HGTV Greenwashing Giveaway?

HGTV - let me ask you one question.  Why?  Why, why, why?  You have this beautiful home that is Gold LEED Certified.  You’ve put a lot of technology and innovations in this home, in the kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, counters, appliances, etc.  But why did you have to go ruin it with this one item?  Maybe I can lend this out to the winner of the house - please do me a favor and sell one item. 

I picked up on this story from our friends at Ecorazzi.  Maybe labeling HGTV as greenwashers is a bit harsh.  The house is LEED certified and looks fantastic.  As part of their Green House giveaway, they’re also giving away a Yukon Hybrid with the house.  A HUGE SUV that gets a whopping 20mpg.  I wrote about the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid back in December and you can read my comments and feelings there.  The Yukon just kinda ruins the entire picture for me.

Please sell that damn Yukon!  If you want to live a green life, do it.  Sure, every little bit helps, but come on, a massive vehicle that gets 20mpg…and that is what the manufacturer says and that figure is never correct. 

I think John Lennon once sang, “Imagine there’s no Yukon, sitting in the driveway.  Imagine all the people taking public transportation.   Imagine there’s no greenwashing or corporate America exploiting all the people… Woohoo, hoo, hoo.”  Maybe I’m paraphrasing…

Source: Ecorazzi, HGTV

Imagine

MLB + NRDC = Green

Major League Baseball has teamed up with the Natural Resources Defense Council to create a Team Greening Program.  There is a new website setup where you can get information for each team on the steps they are taking to improve their environmental practices.  Sure, a lot of the information is just replicated from team-to-team, but its a great step towards progress.

The NRDC Team Greening Advisor for Major League Baseball will work with each individual club on a host of topics, including:
• Adopting an official environmental policy
• Incorporating environmental language into contracts, purchasing policies and requests for proposals that specify preferences for environmentally sound products and services
• Encouraging the use of renewable energy
• Providing information about how to credibly offset the carbon emissions related to team and fan transportation
• Using post-consumer recycled content paper for all paper products
• Implementing paper reduction strategies in offices
• Offsetting the environmental impact of up to half of team and employee travel
• Establishing club eco-committees

The information in the guide setup by MLB and the NRDC is very thorough.   I do have to tell you that this is a guide and not a mandate.  Who knows what kind of pressure they are under to follow through with the recommendation. My first thoughts of baseball and the environment is the amount of water use and pesticides/fertilizers used on the fields.  This is covered.   They provide the teams with sample language for contracts with their vendors.  They suggest that they use a vendor who is certified under the Green Shield Certified Program.  They go on to provide all kinds of pertinent information including external links to the EPA and various informational sites.

The sections of the guide include: air, water, waste, paper, energy, transportation, vendors, renovations, and travel.  To be honest with you, it seems to be a very valuable resource to any business trying to improve their environmental footprint.  Take a gander and enjoy!

My final take-away is that I am happy to have baseball taking this initiative.  I can only hope that they promote the hell out of it.  If you put a bunch of men in a room who don’t know each other, what do they talk about?  Sports.  Sports is very influential…the major sports almost have as much power as Oprah.  So we’ve talked about the NFL and MLB.   Look for more from the NBA, NHL, and NASCAR in the near future.

Source: MLB, NRDC

Free ePublications Finds: Organic Living and Global Warming Solutions

Organic Style Magazine has launched it’s premiere issue…err…re-premiere issue.  They originally shut down the print version in October 2005.  They’ve had a renaissance of sorts since their original publisher sold them in 2007.  Now the magazine is available for free - only in a digital form. 

“In Organic Style magazine, you’ll meet growers, artisans, environmentalists, humanitarians and visionaries — people who are truly inspirational,” said Gerald Prolman, publisher and eco-entrepreneur. “It’s a window to our world, through which you’ll discover the intrinsic beauty at the heart of the environmental movement.”

Global Warming: A Mind Mapper’s Guide to the Science and Solutions is a free 100 page eBook that is available for download in PDF format from Live The Solution. I can’t say that I’ve actually read the book, but I thought I’d pass the information along.  There are for main sections of the book:

1. Why we need change
2. What to change
3. How to change
4. Who has changed

Don’t Eat Things That Don’t Rot: Michael Pollan Interview

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! interviews Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food. 

Here are a few of the exerpts that I particularly found interesting:

• Don’t eat foods that don’t rot.
• Shop the periphery of the grocery store.  The healthiest foods are at the outer edge.
• Eat locally when you can and support your local farmers
•  Grains were refined so much that all the nutrients were ground out of them thus producing a longer shelf life and thus the rats were no longer interested in them.
• Many cuisines are very healthy - Japanese, South American, Mediterranean.  The one that seems to be the most unhealthy is the Western diet. 

It’s really a great interview that has a lot of information.  Listen to his take on farming, subsidies, and many facts on food that when you really think about them are frustrating.  The more we refine and put more junk in food, the cheaper it gets whereas whole foods - foods that are good for us - are more expensive and just can’t compete.    Sugar or fruit juice can’t compete with high fructose corn syrup.  Why?  Corn is a subsidy and we’re not paying the true cost of the grain - we are, however, paying with our health and the health of our children. 

You may also like to read the transcript in it’s entirety or watch the RealAudio stream from the DemocracyNow! website.

Listen to the Michael Pollan Interview from Democracy Now!  (around 23:00)

Source: DemocracyNow!

