Last week, students representing Repower Indiana, attempted to drop off nearly 100 resumes from across the state to Senator Bayh’s office in South Bend, urging the Senator to support clean energy jobs. Unfortunately his office, in the middle of the day, was closed; the students will be mailing them instead.

Young people have the most to lose from the climate crisis, but have the most to gain from a clean energy economy. In an effort to call attention to the job creation potential of a 21st century clean energy economy, students are asking Senators to help reverse the trend of youth unemployment by supporting climate and clean energy policies that can help empower their generation to build a sustainable economy through clean, efficient, renewable energy sources.

As more and more Americans go green, environmentally sustainable innovations are translating into big bucks for entrepreneurs.

Sure, going green feels great, but these five eco trailblazers are living proof that green business can also mean money in the bank, not to mention a lighter footprint for all.

Green moving with Spencer Brown

Five years ago, product designer Spencer Brown was stunned after spending more than $800 on cardboard boxes and packing material to move his home office. After the move was finished, he was stuck with nothing but a pile of trash.

After being turned away from a recycling center because there was too much packing tape on his boxes, Brown was forced to drive to the landfill and toss his moving waste onto one of the many 40-foot piles of cardboard.

Through this shocking experience came Rent-a-Green Box, a zero-waste pack and move solution that is taking the nation by storm.

The formula seems right: free recycling + accessible bins = higher recycling rate. Well, it’s not always that easy.

While manufacturers and retailers are upping the number of free recycling programs for everything from old CRT televisions to chunky cell phones, studies show that consumers just aren’t getting on board.

Case in point: The U.S. EPA launched its Plug-In to eCycling campaign in 2003, encouraging major manufacturers to provide recycling options for electronics. In 2008, Plug-In partners collected and recycled 11 million cell phones, but considering that there are 100 million cell phones ready for recycling in the U.S., that number is actually pretty low.

Indianapolis Power & Light Company (IPL) customers can trim their home energy costs in one of the following ways, no purchase required.  

Make Cents
IPL's Cool Cents program can help you save up to $20 annually on your electric bill. Enroll, and IPL will attach a device to your air conditioner that cycles it on and off during times of peak electricity usage (usually during the weekdays). While you're unlikely to notice a change in temperature at home, you will notice a $5 credit to your IPL bill, June through September.

One of the most common questions we receive at Earth911 is: “Is Product X recyclable?” If only this could be answered with a “yes” or “no.”

It’s a question asked by consumers, members of the media, manufacturers/retailers and even recyclers on a quest to divert as much waste as possible from landfills.

But the truth is – no matter what the product – there is no easy answer to this question. The reason is that the answer changes depending on what information you are looking for. So let’s figure out a better way to ask the question in order to get the best answer.

Defining “recyclable”

Recycling involves processing a used material back into a raw ingredient that can be used to make something new. This is not to be confused with reuse, where a product is used for the same or a different purpose without any reprocessing required.

Reviewing your summer energy bill can be as brutal as taking a punch from Rocky Balboa. But you don’t have to go into the ring defenseless: there are many large and small adjustments that can lessen the damage and save you hundreds in long-term savings.

Let’s start big. You can reduce your home’s heating and cooling costs by as much as 30 percent through proper insulation and air sealing techniques, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Inadequate insulation and leaks allow temperature-controlled air to escape and outdoor air to come in and fill its place. The first step is getting a home energy audit to identify troublesome areas. This can be done by you or a professional.