verdantic

Two of the Smartest People I Know Won World Water Day Challenge!

2011-03-23T08:08:00.008-04:00

The winner of Visualizing.org's competition, Visualizing Urban Water Challenge, is Joseph Bergen and Nickie Huang of GSD at Harvard. Congrats, they won $5,000!

I'm sure you'll agree with the judges, who praised their work for being unique, easily accessible, and interactive. So basically, you can roll over countries here:
Then you find out things about water, like this:
The smaller story here is the love and support offered by Verdantic throughout the project. Behind Team Bergen & Huang, Verdantic helped out with some key pointers. Some comments went unheeded, like, notice how that cow looks really small and sad compared to the goat? Fortunately, the genius of their project easily overcame the petty details of Verdantic.

Congratulations to Joseph and Nickie, and the 2 runner-ups that got $500!

Genius: Green Collar Baseball

2010-04-10T17:03:00.003-04:00

The Oakland A's are in first place. Indeed, they are. For the 2010 season, the A's launched their new ad campaign, Green Collar Baseball. Yes, the A's are the only team that wears green. Yes, the A's are a blue collar poor man's team. Yes, we all want to see more green jobs and the green economy.

"The Green Collar Baseball campaign communicates that we do things unconventionally and that our young team works exceptionally hard to succeed," said Jim Leahey, A's Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "In communicating that message, the campaign highlights the personality of our team, connecting our fans to our players in a fun and irreverent way."

There will be a total of 10 commercials--some also feature Mark Ellis, Trevor Cahill and A's great Dave Stewart--will gradually make their way to both the A's Web site and local television screens. Looking forward to it.

2010 MLB on FOX Broadcast schedule

2010-04-10T16:44:00.003-04:00

Baseball is back and so is Verdantic--at least for now. You may be wondering what this post has to do with verdantic's eco-theme. Not much, but my post of the 2009 Schedule received many visitors. I have decided that this is a great resource for the baseball community and myself. At the very least, I will visit to see what arbitrary game FOX tries to force us to watch. Let's see: 7 Yankee games and 1 Oakland game. Yeah yeah yeah, I know, they are the defending champs and it's about money and viewership . . . even people who don't like baseball like watching the Yankees too.

Saturday, April 10, 2010 (*3:00 PM ET)
New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays
St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee Brewers
Seattle Mariners at Texas Rangers

Saturday, April 17, 2009
New York Mets at St. Louis Cardinals
Chicago White Sox at Cleveland Indians
San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers

Saturday, April 24, 2010
New York Yankees at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Seattle Mariners at Chicago White Sox

Saturday, May 1, 2010 (*3:00 PM ET)
New York Mets at Philadelphia Phillies
Texas Rangers at Seattle Mariners
Houston Astros at Atlanta Braves

Saturday, May 8, 2010 (*3:00 PM ET)
New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox
Atlanta Braves at Philadelphia Phillies

Saturday, May 15, 2010
Philadelphia Phillies at Milwaukee Brewers
Seattle Mariners at Tampa Bay Rays
Houston Astros at San Francisco Giants

Saturday, May 22, 2010 (*7:00 PM ET)
New York Yankees at New York Mets
Boston Red Sox at Philadelphia Phillies
Chicago Cubs at Texas Rangers
Detroit Tigers at Los Angeles Dodgers

Saturday, May 29, 2010
St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs
Texas Rangers at Minnesota Twins
Seattle Mariners at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Saturday, June 5, 2010
Florida Marlins at New York Mets
Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Seattle Mariners

Saturday, June 12, 2010
Philadelphia Phillies at Boston Red Sox
Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs

Saturday, June 19, 2010
Los Angeles Dodgers at Boston Red Sox
Minnesota Twins at Philadelphia Phillies

Saturday, June 26, 2010 (*7:00 PM ET)
New York Yankees at Los Angeles Dodgers
Boston Red Sox at San Francisco Giants
Chicago Cubs at Chicago White Sox

Saturday, July 3, 2010
Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals
Tampa Bay Rays at Minnesota Twins
Florida Marlins at Atlanta Braves

Saturday, July 10, 2010
Chicago Cubs at Los Angeles Dodgers
Atlanta Braves at New York Mets
Minnesota Twins at Detroit Tigers

Saturday, July 17, 2010
Tampa Bay Rays at New York Yankees
Los Angeles Dodgers at St. Louis Cardinals

Saturday, July 24, 2010
New York Mets at Los Angeles Dodgers
Colorado Rockies at Philadelphia Phillies
Minnesota Twins at Baltimore Orioles

Saturday, July 31, 2010
Detroit Tigers at Boston Red Sox
Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants
Seattle Mariners at Minnesota Twins

Saturday, August 7, 2010
Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees
San Francisco Giants at Atlanta Braves

Saturday, August 14, 2010
Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals
San Diego Padres at San Francisco Giants
Baltimore Orioles at Tampa Bay Rays

Saturday, August 21, 2010
Atlanta Braves at Chicago Cubs
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Minnesota Twins
Texas Rangers at Baltimore Orioles

Saturday, August 28, 2010
Philadelphia Phillies at San Diego Padres
Minnesota Twins at Seattle Mariners
Florida Marlins at Atlanta Braves

Saturday, September 4, 2010
New York Mets at Chicago Cubs
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Oakland A’s
Texas Rangers at Minnesota Twins

Saturday, September 11, 2010
Philadelphia Phillies at New York Mets
St. Louis Cardinals at Atlanta Braves
Seattle Mariners at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Saturday, September 18, 2010
Atlanta Braves at New York Mets
Detroit Tigers at Chicago White Sox
Colorado Rockies at Los Angeles Dodgers

Saturday, September 25, 2010
WILD CARD

Saturday, October 2, 2010
WILD CARD

United Airlines' Unfriendly Skies

2009-11-14T01:47:00.006-05:00

I like to think that bicycle-friendly cities and establishments are met with admiration and appreciation. While businesses that put out dog drinking water bowls on the sidewalk may get the nod from dog-owners, bicycle friendliness is a progressive act with environmental benefits.
Prior to my last trip back to NYC, my bicycle gang shipped a padded bicycle bag so that I could ride again. LAX long term parking drops me off at United Airlines with my bicycle bag. So far so good. United Airlines charges me $175 to check in my bicycle—that’s for one way. That's more than the ticket for my seat. With my car miles away in a lot, I am stuck at the check-in counter with a bicycle. I can’t bring it back to my car or lock it up at the airport, but if I do bring it, it will cost me $350. As I’m calculating this crisis in my head, the mean old UA staff that issued the ticket harrumphs at me for deliberating my financial demise. He gives me the number for a courier company that might hold it over the weekend for a couple hundred bucks. A younger UA employee pitied me and talked to his pals in baggage that agreed to watch and store my bicycle for free. I tipped the nice young man enough money for a 6-pack.
Guess who else charges $175 for bicycles? Other shitty airlines that don’t give a shit, like Delta Airlines. It’s clearly a penalizing deterrent to justify bad service. United.com site provides links to Fedex encouraging you to ship your luggage ahead of you. Certainly more convenient for United but how is that more convenient for me? What’s a fair price? I understand most airlines charge $20 for each checked baggage. Bicycles with case should weigh less than 50 pounds but they are a bit more difficult to handle. I think $50 is fair. And so does JetBlue and Virgin America.
If United Airlines was a motorist, he would be an old curmudgeon in a polluting Pontiac clunker. Instead of honking and high-beaming at cyclists like motorists tend to typically do, he pins cyclists against a tree at the knees. Unsatisfied with the helpless nature of the cyclist, United pulls down the cyclist’s pants then has a sidewalk sale to sell salvaged bike parts from the wreckage.

Yellow Pages, "Little. Yellow. Different."

2009-08-20T09:45:00.008-04:00

As print newspapers embrace and imitate the generic exit strategy of moving online, it is sad to see them go. While print may not be the most environmentally sound, the publication effects many families and the communities. Here's a brief list of prints that are flailing in the sea change of technology: Ann Arbor News, Asian Week, Bloomfield Free Press, The Bridge, The Capital Times, Christian Science Monitor, Kansas City Kansan, Kentucky Post, Rhinoceros Times, Tucson Citizen. Personally, in many cases, I just don't believe that there is enough content and useful information to fill a daily print issue. As such, papers are often filled with irrelevant ads and fluff. Turning the paper into "tabloid size" can only stave off extinction for so long.
My tilt today is not against newspapers but with the yellow pages, or super yellow pages, as it were. They used to stack of shoe box-sized phone books stack outside of my apartment building. This huge heap of phone books would seldom be taken into an apartment unit, usually by the old and digital illiterate. Then after a thunderstorm, the pile would turn into a heavy stinking pile of wet paper.
Prior to completely moving online, they forced their way into my home by shrinking the phone book into a 6x9 booklet (wrapped in plastic) that fit into my teeny mailbox. I must admire their thoughtfulness of only providing my with a "Midtown West: October 2009-2010" edition focusing on my local area and not all five boroughs. This little book is going straight to the recycling bin. They may have eluded death this year, but death is imminent.

