Gaining Green Ground

By: Green Blogger

 

Here's a thing not often seen in the U.S. - a "First Nation's" Chief sanctifying an urban conference about the Resiliency of Cities. First of all, we don't refer to our Native Americans as "First Nations people" and rarely are they offered the honor of sanctifying civic events.

 

But up in Canada, they do things a bit differently. And so, for the 6th Gaining Ground Summit, this one focused on Resilient Cities, Chief Bill Williams of the Squamish First Nation, on whose tribal land the Vancouver Convention Center was built, led opening ceremonies with a traditional drum chant.

Gene Miller, Founder of Gaining Ground, says that a resilient city has 1) a green action plan and 2) a green economic plan.  He sees cities as a productive point of convergence, "In cities, people can talk common sense to each other," said Miller.

 

Speakers at the Summit, held over three days, Oct. 20-22nd, included Cam Brewer, Executive Director, Smart Growth, B.C., an actively engaged community stakeholder in B.C.'s green development and sustainable growth and a significant sponsor of the Summit.

 

Speakers also included Anita Burke, Founder of the Catalyst Institute whose professional background is Big Oil, i.e. "working for change from within" as she's quick to clarify; and Majora Carter, a "green Queen" of S. Bronx and a recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Grant along with about 100 other featured speakers and workshop facilitators.

 

Gregor Robertson, the 44 yr. old charismatic Mayor of Vancouver and organic farmer [his company is called 'Happy Planet,' if that lends any insight...] has thrown his hat into the ring to claim Vancouver the Greenest of the Green cities.  "This is a friendly competition," he says.

 

Robertson's youthful exuberance was on display when he urged the 600 delegates of the Gaining Ground Summit to "ramp up your efforts as aggressively as you can...The stakes have never been higher for us and for future generations to come."

 

Following his own advice, he unveiled the ten points organized into three main groupings to achieve Vancouver's Bright Green Future,  - oh, yeah, and a city-wide composting system.

1) Green Economy, Green Jobs:  this category includes establishing metro Vancouver as a "mecca for green enterprise."

2) Greener Communities: includes "achieving a one-planet ecological footprint" for the city.

3) Human Health:  the three points in this category were A. Clean Water i.e. best drinking water; B. Clean Air;  C. Local Food, "to become a global leader in urban food systems."

 

Read more  Here: Vancouver Sun  

 

And entire proposal in PDF here: http://www.vancouversun.com/pdf/Vancouver2020ABrightGreenFuture.pdf

 

Rob Abbott, who, as the conference Moderator introduced Mayor Robertson by the very proper, if archaic, "His Majesty," commented that "Sustainability is not a problem to be solved but a future to be created."  Robertson said he'd rather not be addressed as "His Majesty." 

 

Robertson's action plan for 2020 must now be "tabled" (transl. = passed) by the Council in order for it to be officially adopted.  His administration is also helping oversee the implementation of the Greenest Olympics in history.  Environmental consultant Tim Reeve of Reeve Consulting points out that it is one thing to set the guidelines that all official Olympic 2009 apparel, for example, meet the no-sweatshop standard and then a whole other ballgame when it comes to implementing policy.

 

 It's quite possible like that Vancouver might nab the Emerald City title when even people like Paul Hawken, keynote Summit speaker, admits that he and his fellow Californians "idolize" Vancouver as a "touchstone" of urban green planning.

 

Hawken dropped gems like, "Our fate as human beings depends on cities. We are nothing without each other."  He took a bit of a stick to the media saying that, "The trivialization of the environment is still occurring in so many places in the media."

 

He quoted several times from Herman Daly, pointing out that we are underutilizing our most plentiful resource - people.  "We are using more of what we have less of to use less of what we have more of - human beings."

 

Hawken Gives Keynote at Gaining Ground

 

And in yet another address, where forming thoughts fired off synapses as Hawken spoke, this inspirational environmentalist and entrepreneur left us savoring, "The city gives us an extraordinary way to re-imagine what it is to be a human being."

 

Gaining Ground B.C. '09 tied Portland in with Vancouver in a strong way.  There's this popular notion of Cascadia that is being volleyed about.  Cascadia is the term used for the bio-region that extends from Metro Vancouver down to Portland. Cascadia, the bio-region, mitigates the division of sovereign state borders and sees the harmony and interdependence of a region and its resources.

