Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce Eco-awareness Committee - helping Okaloosa County Go Green
Go Green Okaloosa . com The Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce Green Awareness Taskforce will serve as the focal point for providing Green Advocacy and Awareness to the Fort Walton Beach Community, to help Fort Walton Beach and Okaloosa County become designated as Green Communities, and serve as a central repository for information regarding government, private initiatives and programs regarding the conservation and preservation of natural resources.

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Green Tip Reminders for Easy Living - 04/23/2010

Reduce your carbon footprint! Leaving your car at home twice a week can cut greenhouse gas emissions by 1,600 pounds per year. Save up errands and shopping trips so you need to drive fewer times. If you commute to work, ask if you can work from home at least some days, and you'll reduce air pollution and traffic congestion - and save money.

During hot weather (or any other time really), don't top off your gas tank. Refuel your car or truck in the early morning or the evening when it's cooler. A small fuel spill may not seem like much, but every spill evaporates and adds to air pollution, and fuel pumps with vapor recovery systems can feed a spill back into their tanks – after you paid for it. So, in hot weather – don't top off!

Breathe easy! On unhealthy air pollution "action alert" days, wait to mow your lawn until it's cooler in the evening or early the next morning. You help reduce air pollution for everyone near you if you run gas-powered equipment, like lawn mowers, when it's cooler. You also protect your health by avoiding ground-level ozone during the warmest part of the day.

Tread lightly! Use public transportation, carpool, walk, or bike whenever possible to reduce air pollution and save on fuel costs. Leaving your car at home just two days a week will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 1,600 pounds per year. If you can work from home, you'll reduce air pollution and traffic congestion - and save money.

Exercising outdoors? Regular exercise makes us feel great and keeps us healthy. Before you head out for your workout or run, check the air quality forecast for your local area. You can find out when air pollutants such as ground-level ozone or airborne particles are at acceptable levels where you live.

Don't idle! Remind your school system to turn off bus engines when buses are parked. Exhaust from idling school buses can pollute air in and around the bus, and can enter school buildings through air intakes, doors, and open windows. Constant idling also wastes fuel and money, and school bus engines really need only a few minutes to warm up. This doesn’t just apply to school buses, but all cars and trucks!! Stuck in traffic? Turn it off.

Mary F. Gutierrez, Environmental Planner
West Florida Regional Planning Council
P.O. Box 11399 Pensacola, FL 32524-1399
4081 E. Olive Rd, Suite A, Pensacola, FL 32514
Phone: (850) 332-7976 x 226 or 800-226-8914
Fax: (850) 637-1923
www.wfrpc.org

“The meaning of earthly existence lies, not as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul” - Solzhenitsyn

"The purpose in life is a life of purpose" - Byrne

NOTICE: E-mail communications to or from West Florida Regional Planning Council employees are considered to be public records. Public records law requires these communications be made available to the public and media upon request. (Florida Statutes, Chapter 119)

April 17 - Walton County Earth Day Festival and 5K run/walk

University of Florida IFAS and the Friends of Topsail Hill Preserve State Park invite you to join us on April 17th for the second annual Walton County Earth Day Festival at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park. We are kicking the day off with a 5K run/walk at 8am and the festival starts at 10am. We will have interactive educational displays, cooking demonstrations, storytellers, guided hikes on the beach and coastal dune lake, animals encounters, door prizes and lot's MORE!! Bring the whole family out for this fun and exciting day, park fees will be waived for the event. Activities will be going on all day from 10 to 3.

Click here for flyer

April 18-20, 2010 Waste-to-Fuels Conference & Trade Show

Waste-to-Fuels Conference & Trade Show
April 18-20, 2010


Don't miss out on one of the best networking conferences on this emerging issue.

Register Now!

Why Attend the Waste-to-Fuels Conference?

• Increase Biofuel and Alternative Energy Markets

• Sell More Goods and Services

• Increase Your Organization's Exposure

• Excellent Networking Opportunities

• 300+ Key Industry Leaders Attend Annually

• Great Exhibitor Opportunities

• Excellent Educational Sessions

Registration Fee! (Govt./NGOs $295 and Industry $395)

Deadline 3/18/10



Visit our Web Site:
http://www.waste-to-fuels.org

April 24 - Destin Green Fest

Destin Commons, Abrakadoodle Art Education, Off the Vine Produce, and Avantgarde Salon will host the first annual Destin Green Fest on Saturday, April 24th 2010 from noon til 3pm at Destin Commons.

Click here for more information

April 30 - Mattie Kelly Environmental Symposium

Dear Friends,

There’s still time to register for the Mattie Kelly Environmental Symposium on Choctawhatchee Bay! This year’s Symposium will be on Friday, April 30 at the campus of Northwest Florida State College. Papers for both oral and poster presentations are being solicited for the Symposium (please see attached “Call for Papers”). Researchers from academia, industry, and government agencies are encouraged to submit their recent work on topics related to the Choctawhatchee Estuary, watershed, and bay. For those of you who have attended this event in years past: the format will be similar to the 1st annual event in 2008, rather than last year’s workshop format. The registration fee for the Symposium is $25 and includes all meeting materials, lunch, and reception.

