CT Green Scene

Electric Cars? Cooler than You Think!

Imagine turning the key in the ignition and not hearing a sound? Or zipping around town on errands and not emitting ANY carbon! That's what it's like when driving an electric vehicle (EV). GEM (Global Electric Motorcars) are available for sale here in Connecticut for around $8,000 and they plug right into an outlet. If you're signed up for Clean Energy Options, you'll feel great about using this to run around doing errands.

The feel of the interior is similar to a VW beetle, with large windows, a sun roof and lots of light. The gas and break pedals are the same as any other car, but the noise--or lack of--is what I found most amazing.

The GEM I drove tops out at 25 mph, but is a perfect alternative to my other cars when doing errands or traveling short distances. The only hang up...while GEMS are street legal in all 50 states, you can't register them in Connecticut. Go figure. The one I drove was owned by EV proponent, John Papa. His property in New York state allows him to register his vehicle there. "It's great as a second vehicle to use instead of a SUV. The guys at the gas station love it when I drive by," Papa says.

Let's hope the guys who own the automobile industry feel the same way.

Come test drive one for yourself at the March 12th Fairfield County GreenDrinks event at iPark in Norwalk!

Cocktail parties are a dime a dozen in Fairfield County

CONNECTICUT POST

February 24, 2008

By Amanda Cuda
acuda@ctpost.com

Seemingly every week, well-heeled locals gather for drinks, hors d'oeuvres and conversation. Some of the shindigs celebrate the opening of a new business. Some parties celebrate notable people in the region.

Others are fundraisers meant to scare up money for worthy causes.

But the gathering at the Westport Arts Center earlier this month was a different animal.

Oh, sure — it looked like every other Fairfield County cocktail party. There were drinks, and chitchat and trays of appetizers. But something was different.

For one thing, the refreshments served at this event had a social conscience. The wine came from California-based Benziger Family Wineries, which specializes in organic farming. The appetizers were also organic and came from Mindful Chef in Westport.

But the biggest difference was in the conversation — not cocktail party small talk, but big talk. Talk about topics like sustainable farming, solar energy and environmentally sound development.

Patrons also picked over a table near the bar, which was covered in literature about these topics and others.

No, this wasn't just another Fairfield County cocktail party. This was a Fairfield County GreenDrinks party.

Fairfield County GreenDrinks is a social networking group that meets monthly, allowing environmentally conscious people from around the region to get together, have a drink and talk about the planet.

"The purpose, really, is to get everyone from different sectors into a common space to exchange ideas, brainstorm and network to progress the green movement," said the group's moderator Heather Burns-DeMelo, of Woodbury.

Burns-DeMelo, who showed up at the Westport event appropriately clad in a green blouse and matching jewelry, is editor of the Hartford-based environmental publication AllGreen Magazine and has long been interested in environmental issues. In 1999, she spearheaded a Save the Reef program in Thailand, hoping to educate local fishermen about the negative effects of over-fishing in the area.

But, like many people, her passion for helping the planet was ignited anew after she saw the global warming-focused documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." The film convinced Burns-DeMelo that she had to do something more.

From Brownfield to Green Urban, Organic Farm

Oak Street in New Britain may seem a unique location for a working, organic farm that practices sustainable agriculture and produces fresh produce—and it is.

The nonprofit farm has been an urban revitalization success story since 1999, when organic farmers Tony Norris and Mike Kandefer made Urban Oaks Organic Farm a reality by mobilizing environmental clean-up funds, grants and volunteers to re-mediate the former Sandelli Greenhouse property and create a working city farm. The restoration of 15,000 square feet of greenhouses has allowed the farm to offer fresh greens and produce year-round.

Today, the presence of Urban Oaks is a positive force and a community place where city residents and students can learn about sustainable and environmentally friendly farming.

The farm supplies restaurants from Hartford to Stamford, and is open to the public on Fridays from 3 to 6 p.m. year-round, and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. through the end of October. Customers can pre-order via e-mail, or just stop by.

Contact:
225 Oak St. New Britain, CT
(860) 223-6200
Email: urbanoaks@earthlink.net

Coffee to Go?

