>Hazan Works to Connect Religion to Sustainability

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(By Priyanka Kotadia)

Religion is deeply rooted in our society and religious leaders have profound effect on their followers. People especially follow religious preachers when structuring their everyday life. With such knowledge young religious leaders are beginning to integrate messages of ‘green living’ into their religious practices. Jake Wilkenfeld-Mongillo and Molly Dunn, rabbis and founders of Hazan, discuss their take on environmental issues with Shane Snipes.

 Hazan is a Jewish organization based in New York City; its primary purpose is to educate and assist Jewish communities in living a sustainable life. Mr. Mongillo and Ms. Dunn assert that any type of movement must begin from within and in a smaller scale to ultimately have a larger impact on the world. Therefore, their organization has a primary focus in the Jewish community, which the directors are personally connected to. They note that people are divided into groups, and conveying messages to them becomes less challenging when one paints the message into the group’s perspective. They have attempted to redefine the meaning of Kosher for the Jewish community. Mr. Mongillo states that Kosher means, “ritually fit,” but the popular media often construes the practices of Kosher preparation with non-sustainable ways. Hazan grants loans to farmers around the state to educate their followers about how their food is prepared and its source. The organization directly relates such measures to the messages in Torah, which stresses the importance of knowing the source of one’s food. It is smaller changes like this that will make people think about their actions and their immediate impact on the environment.

They effect change in three ways: 

1.  Through the direct human impact of our programs; 

2.  By supporting the American Jewish environmental movement and the Israeli environmental 

movement;

3.  Through thought-leadership (writing, speaking, teaching, campaigning). 

The following values underpin their programs: 

1.  A strong commitment to inclusive community; 

2.  A strong commitment to volunteer involvement and leadership development; 

3.  Multi-generationality; 

4.  Being Jewishly serious and deeply engaged with the world around us; 

5.  We believe in reaching people where they are and not where we might like them to be.

The message of saving our earth and environment is simple. Every one of us can paint the message in our language to make every single person understand it. 

>Drilling for Marcellus Shale– What are the Consequences?

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(By Matt Connolly)

Marcellus Shale, a sedimentary rock comprised of untapped natural gas reserves, has been accumulating approximately 7,000-10,000 ft. below the earth’s crust for over 300 million years. Only recently, however, drilling companies intent on securing the precious resource have been offering landowners high prices for the right to drill on their land. But is drilling so deep beneath the earth’s crust safe for the environment?

CatskillMoutainKeeper.org

Drilling companies depend on a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a method of directional drilling that allows access to deposits of deep shale from a horizontal position. Fracking involves injecting millions of gallons of water and sand and sometimes up to 600 different chemicals into a well at high pressure in order to fracture shale deposits and facilitate natural gas flow through fissures in the rock. Drilling companies of the natural gas industry are not required by law to disclose the chemicals they use in the drilling process. However, scientists have found compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene near well sites. These compounds are classified as VOCs or volatile organic compounds, and pose threats to drinking water supplies. Wastewater polluted with VOCs is constantly evaporating as drilling takes place, mixing with diesel exhaust from trucks and generators; together, the VOCs and diesel exhaust form ozone plumes that pollute the air and can travel over 200 miles.

Gas wells have sprung up throughout Pennsylvania and Southeastern New York, and companies continue to secure drilling locations dangerously close to Delaware River and the Catskill Watershed, the main provider of New York City’s drinking water. The government has not addressed the potential harms involved in drilling for natural gas. While natural gas is important for our energy needs, we must ensure that the way we reach shale deposits does not have a negative effect on the environment and human health. 

Filmmaker Josh Fox spent some time traveling around the U.S. to document the effects of drilling on everyday citizens and the environment. He has captured his interesting and shocking experiences in his documentary “Gasland,” winner of the Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival:

“When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND.”

Visit Catskill Mountain Keeper’s website for information on drilling in the Catskill region:

http://www.catskillmountainkeeper.org/

>Eco-Friendly Construction in PA

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(By Priyanka Kotadia)

There is a large movement towards purchasing and investing in eco-friendly household items, but people tend forget that the constructions of houses/buildings is not entirely green. Josh Willis, a construction consultant from Philly, was interviewed for the Sustainable 1000 project.  He discusses the setbacks and progress in the construction business.  Concrete serves as the foundation for construction; stones and cement serve as the foundation of concrete. The problem is cement is not a renewable material and few innovations have taken place to replace it. American construction businesses have attempted to use recycled concrete, but the percentage of such companies is smaller than 25%. Willis disappointedly admitted that in an ideal construction world companies would use 100% recycled material, but they do not because people fear that the quality of such material is incomparable to newer ones. Is this a reflection of our society’s century old mentality that old cannot be renewed or reused for better purpose? Or is this just another capitalist justification used to make people feel less bad about being eco-enemies?

