No problem, we'll import your limo....

In one of those "what the what???" moments, an article from the Telegraph recently highlighted some of the resource-usage craziness that accompanies a large-scale conference like the one currently going on in Copenhagen.

From the article:

Ms Jorgensen reckons that between her and her rivals the total number of limos in Copenhagen next week has already broken the 1,200 barrier. The French alone rang up on Thursday and ordered another 42. "We haven't got enough limos in the country to fulfil the demand," she says. "We're having to drive them in hundreds of miles from Germany and Sweden."

Find the full article here.

In what has to be considered sort of ridiculous behavior, cars are being driven from Germany and Sweden to satisfy the demand of world leaders and big-shots who are trying to come together and figure a way out of our climate mess and to change the way the world behaves? No doubt, if we could get something done in Copenhagen, maybe all of the waste would be worth it (debatable) but if our leaders are living "business as usual" lives, how can we expect the agreements they come up with to be any different?

For once, I wish a large-scale conference like this would challenge the very notion of "normal" for our leaders too - not just provide them with a cushy forum to consider potential ideas for modifying "normal" lifestyles for the rest of us.

(A personal note: huge shout-out to my friend Simron, who is quoted in the article! =])

Challenging the Status Quo

" “I figured trailer parks were the one place left where hanging your laundry was actually still allowed,” she said, standing in front of her tidy yellow mobile home on an impeccably manicured lawn.

But she was wrong. Like the majority of the 60 million people who now live in the country’s roughly 300,000 private communities, Ms. Saylor was forbidden to dry her laundry outside because many people viewed it as an eyesore, not unlike storing junk cars in driveways, and a marker of poverty that lowers property values. "

This is from a recent article in the New York Times about the growing debate about line-drying clothes. Yes, you read that correctly, there is a debate in the nation about naturally drying clothes outside ones house. Apparently there is some sort of cost-benefit analysis that is taking place, comparing the negative effects of having laundry outside a house on property values with the positive environmental benefits of not consuming electricity to dry clothes.

From my standpoint, this is a pretty simple call - if we can dry clothes through real, original solar power, why not? Yet, for many people in this country, line-drying clothes is an overt display of poverty. This, to me, highlights the necessity for us in this country to really re-evaluate our priorities and our perspectives. Why?

Well, the debate isn't even about the quality of drying provided by the two methods (which is debatable... I personally LOVE the feeling of fluffy dryer-dried towels, but others swear by the fresh-scent of line-drying). This would be a debate I could get into. But this is not the debate. The debate has devolved into "eyesore of not." Are we really looking at this issue of wasted resources as a trade off for our own vanity? Do line-dried clothes in a yard actually affect the quality of living in a neighborhood? Would a better solution to this issue not be changing our perspective so that we no longer equated things like laundry-free yards and green grass lawns (another huge resource waste in arid areas like LA, Las Vegas, and Phoenix) with wealth and status?

Let's get down to the heart of matters and stop skirting the issue. We attach way to much importance to things that are outdated and actually unimportant. I'm pretty sure that you can still enjoy watch "Real Housewives of Atlanta" with your neighbor's laundry hanging in the yard next door, flitting in the wind next to your window. I mean, we actively choose to watch other people's dirty laundry on TV all the time, what's wrong with some clean laundry next door?

Stop being so pessimistic!

People who know me superficially will laugh at the title of this post. I admit. I can be a cynic, and an outspoken one at that. Yet, deep down inside, I'm an optimist. Really, I am. I am just more realistic of an optimist than most. :)

In any case, I was reading a capsule in Sunset magazine tonight about designer Shannon Quimby, resident of Portland, OR who undertook what she called the R.E.X. project. That stands for Reuse Everything Experiment. She essentially made it a goal to reuse everything from the tear-down of an old dilapidated house in building a new one on the same site. The idea was simple enough - why throw away perfectly good construction material that still has use (even if it's not in the same capacity as before)?

