Sustainability

And The World’s Most Sustainable City Is…

March 5, 2015 Roman Kilisek, www.theenergycollective.com Educate! Environment, Sustainability, Urban

A city is more that just a place where people live and work. And as more of the world’s population gravitates toward city living, these urban centers must cater to their population’s myriad needs with sustainable solutions like never before. Recently, ARCADIS came out with a highly informative report entitled “Sustainable Cities Index 2015 – Balancing the economic, social and environmental needs of the world’s leading cities.” The researchers proclaimed “A city is much more than just a place for people to live and do business. Cities are areas of emotional attachment, each with their own distinct personality, traditions and attraction factor.”

Russian Family Gardens Produce 40% Of Russian Food

December 30, 2014 Natural Homes, www.healthimpactnews.com Create! Food and Agriculture, Russia, Sustainability

Earlier this month, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated that Russia will not import GMO products because Russia has enough space and resources to produce organic food. This was not a political statement of posturing, given the current cool relations between the U.S. and Russia over the Ukraine. As it turns out, Russia’s food security is light years ahead of the U.S. As you will read below, a significant portion of the Russian population own “dachas,” or seasonal garden homes, where they can grow their own food. At the height of the communist era, it is reported that these dachas produced 90% of the nation’s food. Today, with the land now privatized, they still comprise about 40% of the nation’s food.

Maine Walk For Peace And A Sustainable Future Underway

October 17, 2014 Bangor Daily News, www.bangordailynews.com Organize! Climate Change, Peace, Sustainability, Wars and Militarism

The Maine Walk for Peace & A Sustainable Future is underway and winding its way along the glorious autumn roads of central Maine. It began Saturday, Oct. 11, in Rangeley, and the group will pass through Phillips, Farmington, Livermore Falls, Lewiston, Gray, Portland, and Saco before the scheduled arrival in North Berwick on Monday, Oct. 20. It is the goal of the walk, sponsored by Maine Veterans for Peace, to connect various communities that have become reliant on military production for jobs. “We hope to accelerate a statewide discussion about the need to diversify Maine’s growing dependence on military production,” explained lead organizer, Bruce Gagnon, at the introductory meeting. The walk will conclude with a demonstration at the Pratt-Whitney plant in North Berwick, which has a $2 billion contract to build F-35 fighter engines.

Old Barns Good For More Than Reclaimed Wood

September 4, 2014 Lori Rotenberk, www.grist.org Create! Barns, Farming, Food and Agriculture, Sustainability

Jeff Marshall rolls along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, counting barns on the horizon — 50 so far today, many of them disintegrating. Marshall heads the National Barn Alliance, a nonprofit that works with advocacy groups across the country. He’s speaking on the phone about how many barns have been lost in recent years, as farmers can no longer afford to maintain them, and federal and local funds for restoration dwindle. According to the American Farmland Trust, we’ve lost 72 million acres of farmland since 1982, with the trend expected to hasten as farmers retire and die. How many barns there once were and how many remain isn’t really known. But Marshall says a salvation of sorts is taking place. From Texas to Maine, smaller, sustainable farms are finding new uses for their noble barns — and we’re not talking about the weddings that have made both farmers and their neighbors crazy in recent years. These are agricultural uses. A former dairy barn becomes a cheese-making operation, a shelter for draft horses, or a winery. A small whelping barn becomes a place to grow mushrooms, micro greens, and spinach. “Right now I’m looking out the window, just east of Harrisburg, and guess what I’m passing?” Marshall exclaims. “A barn that is Santa’s Workshop!” The resignation is evident in his voice: While the North Pole elf theme is far removed from farming, at least a barn is saved.

Local Communities Are Taking Control Of Their Power Supply

September 4, 2014 Evan Halper, www.latimes.com Create! Climate Change, Community, Energy, Power, Sustainability

Sonoma County, which enticed Americans to forsake factory-made food for artisan wines and farmers market produce, now wants consumers to reconsider another everyday commodity. New on the menu: locally curated energy. The county is at the forefront among eco-minded communities plunging into the power business nationwide. Impatient with the pace at which states and the federal government are confronting climate change, communities from the coast of Massachusetts, Cincinnati, Chicago and Boulder, Colo., have begun taking steps to elbow aside big electricity companies and find green power themselves. Sonoma County now offers tens of thousands of ratepayers energy that is significantly greener — and slightly cheaper — than that sold by the region's utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Customers who want 100% local renewable power can pay extra and get every kilowatt they use from a geothermal plant in the region's hills. "This follows on the heels of the whole local food movement," said Chris Mann, chief executive of Guayaki, a maker of yerba mate teas. The company's headquarters — complete with indoor skate park — is in the bohemian town of Sebastopol, which has designated itself nuclear free. Guayaki opted to go 100% geothermal.

