Stimulus Dollars Benefiting Asheville Residents

Asheville's Office of Sustainability has begun offering free home energy education classes. 

On the evening of August 11th, I took an opportunity to participate in a free home energy efficiency class offered at the Reed Center in Asheville. 

 The group of about 15 Asheville residents in attendance was inquisitive and obviously sincere in their desire to be informed. The class covered a wide variety of opportunities and options for homeowners to consider. Subject matter ranging from the value of minor water efficiency improvements to whole house air infiltration testing, to the does and don’ts of upgrading your homes insulation.  Hands on participation was available for many of these subjects.


Class presenters were from local nonprofits; Matt Siegel of WNCGBC, Torin Kexel of Green Opportunities of Asheville as well as city building inspector and maintenance officials.

The class was much more informative than I had anticipated, and everyone involved seemed genuinely interested in the welfare of our community and our environment.

It's great to see our local governments interest in providing these educational resources as well as the public interest in obtaining and implementing the information. This is where the rubber meets the road. 

Bravo to the Office of Sustainability personnel Maggie Ullman, Kerby Smithson & Rachel Doebber for pulling this together. I look forward to participating of more of these sessions. Money and time well spent! When is the next class?


Links:
www.greenopportunities.org
www.ashevillenc.gov/green 


AP

www.AskAquaPro.com  
AquaPro@AskaquaPro.com 
www.AquaEnvi.org
www.AshevilleGreenPlumbing.com
www.AquaProSolutions.com





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Water: How important is it to you?

For the majority of us in Asheville, water is one of those things we expect to be available when we need it. In Asheville we are truly blessed with some of the best freshwater in the county; at least until it leaves the reservoirs that is. Even after treatment it is still ranked pretty high the water quality index. We don't think much about it until something occurs (water line breaks and such) that temporarily removes the luxury we are accustomed to. I use the word luxury intentionally because it is just that, even though we don't think of it that way. We have become very reliant on quick, easy, consistent access to clean water; so much so that we don't think about how integrated water is in our daily lives. Believe me, everything you do during the course of your day is in someway reliant on this natural resource. I'm not talking about the obvious things like drinking, showering & bathing, personal waste removal, washing clothes dishes, cooking and cleaning. Water is so much more to our lives than we think about; water makes everything we do possible!!!

Here are a few examples

How Many Gallons of Water does it take to make . . .

..A car: It takes an estimated 39,090 gallons of water to make a car. It's unclear if that includes the more 2,000 gallons used to make its tires--each tire takes 518 gallons to make.

One Pair of Jeans: Takes around 1,800 gallons of water to grow enough cotton to produce just one pair of regular ol' blue jeans.

One Barrel of Beer: 32 gallons requires 1,500 gallons of water.

One To-Go Latte: Takes 53 gallons to make every latte.

One Gallon of Paint: Takes 13 gallons of water to make.

One Ton of...                                                               

Steel: 62,000 gallons of                                          

Cement: 1,360 gallons

One Pound of . . .                                                 

Wool: 101 gallons

Cotton: 101 gallons

Plastic: 24 gallons

Synthetic Rubber: 55 gallons

Note: In general these figures have been derived from work done by Waterfootprint.org and represent gallons of water consumed per pound of food (except for beverages, in which case the volumes are listed). They represent global averages, not conditions specific to any one place.

Per pound Fruits, Vegetables & Grains:

Lettuce -- 15 gallons

Tomatoes -- 22 gallons

Cabbage -- 24 gallons

Cucumber -- 28 gallons                        

Potatoes -- 30 gallons

Oranges -- 55 gallons

Apples -- 83 gallons

Bananas -- 102 gallons

Corn -- 107 gallons

Peaches or Nectarines -- 142 gallons

Wheat Bread -- 154 gallons

Mango -- 190 gallons

Avocado -- 220 gallons

Tofu -- 244 gallons                                              

Groundnuts -- 368 gallons

Rice -- 403 gallons

Olives -- 522 gallons

Chocolate -- 2847 gallons

Meat & Dairy

This is where water intensity really starts increasing. If you want to reduce the water footprint of your diet, this is where you want to really cut back:

                                                                       

Eggs -- 573 gallons

Chicken -- 815 gallons

Cheese -- 896 gallons

Pork -- 1630 gallons

Butter -- 2044 gallons

Beef -- 2500-5000 gallons (Global figures for the water intensity of beef vary so significantly that an average isn't particularly informative, so a range of figures is given)

Beverages

Tea (8oz) -- 7 gallons

Beer, barley (8oz) -- 36 gallons

Coffee (8oz) -- 29 gallons

Wine (8oz) -- 58 gallons

Maybe if we pay more attention to how relevant water is in our everyday lives we'll be less wasteful of all the things it provides us, including good health.

