3
September
2008
Here’s Olive, her backpack filled with school supplies, ready for her first day back at school. Her mom, Sharon tries to buy green products whenever she can but it’s not as easy as it sounds. Each family is given a list of supplies their child is expected to have for school. It is what you might expect — pencils, binders, notebook paper, etc. Most families spend around $95 per child, which is no small amount, especially when you add clothes, backpacks and lunch boxes to that. If you have budgetary restraints, as most of us do, is there a way to consume responsibly and still stay within your limits? If you are trying to support our local stores the whole thing becomes even more complicated.
I went to the University Bookstore, one of my favorite independent booksellers, and checked out their supplies. They had green products prominently displayed right next to the cash register. There were several things but truthfully, not nearly as much as I would have expected. Most of the green items are manufactured by large companies capitalizing on this market. The 100% recycled post-its were made in France and packaged in China.
I was happy to discover some products made by the Sustainable Group, right here in Seattle. They say, “our philosophy embraces the ideals of a balanced approach to providing great products, great value to our customers and products that reduce the environmental footprint of our industry. All of our products are made from high-content recycled material and are manufactured locally.” Their binders are corrugated cardboard, great for a minimalist look, but not what most kids would choose, if given the choice. On the other hand, decorating one of these with markers, stamps and stickers to personalize it could be a fun project.
Pens and pencils made from recycled materials are widely available. Crayons, not so much. I read that Prang makes some crayons from 85% soybean oil but I haven’t see them yet. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: Local Living, Small Actions
29
August
2008
I’ve been a dunce about the paper cup. While others have been carrying their reusable cups into coffee shops the past few years, I rarely have. The perceived paper cups’ biodegradability snookered some of us into thinking it was so much better than Styrofoam, and it’s paper and that’s organic, so what’s the problem?
Here are a few things we all should know: 
- Recycled material makes up only a small percentage of a paper cup, mostly it’s wood chips. Trees, many trees, are needed.
- A lot of electricity and water, and then chemicals in the form of plastic are necessary to make a paper cup, many times more than what is required to make a Styrofoam cup. We caught on to those a long time ago and are aware that they take centuries to biodegrade. We now need to be just as savvy with the paper cup, which is a glutton at the production end.
- We’re now ‘consuming’ several billion paper cups in the U.S. each year (Starbucks alone accounts for over 2.3 billion), landfills are overwhelmed with this bulk, and we now know that it isn’t simply paper that’s decomposing. It’s not such a clean process.
- During the process of biodegrading methane is created, a substance far more environmentally damaging than carbon dioxide.
I urge you to check out this website, Sustainability is Sexy which has the complete scoop, well organized and succinct information about the paper cup.
Our comfort with having our hot beverages delivered in a nice paper cup is analogous to the disposable chopsticks issue in China. NPR featured an interesting piece a few months ago called Bring Your Own Chopsticks. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: Beverages, Local Living, Small Actions
28
August
2008
Birthdays, Christmas, Easter, practically any celebration can be a challenge if you are trying to live sustainably, especially when kids are involved. It is hard enough not to fall prey to consumerism throughout the year but holidays can be even more difficult. Recently, Krista and Chris put on a birthday party for Lily. Here are some of the choices they made to create an event that was not only fun for everyone but also fit with their green ideals.
Buy flowers from the Farmers Market from vendors that don’t use pesticides. We are careful to buy organic foods whenever possible but sometimes forget that the floriculture industry is known for heavy use of pesticides that are poisoning workers as well as the environment.
A craft table is always a hit and a great way to re-use ribbons and all kinds of packaging materials. Let everyone make their own party hat, or in this case, crown.
A basket of dress-ups and one of musical instruments are fun for all ages. Thrift shops are a great source for dress-ups, as are our own closets. Musical instruments will often encourage some of the parents to get involved (dress-ups may too, especially hats).
Bubbles are very environmentally-friendly, especially if you make your own bubble-stuff. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: Farmers Markets, Local Living, Small Actions
26
August
2008
Locomotion in its various forms, walking, kayaking, biking, skiing, hiking, swimming, are activities I’ve always loved and feel eager about including in my life. Biking through city traffic? Not so much.