 

Portland delegates made a big showing, including Mayor Sam Adams and Nike's Director of Sustainability, Sarah Severn, who is headquartered in the U.S.'s most livable city, Portland - a city which also boasts a dearth of job opportunities for its ever-increasing inhabitants.

 

California might have been invited to the party.  When asked, Miller responded he hadn't thought of it. California may be outside the bio-regional zone of Cascadia but many of its cities have shown extraordinary resiliency.

 

Cam Brewer, Executive Director of SmartGrowth B.C. reinforced that, "Cities are for human beings with human values."  He alighted on the deceptively simple feature of a city's "walkability factor."

 

"If a city has a walkability factor, surprise, surprise...people will walk.  When people walk, they are healthier. How can we bemoan escalating costs of health care while simultaneously spending billions on freeway and road infrastructure?" asked Brewer.

 

Hawken similarly noted how absurd it is for oil producing nations to assume they deserve reimbursement for loss of revenue, "attributable" to use of alternative energy sources.  "That's like a typewriter company asking Intel to reimburse them for loss of market share."

 

Civil Disobedience

 

Hawken called on our common intellectual ancestor, Thoreau, and referenced his Master Work, Civil Disobedience. He summed up the work as "Standing for the truth, no matter how unpopular it is."

 

B.C. former Premier, Mike Harcourt was down with this sentiment.  He took the podium during the Summit and related how, in his more youthful days, he was known as "Ho Chi Harcourt," in part do to his moustache he sported at the time but mostly from his reputation as a young lawyer defending draft dodgers and refugee immigrants.

 

Harcourt also said that for Vancouver to be the "greenest" city, you have to get political. "Move ideas to action."

 

Posted via email from greenblognetwork's posterous

Gaining Green Ground

Gaining Green Ground

By: Green Blogger

 

Here's a thing not often seen in the U.S. - a "First Nation's" Chief sanctifying an urban conference about the Resiliency of Cities. First of all, we don't refer to our Native Americans as "First Nations people" and rarely are they offered the honor of sanctifying civic events.

 

But up in Canada, they do things a bit differently. And so, for the 6th Gaining Ground Summit, this one focused on Resilient Cities, Chief Bill Williams of the Squamish First Nation, on whose tribal land the Vancouver Convention Center was built, led opening ceremonies with a traditional drum chant.

Gene Miller, Founder of Gaining Ground, says that a resilient city has 1) a green action plan and 2) a green economic plan.  He sees cities as a productive point of convergence, "In cities, people can talk common sense to each other," said Miller.

 

Speakers at the Summit, held over three days, Oct. 20-22nd, included Cam Brewer, Executive Director, Smart Growth, B.C., an actively engaged community stakeholder in B.C.'s green development and sustainable growth and a significant sponsor of the Summit.

 

Speakers also included Anita Burke, Founder of the Catalyst Institute whose professional background is Big Oil, i.e. "working for change from within" as she's quick to clarify; and Majora Carter, a "green Queen" of S. Bronx and a recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Grant along with about 100 other featured speakers and workshop facilitators.

 

Gregor Robertson, the 44 yr. old charismatic Mayor of Vancouver and organic farmer [his company is called 'Happy Planet,' if that lends any insight...] has thrown his hat into the ring to claim Vancouver the Greenest of the Green cities.  "This is a friendly competition," he says.

 

Robertson's youthful exuberance was on display when he urged the 600 delegates of the Gaining Ground Summit to "ramp up your efforts as aggressively as you can...The stakes have never been higher for us and for future generations to come."

 

Following his own advice, he unveiled the ten points organized into three main groupings to achieve Vancouver's Bright Green Future,  - oh, yeah, and a city-wide composting system.

1) Green Economy, Green Jobs:  this category includes establishing metro Vancouver as a "mecca for green enterprise."

2) Greener Communities: includes "achieving a one-planet ecological footprint" for the city.

3) Human Health:  the three points in this category were A. Clean Water i.e. best drinking water; B. Clean Air;  C. Local Food, "to become a global leader in urban food systems."

 

Read more  Here: Vancouver Sun  

 

And entire proposal in PDF here: http://www.vancouversun.com/pdf/Vancouver2020ABrightGreenFuture.pdf

 

Rob Abbott, who, as the conference Moderator introduced Mayor Robertson by the very proper, if archaic, "His Majesty," commented that "Sustainability is not a problem to be solved but a future to be created."  Robertson said he'd rather not be addressed as "His Majesty." 

