Elisa's Green Scene

Big companies can make big changes with small differences

You learn something every day. Well, particularly if you go visit interesting places. And who knew The World of Coke in Atlanta, GA would be such an interesting place? [Disclosure: Coca-Cola is a BlogHer customer, but I'm just writing this post because I found a picture while uploading three months worth of shots from my point & shoot.]

Here's what I learned about the Coca-Cola bottle while at World of Coke:

Send BlogHer Diane MacEachern to Copehagen!

The Huffington Post is going to send one citizen journalist to Copenhagen for the UN Climate Change Conference, to represent regular people (and, of course, report back).

I think that person should be Diane MacEachern, author of Big Green Purse.

You can hear more directly from Diane both on her Big Green Purse blog and on her voting page at the HuffPo.

The voting deadline is tomorrow, so visit here, suffer through the clunky HuffPo registration and/or FacebookConnect process and VOTE FOR DIANE! 

She's currently running in about 4th place, so get your vote on.

Gracias!

BlogHer '09, and how we're being green(er)

Check out Jes Ferris's post on BlogHer about the many ways we have tried to make BlogHer a greener conference this year, including the ways that we're encouraging our attendees to contribute to that effort.

There's no doubt that there is something inherently consumptive about 1500 people traveling to a big city and shacking up in a big hotel and being on their laptops and mobiles and Flipcams all day...not to mention eating, drinking and generally making trouble.

I hope Jes's post makes the point that big things are awesome (like the fact that Michelin is offsetting 200 tons of CO2...the approximate burden our conference creates) but that small things matter to. Like providing our 50-page conference brochure in an online-only format that we encourage people not to print if they can possibly avoid it. Or going with buffets instead of box lunches like we had last year, so to avoid all that packaging.

There's always further to go, but I'm proud of what we are improving each year to be greener and yet greener. This year we had and awesome Green Team helping us, so check them out!

Tonight's Tony Awards...going green (aren't we all?)

In my long, checkered past there is quite a bit of of the starving artist theatre person. I never got to attend the Tony Awards in person, but I try to watch them religiously every year. I used to have the time, inclination, and close family relative in NYC that justified a substantial trip to NYC every year, so most years, long after I moved back to California from NYC, I had seen many of the nominated shows. I, on occasion, even personally knew some of the nominees. I knew them back when, of course, when we were all younger and more struggly.

Over the course of time my trips to NYC have become quick 2-3 day jaunts leaving little time for theatre-going. Even a 6-day trip last week was so packed with business and work functions that I couldn't carve out the time.

Sadly I haven't seen a single nominated show or performer this year. But I'm watching anyway.

Which is why I was glad to get a note from the National Resources Defense Council about them. Seems the NRDC has been trying to help Broadway theatres in general get in on the sustainability act, and this year the Tony Awards got some attention. Being someone who puts on events, I know exactly how challenging it can be, so what does that mean exactly?

Well, here's what the NRDC told me:

First of all, there's a Broadway Green Alliance. The BGA is an "industry-wide initiative to educate, motivate and inspire the theater community and its patrons to adopt environmentally friendlier practices and reduce our carbon footprint."

The Broadway Green site is actually quite detailed, starting with the area where various departments involved in producing a Broadway show are given a list of "better practices" to try to follow. Advice for everyone form the Production Team to the Scenic, Costume, Lighting & Sound folks is simple and includes both baby steps and big ideas.

So, continuing that work and applying it directly to the 2009 Tony Awards seems like a no-brainer, and it gives them a chance to bring their activities to a larger audience. 

According to the BGA and NRDC, the Tony Awards's first-ever greening effort incorporates the use of renewable certificated to offset the electricity of radio City Music Hall, enhanced recycling efforts and wider use of environmentally-friendly materials. Results include (and not how they got corporate sponsorship to help them achieve their goals...it's the modern way to get anything done...appeal to a company Corporate Social Responsibility mission!):

