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Though written a bit tongue-in-cheek, I found this article that ran in the Washington Post last week, made a compelling argument that becoming green begins with reduced consumption. One of the points made in the article regarded our propensity to continually replace that which is no longer the newest or the best: “The culture of obsolescence has become so deeply ingrained that it’s practically reflexive.”
I was reminded of another Post column I had read recently — unrelated to the environmental movement. In the article, Jeanne Marie Laskas, was wearing boots with a broken shoelace when a student in her class said, “Looks like it’s time for some new boots.”
“I looked down. There was nothing wrong with the boot itself. ‘It’s a shoelace,’ I said, and made a remark about buying a pair of new laces,” Laskas wrote.
Quickly we come to the argument about whether or not a 10,000 square foot home that is LEED certified is actually “green.” Apparently some people in Washington state have a strong opinion about this. While I would never condone such an extreme act, I do question the validity of the claim.
I suppose that what I’m trying to say, is that while I’m encouraged by the changes I am seeing in the movement to being more environmentally aware as a society, until we’re able to connect that awareness to our actual consumption, we still have a ways to go.
As environmentalist Paul Hawken said in the Post article: “Really going green … ‘means having less. It does mean less. Everyone is saying, ‘You don’t have to change your lifestyle.’ Well, yes, actually, you do.“
Elizabeth Striano
Consultant and writer on sustainability and the environment
www.agreenfootprint.com
Helping you leave a green footprint on the world…
There’s a lot of debate these days on the motivation behind all of these businesses going green. Businesses large and small produce more than 50% of all global warming gases and nearly 75% of the waste generated. As a result, they stand to play a significant role in our quest to improve our sustainability as a nation. And more and more, businesses that go green seem to find that they profit from their efforts. And here’s the thing: There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
If becoming more efficient, having a marketing advantage, and saving money is the initial driving factor to eventually doing good, then I’m all for it. Eventually, it will become a cycle of companies producing more green products in a more sustainable way, and consumers demanding more. Then more companies of all sizes will have no choice but to follow.
While I am not personally a big supporter of WalMart and believe they have along way to go. I do believe that they have it within their power the ability to catalyze immense change the world over in how goods are manufactured and distributed. They are making demands of their vendors, who in turn make demands of their vendors, and so on. You see where all of this is going.
Remember the first step in addressing any problem is awareness. And that’s where we’re at now. There is a lot of work that needs to be done. And if business leads the way, we all will follow. Eventually it will become just the “way things are done.”
Elizabeth Striano
Consultant and writer on sustainability and the environment
www.agreenfootprint.com
Helping you leave a green footprint on the world…
OK, OK, I keep seeing all of these articles about the wonderful advent of the LED Christmas lights. Yes, they do reduce electricity use as you can see from the comparison below:
A string of C-7 (large) bulbs: 4 watts per bulb x 25 bulbs per string = 100 watts per hour
A string of mini-lights: 0.4 watts per bulb x 100 bulbs per string = 40 watts per hour
A string of LED lights: 0.04 watts per bulb x 100 bulbs per string = 4 watts per hour
But at the risk of being called a Grinch, I have a few questions. First, how many people are actually ditching their old, traditional lights for the new LED lights? My guess is not many (which I guess is good in a way, since then they’d end up in a landfill somewhere). Second, what good are the LED lights if they are left on all day and all night as their new owners take advantage of their energy-efficient properties? Not good at all. As I drive through my suburban neighborhood, I am stunned by the amount of holiday lights I see (not to mention the blow up decorations with their power-hungry fans). What happened here? I thought people were becoming more aware of their personal contributions to global warming!
Energy use can increase as much as 27% from November to December, largely due to holiday lighting. According to Ask Pablo, “If you traditionally decorate your house with twenty 100-bulb strings you require 850 W. If you turn your lights on for 6 hours per day this adds up to 5.1 kWh per day. If you put your lights up a month before Christmas you will have used 153 kWh to spread joy into the world, not to mention heat and light pollution. At $0.15/kWh the cost for this would be over $22.”
Now I don’t feel so bad about my single string of colored lights around my front door.
Elizabeth Striano
Consultant and writer on sustainability and the environment
www.agreenfootprint.com
Helping you leave a green footprint on the world…
Just a short note: Did anyone see the article in the Washington Post about the link between divorce and the environment? The research on which the article was based was apparently legit; the National Academy of Sciences published it. According to the authors, “researchers calculated that in 2005, divorced American households used between 42 and 61 percent more resources per person than before they separated, spending 46 percent more per person on electricity and 56 percent more on water.”
