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With the Memorial Day holiday weekend fast approaching, Heal the Bay has perfect timing for all of you beach-goers: they have just released their 18th Annual Beach Report Card, which grades the water quality at California’s beaches. And, as expected, there’s good news and bad news.
Do you want the good news first, or the bad news? Good news it is! California achieved its best “dry-weather” beach water quality since recording began. During last year’s summer season, 93% of beaches received an A or B grade, based on daily and weekly bacteria measurements taken from April, 2007 to March, 2008. That figure is up 8% from the prior year.
That is good news, at least until you learn that last year’s drought in SoCal contributed to this improvement. With less rainfall, the amount of urban runoff traveling through our storm drains and out into the ocean was reduced. Urban runoff consists of everything that hits the ground, from cigarette butts to plastic bottles to dog doo. Because of this disgusting stew, “wet-weather” results are not good, with 26% of beaches receiving F grades.
By Cassie Walker •
April 17, 2008
AltBuild, the Alternative Building Expo sponsored by the City of Santa Monica, CA, returns for its 5th year on April 25-26, 2008.
Designed to promote green building, alternative energy, and sustainable technologies and practices, the Expo brings together all members of the building and construction community. This includes architects, contractors, designers, government representatives, as well as the interested public. And really, aren’t we all interested these days?
By Cassie Walker •
October 4, 2007
This week, I began the Living Green Workshop, a six-week class developed and taught by a non-profit based in Santa Monica, CA called Sustainable Works. Though I write for Green Options and am active in the green community here, I figured I would still learn something. Boy howdy, did I!
The first class: water. An astounding 70% of Southern California’s water is transported in from other areas, mostly Northern California. Even more
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As a resident of Santa Monica, California, I’m proud of my city. Thanks to its comprehensive Sustainable City Plan, Santa Monica continues to take big steps towards its goal of becoming sustainable. And, since businesses have a large part to play in reaching that goal, it makes perfect sense that Santa Monica offers businesses a way to contribute: Green Business Certification.
By partnering with the non-profit organization Sustainable Works, the city encourages businesses
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