Baltimore County green news

And now, a long-overdue post about what's been going on in Baltimore County green news!

I attended a community meeting on 2 Dec 2008 that was co-sponsored by Baltimore County Office of Sustainability and the Sierra Club. There were speakers from Maryland Dept of Environment, Baltimore County Commission on Environmental Quality, Baltimore chapter of the USGBC, in addition to the sponsor organizations.

We heard about the Regional GHG Initiative (RGGI), the Maryland Climate Change Commission that was founded in April 2007, the 2008 Climate Action Plan (1. Mitigation, 2. Adaptation, 3. Science), and Baltimore County's carbon footprint measurement progress.

Some other organizations and ideas I picked up at this meeting included:

* "pay as you drive" car insurance may be available from GEICO in the future. This would especially benefit Zipcar customers and telecommuter/public transit riders.

* carbon footprint note: buildings in the mid-Atlantic region require more heating and air conditioning than those in the north or south regions, because we have both cold winters and hot summers, whereas north or south regions have one or the other.

* Baltimore County encompasses 600 square miles and 315,000 households. Something like 80% of the population lives on 30% of the land here: there is a distinct line of demarcation between urban and rural areas. Its carbon footprint is mostly comprised of carbon from electricity generation, followed by transportation emissions. The area with the greatest potential for carbon reduction is waste management and recycling, which brings me to...

** SINGLE STREAM RECYCLING IS COMING!** We in the county have been jealous of Baltimore City's single stream recycling program with weekly pickup for months now, but not for much longer. The date has yet to be announced, but watch for an announcement in 2009. Here's an article I found online about it. And if somebody can tell me how to upload and link pdf documents to a Blogger account, I'll attach the Towson Times article I clipped on 12/24/08. Merry Christmas, County!

* For citizens disgruntled about the local bus routes that have been moved or cancelled... sorry. MTA public transit is funded by the state, not by the county.

* Check out the Baltimore Sustainability network's webpage at BaltimoreClimate.org

* All new county buildings are to meet LEED silver rating standards from now on. County and City schools will be retrofitted as feasible.

* I also heard of Builders for the Bay for the first time at this meeting.

That's all for my local green news catchup today. I have been and will be attending some good green lectures lately, so stay posted for more in this vein...

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Holey Ecofont!

If you like Swiss cheese, you'll love this: a font with holes! The Dutch creators claim that it uses up to 20% less ink than normal fonts. What will they think of next?

www.Ecofont.eu

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US Postal Service going green

I've been using www.usps.com to look up zip codes and miscellaneous postage info for years, and just today I noticed a green subsite! It has tips about eco-friendly mailing products, how to make greener choices regarding your mail service, and info about what the Postal Service is doing to reduce fuel and energy usage.

Check it out here.

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Chasing the wind

What did you do on your Christmas vacation? I went snowmobiling and saw a wind farm in upstate New York, at the Tug Hill plateau near Utica. Snowmobiles = not so green, I know, but this wind farm was tremendously green. If you've never been up close to a modern wind turbine before, let me tell you, they are huge! The base diameter is wide enough for a man door.


See more photos and read about the Maple Ridge wind farm here.


You might be able to see a piece of the farm on this live snowcam at the Flat Rock Inn, a fine snowmobiling establishment complete with sweet golden retrievers and marshmallow fluff in their hot cocoa. Yum!

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Office carbon calculator by EPA

When asked about my job, I usually introduce myself as "chief tree-hugger" for my company. What that really means is that I manage the carbon footprint, or greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory for over 100 offices worldwide. Know what *that* means? Hundreds of spreadsheets, with thousands of conversion factors, bits and bytes of data, and a bookkeeping nightmare.


Unless you care to use this nifty spreadsheet tool created by the EPA. It even converts solid waste materials into carbon emissions based on whether they get recycled or dumped, which is handy if you want to do a waste stream audit.

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Dishwasher cooking, anyone?

Unlike most of the stuff I blog about, I haven't tried this, nor am I sure that I even advocate it, but it's a pretty fascinating idea. Therefore, I cautiously submit: it might be possible to cook dinner in your dishwasher.


How to poach salmon in the dishwasher. Video and recipe included. In the comments, somebody mentioned a dishwasher lasagne recipe too.


Kids, don't try this at home.

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Merry Christmas and stuff

I love Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday, hands down. What’s not to like about a whole month of getting together with friends you haven’t seen in awhile, sharing good food, decorating your house to look all twinkly, singing happy songs you’ve known all your life, and giving and receiving gifts?

And oh, the gifts! When I was a kid, I’d write to Santa asking for everything from a pony to Legos to new clothes, and as I’ve gotten older, my wish list hasn’t gotten any shorter… but this year it has changed a bit. I’m looking around my house and thinking, do I really need more stuff? I barely have enough room to contain all the stuff I already have! And what about the environmental implications of acquiring more stuff?

So I sat down and watched this “Story of Stuff” video. It’s only 20 minutes long, and quite thought-provoking. I’ve never been much for conspiracy theory, but the notion that Americans didn’t have such a love affair with shopping for new possessions until every household contained a television set that ran enticing advertisements designed to make us want bigger/faster/new and improved/MORE! is pretty compelling.

This holiday season, I challenge you to think about your stuff, and the stuff you give to others. Need some ideas for stuff-conscious holiday shopping?