Committed to reducing their carbon footprint, bicyclists meet at JoJo’s Coffee Shop at 22 Pratt St. in Hartford on the last Friday between January and March before pedaling to work. And with the bike racks on the front of Hartford buses, they can hop a bus if the chill gets to be too much.

Commissioner Gina McCarthy says, “What could be crazier than a New Englander riding their bike to work in the cold, winter months? Not much. For an exhilarating, healthy adventure, join other bicyclists who share your enthusiasm, and have a great time meeting for coffee after your ride. I’ll meet up with you again in the spring.” 

The Capitol Region Ice-Bike to Work program is sponsored by Hartford-based law firm Murtha Cullina LLP, and encourages commuters to leave their cars at home and cycle to work to help to improve air quality and reduce traffic congestion. Commuters save money on fuel and enjoy health benefits.

I say HAT'S OFF to those committed, just like this guy I saw pedaling around my neighborhood last summer.

Contact:
The Central Connecticut Bicycle Alliance

News Round Up

Here's a round up of the latest Connecticut Environmental Headlines for the week:

A Stamford Advocate editorial: Promote 'green' vehicles with tax breaks | The Advocate: "It's a good idea -- In a move likely to be followed by other municipalities in Connecticut, Orange announced recently it will offer tax credits for residents whose hybrid and compact cars have a federal rating of at least 40 miles per gallon in city driving."

Group opposes cell tower placement | The Kent Good Times Dispatch: "It's late in the game, but a group of Kent residents are now working feverishly to forestall construction of a 150-foot cell tower near the town's center in hopes that a more suitable site can be located somewhere else. The tower is to be constructed by Verizon if the Siting Council gives final approval and would be one of several towers projected for the town along the Route 7 corridor."

More Pollutants Released In State | Courant.com: "Connecticut companies pumped out slightly more toxic pollutants in 2006 than in 2005, while such releases were down overall throughout New England, the U.S. EPA said Thursday."

Heartland Community Destroyed by Tornado Goes GREEN

By Sherwood Martinelli

If you do a couple of Internet searches, (Eco-Town and Greensburg) you'll see that a small town in America's Heartland, Greensburg Kansas, is getting a whole lot of attention. That's exactly what they need, since the tornado that strolled down Main Street, destroyed more than 80 percent of the city's infrastructure.

My own involvements with the community began some weeks ago when a close friend of mine, Bill Thomas of Green Home Solutions rang me up in the middle of the night and said, “I had a dream, and you and I are going to go spend a week in Kansas helping the people of Greensburg rebuild their town.” My first thought was, “Why Greensburg?” I mean any town or city devastated by a natural disaster deserves all the help we can give them--but too often there just does not seem to be enough help to go around, with the best known example being New Orleans, and the Ninth Ward--so why Greensburg?

CT and NY-based Involvement

All communities ravished by natural disasters deserve attention, and a growing group of us here on the East Coast have recently formed a new organization aimed at helping Greensburg, and other communities recovering from natural disasters to not only recover, but to re-build using green building materials, to rebuild a more eco-friendly sustainable community. Green Helping Hands will help get GreenTown what it needs.

The town and GreenTown want to build an eco village with six green homes cited in the village, another six built at other locations throughout the town, thus creating a real life model of sustainable green living that others can visit and study, which in turn will create eco-tourism for this small rural community.

So far, Green Helping Hands has the attention of GEM motorcars, manufactured by Chrysler, and McGraw Hill Publishing.  We are also raising donations of green building products, books for the new library, and more.

Many Hands, Many Minds

Green Helping Hands has proposed to have a competition wherein the best architectures in the world could compete to have their plan chosen for these green home builds. The idea has been well received, so stay tuned or better yet, come and join us!

   

The Graying Of The Greens

ERIN WALRATH and her fiancée, Peter Mariano, chat during Fairfield County Green Drinks, a cocktail party at the Westport Arts Center for people interested in environmental issues. (MICHAEL KODAS / February 13, 2008)

With Aging Memberships, Environmental Groups Reach Out To Younger Members

by STEVE GRANT |  The Hartford Courant

Something's happened to Connecticut's venerable environmental groups. They're aging, often dominated by members and leaders well into their 50s and beyond. Greens gone gray.