• GDF SUEZ Energy Resources donated Green-e certified wind power Renewable Energy Certificates to support the generation of renewable energy during the week preceding the Tony Awards and for the telecast itself
• Lipton Tea made it possible for the 2009 Tony Awards edition of Playbill to be printed on paper with 30% post-consumer recycled content
• Applica Consumer Products, Inc. donated 500 Clear₂Go reusable water bottles with replaceable filters for event guests
• Goodmart donated 2,200 energy-efficient cold cathode light bulbs for the event gift bags. As part of the BGA’s greening effort, this bulb type is now typical of those being used to light Broadway theatre roof signs and marquees
• Hybrid vehicles are being provided for presenter and performer transportation
• Recycling bins are being provided at Radio City concession stands for plastic bottles and in production offices for plastics and paper waste.
• Radio City Music Hall has taken a number of steps towards reducing environmental impacts at their venue, including: a comprehensive energy analysis of the facility performed by Energy Analytics, resulting in an enhanced energy efficiency plan; recent installation of efficient lighting; and restrooms have been retrofitted with low-flow toilets and faucets and feature post-consumer recycled content tissue products
• The Red Carpet is made from 100% recycled material with 49% post consumer content
• The production/management company for the Tony Awards is using paper with 60% post-consumer recycled content
• The public relations office has posted all press materials online and, when needed, will print out all press materials on 100% recycled content paper
• Banners for the show were printed on non-PVC plastics and will be reused or recycled after event.

I love that they're reporting the post-consumer recycled content % of the red carpet itself!

Broadway is an institution, and one that dates back a century. The buildings in which Broadway plays are mostly old buildings, the traditions are long-time traditions. If Broadway, as an "industry", can step up and go green...what excuse do any of us have?

Tonight I'll be settling down to watch actors I've never seen collect awards for shows I didn't get to attend...and checking out how the new-fangled red carpet looks :) 

A vegan travels overseas

I returned last week from a 10-day trip...6 days in South Africa, 1 day in London, and sadly about 3 days spent on travel itself.

It's hard to wrap my head around exactly how I want to answer the question "how was it?"

It was amazing, and one of those cliched once-in-a-lifetime experiences. And more than anything it was mentally engaging...not just because spending hours driving around the bushlands scouting for cool animals to go take photos of keeps you very focused and absorbed, but also mentally engaging, as in thought provoking. Thinking about the beauty of the lands, and the poverty of many of the people. The fascination we have with wildlife, and then the way most people think nothing of then eating that wildlife.

It highlighted for me that humans seem to have this mechanism for separating ourselves. Segmenting out thoughts, so that we don't get too bothered. Sometimes it seems like that's as much hard work as it is to be more conscious and try to act on that consciousness.

Still thinking about it all, but do have some links for y'all:

-If you want the links to where all of my photographs are, find them here

-I mused lightly about this whole "I love animals; I eat animals" conundrum here

-And you can learn about how I packed to make sure I didn't starve as a vegan going somewhere I wasn't sure even knew what a vegan was here  

Glad to be home, but really glad I went.

The ethics of empty flights

Hat tip to Groovy Green for pointing me to this story: Plane Flies Five People Across the Atlantic.

Seems that American had to cancel a Chicago-London flight that was fully booked. They found spots for all but 5 passengers on the other flights they had making that route that day. The remaining five ended up being flown over on their own.

I truly don't understand what happened. Why did they have to cancel the flight? And if they "had to" cancel it, then how were they still able to basically fly that flight anyway, but with only 5 people?

The real reason they say they had to get that plane across the Atlantic is that it was the aircraft that was to be used for another flight coming back over from London to Chicago...a flight that was also fully booked, and where they couldn't successfully move enough of the passengers to other flights because it was a heavy travel day.

So, what's the problem?

It is estimated that each passenger produced 43 tons of CO2 – consuming enough fuel to carry a Ford Mondeo around the world five times.

I really am of two minds on the story. I mean I get that is seems "obscene", as the Friends of the Earth organization called it, to waste that much fuel on just 5 people. It seems amazing that there was no other way to solve the issue.

On the other hand, I also get that airlines are at this point operating with those kind of slim margins for error or surprises. They don't just have planes hanging around at major airports in case they're called for. A single plane will make as many flights in a day as they can possibly squeeze in...and would canceling flights for 200 people in London have been the satisfactory solution?What kind of waste and inefficiencies and unnecessary expenditures would that ripple effect cause?

As a frequent traveler, I am sure I would have been pretty incensed by any such decision.

I have two questions to mull over:

1. Do you travel more than you have to? Could some of your business get done by tele-conference and video-conference. As a producer of conferences I obviously believe in the value of face-to-face interaction. but are we all a bit too old-fashioned in our reliance on it?

2. Isn't someone working on jet fuel or airplanes that don't expend quite that obscene amount of fuel? Seems like there would be a great market for that these days!

Wow...now, this is the eco-unconscious act of the day

I'm in Chicago for a conference and decided to book a room at a nearby Travelodge, rather than pay the exorbitant rate at the conference hotel.