According to Sunset, she succeeded admirably, not using a single dumpster in the process. While I have always leaned towards restoration over new building - reasoning is also simple enough... there is a lot of stored energy, history, and resources in old buildings and it is incredibly wasteful just to bulldoze and dispose of all of it - but Ms. Quimby's demonstration of how to reuse everything and still get that nice new-house feeling is also quite tantalizing. It's not a bad second choice in my eyes.

However, what made me want to post about REX was the quote at the bottom of the Sunset article:

" In my neighborhood, there's a lot of community brainstorming. One reason the project succeeded was that I never heard "We don't do that." It was always "I don't know how to do that, but here's someone who does." "

Now I can't count the number of times that I've heard the first answer when I proposed environmentally friendly ideas that aren't even that radical to friends and family. And I've always hated that answer. "We don't do that." Or "we can't do that." It's such a cop-out and leaves no room for positive change or growth.

I was taught fairly early on that language reflects our beliefs and sends powerful signals - thus saying something "can't" be done is admitting defeat before even beginning, and nearly always untrue. A much more truthful way of responding would be to say that you "won't" do something - indicating a choice.

Bringing your own chopsticks or silverware to restaurants? Not "can't", but "won't."
Bringing your own bags to the grocery store? Same thing.
Bringing your own tupperware to doggie bag things? Ditto.
Taking public transportation in LA? Yup.
Building high-speed rail in America? You guessed it.

Not saying anyone has to do anything - but hey, if you're making a decision, own up to it at least. That being said, I personally wish the world would all own up to the things they "won't" do in life, and then decide that it WILL do them. :) To tie it back into what Ms. Quimby said... hey, of course you don't do 'that.' If you did, I wouldn't be asking. Now, let's figure out how we CAN do that. Otherwise, we'll never do anything new!

By the way, to read more about Shannon Quimby's project, visit her website!

Encouraging kids to exercise

Just read an interesting article on a non-profit organization called "Freiker" that encourages kids to walk or bike to school in return for the chance to win small prizes at the end of the year. While the material incentive system may or may not be the right one to underpin a program like this, there is no questioning the rationale behind getting kids to exercise more.

As stated in the article, 88 percent of students who lived within a mile of their grade schools got there by walking or biking in 1969. Today, the number has fallen to less than 16 percent. The rest now get dropped off, adding to carbon emissions, childhood obesity, and the plain-old bad habit of equating travel with a car.

Freiker aims to change this by instituting an accounting system for kids to record the number of trips they have biked or walked to school and competing with other kids at their schools for prizes based on the most trips during a school year. As of today, their website listed 130,000+ trips already since the non-profit started up 3 years ago. Let's hope the message gets out, and we can get more and more kids to use their own power to get to school. Carbon and physical fitness are definite upsides, but for me personally? Raising a generation of children who see that there are more options than just a car and who appreciate exercise.. this is the real payoff to me.

Adventures on the bus in the South Bay

The scene: I'm standing at a bus stop on El Camino Real with a bag of groceries in one hand, a bag of plant seedlings and two 8 foot bamboo poles in the other hand, and my bus pass in my mouth pleading with the bus driver to let me on the bus promising him that I won't impale anybody on the bus. Luckily for me, the bus driver let me in and I made it home. =)

The whole story: It's Saturday morning and I wanted to head up to Common Ground (a non-profit organic garden supply and education center) in Palo Alto to pick up some plant seedlings and seeds for my community garden plot. I have a couple non-driving options to make the 10 mile round trip from my house in downtown Mountain View: 1. I can take the Caltrain to California Ave (8 min train ride + 5-10 min walk on both ends), 2. I can take the 522 "Rapid" bus (15 min bus ride + 5-10 walk on both ends). I opt for the bus because it runs every 15 minutes whereas the train only runs every hour.

On my way there, I get lucky and the bus comes 1 min after I get there and I get to Palo Alto really fast. In fact I get there 20 min before Common Ground opens in the morning, so I stroll up California Ave to Palo Alto Baking Company. I wanted to pick up a baguette later in the day anyway (so I save a potential car trip!) and I also get a chance to pick up a chocolate mousse cake as a nice surprise for my wife. And then as I'm walking back down California Ave, I remember that I need to pick up chips for a Father's Day potluck at my daughter's daycare the following week so I stop in to Country Sun Natural Foods. I pick up some Kettle chips (they happen to be on sale!) plus some other groceries (including some Marin Sun Farms sustainably raised beef since it's the only outlet on the Peninsula for this). Another car trip later averted!

