More and more people are interested in taking their eco-ethic with them into the grave. They're deciding not to be embalmed, and they're looking for places where they can be buried not in a cement vault, but just in the ground. Dust to dust.
I wrote about the trend last November, and I'll copy the story below.
Meanwhile, for those interested in checking things our first-hand, a local cemetery that offers natural burials is having an open house this weekend. It's called Steelmantown Cementery, and its in the heart of the South Jersey pinelands, surrounded by Belleplain State Forest. Family members can hand-dig graves and bury their loved ones in a simple shroud or a pine or wicker casket. The story of how it all came to be is at the end of the article below.
The open house is being held Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Here's the story:
As the setting sun filtered through red and yellow leaves, West Laurel Hill Cemetery's Nevin Mann stuck a shovel in the ground.
He was planting a tree. And, in a way, nurturing the seed of an idea: a shift in the American way of death - a departure from chemicals, concrete vaults and manicured plots.
Mann, cemetery president and CEO, was ceremoniously opening a 31/2-acre "natural" burial ground at the 1869 Lower Merion cemetery, where 100,000 people are buried, including a Titanic survivor and sculptor Alexander Stirling Calder.
No embalmed bodies will be allowed in this area, which has room for 400. Only untreated wood and biodegradable shrouds can be used.
Markers will be little more than fieldstones; Bringhurst Funeral Home, which is on site, will help families conduct at-home funerals and make caskets.
Each year, along with their dearly departed, Americans bury 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid and 30-plus million board feet of timber, according to the Green Burial Council, an advocacy and certification organization in New Mexico.
Its founder, Joe Sehee, says we bury enough steel to rebuild the Golden Gate Bridge, and enough concrete vaults - to keep the ground over graves from sinking, which makes maintenance easier - to pave a highway halfway across the United States.
"A lot of people don't want to feel like their last act is one of pollution," he said. "I don't think people have embraced conventional funeral options as much as tolerated them."
Now people are being buried in coffins made of wicker or bamboo. In Ecopods of recycled paper. Even in simple shrouds. A San Francisco company offers them in linen, silk and ethnic textiles.
Green burial sites even include forests, grasslands, and other natural areas - with the burial money helping to keep the land undeveloped.
Markers might be nonexistent, with GPS coordinates the only thing guiding loved ones to the spot.
Sehee founded the certifying group in 2005.
So far, the council has approved seven casket and urn companies, more than a dozen cemeteries, a couple of cremation-disposition programs, and nearly 200 funeral-service providers.
Though still just a tiny part of the $11 billion annual U.S. funeral industry, green burials and funerals are gaining ground, industry officials say, because of the growth of a broader green ethic.
"It's a great movement," said Ellen Wynn McBrayer, spokeswoman for the National Funeral Directors Association and a Georgia undertaker who is "heading in that direction" herself.
"Some religions, and some people, prefer ashes to ashes, dust to dust."
True, some are repulsed by the idea of not embalming. But in a 2007 AARP funeral survey, one-fifth of respondents said they were interested in something more eco-friendly.
"If you drive a Prius, live an environmentally conscious life and read Dwell magazine, you are not going to settle for the options offered at a traditional funeral home," said West Chester's Donna Larsen, with A Natural Undertaking, a resource center for home funerals.
At West Laurel Hill, people had been asking about green funerals, Mann said after the opening a week ago. "We took the position of, if people want to do it, we ought to figure out how to help them."
Indeed, green burials are also seen as one more way people are taking back hallowed rituals, loosely akin to outdoor weddings and birthing at home with a midwife.
The home funeral may be the ultimate expression of a green burial.
About an hour after Rima Synnestvedt's father died in his bed, surrounded by his family, his three daughters and others bathed him with flower-scented water and dressed him in his favorite pants and corduroy shirt.
They lit candles and put on soft music. For about 10 hours afterward, friends visited John Synnestvedt, 78, and said their goodbyes.
Then the male members of the family lifted him into a coffin made of compressed cardboard. The next day, he was buried in a wooded plot at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral.
The ceremony four years ago fulfilled a promise Rima Synnestvedt had made to him. And to herself. "I think the body should be left in its natural state," she said.
