Going Green Memphis 7-18-10

8/8/2019 Going Green Memphis 7-18-10

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10 GOING GREEN| S u n d ay , July 1 8, 2010 co mm er cia l a pp ea l.co m

Growing Green Jobs: A conversation with Mark Izeman

By Paul McRandle

SimpleSteps.org (MCT)

Mark Izeman is the director of theNew York Urban Program, which seeksto advance environmental initiatives inand around New York City. The Nat-ural Resources Defense Council, whichruns SimpleSteps.org, has a goal to notonly to protect the health of thegreater New York residents and con-serve its natural resources, but also touse its advocacy successes as modelsfor sustainable living in other urbanareas around the country including the issue of advancing green jobs.

Q: As graduating students knowonly too well, finding work today ismore difficult than it has been in years. What particular areas ofgrowth should they (and those justentering college) bear in mind?

A: Students should be looking intothe areas of energy efficiency and re-newables for new green jobs. The areais not growing as fast as it needs to if we are to address the climate changecrisis the world is facing. But signif-icant new government monies and pri-vate investment are being funneled in-to the clean energy field right now, andso hopefully we will see significant job
http://simplesteps.org/http://simplesteps.org/


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The Commercial Appeal S u n d ay , July 1 8, 2010 | GOING GREEN 11

growth in the coming years. I alsoadvise students to keep on top of newclimate and clean energy legislation especially proposals to establish a fed-eral cap-and-trade regime for green-house gases. When cap-and-trade lawis in place and Im being optimisticthat it will pass this will open upmany new types of new green jobsaround the country related to its im-plement ation.

In addition, I would recommend stu-dents, if they have the interest of course, to look into sustainable foodissues. In particular, there is growing

demand for more local food, and manycities are now beginning to see theimportance of addressing food in theiroverall sustainability plans. This is redhot issue right now.

Q: Has the economic stimulus al-ready created a large number ofgreen jobs?

A: Yes, at least according to the

Council of Economic Advisers. TheCouncil reports that in 2009 (morethan) 50,000 jobs in the clean energysector alone were created or saved under the stimulus bill. But this isan area that needs much more analysisand concrete data moving forward.Counting green jobs is important formeasuring the concrete benefits of new green jobs legislation and funding at the federal and state levels. Whennew laws are passed, there are oftenprojections on how many new green

jobs the legislation will produce. It isimportant to have hard data to supportthese estimates or, if necessary, tomake legal or spending changes in theprograms where job creation is lag-

g i n g.Q: Realistically, can we count on

green jobs making up for a sizableportion of the lost manufacturing jobs in the United States?

A: Right now, making such projec-tions is difficult to do with any realreliability. But one new study by thePeterson Institute indicates that, atleast with respect to the energy in-dustry, the newly proposed AmericanPower Act in Congress a u t h o re dby Senators Kerry and Lieberman will produce a net gain of over 200,000

jobs per year for the next 10 years.

This figure takes into account jobs lostas a result of reduced fossil fuel de-mand and higher energy prices.

Q: If so, is enough of the U.S. workforce trained either in green job orrelated skills to fill those lost man-ufacturing jobs?

A: Many of the green jobs that areexpected to be in high demand require

relatively short training periods from four weeks to six months. Soeven if there are currently insufficientnumbers of trained workers, it shouldnot take long to meet the demand oncethey are identified. Further, not allgreen jobs are necessarily new orunique occupations, but represent newl aye rs of green skills on top of ex-isting occupations. So transitioning many traditional workers into greencareers may require relatively littlet ra i n i n g.

Q: How do you define green jobsin the first place?

A: As you know, defining g re e n jobs can be tricky. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is developing a


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definition as part of its project tocollect data on green jobs, althougha concrete formulation has not yetbeen released. However, in a recentcomment request on the subject,BLS has said that it intends tocount the jobs associated with twotypes of environmental economicactivity: one, the output approach identifying businesses that pro-duce green goods and services; and,two, the process approach iden-tifying establishments that use en-vironmentally friendly productionprocesses and practices.

One definition that is very ap-pealing is from Green For All, theorganization founded by well-knownactivist Van Jones. He views green

jobs as well-paid career-track jobsthat contribute directly to preserv-ing or enhancing environmentalq u a l i t y.

Q: Finally, to sum it up how big

a role do you see for the green jobs sector over the next 40 years?

A: Greening the economy andcreating new green jobs is ab-solutely critical to successfully tack-ing climate change and many otherglobal environmental crises we face.And these new jobs can at the same

time jumpstart our economy andaddress our distressing unemploy-ment rates around the country, es-pecially in low-income communi-ties. So, hopefully in 40 years, green

jobs will be such an integral part of our economy that we wont evenneed to label such jobs as g re e n .

Idaho kids learngreen skills for agreen economy By Cynthia Sewell

McClatchy Newspapers

T h e re s no new house smell in thisrecently completed Southwest Boise,Idaho, home and thats a good thing.

That new house smell means thereare toxins, said Scott Larson, a teach-er with the Boise School Districtsresidential construction program.

L a rs o n s class recently finished thehome, which meets internationally ac-cepted benchmarks for design, con-struction and location to boost thehomes eco-friendliness.

