Sustainablog

Two weeks ago, we took a look at news from the Congo involving “conflict minerals”: armed groups have exploited the mining of materials such as tin, tungsten, gold, and tantalum, and the people who live near these resources, to fund their fighting. Since then, I’ve had a chance to communicate with David Sullivan, a research associate with the Enough Project, about the issues surrounding the situation in the Congo. David addresses the multiple atrocities — human and environmental — surrounding the trade of these materials, and the actions you can take to ensure electronics manufacturers are aware of these issues.

sustainablog: Oftentimes, situations like these arise from limited economic opportunities. What other means of making a living are available (or could become available) to people in the Eastern Congo? Are there options for these people that couldn’t be as readily exploited by armed groups in the area?

David Sullivan: Impoverished Congolese miners and their families are often entirely dependent on their meager income from mining, and they currently have few viable economic alternatives to lift them out of this indentured servitude. What could be the most promising alternative to mining is agriculture, but the threat of violence often forces Congolese farmers to abandon their fields to flee for safety.

Efforts to end the trade in conflict minerals absolutely must be accompanied by international support for livelihoods and economic opportunities in eastern Congo. Rebuilding roads is a key opportunity, so that other sectors can benefit from trade. Infrastructure projects with guaranteed labor at decent wages can help lure miners out of conflict mines and create opportunities for demobilized combatants. Larger firms can raise miners’ living standards if independently verifiable mechanisms are put in place to ensure that the corporations are not contributing to armed groups, and health, safety, and labor standards are observed at mining sites. International investment should be stepped up in agricultural development initiatives in eastern Congo, which mining has displaced in recent years.  Good models for agricultural investments in mining areas exist in Sierra Leone. Other livelihood initiatives, such as small business development projects, should also be promoted. All projects should be designed in close partnership with miners themselves, and should also be followed up with education initiatives for miners.

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By Leslie Berliant
Originally published on June 17, 2009, at SolveClimate

By the middle of next year, the nine campuses that make up the nation’s largest community college system plan to be completely energy self-sufficient.

It’s a huge step, and it will begin saving money immediately.

The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) started down this path in 2001, the year voters approved the first part of $5.7 billion in bond funding to renovate the campuses.

The LACCD Board of Trustees was thinking about much-needed modernization work and its first new construction in 35 years, but it was also thinking ahead. It passed a sustainable building policy mandating that all new buildings that use 50% or more of bond funding be LEED certified. The board had previously developed a renewable energy plan that aimed for a minimum 10% renewable energy standard.

At the time, the trustees were afraid that anything beyond that would be too costly, says Larry Eisenberg, executive director of Facilities, Planning and Development for the LACCD.

The system’s chancellor and the implementation team saw greater potential, though.

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In just seven years the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has emerged as the premier music festival in the United States, if not the world. With the biggest names in music from genres across the musical spectrum taking to thirteen stages and providing festival-goers with four days of good music, danceable beats and pleasing melodies, this year’s Bonnaroo, from June 11-14 in Manchester, Tennessee will be no different from the last seven.

But in addition to the mountains of music and non-musical activities, the festival, which last year was named one of eighteen music festivals worldwide to receive the Greener Festival award, added several new green dimensions to its already impressive greening efforts.

Like the much newer Rothbury Festival up in Michigan, festival organizers at Bonnaroo have been hard at work finding new ways to green the festival scene and engage fans in discussions, seminars and educational programs about important sustainability topics and the pressing environmental issues of today. In addition to incorporating an environmental mission statement into every vendor contract, festival organizers have built upon past successful sustainability efforts and mixed in some new ones to give festival attendees a greener music festival experience.

Below are a few of the pre-festival green highlights, but stay tuned to Green Options for green updates, photos, interviews and reports from the ground at this year’s Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Read the rest of this entry »

Making a list of actions you can take to prevent global warming, or at least reduce your own carbon footprint? One item you may not have considered: move to (or stay in) an urban environment.

Reduce Your Transportation Carbon Emissions by 70%

That’s the conclusion shown by data recently added to  the Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology’s Housing and Transportation Affordability Index. CNT took a look at 55 metropolitan areas around the United States, and found that, in terms of transportation choices, urban living definitely belongs on the list of solutions to stop global warming: “When measured on a per household basis, it found that the transportation-related emissions of people living in cities and compact neighborhoods can be nearly 70% less than those living in suburbs.”

What does this mean for you?
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Written by Stacy Feldman. Originally published May 14, 2009, at SolveClimate

Solar photovoltaics (PV) in the UK will be as cheap as grid-sourced fossil fuels much sooner than expected, a new study by Solarcentury finds.

For homeowners, PV will cross the “grid parity” mark in 2013. For commercial customers, it will occur around 2018. The magical parity date for PV is generally assumed to be 2020 in the UK. Says Solarcentury:

“The proximity to parity heralds the prospect of PV being a compelling investment for the individual, without subsidy, in only a few years time.”

