Utility Tracking and Benchmarking Blog | WegoBlog

Actually following up with that New Year's resolution to clear out your creepy basement or getting the urge to do some (not yet) spring cleaning? Make sure to remember to recycle! Here's a look at a couple of the best infographics on the web to convince you that sorting your trash is worth the effort.

You’re hungry. You want to visit your local favorite restaurant, but you’ve heard rumors that it’s awful for your carbon footprint to eat anyplace other than home.  Which is true depending on where you dine.  According to a USA Today article, the average restaurant annually uses 500,000 kWh of electricity, 20,000 therms of natural gas, and 800,000 gallons of water.  That's a lot of energy and water!

However, fear not! Restaurant owners worldwide are improving the sustainability of their cuisine and the establishments where their cuisine is served, so that we can enjoy some good, and green, eats.  But how can you know? Many restaurants boast of their local ingredients, but there are multiple factors that contribute to a restaurant’s being “green.” In addition to ingredients and how dishes are prepared, there’s water efficiency, waste management, cleaning methods, interior design and heating, just to name a few.  Thankfully, several organizations have undertaken the task of helping consumers identify eco friendly restaurants with green restaurant certifications or guidelines to helping consumers eat green, no matter where they are. Championing the cause in the US is the Green Restaurant Association.

Whether you want to be a more informed citizen or just want to kill some time before 5 on a Friday afternoon, WegoWise has got you covered. The holidays are over, spring is months away, and now is the time to start enjoying the winter instead of moping about in the doldrums.  Whether you ski, snowshoe, snowboard or blade, winter can be a fun and active time of the year.  Sure it's fun to play in the snow, but many winter sports have complicated environmental footprints.   Here are some links to help you navigate the dicey world of green snowsports. Check out these links, give us some feedback and be sure to share some of the info you just gleaned with other interested parties at the parties you're hopefully attending this weekend. Brought to you by Dan, Nate, Lily, Catherine, Casey, Joanna, Sam and Adam.

With the severity of last year’s drought, as covered in our most recent blog post, water conservation is important to think about whether or not you live in an area with limited water resources. Greywater - the water used in your home for activities such as dishwashing, laundry, and bathing – can be up to 50-80% of a typical home’s waste stream. The potential savings from recycling greywater are great from both a water and energy conservation standpoint.

Whether you want to be a more informed citizen or just want to kill some time before 5 on a Friday afternoon, WegoWise has got you covered. We tend to spend a lot of time indoors this time of year, and having a clean home goes a long way toward making it a nice place to curl up during the "indoor months".  Make sure that you're not bringing nasty chemicals into your life with some of these green-cleaning resources.  So peruse our best links, give us some feedback and be sure to share some of the info you just gleaned with other interested parties at the parties you are hopefully attending this weekend. Brought to you by Dan, Nate, Lily, Catherine, Casey, Joanna, Sam and Adam.

I love winter. My passion, however, does not extend to the higher utility bills that come along with it, especially since moving into a house that was constructed in 1910 and is essentially a sieve. Despite 2012’s mild winter, our January heating bill reached $318 and last month we paid $187. Yuck.

Corporate environmentalism has been a focus of organizations since the 1980s.  Following the first wave of environmentalism that began in the 1970s, corporations, particularly the executive branch, began to realize the business value of sustainability.  Since the 1980s, a third wave of corporate environmentalism has emerged.  Businesses now recognize that their value increases not just by greening their products and operations, but by engaging employees in this corprate environmentalism as well.  According to a National Geographic survey in 2008, more than 80% of U.S. workers said that they believed it was important to work for a company that makes sustainability a top priority.