Earth Day is almost upon us. April 22nd is a day to think about the world we live in. There are many events going on around the country to get involved. Browse to earthday.ca to learn more. Use this as a reminder to focus on the environment around you and think of ways reduce your impact.
Javelin always strives to be an environmentally-conscience company by having energy-efficient offices, web-based services and training, and providing you with products that reduce waste and move towards a paper-less design experience. This Earth Day, we are planning some events to help out a bit more.
Garbage pickup event
Environmental documentary screening over lunch
Desk clean-out to recycle, reuse or donate those items buried under the mess
Consider starting an environmental team at your office to find new ways to reduce waste and save money. Encourage carpooling. Get energy-efficient lighting and appliances. Print on BOTH sides of the paper, or better yet don’t print that email at all.
Then take it personally by looking at home. Hang your laundry outside to dry. Walk to the grocery store for those small purchases. Bike to the exercise gym instead of driving (you may realize that you no longer need to jump on that stationary exercise bike!). Pick up some garbage around your neighbourhood. Reduce, reuse, recycle (in that order).
Options and Variants is a very powerful and yet easy to use design automation tool. In a short amount of time it helps designers configure systems to provide consistently accurate designs while saving an enormous amount of time and money.
There are so many E3 users raving about this functionality. Check out the video below to see how it works, how easy it is to add these options in your design and to control your design.
You can also check out the Options and Variants Blog series to get more details:
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.
Pull the lid off the toilet tank. Make sure to set the lid aside, and flat on the ground.
Use a bit of food colouring and place a few drops in the tank.
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.
Turn the water off to the toilet. There is usually a valve located on the tank feed.
Flush the toilet and drain the water from the tank.
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).
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.
Reinstall the flapper valve.
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:
Follow steps 1 to 3 from above.
Install the new flapper valve.
Adjust the chain length to accommodate the amount of water flowing through when you push the lever
Turn the water back on.
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!
With the holidays fast approaching, don’t lose sight of your efforts to help the earth. Think about making the switch to LED lights for your house. Try avoiding the wasteful wrapping paper that goes directly into the garbage. How about doing away the stacks of paper greeting cards and move to e-cards or start a blog with pictures and stories that you can share with friends and family.
Running out of ideas? Check out this lengthy list from planetgreen.com.
We’ve all heard it before, turn off your computer when you’re leaving for the night. This simple task can conserve power and save you money. But there are further steps you can take to minimize your energy usage. Click More for details.
As a follow-up to Scott’s great article on DraftSight and what to do if your installation has expired – I thought I should highlight another great resource PDF that the DraftSight Team had posted on the DraftSight Blog. Read More »
Although I would like to take credit, I cannot, but I can pass along these great tips.
Dissolve a couple of tablespoons of baking soda in water in a microwave safe bowl, then bring to the boil in your microwave. Allow to sit for a minute or two, then you should easily be able to wipe out any baked on stains, plus your oven will microwave will smell fresher too.
To give your dishwasher a good clean, run it through a cycle and use baking soda instead of detergent.
Wash chemicals and pesticides off fruits and vegetables in a pot filled with water and 3 – 4 tablespoons of baking soda added.
Mops can really stink out areas where they are stored. If your mop is getting on the nose, don’t throw it out, try soaking it in a mixture of 4 tablespoons baking soda and a gallon of water for a while.
Stains on porcelain sinks, toilets and plastics can be removed by applying a layer of baking soda and then using a damp sponge . It works particularly well on a water stain in a sink that couldn’t be shifted otherwise without the use of heavy duty chemicals and scratching the surface.
Sprinkle some in your veggies crisper and cover with a cloth or paper towel for crisper veggies that last longer.
Mix a tablespoon of baking soda, a teaspoon of (earth friendly) dish detergent and a gallon of water to make a spray for treating roses against black spot fungus.
This tip was courtesy of: Vivien Jankovic, Facility Services for GREENSmart, Exhibition Place
After a long winter, we often turn to cleaning out the car. Salt that has accumulated in the carpet can be difficult to remove. Mix some white vinegar and water together and blot heavily on the salt build up. You should be able to wipe most of the salt away in a short while.
Also, white vinegar makes an excellent household cleaner and disinfectant. You can safely clean food preparation surfaces, remove mold ect, without having to worry about adding extra chemicals to your house.
Here is a simple green tip. When going out for dinner, take your own reusable containers to pack up food especially if you have kids or someone in your family who usually packs up the extra food for lunch the next day.