Daily Show: Crude Awakening

Use The Farm, Young Skywalker

Grocery Store Wars

This is a cheesy Star Wars parody, but it’s entertaining.  The folks at Free Range Studios put this together.  You may remember them because they also brought you The Story of Stuff.   You’ll meet young Cuc Skywalker, Obi Wan Canoli, Tofu D2, C3 Peanut, Ham Solo, and Lettuce Leiah.

Sit back and enjoy the cheese.

Here’s a bonus video…

Backwards Hamburger

This was put out to help promote Fast Food Nation and also put together by Free Range Studios.  It asks the questions - do you know where your hamburger came from?

Bamboo Laptop? I Want One

Asus is making a new laptop computer that is encased in bamboo called the EcoBook.  The folks over at GIZMODO have a full gallery of pics.  I don’t even know the power of this laptop, i.e. what chipset, etc.  I think that the case is pretty sweet.  I also know that this was first introduced back in March last year, so it’s kinda old news, but the new redesigned case pictures are just out. 

For all the modern miracles that electronics and Information Technology has brought us, there is a cost to the environment, in the materials and processes used to manufacture computers and electronics, and increasingly, in their disposal. In the light of this, ASUS has undertaken a bold initiative that could point the way forward for the rest of the industry. Its groundbreaking concept notebook – the EcoBook, is unique as the first notebook to be made using bamboo; it is built according to environmentally friendly principles, reconciling the world’s reliance on computers with the need to preserve the Earth. [via ASUS] 

GIZMODO also reports on the green-factor other than the obvious bamboo: Not only is the outside covered in bamboo, the inside is all plastic and recyclable. Plus, all the parts are labeled and lined with cardboard, and there are no “paints, sprays, or even electroplating,” which means it’s even more eco-friendly.

FirstLook: How Much Wind At My House?

Ever wondered if your house was a good candidate for wind or solar energy?  Well, a company called 3TIER wants to help you.  They have a cool Google Maps mashup.  First things, first.  You have to register to use their site.  Once you’re registered and all logged in, then you can go directly to the maps with their FirstLook product. 

If you want a full report, it’s going to cost you.  The standard wind report is $1,000 and the professional is $2,500.  The solar report is $1,000.  They say this is a lot cheaper than calling in the meteorological experts to do an on-site survey.  I have no idea, but $1k seems pretty pricey to me. 

I think their free tool is pretty cool, though.  For wind, they give you three options for how high the “hub” of your turbine is, 20, 50, and 100meters.  At the 100 meter height, my property would generate 6.2m/s, 5.7m/s for 50m and 4.7m/s for a 20m height.  I don’t even know if that’s good or not.  I just like playing with the maps.

FirstLook is the first and only online tool that allows you to choose sites based on science, not luck. What used to take days in the field now takes minutes at your desk.

FirstLook from 3TIER Group

Google Earth Teams To Fight MTR

According to Plenty Magazine (which is a great magazine, btw), Google Earth is teaming up with ILoveMountains.org to fight mountaintop removal mining (MTR).  If you’re interested in learning more about MTR, I posted about this atrocity back in November.  

Google Earth agreed to partner with I Love Mountains and included the site’s National Memorial for the Mountains, the project’s first phase, as part of the Google Earth map software. The Memorial appears on a map of the eastern states as a field of 450 American flags spanning the Appalachian Mountains, each commemorating a ‘decapitated’ mountain. Zoom in close to a single mountain and there’s a step-by-step explanation of how machinery literally scrapes away peaks, and aerial photos of a site the size of Manhattan. via PlentyMag.com

If you want to see if your power company gets any of its electricity from the coal obtained in MTR, then just go to ILoveMountains.org and put in your zip code.  Here’s what I found out: Your electricity provider, ComEd - Commonwealth Edison Co, buys coal from companies engaged in mountaintop removal. I see my power plants on the map and also see the mine where they get some of the coal.  When I click on the mine, I find out information about it.  When I dig even further, I see that much of the coal comes from Rawl, West Virginia.  Then I get a story about the town and how MTR has affected it.   If you’d like to see some video stories, checkout their YouTube group.

I just also found out that there is a documentary called Black Diamonds which discusses MTR.  It’s an absolutely disgusting practice which until last year I didn’t realize was happening.

Black Diamonds

Source: Plenty Magazine

Corporate Waste

I used to work for a company that shared a floor with another company. When I worked there, they threw so much away that had a great useful life left. I’m guessing that they aren’t an anomaly in the corporate world. The sad thing is (yet not surprising) that they were not only a sponsor of the Good and Green Conference here in Chicago in December, but they had a panelist speaking, too. Before I knew that they were a sponsor, I had ripped the conference apart for contributing to the greenwashing phenomenon. I still stand by my argument that this was a total boondoggle on greenwashing America.

We live in such a disposable society and its really quite disgusting. When are people going to start changing the way they think? It’s total disregard for the planet, future generations, and for the people who could use these items that can’t afford them. Why are people so self-centered and arrogant that they can’t call up Goodwill or a service to come take this away and find a new home for it?

I have a mole and that mole sent me pictures of their recent cleanup. Some of the “trash” will be recycled by the building automatically, but much of it won’t. I think my mole is a freegan without even trying! Here is a very partial list of what this company threw in the trash to go to landfill:

• unopened peanut butter
• fire safety kits
• toilet paper
• dishes
• silverware
• cutting board
• craft items
• holiday decorations
• “granny” grocery cart
• coffee carafes
• t-shirts
• footballs
• pumkin carving items
• napkins
• blue recycling bags
• table cloths (flannel backed)
• picture frames
• designer eye glass frames (three pair)
• books
• folders
• plastic totes
• Eco tote bag