Bamboo Update

Well I got a bamboo tee and socks for Christmas and they really are extremely soft and comfortable. I probably wore them a bit too long, actually, but it's OK because I was on vacation, right?

The claims about the silky or cashmere feel are true! I will attempt to wear these out and let you know how it goes - not so much just to find out how durable they are, more because they really are that nice.

Happy New Year!

Bamboo Boxers

Ouch, right? No, actually super soft, wicking, durable, breathable. My wife tried her bamboo activewear longsleeve tee for her run today and loved it. She also said she wanted to wear it all the time because of it's comfort. Funny, that's exactly what the websites say.

Bamboo has erupted lately into a do-all material, and the tree huggers love it because it quickly regrows (highly renewable). Part of the trend are flatware, flooring, furniture, cabinetry, and on and on. Based on my recent experience with the stuff, I'm definitely buying more of it soon.

Places to find it include Jonano, Shirts of Bamboo, The Bamboo Company, and BambooClothes.

The downside is that, since most bamboo comes from China, there are concerns about organic practices, fair labor, responsible growing practices, etc. I suggest asking about the source of the bamboo before buying or you may cancel out your positive efforts with other negatives.

Hemp is Good

Hemp has been a staple fabric for a certain group of friends since, oh, middle school I guess. Little did I know how green they were! Widely misunderstood and linked to the marijuana culture, hemp is actually an excellent material with many uses, and can't be smoked. Well, it won't get you high anyway!

Hemp (Cannabis Sativa) is one of the most intriguing plants humans have come into continued contact since and before the advent of agriculture. For thousands of years, right up until the 1900s, hemp was of critical value because it is a rapidly renewable resource that is capable of being grown all over the earth in varying climates and soil conditions. It is grown for textiles & fabrics, fuel, fiber, food, paper, medicine and more, making hemp one of the most valuable and beneficial crops humanity has been wise enough to take full advantage of...until now. -The Hempest

The Hempest has the largest variety I've found of reasonably-priced hemp products. I got a (Hempy's Beanie) hat from there for an early Christmas present and like it a lot. It's my first experience with hemp so I'll let ya'll know how it lasts.

My other fav hemp online store is Rawganique, which carries many other organic fabric items too.

To shop in real life, go to this mapmuse map of hemp clothing stores nationwide. I also keep this link over in my link list for future reference.

A few hemp species are even native wild forbs in this part of the world, so I've got some on order for delivery in the spring. Hopefully by next fall I'll have some dead stalks that I can try to harvest and weave. We'll see how that experiment goes....

In the days and weeks to come: organic cotton, bamboo, flax, coconut(?), who knows.

Green Games

I'm pretty sure that every large corporation, every environmental agency, and every environmental organization has a game on their website meant for kids to learn about the environment. All good. The bad part is that I've never heard of anyone actually getting their kids to them.

The latest, from Clarkson University, is covered on TreeHugger and Hugg and appears to be quite good. Others can be found at the USEPA, GM, Michigan DEQ, Indiana DEM, DOE, and a million others.

Show one to a child near you.

Virgin Biofuels?

It must be too warm on Richard Branson's private Caribbean island, because he just signed an agreement with Former President Clinton to invest $3 Billion (with a B) in Biofuels.

I think it's great!

Gold, Myrrh, and ...

Cinnamon? How about Lavender?

According to a recent study, the trees from which Frankincense is made are becoming tapped-out, and younger trees are not rising to the occasion.

This is a great anecdote for one of the big problems facing renewable (environmental friendly) products. The supply side must be very carefully monitored when demand increases, or else unintended consequences almost always arise. Frankincense, like all agriculture, is renewable, but by not properly managing the supply, the supply may suffer serious declines.

Green Travel - More

So I just learned that one of my good buddies left yesterday from SLC heading east across Colorado. Yes, the same Colorado that is completely shut down due to an enormous snow storm. Send out the search parties.

After my earlier post, I figured I needed to try to find some resources for those not traveling in Michigan, and then realized that many people are changing travel plans right now due to a huge ski destination being shut down for a couple days.

So below you'll find a list of sites that list more hotels that are getting green under a variety of different programs. Supporting them is one small way to reduce your impacts.

