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You can vote for Sun Diego Charter Company to be the “Greenest Fleet” by visiting 2009 BUSRide Clean Energy / How Green? Competition.

Why should you vote for Sun Diego Charter? Listed below are several reasons Plan It Green believes Sun Diego Charters is committed to doing their part to help our environment and making a difference.

First, buses are always a better option for event transportation. In the case of Sun Diego Charters, one of their coaches can replace up to 55 cars on our road ways.

Second, they have invested in one of the “greenest” fleets in San Diego. Over 70% of their coaches feature clean burning Detroit Diesel engines. They are environmentally sound and use EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) technology to fully meet the EPA emission requirements. The majority of their fleet also features the highly advanced ZF transmission. This technology analyzes the coach speed and road conditions and automates the “shifting”. Tests have shown that this improves fuel economy by almost 7%.

Some other ways it pays to use San Diegos Green Transportation Leader: Sun Diego Charter Co. has an on-site fueling station that utilizes a 10% bio-diesel fuel blend from New Leaf Biofuels. The use of bio-diesel results in a substantial reduction of emissions compared to emissions from regular diesel fuel.

Also, the majority of Sun Diego Charter Co.’s fleet already meets the stringent state air quality standards, developed by the California Air Resources Board and which are not slated to go into effect until 2013.

Additionally, Sun Diego Charter Company relies on a sophisticated, satellite based GPS speed monitoring system to control motor coach speeds. The speed at which the motor coach is operated greatly impacts fuel economy. Sun Diego Charter Co. motor coach drivers are prohibited from idling engines for longer than 5 minutes. Unnecessary engine idling wastes fuel and creates senseless pollution.

Sun Diego Charter Company also recycles its motor oil, antifreeze, tires and batteries. All charters have recycling bags on board to separate the recyclable items from non-recyclable trash.

Sun Diego Charter didn’t stop there. Their “Green” Committee has implemented several initiatives for their office that helps make Sun Diego Charter an even greener transportation leader in San Diego. Here are a few of the things they practice on a daily basis:

They go paperless when possible - emailing confirmations and invoices and printing only when necessary.

Their office staff follows a strict recycling program that includes everything from paper to toner.

They only use “eco-friendly” cleaning products for their toilet chemicals.

Good luck to Sun Diego Charters!

New Leaf is a San Diego-based alternative fuel production company. New Leaf’s business is to recycle and process waste restaurant fryer oil into commercial grade 100% purity biodiesel fuel, and to market this fuel to distributors, wholesalers and end-users.

Plan It Green is supporting New Leaf’s efforts to sign-up customers for its waste vegetable oil collection program as part of Plan It Green’s - Green Restaurant Program.

We are proud to support New Leaf in their commitment to the community and the planet. New Leaf is offering free recycling services to collect waste cooking oil from any San Diego restaurant or hotel.

Their service is simple: They will provide you with new containers for clean and easy storage on-site. Their courteous and efficient drivers will collect your waste cooking oil on a schedule designed with your convenience in mind. There is absolutely no cost to you.

To find out more go to: New Leaf Biofuel. Tell them Plan It Green sent you!

It was an amazing event with a collection of great green thinking vendors from Earth Friendly Apparel Co., to the organic and local cuisine offered by Eco Caters, ChileCo Catering, Waters Fine Catering, San Diego Urban Kitchen and Culinary Concepts.

Everyone had a phenomenal time networking and being inspired by our vendors. We’re very excited that Plan it Green had the opportunity to show off The New Children’s Museum with style and in green fashion. The wide open architecture offered us many possibilities and we look forward to working with The New Children’s Museum in the future!

Of course, this is just the beginning of a green revolution that we hope to continue being part of everyday! Plan It Green is proud of the team work displayed by everyone involved. Through this team work and attention to detail, Zero Waste San Diego assisted us and our vendors in their waste program that resulted in 91% diversion of our event waste from going to our landfill. 78% was organics and went to compost, 13% was recycled and only 9% of the event’s waste went to the landfill! This is a great accomplishment and only one example of how going green makes a big impression with low impact on our planet.

Last, but not least, Plan It Green donated a portion of the proceeds to Nature & Culture International to help us offset areas we were not able to go green. This donation will purchase 5 acres of land in South America that will be rehabilitated from deforestation to sustainable farm land that will benefit the surrounding, local communities. Thank you to Nature & Culture International for your efforts!

Please enjoy this video clip of the event’s images captured by Bauman Photography!

Please contact Plan It Green if you know of anyone interested in planning an event that would want to consider the green possibilities!

Become Green, Stay Green!

Kaiser Permanente used the green catering services of ChileCo Catering to help celebrate its January 28th $1 million donation to La Maestra Community Health Center for the construction of a new “green” community health clinic.

