So, what defines a green community? You may come to the same conclusion that I did: mindfulness about those resources that we share, and a commitment to do so more efficiently,  with a eye towards future generations’ access to these resources… natural and other.

As such, I invite you to join me in a multipost (and multiblog) exploration of green community. What are the models? How well do they work? What can we learn from them as we move towards a (natural) resource-constrained world? I don’t know that I can provide all of the answers to these questions… but, as an online community, I’m sure there are ideas we can share…

What is an ecovillage?

The ecovillage concept is a great starting point for this discussion because its likely the most radical, and most holistic, vision of green community out there. Tony Sirna, one of the founder of Northeastern Missouri’s Dancing Rabbit ecovillage, defined this admittedly broad concept as”..places that are aiming for a village-like quality…,” which he defines as

• places that allow for a full scale of human activity: “A village is … a place for work and play, birth and death, trading of goods and services, celebrations, and all aspects of healthy lives.”
• places that operate on a “human scale”: “…a population where it’s still possible for people to know each other as people and not as anonymous masses…”

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The 97th spent months prepping for its evaluation and earned a “you knocked our socks off” comment from the ESOHCAMP program manager, but that’s not the only sustainability feather in Altus’s cap.  The base is also home to one of the Air Force’s premier green remediation sites.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2009/11/19/altus-air-force-base-is-flying-high-on-new-green-award/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/18/the-ethics-of-selling-crop-seed-part-2-gmo-seed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/18/the-ethics-of-selling-crop-seed-part-2-gmo-seed/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:12:24 +0000 Steve Savage http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/18/the-ethics-of-selling-crop-seed-part-2-gmo-seed/

This is a followup post that will attempt to address some additional, wide-spread myths about the commercial sale of seed.  In this case the topic with be “GMO” seed improved through genetic engineering (an industry that is now 13 years old and which has been planted on well over 2 billion acres cumulatively, much of it in the developing world). As someone with substantial direct experience with this industry over the years, I’d like to try to speak to some distorted perspectives on this technology.

The First Biotech Crops

The four earliest commercial biotech crops commercialized in 1995/1996 were squash (virus resistant), corn (insect resistant), potatoes (insect resistant), and soybeans (herbicide tolerant). For the squash, corn and potatoes, commercialization was straight forward because it was already standard practice for farmers to buy new seed (tuber seed pieces in the case of potatoes) each year.

For soybeans there was a major commercialization challenge.  There was no question that the new technology was valuable — it would displace millions of pounds and hundreds of millions of dollars of herbicide sales.  It would also greatly increase the efficiency and convenience of producing soybeans. The challenge was that it was standard practice at the time for farmers to save-back some of their crop to use as seed the next year - more in some geographies than others.  If this practice were to continue with the new herbicide tolerant soybeans, it would have been very difficult for the company to recover its high risk investment in the new technology. Growers would simply buy seeds the first year, and then be set until they wanted to buy a new variety. This is not so different from the challenge that record labels with illegal file sharing via the internet.

The two standard solutions that most expected were either (a) charge enough upfront to make up for pervasive seed savings, or (b) raise the price of the herbicide to recover the genetic investment in that way. The first would have discouraged adoption; the second would have disrupted other crops and uses that also depended on the product. Instead, Monsanto tried something completely new (at least to the seed industry). They decided to charge a “technology fee” (”Tech Fee”) of a few $/bag and ask the farmers to sign a license agreement saying they would not save seed.  This was a pretty radical step at the time.  Monsanto also licensed the technology to many other seed companies and they too had to get growers to sign the licenses.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/18/the-ethics-of-selling-crop-seed-part-2-gmo-seed/feed/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/11/17/i-want-a-goat-m-f-explicit-video/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/11/17/i-want-a-goat-m-f-explicit-video/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:56:41 +0000 Rhishja Larson http://ecoworldly.com/2009/11/17/i-want-a-goat-m-f-explicit-video/ This post contains additional media. Click here to view the full post.

The video is explicit, the message is simple: You can transform lives in one of the poorest districts of India by donating a goat.

