“Marijuana’s status as a federal Schedule I controlled substance be reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods.”

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There was a time not too long ago that you couldn’t have paid me to buy another new American automobile. Don’t take that statement that wrong way; it wasn’t for lack of trying. I love the lines of the true classics like the ‘57 Chevy or the ‘65 GTO. But somewhere in the last few decades, the American manufacturers seemed to just give up on making a good product—and I went through several modern American pieces of junk before I gave up trying too.

Yet in the last two years there is one major American manufacturer, who, above all others, seems to have come out the other end of a dark tunnel with a clear vision for its future and a line-up of solid, well-designed cars on which to build—Ford.

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The new green-themed Reclaim made by Samsung is more than your standard phone with slick green branding — though there’s a bit of that too.

What’s green (or blue), smaller than a deck of cards and will remind you to unplug the charger from the wall after charging? The Reclaim, the new green-themed smart phone made by Samsung for Sprint, is loaded with a bunch of green content, a handful eco-conscious accessories and an attention to sustainable packaging that make it more “green” than most other phones out there.

But you can’t just slap a case made from forty percent corn plastic, dip it in green paint and call it green, can you? The folks at Sprint sent me the new Reclaim so I could answer those questions myself.

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Sanders and publisher Doubleday decided to give the book another go, and relaunched it on September 16th of this year. I’m glad they did: while the title led me to believe I was going to be reading another “how to” book on greening the workplace (which is not a bad thing), Sanders goes well beyond tips on saving paper and electricity. There are ideas for “greening” a company, but Sanders contextualizes these action steps within an examination of the “triple bottom line,” and a broader “Responsibility Revolution”: “…a broad-based movement of people and companies taking a disruptive approach to making a difference - contributing to our quality of life, locally and globally, for current and future generations.”

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If you are starting to feel inspired to create some simple, affordable, tasty meals from locally available seasonal food, but are a bit clueless how to begin, Lisa Jervis‘ new book, Cook Food: A Manualfesto for Easy, Healthy, Local Eating, may provide just the help that you need.

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As detailed in the just released August issue of Consumer Reports magazine, out of a crop of 22 small hatchbacks and wagons, the Insight — Honda’s much-touted all new Hybrid — came in 21st on the road test with one of the worst performances CR has seen from Honda in longer than many of the editors at the venerable publication can remember. The only car in that group to fare worse on the road test was the Dodge Caliber.

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The short answer, of course, is “a lot”: Gil’s spent nearly 40 years in the sustainable business field, so he’s able to address questions ranging from the general (”What’s the business case for green?”) to the very specific (”What elements should an Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program include?) with deep knowledge of green business ideas, as well as plenty of real-life examples.

What makes the The Truth about Green Business really stand out, though, isn’t necessarily the quality of information, but the format of the book itself. Most of the other books mentioned above delve deeply into their topics, and require a sustained reading effort (both of which are good things, of course). Friend’s created something quite different: in the Introduction, he describes the book as “designed to help you tackle these grand ideas in simple, practical, profitable, bite-sized chunks” (specifically, 52 “truths”).

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That distinction is the focus of The Water Front, a documentary about the residents of Highland Park, Michigan and their struggle to keep a handle on their water rights. Check out the trailer and more on the film after the jump!

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What is Green Cuisine?

Contessa’s slogan is “Eat Responsibly” and they strive to help people do just that by operating out of one of the world’s first LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, certified frozen food manufacturing plants. The Contessa Green Cuisine plant uses a solar panel array that reduces their carbon dioxide emissions, a water heating system that runs on the waste heat created from their refrigeration compressors, a special loading dock design that reduces the amount of lost refrigerated air and energy, and variating motors that allow them to minimize energy use. These are just some of the ways that Contessa’s Green Cuisine plant strives to be more environmentally sound.

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I was wrong.

In Memory of Central Park follows in the tradition of the great works of dystopian fiction: Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World. Set in New York City in 2050, the novel’s protagonist and narrator Noah is a psychotherapist with plenty of issues of his own. He’s in love with his brother’s wife Margaret. He struggles with unresolved resentment about his relationship with his deceased father. And he, along with the other characters, live in a city that’s not only seceded from the United States, but has also encapsulated itself in a huge dome in order to protect itself from terrorism and other outside threats.

