Editor’s note: This week, Celsias writer Jessica Gottlieb revels in the purchase of her first solar-powered appliance — an attic fan. This post was originally published on October 24, 2007.

I’m a green geek.

I like stuff, I’ll confess. I love to buy things. What things? I’m not sure but I’m quite certain I could end up in bankruptcy court $10 at a time so I resist the urge to purchase.

But we needed a new roof. You know, the brown spots were coming after the rain and we tried really hard to think about ignoring them and I thought maybe I’d just repaint the room — but then reality set in.

So we’re re-roofing the palace house (I do have just a little diva in me, ya know).

With a new roof comes a wonderful opportunity for a gadget buyer like me. Here in Los Angeles we insulate and weather proof and double-glaze our homes to keep the heat out. August and September are just brutal with entire weeks of 100 degree weather. Today was 98 degrees and Halloween is only a week away.

So it’s all about solar.

And today the roofers installed this! (picture above right). Yeah baby, it’s a solar-powered attic fan.

Not excited about it? What, are you a zombie?

This sucker will take all the air in my attic that’s over 100 degrees (or so) and suck it out so that my house stays cool and dry without running the air conditioner endlessly.

Ooh, and it doesn’t even plug into the wall. It comes with its own little solar panel. Mine was only $200 and it requires a bit of flashing (according to my roofer) but no other parts. He swears up and down that you can install it with a screwdriver but hanging out on the rooftop doesn’t seem all that realistic to me.

See, not all of us can afford $10,000 of solar panels (or multiples thereof) for our homes. But one appliance that will pay for itself within a month or so? I’m all about that.

Wanna hear the bestest part of all? The guys at Lowes gave me 10% off because the box was dirty (filthy really) and then they carried it to my car too.

Sucka!

Now I’m even looking forward to the electric bill. Imagine that!

Note: Check with your local power company for rebates. Los Angeles (LADWP has oodles of rebates listed online)

Editor’s note: This week, Celsias writer Britt Gordon-McKeon looks at a new savings account option from socially conscious banking trailblazer ShoreBank. This post was originally published on October 16, 2007.

For the first time in the U.S., a triple-bottom line bank (working towards social, environmental and financial goals) is offering a high-interest online savings account. ShoreBank’s new ShoreBank Direct account currently offers a 5.00% APY with a $1 minimum, competitive with the best internet savings accounts currently available. The savings accounts can be managed online, receive direct deposits, and link to up to three checking accounts for electronic transfers.

I wrote about ShoreBank Pacific here a few months ago, and its focus on environmental banking in the Pacific Northwest:

While most banks make their lending decisions based solely on financial profitability, ShoreBank Pacific lends only to businesses and non-profits which are committed to improving their environmental footprint by using energy efficiently, working to reduce waste and pollution, and conserving natural resources. The bank has a scientist on staff and evaluates loan clients annually using a scoring system based on The Natural Step principles of sustainability, helping clients identify areas for progress and offering technical assistance. - Personal Banking for Environmental Sustainability

The money from this new account goes into the parent bank, ShoreBank, which also makes loans in the Midwest in cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. While ShoreBank Pacific places the environment as its top concern, ShoreBank has a more broad-based approach, attempting to balance environmental sustainability with community development; still, according to their annual report, 35% of ShoreBank’s 2006 loans were considered "conservation loans," promoting "efficient energy use and alternative sources of energy; the promotion of efficient use of materials and natural resources, the use of nontoxic materials, and the elimination of toxins; and the protection, increased capacity, and revitalization of land and water."

The new high-yield savings account beats interest rates at many of the online banks that have traditionally led the pack, such as EmigrantDirect (4.75% APY), HSBC Direct (4.50%), and ING (4.30%), as of 10/8/07. In fact, Bankrate.com currently lists only three no-minimum accounts that beat the ShoreBank rate, and those only by slim margins ( 5.05-5.17% APY)– a difference of less than $2 a month in interest per $10,000 in the account.

A key impetus for the unveiling of the program is the way the recent subprime mortgage crisis has hit low-income homeowners, although that is only one part of ShoreBank’s plans.

ShoreBank will use the deposits to help fuel its ambitious community development and conservation loan origination growth strategy. The strategy includes plans for rescuing more than 10,000 homeowners on Chicago’s South and West Sides at risk of foreclosure by helping them to refinance and consolidate debt.

