Brion Hurley

Toyota Prius - Great despite recent problems

2010-05-17T20:05:26Z

We recently moved further away from my work, which obviously increased my commute to work each day. I've been thinking about getting a more fuel-efficient vehicle for a while now. I owned a Chrysler 300, which was a good car, but got less than 20 MPG.

The recent move and subsequent increase in gas made me start looking a lot more seriously at trading in my car.

I really had my eye on the new Aptera...

But it didn't look like there would be one available in my area anytime soon.

Then I considered waiting around for the Chevy Volt (despite my confusion and anger about GM and the old EV-1 vehicle debacle).

Again, the actual production date seemed to keep slipping out.

Another concern I had was the risk of getting the "first" version of any new vehicle, especially one with new technology or features. I didn't want to be in the shop more than on the road.

Ironically, many of the recent problems with the Toyota Prius made me consider getting one, since I thought I could get a good deal on a used one (assuming all the recall upgrades have been installed and fixed the issues).

I was able to find a good deal on a 2008 Prius, with 25,000 miles for around $16,000 (less than Blue Book value). That was more affordable than I imagined, since my perception was that a used Prius would still be in the low to mid-20s.

I've had the car for one month, and I have no complaints. Except one.

I had a hard time getting it started. I didn't realize that you had to have your foot on the brake, otherwise it wouldn't start. I almost had it towed, thinking something was wrong. Since it is partly electric, the push button start and lack of running motor when stopped have taken a little getting used to.

I'll give you my numbers, to show you how affordable one might be, and hopefully you'll look into it as well.

With my trade-in and amount owed, I had to pay an extra $1000, so it cost me $17,000 total, but that was less per month (about $70) than I was paying now (due to good interest rates on late model vehicles right now).

In addition, I am saving money at the pump. I have been averaging 45 MPG, so I'm cutting my gas costs in half (about $50 per month). Most importantly, I'm cutting my carbon footprint and emissions.

So overall, I have a newer vehicle, I've reduced my footprint (compared to what I would be emitting with my new commute distance), and I'm saving over $100 per month.

Planet Earth gets a "beat-down" this month!

2010-05-08T18:05:51Z

This was suppose to be the 40th anniversary of Earth Day this month, however, there were three major tragedies this month related to environmental issues.

1) Coal miners killed in West Virginia explosion - tragic explosion thought to be brought about by a methane leak in a West Virginia coal mine has left 29 dead.

2) Oil rig fire and subsequent spill in Gulf of Mexico - Still ongoing, as a fire erupted on the oil rig, killing 11 workers, and is now spilling 5,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf, which is headed towards nearby coasts.

3) Coal-carrying ship damages Great Barrier Reef coral - coal-carrying ship ran aground on Douglas Shoals in the Great Barrier Reef. The ship was inside a marine protected area. It then rammed into the reef, and leaked about 4 tons of heavy fuel causing a roughly 3 km oil slick, and the damage it did to the reef will take 20 years to repair.

Forget about climate change for a minute. If you don't care about the planet, or are opposed to clean energy, the events of the last month should make you change your mind. If you can't see that these are dangerous occupations for those who work in them, cause pollution, and the risk to national security and increase in terrorism we take on while accessing these fuels, then you are a lost cause.

Maybe if we take away all the gasoline, and shut off the electricity to your house, will you start to think differently. Don't change your mind for the planet, change your mind because it's the right thing to do for humanity.

Trouble with reducing water usage in our toilet

2010-05-08T18:05:51Z

We moved to a rental house recently, and the toilet (just one bathroom) we got was put into the house in 1990. Therefore, it uses 3.5 gallons per flush. Obviously, a no-brainer to replace it with something better.

Instead of completely ripping out the toilet and replacing it, and sending the old toilet to the landfill, we looked at an alternative option.

There are now products on the market that will reduce your water amount per flush without buying a new one, and give you an option for a partial flush.

I purchased the One2flush 200 Dual Flush Retrofit Kit, and planned to reduce my usage to something similar to a 1.3 - 1.6 gallons per flush level, plus have the option to use the low flush option (for liquids).

