Some of you may have participated in the Step It Up rallies held back in April of this year, when people all over the country gathered in iconic locations, calling on Congress to “Cut Carbon 80% by 2050″. Next weekend will be the next phase of events, and Brooklyn is hosting a big one:

On November 3rd the Green Guide for Kids will join with thousands of others across the country in calling on our politicians and candidates to take steps to meet the goal set on April 14th. We will gather at Grand Army Plaza and work together to create a banner that will ask politicians and candidates: Who Is A Leader? A photograph taken of all participants with the banner will be sent to Congress and candidates running for president one year to the date before the federal elections.

Thanks to Deirdre Gill of the Green Guide for Kids for this tip. Check out her blog, “an online resource for kids [and adults!] to find ideas, information, and inspiration to go green”!

One big source of trash for those of us who shop online and mail order is excessive packing materials. Some companies are worse offenders than others, and hopefully this instance cited on Organic Picks is not the norm:

photo: Organic Picks

Yes, the small Pyrex bowl on the left is the purchased item!

As the post points out, we concerned consumers can have an impact on the companies we shop with by praising those with eco-conscious packaging and objecting to practices like the above. This in turn raises the issue of excessive packaging, period. How many times have you been tempted to use a hacksaw to open one of those ridiculous plastic clamshell bubbles in order to free the small item (usually electronics) contained within? Ever wondered why so many food products are packaged in both a plastic bag AND a box (most cereal, for example)? Even those who conscientiously harvest and recycle all the cardboard from these conveyances will be faced with a pile of plastic that can only go in the trash — where it will remain for generations.

Though you wouldn’t know it from a typical shopping experience today, sustainable packaging design is being explored and embraced by many companies. It is currently a work-in-progress with much “greenwashing” in evidence (a “compostable” plastic container that gets thrown in the trash is arguably no different from any other plastic container, as it will not break down in a landfill… only if it is actually composted). But many companies have already voluntarily reduced their packaging and seen dramatic reductions in their shipping and storage costs. Fast Company’s recent article, 50 Ways to Green Your Business cites some dramatic examples:

1 At $100 a ton, feeding a landfill is pricey. But in the past two years, General Mills (NYSE:GIS) has turned its solid waste into profits. Take its oat hulls, a Cheerios by-product. The company used to pay to have them hauled off, but realized they could be burned as fuel. Now customers compete to buy the stuff. In 2006, General Mills recycled 86% of its solid waste, earning more from that than it spent on disposal.

8 Hamburger Helper helps your hamburger … save the planet? This year, General Mills redesigned the packaging of Mom’s old standby, shaving off 20% of the paperboard box without shrinking its tasty contents. The astounding result: 500 fewer distribution trucks on the road each year.

10 Taking the packaging revolution a step further, the liquid-laundry-detergent industry, goaded by Wal-Mart, has cut the size of its bottles by 50% or more by concentrating the liquid to two and sometimes three degrees of magnitude. Unilever’s triple-concentrated All Small & Mighty detergent has saved 1.3 million gallons of diesel fuel, 10 million pounds of plastic resin, and 80 million square feet of cardboard since 2005. This fall, Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) is converting its entire collection of liquids to double concentration.

(The rest of their list is pretty interesting too.)

As consumers, the more we educate ourselves about the consequences of excessive packaging and use our wallets to vote for alternatives, the more manufacturers will be compelled to respond with real solutions. And if the solutions also benefit those companies, well, isn’t that how things should be?

BLOGGERS TO UNITE ON BLOG ACTION DAY

All Blogs Invited to Take Part in Joining Voices to Help Environment

“For just one day, we’d like to unite as many of the millions of bloggers around the world and speak about one issue - the environment,” said Collis Ta’eed, an Australian blogger from FreelanceSwitch.com, and a cofounder of Blog Action Day. “We want to display the potential and the power of the blogging community, which is a disparate community but one with an amazing size, breadth and diversity. By bringing everyone together for one day, we can see just how much can be achieved, and how much we can be heard.”

Of course, here at Sustainable Flatbush, we speak about the environment EVERY day, but today we have lots more company than usual!

