Sustainable Spokane

Honoring our Ancestors and the Earth

2012-04-30T20:41:00.001-07:00

"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security." Albert Einstein

(The only critter in this clip filmed in Borrego Springs that probably did not roam the earth a few million years back is the 350 foot serpent :-).

Erecting a Virtual Statue of Responsibility

2011-10-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

In some sense the "Occupy" and perhaps to a small extent, the Tea Party movement, call for a halt to corruption, waste, and fraud, a call for accountability and responsibility. The emphasis with Occupy is on the lack of corporate accountability and corruption, and the Tea Party emphasizes government waste and corruption as well as individual welfare fraud. And then there are the revolving doors which have colluded government and corporate interests.

If we take the time to look deeply and honestly in our collective mirror, there is some complicity, greed, and corruption of principles to be found in all of us. It may not be cultivated and allowed to grow the way it has in the extreme examples shown on the news. How many of us lead truly authentic lives, true to ourselves? "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." said Wendell Phillips. He understood that this wasn't a self-congratulatory once-a-year review of our institutions, corporations, and ourselves, but has to be a constant, consistent, and sincere practice of maturation, individually, as well as collectively. Unless we all intentionally and consciously commit to take responsibility and accept personal responsibility for our own and our institutions actions, we just end up falling prey to the seductive quicksands of individual, as well as institutional corruption creep.

Freedom without also emphasizing responsibility is not working so well. Victor Frankl and others understood this, and thought that the Statue of Liberty should be accompanied with a statue of Responsibility on the West Coast. Please join this "Virtual Statue of Responsibility" Facebook page if you wish to show support and make a commitment yourself to live the message you wish to see in the world.

Transforming declaration of independence to declaration of interdependence

2011-07-10T14:36:00.000-07:00

The rise of collaborative consumption in contrast to individualist hyper consumption seems to be a reflection of an increased understanding of interconnection, and global interdependence. Technological advances, the latest recession, and other global disasters which don't recognize traditional boundaries seems to be catalysts in this process.

“Collaborative consumption gives people the benefits of ownership with reduced personal burden and cost and also lower environmental impact—and it’s proving to be a compelling alternative to traditional forms of buying and ownership.“What’s Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption”, co-authored by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers.

“The central concept of collaborative consumption is simple: Access to goods and skills is more important than ownership of them.” “Danielle Sacks The Sharing Economy

AirBnB
http://www.airbnb.com/

WhipCar - Rent the car next door (UK only at this time)
http://www.whipcar.com

ZipCar - Wheels when you want them (not in Spokane yet)
http://www.zipcar.com/

Land Share - Connecting Growers to People with land to share (UK, Australia and Canada at this time)
http://www.landshare.net/

Ecomodo - Lend and borrow each other's everyday objects, skills and spaces with confidence
http://www.ecomodo.com/

NeighborGoods - Save Money and Resources by sharing stuff with your friends
http://neighborgoods.net/

FreeCycle Spokane YahooGroup - Give your stuff a good home
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreecycleSpokane/

Craigslist Spokane - Buy, sell, or give away your stuff locally
http://spokane.craigslist.org/

Zopa Loans - Cutting out the middlemen, banks "Everyone wins, except the fat cats!" (UK, unfortunately not in US)
http://uk.zopa.com/ZopaWeb/

Timebanking - The time bank links people up to share their skills and help so that it is mutually beneficial. But its main emphasis is in the social sphere - linking people together and building community - not in the economic sphere. Time Banking is a social change movement in 22 countries and six continents.(not yet US)
http://www.timebanks.org/
http://www.timebanks.org/international.htm

Converting an existing toilet to dual-flush toilet for around $20!

2011-05-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

This was a fun little project with a big payoff. Dual flush toilets and waterless urinals are pretty cool, but are of course not cheap, and also require you to get rid of a functioning toilet and all the resource footprint that comes with replacing something with something more advanced. So they have this new little device in hardware stores that allows you to convert an existing toilet to dual flush. Given that easily 4 out of 5 flushes are yellow, and yet still get as much water as the one flush that really needs it, a dual flush makes a lot of sense. I don't know who came up with this device, but it has my full support. It is way cheaper and less resource intensive to convert something that is already there into something better, than to trow away the old, and build something better from scratch.We need more innovators who think like this! I found the same with the grease car conversion kit. Why waste a big pile of scrap metal for another albeit more efficient pile of scrap metal, like a new fuel efficient car, if you don't have to? Our toilet started to leak due to an old flapper, so this device also took care of that at the same time, so two issues solved with this device. Dual flush can save a family of four easily 10.000 gallons a year.