A life-changing experience in India inspired volunteer Debbie Glasband to launch a program to provide an alternative source of income for tribal people: Goats.

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2009/11/17/i-want-a-goat-m-f-explicit-video/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/17/the-ethics-of-selling-crop-seed-part-1/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/17/the-ethics-of-selling-crop-seed-part-1/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:18:34 +0000 Steve Savage http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/17/the-ethics-of-selling-crop-seed-part-1/

There is a lot of confusion and disinformation circulating today about seeds and the ethics of their commercial sale.  Actually a healthy, commercial seed industry is critical for agricultural sustainability.  Because seeds are such a fundamental component of the sustainability of our food supply, this area deserves careful thought and accurate information even if you are never going to farm or even garden. I’ll try to address some of the modern “myths” about this.  I’ll talk about “farmer-saved seed,” and “hybrid seed.” In a later post I’ll talk about “GMO seed,” and the mythical “Terminator Technology.”  But first a little history.

Seed-bearing plants start showing up in the fossil record ~350 million years ago, first as gymnosperms like cycads, conifers… and eventually, flowering plants (angiosperms) like most of the living plants today.  Other than pine nuts and sea weed, I can’t think of any crops that are not angiosperms (Contest! - 5 virtual sustainability points to someone who can come up with another non-angiosperm crop plant)

Jarrod Diamond’s wonderful book, “Guns, Germs and Steel” talks about how the initially accidental and later intentional collection and planting of seeds is what made human civilization possible - the move beyond the hunter/gatherer state that happened about 10,000 years ago in the “fertile crescent.”

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/17/the-ethics-of-selling-crop-seed-part-1/feed/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/11/16/two-women-two-coasts-one-idea/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/11/16/two-women-two-coasts-one-idea/#comments Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:00:15 +0000 Becky Striepe http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/11/16/two-women-two-coasts-one-idea/

Rhonda and I have gotten to talking, and it turns out that despite living on opposite sides of the country, our neighborhoods have a lot in common. She lives in the Bayview area of San Francisco, CA and I’m living in Edgewood, just east of downtown in Atlanta, GA.

We thought it would make for a cool project to talk about the ups and downs of trying to live sustainably in our different cities. Rhonda is going to talk about Bayview later on this week, but let me introduce you to Edgewood and talk a little bit about what we’re trying to do with this project.

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]]> http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/11/16/two-women-two-coasts-one-idea/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/14/how-to-feed-the-world-and-get-a-nobel-prize-invent-an-efficient-small-scale-haberbosch-process/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/14/how-to-feed-the-world-and-get-a-nobel-prize-invent-an-efficient-small-scale-haberbosch-process/#comments Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:04:28 +0000 Steve Savage http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/14/how-to-feed-the-world-and-get-a-nobel-prize-invent-an-efficient-small-scale-haberbosch-process/

Ok, I didn’t actually clear this challenge with the Nobel Committee, but I think we could convince them.  Nobels were awarded early in the 20th century when German scientists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch made the sequential advances that made it possible to make synthetic nitrogen fertilizer from the nitrogen gas that makes up ~80% of the atmosphere.  Without their contributions we could not have improved the lives of billions of people, and we could never have fed the increase in world population that has occurred since their work.  Of course that comes with the environmental issues I’ve been discussing in my previous posts.  I’m not forgetting that there are changes that need to be made in the way we farm to make nitrogen use more efficient and to prevent water pollution issues.

The Carbon Footprint of Fertilizer Issue

The other thing that would be good to address is the “carbon footprint” of running Haber-Bosch.  For every pound of ammonia that is synthesized, about 3.7 pounds of carbon dioxide is generated (mainly through the use of natural gas to generate hydrogen). That means to fertilize an acre of corn at 120 pounds of nitrogen, there are carbon dioxide emissions that are the equivalent of ~20 gallons of diesel. That works out to 1.59 billion gallon equivalents for just the US corn crop - some serious carbon emissions (I’ve already posted about why Organic fertilizers are not the solution here).

