Come see kids from all over the state of Florida share innovation through competition. The EnergyWhiz Olympics is all about clean energy and creative kids. Each year, on the first Saturday in May, hundreds of students converge at the Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa, Florida to participate in renewable energy themed events.

GreenOrlando.com tells local stories about people and organizations doing good things in the community. Share your best practices, good deeds, and the people who make a difference. We’d love to show your photos too.

Started in 2004, over 75 local authors have talked about their companies and non-profits. Write an about us page, highlighting how you’ve reduced, recycled, and cleaned up your corner of Central Florida. We think being green means communities that care about their future. Wasting less, preserving species, like Sea Turtle and dolphins, setting aside land as green space, using local plants and xeriscaping to use less water. And tell us about all the products you use that save electricity, reduce waste, and lessen our impact.

As I speak with people, I seek to verbalize what ties together the unifying mission of GreenOrlando. Simply put, we speak to diverse segments of the community that care about our collective future. We speak to groups who share a passion for our unique quality of life.

“Quality of Life” is the buzz phrase of the decade. I see mention of it everywhere, from real estate ads to not for profit brochures, from city websites to radio spots.

How do you measure and track energy use in your building? Have you ever heard of the Energy Star Portfolio Manger? With this tool, you can manage and see energy and water usage in your building, and rate its performance.

Portfolio Manager is an interactive energy management tool that allows you to track and assess energy and water consumption across your entire portfolio of buildings in a secure online environment. Whether you own, manage, or hold properties for investment, Portfolio Manager can help you set investment priorities, identify under-performing buildings, verify efficiency improvements, and receive EPA recognition for superior energy performance.

The Green Futures Foundation is a non-profit organization that partners with local restaurants to recycle waste vegetable oil into clean burning biodiesel fuel. Proceeds from this fund raising activity are used to fund local green education programs and scholarships for students interested in studying renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable living topics.

A simple idea that turns a waste product into needed fuel, Green Futures has hit upon a novel way to incetivize restaurants into greening up their operations.

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer of his plans to leave the home building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife, enjoying his extended family. He would miss his paycheck, but needed to retire.

The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time, it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.

We invite you to join us on April 7, 2011, from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM, for a Florida 2011 state energy legislation briefing, including an overview of the renewable energy scene and time for open discussion with George Cavros, Esq., and Susan Glickman. Please register today.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) invites you to join us for a webinar on April 7, 2011, from 12:00 to 1:00 PM to learn about what’s happening in terms of energy policy for Florida in the current legislative session – and what’s not. The webinar will be hosted by those directly engaged in Tallahassee: SACE’s clean energy consultant George Cavros, Esq. and our lobbyist in Tallahassee, Susan Glickman.

I just had a grapefruit. The saying goes: the devil is in the details, but I tell you, God is in the details. Fast food, processed food, is killing me. Every day, I need to eat lunch. Every day the fast food corporations try and provide that food — and they are killing us.

The concept of being fit is a lot for us to handle; so take that notion, throw it out the window and start a clean slate with me today. With the holidays, the feasting and the “we’ll get back on track next week” mindset, most of us are always putting it off as something to do tomorrow. It’s the mental game that so difficult to get going and guilt, resolutions and scale watching just can’t turn you into someone who is fit–and happy.

On April 19th, Fort Lauderdale’s 93 Rock caught up with Richard Evans, CEO of the Community Greenhouse Foundation, for an Earth Week interview. Richard spoke to South Florida, highlighting Ways people can be more water, waste and energy efficient in their homes and businesses. Input included how Communities can start to move to be more sustainable and how the “Green America Business Challenge” was developed. They concluded with turning the foreclosure crisis into opportunity to address our country’s need for energy independence and a plug for the Green Expo 2009 in Fort Lauderdale. Click here to hear