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Posted by faircompanies, at 05:15AM 12/02/07 :
The gift of a goat has arrived
Note: I received my first goat last year. With a $120 pricetag, it was the most generous of all my wedding shower gifts, but I'm embarrassed to admit that upon opening I didn't feel any rush of satisfaction. Now I've realized with your first goat- or cow, or water buffalo- it's natural to have a delayed sense of satisfaction... When the mosquito nets arrived by limo, I began to suspect my goat was part of a bigger shift in gift-giving protocol.
Posted by faircompanies, at 05:44PM 11/30/07 :
Fossil fuel free coffee
Note: It began as a money-saving way to roast coffee. But today, Michael and David Hartkop have turned their Solar Roast Coffee into a business (using the same technology Google is betting on for their new renewable energy program). In this video, David showed us the solar collectors he's designed for the business. They may be homemade and constructed with simple mirrors, but they're powerful enough to vaporize coffee.
Posted by faircompanies, at 11:16AM 11/19/07 :
What we are up against
Note: We tend to focus on the exploitive corporations, corrupt government, fundamentalist religious people, and hummer drivers. I think our biggest obstacle is all the ordinary people in between. We shouldn't be an "extreme", but unfortunately, in this country, we are.
Posted by faircompanies, at 06:55PM 10/31/07 :
A solar dryer
Note: In the US, 83% of those surveyed claim a clothes dryer is a necessity and in much of North America the clothesline has been replaced by one of the most energy hogging appliances. But in much of Europe and Australia and in some communities in America, clotheslines never went out of style. In this video, we to talk to people about when, why and how they hang out their wash.
Posted by faircompanies, at 06:54PM 10/31/07 :
A place called the line
Note: I grew up with a space in my home that didn't exist for most of my friends. It wasn't a tv room nor a Costco annex, but a place called "the line". When something was missing, we were told to "check the line" or when we appeared idle: "help me take these out to the line". Whether we lived in a home with a backyard or a condo with no outdoor space, my mother always found a place to hang a piece of rope: between trees or two pieces of furniture.
Posted by faircompanies, at 05:27PM 10/11/07 :
Consumption overshoot and a future of temporary ownership
Note: Even if you question global warming, our way of living has been deemed unsustainable on yet another level: we're in global "overshoot".
Posted by faircompanies, at 08:41AM 10/07/07 :
volume seven; in which I determine the most deleterious aspect of capitalism
Note: Gene Patenting - perhaps the best example of how our acceptance of maximizing profit as the ultimate goal in society has gone so far as to erode the concept of value to individual lives, almost to the point of threatening its eradication.
Posted by faircompanies, at 03:13PM 10/03/07 :
A green car showroom
Note: Buying a less polluting car no longer means choosing between subcompacts or hybrids, but NEVs, microcars, PEVs and superminis as well. We check out a dealership to meet these options.
Posted by faircompanies, at 03:54PM 09/27/07 :
The great transatlantic automative divide (a faircompanies blog)
Note: I caught my initial glimpse of Eurotopia back in 1991, during my first trip on the other side of the Atlantic (post age 2). I remember driving down a German autobahn and feeling I was in Disneyland. The highway didn't feel real. I couldn't put my finger on why while I was there, though I thought perhaps the lanes were narrower. It wasn't until I was back in the States driving home from the airport in our family Suburban, surrounded by similar SUVs, that it hit me: the cars over there were smaller, small enough that from my perspective driving felt like a ride on Disney's Autopia.
Posted by faircompanies, at 10:07AM 09/18/07 :
Glean your plate (a faircompanies blog)
Note: My mother was a gleaner. What she did wasn't related to any movement, she just had trouble watching food being thrown away, even by our grocery store. I'm not sure if she resorted to dumpster diving- now popularized by the "urban foraging" of the freegan movement-, but somehow she gleaned our local Safeway of all that bread, cheese, and lettuce they couldn't sell because of a bit of mold or a soggy leaf.
Posted by faircompanies, at 05:24AM 09/11/07 :
Making up your own mind (a blog about globalization)
Note: An activist from Amsterdam looks at globalization, and the US, from the "European side of the world". And wonders how to think independently about all of this.
