Alcohol · Eco-Chick

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US Green Builders Praise and Celebrate

What do you get when you mix green engineers, architects, and contractors with alcohol, awards, and a massive Samba band? Building-savants dancing the Brazilian tango and a fantastically good time.

Image by Christopher Auger-Domínguez, Studio 4b.

Saturday night, I attended the USGBC’s (United States Green Building Council) first annual LEEDers Awards Dinner. The event, sponsored by Green Depot, praised those individuals, who actively promote the design, construction and operation of “energy efficient, healthy, productive and environmentally responsible building in New York City.” In a large open loft on the Lower West Side of Manhattan, USGBC members and award recipients gathered to applaud honorable greenies such as Audi Banny, the senior co-chair of EGBNY (The Emerging Green Builder’s Committee), and Tim Fu the driving force behind LEED workshops and the EGB Career Fair held this past March. The highest honor went to Joyce LaValle, who pioneered the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Atlanta, bringing together over 12,000 industry experts, and influential leaders in the green building movement.

Image by Christopher Auger-Domínguez, Studio 4b.

The event also celebrated what USGBC President, Fiona Cousins, referred to as “milestones” in environmentalism. “The intergovernmental panel on climate change has declared human-made global warming a reality, the EPA have been told that they must regulate greenhouse gases, and Al Gore has won an Oscar for making a movie with climate change at it’s heart!” As guests congratulated, toasted, and samba-ed it was clear that these architects, contractors, and engineers were satisfied with their achievements, but determined to continue on their green mission.

alcohol, awards, Brazil, car, climate change, design, driving, Energy, epa, farm, gas, Global Warming, Hair, health, Manhattan, New York City

Portovert Debuts

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by Starre Vartan · 01/22/07

Back in the beginning of December, I mentioned that a new online-only wedding magazine would be debuting in January. Well, Portovert is up and running, and it looks like they have some great content going on in their premiere issue!

If you are getting married, or know someone who is, check it out as there are some great features, like “5 Ways to Be Greener” during your nuptuals, and “Perfectly Zen” with tips for stress reducers prior to the Big Day. And don’t forget to check out their resources page, which they’ll be adding to as time goes on.

I attended the magazine’s launch party last week and there was all sorts of mainstream media there covering it (and eating awesome organic munchies, along with organic wine and vodka- Yum!). The wedding industry is so insanely waste-producing in so many ways that it’s great to see a publication dedicated to going green. Just think, if your average to-be-married couple just did half their wedding in an eco-concious way I’m sure they would save money (I say spend it on the Honeymoon!) and use fewer resources.

My Top 5 Wedding Planet- and Pocket- Savers

1. Request stuff you actually need and will use for wedding presents (duh!). If you are requesting linens, go organic (there are soooo many companies that offer organic sheets and towels now, in gorgeous colors and prints that rival anything you’d find in a department store or Pottery Barn). If you do need cookware, go for the good stuff that will last you a lifetime (I’m still using pots my grandmother got at her second wedding in the 60′s). If you are already pretty set with stuff, ask friends to give to your favorite charity/animal advocacy group/women’s shelter/environmental organization.

2. If you travel for your Honeymoon, buy carbon offsets for your plane trip (Mental note: that would be a great gift!) and stay at one of the many eco-lodges around the world. A honeymoon is a great excuse to go somewhere exotic….just don’t get so blissed out with your honey that your forget the gorgeous planet that you’re enjoying!

3. Consider only serving organic food or organic alcohol at your reception. If you can afford it, do both. If you have a summer or fall wedding, you should be able to find the bulk of the food at the farmer’s market. Going local will be delicious, cheaper, healthier and better for the planet. Using locally-grown flowers to decorate is also cheaper and Earth-friendly.

4. Skip the goody bags filled with junk-nobody needs. it. Or try giving away seed packets or soap– something that won’t end up in a landfill.