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/14/how-to-feed-the-world-and-get-a-nobel-prize-invent-an-efficient-small-scale-haberbosch-process/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/12/why-organic-fertilizers-are-not-the-solution-to-the-dead-zone-in-the-gulf-of-mexico/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/12/why-organic-fertilizers-are-not-the-solution-to-the-dead-zone-in-the-gulf-of-mexico/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:54:52 +0000 Steve Savage http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/12/why-organic-fertilizers-are-not-the-solution-to-the-dead-zone-in-the-gulf-of-mexico/

From the comment streams and emails I’ve been getting about recent posts, it is clear that many people believe things that are not actually true about the environmental profile of organic fertilizers.  I don’t mean to minimize the challenge we face when it comes to fertilizers, particularly nitrogen fertilizers.  They take energy to make, have the potential to generate the potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide, and can lead to the pollution of ground and surface waters.  With a “rap-sheet” like that I understand why people are concerned, but there is a catch - without fertilizers we don’t eat much.

Still, there is a widespread belief that “Organic” fertilizers are the solution.  I’ve already blogged about why organic fertilizers are dramatically worse from a greenhouse gas point of view.  Today I want to talk about the water pollution issues and why “Organic” fertilizers are actually a much worse problem from that perspective as well.

Why Nitrogen Fertilizers Can Pollute

The reason that ALL nitrogen fertilizers (synthetic and Organic) are a water pollution threat is that they at some point convert to the nitrate ion (NO3-).  That particular form of nitrogen is very water soluble so the nitrate can move down into ground water or sideways into surface water.  The “Dead Zone” or “Hypoxia zone” in the Gulf of Mexico is driven in some large part by nitrate coming from farms.   There are ways to manage this issue, but first I need to talk about the fundemental challenge of crop fertilization.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/12/why-organic-fertilizers-are-not-the-solution-to-the-dead-zone-in-the-gulf-of-mexico/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/10/organic-farming-would-be-better-in-terms-of-climate-change-impact-right/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/10/organic-farming-would-be-better-in-terms-of-climate-change-impact-right/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:26:45 +0000 Steve Savage http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/10/organic-farming-would-be-better-in-terms-of-climate-change-impact-right/

I’m probably going to irritate some people with this post.  I apologize in advance because that is not at all my intention.  For those readers that don’t think climate change is a real problem, I respect the fact that there is uncertainty in that science, but if the majority position of climate scientists is true, the stakes in terms of human suffering among the poor are too high not to act.  For those who think Organic farming is the answer, I’m not trying to argue the whole issue here - I just want to talk about the science associated with climate change and farming.  I have spent months reading the scientific literature on this topic.  That science points to some very specific changes in how we need to farm.  If those changes were compatible with Organic I’d be a big promoter.  The short answer is “Organic farming is not the best option from a climate change point of view.”

I know this sounds like heresy in the “Green Blogosphere,” but before you react, please read on.  I agree in advance that the Organic/non-Organic discussion is much broader than climate change.  In fairness, climate change was never something that “Organic” was designed to address either during its origins in the early 20th century or during the development of the USDA Organic rules between 1990 and 2000.  I have no desire to get in the way of Organic growers making a living (including my good friends who grow Organic of the old school category) or get in the way of Organic customers getting what they want.    I simply believe that it is critical that we, the declining subset of people who take climate change seriously, be accurately informed about this issue.  If we believe we “have the answer” for farming when that answer is wrong, that keeps us from continuing to find the real answer.

