I read an interesting article recently from one of the New York Times blogs about an environmental program geared towards harnessing the immense energy and tenacity of children. It’s called Green My Parents. As they state on their site, GMP, “is a movement that activates & enlists kids to lead their families in measuring & reducing environmental impact at home & ‘challenge’ their parents to share savings with kids.” The effort was just launched this past Earth Day, and now has a presence on Facebook and Twitter, trying to spread the word to young people and their parents all over the globe. I love the way the GMP empowers kids to take a more assertive role in decisions at home, leading the way for their families. Sometimes we need the optimism and creativity of the next generation to help push us towards the innovative and oft-traveled paths.
Many of the GMP tips are focused on countries like the U.S., where infrastructure allows for many of the changes they suggest. However, a few tips are applicable for other contexts. I would love to see GMP chapters pop up in other countries around the globe, adapting the format for local and regional needs and opportunities. It could be a great global community project, all pioneered by kids!
This same blog also brought me to the TED site again to watch a short speech given by young dynamo, Adora Svitak. Svitak is no stranger to speaking in public, despite her young age (12 years old). In this TED video, she posits that adults need to encourage “childish thinking”: “bold ideas, wild creativity and, especially, optimism.” Unhampered by past experiences, Svitak points out that kids tend to dream big; and perhaps our job as adults is to (1) learn from that example, and (2) create environments to encourage and incubate those big ideas.
Spring is a great chance to foster your child-like dreams, or those of a child you know and love. The weather is warming up and new energy is in the air. How can you take that natural vitality that Spring has to offer and approach a task with “childish” optimism and ingenuity? Or can you enlist a young person you know to collaborate with you in a personal project, or one in your community? You might find the exploration rejuvenating!
Some folks over at MIT are in the midst of creating a pretty interesting tool for mapping STUFF. It’s called SourceMap. You can check it out here. The basic idea is to know where the things you use and consume come from–to understand the impact of your purchases.
SourceMap is still an evolving research project. It has some bugs, which the developers are pretty upfront about. I for one, am in love with the idea! Think about it: “Some things have vast supply chains that stretch across the world while others are completely regional. Understanding the reach of our sourcing is fundamental to improving economic, social and environmental conditions.”
What do you think? Why not head over to SourceMap and plug something in. Then share with us what you learned! And if you are having any trouble viewing this video on our site, feel free to head over to the source (ha!) and take a look at it directly; here’s the link. The more access we have to information about what we consume, the more control we have to affect the world around us, I think. SourceMap can be one of many tools to help us along the way. So go play!
It’s 10 o’clock on a Friday night and I’m racing down a four-lane highway, running parallel to the now-defunct train station in Oaxaca.Cars, scooters, trucks with noisy engines huffing exhaust out from dirty mufflers race by on my left side—nothing between my exposed calf and their metal doors but my pant leg.I’m on a bike.
The Streets of Oaxaca
It sounds crazy, perhaps.And in a normal situation I would have been scared for my life—bicycling in a city with zero understanding for any kind of pedestrian or bike traffic.The difference: I am surrounded by one hundred other bikers.I’m on a night ride organized by Mundo Ceiba a local non-profit in Oaxaca started by a group of youth in 2004, working on ecological sustainability in the region.The group started with an idea to plant trees where deforestation was a problem.And after planting more than 16,495 over the last 5 years, their work has expanded to promote alternative urban transit in the city—namely bicycles—environmental sustainability being the common bond. In their own lovely words (a little clunk-ily translated into English on their site): “We look that people get directly involved in these activities and make from these experiences an opportunity to interact with other people interested in generating and supporting an ecological culture that will bring good things for us as a society.”
Night Ride in Oaxaca
That’s exactly what this night ride was—a chance to come out en masse to support and encourage a friendly attitude towards alternative transit in the city.There was a moment, as we screamed down a major thoroughfare, eyes wide in astonishment from those passing by, that I felt very connected to a collective celebration of a different way to do locomote.A system that was sustainable, cheap, easy on the environment, and frankly, in the clogged narrow streets of Oaxaca, a faster way to travel!
