November 2006 Green Tidings

Green Tidings to you and yours! I hope you like our newly designed newsletter and web site (which is now open for online shopping!).

Mark your calendars for "Going Solar," our next Sustainable Living Talk at 7 pm on December 14, featuring Fortunat Mueller of Energyworks. Come find out if solar is right for you.

Read on for more in this month's Green Tidings...

Happy Holidays!
Fred Horch, Owner

P.S. I'd like to put in a plug for the SunriseGuide, a brand new resource guide and coupon book for sustainable living in Maine. For just $20, you get 128 colorful pages packed with tips, resources and thousands of dollars in coupons for outdoor living, home and garden, transportation, arts and culture, and natural and local products. Available after December 1 in our store and online at www.FWHorch.com.

F.W. Horch Is Giving Green
We're "Giving Green" this holiday season by donating 10% of our gross profits to five local non-profit environmental and community organizations. Every purchase you make from now through December 23 in our store and online will help build a better community for midcoast Maine. Learn more at www.FWHorch.com. Sustainable Living Talk, "Going Solar"
Join us on Thursday, December 14, at 7:00 pm at F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies for "Going Solar", a talk by Fortunat Mueller of Energyworks.

Whether you're planning to live off grid, or are just curious about the state of the art, you'll learn how to harness the sun's energy for electricity and heat here in Maine. The crew at Energyworks are experienced solar installers who have helped many people in Maine achieve their dreams of going solar. Find out what works and what doesn't. Is solar right for you?

Free refreshments and informational handouts will also be available.

If you have attended past talks, please remember that we have moved the store! The new time and place for our Sustainable Living Talks are 7:00 pm at 56 Maine Street in Brunswick.

Introducing the SunriseGuide
A new resource guide and coupon book for healthy and sustainable living in southern Maine
We are happy to offer the SunriseGuide, a new publication developed by a Mainer (and former Topsham resident), Heather Chandler. The book includes more than $4,500 in coupons for environmentally friendly products and services in southern Maine. You’ll find coupons for F.W. Horch, as well as other local businesses including natural food stores, farm stands, restaurants, personal care products, green building, public transportation and more! In addition to the coupons, the guide includes more than 50 pages of useful information and local resources, such as where to find a farmer’s market or CSA, which plastics are safest for food storage, the tax incentives available for energy upgrades, and much, much more!

Guides will be available at the store and on our web site beginning December 1. At $20, they make a great holiday gift. Check them out at http://www.thesunriseguide.com/.

"Saving Energy for Maine"
Efficiency Maine is now offering $2 instant coupons for holiday lighting. You've heard of CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps). Now get ready for LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes). They offer a new way to look at decorating for the holidays and beyond. LEDs are energy efficient and very long lasting. The old fashioned incandescent bulbs last hundreds of hours, but LEDs last hundreds of thousands of hours. Our holiday lighting is rated for 200,000 hours -- that's 22 years of continuous use!

If you're going to decorate with lights, LEDs are a great way to keep costs under control. A 70-light string consumes just 1 watt of electricity. Plus, with their incredibly long life span, you don't have to replace bulbs or light strings as often as before. LED bulbs are also a lot sturdier than glass bulbs. Finally, LEDs are safer because the bulbs stay much cooler.

News from Energyworks
Here's the news from Energyworks, our renewable energy partner:

"Our new southern location is officially open for business at:

Energyworks South LLC
109 Fox St.
Portland, ME 04101
207-221-6342

At this time of Thanksgiving it only seems appropriate for all of us at Energyworks North and South to extend our deepest thanks to our clients and friends who have made this such a terrific year. Thanks to everyone for their enthusiasm and support of renewable energy. Together we really are making a difference. Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!"

And don't forget about December's Sustainable Living talk featuring Energyworks on Thursday, December 14, at 7 pm. If you're planning to go solar in 2007, don't miss this talk!