US & Canada: Terrachoice

Florida: DEP

Cali: CIWMB

Worldwide: Greenhotels

Pennsylvania: DEP

And finally, the Green Lodging News - see what this hotelier's group is talking about

Green Travel

You've probably heard about the growing business of "eco-tourism". Well, for those regular Joe's who still enjoy their Holiday Inn Express (and are then able prevent nuclear melt downs), you might be happy to learn that many hotels are taking steps to be more environmentally responsible. You've probably seen the little card (usually glossy plasticy paper = bad for the environment) hanging on the towel rack in your hotel room that says you can hang up your towel if you're willing to reuse it, or throw it on the floor if you want it washed. That minor step, done at thousands of hotels, surely makes a difference. Obviously, there's a lot more they can do.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), the state regulators that businesses generally don't like, is encouraging more hotels to adopt more green practices. On this site, they offer quite a few decent resources for hoteliers to learn how to improve. Then, here they list the facilities that have received recognition of successful practices. Only 6 facilities are listed so far, with a few more applicants.

I, for one, will look to this list the next time I travel in Michigan.

Lighting Myth

I heard that Discovery Channel's MythBusters did a bit on their show this week about lighting, and whether it pays to keep the lights on when running down to the coffee machine, or turning them off each time. Unfortunately, I didn't see the episode and I can't find the data they generated. I did, however, find piles of posts on their message boards all about their findings.

What I'm told is that you should just get rid of your incandescent bulbs (duh), that you should turn off your fluorescents if you're leaving for more than 23 seconds, and that LEDs don't burn out. All 3 of those statements require some qualification, but I'll leave that research up to you unless you ask for more info - which I'd be happy to dig up.

I've been shopping for more general-use LEDs and haven't come up with much. I wrote about them for Christmas Lights, and still love them. You can buy a few different varieties for general use, but you can't get the candlepower or lumens you can with CFLs anywhere in the affordable range. Give 'em time. If you want to see what's out there, search for "warm LED light" on Ebay.

So buy the penny-pincher on your list a few warm-colored (make sure) compact fluorescents for Christmas, and plan to buy them some LEDs in a year or two.

Organic Everywhere

Whether you're just curious about "Organic" products or you buy nothing but, you can't deny the explosion of the availability of organic products in the last few months. Remember, I'm talking Fort Wayne, Indiana here. If this were San Fran or New York, well ... you know.

Probably 6 months ago Wal-Mart announced the organic children's clothing line called George (not all George products are organic though). Now I'm learning that one can find more and more organic products every day at Meijer. That includes ice cream and even frozen fruit - perfect for my smoothie fix.

You have probably noticed that many grocery stores now have a small organic food section too.

No matter how organic you are or want to be, it's getting easy for even the most midwestern of us!

RE3 - Reduce Reuse Recycle

We've all heard that phrase a million times, but this group has taken a new twist on the old concept via YouTube (By the way, tonight being my very first visit to YouTube proves that one doesn't have to be a part of the geek squad to write a blog).

By the way, some of these videos are great!

PC Energy Use

I wrote before about a few ways to measure your energy usage. One user that you probably haven't thought too much about is the very thing you're looking at right now - your computer. Many people leave their PC powered up, on screen saver, when not in use. Multiply that usage by the number of computers in the US or world, and you're talking a huge amount of electricity. TreeHugger has been talking a bit about it lately, and in the post you'll find a link to a nice little energy calculator that will let you know how much you're expending.

2 Suggestions: power down when not in use, and set the monitor to turn itself off instead of going to screen saver.

Compost for All

I think most people are afraid to compost; they think it's too smelly, too ugly, too gross. Those are fair concerns based on our basic understandings of the concept. Many probably know about the giant manure compost piles at farms, or think of the cubic yard-sized wire or wood bins way in the back of a large yard in the country. Those still occur and are great. But things have changed.

Why Compost?

1) It's Free

2) You'll dispose of less garbage

3) It creates the best fertilizer there is, period

4) Most* store - bought fertilizers are produced from petroleum

5) It's perfect for teaching kids about environmental responsibility, science, & biology

6) Almost everyone has plants or grass (yes, use it on your lawn) that need food

This is really a huge topic that I'll cover more in the future, but this post will be a good starter.

Composting has really evolved into an efficient and easily manageable process that literally anyone can do no matter where they live. You can buy nice kitchen compost pails into which you throw your food scraps until you have a minute to take them outside - food sitting out does attract fruit flies. Mine even has an activated carbon filter in the top to adsorb any odors - I have honestly never sensed an odor from it (had it for maybe 5 years now) - no matter how rank it got inside. Your actual composter can be one of many designs, depending on your situation and space availability.

