Is ‘Green’ a Dirty Word?

By Dan Estabrook - January 6, 2009

Travel columnist Christopher Elliott wrote a thoughtful piece at MSNBC yesterday about the fate of green travel. He says that the concept of green travel is dead.  Or that consumers are tired of paying more for it, at least. While airlines are busy offering carbon offsets (for an additional fee) and hotels are peddling new recycling programs, Elliott writes that consumers are expecting companies to conduct these activities by default.

Think about it. I was eating my birthday dinner at a great restaurant on Saturday when our server commented that “by the way, we recycle all our wine bottles.”

Gee, thanks.  I guess I expected that the restaurant du jour had been recycling its waste for as long as I have. As Elliott points out, the server’s comment elicited an image in my head of kitchen staff sneaking bags full of empty wine bottles into the restaurant’s back-alley dumpster when no one was looking. I am glad that in 2009, the server can proudly say “we now recycle.”

The hotel industry has long prided itself on water conservation efforts. At least a decade has passed since I started seeing the now-ubiquitous bathroom sign asking guests to hang and reuse their towels to save water from unnecessary washing. I have obeyed this command ever since. I am not a happy hotel guest, however, when pulling back the hotel bed covers and finding remnants of a past guest between the sheets.  While water was saved in this process, I never saw the sign asking me to leave my linens for the next guest (nor would I expect to do so). So, even us greenies have our limits, but I believe we are fair in expecting businesses to perform random green acts by default.

In other words, it’s becoming patronizing to be told by an airline that we can pay more to offset carbon emissions or that a cruise ship is taking steps to reduce the human crap it is pouring into the sea (but still doing so).

Do you agree that “green” can be a dirty word?

Apple’s New Laptop Battery! OMG!

By Steve Enders - January 6, 2009

Here at Tonic’s Silicon Valley World HQ, we’re kind of geeking out at the announcements made up the road in San Francisco, at the annual (and possibly the final) Macworld Expo.

Besides a lot of software updates, a performance by Tony Bennett, and concern over Steve Jobs’ weight, the highlight of the day seems to be the release of the 17-inch MacBook Pro. Apple is touting a couple of noteworthy features, besides the fact that it’s just a beast of a machine (and an expensive one, at that).

First, the computer is in line with all of Apple’s new environmentally friendly features, including a unibody aluminum frame and enclosure that’s easy for recyclers to handle (not that you really want to be thinking about recycling your new $2,800 laptop, but hey…). It’s also got Apple’s now-standard arsenic-free glass, mercury-free LED display, and PVC-free internal cables. Sure, that’s all good.

But only us eco-conscious Silicon Valley nerds could appreciate the new battery Apple squeezed into this computer. It’s not removable, which seems a little suspect, should the thing crap out as batteries are known to sometimes do. But here’s the kicker: Apple says the battery will last up to eight hours on a single charge. And, you’ll be able to charge it about 1,000 times — that’s nearly five years of use. If you really want to learn everything about this neat new battery, watch the video.

I have a 17-inch G4 PowerBook (circa 2004) at home that has a dying battery. The machine itself seems like it’s on its last legs. I already replaced the hard drive last year. If Apple wants me to go out and drop $2,800 on a new computer, I would expect it to be better in many respects. Of course this new laptop most certainly is.

But am I buying? In this economy? No thanks. I’ll ride the one I’ve got into the ground and ship it off to a recycler, first. But let’s just try not to think about that. Please send my dying laptop all the good vibes you can muster, for my sake and the environment’s.

Canine Corps to the Rescue!

By Steve Enders - January 5, 2009

Dog kennels don’t usually make much news, but then most dog kennels aren’t like Pennsylvania’s Paw Prints Dog Sanctuary & Canine Corps.

The mission behind Canine Corps is simple and noble, as it provides free care to the state’s military service-members and dog owners that are separated from their pets while on duty overseas. Many of these dogs would typically end up in shelters when their owners are shipped out and left with no choice but to give up their dogs.

The other half of the operation, Paw Prints, is equally important. It gives care to “senior” dogs from overcrowded rescue and shelter facilities, freeing up needed space for other younger dogs. If no permanent owners can be found for the dogs, they’re allowed to stay to live out their days.

NBC’s Today Show and NPR (listen here) are just two of the news orgs giving this dog sanctuary some well-deserved TLC. If you’re moved, check out the organization’s wish list and donate. If you’re in the area, buy a can of dog food or two and drop in for a visit. Chances are you’ll make a new friend.