When I walk a couple blocks over to Common Ground, I pick up a few seed packets and some corn, watermelon and strawberry seedlings. And then I ask if they have a trellis for my sugar snap peas - I didn't see anything on their website so I wasn't expecting anything and was planning a trip to OSH later, but I figure it doesn't hurt to ask. They don't have wood or metal trellises, but they do have nylon trellis netting and 8 foot bamboo poles to stake the netting. Great! 3 potential car trips averted and a great, productive morning full of buying sustainable, eco-friendly goods from locally owned businesses without driving a single mile. The only thing I need to do is figure out how to get my bag of groceries, my bag of seedlings, and two 8 foot bamboo poles back on the bus. Will they let me on the bus? The bus driver wouldn't really say no, would he/she?

I walk the 2 blocks over to the bus stop and check the schedule for the bus. Another bus is coming in 5 minutes - nice! I get ready for the bus with my grocery bag in one hand, my other bag and bamboo poles in the other, and my bus pass in my mouth so I can get on the bus quickly. When the bus pulls up, the bus door opens and the bus driver yells at me, "You can't come on the bus with those!", pointing at my bamboo poles. "I don't want you to hurt someone." So, I'm on the sidewalk with my hands full with my wonderful, productive morning possibly going down the train (or at least taking a long detour). But I plead my case promising not to hurt anyone on the bus, that I'm not a crazy guy (despite my strange belongings) and that I need to catch the bus to make it home. Thank you, VTA bus driver! I didn't catch your name, but I made a positive comment on the VTA website on your bus # and route! Total trip time: 1 hr 45 min. 4 errands completed, all without getting in a car, and home by 11am.

June driving/non-driving totals thru 6/13:

- Driving solo: 8 miles

- Driving w/ carpool: 108 miles (96 on 1 trip to SF)

- Days of no driving: 6 out of 12 days with 0 miles driving

http://transformca.org/blog/adventures-bus-south-bay

Car-Free Challenge Days 1-5: Cut my car mileage in half!

In the first 5 days of the car-free challenge, I'm happy with the results: cut my car mileage in half, from 14-16 miles in a 'normal' week to 8 miles total (4 miles solo, 4 miles carpooling).

As I started thinking after the first day, it's not necessary all or nothing, it's about being more thoughtful about walking, biking or taking transit when I can - carpooling more and bunching driving trips together when I can't. There will be some days when work seems a bit crazy and Kaiya wakes up late where I will make the choice to not stroll her the 1 mile to daycare so I can make it to work when I want/need to. And there will be plenty of days when the whole family is up early enough to take the leisurely 20 min stroll each way to/from daycare.

Alas, today is the big challenge that I have not figured out how to tackle. We're having brunch at the SF Ferry Plaza: CUESA is putting on a Spring Breakfast with delicious souding food and a chance to talk to farmers who grow sustainable food. This is about 70 miles round trip. In theory getting to the Ferry Plaza is public transit friendly (walk 5 blocks to Caltrain, Caltrain to SF, MUNI to Embarcadero). The challenges are the combination of time (the trip each way would take ~ 1 hr 45 min taking public tranist vs. 45 min driving), timing (the trains to/from SF on the weekends only run every hour) and making the trip work for my daughter (the ride there would probably be fine but the ride back could be a nightmare if she is melting down). If it was just me and my daughter, I'd probably risk taking public transit on principle (and risk a rough trip), but I don't feel super comfortable subjecting my wife to the potential ordeal.

We're going with 2 other friends so we can all carpool together (and they would drive anyway so overall we're not adding mileage that would be driven anyways). But I still wish I could figure out a better way to balance all of this and cut this car trip out. We'll see...

http://transformca.org/blog/days-1-5-cut-my-car-mileage-half

Car-Free Challenge Day 1: 0 miles!

