City Mouse Country Mouse

A few of my friends from Boulder have more than once commented on their preference of oceans rather than mountains, claiming to endure a peculiar sense of claustrophobia caused by the omnipresent rock faces and glaciers hovering among the clouds. "Landlocked" is the official diagnosis. Not surprisingly, they have mostly relocated to the east and west coasts -and good for them too, no one wants that kind of looming entrapment mucking about.

For me, however, it's the in the city where I feel the most trapped. As much as I like people and crowds, and the bustle that often accompanies them, I much prefer to be among them in the open spaces of parks, sidewalks, bike paths, amphitheaters, etc. Rather than the tightly closed spaces of elevators, cars, buses, subways and cubicles. I like to look up and see stars at night, and occasionally confuse clouds as part of the mountain terrain.

But it comes as no surprise that this blog was started in a city. In Pittsburgh nonetheless. Nor do I think it was by pure happenstance as I was packing my things to return west that I opened Henry Miller's "The Air Conditioned Nightmare" (a collection of essays concerning his cross-country trek to discover America) to surprisingly find this opening:

"It was in a hotel room in Pittsburgh that I finished the book on Ramakrishna by Romain Rolland. Pittsburgh and Ramakrishna - could any more violent contrast be possible? The one the symbol of brutal power and wealth, the other the very incarnation of love and wisdom. We begin here then, in the very quick of the nightmare, in the crucible where all values are reduced to slag." -his tirade, in true Miller fashion, only goes on from there.

Had I remembered this bit of text or had I any sense of foreshadowing I doubt very much I would have ever ventured into the city. Perhaps too, I would have left sooner had I taken heed to the one question I was asked more than any other, particularly after having mentioned I had come from Boulder, "Why Pittsburgh?" Of course, the question came in various forms, all with an utterance of surprise and disbelief. Yet, my answer was always that I had a friend there. No other reason. Nor is there a better one I think. And need there even be one?

Thankfully I left having made a few more. And though I often detested my time there, I don't regret having lived and worked in the 'burgh for those two years. I speak of them almost as though they were more than a decade ago. When in fact I've only just now turned the corner from that chapter in my life.

To digress a moment, today I came across this brief interview with Enrique Penalosa, a name I wouldn't know had it not been for Dr. Paul Simpson, who I met in Pittsburgh, and who in no small way inspired the creation of (and has contributed to) this blog.

My role in the 'burgh, chiefly at the advertising agency I worked at, seemed one of necessity, though I can't especially say it was thought so in the minds of very many. Yes, it was strictly a matter of circumstance that I came to coin the phrase, "Sticking out like a green thumb." Something not likely to happen here in Boulder. In Pittsburgh, as far as I know, I may have very well been the only independent environmental blogger in the city.

Earth Day

For my part, I donated a couple pair of old shoes to be recycled into athletic track and field surfaces. The reSolution Shop at Fifth Ave. Place in the Highmark Building was accepting old shoes and glasses, cell phones to be given to a women's shelter, and blue jeans to be used to make insulation. It was all part of another environmental awareness event organized by Highmark. Participants included Bike Pittsburgh and The Rachel Carson Homestead to name a couple.

And of course, I voted in Pennsylvania's primary election today. If you're wondering exactly what are the environmental policies of the top three presidential candidates, check out this article at Newsweek.

In other news, The Green Appeal will be relocating to Boulder, CO. this summer. Pittsburgh has been good, but the West is the best. See you there.

Ad Busted! Macy's Greenwash

You'll be hard pressed to find anything that's certified organic or made of sustainable materials in this store.

TED

TED: Technology, Entertainment, Design -Ideas worth spreading.

Without exception, absolutely scintillating! Go watch!

The Absurd and The Ideal

A couple weeks ago I finally finished setting up a contract with a "document management" company to begin recycling in our office. It was a joyous day. Not only did it mean the program would be returning and I wouldn't be the one carrying the load, but another office in our building was also involved, and after more than a year of hassling them, so was building management.

