John Burke, CEO of Trek Bicycles, and Andy Clarke from the League of American Bicyclists visited Omaha yesterday and gave a series of presentations to highlight the benefits of and encourage efforts towards building Omaha as a Bicycle Friendly Community.

They discussed how bicycle friendly communities can work to address a myriad of issues for a city. These issues include impacting the obesity epidemic, traffic congestion, pollution, dependence on foreign oil and carbon footprints. Creating bicycle friendly is accomplished through combining good city design and city policy supports with strategically targeted transportation dollars.

I attended the breakfast session, where business and non-profit leaders were introduced to these concepts. John and Andy outlined a number of troubling trends and statistics which they believe should motivate Omaha to rally towards solutions. While they pointed out that there are several solutions to this range of issues, they proposed that the bicycle is the simple solution to several of these complex problems.

John provided 4 examples that prove that bikes can support a metro’s transportation needs. He showed that in the Netherlands 25% of all trips are taken by bike, and in Boulder the number is 21%. He reminded us of London’s congestion reducing strategies, and explained some of the political initiatives that have helped transform Portland.

Omaha was challenged to educate the city’s residents and public servants in order to help develop bicycle infrastructure. The city leaders were challenged to make Omaha a leader in this initiative, and become a model for other cities to follow. They readily agreed that Boulder and Portland have different cultures than Omaha. But they show it can be done. And they believe that Omaha, a city in the heartland, can show that this model can work anywhere in the state.

Kerri Peterson from Activate Omaha (host) opened up by explaining that Omaha has previously applied to be designated by the League of American Bicyclist as a bicycle friendly community. Despite our expansive recreational trail system, the application was denied.

Since then, efforts have been underway to change that outcome. Over $500,000 in private funding has been raised to design and build a 20 mile bicycle loop.  The first bicycle transportation map has been created. The City has instituted a Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee to review and recommend infrastructure improvements. This momentum is just the beginning and we would like you to join us to continue the push to change the physical face of our community.

Kerri also pointed out that the Bicycle Commuter Map was so well received by the city, that the 5000 copies printed were all distributed within 2 months. The supply was intended to last 3 years. They are currently reprinting, and the map is available for download now.

I’d encourage everyone to be involved. Bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, along with a well-developed public transportation system, can change the face of the city in which we live.

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Watch a version of John’s presentation.

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The planet is headed for an ecological “credit crunch”, according to a report issued by conservation groups.

The document contends that our demands on natural resources overreach what the Earth can sustain by almost a third.

The Living Planet Report is the work of WWF, the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network.

It says that more than three quarters of the world’s population lives in countries where consumption levels are outstripping environmental renewal.

This makes them “ecological debtors”, meaning that they are drawing - and often overdrawing - on the agricultural land, forests, seas and resources of other countries to sustain them.

WWF’s David Norman says the world will need two planets by 2030

The report concludes that the reckless consumption of “natural capital” is endangering the world’s future prosperity, with clear economic impacts including high costs for food, water and energy.

Dr Dan Barlow, head of policy at the conservation group’s Scotland arm, added: “While the media headlines continue to be dominated by the economic turmoil, the world is hurtling further into an ecological credit crunch.”

The countries with the biggest impact on the planet are the US and China, together accounting for some 40% of the global footprint.

The report shows the US and United Arab Emirates have the largest ecological footprint per person, while Malawi and Afghanistan have the smallest.

(Greenbiz.com) Businesses are becoming greener, not just because it’s right but because it makes sense.

Paul Marerro didn’t consciously try and start an environmentally conscious company. It happened naturally. Working out of a home office in Tampa, Fla., Marerro provides database and application enterprise architecting, report writing and project management services.

As his company grew, he hired a full-time employee in Iowa and added contractors in Cincinnati and Florida. All had worked for Marerro before in traditional offices. But the time for traditional offices has passed, both for Marrero and for a growing number of companies.

“It’s all telecommuting,” Marerro said.If he had more full-time employees, he’d consider a virtual office, which would allow facilities like a conference room and phone-answering service. But for now, he’s happy, he said.

Marerro doesn’t have much waste and while he can’t go totally paperless, waste paper is shredded and recycled. His business cards are made from recycled paper and all invoices are e-mailed. When he visits his largest client in Philadelphia, he walks or takes public transportation around the city.

