Those of you who have been following my sustainable lifestyle progress understand that the ever-growing vegetable garden has been a source of joy this season. Well last night mother nature decided to show me that she can ravage crops on any scale.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. As the work day was coming to an end, Corey and I were making plans to start some new projects in the yard. Then, surprisingly, the tornado sirens started to howl. We checked the weather online and saw a storm rolling our way. The NWS was saying to expect strong winds and possible hail. We debated if we wanted to pull the car into the garage (usually reserved for bikes) or just leave it out. In fact, we thought from looking at the radar that the sirens were a bit of an overreaction in the context of the serious storms that we have had lately.

But we decided to be safe I should move the car. As I was clearing space in the garage (bikes again), I was taking my time. The sky was still blue, and the sun was shining. In an instant, there was a massive rush of noise. I turned from what I was doing and looked out at the front yard. The wind hadn’t just picked up, it had hit our neighborhood like a freight train. Branches started flying everywhere, and our little river birch was almost on its side.

I rushed to pull in the car just as the rain and hail started to fall. It was the most frightening display of natures power that I have ever seen. I was on the edge of being outright scared.

Corey came rushing out and said that it looked like the giant oak trees in the back yard looked like they were going to slam through the windows they were swaying so violently. When I went to the back windows to see for myself, my jaw literally dropped. We have a pretty expansive view of the neighborhood from our hillside home. Every tree that I could see, including ours, were being severely tested by the storm.

The rain and hail intensified and the leaves that were being ripped from the trees were being pasted against our windows by the wind gusts. We heard branches cracking and falling. We grabbed the pets, a radio, and a flashlight, and rushed to the basement. We tuned in to learn that the whole city was being rocked. The view from our windows certainly confirmed it. What a feeling. We didn’t know if the trees were going to come crashing through the house.

The violence lasted only about 15 minutes. But it was an incredibly destructive quarter hour. We went outside to survey the damage. The street’s gutter was a river of water, our yard experienced a year’s worth of erosion, all of our plants were shredded from the hail, and our trees lost several big branches.

The supercell, traveling at 90 miles per hour, generated an unprecedented amount of wind, rain, and hail. The effects were tragic for historic Midtown Omaha. Trees were down everywhere, nearly 300,000 people were without power, and shell-shocked people were forced to cope with massive damage.

Our cherished vegetable garden was completely destroyed. Brussel Sprouts were shredded and broken, beans were torn, and even our once hardy squash were diced.

The next couple of days are going involve a lot of cleanup. It is sad, we take great joy from our gardens. It is really hard to see them destroyed. But we will make it.

–

Earlier this year we sold one of our cars, which liberated our lifestyle and our pocket book. But, there are occasionally challenges to overcome. Earlier this week my beautiful wife made a beautiful decision in overcoming one such challenge.

I needed the car to visit a prospective client. The meeting came up on short notice, and there wasn’t the opportunity to reschedule. Corey had an appointment at the salon scheduled at the same time, which she didn’t want to miss because this is one of the few treats that we budget for each month.

We considered our options; dropping her off early, asking a neighbor/friend for a ride, or canceling the visit. Then, out of the blue, Corey volunteered to walk.

She immediately got excited about the idea, reminding me that she walks a couple of miles everyday for her part-time dog-walking job. But this was a different story. Her salon is in Dundee proper, maybe 3 miles from our house. After her appointment, she had to immediately go and walk the dogs. Her total walk would be about 8 miles, and it was going to be a hot and humid Nebraska day.

Corey’s choice to walk reminds me of another that she made earlier this year. When our friend Mark gave us the book, ‘How to Live Well Without a Car‘, I’m sure he thought that I would be the only one in the house to read it. (Mark and I are always dorking out on commuting on bikes) But Corey dove into the book right away, and within days had resolved to sell out SUV.

That day she logged a couple of hours of walking, traversing our hilling neighborhood from one side to the other. Her smiling face and healthy glow shined brighter than the newly applied highlights in her hair.

She has completely adopted our simple and sustainable lifestyle approach. She is willing to adapt to our evolving needs, and she does so with a beautiful resolve which I respect so much.

Corey and I are having so much success with our vegetable garden that we decided to plant more. Our garden is on a slope at the very back of our yard, so creating a new plot can take a lot of work.

We learn last season that building a garden can be really expensive if you don’t think things through. The wooden raised bed we built in 07 is really nice, but the total cost was well over $100. When we expanded this spring, we salvaged railroad ties from another part of our yard, along with some scrap rocks, in order to build a 4′x10′ plot. The only thing that we needed to buy for that area was some Peat and Omagro.

