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15 Comments
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Re: Push mowers ... How about wild flowers?
2008-02-22 15:39:14 UTC
Gary,
have you thought about wild flowers? I come from the tall grass prairies where there have been indigenous wild flowers and tall grasses mixing for millennia. Unfortunately, much of that habitat has been ripped out. However, landscape architects in the Plains and Prairies are now tapping into the inherent aesthetic beauty of, and ecologically-tuned efficiencies of wild flowers and tall grasses. I am told that it can be tricky to grow wild flowers by sowing seeds on a large area??? I am personally considering trying this approach on a two acre site. Any insight on obtaining and sowing wild flower seeds in the Prairies would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Neil -
Re: enviro friendly satchels - urbanbooo!
2008-02-21 11:52:54 UTC
I checked out the urbanboomerang site; BEWARE, that they've designed their site to hide all menus, the close, and resize features on your browser. The only way to get out is Control-ALT-Delete! Given the inconvenient design of their website, I personally wouldn't risk blowing 160 bucks on a bag.
Neil
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Ecolect.net > Emerging New Database for Sustainable Materials and Products
2008-01-10 17:55:25 UTC
Here is a link to an emerging new database and Internet community to help you find more sustainable products and materials. EcoLect combines ecology and intellect, cutting across the various fields of design: graphics, architecture and industrial. It's worth watching! http://www.ecolect.net/
Cheers,
Neil -
Greening our Libraries?
2007-12-20 13:28:18 UTC
Greetings ...
Public libraries are an important source of information and inspiration in many communities, and potentially, quite influential in behaviour change campaigns. I would like to better understand current tends in environmental programming at community and public libraries. Greg Carlson of the Jacaranda library in Florida touched this subject recently, but I see no responses on the website. I would be grateful for any such insights, examples, case studies, or suggestions of people with whom I could discuss this topic. In particular, are library collections being updated with resources for green living and sustainable communities? If so, what principles and practices are librarians using to guide their acquisitions? Also, to what extent are libraries doing public education to help the general public understand and reduce their impact on the environment? Finally, do librarians any particular support to help foster green collections and educational programming? Any insights welcomed!
Cheers for the holidays,
Neil
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Impediments to sustainable behaviour?
2007-12-18 14:31:41 UTC
Both Patti and Maggie raised very real and interesting issues in their response to David's question about selling products in bulk, like shampoo, soap, etc. Maggie touched upon the The Body Shop. I too was told, after years of using the same shampoo bottle that I would no longer be allowed to get a refill. Interesting to me, is that this change in Body Shop practice seemed to occur in roughly the same period that TBS went from being a private to public company. Going from private to public can dramatically increase bureaucracy in corporate culture. I responded at the time, by asking how many people actually died or were even injured by using contaminated shampoo bottles? And not ironically, at the time TBS suspended refill programs, they began to use more and more controversial ingredients that are conventional to big industry. Cheap, sodium laureth sulphate, is one example. Common sense compels me in the end, to ask what is the bigger risk to our well being? Is it in churning out and disposing tons of plastic packaging, or in the possible, but unlikely risk of infection from non-sterile containers? I'm guessing, but keeping personal containers clean seems more manageable, and more sustainable. My point is that risk management is a powerful trend in both business and public policy. This is important because sustainable behaviour options typically start out small, despite having big consequences in the end. And when a sustainable behaviour looks "small" up front, it is relatively easy for risk managers to kill that option when put beside potential "safety" concerns. The challenge may be in our perceptions. Is concern for safety becoming an impediment to sustainability? Are the two mutually exclusive? Is there a practical middle-ground between protecting public health and safety and "doing the right thing"? How could this actually work in facilitating bulk "refillable" shopping? What's the best approach to get buy-in from risk managers and lawyers? Perhaps some of you can assist me by breaking these questions into ones that are more actionable within our group of practitioners.
Cheers,
Neil -
Re: Recycling e-waste ... some questions?
2007-11-21 13:22:26 UTC
Of those e-waste recycling programs operating around the world, what is happening with the considerable plastic material contained in obsolete electronic devices? Are there any programs out there that actually convert the plastics to something useful, in an environmentally benign process? Here in British Columbia, Canada, our provincial government recently implemented e-waste recycling. However, as I understand, metals are really the main category of the waste stream that is actually "recycled" in any life-extending way. At a recent meeting with the Province, it was acknowledged that non-metallic e-waste components are typically shredded and incinerated. Hopefully, this is being done with optimal capture of toxins and energy recovery. Bear in mind that, pound for pound, many plastics contain more energy than diesel fuel. As oil and gas prices rise beyond our reach (oil today heading for $100/bbl), people will certainly attempt to recapture this energy by burning plastics, regardless of the impact. And indeed, the conversion of plastic waste to energy through incineration is now raising concerns across Canada about the potential release of toxins to the atmosphere. The state of the art in waste-to-energy conversion apparently comes from Ottawa-based, Plasco Energy. They claim that a tonne of waste equals two months of household power. Plasco also claims that in its high-tech facility, burning one tonne of household waste generates by-products in the amount of 150 KGs of slag and 1.3 KGs of heavy metals (See "Garbage Power" in Canadian Business 5 NOV '07). If these are the figures for burning household garbage in the best facility in Canada, then what is being emitted from typical facilities around the world that are burning our shredded e-waste? Also interesting, here in Canada, e-waste is not considered "hazardous waste", unless it becomes broken (or shredded). Does anyone have a sense of how e-waste is actually being processed around the world?
