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Posts Tagged ‘green transportation’
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
“An invitation to a wedding invokes more trouble than a summons to a police court” – in terms of the environment, that is. No matter how eco-friendly my friends and family’s weddings, if I, as a wedding guest, do not take eco-and monetarily conscious steps when attending nuptials, my actions can add to the footprint of even the most eco-friendly planned wedding. How?
1. Wedding guests spend an average of $500 dollars to attend a wedding.
2. The average wedding emits 63 tons of CO2.[1] Who is the biggest contributor to that CO2 emission? Friends and family!
3. Using this calculator I calculated that the 2 weddings I am attending this year will generate 2,895 lbs of CO2 and cost me $1,000.
I do believe we can make our own green wedding attendance plans. Here is a breakdown of where I think I can do to save green and be an eco-friendly guest this wedding season:
Travel Green. As my colleague Karen said in this blog post, look at three different factors when making travel arrangements: how far you are going, what is your vehicle, and, how many people are traveling with you? “If your party has two people and you are traveling 1,000 miles then flying economy beats out driving – the flight creates 835 pounds of CO2 while driving would create 1,125 pounds of CO2.” You might then also consider purchasing the appropriate quantity of carbon offsets ($17.85 will offset my 2,895 lbs of CO2). - Dress Green. Throw caution to the wind and dare to wear something from your current closet, even if other guests have previously seen it. A classic almost always works. (Not to mention the $200 savings you can pocket).
- Stay Green. Share rooms, reduce electricity and air conditioning use, and request your towels to be washed every other day. You can save 1.3 gallons of water daily per room (and even more if you share!)[2]
- Give Green. Make and give an eco-friendly gift. Not only will this reduce your financial and environmental expenditure, but giving an off-registry homemade gift can have greater positive meaning for the newlyweds. (Not crafty? Cash is also a perfectly acceptable green gift.)
- Eat Green. Ask for the vegetarian or the fish option – even if you like meat. In my experience, the veggie option is often prepared individually and tastes better than its companion meat dish. Some research also implies that producing a calorie of meat protein means burning more than ten times as much fossil fuel, and spewing more than ten times as much heat-trapping carbon dioxide, as does a calorie of plant protein.[3]
- Drink Green. Request locally produced beverages on draft, wherever possible. Not only do you minimize packaging and travel, but drinking locally can also provide you with a better cultural flavor of the wedding location.
I believe that everybody, not just the wedding planners, can do their part to generate a greener wedding. Here’s to a happy (green) wedding season.
[1] http://www.examiner.com/x-11943-SF-Green-Weddings-Examiner~y2010m3d31-The-environmental-impact-of-weddings-and-how-to-really-calculate-your-weddings-carbon-footprint
[2] http://www.economicallysound.com/towelsheet_reuse_program_savings.html
[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/vegetarian-is-the-new-pri_b_39014.html
Tags: environmental sustainability, green banking, green transportation, green weddings
Posted in Outreach | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
“If saving money is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.” ~ William Shatner
You don’t need Scottie to beam you up to know that financial savings is important! Saving $7 daily and investing in a savings plan for 40 years at 10%, compounded quarterly, can accumulate $1.3. million by retirement.[1] As American consumption is increasing at a faster rate than incomes, I am sleuthing for green changes I can make to my daily routine to save $7 a day. Here are 7 easy eco-friendly savings that add up to $7 that I have found thus far:
- Don’t drive by yourself– $0.14 to $3.00 savings. Although there are a variety of alternatives you can take (i.e. walking, car pooling, biking, etc.), public transportation most likely has the next highest cost to driving, which in Chicago, is $2.86/day (on a 30 day pass). Driving 4 miles/day, 5 days/week costs approximately $3.00/day[2].
- Bring your own organic lunch – $1.92 savings. A homemade organic turkey sandwich and apple costs $4.75. A regular processed turkey sandwich and apple from a chain costs $6.67.[3]
- Workout outside and forgo your monthly gym membership – $1.60 savings, assuming you pay $50/month for a gym.
- Drink water from your own glass – $1.50 savings (minimum). Filling a glass with water rather than purchasing one bottle of water daily saves money while increasing your water consumption (we are suppose to have 8 glasses/day, right?).