But we pretty much exhausted our free materials on that job, so when a friend asked me to help him remove a retaining wall last weekend I jumped at the opportunity. After several hours of pulling stone and pushing a wheel barrel, I had a solid collection of broken concrete and wall rock to work with.

We drew up a rough plan and started in on Saturday. We ended up building a convenient series of steps with a small landing. Then we added a really small 4′x1′ bed for peppers and a 4′x8′ bed for more cucumbers and beans. We also took advantage of some available flat space to put some pots full of dill. My goal will be to make my own refrigerator pickles.

It is getting pretty late in the year, who knows how successful the plot will be. We are starting everything from seed, so there isn’t too much of an expense for the experiment.

We have a lot to learn, but we are resolved to become productive yard farmers. After our trip to City Sprouts last week, we saw how lush an urban garden can be. Our goal is to get better and more informed each year. Eventually we hope to supply ourselves with a nice crop of homegrown goodness all season.

The second in the ongoing series of sustainability articles that I’m writing for Dirt Rag was published online last week. Dirt Rag is the most progressive cycling print magazine in the US. They have a mountain bike focus, but actively advocate commuting and the bicycle lifestyle. Plus they aren’t afraid to take a political stance every now and again.

My latest article “Pushed to the Burbs“, focuses on the issue of urban sprawl. This is an issue that I’ve been passionate about for years. In college I majored in political science. While I liked discussing international political issues, my real interest was in local and regional politics. As I became more aware of the negative impacts of sprawl, I wrote several papers on urban growth boundaries and infill development as solutions to the issue.

Now, as I learn more about sustainability and the practical challenges facing communities, I realize that there is a much broader scope of options available to help minimize the negative aspects of sprawl.

This article provides a brief overview of sprawl in the US, and then highlights an alternative view towards dealing with sprawl.

Read the full article here.

The United States produces 44 percent of the world’s corn crop, and 38 percent of its soy. A huge portion of that massive harvest is grown in a single region: the Midwest. And over the past couple of weeks, torrential rains have hammered that area, at a particularly sensitive time for its grand swath of corn and soybean plants.

An unusually wet spring had already pushed farmers to plant their crops late and forced them to keep some land fallow. With the recent deluge, a bad situation has turned worse. As a result of this soggy situation, corn yields will plummet, the USDA reports [PDF]. The decreased supplies are even more worrisome considering U.S. and European mandates for turning food crops into fuel, and rising demand for grain in Asia. The global food system had no margin for error.

In response to the rains, investors have driven up corn prices to levels never seen before. By Wednesday afternoon, corn was trading above $7 per bushel — an astonishing 75 percent rise since last June. Just three years ago, a bushel of corn fetched less than $2. The same factors have ramped up soy prices as well.

And the worst may be yet to come. Weather reports suggest that the Midwest’s wet spell may last through the month. If that happens, surviving plants will have a tough time developing deep roots, making them vulnerable to a dry spell later in the summer. If a soggy June turns into a bone-dry July and August, corn and soy prices will likely spike anew.

Hard times seem imminent. No one can envy the 10.9 percent of U.S. families who already lacked sufficient access to food as of 2006. That number will surely grow as the economy weakens. And you don’t have to be poor to feel the pinch of higher grocery bills. “You know those complaints you’ve been hearing about high food prices? They’ve just begun,” a commodity trader told The New York Times Thursday.

As the food crisis plays out, we’re likely to hear more and more pitches from agribusiness giants who promise that if we simply play by their rules, everything will be just fine. Just last week, the biotech giant Monsanto — which dominates the global seed markets for corn, soy, and cotton — announced its intention to double yields for its “core crops” by 2030, all the while reducing “by one-third the amount of key resources” required to grow them.

To do so, Monsanto and its allies are stockpiling patents for so-called “climate ready” genes that will ostensibly equip plants to withstand severe weather. “In the face of climate chaos and a deepening world food crisis, the Gene Giants are gearing up for a PR offensive to re-brand themselves as climate saviors,” writes the watchdog outfit ETC Group in a recent report. “The focus on so-called climate-ready genes is a golden opportunity to push genetically engineered crops as a silver bullet solution to climate change.”

