Learn why LED lightbulbs make sense!

Join us at the Mar Vista Community Council Green Booth this Sunday, August 1st for the return of Constant Solar. This time they will demonstrate the benefit of LED lighting on your electric consumption. Their display will include incandescent, compact fluorescent, and LED lighting that can be selected by the push of a button with a meter that shows each bulb’s energy consumption, which will allow you to easily compare the three types of lighting. However, a lighting display is not all…Constant Solar will be powering the lighting display with, yes, you guessed it, solar power!

Please stop by as they will be able to answer questions on electricity consumption of lighting and how solar power can transform your home energy costs and reduce your carbon footprint by 1/3.

Special MVCC Green Committee Meeting on Solar Feed in Tariffs!

The Los Angeles Business Council will make a presentation to us on their proposed Solar Feed in Tariff program – see www.solarfit4la.com. The meeting will be at 6:00 PM this Thursday in room 200 at West LA Municipal Building, 1645 Corinth Ave, LA 90025 (where Councilmember Rosendahl’s office is).

A solar Feed-in Tariff program allows businesses, public and non-profit organizations, and residents to install solar panels on their roofs and parking lots and sell the power generated back to the local utility. Participants receive a payment back from the utility for each Kilowatt-hour fed back into the power grid. FiT programs can generate a cost-effective source of renewable energy, create local jobs, and bring in revenue for businesses and ratepayers. Successful FiT programs have been put in place around the world. LABC has singled out programs in Germany and Gainesville, Florida as particularly effective models that Los Angeles should look to emulate.

The Green Committee believes that Solar Feed in Tariffs are an essential component to meeting our goal of 100% clean electricity by 2018 and we are eager to hear this proposal and appreciate Councilman Rosendahl referring them to us.

“The Los Angeles Business Council is urging Councilmember Rosendahl to support the adoption of a 600 MW Solar Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program for the City of LA. LADWP General Manager Austin Beutner has announced that a FIT would be included in the Long Term Strategic Plan. The LABC, UCLA, AIA, LA Area Chamber, LA Family Housing, Sierra Club, Global Green, USGBC, Cal SEIA and the Union Roofers and Contractors Association all support this program .

Per LABC -
"We have designed a program that is large and spans 10 years because of its cost-neutrality to rate-payers (See attached FIT fundamentals page for program details). Further, the economic and environmental benefits of a 600 MW program are manifold:

• Creating 11,000 high-wage green jobs according to UCLA Luskin Center
• Attracting clean-tech industries to the region by demonstrating political
commitment to creating a green City
• Guaranteed cost saving opportunities and long-term returns for energy consumers
• State and federal tax credits to fund up to 40% of solar panel installation costs
• Using a FiT program as a critical piece to reach AB 32 renewable energy goals
• Cost saving opportunities for Multi-family affordable housing developments
• Displacing coal, which is a significant liability to the city due to its
increasing expense, legal risks, regulatory uncertainty, and public health effects

If you have any questions, please visit our website: www.solarfit4la.com to learn more about the program, listen to testimonials from local business, environmental and labor leaders and municipal utilities who have implemented successful FITs. “

Mar Vista to Partner with EPA as Green Power Community

On Tuesday the MVCC decided to partner with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to become an EPA Green Power Community.

The EPA’s Green Power Communities program recognizes cities, towns and villages in which the local government, businesses, and residents collectively buy green power in amounts that meet or exceed EPA's Green Power Community purchase requirements. The EPA has invited Mar Vista to launch a pilot version of the program that will specifically address green power purchasing in urban neighborhoods.

Pending EPA acceptance of Mar Vista into the program, the neighborhood will join a short list of two other California communities, Santa Clara and Palo Alto, who have met EPA green power purchasing guidelines.

Learn more about the EPA program and how Mar Vista can switch to 100% clean electricity through energy conservation and clean, renewable power. Mark your calendar for the Wise Power Use Expo on September 28th from 6 to 9 pm. at the solar-powered Windward School in Mar Vista.

Thank you to James Brennan for researching the program and doing an incredible job of making this possible!

All green power purchasing is completely voluntary under the EPA program, and the EPA recognizes three kinds of green power purchases:

1) Onsite Generation – federal, state, and local funding is available for installing on-site solar panels, wind turbines, and fuel cells.

2) Utility-Provided Green Power – renewable electricity consisting of 25% small hydro-electric and 75% wind power may be purchased via LADWP Green Power for a premium of $0.03/kWh. Signup as residential and small non-residential or medium and large non-residential.

3) Renewable Energy Credits - can be purchased for your home or business from certified retailers at rates ranging from $0.005/kWh to $0.03/kWh or more.