In places that allow it, families are digging the graves themselves. They're decorating plain caskets with poems, messages, and grandchildren's tiny handprints.
In 2005, the movement got a boost from the HBO series Six Feet Under, which followed the lives of a family of funeral directors.
In the last episode, Nate, one of the owners, dies and his family lowers his shroud-wrapped body into the grave.
Lauren Ambrose, who played Nate's sister, later told a reporter that she wanted a green funeral, too: "I'm not really interested in being pumped full of chemicals and painted with salmon-colored lipstick."
Some have sneered that only among baby boomers, so obsessed with youth, could the idea of a green funeral gain traction. They wouldn't so much die as be replanted.
But Liz Cohen, a hospice social worker from Princeton, sees it as "a true return to the earth, letting our spirits go where they go, and letting our bodies help to preserve life."
Prices for funerals, traditional or green, range widely, so it's hard to compare. But Sehee said an eco-death could cost about half of a traditional funeral, or $3,000 to $5,000.
Advocates say it's not just a way to cheap out. Direct cremation - without embalming - is still the least expensive.
Tawana Ford Sabbath, a social worker and manager of the Walter E. Sabbath Jr. Funeral Service in West Oak Lane, worries that green plots will command a premium, out of reach for some.
In a way, eco-burials are only a new label. Many in the Jewish and Muslim faiths already incorporate some of the same elements.
And caring for their dead is something families have done for centuries. It has only recently been relegated to funeral homes.
Among all the "new" green burial grounds is a small wooded area deep in the Pinelands, near Tuckahoe, N.J.
Dating to the 1700s, the Steelmantown Cemetery belonged to a Southern Baptist congregation that did not allow embalming or vaults.
The church burned in the 1950s and gradually was forgotten. Litter piled up.
But housing developer Ed Bixby knew about it. His mother had belonged to the church. And his infant brother had been buried there in a wicker basket in 1956.
It's a long story, but Bixby now owns the one-acre cemetery. He has protected it with a deed restriction, and plans to expand it onto an adjacent 7.5 acres. "Everything seems to come around in this life," he said. "All of a sudden, here we are, back to the way it was."
Bob Fertig, owner of the Fertig Funeral Home in Mullica Hill, has handled some of the services. He's seen family and friends carry a loved one to the grave, dug with a shovel.
"To watch the family be a part of that . . . to have them help lower the body in the ground, and then watch them as they replace the dirt. . . . It's a very profound, moving experience," he said.
"We, as a funeral home, decided we wanted to be a part of this."
Can't get to the mall in Washington, D.C., to see the solar decathlon competition? Now you can see videos of all the solar houses that have been built there -- one by a team of Penn State students -- to demonstrate the viability of solar power. The videos are available here.
The Penn State group is led by Abington's Kyle Macht. One thing I like about the house -- sight unseen, alas -- is that the team built it to seem homey. "When you walk in you can feel it. This is not a science fair project. It’s a home. We want people to say, wow, I could live here," said spokesman Tom Rauch.
The floors and furniture are made of reclaimed barn wood. But the techno systems are amazing -- materials that absorb heat during a cold day and then radiate it back into the home at night. A bladder of water under the floor to do the same thing. An innovative photovoltaic system. A green roof.
You can check it all out at the team's website.
I have a ton of reusable bags, it seems. They're in my car, my kitchen, even a small one is in my purse. But virtually all of them are made of what I'll call fresh materials -- stuff produced specifically to make the bag. (The colorful exception is a TerraCycle bag made from those foil juice pouches.)
But the Center City District has come up with a whole new bag. They've started making the sacks out of old banners that used to hang from the light poles, advertising various events. The banners, it turns out, are made from durable polypoplin fabric, and they used to just pile up in storage once they were taken down.
Now, the banners, which are dirty when they're taken down, are sent for laundering to Philacor, a vocational training program of the prison system. The banners go into industrial-size machines and then -- I just love this part -- they're hung out to dry instead of being put into dryers.
Next, the banners go to Baker Industries, a nonprofit work rehab program that employs people who need help -- people with disabilities, parolees, people who are in alcohol or drug recovery, the homeless. Baker can get up to four bags from each banner.
