Amazon Green – Shop environmentally friendly products

A good step in the right direction. However I am a bit concerned over a how environmentally friendly some of the products are. I mean there are many shades of green, you know what I mean? But hey, if a light green, or a spring green, gets more people considering alternatives, then I guess it’s not a bad thing. You could call it a gateway to moss green.

“Welcome! Today we announced “Green 3″, a challenge to Amazon’s customer community to help others go green by creating the most authoritative list of eco-friendly products available for purchase on the Web.”

Pick 3 green products you wish everyone had by clicking below.

Comment back and share your Green 3.

On the Way to Ecocity

Came across this very cool video while doing a little search for the Ecocity World Summit coming to San Francisco in April 22-26, 2008. It is not connected to the World Summit as far as I can tell.

About
“VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is an impartial expert organisation. Its objective is to develop new technologies, create new innovations and value added thus increasing customer’s competitiveness. With its know how VTT produces research, development, testing and information services to public sector and companies as well as international organisations.”
(source)
Headline 2.29.08-
“Finnish research institute will draw up a preliminary plan to build an EcoCity in the MenTouGou District of Beijing (source ).”

“The site also acts as a significant showcase to the world since the district is a popular tourist attraction in China. The EcoCity will also be one of the themes to be displayed during the Beijing Olympic Games.“

Daily Acts- Sustainability Tours Summer Schedule

Located in the North Bay Area, California, Daily Acts provides some really cool unconventional tours. Last year I headed out to Bolinas in Marin County for a truly unique tour of two permaculture facilities. I highly suggest signing up and taking a tour. If you are visiting the San Francisco region this Summer, what a great way to get off the beaten path and see some of the real west coast.

2008 Calendar March March 22 – Drumming, Dancing, Digging April April 5 – Living Earth Wall Finishes April 12 – The Alive Home April 12 – Sustainable City Vistas and Urban Forage April 19 – Personal Ecology May May 10 – Greywater-fed Oasis May 17 – Kombucha to Compost June June 7 – Water Wise & Well Fed June 8 – Food Cultures June 28 – Food, Fuel and Fruitful Living June 29 – East Bay Cohousing Crawl July July 12 – Permaculture Paradises Found! July 19 – Water-Savvy Stars July 20 – Biodynamic Composting July 26 – Greenhouses & Greywater August Aug. 2 – CityScape Makeover Aug. 3 – West County Delight Aug. 9 – Cohousing Communities Coalesce! Aug.10 – MycoDynamic Gardening Aug. 23 – Community & Urban Sustainability Aug. 23 – Food Preservation: Canning September Sept. 13 – Natural Cleanup Sept. 20 – The Glory of Green Building Sept. 27 – Your Water’s Worth Sept. 28 – Advanced Food Cultures October Oct. 4 – Food Preservation: Drying Oct. 25-26 – Designing for Diversity Daily Acts Website Daily Acts 2008 Schedule Pdf

Web 2.0 – Best Explanations Ever by Common Craft

We learn in many different ways; seeing, doing, hearing, and saying. CommonCraft does a good job of making complexity simple. They do it by creating videos harnessing the power storytelling and low tech visuals to teach various topics. By the way they’re available for hire.

Here are some of their videos presenting Web 2.0. Which is basically “user-generated” content. So here we go web 2.0 tools made simple by CommonCraft:

Blogs-

Want to do now?
Blogger.com
Typepad.com

Wiki-


Want to do now?
Google Groups
Wikispaces

Social Bookmarks-


Want to do now?
Del.ic.ious–> check out my del.ic.ious bookmarks.
Digg

RSS feeds-


Want to do now?
Google Reader
Bloglines

Social Networks-


Want to do now?
Facebook
Myspace
See my other post for more

Just for fun. . .Zombies-

Have a resource you want to share? Comment back and let ‘er be known!

Want to Invest in the Future? 3 Cool Funds for a Warm Planet

A year ago I did a search for socially responsible investments. As I searched away on Google I felt like a tree falling in the forest and nobody around to hear me.

But today. . . After a brief search I see the tides truly have changed. Sure my searching skills have increased, but so have the number of socially responsible investments out there.

Socially responsible investing is a way to back companies that have sustainable business models. Meaning they design their business to be good for the environment, good for people, and they make a profit, and if they don’t do all those things, then at least they go beyond business as usual.

Here is a short list of some places to take your money and leverage your power toward saving the world.

Pax World Mutual Funds–
“We believe it’s our unique investment approach. We call it Sustainable Investing – the full integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into our investment analysis and decision making. By combining rigorous financial analysis with equally rigorous ESG analysis, we seek to identify better-managed companies that, among other attributes, are leaders in their categories, meet positive standards of corporate responsibility and focus on the long term.”
-letter from the president, Joseph Keefe

Calvert-
“With approximately $2.29 trillion in assets in the US today1, SRI is catching on with many individual and institutional investors who seek to:

* Align their investment portfolio with their personal values by avoiding companies that do not meet certain standards.
* Encourage improved corporate social and environmental performance through an active investment strategy.
* Identify companies with better long-term financial performance through the analysis of social and environmental factors.

