Hi Mike >Hi Kirk and List...what a wonderful article. Of course there will >be the naysayers who will tell us blah blah blah but good lord at >least we're hearing about people in wasteful America trying to make >a difference. Refreshing. > I have a question for you and the List: any ideas on how I >might collect the scraps from restaurants and eventually individuals >to turn into compost and do so profitably? I'm talking about a need >for more industrial sized composting. Not sure what that might >involve. I would prefer to do this as a business rather than try >and involve the local government, but if our local government >eventually got involved, that would be okay with me. Maybe my >efforts would push them to act. Not sure I've asked a specific >enough question, but would at least like to get the ball rolling >with ideas from the List. Thanks for everyone's help beforehand. >Mike DuPree
Lots to be said about that. You might start with this article - main focus on developing countries, but I think it applies everywhere (like Appropriate Technology). http://www.cityfarmer.org/Furedy.html Solid Waste Reuse And Urban Agriculture Best Keith >----- Original Message ----- >From: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Kirk McLoren >To: <mailto:Biofuel@sustainablelists.org>biofuel >Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2006 8:01 PM >Subject: [Biofuel] Fwd: Cool article: Going Green > > > > >--------------------------------------------------------------------- >----------- >Going Green >With windmills, low-energy homes, new forms of recycling and >fuel-efficient cars, Americans are taking conservation into their own hands. >By Jerry Adler >Newsweek >July 17, 2006 issue - One morning last week ... 29 years after president >Jimmy Carter declared energy conservation "the moral equivalent of war" >... 37 years after the first reference to the "greenhouse effect" in The >New York Times ... one day after oil prices hit a record peak of more >than $75 per barrel ... Kelley Howell, a 38-year-old architect, got on >her bicycle a little after 5 a.m. and rode 7.9 miles past shopping >centers, housing developments and a nature preserve to a bus stop to >complete her 24-mile commute to work. Compared with driving in her 2004 >Mini Cooper, the 15.8-mile round trip by bicycle conserved approximately >three fifths of a gallon of gasoline, subtracting 15 pounds of potential >carbon dioxide pollution from the atmosphere (minus the small additional >amount she exhaled as a result of her exertion). That's 15 pounds out of >1.7 billion tons of carbon produced annually to fuel all the vehicles in >the United States. She concedes that when you look at it that way, it >doesn't seem like very much. "But if you're not doing something and the >next family isn't doing anything, then who will?" >On that very question the course of civilization may rest. In the face >of the coming onslaught of pollutants from a rapidly urbanizing China >and India, the task of avoiding ecological disaster may seem hopeless, >and some environmental scientists have, quietly, concluded that it is. >But Americans are notoriously reluctant to surrender their fates to the >impersonal outcomes of an equation. One by one¢Ç¨Äùand together, in state >and local governments and even giant corporations¢Ç¨Äùthey are attempting >to wrest the future from the dotted lines on the graphs that point to >catastrophe. The richest country in the world is also the one with the >most to lose. >Environmentalism waxes and wanes in importance in American politics, but >it appears to be on the upswing now. Membership in the Sierra Club is up >by about a third, to 800,000, in four years, and Gallup polling data >show that the number of Americans who say they worry about the >environment "a great deal" or "a fair amount" increased from 62 to 77 >percent between 2004 and 2006. (The 2006 poll was done in March, before >the attention-getting release of Al Gore's global-warming film, "An >Inconvenient Truth.") Americans have come to this view by many routes, >sometimes reluctantly; Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, >thinks unhappiness with the Bush administration's environmental record >plays a part, but many of the people NEWSWEEK spoke to for this story >are Republicans. "Al Gore can't convince me, but his data can convince >me," venture capitalist Ray Lane remarks ruefully. Lane is a general >partner in the prominent Silicon Valley firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield >& Byers, which has pledged to invest $100 million in green technology. >He arrived at his position as a "Republican environmentalist" while >pondering three trends: global warming, American dependence on foreign >oil and the hypermodernization of Asian societies. >Others got to the same place by way of religion, most prominently >Richard Cizik, director of governmental relations for the National >Association of Evangelicals¢Ç¨Äùbut also people like Sally Bingham, an >Episcopal priest in San Francisco and a founder of the religious >environmental group Interfaith Power and Light. A moderate Republican, >she had to defend herself on a talk-radio show from a listener who >accused her of buying into the liberal myth of global warming. "I am," >she pronounced frostily, "a religious person called to care for creation >from this platform." And many