- Watch media on your laptop instead of your television – $1.19 savings. The average American watches 5 hours of television every day[4]. Assuming a $2.19/day cable cost[5], the cost of watching a 125 Watt 32” LCD television for 5 hours day at $0.11/kWh costs $2.26[6]. Assuming a $1/day internet cost, watching media online on a 125 Watt laptop at $0.11/kWh for 5 hours costs $1.07.[7]
- Decrease your heat/air conditioning setting by 3-4 degrees – $0.66 savings. You can save 10% by cutting 3-4 degrees off of the thermostat. That equates to $20/month on a $200 bill or $0.66 per day.
- Invest your $7 daily in a savings account – $0.17 extra savings! If you invest $7 every day in the ShoreBank Direct savings account at 1.07% APY,* compounded quarterly, you could save approximately $2,620 in the 1st year.[8]
Total Savings: $7.18. It may seem like only pennies, but a penny (or $7) saved, can really be earned. What are other eco-friendly daily savings you can take?
Love ShoreBank Voices? Help me tell others that where they bank does make a difference and leave a comment or subscribe to the ShoreBank Voices feed.
[1]http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/savings/simple-savings-calculator.aspx
[2] http://www.commutesolutions.org/calc.htm
[3] http://www.fitbytes.com/whole-foods-store-and-diet/
[4] http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/americans-watching-more-tv-than-ever/
[5] http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/02/19/how-i-cut-my-television-bill-in-half/
[6] http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/tv.html
[7] http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/computers.html
[8]http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/savings/simple-savings-calculator.aspx
Tags: energy efficiency, green savings, green transportation, ShoreBank Direct
Posted in Outreach | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
Is travel for tourism a human right? Although we might question this recent argument by the EU for subsidizing travel for low-income citizens, I agree with one reason behind its proposal – that travel for tourism can have positive economic, community, and environmental benefits, especially for small towns and local businesses. The more people who can travel, the greater than impact! But, I also think there is quicker low-cost way to responsibly increase access to travel. That way: a staycation to a low- or moderate-income neighborhood.
According to Wikipedia, “a ‘staycation’ is a period of time in which an individual or family stays at home and relaxes or takes day trips from their home to area attractions.” Many amazing things to see and do are nestled in low- or moderate-income neighborhoods. For example, in Chicago, you can take in jazz at the Sunset Café in Bronzeville, the Pullman Historic District in Pullman, or golf at the South Shore Cultural Center. Or, in San Francisco, you can check out the murals in Balmy Alley in the Mission, music at the Great American Music Hall in the Tenderloin, or watch the World Cup at The Pig & Whistle in Western Addition. If you look for it, almost every low- to moderate-income neighborhood has something great to see or do.
Not only are staycations fun, but they can also be far less costly, both financially and environmentally, than a traditional vacation. The American Automobile Association determined the average North American vacation would cost $244/day for two people for just lodging and meals. That doesn’t include travel and carbon output. Can you imagine the economic and environmental impact we could create if we spent the same amount of money in low- to moderate-income communities without flying there? Our reallocated tourism dollars might help create the same support in our city’s neighborhoods that the EU is trying to stimulate.
Many people want to make socially responsible actions, but get inundated by the plethora of options. A staycation is one step that everyone can take. Try it!
1.http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7100943.ece
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staycation
Tags: community development, green transportation, socially responsible investing, socially responsible travel, ways to reduce carbon
Posted in Outreach | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
I am a proud non-car owner. My family is even taking bets to see how long I will last sans a car. Now, I am fortunate that ShoreBank participates in SASI, which deducts my public transportation costs from my pre-tax salary. But not everybody is as lucky. Just as car owners receive an “alternative motor” tax credit for replacing their vehicles with new eco-friendly ones (and therefore, for positively impacting the economy and environment), why shouldn’t more people receive a financial incentive for not owning a car? I propose that by not owning a car and by taking alternative forms of transportation, people are creating a triple bottom line impact in the following ways:
Financial:
- Generating more disposable income. For people like me, whose savings rates rarely increases, the greater your disposable income, the more you spend can (and I know that I do!) spend locally.