Verdantic's Dream Car

2009-07-16T11:12:00.006-04:00

Sometimes it seems that in order for something to be believably eco-friendly, it has to be ugly. Sure, there are beacons of beautiful eco designs, like Piano's California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Here's some ugly ones: solar vest, washing machine + toilet collabo and most of all, eco cars. Why does an eco car, electric vehicle or hybrid irrevocably have to be ugly or unsafe? Verdantic will be needing a car soon as I prepare my move back to California. Here's my car of choice: The Volkswagen Jetta TDI Stationwagen.
Here's some car dork mumbo jumbo:

Turbo compressor

1,968 cc 2.0 liters in-line 4 front engine with 81.0 mm bore, 95.5 mm stroke, 16.5 compression ratio, overhead cam and four valves per cylinder

Diesel fuel

Diesel common rail fuel system

14.5 gallon main diesel fuel tank 12.1

Power: 104 kW , 140 HP SAE @ 4,000 rpm; 236 ft lb , 320 Nm @ 1,750 rpm
- 2.0L L4 engine

Here's what I need to know about it:
- Turbo!
- 30 MPG city / 41 MPG highway
- Diesel and convertible to bio-diesel
- MSRP: $23,870
- Engine sounds like a real car
- Looks like a normal car

Dirty problem, Cleaner solution: Pee Poople

2009-07-09T07:59:00.002-04:00

To calculate the number of pet dogs in a populated area, you divide the human population by 2.65 then multiply by .534. For New York City's 8 million, that works out to 1.6 million pet dogs. Let's assume 90% of dog walkers pick up their dog'(s)' daily shit. Assume some are crazy enough to pick it up with a newspaper. Some may use bio-bags as well. I could go on to calculate the number of unpicked up turds per city block in NYC, but that's not exactly the point. Point is, that's at least a million plastic bags a day. Banning plastic bags in this regard will be a tough sell. I can't imagine President Obama picking up Bo's poop without plastic.
Meet the Peepoople. They developed a biodegradable bag to help sanitation in Africa. The bag serves as a toilet but when buried, it provides organic fertilizer for improved soil structure. Perhaps this innovation could help NYC reduce trash and enhance urban farming and gardening.

HOGWASH: Marylhurst University's Online MBA in Sustainable Business

2009-07-07T17:12:00.012-04:00

Blogger's foreword: I love school. I encourage everyone to take any opportunity to learn something new. That said, I was intrigued by this banner ad on treehugger today:
Marylhurst University's Online MBA in Sustainable Business
What's not to like?
1: Why go to classrooms when you can learn at home? Networking is a huge part of business school. If it's 100% online, you can avoid the awkward alcohol-infused social events intended for business networking. Experiencing the throes of presenting a gaudy group clusterfuct powerpoint in front of your peers is a must.
2: Not sure if executives at Fortune 500 companies love hearing from business-minded whistleblowing employees with 18-months adeptness in the following areas of expertise: renewable energy; public policy; green development; and natural and organic resources. 18 months of evening online eco-discussions won't make you a scientist--a verdanticist at best.
3: Being in the first graduating class of any program from any school will be frustrating. Accreditations from the NWCCU or the IACBE don't mean anything if only 4th-tiered schools are on the lists. Plus, I thought the MFA was supposed to be the new MBA.

Transportation Fatalities

2009-06-23T13:31:00.006-04:00

Trivia: What transpired during the first automobile accident in the United States?
Answer: In 1896, the first U.S. automobile accident occurred in NYC where a car hit a bicyclist.
After hearing about what happened on the Metro in DC where at least 6 people died in a train collision, it may evoke some hesitation to riding subways and trains. Per year, 800 people die in train accidents. Although that may seem like a shocking figure, rail workers--not passengers--make of for the majority of the 800.
It's a little shocking, but less than 800 cyclist die per year. I expected a higher number. As opposed to a train passenger, a cyclist may have some control over his/her fate by wearing a helmet, being more alert and following traffic rules. By contrast, 35,000 people die in car accidents every year.
To put these number into perspective and the actual likelihood of death, the number of miles traveled should be taken into account. Clearly, airplanes are the safest with 200 deaths per year and a chock-full of miles. Between bicycles and cars, if we compare the 800 and 35,000 deaths to the number of miles traveled, that being 6 billion and 3 trillion respectively, cyclists are 11 times as likely to die as motorists. Adding to the odds against commuter cyclists, two-thirds of bicycle fatalities happen in urban areas.
I'm going to end this downward spiraling circular logic and arrive at some conclusions. I'm not going to stop riding my bike--not now, in fact, most bike deaths happen between June and August. Riding a bicycle can help riders stave off heart disease, America's greatest killer. The asshole in a Hummer is probably safest if it doesn't flip over. No one said verdancy is the safest way to travel, but I do have a heightened appreciation for the Subway. And when I'm behind the wheel of a car, I hope I never face the odds of killing a cyclist.

2009 MLB on FOX Broadcast schedule

2009-05-26T13:35:00.005-04:00

I'm not going to lie, but there's nothing verdantic about this post. Taking a nap while watching baseball out of one eye on a flatscreen is not the best use of energy. Could be worse, I suppose, but it is--personally--my favorite American past time.
FOX paid billions for all of the Saturday baseball games. It blacks out all televized broadcasts, except for one game per zone. Unfortunately, the larger market teams get aired most often, for obvious reasons of viewership and revenue. If I had to guess, it's most likely the Yankees playing some other overpaid team. This post is a helpful reference for Saturday matchups.

2009 MLB on FOX REGULAR SEASON BROADCAST SCHEDULE

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Los Angeles Dodgers at Chicago Cubs

Atlanta Braves at Arizona Diamondbacks

Minnesota Twins at Tampa Bay Rays

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Philadelphia Phillies at Los Angeles Dodgers

Cleveland Indians at Chicago White Sox

Minnesota Twins at Seattle Mariners

Saturday, June 13, 2009

New York Mets at New York Yankees

St. Louis Cardinals at Cleveland Indians

Chicago White Sox at Milwaukee Brewers

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Tampa Bay Rays at New York Mets

Los Angeles Dodgers at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Milwaukee Brewers at Detroit Tigers

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Boston Red Sox at Atlanta Braves

Chicago Cubs at Chicago White Sox

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Arizona Diamondbacks

Saturday, July 4, 2009

New York Mets at Philadelphia Phillies

Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins

Oakland Athletics at Cleveland Indians

Saturday, July 11, 2009

New York Yankees at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 – 8:00 PM ET

2009 MLB All-Star Game

Busch Stadium – St. Louis, MO

Saturday, July 18, 2009

New York Mets at Atlanta Braves

Baltimore Orioles at Chicago White Sox

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Oakland Athletics

Saturday, July 25, 2009

St. Louis Cardinals at Philadelphia Phillies

Minnesota Twins at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers

Saturday, August 1, 2009

New York Yankees at Chicago White Sox

Los Angeles Dodgers at Atlanta Braves

Houston Astros at St. Louis Cardinals

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees

Texas Rangers at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves

Los Angeles Dodgers at Arizona Diamondbacks

Cleveland Indians at Minnesota Twins

Saturday, August 22, 2009

New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox

Chicago Cubs at Los Angeles Dodgers

Saturday, August 29, 2009

New York Mets at Chicago Cubs

Tampa Bay Rays at Detroit Tigers

Houston Astros at Arizona Diamondbacks

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Boston Red Sox at Chicago White Sox

Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Indians

San Francisco Giants at Milwaukee Brewers

Saturday, September 12, 2009

New York Mets at Philadelphia Phillies

Chicago White Sox at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Atlanta Braves at St. Louis Cardinals

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals

Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins

San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers

Imagine NYC without 24-hour subways or newspapers

2009-05-06T13:34:00.004-04:00

Riding around on my bicycle here in my NYC bubble, I don't know if gas prices have increased. I'm not even sure where to find the nearest gas station. When prices of goods and services around me increase, I get the feeling that prices have hit $4/gallon.
What is going on? New York Times went up 50 cents to reach $2. Next week, the price of postage will go up 2 cents to reach 44 cents. New York Times moving online is an unfortunate foretoken, but it has environmental benefits. As for postage, that's great if the 2-cent increase encourages people to write more emails instead and discourages junk mailers to blast credit card offers.
And then there's the subway. Paterson and state leaders' solution to an MTA bailout package is to allow a 25 cent fare increase to subway rides to $2.25; and a monthly pass will go up to $89 from $81. I'm going to blame Paterson for this mess--but I think Roger Toussaint may also be culpable. Here's what Paterson could've done to avoid this: when Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan was proposed in 2007. Paterson stutter-stepped and undermined congestion pricing. Aside from the $500 million in federal funding that NYC was eligible to receive, ridership could have increased. Now with service cuts, there is less of an incentive to ride. Still, it's better than Londoners, who pay by zones with fares up to £4, or $5.80/ride. Personally, my solution is to ride a bicycle, because you can't read the newspaper while you ride.

