Do you have to be eco-friendly even on Halloween?

I was reading author Jodi Helmer's ideas for having a green Halloween (in her book The Green Year: 365 Small Things You Can Do to Make a Big Difference) and was a bit put off by some of her suggestions.

For instance, Helmer's suggestion about giving organic apple to trick-or-treaters seems plain wrong. Didn't giving apples fall out of favor after all the scares about razor blades and other sharp objects? Even if these turned out to be urban legends, come on - you don't want yours to be known as the "neighborhood apple house," do you?

I much prefer her suggestion about buying treats in bulk to minimize the waste you get from packaging. But even so, you've still got to make sure the candy's individually wrapped.

Heimer, whose Web site is www.green-year.com, also suggests skipping the costumes at the mall and making your own, which is a good idea - provided you have the time, energy and creativity to come up with one.

She suggests pulling out your wedding dress and going as the Bride of Frankenstein. Right. That's not happening. But I can think of some other homemade costumes I might try.

What are your ideas about having a green Halloween?

From couhousingco.com, a snapshot from the Hearthstone Community in North Denver, Colorado.

There's a flaw built into most tips on 'living green' that homeowners get: Each improvement would go further if the homeowner were sharing those resources with other homeowners. But how is that possible? A house is a house, right?

Not if you're part of a cohousing community. And on Saturday, Moore College of Art & Design will host a conference (sponsored by the Interior Design Graduate Program) where you can learn about this social and environmental trend: Cohousing: Building Sustainable and Intentional Communities will include "discussion and discovery about the history, theories and practice of creating and living in cohousing."

In essence, cohousing is the practice of planning a neighborhood by its own future residents, involving some shared living areas and shared resources - "a cross between eco-village and custom neighborhood." The layout tends to be clustered, anti-sprawling. Families may share a laundry room, a playground, a kitchen, a rec room or lounge, maybe even a woods. They're likely to have dinners together, and meet regularly to agree on how to move forward. There's no question that it's more sustainable - especially since one of the main goals is to increase walkability - but it's also something of an international social movement.

I talked with keynote speaker Charles Durrett, an architect and urban planner who is probably the biggest cohousing expert in this hemisphere, about his appearance this weekend. He's the author of two books, "CoHousing: A Contemporary Approach To Housing Ourselves," and "Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living."

Though there have been a small number of intentional communities, and a much larger number of pie-in-the-sky plans for same, Durrett notes that the current model really got started in Denmark in the 1970s. "Yes, over the years there have been a lot of different ideas about how to re-invent our typical habitat," he says, "but this is a late-20th-century reconfiguration of that - by folks who say that the regular neighborhood doesn't work for us."

"We want a place," he continues, "where people will live and share together, a place that is child-friendly, walk-friendly, earth-friendly. The whole premise is 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 people get together and say 'what works for us?' and work it out among themselves."

»  More Less is Moore: Can cohousing work in Philly?

In the name of cutting-edge eco-inqury. Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

So you’ve invited the neighborhood to your annual Labor Day barbecue this weekend. And you’re thinking about the 10,000 plastic plates and cups your guests will use during the char-broiled feast you plan to serve up.

And you’re thinking: “One minute through the lips, a lifetime in a landfill.”

And you’re thinking: There has to be a more environmentally kind way to feed your backyard revelers.

The people at the Solo Cup Company are thinking they have the answer. I’m not sure it’s the best one, but it’s a start.

Solo has a new line of disposable plates and cups, called Bare, that are compostable. There’s a caveat about that, which I’ll get to in a sec. But first let me say that the fun thing about Bare products is that they’re made, in part, from sugar cane. More specifically, they contain bagasse, the fibrous remains of sugar cane once all its juice has been extracted.

Which made me wonder: Could I eat Bare by Solo?

“The products meet the FDA standards for food contact, but they are not meant or recommended for human consumption,” explained Solo spokesman Tim Lindberg, who scored big points in my book by not laughing at the question.

