Three links

So... I saved these three links to share here. Not really new news - I've been slow on the blog posts lately.

http://greensource.construction.com/news/2011/02/110208Desalinization-Plants.asp

(usual green stuff)

http://www.coxtarget.com/mailsuppression/s/DisplayMailSuppressionForm

(how to stop getting those blue coupon envelopes - seriously, have you ever used a coupon from those before?)

And. this is the kind of headline that makes me click:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/02/14/robotic_eye_gives_blind_sight/index.html

Robotic eye gives blind people sight

Carbon footprint of booze

Awesome. Thanks, Mother Jones. Now we can feel eco-guilt for drinking, too. I didn't know that vodka is the most energy-intensive booze to manufacture, or that tons of pesticides are used on agave plants.

Some tips:

• For beer...Kegs > cans > bottles
• Organic when possible
• Reduce shipping distance
• See the line on the map shown at the bottom of the article for when to buy CA wine, when to buy Euro-wine (Notably, Chile and Australia aren't even mentioned)

Solar Roadways

Solar Roadways: A Shining Vision Posted: 18 Nov 2010 01:28 PM PST By: Jonathan Marshall So far this week we’ve seen how America’s crumbling roads, and its environmental needs, might be fixed by replacing asphalt with cleaner, renewable bioasphalt or bioengineered sandstone. But Idaho-based inventors Scott and Julie Brusaw believe we need to think much bigger. They propose nothing less than paving roads with solar panels. The idea may sound fanciful, but their unique Solar Roadways concept won the first GE Ecoimagination Challenge award last month, with its $50,000 prize. Last year they received a contract from the Federal Highway Administration to build their first prototype. Their idea is to combine embedded solar cells, which (hopefully) pay for themselves over time by generating power, with heating elements to de-ice the surface in northern climates and LEDs to mark road lines for safer night-time driving. The surface would be made of tough, weatherproof, textured, non-slick glass to let sunlight into the solar cells and make the LEDs visible at night. Microprocessors installed every 12 feet would control lighting, communications and monitoring. Another layer would carry electric power and data signals for high-speed Internet, video and other communications. When installed everywhere, they envision, “The Solar Roadway becomes an intelligent, self-healing, decentralized (secure) power grid.” Based on reasonable estimates of efficiency, and four hours of sunlight a day, they figure that their solar roads would produce about 3.3 megawatt-hours of energy per lane mile each day, about as much energy as 107 average American homes used in 2007. Besides selling electricity (and charging electric vehicles), the roads could make money by selling high-speed data and video services and advertising (through lit LEDs on the road). (Not that the world needs any more advertising, but it might be a worthwhile tradeoff if we could get rid of billboards.) Their bottom line may be a tad optimistic, but it’s worth shooting for: Unlike current road systems, it will pay for itself over time. No more Global Warming. No more power outages (roaming or otherwise). Safer driving conditions. Far less pollution. A new secure highway infrastructure that pays for itself. A decentralized, self-healing, secure power grid. No more dependency on foreign oil. Who would have thought that reinventing roads could be so much fun?

Saving water at Portland International Airport

Portland International Airport (PDX, for you frequent fliers out there) is pretty great, as airports go. A few local (read: non-Sbux) coffee shops, a "Shop Oregon" store and some decent restaurants. I used to spend a LOT of time there, back in my Silicon Valley days.

PDX is now saving 177,000 gallons of water EVERY EFFING DAY by upgrading their toilets to those super cool dual flushers.

I wanted to get an idea of what 177,000 gallons of water really looks like, since it's hard to imagine - and really, if we don't get what kind of difference we're making, it's really tough to appreciate the statistic. So, I Googled 177,000 gallons of water. I didn't really think anything would come of this one, but...it turns out that Norwalk Maritime Aquarium (listed on the Best Things to do in Westport, CT site) houses 177,000 gallons of water.

The Maritime Aquarium is approximately 140,000 square feet (13,000 m2) and has more than 177,000 gallons of water in its live animal exhibits. On exhibit are more than 2,000 marine animals and reptiles representing in excess of 300 species.  

