Lower Your Cholesterol and Save the Planet!

Check out this Washington Post article entitled Gut Check: The Meat of the Problem by Ezra Klein.

It discusses a 2006 United Nations report which finds that the production of meat is one of the worst sources of greenhouse gases, trumping even the global transport sector. It also says "a study out of Carnegie Mellon University found that the average American would do less for the planet by switching to a totally local diet than by going vegetarian one day a week."

While I am a biased vegetarian, I think the article (and the Carnegie Mellon study, which is readable by a layperson such as myself, although there are some econometrics that are above my head) is a fairly mild rebuke of meat eaters and meat production with the modest recommendation for people to cut back, not eliminate, their consumption of meat and dairy products.

So what do you carnivours think?

ReBurbia

Living in the vast suburbs of Dallas-Ft. Worth, I have a true
understanding of the need for "re-burbinization." Check out this
competition:

http://www.re-burbia.com/

That Would Save Some Trees

From The New York Times:

"Democratic Group's Proposal: Give Each Student a Kindle"

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/democratic-groups-proposal-give-each-student-a-kindle/index
.

I'm an avid reader, and I own a Kindle, and it's way, way better than
reading a paper book. Plus, think of all those trees.

Mahout'n it Up in Thailand

In about a week my wife and I are flying to Thailand for a vacation to celebrate the defense of her PhD dissertation.

Let's get the dirty part out of the way.  Between the two of us, we are laying down an elephant-sized carbon footprint with our flights half-way around the world. This is slightly tempered by the fact that we have not flown much at all in the last few years.  Certainly not a greenius move though.

We are going to be doing some so-called ecotourism by visiting and staying at the Thailand Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang, Thailand.  We will be doing one of the Mahout Training Courses. 

A Mahout is essentially an elephant master.  Southeast Asia has a long history of domesticating elephants and Mahouts have been an essential part of this process.  For thousands of years Mahouts and their elephants were employed in agriculture, most recently in the logging industry in Thailand. Recently though the Thai government outlawed the use of elephants for such purposes. This has led to hundreds of Mahouts and their elephants being out of work and it is not cheap to keep a multi-ton animal well fed.  A lot of these pairs now roam cities begging for money in exchange for quick rides on the elephant or worse the elephants are killed because the Mahout can not take care of it anymore. (For a more in-depth account and interesting commentary from someone who has gone to the TECC go here.)

As you may know, Marija and I are both vegetarians and vocal advocates for animal rights. We did a lot of research in trying to decide whether or not to visit this center. Marija is pretty much completely against zoos and the like that keep animals in captivity. I am a good bit more torn on the issue.  I would love to see man stop encroaching on the natural world and even revert a lot of "civilization" back to a more pristine state, but I know this ain't happening.  I think the best we can work for is a sustainable hybrid existence between civilization and nature, which I think if stable over time the natural world can adapt to eventually.  In my opinion, well-run nature-like zoos and ecotourism sites fit within this thinking, especially if they are able to keep a threatened species going through captive breeding programs.

So off we go to Thailand to experience for ourselves whether this ecotourism business is sustainable and an acceptable home for these threatened giants. I'll post a follow up in this regard when we return.

Have any of you done any ecotourism and if so what is your opinion of it as a green or not so green enterprise?

Google Rolls Out Home Energy Software - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/google-rolls-out-home-energy-software/

A Greenius On Hold

In an effort to perhaps nudge my fellow greeniuses and myself out of hibernation, I thought I would ramble on for a few paragraphs. That is, a stream of consciousness(well one edited for grammar at least) to answer this question: Why have I stopped blogging?

Reason 1: I Got Busy
I am working full time and taking MBA classes part time. This semester did seam to be more time consuming than last semester. This excuse no longer holds (at least not until September) since I am done with spring classes and not taking summer classes. Actually, this excuse can never hold, as all adults who care about meeting their responsibilities are always busy. Since this is de facto reality, one can only learn to do things faster(smarter) and/or cut out those things that are not important to free up time.

Reason 2: A Sort of Stretched Out ADD
I do not posses the manic constantly shifting thought process of someone with true ADD, nor have I ever been accused of being the least bit hyperactive (Mike can attest to this). Nonetheless, I do have a sort of stretched out ADD in that I lose and regain interest in things, not second by second but at least month to month. This is certainly a part of the human condition. That is why sticking to a cause is such a challenge. You have to constantly remind yourself how important certain things are to you.

