November 2006
You are currently browsing the articles from EcoSherpa written in the month of November 2006.
Ok, well I originally intended to get a few posts up today. Unfortunately I got a wee bit sidetracked – luckily it resulted in me learning more about sustainable living (so I don’t feel too guilty).
Yesterday I came across a great video (above) over at Hugg.com which features a tour through a sustainable home. This in itself sounded interesting enough, but what made it even more appealing for me personally was the fact that this home is here in Ontario (makes it more ‘real’, I guess).
It’s about 25 minutes in length and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in green design/construction, or sustainable living in general. I found it to be very inspirational, since one of my dreams has been to create a similar home.
As I discovered, the host John Wilson (home owner) has a great website called Natural Life Network which is chock full of really interesting information relating to sustainable living. It was this site that completely sidetracked me today.
The site itself is a little confusing as far as navigation goes, but definitely don’t let that deter you from exploring. There are all sorts of treasures waiting for the patient surfer.
For example, John’s book, “Sun Rise: Your Complete Guide To Sustainable Living” appears to be on sale for $25. If you look a little more closely you will discover that he is actually offering the ebook as a free download. It’s over 300 pages and is jam-packed with great information and cool photos. Once I started reading I was completely absorbed.
Just a bit of a caveat though – I personally found the first section of the book (perhaps the first 50 pages or so) a wee bit ‘heavy’ for my liking. As I’ve explained before, one thing I’ve discovered is that I don’t respond all that well to what I refer to as ‘doom and gloom’. I definitely don’t mean to belittle the current crises that the world faces – we absolutely CANNOT ignore these issues – it’s just that reading too much of this makes me want to hide under the covers and cry! I guess it’s just the way my brain is wired. Definitely no disrespect intended.
Anyway, this book is an incredible resource for anyone interested in sustainable living – I can’t recommend it highly enough just based on the parts I read today. I’m really looking forward to spending more time with it over the next few weeks.
You can download it for free >>HERE<<
It is a very large file (25 MB), so it may only be feasible for those people on a highspeed connection.
Just to make absolutely sure the free-download wasn't a mistake, I emailed John and he assured me that the book will be available free for the next few months.
If you do end up enjoying the book, a nice gesture would be to send payment anyway or perhaps buy one of his other products to help support his great work.
I'm definitely looking forward to learning more about John Wilson's sustainable initiatives, and will almost certainly write more about his work in future posts.
Technorati Tags: sustainable living, sustainable home, green design, green construction, solar, wind power, orangeville
Written by Bentley on November 30th, 2006 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Interesting & Notable.
Image courtesy of Amy Youngs
I thought I was going to get some ‘real’ work done today, but alas I came across yet another awesome story and knew I had to write a post about it.
It all started when I found this article on the Sci Fi Tech Blog. As I learned, the Digestive Table is much more than just a kitchen table – it’s a vermicomposting bin…and it’s a masterpiece! As soon as I started reading I decided I had to find out who was responsible for such a creation.
Luckily there was a link at the end of the article that took me to Amy Youngs’ Digestive Table page.
So who exactly is Amy Youngs?
Amy M. Youngs creates mixed-media, interactive sculptures and digital media works, that explore the complex relationship between technology and our changing concept of nature and self. She has exhibited her works nationally and internationally at venues such as Springfield Museum of Art (Springfield, OH), Pace Digital Gallery (New York, NY), the Biennale of Electronic Arts (Perth, Australia), John Michael Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), Circulo de Bellas Artes (Madrid, Spain), the Visual Arts Museum (New York, NY) the Art Institute of Chicago’s Betty Rymer Gallery, Vedanta Gallery, (Chicago, IL), the San Francisco Public Library, Blasthaus, (San Francisco, CA) and Works (San Jose, CA).
Wow – this was getting more interesting by the minute!
According to her bio, Amy is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at The Ohio State University.
Interestingly enough, the inspiration for the Digestive Table came from her interactions with OSU researchers Dr. Clive Edwards and Dr. Norman Arancon (both heros/aquaintances of mine), who are well-known in vermicomposting circles for their fascinating academic research in this field.
