Categories
Meeting

Electrifying Our Lives

5 steps we can all take to lower emissions at home

June 11, 2024 • 6:00pm

What’s that Sustainable Tucson volunteer doing in my furnace closet?!

Helping mitigate climate change, of course!

Trained volunteer Home Electrification Coaches in ST’s new Go Electric AZ (GoEAZ) program are helping Tucsonans save money and reduce emissions by making their homes and transportation more energy efficient, eliminating use of fossil fuels, and solarize. “We’re not replacing dirty old gas appliances ourselves, but we’re giving folks pointers to help them know where to start, questions to ask contractors, find funding help from the IRA and other sources, things like that,” said Gordon Nuttall, who joined Sustainable Tucson’s Energy Transformation Working Group last fall and helped hatch the vision that has become GoEAZ.

Duane Ediger had already been tapped for advice. “People don’t always know what will work best for them when the time comes to replace an old gas appliance,” he said. “Lots of factors come into play. A water heater that actually cools your home can be pretty sweet in Tucson.”

Join Gordon, Duane, and Bruce Plenk at Sustainable Tucson’s June 11 Round Table presentation. You may just leave with a planned next step to clean up your home energy use. There will be a couple of group polls, time for Q&A, a few words about other work of Sustainable Tucson’s Energy Transformation Working Group, and some of the many ways you could get involved.

Our Presenters:

Duane Ediger is a solar technician and founder of Sustainable Tucson’s Energy Transformation Working Group. He promotes electrification and energy demand management to get carbon out of our lives for good.

Gordon Nuttall moved to Tucson in August 2020 from Fort Collins, CO after retiring as the CEO of the startup business he founded there. Here, he became a Naturalist at the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, hoping to influence the future by interpreting nature for elementary students. Gordon believes that it is vital that people become educated about climate change so we can start acting in an impactful way, noting that household electrification is a prime example of individuals getting involved.

Bruce Plenk is an environmental attorney, a solar consultant, and the former Solar Energy Coordinator for the CIty of Tucson. He has worked for several local solar companies and frequently participates in proceedings at the ACC. His recent interest in heat pumps is part of understanding that now is the time to move forward with electrifying everything…..and powering that electric demand with solar!

Categories
Event

A Critical Look at Waste Incineration

Tuesday, August 9, 6:00 pm

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/PNAE_KNwBDk

Waste incineration (including pyrolysis, gasification, and plasma arc) is making a comeback across the country, driven by misguided waste management and energy policies. Here in Tucson the Environmental and General Services Department is evaluating the feasibility of hosting a waste incinerator at the Los Reales Sustainability Campus.

Incineration is the most expensive and polluting way to make energy or manage waste. It is more polluting than coal (even for the climate) and undermines zero waste approaches like source reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting.

Join us at our August monthly meeting to learn about the life-cycle impacts of incineration technologies and how they affect people and our environment.

Our speaker will be Mike Ewall, founder and director of Energy Justice Network. EJN is a national support network for grassroots community groups fighting dirty energy and waste industry facilities, such as coal power plants, ethanol plants, natural gas facilities, landfills, and incinerators of every sort.

Mike has been actively involved in student and community environmental justice organizing since high school in 1990. He’s taught hundreds of workshops at college campuses and activist conferences throughout the U.S. His grassroots support work has helped many communities achieve victories against power plants, landfills, incinerators, medical waste facilities and other polluting industries.