There's this Hawaiian Electric Co. commercial that ran at the start of the year, as part of a series of ads aiming to educate the public (and paid for with shareholder funds).

No, not the one where Jade Moon interviews HECO executive Robbie Alm. It's the one where Jade Moon interviews two HECO representatives — Ka‘iulani De Silva from education and consumer affairs and Blaine Cacho, an account manager.

The script goes something like this.

Jade Moon: "Does conservation really work?"

Ka‘iulani De Silva (smiling sympathetically): "We know high electricity costs are frustrating for our customers. But simple steps can amount to surprising savings."

"That's right," chimes in Blaine Cacho, matter-of-factly. "If you turn off the air-conditioner and let the tradewinds cool your home, you can save more than $1,000 a year."

While watching this commercial or whatever you call it, I found myself talking to the TV. "But we don't have any air-conditioning in this house! Not even a window unit!" I said.

Summers are sweltering in our house. We turn on fans and desperately open up all of the windows, wishing the tradewinds would flow through the house (if only it was built with the windows facing the right direction). The best solution seems to be an escape to the beach.

Our electricity bill currently averages about $200 a month, which is about $50 higher than it was a few years ago (along with everybody else's).

Then Jade asks Blaine about a second refrigerator and he says if it's a really old model, it could be using up plenty of energy. Removing it, he says, could also save you more than $1.000 a year.

"But we don't have a second fridge!" I said. We only have one fridge. It isn't fancy, but it's not one of the old models, either.

The HECO representatives, with pleasant, wanting-to-help smiles, dole out more tips. Washing your laundry in cold water can save more than $800 a year, adds De Silva.

"But we already wash in cold water!" I told the folks on T.V. "We've been doing that for years."

So seriously, what more can we do? HECO has a whole slew of publications with more energy-saving tips which you can find by clicking on "Energy Savings Toolkit." You have the "Power to Save" pamphlet as well as the "101 Ways to Save" brochure and the "Energy Tips & Choices" booklet. HECO does do a good job of putting out all these education pamphlets.

Still, our bill hasn't gone down much lately.

Did I mention that we already have a solar water heater and that we line-dry, too? Well, most of the time. On rainy days, we do resort to the dryer.

Lately, I've been walking around the house, flipping off the lights (yes, powered by energy-efficient compact fluorescents, mind you) and switching off various power strips at night, too. I bought an energy-saving "smart" power strip which keeps the DVD player from sucking out energy when it's not in use.

Since 2010, monthly bills have risen by 50 percent, says Alm, almost all of it due to oil. In the wake of the tsunami in Japan, oil has largely replaced nuclear energy, causing prices in the Asia Pacific region to skyrocket.

The cost of electricity is only going one way – up. You know what I think? I think it's time to go solar. The federal and state tax credits are still available, and there's still enough room in plenty of neighborhoods without HECO's concerns about destabilizing their circuits.

Do you know how much solar PV there is on your street? You can look it up on this map.

Stay tuned.

Volunteers help count Hawaiian humbpack whales at "Shark's Cove" on Oahu's North Shore. Photo by Jeremy Mitchell/Courtesy of NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries.

St. Patrick's Day may be over, but there are plenty of "green" things to do over the next few weekends. Here's a roundup:

9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 24: Aloha Aina Earth Day Recycling Community Cleanup. Do some spring cleaning and haul your recyclables to Moanalua Middle School and Moanalua Elementary School for an Aloha Aina Earth Day recycling/ yard sale event.

The following items will be accepted free of charge: scrap metal, HI-5 beverage containers, used cooking oil, computers, printers, scanners, monitors, cell phones, newspaper, cardboard, phonebooks, magazines, all types of batteries, TVs (one per car), used eyeglasses and hearing aids, sneakers, DVDs, CDs, plastic playground sets,  and reusable clothing and household items. Contact Erin Kealoha Fale at 586-9470 (office) or 277-9445 (on-site) for more information.

8 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Saturday, March 31: Count the whales. Spaces still remain for volunteers to help in the final count of humpback whales around the Hawaiian islands. Volunteers will count the number of humpback whales seen around the islands over a four-hour period and record their behavior. To register, go to sanctuaryoceancount.org. To find out more, go to hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov.

9 a.m. to noon, on Saturday, March 31: Beach cleanup at Kewalo Basin, Oceandig. This beach cleanup, organized by Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii, promises to be rewarding with a potluck-style BBQ and raffles, games and prizes. Join Oceandig, the After Party later at 6 p.m. at Fresh Cafe in Kakaako to discuss ocean sustainability, watch "Bag It" and listen to live music from local reggae artist Mike Love of Dubkonscious and former American Idol contestant Paula Fuga (who's collaborated with Jack Johnson).

