Sundance Channel

Ray Anderson on film

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:00:54 +0000

Last week, sustainable business pioneer (and a personal hero of mine) Ray Anderson lost his battle with cancer. Founder and longtime CEO of Interface, Ray was a pioneer from the outset. A commercial flooring company, Interface brought the carpet square to the United States. At age sixty, after nearly two decades of success, Ray could've retired to a house on the golf course and lived out his golden years in luxury. Instead, after reading Paul Hawken's "The Ecology of Commerce," this established businessman had an epiphany (or, as he liked to call it, a "spear in the chest" moment): he had found success and made his fortune by plundering the Earth's resources. Ray committed himself and his company to big, hairy, audacious goals concerning their environmental impact, and made amazing strides in an industry that's traditionally been very resource and energy intensive.

California’s Butte College hits first in the nation solar milestone

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:32:42 +0000

Colleges and universities are hot spots for renewable energy installation and experimentation. From on-site energy generation to educational programs designed to train students for clean energy careers, schools are right up there with start-ups in terms of pushing renewable technology towards mainstream use. Last week, a community college district in Northern California set a new standard for renewable energy use in higher education, though: Butte College became the first "grid positive" school in the nation.

Putting local goods back in Rwanda

Perrin Drumm — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 18:23:32 +0000

You might be surprised to learn that many so-called African fabrics - fabrics that you buy in Africa and are called African fabrics - are actually made outside of the continent. On a recent trip to Rwanda, designers Eugenia Morpugo and Maya Ben David were shocked to find out that none of Rwanda's "local fabrics" come from Africa, let alone Rwanda. To find out why that was, Morpugo and Ben David founded Atelier Rwanda and launched a research project to explore the local materials and techniques available in Rwanda in order to create economic opportunities and support the identity of the local culture.

The sustainable Jewish deli… a contradiction in terms?

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 24 May 2011 19:29:37 +0000

Have a hard time equating typical Jewish deli fare -- say, the mile-high pastrami, or corned beef, or brisket sandwich -- with sustainability? You're not alone: huge servings of fatty meats don't do much for our health or the planet. A few deli owners around the country are taking a hard look at the impact of the traditional menu associated with their establishments, and trying out an approach that some may literally consider heresy: sustainable deli food.

Boxsal – the compostable picnic

Perrin Drumm — Mon, 23 May 2011 15:30:07 +0000

Last week Gilt Groupe had a sale on the fashionably recyclable picnic boxes made by Boxsal. Or wait, was it Gilt Home or Gilt Taste? Oh, who can keep track anymore. Unlike most Gilt deals, the sale didn't actually save buyers any money - the picnic boxes still go for $25 on their own website, but at the price who's complaining? No, the "sale" was really more of a promotion and, well, it worked. Boxsal, which calls its products "part Oscar de la Renta, part Oscar Meyer," claims to be "bringing the picnic back into fashion," and with recyclable cardboard picnic boxes available in three different designs (see images below), it just might.

A log cabin on wheels

Perrin Drumm — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:04:10 +0000

Modular, mobile living was a big theme in design this year, from prefabricated, shippable houses to small temporary rooms that can be set up anywhere you like, in the backyard or the backwoods. The front runner, however, has to be the log cabin designed by Piet Hein Eek.

Searching for sustainable community… by bike

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:37:29 +0000

It might be tempting to label the "journey across America in search of ______" motif a cliché... except it still resonates powerfully. From 19th-century travelogues to Kerouac's On the Road to Albert Brooks' Lost in America, the idea of traveling the US as a quest for meaning captures out imaginations, and gives us space for a bit of introspection. Ryan Mlynarczyk and Mandy Creighton went beyond the dreaming about such adventures most of us do, and decided to set out on their own quest across the country... this time in search of sustainable community. In 2008, they ditched almost everything, and set off across the US on bikes to explore ecovillages, communes, collectives... every form of simpler, more sustainable communities they could find. They've visited over 100 communities across the country, and are now pulling footage of their journey into a feature-length film titled WITHIN REACH.

