The Sustainability Umbrella.

Massachusetts Audubon Society Sustainability Projects.

2011-10-08T06:48:00.000-07:00

Massachusetts Audubon is at the forefront when it comes to making all the facilities at Sanctuaries state of art adaptations to the potential for sustainability. The set of videos below convey many innovations that are completely applicable to a home or business. And the videos are a lot of fun to watch, Enjoy.

This one above describes work at Joppa Flats in Newburyport.

Then we have the South Natick Sanctuary.

Ipswich River is probably my favorite and I know it well.

And then there is the Sanctuary at Wellfleet near the tip of Cape Cod.

It is Starting to be Called Clean Tech.

2010-03-25T01:42:00.000-07:00

I just finished a project for a client involving research into the New England venture capital sector to identify potential business leads among their portfolio start ups. As I worked my way through it, I was impressed by the extent of capital allocation moving toward the sector of what they collectively call 'Clean Tech'.

This surely bodes well. It should be noted that VC's allocate their own money, unlike investment banks and more frequently come from the sectors they now support. A lot of them seem to come from engineering back grounds and a common aspect of their group photo site visuals is they don't wear ties.

Good old Big Belly, a local enterprise, is one of their picks and is becoming increasingly ubiquitous in cities.

The BigBelly^® Solar Compactor is a patented compacting trash receptacle that is completely self-powered. Instead of requiring a grid connection, BigBelly uses solar power for 100% of its energy needs. The unit takes up as much space as the "footprint" of an ordinary receptacle—but its capacity is five times greater. Increased capacity reduces collection trips and can cut fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions by 80%. BigBelly also provides cost efficiencies from labor savings, fuel cost and maintenance savings, as well as environmental benefits from reduced emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Safe, easy to use, and designed to keep out pests, the BigBelly has already proven its worth in urban streets, parks, colleges, arenas—and in all weather conditions.

Sense of Place: Pittsfield Massachusetts.

2009-02-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

James Howard Kunstler often tosses valuable gems on where the post oil future will see positive prospects by describing the attributes. Big metro areas like Boston that are half choked by vast layers of unsustainable suburbs will be severly impacted by a peak oil future.

Small gateway cities with good rail infrastructure and lots of arable farm land close at hand are in far better shape to weather the Long Emergency. Charming little Pittsfield meets all the specs. One very important concept to embrace in all this is John Maynard Keynes sense of 'capacity'.

Pittsfield was dealt a horrid hand by General Electric in a case study of horrific corporate conduct. They polluted the daylights out of the place with PCBs from their transformer manufacture operation. The worst element of their long toxic regimen involved giving away contaminated dirt to homeowners as free leveling fill so it is nearly impossible to determine where all the PCB loaded dirt ended up.

Then, under Jack Welch, they closed the plant, wiping out a significant number of jobs and leaving a mega superfund site that is still causing problems. The city lost a tenth of its population in addition to elevated cancer risks and a half ruined drinking water supply with unusual damage to the Housatonic River.

But the silver lining in this dismal cloud is this capacity. The remains of the GE Plant are now becoming an elaborate complex of mixed use commercial property in a campus setting. GE is making efforts to redress the consequences of its conduct albeit weakly. It is perfectly poised to become a significant eco-tech center for light manufacturing that also draws on the strengths of its existing workforce and the capabilities of Berkshire Community College to craft an eco-tech curriculum with minimal fuss.

Pittsfield has little need for elaborate grad school degrees or expensive certifications for a life in Cubistan. It needs smart, cheap and fast two year orientations to an emerging sustainable future. It has this in Berkshire Community College.

Pittsfield city officials have been unusually dedicated to support for the arts following the recommendations made long ago by the Dukakis administration about the role of arts in stimulating economic growth. While it is a mild stretch, (arts act as more of a potentiator than as a fundamental), the enthusiasm is genuine and deeply touching. They have set the table well and now is the time to find some diners.

Moreover, Pittsfield is well suited to take advantage of the various mandates the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has imposed on utilities to generate a significant percentage of electrical power from alternative energy resources such as photovoltaic and wind. There are plenty of flat rooftops with good insolation potential and a number of squeeze points between Taconic mountains where good wind flow obtains.

Pittsfield is also the epicenter of Berkshire County which has a peculiar demographic symmetry. To the south lie the affluent baronial NIMBY towns who expect the region to have a weak hospitality service economy that echoes a world of serfs and lords. But they are ethically bankrupt and count for little beyond reflexive obstruction. Since when shall this region be hobbled by oligarch's urge to maintain their pristine multi million dollar vacation homes? Many will soon be wiped out by the terrifying onrush of planetary financial collapse that some of these very oligarchs caused by greed and incompetence.

Their view of Pittsfield is larded with contempt and unseemly class biases that should have no place in an honest egalitarian society. Ethan Zuckerman does a very good job describing the underlying tension between the 'Orchid' towns and the rest of the county.

The north marches are more interesting as there is a significant acreage of arable land for intensive sustainable cropping even though some now persist in dumb business plans involving pumpkins to waste for Halloween and Christmas trees.

They are seemingly oblivious to the advantages of market produce in an area where the major supermarkets have abnormally high prices in what looks a lot like market price collusion. And intelligent market farming would also create the potential for added value food production such as preserved asparagus vinaigrette or other unique products made from the land's capabilities.

The farmers market system in the area could easily undermine any potential supermarket price hike collusion and the money goes directly to the producers.

It is therefore my hope and conviction that Pittsfield is nearly perfectly poised to make an adept transition from the dying fossil fuel era toward the emerging smart sustainability future and it may well thrive and prosper as Boston chokes.

Eco-tech Economy.

2009-01-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

Forgive my long absence, I've been in the middle of a move from Cambridge to Pittsfield MA.