In either case, every progressive part of our society has to move towards making green decisions. European government accepted this fact almost a decade ago; they have implemented laws that require companies to reuse EVERYTHING from the waste of demolished buildings.[1] In fact these laws have generated many think tanks whose sole purpose is to innovate different ways to use recycled material in construction. People always quote the European laws when it comes mandating recycling or innovating recycled materials; the fact is European government is less fearful of its giant corporations compare to the States. Thus, the EU government makes policies that serve to brighten the future of its people and not its corporations. 

Maybe today we will stop giving excuses for being so reckless with our environment and take some responsibilities for the damages we have caused. As for the construction businesses – one can always recycle and reuse with the right percentage of creativity.

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[1] To read a detailed version of what the EU government has done read: www.iscowa.org/members/reccon03.pdf

>The Greater Memphis Greenline

>(By Julie Markowitz)

Memphis, TN has jumped on the green bandwagon with the creation of the Greater Memphis Greenline.  A series of trails that cut through various Memphis neighborhoods, the Greenline utilizes an abandoned railroad already in place across the county.  So far, a 7-mile trail has been completed that connects to Shelby Farms, the city’s largest park.  The next steps in the Greenline project include improvements to the existing trail (benches, trash cans, bike racks, etc) and expansion into more neighborhoods.


The Greenline is ideal for walking, running and biking.  Greater Memphis Greenline hopes that the trails will encourage some Memphians to ride bikes in lieu of driving, a trend has been slow to reach Memphis, due in part to the lack of bike lanes.  Memphis won’t make any real strides in cutting air and noise pollution until it has a public transportation system that is safe, efficient, and accessible for most of its citizens, but the Greenline is a solid first step.

>Green Bean Coffee house interview!

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(By Jenna Kelly)

Picture this: 

Shane stops into the Green Bean Coffeehouse in Greenburg, Kansas.
He discovers that this coffeehouse is going green.
He asks the owner what inspired her to make an eco-friendly café. 

The owner then gives us this personal story that blossomed into the creation of a new life story:
She and her husband, the owners, were born and raised in Greenburg, they moved away and while in the process of moving her husband lost his job. At the time, they have a six month old baby and had no income. It had always been a dream of hers to start a coffee shop, so they moved back to Greenburg and followed their aspirations.
She admits that it’s really hard to be 100% green in a coffee house, but they try their absolute best. They keep waste to an absolute minimum, their equipment is used and refurbished, and they recycle everything that is able to be recycled. When they go to the market they don’t use plastic bags, and they use real plates and silverware in the shop. In addition, they get their coffee and coffee supplies from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters which is a green company and provides them with things like biodegradable cups that are transported in an eco-friendly manner.
One of the challenges facing the owners is a desire to provide more homemade products that are cooked and baked locally and organically. But unfortunately, this is simply not available right now, but it’s they aren’t giving up hope and are always looking for ways to further their dream.

Their ultimate goal is to help the environment and show their son that there is a better way to live—and they are doing a great job.

Make sure to watch Shane’s interview on Youtube

>Everyone could Share Some Sugar with a deal as sweet as this

>(By Jenna Kelly)

Shane talks to Kira in Cincinnati, Ohio. Kira is the creator of a rally unique website called sharesomesugar.com. It’s all about people sharing what they have. Kira’s inspiration for creating this website happened when she moved from a small apartment to a house. She realized she needed a lot of household items that she would only use once but probably never again. She would borrow these things from the neighbors, but it would often happen that none of her neighbors had what she needed. She would go online and see how much it would cost to buy this item, but it seemed crazy to her to spend a ton of money on something she would never use again. Therefore, she started Share Some Sugar.
The name comes from the old days where you knew all your neighbors and could just walk across the street for some sugar. It doesn’t make sense not to walk door to door to find what you need, but now you can knock on the internet’s door. I actually visited the website and was pleasantly surprised to see all of the thousands of items people are looking to borrow and share.
Shane asked Kira to tell us what some crazy items are that people share. She said that there is a lot of sharing of ladders, gps, prom dresses, and baby equipment.

The entire idea is really neat and will probably be growing and growing as more people adjust to the idea and find out about the website. So help add to the sharing network by visiting the website: www.sharesomesugar.com and start getting the stuff you need!

Check out Shane’s interview with Kira the creator of Sharesomesugar.com
Check this out too, because it’s pretty rockin 

>Hey Eco-Consumers! Want help finding your next phone?

>Any eco-consumer who has ever started upon the task of purchasing a new gadget knows what a daunting task it can be. Where do we start? What features are we looking to find? What do all those abbreviations mean? Can we really trust the sales people to be giving us information that will be helpful for what we individually want?

As the world continues to grow more technology oriented it will be helpful to have some set standards in place. Something that we can use to compare gadgets in a way that makes sense to the non-tech-savvy.
For now, let’s focus on which phones and phone accessories are making a commotion in the sustainable world today.