Rainwater harvesting: another step towards Army sustainability

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 20:23:20 +0000

As we've noted before, the US military has been at the forefront of sustainability efforts for some time now... from green building to renewable energy, all branches of the armed forces see effective resource management as a top priority for security and readiness. Energy's been the top focus here, but now a new project at the Army's Schofield Barracks in Hawaii experiments with another critical resource: water. The Army's building a rainwater harvesting system for the building designed not only to save water and energy, but also to demonstrate how installation readiness goals can be met by taking the local resource base into account.

Green documentary maker asks “What does sustainability mean?”.. after failing to live it

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 19:50:40 +0000

"Young, creative, passionate college student wants to save the world..." Having been in this line of work for years now, I've received multiple emails that could've used some variation on those words for a subject line. So, when Caroline Savery first got in touch with me in 2008 about her Sust Enable project, a documentary series that would feature her efforts to live in a 100% sustainable manner, the usual two conflicting thoughts arose: "How inspiring!" and "Good luck with that..."

Goggles Project: Canadian universities get short course in “Rethink 101″

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:04:08 +0000

North American universities have become hubs for everything from recycling competitions to renewable energy installations, so you'd have good reason to believe that our higher educational institutions are leading the way towards a more sustainable future.

O2′s “Eco Ratings” for cell phones: green or greenwash?

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:57:15 +0000

Today, British mobile network company O2 released its Eco Rating system, devised in conjunction with sustainable development organization Forum for the Future. The rating system is a laudable undertaking: cell phones use energy, can contain toxic materials, and provide yet another e-waste challenge... so having a "simple and transparent" system for sustainability information on phones can help consumers make smarter choices here. Unfortunately, it's hard to see how the O2 system really provides useful information in a transparent manner.

Freshman orientation goes green

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:00:34 +0000

Making the shift to college life, whether as a resident or commuter student, is tough: from buying books to living with a roommate to optional class attendance, new students have a wealth of choices and responsibilities open to them (or thrust upon them). At many colleges and universities, another change may include sustainability policies and practices... and this may mean that a student's navigating composting, organic food, and energy efficiency for the first time.

The botanical garden: the new hub for sustainability

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:30:42 +0000

When my wife and I decided to buy a house in St. Louis, we wanted something older, with a little character... and easy access to the Missouri Botanical Garden. We found what we wanted... a mere two blocks from the US' oldest continuously operated garden. MOBOT isn't just a great place to escape the urban environment... it's also become St. Louis' premiere institution for promoting sustainability and green living. Now, I'm just as likely to spend my time in the Kemper Gardening Center for tips on better maintaining my little organic garden as I am enjoying the view in the Japanese garden.

ECOWEEK, March 13-20

Perrin Drumm — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:41:30 +0000

The ECOWEEK logo and their cringe-inducing slogan. I was surprised to learn that ECOWEEK isn’t just a one week event, it’s the actual name of the NGO that hosts the weeklong conference as well as “eco awareness” all year long. To be honest, their mission statement is a bit naive: ECOWEEK was established because temperatures [...]

Winter Olympics medals contain e-waste

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:51:08 +0000

As with the past several Olympic games, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics have worked to incorporate elements of sustainability into this massive event. From building a framework for event sustainability to creating greener event venues like the Whistler Sliding Center for bobsled, luge, and skeleton competitions, the Vancouver Organizing Committee has worked hard to lighten the admittedly huge footprint of the upcoming games.

Whistler Enjoys Record Snowfall for Olympics, Lower Slopes Not So Much

Sundance Channel — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:13:51 +0000

With the 2010 Winter Olympic Games opening on Friday in Vancouver, the warmer than usual weather of an El Nino winter is causing headaches for Olympic organizers.

Green companies: sustainability may be in the eye of the beholder

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:00:07 +0000

Quickly: which company is greener? UPS or DHL? Stonyfield Farm or General Mills? Google or News Corp.? You may think all of these are no-brainers, but, in two of the three cases, your perception may not align with reality... at least in terms of action related to climate change. A new study, MapChange 2010, finds that, in many cases, there's little alignment between real action by a company, and its "green" public perception.