Reason 3: Laziness
While Reason 1 has merit, but as I said being busy is just the way of life, and Reason 2 explains why my interest has waned, laziness is certainly a big part of my lack of blogging. Even with my busy semester there have been ample moments when I could have read and/or blogged on green subjects, but I decided to do some mindless activity like watch television. Sure I was busy and tired, but what I do here is important. Not important in that I am going to change the world through my brilliant and insightful prose, but in that I am changing myself and perhaps nudging my friends, family and acquaintances in the same direction.

What do you guys think? Why has your green light bulb been turned off?

Where did everyone go?

It's been awfully quiet around here recently. I was sort of hoping for a raging debate centered on that last post, but you all let me down (except you Matt, thanks.) On a different note, I've recently caught the Investing Bug and have been spending more and more of my time eyeballing stocks and trading like a madman. I feel like a drunkard sitting in a sports book in Vegas; and with this stock market that's not altogether inaccurate. The reason for this post is to recommend a cheap stock I found that has done well for me. Here is a link that will give you more info if you're interested. I haven't bothered with editing the address, so it will take you away from this site when you click it. Just lazy.
http://bestgreenpennystocks.com/

I figured it was time for me to finally post something here since I am listed as a "contributor".

I read an interesting article today about Obama's new science advisor, John Holdren, and his ideas on how to cool the Earth's atmosphere. Holdren is a proponent of geoengineering the climate to lower global temperatures. An example of geoengineering would be building artificial trees that pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The most extreme option listed was to reflect heat from the sun by dispersing pollution into the upper atmosphere.



I'm excited to see new technology to deal with environmental issues, but Frankenstein's monster keeps popping into my head. Could we actually do more harm than good by playing around with the environment? What are your thoughts on geoengineering?

Not Dead

Just wanted to stop by the ol' blog and let everyone know I am still among the living. The MBA program has been very time consuming this semester and will continue to be so for the next month.

While I am not reading as much on green, I am still trying to live it as much as possible. A few updates:

1. I am still incessantly bugging my co-workers to recycle, turn computers off at end of day, and reduce their paper use. I can't directly quantify it but it does seem there has been slight improvement by most of them, although a few are still waste tornadoes who leave a trail of trashed recyclables and wasted resources in their wake.

2. I have greened my house a bit more. I now have every electronic gadget on power strips which I turn off when not in use.

3. I made my first green investment. I purchased 183 shares of General Electric stock, largely because the share price was so low but also because of GE's commitment to green technology.

4. I have not forgotten about my pledge to go before the Hattiesburg city council and argue for the implementation of a glass recycling program. I will find the time to do it this summer.

5. Finally, all of this greenius activity was completely negated when I flew to Chicago last week. Doh!

Wasteful Wendy's

When going through the drive-thru at Wendy's to pick up some dope Chili, I always ask for NO crackers. I don't eat crackers with my chili. So, they always comply by giving me 7 packets of crackers.  Lovely.  Think about how many thousands of times per day this happens.  That's a lot of wasted money for Wendy's and a lot of unnecessary trash headed to the landfill.

Green Building Tips from the Dilbert Blog

A pretty good primer on basic energy-saving building techniques from the Dilbert blog:

"Twelve Rules of Energy Efficient Building"

These principles are so easy for a builder to follow.  It's a shame that homes aren't built this way by default, as a standard.  Maybe some day soon.

Houston Bush Airport Still Sucks

Yeah, I pretty much hate going through Houston's Bush Intercontinental
Airport, but at least they have recycling bins. That should cancel out
about one second worth of air travel-caused pollution.

Cap and Trade

In an effort as much to get things going again around here as to make you all aware of this article, I have posted an article from the Wall Street Journal (I trust you have no objection to this as a credible news source, Mike) regarding the president's plan to put a price on carbon and the early resistance it is encountering. Without flying too far off the handle in expressing my extreme distaste for the socialist agenda being forced down our throats right now, I have to say that this "cap and trade" crap is just an absolutely awful idea. I'm all for the setting aside of millions of acres for wildlife preserves (and was disappointed but not surprised when that got shot down), but this strikes me as just another tax to pay for other changes. Climate change laws and taxes need to be fully debated and examined piece by piece, not forced on the environment and economy by an inexperienced team with an agenda. We all know I am extremely skeptical regarding man-made global warming, due to the fact that the long-range computer models used to prove man-made global warming are consistently proven to be inaccurate; among other reasons, but the idea of "ramming this through" aka "shoving it up the taxpayers' asses" is insanity regardless of what side of the isle you're on. Matt, I can hear your wheels spinning from here and I'm glad because this needs to be debated and then debated some more by all sides as this is something that will effect every one of us.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123679042118496965.html
P.S. For some reason, I can't get this link to work the way I want it to. Sorry for the inconvenience. I'll work on dealing with this issue for future posts, but I'm tired of fighting it right now.

