half

Zero Waste and the Johnsons

March 19, 2011

I came across this video at JetsonGreen and just had to share it. I first heard of the Johnsons via a friend sharing the link to her zero waste home blog and was intrigued by Bea’s take on the three Rs. Before you ever get to reduce, reuse or recycle, you should refuse, refuse, refuse. [...]

Read More →

Project Homeless Connect and Perspective

March 17, 2011

Saint Patrick’s Day, 2011. The day of the fifth annual Project Homeless Connect (PHC) in Lane County, Oregon. Simply “ordinary people finding extraordinary solutions to end homelessness.” If you’re wondering here what aspect of living a simple, sustainable lifestyle this addresses, it falls squarely into the triple bottom line leg of social equity. This was [...]

Read More →

Van Jones and Green Jobs

January 25, 2011

Van Jones was appointed by President Obama early in his presidency. After a short six months as Special Advisor for Green Jobs in the Obama Administration, amid controversy over several issues, Jones resigned. My wife and I had the privilege of hearing Jones speak Monday night at the University of Oregon in the EMU Ballroom. [...]

Read More →

Good Earth Home Show 2011

January 23, 2011

This was the second year, we were at the Good Earth Home Garden and Living Show. My architectural firm, Arbor South Architecture had a booth last year and we did it again this year. This was also the second year we did a seminar. In 2010, we talked about our award-winning LEED Platinum home, theSAGE. [...]

Read More →

Simple Sometimes is Really Good

December 1, 2010

OK, so a few days ago I dissed on the one-cup coffee makers with all the disposables. Now for something truly sustainable and amazing. It’s the Niagra Stealth HET (High Efficiency Toilet). Made by Niagra Conservation, the Stealth toilet is a single flush, using only 0.8 gallons. Most of the new dual flush toilets are [...]

Read More →

Save Ink and $$

September 11, 2010

My wife, Brenda, was looking through a magazine and came across an article on back to school stuff. Now, just a reminder, our kids are adults and out on their own; that’s why we’re wanting to downsize our house. But this article intrigued her. It talked about a software program called EcoFont that saves 25% [...]

Read More →

Junk Mail

January 26, 2010

So last time I talked about phone books. Today I’d like to talk about junk mail. No one gets junk mail do we? Oh, really? You do? Our recycle bin at home is dominated by the junk mail that comes to us in the snail mail. I think that’s the dominant form of paper we [...]

Read More →

Saving Water

January 14, 2010

Water. Something we in the US take largely for granted. We go to the faucet, turn it on and don’t really think twice about it. For us it’s abundant, cheap and clean. And for those of us in the Pacific Northwest, it’s cool, refreshing and drinkable — right out of the tap. But a lot [...]

Read More →

Phantom Electricity

January 11, 2010

This handy little device is called “Kill A Watt”. I have one. It’s been very educational. You can buy them at most any hardware store and our local library will even check one out to you for free. What is does is measure the amount of electricity flowing to any device: computer, TV, DVD player, [...]

Read More →

White

January 9, 2010

If you’re following a recent wave on Facebook, you’ll have noticed women posting their bra color to raise awareness about breast cancer. Well, I had already planned this post, so thought it timely to go for it. I was originally going to call it “Halves and Doubles: Underwear”, but decided to change simply to “White”. [...]

Read More →