No Impact Man: The Cultural Barriers to Environmental Change

Colin Beaven, a.k.a. No Impact Man, pondered the social obstacles to environmental change on Monday, wondering why so many of his neighbors were so averse to seeing bicycles on his block. A woman who lives nearby threatened to have police remove one of his rickshaws from the sidewalk where he parks it, saying it makes the street look untidy and implying that the sight of it brings down the neighborhood market.

From No Impact Man:

And the thing is, the way that bikes are parked in New York City is kind of untidy. There is little dedicated space to park them so we New Yorkers lock bikes to lampposts and street signs and parking meters and scaffolds and railings and anything else we can find.

That’s cultural barrier number one: that the infrastructure does not exist to support change.

One of the biggest barriers to people turning to biking in NYC is the fear that their bikes will get stolen–nowhere safe to leave them. The good news is that new planning regulations will soon require every new building to provide indoor bike parking.

Colin noted that cars ugly up the streets more than bikes, and that a hundred bikes replacing a hundred cars would look far nicer. But, people have come to accept cars as a given, no matter how ugly they may be.

This is just one small example of how many social obstacles we will really have to overcome to push real environmental change. If people fight bicycles parked on the sidewalk, they’ll really get worked up about vegetable gardens in place of lawns, compost piles and other ‘unsightly’ things that are part of a green lifestyle.

Perhaps the biggest social obstacle is the fact that the mainstream public sees the green movement as an attempt to take things away from them.  You know, that idea that we environmentalists just want to ruin everyone’s fun, forcing them to give up things they see as God-given rights, like driving Hummers around their bourgeois suburban neighborhoods and running the A/C with the windows wide open. We’re just a bunch of grumpy, Chicken Little commies, aren’t we?

Link [No Impact Man]
Photo credit: Colin Beaven

Consumer Campaign Succeeds! Brita Will Recycle Filters

Here’s a great example of consumer activism winning a big victory from a major company. Clorox, which owns the Brita brand, has agreed to take back used filters and recycle them. The Take Back the Filter Campaign has been writing letters, collecting petition signatures and accepting filters from customers who didn’t want to throw them away. All their efforts paid off, and how consumers can feel even better about using tap water filters instead of buying bottled water.

From Take Back the Filter, via Treehugger:

11/15/2008: The Take Back The Filter campaign received a call from Brita brand manager Drew McGowan yesterday alerting us that Brita will indeed begin taking back and recycling pitcher filters beginning in January!

Full details on the plan will be released on Tuesday. Please visit this site again Tuesday to learn where you’ll be able to take your filters to be recycled as well as how they will be recycled.

We have no information at this time about recycling of faucet or other types of Brita filters. Please stay tuned…

Take Back the Filter formed when Beth Terry of Fake Plastic Fish read about the massive patch of floating plastic in the Pacific Ocean and became frustrated that for all her efforts in cutting back on plastic consumption, she still had to throw away her Brita filters when she was done with them.

While Clorox is still very far from being an eco-friendly company – despite their GreenWorks line of home cleaning products – this is certainly a step in the right direction. We need to see more manufacturers taking responsibility for what happens to their products when they are no longer useful.

Link [Take Back the Filter Campaign] via [Treehugger]

Who’s Who in Green: Wangari Maathai

Dr. Wangari Maathai is a Kenyan environmentalist and political activist who was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, in 2004. Maathai is internationally recognized for her dedication to democracy, human rights and environmental conservation. She founded the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots environmental non-governmental organization, in 1977.

Born in 1940 in the Tetu division of the Nyeri District of Kenya, Maathai received both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in biology, and also studied veterinary medicine, earning the first Ph.D. awarded to an Eastern African woman.  In the 1970s Maathai was a professor of veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi and was active in the National Council of Women.

It was during her work with the National Council of Women that Maathai got the idea of planting trees in order to conserve the environment, prevent soil erosion and improve quality of life.  That led to the Green Belt Movement, which has assisted women in planting over 20 million trees on their farms, on schools and on church compounds.  Maathai’s Green Belt Movement spurred the creation of a Pan African Green Belt Network, spreading the idea of the tree-planting initiative.

Wangari Maathai ran for President of Kenya in 1997, but her party withdrew her candidacy a few days before the election without telling her. It was in 1998 that she gained worldwide recognition in her efforts to stop Kenya’s new president from tearing down hundreds of acres of forest to build luxury housing.  She has been arrested numerous times when taking part in protests, including once in 1999 when she suffered head injuries after being attacked while planting trees.

In December 2002, Maathai was elected to Kenya’s Parliament and she was named Deputy Minister of the Environment, Natural Wildlife and Resources in 2003. In 2004, she received the Nobel Peace Prize for her dedication to peace, democracy and sustainable development.

Maathai has spent much of her life championing the idea that protecting the environment will help ease poverty.  Here’s what she had to say in September at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting, about her belief that if you destroy the environment, poverty cannot be eliminated:

I eventually found out that no matter what we do, after the global level, even at the national level, that it is extremely grassroots level, and the majority of the people that we have mentioned here, when we mention poverty, we are thinking about a large number of people at the grassroot level.

Now those people are mostly dependent on primary natural resources. We’re talking land, soil, water, forests. Yet we haven’t mentioned many of those issues except in terms of deficiency [...] But we need to think of how we can sustainably manage these primary resources that all of us depend on.

But the people at the grassroot are the ones that are most directly dependent on them. And even on issues of climate change. Even as we speak of what is going to happen, it’s already happening to a large number of people. They are experiencing lack of water. They are experiencing drying rivers. And most of all, they are worried because their forests are disappearing. And that is partly why I think that the environment is extremely important.

