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?

Donate your school’s leftovers

If you would like to have your kids’ schools do some good and help the environment at the same time, seek out a food donation program for your school instead of discarding unused cafeteria food.  If every chartered school (there are 3,600 in the U.S.) participated in a donation program for an entire school year, the savings would feed one meal to more than 2,000,000 starving people.

A good food donation program with which you can start your inquiries is Feeding America (formerly known as America’s Second Harvest) - an organization focused on feeding the hungry.

Source: The Green Book

Bad Things You Haven’t Done in 2009

By Annie Scott

Happy New Year to you all!

We’ve made it to 2009. Nine years ago, some of us thought this was all over. Did you know Y2K cost the U.S. government somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 billion? Now that’s a bailout. Just wait till the year 10,000. Actually, that’s not necessary (lucky for you, unless you’re all Old-Testament or a vampire), but keep that fifth digit in mind if you’re programming something.

The earth is about 4.54 billion years old (10 digits!), and though we certainly don’t know the exact date of its appearance in accordance with our quaint, slightly inaccurate calendar, January 1 seems like a good time to celebrate.

Whether your 2008 was good or bad, rich or poor, in sickness or in health, the New Year brings us a giant “reset” button. Press that button. Think of all the bad things you haven’t done in 2009! You are cleansed. The Earth does not, unfortunately, revert to its last saved game (like in Nintendo); the wars don’t stop, and your sister still hates you, but maybe you, just you, can start over with a better outlook. Make this the year you do things better.

I am very guilty of thinking to myself, as I grab a plastic bottle of water from the bodega and they throw it in a plastic bag, “I’ve done it so many times before, who cares if I do it one more time?”

Well, I haven’t done it in 2009. And that’s just the motivation I need.

Good news! Here are some dumb things you may not have done this year:

• Had water from a plastic water bottle.
• Been to the drug or grocery store without bringing your own bag.
• Left all the lights on.
• Littered.
• Left the air conditioner on while you were out.
• Printed e-mails and/or documents you could easily read on-screen.
• Thrown out good food you could give to a homeless person.
• Killed any endangered snow leopards.

Don’t do it in 2009!

Maybe you’ve done some of those things. That’s okay. I’m not mad. But stop it, geez! You’re wrecking 2009! If you’ve killed any snow leopards this year, I just don’t know what to say to you. See me for a slapping.

We made another revolution - and that means all of us. It’s like the company anniversary party. Everyone gets to celebrate. Now let’s recycle those champagne bottles and make this next revolution cleaner and greener.

Annie Scott is a playwright and actress in New York City, as well as a regular contributor to StyleList.com, Luxist.com, and Holidash.com. She serves as our bi-weekly contributor on Saturdays as well as turning in occasional special assignments such as Hero of the Week columns.

Kyle Hepp: No Place Like Home

By Kyle Hepp

This past December I was a horrible person. No, I did not murder anybody. Nor, did I cheat or steal or lie. It wasn’t that I kicked my dog or refused to give money to a homeless person – I polluted – probably more than I ever have in my entire life.

There, I said it.

In the name of the New Year and purging my conscious, I had to get that out in the open. I may write for several green blogs and try my darndest to live a sustainable lifestyle, but we all sin at one point or another, and I’m definitely not immune. This holiday Christmas season I was naughty – in fact, I’m surprised I didn’t receive coal in my stocking.

My husband and I flew 3,000 miles from Santiago to Miami and back. And then we drove from Miami to Tampa, and then Orlando and Atlanta. Oh yeah, and we squeezed in a trip to N.Y.C. in there too.

I am buying carbon offsets. Our rental car was economy-sized. And we carpooled as much as possible. I refused bags with every Christmas purchase made, and always turned off the lights after myself. I even donated money to charities and the homeless. However, I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve been bad.

The carbon emissions calculator that I used says that because of me, there are now 1,910 more pounds of CO₂ from my flights, and 1,565 more pounds CO₂ from my driving in the air.