Greener sports

2009-04-27T15:10:00.005-04:00

Many will not admit that baseball is a sport. I'm willing to call it a game. If baseball is a game, then I don't know what to call Nascar. By the way, Nascar should be NASCAR, because it is an acronym for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, but all caps are too obnoxious. There are many polluters in Nascar and it just wouldn't be as loud and exciting if they raced with hydrogen cars. As other auto racing circuits have taken steps towards greenery, Nascar has employed a green pace car: the Toyota Camry Hybrid. Next month, the Toyota pace car will make its debut at the Coca-Cola 600. It wasn't easy. The pace car had to pass a performance test of reaching 100mph within a quarter mile.
As for baseball, there is also a growing consciousness for the environment. The perfectly manicured fields of baseball should never be replaced--no matter how much water it needs; but perhaps something can done about depleting and endangering ash wood used for baseball bats. On Earth Day last week, I was proud to attend a day game at the new Yankee stadium to see the Oakland A's. I wrongly assumed that a day game would not be played under bright lights. Since it was cloudy and it drizzled the entire game, they turned on the lights. So much for that. I was surprised to see recycling and compost bins around the park. Judging from the contents thrown inside the receptacles, instructions posted above the bins were desperately needed. Can't expect NY inhabitants to know how to compost, much less rowdy Yankee fans. Plus, New Yorkers are accustomed to seeing garbage men throwing bags of recyclables into garbage trucks every morning. Even Whole Foods provides instructions on composting for its eco-friendly conduits. Without posting instructions, I don't believe the billion-dollar stadium is actually serious about composting.

Bicycles helping RFID's poor image

2009-04-18T16:43:00.004-04:00

A bicycle can make you a better person:
- it is good for your mental and physical health;
- it can give you a slimmer and more attractive physique; and
- it can make you feel good about yourself and your surrounding environment.
Bicycles can even make unsavory characters like RFID tags cool. Although RFID tags have developed a poor reputation for privacy and environmental concerns, they are being used as helpful devices to combat bicycle theft around the world. The UK, the Netherlands and in Portland, OR, RFID tags are attached to registered bikes to deter bike theft or to track their locations when stolen.

RFID: more at stake than privacy

2009-04-16T16:32:00.004-04:00

RFID, Radio Frequency Identification are those tracking devices that you see on the boxes of products. Sure RFIDs are a great way to run a business more efficiently. Using radio waves, they allow instant tracking for shipping, supply chain management and inventory tracking.
There are many types of RFIDs, but once these things are activated, they send signals and information about the consumer without consent. That's the crux of the privacy issue that it raises. Verdantic certainly appreciates privacy and annoymity.
But, RFIDs are bad for the environment. Researchers aren't sure whether RFIDs can cause cancer or harmful effects to your health. It might be like one of those situations where exposure to small amounts of toxins or BPA are totally safe according to the FDA. RFIDs can be difficult to spot. They usually look like a white padded sticker, but underneath is an integrated circuit with copper wires, an antenna and a battery.
So maybe these things can benefit the environment by enabling businesses to operate more efficiently. How necessary is it? As much stuff as we Americans buy, attaching an RFID to every product creates more waste. Waste of a precious metal and millions of tiny batteries--that should be properly disposed of--end up in our landfills. Unfortunately, you can't see them and they can't be recycled. In fact, they get in the way of recycling boxes. The tags left on cardboard contain metal and inks that complicate recycled feedstock. On steel, the copper can contaminate other metals. When left of glass, the metals can damage glass kilns while being harmful to recyclers and glass blowers. The same can be said for the PET or HDPE recycling process.

Interview: Heather Sperling, Food Writer

2009-04-13T11:00:00.019-04:00

V: Heather, welcome to Verdantic. Thanks for contributing to my blog—I really appreciate this.
HS: Happy to help—it's actually quite appropriate as Earth Day so happens to be my birthday AND I've been posting for PlanetGreen.com AND I love the color green.

V: Perfect. Before we begin, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
HS: Sure, I was an editor of the food website StarChefs.com for over 2 years before moving to Chicago, where I currently write for a number of magazines and websites, including the Discovery Channel's green do-it-yourself website, PlanetGreen.com. I've always been enamored with food and drink, and I think that the green movement is THE movement of our age, so naturally I get quite excited when the two overlap—which, thankfully, happens quite a lot.

V: How has green movement and sustainability affected trends the food industry?
HS: Sustainability has become, without a doubt, one of the biggest trends in the industry. As far as food is concerned, the green movement is very much a grassroots movement, and chefs, restaurateurs, business owners, and food media have played essential parts in spreading the word and setting the example. Writers like Michael Pollan, chefs like Dan Barber and Alice Waters—they set trends through their restaurants and their writing, and help draw the public's attention to the big issues in sustainable eating. Of course, these are only three names in an astoundingly large network of people and organizations who are making the promotion of sustainable food their mission in life. As public awareness has grown, public expectations have grown—and in the food industry this means that diners and consumers are savvier than ever, and expect more from producers, markets, and restaurants. A few years ago, we started hearing about the merits of grass-fed beef and organic milk; today a sustainably minded diner could think: "Sure, your arugula was grown on the roof of your restaurant and you cured this lamb bacon yourself, with no nitrates involved. That's great. But are you composting? Recycling? Serving fair-trade coffee and using eco-friendly cleaning supplies in the kitchen?" In the food world, the ante keeps getting upped.

V: What are some the most innovative concepts and trends that involve sustainable eating and sustainable food?
HS: The Blue Ocean Institute, an organization devoted to sustainable seafood, has a pretty amazing program called FishPhone. You text the name of a fish to a certain number, and you get a text message back with info about whether the fish is a sustainable choice, and if not, what good alternatives are out there. I've never done it, but I love that it exists. And it's a great example of the sustainability movement harnessing fairly innovative technology to make essential information easily accessible. A handful of high-end restaurants across the country (The French Laundry and Per Se) are putting in new water filtration systems that make still and sparkling water in-house. They're eliminate the carbon footprint of their water, while still being able to offer the bottled water that diners want and expect. And I love that restaurants are starting to compost. I was in Seattle a few months ago and over half of the 40-odd restaurants I visited told me that they're composting. Granted, Seattle has always been an uber-green city. But composting—especially in a restaurant—is a bit of a pain, and that's a huge percentage that are making the effort.

V: What is the future of the dining experience, in terms of trends?
HS: That's a big question, man. You mean in terms of sustainability and green stuff, right?

V: You’re totally right. Let’s keep it green.
HS: Sustainability is going to continue to be huge in the restaurant world. Restaurants will keep touting the local and/or sustainable products on their plates, and more chains will follow Chipotle's lead and start serving sustainably raised ingredients. Ordering whole animals and cooking head-to-tail (i.e. using every part of the animal) is a growing trend in restaurant kitchens, and in line with that sustainably minded, artisan approach we're seeing things like homemade charcuterie (made from the trimmings) popping up across the country. In a way, this part of the future of the dining experience is actually quite historical. Ordering a whole pig, breaking it down in-house, curing the jowl to make guanciale, using the fat back for seasoning, turning the head into headcheese—these acts borrow from culinary traditions that are hundreds of years old. Today they're gaining momentum, and are certainly part of the future of many American restaurants.

V: In what ways might energy and transportation affect our food?
HS: In the past year, we watched the prices of eggs, flour, and milk rise as the price of gas rose. The average cost of a slice of New York pizza rose by some crazy amount, and my favorite morning glory muffin at the greenmarket went up 50 cents. This is one basic way that transportation affects our food: when transportation costs fluctuate, food costs fluctuate too. And of course there's the issue of the carbon footprint. Industrial food production has a wildly huge carbon footprint, from factories that process food to the energy that goes into massive cow feedlots (which produce insane amounts of methane gas, by the way. Cow farts are astoundingly bad for the atmosphere).

V: How feasible is the locavore diet and urban farming movement?
HS: It's certainly possible to exist off a diet of predominantly local foods, though some places— like San Francisco and New York—certainly make it easier than others. But it can absolutely be done, especially if you make reasonable exceptions and allow yourself California olive oil or non-local citrus. There are many that would say this is anathema to the true locavore spirit, but I say it's just realistic. There's a good amount of info, support, and interest out there. For her book "Animal Vegetable Miracle" Barbara Kingsolver, and her family, spent a year eating only local foods. The Eat Local Challenge is a network of people and blogs who participated in a challenge to go locavore for a period of time in 2008. As for urban farming, I think it's excellent and essential on a social level—especially when it takes the form of school gardens or community-focused gardens. The Obamas' decision to grow food at the White House is certainly an exciting development. Hell, even people growing a few herbs in a container on a stoop is a step in the right direction, because it means that we're increasingly aware of the quality of our food, and where it comes from. I recently read that 43 million Americans plan to grow vegetables at home this year—7 million more than in 2008. That's huge!