Two buttons as shown above, top for 1 liter flush, bottom for full 1.6 gallon flush.

Website for this device:
http://www.gomjsi.com/products/overview/hydroright

Driving the old truck on garbage from one end of the US to the other (and back)

2011-02-20T11:08:00.000-08:00

Getting ready to take the truck on a trip of almost 4000 miles without stopping at a gas station, by carrying all the fuel. There are several advantages; I know this fuel is clean and filtered well, less risk of getting stranded with clogged filters and a tank full of more of the same, and I have a surplus due to some issues with the truck that kept me from driving it much over the winter. So below you are seeing 45 cubies of oil, in addition to a 40 gallon tank. Each cube contains about 5 gallons.We'll see how this goes.

Update: The trip went great, almost 4000 miles, no issues and no need to stop at gas stations. Next time I'll try and filter some down in So California.

Vision Mountain Spokane

2010-04-29T21:35:00.000-07:00

"Humans who don't know much about themselves, know very little about how to help save the planet." Sun Bear

Long Lake or Lake Spokane

Above "Grandmother"

"Grandfather"

Stupa

Lama Geshe Thupten Phelgye blessing on Vision Mountain. There is a lot of healing to do, healing between tribes, nations, and between human-kind and the earth they stand and depend totally on.

"I looked ahead and saw the mountains there with rocks and forests on them, and from the mountains flashed all colors upward to the heavens. Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy."
Nicholas Black Elk

http://www.sravastiabbey.org/photogallery/2009/aug09phelgyeregion.html

http://www.whale.to/b/sunbear.html

Earth Days

2010-04-23T17:47:00.000-07:00

Grease Truck back online

2010-03-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

Some info for folks who may run into the same issue. The greasecar kit for trucks comes with a 40 gallon aluminum tank, which is custom made with seams at the bottom. I think this may not be standard, as it makes little sense from design perspective. These seams in my case split after a few years of driving. In my case the designers and makers of the tank folded the aluminum sides down, with the seams at the bottom, rather than at the top. Of course at the bottom of a large tank is the most pressure from the heavy fuel. In addition if the tank gets hot, it expands with the grease. Greasecar added a second air pressure release in the hatch plate in newer versions of the tank to minimize additional air pressures.

After pumping out the WVO, draining some of the coolant, and unplugging it, it had to be very thoroughly cleaned, as aluminum welding will not work with impurities. The lid that accesses the copper coil and fuel intake will need to come off as well. So the task is to grind it down at the seams, both with a grinder and then with a wire brush to get the oxidized layer off. Then clean it inside as well (try a radiator shop for that part). Even then you can count on some residual in the cracks. So once it was finally welded, both seams at the bottom to be save, then you want to go over it and find the pin holes. The test is to put a gallon of paint thinner into the tank and feel with paper towel at the seams of both sides, to pinpoint any further pinhole leaks. In this case there were no more leaks. Hook it all back up, silicone the lid back on and good to go.

The image below shows what the copper coil looks like after almost 30K miles or 3/4 years of driving. Ideally you leave the oil level above this coil, so that you don't get corrosion or algae growing on it.

Experimenting with a drip stove using a 1951 Yukon militairy stove

2010-03-19T16:54:00.000-07:00

Micro or Urban Farm and Dealing with Obesity Videos

2010-03-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

How to grow 5000 pounds of food on 1/10 of an acre urban farm.

and TED 2010 prize winner Jamie Oliver's speech on getting the obesity problem solved.

Main Market Preview tour

2009-12-19T19:17:00.000-08:00

Today the Main Market showed members and prospective members the new facility. Some of the features mentioned and shown during the tour:

Edible landscaping or raised beds on the roof
Rain water recycling/harvesting
Food wastes composting
Community building/learning area with deli
Local suppliers and rentable freezer spaces
Waste heat recycling
Much of the building uses recycled construction materials
Local food sourcing
Green house on top of the roof
Lockers for employees to encourage alternative commutes
Besides the 20 or so dedicated parking spaces, the Co-op secured two city parking spaces for folks to use for grocery pick-ups or loading. The Diamond parking lots are also close by.
Students can become (non-voting) members for only 35 dollars a year
Employees get a living wage and health care
Find out more http://www.mainmarket.coop/

It sure looks great so far, can't wait to see it stocked with the products of wellness and sustainability! Definitely consider voting with your wallet on this kind of future. And also consider becoming a member in the next few weeks!

