It's Easy Being Green

I’ve heard of the “House of Bamboo” but now I’m amazed to hear about a bamboo bicycle.  I recently ran across the folks over at Organic Bikes whose slogan is “Rethink your ride”.  Well, rethink they have as they are creating bicycle frames out of bamboo, an easily renewable resource!  According to their website they’re also making biodegradable water bottles and organic bike clothing and accessories.

Organic Bike's "Dylan" model. It's their first bamboo bike!

Organic bikes claims the bamboo is so strong that it makes a great frame and is actually more comfortable to ride than a standard alloy metal one.  They do say that the frame isn’t entirely made from bamboo and that there is some alloy metal involved in the construction of your bike but that it is 100% recycled alloy.

This, I think, is a pretty cool concept.   While I didn’t think riding your bicycle could get much more green, Organic Bikes has gone and proven me wrong.  If you’d like a chance to enter their contest to win a bamboo bike, click this link.

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If you haven’t already clued into Organic Valley Co-op, you should check out their website.  Right now, the organic food company is offering up $10 in coupons and a chance to win a $2,500 food pantry donation and a year of free products.  I simply couldn’t pass that opportunity up and though you might be interested as well.  Head to the contest entry page and get it on the Organic Valley action.

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We’ve all heard the concerns surrounding pollinators, especially bees, and the diminishing populations we’re seeing worldwide.  Now is the time to step up our fight to save these tiny creatures that do so much work to keep us alive!

A Monarch butterfly migrating through southwestern Indiana stops to sip some nectar from a purple thistle.

The North American Pollinator Protection Project has come up with 30 regional-specific guides discussing the pollinators found in your area and how best to attract them.  Each guide discusses native plants found in your area that bees, butterflies, beetles and birds use for food and nesting.  They also show you how to include those plants in your landscape to best provide shelter from predators and harsh weather.

To find the guide for your region, just head to the North American Pollinator Project website.

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If you haven’t already read my brief review on a new book profiling modern architecture and alternative energy, click here.

A new book profiling 10 modern homes and how they're built with alternative energy useage in mind

Lori Ryker, author of Off The Grid: Modern Homes + Alternative Energy, grew up in Texas and has lived several places around the world. She now lives in Livingston, Montana and teaches at Montana State University’s School of Architecture and is a partner of Ryker/Nave Design. I recently had the opportunity to ask Ryker some questions about her new book and her thoughts on the future of sustainable living.

Q: What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about living off the grid?
A: That someone else should take the first step, that alternative energy is something of the future.

Q: You discuss how you think living off the grid brings people closer to where we live, making us more involved in how we live. Why do you think it’s important for more people to be connected to where and how they live?
A: Understanding where we live in the world and the reality of what it takes to live in that place (without the support of mechanical/big energy that creates a pseudo-environment) helps us take responsibility for the place in which we live, and the planet in general. Understanding the conditions of where we live help us make healthier and more responsible choices for environmental conditions such as clean water, air and landscapes; local food sources including plants and animals. Peter Berg coined a phrase in the 1970’s called bioregionalism, which addresses how we live in a place with particular identifiable physical and environmental features that then influence the use and consumption of local foods, materials and native plants, among other things. In the same way, living responsibly with alternative energy requires the knowledge and understanding of regions, bioregions and particular places so that we most efficiently employ the natural resource, such as sun or wind. Such a quality of life also makes us more grounded and invested in ourselves and the world.

Q: Have you found that a lot of people don’t think modern architecture and green features like off the grid living can be combined together?
A: No. I find that most people believe this relationship is normal. However, even three to five years ago this was not the case. There has been a strong and successful popular media push in the past few years to dispel the perception that living off the grid means living in the back-woods somewhere.

Q: You say the book is all about great living in great architecture. These homes certainly aren’t like the earth ships of the 60’s and 70’s are they?
A: No, but every once in a while I drive by an earth ship style place and think to myself, they are still quite sophisticated in their energy use and ability to connect people to the place in which they live, even if they do not appeal to everyone. I would argue that earth ships are also a “style” of architecture. An architect or designer could use the same materials and strategies of an earth ship today and arrive at a vastly different form of expression.

Q: You talk a lot about resource extraction and what you call “dirty energy”. What do you think it will take for people to understand how big of an environmental impact their home has?
A: A completely different way of evaluating home construction and energy use. Such as how bank loans are made, or how homes are taxed, how a builder accounts for the construction of the home and the materials used. In the meantime, we need alternative energy to become more affordable, better methods of measurement of an individual’s energy use and means to control particular components of energy use. Such as being able to separate out use of heating and cooling from media, not simply unplugging. We need more accountability. Simple things such as timers on lights and showers that are already in use in other parts of the world. These strategies remind us that the Earth is not limitless.

