JouleBlog
The latest news from JouleBug, the easy way to make your everyday habits more sustainable, at home, work, and play. Discover how you and your friends can use resources—without using them up, with this newly designed app.
Global Wind Day: Bringing Wind Power Indoors
Today is Global Wind Day!
Think wind power is only for giant turbines? Think again! Check out these summer tips to harness wind energy and save on your air conditioning use.
Use the vent fans in your kitchen and bathroom, and ceiling fans in other rooms, to keep your house cool. You’ll save energy and money on your A/C bill!
Research has shown that well-ventilated homes can save 10-15% on their space conditioning energy expenses! Plus, who doesn’t like a little wind in their hair?
Don’t forget to buzz these pins when you remember to turn on a fan to cool down!
Photo © Leon Wilson
‘Consume with Care’ for World Environment Day
Today is World Environment Day! This annual event hosted by the United Nations Environmental Programme is a worldwide movement to bring awareness and action to environmental issues. The theme this year is “Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care.”
Take time today to appreciate the beautiful environment and take a few extra moments to ensure you are doing your part to care for it. Flip a switch, shorten a shower, and make sure your recyclables end up where they should. Take a walk in a local park or buy some local produce to observe the environment around you and what benefits you reap from it.
Most importantly, consume the world’s resources with care; if we all 7 billion of us work together we can make a big impact! Find out more with this quick video clip and the UNEP website to join the movement and get involved. Don’t forget to buzz your sustainable actions on the JouleBug app!
Bike to Work Week
Some say the bicycle is the greatest invention of all time. That may be a bit over the top, but it still ranks highly when it comes to inexpensive, quiet, energy efficient transportation.
So in honor of Bike to Work week, here’s our salute to those that bike to work:
- Congratulations on your healthy body from the workouts
- Kudos for all the “cowboy baths” you’ve taken to freshen yourself up
- Compliments for safely sharing the road
- Credit for the gas savings in your pocket and the carbon savings for all of us
- Regards for the wind in your face
- Applause for the rock-star parking spot
Our helmets are off to you!
Maybe one day, we’ll all be biking to work everyday. Until then, give these folks a wide berth when you pass and a big smile. Better yet, give it a try this Friday – National Bike to Work Day. You might just find yourself enjoying your daily commute.
Of course, don’t forget to Buzz these pins in the app when you participate this Bike to Work Week! (Once you’re safely off the road, of course.)
Blazing Saddles
Share the Road
Photo © Eric Tuvel
Happy Earth Day!
It’s JouleBug’s favorite day of the year! There are so many ways for you to get involved and help out Mother Earth. Save water! Recycle! Carpool! Whatever you do today, make sure you do something to help the planet!
To help you celebrate, here are a few of our favorite tips:
Of course, don’t forget to Buzz these pins (or any pin) in the app when you participate this Earth Day!
Eco Madness Challenge
It’s March, and you know what that means: Spring is here!
Help us celebrate this green season by joining the Eco Madness Challenge. From March 25 – April 3, we’ll be Buzzing to see which region is the greenest. To play, simply download JouleBug, Join the Challenge in the app, and Buzz to help your team win!
Here are a few ways to enjoy the warming weather and score a little for sustainability while you’re at it:
Unpack Rat – Ah! Spring cleaning!
Blazing Saddle Shoes – Walk where you’re going.
Garden Party – Create a rain garden to help your plants and prevent stormwater run off.
Join in the fun, share your achievements with friends, and make your team champion!
V-Day 2015
This Valentine’s Day, show some love to Mother Earth. Check out our suggestions for a sustainable date night.
- Shopping for chocolates? Remember to Hold the Bag
- How about a romantic moonlit walk? Put on those Blazing Saddle Shoes
- V-Day not for you? Grab some friends and organize a Sing-a-long for your own celebration
There are some more ideas in the app so take a look.
Enjoy your weekend and keep up the Buzz!
#MyGreenGoal 2015
It’s been a great year at JouleBug with lot’s of new features, users and communities! We love hearing how JouleBug gets in our users’ heads and they find themselves being more mindful of our beautiful planet. Most of us use JouleBug to log our sustainable actions and to capture and share sustainable moments — those special times when sustainability, beauty and fun collide. But I have never used JouleBug to set goals for the next year…until now.
In the next few days I am planning on Buzzing a few pins and adding my 2015 goals as comments with a tag #MyGreenGoal. Those that are following me in the app (Grant Williard) will see something like this in my Feed:
- Phat Wheels: Keep my tires inflated and Buzz 6 times (every 8 weeks)
- Park Place: Enjoy the outdoors and backpack 30 miles
- Blazing Saddles: Skip the car and bike 2,000 miles
- Catalog Crush: Get serious and keep my mailbox mostly empty
- Quittin’ Time: Remember to switch off lights and monitor at lunchtime, too
And for good measure, by the end of 2015, I’m striving for:
- Following more top JouleBug users – – they’re inspiring
- 104 additional Buzzes
- 50 more “Weeks in a Row” bonus (now 8)
- Capturing 6 sustainable moment photos that are well liked by JouleBug Nation
- 5 new Pins earned
- 3 more Badges earned
I hope you’ll join me in setting your own #MyGreenGoal. I’ll look forward to seeing your plans. Thanks to everyone for your support and Happy New Year!
Grant
One of JouleBug’s Founders
People Centered Efficiency
As you might guess, some of us at JouleBug are Energy Geeks. We’re excited about the great Intelligent Efficiency Conference in San Francisco next week. It is hosted by ACEEE, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, an organization that has been doing great work in this area for a long, long time.
What makes this conference somewhat unique and very exciting for us, is the more than usual focus on the importance of people’s behavior regarding energy efficiency. R. Neal Elliott with ACEE states, “We have identified three manifestations of intelligent efficiency: people-centered, technology-centered and service-oriented.”
There has been a great promise that one day in the future, technology alone will remove almost all the waste from our energy use and supply chain. Sure, we may believe it, but it begs the questions by when and how much will it cost. In the meantime, turning off those switches when you leave your office is immediate and free. We think of these kinds of actions as energy efficiency’s last mile.
Many technologies will be represented at the Conference, not the least of which will be from the 
building comfort folks, such as Nest and Johnson Controls. What started with Warren Johnson’s “electric telethermoscope” in the late 1800’s, has now evolved to thermostats that are described as smart, learning, self-programming, responsive and beyond. But who teaches these devices? You and I. And our behavior norms may need a bit of modification before we begin our teaching.
People-centered behavior norms are what JouleBug is all about. Our mobile app nudges, shares, and encourages users to save energy, as well as other sustainable actions. Any community – a city, company, university, school, neighborhood, etc. – can use JouleBug as a tool to strengthen its sustainability voice and influence us all to remember to flip the switch and teach that thermostat a thing or two.
Finally, the biggest highlight of the Conference may be that The Energy Gang will be there with a live podcast focusing on Intelligent Efficiency. What a geekfest! Stay tuned!