10/28/09
10/11/09
The Perfect Weed.
I guess it depends on your perspective.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18800.cfm
7/2/09
Sustainable landscaping practices on the news this month
This is just a placeholder announcement, but a client of mine and I were interviewed yesterday by NBC Bay Area on the topic of low water use and California Native plants in the landscape. It's part of a 3 part series that will air later this month. I don't know the dates yet, but I'll let everyone else know as soon as I do. Let's hope this is part of a larger step forward in educating the public on the need for and benefits of more sustainable landscaping practices.
6/18/09
This is not a Plastic Bottle !?!?!?
Why is an environmentally conscience company like Cagwin & Dorward handing out plastic bottles to their employees?
In compliance with recent OSHA regulations, C&D employees have been receiving water bottles, as part of the Company's Heat Illness Prevention Plan. Although they appear to be plastic, they are actually made from wood pulp and other non-toxic, biodegradable materials.
Check out the nifty tag attached to the bottles. You'll find they perform just as you'd like any other bottle to:
• dishwasher safe
• microwavable
• large mouth to add ice
• made in the US
You'll also find that these bottles can be used indefinitely. But when committed to a managed landfill, microbes will find the material irresistible; causing the bottle to fully biodegrade in 1 - 5 years.
In compliance with recent OSHA regulations, C&D employees have been receiving water bottles, as part of the Company's Heat Illness Prevention Plan. Although they appear to be plastic, they are actually made from wood pulp and other non-toxic, biodegradable materials.
Check out the nifty tag attached to the bottles. You'll find they perform just as you'd like any other bottle to:
• dishwasher safe
• microwavable
• large mouth to add ice
• made in the US
You'll also find that these bottles can be used indefinitely. But when committed to a managed landfill, microbes will find the material irresistible; causing the bottle to fully biodegrade in 1 - 5 years.
6/16/09
EPA, HUD, DOT Form Partnership For Sustainable Communities
Collaboration is web of interconnectedness that may create social and economic systems that emulate ecosystems. Below is 1 example of this trend. The government agencies behaving like part of a system to eliminate competitiveness and siloism.
Create abundance through group think and building ideas to allow for a high quality of life.
(Originally posted on Environmental Leader)
Using six guiding “livability principles,” federal efforts in transportation, environmental protection and housing investments will be coordinated under a new partnership.
The Partnership for Sustainable Communities is a joint project of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (HUD), according to a press release.
The partnership’s six livability principles are:
1. Provide more transportation choices - Develop safe, reliable and economical transportation choices to decrease household transportation costs, reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil, improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote public health.
2. Promote equitable, affordable housing - Expand location- and energy-efficient housing choices for people of all ages, incomes, races and ethnicities to increase mobility and lower the combined cost of housing and transportation.
3. Enhance economic competitiveness - Improve economic competitiveness through reliable and timely access to employment centers, educational opportunities, services and other basic needs by workers as well as expanded business access to markets.
4. Support existing communities - Target federal funding toward existing communities - through such strategies as transit-oriented, mixed-use development and land recycling - to increase community revitalization, improve the efficiency of public works investments, and safeguard rural landscapes.
5. Coordinate policies and leverage investment - Align federal policies and funding to remove barriers to collaboration, leverage funding and increase the accountability and effectiveness of all levels of government to plan for future growth, including making smart energy choices such as locally generated renewable energy.
6. Value communities and neighborhoods - Enhance the unique characteristics of all communities by investing in healthy, safe and walkable neighborhoods - rural, urban or suburban.
The partnership first began... Read More: http://tinyurl.com/l3n9a8
Create abundance through group think and building ideas to allow for a high quality of life.
(Originally posted on Environmental Leader)
Using six guiding “livability principles,” federal efforts in transportation, environmental protection and housing investments will be coordinated under a new partnership.
The Partnership for Sustainable Communities is a joint project of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (HUD), according to a press release.
The partnership’s six livability principles are:
1. Provide more transportation choices - Develop safe, reliable and economical transportation choices to decrease household transportation costs, reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil, improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote public health.
2. Promote equitable, affordable housing - Expand location- and energy-efficient housing choices for people of all ages, incomes, races and ethnicities to increase mobility and lower the combined cost of housing and transportation.