5. If you are going to get a diamond ring and gold or platinum band, look for certified non-conflict gems (ask the jeweler to see the paperwork, they’re obliged to show them to you) and recycled metals, or better yet, go vintage! (For Eco Chick’s coverage of diamonds, click here and here.)

alcohol, bags, car, carbon, conflict, decor, eating, Eco-Chick, epa, fall, farm, farmer's market, Food, giving, health, junk, local, magazine, mainstream, media, Organic, organic food, paper, party, recycle, recycled, reduce, resources, soap, summer, towels, travel, vintage, waste, wedding, Wine, women, women's

The real cost of Christmas

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by Katie Kish · 12/20/06

What does christmas really cost us? I ask my family not to buy me Christmas gifts. In the beginning it was to make a stance against Christmas saying “I’m not Christian, so it’s not my holiday and these traditions are silly.” But as I grow older and care less and less about putting effort into making rebellious statements against my family, my request for no gifts has not changed. Except now it’s becoming more and more an environmental/social issue. I don’t like supporting consumerism and our dog-eat-dog economy. I like hurting the environment even less, so you can imagine my dismay after coming across this pdf report on the real cost of Christmas in Australia.

Let me sum it up:
Cost of Christmas Spending:..(numbers from 2004)

Household Appliances

$1 500 million on household electrical goods
Before ever being plugged in, 780 000 tonnes of pollution
1 155 000 megatonnes of material used to produce them
10 000 megaliters of water used
Taking up a grand total of 52 000 hectares of land

Clothes

Every dollar that an australian spends on clothes is on average 0.4 kilograms of material, 1/2 a kilo of greenhouse pollution, 20 liters of water and 3.4 square metres of land disturbed
$1 565 million spent on clothes
600 000 tonnes of material flow
720 000 tones of greenhouse pollutions
38 000 megalitres of water
Coming to a total of 500 000 hectares of disturbed land…

Alcohol!

$900 million spent on alcohol
600 000 tonnes of material flow
290 000 tonnes of greehouse pollution
42 000 magalitres of water, or 42 gigalitres, enought to fill 42 000 Olympic pools
With a land impact of 88 000 hectares

Confectionary

Every dollar spent on junk food is apx 0.5 kg of pollution, 30 litres of water, 1.0 square metre of land distruption and 0.7kg of material
$123 million spent on confectionaries
90 000 tonnes of material flow
65 000 tonnes of greehouse pollutions
4 000 megalitres of water
10 000 hectars of disturbed land
Spending $30 on confectionary is consuming 20 kg of materials, 940 litres of water, 26 squared metres of land and creates 16kg of greenhouse gasses!

Books and Magazines

$612 spent on books and mags
430 000 tonnes of greenhouse pollutions – equivalent of a year’s pollution from 85 000 cars
416 000 tonnes of materials
40 000 hectares of land is disturbed for this conusumtion
6 000 megalitres of water

What counts as those environmental impacts? Water usage is based on the water extracted from rivers, lakes and aquifers – mostly for irrigation purposes. Land disturbance is the degree and amount that is altered from its natural state. Greenhouse pollutions measure the C02 and other GHGs that are emitted into the atmosphere and material flow is the measures of all masses extracted from the earth including timber and livestock.

Reading this makes me feel even less guilty about not getting anyone anything for christmas. I was planning on going shopping today and buying a shirt for myself from H&M because I’m pretty much addicted, but I’ll be rethinking that game. Clothes and alcohol are my two weaknesses on this list – but I can certainly stop with the alcohol… Clothes will be a bit tougher, but I’m sure I can manage.

I’ll continue to urge people to try not to give into the consumerist based patterns of the season. …If celebrating christmas is a must for you and your family – do it wisely. Kids don’t need iPods when they’re 10. They don’t need them when they’re 19 either (guilty as charged, I have one)… what they need is some family time and love. I also urge everyone to check out all the posts that the other girls have made on organic shopping and the links at the side. Also, Grist Magazine has a really great eco-shoppers guide.

alcohol, atmosphere, Australia, book, books, car, cars, Christmas, clothes, consumerism, electric, Food, gas, holiday, junk, kids, magazine, magazines, News, Organic, Pollution, produce, Shopping, urban, water

Now We're Cooking…

7 Comments

by Brianne Goodspeed · 07/24/06

For the faithful converts of ultralight backpacking, the alcohol stove might just be the Holy Grail. Almost all of the long-distance hikers I know have long-since traded their clumsy Whisper Lites and wasteful Pocket Rockets for the stove that you can make in your basement. The alcohol stove goes by a variety of names, including pepsi can stove and beer can stove, depending on how it’s made, but the basic principle is the same. You cut the bottom off of two aluminum cans, fit them together, cut out a large hole for your fuel, and punch about fifteen little holes around the rim for the flame to escape. A metal stand, which you can also make yourself, holds your cookpot above the flame. A lot of people use pot cozies to continue cooking their food after the flame goes out so that they don’t waste fuel unnecessarily.