V: What can the FDA or USDA do to help shape sustainable and organic foods?
HS: The USDA has set standards for organic certification (through an organization called the National Organic Standards Board), but they're widely considered to be faulty--or at least less stringent than they could or should be. "Organic" began as a counter-culture movement (counter to industrial agriculture) and grew rapidly in popularity in the last decade. When the government stepped in and regulated "organic," many of the existing practitioners and followers felt that the official standards were too lax, with too many loopholes. But ultimately the government regulation is an undeniably positive first step, and has done wonders for spurring consumer consciousness of organics. There is currently no FDA/UDSA certification for sustainability, but there are a number of NGOs that are totally focused on the subject. There are some great independent organizations dealing with sustainable seafood (which is nearly impossible to classify as organic, because most seafood is wild-caught, and even if its farm-raised, often the feed is made of wild-caught fish), like the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program, the Seafood Choices Alliance, and the Blue Ocean Institute. The Cool Foods Campaign is devoted to spreading the word about the relationship between food and global warming and promoting eco-friendly, low-carbon-footprint foods. The Green Restaurant Association helps restaurants operate in a more sustainable way. Their certification process has been criticized as being too easy as well, but it's a start! The FDA and USDA have some hefty issues on their plates, what with the recent food safety debacles and the increasing problems with industrial agriculture. For now I think it's going to continue to be NGOs, chefs, writers and activists who really spread the word about sustainability. I should also mention that there are third party sustainable certification: Protected Harvest and Food Alliance are two major organizations that are providing sustainability certification to producers, stores, and restaurants.

V: Thanks again for your help. This content and your expertise are a great addition to my blog.
HS: The blog looks good, and I love that you reference that the A's happened to win the World Series in 1989 before launching into a remembrance of the Exxon Valdez spill. Nice personal touch.

V: Thanks for reading. Happy birthday on Earth Day!

Verdantic book review: Food Matters, by Mark Bittman

2009-04-10T11:40:00.001-04:00

Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes
Mark Bittman (2009)
✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ 1/2 out of ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

In his new book, Mark Bittman, The New York Times' Minimalist, creates a two part guide to better food consumption. Food Matters, begins by examining the flaws and myths of the modern American diet. In this part of the book, Bittman explores sustainability and environmental issues of our food production, as well as the strategic communications and deception deployed by Big Food--oftentimes in cahoots with government agencies. Bittman spares us from reviewing the obvious problems surrounding animal cruelty or fast foods. Instead, Bittman builds on the confusion from the barrage of ambiguous food pyramids, nutrition facts, food studies, health claims and messages. He provides us with an excellent case of an unclear message from the FDA: reduce saturated fats and keep total fat consumption to less than 30% of your total calories. Rather, he makes it much easier to digest: eat fewer animal products and nutrition-poor (junk) food; and eat more plants.
Unlike authors like Michael Pollan--that refers to himself as a vegetarian in one chapter then eats cheeseburgers at McDonalds in another, then shoots and eats a wild boar at the end of the book--by no means is Bittman promoting or demanding a call to action for vegetarianism. But given the current health and environmental situation, Bittman delivers part 2 of Food Matters: a how-to guide for conscious eating. He proposes a better way to plan for meals--not just for dinner but for each meal over an entire month. What's more, Bittman includes more than 75 delicious recipes. Visit his column, The Minimalist, on the New York Times site, where Bittman has video tutorials on cooking recipes.

Starbucks Shared Planet

2009-04-07T13:11:00.000-04:00

Have you been in a Starbucks recently? How long has this "Starbucks™ Shared Planet™" signage and hoopla been going on? More importantly, how did I not notice? I searched through Starbucks' press release archive and couldn't find an announcement or explanation. Although I sense that it appeared overnight, it almost seems as if it was always there. It's a lot to handle. The concept is big and it has many leg, even if it may seem simple: You and Starbucks. It's bigger than you.
Shared Planet includes Project (RED). A nickel per purchase on your red plastic Starbucks gift card will save lives in Africa. Project (RED) collects the money for the Global Fund to go off to fight and save lives; but something tells me that while most consumers may know that AIDS is a problem in Africa, they don't know anything about the Global Fund. There's also aid towards rebuilding New Orleans, community involvement, environmental stewardship and ethical sourcing. Putting the onus on customers with, "whatever we do, you do" extends responsibility and awareness. Everyone should know more about what and whom they are supporting when they make purchases. I do believe that the Fair Trade coffee system has many flaws to it. It's a tough club for small farmers to break into. Fixed prices further commoditize coffee beans to the point of over-production. This reminds me of the corn farmers in the U.S. who are barely turning a profit on a market flooded with government subsidized corn. Farmers lose. Big winners are those that can enjoy cheap high fructose corn syrup: Coca-Cola and the fat on your ass. Likewise, Fair Trade coffee would provide overproduced and cheaper coffee for Starbucks. Even as the largest buyer of Fair Trade coffee, Starbucks has now upped the standards on coffee with Shared Planet. Bravo.

GM & Segway PUMA: no winner here

2009-04-07T11:13:00.013-04:00

Today on the streets of NYC, GM unveils its collaboration project with Segway on a new 2-wheeler 2-seater vehicle. The PUMA, Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility, can reach 35 mph (no highway) and go up to 35 miles on a charge and cost 35 cents to charge.
Clearly, this vehicle has not be thoroughly thought through. Essentially, they're developing a new mode of transportation without a market, a place to travel or a plan for its release. The companies hopes cities or colleges will set up special PUMA travel lanes, like bicycle lanes. Sounds like more congestion to me. Can't blame them for trying and turning over a new leaf, actually this is commendable. This is a complete 180 from their reliance on heavy and large fossil-fuel cars and trucks.
Chris Borroni-Bird, director of the project for GM said, "Pumas might appeal most in densely packed cities in places such as India and China. There they would seem a big step up from bicycles. Americans, who are used to cars, might not take them as seriously." Exactly. He just admitted that this isn't a vehicle that America needs. Let's take look at some quick facts:
Fact #1: GM is running on $13.4 billion tax payer dollars.
Fact #2: Alternative transportation devices make sense since GM's domestic car sales aren't selling--almost down 50% this year.
Fact #3: No one looks cool on a Segway.
Fact #4: It is possible to look cool on a bicycle, unless you ride a folding one or a tandem.
Fact #5: But hey, GM bought out the Specialized bicycle company last year. (I know, I know. Bicycles are not nearly as profitable as EVs or Hummers)

Carbon Footprint Calculators

2009-04-04T14:12:00.001-04:00

Brands have engaged us with many free calculators including calorie counters, BMI, credit and get-out-of-debt calculators. A carbon footprint calculator would seem to be unself-serving by discouraging purchases and thus lowering revenue. At first I doubted that any brand would attempt such a disruptive tactic to the point of irony, but I was wrong.
For an online company such as Yahoo!, their service requires a lot energy for its servers. Come to think of it, it could be to their benefit if consumers realized that browsing online or playing Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball is better for the environment, as opposed to carbon intensive activities such as quad biking or hopping on a Caribbean cruise.
Moving along on the spectrum of sensibility, I also found JPMorgan's calculator. There's an angle: they are selling carbon offsets. So actually, they are informing their clients of their environmentally-unfriendly deeds. Of course, we often see guilt being used by advertisers as a motivational device.
I wasn't impressed by HP's calculator. HP kept it pertinent by limiting their calculator for printing and buying HP stuff. I didn't make it through their entire calculator because it froze, but I suspect that they will tell me how much money I'm wasting, how bad my operations are for the planet and how much money and carbon emissions I can save by buying HP products.
Can you blame perspicuously bad companies from trying to look good? BP is trying. They also have a cutesy animated character named Professor B who provides tips on how to save energy and the environment. Each calculator has a specific call to action that results in more consumption, or at the very least, a better way to consume. I suppose a business purpose needs to be defined above all else. If anything, we should be grateful that at least a solution is offered and awareness is being raised.
My favorite calculator was on EarthDay. You get to pick an avatar and walk around the block as you figure out how many planets it would take to sustain your lifestyle. Sadly, it will take 4.6 planets if everyone lived with my consumption habits. I'm ashamed. It's the airplane flights, I tell you.

The zero-carbon activity paradox

2009-04-03T16:40:00.002-04:00

It's April and boy is it wet outside. Which is worse: riding a bicycle in the winter and getting covered in salt or riding in the rain with toxic runoff from buildings spraying you in the face? It's time for more green roofs, people. Alas, let's find a new indoor hobby.
For the price of slightly more than a movie ticket, I bought a 4x4 Rubik's Cube. Over the years, the 2x2 and the classic 3x3 have offered me hours of entertainment and I trust that the 4x4 will present a greater challenge and countless hours of low carbon entertainment.
I learned the 2x2 and 3x3 in years prior to my web addiction. Now with the aid of websites and YouTube tutorials, this may only detract from the challenge and my toiling hours. A true geek would never stop after 4x4. The shopkeeper at the game store asked me if I wanted to spring for the 5x5. He added, "the 5x5 can be done with all of the algorithms from the 3x3 and the 4x4. Do you know the Rubik's Parity Theory?"
Ok..., time to leave.
It's not exactly zero-carbon, but neither is walking or bicycling which both require shoes that were made in China. The Rubik's cube is also made in China. It's made almost entirely of petrochemicals, but unless I develop a hatred for the cube, I can take pleasure in the fact it won't go leachating in a landfill any time soon. Surely, kWh's will be needed to power my laptop, my lamp, as I solve the cube. I may decide to play some intellectually stimulating music, perhaps classical!

