Rainharvest Systems and Five Seasons Brewing teamed up to create a microbrew made from 100% on-site captured rainwater!

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Last year, 300 folks across North America turned in their car keys for a month as part of the 2008 Zipcar Low-Car Diet. And, in addition to cutting congestion, they also walked 85% more, biked 136% more and decreased their miles driven by 71%. Pretty impressive, eh? Starting July 15, a new crop of participants from all Zipcar cities worldwide* will begin the 2009 Low-Car Diet: one full month of living without a primary car.

Zipcar will be selecting 30 participants in each Zipcar metro to take part in the 2009 Low-Car Diet. Zipcar and its partners are committed to providing all participants with the necessary tools for creating transportation nirvana, including:

• Bike rentals
• Transit passes
• Complimentary meals at participating restaurants
• Discounts at local retailers
• And, of course, a 1-year Zipcar membership with some driving credit to get started

There will be a number of applicants for only 30 spaces, and Zipcar would like to make sure they’re the best. If you think you’d like to try an unconventional diet just fill out this short survey.

*Zipcar cities include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, London, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington, DC.

Photo Courtesy tvol via Flickr under Creative Commons license.

Disclaimer: Gas2.0 parent company Virgance is participating in the Low-Car Diet.

Clove, a brand new salon in midtown Atlanta, strives to have more than the best products and service in town. Owner Tomeca Kanu and manager Carla Kootsillas are dedicated to giving back to the community and running the greenest business they possibly can!

Tomeca bought the salon while in the middle of what turned out to be sort of a rough year. A car accident meant she had to be on bed rest just as the business was getting going. She wasn’t able to take care of the day-to-day operations for a while, which is when Carla came on board to help out.

After Tomeca’s recovery, Carla says the two of them, “took a hard look at the business and what [they] could do with it.” They wanted it to be more than your run-of-the-mill salon. They wanted to “do something [they] felt good about.” The result is a beautiful salon with great service, a mellow atmosphere, and, the best part, a conscience.

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Like a lot of crafters, Brooke grew up in a handmade household. Her mom even ran a crafty business in the 80’s selling handmade “hair poofs.” Mom’s craftiness didn’t stop there! She also made a lot of Brooke’s clothes, including “this crazy pair of poofy overalls” out of old curtains.

Now, Brooke makes clothes, accessories and housewares constructed out of repurposed materials, like vintage fabric and linens, for her own crafty business. She sees vintage and found materials as a way to avoid “contributing to the raw textile industries which aren’t always fair to their workers overseas.”

I’m also totally digging her clutches and pouches made from fused plastic bags that would have been headed for the trash bin. I couldn’t even tell that it was plastic at first glance!

Brooke says she draws her inspiration mainly from the materials she finds and her “love of indie style.” She takes some of her cues from “international street fashion blogs like hel-looks.com.” Put it all together and you get beautiful, unique pieces like this teal and black dress that I’m coveting:

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A group of local activists is working to help raise awareness about MARTA and speak out against the threatened service cuts. They hope folks will pull together this Friday to boost ridership, introduce new riders to the system, and get folks thinking about the MARTA crisis. Check out more details and what you can do to help after the jump!

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The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) recommended last week that funds earmarked for transit improvements go towards keeping MARTA afloat. The transit system is unable to cover its budget shortfall and operating costs, due to strict regulations on how it spends its revenue. MARTA gets the bulk of its funding from sales tax revenue, and it’s required to spend 50% on operating costs and 50% on capital expenses. This $25 million dollars would be a band aid fix, but it certainly beats cutting a day of service, like the MARTA board was proposing.

Not everyone is thrilled about this idea.

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Governor Sonny Perdue is refusing MARTA officials’ request for a special session to address the crisis affecting Atlanta transit.

According to this story from the AJC, the Governor says that, “Special sessions are something we shy away from.” He said that his transportation staff met with MARTA officials, but he will not hold a special session to help the transit system address its financial woes. As a commenter on the AJC article pointed out, Perdue was happy to call a special session in 2006 when a judge struck down Georgia’s gay marriage ban. Maybe Perdue meant he tries to avoid special sessions when the issue at hand isn’t one that matters to him?

I gave Governor Perdue a piece of my mind, and you can get heard too! Here’s the letter I sent to his office and contact info so you can send one of your own.

