Beth Fiteni

The Green side of the Golden Gate City

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Clary Sage Organics
Earthsake
Muir Woods

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my recent trip to San Francisco, I visited some shining examples of the area’s trademark eco-friendliness. At Earthsake (www.earthsake.com) in Berkeley, I was able to order a great quality organic cotton mattress, that does not contain toxic fire retardants. They offer natural latex mattresses, bedroom furniture, and organic cotton linens for both adult bedrooms and kids’ rooms.

After dining at the vegan restaurant Greens in Fort Mason (www.greensrestaurant.com), with a lovely view of the famed red bridge, I headed to Clary Sage Organics (www.clarysageorganics.com). There I encountered a full array of unique organic cotton and sustainably made clothing, some bearing the store’s own label. The owner, Patti, has been highly committed to promoting sustainable clothing for years, and the store also features wellness formulas and body care products, for natural beauty inside and out.

San Fran city has also made efforts to help dry cleaners to switch to less toxic cleaning methods, and has committed to providing 100% of the city’s energy needs with renewables by 2020. Of course not forgetting the magnificent Muir Woods nearby with its stand of gigantic sequoia trees, the City by the Bay is a treehugger’s dream.

Repost from Climate Reality Blog: 100% Renewables Now!!

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Happy to have contributed to the Climate Reality Blog, on a report released by the organization I work for, Renewable Energy Long Island.

100% Renewable — 100% Doable

09/10/2012 // 2:00 PM //

Source: Renewable Energy Long Island

 

This is a guest post by Beth Fiteni, Program Manager at Renewable Energy Long Island.When Al Gore challenged the nation in his famous 2008 speech to achieve 100% renewable electricity within 10 years, Gordian Raacke listened. As a Climate Reality Leader and executive director of the advocacy groupRenewable Energy Long Island (reLI), Gordian was already powering 100% of his home with solar energy. But he didn’t want to stop there.

He picked up on Mr. Gore’s challenge and wondered whether Long Island could meet the electricity needs of its 3 million people with renewable energy technologies available today. With funding from two foundations and supported by a coalition of organizations including national groups like 350.org, reLI hired Synapse Energy Economics to get some expert answers.

The result is the Long Island Clean Electricity Vision, which found that by 2020 it is possible to meet 100% of Long Island’s residential electricity needs from renewables, and by 2030 to have a 100% renewable, zero-carbon electricity supply. The study finds the cost to be modest: Average customer bills are estimated to increase by roughly 8-12%. On a typical household’s monthly utility bill, this amounts to between $12 and $18, or the price of a pizza. [Read more…] about Repost from Climate Reality Blog: 100% Renewables Now!!

1000 Trained by Al Gore on Climate Reality

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People from 47 U.S. states and 58 countries spent 3 days in San Francisco being trained by Al Gore and team at the Climate Reality Project training, 8/21-23/12. The group included none other than Ms. Bette Midler! (see more on her NY Restoration Project at www.nyrp.org) Mr. Gore presented his entire current slideshow, supported by climate scientist Mike MacCracken of the Climate Institute.

3 new things I learned:

1) Humans emit 90 million tons of CO2 every DAY (we are now up to 390ppm in the atmosphere though scientists say we should be at 350ppm);

2) Some climate scientists are now saying that the high number of extreme weather events around the globe can clearly be attributed to climate change, whereas they had been hesitant to make that connection in the past;

3) Other countries are facing climate impacts so directly that they don’t have the same level of denial we have here. The fossil industry has paid PR firms to successfully plant doubt in the public’s mind in the U.S. It was embarrassing – at one point conference organizers said “people dealing with deniers (Americans) stay in this room, and people from other countries who want to focus on action steps meet in room B.”

But it wasn’t all bad news: last year more was invested globally in renewable energy ($187 billion) than on fossil infrastructure- yay! And San Francisco is an exemplary green city. There is hope….  See http://climaterealityproject.org/ if you would like a presentation.

Beth Fiteni & Gordian Raacke of Renewable Energy LI at training

Look What I Found at Target!

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Even Target (sometimes pronounced Tar-zjay) is going green! I was pleasantly surprised to find several eco-friendly products available at Target which is known to carry decent products for an affordable price.

