CT Green Scene

Fab Five Tips For Eco-Organized Summer Fun

by Lauren Guiditta, Professional Organizer, Organize for Today

Lauren is a professional organizer based in Glastonbury, CT specializing in helping her clients design simple home organizing solutions with an emphasis on green practices.  For questions or more information contact Lauren at Lauren@Organize4Today.com or online at www.Organize4Today.com.

School is out for summer! Now, it’s time to have some eco-organized summer fun! Did you know that by making a few simple changes to your daily routine, you can keep your household stress-free and focus on more important things? At the same time, you can teach your kids important lessons about caring for the environment.

Eco-organizing is the art of getting organized while going green. Here are some ways to get started.

Where the Tomato Plant Sleeps, the Late Blight Creeps

by Amanda DeMatto

Imagine having to pay five bucks for a pound of tomatoes. Or having to eat sweet potato fries or turnip tots when what you’re really hankering for is the good old-fashioned crinkle-cut French fries. 

Imagining life without tomatoes and potatoes hit a little too close to home last summer. Among the array of crimson peppers and forest green arugula that adorned John Gorzynski’s stand at the Union Square farmers’ market in Manhattan last summer, something was conspicuously missing.  “I lost all of my potatoes this year,” he said behind somber blue eyes and a bushy gray beard. 

The same fungal pathogen responsible for the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s devastated potato and tomato crops throughout all eleven states of the Northeast last summer. It’s called late blight. And in all of Gorzynski’s 39 years of farming in Sullivan County, NY, he’s never seen it so ruthless.

Late blight has already been detected on tomato plants in Connecticut this month. The looming possibility of another outbreak has roused some state government officials to draft and implement preventive strategies lest the cataclysm repeats itself.

Ecotourism and Volunteer Travel: Behind the Lingo

by Julie Johnson

Ecotourism. Curiously, few people seem to know exactly what that means. For some, it is travel to a country to enjoy its natural beauty. For others, it is merely environmentally friendly travel. However, according to The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), which coined the term in 1990, true ecotourism is “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.” At its best, ecotourism can educate the traveler, fund conservation efforts, and support local communities by increasing jobs and income to the area.

Typical vacation packages often take tourists to the same countries and even the same areas of the country as ecotourism ventures are found. But, eighty percent of the price of a conventional vacation package goes to large international companies such as hotel and resort chains, rather than to the local economy. Ecotourism projects that do the most good take a small number of tourists and focus on quality rather than quantity. They hire locals and provide guests with food and personal items like those used by the local community, instead of shipping in familiar brands. 

Urban Ag

by Eileen Weber

Do live in a major metropolitan area? If so, you may have noticed a little bit of a phenomenon: Urban farming. In almost every major city, there are urban farms cropping up. New York City. Chicago. Detroit. Philadelphia. Boston. Even Long Beach, CA. In fact, they have 16 of them in only a four square mile radius from the center of town. With a population of over 35,000, that’s a lot of produce.

Here in Connecticut, a prime example of urban farming can be found in what used to be an abandoned florist. New Britain’s Urban Oaks Organic Farm sits on three and a half acres boasting luscious organic vegetables. They also have a farm stand on the premises and a CSA, although this year’s shares are all sold out. Based on a June 7th story from the NBC affiliate in Hartford, they employ eight people full time and have about a dozen high school volunteers during the summer. “They think a vegetable is ketchup from McDonald’s,” said Michael Kandefer, the farm’s general manager said of the volunteer teens. “When they leave, they know what a cherry tomato is.”

A Good Artist with Green Intentions

by Katherine Kabot

Jack Johnson, a musician known for his soft acoustic sound, hopes his summer 2010 tour will accomplish two things: promote his new album To The Sea and continue to spread the word about environmental issues that will inspire concert go-ers to be more green. Johnson has always been an environmental advocate, using solar panels to power his recording studios and printing his album cover on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper. Johnson’s record label Brushfire even follows in his eco-friendly footsteps by using solar panels for all of their offices and studios, interior/exterior wall insulation made from 100% post consumer waste, and more recently, convincing Universal Studios to use FSC-certified recycled paper for all of their Brushfire music and movie releases and developing the first 100% recyclable plastic CD tray.