A bank with a community first "green" agenda.

So it has been several weeks since I was willing much less able to post a green investment blog entry. The market in general has been so decidedly bad that unless you have been sitting on the sidelines in all cash you have most certainly been hurt by this downward movement.

I feel like I have finally found a company, a bank no less, worth keeping an eye on. Not only for it's stance on green but also as a potential future investment.

ShoreBank is the name, "Let's Change the World" is the motto.

If you click on the motto above it links you to the page on how ShoreBank is helping its customers become more enviromentally sound. This is done mainly through education of customers and providing loans aimed at renovating existing buildings to bring them up to "green speed."

ShoreBank is currently a privately head company operating mainly in the midwest and parts of the northwest. The company shows revenue of 97.1 million for 2007. It will be interesting to keep an eye on them to see if the business model is viable going forward.

(*as a side note I have been telling anyone who asks to move their 401k or other investment dollars into a money market and wait until we see some relief before jumping back into stocks. This bear market is not done with the punishment as we could very easily dip down to the 6000 level on the Dow.)

New Mexico Paradise

This is pretty much my dream project:

http://tinyurl.com/buksv4

Not the one home, but the whole concept for the community. Proceeds go
to preserving the preserve! Awesome.

Sent from my iPhone

More Gloom and Doom

Check out this article recently posted on FoxNews.com. I sure wish I could find something a bit more cheerful to post, but this is worth reading.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,499244,00.html

Hydraulic Hybrids

This is from my buddy Jake and since he's done all the work, I'll copy his email verbatim.

"So I guess this is a few months old now, but I just read about it the other day at the doc's office:

Car & Driver Article

Basically the hydraulic hybrid setup is slowly being adopted and tested on UPS trucks (just 7 planned for '09/10), which is a perfect market/test-bed for it. They get about 45-50% increase in fuel economy and 30% decrease in emissions. Plus all the trucks are centrally maintained so the data can be monitored closely.

Another article from Wired:"

What can Brown do for Green?

Best Buy Going Green

Best Buy is offering electronics recylcing nationwide. Most items are free, although some cost $10 but they give you a $10 gift card in exchange. Read more here: Best Buy Recycling Program

Cow Farts & Beer

Not to pander to the lowest common denominator, but like I tell my son, "Farting is always funny." Writing about farts is also pretty funny, so to honor fellow Greenius Pat, I'll link to an article that discusses how the Denmark tax commission is considering a greenhouse "gas" emissions tax on farmers. They estimate that a cow's carbon "output" is almost double that of a passenger car (which sounds absurdly high, but I have no idea about such things). Is this is a government's misdirected attempt to raise taxes under the cloak of environmentalism? Or is it the greatest idea ever? I guess if the farmers could actually do something about the "emissions" of the cows, I could "get behind" this. Thoughts? Sorry for the pun overload. It was necessary.

Remember this gem from Dubya...



According to this article, he may be right about something (finally). These guys have figured out a way to feed fish with the byproduct of brewing beer. So, in effect, the more beer we drink the more fish we feed. I loved the suggestion that their research must have been pouring beer into their fish tanks in college.

Remember in school, when you learned about native Americans and how they used every part of the animals that they killed. It's almost like our society is coming full-circle from those days to the wasteful years in between and now we may actually use our brains to reduce our impact on this world. And in doing so, we'll end up more efficient and wealthier. Have a great weekend, and do your part to save the fish.

I'm Becoming a Greench

One side-effect of my effort to become a Greenius is that I have become a Greench; that is a Green Grinch.  I try hard to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  At work I try to be aware of the resources I use. For example, I think whether a note requires a mini sticky note, a full-size sticky note, a printed page, or will suffice to stay purely in electronic format. Instead of replacing the shredder with a new garbage bag every time it gets full, I dump the shredded paper and reuse the bag. I’m not perfect of course and when the proverbial shit hits the fan and I’m busy multitasking these efforts often fall to the wayside. The point though is that I do make a concerted effort to reduce my environmental impact.

As I’ve ranted about in a previous post, my co-workers are not so thoughtful.  Many of them still throw recyclables in the trash, go through paper like hungry goats, drink 3 bottles of water per day, and generally just don’t care about reducing waste.  It’s not as if they don’t know better. I try to educate them and make it as easy as possible to do the green thing. It really comes down to not being aware of and trying to change their wasteful habits, something we all are guilty of at times

Despite this realization that nobody is perfect, I can’t help but feel that I am the only one who gives a damn about our home the earth.  I feel as if I am surrounded by uncaring houseguests who leave their crap out, eat all my food, and feel they are entitled to do so.  I have often been tempted to remove the 20 oz soda bottle from the garbage can and lob it at the head of the offender.  Fortunately for my job security I have to this point been able to control my spurts of rage.