followed their own idiosyncratic paths, >like Howell, who started researching the connections between food, >health and the environment after her mother died of cancer. Soon she and >her husband, JD, found themselves caught up in replacing all their light >bulbs and toilets with more-efficient versions and weighing their >garbage, which by obsessive recycling they have reduced to less than 10 >pounds a week. >But probably the most common formative experience is one that Wendy >Abrams of Highland Park, Ill., underwent six years ago, as she was >reading an article about global climate change over the next century; >she looked up from her magazine and saw her four children, who will be >alive for most of it. That was the year the hybrid Prius went on sale in >the United States, and she bought one as soon as she could. This >reflects what Pope describes as a refocusing of environmental concern >from issues like safe drinking water, which were local and concrete, to >climate change, which is global and abstract. Or so it was, anyway, >until it came crashing into New Orleans last summer with the force of a >million tons of reprints from The Journal of Climate. Katrina, says >Pope, "changed people's perceptions of what was at stake"¢Ç¨Äùeven though >no one can prove that the hurricane was directly caused by global warming. >All over America, a post-Katrina future is taking shape under the banner >of "sustainability." Architects vie to create the most sustainable >skyscrapers. The current champion in Manhattan appears to be Norman >Foster's futuristic headquarters for the Hearst Corp., lit to its >innermost depths by God's own high-efficiency light source, the sun. The >building's "destination dispatch" elevators require passengers to enter >their floor at a kiosk, where a screen directs them to a cab, grouping >them to wring the last watt of efficiency from their 30-second trips. >But it is expected to be challenged soon in Manhattan by a new Bank of >America tower, designed by Cook & Fox, which takes "sustainability" to a >point just short of growing its own food. Every drop of rain that falls >on its roof will be captured for use; scraps from the cafeteria will be >fermented in the building to produce methane as a supplementary fuel for >a generator intended to produce more than half the building's >electricity; the waste heat from the generator will both warm the >offices and power a refrigeration plant to cool them. >Far away in Traverse City, Mich., a resort town four hours north of >Detroit, home builder Lawrence Kinney wrestles with a different problem, >people who want 6,000-square-foot vacation houses they will use only a >couple of weeks a year. Outraged by the waste, he refuses to build them. >His preferred size is about 1,800 square feet, 25 percent smaller than >the national average; he has rediscovered the virtues of plaster walls >instead of resource-intensive drywall, uses lumber harvested locally by >horse-drawn teams and treats his wood with stains made from plants, not >petroleum. When Jeff Martin, a program manager for Microsoft, set out to >build a sustainable house near Charlotte, N.C., he specified something >that looked like a house, not "a yurt, or a spaceship, or something made >out of recycled cans and tires in the middle of the desert." He turned >to Steven Strong, a Massachusetts-based renewable-energy consultant who >says he "fell in love" with solar energy when he realized that "you >could put a thin sliver of silicon, with no moving parts and no waste, >in the sun and generate electricity forever." Strong designed an >unobtrusive solar-cell array on the roof of Martin's conventional >stucco-and-stone house to provide free electricity, and a sun-powered >heater that produces so much hot water Martin can use it to wash his >driveway. "We never run out," Martin boasts, "even when my wife's family >comes to visit over Christmas." >The sun: sustainable energy that not even in-laws can exhaust! The same >sun that for years shone uselessly on the roof of FedEx's immense >Oakland airport hub, through which passes most of the company's traffic >with China. Since last year, solar panels covering 81,000 square feet >have been providing 80 percent of the facility's needs. The sun that >also creates the wind that powers the wind turbines that Chicago¢Ç¨Äùwhich >is seeking to be known as the environmental city as well as the >windy one¢Ç¨Äùis building atop the Daley Center, a high-rise courthouse. >But among cities, few are as sustainable as Austin, Texas, which >recycles its trash so assiduously that residents generated only 0.79 >tons of garbage per household last year, down from 1.14 tons in 1992. >Austin's city-owned electric company estimates that "renewable" power, >mostly from west Texas wind farms, will account for 6 percent of its >capacity this year, nearly doubling to 11 percent by 2008. Beginning in >2001, customers were allowed to purchase wind power at a price >guaranteed for 10 years. But since it was more costly than conventional >power, most people who signed up did so out of conviction¢Ç¨Äùuntil last >fall, when rising natural-gas prices meant that conventional customers >were paying more, and suddenly the company was overwhelmed with new >converts to sustainable power. >Another thing the sun does, of course, is grow plants. Agriculture is >being reshaped by