Today Al Gore, together with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, received the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his work to alert the world to the threat of global warming. From the NY Times article:

Mr. Gore “is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted,” the Nobel citation said, referring to the issue of climate change. The United Nations committee, a network of 2,000 scientists, has produced two decades of scientific reports that have “created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming,” the citation said.

photo: Filmweb

This morning I received an email from Senator Chuck Shumer (wow, how did Chuck get my email address?), with a link to website where I could sign a card congratulating Al Gore for the honor he had just received. And guess what? Al wrote me right back!

Dear Anne,

I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change–the world’s pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis–a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.

My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.

Thank you,

Al Gore

Now that we’re on a first-name basis, maybe Al would like to do the “Inconvenient Truth” presentation here in Flatbush!

Okay, all kidding aside… 2007 has been a momentous year for climate change awareness, and Al Gore surely deserves all the recognition he has received for his part in this. One great way to respond to his effort is to take the Alliance for Climate Protection’s 7-Point Pledge, which describes concrete steps we can take as citizens to translate awareness into action. We have a lot of work to do in 2008.

The Great Change: The World Beyond Petroleum
An evening with Albert Bates

Where:
Friends Meeting House
15 Rutherford Place, Manhattan
(15th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues)

Sponsors:
Sierra Club NYC Group
Beyond Oil NYC
Neighborhood Energy Network
Tri-State Food Not Lawns
Friends in Unity with Nature

Cost:
free, but donations to support Albert’s travel costs welcome

With a style both humorous and deadly serious, Albert Bates walks us through the challenges that lie ahead for the United States and the world: climate change, peak oil, and global economic meltdown creating conditions for civil unrest, recession and hardship. Picking his way through the minefield of unrealistic expectations, Bates pulls together a picture of a very different future, consciously created and far better than anything we might have imagined before. (more…)

Last night I attended a lecture at the Museum of Natural History by 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Green Belt Movement, Wangari Maathai. What an inspiration! For those not familiar with her organization,

The Green Belt Movement provides income and sustenance to millions of people in Kenya through the planting of trees. It also conducts educational campaigns to raise awareness about women’s rights, civic empowerment, and the environment throughout Kenya and Africa.

Because she is such a charming and charismatic person — not to mention a visionary — I not only didn’t mind that she shamelessly (with great humor) plugged her autobiography “Unbowed”, I’m now planning to read it at the first opportunity.

Suddenly everyone is talking about NYC tap water: the high quality and low cost relative to bottled water (49 cents versus $1,400, according to the NY Times editorial quoted below), the health benefits relative to other beverages, the environmental benefits… and now the need for citizens and local governments to recognize that high quality municipal water is a valuable resource:

The more the wealthy opt out of drinking tap water, the less political support there will be for investing in maintaining America’s public water supply. That would be a serious loss. Access to cheap, clean water is basic to the nation’s health.

The NY Times has been leading the way with this information on the importance of our public water supply, and their latest editorial on the subject is worth checking out:

NY Times Editorial

August 1, 2007

In Praise of Tap Water

On the streets of New York or Denver or San Mateo this summer, it seems the telltale cap of a water bottle is sticking out of every other satchel. Americans are increasingly thirsty for what is billed as the healthiest, and often most expensive, water on the grocery shelf. But this country has some of the best public water supplies in the world. Instead of consuming four billion gallons of water a year in individual-sized bottles, we need to start thinking about what all those bottles are doing to the planet’s health.

(more…)

Carolyn Gilles is a co-founder of the GreenEdge Collaborative, an event planner, and an organic chef. In this post she challenges herself and all of us to take some steps toward making our own lives more sustainable:

Be Mindfully Competitive with Yourself!

As some of you know, for the past 2+ years I’ve been studying and keeping up to date on the sustainable food situation (or lack thereof) and it has been my professional mission to share what I learn with my community. I believe that living by example is a strong tool for social change. I would like to encourage YOU to live by example with a “Sustainable Lifestyle Challenge”.

