Driver Torture!!!

European Cities have taken it upon themselves to make driving: terrible. Here, here. I find myself driving in situations where I know it’s easier to drive, and park. If both of those things were not the case, I would not even have the notion to drive. Ride share and car share programs are ever increasingly popular around the states. I applaud all of the efforts individuals are making to reduce our fuming carburetors and turn parking lots into parks. One of the worst things about vehicles is that they take up precious space! US cities are still being planned around the use of individual vehicles and public transportation is then added into the mix, whether we like to admit it or not.

What can public transportation and ride sharing do for your business? If you offer employees
more options to reduce their commute expenditure, that will increase the value of their employment with your business. There are also many health benefits. Public transportation usual asks for a bit of a walk, gets people outside, and removes the stress of driving. Think about it.

How far behind are we on the 'Green Wave'?

I consider the US to have the most innovative, educated, and motivated people in the world. However, we have a hard time harnessing that motivated, educated creativity as, for example, we seem to invest in old technology and industry rather than increasing support to new technologies. Our tax dollars paid for the development of the internet, aerospace advancement, etc. and though there have been tremendous advancement toward the support of green technology development and practices, we are behind. What this means is when we need green technologies, we are going to have to spend out tax in other countries and on other educated, motivated and innovative people. If we invest in our tech and people now, won’t that prevent spending money abroad later?

Seattle Clean Energy Committee

I attend the Seattle Chamber of Commerce Clean Energy Committee meetings every month in the Rainier Building downtown Seattle. The purpose of this committee is to bring together Seattle leaders to discuss public and private efforts in sustainable development and ensure local and national resources are used effectively. Sustainability progress is transparent throughout the different sectors whether its food safety, transportation development, home energy audits etc. Richard Conlin, Seattle City Council, came to the meetings to inform the group of Seattle’s plans for sustainable development in the coming year. When discussing Seattle’s ‘carbon footprint’, Conlin noted that the Seattle Council research found that the food and beverage sector results in twice the carbon emissions as that of Seattle private vehicles. A lot of Washington produce is shipped to CA for processing and Conlin asked the group about potential efforts to bring that processing to WA to not only reduce our carbon footprint but to create jobs for WA residents. The main focus of the Council in the coming year is job creation and hopefully, many of those jobs will be ‘green’. Any ideas?

Stored Energy Evolved

MIT had come out with a new battery that may refute most of the arguments against the electric car!! With this battery, the energy is stored in a liquid inside the batteries thus if ‘fueling stations’ are developed, electric cars won’t need to charge, but rather replace their used battery liquid and have you on your way. The old liquid will be charged at the station just like any conventional battery once inside a new battery shell. The power is in the gew, and can be reused! Tell everyone!!!

It is summer!! There is nothing better than a Seattle summer and one of my favorite parts of NW summer time is all the wonderful produce! In season produce means better taste and higher nutrients. Also, if you are getting your produce from farmers markets your ecological footprint is reduced (I’ll argue this if you are pro streamlining distribution) and you are supporting local farming families. Farmers markets have been exploding all over the country and I hope we can recover the relationship farmers used to have with their community as members and not subsidized factories. Look here for what’s in season in the NW. Look here to find a farmers market is Seattle.

Return on Investment for Employees

The greatest issue with the sustainability is that it. takes. time. Thus, whenever ROI results come out I will probably do a little dance and add it to my virtual piles of evidence to support the movement. This article about savings from Investing in Employee Wellness takes the cakes with an almost 3 fold ROI in 10 years. Nice work J&J!

Sustainable Business with another Positive Article.

There’s another Sustainability article out today on BALLE confirming the ever growing movement of sustainable business. “Vision: As the American Capitalist Economy Craters, Promising Alternatives Emerge” give great examples of how different types of people and companies are changing to meet the needs of a Socially Responsible society. It talks of how Capitalism isn’t working, but just because companies will be starting to pay for the real cost of doing business doesn’t mean that the theory of capitalism is to blame. We have had too much growth too quickly to understand how to balance or mitigate the impacts brought about by our growth. One of my preferred books on the topic is Companies on a Mission by Michael V. Russo (shout out U of O!). There are direct benefits to the bottom line when companies take a mission driven approach to their business plan. I have consulted with two large companies so far and saw great change result from Social Impact Assessments and we avoided a few big messes (more to come on that when I finish my white paper about Energy Extraction Firms and Social Responsibility in Albania).

Just a spoon full of salt & sugar helps the school lunch go down...

Sorry Jamie, our House isn’t listening to the sage, pun intended, words of your house. Why are our politicians defending junk food? What is so wrong about labeling school lunches with caloric and nutritional facts? What will our children do with that information? The horror. As most of the world makes a well-deserved ‘blurk’ face at US public school lunches, we were lucky to have a health savvy first lady to lead the US in new (well, renewed I should say) health programs with the core value of eating healthy, local grub. But, it would seem, our House is not in line with the White House. Grist puts a sound article together about the national school lunch attack and the growing potato chip lobby but I am happy to say that Seattle has taken an independent stance on public school lunches including doing business directly with local farmers. If you are interested in learning about our Regional Food Policy and give your voice to the cause, I attend the Puget Sound Regional Council Food Policy Meetings. This advisory council brings representative from all over the Puget Sound Region to “promote health, sustain and strengthen the local and regional food system, and engage and partner with agriculture, business, communities and governments in the four-county region.” Hope to see you there!

Good June Everyone!

I put biodiesel in my car (I know the arguments against soy based fuels are numerous but I at least consider it conflict free). I am looking to move so I can ride my bike regularly but in the meantime, I am at least trying to minimize my contribution to Chevron. But, $4.75 a gallon for biodiesel! The Swish Life Magazine put up an article with a few recommendations on how to save on fuel consumption. It was a nice reminder to keep my tires to capacity to increase mileage, among other things.
To advocate for bikes, this event is in September but it will be Global! 350.org is a grassroots climate solutions organization founded by author Bill McKibben, working to get as many people out of their cars as possible on September 24^th, 2011 to tell the governments of the world to Step It Up! Most individuals have access to bicycles whether they are rich or poor and the skate, walk or whatever makes you smile to raise awareness about the climate crisis.