Get Smart and go see “The Age of Stupid”

OK, I haven’t seen the movie “The Age of Stupid” yet, and from the looks of it, it won’t be easy to find it in a theatre nearby for quite a while, if ever.  There are so many interesting eco-films out there  that never come to a theatre near me.  What’s up with that?  In this day and age, it seems downright ridiculous and wrong to drive 45 minutes on a highway to see a movie, especially a green flick!

I’ve read three reviews of this movie so far this week:  one says it’s overboard gloomy, one says it’s a wake up call, and one reports that it has already inspired a huge greenhouse gas reduction campaign in Great Britain called 10:10 (reduce emissions by 10% by 2010 – that would be in a few months!).

As a co-founder of Back2Tap, I figure I’ve got to see “The Age of Stupid”  because it rails on people who think they are green simply because they recycle their disposable plastic bottles.   The movie makes the point that it isn’t going to be as simple as recycling more or buying organic.  We’re going to have to “reinvent” the way we live in order to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Thankfully, there is one lifestyle change we can all make without much effort – the way we drink water and use disposable plastic bottles.  Tap water takes 800 times less energy to deliver than bottled water according to “The Age of Stupid.”    We can all drink tap water from reusable bottles instead of bottled water and significantly reduce our waste of resources and carbon footprint.  That is the primary message Back2Tap shares with schools, groups, and anyone who will listen.   Join our Reusolution!

Did you know you have a water footprint, too?

My BFG (best green friend) sent me an article from msn Green entitled  ”What’s Your Water Footprint?”  It reminded me that there’s way more than just carbon shaping our footprints on Earth.   Your carbon footprint is just one component of your overall ecological footprint, a term coined by Wackernagel and Rees in the early 90s to describe human demand on all ecosystems.  For 2005, humanity’s total ecological footprint was estimated by the Global Footprint Network at 1.3 planet Earths – in other words, we are using our natural resources 1.3 times as fast as Earth can renew them.  Your water footprint is one component of this calculation that is not talked about as often.

Your water footprint is the amount of water that you consume both directly and indirectly.  That is the quantity of water you use for drinking, cleaning, and cooking, etc. (direct) plus the quantity of water used to make the products you consume (indirect).   Which do you think is bigger – your direct or indirect water consumption?  According to the msn Green article,  a whopping 95% of your water consumption is indirect!   Apparently, your leaky faucet is the least of your worries – cut out one hamburger and you save 5000 gallons of water!   This certainly sounds easier than scheduling a plumber.  Not to mention cheaper and healthier.  

I have a hard time fathoming how a hamburger could require this much water to produce, but I know from reading Michael Pollan’s mind-blowing book, “In Defense on Food” that it is related to the cultivation of the corn needed to feed the cattle.  Even the lowly disposable bottle of water you bought requires more water to make than you would think – somewhere between 3 to 8 times its volume.   These hidden ecological costs are important to consider when you make everyday choices about what to eat and what to buy. Every single product you consume has a water footprint associated with it, bovine products topping the list of offenders. 

The concept of a water footprint is inherently different than the carbon footprint.  Unlike CO2, the volume of water on earth remains the same: all of the water you use does eventually get recycled back into the ecosystem, although its quality is often degraded by use.  The worse the degradation, the more clean water needed to dilute the polluted water until it meets our standards for “clean” and is usable again.  The other difference is that all water use is not created equal.  Using large volumes of water in an arid climate is more detrimental than using large quanities of water in a humid climate, whereas a ton of CO2 is problematic no matter where it is generated.

Once again, reducing your consumption will reap the best eco-payback.  To calculate your own water footprint or learn more, you can visit: http://www.waterfootprint.org.  Now if I could just convince my growing teen and tween-aged boys and hulky husband to become vegetarians, we’d be able to greatly reduce our family’s water footprint (and our carbon footprint as well!).  It may well be easier to call the plumber.

Corporate Sustainability at Rowan University

As a small green business owner, I particpated in an eco-preneurship panel at the Rowan University Sustainability Conference on April 3. Business leaders working in the area of sustainability shared their accomplishments and challenges with the students and faculty in connection with this Principles for Responsible Management Education intiative.

There was no “greenwashing” there.  The companies, large and small, showed that they had a serious commitment to sustainability, way beyond recycling and choosing eco-friendly paper products.   The eco-prenuers were generally small companies primarily focused on meeting the market demand for green goods and services.  The large established companies were focused on improving operations and products.  DuPont reported on its progression from being the #1 polluter to trying to “do less bad” and finally to now ”trying to do more good.”  Domino Sugar spoke of its plant in Florida where electricity is generated using bagasse – sugar cane fiber waste as well as the introduction of carbon footprint free sugar in some markets.  Ernst and Young reported saving $100 million by banning bottled water and has eliminated the use of 4 million disposable cups per year.  A regional flooring company spoke of their manufacturing model where the volume of waste consumed is greater than the waste produced.

It was very encouraging to see the serious commitment that these corporations have made to moving toward more sustainable operations: they have created and filled the position of corporate sustainability manager to lead the effort; they have gone through a process of re-examining their own operations, they have set goals and started implementation of sustainability improvement measures, and they have pressed their suppliers to do the same.  Best of all, every business reported that they found economic benefits in their implementation of these sustainability improvements.

Solar Trees are Sprouting

I’m not sure how this happened, but twice this week I found myself sitting around a table with fellow “green teamers” discussing solar trees as a way to reduce our carbon footprint.    First, I heard from Bob Ferguson about Envision Solar’s ground-breaking Solar Tree for parking lots.  How brilliant is that?  Parking lots are generally pretty hot, desolate places to begin with – putting up towers with photovoltaic cells couldn’t really “spoil” the ambiance there.  In fact, the solar trees look pretty cool, and they provide some shade to cars and reduce the heat island effect caused by development.  They even have outlets for charging electric cars.    And of course, when they put a whole bunch of these trees together, they call them Solar Groves.   Each tree in the grove produces 17,000 kWh per year, enough to power three typical San Diego homes for a year.  Also fascinating, is their LifeVillage - an entire modular solar-powered village that can be constructed in developing nations to provide self-powered community infrastructure for people in need.

My second solar tree encounter this week was at a WeAreBOOST Contest to Camp CURE kickoff dinner in Trenton.  WeAreBoost is running a Back2Tap reusable bottle fundraiser to raise money for the contest prizes.  One of my fellow speakers was Rein Triefeldt, a solar kinetic sculptor from Trenton.  He told us about his collaboration with an elementary school environmental club in Hillsborough, California.   Together via iChat technology, he and the students designed a  25-foot grid-connected, energy-producing solar tree for the school yard.   Then during the week of Earth Day 2008, they built a maquette (model) of their beautiful California Oak solar tree.  They calculate that their solar tree will generate 7,300  kWh – enough power to re-charge 2.500 iPhones and iPod’s every day for a year.  That’s something students were especially thrilled to learn!  I think the students summed it up best: “Solar trees saving real trees – that’s just too cool!”