“The green has worked its way in,” Marerro said. “We consume electricity but nowhere near the amount of an office building. It’s a room in your house.

“Ideally, Marerro said he’d like to grow the business while expanding his green practices to include solar panels for his home and office. “But it’s also nice to have several large clients, stay focused, give quality and there shouldn’t be a lot of waste,” he said.

Real estate executives and facility managers at medium to large companies are sometimes way off when it comes to occupancy rates, says John Anderson. Most think their facilities are being used 80 or 90 percent of the time. Upon tracking the data, they are often surprised to learn that they are using their space less than 50 percent of the time.

Anderson’s PeopleCube office hoteling software allows employees to schedule activities to secure a work space or room or office as needed.

The office and employer of the future invite employee participation and collaboration, which is key, Anderson said.

“You input your own carbon footprint. For example, you don’t own a cubicle so you rent one for a day. You set the air conditioning and lighting as you like, contributing to the carbon offset.”

Facilities represent the second highest expense for large businesses and the No. 1 manufacturer of emissions, according Anderson. Many employers are paying too much to heat and cool conference rooms that are hardly used and to illuminate cubicles too often left empty. Allowing employees to telecommute from home at least part of the week could cut costs significantly.

Traditionally, tracking and analyzing data from workflow patterns involves looking backward. Anderson suggests a mind shift that would require companies to establish baselines before demonstrating and measuring savings going forward.

Using the data more efficiently can help lower carbon footprint by reducing real estate costs and increasing energy efficiency up to 30 percent, he said.”You need to establish what your baselines are before you can demonstrate and measure savings going forward,” Anderson said. “Companies are just starting to do that today.”

John Larson remembers when a U.S. Interstate Highway collapsed three blocks from where he worked in Minneapolis-St Paul in 2007. There was an immediate reaction by politicians and transportation officials who needed to reroute hundreds of thousands of vehicles every day. If these commuters’ companies had put a telecommuting plan in place, that problem could potentially have been solved almost instantly.

Larson is a spokesperson for Results-Only Working Environment, or ROWE, a new way of managing people developed by two women who worked in human resources at Best Buy. The idea of ROWE is to allow flexible schedules, forcing managers to concentrate on outcomes rather than hours.

Best Buy adopted the ROWE plan at its headquarters, staggering arrival times for employees throughout the work day and cutting down on commute times.

“Those 4,000 people in Best Buy — 2,500 to 3,000 still go to work each day but not all at the same time,” Larson said. “People go at all hours so you don’t have a giant crush of cars stalled in traffic.”

Only a handful of companies have adopted the results-only philosophy. “But if ROWE became the status quo, it would have a tremendous impact on the environment,” Larson said.

Anderson’s 65 employees book conference space and cubicles on an as-needed basis, telecommuting when they don’t need to be in the office.

Telecommuting is a huge incentive, PeopleCube’s John Anderson said. It helps employees balance work and home life. Not having to drive an hour or more each way sometimes results in employees spending that saved commute-time working.

“After the salary, the number-one attraction is telecommuting,” he said. “You’re now dealing with millennial kids exiting college and they’re very environmentally conscious. Employees want to know that their company is driving in those directions. It’s a recruiting strategy too.”

Employee participation can sound like a scary proposition for the traditional office scenario.  There are two schools of thought regarding control, according to Anderson: One is that employees aren’t going to help, so bosses have to force them to do what bosses want. The other is that the more employees are included in decision-making, the more they will help.

Educating employees about green office practices is vital, Anderson said.

“You’d be surprised what the employee population is willing to do,” he said. “People are more willing to pitch in if you incent them to participate.”

Incentives include funding transportation if employees leave their cars at home, bringing a homey feel into the office by having living-room type set-ups or having a Starbucks in the building.

Some of the more radical changes in green offices of the future have to do with amenities-based interiors and designs based around increased productivity. Think laundry room at the office so you don’t have to send out.

Some banks, insurance and technology companies are creating positions for sustainability officers dedicated to reducing carbon footprint. Others resist, saying they want to be environmentally conscious but have to have a return on their investment in everything they do. Whether they’re in stocks, paper recycling or can recycling, there’s a prevailing mentality in the executive suite that if you’re not in the office today, you’re not really working.

