The world did not end. Big food chains finally transitioning away from receipts made with BPA. Reports from gardens across America. Celebrating American Craft Beer Week — top sustainable breweries and organic beers. Loosing weight by going veg, the goods and bads of food science, and summer grapefruits in the High Desert. Wild fiber extremes and vegan bags made from cardboard, not cows. The 50-foot commute and airline sustainability ratings.
WORLD NEWS: Despite Careful Calculations, the World Does Not End
Whew. With the clock running out on a much-hyped — and much-ridiculed — apocalyptic prediction, it appeared on Saturday that humankind had survived, with few if any signs of the end of the world. (Except, of course, another year without a Triple Crown winner in horse racing.)
Despite Careful Calculations, the World Does Not End, by Jesse McKinley, The New York Times
BUSINESS & SUSTAINABILITY: Big Food Chains are Finally Transitioning Away From BPA Receipts
Yum! Brands (owner of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell) and Whole Foods are part of a growing industry trend transitioning away from cash register receipt paper made with the chemical bisphenol A (BPA).
Yum! Brands, Whole Foods Trash Receipt Paper Made with BPA, by Bart King, Sustainable Life Media
GARDENING: Reporting from Gardens Across America
With gardening season under way in all but the coldest of zones, we have gathered a gaggle of gardeners from around the country and asked them to share some tips with us. The slide show is a peek into the beginnings of their space for this 2011 growing season.
Gardens Across America, by Dawn Brighid, Ecocentric Blog
AMERICAN CRAFT BEER WEEK: Top Sustainable Breweries & Organic Beers
Well – crafted beer is not just great tasting, it’s also environmentally conscious. That’s the message coming from some of America’s most popular breweries, which are making sustainable practices the industry standard. For the beer industry, “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle” isn’t just a convenient mantra or well-rehearsed platitude, it’s gospel. Many breweries are finding creative ways to reduce energy and raw material inputs, re-use water, and recycle waste outputs. Breweries are leaving no stone unturned, no avenue unexplored, to make their systems and processes more sustainable.
TOP 4 Sustainable Breweries in Celebration of American Craft Beer Week (Part 1) & TOP 10 Organic Beers in Celebration of American Craft Beer Week (Part 2), by Patrick Haase, OppGreen Insights
FOOD & WELLNESS: Going Veg Can Help You Loose Unwanted Weight
This is the first year ever that the USDA has embraced a vegetarian diet. In its 2010 dietary pyramid, the USDA gave vegetarianism an outright endorsement saying in addition to improved heart health, a vegetarian diet was associated with lower rates of obesity. Another study in 2009 by Oxford researcher Tim Key found that vegetarians and vegans had body weights 3 percent to 20 percent lower than meat eaters. So why are vegetarians and vegans thinner?
Why Do Vegetarians and Vegans Weigh Less? by Sara Novak, Planet Green
FOOD & WELLNESS: The Goods and Bads of Food Science
Everyday whole foods can be both powerful medicine and handy around the house. But when industry gets its grip on ordinary foods and repurposes them into other substances, the results can be either clever or diabolical, depending on the purpose (and the marketing) behind them.
Alternative Uses for Food…for Better or Worse, by Vanessa Barrington, EcoSalon
FOOD & WELLNESS: Summer Grapefruit in the High Desert
At the farthest fringe of the Inland Empire, southeast of the hardscrabble town of Hemet, lies the world center of summer grapefruit, one of the least known and most fascinating of California’s agricultural niches. The major commercial grapefruit districts, Florida, Texas and California’s Coachella low desert, harvest from November to April, but Hemet’s peculiar high desert microclimate — hot enough in the day to color and sweeten the fruit but cool enough at night to delay maturity — provides a rare source of high-quality grapefruit in late spring and summer.
Market Watch: Hemet’s wealth of summer grapefruit, by David Karp, The Los Angeles Times
SUSTAINABLE STYLE: Fashioning self and the environment goes to wild fiber extremes.
It has been a wild and woolly spring for me. Despite the endless rain in NYC, there has fortunately been non-stop sunshine in the form of inspiring collaborations with fiber artist and designer friends. This past Earth Day I organized an art/fashion open house called, ‘Fashioning Self and the Environment’ at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn, New York. Earlier this week, I also had the opportunity to discuss these ideas in a talk for the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Face and Places in Fashion lecture series. Both occasions brought together the design work and images of some of my favorite fiber artists and accessories designers. Here is a sampling of what the wilder side of fashioning self and the environment looks like.
The Wilder Side of Fashioning Self and the Environment, by Abigail Doan, EcoSalon
SUSTAINABLE STYLE: Vegan Bags Made From Cardboard, Not Cows
The Model Citizens show during New York Design Week unearthed another gem: Paper No.9, a Brooklyn company that designs stylish, cruelty-free bags and accessories. At first glance, its wares resemble well-worn shearling leather, but close inspection reveals their true origin: paper. By treating recycled shipping cardboard with natural oils, heat, and a good massage, then backing it with canvas for strength, the green-minded label has created a velvety-soft “fabric” that can be used to stylish effect.
Paper No. 9′s Faux-Leather Accessories Are Made of Cardboard, Not Cows, by Jenny Tranter, Ecouterre
WORKSPACE: The Rise of the Home Office and the 50-Foot Commute
As technology makes it easier for workers to do their jobs from home, buyers and renters in New York are seeking dedicated space where they can install a computer, a comfortable swivel chair and a desk, and block out productivity-sapping distractions.
The 50-Foot Commute, by Jonathan Vatner, The New York Times
TRAVEL: How Eco-friendly is Your Airline?
Make sure to check out Greenopolis‘ newly released airline ratings, here.
Sante Olling
May 23, 2011
Thanks for stopping by and saying hallo !
Yes we are all still living !!