Posted by faircompanies, at 04:13PM 09/07/07 :
The Dirty Dozen
Note: Organic food has gone mainstream- now carried by the giants like Wal-Mart, Tesco, Krogers, Marcs & Spencer, Safeway, etc.-, but we haven't left behind those supermarket quandaries like "do I spend more for the organic grapes?" According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), "Some pesticides may be carcinogens. Others may affect the hormone or endocrine system in the body." Recognizing that some conventional produce have higher pesticide residues than others, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has put together a shoppers guide to help us minimize our exposure. In this video, Bill Walker, the EWG's vice president for the West Coast, explains how to avoid the dirty dozen.
Posted by faircompanies, at 02:05AM 09/06/07 :
Food: counting miles per bite
Note: Much of our food travels thousands of miles before reaching our plate. New foodies (locavores, 100-mile-dieters, Barbara Kingsolver) want to reexamine our food pathways and celebrate our local foodsheds.
Posted by faircompanies, at 04:36AM 09/04/07 :
The fight for organic agriculture
Note: U.S. farmers receive 30 billion annually in government subsidies, but less than 1% goes to organics. Given that pesticide-free farming is better for the environment and more energy efficient, there is a movement brewing- from the U.S. to the U.N - to give this sector more priority. It's part of the battle over the 2007 U.S. Farm Bill which, according to "Food Fight" author Daniel Imhoff, will affect "the fate of family farmers, a food system dominated by corporations and commodities, conditions of immigrant farm workers, the state of the country’s woodlands, or the marginalization of locally raised organic food and grass-fed meat and dairy products". In this video, Bill Walker, West Coast VP of the Environmental Working Group, explains the benefits of organic and how their farm subsidies database tracks the money.
Posted by faircompanies, at 02:54PM 08/29/07 :
Toilet talk
Note: In the drought-plagued Northern California of my childhood (the seventies), reaching across someone to shut off their water was nothing. The limits were being set by those who responded to a houseguest's query for the bathroom location with "Down the hall on the right. And if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down". The idea that we're peeing into our drinking water is really quite outrageous. After all, water is becoming increasingly scarce as worldwide water consumption is now doubling at twice the rate of population growth. Currently, 1 in every six people (over 1 billion) lacks access to safe drinking water. And it's not just a problem for developing nations.
Posted by faircompanies, at 03:20AM 08/22/07 :
Green shopping: biodegradable corn tops and butt-flattering eco-friendly jeans
Note: Now that eco-friendly fibers have gone mainstream maybe you've heard of hemp and organic cotton, but what about Tencel and Ingeo? Maybe you know eco-conscious clothing lines like Edun from U2 frontman Bono and his wife Ali Hewson or Edun designer Roran Gregory's other eco-line Loomstate, but have you tried the bamboo blends of Panda Snack or Moral Fervor's fermented corn starch (aka Ingeo), biodegradable shirts? In this video, green clothing store owners Ursula Stahl and Callie Smith - from the Boston store Envi - show us their top picks like the fashion forward Canada-based Covet line and the Del Forte jeans famous for making "your butt look good".
Posted by faircompanies, at 01:32AM 08/05/07 :
*faircompanies - Web 2.0, fair trade, ethical money, information, resources, projects
Note: Global warming fears, gas prices and government policies (like ethanol subsidies) are attracting even more investment in clean technologies. According to the Cleantech Network, venture capitalists invested $2.9 billion in the sector in 2006. A decade ago, it was just $50 million. Rapid growth in investment and initial public offering values has set off talk of a dot-com style bubble. We stopped in at the Greenvest 2007 conference in San Francisco to find out why some VCs (like Nancy Floyd of Nth Power who was investing in the sector when it was practically non-existent back in '93) are still putting their money into cleantech.
Posted by faircompanies, at 01:48AM 07/31/07 :
Praying to the Prius (a blog post)
Note: In those early days of hybrid ownership (though technically I have been just borrowing this gas-electric vehicle from my parents while in the U.S.), I was naively unaware of my, and my parents', toxic emissions.
Posted by faircompanies, at 01:36AM 07/31/07 :
Two centuries of fuel cells... so why now?
Note: The first hydrogen fuel cell was created in 1839 by Welsh inventor William Grove, but it didn't produce enough electricity to be useful. Nearly 2 centuries later, critics still make the same claim, but governments and major car companies are betting otherwise. For a peek at what a hydrogen future might look like, we visited Canada's Hydrogen Highway project and the Vancouver Fuel Cell Vehicle Program. Engineer Alison Setton explained a bit of the past, present, and future as they see it.
