CT Green Scene

More Than Just a Reusable Bag

by Eileen Weber

Looking for that classy little clutch or a funky Hobo? Look no further for your eco-chic handbag. There are some great shops online that have made the old new again.

Just a short drive down the East Coast, New Jersey-based Vulcana® handbags base their business on one simple question: Why buy new material when there’s plenty of it just lying around in landfills?

According to their web site, the car tires taken from landfills are transformed into rubber sheets. Vulcana manufactures the rubber sheeting, called “rubbRE”™, once the wire and fibers have been extracted from the tires.

 “People want the runway look with the earth-friendly aspect,” said Aline Denommee, a Vulcana representative. “The key is trying to combine them.”

The company also has a line of handbags with a layer of hemp on the outside of the rubber material. “Hemp has a different aesthetic,” she said. “There’s a little more strength to it.” Denommee also said the company is planning a new line using recycled plastic bottles, recycled fabrics and water-based dyes.

Recycling in 3D

by Eileen Weber

I took my daughters to see Coraline 3D a few weeks ago. Set in the drizzling Northwest, it was about a girl who discovers an alternate parallel life behind a secret door in her family’s new home. It was a little scary, but they managed to get through it by sitting on Mommy’s lap—all three of them. But while my daughters prattled on about how brave they were when it was time to leave, Mommy noticed a bin outside the theater doors. It was a recycle bin for the 3D glasses. Ooo la la, this is new! I like it! No more plastic glasses heading to the nearest landfill!

So, I contacted National Amusements, Inc., a corporation of cinemas with theaters across the United States, the United Kingdom, Latin America and Russia, to inquire about their recycling program. I spoke with Wanda Whitson, Director of Corporate Communications for National Amusement based in Norwood, MA. She said since last summer they have had great success with the recycling bins.

The pilot program started with Journey to the Center of the Earth in July 2008. This was followed by Bolt 3D in November. Coraline 3D opened earlier this month as the third movie to use this recycling system.

“Specially marked boxes are placed at the exits of the theatre auditorium and patrons place the glasses in those boxes for recycling,” said Whitson in a recent e-mail. “Once a box is full, they are returned for recycling.”

New Green Wedding Website and Contest!

Dear Friends, 

After many months of work, I a delighted to announce the launch of the new Green Bride Guide website! It still needs a lot of work, but the main site is up and running.  

To celebrate the occasion and to help us determine what features to focus on building next, we are running a contest between now and March 1st. If you were married in the last two years, are currently engaged or are thinking about getting married soon, please take 5 minutes to complete this survey and ENTER TO WIN $100 worth of eco-friendly products and a signed copy of the book, The Green Bride Guide.

Feel free to spread the word and don't forget to check out our ECO CHIC WEDDING & HOME SHOW ON MAY 2nd at THE HOTEL CHESTERFIELD IN STAMFORD!!!!

No Lunch Left Behind

Published by The New York Times
February 20, 2009
Op-Ed Contributors
By ALICE WATERS and KATRINA HERON
Berkeley, Calif.

This new era of government bailouts and widespread concern over wasteful spending offers an opportunity to take a hard look at the National School Lunch Program. Launched in 1946 as a public safety net, it has turned out to be a poor investment. It should be redesigned to make our children healthier.

Under the program, the United States Department of Agriculture gives public schools cash for every meal they serve — $2.57 for a free lunch, $2.17 for a reduced-price lunch and 24 cents for a paid lunch. In 2007, the program cost around $9 billion, a figure widely acknowledged as inadequate to cover food costs. But what most people don’t realize is that very little of this money even goes toward food. Schools have to use it to pay for everything from custodial services to heating in the cafeteria.

On top of these reimbursements, schools are entitled to receive commodity foods that are valued at a little over 20 cents per meal. The long list of options includes high-fat, low-grade meats and cheeses and processed foods like chicken nuggets and pizza. Many of the items selected are ready to be thawed, heated or just unwrapped — a necessity for schools without kitchens. Schools also get periodic, additional “bonus” commodities from the U.S.D.A., which pays good money for what are essentially leftovers from big American food producers.