 

Robertson's action plan for 2020 must now be "tabled" (transl. = passed) by the Council in order for it to be officially adopted.  His administration is also helping oversee the implementation of the Greenest Olympics in history.  Environmental consultant Tim Reeve of Reeve Consulting points out that it is one thing to set the guidelines that all official Olympic 2009 apparel, for example, meet the no-sweatshop standard and then a whole other ballgame when it comes to implementing policy.

 

 It's quite possible like that Vancouver might nab the Emerald City title when even people like Paul Hawken, keynote Summit speaker, admits that he and his fellow Californians "idolize" Vancouver as a "touchstone" of urban green planning.

 

Hawken dropped gems like, "Our fate as human beings depends on cities. We are nothing without each other."  He took a bit of a stick to the media saying that, "The trivialization of the environment is still occurring in so many places in the media."

 

He quoted several times from Herman Daly, pointing out that we are underutilizing our most plentiful resource - people.  "We are using more of what we have less of to use less of what we have more of - human beings."

 

Hawken Gives Keynote at Gaining Ground

 

And in yet another address, where forming thoughts fired off synapses as Hawken spoke, this inspirational environmentalist and entrepreneur left us savoring, "The city gives us an extraordinary way to re-imagine what it is to be a human being."

 

Gaining Ground B.C. '09 tied Portland in with Vancouver in a strong way.  There's this popular notion of Cascadia that is being volleyed about.  Cascadia is the term used for the bio-region that extends from Metro Vancouver down to Portland. Cascadia, the bio-region, mitigates the division of sovereign state borders and sees the harmony and interdependence of a region and its resources.

 

Portland delegates made a big showing, including Mayor Sam Adams and Nike's Director of Sustainability, Sarah Severn, who is headquartered in the U.S.'s most livable city, Portland - a city which also boasts a dearth of job opportunities for its ever-increasing inhabitants.

 

California might have been invited to the party.  When asked, Miller responded he hadn't thought of it. California may be outside the bio-regional zone of Cascadia but many of its cities have shown extraordinary resiliency.

 

Cam Brewer, Executive Director of SmartGrowth B.C. reinforced that, "Cities are for human beings with human values."  He alighted on the deceptively simple feature of a city's "walkability factor."

 

"If a city has a walkability factor, surprise, surprise...people will walk.  When people walk, they are healthier. How can we bemoan escalating costs of health care while simultaneously spending billions on freeway and road infrastructure?" asked Brewer.

 

Hawken similarly noted how absurd it is for oil producing nations to assume they deserve reimbursement for loss of revenue, "attributable" to use of alternative energy sources.  "That's like a typewriter company asking Intel to reimburse them for loss of market share."

 

Civil Disobedience

 

Hawken called on our common intellectual ancestor, Thoreau, and referenced his Master Work, Civil Disobedience. He summed up the work as "Standing for the truth, no matter how unpopular it is."

 

B.C. former Premier, Mike Harcourt was down with this sentiment.  He took the podium during the Summit and related how, in his more youthful days, he was known as "Ho Chi Harcourt," in part do to his moustache he sported at the time but mostly from his reputation as a young lawyer defending draft dodgers and refugee immigrants.

 

Harcourt also said that for Vancouver to be the "greenest" city, you have to get political. "Move ideas to action."

 

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from greenblognetwork's posterous

Gaining Green Ground

Page on Permaculture

By Linda Buzzell

Psychotherapist, co-editor "Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind"

Read more at: Huffington Post

Permaculture's popping up all over. It's really catching on with young green activists like Juno star Ellen Page, who recently took a break from Hollywood to talk on the Ellen DeGeneres show about her experiences studying permaculture design in an eco-village near Eugene, Oregon.

Teen Hollywood 

reports that Page "spent a month living on the settlement and learned how to live more simply -- and how valuable urine can be."

Page told Teen Hollywood "It's about living in a holistic way with the earth and reintegrating our lifestyles with the natural cycles ... It was amazing. Anyone at all who has a passion for it can learn about it and use it in their lives in so many different ways ... like peeing in a bucket and using it on your compost. Pee is an excellent source of nitrogen."

But what the heck IS permaculture, besides peeing into a bucket?

Permaculture is an ecological design system based on deep observation of nature, and can be applied to gardens, farms, landscapes, homes and also to "invisible systems" like communities, economies, societies, our psyches and even our spiritual practices. It's a path towards sustainable living that is patterned on the way nature works, and can be applied in rural, suburban and urban areas.