So yeah, an aquarium holds 177,000 gallons of water. PDX is saving that amount DAILY. That's a lot of aquatic habitat, people. Cheers to you, PDX!

AP: "Oil Leak Wouldn't Fill Superdome" - Who Cares?

sad

Gulf Oil Spill

I've been avoiding learning too much about the Gulf oil spill, just because it is so incredibly depressing. I finally did some research for a work newsletter. Here's some info and a few sources about the basics...

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico saddens and enrages me. The oil rig explosion was responsible for 11 deaths. Now the oil spill is damaging wildlife, ecosystems, and local economies and fishing industries – with no end in sight. Participants are blaming each other for the failure. Let’s take a look at some of the key players and facts surrounding this tragedy.

Companies:

BP Oil – Leases the oil well

Transocean Ltd. – Built and operated the oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, that was leased to BP

Halliburton Co – Poured the cement at the wellhead

Cameron International Corporation – Supplied blowout preventers that allegedly failed

Brief timeline:

4/20 – Explosion and fire on the oil rig

4/22 – The oil rig sinks, oil slick is visible

4/23 – Search for 11 missing workers ends

4/25 – Coast Guard estimates that the sunken well is leaking 1,000 barrels of crude oil a day

4/28 – Controlled burn on the oil slick to remove it from the Gulf. New estimated flow of oil is 5,000 barrels per day (210,000 gallons per day)

5/5-8 – BP tries to use a use a containment chamber to cap the oil leaks. Containment dome fails.

5/6 – Oil from spill makes it to shore at New Harbor Island, LA

5/7 – Fishing ban is expanded and extended to 5/17/10, efforts made to contain spill circumference

5/17 – BP reports that they are now capturing 20% of the 210,000 GPD flow and funneling it into a tanker ship

Sources:

NOLA, NOLA, Reuters, Newsweek, NPR

ADD... Click for link & to embiggen.

Cow -> biodiesel -> Amtrak

Amtrak's trying out cow-based biodiesel on some of its trains. Nice.

Salon article here.

Issues I have with this piece:
They're concerned about biodiesel harming rubber components in the engine. Yes. This is correct. But why not just take the safe route and replace those with synthetics? (This is what is done in older diesel cars and trucks so that they can safely use biodiesel)

Also, biodiesel not ONLY reduces carbon-dioxide emissions, but also reduces Nitrogen Oxide and Sulfur Oxide (NOx and SOx), both of which contribute to poor air quality and health problems, such as asthma.

TJ's Sustainable Seafood Showcase Showdown

Trader Joe's (love. love. love.).

1. Has moved away from the plastic container of four apples
2. Now offers some veggies/fruits in compostable plastic trays
3. Is going to be offering sustainable seafood ONLY in 2012
4. Is huge on BYOB (bag)
5. Offers many customers with their first organic experience - so many products are offered in regular and organic - or organic only
6. Sells the best effing pumpkin butter out there
7. I heart the hell out of their bottled curry sauces
8. Fantastic prices on nut butters, including organics
9. Smoothie enabler - good prices on frozen berries
10. Wine and beer. Wine and beer.

Yeah, they're not perfect. But #3 is pretty huge. Good job, TJ's.

As the linked article points out, YOU can make this switch a lot quicker, since you don't have to deal with contracts and shit.
Check, it -
Fish guide from GOOD
My fave - Monterey Bay Seafood Watch. I have the app on my phone - it even lists fish by their sushi names!

Why I love San Francisco, reason #3,542

Paved paradise and put up a parking lot?

Maybe the opposite...


Rendered image of an upcoming Pavement to Parks installation at busy Mojo Bicycle Cafe, near my house

This is what happens when you ask me a simple question about trash...

Again with the emails. This one is between the guy who's into weirdos and me.

Guy:
"Which is better, composting or recycling?"