the growing demand for corn to produce ethanol¢Ç¨Äùwhich >can be blended with gasoline to stretch supplies, or can power on its >own the growing number of "flex-fuel" cars. Four billion gallons will be >produced this year, a doubling just since 2003. Dave Nelson of Belmond, >Iowa, now devotes as much land to growing corn for fuel as for >food¢Ç¨Äùthe same variety¢Ç¨Äùand after the starch is extracted for >fermentation, the protein left behind gets fed to his pigs, which >produce manure to fertilize the fields. "Not a thing is wasted," says >Nelson, who is chairman of a farmer's cooperative that runs one ethanol >distillery and is building another. The problem, though, is that people >and livestock eat corn, too, and some experts see a time, not too far >off, when the food and fuel industries will be competing for the same >resources. Biotech companies are scrambling to come up with processes >for getting ethanol from cellulose¢Ç¨Äùthe left-behind stalks and leaves >of the corn plant, or other species such as switch grass that can grow >on marginal land. One can envision vast farms devoted to growing fuel >transforming the Midwest. >Even Wal-Mart wants to help shape a sustainable future, and few >companies are in a better position to do so. Just by wrapping four kinds >of produce in a polymer derived from corn instead of oil, the company >claims it can save the equivalent of 800,000 gallons of gasoline. >"Right-sizing" the boxes on just one line of toys¢Ç¨Äùredesigning them to >be just large enough for the contents¢Ç¨Äùsaves $3.5 million in trucking >costs each year, and (by its estimate) 5,000 trees. Overnight, the giant >retailer recently became the largest purchaser of organic cotton for >clothing, and it will likely have a comparable impact on organic produce >as well. This is in line with CEO H. Lee Scott's goal of reducing the >company's "carbon footprint" by 20 percent in seven years. If the whole >country could do that, it would essentially meet the goals set by the >Kyoto treaty on global warming, which the United States, to the dismay >of its European allies, refuses to sign. >Wal-Mart's efforts have two big implications. One is cultural; it helps >disprove the canard that environmentalists are all Hollywood stars. >Admittedly, some of them are, like "Entourage" star Adrian Grenier, >whose renovated home in Brooklyn will have wall insulation of recycled >denim, or Ed Begley Jr., who likes to arrive at show-business parties >aboard his bicycle and markets his own line of nontoxic, noncaustic, >biodegradable, vegan, child-safe household cleansers. (Begley concedes >that "there are some insincere people in this community" who may have >latched onto the environment because Africa was already taken, but, he >says, "even if you're only into this cause for a week, at least you're >doing something positive for that week.") But it wasn't movie stars who >snapped up 190,000 organic-cotton yoga outfits at Sam's Club outlets in >10 weeks earlier this year. >And even as "green" products make inroads among Wal-Mart's >budget-conscious masses, they are gathering cachet among an affluent new >consumer category which marketers call "LOHAS": Lifestyles of Health and >Sustainability. "The people who used to drive the VW bus to the co-op >are now driving the Volvo to Whole Foods," exults David Brotherton, a >Seattle consultant in corporate responsibility. Brotherton estimates the >LOHAS market, for everything from organic cosmetics to eco-resort >vacations, at up to $200 billion. This is the market targeted by AOL >founder Steve Case, who has poured much of his fortune into a "wellness" >company called Revolution (it will own eco-resorts and alternative >health-care ventures), and by Cottages and Gardens, a publishing company >that is launching an upscale sustainable-lifestyle magazine in September >called Verdant (a chic synonym for "green"). Their younger counterparts >get their green news from places like Grist.org, whose founder, Chip >Giller, sees the site as participating in a "rebranding of the >environmental movement" away from preachiness and toward creating jobs, >enhancing national security and having fun. >The second effect of Wal-Mart's entry into environmental marketing is to >give eco-awareness the imprimatur of the world's most tightfisted >company. "If they meet their [20 percent] goal," says Jon Coifman, media >director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, "it's going to >demonstrate irrefutably that reducing your carbon footprint is not only >possible but financially efficient." Andy Ruben, Wal-Mart's vice >president for "strategy and sustainability," said the company had >assumed that certified organic cotton would cost 20 to 30 percent more >than the ordinary kind, grown with pesticides and synthetic fertilizer. >But when its representatives actually talked to farmers, they found the >organic cost about the same. Within five years the company intends to >sell fish only from certified sustainable fisheries in the United >States. Wal-Mart, Ruben says, plans on being in business a long time, >and it wants fish to sell. >Wal-Mart also has been on the defensive over the way it treats its >employees, suppliers and competitors, which may play a role in its >desire to be seen as a good corporate citizen. But to give it the >benefit of the doubt, it's run by people, and they