The home is one of the first built bystudents to quality for LEED (Lead-ership in Energy and EnvironmentalDesign certification).

Many (of the homes green fea-tures) are things you cannot see, butadd them together and you have ahealthier, more comfortable and moreefficient house, Larson said.

Once the home is complete, it willgo on the market. When its sold, themoney will go back into the BoiseSchool District.

Since the age of 7, Ive had a sawin my hands. This is one of my fa-vorite classes, said Timberline HighSchool senior Monika Svahn, who alsotook Larsons residential construction


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class as a sophomore. This year, the first year Larson has

taught LEED building strategies,Svahn learned to think differentlyabout selecting building materials andhow a house is put together.

I didnt realize how bad carpeting

is, she said.Svahn and her grandfather are nowreplacing the carpeting in her homewith wood flooring.

I tell a lot of people about the stuff we are learning, she said.

I am doing students a disservice if I am not teaching them about thesenew building practices, Larson said.

LEED is the national green build-ing standard, and I wanted to bothlearn the process as an instructor andelevate the level of student experienceand exposure. I believe standards suchas Energy Star and LEED will becomethe norm sooner than we realize, andits important to prepare young peoplefor that, Larson said.

Larson and his students began build-ing the house at the start of the schoolyear. It cost about $200,000 to build,comparable to the non-LEED certifiedhouse Larsons students built next doorlast school year. We had about $5,000to $8,000 in extra costs, Larson said.

Boise Mayor Dave Bieter toured thehouse to see first-hand what Boisesfuture generation has been learning about green building practices.

B oises continued success dependson our entire communitys commit-ment to sustainability, Bieter said.

Bieter recently reconvened the citysClimate Protection Program AdvisoryCommittee to review the citysprogress on its recommendations andto provide a forum for new green op-portunities to be explored. Like thesestudents, Im proud the city has com-mitted to going green. But if we are toremain economically competitive wemust keep pushing to ensure we aredoing everything possible, Bieter said.

Borah HighSchool senior JeffBarr, 18, helps putthe finishingtouches on aLEED-certifiedhome inSouthwest Boisethat he built alongwith a dozen or soother BoiseDistrict highschool studentsthis school year.

Shawn RaeckeThe Idaho Statesman


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Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Jim Pastor's service contracts with Rockview Dairy to bring milk to more than4,800 SoCal homes.

Got milk delivery?By Rene Lynch

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES One of the hardest parts of Jim Pastors

job is convincing people that heexists: Hes a milkman.

The reaction is always thes ame, Pastor said. People say,Really? A milkman? Like in theold days? They always have a

hard time believing it.Pastor owns a Santa Ana,

Calif.-based delivery service thatcontracts with Rockview Farms,one of the largest family-owneddairies in Southern California.Each week, Pastor and his teamof 14 milkmen drive theirrefrigerated trucks to more than4,800 homes along routes in LosAngeles and Orange counties.

Fa m i l y -

owned dairies still churning

out doorstep service


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They arrive in the weemorning hours and dash upto the front door, leaving behind cartons of farm-fresh milk, cheese, eggs,bread, butter and more.

There is a premium, of course: A gallon of milkdelivered by Pastor isabout 20 to 30 cents morethan youll find it at thestore. But business hasnever been better. Relying largely on word-of-mouth,Pastor picked up 300 newresidential clients just lastmonth, and hes planning to expand home-deliveryroutes into Marina delRey and Santa Monica.

The food worldsrallying cry of recent years eat local, eat organic is lending new life tolocal dairies such asDowney-based RockviewFarms, which keeps itsown dairy cows in Chinoand other parts of Northern California andprocesses its own milk,including a line of organicdairy products. Using local advertising, word-of-mouth or old-fashioned

door-to-door sales, thesedairies spread the wordthat home delivery is not athing of the past.

Freshness is theircalling card: That milklands on your doorstep inas little as 48 hours aftermilking, says Carole

Roquemore, the directorof marketing for Rockview.

The dairys businessmodel eschews buying placement on supermarketshelves and instead

focuses on home deliveryand independently ownedmarkets. In all, Rockviewdelivers milk and dairyproducts to more than7,500 homes.

I like the idea that weare supporting a local

business, and a locald a i r y, said Joanne Irish of Long Beach, who has beenon one of Pastors routesfor a decade now. We love

milk, and I just got tired of schlepping milk around.But she said she was reallysold on the taste. I knowthis sounds crazy but weactually did a blind tastetest with supermarket milkand the fresh milk. You canreally taste a difference.

Being a milkman is allthat Pastor, 52, has everknown. Growing up in theSan Fernando Valley, hehad no idea what to doafter high school when he

got a job with a dairy to dos h a gg i n g : Paired up witha driver, Pastor wouldprovide the nimble legsthat would jump in and outof the milk truck and dashup to the front porches. Itwas a great way to stay inshape, he said.

Soon, he became adriver, and then realizedhe had a knack for businessand customer service. Heand his wife, Sherri,bought their own route in1979 and began building their business from there.