I don’t want to become a Greench, whose heart has shrunk and who has given up on his fellow humans.  I want to continue believing that mankind will realize that you shouldn’t trash your home, especially when you have 7 billion roommates and trillions of pets.  What do you guys and gals think? Besides our efforts here on the blog, what else can we do to get others to buy into green?

Are the Grammy's Green?

If any of you are like me and watched the Grammy's last night, you may be wondering where did all of the energy come from to produce all of that glitz and glam, and no I'm not talking about Neil Diamond's jacket?

By doing a quick search I was able to dig up this press release from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). It appears, at least from this statement, that the Recording Academy made a concerted effort to make the show as green as possible.

Here are a few highlights of the actions taken:

• Renewable energy used to power STAPLES Center and Los Angeles Convention Center
• Renewable energy credits purchased by Bonneville Environmental Foundation to offset carbon emissions from the Pre-Telecast and Arrivals
• Organic and environmentally-friendly food (including seafood, dairy, and produce) featured at GRAMMY Celebration after-party
• Un-used food donated by Wolfgang Puck to Angel Harvest

There are plenty more items listed in the press release but I am glad to see an effort was made.

Oh and by the way there were some stellar performances last night including Neil Diamond bringing down the house with "Sweet Caroline". M.I.A. performing despite being 9 months pregnant. Then there was this gem from one of my all time favorites Radiohead with the USC marching band.

Is Ticketmaster the Most Un-Green Company Ever?

I have been coveting tickets to see Willie Nelson at the House of Blues in Orlando for some time. I've only seen him live twice and the last time was 7 years ago. I needed to see how big the hole in his guitar has gotten. Logged on to Ticketmaster and the tickets are a bit steep ($58.50), but TM is charging nearly $15 per ticket on top of that for "convenience" and facility charges. I'm buying two tickets, so that's $30 in bogus fees. Last night, I loaded the kids in the car and set off to HOB to buy them directly from the box office. The problem with this is that while I see the waste in me driving over there, I'm not at a place in my life where I'm willing to pay a company $30 to save $4 in gas and my time. If the fees were $10, I'd have the tickets already. Not to mention, if I buy the tickets in person, the box office has to pay someone to sit there and sell them to me, and they have to have a building with lights and a/c, etc. It should be cheaper to buy them online and print them from home, but instead it costs me $2.50 to print them from my printer but it's free for TM to print them and mail them to me.

The point I'm getting at is that Ticketmaster is encouraging people to buy directly from the box office because their fees are so jacked up. The beauty of the web is supposed to be that it reduces the need for such trips and transactions. Do you agree? By the way, the box office was closed last night (I didn't check their hours on their very convenient website), but that one's on me. I'll be going back soon and will still come out money ahead.

Can you think of other companies that are so backwards in their thinking when it comes to things like this? I'll report back on how the concert went.

Prefab Fridays on the Inhabitat Blog

Through my Twitter account, I came across the Inhabitat blog a few weeks ago, and now it's my favorite site in the eco-blogosphere.  They cover all kinds of green-related stuff, but by far my favorite thing about their site is their weekly "Prefab Friday" specials.  As a six-year veteran of the prefab business at Palm Harbor Homes, Inc., I have a natural bias towards these posts, but look at how cool these buildings are (my comments below each):

It's a green houseboat for Pete's sake!

Ultra-modern, ultra-green, award-winning "Spoorhouse."

Prefab home built in Australia.

Shipping container buildings (yes, it's a house, a "Weekend House" as a matter of fact).

The lights under the home indicate whether the house is producing more energy than it's using (green) or consuming more than it's producing (red).  Now, I don't see much of a market for this, but it's cool in a crazy green kind of way.

The adaptable R-house is made of sustainable wood and can change shape based on sun position and wind patterns.  Wow!

"Cottage in a Day" utilizes structural insulated panels (SIP's).

They actually had this home set-up at the International Builders' Show in Vegas.

I've long been a believer in the power of Prefab/modular technology to revolutionize the homebuilding industry.  The fact that this type of construction is really leading the way in the green/sustainable building movement, makes me even more of a believer.  I'm just glad to have such cool blogs out there to keep me informed about these cool builders.

What a Game!

