CHRISTMAS CHEER! (or.. the TAKE BACK SPECIAL!!)

(this is true of my web site too.. i have a special version for large-boned people)

so... we all have a bunch of shit we don't need. admit it. you do too. i can tell because you're reading this BLOG. you must feel guilty.

now IMAGINE, if you will, being able to get rid of all the stuff you dont need. only, rather than throwing it 'away' (LANDFILL) or 'recycling' (aka DOWNCYCLING) or trying to find a 'good home' (probably not that good after all...) for your old junk, you could actually send it back to the manufacturer to be made into new-fangled, fancy, brand-spankin-REnew products. well - that's kinda what its like these days in GERMANY for some products. first off, ALL ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS put on the German commercial market must have a "take back guarantee." which means, basically, that they have to take back the product after you are done with it and make sure it is disposed of "PROPERLY" - i.e. they need to make sure everything toxic is not just thrown into the ground. in MANY cases, this is very expensive.


(see? there's a lot of it)

this leads many companies to find new, innovative ways to disassemble, recycle, or even reuse electronic parts - a much less expensive solution than disposing of electronic wastes as what they truly are - hazardous waste. given this endgame scenario, the new German product policy has encouraged the full-scale re-imagining of the electronic industry, forcing companies to think AHEAD OF TIME about how the product can be most easily and inexpensively disposed of. the result has been products that have been "DESIGNED FOR DISASSEMBLY" - products that are made to be taken apart, and, for a large part, reused or directly recycled. take this picture of a new German car as an example:


this picture was first showed to me during a lecture by WERNER SOBEK , principle architect for the Institute of Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK) as an illustration of the changing industrial climate in Germany (they make buildings designed for disassembly too) sounds a bit like the CRADLE TO CRADLE design we have all heard so much about. (Haven't heard? look HERE )

although the "cradle" paradigm has not been fully embraced yet, the new German legislation has really encouraged the electronic industry there to start moving in that direction. once again, German engineers are leading the way to the future of great products. funny, how countries with NO STANDING ARMY tend to be the most economically progressive and successful these days. perhaps we should TAKE A HINT!

oh yeah.. merry christmas USA!!

CASULO!!!!!

ok.

this is the bomb. with all my talk about tiny houses, i actually paid almost $2000 (holy crap!) to cart all my goods across the country from san francisco to chicago. not only that, but i used MAD FOSSIL to do so (imagine a 'mad' fossil? ha) i have been in debate internally ever since (especially since i realized my financial aid wouldnt cover it)

anyways, lately i have been obsessed with the idea of living on as little (and IN as little) as possible. its more sustainable in SO MANY ways, plus its cheaper, more convenient, AND gives you a super-cool reason to not have much and still impress the ladies.

enter CASULO.

(image from TOFSLIE and though i dont know what it means, they also have this awesome image:
(click on it and drag to see the answer) HA!!!

but i digress...

the CASULO ROOM IN A BOX is one of the sweetest things i have seen in a long time. i dont know what it costs, but imagine tossing that in the back of you car, or better yet, shipping it to where you are going and getting there on a train. in a studio apartment, that truly is plenty of stuff! and it actually looks pretty hip, being all minimalist and designery. (YES, i made up the word "DESIGNERY" but i bet you can guess what it means. ... well, if not, it means that even if it doesnt look THAT cool, it looks like designers would be into it)

oh, i forgot the video. look at this!!



VIVA LA CASULO!

and call me in the morning.
-g

the TINY HOUSE gallery

ok, so we've all gotten tired of MCMANSIONS... but there is a LITTLE MOVEMENT going on behind the scenes that many would call ridiculous. but i call it RIDICULOUSLY SWEET!!! this is the TINY HOUSE MOVEMENT, roughly defined as home under 750 sq. ft. I knew one day the MICRO MACHINES generation would rule the world. HA!


actually, ive been thinking about building a little house for some time. there are some vacant lots in my neighborhood, and i figure with school loans ill never buy a "regular" house, but why not have a tiny house on a little lot? i mean, my APT is 650 sq. feet. and i dont even REALLY this much space. ive been thinking of using an old shipping container.

anyways, without further ado, here is a gallery of some of the tiny houses i have found online. like em?? CHECK THE LINKZZZ!



from MICRO COMPACT HOMES

(the MODERN CABANA house. great slideshow!)

the Z-GLASS house from TUMBLEWEED

(its another from MODERN CABANA in red bluff, CA)

the weeHOUSE! (this one's in MN)

anyone have ideas on building a shipping container house? ill leave that for the next entry... ENJOY!

