Most of you probably remember the one laptop per child program where for $400 you could give one to a developing country and get one for yourself? Well for a lot of us folks on a limited budget that was just too much money to help out as much as we would have liked having a new laptop to play with and one given away in our name. For a much more affordable way ($50) to help out those in developing countries, or even our own troops, SunNight Solar has come up with a buy one give one (BOGO) program to help provide a free source of light to impoverished people.

Many people in the developing world don’t have electricity to light their homes and have to spend a lot of their resources on lighting solutions such as kerosene lanterns, candles, and flashlights. SunNight Solar has come up with a flashlight / lantern that is powered by the sun and basically provides free light. Their goal is to give as many of these flashlights away to as many people in need as possible and they have given us an easy way to help them with their goal. For about $50 you can buy one for yourself and give one to an organization of your choice including troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their founder Mark Bent an ex-marine started SunNight after spending many years in Africa and seeing how providing a free lighting source would be helpful to so many people. Mark being a man of action decided to found SunNight to help address this important need.

Being a bit of a gadget geek I was happy to see a package at my door the other day with one of these solar powered flashlights in it and who doesn’t enjoy a new toy to play with? I had forgotten that a few months back I signed up to get one of these to test out. The flashlight itself is very light and easy to handle, and although it’s not that small it’s thin enough to easily fit in a pocket. Its six LEDs make for a nice spotlight and easily illuminates the path ahead of you. To conserve on battery power you can turn it down to lower levels of light which give plenty of light to get around in the dark. There is even a lantern mode where it gives off a broad amount of light instead of a focused spot like in the flashlight mode. In this mode it gives off plenty of light to illuminate a small room for many hours. I’ve had mine on for four hours now in the medium lantern setting and it is still going on strong. I have no doubt that it will easily go for the 5 hours that SunNight claims.

The great thing about these flashlights is that you don’t have to worry about buying batteries or remembering to charge them. You just store it in a well lit spot and you will always have a charged flashlight. This is a pretty good solution to give people some light to enable them to get around at night for free. For two years at least, after that they’ll need to replace the batteries.

If you are interested in getting yourself one of these flashlights and giving one away head over to SunNight’s BOGO site. The hardest part is deciding what group to give a free flashlight to.

Watch this news report about Mark Bent and SunNight Solar.

Watch this Video about how SunNight Solar’s flashlight works.

So much to be done.. so many opportunities to do it!  There are public lands all over AZ in need of some sprucing (or major overhauling) and this Saturday is your chance to help out! With locations all over the state from the Grand Canyon to Yuma, to Phoenix or Flag you are sure to find a spot within driving distance.  This is a great chance for all of us to get involved but also to get kids involved with giving back to the community and enjoying nature at the same time.

National Public Lands Day
Saturday, September 27, 2008
National Public Lands Day is the nation’s largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance the public lands Americans enjoy. In 2007, 110,000 volunteers built trails and bridges, planted trees and plants, and removed trash and invasive plants. Join us for the 15th annual National Public Lands Day

This is a guest post by Tomas of The Closet Entrepreneur.

Greetings AzSustainability readers! Your gracious blog owner, James, was kind enough to lend me your eyes and ears to share some details about the upcoming Ignite Phoenix event! If you’re new to Ignite Phoenix, it’s an information exchange aimed at fostering and inspiring Phoenix’s creative community; presenters get five minutes and 20 slides to talk about anything and everything they’re passionate about.

Our inaugural August event drew a crowd of 150+ who enjoyed presentations on OCD, green business ideas, social media, and being the only black guy in the room. For our second, event we’re looking to continue the tradition of having a wide variety of topics and one of those burning topics is sustainability. So, if you have a passion for green ideas, water conservation, alternative forms of energy, reducing your footprint, or anything else that may be of value to the Phoenix-metro community, please consider submitting it! Submissions are currently open and the deadline to submit an idea is 5:00PM on Friday October 10th, 2008. You can submit your idea and see what other ideas have been submitted by visiting the Ignite Submissions Page.

