Ceramic or paper or polystyrene?

UPDATE:  Through Neighbors for Neighbors, a group in Boston organized local coffee shops to support a bring-your-own-mug concept.  It's called The Mug Project and I think it's wonderful.  Thanks for the tip, Em!

Consuming less seems to be one of the primary mantras of the "green" movement. "Reduce, reuse, recycle." So, when it comes to your morning beverage of choice (be it coffee, tea, hot cocoa), surely a ceramic mug is more environmentally friendly than a paper or polystyrene (read: 'styrofoam') cup. Not necessarily, claims the Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment. Way back in 1994, this study suggested that ceramic mugs must be used numerous times before the environmental impact equals that of a similar number of paper or foam cups. Large amounts of energy are required to manufacture and clean a reusable mug, thus it must be used many times to spread out that impact over a large number of uses. According to their findings, a ceramic mug must be used 40 times to equal paper, and hundreds of times to equal foam. So, does this mean that foam-cup-wielding lunatics are greener than thou?

Don't fret. Think: "reduce." Surely, if you are a ceramic mug hoarder and go through them like water, you're relatively wasteful. But, if you're like me and hold onto a select few mugs for years and use them repeatedly, things might not be so bad after all. If you can't stomach the idea of pressing your lips to the same mug year after year, at least put your unwanted mugs back into the ebb and flow of the universe. Donate them to a second-hand store. At some point, your orphaned mugs will be considered vintage and be worth a lot of money, to someone else.

And, in the spirit of not being able to determine anything with certainty, consider the hidden features of polystyrene.

• “Acute exposure to styrene in humans results in respiratory effects, such as mucous membrane irritation, eye irritation, and gastrointestinal effects” -Environmental Protection Agency

• Styrofoam is “possibly carcinogenic to humans” -World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer

• Styrofoam cup takes 500 years to decompose. -University of Washington

• “In the categories of energy consumption, greenhouse gas effect, and total environmental effect, [expanded polystyrene's] environmental impacts were second highest, behind aluminum” -California Integrated Waste Management Board

Image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Coffeee_img451.jpg

Earth Hour: TONIGHT! 8PM!

Nearly one year ago, 2.2 million people and 2100 business in Sydney Australia turned off their lights for one hour.  Why, you ask?  To raise awareness about and inspire people to fight against global warming.  They called it Earth Hour.  Tonight is your chance to join this cause.  At 8:00 p.m., turn off your lights and unplug any non-essential electrical devices for one hour.  How will this matter, you ask?  Granted, it will only save a small fraction of energy as compared to what we use throughout the year.  But, by spreading awareness and helping to inform people, we can make a different throughout the year.  You can also check out some reasons here.

It easy for me to think of all the things I won't be able to do.  Check my email, watch a movie, play music.  But I intend to break out some candles and do some reading.  Not sure what you can do for an hour without electricity?  Check out WWF's suggestions or just ask Google.

Oh, and for those of you who missed Earth Hour 2008, the website provides a handy countdown to next year.

Image: http://www10.earthhourus.org/

Google for public transportation

Those who know me know that I like public transportation.  The American Public Transportation Association describes numerous benefits for individuals, companies, communities and the environment.  Public transportation allows me to:

• read more than I would ever have a chance to.
• avoid the frustration of dealing with rush hour traffic.
• save money on gas and car repairs.

One of the greatest challenges people talk to me about is understanding their local public trans system.  Where do the busses go?  How long will it take?  How do I know which train to get on?  Fear no more.  Google has developed a system to take the anxiety out of riding.  Based on the idea of Google maps, Google transit shows you exactly how to use transit to get from place to place.  It includes walking times (if necessary), and bus and rail schedules.  Check out this example in San Francisco.

Only a few months ago, Google had included a handful of cities.  There are now more than 30 cities in the US and around the globe.  As a full disclaimer, I haven't actually tried this yet since Atlanta is not yet included.  I do, however, use public transportation regularly, and I utilize Google maps and train/bus schedules to manually do what Google transit does automatically.  Have any of you used it yet?