Give an experience, like concert or sporting event tickets from Ticketmaster.

Give food, like fair trade chocolate from Ten Thousand Villages or a fruit basket from Harry and David.

Give online memberships, gift cards, or services, like CooksIllustrated magazine's online portal, Flickr photo site, Amazon gift cards.

Donate to a charity like Heifer International, Sustainable Harvest, Engineers Without Borders.

For more ideas, google "green christmas ideas"... there are lots of good websites out there. Get creative!

While I’m on a feel-good bent… the holidays also happen to be a popular time to volunteer! Did you know that Thanksgiving is THE most requested day to work at soup kitchens? A friend of mine who works with one in downtown Baltimore gently reminds people that while venues may be all booked up for volunteers on Thanksgiving, there are still plenty of time slots to fill on the other 364 days of the year! I read several studies that proved such tangible health benefits associated with volunteering as improved physical fitness, decreased rates of depression, and increased longevity, for starters. Read more at www.nationalservice.gov

Thank you, GreenBuild

At the risk of sounding like a bona fide hippie, this Thanksgiving I am grateful for the Earth. More specifically, I’m thankful for the green movement and all the people in it who are working to make our world a healthier place.

I just returned from the 2008 GreenBuild conference & expo in Boston, where some 29,000 green and sustainability professionals from around the world spent a week swapping stories and ideas. It was enlightening, inspiring, and tinged with the hope that at least the green building part of our economy is moving in the right direction.

The week started on a celebratory note with an opening speech by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He thanked the crowd, on behalf of the world (with a healthy dose of self-deprecation and glee) for the good work we are doing for the planet. He said plenty of other things too, but his words were so simple, genuine, and heartfelt that they left few dry eyes in a large conference hall.

By the end of the conference, attendees had seen and heard so much about the topics at hand that I think we were all refreshed to witness a closing session that was a departure from the usual talk of community development and building construction. World-renowned biologists E.O. Wilson and Janine Benyus spoke of biomimicry, loss of species diversity, and how their work in conservation biology can overlap with ours in the design world. The concept of approaching the natural world as students instead of as conquering colonists is revolutionary, considering human history, yet the idea of adapting principles that have evolved as elegant, natural solutions in the living world makes so much sense that it begs the question: why didn’t we think of this sooner? And, now that we know about it, why aren’t we adapting this approach on a larger scale? Wilson and Benyus presented the tools for us to do just that: the websites for the Encyclopedia of Life and www.AskNature.org represent a compendium of everything scientists know about the natural world, and a forum for exploring how its lessons can be adapted to the human world.

In between, there were speeches, presentations, forums, product demonstrations, question & answer sessions, and everything else you’d expect from a conference about green, building, and green building. At last year’s GreenBuild in Chicago, the loudest buzz was about BIM software and how it’s changing the climate of the architecture and engineering world by creating new opportunities for collaboration and software interoperability. However, this year I heard more about energy studies in high performance buildings and ecological footprint reporting (although, in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that my job roles have changed from BIM software to carbon footprint study over the past year… so consider the source).

As with last year, I’ve returned home excited, inspired, full of new ideas and leads to research… and exhausted! This Thanksgiving, more than anything, I am grateful for a vacation.

My new tree!

I planted my new Shadblow Serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis, purchased at the Parks and People fall tree sale) tree last week! It was sad to see the old crabapple tree go, but I'm learning to embrace the tenets of good gardening: if something doesn't work, compost it and try something else.

When the tree guys came to remove my old tree, I asked what they would do with it... did you know that there are so many tree removal services in the Baltimore area these days that they have to pay to dump all the mulch they accumulate? Make this work for you! Call a local tree service or utility company (I've heard that BGE will drop off free loads of mulch in both Baltimore city and county) when you need mulch - why pay when you can get it free?

They tell me that Treegators are a good idea to keep newly-planted tree roots moist and healthy, so I got a small tube type that rests on the ground from my local garden center. They also make a tall bag type, but my tree isn't big or sturdy enough for that type. With a Treegator, you fill the 15-gallon bag once or twice a week and it gradually dispenses the water over a span of 5 to 8 hours... which sounds much better than forgetting to turn off the garden hose after the prescribed 15 minutes and flooding the whole yard (which is what I would have done otherwise).

Clean coal my foot

If I hear a politician utter the oxymoronic phrase “clean coal” one more time, I will scream! I mean really.

I grew up in West Virginia: good luck trying to tell me there’s anything *clean* about coal. Granted, there is no perfect solution to the world’s energy dilemma, but it really irks me when politicians blatantly greenwash an issue like this.

You want the truth? Solar and geothermal are expensive, wind doesn’t blow all the time, hydroelectric power requires enough water to dam, toxic nuclear waste will remain so for thousands of years, oil reserves won’t last forever… and coal is dirty in both the extraction and burning phases.

However, faced with a growing shortage of fossil fuel resources controlled by volatile governments, I think that renewable energy sources are worth pursuing. It doesn’t matter if you believe in global warming or not. The fact of the matter is that fossil fuels will someday be depleted, and we’d be foolish not to prepare for this inevitability.

I hate politics. That’s my two cents.

More articles about "clean coal"...

Sierra Club

Washington Post

Grist

HowStuffWorks

Coal is dirty

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