standforless: C'mon TeamUSA.... RT @TreeHugger: China Beat US in Offshore Wind, Europe Still Trounces Everyone Else in Solar Power http://bit.ly/aI7byBTue, Sep 7th @ 10:29am
Drive down pollution! You can also eliminate one pound of greenhouse gas emissions by eliminating just one mile of driving.
Californians bought 21.9 billion drinks in aluminum, glass, plastic and bi-metal containers last year. More than 16.2 billion of those were recycled, saving natural resources and extending the life of our landfills.
The U.S. transportation sector as a whole is responsible for almost 9% of the world's total CO2 emissions. That stinks.
Cut your monthly energy bills by as much as 30% by replacing the old equipment in your home with state-of-the-art Energy Star appliances.
CRV stands for California Refund Value. It equals 5¢ for each beverage container less than 24 ounces and 10¢ for each container 24 ounces or greater.
Report "smoking" vehicles. Call 1-800-28-SMOKE to report vehicles with excessive tailpipe emissions.
Shade provided by trees can reduce your air conditioning bill at home by 10-15%. Cool.
Save paper...save resources. Change your printer settings to 2-sided printing to reduce the amount of paper you consume at the office.
Close the loop! Visit greengiftguide.com and discover a wide range of household, recreational and beauty products made from recycled materials.
Unplug your cell phone charger and other household electronics from the wall when you're not using them. Even when they are turned off, they use phantom power.
Use cold water when you can. Water heating accounts for about 13% of home energy costs.
Carpools and vanpools can use High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes and HOV by-pass on ramp meters, which allows you to get to work faster.
Help eliminate the use of disposable plates, cups and utensils. Bring re-usable dishware to work.
College student Paul Porter photographed in the lobby of Urban Corps of San Diego where he recently served as a Corpsmember.
How much can one person do to change the world? What about a group of people?
For 20 years, Urban Corps of San Diego County has been transforming the lives of individuals, improving our community through resource conservation, and changing the world…one young person at a time.
Urban Corps is a program that gives young people a purpose in their lives. The organization serves 18 to 25 year olds, most of whom are high school dropouts. When they join the program they are called Corpsmembers. The staff’s sole purpose is to give the Corpmembers a purpose in their lives and give them the tools they need to be productive members of our community. Corpsmembers earn their high school diplomas while working on projects that benefit the community.
Projects include recycling programs, planting trees, removing graffiti, and many other community service endeavors. Thousands of lives have been changed over the last two decades through the work of this organization.
Paul Porter became a Corpsmember in October of 2008. He completed his program in June of 2009 when he earned his high school diploma.
Porter was a high school dropout whose life was on the wrong track. He is an extremely engaging young man who plans to become an attorney. Paul Porter is in a hurry. When you speak with him he explains that he was in such a hurry to get on with life that he didn’t have time for high school. Thanks to Urban Corps he now has a diploma and has begun his studies at San Diego City College. If he stays on track he will transfer to the University of California, Berkeley in a couple of years.
While at Urban Corps, Porter had a job in the recycling program. He learned important lessons in resource use and encourages people to reuse what they can and to recycle too. Using skills and knowledge he gained in the program, he built a composting box for his grandmother so that she can reuse some of her household waste as fertilizer in her garden.
This year Porter won a Price Scholarship that gives him $10,000 dollars toward his higher education. He is required to perform hundreds of hours of community services for this money—work that will allow him to continue to build on the skills he learned while serving as a Corpsmember.
Paul Porter’s life was changed by Urban Corps of San Diego. He is just one of thousands of young people who were on the wrong track but were given another chance.
We wish Paul Porter the best as he pursues his dream to become an attorney. We thank him for the work he did for our community while enrolled at Urban Corps. We also thank the entire staff of Urban Corps of San Diego County for taking a stand for the youth of our community who they serve every day.
He is clearly of another time. He is older. He is sitting somewhere outside, presumably far from any city.
This is John Muir—a man who took a stand in his life for wilderness and wild things. His work is alive and well today over 96 years after his death.