Me:
 no solid answer, but here are some pros and cons of each. composting seems like a clear winner, until you get to the part where recycling actually reduces the production of NEW materials, which is always a very good thing.

composting -

• material is handled locally, reducing GHG/costs associated with transportation
• output is an organic soil amendment
• keeps organic matter out of the landfill, where it would be producing methane
• the program can be expensive to implement and maintain
• may falsely encourage people to be less conservative in creating green waste

recycling -

• some materials are transported a long distance to be processed (plastic & paper are sent to china, for example). however, often times these materials are loaded into container ships that might otherwise be returned completely empty
• output material replaces virgin materials, which is less environmentally and energy intensive
• keeps materials out of the landfill where it may produce methane while biodegrading, or leach toxins into groundwater supplies (in the case of some plastics & batteries)
• cost to municipality varies greatly with the price of recyclables
• some materials - like glass and metal are truly recycled - some plastics are severely downcycled into products that are not as useful
• may falsely encourage wasteful products since it is "recyclable" after a single use

also, i'm not an expert. i'm pretty darn educated on the topic, but this would be a better discussion with actual numbers to back up each of the points.

guy:
Wow, I'm not going to lie to you, that was a much more detailed response then I expected.  How about this (you gotta dumb these things down for me) if I have a clean napkin should I recycle it or compost it?

me:
compost
-------------------
If it had been a clean piece of paper, I would have said to recycle. But a napkin? That's not going to be recycled into a piece of writing paper. Maybe into tp? I'm not really sure. If anyone cares to comment, I'm definitely interested in learning!

Old Bay Bridge = new design opportunity

The Bay Bridge, which connects East Bay (think Berkeley & Oakland) to San Francisco, is in the middle of a reconstruction project. The old half-span is still sitting out there, unconnected to anything, just jutting out from East Bay, ending before Treasure Island. 

Here's a picture of the new section, before it was connected - you can see that it's just off to the side of the existing bridge.

Image from Small Business Exchange, Inc.

Kinda trippy, eh?

So, what should be done with the existing structure? I posted one concept back in September - where a bridge allows for cars (and hopefully bikes, pedestrians and maybe even light rail) on top and container-like houses on the bottom. In this situation, the entire space is available - and this bridge has TWO levels! Grad students at UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design have come up with some additional ideas - green space, hotels, living space.

 

Check out the entire article at SFGate.com/.

I like the idea of reusing this existing structure. It's part of the Bay Area's history, it's already built, doesn't add an environmental impact (assuming smart design) and effectively adds space to a desirable location. However,the new Bay Bridge is being constructed because the old one didn't meet earthquake safety rules - are those rules different for a vehicular load compared to a static, structural load (with movement only by people or relatively few cars)?

For more information about the Bay Bridge, check out this site - Bay Bridge Info.

three forwards

Three things. All forwarded to me. And I'm "forwarding" them to you here. Bwahahaha. Passive forwarding.

FORWARD NUMBER ONE 
Last night a UPS man came to the house to deliver a package...normal
He was wearing a Saftey Jacket, not the normal Brown...Different
He also had on a Bike helmet...Way different

I asked him what was up and he said that we here in Palo Alto are the third community (Portland, Seattle, Palo Alto...He mentioned that San Jose might be up soon and it seems like Oregon is about to boom) in the US where UPS is trying out bike delivery.  Every morning they drop of a tractor trailer full of packages in the neighborhood and then 6 guys with bikes and bike trailers ride around and deliver the packages. 

He said that it is really working well, he is way tired at the end of the day, but that it is much easier to get around town.

This is a trial, just for the holiday season, but he hopes that it will take off and become a full time gig.  Lets hope it does!!

---------------------------

I just found this about the Portland program:

"Shipping giant United Parcel Service (UPS) will add a new weapon to its arsenal in the holiday shipping battle this year — bicycles.

Jeff Grant, the company’s workforce planning manager for the Oregon district (that includes Vancouver, WA), says UPS plans to hire 28 bike delivery employees this season. In the Portland metro area, Grant says eight riders will be hired. I spoke with Grant via phone yesterday. He said the main impetus for the bike delivery program was to save money.

“For every three bikes we use for deliveries, we save an average of 17 gallons of fuel per day (compared to one truck). That’s about $50 in savings.” Across the entire district, Grant says for every three bikes used during the holiday season, UPS will save $38,000 in vehicle operation and upkeep costs.