"The ShoreBank online high-yield savings account will streamline the deposit process and provide a more efficient way to manage our banking relationship and account activity while making a greater impact," said Joseph E. Hasten, President and CEO of ShoreBank. "Besides providing depositors with access to a competitive rate of return, it is the vehicle by which the bank will use to raise core deposits to fund mortgage lending and rescue homeowners at the risk of foreclosure as well as finance new environmentally-friendly, sustainable development opportunities," added Hasten. - ShorbankCorp

To carry the book openly or to stash it away, that is a question one faces when reading Dave Praeger’s Poop Culture: How America is Shaped By Its Grossest National Product. That is an unusual reaction when reading something that, at its core, deals with a quite serious subject and deals with it well. And, that discomfort proves one of the core points of the book — about how American (and much of modern) culture seeks to suppress understanding and discussion of what is, at the end of the day (or whenever you hit the can or release gas or …), one of the most shared human experiences (after, perhaps, breathing …).

Reading this book provided an interesting experience, ranging from outright laughter to points that challenged thinking about daily activities to squeamish discomfort about the subject matter. I learned, in some ways too much, about feces and humanity’s relationship with it. Simply put, Poop Culture is a recommended read (and, if you wish, you can check out the website that started it all, PoopReport.com).

But this review, is about Energy … and, well, poop and energy and what we can learn from Poop Culture….

On consideration, there are several key arenas where Poop Culture relates to critical energy issues:

1. Sewage systems are a huge infrastructural investment, that take major energy investments to create and operate.
2. The system is quite wasteful in terms of resources and opportunities exist, in some ways, to turn this around toward a more fruitful energy path.
3. The sewage system is an excellent example of how decisions made decades, even century+ ago, related to infrastructure drive our choices today and into the future, constraining options. And, well, it is not just physical but cultural as well — our mental constructs sometimes constrain even more than the physical. (For example, how many of you recycle and do composting yet do not (as I do not) do Humanure using some form of a composting toilet?)

Think about the following, as Praeger discusses the infrastructure costs of "poop," opening with a discussion about a play in which every visit to a toilet had to be paid for,

"a hilariously terrifying universe in which peeing and pooping cost money

"It made you glad to live in a society where the most important things in life are free

"But they’re not. Glistening in the stark bathroom light, bobbing gently in the toilet bowl, framed by a chocolate halo on the water’s surface, your poop is unneeded by your body and unwanted by society. You need only flush to remove it from the consciousness of both. But the simplicity of that mechanism belies the intricacy of the infrastructure and the magnitude of the capital invested in the sanitary-industrial complex that makes it so easy. The effortlessness of pressing a little lever to remove a fresh poop from any bathroom anywhere in the country at any time of the day maybe be the birthright of every single American, but it is not free." [p. 90]

This an example of Praeger’s amusing and insightful style. And, he is raising an important point — just how many Americans consider the cost implications when they flush? Quite roughly, based on one analysis, the average household flush (from construction, to water, to toilet paper) costs $0.41 or a total cost of perhaps over $26,000 over an eight year period. [p. 93] As Praeger comments, "The financial cost of all this is staggering; just as shocking is the general ignorance of the cost."

This is all too similar to the question of Cost to Buy vs Cost to Own when it comes to energy. Do you ever consider the life-cycle cost of owning a toilet? I have to say it hasn’t been on the tip of my tongue for cocktail conversations….

But, this fiscal cost is really just the start. Due to how the sewage system works, the organic materials of human waste end up mixed (in general) with other wastes (toxic metals, chemicals, etc), making it difficult to safely return it to the environment. Contaminated sludge isn’t the most fruitful way to fertilize food for the kitchen table (sadly, there are many parts of the world where contaminated water/contaminated sludge is a principal source of irrigation water).

Yet, does it have to be?

Americans flush 108 million pounds of plant food down the toilet every day. … the US uses 12 billion tons of nitrogen fertilizer alone every year, 65 million pounds a day, 55% of it is imported. Our poop is being wasted.

Yes, our poop. We spend a huge amount of money, a huge amount of energy to support a sewage system that requires extensive amounts of clean water and ends up throwing out something that could be fruitfully used.