Bicycle transit has long been a popular topic for many.One of the most famous (and often contentious) bicycle initiatives worldwide is Critical Mass.Started back in San Francisco in 1992, Critical Mass was just a bunch of cyclist gathering to ride the city streets, where safety in numbers allowed them more freedom to trek a then-unfriendly Bay Area downtown. The first event in September of ‘92 was actually called “Commute Clot.” But after a local screening of Ted White’s documentary Return of the Scorcher about bike culture outside the United States the term “Critical Mass” caught on.In a scene from Return of the Scorcher (which you can watch here in four parts) designer George Bliss commented that both motorists and bicyclistsin China shared an unspoken understanding for how to manage intersections without formal traffic signals. “There was a kind of critical mass thing, where all the cyclists would pile up and then go. All the cyclists…turning left in an intersection would wait in the middle until they had enough numbers to force through the cars and make them stop. And vice versa. And it worked!”Thus, the name of “critical mass” was embraced. Now urban biking groups all over the globe have sprouted up.
I should mention that from what I’ve read Critical Mass doesn’t claim to be an organization, with leadership or a formal body. “In every city that has a CM ride, some locals simply picked a date, time, and location for the ride and publicized it, and thus the ride was born,” states the site Critical-Mass.info.Without central leadership, groups with the name Critical Mass have emerged in various cities. And some have an inharmonious relationship within their own neighborhoods–using the rides as forms of political protest–that for many has been a source of conflict and friction. However, other rides, like the one I participated in in Oaxaca (which isn’t associated with Critical Mass, incidentally) simply wish to celebrate bike culture in a peaceful and mindful way. There’s a score of diversity out there amongst urban biking initiatives. As an example, some rides, like the two annual rides in Budapest, Hungary, have up to 80,000 riders, while others are just a dozen or so local cyclists.Is there an urban biking initiative in your neck of the woods? Here’s one place you can look.
Photo from NUBIJA
More recently, there has been a push around the globe for more than just organized, collective bike rides.Cities and social entrepreneurs have been imagining ways to integrate bikes into existing transit systems—making them more sustainable and accessible. Bike-sharing systems, as they are called, have sprouted up in cities and towns around the world. Andrew Posner on Treehugger.com writes, “Essentially, in a bike-share program bicycles are made available at special kiosks or racks that are strategically placed around a city. Users can access the bikes 24 hours a day, either by inserting a credit card or by paying an annual fee for a membership card. The bikes can then be returned at any of the stations in the city.”It’s like the Zip Car model, but with bikes.Bike-share programs vary from place to place; examples abound in Paris, Mexico City, Washington DC, Buenos Aires, for instance.And while programs have had to grapple with serious challenges, like bike theft—they continue to adapt the model to best suit the locality.I just recently saw this great video on a bike-share program in Denver called B-Cycle made by Good Magazine’s video department:
So it’s official—the bicycle movement is underway!Interested in getting on board?Well get out there, then.The more of us that take the the byways on bicycles,the more we’ll encourage our neighbors and friends to do the same. It’s fun, healthy, economical, eco-friendly and you can get where you want, when you want, all on your own steam.Can you imagine a tomorrow in which you and everyone you know heads to work on a two-wheeler every morn?I can.My ride on the 22nd helped me imagine that.
A new documentary was released in September, following a writer and his family as they attempted to live a full year without making a large impact on the natural world around them. No electricity. No toilet paper. No imported foods. Check it out.
The journey for Colin Beavan and his family continues on his blog. There you can read about some of his observations and ideas concerning climate change, community, health, you name it! And if you’re interested in taking a gander at the full length film, the No Impact Project has partnered with the Center for a New American Dream to draw attention to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. They are screening the movie in communities nationwide, followed by a discussion on “to talk about the impact of holiday spending on [our] lives and the environment.” You can check out the screening dates and locations here.
Why not send your circle an e-card to remind them about the UN Climate Change Conference this year from December 7th through the 18th? It’s always a good time to start thinking green!
I love the guys over at GOOD who have been busy making some amazing materials! By their own definition, “GOOD is a collaboration of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits pushing the world forward. Since 2006 we’ve been making a magazine, videos, and events for people who give a damn.” GOOD’s videos can all be found on their website, or many are featured on their YouTube channel here.
