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Five Resolutions for America Recycles Day

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:15:54 +0000

Editor’s note: I originally published this post on Intent.com

November 15th is America Recycles Day! As Robin noted on Tuesday, it’s an occasion that can create mixed feelings for us “greenies”: yes, it’s great to have recognition of the importance of recycling in our daily lives, but the very existence of America Recycles Day reminds us that, in many cases, American’s don’t recycle… or, not nearly enough of us, anyway. We need to address that issue on the level of mindset as well as accessibility: many of us don’t think about our disposal of “waste” as we should, but many others don’t have access to convenient recycling services… and we’d like both to change.

I’d imagine both of those issues will receive plenty of attention today. I’d like to bring up another concept that doesn’t get discussed as much: recycling as a moral yardstick for one’s commitment to environmental protection and restoration. You know what I’m talking about: the mixture of disbelief and downright contempt many of us experience, and express, when we find out someone doesn’t separate recyclables out from their home waste stream. “You don’t recycle?!” We often “ask” this rhetorical question with a tone reserved for question like “You don’t vote?” or “You don’t wash your hands after using the bathroom?” Failure to recycle is a personal and social failing akin to passing gas at a cocktail party…

OK, maybe that’s a little strong, but I do think we tend to approach the act of recycling as a sign of virtue. I don’t know that this is always the best way to get more people not only separating out waste paper and aluminum cans from the “trash,” but also thinking about the impact of their consumption choices. As someone who’s been guilty of all the above-mentioned sins, I’d like to share my resolutions for this America Recycles Day (why wait until New Year?).

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National Solar Tour: Renewable Energy Behind the Scenes

Sarah Lozanova — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:20:41 +0000

Have you ever wondered what an inverter looks like or how a solar heating system connects to a furnace?

Across the country in the month of October, solar system owners will open their doors to the solar curious as part of a national self-guided solar tour. Ranging from single family homes to restaurants to laundromats, participants can get an up close and personal look at solar systems.

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San Francisco Vegetarian Society celebrates “World Vegetarian Day”

Reenita Malhotra — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 22:46:46 +0000

The San Francisco Vegetarian Society (SFVS) is a non-profit organization that has been working in the Bay Area for over 25 years promoting a vegetarian diet as a healthful and humane way of life.

Run entirely by volunteers, the Society hosts events throughout the year such as vegetarian potlucks, picnics, dining out and lectures. The Society has been instrumental in popularizing the words vegetarian and vegan in the Bay Area. As a result of their work, professionals from many fields promote the benefits of a vegetarian diet, versus the old warnings of dire consequences.

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St. Louis Green Homes Renewable Energy Festival This Weekend

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:40:26 +0000

For a number of years, St. Louis’ Earthways Center has held a celebration of energy efficiency and renewable energy on the last weekend of September. Vendors showed their wares, non-profit groups passed out information, and the local electric company sold CFLs for a really low price. This year, that event has morphed into the Green Homes Renewable Energy Festival, which is co-sponsored by the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. In addition to the usual displays and tours of the Center itself (a Victorian-era home in St. Louis’ Midtown which has been rehabbed into a green showpiece), visitors to this free event can enjoy:

Workshops and Presentations: Throughout the day on Saturday, Sept. 27, the festival will offer a range of workshops and presentations next door at Cardinal Ritter High School. According to the Festival’s website, “Workshops will cover a range of topics like solar and wind energy, home and vehicle efficiency, urban farming, composting, recycling, and more. Participants can attend multiple workshops for only $5.”

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Jane Goodall Invites Entire World to Celebrate Peace

Gavin Hudson — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:36:21 +0000

Renowned primatologist, environmentalist, and humanitarian, Dr. Jane Goodall, has called for the entire world to join in a celebration of peace.

Nearly half a century after her landmark work with chimpanzees in Tanzania, “Dr. Jane” as she’s more often known, is traveling the world with a message that “peace is possible.”

This message is inspiring many to join Roots & Shoots, the Jane Goodall Organization’s international youth activism program. Roots & Shoots supports grassroots activities and projects that benefit the environment, animals, and communities.

On September 21st, Roots & Shoots groups and other individuals around the world will symbolically join Dr. Jane in a call for peace from communities the world over. Groups from Tanzania to Tennessee will make and fly Giant Peace Doves, like the one pictured here.

