Here are the articles that I wrote for TriplePundit.com during and after the 2009 Net Impact Conference at Cornell University.
Have you ever seen a flock of birds or a shoal of fish change direction very quickly? This is called an emergent behavior; according to Wickipedia: An emergent behavior or emergent property can appear when a number of simple entities (agents) operate in an environment, forming more complex behaviors as a collective.
Think of how we are becoming more and more interconnected. My social networks are growing everyday. While I am not totally sold on social networks, they are setting us up so that we will be able to quickly organize and coordinate.
We may not think that our society is moving quickly enough towards solving the problems of our time, but look at the birds and get inspired!
Watch this video called “Greensumption”. This is something that needs to be discussed. We think we have it all figured out, don’t we???
Consumers expect all types of food, with no concession to season or geography. This used to be mainly a habit of the richer countries, but now the developing world is taking our example.
Why is this like this? Well part of the reason is that there was a little-known international treaty signed in Chicago in 1944 called the Convention on International Civil Aviation to help the (then) fledgling airline industry. This was basically a tax exemption on fuel for international transport of goods, unlike what we pay for cars and trucks. Also, the exemption extended to ocean freighters.
This is only part of the reason, the other part is that the labor in the developing world is so cheap.
There is much debate about the carbon footprint of a good versus the distance it traveled. They are not always the same. Sometimes, people argue, that the locally produced good has a higher carbon footprint than an imported good. I would think this is a rarity, and if this is the case, I think that we can find ways to minimize the locally produced footprint much easier than the one from across the world.
I would prefer to just reinstate the tax on all of this transported food from all over the world. We need the cost of food to reflect the distances covered and energy used to get the food to us. Firstly, we should have labels about where everything comes from, which I am starting to see more and more although you really have to have good eyes! Secondly, we should have a carbon footprint label on the item. Maybe they could be the same label.
Meanwhile, as a food shopper, I would suggest to buy as locally as you can and to buy in bulk as much as you can to minimize packaging. Now that I know better, I will change my much-ingrained habits. Or do my best…that’s about all any of us can do.
In some ways, however, China is way ahead of the ball in protecting the environment. One prime example: China just placed a nationwide ban on plastic bags. The move is designed to prevent litter and save millions of barrels of oil each year. In a country where up to 3 billion plastic bags are used each day, the significance of this legislation is huge.
By comparison, the U.S. is still struggling to move away from plastic bags. San Francisco banned plastic bags last year, and last month Los Angeles became the second city in the U.S. to enact a plastic bag ban.
Certainly, change can sometimes be easier accomplished when dictated by an authoritarian government such as China’s. The beauty of our democracy, and the reason most of us would prefer to live in the U.S. than China, is that we can all play a part in making change. Frustratingly, though, this can all too often lead to political gridlock, or the hijacking of our future by narrow business interests.
The challenge is on. Let’s show the world that our democracy can bring about the changes that are needed for a sustainable future.
The spark that started in SF and LA needs to move across the country. Talk to your friends, family, and neighbors about ways to reduce or eliminate the use of plastic bags. Express your opinion in your local newspaper, and persuade your city council or state legislature that this change is needed. Our future depends on it.
This post was authored by my friend, Lee Hwang.
chezpanissefoundation.org
Last week, I attended a lively panel discussion in San Francisco titled “How We Eat and the Slow Food Nation.” The panel featured Alice Waters, one of the most famous chefs in America and founder of the Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California. Her talk highlighted the ways in which we can strengthen and revitalize our sense of community through a more mindful approach to food. She recounted that when she was a teenager in the 1960s, she visited France and observed that the people there visited the market every morning, buying only the freshest ingredients available that day. No processed food, no food shipped from far away. She noticed how food connected family and friends together in the “rituals of the table,” making life so much more enjoyable and vibrant. Thus inspired, she returned to America with a mission: to bring back that same sense of community, enlivened through delicious food bought directly from farmers and cooked with an emphasis on letting the simple, natural flavors predominate. Eventually, this approach became known as California cuisine, and history was made.
These days, Alice is promoting edible education in the schools. Her program, called the “Edible Schoolyard,” provides urban schoolchildren with a hands-on, concrete learning experience in growing their own organic food and cooking it in a kitchen classroom. In the process, the kids learn about ecology, biology, and nutrition, while also enjoying the tangible fruits of their own labors. As described on the “Edible Schoolyard” website, the program’s mission is two-fold:
Children learn about the connection between what they eat and where it comes from, with the goal of fostering environmental stewardship and revolutionizing the school lunch program.
In this way, not only do kids learn important lessons about taking care of themselves and the larger world through a more direct experience of food, but they also eat more nutritiously. Sounds like a win-win to me!
If edible education sounds like a good idea to you, I urge you to take action. Discuss this idea with others in your community and persuade your local school to establish its own “Edible Schoolyard.” The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Start now and you can make a difference, too!
www.rodhunt.com
Lately, I have been thinking that it would be great to gather a few close friends and try to make something together. We could all pitch in to make it come to life, the cooperation of many minds and some sweat.
I had set myself the goal of owning a house by the age of 30. As the deadline draws closer (my birthday is in two months), and after looking around a bit in the San Francisco Bay Area, this goal seems almost impossible! I could get discouraged (which is easy), or I could get even. Well, not really even – but I could think outside the box a bit.
