Cool Rainwater Harvesting Promotional Video...

We need more efforts like this here in the US. This one was done for India.

Anyone want to put together an ad campaign?

Reality Coalition: Gore's New Effort

From the Huffinton Post, December 4th, 2008.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/04/gore-leads-reality-coalit_n_148397.html

"Today, Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection, League of Conservation Voters, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club launched the Reality Coalition, a national grassroots and advertising effort with a simple message: in reality, there is no such thing as clean coal. Coal, they say, cannot be considered clean until its carbon dioxide emissions are captured and stored. The Coalition is backing a multi-million dollar ad campaign, running in print, broadcast and online media and supported by the website www.ThisIsReality.org."

Check out the website...it's good to see a national ad campaign like this.

Can We Talk About This? --> "Greensumption"

Watch this video called "Greensumption". This is something that needs to be discussed. We think we have it all figured out, don't we???

William McDonough: Visions for a New Paradigm

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.

A Refreshing Idea: Cap-and-Dividend Proposal

Imagine if you could own a share (think Wall Street) of the air?

The idea is called cap-and-dividend (as opposed to cap-and-trade) and everyone in the United States - every single person young or old - would own a right to one share of the air which would pay a yearly dividend. This is an idea proposed by Peter Barnes, - solar entrepreneur and author of Who Owns the Sky? (2001) and Capitalism 3.0 (2006) - who is shopping the idea around to Congress with very positive initial response.

Here is an excerpt from an article The Energy Daily summing up the program.

New Greenhouse Plan Targets
Carbon Suppliers, Not Emitters
BY CHRIS HOLLY
The Energy Daily
www.TheEnergyDaily.com
Thursday, September 18, 2008
ED Vol. 36, No. 180

As senior members of Congress lay the groundwork for a new legislative debate on climate change next year, a new proposal making the rounds of Capitol Hill offices would replace the cap-and-trade approach now in vogue with one in which all carbon permits are auctioned and all auction revenues are returned to consumers.

This “cap-and-dividend” approach, being shopped on the Hill by California entrepreneur Peter Barnes, also would shift the cap from carbon emitters such as electric utilities to carbon suppliers—coal, oil and natural gas producers. Barnes will outline his plan today at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing.

Under the proposal, fossil fuel providers would have to surrender permits or allowances for each ton of carbon contained in the fuels they sell into the economy, and they could obtain the permits only from a government auction. All the revenues from the auction would be redistributed to consumers in monthly dividends.

The proposal’s elegant simplicity is at the core of its attraction, supporters say. Shifting the point of regulation upstream to fuel providers would reduce the number of regulated entities to a few hundred oil, gas and coal companies.

By comparison, an emissions cap-and-trade scheme, such as that contemplated in legislation by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.), would affect thousands of power plants and industrial facilities. Under the cap-and-dividend plan, there would be no emissions trading to monitor and no emissions offsets to verify, obviating the need for a massive new government bureaucracy. Distributing the monthly dividends to consumers could be done electronically, by wire transfer to banks or directly to debit cards, Barnes said last week.

“You could manage the whole program with two or three guys and a computer,” Barnes told The Energy Daily in a September 11 interview.

The dividends would be taxable, and Barnes estimates that the federal government would receive through taxation about 25 percent of the auction revenues, which it could use to fund clean energy research; reduce taxes or the national debt; or assist energy-intensive industries
or low-income consumers hit hardest by the carbon cap.

A co-founder of Working Assets, a non-profit that provides credit card and telephone services and donates a portion of its revenues to support progressive causes, Barnes said that the distribution of the auction revenues to consumers is a crucial element of the proposal. Capping carbon will increase the cost of energy and other economic goods and services, but the monthly dividend will help cushion the impact for all consumers, Barnes said. If consumers reduce their energy use through increased efficiency, they effectively increase the value of their dividends. And every time the carbon cap is tightened, each consumer’s monthly check will increase proportionately, he said.