One item I've been meaning to share is this item on an ecotech economy partly prepared by John Podesta from the Center for American Progress, an exceptional D.C. 'Think Tank' run by the best elements of the Clinton administration. Some view it as a Clinton government in exile but Mr. Podesta is already an essential participant in the Obama administration.

This makes the data all the more timely as it gives us a glimpse of how President Obama is likely to allocate the infrastucture resources he has indicated will be needed to get the nation in good shape for a post petro future.

Sustainable Farming Bits.

2008-10-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

I found an international array of useful stories on sustainable farming and food endeavors.

In South Africa, we have a report on intensive small plot growing for urban farmers and we find it's echo in a report from Newton MA.

Pacific Canada offers a piece on Farmers markets that is applicable anywhere.

The UK is increasingly focused on sustainability with growing excitement. Carp farming and free range livestock options were among the weeks features.

Oregon sees the arrival of enhanced water retention supplements for arid region farming while sustainable vineyards come to California .

Green Economy Bits.

2008-10-15T14:26:00.000-07:00

I tried to set up my Google news feeds to gather Green Tech and Sustainability stories but there isn't really a keyword standard just now.

Amid the convulsions on Wall Street the Alternative energy news front is mainly enthusiastic and I imagine there are streams of smart venture capital flowing toward this sector while many others tank.

So below find a mish mash of stories from the last week or so about prospects for ALternative energy investment and growth.

Peoria brings an item on heat pump plans.

There's some early Merger and Acquisition movement in solar.

Post petro economy options are grist for Canada's pending election.

Web world is revving up new venture research portals.

And Harold sums it up.

Slob Chic Horticulture.

2008-10-15T14:01:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the summer I've kept an eye out for columbines, clematis and balloon flowers in various lush neighborhood gardens. I was waiting for the blooms to fade and seed pods to form to gather a few and brighten another corner.

It's kind of cool as you are doing it the ancient way rather than opening a packet from a store. Another aspect of my Slob Chic approach turns on leaves. The area around my office is dropping crab apple leaves and some other sidewalk exotic I haven't pegged yet. It's dropping lots of seeds now too.

Since these leaves compost easily, I mulch the impoverished soil of the elderly ornamental strip along the sidewalk. Why toss these into the recycle stream when they are free and useful here?

Internal Environmental Quality.

2008-10-13T12:03:00.000-07:00

By Jesse Herman from Asbestos.com

What fills your lungs inside your home may be worse that what you’re breathing outside!

For decades, the word “pollution” has been on the docket of every politician campaigning for one office or another. Cleaning up our air, our water, and our overall outdoor environment has been a huge priority since the 1960s, when the word “air pollution” first came into vogue. We’ve fought for emission laws, battled against companies that empty hazardous chemicals into our streams, and have made numerous other attempts to reduce the carbon footprint stamped on our outside world.

But what about the world inside our homes and offices? Surely, aside from a few germs and bacteria spread by family members and co-workers, our interior domains – for the most part – keep us safe and healthy, don’t they?

Not really. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), known health effects of indoor pollutants include asthma; cancer; developmental defects and delays, including effects on vision, hearing, growth, intelligence, and learning; and effects on the cardiovascular system.” (Source: Healthy Buildings, Healthy People: A Vision for the 21^st Century) And when you consider that the average American spends 90 percent of his/her time indoors, it’s easy to understand why cancer rates and the number of people affected by other environmental diseases are through the roof!

Hazards of Old Homes and Workplaces

Indoor environmental contaminants weren’t much of an issue when America was involved in the post-World War II building frenzy. The biggest concern was providing homes for all those growing baby boomer families, so houses went up quickly. Builders like William Levitt – famous for his many “Levittown” developments – constructed thousands upon thousands of homes in just a few years time, enticing homebuyers to the suburbs of America’s great cities where they could buy mass-produced homes cheaply.

Of course, not ever quickly-built, inexpensively-priced home of yesteryear was toxic, but many probably contained one of the biggest hazards of the 20^th century – asbestos. Little or no thought was given to the use of this naturally-mined mineral; everyone was impressed by its heat- and fire-resistant qualities, and because it was readily available, it was cheap and easy to obtain.

However, during the last 30 years, asbestos has emerged as the poster child for indoor environmental toxins, sickening not only those who worked in the construction industry of that era but also homeowners and do-it-yourselfers who came in contact with toxic forms of the mineral.

While bundled, intact asbestos generally causes no release of toxins and may merely require containment, damaged or old asbestos in both homes and commercial buildings can be a real stinker. “Friable” asbestos – the old stuff that crumbles and flakes off – is easily inhaled and absorbed into the lungs, where it wreaks havoc with pulmonary function. While not everyone who inhales asbestos develops asbestos-related diseases, the risk is very real, especially when asbestos is disturbed during renovation or demolition projects. Asbestos was used in various sorts of insulation and could also be found in floor tiles, “popcorn” ceilings, drywall glue, and myriad other building products. It’s often encountered during remodeling, much to the surprise of many homeowners.

And because most asbestos diseases, such as the cancer mesothelioma, remain latent for 30-40 years, many individuals who were unaware of the dangers of working with asbestos – including both homeowners and construction workers – are just learning that they’re battling this dreaded disease. Currently, there are no mesothelioma treatments that result in a cure.

New Homes?

Of course, the building boom continues in America, despite economic woes, and we no longer have to worry about asbestos and other similar toxins, do we?

Ever walk through a poshly-decorated sample home and take a deep whiff of that “new home” smell? Aah…doesn’t it smell marvelous? Fresh paint, new carpets…all those things you’d want in your brand new abode. Nothing to worry about here. No asbestos, no lead paint. Just a safe and clean place to live, free from all the contaminants found in old homes that were built before toxins were a concern, right?