WOONERF!!!

(...no, it's not just a cheer for foamy balls)

image from BRAND AVENUE a nifty place/space/identity blog

according to my trusty dashboard dictionary, WOONERF is "a road in which devices for reducing or slowing the flow of traffic have been installed." this definition, however, seems to follow a lot of CONSERVATIONIST TALK, that is to say, its about what you CAN'T do, rather than what you now CAN do. has anyone been to GOLDEN GATE PARK on a SUNDAY???

(yes, this is a roller skate dance party)


(a good idea of the street life with no cars)

anyways, the point is, there is SO MUCH LIFE there on a sunday, solely because there are NO CARS ALLOWED.
now, completely banning automobile traffic is not the ideal goal, but in fact, it's sad that people are not so active in the park every day. .. i imagine it has to do with their fear of being RUN OVER. lets look at a more literal translation of WOONERF:

WOONERF: a street for living, a living yard.

this is more like it. woonerf isn't about restricting anyone, its about INVITING EVERYONE to enjoy the public space equally.
don't get me wrong, drivers have rights, as well as bikers, skaters, strollers, walkers, dancers, prancers, and low-budget fancy-pantsers. but imagine a city that had thoroughfares for driving, but in between these high-speed throughways, there were streets designed for a VARIETY of ACTIVITIES!!!

(a dutch woonerf sign. i like how they STRUT)
it might make driving a little more difficult. but heck, why not put a bunch of easy to access underground parking lots at the outskirts of a congested area, and the put a bunch of EL TRAINS, MONORAILS, even TROLLIES to truck people in a bit further? in this scenario, you could still drive in if you absolutely needed to, you would just have to drive SLOWLY. and that might not be the end of the world its really not that outlandish at all. in fact, its a common concept in many places in europe. i know we created the complicated road system to embody american freedom, but what's freedom if you can't roller-skate-dance?!?! (yes, that is a RHETORICAL QUESTION) hey, speaking of the end of the world:
The End of the World
watch this. its HILARIOUS!!!
if you want some more info on WOONERF, start here.

thats all about woonerf for now. i am le tired.

recipe for fixin' a TASTY CHICAGO BROWNFIELD!

(take this...)


"What became known as Stearns Quarry opened sometime in the late 1830s and supplied lime and crushed stone for concrete, fertilizer, and roads until it closed in 1970, at a final depth of 350 feet below street level. The City of Chicago bought the giant hole in 1970 for 9 million dollars to use as a dump for construction and demolition debris (CDD) and for ash from the Northwest incinerator on the West Side which burned Chicago’s garbage for 26 years. Incinerator ash stopped being accepted in 1987, but CDD continued to come in, much of it made, of course, of lime and crushed stone, in shapes"


(add this...)


"The Chicago Park District is now reconstituting the site as an unprecedented type of urban park, with dramatic topography, a fishing hole, a sledding hill, a “natural” amphitheater, and an elaborately engineered water management system. This system includes an underground pump to remove existing leachate draining toxins from the buried incinerator ash, and an overground sequence of ponds that collect and filter surface rainwater and prevent it from contributing to the leachate below."


(get... this?)


looks different, huh?. well, go check out the landscape architecture firm behind it: D.I.R.T. Studios (stands for "design investigations reclaiming terrain") THIS PLAN IS BADASS. if you look closely, it contains a large wetland area designated for water filtration, and a pond for fishing as well as rainwater retention. im not sure exactly how i feel about the large hump/spiral in the center (just because it looks SO much like a landfill) but behind barbed wire, anything looks like prison camp. anyway, D.I.R.T. is worth checking out, i am inspired by some of their work around the country, mostly reworking brownfields.