Permaculture was invented in Australia in the 1970s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and is just now really catching on around the planet. The word "permaculture" is an abbreviation for "permanent agriculture" or "permanent culture."

NaturalNews.com reports that "Permaculture is a way of living; it involves sustainability, ethics, community living, harmony with nature, appropriate technology, organic living, organic farming, etc. It is a way to integrate nature and people in the most sustainable way."

"In permaculture, ethics and design principles are used to help us make good decisions for the people and the environment." NaturalNews also tell us that Permaculture follows three ethics:

Care for the land: Actions to protect the environment and improve it. Earth should be seen as a whole.

Care for the people: It involves the physical and psychological aspects, for example providing food and shelter, natural medications, reduce daily hard work, and provide equal opportunities for all people.

Care for the future: It is very important if we want to conserve our resources. Some of the aspects that it involves are recycling, planning, cooperation not competition, supporting local economy, and the use of renewable energy and resources.

My husband and I took the Permaculture Design Course a few years ago and found it incredibly useful and eye-opening. (No peeing in a bucket during our class, though!) What we learned was that the permaculture principles can be applied to every aspect of your daily life as you move towards a happier, more nature-connected and sustainable way of living.

------

Here are a few resources for those who would like to learn more about permaculture:

• The Permaculture Institute
• "Greening the Desert:" an amazing video of how permaculturist Geoff Lawton turned pure desert into a lush oasis using permaculture.
• Ellen Page talking about permaculture on Ellen Degeneres.
• "Introduction to Permaculture" by Cathe' Fish is a 6-DVD set of her 2-day workshop with comprehensive, practical information and lavishly-illustrated slideshows. Cathe' covers principles, land, water harvesting, soil, zones, gardens, plants, guilds, bio-remediation, food forests, solar greenhouses, buildings, villages, and more. Available here.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-buzzell/what-the-heck-is-permacul_b_323106.html

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Page on Permaculture

Shaken, Not Stirred

By Christina McGregor

Publisher of "Green Me Up Scotty!" 

http://greeningme101.blogspot.com/

Shaken, not stirred

So it's blog action day. The subject this year ? Climate Change.

First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue.

I took a geology course in college that was dubbed 'rocks for jocks' because it was considered an easy credit. While I enjoyed the plate tectonics as such, it was learning about past climates that tweaked my interest on the subject. Climate Change, formerly known as Global Warming, is the latest media vernacular when reporting on all things green.

I find fear is the number one tactic used by environmental brain-trusts when trying to get their message across. If we don't do X now, we'll get Y later than eventually Z. (Oooh not Z). And Y not. Fear motivates a lot of human behavior - fear of failure - fear of dying - fear of flying - fear of work. I personally fear hummus. When someone puts a bowl of that stuff in front of me I have to leave the room. It's scary. I shudder just thinking about it. Fear as a tactic to fight Climate Change is one dimensional. Actionable yes but educational no. You don't conquer fears by not understanding them. (I'm getting therapy for the hummus btw). 

How does one conquer climate change exactly ? Don a toque when it's cold?

As we look to take action on Blog Action Day - let's try something other than fear as the motivator for change. 

So here's my offering. Climate Change for Christina is 2 fold. The first knowing Climate Change is about the earth's natural evolution over time. You know as we orbit around the sun, stuff happens, ummm, like the southern continents get warmer, I think, umm, yup they do this time of year cause, yah know, they're closer to the sun. Over longer periods of time, the earth's climate has a tendency to change drastically.

The second fold of Climate Change for Christina is mankind. Our nature as survivor & species taking up more of earth's real-estate as each year passes. Our ability to reproduce, adapt and evolve (ha ha) to the ever changing climate makes for some bad-ass mammals.

Making sense of the fact that population growth continues while the earth remains the same size is for the scientists to figure out. They've got a pretty good idea now. Yet it's increasingly become more complex and a problem we need to address sooner rather than later. So they say. Thus Climate Change as the subject de jour - and taking better care of the environment - the action. The solution is complex - improving how we re-produce renewable non-carbon-emitting-energy products for the masses. 

Quiz Time

Q: What generates emission free electricity, cools our nuclear tubes and makes for a refreshing beverage? Oil? no. Coal? no. Cow poop? No.

