Green Options » Seattle

Seattle Bag Ban Will Go To Ballot

Kelli Best-Oliver — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:38:56 +0000

The City of Seattle, heralded in environmental circles for its planned phase-out of styrofoam containers in restaurants and proposed fees on disposable shopping bags, will let the voters decided if the bag fees should go forward. Citizens and paid workers gathered well over the 14,000+ signatures needed to get the ban on the next eligible city election, which will not take place until the August 2009 primaries. The fee levy will be held in abeyance until the voters decide.

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Back to School Week: Which Colleges Are Greenest?

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:36:24 +0000

As college students across the U.S. begin heading back to school, some will be returning to campuses that are greener than most.

According to the Princeton Review’s new Green Ratings for institutions of higher learning, 11 colleges stood out from the national field of 534. All 11 earned a rating of 99, the highest score possible in the Princeton Review’s new tally.

So which schools are tops in all things green?

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EcoTuesday Networking Forum Launches Ambassador Program

Ariel Schwartz — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:43:27 +0000

Calling all sustainability hounds: EcoTuesday, the sustainable business leaders networking forum, is launching its highly anticipated Ambassador Program. Through the program, people can produce EcoTuesday events in their city and generate income from event sponsorships. Ambassadors are responsible for organizing events, securing venues and speakers each month, and developing relationships with companies that want to sponsor EcoTuesday events.

EcoTuesday is currently held on the 4th Tuesday of every month in San Francisco, Marin/North Bay, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis. The event features opportunities for sustainable business leaders to network and learn about green issues from visiting speakers. Don’t be shy about attending; participants come from areas as varied as real estate, organic food, and climate change policy, just to name a few.

For more information on getting started with EcoTuesday, check out their website.

Photo Credit: EcoTuesday

Seattle’s Ban on Plastic and Styrofoam

Joshua S Hill — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:13:28 +0000

Tuesday saw Seattle residents given the opportunity to voice their opinion on Mayor Greg Nickel’s proposal to ban Styrofoam containers, and impose a fee on plastic and paper bags at the checkout at supermarkets and local stores. And from what is slowly sliding out over the internets, the idea has been met with a warm reception.

The proposal was be enacted in a two stage process. Beginning in January of 2009, all foam products would be banned, but restraints and grocery stores would be allowed to switch to plastic products if they hadn’t found a biodegradable replacement. The second stage would go in to effect by 2010, at which time all plastics would be banned, leaving only biodegradables.

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Seattle Shopping Mall Evolves into a Mixed-Use Village

Kristin Dispenza — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:50:01 +0000

The Pacific Northwest has always been progressive.

For Seattle in the spring of 1950, that meant the opening of the country’s first mall. According to HistoryLink, Northgate Mall, located on 62 acres outside the city limits, was built to accommodate a total of 80 stores clustered around a “wide shopping walkway,” although it was not fully enclosed and climate-controlled until 1974. (Confused shoppers reportedly parked in the mall space itself when the center first opened.) By 1968, 50,000 cars a day were using Northgate.

In the face of global warming and climate change, however, planners and designers are redefining ‘progressive’. The Northgate neighborhood is currently at the center of a major revitalization effort which was set in motion in 2003 by Mayor Nickels and the Seattle City Council. A major portion of the project, Thornton Place, is scheduled for completion next spring (with condominium sales beginning as early as September of this year). Created by real estate development and management company Lorig, this will be a sustainable, mixed-use village which will combine retail and residential zones with parks and green space.

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How Peak Oil-Ready Is Your City?

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:00:04 +0000

Why have gas prices risen to nearly $4 a gallon (or more) in the U.S.? Is it oil speculation? Rising demand? Or the first signs of peak oil?

Whatever the cause (and there’s good reason to blame all three to some degree), most so-called experts these days aren’t expecting oil prices to drop anytime soon. In fact, Newsweek this week features a sobering article titled, “The Coming Energy Wars,” that predicts we’ll soon see oil prices top $200 a barrel. When that happens, the authors warn, we can expect everything about our daily lives to change.

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The Ultimate Green, Renewable Fuel (and Food): Algae, Possibly

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:13:44 +0000

Across the U.S., researchers, startup companies and investors are exploring the potential of creating large amounts of green, renewable fuel from the humblest of sources: algae.

If you think the energy/food potential for hemp is underutilized, wait’ll you get a gander at algae. This little microorganism really packs a punch.

According to The Book of General Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know is Wrong (2006, Harmony Books) (I highly recommend it, by the way — it’s packed with fascinating information and weird insights), algae breathes out more oxygen than all the world’s land-based plants and trees combined. Certain types of algae also deliver a whopping amount of protein and nutrients per farmed acre (20 times more than soy beans, in the case of spirulina).