3. Enhance economic competitiveness - Improve economic competitiveness through reliable and timely access to employment centers, educational opportunities, services and other basic needs by workers as well as expanded business access to markets.
4. Support existing communities - Target federal funding toward existing communities - through such strategies as transit-oriented, mixed-use development and land recycling - to increase community revitalization, improve the efficiency of public works investments, and safeguard rural landscapes.
5. Coordinate policies and leverage investment - Align federal policies and funding to remove barriers to collaboration, leverage funding and increase the accountability and effectiveness of all levels of government to plan for future growth, including making smart energy choices such as locally generated renewable energy.
6. Value communities and neighborhoods - Enhance the unique characteristics of all communities by investing in healthy, safe and walkable neighborhoods - rural, urban or suburban.
The partnership first began... Read More: http://tinyurl.com/l3n9a8
6/13/09
Food Solutions!
The Original Urban Farming Company
Originally posted on WorldChanging • by WorldChanging Team • 16 hours ago
Your Backyard Farmer grows veggies in unexpected spots
By Raymond Rendleman
A small piece of property can go a long way toward feeding a family. But coaxing food from the earth takes both time and know-how, and that can be enough to intimidate many of us. Enter Your Backyard Farmer. http://www.yourbackyardfarmer.com/ This small business in Portland, Ore., saw an opportunity to help out many homeowners who wanted to grow their own, but weren't sure where to start.
Partners Robyn Streeter and Donna Smith completed their horticulture degrees together in 2005 and began searching for farmland. By that winter, they had an epiphany: Instead of investing in a farm, they would bolster the urban agriculture movement by helping city dwellers grow backyard crops.
Your Backyard Farmer works a lot like any other home contractor. Streeter and Smith visit dozens of yards each week throughout the growing season to plant, maintain and harvest their clients' edible crops. With their help, even plots as small as 10-by-10 feet yield a cornucopia of produce. They also offer monthly lessons where DIY families can learn how to make their own food gardens grow.
Your Backyard Farmer’s innovative approach has gained the attention of entrepreneurs from Canada to Tasmania, and Streeter and Smith have consulted with many to help develop similar companies. But they say the most important element of their success can’t be conveyed through consultations: “We do it all by grunt labor,” Streeter says.
Each day begins for the duo before dawn, as soon as enough light shows over the horizon to reveal weeds under the squash patches. The pair uses the hands-and-knees methods of crop rotation without tilling that would be familiar to farmers over the millennia. Each portion of their fields exudes the pungency of mushroom compost mixed with the unbelievably fresh scent of the nearest vegetable. During fall, the overall effect resembles a magical supermarket in which numerous produce aisles contain still-rooted carrots, peas, onions and peppers ready to harvest.
Smith and Streeter hope that their idea goes beyond another “green” business service. It does seem like their help has expanded the conversation about city dwellers' relationship to their food. Now, they have reason to believe the idea will grow even further: For example, a group of adjacent households recently decided to forgo their fences, and commissioned Your Backyard Farmer to create a larger plot of shared space for food gardening. The project produced not only a haul of edibles ... but also a new sense of community.
Raymond Rendleman is a writer based in Portland, Ore. Readers may contact him at rrendleman [at] gmail [dot] com.
Photo by author.
Originally posted on WorldChanging • by WorldChanging Team • 16 hours ago
Your Backyard Farmer grows veggies in unexpected spots
By Raymond Rendleman
A small piece of property can go a long way toward feeding a family. But coaxing food from the earth takes both time and know-how, and that can be enough to intimidate many of us. Enter Your Backyard Farmer. http://www.yourbackyardfarmer.com/ This small business in Portland, Ore., saw an opportunity to help out many homeowners who wanted to grow their own, but weren't sure where to start.
Partners Robyn Streeter and Donna Smith completed their horticulture degrees together in 2005 and began searching for farmland. By that winter, they had an epiphany: Instead of investing in a farm, they would bolster the urban agriculture movement by helping city dwellers grow backyard crops.
Your Backyard Farmer works a lot like any other home contractor. Streeter and Smith visit dozens of yards each week throughout the growing season to plant, maintain and harvest their clients' edible crops. With their help, even plots as small as 10-by-10 feet yield a cornucopia of produce. They also offer monthly lessons where DIY families can learn how to make their own food gardens grow.