McDeceit: no Earth Day credit for you!

2009-03-31T12:13:00.008-04:00

For Earth Day 2009, monuments from all corners of the planet will dim its lights for an hour to celebrate earth and emphasize the threat of climate change--from a research base in Antarctic to the floodlights at the foot of Great Pyramids of Egypt to the Colosseum in Rome to the Empire State building in New York and to the Acropolis in Athens.
The golden arches of McDonald's wants in on it too. Let's count them in for Earth Hour! After all, they've been making great strides towards being verdant. McDonald's will dim the lights of its golden arches at all of its restaurants.* Unfortunately, McDonald's does not have the legal right to order its franchisees to dim their lights. As a result, only 1.5% of McDonald's locations will be participating in Earth Hour.

* Offer valid at participating locations only. Prices may vary.

Paperless baseball cards and newspapers

2009-03-29T16:55:00.006-04:00

This month began with an online outcry against United Airlines that touched upon paperlessness, followed by GE wasting paper and then by FedEx giving away free paper. Other paperless forms have taken shape this month, including cultural mainstays: newspapers and baseball cards.
Let's start with baseball cards. I still have my complete collection. Had I sold them in the early 90s, I might have been able to get a fair return on my debilitating habit of buying and collecting baseball cards. On a more positive note, the backs of each card gave me the gift and curse of a lifelong obsession for baseball statistical analysis. As a currency, baseball cards were over-printed and consequently devalued to worthlessness. For the 2009 season, Topps launched Topps 3D Live cards that come in ToppsAttax packs. A collector can hold up a card to a webcam and the featured player is brought to life in 3D. This will placate any baseball nut for hours, especially with fielding practice drills and detailed baseball statistics. Baseball statistics will live forever; but if baseball cards weren't dead already, this clearly marks the death its value on paper.
Now onto newspapers... If print is dead, just how dead is it, if it's still around? This month, the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Seattle's oldest newspaper, becomes the first major metro daily to go online--exclusively. While the Seattle P-I retreated to digital because of financial hardships, this could be the beginning of a trend for other newspapers to survive financially. Plus, with gadgets like the kindle, newsprint looks and feels more and more like a dirty mess. Unpopular magazines and newspapers may soon seem as distant as the days of when baseball cards were valuable.

Addendums for March

2009-03-29T16:18:00.005-04:00

- Contrary to Verdantic's hopes and predictions last week, Exxon didn't do anything for the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill.
- Verdantic was recently confronted by a reader about what veganism or vegetarian has to do with verdancy? In other words, how is eating meat environmentally unsound, if it is a natural point along the circle of life?
Our world is no longer perfect, but if it were, animals could graze on grass and we could collect their manure to fertilize other produce. Unfortunately, a calf is ready for slaughter as soon as 14 months because it is loaded with hormones while it eats 25 pounds of corn per day. Thus, its manure is too toxic to use as fertilizer and also ruinous to wildlife in waterways. Starting from fresh and whole foods, the more a food is processed, the further it moves up the food chain. Since all farm animals eat corn, they have already progressed along the food chain. Moving up the food chain drastically reduces the food energy, while it requires more energy to produce and transport. In addition to wasting food, it is a waste of valuable calories, nutrients and natural resources.

The cheapest yet easiest on the environment

2009-03-23T19:06:00.011-04:00

Who wants 47 miles to the gallon? Everyone. Who wants to drive a 2-cylinder engine that maxes out at 65 mph's? Mind you: it's 5 x 10 feet--just slightly larger than a queen size bed mattress with stingy crumple zones. At least 1,000,000 people on the wait list in India want one. The Nano is the answer to India's growing middle-class with demand for car.
Today Tata Motors announced the release of the Nano, the world's cheapest car. Although it's not a hybrid nor an EV, the 4-door Nano has the smallest footprint and turning radius of any car in the world. Its base model begins at $2,200, but heat, air conditioning and power brakes can bring it up to $3,800.
Citizens of emerging economies, like India, shouldn't be inhibited to achieve. For those that have already plundered, polluted and depleted, all we can say, "do as I say, not as I do." While they may have fallen into our pitfalls, they have succeeded in achieving an innovative solution that blows away the $12,000 Chevrolet Aveo.

Exxon Valdez 20 years later

2009-03-20T17:07:00.012-04:00

Remember 1989? The Oakland Athletics won the World Series. In this coming week, it will be 20 years since the Exxon Valdez spilled 10.8 million gallons of crude oil on March 24, 1989. If Verdantic had 3 wishes, here's what would happen on Tuesday the 24th:
1. Exxon breaks ground on a bird sanctuary dedicated to the 700,000 birds that perished in the wake of the spill. Fortunately for Exxon, this PR blemish shouldn't affect their announcements for their whopping first quarter earnings in a couple of weeks.
2. No one buys and reads Exxon's drunk captain, Joe Hazelwood's book, The Spill: Personal Stories from the Exxon Valdez Disaster. The 288-page book is intended to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the spill and supposed concludes with his sincere apology. For Joe's sake, I hope he doesn't agree to any book signings events at Barnes & Noble.
3. Sarah Palin agrees to meet with media to discuss Alaska's challenges of both energy exploration and wildlife conservation. (Couric: Gov. Palin, what do you mean by "shoring up our wildlife"?)

Of course, I wish Exxon would spend more on cleaning up the mess that still remains. I did already mention that Exxon's $45.2 billion in profits for 2008 set a U.S. history record.

Let's observe...

1 million electric cars by 2015

2009-03-20T10:18:00.017-04:00

Prior to his insensitive gaffe on the Tonight Show yesterday, President Obama unveiled a $2.4 billion grant with a goal of reaching 1 million electric cars by 2015. He might have been a little too funny with Jay Leno, but our charismatic leader opened his speech at Edison International saying, "it's always nice to get out of Washington for a little bit, recharge your batteries." The main components of the plan include the following:

* The Department of Energy is offering up to $1.5 billion in grants to U.S. based manufacturers to produce electric vehicles, and up to $500 million in grants to produce other components needed for electric vehicles; and
* The Department of Energy is offering up to $400 million to demonstrate and evaluate Plug-In Hybrids and other electric infrastructure concepts.

China's plug-in car is already on the market selling for $20,000 and plans to sell 350,000 by the end of this year. Ford plans to bring four new EVs to market between 2010 and 2012. If GM rebounds from its current crisis, it could have its Volt on the market within 2 years. That might help offset their H2's 13 mpg and 3.4 metric tons of carbon emmissions per vehicle per year. From the stimulus package, $7,500 tax relief for families that purchase electric vehicles. By some estimates, Obama has already detailed at least $12 billion in EV funding within the stimulus package. Together with the additional $2.4 billion, that sounds a tad better. As an academic grant, that's huge but pardon me for being desensitized to exorbitant pricetags, e.g., AIG's $180 billion or even GM and Chrystler's $17.4 billion.
Peanuts!
In his speech, Obama did also mention that we are importing more foreign oil now than we were on 9/11/2001. So how much money does the government get from import taxes on oil? That said, how much tax can be collected on Exxon's record-breaking $45.2 billion in profits in 2008?

Nonrecyclable recycling at your neighborhood retail chain

2009-03-19T12:27:00.008-04:00

Last resort should be landfill, but TerraCycle has a new solution for non-recyclable through convenient collection stations. TerraCycle collects unrecyclable products and creates them into new products, like gardenware, cleaners, handbags and office equipment. Pictured, the station collects tape rolls, caulking tubes, saw blades, paint brushes, chip bags, candy wrappers, fertilizer and soil bags, furnace filters and plastic bags.
TerraCycle locations were originally located at civic groups or schools, but has now gained greater reach and exposure thanks to partnerships with large retail chains such as Best Buy, Home Depot, OfficeMax and PETCO. The goal is to set up 10,000 stations at retail locations by 2010.
TerraCycle ensues its environmental quest with social responsibility: they will donate 2-6 cents to the charity of the collectors choice for each unit that enter the system. Not sure how effective or efficient this component might be, but then again, 6 cents can be considered as a lofty quarterly dividend on some stocks in today's economy.

Investing in the green

2009-03-15T16:54:00.009-04:00

With blue chip stocks reaching all time lows and the resurgence of buying gold derivatives, making a profitable investment in a company is more difficult than ever. If you can't find a worthy investment for your money, might Verdantic suggest that you invest and support a green(er) organization?
CSR and green marketing can be deceiving, but how else should we judge the worthiness of an organization? Standards & Poor released its new service: S&P U.S. Carbon Efficient Index. With the help of Trucost, this index ranks companies in the S&P 500 by dividing an organization's carbon footprint with its annual revenue. In other words, how much pollution did you emit to make a buck?
It's not a perfect system, by far. GHG emission reports are not standardized. Further, it doesn't account for supply chains and outsourcing. That's like saying Nike is not responsible for sweat shops in Indonesia because they only buy the shoes but they don't own the factory. Unfortunately, the real bad guys are even allowed on the index. 100 of the most carbon intensive companies have been screened from the index so we looking at service sectors like insurance and banking as opposed to manufacturing and mining. I may have just ruined it for you, but it's a sign for better things to come and a handy shopping resource before you invest.