I think GOOD does some of the best work around on making statistical information about our world come alive–which is so important. Much like a powerful image, what use is information if it can’t tell a story? So, in honor of the approaching holidays, here’s a video they made last year on the origins of much of our Christmas products. Check it out!
I was totally shocked when I saw this video the first time. It made me wonder from where much of the other things I typically purchase come. It can be pretty difficult these days to track the origins of what we consume and own–as so much is outsourced globally. However, the folks over at MIT’s Media Lab, are creating an incredible tool to help us with that very problem. It’s called the SourceMap.
As the MIT folks posit, “Some things have vast supply chains that stretch across the world while others are completely regional. Understanding the reach of our sourcing is fundamental to improving economic, social and environmental conditions.” The Sourcemap is a tool for use by individuals, or business owners, to understand the impact of the supply chain of which we are a part. It’s a pretty empowering instrument–because it compels us to consider how we make an impact globally with what we consume–giving us the tools we need to make informed decisions.
“[The] site is a social network where anyone can contribute to a shared understanding of the story behind products.” And the MIT developers have made it accessible to all, even creating easy-to-use embed tools so you can use Sourcemap on your own site, for the packaging of products, in your business, anywhere! Go over and take a look.
There’s so much positive energy going into projects like the Sourcemap, or the media work from GOOD. It’s truly inspiring! Do you have a favorite project that is doing something for the well being of the planet? Well, tell us about it. We would love to know!
The season for giving is approaching.We here at HarmonyWishes are acutely aware of the wake that the giving cycle leaves behind.Did you know that, “according to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans, on average, increase their garbage amount by 25% between Thanksgiving and Christmas?”
Image courtesy www.insidesocal.com
And wrapping paper, which is commonly made from virgin materials is a large part of that outflow—not to mention greeting cards. The folks over at Recycle Works say “we buy 2.65 billion Christmas cards—enough to fill a 10-story football stadium.” Woah.
Given that, perhaps it’s a good time to consider downsizing what we consume and send on.I can’t think of a better gift to someone this holiday season, than a greener, less-cluttered tomorrow!Of course, we would love to see a lot more people take a second look at HarmonyWishes come this holiday season, and consider how our service can help diminish that 10-story football stadium-sized dent.Afterall, it was a concern for a lighter holiday footprint that propelled our founder to start this business.
What if every holiday season was another chance to reconsider what we buy and what we toss away?
In the spirit of that question, allow me to introduce you all to a worldwide project called Freecycle. We’re not just fond of Freecycle’s initiative because they share a similar slogan to that of HarmonyWishes —we also just plain love what they do. Freecycle is a grassroots, non-profit community of people with the mission to “…build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources & eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community.” Freecycle has a series of listservs, divided by location, that act as a central place to post items up for grabs. Think Craigslist, but focused on gift giving, and totally free!Freecycle started out in 2003 when a small Arizona non-profit was providing recycling services to downtown businesses.Rather than see perfectly good items get tossed into a recycling truck to be hauled away, the group ended up calling around to local non-profits to see if the items could be of use. Founder Deron Beal thought, “There must be a better way.”And Freecycle was born!
Freecycle now hosts some 4,852 groups with over six million members around the world.It’s a totally volunteer-driven operation. And in the past year alone, Freecycle claims to have saved over 500 tons of garbage a day from landfills—that’s five times the height of Mt. Everest if the garbage trucks were stacked on top of each other. Double woah.
As Freecycle states it, “By giving freely with no strings attached, members of The Freecycle Network help instill a sense of generosity of spirit as they strengthen local community ties and promote environmental sustainability and reuse.” Not a bad theme for this holiday season, eh?Generosity of spirit, strong local communities, a sustainable environment…sounds like just the kind of thing the holidays are about.
So, go take a look at their site. You can search your own area by zip code. I was surprised to find a Freecycle Network even down here in Mexico. And while you’re at it, zip over to our gallery of cards right now and send on with wild abandon! With an unlimited number of card deliveries and a myriad of original combinations, you can make a creative effort towards a green holiday season. Or take a moment to mention our lighter footprint option to your circle. Remember, it’s a conscientious gesture without scrimping on the thoughtfulness of your gift.
Freecycle now hosts some 4,852 groups with over six million members around the world.