Reading those stats makes me feel sick to my stomach. But, not seeing my family after a whole year has already passed would make me feel even worse. What’s an environmentally conscious girl to do?

The flights we were on were absolutely packed. If we hadn’t been sitting in 18A and 18B, somebody else would have been. Of that, I’m sure. Me staying home isn’t going to stop the airlines from flying. I did send them an email asking about what they’re doing to go green. I’d encourage you to do the same. It’s not that I think these companies have a collective conscious – but if more companies think that you actually care about their footprint, they might do something about it. The more people that inquire about their green habits, the better. Sometime around the ripe old age of 13 I learned that you can get people to do almost anything through peer pressure.

If we as consumers raise our voices, hopefully things will start to change. I fully realize that not traveling is the greenest option available to me right, but, while I’m being honest; I’ll admit that I don’t actually consider that to be a feasible option. So hopefully in the future, for the many of us who must travel, we’ll be able to ride in electric planes or have the option of taking an economy sized jet that pollutes less.

Either that or maybe somebody’s working on inventing real-life ruby slippers. After all, closing your eyes, clicking your heels together and whispering, “There’s no place like home,” probably doesn’t leave a very big carbon footprint.

Jill Pollack on Green Gifting

News TV with Special Guest Jill Pollack - December 30, 2008

Organizational Expert Jill Pollack returns to Tonic News TV with a third installment on green gifting!  Please join Jill as she brings you some cool and green gift ideas for this holiday season and any gift-giving opportunity you might encounter.

Please head over to Jill’s amazing site to learn even more organizational tips.  She will help turn your home clutter into an eco-friendly existence!

Jill Pollack became an organizational expert after over ten years as a TV producer. She worked at CBS News, The Sally Jessy Raphael Show, Extra, and ended her illustrious career with the primetime reality show of The Wedding of Trista and Ryan (“The Bachelorette”). Knowing her talent for persuasion and getting things done, she decided to utilize her highly honed organizational skills to truly help people live their best life by getting rid of clutter in closets, garages, offices, kitchens, guest rooms and beyond.

Jill Pollack considers herself a personal trainer for the home and office. Her clients are people who want to get rid of all the stuff that is literally and physically blocking their lives, their closets, garages, guest rooms, hallways, kitchens and offices. Her philosophy is “to own your stuff, don’t let your stuff own you.” She is caring, nonjudgmental and only desires to help improve the client’s environment. No area is too daunting for her to handle and she has helped create systems for even the most scattered souls. She has successfully sorted the most daunting celebrity wardrobes and created order for the busiest talent manager’s offices. Some of her celebrity clients include Marcia Cross, Felicity Huffman, Jennifer Tilly and Brittany Murphy.

She received her Bachelors in Psychology from Columbia University and a Masters in Journalism from NYU and is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). She has been featured in In Style Home, Family Circle, Budget Decorating Ideas, and Quick and Simple magazines as well as on The Tyra Banks Show, The Style Network, Bridezillas, The Mom Show, as well as several TV pilots. You can read her many organizational product rating articles at www.Tibesti.com.

Normal Green: Doing Fine in 2009

By Stefania Pomponi Butler

I’m not normally one to make grandiose and unattainable New Year’s resolutions, but I do try to set a few intentions for the coming year. These are usually divided into two categories: 1) “do-able” small personal changes—changes I can easily effect, and 2) ways to raise awareness or consciousness or to help my community. As 2008 winds to a close, I am thinking about ways I can improve myself and the world around me in the coming year, and you might be, too.

I’ve come up with my 2009 workbook of intentions. Some are new, some are extensions of things I am already doing. None of these require huge changes and if I can keep them all going (no pressure, right?), I will feel like I am doing good—no, fine—in 2009.