Wrong! Various scientific studies have shown that our tightly sealed homes of the 21^st century are full of toxins. Remember that “new home” smell? That’s just a plethora of cancer-causing vapors drifting through your home, cleverly disguised as those “fresh and clean” smells that are expected in new construction. These petro-chemical concoctions from products such as synthetic carpets, toxic paints, particle board, and OSB (a.k.a. wafer board) are slowly sickening the inhabitants of newer homes and offices and most Americans simply don’t realize this is the case.

So, what’s the answer? Green building experts will tell you it all has to do with reducing what they like to call VOCs – volatile organic compounds like formaldehyde – at the source. These compounds cause cancer, skin ailments, and any number of other diseases, like asthma, which is at an all-time high among the nation’s children.

Asbestos may be a thing of the past, but today’s widely-used inexpensive building materials are destined to be the new asbestos. Formaldehyde, for example, is everywhere. You’ll find it in pressed wood cabinets and furniture, paints, glues, draperies, and in fuel-burning appliances. Eliminating formaldehyde at the source by choosing eco-friendly building products significantly reduces exposure to toxins and increases the internal environmental quality of a home or office.

Building green has never made so much sense and more and more green builders are emerging. Buyers of new homes and renovators of old ones, however, must be willing to go the extra mile and spend the extra dollar on building products that make sense. The quality of our indoor spaces – in a time when Americans spend way too much time indoors – is an issue which must be addressed with ongoing fervor – a fervor necessary in order to avoid another asbestos-like environmental catastrophe.

Added Value Found.

2008-10-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

I've been looking into the rise of locally produced added value food items as they are an indication of a long term rooted regional food economy. It turns out that there are so many that the topic needs its own periodic column.

In this case it will be a fun haphazard thing, a summary of food finds in no particular order or organizing principle.

Vermont is one of the more avid states for small holding food makers. Many can only be found through the directory section of The Northeast Organic Farm Association of Vermont.

A few examples I found with websites include Arcana Gardens in Jericho, VT with a cottage industry array of foods and herbs, the Brotherly Farm in Brookfield with a focus on certified organic dairy, meat and produce, and the Flack Family Farm in Enosburg Falls, which is exploring special fermentation for Sauerkraut and Kim Chi.

Sawmill Site Farms makes a conventional Sauerkraut all with several other condiments at its Western Mass facility. Cricket CreekFarm in Williamstown MA has several artisan cheeses to meet the run of seasons. Appalachian Naturals is growing a line of salad dressings in Greenfield MA Harvest Craft is gathering Chanterelles in the Petersburg NY area. They also make a line of Jewelweed soap.

The Big Picture Link Directories.

2008-10-11T10:17:00.000-07:00

The most useful aspect of this thing, if any, are the link directories in the "Big Picture" link list. Allow me to direct your attention to tow, in particular as they can be really helpful when you are trying to find resource things like a retailer of Solar Panels. For much of the emerging eco technology, there is hardly a retail franchise system in place. Traditional outlets like Home Depot or Lowes are well behind the curve as it is all brand new. The Eco Business directory is predominantly focused on North America and is a wealth of stuff for the end user consumer.

The Green Pages are more international in scope like a giant data base and may be particularly useful for those who are doing research about business options. Between them you should be able to find out about neaarly any green based thing in the expanding post petro world.

Consider New Dreams.

2008-10-06T12:44:00.001-07:00

Juliet Schor is to American working stiff and consumer awareness problems what Susan Faludi is to a very enlightened feminism and we as a nation are better for the presence of both.

Back when I still listened to NPR, she was always one of my favorite commentators with her tireless exploration of the horrific deal working stiff families have been handed since Reagan waltzed into office to begin a protracted period of ruination and looting for average working Americans that is now wildly imploding.

New American Dream is her brain child, a valuable site for those who are seeking ways to protect themselves from out of control marketing that wants to turn your hapless toddlers into constantly whining nightmares over consumer trifles.

Making a good bullshit detector in modern predatory America is fairly difficult so it is good to know that Professor Schor is on it.

Neptune's Harvest and Monster Pumpkins.

2008-10-06T11:42:00.000-07:00

I first read about the potential of certain seaweeds for soil enrichment and livestock feed in the 1980's in a now out of print Sierra Club guidebook by Micheal Berrill about the North Atlantic Coast. They had a series of astonishingly good guides to many diverse biomes but for some grubby reason, have failed to keep the series in print. The child of Muir has been going down hill for a few decades and the loss of this reference set is just one example. Used copies can be found at Amazon and Al Libris.

Back then I didn't see much evidence of anyone with a business model for actually bringing this renewable resource to market and use was limited to a few savvy organic gardeners and farmers. Times have changed. This valuable resource has gone from being overlooked to being coveted as this quarrel story from Maine indicates.

Gloucester Massachusetts based Neptune's Harvest is one of the very few businesses that have run with this potential, an outgrowth of a decision to turn fish preparation by-products into soil enhancers and livestock feed. Here is the core of their story from their website.

"Neptune’s Harvest is a division of Ocean Crest Seafoods Inc., which was established in 1965 as a wholesale fish and seafood company. The focus of Ocean Crest has been to purchase the freshest seafood the “port of Gloucester” has to offer and distribute it to many of the best supermarkets, restaurants, and retailers on the East Coast."

'The Neptune’s Harvest division came about as an endeavor to fully utilize the fresh fish that we process. When a fish is filleted, (the process of cutting the edible portion from the fish) up to 70% of it is in the form of heads, skeletons, scales and fins. In 1986, when Neptune’s Harvest was started, this portion was being brought out on fishing boats and dumped back to the sea. Clearly there was a need of more economical and environmentally sound method of use for this valuable by-product.'

