On October 8, 2009, North Carolina found itself amidst two conflicting news stories of a national caliber regarding technology manufacturing:

DELL is laying off 905 employees by January 2010.  Boo.

CREE is creating nearly 600 jobs in the green tech LED industry.  Yay!

On Wednesday, DELL announced they are closing the North Carolina plant in Winston Salem, laying off around 600 employees in November and retaining the last 300 employees until January 2010.

Well, a huge happy holidays to you and yours, courtesy of DELL.

For the record, I want to say how opposed I was about granting DELL any tax breaks, grants, and incentives back in 2005 when North Carolina leaned over and kissed their shiny hineys in order to get the plant here.  Not that “I told you so” ever does any good, but I cannot help myself.

So, here we are, four years and two days after it opens, and they announce they are closing down and leaving a thousand families without income and burdening NC with more than $3 million added in unemployment spendings.

DELL says they will repay everything paid to them by the state of North Carolina.  Hmmm… did Exxon not say the same thing 20 years ago regarding the Valdez?

On the other hand, Thursday afternoon, CREE (LED Technology) held a planned press conference to announce the creation of 275 North Carolina jobs before the end of 2009, and another 300 jobs by the end of 2012.

Yes, friends, that means North Carolina company CREE is manufacturing LED technology right here in our state, creating 575 jobs.  Durham, yet another score for you!

Why do I support CREE?  The North Carolina-based company has impressed me with their commitment to such a huge environmental undertaking from the beginning.  Add to that how North Carolina State University has a role in CREE technology (a personal victory! They are so underrated), not to mention how our state, at 11% unemployment, needs a company who will invest in the educated and eager workforce in our state.

I support CREE because LED is significantly superior to CFL, which is known as the energy-friendly choice among mainstream America.

• One LED lasts 50,000 hours and consume only 500 kilowatt hours in the course of its life.  That would take 10 CFLs.  Plus, trust me, I am simplifying the numerous benefits of LED.
• LED lights are bright, are infinitely more reliable and warmer looking than the CFL bulbs currently living in my home.  The LEDs give a true color, unlike what I get to experience now.
• One LED can cost only $.16 a year to operate in your home — that is 16 cents!  Thus, the initial cost may be higher than CFL or incandescent bulbs, but the savings far outweigh the initial cost difference.
• LED bulbs are far more robust than CFL or incandescent bulbs.  This even leaves out the fact that CFL bulbs contain mercury.

Bora and I were able to talk with CREE CEO Chuck Swoboda, Social Media Specialist Ginny Skalski, and Product Marketing Specialist Kyle Rogers.  Here, Rogers walks us through a few of CREE’s current major products, as well as discusses with us a few future products for residential use.

If somehow are are asking yourself what LED and CFL light bulbs are, I wonder how you have missed that incandescent bulbs emit 80% or more energy on creating heat, thus creating an issue where you spend more money creating heat in your home than light, and then you have the costs of increasing air-cooling methods to counteract the heat in our sweltering NC summers.

Sustainably yours, Ashley Sue

For raw clips of the press conference with CREE CEO Chuck Swoboda and Governor Beverly Perdue, you can watch:
Part 1 (CEO Chuck Swoboda introducing CREE and green jobs announcement)
Part 2 (Governor Beverly Perdue)
Part 3 (CEO Chuck Swoboda talking LED as our future)

Green Grounded is sometimes amazed at how the natural environment and urban development merge.  Often, I notice that we push wildlife out of their natural settings.  Consequences are expressed in our daily lives as we experience far too many deer carcasses on the side of highways.

On a much (much) lighter note than roadkill, here’s a video I took last week of geese overtaking the valley… the urban mecca known as the strip mall (Pleasant Valley, Raleigh).

Sustainably yours, and be nice to the geese!  Ashley Sue

Lame play on words, but I wanted to write a brief commentary on the energy, emotionally, of our nation post Tuesday’s election.  Tuesday itself was a holiday to me, commanding more honor than so many national holidays, I have looked forward to Election 2008 since summer of 2007.  I compiled a short video of Marc’s and my experience casting our votes.  NC did not face the long lines of some states, such as my friend Sara in VA who waited for hours.  Marc pointed out a huge line may have been more entertaining for my video, but we were relieved to get in and get out due to cold rain.

