Cards that Grow, Literally

I always get a weird feeling when environmental groups hand out flyers. Sometimes, I'm annoyed: "No, I do not want another random piece of paper that I'm going to throw away before I even get home. Or, it's guilt: "I pretend to be an environmentalist but please take my flier even though I know you're going to throw it away before you get home".

PROBLEM SOLVED!

A plantable business card

It's called plantable paper, and it comes in the form of business cards (Think of the networking conversations this could spark!), fliers, invitations, post cards, and more. Just add water (and soil if you have it) and voila!

Seeds range from wildflowers all the way to the edibles like basil and chives

I'm SO doing these if/when I get married!

Thanks for the heads up Brooke! These are pretty sweet.

Chicago is One Step Ahead

"Chicago is often called the Second City, but it is way out in front of most in terms of adaptation" -Leslie Kaufman

Chicago is preparing for climate change.

Score for permeable pavement!

Cube-tastic

A tour of the Cube from Mike Page on Vimeo.

Imagine if they stacked these in NY. I have at least one friend who would benefit from this efficient use of space.

thanks Sasha =)

Natural Gas Isn't Perfect. Shocker.

I know it's old news, but I've been ill.

Natural gas may not be as "clean" a fossil fuel as once imagined. We all know that natural gas (methane) is over 20 times as powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2, and now, a report out of Cornell shows that natural gas mining, fracking in particular, may release enough methane to make it more harmful than coal. It's safe to say that T. Boone Pickens probably wasn't too happy.

A comparison of GHG emissions from various fossil fuels over a 20 year period. From NYTimes Tom Zeller's blog post.

To me, this study doesn't render natural gas unworthy. Instead, it serves as an incentive for the industry to improve their practices so that natural gas may facilitate our move toward renewable energy.

Dishwashing: Man vs. Machine

I always held the general impression that using machines and being green were inherently incompatible. When it comes to the battle between dishwasher and man, my friends tend to agree: some said hand washing was definitely greener and some, one of which referenced the "heated dry" function, were torn. However, contrary to popular belief, manual labor, conveniently, may not be the answer.

Collin Dunn did a detailed comparison of EnergyStar dishwashers and hand washing. I've adapted some of his analysis in order to compare hand washing to conventional dishwashers. Water and energy use for hand washing was determined assuming [warm] water use equivalent to that in a dishwasher cycle. For example, 54 dishes (the typical capacity of a dishwasher) washed in 6 gallons of water (the typical amount of water consumed in a dishwasher) means that only 1.75 cups of water from the faucet can be used per dish. If fewer dishes need to be washed, say 27 dishes, then the equivalent water use would be 3.7 cups per dish.

These numbers may seem confusing. Reference Dunn's article for more detailed calculations.

Moral of the story? When you have a large number of dishes piled up, go for the dishwasher. It's usually more efficient in terms of water use. Because energy use is heavily dependent on your type of dishwasher and water heater, comparing the two is a crapshoot. If you turn off heated dry, the odds will probably strongly favor dishwashers. If you only have a few dishes and can't wait to fill up the dishwasher, hand wash them. Below are some ways you can make each method more efficient.

For dishwasher tips, go here. To learn more handwashing tips, try this site. Also, learn why pre-rinsing is bad.

There are also a bunch of studies that back up these findings (and may favor dishwashers even more). Here are a few:

Rodale.

R. Stamminger (2006) at UBonn.