“Getting the psychological benefit of a monthly dividend check is very important,” Barnes said. “To the extent you can sell a carbon cap to the American people, this is the only way you can sell it and keep it sold.”

Critics of the proposal suggest that, while attractive theoretically, it ignores political realities in Washington and the power of oil, coal, gas and utility lobbies. A utility attorney said Friday that if the proposal were enacted into law, power companies would be faced with sharply higher fuel costs and worry that they might not be able to pass on all the cost increases to consumers. At the same time, the attorney said, the shape of the climate change debate so far has led energy-intensive industries to conclude that they will be getting government assistance—in the form of free emission allowances—to help them cope with higher energy prices resulting from a carbon cap.

“Any new proposal that doesn’t involve cost relief for some of these companies is going to attract their organized opposition,” the utility lawyer said.

A veteran politico who now works on energy policy issues was bluntly dismissive of the proposal: “The notion that electric utilities, the oil and gas industry, the automotive industry and others are just going to lie down while all this occurs is simply absurd.”

But Barnes said that as he has shopped the cap-and-dividend proposal on the Hill, no one has raised any significant objections or identified fatal flaws. “I have to say that this is probably no one’s first choice for a climate change program, but I think it’s a lot of people’s second choice,” he said.

The Senate debate on the Lieberman-Warner legislation this year revealed some of the political pitfalls that a cap-and-trade system must overcome to be enacted into law. There is sharp disagreement in Congress and among utilities and other affected industries over whether to auction allowances or give them to emitters, and how to use auction revenues. A failure to resolve these disputes was a key reason the bill died on the Senate floor.

Dallas Burtraw, a senior fellow at Resources for the Future who has done extensive research on the architecture of cap-and-trade programs, said last week that the cap-and-dividend approach may emerge as the preferred fall-back option if lawmakers cannot resolve the numerous cap-and-trade design disputes.

It may sound far-fetched, but it is a refreshing alternative to cap-and-trade and I hope it catches on. Spread the word!

Brushing My Teeth in Two Ounces of Water

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!!!

All Foods at Anytime

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. This seems so ridiculous, and I have been doing it my whole life. But I forgive myself, because I didn't know better! Until now.

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.

A Quote: The Vice of Capitalism

"Socialism collapsed because it did not allow prices to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow prices to tell the ecological truth."

— Oystein Dahle, retired VP of Esso Norway

Zero Waste for San Francisco

"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 Francisco

San 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

Edible Education - A Reader Responds!

A strong community grows one person at a time, one family at a time. Sometimes all it takes is a reminder of the values that people grew up cherishing, but have forgotten in the busy-ness of life. Here's one reader's response to my previous post about edible education (teaching kids to grow and cook their own food at school):

Your blog about the sustainable gardens has come to fruit. My wife got wind of it when I told her about your blog so she started a sustainable garden at her Pre-School. We are starting with tomatoes, summer squash, and watermelons. The little ones get to help with every step. We can already see the different sprouts starting to break through at each row. We taught the little kids that they have to water with a watering can that gives out just a soft easy supply of water to the new plants. They can't wait to be able to harvest their vegetables that we will use for snack time. The parents are also excited about this project. We have encouraged them to start gardens at their homes.

This is a great family thing to do. I remember my Dad teaching us these same things when I was a kid back in the 50's. Back then everyone in the neighborhood had a garden (and plenty of fruit tress). I loved every minute of it when I was a kid. Especially the part about eating what we grew or sharing it with other neighbors. My Mom made the best Rubarb pie. It also seemed like all of it tasted so much better. I think the big part of it was that all of the family was involved and so were all of our neighbors. Here in the 21st century (2008) it just might take off again.

I just talked to my neighbor who has two little girls about starting a garden. She is actually clearing an area and borrowed my rake to get out all of the rocks. It's so cute to see her little girls so excited about having a garden. Who's next?

Indeed, who's next? This is an idea that can spread like wildfire if we only give it a chance. Many thanks to Chuck H. of Fairfax, California for sharing his thoughts and experiences with us!

