It’s been some time since Javelin last posted a Green Living article, but that certainly doesn’t mean we have abandoned our eco-friendly ways. Far from it: we’re just getting started. Why, just last week we attended the SolidWorks User Group meeting in Waterloo. There were too many of us to fit in just one car (in total I think 8 or 9 of us attended the meeting), but we managed to carpool to some extent anyways. We managed to pack 4 of us into Alin’s car, thereby preventing roughly 90kg of CO2e (carbon-dioxide equivalents) from being wastefully produced by taking 3 additional vehicles from our Oakville office to Waterloo.

The only drawback is that I didn’t get home until nearly midnight. I could probably have slept during the return trip had we not been excitedly talking about everything from SolidWorks, to unrelated escapades, to world politics. It was a team-building exercise, a cost-saving measure, and environmentally friendly at the same time! Everybody wins.

People tend to think that employing environmentally sustainable processes in their daily lives has to be difficult, costly, or at least inconvenient. They say it’s not easy being green, but I would argue that it’s not difficult either. You just have to look for opportunities to improve your process a little bit at a time.

Over the recent Christmas holidays, I became aware of what seemed to be the noise of constant running water in my toilet.  With a bit of investigation, and a bit of time, I was able to deduce that the flapper valve in my toilet was leaking, causing water to run into my toilet constantly, and just wasting the water.

Here’s how to tell if your flapper valve is leaking.  Don’t worry about touching the water in the tank, as it is the same water you drink.

1.  Pull the lid off the toilet tank.  Make sure to set the lid aside, and flat on the ground.
2. Use a bit of food colouring and place a few drops in the tank.
3. Come back in a while (minutes to hour) and see if the food colouring has started to leach into the toilet boil.  If you see food colouring in the bowl, chances are that you have a leaking flapper valve.

Fear not, as this is an easy and inexpensive fix.

1. Turn the water off to the toilet.  There is usually a valve located on the tank feed.
2. Flush the toilet and drain the water from the tank.
3. Locate your flapper valve – and gently remove it from the pins. (Note there are a few varieties of flapper valves, so use caution when removing).
4. Use a bit of Scotch-Brite Green scrubber pad to gently scrub any calcium, or iron that may have precipitated out of the water and onto the valve and the valve seat.
5. Reinstall the flapper valve.
6. Turn on the water to the tank, and add a few drops of food colouring back into the tank.

If the food colouring doesn’t leach into the bowl, you have fixed a leaky flapper valve.  If food colouring is still leaching, you will have to replace the flapper valve.  You can usually buy one for $5.00 to $10.00 dollars at your local home repair center.  Make sure to bring your old valve into the store to ensure you get the right one.

Replace the flapper valve as follows:

1. Follow steps 1 to 3 from above.
2. Install the new flapper valve.
3. Adjust the chain length to accommodate the amount of water flowing through when you push the lever
4. Turn the water back on.
5. Replace the toilet tank lid.

Additionally, you may want to use the time while the tank is drained to get a small brush and remove any “Guck” that has formed up on the components inside of the tank and tank walls.  A bit of vinegar added into the toilet tank will also help clean and disinfect.

If you are still having problems, you may want to call a plumber, as you may have a more serious problem.  Good luck!

Starting in 2012, the Javelin Training Team has decided to give back to the environment to promote sustainable forests.  We will be giving monthly donations to the not-for-profit, charitable organization TreeCanada (www.treecanada.ca).

The paper training manuals that are provided in our courses are important as you can read through the steps and exercises while having SolidWorks open on the computer for practice.  At the end of the course, each student can take the manual home for additional practice and future reference.  However the vast amount of fantastic information requires some hefty paper manuals.  Since paper books are an invaluable resource available to everyone, we will help offset its carbon footprint by planting trees!

TreeCanada has been around since 1992 with a great vision and programs to get things done.  They have planted and maintained 77 million trees since their beginning and have inspired individuals and corporations on the benefits of settled forests.  Our donation can be used to plant 25 trees every month that will replenish our air.  Breath easy!