At first glance it didn't seem like such a complicated matter, and essentially it isn't. Except of course nothing has gone as planned, and so far my office is the only one to have actually gotten any bins. First of all, this program differs from the one the city runs. For curbside pickup and at the drop off centers around town containers can be commingled, but paper products need to be separated. Well, the program through this third party is exactly the opposite. Office paper, newspaper, junk mail, magazines can all be thrown in together, but containers have to be separated, excluding glass, which they don't accept.

The one thing I've learned from two years in the corporate world of dealing with vendors who want a piece of our action, is that most (not all) of the time the sales people they send in don't actually know anything about what they're selling. Once you say you're in, they turn you over to someone else. Not that this is the case here, but simply put, I've been given no explanation to the divergent processes. Not to mention, I've been told by a very reliable source from a company across town that they use the same third party, but that they commingle their containers. The only trouble is I've sworn to confidentiality.

The cost is anything but exuberant, less than $100 a month for a pick up every two weeks. Still, the coordinator I was working with at the other office, for one reason or another, has yet to get approval for the program. As for the building, it was bought last year from a company based in Dallas, TX. And I was told two days ago that it is up for sale again and that the current owners have told management to put all contract negotiations on hold, so no recycling for the lobby, etc. The upside, however, is that today they sent out an email to the building tenets explaining some of the details for the program, and stating, as it has been mentioned in two of the local papers, that city government, after having made recycling a mandate ten years ago, is finally going to start enforcing the law with fines to businesses who fail to comply.

Will it be the same old song and dance?

The Bicycles And The Apex

Well, I've got some updates on recycling in the office, and some stories about places and people that have been an inspiration to my environmental sensibilities, but for now, as I get back into the swing of things, I present this poem, circa 1965, by George Oppen:

The Bicycles And The Apex

How we loved them
Once, these mechanisms;
We all did. Light
And miraculous

They have gone stale, part
Of the platitude, the gadgets,
Part of the platitude
Of our discontent.

Van Gogh went hungry and what shoe salseman
Does not envy him now? Let us agree
Once and for all that neither the slums
Nor the tract houses

Represent the apex
Of the culture.
They are the barracks. Food

Produced, garbage disposed of,
Lotions sold, flat tires
Changed and tellers must handle money

Under supervision but it is a credit to no one
So that the slums are made dangerous by gangs
And suburbs by the John Birch Societies

But we loved them once,
The mechanisms. Light
And miraculous...

What Have You Changed Your Mind About?

Having been without a personal computer for the past few years, until just last summer, I was oblivious to the simple perks (RSS feeds, itunes U) and vast potential of the world wide web -just this winter I connected (for free!) with friends in Seoul over my first video chat using Skype.

Gen-Xer makes peace with the world of technology, which future generations will have never lived without -it's charming in a clownish sort of way.

Surfing the web a month or so ago I came across my now favorite web-contributer Kevin Kelly. How I happened upon him I can't even remember, but if you want news and insight on ground-breaking, barrier-pushing and cutting-edge technologies, theories and institutions, you'd do well to visit his site. You can still read The New York Times, but you won't find it nearly as exciting.

This year Mr. Kelly posed the Edge Annual World Question: "What have you changed your mind about?" Mr. Kelly's answer? That Wikipedia actually works! An answer pertinent to our cause here at The Green Appeal, can be found on the same page as Mr. Kelly's (click his name above) from futurist Peter Schwartz, concerning the importance of nuclear power.

Previous questions: 2007, What are you optimistic about? 2006, What is your dangerous idea? 2005, What do you believe is true even though you can't prove it?

Sign me up for the cybernetic micro-processor nano brain implant that will help me read and process all this before breakfast is ready!