It has them worried. "The environmental community must make room for younger, more creative and less bureaucratic individuals who will stick their neck out on important issues and who will have the energy and expertise to galvanize the public into action," said Allan Williams of West Hartford, a longtime environmental activist and member of the Sierra Club.

Fearful of a loss of relevance, concerned they might lose influence in shaping state policy, long-established groups like the Connecticut Audubon, the Connecticut chapter of the Sierra Club and the Connecticut Forest & Park Association are now reaching out to attract younger members, employees and board members.

"We certainly do want to attract younger people," said Adam R. Moore, executive director of the forest and park group. "We've been working on that, just like every environmental group has been."

 

Hey! Who Ate the Organic Cookies?

Those of you who made it to February GreenDrinks at the Westport Arts Center probably got a chance to nibble on these tasty treats, donated by Connecticut resident, Candace De Felice.

Cookies by Candace LLC, a new bakery operating in New Preston, offers unique hand-decorated cookies made with fresh organic and traditional ingredients.  Cookies are available at gourmet shops or by special order.

“We strive to make a great-tasting cookie,“ says Candace De Felice, owner of Cookies by Candace LLC.  “The decoration and packaging just make it that much more special.”  Educated and trained as an architect, Candace relies on her drafting experience to create intricate patterns of frosting atop hand-baked cookies.    

“For years, I baked for school fundraisers and the cookies were always a big hit,” says Candace, “I derive so much joy from creating and baking cookies that I wanted to try it as a career.  It was a good decision for me because I have more flexibility in my schedule and it never really seems like work.”

Available for sale at the Pantry in Washington Depot, CT.  The collection includes cookies made with organic ingredients including: organic unbleached wheat flour, organic eggs, organic Madagascar vanilla, aluminum-free baking powder and fair-trade organic sugar.  Organic cookies are decorated with only natural food colorings made from black current and turmeric.   Whenever available, we use packaging that is 30% recycled and photodegradable.  Please visit our website www.cookiesbycandace.com, or call 203.266.4366

Living in a Green Zone

Source: Sustainablog.org

Drawing from US Census Data and National Geographic Society’s Green Guide that collected data on thirty characteristics for American cities over 100,000 people, Popular Science create a list of America’s 50 Greenest Cities. Combining the data into four categories (electricity, transportation, green building/spaces, recycling), Popular Science determined green scores (see article for details) for the various cities and identified the cities who are at the forefront.

The top ten cities are: Portland, OR; San Francisco, CA; Boston, MA; Oakland, CA; Eugene, OR; Cambridge, MA; Berkeley, CA; Seattle, WA; Chicago, IL; Austin, TX. If you enjoy a visual, an industrious blogger from Austin TX placed all of the data on a map for easy viewing.

The Dressing Room's Michel Nischan

For those of you who attended the latest Green Drinks at the Westport Arts Center, you're familiar with this guy, Michel Nischan. We just wanted to extend a special thanks to him for his inspirational talk about sustainable living.

Quite a few of you know about Michel and his team's work, but in case you don't, here's a few details. Michel is the co-owner and operator of The Dressing Room in Westport, which is located next to the playhouse. He is also the author of two award-winning cookbooks, and he travels and speaks often and regularly about sustainable and culturally significant food.

Additionally, Michel is the founder of Wholesome Wave, a not-for-profit that currently is the home of two outstanding programs. The first is Wholesome Wave Farm Markets, or as you may know them, the Westport Farmers Market and the Fairfield Winter Market. These markets are run by Katherine Dyer, a regular at Green Drinks and a real inspiration to what one person can accomplish with a lot of patience and hard work.

Wholesome Wave also is home to the Green Wave Program, a farm-to-college, whole and natural food program run by Lila Gault, which is launching a movement to get real food, grown by local farmers and processed minimally, on the tables at major colleges and universities.

If you have any questions for Michel, you can contact him via his website at michelnischan.com

The Greenest Candidate???