Wangari Maathai has done as much for environmentalism in Africa as Al Gore has done here in the United States, earning her an esteemed place among the most influential environmental figures of modern times. As much as she has already achieved, she will undoubtedly continue exemplary and inspirational work on behalf of the earth and its people.

Wangari Maathai’s Green Score: 90,389

AASHE Announces Campus and Student Sustainability Award Winners

Congratulations to the winners of The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s (AASHE) Campus Sustainability Leadership Awards! Tulane University, Northland College and College of Menominee Nation have been recognized for their commitment to going green. The schools showed outstanding leadership in their curriculum, research, operations, community outreach and life on campus.

Two students were also honored for their work in sustainability.  Sarah E. Brylinsky, a senior at Ithaca College, received the Student Sustainability Leadership award and Ryan Graunke, a recent graduate of the University of Florida, won the Student Research on Campus Sustainability Award for his paper: “Food and Fuel: Biogas Potential at Broward Dining Hall.”

From Media Newswire:

The winners of the campus and student sustainability leadership awards are highlighted in the October issue of Sustainability: the Journal of Record. The research award winner and honorable mentions will be featured in the December issue of the Journal. In addition, the applications and papers received through each of the awards program are posted on the AASHE website.

The awards will be formally presented at the upcoming AASHE 2008 conference, Working Together for Sustainability – On Campus and Beyond, Nov. 9-11 in Raleigh, NC. With over 1,700 registrants, the conference will be the largest gathering focused on campus sustainability to date in North America.

AASHE received 59 applications for the campus awards, 38 applicants for the student leadership award, and 37 submissions for the student research award. The award winners were selected by pools of campus sustainability experts assembled by AASHE.

Competition for prestigious sustainability awards like this is tightening up big time – so many more people are applying! You can really tell how much the green movement on college campuses is growing every year. We’re happy to see so many new green leaders emerging!

Link [Media Newswire]
Photo credit: Flickr user Authentic Eccentric (Tulane University)

Who’s Who in Green: Chico Mendes

Hailed as an environmental hero since the 80’s, Chico Mendes fought a dramatic battle against the burning and logging of the Brazilian rainforest and ultimately gave his life for the cause.  He was born into a rubber tapping family in 1944.  Rubber tapping is a harmless method of extracting sap from rubber trees, and it’s been practiced in the Amazon for decades.  Mendes himself became a rubber tapper as an adult, and this sustainable agriculture system is what unwittingly led him into the world of environmental activism.

While the rubber tappers sought to extract resources from the Amazon without harming it, other industries weren’t so keen on keeping the trees standing.  Miners and cattle farmers wanted to tear down the forests so they could replace it with strip mines and pasture, which make a far bigger profit.  The rubber tappers weren’t going to give up without a fight, though – it was their only way to feed their families, and they felt tied to the trees.  So they would march down the logging trails, disarming the guards and attempting to convince the ranchers’ workers to stop the destruction.

It was tough work, and Mendes saw a friend and ally assassinated in 1980 for standing up to the ranchers. It was then that Mendes decided to take his battle higher up, advocating for the idea of creating forest reserves that could be managed by traditional communities and sustainably harvesting goods like rubber and Brazil nuts. He then founded the Xapuri Rural Worker’s Union, becoming its president.  The union sought to hold their ground against the ranchers, and enjoyed some successes over the years. Mendes taught the surprisingly large numbers of rubber tappers who came to the union meetings about deforestation, cattle ranching and the threat to their livelihoods.

It was at this time that Mendes captured the attention of the international environmental movement.  Mendes and the Xapuri Rural Worker’s Union aligned themselves with environmentalism and in 1985, Mendes was the subject of a documentary by an English filmmaker.

In 1987 Mendes became renowned for his stewardship of the Amazon, flying at the request of the National Wildlife Federation and the Environmental Defense to Washington D.C. to convince the Inter-American Development Bank to consider the preservation of the forest and its inhabitants while carrying out their road project.  This success led to two international environmental awards.

Mendes began his campaign to stop logger Alves de Silva from logging an area that was planned for a reserve in 1988.  It was a struggle, but he managed to stop the planned deforestation so the reserve could be created.  He also gained a warrant for de Silva’s arrest for a  murder committed in another state, but the warrant was never acted upon by police.

Months later, a week after his 44th birthday, Chico Mendes was assassinated at his home in Xapuri.  Alves de Silva and his son, Darli, were sentenced to 19 years in prison for their part in the killing.

The sensational nature of Mendes death only served to bring his cause even more attention, and the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve was created in the area where he lived, in his honor.  Mendes has since been the subject of several plays, movies and songs and will always be remembered for the spirited activism that highlighted the plight of his homeland.

Chico Mendes’ Green Score: Score: 65,342

Link [Global 500]
Photo credit: American.edu + Encarta

Pint-Size Eco Police: The New Generation of Greenies

These days, adults are hardly the only ones thinking about how they can conserve more water, use less energy or recycle that widget when they’re done with it. Kids are being brought up in an increasingly more environmentally responsible environment, and many of them are taking their family’s efforts to go green very seriously.  So seriously, in fact, that they’re berating their parents for driving non-hybrid cars and forgetting to bring reusable bags to the grocery store.  The New York Times reports on the growing trend of ‘pint-size eco police’, kids for whom Earth Day is practically a religious holiday.

From The New York Times:

Ms. Ross’s children are part of what experts say is a growing army of “eco-kids” — steeped in environmentalism at school, in houses of worship, through scouting and even via popular culture — who try to hold their parents accountable at home. Amid their pride in their children’s zeal for all things green, the grown-ups sometimes end up feeling like scofflaws under the watchful eye of the pint-size eco-police, whose demands grow ever greater, and more expensive.

They pore over garbage bins in search of errant recyclables. They lobby for solar panels. And, in a generational about-face, they turn off the lights after their parents leave empty rooms.