Washington Post Reports Meat Eating is 'Huge Contributor' to Climate Change

2009-08-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

(highlights taken from the Organic Consumers Association) - Washington Post Reports Meat Eating is 'Huge Contributor' to Climate Change

Last week, the Washington Post summarized a number of recent reports indicating that one of the best things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint or greenhouse gas pollution is to reduce your meat consumption. Here are some quick highlights:

-A Carnegie Melon study found that the average American would benefit the planet more by being vegetarian one day per week than by switching to a totally local diet (heck, why not do both?).

-A University of Chicago study found that switching to a vegan diet would have a bigger impact than trading your gas guzzler for a Prius

-The head of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, recommended that people give up meat one day a week to take pressure off the atmosphere

-According to a 2006 United Nations report, livestock accounts for 18 percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.

Glad to finally see a mainstream media outlet bring attention to the topic. It really is not hard to go without meat, or partially at least. If you have to eat meat, you can buy it from local Spokane area farmers at the farmers market. Taiwan and others are introducing a meat free day. This is a gradual and easy way to ease your way to a lower harm and resource footprint.

Find your Farmer web site and moving video clip

2009-08-07T20:08:00.000-07:00

I love the Shepards Grain local flour for my breads, and now they have a nice site where you can actually find your farmer. Fred Flemming has a nice listing here, please check out the video, it is a passionate plea to get more intimate and reconnect with your food..

http://www.findthefarmer.com/details.php?FarmID=12

.

Latest movies related to sustainability and waking up

2009-07-29T17:29:00.000-07:00

EARTH DAYS
http://www.earthdaysmovie.com/

Fuel the Film (supposedly coming to Spokane)
http://thefuelfilm.com/

No Impact Man (the movie)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9Ctt7FGFBo&feature=player_embedded

HOOKED ON GROWTH
Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity (A documentary in production now)
http://vimeo.com/2708808

Fresh the Movie
http://www.freshthemovie.com/

A River of Waste: The Hazardous Truth About Factory Farms
http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-River-of-Waste-The-Hazardous-Truth-About-Factory-Farms/93243847657
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/films.php?id=19185

Older:

Earthlings
http://www.earthlings.com/

Our Daily Bread
http://www.ourdailybread.at/

King Corn
http://www.kingcorn.net/

The Future of Food
http://www.thefutureoffood.com/

We Feed The World
http://www.we-feed-the-world.at/en/film.htm

Some more
http://www.resourcesforlife.com/docs/item626

More to watch online in internet archive
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=mediatype%3Amovies%20AND%20collection%3Aprelinger%20AND%20%2Fmetadata%2Fsubject%3A%22Sustainability%22

SolaTube skylight, free light for dark areas

2009-07-19T11:27:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to installing this solatube, it has been sitting in our garage for two years. Since this is a roof project, we used a installer familiar with doing this. We keep wanting to turn the lights off in our hallway/stairway, as the light is so bright.

Before:

And after ( this time the images were both taken with manual exposure, same settings, same time, around 1 pm) :

I'm told this Solatube puts out the equivalent of 300 watts, most likely during the midday hours. It puts out light as soon as the sun rises.

Growing edible landscaping in and/or outside the office

2009-07-02T20:46:00.001-07:00

If you work in a traditional complacent environment, you'll find it hard to convince people to grow edible landscaping on the building grounds. That will probably take time. So the next thing you can do is find less obvious spots, perhaps behind signage, or behind buildings, or on top of your building. Chat with the grounds keepers about it, they are closer to the earth, more likely to understand.

If that all does not work, how about right in your office or cubicle? This surely is your space, and you should be able to grow an edible plant in that location. Some of the things growing in my office currently..

Cucumber.
Bell peppers grow in northern climates in the winter in an office with south facing windows.
Cayenne peppers and chives.

Eventually even the stubborn people will start realizing it makes sense to swap ornamental petrochemical dependent landscaping for edible landscaping. Edible and beautiful, you can have both!