A: For Aqua. In the great white north, we have an abundance of the most important resource of all things life on the planet. The majority of Canada’s power production (just under 60%) comes from hydroelectricity. In Ontario, Nuclear and Hydro combined represent 75% of power production – all of which is non carbon emitting. (*Source: laforet.ca)

I'll leave this post with a question.

Q: If our greatest natural resource is the key to human survival, the planet's well being & provider of clean energy. Why we talkin' bout 'clean coal', building wind farms and solar panels when we're ignoring what's got us this far ?

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Shaken, Not Stirred

Has Mom Been Teaching Me to Go Green?

By Wesley Cronk

Wesley Cronk is the Sustainability Director for the SEEC Foundation.  

SEEC is the Social Environmental Economic Concerns Foundation.

http://seecfoundation.org/

Has Mom Been Teaching Me to Go Green?

Writing a paper about sustainable development the other day, I reached the conclusion and needed one final sentence to tie everything together. Struggling to come up with something witty I was picking every last corner of my brain until out of leftfield an old piece of parental advice came to mind: treat others the way you want to be treated.

Actually using this phrase as the last line in my paper would have been a disaster so I left it out. Put in context it made absolutely no sense. This did give me the chance to stop and wonder for a while though. Could my parents have been giving me better advice than I had realized this whole time? Have they been giving me tips for being green this entire time?

After spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about this vague possibility, I realized that a lot of “momisms” are surprisingly applicable to living sustainably. Here are some of the better ones:

 

·      “Treat others the way you want to be treated”: Exact opposite of the “not in my backyard” mindset that Americans often possess, consciously or not. The perfect example of this is in China, where workers wearing little protection process 90% of the electronic waste that we produce. Laden with toxins and heavy metals, the recycling process is extremely hazardous. Mom would not like the way we are treating the developing world.

·      “Money doesn’t grow on trees”: Mom’s way of condemning deforestation? Sounds like it to me.

·      “Close the door behind you, we don’t live in a barn”: Sometimes accompanied by the “we aren’t air conditioning the neighborhood” line, Mom was teaching me energy efficiency before I knew what energy was. My parents being serious about weatherization could explain why we had so much caulk in the garage.

·      “I’m not your personal taxi service”: Mom was apparently preparing for climate change before Al Gore. Explains why I rode a bike so many places when I was younger.

·      “I brought you into this world and I can take you out”: This was less motherly advice than it was a reality check for when I acted up. Regardless, it holds true on the largest scale. Earth has nurtured humanity to this point and has the ability to wipe us out. Lucky for me my Mom couldn’t punish me with climate change.

 

I admit that the entire concept of this post is a bit of a stretch but I wanted to follow through with it because I did come to some realizations during this exercise. American society has developed an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude that has let us stray from some fundamentals. Would you be upset with China dumping their toxic waste in the park near your house? I’m sure they aren’t happy with us when they get cancer from ours.

 

Mom was right about more than I want to admit. If you are ever trying to think of a way that you can live ‘greener’ try going back to the basics and consider that motherly advice you stored away in the archives of your mind. Just don’t tell your Mom that she was right or you will get a momism that you don’t want: “I told you so.” 

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Has Mom Been Teaching Me to Go Green?

New York's First Ever Green Fashion Show Sports "Green" Hair

By Samantha Green

The first-ever GreenShows during New York Fashion Week!  Hair for the 7 acclaimed, eco-conscious designers - Bodkin, Bahar Shahpar, Izzy Lane, House of Organic, Lara Miller, Mr. Larkin and STUDY by Tara St. James was done by the original John Masters, pioneer of "green" hair!

   

"Whether it was something as simple as a slicked back pony or as fierce as a fishbone braid, we saw women become [eco-] super heros. It was inspiring to see great, runway hair that was not acheived by using a toxic cocktail of chemical styling products."  - John Masters, Founder/Owner - John Masters Organics

STUDY by Tara St. James
"Attack of the Clones" was the theme for hair. All models wore high pony tails. If the hair wasn't long enough, it was worn slicked back.

Bahar Shahpar
"Warrior Princess" was the inspiration.  The models wore fishbone braids or multiple ponytials to achieve a Mohawk effect which was then finished with a connecting French Braid.

Bodkin
"Super simple" was the directive here.

Lara Miller
"Nick of time" where the models wore high, slick pony tails.

House of Organics
"A Run Through Nature." The designer intended the models to look like children who had just come in from a run through nature.