The artist’s commitment to make his concerts environmentally friendly is nothing new.  Before his world tour in 2008, Johnson began collaborating with concert vendors, fans, and even his fellow band members to try and make their tour 100% carbon neutral.  The end result: 4,172 metric tons of CO2 were offset by using biodiesel for his tour buses, contributing money to renewable energy sources like wind and solar power and by recycling and composting over 70% of waste from the concerts. 

A Cure for Devil’s Water

by Amanda DeMatto

Fifty million American homes rest on soil that contains toxic levels of arsenic. Though this deadly element occurs naturally, often released in gaseous volcanic emissions, human activities like pesticide use have magnified its presence.

But for the past few years, scientists and citizens alike have been witnessing the fascinating ability of plants to slurp up and sequester heavy metals like arsenic. The Edenspace Corporation of Dulles, Virginia has brought a tropical Floridian fern to the backyards of many America citizens, who are much safer because of it.

Drill and Spill or Caulk and Save?

From our sponsor
GreenStar Energy Solutions

The ongoing Gulf environmental disaster should serve as a reminder to all Americans that ‘waste not, want not’ starts at home. Connecticut’ s Home Energy Solutions (HES) program (described below) can help you save energy at home during the summer cooling season and beyond.

HES is a great first step towards making CT homes energy efficient. Connecticut's Energy Efficiency Programs are funded by a Charge on Customer energy bills. The Programs are designed to help customers manage their energy usage and cost.   It’s very simple, call a HES provider to schedule a half day diagnostics and weatherization visit for your home. During the visit your home will be air sealed, ducts sealed, re-lamped with up to 25 high quality CFL’s, and retrofit with water conservation fixtures and pipe insulation.

Additionally, a certified Building Analyst will provide you with a detailed energy evaluation of your home. You will most likely be eligible to receive thousands of dollars in additional rebates for insulation, Energy Star appliances, and AC improvements, and more.  

Your home will be more energy efficient and comfortable immediately and you will have a roadmap, subsidized financing and cash rebates for deeper energy improvements. There is a $75 co-pay collected at the time of visit but keep in mind the weatherization alone is worth more than $700. Member Green Star Energy Solutions is one such participating HES provider, call 203-744-1144 ext. 11, or visit www.GoGreenStar.com for more information. 

Like Oil and Water

Kevin Costner is in the news, but not for his illustrious acting career. Having taken part in the Senate Committee for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, he has been trying to promote his contraption that separates oil and water. Fitting easily to any fishing boat, the idea is for companies like BP to keep it on hand like a fire extinguisher whenever there is a spill. Or, perhaps a better idea is to not have a spill in the first place. One can only dream.

Take a look at an excerpt from an article dated June 18th from the Associated Press below.

Kevin Costner wants cleanup devices near oil rigs
By ANN SANNER, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jun 18, 6:19 am ET

"...Costner said the device had been sitting at a Nevada facility for 10 years until BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles recently called him.

"He was excited," Costner said. "He told me that the machine worked. He told me that it was working against the dispersants, that it was handling the variations of oil mixtures and thickness present in the Gulf."

Costner said other small businesses like his have ideas that could be used in the oil spill relief effort.

"If we can find oil thousands of feet in the ground at depths that boggle the mind," Costner said, "then surly we have the technology to clean up our own mess."

To read more, click here.

Image courtesy of the Associated Press via Yahoo News.

An Environmental and Moral Predicament for the “Plain People”

Located in different parts of rural Pennsylvania, the Old Order Amish and Mennonites, also known as the “Plain People”, have been farming and cultivating the land for centuries.  Their resistence to modern farming practices has in the past allowed them to adhere to their agricultural roots. However most recently, this resistence has caused the Amish some trouble with the Environmental Protection Agency. Worried about the pollution from runoff of manure in the Chesapeake Bay, the E.P.A. is attempting to enforce stricter regulations on how how the Amish and other farmers in Pennsylvania dispose of their animal wastes. The following article posted on June 8th in The New York Times discusses this issue and the ways in which both the Amish and the agency is trying solve it.