Attempting to transform the place you work

2009-06-26T17:05:00.001-07:00

This is just some ideas I emailed to my place of work, anyone of us can attempt to influence our place of work and at home towards sustainability.

- Become a leader in green job training to help students and this country stay competitive in the global marketplace.

- Bring out the expertise out of all individuals in this university and apply these ideas locally within the university instead of primarily exporting their ideas elsewhere. This will also help students absorb and practice what they learn better.

- Provide incentives to submit these cost saving suggestions by encouraging a spirit of competition. Giving out some sort of incentive for the top candidate of each really effective suggestion in an area (If an idea can save the company thousands of dollars, small price for a large return) and will get more people thinking.

Conservation ideas

Often departments act like separate silos and don’t think of the whole system, the students, or the taxpayer interest as their main priority. Department interest comes first, the good of the whole sometimes goes by the way side, and this can introduce lots of inefficiencies and bloat in an organization.

- For example, in our organization IT does not pay the electric bill, so the cost of energy is not figured into IT planning. By consolidating or centralizing and virtualizing Sharepoint/web servers/research servers you maximize efficiencies and utilize load balancing and virtualization to distribute the load. This also reduces need for duplicated expertise scattered over people who have many other responsibilities. When I went to Sharepoint training I recall two classes with about 30 administrators each, all were learning how to manage the servers from the hardware, application layer, security layer, and end user layer on top of their other responsibilities to the institution. This is extremely inefficient.

Have experts on all of these layers, utilizing each person’s expertise rather than scattering even more people in many directions, wasting time on duplicating skills, reinventing wheels, etc. If you centralize services such as these, you can now have a few experts manage a centralized server setup for the whole organization, doling out sub sites to departments and campuses, with one fail- over setup at a different location. Not to mention that departments can collaborate without having to reinvent the wheel, and you reduce network vulnerabilities and potentially expensive breaches.

- Use the underground river water for cooling system of data center. This may seem obvious, but it is not to everyone. To this day large air conditioning units are being put on roofs to cool the datacenters in the basements of buildings, while ground water (in our particular case just a few feet underneath the foundations) is running. The Spokane river is literally a stone throw away from this facility and yet this water is not being utilized for cooling. Google and Hanford were located near the Columbia river to take advantage of the water cooling as well as the cheap electricity from the nearby dams.

- To follow up on the paperless initiatives already started, transparency and visibility bring more awareness of waste. Don’t allow personal printers, have only departmental printers, this not only saves on printing costs/maintenance/tech support tickets, but also makes it less tempting for staff, faculty, and management to print non-university related things. Make sure full duplex printing is allowed and turned on and send out directions on how to access and use it. (Having been in IT support, I have seen a lot of people indulge in this behavior)

- Leaving non-essential electronics on at night, during holidays and weekends is a waste of university money, have facilities monitor departmental energy usage in the same way bandwidth usage is monitored. By publishing the usage numbers by department publicly you create transparency and accountability, which induces more mindfulness and awareness of energy use. Our organization is just starting to monitor electricity usage using the many available software on the market today.

- Avista has incentives for organizations that make use of system wide workstation hibernation.Their incentive last checked was 10 dollars per workstation.

- Find and eliminate phantom loads (copiers, printers, adapters not on powerstrips, projectors, etc)

- Make sure all new buildings use passive solar techniques; this is free energy saved in the winter and does not come at a cost of esthetics.

- Use passive solar water heating and geothermal heating and cooling.

- Save water, install or at least replace broken toilets with waterless urinals and dual flush toilets.

- Harvest gray water from roofs for supplemental irrigation.

- This may sounds small, but it nevertheless is reflective of the sometimes-wasteful institutional culture. Here in Spokane in older buildings, toilet paper rolls are thrown out after half or two-thirds is used, meaning in the trash by most janitorial staff. Leaving computers (many with dual monitors) on during nights and weekends costs about 90 dollars per computer per year, times several thousand computers, and you're talking tens of thousands of dollars down the drain, not pennies!

- If it is too expensive to recycle, go directly to the source, only accept vendors who sell containers (such as aluminum cans and glass) that can be recycled for money so there is not a negative cash-flow with recycling. While at it, only accept beverages and snacks that are wholesome and avoid frankenfoods which will ultimately have medical consequences and costs.

