How to Get a Land Grant

Scorpion Ranch Area, Santa Cruz Island, Channe...
Image by Ken Lund via Flickr

Getting a land grant is no easy matter. What with proving to the government that you are going to use the grant for a valuable purpose and dealing with the stress of an application, many people often get lost. However, there are a few things you can do to make the process easier.

The first step is to estimate your potential costs. An official body or landowner is much more likely to give you a grant if you have researched your project thoroughly and have shown that it is feasible. This should include information on the cost of building materials, labor and supplies. Once you have this collated, you should begin writing your proposal. This needs to lay out your main objectives and targets when applying for the grant. It is VERY important that you describe clearly the benefits your project will provide to the local community and, if possible, the wider area as a whole. If you are unsure how to do this you can hire a professional writer who will write the proposal for you in the necessary language, although you will still need to provide the writer with a list of your aims and objectives.

Including every aspect of your plans is essential to the success of your proposal. To do this, you may want to write it with any other people that are involved in the project – two minds are better than one and they may remember some important details you might have forgotten. Once the proposal is written, check and re-check it. Many applications fail because of silly mistakes that could have been easily avoided. Again, having an extra pair of eyes go over it for you will help you reduce errors to a minimum. Good luck!

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Environmental Definitions: Passive Solar

Moody sun burst hovering over a trough at Kram...
Image via Wikipedia

Conservation is a cause shared throughout the world – land must be protected; water consumption must reduced; and once abundant resources must now be offered sparingly. The assumption that all energies will remain (able to be used when wanted, able to be found in excess) no longer exists. Thoughts instead turn toward the future, where all elements will surely be taken in necessity and nothing more, where there will be no worthy environment. And such thoughts have forced new methods to arise, hoping to find sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels and their emissions.

One such method is Passive Solar Technologies.

As its name implies, Passive Solar Technologies is the utilization of sunlight without the aid of extra machinery. Simply explained: this form of sustainable energy allows panels to gather rays and then filter them into the connected network of heat sources – such as boilers, lighting and more. These heat sources do not use fans, cooling pumps or similar components to circulate themselves. They are instead devoted purely to the sun.

And this is what marks them truly sustainable (unlike their more technology reliant counters in Active Solar Technologies). There is no demand for external energies and their potential problems, such as: carbon releases, higher costs and waste creating materials. Everything is instead supplied by the sun and nothing more.

For some, however, this environmental triumph may prove to be a challenge. Unlike Active Solar Technologies, which can fuel the entire home, Passive is more limiting. Its processes tend to be reserved for only the essential tasks and excessive energy is not possible. It also requires green building techniques to ensure that all panels are placed in the most ideal locations. This can be problematic for those without an abundance of choices for their home.

Passive Technologies still remain a viable option, though, and should be considered. Their impact on the earth is meager and their abilities are commendable.

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Renewable Resources: Environmental Explanations

Alice Springs, Australia
Image by The World Wants a Real Deal via Flickr

It was once the only choice: a resource that was formed over countless years, buried deep within the earth. It was found, plucked out and shaped into energy. There was no concern for its life-span, no worry for its totality. It was instead merely used, forged into the necessary power. Civilizations were crafted from it. Industry flourished. And the world spun a little faster with its help. But now such spinning is deemed dangerous. The resource is collapsing beneath the weight of its own necessity. It has been used too often; it has been stretched too sparse.

And so other methods must be formed to replace it. There is confusion, however, on how such these methods can exist. Individuals believe they will simply repeat the terrible pattern – appear, be praised, be depleted. This is not the truth, however. These alternatives are not defined to the common limitations. They are instead renewable.

Renewable resources, as their name clearly defines, are elements that can be replaced again and again. They are natural in their conception but are not forced to long developments (like fossil fuels and its many offspring). They can instead be created quickly and without concern. Components like forestry and water can now be reproduced; and methods like the sun and wind can be channeled into energy for any structures. This allows for the environment to provide ways to ensure its own protection, and allows for land to become a greater value. It can be completely utilized.

Renewable resources still must be carefully watched, however. Some (such as timber) must be replenished in higher amounts to compensate for the growing dependence on them. The discovery of alternatives has led to a new explorations; and individuals worry still over the effects of the sudden demands.

Creating more of these resources and utilizing natural energy methods is possible, though; and this makes them an invaluable counter to the once essential fossil fuels. Through the environment can we find true progress.

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How Responsible are you for Your Employee’s Commutes?

Timbuk2 Commute
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Everybody knows that a business is legally responsible for the amount of greenhouse gases it emits as a direct result of its operations. If you have a factory, a retail store or a distribution center, that center most likely uses some degree of fossil fuels to do what it needs to do. And by extension, it uses electricity (which often comes from fossil fuels) and heat (which is even more likely to be fossil fuel based). These emissions are difficult to control, and will be even more difficult to get rid of entirely, when the law inevitably declares that fossil fuels may never be used again. Of course, by that point, a gallon of gasoline will probably be over $1,000 due to a rather acute level of scarcity on the supply side.

But beyond the obvious sources of greenhouse gases, there is another. It is known as Scope 3 (as opposed to the other two Scopes), and it concerns all satellite aspects of a company. If your suppliers produce greenhouse gases because they work with you, you are essentially producing these gases by proxy. And if your employees have to commute to and from work (as most employees do), you may eventually be held accountable for the greenhouse gases which they produce in the process. As your employees commute back and forth to and from work, they may be emitting massive amounts of greenhouse gases; and it’s all because of your business, after all.

How accountable are you for your employees? Is it their responsibility to seek out low emission or zero emission methods of commuting, such as using public transportation or zero emission electric vehicles? Or is it your responsibility to provide them with some sort of additional compensation, in reward for their putting in such a level of effort toward the emission reduction goals of your organization? When you begin to take responsibility for the activities of your employees, you begin to realize that their actions are major contributors to your business’s carbon footprint. In the modern world of capitalism, the owners of businesses need to take responsibilities.

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Power Doesn’t Need Fossil Fuels

Coal, one of the fossil fuels.
Image via Wikipedia

Do you use electricity? Unless you run a very old fashioned business that does everything by hand, and probably operates in a third world country, you most likely use electricity on a regular basis. Matter of fact, that was a silly question, considering the fact that you’re able to read this right now. The point is, electricity is everything, and impacts just about everything we do in the modern world. What most people don’t think about, however, is the fact that most of the electricity generated in this world comes out of some kind of fossil fuel burning plant. Either through coal, natural gas or oil, fossil fuels drive most of the world’s power production facilities.

The interesting thing is, a lot of power companies are doing much better nowadays. For one thing, there are a host of different initiatives being endlessly debated on Capitol Hill, regarding providing government funding to start-up business ventures that produce clean energy. While this is mostly just politicians talking because they love the sound of their own voices, some of it will make it past the “we should do this” phase of things, and into actual production. Sooner or later, the world is going to catch on to the fact that one need not burn a non-renewable resource, in order to extract energy from it.

There are a host of different power companies which offer services such as the Green Power Program. With this program, a household can elect to receive a portion of their electricity (denoted in preset increments, all the way up to 100%) from renewable resources such as methane out of garbage landfills and wind power out of parts of the country where it can be easily harvested and turned into power. Overall, these kinds of electricity are the salt of the Earth, because they allow you (and your business) to use the same amount of power, with an essentially zero Scope 2 carbon footprint to be concerned (and additionally taxed) over. Since the option to employ this is so readily available, it only makes sense that people should use it.

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