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[Waiting for the Train. Creative Commons photo by Wesley Fryer]

The General Assembly voted down Senate Bill 120, which would have allowed MARTA to tap into $65 million in capital reserve funds. Since the system receives absolutely no state funding, it relies heavily on sales tax revenue to stay afloat. It’s a state restriction that is tying up the much needed money: MARTA is required to spend 50% of its revenue on operating costs and 50% on capital expenses. The really infuriating part of this vote is that the bill failed for reasons that had nothing to do with Atlanta’s transit system.

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With all the rain this week, some folks have once again been saying we’re out of the drought. Only this time, it was no joke.

Georgia’s state climatologist, David Stooksbury, declared the drought over this week. All of the good rain we’ve had lately has apparently pulled North Georgia out of its water shortage with the exception of Lake Lanier and Lake Hartwell basins. So as long as you don’t count the two lakes where we get a large part of the region’s water, the drought is over!

Wait, what?

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Without new revenue sources from the state or region…MARTA will be forced to dramatically reduce service levels, eliminating bus routes, cutting rail service (either certain days or times, or entire lines altogether), and potentially seriously impacting the overall economic well-being of this region and state.

This is from a memo that MARTA sent to state lawmakers. Atlanta’s transit system has been dealing with a $60 million budget shortfall since December. That, combined with a dramatic decrease in predicted sales tax revenue for the coming year have put the system into crisis. For a transit system funded entirely by sales tax revenue, it’s not surprising that MARTA is having trouble making ends meet. MARTA is one of the few, if not the only, transit systems in the nation that does not receive a penny of state funding.

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[Creative Commons photo by Steve Hardy]

That might not sound like a huge reduction, and I know that 7% (or 37,800 metric tons of greenhouse gases) isn’t going to save the world, but it’s a good first step! It’s the equivalent of 179 rail cars’ worth of coal or protecting 239 acres of from deforestation.

The City of Atlanta released a Sustainability Report outlining where they’re at and where they plan to go in terms of lowering the city’s carbon footprint.

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[Creative Commons photo by Jesse Budlong]

Together Green, the folks behind Pennies for the Planet are at it again! They’ve issued a grant that’s allowing Trees Atlanta to work with local schools on plantings and education. The program kicked off on Thursday with a student-only tree planting at Brown Middle that’s focused on giving Atlanta’s West End neighborhood along the BeltLine bird-friendly, native trees and shrubs.

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At least year’s event, 150 cyclists raised over $2000 for the local nonprofit.

Located right in the heart of East Atlanta, Sopo Bicycle Co-op is an amazing resource for local cyclists. The shop provides tools, education and free bicycle maintenance to anyone who pops in with a ride. You can even build your own bike there! Frames and various parts are available on a suggested donation basis, and their knowledgeable volunteers are always around to help out during shop hours.

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What’s the expo all about? Here’s what the event’s website has to say:

A truly unique event from the ground up, Go Green Expo will change not only the public’s perception of environmentalism but also how events like this are produced and managed. Inviting companies large and small to showcase what they are doing to reduce their respective carbon footprint, consumers will have hands on experiences with “eco-friendly” alternatives to current everyday products and services.

Even the event itself is environmentally friendly utilizing a ZERO Carbon footprint approach to event production. Biodegradable trash bags, eco-friendly printing, table coverings, recycled signs, compostable sponsor banners and more. Event waste will be separated and sorted to ensure the least amount of refuse going to the landfills. Staff travel and a portion of every ticket that is purchased will be carbon offset.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/02/26/next-stop-for-go-green-expo-philadelphia/feed/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/02/10/composting-for-house-and-apartment-dwellers-alike/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/02/10/composting-for-house-and-apartment-dwellers-alike/#comments Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:00:07 +0000 Becky Striepe http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/02/10/composting-for-house-and-apartment-dwellers-alike/
[Creative Commons photo by Anne Norman]

The weather in Atlanta felt like Spring this weekend, which got me thinking about our Spring garden and, of course, our compost bin. Composting is a fabulous, cheap source of fertile soil. On top of that, keeping a compost bin prevents your food scraps from heading to the landfill where they break down and produce methane, a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2.

While some communities offer curbside composting, most do not. Luckily, it’s really easy to get your own bin going! Whether you’re living in a house or an apartment, there are great composting solutions out there. Here’s a roundup of some options, so you can have your compost ready in time to get that Spring garden going!