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Sustainable Living Roadshow: Be the Change Tour

Becky Striepe — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:00:32 +0000

[image via Sustainable Living Roadshow]

The Sustainable Living Roadshow is touring the country in biofuelled vehicles spreading the word about green living. The tour integrates entertainment, education, media and business into an “off-the-grid eco-carnival!” They are visiting 11 schools across the country, educating folks on how to live, work and play more sustainably. Want to check them out? There are a few cities remaining on the tour:

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Gore to Deliver Keynote at West Coast Green ‘08

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:57:47 +0000

No, Al Gore is not running for president this year, but the Nobel Laureate, Oscar winner and former Vice President still keeps popping up during this campaign season. Late last week, the folks at West Coast Green announced that Gore will give a keynote address at their 2008 event, joining other eco-celebs such as Sarah Susanka, David Suzuki and Hunter Lovins.

So what’s West Coast Green? Well, when we covered it last year, the event was billed as a “residential building conference and expo.” This year, however, the program will expand to cover the wide range of issues and ideas surrounding green building and development, and the event’s being described as “…a feast of innovations and ideas — an educational smorgasbord designed to widen your vision and stimulate your mind with the latest best practices in green building.” Homebuilders, homeowners, policy wonks and ecopreneurs will all find plenty to keep them engaged.

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GreenBuildingTalk: Furniture, Flooring, and More at NEOCON ‘08

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:28:46 +0000

Editor’s note: You might expect a post about an event called NEOCON to appear on Red, Green & Blue, but, as our friends at GreenBuildingTalk point out, NEOCON is a trade show for interior furnishings (with no particular ideological leanings, we’re guessing). The show took place in GBT’s hometown of Chicago, so they got a first-hand look at NEOCON’s green offerings. This post was originally published on Tuesday, June 17, 2008.

The National Exposition of Contract Interior Furnishings (NEOCON) was held this past week in Chicago, and GreenBuildingTalk was there to check out the unique combination of over 1,200 residential and commercial showrooms and exhibits. With our goal of discovering new green products, Josh and I made our way through the maze of office furniture, flooring, wallcoverings, and hundreds of chairs.

Amidst the legions of chairs, our first discovery was RealForm Technology’s plant-based polyurethane foams, products used for seating applications. The polyurethane foams contain 20% bio-based content, and the company’s laboratory trials have achieved even higher Bio-Polyol substitution, foams capable of being molded for any type of furniture, including sofas. RealForm’s Realbio foam product is leading the way in eco-friendly furniture foam, and is one to keep an eye on.

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Kansas City Comes Out for Greensburg Fundraiser

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:25:01 +0000

As I mentioned last week, I headed over to Kansas City last Thursday to attend the fundraiser for Greensburg GreenTown, a non-profit supporting Greensburg, Kansas’ efforts to rebuild green after a tornado leveled the town last May. Despite ugly weather, the ballroom at the Scarritt Building was packed for both the world premiere of the Sundance Channel’s web series The Good Fight, and a panel discussion with Greentown director Daniel Wallach, and BNIM Architects‘ urban planner Stephen Hardy. Among the crowd were a number of Greensburg residents, and the event, while informative and eye-opening, served largely as a celebration of these people’s tenacity and foresight in choosing to rebuild their community with an eye towards a future of economic, cultural and environmental sustainability.

First up was Simran Sethi of Sundance’s The Green, who’s become a passionate advocate for Greensburg’s resurgence. In introducing the first five episodes of The Good Fight (which all focus on Greensburg), she not only lauded the people who she’s come to know in making the “webisodes,” but also noted that the town is hardly a hotbed of radical environmentalism: Greensburg was a town of 1400 people when the tornado struck, and, like many mid-American small communities, had been in decline for several decades. The population had shrunk, the per capita income was below the Kansas average, and young Greensburgians were generally looking for a way out. She heard plenty of disdainful comments about “treehuggers,” and several people had told her that they just didn’t believe global warming is a reality.

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Greensburg, Kansas Fundraiser Next Week in Kansas City

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:28:13 +0000

To follow up on Shirley’s post about The Good Fight… next week, the Kansas City chapter of AIGA will hold a fundraiser for Greensburg, Kansas’ efforts to rebuild (and rebuild green at that). According to the organization’s web site:

Simran Sethi, host of the Sundance Channel’s The Green will moderate a panel on the green redesign of tornado devastated Greensburg, KS. The green salon will feature BNIM Architects’ urban planner, Stephen Hardy and Greentown director, Daniel Wallach. The Sundance Channel will screen segments from The Good Fight Series.