I generally don't drive that much as it is.  I live in a very walkable neighborhood (downtown Mountain View) and take the train to work.  I try to take the train on the weekends when public transit access is decent (for example, to the Sunnyvale farmer's market).  And before my bike was stolen a couple weeks ago, I would try to (but admittedly not always) bike around town for errands such as grocery shopping, going to my community garden, etc.  

The one car trip that I have taken every day for the last year is dropping off my daughter at daycare every morning.  Daycare is only 1 mile from my house.  Close enough to walk, but far enough to consider other options.  I have looked at the bus schedule but it doesn't quite work out with the train schedule I need to take to work.  And I thought about biking her to daycare, but I never got off my butt and invested in a baby seat or a trailer (and now there's even more inertia since my bike was stolen).  So I had been resigned to driving because a) I wanted to be time-efficient and I already try to cram a lot into my work day to maximize the time I can spend at home, and b) it's unpredictable enough to get my daughter to wake up in time for me to drive her to daycare and catch the train without adding more time needed to walk. 

But with the car-free challenge, my perspective is changing.  I had been leaving the house at 8am to drive my daughter to daycare - this gave me plenty of time for drop-off, including a little slack if I was running late and time to check email or do stuff around the house after dropping her off and before going to work.  The car-free challenge has prompted me to think about alternatives, and I realized I have a couple options...

1. Walking my daughter to daycare is actually not that slow.  I was worried that I would have to leave 30 min earlier at 7:30am to make this work.  To the contrary, I found out today that I can leave at 7:45am and have enough time to walk her to school and back and still make the train (I just forego the 10 min I had at home for other stuff).  15 minutes earlier than I had been leaving the house before is not that bad at all - especially when I consider that the walk is nice and another opportunity for me to get outdoors, and it reduces my regular daily driving miles to 0!

2. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. I don't have to drive her everyday or walk her everyday.  There will be days when my daughter wakes up late, and I will need to drive her to catch my regular train (and there may be days my schedule is a bit more flexible where her getting up late is okay and I can catch the train that is 15 minutes later).  And there may be days when it's too rainy or I'm too tired to walk or it's too cold for Kaiya, and that's okay if I drive her to daycare.  If I am conscious of this choice that I have every day, I'm guessing that I will choose to walk at least half the time, and that can cut down on many hundreds of miles that I drive every year. 

If I don't get anything else out of this car-free challenge, this shift in my perspective on Day 1 has been well worth it.

http://transformca.org/blog/day-1-0-miles-0

Take the Car Free Challenge!

From the Car Free Challenge Website:

During the month of June the average Bay Area resident will drive 540 miles and the average American driver more than 1,000 miles. Think you can do better?

Join a huge community of people in setting and reaching a personal low mileage goal in the month of June - plus win great prizes and share your stories of taking transit, walking, and bicycling. Whether driving less is stretch for you or already a way of life, we want you to take the Challenge!

Together we will send a powerful message to our leaders that a critical mass of people want to drive less and live more.

http://transformca.org/live/car-free-challenge

Kids. Walking. Duh.

"They set up a piedibus (literally foot-bus in Italian) — a bus route with a driver but no vehicle. Each morning a mix of paid staff members and parental volunteers in fluorescent yellow vests lead lines of walking students along Lecco's twisting streets to the schools' gates, Pied Piper-style, stopping here and there as their flock expands." (full story here.)

I have to admit that I smiled when I first read this article, as I pictured a long line of kids walking to school with a few adults herding them, no doubt skipping and laughing the whole way there. To me, this seems like a no-brainer. Let's not even get into the potential environmental benefit - let's just talk about getting children into the habit of walking and exercising, something that happens far too little in the lives of today's children.

We begin, through our own choices, to teach children very early on that time is money, and often more important than things like exercise or quality. I remember when I was kindergarten young, my mother used to walk me to and from school, and after I started going to school normal hours, I'd walk with my sister. While I've never really considered it before, I think this habit of walking to school was rather formative. Living outside of the US (and away from LA) has allowed me to rediscover my appreciation of walking. Living in Hong Kong or Budapest or Lund, walking one or two miles to get somewhere again become something commonplace and expected in my life. I rather like it this way.