(Hat tip: NPR’s All Things Considered)

Just a Second

By Dan Estabrook - January 2, 2008

In an attempt to keep our clocks synchronized with the earth’s rotation, timekeepers added a “leap second” onto 2008 at the very last second (literally)  Apparently, this exercise is critical to ensure that darkness doesn’t greet us at high noon thousands of years from now. While I am a night owl, I’m afraid my mind and body could not handle darkness while working from 9 to 5, and given the status of my retirement fund, I will probably still be working in 4009.

The thoughts of a free second thrilled me. After all, when does anyone ever hand you free time? How many times have I wished that there were more hours in a day?

I don’t know about you, but I contemplated what to do with my extra second. Here’s how I considered spending it:

• Donating it to my favorite charity so it would have one more second of doing good things for at-risk youth
• Sleeping in for an extra second yesterday morning
• Saving it in a jar so that I could use it for a particularly busy day when I need it to take an extra-long deep breath
• Cleaning my bathroom
• Volunteering my business skills to solve world hunger
• Doing nothing

I opted for the last one. I spent a marvelous day yesterday spending 21,600 seconds doing nothing.  My point here isn’t to brag that I overdrew on my free second by 21,599 seconds. It is actually that thinking about how I would spend a single second inspired my thinking in a way that changed my day yesterday. I realized that I needed some time for me — for contemplative thinking about my goals for 2009, for spending time with my dog and significant other and, catching up on my saved TV programs.

If I hadn’t spent my day doing nothing, I could have volunteered feeding the homeless at Glide Memorial Church. I might have slept an extra 6 hours. Maybe I would have searched for non-profits for whom I could investigate for potential board work. The opportunities from a seemingly small amount of time seemed vast. Next time I get a free second, my list is now created for how I will spend it.

Thanks, timekeepers, for giving me some extra time. How did you spend your free second?

Photo: NIST-F1, above, is the atomic clock that sets the time for the United States. The clock, one of the world’s most accurate, resides in Boulder, Colorado. (Photo source: National Geographic)

In 2009, Summit for Someone

By Laura Jones - December 31, 2009

Quick! You’ve got one day left to figure out your New Year’s resolution. You want to do something for yourself and help others, right?

Well why not kill both of those birds and reach a little further while you’re at it? With Backpacker Magazine’s Summit for Someone, you’ll commit to doing something powerful which will last long after your friends’ resolutions break down after Jan. 4.

Summit for Someone is a great outdoor initiative that raises money for Big City Mountaineers, which takes inner-city teenagers into the wilderness for a week of life-changing experiences. Even if you can’t keep from eating chocolate-covered gummy worms for breakfast in 2009, my bet is that you’ll rise to the challenge to kick some butt (your own) and make a real difference in the lives of troubled youth, right here in the U.S.

This is NOT your local fun-run. Summit for Someone is serious business. When you sign up, you’re committing to climb one of North America’s 17 most sought-after peaks (from peaks in Alaska’s Denali National Park to Mexico’s Orizaba) and to raise money for an incredible cause.

I first heard of this program while backpacking in Patagonia earlier this year, right before embarking on an eight-day trek through Torres del Paine. I’ll testify: There’s really nothing like a little wilderness and a whole lot of adventure to incite a little change of perspective. But don’t worry, you’re not expected to go this alone. When you pick your SFS climb (either an alpine, glacier or expedition climb) you’ll be provided with a training program to get into shape. Then when the big day comes, a professional guide will lead you and other SFS participants on what could be the most amazing climb of your life.

I think the most intriguing part about this program is that you get to go through some of the same life-altering, mentally and physically challenging experiences that you’re making possible for inner-city kids, many of whom have never even set foot in a forest.

So, why not make a resolution to do something big in the new year? Elevate others by conquering the peaks of some of the hemisphere’s greatest mountains. You win, and the kids win. Together, they’re the best incentive to kick the cookie habit I’ve heard of in a while. Are you up for the challenge?

Laura Jones is Tonic’s resident marketing guru, and when we’re not working her to the bone, a wannabe adventure traveler. You can email her at laura[at]tonic.com.