The Time For Burning Coal Has Passed

August 28, 2014 Claudia Ciobanu and Silvia Giannelli, www.ipsnews.net Resist! Coal, Europe, Fossil Fuels, Protest, Sustainability

“People have gathered here to tell their politicians that the way in which we used energy and our environment in the 19th and 20th centuries is now over,” says Radek Gawlik, one of Poland’s most experienced environmental activists. “The time for burning coal has passed and the sooner we understand this, the better it is for us.” Gawlik was one of over 7,500 people who joined an 8-kilometre-long human chain at the weekend linking the German village of Kerkwitz with the Polish village of Grabice to oppose plans to expand lignite mining on both sides of the German-Polish border. “It's high time to plan the coal phase-out now and show the people in the region a future beyond the inevitable end of dirty fossil fuels" – Anike Peters, Greenpeace Germany They were inhabitants of local villages whose houses would be destroyed if the plans go ahead, activists from Poland and Germany, and even visitors from other countries who wanted to lend a hand to the anti-coal cause. The human chain – which was organised by Greenpeace and other European environmental NGOs – passed through the Niesse river which marks the border between the two countries, and included people of all ages, from young children to local elders who brought along folding chairs. At least 6,000 people in the German part of Lusatia region and another 3,000 across the border in south-western Poland stand to be relocated if the expansion plans in the two areas go ahead.

Cargo Bikes On The Rise, Environmentally Friendly

August 21, 2014 Ken Wysocky, www.bbc.com Create! Environment, Sustainability, Transportation

In Portland, Oregon, entrepreneur Franklin Jones has embraced the future of urban transport. Never mind that the future closely resembles early 20th-Century Britain. Jones, the owner of B-Line Sustainable Urban Delivery, uses the same technology relied on by postal carriers in Victorian England, or by Good Humor ice cream vendors in postwar America. Like so many fashion trends, the decidedly low-tech cargo bike – known to early 1900s peddlers and tradesmen as the “poor man’s nag” – is making an everything-old-is-new-again comeback. From Portland, Seattle and Vancouver to Toronto, Boston and New York and points in between, urban businesses and residents are discovering what European and Asian city-dwellers have known for years: cargo bikes make sense, whether used to deliver goods through traffic-choked streets, lug kids to a park or buy groceries. Point of fact: 25% of families with two or more children in Copenhagen, Denmark, own a cargo bike, according to the European Cycle Logistics Federation (ECLF). And why not? With its low initial cost of investment, zero carbon emissions, relative nimbleness and minimal operating costs, there is much to commend. Even DHL, the global parcel-delivery giant, recently hopped aboard. By replacing 33 trucks with 33 cargo bikes in the Netherlands, the company estimates it is saving about $575,000 annually and reducing carbon-dioxide emissions by 152 metric tonnes annually, the ECLF notes. Not to be outdone, rival UPS has begun testing its own electric-assisted delivery bikes – in brown, of course – in a few European cities.

Sowing Health, Sustainability And Climate Stability

August 11, 2014 Sarah Streat and Katherine Paul, www.organicconsumers.org Create! Food and Agriculture, Land, Organic, Soil, Sustainability

A nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt In his opening address to the Savory Institute global conference in London on August 1, Alan Savory said that while agriculture is the foundation of civilization and of any stable economy, it is also, when poorly practiced, the most destructive industry—even more so than coal mining. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that since 1960, a third of the world’s arable land has been lost through erosion and other degradation. Much of the destruction is caused by increased demand for GMO corn, soy, cotton, canola, sugar beet and alfalfa crops, used to feed factory farm animals, to produce highly-subsidized yet inefficient biofuels and to make processed foods. The perpetual cycle of planting mono-crops, saturating the crops and fields with toxic chemicals, tilling them under and replanting them destroys the soil and degrades the land by depleting soil nutrients and causing erosion. Overgrazing pastures instead of managing livestock herds holistically, using a system of planned rotational grazing, is equally destructive.

Beautiful Hobbit House Must Be Destroyed

August 4, 2014 Rachael Misstear, www.walesonline.co.uk Create! Architecture, Environment, Sustainability

A 'hobbit house' is now facing demolition after a council refused it retrospective planning permission. Pembrokeshire council planners ruled that the home in Crymych broke the rules for developing homes in the countryside. The decision was backed by nine councillors and four voted against the decision at County Hall in Haverfordwest. It comes after the planning committee visited the site of the eco-home in Glandwr earlier this month. Charlie Hague and Megan Williams built the eco-friendly house to live a self-sufficient lifestyle, winning fans across the world. They have spent years fighting against the demolition of their distinctive home, which was built on private land without planning permission. They received a demolition notice from the council as they failed to apply for planning permission. The couple said that the home has a low impact on the environment because of its unique construction, with its straw bale walls absorbing carbon.

Brettstapel: Important New Building Material

August 4, 2014 Lloyd Alter, www.treehugger.com Create! Architecture, Environment, Sustainability

Why this mountain bike center is built of Brettstapel, and why North American builders should be using this stuff. Coed-y-Brenin is a hugely popular mountain biking destination in Wales, " the original mountain biking centre, where it all began. From retro, rocky, classics to modern contempory trails, there are rides to satisfy first timers to seasoned pros!" Architype Architects have designed an extension to the original building that has a bike shop below and meeting rooms above. That's a fun use and it is an interesting building, but the real buzz is about the Brettstapel. Brettstapel is a method of making massive wood panels out of smaller pieces of wood, resulting in large panels that can be used as structural walls and slabs, much like Cross-Laminated-Timber (CLT). The use of CLT or other massive wood technologies can help substitute renewable wood for concrete, which has a very high carbon footprint, in many projects.

