In 2005, Project Open Hand launched the Green Solutions Initiative with the intention of greening every facet of our operation.  Our goal was to lower our operating costs as well as our impact on the environment.

We began with simple things like increasing our composting and recycling. We asked employees to turn off lights when they left a room, we converted our office lighting to energy efficient bulbs and we cut our water consumption. Just by making simple changes to our every day operations we were able to save over $60,000 per year.

 In late 2005, we began upgrading our fleet of home delivery vehicles, upgrading from gas-guzzling cargo vans to Scion mini-trucks thereby tripling our fuel economy and lowering overall fleet operating costs by 70%. In the process, we improved our EPA-rated fleet greenhouse gas score by a whopping 300%!

On September 13, 2007, Project Open Hand christened our brand new solar power system, graciously donated to us by PG & E. The system includes Photovoltaic panels for electrical energy production and Solar Thermal panels for heating water. The combined systems will save us $12,000 in the first year of operation and a projected $600,000 over the next 25 years!

The effectiveness of the Solar system can be measured in terms of what is not being created as well; over the next 25 years the systems will avoid the emission of 2 million lbs of CO2, the number one greenhouse pollutant. The Solar system represents the highest profile project to date in our ongoing effort to green our operation.

As excited as we are by all that has been accomplished thus far, there is still much more that can be done. Our solar systems can be expanded and we are looking to our supporters to help us make that happen. We also still rely on some very inefficient cargo vans to supply our Senior Programs and we can do better there, as well.

 Green is an ongoing effort.  In the future, green will mean cleaner forms of energy and more efficient uses of finite resources.   Green will mean local, sustainable agriculture and recycled dishwashing water. And green will mean things that are, as yet, still an idea somewhere. With your support, we will make Project Open Hand a model for environmental stewardship.