Going Local is a Matter of Life and Death

In Memory of my sister, Jessica Brigida Stevens.

When my sister died last summer suddenly, I was struck by the most amazing realization. She had lived in Alaska with her family, my brother lives in Sydney, Australia with his family, and the rest of the family lives here in San Francisco. It seemed ridiculous to be so spread out as a family. How could the most important people in your life be the ones that you saw the least?

Asian cultures view the family differently. It is not uncommon to support your parents in China, for example. Actually, many people don't have a choice. But, in our western culture with everything at our fingertips and supposedly little free time, how did we separate so much from our families and friends?

Everything can change in an instant. I know that when I came into close proximity with death, my priorities changed. My whole outlook changed, actually. I wanted to be close to family and friends. I wanted to get more involved in the community and build something special right where I lived.

The Future of Electricity: The "Smart Grid"

Imagine a utility grid that is smart, distributed and more localized. What does that mean? Well, think electricity combined with the technology and structure of the Internet.

In our current electricity grid, the electrons flow from huge, centralized power plants, sometimes quite a distance from the end user, and simply go one way; picture thousands of one-way streets that branch off of a freeway. It hasn’t changed fundamentally for more than a hundred years, except for the capacity of the grid, that is, an increase in the number of power plants. But, the grid is outdated and in need of an update.

There are fundamentally two major problems with the existing grid:

1. Current transmission lines are incapable of transmitting electrons very long distances. For example, we cannot get our electricity in California from a wind farm in Texas.

2. Inaccuracy of the real-time usage data which makes it hard to predict patterns and troubleshoot.

The loss of electrons in transmission is something that only a technological breakthrough will be able to fix. We will have to wait and see on this one. But this is a long way off considering that the transmission lines will have to be replaced.

Now, what if the intelligence and structure of the Internet was a model for our electricity grid? Well, suddenly power companies would be able to track with accuracy, how much power was being used and where. Currently, much of this data is vague and inaccurate. For example, when there is a downed power line, the utility must wait for a blackout or for someone to call it in to diagnose the problem. What’s more, thousands of homes can go out when there is just one problem on the line. In the new grid, troubleshooting would not be a problem.

This new “smart-grid” would be controlled by thousands of wireless transmitters that could “talk” to each other and give the utility accurate data on real-time energy usage. This has many added benefits including:

• Empowering the customers and utility with real-time data.
• Better troubleshooting.
• More efficient use of the power load.
• Less prone to storms and terrorist attacks.

With this accurate information, the utility could begin to more efficiently handle the power loads during peak times. For example, the new smart-grid would be able to turn up the thermostats in thousands of homes by one degree in the middle of summer. Collectively this would make a huge difference in power needs, but on a user-level this would hardly be noticeable. One of the more interesting areas is the “smart appliances” that would be able to power on and off according to the power needs of the grid. Think of a washing machine that turned off on-demand by the power companies if you weren’t using it.

It is amazing that the grid has not changed much since the times of Thomas Edison. This is a huge growth area and very exciting when you consider that much of this will be powered by renewable energy and distributed. Traditionally, the electricity industry is very slow to change, considering the infrastructure changes that are required. However, the “smart grid” will soon be a common household phrase.

A Gold Medal for Banning Plastic Bags?

China is often perceived as a major polluter on the world stage, sacrificing the environment for rapid economic growth. This perception is often buttressed by images of polluted rivers and smog-infested landscapes.

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.

Water vs. Global Warming

"Water is the most critical resource issue of our lifetime and of our children's lifetime. The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land."
-Luna Leopold, hydrologist and professor, UC Berkeley

Global warming is getting all the attention right now and for good reason. Water is an equally important issue, but much less on the radar for the masses, especially in terms of conservation. Think about it the next time you turn on the tap.

Get Informed!

If you are wanting to see change in the world, you need to become more proactive. Become a leader and lead by example.

