LED Retrofit at the Aquarium

(Click image to enlarge full size)

Raymond Caddy of Brighten Your Home came by The Aquarium to disconnect the ballast and rewire the fluorescent fixture to accomodate the new UL certified T-8 replacement LED tubes supplied by Robert Van Winkle Jr.

The goal is to show the retrofit installation to many prospective buyers, including other tenants of our landlord's properties.

Feel free to drop in The (other) Aquarium on 10 Knight Street in Norwalk, CT to check out just how amazing the quality of the light coming from these LEDs is, and learn how you too can start saving up to 60% off your office, business or factory space utility bills while enjoying a quality of light and life far superior to the numbing flicker of old fluorescent tubes.

The Aquarium is (usually) open to the public from 1 to 3 in the afternoon, or by appointment. It's located next door to Galaxy Cookies, facing Fat Cat Pie off Wall St. in Norwalk, CT

Green Energy and Building Expo at the Mohegan Sun, on again tomorrow!!!

Bradford Rand of Go Green Expo greets guests of his friend Green Energy & Building Expo, Green Marine Productions Peter Romano at the Mohegan Sun, Friday, February 19, 2010 to a lobby full of electric vehicles, including a silver Tesla Roadster.

The lovely ladies of A Lot To Say apparel, busy at work developing their new website, a long way from their home base in Danville, California.

Sierra Club has the right idea, but they need to update their poster with a LED!

Like the new array of Sylvania LED models on display at the Munro Conservation Group table.

Bradford Rand and the charming Mercury Solar booth babe, actress Samantha Ashley, who promised to attend a future Westchester Greendrinks, where she lives.

Another cute photo of Brad and the reason why everyone was spending so much time at the Mercury Solar booth... I kicked myself on the way home for not asking Samantha to pose with the Tesla Roadster in the lobby. It must have been all the extra oxygen and charged ion particles the Mohegan Sun pumps into its air filtration system to keep the gamblers alert, and in the zone, droning to the sweet electronic tone of slot machines...

With a name like Celtic Energy, these two should dress up in medieval garb and attend Renaissance fairs, spread the green news to new shores...

There's still time for you to attend the Green Energy & Building Expo, which is open Saturday, February 20th till 4 pm. It's worth the drive from Fairfield County. Don't forget to say hello to Daphne Dixon of all the CT Gold Coast Green Drinks at her Conscious Decisions booth next to the Smart car.

Go visit this great show!

Bridgeport Design Group Green Downtown Plans

A few days after a small group of green builders and architects sat down to discuss the regional future of LEED at the opening reception of a Sacred Heart University's Gallery of Comtemporary Art exhibit on local green building projects, the mayor of Bridgeport Bill Finch unveiled his team of urban planning students from Germany who have been quietly re-inventing downtown as a green redevelopment showcase. The gathering took place at the Bridgeport Public Library.

The team is being led by Nils Wiesenmüller
of the Bridgeport Design Group.
From Connecticut Post:
"Nils Wiesenmuller, principal and co-founder at the Bridgeport Design Group, spearheaded a “Renew Bridgeport” workshop that brought 21 students from the ClimateDesign program at Technische Universtat Munich (TUM) in Germany to Bridgeport to design concepts for five pieces of land along the Pequonnock River in Bridgeport. The idea of the workshop was to find ideas to help revitalize Bridgeport and make it a landmark city for sustainable, green, climate-friendly design."

Recycled Frisbee Art Auction For Bridgeport

There is nothing simpler or more attractive than a Frisbee in flight. It's pure beauty in motion, it captivates the imagination. This is how the workers at the Frisbie Pie company must have felt when they were messing around with the pie tins, flinging them so they would rest on a cushion of air and fly a great distance, thousands landing at the bottom of the river we are told. So it's no surprize a company making things out of a new material called plastic thought to improve on the design and come up with one of the most popular and resilient toy in the world, now a serious sport.

When we were organizing the first Green Market Exposition at the Barnum Museum, we were looking for something to represent the City of Bridgeport, its spirit of innovation, its long association to the local avionics and aeronautics community, and so we decided to make the Frisbee the symbol of our event. I knew Wham-O sold a recycled plastic version so I envisioned artists painting the top of Frisbees, putting them on display at the Expo and at auction to raise some money for green projects.

I contacted the Wham-O recycled Frisbee licensed manufacturer Discovering The World, who agreed on a good price, then we started looking for a sponsor. We were not able to raise the funds in time for the 2009 GME, but at the expo, one of our guest speaker was Robert Araujo from Sikorsky, who liked the idea, and helped us get it through committee. A few days ago two large boxes were delivered on my doorstep, containing 200 Reflyer 100 Mold Frisbees, 60% post-consumer recycled polyethylene, ready to be painted.

Artists can stop at some of these participating galleries and green businesses to pick up their blank Frisbee: City Lights Gallery, Day One Skateshop, Center For Green Building, and the Green Living Center at the Saugatuck train station in Westport. You will be asked to sign a short release form agreeing to return the Frisbee with art work painted on it in due time for the auction at the Green Market Exposition starting October 8th 2010 at the Barnum Museum.

(There will be a pre-showing at City Lights Gallery on Earth Day April 22nd.)

You can also download this Word File form and mail it in. We will send you a Frisbee in return mail. But if you pick them up in person at the above locations, you will receive a free sample bottle of Citra Solv, a safe, bio-degradable solvent with a multitude of art uses. Citra Solv is based in Danbury.

For paint to properly stick on polyethylene, you must use enamel paint, or first prime the surface of the Frisbee with a clear coat and use acrylic paint. I know it's not the greenest thing around, but we will start working with Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety to identify the most environmentally friendly acrylic paints and methods out there.

If you want to read more about the history of the Frisbee, you can find an entire chapter in Bridgeport: Tales from the Park City by Eric D. Lehman.

Greening Bridgeport... One Street At A Time!

The other day I had the wonderful opportunity to witness Bridgeport Mayor's Conservation Corps in action. It's almost the end of the season, so the group was much smaller than usual, but I got a chance to experience change in motion.

In the photo above you can see left to right: Damtia Agee, Jahaida Diaz, Marquese Griffin, Patrick Peluso Jr., Richard R. Hines, Trysh Brown, Tori Brown.

Since July, almost everyday of the week, Lisa Bretton Miro, Park City's conservation coordinator (below), has been training and putting dozens of dedicated young men and women on the streets of Bridgeport to canvas neighborhoods, educate residents about a myriad of recycling, tree planting and energy saving measures for their homes or business, including a rain barrel program to reduce storm water pollution.

On the table you can see a few copies of E The Environmental magazine and a small selection of light emitting diode bulbs (LEDs) which I brought with me for the occasion to show and tell.

Before heading out into the streets to canvas, each volunteers meet in a prep room at City Hall where they map out their route.

A small bus takes them to destination where they spend the afternoon knocking on doors, talking to homeowners, asking them to fill out a fun, but detailed questionaire about their willingness to participate in future activities to green and beautify their neighborhood.

Keep up the good work guys, what you're doing is amazing. (Love the Betty Boop bag! Yeah Eco-Betty!)

Green Market Exposition at the Barnum Museum

Thanks to all involved for a wonderful, productive event! Thanks to Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch for launching a full day packed with dozens of great speakers and hundreds of attendees. Stay tuned for many follow-ups to all the meetings and networking that took place today...

To see pictures of the event, click on through to the Rock The Reactors website and visit Green Market Exposition. We are already preparing for next year...

Bridgeport Industrial - Future Green World!