Your Backyard Farmer’s innovative approach has gained the attention of entrepreneurs from Canada to Tasmania, and Streeter and Smith have consulted with many to help develop similar companies. But they say the most important element of their success can’t be conveyed through consultations: “We do it all by grunt labor,” Streeter says.
Each day begins for the duo before dawn, as soon as enough light shows over the horizon to reveal weeds under the squash patches. The pair uses the hands-and-knees methods of crop rotation without tilling that would be familiar to farmers over the millennia. Each portion of their fields exudes the pungency of mushroom compost mixed with the unbelievably fresh scent of the nearest vegetable. During fall, the overall effect resembles a magical supermarket in which numerous produce aisles contain still-rooted carrots, peas, onions and peppers ready to harvest.
Smith and Streeter hope that their idea goes beyond another “green” business service. It does seem like their help has expanded the conversation about city dwellers' relationship to their food. Now, they have reason to believe the idea will grow even further: For example, a group of adjacent households recently decided to forgo their fences, and commissioned Your Backyard Farmer to create a larger plot of shared space for food gardening. The project produced not only a haul of edibles ... but also a new sense of community.
Raymond Rendleman is a writer based in Portland, Ore. Readers may contact him at rrendleman [at] gmail [dot] com.
Photo by author.
Renewing the next generations' rural America!
(re-posted from Sustainablog) Talk about a recipe for potential disaster. Combine a down economy, changing agriculture practices, rising unemployment and the end result looks grim. But here’s the secret ingredient revitalizing and greening our countryside: young people under 35.
Profiled in the new book, Renewing the Countryside: Youth, this new generation is making their mark on rural areas, from starting new farms to putting out their own entrepreneurial shingle in small towns. Renewing the Countryside: Youth showcases fifty case study stories, one from each state in the United States, cooking up a super-size serving of inspiration for what can be done in similar communities throughout rural America.
http://tinyurl.com/lm9ljm
Profiled in the new book, Renewing the Countryside: Youth, this new generation is making their mark on rural areas, from starting new farms to putting out their own entrepreneurial shingle in small towns. Renewing the Countryside: Youth showcases fifty case study stories, one from each state in the United States, cooking up a super-size serving of inspiration for what can be done in similar communities throughout rural America.
http://tinyurl.com/lm9ljm
6/6/09
5/27/09
Institute for Urban Homesteading!
Below is a great organization that is a piece of Transition East Bay. They are creating solutions within regenerative urban landscapes. Value is being added to the land and the quality of life of the people taking part. It is collaborative, healing, and inspirational.
Effective change is doable when simple steps are taken toward a sustainable vision!
Welcome to the Institute for Urban Homesteading!
The Urban Homestead classroom is a gathering place to research, ferment and learn together. We feature small class sizes and experiential learning.
Our mission is to
* Offer affordable classes in the art of living in an urban environment
* Preserve a slower, more intentional, more sustainable and more pleasurable way of life
* Rescue the lost arts of the garden, the kitchen and things done by hand
* Imbue everyday tasks with wonder and beauty
* Promote self-determination and the ability of each person to educate themselves
The Institute of Urban Homesteading is a response to current interest in food security, localization and self-determination, We are riding the wave of a massive global movement to change our relationship to food and resources. Necessary components of this movement are small-scale person-to-person, person-to-land based projects. IUH seeks to fill this need and to model sustainable, local direct-action through education. We intend to conserve both personal and global resources by staying home and tending the garden. more….
5/23/09
Permaculture Superhero - Inspiring Land Mangement
"I’d like to introduce you to Sepp Holzer, a man who not only produces food in a very unlikely location, at a high and frigid altitude in Austria, but is also growing very unlikely crops there as well — and all without the use of chemicals, and with minimal input of human labour.
I guess you could call him a European counterpart of people like Bill Mollison and Masanobu Fukuoka — as all three independently discovered ways of working with nature that save money and labour and that don’t degrade the environment, but actually improve it. In Holzer’s case, he was effectively running a permaculture farm for more than two decades before he even realised his unconventional approach could be termed ‘permaculture’." -from the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia
5/22/09
Time to Change This Community Earth
Props to Jake for creating the blog and thanks for the invitation to contribute. Now that I'm here, I guess an introduction is in order. I live in San Jose CA and have been working for the last 5+ years on soil food web restoration, with the goal of growing healthy landscape and food plants without the use of synthetic fertilizers or toxic garden or agricultural chemicals. The results still amaze me. True soil fertility, not fertilizer is the way of the future.
