green movement

Went to Richmond's Green Drinks last night, at Built Gallery. Built Gallery's exhibit revolved around the Southface Eco Office, targeting to be the south-east's first LEED platinum new construction building designed by Lord, Aeck & Sargent, and Jim Nicolow presented the project.

"Jim Nicolow, a nationally recognized expert on sustainable design, joined Lord, Aeck & Sargent in 1997. Jim leads the firm’s Sustainability Initiative, overseeing the incorporation of sustainable design strategies and features into the firm’s design projects. As one of the firm's first of a growing number of LEED® Accredited Professionals since 2001, Jim has extensive knowledge of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED rating system and drives the firm's efforts to help other architects become accredited. Jim is a frequently published author and noted presenter at conferences nationwide, including the Labs 21 Annual Conference and the USGBC’s GreenBuild International Conference & Expo."

Last night's sponsor was CKB Swanson, who provides fryer oil service management to restaurants, Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) distribution, and sells biodiesel processors. But even more importantly, the owner's two young daughters were with them and got a round of applause and recognition for recently donating their hair to Locks of Love! : )

What I like about Green Drinks is that whether you are an architect steeped in green building or just a non-industry person interested in "being green", people are welcoming and friendly. I met two girls separately who had just moved to Richmond, didn't know anyone, and had shown up alone just because they were interested and wanted to meet people... I hope they felt welcomed! I admired their initiative and bravery!

From Wikipedia:

Green Drinks is an informal networking event where environmentally minded people meet over drinks. Started in London in 1989, by Edwin Dashefski and friends, it has spread to 30 cities in the United Kingdom, 49 in the U.S. and many more in Canada, Germany, Poland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Chile and Puerto Rico. As of March 2008, there are 350 Green Drink Chapters worldwide.

To learn more about Green Drinks in your own city, please visit GreenDrinks.org. If you don't have one in your city... then, whatcha waitin' for?
Start one!
: )

It's hard to believe that another year has passed, and today is Earthday again. That's right, it's Earthday 2008! Earthday is one of those days that always makes us stop and wonder, what is this day all about?

We first visited Senator Gaylord Nelson's account -- he was the founder, so he it seemed like a good place to start.

We then took the opportunity to visit some of our favorite sites to find out what others were seeing, thinking and how they were honoring Earthday today.

Planet Green had a few links to last minute Earthday events, suggesting that people were getting together in many different local celebrations.

WorldChanging wrote a fantastic piece about how the tone of the day has shifted from facts and figures about pollution, to discussions about solutions spanning business practices, innovative technologies, and lifestyle behaviors.

In one of our favorites posts of the day, JetsonGreen gives a simple photographic homage to the earth, and announces that he'll be publishing material from his readers all week.

And finally, we enjoyed the Earthday at theme at Youtube (where one of ours was featured on the front door--thanks youtube!), which allowed us to watch the living web celebrate Earthday around the world.

Please come check out the Share section of our site, and tell us what Earthday means to you, and how you spent the day.

Happy Earthday everyone!

I read an interesting article in Metropolis last night, "Going Local" by James Howard Kunstler.

I encourage you to read it.

It sent me off on a slightly different tangent of reflection. We are inundated by "green" and we all try to stay on track as encouraging gentle lifestyles in a positive way without sinking into greenwashing’s shiny consumerism or the hoarse blaring of a death-toll message shouted in spittle mouthed fear.

But there was just something there, in this article, that made me think about what my own identity of "green" is, and how it has changed.

Many here were green before there was "green"- I mean, you’re talkin’ to a girl who grew up with a family farm, who always had a vegetable garden and composting, and whose family had solar panels in the ’70s.

What changed?

For myself, my vegetables became not just a pleasure and addition to our table, but where, in an urban environment, I carefully plan and rely on fresh produce from our garden.

It was the perplexing realization that I do not have the *right* in my city to have minigoats for milk or hens for fresh eggs in my large, fenced-in back yard- that just bothers me! I strongly feel that every human should have the right to rely on themselves for sustenance, and as someone committed to helping those less fortunate, it frustrates me that these families with meager incomes don’t have the right to provide their families with fresh eggs and milk.

Having children, it was the knowledge I gleaned from information on GMOs, hormones in meat and milk, pesticides, and the horrible factory farm conditions and the great respect for life I have that led me to only purchase meat from people I know whose animals are free-range and naturally fed, to raise heirloom vegetables, save seed, and patronize our neighbors’ farms.

It was the shock of reading about how our seed companies are purposely creating vegetables and grains that will not produce viable seed so that you (and farmers) will have to purchase their seeds each season!

It was the fun of a science experiment:
I giggle over solar cooking, yet it has changed my life. With two young children whining to stay outside instead of forcing them indoors so momma can make dinner, I now just throw food in the solar oven and… go off and play!

The cold frames I use enable me to defy cold weather, giving the seeds just enough more heat to resist freezing and get an early start on production.

And as someone in the green building industry, it was the disgust I felt as I saw endless tracts of vinyl, huge, ugly, inefficient houses being the major choice a home buyer has, and even then they are out of financial reach for most first time home buyers.

So, there you have it, my latest musings as I stand up on the cafeteria room chair to rant…

So, who is gonna kick me off today?
; )

What if you lived in a high-rise condo and decided to go to the park, then hopped in the elevator, pushed a button for the fourth floor, stepped out and there you were? It's a strange concept (isn't the point of going to the park, being outside?), but it's also a fascinating one in the context of green building.

