The city of San Francisco recently started GreenFinanceSF, a financing program that helps to pay for water savings, energy efficiency, and renewable energy projects that you might not have been able to afford.  The repayment obligation is attached to the property, rather than the individual, and is paid back through property taxes over the life of the financing.

Eligible projects include energy audits, upgrading heating systems, upgrading water heaters, installing solar hot water, installing solar electric panels, and conserving hot water. The program has an online application and application processing fee of $300.

‘Cash for Clunkers’ Appliance rebates start shortly.  Energy Star website has links for each State’s program as each state is different.

In California, we have the $35 million California Appliance Rebate scheduled to start in April, 22 2010 covering:

• Refrigerators
• Clothes washers
• Room air conditioners

Three residential appliance categories were selected to be eligible to receive rebates: clothes washers (rebate $100), refrigerators (rebate $75), and room/window air conditioners (rebate $50). FAQ link. These rebates are in addition to existing rebates offered by California’s utilities or appliance manufacturers

The rebate funds are estimated to last six weeks, so start shopping now. Be sure to recycle your old appliances.

Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has recently added the voluntary Critical Peak Pricing (CPP) program that gives lower energy rates on non-CPP event days (non peak days) in exchange for higher rates on CPP event days. (high use Summer days)

You agree to pay higher peak rates of 60 cents a kilowatt-hour on no more than 15 days a year in exchange for a 3 cent discount on all other energy use times.

This is designed for businesses using more than 200 kW per month who can pull back energy use during peak days. The program has resulted in lower bills for some big customers like datacenters.

When going from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Which is more green Flying or Driving. A recent article in VIA magazine raised this question and found that for two people, driving resulted in few greenhouse gas emissions by about 6%.  Flying was cheaper, took less time, and had more than an order of magnitude less change of a fatal accident.  If you had 4 people in the car, driving would be a lot more green.

When you take in all the data points, on a short journey like this, flying or driving does not make a big difference in eco friendly green-ness.  Someday (2018?) the new high speed train will be available as a more green option.

Alameda County Residents: StopWaste.org has $129 Smith & Hawken Biostack compost bins for only $44 plus Sales Tax $4.29 + Shipping $19.

San Mateo County Residents: Recycleworks has discounts on compost bins for residents.

It comes with a manual on how to do composting.  I like composting because it helps reduce all the trash we throw away.  Compost is like super soil that helps produce some awesome plants.

Check with your local recycling program provider to see if they have similar programs. Costco and Amazon have sales on composters from time to time.

If you live in a city, consider an electronic composter.