I think the best for the lazy man like myself is the drum-style, that makes sure the material is mixed and aerated enough. I used to have bins on the ground that required turning with a pitch fork, but now I've got a drum (more because of space and aesthetics).

So visit some of the links above and do a little research. I'm confident you'll find that you can do it too.

*Just came across this very interesting article about a guy who's selling worm compost tea packaged in used soda bottles with spent sprayer attachments. His entire product, packaging and all, is 100% reused or recycled. This is also a great article for those interested in entrepreneurial stories.

New Mileage Label

The EPA announced today that they have ...dun duh dun... issued a new label for fuel economy display in 2008 model year vehicles. The one on the left is the old one, with the new one on the right. As far as I can tell, they contain almost exactly the same amount of information. I'd bet it took a couple thousand man-hours to come up with this new label. The EPA is an incredibly bureaucratic monstrosity full of inefficiencies and waste - just not the types they regulate - unfortunately. I digress.

I have owned some fuel inefficient vehicles - the most of which was my beloved 1986 K5 Blazer with a rebuilt 350, separate exhaust, and no catalytic converters (bought it that way). I think I got 12 mpg on a good day. When someone buys a vehicle like that, of course they don't care what the mileage is. I didn't care when I was in college and gas was $0.99. I just needed something to go 4-wheelin' and to hold both kayaks and my mountain bike on top. I don't want to know what my mileage was with all that up there!

Of course now I care, and our two vehicles get pretty darn good mileage. If you're shopping, I encourage you to consider mileage. A good place to start might be EPA's Green Vehicle Guide, or just click this post title.

Criticism aside, the EPA claims that it's new mileage analysis methods are more accurate starting with the 2008 models (concurrent with new sticker). I hope that's true. Our dependence on oil, and the painful drain on our wallets, needs to decrease.

Neighborhood Associations

Neighborhood associations, which were once reserved for the wealthy, are now quite common. It seems that every newer home in the Fort Wayne area is part of an association. As I found out, being green in an association is a challenge. As always, there are exceptions: Coffee Creek Center is a recent entry or communities like Greendale, WI, where a friend lives and pays enormous property taxes.

However, my association is not green, despite the beautifully manicured lawns and common areas. So I'll start there. We (association 'members') pay for a lawn service that cares for the common areas, including the entrance, the retention pond, and the open space. The open space is all grass with a few trees and a concrete path through it. The pond is just grass down to the water's edge, with ugly concrete ditches running into it. I will talk about lawn care another time.

The pond could be made much more beautiful, and environmentally beneficial, quite easily. If we stopped mowing down in low areas surrounding the pond, planted some native lowland and wetland plants, and let it thrive, we would quickly attract a huge variety of wildlife, and reduce our annual maintenance costs. Plus, we'd be filtering the runoff of all those pesticides and fertilizers before discharging that water to the creeks and rivers. I'm willing to bet that the maintenance required for a natural pond would be less than the current maintenance requirements. By the way, they actually go in and kill all the cattails every year. I still haven't figured that one out.

From the Association covenants and restrictions, "No clotheslines or clothes poles ... shall be ... used on a lot." Ever realize how efficient clothes-line drying is? No emissions, free energy. Clothes dryers are very energy-intensive and pretty damaging to your clothes. Apparently, clothes drying outside reduces property values and is an eyesore to some.

There is also a specific restriction on any type of solar panels. Not that they do a whole lot of good in NE Indiana, but they do work for a limited use.

So, my choice of a home in an association just adds a few more challenges in my desire to live more sustainably. Maybe I'll run for Association President and try to change some of those practices.

Paint Me Green

Or blue. Assuming my usual cell phone-talking position in my office, I leaned against the window sill and watched a train go by. The only reason this was different from any other time is that it had just been painted - a dark blue gray color. It hides surprisingly well on my jeans.

This latest of many acts of braindeadedness reminded me to talk about environmentally friendly paints. We all know the strong pungent odor of a good oil-based paint, including the odors from the gasoline or mineral spirits we used to clean them up. Now most people use the latex or other "water-based" paints for interior and exterior painting. But, you say, those paints still stink. Yes, they do. They still contain a lot of VOCs (volatile organic compounds), which are the solvents that carry the paint and then evaporate away during drying (and into the air in your home). You can read on the side of most paint cans what the VOC content is in pounds per gallon (lbs/gal).

