Green Buckeye

In a town as crazy about football as Columbus, I would be crazy not to point out this story about the Super Bowl on Treehugger.

It turns out that the NFL has an environmental program, which looks to be pretty ambitious. It's exciting to me to find out that an organization that I would never expect to be environmentally conscious has apparently put quite a bit of thought into it. If the Super Bowl isn't mainstream America, I dont' know what is! It gives me a lot of hope that awareness of sustainability practices is growing and spreading.

So, what do you think? Does going carbon neutral add to the allure of the Super Bowl? Or does it feel like so much green-washing to you?

Labels: leadership, news

The ever-alert Ira Weiss regularly shares many links to stories of interest on the SRCO listserv. Earlier week he pointed out this one about the formation of Sustainable Worthington.

You can learn more by contacting one of the group's organizers, Lisa Staggenborg.

Labels: news, resources

Taking a page from green LA girl's playbook! I wanted a calendar of events, but didn't know how to make it happen. Enter green LA girl and Google calendar stage left!



You can subscribe to the calendar, too. Click the button below:



Thanks, Siel!

Labels: building a green online business, events, geek

Green Drinks Columbus and Simply Living are working on a region-wide April event to complement and celebrate Earth Day 2007. What is needed immediately is some technical assistance with backend web development. They want to be able to accept registrations for various volunteer events, among other things.

Labels: events, geek, volunteering

Tuesday I took some "me time" and went to see Margaret Wheatley lecture at OSU. I was cautiously optimistic - hopeful that it would be worth the effort to leave work early, drive the 15 miles into the city, and find public parking.

I needn't have been so cautious - Meg was far more inspiring than I hoped! Her presentation was visually beautiful, and it was built on photographs she had taken herself and quotes from famous and not-so-famous folks. She taught by way of stories and anecdotes about leaders and at the end, even a poem.

All in all, she modeled the leadership she was teaching.

Stories of great leaders and teachers like Wangari Maathai inspire me to "walk on," even when the way seems steep and narrow.

What inspires you?

Labels: inspiration, leadership, Margaret Wheatley, Wangari Maathai

Leadership and the New Science author Margaret Wheatley speaks on the kind of leadership needed by the world today at The Ohio State University Tuesday, January 23 at 4:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

While you may not associate her with sustainability, her work is directly applicable. Leadership and the New Science is a work about how chaos theory and quantum science might be applied to organizational and societal change. (And creating a sustainable society is going to take a lot of change!)

The most succint description of the event is available on the Women's Place web site at OSU.

Film and Video Theatre, Wexner Center
1871 High Street
Parking available at the Ohio Union Garage (15th and High St.)

The lecture is titled " The Future of the World Depends on Women." (Clicking this link opens a .pdf file.)

Titles by Wheatley include:

Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World
A Simpler Way
Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future
Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time

Labels: events, resources

First Community Church sponsors a variety of environmental programs through their Environmental Forum. The 2007 season begins January 25 at 7:00 p.m. with a program entitled "How Can I Make a Difference?" Jed Scott Swift of Naropa University is one of the conveners.

It looks like a great lineup! February programs include "All Aboard Ohio" and "Sustainable Transportation."

Labels: events, resources

Paul Bonneville at Columbus RetroMetro blog is initiating an extended conversation around the topic of streetcars in Columbus.

In addition to providing an extensive list of recent media coverage of the streetcars, he's begun an email list for people who want to continue to stay informed. Click over to the post on Columbus RetroMetro, and tell him Green Buckeye sent you!

Labels: news, resources

In studying CEOs during graduate school, I learned a bit about Lee Raymond of Exxon. What I learned was so appalling that I immediately stopped buying gasoline from ExxonMobile.

Since then I've been filling up at BP. Yes, if I could live without gasoline I would be a better person. No, BP isn't perfect, but in comparison to Exxon, it seemed to be a better choice.

An article titled "Pick Your Poison" in Sierra magazine this month rates the gasoline companies from the perspective of environmental responsibility. I was pleased to discover that BP is still a better choice than Exxon. But maybe you're a dedicated Shell customer?

Read the article to find out how your brand rates. And I invite you to share which brand you buy, and why.

Labels: consumer choices, resources

It appears that Ohioans are sweet on Green Drinks! This week Treehugger featured Green Drinks Cincinnati , which had its inaugural gathering in November.

A quick review of Green Drinks International reveals Ohio chapters in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus.

Hey Toledo, Youngstown, Athens, and Marietta - anything in the works?

And don't forget - Green Drinks Columbus meets this week at Surly Girl.

Labels: events, news, resources

The Sustainability Roundtable of Central Ohio (SRCO) meets Wednesday, January 10 at 6:oo p.m. at the offices of the Design Group at 515 E. Main Street. The original post with more juicy details and links appears here.

Labels: events

Discover OSU's growing leadership in sustainability! (And Go Bucks!)

Aparna Dial of the OSU Office of Energy Services & Sustainability is the featured speaker at the January 18 Columbus Green Drinks event. If you are an (of age) OSU student, you won't want to miss a chance to meet Aparna and potentially lots of other like-minded on- and off-campus greenies.