The first banner bags out are from the Red Bull Soap Box Race 2008, the Philadelphia Orchestra's 2003 Christoph Eschenbach Welcome, Cirque du Soleil's Kooza, the Ben Franklin Tercentenary and CCD's welcome banner.
All bags are a limited edition, of course. The district says prices may vary, depending on the retailer, but expect to pay $16.99 or more. (Fancier than the bags sold at grocers, they have two interior pockets and are large -- 17 by 14.5 by 4.5 inches.) For now, they're only available at a few locations, including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts gift shop at 128 N. Broad and at Open House Living at 107 S. 13th Street. The district says they'll also be at the Pennsylvania General Store in the Reading Terminal Market.
But just wait til these things catch on!
The world is getting a lot of sheds. We have watersheds, foodsheds ... and now, walksheds. That's the term used for a new online application that lets people plug in their preferences -- restaurants, say, or a library -- and then it calculates and maps the walkability of any given neighborhood.
Yes, you could simply go outside and walk around and see what's there and make your own assessment. But you might miss stuff. And this seems kind of neat anyway.
The program lets you rate your preferences -- one to five -- in these categories: grocery stores, farmers markets, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, rail stops, bus stops, PhillyCarShare pods, Zipcar, parks, tree cover, libraries, bookstores, pharmacies, hardware stores, fitness centers, clothing retailers, violent crime and illicit activities. (And no, if for some odd reason you're in search of illicit activities, you don't get to choose which kind.)
Mapping the area around the Inquirer building at 400 N. Broad Street with preset Walkability preferences, I got a score of 80 out of 100.
The app is called Walkshed Philadelphia, and it's being launched by Avencia, described as "a Philadelphia-based geographic analysis and software development firm specializing in the creation of innovative location-based software tools to enhance decision-making processes."
Walking is good for you. And it's good for the air of the city, assuming it gets people out of their cars. Further, a report published in August, “Walking the Walk: How Walkability Raises Home Values in U.S. Cities” by CEOs for Cities, says that the walkability of a neighborhoods "translates directly into increases in home values.”
According to Avencia, "Walkable communities tend to have larger concentrations of restaurants, shops, services, parks, and open space; better access to museums and other cultural venues; as well as other amenities that contribute to less car traffic and more social interactions. Greater foot traffic also contributes to lower crime rates. Moreover, as people come back to center cities to be closer to these amenities, incomes in these neighborhoods tend to rise. While it is not clear if higher housing prices mean that a neighborhood is more livable, higher prices certainly reflect a desire to live in such neighborhoods. So knowing which neighborhoods are more walkable has real value for realtors, retailers, small business owners, municipalities, and citizens alike."
Walkshed Philadelphia owes its origins to Alan Durning of the Sightline Institute, a Seattle sustainability nonprofit, and Walkscore, a group that promotes walkable neighborhoods. Its website says, "Our vision is for every property listing to read: Beds: 3 Baths: 2 Walk Score: 84. We want walkability and transportation costs to be a key part of choosing where to live."
Or bike the Highlands. Or canoe its waters.
The Highlands is a massive greenway that stretches from Connecticut to Maryland, and the Pennsylvania portions spans parts of 13 counties, from Adams to Bucks and Lehigh. It's full of recreational opportunities _ hiking, biking, camping, fishing and canoeing. So near, yet it feels so far away.
The Appalachian Mountain Club has mapped it all. And the map doubles as a recreation guide, with information about trail access, safety tips, points of interest ... etc. It's being unveiled today at Philadelphia's Schuylkill Banks Trail (under the Walnut Street Bridge). Okay, so that's not technically in the highlands, but it's close, and that's the point. There are all these great outdoor opportunities just over the hill. The banks trail, for instance, eventually leads to a network of trails within the Highlands' borders, just past Valley Forge National Park.
The club and the Wildlands Conservancy also have created 22 pocket-sized hiking cards you can take along. To download or order a free set, visit www.outdoors.org/hikethehighlands
Today's unveiling is a being made by the club in collaboration with the Schuylkill River Development Corporation, the National Park Service, and the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation
The National Snow and Ice Data Center, which tracks sea ice in the Arctic, has just released its annual report, showing the area covered by ice is the third-lowest since satellite measurements began in 1979.