“Our employees that telecommute are probably more productive than those that come in,” Anderson said. “As long as I’m getting a day’s work out of you I don’t really care. Telecommuting has a high degree of success.”

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Content from Dana Sanchez as posted on Greeenbiz.com.

Saturday was a good day. We woke up early and made ourselves a good ole country breakfast…err…tried. Corey set the recipe for pancakes in front of me and wished me luck. The problem was, the recipe was for 2lbs. of mix, and there is no way we could eat that much. So, I set about using my common sense and public school math skills to freestyle the recipe. I set out to make pancakes…I ended up with a plateful of crepes?

Oh well…moving on. After breakfast we headed down to Fontenelle Forest for a composting workshop co-hosted by the Green Omaha Coalition. We were shocked by the turnout; there were probably 70 people there.

Topics ranged from ‘Composting for Beginners’ and ‘Composting with Worms’, to ‘What to do with Finished Compost.’

I am very interested in the Vermicomposting. It would be nice to have it as an available option during the winter. From what I learned, we can make a homemade setup for our basement. We should be able to compost all winter with no risk of smell. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

My attention started to drift near the end. I have a hard time sitting still inside on a nice day.

So Corey and I decided to wander around the forest to check out the Eco Huts display. The display includes practical interactive displays sharing information about the environment and our homes. The displays were amazing. I’m so happy to see these learning opportunities available to kids.

Cyclists and community organizers from around the metro gathered downtown on Saturday for an all-inclusive discussion of cycling accessibility. The event was hosted at the Midwest National Park Service Headquarters on the Omaha riverfront. I have to praise the location first. The building is situated right at the foot of the pedestian bridge, and has a wonderfull view of the river and downtown. To top it off, the building is Leed Gold Certified.

Corey and I were only able to attend a short portion of the day-long event, but we made sure to join at the portion that was most important to us. We were there for the review of the Omaha Streetscape plan hosted by Omaha By Design’s Connie Spellman.

She gave a concise but informative presentation about Omaha’s initiative to integrate pedestrians, bicyclists, and the environment into our streets. The streets that are now exclusively built for cars. (Did you know that Nebraska doesn’t have a Department of Transportation? Only a Department of Roads. Makes you wonder how we don’t have a better mixed use planning.)

She highlighted the successes in the Benson Ames Alliance master plan. Next year they are beginning the first phase of the streetscape redesign.

Connie made a point to motivate members of the audience to contact their City Council Person and the head of Omaha Public Works to advocate for better bicycle and pedestrian transportation options. She said that these public servants (an underutilized word, but so important in this time of jaded politics) really do want to hear from constituents and act on their behalf.

This summit reinforced the good and the bad for cycling in Omaha. The good is that Omaha isn’t a huge city. It is practical to move around by bike or foot. Also, the bus system has recently added bike racks to the front of busses. And of course, Omaha has over 80 miles of bicycle trails snaking across the city. The challenges are streets that are often poorly designed, crowded with drivers who are impatient and uninformed. And, the topography of our city, make East/West traffic difficult. The hills are challenging, but the bike trails and bike lanes are limited in this direction.

I asked if there is ONE street in particular that we should contact our local representatives about. I wanted to know which East/West street had the greatest chance of being renovated in the near future. She strongly suggested that we advocate for Leavenworth Street. This street is well graded, and is dangerous currently because it carries too much traffic. Redesigning this street can greatly contribute to the quality of life for neighborhood residents as well as cycling commuters.

I’m making my calls this week. I’d encourage you to do the same.

It looks like this video has been out for a while, but I just came across it and love the message. Good Magazine features the collaboration between the Karaba Coffee Co-op and the Portland, Oregon coffee roaster that buys its coffee. By providing bikes it has solved the problem of lugging huge bags of coffee through the unpaved hills of Rwanda, boosted production, and given birth to a new non-profit.

Lugging huge bags of coffee through the unpaved hills of Rwanda to a processing plant was back-breaking work for the Karaba coffee co-op. In this original GOOD video see how a collaboration between Karaba and a Portland, Oregon, coffee roaster has solved that problem, boosted production, and given birth to a new non-profit.

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(Warning…Political Content) Watching the presidential debates a couple of weeks back, I couldn’t help but take note that there was hardly a mention of behavioral changes on the part of Americans to address gas prices and energy consumption.