Sustainability books: Cambridge ranks the top 50

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:12:33 +0000

Got a favorite book on sustainability? One that changed your view of our relationship to the environment? In my case, Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce, Daniel Quinn's Ishmael series, and Ray Anderson's Mid-Course Correction all opened my eyes to ideas of more sustainable relationships between the economy and the environment.

Red Carpet Green Dress: green designers’ shot at Oscar-level exposure

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:34:49 +0000

Suzy Amis Cameron for Red Carpet Green Dress from Red Carpet Green Dress on Vimeo. If you’re an aspiring green fashion designer, and didn’t get picked for Franca Sozzani’s workshop in Biella, Italy, fear not: Suzy Amis Cameron — model, activist, and wife of some guy named James — is offering you a shot at [...]

Army sustainability efforts highlighted at Fort Bragg

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:07:28 +0000

The phrase "military sustainability" may strike you as an oxymoron: these guys are known for tanks, not treehugging. Over the past decade, though, the US armed forces have recognized the necessity of resource management to military readiness: various branches have tested out renewable energy, and the Army even released a sustainability report in 2007.

Student film documents Haitian sustainability projects

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:38:19 +0000

Hope can be a precious commodity in developing countries like Haiti. With 80% of the population living below the poverty level, residents will likely welcome any economic opportunity, regardless of social or environmental consequences. The documentary film BLOOMING HOPE: HARVESTING SMILES IN PORT-DE-PAIX documents efforts by a few Haitian citizens, community leaders, and aid workers to build financially, socially and environmentally sustainable business models in one of the country's poorest region.

Urban environment: Timothy Beatley’s THE NATURE OF CITIES

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:30:43 +0000

If you're an urbanite, you likely think of nature as something that exists outside of the city limits. That thinking is prevalent, and may contribute to the growth of nature deficit disorder among our kids... and ourselves. "Nature," however, is all around us, and city government officials, planners, and community advocates are realizing that actively incorporating green spaces into urban settings makes for more livable environments (remember the High Line?).

Creative reuse: a “green” theatre is probably an old theatre…

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:23:59 +0000

While certified green theatre may still be an anomaly, the live entertainment design community is discussing its environmental impact, as well as broader notions of sustainability, both online and in person. Yesterday, Live Design magazine published a blog post (the first in a series) from lighting designer and theatre consultant Curtis Kasefang on the concept of "sustainable theatres." Kasefang's notion of a sustainable performance space can be summed in up in one word: reuse.

College Sustainability Report Card: Who made the grade?

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:08:16 +0000

Got a child looking at colleges? Or, are you looking for yourself? More and more, sustainability efforts may be one of the criteria you and others use to choose a "good" school. For several years, the Sustainable Endowments Institute has made the search for that information a little easier with the publication of its College Sustainability Report Card. The 2009 edition was released last week, and colleges and universities around the country are bragging (or not) about their "grades."

How to build business sustainability from your cubicle: Tim Sander’s Saving the World at Work

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:58:53 +0000

What were you thinking about on September 16, 2008? Green business ideas probably weren't at the top of the list... September 15 was the day that Lehman Brothers went belly up, and you were probably more focused on your portfolio and savings. As such, Tim Sanders' book Saving the World at Work (released on -- you guessed it -- September 16) got buried under talk of a second Great Depression.

Sanders and publisher Doubleday decided to give the book another go, and relaunched it on September 16th of this year. I'm glad they did: while the title led me to believe I was going to be reading another "how to" book on greening the workplace (which is not a bad thing), Sanders goes well beyond tips on saving paper and electricity.

Plastiki + Earthship = Landlord Independent

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:31:31 +0000

David de Rothschild’s Plastiki is a seaworthy boat made from reclaimed plastic bottles. Michael Reynolds’ Earthships (the subject of the documentary GARBAGE WARRIOR) are homes built from reclaimed materials, and designed to provide basic needs for the homeowner: energy, food, water, and waste disposal. Put the two together, and you get the Landlord Independent, a [...]

