Trick-or-treat with reusable bags or containers. A cloth grocery tote will work just fine, or even a pillowcase (hey, the larger the container, the more room there is for candy).

If you’ve outgrown knocking on doors, and are planning to throw a party this Halloween, be sure to use recyclable tableware and homemade decorations. Buy locally harvested pumpkins and apples for carving and bobbing. And if you don’t already compost, now is a great time to start.

Make your own costume. If you don’t feel like sewing or cutting cardboard, visit your nearest thrift store or consignment shop for fun pieces. A friend of mine, who is dressing up as a “nerd” this year, found the most heinous (and reasonably priced) pair of pants at GBMC’s Nearly New Sale (which ends on Saturday at 1pm).

Hand out eco-friendly treats. Purchase your candy from a local shop and/or be sure it’s at least organic.

Walk if you can. Carry an extra bag for trash, and pick up any candy/costume litter you see along the way.

Have fun!

Image courtesy of Lizette Greco

Posted by Christy Zuccarini at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The state has found that Worcester County's commissioners violated Maryland's open-meetings law when they decided last spring behind closed doors to consolidate county departments - a move that led to the firing of 11 planners and inspectors amid controversy over the county's plans for development along the coastal bays near Ocean City.

The shakeup came as environmentalists expressed alarm over proposed zoning changes in Worcester that would allow more residential and commercial development in some sensitive areas bordering the state's coastal bays. The string of fragile lagoons along Maryland's Atlantic shore are in better shape overall than the Chesapeake Bay, but their health is slipping amid growing pollution, University of Maryland scientists have found.

County commissioners defended the staff reorganization, which eliminated Worcester's planning department, as a budget-trimming move.  But in response to a complaint by the Assateague Coastal Trust, the state's open meetings compliance board declared that the commissioner were not legally entitled to go into executive session on May 26 to talk about it. Their closed-door deliberations also roamed beyond the personnel matters they had cited as their reason for excluding the public, the board found. The county commissioners later voted in an open session on June 2 to affirm the decision they'd made in private earlier.

Kathy Phillips, the coastal trust's executive director, issued a statement saying she wasn't surprised by the state's findings, delivered to her in an Oct. 27 letter. "It is unfortunate that our elected officials felt they did not have to be accountable to the law," Phillips said, "and worse, they did not understand their actions behind closed doors should have been conducted in the light of sunshine."

For more on the coastal bays, go here and here.

(Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

About a year ago, Governor O’Malley launched the Marylanders Plant Trees program, with a goal of planting 50,000 trees by 2010. Approximately 22,000 trees have already been planted as a result of the program, and to encourage folks to continue participating, the State is offering $25 coupons, available at www.green.maryland.gov, for the purchase of native trees costing $50 or more at over 70 participating nurseries. If you're not into the actual planting part, but would like to contribute in some way, you can request that TREE-Mendous Maryland plant a tree for you through their Gift of Trees program.

Also, as a part of their 40 Trees in 40 Neighborhoods initiative, Greater Homewood Community Corporation has partnered with the Jones Falls Watershed Association, Tree Baltimore, Parks and People, and Herring Run Nursery to facilitate the plating of at least 1,600 trees in north central Baltimore neighborhoods. If you are looking for ways to increase the tree canopy in your neighborhood, would like assistance with a tree planting, a residential tree giveaway, or navigating the resources provided by the City, contact Audrey Stevens at astevens@greaterhomewood.org or visit GHCC's web site for more information about the initiative - many of the trees they have available for planting are FREE!

Image courtesy of Greater Homewood Community Corporation

Posted by Christy Zuccarini at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

A small group of environmentalists, developers and government officials have taken the first step in what could be a long journey toward rethinking how Maryland should grow over the next century.

That's right: 100 years, not just five, 10 or even 30. Inspired by reports of success with a similarly long-range visioning exercise for the Seattle area, representatives of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Home Builders Association of Maryland and nine other groups pledged Wednesday to launch the "Maryland 100-year Horizon Parntership."

By taking such a long-range view, says John Kortecamp, executive vice president of the home builders, the Maryland group hopes to get past the NIMBYism (aka "not in my backyard") that always seem to bog down efforts to develop more compact, walkable communities in the state.