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"sustainable news and community/actualidad sostenible y communidad"
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Posted by faircompanies, at 05:15AM 12/02/07 :The gift of a goat has arrived
Note: I received my first goat last year. With a $120 pricetag, it was the most generous of all my wedding shower gifts, but I'm embarrassed to admit that upon opening I didn't feel any rush of satisfaction. Now I've realized with your first goat- or cow, or water buffalo- it's natural to have a delayed sense of satisfaction... When the mosquito nets arrived by limo, I began to suspect my goat was part of a bigger shift in gift-giving protocol.
Posted by faircompanies, at 05:44PM 11/30/07 :Fossil fuel free coffee
Note: It began as a money-saving way to roast coffee. But today, Michael and David Hartkop have turned their Solar Roast Coffee into a business (using the same technology Google is betting on for their new renewable energy program). In this video, David showed us the solar collectors he's designed for the business. They may be homemade and constructed with simple mirrors, but they're powerful enough to vaporize coffee.
Posted by faircompanies, at 11:16AM 11/19/07 :What we are up against
Note: We tend to focus on the exploitive corporations, corrupt government, fundamentalist religious people, and hummer drivers. I think our biggest obstacle is all the ordinary people in between. We shouldn't be an "extreme", but unfortunately, in this country, we are.
Posted by faircompanies, at 06:55PM 10/31/07 :A solar dryer
Note: In the US, 83% of those surveyed claim a clothes dryer is a necessity and in much of North America the clothesline has been replaced by one of the most energy hogging appliances. But in much of Europe and Australia and in some communities in America, clotheslines never went out of style. In this video, we to talk to people about when, why and how they hang out their wash.
Posted by faircompanies, at 06:54PM 10/31/07 :A place called the line
Note: I grew up with a space in my home that didn't exist for most of my friends. It wasn't a tv room nor a Costco annex, but a place called "the line". When something was missing, we were told to "check the line" or when we appeared idle: "help me take these out to the line". Whether we lived in a home with a backyard or a condo with no outdoor space, my mother always found a place to hang a piece of rope: between trees or two pieces of furniture.
Posted by faircompanies, at 05:27PM 10/11/07 :Consumption overshoot and a future of temporary ownership
Note: Even if you question global warming, our way of living has been deemed unsustainable on yet another level: we're in global "overshoot".
Posted by faircompanies, at 08:41AM 10/07/07 :volume seven; in which I determine the most deleterious aspect of capitalism
Note: Gene Patenting - perhaps the best example of how our acceptance of maximizing profit as the ultimate goal in society has gone so far as to erode the concept of value to individual lives, almost to the point of threatening its eradication.
Posted by faircompanies, at 03:13PM 10/03/07 :A green car showroom
Note: Buying a less polluting car no longer means choosing between subcompacts or hybrids, but NEVs, microcars, PEVs and superminis as well. We check out a dealership to meet these options.
Posted by faircompanies, at 03:54PM 09/27/07 :The great transatlantic automative divide (a faircompanies blog)
Note: I caught my initial glimpse of Eurotopia back in 1991, during my first trip on the other side of the Atlantic (post age 2). I remember driving down a German autobahn and feeling I was in Disneyland. The highway didn't feel real. I couldn't put my finger on why while I was there, though I thought perhaps the lanes were narrower. It wasn't until I was back in the States driving home from the airport in our family Suburban, surrounded by similar SUVs, that it hit me: the cars over there were smaller, small enough that from my perspective driving felt like a ride on Disney's Autopia.
Posted by faircompanies, at 10:07AM 09/18/07 :Glean your plate (a faircompanies blog)
Note: My mother was a gleaner. What she did wasn't related to any movement, she just had trouble watching food being thrown away, even by our grocery store. I'm not sure if she resorted to dumpster diving- now popularized by the "urban foraging" of the freegan movement-, but somehow she gleaned our local Safeway of all that bread, cheese, and lettuce they couldn't sell because of a bit of mold or a soggy leaf.
Posted by faircompanies, at 05:24AM 09/11/07 :Making up your own mind (a blog about globalization)
Note: An activist from Amsterdam looks at globalization, and the US, from the "European side of the world". And wonders how to think independently about all of this.
