From: Brown To: Green

2012-12-28T12:33:00.000-05:00

Winter Wonderland Winter storm Euclid dumped nearly a foot of snow in my neighborhood on Wednesday, December 26, and I thought it would be fun to try to make it into the closed Indiana University campus about three miles away to get some photos during the blizzard. Much to my wife's chagrin, I decided to take my mountain bike, since my driveway and street were impassable. I assumed, correctly,

The Antidote to Despair: Moving Forward

2011-09-11T15:14:00.000-04:00

As scientists continue to reveal new evidence of the declining state of the biophysical systems upon which we depend for our existence, the nightly news seems to reinforce the consequences of these findings. We witness an almost daily stream of bulletins about record drought, heat waves, wild fires, extreme storms, floods, extinctions, and evidence of oceans more degraded than previously thought.

Late Summer Perspective from a Mountain Pass

2011-08-12T09:36:00.005-04:00

A mountain goat ten feet away looks up at me with curious eyes and tilted head, as if to ask, “what are you doing up here?” Behind him the horizon recedes to infinity beyond Lake McDonald, 3,300 feet below. We stand together atop Lincoln Pass in Glacier National Park, sharing a spectacular panoramic view of the Whitefish Range. My morning hike began at the historic Sperry Chalet, a rustic stone

The Last Spacecraft

2011-07-14T10:57:00.001-04:00

The last shuttle, the 1985-model Atlantis, is preparing to end an era of manned space flight when it glides back to Kennedy Space Center on July 20. Remembering the space program that grew up with my generation, I am drawn back to Christmas Eve 1968, when millions of us were glued to TV sets to watch the first humans to leave Earth’s orbit attempt to enter lunar orbit over two-hundred-million

What is the Most Deadly Disaster Likely to Strike Indianapolis?

2011-06-09T22:08:00.014-04:00

What is the most deadly natural disaster likely to strike Indianapolis? Perhaps an EF5 tornado? In a few minutes on May 23, the nation’s deadliest tornado since 1947 cut a six-mile path of destruction through Joplin, Missouri, killing 151 and causing over $3 billion in damages. Maybe the New Madrid fault will roar back to life resulting in a major Indy earthquake? No, the most likely deadly

Arborgeddon in the Year of the Tornado

2011-05-27T18:14:00.011-04:00

May 25, 2011, will be remembered in Bloomington for seven tornado warnings, one tornado and hundreds of toppled trees. Watching radar, listening for sirens, and heading for the basement were part of the routine here. Thirteen tornadoes touched down in Indiana. At one point a line of severe thunderstorms ran the length of the state and each had an associated tornado warning as I watched on

The Business Case for Solar Energy In Indiana

2011-05-13T14:52:00.003-04:00

Motoring north along I-465 on the west side of Indianapolis, you may notice a large solar photovoltaic installation on the south side of an office and warehouse at 5925 Stockberger Place. The new corporation behind this installation is Energy Solutions by JMS, which is a partnership of a mechanical contractor, Johnson Melloh Solutions, and architecture and engineering firm, Schmidt Associates. A

Pedaling Into the Friendly Future Together

2011-04-07T23:34:00.005-04:00

What unlikely 19th century invention can help fight obesity, traffic congestion, climate change, and our dependence on foreign oil?On a typical day, about 1,800 of these human-powered vehicles head to the Indiana University campus from points all over Bloomington and its suburbs. Hundreds more ride bikes on campus and park in over 3,400 bike rack slots. While many of these cyclists are students,

Own a Piece of the Sun

2011-03-09T23:24:00.005-05:00

Tensions are rising in the Middle East as oil-powered dictatorships unravel. Gas prices at the pump are the highest they have ever been this time of year. The new coal-fired Edwardsport power plant may drive up electric rates by double digits over the next five years. Extraction, refining, shipping and combustion of fossil fuels degrade our health and the regenerative capacity of the natural

One Million Electric Vehicles by 2015: Good News or Bad?

2011-03-09T22:42:00.006-05:00

More than twenty manufacturers are poised to offer plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, like the Chevy Volt, and plug-in battery-electric vehicles, like the Nissan Leaf, in 2011 or 2012. A few of these cars are beginning to roll off dealer lots into the electrified garages of early adopters, assisted by tax incentives of up to $7,500. The race is on to see which country will dominate this new

Ten Strategies to Beat High Gas Prices

2011-01-19T21:32:00.012-05:00

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The Impossible Library - Revisited

2010-04-18T21:50:00.011-04:00

Four years ago, a majority of the 540 residents of Chrisney, Indiana decided they wanted their own public library branch their kids could walk to after school. They had no money to build a library, no viable existing buildings or partnerships for a shared storefront library, their public library district refused to support capital or operating costs for a new branch and the town had no money or

Why Conserve Water?