Just to be sure, I took a bite of a Bare plate. Let’s just say: Ain’t enough barbecue sauce in the world would’ve made it tasty.

Anyway, the Bare products are guaranteed to be compostable – if they’re disposed of in a commercial-composting facility, where Lindberg says the plates and cups will degrade within 180 days.

It’s not that the stuff won’t degrade in some home compost piles, but the break-down isn’t guaranteed, said Lindberg, since personal compost piles obviously differ from household to household depending on myriad factors that Solo has no way to predict.

Fair enough.

So where’s the closest commercial compost facilities? I went to www.findacompster.com to find out.

Turns out the nearest place to the Daily News  is over ten miles away, in Royersford.

Which, if you’re an environmentally concerned party host, leaves you with a ridiculous question: Is it stupid to drive over 10 miles to throw away a cup?

I think we all know the answer to that one.

Like I said, Bare by Solo isn’t the perfect answer to the problem of disposing of party waste, but it’s an admirable start.

Just don’t eat the stuff.

If there's anyone who's qualified to publish his own Guide to Sustainable Living, it's Ed Begley, Jr., who's done just that in his new release from Clarkson Potter.

Begley, a well known TV and movie actor, has lately become the walking embodiment of "green living" thanks largely to his hit TV show "Living with Ed" and his earlier book "Living Like Ed." But he's no bandwagon-jumper: As he points out in our podcast interview, he's been on this case for close to 40 years. And while it's hip to mock Hollywood actors who have scads of money to throw at problems, Begley stresses that his money-saving / earth-saving tips are for everybody, not just the rich:

"In 1970," he says, "I didn't have a lot of dough, so I bought an electric car for $950, which saved me money right away in the price of fuel and maintenance - very low on that vehicle. I started recycling and composting - very inexpensive obviously - riding my bike more than I already did, taking public transportation more ... so then after a bit of time I could afford something that cost a little bit more - a solar oven, perhaps. I saved a little more money and I could afford a rain barrel to collect my rain water and pretty soon I could afford some good insulation, and I built and built. So all I say to people is, do it no differently than I did. I wasn't a big star in 1970 - I couldn't afford solar for 20 years.  ... Pick the low-hanging fruit first, do the cheap and easy stuff first, and you will save money. I sure did."

Asked about Philly specifically as an area to take advantage of things like solar power, Begley allowed that - a greater number of cloudy days notwithstanding - we may even have some advantages over his home state of California. "Believe it or not, the solar electric panels work better where it's sunny and cold. You just want the photons. If it's freezing cold out, those solar panels will work much better than they will here in hot southern California or anywheer in the southwest. When solar electric panels get hot they lose 15% of their efficiency, so if you have a cool and sunny part of the year, a sunny winter day when it's freezing out those solar panels are still gonna work great."

Begley's no blinkered cheerleader; after discussing a misstep where he overzealously installed a home wind turbine in an area that didn't get enough year-round wind, he cautioned: "Only do it if it makes financial sense. Do that [cheap and easy] stuff first. And nowadays those choices abound: energy-efficient lightbulbs; energy-saving thrermostat; weatherstripping around your doors and windows; bike-riding when weather and fitness permit - and I've ridden around Philadelphia, the beautiful Schuylkill river there, and those great river paths along it - it's just a great bike-riding city - taking public transportation if it's available to you, and it sure is in Philadelphia.

"Cheap and easy," he repeated."Home gardening, home composting, it's dirt cheap - do that stuff first and you will save money, I guarantee." While he advised saving it up for a rain barrel or solar oven, you might first want to put $23 toward Ed Begley, Jr.'s Guide to Sustainable Living and get the complete lowdown.

In the meantime, you can hear the full podcast here.

When Michelle Obama grabbed a shovel and started digging up the White House lawn for a kitchen garden last spring (remember?), she helped spark perhaps the biggest surge in backyard food production since World War II. But before declaring victory in your garden, you have to figure out what to do with its bounty.