"Ocean Crest Seafood’s and Neptune’s Harvest, in conjunction with the state of Massachusetts and its local universities, has developed a process through which we changed an environmental hazard into an environmental benefit, the result being Neptune’s Harvest liquid fish fertilizer. After several years of trial and error and further refinements we now believe that we have the finest fertilizers (either organic or inorganic) available today."

Ms Ann Molloy directs sales for Neptune's Harvest and graciously provided a sense of how this has worked for the company over the passing years.

Describe the business growth over the past ten years.

"Our sales have almost doubled every year. I contribute this to the rise in organic awareness and the fact that our products work so well, the word of mouth factor really works for us."

Has the seaweed harvest side helped to offset losses to the seafood side due to fishery depletion?

"The seaweed does help spread the fish out further, so we have more fish to sell, when supplies are low."

How is the livestock feed aspect doing?

"Because of the high price of soybeans, as a protein source, we are selling more fish to be used with feed. Fish is a less expensive and better source of protein. Seaweed in the form of Kelp Meal, is an excellent animal feed as well. The Kelp Meal is fed free choice and has many minerals and other nutrients animals need to stay healthy. The reports back from customers has been amazing on this product. I’ve heard stories about animals being on deaths door, and completely rebounding after being fed the Kelp Meal."

Are you seeing growth in the larger order areas for organic farming operations?

"Yes, as organic acres increase we are selling larger quantities to organic farms. Some even buy by the 4500 gallon tanker-truck."

How far does your customer base extend?

"We sell throughout the country and also small amounts to Asia, Europe, Canada and Mexico."

Has an online presence contributed to your growth.

"Yes. Every year we increase internet sales, and more and more farmers are searching products out on-line now. It is also helpful that farmers can get application rates and usage guides on-line, so they can get what they need right away."

So there you have it, a very intelligent sustainability adaptation by a local small business built from smart collaboration with governmental and academic research entities here in the Commonwealth that promises to have a very valuable role in needed soil enhancement for the growing number of family farms springing up all over the region. Whatta pumpkin!

Sense of Place: New Hampshire Seacoast.

2008-10-04T16:56:00.000-07:00

Sense of Place: The New Hampshire Seacoast.

I spent most of the early 1990's living in Portsmouth New Hampshire or Kittery, Maine. Portsmouth was affordable and surprisingly complete, a perfect micro city. The other area communities are robust and live-able as well.

The seaward face of the area is part of the last stretch of sandy beach littoral before the coast goes rock bound and cobble strewn north of Portland, Maine.

There is a significant inland body of sea water called the Great Bay where a workable brackishness and substrate is attractive to Oysters. There were rumors of rare bold Atlantic Salmon nosing up the Piscataqua back then and current data tends to confirm a ghost presence at best.

This makes the bay a growing center for sustainable mariculture. One of the more notable projects is a mussel farm off the Isles of Shoals.

The bay is fed by a lacing of small coastal rivers that all make home to good spots of farmland and this is where the region has really seen growth. The first indication is a fairly extensive network of farmers markets for nearly every town in the area. This indicates a good solid local loop that marks a rebirth of patterns that obtained in the pre-supermarket era.

The markets, in turn, are served by an impressive variety of sustainable farms . Seacoast Eat Local has made a handy portal into the region. Slow Food Seacoast also offers detailed pieces on the growth of ingredients options.

The farms, for their part offer a number of models and foods. Willow Pond offers a place for individuals to share in crop creation in a community farm design. Meadows Mirth and New Roots hew closer to a family farm model. All of the former focus on produce, flowers and herbs.

Lasting Legacy, McClary Hill and Riverslea farms are examples of different meat, egg or poultry operations with Riverslea also preparing wool.

And finally, Seacoast NRG gives a glimpse into energies directed to energy alternatives and completes a sense of how this unique corner of New England is moving away from the fossil fuel era.

Solar Convergences and other Energies.

2008-10-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

There have been a run of encouraging reports over the past week amid the big picture market turmoil and electoral attention. There is an encouraging acceleration of solar install activity on the horizon.

Spire Corporation is cited as a growth engine here. Soon after come announcements from National Grid, and an echos in Pittsburgh. New Jersey is weighing in on wind. Vermont has expansion plans for bio-gas production in dairy farms.

The best thing about all this and a likely factor in accelerated growth is the install costs when compared with proposing, designing, permitting, insuring and building a conventional power plant and I imagine the decentralization is pretty appealing too.

There is also a likely advantage in cost overrun relief, surely a welcome thing here in Massachusetts, where cost damage from the horrific Big Dig has cast a blight shadow over the entire remaining infrastructure as it leaves a crippled economy in the State Government sector.

So, as the finance world chokes on its own mess and the media pummels us with drivel about the election, may we take comfort in the likelihood that these decentralized adaptations may have a useful impact well before the 700 billion dollar bailout does, if it does.

Let Us Now Praise Fall Squash.

2008-09-30T05:25:00.000-07:00

I just finished steaming another plump butternut after the zen ritual of peeling it and tossing the seeds for squirrels and Janet's hens. I only put a quarter inch of water and some sea salt in the kettle, put the lid on and wait for the steam to do its work.

When it has a nice consistency like slightly thick batter, I whisk things in like Parmesan, although any number of other cheeses from manchego to feta will work as well, some Bells seasoning, butter, sour cream, pimenton la vera, white pepper and Old Bay seasoning. Whee! Blue Hubbard is another squash variety that would work well. Those smaller acorn squash things work better cut in half and baked with say, honey, butter and cinnamon or nutmeg.