“Kids have really turned into the little conscience sitting in the back seat,” said Julia Bovey, a spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, a leading environmental group that recently worked with Nickelodeon on a series of public service announcements and other programming called “Big Green Help.”

Though this seems a bit Orwellian – one might wonder if we should be frightened that these little Spies are going to report us to the Party for thoughtcrime – at least it’s for a good cause, right? It should make us feel better that the younger generations are so dedicated. Stop looking at me like that, kid, I’m doing the best I can, I swear!

Link [NY Times]

Tree-Dwelling Environmental Activists Finally Come Down

Protecting the redwoods of Northern California has been a full-time job for a rotating cast of environmental activists for two decades now.  They’ve taken turns living in the trees to ensure that the ancient redwoods weren’t cut down, but the activists are finally convinced that the forest will be safe without them.

The details from Green Daily:

The last two tree sitters who were among many during protests that lasted two decades in Humboldt County came down last week, according to the Associated Press, having been convinced by the new owners of the forest they would “spare the ancient trees from the saw.”

For all intents and purposes, the great timber wars there ended, quite peacefully actually, despite the violence that marked the long battle between the lumber company that formerly owned the old-growth redwoods and environmental activists. The long battle included pepper stray, a car bombing and a civil lawsuit decided in activists’ favor. The new owners, operating as Humboldt Redwood Co., have reportedly promised to protect organisms that have been alive since B.C. and avoid clear-cutting, a practice the company had aggressively practiced under its previous owner, Maxxam Inc.

A great war has ended.  We won this one.  All of the time that people like Julia Butterfly Hill have devoted to save these beautiful trees has made an undeniable impact.  Hopefully Humboldt will stick to their word – and if they don’t, you can bet that the tree-protecting activists will be back.

Link [Green Daily]

Featured Change Agent: Scott Harrison is Bringing Clean Water to Africa

Scott Harrison had the kind of life many people dream of leading: a glamorous, exciting, privileged life in the glitzy world of upper class Manhattan.  Scott was a party promoter, living in a luxurious loft and dropping hundreds of dollars on Grey Goose vodka.  But something didn’t feel right.  He wasn’t happy.  That’s when he asked himself, ‘what does the opposite of my life look like?’  After doing some digging, he found it and in that instant, his life was profoundly changed.

Scott learned about Mercy Ships, an organization that offers free medical care in the world’s poorest nations on ‘floating hospitals’ – surgery ships where hundreds of top medical professionals from around the world spend their time – and some of them, their entire lives – giving to others.  Scott joined Mercy Ships as a photojournalist, documenting the process of providing medical help to people off the coast of West Africa who were desperately in need.  It was then that he fell in love with the country of Liberia, and realized how good he really had it: he had food to eat, and water to drink. Clean water. Over the next eight months, Scott grew increasingly inspired to do whatever he could to help these people, and that’s how charity: water was born.

Charity: water is a nonprofit organization that has funded more than 600 water projects in 11 developing nations.  They fund local engineers who drill freshwater wells and teach basic sanitation and hygiene.  The wells cost between $4,000 and $10,000 each to dig.

Scott has been able to put his connections in NYC to good use, organizing fundraising projects that have helped bring in the money needed to pay for clean running water for the neediest of communities. Luckily, Scott’s friends wanted to help – and so have thousands of other people who have heard about charity: water’s mission.

You can help, too – whether you’d like to donate money, buy 5 charity: water bracelets so you can spread the message to your friends and family (100% of proceeds goes to building wells), or join Changents as a backer.  As a Changents backer, you can act as a fan, a buzz builder, or a volunteer.  You can also respond to Scott’s action requests to help charity: water continue to make a vital difference in Africa.

Link [Changents] + [Charity: water]

Who’s Who in Green: William Kamkwamba

William Kamkwamba, at fourteen years old, was facing a situation that most Americans could never dream of: his parents could no longer afford to continue his schooling, so he was frced to drop out. His sister had developed a nasty cough from the smoking paraffin candles used to light his family’s home in a Malawian village without electricity. William, one of seven children, was frustrated at the idea of being unable to continue his education, to learn things that could enable him to help his family.

So, William took things into his own hands. With the help of his mentor, Dr. Hartford Mchazime and the Malawi Teacher Training Authority (USAID), William educated himself, reading every book he could get his hands on. One of those books happened to be Using Energy by Mary Atwater, and it inspired him to take on an extremely ambitious project: building a bare-bones but fully-functioning windmill out of scrap materials like salvaged broken pipes, wooden poles, old shoes, copper wire and his father’s old bicycle. He knew that a windmill could provide electricity for his house, eliminating the need for those unhealthy, hard-to-come-by candles.

He cut PVC pipes, heated them and pounded them flat to serve as blades. When a bicycle chain didn’t work the way he wanted it to, he replaced it with an old fan belt from a car. William’s makeshift invention provided enough electricity to power his room, but that wasn’t enough – so he set out to improve it.

He took an old barrel to a tinsmith and had it turned into new, more efficient blades. He took parts from his father’s bike to increase the gear ratio, which helped turn the turbine faster and boost power. He even made electrical components from scratch, fabricating a light switch from plastic pipe and rubber from shoes. Soon, his windmill was supplying power for his family’s entire house as well as charging local cell phones and a car battery for backup power.

Once the word got out about what William had done, he was invited to become a fellow at TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) GLOBAL 2007. TED seeks to spread innovative ideas that have the power to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. TED gave William a computer – which he now powers with his windmill.

Watch William discuss how he built his windmill in this video clip:

William is now using his wind-powered energy to reach out to people in his community. He designed a radio station that transmits to an audience within 100 square meters, and hopes to expand that to 20 miles so he can broadcast messages to his fellow Africans about not contracting HIV.

