Earth Day Resolutions

Earth day is held in April every year. Here’s what we’ve done over the last few.

2012

Sunday, April 22, will mark the 42nd annual Earth Day, a day observed in 175 countries.  Earth Day is a day when various networks and organizations around the world connect, interact and impact their communities to advocate for a sustainable future.  At Genability, we are committed to making a difference one kWh at a time. We are committed in educating people so they can make informed energy choices.

Here are a few ways Genability is honoring Earth Day all year long:

• We are proud sponsor of the Cleanweb Hackathons,  events that promote clean technology that leverages the capability of the internet, social media, and mobile technologies to address resource constraints.

• Genability Explorer and APIs fully supports Green Button Data, a White House initiative giving customer usage and cost data available for download at the click of a button.

• Genability is supporting the DOE, Apps for Energy Competition, a competition that challenges developers to use Green Button data to create apps for residential consumers to reduce energy usage and save money.

What will you do in honor of Earth Day?

“Earth Day is a perfect time to refocus our efforts to protect the environment, take stock of our individual contributions to a healthier planet, and make a commitment to do even more.”- Caroll Mortensen, Director of CalRecycle

GreenDreams APIs for the Environment

In honor of Earth Day and coinciding with EcoHackNY, our friends over at Brighter Planet launched GreenDreams, APIs for the Environment.  The new API compendium gives sample code, documentation and assistance for developers interested in creating APIs for the environment.  Having been a participant at a number of green hackathons, Brighter Planet wanted to create something for the developer community that would get people off the ground quicker with real, live sample queries.

We’re pleased that our Genability APIs are part of the mix. Others included are Brighter Planet themselves, to calculate the environmental impact of an activity or thing, GoodGuide, to find the environmental performance of a product by UPC code, Envirofacts (EPA) for lists of toxic releases by zip code, and NREL, to project the energy production and cost savings of a solar panel.

All code is on Github, and the site makes live calls. Its a great jump off for hackers to get going on their environmentally friendly projects. Let us know if you have any others you’d like to add!

2011

Every year the United States burns 1 billion tons of coal to produce electricity. 66% of that electricity is wasted. Genability is working to make a cleaner, more elastic energy grid.

Genability also institutes green practices in our daily operations.  Our employees commute to work on Muni’s no emission buses or by hybrid car (and one guy on 100% biodiesel), we are a virtually paperless office, we have reusable whiteboard walls, and we recycle.  In honor of Earth Day 2011, Genability and its employees are pledging to stay green and go greener.  Here are some of the ways we, as individuals and a company, are going greener.

Genability Green Resolutions:

1. We will spend April 22, without our overhead lights.

2. Create a home compost pile.

3. Car Free Day, travel exclusively by clean public transportation or by foot.

4. Use personal water bottle instead of buying bottled water.

5. Donate clothes to Good Will.

6. Use reusable grocery bags instead of paper bags for lunch.

What are your Earth Day resolutions?