Of plastic bags, hybrids & iPods…

I was interested to find –> this article regarding plastic grocery bags in San Diego’s largest local newspaper . Apparently, some cities have either banned plastic grocery bags altogether (San Francisco) or are contemplating bans (Santa Cruz, Berkeley, & Los Angeles). The issue has surfaced here in San Diego and it will be interesting to see if it gains any traction. Until and if that happens, the solution is simply to reuse bags wherever possible.

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We’re expecting a new addition to our family soon, and are facing a situation that many families do as they grow: the need for a larger car. We’re considering our options and weighing our needs and financial capacity with our green and eco-goals. At the top of our list is a –>Toyota Prius. Below that are various smaller station wagony-type vehicles. An SUV is out of the question for obvious reasons, and sedans just don’t seem versatile enough for busy and kid-oriented lifestyle. I’ll be posting more as we get deeper into the process. I’d love to hear from anyone with a Prius or other hybrid about their experiences with these vehicles.

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Don’t know about y’all, but I love my iPod. I rarely go anywhere without it. It’s just nice to have instant access to my entire reggae collection and the rest of my tunes. In an effort to green my music listening and iPod use, I’m going to get one of –>these solar chargers. One of these little guys can charge your iPod, cell phone, digicam, and a host of other gadgets. Now, to score one off eBay for $20…

Weekend is here = good reggae!

It’s Friday and I’ve got the weekend on the brain. After a long work week, it will be nice to spend the time listening to some good reggae. With that in mind, found a couple of posts by fellow bloggers worth sharing:

Mg –>wrote in his blog about Bob Marley’s –>”Slave Driver” from the Catch a Fire album, saying it “speaks profound truths about past and present oppression, of far-reaching societal machinations that hold people down and the power it takes to combat and resist those forces.”

Well said! This has long been my favorite Marley song of all-time (and you fans know how hard it is pick just one)! The first time I heard it, I said to myself, this man is worth listening to because he has something to say. I recommend the version found on –>Catch a Fire Deluxe Edition album. Stripped of all post-production embellishments added by the record label, you get the raw, unadulterated recording as laid down by the Wailers in Jamaica. I also highly recommend the version of “Concrete Jungle” found on this album.

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Here’s a classic Steel Pulse clip from YouTube performing “Babylon Makes the Rules”, found in this blog –>MixMasterE.

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Lately I’ve been very concerned about how green my employer is or isn’t. Luckily, I am closely involved in promoting green policies within my company and actually moving us in that direction. Our company has some very exciting things looming that is going to make sure that we are not only at industry standard for good green practices, but way above. I’ve been doing some research into what some other companies have doing in this arena, and obviously there has been a lot of media interest in this as well lately. Apple, has received some –>recent coverage (–>more here) for –>their green approach. Marc Gunther, a writer for Fortune Magazine, has published a book called Faith and Fortune, a look at how some of America’s biggest corporations are actually changing for the better. He profiles some well known companies such as UPS, Southwest Airlines, HP, and Starbucks, and shows how they are not only engaging in socially responsible practices towards the environment, but towards employees and customers as well.

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From the Ideal Bite newsletter, a green minded auto insurance company: Better World Club Insurance. Get a policy with them, and they’ll offset the first ton your auto’s carbon emissions for free! Oh yeah, and for us cyclists, they offer free roadside bicycle assistance. Sweet!

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Besides good reggae music, I hope to get some good trail riding in this weekend. Any MTB’ers out there in blog world? I love the feeling of being out in nature with my bike free from my car, my job, and well, just about everything else. That freedom is hard to come by these days, so I’ll take a couple hours of it any day. Hopefully I’ll get some good pics here and there to post on the blog.

Enjoy the weekend!

Catching up!

Whew! What a weekend – lots of good things happening. It’s been a while since I posted, so I’m going to cover quite a few things today. Here goes:

First a follow up to my –>previous post about Arbor Day – we planted our tree! It wasn’t as easy or quick as I thought it would be. There was a lot of pre-planning involved. From deciding where to plant to what kind of tree to buy, everything required some careful consideration. We decided to plant on the northeast corner of our backyard, so the tree will be getting sun pretty much all day. Then we needed to decide if we wanted an evergreen (stay green all year) or a deciduous (shed leaves in fall) type of tree – picked evergreen. Next choice is how fast you want the tree to grow – slow, moderate, or fast – we opted for a fast tree as we’re not sure how much longer we’ll be at this house. Finally, we needed to pick the type of tree. We went with a –>Brazillian Pepper Tree – grows quickly and has that classic shade tree look. The guys at the nursery told us this hardy tree will grow quickly and thrive in our Southern California climate. Will post pictures of our tree as soon as I get a chance, but here is one that is mature. Look at the vibrant green, can’t wait until ours is that big!

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This post from –>The Way We Live caught my eye; hadn’t really thought about ‘green’ housing before. Prefab houses, if done right, combine attractive design with sustainable materials and systems. This particular prefab is located in Venice, CA (love that city by the way – spent much of my college years there!) and was designed by Jennifer Siegal. You can see more excellent prefabs at her site –>Office of Mobile Design.

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Did some spring cleaning in the garage this weekend. Recycled what we could, sold what we could, gave away what we could, but we still have lots of stuff left. What to do? Here’s a –>great link from the Green Advice blog for –>Freecycle.org, a grass roots online community of folks who are giving things away for free. One more way to recycle rather than throw away. You know what they say about one man’s trash…

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Although Walmart has its share of problems, they are doing some good things on a couple of fronts. One, they are starting to carry some organic food products in their stores. Go organic wherever possible. The other is that they carrying compact fluorescent light bulbs that are subsidized by the local utility and a bargain at 94 cents for a 24W bulb (replaces 100W) and 74 cents for a 20W bulb (replaces 75W). Your store may or may not have these – I’m in San Diego and have seen a couple of stores with these subsidized offers. Here’s a –>great page on Walmart’s site that discusses the advantages and savings to switching from standard incandescent light bulbs. Also check out –>18seconds.org to see how the US is doing in switching to CFL bulbs.

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One –>fellow blogger has got a great eco-wishlist going. They are –>tracking their progress point by point. Great list of things for all of us to attempt.

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Got my hands on some crucial music as well. –>Stephen Marley just released his –>first solo album Mind Control and it is very Ital! –>Stephen was part of the original Melody Makers with his brother Ziggy and two sisters. His voice is, of all the Marley clan, probably the closest to his famous father’s. He’s sung lead on numerous tracks over the years on MM albums (I’m partial to the work he did on Joy and Blues) and often produces and collaborates on albums with the younger Marleys. I highly recommend his album – especially the more rootsy tunes on it. –>Listen to sample cuts here.

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Well that’s it for now.