Some ideas may be small, but in the global and flattened marketplace America is competing with people who are willing to produce and serve for much less and also don't take these little things for granted. By not taking anything for granted we won’t marginalize the organization's future competitive edge. See "Living Companies" which outlive those companies that don't grow.

- Energy generation may be one of those things that is better to distribute or de-centralize. There is energy loss when importing from far away. Diversify and ad more redundancy in the portfolio of energy sources while becoming a more sustainable campus.

- Reclaim waste heat from the IT server rooms, campus restaurants etc to heat rooms that need extra heating for example by using heat exchangers or a sterling engine. Figuring out how best to do this can be another engineering student project/competition.

- Reuse all fryer oil for organization vehicle use (biodiesel or straight vegetable oil conversions), I have put over 25K miles on “free” waste vegetable oil on my truck with no problems. If you can’t do that, the oil can also be burned in a waste oil heater to generate heat in the winter, either way, it is usable energy.

- Put engineering students to work capturing energy generated from workout machines at the campus wellness/gym, it would not be that complicated for them to hook these machines up to alternators. Again, this sounds small, but people who work out on machines generate energy, why waste it? If anything, it turns the university in an exiting place to learn and directly apply that understanding.

- Put students to work on putting solar water heaters on roofs, this has a much quicker payback or return on investment than photovoltaic at this time.

- Don’t just export the energy efficient houses or cars that students enter into competitions, use this technology in new buildings and retrofit buildings with this new technology.

- Capture methane gas energy from the composting, dairy farms, and waste generated, again put the students to work right on their own campus rather than outside.

Landscaping

- Change to edible (useful and beautiful) landscaping instead of only esthetic landscaping.

- Save some on fossil fuel fertilizers, do mulching instead, and convert some of the lawn to producing vegetables, nuts and fruits, similar to the millions of victory gardens back during the Second World War.

- Landscape maintenance is being paid for already, so why can’t they help produce food, (generating extra income and avoiding imports of foods, while sending a self sufficient sustainable message to the students) while they are maintaining the grounds. Replace new or broken landscaping with edible landscaping (produce can then be sold by the cafeteria, sell fruit to vendors, or let the hotel and restaurant department do the vending, try to keep the money circulating within the university, similar to what the dairy is doing now)

Whole Systems Health

- Business has already found that for every dollar invested in employee health, you can save 3 dollars or more in health care costs (see link below). Yet, surplus sales at its last sale of February 13, this year, was selling high quality exercise equipment to off–campus users. There are lots of people on campus who would love to be able to do a little exercise on their lunch break instead of going off campus and paying a big fee to a gym. With that in mind, encouraging such practices as healthy eating, local diets, exercise, dance, yoga, tai chi and meditation will have long term pay-offs in terms of healthier, happier, more adaptable, and more resilient employees. Happy employees are hard workers too. See concrete cost/benefit cases for large organizations: http://www.welcoa.org/worksite_cost_benefit.html

Our country's new president said, "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works…We will Transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age."

Rather than the idea of how do we keep business as usual the same old way without cutting jobs etc, what if this could be seen as an opportunity to change and the way we do business, to transform our institution into the change we wish to transmit into the world through our own example and through the graduating students?

There is a lot of collective knowledge and experience to tap into within this university's community and yet in various areas there is disconnect between what is being taught in the organization versus what the organization practices on their own campus.

This recession is an opportunity in this new era of interdependence, responsibility, humility, transparency, and openness. During this time of uncertainty people are more motivated to change if that would save job cuts etc, making people more likely to adopt new ideas and practices as well as give them some ownership in the future.

True Cost Accounting by David Bainbridge

2009-05-15T21:47:00.000-07:00

Another very closely related topic to Ecological Intelligence, is assessing the true costs of stuff. David Bainbridge has written a great book about this topic called, "True Cost Accounting". Inserting some of the first chapter, as I don't think it is officially published yet. Edit, it has now been published online, you can download the whole book in chapters here
http://www.sustainabilityleader.org/Sustainability_Leader/About_me.html

Chapter 1. The Causes of the Crisis
There is also waste, in the sense of injury to the sum of total economic satisfaction, when one generation, though not destroying more stuff than it itself obtains, uses up for trivial purposes a natural product which is abundant now, but which is likely to become scarce and not readily available, even for very important purposes, for future generations.
—Arthur C. Pigou (1932)

