EcoLocalizer

Originally published in Green Building Elements

When San Franciscans and anyone else living in the Bay Area hear about Richmond the first thing that comes to mind certainly isn’t anything related to Green, Eco, or Sustainable anything. That will hopefully change as the semi-rural farm Eco Village Farm Center, which already teaches sustainable farming and growing practices to underprivileged local youth, recently added a solar system to power the farm.

In a not so pastoral location surrounded by freeways and railroad tracks, the Eco Village offers a green sanctuary to local youth who wish to find a green place to learn and relax. The farm grows a variety of vegetation including: fruit trees, Oaks, Beach, Banana, California Buckeyes, Bay Laurels, Blackberries and Walnuts.

The recently added solar system not only will decrease their energy bill but many young Richmond residents received an opportunity to help install the system. The program sponsored by Solar Living Institute, Solar Richmond, Rising Sun Energy Center, Sun Light & Power, SunPower Corporation and Bay Area Air Quality Management District brought a human element to the system by providing access for disadvantaged children to gain skills and interest in the green business movement.

We’re big fans of this project not just because of the reduced carbon footprint but the program gives youth an opportunity to become more eco-literate, as it creates a cross cultural dialogue and moves across economic lines as well. Learning about Green power, grey water harvesting and urban food production isn’t just for people who can afford it.

We’d like to see more solar training and eco-literacy spread from the suddenly Green city of Richmond.

The State of California recently announced its latest inititative in the fight against climate change: a state-wide green building code.

This isn’t actually a first in California. All state-owned buildings are already required to meet green standards. The initial requirements in the new initiative back up those standards already in place, which include delayed implementation dates for residential structures and voluntary compliance for hospitals (Am I the only one who thinks that hospitals should be tops on the list to build green?). A more comprehensive set of mandandatory provisions is to be implemented in 2010.

Individual cities, such as Los Angeles and Santa Monica, already have green building codes of their own. Santa Monica, a leader in sustainability issues, announced their own green building ordinance in May. The ordinance spells out requirements for all new construction in the city, including single family residences.

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(This is another installment in this week’s “Walk This Way” series on walkable neighborhoods in the U.S.)

Pensacola’s a unique town, as far as both Florida and walkable communities are concerned. Tucked into the northwest corner of Florida, the City of Five Flags is so close to Alabama, it’s often treated not as if it’s part of the Sunshine State but L.A. (as in, “Lower Alabama”).

While it sometimes seems to be the Rodney Dangerfield of Florida towns, Pensacola does have a lot going for it, especially in its historic and compact waterfront downtown area. With numerous ancient live oaks and buildings often reminiscent of New Orleans’ French Quarter (Pensacola is equally old and went through waves of Spanish, French and English settlers), downtown Pensacola is a kind of walker’s diamond in the rough.

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Building sustainable enterprise. Protecting the environment. Investing in social equity.

Doesn’t sound like your bank? That’s because it probably isn’t. The soon-to-be-new e3bank in Philadelphia is positioned to be the first green triple bottom line bank in New England.

From infrastructure to product and service offerings, everything the organization is involved with will be built upon the triple bottom line values of people, planet and prosperity. The bank is mobilized around a green economy and a sustainable environment, as well as supporting growing consumer and business demands around these issues.

“A commitment to the future is embedded in the DNA of e3bank,” chairman Sandy Wiggins said. “The financial industry has a large role to play in the societal shift to a sustainable world. The emerging green economy needs to be fueled by financial products and services specifically designed to accelerate its growth, and serviced by financial experts who ‘get it’ and who understand the urgency of this shift.”

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Rather, IzzitGreen.com, the new Boston-based web site is asking that question all over the city. Regular columns, reviews and business spotlights give information about how green the places Bostonians frequent really are.

