I just returned from my last minute invitation to hear acclaimed columnist speak at an award ceremony, where he won The Fisher Prize.

Truly inspirational. I encourage you to read his books, he certainly has a reasonable grasp on the realities of our current climate and economic situations. Certainly one of the best enviro-political-economy lectures I’ve head, up there with Gunter Pauli and William McDonough.

The Revolution will not be televised and their will be battle scars and significant losses.

check it out:

This is great news. It can all start small, one business at a time. Can you imagine how many employees will be maintained and hired at the local farm who supplies Chipotle?

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. will start buying locally raised produce for its restaurants this summer.

The Denver-based eatery said it will begin buying 25 percent of at least one produce line for each of its 730-plus restaurants from small and midsize farms. The produce, which will include romaine lettuce, green bell and jalapeno peppers and red onions, will arrive from the farms when they’re in season.

The move builds on a trend of U.S. consumers looking to eat more fresh produce. The initiative also is part of Chipotle’s Food With Integrity approach, a way of doing business that the chain says can improve food quality, reduce fuel consumption and benefit rural economies.

In Ohio, Chipotle (NYSE:CMG) will work with Holthouse Farms in Willard, about 80 miles north of Columbus. Holthouse Farms will provide green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, and romaine lettuce to Chipotle restaurants in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan.

Chipotle runs about 30 restaurants in Central Ohio. It recorded a profit of $70.6 million on $1.09 billion in revenue last year.

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_9628681

3 men charged after slaying along bike path

Wow. This is a horrible crime and as a habitual Olentangy bike path user, I have to take pause. My first inclination is that it’s unfortunate that the bike path would be tainted by such negative news. Hoping htat too many people wouldn’t associate the path with this negative press.

But the speedy and effective response of the Columbus Police Dept turn this potential nightmare for bike safety advocates into what it should read as… a totally isolated and SOLVED crime.

The unsolved alternative would have been a PR nightmare for all of us out there advocating for more biking in the city.

I can’t imagine the frenzy that would have ensued had this murder gone unsolved for a few days, weeks, on and on… Think about how freaked out people were with that whacko shooting cars on the Southern portion of 270 a few years back. Now put potential victims on a bike, in an wooded environment, by themselves, exposed… We could see an incredible drop in the perceived safety of cyclists, and other users of the paths in Columbus. Not that there are no safety issues, its just that an unsolved murder on a popular and busy bike path could lead to hysteria. (And it’s already difficult enough to get people out of their climate controlled pods, er cars…) I think the biking and alternative/transportation advocates and users here in Columbus have a debt of gratitude to be paid to those two officers who caught those murderers last night. Thank you CPD!

We are really working hard to build business collaborations in the Columbus green building community.
Our goal is to bring people together so that we can all participate and share each others’ successes and synergy as we work toward a more sustainable built environment.

One of the largest players in the emerging local green building market is RASTRA, the manufacturer of an impressive block building system. If you haven’t heard, they are building a new facility in Columbus this year. They are bringing new green manufacturing jobs and an innovative product to our region.

Join us Saturday evening in welcoming Mike Warren, an executive with RASTRA, who will be with us to talk about RASTRA’s products and processes. As this is an informal gathering, Mike will be on hand to answer all of your questions and to show off his tremendous knowledge of sustainable building technology.

We hope to see you!
ghc

FYI, we are continuing to move toward a Mailing List invitation format, where anyone can sign-up for (and post) announcements. To sign up follow this link: http://lists.greenhomecolumbus.com

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Green Home Columbus gathering

Saturday Evening- June 7th,
from 6:00-9:00PM.
at the Greenovate office/showroom (9 East Second Ave, Columbus, OH 43201) in the Short North.
(We get together during Gallery Hop every month, that’s the First Saturday in the Short North).
-Parking options:
-across High St in a public lot (meters)
-just north of Second Ave (private lot, available for Gallery Hop)
-at the Elementary School parking lot, on East Second Ave. (at your own risk, although not too risky
-ride your bike, park it at the new bollards on Second Ave at High St. We’ll be riding ours.
-or ride the COTA #2 line to Second Ave. (pretend your warming up for streetcars!)

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=9+E+2nd+Ave,+Columbus,+OH+43201&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=47.838189,108.457031&ie=UTF8&ll=39.982464,-83.004338&spn=0.005689,0.013239&t=h&z=17&iwloc=addr

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Green Home Columbus is a loose collective of like-minded people sharing their ideas, goals and experiences with each other in a social setting once a month.
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Please feel free to BYOB- This is an invite only event. We’ll have glasses and cups.

Looking forward to seeing you!
Green Home Columbus

I stumbled upon the National Recycling Coalition today.