2010-04-18T19:55:00.002-04:00

A local journalist recently asked me, “Why conserve water here in South Central Indiana when we have an unlimited supply?” It is indeed comforting to have a 10,750-acre reservoir in our back yard and 44 inches of annual rainfall. Water conservation was not a consideration in Atlanta, either, prior to their historic drought in 2008. When the water level of their 38,000-acre Lake Lanier dropped 21

Linchpin Driven to Switch

2010-03-24T21:05:00.005-04:00

I enjoyed Spring Break in exotic, sunny Bloomington where I decided to catch up on my reading. So what does a professional change agent who leads and teaches organizational change read for fun? Uh, books about change management? Yes! And I have three current bestsellers you must read if you want to boost your horsepower as a catalyst for change, even if the target of that change is yourself.

Back to the Future

2009-02-28T10:56:00.008-05:00

You may have noticed less frequent postings to this blog lately. Allow me to explain. My spare time has been focused over the past few months on a quest to become the first Director of Sustainability at Indiana University and making the transition from one career to another. I start that new career on Monday.For me this is a return to the beautiful Bloomington campus where I first learned about

Ball State University Going Geothermal to Slash Their Carbon Footprint in Half

2009-02-07T15:24:00.016-05:00

Ball State University's Board of Trustees voted Friday to cut their campus carbon footprint in half by investing in the largest university geothermal heating and cooling system in the country in lieu of a proposed upgrade of their coal-fired boiler plant.Four coal-fired boilers will be taken off line in two phases saving $2 million and 85,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually. In addition, the

Building Dashboard for the Whole Elon University Campus Helps Save Energy

2009-01-25T21:59:00.006-05:00

Elon University, located in Elon, North Carolina in the Piedmont region east of Greensboro, has just over 5000 students who know to the watt how much energy they are using at any given moment. EU realized that if you want to change something, you typically will have more success if you have a method to measure your progress (like my bathroom scale and my diet). Trying to teach students and

Fasten Your Seatbelt and Prepare For a Soft Green Miracle Landing in 2009

2009-01-18T19:25:00.011-05:00

One prediction for 2009 that I'm sure will be true is it will be a very interesting year. We have a new president taking office amid a perfect storm of foreign and domestic problems of epic magnitude on our hot, flat and crowded world. Add several hundred billion in new federal funding and tax breaks to attempt to stem the most pressing of those problems and you have a recipe for even more

Seven Surefire Steps to Passing the LEED AP Exam

2009-01-09T21:19:00.023-05:00

A LEED Accredited Professional is someone who has passed an 80-question multiple choice exam which tests their ability to apply the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Green Building Rating System™. Currently three versions of the exam exist, for New Construction, Existing Buildings and Commercial Interiors. New exams are under development and

Addicted to Blokus

2009-01-04T18:05:00.005-05:00

One of the rules of blogging is to post frequently. I violated that rule to spend some quality time off with family and friends over the holidays. I hope you enjoyed some relaxing family times as well.Before I get back to my mission to turn the world from brown to green, I wanted to mention a board game that my family got hooked on. It is a strategy game called Blokus (pronounced "block us"). It

Nine Books of 2008 to Prepare You to Change the World in 2009

2008-12-13T09:51:00.037-05:00

November was a month of travel and discovery for me. My bags remained packed from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education conference in Raleigh, to Greenbuild 2008 in Boston, to an interview for a net-zero-energy library gig in Phoenix. All that conferencing and traveling and networking revealed some more great books as well as providing time away from my

Chicago's Climate Action Plan

2008-11-30T12:31:00.000-05:00

Mayor Daley atop Chicago City HallYou may have heard about Chicago's ambitious Climate Action Plan. I urge you to read it and then, perhaps more importantly, read the research it is based on. Of particular interest is the section on Adaptation to climate change. Chicago has invested substantial resources in research and implementation and they have provided a useful model for other Midwestern

Are Green Buildings Really Having an Impact?

2008-11-28T19:18:00.000-05:00

So much new information is announced during the U.S. Green Building Council's annual conference that it is impossible to sort through all of it in real time, but now that I have had time to unpack from my trip to Boston, I thought I would try to illuminate some of the most important, one blog post at a time over the next few weeks.Let's start with a report released by Rob Watson, who led the

Three Gifts for you from Greenbuild 2008

2008-11-22T07:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday at Greenbuild in Boston I had the opportunity to hear from three of our most gifted thinkers; Bill McKibben, E.O. Wilson and Janine Benyus.All three provided gifts in the form of web sites that have the potential to change the world.Bill McKibben gave us 350.orgE. O. Wilson unwrapped the Encyclopedia of LifeJanine Benyus handed us AskNature.orgSpend an hour with each one this weekend

USGBC Turns Fifteen in Boston

2008-11-19T22:04:00.000-05:00

Greenbuild 2008, underway in Boston this week, marks the 15th year of the U.S. Green Building Council, one of the world's fastest growing non-profit organizations. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu was giving the keynote address this morning, I could not help but reflect on the amazing history of this organization.In 1993, USGBC founders David Gottfried, a developer, and Rick Fedrizzi, then with Carrier