But he’s not stopping there. William’s next project is building a larger windmill that can help pump water and irrigate his family’s vegetable garden. He hopes to eventually be able to irrigate all of the crops in his village. Through his fellowship with TED, William has received enough support to help him improve his inventions by incorporating solar energy. He has also received enough donations to fund mentorships and his education.

William Kamwkamba’s inspiring story has touched people all over the globe, demonstrating the power of creativity and persistence in the face of a profound lack of resources. You can follow William’s journey at his Malawi Windmill blog, where he keeps readers updated on his inventions and their impact on his community as well as his own life.

William Kamkwamba’s Green Score: 20,893

Photo credit: MyHero.com

Featured Change Agent: Mike Davis is Recycling Pollution into Solutions

Each week, EarthFirst.com will be featuring a new ‘Change Agent’ from Changents.com, a social media site that connects people who are doing good in the world with a support system of advocates, donors, publicity generators and fans.

This week we’re putting the spotlight on Mike Davis, a change agent who’s fighting to turn millions of chemical-filled discarded cigarette butts into cigarette collection bins.  That’s right, he’s pushing the ‘Responsible Smokers Act’, which seeks to educate the public about the environmental and health impacts of the improper disposal of cigarette butts, which contain carcinogens.

The rationale behind Mike’s idea is simple: smokers make their own choice to expose themselves to the harmful substances in cigarettes.  But when they litter the streets, waterways, parks and other public spaces with the remnants of those cigarettes, they’re infringing on non-smokers’ rights not to be contact with those substances.  There hasn’t been a lot of research into whether improperly discarded cigarette butts might be contaminating our water and soil.  As Mike points out, cigarette filters were created to trap and contain many of the harmful ingredients in cigarettes – so, how do we know those toxins aren’t getting to the rest of us through other means?

Mike Davis’ solution is not only to make the public more aware of this problem, but to actually recycle used cigarette filters, which are made of cellulose acetate, into cigarette collection bins. He’s currently working with the patent holder of cigarette butt recycling and hopes to have a program in place soon.

Mike is currently seeking someone with a degree in business and knowledge about startups and running non-profit organizations to help him develop his business model.  He’s also seeking a 501 ©(3) fiscal sponsorship so he can begin accepting donations, a chemist to help him in the process of recycling the cigarette filters and a web designer willing to donate their time and skills to help him build a website for the Responsible Smokers Act.

If you can provide any of these services or want to help Mike in another way, join Changents as a backer.  Respond to his action requests, volunteer, give Mike support or just help spread the word.  Joining Changents is easy and becoming a backer will allow you to help out other change agents seeking to make the world a better place as well.

Link [Changents]

Featured Change Agent: Seacology Aims to Save Islands Around the World

Each week, EarthFirst.com will be featuring a new ‘Change Agent’ from Changents.com, a social media site that connects people who are doing good in the world with a support system of advocates, donors, publicity generators and fans.

This week’s featured Change Agent is ‘Seacology’. Seacology is an international environmental non-profit organization that is focusing their efforts on saving endangered species, habitats and cultures of islands around the world, from the Caribbean to Indonesia. In the last 400 years, the majority of the world’s plant and animal extinctions have taken place on islands in what leading biologist Dr. Peter J. Bryant has called “one of the swiftest and most profound biological catastrophes in the history of the earth.”

The knowledge that island habitats are so fragile, and that indigenous people are so often forced to choose between economic development and protecting their natural resources, led to the formation of Seacology.  Seacology is headed up by executive director Duane Silverstein along with a small staff including Susan Racanelli, Ellen Kamoe, Emily Klokkevold, Karen Peterson and Lisa Rosenthal.   Seacology also has field representatives around the world who scout out projects.

With the help of volunteers, Seacology has saved 163,811 acres of island terrestrial habitat and 1,808,443 acres of coral reef and other marine habitat.  They’ve also built or funded 76 schools, community centers, water delivery systems and other critically needed island facilities and 26 scholarship programs, vital medical services and supplies and other critical support for island communities.

Check out this video of Seacology’s southern Madagascar project:

Seacology has received many honors for their work, including the Islands Magazine Blue Award, the Travel + Leisure Global Vision Award, the Yahoo Pick for Good and the California Association of Nonprofits Achievement in Innovation Award.

Seacology is currently seeking educators, parents and students interested in joining their free Adopt-an-Island program, which educates students about the threats facing islands on both an environmental and humanitarian level.  Teachers will be sent pictures and background information on the project of your choice, and can then discuss the project with students and develop fundraising strategies to support the project.  Join Changents.com as a backer to reply to this action request and get involved!

Link [Changents] + [Seacology]

Green College Spotlight: Tufts University

Tufts University, in Medford/Somerville Massachusetts, has long been a leader in sustainability – since back before many people even knew the definition of the term.  Tufts developed the first university environmental policy back in 1990 and launched the international Talloires Declaration, which is now supported by 300 academic leaders worldwide.  The Talloires Declaration is a ten-point action plan for incorporating sustainability and environmental literacy in teaching, research, operations and outreach at colleges and universities.

Now, sustainability is an essential part of the university’s daily operations.  The school has not only made commitments to a number of regional and international goals to reduce emissions of climate-altering gases, they’ve also incorporated a wide variety of environmentally friendly initiatives.   Tufts has been named on many ‘greenest colleges’ lists including those by Grist.org, Sierra Magazine and The Daily Green.