Although the CITY OF CHICAGO claims that the project has been completed for a few years, you can tell by the barbed wire look and vacant construction machines inside the park that it is actually fairly far from it. when it will ACTUALLY be completed remains to be seen, but needless to say, i am happy to have it around the corner from my apartment. here's to making MOUNTAINS out of LANDFILLS!

CRUSH your CANS for the ENVIRONMENT

its amazing what moving to a new place will do to you. your whole value system will change. you'll start eating off styrofoam, with plastic forks, and not even shed a shiver. yeah, I LIVE ON THE SOUTH SIDE. now, chicago has a lot of "g" rhetoric, much of it is impressive, and in fact, a lot of it is realized. (check out the GREEN ROOF INITIATIVE to get an idea) or look at this:




that's the CITY HALL ROOF... so like i said, in some ways, especially in ways that like to be photographed, we are MAKIN MOVES.

But seriously, there is NO RECYCLING in my neighborhood. im not kidding, there is NO. RECYCLING. i mean, i could theoretically bike the a few miles with the goods on my back to recycling center, but, that's my only option until the south side gets municipal recycling in 2011. so.. realistically, there's not much recycling going on. (although, on the positive side, we're not adding to the GREAT TRASH ISLAND either.

so, it may sound primitive, but i've resorted to COMPACTING my TRASH

it feels pretty good actually. especially because i bet a lot of it ends up here: (HA! I CANT FIND A SINGLE PICTURE OF THE LANDFILL IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD... THEY SAY ITS A PARK NOW!!!) welllll, imagine:
(yikes, all the images have been removed.. .GO GREEN! YA!)

oh well. i live near a giant fucking landfill that they are covering up, not to mention a big-ass power plant.

anyways, the point is, its a whole new game of scale. that being said: BUY CANS, NOT BOTTLES, AND CRUSH 'EM GOOD!

thats all from me for now. i think ill go drink some CHARTRUESE.

check it: WALKSCORE.COM!

SERIOUSLY GO TO WALKSCORE.COM this is a website that is devoted exclusively the rating the 'WALKABILITY' of your neighborhood. it basically gives you a GOOGLE MAP, covered with all of the thing that are useful to everyday life and within walking distance of your home. while it isn't perfect (like GOOGLE maps themselves) it is a really fun way to look at your new (or old) neighborhood in a new way. CHECK IT OUT! im excited that websites like this one are actually out there. for my neighborhood in SOUTH SIDE CHICAGO, i got a 69 out of 100. ya! GET YOUR WALKSCORE!

truck DRIVIN'

(image from techEBlog.com which is filled with cool geeky tech stuff)

so.... I just moved to CHICAGO from SF a few minutes ago.. . and i DROVE. (i know, i know, im SO anti... well, suck it) yes, i had a tough choice to make, but decided that the choice to drive out in a rental van became a better choice than to toss and replace my things, and seemed acceptable in consideration of my lifestyle otherwise. besides, i had to get my bike there somehow.

but this entry is not about my drive, but rather, my companions on the road. yep, the road (HIGHWAY 80 from SF to CHI) was completely filled with TRACTOR-TRAILER TRUCKS. i mean completely. there were very few other passenger vehicles on the road for LOOOONG stretches between major cities, and even there, the traffic was dominated by the trucks.

while it did seem a little inconvenient for cruising purposes, the real impact of the trucks hit me on a certain stretch of the highway in NEBRASKA. i entered the highway from a rest area, and immediately thought the van was going to break down. I frantically checked the sensors to see if anything seemed wrong, but everything checked out ok. i continued to be concerned until i merged into the left lane to pass a truck. upon hitting the left lane, the freaky rumbling coming from my engine stopped, and the steering wheel became steady in my hands.

that's when i realized the IMPACT that TRUCKS must have on our HIGHWAYS

(image from qcsdirect.com although i don't get exactly what they do....)

