Al Gore's Newest Speech

It's common sense. Pass this one on!

Al Gore Tells It Like It Is

Butt still being liberally kicked. So for now, have some links:

17 Tips for Buying Organic Food - Some of it is common sense, but there are some gems in here. Plus, BankRate.com revolves around saving money, and I know that's the thought on everyone's mind when they think about choosing organic. (If this article inspires you, check out East Atlanta Village Farmer's Market. We bought a ginormous squash from a Clarkston farmer there a couple of weeks ago and it tasted like buttery heaven when Green Pepper stuffed it with rice, tomatoes and prosciutto.)

www.JenniferDunnSaunders.com - My new personal website. Feel free to reference it or pass it on to all your friends when looking for a sustainability organizer or, alternatively, an excellent freelance writer and researcher.

First it was for our convenience, now it's for our environment?

The Greenwashing is getting out of control.

Check out Comcast's billpay feature:



And closer to home, Decatur First Bank's "new" initiative:



One of the useful new features?

On-Line Banking Technology…check your balance, transfer funds, pay bills all on-line. Save a stamp and a tree.

...And money on marketing by simply updating your old paperless banking program to include the word "Eco."

To be fair, there is one fairly nice feature in Decatur First's Eco-Banking - they pay for your first 10 monthly ATM withdrawals so you don't have to run around looking for a Wamu or evil Bank of America machine. But, isn't that something that many small banks have to do to compete with the giants?

Comcast, First Decatur, Countrymen - If it's something you were doing anyway, then it probably isn't a hip and cool new eco-initiative. Just sayin'.

One More Reason to Carpool

My internship is kicking my butt. I'm so busy creating a green company, I haven't had time to go green myself. Which is actually the crux of the dilemma here, really. We're so busy hustling to get by, we don't have time to plant organic gardens. And we all have two jobs, so an hour long ride on public transit isn't very attractive when you work ten miles away.

So, until I'm back with witty insight, read this article. Georgia's going to have one less coal-fired power plant.

This stood out especially:

The decision by state Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore marks the first time a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision connected carbon dioxide to an air pollution permit.

Also, I attended "Everybody Eats," a Local Food Event at Charis Books & More last night. This is the first in their monthly Urban Sustainability series, and it was informative. I'll share some of that good info here at a later date but, but here's a sneak peek: Local Food here in Atlanta needs more centralized organization. They've started that, with the Atlanta Local Food Initiative (ALFI), but they need a network along the lines of the Clean Air Campaign's rideshare website and database. It's worth looking into. Let's talk about it when I'm not in internship la la land.

Green Product Alert

...Where have these been all my life? Now I'll feel so much better about all those wild parties.

(Note the "EcoEasy" logo at the bottom of the listing. Another one to watch?)

You Green Calendar - Weekend Edition

As promised, the weekend green update. I'm working on a calendar for us, so the blog can focus on commentary.

Sadly, there isn't too much going on this weekend aside from some opportunities to purchase locally grown food and other products. I suggest heading over to the Georgia Organics or Local Harvest websites (thanks, Reg!) to find other farmer's markets in your area.

*Remember to watch out when buying tomatoes, even from farmer's markets. Question the seller about his or her sources. Just because you're buying your food from a stall doesn't mean it doesn't come from a suspect source. (See here for, rather illogically, a list of states NOT associated with the outbreak.)

Saturday, June 14th

Green Market @ Piedmont Park - Farmers and local artisans share their wares near the 12th Street entrance of Piedmont Park. The event goes on every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through December 13th. Piedmont Ave. NE and 12th St. NE. Plan your route using transit.

Downtown Decatur Market - Running every weekend through November, the Downtown Decatur Market is a festival featuring local products, artists, food, and handicrafts. 777 Commerce St., Decatur, GA 30030. Plan your route using transit.

Kids FUNFEST - The Marietta based Children's Wellness Network is kicking off by hosting a family-oriented even dedicated to the four aspects of child wellness: Mind, Body, Spirit, and Soul. But if that sounds too New-Agey for you, (or if like me, you don't have any rugrats to use as an excuse to attend all this fun stuff) , they will also be showing Two Angry Moms, a documentary about mother's fighting for healthier school lunches. There will also be animals, more local products and food to buy, and other good green fun. Tickets are $10 for adults and free the kidlets. 12pm to 6pm at 1815 Ponce de Leon Ave. N.E., Atlanta, GA 30307. Plan your route using transit.