Participants in the "Cascade Agenda," as the Seattle-area effort is called, explained at a conference at Martin's West on Wednesday that it has succeeded in building consensus among developers, environmentalists and government officials there about halting the loss of forest and farmland to suburban sprawl by building up cities and towns.

Gene Duvernoy, president of the Cascade Land Conservancy and one of the founders of the Seattle effort, said looking at long-range projections of how the region's population would continue to mushroom prompted environmentalists to realize that the keys to conserving Washington's natural resources lay in providing affordable housing and sustainable employment opportunities for the newcomers. It also won agreement that existing cities and towns need additional money to make themselves more attractive in order to ease the pressure to develop beyond the region's growth boundaries.

"It was a sloppy process," Duvernoy recalled, with lots of false turns and reverses. It took thousands of hours of talks, but the effort has gained traction, he said, in large part because it is based on using market-based incentives to conserve forests and farms rather than more government land-use regulations.

The effort's only about five years old, and still working the kinks out of mechanisms for transferring development rights from lands targeted for preservation to urban areas. And they're eyeing "taxpayer increment financing," a type of creative government borrowing increasingly common with urban development projects in Maryland, to raise the money needed to build up cities' infrastructure.

Change comes slowly in land use.  But there've been a few shifts, proponents say. The state of Washington has refocused its land preservation efforts to acquire private in-holdings to protect large tracts of forest, and politicians in the suburban city of Kirkland were persuaded to overcome resistance to a 2,000-home development and accept what proponents said was their "fair share" of the region's projected growth.

"If we're going to preserve our quality of life," Duvernoy said, "we need to change how we exercise it now."

Proponents of the 100-year planning horizon say it somehow gets people to think outside the box and leave aside their own personal stake in the status quo. But some Marylanders yesterday were still having trouble seeing how it would work here.

Maryland, after all, has been struggling to reform its "Smart Growth" laws that despite being hailed as national models have largely failed to halt suburban sprawl. It was only a few years ago that a similar long-range planning exercise known as Reality Check tried to forge consensus around building more compactly to handle projected population growth in the next 30 years. The expected groundswell of change didn't happen, and the debate continues in Annapolis and the courts.

"We've already had this conversation," observed Jennifer Bevan-Dangel of 1000 Friends of Maryland, which was notably absent from the list of "partners" sponsoring the latest effort. "We're more focused now on policy change."

Rob Etgen, head of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, likewise said he wasn't sure how a 100-year planning discussion could bring together the disparate interests across Maryland -- from the mountainous west where politicians are more worried about attracting new residents, to the Shore, where there's broad concern about the loss of rural land and small towns. But, Etgen added, "just having the dialog is a very very positive thing, and in a 100-year time frame, is terrific."

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Local artist Emily Li Mandri describes her designs as in your face. “There’s nothing subtle about them. They’re meant to make a statement. An art statement,” she says. Known around town as Natty Paint, Emily’s line of hand painted, silkscreened shirts and hoodies has been going strong for almost two years now. She sells at craft shows, local boutiques, and has done a healthy handful of commissions for places like Shine Collective and Bikram Yoga.

When Emily launched Natty Paint, she did it with an eye towards being eco-conscious; using water-based inks and products from American Apparel. Now she’s taken it a step further by producing a vintage line of silkscreened vests, sweaters, dresses, and sweatshirts. And while we may all agree that shopping at thrift stores, consignment shops, and vintage boutiques is inherently more sustainable than buying new, rebuilding a forgotten item into a fresh and wearable piece is indeed an impressive statement in and of itself.

Want your own one-of-a-kind Natty Paint work of art? Visit Emily's web site or, buy online at her Etsy shop.

Images courtesy of the artist

Posted by Christy Zuccarini at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Events, Fashion, Shopping
        

Baltimore Gas & Electric will get $200 million in federal stimulus dollars as part of $3.4 billion in national 'smart grid' funding, according to a story in The Sun today by Washington correspondent Paul West.  

The company will use the money, one of the largest grants in the country from the Department of Energy, to install advanced power meters in customers' homes.

That will allow better management of electricity. Customers could use less electricity in peak times and slow the rate of consumption overall.

BGE will invest $251 million in the effort initially and $2.6 billion during the life of the project.

The overall goal of 100 similar contracts is to speed transition to what the Obama administration is calling "the largest single grid modernization investment in U.S. history."