Praeger advocates composting, "the process through which bacteria and heat break down organic materials into humus." He then discusses composting toilets and The Humanure Handbook, discussing how some already are composting (and getting great vegetables from this soil).

But the foresightful and industrious few cannot avert the coming crisis. To drastically reduce our water usage and to stop contaminating our farmlands, we need a poop composting system that every American will use. It must accommodate city dwellers without backyards, the elderly and those who can’t lift 20-pound buckets, the lazy who would empty their bucket out the window to save a trip to the pile, and the indoctrinated — the vast majority, loyal to the institutions of fecal denial who would fight like hell in their refusal to deviate from it. It’s conceivable that society can be persuaded to accept a neighbor’s poop compost pile if it doesn’t smell or attract vermin, but it’s hard to imagine most Americans giving up their beloved porcelain thrones for sawdust-filled, manually-emptied five-gallon buckets.

The infrastructure challenge is huge — to figure out how to and then invest to shift from over a century of investments in the current (and planned) sewage system to something that doesn’t waste over 54,000 tons of plant food every day — and, concurrently, reducing water and energy use to match. But, compared to the social/cultural challenge, this daunting engineering challenge could be easy.

And, well, this is a parallel for the entire energy question. We can move toward a far more environmentally friendly and fiscally sound energy system, rather quickly, but the challenge is — in no small part — cultural. Are people ready to drive smaller cars or are SUVs an inalienable human rights issue? Ready to turn off some lights? Set the air conditioning at a higher temperature? Fly less frequently? As Royal Dutch Shell’s CEO wrote

More than half the energy we generate every day is wasted.

What’s the point of producing even more energy if we continue to waste most of it? Instead, we should aim to become twice as efficient in our use of energy by the middle of the next century. That is entirely feasible, provided that the will is there.

And, well, the same is true for our sewage system. We can move to a less wasteful, more sensible sewage system, "provided that the will is there." Sadly, based on the unease which readers encountered with Poop Culture, that will might be far away.

Editor’s note: This week, Celsias editor Craig Mackintosh takes a look at Toyota’s images as a "green" car company, and some issues that could undermine that perception. This post was originally published on October 3, 2007.

When people think of a ‘green’ car, the first that pops into most people’s minds is the Toyota Prius - the world’s most successful hybrid auto. Toyota has been riding a wave of consumer and media popularity, aided by celebrity endorsements from Prius owners like Leonardo diCaprio and Cameron Diaz. And, at 60mpg in city driving, there’s plenty to set it apart from the typical U.S. energy hog.

But, behind the scenes, all is not as may initially appear with Toyota. Instead of using the popularity of their enviro-flagship, the current climate of heightened environmental awareness and their new status of having overtaken Detroit’s General Motors as the world’s biggest auto manufacturer to rachet up the rate of progress on even greater fuel efficiencies, Toyota has been quietly working in the opposite direction - teaming up with U.S. automakers in moves that seem to endorse the accusations made by the Who Killed the Electric Car people (i.e. profits before progress - actions that blatantly contradict the market-forces-will-solve-all philosophy of some).

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Yes? No? Maybe so?

The conversations all start the same.

I’d really like to be green but I don’t see myself with a compost pile at my back door a la Ed Begley.

Well either do I, what about using the green bin that the city of Los Angeles provides?

It’s not just that. There’s just so much to do.

There sure is and that’s why so many of us aren’t greener. Because you can’t do it all. You sure can want to do it all but in real life we’re juggling families and kids and deadlines and dogs and someone wants to run on the lawn so really you’ve got to have one and GoshIt’sAllSoOverwhelming I’m going to throw in the towel before I begin.

But please don’t.

I’m such a typical housewife in Los Angeles. I have the potential to have a mighty large footprint because sometimes I’m just too dang tired to do much more than consume. But I’m doing what I can and I’m unapologetic about not doing it all.

Wanna know why?

Because I’m getting there. And if I spend time moaning and complaining about the compost pile I don’t have I’d forget to use the green lawn trimmings bin. It’s imperfect but it’s good. Let’s not discount good.

Speaking of discounts: I like cute clothes and the taper on my jeans has changed quite a bit in the last few years. Nothing gets pitched: I resell on eBay or drop it off at a consignment store or a charity. I bet you do that too.

See, you’re greener than you thought.