Amish Farming Draws Rare Government Scrutiny
By SINDYA N. BHANOO
The New York Times
Published: June 8, 2010

LANCASTER, Pa. — With simplicity as their credo, Amish farmers consume so little that some might consider them model environmental citizens.  “We are supposed to be stewards of the land,” said Matthew Stoltzfus, a 34-year-old dairy farmer and father of seven whose family, like many other Amish, shuns cars in favor of horse and buggy and lives without electricity. “It is our Christian duty.”

But farmers like Mr. Stoltzfus are facing growing scrutiny for agricultural practices that the federal government sees as environmentally destructive. Their cows generate heaps of manure that easily washes into streams and flows onward into the Chesapeake Bay.

And the Environmental Protection Agency, charged by President Obama with restoring the bay to health, is determined to crack down. The farmers have a choice: change the way they farm or face stiff penalties.
“There’s much, much work that needs to be done, and I don’t think the full community understands,” said David McGuigan, the E.P.A. official leading an effort by the agency to change farming practices here in Lancaster County.

To read more, click here.

Image courtesy of The New York Times.

Cormorant in a Coalmine

by Amanda DeMatto

It’s not unusual for Charlie Clarkson, an ecologist at the University of Virginia, to return from a day’s work caked, from brim to boot, in bird excrement. “It’s a very dirty, smelly job,” he chuckles, “but I like it.” He spends his summer days mucking about the islands that pepper the New York Harbor and Virginia’s Eastern Shore collecting bird vomit and feathers from the young nestlings of two seabird species: the double-crested cormorant and the glossy ibis.

There’s no doubt Clarkson’s job is offensive to the nose, but it’s importance as a novel approach for understanding why 90% of bird species are in decline supersedes its unpleasantness. The condition of the feathers and vomit provides clues about the health of the nestlings and the environment as it concerns all living things, even us. 

A Vacation Gone Green – Think Local, Travel Local

by Katherine Kabot

Every year, Memorial Day weekend comes and goes and it leaves me with a glimpse of an ideal summer: Gorgeous weather, great food, and time spent with family and friends. All of this also leaves me wondering, “So how long until Labor Day weekend?”

Why wait until then? Instead of taking that far away, exotic vacation, find a more local route. Consider it a twist on the typical vacation ideology. A staycation in Connecticut has plenty to offer families, friends, or a quick getaway for two.

Try a local state park. There are about 40 of them located around the state and about a dozen of them provide camping areas with cabins. Camping is very inexpensive compared to staying in a hotel and usually runs anywhere in between $12 to $33 a night for in-state residents. One of the most popular state parks is Hammonesset Beach State Park. Located in Madison not far from I-95, it offers over two miles of shoreline for swimming, fishing, boating, with a boardwalk along the beach.

From Fish to Fashion - Shades of Green: New England Debuts on New Hampshire Public TV

AVON, Conn.(June 10, 2010) – “Shades of Green: New England,” a magazine-format show highlighting some of the most captivating green innovations in the nation, will debut on Monday June 14th at 8 p.m. and Thursday June 17th at noon, on New Hampshire Public TV. Host Christina DeFranco will showcase creative New England business owners who put the planet before profits.

In the Shades of Green pilot episode, DeFranco features fashion design firm GG2G which stands for “Green Goods to Give and to Get.” The Milford, CT company turns used billboards into trendy bags, belts and handbags, keeping thousands of pounds of used vinyl out of landfills. GG2G is now launching a new upscale line called Salvo, made from remnants of restaurant seating. GG2G owner Dayan Moore says the bags are both “eco and animal friendly.” She also says these funky fashion statements show that “it doesn’t have to be a burlap sack to be green!”