That might have been a mistake.

I can live with the room being large, but kind of a dump. (Big, unrepaired chunks out of the tile in the kitchenette, not so much as a soap tray in the small shower-only stall.

But I just found out that if I want hot water for my shower I have to let the water run for "5-10 minutes", so the hotel water can "get from one side of the hotel to the other."

I can confirm that this time estimate was not an exaggeration. It's been 5 minutes, and the water is still totally cold.

I don't think I can stand this. It may be a quick washcloth tour for me.

And yes, in case you're wondering, I'm writing this blog post naked ;)

On a cheerier note: let's hear it for Sacramento!

Another Treehugger post lauds Sacramento...the capitol of my own home state...as "an up and coming green city."

The headquarters for the California EPA is in Sacto, and it truly sounds delightful, what with the "waterless urinals and worm composting for lunch scraps"!

I kid...sometimes being environmental requires thinking about, well, waste...and not just wastefulness.

I've never been a big Sacto fan, but it sounds like in this particular area, it's way hipper than SF, LA or Silicon valley. So, kudos to Sacramento!

Cities, states, companies compete to be the most green

With the federal government seemingly completely stymied by the administration's lack of faith in science, and therefore lack of interest in environmental action (oh, yes, I did go there!) it is the cities, states and companies of the U.S. that are trying to step up to the plate.

Last November I visited New York City's first completely green-certified building (the new Hearst HQ) and wrote about it here. But there's more going on in NYC. Check out the Science Barge, currently docked in the Hudson River and an "environmental education center and potential model for sustainable urban agriculture."

The Science Barge is just one initiative of the many that are sure to follow in the wake of Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg's PlanNYC2030, a sweeping attempt to address New York City's "urban environment"  and become a "model for cities in the 21st Century." Bloomberg and Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer are both getting kudos for taking action and supporting environmental policies and legislation.

Meanwhile, Treehugger reports both on a new green mall in Chicago, and on a new  Humane Index from the Humane Society of the United States.

The HSUS HumaneIndex lets you check out how 25 top urban areas are doing in their treatment of non-human animals. You can check out how cities are doing in a variety of categories, from how your Congressperson votes on animal-related issues, to how many vegetarian restaurants there are, to the ratio of bird watchers to bird hunters!! 

San Francisco has the number one ranking. Although I must say as a resident of San Jose, CA...a city actually larger than San Francisco...I wonder what their criteria was for picking the cities to survey. And don't look to their site to easily give easy answers to your questions. You can tell they were going for super-cool modern-looking design, and in so doing they achieved pretty heinous lack of usability.

Speaking of California, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has landed my own home-state in the courts by trying to set state-specific rules for industries that want to do business here. To the point where we're planning to sue the federal government. Some bloggers, like Fiona here, seem cautiously optimistic about Arnold's efforts, while Marcel represents the others who are notably more skeptical. Others still see his environmental urges as a weakness, like Laura and her miscellaneous musings.

Meanwhile, the last time Steve Jobs decided to "blog", he set off a firestorm over his comments around music and DRM. Within a brief period of time the first major record label agreed to sell music DRM-free on iTunes.

This time he  focuses on A Greener Apple. He starts off by saying that Apple is  doing better than people think, but also outlines their plans to improve their green-ness over time. What cataclysmic change will this blog post set off?

I don't know, but I do know Jobs is getting similar varied attention, from Jennifer from Inhabitat's kudos to Zac from Blogging Stocks's skeptical musings to posts that feature a little bit of both (like Megan from GreenOptions who seems to be saying, "sure it's great news, but it's also great P.R.") out in the blogosphere.

Green is apparently the new black, and everyone is trying to wear it. What do you think? Is this all we really need (well, that and love, of course) or are we letting the federal government, and all its branches, off too easy?

Wow, I did not know that: Pee on the ground people!!

I have, for as long as I can remember, preferred an aisle seat on airplanes. I think I've always thought I don't want to have to crawl over people to get anywhere, including the bathroom or escaping a fiery plane crash.

But I've noticed of late that I don't actually ever get up very often, so instead people are inevitably crawling over me. So, i've been experimenting a bit with the window seat.

Turns out I should go with this new direction.

According to Ideal Bite we should all make sure to go to the bathroom while still in the airport, rather than on the plane itself. Why? Because a stunning amount of energy is used an CO2 emitted with each flush. (Toilets on the ground use gravity to their advantage, airplanes don't.)

As Johnny Carson would say: I did not know that.