By Gina Munsey •
April 3, 2009
Florida’s new “Buy Local Orlando” initiative, set to launch May 1, conjures up pleasing images of farmer’s market produce and goods hand-crafted by local artisans. With the words “buy local” in the program’s title, it makes sense to assume that the participating merchants are locally-based. The widespread locavore movement, after all, is just that: local.
But Orlando’s local program is anything but. The first tip-off? It’s launched in conjunction with the Disney Entrepreneur Center. Not exactly the name that comes to mind when you think of supporting local businesses. But then again, neither is McDonald’s — but according to “Buy Local Orlando” program guidelines, the fast food chain qualifies as a local merchant.
By now, we all know it’s cheaper — and more environmentally friendly — to walk or bike to places than to drive a car or SUV. But is the low-cost, low-impact way always feasible in the motor-happy, open-freeway-obsessed U.S. of A.? That’s what we’ll be exploring this week at EcoLocalizer in a feature we’re calling “Walk This Way.”
The question of whether to walk, bike or take public transportation is a no-brainer if you live in a city like New York, where driving can often be more of a pain than a pleasure. But what about the rest of the country? Not every community is large enough or dense enough to offer the auto alternatives the Big Apple does. And what about people who live in rural areas where everything is a half-hour’s drive away or more? Can we refashion our country’s way of getting around to be more European? Or are those of us in unwalkable communities doomed to either move elsewhere or live like so many billions do in the rest of the world, consigned to life in a radius of space measured in only a few miles?
Southern fast-food favorite Chick-fil-A is known for its commercials featuring a cow holding a sign that says, “Eat mor chikin.” But two University of Central Florida students have turned to the chicken chain for a new purpose: “Run your car on mor chikin (grease).”
Mechanical engineering students Eric Williams, Chad Heinrich and Michael Schulist turned to the University of Central Florida’s local Chick-fil-A for used cooking grease, which they convert into biodiesel fuel to run their cars. They’re also passing along 20 percent of their home-brewed fuel to the university, which is using it to power trucks, lawnmowers and other diesel vehicles.
Orlando, Florida, recently became one of 12 cities across the U.S. chosen as a federal Department of Energy (DOE) “Solar America City.”
Each of the dozen cities will receive $200,000 to advance the use of solar technologies in their communities. All the cities were selected for “their commitment and comprehensive approach to the deployment of solar technologies and the development of sustainable solar infrastructures,” according to the DOE.