Benefits of participating in the EPA program include national recognition, expert resources and media/communications support to assist us in reaching our goal of 100% clean electricity by 2018.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and the EPA have provided assistance in determining Mar Vista’s electricity usage and current green power purchasing commitment. Based on EPA guidelines for a community the size of Mar Vista, three percent (3%) of neighborhood electricity must be purchased through clean, renewable sources within six months in order to qualify for the EPA Green Power Community program. According to data provided by LADWP and other sources, Mar Vista is already purchasing green power for 4.7% of neighborhood electricity – well above the 3% EPA qualifying requirement.

We look forward to joining the other forward thinking communities in this program!

Have you borrowed a Kill-A-Watt yet?

Check out the new video to help you learn how to use the Kill-A-Watt! Thank you to Carbon Reduction Services for creating this for us.

Constant Solar Electric, a solar installation company based here in Mar Vista, has generously donated 10 "Kill-A-Watt's" to the MVCC Green Committee!

These easy to use devices measure the electrical consumption of the appliances in your home. We have 10 that we continually loan out to neighborhood residents who use them to learn more about the phantom electricity that is being wasted by appliances that are plugged in while not is use. Just return them the following week they will be loaned out to 10 new people. Stop by any Sunday to borrow one!

Energy conservation can reduce your electrical bill by 15% to 20% and unplugging appliances when they are not in use will easily be half of that. We look forward to sharing reports from our neighbors as they use these!

Another tip - invest in Smart Strips for areas like your entertainment center or desk - where some appliances need to stay on (perhaps your computer or cable box) while others can shut down (video games, printers, sound systems).

Meet Pedal Patch Community!

Join us at the MVCC Green Booth on Sunday July 18th to meet Pedal Patch Community! Remember those very cool pre-schoolers that joined us a few weeks ago from New School West? Pedal Patch (PPC) is the organization that created their learning garden. Check out this video of the kids in their garden.

Please bring your kids to the booth! PPC will be bringing veggie seeds to give to them and demonstration plants so they can learn about what we can all grow in our own gardens.

PPC is a community supported, social enterprise that advocate for innovative, community-based solutions to hunger and food insecurity in the LA region. They focus on positive land use, eco-literacy, sustainability, food security and community involvement. Through selective programming, we help build healthy, sustainable communities one patch at a time through the application of urban agriculture.

PPC’s model of community-involved development connects people, at the local level, through food to become more socially involved, environmentally aware, and helps guide the public toward a sustainable lifestyle.

As part of the mission to promote food security and eco-literacy, PPC is launching a seminar series called Foodstuff LA (FSL) that will take place twice a month throughout the summer. Foodstuff LA will provide a healthy dose of wellness, good food and ardent discussion between a progressive food and wellness community whose members share a variety of curiosity about food, health and eco-sustainability. Couple with seminars, PPC will be hosting fundraising dinners with guest chefs in some very unique locations in and around LA, as a way to bring attention toward food security.

Among the seminar series, Foodstuff LA will host an informational session called Living La Vida Local, which will teach you how to support your community by buying seasonal, local foods. Christian Page, Executive Chef of Daily Dose restaurant, will host this event and cook a delicious dinner for all to enjoy. Biodynamic Farming 101 will explain this trendy form of farming and how it differs from organic and commercial agriculture. This seminar will be hosted by biodynamic farming expert, Elizabeth Candelario, and will be followed by a biodynamic wine tasting. Another, informative seminar at FSL is the Raw Food Diet by Ani Phyo. Learn more about the health benefits of raw foods and how to incorporate them into your everyday diet. Internationally acclaimed raw food specialist, Ani Phyo will provide important insight into her theories on raw food, give a cooking demonstration and will share some of her best recipes! Chef Page and Ani have collaborated to make a raw food lunch that will blow you away!

PPC’s FoodStuff LA launched at the end of July 2010. The website is currently under construction, but if you sneak a peek now you’ll find the agenda and some information as to what Pedal Patch has planned.

Can We Reuse Water?

Join us at the MVCC Green Booth on Sunday July 11th to learn more about the options available to reuse the gray water in our homes. We have invited Gray Water Recycling Systems to be our guest and answer your questions. They will be bringing a DIY "Go Green System" for us to check out.

Just imagine where we would be today had we started driving fuel efficient, hybrid or electric cars 10 years ago! We all remember being considered 'eco geeks' (a.k.a. visionaries) as we warned, "...some day we'll run out of oil...!"

Listen carefully to today's visionaries about our water supply and the pending water wars. Boutros Boutros Gahli, the highly respected former Secretary General of the United Nations recently proclaimed, "Water will be more important than oil in this century".

Water conservation is no longer a passive goal; it is an urgent necessity! Let's explore what we can do to reduce our water footprint.