Pope Benedict XVI added to his growing reputation as the “green Pope” yesterday (July 7) with the release of a new encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth). A call for sustainable development in the broadest sense, the Pope’s letter addressed the human and environmental costs of “business as usual,” and established “doing well by doing good” as the business philosophy most consistent with Church doctrine and Biblical teaching.

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Speaking about his long-time friend and mentor, Robert Redford told a crowd in New York City that he learned a great deal from the late Paul Newman, especially generosity. “Back then it was really about actors playing roles. It wasn’t until later that it became more about actors’ personalities,” Redford told a packed theater at Lincoln Center.

The crowd enthusiastically hung on Redford’s words. This was no doubt because of the star power of the great actor, director and Sundance Institute creator (particularly because the audience skewed toward his generation), but perhaps even more so because the crowd was packed with committed environmentalists. This was a special, intimate conversation between Redford, a longtime green leader, and veteran radio journalist Bob Edwards (formerly of NPR and now of Sirius radio), hosted by the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council (Watch video of NRDC head Frances Beinecke accepting a 2009 Heart of Green Award).

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Think this whole “green” thing is just a fad? Maybe some elements of it, but if trends in higher education are any indicator of larger patterns, sustainability will continue to play a role in how we live, work, and play. In late June, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) released its annual Digest, a collection and analysis of stories from the previous year’s weekly newsletter. Just the size of the publication should give us hope: according to Acting Executive Director Judy Walton’s “Introduction,” the 2008 Digest is 50% larger than the previous edition.

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THE LAZY ENVIRONMENTALIST, hosted by Josh Dorfman, screens Tuesdays at 9PM on Sundance Channel.

Working with John Tran, the mayor of Rosemead, CA, was particularly fascinating. To be sure, The Lazy Environmentalist typically focuses on helping individuals conveniently make environmentally conscious choices that fit their lifestyles. However, this same philosophy can also be applied to a town or city. In fact, sometimes the best way to help people easily and enjoyably reduce their environmental impact is to focus on making changes at the municipal level. For example, Rosemead’s recycling rates are very low; only about 25% of recyclable trash is diverted from the landfill and actually recycled. So in “Lazy Mayor” I present Mayor Tran with a municipal recycling solution that can lower the town’s costs while also making it easy, convenient, and financially rewarding for Rosemead residents to sort the recycling in their homes. It’s the kind of win-win-win solution that saves taxpayer money, financially incentives people to participate in environmental action, and benefits the planet in two major ways: 1) it reduces greenhouse gas emissions and 2) it reduces our demand for virgin natural resources from which to make new products.

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If fireworks and gas grills didn’t feed your techie jones last weekend, here are some of the latest stories in the green tech world.

• Drive time: Danielle Brigada, social media guru at the National Wildlife Federation, just loves the ‘10 Ford Fusion hybrid.
  
  
• Wearable lighting?: That’s one potential use envisioned by art students for GE’s planned “flexible, paper-thin lighting panels” featuring organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). (via OLED-info.com)

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I really “dig” this beautiful house designed by architects at Single Speed Design and built with material salvaged and reutilized from Boston’s infamous and epic “Big Dig,” the most expensive highway project in US history. Originally estimated in 1985 to cost $2.5 billion, by 2008 the Big Dig’s bill ran upwards of $22 billion.

The project demonstrates an untapped potential for the public realm: with strategic front-end planning, much needed community programs including schools, libraries, and housing could be constructed whenever infrastructure is deconstructed, saving valuable resources, embodied energy, and taxpayer dollars.

[Via]

The concept of July 4th as “Oil Independence Day” or “Energy Independence Day” has been floating around for several years: everyone from bloggers to magazines to the Speaker of the House has touted the concept. This July 4th, New York-based artist Michael D’Antuono will add his voice to the debate with the unveiling of the paintings Dependence and Independence in Washington Square’s Garibaldi Plaza.

D’Antuono recently raised a furor with his painting The Truth, which celebrated President Obama’s 100th day in office. The painting portrayed the president wearing a crown of thorns and posed as if crucified — the religious right was not amused. The new paintings like won’t stir up the same level of vitriol… let’s hope they do stir up more meaningful conversation on our energy future, though.

The paintings will be on display in Garibaldi Park from 10am - 4pm.

Friday’s passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) signaled a definite shift in US policy towards energy use and climate change. Though the bill had its detractors — most notably Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and even progressive Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) — ACES, or Waxman-Markey, set new standards for clean energy adoption, energy efficiency, and, most notably, greenhouse gas emissions.

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E. coli? Obesity? Illegal immigration? Hardly a day goes by, it seems, when one of these issues doesn’t appear somewhere in the news. The new documentary film Food Inc. does something that few in the mainstream media have tried with these issues: it demonstrates how they’re all connected to our food system, and the mass production methods that now dominate food processing in the United States.

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THE LAZY ENVIRONMENTALIST, hosted by Josh Dorfman, screens Tuesdays at 9PM on Sundance Channel.

In this episode I’m challenged to help green a wedding that’s already well into its planning. The challenge itself was really fun especially because the groom shared my aversion to all things both “eco” and “beige.” That was one of the first rules that the couple set – no beige at the wedding no matter what. And thank God! I see no reason why environmentally friendly choices shouldn’t be outstanding and make a wedding even more beautiful or tasty or memorable precisely because of the fact that they are eco-friendly. To my way of thinking, green should be an experiential enhancer.

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In May, Toronto became the first city in North America to enact a green roof mandate: “…any new development with floorspace of more than 2,000 square meters devote between 20 and 60 percent of its roof to vegetation.” A centuries-old technology, green roofs provide a wide range of benefits!

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