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Going True Green Blog:

With the start of our new GTG Blog on EarthDay 2013, we are occasionally renewing our old "postings" dating back from 1987. Please watch our "How To" instructional videos on posting your comments to GTG's Blog and use the RSS Feed on the right to receive notice for a new Posting. Also visit the back Story (Blog Preface) behind all this!
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Waterless Lawns

7/26/2016

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Water, Drought, Southern California drought, California drought, water shortages, Los Angeles, saving water, rain barrels, rock gardens, waterless lawnsA Waterless Lawn
Several GoingTrueGreen.com followers have been asking me about the wave hitting the West Coast to combat the water drought in Southern California. That wave of improvisation is known as Waterless Rock Gardens or Rock Lawns. After all, to use clean fresh drinking water for your grass lawn just doesn't make sense in a severe drought. At least this makes sense to all the households in Los Angeles where income doesn't afford watering lawns. Those lawns are now all brown.

​The reason for not watering is because there isn't enough water. Yet, if that isn't reason enough, there are higher water costs and fines to endure. For the average and low income families, that is all understood. However, in towns such as Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills, and Bel Air, those lawns have been "green" the longest according to local news papers. Some of the very people maintaining lush green lawns for as long as they can in this devastating drought, are financially secured celebrities that many low income kids look up to. Some reports have claimed that well known and very vocal environment friendly celebs, are the most heinous offenders! Only after being identified and embarrassed did they take steps to save clean drinking water.

Water, Drought, Southern California drought, California drought, water shortages, Los Angeles, saving water, rain barrels, rock gardens, waterless lawns, rain barrels, rain rocksRain Barrel
Now taking steps to save water was made very easy by the state and cities of California. Four years ago they offered lawn owners $1.50 per square foot to replace your lawn. These tax credits had Los Angeles homeowners, along with commercial businesses, pulling out a million and a half square feet of grass. The grass has been replaced with rocks, vines, trees, shrubs, gravel, cacti, succulents, and perennial plants. Homeowners earned even more money from the utilities if they used drip irrigation, weather over-ride systems, and eco-friendly sprinkler heads. I even suggest catching rain water off your roof with Rain Barrels. For more of my blogs on this subject visit More Garden, Less Lawn.

​Recently the L.A.'s DWP, Department of Water and Power, increased the amount from $1.50 to $2.00 per square foot for grass removed so even more water can be saved. At that rebate price, some land owners could make one or two thousand dollars. However, before you run out to buy rocks and tear up your lawn, you have to follow set rules. You can find details on your local town or city website. Such as the LADWP, (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power), website for how to get pre-approval to present before and after proof. Without following the rules for proposed changes, you may not receive any rebate or tax credit.

All of us must take water saving steps, drought or no drought. The reasons are many and one is because clean drinking water has already become hard to find in many places around the world. A topic that I address in my first Online Workshop which is about WATER.

Bill Lauto
, GTG

Environmental Scientist

International Sustainability and Energy Consultant

Contribute your comments!

Telomere, Telomeres, L.J. Williams, BBV Publishing, Hitler, Cold Spring Harbor Lab
Telling the Untold Stories: TELOMERE by L. J. Williams
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What's Your EBB?

7/15/2016

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electric bill, electricity, saving energy, lower electric bills, lowering electric costs, bill lauto, going green, sustainability, sustainable living, solar, solar power, natural gas, electronics, cost of electronics, grid, electric grid, kilowatts, kilowatt hours, vampire power, vampire draw, electrical costsElectric Meter
Electric Bill Breakdown:

​Saving at home on electricity starts with knowing what is using the most electricity in the house. Differences will exist between an ALL Electric houses or a house that uses natural gas to make hot water in a separate gas fired Hot Water Heater. Nevertheless, let us look at some examples so that we can start to put our own house bills into perspective.

Twenty years ago and still today, the biggest daily user of electric power is most likely your refrigerator and/or your Air Conditioner. All your Incandescent light bulbs used 15% of your total power. Today that has changed to your electronics. They pull power even when they are not on! Today, electronics will use about 15% of your total electric consumption. Please review my blog on October 31, 2013 called Vampire Appliances.

Below is the average breakdown of electric power consumption for a house in the northern States of America. If the house is in the southern areas of America, the shown percentage for heat must be reversed with the percentage for cooling:

electric bill, electricity, saving energy, lower electric bills, lowering electric costs, bill lauto, going green, sustainability, sustainable living, solar, solar power, natural gas, electronics, cost of electronics, grid, electric grid, kilowatts, kilowatt hours, vampire power, vampire draw, electrical costsElectric Meter
Heating 29%
Cooling 17%
Consumer Electronics 15%
Water Heating 14%
Appliances 13%

Lighting 12%

Yearly electric bill for areas with the highest Kilowatt cost (West and East Coast Cities) would be an average of $6,000.00. Please note that this is in addition to any natural gas or oil consumption bills.
electric bill, electricity, saving energy, lower electric bills, lowering electric costs, bill lauto, going green, sustainability, sustainable living, solar, solar power, natural gas, electronics, cost of electronics, grid, electric grid, kilowatts, kilowatt hours, vampire power, vampire draw, electrical costsSolar Energy!
My costs are as follows:
Heating - I use Natural Gas with a 92% efficient unit, yearly cost:     $ 340.00
Cooling - I use Solar Power, yearly cost: $ 0
Consumer Electronics - I use Solar Power, yearly cost: $ 0
Water Heating - I use Natural Gas with a 92% efficient unit, yearly cost:    $ 420.00
Appliances - I use Solar Power, yearly cost: $ 0
Lighting - I use Solar Power, yearly cost: $ 0

My yearly grand total for Energy costs: $760.00. When I go with Solar Hot Water, I will save the $420 a year cost in Natural Gas. FYI: After the tax credits for going solar, my payback is just 4.5 years because I went with the pre-paid Lease program.