Date: Thursday January 18, 2007
Time: 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Location: Surly Girl Saloon, 1126 N. High Street

Labels: events

You've probably seen the Treehugger and WorldChanging blogs - these two blogs are among the largest that focus on the environment. Even though they aren't "local," I've provided links to them in the sidebar since I scan them regularly myself looking for things that I can potentially provide a local perspective on here.

On Friday, Treehugger posted a survey that was created partially in response to this post on another blog called bottleworld.net. The original post on bottleworld is critical of the optimistic, consumerism-based stance taken by both TreeHugger and WorldChanging. Bottleman (the author) makes some great points about the responsibility sites like TH and WC have since they are now viewed as authorities on sustainability. And in the comments, Lloyd Alter of TH responds to the criticisms.

The posts and comments taken together are a fascinating read and expose and explicate some of the different approaches being taken by the myriad of people who care about the future of this planet and its inhabitants. If any of that interests you, I encourage you to click over and read the post and its related comments.

Labels: resources

As I build out this blog, I'm reading and learning a ton. First of all, of course, I'm learning about sustainability. As I find new, interesting, and what I hope are relevant items and resources to share, I'm adding them to the sidebar on the right. So if you want to read more about sustainability for "regular people" (we could call it sustainable living, maybe?), I encourage you to glance over there and click on a link that interests you.

The other thing that I'm learning more about is blogging and Web marketing. And believe me, there is an enormous amount of information to read, digest, integrate, and implement! This piece of the Green Buckeye puzzle is actually taking more effort and time to learn than the "sustainable living" knowhow. So if this site seems to you to be slow getting off the ground, you can attribute some of that to the tech learning curve.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that most of the links on this site are unsponsored. That means that Green Buckeye isn't earning money from your "impressions" or "clicks" or whatever. However, there are a few "affiliate" links sprinkled around here, too. I think they're pretty obvious, but let's make this as transparent as we can, shall we? (Read on - you may learn something about Web marketing, too!)

• Shop the Green Buckeye Store! is a link to my Amazon.com store. Clicking on that link takes you to a list of products (mostly books right now) that you can buy from Amazon.com. If you buy anything from Amazon during that shopping session, Green Buckeye earns a small commission. Note that the price of the item is no different than it would be if you were to go to Amazon through your favorite bookmarks, by typing Amazon's URL into your address bar, or by searching and clicking through from Google or another search engine or web directory. You should also know that while I can see *what* was ordered through my site, I cannot see *who* ordered it or *where* it is going. So your privacy is intact.


• The badge for OrganicBouquet.com is an affiliate link. If you order something after you've clicked on that badge, Green Buckeye earns a commission. All the Amazon caveats about pricing and privacy apply to Organic Bouquet, as well. I love the idea of organic flowers, so I'm excited to have been accepted as an affiliate! By the way, there are bouquets you can buy that support causes like the Nature Conservancy and the Rainforest Foundation.


• If you see a book title, book graphic, product name, or product photo and clicking through it takes you to Amazon, you can safely assume that it is an affiliate link, too. Check out my previous post on Cradle to Cradle for an example. The book title and the book graphic in that post are both Amazon affiliate links. (The links to Bill McDonough's web site and his presentation on Social Innovation Conversations are not.)


• Lastly, I've added Google Adsense words to this blog. I don't control the content of those ads directly: through the magic of pixie dust, the wizards at Google determine what kind of products readers of this blog might be interested in. I'm hoping that as the blog develops, the ads will become more relevant - it seems like an ad for "Buckeye Ringtone" comes up most often right now, and I'm not convinced that's relevant. Of course, you may disagree, and if so: Go Bucks!
  

All of these affiliations and ads are an attempt to keep bringing Green Buckeye to you and making it better each week. I don't expect this blog to replace a full-time (or even part-time) job, but it would be great if it would bring in enough "green bucks" to support itself and make it possible for me to report to you about books, conferences, and events that might be of interest. So I thank you in advance for supporting Green Buckeye by "clicking thru!"

- Tina

Labels: about greenbuckeye, building a green online business

Green Buckeye's focus is optimistic and local. My hope and plan is to share the good news of organizations and individuals in Central Ohio who are doing big and small things to make our little corner of the world greener.

Sometimes, though, bad news from around the globe needs to be shared so that we can remember why we're making these efforts.

A few weeks ago, the primary organization working to save the white-fin dolphin (baiji) declared the animal "functionally extinct." Six weeks of searching the baiji's Yangtze River home in China yielded not one sighting.

Think of it - a mammal that survived on this planet for 20 million years, with no natural enemies other than humans, is most likely gone for good. This is not our proudest moment as a species.

How many times does the alarm have to ring before we wake up to our responsibility to this planet and its inhabitants - whatever species they might be?

Labels: about greenbuckeye, news

The Sustainability Roundtable of Central Ohio (SRCO) is a local group of friendly people who are working on creating sustainable economic development opportunities for Central Ohio.

The next SRCO meeting and its first program for the New Year features an update by Susan Ashbrook on Mayor Coleman’s “Get Green Columbus” initiative. Susan is the new Environmental Steward for the City of Columbus.

The meeting is Wednesday, January 10 at 6:oo p.m. at the offices of the Design Group at 515 E. Main Street. If you have an interest in what the city is doing with green development, drop in!

Labels: events