Article 8: Sustainable Bikes

Sustainable Bikes Worth The Pedal?

Being currently in the market for a bicycle and being a college student my first thought was to scavenge Craigslist. However it got me thinking, is anyone making a sustainable bike? Well the answer is yes! Recently a company called Bamboosero is developing a sustainable bamboo bike. Now you may be saying bamboo bikes have been around forever what makes this any different? They are different in that the company is actually a non profit. Basically this company acts like a third party that is helping people in developing countries make bikes to their specifications so that they can sell them to the general public in more developed countries. The idea is we will pay a premium for hand made quality bikes and the family's who learn how to make these bikes though Bamboosero prosper and expand their bike making business. Not only that but bamboo is typically a very sustainable material. Growing in many regions and very quickly. If this company can convince one city to simply make bikes rather then destroy their environment they have succeed in my mind. All that being said the price as it stand right now seems a bit to steep for me running in at around 900 dollars for just frame.

Article: http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/20/africa/booomers-bamboo-bicycles-ghana/

Webpage: http://www.bamboosero.com/

Article 7: Sustainable Homes

Sustainable or Barging Rights?

Waste House

With the green trend exploding in the last few years. we are starting to see people thinking about sustainability when building homes. The real question is though if they are trying to look green "green washing" for barging rights or are they really focused on making a green home? I took a look at an article about the top 10 sustainable houses to find out.

ZEB Pilot House

What I found was a combination of both. In some causes the houses they talked about where piratical, small homes that fulfilled a need of shelter. Such as the Waste House which was constructed from 90% recycled material. Everything from toothbrushes, DVD cases, floppy disks, to used carpet was utilized to make this interesting home.

While at the other end of the spectrum we have homes such as the ZEB Pilot house. This house while featuring a very impressive solar power system, simply isn't sustainable. The materials alone needed to make the home probably had a huge impact on the environment. Not to mention how un-sustainable heating the massive pool is.


Overall there where more sustainable homes then houses i would qualify as green wash and many of them took some very difficult problems and solved them in a unique way.

For more information on these houses look here:
http://www.gizmag.com/gizmag-top-10-sustainable-innovative-green-houses/34712/

Ecological Footprint Update

Ecological Update

What an improvement! I realize that the improvement may only be 1.7 earths and I am still consuming far too much, but its progress. Its still crazy to think that according to this quiz if everyone consumed as much as me we would need almost 4 earths. The good news is that my goals worked! I have reduced almost all consumption categories except for the food category. I believe that the reason for this is simply because the quiz didn't have a option that represented my goal of eating vegetarian one day a week. That being said I was able to actually complete that goal. In-fact I was able to follow through with all of my goals. With moderate to great success.

Goal 1: Unplug Powerstrips 

My first goal which was to reduce my power usage was moderately successful. Over the last few months I have been turning off 3 powerstrips that powered my computer, TV, phone chargers, printer, PS4(console). Doing this every night and when I leave town has lead to a 3 dollar decrease in my power bill which equates to about 8.5% decrease in power. Which is .5% higher than my updated goal. I believe that the goal to unplug unused electronics is something I could easily do in the future. 

Goal 2: Walk to campus

My second goal was to reduce my carbon footprint which was a huge success. Over the last few months I have been walking almost everywhere including to and from campus. This has lead to a huge reduction in my carbon footprint which was my highest category. Infact i believe it was this lifestyle change that lead to at least a earths reduction. In the future i believe that this goal my be difficult to persue. The reason for this is I am unsure of how far I will be from my next job.

Goal 3: Eat vegetarian once a week

My Last goal was to eat vegetarian one day a week. What a realized while doing this goal was I already did this unconsciously at least once a week. This did not have an impact on my food footprint however. This is because the quiz simply didn't take small lifestyle changes like this into consideration when evaluating. I believe I could pursue this goal in the feature and even expand it to twice a week.

In the end this project was really eye opening and I plan on continuing to reduce ghost power and to eat vegetarian. I believe that by continuing these goals I will make new goals for myself.  

 

Article 6: Cloud Servers

A Green Cloud?

A huge 20 year agreement has recently been made by Microsoft and a wind farm in pilot Hill, Illinois. The idea behind it, make one of Microsoft biggest data centers green. Cloud data despite all of its convince tends to confuse consumers to where exactly their information is stored. The truth is, it is stored in a huge data facility full of servers. These servers of course use immense amounts of energy and also require even more energy too keep them at a cool temp. The result is the often a very costly and unsustainable business.