Keep checking back for the second half of my Q&A with Lori Ryker coming up later this week.  That’s when I’ll also post the details behind how to enter the contest to win a copy of Lori’s book.  You can get an early entry now by subscribing to my RSS Feed and then posting a comment on this article.

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There’s a lot of talk these days centering around living life on Earth a bit greener than we have been. Green living, alternative energy and sustainability are all buzz words surrounding the movement to live more in harmony with our environment. Some might question though whether that movement can really be partnered with the construction of a new home utilizing modern architectural designs.

A new book profiling 10 modern homes and how they're built with alternative energy useage in mind

Lori Ryker’s book titled Off The Grid: Modern Homes + Alternative Energy shows that you really can live in a beautifully designed, modern home while reducing your demand for energy. The 160-page glossy, hard-backed book profiles ten homes around the globe and shows how they’ve overcome complete dependence on the grid and leave a smaller footprint on the Earth.

Through example and illustrations, Ryker shows how each technology from geothermal heat pumps, wind turbines and solar arrays, can be integrated into the beauty and design of a modern home. The homes profiled in the book aren’t straw bale homes or Earthships. They range in size from small to large and sparse to intricately decorated. If you’re embarking on a journey to build a new modern house and have considered making it more green, Ryker’s book might be just the ticket to turning your visions into reality.

Stop by later in the week for a Q&A chat with Ryker and I’ll also tell you how you can have a shot at winning a copy of her new book.

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If you’re like me, your ears perk up anytime you hear that a company is offering you to try their product for free.  That’s why I’ve been impressed with Kashi, every few months rolling out a new product that people can try for free.  I think it’s a great marketing ploy, especially in our current economic troubles.  Just a few weeks ago, Kashi was advertising a coupon to try one of their new frozen dinners for free so I decided to give it a shot.

I haven’t been impressed with the other two Kashi products I’ve tried with their free coupon system.  First it was one of their breakfast/energy bars which I thought was terrible and have never bought another one since.  Second it was their line of granola-like breakfast cereals.  Once again, I thougth I was eating a bowl of nuts, twigs and leaves from the forest floor and couldn’t stand the taste or texture.  So, I was a little hesitant as I popped my Kashi frozen dinner and in the microwave and watched it cook.

I really wanted to try the Lemongrass Chicken dinner but my local grocery store didn’t carry it.  So I ended up going with the all-natural Southwest Style Chicken.  Pulling the dinner out of the microwave left a pleasant southwestern smell which got my mouth watering and excited to try the meal.

The grilled chicken breast was seasoned with lime, cumin and a hint of chipotle and diced into small pieces.  The flavorings were definitely present but not even throughout the chicken.  The chicken was on a bed of fire roasted onions, corn, red and green peppers and Kashi’s 7 whole grains and sesame pilaf.  The mixed in vegetables were very tasty and the whole grain pilaf was actually very good.  I didn sprinkle some salt and pepper over the top of the dish and that made it even better and allowed the flavors to really pop.

The frozen dinner is a bit small and didn’t fill up my “growing boy’s stomach” but was so tasty I scraped the dish it was in to get every last little bit.  Kashi says they use only high quality, natural ingredients with no preservatives or artificial anythings, ever.  The Southwest Style Chicken contained 16 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber.  When I have the money, I will probably give Kashi’s other frozen dinners a try.  I’m always looking for something to spice up the humdrum of my leftovers I usually take to work but get tired of running to the corner fast food joint to eat something totally horrible for me.

If you’ve tried the other dinners in Kashi’s new frozen line, let us know what your thought were!

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If you’re not an avid 60 Minutes watcher or missed Sunday night’s episode, you missed a great interview and profile of Alice Waters, the so-called mother of the slow food movement.  Shamefully, I have a couple of books with forwards by Alice Waters but didn’t know who she was until last night.

Alice is a staunch advocate of local farmer’s markets and stands strong in support of sustainable agriculture.  Her L.A. based restaurants, including the world reknowned Chez Panisse, utilize price fixed menus that change daily as farm fresh produce becomes available and goes out of season.  She’s also spearheaded the planting of a vegetable garden outside San Francisco’s city hall, a new classroom program that gets kids outside into a garden teaching them how to grow their own fresh and sustainable food and how to cook it and recently a call to plant a victory garden outside the White House.  You too can sign the petition to the Obamas by clicking that link.

If you didn’t get to see the story, I recommend you click this link and watch it now:

Alice Waters’ Crusade for Better Food

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