As you might imagine in this environment, Noah stays pretty busy with his psychotherapy practice. Though skilled at helping other resolve some of their own emotional problems, he’s distant from those around him.  His eventual affair with Margaret fails because he’s unwilling to allow her to leave Adam, her successful and politically-connected husband, and move in with him (Noah, like many of the residents of the city, lives in a single room). He’s frustrated because, despite his best efforts, he can’t seem to help a difficult patient who’s obviously dying. And he just doesn’t get the ideas underlying “clown show” performances by an underground street theater group that seems to pop up everywhere.

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Naturally Successful is an expertly assembled compilation of inspiring interviews of the leading visionaries giving a voice to the emerging green ECOnomy and the businesses that are in the business of remaking the world for the better. The release of this video couldn’t be better timed as millions of Americans explore ways to prosper despite the economic downturn.

“Build your business around your calling,” continues Lovins, who like the many leaders featured in the DVD, recognize opportunities for enterprising ecopreneurs to solve the most pressing problems now facing us, turning some profits in the process while achieving a happier, more fulfilling life. “We’re not in a sprint. We’re in a marathon to save the world…What is it that you love to do? How do you make a business of it?” asks Lovins.

To grasp the scale of the sustainability movement afoot and harness ideas to guide your green business, this 78 minute DVD offers insights on what being an ecopreneur is all about with a focus on building a values-driven business, providing meaningful leadership, achieving results beyond profits, serving customers, thinking long-term, seizing opportunities in new and existing markets, creating a thriving business and embracing a new type of commerce that seeks to make the world a better place. Interviews are woven together like a well-made life raft for anyone setting out to launch a green business that thrives with a triple bottom line.

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Christopher Booker’s article, “The world has never seen such freezing heat,” published yesterday in the UK’s Telegraph, attempts to come across as a shocking exposé of a blunder big enough potentially to bring climate change science to its knees. It falls considerably short. Instead, the writing is simply the latest in a series of posts designed to push the author’s own personal opinion against renewable energy and climate change action. This may be of little surprise as Mr. Booker has previously summed up climate change as “chicanery.”

Unfortunately, the credibility of Mr. Booker’s article as a rational piece of scientific journalism falls apart as early as the first paragraph under the weight of his personal bias. Moreover, the writing is so riddled with logical fallacies that the article actually does an injustice to the “climate skeptics” whose arguments it seeks to support.

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Green Building 101 makes for an easy intro for anyone not familiar with the green building process. Author Dawn Killough breaks the book down into categories such as energy efficiency, building materials, and construction procedures. Anyone familiar with the LEED system or Green Point Rated certification programs will be knowledable with these topics.

Those in the Pacific Northwest or specifically in Oregon might relate better to this book as the Beaver State based writer uses many specifc examples such as that Oregon is a net-metering state or Energy Star requirements for Oregon.

We think that this e-book makes for an easy and useful although rudimentary green read. Overall, it reads like a tasty appetizer to a main course. Those who want a more in-depth green building experience might check out Green Building for Dummies by Eric Corey Freed. Dummies offers more specifics and easy fixes, not to mention humor, for those who want to get their green building fix on.

In this world of news bites and short attention spans, Green Building 101 delivers what it sets out to do. It creates a snapshot for those unknowing or slightly curious about the green building world. After reading it hopefully readers will be even more motivated to actually DO something with the information.

The green parts

Built from 80 percent recyclable material with 40 percent of the phone casing made from corn-based bio-plastic. The Reclaim is 80 percent recyle-able material, not recycle-ed material. That is fairly normal. The bulk of material in most other cell phones can also be recycled and that’s why there is a market for used cell phones.

To Sprint’s credit, included in the box is a postage-paid cell phone recycling bag for you to drop your old phone in the mail to be scrapped for e-waste (which I filled three old phones sitting in a drawer I’ve been meaning to recycle).