I encourage everyone to get informed. Do lots of reading about the issues and try to get a good picture of what's going on in the world. Many of us are solely dependent on media to hype up the latest trends and news. This is why we are in the "Green" revolution and feeling overwhemed with it all.

We need to read on our own and become informed citizens. Become an inspiring local organizer and leader. Get involved in your local communities to work on things that you feel are important. Make it your job to be as educated as you can. Don't be complacent.

An Interesting Experience on BarackObama.com

A few weeks ago, I created a profile on BarackObama.com so that I could see how grassroots groups were forming around common interests. There is a section on the website called "Action" where you can join or create a group in your local area, an action group. I joined two groups, one called "Marin County for Obama" and the other called "Greens for Obama."

The functionality and concept was great; I could search groups in my area by entering my zip code. Immediately, I had access to hundreds of people with common ideas and interests.Once I had signed up for these two groups, I started receiving lots of email. Tons, actually, twenty or thirty a day from each group. I started reading the email and people were having conversations and trying to organize things but a lot of it seemed to be arguing! Certain people were using it for negative comments about other users and getting defensive and all sorts of crap. My initial excitement on the possibilities were a bit deflated. I wondered why people were using it for such negativity.

I realize that everyone wants to express themselves. Some people use these groups as a venue to get heard and they may be very passionate about the issues, but they are also very strange. I don't see how such a positive thing, can bring out negativity in this way. And it was very unproductive. I think great things are happening with this grassroots events and group formation on the whole, but after this experience, I didn't feel like being involved. Maybe the groups need more moderation? Just a random experience of mine involving my interest in social networks with politics...

10 Easy Ways to Save Water

10 Ways to Save

1. Give your sprinkler time off. Most lawns and gardens get 20-50 percent more water than they really need. You can cut watering times 2 to 5 minutes for every 10 minutes you water and still have a healthy landscape.


2. Water while you sleep. Water only in the early morning or at night when evaporation is at its lowest.


3. Water wetter. Install a “smart” controller, available at an irrigation supply house. This device automatically tells your irrigation system how much to water.


4. If it’s broke, fix it. Check for leaks, pipe breaks or clogged sprinklers and replace or repair if necessary.


5. Replace outdated, inefficient irrigation equipment. Save money through your local landscaping rebate program, if applicable.


6. Shower shorter. Install a water-efficient showerhead that uses 2.5 gallons/minute or less.


7. No drip policy. Because they’re “on” 24/7, leaky faucets, toilets, and showerheads can waste a lot of water.


8. Flush with pride. Check with your municipality for local rebates to install qualified 1.2 gallons-per-flush toilets.


9. Keep it clean & Get green. Use the energy-saving cycle when washing clothes. Use cold water. Rebates are available when you buy a high-efficiency washer.


10. Fill ‘er up. Run your dishwasher on the energy-saving cycle and only run full loads.

Check out H20 Conserve for tons of tips and tricks for saving water as well as calculating you water footprint.

Red Alert: Water is the Next Oil!

From Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke's book Blue Gold, The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water:



According to the United Nations, 31 countries in the world are currently facing water stress and scarcity. Over one billion people have no access to clean drinking water and almost three billion have no access to sanitation services. By the year 2025, the world will contain 2.6 billion more people than it holds today, but as many as two-thirds of those people will be living in conditions of serious water shortage, and one-third will be living with absolute water scarcity. Demand for water will exceed availability by 56 percent.

Many of us who have lived most of our lives in the industrialized countries of the North may find it difficult to imagine running out of water. We have lived with steady supplies most of our lives and have used it lavishly. But at current rates of use, we will run short. At a time when we are on a rising curve in water use because of increasing industrialization, intensified farming, and population growth, water resources are being depleted at an accelerated rate. Aquifer overdrafts, massive urbanization, and unchecked pollution are withdrawing supplies from the world's water account, just when we need to be saving more...There is simply no way to overstate the fresh water crisis on the planet today. The alarm is sounding. Will we hear it in time?