Forest-Friendly Greeting Cards
If you choose to send holiday greeting cards, you can help protect our forests and all the living creatures that depend on them by keeping a few guidelines in mind:

• Choose cards printed on 100% recycled paper. Use your purchasing power to reward companies that are completing the recycling loop, keeping paper out of our landfills and protecting our forests. At F.W. Horch, we have a nice selection of beautiful cards on 100% recycled paper.
• Choose cards printed on paper that is not bleached with chlorine. Virgin paper made from wood is naturally the color of cardboard; recycled paper is typically the gray color of cereal boxes. There are two main methods of bleaching it white. One method uses chlorine, which leads to dioxins in the environment. The other uses oxygen, ozone and hydrogen peroxide, without creating dioxins. Look for cards that state "Process Chlorine Free" or "Totally Chlorine Free".
• Choose cards without plastic wrappers. Paper is easy to recycle. Plastic is not. By purchasing greeting cards packaged without plastic wrappers, you cut down on the amount of garbage we need to bury or burn.

In my family, we look forward to receiving greeting cards from friends and relatives. It is wonderful to know that others are thinking of us. I also look forward to the day when all of the cards arrive on 100% recycled paper, letting us know that others are thinking of our planet and our shared future on it.

What's Happening in the Local Environmental Scene
The Brunswick Sustainability Group will meet at Frontier Cafe on Tuesday, December 19, at 7 pm. For more information about this group, visit the store or drop me an email.

The Brunswick Community Health and Land Care Ordinance passed by five votes, and survived a recount challenge. The ordinance requires the Town of Brunswick to adopt "land management principles and practices for the care of Town-owned land that minimize risk, to the greatest extent possible, to human health and the environment."

Evergreen Wind Power expects to complete construction of a 28-turbine wind farm on Mars Hill Mountain and begin generating electricity by December 31, 2006. When completed, this will be the largest wind farm in Maine. At full capacity, it is expected to provide enough electricity to power 40,000 average Maine homes.

Oakhurst Dairy in Portland will be running 130 delivery trucks -- more than 90 percent of its fleet -- on B20 biodiesel fuel by the end of the year. The fuel switch will make Oakhurst trucks the largest private biodiesel fleet in New England. B20 biodiesel is a mixture of 20% biofuel from renewable vegetable sources and 80% petroleum-derived diesel fuel. The mixture burns cleaner without requiring any engine modifications. B20 can also be burned in home heating systems, with no modifications, instead of #2 heating oil.

The fourth annual statewide conference Maine Neighborhoods: Building Strong Communities is set for Tuesday, December 12th at the Holiday Inn By The Bay in Portland. David Littell, Commissioner, Maine Department of Environmental Protection, will be giving the keynote speech, "Global Warming and the Possible Effects on Maine". The cost is $45 per person; $25 elders/students. Call 773-4336 for scholarship information. For more information, email conferences@usm.maine.edu

You are invited to an opening ceremony for the historic Swinging Bridge between Topsham and Brunswick on Saturday, December 16, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. on the Topsham side of the bridge. The bridge has been closed since extensive repairs began in May of this year. Directly after the ceremony a cleanup of the area is scheduled. Volunteers are asked to bring gloves, rakes and appropriate clothes for the weather. Hot cocoa will be provided. Built in 1892, the bridge has served as a pedestrian link across the Androscoggin River. Many generations of workers from the Topsham Heights neighborhood crossed the bridge each day to the Cabot Mill. The French-Canadian community used it to reach churches, as well as public and parochial schools. For additional information about the bridge and restoration project see www.saveourbridge.org or contact the Swinging Bridge co-chairs Nancy Randolph at 729-3600 or Roger Caouette at 725-2403.

The next Friends of Merrymeeting Bay talk is "Passamaquoddy Culture: Our Neighbors to the East" by Allen Sockabasin, a Passamaquoddy who devotes much of his time to teaching and preserving the Passamaquoddy language. 7:00 pm on December 13 in the Beam Classroom, Visual Arts Center, Bowdoin College.