Cheers,
Neil -
FW: Fruit Labels
2007-11-16 19:43:18 UTC
Deborah suggests that the fruit labels actually contain useful information. Perhaps this is a region issue. Across western Canada, the labels (and also elasticized tags) that appear in the produce sections are largely about branding, many even lack a country of origin information. And lets face facts, we're talking about fruit and veg, not processed foods that may contain anything but fruit and veg. Here on the coast, I do see labels declaring "organic" status but not with any certification or third-party verification. Perhaps the labelling practice is more information-intensive elsewhere, but I've yet to see evidence of this.
NC -
Configuring "Power Options" in a Windows Network Environment?
2007-10-03 13:03:39 UTC
Microsoft Windows (2000 PRO, to be specific) contains a "Power Options" control panel that can shut down a computer, either partially or completely, during inactive times. Is there a simple solution to configure and activate these power saving options across an entire networked office environment? Are people doing this in a centralized, automated procedure or do individual workers have to go in and change settings on every computer? I've heard from network managers that activating these power saving options en masse is not entirely simple and requires additional software tools to avoid potential problems. I'd like to hear opinions on this matter to understand if there is a practical solution at hand.
Thanks,
Neil
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Plastic Bags - Embodied Energy & Carbon
2007-10-02 14:41:56 UTC
As follow up to my question about the footprint and energetics of plastic bags, here is a crude estimate of embodied energy and carbon for polyethylene bags similar to ones used at produce stands and butcher shops (i.e., about 10 inches by 10 inches). Embodied energy is the total primary energy consumed during the life time of a product. Ideally the boundaries would be set from the extraction of raw materials (inc fuels) to the end of the products lifetime (including energy from; manufacturing, transport, energy to manufacture capital equipment, heating & lighting of factory...etc), this boundary condition is known as Cradle to Grave. The figures here are from the University of Bath (http://www.bath.ac.uk/mech-eng/sert/embodied/) and specify only the embodied energy as Cradle to Gate, which includes all energy (in primary form) until the product leaves the factory gate. The final boundary condition is Cradle to Site (not available), which includes all energy consumed until the product has reached the point of use (i.e. building site).This analysis is based on plastics manufactured in Europe and may differ when similar figures are calculated for Canadian product. Note: this calculation considers the use of these bags a liners for garbage bins in an office building. It assumes that only 75% of the bins are using bag liners, and of that, they are changed 4 days of every 5-day week. Also, due to vacation time, any one bin only operates 48 weeks of a year. Current number of garbage receptacles: approximately 450 Estimated number of plastic bags used per week/year: 450 * 0.75 = 338 bags; * 4 days (of 5 per week) = 1352 bags/ week; * 48 weeks/year = 64,896 bags per year. One bag represents: approximately 4.3 grams of low density polyethylene (LDPE). There are roughly 233 of these bags in one kilogram. A preliminary analysis from University of Bath in the UK suggests the following for 1Kg of LDPE: * Embodied energy*: 78.1 megajoules (energy in the feedstock alone is about 51.6 MJ/Kg) * 1.7 Kg of carbon dioxide are emitted in the same process To put these bags into perspective consider a comparison with a barrel of diesel fuel (159 litres or 135.2 Kg): * When burnt, 1 Kg of diesel releases 40.9 MJ * Burn a barrel (bbl) of diesel and you release approximately 6,503 MJ of energy * 31, 442 of our little bags weigh roughly 135.2 Kg, or about the same as one barrel of diesel * Cradle to Gate embodied energy of 135.2 Kg of LDPE is approximately 10,559 MJ, or about the same as burning 1.624 barrels of diesel * Estimated Richmond consumption of 64,896 bags per year amounts to about 279 Kg of LDPE annually, which would embody about 21,794 MJ of energy * The embodied energy for our annual consumption of bags is roughly the same as burning 3.35 bbl of diesel * This energy equates with generation of roughly 474.3 Kg of carbon dioxide * Considered over ten years, this would total roughly 4,750 Kg of CO2 and 33 barrels of diesel fuel burned .
Cheers,
Neil
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Embodied Energy & Carbon of Common Materials ...
2007-09-26 15:28:18 UTC
Last week I requested data on the embodied energy of plastic bags. Embodied energy is the energy consumed during the life time of a product. Engineering professors at University of Bath have been working on a database to determine the embodied energy and carbon of a large number of common materials, including a full range of plastics. If you need it, follow the link below. http://www.bath.ac.uk/mech-eng/sert/embodied/
Cheers,
Neil
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