The world is in a set of increasingly severe and
interlocked economic, social, and environmental crises.
The financial markets are in steep decline, fisheries are
collapsing, resources are running short, food supplies are
failing, and droughts, floods, and severe storms continue
to cause catastrophic losses. Many of the world’s
governments are running large deficits and throwing
hundreds of billions into the financial markets in an
attempt to stem the decline, with little effect (Figure 1.1).
Note: current efforts may reduce the rate of decline or may increase it,
but policy changes as of early March, 2009 are unlikely to offset
remaining problems in residential and commercial real estate,
industrial and commercial financing, derivatives, and consumer credit.
Figure 1.1. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
To develop solutions that will avert further collapse,
and to repair existing damage, we need to understand and
address the causes of these crises, not just the symptoms.
One of the primary causes of the current problems is a
critical flaw in the market. This was first identified by
British economist Arthur C. Pigou, who affirmed early in
the twentieth century that a market would fail unless it
includes all costs.
Today, many important and large costs are either
uncounted or incorrectly attributed, and as a result the
U.S. and global markets perform very poorly. Social and
environmental costs, referred to as “externalities” by
most economists, are left out of the pricing of goods and
services. These externalities include the very real costs of
pollution, disease, death, community breakdown, and
damage to vital ecosystem services as well as to natural
and social capital. Many of these costs are passed on to
future generations or to the poor and the powerless.
The growing awareness of very serious problems
with local and global ecosystem stability and resource
availability in the scientific and business communities is
encouraging new consideration of the sustainability of
current lifeways, communities, and economy. The critical
flaw of existing economic policy, however, is rarely
addressed. According to an old Dutch saying, “No sense
mopping the floor until you turn off the water.” We need
to “turn off the water” with market reforms that include
all the costs of our choices. Only then can sustainable
solutions for a more secure and prosperous future be
developed.
Our Common Future, a 1987 report of the United
Nations World Commission on Environment and
Development chaired by Norwegian Gro Harlem
Brundtland, defined sustainability as, “development that
meets the needs of the present generation without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs.” The report highlights the importance of
addressing the problems of poverty and inequity as
necessary steps in preventing continued environmental
deterioration. Although this is a start, proper accounting
for sustainability is also necessary to ensure that there is
comfortable and safe housing, healthful foods, clean
water to drink, and security even in times of natural
disasters or terrorist attacks.
Reforming the market by itself is not enough. A
sustainable future also demands changes in government
policy that are based on more ethical principles and
proper consideration of future generations. Incentives
must be developed and structured that encourage
conservative and regenerative actions, not speculation
and waste.
People depend on natural systems for air to breathe,
food to eat, water to drink, and materials for building. For
people in many parts of the world, however, modern
conveniences mask the critical connections humankind
has to natural and managed ecosystems. Water comes
from a faucet or in a bottle; food comes prepared,
packaged, and free of dirt; energy flows from a wall
socket from distant power plants; and wastes are simply
flushed away. But even though they may not see it, each
Rebuilding the American Economy ©2009 D.A. Bainbridge 2
individual has an impact on the planet, and the wealthier
the nation the greater the impact.
Almost all of the 6.5 billion people on Earth
participate in the world market at some level. There are
more than 500 million small- and medium-sized
enterprises that trade 5 to 6 million different products
internationally, and almost every one of them can cause
environmental or health problems, depending on the
materials and processes used to make, distribute, and
dispose of them. These enterprises operate in more than
200 countries of differing climates, resources, politics,
economies, histories, and cultural realities; yet each
country depends entirely on the health of a single
system—the Earth. This dependency would not be a
problem if humankind did not take more from Earth than
it gives back, and did not dump more than nature can
absorb. By any measure we are taking too much and
disposing of wastes improperly, leading to global
warming, extensive and often severe health problems,
societal crises, and ecosystem destruction.
On average, each American in 2008 required almost
24 acres (10 hectares) to support his or her lifestyle. This
ecological footprint is unsustainable. At least five more
planets the size of Earth would be needed if everyone on
Earth were to demand as much as we use, while still
leaving some space for nature. Only a handful of
countries are living within their ecological means, and
trends are not encouraging. The global ecological
footprint, for everyone living on Earth, is projected to
increase 50 percent by 2015. The Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment project, composed of 1,360 experts from
around the world, found that two-thirds of the services
provided by nature are in decline. Global environmental
deterioration has accelerated as pollution control efforts
in developed countries have shifted more and more toxic
industrial emissions and effluents to poorer countries.
The apparent “wealth” of many industrialized countries is
based on material flows, pollution, and labor exploitation
in the rest of the world.
Sustainability is not simply about the environment.
To be sustainable a community must have a healthy
economy and programs, policies, and traditions that
provide support for community, safety, cohesion,
cooperation, education, health, and equity. These can be
as elusive as ecological sustainability and will not happen
without more careful consideration of the impacts of the
policies, regulations, and incentives that determine
market forces. Decisions need to be made to improve the
triple bottom line (social, economic, and environmental),
while respecting the 3Ps—people, prosperity, and planet.
The current “race to the bottom” is moving
production to countries with little or no environmental or
worker protections. Why pay more if a company can hire
a worker for a dime an hour or less? China is beginning
to see many companies fail because small increases in
wages and environmental rules have priced them out of
the market. Wal-Mart and other companies will succeed
in finding those who will work for less elsewhere.
Social and environmental externalities are integral
costs of goods and services and often exceed the
currently counted costs. In many cases, these externalities
have not been studied, because governments and
consumers do not want to know (or pay for) the true costs
of goods and services. By not paying these costs,
consumers and nations become “free riders” who prey on
others and wreak havoc around the world and on future
generations.
The enormous subsidies that result from not paying
true costs also reward powerful interest groups, who
skillfully use their wealth and political influence to
insulate themselves from paying their share of the costs.
One clear example of this in the United States is the
automobile industry.
True Costs: The Automobile in America
The automobile is an essential part of most people’s
lives in the United States. The internal costs of the auto
industry (production, transport, sales, advertising,
facilities, profits) are fairly clear. It is much harder to
identify and understand the true costs, because the
external or uncounted costs of pollution, health impacts,
depletion of non-renewable resources, and so forth, are
not factored in.
The automobile, its parts (air conditioner, tires,
brakes, etc.), its use, and its disposal, creates a wide range
of significant external costs throughout its lifetime. These
costs begin with mining the ore for steel and other metals
and move on to resource processing, parts manufacturing,
automobile assembly, distribution, maintenance,
recycling, and disposal. Oil, gas, and other materials are
extracted and shipped around the world, and leaks and
spills occur at every step. Auto users, automakers, oil
companies, and highway builders all “benefit” from the
true costs not being accounted for. Taxpayers who do not
use cars as well as future generations around the world
will ultimately pay more than their share. Key external
costs of the automobile include health effects, global
warming gases, nitrogen pollution (which damages
ecosystems), accidents and injuries (medical care and
costs), time wasted by traffic congestion, mining damage,
pollution from production facilities, chlorinated
fluorocarbon leaks (from air conditioners) and resultant
ozone layer depletion, wildlife kills, and much more.
The roads, highways, and parking lots needed for
auto use also create very high costs for mining,
construction, maintenance, operation, and disposal. The
construction of streets and parking lots is a key cause of
watershed disruption, blocks wildlife corridors, involves
extensive use of herbicides to control weeds in the rightof-
way, creates serious storm water pollution (laden with
toxics), and increases the urban heat island effect, raising