Sprint has committed to recycle ninety percent of the phones they make by 2017. With current recycling rates at roughly one-third, Sprint admits they have a long way to go but are also quick to point out that they have collected roughly 18 million phones thus far and have increased recycling rates substantially over 2007.

I like the idea of the green content portals. Easily-accessed content from Planet Green including Best of Green, Five Simple Things, All Things Green and a Green Glossary from Planet Green. These shortcut keys access fast-loading pages of green content and info. Don’t expect links, images, flash, etc. These are fast-loading pages that provide quick access to basic green info, and for that purpose they are excellent.

I was also too-easily amused by the chirps, ribbits and other preloaded eco-sonic ringtones that keep with the Reclaim’s green theme.

Fortunately, the instruction manuals were not big, glossy tomes reprinted in seven languages. Only the “essentials” in manual literature were included in the package, but considering that several pages were filled with full-color images of people enjoying their new phone way too much, even that seemed a bit too much.

The paper that was included in the package was printed with soy inks on a paper stock that clearly had some percentage of recycled content in it, but nowhere on the package was that clearly labeled or otherwise discerned. Other than the plastic FedEx package the phone arrived in, the package itself has very little plastic, only two small bags.

Festooned with a litany of certification labels and brands, Sprint has clearly made some attempts to get the Reclaim some green cred — and most of it is deserved. Overall, I think Sprint has done more than pull of a green marketing coups. They have taken real steps towards cleaning up an industry that contributes an incredible amount of material into the global e-waste stream.

That is not to say there isn’t any room for improvement. Cutting back even more on printed materials and packaging waste and giving more attention to labeling and transparency would make the Reclaim even greener.

If this phone does anything, it helps show an industry that little steps can make a big difference when they are being manufactured at thousands of pieces at a time. Hopefully leading us to the day where a phone that pays attention to sutainability and cradle-to-cradle principles will become the norm, rather than the exception.

All photos except first one via Tim Hurst. Follow Tim on twitter.

Ditch high-paying (and high-stress) corporate careers for a Wisconsin farm house, a more sustainable lifestyle, a portfolio of small businesses, and much less money. Sound idyllic to some… and crazy to others. As I noted in my review of their earlier book, Rural Renaissance: Renewing the Quest for the Good Life, John Ivanko and Lisa Kivirist made the jump from Chicago ad executives to rural bed and breakfast owners… and have never looked back. Their newest book, ECOpreneuring, focuses on how they continue to bring in income while creating a life centered on home, family, and environmental restoration, and provides guidance for others that want to recenter their careers and lifestyles around their environmental values.

Already, you should be able to tell that this is no ordinary business book — in fact, I’m not even sure I’d call it a “business book.” ECOpreneuring contains plenty of advice on starting a small, eco-conscious business, but the authors focus primarily on how entrepreneurial efforts can incorporate values and priorities beyond the bottom line. Lifestyle choices trump profit motives, but neither have to be sacrificed in order to create meaning and income.

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If you weren’t already appalled by the house design atrocity known as the McMansion, Built By Hand will make you pine ever harder for more intimate, natural, sensible, and green home designs that can be found all over the world, still being built by indigenous peoples and sometimes mimicked by enterprising, modern day natural home builders.

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Back? Ok, good.

What is the one thing that they probably have in common? Does it say somewhere “use in well ventilated area” or some similar warning? Well, that warning often accompanies many of the glue and adhesive products found on the shelf at the crafting supply store and in crafters’ homes. That warning is there because of the chemicals used in the adhesives. Chemicals that, if inhaled in concentrated amounts, can be bad for you, hence the “well ventilated” part.

EcoGlue is a new white craft glue that claims eco-friendly properties. It contains less than 1% of volatile organic compounds or VOCs, has virtually no hazardous air pollutants, contains no animal derivatives and does not carry a “well ventilated” warning on its label. In fact its packaging is made from 100% recycled content and carries a “non-toxic” stamp.

I got the chance to try out this new glue and ran it through some simple and highly unscientific tests to see if it the eco-friendly label still meant quality adhesive or if it was just some watered down glue.

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Last week the editors at Green Options asked me if I wanted to write a review of Woogi World. “Uh, okay, I haven’t written a hatchet piece an ages.” was my unenthusiastic reply.

