What's your New Year's resolution?  Most of us focus on things that will make us a better person.  So how about a resolution with an eco-tilt?  I want to focus this article on the work of American artist Chris Jordan, who is best known for his graphic-based artworks that help viewers understand the scale of mass consumption and waste in America.  When I view his work, I am struck by the statistics, and it helped me realize what my resolution will be this year - I will strive to have "ecoAwareness."

If you have never seen his work, it is among the most sophisticated use of embedded imagery.  Each work is sized to demonstrate a specific statistic that the artist feels is important.   When you view the work on-line, simply click on the image and it will magnify for the full effect.  Click on a photo below or visit www.chrisjordan.com.

For example, this 6X8 foot "picture" of the milky way shows actually consists of 320,000 separate light bulbs, equal to the number of kilowatt hours of electricity wasted in the United States every minute from inefficient residential electricity usage. 

This work titled "Toothpicks" depicts one hundred million toothpicks, equal to the number of trees cut in the U.S. yearly to make the paper for junk mail.  The portrait is 5X8 feet.

This artist gives lots of ideas for how you can reduce your environmental impact by keeping a close eye on how you interact with technology.  And that's a terrific New Year Resolution!

Here is a description of his most recent compilation book called Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait.

Statistics can be daunting and dry: 100,000,000 trees cut down every year; 9,000,000 American children without health insurance; 2,000,000 plastic bottles used every five minutes; 2,300,000 adults incarcerated in U.S. prisons. Renowned photographer Chris Jordan brings these staggering numbers to life in manipulated digital photographs that are at once alluring and shocking. A landscape of toothpicks, each representing a felled tree, stretches into the horizon; a looping maze of plastic cups reveal how many are used each day on airplane flights; fashioned from soda cans, a replica of a Seurat masterpiece becomes a lesson in waste; and thousands of Barbie dolls - representing the number of breast augmentations performed each year - combine to depict a woman's torso. Filled with astonishing photographs of surprising beauty, this book, manufactured from recycled materials, helps us grasp visually the potential consequences of our culture of waste.

1. The maximum benefit is $500, and the benefit is now 10% of the purchase price.  This is a big change from 30% up to $1,500.
2. The benefit is a lifetime benefit.  That means if you took more than $500 in benefit from 2005 - 2010, you cannot take any benefit in 2011.
3. Gas or Oil or Propane furnace or boiler benefit capped at $150.
4. Efficient property (such as insulation) capped at $300.
5. Window benefits capped at $200.

You can read more about it when Energy Star updates their website in the near future.  Also we are not tax lawyers nor accountants, so please contact your accountant or the IRS with questions about your situation.

Rebates offered by the individual utilities in support of the EmPOWER Maryland Energy Efficiency Act of 2008 are not affected.

For other Rebate oportunities, Customers of Allegheny Power, BGE, Delmarva, Pepco and SMECO can go to http://energy.maryland.gov/Facts/empower.html and click on the link to their utility's website from MEA's webpage to get program details, additional information, and terms and conditions.

Attention Pepco Customers:  You can still apply for the Pepco HVAC Efficiency Program to save up to $300 on AC or $200 on Heat Pump replacements.

Park Potomac Place Condominium recently completed the installation of an LED lighting retrofit for the exterior landscaping and interior decorative lighting of their property.  ecobeco worked with Park Potomac and LED Savings Solutions to drive substantial savings.

The challenge the community faced in this project was a desire for high quality lighting while reducing operating costs. The areas targeted for the new LED lighting include those served by high wattage halogen lights and areas lit 24 hours a day.

LED Saving solutions provided dimmable par lights, exterior lighting, and decorative MR16 spot lights. This $7,500 project created savings of $6,800 annually. This will generate positive cash flow of about $108,000 over the lifetime of the solution. Also the expected CO2 offset of the new lighting system is 1.4 million lbs over its lifetime.

According to Home Owner Association Board President Bruce Fonoroff, "Many of our common area lights were incandescent and burning 24 hours a day. With an ROI of over 80% and a payback period of only 14 months, it was a no brainer to convert to LED lighting."