Green Your Electricity & Save $$

West Roxbury Saves Energy is sponsoring a public meeting to learn about a new electricity supplier that will help you save money.

  Want to be more environmentally-friendly with your energy usage and save money? Learn about how you can do both of those things from West Roxbury Saves Energy on Tuesday. West Roxbury Saves Energy is hosting Green Your Electricity at West on Centre at 7 p.m. Starting in June, residents of West Roxbury (and the rest of the state) have an new option for purchasing green energy - Viridian, an electricity supplier that offers a 20% green energy plan, and a 100% green energy plan. This meeting is open and free to all. Learn how you can save money on your monthly electric bill, and help the environment with this self-described “socially responsible energy company.”

• Photos (1)

A Patch of Green

Green Your Electricity: A New Option in Massachusetts

This environmentally friendly column is brought to you by West Roxbury Saves Energy, a community-based organization committed to spreading the word that individuals can make positive choices that save money as well as the planet.

  If you are like us, you are always trying to find new and better ways to green your energy usage and save money at the same time. While the recent rash of thunderstorms may tempt you to send up a kite with a key on the tail, we really cannot recommend this method. However, lots of changes for the better are becoming available, from comprehensive ways to monitor our home electrical usage to the possibility for some of going "off the grid" entirely by using stand-alone systems or small-community mini-grids. As of June 1, residents of West Roxbury (and the rest of the state) have an additional option for purchasing green energy. As you may know, we are able to choose from among a number of "suppliers" for our electricity (if you do not …

•  3 Comments
• Photos (1)

Mary Mulvey Jacobson

9:12 am on Saturday, June 30, 2012

Feel free to contact me as I am an associate with Viridian. I would be delighted to discuss this with you. This is Mary Mulvey Jacobson and I can be contacted on this at MLMJ75@aol.com   more ›

A Patch of Green

Did You Know...Local Ways to Save $$?

This environmentally friendly column is brought to you by West Roxbury Saves Energy, a community-based organization committed to spreading the word that individuals can make positive choices that save money as well as the planet.

  Information about how to be green and save green is pretty much everywhere now and getting harder to miss with every passing day. Consequently, we all think we are pretty savvy when it comes to recognizing the steps we can take in order to both help our environment and lower our energy bills and related costs. Nevertheless, we at West Roxbury Saves Energy are wondering whether you were aware of these tidbits: No doubt every West Roxbury resident who counts himself among the informed green consumers knows that for each bag you take to Roche Bros. in which to pack your groceries (thus avoiding using a new paper or plastic bag at the checkout counter) the store will take 5 cents off your bill. But did you also know that for every wire …

•  2 Comments
• Photos (1)

Answer: Where Were Daffodils Planted in West Roxbury?

No one could correctly guess where all the daffodils were planted.

  Last fall Mayor Menino and the City of Boston gave away 40,000 bulbs in the "Boston Blooms with Daffodils" program to individuals and organizations willing to plant them in public spaces around the city. West Roxbury Saves Energy (WRSE) secured several hundred and passed along some to local schools for their grounds and planted others around town. WRSE's recent A Patch of Green column asked for people to guess where some of the daffodils were planted through photos. The first five people to correctly name where the photos were taken, were to receive a free WRSE t-shirt.  Winners' names were to be posted on WestRoxburySavesEnergy.org, but sadly no one guessed all of the locations correctly. Click here for all of the photos and for answers…

• Photos (1)

West Roxbury Cleanups for 'Boston Shines' This Weekend

Volunteers are welcome at all of the scheduled neighborhood cleanups.

  West Roxbury is really going to shine after this weekend thanks to several scheduled Boston Shines cleanups in the neighborhood. The 10th Annual Boston Shines is happening around Boston neighborhoods this weekend, specifically on Saturday in West Roxbury. Many groups and individuals have already registered to help make West Roxbury shine. The biggest cleanup is of Centre Street, and volunteers are welcome to show up on Saturday to get their hands dirty. "If you do not have a project in mind but would like to participate, please come down to the Hastings Street Municipal Lot," said Christopher Tracy, West Roxbury Coordinator of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services. The lot is at the corner of Hastings and Centre streets. Meet there…

• Photos (1)

A Patch of Green

Can You ID These Patches of Yellow in West Roxbury?

