Green Options

Buying your first home is both nerve-wracking and exhilarating. Imagine the heightening of both of those emotions if you choose to 1) buy an older house full of character, and 2) jump right into green updates and renovations upon purchase. You’ll then have a good sense of what journalist, professor, and good friend of sustainablog Simran Sethi is going through right now… she recently purchased an 84-year-old home in her adopted home town of Lawrence, KS. Unlike the rest of us, though, Simran’s inviting the world in to watch the process of greening her new house: on Monday, she posted the first entry on a new blog at Oprah.com.

Home renovation isn’t a task for the feint of heart, and Simran readily admits that her own hands-on experience is limited:

A group of University of Kansas students have rigged up a 1974 Volkswagen Super Beetle to run on a mix of biodiesel and battery power.

The team, calling themselves the Ecohawks, claim the quirky hybrid is capable of getting 50 MPG from a series of 10 lead-acid batteries and a biodiesel generator.

Performance-wise, although quite cool looking in a retro kind of way, the car isn’t exactly what you’d call a speedster, topping out as it does at a leisurely 30 mph.

That doesn’t seem to bother team-leader Prof. Chris Depcik though, who told reporters, “We have driven it around and reached approximately 30 mph, but this was more of a proof-of-concept drive without pushing the boundaries. We are currently getting the vehicle into road-ready shape to be driven safely in order to determine these values.” (More pics after the jump).

17-year-old Andrew Loader from Lindsborg, Kansas has amazed his parents by building his very own electric car (Video) from nothing more than a clapped-out Ford Escort, some batteries and an old forklift motor.

Tired of paying last summer’s high gas prices, Andrew decided to take matters into his own hands and build the street-legal vehicle after researching the idea on the internet.

To begin with, Mom and Dad were less than impressed with the scheme. “Mom told me not to, and dad did too. I had to write a letter to Mom and her friend convinced her not to ground me or kill me,” said the industrious teenager.

The Kansas compromise reached earlier this month allows Sunflower Electric Power Corp. to build a single 895-megawatt coal-fired power plant near Holcomb, Kansas.

Editor’s note: We’ve done quite a bit of republishing lately here at sustainablog.  I’m grateful to all of those who have agreed to let us use their content, and wanted to add one more to the mix: Simran Sethi’s “post-Earth Day manifesto” from last week’s Huffington Post.

“We are each other’s harvest; we are each other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.” Gwendolyn Brooks

Dave Lowenstein and Gwendolyn Brooks hooked me. Just over two years ago, I was contemplating my stay in Lawrence, Kansas and sorting out future plans. The circumstances that brought me there weren’t going to keep me there. All my work was in New York and Los Angeles. I had no compelling reason to stay. Then I walked by a mural.

The mural, replete with brilliant images of incredible African-American artists connected to Kansas, is the backdrop for Lawrence’s Saturday Farmers’ Market. But that particular Sunday was scorching hot and downtown was a ghost town. The one car parked in front of the colorful wall at 9th and New Hampshire featured a bumper sticker demanding a living wage for Lawrence. I got up close to the words. I took a photo of the bumper sticker. In that sticky, solitary, epiphanic moment, everything became clear. I wanted to stay in this small town in a flat state, because of our magnitude and bond.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen has has been a staunch critic of the of proposed new coal-fired generation at Holcomb and has held her ground in the face of strong opposition. What happens now that she’s leaving for Washington?

Saturday, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius accepted President Obama’s request to become secretary of health and human services.

She sure does have a lot on her plate, what with the proposed overhaul of the health care system.

But what you might not know is that Sebelius is a champion of a “bring your baby to work” policy.  Currently, 21 government agencies in Kansas allow babies in the boardrooms.

We live in a society where too many people make workers choose–do you want to be a good parent, or do you want to be a good worker?

Sebelius seems to think: choose both.

I wrote my first “Building Bridges” post on a lark: the article I referenced on carbon offsets tied in nicely with ideas about bridging the divide between the environmental community and “Red America” (which tends to distrust, at the very least, environmentalists). Since then, I’ve been digging into existing success stories… and I’d love your input.

For the next round of posts, I’d like to feature “case studies” of “red” communities (and I hate that designation, but it conveys the rights characterization) that are implementing “green” practices. I’m particularly interested in “homegrown” initiatives put forth by local residents, as I think ideas that come from within will get a better reception — we’re all a bit more open-minded about ideas that come from people we know and trust. So far, I know about the following communities:

• Rock Port, Missouri: This town of 1300 residents is the first 100% wind-powered community in the United States.
• Reynolds, Indiana: Designated “Biotown USA,” Reynolds has set the goal of total energy self-sufficiency (as part of a larger state program).
• Greensburg, Kansas: Greensburg has received a ton of attention for its decision to rebuild to LEED Platinum standards after 95% of the town was destroyed after a tornado.

Maybe you’ve never heard of Moringa oleifera, a tree native to parts of Asia and possibly the Middle East and Africa. Up until this past week, I hadn’t either. But after reading about the amazing nutritional punch packed by this tree, I can’t wait to try growing one.

According to the Wichita, Kansas-based Trees for Life, Moringa leaves have — gram for gram — seven times as much vitamin C as oranges, four times as much calcium as milk (and twice as much protein), four times as much vitamin A as carrots and three times as much potassium as bananas.

Italian wind energy company Enel SpA has announced that it has inaugurated its biggest ever wind power project, a 250 megawatt U.S. farm.

Enel said in a statement released earlier today that the Smoky Hills plant in Kansas will be fully operational by the end of this year, and will become the largest wind energy installation in the Great Plains state, and one of the largest in the entire country, capable of supplying the power needs of 85,000 U.S. households.

If you ask Simran about compact florescent light bulbs, she may crack one open and cut you. Not really, that would scatter mercury, but she is loca for the light bulbs. Check Monday’s Huffington Post for the full version of this post.

People give you this whole rap about how easy saving the planet is. Change a light bulb and save the world. Yes and no. How about we consider it a start rather than an end destination?

Lighting accounts for about 20% of our electric bills. Traditional bulbs burn heat rather than light, so are extremely inefficient. Compact florescent light bulbs (CFLs) are 80% more efficient and can last up to 10 times longer than a traditional bulb. Last December, Congress voted to phase out the inefficient incandescent. By 2012, the 100-watt bulb will be history.

In the interim, environmentally-minded folks of all ilks are heralding the bulb. The virtual Stop Global Warming march reminds us swapping out three incandescent bulbs for CFLs will save us 300 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $60 a year. The Coalition On the Environment and Jewish Life suggests installing CFLs for Hanukkah as a way to redefine “energy-stretching light” and reflect environmental stewardship. Students in Pennsylvania sell light bulbs instead of candy to raise money for their schools. (Simran prefers candy.)