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World Powers Down for Earth Hour

Sarah Lozanova — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:57:35 +0000

Did you celebrate earth hour by turning off the lights? This event lasted from 8-9 pm tonight, with the purpose of raising awareness about climate change. Sydney, Australia was the pioneer of this day, starting the annual tradition in 2007 and creating a 10% drop in electricity use. 24 cities around the globe participated, with many iconic structures like the Sears Tower and the Golden Gate Bridge turning off their lights. What occurred in your local area?

Check It Out! Pre-Oscar Party by Global Green

Cassie Walker — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:49:54 +0000

The Writer’s Guild of America’s strike is coming to an end. That’s good news for the writers and others who work in entertainment, of course, but it’s also good news for the planet. Why? Because Hollywood biggest night - and thus its biggest opportunity to use its influence for good - is just around the corner. The Academy Awards® are to be held on Sunday, February 24th.

To capitalize on the event, Global Green is hosting a pre-Oscar party. To be held on Wednesday, February 20th at super-club Avalon in Hollywood, the event just might provide celebrity gawkers with their fill of ogling…the Los Angeles committee includes such A-listers as Orlando Bloom, Penelope Cruz, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Charlize Theron.

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The Green Conference Series: West Coast Green

David Anderson — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 14:22:01 +0000

Welcome to the first official entry of a multi-part series documenting the green business, building, marketing, branding, and festival-izing conferences that are ramping up as the summer comes to a close (including Opportrunity Green). I’ve previously provided a first-hand account from WINDPOWER 2007 and Green Festival Chicago, and missed countless others.

I recognize all the benefits of green building, but, as I’ve never owned any kind of building, I’ve never explored a homeowner’s eco-friendly options in much depth, or been to a conference targeted at the industry.

Right from the opening plenary, visionaries (led in prominence by Steve Wozniak) hammered home the feeling that the green building industry is really at a tipping point where a cascade of exponential growth is possible. In this respect, I didn’t feel too out of place. I had heard a similar message at every niche conference I’d been to since starting Green Options. Indeed, the implications of a true transition to a sustainable economy are the same for green pioneers in every industry. If you can provide any product or service in a more environmentally responsible way, and do it as cheap or cheaper than the old way, you are the future.

So what? People have been saying we’re at a tipping point for years… They’re just another kind of salesman trying to drum up business, right? Even if it’s growing, it’s just a bubble, like everything else.

Wrong.

In the many industries that demand consistent natural resource inputs (energy, building, transportation), people have been doing things essentially the same way for a long time. And entrepreneurs are finding solutions that preserve all of the advantages of our unsustainable practices, but with less toxicity, fewer resource inputs, and beautiful outputs. Any industry can optimize a business model for more than one variable–say, profit AND impact on the system as a whole.

Some of the exhibitors did just that.

There were multiple firms that recycle packaging styrofoam into insulated concrete forms. The best one I saw was Apex-Block. Some might object to the use of styrofoam in any "green" building, but my take on it is that we need cost-effective, energy-efficient solutions now, and there’s no shortage of styrofoam being produced and thrown away that none of us can do much about at the moment, so… get real.

There are were also some "breakthroughs" whose green-ness I question: both of the two ethanol-burning fireplace booths I visited were more concerned with emphasizing the simple, sleek, user-friendliness of ethanol as a fireplace fuel than where the fuel came from. I found it ironic that 10 minutes later I was listening to a pre-eminent architecture professor use his Powerpoint to contrast decreasing crop yields from global warming against our policy of sacrificing food for fuel.

It didn’t surprise me too much that my fireplace salesmen friends weren’t up on the significant disadvantages of corn-based ethanol. All day, the fragmentation of the green building professionals I saw at the conference struck me; it seemed a little like most of them didn’t know there were that many others out there. As they grow, WCG and conferences like it continue to help refugees from the old economy find their place in the new.

Craigslist Foundation to Hold Nonprofit Boot Camp in Berkeley

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 19:44:59 +0000

While this is a little different from our normal fare, when the Craigslist Foundation asked us if we’d help get the word out on its Nonprofit Boot Camp event, we were happy to oblige. Sponsored by eBay, the event will take place on August 18 at the University of California, Berkeley, campus. If you’re a nonprofit leader or a social entrepreneur, it looks like this will be a day full of educational and networking opportunities. According to the foundation’s web site, "Nonprofit Boot Camp is designed to educate and empower the next generation of nonprofit leaders and social entrepreneurs, connecting them with valuable industry resources, peers and potential supporters."