Now, let's get to the short and long term benefits of walking. Short-term - as the article points out, less carbon emissions, better health, more quality social time with other kids, interacting with the real world, and a better sense of community. The long-term benefits (which also include the positives from building a sense of community) are things like comfort with walking, greater appreciation of nature, a different notion of the value of time, and other intangibles that stem from reconnecting to our bipedal-selves. Moreover, if we can get kids to be comfortable with walking from an early age, it could translate into adults who are comfortable with walking - perhaps the start of an anti-car revolution for those trips that last less than a couple of blocks. It also doesn't hurt to have parents interact more and help create stronger bonds within a community.

I think we should all push for more "piedibus" in our own communities. Don't you?

Hybrids everywhere

IHT recently had an article about Honda's big push into the hybrid market with their Prius-beating new Insight model. As the article mentions, the Insight is quite a bit cheaper than the Prius and hopes to steal market share from the Prius through this advantage. Lower cost does come at a price though, as the environmental performance isn't as good as Prius (which in turn, isn't as good as say, all electric vehicles.) Honda however is counting on the idea that people now WANT to be identified with a Hybrid car, and are proud to drive them around.

"Instead of the more complicated hybrid system used in the Prius, the Insight’s main source of power is a lightweight gasoline engine that is assisted by smaller batteries. That greatly reduces manufacturing costs but gives the Insight a highway fuel efficiency of 5.5 liters per 100 kilometers, or 43 miles per gallon — about 4 percent worse than that of the Prius. The Insight also shares parts with other Honda models, which helps the carmaker keep costs to a minimum." (full article here)

Inherent in this business strategy is the idea that people actually don't care as much about the real environmental benefits of their hybrid cars, but instead care more about showing that they care. As paradoxical as that statement is. Indeed, this is probably what's behind some of the more ridiculous "green machines" that I've seen recently, including the Hybrid Cadillac Escalade, an uber-luxury SUV that gets something like a whopping 21mpg. I mean, who are we kidding here?

I'm just as happy as the next tree-hugger to see more cars being produced that will finally drive our fuel economy figures up - but aren't we running a really dangerous line between going in the right direction and intentionally misleading ourselves? Sure, you can feel good that you're driving a HYBRID SUV, but you're still polluting the environment 2-3x as much with every mile you drive as some guy driving a Smart or a Prius.

Green Propaganda

No, this isn't a post about the name or origins of this site, this is a post to call out what really IS green propaganda. I recently found a post on USA Today about one of James Hansen's blog entries (famous NASA climatologist and outspoken climate change advocate). In it he advises: "Do not fall for the moguls' dirtiest trick – 'green' messages spewed to the public. That is propaganda, intended to leave the impression they are moving in the right direction." (blog entry here.)

I could not agree more. Staying in the US again for the first time in a long time, I am surprised at how "green" advertising has gotten. Not only are there tons of "green" ads in magazines, but "green" ads are making their way onto network television. This may not be a good thing however, as companies try to capitalize on growing green consciousness with products aimed at this market - products that may or may truly reflect more environmentally friendly practices or footprints.

My own personal "enemy number one" is ExxonMobil. They have embarked on a highly visible campaign with the tagline "Taking on the World's Toughest Energy Challenges." One of their commercials talks about how they are investing in technology that will let discover and tap into energy in ever-more-remote places. The commercial says nothing about conservation or the environmental impacts of continued high fossil fuel usage. Another more "green" commercial, touts how cars have become more efficient today and how Exxon is investing in making cars more efficient. This commercial (Europe) is particularly galling, especially given the fact that Exxon is PROUD to be investing virtually nothing in alternative energy or renewable energy while making record profits and lining their own pockets.

Send a message to Exxon that we won't stand for their green-washing ways, and boycott Exxon and Mobil gas stations (heck, boycott driving every once in a while also.) Take action and send Exxon emails asking them to prove their commercials to be true, to show us what percentage of their R&D is actually being invested in truly environmentally friendly technologies. This company has proven, time and time again, that they could care less about reducing the world's energy footprint and are more than happy to continue to turn fossil fuels into pure profit for themselves and their shareholders. 20 years on from the terrible Exxon Valdez spill, and Exxon is STILL one of the worst corporate environmental offenders. Shame.