You probably already know something about this famous Californian and we’ll be talking about him more in this space.
For now, please take a few moments to read these words from John Muir, naturalist, author, and wilderness advocate:
“Looking eastward from the summit of the Pacheco Pass one shining morning, a landscape was displayed that after all my wanderings still appears as the most beautiful I have ever beheld. At my feet lay the Great Central Valley of California, level and flowery, like a lake of pure sunshine, forty or fifty miles wide, five hundred miles long, one rich furred garden of yellow compositae. And from the eastern boundary of this vast golden flowerbed rose the mighty Sierra, miles in height, and so gloriously colored and radiant, it seemed not clothed in light, but wholly composed of it, like the wall of some celestial city. Along the top and extending a good way down, was a rich pearl-gray belt of snow; below it a belt of blue and dark purple, marking the extension of the forests; and stretching along the base of the range a broad belt of rose-purple; all these colors, from the blue sky to the yellow valley smoothly blending as they do in a rainbow, making a wall of light ineffably fine. Then it seemed to me that the Sierra should be called, not the Nevada or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light. And after ten years of wandering and wondering in the heart of it, rejoicing in its glorious floods of light, the white beams of the morning streaming through the passes, the noonday radiance on the crystal rocks, the flush of the alpenglow, and the irised spay of countless waterfalls, is still seems above all others the Range of Light.”
California is an amazing and beautiful place—that was true in the 19th century, and it is true now.
Encourage three friends to STAND FOR LESS today so that we can pass on the best of this beautiful land to the next generation.
We introduce you to people and ideas to encourage you to take a STAND FOR LESS. But why? Why does it matter?
Every day each of us performs actions that have an impact on our community and our planet. When you buy fuel for your car you fund oil producing nations around the world. Some of these nations are not our friends. When you burn that fuel you emit carbon dioxide. When you use a plastic bag for your trash, or a thousand other things, you are using a product that will take centuries to decompose. The foods you eat, the way you shop, the home you live in, the way you travel, the amount you travel, the waste you generate, all of these things have an impact.
Does this mean you shouldn’t live your life? Absolutely not. But educating yourself on the types of resources you use is an important step in the process of choosing which resources you need and how many of them.
Recently on this web site you’ve met a small business owner who is building a new space for his business. He is considering every possible alternative to make choices that will use fewer resources, as well as using resources that are renewable. You met an author and filmmaker whose passion is to educate people both on the problems with our current fuel sources as well as alternative fuel sources that are renewable and available today. You met a woman who leads an organization whose mission is to encourage Californians to make choices for sustainable energy use and gives them the tools to do just that.
Our community is filled with people who are making inspiring choices about the resources they use and the causes they are fighting for.
What are you doing?
You’re reading this and that’s a powerful action by itself.
We live in (or near) one of the greatest cities on the planet. Take a STAND FOR LESS today so that we have a cleaner and more sustainable community tomorrow. Email three friends and tell them about the STAND FOR LESS campaign. Use this link for yourself and your friends and take a stand for San Diego:
American innovator Lee Campbell standing in front of his electric pickup truck.
Americans are an innovative and resourceful people. Electric car builder Lee Campbell embodies these American traits.
Campbell was at Street Smart San Diego with his homemade electric vehicle. Not willing to wait for car manufacturers to create the product that he wants today, Campbell made it himself. He took a 2000 Chevrolet S-10 pickup, gutted it, and rebuilt it as an electric vehicle.
How much does he spend on petroleum fuel for this vehicle? Zero dollars and zero cents. That’s one way to keep our fuel dollars at home and stop sending the money to foreign countries.
San Diego is home to one of the most active electric car clubs in the nation and Campbell is a member. Visit the Electric Vehicle Association of San Diego web site if you want to make your own electric car or just learn more about them.
Yoga studio owner Anthony Burkart takes a STAND FOR LESS by focusing on green construction options for his new studio.
What is green construction?