This environmentally friendly column is brought to you by West Roxbury Saves Energy, a community-based organization committed to spreading the word that individuals can make positive choices that save money as well as the planet.

  Green is good, but so is yellow — especially if it comes in the form of lovely daffodils popping up all around West Roxbury. Last fall Mayor Menino and the City of Boston gave away 40,000 bulbs in the "Boston Blooms with Daffodils" program to individuals and organizations willing to plant them in public spaces around the city. West Roxbury Saves Energy secured several hundred; we passed along some to local schools for their grounds and planted others around town. Responsible for daffs in one of the photos below through the same Boston Blooms program was the Evening Garden Club of West Roxbury. Today's challenge is to identify where these yellow beauties are blooming — the first five people to correctly name all four locations will …

•  6 Comments
• Photos (4)

Rickie Harvey

11:46 am on Thursday, April 19, 2012

Nope; sorry. Try again? Also, there are four photos to guess!   more ›

Letter: Response to WRSE Column

Reader responds to column 'Is It Climate Changes of Just Weird Weather in Boston?'

  To the Editor: I would like to commend the authors of (West Roxbury Saves Energy's column) “Is It Climate Change or Just Weird Weather in Boston?” for answering the question correctly: it doesn’t matter. As the authors note, the climate has always changed and will always change to varying degrees, and that we’re in a period of accelerated change that is causing significant damage. What they miss is that this is a systematic problem that has less to do with turning the water off when you brush your teeth and more to do with what makes the lights turn on. Out of all the water used in the country, only 1% of it is used for domestic purposes, according to a 2005 United States Geologic Survey report. That means that all the water used for …

• Photos (1)

A Patch of Green

Is It Climate Change or Just Weird Weather in Boston?

This environmentally friendly column is brought to you by West Roxbury Saves Energy, a community-based organization committed to spreading the word that individuals can make positive choices that save money as well as the planet.

  “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” —attributed to Mark Twain. So, you’re probably asking yourself, “What’s up with winter this year? Is it CLIMATE CHANGE or just WEIRD WEATHER?” Can we know? Probably not. Does it matter? No. After all, Earth's climate has always changed. What we DO know and what DOES matter is that the change is now occurring at a rate way faster than “normal.” It is this rate of change that is of concern, and most weather experts and scientists agree that humans are responsible.    According to a research professor at the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University: “As the world has warmed since the fossil-fuel revolution after World War II, Arctic temperatures …

• Photos (4)

A Patch of Green

Energy and Environmental Activities in West Roxbury Schools Help Students Appreciate Our World

This environmentally friendly column is brought to you by West Roxbury Saves Energy, a community-based organization committed to spreading the word that individuals can make positive choices that save money as well as the planet.

  Research shows that the best way to make adults aware of the importance of helping our environment is to educate children. Youngsters have an uncanny ability to grasp the existing need to take care of our earth, and they bring enthusiasm and energetic tenacity to the challenges they are exposed to. Explain to children how plastic bags harm our environment, and they immediately find all kinds of alternatives to taking a new bag each time we shop. Then they take this concern home and share it with their parents (sometimes unremittingly!), and soon the whole community reaps the benefits. A number of environmental education activities are unfolding in two of our local elementary schools. At the Ohrenberger K–8 schools in West Roxbury, Jaimy …

•  1 Comment
• Photos (2)

A Patch of Green

A Vision of a "New" Brook Farm

This environmentally friendly column is brought to you by West Roxbury Saves Energy, a community-based organization committed to spreading the word that individuals can make positive choices that save money as well as the planet.

  Ray Porfilio, the author of this column, is a member of WRSE's Steering Committee and vice president of the New Brook Farm board of directors. In recent years urban agriculture and community farming have exploded in popularity as more people rediscover the benefits of growing their own vegetables and fruits, having access to fresh produce, and coming together with neighbors to produce food locally. Many of us are familiar with the lovely sight of the Newton Community Farm on Nahanton Road, particularly when its rows of vegetables are at full growth and bursting in green leaf. Wouldn't it be terrific if West Roxbury could support a similar endeavor in our own back yard? A couple of years ago a small group, led by West Roxbury resident …

•  1 Comment
• Photos (3)