Now that's what I am talking about. Steelers 27 Cardinals 23 in Superbowl XLIII was one to remember. Being a fan of neither team I went into last night hoping to at least see a close game and also for there to be some kick ass commercials to watch. I feel that both hopes were delivered on and then some. The fourth quarter of the game last night made for some of the most compelling television I have ever seen. I can only imagine what it must have been like to be there in person watching all of the drama unfold.

Now after having read that first paragraph and knowing that this is a blog about green I am sure that you are wondering how is he going to spin this into a post about green. Check this out. My second hope being to see some really cool commercials also produced some insight into wind energy and also smart grid technology. Both courtesy of a company I have blogged on before, General Electric.

First here is the commercial on wind energy:

And here is the commercial on Smart Grid Technology:

Now check out the Ecomagination website section that talks about Plugging into the Smart Grid.

And last but not least here is a link to all of the Superbowl commercials from last night in order by quarter.

You can all thank me later for killing your productivity level at work for the rest of the day.

Kyoto

No one with any sense can look back and say President Bush's administration was a complete success, but one decision he made that I have always proudly stood behind was not to sign the Kyoto Treaty. Check out this link and then read Probe International article you can link to from there.
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2009/01/28/how-kyoto-credit-scams-work.aspx

RNC Chair

Alright you pack of rabid screaming liberals, even though I know most of you aren't paying much attention to the race for Chairman of the Republican National Convention you would do well to examine the guy who is most likely going to win out. Here's a link with some quick quotes from Michael Steele regarding energy.
http://www.ontheissues.org/International/Michael_Steele_Energy_+_Oil.htm

I Just Hurt My Arm Patting Myself On the Back

Yeah, that's right.  I just booked a 4th honeymoon for my wife and I to the beautifully secluded island of Holbox off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.  Pursuant to my previously published New Year's "anti-resolutions" for '09, I chose to purchase carbon offsets for my air travel from Dallas to Houston to Merida and back.  It's my little way of reducing blatant energy wasters from my life (well not eliminating, but at least making up for them in my treehugging capitalist kind of way).

In case any of you heathens don't believe me, here's the confirmation from TerraPass, the company that arranges for the carbon offsets through the Expedia.com web site:

Pics from the 2009 International Builders' Show

More analysis to come later, but here are some photos that we took at the International Builders' Show out in Las Vegas last week (comments below each photo):

Check out the bottle of Maker's Mark in the bottom-left corner.  Vegas is really a drinking town.  This was a chef who was cooking on some really cool kitchen appliances.

This big contraption is an air ventilation system that improves the indoor air quality of a home.  It was installed in one of the homes that Palm Harbor Homes set up at the show.

This amazing device is GE's Ecomagination Smart Connect system.  It basically is the brains of your house.  It has connections for your home security system, water management, power management, lighting, music, and more.

Here's a screen shot from the user interface of the GE Smart Connect system.  As you can see, it's touchscreen and elegantly designed.  Sweet.

This is the inside of the GE Smart Connect system.  All those wires running into the box are the various ethernet and phone cables that connect all your home systems to the brain box.

These are Kohler water efficient urinals.  Especially in the deserts of Las Vegas, these will come in handy.

Another way to save water, a dual-flush toilet.

Stylish looking solar panels that integrate into the shingles on your roof.

The wall is insulated with Icynene spray foam, which does an amazing job of eliminating air leakage.

Here's an example of the Icynene spray foam being used in the ceiling. This stuff really makes the house airtight and energy efficient.

Well, that's all for now folks.  Be on the lookout for my analysis of the show and of the state of green building in general.

Everyday Green Thinking @ Whole Foods

Saw that my receipt from Whole Foods was shorter than usual.  Then I turned it over to see that about half of the items were printed on the backside of the receipt.  Here's a pic:

Printing on both sides reduced the amount of paper used by about 50%.  Taking this Green thinking a step further, Mark Graban from the Lean Blog asks, "Why don't they give you the option of saying 'no receipt please'?"

I've always asked the same question myself at gas stations when the computer at the pump doesn't give the me option of declining a receipt.  This is wasteful, for obvious reasons, but it's also annoying because I have to wait around in 32 degree weather for the stupid receipt to print.

Viva Sustainable Energy Construction Practices!

Having been in Las Vegas for the better part of last week I have deemed it necessary for my next blog post or four to involve that wonderfully debaucherous city.

If you are out and about in Vegas you cannot help but notice a massive construction project going on involving what seems to be the most glass I have ever seen in my life. This would be the City Center project by MGM.

Check out how CityCenter is incorporating sustainable design and construction here.

It is very impression some of the design aspects that have been included on a project of this size. Can any of you think of such a massive undertaking in your area that included sustainable construction?