Ecological Intelligence, Radical Transparency, and Life Cycle Assessment

2009-05-15T21:34:00.000-07:00

Ecological Intelligence book by Daniel Coleman

Measure the resource footprint and life cycle assessment of stuff you plan to buy by going to the http://www.goodguide.com/

We are entering the age of "Radical Transparency"!!! Or to put it another way, we are "radically revisioning our relationships" to everything. By being aware of the resource or harm footprints of everything we vote with our dollars for, we also become more intimate with everything and vice versa. This is an exiting time of change to live in.

Green Jobs for the future of Washington State

2009-04-17T14:51:00.000-07:00

Green Jobs for the future of Washington State

MIT Professor: Power Your House With 5 Liters of Water Per Day

2009-03-29T10:34:00.000-07:00

Hope they can pull this off.
http://cleantechnica.com/2009/03/27/mit-professor-power-your-house-with-5-liters-of-water-per-day/

Humor about the "Entitlement Era"

2009-03-13T16:36:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus

Comedian examines why everything is amazing but yet people are removed from fully appreciating, fully realizing, how amazing everything really is :-) Taking things for granted or wanting something else than what is, is related to unhappiness. Unhappiness is another symptom of an unsustainable lifestyle in which nothing is ever "good enough". Like bottomless pits always looking for the next best thing. However, "Not good enough" is not neccessarily "bad" either though, how can we progress and learn as a species without the desire to improve our condition and the condition of others?