Green is now a factor in pricing real estate: LEED

Green is now a factor in pricing real estate. It would be great if Solar companies could bundle energy efficiency into their mix somehow though. Is this already happening? I am not sure.

Solar companies are so hyped up on the sexiness of nanotechnology, that they are not taking a leadership role in promoting efficiency and positioning themselves as leaders in these two related and equally important fields. Efficiency and conservation first, BEFORE high-tech add-ons, I say.

I think that LEED certification will become the standard in real estate pricing. Like the ENERGY STAR seal on an appliance, or the MPG rating on a new car, I see the LEED rating factored into building purchases that will directly affect pricing. This means that investing in a sustainable home that is LEED certified, has financial benefits, like high resale values and savings on energy and water.

Check out Arno Harris's - CEO of Solar Company Recurrent Energy - blog on this topic: http://arnoharris.typepad.com/cleanenergyfuture/2008/06/class-a--its-got-to-be-green.html

Letter to the Editor: Wake Up America, Water and Oil is Underpriced!

I wrote this short note to the editors of about ten major newspapers across the country:

It is amazing how spoiled Americans have become. We pay five dollars for a gallon of gas and everyone freaks out. Europeans have been paying three to four times that much for years, which has encouraged more fuel efficient vehicles, and also smaller vehicles.

Market forces are at work here, people. Tapping into fuel reserves, off-shore drilling, these short-term fixes miss the point. Oil is a scarce resource and any scarce resource that is in huge demand, will constantly go up in price. Americans have been spoiled and treat these precious resources as God-given rights. It is about time that we pay more realistic market prices for our two most important resources - energy and water.

Water is the next oil. We will see price increases in the future as the cost of providing ready, clean supplies of water goes up. Currently, water is cheaper in the desert of Las Vegas than in snowy Boston; isn't something clearly wrong with this picture?

You can - and should - write a short note to the editor's of newspapers about how you feel about environmental issues. Visit Al Gore's non-profit initiative - wecansolveit.org - for a great resource for the concerned individual. There are many ways you can get involved, under the "Take Action" section of the website. Here is a link to help you write a short note to some editor's right away: http://www.wecansolveit.org/page/speakout/augustchallenge.

Edible Education: Food for Thought

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!

10 Greatest Challenges Facing Humanity

The late Richard E. Smalley, considered one of the early fathers of nanotechnology, founded the appropriately-named Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology in the heart of Houston at acclaimed Rice University, which is now a global leader in advanced energy and nanotech research.

Before his death in 2005 at age 62, Smalley and his team came up with a list of the 10 greatest challenges facing humanity:

1. Water
2. Energy
   
3. Food
4. Environment
5. Poverty
6. Terrorism and War
7. Disease
8. Education
9. Democracy
10. Population Growth

From The Clean Tech Revolution by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder.

Conservation and Efficiency: Two Often Overlooked Areas

Most people trying to save the planet think that the best thing that they can do is to buy a hybrid vehicle like a Toyota Prius or put solar panels on their home. However, two of the most important areas in environmental change are being overlooked: conservation and efficiency.

The two most important resource-savings take place in energy and water usage. Although this is much less sexy than getting some semiconductors installed on your rooftop, efficiency and conservation are the easiest areas to make a difference right now, and should be regarded as the most important first step for any concerned citizen. I am amazed by how many people make the big jump towards other more technology-heavy measures, before they consider the changes that are less interesting on the surface, but if everyone did them, could literally change the world.

Often referred to as the cleanest power source of all, efficiency is the most effective way to save resources. Amory Lovins, founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colorado, is one of the world’s most respected efficiency technology gurus. He first coined the term negawatt in 1989 as a unit of conserved electricity, or a megawatt of power that the power plant never has to generate because of efficiency.

Both in the water and electrical industry, the incentives have to be changed for efficiency and conservation to flourish. In the past, water and energy companies have been rewarded by how much water or energy they sell, without any incentives to sell less or encourage efficiency and conservation.