So here's a package I put together for the Food section of today's Daily News, keyed to the Burpee Harvest Festival (more info here). First, you can extend the reach of your harvest with some tips on preserving, sharing, organizing and recipes. And when your garden kicks into produce overdrive, there's nothing like salsa to absorb the bounty - try some of these different varieties of salsa to make use of as many of your veggies as possible.

Our coverage on gardening, especially urban gardening, on this blog has concentrated on the big picture (for instance, here, here, here and here), but we're not above getting down and dirty with close-up, ground-level looks at the growing trend of heirloom tomatoes and the abundance of cucumbers. Enjoy!

Before you go shopping for a new TV, you may want to read my Gizmo column from today's Daily News, which may offer some insight into the real-world difference between, say, a set with an Energy Star sticker and one without. These tips could save you some money in the long run. And don't forget to turn down your Brightness level!

THE "CASH-for-clunkers" program has worked so well for the auto industry, some TV set producers are talking up a similar project for their industry. And after decades of delivering televisions that require lavish amounts of energy to light up and shine, makers are working hard to deliver new models that sip rather than slurp electricity - even if it means a little less brightness when you turn the set on.

It'd be great (but a lie) to say high-tech giants are doing all this out of the goodness of their hearts.

Noisy European and Japanese environmental organizations have been pushing the cause of responsible, "green" electronics for some time. It's been a major theme of product displays at the big tech trade shows in Berlin and Tokyo.

Now, in the more environmentally conscious age of Obama, the cause is picking up steam in the U.S., with local, state and national agencies pressing TV makers harder to do the right thing.

Read the rest of the column here.

With all the headlines about 'sexy' developments in electric cars (that may or may not get 230 MPG), wind farms and bamboo clothing, it's easy to overlook the granddaddy of green ideas, one that continues, under the radar, to carry a great deal of renewable weight: Solar.

After all, solar power has been around forever (at least as far as humans are concerned) and technologies to convert it to electricity date back more than half a century. Because of this, it's easy to lose sight of the steady progress occurring in this realm. But progress is certainly happening, as photovaltic and other systems are tweaked, refined and improved for greater output. In fact, we may be reaching a tipping point where solar energy collection quietly goes from wacky "eco" industry to a mainstream part of our lives.

Just this week in Califronia (natch) ESolar launched Sierra SunTower, the first operational solar tower energy plant in the United States: Hundreds of mirrors arrayed in a field follow the progress of the sun at such an angle as to reflect its rays into a tower in the middle of the field, boiling water into steam that travels through pipes to power a turbine and create electricity, as explained in this LA Times story. The facility will power 4,000 homes.

And across the country retailers and other businesses are rushing to install solar systems on their brick-and-mortar big boxes in order to "green" their operations (and, of course, their public profile). Wal-Mart, JC Penney, the Gap and FedEx Ground are some of the companies now in competition to be the sunniest businesses on the planet.

Meanwhile, here in Phillly, a new initiative could make residential solar panels as common as satellite dishes, front stoops and "Phillies World Champions" flags. The Philly Free Solar Program aims to outfit thousands of area homes with solar panels at virtually no cost to the homeowner. The ambitious plan put together by Green and Save (a philly.com Green partner) initially sought, by word of mouth, 100 applicants with flat roofs and good sun exposure. The pilot program filled slots so quickly that it's now expanding, up to 5,000 homes.

Green and Save president Charlie Szoradi (whom you may remember from this E2P post, and whom I remember from our days in Philly's Dumpster Divers) believes the time is right for solar to make a big splash, er, sunburst in our town. "For a long time," he explained yesterday, "people resisted the aesthetics of a big shiny panel on their roof. And the financing was not in place to make it appealing. But once those numbers start to work, and it becomes a reality, there's an actual pride in having the technology and that drives the appeal and changes the aesthetic value."

"When it comes to row homes," he continued, "its moot, because panels are only really seen by air as you approach the city. Now, I think it would be tremendous, from a public perception standpoint, to fly in to Philadelphia and see whole neighborhoods generating power  - that would be a great symbol of Philly truly becoming 'the greenest city in America.'"