And in case you missed it, Barack Obama is our President Elect, the 44th President of the United States of America.  North Carolina was an important state for the first time in decades, and one of the last to officially have a concluding count.  North Carolina voted narrowly in favor of Barack Obama, ousted scandal-clad Senator Dole, and my three near and dear counties (Durham, Buncombe, and even Wake) all voted blue.

I must say, I am quite astounded that at a time that I feel so positive, so uplifted, and so optimistic, I have encountered several friends who are fearful and disheartened… some even angry… in feeling that our nation is “spiritually bankrupt” enough to have a majority that voted as they did.

I do not respond.  I allow each of these friends to express their fears and doubts because, frankly, we all need to vent our anxieties.  And this is, for almost all of us, a very anxious time in the world.

Yet, I feel a positive message ringing through that the “majority” supports each of us being who we individually are while still embracing us each into the larger, more important group ~ also known as Americans. 

I hear strength in the voices and words of both Obama and McCain’s speeches Tuesday night, as a call to action was placed upon every one of us to unite on this hurdled road toward solidarity.

I saw promise and progress in the tears of civil rights leaders and centenarians who participated in this Election Day after witnessing so many atrocities and surviving so many seemingly hopeless days.  These Americans survived more than my peers or I can begin to imagine or pretend to understand.

I know that whoever leads us is only human, but we have long reached the time when we needed leaders not who look back to regain strength our nation once had, but leaders who look forward and construct a new America with our new strengths and abilities as our young nation faces age-old adversities for our first time.

So many issues in our world need revolution, only one of which is the issue that stands before us in the air, in the water, and in the earth.  We must find new ways to fuel and sustain a growing population, an industrializing world, and a weakening economy.

Green Grounded toasts our future and learning from our past… and invites those living in fear to breathe, step out of the shadows of doubt, and unite in the common cause of one for all.

~Sustainably yours, Ashley Sue

Also, check out these GREAT posts by some of my FAV NC bloggers on the election results:

*2Sides2Ron talks about a purple NC and progress

*ayse’s tumblelog

*Lenore’s voting experience, and the power of believing

*Chris Kromm of Facing South on How Obama Won NC

*Carl Kenney on our nation and beautiful brown skin

*Toastie on why Obama seemed to come out of nowhere

*Goodnight, Raleigh! and Obama all over downtown Raleigh! and Raleigh’s Election Night Celebration!

*NewRaleigh shares the downtown Raleigh celebration

The film here was filmed in mid-September, as Green Grounded and the Triangle were suffering from $5 a gallon gasoline.  “Drill Baby Drill!” was a popular chant (or source of criticism), and I was still driving Gina.  I planned on airing it before registration deadline, but life (and car accidents) got in the way.

I waited to put the video up for a while, but now, one day from Decision 2008, those of us who are waiting until actual Election Day to cast our votes still have time to weigh out all of the issues that matter most to us.

The economy.

Health care.

Employment.

Our parents.

Our children.

Life.

Education.

Poverty.

Terrorism.

Energy for today and tomorrow.

In this video, I urge you to consider how you feel about the realities and possibilities of drilling, “clean coal”, ethanol, biodiesel, wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, and all other alternative energy fuels.  The Green Revolution is one for our generation to shape the future, better or worse.

I also ask for you to consider the unexpected.  I’ve said before and will continue to say… gas prices may seem reasonable again now, but can we hinge our complacency on that?  We need to account for the unexpected… no one expected 9/11… Katrina… Ike… hanging chads… mortgage crises… and these were pivotal moments that effected every other aspect of our lives that matter.  These crises will continue to occur:  right when you need to find health care, or plan to buy a house, or have to find childcare but were laid off, or want to celebrate an election outcome, or have to drive to work.  So please take it all into consideration, as it all fits together.

