Thursday, February 21, 2013

Save with Green Cleaners' Earth Hour challenge!

On 23 March, households and businesses will take part in turning off their non-essential lights for one hour to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change.

Green Cleaners is celebrating Earth Hour 2013, by taking part in Earth Hour's new I WILL IF YOU WILL challenges - WE will be offering the promotions below if YOU commit to recycling!

Accept our challenge? Visit Earth Hour's YouTube channel, Sign in and commit to recycling at: http://goo.gl/RFZY1

Once we have 20 commitments, our offers will be available! While you're there, why not create your own IWIYW - email us the link and we'll support the best challenges on our social media platforms!

* Offer available once 20 commitments have been made. Kindly complete an online quotation form with the words 'Earth Hour 60' in the referral box. Offer ends 23/03/13. Subject to availability – please check for available dates early!

** Offer available once 20 commitments have been made. Kindly email your order to sales@greencleaners.asia with the subject heading 'Earth Hour 60'. Offer ends 23/03/13. Delivery charges may apply.


Monday, February 18, 2013

How Climate Change REALLY Affects Us.



The planet keeps getting hotter. Especially in America, where 2012 was the warmest year ever recorded, by far. Every few years, the U.S. federal government engages hundreds of experts to assess the impacts of climate change, now and in the future.

From agriculture to infrastructure to how humans consume energy, the National Climate Assessment Development Advisory Committee spotlights how a warming world may bring widespread disruption.

Farmers will see declines in some crops, while others will reap increased yields. Won't more atmospheric carbon mean longer growing seasons? Not quite. Over the next several decades, the yield of virtually every crop in California's fertile Central Valley, from corn to wheat to rice and cotton, will drop by up to 30 percent, researchers expect.

Lackluster pollination, driven by declines in bees due partly to the changing climate, is one reason. Government scientists also expect the warmer climate to shorten the length of the frosting season necessary for many crops to grow in the spring. Aside from yields, climate change will also affect food processing, storage, and transportation—industries that require an increasing amount of expensive water and energy as global demand rises—leading to higher food prices.

More energy demand, higher prices, more climate change.

The worldwide trend is stunning. Since 1970, global demand for heating has decreased, while demand for cooling has shot up. Higher temperatures over the next decade, mixed with a growing global population, will continue to increase energy demand, accelerating the loop of emissions that cause climate change that cause more emissions. Rain, meanwhile, is projected to drop up to 40 percent in some places. Less water, a key ingredient in power production, will constrain energy generation systems. What's more, government analysts anticipate that a higher projected chance of flooding in certain areas will risk inundating power generators and disrupting transmission routes. Aging transportation infrastructures won't mix well with extreme weather. Large storms and extreme weather have already shown their might. The impact on transportation infrastructure won't be pretty, on par with superstorm Sandy's destruction in 2012. But scientists expect similar scenarios to increase in regions that will become more vulnerable to changing weather.

Several states, including Vermont, Tennessee, Iowa, and Missouri, have already experienced severe weather that damaged roads, bridges, and railroad tracks. Some engineers worry that heavy demands on aging infrastructure can create unreliable routes for the transport of vital commodities like food, fuel, and water.

Droughts will become more common virtually everywhere.

The world has a finite amount of water, and new demands, especially from a growing population, will stretch that supply. Watersheds in the southwestern U.S., including the Rockies and the Rio Grande, will encounter supply problems as the runoff that replenishes them declines. Perhaps worse, longer droughts in formerly fertile regions will mean less certainty for farmers and water-dependent industries.

Cases of allergies and asthma will continue to rise.

Prepare yourself for dirtier air. Climate change is expected to increase atmospheric ozone—widely known to lead to decreased lung function—up to ten parts per billion. Cases of asthma are expected to jump by up to 10 percent in urban areas such as New York City. Longer pollen seasons will lead to more air-based allergies, scientists say, and with increasing carbon dioxide, the pollen count could nearly double from 2000 levels.

Cities could become more dangerous than suburban areas.

Cities have become more attractive since 2000, owing mainly to the proximity of major conveniences. But there's a big downside. Natural disasters wrought by climate change—such as increased hurricanes and more severe storms—mean that any disruption could impact millions of people's lives. Only some cities have devised plans to deal with these events. Shutting down New York City's subway system and issuing advance evacuation orders to some parts of New York and New Jersey in advance of superstorm Sandy is thought to have saved thousands of homes and lives.

Keeping yourself informed is the best way to stay ahead. Knowledge is power and it isn't too late. For more updates on our Environment, visit http://www1.nationalgeographic.com/

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

British Association Charity Summer Ball!



Hi everyone! Early notice from our friends at the British Association that tickets are now available for their Charity Summer Ball. The Ball is being held on 01 June 2013 at the prestigious St Regis Hotel. Green Cleaners is proud to be supporting the event and we look forward to seeing you all there! Please contact the BA for more details and tickets: http://www.britishassociation.org.sg/BA_Summer_Ball.html

Saturday, February 9, 2013

A Green Chinese New Year



Clean and green Singapore is going even greener this Chinese New Year, recycling S$2 bills for red packets of money alongside the printing of new ones.

Giving out the little "hongbao" packets with crisp new notes during the Chinese New Year is a longstanding tradition. Adults typically give them to children, older relatives and unmarried siblings to wish them good luck for the coming year.

As well as printing millions of brand new S$2 notes as it has done in the past, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the wealthy Southeast Asian city-state's central bank, said it will issue older notes that look as good as new and encourage the public to use them.