»  More Let the sun shine: A solar Philly?

Still from the video.

In the early 1990s, the Fair Hill Burial Ground at Indiana and Germantown Avenues was the perfect environmental statement about urban America of the time. 

Forgotten by City Hall, it was ringed by drug dealers hawking wares like "Holocaust," syringes littered the sidewalks, and derelicts camped under the 12-foot tall weed trees that had grown over the headstones marking the graves of some of the nineteenth century's most prominent progressives.  Lucretia Mott, the mother of American feminism, Robert Purvis, the black founder of Philadelphia's underground railroad, Anna Jeannes, for whom Jeannes Hospital is named, and many others who had devoted their lives to social justice lay under the dangerous mess above.

After nearly 20 years of chopping, clearing, weeding, picking up debris and replacing countless broken locks on the gates to the surrounding fence, the 4.5-acre lot is now clean and green enough to invite children in to play. 

This video by Jean Warrington nearly made me cry.  It's a simple thing--a great teacher with students from the neighborhood school who don't get much exposure to grass, trees and fresh air.  It's simple, but it represents years of work by dedicated volunteers from the neighborhood, Quaker meetings, fellow travelers and dozens of funders who, through some very grim times, believed things could change. 

I think the people buried there would be pleased.

Signe Wilkinson,
Fair Hill volunteer since 1991

The Blau-Thompson rowhouse, outfitted with energy-efficient accoutrements. (Photo form BluPath Design Web site)

Yesterday the new Green Jobs Philly News came out, offering its usual overstuffed cornucopia of green opportunities and communications attempting to connect people with information and jobs. But what if you're already on the job, in business and trying to get greener?

If you're a contractor, realtor, architect or other professional who's finding clients asking for greener alternatives, how do you advise them? How do you become something of an expert on green housing, energy and approaches in a hurry? Laura Blau and Paul Thompson, two architects behind BluPath Design, have the answer in the form of three linked courses at the Community College of Philadelphia this summer. presented via their educational sister firm GreenSteps.

Starting on July 15 you can get the lowdown on site and water issues, the various forms of green energy, and materials & indoor air quality so you'll know what you're talking about. These aren't technical courses - even if you're a DIY homeowner you'll probably learn a bit that will be useful in your 'green' remodeling.

"Everyone gets a buzz on about 'green'," says Laura Blau, "but they don't always have enough information." She points out that there's no universal rating system for how green different materials, properties or approaches are, and in the absence of that, you need to understand the criteria to even ask the right questions.

"There are all kinds of shades of green," she says. "People need to be aware. We're all on a big learning curve, and the market is trying to keep pace with it. Everyone wants a piece of 'green.' Now weeds are coming up and you're trying to tell the weeds from the flowers."

That's why the curriculum spends a good amount of time on greenwashing, the practice of making a negligible change that a company can spin into positive "sustainable" PR. She cites the move by Clorox to remove some ammonia and bleach and add citrus to create new "green" versions of their products. "Great," says Blau, " but some of the base that remains is the most toxic chemicals out there. If you want a truly green cleaning solution, make your own - or get it from Sun and Earth, which is local, which makes it even greener."

Balancing different criteria is not always easy, which is why the course goes into detail with the different criteria involved, says Blau. "You might have to choose between a cherry floor from local cherry, or a sustainably harvested Brazilian cherry, versus bamboo, which is rapidly renewable, and you want to have a sense of what makes each green as well as what's not so green about it."

Though Blau and Thompson have applied their principles to their own residence, which stands out with its solar-collector-festooned roof, she cautions that not all the solutions presented are so sexy. "You have to look at the specifics of your building to get the right solution. I've had people who want to go solar and their house is in a wooded lot - 'well, we'll just cut these trees down,' they say. Instead I ask, how well insulated is your home? There's little point in collecting solar energy if you're just going to waste it as you would any other kind."

Sorting through the various shades of green is something we can all stand to get better at. But if your job depends on it, well, registration for these courses is now open.