UPS has purchased a fleet of mountain bikes outfitted with a 200 pound capacity trailer (with a cover for rain of course) and a set of lights. All bike delivery staff will be uniformed and helmets are required.


Before hitting the road, Grant says each rider will undergo a paid orientation and training session. The custom-tailored training will focus on operating the bicycle and trailer safely. “We realize the riders will be experienced already,” says Grant, “but have they ever pulled 200 pounds? Do they know the safe following distance in wet weather?”


According to Grant, he’ll ask delivery staff to deliver about 25-50 packages per day, compared to 150 stops a day for a normal “package car”. Grant added an interesting historical note to this story: UPS started delivering by bike in Seattle (where they were founded) over 100 years ago. Today, the company once again uses bikes for deliveries up in Seattle and Grant said it went so well they’ve decided to expand the program. 


UPS is looking to hire bike delivery people in Vancouver (WA), Portland, Salem, Corvallis, Eugene, and Medford. If you’re interested, call Maria Mason at (503) 978-7409 or email mariamason(at)ups(dot)com."

Image borrowed from FROG blog cuz I wanted to show a picture of the trailer.

FORWARD NUMBER TWO

Tired of feeling tired?

Get the WakeMate, the cell phone accessory wristband that lets you sleep less and feel better! 

http://www.wakemate.com/ 

FORWARD NUMBER THREE

Fantastic.  Greg sends along this DIY FYI:

"Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations.. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever.Great stories. But two things made me take it down.

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.

Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn't realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn't take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard."

Edit: I don't know what's up with all of the excessive spacing. I don't see it that way in my Compose screen in blogger. :( Sorry it's kind of unpleasant to read.

Trash sucks. Four options.

Trash sucks. Trash is something that is unusable and is an indication of an inefficiency.


Yes. It is inefficient for a manufacturing process to create substandard products that don't make it to market and end up as waste. It is inefficient to throw away food products that have rotted or are undesirable. E-waste - all of our old electronics that are either broken or outdated - an inefficient use of materials.

Still, trash happens. Not all of it has to sit in a landfill, though. We've gone through the four Rs before. Reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose.

Let's review reuse and recycle, then look at two other ways of dealing with trash.

1.Creative reuse, or just plain reuse. Denim scraps (an inefficiency in the process of making jeans) can be used to create insulation.

2. Recycling. We're familiar with this - glass, plastic, metal, paper. There's a lot of energy that goes into recycling - sorting, hipping recyclables all over the place, then processing the post-consumer goods into a usable raw material for manufacturers. Then, of course, re-manufacturing that material into something that's hopefully really effing useful. And something that can be re-recycled, if needed.

3. Compost. Organics have this neat element called carbon. Ooooh. Carbon. It means that it can decompose and turn into fertilizer. And we need that to grow stuff. Way better for our planet than using nitrogen based fertilizers. Yay! Industrial composters can take all sorts of things, like waxy cardboard, used pizza boxes, bones, shellfish parts... But there's a big NIMBY issue with the collection, transport and processing (composting). Augh. That sucks.

4. Burn the shit. Yep. W2E, waste-to-energy. Burn trash and make heat. But, what about all the pollutants that are formed from burning the shit that should have been recycled (like plastics)? I mean, styrofoam burns super hot (a W2E'er called it "jet fuel"), but do you want that in your air? Fuck no. But... is it worse than the by-products of coal fired power plants? This article says that W2E is better than coal (check pg 3 for a graphy-graph)... and on-par with natural gas to create heat (not electricity). I don't love it, but I think it's better than having it sit in a landfill, releasing methane gas (sucks more than carbon dioxide, from a GHG perspective... and yeah, it can be captured and recovered from landfills, but it is not always done).

Thoughts? 

Wine in a...

plastic bottle. Classy, huh? Wine in a Plastic Bottle > or < Wine in a Box.

Tough call, right? At least we're used to seeing wine in a box - and there are some boxed wines out there that are Not Franzia and better than Two Buck Chuck.