8:30 p.m. Saturday, March 31: Earth Hour. The Fairmont Kea Lani on Maui is planning to participate in Earth Hour 2012, a global environmental awareness event organized by the World Wildlife Fund. At 8:30 p.m. Hawaii time, all 60 of the Fairmont's world-class hotels and resorts will go dark to draw attention to climate change. The Fairmont Kea Lani on Maui will switch off non-essential lighting and encourage guests to turn on flashlights located in each guest room and from their lanai. The hotel will also illuminate its main entrance with more than 200 floating candles in the lobby fountain along with live, unplugged entertainment in Luana Lounge. To participate in Earth Hour, turn off your lights for an hour starting at 8:30 p.m.

PACT Keiki Day's Writing and Art Contest is themed "Energy Super Heroes." Deadline for submission is 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 29.

Parents and Children Together (PACT) has launched a Writing and Art Contest for Oahu students in partnership with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Hawaii Energy.

Students in grades 1 through 12 are invited to express themselves by submitting original stories, poems or artwork related to the theme of "Energy Super Heroes." One winner per grade will be selected. The deadline for submission is 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 29.

Keiki are encouraged to think about energy conservation and how to change energy-wasting habits, plus brainstorm a zero-energy home for an Energy Super Hero and share fun indoor or outdoor activities that can be done without electricity.

Winning submissions will be published in the special PACT Keiki Day edition of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on May 9 (available for purchase throughout Oahu with proceeds to benefit PACT and its 15 programs). Each winner also receives more than $100 in cash and prizes.

Art pieces should be no larger than 18-inches by 24-inches and written work should be on longer than 350 words. Print complete information on the back of each entry, including: name, address, phone number, grade level, school name and teacher's name. All entries become the property of PACT and Hawaii Energy.

Participating students may download a submission form at pactkeikiday.org, then mail or deliver their entries to:

Parents And Children Together Keiki Day, PACT
1485 Linapuni Street, Suite 105
Honolulu, HI 96819

If you have questions, call Norma at 847-3285 Ext. 711 or visit www.pactkeikiday.org.

Kona Brewing Co., organizer of the Kona Brewers Festival on Saturday, chose to go solar in 2010 with this 229-Kilowatt (KW) solar array. Courtesy Photo.

It's almost time for the 17th annual Kona Brewers Festival, a celebration of beer and cuisine on the Big Island this Saturday (March 10). So what's green about beer in Hawaii?

In 2010, Sunetric installed a 229-kilowatt solar energy system for the Kona Brewing Co.'s flagship brewery and pub, which started the Brewers Festival in 1996.

Here are some interesting figures on Kona Brewing Co.'s solar array:

• Produced 314,563 pints, or 2,537 kegs, of hand-crafted brew to date.
• Produced enough wattage to power 76 average residences each day.
• Conserved 734 barrels of oil to date; the equivalent of 4,498 trips around the Big Island.
• Prevented 691,132 pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere – the equivalent of taking 2,425 mid-sized cars off the road.
• Saved Kona Brewing Co. $209,416 in electric costs in 2011 alone.

The Brewers Festival raises funds for environmental, educational and cultural causes. To see a list of beneficiaries, visit Sunetric's blog (and is giving away iPod Shuffles and other prizes to help raise awareness). They include everyone from The ACF Chefs de Cuisine Kona Kohala Chapter to the Peoples Advocacy for Trails Hawaii.

Sunetric is also bringing its Watt Wheels mobile solar energy station (a bright blue Honda Element retrofitted with three 230-watt SunPower modules) to power one of the festival's stages.

The Whoa! Fat box is a handy little box for collecting your kitchen oil disposal waste. Courtesy image.

Most of you have probably heard of those oil change boxes where you can drain your motor oil from your car — if you do it yourself.

Well, it turns out that Island Shell Environmental Manufacturing of Aiea, which produces the Suck'Em Up Oil Change Boxes, also makes the Whoa! Fat Kitchen Oil Disposal Box.

It's basically a Chinese takeout box filled inside with highly absorbent cellulose materials made from recycled newspapers, cardboards and phonebooks (retail price $3), which absorb your cooking oil.

It takes up to four cups of oil. If you don't use it all up right away, you can store this box under your sink or in the fridge. When done, toss it into your trash can for curbside pickup (the oil will in turn go to HPOWER and be converted back into energy).