AP







www.AskAquaPro.com
AquaPro@AskaquaPro.com 

www.AquaProSolutions.com 
www.AquaEnvi.org,  
www.AshevilleGreenPlumbing.com,
 

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Council on Aging of Buncombe Needs our Help

Hello Asheville!
Here is a call to action for a great opportunity to help our local senior citizens in need and help yourself to some incredible deals. If you haven't heard yet, there is a fund-raising event happening through Saturday at the Aqua Environmental Resource Center; affectionately known as The AERC (arc) of Asheville.

This is a two part fundraiser. For starters a silent auction of high quality fixtures, 24 items totaling over $8500 in value received from the unfortunate closing of a showroom in Raleigh. The silent auction provides bidders the chance to get an unbeatable deal. Secondly a Donate To Participate ticketed drawing for over $2500 worth of products, gift certificates, and more. A $5 donation will get you one ticket while $20 gets 5 tickets. Item for the drawing include H2oEasy water filtration system, a $200 gift certificate, 2ea $100 gift certificates, free tickets to this weekends Home Show at the Civic Center, CD & 2 tickets to the Skinny Legs And All CD release party in April t the Grey Eagle, Dual-Flush Pro toilet conversion kits and much more. This is a wonderful opportunity to support the COABC Home Repairs Program. As an incentive to stop in The AERC is providing FREE home water efficiency kits while supplies last.
Check out some of the auction items below and get your tails down to the center!!!

Located at 46 New Leicester Hwy in Asheville. Just of Patten Ave turn left at the Moose Lodge sign (Moose Heart Lane) and you are there. At the very least you will have fun playing in the hands on demonstration showroom and leave with some valuable incites about water conservation & water quality. They even have a toilet MaP (maximum performance) test station so you can see for yourself how well a toilet will perform.


 Contact phone number at the AERC is 828-236-5980. 

AP

www.AskAquaPro.com
AquaPro@AskaquaPro.com 

www.AquaProSolutions.com, www.AquaEnvi.org, www.AshevilleGreenPlumbing.com,

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Asheville Water Experts - AquaPro Solutions

Hello, I am Chris Hanson; Founder of AquaPro Solutions LLC, Founder H2O Easy Water Quality Products, Volunteer Dir of Education @ AERC.


AquaPro Solutions LLC (APS); Parent company of H2O Easy water Quality Products, Aqua Environmental resource Center (AERC), and Asheville Green Plumbing (AGP) on 46 New Leicester Hwy, Asheville, NC.

The key people involved in this business are:
Kelly Hanson, CEO AquaPro Solutions LLC, Jason Rector, Dir of Sales AquaPro Solutions, Davie Robinson Dir of Operations AquaPro & General Manager Asheville Green Plumbing, Peter Bartolomeo Service Manager Asheville Green Plumbing

-AquaPro Solutions LLC and current division therein are the culmination of 18 years of plumbing and water quality service to the Asheville community. We started business in the WNC area in 1991. My favorite things about Asheville and WNC are cultural diversity, beauty and sanctity of these ancient mountains. Asheville and WNC is home for my family; and I think it always will be. AquaPro’s primary goal is to provide for and help improve our community

Businesses in Asheville or WNC that you regularly network with and why:
1. G Social Media for building business relationships.
2. Asheville Chamber of Commerce for building community relationships.

Twenty years ago a local business man that had been in business in Weaverville for 25 years took a chance on my intensions, sold me his business; That was the launching point for what we are today.

The top 3 products we offer and/or sell at our business are:
-Water conservation & efficiency products & services,
- Water filtration & conditioning products
- Environmentally conscious plumbing services

We also provide Community education and awareness services.

AquaPro Solutions LLC
Divisions of: Aqua Environmental Resource Center
H2O Easy Water Quality Products
Asheville Green Plumbing
APS- Water Conservation, Purification & Management Products & Solutions
AGP- Plumbing Today For A Better Tomorrow
AERC- Preservation Through Education
H2O Easy- You Know The Waters Clean
AskAquaPro blog- Because Water Matters

46 New Leicester Hwy, Asheville, NC 28806

Website: http://www.aquaprosolutions.com/
Website: http://www.ashevillegreenplumbing.com/
Website: http://www.h2oeasy.com/
Website: http://www.aquaenvi.org/
Blog- http://www.askaquapro.com/

Email: info@aquaprosolutions.com
Email: AquaPro@AquaEnvi.org
Email: AquaPro@AskAquaPro.com
Email: info@AshevilleGreenPlumbing.com
Phone #: 828-255-0772


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