The funding will enable La Maestra, a safety net provider with facilities in San Diego, City Heights, El Cajon, National City and at Hoover High School, to expand its medical care to the uninsured. La Maestra anticipates 180,000 patient and client visits a year to the new facility.

The new facility received Gold Level Leadership in Environmental Excellence Development, or LEED, certification from the United States Green Building Council. It’s the first facility of its kind in the nation and we are excited to have such a development right here in San Diego.

Janette Lampe, Kaiser Permanente’s Corporate Events Manager shares a smile witht the staff of ChileCo

Janette is happy to share her first greening experience and the help provided by both ChileCo and Plan It Green.

“We were celebrating a $1 million donation from Kaiser Permanente to the La Maestra Community Health Centers. The donation was made to help them build what will be the first “Gold Level” LEED certified medical office building in the nation, so we wanted to ensure this dual press conference / luncheon supported the whole endeavor.

After meeting with Scott O’Hara from Plan It Green, I was amazed how easy it was to integrate green aspects into this event. I wanted to make the best, most visible impression on our guests that this was going to be something different. At Scott O’Hara’s recommendation, I called Scotty Wagner from ChileCo, San Diego’s premier organic catering company. What a perfect fit! Aside from the outstanding food that Chef Scotty created, the little changes we made really created an ‘event buzz.’ People were talking about the food, the natural centerpieces, and the banana leaf plates!

This event opened my eyes to the possibilities and how much typically gets wasted. It’s changed my outlook and inspired me to keep on adding more green aspects to all of our events. Thanks for the guidance Plan It Green.”

Plan It Green would like to thank Janette and Kaiser Permanente for giving Plan It Green the opportunity to share our green resources and ideas. Also, thank you to Chef Scott Wagner of ChileCo Catering for ensuring our green integrity was expressed through your presentation and fine, organic cuisine.

Plan It Green is excited to see these new busses implemented into the San Diego MTS fleet. Mass transit is taking on new a new shape and in GREEN fashion! San Diego MTS purchased 26 of the buses using Federal dollars and State Proposition 1B funds, which was approved by voters in November 2006. Manufactured by North American Bus Industries (NABI), the 26 buses cost $20.4 million and feature wide doors, low floors, a wheelchair ramp, seating for 57 people, and two places for people using wheelchairs.

Not only are these buses long, allowing them to seat 57 people and two wheelchairs, these buses are friendly to Mother Earth! The NABI buses are powered by a clean, economic Cummins ISLG compressed natural gas engine. This means we have more green transportation options for many event attendees here and around the city of San Diego. Plan It Green will definitely be recommending the use of San Diego MTS busses to fit into tight budget constraints with events hosted at hotels and the SD Convention Center.

MTS has also started to receive new 40-foot compressed natural gas buses manufactured by New Flyer. And, in early 2009, MTS will receive 11 gas hybrid vehicles with power drives built by Poway-based ISE.

The purchase of the NABI buses advances the MTS goal to eventually retire all operating diesel buses, as these buses will replace diesel powered buses that have been in service for 15 to 17 years. The new buses will reduce MTS maintenance costs and provide even more dependable service to the growing number of riders of MTS services.

There’s a good chance that many of the people attending any particular event will have rented a car or have driven there own car if they live locally. Carpooling doesn’t just stop at getting around throughout the events duration. You could even carpool if you live a few hours away to save on the airfare.

Automobiles still account for one of the largest sources of pollution. Millions of people drive alone for commute, long distance trips or personal trips such as a shopping trip or an event. We suggest taking a look into resources that connect people who have an interest in carpooling or have a common destination.

iCarpool makes carpooling easier than ever before - through sustained innovation iCarpool creates an opportunity for a grass roots movement to fundamentally change drive alone patterns.

What is iCarpool?

iCarpool is an online service which helps you find carpool partners. Unlike a rideshare bulletin board, carpool listing service or zip code matching service, iCarpool uses high precision trip matching to find the best carpool match. Whether you wish to drive, ride or share - iCarpool will help you find great carpool matches for all your trips. iCarpool is one of the fastest growing carpool networks today. Sign up to use iCarpool and start carpooling today!

If you’re still not convinced to think about this option, here’s ten great reasons why you should car pool.

Mitsubishi Solar looked to walk the walk with their trade show booth at the recent Solar Power International Conference. The trade show booth was designed by Jenean Smith, Marketing Communications Manager at Mitsubishi.

Mitsubishi’s overall theme was to use a Zen Garden approach so they used real water, sand, and rocks. From there the Mitsubishi booth used eco-sensitive fabric and low VOC inks for the graphic panels, alunimum frames which are recyclable, and tatami mats in the conference rooms which are also natural.