Here’s the deal in my house. My kids get 30 minutes of media; it can be a TV show or some computer time. I’ll give them longer for a movie when we watch together or an hour or more when they’re playing with pictures or Garage Band, but really, leaving my kids parked in front of the computer on a glorious summer day is not my idea of time well spent.

With all that being said, this review may surprise you.

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Editor’s Note: This was a joint effort between Managing Editor Clayton Cornell and Editorial Intern Orion Kubow. Apparently it takes two editors to screw in a lightbulb, er vacuum…

Earlier this month, Eureka was kind enough to send us a review sample of their “green” vacuum: the EnviroVac. Vacuuming isn’t something you’d think of as a real energy efficient, but Eureka’s model does a good job of making the domestic cleaning process a little bit greener.

EnviroVac: GreenWashing or Real Deal?

Here are the major talking points that Eureka says qualifies it as a “green” vacuum:

1. The vacuum’s 8-amp motor uses 33% less energy than the 12-amp motor used in most upright vacuums. (That’s 960 watts per hour on an 8-amp motor, compared to 1,440 watts per hour on a 12 amp motor).
2. If 1/4 of US homes switched to the EviroVac, it would save 6.25 million kilowatt hours of energy per year, which, in terms of CO2 emissions is roughly equivalent to removing 855 cars off the road.

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   ]]> http://sustainablog.org/2008/08/19/a-greener-vacuum-eurekas-envirovac/feed/ http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2008/07/18/green-divas-guide-to-delicious-living-weight-loss-the-environmental-factors/ http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2008/07/18/green-divas-guide-to-delicious-living-weight-loss-the-environmental-factors/#comments Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:52:37 +0000 Megan McWilliams http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2008/07/18/green-divas-guide-to-delicious-living-weight-loss-the-environmental-factors/ FAST TRACK DETOX DIET: A BOOK REVIEW

   One of the more challenging genetic attributes I inherited from my beautiful mother was a tendency to gain weight easily – and NOT lose it quite as easily. I watched her struggle constantly with various diets and nutritional fads. There never was ONE thing that really worked or helped her maintain her ideal weight or health.

   I swore I would never ‘diet’ and I didn’t until a few years ago. When we were publishing Relevant Times, I had the privilege of interviewing Ann Louise Gittleman about a new book she had coming out at that time – Super Nutrition for Women. I was quite impressed with her, so when she came out with the Fat Flush Plan a few years ago, despite it’s sort of faddish title, I got the book and it made wonderful sense. It seemed like a highly intelligent, nutritional and scientific approach to healthy eating and weight loss and maintenance.

   I had also been suffering from fibromyalgia (or so the doctors told me), and I had always noticed that whenever I did anything to support and cleanse my liver, I felt better. Liver health, being one important element of Gittleman’s Fat Flush Plan. So, for the first time in my life, I embarked on a ‘diet’ and was amazed by the results. Not only did I lose weight, but nearly all the fibromyalgia symptoms disappeared. She was on to something. However, it is not the easiest nutritional regimen to maintain. Some principals I have maintained for at least 4 years, but . . .

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   ]]> http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2008/07/18/green-divas-guide-to-delicious-living-weight-loss-the-environmental-factors/feed/ http://greenbuildingelements.com/2008/07/01/green-building-game-misses-the-point/ http://greenbuildingelements.com/2008/07/01/green-building-game-misses-the-point/#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:44:10 +0000 Philip Proefrock http://greenbuildingelements.com/2008/07/01/green-building-game-misses-the-point/ I recently came across an online game called “Design Your Dream Home” on the Green Is Universal website. I was shocked by what I found and how bad the game really was. I prefer to focus on the positive aspects of green building, but this strikes me as so misguided that I could not let it pass unremarked.

   Whoever designed this game has no understanding of real green building in any meaningful sense. Instead of providing any insight or education about green building, the game reduces design of a green house to nothing more than a couple of mouse clicks. “Choose the climate construction materials and energy sources and see how green you can be.” The oversimplification this presents is a huge disservice to visitors to the site who play the game.

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