To most Americans, themilkman is a symbol of simpler times, when dairyfarms were commonplaceand markets werent. Inthe 1940s and 50s, manyAmerican familiesreceived home delivery of milk and other dailynecessities, said JimCarroll, president of theMass achusetts-based

International HomeDelivery Assn.In those days, double-

income families were ararity and the milkmanwas a common part of thelandscape: The milk truckcould make its rounds allday long, because Mom

To mostAmericans, the

milkman is asymbol of simplertimes, when dairy

farms werecommonplace and

markets werent.


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was sure to be home.Supermarkets and corner

convenience stores changed allthat when they began cropping up in the 1960s. They cut intothe milkmans business in part

by slashing milk prices to getcustomers in the door.But the milkman never

really went away. He hung onthanks to customers who livedtoo far from a supermarket,had kids who went throughmilk like water or werereaching their twilight yearsand no longer wanted to lug around heavy containers. Inthe Northeast, Carroll said, theinclement weather is a boonfor the milk delivery business.

There are some key changes.Gone are the nostalgic milkbottles theyre too heavy,too dangerous and too costly.And todays milkman (andhes almost always a man)doesnt wear a uniform suit,squeaky black shoes and aspiffy cap hes more thanlikely to wear shorts, running shoes and a ball cap.

Not that youre likely tocatch a glimpse.

Pastor and his crewassemble around midnight on

a Santa Ana loading dock,stock up their trucks and aresoon on their way. Thenocturnal delivery enablesthe milkman to beat trafficbut also allows the milk to bedelivered and broughtinside before everyoneheads off to work for the day.

By Sheila Mulrooney Eldred

The Associated Press

Anders Gurda hops off his bike at variousbackyards in Minneapolis, grabs his gardentools and starts weeding.

When hes done checking for garden pests,adjusting the irrigation system and harvesting the vegetables (which he puts in the homesrefrigerator or cooler), he cycles to his next plotand starts over.

Hes an urban backyard farmer, one of agrowing breed throughout the country thanksto programs like Minnesotas Backyard Harvest.

Its like having a CSA (community-support-ed agriculture program) in your own backyard,and youre supporting a farmer without a farm,Gurda said.

The goal of Backyard Harvest, said coor-

Photos by Don Ryan/Associated Press

Robyn Streeter works in a residential gardenshe helped create in Portland, Ore.

Rent a farmer?Growers visit city backyards


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(the farmer teaches the homeown-er how to maintain the garden sothe homeowner can take over thenext year). Farmers may also giveadvice on how to use, cook andstore the produce.

Prices depend on the growing season and the square footage. InMinneapolis, prices averagearound $1,250 for the season, orabout $11-$13 per square foot,and in Portland, prices start at$1,675 per season. Services areoften available only in certainneighborhoods to reduce the farm-e rs commutes.

The programs often focus onsustainability and organic foods.

The ultimate goal, said Leraas, isto create urban homesteads wherepeople raise chickens, reuse rain-water and keep honeybees, for ex-ample, in addition to gardening.

We re spokespeople, pushing the local foods movement just bybeing there, said Gurda.

Urban gardens carry challenges:carting tools and materials fromyard to yard, working in confinedspaces that can make it harder toorganize plants, using soil that issometimes contaminated with

lead. The work is often seasonal.For the farmers, however, the

rewards often go beyond money.Smith and Streeter have madeenough from Your BackyardFarmer to support themselves, butGurda works three other jobs tosupport his part-time work as af a r m e r.

T h e re s a disconnect here. Itfeeds the soul, but doesnt addmuch heft to your bank account,he said. No one does it to getrich. We do it because it feelsgood. It makes sense. Its a state-

ment that speaks not only to ourdedication to good food for allpeople but it addresses our landethic, our sense of priority, ormoral code, our need to do some-thing of positive consequence.

Gurda works 10 to 15 hours aweek for Backyard Harvest; farm-ing full-time, he said, would be hisdream job.

The best days are when Im just finishing seeding as the sun issetting, or get to watch a spring thunderstorm roll in as Im thin-ning the beets, he said. And Ifeel pretty damn lucky to be ableto make a living doing this.

Its a statement that speaks not only to our dedicationto good food for all people but it addresses our land

ethic, our sense of priority, or moral code, our need todo something of positive consequence.

ANDERS GURDA, urban backyard farmer


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Dear EarthTalk: What does it mean when one uses the phrase, building a green economy? Ive heard it repeated a few times lately and would like to have a better understanding of the concept .

The phrase building a green econ-omy means different things to dif-

ferent people, but in general it refersto encouraging economic developmentthat prioritizes sustainability t h atis, working with nature and notagainst it in the quest to meet peoplesneeds and wants instead of dis-regarding environmental concerns inthe process of growing the economy.

EARTH TALK

Building a green economy explained

P. Roth, courtesy Flickr.

A wind farm takes shape in Langdon, North Dakota. In a recent speech toCongress, President Barack Obama said: To truly transform our economy,protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, weneed to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy.


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The primary way governments aroundthe world are trying to g re e n theirown economies today is by increasing investment in and, by extension,creating jobs in industries on thecutting edge of non-polluting renew-able forms of energy, such as solar andwind power.