Palm Pre Plus… The least eco-friendly phone

Starting from rock bottom and moving up, we can automatically eliminate the Palm Pre Plus which, according to this blog, are the least eco-friendly phones around.Although after all the other bad press Palm received for the most recent phones, it’s comes as no surprise that they would also have forgotten about one of the biggest initiatives going on in the world right now as well.

Sony Ericsson Elm Phone One of the top eco-friendly phones

But don’t lose hope! There are some phones that have been designed specifically to be greener, even literally. The Samsung E200Eco, is not only a green color, but is made with Bioplastics and marketed on a greener platform. Even more successful is the Sony Ericsson Elm, which seems to have climbed pretty high on the charts of most eco-friendly phones. (And it still includes all those nifty step-counting features that I loved when I had a Sony Ericsson). I found a couple of contradictory lists, but while the orders may be slightly different they all included the same top 5 eco-friendly phones.

Bioserie Bioplastic Cases for the iPhone Made from plants with focus on sustainable supply chains and manufacturing

There are even some phone accessories that are focused on sustainability. Bioserie makes bioplastic cases for  both of maybe the most talked about gadgets of the day, the iPhone4 and the iPad. Which means that their cases are made “from dead plants” as Gizmodo so eloquently lays it down for us.

Of course these aren’t the only phones paving the way to a more eco-friendly connectivity. But for now, if you’re looking to find a phone that is environmentally conscious, hopefully you aren’t opposed to all of your options being green.

>New Mexico is home of the original "Bioneers"

>Bioneer: n. social and scientific innovators from all walks of life and disciplines who have peered deep into the heart of living systems to understand how nature operates, and to mimic “nature’s operating instructions” to serve human ends without harming the web of life. Nature’s principles—kinship, cooperation, diversity, symbiosis and cycles of continuous creation absent of waste—can also serve as metaphoric guideposts for organizing an equitable, compassionate and democratic society.  


That is how founder Kenny Ausubel described what he believed to be a new emerging culture back in 1990. Since then his non-profit has grown enormously. The 2008 more than 120,000 people attended their annual conference and smaller conferences throughout the year. The conferences focus on brainstorming and planning a brighter and greener future with a strikingly optimistic outlook. The main strategy, connectivity. Bioneers come from all backgrounds and industries and recognize that the only way they will be successful is to work together. 


Registration for this year’s annual conference is still open. At this year’s conference the focus will be on solutions inspired by nature and human ingenuity. 


<—- Or if you’re looking for something that might have a little more comedic strength you could attend this. 

>Sustainability Connected

>A lot of the research Sustianable 1000 did in Colorado ended up being related to how the effort has to be a combined one so, I thought it would be interesting to look at how recycling and sustainability is doing internationally. After all, we all live on one planet.

Through The Beareau of Internation Recycling, I was able to find some pretty interesting facts. The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) is the only global recycling industry association representing more than 700 companies and 40 affiliated federations from 70 different countries. Its members are world leaders in the supply of raw materials and a key pillar for sustainable economic development

Living in granola Washington State, I was always told to recycle, but I never really understood how significant an impact everyday acts can have.
Here are some of the more surprising facts listed on the website:

1. Of all collected textiles, 50% are reused and 50% are recycled

2. Almost 40% of the world’s need for copper is met by recyling

3. Recyling a single plastic bottle can save enough energy to power a 60-watt bulb for up to 6 hours

4. Recycling paper saves 65% of the energy needed to make new paper

5. An average stainless steel product is composed of about 60% recycled material

6. Scrap tires used as feul can produce the same amout of energy as oil and about 25% more than coal

Pretty amazing…

>Amanda Bramble is Aug 16th Radio Guest

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Upcoming next Monday, August 16th, Sustainable 1000 Green Radio will be talking with guest Amanda Bramble from Ampersand Sustatainable Learning Center and Sustainable Habitat Consulting. Located in Cerriollos, New Mexico, the Ampersand Sustainable Learning Center is an off-grid center explorinig the possiblilites of living in balance with resources starting with the basics, food, water, shelter and energy. Ampersand provides classes, internships and other resources aimed at educating on and increasing awareness about options and the importance of only using what resources are necessary. They also offer consulting to help individuals and organizations learn about how to create a sustainable living environment.

Amanda Bramble created Ampersand Sustainable Learning Center in 2001 after years of experiences and learning which eventually led her back to Arizona to grow her own vision of sustainability. While she was always interested in living in balance with the land, she officially started her studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA and continued through learning experiences with John and Nancy Todd, founders of the New Alchemy Institute, Oceans Arcs International, work with the Center for Biological Diversity, Arcosanti, founded by Paulo Soleri  where she also met mentor, Barbara Kerr.

To learn more about what sustainability means to Amanda Bramble, make sure to tune into Sustainable 1000′s radio blog August 16th at 9AM MTS!