And for you die-hard drivers: there's no need to sell your car... yet.  Try transit and see how you like it.  In fact, I still own a car because I tutor in various places throughout the city, and some students would be impossible to reach without a car.  Regardless, try riding to the store or a local restaurant.  One step at a time...

UPDATE:  For those of you in Atlanta, check out A-Train.  Entering the addresses gave me a bit of trouble, but it found a few nice options.  Thanks for the tip, Joe!

Rethinking sustainable design

People have often criticized me (rather, attacked me) in regards to sustainability and free enterprise. Take, for example, oil. If we all stopped driving and embraced solar energy and foot-power, what would happen to the employees of oil companies? They'd be out of jobs and a major pillar of our economy would collapse. Valid point. One rebuttal is the idea of adaption. Companies that have proven to be successful are able to adapt the changing times. They are willing to embrace new concepts and implement them.

Adaption and evolution of companies is the central idea in the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. William McDonough and Michael Braungart suggest that we can maintain our current lifestyle with no ill consequences, given a little ingenuity. The book revolves around encouraging companies to consider the entire life of a product, from conception to consumer use to disposal to rebirth. They provide many tangible examples of companies that have embraced sustainable techniques, helped improve the environment, and saved money. One example is the waste water of a textile company. Initially, they were heavily polluting the surrounding environment with toxic chemicals from their dying process. After some careful thought and upgrades, their waste water is now as clean as or cleaner than the water that flows into the plant.

I found the book to be particularly refreshing. McDonough and Braungart reject the idea of choosing the least harmful alternative, rather they seek to find truly good solutions. They insist that recycling as we know it now is actually a bad thing. Even the "paper" of which the book is printed is unique. I urge you to read it to find out what I'm talking about. And don't forgot some of my favorite ways to get books!

Image: http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm

Visual pollution

I came across an interesting concept recently: visual pollution. A group known as Scenic America talks about it this way:

Throughout the country, our most cherished scenic resources and hometown assets are being obscured by a blizzard of monstrous billboards, badly sited telecommunications towers, a tangle of overhead lines, and a hodgepodge of visual clutter. Open space is being lost. Our natural and cultural heritage is being buried under unconstrained development and poorly designed transportation systems.
America's beauty and community character are being obliterated by a steel curtain of visual spam.

For the audio/visual learners among us, check out NY Times video on the topic.

You might be asking yourself (and rightfully so), what is this doing on a blog about sustainability? I think this is exactly the place for it. To me, visual pollution is one of the most poignant representations of America's obsession with disposable and replaceable junk. We are in the throws of a throw-away culture. While progress is human nature, we should be creating a legacy that will last generations, instead of disposing of each generations' identities.

"But what can we do?" one faithful and diligent reader asks. I suggest creating change with your dollars. Support businesses and neighborhoods that a committed to creating beautiful environments. Fast food chains and proprietors of junk (read: Wal-Mart) are, in my humble opinion, most guilty of visual pollution. Avoid them. I do.

Don't REcycle... FREEcycle

Though landfills are eye-sores and stink, some people are still sending perfectly good things to their final resting place prematurely. The town in which I grew up has a "free barn" at the dump. It's a place to leave items you no longer want that are still in working order. You are also welcome to take something if you like. Landfills are spared, and people often find things that they would not otherwise pay money for. This is a great idea, but it is probably unlikely that you could find a swap program like this near you... until now. FreeCycle combines this same idea with the power of the internet. By signing up for an email list in your area, you can connect with hundreds or thousands of other people willing to give and interested in receiving. Here's a little more about the program:

The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,205 groups with 4,211,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Membership is free.

So far, I have given a few things. One person flaked out on me and never showed up, but everyone else was quite reliable. I asked for a microwave, and almost immediately, a guy offered one that was nearly new, for free! I urge you to take the standard precautions before going to someone's house to get something (e.g. take a friend with you, meet in a public space). Otherwise, check it out and have fun!

