Venice House at 710 Milwood

A few weeks ago, Guidance employees were invited to visit the environmentally friendly house at 710 Milwood Ave in Venice.

The house was developed as part of a combined effort between various sponsors and charities. The information site for the house can be found here.

Some intelligent and eco-friendly features of the home, besides it's $3M+ price tag, include solar panels for zero external power dependency, automatic ceiling vents to control room temperature during all seasonal cycles, and some of the most modern and high-end appliances and furniture.

The home is built without the use of any toxic materials. Rainwater is captured to irrigate its own landscape. The garden is composed of drought tolerant and indigenous plants. The hardscape is permeable, so that rain water seeps back into the earth, helping to prevent erosion.

Every aspect of the home is practical, highly efficient and green. It is an example of how man can live in harmony with the environment.

Below is a list of pictures from that visit:

Connect with Nature

When we told Guidance employees to “take a hike,” we meant it!
And take a hike we did at beautiful Malibu Creek State Park.
In an effort to connect with nature and be reminded of the
environment we’re helping to protect through our
Guidance Green Initiative, on September 23rd we enjoyed a hike
to the Rock Pools with a stop at the Visitor Center along the way.

Ready, Set, Hike!

Nature in the Balance, or
is it Balance in the Nature?

Catherine and Mia

The Stewarts enjoy the
Visitor Center

Thanks to rain a couple of days

before, the creek was bursting with

life, including turtles.

Mia at our final destination,

the Rock Pools.

Greening Your Business

Valerie from Bentley Prince Street, an eco-friendly manufactuer of broadloom and carpet tile, alerted me to this site-- http://greenbiz.com/ -- which has tons of resources and information for greening your business and understanding more about the industry.

I have subscribed to all of their news feeds and email blasts-- here's are a few examples of what they have:

• Greener Buildings newsletter
• Greener Computing newsletter

Enjoy!
Jeff

The race to create a more fuel-efficient vehicle

Exciting news from our neighbors in Santa Monica, the X Prize Foundation. If you aren’t already familiar with them, the X-Prize Foundation “creates and manages prizes that drive innovators to solve some of the greatest challenges facing the world today.” They do this by staging competitions, offering large monetary rewards for winners in categories that include aerospace technology, genomics, and now, automotive innovation.

According to their press kit, the goal of the Automotive X Prize is: “To inspire a new generation of viable, super-efficient vehicles that help break our addiction to oil and stem the effects of climate change.”

The grand prize will be awarded to the teams that “win a stage race for clean, production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 MPG equivalent fuel economy.”

So far, more than forty teams in five different countries have signed up for the challenge. The competition will take place in stages that will culminate sometime in late 2009.

If you’d like more detailed information on the Automotive X Prize or the X Prize Foundation, you can visit their web site at http://www.xprize.org.

So Cal Fires and Air Quality Effects / SF Climate Challenge

Fourteen large wildfires have developed spanning seven counties in California since Saturday, thanks to the Santa Ana winds, and the prevailing extreme drought conditions... I had been looking around the past couple of days for information on long-term air quality effects and pollution rehab after firestorms past and found some interesting stuff on Wunder Blog:

"Air quality
Not surprisingly, air quality due to particulate matter has been awful in Southern California (Figure 1). Exceedances of the Federal air quality standards by more than a factor of two have occurred the past three days in both Los Angeles and San Diego. Hightened particulate pollution is strongly correlated with increased death rates, particulary in vulnerable populations, such as those with heart conditions, athsma, or other lung diseases. Everyone should avoid any outdoor exertion; people with respiratory or heart disease, the elderly, and children should remain indoors. Keep your windows and doors closed unless it is extremely hot inside. In these cases, seek alternate shelter. Run your air conditioner if you have one. Keep the fresh air intake closed and the filter clean to prevent bringing additional smoke inside. EPA's Airnow website has more information.

Figure 1. Visible satellite images taken midday on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Overlaid on the images is the peak daily particle pollution Air Quality Index (AQI) levels due to smoke. Poor air quality became more widespread across the region as the number and size of the fires increased from day to day. Smoke is visible as white or bluish-white streaks. Blowing dust (brown streaks), reducing visibility under three miles, is also apparent on the images. Image credit: NASA and EPA."

As horrifying and post-apocalyptic as that all may sound, it also led me to find information about the San Francisco Climate Challenge, which I think is a fantastic resource for those interested in better understanding the impact that our long-term choices concerning energy consumption can have on the planet. Although the cash prizes they are offering are for SF residents only-- we Southlanders can learn a lot from this initiative and perhaps establish one for LA. I expect there to be more info coming soon on this...

Montreal Ahead of the Green Curve?

During my visit to Montreal last month, I came across a variety of "eco friendly" initiatives across the city that demonstrated some of the more advanced recycling programs the city has in place.

One of the most surprising findings, were these 6 foot tall transparent plastic recycling bins placed on every floor in every corner of their shopping malls. I also noticed these placed in locations across the city in smaller forms - sometimes attached directly to a trash bin to encourage recycling.
One other interesting thing I learned that nearly everyone in Montreal is very environmentally conscious. On several occasions when parking my rental car to pick some one up, or even step out for a second, I had someone ask me to turn the engine off - it became a habit right before leaving that I've even become conscious about it today. When your car is idling and parked, turn it off! Simple, yet effective enough that if you aggregate all the minutes your car spends idling in park it has a fairly big impact.

Finally, Montreal is a very clean city. Trash is rarely found lying around in the streets. People are more responsible and aware about waste. Almost every household I went to had a recycling bin nearby. Overall, it gave me a very positive impression of the city and how mentally aware everyone is - if people care, then the impact is much greater!

CEO Jason Meugniot Rides The Bus

(Thursday October 4, 2007)

As part of Guidance's commitment to a sustainable environment, we celebrated National Rideshare Week today by altering the way we commute to work.

So, this morning at 8:15 A.M. PT, I left the Porsche in the garage, kissed my kids and wife goodbye after breakfast, helped them into their SUV, and I walked up my street headed for the bus stop.

This morning's ride marked my first local bus ride in over 20 years. As a kid, my buddies and I used to ride the "Big Blue" from our homes to the beach to surf in the summer. But this was the first time I rode the bus to work. And while it was new in many respects, the trip itself was quite familiar...

To read the entire post click here.

http://meugniot.blogspot.com/2007/10/bus-ride-to-guidance.html.