the interesting thing here is that for a long time it has been recognized that a major problem with the US train infrastructure is the fact the freight and passenger trains run on the same tracks. this results in tracks that are constantly torn up by the heavy pressure of freight trains passing over them, resulting in the slower passage of passenger trains over rougher tracks, as well as more delays to track repair on freight damaged sections.
well, it seems we are facing the same impact on our highways. we all know that highways take millions and millions of government revenue dollars for repairs each year, and imagine how much of this could be avoided if freight was not ALSO MOVED ON HIGHWAYS!! call me crazy, but sending an individual truck, even if it does haul three containers at once, does not seem like it could hold a candle against the efficiency of a miles-long, hundreds-of-containers hauling freight train.

so IF WE CAN'T GET THEM ON THEIR OWN TRACKS, CAN WE AT LEAST GET THEM OFF THE ROADS?!?! i understand that a lot of people have trucking jobs, but with a little help from VAN JONES, can't we move past the PONY EXPRESS OF FREIGHT DELIVERY??
so.... what's yer favorite jasmine-flower based asian tea? why, its jasmine tea, of course!

RECYCLE much? (or, the GREAT TRASH ISLAND)

(image from lastnightsgarbage.com a blog about garbage found on NYC streets... )


Soooo... who here recycles? OOHH OOOOH PICK ME! OOOH MEEEE! I RECYCLE!! YAAAAA!

well... CONGRATS, me too. it might not be working out so hot though. i learned by being a construction worker and bringing loads of garbage to the dump DIRECTLY that all garbage in san francisco is sorted once it arrives there (and they take out all the interesting figurines and sculptures and put them on display on a giant hill behind the dump. its really quite impressive, and im not kidding.)

but the reason they go through it is to SORT OUT RECYCLABLES. thats why we don't have to sort paper from plastic from glass in SF (yes, the planning department is also high) because its all gonna be sorted again when it gets there. now i know your all thinking THIS IS GRRRRREAT! but wait. i have confirmation from an inside source that almost all municiple recyclables on the west coast are SHIPPED TO CHINA for processing.
now think about this for a second:


(image from theferrisfiles.com apparently dude worked out with BARACK OBAMA)

this is an image of the location of the "GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE ISLAND" oh its there, all right. just check out this popular science article: HERE and read all about it. The GIANT TRASH ISLAND IS 80% PLASTIC and occurs where ocean currents converge to create a spot where debris builds up. so here i ask again:

WHO HERE RECYCLES? hmmm. its kinda hard to tell now, isnt it? 2nd question: WHICH PART OF YOUR RECYCLING FLOATS?

this is all very sad. sorry.

more on the TOILET

yeah i can't stop thinking about the toilet... it just seems like there is definitely something wrong with how they are designed, and it may not be solely water efficiency related. first, of course, there is of course the NON PEE FLUSHING BY ACTIVISTS AND EDGY HAIRYTARIANS. neither looking at pee in the toilet, nor using hundreds of extra gallons of water is a great idea, so that makes problemo numero uno. also, there is kind of a cleanliness issue for men. as a guy, living with guys, there is pee that makes is SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE the toilet bowl more often than i would like to admit. blame it on booze or sleepiness, but nobody wants to clean the toilet every few days, abd this ought to be avoidable. (and i cant imagine it gets any easier as you get older) now i know an easy solution many have suggested already:




but really, with sustainable design, the goal (at least for some of us) is to only force behavioral changed where necessary. standing up to pee is NOT the problem, the design of the toilets is. (i would add, transversely, that using massive amounts of toilet paper after peeing also seems like a waste, but the necessity of THAT is unfortunately something i don't have the experience to argue)
the toilets we are used to are the convention in most industrialized nations. i wonder if its really the best, or just what we have?

ever have one of those funny tablets in the tank that makes the water come out blue, and then peed in it? what's the color it ends up again? oh yeah, aquamarine.

on FLUSHING THE TOILET

yes, folks, i FLUSH THE TOILET when i pee. and really, i didn't feel guilty about it at all until just recently. my roommate's girl moved in a few weeks ago, and she lives by the "if its yellow, it can be my fellow" rule. or maybe its "if its pee, let's all see!" needless to say, its not my favorite thing.