There has been some lip-service given to developing public transportation infrastructure, but I doubt that will happen until it is virtually too late. I’m so frustrated now that so many Americans are demanding that the government and industry solve the resources problem for them.

At a meeting we went to recently on Transition Towns and Peak Oil there were some scary numbers thrown around about how technology solutions aren’t going to solve our problems. Hybrid cars, wind & solar energy, nuclear, or the mythical clean coal don’t stand a chance at picking up the slack left by declining oil production.

I’m a HUGE advocate for making changes to our behaviors in order to reduce consumption. The benefits are endless, you save money, help reduce environmental harm, and maintain better health. I sincerely hope that more people in the community start to adopt similar solutions.

But…I found this video today and am truly troubled. Watch for yourself.

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“Omaha—smack dab in the middle of America,” starts the city profile on SustainLane. Omaha ranks #25 on the site’s sustainability index of the nation’s 50 biggest cities, notably beating the front-range Colorado city of Colorado Springs and sunny San Diego, CA.

The site’s peer-reviewed, national study ranks cities by at least 16 factors, including each city’s ability to maintain healthy air, drinking water, parks and public transit systems, as well as a robust, sustainable local economy with green building, farmers markets, renewable energy and alternative fuels.

“We’re beginning to see the top- and bottom-ranked cities move farther apart, with the cities taking sustainability seriously increasing in desirability nationwide and enjoying better odds of long-term economic prosperity,” said SustainLane Media CEO James Elsen. “Specifically, the top 15 cities are creating more vibrant city centers and offer higher quality air, water, food and transportation choices that yield smaller carbon footprints per resident than those at the bottom of the list. We predict that the lower-ranking cities will increasingly struggle to sustain their resident and business populations and local economies.”

Why does Omaha rank where it does?

The city markets its own brand of compost called OmaGro. Omaha also recently switched to single stream recycling and has upped the types of plastics it accepts, making it easier for residents to divert waste away from landfills.

On the the transportation front, the city would do well to turn its attention to upping public transit ridership. In our survey, it 48th of 50 in this department. Mayor Mike Fahey is thinking about resuscitating the city’s old streetcar system; he might also consider offering alternative transportation subsidies, as many higher-ranking cities do.

The biggest limitation to making Omaha more sustainable may lie in getting more people to buy into the idea of living green, says the mayor’s deputy assistant, Andrea Fox. To help with outreach, the city is collaborating with the Green Omaha Coalition, a group that aims to promote a healthy, sustainable community through public-private partnerships, educational programs, and proposing policy solutions.

SustainLane.com is the web’s largest people-powered guide to sustainable living. The site connects interested consumers with the tools and information on everything related to green, including:

• The largest directory of local, green-friendly businesses in the United States with over 20,000 small business listings;
• Consumer-generated how-tos, news and product reviews of new green offerings in the marketplace; and
• A community of likeminded individuals willing to share information and personal experiences with each other.

I’ve found the site to be a rich resource for information on virtually any sustainability topic.

Pizza is my biggest food vice (ice cream isn’t considered food…more medication). And it is always such a bummer when we finish the pizza and have to scrap the box.

A company called Green Box has turned the formerly single-purpose pizza box into a cross-functional delivery, dining, and long-term storage solution.

Their design is simple. They take the standard box, perforate the top into quarters, and they can turn into plates. Perforate the edges of the bottom of the box, then once down the middle, and you can fold that into a leftover box that’s half the size of the original. Less than that, actually, since the box is wedge shaped.

The company has clearly added value to the pizza box, but they have also used a simple business solution that yield meaningful environmental benefits. Think about all the other things that would have been used with a normal box: Plates plus the time/water/detergent used washing them. Disposable plates if you’re out, likely tossed. Paper towels standing in for plates. Plastic wrap or foil used to cover or wrap the leftovers in a smaller package then that mammoth box.

This may not sound like a lot in terms of one meal, but it adds up when you consider that American’s consume 4.8 billion pizza’s each year.

The makers of the box didn’t stray much from standard construction materials, believing that would have likely raised the price. They felt that most pizza shops are quantity focused businesses that will only make a move towards sustainability if it doesn’t raise the cost of doing business. Instead, they took the industry standard box, modified nothing but how it’s cut, and made it out of recycled paper, an increasingly cost competitive option.