Boot camp features eight different educational tracks, ranging from nonprofit basics to fundraising to technology. Featured speakers will include Ami Dar, Executive Director of Action Without Borders/Idealist.org , and Aimee Allison. There will also be an exhibit hall featuring over 50 organizations that serve emerging nonprofit leaders and social entrepreneurs, and free one-on-one coaching sessions.

Sounds like a great event, and there’s still time to register. The registration fee is $50.

Guest Post: A Strong Wind Blows at Day 2 of WINDPOWER 2007

Low Impact Living — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 02:27:25 +0000

Image source: AWEA

Editor's note: Since David was only able to spend one day at WINDPOWER 2007, we asked Jessica Jensen, co-founder of Low Impact Living, to offer her take on the rest of the conference. Here are her impressions of Day 2.

Day 2 at WINDPOWER 2007, the national wind energy expo hosted by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) continued to be exciting. With over 400 companies exhibiting and 6000+ visitors, this is by far the largest wind energy conference in the U.S. Yesterday's events focused on the small wind energy market. Small wind is defined as systems producing < 100 KWs. Home wind-power systems typically require 1-10 KW (generated by one turbine) and farms and small businesses can use anywhere between 10-100 KW.

The day started with an excellent session on "Growing the Market for Distributed Wind Energy." Trudy Forsyth of the National Renewable Energy Lab spoke both of very encouraging growth in the small wind market but also about the obstacles to greater growth. Certain states– including California, New York, Vermont and Massachusetts offer strong financial incentives for investment in wind systems and also make the permitting processes navigable.

Many other states, however, do not help make wind an attractive option for consumers and small businesses– even states with progressive solar energy support policies. Andy Kruse, Co-founder of Southwest Wind Power (one of the big firms in the small wind market distribution) commented that, "25 states have significant support for solar– and it's more like 4-5 states on the wind side." He added that SWWP is partnering with another other major US small wind power firm, Bergey Windpower, on lobbying for better policy support in Colorado and Pennsylvania. Almost everyone speaking today heralded the need for better federal and state level incentives to make the investment in small wind technologies appealing to consumers and small businesses– so the lobbyists have their work cut out for them.

Image source: AWEABut even with the policy hurdles still to be overcome, the growth in the small wind industry seems to be very strong. Steve Wilke, Sales & Customer Service for Bergey Windpower, wouldn't share unit or dollar specifics but noted that Bergey is doubling its production capacity this year to meet demand. He cites improved state-level support for financial incentives and growing consciousness about the need for green power alternatives. Bergey’s primary production facility is co-located with the company headquarters in Norman, OK. The company has also recently opened a new manufacturing facility in China. "We're doing a lot of development in China– the demand is huge," he added. Other manufacturers echoed the sentiment that growth is steep in the small wind market both in the US and abroad.

One of the most compelling presentations at the end of day focused on wind energy as a power solution for schools. As it turns out, schools are often ideal candidates for wind power. Schools typically have the land and clearance needed for turbines. They also have access to cheap capital and are comfortable with payback periods in excess of 8-10 years. The market potential for the school segment is massive: there are over 5,000 schools in Texas alone and almost all of them would need systems around 50 KW. Developing this market across the US would not only replace the use of polluting coal-fired plant capacity but would also help to drive down costs in the wind-system manufacturing industry by growing production volume. So tell your kids to ask their principals if they have looked into wind power.

Today was the conference’s last day, so if you were in Los Angeles, we hope you had a chance to stop by. It’s very heartening to see so many companies and people dedicated to renewable energy.

Biodiesel and Bike-Powered Exhibits: The How Weird Street Faire

Sara Holt — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 13:07:41 +0000

From 11:11am to 5:55pm on May 6th, San Francisco’s 8th Annual How Weird Street Faire will shut down 5 city blocks in a celebration of all things community, music, art, and GREEN.

Featuring 7 biodiesel-powered dance stages and a sound system run entirely by people on bikes, the theme of this year’s How Weird turns green as it aims to incorporate sustainable technology and solutions into all aspects of the Faire.

Along with the recycling, compost, and bike-powered educational exhibits, How Weird will also be documenting the process of going green (almost zero-waste!) to give others an opportunity to see the necessary steps involved in greening up an event.

If you go and find yourself looking for a calm oasis in the midst of this urban creative hub, visit the down-tempo scene in “Ambient Alley,” or flop down on the giant “mandala of grass” to relax and reconnect in the middle of 12th and Howard Street.

For more info, or directions, visit www.howweird.org/. And be sure to check out the bike parking valet service!