Following is their report:
U.S. satellite measurements show Arctic sea ice extent in 2009 – the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by floating ice – was the third lowest since satellite measurements were first made in 1979. The ice area at minimum was an increase from the past two years, but still well below the average for the past 30 years.
Arctic sea ice reached its minimum extent around September 12, as shown in the image and video below/above. According to scientists affiliated with the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), sea ice coverage dropped to 5.10 million square kilometers (1.97 million square miles) at its minimum. The ice cover was 970,000 square kilometers (370,000 square miles) greater than the record low of 2007 and 580,000 square kilometers (220,000 square miles) greater than 2008.
NSIDC is sponsored by several U.S. government agencies, including NASA. Ice data are derived from measurements made by U.S. Department of Defense and NASA satellites, with key work in interpreting the data and developing the 30-year history done by scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
"The changes from year to year are interesting since there has been large variability," said Josefino Comiso, a sea ice expert at NASA Goddard. "But we need to look at several years of data to examine the long-term trends."
"Our three decades of continuous satellite measurements show a rapid decline of about 11.6 percent per decade," Comiso said. Arctic sea ice has declined about 34 percent since measurements were first made in the late 1970s.
The four lowest ice extents on record have occurred between 2005 and 2009, with the record minimum reached during a dramatic drop in ice cover in 2007 that was exacerbated by unusual polar winds.
Several recent studies based on data from NASA's ICESat and QuikScat satellites have shown that, in addition to shrinking geographic ice coverage, the amount of multi-year ice cover – thicker ice that survives more than one summer -- has been declining in recent years.
"The oceans are crucial to Earth's climate system, since they store huge amounts of heat," said Comiso. "Changes in sea ice cover can lead to circulation changes not just in the Arctic Ocean, but also in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. If you change ocean circulation, you change the world's climate."
Changes in the Arctic ice cover could also mean a new paradigm for life in the sea. "The waters at high latitudes are some of the most biologically productive in the world because of the presence of sea ice," Comiso added. "Many of our richest fisheries are the seas around the Arctic Ocean, and we don't know what the consequences might be if the seasonal sea ice disappears in these regions."
Below is an animation showing the retreat of the sea ice from July through Sept. 12. For more information and other videos, click here: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/seaicemin09.html
If you haven’t yet outfitted your home’s lighting fixtures with compact fluorescent bulbs, now would be a good time.
Starting today, PECO is funding discounts at many area stores that will make the bulbs even more cost-effective than ever.
Already, those swirly bulbs are touted because they use 75 percent less energy than their incandescent counterparts and last ten times longer. Over the life of the bulb you could save $30.
Yeah, the light quality sometimes stinks. So maybe have a neighborhood bulb party to sample a few different ones, and check the “K” value on the bulb that has the quality of light you like. (The range is from softer, or yellower, to brighter, or more blue.) If the light isn’t bright enough, up the wattage of the bulb.
And yes, the dirty little secret of CFLs is that they contain mercury. So if you break one, cleanup is a pain. But the amount of mercury is extremely small, and getting less all the time. Just be a little careful when you’re swapping out the bulb. And quit tossing that football around indoors, okay?
Sadly, I can’t give you a standard discount for the PECO program. The amount depends on the manufacturer of the bulb, the kind of bulb (dimmable or not, for instance) and the store that’s selling it. But in each store, the tag or other signage should specify what the original price was, and what you’ll be charged at the register — no coupons or rebates to worry about!
PECO expects that 800 stores throughout its service area will have the bulbs by the end of December. Meanwhile, to find a store near you, go here: http://www.peco.com/SAVE
PECO expects to fund discounts on sales of about three million bulbs during the four-year, $20 million program.
The program is part of a much broader PECO plan under consideration by the state Public Utilities Commission. If the plan is approved, PECO would be offering discounts for home energy audits, cash for those garage-residing second refrigerators people agree to give up … and a whole lot more.
