Monthly Archives: July 2008

Think before you “go green”

humvee with environmental sticker
Originally posted by corydalus. Remixed as per his Creative Commons permissions.

I got a piece of mail from PG&E today.  This is not uncommon: aside from my regular statements, they send me a lot of spam.  Apparently they’re not satisfied to overcharge me and make it impossible to pay online…they want more out of me.

I opened the mail skeptically, but was pleased to discover that this mail was about saving power.  Great!  Saving power is a win-win-win situation: saves me money, saves them money, helps the environment and the oil situation.  I’m onboard!  How can I save energy, PG&E, how?

“Dear Evan Hamilton,

Did you know that you could save 25% on your energy bill by getting our ‘Smart AC’?”

Now, you may read this and think that it’s no big deal.  What you don’t realize is that I DON’T HAVE AIR CONDITIONING.  I live in an old building and nobody here has AC, we have windows and fans.

PG&E knows this, because they provide my power!  But instead of taking the time to figure this out, they send me this letter anyway.  Well guess what, PG&E?  I am now going to throw this useless letter, which is plastic-y and unrecylable, into the trash.  You know what is going to happen to this trash?  It’s either going to a landfill, which is an unsustainable solution to our waste problem, or it’s going to be burned like 16 percent of waste in the USA.  What’s that going to do for the environment?  Is it going to save electricity or oil to have millions of PG&E letters shoved around landfills by tractors and backhoes?

If you are going to make your company “green”, or “energy-saving”, think carefully about how you’re going to do it.  You don’t have to make your organization 100% Green (Flock didn’t for the Eco Edition), but you should make sure that your “Eco” initiatives are not actually causing more harm than help.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

…annnnd we’re back!

Wow, have I really not posted since December ’07?  That’s an eternity, especially on the web.  Unfortunately, I needed to update my version of WordPress to get things working correctly here, and it didn’t happen right away.  Additionally, Twitter allowed me to keep publishing, so this hasn’t been a priority.

Let me be totally honest: I was scared to make the upgrade without the help of my web developer friend.  I know the basics of web development, but mucking about with databases is past my comfort point.  I finally found time with my friend and we got everything rolling.  The process was surprisingly simple…I think I could probably even do it myself next time, and I certainly won’t let such a long gap go by without posting again!

So…what now?  I am determined to get back on track with posting, and not let myself get behind.  A few of my goals for the remainder of the blogging year:

  • Document the process of recording the new Monsters are not Myths album.
  • Tackle the challenging subject of “what is the role of a Community Ambassador/Manager/Evangelist, as I touched on in Defending the Community Ambassador.
  • Clean up the blog. I’ve already started on this, but I’d like to do some SEO (which I’ve been dabbling in) and perhaps even move all my evanhamilton.com pages to WordPress.
  • Be impulsive. I want to post what’s at the top of my mind and get my small base of readers involved in the conversation, rather than mulling on a post for weeks.

For those that are still here, thanks for sticking around during the dry spell. Get ready for some rock’n’roll!

-Evan

Blogged with the Flock Browser