The VOCs in paint are generally bad for people, like xylene and toluene, among others. They are also petrochemicals, which cause more than environmental harm these days (the chemicals themselves and the oil they come from).

The last 10 years, and especially the last few years has seen an explosion of low or no VOC paints, or even recycled paints. In fact, you can find them in most paint stores, although I have not seen them in Home Depot or Lowe's stores yet.

If you're looking for some interesting options, go here or a lot of other places easily found with a web search. Some ideas that have peaked my interest are the clay-based paints. The clay is completely non-toxic and will actually regulate the humidity in your home - it absorbs water slowly when humidity is high and then slowly releases it when humidity drops. Other cool ideas are milk paints and recycled paints. There are little operations around the world springing up that will collect unused paint and mix them together, and resell it usually quite affordably.

Warning: when buying low or no VOC paints, make sure to ask about the coloring. Often, the base is very low in VOCs, but the added coloring (who buys base color?) is quite high in VOC.

And .... yep, you'll usually pay more for these.

Know Your Watts

Turn off the lights!
Don't leave the TV on!
Turn the furnace down!

These are some of the key things taught to kids, and relayed to parents, about how to save energy (and money). My question, as a rather left-brained guy, has always been, "How do I know how much it really helps?" Watching your utility bill from one month to the next, with so many variables, really isn't too informative about your habits. One weekend with relatives over can throw the comparison out the window.

There are answers! One can purchase a Kill-A-Watt, into which you plug your items and watch how much energy they're using, and what it's costing you. Or, go home-wide by getting a PowerCost Monitor or a Cent-a-Meter. They have a sensor that attaches to your electrical meter or directly to wires in your panel, respectively. Wireless screens can then be placed anywhere in the house, which tell you the instantaneous usage as well and projected usage over time. You can set them (at least the PowerCost Monitor) up like a trip odometer so it will keep track of total cost since you last reset it.

My latest questions relate to the use of a ceiling fan or furnace fan and how it affects how often the furnace needs to kick on. If I put down the $150 for the PowerCost Monitor, I could find out.

DVD/CD Lifecycle Analysis & Reuse Idea

The EPA has developed a very basic, yet informative, Life Cycle Analysis of DVDs and CDs. If you don't know what a life cycle analysis is, read this.

I thought this was a good chance to relay a pretty cool idea for reusing those CD jewel cases that are lying all over the place - especially since you've already burned all your CDs into MP3 and don't know what to do with them all: photojojo.

If you don't like that idear, you can recycle or donate your old CDs in a whole heap of ways. Here's one way: EcoEncore will resell them with all profits going to enviro activities in the Puget Sound area.

I'm Dreaming of an LED Christmas

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are the latest craze in efficient lighting. They've been around for a long time for different uses. The first time I noticed them was maybe 5 years ago showing up on the upper brake light on luxury vehicles - when they were able to integrate the light into the top of the deck lid or into a spoiler. Then they started replacing street lights with them, and now every semi on the road has LED tail lights.

Why? They last a very long time and they use very little electricity. I won't bore you with the details, but it's true. They produce almost no heat too, which is another reason they are so attractive for live-tree-buying holiday celebrators who prefer not to burn down their homes this holiday season. Click here to read more about LED Christmas lights and their benefits.

I bought a few strands this year to try them out. We've had one large bulb color strand going for a couple months inside the house (don't worry, I didn't start lighting up the outside until after Thanksgiving) which my son really diggs. We put a few more white (kinda bluish really) and colored strands of the small bulbs on the tree. It is true that they produce almost no heat, which for those of you who don't understand the physics of it, means they are wasting very little energy. My son can walk up and touch them after being on for hours, and I have no fear of burns.

If you're looking to buy: I have found them at most stores I've surveyed. You'll pay a little more of course, but that doesn't seem to be keeping them on the shelves.

Fuel Cell Powers CA Christmas Tree

I just read that the California State Christmas Tree at the Capital is powered by a fuel cell. I think that's great - if nothing more than a demonstration of the technology and a means of promoting its further development.

Fuel cells have been used for decades to power space missions and other small or R&D uses. GM even produced a fuel cell van in the 60's that actually worked! That link to General Hydrogen (not part of GM) also gives a decent history of fuel cells.

