Less Waste = More Arts: Networking Mixer at the Electric Lodge

The Electric Lodge is hosting a free Networking Mixer this Saturday, May 29th at 3:00pm PST. The event is organized by the Arts:Earth Partnership, which certifies cultural facilities, theaters, museums, dance studios, art galleries, performing arts companies and individual artists that are environmentally sustainable.



The Electric Lodge strongly encourages using alternative transportation to attend the event -- walk, bike, or take take the bus (Blue Bus #2 or Metro #33 or #333). However, they also have free, on-site parking for carpooling and other drivers.

Electric Lodge
Address: 1416 Electric Avenue, Venice, CA 90291 (1 block east of Abbot Kinney)
Phone: (310) 306-1854
Email: livearts@electriclodge.org

---

Alejandra E.
Guidance Green

Keeping our Hosting Green

Committed to providing superior hosting services, including green hosting solutions, Guidance has renewed its investment in Renewable Energy Credits for its co-location facilities.

Last week, Guidance purchased 60 MWhs of Renewable Energy Credits made from wind energy sources located throughout the United States. The credits help offset all of our hosting servers' electricity-related CO2 emissions. The company issuing the renewable energy credits, Green Mountain Energy, is a Green-e certified business.

Guidance's hosting servers are also energy efficient. Guidance uses HP’s energy-optimized ProLiant® servers (DL360 G5 and DL380 G5), with the low-voltage Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor L5420. In addition, Guidance offers virtual hosting servers using VMware technology.

For more information about our Guidance's green hosting services, please contact us at 310.754.4000.

---

Catherine L.
Guidance Green

It's Earth Day!

It has been 40 years since the first Earth Day was officially celebrated in 1970, and boy, have things changed since then! From hybrid vehicles, to reusable grocery bags, to using energy-efficient appliances and offsetting the carbon emissions of our air travel, there are a number of concepts today that we have grown used to, but were foreign to us back then.

So on behalf of the entire Guidance Green, have a happy Earth Day!

Happy Anniversary, Guidance Green

First time, second round … but third is a charm!

In the spirit of celebration, Guidance has sponsored planting of a new tree during Tree Musketeer's Arbor Day Celebration, this Saturday, March 6th from 9:30am to noon at Washington Park in El Segundo, Calif.

According to Tree Musketeers – the nation’s first youth environmental organization – each new tree planted will generate $163,000 worth of oxygen, air pollution control, water recycling and soil erosion prevention while sequestering 2½ tons of CO2 over 50 years.

Besides helping the environment, Guidance’s sponsorship helps commemorate the third anniversary of Guidance Green. Created in March 2007 by Guidance CTO & Co-Owner, Jon Provisor, the Guidance Green committee oversees the company’s environmentally-friendly practices while keeping employees and the community in general informed about individual and business-wide efforts to help keep the planet green and healthy. Guidance is 100% carbon neutral and has offered carbon-neutral hosting for its clients since 2008.

Happy Anniversary, Guidance Green!

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.

---

Jon Provisor
Guidance

Meet The Dervaes

I have lived in Southern California all my life with the exception of a few years spent in NorCal in the latter half of the 80s and in London in the early 90s. Yet I had never heard of The Dervaes, whom – since the mid-80s – have been doing something quite amazing, right in the heart of L.A. County.

Apparently, I am not the only one who’s never heard of them. So without further ado, meet the Dervaes.

In only a tenth of an acre, the Dervaes family has been able to create what many would consider impossible: an urban homestead. Living in Pasadena, Calif., Jules Dervaes and his three adult children (Justin, Anais and Jordanne) are surrounded by many of the typical things you’d see in an area like L.A. – cars, freeways, houses – and by some that are far less typical – goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and over 350 varieties of vegetables, herbs, fruits and berries.

So how do they fit all of that into one-tenth of an acre? It wasn’t easy for the Dervaes but they were really determined to make it happen. And as if that wasn’t complex enough, they wanted to up their ante by doing everything in the most environmentally-friendly way possible. Here are some interesting facts about the day-to-day operations of their urban homestead:

• Up to 6,000 pounds of produce are harvested annually on one-tenth of an acre.


• The Dervaes family grows 99% of the produce they consume; the remaining food that the family consumes is either bought in bulk, organically-grown, locally-grown, and/or are fair-trade certified. The family has kept a vegetarian diet for over 17 years.


• 12 solar panels provide two-thirds of the energy they consume (6 kWh per day), which is already 80-percent less energy than what the average American household consumes (29.2 kWh per day, according to the Department of Energy).


• The family raises small stock like chickens, ducks, rabbits, and goats for eggs, milk and/or manure. In addition, the Dervaes are beekeepers for the extraction of unfiltered/unheated honey.


• Some of the energy and water conservation efforts the family practices include using energy-efficient appliances and lighting (some are even non-electrical or hand-powered, like their stationary bike-blender kit), reusing laundry water, and using a low-flushing toilet along with a toilet lid sink.
  
• Their diesel car runs on homebrewed biodiesel and is driven only 3 out of the 7 days of the week, for approximately 4,000 miles per year. That is 66-percent fewer miles than what the average American drives per year, according to the Federal Highway Administration.


• Self-employed since 1974, the Dervaes sell their homegrown produce to local restaurants and caterers (through DervaesGardens.com), sell plant seeds through their own seed company (FreedomSeeds.org), and sell eco-friendly goods online (at PeddlersWagon.com).

Since 1999, the Dervaes have been documenting their efforts and sharing them online to help engage others interested in following their footsteps. To learn more about the Dervaes and how to turn your home into an urban homestead, visit their website at PathToFreedom.com.

---

Jon Provisor
Guidance

Beach cleanup, round two!

Did you know this coming Saturday will most likely be L.A.'s last sunny/warm Saturday of the year? Spend it at the beach!

Join Guidance Green this Saturday, October 24, from 9:30am to 11:30am at Mother's Beach in Marina del Rey, CA, for our beach cleanup! See details below.



Next Saturday is expected to be rainy and in the 60s. Then it'll be November. This is really your last chance for some fun in the sun!

Hope to see you there,

Alejandra Espinosa
Guidance Green