Here is a blurb from the Digestive Table page:
A living ecosystem of worms, sowbugs and bacteria are invited to this table. They are a part of the digestive system that starts with a person discarding food leftovers and shredded paper into the portal at the top. The bacteria and sowbugs begin breaking down the waste and the worms soon join in to further digest it into a rich compost that sprinkles out of the bottom of the fabric bag that hangs beneath the table. This compost is used as a fertilizer for plants, such as those at the base of the table.
The human plays an important part at the table by eating, feeding the food waste to the worms, feeding the resulting fertilizer to the plants, or by simply sitting and appreciating the living ecosystem she/he is a part of. A cross-section of the activity inside the top 9 inches of the compost is made visible using an infrared security camera connected to an LCD screen built into the table. On the screen, viewers can see the live movements of the worms and sowbugs inside.
You absolutely need to check out Amy Youngs’ website for yourself though. Not only does she provide technical specifications for those interested in building the table themselvses, but she also showcases a wide selection of incredible interesting pieces of artwork.
Technorati Tags: artwork, sculpture, vermicomposting, vermicomposter, OSU, Clive Edwards, Amy Youngs, composting, compost, digestive table
Written by Bentley on November 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Interesting & Notable and Waste Management.
I felt pretty excited as I read through an article in the Cambridge Times today. I learned that there is a new green building being contructed in Cambridge Ontario, about 1/2 hour away from where I currently live.
The new civic administration building, which is expected to open sometime next year, is guaranteed a LEED Silver rating, but even may have a shot at achieving a Gold.
Some of the cool features include:
- Indoor ‘green wall’
- 3rd Floor green roof
- Onsite greywater recycling
Here are a couple of interesting blurbs from the article:
As part of the new atrium, a four-storey green wall is being installed, which is made up of plants that will filter the building’s air, improve air quality, reduce the need for air conditioning and help eliminate humidity.
…
The building’s green wall is the most visible feature of the city’s conservation effort. It will also have a 10,000-litre cistern which will collect rainwater from the roof and use it as part of a gray-water recycling system to flush toilets, etc. The third floor of the building will have a green roof – the first on a city-owned building – which will help cool the structure in the summer and retain heat in the winter.
“When this roof is in place, the roof surface will get no hotter than 75 F; temperatures on roofs that don’t have a green roof can up well over 120 F,” said city architectural design technologist Slobodanka Lekic. “I’d like to put make the entire roof green, but this is a good start.”
At Cambridge Place, city staff currently use about 65,000 square feet of space. The new facility will have 85,000 square feet of space and will be able to accommodate the addition of another 50 staff members over the next 20 years.
“This building has been designed with the future in mind,” Paul said. “It has a lot of flexibility built into it. How the building and the civic square in front of it is programmed will be the key to its success.”
Sounds great to me. I can wait to take a tour once construction is complete!
Be sure to check out the original article in the Cambridge Times (link given at beginning of post)
Technorati Tags: green roof, green wall, green contruction, green building, green design, LEED, cambridge, Ontario, rain water
Written by Bentley on November 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Green Construction.
Today was garbage day so I figured it would be a good opportunity to add my growing indoor collection of organic waste to the bin while I was out.
I’m certainly glad I did! As I opened it up I could feel that the lid was quite warm. The first things I noticed inside were that the level of the material had gone down a fair bit and the plastic bags at the top were totally dry (normally have pools of water).
Uh Oh…
As I started raking through the upper layer of leaves I was greeted by bursts of steam and what looked to be hot, dry conditions. Needless to say I was quite concerned about the health (or lack thereof) of the red worms. Temperature readings were up over 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) throughout most of the bin, and there were a number of spots in the 50 C + range (122 F +).
I found a few worms up in the old rotting door mat that was sitting at the top of the composting mass, but other than that it looked like a serious red worm disaster.
Well, long story short, after digging down deeper, and around the edges I was able to find a lot of worms. I get the feeling most of them were able to escape to various cooler regions of the bin. Phew!!
In an effort to cool things off somewhat I continued to rake through the material, releasing steam and letting cooler outdoor air in (actually quite mild today). I also added some cold water via a watering can and have left the bin lid open. I will go back and check on things this afternoon.
In all honesty I NEVER expected to have an overheating problem! While it’s certainly a good sign that I have a fighting chance with this winter composting experiment, it’s also an important reminder of the fact that I still need to maintain balance.