There continues to be much debate on which is more environmentally friendly: real or artificial trees. Here's an article that discusses it a bit. That article claims that 85% of artificial trees are manufactured in China, which I don't doubt. Plus, artificial trees are mostly made from petrochemicals, which China has a shortage of (oil - they have plenty of coal). Then it must be shipped all the way here. Live trees (we like to cut our own down - so there is no transportation emissions) provide local jobs and absorb CO2 and other pollutants during the growing cycle. Then I mulch or compost mine each year. I could go on, but read that article and you'll hear many of the arguments.

Lastly, let me offer you a couple of sites for finding environmentally friendly Christmas ideas, from party ideas to gifts. Their subjects are pretty apparent in the URLs.

http://www.newdream.org/holiday/index.php

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/12/green_gift_guid_1.php

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/11/how_to_green_your_gifts.php

Happy Holidays

Gore = Personality ??

I just watched Al Gore's appearance on Leno and was really impressed. That guy barely displayed a heartbeat for 8 years in the White House and now he's talking about "hot glacier on glacier action" in "global warming gone wild" and doing bad imitations of Governor Arnold! I have not yet seen "An Inconvenient Truth", but hope to soon. The varmints don't allow too many 2 hour downtime opportunities.
Mr. Gore echoed something I said in a post this morning - that everybody can do something little that makes a difference - and saves money: compact flourescents (CFLs), programmable thermostats, etc. Easy, cheap things that will save you money and reduce your energy consumption.

The Start

I've been concerned about / interested in helping to protect the environment since probably elementary school. I was active in school organizations where we talked a lot and did just about nil, but my interest was always there. I planted 100+ trees as part of my eagle project. I decided to major in environmental chemistry in school. I got a job as an environmental engineer. I took a masters in environmental science and management. I've talked to kids about Earth Day and did water sampling with them.

So my formal studies and work, for the last 11 years (since high school), has been somehow related to environmental protection. Yet I still struggle every day to protect the environment.
A year ago, or so, I stumbled upon a blog at treehugger.com that kind of pushed me to the point where I'm really (finally!!) changing my focus and my habits. It's a good site with mainly really good posts. They present everything from dream-on-never-going-to-be-able-to-afford new inventions to anyone-can-do-this-at-home ideas. They present really-green things and just-a-little-bit-green things. The comments aren't filtered so you get honest and sometimes emotional views. Do I sound like an add for them? Yep. I think anyone who is interested in making a change in their life should view sites like theirs. If you want to make a change, and know how to find the url bar on your browser, you're smart enough to decode what is extreme and what is feasible for you.

The bottom line is that you don't have to be a vegan living in an off-grid straw-bale house and only motivate by bike to help the environment. Any little change you can make will help, and only the combination of those little changes by the masses will make the real nation- or world-wide differences we need. As you change, you'll learn. Then you'll change again, and learn some more. Before long, you'll seem like a real hippie to your neighbors. And before long, they'll be asking you how they can do those things too. Trust me, I'm experiencing it right now in my great little neighborhood with super nice people that just don't know how to change; they just need a little push and guidance.

The First

I want to discuss, hopefully with more than ... well ... myself, how a guy like me can keep working towards a sustainable existence while raising two small kids while living in the suburbs while working in foundries.

For the past 2+ years my absolute obsession has been by kids. My little man is now over 2 years old and is an absolute universe of fun, adventure, emotion, and amazement every day. My second, a little angel, is just over 2 months and has a heartbreaker's smile. My wife of 4.5 years is the engine and control system of our little spaceship of a family.

We live in an association in the suburbs of Fort Wayne, IN. Don't be impressed by "association". Our home is only 1350 sq. ft. with little attic and no basement. Our lot is something like 1/4 acre. The home is 4 years old and in good shape. Very little landscaping until we moved in in June and started tearing up the lawn.

Foundries. Are you starting to piece this non-sequitor blog title together? I work for a company that currently runs 5 gray and ductile iron foundries in the US. Foundries are of course widely (mis)understood and extremely dirty and polluting. Ok, they are dirty, and do pollute, but less than one might think. Less polluting, that is; they are usually quite dirty.

My intention in the forthcoming posts is to explore the challenges that my blog title invites, and hopefully solicit solutions for and discussions on those challenges.