Nowadays, utilities are changing that model and reforming the system to create financial incentives for utilities to promote efficiency. For example, the Northwest Power Act of 1980 allowed power generators to share a portion of their customers’ savings from using less electricity, giving them a financial stake in the efficiency game. Among utilities’ large-scale efforts in efficiency is market transformation, a program in which utilities and regulators promote the manufacture and purchase of energy-saving products (appliances, building materials, etc.) with rebates, industrial training, consumer education, and marketing assistance.

But in most areas in the United States, except for the Northwest, California, New York, and a few others, regulatory efforts to drive efficiency measures have a long way to go. The decoupling of utility sales and profits has not happened yet in most areas, which gives utilities the wrong incentives to encourage efficiency and conservation.

We must spread the word about this important and often overlooked agent of change. Visit the website Flex Your Power [www.flexyourpower.org] for more information about conservation and efficiency. Also visit H20 Conserve [www.h2oconserve.org] for water efficiency tips and advice.

Success Teams: The Power of Working Together in Small Groups

When I was first starting out in a new career, I joined a professional association in my area that had used the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People as inspiration to form something called a Success Team. A Success Team is simply 5-7 individuals meeting together consistently over time around a common interest area.

In another life, I was a photographer, so my first experience with Success Teams was in that industry. This association made us each pay $300 to belong to the group, which I thought was rather steep, BUT they did supply a facilitator - who was also a career counselor– for our first meeting, and also formed the group for us. We were instructed on how to conduct the sessions efficiently around a set structure.

The structure is as follows:

1. Each person speaks for 10 minutes about what they are doing and what their goals are. This time is not designed for complaining or venting, but on moving forward in your career.


2. The discussion is opened up to the group for 5 to 10 minutes for feedback, comments and support. Then you move on to the next person.
   

Note: It is helpful to meet monthly or bi-monthly. This keeps up the momentum. It is good to follow this set structure for the following reasons: time efficiency, focusing the group on one person at a time, and forcing you to get to the heart of the issues quickly.

It is a very simple concept, but I have found it to be a powerful tool for my career in several areas, including:

• Being held accountable for goals and goal-setting.
• Being validated for what you have done and encouraged to push further.
• Sharing knowledge and best practices.
• Networking.
• Brainstorming.
• Developing your own leadership skills and becoming a better team-player.
• Organizing events and getting involved in the community.

Watch out for these three pitfalls in setting up a group:

1. When forming a group, it is hard to find people that are going to be on the same page in terms of skills and goals, but don’t worry about that too much. A lot of this is an exercise for you to go through by setting your own goals and forcing you to be accountable for them.


2. Group members must be enthusiastic and motivated and not skeptical about the idea. It is important that you like them as people as well!


3. Meet consistently and try to not skip meetings. Be serious, because the Success Team is a powerful tool if you use it right that could really benefit you.
   

I am currently researching how groups can come together locally and create change, build communities and do this on a mass-scale. The main ingredient in this possibility is a strong desire to push your career forward in a dynamic and beneficial way to the world. A perfect Win-Win situation! If you have any ideas, please comment.

My most recent Success Team is a Clean Tech career group in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is pushing me forward professionally, with the added benefit of helping to solve environmental issues.

Everyone is Looking to Profit from the "Green" Revolution

So many people are hopping on the "green" boat right now. They don't know how and they don't know what, they just know it's all gotta stop. And right now.

I have heard so many people wanting to get into this movement and start a "Green" business. When I asked one person what the business would be about, they responded: "I don't know, but I know I need to start one!"

Someone else I know was transitioning from Photography into creating a consultancy that helped governments acheive the Kyoto protocols. I looked on the website and it was fully functional, except there was no content!

This was very telling. Where is the content???

I am very skeptical about this sudden desire to go "Green". It feels very bubble-like, although I know these people are genuinely concerned. That is not to say that everything "Green" is all fluff, but there is lots out there.