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The Reuse People: Salvaging Building “Waste”

Cassie Walker — Thu, 08 May 2008 06:00:34 +0000

Every now and again, something really cool crosses my desk, and I think, “Wow, that’s really cool!” Just such an occasion happened this week, when a friend who works in PR sent over some information from The Reuse People of America, or TRP.

Based in Oakland, TRP is a nonprofit organization that works to reduce the amount of useable construction materials that go into landfills. Since its founding in 1993, TRP has salvaged over 200,000 tons of reusable building materials. The resulting resources are sold to the public, or are donated to a variety of worthy causes, including Habitat for Humanity and Goodwill Industries.

Though the materials can come from a variety of sources, over 90% come from TRP’s own demolition services. In demolition projects, TRP acts like any other contractor, except that they sell or donate the resulting “waste”. Homowners who use TRP for demolition get a bonus - tax deductions, based on the value of the materials salvaged. These deductions can be large, in some cases covering the cost of the demolition itself.

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The Looming Internet Energy Crisis

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:18:58 +0000

If you think the virtual, online world helps reduce energy consumption in the real world (a topic we’ve touched on before here at Green Options Media), think again: a new study by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company provides scary insights into how Internet computing is devouring more and more power and spewing out more and more greenhouse gases.

Based on data from the Uptime Institute, a technology consulting company based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the McKinsey report finds that, between 2000 and 2006, the amount of energy needed to power data centers doubled, and that consumption is likely to double again by 2012. In the U.S. alone, we would need to build 10 new power plants by 2010 just to meet the growing energy needs of this country’s data centers.

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Weber + Thompson’s New Headquarters is the First Modern Office Building Without Air Conditioning

Kristin Dispenza — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:04:13 +0000

On April 4th, the architecture and planning firm of Weber + Thompson will move into its new headquarters, located at the intersection of Thomas Street and Terry Avenue in the South Lake Union neighborhood of downtown Seattle.

The firm sees its new headquarters as an emblem of its sustainable approach to architecture. The most innovative feature of the building is its passive cooling design; the building will not be air conditioned at all.

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Nordstrom Bags Go Green

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:29:10 +0000

Over the next few months, Seattle-based Nordstrom Inc. plans to phase out its non-recyclable shopping bags in favor of paper bags with recyclable cotton handles.

The switch is expected to take place between April and September, as the retailer runs out of supplies of its current propylene-handled shopping bags.

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Seattle Mulls Higher-Mileage Cabs

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:09:27 +0000

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels thinks the city’s taxicabs are guzzling too much gas. So he’s proposing a switch to taxis that get at least 30 miles per gallon by 2013.

According to a report in the Seattle Times, most of the city’s taxis are now Ford Crown Victorias that get less than 20 mpg.

Many cab drivers aren’t thrilled with the proposal, which would still have to be approved by the Seattle City Council. And a proposal similar to Seattle’s is also sparking cabbie criticism in San Francisco.

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Living Green in the 21st Century

Kristin Dispenza — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:40:13 +0000

In my post of February 26th, I looked at how builders and developers are tackling the challenge of building green for the residential market. A good case study from the Pacific Northwest is the company of Pryde + Johnson, whose Ashworth Cottages were the first homes in the state of Washington to achieve LEED for Homes Platinum Certification (in August of last year).

Ashworth Cottages offers traditional, craftsman-style homes grouped around an outdoor commons. Somewhat different in feel are two condominium projects which Pryde + Johnson currently has underway. Florera (in Greenlake, like Ashworth Cottages) and Hjarta (in the historic town of Ballard) are located in two of Seattle’s best-known urban neighborhoods. And as some of the first homes in the country to be designed according to LEED principles, these projects give us a glimpse at the changes that green design — and green living — will bring to our daily lives.

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Fire Starters: ELF Torches “Green” Homes

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:31:37 +0000

The term “eco-terrorism” is getting thrown around again today after four multi-million dollar “green” homes in a Seattle suburb were torched by arsonists claiming affiliation with the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). Others have argued eloquently that “eco-terrorism” isn’t much more than a political language game: “terrorism” doesn’t describe the aims or methods of the “perpetrators,” but simply creates fearful associations. It’s an easy (and intellectually lazy) way to discredit environmentalism in general, and not worthy of the term “argument.”

With all of that said, though, I have to ask: What the hell do ELF members think they’re accomplishing?

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376 MPG Car Finds New Home

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:34:47 +0000

A standard car that got 376.59 mpg? In 1973? Where has it been hiding all these years?

Well, the record-breaking 1959 Opel T-1 wasn’t exactly tucked into a crate among millions of other crates in a giant warehouse a la “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (”We have top men working on it right now.” “Who?” “Top men.”)

But it did spend years, all but forgotten, at the Talladega, Alabama-based International Motorsports Hall of Fame until it was discovered — and purchased by — Evan McMullen, who owns Cosmopolitan Motors in Seattle.