I don't know about you all, but I'm still largely undecided about who to vote for since up until this point, neither Obama nor Clinton have proven their eco-worthiness to me. This post on Greenbang certainly perked my ears up, but the fact that Obama's campaign is LARGELY FUNDED BY THE NUCLEAR POWER INDUSTRY, has me convinced that he'll have our environmental problems compounded in no time flat.

Source of the following: Greenbang
As the Clinton-Obama battle heats up, (Greenbang would like to put in a shout for a televised arm-wrestle to settle the matter) Obama is going for the green vote, showing off his eco-credentials as he toured a green building specialist last week.Apparently, Obama said if he were to find himself on the business end of the Democratic nomination, he would mandate carbon caps, greener cars and grants for families for personal green efforts, as well as chucking funding towards new green tech and biofuels.

“Washington is still turning a deaf ear toward the climate crisis,” Obama said.Obama said as soon as he wins the nomination he would convene a panel of experts to start working on a new national environmental policy. He promised to make the federal government carbon neutral by 2025 and make America 50 percent more energy efficient by 2030. He said he would personally reach out to the countries with the highest carbon emissions to encourage and help them improve their environmental records.

Cost Effective and Earth-friendly Landscaping

EARTH TALK
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: Is it possible to landscape my property in a green-friendly way? I would like to create a more natural and wildlife-friendly backyard, but I don’t want to break the bank doing it. Are there any tax incentives for completing such projects?     -- Michal Avraham, Olive Branch, MS

One common misperception about adopting green practices around the home is that doing so will cost more money. But this may be true only in the short run. There are certainly some up-front outlays to converting a conventional backyard into a more environmentally friendly space (like any landscaping job), but homeowners should be able to make their money back within a few years through savings on their water and yard service bills alone.

Landscapes designed with the principles of nature and wildlife habitat in mind are often referred to as
“ naturescapes” (or “xeriscapes” when they also require little water to maintain). They usually replace most lawn grass and instead populate space with native plants that are attractive to wildlife for food or shelter.

According to the nonprofit PlantNative, maintaining a green backyard can cost up to 90 percent less than keeping up a traditional lawn-based landscape. “Since naturescapes effectively take care of themselves, there is little or no maintenance and hence little or no maintenance cost,” says the group. The average American lawn costs about $700 yearly to maintain, says PlantNative, which also points out that the average household lawnmower is used upwards of 40 hours a year, the equivalent of a full work week.

Surprise--The US Electronics Industry Isn't Green

The Kent Film Festival announced that the documentary film, "E-Dump" would be shown at the Festival, March 27-30, 2008 at various locations in Kent, CT.  The 20-minute film by Zhao takes a critical look at the waste that is produced by old computers and electronic equipment.  Zhao takes the viewer on a tour of Chinese towns that have been polluted and ravaged by waste products. It features workers sorting through computer product waste and shots of polluted wastelands.

According to filmmaker, Michael Zhao, electronic waste (or "e-waste") is being dumped on Chinese workers who suffer from bad working conditions while recycling 80% of the electronics exported from America.

Frank Galterio, co-founder of the Kent Film Festival said, "the state of the environment is sad, this film highlights the waste we produce and how it then produces ghastly amounts of pollution in other countries like China. Zhao's film is a wake up call to us all--we all need to take going green seriously.  It's a must see film for those concerned about the environment."  For more information on the festival see www.kentfilmfestival.org

Raw Food Cafe Grand Opening - West Haven

Glen Colello, owner of the new West Haven raw food haven, Catch a Healthy Habit Cafe, announces  the launch of his raw and health food cafe and shop, Sunday, February 3rd.

Although this first-day opening won't be their "official" grand opening (to be held the following Sunday, the 10th), Glen is offering an entertainment alternative to the Super Bowl: a 7 p.m. showing of the film-festival darling documentary GO FURTHER, starring Woody Harrelson.

The menu is everything from smoothies and super food to jungle peanut butter and macaroons. They're even taking reservations now for a Chocolate Party on Valentine's Day.

The cafe is located at 487A Campbell Ave, West Haven, inside the "Look at Me Now" fitness center.

For more information about raw food or the cafe events, you can check out the website at the link above, or give Glen at call at 203-452-9641 or 203-521-7648.