Users can search for businesses by name, or they can search neighborhoods for businesses that are on IzzitGreen’s green list. One of the web site’s most helpful aspects is its “Guides” page. From pizza places to used bookstores, IzzitGreen posts information about the percentage of green businesses there are in each category, where you can find the ones that are green, and they go for the dirty details…or clean in this case.

For example, if you own a business in Boston, chances are that IzzitGreen has found out what kind of lightbulbs you use, whether or not you recycle any of the materials your business or your employers use and will have a comment on what working conditions are like. And that’s just the beginning of the list.

A lively discussion forum will soon be debuting on the site. For now, all registered users are listed under the People section with varying levels of contact information.

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The choices we make now will make or break our collective environmental future. Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than with the dispute over West Virginia’s Coal River Mountain, one of the last mountains still intact in the Coal River Valley.

But the future of the mountain is in jeopardy. A subsidiary of Massey Energy has recently applied for strip mine permits that would destroy 6600 acres of the Coal River Mountain, or almost 10 square miles. Not only would this plan destroy a beautiful area, but it would also dump waste into valleys that fill almost every neighboring headwater stream.

The 15 year mining plan would destroy almost all viable wind power potential on the mountain. Read the rest of this entry »

The two guys sailing across the Pacific in a Kon Tiki-style junk made of actual junk aren’t the only ones taking to the waters this month to call attention to how humans how fouled the seas. The annual Canoe Journey of the Coast Salish Nation of Washington state and British Columbia is also getting under way with a science-based environmental mission.

This year’s journey of 100-plus canoes across the Salish Sea to Cowichan First Nation in Duncan, British Columbia, will include five canoes carrying water-quality probes and global positioning systems (GPS) for measuring various aspects of Salish waters: temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, dissolved solids, turbidity and pH. Leading the study will be Sarah Akin, a scientist with the Swinomish Tribe. Two scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey — Eric Grossman and Paul Schuster — are also advising the project at the request of the Coast Salish.

This is the first time the canoe journey has taken on a scientific flavor, but it comes not a moment too soon.

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The tagline (Green is Good) for Jonathan Rollo’s new Beverly Hill’s based gourmet chopshop, Greenleaf, pretty much says it all. This fast casual company has hit the nail on the head by serving high quality, made to order wraps and salads sourcing all natural and organic ingredients when possible. They also offer Ecotainers and cornstarch based utensils for all to-go packaging.

The menu’s specialty salads, especially the Antioxidant Orchard and Lemongrass Chicken salads, are incredible and are quick making the chopshop a favorite among celebrities, like LeAnn Rimes and her husband, Dean, who I spied in there while in line. If you don’t come for the amazing and reasonably priced fare, come in for the cute chef and friendly staff or just to support a company that is running their business responsibly.

Say hello to Pharmaka, a sustainable art gallery who’s mission is to use art as a guide to instigate and inspire discussions about relevant world issues. The impressive downtown LA-based space, which is eco-friendlier thanks to the recent help of HBO’s new show, Alter Eco, will begin hosting curated exhibitions, lectures, panel discussions, podcasts, and accessible community programming and events.

The original founders: Shane Guffogg , John Scane and Vonn Sumner, will focus on contemporary art as catalyst for good dialogue on current issues and events. The gallery is currently hosting an exhibit on abstract Latino art, called Rebel Legacy and will be offering Artwalk Thursdays as well as hosting an upcoming LA Green Drinks meeting (many thanks to Laura over at Green Drinks for the tip!).

The Sunshine State is finally beginning to try and live up to its reputation, as it starts moving rapidly toward increased use of solar energy.

The latest advance came with this week’s announcement by Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) that the utility plans to add 110 megawatts of new solar energy capacity in the state.

“Pending regulatory approval, FPL will build 110 megawatts of solar power right here in the Sunshine State, making Florida No. 2 in the nation for solar energy,” said Lewis Hay III, chairman and CEO of FPL Group. Hay made the announcement during the state’s second Serve to Preserve summit on climate change.

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