Treehugger profiled this wine maker in New Zealand, Yealand, who's trying to go for the most sustainable wine possible. He has tried using goats (they eventually ate the grapes) and guinea pigs (too unmanageable over the entire estate) and now mini goats to help remove weeds between the rows of vines. He's got solar and wind and uses pine needle oil as an herbicide. Still, shipping glass bottles all over the world = big carbon footprint. Enter the plastic bottle. 72 cases/pallet for plastic vs 56 cases/pallet for glass. And...

New Zealand's Yealand Estates says its Full Circle sauvignon blanc bottles are 89% lighter than 750ml glass bottles, which means they generate 54% less greenhouse gas emissions and use nearly 20% less energy to produce than glass.

Interesting, huh?

However, according to a 2008 report that was recently released by the Association of Post Consumer Plastic Recyclers just 27% of all PET is actually recycled. I was surprised to find that, in the US, the rate for glass recycling isn't much higher, at 28%. (Note that the glass rate in some parts of the EU are much higher - 50 to 90%.) So, if this product is going to be landfilled anyway, why not use the least energy intensive packaging? You know, aside from those nasty phthalates that can leach into the wine, or the fact that plastic is made of petroleum, which is a limited resource.

The PET wine bottle? Not a perfect solution. I applaud Yealand for trying something new.

delicious hetch hetchy water and a shower scene

From a friend of a friend... (I watched the six finalists and was impressed. They're ~ 1 min each, so you've got time for it. Really.)

 

-------------------------------
Recently, some friends and I entered a 60 second water conservation video contest with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and we are among the top 6 finalists! The winner will be determined by votes and will be announced at City Hall on December 8th. The winning video will also get some air time on a local TV station.

We need your help! Please take a second to vote. I won't say which one to vote for but ours is called "Shower Your Garden." Also if you could pass this on to your network of friends, that would be greatly appreciated.

Here is the link:
http://sfwater.org/detail.cfm/MC_ID/18/MSC_ID/429/MTO_ID/733/C_ID/4787

Pets and sustainable living

A recent study has estimated that owning a dog is, from a global warming standpoint, equivalent to owning and using two SUVs, and a cat is about the same as a VW.

I'm not going to argue with the numbers - it all depends on where you draw your box when doing a life cycle analysis, and carbon footprint calculations can be argued all day long. However, what about the improved health of pet owners over non-pet owners? Surely a healthier human is less of an environmental tax than a sick person. What about those pets that are shelter, or rescue animals, compared to those that come from breeders?

I do have a bit of guilt around my (newish to me, as of April 09, but adopted at age 11) cat. I don't feel guilt about her food, for some reason, even though she's a total carnivore and her food isn't organic. Her litter is Swheat Scoop, which is made from non-food grade wheat, grown domestically (yay!). However, every time I clean out her litter box, I am adding a plastic bag (reused!) of feces to the landfill, which sucks. And I'm not springing for biodegradable litter bags. Nope.

Guilt. Guilt. Guilt.

Articles like this make me feel like such a hypocrite.

We've long said that cutting meat and dairy out of your diet, or at minimum cutting back deeply on their consumption, is one of the most powerful personal steps you can take towards mitigating climate change. But new analysis from Worldwatch Institute shows that the impact of raising livestock and poultry is much greater than previously thought and actually amounts to approximately 51% of global greenhouse gas emissions:

(Treehugger article, by Matthew McDermott)

I don't drive, buy mostly organic food, local when possible. I also try to purchase other locally made products - luckily, there are a few Northern CA organic personal care manufacturers (Alba Organics, for one). I generally remember to buy carbon offsets for my flights. But really... I eat meat. And dairy. And eggs. (you know, except when I'm vegan once a week) And switching to vegetarian (well, actually vegan) eating would potentially be the most impactful change I could make in my life, wrt global warming.

Augh. The guilt.

It gets worse, people. I don't always buy organic meats. Eggs are probably, eh 60/40 (organic/not). Why? It's not generally an accessibility issue. Totally a $ thing. Organic, free-range, grazing... easily double the price of conventional.