All the programs are expected to help PECO customers reduce electric use by 1.2 billion kwh by 2013.
Star gazers visiting the White House on Wednesday will get a real show — not celebrities, although President Barack Obama and the First Lady will be there — but actual celestial objects.
The Obamas are hosting a star gazing event for middle school students. More than 20 telescopes will be set up on the lawn, and the plan is to let the students observe Jupiter, the moon and the District of Columbia’s star scape — which, to tell the truth, shouldn’t be all that great.
For one, the moon is just past full, and when it comes up that evening its light will blot out a lot of the stars. Plus, Washington — like just about every other major urban area in the world, and a whole lot of non-urban ones as well — is so plagued by light pollution that it’s difficult to see farther, smaller, dimmer objects.
So, what the heck, the moon it is. And can you imagine the effect on the students, who will likely remember forever such a special moment as star gazing from the White House lawn.
One celeb who will be there is the Franklin Institute's chief astronomer, Derrick Pitts, who is one of only three non-NASA folks demonstrating at the star party. The Franklin even shipped a telescope to the White House last week to be used. Pitts will be back at the Franklin on Thursday, hosting the monthly series, "Night Skies in the Observatory."
(UPDATE ON WEDNESDAY EVENING: Pitts just called the Franklin staff and reported that the President asked him to set up the Franklin's telescope right next to the presidential podium. ... By the way, the rest of us who weren't invited to the party can watch via live streaming video at www.WhiteHouse.gov . There also will be a live video chat beforehand with Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, with questions taken via Facebook and Twitter. The will also be carried on NASA Television’s public and education channels beginning at 8 p.m.)
The event is timed to an awards ceremony for the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at the White House earlier that day. According to a White House statement, the star party is intended to “highlight the President's commitment to science, engineering and math education as the foundation of this nation's global technological and economic leadership and to express his support for astronomy in particular — for its capacity to promote a greater awareness of our place in the universe, expand human knowledge, and inspire the next generation by showing them the beauty and mysteries of the night sky.”
The International Dark-Sky Association has applauded the event. Credit goes to that group and the American Astronomical Society, Astronomers Without Borders, the National Optical Astronomical Observatory and the United States Naval Observatory.
According to the Dark-Sky Association: Numerous astronomical celebrations will take place this month. The star party will occur during World Space Week, declared in 1999 by the United Nations General Assembly. This year, it’s being held from today through Saturday, under the guidance of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs.
Oct. 9 to 23 marks this year’s Great World Wide Star Count — an attempt to document the effects of light pollution. Participants around the global will search for the constellations of Cygnus and Sagittarius and note what they see.
Information on all October events is available on the International Year of Astronomy Web site at http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/features/.
Meanwhile, groups in this area have long been concerned about light pollution and have worked with local governments to get lighting ordinances passed. Here’s a story I wrote about their efforts in 2007:
Let there be (less) light;
The spread of population and its illumination threaten to make dark sky a rarity. Unlike most environmental ills, this one is easy to fix.
Not long after the new Schuylkill Elementary School opened last fall, residents gave it a disparaging nickname: the Schuylkill Airport.
It was the lights.
The playground was aglow at midnight. Light from the school near Phoenixville shone onto neighboring properties, through bedroom windows.
Light pollution - the glare of civilization that makes it hard to see the full blanket of stars at night - has long been an environmental issue, but mostly among stargazers, who contend the dark sky is one of the world's fastest-disappearing natural resources.
Try as they might to enlist support, they were often dismissed - except in places such as Arizona, home to a major observatory.
Now, however, a confluence of concerns is ratcheting awareness up. And getting lights turned down.
Public-safety advocates are going after "glare bombs" that blind drivers.
In defense of rural tranquility, people are taking issue with the "light pillars" shooting skyward from malls and cities. (Is that a fire, or just Philadelphia?)
And woe to the developer who wants to install streetlights that bleed light skyward or into windows - "pollution on a stick."
Across the country, states and municipalities are enacting measures to limit light pollution, defined as "excess or misdirected light."
Advocates in Eatontown, in North Jersey, which passed its lighting ordinance in 1993, now give unofficial lighting tours to show off how dimmer can be better.