Mr. Larkin
The "morning after" was the look achieved. Think waking up the morning after the prom - the hairpins are still in place but the hair isn't.

Izzy Lane
Back to the 60's. Think style icons Brigitte Bardot and Twiggy.

All looks achieved using John Masters newest styling product suite.

---

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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New York's First Ever Green Fashion Show Sports "Green" Hair

ECO-YOGA MAT De Jour

By: Darrah Le Montre

 

Yogamatic.com is gaining a lot of attention these days as the only customize-able, eco-yoga mat out there!  Featured on Extra, The Ellen Show, E! and in leading magazines, Yogamatic.com allows people the opportunity to design their own custom one-of-a-kind yoga mat!  By uploading photos onto their website, a truly unique experience is born!  Nobody else in the gym or at the resort will have YOUR eco-mat!  Plus, in addition to being able to make your own mat, you can also choose from over 200 designs in their online Gallery.  Wicked!  And the images range from the Dalai Lama to Barack Obama's inaugural speech, foraying into pop art and even more irreverent images.  Made from sustainable and compost-able materials, the mats are printed using water-soluble ink, so they are non-toxic.  There are no toxins, lead, phthalates or chemicals.  Ever.  You can collect different mats and gift them this holiday season!  Active in philanthropy, the Santa Monica-based company got a boost when Donna Karan and Calvin Klein created exclusive mats whereas 100% of proceeds benefit "Fashion Targets Breast Cancer."  And now Alice+Olivia designer du jour, Stacey Bendet, has two mats with her classic neon flavor, sold in her Malibu Lumber Yard and Beverly Hills stores.  5% of proceeds on all mats purchased from YM benefit the leading environmental charity Global Green.

Yogamatic.com is turning stereotypes about Yoga upside down.  Their new web-series "POSERS: Yogastyles of the Movers and Shakers" is an edgy "Yogamentary" capturing a wide array of vibrant Los Angeles personalities; Actors, Musicians, Captains of Industry, and Celebrity Instructors who offer their take on Yoga and how it has impacted and transformed their daily life.  Including Academy Award nominated actress Mariel Hemingway, Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Michelle Branch, Celebrity Instructor Mandy Ingber, "Skinny Bitch" bestselling author Rory Freedman, Yoga Works' Vinnie Marino, who was recently hailed "L.A.'s Yoga King" by New York Times and many more!  Check out POSERS here: www.youtube.com/customyogamats

Darrah Le Montre is a yoga enthusiast and green professional.

http://www.yogamatic.com/

Twitter: @yogamatic

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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ECO-YOGA MAT De Jour

Bio Plastics - Gettin' The Skinny

By Elizabeth Rickard Shah

The new age – Bio Plastics (sustainable design) 

In the l967 movie The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman's character was advised to go into "Plastics!" if he wanted a promising career and a prosperous future.  Since then we truly entered into the Age of Plastics. 

100 million tons of Plastic are produced every year.  We use plastic in and for about everything we consume. From a Design perspective this great invention is doing a fantastic job. It is going to be a challenging to replace it.

Yet unless we re think our approach to manufacturing, design and invention, this AGE OF PLASTIC is here to stay.

Nether the less, this revolutionary material that has had such a huge purpose in our consumer driven lives, is actually damaging our very existence.  

As a designer myself, I believe that our roles as designers/creators/inventors, is to use our creativity and ideas to introduce new innovations as well as improve on what already exists. And as designer who believes in protecting our environment, I believe if we can do our job whilst incorporating sustainability and understanding nature’s cycle, we can and should help reshape our future.

I recently had the opportunity to explore and research bio plastics.  This research opened a world to me that in my opinion is not only innovating, but co –exists with today's economic environment. Further more it is part social, part green business, part design and part re-invention of human industry and it is one of our best hopes for a future of sustaining prosperity whilst still respecting nature.

However this emerging Industry, although around sine the 1900’s still has to prove its way. There is little if any consumer awareness. Leading understandably to skepticism. 

Are they really what they say they are and how do we know?

Bio plastics are polymers that are generated from renewable natural sources,

They can be produced by biological systems (i.e. micro-organisms, plants and animals), or chemically synthesized from biological starting materials (e.g. sugars, starch, natural fats or oils, etc.). 

Bio plastics have enhanced environmental properties. The most important being that they are biodegradable and compostable.

But what does this mean?

Biodegradability is the natural process by which organic matter decomposes. Composting is the common process.