President Obama has repeatedly in-voked his vision of a green economyas a tool for helping the U.S. lift itself out of recession and position itself asan economic powerhouse in a carbon-constrained future. The American Re-covery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)of 2009, the $787.2 billion stimuluspackage that Congress signed into lawin 2009, was chock full of provisionsto boost renewable energy, energy ef-ficiency and environmental restorationinitiatives. Examples include $4.5 bil-lion to convert government buildingsinto high-performance green buildings,$8.4 billion for investments in publictransportation, and tens of billions of

dollars more for research into newtechnologies to amplify existing ef-forts. ARRA also earmark $11 billionfor the implementation of the smartgrid, a new approach to power dis-tribution that will bring more cleanenergy sources into the mix and pro-mote energy efficiency.

Infusing such huge amounts of cashinto sustainability-oriented projects isone way the Obama administrationhopes to g re e n the U.S. economywhile simultaneously pulling the coun-try out of recession.

To truly transform our economy,protect our security, and save ourplanet from the ravages of climatechange, we need to ultimately make

clean, renewable energy the profitablekind of energy, Obama told Congressa few months ago.

Of course, Americans arent the onlyones bent on building a green econ-omy. During the 1980s and 1990s,while the American government waslargely asleep at the wheel on envi-ronmental issues, countries such asDenmark, Germany, Spain and Japanwere already busy investing in windand solar research and implementa-tion. And while these nations o n go i n g efforts are nothing to sneeze at,economists point out that what is

most needed is action on the part of the worlds fastest growing economies China and India.

A recent report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company found thatChina which surpassed the U.S. asthe worlds largest generator of green-house gases three years ago hasgreat potential for building a green

economy over the coming decades.According to McKinsey, by 2030 Chi-na could reduce its oil and coal im-ports by up to 40 percent and itsgreenhouse gas emissions by 50 per-cent by investing upwards of 1.5 tril-lion yuan ($220 billion in U.S. dollars)per year in both existing and newgreen technologies. China has begunto see the light with regard to re-ducing emissions, increasing energyefficiency and embracing renewable al-ternative energy, but it has yet tomake significant financial commit-ments, which will be key to both ward-ing off catastrophic climate changeand building a truly global green econ-o m y.


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From The Economist magazine

If you are the sort to worry at night aboutman-induced climate change, then book astay at any of the new high-rise hotels going up on the edge of Chinas big cities st artlooking for them around the third ring road.

When you stagger red-eyed out of bed to

peer into the murky dawn, you will see rankupon serried rank of raw s u p e rb l o c k developments, a mile apart, marching intothe distance.

You think of the emissions involved in theircarbon- hungry construction, the traffic jamson the arteries tying them into the expanding

The worlds hopes of putting carbon emissions on amanageable path depend upon on how developing Asia

urbanizes in the coming decades.

As i a s citiesgrowing fast,

not smart Development decisions

on problematic paths


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city, and the new coal-fired powerstations being built to light them up.And you wonder how Asia can changeits habits energy consumption grewby 70 percent in the 10 years to 2008 before it is too late for all of us.

Yet the worlds hopes of putting carbon emissions on a manageablepath depend upon on how developing Asia urbanizes in the coming decades.

The scale is staggering. According tothe Asian Development Bank, 44 millionpeople join city populations each year.Every day sees the construction of 20,000 new dwellings and 160 miles of

new roads.In theory, urban living can begreener than other ways of life: peopleneed to travel shorter distances, forinstance. In practice, is not so simple.Most poor people coming to the cityaspire to higher standards of living andconsumption. Ill-planned publictransport reinforces car use.

Most striking, putting up and using buildings accounts for a big part of developing Asias carbon emissions perhaps 30 percent in the case of China,where nearly half the worlds new floorspace is built each year. Whats more,the buildings do not age well. Manythrown up in the 1990s are alreadybeing pulled down and replaced.

Governments acknowledge thechallenge. Green codes in Chinamandate energy-saving standards forheating, cooling and lighting newbuildings. The aim is to cut newb u i l d i n gs energy use by 65 percent.But many new buildings are designedfirst and greened later a cheaper butless effective approach.

As for the superblocks that exemplify

Chinas urbanization, a dozen newones are built every day.

The environmental impact is alreadyapparent. Gated blocks with a singleentrance force residents to abandoncycling or walking for the automobilewhenever they need to go anywhere.Outsiders, too, face a vast, fencedobstacle in the way of where they wantto go. Congestion, pollution and trafficaccidents rise.

Harrison Fraker, an architect at theUniversity of California at Berkeley,and his team devised a differentapproach for Tianjin in north China, by

thinking of the development as a wholesystem in which high-densityneighborhoods would generate nearlyall their energy and water needs.

First, g re e nways were marked outthat gave pedestrians and cyclists away to get to the nearest mass-transitstation without being run down orchoked. Meanwhile, good use of sunlight, shading and ventilationwould cut heating and cooling loads.Photovoltaic panels and windmillswould provide four-fifths of electricityneeds. The rest, as well as gas forcooking and hot water, would comefrom biogas generated from sewage,waste food and plant clippings.Rainwater would flush lavatories.

Yvo de Boer, the United Nationsoutgoing senior climate-change official,argues that limits to what can be doneare set by the perverse economicincentives that apply in Asia.