Image: http://www.freecycle.org/

Start something of your own

It's one thing to make informed, responsible decisions, but helping others to do the same can be something so much more. When I recycle, I typically end up with about 5 grocery bags of items per month. But there are still many people who toss their recyclables into the trash. Not only do some of these items stick around for thousands of years, it often requires more energy to create a new item from raw materials than from recycled materials. Though my direct impact is small, by urging people to recycle, I can have a greater impact. This was a primary motivating factor for me to help implement a recycling program at my school. A team of us are working to design a sustainable recycling program for one of the major dorms.

Recycling is just one topic. What else can be done? There are many ways that you can help support meaningful change in your community. Please share ideas with others in the comments section.

Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Gluehbirne_2_db.jpg

Give a gift... and give it again

Another fruit cake? Another sweater? People are sick of gifts that they don't want, regardless of the though you put into it. This holiday season, I've offered some greener gift ideas. Here's another. See if you can guess what it is.

• It's just a price of paper
• You give it, get it back, and can give it again
• The gift helps people all over the world

Give up? It's Kiva. I'll let Kiva describe itself:

Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.

I purchased this gift for someone this seasons and have yet to give it (shhhh!). I'll let you know how it turns out. Maybe you celebrate Hanukkah, which recently past. Maybe you got some money. Why not invest?

Image: http://kiva.org/

Recycling in the smallest of abodes

Recycling is good. The National Recycling Coalition asserts that there are at least 10 good reasons to recycle.

1. Good For Our Economy
2. Creates Jobs
3. Reduces Waste
4. Good For The Environment
5. Saves Energy
6. Preserves Landfill Space
7. Prevents Global Warming
8. Reduces Water Pollution
9. Protects Wildlife
10. Creates New Demand

Once hailed as an economic drain in New York City, the city recently signed a 20-year recycling contract with one of the nation's largest recycling companies. This is all well and good, but recycling starts at home.

1. Learn. Find out what can be recycled in your neck of the woods. Earth 911 offers a convenient search tool to find local recycling programs. The programs found here are typically drop-off locations. Check your city's, county's or state's waste management website. They might offer recycling pickup.
2. Organize. Create a system to manage your recyclables. I have one of the smallest kitchens imaginable, but I created space to keep things organized (see the picture above).
   
3. Do. Stick to it. I make many fewer trips to the trash shoot, and I only need to dispose of my recyclables about once per month. It's a small price to pay for such an important idea.

How many Earths do you need?

How many Earths would be required if everyone lived like you? That's exactly what Consumer Consequences aims to help you understand. Brought to you by American Public Media and based on research from Redefining Progress, this interactive, online tool is eye-opening, to say the least. The program analyzes your habits and compares that to what the Earth can sustain. Given that the population is currently about 6.6 billion people, each person is alloted 4.5 global acres of biologically productive area. If the way you live requires more than 4.5 global acres and if everyone lived like you, we would need more than one planet to sustain us. You can find out more about the facts on which the game is based.

Try it out. It takes only about 10 minutes to answer a series of questions about your home and the way you consume. Despite my best efforts to reduce my global impact, if everyone lived the way I live, we would need 2.1 Earths to support all 6.6 billion of us. Though I am doing a bit better than the average American, this quick activity helps quantify the disparate nature of the global distribution of wealth and resources.

Need some help getting your score down? Click the links to the right for specific topics, or peruse the posts for general ideas.

Image: http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences/

What is your walk score?

Walking can improve your health, reduce greenhouse gases, and help you meet people. According to Walk Score™, these are just a few of the reasons to factor in how walkable you next address can be. Walk Score™ uses any address to find local businesses, schools, parks, etc to assign a score between 0 and 100. 0 means driving is absolutely required and 100 means you can get most anything you need by walking. Walking is undeniably good, but check out the DOT's website on pedestrian safety for some useful information.

Before signing a lease at my current apartment, I surveyed the area for local businesses (I didn't know about Walk Score™ at that time). Immediately, I discovered three major grocery stores, dozens of restaurants (including one vegetarian!), an Office Depot, Starbuck's, hardware stores and many other businesses. Walk Score™ confirms this with a score of 83 (Very Walkable: It's possible to get by without owning a car). Over the course of a year, I expect to save hundreds of dollars in gas and many hours of driving time. I'll also get some decent exercise.

Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Crowd_Tokyo.jpg