Four factors play a role

1. Moisture
2. Oxygen
3. Temperature
4. Micro-organisms

It is important that the three stages of process occur.

1. Fragmentation. The matter breaks down into Fragments which are invisible to the human eye but still present in the environment
2. Bio – assimilation. Micro organisms in the ground digest fragments
3. Mineralization. Elements which can be absorbed by plants

It is important to add that waste produced by biodegradation must not pose a toxic hazard for the environment.

Biodegradation can occur in a controlled environment – composting.Or in natural environment. 

There are very high standard certification processes involved, which need to adhere to all of the above before one can claim to have a bio plastic.

The most important tests at present are

ASTM D6400 Test to certify if a product can be composted

ASTM D6868 Test to determine if a biodegradable plastic is truly biodegradable

EN 13432 European Test to determine biodegradability and compostability of plastics

In fact consumers should be demanding that biodegradable products on the market demonstrate either one of these standards if they do not already.

Other reliable symbols to look out for are

   

In Italy where I live there is a Bio plastics company called Novamont that produce a biopolymer Mater-Bi. Please visit their website. www.mater-bi.com.

Novament exemplifies the continual research required and necessary to bring the Future to us

My local supermarket FIRENZE COOP replaced all of their classic petroleum made shopping bags with a compostable substitute made from Mater-bi ., the biopolymer produced by Novamont.

They appear to have been a huge success. I myself composted one of the bags and indeed it biodegraded within weeks.

However I do understand all the concerns surrounding bio-plastic. Although there has been an incredible step forward, there are still underlying issues.

In fact most plastic bags that claim to be biodegradable are in fact partially destroyed fragmentation and not comply with the standard EN 13432 (the strictest of all standards)

For more information visit. www.greenplastic.com

Further more, It is important that consumers are concerned about whether or not the natural sources are GMO enhanced, or if increasing production of corn affects the food chain.  Where the raw material comes from, and what types of pesticides are used.  There is at least five other blogs that could be written in defense of or put argument to, all of the above.

There is a wealth of information on all the bio plastic producers websites, which can answer many concerns, however there is often not enough on the end usage or finished product.

Here are some useful website that are both informative and helpful

www.bioplastics24.com

www.sustainablebusiness.com

www.bpiworld.org

www.bpsweb.net

www.biothinking.com

www.biolymers.net

The widespread use of Bio plastics will depend on how successful they can be in the marketplace. To do that we all need to understand and trust them. This will depend on how strongly we are committed to, environmental preservation, and sustainable technologies, as well as realizing also it is a work in progress. There are growing signs that people indeed want to live in greater harmony with nature and leave future generations a healthy planet. If so, bio plastics will help bring us into a NEW AGE. 
 
Elizabeth Rickard Shah is the co-founder of PURE, a chrome-free leather goods manufacture and design company based in Italy, where she lives with her husband and daughter.

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Bio Plastics - Gettin' The Skinny

Greening Hollywood: Green Warriors

Green Warriors is a book published by The Rand Corporation,
commissioned by the United States Army.

"Prompted by the growing importance of environmental considerations in
military operations, the Army Environmental Policy Institute (AEPI) asked
RAND to examine how the Army approaches this issue in overseas
contingency operations...".

The book's 228 pages are full of statistics and operational objectives
of the U.S. Army focused primarily on mitigating environmental impacts
of overseas operations, here the focus is mostly on Iraq, and also
addresses some of the challenges that the Army faces in its environmental
objectives such as when barracks are classified as temporary and yet
remain servicing troops for several years.

To classify such installations as semi-permanent would allow for greater
environmental program objectives to be installed and carried out.  So the book,
on many points, strives to be candid not only about achieved objectives but
also on what needs to be addressed to better carry out these objectives.

In Addison D. Davis IV's article, "Beyond An Inconvenient Truth: The
Army's March Toward Operational Sustainability," he underlines the
army's motto of a "triple bottom line."  The Triple Bottom Line consists
of mission, environment and community. Davis is Deputy Assistant
Secretary of the Army for Environment, Safety and Occupational Health. 
He writes, "the contributions of the military community can have a profound
effect on the environment, through recycling of household and commercial
waste, reduction of consumables, carpooling and other initiatives that
reduce unnecessary use of materials."

Green Warriors notes, and illustrates with graphs and surveys, that
consistently the #1 environmental issue of concern for Iraqis is clean
drinking water. 