Wall-E in good company

2009-03-12T11:59:00.005-04:00

The Walt Disney Company unveiled its 3-5-year green strategy and plans to reduce its carbon footprint. By 2013, Disney announced that it will cut its emissions in half, reduce electricity consumption by 10% and halve its waste at its parks and resorts. Disney's long term goal is to net zero waste and emissions.
With summer around the corner, Disney's theme parks and resorts are still renowned for its 6-figure energy consumption and garbage generation. Disneyland will not be making any top 10 lists for green vacations, but it will be cutting its operating costs while reducing carbon footprints for vacationers.

Smells better on nice paper

2009-03-10T13:33:00.005-04:00

Verdantic has mentioned FedEx twice; ambivalently at best but never in a positive manner. Fedex stores, formerly Kinko's, will help job seekers today (3/10) by offering one day of free resume printing. The service will offer up to 25 FREE COPIES of resumes submitted and picked up inside any of their 1,600 store for customers currently job hunting. "We understand that the economy has affected many people in a very profound way, and we want to help," said Brian Philips, president and CEO of FedEx Office.

With over 12 million unemployed Americans, this is a great service to our enocomy and country. It is certainly a better use of paper than GE's caper.

GE: Let's blow a million pieces of paper!

2009-03-07T14:29:00.008-05:00

http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality

This interactive content was brought to my attention by one of Verdantic's readers. On GE's website, there is digital hologram that you can make by printing out a "solar panel marker" on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. It doesn't provide any additional insight on the Smart Grid technology but it does look kinda cool. I won't hate you for doing it. Caveat: the solar panel marker prints bold black lines rendering the reverse side of the sheet useless. Thus, the printout may have to be discharged without the possibility of being re-used, so share your solar panel marker with a friend or co-worker.

And now, a Verdantic PSA on improving health & safety

2009-03-06T13:07:00.007-05:00

I trust that my friends, cohorts, classmates and professors are respectful of bicyclists on the road; so instead, this message is intended for double-parkers, heedless car door-openers, cab drivers and FedEx truckers.

Nota Bene: dear NYPD, stop pulling me over. Know the law. I'm not trying to be a smartass when I tell you, "I am NOT required to ride in the bike lane."
102-a. Bicycle lane. A portion of the roadway which has been designated by striping, signing and pavement markings for the PREFERENTIAL or exclusive use of bicycles.

34 RCNY 4-12(p)(1) states that bicyclists should ride in usable bike lanes, unless they are preparing to turn, or are avoiding unsafe conditions (including but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, motor vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, pushcarts, animals, surface hazards).
Bike lanes are far from safe in NYC--especially due to emissions from police horses in our lane. Therefore, bicyclists should not be willed to ride in unsafe bike lanes.

Economic necessity driving Americans towards Veganism

2009-03-06T09:56:00.004-05:00

In our modern depression, those with homes should be thankful. With family budgets as tight as they are right now, American diets are changing. People were eating scraps and garbage during the Great Depression, but some of the finest Americana cuisine did result from the hardships.

Spam
Kraft macaroni and cheese
Bisquick
Ritz Crackers
Kool-Aid

Today, with fluctuating gas and transportation costs, ethanol affecting grain-based goods, Americans are eating more eggs, fresh vegetables and milk, while eating less meat, processed foods and snacks; buying less food for pets; and surprisingly consuming less alcohol. OK, "towards Veganism" might be an overstatement, but apart from animal compassion, this is a much greener and healthier way to live, especially if brand communications won't be contributing in this regard. Benevolent anti-obesity campaigns will never suggest a healthier diet, rather they promote exercise with sports celebrities. Obviously, a healthier diet would detract revenue from Pepsi's drinks and its Frito Lay chips--but not so much for its Tropicana division.

'Smells better when wrapped in green

2009-03-03T07:20:00.009-05:00

A recent study shows that while most Americans identify with the word sustainability, only half can define it. Good enough.

In The Hartman Group’s Sustainability Outlook: The Rise of Consumer Responsibility, the Bellevue, WA-based firm found that the ability to have some kind of afterlife is the packaging feature that matters to them most--recycling, that is. 75% ranked the ability to return a product’s vessel to the consumer marketplace via curbside bins as either “very important” or “important.” The feature that ranked next in packaging preference was biodegradability, 71%. Oddly, both these choices outranked minimal packaging, 62%, which one would think would require less recycling and biodegrading. That makes sense: the mantra of the 3 R's is working. First and foremost, reduce above all else.

The study proves that consumers want to be greener even if they don't know how or what it even means. At the risk of revenue loss or decrease earnings per share, brands will have to be more innovative with their packaging. Whatever motivates a brand towards verdancy, even monetarily, is a step in the right direction. Even Wal-Mart's lofty sustainability goals are endearing.

Wal-Mart’s environmental goals are simple and straightforward: to be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy; to create zero waste; and to sell products that sustain our natural resources and the environment.

To their credit, Wal-Mart's 15-truck fleet has been retooled to run on used cooking grease, from oil left over from frying chicken in Wal-Mart delicatessens is a great concept. It lands on many parts of the circle of life in consumerism. The truck is fueled by grease from leftover grease that came fattened customers that paid for the overhead on the truck and fryer.

The 2009 Verdantic Cell Phone Awards

2009-03-01T19:58:00.001-05:00

Something tells me that an early adopter doesn't wait for his or her cell phone carrier's offer of free phone every 2 years. In which case, greener cell phones are an excellent idea. Verdantic would like to acknowledge and award the following cell phones for its excellence in the following areas.The Samsung Blue Earth Phone.
- Best screenplay & Best special effects
It has a touchscreen that generates all of its required operating power from the solar panel built into the back. Not sure how this works inside your pocket or handbag but it'd be great to not have to deal with wall chargers. Plus, most of it is made from PCM, a plastic extracted from recycled water bottles.2. Nokia's Wooden Phone.
- Best picture & Best costume
This phone is made from sustainably harvested wood and it has an 8.0 megapixel camera. It kinda looks like a Tivoli radio, no?

3. Motorola Renew.
- Best director & Best actor
It's made from PCM plastics and it is certified Carbonfree through the carbonfund.org. The phone's carbon existence is being offset by Motorola. It's a damn ugly phone but it is the only phone that promises to be a good phone with its CrystalTalk technology.

* * * * *

And remember, throwing your phone and its batteries in the trash is illegal in New York City. Stores that sell batteries are required to accept them for recycling, so have them deal with it. And thankfully large retailers are required to accept and recycle plastic bags, but not type 1 plastics, from which PCM is harvested.

Paperless airline eBitching

2009-03-01T11:29:00.000-05:00

Blogging live from SFO, the birthplace and haven of Verdantic. Getting back to NYC looks doubtful due to inclement weather on both ends. 4 flights from SFO-JFK have been canceled today but my flight in from Shanghai was thankfully rather uneventful. Nonetheless, I hate United Airlines. On both flights across the Pacific, we were informed over the intercom, “we will be serving a light lunch followed by a beverage, then followed by a light dinner.” Verdantic is all for smaller portions, dietary restraints and anti-obesity, but being hungry, trapped and staring at a mayonnaise sandwich and some shitty snacks is not okay. I also was bereft of my Economy Plus ticket and thrown into Economy. They didn’t budge when I spoke to them in Mandarin so I left and came back as a foreigner--clobbering them with English words and gestures until I got my Economy Plus ticket back.
Verdantic is not the letter writing type because I can get over things and not hold a grudge. Plus, writing letters is a waste of paper, unlike this web address printed on my boarding pass: GIVE FEEDBACK – WWW.UALSURVEY.COM. That’s a great way to make letter-writers to put away their watermarked letterhead stationery--full of plight--addressed to United’s CEO. It saves time and it has a lighter carbon footprint. On the other hand, there’s Verdantic and I promise that I will only abuse the privilege of this blog just this once. So, I hope the Groundswell monitoring operatives at United Airlines technorati-searches and finds this bit of consumer opinion and insight: United Airlines, you stink!

Faceless, but not spineless plastic people

2009-02-28T21:06:00.002-05:00

Organizations such as the Progressive Bag Alliance/Progressive Bag Affiliates, American Chemistry Council or the Society Plastics Industry aren’t very visible, but their impact is plainly evident. It’s usually in the best interest of lobbyists or unsavory think tanks to fly under the radar. When they do appear, they spare no expense on PR. Where's the money coming from? Here's where: Advance Polybag, Inc., The Dow Chemical Company, ExxonMobil Corporation , Hilex Poly Co., LLC. (See also: TheTruthAboutPlasticBags.com), NOVA Chemicals, Inc., Superbag Corporation, Total Petrochemicals USA, Inc.
City after city has failed to impose a tax, deterrent or ban on plastic bags. Colorado as a state just totally failed. It's unlikely that the national small business association snubbed the regulations, but surely the plastic lobbyists are hard at work protecting their interests. Better Bags Colorado: these good guys are hard at work too and the truly progressive ones. The ban on plastic bags will inevitably happen one day and this will all seem so silly. Looking back, there once was a time where plastic bags were considered as toys. What is it about a plastic bag that makes it a progressive bag? Seriously, no matter how you frame it, plastic and progressive are two very different and non-interchangeable words.
China’s ban on plastic bags will save the country 37 million barrels of crude oil per year. This is an incredible feat that China enacted ahead of the first world, but it wouldn’t have been possible had it not been promulgated by a centralized totalitarian government. Well actually, Ireland, Rwanda and Bangladesh also made it happen. San Francisco, CA too, of course. Verdantic recognizes that the Chinese government does have its flaws, e.g., human rights or censorship. Sure China has many environmental issues that it still needs to address, but Verdantic is impressed with China when it wants to be progressive, i.e., the one-child policy. No other government could’ve pulled that off.