Focusing on the Major Crops

Because it would be far too complex to discuss this question for all crops,  I’ll only be talking about the “carbon footprint” of the major row crops (see the pie chart above) - the wheat, corn, hay, barley, oats, corn, soybeans, hay, oats, dry beans, lentils… that make up the bulk of our calorie intake, our vegetable protein intake, and our animal feeds for meat and dairy.  Those crops also make up the vast majority of farmed land, so they are what matters for climate change.  Fruit and vegetable crops are extremely important for health and food enjoyment, but not much for climate change.  Organic today is heavily weighted to the fruit and vegetable segment and beyond that, it is extremely small. Actually, all of Organic only represents 2.6MM acres ( ~0.7%  of US cropland), so it has almost no effect on climate either way. This is only a discussion about the widely held opinion that Organic would help in a climate change sense.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/10/organic-farming-would-be-better-in-terms-of-climate-change-impact-right/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/10/green-books-campaign-from-seed-to-table/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/10/green-books-campaign-from-seed-to-table/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:00:19 +0000 Jeff McIntire-Strasburg http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/10/green-books-campaign-from-seed-to-table/ Editor’s note: This review is part of the Green Books campaign. Today 100 bloggers are reviewing 100 great books printed in an environmentally-friendly way. Our goal is to encourage publishers to get greener and readers to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books. This campaign is organized by Eco-Libris, a a green company working to green up the book industry by promoting the adoption of green practices, balancing out books by planting trees, and supporting green books. A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on the Eco-Libris website.

Thinking about giving gardening a try? While the traditional growing season has ended in most parts of the US for this year, it’s not too early to start planning for next Spring. You may want to check out books on starting a backyard garden, and there are plenty of them out there. You may also want to find some of the books that offer suggestions and recipes for the produce you grow. And, if you need encouragement to grow organically, there are still more books on that subject.

If you want a book that covers all three of those areas, though, your choices get much more limited. Janette Haase’s From Seed to Table: A Practical Guide to Eating and Growing Green* not only provides readers with gardening instructions and tips, recipes and menus, and essays on the environmental issues surrounding agriculture and food production, but does so in a month-by-month structure that gives you the information you need when you need it.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/10/green-books-campaign-from-seed-to-table/feed/ http://cleantechnica.com/2009/11/10/mms%c2%ae-and-mars-going-green-new-solar-garden-at-headquarters-in-new-jersey/ http://cleantechnica.com/2009/11/10/mms%c2%ae-and-mars-going-green-new-solar-garden-at-headquarters-in-new-jersey/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:13:04 +0000 Zachary Shahan http://cleantechnica.com/2009/11/10/mms%c2%ae-and-mars-going-green-new-solar-garden-at-headquarters-in-new-jersey/
Candy giant MARS, parent company of M&M’S®, DOVE®, MILKY WAY®, SNICKERS®, 3 MUSKETEERS®, and TWIX®, turned on a huge new solar array (a “solar garden”) at its headquarters in New Jersey today. No matter what you think of candy food like this, it is good to see such a company going solar. Popular with millions, billions perhaps, and about as mainstream as you can imagine, this is a good step for solar’s more widespread use across the country.

This facility is PSEG Solar Source’s first large-scale solar project. It is one of the largest solar projects in the state of New Jersey, which is already 2nd only to California in its amount of installed solar capacity. The MARS headquarters adjacent to the solar garden is the workplace of about 1,200 employees and is where M&M’S® Brand Chocolate Candies are manufactured.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2009/11/10/mms%c2%ae-and-mars-going-green-new-solar-garden-at-headquarters-in-new-jersey/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/09/ray-anderson-a-revealing-chat-with-a-radical-industrialist/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/09/ray-anderson-a-revealing-chat-with-a-radical-industrialist/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:03:08 +0000 Jeff McIntire-Strasburg http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/09/ray-anderson-a-revealing-chat-with-a-radical-industrialist/ Ray Anderson’s epiphany about his own role in environmental destruction after reading Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce has taken on mythic status in the fifteen years since. The “spear in the chest moment” he experienced transformed Anderson into a leader in sustainable thought and practice within American industry, and his company, Interface, Inc. (which manufacture modular floor covering primarily for business and institutional customers) is now recognized as a model of transformation. Named a “Hero of the Planet” by Time magazine in 2007, Anderson is constantly sought out for speeches, interviews, and even documentary film appearances (THE CORPORATION, and the new SO RIGHT SO SMART)

In September, Anderson (with Robin White) published his second book, Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Planet - Doing Business by Respecting the Earth. This wide-ranging work not only tells Interface’s story in detail, but also provides a blueprint for how a large, well-established company can literally reinvent itself as both a profitable enterprise and a business that learns to operate in harmony with natural systems.