This sort of creative decision making that focuses on solving conventional problems in a more sustainable way is the future of sustainable business. Sustainable businesses cannot live on the fringe if they hope to succeed in a competitive marketplace. The folks at Green Box clearly took the time to evaluate the factors involved in the decisions of everyone through their distribution chain and made decisions that benefitted each one of them. The end result is a simple product that will hopefully make me feel better about ordering my next gourmet pie from my favorite pizza shop.

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Source: Triple Pundit

I just finished A Sand County Almanac for the second time in my life. I first read the book when I was in junior high. It was assigned by my 8th grade science teacher, and reading it is likely the only thing that I remember from that class. My brother gave me a copy of the book in 2004 after Corey and I bought our home in Wisconsin. (The book was written while the author lived in Wisconsin) I’m almost ashamed of myself that it took me 4 years to pick up the book and read it. But this is the right time in my life to do so, and I’ve gotten so much out of it.

I usually read first thing in the morning. Reading is my meditation; giving my mind up to someone else’s ideas. Mr. Leopold is a gifted conservationist, and his grounded and poetic descriptions of the land opened my eyes to the beauty of the midwestern morning. I really want everyone to read this book, and I wish I could tempt you by picking the perfect bit of prose to quote here. But when I read, I never mark pages, I just let my thoughts and feelings drift along with the book and move along. I don’t really think about what I would like to share.

This section called ‘The Land Pyramid’ was a relatively academic section, but it struck home as relevant to my desire to be more connected with my surroundings.

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An ethic to supplement and guide the economic relation to land presupposes the existence of some mental image of land as a biotic mechanism. We can be ethical only in relation to something we can see, feel, understand, love, or otherwise have faith in.

The image commonly employed in conservation education is ‘the balance of nature.’ For reasons too lengthy to detail here, this figure of speech fails to describe accurately what little we know about the land mechanism. A much truer image is the one employed in ecology: the biotic pyramid. I shall first sketch the pyramid as a symbol of land, and later develop some of its implications in terms of land-use.

Plants absorb energy from the sun. This energy flows through a circuit called the biota, which may be represented by a pyramid consisting of layers. The bottom layer is the soil. A plant layer rests on the soil, an insect layer on the plants, a bird and rodent layer on the insects, and so on up through various animal groups to the apex layer, which consists of the larger carnivores.

The species of a layer are alike not in where they came from, or in what they look like, but rather in what they eat. Each successive layer depends on those below it for food and often for other services, and each in turn furnishes food and services to those above. Proceeding upward, each successive layer decreases in numerical abundance. Thus, for every carnivore there are hundreds of hi prey, thousands of their prey, millions of insects, uncountable plants. The pyramidal form of the system reflects this numerical progression from apex to base. Man shares an intermediate layer with the bears, raccoons, and squirrels which eat both meat and vegetables.

The lines of dependency for food and other services are called food chains. Thus soil-oak-deer-Indian is a chain that has now been largely converted to soil-corn-cow-farmer. Each species, includeinig ourselves, is a link in many chains. The deer eats a hundred plants other than oak, and the cow a hundred plants other than corn. Both, then, are links in a hundred chains. The pyramid is a tangle of chains so complex as to seem disorderly, yet the stability of the system proves it to be a highly organized structure. Its functioning depends on the co-operation and conpetition of its diverse parts.

In the beginning, the pyramid of life was low and squat; the food chains short and simple. Evolution has added layer after layer, link after link. Man is one of thousands of accretions to the height and complexity of the pyramid. Science has given us many doubts, but it has given us at least one certainty: the trend of evolution is to elaborate and diversify the biota.

Land, then, is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals. Food chains are the living channels which conduct energy upward; death and decay return it to the soil. The circuit is not closed; some energy is dissipated in decay, some is added by absorption from the air, some is stored in soils, peats, and long-lived forests; but it is a sustained circuit, like a slowly augmented revolving fund of life. There is always a net loss by downhill wash, but this is normally small and offset by the decay of rocks. It is deposited in the ocean and, in the course of geological time, raised to form new lands and new pyramids.

The velocity and character of the upward flow of energy depend on the complex structure of the plant and animal community, much as the upward flow of sap in a tree depends on its complex cellular organization. Without this complexity, normal circulation woulld presumably not occur. Structure means the characteristic numbers, as well as the characteristic kinds and functions, of the component species. This interdependence between the complex structure of the land and its smooth functioning as an energy unit is one of its basic attributes.