The 14-page report by the UK’s largest solar firm is described as the most “up-to-date and accurate analysis on the investment case for PV in the UK.”

Its main point is that solar PV has precisely what it takes to move beyond a British niche and into the energy mainstream: Its energy potential is massive. It’s getting cheaper all the time. And it’s fast-approaching the holy grail of the solar sector, grid parity.

Time to tap it.

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Editor’s note: This post was originally published on Friday, May 1, at SolveClimate.

It is time for President Obama to mobilize us all to help build the new energy economy.

He has begun shaping the public policies we need. Now he needs to launch an Apollo project, interstate highway project, war effort and Marshall Plan all rolled into one.

For starters, he should call on us all to pick up our caulking guns and enlist in the war against energy waste – a national clean energy surge.

The potential for savings through efficiency improvements and conservation is enormous.

As Obama noted during the campaign, the United States is only the 22nd most energy-efficient major economy in the world right now. With very few exceptions, every vehicle, home, power plant, factory, community and state is hemorrhaging energy, energy dollars and greenhouse gas emissions.

Consider just a few examples: Read the rest of this entry »

Well, it turns out that getting a list of subscribers out of Feedburner is more challenging than it once was. So… if you’re still planning to enter our drawing for a Sundance gift bag (or you already have), please forward me a copy of one of the daily sustainablog emails you receive after subscribing and confirming your registration. Forward those to sustainablog (at) gmail (dot) com. Please use “Sundance Gift Bag Giveaway” as your subject line.

Image credit: striatic at Flickr under a Creative Commons license

There should be no secrets among those who continue to prosper in mostly non-financial ways despite the challenging economic times.  These people live (and perhaps work) following the laws of nature more than the “laws of supply and demand” of the increasingly dysfunctional “free” and global marketplace.

Here’s how to thrive in the abundance of renewable energy, organic food and a more healthy and sustainable lifestyle. While not all frugality rules, this approach to living more sustainably does require some degree of curtailment, scaling down and living within our means.  It means using credit cards less and relying on community members or family more.  However, the result can be a rich life filled with health and well-being, friends and family, more time to do the things you love to do (imagine that!), a greater sense of purpose, and, my favorite, happiness.

Below are a few suggestions to get you started or continue your journey.  Please add some of your own in the comments.  Maybe some of the BIG banks or BIG government folks might take notice that a few ideas do not involve printing and spending trillions of dollars to “spur consumption.”

•  Powering the renewable energy revolution

Times couldn’t be better for installing your own renewable energy system or improving your energy efficiency of your home or business (or both!), depending on the state you live in.  The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 extended the Energy Policy Act of 2005. These new acts extend and expand the federal tax credits available for energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements made in 2009 and beyond.  There are numerous renewable energy cash-back incentives, tax credits and low interest loans that can help ease the transition from a fossil-fuel based economy to one that thrives on solar income.  Check out the Database for State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (www.dsireusa.org) to see what’s available in your state.

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There’s more to buying that high-tech gizmo or fancy new clothes, especially if you put it on plastic.   If you’re anything like the so-called average American with combined balances on your credit cards pushing upwards of $10,000 per household, then you’re paying a lot more than the purchase price after factoring in an exorbitant interest rate on the unpaid balance.  Just one credit card with a balance of $15,000 and a monthly minimum payment of $300 based on an interest rate of 13 percent would take nearly twenty years to pay off, amounting to nearly $9,000 in interest, according to the website Cardweb.com.

To save or spend?

This raging debate among economic recovery pundits mask the reality that based on our current “free trade” global economic system, what we really mean by spending is consuming.  And in this global free trade system, ecological costs are “externalized” if we use the correct economist’s jargon.  As a result, we pollute, destroy and exploit where ever we can.  If you can’t do this in the United States very easy thanks to national laws and regulations, well then, export your manufacturing and service operations to places that don’t have many, or any, regulations.  Then import these products back into the U.S. to sell at a big box store, plopped down where there used to be viable farmland.  For example, these BIG companies move operations to places where poor people can sort through toxic junk computers for scrap or to places where throwing something away can’t possibly ruin our own clean air or water in our communities.

According to Emily Kaiser’s analysis for Reuters:  “U.S. President Barack Obama needs to convince Americans to spend now and save later in order to get the U.S. economy back on solid footing.”  It doesn’t have to be this way.

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If you don’t eat for a day, you know it. If you stay inside all day, you feel it and it makes a strong impression on the character of the day. These are two critical parts of our day — what we eat and where we go.

If we want to be Green, if we want to make a decision to help the environment, these daily issues are about as big as it gets. If we buy a green product — an organic cotton t-shirt, a hemp bag or wallet, a recycled chair — we are, basically, doing one environmental action. If we decide to make our eating and transportation habits environmentally friendly, however, we are make several environmental actions everyday.

We see many figures showing us that transportation and food are the largest contributors to the global warming crisis and to many other environmental issues (water quality, air quality, etc.), but do we take this home and say, “this is what I need to change”?

Here are three or four ways to make that change we have been waiting for.
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