I was recently invited to submit a Request For Proposal (RFP) to sell a Rapid Prototype Printer to the University of British Columbia (UBC). I am a sales guy at Javelin and I submit proposals like this one as a normal part of my workday.  What struck me as unique on this particular RFP application was how much weight UBC placed on how environmentally sustainable the company was that was submitting the bid. It seemed like the environmental answers carried just as much weight as the features and benefits of the products that they were trying to sell them.

Javelin Technologies recently moved to a new location in Oakville and I knew that we had implemented quite a few green initiatives in the construction of the new building to reduce our environmental impact. I asked Ted Lee, one of the owners of Javelin, to help answer the environmental questions on the RFP. We won the bid at UBC. I would like to think that Ted’s answers had something to do with it.

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… or at least make the thieves work harder to get your bike!

Just in Toronto about 12000 bikes are being stolen every year. That is more than 32 bicycles a day! It is a pretty impressive number and I bet The Bicycle Thieves Guild is aiming for an even higher target this year. Most of them are professional people, highly trained, efficient and fast, who take pride in their job and are working hard to get better every day. They are inventive and love to solve new puzzles (like breaking a new type of lock using only a toothpick and maybe a large hammer).

The biggest problem the Thieves Guild faces nowadays is actually the lack of difficulty in their daily job. They complain that their work is too easy and, as a result, it is very hard to achieve consistent professional growth without facing new challenges. And for that they blame you!

Ask yourself, are you the one who leaves his (or her) bike unattended for “one minute“? How much time do you think even an apprentice thief would need to make it disappear?

Or are you the one who is locking only a wheel or the frame to a post using a $7 lock? Do you expect to find your saddle and the other wheel still attached to your bike upon your return? The Thieves Guild is wondering why wouldn’t you invest in the best quality locks you can get since they would still be less than one tenth of your bike value? And why don’t you lock both wheels and the frame, why don’t you lock also the saddle and everything that is detachable from your bike? Why don’t you take the bike computer and the lights with you?

Developed in SolidWorks, the Evolution locks are designed to outsmart modern bike theives. Kryptonite took full advantage of ease of use in SolidWorks, to combine the features of a number of existing designs in this new product. Once the design was complete, CAMWorks (a SolidWorks Gold Partner) was used to get the model fit for manufacture.

Did you test the post you “secured” your bike to? They said you did not, because otherwise you would have noticed that it was a fake (what they call a “sucker post”) which was not fastened to the ground. Not only they stole your whole bike, but they got your locks too.

Their complaints continue even after the bike was stolen. It is just too easy; there is no more excitement left in the job! The Guild says that even if you see your bike in their operatives’ hands, you do not have any proof that the bike is yours. You did not make a note of the serial number on your bike, you did not engraved a special sign on the frame and wheels and you cannot even produce a picture with you and your bike.

When the thieves sell your bike to the friendly neighborhood pawn shop, they know that the law-abiding shop owner has to report any bike he purchases to the police. They are not overly concerned with that, because they know you did not register your bike with the police using this link:

Online Bicycle Registry System

or by downloading this registration form and bringing it or mailing it to your local police station.

So what are you going to do about that? Are you going to take action? Are you going to make their work more challenging in the future?

Please do so right now! Are they still going to steal your bike? Of course they will, but not today!

You will buy a bike this month!

Even if you already are the proud owner of that nice looking red bike (which you bought from Canadian Tire last year because it was on sale and it was… red), you will buy a new bike after reading this post. Moreover, this time, you will buy the bike that is right for you!

Riding a bike should be pure pleasure.

If your experience is different than the statement above, that is not because you are out of shape, or you are too fat. Not at all. It is because of the pain, right? After taking your bike for a short Sunday ride, it hurts all over, does it not?

By the way, there is nothing wrong in buying a red bicycle. Getting it in the wrong size, or for the wrong purpose (like trying mountain biking on a unicycle) is the main issue.

