Green Options

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The 7th International Ecocity World Conference continues this week in San Francisco, California and if a positive aspect exists about globalization, it can be seen at this conference. A buzz exists in what feels like a combination of the World Cup (the passion), the U.N. (the international flavor) and something like Greenpeace (the Green aspect). We ran into a potpourri of organic architects, city planners, NGO leaders, and other interested in sustaining the earth as we know it.

The speakers ranged from keynote speaker Jaimie Lerner, former mayor of Curitiba Brazil co-founder of the IPPUC, Parris Glendending (Former Governor of Maryland and President of Smart Growth Leadership Institute and Janet Larsen, Director of Research for the Earth Policy Institute and advocate for Lestor Brown’s Plan B. Larsen mentioned how Plan A refers to as “business as usual” and most of us can see that that plan isn’t working. Plan B doesn’t just refer to the U.S. Countries like Algeria who depend on their oil revenue can see the oil-less future and continue to create solar and thermal alternatives to power their future. Imagine an oil country funding alt energy sources.

Welcome to part 2 of our restaurant greening guide. If you recall from last week, I wrote about Ike’s Quarter Cafe, a restaurant that has found a great balance of quality food, sustainability in their facilities, and a wonderful experience. For those of you considering greening your restaurant, or just in search of ways to make eating a less impactful experience, this week we focus on that which goes around the food. As in the utensils, cups, bowls, plates, and even the foil.

Ike’s Quarter Cafe has been in business for seven years as of this month, and in that time has had plenty of opportunities to try out the various green options available. And, lucky you, we’re going to tell you the best of breed that they’ve found!

One morning this summer, my family and I drove to a warehouse in an industrial park on the west side of Chicago to do our eco-duty. We were finally going to buy a composting bin for our condo building. I was delighted to see we weren’t alone in that dusty parking lot. Dozens of other Chicagoans turned out to take advantage of discounted composting bins and rain barrels on offer from the

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With the weather warming up, folks are flocking outside and picnickers abound. But where there's a picnic there's usually overflowing garbage cans.

When taking your picnic to the park or the beach try to reduce the amount of waste you leave there.