If the current crisis has taught us one thing, it’s that food production needs to become more diversified and dispersed, not concentrated ever more tightly into fewer and fewer hands. Here’s my alternative to Monsanto’s vision: Let’s end the biofuel mandates and subsidies — currently eating up around $13 billion per year in taxpayer cash — and invest the savings in grain storage and the infrastructure required to really revive local and regional food production.

Climate change is an issue that is very rapidly forcing it’s way into homes in the US. Everyday Americans of all economic profiles are starting to see resource scarcity affect their lives. It is a shame that in a time of need, there are corporations and industries lining up to profit off of public misery.

Source: Grist

There is a major shift in the meetings and conventions industry toward holding environmentally friendlier events. Holding a green meeting is “no longer a quirky, nice thing to do,” said Joel Makower, executive editor of GreenBiz.com. “It’s something that increasingly is being asked, if not demanded, by meeting producers.”

Why is this an issue? If not closely monitored, thousands of conventioneers can accrue plenty of waste in just a couple of days. For example, a five-day event with 2,200 people could produce one ton of plastic waste in the form of disposable serving pieces alone. There is a massive amount paper consumption and waste from unused or ineffective promotional materials. And who hasn’t seen the piles and piles of trash heaped by the trade show aisle at booth set up and tear down?

Not surprisingly, companies with the environment in mind, such as the U.S. Green Building Council and the National Recycling Coalition, have been on board with green meetings for years. But in the past 18 months, companies from a wide range of sectors have begun planning more sustainable events.

Many companies and meeting planners have been pleasantly surprised that producing green meetings can be cost effective. Some elements do cost more, but the increase in efficiency can offset the expense.

For example, using pitchers of water instead of individual bottles might cancel out the cost of organic food. Companies now offer attendees the ability to review company information online instead of printing expensive and wasteful informational materials.

There is an ever-widening selection of eco-friendly booths hitting the market that can make this durable investment less harmful. When companies feel they need to offer giveaways to attendees, there are now green trade show promo options available.

There may never be a perfectly sustainable conference, but that isn’t a reason to start taking steps today that will make a big difference tomorrow.

With electricity rates on the rise, small businesses are increasingly looking for ways to lower their energy costs, the Wall Street Journal reports. Small businesses are finding ways to reduce energy consumption to keep operating costs sustainable.

From switching office light bulbs to CFLs to shortening delivery routes, practical solutions are lessening the impact of systemic problems. A major expense, business travel, is being curtailed in favor of web and tele conferences.

WSJ stresses the importance of conservation of energy for small businesses in relation to similar needs for large businesses. “Of course, lots of large companies are also using these measures. But they have some advantages small firms don’t. It’s easier for them to shift some of their higher energy costs to customers, for instance. And they can use their size to get leverage on energy costs. A recent study by the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy found that small businesses in the commercial sector, for instance, paid 30% more for electricity and 20% more for natural gas than the bigger guys.”

In addition to major operational or facilities changes, many businesses are taking practical small steps to achieve similar goals. “Last December, it [Sherwood Design Engineers Ltd. of San Francisco] put up signs around the office reminding them to turn off the printer each night — noting it saves the equivalent of making 1,500 photocopies — and to turn off their computers at the power strip rather than just using the power button.”

Other businesses are consolidating ordering to limit fuel surcharges on deliveries. One small business owner has taken a seemingly obvious step, before he goes out and buys supplies he takes a moment to walk around the office to see if anyone else needs anything. This ends up limiting the number of vehicle miles driven each day.

According to the Energy Star Small Business program, energy efficiency improvements of 10 to 30 percent are economically viable for many small businesses through the implementation of “best practices” for facility operation and maintenance, and the use of cost-effective technologies, the National Small Business Association reports.

At Harvest, we have made the switch to CFLs across the home office. We monitor the thermostat closely, and we have placed power strips on all home electronics to eliminate the trickle loss of power. Of course we also eliminated one of our vehicles which made an immediate impact on our expenses. A result has also been that our trips are much more carefully planned which yields lower fuel expenses.

Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc. announced the release of the third edition of its how-to guide for creating more sustainable print materials. The publication, A Field Guide: Eco-Friendly, Efficient and Effective Print is a single resource that objectively details alternative design decisions that impact sustainability without sacrificing style or effectiveness.

The guide presents information from choosing paper to recycling the finished piece including paper types, paper contents, chemical labeling, sizing to reduce paper waste, inks and coatings, finishing techniques, binding, printing processes and the use of environmental logos. New information in the third edition of A Field Guide includes a full chapter dedicated to eco marketing, eco claims and the topic of “greenwashing”, as well as new information on inks and finishing.