How literally green can we go? Can we grow our salads on the second floor?

This type of building seems like the logical next step as we continue to discuss the merits of green roofs and green walls. What about green balconies? And buildings that are pretty much green all over?

Last week, EcoGeek posted about Skyscraping Forest Condos in Mumbai. The building, which some commenters believe is actually a billion dollar single-family residence, demonstrates an extreme in the integration of plants and buildings, with trees, and parks, and all sorts of vegetation.

Meanwhile, Dwell blog has a lengthy examination of a similar trend -- Agro Housing. Agro-housing, as they define it, is the design practice of incorporating greenhouses within high-rise housing projects. It's a fascinating concept, and Dwell includes plenty of examples. However, for some great images, you might want to head to BLDG BLOG, where Geoff Manaugh has also tackled the same subject matter.

Dwell probably sums the whole movement up most concisely: "As the world's population burgeons at startling speeds, it's a proposal that's more necessary than simply clever."

Wow! Google knows us so well. This morning, at the top of our gmail screen, they had this link waiting for us. We don't usually follow gmail's links -- but something about the words "little house on a trailer" made us want to click.

If you haven't clicked already, let us tell you what you'll find: a mini-documentary by Mark Hoffman called "dream house." The short is about 4 minutes long and it follows Dee Williams as she explains why she decided to change her life and seriously (we mean seriously) downsize her home. She actually calls it "smart-sizing" -- a term we think we might have to adopt.

Our favorite quote from the film?

"I have to move the refrigerator," Williams says as she hauls a tiny blue cooler away from her house. "I think right now it's just got half-and-half and beer in it. What more do you need?"

It's funny, thought-provoking and inspirational -- definitely worth a few minutes of your time.

nau, where the video is being hosted, is a pretty cool place in and of itself. nau defines itself as a collective that is committed to the power of business as a force of change.

How green is your state? That can be a hard question to answer on your own. You're familiar with your neighborhood's recycling programs and maybe even your city's environmental efforts; but, what has your state done for the earth lately?

A recent article in Forbes might help answer that question. They've come up with a list, in pictures, of America's greenest (and least green) states.

According to the article, to get these results, Forbes ranked the states on a per-capita basis in six equally weighted categories: carbon footprint, air quality, water quality, hazardous waste management, policy initiatives and energy consumption, and they used data from the following sources: the American Lung Association's 2007 State of the Air Report, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy's energy efficiency scorecard, U.S. Green Building Council, the Energy Information Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the Sierra Club.

In other words, they were thorough.

We honestly didn't think we'd be surprised by the results; however, we kind of are. Take a look for yourself: Does your state fall about where you imagine it should in the rankings? Ours (California) sure doesn't!

Image via forbes.com

This is a piece that was produced by myself and Fanshell Media for Marin Organic, a non-profit organization in Marin County, California. One of it's many endeavors is a Organic School Lunch program; a service which delivers fresh, farm-grown produce, dairy and meat directly to schools from the farms they do business with. Their food benefits over 12,000 students in Marin County every week. You can visit them at www.marinorganic.org.

Hollywood is undoubtedly a big image-boost for environmental issues. Leonardo DiCaprio's The 11th Hour, which opened in theaters this week, is just the latest celebrity-backed project to thrust the issue of global warming into people's minds.

But to scout around L.A. beach towns like Santa Monica -- the playground of Hollywood hipsters and execs -- you'll find signs that it's more chic to shop and build green than ever before. And that's seemingly beyond the fleet of hybrid Priuses already on the roads in L.A. and Santa Monica.

On the retail front, Venice Beach (like eco-minded Berkeley but with more glam) has a new green building and art store that opened this spring called epOxyGreen. At the site of an old gas station, the shop sells things like electric-powered scooters, lamps made from recycled objects, and organic-cotton T-shirts. It also sells expertise in environmentally friendly interior design and building materials. But epOxyGreen isn't alone in green retail in the area. Even the venerable Fred Segal boutique, favored by starlets, carries the sustainable clothing line from rock star Bono and his wife.

For green building, a powerful influence in the area is Building Green sponsor Global Green. The national environmental organization that has operated one of its two U.S. resource centers from Santa Monica for the last couple of years. There, people can find out how to greenify their home with a low-flow toilet, recycled-glass tiles for the kitchen or an Energy Star clothes washer.

And if residents weren't already aware, they'll find that they can get cash back from the city of Santa Monica for taking these measures. This spring, the city of Santa Monica started offering rebates of up to $245 to residents who were conserving water by buying and installing a low-flow toilet or a qualified irrigation system.

For green-leaning travelers, Santa Monica also touts one of the country's eco-boutique hotels, The Ambrose. The 77-room hotel, which is LEED certified, serves locally grown fare, practices energy conservation and cleans with non-toxic materials.

If Hollywood sets the trend for California, the golden state will soon be the green state.

For anyone who is looking to find a career in the "green sector," there is an interesting tidbit up on the Plenty Magazine website.

According to Plenty Magazine, there could be 35,000 new green jobs in America's future. How? The Green Jobs Act of 2007.

Plenty cites an article from the the Huffington Post:

This ground-breaking legislation will make $120 million a year available across the country to begin training workers (and would-be workers) for jobs in the clean energy sector. When the bill becomes law, 35,000 people a year will benefit from cutting edge, vocational education in fields that could literally save the Earth.

This isn't law yet but, hopefully, it's something to look forward to.