Green Options

People often ask me: “So what set you on your present course of operating a sustainable business, growing most of your own food organically, working from home, and powering your entire farm and business with renewable energy?”  People ask me about that definitive moment where it became obvious that I needed to live and work a different way, a better way that didn’t involve never-ending growth, consumption, and earn-and-spend.

There was no such moment, or crisis, that transformed my life of power suits, lattes, or gotta-have-it-all-now mindset.  Instead, my sustainable journey (which very much continues to this day as an evolving journey) resulted from a growing understanding about the issues facing the planet and its inhabitants, both through personal experience and by learning of these changes from other organizations or individuals.

One such organization that serves as a compass for my endeavors is the Worldwatch Institute, a nonprofit organization that produces the authoritative State of the World book series as well as numerous other books and resources to build an ecologically sustainable society that meets human needs. Each year, a new State of the World book is not only jam-packed with interdisciplinary research and analysis that a non-scientific mind (like mine) could comprehend, but organized in such a way to make it both practical and powerful for anyone searching for ways to express a vision for how to live on a planet without destroying it or exploiting its inhabitants.

Each year, the State of the World book series focuses on a particular theme which might address energy, community, food and agriculture, population, health, trade policies and natural resource use, just to name a few.  For 2008, their State of the World: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy provides both a timely analysis of how our “free trade” global economy has gone astray and insights into the powerful movements afoot, including localization, a triple bottom line approach to business, microfinance, and the low-carbon economy.

It’s safe to say that all moms are concerned about their children’s health. They care about the air their kids breathe and the food they eat.

It’s no surprise, then, that moms are also some of the best everyday environmental heroes. Often, it’s the mom who reminds children to “eat your veggies and go outside to play.” Moms also do a lot of the shopping for environmentally conscious products.

In Korea as well as the United States, eco moms are making environmentally conscious decisions with their children’s health in mind.

A recent New York Times article about today’s “EcoMom” has caught the attention of the media in Korea, where the well-established term for green living is: chamsari, or well-being.

Like the U.S., South Korea has seen a massive popular shift of focus toward health and the environment. The word that sums up this generation’s mentality best: “wellbeing” (with an e).

What is wellbeing? Outside of norebang (Korean kareoke) and polar bear hats, it’s just about the biggest trend to hit South Korea. Since 2000, it’s helped Koreans to stop smoking, buy organic foods, and get back to nature.

Another month, another issue of Body+Soul Magazine that is well worth reading cover to cover. Before launching into the editorial commentary, it is worth mentioning the full-page letter from Martha Stewart inserted in to each of the latest issues of her magazines (I read Everyday Food and Blueprint this month - both very good as well).

Her statement details the establishment of the Martha Stewart Center for Living at

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McGraw-Hill Construction, one of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), just released its market research findings on green building in the education sector and guess what?