The Whoa! Fat Kitchen Oil Disposal Box has a cute logo, a chef pouring his frying pan oil into a box. He looks like he's having fun. Courtesy of Whoa! Fat.

The logo is fun and kind of catchy.

Fats, oils and grease — collectively known as FOG — are the city sewer system's No. 1 enemy, according to a city report. When you pour oil down your sink, it cools in the sewer line and solidifies, potentially forming clogs that can cause your sewer to overflow or back up into buildings.

This goes for pretty much any kind of oil, including olive oil (which is what I mostly cook with) for simple stir-fries. It's not just the big vat of oils used to fry foods that we're talking about.

Brothers Chea and CJ Peat of CP Distributions LLC are the distributors of the Whoa! Fat box. They're getting the word out via social media, on Whoa! Fat's Facebook page as well as website.

Chea is actually a property manager, and he can tell you firsthand of the woes and expenses condo associations have had to go through to fix their sewer lines due to people pouring excess grease and oil down their sinks.

The boxes replace more traditional oil disposal methods, which include pouring oil into old milk cartons, jars and paper towels to clean up excess cooking oils. One reader called in to say you could make your own oil disposal box out of recycled half-gallon milk cartons and recycled newspapers — I think you certainly could and that's not a bad idea if you don't want to shell out money to buy a box. You would be recycling and keeping grease out of the sewer lines.

If you don't want to make your own box, then you can buy a Whoa! Fat box. What I like is that these boxes are actually manufactured here out of materials recycled from the island.

If you don't have access to Internet (as another reader informed me), you can pick up a Whoa! Fat box at Napa Auto Parts in Hawaii Kai (333 Keahole St.) and Kaimuki (3562 Waialae Ave.) or at Kale's Natural Foods at the Hawaii Kai Shopping Center (377 Keahole St.).

This solar-powered "Santa Goes Solar" display is part of 2011 Honolulu City Lights. You can see it on the lawn next to Honolulu Hale Dec. 3-31. Courtesy photo.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Santa is on his way here, and he's using solar energy to spread Holiday cheer. Check out the solar-powered Santa exhibit at this year's 2011 Honolulu City Lights.

The display, which showcases an eight-foot diorama of Santa's workshop and village built by the LEGO Enthusiasts Association of Hawaii, along with a front panel saying "Santa Goes Solar" and candy cane posts, will be on the lawn next to Honolulu Hale as part of city lights from Dec. 3 to Dec. 31.

Two Christmas trees next to the display will be lit with a dazzling array of high-tech LED lights engineered by members of UH's Solar Decathlon Team Hawaii and decorated with recycled incandescent bulb ornaments made by students islandwide. Sunetric designed a custom, state-of-the-art solar photovoltaic canopy to power the entire display.

The people in the LEGO town are hustling and bustling, getting ready for Christmas (bringing trees home on a horse-drawn carriage, for instance). The LEGO Miniland residents, of course, value a "clean energy lifestyle" and have solar panels on their businesses and homes (as you can see in the photo to the right).

The "Santa Goes Solar" project was a collaboration between the Blue Planet Foundation, the LEGO Enthusiasts Association of Hawaii, Sunetric and members of the UH Solar Decathlon Team Hawaii.

Hawaii Energy and Wal-Mart Hawaii stores offered financial support to make the project possible.

Get ready for Hawaii's first Carrotmob this Saturday at The Wine Stop. Photo from www.carrotmobhawaii.com.

Get ready for Hawaii's first Carrotmob.

What is Carrotmob, you ask? It's "a new way for people to change businesses. In a boycott, everyone loses. In a Carrotmob, everyone wins." It's a concept started by a San Francisco-based non-profit. You can watch a cartoon explanation here.

The state's first carrotmob is being organized by KYA Sustainability Studio, which is encouraging shoppers to buy a bottle of wine or beer between 1 to 5 p.m. this Saturday (Nov. 19) at The Wine Stop at 1809 S. King St.

Here's how it works: KYA Sustainability Studio organizes Carrotmob, encouraging people to shop at The Wine Stop this Saturday afternoon. The Wine Stop, a local business, has agreed to direct 80 percent of sales generated by Carrotmob towards a retrofit of the building's energy system. (KYA Sustainability Studio, by the way, is just down the street from The Wine Stop).

For every $20 spent, mobbers will also receive raffle tickets for prize giveaways sponsored by Mobi PCS.

