As I sit here winding up the week, getting ready to head over to the Methow Valley for a few days of holiday fun with friends, it occurs to me that it’s been a really good year.

These past couple years have been a time of tricky dichotomies and social change, new awareness, synergies and letting go, studded with complex challenges and rich opportunities.  That’s a colorful brew that has made for some very interesting times.  Strangely, I feel better for it in many ways, and I know I’m not alone.

It may be fair to say that, as a company, we’ve learned more in the past two years than in the previous 13 years combined. Adversity is a candid instructor, and yet, here we are enjoying our work more than ever. How could that be? I suppose one shouldn’t question a ‘win’.

We are absolutely grateful to be on the planet at a time and place which allows us to participate in effecting positive change and to enjoy collaboration with other like-minded people. It’s an ideal time to be alive.

I read this wonderful excerpt recently from Bill Stumpf’s book, The Ice Palace That Melted Away: Restoring Civility and Other Lost Virtues to Everyday Life. I find there is a certain simple and universally accessible luxury and truth in his words. Civility costs nothing to proffer and is priceless in its viral capacity for lightening hearts and bringing joy.

I wish you all personal peace and prosperity for all the coming years! Zeta

[Excerpt}

“Civility is something extra– the added measure of grace– in the way we shape human behavior through objects and custom…” “Civility is comfort, hidden goodness, social lubricant, personal worth, helping others, play- civility is the joy we take in our human achievements and the compassion we show toward our all-too-human faults. Civility can be extended by technology and can be obliterated by it. Civility is toleration, understanding. It is the integration of differences, not the heightening of them.”

I always find these kinds of lists interesting, informative if not a bit sketchy in how to correlate an apple to an orange and have it make sense to the masses. Aside from that, if you are into this sort of thing, it’s fun to get an idea of the ‘big boys’ out there that deem ‘green’ a worthy pursuit.

From a personal perspective, I work for a small company that pursues green or sustainable methods for design and development of a building project from all angles, and it’s no small feat to pull off… it takes willingness, dedication, education and participation of all the players. The companies that made it on this list were committed to the pursuit and that in itself is pretty cool!

Check out the article here.

Full List of Newsweeks: The Greenest Big Companies in America

Enjoy!

Zeta

I’ve only lived here for 20 years, but I see many more in my future. Naturally, this inspires me to keep up to date on what’s happening in and around Olympia and to find ways to participate in the future outlook of Olympia.

I recently learned of a couple good resources that I’d like to share with you. These websites offer a  place where you can have a voice to express your interests regarding our community. Community action doesn’t necessarily take a lot of time, but it does require a certain amount of awareness which will allow you to pick and choose your way through options for participation.

Imagine Olympia

The Washington State Growth Management Act requires that cities develop plans to manage population and urban growth. For Olympia, it is our blueprint for how we grow and continue to be a beautiful place to live, work and play.  Our current Comprehensive Plan was adopted by the City Council in 1994 after a two-year community involvement effort.  As required by law, it is now time for us to review and update the Plan.

The Imagine Olympia website is a convenient place where you can make suggestions and comments on a range of topics of importance to our community, from rising sea levels, to affordable housing to urban forestry and everything in between.

The Olympia Project: Making Community Participation Fun

Goals of The Olympia Project:

• Engaging our peers in volunteer work to enrich our community.
• Providing social opportunities for our peers to enjoy and participate in our unique community.
• Connecting our peers to non-partisan civic education and engagement opportunities; and in all cases we are committed to making participation FUN!

I know there are many ways to get involved in the community. Minimally, by sharing your ideas… you may very well maximize the outcome.

Let’s see what we can do together to make Olympia an even better place to live!

See you around town! Zeta

FROGBOX is a sustainable alternative to the resource-rich effort of moving. If you are are relocating your belongings whether from your home or business, FROGBOX supplies movers with plastic re-usable totes that can replace regular cardboard boxes.

People can order the amount of boxes needed from the FROGBOX website, FROGBOX will then deliver the re-usable boxes to be filled by you and when ready, they will come back to pick them up and drop off at the new location. It’s so obvious and such a great idea!

The article sites that 18 to 26 percent of landfill material is made up of cardboard and paper waste. FROGBOX is motivated to help reduce that number; plus, the company donates 1 percent of it’s gross revenues to frog habitat restoration. Ya gotta love that.
Curious, I went to the FROGBOX website looking for the genesis of the name, I didn’t find that, but I did find a friendly little pitch on the state of the frog nation. I didn’t know…

“FROGBOX donates 1% of gross revenues to frog habitat restoration. According to amphibian experts, frogs are the most threatened vertebrate group on Earth, with nearly one-third of the world’s 6,468 amphibian species in danger. At their current rate, frogs are disappearing faster than dinosaurs did.

Certain frog species in the Pacific Northwest are at high risk of becoming extinct, such as the Oregon spotted frog. FROGBOX will participate with different active organizations in the Pacific Northwest to help preserve these perishing amphibians.

Frogs are an indicator species, and the Pacific Northwest is one of the healthiest areas of the developed world. FROGBOX believes that we should all encourage change to help protect and restore the livelihood of frogs in our own backyard.

We hope that 1% of our revenues will make a difference locally.”

Very nice! Zeta

I’ll confess, this is generally the very best part of my day, I look forward to it when I wake up. What a fine thing to spend the first hour of my day in this way. Most mornings while out poking around and throwing for Eddy, I often feel the depth of how charmed my life is and how it’s the small pleasures that seem to humbly command my sincere presence in life.