About 31 municipalities in southeastern Pennsylvania alone have passed ordinances in the decade since Montgomery County's Karl Krasley, a backyard astronomer since boyhood, formed the Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council.
Along the way, efforts to curb rampaging photons have attracted some unusual dance partners, from wildlife experts who say excess light disorients migrating birds and sea turtle hatchlings to medical experts concerned about the effect of bright night light on human health.
Lately, dark-sky advocates may have found their best ally yet: energy conservation.
Saying that about 30 percent of lighting is wasted - it is "ill-conceived, ineffective or inefficient," they say - the International Dark-Sky Association, based in Tucson, Ariz., estimates the annual toll is as high as $10 billion.
Not to mention increased air pollution and global warming from burning fossil fuels.
"People are starting to realize everything is connected to everything else," says Dennis Ward, of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. He recently coordinated a citizen science effort, the Great World Wide Star Count, to chart light pollution.
In two weeks, he got more than 4,000 observations from 61 countries. He hopes the results will raise awareness and eventually illuminate trends.
Unlike most environmental ills, light pollution is easy to fix - turn it off, turn it down, or shield it from your neighbors. And the heavens.
"The remarkable thing about this problem is that so much of it could be eliminated just by technology that exists and by practices that make good sense," says Fred Schaaf, an astronomy author who teaches at Rowan University.
Schaaf, like other astronomers, has watched the night sky brighten with accelerating speed. Area groups have been chased ever farther from metropolitan centers.
Although South Jersey groups can still see our nearest neighbor galaxy, Andromeda, from their sky watching posts deep in the Pine Barrens, Franklin Institute chief astronomer Derrick Pitts can hardly pick it out with his telescope.
The Dark-Sky Association cites a 2001 study estimating 80 percent of Americans rarely see a sky darker than one lit by a full moon.
In the darkest spots - such as Cherry Springs Park in Potter County, Pennsylvania's first "dark sky park" - as many as 14,000 stars are visible. In most cities, you can hardly pick out 150.
Ultimately, our new world of day and partial day may be as much a loss for humanity as for science.
The bejeweled sky has inspired humans to create myths, write poems, compose sonatas, ponder the existence of God, and fall in love.
All of which are unlikely to happen in the glare of a car dealership or gas station.
While a fast-food restaurant needs to be lit only to an average of 2.5 foot-candles - the brightness of a candle from 2.5 feet away - most are lit to 20 foot-candles. Except in Eatontown, which has mandated the lower limit.
The pump islands of its gas stations can be brighter - 20 foot-candles - but not the 150 foot-candles that most are.
When a new Lowe's was built, plans called for 400-watt "wall packs" around the perimeter of the building - "a totally shielded blob of light," said John Batinsey, a member of the environmental commission.
The Lowe's wound up with 175-watt shielded lights, using 30 percent less energy.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 16 states have laws meant, at least in part, to curb light pollution.
In 2001, Pennsylvania proposed legislation to regulate lighting at state facilities, but the measure failed.
In response to increased inquiries from municipalities, the Dark-Sky Association and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America are drafting a model ordinance.
Perhaps they need look no further than the one devised by the Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council. It requires light shields, restricts the height of recreational lights, and even bans flag-lighting after 11 p.m., except for the state and U.S. flags.
A lighting council member is starting to take area readings of sky brightness - instruments that are the visual equivalents of decibel meters exist - hoping to discern some trends and see if ordinances are making a difference.
"I think we are [making a difference]," says council president Stan Stubbe. "But the problem is, there's a lot of bad lighting out there from before. We're trying to prevent bad lighting before it happens."
Many municipalities with ordinances are like Chester County's Wallace Township, which is "desperately trying to uphold and maintain the rural character" in the face of rapid development, says Mark Eschbacher, a member of the environmental advisory council. Its newest subdivision will have no streetlights.
Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council founder Krasley lives in Limerick, where for years the lights of a nearby bowling alley shining into his windows were so bright he could read by them.
That changed after Limerick passed its ordinance. Krasley can now see the Little Dipper, and the bowling alley "looks like a nice business. So it works. If you stop light pollution, it's not a losing situation for anybody."