Life As We Know It (Beat The System)

The healthy life of a blog it seems to me is dependent on a couple factors, first it must be updated consistently, at least once a day; secondly it must serve some use. With well under 2000 hits in more than a year, The Green Appeal seems in a difficult position to argue that it manages to meet either of those criteria. Obviously it fails the first without question. And while I have no doubt that it's (I've) made a difference in at least one reader's life, and this is by no means a plea for friendly reassurance, the second, I feel, remains up for debate. What is it that The Green Appeal has to offer that other eco-sites don't, say for example, if you'll excuse the pun, the well-oiled Grist, or the slightly oily No Impact Man?

King Corn Trailer

FOOD NEWS: A Conversation with Curt Ellis

FOOD NEWS: A Conversation with 'King Corn' Filmmaker: Part 2

FOOD NEWS: Part3: Conversation with King Corn Filmmaker Curt Ellis

Southern Hospitality

In an exciting turn of events, the YERT crew will be staying with my family for a few days as they pass through Nashville, TN. Too bad my dad and I aren't there, since he's actually visiting me in the burgh. So a big thank you goes out to my mom and my sis! Is this what is referred to as a family intervention?

Environmental Oncology

According to National Cancer Institute and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences data, environmental factors cause between 80 and 90 percent of all cancers. A recent event held at Fifth Avenue Place downtown was highlighted with a visit by the Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at The University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Devra Lee Davis. Ms. Davis also happens to be the best-selling author of When Smoke Ran Like Water and more recently The Secret History of the War on Cancer. The event was organized by The Green Appeal's friend Phyllis Barber, who is the Sustainability Coordinator (a title I wish I had) for Pittsburgh's Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. Other guests included The Green Building Alliance, Urban Land Institute, The Rachel Carson Homestead, and Sustainable Pittsburgh.

The great aspect of this event was the community outreach, with its various participants bringing an array of environmental health issues (environmental oncology, watershed preservation, green building, sustainable development and conscientious diets and consumption) under one roof, providing visitors with several inlets to the larger umbrella of environmental stewardship, visitors who may have otherwise been more tentative to attend a conference on one particular subject. Say for example, global warming, which in the media too often consumes every other environmental topic by its headline grabbing politics, thus unfortunately continuing to polarize American culture. I find it extremely disheartening that people, particularly popular figures in the media, continue to expend energy attempting to debunk human-caused climate change, it's a line of argument which seems practically a non-factor, in that such a train of thought apparently runs parallel with rejecting any notions concerning the concept of pollution.

Kevin Kelly and The Encyclopedia of Life

A couple websites of interest:

Kevin Kelly is the author of several books, particularly Out Of Control, The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World was required reading for the cast of The Matrix. It's available to be read online.

Currently he maintains Cool Tools, a reader-contributed blog about all that's hip. I came across the site a couple days ago when I found this article in Wired magazine by David Byrne. Mr. Byrne interviews the likes of Brian Eno and Thom Yorke -turns out Radiohead just did a study of their carbon footprint left from their tours. The greatest contributer? The travel done by the concert goers.

Mr. Kelly has had a hand in several projects over the years including an effort to categorize every living organism on the planet. He says he didn't get very far, but thankfully other people have taken over: The Encyclopedia of Life

Then there's this questionnaire testing how much you know about your local watershed.

The Mysterious Disappearance...

It's been two months since my last post, and thus two months since I took away the paper recycling bins at the office. Though I did naively hope that the (in)action would elicit some sort of proactive response from my coworkers, I knew ultimately little would be done and that I'd mainly have to face some confused faces.