Again, the concept behind Ignite is to share and inspire so feel free to submit an idea even if it doesn’t fall under the topic of sustainability! Also, if for some reason you feel that you have nothing of value to share, which is preposterous because I know everyone has a passion they would like to talk about, then please consider coming on down to the Jobing.com Offices on October 28th to enjoy the event in person. There will be plenty of like-minded individuals enjoying the event so it’s a great opportunity to network and meet new people.

Here are all the details:

• Homepage: ignitephoenix.com
• Submissions Deadline: 5:00PM on Friday October 10th, 2008
• Event Date: Wednesday October 29th, 2008 (RSVP)
• Time: 6:00PM
• Place: Jobing.com Phoenix Offices - 4747 N. 22nd Street Phoenix, AZ

I hope you will join us!

Sincerely,
~Tomas

When I was at the Green Summit a couple weeks ago I saw some vendors demonstrating pervious concrete which is porous concrete that water can flow through to the ground. Turns out this is quite a useful characteristic for some applications where traditional non-pervious concrete is usually used such as parking lots, drive ways, and paths. It reduces the heat island effect, helps recharge aquifers, saves space, and reduces toxic runoff.

Probably one of the greatest benefits of this is that it reduces the heat island effect. Concrete already reflects more heat than asphalt because of its light color, but pervious concrete goes a step further. Since it is porous it allows moisture from below to evaporate which acts to cool the concrete. One of the vendors also said that since it has less thermal mass it doesn’t absorb as much heat.

Another benefit is that pervious concrete can help recharge aquifers. Instead of rainwater being diverted into storm drains or water retention basins the water goes straight down to the ground. This helps recharge aquifers and water trees and plants around the area of the lots. Trees around lots with pervious concrete have been shown to live longer and grow wider.

Effective use of land is an issue in cities and since water flows through pervious concrete in many cases the need for retention basins to collect rainwater is reduced or completely eliminated. This is a huge benefit in places where space is at a premium.

Permeable concreate produces no toxic runoff. Most asphalt lots are sealed with coal-tar based sealants, which is the black coating you often see and smell used on streets and parking lots. Run off from coal-tar sealed parking lots have been found to have 65% more polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) than unsealed lots. PAHs are one of the most widespread organic pollutants and have been found to be probable human carcinogens. PAHs have been long associated with causing lung cancer in roofers and asphalt workers according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Science. Large concentrations of PAHs can also kill aquatic life. I’m not sure how true this is, but the vendors claim that when automobile fluids are washed down under parking lots that they are filtered out and transformed by microorganisims into inert materials before they reach aquifers.

If you are looking to build a pathway, drive way, or parking lots pervious concrete might just be the perfect alternative to traditional concrete. Vendors are popping up all over the country and here in Phoenix Progressive Concrete Works is probably one of the best known. They’ve done some large installations such as ASU’s Art Museum parking lot.

After a fire tore through ASU’s Memorial Union last year the whole 2nd level had to be renovated and part of that renovation includes a new eco-friendly cafe. We haven’t been there yet, but once we do we’ll be sure to write up a review. Here’s some information about this new cafe from their website.

Engrained is designed as an educational food experience demonstrating how a restaurant operates focused on sustainability & environmental stewardship utilizing local, organic, humane and fair-trade foods.

Engrained is as much about the experience of dining as the food itself served in a fast-casual dining atmosphere, rather than fast-food or grab & go. The idea is to stop into Engrained for a casual lunch to step-back from the business of campus life. Engrained is designed as an educational food experience surrounding sustainability and environmental stewardship with a focus on what we are making, the ingredients used and how it is handled. In turn, the menu will change daily with a key focus on seasonal foods from the area. There is a focus on healthier eating based on seasonal fresh fruits & vegetables, vegan and vegetarian options, local meats and dairy etc. We are also partnering with the ASU by harvesting items such as produce, herbs, citrus and dates.

The restaurant also features environmentally responsible construction utilizing renewable resources and Energy Star appliances where possible. Built in the same footprint as the Maricopa Café on the upper-level of the Memorial Union, Engrained features a new layout with center-island where customers can dine and watch meals prepared and cooked in hearth oven, hip look and relaxing vibe.

Check out their site here for more information and their menu