Waste Equals Food

A few years ago, Michael Braungart and William McDonough introduced the concept of a "cradle to cradle" - as opposed to a cradle to grave - design process.

In short, cradle to cradle moves away from the typical man-made linear manufacturing process where raw materials are plundered, processed, then thrown "away" (wherever that might be) to a system of sustainability where waste becomes the foundation for next generation products.

An example: the ball point pen when spent becomes a plant fertilizer spike.

Sambo Mockbee, an American Architect with Mississippi roots, showed the world how to recycle, or upcycle if you will, thrown-away materials into beautiful buildings.

Check out this informative Australian-produced documentary film on the Waste Equals Food concept.

More BeauSoleil Open House

BeauSoleil Rising

Solar Decathlon Update: Every two years 20 university teams are chosen, based on proposals, to design an all-solar home and assemble it on the National Mall in Washington DC for public viewing and judging. Check back each Wednesday as the NAV Blog reports on the process of the design and construction of BeauSoleil, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's entry. For more info about the project, visit their website. And check out a short film about the project.

Exciting News: The BeauSoleil Solar Home is finished!

Not quite. But an photo-realistic rendering on display at the recent open house gives us a good idea of things to come. Photos of the event were supplied by Collin Bercier of Lousiana Solar Solutions who is contributing solar equipment and solar intelligence to the project.

Update: Bryan Marks produced the BeauSoleil computer rendering above.

Amtrak Recovery and Reinvestment

Amtrak is getting $1.3 billion in stimulus funding from the recently enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. So now we can expect new train routes and more frequent departure and arrival times on existing lines next year, right?

Not so fast.

According to the current Amtrak CEO Joseph Boardman, after years of starvation rations from the federal government, Amtrak is now being held together "with chewing gum and rubber bands."

It is important to note that no national rail transit system in the world operates in the black without substantial financial investment from their respective national governments.

Why? Because 1) every country in the world currently subsidizes automobile transportation in the form of roadbuilding, and 2) the automotive industry has been allowed to externalize some of the costs, specifically in the area of climate degradation.

The majority of the money, about $850 million, will go to much needed maintenance and repair of existing equipment, rail lines, and bridges. The remaining $450 million is dedicated to security upgrades.

I love riding Amtrak. It's easy, convenient (at least when your destination is in the vicinity of a train station), and reasonably priced, and I've never failed to meet interesting people along the way. We'll see what the future holds for expansion of the United States' only national rail line, but the latest round of funding is a start.

A nice essay on riding Amtrak was recently penned by Andy Isaacson for the New York Times. It's a good read. Find it here.

Green Letter Bible

For your sabbath day environmental meditations, check out this new "Green Letter" Bible highlighting environmental references with green text. I've often wondered why so many Christians, especially the fundamentalists, reject the environmental teachings of their own official canon. This volume must have been inspired by the red letter Bible first published in 1900 with the words of Jesus printed in red. along with the desire to point out the spiritual nature of environmental stewardship.

For the upright will abide in the land, and the innocent will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut of from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

---Proverbs 1.21-22

A link to the website: The Green Bible

BeauSoleil Open House

Spring

New American Agenda

Last night, President Obama outlined a new American agenda with special emphasis on three areas critical to the well-being of the citizenry - energy, health care, and education.

In reference to a sustainable energy policy, Mr. Obama remarked:

"It begins with energy.

We know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century. And yet, it is China that has launched the largest effort in history to make their economy energy efficient. We invented solar technology, but we've fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing it. New plug-in hybrids roll off our assembly lines, but they will run on batteries made in Korea.

Well I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders - and I know you don't either. It is time for America to lead again.

Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation's supply of renewable energy in the next three years. We have also made the largest investment in basic research funding in American history - an investment that will spur not only new discoveries in energy, but breakthroughs in medicine, science, and technology.

We will soon lay down thousands of miles of power lines that can carry new energy to cities and towns across this country. And we will put Americans to work making our homes and buildings more efficient so that we can save billions of dollars on our energy bills.

But to truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy. So I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America. And to support that innovation, we will invest fifteen billion dollars a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power; advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more fuel-efficient cars and trucks built right here in America."

Click here for a transcript of the entire address courtesy of Talking Points Memo, or watch the speech in its entirety on C-SPAN.

Green Stimulus

What's green in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009? The Sierra Club Allegheny Group compiled a list of funding for sustainable projects and initiatives.

• $4.5 billion for the repair of federal buildings to increase energy efficiency using green technology
• $11 billion for smart-grid related activities, including work to modernize the electric grid
• $6.3 billion for Energy Efficiency and Conservation Grants
• $5 billion for the Weatherization Assistance Program
• $2.5 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy research
• $2 billion in grant funding for the manufacturing of advanced battery systems and components and vehicle batteries that are produced in the United States.
• $6 billion for new loan guarantees aimed at standard renewable projects such as wind or solar projects and for electricity transmission projects.
• $1 billion for energy efficiency programs including alternative fuel trucks and buses, transportation charging infrastructure, and smart and energy efficient appliances.
• $8.4 billion for investments in public transportation.
• $9.3 billion for investments in rail transportation, including Amtrak, High Speed and Intercity Rail.
• $4 billion to the public housing capital fund to enable local public housing agencies to address a $32 billion backlog in capital needs — especially those improving energy efficiency.
• $250 million is included for energy retrofitting and green investments in HUD-assisted housing projects.
• $6 billion is directed towards environmental cleanup of former weapon production and energy research sites.
• $6 billion for local clean and drinking water infrastructure improvements.
• $1.2 billion for EPA’s nationwide environmental cleanup programs, including Superfund.
• $1 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation to provide clean, reliable drinking water to rural areas and to ensure adequate water supply to western localities impacted by drought.
• $1.38 billion to support $3.8 billion in loans and grants for needed water and waste disposal facilities in rural areas.
• $650 million for US Forest Service Capital Improvement and Maintenance to be used for road maintenance and decommissioning, deferred maintenance work, abandoned mine clean up, and other related critical habitat, forest improvement, and watershed enhancement projects.

White Roofs Cool the World

Arthur Rosenfeld, California's energy commissioner, is advocating painting the town white.

"Everybody who's ever walked on a roof knows if it's white it will only heat up maybe ten degrees above ambient temperature. If it's some nice architectural green or terracotta tiles or whatever, it can heat up to eighty degrees above room temperature. So a white roof reflects solar radiation back into space where it's transparent, where it belongs, and a dark roof traps heat and contributes to the greenhouse effect."

Rosenfeld points out that this is not a new environmental technology. Greeks painted their roofs and whole buildings white 2000 years ago, and Pharaohs whitewashed their roofs 5000 years ago.

The numbers:

"For 1,000 square feet which is like half the area of your house, a white roof as opposed to a dark roof cools the world enough to offset the heating effects of ten tons of carbon dioxide. That's like two and a half years of emissions from your family car... If white roofs took over the world or the urban world over a twenty year program, we would save twenty five billion tons of CO2, which is the same as turning off the whole world's emissions of CO2 for one year."

Click here for a summary on how white roofs cool the earth.

And for an interview with Commissioner Rosenfeld, click on this link for PRI's Living on Earth segment entitled Painting the Town White.