Posted by faircompanies, at 04:13PM 09/07/07 :The Dirty Dozen
Note: Organic food has gone mainstream- now carried by the giants like Wal-Mart, Tesco, Krogers, Marcs & Spencer, Safeway, etc.-, but we haven't left behind those supermarket quandaries like "do I spend more for the organic grapes?" According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), "Some pesticides may be carcinogens. Others may affect the hormone or endocrine system in the body." Recognizing that some conventional produce have higher pesticide residues than others, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has put together a shoppers guide to help us minimize our exposure. In this video, Bill Walker, the EWG's vice president for the West Coast, explains how to avoid the dirty dozen.
Posted by faircompanies, at 02:05AM 09/06/07 :Food: counting miles per bite
Note: Much of our food travels thousands of miles before reaching our plate. New foodies (locavores, 100-mile-dieters, Barbara Kingsolver) want to reexamine our food pathways and celebrate our local foodsheds.
Posted by faircompanies, at 04:36AM 09/04/07 :The fight for organic agriculture
Note: U.S. farmers receive 30 billion annually in government subsidies, but less than 1% goes to organics. Given that pesticide-free farming is better for the environment and more energy efficient, there is a movement brewing- from the U.S. to the U.N - to give this sector more priority. It's part of the battle over the 2007 U.S. Farm Bill which, according to "Food Fight" author Daniel Imhoff, will affect "the fate of family farmers, a food system dominated by corporations and commodities, conditions of immigrant farm workers, the state of the country’s woodlands, or the marginalization of locally raised organic food and grass-fed meat and dairy products". In this video, Bill Walker, West Coast VP of the Environmental Working Group, explains the benefits of organic and how their farm subsidies database tracks the money.
Posted by faircompanies, at 02:54PM 08/29/07 :Toilet talk
Note: In the drought-plagued Northern California of my childhood (the seventies), reaching across someone to shut off their water was nothing. The limits were being set by those who responded to a houseguest's query for the bathroom location with "Down the hall on the right. And if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down". The idea that we're peeing into our drinking water is really quite outrageous. After all, water is becoming increasingly scarce as worldwide water consumption is now doubling at twice the rate of population growth. Currently, 1 in every six people (over 1 billion) lacks access to safe drinking water. And it's not just a problem for developing nations.
Posted by faircompanies, at 03:20AM 08/22/07 :Green shopping: biodegradable corn tops and butt-flattering eco-friendly jeans
Note: Now that eco-friendly fibers have gone mainstream maybe you've heard of hemp and organic cotton, but what about Tencel and Ingeo? Maybe you know eco-conscious clothing lines like Edun from U2 frontman Bono and his wife Ali Hewson or Edun designer Roran Gregory's other eco-line Loomstate, but have you tried the bamboo blends of Panda Snack or Moral Fervor's fermented corn starch (aka Ingeo), biodegradable shirts? In this video, green clothing store owners Ursula Stahl and Callie Smith - from the Boston store Envi - show us their top picks like the fashion forward Canada-based Covet line and the Del Forte jeans famous for making "your butt look good".
Posted by faircompanies, at 01:32AM 08/05/07 :*faircompanies - Web 2.0, fair trade, ethical money, information, resources, projects
Note: Global warming fears, gas prices and government policies (like ethanol subsidies) are attracting even more investment in clean technologies. According to the Cleantech Network, venture capitalists invested $2.9 billion in the sector in 2006. A decade ago, it was just $50 million. Rapid growth in investment and initial public offering values has set off talk of a dot-com style bubble. We stopped in at the Greenvest 2007 conference in San Francisco to find out why some VCs (like Nancy Floyd of Nth Power who was investing in the sector when it was practically non-existent back in '93) are still putting their money into cleantech.
Posted by faircompanies, at 01:48AM 07/31/07 :Praying to the Prius (a blog post)
Note: In those early days of hybrid ownership (though technically I have been just borrowing this gas-electric vehicle from my parents while in the U.S.), I was naively unaware of my, and my parents', toxic emissions.
Posted by faircompanies, at 01:36AM 07/31/07 :Two centuries of fuel cells... so why now?
Note: The first hydrogen fuel cell was created in 1839 by Welsh inventor William Grove, but it didn't produce enough electricity to be useful. Nearly 2 centuries later, critics still make the same claim, but governments and major car companies are betting otherwise. For a peek at what a hydrogen future might look like, we visited Canada's Hydrogen Highway project and the Vancouver Fuel Cell Vehicle Program. Engineer Alison Setton explained a bit of the past, present, and future as they see it.
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