I think "Green" should just be replaced by "Community". That is what is lacking the most. Maybe we needed to wake up to how much damage we are doing to our surroundings, but are any of us really that surprised? We have been over-worked and have not invested properly in family life, nor our local communities. If we prioritized theses things, given an example by the right leaders, we might be able to start from the bottom up. Nobody has taken the leadership reigns in this country to show us values beyond mindless consumerism and the hunt for wealth.

Talk to the guy in the check-out line. Reach out to someone. Start small and build up confidence to lead by example in your local area. Do all you can to audit your ecological footprint [http://www.myfootprint.org/en/], but don't feel you need to make it a career unless you have some true value to bring to the table.

Check out BetterTogether.org, which was founded by Robert Putnam "calling for a nationwide campaign to redirect a downward spiral of civic apathy. Warning that the national stockpile of "social capital" – our reserve of personal bonds and fellowship – is seriously depleted, the report outlined the framework for sustained, broad-based social change to restore America’s civic virtue."

What is the evolution of social networking?

The evolution of social networking sites show they develop new functionalities.

1. First generation sites only let users manage friends' lists. There are mainly flat, single entry lists by schools or classes you attended. Examples: Copainsdavant (FR), Classmates.com


2. Second generation sites can be seen as the first social networks. They are centered around an individual and his friends, and friends of friends : they follow the 6 degrees rule. Examples: LinkedIn (US), Viadeo (FR), Xing (G).


3. Third generation sites could represent the first social media sites. They allow multi-dimensional connections, real conversations between users, in compliance with the social graph theory *. Examples: Myspace (US), Facebook (US), Bebo (UK).
   


4. Fourth generation sites are what I am proposing already exist and will flourish in the future. They would represent social media sites that facilitate face-to-face meetings. They allow people to come together off-line around common interests, building real communities and friends in the real world. Examples: Meetup.com (US), Match.com (US).

We are already seeing a huge amount of green social network sites that are flooding the market place. I think that we are already maxxed-out on these sites. Most of my friends use Facebook and LinkedIn, but are unwilling to belong to any more social networks.

Unless...the rules change. The climate is right, we just need the right solution that might integrate into these pre-existing sites. Why reinvent the wheel?

There is still a huge opportunity here to provide some real value to people through the internet. People are craving to be heard and to interact with people off the computer. This is not regression, but progress facilitated by technology.

Facebook Study

view presentation (tags: facebook study)

Sources: faberNovel analyses, Stanley Milgram (1967) Facebook; 03.10.2007 - Facebook study;
FaberNovel Consulting.

* As exposed by Mark Zuckerburg (US).

Seeking experts to contribute to our blog.

We are looking for experts in different fields to post to our blog. If you think that you have any ideas on how to build local communities, please contact us.

Our Manifesto:
Ideas to build strong local communities. We believe that the internet should be harnessed to bring people back together, face-to-face. We would like to empower everyday people to make a difference, locally.

Here are some keywords to give you an idea on what we are looking for:

• social networking
• community building
  
• grassroots movements
  
• environmental experts
• clean-tech
• education
• healthcare
• renewable energy
• water
  
• biofuels
• green building
• technology

Power America with Cheap, Clean Energy in 10 Years? Yes We Can!

Bringing social networking to life: using the internet to meet offline.

Going Local can present a wonderful opportunity. And we can harness the amazing power of the internet to build and strengthen our local communities.

I recently discovered meetup.com which is just that, an on-line venue that facilitates the process of meeting up face to face around a common interest. Taken from their website:

“Meetup's mission is to revitalize local community and help people around the world self-organize. Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.”

I think that this is a great idea. No matter what your interest, you can form a group and meet people in your local area consistently.

The only drawback is that you have to pay. It is a nominal fee of $12-20 a month, depending on your membership type and you can collect this fee as the organizer from the attendees of the meeting.

This blog’s mission is to provide community-building ideas for a venue like meetup.com or maybe eventually start our own community-building website that is totally free and more customizable. Stay tuned.

Build your own eco-community!

Do you ever feel like you are never going to buy that dream house of yours? What is your idea of a dream house, an isolated mansion on a hilltop somewhere with amazing views?

