1st July 2007

Green Executives: Sustainable Office Possible? 1 reply

Can Executives Be Green & Create the Sustainable Office?

At Bizresearch, we reduce, recycle and reuse when possible.  The biggest opportunity is paper reduction, waste reduction, recycling, bottled water, air conditioning and lighting.  Does your AC run when you’re not there?  If it does, can you schedule the office to be warmer when you’re not there, just enough to keep computers and equipment cool enough to operate safely?

Do you have recycling bins in place?  Do you use both sides of your paper?  Encourage double-sided printing and reuse paper when possible.  

I also fly a lot, which is another concern - you’ve probably heard about airplanes and con-trails.  I need to do a separate post on that topic - and will try to do so in the coming month.    Do you really need to do that meeting in person, across-country?  Can a teleconference suffice?  I have alot of frequent flyer miles, on American Airlines.  I love the frequent flyer program, which is also contributing to global warming in its own way.  We love to fly to get the mileage, and to get the gold, platinum status.  I’ve finally achieved gold and wish I could get platinum.  But that’s a status issue and hardly something for environmentalists to be proud of.  I’m guilty as charged. 

So, it’s interesting to get a newsletter dedicated to the sustainable office by Regus, which has come to me as a result of my American Airlines exec gold status.  But it’s got some interesting research you might enjoy.  And, as executives are typically leaders in some way, in their respective offices, it’s up to us to lead our employees to a better, sustainable, office.  Not only that - we should encourage others to do the same, including our property managers, mayors, and chamber execs.

20th May 2007

Walking to the Store & Buying Organic

Yesterday, I wrote about sustainable lifestyle.  It’s sad that it’s a challenge to walk to the grocery store to buy some organic milk.  How many of you would walk four city blocks to get your groceries on a Sunday night?

If I was in a town that this was the norm, I wouldn’t say it was a challenge.  I walked everywhere in St. Petersburg & Moscow, Stockholm, Boston, London, Washington, D.C., Olde Towne Alexandria, but the northwest side of Columbus?  Hardly.

It was the first time I walked to the grocery store to buy some milk on this side of town.  Walking to the store is good on three counts.  You buy only what you need, because you don’t want to carry it home.  You get exercise.  And, you don’t contribute much in the way of a carbon footprint.

To further the sustainable lifestyle, I planted my first-ever organic vegetable container garden.  I’ve got three different types of lettuce, bush-crop cucumbers, two kinds of eggplant, four or more kinds of tomatoes, including yummy Roma tomatoes, basil, and marigolds, which are supposed to ward off aphids.

Yesterday I could not find organic container soil for vegetables.  I did find it today  at Plantland on Sawmill Road.  Miracle Gro makes it, it’s called Organic Choice.   It was also a whopping $10.99 a bag, and it was just 16 quarts of fluffy air-pumped organic soil.  It says it’s all natural Organic.  Does organic soil need to be Certified Organic?

Challenge Yourself -  Walk to get your groceries at least once or twice a week.  Walk to something nearby, that typically you’d drive to, even though it’s close.

Plant an organic container garden - grow your own produce locally - even if it’s on your deck.

I’ll post pictures in the coming days.  I have to work now.

Helpful Resources - Organic Gardening

Companion Planting with Herbs and Plants

19th May 2007

Sustainable Living in Worthington, Ohio

May 17, 2007
Presentation in the Worthington Muni Building, High Street
by OSU & Sustainable Living

It was a busy week in Worthington regarding global warming and sustainable lifestyle.   There were topical events Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night in downtown Worthington.   It makes me want to move to Worthington.  Right now, I work in Worthington.  My business is located on W. Wilson.  We’ve been there for over 5 years.  I’ve often wanted to move to downtown Worthington, although the housing cost is a bit daunting.  Houses beginning at $400k, and still needing work….  However, that’s the dream, to move there and be able to walk everywhere.  My kids could walk to school, as I did, when I was young.  No, I don’t have kids yet, but as I said, this is the “dream”.  There is only one thing lacking in downtown Worthington, for walking purposes, a grocery store.  I definitely think Sunflower or an organic market should come to the old Jubilee store building.  That would seal the deal for me, that and $400k for a house.