But I wanted to do something, even a small thing, in regard to fossil fuel consumption. My husband takes this seriously and commutes through the city to work nearly every day. That I can’t match, partly because my work hasn’t accommodated it, and, truthfully, because I’m not prepared to ride the steep hills through downtown traffic, at least not yet.
I can, however, ride my bike to and from errands in my own neck of the woods. I’ve been doing that and feel smug as can be whenever I do. For those who’ve been biking around the neighborhood for ages, you’re way ahead of me and you’ve been an inspiration. Friend Judy, for example. Sports and the outdoors have always been a part of my life, but inexplicably I’m just getting on track with the bike-commuting thing, experiencing the satisfaction of saving a little fuel, a few bucks and getting a mini-workout on the way.
Three favorite grocery stores within 3.5 miles of my house is a pretty easy gig. There’s a long, upward grade on the way. My bags are empty so that’s ideal. On the way back it’s one big downhill glide. The surprise is that the round trip takes maybe half an hour, about fifteen minutes longer than the same shopping trip by car. I figure if I can hop on my bike instead of behind the wheel just once a week let’s say, save the 7 miles of gas times 52 weeks, theoretically speaking I’ll have saved 364 miles in a year. No comparison with the 200 miles Bob rides each month, but it’s a start. Short bike commutes.
So I’m thinking about sustainable actions, one step, one pedal at a time that collectively speaking add up to significant change. Small individual actions times thousands of others doing the same, like a lot more of us turning on our own internal combustion engines for the globe, the pocketbook, the bod. (Obviously, this is a message for us slackers who’ve taken a little time to jump on the short bike commute bandwagon - plenty of people caught on a while ago.)
Coincidentally NPR did a piece today on the electric bike and what a godsend it is for commuters who want to ride, but live in cities with formidable hillscapes like Seattle and San Francisco. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: Local Living, Small Actions
18
August
2008
. . . is home. For many of us that’s the Pacific Northwest. Its seasons, its produce, its climate and landscape are familiar. This is our particular niche on the planet.
What does it mean to connect with a place beyond its scenic beauty? Some of us aspire to live locally/seasonally, or at least attempt to do so.
Supporting locally owned shops is about to get a little harder in my neck of the woods where there are eight commercial/retail/condo buildings going up within a couple of square miles. Laid back local shopping and even driving, may be a thing of the past in this community. So 2008. Local businesses are trying to find ways to survive the influx of high end national chains, and natives wonder about the loss of the shopping community’s neighborly character. Corporate owned franchises will surely displace smaller businesses here - we’ll lament the disappearance of our favorite haunts and probably won’t understand it fully until they’re gone. I’ll miss my neighborhood cobbler if he doesn’t find a way to make the cut, and there are others. It feels like way more than the land is getting bulldozed.
Kurt Timmermeister, owner of Kurtwood Farm on Vashon Island, recently wrote about connecting with community:
“I am a great optimist. To grow food, you just have to be. Even though I can remember the disappointments - read failures - of last year, I have blind faith that every seed put in the ground this Spring will grow into perfect, beautiful vegetables; that every cow bred early this year will give birth to stunning prize winning heifers in the Fall.
I want to move from just eating locally to living life and doing business locally with a vision to what I want my community to look like. Whole Foods has some great products, but it is a large company, centered in Texas. The idea is every dollar spent is a vote for the businesses you believe in.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: Local Living, Small Actions
14
August
2008
Tire pressure, that is. Everyone agrees that by simply keeping the tires of our cars properly inflated, we can reduce greenhouse gases. Tires lose air over time so chances are, yours may need more air. Unless, of course, you have already taken this step and incorporated it into your routine car maintenance.
I, on the other hand, am embarrassed to say that I can’t remember the last time I checked my tire pressure, even knowing that my car could be 3-4% more fuel efficient. If everyone who drives in the US would start taking this simple action, it would mean a monthly reduction of over 90 million gallons of gas or 1.8 billion lbs of CO2 released into the earth’s atmosphere. Even if you didn’t care about doing something for the greater good, saving money on the gas you consume is an incentive.