- Saving time (and time equals money). When I lived in San Francisco, I calculated that it would take me the same amount of time to get to the commuter shuttle stop to Silicon Valley via foot as it would via bus. By walking 4 miles every day for a year, I saved $540.
- Increasing local business activity and employment from foot traffic. It is much easier to just duck into an interesting shop if you don’t have to find parking!
- Creating health cost savings from the exercise we get from walking, even if just to another form of transportation. Walking has saved me $1,300 on a gym membership.
Community:
- Decreasing external transportation costs by not contributing to car emissions, noise pollution, and potholes (and the fixing of them!), etc.
- Improving community cohesion – the quality of relationships among people in a community among people of different economic classes and social backgrounds. Running into the same people on the street or waiting for the bus makes my urban Chicago neighborhood feel like my small Missouri hometown (as if to emphasis that point, I really did sit across from a girl I went to high school with in MO on the bus to my Chicago apartment).
Environment:
- Reducing energy consumption and pollution emissions.
- Lowering “heat island” effects, including air condition costs, heat-related illness and mortality, and water quality. “Heat Island” describes how the annual mean air temperature of a city with 1 million people or more can be 1.8–5.4°F (1–3°C) warmer than its surroundings.
We really can make a big impact by not owning a car. But more people may need financial incentives to go “non-car owner”. Being a non-car owner is what ‘green’ means to me.
This is my picture for ShoreBank’s “What does ‘Green’ mean to me” photo contest. What does ‘Green’ mean to you? Take a photo and enter it in our contest starting April 22! It is time for us to give you your green credit.
Love ShoreBank Voices? Help me tell others that where they bank does make a difference and leave a comment or subscribe to the ShoreBank Voices feed blog.sbk.com/feed.
Tags: environmental sustainability, green transportation, tax credits, triple bottom line
Posted in Outreach | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
A friend of mine in Northern Minnesota bikes to work year round, even in the cold and snow. Oddly I found this inspiring. So this summer, I bought a bike and began riding it to work. I was a bit hesitant at first, but a month into it I was hooked! I was reducing my carbon footprint, saving money on gas, losing a little weight, and discovering interesting new parts of the city. I sometimes passed Chicago celebrities like Oprah Winfrey or Jesse Jackson Jr. on the lakefront trail. Biking was good.
I discovered interesting new places within the city that I might have missed in a car, including a tiny Lebanese neighborhood (with a bakery selling the best pita bread I have ever tasted), an awesome Romanian restaurant (Little Bucharest—it has since become one of my favorites), and many more museums, businesses, and parks (which I still have yet to stop and explore). After this first month, I felt I was becoming “A real Chicago bicyclist.” Then part of me said: “So maybe it’s time for you to join the Active Transportation Alliance, huh?”
Although we did previously blog on the Active Transportation Alliance (ATA), if you’re not familiar, they are a nonprofit that advocates for bikes (and other non-motorized forms of transportation) in Chicagoland. They have programs promoting bicycle safety, and they lobby to ensure that bike lanes are included on city streets. They also sponsor international events like “World Carfree Day” (which occurred last Tuesday, September 22) to encourage commuters to experiment with going for one day without using a car.
But I balked. Part of me felt that bicyclists in Chicago already had it good… maybe even “too good.” You see, there are a few bad eggs in the Chicago bicycle community who never obey any rules of the road. Insanely, they think that just having a bicycle makes you above the law! (I used to imagine Chicago cops observing a bicyclist on a crime spree, and saying to one another, “I guess there’s nothing we can do; he’s got a bicycle.”) But biking overall was pretty easy where I was.
So I procrastinated. Then, the next weekend, I decided I would take my bike to run an errand in a less bike friendly region nearby.
Let’s just say I joined the Active Transportation Alliance the next day.
As I rode in this un-named area, the demeanor changed dramatically for the worse. First, there were no bike lanes, and it was a struggle to figure out where to ride. Then, remarkably, I had people slow down their cars and roll down their windows to yell at me just for riding a bicycle! If you rode on the street, people would yell at you to ride on the sidewalk. If you rode on the sidewalk, people would yell at you to get back on the street. And perhaps most disconcerting of all, there were no other bicyclists.