Where in the world do people love Wal-Mart?

2009-02-23T18:41:00.001-05:00

Today, Verdantic visited a Wal-Mart in XiaMen, China. Fortunately, it's 80 degrees and sunny in Southern China. Unfortunately, the pollution is more evident than ever when it's hot and muggy. As for the economic climate here, the current stimulus package in China jump-started its stock markets this week. By offering vouchers to millions of rural citizens to buy TVs and household appliances, the market reacted positively. On my visit to Wal-Mart, I stood at the precipice of the great environmental nightmare: China's rising middle class. Now equipped with purchasing power, they are quickly changing their consumption habits to mirror the American way of life. Although Wal-Mart is way over priced here, they deliver the American dream with authenticity intact. Seeing the outdated SUV trend that has captured the hearts and envy of the Chinese population and an IKEA selling shitty disposable furniture in DaLian yesterday was not encouraging either. Typically, doing business abroad requires the utmost sensitivity to local customs and culture, but in a market that seeks the American system of comfort and status symbols, the more wasteful and extravagant the better. Unlike India and China, who will see a 5% and 6% growth in GDP this year, Americans will see our failed model manifested in two emerging economies from the sidelines. What we're about to see is two economies—representing a third of the world’s population—being built on the reliance of consumerism and materialism. That is worrisome.

Columbia U, the beautiful

2009-02-23T01:52:00.000-05:00

It's a great feeling when stepping foot onto Columbia's campus. When there; I'm miles away from work, home, friends and the center of the universe. Altogether, it looks great. I truly appreciate the hard work of the landscape engineers around campus. Part of the holiday hangover might include ditching a Christmas tree out on the sidewalk or consolidating credit cards. In the picture above, the engineers are cutting down lights that were tightly wound around tree branches. One guy would cut the lights' wires, another guy would rake the wire and bulb scraps into piles, and then another guy would throw the piles into the dump truck. A sight to sore you eyes; however, when the lights are lit, they are quite a mesmerizing sight to see. LED light bulbs would be great way to save energy if they were not intended to be trashed.
The holidays bring merriment and joy and Verdantic is not about to suggest otherwise. Verdantic will ignore this along with all of the other ills committed by Columbia, such as unfriendly community outreaches in Manhattanville. Spring tuition is due in a couple of weeks so when searching for value in Columbia, we can look beyond the oval office for a Columbia product at work. Columbia also hosts a global classroom that brings together more than a dozen campuses around the world for weekly discussions on food production, energy systems and global ethics that underscore the communality of our world's challenges.
Go Lions!

Gift cards don't go to heaven

2009-02-16T23:31:00.000-05:00

I was gifted a $200 gift card from Circuit City when I graduated from undergrad in 2001. What once seemed like a despairing recession no longer seems so bad by today's standards. At the time, I couldn't eat the gift card and I couldn't use it to pay off my PG&E energy bill--that reached an obscene four digit figure because of Enron.
One way or another, it's 2009 and I still have money on the gift card. Circuit City's liquidation sale is far from impressive nor cheap--at least not now. I used my money to buy a printer/scanner/copier and a stock of ink cartridges. This turned out to be a very thoughtful gift and purchase that will enhance my school and professional work. Gift cards are a great gift idea: it's discreet, as opposed to being tacky and giving cash; obligates the giftee to spend at a store; easy to ship and transport; and it's easy to wrap a gift card.
Unlike my Circuit City gift card that had a shelf life of 8 years, gift cards are made of plastic and aren't re-used or recycled. Much like water bottles and plastic bags, gift cards are starting to be scrutinized by treehuggers everywhere. It is more environmentally responsible than buying and wrapping a gag gift, but gift cards create an extraneous step in the gifting process that ends with another piece of unbiodegradable waste per gift. With more scrutiny, perhaps for Christmas 2009 a brand will have a potato-based gift card. That would be impressive.

Analytics on Google's buses

2009-02-14T18:29:00.000-05:00

Verdantic will get off of the topic of Google after this post. Promise. In India, Google has a traveling internet bus that will tour through 19 cities from February until mid March. The bus is equipped with interactive learning stations that will help them learn about the internet and how to use it. They should probably warn the third-world citizens of the addictive properties of the internet. Forgive me for raising skepticism on Google, but this kind of self-serving way of promoting digital literacy. It smells a bit like an old school Coca-Cola strategy of investing in a developing country's road infrastructure so that distribution trucks can penetrate new markets. The internet bus is pretty cool, but not as much as Google's Apps bus last year that traveled to colleges in ten US cities. The Apps bus is way better because it runs on bio-diesel and provides 7kW of renewable energy.
An eco-friendly bus bodes well for Google in Northern California, but probably not as much in India. For what it is worth, Verdantic certainly appreciates it.

The brand ID of Primobol

2009-02-13T20:17:00.000-05:00

Less about A-rod and more about shady pharmaceutical companies. A-Rod took primobol, a steroid that gives you greater power and speed without the bulk. That sounds great to me. Probably sounded great to A-Rod too but as it turns out, he didn't know what he was taking.
It would be interesting to find out that a major pharma corporation like Pfizer or Perdue developed and distributed primobol. Unfortunately, there isn't much information about it. And since 2003, the last--supposed--time A-Rod took steroids, it is hard to tell who was the leader in the steroid-producing industry. Top athletes can turn to better resources--like Canseco--than this, but the most reputable steroid manufacturer on the blogosphere is BD, that's British Dragon. In the past and present, Verdantic has been entrusted by clients to advise on branding and logo treatments, but never as dire as this. This is just terrifying. This would be scary to see on the cover of a comic book and even scarier to see on something that will be injected into your body.

Turn-off of the grid

2009-02-13T18:24:00.000-05:00

Not to blatantly promote socialism or Keynesian ideals, but it is great to see our government investing in our infrastructure, rather than paying corporations to run civic services, such as schools, prisons and public transit. It won't be easy nor cheap to pull off the new grid for renewable energy and our government won't be able to do it without the help of corporations. But, this $100 billion price tag makes much more sense--utilitarian sense, that is--than a financial services bailout.
Growing the green economy and introduction of using renewable energy requires a better system. Just how bad is our current grid that it can't handle the power from the wind-producing states from the west? Just how much wind power are we talking about if the long term goal is to use 20% of our electricity from renewable energy by 2024? Must be a lot, but if that goal is not reached, the grid could be used to transmit coal-burning energy.
In addition to building the grid, the energy has to come from wind-farms that still need to be built. Which corporations will benefit from these investments? Who are the thought leaders? Google? GE? Verdantic is a San Franciscan living in New York and has never been inland past Vail, Colorado. So when it comes to the Midwest or Great Plains, Verdantic has no idea of who these players are but they are, apparently, the thought leaders on the forefront of our renewable energy grid: Midwest Independent System Operator, SERC Reliability Region, PJM Interconnection LLC, the Southwest Power Pool, the Mid-Continent Area Power Pool and the Tennessee Valley Authority. So there's one dot gov in there but most of them sport an innocuous dot org suffix.

Google: PowerMeter. And then see for yourself

2009-02-11T10:53:00.000-05:00

Google's software, Google PowerMeter, is still being tested, but will soon be available to provide us each with detailed information on our energy usage. It is based on the iGoogle platform, where users create a customized page with widgets Web-based applications. We should all be very curious as to what my energy or electricity usage looks like at home--even when we're not at home.
While the PowerMeter is designed to show a granular, real-time view of electricity-consuming devices, Google says that it will not share information with utility companies. Since this is Google, it could be a serious invasion to our privacy given everything else that they already know about us. Although giving them a list of appliances shouldn't be a big surprised since I Googled them prior to my purchases.
PowerMeter will teach us a lot about our energy consumption habits and its carbon emissions and impact on the environment. It can shape our lifestyles to be more energy efficient and automate appliances for us. And of course, saves money too. Sold. But President Barack Obama's stimulus plan does account for puting 40 million smart meters in U.S. homes and investing in the green economy. We don't need to be skeptical about Google since they swore off being evil in their motto. Plus, if this is coming from Google.org, it can't be thaaat evil.

Say yes! Say it!