It’s a broad description of how people are using a wide variety of options that put a premium on sustainability in commercial and residential construction. STAND FOR LESS would like you to meet Anthony Burkart, owner of Bikram Yoga El Cajon. After six years in business at the same location his yoga studio has outgrown its space and is moving. Burkart is overseeing the details of building out a new space for his yoga studio.
Anthony Burkart cares about our planet. He does all he can to promote sustainable living. His yoga clients are also interested in sustainability. The new studio, at Parkway Plaza off of Fletcher Parkway in El Cajon, is scheduled to open this fall. The move to a new space is providing Burkart a baptism into the world of green construction for commercial spaces. We are going to follow the progress of their construction over the next few months and use Bikram Yoga El Cajon as a case study in what people can do to build in ways that use fewer resources.
Burkart and his team found a space in a premium shopping center that is an upgrade from their current location. It was previously occupied by a Chinese restaurant. Step one was to gut the space to create a blank slate from which they would install their new yoga studio. One of the team’s first goals was to reuse what they could from the former tenants. High on the list for reuse were the light fixtures.
Construction of any kind involves navigating through a sea of regulations. One of these that became an issue early is Title 24. Title 24 is the shorthand term for “California’s Energy Efficiency Standards for Residential and Nonresidential Buildings.” These standards were originally enacted in 1978 in response to the energy crisis at that time. They have been revised and expanded over the years. The current standards require new construction (as well as rebuilds like this) to update their lighting and use the latest, most energy efficient lights possible.
The bottom line for the yoga studio was that all of the existing light fixtures in the space would need to be replaced. Burkart was a little disheartened that he would have to throw away perfectly functional light fixtures, yet he also realized that over time the new fixtures would pay for themselves because of increased efficiencies.
This is the first post in a series on the yoga studio. The second post is titled:
Part 5 of 5: Creating beautiful landscaping that needs little water
Landscaper Dave Schutz is an expert at using native plants to reduce the need for irrigation.
A shift away from water intensive landscaping is critical to California’s economic and environmental well being. Water is the lifeblood of our state. Our manipulation of water is one of our greatest accomplishments. It has allowed us to create the most productive agricultural fields in the history of the world and build some of the world’s great cities. But there is only so much water to go around. Among other things we have recognized the importance of maintaining habitats for other creatures. Promoting biodiversity is important for human health as much as it is important for the health of nature’s array of non-human flora and fauna.
The Lance-Durning’s chose to xeriscape their home with plants native to California. Xeriscaping is a term that means landscaping in ways that eliminate or dramatically reduce the need for irrigation. By using native plants they have created beautiful gardens while keeping their water use to an absolute minimum.
Dave Schutz is the landscaper they brought in to assist with this aspect of rebuilding their home. Schutz spoke with STAND FOR LESS about why using native species makes so much sense.
California natives are summer dormant. They are adapted to living without water for months at a time. Yet this doesn’t mean a garden of native species has no visual appeal in the summer months. Schutz specializes in creating a landscape with year round interest. He chose manzanitas because of their red fruit for color in the winter. Manzanitas also develop a peeling red bark when they mature. He used salvia (sage) as a ground cover because of its pleasant fragrance. Purple penstemon was planted for spring color. These are just a few of the species chosen for the Lance-Durning home. There is no grass lawn on their property.
Learning more about native plants and xeriscaping can be addictive and we will be revisiting this topic often at STAND FOR LESS. It’s such an important step in planning for less water usage—which is good for San Diego and good for California.
STAND FOR LESS thanks Dave Schutz for introducing us to the Lance-Durnings. A very special thanks to Dr. Valentine Lance and his wife Kathleen Durning for sharing their home with us. It is a wonderful example of a smart 21st century home. Congratulations to the Lance-Durnings for their amazing story of survival after the tragic Cedar Fire.
Eric Larson at the San Diego News Network did an interesting story focused on issues facing local farmers due to the drought.