"The accumulation of excess S$2 polymer notes and their destruction before the end of their lifespan is a waste of precious resources and is not environmentally friendly," the MAS said.

Singapore only needs around 50 million S$2 notes in circulation. Printing the excess notes just for the Chinese New Year consumes 10 metric tons of ink and uses enough electricity to power an entire apartment block for six months!

Most of the notes find their way back into the banks soon after the New Year festivities anyway, as people put them in their savings.

Find ways to stay green this Chinese New Year, whether it's ironing out notes for red packets, recycling after party waste or shopping locally for your family meals.

What we give, we get back! Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Monday, February 4, 2013

Get Creatively Green!



Whether you need slogans for going green for school, work, or a volunteer project, you've come to the right place. Promote going green with one of these 36 slogans — they are the very best we've found.

How to Use Go Green Slogans

Green slogans catch the viewer's eye and attention when placed in prominent areas and help to promote your message. Some ways to use catch phrases for going green include:

•Reusable canvas shopping bags
•Bumper stickers
•T-shirts
•Pens/pencils
•Coffee cups
•Badges
•Signs
•Buttons
•Posters
•Banners
•Flyers
•Magnets
•Recycling bins


Slogans With "Green" in Them

Sometimes you just want to emphasize the "green"-ness of your message. Green is excellent shorthand for environmental awareness and instantly brings to mind images of cleanliness and nature.

•Go Green
•It pays to be green
•Join the green side
•Go green or go home
•Don’t be mean Go green
•It’s not easy being green
•Give green a chance
•Live Green, Love Green, Think Green
•Smells like green spirit
•When the going gets tough, the tough go green
•Think green
•Clean and Green
•Don't Be Mean, Be Green
•Get into the Green Scene
•Green Is the New Black


Slogans With "Earth" or "Planet" in Them

And then sometimes you want to focus on the planet as a whole, to get people thinking about the big picture. Making people aware of the positive impact they can have on the earth as a whole is one successful way to inspire them to do something or help your cause.

•Vote Earth
•Good Planets are Hard to Find
•There is no Planet B
•Earth Day Every Day
•Your planet needs you
•Save paper, save trees, save the planet


Green Slogans that Challenge People

To really grab people's attention, slogans that challenge people to think about the environment do the trick. Many of these slogans contain wordplay that makes you do a double take and stop and think, e.g., the "elders" in "Respect your Elders" meaning both those older than you and a variety of tree.

•Make Conservation a Habit
•Burn Calories Not Oil
•Reduce, reuse, recycle!
•Global Warming is not Cool!
•What would nature do?
•Can You Hear the Eco?
•Buy Local
•I brake for litter
•Respect your Elders (and Oaks, Pines and Hickorys too)
•Think… before you print
•Will Work for Trees
•Where Do You Think the Environment Is?
•Act Like You Live Here


Humorous Green Slogans

Funny catch phrases for going green work best when used in the appropriate context.

•Save water, drink beer — Good for a bar or pub
•Join the Green Side — Good for Star Wars fans or anything that's proudly geeky


Use any of the slogans for going green listed here, or use them as inspiration to make up one of your own. Good luck with your efforts, and let us know how these slogans worked for you, or any good ones you've come up with after reading these. And don't forget: have fun going green!

Saturday, February 2, 2013

From Workout to Watts!



If you're the type of person who thinks working out is just a waste of energy, then a new gym developed in the UK might help change your mind.

This new fitness center, situated in a city park in Hull, northeast England, not only provides a facility for local residents to get fit but also generates electricity every time the equipment is used.

"So far, the community has generated 40,000 watt hours (40 kilowatts)," says Georgie Delaney, creative director at The Great Outdoor Gym Company.

"The goal is that a gym like this should serve a community of about 5,000 people and really people could easily make a kilowatt hour per day. So, if you times that by the amount of gyms that we could possibly install, that actually becomes quite a significant amount of energy," Delaney said.

The company has already installed more than 350 gyms in public places around the UK -- paid for by local councils and free of charge to use for local residents -- but this is their first to convert human energy into electricity.

The gym currently powers its own lighting, but the hope is that one day they will be feeding surplus energy into the national grid and reducing electricity bills.

"We truly believe that in the western world we consume too much energy both in terms of food and electricity. What we're trying to do with the green energy gyms is give councils and communities a tool, with a facility like this, so people can actually offset their consumption of both food and electricity," Delaney says.

The concept clearly impressed city officials in Hull. "The aim of the council is to get more and more people active instead of sitting in their lounges watching television," says councilor Terry Geraghty. "We want to get people off their [sofas] and get a bit active ... more and more people are getting obese, also diabetes, heart disease, not just in Hull, but in the country," he added.

The idea is also attracting interest from local authorities around the world, some of them in developing countries, says the company. The prototype in Hull cost around $100,000 to install, but there are also plans to develop a cheaper $32,000 model which would charge mobile phones and a larger gym (around $130,000) where power could be fed back to the grid.

Li ng Ge, a research scientist at the UK's Imperial College London, is impressed with the scheme but its price may be an issue for poorer nations. "The conversion from the gym to the national grid could be quite costly in developing countries," Ling says. Instead of installing electricity-generating gyms in countries in Africa, for example, it might be cheaper to use alternatives such as solar heating, solar power cells or hydroelectric power stations, she says. "But still, it's a really beautiful concept and it uses existing technology in a novel way," Ling said.

"I think it's an excellent way to educate people about the concept of sustainability and changing people's behavior without putting the 's' word in your face."

Story courtesy of CNN's "Environment" coverage.