Green "Toys" for Big Kids

by Eileen Weber

I have a confession to make. I went to a sex shop. Now, I know what you’re thinking. No, it wasn’t one of those seedy little holes-in-the-wall with darkened windows displaying triple neon X's. It was more of a boudoir novelty store that was actually quite tasteful and fun.

The host was Margaret Wagner, CEO and Creative Director of Bedroom Matters in Westport. I went with a dozen other women like me, married with kids looking for a little “sexploration” to spice things up.

“People come into the store looking for permission to feel good and comfortable about themselves,” said Wagner. “They’re looking for something like that in a safe environment.”

The store’s biggest sellers are lingerie, candles, books, and toys. While only some of the products she sells can be considered eco-friendly, she said she is aware there’s a growing market for it. Of the adult toys she sells, she prefers those with rechargeable batteries. “I’m always looking for high quality toys that last a long time.”

With this recent visit to Wagner’s store, it got me thinking: has the sex industry gone green, too? Why yes, indeed. A quick Google search turned up tons of sites completely devoted to the green experience between the sheets.

Alaska Is a Frontier for Green Power

by STEFAN MILKOWSKI

Published by The New York Times

February 17, 2009

TOKSOOK BAY, Alaska — Beyond the fishing boats, the snug homes and the tanks of diesel fuel marking this Eskimo village on the Bering Sea, three huge wind turbines tower over the tundra. Their blades spin slowly in a breeze cold enough to freeze skin.

One of the nation’s harshest landscapes, it turns out, is becoming fertile ground for green power.

As interest in cleaning up power generation grows around the country, Alaska is fast becoming a testing ground for new technologies and an unlikely experiment in oil-state support for renewable energy. Alaskans once cast a wary eye on anything smacking of environmentalism, but today they are investing heavily in green power, not so much to reduce emissions as to save cash.

Working with Branches

by Kate Harrison

If you live in CT, are planning a winter wedding and want to have seasonal flowers, you may be left scratching your head. However, forcing branches is a simple trick that looks beautiful and can provide you with colorful blooms in the dead of winter.  You simply cut branches from fruiting trees (like cherry, pear or dogwood), and place them in warm water in your house. Change the water regularly to avoid rot and keep the branches out of direct sunlight.  Branches can take anywhere from one to eight weeks to bloom depending on the species, temperature, etc. so do your homework beforehand. In no time you can have dramatic (and free!) blooms for your wedding.  Here are some examples of how branches can enhance your decor:

Image: Rebecca Thuss

Image: Willi Wong for Seaport Flowers

Image: Elegant Effects Floral

Even dried (non-flowering) branches can be extremely elegant in the right context, and can feel very summery when paired with seaside elements like stones, shells or sand. 

Image: Michele M Waite

Image: Smith & Hawkin

As you can see, branches are lovely eco-chic decoration, for every day use as well as weddings.  So next time you tromp out into the February cold, I hope you will see ever tree with new eyes! And just in case you need LIVE INSPIRATION, don't miss our Eco Chic Wedding & Home Show on May 2, 2009!

Organic Wines: Are They Any Good?

by Eileen Weber

A few of my neighborhood buddies gathered at my house this past weekend for a wine tasting. While it’s not unusual for my neighbors to be seen huddling around my kitchen counter for a glass or two, this time the wine was organic.

I picked a few bottles up at Mo’s Wine & Spirits on Post Road in Fairfield. I spoke with Sharon Kardos who writes for the store’s blog. She was rather knowledgeable about the merchandise and said she has a number of customers who inquire about organic wines.

The wines we tasted ranged from around $12 to $30. Kardos suggested two whites and two reds. My neighbor Charles Gill, our resident “wine guy”, brought over another bottle of white making five bottles in all.

Casinos Up In Smoke

by Eileen Weber

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced on February 9th that the two state casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, should be smoke-free by October 2011. This comes as good news for fans of fresh air. To casino owners, however, it is a death knell to their revenue base in a bad economy.

Gambling and smoking often go hand in hand. Casino owners fear that gamblers will go to another casino that doesn’t have a smoking ban, even if it means driving a longer distance. As a result, revenue is down and jobs are cut.