Most people my age who can afford to buy a house are earning a ton of money or their family helps them out by co-signing. I sadly fall into neither of those categories. I will just have to make it happen by involving other people. And that could lead to some amazing things, including having fun in a dynamic environment!
Communes, you say? This may sound like a “back to the earth” hippy idea, but so what? Maybe the hippies had some ideas right. It’s not the idea, but the execution of it to meet your OWN needs, that is important.
I sense a deep unsettled feeling in my generation that something is askew. It is very hard to put this into words, let alone speak for a whole generation, but I think we are all searching for something that we haven’t quite found yet: a real sense of community. You may say, “but, we have facebook.” I don’t mean community in the sense of an online world, but a REAL community of people who support and care for one another in our local environment on a day-to-day basis.
I challenge everyone out there thinking of buying a dream house to change their paradigm of what a perfect living situation is. We are already separated so much by technology and cars, shouldn’t our homes be a nourishing and social place? For a lot of us, the home become a reclusion, where we hide away.
For the past few months, I have had my eye on the affordable, high-quality and attractive designs of pre-fabricated modular homes, like Michelle Kaufmann Designs [http://www.mkd-arc.com/]. The benefits are many, including quick construction, higher quality building techniques and the most cutting-edge green technology already integrated into the design. It is as fun as Lego as the houses practically “snap” together.
MKD has a product called the mkLoft ™, a 2-bedroom 1350-2115 ft2 loft space that would be perfect for -but not limited to – more dense living areas. These big, semi-detached lofts simply fit together in a line and the more you put together, the cheaper each one gets. Each mkLoft ™ costs only $372,845 installed, including foundation preparation and everything. Not bad for a cutting-edge green building that will save you tons of money in the long-run, not to mention high resale values in the future.
This is only one idea.
The main point is that we need to start thinking differently about what we aspire to in our lives and how we structure our future. Our generation will perhaps see some of the biggest changes ever in the history of modern society. It is up to us to reconfigure the status quo more in line with our values. The key word of the next century is going to be: LOCAL. No longer can we live side by side in obscurity. We need to get out of our comfort zone and foster the communities in our direct vicinity.
For a cool blog about green living, visit Michelle Kaufmann’s blog [http://blog.michellekaufmann.com/].
This is an amazing video of William McDonough (www.mcdonough.com) from the Bioneers conference in 2000. Another visionary that is willing to challenge the capitalism paradigm is Annie Leonard of the Story of Stuff. These two individuals are really the most interesting speakers on the subject of sustainability that I have heard recently.
Today, the plumber came and turned off our water. There was a leak in the pipes and the plumber couldn’t fix it for three days. “Three days!!!”, I exclaimed.
It is amazing how helpless you are suddenly when there is no ready supply of water.
I quickly filled a few buckets and some other receptacles and then that was that – the water was off. I washed my hands with just a few cups of water. The process went like this: get the hands wet, apply soap, scrub, then add more water until there were no suds left. Brushing teeth was extremely economical. I was able to brush my teeth AND rinse with just one cup of water.
I realized that most of our water usage habits are based on laziness.
I am not as bad these days as I used to be back before Al Gore was a Nobel Peace Prize winner. I used to leave the tap running in many situations, including when I was brushing my teeth. Even though I have much better habits nowadays, having NO water made me think just how far I could push this conservation thing. I became a super-efficient “water hero” who only used exactly what he needed. Actually, in the third world, most everyone consumes water like this, and much less I’m sure.
It was annoying having to use the neighbor’s shower, but having to shape my consumption habits was really no more time-consuming than my regular routines – once I adjusted, that is. We really don’t appreciate how lucky we are to have limitless clean water flowing out of our taps on command and we certainly have no idea about the true value of water until there is none!
So CONSERVE it!!!
“San Francisco is the first jurisdiction in the country to adopt the ambitious goals of 75% landfill diversion by 2010 and zero waste by 2020. To accomplish these goals we must promote producer and consumer responsibility to prevent waste and take full advantage of our nation-leading recycling and composting programs.” – Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San FranciscoSan Francisco is not alone. Many cities around the world are committing to zero waste. Wal-Mart is even working to achieve zero waste. Yes, Wal-Mart.
San Francisco’s environment department and its waste contractor, a $500-million year employee-owned company called Norcal Waste Systems, is using a three-bin system to collect refuse from homes and businesses. Garbage goes in a black bin. Traditional recyclables, including bottles, cans and paper, go in a blue bin. Food waste and yard trimmings go into a green bin.
The food and yard waste of the green bin are trucked to a factory 50 miles away in Vacaville, turned into a rich compost called “Four Course Compost” and sold to Napa Valley wineries and farms, among other uses.
In order to make urban composting more manageable and more pleasant, there are mini compost bins that can make all the difference in getting people to actually use the bigger city-supplied green bin. These mini-compost collectors live in your kitchen and allow a once-a-day “dump” to the bigger, official green bins provided by Norcal Waste Systems. They also minimize any smells! Although simple, this little stepping stone could allow the mass adoption and use of urban composting.
You still have to buy these bins, but they are a nice green addition to your kitchen. Spread the word. You can buy them here:
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/ceramic-compost-crock.html
http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=187529
Alternatively, if you live outside of the city or have more open space, you can start your own worm composting factory!!! It’s addictive to see your worms break down your food waste into rich soil for your garden!
To make one: http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm
To buy one: http://www.cleanairgardening.com/worcomverbin.html