Like Wallace, Schuylkill Township was a rural enclave of farms north of Valley Forge Park, until developers discovered it. Its lighting ordinance was passed last month - well after the elementary school wired a timer to shut off half its lights after 11 p.m.
Environmental advisory council member Andrew Kreider said officials homed in on safety and quality of life. But the eco-angle resonated, too. "For us, it was really just common sense . . . It's sort of a win-win-win."
The White House has released a description of all the green aspects of the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. Here it is:
Pittsburgh is a city that has transformed itself, from the city of steel to one which also is a center of high-tech innovation, including green technology, education and training, and research and development. It is a fitting setting for a summit of the world economies, where leaders will take stock of progress on the path to recovery, assess what areas require additional attention and discuss what can be done to lay the foundation for balanced and sustainable growth going forward.
As the largest global economies, it will be critical for all of the G-20 countries to demonstrate their commitment to doing what's necessary to address the climate change and so in planning the Pittsburgh Summit, the White House sought to embrace green technology and use responsible materials produced in a manner that minimize the carbon footprint of the Summit. In the end, 65% of the materials used for the Summit were environmentally friendly. The Summit will utilize light weight, innately green materials, rather than traditional construction techniques. Many of these materials, such as cotton fabric, are renewable resources and less expensive to transport.
The Leaders’ Plenary Table is an excellent example of the research that went into ensuring the Summit minimized its carbon foot print. The custom-designed and fabricated table is almost 54 feet in diameter and includes an impressive fabrication of 28 sections that are then assembled together on site. The table top is made of a product that uses forest waste and includes no toxins while organic dyes provide color. The other components of the table are made of recycled fiber board and FSC-certified wood veneers. The table is laminated using LEED-certified lamination techniques. The chairs around the table are hand polished, not chrome, and made with organic, sustainable materials.
Throughout the Summit space, these same techniques have been used for all décor and other fabricated elements.
§ The carpeting throughout the event is made from partially recycled materials; it will be reused and ultimately recycled. The lightweight drapery used for the Summit is continually reused and recycled.
§ The plenary table, Sherpa desk and leaders’ dining table will be repurposed for future events.
§ Other tables and desks are laminated using LEED-certified lamination techniques and constructed from fiber board manufactured from 100% recycled wood waste.
§ Delegation and press offices are built from reused aluminum extrusion and from recycled and recyclable PVC product.
§ Trees and other plants purchased for event will be donated to Phipps Conservatory.
Because conventional audiovisual equipment tends to draw large amounts of power, LED lighting instruments will be used. These consume far less power and have an extremely low thermal output, which translates to a reduction in external cooling needs. The Summit also utilizes cutting edge Class I amplifier technology, which reduces electricity consumption by up to 46% and much like LED Lighting, produces 1/10th of the heat of conventional audio equipment. As video projectors can also consume large amounts of power, the summit will utilize projectors that utilize a standby mode that reduces energy consumption by 35%.
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens: There is perhaps no more appropriate place to kick off this green summit than at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. The President and First Lady will welcome leaders, their spouses and officials to Pittsburgh at the city’s Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. Known as “Green Heart of Pittsburgh,” Phipps’ earth-sheltered Welcome Center was the first LEED-certified building in a public garden. Its newest addition, the Tropical Forest Conservatory, is the world’s most energy efficient conservatory and the world’s first public garden powered by a solid oxide fuel cell. The 5 kW solid oxide fuel cell generates 26,000 kWh of electricity per year from natural gas with remarkable efficiency and minimal emissions.
A fuel cell is an electrochemical device similar to a battery, although it does not rundown or require charging. Fuel cells are highly efficient because they directly convert chemical energy into electrical energy without combustion. A fuel cell is twice as efficient as a traditional combustion engine and produces significantly less CO2. Fuel cells are incredibly clean power sources, creating byproducts of only heat, water, and less carbon dioxide than combustion. Phipps uses the waste heat to heat the Conservatory’s tepid water system which is used for irrigation. Phipps offsets the CO2 emissions from the fuel cell with the purchase of carbon credits. Phipps offsets all of the other electricity used on the entire campus with renewable energy credits from wind power.