Re-thinking getting around

Living in the sprawling 'burbs of Silicon Valley, it can be easy to not think about how to get around. If you don't think about it, most people will default to getting in their car and driving to wherever they need to go - whether it be 20 miles or 2 miles away.  

I've decided to do an easy thing and just start thinking more.  For the last few years, I have already tried to limit my car use - with a fair amount of success (I take the train to work every day and live in an area where I can walk to most everyday amenities like the bank, restaurants, coffee shops, pharmacy/convenience store, library, etc.).  However, I have to admit, I have become complacent about it.  I think about the bigger choices I make (commuting by train) and often get lazy about the little choices (sometimes driving the 0.75 miles to my community garden plot instead of walking or biking).  

But I've been inspired.  If I spend just a little bit more time thinking about how I get around, I think it can make a huge difference. 

For example, this afternoon, I went to a gardening class in a neighboring city (Sunnyvale), a short 3 1/2 miles from my house.  I could have very easily got in my car and driven 5-10 minutes there and back and not thought a thing about it.  But a couple days ago, I decided to spend 5-10 minutes looking into if I could get there by public transit.  I found out that I could indeed take the train there.   The 25 minute trip if I walked to/from the train station (5 minutes from my house to the station, 5 minutes on the train, and 15 minutes from the Sunnyvale train station to the gardening class).  And then I realized if I rode my bike, I could cut the trip to 15 minutes!  5-10 minutes of planning ahead of time and I could feel good about not having to get in my car for an out of the ordinary outing - not bad. 

And then when it came time to actually make the trip today... I was running late from lunch, so I was scrambling to get out the door on time to catch the train.  And then when I got downstairs, I realized that my tires were a bit low on air so I spent a couple minutes I didn't have pumping up my tires. And then I scrambled onto my bike, booked it to the train station, and... got there 2 minutes too late!  For a second, I was peeved by the fallacies of taking public transit.  And then I realized that the class was only 3.5 miles away and that I could probably make it there in 15-20 minutes and still be there on time.  So I jumped back on my bike and dragged my out of shape ass down there in time for the class.  After the class was over, I was tired and it had started to rain, so I biked the 1/2 mile to the Sunnyvale train station and took the train home. 

When I got home, it felt so good to have biked and taken public transit to my class.  And I realized that all I needed to do was to think just a little bit more.  All the info to make these decisions is at my fingertips (Google Maps, Google Transit and/or 511.org).  And then I was inspired when I thought of the huge impact we could have on the world just by thinking a little bit more. 

Food From The Hood

Totally random, but saw a mention in the Green America's Winter 2009 Newsletter and thought it is worth a mention under here's-a-creative-way-to-get-to-an-economy-that-supports-a-triple-bottom-line (people, planet and profits) category:

Food From the Hood is a student-managed business that started out of an unused garden at Crenshaw High in LA that sells salad dressings (in leading SoCal grocery stores, and even on amazon.com) and where profits provide scholarships for kids going to college ($140K to date).

Where has the logic gone?

Saw one of those horrendous mobile billboard trucks on the road today and was VERY surprised to see "We do it green" advertised on the back of the truck. What?!?! If you don't know what a mobile billboard company is, basically, they drive small trucks around with a big billboard stuck on the back, advertising something or another. It's easily one of the best examples of how our economy has completely lost it's mind, as this business model no doubt promises the potential for profit (or else it wouldn't exist), even though they make no sense whatsoever from an environmental, social, or any other perspective. Driving a billboard around to advertise so that other people driving around can go and buy some product that they don't need. This is EXACTLY how our economy should operate.

But, beyond this insanity, this company has the AUDACITY to talk about greening their business? I'm sorry, as much as I'm for eco-modernization, technological breakthroughs, CSR, and the like, SOME business models just SHOULD NOT EXIST. Green-washing on this scale is either complete self-delusion or pandering to current interests.

Check out what these guys have to say here: Do It Outdoors

Funny. Or sad. I can't tell.