When I went to install the product, I had problems getting the wing nuts off the back of the toilet, that connects the tank to the bowl. It must have rusted or sealed on there tight, as I spend almost 2 hours trying to get them off. I got one off finally, and tried to loosen the other by pulling and lifting on the tank.

As expected, I cracked the tank. So much for a zero waste solution!

Now I still had a bolt attached to the bowl, and a broken tank. I checked the local Restore, but they only sold toilets as one piece, not the tank or bowl separately. Since we only have one bathroom, I was in a time crunch to get it repaired. The next best option was to buy a new toilet tank.

The new tank was rated for 1.6 gallons per flush, which is better than what we had, but unfortunately, they didn't sell the 1.28 gpf model as a stand-alone option. Only in the full kit version. Which brings me to a quick rant: Why can't you buy each piece individually? There are pieces you should be able to save (lid, base bowl, plunger, water tubes, etc), so it seems wasteful to have to replace every piece of the toilet.

I finally got the retrofit dual-flush kit installed, which was pretty simple to install. There is some adjustment you'll need to make on the different flush levels, but the option to adjust it is nice to have.

Overall, I ended up with a better solution.

Toilet before, each flush = 3.5 gpf
Toilet after, each flush = 1.6 gpf for full, and approx 0.75-1.0 gpf for half flush

I wish I wouldn't have broken the tank, but this is just another example of why it can be tough to do the right thing. I hope my experiences give people some reminders to keep plugging along with your eco-friendly lifestyle, even when things go wrong, and you end up making a worse impact on the environment than you intended.

Rockwell Collins goes green with LEED buildings

2010-03-30T19:03:42Z

I had the opportunity to tour one of the LEED certified buildings on the Rockwell Collins campus in Cedar Rapids, IA. The older building of the two is Gold certified, and the newer one is Silver.

At the beginning of the project, they discovered that many LEED buildings cost around $250 per square foot. They were able to complete the 120,000 square foot pre-engineered building for less than $100 per square foot. The additional investment in obtaining LEED certification, and the enhancements required to achieve a high enough score, had a payback of about one year. Therefore, in the 2nd year, they would start to see cost savings, compared to a non-LEED certified building.

Some of the cool features that are included in these buildings include:

99% of construction waste — more than 1,000 tons — was diverted from the landfill

Building footprint covers only 2.75 acres, and nearby pond was incorporated into the design
More than 30 dedicated parking spaces for low-emissions and fuel-efficient vehicles
40% (385 gallons) of water use reduction through waterless urinals, dual-flush toilets, rainfall capture on roof, etc

Exceeds ASHRAE 90.1-2004 minimum energy performance requirements by more than 20%
More than 15% of building material is recycled content
Energy Star reflective roofing
Lots of natural light to minimize need for lighting, and lights are on timers and motion sensors to reduce costs when left on
Energy efficient windows with shades to reduce heating effects
To reduce driving and wasted time to get to the main facility (headquarters) across the street, a shuttle vehicle was setup that runs every 5 minutes
Chaning rooms and showers to encourage bike riding
Optimized parking lot lighting
Low VOC paint and coatings, and carpet contained recycled content
Xerascaping (native plants) deployed to minimize amount of water usage
Variable frequency drives (VFD) installed on equipment to reduce electricity costs of large equipment, part of larger energy management software system

The cafeteria is also very modern, clean and open, with access to the outside, so employees can eat with visitors, or just enjoy the weather. There is also a nice walkway near the pond, which is located between the two buildings.

As an employee, if you need a break from work, try hitting some putts in the break area, or put together a puzzle.

To learn more about this project, visit the Ryan Construction website.

http://www.ryancompanies.com/projects/Rockwell-Collins/

No air conditioning in Florida?

2010-03-30T19:03:02Z

We did it! We managed to go an entire year in Florida without any air conditioning! It was one of the tougher things we have ever taken on, and I'm not sure if I would do it again...

The good news is that we were able to save over $1000 in electricity bills, when comparing our bills to the average in prior years (Feb-Oct which are the primary months for A/C usage):

How did we do it?