But there is little concern for the casinos’ cash base when personal well-being is in the spotlight. In a press release, Blumenthal made the statement that there is a common goal for a “complete ban on smoking because casinos shouldn't be gambling with public health.” He continued by saying, “The casinos are dealing workers and visitors a losing hand on cancer and tobacco addiction."

The ban will take affect later this year in a three-step phase that will end in the fall of 2011. "The casinos must be smoke-free,” said Blumenthal. “The ban must be total, even if the battle is tough. Short-term fixes and gimmicks like ventilation systems and segregated smoking areas simply prolong the problem.”

Renewable Energy Not “Green"?

Posted by GreenReport, Monday, February 9, 2009

Renewable energy is not “Green” energy, claims a prominent scientist with Rockefeller University in New York, who played an early role in raising public awareness about the reality of global warming. The study—which was recently published in a scholarly journal—is highly critical of what he believes to be the misleading and false promises associated with “renewable energy”.

“A fundamental credo of being green is that you cause minimal interference with the landscape. We should be farming less land, logging less forest and trawling less ocean - disturbing the landscape less and sparing land for nature. But all of these renewable sources of energy are incredibly invasive and aggressive with regard to nature. Renewables may be renewable, but they are not green,” said researcher Jesse Ausubel, at the Rockefeller University in New York.

The study concludes that if we build enough wind farms, damn enough rivers and grow sufficient biomass to produce ample kilowatts to make any real difference in meeting global energy demands—we would have to allow for a huge invasion of nature, which he says is unacceptable.

By calculating the amount of energy that each renewable source can produce in terms of the area of land disturbed, Ausubel determined that renewable energy is more of a recipe for disaster than a plausible way to save the world.

The results, published in the current issue of International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology, asserts that in order to have met the electricity demand back in 2005 for the United States, an area the size of Texas would have to be covered with wind structures running round the clock to extract, store and transport the energy.

New York City would require the entire area of Connecticut to become a wind farm to fully power all its electrical equipment and gadgets.

Wind Projects for your Town?

If you think there's a spot in your town that has good wind potential, the Clean Energy Fund is launching a small wind demonstration project that will supply up to TWO turbines free for research and testing purposes.  Proposed locations should have a wind speed of 5 meters/sec at 30 meters.  CCEF is particularly interested in installations with educational benefits.

Contact: Roger Smith
Campaign Director
Clean Water Action

645 Farmington Ave, Third Floor
Hartford, CT  06105
860-232-6232
860-232-6334 (fax)
rsmith@cleanwater.org

For Worst Perfomance by a Recycling Committee

by Elizabeth G. Howard

So I live in Stratford, a smallish town of 50,000, here in our fair state, New England. Since I am not from this part of the country, I have discovered a curious quirk of the New English people -- they take political landscaping to an entirely different level than anywhere else I have ever lived.

In Connecticut there is no real county government, and the State government is mostly ignored. Instead, there are 169 “municipalities” that all have their own way of doing things. Actually, that is putting it lightly. Town governments in Connecticut are more like rivals on "Survivor", where the shared dialect across townline is usually "F--- you! We're the REAL Daughters of the Revolution and we're preserving our individual, municipal rights, even if we have to use canning jars and vinegar!"

For example, in the case of road maintenance, for example, the municipalities, in total, have 17,115 road miles that they are required to maintain… 4.5 times the number that the State maintains. As a result, the sheer cost of road maintenance (hmmm, every town has their own rules, storage sheds, equipment, crews, etc.) is enormous.

As far as I can see, the only thing consistent across the municipalities is enforced by the State law requiring that a very bored looking police officer be on every roadwork site, either sitting in his squad car reading a Harlequin Romance, or chatting with one or more of the otherwise-idle workers about the imminent threat of terrorism in Haddam Neck.

So, fast forward to this week, when I started to research the RECYCLING PROGRAM in Stratford...

