One of my big ideas is to get away from the supermarket model in America. Not only has it made two-thirds of the country overweight or obese, but it also wastes an incredible amount of…well, everything. From an NRDC report (pdf): Getting food from the farm to our fork eats up 10 percent of the …
Continue reading “America throws away 40% of its food – under the supermarket model”
A great technology for water conservation is available called the point-of-use tankless water heater. These small box-like devices can be installed underneath the sink in a kitchen or bathroom. They offer a simple way to avoid running cold water for minutes while you wait for hot water. For showers, the EPA says the average output …
Continue reading “Stop wasting water in the shower! – Install a point-of-use tankless water heater”
I’m the radical sitting next to you. I do things the American populace would consider crazy and yet nobody seems to notice. I slide by without a peep from the authorities. What am I talking about? I live a completely Zero Waste lifestyle. It’s hard to believe and you should see the reactions I get …
In case you thought no one fished (and ate the fish) in the Anacostia River, here is an article from National Geographic: Fishermen were casting their lines into the urban waters of Washington, D.C., into a river notorious as one of the dirtiest in the nation. What’s more, according to a recent study, they represented …
Pulled from the London 2012 Olympics Sustainability report (pdf): If everyone lived as we do in the UK we would need three planets. Our unsustainable lifestyles have meant that for the last 30 years we have been ‘eating into the Earth’s capital’ rather than ‘living off its interest’. The promotion of sustainable development has become one of the …
Hauling trash-bags full of coffee grounds and kitchen scraps, two three-wheeled rickshaw bicycles raced past campus foot traffic. The fleet had just finished their first compost pickup. The owner of the cafe, Devon Jackson-Kali, met the students near the cafe to give them leftover coffee grounds…he also gave them pounds of cabbage heads, carrot peelings, …
Continue reading “Students create their own composting program in the dorms”
A summary from the White House: *Note: Medicare is for the elderly and Medicaid is for the poor. Most of the controversy and supreme court discussion is around Medicaid, not the below Medicare. Strengthening Medicare Nearly 50 million older Americans and Americans with disabilities rely on Medicare each year, and the new health care …
Continue reading “Learn more about the Affordable Care Act – summary of Medicare reforms”
When thinking about the sustainability of REI’s operations, the complexity of the task quickly becomes apparent. Where does a person start? Our annual stewardship report details one such area: our efforts to reduce REI’s waste-to-landfill. We conducted a retail waste audit to better understand the details. To paint a picture, imagine this: Our teams literally went “dumpster …
Continue reading “REI pursuing sustainability – getting rid of the polybags”
A new study from Carnegie Mellon University found that in 2010, video games wasted about 1% of America’s electrical energy. They found that up to 75% of energy consumed by video game consoles is during idle use, because the machines don’t have an auto-power-down feature (like every computer does). The authors of the study say …
Continue reading “Video games wasted about 1% of America’s electrical energy”
“…reduce our carbon footprint by 30%, utilities by 30%, and waste by 100%.” More details from the Air Canada Center: The Air Canada Center…has identified three areas where it can most affect its impact on the environment: Energy, Waste and Water. Energy Energy is the largest component of MLSE’s footprint. It is a required …
Continue reading “Green your stadium – behind-the-scenes tour of Air Canada Center”