If you missed out on the state’s appliance rebate program this spring, keep your eye out for a second chance. Thanks to unclaimed funds, Texas will be able to offer a new appliance rebate program in the winter of 2010.

Through the new program, rebates will be available on a first-come, first-served basis through a purchase and mail-in program. The goal of the program is to promote awareness of ENERGY STAR appliances and decrease energy consumption by encouraging appliance replacement.

The following is a list of anticipated eligible appliances:

• Refrigerators
• Freezers
• Room Air Conditioners
• Clothes Washers
• Dishwashers
• Central Air Conditioners
• Air-Source Heat Pumps
• Water Heaters

View the Winter 2010 Program’s Frequently Asked Questions for basic information on the new program. You can also sign up for e-mail updates.

If you want to know more about what you missed in the spring, here’s some information on the completed April 2010 program.

Manufacturers hoping to receive ENERGY STAR certification of their products will be adhering to more exacting standards.

Companies wishing to qualify their products as ENERGY STAR now must submit complete lab reports and results for review and approval by the Environmental Protection Agency prior to labeling. Following a review, EPA is no longer relying on an automated approval process.

Also, companies applying to be ENERGY STAR partners will not be able to access the ENERGY STAR certification mark until EPA has approved a specific qualified product submitted by the company.

Testing in an accredited lab previously was required for certain product categories, including windows, doors, skylights and compact fluorescent lighting.  The new process will extend the requirement to each of the more than 60 eligible product categories under the ENERGY STAR program.

“Consumers trust the ENERGY STAR brand to save them money and reduce carbon pollution,” said Cathy Zoi, Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.”The steps we are taking to strengthen the program will ensure that ENERGY STAR continues to be the hallmark for energy efficiency in the years to come.”

Frisco Public Library lets you download e-books, audio and video.

By Bill Sullivan

When the Frisco Public Library had an opportunity to tap into some federal stimulus money to get $75,000 toward expanding and deepening its downloadables collection, Director Shelley Holley had to show that the money would have a positive environmental impact.

Downloadable books are green?

You bet.

“Production of books is still production,” she explained. “You’ve got the hauling, transportation, the space they take on the shelf – all those kinds of things. We recognized downloadables not only as a green option, but as a time and space saving option, too.”

In ways you may not have imagined, Frisco Public Library is doing its part to make the city just a little greener. Thanks to ever-improving technology, you don’t even have to come to the library to get a library card anymore.

“You can apply from home, be given a library card number, and you can turn around and check out digital books from home,” Holley says. When you come to the library to check out other kinds of materials, you can pick up your card to do so.

“We’re trying to make library materials as easily accessible as possible.”

The Library currently works with three vendors to offer a wide range of titles and content:

• Overdrive offers downloadable print e-books, some video, and some music.
• MyiLibrary Audio (Ingram) offers the bulk of the Library’s audiobooks.
• NetLibrary is almost exclusively e-books.

Titles can be downloaded on most e-readers. Items can be accessed through the Library’s Web page. Using the Internet from home, a customer can download material on any compatible device.

Image: Frisco Public Library

Users can choose between seven and 14-day checkouts. When that time is up, the content “checks itself back in” by expiring from the patron’s device.

To avoid issues, be sure that the format of the book matches the device you are loading. An MP3 format, for instance, can transfer easily to MP3 players and iPods. Amazon’s Kindle, however, is programmed to work only at the Amazon Kindle store.

The Friends of the Library have helped move the project down the tracks, providing funds to purchase a variety of e-readers for staff to evaluate.

“We’re trying to stay on top so that we know which ones are best for which formats,” Holley says. “So anyone who might be interested in buying an e-reader and is also interested in availing themselves of the free items that are provided in the library, it’s not a bad idea to come to the library and talk about what kind of device you’re interested in, what your price range is, and how important it is that you don’t have to buy everything you read in an e-reader.”

While purists may lament the threat to the traditional format, Holley insists the Library is “not advocating the death of the book any more than people were advocating the death of the clay tablet or the scroll.

“We want people to be able to get the information they need in whatever format works best for them. But in an area where time is ever-increasingly an issue, not to mention transportation, a downloadable is a real answer to that.”

Older citizens haven’t always embraced new technology, but Library staffers have noticed a difference when it comes to e-books. A large number of technical support questions regarding downloadables have come from the AARP crowd.

For older readers, downloadables have plenty of appeal: No trips to the Library in bad weather. No need to arrange for transportation if they don’t have their own. No items to return. No wasted gasoline commuting back and forth to a central location, and no need to replace lost, worn or damaged printed materials.

All in all, a win-win for the library, its patrons, and — last, but hardly least — the environment. Just another way in which forward thinking helps Frisco be a little more green.

Is your recycle bin for papers and junk mail getting weightier? It seems there’s no let up in solicitations. If you’ve got a house or an apartment with an assigned mailbox, you’re getting a steady stream of coupons, catalogs and throw-away credit card offers.

Not only does this cost us trees, it messes up the house. We have a buffet devoted to the daily ritual of sorting out the bills and magazines from the unwanted catalogs, publications and come-ons. Once the piles are sorted and organized, the chaff goes to the recycle bin.

But once again, as with so many green solutions, there’s a win-win way around this logjam of printed waste. You can purge the junk mail and reclaim your buffet/hall table/desktop by signing up for the no-mail list at the Direct Marketing Association.

And guess what? You don’t even have to use any paper! Just do it online. You can put your name on the no-mail-please list, which should stem the avalanche of newsprint and brochures within 3 months.

Yes, you might miss a random coupon or sale flier. But the things you’ve signed up for, the places you do business with, should still find you.

– B. Kessler