When I was a kid growing up in Reading MA, my ancient great grandmother and I would grow blue hubbards and lay them in a cardboard box in the basement, a natural root cellar and damn if they didn't stay in good shape until Easter. We were doing a form of permaculture then, we just didn't know it.

I realized it is just an elaborate euphemism for working with the given. Squash growing is an old New England thing. I have a feeling it will be a core crop here as the region finds its sustainable way.

Sense of Place: Vashon Sustainability.

2008-09-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

I had the good fortune to live on Vashon Island from April 2000 til April 2001. It is the rarest of places, an utterly rural island at the doorstep of a large metro area connected by threads of ferry schedules from several points. It might be an interesting study in how a place might evolve if it escapes digestion by sprawl.

I decide to do a few searches to see how its doing and it should be examined carefully as it is evolving into a model of sustainable adaptability at every applicable level it can identify.

It is fairly self contained and has its own charming newspaper, a historical society, a parks commission for its array of nature preserves, an art scene, book stores , thrift shops and all the basics. There is a substantial deer herd and a winery. It even has a couple of bus routes while being nearly perfect for bicycles.

The island's most pressing limitation is water availability, seemingly a contradiction for a wet climate, but groundwater resources are finite and Vashon protects its residents from the added cost of tyeing into the metro water system by careful resource husbandry.

Sustainable Vashon is a good place to begin as it gives you a valuable overview of the fabric of activity. And the levels and variety of activity. Building Circles provides innovative Hobbit-like home design ideas deftly fitted to place, there are biodeisel groups, footprint reduction projects and a ramp up in sustainable farming. They even have a sustainable logging mill work operation that takes downed trees to mill various dimension stock for local trades.

One purpose of this series will be a constant search for models to describe to provide examples of how people are making their sustainability adaptations in their unique places, in this case a second growth Northwest Doug fir biome. The Vashon approach is particularly notable in that all facets are grassroots community based entities. It appears that different residents tackled aspects that held their interests and just had at it. Nearly all of this activity has ramped up in the years since 2001 and the thoroughness is stunning.

Free Flowing St. Louis to the Sea.

2008-09-24T17:21:00.000-07:00

I think of Lincoln's remark after the Civil War Victory at Vicksburg, (now a likely hydrokinetic turbine site). "And the waters rolled unvexed to the sea.."

I'm fascinated by the potential of hydrokinetics as one of the core solutions for moving past the Oil Era. I particularly like how the application does away with a need for more dams given what we have learned about dam downsides over the years.

Free Flow Power Corporation in Gloucester MA is one of the emerging leaders in this exciting field.

It was founded to produce cheap, clean, reliable, renewable energy from moving water without building dams.

Here are their basic design parameters.

Our FFP Turbine Generator is designed to produce electricity

at a cost that competes with conventional forms of generation,
without building new dams or diversions,
without disrupting the aquatic or marine environment,
without interfering with recreational and navigational uses of water resources, and
without being seen above the surface of the water.

There are many optimum areas in New England such as the Great Bay in New Hampshire, the Merrimac Mouth, the major river outlets of Maine or the Cobscook Bay area.

There are yield estimates for a full application of the technology to the overall power grid.

"The company, Free Flow Power Corp., is pursuing a $3 billion plan to install thousands of small electric turbines in the river bed, reaching from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico that would collectively generate 1,600 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 1.5 million homes."

"Free Flow Power chose the Mississippi River following a nationwide search in which it reviewed government data for 80,000 potential sites, looking for minimum average river flows of about 6.5 miles per hour. The sites between St. Louis and New Orleans were among the best they found and also are near electricity markets in the Midwest and Southeast, (CEO) Daniel Irvin said."

What's not to like about using water motion without the hazards and wreckage that often attends Dam construction. Somewhere, the ghosts of John Muir and John Wesley Powell can look on and be proud to see us finally figure it out.

The Merits of Carlessness.

2008-09-23T16:22:00.000-07:00

I have always organized my life around a pre-fossil fuel human scale. I live in cities whenever possible as all other environs in most of America are geared to auto ownership. To me, the advantages of a carless life greatly outweigh the transient inconveniences. For example, there are a suite of expenses from insurance, car loan payments, fuel and repair costs and depreciation that do not impact me at all.

Then I also lose stress from attempting to drive around the area's horribly congested roadways. It might surprise you to know how many friends I have who also opt for no car or minimal use of the things. And yet they all live fairly productive lives and will be well equipped to handle any challenges ahead as the oil era winds down.

I am also reminded of McLuhan's admonitions in "Understanding Media" on how the introduction of an invention alters how we use our bodies and minds. "The wheel is an extension of the foot and yet the pace of the thing undermines a sense of space and distance. Seeing the world whir by at 60mph is a real affront to primeval perception and attention must focus on exquisitely narrow things to avoid a collision.

And what's to like about rush hour and road rage?

There are a growing number of game plans to shift away from oil but none offer the elegance of simply abandoning personal motor vehicles until some significant oil less mode takes hold. The biodeisel option may not work to produce the real quantities of fuel needed to run the planetary vehicle fleet without causing even more catastrophic problems.

The utter configuration of land use patterns, such as vast car dependent suburbs may well be one of the biggest dislocation hazards staring at us if the Oil era tanks. More efficient public transit infrastructure will eventually salvage environs like the droll little suburb that once housed me but the real remote places will be left in the lurch.

The Emerging Massachusetts Sustainability Model.

2008-09-21T16:06:00.000-07:00

The Commonwealth is an interesting place to see through the prism of sustainability. The densely populated East is home to the emerging players in the Eco-Tech Field with Spire in Bedford and Konarka in Lowell making strides in photovoltaics. Framingham is home to Ameresco which could play a very valuable role here in waste water treatment conversion I'll describe in more detail below. Gloucester faces the sea well with hydrokinetic turbines at Free Flow and organic soil enhancement from Neptune's Harvest.