Developers, a big part of the solution,will struggle to make a profitable fist of turning green when energy and thecosts of pollution are grossly mispriced,favoring old-fashioned utilities.


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By Rosa Colluci

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Martha Stewart haslaunched her new line of cleaning products, aptly

titled Clean, to muchfanfare. The initial linefeatures 10 products forkitchen, bathroom,laundry and generalhousehold use. They arecertified environmentallysafe and have beendeveloped almost entirelyfrom plant- and mineral-based formulas that aresafe for use around petsand children. They arecompletely free of perfumes and synthetics.

The products comewith an accompanying book, H o m eke e p i n g.

This is what started itall, Stewart said, on atour to promote the line,pointing at her book.Because I wrote thisbook, this encyclopedia of homekeeping, it was anatural extension to dothe cleaning products andin a green fashion. It was

very important to me. The line was developed

with The Hain CelestialGroup, a natural andorganic food and personal-care products companywhose brand list includesCelestial Seasonings Tea,Alba Botanicals and TerraChips.

We worked on the

cleaning products foralmost a year, she said.I was testing them allalong the way.

In overseeing this line,she made sure thateverything frompackaging to shipping was also environmentally

responsible, she said. Thebeautiful, clear bottlescontain recycled contentand even the shipping cartons are sourced frommanaged forests.

Testing, approving and suggesting packaging, labeling itsa very complex process,she said.

But do they work?From my experience, theydo. But if youre used tothe foaming, chemical-smelling clean we all grewup with, you may bedis appointed.

I tested six of the 10products in Stewarts

Martha Stewart is coming Clean Expert in all things

domestic launchesline of green products

SHNS photo by Pam Panchak/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Martha Stewarts new line of cleaning products wasinspired by her Homekeeping handbook.


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Because I wrote Housekeeping, thisencyclopedia of homekeeping, it was a

natural extension to do the cleaningproducts and in a green fashion.

MARTHA STEWART

Clean line and liked themall. One I didnt try was thelaundry detergent ($17.99for 64 ounces, 28 cents perload). Consumer Reportstested it along with manyother green laundrycleaners for its July issue.Her detergent came indead last in the ratings, nobetter than clean water,according to the judges.But most of the customerreviews I found on theWeb gave the productgood ratings. You will justhave to try it yourself tosee what you think.

Meanwhile, here arethe reviews of theproducts I tried:

The glass and mirrorcleaner was the best I haveever used. It left themstreak-free, and mycleaning cloth had black

dirt on it. (I had just donethe windows two weeksearlier with another greenproduct.) Once I had donea few windows, I saw howdirty they were and had totackle the rest. It costs$3.99 for a 32-ounce bottle.

Ive always had a

problem finding a goodtoilet-bowl cleaner.S t ewa r t s product ($3.99for 20 ounces) has mineralsalts as an activeingredient, and it clung well to the bowl andremoved the stains. Theall-purpose cleaner ($3.99for 32 ounces) workedwell on bathroom surfaces,kitchen surfaces and evenquick spills on the floor.

Its tough to find agreen automaticdishwashing detergent.Before testing her product($7.99 for 64 ounces), I letmy dishes get really crusty.My glasses werent sparkly,but they were clean. Thedishes, pots and pans cameclean and the grease andstuck-on stuff was gone.

The carpet-stainremover ($4.99 for 32

ounces) didnt perform aswell as I would have liked.(My cat had upchuckedhis dinner on my off-white carpet, so it was afair test.) But I loved thedish-hand soap for thekitchen ($3.99 for 17ounces). Its one of

S t ewa r t s favorites, too.I wondered what part

of the home she foundhomeowners are mostbaffled about cleaning and maintaining.

Well, surfaces, floors... In terms of healthy,green cleaning, its a lotabout floors, a LOT aboutrugs. We are working on arug cleaner right now,she said.

She said wood floorsare another big question:People want shinewithout grit. Her wood-floor cleaner ($7.99 for35 ounces) does the job,she said.

Its hard to do a woodfloor without streaks,without oil. It leaves thisbeautiful finish on itwithout any residuew h at s o eve r.

More Clean productsare in the works.After we launched the

first 10 products, we wantto do certain polishers,abrasives, scrubbers andthings that we dont havein the line right now, shes aid.


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Associated Press file photo

Sam Chill (left) and Jordan Thompkins (right) carry signs outside a BPstation in Knoxville during a United Mountain Defense protest.

Boycott gas, not local BP station All oil companies hurt environment somehow

By Shea Gunther Mother Nature Network ( mnn.com )

There have been a lot of calls forconsumers to boycott BP to punish thecompany for the Gulf of Mexico oilspill the ongoing environmentaldisaster that is smashing the Gulf economy, destroying beaches, killing

scores of marine life and poisoning vastparts of the ocean. Its understandableto not want to give money to acompany as terrible as BP, but I thinkthe sentiment to boycott them is

misplaced.We shouldnt be boycotting BP; weshould be boycotting gas.