The word “confessions” in the title is very appropriate: Anderson is very frank about Interface’s successes and setbacks in its climb up “Mt. Sustainability” (a phrase he coined). He also discusses the efforts of other companies, and makes bold, and hopeful, cases for environmental and social responsibility as pillars of successful business strategy in the 21st century. The book is an engaging and thoughtful read for business people, environmental activists, and consumers concerned about the impact of industry on the planet’s future.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/11/09/ray-anderson-a-revealing-chat-with-a-radical-industrialist/feed/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2009/11/02/the-huge-implications-of-the-eco-public-health-connection/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2009/11/02/the-huge-implications-of-the-eco-public-health-connection/#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:49:48 +0000 Jennifer Kaplan http://ecopreneurist.com/2009/11/02/the-huge-implications-of-the-eco-public-health-connection/ Someone recently asked me if there was a public health angle to greening small businesses.  After thinking it over, it became clear there is.  First, when we talk about green we are also talking about issues of safety and health: Materials should foster healthy environments, current and future. This means avoiding toxic and dangerous chemicals. It means using an appropriate ventilation system. It means projects should be well-built to minimize safety risks to the occupants (fire, collapse, etc.). It also means making larger ties between the products we buy and energy security, homeland and foreign security, and other “issues of the day.”

Please keep in mind that there are 27 million small businesses in the US and consider these facts from the SBA: Small businesses…

• Employ just over half of U.S. workers. Of 119.9 million non-farm private sector workers in 2006, small firms with fewer than 500 workers employed 60.2 million and large firms employed 59.7 million.
• Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.

I see three distinct public health implications:

Public Health Implication #1: I have a case study in my new book that talks about greening that is recognized by the EPA and OSHA as exemplary and that points out that quality, environmental, health, and safety standards are all intertwined; a company that set and meets the highest health and safety standards is the surest route to profitability and competitiveness. The Ideal Jacobs Corporation, a commercial printing company in NJ, has been recognized by both the EPA and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for environmental and social responsibility. One of a few, small independent manufacturers in the EPA’s Performance Track program—a program for companies with the best environmental management systems in the country.

Says Andrew Jacobs, President: “You can’t get the best profits, you can’t even compete worldwide unless you are the ultimate in making as little garbage as possible, having the least amount of it around so your people won’t get sick, and being one of the safest you can be. So by being the best employer, you’re also being the most profitable.”

Jacobs chose to focus on two high-impact areas of his business: solid waste and hazardous waste.

“After working through the EPA application [twice], I realized the correlation between reducing solid waste and higher profit margins. It suddenly dawned on me: Of course, create less pollution and [you’ll] have more end-product…We invited in OSHA, which was unheard of at the time. Then, I realized that the healthier and safer our place was, the more money I was making. Every click we made in terms of quality, environmentalism, and safety, every time we notched up, we made more money.”

Since 2002, the company has reduced its solid waste per dollar of sales by more than 50%. By substituting less toxic materials in its sheet-fed printing operations, the company achieved an 18% reduction in pounds of solid waste per $1 in sales and a 23% reduction in pounds of hazardous materials used per $1 in sales. Ideal Jacobs is proof that good sustainability practices are good for business.

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]]> http://ecopreneurist.com/2009/11/02/the-huge-implications-of-the-eco-public-health-connection/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/28/book-review-life-money-and-illusion/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/28/book-review-life-money-and-illusion/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:10:11 +0000 John Ivanko http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/28/book-review-life-money-and-illusion/ Life, Money and Illuision is not about the magical arts or wizardry, though it does demystify money and Wall Street’s greedy aspirations abetted by the global push for more growth and consumption (and jobs).

Life, Money and Illuision: Living on Earth as if we want to stay (New Society, 2009) by Mike Nickerson is a driving tome that reconciles how our economy operates in relationship to the ecological and social systems on which we all depend.

In this second revised edition of Life, Money and Illusion, Nickerson explains that “Life” refers to the biological processes by which living things maintain themselves over time. “Money” represents our economic ideology that claims that as long as the volume of money changing hands increases, all will be well. “Illusion” refers to the fact that these two perspectives are directly opposed in terms of how they would solve current problems.