Sustainably yours,  Ashley Sue Allen

Marc and I went to Falls Lake in Raleigh this past Sunday for, what Marc thought, was fishing.  I went just to relax on a rock.  Little did we realize that Falls Lake is simply a disaster zone of plastic, broken glass, cigarette butts and nuclear waste.

OK, the nuclear waste is a step too far, perhaps, but I did take this odd picture of some sort of oily rainbowish substance floating around the edge:

Then, I realized why Marc and I had actually ended up at the lake (as if the fates reigned us in).  Enjoy the next few minutes and see how I turned something sad into something fun. I turned trash into a disco!

Yes, I had fun with Marc, picking up and logging each piece with a picture.  And no, every single pic in the video is a different piece ~ no duplicate shots of litter.  And this all took place in 30 minutes in about a half a square block of land (fishermen were on both sides of us, so I opted not to disturb their “area”).

What’s sad is, I could do this every day for a year at Falls Lake and still not get it cleaned up.  Not Marc and me by ourselves, at least.  I have to feel that other people out there are doing the same thing as us, though. 

C’est la vie.  We each do what we can, right?

Sustainably yours, Ashley Sue

I do not know about your week, but betweeen life, work and elections, the first three days of this week were pretty high-impact, so I am taking a long deep breathe today to relax with clips from my last trip to the park.

Marc and I went up to Shelley Lake Park recently and I took a few minutes to catch some clips of people relaxing outdoors.  this is kind of like the last two minutes of my favorite show, CBS Sunday Morning, but without the talented photography work…

Enjoy, breathe with purpose and let this minute and a half calm you so you can get on with your work.

If watching this reminded you that you need to get back in touch with breathing and focus, try yoga.  Even puttering around with a few poses can be a tremendous relief if you take the time and do the poses with focus (in other words, clear your mind).  If you need a yoga mat, consider buying a Harmony Mat by Jade and this is why.  Yes, consumerism is bad, but on Allie’s post, you’ll see reason to find another use for your plastic, toxic yoga mat you already have.  It’s such a great post.

Sustainably yours,  Ashley Sue

Voting literally took about as long as it will take you to watch this, and NC has now heard two more voices during this all important election.  Seriously… get out there, or cram it next time you want to complain about gas prices, food prices, school systems or transportation.    Happy Tuesday Voting!

So, I previously mentioned the fluke weather that befuddled Marc and myself on the way to a restaurant Sunday evening (around 8 pm), but here are more pictures from the BEAUTIFUL rainbow.  And a video   

Also, I apologize for the BAD music playing… from my doorstep until we got to the restaurant, I was so captivated by the sky that I completely failed to notice the sellout singer (sorry, guys, I know she’s popular… just not my cup of joe) playing in the background. 

The pictures, mind you, do no justice to the moment.

And then, I’ve got the vid:

I spent yesterday at Herbfest in Wake Forest before heading out to downtown Raleigh for the last half of their Earth Day celebrations. 

Let me just say, Herbfest ~ you are cool.  No wonder Sierra Club named Wake Forest one of America’s coolest cities!

Further, Raleigh, I got there at 530 for an event that was supposed to be jamming till 7 or after, and you were LAME!  Most the booths were already empty, the crowd was gone, my favorite band (The Rosebuds) had come and gone (and you never bothered to list the line up so fans like myself knew until we got there), and all that was left was a bluegrass band and children running around in garbage bags.  Bah! All I can say is I hope it was rocking the first hours (and it seemed mostly geared toward kids).

Regardless, here’s a bit from my Herbfest experience, and I hear next weekend (April 26th and 27th) is when it’s going to ROCK with Bull City Syndicate jamming the crowd! That will only add to the awesome herbs, plants, community, music, presentations, beekeepers and such that are already making Herbfest a LOT of fun ~ trust me!

A couple months ago, Lisa and I met a nice gentleman in Benson walking his dog, John Boy, who was on his way to recycle. I hope introducing you to Lisa’s and my Benson friends gives you a Saturday morning smile.