Book has a glossary and index.  For example, the definition of Black Water: 
Water that has been mixed with waste from the toilet.

Interesting that such a prominent Security Firm in overseas operations
would have taken that as its, now infamous, company name.

I wonder what the young Hollywood set, as in Paris and Brittany, might
have to say about Black Water and the importance of clean water as
a U.S. environmental policy?

Green Warriors can be downloaded from this site: http://www.aepi.army.mil/

It has prompted me to want to read how the U.S. Army and other branches of
our military are ensuring safe, clean drinking water for our citizens domestically.

Read More:  The Green Blog Network   http://greenblognetwork.blogspot.com

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Greening Hollywood: Green Warriors

Greening Hollywood: Social Justice 4 Kids

By Paige Donner

School lunches are a social justice issue for children in our country today. Sugar is our nation’s biggest addiction, after oil.

And sugar, coupled with poor nutrition, is just as debilitating. A poor diet, one that is preservative rich and nutrient poor, causes kids to feel sluggish, perform poorly and addles their brains. This is referred to as the "achievement gap" because it generally affects children of lower-income households.

So while everyone is talking about healthcare reform, let's talk a little about growing a healthy next generation so we won't need so much healthcare. It's called preventative medicine. Anyone ever hear of it?

On Harry Shearer’s most recent Le Show, he cited stories from Australia where the number of children who are getting “lap bands” and gastro-intestinal surgery as YOUNG AS AGE 12 doubled in the past year. Go ahead. Read that again...at age 12 they're starting

U.S. stats aren’t far behind:

32 % of U.S. teens are overweight or obese.

30.5 million children areserved free or reduced price lunches in the U.S. This number is expected to rise due to recent economic woes.

A typical school lunch costs: $2.57 A healthy school lunch costs: $3.50

National estimated cost of obesity: $147 Billion.

Chef Ann Cooper, known as the Renegade Lunch Lady, says, “There is an achievement gap and a life expectancy gap between the rich and the poor. When you feed kids a diet high in sugar and corn syrup they just can’t think, and if you’re not well nourished you can’t excel,” she adds that, “We have kindergarteners entering school with Type 2 diabetes, 10- to 14-year olds with clogged arteries. We have a moral imperative to turn this around.” Read more from Chef Ann at www.schoolfoodpolicy.com

Want to get involved? First, go to your kid’s school and eat what they’re eating for lunch. Then do the homework: go to www.schoolwellnesspolicies.org the website run by the Local School Wellness Policy Act which promotes healthful eating for our kids at school.

Eating healthy and organic doesn’t have to cost more. It’s just a question of informing yourself. The Environmental Working Group issued this list of the Good and Bad organics this past year. They call it their Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15.

The Dirty Dozen (Always try to buy organic. They have very high levels of toxic pesticides.)

Peaches, Kale

Apples, Lettuce

Bell peppers, Grapes (imported)

Celery, Carrots

Nectarines, Pears

Strawberries, Cherries

The Clean 15 (These test lowest for pesticide residues.)

Onion, Cabbage

Avocado, Eggplant

Sweet Corn, Papaya

Pineapple, Watermelon

Mango, Broccoli

Asparagus, Tomato

Sweet Peas, Sweet Potatoes, Kiwi

Are pesticides as scary as they're made out to be? Yes!

The Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA) says that pesticides such as Atrazine, banned in France, Germany, Denmark, Norway and Sweden BUT the second most widely used pesticide in the U.S., and Dursban, banned by the EPA for “nonagricultural uses”only, are associated with serious health issues such as neurological damage, birth defects, developmental and behavioral issues (autism, ADHD), and some cancers.

“One recent study showed that birth defects such as spina bifida, cleft lip, clubfoot, and Down’s Syndrome are most common in children conceived during the spring and summer, when agricultural pesticide use is at its peak. Read more at Environmental Health Perspectives.

The magazine Delicious Living has a solid breakdown on basic USDA organic standards. Try searching USDA Organic at www.deliciousliving.com.

Also check out Ann Cooper’s website and Nonprofit, F3: Food, Family, Farming. www.foodfamilyfarming.org. Search for the site’s interactive tool, The Lunch Box where you can design a blueprint for starting a healthy lunch program at your kids’ school.

Read more at: http://greeninghollywood.blogspot.com
And at            http://greenblognetwork.blogspot.com
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Greening Hollywood: Social Justice 4 Kids