have children, too. >It seems as if American business must be filled with midlevel executives >like Ron Cuthbertson, senior vice president of supply chain and >inventory management for Circuit City, who dutifully justifies each of >the chain's environmental initiatives¢Ç¨Äùsubstituting reusable bins for >cardboard shipping boxes, establishing consumer battery-recycling >centers and so on¢Ç¨Äùin bottom-line terms, but then can't help adding: "I >personally have a passion for this." It can almost be described as a >struggle for the soul of American business, which might help explain why >a top corporate executive once showed up in the office of Paul Anderson, >chairman of Duke Energy Corp., to perform a mock exorcism. Anderson is >an outspoken advocate for controlling greenhouse-gas emissions, and his >fellow CEO suggested he must have been possessed by the spirit of an >environmentalist. Some other CEOs, Anderson says, will agree with him in >private but hide their feelings in public. "Part of it," he muses, "has >to do with how close someone is to retirement: they think, if I can just >get through the next few years without addressing this." >In assessing Anderson's soul, it should be noted that his company is >particularly heavily invested in nuclear power, an alternative to >fossil-fuel plants that produce no greenhouse gases, so his concern for >the Earth happens to coincide with his company's interests. So much the >better for him, compared, say, with Ford chairman Bill Ford Jr., a >strong environmentalist who almost alone among auto executives concedes >that cars contribute to global warming. Yet Ford has struggled to impose >his views on the industry, or even the company that bears his name. He >turned the historic River Rouge plant into one of the most >environmentally sound factories in the world, at a cost of $2 billion. >But Ford has had to back away from a promise to improve gas mileage on >its SUVs by 25 percent and to increase hybrid production to 250,000 >vehicles by the end of the decade. The company, which loses money on >hybrids despite their higher sticker price, said it would join the other >two U.S. carmakers in making more flex-fuel cars instead. >DaimlerChrysler just announced that it will begin importing its Smart >microcar from France, a vehicle just nine feet long that gets up to 69 >miles per gallon. "Putting a product like Smart in the marketplace," >says Reg Modlin, director of environmental and regulatory planning, >"shows that we're trying." >Looked at one way, these are thrilling times, the beginning of a >technological and social revolution that could vault our society into a >post-post-industrial future. "If you mention green tech or biotech in a >presentation," says Lane, the venture capitalist, "you'll get your >funding before you get to your third slide." On the other hand, we may >just be kidding ourselves. Can bicycles and switch grass really >offset the effects¢Ç¨Äùin pollution, resource depletion and habitat >destruction¢Ç¨Äùof a billion Chinese lining up to buy cars for the first >time? Domestic oil production has been declining for years, and the >United States now imports 60 percent of the 20 million barrels it uses >every day. It's nice that Jane Cremisi, a mortgage consultant in Newton, >Mass., washes and reuses her aluminum foil and patronizes ecofriendly >hotels like the Lenox, in Boston, which composts its food waste. Or that >Melinda MacNaughton, a former dietitian from El Granada, Calif., cleans >her house with vinegar and baking soda. But you cannot save the world >with anecdotes. Is the relevant statistic that sales of hybrid cars >doubled last year to 200,000¢Ç¨Äùor that they were outsold by SUVs by a >ratio of 23-1? >Still, when you look at all the United States has accomplished, can the >challenge be so far beyond us? Marty Hoffert, emeritus professor of >physics at New York University, doesn't think so. "If the United States >became a world leader in developing green technology and made it >available to other countries, it could make a big difference. For $100 >billion a year, which is at least what we're spending on Iraq," it could >be done, he says. "People understand the urgency," says Fred Krupp, >executive director of Environmental Defense, "and they see the economic >opportunities." It will take political will, though, and in that sense >every mile Howell rides on her bicycle achieves more than it saves in >petroleum; it raises consciousness and awareness. And it will have to >enlist people like Steven F. Hayward, resident scholar at the American >Enterprise Institute. "There's no problem environmentalists can't turn >into an apocalyptic crisis," says Hayward (who agrees that the Earth is >warming but thinks civilization is likely to survive it). Yet of all >things, this hardheaded acolyte of the free market worries most about >species extinction, among the most rarefied of ecological concerns. But, >you see, Hayward has a young daughter. And she wants to be a zookeeper >when she grows up. >With Jessica Ramirez, Karen Springen, Brad Stone, Karen Breslau, Keith >Naughton, Jamie Reno, Ken Shulman, Matthew Philips, Staci Semrad, >Margaret Nelson, A. Christian Jean, Andrew Murr and Jac Chebatoris >URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13768213/site/newsweek/ > _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