Microsoft which is current in a transition to becoming a more sustainable company believes the solution is to team up with as many alternative energy companies as possible. Doing this they believe that cloud data will not only become more green but to also improve their infrastructure. This is a sort of trend for a company that in the last two years has invested millions into power infrastructure systems. Everything from greener backup generators that run on natural gas and biodiesel to more efficient fuel cell designs, which could be used to power neighborhoods at 1/10 of the cost and 1/10 of the size.

If one thing is clear though Microsoft isn't doing this because its necessary better for the environment, while that is an added plus, rather they are seeing a stable and reasonable prices coming from green power. From an economic standpoint any reduction in risk is considered a positive and Microsoft a company that runs on energy sees the potential in sustainable energy because of this.

Link: http://www.dailytech.com/To+the+Cloud+Microsoft+Signs+20Year+Contract+for+175+MW+of+Wind+Power/article36221.htm 

Article 5: Earth Property

Can a Tree House Save a Jungle?

Well in Costa Rica they think it can, all it required was a change in marketed. It all started with a green pitch, tell people that if they buy this land in the jungle then no one can harm it and the buyer is saving the environment. Soon though local sellers found out that the green pitch wasn't enough to attract buyers to pay $250,000 for a mostly unusable jungle property. So what happened next was they sold it as a sustainable property, a win win situation for buyer and the environment. The buyer would buy the property and the locals would grow food on the property, the owner of the property would then see profits from the food grown on the property. It was this idea of an investment that caused 54 plots of the 96 plots avilable to be sold. With the added bonus of being able to build a treehouse on the property.
In short the jungle stays safe, the owner gets an investment that pays out and that he or she can visit and everyone wins. It really makes one wonder if this is a better option then giving the government control of the land.







Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/26/greathomesanddestinations/saving-the-earth-without-losing-a-buck.html?ref=topics

Article 4: Sports

Can a Sport Start a Movement?

Sports are for better or worse beyond mainstream. What this means is that they are integrated into our culture so deeply that they simply cant fade out of existence. According to a recent ESPN sports poll "88 % of Americans age 12 and older are fans of at least one sport." and it is estimated 1 billing views watched the at least part of the 2010 world cup. So what does this mean for sustainability? Well sports can influence the way we see the world, they can shift cultures. Think of all the kids asking their parents why all the players where wearing pink, on breast cancer awareness day. Sports have also supported everything from women rights to AID's awareness. Now just imagine if sports focused on sustainability. The out reach would be massive!

The best part of all of this is that they really already are and it benefits both the teams and the sustainability movement. A nonprofit called the Green Sports Alliance which was founded in 2010 has helped many teams not only reduce waste but also improve resources and reduce costs simply by devising greener solutions. It should be noted though that most viewers don't watch the games from inside the stadiums instead they watch them from their couches, hundreds to thousands of miles away. So how do you influence these people?  Well the best answer seems like the simplest through the players. Athletes often have a huge influence on those that italicize them and given that they are branded correctly they could be part of the sustainability awareness push. We have seen this in the past when basketball star LeBron biked to a game in 2012, this alone made major news headlines. All in all sports seem like a great outlet to get the word out about sustainability and I think we should be pursuing it more aggressively.

Ecological Footprint Re-Evaluation

Ecological Footprint Evaluation and Correction

So far?

Well following my goals has been a bit difficult. I feel as though I have only been accomplishing one of my three previously stated goals. That goal being to use less ghost power. I have been using power strips for a long time, so has been a fairly easy adjustment to switch them to the off position before going to sleep. That said my other two goals aren't going as well. I think the main reason for this was a lack of insight. For example my first goal was to produce less waste, however finding products that don't have as much waste has become quite difficult. My last goal to cut down on driving has been problematic also in that unforeseen circumstances prevented me from not driving one Monday. For this reason I have re-written all three of my goals as seen below. I believe that these goals keep me far more accountable and that by executing these three new goals successfully, I will reduce my footprint.

New/Updated Goals

1. Continue to unplug power-strips and keep track of power usage. Attempt to reduce monthly power usage by at least 8%. 
2. Reduce my carbon footprint by only walking to campus. The walk is 1 mile long and requires me to leave at least 20 minutes early but it will pay off both environmentally and economically.
3. I plan on eating vegetarian one day a week. I realize the impact is small but I wanted to set a achievable goal to begin with. I also think this is one of those those goals that could morph into eating vegetarian twice a week or more.