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Green Group Forum

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  A place to aggregate and organize information and ideas created by the  Longboat Green Group. Members: Rusty Chinnis, DR, Jeffrey Driver, Terri Driver, Georges Kaufman, Gene Jaleski and Dr. Jeanne Leszwezynski. First Meeting: 11/19/2021 at Joan M. Durante Park. Many Ideas for Short-Term and Long-Term Focus/Goals. Short-Term Focus/Goals: Electric landscaping island-wide, beginning with a presentation from Eco-Lectric Landscape Maintenance in Bradenton. Other local sustainability initiatives with a presentation from Sarasota Government Sustainability. Water quality initiatives highlighting the impact of local use of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and providing substrate for water cleaning by natural organisms such as oysters, clams, seagrasses. Pairing with the Town of LBK Green Initiative Group with a potential meeting in February. Presenting Goals & Objectives to the Town of LBK at the April G&O meeting. Long-Term Focus/Goals: All-Electric landscaping for the T...
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Other Communities

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  This section is devoted to community green activities. Link: Some community green energy programs Link:  Sarasota County's Sustainability Page Link:  City of Sarasota's Sustainability page
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Clean Community Energy

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  Information and discussion about alternative energy sources.
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Local Government

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This section looks at the role local government can and is playing in countering global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. ICLIE - Local governments for sustainability.  
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Green Lawn Care

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  This section is devoted to informtion about the economics and viability of lawn businesses using battery powered equipment. Environmental sustainability is part of the equation. Excellent article on battery powered commercial lawn care.  Talk and demo by eco-electric lawn care company . Quiet Lawn business discussion .  Commercial battery powered mower evaluation . US Department of Energy Article about green lawn equipment . Burlington Vermont incentive program offers up to $100 for homeowners and $3500 for commercial operators who purchase electric lawn mowers. It has become their most popular rebate program, and other cities are starting to follow suit. Illinois study: Gasoline-powered lawn mowers and garden equipment are emitting 30 million tons of pollutants yearly in the USA, accounting for a quarter of all non-road gasoline emissions.  The following offers an assessment of the environmental implication and cost of electrifying the lawn mower industry.  ...
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Construction Equipment Pollution

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    There are over two million pieces of construction and mining equipment in the United States, which consume over 6 billion gallons of diesel fuel per year ( U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA],  2005 ). The main environmental concern surrounding the use of construction and mining equipment is emissions of air pollutants that impact climate change and air quality.  On Longboat Key, not only air pollution, but  unnecessary noise pollution  are concerns. Including lawn maintenance fuel consumption, America burns 9 billion gallons of gas/diesel per year for construction and lawn care. A recent study from Stanford University highlights the upstream cost of burning fossil fuels that include drilling/transporting to a refinery/refining/transporting to a gas station or depot/and finally being burned in an internal combustion engine. The study estimates the combined greenhouse gas footprint is 20 pounds of pollutants per gallon. I don't even want...
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The Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases

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  What does "Social Cost" mean? Simply put, the social costs or each extra ton of CO2 in the atmosphere is estimated to be $51. These social costs result from manifestations of climate change and global warming. Resulting in:  Increased forest fire damage, more severe storms, increased flooding, more severe tornados and hurricanes, drought, increased hunger, incursion of salt water into coastal aquafers, eco-migration, coral reef death, etc. The list goes on and on and already impacts every person and living creature on the planet in one way or another. The social cost of what we are doing is not showing up on people's electric bills or property taxes. Yet the costs are steadily mounting. Each household's electricity use generates a ton of CO2 every seventy days on average. or $20 a month in additional social costs. Pollution free sources of power are available as home solar or renewable energy certificates for about the same monthly cost.  I believe an ounce of preve...
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