Take a look at Team Javelin’s picture from last Sunday’s Ride for Heart. You will notice 3 different types of bikes – from left to right: a road bike, a mountain bike and a hybrid. Which one was the right one for that ride? In this case the answer is “all of them”, because they were tailored for their owners and their goals for this event. Craig wanted to go fast, John wanted to have a great workout and I was there just for leisure and to enjoy the unique experience of riding a bike on the DVP.

The type of bike is important, but even more important than that is tailoring the bike for your size, weight and style. The best approach to getting the right bike is going to a specialized store and asking for help. You will find out that the bike colour is the last thing they will be concerned with, so do not ask to be taken to the red bikes section just yet. More important is getting the right size for the frame. Too small and you will have a bad posture (= pain), too big and you will have trouble controlling the bike (= more prone to crashes = pain).

There are a lot of other details you have to consider in selecting the perfect bike for you. Fortunately, Jim Langley already wrote a good guide for that, so my work here is done.

One more thing, before I forget. Let me direct you to his website:

Click here for the ”How to Buy a Bike” guide

If you are like me, you would rather get to your destination by bike and leave the car at home. The weather is nice, just perfect for enjoying the scenic bike route that will take you to dinner at a nice restaurant, or shopping at your favourite store, or maybe watching the newest Harry Potter movie in a theatre.

There is only one little thing that keeps you from doing that. That is the absolute certitude that if you chain your bike to a post downtown and leave it unattended for 5 minutes, you will not find it upon your return. Or you might find the bike’s frame still chained to the post, but the saddle, pedals and wheels will be gone, thanks to the friendly neighbourhood bike thief.

A possible solution to this dilemma is acquiring a rusty, tired and ugly bicycle that will not generate too much interest from passerbies. But what’s the fun in riding such a bike? It weighs a ton and there is no way you can get it even to a jogging speed. You will get to your destination in 3 hours, you will dismount and you will die of exhaustion (not necessarily in this order).

Wouldn’t you prefer instead to walk to the corner of your street, magically find a pretty good bicycle waiting for you in a bike station, ride it to another station close to your destination and leave it there? Repeat the process in reverse order for going back home.

This kind of service is available for years in Europe (which my friends would tell you it includes Montreal). It costs nothing in Paris, next to nothing in Brussels and about $5/day (or $78/year) in Montreal.

You would be very happy to know that starting this May, a bike sharing program has been launched in Toronto too. It is called Bixi and for now it offers access to about 1000 bikes located at 80 stations in the downtown core. Just hope that they will expand the service to Etobicoke soon.

First time posted at http://www.blogto.com/city/2011/05/bixi_bike-sharing_officially_launches_in_toronto/

Membership costs $95/year or $5/day. More details can be found at: http://www.blogto.com/city/2011/05/bixi_bike-sharing_officially_launches_in_toronto/.

The official website is http://www.toronto.bixi.com/ and there is also a cool smartphone app for finding the closest bike stations, including available inventory for all of them at http://www.spotcycle.net/.

Update: This gets even better! I just learnt from Michel that:

Best part of the Bixi bike: It was designed in SolidWorks, tested using SolidWorks Simulation, and fabricated by a great Canadian bike manufacturer: DeVinci Cycles (www.devinci.com).

Monday: 9:00 AM Earth Week Kick-off

Green Lunch Matinee:

• Monday: Disney Nature’s Earth

• Tuesday: An Inconvenient Truth

• Thursday: Life

Wednesday: Potting Party hosted by Amie & Christy

Thursday: Clean up day

If you’re thinking about how to create a healthier workplace environment, consider going low-VOC.

Volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, are chemicals widely used as ingredients in products such as paint, building materials and furnishings, office equipment and cleaning supplies.  Elevated levels of VOCs have been linked to eye and respiratory irritation, headaches, fatigue and other symptoms associated with sick building syndrome.

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