When a change occurs in one part of the circuit, many other parts must adjust themselves to it. Change does not necessarily obstruct or divert the flow of energy; evolution is a long series of self-induced changes, the net result of which has been to elaborate the flow mechanism and to lengthen the circuit. Evolutionary changes, however, are usually slow and local. Man’s invention of tools has enabled him to make changes of unprecedented violence, rapidity, and scope.

One change is in the composition of floras and faunas. The larger predators are lopped off the apex of the pyramid; food chains, for the first time in history, become shorter rather than longer. Domesticated species from other lands are substituted for wild ones, and wild ones are moved to new habitats. In this world-wide pooling of faunas and floras, some species get out of bounds as pests and diseases, other are extinguished. Such effects are seldom intended or foreseen; they represent unpredicted and often untraceable readjustments in the structure. Agricultural science is largely a race between the emergence of new pests and the emergence of new techniques for their control.

Another change touches the flow of energy through plants and animals and its return to the soil. Fertility is the ability of soil to receive, store, and release energy. Agriculture, by overdrafts on the soil, or by too radical a substitution of domestic for native species in the superstructure, may derange the channels of flow or deplete storage. Soils depleted of their storage, or of the organic matter which anchors it, wash away faster than they form. This is erosion.

Waters, like soil, are part of the energy circuit. Industry, by polluting waters or obstructing them with dams, may exclude the plants and animals necessary to keep energy in circulation.

Transportation brings about another basic change: the plants or animals grown in one region are now consumed and returned to the soil in another. Transportation taps the energy stored in rocks, and in the air, and uses it elsewhere; thus we fertilize the garden with nitrogen gleaned by the guano birds from the fishes of the seas on the other side of the Equator. Thus the formerly localized and self-contained circuits are pooled on a world-wide scale.

The process of altering the pyramid for human occupation releases stored energy, and this often gives rise, during the pioneering period, to a deceptive exuberance of plant and animal life, both wild and tame. These releases of biotic capital tend to becloud or postpone the penalties of violence.

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So much to learn.

Corey and I took a focused approached to yesterday’s Green Home Tour, hosted by the Green Omaha Coalition. We really wanted to learn more about water conservations, especially the control of runoff.

We decided to make an adventure out of the tour, so we decided to walk the two miles to the water conservation house. We set out early in the afternoon, and enjoyed a beautiful Dundee day. We were getting a little winded from the hilly route, and were pretty glad to finally arrive at our destination.

It was a pleasant suprise to find that the tour was apparently a hit. The house was crowded with visitors of all ages, all wanting to learn more about home water conservation. There was a convenient handout (printed on FSC Certified paper of course) which highlighted all of the tools and techniques used in the home. At all major stopping points (kitchen, bath, garden & gutters) there were helpful volunteers ready to answer questions.

Many of the interior changes we have already made, including faucet aeroators and flow controllers. We have made many eco-friendly cleaning product decisions as well.

But in the kitchen we were impressed with some common sense suggestions. Lined up on the kitchen counter were big boxes of Baking Soda and Powder, along with a big jug of vinegar. It was a helpful reminder that much of our home cleaning needs can be solved the old fashioned way. If anyone knows of a good book for teaching about homemade cleaners, please let me know. Also in the kitchen, the home owner had a water pitcher next to the sink which she used to capture grey water before it was wasted down the drain. She collects the water and takes it out to the garden to water plants. The coolest thing in the bathroom were all of the plants in and around the shower. It was such a cool idea to bring life and green into this usually ’sterile’ environment. Placing a bucket in the shower as the water temperature is set is another good way to capture waste water.

We were most interested in the rain garden (PDF 5mb) found in the front yard. We have erosion issues at our home because of the slope of our property. We have done a lot of research, and are doing the math right now (yes, math is required) to determine the right size and placement of ours. All of the literature we have read suggests that the garden should be densly planted, but it was good to see that the sample home was planted more scarcely. We are trying to save money and don’t want to have to rush out and buy a bunch of plants for the garden.