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]]> http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/02/10/composting-for-house-and-apartment-dwellers-alike/feed/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/02/09/more-trouble-for-atlanta-transit/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/02/09/more-trouble-for-atlanta-transit/#comments Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:00:26 +0000 Becky Striepe http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/02/09/more-trouble-for-atlanta-transit/

In the wake of MARTA announcing a 60 million dollar budget shortfall, Atlanta got hit with more bad news for anyone hoping to ditch their cars. AMTRAK and the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) are putting the proposed system of light rail, trails, and planned development into jeopardy.

[Creative Commons photo by Brett Weinstein]

What is the BeltLine?
The Atlanta BeltLine is a solution. While Atlanta does have a rail and bus system now, MARTA, the rail portion is pretty limited and the buses are a bit unreliable. The BeltLine was going to change the face of Atlanta’s transit system, connecting neighborhoods and making alternative transportation a viable option for more folks in the Atlanta area. They describe the BeltLine:

Our vision is that the BeltLine will be a continuous, connected corridor of parks, trails, greenspace, quality development and transit - completely unique to anything in any other U.S. city. It will connect in-town neighborhoods and promising business centers throughout the city and will link directly into MARTA rail and other public transit systems. Ultimately, the BeltLine is how Atlanta chooses to develop over the next 50 years.

Why would anyone want to stop a project like this?

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]]> http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/02/09/more-trouble-for-atlanta-transit/feed/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/01/28/talking-sustainability-with-scott-kellogg/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/01/28/talking-sustainability-with-scott-kellogg/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:14:40 +0000 Becky Striepe http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/01/28/talking-sustainability-with-scott-kellogg/ Last night, Scott Kellogg from the Rhizome Collective spoke at Charis Books in Little Five Points. He talked about permaculture and taking back the word sustainability.

[Creative Commons photo by Chad Hanna]

Marketers and large corporations have co-opted the word sustainability to sell products. It’s come to mean expensive bamboo counter tops and organic cotton bedding. We need to take back that word to its original meaning. Sustainability is living within your means. It’s closing the waste cycle and finding ways to turn trash into something that’s usable again. Last night, Kellogg talked about some ways that Rhizome is accomplishing these things. Ways that we can, too!

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]]> http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/01/28/talking-sustainability-with-scott-kellogg/feed/ http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2008/12/31/good-luck-foods-for-the-new-year/ http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2008/12/31/good-luck-foods-for-the-new-year/#comments Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:44:49 +0000 Stuart Stein http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2008/12/31/good-luck-foods-for-the-new-year/ Having spent a number of years working in and enjoying Atlanta, Georgia, I developed an affinity for southern hospitality. After moving away, I would call directory assistance for the 404 area code occasionally just hear that distinctive and luring southern twang again. I really fell in love with the South when a girl I was dating at the time took me to her family’s home for a New Year’s Day meal. I could taste the customs and flavors that have been passed down for generations.

Though the foods may vary, New Years day has a number of good luck food traditions throughout the world. Some foods are said to bring luck or money; others safety and a good life. And some are just tasty.

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]]> http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2008/12/31/good-luck-foods-for-the-new-year/feed/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2008/12/16/atlantas-transit-system-is-in-trouble/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2008/12/16/atlantas-transit-system-is-in-trouble/#comments Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:00:38 +0000 Becky Striepe http://ecolocalizer.com/2008/12/16/atlantas-transit-system-is-in-trouble/
[Creative Commons photo by Josh Hallett]

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) is $60 million in the hole - double their expected revenue shortfall for 2008. Administrators are talking about raising fares and reducing consumer services to help the transit system cope with the losses.

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]]> http://ecolocalizer.com/2008/12/16/atlantas-transit-system-is-in-trouble/feed/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2008/12/08/500-fine-for-not-recycling/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2008/12/08/500-fine-for-not-recycling/#comments Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:00:58 +0000 Becky Striepe http://ecolocalizer.com/2008/12/08/500-fine-for-not-recycling/
[Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by Incase Designs]

The state of Georgia has asked county and city governments to reduce their solid waste by 25%. Most counties offer curbside recycling programs, and there are facilities throughout the state for recycling drop off. Gwinnett County, though, is taking things a step further with their “Greener Tomorrow” program. A new ordinance passed last week and taking full effect next July, includes fines of up to $500 for recyclables in the trash or for trash mixed in with recyclables.

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