A recent article by By P.J. DICKERSCHEID, Associated Press Writer the bottom has fallen out of the recycling market place.

We have listed the article below and we are evaluating waste options with vendors for green that reconcile recycling options with these new economic realities.

Faced with a dramatic slump in the recycling market, the director of the Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority has cut 20 of his 24 employees’ work week to four days from five, shuttered six of the authority’s drop-off stations and is urging residents to hoard their recyclables after informing municipalities with curbside recycling programs that the center will accept only paper until further notice.

“The market is just not there anymore,” Steenstra said.

Just months after riding an incredible high, the recycling market has tanked almost in lockstep with the global economic meltdown. As consumer demand for autos, appliances and new homes dropped, so did the steel and pulp mills’ demand for scrap, paper and other recyclables.

Cardboard that sold for about $135 a ton in September is now going for $35 a ton. Plastic bottles have fallen from 25 cents to 2 cents a pound. Aluminum cans dropped nearly half to about 40 cents a pound, and scrap metal tumbled from $525 a gross ton to about $100.

It’s getting more difficult to find buyers in some markets, Steenstra said.

While few across the country appear to be taking such drastic measures as Steenstra, the recycling market has gotten so bad that haulers in Oregon and Nevada who were once paid for recyclables are now getting nothing or in some cases are having to pay to unload their wares.

In Washington state, what was once a multimillion-dollar revenue source for the city of Seattle may become a liability next year as the city may have to start paying companies to take their materials.

Some in the business are describing the downturn as the worst and fastest ever.

“It’s never gone from so good to so bad so fast,” said Marty Davis, president of Midland Davis Corp. in Pekin, Ill., who has been in the recycling business since 1975.

The turnaround caught everyone off guard, said Steven Kowalsky, president of Empire Recycling in Utica, N.Y.

“Nobody saw it coming. Absolutely nobody,” Kowalsky said. “Even the biggest players didn’t see it coming.”

At the height of the market just months ago, customers lined the street outside Kowalsky’s business, hoping to hawk scrap to pay rising food and fuel costs.

“That’s not happening anymore,” he said.

The Kanawha County authority, which sells donated recyclables from residents and municipalities, sells about 7,500 tons of paper, plastic and aluminum a year, Steenstra said.

Ted Armbrecht III, managing partner of The Wine Shop at Capital Market in Charleston, says it won’t be a problem piling up his recyclables at home, but he doesn’t have that luxury with his wine business, which uses a lot of cardboard boxes.

“We’ll hold onto it as long as we can, but once it reaches a tipping point, the only other place it’s going to go is the dumpster,” he said.

Trey Granger, spokesman for Earth911, a national environmental resource group, said the public’s interest in recycling should be able to weather the downturn in an industry that has been growing for more than 30 years and has always been cyclical.

“Obviously times are tough,” Granger said. “I wouldn’t worry more about this more than any other aspect of the economic downturn we’re facing.”

Last year, Americans generated about 254 million tons of trash, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They recycled about 150 million tons of material — roughly 80 million of that in iron and steel — supporting an industry that employs about 85,000 with $70 billion in sales, said Bob Garino, director of commodities at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based trade association that represents more than 1,600 companies worldwide.

Most recyclables are shipped to Asian countries that use the material to make products that are shipped backed to the United States to be sold.

But the market shift is now jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of long-term contracts for scrap metal as some companies that signed when prices were high are trying to cancel or postpone deliveries to take advantage of the cheaper spot market, Garino said.

Davis, of Midland Davis Corp. in Illinois, said he hopes to wait out the market and may rent warehouse space to store his more perishable recyclables, like paper, until he can find buyers. He has some room to stockpile cans and plastics because in July, when prices were high, he unloaded more material than during any month in the past 10 years.

“It’s going to be bleak for a while,” he said. “We can just make our piles taller, and hopefully by spring, things will be a little better.”

Whether that will come as early as spring is debatable.

“I don’t know if we are at the bottom yet, bouncing along the bottom or we have new lows to achieve,” Garino said.

The market’s not likely to bounce back until the economy improves. Kowalsky estimates it could be several years.

“It’s just time to pull in your horns and maintain what you have and try to survive until 2010,” he said.
By P.J. DICKERSCHEID, Associated Press Writer P.j. Dickerscheid, Associated Press Writer

In addition to reusing ornaments from prior years, she also said the lights on the trees in the White House will have low-energy LED bulbs, and she encouraged Americans to use them when their holiday lights wear out to save energy.

More than 60,000 visitors are expected to visit the White House for tours, with 25 holiday receptions and seven dinners planned.