On a side note - it might be time to invest in a new condo!!

Whiskey & Water

Due to the overwhelming popularity of Mike's whiskey post, I thought I'd share this article about a bunch of distillers in Scotland (including those that make Chivas Regal as shown) that are turning their waste into energy in the form of a new power plant. Waste that includes "wood chips, ...a solid grain product removed from the mash during fermentation called 'draff', and a high protein residue left in the still called 'pot ale'" The plant will produce enough energy to power 9,000 homes. I've always dreamed of the day when we can generate power with our trash, a la Mr. Fusion, so this kind of news makes me excited that we may be seeing more things like this in the future. What other industries can think of creative ways to use their byproducts?

Bottled water, which barely existed 20 years ago, is now a huge industry whose products are responsible for tons and tons of unnecessary waste. This is one of those issues that is discussed and debated everywhere, so I'll assume that everyone can agree that bottled water costs a ton more than tap water, creates more waste and may or may not taste better. That being said, how would you feel about a ban on bottled water? Would this reduce the amount of waste, or would people switch to drinking soda? The freakonomics blog discusses why they think there would be substitution to another bottled form of refreshment. I know that when we used to drink bottled water I wouldn't drink it at home, but it was convenient to grab one on the way out the door. We quit drinking it mainly for the cost savings. What do you think? Do you think that the government should stay out of the matter all together, or do you think that this is a great way to reduce unnecessary waste?

What Can I Say?

This week the first African-American (and bi-racial person for that matter) was sworn in as president of the United States of America.  He is a man who has promised an open government that makes decisions based on science and reason.  To move our country towards the future and to stop clinging to an outdated past.  To move towards green energy and away from black oil. If he does 10% of what he has promised, he will be a 'philospher king.'  I am so damn proud. What more can I say?

If you missed his innaugral address, you can watch it here: Whitehouse.gov

Headed to the International Builders' Show

The Doctor Sean Levy and I are headed out tomorrow to Las Vegas for the International Builders' Show.  I had the opportunity to go to this show the past two years when it was in Orlando, and let me tell you, it's amazing!

Exhibitors from all over the world present concepts and products relating to every aspect of building.  All the latest, greatest innovations and inventions will be on display, everything from sustainable building materials to cutting-edge design software to fully completed homes.  That's right, completed homes!  

Thanks to the power of modular homebuilding, it's possible to construct, deliver, assemble, and finish-out a gigantic custom luxury home in only a matter of a couple weeks.  My company, Palm Harbor Homes, Inc., a national leader in the manufactured housing industry, will have three completed homes on display at the show.

The Doc and I will be reporting back on what we see, especially in the way of green building techniques.  I expect to have a lot to share with you in the coming days.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...Vegas baby!!!

I drink Maker's Mark (a lot), therefore I am Green?

Okay, here's the scene.  I'm at Zen Bar in Addison, TX with some friends from work.  I'm working on my 2nd Maker's Mark on the rocks.  Got the laptop open, scanning some articles.  Then I come across this jewel from one of my favorite green blogs, Inhabitat:

"Is it Green:  Maker's Mark Bourbon Whiskey"

Turns out, Maker's Mark utilizes some pretty darn cool sustainable business practices.  Therefore, I have decided (and believe you me, this is a big decision) that Maker's is my official "go to" bourbon of choice.  Wow, I've committed myself to Green in a big way, huh?

P.S. I'm still at the bar, still drinking, so I better sign off before my friends start making fun of me for being a blogger.  Peace out!

Getting Fat Off The Land

This post it a bit of a follow up to my New Year's Anti-Resolution. First let me begin by saying that I am a follower of the Dude philosophy. I can sit on my ass, take elevators up one floor, and eat fast food with the best of them.  I know these things are bad for me, but I continue to do them. With all this green on the brain, I've had a bit of a personal revelation. It has really sunk in that not only are these lazy habits bad for me, but they are bad for the environment. 

Our society has recoded the word "lazy" into the more palatable word "convenient."  It is not that I am lazy that makes me drive five minutes to a store two blocks away rather than walk, it is that it is more convenient.  We rationalize such behavior by arguing that we are just too busy to do things the slower way.  Meanwhile we waste our precious and limited time by watching an average of 4 hours of television per day. All the while we are getting more Jabba the Hut like, creating more waste, and depleting the earth's natural resources. Burning dirty fossil fuels to power our elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks.  This realization and addition to my personal shame has truly motivated me to stop being so convenient. I just hope it sticks.