Travel lighter. 2009 will be a year of purging for me in many ways. The new year brings a move for our family as soon as our current lease is up. We are looking to downsize our rent which means living “lighter” in many ways, beginning with “less stuff.”  Getting rid of extraneous crap begins now, starting with the dozen or so boxes of “books-we-can’t-live-without” in our garage (packed up two moves ago) to ridding excess in all areas of our lives. Books, toys, and clothes will be donated. Nothing new will be purchased (we don’t need anything). For me the most essential part of the “Reduce, recycle, reuse” equation is the reduce part, and that is what we will be doing in 2009. My goal: Nothing in storage except for seasonal decorations and sports equipment (and even those could use a purge). What are you purging to make room for 2009?

Make food choices that make sense for my family’s budget. Like so many others, I am inspired by the recent food-focused writing of folks like Barbara Kingsolver and Michael Pollan, but growing my own food and/or sourcing everything 100% local just isn’t realistic for my family from a cultural, time-management, or an economic perspective. We try to shop local whenever possible; eat seasonally; keep a small patio garden where we grow herbs, tomatoes, cukes, and lemons; we limit meat; and we limit processed items; but we’re having to make some adjustments. Weekly shopping at the farmer’s market was a luxury we cut out to try and help our family budget. It was getting expensive so we now limit the shopping to once a month and I make smarter choices at the regular market. In 2009, we will continue to eat sustainably and well but with an eye towards what’s best for our health and our pocketbook. I hope to chronicle those adventures in this column. Will you be making different food choices in the new year?

Bike or walk more—and take time enjoy it.  One of the reasons we chose to live where we live is so that we don’t have to use our car for everyday errands. Our city is generally flat and replete with beautiful, bikeable, tree-lined streets. It’s never too cold, doesn’t snow, so what are we waiting for? In 2009 I will plan my time better so that I can bike the kids to and from school on a regular basis and I will make time to slow down and enjoy those walks to the coffee shop. As a work-at-home parent, my alone, quiet time is precious. I will learn to take a more mediative approach to the time I spend alone on my bike or on walks. When you bike or take walks, do you take time to notice you surroundings or are you lost in thought? Is that something you can change in 2009?

Do one thing to help my community. And not just writing a check. Important to me anywhere I live is feeling connected to my community. I am a networker by nature and the kind of person who creates community whenever and wherever possible. My door is always open to neighbors needing a cup of sugar or spur-of-the-moment babysitting so they can run a quick errand. But in 2009, I am looking to do more. I spent 3 years teaching third grade in an inner city school and my heart longs to be back with that community. Tutoring elementary student at a local community center a few times a month is definitely something I can do this year. What’s one thing you will you do?

Learn something new. This is one I haven’t figured out quite and I may be well into the new year before I choose my new thing for the year. Last year was my year of learning to live greener (normally) hence the name of this column. This year I’d love to learn a new language or about ayurveda or about how green collar jobs can transform our economy. I want to try tai chi and take a class on Indian cooking and workout with Russian kettle bells. My problem is time. And indecisiveness. What is one thing you will learn how to do this year?

And there you have it: five new intentions for the coming year, all easily within my reach. Some will impact my own life in a positive way and some will impact my community, but I don’t my life as separate from the world around me. We are connected so what benefits my community also benefits me and my family. All are deeply personal and are intended to be long-term changes. I always feel like making resolutions puts unnecessary pressure on people at this time of year, and can lead to so much guilt and disappointment when you don’t stick with it, but think about it. What’s one thing, one small, attainable thing you can do next year to make the world—your world—a better place. No pressure.

Stefania Pomponi Butler’s weekly column, Normal Green, appears as a Tonic News featured writer every Monday and juggles her writing with her role as a mommy. She has great perspective for anyone to go green. When not writing at Tonic, you will find more of Stefania at CityMama.

Buy Glass or You’re an Ass

As you head to your bulk beverage store to stock up on your fave New Year’s Eve libations, be sure to buy glass bottles over aluminum cans.  The energy required to produce a single twelve-ounce aluminum can is enough to produce nearly two new 12 oz. glass bottles.