I am the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bay-Friendly Landscaping and Gardening Coalition. The BF Coalition is working on spreading the Bay-Friendly Landscaping and Gardening methods and philosophy throughout all the counties around San Francisco Bay. I'm also a Master Composter in Santa Clara County.
In the course of my work, it has become apparent the landscaping industry is at the center of the movement to solve the environmental crises of the world. This may sound grandiose, but it's true. Our industry has tremendous impact on soil quality, air quality, water quality and use, energy use, and human health. How many other industries intersect with so many of the critical elements of human existence? We have the ability to change the world for the better. I look forward to the conversation.
I am the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bay-Friendly Landscaping and Gardening Coalition. The BF Coalition is working on spreading the Bay-Friendly Landscaping and Gardening methods and philosophy throughout all the counties around San Francisco Bay. I'm also a Master Composter in Santa Clara County.
In the course of my work, it has become apparent the landscaping industry is at the center of the movement to solve the environmental crises of the world. This may sound grandiose, but it's true. Our industry has tremendous impact on soil quality, air quality, water quality and use, energy use, and human health. How many other industries intersect with so many of the critical elements of human existence? We have the ability to change the world for the better. I look forward to the conversation.
Water World
Thanks Jake for inviting me to the blog! It looks like we're just getting out of the starting gate here, so I'll say a bit about what I'm up to. I'm looking forward to see who else jumps on. I am involved with a number of water-related projects and activities. I am involved with various groups working with rainwater catchment and greywater systems. I have a calendar and site that I put a lot of time and energy into at http://www.wiserearth.org/group/arcsanorcal We are loosely organized as the Northern California chapter of the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association (ARCSA), but we are essentially autonomous.
I am also working on design of greywater and rainwater catchment systems, bioswales, raingardens and low impact design water infrastructure. I am working with Brent Bucknum's Hyphae Design Labs in West Oakland. http://www.hyphae.net/
Another project I am working with is promoting the use of floating islands for water treatment and wave mitigation applications. The company is BioHaven Floating Islands and you can read about the applications and technology here. http://www.floatingislandinternational.com/index.php
So that is a glimpse at my Water World. I am a California Professional Civil Engineer (P.E.) and I am interested in getting involved in more projects. I'm looking forward to see who else gets on this blog. Please contact me if you are interested in collaboration on projects.
Have a good one,
Eric F. Olson
ericfordolson@gmail.com
p.s. there is a great permaculture activist and designer up in Sebastopol named Erik Ohlsen and although we are involved in similar work, we are two different people!
I am also working on design of greywater and rainwater catchment systems, bioswales, raingardens and low impact design water infrastructure. I am working with Brent Bucknum's Hyphae Design Labs in West Oakland. http://www.hyphae.net/
Another project I am working with is promoting the use of floating islands for water treatment and wave mitigation applications. The company is BioHaven Floating Islands and you can read about the applications and technology here. http://www.floatingislandinternational.com/index.php
So that is a glimpse at my Water World. I am a California Professional Civil Engineer (P.E.) and I am interested in getting involved in more projects. I'm looking forward to see who else gets on this blog. Please contact me if you are interested in collaboration on projects.
Have a good one,
Eric F. Olson
ericfordolson@gmail.com
p.s. there is a great permaculture activist and designer up in Sebastopol named Erik Ohlsen and although we are involved in similar work, we are two different people!
5/16/09
New Launch
I am very excited to start this blog!
This blog focuses on sharing positive solutions for creating a sustainable world.
My vision:
Please post ideas and resources that build solutions to the challenges we all face.
This blog focuses on sharing positive solutions for creating a sustainable world.
My vision:
- Sharing positive solutions with each other
- Humble learning
- Growing everyone's options for change
- Inspiration from each other
- Relief from focusing on what is wrong
- Acceptance of everything that is
- Moving toward our vision of sustainability
Please post ideas and resources that build solutions to the challenges we all face.
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