HOWEVER, being conscientious myself, i understand the ideology, and appreciate the fact that they have chosen to sacrifice their NOSTRIL CLEANLINESS to conserve water, (it does smell if i haven't been in to flush it for a while, especially when somebody eats asparagus.) or perhaps it is because i'm moving soon, but these differences are not of import to any of us. Although, it is interesting to think about...

IT MUST BE NOTED that i recognize the inherent DESIGN PROBLEM in our toilets, and that we ought to change the status quo. My solution, currently, has been to place several 'pontoons' in the toilet tank (no, not THAT) which are basically filled, capped off plastic bottles, to keep the water/per/flush down. this is not the ANSWER, neither are DUAL FLUSH TOILETS, but its a start.


(image from http://www.toiletology.com and is a diagram of a CAROMA DUAL FLUSH TOILET which i just thought looked pretty rad, go dualies! (they'll be the new fixies for sure)

smart, huh? well, here's a better one: if you ever have FRUIT FLIES, make a paper cone with a small (1/2") hole, and tape it to a glass containing a sip of red wine, pointy side down to within an inch of the wine, fully sealed to the glass' lip with tape (duct is best) and watch it fill with fruit flies! integrated pest management baby! and it feels kind like high school bio lab.

thats all for today. WHATS THAT LITTLE PATCH OF GRASS THAT GOLFERS AIM AT CALLED? sustainable design i think.

on NOT DRIVING

(image from MATT B MEDIA and its pretty dope.)

i didn't start NOT DRIVING by choice. (truthfully, like most of us, i couldn't get to work without my car. so my first day without the old truck was my first day looking for a new job... but i digress) no, it was by accident. well, actually by getting IN an accident. nobody was hurt, the old beauty just lost a wheel on the highway...

well, whatever the original reason, i've stuck to NOT DRIVING for almost a year now. and truthfully not driving sucks sometimes. but you know what? its CHEAP!!

and i don't mean that like low-quality, i mean you save BUNDLES OF CASH by not owning a car. its almost amazing. another amazing thing: its SO easy to rent a car and go on a road trip once in a while (not to mention those 'zipcar' and local carshare groups). they wash it for you! AND you can pretty much bargain on any price they offer if you don't rent at the airport.

additionally, i think its really reduced my stress levels. i love cruisin' down the open road on a sunny afternoon, but driving in city traffic makes me INSANE! road rage probably causes more heart attacks than smoking.

so anyways, next time im out for a cruise, it'll probably be on my bike. so keep your eyes open, a-hole.

DOING your part

(image found at http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/beazer/32362/ )

so i found this image stumbling around on my internet longboard trying to 'hang ten.'

i must say, i think it is pure genius. the irony or the 'somewhat agree' stat is hilarious. and in a note about the source site, it was site for a new program called ESMART by a huge southern developer BEAZER HOMES, for a massive move towards sustainable buildings. the ESMART homes will feature energy efficient appliances and fixtures, increased attention to air quality, and low-VOC/sustainable finishes. and all with the name "ESMART"

the name connotes efficiency, technology, and practicality, and FOR ONCE isn't using THAT G WORD to sell it. maybe the folks from down south know how to communicate with other folks from down south better than we do. either way...

BRAVO BEAZER!!

GRISTly BEAR

so i was looking for images for a sustainable design textbook i'm helping out with, and i found myself surfing GRIST (www.grist.org) which was an interesting and informative website (i appreciate the 'gristmill' pun)

it seems, though, that GRIST suffers from the same -ITUS as most of the info on this stuff. (can we call it JADEFANTITUS? a.k.a. SEAFOAMING AT THE MOUTH?) and i thought i would share the 15-item long gem of a "green searches" pull down menu:


green actors, green buildings, green business founders, green cars, green chefs, green cities, green colleges and universities, green fashion finds, green fashionistas(WTF?), green movies, green musicians and bands, green politicians, green religeous leaders, and green sports stars