As one might imagine, a book of this stature and ambition — if providing meaningful analysis and argumentation (which it does superbly) — is not a cursory or a casual read. Running 448 pages, Life, Money and Illusion is meticulously fashioned in easy-to-understand language that makes Nickerson’s arguments and ideas both compelling and provocative. It draws from numerous fields, including ecology, psychology, philosophy, mathematics, and, of course, economics.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/28/book-review-life-money-and-illusion/feed/ http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/10/26/my-dog-says-eat-more-sardines/ http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/10/26/my-dog-says-eat-more-sardines/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:22:25 +0000 Rachel Shulman http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/10/26/my-dog-says-eat-more-sardines/ My dog taught me to make better seafood choices.

Weird, I know.

You see, my dog has a lot of, er… issues. By the time I adopted her, she had lived on the streets of East St. Louis for three months, bounced through eight different foster homes, and had one failed adoption - all before her first birthday.

Dealing with her emotional baggage has become a big part of my life. Since she doesn’t find pets, praise, or ordinary dog treats very motivating, I’ve had to get more creative in my training. One food she finds really motivating are canned sardines.

Before I got this dog, I had never eaten a sardine. Once my pantry was stocked with at least a dozen tins of sardines - an option I knew was more sustainable and lower in mercury than the neighboring cans of tuna - it was inevitable that I would get curious.

I’ve since become a convert, and it looks I’m not the only one focusing on the sardine as a greener seafood option.

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]]> http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/10/26/my-dog-says-eat-more-sardines/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/26/an-interview-with-the-director-of-marketing-of-zumbox-the-new-promise-for-paperless-mail/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/26/an-interview-with-the-director-of-marketing-of-zumbox-the-new-promise-for-paperless-mail/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:19:45 +0000 Raz Godelnik http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/26/an-interview-with-the-director-of-marketing-of-zumbox-the-new-promise-for-paperless-mail/ This post was originally published on Eco-Libris blog on October14.

If you didn’t hear yet about Zumbox, you need to recheck your news resources.

In the last couple of weeks you hear about them everywhere - from an announcement on two new clients: the cities of San Francisco and Newark (NJ) that will start using their web-based mail delivery system to an announcement on a partnership with New York City for Five Borough Pilot Program.

So what is exactly Zumbox? according to their website “Zumbox delivers paperless mail online – from street address to street address. What used to only be sent as paper mail can now be sent without the paper. How? We’ve created a nationwide paperless postal system with a Zumbox for every street address in the United States, including yours.”

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/26/an-interview-with-the-director-of-marketing-of-zumbox-the-new-promise-for-paperless-mail/feed/ http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/10/22/bsr-2009-biodegradable-lanyards-and-microsoft-sustainability/ http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/10/22/bsr-2009-biodegradable-lanyards-and-microsoft-sustainability/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:04:05 +0000 Keith Rockmael http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/10/22/bsr-2009-biodegradable-lanyards-and-microsoft-sustainability/ Ah, it feels good to have the BSR conference back in San Francisco. Even though the economy has gone to hell, it is good see that probably close to 1000 attendees hit the conference so the sour economy has not killed the whole notion of notion of sustainability and companies.

Good start — as we walked in and registered the staff handed me a recyclable, biodegradable, compostable lanyard.

The theme for this year’s conference - Sustainability in a Reset World

After admiring our lanyards and breakfast we jumped into packed conversation with Pamela Passman of Microsoft. Of course we considered today’s launch of Windows 7.

The discussion centered on the sustainability of Microsoft. Now, most people will admit that the technology business isn’t the least sustainable or “dirtiest” business. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t press a heavy carbon footprint. Passman discussed that companies need software to track their own carbon footprint.Microsoft may have many ideas for other comanies but they need to look in the mirror as well.

She admitted the two most pressing issues that Microsoft needs to improve in so far as reducing their carbon footprint that includes:

1- Traveling (lots of it)

2 – Data centers — The data centers continue to be electric and water intensive.
Microsoft claims to be attempting reduce the footprint of these data centers.