Can prison life be greener? The Sustainable Prisons Project thinks so…

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:33:23 +0000

You probably don't use the words "sustainability" and "prison" in the same sentence very often. The housing and feeding of inmates requires huge amounts of water and energy, though, and generates tons of waste. The Sustainable Prisons Project, a partnership between the Washington State Department of Corrections and the Evergreen State College, works to make prisons more efficient... and perhaps even reduce recidivism rates by providing "green collar" training to inmates.

ASU Art Museum explores sustainability definitions in Fall exhibitions

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:23:17 +0000

: Artist Carrie Marill's "Fucking Liberal Life"

In 1987, the United Nations' Bruntland Commission defined the concept of sustainable development as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs..." Is this an accurate definition? Certainly. Does it capture the imagination, and prod people to action? Probably not... This Fall, Arizona State University's Art Museum is going to take another, and very different, stab at formulating a definition for sustainability. A series of projects gathered under the title Defining Sustainability will not only display artistic renderings of the concept (or specific examples of it, such as greener transportation or recycled shade structures), but also bring together "artists and designers, faculty and students [to] engage the greater Phoenix community in their creative processes and in conversations about sustainability."

Pope Benedict calls for sustainable business, development models

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:30:47 +0000

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.

The coolest colleges are going green

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:27:45 +0000

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.

Chilean wines going green

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:27:09 +0000

The next time you're at the wine shop trying to figure out which wineries produce vintages that fit your palate and green values, you may want to consider a bottle from Chile: according to wine writer Tim Pawsey, the country "already practices significant sustainable viticulture, and is a leader in biodynamic farming." Currently, thirty-two wineries in the country use organic production methods, and about 2% of wine-growing land is devoted to organic agriculture.

Sustainable design: Nature Conservancy launches Design for a Living World

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:38:21 +0000

Uttering the phrase "green design" can evoke images of mud-plastered huts and clothes that just scream "itchy"... all bathed in a faint whiff of patchouli. A new project from the Nature Conservancy attempts to banish such sensations, and demonstrate that beauty and function can exist hand-in-hand with sustainability.

Story of Stuff called “anti-capitalist”

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:57:59 +0000

In internet time, Annie Leonard's The Story Of Stuff is relatively old. But the 2007 web video, produced by Free Range Studios and funded by the Tides Foundation and Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption (among others) has attained cult status in American classrooms. According to the New York Times, teachers around the country use the video to supplement environmental education textbooks that often lack information on recent scientific discoveries. Creative teaching, right? Not in Missoula County, Montana, where the school board responded to a parent's complaint about the video's "anti-capitalist" message with a decision that use of The Story of Stuff "violated its standards on bias."

10 futuristic green corporate buildings

Matthew Rodriguez — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:04:12 +0000

Some of these buildings exist only on paper (or rather a computer hard drive), but this is a list of 10 large office buildings “that are not only bold, beautiful and futuristic, but ‘green’ too.” I’m especially impressed by the “Cactus Building,” a new government building in Doha, Qatar. As the name suggests, it “draws [...]

Michigan universities launch online tools for planners, activists, citizens

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:38:23 +0000

Are you looking for information on lightening your neighborhood’s or town’s environmental footprint? Want to figure out how to reduce your own energy and material consumption? Or, just need facts on hand for that annoying climate-change denying brother-in-law? Michigan’s largest universities have released new online tools that may have you covered in all of these [...]

Green Home Assistance

Sundance Channel — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Looking for a way to transform your home into a green paradise? There are people and organizations out there who want to help you find your own unique way of joining the green revolution. Whether you have a fancy contractor or you want to do-it-yourself, you can find great information on many websites. There are [...]

LEED Certified: What does it mean?

Sundance Channel — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:00:00 +0000

Often times, people talk about buildings as being LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. Generally speaking, the term is used to convey a standard of sustainability in a building. Buildings made out of post-consumer waste products or using non-toxic insulations, or that involve conservation strategies for energy, heat, water and waste can be [...]