26 - The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday April 19, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com Good for you! You are now part of the team trying to improve our environment every time you redirect items to your GreenCart and your Blue Box. EARTH DAY TUESDAY, APRIL 22 2008 Top 10 actions you can do to celebrate Earth Day... everyday! Park It Leave your car at home for a day (or a week or a month) and try walking or biking. If work is too far away to walk, take public transit or carpool. One city bus eliminates the emissions of 40 cars. Shut Down Turn off the lights, the computer and the TV when they are not in use. Using only highly efficient and money saving appliances can reduce the electricity consumption of an average household to one tenth of the US average. Where's The Beef? Try eating meat-free at least one day a week. A meat-based diet requires seven times more land than a plant-based diet. Livestock production is responsible for more climate change gasses than all the motor vehicles in the world. Eat It Choose foods produced organically, locally and in season. Support your regional farmers & farming industry: buying locally and in season is better for the environment than buying foods that have been shipped hundreds of kilometers to your local market. Let It Rot Put a composter in your backyard or use your green bin to reduce household waste. Composting organics has two key benefits: it reduces the amount of waste going to landfills and when added to your garden, helps nourish soil and plants. Don't Be Idle Turn off your car's engine if stopped for more than 10 seconds. If every driver of a light duty vehicle avoided idling by five minutes a day, collectively, we would save 1.8 million litres of fuel per day, almost 4500 tonnes of GHG emissions! Keep Your Eye On The Temp Set your thermostat above room temperature in the summer and below room temperature in the winter. For each degree you adjust, you can save five per cent on your utility bill and one per cent on your energy use. Bright Ideas Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs). A CFL uses only 25 per cent as much energy as an incandescent bulb and lasts 10 times longer. Don't Dump It - Blue Box It! The simple act of recycling has more impact on the environment than the average Canadian thinks. The amount of wood and paper North Americans throw away each year is enough to heat five million homes for 200 years. Tell Someone This is a great opportunity to brag. Tell someone what you're doing to make the world a better place. Support the cause. Encourage them to get involved too! From www.earthday.ca phone: 905-827-2077 fax: 905-827-7516 email: brownb@parl.gc.ca Bonnie Brown M.P., Oakville OUT OF INK ? 10% OF SALES SAVE TO SAVE UPUP TO ON-SITE REFILL SERVI 60% BROTHER · CANON · DELL · EPSON · HP · LEXMARK 60% Saturday April 26, 2008 goes to suppor t the Most Re lls Done Within 30 M ILDCATS Cheerleaders ON-SITE REFILL SERVICE Most Re lls Done Within 30 Minutes Upper Oakville Shopping Centre (Upper Middle & 8th Line) (905)842-5600 SOLAR ENERGY TIPS FROM A CANADIAN COMPANY WITH 22+ YEARS OF SOLAR HEATING EXPERIENCE SALE April 26th, 10AM-4PM Win a 7 Day Cruise! See Store For Details "MASONRY & FIREPLACE DESIGN SPECIALISTS" w w w. c o b b l e s t o n e m b e r s . c a SOLARONTARIO LTD. Solar energy is free, limitless and available to everyone - so why not use it to reduce your energy costs and help save the environment by reducing the amount of green house gases you produce? Below are a few tips about using solar energy. 1 ) The most cost-effective use of solar energy is to heat your swimming pool. SolarOntario.com Ltd. installs the Techno-Solis system which can have a payback of less than one year when compared to the cost of installing and operating a natural gas pool heater. (A solar system can add 6 - 8 weeks of warmer swimming!) 2 ) Solar water heating is becoming more popular. A solar water heating system can reduce your hot water bills by 50% and pay for itself in as little as 10 years. 3 ) Solar electric (PV) systems may eventually be more cost-effective. The payback on a residential system is still in excess of 25 years. (After the OPA's SOC program) 4 ) A single 4'x 12' Techno-Solis collector can displace 3/4 of a tonne of CO2 a year!! FIRE HALL 140 LANSDOWNE AVE. CITY OF TORONTO 2007 TECHNO-SOLIS 18'x 36' pool near Kitchener. 8 - 4'x 10' Techno-Soils collectors. 1992 The principals of SolarOntario.com Ltd. have installed more than 12 different makes of solar pool heating system. In our experience, the product that offers the best value - that being a combination of performance, durability and price - is the solar collector made by TECHNO-SOLIS. It is a commercial quality, Canadian designed, (which is why it is so freezetolerant) solar pool heating collector that comes with a limited lifetime warranty. Solar energy and its ROI (return on investment). Installing a solar system can be looked upon as an investment in your own (solar) power generating system. Solar pool heating systems typically have a ROI starting around 30% per year. As conventional fuels rise in price so does your ROI - and its all non-taxable!! Solar water heating systems have a ROI that starts between 7 and 10%. Solar energy for businesses and Municipalities. Certain business and municipal heating applications are well suited to the use of solar energy. Car washes, laundries, and large swimming pools are excellent candidates for solar heating. In 2006 SolarOntario.com Ltd. designed, supplied and installed the largest solar pool heating system in Canada and the second largest and third largest solar pool heating systems in Ontario for the City of Toronto. They were part of the 7 new solar heating systems we provide to the City. These systems can displace well over 100 tonnes of CO2 a year and have an installed capacity of over 750 kilowatts (heat)! SolarOntario.com Ltd. has more than 20 years of experience designing, installing and servicing solar heating systems for residential and municipal swimming pools, as well as residential and commercial water heating applications. SolarOntario.com Ltd. represents several different solar equipment manufacturers. With over 600 solar heating installations, we've learned what works and what doesn't. Call us today or send us an email, if you would like to have a solar heating system designed, installed and / or serviced. 16'x 32' pool in Oakville. 8 - 4'x 12' Techno-Soils collectors. 2005 CENTENNIAL REC. CENTRE CITY OF TORONTO 2006 Pool & Hot Tub Council of Canada SolarOntario.com Ltd. Is a member in good standing of these professional organizations SOLARONTARIO LTD. CALL NOW: 905-845-2433 - OAKVILLE E-MAIL: info@solarontario.com .COM 406 SPEERS RD., OAKVILLE ACROSS FROM RONA LANSING 905-337-2066 .COM