Best of 2008 at Tonic News

By Dan Estabrook - December 30, 2008

It’s hard to believe that six months has whizzed by since we started Tonic News.  If you are still wondering what Tonic is all about, and why we bother to use bandwidth on the net, let me quote our founder, Pankaj:

“The Tonic generation is not defined by age, race, income, geography or gender. It’s defined by philosophy, that people want to do good things — there just has to be an easy way to do them. This is what we stand for… we make it easy for people to do good things.”

I couldn’t have said it any better. We use the above criteria to gauge and evaluate every story we run, every product we sell and every random act of kindness we conduct. We have great enhancements and new products coming in 2009 to make it even easier to do good things, geared to help you become a full-fledged member of the Tonic generation.

Looking back at 2008, I am committing an editorial cliche by presenting “The Best of 2008 at Tonic News” with five of my fave posts. While there are many favorites, I felt these particular posts celebrate the Tonic generation quite vividly.

Thanks, too, to the great writing team of Stefania, Cat, Colleen, Dave, Annie, Kyle, Sebastian, Steve and Kristen. We appreciate all your creativity and perspective on doing good and going green.

Now, here are my quick nominations:

A Chance Encounter on a Playground Leads Blogger to Rwanda

An act of goodness in a world of poverty

Trekking in Toms

Gonna Party Like It’s 999 B.C.

Living our Green Future

Of course, there are many more great posts here that I didn’t mention, so please feel free to comment on your favorite stories in our comments section below.

Now, I need to get moving on 2009. Happy New Year!

Editor Dan

Kids Use The Force to Kill Catalogs

By Steve Enders - December 30, 2008

Fourth-grade teacher Ted Wells has been fired up about wasteful catalogs for some time now. It’s been a few months since he wrote an article for Tonic about his frustrations, but Mr. Wells hasn’t been laying down.

Saving the planet wasn’t a passing or short-lived obsession with Mr. Wells. He has taken his catalog-killing campaign to new heights with the Catalog Canceling Challenge and well-timed articles over at the Huffington Post. Everyone with a mailbox knows that holiday mail is a parade of paper waste coming day after day. So Mr. Wells stepped things up and had his class create a clever Star Wars spoof with Darth Vader representing the evil catalog empire. With Mr. Wells, it’s obviously fun to help save the earth.

But it’s not all fun and games. Mr. Wells is rallying other classrooms, Girl and Boy Scout troops and others around the country to join in his rebellion, and the ranks are swelling. Through Mr. Wells’ campaign, over 1,000 kids around the country are responsible for taking more than 16,000 catalogs out of the mail. That’s no junk.

So congrats to Mr. Wells, his students and supporters at The Park School in Brookline, Mass., and others who have joined the good fight. Keep up the good work.

Oh, and if Luke Skywalker isn’t your thing, don’t forget you can always join GreenDimes, which makes catalog-killing way easier than blowing up the Death Star.

Tech Meets Good: Cell Phone 911

By Dan Estabrook - December 29, 2008

As we’ve reported before, there is perhaps no better tech tool to help the developing world than the cell phone. With 4 billion cell phone subscribers worldwide (staggering, isn’t it?), about one-third of these users live in areas that are considered developing nations, and many cell phone users rely on their phones as a “Swiss Army” knife to keep themselves alive.

One area that entrepreneurs are now serving is health care. Dimagi is a for-profit company hoping to make a difference in delivering much-needed health care information to low-skilled medical workers around the globe. One of five finalists for the 2008 Legatum/Fortune Technology Prize, Dimagi was established in 2002 after its founders concluded that resolving the world’s health crises could be done inexpensively and without building clinics and roads.

“People were being too academic” about the problems,  Dr. Vikram Kumar, Dimagi’s chief medical officer, recently told CNN.

The company ingeniously mapped easily-available and low-cost solutions with complicated problems, and came up with quick solutions like CommCare. It’s mobile phone-based and allows less experienced workers to communicate with medical clinics in more populated areas in real time to monitor disease outbreaks and prescribe appropriate treatment to other ailments. Now testing with AIDS patients in Tanzania, the company hopes to apply CommCare and other tech-based solutions in impoverished areas where realistic solutions are needed quickly.

Via CNN and Dimagi

“Tech Meets Good” is a regular feature at Tonic News.  If you have cool examples of technology doing good in our world, please email dan[at]tonic.com.

David Bois: What a Year it Will Be!

By David Bois - December 29, 2008

It’s entirely possible that Santa and his elven minions surreptitiously slipped me a yuletide mickey, and that I surely remain in its grips as I commit to this statement:

I’m looking around, looking things over, and, looking at 2009—there it is, just around the corner, looking back at us, winking—I’m thinking that things are looking good.