“We are very pleased that our Field Guide has become a leading industry resource for furthering sustainable decision making in the field of graphic arts” said Richard Verney, Chairman and CEO of Monadnock Paper Mills “The Third Edition continues Monadnock’s commitment to provide graphics professionals with the tools and knowledge to impact sustainability throughout the design and production processes.”

Part of the guide’s popularity with users is that it doesn’t tell them what to do nor does it advocate that they follow every suggestion. Rather, it provides detailed information on decisions that impact sustainability in the design processes and offers environmentally preferable choices that can be made at each stage.

The guide is available in PDF format and printed copies may be ordered through Monadnock’s website.

-

Source: Manadnock press release of 06.10.08

Are you wondering how to reduce paper usage in your home and office. You may find answers from some unlikely sources.

The 4th Graders from Attrium Grade School in Watertown, Massachusetts may be little, but they are trying to make a big change by championing their paper-saving ideas. They asked local governments to join them in the fight against global warming by changing their margins to reduce paper consumption and help stop deforestation as well.

For a green paper project, the kids calculated that the US can save 6,156,000 trees per year if everyone in the just reduced their margins while printing. Assuming you change from ½ to ¼ inch margins on all sides, you’ll save 6.667% of a single sheet of paper. And that means that for every fifteen pages of changed margins you’ll have put over one page back into the forest.

The effort started slow at first, but now they’ve got a number of local government offices jumping on the bandwagon, changing margins in an effort to stem the tide of trees heading for the landfills and recycle bins of America.

Of course, their efforts also prove you’re never too young to make a difference in the green movement. As student Asha Densmore put it, “A lot of other people who are older than us do these things, but it feels good to have this much impact when we are young.”

Source: Treehugger.com

With all of this talk about riding bikes to work, you have to be wondering how in the world you will find a place to lock you bike when the pitifully small number of bike racks start to overflow. I’ve been to Amsterdam, so I’ve seen some pretty amazing bicycle parking garages. (In a future post I’ll link to a gallery.)

But this video of a parking device in Japan is completely out of this world. Can you imaging rolling into a garage, scooting your bike into an elevator, and then watch it disappear into a cavernous underground filing system? I don’t understand a word of this video, but pictures are way more powerful than words. I found this at Life in the Bike Lane.

The Sierra Club just sent me an email link to the Cool Cities website. Cool cities are cities that have made a commitment to stopping global warming by signing the U.S. Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement. Begun in 2005, the Cool Cities campaign empowers city residents and local leaders to join and encourage their cities to implement smart energy solutions to save money and build a cleaner, safer future.

Initiated and led by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement (USCPA) is a pledge by mayors to reduce global warming pollution in their cities by 7% below 1990 levels by the year 2012. In the summer of 2005, the U.S. Conference of Mayors unanimously passed a resolution supporting the USCPA. As of June 2007, over 540 mayors from 50 states, representing over 67 million Americans, have signed the USCPA.

Omaha adopted the program in the Spring of 2006. To date, Omaha has completed the first 3 out of 5 milestones in the program.

Some of the reason’s that Omaha is a cool city:

• City and Non-Profit Organizations like ActivateOmaha and Omaha by Design
• OPS retrofitting 270+ buses with emissions scrubbers
• Metro Rideshare Program
• LED traffic lights
• Pedestrian Bridge
• Tree planting program

View Omaha’s Cool City Profile.

The ‘green’ movement has certainly made a lot of money for advertising agencies in the last couple of years. Who would have thought that making a bunch of water droplet logos or integrated recycled emblems would help an exec pay for a beach house in Bermuda?

Now that the ‘green’ trend is starting to wear on the patience of the marketplace, some agencies are starting to realize that there is something more to the concept of sustainability than just a sales message.

A recent Advertising Age article suggests that agencies were drawn into the green movement in order to promote the sustainable aspects of client businesses. Now these agencies are providing measureable tools for clients, as well as changing their own operations to become more sustainable.

PHD has teamed up with a researcher from the University of California, Berkeley, to measure the environmental impact of each media channel — for instance, the amount of electricity required to power a 30-second spot.

Using those data, an Environmental Media Sustainability Index is created for media planners. The software tool shows how green options, such as solar-panel billboards, can lessen a media plan’s environmental hazards.