The Wine Stop — which is owned by Kamehameha Schools grad Liane Fu and business partner Kim Karalovich — has already had an energy audit completed of its small, orange-colored, one-story store, complimentary of Energy Industries LLC. The Wine Stop plans to replace existing lights with more energy-efficient LED lights, and install Energy Star rated walk-in refrigeration components. It also hopes to save up for a full air-conditioning retrofit as well as a solar PV system down the line.

"It makes sense because if we continue using our natural resources to the extent that we are, then it's going to be a horror movie," said Fu. "Right now, we don't feel it, but in the future it will be felt. I feel that we need to focus on sustainable choices now to prevent disaster in the future."

It's also a creative way to help Hawaii reach its goal of energy independence. Let's hope there will be more carrotmobs to come. You can learn more by visiting www.carrotmobhawaii.com.

Hagadone recently installed a 433.7-kw solar PV system on its rooftop. With the feed-in tariff program, excess energy will be sold back to HECO at market rates. Photo courtesy Hagadone.

Hagadone Printing Company, which prints most glossy magazines and brochures in Hawaii, has gone solar.

The company installed a 433-7-kW solar PV system on its rooftop, with a total of 1,408 panels spread across 25,000 square feet of existing roof space. That's a pretty large system (RevoluSun did the job).

With a price tag of $2.7 million, the new PV system is expected to power a quarter of the energy used by its administrative and printing operations.

It's also one of the first commercial installations to take advantage of HECO's feed-in tariff program. That means that any excess energy produced by Hagadone will by purchased by HECO at market rate prices.

The system is expected to save Hagadone more than $160,000 in electricity costs in its first year, and to pay for itself in about six years. I would imagine other commercial businesses will follow suit.

Hagadone also offers a carbon offset program in partnership with natureOfficeUSA.

Got a bike?

Moving Planet encourages people to get moving and get off fossil fuels. Courtesy Photo.

Then you're invited to join Moving Planet Waikiki as the tail unit in the Aloha Festivals Floral Parade tomorrow.

You will be part of a global movement. Events are taking place all across the globe on Sept. 24.

Moving Planet, a group rallying for safer streets for bicyclists, skateboarders and pedestrians, invites anyone to join in, wearing a floral lei. If you don't want to ride a bike, you can also walk — or skip.

The idea for Moving Planet came from 350.org, a global campaign against climate change mobilizing through grassroots organizers in 188 countries.

The parade starts at 9 a.m. at Ala Moana Beach Park and finishes at Kapiolani Park around noon. Moving Planet is meeting before 9 a.m. at the Ewa end of Ala Moana Park (You can look for Moving Planet blue arrows and bikes). You will need to sign a waiver, which you can find on Moving Planet's Facebook page or at the meeting spot.

Moving Planet's goal is to "get moving beyond fossil fuels," both physically and politically. Organizer Robyn Petterson, a student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, says: "Now is the time to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and MOVE!"

Questions? You can send an e-mail to Movingplanetwaikiki@gmail.com.

Every Friday evening for the month of September, the non-profit group, Hale Kipa, is holding a CFL Exhange fundraiser at Kakaako Makai Marketplace.

Swap your incandescent bulb for a CFL. Photo courtesy Blue Planet Foundation.

Hale Kipa will man a booth at the market where you can swap your incandescent bulbs (which are slated to be phased out next year, by the way) for CFLs (compact fluorescent lights) courtesy of the Blue Planet Foundation.

Blue Planet provides Hale Kipa with 1,000 of the CFLs, and pays 40-cents for each light bulb exchanged. Hale Kipa in turn will be able to use those funds to support local youth at risk programs.

If you're interested in learning more about how your group or non-profit can raise funds through Blue Planet's CFL Exchange Program, click here.

Kakaako Makai Marketplace is a new farmers' market focused on promoting local Hawaiian aloha, produce, artisans, fishermen chefs, farers, crafters, performers and historians. It defines itself as a "sustainable and green marketplace" where GMO products, Styrofoam and non-biodegradable plastics are kapu (forbidden).

Some of the vendors include Aikane Coffee from Ka‘u, Baker Dudes from the North Shore, Khamphout Farm, Leialoha's Coconut Creamery, Ono and Pono Foods and Farm Fresh Hawaii.

Besides a beginning hula and Hawaiian language class, the market recently decided to add ukulele classes on Friday nights.

The marketplace meets Fridays from 4:30 to 8 p.m. at Kakaako Makai Gateway Park (mauka area) and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Kakaako Makai Piano Lot.