John Doerr: Seeking salvation and profit in greentech

Watch one of the leading Silicon Valley venture capitalists, John Doerr, present his lessons learned as it relates to the climate crisis. Doerr makes a compelling and personal call-to-action for businesses, governments and individuals to get serious about going green.

from www.ted.com posted with vodpod

Less than 20 percent

In a recent blog post from the Austin American-Statesman, journalist Andrea Lorenz reports that less than 20 percent of the residents in Round Rock, Texas currently participate in the city’s curbside recycling program. Wow. Even with the amazing amount of attention “green” is getting these days, we have yet to hit a tipping point in a majority of communities when it comes to one of the most basic green things to do – recycling. This report is a follow-up from an earlier article on the state of recycling in Williamson County (the county in Texas in which we live). I’m glad to see this issue is being recognized and discussed, which is progress in my book. We have a long way to go. In the meantime, take an active role in your community to identify gaps and opportunities to bring some verde living to your neighborhood. Your voice is important in this quest to be a little greener.

Five Ways I Want To Green My Home

As I stated in my first posting on Verde Living, this blog is here to document topics, tips, and personal anecdotes on making a little less of an impact on our planet. This includes things we’ve done in our family’s quest to live a little greener. Here are five things on my wish list to green up the home we live in:

1. Radiant barrier for the attic. With the hot Texas summers, this should be a prerequisite of any new home built. Our home is 10 years old and well insulated, but one visit to the attic during the summer months and you can feel the heat just seeping inside.

2.  Tankless water heater. The first time I saw a tankless water heater was when I lived in Spain for a summer in a study abroad program. Tankless water heaters are popular because of the space limitations in many European homes. We are late adopters in the U.S. on a “technology” that just makes sense. Heat the water you need when you need it.

3.  Front loading washer and dryer. Maybe it’s just good marketing by the likes of Kenmore, Whirlpool, LG and Maytag, but I’m a believer. Again, the product just makes sense. Front loading washers require less water, less detergent, and ultimately are gentler on your clothes. I’m thinking going old school on the dryer (clothesline/drying rack), but with two kids and a wife who does most of the laundry, this may be a hard sell.

4. Portable solar charger. It seems like every one of my kid’s toys need batteries these days. Install of buying new Energizers every couple of weeks or months, a battery charger would be huge in reducing battery consumption. Charging via solar would make this even better.

5. Solar panels.With subsidies and tax breaks, solar panels are getting easier to obtain, but they are not yet a commodity. Still, a small set of solar panels to help supplement energy use would be sweet.

There you have it…my wish list for my green(er) home. Let me know things you’ve done to make your home a little greener.

Great John Muir Quote

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, one finds it attached to the rest of the world.” – John Muir.

I think that effectively sums up my posting on tradeoffs. View it here.

Next time you are in the San Francisco area, be sure to visit Muir Woods. It’s amazing.

Four Easy Ways to Reduce Your Trash

The concept of recycling is still a novel idea for many. It’s probably the easiest step to take to reduce the amount of waste sent to local landfills. In our community, trash is picked up twice a week. It means that over 100 times a year a garbage truck (which probably doesn’t get the greatest gas mileage) swings by our house to pick up our trash. Nice convenience or just a huge waste (pardon the pun)?

We are currently placing our trash curbside on average once a week through some minor changes we’ve made with a goal to only have to put out trash once every two weeks. If you are trying to reduce your trash each week, here are steps we’ve taken to do so for the average week:

1. Curbside recycling. Our curbside service takes aluminum, tin, paper, and most types of plastic.

2. Recycle everything else you can. We currently take our glass and a few other items to a local recycling center.

3. Paperboard, you’re next. All of those cereal boxes and pretty much anything else on the “inside” aisles at the grocery store are recyclable. It’s just that most curbside services don’t take them. We have some room for improvement on this one.

4. Compost! All vegetable and fruit waste now makes its way to our homemade compost bin (that’s a future post). We eat our fair share of fruits and veggies, so those rinds, peels, and anything else now go back into our yard…eventually.

If you have handy, simple tips on how you’ve reduced your trash output, please comment!

Tradeoffs

When it comes to tackling the huge challenge of identifying viable options for renewable energy resources, there are hidden costs in most of the options currently being proposed. With large government subsidies helping to seed investment in ethanol, farmers in Iowa may be some happy campers. But for the dairy farmers or cattle ranchers who buy corn for their livestock, they all of a sudden have met some fierce competition. The result – the commodity market has seen explosive growth. For most of us, we’ve felt that in our grocery bill.

This brings me to the debate facing many landowners here in Texas regarding wind farms. A recent article in the Austin-American Statesman cited the lack of regulation in the wind farm industry in this state (the United States #1 provider of wind energy), equating it to the oil rush 100 years ago. Most recently, the debate has made its way to the Texas Hill Country. Energy providers would like to build a series of wind farms in Texas’ Hill Country. Known more for its picturesque hills than its wind, many landowners have put up a fight and won.

Tradeoffs. I have to agree with the landowners in the Hill Country who fought this battle. The Hill Country is a popular tourist destination known for the rolling hills, wildflowers, quaint towns, and wildlife (much of which serves the hunting industry). Sure, this sounds like the traditional debate, “I support it, but I don’t want it in my backyard.” But take a quick look at wind data in Texas, which suggests there are more responsible and profitable locations for wind farms across the state. I lived in one area for a couple of years – the Panhandle – where the wind never seems to stop blowing.

My hope in this quest for renewable energy resources is that responsibility, not just profitability, is at the forefront of these debates. Let’s hope that responsible decision making doesn’t go blowin’ in the wind. Some tradeoffs will be needed as we chase renewable energy sources. At least the chase has begun…
Image courtesy of the TX General Land Office

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