But the alcohol stove isn’t just a lighter alternative; it’s also a greener one. It runs on denatured alcohol rather than, say, isobutane-propane (which, when burned, is known to cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive chaos), it uses recyclable materials, and you can make it yourself. For people like me, whose engineering skills are suspect, you can also buy them online at Anti Gravity Gear, Mini Bull Design, and Mo-Go-Gear. Sometimes you can find them on Ebay as well.

Alcohol stoves weigh as little as a half an ounce, plus the weight of however much fuel you carry. (Denatured alcohol is often sold in small quantities at outfitters and hardware stores in trail towns.) You won’t be making three course meals with this stove, but do you really want to lug all that food with you anyway?

alcohol, Cancer, cape, car, design, Food, waste

Vanity Fair's Green Issue Party

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by Starre Vartan · 04/20/06

Vanity Fair’s party for their green issue was so much fun that I was still recovering from it 24 hours later. (It was the green martinis the amazing bartenders whipped up, and the red ones…and the wine….and not enough of the delicious raw and vegan food from Pure Food and Wine).

But now (finally!) I can look back on the night with a clear head and declare that it was a success. A successful party that is. I’m not sure how much world-saving got done, but hell, we all need a good party sometimes!

After an hour of mingle, a few speakers came on, including Gov. Pataki, Graydon Carter, and Paulette Cole, who is the President of ABC’s Home and Planet Foundation. Paulette introduced Robert F. Kennedy, who went hoarse during a rousing speech that touched on the nastiness of the Bush Administration, pathetic press coverage of environmental issues, and the necessity for closing down Indian Point nuclear power plant. Having grown up upriver but still very near Indian Point, I had enough nightmares as a child to get fully behind that last point. My town had giant (like several stories tall) sirens that would go off ‘just in case’ we had to evacuate. Talk about terrifying.

I’d heard RFK was a passionate speaker, and that’s no lie:

[The environmental movement's] biggest problem is an indolent and negative press…which leads to a public that doesn’t understand the connections between things like coal-burning power plants and the fact that fresh-water fish shouldn’t be eaten by children and pregnant women…

This is the worst administration of any in history, with over 400 rollbacks of environmental rules, a deliberate eviceration of thirty plus years of environmental regulations, and who puts known polluters in charge of public offices.

RFK also cited a CDC report that says that 1/6 of American women’s children are at risk because of pollutants in their bodies. He told the crowd that they should all get their blood checked, and admitted that he has twice the recommended limits of certain toxins in his own blood.

Naturally, after that sobering speech, it was necessary to drink more. (And I’m sure I’m not the only organic vegetarian in the room that wondered if our veg-only choices meant our bodies were at least a little less toxified. But then swilled the alcohol, which was NOT (boo!) organic. Where’s Orange V when you need it?)

Talking to fellow bloggers and other green press helped me feel a little better; we’ve certainly not been ignoring the environment, and in 20 years the kids will look up at us as the only ones who were reporting the truth. It’s too bad that we’re consistently relegated to the independent press when everyone needs to hear the Earth’s message loud and clear: “Yes Virginia, there is global warming, and it’s your fault.” Though at least Time Magazine stepped up a few weeks ago with their global warming issue. But when the heck is a major magazine going to tackle the 100,000 chemicals in our lives (less than 10% of which have been tested). Doesn’t that bother anyone in the mainstream?

Though Vanity Fair did not print on recycled paper (double boo!!) props to them for covering the issue; there are some great articles in the magazine, which will reach a lot more people than any party could. You should pick it up just to see the fabulous photos of all your green heros.

Commentary on the party at E Magazine and at Grist, and opinions on the magazine at Treehugger here and here.

Photos, (l. to r.) VF Cover; Remy C. (Greenburbs) and Starre Vartan (Eco Chick); ~~green friend~~Olga Sasplugas, Brian Howard (E Magazine) and Nick Denton (Gawker); Robert F. Kennedy (Riverkeeper); Graham Hill (Treehugger) and ~~friend~~Randy Hayes (ED of the Int’l Forum on Globalization); group including Graydon Carter (editor of VF) and Paulette Cole (President of ABC Home and Planet Foundation), our fearless bartenders, Summer Rayne Oakes (Eco Chick) and Adam Black (SustainabiliTV)

Photos by Remy C. and Emily Gertz. See all the party pics by Remy C. here.