Environmental journalist and author, Cynthia Barnett, will give our key note address on Blue is the New Green: Water Sustainability and the Future of Florida. Ms. Barnett is senior writer at Florida Trend magazine, where she covers investigative, environmental, public policy and business stories. Her numerous writing and reporting prizes include eight Green Eyeshade Awards, which recognize outstanding journalism in 11 southeastern states. She has a bachelor’s in journalism and master’s in environmental history, both from the University of Florida, and she spent a year studying water supply as a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan.

And don’t forget to sign up your group to host a table at this year’s Choctawhatchee Estuary Family Festival. Last year’s Festival was attended by more than 1700 people and this free event will be a great way to spread the word about all the great work your group is doing. This year’s Festival will be on Saturday, May 1 at Rocky Bayou State Park.

Please visit the Symposium’s website to register and submit your abstract soon. And please visit the Festival’s website to register your group to host an exhibit or to sign up to volunteer at the event.

30 Days to a Greener Lifestyle

With all the buzz surrounding eco-friendly
living these days, you may wonder where to
start. But reducing your impact on the planet
can be simple, and every action does make a
difference. Want even more incentive to
change? Most green actions will save you
money, limit waste, enhance your health and
even increase your overall physical
activity—all while benefiting the planet. Here
are 30 daily tips to get you started.

Click here for the calendar

April's Green Awareness Taskforce Article

Green Awareness Taskforce

The Fort Walton Beach Green Awareness Taskforce is gearing up for another active month and reflecting on a last month’s activities.

April is National Recycling Month. This was a proclamation 5957 that George Bush signed April 19, 1989. The link is on our web-site to read. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=20446

This would be great opportunity to encourage your business, homeowners associations, civic organizations, family, co-workers and friends to start recycling. April is also Water Conservation Month. For more information about water conservation in Okaloosa County, you can visit their website: http://www.co.okaloosa.fl.us/dept_ws_conserve.html

The Green Awareness Taskforce encourages everyone to go to our web-site and take the “Green Pledge”. www.gogreenokaloosa.com.

At March’s Green Awareness Taskforce meeting Mike Gilliam from Eglin Air Force Base enlightened us with Eglin AFB’s Green Procurement Program. This PowerPoint presentation has been added to our web-site if you were not able to attend. GAT members volunteered at the Southeast Recycling Conference at the Sandestin Hilton and Power Up Conference at the Emerald Coast Conference Center. Jim Reece Okaloosa County’s recycling coordinator provided recycling containers for the NAACP and FWB Chamber of Commerce Concert4HAITI Sunday, March 14th at the FWB Landing to raise money to give aid to the Earthquake situation in HAITI.

We will be working on a Green Awareness Taskforce Decal for businesses & homeowners to display in their window who take the Green Pledge. More details to follow. The GAT is formulating a steering committee for recycling on the water for the Billy Bowlegs Festival in June. If you would like to get involved, please email us. whatfootprintwillyouleave@gmail.com The Taskforce will have a booth at the 2010 Earth/Arbor Day at the FWB Landing April 16th. This event is open to the public from 10am-2pm. Don’t’ forget to support the Environmental Council with their Beach/Road Clean-up day April 17th. Contact the TDC for more details. http://www.co.okaloosa.fl.us/environmental.html

Bluewater Bay Elementary School has created a “Bluewater Green Team”. Each month they offer an “Early Release with the Green Team”. This program educates the children in an entertaining and hands-on way to respect mother earth and our natural resources. More information about “Bluewater Green Team” is posted our website. Natural Awakenings Magazine is a local resource and wealth of information about upcoming Green Awareness Events. If your organization or business has a Green Awareness Event to promote, contact Melanie at fullcirclepbs@att.net. Our next Green Awareness Taskforce meeting is April 6th at 815am FWB Chamber Conference Room. Our April speaker will be Brandon Fausti who founded Cutmypowerbills.com and is with Energy Conservation Associates. His two primary products are the KVAR energy savings device and Prodex, high-bred radiant barrier. He will let us know the value because of their BEP or "break even point". This is when the energy savings device pays for itself. The topic of his discussion will focus on BEP and the fuzzy numbers in the energy savings industry, why those numbers exist, how the public has reacted to those numbers and how the public should handle those numbers in the future. Come see and listen to “Dollars, Sense, and Skepticism”. He plans on briefly touching on the some of the best new products on the market as well as why some great products simply don't work. In the end, energy savings breaks down to math equations, and the numbers don't lie. I would like to thank Lisa Holmes from Creative Web Solutions who created and maintains our Green Awareness Taskforce website. www.gogreenokaloosa.com This website promotes FWB Chamber Members who have Green Products & Services, updates and news on what is going on in Okaloosa County and surrounding areas promoting Green Awareness.

Tammy McDaniel – Emerald Coast Aviation
2010 Green Awareness Taskforce Chair
whatfootprintwillyouleave@gmail.com
850-586-0501

Natural Awakenings April Ezine

http://content.yudu.com/A1nca2/ECApr10/

All of the digital magazines since november 2008 are now available on the website's resources page and are all fully searchable! Just look for the link on the left side of the resources page.

http://emcoast.naturalawakeningsmag.com/resources

May 22, 2010 - Crestview Bob Sikes Airport - Emerald Coast Aviation Fly In/Open House - 1p-5p

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