Who do you buy your gas from, if not from BP? Exxon or Mobil? Nope,theyve got the Valdez spill, and surelythat earns them a space on the boycottlist. Chevron? No, its engineers
http://mnn.com/http://mnn.com/


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dumped tons of toxicchemicals into rain forestrivers, contaminating thelandscape and localpeople who live there.Shell? That company

should also be on the listfor the tragedy in Nigeria.Its hard to find a large

oil company that doesnthave something in itshistory that makes itworthy of a boycott. AndId wager that even theones that dont haveValdez-sized blunders onthe books have plenty of smaller and quieter spillsthat add up in theaggregate. Drilling for oilis a messy, polluting business any way you runit .

The problem withboycotting BP gasstations is that youredoing the bulk of thedamage to the (mostly)small business owners andentrepreneurs running thestations most havelong-term contracts withBP that preclude themfrom switching to otherbrands of gas. Those

fortunate enough to beable to switch still have topay tens of thousands of dollars to change theirsignage and pumps overto the new brand.

Even when you boycottBP stations, you could beinadvertently putting

money in BPs coffersbecause of the convolutednature of oil refinement.BP has its fingers invarious parts of theprocess and could havealready profited from oilyou buy at another station.

What we need to do isto boycott oil.

If you truly want tomake a difference, thenfigure out how to use lessoil. Ride your bike more,sell your second (or evenfirst) car and get anelectric bike or scooter.When you absolutely haveto drive, use car shareservices like Zipcar and U-Hauls U Car Share. Walkmore. If you live in thesuburbs, move to the citywhere you can use public

transportation and yourfeet to get around. Writeto and call your electedofficials and let themknow that walkability andsustainable transportationmatter to you as a voter.

In the face of thethings that you can do tomake a real difference,its understandable howeasy and appealing d r i veby BP gas station is topeople. It takes a realeffort to change yourenvironmental footprint,but buying gas from thenext station down theroad does not.

Shea Gunther is an eco- entrepreneur who blogs about politics, energy and earths resources at www.mnn .com/featured-b l ogs /e n v i ro n m e n t a l n e w s .

Associated Press file photo

A protestor who wanted to be identified as Matt(left) pours chocolate sauce on a Styrofoam dolphinheld by UMD member Pete Sabo.
http://www.mnn%20.com/featuredblogs/environmentalnewshttp://www.mnn%20.com/featuredblogs/environmentalnewshttp://www.mnn%20.com/featuredblogs/environmentalnewshttp://www.mnn%20.com/featuredblogs/environmentalnews


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By Gerry Smith

Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO At a former industrialsite on Chicagos South Side, morethan 32,000 solar panels slowly tiltevery few minutes, following the sunas it moves across the sky.

Operated by Exelon Corp., the 40-acre site is the nations largest urbansolar plant, generating 10 megawattsof clean power and hope for an in-dustry that has long waited for itsmoment in the sun.

We have been frustrated over theyears that solar has not become morem a i n s t re a m , said Kevin Lynch, who

trains electricians to install solar pan-els for the International Brotherhoodof Electrical Workers. We understandits still a relatively expensive tech-nology, but the cost is much less thanit was a few years ago.

Indeed, the biggest obstacle to thegrowth of solar energy its cost

has started to decline. The price of photovoltaic solar panels droppedmore than 40 percent last year due toa glut in global supply, according tothe Solar Energy Industries Associ-at i o n .

The drop in price is driving re-newed interest in solar energy, saidHoward Learner, executive director of

Solar power shines in Illinois

Jos M. Osorio/Chicago TribunePanels automatically adjust to follow the suns movement during the day atthe SunPower solar plant in Chicagos West Pullman neighborhood.

Advocates see West Pullman power plant as sign of hope


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the Environmental Law and PolicyC e n t e r.

Nationwide, there are more than22,000 megawatts of large-scale solarprojects under development, or

enough to power 4.4 million homes.And government incentives are help-ing drive the industry. A 30 percentmanufacturing tax credit has resultedin the construction of 58 new facilitiesto produce solar energy equipment,according to Jared Blanton, aspokesman for the Solar Energy In-dustries Association.

In Illinois, unions are preparing forthe anticipated demand. At an appren-tice school in Alsip, Lynch trainsabout 200 electricians a year to workin the solar industry. His students arehoping to follow in the footsteps of Jim Amedeo, the site supervisor atExel o n s Chicago plant.

Amedeo, who once ran data centersfor Internet and telephone companies,now spends his days checking the po-sition and quality of solar panels tomake sure they are absorbing max-imum sunlight.

Im glad I got in at the beginning of a growth industry, said Amedeo, whoworks for SunPower Corp., which de-signed and operates the facility. S olaris ready to take off here in the UnitedSt ates.

But the promise of g re e n jobsshould not be seen as a panacea forunemployment, Lynch said. Exelonsplant, for example, created about 200

jobs, but only during the six months of construction, he said.

It certainly wasnt something thatwent on for years, Lynch said.

Still, solar proponents see hope forthe future in Exelons solar plant,which began operating in December.

To finance the $62 million project,Exelon took advantage of local real

estate and federal tax incentives. Thecompany hopes to recoup more costsby eventually selling solar renewableenergy credits. For a company that hasstaked its future largely on nuclearreactors, the solar plant is a learning ex p e r i e n c e .