what the hell is a green sports star?!?! sure, and I'M L.E.E.D. CERTIFIED. once again, we are faced with CONSUMERISM AS USUAL ON ST. PATRICKS DAY!!!! the way to make things happen is not to watch more games featuring 'environmental' sports stars! (or moviestars, rockstars, fashionistas, etc) IT IS IMPORTANT TO HAVE INSPIRATIONAL ROLE MODELS. and SHOULDN'T WE BE INSPIRED OURSELVES?? we are all in this boat together, and rockstars and actors should read about what WE do and be inspired by that. YOU DON'T HAVE TO SPEND MOST OF YOUR TIME IN A TOUR BUS TO MAKE REAL CHANGE HAPPEN. YOU CAN INSPIRE EVERYONE AROUND YOU RIGHT NOW. the obsession with celebrity in america should not be confused with a true ability to take action. this is no longer a spectator sport - we don't have to sit on the sidelines and watch. SO DO SOMETHING. AND WHY NOT WEAR PURPLE WHEN YOU'RE DOING IT!!!


(...i cant wait to see how this all pans out!)

sustainableAMERICA

you know its amazing how people are obsessed with color words. green is the new black, pink is the new black, what is 'old' black anyways? (i guess the 'in' thing...?) anyways, its amazing what you come up with when you search for the 'GREENEST' cities in america.

the picture above is from san francisco's ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, a new building in golden gate park. the view from the tower of the new DE YOUNG MUSEUM is breathtaking. you can see the entirety of the academy's rolling, sprawling, porthole-pocked hilltop of a green roof, and it is quite a sight.

but the remarkable thing here is not san francisco, seattle, or portland oregon... its not even really NYC, because we expect them to be at the forefront of whatever the new generation is. its the OTHER cities that are vying for 'EMERALD CITY OF AMERICA' status that are worth remarking about. cities like CHICAGO, deep in the heart of middle-america, surrounded by corn and bible thumpers, or AUSTIN, TEXAS. we all had a feeling austin was cool, but WHO NEW? they have one of the largest SOLAR PANEL COLLECTIONS in the country. eat your heart out, BUSH. minneapolis ain't doin' so bad, neither.

another amazing tidbit here is with a quick google search, i saw lists from mainstream, non sustainability-minded publications like COUNTRY HOME and POPULAR SCIENCE. it makes me proud to see this hustle, especially in places that aren't classically populated by beatniks. good show, AMERICA!

That 'G' Word

it all started at 8th and brannan in SAN FRANCISCO. i had accepted a job to hand flyers out at a conference held there. The conference was called "GreenFest" and the company i was flyering for was called "GreenHome" (http://www.greenhome.com). don't get me wrong, i was willing to swallow the initial irony of handing out disposable paper flyers advertising sustainability, but what i was not ready for, not in the slightest, was the approaching tidal wave of the word 'green.'

i mean, the term had become a bit hollow at that point anyway. it wasn't really that bad.... until Wal-Mart opened a 'green' superstore. so i entered the conference expecting to hear my fair share of 'green' rhetoric. it just turned out that GreenFest fed me more 'greens' than a cow could stomach.
never before have i heard any word so many times over and over. each side of the papers i grasped said the g word several times, and it was my ear-hook to passers-by as well: "tips on greening your home? green products for sale!"
after a few hours, I really began to feel like i was in the 'malkovich' hallucination scene in 'BEING JOHN MALKOVICH.' (If you haven't seen it, you should. Its the only accurate analogy for the situation.) it was a 'green' overload. i nearly fell over, and completely lost my ability to communicate with passers-by, just muttering the g word over and over again.

i had to leave the conference, and as i walked towards BART, i realized what the issue was: we've got to get over that 'g' word!

and it really is about the word. there is no place for superficial descriptors in the enumeration of important world issues. just like it's not gonna all be black and white, its not all 'green' either! if there is one thing we do not need to be right now, it's exclusive!

by commodifying green and economically and socially separating it from other systems of thinking, green becomes a 'niche' market - profitable, yes. but far reaching? NO WAY. sustainability, responsibility: these are lenses through which to view every aspect of our world and our society, not closed off 'profit sectors' with target markets who love olive-colored block prints!







Maybe its just me, but I'm tired of 'Green'.