Larson’s piece includes a link to this very informative video from the California Farm Bureau Federation discussing the current crisis, its impact on farmers, and how that affects all of us:
Part 4 of 5: A variety of innovations in a house that Stands for Less
These look like regular recessed lights, but they are not. They are solar tubes—or mini-sky lights, one of many innovations incorporated into this STAND FOR LESS model home.
Literally built on the ashes of their former residence, the Lance-Durning’s new home is a model for taking a STAND FOR LESS. We’ve already discussed some of the advantages of straw bale construction as well as the fact that the new home is a net electrical generator, rather than consumer.
Here are some of the other things they’ve done in creating this great home:
Energy smart appliances including tankless water heaters.
Xeriscaping utilizing native plants that require little or no watering.
A system for collecting and storing rainwater for their limited irrigations needs as well as meeting fire department requirements for storing water on their property since they live where there are no fire hydrants.
Solar tube lights, which are mini-skylights. These are a green alternative form of lighting, providing excellent light during the day. Some of the solar tubes have electric lights built into them for night or times when there isn’t much natural light.
The re-use of wooden planks that otherwise may have been discarded.
Strategic placement of windows on the south side of the home to maximize light while minimizing summer heat.
At STAND FOR LESS our goal is to give you ideas–whether you’re building a new home. modifying your existing home, or dreaming about your future home. We encourage you to think outside the box and consider green construction options. Our final post in the series will examine some of the choices they made regarding landscaping.
STAND FOR LESS encourages all parents to think about activities for their children this summer that will educate them on the importance of sustainable living practices.
There are an unlimited number of ways you can approach this.
Our highest recommendation is to help your children develop a passion for and a deep understanding of the great outdoors. This could include anything from activities at city parks, to surfing, to a wilderness trip in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, or the mountains right here in eastern San Diego County.
Surfing? Absolutely. Surfing is an activity firmly anchored in the great outdoors. In San Diego, beaches are often closed due to high levels of toxins in the water. The surfing community is acutely aware of this issue. Many surfers are also great advocates for sustainable living because of their deep understanding of how human activity directly affects their sport.
The pollution issue affecting surfers is one example of how an outdoor activity can serve as a gateway for children to learn about the importance of becoming responsible stewards of the great outdoors. By emerging from the bubbles of modern living and engaging in outdoor activities, parents and children are given the opportunity for hands-on tutorials in issues affecting our planet.
A wilderness trip or a hike in the nearby mountains can open up new horizons. There are camps and summer programs of all types that will get your children outdoors. Also, family vacation planning should consider options that get the whole family outside.
Keep in mind summer reading for your kids. Find a great book on John Muir so that your children can learn more about this great Californian, and why the natural world was so important to him. After all, who is that guy on our state quarter?
Have fun this summer and do what you can do get your children outside and increase their awareness of our beautiful planet. By learning about and becoming engaged with the natural world, children will get a deeper understanding of why it is important for all of us to use less energy, less water, and create less waste.
If you have any suggestions for parents and children, add a comment below!
Part 3 of 5: Becoming net contributors to the power grid
Solar panels above the garage provide more than enough power for the Lance-Durnings.
A well designed home incorporates a solid insulation strategy, it uses energy smart utilities, and if it is truly a model for 21st century living it finds a way to power itself.
Cedar Fire survivors Lance and Durning did all of this in their new home.
Using an array of solar panels facing south on the roof of their garage, the new home is the type of home that state leaders like Governor Schwarzenegger and Director of the California Department of Conservation Bridgett Luther hope to see more of in California.
Dr. Lance provided us with a copy of his “Net Energy Metering Statement” from STAND FOR LESS partner San Diego Gas and Electric. At 3,200 square feet, their home is neither small, nor overly large. They enjoy all of the conveniences of modern appliances. As of May of 2009, they have accrued a credit with the electric company of $171. While there are costs associated with installing and maintaining solar panels, the Lance-Durnings are not paying a dime to the local utility and are net contributors of electricity. At the end of the billing year if they have a credit with SDG&E they lose the credit and start at zero for the coming year.
We introduce you to people and ideas to encourage you to take a STAND FOR LESS. But why? Why does it matter?