2009-02-11T01:06:00.000-05:00

Western Union will be launching a new global campaign that will be centered around human interest stories around the world. These stories are based on some of Western Union's most important clients: migrant workers that send money to their families in their home countries. According to Western Union's EVP and CMO, the campaign is titled, "Yes!" for those who have chosen to say, "yes" to their dreams. The campaign will feature a microsite that launches on February 23rd, ThePowerOfYes.com, that contains images and compelling stories of these migrant workers. Through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace, users can vote for their favorite stories.
Western Union states that its target audience is migrant workers. All brands want an online presence, but how will an online strategy reach a migrant worker? Migrant workers travel from some of the world's poorest countries to work in the richest. Will he or she have the time and resources to visit the microsite and vote? Do they have Facebook or MySpace profiles? How will they access other migrant workers stories so that they may be inspired? I don't see how this campaign connects Western Union with their target, but these positive stories may inspire the digitally literate and shareholders to say, "yes!" to Western Union. Without a doubt, the battered American workforce could use some heartfelt stories of diligence and fortitude.
This post may seem to lack verdant content and to have strayed from Verdantic's mission statement. It is a good thought and these poignant human interest stories can unite the world. Western Union might be primarily concerned with global human services, but its business operations can be good for the environment.
This might be a stretch... Instead of sending jobs overseas and shipping products and services back from overseas, Western Union enables migrant workers to work on location to support their families back home. Verdantic supports Western Union because--let's not forget--using Western Union to wire money will have a lower environmental cost than shipping a cashier's check via FedEx^® International Next Flight.

Verdantic milestone

2009-02-09T19:01:00.000-05:00

Verdantic celebrated its launch a couple of days ago, February 7, 2009. Although "verdantic" is an inorganic/made-up word, this blog has climbed its way to the top Google search result for the query: verdantic. There's no need for anyone to point out the obvious. Google bought blogger.com and Google thinks the searcher meant "verdant" instead. Alas; Ask, Yahoo!, Altavista and Dogpile did not yield any results. Not expressing sour grapes, but those are, in fact, inferior search engines. Nonetheless, we'll give them some time to catch on.

Carbon rampage: 12,000 calories per diem

2009-02-09T18:16:00.000-05:00

Fellow-blogger (dis)engaged raised a very interesting point about Michael Phelps' diet in a comment to my recent post: So he took a bong rip? I don't see how that would help him win anything. Of course, given his diet I can not imagine his munchies.
By the way, Verdantic awards Conan O'Brien with the funniest comment about Phelps' bong debacle. “A tabloid published a picture of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps at a party taking a huge hit from a bong. I think there’s an important lesson to be learned here: Kids, never share your pot with someone who has the lung capacity of a dolphin.”
Damn funny. Okay, back to what (dis)engaged pointed out, and as we may remember from last year, Phelps' daily diet is at a staggering figure of 12,000 calories. Yes he trains hard to be the greatest Olympian athlete, but judging from the junk that he eats, (dis)engaged's imagination about Phelps' munchies may not be far from the truth.

* * * *

BREAKFAST: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of coffee. One five-egg omelet. One bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-chip pancakes.
LUNCH: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories.
DINNER: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.

* * * *

That's a whole lot of food that could possibly even sustain a reasonably-sized person for a week.
By now, you may be wondering why Verdantic is so obsessed over Phelps and marijuana. Just so you know, Verdantic was once a junior Olympic-hopeful in swimming and played 4 years of water polo in high school. But Phelps' actions raises a serious environmental issue that's near and dear to the heart of Verdantic. And while Phelps' diet does not necessarily consist of lamb or beef; his insatiable appetite for ham, dairy and 8+eggs that he consumes is a threat to our water, topsoil, rain forests and global climate. Aside from the livestock; transportation, non-local produce and processed foods also add to his carbon usage. Not a problem and nor is he being judged: Verdantic is happy for Phelps, his diet, achievements, bong and carbon rampage.

Hand-me-down-and-downs

2009-02-09T15:45:00.000-05:00

Fashion week is upon us in NYC. More so than usual, the city is mottled with models at every corner. So far, Verdantic has openly admitted lamb and red meat consumption, and now, I reveal that clothing purchases do not always include recycled or secondhand clothes. Nor is Verdantic a credible resource on fashion. Also, for the record, Verdantic does not knit or sew any of its own clothing.
It is safe to assume that fashion trends and consumerism will subside in this recession. But let's steer clear of high fashion's spring collections and onto less glamorous designs such as Howies. Disposable fashion can not be the way forward. Fashion trends and design entailments aside, to stand the test of time, fashion must be designed and constructed with the intent of lasting for decades. A UK clothing company, Howies, manufactures its clothing and accessories with organic tweed and organic ventile that is water repellent and uses less yarn to produce. They also use heavy waxed canvas, die-cut leather, and rust-proof aluminum zips and hardware. Sure a jacket may cost 400 British pounds, which is an absurd amount, but I am touched by their label, which features fields where name and dates can be written by the coat's owners. Chic or unchic, Howies are made to last and it encourages secondhand clothes and hand-me-downs.

Organic: Marijauna or Steroids?

2009-02-08T16:03:00.001-05:00

This week, two leaders in their respective sports fell from glory. Michael Phelps for a bong rip photo taken last year and Alex Rodriguez testing positive for steroids in 2003. Which millionaire can we condone and which to we hang? Verdantic says let Phelps keep his million dollar sponsors and thwart A-Rod from the record books along with Canseco, Clemens, McGwire and Palmeiro. Above all, as far as Verdantic is concerned, Phelps is all-natural and A-rod is an inorganic compound.
Phelps is not a cheater. He shouldn't have to publicly apologize to his million facebook fans. In fact, if he wasn't such a teenage heart throb, image and role-modelness wouldn't matter nearly as much. But since he is, he's worth millions in sponsorships to the tween market. Doubters like Kellogg's who rescinded their contracts will be back in 2012.
A-Rod cheated baseball and baseball fans. He also cheated on his wife. Let him keep his $28M annual salary and if the Yankees can squeeze a public apology out of him, that could actually help his image and reputation.
P.S.: I'm currently blogging live from Boston, where marijuana has recently been decriminalized and A-rod is detested.

The Greenest of Superbowl 2009

2009-02-08T14:57:00.002-05:00

During Superbowl this year, I was a contender of a 3-team chili cookoff in Brooklyn, where my team, The New Presidents, won with our all-organic chili, The Lamb of God. I won't apologize about our braised grass-fed New Zealand lamb shanks--it is simply the best that's available. Some may argue that since New Zealand farms can raise lamb more efficiently, it is greener than buying local. When all was said and done, the 24 judges awarded us with a sweep in all three categories: originality, taste and presentation.
Moving onto the Superbowl, it was the most watched television program in history with 151.6 million viewers. It happens to be the second highest day of food consumption in the US behind Thanksgiving. $55 million is spent on food and most of it is eaten within the first 15 minutes of the game. Our organic chili, The Lamb of God, required a $151 Whole Foods run. Over then course of the day, I drank at least 24 beers. To my credit, I did ride my bicycle out to Brooklyn but I had to take a cab home. So much for being green.
I was so busy celebrating our chili's victory that I didn't watch the game or any of its ads. My guess is that Superbowl is not the perfect moment for green messaging. First, a million dollar commercial spot is not the best time to share your company's budget with a green cause. And second, judging by the aperture moment and the audience, who really cares? According to the Nielsen IAG ad ratings, the top ads included Budweiser, Dorritos, Pepsi and Careerbuilder.com. What else can you expect? From the ones I saw online, they were quite funny. As expected, there were plenty of car ads from many car makers, but none for hybrids or fuel efficient cars.
The greenest ad, which hardly makes the cut, comes from GE. In this ad, a scarecrow sings and dances around a powerplant touting GE's smart grid technology. Not bad and certainly better than my carbon intensive experience on Superbowl Sunday.

Launch & Author's Foreword

2009-02-07T14:42:00.000-05:00

Verdantic, it is. Believe it or not, it took me hours of inner deliberation and brainstorming to come up with this name. I actually wouldn't be too surprised if it changes again. To capture the concept of the blog, the name had to include something about being green. And since I work in a PR agency, I am irrevocably predisposed to puns and wordplays. Honorable mentions include Ecosexual, Verdancity (veracity of verdancy), Id and the Super Eco, Rosco Eco Train, Chagreen, El Greengo and The Socio-Ecopath.
To set the premise of this blog, I hope to share my observations and insight on issues regarding the green economy, sustainability and the environment when it comes to corporate communications and product innovations. Whether we heeded Al Gore's prophecy or began buying organic produce, green marketing has changed consumption habits by reaching nearly every industry and consumer good imaginable. Green marketing has given businesses an edge in revenue and corporate image; however, it is ugly when it is abused. To me frankly, it is simply unforgiveable--or until they redeem themselves somehow or until it is no longer convenient for me to hold this grudge.
As our attention shifts towards the recession, unwittingly we are greener by consuming less. On the other hand, business strategies can not rely on green marketing to woo consumers. The topic has plenty of fodder for banter. As a native San Franciscan, I feel that it is part of my culture and heritage to care. I am hopeful that Verdantic will help me and others shape our beliefs, attitudes and behavior to improve the way we live on our planet.