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You’ll be buying from, not donating to, the developing world.
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Flora Moon shared this post on Twitter. (December 25, 2011 8:53 AM) |
Sustainable Futures
Midcentury modern tours now are taking place in cities all over the country. Renewed interest in this era capitalizes on the millennials’ interest in design from a time that seems almost impossibly optimistic compared to today’s zeitgeist. Most cities around the country boast a healthy building stock from this postwar period, nicknamed “the suburbs,” although these are ritually condemned – and designated for annihilation – by academics, urban land speculators and the urban clerisy. 
When you think of a road trip across America, you probably envision zooming in a car along endless scenic highways and freeway overpasses. But take a closer look and across the country, there are thousands of miles of bike lanes connecting us from city to city and even coast to coast. Within urban areas, more people are traveling to work or running errands on two wheels thanks to safer and more well-designed bike routes. Whether people are using them for work, exercise, vacation, or just a leisurely Sunday afternoon backcountry ride, bike lanes are thriving as thoroughfares in our bike nation. Via Lauren Moss 
Pop-up gardens, urban farms, guerrilla bike lanes, examples of crowdsourced city planning, and other urban interventions will be the focus of the official U.S. Pavilion at the world's most prestigious architecture event. 
To combat the so-called “Sixth Extinction,” we must put a price tag on healthy ecosystems. The financial sector can help Approximately 10,000 new species are discovered every year. 
Wouldn't it just irk you more than a bunch of weeds to find out that the gardening products you use are dirtying up your organic garden with BPA, phthalates and lead? 
You probably eat almost as much as you weigh in corn every year. In the U.S., we put down an average of about 160 pounds per person per year. 
A new report by Global Data, a market intelligence company, says the cost of generating clean, alternative energy such as solar power is increasingly closer to... 
The population of a given metro area affects airline travelers more than you might think. 
Once seen as a civic gem, demand for a permanently enclosed stadium has dwindled. 
The Center for Universal Education proposes a new agenda to reinvigorate international efforts on education and to build on the previous success of getting more children in school through the Global Compact on Learning, a common set of concrete... ![What’s the Real Cost of Your Lighting Choices? [Infographic] | Sustainable Futures | Scoop.it](http://img.scoop.it/Xk8QMwAn1rLbJV0SddF2Kjl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVaiQDB_Rd1H6kmuBWtceBJ)
Gotten into an argument about lighting recently? Since the passage of the 2007 energy bill, it's become an increasingly ideological issue: that law set efficiency standards which current 100 watt incandescent bulbs couldn't meet. 
A few years ago, former Microsoft and Amazon executive David Risher visited an orphanage in Ecuador. While exploring the grounds, he noticed a padlocked building piled high with books. 
An unconventional integration of green materials and light, the Bamboo LED by Taiwanese designer Jeff Dah-Yue Shi is a tessellation of bamboo panels and LED lights put together to create walls, ceilings and floors. |
What this story illustrates more than anything is the legacy of poor planning and street design that our nation is struggling to overcome as we look for ways to give people more, less expensive and healthier mobility options.That legacy belongs as much to the federal transportation program and its associated design and policy edicts as to the local school boards, planners and municipal officials who put schools and other destinations beyond the safe reach of people outside of automobiles. For the federal government to now to tell locals “It’s your problem, you fix it,” is as irresponsible as it is lethal. 
The manufacturer of the U.K.'s most guzzled tea, PG Tips, launches a pilot tea bag composting campaign in an effort to curb the millions of pounds of tea-related waste landfilled each year. 
As part of our local Transition group’s efforts to make local food more widely available in our town, my wife Lindsay has been helping organize a new community garden. The site is a lot that has been vacant as long as anyone can remember.
You can imagine that there was a lot to do before planting: finding the property owner and convincing him to host the garden on his lot; clearing years of weeds; working with city hall on zoning and any necessary approvals; and of course, recruiting volunteer gardeners.
But one of the biggest challenges has been how to grow vegetables in soil that is less than ideal. It’s been years since the site was used as an informal parking lot, but Lindsay knew she needed to test the soil before anyone started growing anything to eat. So, she called in a friendly former agent with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. He advised raised beds. 
Small gear with an outsize impact.... 
With Illinois and Louisiana about to enact Benefit Corporation laws, it's time to look at the confusing array of legal forms for socially-minded companies... 
Consider the extraordinary efforts we undertake to secure a barrel of oil. Lives lost from wars. Oil-rig blowouts. Cancer clusters downwind of refineries. 100,000 premature deaths each year in America alone when we combust the stuff in our engines. 
Poor neighborhoods have fewer trees, as these jarring satellite photos reveal. 
Believe it or not, a new study of canopy coverage in Baltimore suggests maybe they can. 
In tandem with a new paper, Martha Ross discusses the economic and environmental importance of federal funding for D.C. Water’s Clean Rivers Project. 
Beginning farmers don’t need much money to get started. But until now, the USDA had no way of giving them any loans at all. 
Corporate efforts to encourage more sustainable consumer behaviour should concentrate on making it easy for their customers to change... 
NoteWatch the previous episode here.In areas with water shortages or bad water, women are often tasked with providing water for their families. But the water is often far away, and so women end up carrying 45 pounds of water on their head. |
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