And as for wind, there are clusters of wind works in the South Coast and Cape including Aerostar in Plymouth, Aeronautica in Westport and Turning Mill Energy in Sandwich. Two others are in the Boston urban core, Second Wind, in Somerville and the brand new Wind Pole in Lexington.

There are many more in a growing array of fields and it looks to be the earliest break of a new manufacturing wave that well fits the area's legacy infrastructure. And this reborn manufacturing base should be here to stay as the cost of container shipment from the Far East rises with the cost of fuel.

The Eastern Half is correspondingly more problematic and Massachusetts Smart Growth published some findings for major improvement areas in conjunction with a report by the Brookings Institute.The following italicized segments are from that paper by Smart Growth Executive Director Andre Leroux.

"The Brookings report quantifies the most significant sources of carbon emitted by the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas in 2000 and 2005. Those sources are fuels burned by vehicles (personal and freight) and the energy used in residential buildings. The per capita figures for metro residents do not include emissions from commercial buildings and industry."

"In recent years, state and local governments have taken steps to improve energy efficiency and curb carbon emissions. The federal government, however, has been slower-moving, the Brookings report contends. Federal funding formulas favor highway construction over rapid transit and federal policy fails to promote energy efficiency in its housing policies."

“While many metro areas are taking the lead on climate action, they will be hard pressed to shrink their carbon footprints in the absence of supportive federal policies,” added Mark Muro, policy director of the Metropolitan Policy Program and the co-author of a forthcoming Brookings policy agenda to be issued as part of the institution’s Blueprint for American Prosperity, a multi-year initiative to promote metro-friendly federal policy stances."

“Metros can’t go it alone in solving as vast a problem as global climate change,” Muro said.

The more rural West is home to the more advanced inroads to sustainability and grassroots sustainability organizing. It will increasingly see the rebirth of farming and food production and its housing stock has less of a footprint than the vast urban messes of the East. There is substantially more room to decentralize waste and energy streams and also it has sleeping potential to see its own manufacturing restoration.

Housing Stock Retrofitting.

This may well be the most urgent and rewarding endeavor to get the Commonwealth in condition to minimize exposure to peak oil impacts and it is long overdue. The vast inventory of urban legacy rental property, the hundreds of triple deckers and multi unit residences built before World War Two, are often major energy burners.

Because the heating and cooling costs are traditionally passed along to tenants, the property owners rarely have the inclination or incentive to make sufficient efficiency upgrades, The long standing depreciation allowance elements of the tax codes probably further exacerbate the situation. The recent spate of condo conversion during the housing bubble had a useful role in upgrading the impacted properties so some efficiency churning is underway.

But with the collapse of the housing market, the rental sector rises in importance without any corresponding improvement in quality.

"Making our homes more energy efficient, André added, can also have a huge positive impact. Our older housing stock and long winters put Massachusetts cities near the bottom in terms of carbon emissions from residential fuel use."

"The Legislature should complete its work on comprehensive energy legislation before the end of the session and include strong provisions to help homeowners make the state’s older housing stock more energy efficient."

I haven't yet discovered any Eastern Mass. equivalent to the Center for Ecological Technology with offices in Pittsfield and Northampton. It also maintains affiliation with the ReStore in Springfield.

Transportation.

The Boston Metro area within the 495 donut is poorly served by a transit system focused on Boston while seemingly oblivious to the vast population, fully half of the Commonwealth, that doesn't live or work in Boston. It is a wheel without a rim. And within the urban core there has been a significant increase in bicycle use that will only continue without much corresponding accommodation for this bike load on menacing motor congested streets.

The city of Cambridge has taken some baby steps toward addressing the bike load. Certain arterial streets are marked with white lined bike lanes that put bicyclists in across fire between street traffic and the ever present hazard of the parked car door openers. And, from repeated direct observation, it is fairly clear that significant numbers of motorists are fairly oblivious or indifferent to the presence of these white lines.

It could be noted that few of the emerging manufacturers mentioned above are located in the urban core. Few of the conventional manufacturers, retail centers and service sector employers that drive the Commonwealths economy are located in the urban core. Some of the high potential South Coast cities such as Fall River and New Bedford utterly lack robust and cost effective public transportation links to Boston despite an avid interest in promoting these areas for future development.

"According to the Boston Indicators Project coordinated by the Boston Foundation in partnership with the City of Boston and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (www.tbf.org/indicators2004), the number of registered cars rose by 29.7% in Metro Boston, and by 37.4% in Massachusetts between 1990 and 2004. Furthermore, growth in vehicle miles traveled (VMTs) in Metro Boston and statewide has continued to increase faster than the growth in population."

"We need to maintain existing transportation infrastructure and increase investment in expanding transportation choices. The goal is to improve mobility, not restrict it, and increase our options for getting around, such as walking to a park or a school, making it possible to take a bike to work, and offering bus and rail service that is pleasant, clean and reliable."

Source Reduction and Biomethane.

The high public infrastructure costs of the Metro Region form a significant barrier to entry for many start ups. The MWRA is a substantial cost element of locating within its jurisdiction. While significant strides have been made in water use efficiency and source reduction there is room for improvement. Perhaps a reason why water efficiency exceeds energy efficiency in legacy rental property is that property owners traditionally pay the water bill and they are impacted by cost spikes.

The MWRA could readily become a net energy producer by making its sprawl of water treatment facilities into biomethane production facilities. This could be a significant cost offset and contribute to source reduction.

Food and Farming.

