Green Irene Instead of Greenwash Snakeoil
I have not blogged for a full ten days because I’ve been overwhelmed with information and opportunities. Not actual job opportunities, ha! but opportunities to learn, to volunteer, to investigate further…. ay yi yi. And invitations for coffee, to attend conferences, etc. It is all good.
Today I was delighted to discover Green Irene, an implementation of an idea that I came up with a few weeks ago, except the founders of Green Irene did their biz plan in 2007 and now it is an up and running business! Which is wonderful! I mean that it exists. I’ve not investigated enough yet to recommend Green Irene as being wonderful or not, but I certainly plan to.
Mr. Electricity is your guide to saving energy in your home.
I came up with the idea, even down to the detail of hosting Tupperware-like parties, after a friend of mine told me she was thinking of trying to start a side business selling Green Revolution™ Energy Saver™, a “Power Factor Technology” that saves you 25% on your energy bill with a little magic box. This page about the same technology just screams “I am a scam!!!” to me, because it is protesting so much “I am NOT a scam!”
Although the amusing Mr. Electricity, who I discovered while investigating this subject, is purporting to keep an open mind until he can try one of the devices himself, I’m with his initial conclusion that it does not work. Rather than have my friend waste her time selling greenwashed snake oil, I thought she would be great at learning how to do some actual residential greening and then selling a service to all her friends and neighbors of actually telling them how and why to do what, and even doing some of it for them. Seems like there must be a ton of low hanging fruit, because all the information about do this do that to be green is overwhelming, most people just don’t do much. Probably none of us does enough yet.
I doubt that I’ll become a Green Irene myself, but I am interested in finding out what, if anything, they recommend for energy monitoring in the home or small business.
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