Comments RichardinKRV has made

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is WAY GREEN!

I attended a program by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. (started in 1980 in Chico, CA) at a Sustainability conference.

I came away VERY impressed.

Check out: http://www.sierranevada.com/environment.html

On September 16, 2007 Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.-one of the innovators of the craft brewing renaissance since its founding in 1980-commissioned the first phase of what will be one of the country's largest private solar installations.

This commissioning comes on the heels of the installation of four 250-kilowatt co-generation fuel cell power units, also one of the largest fuel cell installations in the United States.

Sierra Nevada was one of the first regional breweries to install a vapor condenser to recover waste steam from the kettle boiling step to preheat process water. We utilize plate heat exchangers throughout the brewing process to recover energy where practical.

Sierra Nevada focuses on minimizing our usage of this precious resource and continually audits the process to minimize wasteful practices. We have been able to reduce our water usage to almost half of the historical value typically used by breweries in this country.

Sierra Nevada made the commitment several years ago to treat all of our production wastewater to remove this burden from the local municipality. We installed a European-designed, two-step anaerobic and aerobic treatment plant that reprocesses and purifies all of the water produced from our brewing operations.

The methane generated from the anaerobic digestion of the wastewater is put back into use at the on site fuel cells. The methane is used a fuel source within the cells that produce a great deal of the electricity consumed at the brewery. Additionally, water used for truck washing is collected and purified through our own facility.

They have looked at EVERY aspect of production, even the transportation involved in shipping their ale to me.

http://www.sierranevada.com/environment/trans.htmlOn Umbra on beer and wine posted 9 months, 2 weeks ago 15 Responses

On greening your sex life...

Since you opened Pandora's Box with this subject matter, I will offer a comment.

For some kinky folk, a large amount of CRISCO (or other vegetable shortening) is used as a result of some serious recreational SEX.

With strong soaps, it is washed down the showers or by washing machines in some kinky households.

I fretted over WHAT this would do to my SEPTIC SYSTEM.

When I sold that house in the Palm Springs area, one requirement of escrow closing was for a Septic System Maintenance company to come out, open the tank up and pump out the contents, giving the new occupants a 'fresh start' so to speak.

I was AMAZED to find the tank nearly empty. I'd expected huge 'ice bergs' of coagulated CRISCO to be floating about in a sort of hideous Sargaso Sea. But that was NOT the case. I asked the guys doing the pumping and they said the VEGETABLE FAT is a favorite food of the bacteria in septic systems.

I imagine that is much the same with sewer systems and treatment plants.

I guess I should send an E-mail to Proctor & Gamble to add something to their Crisco website...On Umbra on greening your sex life posted 2 years, 8 months ago 12 Responses

Deforestation = 25% of all carbon emissions

FROM: http://www.ecobridge.org/content/g_cse.htm
After carbon emissions caused by humans, DEFORESTATION is the second principle cause of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Deforestation is responsible for 25% of all carbon emissions entering the atmosphere, by the burning and cutting of about 34 million acres of trees each year. We are losing millions of acres of rainforests each year, the equivalent in area to the size of Italy. [Rainforest Action Network. Press Release, October 16, 1996].  The destroying of tropical forests alone is throwing hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. We are also losing temperate forests. The temperate forests of the world account for an absorption rate of 2 billion tons of carbon annually. [Keeling, Ralph, Stephen Piper, Martin Heimann. "Global and hemispheric carbon dioxide sinks deduced from changes in atmospheric oxygen concentration" Nature,Vol.381 May 16, 1996.]. In the temperate forests of Siberia alone, the earth is losing 10 million acres per year.
On Umbra on tree planting posted 2 years, 10 months ago 18 Responses

What about a PELLET stove, Umbra?

BENEFITS OF USING WOOD PELLETS:

    As a biomass fuel, pellets offer the advantages of sustainable energy supplies through renewable raw materials.

    Biomass pellets reduce the use of dwindling fossil fuels, often imported from foreign countries.

    In addition, pellets are a by-product, not a primary user, of these renewable materials.

    Using pellets also helps reduce the costs/problems of waste disposal. In 1993-94, more than 6½ million cubic yards of waste were diverted from landfills and converted to home heating in the form of pellets.

    As part of the tradition of the hearth, pellet burning offers the enjoyment of fire viewing and active participation in providing winter comfort in the home.

    Heating by wood pellets is considerably cheaper than heating with electricity. Heating with wood pellets is cheaper than heating with liquid propane. Only firewood in a good wood-burning stove and COAL (!) would be cheaper.

When I redid my house in California's Kern River Valley, I tore out 2 wood burning stoves, disabled several electric wall heaters and put in a, Enviro Evolution E5 WOOD PELLET STOVE which is rated @ 83% efficiency & 45,000 BTU heat output on MAX. It is my primary source of heat. I use propane for my tankless hot water heater, the stove & clothes dryer. On Umbra on fireplaces posted 3 years, 10 months ago 10 Responses