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/].

Marin Clean Energy (MCE) and other Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) schemes have huge potential for reducing our carbon footprint, affordably...

So you may be wondering: what can I do to make a difference to the planet? (See below for the 5 THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO).

Well, besides changing your lightbulbs, consciously using less water and energy, buying a hybrid or installing solar power on your roof, there is something called Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) that could prove to be very promising for some areas. The problem is, not many people know about it. The two major sources of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions are from cars and buildings. Community Choice would focus on the buildings part.

Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) is a system that was made into law in the states of Massachusetts, Ohio, New Jersey, Rhode Island and California (AB 117) which allows cities and counties to aggregate the buying power of individual customers within a defined jurisdiction in order to secure alternative energy supply contracts.

Essentially, cities get together and form what’s known as a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to buy renewable energy mostly from wind, solar, geothermal and biomass and your local utility would still transmit the power and maintain the lines. The best of both worlds, right? Therefore, you would still get your same utility bill, although the power would come from renewable energy instead of coal, natural gas and other non-renewable sources.



Marin County, CA – one of the most liberal and wealthiest counties in the nation - is looking at CCA in depth, calling it Marin Clean Energy (MCE) [www.marincleanenergy.info]. This could be a perfect test bed for CCA and serve as a successful example for other counties and cities in the five eligible states. There are successful models of CCA already in place in various counties and cities across the nation, with about 1 million people receiving their power this way already.

That’s not to say that only the wealthy could afford CCA. The prices for CCA would be comparable to the prices we pay currently, maybe slightly higher at first, but as the cost of natural gas and other non-renewable sources goes up, the fixed price of fuel that renewable energy affords will be stable and much cheaper than most alternatives in the long run. What's more, it would encourage money to stay more in the local economies and would promote renewable-based businesses.

Marketing gurus know that the “It’s good for planet” ticket only gets you so far. Actually, money is the bottom line for mass adoption of almost any new product, service or structural change. It has to be as good or better than the current option. Luckily, CCA achieves both affordability and eco-friendliness.

The MCE plan could reduce CO2 emissions by 70,000 tons per year by 2010 and 350,000 tons by 2019! Compared to other reduction efforts like encouraging community car-sharing and improvements to public transportation, this would be THE single most important effort for a rapid reduction of GHG emissions in our local communties.

Time is of the essence. Most of our local energy utilities simply cannot meet their renewable energy goals or Renewable Production Standards (RPS) as quickly as we could under CCA. It is up to us to tell everyone we know. We must act now!


5 THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO:

1. GET INFORMED. If you live in Marin or in any of the other proposed CCA areas, find out when there is a presentation in your town or city. Sign up for the mailing list. If there is not an upcoming event, start one!

2. SPREAD THE WORD. Tell everyone that you know about CCA. Get excited and spread the enthusiasm to others!

3. GET INVOLVED. The most important step of all. Write or call your city council members or county supervisor to tell them that you support this initiative. This is the single most important thing you can do because they will vote on your behalf.

4. START ONE. If there is no CCA planned for your community and you are located within one of the five eligible states (Massachusetts, Ohio, New Jersey, Rhode Island and California), call your city council or mayor and get as many people as you know to do the same to show interest for Community Choice Aggregation.

5. FORM A COMMUNITY ACTION GROUP. Use meetup.com to meet people in your local area with common interests. The keys to forming a group are consistency and small group size. Download our action pack from cleanroots.com for help starting a group and for other ideas to work on in your local community.

California Communities currently considering CCA:

• Marin County, Marin Clean Energy (MCE)
• San Joaquin Valley CCA formed; Contract finalized
• San Francisco CCA business plan complete
• Oakland
• Berkeley
• Emeryville
• Chula Vista drafting CCA business plan
• West Hollywood
• Beverly Hills
• Pleasanton
• San Luis Obispo
• Davis actively considering CCA

More detailed feasibility studies can be found on the Local Government Commission website [http://www.lgc.org/cca/].