That being said, something dawned on me today which kinda made me chuckle to myself. I’ve talked before about the tendency of city folk to let nature know who is boss – frequently cutting the grass, keeping properties perfectly manicured, killing “pests” etc. Well here I am trying to control natural processes myself! Insulating the bin, discouraging mice from nesting inside, and trying to make sure temperatures and conditions for my worm herd are ‘just right’!
Oh well, guess it’s just the ‘nature of the beast’! 
B.
Related entries:
Composter’s Log – Stardate 60352.8
Winter Composting Extravaganza
Technorati Tags: composting, winter composting, worms, vermicomposting, compost, fall leaves, yard waste, food waste
Note: The Winter Composting Extravaganza has moved to a new home. To catch all the latest winter composting action be sure to check out the Compost Guy
Winter Composting Page.
Written by Bentley on November 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Waste Management.
It looks like the automakers are finally taking notice of the environment and are rolling out new eco-friendly concept cars powered by alternative fuels.
Some of the major players in the auto industry, General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and BMW AG are set to unveil vehicles that run on hydrogen. DaimlerChrysler AG and Volkswagen AG, will show vehicles powered by E85 ethanol, electric-gas hybrid engines, biodiesel, natural gas and low-sulfur diesel fuel.
I am quite happy to see the automakers are starting to think more about alternative fuel cars but like many other customers, I am disappointed in so many ways. Why aren’t there more green cars available in the showroom? I think there is a real opportunity for independent automakers to steal market share. The old marketing model of “first-in” often times results in successful sales and a long life cycle. If the major auto makers are dragging their heels and slow to the green game, consumers will begin to look elsewhere.
To read more about the LA Auto Show, visit LA AutoShow and Inside Line.
Technorati Tags: E85 ethanol, electric-gas hybrid engines, biodiesel, natural gas and low-sulfur diesel fuel, eco-friendly cars, LA Auto Show, high temperature fuel cells, volkswagen, green energy
Written by steve on November 29th, 2006 with 1 comment.
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I found an interesting article this evening about Paris’s plan for a new commercial building it its historic centre. The new 300 metre building, dubbed the “Phare” or lighthouse, will become the tallest Parisian commercial building since the Eiffel Tower.
The new building will be constructed with a gently sloping eco-friendly glass and will have wind-turbines on its roof. The architect selected for the project is Californian Thom Mayne.
A blurb from the article:
Mayne said he wanted the Phare to be “a prototype for a green building,” with the wind farm generating energy for the tower’s heating and cooling for five months of the year and a movable “double skin” cutting the heat from direct sunlight through the windows.
At a cost of 900 million euros (US$1.2 billion), the building, which will offer 130,000 square metres of office space, is due to be completed in 2012
To read more about the Phare, go to People’s Daily Online.
Technorati Tags: Paris, eco-skyscraper, green building, France
Written by steve on November 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized.
I just came across an interesting headline. You may remember our “algae + CO2 = biofuel” article from a little while back. Well it sounds as though progress in the field may be a little further ahead than I previously believed.
According to the news release, De Beers Fuel Ltd in South Africa (no connection with the diamond giant) hopes to be producing 16 to 24 billion litres of biodiesel per year from algae within five years!
Here is an exerpt from the article:
De Beers Fuel already runs a plant which produces 144 000 litres of bio-diesel daily from sunflower seed oil, at Naboomspruit in the northern Limpopo province. A bio-diesel algae reactor installed at the plant will be showcased to investors, experts and the media later this week.
“The project is highly capital-intensive. The first 100 acres will require about R3.5bn, this has been sourced mainly from foreign private equity groups,” Hendy Schoombee, a senior official at De Beers Fuel said.
“We had initially intended to list the company to raise the money. We might list at a future date to raise money for further expansion,” he said.
One acre of algae can produce 92 000 litres of bio-diesel, compared to 350 litres produced from one acre of a sun-flower seed farm, he added.
The company will use land that is not arable or useful for most other purposes, and will also generate electricity from waste material out of the bio-diesel-making process.
I tried to track down more info about De Beers and came across Infinity Biodiesel, which seems in fact to be the main De Beers Fuel website. Unfortunately there is no mention of their plans for making biodiesel from algae.