Conversations on Climate Change

by Eileen Weber

As part of Fairfield University’s Climate Change Week, a panel of political experts converged at the Barone Campus Center Thursday night. The main topic focused on greenhouse gas emissions and what Connecticut is doing to try to reduce it. The panelists represented the local, state, and national viewpoints on the subject.

Carbon emission is the main greenhouse gas that is affecting the environment. “Global politicians agree that climate change is a problem, but nobody can quite agree on how to go about it or how to gauge it,” said Professor Downie, Director of the Program on the Environment at Fairfield University who moderated the lecture.

To those who scoff at global warming, “The science is indisputable at this point,” said panelist Danielle Rosengarten, Counsel and Legal Assistant to Senator Joseph Lieberman.

She went on to say that Washington’s change in administration was a huge gain for climate change. But to panelist Robert Wall, of Energy Marketing Initiatives at the Rocky Hill-based Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF), climate change is still the “800 pound gorilla” in the room.

A little more than six months ago, the global warming bill for this state was passed. Its ambitious goals are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17% in 2020 and a whopping 80% by 2050. But with mass transit still under-utilized including a Waterbury-Hartford train line still in the planning stages, transportation, and its ensuing carbon emissions, is still an issue.

Green Business and Smart Investing

by Tracey Donner Finch

According to Matthew J. Kiernan, Ph.D. author of the timely book Investing in a Sustainable World: Why Green is the New Color of Money on Wall Street (Amacon, 2009), "President-Elect Barack Obama must turn sustainability into a competitive advantage to solve America's economic crisis."  Hopefully, Obama's administration will take environmental and social (ES) issues into account on every major decision made in the future.

In a recent Booz Allen study, the sustainable investment market will reach $26 trillion by 2015, or 20% of the total investment market. Be on top of the mega-trend of the 21st century by adding this book to your reading list.  

Here are some of Do's and Don'ts of Sustainable Investment:

Do make sure your money managers have access to top-quality research.

Don't use sustainability in isolation.  Combine it with other quantitative investment research.

Don't expect perfection from your advisor. 

Don't presume that all sustainability factors are relevant to all investment decisions.

Don't assume that each of the "4 Pillars of Sustainability" - Environment, Human Capital, Stakeholder Capital and Strategic Governance is equally relevant to a particular company.   

NOFA: Cultivating an Organic Connecticut Conference

Join the conference to hear from two urban agriculture pioneers, Ian Marvey and Dan Ross, to learn more about what is going on in our state and how you can become involved!

When: Saturday, February 21, 2009
Where: Windsor High School, Windsor, CT
Time: 8:30am to 4:45pm
Register by 2/7/09 and save $5.00!

The conference will also feature a track of workshops focusing on strategies to close Connecticut's food gap with urban agriculture, small farms and gardens.  There will be a panel discussion on urban food systems, a workshop on exciting urban gardening initiatives, and a panel of young farmers who hope to dispel some myths about farming in Connecticut and reach a growing audience of young first-time farmers.

Other sessions during this conference will address "Edibles in the Landscape", "Is A Commercial Kitchen For You?", "Soil Compaction", and "City Chickens" to name a few.  For those interested in raising and preparing their own food there are workshops on bread making by Bantam Bread and cooking with winter vegetables by Jonathan Rapp.  For those more interested in sustainable living there are workshops on global warming solutions and making soaps and body butters with local ingredients.

Blowing in the Wind

by Eileen Weber

Headline: Wind is in; coal is out. Since the news hit that the wind industry provides more jobs than coal mining, a slew of blogs and media web sites are all a-twitter about it.

As Rick Fuentes said in his blog on FreshEnergy.org, “Coal is what, a 300-year-old industry? Ancient. Wind is just getting its ability to buy booze. And to say that the new industry is neck-and-neck with the old one is amazing.”

With a 70% increase in wind jobs since 2007, the industry hit a high of 85,000 at the end of 2008. Coal mining jobs were at 81,000. A relatively new energy source has gained lots of ground in a short of span of time.

According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), coal is the largest source for greenhouse gas emissions and is used to generate about half of the electricity in the U.S. Other sources such as gas, oil, and nuclear power don’t even come close.

