by sulfur, the standard may increase the availability of diesel-fueled passenger cars in the U.S. European diesels are much more popular with buyers than those available in the U.S.

The refining process that removes the sulfur also reduces the aromatic content and density of the fuel, resulting in a minor decrease in the energy content, by about 1%. This decrease in energy content may result in reduced peak power and fuel economy. The reduction is only slight and will likely go unnoticed.

Other countries, including Canada, China, Russia and Sweden have mandated similar requirements.

More info can be found here:
http://www.epa.gov/cleandiesel/

Green is Better

CIO Magazine (April 1, 2007) just published a special report Green Is Better http://www.cio.com/article/101506/Green_IT_Leading_Your_IT_Department_Toward_Environmental_Sustainability_and_Increased_Profits The story of how VistaPrint reduced their data center costs was intriguing, especially as it made a decision to move away from blade servers to virtualization. According to the article, data centers account for 1.5% to 3% of electricity consumption in the United States. WOW! We’ve just begun to evaluate our hardware choices based on environmental impact, but there are very real TCO savings to be had by doing so. The challenge is great, but the beneficial impact can be greater.

Jon Larsen, Vice President