Hmmmm…
Well I’m definitely interested to learn more. Just this quote alone says it all: “One acre of algae can produce 92 000 litres of bio-diesel, compared to 350 litres produced from one acre of a sun-flower seed farm, he added.”
Anyway, if anyone knows more about this be sure to let us know.
Here is a link to the story I came across: Firm to make biofuel from algae
THIS JUST IN – I found another interesting news release which goes into a little more detail. Check it out here
Here is a blurb:
Mr. de Beer has made great strides to acquire the latest Algae Production Technology. In recent weeks there have been many media articles about the success of the algae bioreactor operating at MIT (see http://web.mit.edu/erc/spotlights/alg-all.html) utilizing the MIT CO2 exhaust boiler emissions as feed for the algae.
Algae consumes CO2, a major Global Warming Gas. After consumption of the CO2, the algae produces oil (for biodiesel manufacturing) and oxygen. Therefore, the process of using algae creates renewable, sustainable biofuel and reduces global warming gases to better the environment.
Mr. de Beer has entered into an agreement with Greenfuel Technologies Corporation, (see www.greenfuelonline.com) and has purchased and removed the MIT bioreactor from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and transported it to South Africa. It has been reassembled on the biodiesel plant site in Naboomspruit, South Africa, and is now awaiting the arrival of the algae to be inoculated to start production. At the Naboomspruit site construction will soon be underway at the rail spur for a crushing plant to process oil from the planting of sunflowers throughout the region. Mr. de Beer also supports, along with the development of the algae growth technology, the local farming industry that will benefit with the planting of thousands of acres of sunflowers and other feedstocks for oils to be processed into biodiesel fuel.
Technorati Tags: algae, biofuel, biodiesel, ethanol, de beers fuel, alternative fuel
Written by Bentley on November 29th, 2006 with 13 comments.
Read more articles on Green Energy and News.
♫ I’ve been dreeeeeeeeeeaming of a greeeeeeeeeeen Christmas, just like the ones I used to know… ♫
Seriously though, this year I’ve been planning to try and find some cool, creative, ‘green’ gifts for some of the important people in my life (those who will appreciate such things). I’m sure by now some keeners are totally finished their Christmas shopping (Ugggghhh!), but the fact that I am even thinking about it this early is a miracle in itself. My feats of procrastination are legendary, although…I don’t think ANYONE could top my brother and sister-in-law – one year they literally (no-word-of-a-lie) bought their Christmas tree AFTER Christmas!
Ok, enough shenanigans – let’s get down to business. Since there are no ‘real’ green stores remotely near to where I live (not that I know of anyway), I’m going to go with the online route. The advantages of online shopping are many, especially in this day and age. Aside from the ridiculously wide selection of ‘stuff’ you can now buy online, online shopping in and of itself is actually quite ‘green’. I don’t know about you, but during the holiday season I tend to take WAY too many trips to the mall, trying to find exactly the right gift. I absolutely HATE the mall! Apparently someone did a study once to test what sort of emotional stress mall-shopping caused for a group of men. They found that the stress associated with the mall was on-par with the stress-levels associated with fighting in a war. I’ve never fought in a war personally, but I can’t say I find the results all that surprising!
But I digress. Where was I anyway? Right – online shopping is ‘green’. Obviously sitting at home and doing all your window shopping and actual shopping via your computer is going to save not only stress, but potentially a lot of fuel and carbon emissions as well.
So whats the plan, Stan?
For the next week or so I’m going to be looking around trying to find really cool eco-stores for Christmas shopping and I will share any that seem to hold promise. I’ll get things started today with GreenFeet. I checked them out for the first time today (found them in my favourites folder) and they look quite cool! They seem to have a WIDE variety of products to chose from, and some really interesting stuff! According to the homepage they currently have a promotion running whereby you receive a free $20 gift when you spend $75 or more. Sounds pretty cool. Be sure to check them out if you are not familiar with them.
I think the only downside to online shopping I am going to encounter is that most of the really cool stores are more than likely going to be in the States. For the benefit of our Canadian readers (and myself) I’m going to see if I can find some good Canadian options as well.