1) Determination - We both agreed and committed to doing it before the summer started, and we had to rely on each other when it got really hot outside, and we were sweating in the middle of the night. Florida had an especially hot and long summer in 2009, which made it even tougher. It takes a special woman to even consider this idea, let alone agree to try it.

2) Use natural cooling - Everyday we opened up the garage door and all windows, and allowed the wind to provide most of the cooling by allowing the wind to blow through the house without obstruction. We also kept the shades down, to keep the inside from getting too warm.

3) Cold showers - Whenever it got too warm, we'd jump into the showers for a quick cool down. If you don't heat up the water, it's really cold, and the shock to the system was enough to get us by for a few more hours.

This summer, we don't plan to go completely without air conditioning, but we know we can greatly minimize its use by using the techniques above. We'll be in Iowa, so the heat won't be around as long as it is in Florida.

Could we do the same thing in Iowa in the winter and go without heat? Not a chance. I think we would need a fireplace to even consider that option.

This was really rewarding, and I felt like we really made a difference. Most of our friends thought we were crazy or thought it was physically impossible, so that made it even better when it was all over.

Kinnick Stadium recycling needs a boost

2009-11-23T20:11:37Z

While watching my Iowa Hawkeyes finish off an incredible football season, I began to think about how much trash gets generated at a sporting event. Although I realize that the 70,000 people who attend the games were probably going to generate "some" amount of trash that day, even if they didn't go to a game, there is still a lot that a university can do to minimize the amount of trash they create, and what happens to it after the game is over.

While in high school in Iowa City, all fall sports athletes were required to arrive at 7am on Sunday morning to clean the stadium after a home game. The university donated the money we raised to the athletic programs of each high school. If enough people showed up (usually 200-500 people), it could be fully cleaned in under 2 hours. It's a win-win for all parties!

I started thinking back to those days, and how the process worked, so I decided to check to see if things have changed much since I last participated.

When we arrived, we were happy to see that they were handing out special bags just for bottles. However, instead of using paper cups and dispensing soda from the fountain machine, they seemed to have gone with plastic bottles as the primary source of soda. The number of bottles was unbelievable, so it's no wonder why bottle recycling was being promoted. There were plastic bottle recycling setup around the stadium, so that was a positive. However, right next to that was a trash can, where many of the bottles ended up, unfortunately.

During the cleanup process, the trash is swept into the aisle, and then forced into a trash bag. Even with people walking around looking for bottles, there were many of them that still ended up in the trash. Everyone is trying to get the job done, and aren't spending a lot of time looking to see what can be pulled out for recycling.

The other surprise was the amount of aluminum cans that were present. First of all, these items are not actually sold in the stadium, so they must be "smuggled" in by the fans. What is amazing is that Iowa has a 5 cent deposit on aluminum cans, so the fact that no one had picked up these cans yet was hard to believe. I bet there was $20 worth of aluminum cans laying around. If you want to make some quick money, hang out after the next Iowa game next fall.

Here is a picture of the main items that were left behind after the game.

In summary, there were:

Plastic Bottles (soda, sports drinks and water)
Aluminum Cans (soda and beer)
Plastic bags (peanuts, hot dog wrappers)
Plastic containers (nachos, coffee lids, special drink cups)
Newspaper/Paper products (game programs, drinks/coffee, popcorn, fries, plates)
Food waste/organics (pretzels, pizza crusts, peanut shells)
Cardboard (coffee holders, carrying trays)

So what do I plan to recommend, and help implement at Kinnick Stadium next year? A three pronged attack is probably the best option.

Reduce the amount of trash - push for items with less packaging, or packaging with a higher recycled content (or maybe more biodegradable material).
Reuse containers more than once - make it an incentive to reuse their commemorative cups each game, or provide reusable carrying trays (not disposable).
Recycle as much as possible - which items can be recycled, that aren't being done today, and setup a simple process for the fans and cleanup crew.

I'll keep you posted on my efforts. Next time you're at a sporting event, look around and see what improvements can be made to make recycling easier, and let the team know about it!

Depressing trip to the landfill

2009-09-28T20:09:48Z

As part of my company's ISO-14001 team, we took a tour of the local landfill. If you've never been to a landfill, you need to go. It will inspire you to do way more recycling than you do now! Most of them will give you free tours, since they realize the importance of public education. In fact, take the whole family, and you'll see how quickly you can change their behavior!