Recently, I have been studying the larger system of environmental and social sustainability. What initially comes to mind when thinking of the whole system is: What a mess! We, especially as Americans, have gotten ourselves into some serious trouble with Mother Nature. Global Warming is a hot topic right now and it’s becoming more and more fashionable to be “green.” While being fashionable can be fun and sexy, let us not forget the real issues at hand: mass consumption is out of control and has become synonymous with “a good life”; choosing leaders is a crucial part of creating a better future for our kids.

I am encouraging you to think about your consumption choices - where is your money going once you pass it over to the cashier, your waiter, or your banker? Think about the ripple effect of your actions and your wallet. In two words: Be Mindful.

To all readers of this blog, as well as the members of Green Edge NYC, for the next 6 weeks (end of August 2007) let’s take a moment each day to reflect on the choices we make and how they might affect our shared environment - physical and social.

The challenge is this: make a change in your daily life that will have astounding effects on our future sustainability. You could start taking your own coffee mug every day, take canvas bags to the grocery, rinse and reuse your small plastic produce bags, walk when you could take the bus, take the bus when you could drive, turn off your lights when you’re not in the room, unplug your appliances when they’re not in use, recycle, reuse glass jars, donate clothes, cook at home, eat less take-out, buy organic, support your local hardware store, buy less from “box stores”, take shorter showers, do some research on a company you buy from frequently, research your mayor or congressperson - the list can go on and on…

Let’s get the comment section of this blog going for discussion on how you plan to participate in the “Sustainable Lifestyle Challenge” and keep us updated on your progress.

My participation will include doing more research, walking more, and supporting smaller local businesses.

GOOD LUCK!

–
Carolyn Gilles
Food Lover and Event Planner
www.bluenotefoods.com

Dan Miner, Sierra Club NYC Group’s Energy Committee Chair, explores the topic of congestion pricing from another perspective:

“Our dependence on cars and trucks is a national security issue… By getting more drivers out of cars and onto mass transit, congestion pricing increases our economic resiliency to fuel price shocks. Because of its many benefits, congestion pricing could be more accurately called the transit relief fund, the mass transit incentive, or the rush hour fee, according to Joe Brewer, research fellow at George Lakoff’s Rockridge Institute. It could also be called security pricing.”

Here’s the whole article:

Despite the new enthusiasm for green initiatives in New York City, the congestion pricing at the core of the PlaNYC transportation program is still getting the cold shoulder from a substantial number of City residents and lawmakers. Hoping to redirect some travelers to mass transit, Mayor Bloomberg wants to charge a fee to cars and trucks entering midtown Manhattan during the day. The fees, with city and state contributions, would fund $31 billion in metro area mass transit projects and would help unclog our streets and reduce carbon emissions.

Critics agree that more mass transit funding is needed, but oppose the fees as a punitive tax on working class outer-borough residents. Both critics and supporters implicitly assume that the price of gas will remain basically stable, a faith shared by the general public, as shown in a recent Gallup poll where 58% of Americans expected gasoline to reach $4 this summer but almost all doubted it would go higher. In addition, most said that higher prices would not convince them to get to work by carpooling, biking, telecommuting or mass transit.

(more…)

The NY Times editorial quoted below spells out the current stalemate on congestion pricing and consequences of NOT passing this much-needed piece of legislation (including a subway fare hike as high as 50%). I am thoroughly embarassed by the Democratic Party “leadership” that could cost our city $500 million in federal funds earmarked for public transit improvements because they are pandering to parking garage owners and the small minority of New Yorkers who commute by car. If you feel the same way, now is the time to let them know.

 

June 25, 2007

Editorial

Congestion Pricing Deadline

New Yorkers and anyone else who rides public transportation in and around the city should mark July 16 on their calendars. By that date, if state lawmakers do their jobs, they will have paved the way to ensuring billions of dollars of new cash to maintain and expand mass transit. If not, the current $2 fare for a bus or subway ride can be expected to increase at least 20 percent and maybe as much as 50 percent. The choice is that stark, and riders, who will pay the price if legislators fail, will know exactly where to direct their pique.

(more…)