Do me a favor: if it’s winter time stop reading right now and turn the thermostat down two degrees. If it’s summer time turn the temperature up two. I’ll wait. Promise, I’ll be right here.

*tapping fingers*

See, didn’t that feel good? I didn’t ask you to turn it off, just down. Not everyone’s a revolutionary soul but we’re all a part of one very small Earth.

Now when you clean out the kitchen drawer and realize that you have eighteen spatulas please don’t put the seventeen you don’t love into the trash, drop them off at your local Salvation Army, there may be a family who needs kitchen tools.

My husband hates paper plates and plastic ware. He would do the dishes himself before eating off a paper plate with a plastic fork. That is green. Now, how difficult is that?

Rather than making the sweeping declaration that Green is too much work, we can all take baby steps. Don’t forget to talk about your baby steps because awareness is important.

Now I’m off to redecorate my daughter’s bedroom (it’s her birthday gift). If you’re in the Los Angeles area you’ll see a four poster twin bed on Freecycle and a cute rug too.

I’ll be walking to the farmer’s market for a lunchtime snack shortly thereafter.

You see, I’m inching toward perfection and it’s kinda fun if you want to join me.

* Please do not print this post, just forward it to a friend (or twenty)

As fascinating as it may seem to see a scientist potentially holding a pile of mammoth-poo in his hands, this is not a good sign.

Over 10% of the earth’s surface is covered in tundra, a thin layer of slow-growing plant matter (dwarf shrubs, grasses, mosses, lichens, etc.), which covers a frozen bog of organic matter called permafrost.

Due to very short growing seasons and very low temperatures, the expansive areas of tundra in the frigid north of Russia, Alaska, Canada, etc., can only support an incredibly slow breakdown of organic material. Essentially, permafrost stores thousands of years of plant and animal organic matter. It is a vast carbon sink. Or, at least, it was….

If you’ve ever heard the terms ‘runaway effects’ or ‘feedback loops’ in connection with climate change - this is one of the most significant.

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I once again present the JetPack Rating System™, my weekly effort to help humanity cope with its collective disappointment over the broken promise of personal jetpacks, the Sean Connery-era James Bond standard of cool.

To recap, the JetPack Rating System™ is used to not only begin the healing process, but also for rating automobiles and buildings by a duel criteria:

1. How environmentally-friendly are they?
2. What would James Bond think of them?

Today, we JetPack™ the Volkswagen Chameleon.

Yahoo Autos Sez:

On the outside, the Volkswagen Chameleon Microbus looks like it rolled right out of the set of a 1960s surfer movie. But times have changed in the world of energy and technology. Volkswagen retrofitted the 1964 Deluxe Microbus for a new generation by installing an all-electric drive powered by lithium polymer batteries. Ten 30-volt batteries under the van’s floor provide a range of about 100 miles. A recharge takes about 6 hours. Surfboards mounted on the roof are lined with flexible solar panels that provide an additional source of energy. The vehicle needs all the energy it can find to power an arsenal of interactive digital cabin features, including imbedded touch-pads and speech activated controls. Don’t expect to ever see this vehicle on the road. Volkswagen is using the Chameleon strictly as a marketing tool to showcase a movie-fantasy future of automotive electronics. - Yahoo Autos

The JetPack Rating System™ sez:

Another green concept car that will never actually see the light of day. Usually this would irk James. Under normal circumstances he would be inclined to fly his jetpack to the corporate offices of Volkswagen where he would deliver well-placed karate chops to the men, and refuse to wine and dine the ladies, teaching them all a valuable lesson.

Ah, but this is different.

The 1964 design is in line with the old-school appeal of the 007 Jet Pack, yet while the rest of the world sees surf, sand and sunshine, James sees a giant bong on wheels. Not a fan of hippies. Volkswagen is actually doing society a great service by making sure that the Chameleon never sees the light of day. This vehicle has the sad smell of broken laws and free love…

Wait a minute. Did someone say free love?

Perhaps James is having a change of heart. The multi-tasking options are worth considering. The VW micro bus provides enough privacy for Bond to chase the bad guys and discreetly be attentive to the ladies. Our secret agent has been faced with a dilemma:

The hippies?

The ladies?

The hippies?

The ladies?

….the ladies win out. James ♥’s the Volkswagen Chameleon

JetPack Rating? 4 JetPacks (out of a possible 5)