Tufts’ environmental efforts are nearly too numerous to name. The university has a comprehensive energy efficiency and conservation program involving things like carbon offsets, light bulb exchange programs, hydro electricity, on-site solar power, steam power and occupancy sensors that automatically turn off lights when people leave the room. Check out the ‘Tufts Recycles!’ web page, which details the efforts of the school’s recycling program.  Water efficiency efforts, a local and organic food movement on campus, sustainable landscaping and a fleet of green campus vehicles are just a few more examples.

Tufts University’s newest residential hall, Sofia Gordon Hall, has incorporated a large number of sustainability initiatives throughout the planning and building process – silver LEED certification is pending. The building has been designed to optimize energy performance, and is equipped with water-efficient appliances. Solar thermal and photovoltaic rooftop panels provide hot water and electricity, and the university has also purchased wind power credits in an amount equivalent to the electricity needs of Sofia Gordon Hall and the new Music Center for two years.  Other green aspects of the building include low and no-VOC carpet, sealant and paint, construction waste recycling, recycled and renewable materials, storm water management and real-time monitoring of the building’s energy consumption.

Students at Tufts are given a comprehensive guide to greening up campus life, from energy usage tips to encouragement to eat less meat.  The university’s Guide to Living and Working Green at Tufts includes tips and information on recycling, composting, getting around campus and even how to green your wardrobe.

Check out the details on Tufts University’s impressive green resume at the school’s sustainability page.

Featured Change Agent: The Canary Project is Helping the World Visualize Global Warming

Each week, EarthFirst.com will be featuring a new ‘Change Agent’ from Changents.com, a social media site that connects people who are doing good in the world with a support system of advocates, donors, publicity generators and fans.

This week, we’re featuring ‘The Canary Project’, which aims to spread awareness about global warming through artwork and visual media.  The Canary Project was created by husband and wife team Susannah Sayler and Ed Morris, a couple with dramatically different backgrounds who began working together toward this common goal.  Ed, a former partner in a private investigation firm working for NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg, certainly didn’t expect to quit his job to produce artwork with his wife.  But, that’s how it happened.

Susannah is a photographer who has long been drawn to landscapes, and how humans can find so much emotional meaning in photos of places they’ve never even been to. Susannah takes photographs of places all over the world that have been impacted by climate change, recently traveling to Antarctica and Peru. She has also photographed places where she and Ed have noted efforts to adapt to and/or fight climate change. Susannah and Ed believe that climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, and one that needs to be publicized.  They’ve been showing their photography in clubs and other venues in New York for years, but wanted the message to reach much further.

Soon, Susannah and Ed realized that they needed more than just photographs to capture the attention of the world.  They began working with artists, writers and scientists on collaborations that led to The Canary Project in its current form.  The Canary Project has spent this summer shooting innovative renewable energy projects in Spain, talking to artists and designers working on sustainability issues in Barcelona, and hooked up with fellow Change Agents ‘The Big Green Bus’ in San Francisco.  They launched ‘Green Patriot Posters’, an effort to create positive, strong images that urge sustainability action similar to WWII-era posters that urged team spirit.

Check out this video introduction of The Canary Project:

The Canary Project is currently seeking climate change-related artwork, and help with their ‘Green Patriot’ project.  They’re also asking supporters to sign up for wind energy and support at www.newwindenergy.com/canary.  To see the rest of The Canary Project’s action opportunities, check out their Changents page.

Help Susannah and Ed spread this very important message across the globe.  Join Changents today as a backer.  You can support them as a donor, publicity generator, advocate, fan or active volunteer.  Learn more about The Canary Project and view the rest of Susannah and Ed’s videos at Canary-Project.org.

Link [Changents] + [The Canary Project]

Who’s Who in Green: Majora Carter

The South Bronx, where Majora Carter grew up, wasn’t exactly an inspiring place for a creative girl who would go on to study cinema.  Back then, as Majora told CNN, the area was considered “the poster child for urban blight”.  Waste facilities and other kinds of polluting infrastructure crowd this neighborhood outside Manhattan.  While the South Bronx is better now than it was when she was a child, Majora was still stunned by the prevalence of such facilities in a poor community.  She decided to get more involved, and founded Sustainable South Bronx, an organization that works to promote green collar jobs and sustainable development to create healthier communities and help lift people out of poverty.

Over the years, the South Bronx has literally served as a dumping ground for waste.  The air quality was abysmal and athsma rates were raising ever-higher.  When Majora went back to live with her parents while seeking a graduate degree from New York University, she noticed a disused stretch of waterfront one day and thought, why can’t that be a usable, clean, green space for the community to enjoy? She wrote a $1.2 million Federal Transportation planning grant for the South Bronx Greenway, which resulted in a big victory: an 11-mile waterfront park.

The South Bronx still faces plenty of problems.  It handles more than 40 percent of New York City’s commercial waste.  There’s also a sewage treatment plant, a sewage sludge palletizing plant and four power plants.  Residents breathe in diesel emissions from about 60,000 diesel truck trips every week.  Majora hopes that Sustainable South Bronx’s efforts will inspire the community to come together and fight against the kind of discrimination that results in poor communities being kept on the receiving end of all of this pollution.

Five years ago, Sustainable South Bronx started an urban green-collar job training program, Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST). It focused on individuals who needed help the most; many of the trainees were formerly incarcerated. The program has a fantastic 85 percent employment rate in areas like forestry, green roof installation, brown field cleanup and maintenance.

Other projects by the Sustainable South Bronx include building a park on the site of a former concrete plant, developing an ecological restoration workforce to protect the environment, replacing the abandoned Sherridan Expressway along 1.25 miles of the Bronx River with riverfront housing and retail stores and advocating for swimmable waterways.