In closing, economists should coin a new industry term; the Lazy Industry. This would include elevators going into 5 story buildings, moving sidewalks, escalators, fast food restaurants, and cities that build endless stretches of highway while being completely devoid of bike routes. What else should be included in the Lazy Industry?

Note: Most of the pictures above came from public Flickr accounts, but I was too lazy to write down the creators' names. Please email us if you want them removed.

Getting Off my Ass for Obama

After watching the speech and video describing President-elect Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, I decided to do my small part to support the effort. Here is the e-mail I sent to Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker and to Representative Gene Taylor:

Dear Senator Cochran,  

As a Mississippi resident and state employee at the University of Southern Mississippi I wanted to voice my support of President-elect Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. This is where I want my tax dollar spent; retooling America to be a leader in sustainability while fixing our crumbling infrastructure and creating millions of jobs. Know that I speak for many 30 somethings who believe that green is not only good for the planet but good for the American economy. This is the time for us, the greatest nation on earth, to lead. This is the time to show the world that we are the innovators, able to harness the collective good of humanity to revive the ailing world economy and save mother earth in the process. At a more local level, the state of Mississippi needs new jobs especially with events such as the unfortunate postponement of the planned Toyota Prius plant. Please support the President-elect's plan and let's move our state, our nation, and the world towards a brighter future.  

Sincerely,  

Matt Stambaugh

Would you like to do the same? If so, visit senate.gov and house.gov to find contact info for your senators and representative.

Where the venture capital flows, so flows innovation!

Quick lesson for anyone who isn't sure what Venture Capital is, for those of you who do just skip ahead. From Wikipedia-

"Venture capital is a type of private equity capital typically provided to early-stage, high-potential, growth companies in the interest of generating a return through an eventual realization event such as an IPO or trade sale of the company. Venture capital investments are generally made as cash in exchange for shares in the invested company.

Venture capital typically comes from institutional investors and high net worth individuals and is pooled together by dedicated investment firms."

My point to posting this is that one way to find green investment ideas is to take a look at what types of green companies venture capital dollars have been flowing towards. An article I found written by David R. Baker from the San Francisco Chronicle indicates that nearly 46% of the money invested in green technology in 2008 went to solar power companies.

Flow of Venture Capital for Green Tech Companies

What this means is rather large investors are betting large portions of their wealth on solar power becoming a widely used energy source moving forward. It would behoof any investor to take a look at adding a company from that energy sector to their portfolio.

One other opportunity I would like to mention is the same article goes on to talk about the shift in investment from the biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel to the synthetic biology fuel produced from algae. Take a look at this article posted on greenchipstocks.com written this past summer.

Investing in Algae Biofuel

There are several companies listed towards the bottom of the article which are worth keeping an eye on for a possible future investment.

Living Local

One thing that I've been trying to do more of is buying and eating locally. I define this as within a 100-mile radius. People 100 years ago got by (with a much smaller radius) and I think I can too without really impacting my lifestyle.  There are blogs and websites devoted to this type of thing and while I can't make it an intense focus in my life, I think I can survive the winter (or summer) without produce that has to come from across the world.  Produce that has been genetically changed so that it ships better, stays fresh longer, looks prettier, is more uniform in size, but generally tastes worse.  I set out to find a farmer's market that I could easily visit once a week and select locally grown produce. What I found is that the farmer's market in Winter Haven, FL has a very small amount of produce grown locally and the rest is probably produce that is bought wholesale (think of the stands on the side of the road). I was hoping to see dozens of local growers selling their products. I think there were two people like that. I'm going to one in Lakeland next week, so maybe it will be more promising. If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it.

The next is another in I'm sure a long line of Netflix knock-offs. This time it's Netflix for toys. Via Treehugger, the toys are sanitized and tested and you send them back when your child gets tired of playing with them. I know from experience that kids like some toys and you wonder why and they refuse to play with the coolest toys you buy them so a service like this could prevent waste (like that ball shooting toy that broke after 10 minutes of use). Or it could teach your kids to be absolute toy snobs. I'm not sure, but it's interesting to see things like this becoming more common.

Also, GO GATORS!

Green Gators

I don't wanna jinx the Gators by talking smack before the National Championship game tonight, but I did want to mention the fact that "IF YOU AIN'T A GATOR, YOU MUST BE GATOR BAIT!!!"  Okay, so much for not talking smack.

To make this somewhat relevant to this web site, I'd like to pass on a green-related University of Florida web site (courtesy of fellow UF alum Pat "She got 'Maloneyed' way out in the middle of nowhere" Maloney:  "Save Money by Saving Energy."

And I think I speak for Gators out there everywhere when I say, "Thank you in advance St. Tebow for a wonderful performance tonight.  God willing, may you return for a senior season."