So where are all the eco-events this weekend, anyway? Does it seem to anybody else like everything in this town happens on Thursday nights? What's up with that, anyway?

Also, check back soon to find out how you can win $25,000 to fund a community project.

The Big Green Calendar

Since this is an Atlanta-based blog, I'm attempting to keep you in the know by collecting all the Green happenings around town. Here are some ways you can get out into the community and get started making a more beautiful city today!

Thursday, June 12th

East Atlanta Village Farmer's Market - Taking place every Thursday through November 27th, from 4 p.m. to Dusk, the EAV Farmer's Market will feature local produce and dairy, arts & crafts, and often special events like Chef Tastings and entertainment. Tonight Ryan Steward from The Glenwood will share cheese and cilantro from local farms. Find the event in the parking lot of the Village Ace Hardware, 1231 Glenwood Avenue SE, Atlanta, GA 30316. Get Transit Directions.

Tap Into Trees - A tornado "ReLeaf" benefit for Trees Atlanta, hosted by Social 360, at the Standard Bar on Memorial Drive. Matt Simpson, the "Beer Sommolier" from ratebeer.com will host. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. 327 Memorial Dr., Atlanta, GA 30312. Get Transit Directions.

"Gas-tronomical -- How Do We Survive the New Gas Crisis?" Salon -- The Bound to Be Read Books monthly salon takes place every second Thursday of the month and consists of topics picked by last month's salon attendees. This week they will discuss a topic that's on everybody's mind. Be here to kvetch, compare notes, find an audience for your conspiracy theory, or even if you just feel like getting your Gertrude Stein on. 481-B Flat Shoals Avenue SE, Atlanta, GA 30316. Get Transit Directions.

Remember, if you have any Green or Eco-Friendly event news, drop me a note so I can post it here.

Check back tomorrow for your weekend update!

Informative Link Time

The enemy of a good blogger is time, so instead of giving you a well researched, thoughtful post, I'm here to pass on a few links that should save you time in your quest to get green. (Maybe they'll save you more time than they've saved me, seeing is that I don't have time for a larger post right now.)

Ideal Bite - Become a "Biter" by signing up for their mailing list to receive daily Green tips. My favorite things about this service are that each succinct tip always includes at least two informative websites, and the service is going city-specific, with the Atlanta edition of Ideal Bite slated to begin in late 2008. I haven't found any downsides yet, but will keep you posted.

Big Green Purse - Run by author and conservationist Diane McEachern, this site is a woman's guide to shifting her spending toward clean, green, and eco-friendly products of all stripes. Big Green Purse cuts through the "greenwashing" and delivers the real green deal on shopping, while reminding us that using our purchasing power for good is the number one way to ensure a green world, stat. Even better, though billed as a site about shopping, BGP encourages reuse when possible. Be warned, if you've been at this for awhile, you may find some of the tips simplistic or even common sense. Just keep in mind that the site is shopping oriented and try not to cringe when reading that one of the ways to beat high gas prices is to "drive less." (It's oriented toward women, fellas, but don't let that discourage you from visiting. If you like, pretend it's Big Green Murse.)

The Daily Green - This is a site I haven't explored so much, mainly because it's so overwhelming. Instead of focusing on, say, shopping or a single daily tip, it's chock full o' articles, ideas, lists, recipes, weather, and just about everything you can imagine an informational web site would offer. (Including advertisements. Yuck.) Like it's content, the site's navigation can be a little all over the place, but for general questions, news, and some green-related things you wouldn't think to Google, this is your place.

And last but not least a not-necessarily-green recommendation, but one that will help you make the world a better place:

Kiva.org - According to their About Us page, Kiva is the world's first person-to-person microlending website. Basically, you log in, and start browsing through pictures and stories of real entrepreneurs in the developing world, and then lend a minimum of $25 to the entrepreneur of your choice. You can sort by industry, area of the world, etc. I made my first loan to a group in Mexico running a grocery store, and my second loan to a tough-looking female taxi driver in Bolivia. (You can see my picture on the bottom of both pages as one of the lenders. Hi!) As for downsides, my counterpart over at Green Pepper worries about corruption among Kiva's partners (the institutions that handle the actual loans) in developing countries, but as a safeguard, Kiva displays each partner program's repayment history using a star system. Kiva also recently got into a kerfluffle with animal rights activists after one of their partners requested a loan to fund a cockfighting venture in Peru. You'll have to let your conscience and sense of cultural relativism be your guide here, but you can read the Kiva CEO's response to the loan here.