I suppose that now, those of us who are trying to live a more sustainable existence might want to add “get married” to our green to-do lists. Of course, reviewers warn that “the findings serve as an argument for marriage and cohabitation, rather than as reason not to divorce.”
Elizabeth Striano
Consultant and writer on sustainability and the environment
www.agreenfootprint.com
Helping you leave a green footprint on the world…
In addition to the post about DC’s sustainability conference I wrote for this blog, I also wrote a couple of stories for online green news sources that I wanted to share:
1) DC Region Leaders Gather at Summit to Shape Sustainability Efforts
2) DC Region Grows Green Business Opportunities
3) Green Building Standards Drafted For Use in Local Building Codes
4) Compete on Green Or Fall Behind
There might be a couple more to come. I’ll update this list when they are available.
Elizabeth Striano
Consultant and writer on sustainability and the environment
www.agreenfootprint.com
Helping you leave a green footprint on the world…
Yesterday I attended the the Greater Washington Board of Trade’s annual conference. What made this year’s event different, however, was its focus on positioning the DC region as a leader in sustainability in the United States. Top officials from government, business, non-profits and associations met to discuss how we can make this happen. At the end of the day, attendees chose their goals. The top ranked: a regional target for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Others were to create incentives for businesses to become sustainable and to create an awareness campaign to educate the public.
As one of the first speakers in the morning, Gov. Timothy Kaine (D-VA) really seemed understand the urgency of Virginia’s environmental issues — quite a change for this state in which individual property rights almost always trump all other consideration. He spoke about point source versus non-point source pollution and carbon emissions like an expert. He outlined the state’s plans for sustainability. And while they won’t blow anyone away, they are concrete: 1) greater independence in our energy use, both through conservation, renewable sources, and in-state sources; 2) consumer education about conservation and reduced consumption; 3) reduction of greenhouse gases; and 4) research — he cited several example of initiatives with state colleges are looking at renewable fuel sources, including algae as a feedstock.
DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, however, spoke in broad terms about the region’s transportation issues and the Anacostia River and Chesapeake Bay without committing to anything. Granted he has many other issues to deal with, notably decaying city schools, high unemployment in a city where jobs are growing, yawning disparity between the wealthy and poor, and disintegrating support services. But he clearly had decoupled all of these issues from the city’s environmental challenges, which, long-term could be a mistake. One thing Fenty did not mention were initiatives like DC Greenworks, a non-profit in DC that not only designs and installs green roofs, but trains and employs under-served adults in the city. They also work with organizations like Covenant House, which helps disadvantaged DC young adults. Public and environmental problems solved together. We need a lot more like these examples.
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley was unable to attend at the last minute.
Well I need to hit my deadlines, so I’ll follow up on this post with more details later.
Elizabeth Striano
Consultant and writer on sustainability and the environment
www.agreenfootprint.com
Helping you leave a green footprint on the world…
This weekend my family and I attended the Solar Decathalon in Washington, D.C., in which teams from 20 colleges the world over are competing to design, build, and operate a livable, energy-efficient completely solar-powered house. In this, the third installment of the bi-annual event, attendees are invited to tour the small, sustainable homes temporarily built right on the National Mall. They’re really quite amazing, and beautiful in their uniqueness quite apart from their green-ness (take a look at the photos!). I couldn’t help but think to myself (and echoed by my husband) — “I could live in this house” — at least a few times because the small spaces were that well designed.
But what I found most amazing, were the crowds! We had attended this event just a few short years ago, and were able to wander unimpeded into house after house. Spending a leisurely amount of time in each home, learning about the bamboo flooring, solar panels, water saving devices, and passive heating and cooling features. Not so this year. Each home boasted a line 25-30 people deep that could take as long as a half-hour to navigate starting at the opening bell. I felt like I was at an amusement park! Except instead of a high-energy ride, I was entering a low-energy house.
Complaints about the crowds aside, I have to wonder if this newfound interest on the part of attendees was due to better publicity or a growing interest among consumers in all aspects of green building and living. I am, obviously, hoping for the latter. Because I am a firm believer in the idea that each of us, as individuals, need to take responsibility for our own contributions to global warming. However small, the changes we make as individuals, when added together, can have a big impact.
“If you decide to save the earth, it will be saved. Each person can be as powerful as the most powerful person who ever lived — and that is you, if you love this planet.” – as worded far more eloquently by Helen Caldicott, who has devoted her life to educating people about how we can reduce our environmental impact.