  • First, for the off-to-college crowd, there were twin size organic cotton sheet sets, with several designs and colors!
  • In the kitchenware aisle, I found this “OrGreenic” ceramic, non-stick frying pan which is free from PTFE and PFOA, both of which are a concern in normal nonstick cookware, due to the offgassing of vapors from the plastic coating.
  • Finally, I found a line of cosmetics that is made with organic ingredients. Surrounded by numerous cosmetic lines that contain parabens and phthalates, here was a full half-aisle of a British cosmetic line called Botanics – Organic. It is made with 70-100% certified organic ingredients, and – most importantly- is affordable.

My Visit to the First Ever “Living Building”

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The highlight of my recent trip to Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY was their LEED platinum Omega Center for Sustainable Living. The first, and one of only 3 in the nation, to achieve Living Building status, it exceeds USGBC’s highest green building standards. The building has a geothermal heating/cooling system, produces all of its own electricity using a 48 kw solar system, some of which is ground-mounted. It also houses the “Eco- Machine” which converts the 52,000 gallons of sewage and graywater from the campus into clean water using an indoor lagoon, and native plants such as cattails in a constructed wetland that absorbs chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

  • The building was made from reclaimed wood (it even incorporated wood from President Obama’s inaugural platform.)
  • Since there is no waste in nature, 99% of construction “waste” was put to reuse.
  • Part of the roof is covered with a “green roof” of succulent plants, and rainwater is captured for use in toilets.
  • Omega purchased 90 acres in the Hudson Valley to be kept forever wild as an offset for any impacts of the building.
  • No toxins on the Living Building Institute’s “Red List” were used.

The coolest feature of the building’s maintenance is the Lotus Pro, made by Tersano. It is a machine that electrifies tap water, giving it extra ions, making it suitable to be used as a cleaner and disinfectant that kills germs even faster than bleach! The whole place is a model that many come from long distances to see. For info see http://eomega.org/omega-in-action/key-initiatives/omega-center-for-sustainable-living.

water ionizer/cleaner
Sustainability Manager Jeff Reel in constructed wetland

Conference Promotes Offshore Wind for Long Island

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(L-R) Carol Murphy, Alliance for Clean Energy NY; Peter Grannis, NYS Comptroller's office; Adrienne Esposito, Citizen's Campaign for the Environment; Gordian Raacke, Renewable Energy Long Island; Frank Murray, NYSERDA; Kevin Law, Long Island Association; & Catherine Bowes, National Wildlife Federation

Wind is a free, clean source of energy. Right now, the U.S. produces about 50,000MW (enough for 12.8 million homes) from on-land wind turbines (See AWEA.org), but the number of offshore wind farms stands at zero. A conference held 7/31/12 at the Long Island Association, Melville, NY aims to change that. Sponsored by Renewable Energy Long Island, Citizen’s Campaign for the Environment, Alliance for Clean Energy NY, National Wildlife Federation and Sierra Club, the conference invited key leaders: Peter Grannis, First Deputy Comptroller,  NY State Comptroller’s office, and Kevin Law, Long Island Association, talked about jobs and economic benefits that offshore wind could bring; Karsten Moeller from Siemens Energy discussed the numerous successful projects in Europe, stating that wind turbines are now big enough to produce 6mw each and can be placed further offshore to minimize view impacts. (Most people I’ve met who’ve seen wind turbines think they’re beautiful, BTW…)

Bill Moore, Deepwater Wind, discussed a proposed wind farm between Rhode Island and Long Island. Representatives from NYSERDA, the NY Department of State, and the utility companies LIPA and NYPA contributed status updates on an existing proposal off the Rockaways, for which NYPA has submitted a lease application to the federal government. LIPA has found the area off the south shore of Long Island to be highly suitable for wind power production, and NY State is doing “competitive use” studies right now to determine which areas are best, given shipping lanes, fishing uses, etc.

The main point of the conference was to point out that while no energy source is perfect, offshore wind holds the potential to be a clean energy source with very few negative effects, especially when compared to the use of fossil fuel-burning power plants, so it would be a welcome addition to New York’s energy mix.