This element of the Commonwealth's sustainability potential finds its principle home in Western Massachusetts where bottom up grass roots ventures have much lower barriers to entry and where some of the very finest soil rests on a vast glacial lake bed that extends from Northern Connecticut to Southern Vermont and New Hampshire. The regions many other watersheds often hold extensive pockets of quality farm soil.

The region also has reliable water from seasonal weather patterns that are unlikely to change to arid as climate change drifts where it will. This is a valuable contrast from many regions of the country with depleting water resources.

The Local Harvest Massachusetts search page cites 419 listed entities with a significant grouping in Western and Central Mass. The Berkshires have a dedicated entity in Berkshire Grown.

NESAWG and The New England Small Farm Institute both have a robust presence in the Connecticut Valley and the Central Connecticut River Valley Institute in Shelburne Falls has the proliferation of sustainable farming as its core mission. Touchstone Eco Village is an example of a sustainable farm community in Easthampton.

Eastern Massachusetts hasn't as much room for sustainable farming but Essex County and the South Coast are significant growth areas. The glacial lake soil that first supported farming in the Concord River watershed still carries a few farms and they are likely to be increasingly valuable community assets in days ahead.

This concludes an introductory overview of some of the salient elements that contribute to the Green sector of the Commonwealths economy. Over time I will provide research in detail for a number of these facets and they will become themes in the ongoing run of scribblings.

May it also be a useful exercise in other biomes as much of the transformation to sustainability will see displacement of ponderous fossil fuel Multi Nationals with the more subtle place specific mosiac of Multi Locals.

Slob Chic.

2008-09-17T17:00:00.001-07:00

This is an old manifesto of mine that has circulated for a few years but is a useful outlook. I am surprised at how many people under 50 love making their worlds out of found stuff even when they could easily afford to be consumers. And it seems to be growing into an increasingly critical skill in the post fossil fuel world.

With steamrolling consumption bearing down, avid anti consumers will do well to live like Henry Thoreau. From Walden we get this gem, “I’d rather sit on a pumpkin and have it to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion”.

Of course, a bit more grace and vivacity than the priggish Concord Curmudgeon makes the run more fun but his basic premises are sound and increasingly essential to ward off encroaching affluenza.

We aren’t likely to be crowded on velvet cushions but the search for pumpkin options well rewards the effort.

.Henry is Slob Chic’s grandpa but it was a common feature of life as recently as the material starved home lives during World War Two when people just made more of their household stuff because they couldn’t buy it due to strict rationing of nearly anything needed for the war effort.

The aesthetic is grounded in enhanced utilitarianism. A free object from the nations bloated avalanche of castoff stuff is MORE valuable than a store bought object sold to serve the same purpose.

Why give Ikea a dime for shelving when the land provides milk crates, produce boxes, wine cases, boards and such in overwhelming abundance?

A wary look at curbside trash will often reward the searcher with all kinds of usable furniture up to and including a couch. Upgrades are always possible and the rejects can finally resume their trek to the landfill Valhalla or recycle rebirth.

The castaway stuff of our complex and demented material is, by itself, unimaginable wealth to impoverished peoples of the Sahel who make most of their usable stuff from sticks and baling wire.

Consider the plastic milk jug. This thing can be by turns a plant pot, a funnel, lamp shade or furnish good stock for guitar picks or any other purpose suggested by need for the plastic.

With a little imagination and appreciation for a materials intrinsic utility potential as it careens through the trash stream, one can eliminate entire categories of costly consumer clutter and its bite on the wallet.

And, when you move, you can always send it back on its journey to the landfill knowing you gave it a temporary reprieve.

And the best part is the reverse snob gloating one can apply to guests. “Hey, check it out, we just tricked this whole dump out and it did'nt cost a dime, have a glass of the great Syrah we bought with the money while we wait for the steak to come out of the broiler.”

There’s the rub. The best way to rein the heartless corporate world is to stop giving them so much money. Here’s a fun hierarchy.

When you need some consumer thing run this string. 1. Can I scrounge it? 2. Is it in a thrift shop, yard sale or second hand source? 3. Can I get it from a small family owned business or wholesaler?

A thorough Thoreau run down this chain may be the only real power of direct choice we can bring to bear on laissez faire run amok.

You may well discover that the number of things you need to feed the mega hogs maw are few and comfortably far between. That, in turn, lets you save more or work less and reduce your exposure to the other side of the merciless laissez faire coin, that shabby travesty called ‘the workplace’.

And if it catches on we may one day see the pests shrink back from their drive to make little profit centers of us all.

Welcome Canyonlands People.

2008-09-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

I'm quite sincere about wanting this space to be as useful as possible so I did a check of Google sustainability groups and a vivacious group based near the Utah Canyonlands graciously welcomed me into their midst if puzzled by why I'd want to.

An important aspect of my idea of sustainability turns on wise adaptation to the sense of place a biome defines. To this end I am looking at elements of a sustainability shift in a moist continental climate comprised mainly of mixed deciduous, mainly, oak forests. It also meets the ocean where it is part of the very southern edge of the boreal littoral, (north of Cape Cod).

Among the elements I identified that would be part of the mix I'd include sustainable farming/permaculture, Biogas production from the huge metro waste water systems or hydrokinetic potential in the currents of the Great Bay, New Hampshire and the region near Cobscook Bay Maine and the Fundy tides.

The absolutely shabby greater Boston public transit system would be another core priority as well as its relations to the region. The large lingering number of shabby legacy structures in the urban core make for a bloated carbon footprint and suggest the critical need for retrofitting.

An urban region that pumps an avalanche of trash needs to move beyond recycling to source reduction of nearly every consumable.

The Canyonlands will have significantly different elements such as water conservation and many potential applications for geo-thermal heating and cooling. The role of wind and solar will be far more prominent. Farming and Permaculture will have different potentials.