We look forward to learning lessons on how this operates, Exel o nspokesman Paul Elsberg said. This isreally our first foray into solar power. The facility has generated a range of benefits for the local economy. Thesolar panels sit on metal poles createdby Fabricating and Welding Corp., lo-cated less than a mile away. And thesite itself, which sat abandoned for 30years, is now back on the citys taxro l l s .

The solar plant generates enoughelectricity to power about 1,500homes and its clean power means lessgreenhouse gases are emitted, theequivalent of taking 2,500 cars off theroad each year.

But with unemployment remaining high, new solar projects such as Ex-el o n s are being measured as much forthe jobs they create even if only

temporary as the pollution theyavo i d .These were actual construction

jobs, with decent wages, health in-surance and pensions, Lynch said.And theres going to be clean energycoming from that site for years andyears to come.


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30 GOING GREEN| S u n d ay , July 1 8, 2010 co mm er cia l a pp ea l.co m

of those seeking self-sufficiency.Small wind turbines have blades

from 12 to 56 feet in diameter. Onepopular model for smaller homes has12-foot blades, which can produceabout 30 percent of the homes power.

Small projects can face big obsta-cles, and progress has been muchslower than many hoped. Initial costscan be daunting and take more than15 years for a homeowner to recover.

Turbines need more maintenancethan some other types of renewable en-ergy, such as solar panels. And the treesand buildings in urban areas mean that

a standard-style turbine, to take full ad-vantage of the wind, could need a towermore than 100 feet tall, increasing costsand possibly violating zoning laws.

August Huber III, CEO of commer-cial building company A.L. Huber,said small turbines eventually wouldfind their place. He has installed awind turbine at his companys Over-land Park, Kan., offices.

The turbine, which uses scoops in-stead of blades to gather the wind, isdesigned for slower wind speeds inurban areas and is quieter than a tra-ditional small turbine.

Prospects look brighter in moresparsely populated areas.

August Spencer and his wife, a re-tired couple who live in Jackson County,Kan., bought a traditional small turbinemore than a year ago. The Spencers hadenough land to put their turbine on a45-foot-tall tower, which should give theaverage eight- to 14-mile-an-hour windsneeded to be efficient.

It can be real good like today, whenIm receiving 20-mile winds, Spencersaid recently.

That experience can be replicated,said the experts, if you want to makethe investment and do your homework.

An installed 2.4-kilowatt wind sys-tem for an average residence can costabout $20,000 and supply about a thirdof the homes demand for electricity.

A growing number of schools areshowing interest in turbines, althoughproducing power often is a secondaryreason. The Starside Elementary tur-bine in De Soto will recharge batteriesand run an electric train, but its mainpurpose is teaching students about re-newable energy.

We worked long and hard for thesethings, and the kids are really proud of it , said Paula Henderson, a counselorat the school.

Small-town America has had successwith smaller wind projects.

Rock Port, Mo., and Greensburg,Kan., dont own turbines, but they doget electricity from wind-generationprojects developed for them. TheGreensburg project produces enoughpower for 4,000 homes.

Interested small towns could buyand operate wind turbines on theirown. This has been done across thecountry, including once in Kansas withmixed results.

What could be the future is com-panies like BTI Wind Energy inGreensburg, the Kansas town that wasdestroyed by a tornado in 2007. Thecommunity is emphasizing the use of renewable energy as it rebuilds.

BTI extends into several states,helping homeowners, businesses andschools. In the wide open spaces of Kansas, we should be able to do thisall day long, Estes said.


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Inventors say Hydra offers

clean water, hope for villagesBy Sandy BauersThe Philadelphia Inquirer

The hose took brownish water fromthe scummy Schuylkill River inPhiladelphia to a strange apparatus onthe bank a trailer with a solar

panel, a hydrogen tank and other oddparts with flashing digital readouts.From another hose came clear water.

David Squires picked it up and drank.Hey, save some for me, M i ke

Strizki called out.Any other takers? No. But dozens of

onlookers were curious enough tolearn more about the machine.

The Hydra uses solar power to makeclean water from contaminated, re-moving viruses and bacteria, its in-ventors say. But it will not removeheavy metals, pesticides or medicines.

In one day, it can produce 20,000gallons, or four gallons apiece for5,000 people.

It also uses the excess power 70to 80 percent is excess on a sunny day to charge onboard batteries andseparate hydrogen from water.

At night, the hydrogen is runthrough a fuel cell and turned backinto electricity. Or it can be used ascooking fuel on a special stove.

By the way, the machine also turnsout medical-grade oxygen, the otherbyproduct of separating the water into

its elemental components.No waste, Strizki boasted.Squires, Strizki and a third partner,

Brad Carlson who formed aHopewell, N.J., company called The

Sharon Gekoski-Kimmel/The Philadelphia Inquirer

David Squires, CFO of The EssentialElement, explains the solar-generated water filtration system,called the Hydra. The water wentfrom brown undrinkable water (left)to clear drinkable water on right.


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32 GOING GREEN| Sun d ay , July 1 8, 2010 co mm er c ia l a pp ea l.co m

Essential Element to develop theiridea envision the Hydra being usedin disaster areas and villages in de-veloping nations.