The first couple of weeks makeshift bins began to appear in the previously designated areas, which I quickly removed, knowing that, like the normal bins, they would pile up till I took them "away." For a short moment I entertained the idea of letting the mess grow out of hand so as to give people a real physical example of the collected mass of waste we accumulate; as I've occasionally had inklings of aspiration to make a instillation piece out of our waste, hoping to transplant it during my weekly trips to a nearby gallery SPACE. The idea being to actually close the gallery to the public as a contaminated space, or landfill, thus forcing them to view it from outside the large open glass facade, where over the duration of the exhibit facts and warnings would be placed to disseminate information. The mess would grow weekly till it became practically unbearable and uncontainable within the gallery, at which point an intervention would be held and the public would be invited to participate in a clean up. I went as far as placing a phone call and leaving a message with the curator, but I left it at that, as I feared having to answer to the possibility of confidential information, emails, artwork, invoices, etc. from my company being made public. More than a few times my imagination ran away with possible scenarios and implications unfolding; should I ask their permission, or should I ask for forgiveness, and how long could I hide it from them, would I be fired, what kind of stir would that cause in the press?

But I digress.

Slowly it became obvious to my coworkers that the recycling was no longer being provided and I was often, and still am, though less frequently, stopped in the hallways and asked whether or not we were still recycling. It was a question, the phrasing of which I took some exception to, being careful to clarify that yes, I had stopped recycling paper. Filled with consternation, inevitably their next question was, "Why?" Why indeed. How was it that the treehugger was giving up? "I'm tired," was always my short reply. I was literally tired of, and from, lugging all that weight across town every week -too, it was a lonely excursion during which I was left with the entirely different, yet equally heavy weight of my thoughts, which were balanced by two opposing notions, one concerned with the importance of my actions, and the other with a growing resentment toward the lack of support I was being given other than an occasional bit of lip service.

As the conversations lengthened with more questions and answers, it became quite obvious to me how poorly over the past two years I related the actual facts of my endeavor, or maybe how little people actually listen. Some people didn't know that I had to drive across town, that I was simply bringing it down to the building's loading dock where the waste is collected; strangely these were people who have worked in the office longer than I have and that I know have been down to the loading dock enough times to know there is no such collection system. Others didn't even know I was the one who was doing it -this is partially due to the problem of turnover. And still to some I imagine it was like nothing had ever changed, ever.

Essentially, the people who made the effort to approach me with their gratitude when I began were the same people to approach me when I stopped, they were still thankful for my effort, and every one of them remarked how unfortunate it was that the program would not continue. "That's too bad," they would say. And it is too bad. There were also the select few who still offered to help and never followed through. One person had gone as far as trying to put together a petition for the office to sign, but when I mentioned that it looked like I would finally, on their invitation, be meeting with building management about a program, the petition was never mentioned again, nor has the meeting happened.

Meanwhile, my new devil may care attitude has eased my daily anxieties and obsessive compulsiveness over the whole issue, and afforded me a certain freedom from the burden of my guilt. A few years ago, it was an epiphany of sorts I suppose, I came to the belief that humanity's nature is essentially based on our need to be innocent. So is it really any wonder that it's our redeeming qualities which bring us so near our spiritual maladies? Not something I think in our daily experience which we prefer.

Stan Brakhage - Comingled Containers (1996)

"This 'return to photography' (after several years of only painting film) was made on the eve of cancer surgery -kind of a 'last testament,' if you will...an envisionment of the fleeting complexity of worldly phenomenon." -Stan Brakhage

Business As Usual

This story begins two years ago (21 months to be precise) when I first arrived in Pittsburgh. After a couple weeks surviving by the good graces of my friend Justin, who I had known in Colorado and come here to stay with after trekking it up from my residency in Florida, I landed a telemarketing job, which I abruptly quit after a one week stint. A week or so later, on the same day there was the possibility I could have been sent to operate an elevator, I was sent to an ad office downtown to fill an assistant position in the mail room -and there I have remained.

A few days into the job and the myriad amount of waste was undeniable. A few weeks later, after having asked some questions, I took it upon myself to place some used cardboard boxes by the four main copiers. A co-worker made a recycling sign that I taped to each of them, I sent out an office-wide email, and so began my recycling efforts for an office with two floors and more than 120 people.