Sponsored by the Department of Energy, the event also features workshops for consumers to learn more about how to make their own homes more efficient. The Decathalon runs through Friday, Oct. 20. If you are in the area, and have not yet attended, I encourage you to do so. But be prepared to stand in line.
Last weekend featured yet another green event in DC — the annual Green Festival hosted by Global Exchange and Co-op America. The event will be duplicated in San Francisco Nov. 9-11. More consumer oriented and including many green products, the event also featured both education and inspirational speakers on sustainability in our homes and our lives.
And at the end of this month, I will be attending the D.C. metro area Board of Trade’s 2007 Potomac Conference, which will focus on green as a competitive advantage. According to the website: “In an historic joint appearance, VA Gov. Tim Kaine, MD Gov. Martin O’Malley and DC Mayor Adrian Fenty will each discuss their vision for a “green” region, and how our community can work together to address environmental challenges and take advantage of green business opportunities.”
I’ll be covering this event for GreenBiz.com and Environmental Leader, two excellent sources of sustainability news in the business community.
Now I know I always complain that the relatively conservative DC area is a bit behind the curve on sustainability — particularly in the area of business and government. But I have to admit, that this rash of events may be an indication of a far bigger change. Certainly there are many individuals who have always been committed to improving the environment in this area, and I don’t want to leave them out. And many, many environmental organizations are based here (often due to the close proximity to federal offices for funding and lobbying). But we need the commitment from local, regional, and federal governments and businesses before we’re going to see real change.
Perhaps this groundswell of interest from consumers and regional events is the first indication of our very own regional tipping point?
P.S. I was featured on a blog about women entrepreneurs as part of Blog Action Day, in which bloggers “around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind – the environment.”
Elizabeth Striano
Consultant and writer on sustainability and the environment
www.agreenfootprint.com
Helping you leave a green footprint on the world…
Yesterday I attended a lecture at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, on environmentally sustainable campuses as part of their annual Fall for the Book event. Presenter Jim Merkel, former sustainability coordinator at Dartmouth College and author of Radical Simplicity: Small Footprints on a Finite Earth, asked audience members to imagine a future in which GMU had become a sustainable campus. (He’s an amazing guy with a great story BTW, I encourage you to check out his website and book.)
Jim asked us to turn to our neighbors and imagine the new sights, sounds, and smells we might experience. Simply put, I was stunned by what I heard: The student sitting next to me had absolutely nothing to say. He had no thoughts whatsoever on how the campus might be improved, changed, or more efficient. I even tried prompting him for possible ideas (I didn’t tell him of my background), to no avail. He was at a complete loss as to how GMU could be sustainable in the future. How is this possible? I was under the impression that from an early age, U.S. school children are being taught environmental education (not like when I went to school in the ’80s!). I figured that by college, these children would have grown into environmentally aware adults.
Now I certainly don’t want to jump to any conclusions based on this one interaction. But then I got this press release from the Go Green Initiative that boasted how over 1 million students and teachers in the U.S. had gone green. At first glance, that looks great. But then you look at the statistics: There are over 45 million students in the U.S. and nearly 3 million teachers according to the NASBE.
I got curious. I found out that my own children’s school in Fairfax County — in one of the largest school systems in the country — does not even have a recycling program in place (yet)! I plan to meet with the PTA about starting the Go Green Initiative there next week.
My point is this: If we are serious about increasing our environmental sustainability as a nation, shouldn’t we be starting in the schools?
Elizabeth Striano
Consultant and writer on sustainability and the environment
www.agreenfootprint.com
Helping you leave a green footprint on the world…
At the risk of showing my dorkier side, I just have to say that I was happy to see Thomas Dolby (of “She Blinded Me With Science” fame for those who haven’t kept up with this genius) is planning to record his next album using only solar and wind energy. More impressive I think, is that, as he says himself, “It may be perceived by some as me jumping on the current green bandwagon, but that’s really not the case.” He goes on to talk about his family’s other, longer-term “green” habits.
My point in mentioning this is that I wonder if the expanding celebrity greening is a positive sign for the growing Green Wave, as coined in the book Green to Gold. I was surprised to learn that there is even a blog dedicated to celebrity green gossip. What I find intriguing about this type of news, is that it’s more about celebrities DOING green rather than PREACHING green. We all tire quickly when some rich and famous celebrity tries to tell us how we should be living our lives. But it’s a different thing all together when they are doing actually doing something themselves (something positive of course) without being preachy about it.
Could we all, as Americans, be persuaded by this more gentle push to become more environmentally sustainable?