Why Fair Trade Clothing Is Essential

August 4, 2014 Margaret Badore, www.treehugger.com Create! Clothing, Fair Trade, Labor, Sustainability, usa

Pact Apparel offers a range of soft basics, from socks to tees in GOTS-certified organic cottons. The company has now also earned Fair Trade certification for many of its products, and is working to get certification for even more of its factories. Few American brands own factories, but rather have contracts with facilities overseas to produce the styles they design. In much of the world, wages for garment workers have stagnated or even gone down, while the cost of living goes up around them. Fair Trade certification has helped Pact better support the makers of their clothes. “It’s an opportunity for us as a brand to pay the right price for the product,” said Jeff Denby, founder of Pact. Fair Trade also guarantees that factory employees have full-time work, rather than seasonal jobs. Currently, all of the products being produced for Pact in India are certified by Fair Trade U.S.A., and the company is working with their sock factory in Turkey to also earn its certification. Denby has a background in mass-production, and previously worked at a firm that designed “everything from forks to furniture” for large retailers. He was appalled by the factory conditions he encountered while working in Asia, and concluded there must be a better way. “We don’t have to kill people to make mass-produced products.”

Goals Of The New Way

August 3, 2014 Graham Peebles, www.nationofchange.org Create! Community, Environment, Organizing, Sustainability

Well-informed, well-read, and by nature compassionately optimistic, a dear friend recently expressed our collective concern: “I am more worried about the state of the world now than at any time in my lifetime.” Given the fires raging throughout the world it is difficult to remain hopeful for the future of humanity or the planet. With the Middle East tearing itself to pieces, extremism and intolerance reasserting themselves and far right groups in a variety of countries gaining support, and in many cases political influence, not to mention the worldwide environmental mayhem, man-made climate change (the most serious single issue facing us) and the suffering of billions of people living in suffocating poverty, these are indeed deeply worrying times. However, at the risk of being labelled a deluded dreamer, these are also times of tremendous opportunity. Transitional times of pain and discord, potentially of growth and renewal as we inch forward, stepping cautiously out of the familiar and into the new and undefined, and begin to discuss alternative, more sane ways of living. Throughout the world large numbers of frustrated and angry people have been coming together: peacefully marching calling for change – broad and often undefined, but heartfelt. Others in groups and forums discuss alternative ways of living together, a myriad of sharing schemes have sprung up facilitated by that miracle of the age, the worldwide web.

World’s Most Fuel-Efficient Car Debuts

June 10, 2014 Zahra Hirji, www.insideclimatenews.org Create! Cars, Energy, Environment, Sustainability

The world's most fuel-efficient car has just arrived on dealer lots in Germany and Austria, but don't expect it to be sold in America anytime soon. The Volkswagen XL 1, a diesel-electric hybrid, gets about 260 miles per gallon—meaning, a New York-to-Washington run would guzzle just about a gallon of diesel. Chevrolet's all-electric Spark, America's fuel economy leader, gets half that many miles per gallon. The average U.S. car gets 36 mpg. The XL 1's low carbon footprint is unrivaled among most car models—spewing 34 grams of carbon dioxide for each mile driven, compared to 10 times that from the typical U.S. car. Although it's a limited production vehicle, the XL 1 is expected to boost technology development for super-efficient cars as regulations require automakers to address global warming. In April, the tiny two-seater was honored as a finalist in the 2014 World Green Car competition. "The car offers a glimpse into the future," said Luke Tonachel, senior vehicles analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Its "technology and innovation will work their way into mainstream vehicles." Volkswagen is selling 250 models, which cost $150,000. About 50 have been sold.

Here’s The Dirt On Urban Gardens

June 4, 2014 Willy Blackmore, www.takepart.com Create! Food and Agriculture, Sustainability, Urban Gardens

I spent the last two weeks trying to buy animal shit off Craigslist. Specifically rabbit shit, which in some circles is considered the ne plus ultra of animal waste. This morning, I was finally able to get in touch with a guy out in the San Fernando Valley who raises rabbits (for what, I don’t know) on a diet of organic alfalfa pellets, grain sweetened with molasses, kitchen scraps, and extra helpings of timothy and alfalfa hay. They’re a happy bunch of bunnies, and that goes a long way toward explaining why I would pay $40 of my hard-earned cash for 60 gallons of their manure. Alex, my rabbit connection, has already composted the waste and he's even willing to deliver it to my house, where it will be hauled up into the yard and used to fertilize my beans, peppers, eggplant, and kale and to prep the new garden bed that will soon be home to tomatoes and watermelon. If there’s any left, I’ll mound it around the base of the blackberry vine, rosebushes, and fruit trees—especially the pomegranate I recently transplanted. Doing so, according to a new study, could help make the dirt in my yard far more suitable for growing food than a conventional farm.

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