The (24 story) building's loading dock has a massive dumpster and three other smaller bins that are meant strictly for cardboard. For the first few weeks I dumped our paper in one of these, knowing that it was a very strong possibility, though I was keeping it separate from the cardboard, it would end up in the landfill since this was not a site specifically designated for paper. Co-workers had been approaching me, thanking me for the effort and offering help, though only a few have ever followed through, but one who did, happened to have a truck she said I could use, as I don't own a car. I soon found a used-paper wholesaler who would take our waste if I dropped it off, they'd shred it and sell it off to god knows who or where -I never asked.

Newspaper and magazines were a no-no for the wholesaler, though he did me a favor and took ours since it was a minimal amount, a little bit in the mix wouldn't hurt, it was kind of their way of skimming from the top. Cardboard was the premium material, it was so good they could afford to pay for it, about fifty cents a pound. I usually walked away with enough for a coffee and bagel.

While the wholesaler was generous to the point that he offered to take my cans and bottles as well, though they'd literally pile up in the corner till he had enough to sell those off to some business acquaintance, I could sense that he was bit annoyed with my questions and my quiet insistence to drive onto the scale to weigh our waste. The scale, a metal platform embedded within the concrete parking lot, was clearly meant for much larger vehicles, not semis, but certainly dump trucks. Once a week for a month I drove my co-workers Dodge Dakota onto the scale, once when I arrived, and again after I unloaded around the back of the building, a warehouse where the shredding was done by five or six guys. The paper would amass in a pile in the center of the floor where, with the help of a bulldozer, they'd shovel it into a pit, where one or two of them would then direct it onto a conveyor belt that rose up dumping the paper through the shredder and into a compressing bin, where it would finally be loosely wrapped for shipping.

Every time I arrived I had to go into the office to let him know I was there, and then wait a few minutes in the car for him to come to the scale. He always obliged, but I could tell he felt he was too busy to be bothering with such a small truckload; only it was a task I felt necessary in order to know just how much waste was leaving our office (though obviously much more was being produced). That first month, and the only month I've taken any measurements, I recycled over 400 pounds. On average, as I can safely assure that the waste collection has increased as we've gone along, that's roughly 8,400 lbs (a few tons) in almost two years.

However, I stopped going to the wholesaler because I wanted to start recycling commingled containers as well and felt, though he had offered to take them, that I had trouble this man enough, and it wouldn't do for me to take the paper one place and the containers another, so I have since been making weekly trips to the low-tech drop-off center. For a time I used my co-worker's Dakota, then one day I was suddenly not allowed to drive anyone's car from the office. Making trips with the recycling was not the only time this was necessary, as I was often being asked to run errands to pick up various supplies. The decision I assume had to do with the president's concerns about insurance -I was never told specifics. My boss, who owns a small Ford SUV, thankfully started making the trips with me; we did this for a couple months and I was glad to have the company, but it wasn't good to have us both out of the office, and it was costing her money for parking. Luckily Flexcar started its operation.

After essentially going it alone for all this time, a few weeks ago, much to my pleasant surprise, I got a phone call from a complete stranger working for another company a few floors above who had heard of my actions and wanted to help pressure the building management into taking some responsibility. As I talked with her (and I don't find it ironic at all that's she's from San Francisco and not a local Pittsburgher) about my experiences I must have sounded rather skeptical. Last winter I had walked into the building manager's office and literally told her all I wanted for Christmas was a recycling program. It was a sweet moment to be sure, but a year later I'm still being told some variety of, "We're working on it."

Part of the issue concerns the fact that the building was put up for sale some time ago, though I understand it will be under new ownership beginning next year. This has been a stifling factor in many ways. It not only seems to have somehow contributed to the stalled efforts of recycling negotiations, but it's also put a damper on my attempts to maintain and update amenities in our office. Our lease expires in less than two years, and as ironic as it may seem, having been through three layoffs, there is talk of expanding to another floor, or moving entirely to a new building. With our executives unsure of where we'll be in two years, they're understandably unwilling to pay for some updates, like cleaning the carpet, or replacing the lighting fixtures which continually burnout or brownout, costing us thousands of dollars in maintenance every year.