As per usual we welcome any and all feedback anyone might have. Do YOU know of any nifty online green stores? Places you have already purchased gifts from perhaps? Share your reviews with us!
Technorati Tags: green gifts, eco gifts, christmas, green products, environment
Written by Bentley on November 28th, 2006 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Green Business.
Not too long ago I wrote a post about Lichenology, a fascinating blog about the journey towards self-sufficiency on a farm in BC.
Today I’d like to write about a couple other sites focused on serious sustainable living – that is to say these are people are truly ‘living it’. Since we call ourselves the “sustainable living guide” and are just getting started on our own eco-journeys, I think its only fair that we make sure our readers know about some of the incredible resources that are out there. I certainly hope before to long to live as these indivuals do. In the meantime I will continue to draw considerable inspiration from the experiences they share.
First stop on our virtual road trip is ‘midcoast Maine’, home to Pocket Farm. We actually came across the site several months ago (and liked what we saw), but sadly I only recently took the time to really have a closer look. I’m glad I did!
By way of an introduction to their blog, it’s probably best to provide some exerpts from the Pocket Farm site (who better to describe their endeavours than the authors themselves?):
About four years ago, my husband James and I decided we had enough of the rat race and the suburban megalopolis we found ourselves living in. We had been exploring the concept of Voluntary Simplicity, and it didn’t take us long to decide to pack it all up, sell the house, and purchase an old farmhouse on 50+ acres in midcoast Maine. Since then, we’ve been trying our hand at all kinds of new skills: house renovations, growing as much food as we can in a short season and putting up that food to nurture us through the long winter, and raising waterfowl and pastured poultry.
…
We’re passionate about organic agriculture, sustainable living and caring for this fragile planet, and I guess you could say we live a “handmade life”. It’s important for us to provide for our needs of food, fuel and clothing the best we can. We don’t intend on being completely self-sufficient, and don’t believe it’s possible. Needing others is a big part of creating community.
One thing I always look for on a website is the ‘personal feel’ – the sense that there is a real person at work, preferably someone with a great deal of passion for what they are writing about. Well the Pocket Farm blog exudes plenty of personality (and passion). I literally felt ‘warm and fuzzy’ as I read through some of the posts – almost as though I was having a friendly conversation with the author.
I’m also a very visual person and love to see related images (especially those taken by the author). There are plenty of posts that don’t have images on this blog, but the website as a whole is very visually pleasing. I also discovered a link to a different section of the site where you can view some of their photos (Pocket Photos).
Of course, the most important feature of a good website is high quality content, and Pocket Farms delivers in that department as well. The posts I read were very interesting and informative, and I definitely found myself wanting to read more.
Rest assured, Pocket Farms will now be on the list of green blogs I read – I highly recommend you have a look for yourself if you haven’t already.
Well this post is turning into a bit of a mammoth so I think I’ll leave it as-is. I will certainly be revisting the topic again (and telling you about some other cool sites) before too long – perhaps this will even evolve into a regular EcoSherpa feature.
Technorati Tags: sustainable living, sustainability, self-sufficiency, homestead, green living, organic, pocket farm, lichenology
Written by Bentley on November 27th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Interesting & Notable.
You may recall that we wrote a post about the Ecobabes 2007 calendar back in September after reading about it on Treehugger. At the time the website was still under construction and the calendar was not yet available.
Well thanks to an email from Larry (from Ecopalooza Green Events Network – which by the way looks like a fantastic resource for finding eco-events in North America), we learned of a recent EcoBabe article in the San Francisco Chronicle, and were able to get updated on the situation!
If you mosey on over to the EcoBabes website, you’ll see that its much more developed now (assuming you haven’t been on it for awhile). I of course only visited so as to read the articles (haha), but for anyone interested in looking at photos of beautiful women, there appear to be galleries for the 12 eco-beauties featured in the 2007 calendar.
Be assured it’s all in good taste, and once again this is all for a good cause!
Here’s a link to the San Fran Chronicle article: Environmental climate heats up over pinups Raising funds and blood pressure with ‘Ecobabes’ calendar
I highly recommend you check it out for a much more thorough look inside the EcoBabes project.
Technorati Tags: ecobabes, climate change, global warming, calendars, environmental awareness, environment
Written by Bentley on November 27th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized.
