Sustainable Suburbs

I like Apple products, a lot. I write this blog on one. I carry my favorite music with me every day on one. I’ve used one at most places I’ve worked. There are only coincidental reasons that I don’t talk and text on one, or do whatever one does on an iPad. They’re all pretty amazing products. And just about everyone I know who’s used one, and then tried to perform the same tasks on a competing product, prefers a Mac.

So when I heard a while back about an explosion at a factory in China that produces parts for the iPad, I was somewhat surprised. Doesn’t somebody in Cupertino just wave a magic wand and these great products appear?

Add to that the subsequent allegations that workers at a Foxconn factory (an Apple supplier) routinely work under terrible conditions, and one’s opinion of Apple, um, sours a bit. (Not to mention the fact that the company is now picking on beleaguered Kodak. This news is a reality check on the importance of knowing where the stuff that we buy comes from.

Does this make me want to stop consuming Apple products altogether? A bit, but ultimately no. Does that make me a hypocrite? Maybe (feel free to debate). But I also think it would be naïve to believe that other companies are much different.

We should not be OK with this kind of status quo, of course. While it’s good that Apple has taken heed of the recent bad press and hired an outside firm to do inspections at its factories, it’s easy to feel that our options as consumers are limited. We can vote with our dollars by choosing more sustainably-minded companies. But when those options aren’t viable, you’re simply choosing the lesser of all offenders. That’s not much of a choice.

Instead, it seems the best thing to do is to speak up.

Event Notice: “Blue Gold” at Henrietta Public Library

Head over to the Henrietta Public Library tonight for a FREE showing of the documentary Blue Gold: World Water Wars. The event is hosted by the Great Lakes Committee of the Sierra Club’s Rochester Regional Group.

When: Mon, February 6, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Where: Henrietta Library, 455 Calkins Road, Rochester

About the event (via the Great Lakes Committee): Will water be “the oil of the 21st century?” Why do people spend up to 4,000 times more for bottled water, when the product is less pure than regulated tap water? Who will prevent large multi-national corporations from taking over the world’s water supply? Whether you are new to the topic or a long time advocate of water issues, please join in for this film viewing and discussion about the issue of water privatization. For questions email greatlakes@newyork.sierraclub.org.
 

You know that the Green Movement has become mainstream when the professional football crowd gets involved. So if you’re getting together with friends to watch the game (or just the commercials) this Sunday, consider these tips to make your Super get-together a little more eco-friendly.

Let’s start with invitations – skip ‘em. Send an evite, e-mail or text, or just stand up and walk over to your buddy’s cubicle and say, “Party. My house. Sunday.”

When it comes to plates and utensils, save some money and landfill waste and just use your own plates and utensils. Whatever you do, avoid polystyrene cups; they stick around this planet longer than Keith Richards, and not in a good way.

The food: We love Bowl day not just because of the game, but because it is a great excuse to strap on the feedbag and get our snack on! The good news is there’s plenty of opportunity to get beyond greasy chips and tubs of dip and do something different.

Veg on the couch. There are about 100 million cattle in the U.S., which accounts for roughly 20 percent of our country’s methane emissions. So try some vegetarian options (this link made me hungry, although that isn’t hard to do). I mean, Madonna is doing the half-time show, so it’s definitely a new era.

When picking your beverages, go bigger. Two-liter bottles and kegs use less packaging than individual cans and bottles. You can also opt to try brews from the growing list of local craft beers in our area.

You might have leftovers, so be responsible with them. Send your guests home with some, or compost it. If you’re having your bash catered, have them donate the leftovers to an area food bank or soup kitchen.

Speaking of being responsible, car-pool with a designated driver. Not only will you put less cars on the road, but you’ll keep those cars from running into other cars. Seriously, I don’t want you swerving into my lane.

And finally, it’s not a green tip, but just a generally good idea: root for the New Jersey Giants.

I have a fondness for bus and rail travel that is probably rare in these parts. More than the environmental benefits, or the desire to avoid scraping snow and frost off the car before white-knuckling over black ice, my affinity for mass transit comes from the decade I spent in the New York City area. I’m sure Rosie Colosie would agree that the subways and buses are the preferred ways to get around a major metro area.