Having just read a recent article in BusinessWeek about the trials and tribulations of Aspen Skiing Company's Sustainability Coordinator, Auden Schendler, it's becoming evident to me that, even as a person with such a title, unless you actually work for a company that specifically deals in environmental sustainability, you're going to be blessed with responsibility, but absolutely no power to help you claim it; you can be sure there will be no specific operating budget for which you will be responsible and allowed to use as you see fit.

It's not necessarily a naive point of view to believe that this kind of trust and cooperation could one day become a widespread practice for eco-friendly ventures in the common workplace. Employees, unless working under a vigilant and watchful eye of a micro-manager, are often trusted to do their job with little supervision; this in fact provides a good standard measure for an employee's personality and commitment to the company -for whatever reason it may be, a person's motivation or lack thereof becomes quite apparent when they're essentially left to their own devices, those who flourish under high stakes will continue to raise them, while others will simply continue to take what they're given because they're workin' for a livin'.

One word can describe the notion that this kind of business ethnic can be more widely incorporated: incentives. Yes, to some it may seem a slightly sad necessity, but for the most part it's certainly true. The environmental movement, though it's continuously in the media limelight, essentially continues to be a grassroots production -in a way this is the essence of Paul Hawken's book Blessed Unrest, the green revolution, though happening worldwide, is a semi-voluntary endeavor being made by independent and unconnected individuals and organizations. Yes, the scientific data of human caused climate change is indisputable; yes, people are changing their lifestyles; yes, companies are changing the way they do business; but as Hawken has explained time and time again, you can look at the people involved and feel optimistic about our chances, but if you look at the data and are optimistic, you're not looking at the data.

If our efforts to curtail global warming are to equal and offset the disastrous rate of ecological decline we are witnessing at this point in history, the green movement can longer afford to be spearheaded from the ground up; we must begin to get leadership from the top down, from our elected officials, be they local or national, and from many many more business owners, large and small. I don't know how many times, when discussing my efforts, that I've been told, "These things take time." My response is simple, "It wouldn't take time if the boss said we're going to do it."

The current environmental crises isn't something that will work itself out in a positive manner given time, which is exactly how the cookie is crumbling, because I can assure you, as Schendler relates in the BusinessWeek article, there is rarely a day that goes by when I'm not teased about "making a difference" and related to from a myopic viewpoint which condescendingly refers to me as a "treehugger." The green movement may be on everybody's lips, but lip service it remains, as it seems to me it is widely and blatantly given little serious consideration by the majority of our culture.

All that being said, I have to now admit, as it may have been slowly becoming noticeable -my spirit has been fading. And so this past Friday, after having started as I said almost two years ago, I decided I was going to reduce my recycling efforts, and no longer collect paper and magazines for weekly trips to the drop-off. I'll continue to recycle cardboard in our loading dock, and also collect containers, which I'll drop off on a more limited basis, as they accumulate much slower than paper.

It's a decision I've yet to fully comprehend beyond the fact that it's evident I'm physically tired from lugging of all that waste to and fro, and emotionally drained from the continual isolation I feel within a company whose leadership feigns support for my actions, yet quite simply, for one reason or another, abdicates its responsibility.

Still, whatever regret I may develop won't come from any fear of power, considering I feel they have absolutely no right to scorn me for discontinuing a practice I alone started and carried out; but I do know my efforts are/were appreciated by my co-workers and they'll certainly be disappointed, which just may prove to isolate me further. Though I've made no announcement, one person did already notice the recycling boxes weren't by the copiers and asked me about it. When I told him I wasn't going to do it anymore, he was understanding and rather pleasantly thanked me; he also expressed his wish, as many have before, that the building provide the service.