Lessons of a Clogged Toilet

This week I am diverging from politics to continue with the theme of waste. I could of course come up with many apt toilet metaphors for politics, but I will spare you.

For the holiday break (yes I work at a University and actually got a two week break), I went home to Florida and spent part of the time staying with my folks.  My parents home, built when I was in utero, is as old as I am. About 7 years ago there was a fire which left the structure intact but led to the replacement of everything else. Because of this it has more up to date insulation, wiring, HVAC, etc than most 30 year old homes. The plumbing though is still original.

After the fire, my parents installed new 1.6 gallons per flush toilets, which combined with old and poorly installed plumbing in places, has created a clogging machine in the guest bathroom. This toilet will clog every time if spartan toilet paper management techniques are not employed. It is so bad my wife refuses to use it no matter what.

The upside is and the point to this post (took me a while huh) is that this toilet forces the user to use a lot less paper. This is not scientific and I assure you no actual measurements were taken, but I think I cut my tp use by about 90%.  This dramatic improvement was not at the expense of good hygiene, it just took a little conscious thought.

Of course now that I'm home and using a "properly" working toilet, I am back to my old wasteful ways. Sure I try to remember what my parents clogging toilet taught me, but I often forget. This is where businesses come in. I as a consumer want to use and purchase things that are designed to limit my stupid mindless wastefulness. Let's face it, the world is too complex and we are too busy to ALL do the right thing. I am one of the ones who try and I still am an uber waster. Government needs to regulate wasteful behavior and business needs to provide affordable and effective solutions. This is the answer, expecting people to do it out of the good of their hearts is not.

(On a side note, I stole this picture from the Treehugger blog and read this old but interesting article on how archaic and dangerous water based waste removal systems are. Makes you rethink the worst green product ever as posted by Mike way back.)

Good Move HP

Image courtesy of art_es_anna via flickr

You all know what electronic waste is, but did you know that since 2005, it is the fasting growing category of solid municipal waste in the US? According to the EPA, in 2006, we generated 2.9 million tons of e-waste in the US alone. Of this amount, only 330,000 tons (11.4%) was recycled. Part of the problem of the low recycling rates is that not all of the material used in electronics is recyclable, but some think the bigger problem is that there is no incentive for people to recycle their old cell phones, PC's, and printers. I have half a closet full of outdated electronics that I never use, and according to these stats, I'm not alone.

Hopefully those e-recycling rates will change for the better when more companies follow HP's lead, and actually offer consumers cash back or credits for their unwanted electronics.

Screw ebay, I'm going to clean out my closet this weekend: www.hp.com/go/ConsumerBuyback

Revolution in Consumption

Scott Adams of Dilbert fame sets forth some thought-provoking ideas in his latest blog post:  "Sign of the End Time."  His fundamental premise is that...

"...we're on the cusp of a change as fundamental as the industrial revolution. But this time the change will be on the consumption side, not the production side."

He continues by saying...

"...The coming consumption revolution won't be strictly for the benefit of the environment. It will be an economic necessity, driven largely by the huge numbers of retired poor. There simply won't be enough stuff for everyone if waste is allowed. "

Waste.  That word is so important to me.  As a advocate of both Lean & Green, waste in any form is inherently evil to me.  Doesn't matter if it's the waste embedded in a business process or the wasted energy of an inefficient automobile.  It's all evil.  Imagine how much better our lives would be if we could snap our fingers and eliminate all the waste around us.  Imagine if at work you never had to fix a screw-up or wait around for an answer.  Imagine if all our shopping destinations were within walking distance.  Not that it's possible to snap your fingers and make it happen, but it's something we should strive for in the long-term, for the sake of the environment and for our own sake.

Later in his post, Adams concludes...

"This is the sort of change that could never happen if the economy was in a happy bubble and it seemed that money was abundant. But as the reality of our economic situation settles in, unthinkable options become thinkable. The good news is that the unthinkable options will have lots of advantages."

This is very often the case with waste elimination.  Most people fear change...they truly dread it.  But, when external factors force us to change, we come up with smarter, more innovative ways to do things.  I think the big winners in a future such as that envisioned by Scott Adams will be those who can eliminate the most waste.  If you're a homebuilder, you better be able to design & build sustainable homes in an efficient manner.  If you're a lawyer, you better invest in some good video-conferencing equipment so your clients don't have to drive across the city to give a deposition.  If you own a restaurant, you better develop relationships with local farmers and ranchers who can provide their products quickly and efficiently.  What do you need to do to become a change leader in your industry?