Yes. Looking good. And it’s precisely because of so many things that are looking not so good that give me cause to peer forward with some real optimism.

Are there any fellow Rachel Maddow fans in the house? Did you happen to catch her recent piece where she copped to feeling alone in her passionate conviction that “infrastructure” is an inherently hot, sexy political topic, even adding a distinctly Eartha Kitt-like growl to drive home the point?

Well, I’m right there with her.

As she articulated in her report earlier this week, such events as the suburban D.C. six-foot water main break, the absolutely shocking and disconcerting embankment failure that resulted in the massive coal fly ash release in Tennessee, and without question the still-looming specter of post-Katrina Gulf Coast combine to paint a portrait of our failed responsibility to ourselves.

They also point to a magnificent opportunity to put people to work.

Our systems crumble, the economy stumbles. And I’m convinced that as 2009 unfolds, we’re going to make progress in understanding that there’s an elegant solution set that addresses both very large looming challenges.

I’m given further hope as I read Van Jones’ recent book The Green Collar Economy—a book that I cannot recommend highly enough to all who identify as environmentalist. (Seriously—read this book!) Take as a premise that we need to transform our energy systems. Jones articulates a pathway for our achieving this through the transformation of our communities—many of them long left out of environmental policy formation, and where no environmental quality or health benefits have accrued to this day. Transformed, inclusive communities where everyone has a stake in a sustainable outcome spells out a far more vibrant and resilient economy.

We can do these things. Mostly because we must.

I doubt I’m alone here in offering up that I’d have felt better had we chosen, freely and long ago, to forge creative, interconnected solutions to complex, interconnected challenges. Certainly in light of the fact that President Carter put solar panels on the White House (which did not stay in place for very long) causes me some real longing pangs in terms of what we might have accomplished by now had we stuck to the collective long view.

But just because we now find ourselves brought to a place where we’re nervous and unsure, and where we find ourselves forced to view things in a completely different light (Hello? Economy versus environment false dichotomy? I’m looking at you, pal!), I’m not going to feel any less celebratory about the achievements—long overdue though they may be—as they come to pass.

We can do great things because we choose to. Or we can do great things because we have no choice but to.

Just watch: 2009 is going to be a great year.

David Bois is our featured Saturday columnist (humorist) with the Tonic News team and can be found emerging here every other week.  He also pops up here time to time on “special assignment.”  In the meantime, you can read him almost daily at idecosupereco.  Editor Dan apologizes for the Monday posting of Saturday’s column - the chaotic holidays are upon us!

Don’t Forget About Rover

By Dan Estabrook - December 26, 2008

I am shocked reading about the high number of pets that people are ditching due to the economy and foreclosures. As our readers may know, I am an avid dog lover and am parent to a very large and lovable black lab named Louie. While my annual pet expense category in Quicken teeters between $7,000 and $10,000, I could never think of leaving him behind if my home was foreclosed upon or I lost my job. I would figure out how to make it work.

With that said, I do understand that feeding a family must take precedence over caring for a dog or cat, no matter how lovable the pet may be. Rover sometimes has to take a back seat to putting food on the table for our kids. And as families lose their homes, they are relocating to not-pet-friendly apartments, forcing them to leave their family pets at shelters.

What can we all do to help our needy pets who may be in a bleak situation due to the recession?  Here are some pet-friendly tips towards a solution:

• If you are thinking of giving a pet as a holiday gift, please adopt from a shelter versus purchasing a dog or cat from a breeder or pet store. As a direct consequence of pet abandonment, the number of animals needing a home is greater than it has ever been.
• Adopting from a shelter is also a better economic alternative. Most adoptions are free, and vaccinations and spaying/neutering are also no- or low-cost alternatives to taking a newly-adopted pet to a vet.
• Donate to your local humane society or ASPCA. A monetary gift or the gift of a bag of food will help tremendously.
• If you notice that your neighbors have moved due to foreclosure but that the family dog is still in the backyard or in the house, don’t assume that they are coming back to fetch Rover. Call your local humane society immediately! A staggering number of people are leaving pets behind when forced to leave their homes.

As the economy improves, I hope that this situation does as well. In the meantime, I am going to see what I can do with my local shelter to ensure that I contribute to their care of abandoned animals. I am also going to give Louie a big old hug when I get home today.

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