On the downside, it was pretty depressing to see all the trucks constantly dump loads of waste all day long. One after another. The worst part is that many of the items being dumped could have been recycled (cardboard, wood, fabric, plastic bottles and jugs, paper, etc). But once it leaves the truck, it's against the law to grab the item (for safety reasons), so we saw piles of items that you wanted to go grab and place in the recycling bins, but we couldn't.

If I ran the landfill, I would require every truck to empty its contents, and sort out the recyclable items from the waste, before it ever goes up to the hill. Why do we expect the citizens to know all the rules? Why would they blindly allow people to dump items without any inspection or checks? With the constant updates in what can and cannot be recycled (which also seems to be unclear whomever I ask), educating the public will always be way too costly and too much "after the fact" to make any immediate impact. Spend that money and effort at the last line of defense, and use that information to flow back to the truck drivers and citizens with hard facts.

I realize there would be a lot of extra labor involved, but what about the cost of land for burying stuff we don't need to throw away, and having to buy more land a lot sooner, as a result of this lack of "inspection". If you consider any recyclable item that is dumped as an error or "escape", then common thought is that you go to the prior step and setup an inspection, until you eventually trace back to the source of the "error". Yes, public education is the ultimate scenario we should strive for, where no one throws away anything unless it cannot be recycled. In the meantime, you should manually sort out what doesn't belong until that time comes.

That brings me to the really depressing part. Once an item is dumped, it gets covered and all liquid is eventually extracted from underneath the trash. The hill is covered in a layer of material that prevents any moisture from entering. Basically, it's sealed up tight, and nothing gets in or out.

This is a problem because nothing will degrade or compost in those conditions. Biodegradable materials require water, heat and oxygen in order to break down, which they will not get inside the landfill (at least not enough before its covered forever).

BOTTOM LINE: Don't bother buying biodegradable materials unless you are going to compost them yourselves, or take them somewhere that will compost them for you (which is rare to find for most people)!

Here is some more information on biodegradable materials

P.S. This isn't a rant against my local landfill. They do use the methane to generate electricity, and the people there are passionate about recycling and reducing waste, and were just as upset about the situation as we were. I'm just ranting at the whole broken process...

Paradise covered in trash?

2009-09-08T19:09:35Z

We finally got around to taking a honeymoon. We picked St. Croix in the Virgin Islands as our destination, because my wife was impressed with her visit to St. John's and St. Thomas a few years ago.

First of all, if you want to visit Hawaii, but can't afford the flight, then the Virgin Islands is the next best thing! The views were spectacular, as you can see from some photos below...

That being said, one of the disappointments about St. Croix was the amount of trash we saw on the beaches. I understand that the trash that washes up on a beach does not usually come from the local people. However, I think it is important for an island that relies on tourism to have a permanent program in place to keep the beaches clean. In addition, we did not see a very strong recycling program, so I am certain that the locals and tourists are contributing a significant amount to the problem.

Each beach access we stopped at contained a wide variety of garbage that had washed ashore. Plastics, milk jugs and cartons, fishing lines and lures, glass bottles, aluminum cans, cardboard, etc. You name it, we saw it.

Since this was our vacation, I wanted to take my "environmental" hat off for the week (yeah right!), but the longer we were there, the more obvious the trash became, and the more we pressured each other into doing something about it.

There was a potential hurricane (Erika) that almost hit while we were there. It ended up being a tropical depression, so we only missed half-a-days worth of activities. Since we were limited on what we could do that day, we decided to go visit Isaac and Jack's Bay, a secluded series of beaches on the southeast side of the island.

We had visited Isaac's Bay earlier in the week (hiking from Point Udall, the easternmost part of the US). We wanted to see the other side, so we approached Jack's Bay from the other road, and found it to be an easier and better marked hiking trail.

As we approached the bay, we again noticed a lot of trash that had washed up onto the beach. First, we just picked up a few items that were obvious (platic doll leg, lighter, plastic bottle), but the more we picked up, the more we saw.