Despite the differences in the two biomes, the gathered array of resources here are of value to parties in both areas and so it would go for any discrete biome within the reach of the web.

So Canyonlands visitors, Make yourselves at home and questions are welcome.

The Slow Food Applesauce of Autumn.

2008-09-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

Every year at this time, I like to make a ceremonial batch of elevated applesauce. I call it Yankee Ambrosia. It has little resemblance to that one finds in conventional supermarkets. I pick a random batch of apples for flavor add local sweeteners like maple syrup or honey, some raisins and walnuts for complement flavor and plenty of cinnamon and nutmeg. I usually don't peel the apples, I just core them and cut them into fairly good sized chunks.

Then I add a quarter inch or so of water to the bottom of the kettle and let the steam gradually reduce the whole thing to a point where there is still some solid texture to the apple chunks. It is a scratch recipe I learned from my great grandmother and strikes me as quintessence of the slow food concept, a cuisine based on the realities of place.

The NYT recently covered a Slow Food event in San Francisco and I thought it would be a good time to invite my old colleague, Todd Preston to weigh in on his sense of Slow Food and how it changes when filtered through the American outlook.

"It is difficult to describe the "right" way that food production should go. Given world population it is simply implausible to go "organic". Massive tractors and chemical fertilizers have their place.....have you put ketchup on anything lately? Most folks would love to live in a world where the calloused hand of the farmer hands you each onion....this is nice but largely a magazine page dream....I love the farmers market too and this is important....but we love our avocados in January just as much....South America comes through as the planet tilts...at huge expense...Slow Food basically says rediscover your love of pickles and forget about asparagus in November... the dim have hi-jacked this noble effort of course...turned it into their normal yuppie one-upmanship tard parade instead of a bunch of folks recognizing something wrong and coming together in honest grass root partnership and then getting to taste and be nourished by the delicious results..."

" "Canning....a once home based necessity for survival...has become corporate...a loss of fundamental knowledge....I'm just starting to deal in barrels of tomatoes...but my old school Grandpa tomato jockey knows the scene...Ed Flemming...and we are on the cusp of the San Fernando valley....he has had his thumb on Heinz and others for a generation or two...it just becomes fun after a while....but anyways...with specialization comes knowledge loss...we are not equipped to suffer a large scale power loss....India or China could figure things out in a way we could never fathom...they are closer to shit...if you catch my drift...get hip to the 3rd world vibe."

Slow Food International and Slow Food USA are good start points to learn about a word of heirloom food restoration, agricultural diversity and a sense of place.

Seaweed Sustainability.

2008-09-14T07:37:00.001-07:00

I'll use my local area whenever possible to identify sustainable adaptations and one will surely be seeking post fossil fuel fertilizer options. Seaweed harvest has a long history in the coastal regions of Ireland and Scandinavia and the practice is well adopted in Canada.

"Rock Weed" is a very common species found at the lower tide zones from Greenland to the edge of the Mangrove swamps of the South. It has value properties as a compost and as a barnyard feed due to the many trace minerals.

Here in Massachusetts there is probably room for some growth in the harvest of seaweed to supplement CSA farms through out the commonwealth.

It may even become a growth industry supplement to job losses from other fishery declines. As petro-fertilizer increases in price the presence of a valuable option at our doorstep can only become more valuable to make the transition out of the Oil Era. May the Commonwealth one day have something like this as a resource to promote the potential.

Neptune's Harvest is a ready for market range of seaweed and fish emulsion fertilizers made by a division of the Gloucester based Ocean Crest Seafoods. And for those seeking examples of other Irish Seaweed products, Dolphin Sea Vegetable Company might be a fun place to start.

Inelasticity Meets Home Retrofitting.

2008-09-11T18:51:00.000-07:00

The Oil Drum featured an essential paper on the relations between gasoline and heating oil prices and the role that demand destruction plays in each.

Gasoline prices can be impacted by use reduction by motorists as they cut back on driving. This is called 'elastic' demand.

A significant part of oil demand is 'inelastic'. Essential operations of oil fueled power plants or home heating have less room for demand reduction and need to be offset by efficiency enhancements or alternative fuel swaps.

In the colder populous old regions of the US such as New England, there is still a vast energy loss from legacy housing stock, particularly in urban areas where thousands of structures remain uninsulated.

This suggests an urgent need to identify housing stock that still isn't up to 21st century potentials and follow with a crash program of subsidy and tax incentive to reach readily attainable efficiencies.

The other side of addressing inelastic demand turns on swap outs and switch overs to post fossil fuels. The city of San Antonio, Texas is an early adopter of using methane capture technology to substantially augment it's fuel mix in a closed loop utilization of its waste water plant.

The movement out of the fossil fuel past wants a mosaic of coordinated efficiencies swap outs to substitute for the expedience of running systems on an unrenewable and increasingly costly option.

Welcome to the Sustainability Umbrella.

2008-09-10T13:38:00.001-07:00

I've been following the various strands of the growing Green world for years now and concluded a useful hub for all the elements is long overdue. This is a study in enhanced utility and it will have very intensive link resources from the vast growing sprawl of a transformative period in our lives.

The core role model will be James Howard Kunstler.

His essay, The Long Emergency, is to me, astonishingly prescient and should be viewed as an essential blueprint for the most challenging transition of our lifetime.

I fully agree with him that the fossil fuel sprawl mess is at the core of our problem and much of the solution rides on our adaptability and readiness to move beyond the structural underpinning of the fossil fuel assumptions.

It's about accepting a less bloated life and seeking ways to have fun without depending on the toxic toys foisted on us over the years as the bloat world we now embrace will soon pass forever.

We can either be nimble about the transition or kick and scream and suffer. My intent here is to make all interested parties as well equipped as possible to make the transition.