Whine.Why is this so haaaaaard? End whine.

I may smell a vegetarian week/month/planned out X days a week coming up. With my current ninja training 2x a week, half marathon training and trying to lose weight... I don't think that full-time veg is the way to go for me. But could I do vegan 1x a week and planned vegetarian 2x a week? Probably. I mean, I'm on my way towards an unplanned vegetarian day right now...

Be a superstar recycler

So I have a profile up on OkCupid.com/. We shall see how it goes. I know at least one of you is excited for the stories :)

In my profile, I was asked to describe some things I'm good at. (Grammar, obviously not one of them... ending sentences with prepositions and all.) Making oatmeal with creative toppings, navigating my way around SF by bike, making friends laugh...a few other things. AND telling people what's compostable, recyclable and trash (Not so much with my eco-fabulous friends, but I do this at least three times a week at work!).

While I can't help all of you sort your trash because we live far away, I found a list of great tips that hold true with municipal recycling in general - check it.

Top 5 Recycling Faux Pas - and How to Avoid Them

1. Unscrew It! - Yes, plastic bottles are recyclable, but in many communities the bottle caps are not. If that's the case for you, then please unscrew the lid before you throw it in the trash. There's nothing more frustrating than sorting through the recycling, and having to remove each bottle cap one at a time. (see Ed Begley's tips on sorting out plastic recycling codes to find out what is and isn't recyclable.)
2. Look Inside - For some reason, every household I've lived in has had somebody that insists on trying to recycle all envelopes - even when those envelopes are mostly lined with bubble wrap. Besides the fact that a plastic/paper multilayered envelope like that will almost certainly be unrecyclable, it's also pretty valuable. Hold on to those things and use them again. (Remember - always look to reuse before you recycle!)
3. Clean It! - I have heard arguments that rinsing out cans negates the energy saved in recycling them, but I'm pretty sure that's nonsense (especially for households like mine where hot water is solar heated). One thing is for certain--sorting through sticky piles of gunky recycling is no fun. So please at least empty containers carefully before you discard them.
4. Not All Glass is Created Equal - In most communities, just because it's made of glass, doesn't mean it's recyclable. Usually glass jars and bottles are recyclable - but drinking glasses, broken windows, vases, light bulbs and the like are not. At least not in regular household trash. Check out Earth911 to find out what is and is not recyclable in your area.
5. Compostable Doesn't Necessarily Compost - Sorry, just because it says it's compostable, doesn't mean you can throw it in your backyard heap. Most PLA plastics require high-temperature commercial composting to break down. If that's not available, you may as well throw it in the trash.

Green bubbly!

My apologies for the onslaught of food-related posts. This one, however, had to get a nod.

Korbel Makes Its First Champagne with Organic Grapes

Rock on. $15.99, start looking for it in stores now.

Also, I can't possibly be the only UIUC grad who has the hardest time typing champa-gne instead of champa-ign. Right?



Image swiped from Frugal Cafe Blog Zone

Reuse your bicycle innertubes, part II

I posted a while back about using your innertubes to make rubberbands.

Here's another great reuse idea - I hope it takes off!

--------------
IT Clips
IT stands for inner tubes, and the clips allow old ones to be turned into useful bungee-type cords instead of landfill cloggers. Quite a great green idea from young Gary Gruber of Boulder, Colorado. The length of the bungee or tie-down can be adjusted by cutting the tube or drawing it through the plastic clips. Metal hooks are included to expand the array of uses. IT Clips come in red, green, yellow or blue and are available at bike shops and hardware stores in North America and Australia. The size for road tubes costs $4-5; add 50 cents for the larger MTB tube size. The company can customize IT Clips for event promotion. There's a dealer locator on the website. http://www.IT-Clips.com    

-------------------- 
If you check out the website, you see that the retailers are really limited and the owner doesn't seem to be doing any online sales. :( I hope that business goes well at the current locations and some other shops pick up on the idea. (like, uh, Sports Basement)

Found in the free Roadbikerider.com/ weekly newsletter. This week they reviewed a bunch of new products that were demoed at the recent Interbike convention