After welcoming leaders and their spouses, President Obama and the other G20 leaders will sit down for a working dinner at tables made from salvaged wood from previously cut down trees.
David L. Lawrence Convention Center: On Friday, the leaders will head to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center (DLCC). Demonstrating the possibilities presented by employing new and innovative technology to further economic recovery and development, the Pittsburgh Summit will be held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh. The facility was the first “green” convention center in the world to be awarded the LEED® Gold Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council for leadership in energy and environmental design. Built on an urban brownfield location, which included the location of the original Convention Center to reduce the cost of infrastructure improvements and provide existing public transit accessibility by light-rail, water and buses, the center’s focus on being green started with its location and continued through its design and operation.
Energy and Atmosphere: The Center's most dramatic feature is the halls' curved ceiling located on the second floor- Halls ABC. Halls are flooded by natural light which shines through its immense windows and skylights. The natural daylight reduces the need for artificial light -- 75% of the Center is naturally lit. The DLCC also purchases a portion of their power from Pennsylvania wind farms.
Natural Ventilation: The halls' sweeping roof allows fresh air from over the Allegheny River to enter the halls. The natural ventilation coupled with on-going monitoring of temperatures and carbon dioxide levels, provides outstanding air quality. The roof design and riverside louvers provide natural cooling from outside air.
Water Efficiency: The reduction of water use is influenced by its grey water reclamation system and its aquifer, a "fourth river" located 50' beneath the DLCC. By using these systems municipal water purchase is reduced by 65%, a 5.3 million gallon savings in 2008. The on-site water reclamation system receives wastewater from sinks, fountains, and faucets and is cleaned through an in-house filtering and grey water treatment system for use in the restroom commodes. Aquifer water is used for cooling tower blow-down and pressure washing which provided over 3.23 million gallons of water in 2008.
Sustainable Site and Materials: The new DLCC was built on the same site as the previous Center where over 95 percent of the original center was recycled by crushing it into useful fill material (53,228T). All materials used were evaluated to its impact on the environment and 50% of the new building materials were manufactured within 500 miles of site.
“Farm to Fork” Dining: More than five percent of the produce used in the food served at the DLCC will come from the rooftop garden that is tended by chefs with the in-house caterers, Levy Restaurants, throughout the growing season. Additional produce on menus will be sourced from farms in the surrounding counties near Pittsburgh. In keeping with the facility’s green practices, Levy utilizes compostable dishes, cups and packaging and composts food waste from the kitchens. The DLCC also donates leftover food.
The documentary, “Fuel,” is opening in Philadelphia on Friday, and just in time to focus the discussion, a vehicle powered by algae-based gasoline, will arrive at Penn. The “Algaeus,” said to be the world’s first plug-in hybrid vehicle to cross the country on fuel containing an algae blend, recently completed a ten-day cross-country tour from San Francisco to New York. It will be at 40th and Locust at 5 p.m.
The car is sponsored by the Veggie Van Organization, whose creator, Josh Tickell, also directed “Fuel.” The film opens Friday at the Ritz at the Bourse. Both the vehicle and the film have been getting a great ride. The film won the audience award for best documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.
Sorry that I haven’t seen it yet. But it’s described as “a stirring, radical documentary which is a comprehensive and yet oddly entertaining look at energy in America. … an amazing, in-depth, personal journey of oil use and abuse as [Tickell] examines wide-ranging energy solutions other than oil, the faltering US auto and petroleum industries, and the latest stirrings of the American mindset toward alternative energy (versus the advanced European commitment to ending its oil dependence altogether).”
There’s scientific data, history and personal narrative. “And like any good narrative, it has intrigue, conspiracy, greed – and murder,” the PR honchos say.
The car’s website is www.veggievan.org
The film’s website is www.thefuelfilm.com
- The green living campaign of the Pa. Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources
- Green Guide
- emagazine.com
- Environmental news and commentary from grist.org
- Green Living from the Natural Resources Defense Council
- treehugger.com
- The Daily Green
- idealbite.com
- The Green, on the Sundance Channel
- earth911.org
- No Impact Man
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