I was shocked. Suddenly, the value of the inroads made by groups like the ATA was all too clear. It was also clear that I had taken them for granted. My little test ride provided a vision of how horrible things might be for bicyclists without nonprofits like the ATA working hard to advocate for them.
Yes, it still annoys me when an arrogant Chicago bicyclist acts like he or she doesn’t need to obey traffic signals, but moreover, I’m just thankful for all that we do have here in Chicago. There are miles of paved paths just for bikes. There are bicycle safety awareness programs for motorists. There are bike lanes on the city streets. And if people do roll down their windows to yell at you, it’ll be for some transgression other than simply “being a bicyclist.”
Tags: community development, green banking, green transportation, ShoreBank, triple bottom line
Posted in Outreach | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
President Obama’s recent televised fly swatting impacted more than just the fly. It sparked both PETA to send Obama a device that traps flies for subsequent outdoor release and an online debate across social media sites as to whether or not PETA overreacted. The result may influence whether or not Obama swats again. It is clear that Eco-Activism 2.0 is in full swing but it begs the question ‘can online eco-activism actually make a difference?’
For those people who are unfamiliar with the term ‘Eco-Activism,’ it is used to describe a person, such as Van Jones or Al Gore, who is involved in heightening consciousness and promoting potential behavioral solutions to environmental issues. There are many types of Eco-Activists. The type to which I am referring is rooted in good old fashioned person to person conversations. The more people to whom you speak, the more likely you are to reach the ‘tipping point.’ As the need to ‘go green’ intensifies, so too does our need to spread the world quickly. And what spreads the word more quickly than social media? The problem is to make sure that the word does not just spread online, but that corrective solutions are taken offline.
Two social media websites, 2people.org and changents.com, are designed to enable eco-activists to connect and to form online communities focused on solving environmental problems. 2people.org’s goal is to create a critical mass of activists who will create enough buzz about global warming that it will cause people to do something about it. Its basic social networking features allow people to form activism teams, to create a virtual workspace, and to monitor events, people, and actions in the world. Changents.com then enables Change Agents (Changents) to team-up with a receptive audience of Backers who can respond to, spread, support and consumer their innovations and ideas. They have offline abilities to back a Change agent through Action Requests.
Although still in Beta, in its first year, changents.com has already received 235 action requests for 157 Change Agents. One such Change Agent is the Big Green Bus team – a group of 15 Dartmouth students who are driving a huge green solar paneled veggie-oil powered bus cross-country to bring awareness to how we can all change the reliance on energy. The requested action: that their 122 Backers forward their schedule and message to their friends. Eco-Activism 2.0 is working. The team met with Senator Jeanne Shaheen and House Representative Dave Reichert last Friday.
For those people who are unable to make the time and effort to “change the world,” supporting an online eco-activist site makes it incredibly fun and easy. All it takes is just getting online and enabling social media to spread the word.
We really can move a nation—if each of us moves two people. And going out and changing the world is really as simple as clicking a mouse.
Tags: community development, Eco-Activism, green banking, green transportation, ShoreBank, social media, triple bottom line
Posted in Outreach | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
It is official – summer is here! Memorial Day may have felt early this year since we still have a week of May left, but the vacation season is now underway. Whether you are traveling for food, folks, or fun, there is likely a lower carbon way of getting there.
You might guess that the answer is simple. But the Union of Concerned Scientists created a guide to the lowest carbon ways to travel. They looked at three different factors: how far you were going, what the vehicle was, and, the kicker for me, and how many people were traveling with you? It turns out that their research had some surprises.
One big surprise was how important it was to incorporate the size of your travel group when you plan your travels. Overall the lowest carbon emission choice is to travel by motor coach – but the second best choice just might be to fly economy. If your party has two people and you are traveling 1,000 miles then flying economy beats out driving – the flight creates 835 pounds of CO2 while driving would create 1,125 pounds of CO2. It even beats out taking the train which comes in at 860 pounds of CO2.