Also featured in this episode is EcoFish, a New Hampshire-based seafood distributor featuring high quality, all-natural seafood from sustainable fisheries. Christina meets with celebrity chef Ming Tsai, of the Boston-based restaurant Blue Ginger, one of Ecofish’s first clients. Tsai uses EcoFish’s Alaskan butterfish in his signature entrée, having switched from the over-fished Chilean sea bass. “Thank God for companies like EcoFish that make it their mission statement to help the world,” says Tsai.

And viewers will learn how to get cash for their outdated cell phones, laptops, gaming systems and other high tech gadgets. DeFranco shows you how to use Gazelle.com to recycle these items, getting some “green” for being green!

Click here to view the Shades of Green: New England trailer.

Don’t Judge Organic Farmers Until You Walk a Mile in Their Crocs

by Catherine Monahon     

This summer, Catherine is working at an organic farm. Studying and working in nature as well as her previous work experience with organic and fair-trade businesses have made the environment one of her primary interests. She has grown up in a household that eats organic, recycles or composts everything from egg shells to nail clippings, and values fair-trade products. As a junior at Connecticut College with an inter-disciplinary major of American Studies, her academic focus has touched upon environmental issues within U.S. politics, NGOs, cultural movements, and marketing trends. Today's article highlights her recent farm experience.

Looking to learn about your local community, produce, or economy?  You can find all three at any local farm. From WWOOFers (individuals taking advantage of World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) to volunteers to the farmers themselves, each farm undoubtedly has a tightly-knit, complex family of workers behind it who not only know everything about your food from root to tip, but also constantly deal with the trials of operating a small business. When I visited Ryder Farm, an organic CSA just outside of Connecticut, I was not expecting to see any of this. I had set my hopes on simply working outside, learning a little farming, and getting out of the house.           

I expected to spend the day hunched over in a field, and prepared myself for mindless physical labor by hydrating, locating my sneakers, and putting on my game face.  I told myself that as a volunteer, I would probably be shunted to grunt work, and I wouldn’t want the other workers to think I was not capable. The night before I attempted a few push-ups that, in retrospect, could have gone worse.

CBIA Sustainability Conference Panelists Offer Solutions and Hope

by Heather Burns

If yesterday's 4th Annual CBIA Sustainability Conference was any indication of whether Connecticut is embracing sustainable business practices - the answer is an unequivocal yes.

Executives from IBM Corporation, AT&T, and Microsoft sat on the first panel moderated by Michael Ellis of GreenOrder. Panelists reviewed emerging technologies and new products and services recently launched to help their clients save money, conserve natural resources, mitigate risk and aid in a global transition to more sustainable business practices.

When asked the question, "In identifying opportunities for new business development around sustainability, what are some of the key indicators you look when deciding to pursue a particular new product or service?" the panelists identified several:

First, they look for opportunities to take an internal initiative and turn it into a new product or service - that is, if we spend resources internally to make improvements, how can we create ROI by offering something new to our clients? Second, is there economies of scale? Can we deliver what we accomplish in a pilot to our suppliers, our customers and even our vendors? Third, do we have an existing market to tap into or better yet, can we identify an opportunity to create a whole new one?

It was interesting to learn that AT&T looks toward its suppliers to make changes, and like Wal-Mart, helps them with implementation. In fact, Wal-Mart created Supplier Energy Efficiency Project (SEEP) - and spun a whole new business out of a successful internal energy efficiency program - which may be an indicator as to why sustainability is being touted as the master of new business innovation. 

All panelists stressed the importance of engaging in a dialog with employees, customers, vendors, and stakeholders. Only after learning what stakeholders identified as valuable, were they able to compare that information with existing or impending regulations that may eventually require their clients and suppliers to measure, monitor and report.

So if three of the country's corporate giants are unearthing new business opportunities from a world transitioning away from business as usual, to one that utilizes integrative economic design, then what are the rest of us waiting for?

Click here to download the brand, spanking new, 2010 CBIA Sustainability Survey.