Much of the wind industry is rooted in the Midwest and West Coast. Many of the turbines are being placed on Native American reservations where open tracts of land are readily available. The residents on these reservations say this is a way for the tribes to generate much-needed income off a natural resource.

Need A Ride?

by Eileen Weber

A few months ago, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to carpool to a meeting we were both attending. I said, “Carpooling. It’s the new 'Driving Alone!'”

Well, not exactly. It seems not too many people carpool. According to the last U.S. Census, most Americans drive solo. In a survey conducted in 2005, 87.7% of commuters use their car to get to work and 77% of them drive alone. On the flip side, only 4.7% of workers use public transportation. In an earlier survey in 2004, Hawaii had the highest carpooling rate at 16.4% while Massachusetts was the lowest at 7.2%. Connecticut was not much better at 7.8%.

What’s so great about carpooling? At the end of the day, you’re still stuck in traffic. But now, you’re stuck in traffic with someone you don’t really know. The most obvious reasons for the commuting alternative are the decrease in traffic congestion and carbon emissions expelled into the air. Another benefit is that some people actually like the personal interaction from meeting new people. It can make the drive seem faster.

For those who choose not to carpool, they have their reasons. Many people often have to work late or their schedule is too unpredictable. But for some, it’s just the inconvenience of relying on someone else’s schedule that makes carpooling, or ridesharing, unappealing.

Inconvenience aside, carpooling is a necessary option in a bad economy. When belts are tightening and the gas prices are high, more people choose to bum a ride.

FAIRFIELD COUNTY GREENDRINKS Rescheduled due to SNOW!

The small green things people do

By Robert Miller
Staff Writer - The News Times
Updated: 01/31/2009 01:59:00 PM EST

The green revolution can start with simple annoyance.

"I was tired of bringing all those plastic bags back to recycle,'' Marla Duffy said, explaining why she was loading her groceries into fabric bags at Caraluzzi's Bethel Food Market last week. "Plus, these hold a lot more.''

But Duffy, who lives in Bethel, said her family has taken on other new habits -- reusing water bottles, doing the laundry and dishes after 8 p.m., sending the kids off to school with snacks packed in reusable plastic containers.

The same sentiment holds true for Sandie Delany of Redding, who was also shopping at Caraluzzi's last week.

"I hate those plastic bags,'' she said.

Mary Ann Kulla has taken to using the fabric bags as well, although, she admits, she's still getting used to the idea.

"Its a very hard habit to unlearn,'' she said of loading her groceries into throw-away bags.

But on other fronts, Kulla's in the lead. Her family switched to using compact florescent light bulbs several years ago. As the bulbs have finally begun to burn out, she's brought them to the local Home Depot.

"They're the only place around here that recycles florescent bulbs,'' she said, pointing out that those florescent bulbs, while energy savers, contain mercury that should stay out of the environment.

And, like it or not, it's these small things -- small personal things -- that may be carrying the Green Revolution. Especially in hard economic times, when people may have to put off buying new Energy Star appliances, or trading in their old car for a new Prius, the small things become increasingly important.

And, because, often, one small green decision leads to another, they can snowball -- using compact florescent bulbs can lead to thinking about the best way to recycle them. For people trying to promote green habits, it's all for the good,.

"It's going great,'' said Heather Burns-DeMelo of Woodbury, founder of CTGreenScene, a Web site that provides viewers with a cornucopia of ideas on better living through environmentalism. "There are more ideas out there than I can keep up with.''

For example, Burns-DeMelo said, some parents have moved beyond thinking about reducing the waste paper used to wrap their kids' lunches to working with PTOs to do the same on a school-wide basis. Others want to bring locally-grown produce into school cafeterias.

"There's a woman who hopes to establish a leaf composting site for Fairfield County,'' said Burns-Demelo. "Another parent, in Westport, is looking at the use of pesticides and herbicides there.''

Burns-DeMelo said that often, one deed leads to a chain reaction of others. She is also the founder of Fairfield County GreenDrinks, a monthly meeting that allows people interested in the environment to meet socially to discuss their ideas.

"The more people do these little things, the more things get moved up a notch,'' she said.

And it also gives people a sense of involvement.