Check out this video of Majora talking about ‘greening the ghetto’:

Of Sustainable South Bronx’s future, Majora told CNN,

In ten years I hope that Sustainable South Bronx has worked itself out of a job because our work to help create the South Bronx as a hope for green businesses, for clean businesses, has taken off so much; that our 25 percent unemployment rate is in the past; that our asthma rates have plummeted because there is so much green space along the new Greenway that has been built here; that there are so many people bike riding and the diabetes rate is gone; and that Nobel Prize Laureates are being born.

In 10 years, if we play our cards right and make the right partnerships, whether that’s with the city or with businesses, absolutely. I don’t think it would take much for that to happen. When my parents moved here 60 years ago, this place was a working class community and it was thriving. We can be thriving again.
There was a different kind of manufacturing then, but it was manufacturing and the jobs were right here in this country. People were able to make livings out of it and the gap between rich and poor was smaller.

I think we need to decide as a society, as a country, that it’s not ok that people are as poor as they are right now. We’ve got to decide that we want to live in a world that is sane and happy and healthy, and that everyone deserves that.

Majora has been named among Newsweek’s ‘Who’s Next in 2007’, The NY Post’s 50 most influential women in New York City, Essence Magazine’s 25 Most Influential African-Americans of 2007 and Vibe Magazine’s New Power Generation.  She has also been awarded the National Audubon Society’s Rachel Carson Award for outstanding efforts in environmental protection.  In fact, she’s received so many awards that the list is too lengthy to include here! Check it out on her Wikipedia page.

Majora is also co-founder of Green for All with fellow Who’s Who in Green Van Jones, which aims to help raise people out of poverty through green jobs.  Majora looks forward to a future where the world works together to create communities that are safe and healthy, and she’s inspiring plenty of people along the way.

Majora Carter’s Green Score: 74,887

Featured Change Agent: Debrianna and David Mansini-Forlano Give Their Green Tips

Each week, EarthFirst.com will be featuring a new ‘Change Agent’ from Changents.com, a social media site that connects people who are doing good in the world with a support system of advocates, donors, publicity generators and fans.

This week’s featured change agents are Debrianna and David Mansini-Forlano, a couple who don’t just talk about making changes in their lives, they live it.  The Mansini-Forlanos’ goal is simple: they’re working on making their lives as green as possible, and they want to share it with the world through the videos they post on CurrentTV.

Video topics cover everything from Earthships to electric cars, with stories and interviews on all different forms of sustainability. The pair, who call themselves ‘twodee’ on CurrentTV, aim to present ‘some of the most interesting, inventive and creative people who are the problem solvers when it comes to climate change, supporting local communities and thinking toward a long term existence on our planet’.

The Mansini-Forlanos are showing everyone how easy it can be to go green in your own life.  They detail their own efforts including their electric car, solar water heater, composting, rain harvesting and all of the cool new gadgets they’ve discovered to aid them in their conservation efforts.  They also loan money to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world through micro-lending organization KIVA.

Check out all of the Mansini-Forlanos’ videos at their page on CurrentTV.  Their YouTube video, below, also packs as many green tips as possible into a 3-minute clip:

Help the Mansini-Forlanos in their efforts to educate the public about going green by joining Changents as a backer.  It’s easy –  once you join Changents, you can help Change Agents by spreading the word, responding to action requests, donating funds, or acting as an advocate.

Who’s Who in Green: Adam Gardner

Many people may already know Adam Gardner from his band Guster, in which he sings and plays guitar.  But playing music isn’t Adam’s only passion – he’s also an environmental activist, having co-founded Reverb with his wife, environmentalist Lauren Sullivan.  Reverb greens up summer tours, making sure that all that partying has as small a footprint on the earth as possible.

There’s a certain stereotype of musicians trashing everyplace they go – from hotel rooms to stadiums – but not all musicians go around wasting resources and littering just for the hell of it.  Adam says many of them want to do better, but they lack the know-how and resources.  That’s where Reverb comes in.

Adam and Lauren were inspired to start Reverb when he was touring with Guster back in 2004 and they barely had a chance to see each other.  Looking for a way to merge their worlds, Lauren realized how powerful it can be to have artists back causes.  They decided to help bands that wanted to go green, doing all of the research for them and making it easy for them to stick to their commitment.

Reverb has worked with acts like Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Panic at the Disco, The Dave Matthews Band, Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sheryl Crow.  Reverb has helped green more than 50 tours, reducing 30,000 tons of carbon dioxide and distributing about 250,000 gallons of biodiesel to music acts.  Reverb’s greening services include recycling, waste reduction, green bus supplies and cleaners, biodegradable catering products, energy efficiency, a green contract rider, eco-friendly merchandise and green sponsorship.

Reverb also helps spread the message to fans through interactive exhibits at concerts, like their ‘Eco Village’.  The Eco Village creates a festival-like atmosphere and puts the spotlight on local and national non-profits, as well as green technologies and eco-friendly samples.  Fans can offset their own carbon, register to vote and sign up to win prizes.  Each Eco Village is built to reflect the band’s causes and interests.

Adam also testified on Capitol Hill last fall about the benefits of biofuel to the music industry, telling Billboard Magazine, “I’ve never been more nervous in my life.  I basically said, ‘We’d love for Reverb to be out of business, as far as coordinating biodiesel for tours,’ ” he says. “[Artists] should be able to pull up to any ol’ truck stop and get it. It shouldn’t be something we have to find for tours.”

Of Reverb’s use of carbon offsets, Adam told Ecorazzi,

“Let’s talk about offsets for a sec. The NY Times has been running a bunch [of articles] about it lately. This is what I think about offsets: I think obviously you need to reduce your footprint first and foremost. You gotta do what you can to be more efficient, use less energy and create less carbon. So obviously you are shrinking your footprint first.

“And then there is some inevitable footprint left over - well then what do you do with that? That’s where I think offsets do come in. And the key to offsets is making sure that you’re buying them from the right place. Because carbon offsets are not created equal.

