Renewable Energy

Major development here! Duke Energy just announced that they will be building a 20 megawatt solar power project in North Carolina. All I can say is WOW!

The overall cost will be close to $100 Million overall. However, the really cool part is that this installation will not just be at one or two solar stations, but at over 850 sites across North Carolina. The sites will include homes, offices, and factories. Anywhere where there is spare roof space.

The project is supposed to take two years to complete and provide enough electricity for over 2600 homes.

Of course, you can Go Green in your own home with great Eco-friendly cleaning products! Go Green!

Go Green by Going Smaller Cars

It seem that consumer purchasing power is having a huge impact on the auto industry. Have you all heard the news that Ford and GM are going to focus more on production of smaller cars vs. bigger SUVs. Definitely a win for the wallet and for the planet.

Another big sign of this changing world is GM's announcement that it will close 4 big SUV manufacturing plants and is thinking about selling its ailing line Hummer. Wow! No more Hummers? Holy Cow.

The company doesn't seem to be burying its head in the sand either: “We don’t believe it’s a spike or a temporary shift. We believe it is, by and large, permanent,” said GM chairman Rick Wagoner.

Lets hope they learned from their $51 billion loses over the past three years and are really serious.

What about you? Have you been driving less? Looking at smaller cars? Let us know!

Longevity and Healthy Aging

The other night I attended a lecture from a visiting professor from my alma matter Cornell. He is the Director of Nutrition at my ole school. Every once in a while, my local alumni club puts together events, one of which every year is a lecture given by a visiting professor from our school.

The topic in question was on Longevity and Healthy Aging. He talked about what studies have show on how to achieve them and what the relation is between the two.

His first point was that Healthy Aging does not necessarily equal Longevity. You can have a long life without having a healthy one.

Case in point.......one study he quoted..the name escapes me right now, showed how a reduction in caloric intake can directly increase ones lifespan. A 30%-40% reduction in caloric intake can increase ones lifespan by a marked amount. Instead of consuming the recommended 2000 calories, take this down to 1400 calories. All body functions (metabolism, etc) are optimized at this calorie level. No one has figured out WHY this works, but it does work. Somehow the burning of calories shortens life span.

However, that same study noted that while those people lived longer, they were always tired, showed signs of depression, irritability, and continued to be hungry! They clearly were not living healthy!

An interesting point was that our genes are NOT accustomed to having food in abundance. Throughout most of our history, humans have NOT had an ample supply of food. Therefore, we have evolved to survive and thrive without massive amounts of food. The typical American diet has WAY TOO MANY calories in it! More on that in a later post.

He then went on to quote that there is an organization, calorie restriction .org, that promotes a calorie restricted diet. A study of some members showed that their cardiovascular system was typically 16 years younger than those not on their kind of diet. It also showed that these people were always hungry, felt depressed, tired, and irritable.

His main point here was that with a calorie restricted diet, while it may increase your longevity, you DO NOT get enough of the proper nutrients to live healthily!

Clearly, we are meant to receive all of the proper nutrients which is extremely hard to achieve with the typical American diet.

Why am I posting this? I want to encourage everyone to live a healthy life...one full of energy and happiness. Go green inside and out!

One of our site affiliates is the #1 natural nutrition company in the world and has exceptional nutritional supplements. I know I have used them and have noticed a huge improvement in energy and general mood. You can take a look at their stuff here. Or, click on the link on the side bar titled "Healthy for You".

I'll post more of this lecture in the next few blogs. Healthy Aging might be a little dry for some, but its an extremely important topic which I feel people need to know about!

Interest in Going Green

I just wanted to say a little bit about the vast interest in Going Green these days, in particular with companies that want to tie themselves into that image.

This weekend, my wife and I were exhibitors at a Home Expo displaying our products, specifically our Eco-Friendly line of cleaners, Go Green. While we did generate some interest from customers perusing the fair, the biggest interest by far came from companies that wanted to get in on the whole "Go Green" thing. One company approached my wife and wanted to use our products as thank you gifts for the services that they render. They were looking for something different and thought that our Go Clean products might be a nice environmental twist to what they did and would make their services stick out in their customers mind.

While this company seemed quite reputable and the vendor personally seemed very honest about his interest in our products, it raised a question. What if a company approached me that was interested in using the Go Green image, but I thought them to be not reputable or would not buy from them personally? Or even worse....one that I knew was not environmentally friendly? Would I sell to them? This is the first time that I had been this close to the selling end of business and the first time I had even thought these questions.

Its an interesting question that just made me think a little bit this weekend about my business and how I go about it. One of the things that really attracts me to being a distributor for this company is that I honestly believe that they believe in what they say....helping the environment and doing it in an ethical way.

Go Green!!

Any thoughts or comments?

Jolly Green Dad