So when I moved back here, one of the first things I did was go to the RGRTA website to plot my route to my new job. I had hoped to bring the usually casual, sometimes maddening experience of the passenger life back with me. But when I found that it would take two routes and more than an hour to go about 10 miles, I said “fuggettaboutit,” and resigned myself to a fact of suburban life: the car is necessary, at least for now.

This is not meant to be an indictment of the RGRTA. They provide an affordable, reliable service of which I would love to take more advantage. For many people, like those that work at the malls, it’s essential that they make that hour-long trip and make their connections to get to a $7.50/hr. job on time.

I know we’re in Rochester, not the Big Apple, and this area has been rated with one of the best commute times in the country. But we’re a city of single-passenger commuters.

Gov. Cuomo recently announced the allocation of $100 million to build a new I-390 interchange at Kendrick Road. Good news for people who work at the University of Rochester, who might be able to shave a few minutes off their commute time.

However, a real opportunity to impact carbon emissions comes from taking mass transit. So there’s good news in the $5 million slated for an indoor transit hub downtown, as well as an $800,000 grant for another hub in the proposed college town area also not far from the U of R.

Now consider that when one person switches to public transit, it can reduce daily carbon emissions by more than 4,800 pounds in a year (source: publictransportation.org). Imagine if more of us got on board.
 

The beginning of the year is full of promise and potential, where we take a little time to set our goals for the future in the hopes of making this “our year.” Maybe you’ve decided to lose weight, quit something, start something, read the Sustainable Suburbs without fail, etc. All worthy goals.

We make a big deal out of resolutions. But what makes resolutions different from other decisions? After all, we make decisions every day, sometimes without much thought.

I’m not trying to be some wanna-be self-help guru here. My usual resolution is not to make any resolutions. Although this year I decided to write a blog, and if you ever want some serious accountability for your resolutions, tell a lot of people about them in a public forum…kinda like this. But it’s interesting to consider how one gets into the habit of lowering their carbon footprint.

There are plenty of reasons that people don’t come to the sustainable table: the perception that it’s too big an issue, or too expensive, or they’re skeptical of gimmicks.

If you find yourself in that position, keep in mind that practicing sustainability can be really simple, and it often equates to saving money. For example, turning off unused appliances can save on your monthly utility bill. Don’t worry, you can plug your VCR back in when VHS tapes make a comeback.

If you want more ideas and simply can’t wait for my next post, try this. If you need a more professional opinion about sticking with your resolutions, try this.

Then share your green resolutions with me below. Don’t worry, it’ll be just between us.

And if you do nothing else, be inspired by one of my favorite quotes: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

Hydrofracking: if you haven’t heard of it, you have one more day to get up to speed.

Why? New York State has been in the midst of an ongoing debate over whether to allow hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) in our state, and the opportunity for public comment ends on Wednesday, Jan. 11.

This blog is admittedly late to the party on the issue, and it’s too big an issue to sum up in 300 words, but I’d be remiss not to address it. A Messenger Post article sums up this week’s news very well.

In short, hydrofracking has been big news in our area ever since the discovery that an estimated 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could lie within the Marcellus Shale (and below it the Utica Shale) formation – a subterranean rock formation that extends from West Virginia to New York’s Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions (see map).

As you can imagine, oil and gas companies have been eager to drill in the “Marcellus Shale play” (as it’s called in industry terms) for years, and tout the economic benefits of doing so.

To counter, environmental watchdogs have demanded that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) perform its due diligence and examine the many risks before issuing permits, if at all. Most environmental groups (and this blogger) have been encouraged by the fact that the DEC has continued to extend the comment period. My observation is that because of public interest and knowledge, energy companies are being forced to consider the impact of the drilling process on the communities they enter.

I hope that if you haven’t examined hydrofracking yet, at least click on the links here, and continue to do your own research. Then, hurry up and get to the DEC’s comment page before the comment period closes.