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Global Recognition for High Point

Kristin Dispenza — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:05:58 +0000

The High Point neighborhood in Seattle, Washington — a mixed-use, mixed-income community that is seven miles from the space needle — has been winning national awards since its redevelopment began in 2003. At the end of 2007, it achieved worldwide recognition, receiving the Urban Land Institute’s 2007 Global Award for Excellence.

Before its redevelopment, the 120-acre site was occupied by barracks-style housing that had been built to accommodate wartime workers at Boeing. Then the Seattle Housing Authority, a public corporation that provides affordable housing to over 25,500 people, initiated a renewal effort that resulted in the largest sustainable mixed-use urban neighborhood in the U.S.

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Green Style Spotlight: Certified Jeans

Victoria Everman — Thu, 24 May 2007 12:48:49 +0000

Denim, jeans, dungarees - whatever you want to call them, those traditional indigo pants are an iconic part of American culture, like Chervolet trucks and apple pie. Finding the right pair of jeans is often a nightmare, especially for women, thanks to the variety of cuts and brands available.

We've all been schooled on the benefits of organic cotton, but eco-friendly denim is still often quite pricey, usually ranging from $150-350 a pair. Hailing from Seattle, Certified Jeans sells organic cotton, made in the USA jeans for a humble $74-88 a pair, depending on the wash chosen. Enjoy trying before you buy? You won't find this brand in the shopping malls: according to the company's website, "Suburban shopping malls are a primary generator [of] residential and commercial sprawl and often are responsible for losses of wetlands, natural habitat and agricultural land. And, these malls are unattractive commercial development."

If you already know your size, ordering from Certified is a great, affordable options for eco-jeans. You can purchase via e-mail or over the phone; sizing info is happily supplied upon request, helping to assure you order the correct size. Three colors are available - natural cotton color (often referred to as vanilla), dark navy blue, and traditional denim/stonewash; in terms of cut, there are two options for women (traditional and boot cut) and three options for men (standard/easy, slim, and loose). If you happen to be in the mood to spend or become a dedicated fan of the brand, for every seven pairs of jeans you purchase or have credited to your name, you will receive one pair free (shipping included).

Simple, comfortable, economical, and ecological - no muss, no fuss from Certified Jeans.

Tip o’ the Day: Celebrate Earth Day!

Rebecca Carter — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:05:44 +0000

It's Earth Day weekend, so get on out there and celebrate this greenest of holidays!

Atlanta: Arms Around Atlanta sounds like a blast. It's all going down at Grant Park on Saturday & Sunday.

Boston: Clean Up the Charles on Saturday, April 21!

Chicago: Check out Green Festival happening all weekend long! Green vendors & organizations galore!

Dallas: Run, don't walk to downtown today for EarthFest from 10am - 2pm.

Denver: Visit the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and enjoy yourself at their Earth Day Renewable Energy Expo April 21-22.

Houston: The Houston Zoo is celebrating Earth Day all weekend - family fun.

Los Angeles: Lots to choose from. Clean Rivers, go to a Conscious Living Fair, or Let Worms Eat Your Garbage!

Miami: Check out EarthFest:WaterFest Gone Green a full day of music, eco-village, food, and fun. (Organized by yours truly.)

New York: Choose from a variety of events, and don't forget the slideshow in Grand Central!

San Francisco: Get on over to East Bay on Saturday and have fun at the Berkeley Earth Day Festival.

Seattle: Do a little Earth Day tour and check out several events this weekend in Seattle.

Washington, D.C.: Go to GreenDC Week Earth Day Celebration or check out some other events.

I didn't mention your city? Search for local events at Earth Day Network or EnviroLink.

Rather not party it up? Do something green like a beach clean-up or planting a tree.

Freshmen at the University of Washington to Read about Climate Change

Amy Stodghill — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 14:07:21 +0000

Move over Oprah: the University of Washington has started their own book club (of sorts), The Common Book program. The next book on the list is Elizabeth Kolbert's Field Notes from a Catastrophe, a journalistic examination of the effects of global warming.

The UW began the Common Book program last year. They give incoming freshman a free copy of a chosen book during summer orientation. That book and its subject of focus is then incorporated into lectures and other events throughout the year.

Kolbert's title was selected from a list of 20 books considered for the next academic year. The committee making the selection thought it would provoke discussion and tie in to the university's efforts at reducing their own emissions and environmental footprint.

Campus bookstore numbers indicate that more than just freshmen are reading the Common Book as sales of this year's book, Mountains Beyond Mountains have sold more than 5,600 copies.

Professors at Montana State University, the State University of New York-Albany, and the University of California-Santa Barbara have also incorporated Field Notes of a Catastrophe into their reading lists.

I've read this title myself and am glad to see that it will infiltrate through the minds of university students in Seattle. Kolbert, a New Yorker magazine reporter, illustrates and communicates the complex subject of climate change in a very readable, enjoyable way. She effectively explains the science of global warming and its subsequent effects on people and communities throughout the world.

Via Seattle Post-Intelligencer