On that note (sorry for all of the random thoughts), we stopped by Pageturner’s Used Books in Dundee on the walk back and I picked up a really helpful book on plant propagation. It is exactly what I have been looking for. I wanted to find a way to multiply my and my neighbors plants in order to fill in our gardens. Plus we are going to start our complete vegetable garden from seed next year, and can use all the tip we can get so our time is well spent.

Anyway, whereas we didn’t spend the whole afternoon on the tour like many of the participants clearly did, we had a great time and learned a lot. If you aren’t already a member, please join the GOC and recieve their regular updates with other educational events.

I was sitting on my front porch earlier this morning, sipping on my first cup of coffee for the day. The birds weren’t out yet and the wind wasn’t blowing, it was quiet.

Then, from down the street, came the roar of an engine. I looked down the hill to see a pair of headlights racing up the street. As the dark SUV sped past, a hand reached out the window and tossed a plastic wrapped newspaper in the general direction of my neighbors house. Without hesitation, the engine roared again and the ‘paperboy‘ continued up the hill.

What happened? I never had a paper route. But I remember when I was in elementary school my best friend did. Whenever I spent the night, I would wake up early with him. We would grab the stack of flat papers from his front porch, pull out a bag of rubber bands, and wrap the papers up. Then he would strategically load his double sided bag and we would walk up and down the neighborhood streets, carefully tossing papers onto porches as we went.

I can’t remember the last time that I saw anyone walking a paper route. And I certainly haven’t seen any kids doing it.

So many things disturbed me about this morning’s experience (not the least of which that someone was speeding down my street…grrr). The fact that an SUV is apparently required for a paper route is ridiculous. As if this isn’t inefficient enough, the driver is racing around with totally inefficient driving habits. Then the fact that this guy cares so little about his work that he barely slows down to toss the paper with any sort of consideration for the customer. And of course, what happened to the rubber band? It wasn’t raining. Why the plastic bag?

I think that our society needs to take a long look at ourselves. We need to slow down, live in a way that is healthy for ourselves and our environment, we need to live in the moment, and we need to be considerate towards others.

So disturbing.

I made a big step towards a more sustainable home. I sold my gas powered rotary mower and my gas powered trimmer, and officially freed myself from fossil fueled lawn care.

I started thinking about this when I read recently an article on how to green you lawn that noted that mowing your lawn for 1 hour emits as much CO2 as driving your car 20 miles. That was troubling. Then I started to wonder why exactly did I need a 6.5hp self-propelled mower to cut the little blades of grass. Seems like a disproportionately powerful solution to the problem of lawn maintenance.

So I posted both items on Craigslist, and within 24 hours had collected a couple of hundred bucks and said goodbye to my lawn equipment. I hopped on Amazon and ordered up a Scott 20″ Reel Mower. Then I went to Mulhall’s and picked up a beautiful pair of Corona grass sheers (if you haven’t used Corona tools, you don’t know what you are missing).

I got the mower yesterday and mowed my lawn with the reel mower for the first time. There is of course going to be an adjustment period, but it works awesome. It is really easy to use, it is better for a healthy lawn, and it is a decent workout.

All in all, I’m stoked. One more sustainable decision has been made, I came out well ahead financially, and I’m going to save money and use less gas over the long term.

We live only a few blocks away from the elementary school that I attended for 5th and 6th grade. On occasion, our evening walk take us by the school.

Recently, we decided to visit the schools central courtyard to see the vegetable gardens that our good friend Kate helped organize. Kate is a teacher at Western Hills, and clearly hasn’t settled into a ‘business as usual’ approach to education.

I honestly wasn’t expecting to be impressed with the garden. I pictured a bunch of cobbled together beds that were poorly maintained. It was after all summer, and school wasn’t in session. Surely the students would completely forget about the garden while they were spending endless summer days in front of the TV.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Rounding the corner an endless and lush garden came into view. It is one of the most wonderful things that I have ever seen. At the far end is a bright mural, accenting the frame of institutional walls and windows that house the gardens. Wandering through the gardens was awe inspiring, everywhere we looked there were more and more veggies ripe and ready for harvesting. Clearly the students were born with green thumbs, because their efforts put Corey and my little plot to shame.

Kate was generous enough to answer some questions about the garden, and I wanted to share them with you.