As I packed the Flexcar with the recycling that day, I stopped, as I always do, to talk with the security guard in the loading dock, an older gentleman who was at one time an architect for industrial farms in the Midwestand, and I told him that this was going to be it for a while. He was rather confounded and exclaimed, "I thought if I could count on anybody, I could count on you." Sadder words have rarely been spoken. I told him I was tired, and that, though we both jokingly knew it to be naive, I hoped it would serve as a bit of reverse psychology and move other people to action. You tell me, what are the chances?

Northside Farmers Market

Every Friday evening during the fall the Northside Farmers Market in West Park is open for business.

From work downtown we walked across the Roberto Clemente Bridge, one of the three sisters bridges hovering solemnly over The Allegheny River, we passed PNC Park on our left, home of The Pirates, made a quick right by Fox Sports Network, and before we knew it we were asking, "How much for the apples?"
















Overheard at the market:

"Alright sir. Thank you. You keep smiling now. You're a good man. Keep smiling and laughing, it's a great stress reliever. It'll add years to your life. Have a good night now."

And:

"Where the watermelons?"
"Well Mam, they're out-of-season. We have those in August."
"But they got watermelons in the grocery store."
"Well, those are probably from Georgia or some place. Everything you see here is from Western Pennsylvania and we got a different growing season. We got pears, apples, grapes, pumpkins. You like pumpkin pie?"
"Oh yeah, I like pumpkin pie. We'll get a pumpkin."

















We didn't buy a pumpkin, but we ran into our friend Jessica from yoga class and her family and they bought a pumpkin, we think they're going to carve theirs though. We did buy a basket of apples, two ears of corn, some muenster cheese, grapes, a cucumber, a tomato, a squash, and some peanut butter cookies all for about $12! -if you notice, the cookies didn't make it into our picture.

The Green Heart of Pittsburgh

Yesterday we enjoyed a wonderful night at The Phipps Conservatory in support and celebration of their recent partnership with The Green Building Alliance and their combined success in becoming the nation's greenest garden! -sounds a little ironic doesn't it? Having recently accepted The Living Building Challenge, their hope is to one day surpass the LEED platinum standards by generating their own energy with renewable resources, and capturing and treating all of its water on-site. With the use of radical roof designs, symbiotic heating systems, energy blankets, and earth tubes all partially powered by a fuel cell, we'd say their well on their way!

Corporate Report Cards

Though there remains debate over setting governmental standards for environmental sustainability practices, companies and institutions across the nation, and the globe, are voluntarily stepping forward with information and processes in hope of establishing concrete ideals concerned with measuring our progress toward accepting responsibility for pollution and climate change.

Check out the reports:

Global Reporting Initiative
Ceres
Carbon Disclosure Project

RiverCubes

"The stuff of RiverCubes is human-made: wrested from nature, wrought to our will... Used for a time, then discarded when no longer “useful” or “valued.” Where does this stuff come from? Where does it go?? These questions guide a strategy I call Artful Trash Management. From a human ecology point of view two facts distinguish this region: we live in one of the most reliable watersheds in the United States yet are among the least compliant with the Clean Water Act. We also accept landfill from neighboring states with higher population densities: our land wealth “affords” revenue & waste streams. RiverCubes provoke reflection on these and related issues. Our common approach to everyday stuff that we no longer want is to place it out of sight: in the trash, in landfills, in rivers and lakes... These RiverCubes were rescued from that fate, and are offered for public viewing with mischievous pleasure. This map names names and indicates collection sites. The Cubes have traveled the city, incited performance events, and want to live near where they were collected. They are works of philosophy, labors of love, and belong to the rivers. Helper Brothers & Sisters Unite!"

Bob Johnson
Artist's Statement
Pittsburgh, PA
June 2004

baraka

Green Drinks International

Every month people who work in the field or are generally concerened for the environment meet up for libations at informal sessions known as Green Drinks. Check out your local listing, with one hundred happenings across the US, and even more worldwide!