After coming indoors this morning and getting her Highness fed, I made a coffee and sat down to look at the latest copy of Dwell magazine. On page 40 was this very sweet little interview with a professor, Augustin Scott de Martinville,  who heads a master’s program of “Luxury and Design” at the University of Art and Design in Lausanne, Switzerland. The interview was specifically about “Luxury”.  On the heels of my foray in the pasture, his responses struck a chord, they were simply profound and to my mind, really captured some intrinsic essence of modern life.

Here is the interview:

Each year, the members of The Artisans Group sponsors a food drive for  those in our community who could use a helping hand.
We match each donation as a way to say thanks for our happy lot in life!

Please join us by dropping by soon (M-W, 9 to 6) with a non-perishable donation:

Food:
Dry Goods like cereals, grains and pasta packaged in factory boxes
Jar Goods like tomato and apple sauce
Canned Goods of all kinds

Personal Items:
Soap
Shampoo  and Conditioner
Toothbrushes
Razors
Combs and Brushes

Other Items:
Cash and Check donations
Gift Certificates

Enjoy! Zeta

New home for plastic foam

Recycle: Tumwater site takes stuff that was garbage

JOHN DODGE; The Olympian | • Published November 09, 2009

TUMWATER – Add plastic foam products such as cups, plates and food take-out trays to the list of items that can be recycled in South Sound.

Dart Container Corp., a Tumwater-based manufacturer of plastic foam food and beverage containers, has opened a drop box to accept these items from the public for free.

It’s one of the few sites in the state to provide recycling for a family of products that otherwise end up consuming space in regional landfills.

“This is long overdue,” Michael Westerfield, Dart’s director of recycling programs, said at a grand-opening ceremony for the drop-off center last week. “We’ve been pushing for this program a long time.”

In Thurston County, 1,465 tons, or about 0.83 percent, of garbage sent to the Thurston County Waste and Recovery Center at Hawks Prairie each year are plastic foam products, said Terri Thomas, an education and outreach specialist at Thurston County Solid Waste.

Because the plastic foam products are about 95 percent air, the percent per volume of garbage is much greater.

“We are extremely excited that Dart has brought foam recycling to our area,” Thomas said. “This important initiative arms our community with the ability to proactively reduce waste.”

Westerfield and Thomas said the long-range goal is to expand the South Sound recycling options for plastic foam to include more drop boxes. Some curbside recycling programs in Southern California have added plastic foam products to the list of items they recover.

The increase in plastic foam recycling and re-use comes as a number of communities have imposed or are considering bans on plastic foam food containers and cups. For instance, a plastic foam ban affecting the food-service industry goes into effect in Seattle on July 1.

“It’s important to do it because customers want it,” Westerfield said of the increased industry emphasis on recycling. “People aren’t going to accept a throw-away item.”

The plastic foam products recycled outside the Dart plant in Tumwater must bear the number 6. They include products covered by the trade name Styrofoam and molded plastic foam used to package electronics.

Once collected, the plastic foam products are run through a compactor capable of converting 4,116 eight-ounce cups into a 40-pound block of material the size of a small suitcase.

Recycled foam food service products can be reprocessed into building insulation, plastic lumber, picture frames and other items.

John Dodge: 360-754-5444

jdodge@theolympian.com

Recycling do’s and don’ts

Dart Container Corp. has opened a plastic foam recycling center for free public use at 600 Israel Road S.E., Tumwater. Here’s how it works:

• The bin accepts plastic foam cups, plates, take-out food containers, egg cartons and molded foam used to package electronics.

• Rinse the containers free of food and place them in a clear plastic bag for drop-off.

• The recycling station does not accept straws, lids, or packaging peanuts.

• The bin is available for use seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Reprinted from the Olympian newpaper

Conversely, environment be damned… we all love the warmth and strength (and lack of flickering) of the incandescent bulb. The incandescent bulb has been around in some fashion since the mid 1800′s and patented by Edison in 1879. Aside from the original carbon filament material now being made of tungsten, the light bulb has not changed since days of yore. It’s truly a simple and remarkable little resistance heater used for illumination, and quite an energy hog. 

Interestingly, the little energy-hog is finally on the European chopping block. By 2012, Europeans will no longer have the option of purchasing incandescents. On September 1 of 2009, the EU enacted new energy efficiency requirements on lamp sales. Immediately they will ban 100 watt conventional bulbs. Other wattage levels will be addressed by the initiative and phased out from now through the end of 2012.

This European ban is actually part of a bigger story. The broader initiative is aimed at reducing the EU’s primary energy use by 20 percent by 2020. As a reference, the bulb ban is predicted to save the equivalent of 11 million European households’ energy use for the same period. It is also expected to reduce up to 15 million tons of CO2 emissions annually.

I know many of us Americans really like the light quality that our old-school bulbs offer, I’m right there too. But, lighting technology is finally moving along in a direction where it’s not impossible to have quality light rendering in an efficient unit. Keep your eyes peeled for energy-efficient options such as incandescent  bulbs with halogen technology, or Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology. The CFL’s will continue to get better or die out as a result of something better. In any case… I think the writing is on the wall.

Ps. I have a friend who recently confided in me his latest ‘get rich quick’ scheme which is to buy up huge lots of incandescent bulbs to sell at usury prices in the aftermath of the eventual U.S ban on incandescents. Yes, he’s a good friend and we all keep an eye on him, for his own protection.

Cheers!

Zeta

NPR also created a handy interactive grid map that illustrates some interesting facts about energy use in our country. It also shows us the existing and proposed infrastructure referenced in their story. Did you know that Washington state’s power comes from the following sources:

Hydro: 71%
Coal: 10%
Gas: 8%
Nuclear: 8%
Biomass: 2%
Wind: <1%
Oil: <1%
Other: <1%

This series will demystify some of the curiosities you may have had about power transmission in the past, but I assure you, it will likely create new questions about what the next generation of traveling power will look like across our great nation.