Green Options

Good-bye honey truck, hello rocks.   A mini sewage treatment plant called BIOROCK beats conventional septic systems on every level.  Using rocks as a medium, BIOROCK needs little or no electricity, requires less maintenance, and produces a super-clean effluent.  It’s scalable down to use for individual homes.  Farms, campgrounds, trailer parks, corporate parks, subdivisions and vacation spots are other likely

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The climate change finger-pointing hit a new level of insanity when a paper was published recently that links overweight people to increased greenhouse gas emissions.

This quick and painless 15 question quiz will shine an LED light on your environmental personality. Do you think you are a Planetsaver? Find out below.

1. Cycle:
a.motor b.bi c.water

2. Take:
a.more b.a seat c.action

3. Vehicle:
a.SUV b.C-A-R c.B-U-S

4. Media:
a.TV b.radio c.book/mags

5. Bikes:
a.for kids b.for exercise c.for most trips

Concrete that maintains itself by healing cracks improves the sustainability of infrastructure through its longer service life and lower maintenance inputs. Now researchers have developed flexible, self healing cement that won’t suffer catastrophic failure when strained in an earthquake.

Houses built out of hemp instead of traditional building materials leave a ‘better than zero carbon’ footprint, according to new research out of the UK.

Aside from helping to combat global warming, building homes from the cannabis plant could also give a boost to struggling rural economies. That’s good news almost everywhere except for within the U.S., where industrialized hemp is still illegal to grow under federal law.

The carbon footprint of the President has been estimated at 41,000 tons per year, equal to the annual amount emitted by about 2200 American households. As the new champion of green energy and energy efficiency, should President Obama’s office be looking for ways to reduce his carbon footprint?

Yesterday, the City of Atlanta announced its municipal carbon footprint and plans to reduce that impact by 7% over the next three years.

[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.

By offering services from ride-sharing to Earth-friendly merch options, Reverb Rock helps concert-goers and -organizers lower their carbon footprints!

[Creative Commons photo by Joe Goldberg]

OK, I’ll admit it. On top of being a composting, rainwater harvesting, organic gardening hippie, I am also a huge Phish fan. You can imagine my delight when I got this in my email:

We love reusable shopping bags, but sometimes, it’s hard to remember to take them into the store. I’ve gotten much better about bringing my bags into the grocery store (I only have to run out to the car about once every two months now from the checkout line), but remembering my bags at other stores is a challenge. I usually walk out with my arms full of merchandise and fill my bags at the car.

I really like ChicoBags for shopping at stores, not just the natural food store. They sling over my shoulder (and my kids’ shoulders) easily and ball up nicely to fit inside my purse.  Reusable bags are such a simple step we can all take to reduce our carbon footprint, but why is it so hard to remember to use them? 

According to the Hanoi-based Prosperity Initiative, a shift toward more bamboo production by small scale farmers in Vietnam could bring 750,000 people out of poverty by 2020. It could also help circumvent worldwide demand for timber as a building material.

Due to its many benefits, bamboo has been touted as an environmental miracle crop. It’s a significant carbon sink, it grows fast, is more termite-resistant than timber, and can be used for everything from food to clothing material to scaffolding for building construction.

But are environmentalists being bamboozled? Despite its benefits, increased bamboo production could raise a lot of concerns too.

Prince Charles has been criticized by Labour MPs for the carbon footprint of his South American tour to promote climate change awareness and a low carbon economy, slated for next month.