Traces of Cancer

by Eileen Weber

Have you ever taken the time to find out what is actually in your laundry detergent? How about your shampoo? Or even the baby wash you use when the kids have bath time?

Most people don’t even give it a second thought. Yet, many products have high levels of contaminants like 1,4 dioxane, a known carcinogen to animals and the EPA says a probable one for humans. According to a May 22nd article in Natural News, David Steinman, who heads up the Green Patriot Working Group, initiated a study of harmful chemicals in the products we use. Working in conjunction with the Organic Consumer Association, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, and the Clean Water Action California, the results of that study showed such staple household items like Tide laundry detergent had 55 parts per million of 1,4 dioxane. In fact, Tide was not the only Proctor & Gamble (P&G) product to contain high amounts of the chemical. The list also included Ivory Snow, Gain, Cheer and Era, some of the more frequently purchased detergents.

Natural and organic products often boast of being chemical-free. It may be a little shocking to know that traces of 1,4 dioxane can also be found in natural products as well. Granted, the levels are far lower than the more conventional products (the highest levels rate at 6 parts per million). But, they’re in there. And if they’re in the bottle, they end up on you and in the water. Planet Ultra Liquid and Mrs. Meyers laundry detergents were the top two natural products that contained traces of this chemical.

Permaculture: An Approach to Sustainability

by Julie Johnson



Julie is a recent graduate of the University of the South: Sewanee, and a biology major. Having majored in science, she always had an interest in the subject of English and in writing. She has always been concerned about and fascinated by environmental issues and, until recently, planned to go to graduate school in marine biology to "save the coral reefs". 

Until a few weeks ago, the only word I knew with the prefix “perma-” was “permafrost.” Even with all the conservation articles and websites I’d read, the concept of permaculture had never once crossed my radar. This may have something to do with its scope; permaculture is difficult to compress into a sentence or two, and this prevents it from finding an easy niche in our sound bite culture.

The practice of permaculture, in its original sense, has probably been around for thousands of years. The idea was first discussed and circulated in a book by an American agricultural scientist who observed the way many farmers grew crops in Asia a hundred years ago. However, it wasn’t until the seventies that two Australians, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, began studying and systematizing ideas about sustainable agriculture in the context of modern ecology. Their first book, Permaculture One, created a surge of interest in the topic, which waned briefly but appears to have returned quite emphatically.

You Are What You Drink

By Amanda DeMatto

Naphthalene. Hexachlorobutadiene. Deisopropylatrazine. These are just a few intimidating chemical names that don’t exactly trickle tastefully off the tongue. Born out of natural geophysical processes, the Industrial Era and subsequent technological advances, these chemicals have made American commerce possible, but at the expense of our health, our environment, and our water.

Federal organizations like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Geological Survey are doing their best to monitor the contaminants in our water, but some experts say their methods may be too presumptuous and the list of chemicals too vast.  Chemical Abstracts Service, which provides the largest collection of chemical substance information available, has just added the 50 millionth unique chemical to its inventory.

According to Simon Litten of New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC), the cost of managing every chemical permutation in the environment would be financially prohibitive. “There’s just this huge number of chemicals out there and the number we’re looking at is very small relative to the number of potential substances that we would want to measure,” he says. The only recourse is to whittle the list down and focus on curtailing the chemicals that seem the most threatening.

Silly Trend

If you have school-aged children, then you know all about Silly Bandz. These rubber bands made from silicone and die-molded are coveted by boys and girls alike. They trade them. They collect them. They fight over them. All of this much to the chagrin of teachers across the country. In fact, many schools have banned the little suckers from their classrooms. They come in an array of shapes including animals and electronic gadgets like iPods and MP3 players. And when they break? Hey, just throw them out, right? Just one more silly trend adding to our garbage pile. See an excerpt from an article in The Boston Globe below.

Bandz in Boston
The Boston Globe
By Beth Teitell
Globe Correspondent
Posted June 3, 2010

"'I really don’t know why I like them,’' said Casey, 10, shrugging cheerfully as she chatted with other girls who were similarly decked out. 'I figured other people liked them.'’