“There are a lot people out there that see dollar signs and are selling things that aren’t carbon offsets. We use Native Energy and what I like about them is that money goes directly towards building new renewable energy sources like wind farms and solar arrays. So to me that’s what you want to do, you want to be able to point to something and say that got built with my help. And that’s an offset - you’re creating something that otherwise wouldn’t have existed without your help. Help being in this case, simply buying renewable energy credits.”

As the world becomes more environmentally aware, no doubt more musicians will be looking to green up their act.  Adam Gardner has helped start a revolution in the music industry, and the world is far better off for it.

Adam Gardner’s Green Score: 28,983

Featured Change Agent: Chad Pregracke is Cleaning Up America’s Rivers

Each week, EarthFirst.com will be featuring a new ‘Change Agent’ from Changents.com, a social media site that connects people who are doing good in the world with a support system of advocates, donors, publicity generators and fans.

This week we’re putting the spotlight on Chad Pregacke, a change agent who set out to free the rivers he loves so much from the trash that was polluting their shorelines.  Chad, who grew up and spent much time along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, decided at 22 that he wanted to do something about the problem.  So, he started calling around seeking corporate sponsorships, and after many rejections, finally got his first one from Alcoa, Inc.  That helped him get started, and 10 years later, he’s traveling the rivers of America in his barge, cleaning them of trash.

Chad’s organization, Living Lands and Waters, has pulled over 4 million pounds of trash from the nation’s river since he first set out in 1997. LL&W now has 10 employees, a fleet of workboats and barges and many corporate sponsors. They’ve engaged thousands of people in river cleanups all over the U.S., and continue to work toward their mission of river cleanup, riverbottom restoration, educational workshops, Adopt-A-River-Mile and the Million Trees project.

Living Lands and Waters goes one step further in their efforts by giving away a million fruit and nut bearing hardwood trees to help restore watershed ecosystems.  The trees are offered in the hopes that communities will be able to get rid of invasive species and instead provide food and shelter for wildlife, and preserve the riverbottom ecosystems.

Check out this video clip from Big Ideas for a Small Planet, where Chad talks about Living Lands and Waters’ efforts.

Chad and Living Lands and Waters are actively seeking volunteers to help them in their current crusade, which is helping to restore the Midwest areas that were affected by this year’s flood.  See the Chad Pregracke Changents Action Opportunities page for more information.

Living Lands and Waters also hosts community cleanups, educational workshops and tree-plantings throughout the Midwest, and occasionally in other locations.  Join Changents as a backer or contact Living Lands and Waters by emailing madeline@livinglandsandwaters.org for more information.

As a Changents backer, you can offer your assistance in any way you can: as a volunteer right out there on the rivers, sponsors, advocates and publicity generators.  Even if you only have a few minutes of your day to spare, you can help get Living Lands & Waters’ message out so they can continue cleaning up our rivers.

25 Rich Ass Greenies Who Made Their Fortune Saving the Environment (#5 - #1)

All this week, EarthFirst.com has counted down the world’s richest green entrepreneurs who have amassed fortunes ranging from the low millions to an incredible $3.4 billion mostly from doing good deeds for the planet.

We’re down to the top 5 – green billionaires who didn’t just start helping the environment after they became billionaires, they made the bulk of their fortunes from helping the environment. These industry giants range between $1.5 billion and $3.4 billion in net worth, and the top three are all from a country that might surprise you: China.

5. Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello, Cosan

The world’s first ethanol billionaire, Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello has seen his fortune decrease dramatically over the past year due to the decline of sugar and ethanol prices and rumors of a takeover of his company, Cosan S.A. Of course, $1.5 billion still ain’t bad.

Cosan is one of the world’s largest producers of ethanol, which they brew from sugar cane. Mello has been described as ‘the world’s first biofuel tycoon’. Cosan began way back in 1936, when Mello’s family established a sugarcane mill in Piracicaba, Brazil, outside Sao Paolo.

4. Frank Asbeck, SolarWorld

Frank Asbeck founded SolarWorld, a company that manufactures solar cells and modules which are then installed as solar panels, in 1998. Asbeck has proven to be an innovative leader for this family-owned German company, taking an aggressive entrepreneurial approach that many predict will help the company grow by 25% each year. SolarWorld is at an advantageous position right now, since the manufacture of solar cells will likely be somewhat of a bottleneck in the solar power industry and his company will be able to step in and meet much of that demand.

Asbeck, worth an estimated $1.6 billion, said in a 2007 press release, “Solar energy is on the way to attaining full competitiveness with grid power in the next few years. This means that a major factor for a climate-friendly turning of the tide in the energy sector would be achieved. Yet, in order to actually achieve this ‘grid parity’, the solar industry must continue to invest in the expansion of its capacities and also earn these investments. Because only mass production and efficiency improvements can make prices drop further.”

3. Peng Xiaofeng, LDK Solar

A relative newcomer in the field of solar energy, Peng Xiaofeng’s wealth soared dramatically over a period of only a few years. Just last year, he was worth a whopping $3.85 billion, but his net worth decreased to ‘just’ $2.5 billion in 2008 after allegations by a former employee that his company, LDK Solar, had inflated inventory figures of a key raw material, polysilicon.

Peng’s business began as a safety-product manufacturing plant, until he realized that no Chinese company as of that time was producing solar wafers, a key component of solar panels that make up 25% of their cost. He poured millions of his own fortune and $80 million in venture financing into his new operation, and soon LDK Solar began its rocky journey through the solar industry.

2. Shi Zhengrong, Suntech Power

This China-born Australian citizen is the world’s richest solar tycoon, with about $2.9 billion to his name. Shi Zhengrong runs Suntech Power, which he founded in China in 2001. Suntech makes the photovoltaic cells used in solar panels, and was the first Chinese company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Shi, born in poor rural China and given up for adoption by his parents so that he could have a better life, is now one of the richest citizens of both China and Australia.