One of their main programs is the National Recycling Partnership:
The National Recycling Partnership (NRP) is a coalition committed to improving recycling programs in the United States and reinvigorating recycling among consumers. Under the direction of the National Recycling Coalition (NRC), grocery, food and beverage producers and retailers are engaged in two major initiatives to maximize the potential of recycling programs nationwide.

Come on City of Columbus, What is this?!?

JAMES D. DeCAMP | DISPATCH

Steve Rath, who commutes on a scooter, was among 11 scooter and motorcycle riders who received a parking ticket for parking in Pearl Alley on Wednesday.

Motorcyclists and scooter riders say the tickets they found on their bikes Wednesday afternoon mean they’ve lost their parking haven Downtown. But Columbus officials say they’re trying to find ways to accommodate the smaller vehicles.

The Full Story

The city is considering scooter and motorcycle parking in Pearl Alley, on Gay Street and near Columbus City Center, said Mike Brown, a spokesman for Mayor Michael B. Coleman.

Everyone wants to know how I feel about the recent Streetcar episode locally. Well, I’m not a huge fan. For the record, I think it either needs to be much larger, or much smaller.

The larger version would be a commuter/light rail system that works as a true connector between some of the population centers in Central Ohio. Downtown is connected to the Airport to Easton to New Albany to Westerville then the West side, Dublin, Hilliard, Upper Arlington, etc. You get the idea, it’s not a $100Million project, its a $2Billion project. (I imagine this idea will get the cold shoulder for a few more years, wait for $6-8/gallon of Gasoline… it’ll come).

The Smaller version isn’t rail at all. The idea is a true Bicycle vending system. Like this one just launched in Washington DC. These systems are popular in Europe, but becoming more of a discussion point for progressive American cities. I think the vending system is practical because of the low investment in infrastructure and operation. Heck, I’m wondering if the thing couldn’t make money on an Entrepreneurial level, like a for-profit venture? Sell advertising, promote businesses to purchase bulk memberships… Who needs COTA to fumble yet another program when we can do this with little management, scheduling, construction traffic, etc?

I’m kind of tired of hearing about great ideas and then expecting the Government to make it happen. Or thinking that the Government is the only player in the field big enough to make something work. We can do this AND make it profitable. I’m worried that the people who think they are the leaders of the region are really just followers.

Living roofs have been on my mind… Check out this incredible growth in Lower Manhattan. (can’t imagine that the vine growth is good for the mortar — having grown up in homes where the ivy grows into the house…)

We have a garage with an attached wood frame carport where I’ve been thinking about playing with a green roof application. It seems like an easy thing to engineer, and could be done very simply (or could be very complicated). I like to think about testing such strategies on small unimportant structures, to inexpensively establish my own learning curve.

Over the years we’ve seen dozens of styles of systems. From bags of growth medium with vegetation pre-planted that can be nailed via straps to a normal shingled roof to simple trays full of vegetation that can be arranged on  a flat roof  with no other alteration. The Lazarus Building in Downtown Columbus has a nice rooftop garden. Yes, it is a green roof, and installed right on top of the built up bitumen style roof decking.

http://www.greenroofs.com/

some great images of green roofs

Kind of appropriate that National Bike Month follows Earth “Month”- May is a great time to get out on the road on two wheels!

Here is a list of some Bike Month Events in Ohio.

No pics yet, but I just scored a new (to me) 1990s road bike, and I’m stoked to ride to and from the office. Commuting via bike has long been a dream for me. There are some logistics to work out as we have clients and jobs all around the city and state. I figure that some days I can leave the car (that runs on Biodiesel) at home and other days it will make sense to drive.

I rode to Goodale Park this past weekend for the EarthDay event, and the one way commute took about 35 minutes. If I count that as a substitute for Cardio-time on the treadmill or eliptical machine at the gym, I may have a net gain in the amount of free-time in my life. Now that’s what I call a win-win situation.

consider biking

nice videos for bike traffic rules

If you’ve ever shopped for bamboo flooring, you probably know that there is a huge range of price. I like to say that “all bamboo flooring is not created equal”. That said, we over the years have dealt with some of the more inexpensive varieties, with lots of frustration.

Teragren is one of the only Bamboo flooring manufacturers that actually controls the “fields” and factories where their product is made. They are able to verify that it was produced sustainably, and they produce a very high quality product.

Why Teragren?

Questions to ask before you buy

As with any product you use on a project, you want to have confidence in the quality, durability and consistency of the bamboo flooring, cabinetry panel, parquet butcher block or veneer that you select. Here are some questions to ask as you search for the right bamboo product and the right bamboo source.