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]]> http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/10/22/bsr-2009-biodegradable-lanyards-and-microsoft-sustainability/feed/ http://gas2.org/2009/10/19/400-dollar-per-gallon-gas-and-the-green-war-of-the-future/ http://gas2.org/2009/10/19/400-dollar-per-gallon-gas-and-the-green-war-of-the-future/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:34:35 +0000 Tina Casey http://gas2.org/2009/10/19/400-dollar-per-gallon-gas-and-the-green-war-of-the-future/

The U.S. military has been pushing for the development of alternative fuels for a while now, and nobody paid much attention until the Pentagon finally put a price tag on the oil habit. As reported by Roxana Tiron in thehill.com, last week Pentagon officials disclosed that getting conventional petroleum fuel to remote combat locations in Afghanistan costs a whopping $400 per gallon.

There couldn’t be a more clear illustration of why the “drill baby drill” mentality is a non-sequitur when it comes to energy security.  Regardless of whether petroleum fuels are domestic or imported, they need to be transported to their point of use.  That’s not much of a problem when you’ve got modern seaports, highways and fuel depots, but to paraphrase one infamous former Secretary of Defense, you have to fight the war you have, not the war that’s got the ideal infrastructure to support your fuel of choice.

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]]> http://gas2.org/2009/10/19/400-dollar-per-gallon-gas-and-the-green-war-of-the-future/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/18/an-700-year-old-example-of-technological-innovation-in-agriculture/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/18/an-700-year-old-example-of-technological-innovation-in-agriculture/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:13:11 +0000 Steve Savage http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/18/an-700-year-old-example-of-technological-innovation-in-agriculture/

Around 1300 c.e. the Yao and Zhuang people of Guangdong Province in Southern China faced a serious problem.  In the Longsheng area there was a growing population, but their mountainous surroundings gave them very little land that could be used for farming.  They needed more food and so they turned to technology for the solution.  What they did was to terrace their mountainsides even up to slopes of 45%. I’m sure that the method was perfected over the 400 years of building.  What they were able to do is still an impressive example of civil engineering, even today.  Using stones and mud they built terrace walls that stand firm even with the torrential downpours that are common in the area.  They used bamboo piping to distribute water to each paddy - some so narrow that they only have room for two rows of rice.  This production system has remained productive for centuries when many other contemporary farming societies around the world simply depleted one area and moved on to the next.  These terraces are called Longji, or the ”Dragon’s Spine” and they now extend over 66 square kilometers.  They are both beautiful and inspiring.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/10/18/an-700-year-old-example-of-technological-innovation-in-agriculture/feed/ http://cleantechnica.com/2009/10/18/epa-warning-could-mark-beginning-of-the-end-for-mountaintop-removal/ http://cleantechnica.com/2009/10/18/epa-warning-could-mark-beginning-of-the-end-for-mountaintop-removal/#comments Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:13:55 +0000 Tina Casey http://cleantechnica.com/2009/10/18/epa-warning-could-mark-beginning-of-the-end-for-mountaintop-removal/

Mountaintop removal, the hyper-destructive practice of blowing up entire mountains to get at coal near the surface, is in for a rough ride.  Though in technological terms mountaintop removal is downright third-world compared to the high tech sustainable energy industry, it’s still been going nonstop right here in the Appalachian mountains of our own northeastern U.S..  The result has been hundreds of mountains destroyed in one of North America’s richest ecosystems, hundreds of miles of streams buried, and an economic and public health climate that is among the worst in the nation.  Now all that is poised to end.  Earlier this year the U.S. EPA suspended the mountaintop removal permitting process and Raw Story is now reporting that the first permit veto is immanent.

According to Raw reporter Joe Byrne, the Mingo Logan Coal Company was notified this past Friday by the EPA that the mountaintop removal permit in the pipeline for its Spruce No. 1 mine in West Virginia faces a veto due to “a high potential for downstream water quality excursions under current mining and valley fill practices.”  With financial backers like Bank of America cutting their ties with companies that practice mountaintop mining, the impending veto could be a harbinger of more to come.

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