She figured right.

The rubbery bands, which come in a multitude of collectible shapes — cowboy boots to monkeys to Wally the Green Monster — are so trendy that if they were a person, they’d be Justin Bieber.

Silly bands meet all the requirements of a modern craze. They’ve nabbed the top-selling spots on Amazon’s toys and games category. Kids can’t stop talking about them. Parents are fighting over limited supplies, according to one manufacturer. Schools are banning them. A-list celebrities are reportedly requesting customized packs for fans. And, of course, there’s the requisite Facebook page, Twitter feed, and YouTube videos.

Seen stretched out on the wrist, the bracelets — known generically as silly bands, but sold as Silly Bandz, Zanybandz, Stretchy Shapes, and Goofy Bands — don’t look that special. It’s off-wrist that the genius of the product can be appreciated. They come in such a wide variety of shapes that there may not be a human alive who couldn’t find something appealing."

To read more, click here.

Image courtesy of Sillybandz.

Cut your energy bills

This article originally appeared in October 2009 Consumer Reports Magazine.

You can save $1,500 with these 4 strategies

Most homes, including yours, waste energy. That inefficiency is costing you plenty, but it doesn't have to. Even if you've already switched to compact fluorescent bulbs and retired the refrigerator in the basement, there's more you can do. Some of the simplest projects, such as adding insulation and sealing cracks and duct work, can yield the biggest savings. And thanks to new federal tax credits, it will take less time for those projects to pay for themselves.

Yet in a recent nationally representative Consumer Reports survey of 2,014 Americans, only 12 percent had added or upgraded their home's insulation in the last three years. Just a paltry 5 percent had insulated their heating and cooling duct work.

Conflicting and confusing claims can make it hard to know where the real savings are. So we've examined the claims across four key categories—heating and cooling, water, recycling, and electricity—and ordered them by potential money and energy savings based on national rates for electricity, gas, and water. We've also mined our survey data to figure out what consumers are doing and where there's room for improvement. The result is a road map for taking your home's energy efficiency to the next level.

Center for Green Building hosts the third annual Sam’s Summer Solstice on Thursday, June 17th from 5:30 to 8:30 PM

The Center for Green Building is hosting its third annual Sam’s Summer Solstice event on Thursday, June 17th, featuring green professionals from across the state. The event will take place at the Center’s facility in Black Rock and will include representatives from Environmental Architecture, JR’s Comfortable Heat and MowGreen. These vendors will set up booths and demonstrations to educate the public on the health, economic and environmental benefits of an eco friendly lifestyle. 

Named after Sam Winn, the student intern who first organized the event, Sam’s Summer Solstice is an entirely student run effort. Through Fairfield Ludlowe High School (FLHS)’s senior internship program, students are given an opportunity to forgo their final month of school in order to work at the Center for Green Building. This year the event is being spearheaded by FLHS students, Daniel Jacobs and Erica Bower.

Oil: Slick or Sick?

For over a month, the top story has been the worst environmental mishap in years: BP still can't stop the oil spill. Admitting that the "top kill" method didn't work and their market shares taking a hit, things aren't looking up for a company that's active in over 30 countries, employs over 80,000 people and rakes in over $200 billion dollars a year, according to their web site.. See the excerpt below from Reuters via Yahoo News. Just to keep you updated, here's a little run-down of just how this oil spill has continued to wreak havoc.

Factbox: Developments in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill
Writing by Mary Milliken, Editing by Philip Barbara
Posted Tuesday, June 1, 2010

(Reuters) – Here are developments in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the largest in U.S. history:

SPILL CONTAINMENT EFFORTS

• After BP Plc said the complex "top kill" maneuver to plug its Gulf of Mexico oil well had failed on Saturday, it is moving to the next option -- the lower marine riser package cap, which will capture oil from the well rather than plug it.
• The company will know by the end of the week whether the new containment effort has worked, BP Managing Director Robert Dudley said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."