Wise Power Use Expo November 3rd!

We hope you will join us at the Wise Power Use Expo on November 3rd!

The LADWP is proposing that solar rebates be reduced. Council Members Bill Rosendahl and Jan Perry will be joining us at the Expo. This is our chance for each of us to have a voice on this issue!

Read about the speaker line up here. Check out the amazing raffle items that the participants have donated below and added discounts on our blog.

FREE energy conservation raffle items! 

Bonus for pre-registering – an extra raffle ticket! 

Sierra Pacific - $4,600 Patina Green aluminum clad pine French door

Constant Solar - $1,000 Discount on Solar Installation

Carbon Reduction Services - $499 Whole House Energy Audit

Danmer - $400 Insulating Shutter

Ferrufino Interiors & Budget Blinds - $100 Gift Certificates

Modaa, Inc - Weatherization Analysis & One Hour of Home Improvement Labor

Open Neighborhoods - $72 Energy Saving Kit from EarthAid

Sustainable Works - Two Green Conservation Goodie Bags

Icel Systems - Analysis of a Proposed Energy Storage System

Sierra Pacific – Raffle Item to be Announced

Marrakesh House - Sustainable Venue for Art, Music and Culture

Sierra Club - LA Beyond Coal

November 3^rd at the Windward School - Tables open at 6:30 - Speakers begin at 7:30                                                                  

Got Shoes?

Green Committee member Melissa Stoller has organized a drive to collect shoes for SOLES4SOULS® Inc., THE SHOE CHARITY. If you missed us today, you can still drop off your gently worn shoes!


Drop them off at 11430 Kingsland St - leave them on the front porch - the last day for drop off is Tues, 11/9

Donating the shoes you seldom wear is both recycling and reuse - the ultimate act of sustainability. Every 7 seconds, Soles4Souls Inc. gives away another pair of shoes to someone in need. The shoe charity has earned glowing endorsements from Hollywood stars and professional athletes, but the people that truly make the non-profit organization effective are those who clean out their closets to personally drop off their ‘gently worn’ shoes.

“We can use the shoes taking up space in your closet to change the world one pair at a time,” said Founder and CEO of Soles4Souls, Wayne Elsey. “We need our partners in Mar Vista to help us change the lives of more than 300 million children worldwide who do not own a pair of shoes. We are grateful to our partners who have helped us distribute 10 million pairs of shoes, but the need is greater than ever,” he said.

About Soles4Souls®

Soles4Souls is a Nashville-based charity that collects shoes from the warehouses of footwear companies and the closets of people like you. The charity distributes these shoes free of charge to people in need, regardless of race, religion, class, or any other criteria. Since 2005, Soles4Souls has given away 10 million pairs of new and gently worn shoes (currently donating one pair every 7 seconds.) The shoes have been distributed to people in over 125 countries, including Kenya, Thailand, Nepal and the United States. Soles4Souls is a 501(c)(3) recognized by the IRS and donating parties are eligible for tax advantages. Anyone can join our cause, and we need your help. Visit www.giveshoes.org <http://www.giveshoes.org> for more information.

For more information please contact:

Melissa Stoller, 310-390-6880, melissa@stollerdesign.com

Learn How We Can Get LA Off Coal!

Every day, Los Angeles gets 39% of its energy from dirty, polluting coal plants. The Sierra Club is on a mission to change that!

Visit the MVCC Green Booth at the Mar Vista Farmers Market on Sunday October 17th to learn about LA Beyond Coal. Find out why the MVCC submitted a letter of support for the Sierra Club's LA Beyond Coal Campaign to the LA City Council and encouraged them to support a plan to eliminate coal from the electricity supply of Los Angeles.


Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti declared that Los Angeles “can and will” move beyond the use of coal-fired power as he joined organizers for the Sierra Club’s Los Angeles Beyond Coal campaign at a “Rally to Kick Coal and Oil Out of LA” on Sunday afternoon.  

LADWP stands for Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and it is the largest city-owned utility in the United States with 1.45 million electricity customers. Currently, the city of Los Angeles owns shares in two coal plants: Navajo and Intermountain Power Project. In 2006, Navajo Generating Station and Intermountain Power Project released a combined total of 36,107,111 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.


The Navajo generating station alone uses 8 million tons of coal a year which translates into 25,000 tons of coal per day when all units are fully running. Additionally, each year the plant uses nearly 8 billion gallons of water from Lake Powell for cooling – a shocking number in water starved Los Angeles. Our dependence on coal is responsible for significant pollution and human health impacts at every phase of its life cycle.


The department has already been taking strides towards a cleaner energy usage during Villaraigosa’s first term. While renewable energy made up only three percent of LA’s power supply in 2005, as of July last year the figure was 8.5% and the city is on track to have 20% by 2010.


“We applaud Mayor Villaraigosa’s bold decision to move Los Angeles beyond coal,” said Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club’s efforts to end coal-fired power plants. “The decision to replace coal with cleaner energy alternatives is key to boosting job creation and economic growth.” “Solar LA serves as more than a blueprint to a greener LADWP,” Mayor Villaraigosa said. “By sparking a broad movement to solar energy across a city of 4 million residents, we are priming the pump for Los Angeles to become a world leader in the solar industry and delivering on the vision of re-making Los Angeles into the cleanest, greenest big city in America.”


If this plan is completed by 2020 then LA will generate a tenth of Los Angeles’ power through solar energy by 2020. LADWP will put in 400 MW of roof-top solar systems on city-owned properties by 2014. It will also obtain 500 MW of utility-scale solar power from projects developed under agreement by third-party solar developers.


“L.A. has everything it takes to make this [solar plan] work,” said Villaraigosa, standing alongside environmentalists, union leaders and City Council members. “We have the sun in abundance. We have the space. We have the largest municipal utility in the country.”

Learn About SoCal Water$mart at the Green Booth!

Come by the Green Booth on October 10th to learn about the SoCal Water$mart program introduced by Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD’s) and the Family of Southern California Water Agencies.   Check out examples of tools that will help you reduce your water usage and information about the rebates that are available!

This is MWD’s first ever region-wide program for the residential sector, and it is designed to capture water and cost savings through water efficient product rebates. Rebates are available for single-family homeowners throughout MWD territory for the purchase of water-saving indoor and outdoor products. Qualifying products include: high-efficiency clothes washers, weather-based irrigation controllers, and rotating sprinkler nozzles.  Customers of LADWP are eligible to receive rebates for high-efficiency toilets and turf removal projects. 

For more information about eligibility, qualifying products, or to fill out an online application, please visit the program’s website  or call (888) 376-3314.