But the Union is serious when they stated ‘economy.’ A vacation splurge can offset an entire year of environmental conservation actions. One wild example was the carbon impact of a family of four taking a vacation. In the Union’s example, the family used frequent flyer miles to fly first class, for free, with their kids from Chicago to Disney World. First class – sounds great! But not for the environment. It turns out a first class seat takes up twice the space of an economy seat causing twice as many emissions. This single flight created 1.5x more carbon emissions than all of the family’s daily commuting for the year. And they commuted about 35 miles a day in non-hybrid cars! What an eye opener.
The Union even created a table to help you plot the most eco-friendly way to enjoy your summer vacation.
So if you are traveling beyond a walk-able distance this summer give the report a look – it has lots of tips on how to get where you are going.
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/solutions/cleaner_cars_pickups_and_suvs/greentravel/getting-there-greener.html
And low happy carbon travels!
Tags: community development, energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, green banking, green transportation, ShoreBank, triple bottom line
Posted in Outreach | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
To celebrate Earth Day tomorrow I think I will get out my bike. A little exercise, seeing the city and having some fun all sound great. And I have the Active Transportation Alliance to thank! ShoreBank awards an annual Green Neighbor Award to an organization that has had outstanding impact in creating more sustainable practices. We hope that you will be as inspired by this year’s award recipient, Active Transportation Alliance, as I have been.
Two years ago I was talked into participating in Bike the Drive, an annual event run by the Active Transportation Alliance. I didn’t know what the event was – and when I started to get details I was not encouraged. I would have to get up very, very early. And then I would go biking on Lake Shore Drive, which would be closed to cars. I hadn’t been on a bike in years. I didn’t even own one. (I thought that last fact would get me out of the event, but it turns out you can rent bikes…) With no excuses left and a bunch of my friends participating, I was in.
Photo Courtesy of Active Transportation Alliance
The shock was that I had a blast! Hanging out with my friends was fun – but biking was great. I was outside, I was getting exercise and I was actually going places on wheels without a dirty tailpipe. Two weeks later I bought a bike. And I have been member of the Alliance ever since.
Active Transportation Alliance has been a customer for 11 years, but it’s a relationship deeply rooted in our shared commitment to leaving a smaller footprint and to building stronger, healthier communities. Active Transportation Alliance promotes safe bicycling, walking, and public transportation that is also fun and convenient. While I was introduced about the organization from the “Bike the Drive” – since them I have learned that they advocate for a wide array of practices and legislation that supports low impact, transportation “that is good for the environment and good for us.” Their website is full of great bicycling information and ways to get involved in their efforts.
According to the Urban Transportation Report Card, transportation is responsible for 20-60% of carbon emission in major U.S. cities. And many car trips are made within 2 miles of home. However, if you were to bike a 4 mile return trip instead of driving every day for a year, based upon the Urban Transportation Report Card table below, you would reduce your CO2 emissions by approximately 1591 lbs per year.
CO2 Emissions Per Mile (Pounds)
SUV – 1.47
Car – 1.09
Hybrid Car – 0.42
Bus - 0.41
Subway – 0.24
Bicycle – 0
Walking – 0
My favorite story transportation story comes my fellow ShoreBank blogger Sarah Ewing. When Sarah was living in San Francisco she calculated how long it would take to get to the commuter shuttle stop to Silicon Valley – one option was to walk the entire way, the other was to walk to a bus stop, then wait for the bus to take it to the destination. To her huge surprise, it averaged about the same amount of time. “Sounds good, right? But the real impact came in other ways. By walking 4 miles every day for a year, instead of taking the bus, she saved $45 a month on a bus pass and another $110 by going without a gym membership. In addition to the savings, she used the time saved from skipping the work out to sleep-in an hour longer!. But best of all, she lost 10 lbs and had more fun doing it then she could have imagined—P.S. I promised her that I would spare the details of some of the “wild and crazy adventures” she experienced along her daily walk. .
Now that she lives in Chicago I suspect Sarah will join the Alliance too. Wherever you live you ought to be able to find an organization similar to the Alliance just by clicking here. So let’s celebrate Earth Day by resolving to make a positive impact upon the environment and on our own health, and have fun doing it too.
Happy Earth Day!
Tags: Bike the Drive, community development, Earth Day, green banking, green transportation, ShoreBank
Posted in Community | 1 Comment »