Robert S. McElvaine has written about the depression and has noted the similarities of the period before the last depression and the big consumption bubble developing in the last few decades. "In 1920 one of three households had a car, 9 years later that was one car per household. The car makers started to provide credit". In 1930 there was an article mentioning a manager of General Motors who said,

"The only reason why you always see new car models brought to the market, is to keep your customers dissatisfied with what they have"

Just last week on board a plane someone behind me said that when he was a kid he really thought flying was amazing, yet now he just thinks it is a pain! This is a frequent thing you'll hear, when someone was a kid, everything seemed more vivid, more amazing, you could sense that he would like to feel that way again.

Yet this relationship and perception gets covered up with kind of a "foreign installation" as Juan Matus called it. These bubbles or barriers start in the mind and reflect themselves in the bubbles and gated "communities" that we created in the brick and mortar world. Walls that separate the person from the "texture of life" and inclusion.

While this seems like a downer, it seems that this moving away from freshly experiencing reality into this unhappiness or dis-ease, is actually the prerequisite for a growing and sincere desire to get back to reality more aware and grounded then before. As an eastern person so simply stated, "Affliction creates awareness, awareness negates affliction", one state of mind helps create the conditions and fertile soil for another state of mind. Without dark how can we realize and appreciate light?

Joe Campbell observed that people looking for meaning are simply trying to have an experience of being alive. This accumulated misery is all compost for transformation.

What is lost when we are filled in our own bubbles of self absorbtion?

How about everything that has been missing!

Mainstream Columnist questions infinite growth

2009-03-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

The World is Flat author questions infinite growth. Glad to see him join the sustainability crowd.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/opinion/08friedman.html

Gyms put in some fancy equipment, no money being spend on capturing the clients energy though

2009-02-22T12:56:00.000-08:00

Checking out the YMCA in spokane, some of the exercise equipment is impressive. They come with LCD video screens and other fancy bells and whistles. I have yet to see any of them generate energy though. Ideally all this equipment would generate electricity, why a gym owner has not yet thought of doing this eludes me. Theoretically with net-metering the gym owner could sell excess electricity back to the grid, and thus start paying off this initial up-front investment, while securing extra income in the future.

The only reason I can think of why this is not yet logical is that electricity is still relatively cheap, here in Spokane it is around 5.4 cents a KW, for inland power. It might be a little more for Avista. But again, instead of buying one bike with an LCD screen, simply buy one with an alternator instead. Just having one will give a gym owner a sense of what is possible, as well as make gym attendents more aware of the energy they generate.

Of course using a real bike or walking to get to work may be the best bang for the buck, as well as the best way to reduce one's resource footprint, but not everyone can do that, gyms will be around for a while. The idea is to improve on it.

Spokane's waste incinerater burns tons of usable goods every day

2009-02-22T12:41:00.000-08:00

When you go to the waste to energy plant in west Spokane, there you'll see people dumping perfectly good building materials, consumer electronics, aquariums, you name it. Many times I have wanted to just take something as it was still usable, but this is not allowed. I understand that they don't want people scavenging, however, this is a completely unsustainable system.

First of all, why is there not a Goodwill or other thift store drop-off point directly in the vicinity of the plant? If you think about it, people who are moving or in a hurry, don't have the time/energy/patience to go to a thriftstore to drop usable items off. I asked a truck with good looking kindling wood last time why he didn't just post that on Craigslist, he had not thought of it as having value to someone else, so he didn't think of it. So in many cases people are not even aware of the value of goods. This is regrettable, but it is the way it is.

So then why not have a drop-off point, a drive-through, where a second hand store employee can take out the usable items before the driver proceeds to the plant, that would significantly reduce the barrier to recycling usable goods, and result in a win-win for both the driver having less weight, so less cost to dump their trash. The Thrift store would have more goods to sell, and finally folks who buy recycled or second hand goods have more to choose from. Perhaps I'll bring the camera next time.

Related, go here to help the effort to prevent e-waste dumping:
http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AFKI_/zjVp/PfoO