But big hurdles remain.Squires and Carlson are the owners

of Oil Free Now, which installs geother-mal heating and cooling systems.

Strizki, an alternative-energy inven-tor, powers his New Jersey home com-pletely with solar and hydrogen.

The team financed the project, al-though Carlson would not say howmuch the trio invested. They are seek-ing backers to manufacture the ma-chines, expected to cost $99,000.

They also lack independent verifi-cation that their machine works aspromised. But Carlson said the com-ponents arent unique. The water pu-rification membranes, for instance, arecertified by the National SanitationFoundation, he said.

Projects like theirs are getting in-creased attention, not only because de-

veloped nations are taking greater in-terest in providing for developing ones,but also because scientists say climatechange could exacerbate water-supplyand water-quality problems worldwide.

A group at the University of Penn-sylvania is working on ways to harvestoff-peak power from cell phone towers common even in developing nations and use it to provide water purifi-cation and refrigeration for medicines.

A report this year by the UnitedNations and the World Health Orga-nization found that 900 million peoplelack good access to clean water, caus-ing widespread disease.

For us, diarrhea is bad take-out,said John Sauer, spokesman for the non-

profit Water Advocates. But it kills 1.5million children under age 5 every year.

The Hydra may be an intriguing new-comer, he said, but what about whenthe purified water leaves the machine?

A villager usually a woman will put it in a container of dubiouscleanliness and carry it home. Thenmaybe shell pour it into a glass, alsopossibly dirty, and pass it to a childwith unwashed hands.

At that point, yo u ve got contam-inated water again, Sauer said. Somuch of this is not an engineering issue. Its an educational issue.

He also wonders about sustainability.But can the community afford it?

Can they repair it if it breaks down?Sauer said.

Carlson said the Hydras componentsare easily replaceable. The machine alsohas onboard telemetry that, if triggeredby one of several sensors, sends an im-mediate e-mail via satellite to as many as10 people, alerting them to the problem.

Pennsylvania State University profes-sor Bruce Logan, director of the Hydro-gen Energy Center and the Engineering Energy and Environmental Institute,termed the Hydra a nice piece of en-gineering but not a game-changer.

We can do all these things sep-a rat el y, he said. Theyve just donethem together.

But to Peter Wermsdorfer, whoworks for a Scranton company thatprovides energy-management servicesto towns, t h at s the beauty of it.

Those guys have integrated every-thing that everybody in the water busi-ness has talked about for the last 20ye a rs , he said, and theyve put it allon one unit.


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Re c y c l e / H a z m a tWant to lend a hand to clean up

your neighborhood? Five recyclingdrop-off centers are available forMemphis residents and businessesnot serviced by the city.

Do w n t o wn: Mud Island Drive atthe north entrance to Mud IslandRiver Park

Midtown : The corner of WalkerAvenue and Cooper Street at FirstCongregational Church

Sou t h e a s t : 3910 Ridgeway Roadat the Hickory Hill Community Center

East Memphis : Moore Roadnear Germantown Parkway

Showplace Arena atAgricenter International : You canalso drop off recyclables at the citysrecycling process facility at 3197Farrisview Blvd., off American Wayjust west of Lamar Avenue. Collection

carts are outside the facilitys gate.If youre a Memphis resident wholives in a single-family home or amultifamily property with seven unitsor less, curbside recycling service isincluded in your sanitation fee, partof your monthly utility bill.

For up-to-date information aboutrecycling in Memphis, call 576-6851or go to memphiswaste.org .

And there are several recyclingcenter locations in Bartlett andMillington:

Solid Waste Complex , 5250Shelter Run Lane in Bartlett. Theoffice hours are Monday throughFriday, 7 a.m.-3 p.m. The center will

are available.Bartlett Recycle , 5890 Stage

Road. This center is open 24 hours aday. Assistance is available Mondaythrough Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Another location in Bartlett is at7662 U.S. 70, and is open 24 hours aday. However, assistance is notavailable at this center.

For information, contact BartlettPublic Works, 385-5570 orc i t y o f ba r t l e t t .o r g.

The city of Millingtons RecyclingDrop-0ff Center is at Public Works,4701 Biloxi St. (off of Navy Road byM c Do n a lds. Turn south onto Newportand follow until road dead ends. Thecenter is on the left side of the gate).The center is always accessible.

Place clean items directly intodesignated bin. No plastic bags.

For information, contact Millington

Public Works, 873-5650 orm i l l i n g t o n t n . go v /r e cy c l i n g . p h p .

And for hazardous waste drop-off,items such as automotive fluids,cleaners, home-repair products,flammable liquids, lawn and gardenproducts, paint and some electronicequipment, can be taken to the newMemphis and Shelby County House

Hazards Waste Collection Facility ,6305 Haley Road (off Farm Road,between Walnut Grove and MullinsStation). Office hours: Tuesdays andSaturday, 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m.

Limit of 15 gallons or 100 poundsper visit.For information, visit

News to use
http://memphiswaste.org/http://cityofbartlett.org/http://cityofbartlett.org/http://memphiswaste.org/

Documents

Going Green Memphis 7-18-10