Other agencies have done things like develop sustainable options and green alternatives in print production, developed internal sustainability teams, sponsored environmental charities and initiatives and developed paperless invoicing and proposals

Independent digital agency IMC2 recently launched Clear Sky Digital Media, a free online tool marketers can use to calculate the carbon footprints of their online campaigns. Clear Sky Digital Media, developed with ICF International and an environmental researcher at Stanford University, converts online media buys into a kilowatt-hour measure of the energy necessary to support their delivery. That measurement is translated into carbon emissions and then used to determine the cost of purchasing reliable offset credits from organizations that fund emission reductions.

I’m glad to see that Harvest isn’t alone in the world of agencies, in fact, we’ve got some pretty good company. We’ve been working to aggressive paper reduction strategies for our clients. We’ve been working hand-in-hand with the best printers in town to reduce waste on every project. We been wired in with all of the major paper suppliers to stay abreast on all of the latest environmentally friendly printing options. And we’ve been driving as many projects online as much as possible.

I find that the marketing departments at companies that I work with tend to be more progressive than the organization as a whole. It is rewarding when they approach me to help them develop solution that help them stretch their budget and at the same time reduce environmental impact. It looks like other agencies are starting to find that out too.

Omaha’s carbon footprint ranks about middle of the pack among the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas. This is according to a report issued by the Brookings Institution in Washington. The report utilizes data captured between 2000 and 2005, looking at each city’s per capita carbon footprint based on residential energy use and highway transportation.

Generally, the smallest carbon emissions are generally in warmer areas or cities with a highly developed public transit system. Most are in the West. The worst emitters are mainly in the mid-Southern and Midwestern parts of the US.

Some factors contributing to poor scores in the Midwest are winter weather, urban sprawl with long commutes in automobiles, and wasteful use of cheap energy from coal fired power plants.

According to the report, “The transportation portion of Omaha’s per capita footprint increased 7.7 percent between 2000 and 2005, compared to an increase of 2.4 percent in the 100 largest metro areas.”

As Omaha races Westward the city is burning more gas to stay alive. The city’s public transportation or bicycle trail network can’t expand to support outlying communities, so people become reliant on cars. Urban sprawl is clearly becoming unsustainable in Omaha. For residents who are living out in the farthest burbs, they should consider using the Metro Rideshare program to carpool.

I ride around the city center everyday, and I see all of the opportunities for infill development. I certainly hope that the city catches on that with rising energy prices and limited resources there needs to be an alternative growth strategy.

I checked my own carbon footprint at climatecrisis.net. There are many carbon calculators out there, but this one is quick and easy. It only took me 2 minutes to learn that my carbon footprint is slightly over the national average. That kinda bums me out, but it gives me something to work on. I think that I have the transportation issue under control, with only one car and mostly riding my bike. But now I need to move onto home energy savings.

All of our little changes each day can make a big difference in our community.

Sorry to start the week on a down note. I promise that I’m actually in a really good mood today. It was such a great weekend.

But yesterday was a long hot day in the garden, giving me a lot of time to think. Mid-afternoon, after several hours of work, the sun was starting to wear me down. I stumbled over to a shade tree in the corner of my yard and finished off my bottle of water. I’ve got it easy. For me, growing food is a hobby and a pleasure. But around the world, people just like me are struggling everyday to grow food to live. This crisis is an important global social issue, but it is also incredibly relevant to all of us trying to live a more sustainable life.

According to the UN, global warming is going to cause extreme hardship on the global poor. The bulk of the ozone depleting greenhouse gasses contributing to global warming are spewing out of cars and factories in the industrialized North. But the poor of the world are largely situated in the global South. I’m going to assume that the bulk of the people reading this post are in the North, so please realize that all of your choices to reduce your carbon emissions can make a real difference in the lives of people on the other side of the world.

Beyond global warming, overall harm to our natural world also negatively impact the global poor. Damage to forests, rivers, marine life and other aspects of nature could halve living standards for the world’s poor, a major report has concluded. Current rates of natural decline might reduce global GDP by about 7% by 2050.

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) review reports that the trends are understood well enough - a 50% shrinkage of wetlands over the past 100 years, a rate of species loss between 100 and 1,000 times the rate that would occur without 6.5 billion humans on the planet, a sharp decline in ocean fish stocks and one third of coral reefs damaged.

I think that we are learning that we can’t exactly count on the governments of the world to solve these problems for us, especially if financial interests continue to lead the way in extracting wealth from nature at any cost. But what we can do is change our lives. Each of us can only make small changes, but collectively, we can make a difference.