Whew, glad those holidays are over with! Happy 2012 to you. The holidays are definitely a lot of fun (especially the more egg-nog and cookies you have), but they’re a lot of work as well. But you don’t need some environmental blogger to tell you that.

What you do need me to tell you about is treecycling. As you learned in my previous post, I’m an advocate of real Christmas trees. And as I mentioned, one of the benefits of a real tree is that when it’s time for your family fir to, uh, make like a tree and get outta here, there are some eco-friendly options in our area.

You’ll have a great opportunity to treecycle this weekend at Tinker Nature Park, on Calkins Rd. in Henrietta. On Jan. 7 and 8 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., you can bring your naked Christmas tree to the park, where it will be mulched to maintain the park’s trails.

Bonus: The event is also a food drive to benefit the Rush-Henrietta Area Food Terminal. So bring a non-perishable food item with you to donate. The Town of Henrietta website has full details.

As an aside, Tinker Park is a great place. It’s part history museum, part nature preserve (the Tinker family’s historic homestead is also at the site). I like it because it’s an easy-to-get-to place to get lost in the woods without actually getting lost, and they host a lot of special events, such as this one. And wouldn’t you know, they have a blog too. Check it out at tinkernaturepark.blogspot.com.

Real versus fake. The debate over which is better has gone on for decades. It’s a sensitive topic for many, especially around this time of year. I’m talking about Christmas trees, people. What did you think?

Naturally, there are pros and cons to both sides.

Artificial trees have an interesting history, starting off as toilet bowl brushes and evolving into the pre-lit, musical doppelgangers now found in Walmart and Wegmans the day after Halloween. They can look pretty real…or they can look like the one pictured here.

Artificials also save from the expense of buying a tree every year, and they’re convenient to store and assemble.

Yet the environmental downsides of artificial trees lie in their manufacturing and shipping. They are made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other materials that aren’t biodegradable. So when they do wear out, they’ll be decorating landfills for generations to come. Many times they’re also made in China, which means they do plenty of travelling before landing in your living room.

In contrast, real trees are made from (spoiler alert) wood. So even if you feel squeamish about taking a saw to a real tree, they can be turned into mulch. The Town of Henrietta ran a treecycling program last year. Hopefully they’ll do the same for 2012.

Potted trees are also gaining traction, as they can be planted in the spring (or Dec. 26, the way this month is shaping up).

The big win for real trees comes from the relatively short distance it travels from farm to home. And when you buy from a farm or lot, you’re supporting the local economy.

Environmental concerns aside, I’ll take a real tree any day. Part of the magic of the season is the ritual of finding a perfectly imperfect tree, slugging it home, wrangling the lights like some LED-illuminated python, and (after a few well-placed curses in my case) enjoying the fruits of your holiday efforts.

In the end, whichever variety you chose this year, the important thing is that you have a happy, healthy, safe and sustainable holiday season!

If you’ve decided to read this blog, you probably fall into one of three categories:

1. You’re a seasoned eco-warrior. You keep up on environmental news through sites like The Lazy Environmentalist, and you’re wondering if this might be a local, less-good version of that.

2. You’re interested in doing things that are good for the planet, but don’t know where to start. You bought some of those kooky CFL light bulbs and you recycle your milk cartons, but you feel like you want to do more.

3. You’re my mom.

To readers in the first category, I welcome your passion and knowledge. I’ve been glad to find that the Rochester region has a highly involved and continually growing community of sustainably minded folks. I hope to uncover as much about who and what make this area “green” as I can, and highlight your hard work.

You in the second category: let’s talk. After all, I can relate. With all the other things going on in your life, worrying about your carbon footprint might appear to be all about hard work and sacrifice. But the good news: there’s plenty to do, even if you can’t make your own bio-fuel like Doc Brown.

So let’s try and keep it simple. Together, we’ll discover ways big and small to make our suburbs a more sustainable place.

If you’re in the third category, well, sorry I didn’t call you back yesterday. I was busy writing this blog. But at least now you know what a blog is.