SRI was first formally practiced by religious investors who, nearly 100 years ago, avoided companies involved in tobacco, alcohol, and gambling. More recently, however, SRI has evolved beyond such simple avoidance screening to include the following four aspects:

Social research

Shareholder advocacy

Social venture capital

Community investing”

Winslow Green Mutual Funds-
“Today, Winslow is widely recognized as a pioneer in the rapidly growing field of green investing. Winslow and our portfolio managers are regularly featured in a wide variety of media, such as Time, Barron’s, Kiplinger’s, SmartMoney, Outside Magazine, Marketwatch.com, TheStreet.com, Forbes, Investment Advisor, CNBC, Bloomberg TV & Radio, and the Christian Science Monitor. In 2007, Winslow’s Jack Robinson was recognized in the annual Barron’s / Value Line mutual fund manager survey as one of the top 10 equity fund managers in the U.S. for the 2nd year in a row, earning the #2 ranking in the aggressive growth category and the #10 ranking overall. The Winslow Green Growth Fund was also named Best Socially Screened Fund of 2006 by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.”

Refering site: Social Funds

Stadium’s Going Green

The Fall Classic is here. Its nice to see the clubs are making the changes toward sustainability, because I want to watch sports forever!

Here are the highlights from the article in Oct. 27th, 2007s Press Democrat

Red Sox; Fenway Park, built in 1912

“Working with the National Resources Defense Council, the team plans a variety of green improvements including the addition of photovoltaic panels, reusing old bricks and sourcing local materials whenever possible. They are also converting to fluorescent lighting, adding sensor-controlled fixtures and installing low-flow plumbing.”

“. . .makeover in the works in time for the park’s centennial celebration in 2012“

Rockies; Coors Field, built in 1995.

“the Rockies have already installed a 9.89-kilowatts solar array to offset energy consumption of its LED scoreboard; below the scoreboard, a monitoring system displays the amount of energy produced by the array.”

Ball clubs who are pursuing green projects in their own stadiums:
Washington Nationals–

“Nationals Park will strive to become the first major stadium in the United States accredited as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ certified ballpark. The new ballpark will pay particular attention to issues affecting the health of the Anacostia River, such as storm water management and minimization of water pollution.”

Minnesota Twins– “This project creates a new standard in urban integration . . The ballpark connects with fans whether they arrive by foot, bike, bus, car, light rail or commuter rail.”

“A green ballpark was one thing hundreds upon hundreds of fans requested,” said Rebecca Greco, AIA, HGA principal. “Because this is a ballpark for all of Minnesota, we placed a high priority on fan input. Minnesota’s new ballpark will be a defining testament to a team, a state and its people.”

“The Minnesota Twins, also in the midst of a new stadium project, are working with the US Green Building Council to develop LEED certification standards for outdoor stadiums.”

New York Mets- opening 2009-
“Citi Field was designed and is being constructed adhering to many LEED standards including overall Green Site/Building Exterior Management, water efficient landscaping, ozone protection; construction, demolition and renovation waste management; use of sustainable materials and optimal daylight and views.” (green-links; thanks!)

Permaculture Tour- What is it?

On Saturday I went on a Permaculture tour in Point Reyes and Bolinas. It was one of the most beautiful places I have every been.

I have heard a lot of talk about permaculture recently and when an email came to me from Daily Acts, featuring a sustainability tour of permaculture sites I jumped on it. For $30 We had some of the greatest examples show and explained to us.

So what is permaculture? Being a word dissector, we have perm which links to perm-anent. From Dictionary.com:
Permanent: Intended to exist or function for a long, indefinite period without regard to unforeseeable conditions.
Then we have culture. Dictionary.com gives this definition:
Culture: Development or improvement of the mind by education or training.

Essentially we know permaculture as effective gardening. But most gardens create a lot of waste and energy loss because of poor design. It is about asking questions and closing loops. For example our guide gave the example of how when they first started out they decided to plant strawberries (because they liked them; an important factor to consider if your a beginning gardener, and I most definitely am!). They noticed bugs eating the strawberries, so they asked how do we get rid of the strawberries? Instead of going with a toxic chemical they chose ducks! Then they had to get the ducks to stay on their property so they asked that question and decided to build a pond. Then they had a lot of top soil (precious top soil! . . .because), so they decided to build a cob office hut. It is beautiful.

Nature is so elegant and complex. Permaculture is playing in nature. It is supporting your livelihood by producing abundant food. It is creating a living fence that supplies you with food to eat, trade or sell, instead of cutting down trees to make a dead one. It is about collecting chicken poop on cardboard and using it as a mulch that blocks weeds. It is about learning and problem solving.

Our guide described permaculture as creating a human habitat.

I rent, but I am allowed to plant a garden in my shared backyard. I don’t really have the cash to start a garden and then leave in a couple years, but I think I’ll take action and do it anyways!

I think I will plant some strawberries.

Regenerative Design Institute