These are the type of things that Sustainable Living and the OSU group is looking at, led by Dr. Maria Manta Conroy.  Lots of indicators are being reviewed by many groups, including:

Transportation & Mobility for Sustainable Lifestyle
Can car be secondary or not necessarily the only mode of transportation to get around?  I come from Washington, D.C., where ride sharing with strangers was the norm, bus and subway transportation were to be expected.  In fact, at one time, to go to school and work, without a car, I could boast 19 buses or modes of transportation a day.  I lived in Alexandria.  I went to school in Annandale.  I worked out in Fairfax.  I worked at a bank in Alexandria, however, the latter is huge - spread out.  So, 19 buses a day, until I was running to catch a bus, and fell, slipping right under an oncoming car.  I was fine, and got right back up, and began to run to catch that bus.  After all, it was the last bus of the day to get back to Alexandria.  You can guess what happened next - yep, didn’t catch that last bus.  I had to take the “dreaded cab”.  So, I’m not a fan of riding buses or taking cabs.  But walking in a safe and enjoyable environment?  I’m interested.

Bicycle Miles, commuting trips, carpooling, COTA, quality sidewalks are all indicators for monitoring, change and potential improvement.

Economic Development & Social Equity has lots of indicators too, including:

Housing affordability, child care facilities, number of employees working in Worthington versus those who live and work in Worthington, business starts versus failures

There were some questions at this point about the few number of indicators shown in the presentation.  Dr. Conroy suggested we look up Sustainable Seattle.  They began with eight indicators, we began with 19.  Sustainable Seattle grew to over 200 indicators, and then was whittled down to 100 indicators.  View Sustainable Seattle Regional Indicators.

Some other questions and comments were about biofuels, are these really a net improvement to the environment.  Some discussion about AEP.  Are they changing the mix of renewable and non-renewable?

Joe Konen, from OSU, gave the most technical portion of the evening’s presentations.  In fact, I was challenged here.  I felt behind the eight ball, as some of the jargon and worksheets were asking opinions based on what was more important, water quality, housing cost, or renewable energy?  I felt like it was one of those psych tests in order to understand who we really are, as opposed to what we want others to think of us.

I feel a bit inadequate to comment on that process, as it was indeed over my head.  I’m anxious to learn what I can do differently, and how we can inspire and motivate others to change.

It’s a Saturday evening, and sustainable lifestyle is now constantly on my mind.  I went to Anderson’s to get some vegetable plants, so I can attempt to do organic container gardening.  I bought lettuce, eggplant, peppers (green, red, sweet bell, hot peppers), basil (Italian and sweet), and perhaps a cucumber?

But finding organic container garden soil is an effort.  Anderson’s General Store did not have it.  I thought about driving to Straders, Plantland, and other places.  Each time I drive now, I think about carbon impact.  So, I decided to go into the dreaded “WALMART”, which has moved next to our condominium complex, despite contest against it.  I hoped no one would notice me - I’d hear about it for years.  Many know I think WalMart is evil and fought it, got on the Civic Association Board to fight it, and won only minor improvements to the existing plan.  The Garden Center was something I was in favor of, so I thought I’d check it out.  Eeek.   Would you believe they actually had more Scott’s Organic stuff than Anderson’s?  However, still no organic container gardening soil specifically for vegetables.  I decided to poak around the rest of the evil giant’s grocery store, and noted not one organic dairy or produce item. I thought, is it possible to actually have organic milk at WalMart?  That would be a big fat NO….

 WalMart and demographics - I am so not a fan.  The way too thin, very tall blonde woman who tans too much, and has the leathery skin type, with skinny jeans that were still hanging off of her, and a pink button down shirt, in front of me at the express checkout - married with a stack of diamond rings.  Her purchase of the evening - a bottle of Jose Cuervo and Trojans ….. interesting combination.  

 Okay, so tomorrow, will I walk to Kroger to get organic milk?  To be continued….