Now, I also receive a check at the end of the year from my electrical power company, this reimburses me for the approximate $10.00 a month cost they charge me to still be hooked up to the Grid. They pay me .4 cents per Kilowatt, while taking the extra power I created and placed back onto their Grid, so they can sell it to others for a price between .18 and .23 cents per Kilowatt. Wow! Twenty years ago we paid .12 cents per kilowatt and they paid .4 cents to anyone creating power by wind, solar, or a burning garbage facility. Since then our cost has gone up to .23 cents per kilowatt and they are still paying us .4 cents. Amazing, but that must be fair right? If it wasn't, how could they get away with that type of scalping? All our government politicians have failed us. For more on this, see my Solar Sabotage blog posting!

Bill Lauto
, GTG

Environmental Scientist

International Sustainability and Energy Consultant

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Telomeres, Telomere, Hitler, L. J. Williams, BBV Publishing, Untold stories, world war two, cold spring harbor, science fiction
Telling the Untold Stories: TELOMERE by L. J. Williams
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GTG Updates

7/7/2016

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AESS, Association of Environmental Studies and Scientists, Bill Lauto, Sustainability Conference, Sustainable, sustainability workshop, American UniversityAESS Conference in DC
On June 8th, it was an honor to be a speaker at the 2016 AESS Sustainability Conference in Washington, DC. My three hour workshop was a success and I connected with people from the Philippines to Germany. I was happy to see other workshop attendees looking in on my presentation through the open doors and listening to me when in route to the bathroom or when on a break. The answer truly is, all of us working together as one team.

St. Johns University, The Torch, SJU, St. John's, Bill Lauto, St. Augustine Hall, Solar for St. Johns, Going Green, sustainability, Environmental Studies, Environmental SciencesSolar Panels at St. John's
St. John's University, my alma mater, had a school reporter for the Torch newspaper write a story online about St. Augustine Hall scheduling a new roof and the amazing opportunity to install a custom Solar Panel system. The article quoted me from 1979!
​Ironically, I was the first person as a student back in 1979 to propose solar panels on the roof of St. Augustine Hall. The "photo" on the left is from St. John's The Torch newspaper article that had my original interview! So I hope to stand on that new roof two years from now and 40 years from the first article, with energy and earth saving Solar Panels all around me.

Maximpact, Bill Lauto, GTG Blog, Going Green Blog, Going True Green Blog, Going Green, Sustainability, environment blog, environmental blogs, energy blog, green blogInternational Blog Posts
Going True Green's Blog has been picked up by Maximpact, based in Monaco France. They have a force of International Sustainability Consultants which I am part of for providing corporate accounts consulting in energy savings, environmental protection, and going green technologies. Since the month of May this year, when Going True Green's Blog was first added and listed, our international readership has more than doubled.

Chestnut Hill College, St. Joseph Earth Center, Interdisciplinary Sustainability Conference, Sustainability, sustainable living, Bill Lauto, Going Green, Surgarloaf convention hall, Sister Mary Elizabeth ClarkChestnut Hill College
I will be speaking this November at the 5th Annual Interdisciplinary Sustainability Conference in Philadelphia. The event is hosted by Chestnut Hill College. This year's theme is Science, Public Policy and Faith Traditions in Environmental Relationships. Also hosting is the Sisters of St. Joseph Earth Center. Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark, is the director of the Center and I hope to meet this amazing person who has done so much for our home we call Earth. Please Note: Conference was postponed until November 2017, then unfortunately cancelled.

Bill Lauto
, GTG
Environmental Scientist

International Sustainability and Energy Consultant


Contribute your comments!
Telomere, Telomeres, Cold Spring Harbor National Lab, L. J. Williams, BBV Publishing, Hitler, science fiction
BBV Publishing; Telling the Untold Stories: TELOMERE by L. J. Williams
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    Bill Lauto, Environmentalist, Energy Consultant
    Bill Lauto came on the scene in 1981 to present facts and teach details about how we can save our environment without making  sacrifices. He demonstrated how correctly implementing the technology we already obtained in 1981, allowed us to save Money, Energy and Earth. He voice was one among the few who taught green facts long before anyone else talked about Going Green. 
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    By 1994 the Internet was being explored as a tool to provide energy saving information to all of America by Mr. Lauto. Having the foresight, he first launched the Light Bulb HotLine web site off of the company's Domain in 1996. Then in April of 2001, EnergyHotwire.com became a resource. Today,
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