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...(Read More)

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...(Read More)

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...(Read More)

The Pollution Prevention Regional Information Center (P2RIC) strives to improve resource sharing for waste reduction between the programs, businesses, and agencies of EPA Region 7 (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska). P2RIC shares success stories in Region 7 as a way to increase dialogue for businesses wishing to implement sustainable practices. Recently, the P2RIC contacted me to speak with them about the differences between Greenwashing and Sustainable Marketing. Greenwashing is not a complementary term, it is ‘the practice of making an unsubstantiated...(Read More)

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...(Read More)

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...(Read More)

Simple living and a sustainable life, there are so many reasons to commit. It is natural for someone who first approaches these concepts to believe that they are just about the environment. While the environment is an essential concern, the benefits of these choices extend into many other areas of life. Health, happiness, and serenity also result, but financial freedom should not be overlooked. The content below is largely a reprint of a story posted yesterday on CNN Money, written...(Read More)

Found this little gem on Urban Velo. I’m so glad to see Gary Fisher investing in the cycling lifestyle with gusto. When I was working at Fisher, I had the great pleasure of spending time with the man himself. His wild energy and boundless imagination were difficult for me to keep up with sometimes. My philosophy at the time was to listen intently, and take notes furiously. Because I always walked away with a list of ideas that may or...(Read More)

I came across a story in the NYT about how David Byrne and the New York City Department of Transportation, in conjunction with New York art gallery PaceWildenstein, have unveiled nine unique bicycle racks designed by DB and installed in various locations throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. David Byrne is of course the artist many of us were introduced to through his work in the art rock band Talking Heads. An avid bicyclist for almost 30 years, Byrne was invited to...(Read More)

When I go to public events on Green Transportation, I am always surprised to learn that many people are discouraged about riding to work because there is no place to lock their bike. As a solution, here is another funky bike storage system to check out (remember this?). The Bike Tree addresses several issues: it stores your bikes high up in the air, for all the world to see, and thieves to be foiled, it makes cycling accessible, and it...(Read More)

A couple of garage sale discoveries has fueled my new hobby. First, I found a great pair of binoculars for $4 at a sale just down the street. Then, a few weeks later, I came across a Duncraft tube feeder priced just right at $10. Not long after finding the feeder, I hurried over to Wild Bird Junction to seek some knowledge and some seed. I found both. What a welcoming place. Since then, I’ve built 3 additional feeders out...(Read More)

New data from the Department of Transportation reveals that driving slid for the eighth straight month in June. According to the DOT, Americans drove 12.2 billion miles less in June than they did in June 2007, a drop of 4.7 percent. That’s the largest monthly drop since the decline began in November. A press release from the DOT says that, since November, Americans have driven 53.2 billion fewer miles than they did over the same period a year earlier, a...(Read More)

Reuters had an interesting piece recently on Bangladesh’s thriving Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) recycling industry. The small South Asian country exported more than 20,000 tons of PET flakes, the shredded version of plastic bottles, last year sorted from the 3,000 factories across the country dedicated to recycling. The industry generated about $10 million in 2007 and has grown annually at a rate of 20 percent. Once the PET bottles have been sorted and crushed, the flakes are exported to China, Korea,...(Read More)

Among the early-adopter segment of eco-conscious consumers, The Intelligence Group has observed a new trend called “precycling” and believes it will grow. Consumers who precycle aren’t just content with throwing cans and bottles in the recycle bin and letting waste management sort it out. With increasing consumer interest in sustainable living, those engaged in precycling aim to avoid products that create more superfluous stuff. This could mean everything from buying bulk in order to avoid excess packaging to reusing...(Read More)