Be prepared. Rather than saving you time, Kiva is likely to turn into an addiction. No matter how broke you are, expect to find a minimum of five people you want to throw money at every time you log in. Don't say I didn't warn you.

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Now for the question portion of the blog. Is there a green or sustainability related issue you'd like to know more about? Post it here, and in the spirit of the sites I linked you to today, I'll do the research and give you an answer in an upcoming post. You can ask about anything from the viability of alternative energy sources to where to buy a yummy, locally grown onion.

Your Leaf Logo Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore

Coming soon: a collage of pictures from "green" websites featuring dripping leaves, Photoshopped-to-be-impossibly-green leaves, worn hands holding tiny sprouting leaves, and even cartoon depictions of leaves. Even the EcoLogo (one of the good ones!) is made up of doves with overlapping plumage shaped like leaves.

Even only peripherally aware consumer during the "lite" craze knows that many labels and logos found on common products really don't mean squat. A quick Google search on misleading logos found over 400,000 hits. It's a testament to today's media trends that the top hits talked about fake organic food logos and misleading recycling terminology. (It's also worth nothing that most articles were from Canada or Europe.) We're all aware, or we should be, that just because a product is stamped "Certified by the Jesus Loves Green Priuses and Eats Free Range Eggs Council" doesn't mean it's actually good for you or healthy for the environment. In fact, I could doodle a green say... dolphin, write a bogus name around it in a circle of smudgy letters, and stamp it on a freeze dried pack of fried baby seal meat. Then, some tired consumer after a busy day of playing tug of war with Bangalore for her job would inevitably feel a little bit better about chunking mystery meat into her grocery cart. Let's face it. A logo without any scientific backing is just a teensy picture with some words cavorting around it.

And that brings me back to the subject. A brief, visual and non-scientific survey of the Green and Sustainability web presence showed me... a bunch of pristine, fragile, greener-than-green leaves. We haven't forgotten what they look like yet, folks.

Not that I'm complaining about the web presence. I'm glad I open four godzillion Firefox tabs worth of green websites in my research every day. But could we maybe branch out a little? (No pun intended.) How about a whole gosh darned tree? Or maybe a cityscape without smog cloud? A solar powered house? What the heck does an installed solar panel look like anyway? I'm pretty sure it doesn't look like the cartoony representation on Solarhome.org. I suppose what I'm saying is that, in the Green Movement, I'm looking for a little more substance and a little less, well... roughage.

Now for those questions I promised. Is there a logo you trust? What is it and why? If you're feeling adventurous, go poke around your house right now (I suggest the fridge and pantry) and scope out any suspicous looking logos. Shoot me a pic or describe them for me, and I'll investigate them all Mythbusters(c) style.

Is it possible for a young, recently laid-off grad student and wannabe environmentalist to go Green in Atlanta? I have no clue, but that's what I'm going to find out. And I'm going to blog about it along the way.

True confession: When I first decided to "Go Green," I was sitting in the audience as Bill Clinton campaigned for Hillary in a rousing speech at the school where, as if one degree that makes me unemployable wasn't enough, I study toward a Master's in another dubious major. Here's how it went down:

Bill Clinton: Hillary plans to encourage investment in alternative energy and other Green initiatives.

Jennifer: Hmm? Encourage investment? Wha-? Money!

It wasn't that I didn't have a healthy concern for the environment before, but as a 27-year-old on the cusp of having her job outsourced, I was more concerned with making green than going green. However, that involved research. Research involved asking questions. Asking questions led to awareness. Then, somewhere in there, I really began to care about this stuff beyond fodder for a business opportunity. Worse, I got worried. And I met a lot of other wise, educated, experienced and worried people.

But enough of the worry stuff. I also found out that going green can be fun. It can involve farmers. And gadgets. And slaying vampires. What's the only thing better than farmers and gadgets and slaying vampires? Vampire-slaying farmers with gadgets! (Oh, I hope I find one of these in my green quest.)

I want this blog to be more of the positive, "vampires with gadgets" variety than the negative, "we're going to die here" variety. So, I plan to detail my (possibly successful, possibly hilarious) efforts to go green, buy local, reduce energy consumption, and generally be a better citizen of Atlanta and the planet. Wish me luck.

And because I think blogs are more fun and interactive when they ask a bunch of questions, I'll do that now. When's the last time you bought locally grown food? Where'd you get it? Why'd you do it? Was it tasty? And finally, when's the last time you slew a vampire?