Suntech Power has a current market value of about $6 billion, and Shi is confident that his company will grow to the size of the world’s largest oil conglomerates as we shift toward renewable sources of energy.

1. Cheung Yan, Nine Dragons Paper

Reported by some sources as the world’s richest self-made woman, Cheung Yan gained her fortune in what many might find a surprising place: recycled paper. Cheung (her name is often spelled Zhang Yin as well) is worth an estimated $3.4 billion based on 2007 revenue figures (2008’s aren’t in yet), and she’s made it over the span of just a few years. Nine Dragons Paper takes post-consumer paper from the U.S. and processes it in China into new paper goods. Cheung held the title of world’s richest woman for nearly two years before being toppled by a young woman who inherited her father’s vast fortune (Yang Huiyan, worth $16.1 billion), but is still richer than both Oprah and J.K. Rowling.

25 Rich Ass Greenies Who Made Their Fortune Saving the Environment (#10 - #6)

All this week, EarthFirst.com will be counting down the world’s richest green entrepreneurs who have amassed fortunes ranging from the low millions to an incredible $3.4 billion mostly from doing good deeds for the planet.

Next up on our countdown of 25 of the richest green businesspeople in the world are a husband and wife team, two eco-friendly cosmetics pioneers and a man who wandered into the lucrative world of wind power by accident.  Today’s list starts at $100 million and ends around $1.4 billion, incredible fortunes made while simultaneously doing good things for the earth.

10. Tom Chappell and 9. Kate Chappell, Tom’s of Maine

Tom and Kate Chappell began making eco-friendly personal care products in the late ‘60s, when they were unable to find any on store shelves.  Taking out a $5,000 loan from a friend, they started Tom’s of Maine with ‘Clearlake’, the country’s first phosphate-free laundry detergent.  In 1975 they introduced the first natural toothpaste, which cemented their future as a leader in the natural personal care industry. Tom and Kate share in the $100 million fortune they made from selling Tom’s of Maine to Colgate in 2006, and remain the CEO and VP of the company, respectively.  Tom’s of Maine pulls in about $45 million in annual sales.

Of the green industry’s future, Tom told SFGate, “The current consciousness for environmental sustainability is different from anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s coming from industry, from companies, for the first time. You’ve had small companies doing a grassroots effort for decades, along with consumers and nonprofit groups, but now you’ve got large companies with senior leadership saying we’ve got to take this seriously. That’s terrific. We know that green solutions are possible. We just need to have green solutions become more available and affordable.”

8. Anita Roddick, The Body Shop

One of the pioneers of the natural beauty industry, Anita Roddick amassed a fortune of $200 million through her cosmetics and toiletries business, The Body Shop, making her one of England’s richest women.  Anita began The Body Shop with the vision that all types of businesses could be run ethically, and that every ingredient has a story.  Anita passed away in 2007, and her husband, Gordon, now manages her fortune.

Of her inspiration to start The Body Shop, Anita said, “My early travels had given me a wealth of experience. I had spent time in farming and fishing communities with pre-industrial peoples, and been exposed to body rituals of women from all over the world. Also the frugality that my mother exercised during the war years made me question retail conventions. Why waste a container when you can refill it? And why buy more of something than you can use? We behaved as she did in the Second World War, we reused everything, we refilled everything and we recycled all we could. The foundation of The Body Shop’s environmental activism was born out of ideas like these.”

7. Roxanne Quimby, Burt’s Bees

When Roxanne Quimby met Burt Shavitz (#23 on our countdown), she was a single mother of twins living in a cabin in the North Woods of Maine. Her husband had just left her and she was desperate for income.  Burt, who had been selling jars of honey out of the back of his pickup truck, had hives labeled ‘Burts Bees’ and pounds and pounds of beeswax, and that spurred an idea: making products like lip balm, shoe polish and beeswax candles.  Over time, her efforts paid off in a big way: Burt’s Bees is now the most successful natural care products company in the world.  The company sold to Clorox in 2007 for $1 billion, and Roxanne made an estimated $300 million from the sale.

Roxanne told Hilary Career, “I think it takes a lot of hard work, persistence, and belief in one’s vision to build a successful company. That sounds sort of trite but one must possess these basic traits to carry on when faced with the daily challenges and sheer exhaustion of running one’s own company. Good luck and good timing also play a role in one’s success. For a product-driven company like Burt’s Bees, I think it’s important to stay ahead of the curve with product innovation and listen closely to what the consumer tells you she wants, and remain faithful to your mission and values.”

6. Tulsi Tanti, Suzlon Energy

Tulsi Tanti, an Indian businessman, didn’t set out to save the environment.  It sort of happened by accident. In 1995, when he owned a fledgling textile company called Suzlon, he received a shocking electric bill that made him wish he could do something about the price of power.  That led him to decide to provide for his own energy needs, buying two wind turbines to power his company – a risky and expensive move, but one that he felt strongly was the right thing to do.  Then, in 2000, Tanti read an article about global warming that predicted that some of his favorite tourism destinations, including the Maldives, would be underwater by the year 2050.  He told TIME Magazine, “I had a very clear vision. If Indians start consuming power like the Americans, the world will run out of resources. Either you stop India from developing, or you find some alternate solution.”

That’s when Tanti decided to sell off his company’s textile manufacturing and enter the field of wind-turbine generators. Suzlon is now the fourth largest wind-turbine maker in the world, with annual profits of about $850 million. Tanti is now worth an estimated $1.4 billion.

Check out the rest of the Rich Ass Greenies: #25-#21, #20-#16, #15-11

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