How did you get the idea to start a student garden at Western Hills?
Four of us went to the National Magnet Conference in Las Vegas two years ago. While we were there, we were discussing what to do with the courtyard. We wanted to create an outdoor classroom of some sort. We liked the garden (especially the vegetables and herbs idea) because it goes really well with our push to be a leader in Wellness Education in OPS.

How did the students respond the idea?
The kids have always been very excited about it. That is really the element that makes this project so successful. It was the teachers, teachers’ families, students, and parents all working together to create this garden. We would work after school, on Saturdays, and throughout the summer.

How do you blend classroom curriculum with the garden?
We have done it a couple of ways. We use it for math a lot. It helped the kids understand measurement a lot. They had a hands on experience of measuring the depth of the soil for seeds to be planted. Also, over summer school we had the kids each choose a plant to measure and record it’s growth each week. We also use it for science, obviously. We had electives about gardening, worms, and soon we will use the produce for a cooking class as well as a wellness class.

Do you have anyone that you would like to thank?
Well, Lowe’s for sure and also the landscape designer. Also all the wonderful parent volunteers that gave so much of their time over the summer.

When the invitation showed up in the mail, we knew this was an event we couldn’t miss. The premier of the documentary film I.O.U.S.A. was to take place in downtown Omaha at the Holland Performing Arts Center and be broadcast to over 400 theaters across the country. After the film, a round table discussion featuring Warren Buffet, Pete Peterson and David Walker would provide insights into the film.

The event didn’t disappoint, our evening was spectacular on all fronts. After a brief introduction by the film’s director, the lights dimmed and my eyes opened wide in anticipation. The film clearly explained the state of our nation’s current financial crisis. It drove home the importance of not only national policy, but also personal responsibility.

I.O.U.S.A. examines the rapidly growing national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens. America must mend its spendthrift ways or face an economic disaster of epic proportions.

The numbers were staggering, the nation now has over $53 trillion in total liabilities, and that isn’t going anywhere soon. The nation’s budget is far from balanced, running a deficit year after year. Currently, our national dept is equal to 64% of our GDP and growing. Within 20 years, it is projected to exceed 100%.

In 2008, the Congressional Budget Office projects a deficit of $357 billion ($553 billion excluding the Social Security (surplus). That estimate reflects the impact of the economic slowdown and legislated stimulus efforts, but not pending supplemental funding for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and other purposes that could add more than $180 billion in deficit spending over the next two years.

The federal budget should serve as the fiscal roadmap for federal policy making. However, the budget and its related process have major weaknesses when it comes both to understanding and to managing the
financial condition of the United States government. The annual budget process focuses on the immediate budget year and largely discounts the future implications of current decisions. Decision makers do not devote the same level of scrutiny to future impacts as they do to current costs.

The film’s graphics did a fantastic job of offering a clear understanding of the scope of the problem, how issues are interrelated, and where the crisis is headed. As a way of throwing the staggering number in perspective, the $53 trillion was put into more understandable numbers. They calculated the burden to:

• $175,000 per person living in the United States
• $410,000 per full-time worker
• $455,000 per household

As the film ended, citizen’s were challenged to demand that Washington policy makers begin to address these issues. Rethink our priorities. We should focus on critical societal needs and programs and policies that work. In addition, we should not assign responsibilities to the government that we personally are not willing to pay in taxes. And also recognize that there are no easy answers.

The discussion that followed the film was interesting, but also strange. One member of the audience opened with a question that made me wonder if he had even watched the film. He asked, ‘Does anyone really want to live in a world where we all exercise fiscal responsibility?’ How bazaar?

I was absolutely impressed by Pete Peterson and David Walker, but was befuddled by Omaha’s own Warren Buffet. He just came across like a booster for the US financial system. He kept rambling on about the size of the ‘pie’ in order to help the audience understand that we could count on growth and continued prosperity. He was no better than the guy who asked the opening question…did he even watch the film? The he made some statements that totally reflected the Horatio Alger Myth, implying that we can all be billionaires if we just work a little bit harder.

I was so happy to hear the thoughts of Peterson and Walker, both of whom came across as grounded and insightful. They drove home the reality of our current financial crisis and discussed the practical issues which we must face in order to slow or stop the impending disaster.

The messages of the film was just one more reminder of the importance of Simple Living and a sustainable financial life.

If you are a numbers person and want to see how the film’s data played out, click here to download the complete citizen’s guide on the Financial Condition of the US.

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