The manufacturing energy conserved could power your TV through two screenings of Titanic.  (You will also need about two twelve packs to make it through two screenings of Titanic). And, you’ll have a glass bottle to break over the bow of your new ship as well (glass shards into recycling bins, please).

Source: The Green Book

Thigh Fat Fuels SUVs!

By Dan Estabrook - December 29, 2008

One of the interesting news items to come across my radar last week was this one: a Beverly Hills doctor turned human fat exorcised from liposuction patients into biodiesel for his and his wife’s SUVs.

How Beverly Hills is that?

Dr. Craig Alan Bittner, the Beverly Hills plastic surgeon in question, recently admitted that he “turned the fat he removed from patients into bio-diesel that fueled his Ford SUV and his girlfriend’s Lincoln Navigator.”

Just when you thought that plastic surgery was only for the vain and that it served no real purpose except to make people look like the Muppet versions of themselves (e.g. Joan Rivers), a new societal benefit comes from a practice that many of us would never consider for ourselves. Who knew that plastic surgery could help save the planet as well?

This concept is one that is taking hold across many industries. According to Forbes, Tyson is looking to power its truck fleet with chicken fat (there isn’t a vehicle version of salmonella, is there?), and green companies developing biodiesel options are now adding animal fat to traditional vegetable ingredients given both shortages and high prices for vegetable-based ingredients.

So, will you be able to ask for your suctioned fat in a doggie bag after your next session with your plastic surgeon? Probably not, as it is definitely against the law in most states to use human medical waste as a fuel for your vehicle. And interestingly enough, Dr. Bittner has fled the country to pursue volunteer work in South America. So, the future of turning your sagging body parts into fuel is bleak, at least in the short term.

In the meantime, all of us at Tonic encourage exercise to shed any excess weight.

Read more here.

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!

Step Up: Gisele Helps Power Up New Year’s in New York

By Catherine Lincoln

It’s easy to take for granted the power requirements of outdoor environmental lighting — street signals, billboards, the lights in a subway station. The energy has to come from somewhere, but in the rush of life, hardly anyone notices or thinks about it.

Stopping to think about it for a minute, New Year’s Eve is a total power hogs! Take for example Time Square in New York City. Lights, TV cameras, thousands more people than usual using public transportation (which is of course still better than driving!)

This year, instead of draining the grid, at least part of the Times Square celebration will be powered by sweat — some of it famous sweat!

Duracell (the copper top battery) is sponsoring a “Power Lounge” at the Charmin bathroom station for visitors to Times Square. Once you’ve “refreshed” yourself, you can go upstairs to the Duracell Recharge Rest Stop and charge up your phone, camera, or iPod.

While you’re waiting for the red light to turn green on your electronic devices, you can hop on a snow bike that has been set up with a rotary pedal system and hooked up to some batteries. As you pedal, you generate energy that is stored in batteries for use later.

And there is a very specific use planned for these batteries: to power the giant “2-0-0-9″ when the ball drops at midnight. They need 200 hours of battery power, and visitors to the Power Lounge can make their contribution on one of the six snow bikes.

Supermodel Gisele stopped by the Power Lounge and did a session on the snow bike to power up the energy stores. Other celebrities who have stopped by to add their sweat equity include Liza Minnelli (we’d love to see photos of that!) Katie Couric, and Leona Lewis.

Even though it probably won’t conserve that much energy from the grid, it’s a neat idea to get people thinking about how much energy is needed for this kind of celebration, and alternative ways of generating power.

If you live in New York, or you’re visiting for the holidays, you can do your part to power the celebrations. The Power Lounge, 540 Broadway in Times Square between West 45th and West 46th Streets, is open between now and December 31st, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Thursday through Saturday.

Cat Lincoln’s “Step Up” column appears in this space every Wednesday.  You can also find Cat blogging at Green Daily, Stylelist, and wishboneclover.  Cat and all of Tonic’s writers and editors also wish you a very happy holiday!

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