We decided to go full-board and pick up as much trash as we could from the eastern part of Jack's Bay. It took us about an hour, but it was well worth it.

There were some nearby pelicans towards the edge of the bay. If you've seen the video of the albatross and the plastic found in their stomaches on Midway Island, you'll understand our satisfaction when we were done (watch video link below). Basically, the birds eat the plastic, thinking it's food, and it takes up space in their stomach forever, which prevents them from growing strong enough to fly.

We decided to take a picture of what we collected. It was pretty scary what we found in that short amount of time, including hair curlers, motor oil containers, and toothbrushes.

We don't want to single out St. Croix, as there are many beaches around the world with this same problem. What hope this blog can lead to some change in how the beaches are treated by those who live closest to them. Here are some recommendations we would like to recommend...

1) There needs to be a regular beach cleanup on the island. Encourage the tourists to get involved, along with the school children. As you can see, it doesn't take much time to make a big impact

2) Once the beaches are cleaned, start to track and categorize the trash found on subsequent cleanup efforts, to determine where the trash is coming from, so the problem can be minimized.

Are the skeptics correct that global warming is a hoax?

2009-07-04T10:07:18Z

My education is in statistics and Six Sigma, so when I saw this article, I had to check it out...

Surface Temperature Data Quality Suspect – Casts Doubt on “Global Warming” Hypothesis

Essentially, the article contests that the data being used to justify an increase in temperatures could be lacking. The author, Thomas Pyzdek (a well-respected Six Sigma guru), points to the location of the temperature monitors as a source of error, due to their surrounding conditions.

"The bottom line is that 89% of the sites examined to date are in categories 3, 4, or 5. In other words, they fail to meet established NOAA requirements."

In Six Sigma, it is critical to make sure (with good solid analysis) that the data you are looking at is valid. This is a VERY common error that people make. More often than not, I usually find a problem with the measurements when I'm working on a project. People naturally assume that the data is valid, therefore we should accept it as is. Since this website is very data-focused, any actual or perceived issues related to data collection and reporting of temperature changes needs to be understood and addressed right away.

This leads me to my original reason for the post. Is global warming real?

At first, I thought it was a hands-down decision from the scientific community that it was real, but the more I've opened up my eyes, I can't discredit the nay-sayers (as evidenced by the article above). If I've learned anything over the past few years, it is to never assume or take for granted something, even if it seems right to you, and even if the majority of people think it is right. That alone doesn't make it true. Science and evidence is what will eventually win out, whether we like the results or not.

So let's assume that the jury is still out on global warming. Does my website go away? No! When I look at the reasons for why we need to make these changes and take these actions to be more green, the reduction of CO2 is not the only reason.

Even if we can live with CO2 emissions, we still have the following issues to address:

1) Water quality and scarcity
2) Pesticides in our food
3) Dependence on foreign oil
4) Destruction of our lands (for coal, livestock, urban sprawl, etc)
5) Landfill overflow
6) Animal extinction

Just to name a few...

Bottom line: If carbon emissions actually has no impact on global warming, then all we have lost is just the fear factor of potential natural disasters and harmful living conditions in the future. I would expect that this is not the main reason people are going green, instead it is the impact on their local environment and their pocketbooks that will have the biggest impact, and that is not affected by global warming.

Throwing away trash takes a long time!

2009-07-04T10:07:51Z

One thing that I didn't anticipate when remodeling my house was how long it would take to get rid of things I didn't want anymore. Instead of putting all the junk in my garage into a big pile on the curb, I spent hours trying to figure out how to salvage, or reuse, or recycle those items.

I even started to dread throwing anything away. I knew it would involve an internal fight with myself on whether I could justify throwing it away. It usually ended in the decision to not throw it away. Usually, it just left me with more questions. The few things I could justify throwing away still made me second guess myself for at least a couple days afterwards. You really can't go back, once you know what is the right thing to do.

Overall, I'm happy with most of the decisions I made. Goodwill and ReStore were the main beneficiaries. Although it took a lot more time and effort to figure everything out, I feel like I made a small difference. Even though I will still always question myself whenever I open the trash can lid, it's a small price to pay.