Just in case there are other dummies out there (like me) who have deferred car maintenance to their significant other, I’m going to walk you through the steps to help you get started. Krista dropped by and was willing to go to the gas station with me since her tires needed to be checked. Princess Lily waited patiently while we documented this.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: Local Living, Small Actions
11
August
2008
Sometimes I get into a rut when it comes to shopping for food. I seem to go into autopilot and buy the same items week after week. A good way to jump-start your creative cooking juices is to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. Every (or every other) week you receive a box of organic, fresh produce directly from local farmers. You can customize somewhat to suit your own taste but the best part can be the element of surprise when you open your box. The next step is giving your imagination a little room to dream up ways of using what you’ve received. If you get stuck, there are often recipes included or you can check with us.
It has become increasingly difficult to know what foods are in season since we can buy just about anything at any time of the year, regardless of where it was grown. Looking at Full Circle Farm’s website, I was able to see a list of what might be included in a box this time of year. Items grown on their farm are indicated, as are items grown in the Pacific Northwest. Once you are a member, you can view your current box contents, make substitutions and add other grocery items like grains from Bluebird Grain Farms. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: Eat Local, Farmers Markets, Small Actions
4
August
2008
Accustomed to whatever food we crave whenever we want it regardless of the season, the cost of that to the planet has been disregarded or closeted until recently. A colossal carbon footprint is often required to put off-season food on our plates. It’s hard to face since we’re not prone to radical change on the supper table. Our stomach wants what it wants.
This New York Times article, Movable Feast Carries A Pollution Price Tag (4/26/08) with its accompanying video, is a good source of information about food carbon footprinting and provides useful perspective in making decisions about living green. Stepping lightly, living locally doesn’t have to be a crash diet, they usually fail, but a choice to do what we can reasonably accomplish a little bit at a time. Small actions toward sustainability. If the crash diet approach is appealing, go for it. Some would argue that’s what is necessary.
A good time to check out Anne Lappe’ and Bryant Terry’s book, Grub, and explore their related website which focuses particularly on sustainability in relation to food. They do so while being mindful of the practical reality of our daily lives.
This is a curtain call for ‘carbon foodprints’ which was posted previously.
Posted: Eat Local, Small Actions
22
July
2008
I can’t help feeling guilty after being on vacation. It’s not so much about taking time off from work or drinking cocktails every night that bothers me. It is more about being faced with all the ways I was adding to my carbon footprint along the way. One biggie is six of us flying across the country, not to mention all the water we consumed in plastic water bottles. At least I can blame some of that on the airlines. Learning the hard way, I will never again attempt to carry a container of anything other than 3 ounces or less of liquid clearly displayed in a quart-sized ziplock bag. Water can only be consumed by using a water fountain past security or buying bottled water in the terminal, again after you’ve gone through security, so don’t even try to take your own water bottle unless you pack it.
In climates warmer than ours, air conditioning is considered a necessity. We didn’t have it growing up except for the window unit in my parent’s bedroom but then again, it wasn’t as consistently hot, not even that long ago. Finding a place to recycle all the beer and wine bottles (not mine, of course) took some effort and I shudder to think of all the loads of laundry the kids generated.
Coming home to a huge stack of mail, mostly catalogs and magazines was the last straw. I’m still sorting through these, recycling most of them unread. My internal waste-meter has been off the charts. Luckily, while catching up on the New York Times I came across an article by Michelle Slatalla about a website called Carbonrally. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: Small Actions
21
July
2008
. . . the clothesline.
Air-dried sheets and pillowcases, one of the luxuries of life, but the convenience of electric clothes dryers overrides the organic alternative right outside the door. We manage to dry ours outdoors all year long with surprisingly rare interference from weather. Sheets infused with the fragrance of a fresh green bouquet are bedtime bliss so we’ve become determined about this. We strategize how/if line drying is feasible on a given day, and we’ve rigged up a line that can be stretched from here to there when we need it.
After years of line drying for these personal reasons, I recognized the environmental bonus: that it’s a small but tangible action toward living green and especially meaningful if it becomes collective action. If this one sounds enticing, find a way to make it happen, for your own sweetest dreams first, and then for the planet’s.
(It’s summertime and the livin’s a little easier. Mondays we’re revisiting posts from the past. This is a curtain call for Sweet Dreams On the Line.)
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: In The Garden, Local Living, Small Actions