Are you already on board with this program?

Associated Press photo of a "smart" meter

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: News
        

Many state parks around Maryland already allow pets in certain areas at certain times of year. But officials say they keep hearing from people who want more access for their four-legged friends.

So, the Department of Natural Resources has come up with a plan to expand access at many more parks for at least part of the year. 

They also want to hear from the public on this proposal. You can post a comment here through Nov. 30.

I suspect they will hear from all sides. Some people would likely use the parks more for hiking, picnicing, etc., if they could bring their dogs. But I bet others believe their experience would be harmed if more dogs were allowed -- more noise, more poop, more run ins, etc.

Raise your paw if you're for the proposal.

Photo of Patapsco Valley State Park courtesy of the Department of Natural Resources  

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: News, Parks
        

Maryland is one of only five states that has a published plan to address the health impacts of climate change, according to a new study by the Trust for America's Health, a non-profit group that focuses on disease prevention.

The group says that rising temperatures and sea levels are likely to spur more natural disaster, pollution and infectious diseases, which will cause more health problems and emergencies. But only Maryland, Virginia, Washington, New Hampshire and California are planning for this.

More than half of the states have climate change plans, but don't specifically work out how they will deal with related health emergencies, says the report, which is called "The Health Problems Heat up: Climate Change and the Public's Health."  Some states have no plan at all.

To prevent such problems as heat-related sickness, respiratory infections, natural disasters, changes to the food supply and infectious diseases carried by insects, the group has some policy recommendations. They iare in the areas of proper funding and research, interagency coordination, accountability, communications and public engagement, surveillance and modeling and workforce.

We've gotten to see the government respond to public health emergencies -- Hurricane Katrina, swine flu -- do you believe as a country or a state we're ready for what else may come?

Associated Press photo

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

Get up early and go outside Tuesday and thank the guy who makes your sidewalk or alley "cleaner and greener" by picking up all your trash. It Garbageman Appreciation Day!

Baltimore City, the company that does trash pick up and the company that runs the trash-to-energy incinerator in South Baltimore plan to make the guys lunch.

After witnessing some of the stuff these guys have to touch during a ride along after the switch to once-a-week trash and recycling pick up -- I won't go into too many details, but it involves bleech, spoiled food and dead things -- I'm not sure lunch is sufficient.

Speaking of once-a-week pick up, this is probably a good time to ask if the problems with the transition have been smoothed over? Many of the trash guys got new schedules and longer hours with the switch, and many people complained their garbage and recycling wasn't getting picked up. (The trash guys complained people weren't putting stuff out on the right days, in the right place or in a can with a lid, per the law.)

So, what do you think of the job these guys are doing?

Baltimore Sun file photo/Jed Kirschbaum

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Events
        

Susan Reimer over at Garden Variety is blogging about the installation of her rain garden. She has a low corner in her yard where heavy rain will wash dirt, mulch, nitrogen and roof pollutants into a nearby storm drain.

So if you're considering installing one, you can follow her progress and get some tips at Garden Variety.

Does anyone have a rain garden already? Tell us about it in the comments and share your photos here.

Photo by Susan Reimer

Posted by Kim Walker at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Going Green
        

A broadcast remark by the Obama administration's point person on the Chesapeake Bay about strengthening federal controls on farm pollution has triggered some high-level diplomacy between Annapolis and Washington.

Pressed by lower Eastern Shore politicians who contend that "stringent" federal regulations already are driving the poultry industry from the state, Gov. Martin O'Malley has exchanged letters and and conferred by phone with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, seeking "clarification" about whether Maryland's chicken farmers face the prospect of tougher regulation than growers elsewhere in the country.

O'Malley wrote the EPA chief on Sept. 18, forwarding a letter he'd received nearly two weeks earlier from the Worcester County commissioners complaining that federal regulations imposed by the agency's regional office in Philadelphia put Maryland chicken farmers on "an uneven playing field" compared with growers in other states.

The Worcester commissioners also noted that Perdue Farms, based in Salisbury, had dropped plans to build a new $23 million hatchery in Pocomoke City - opting instead to expand operations in North Carolina - and was closing other operations in Worcester, eliminating 36 jobs in the county. (Perdue's press release announcing the moves made no mention of regulatory pressure, saying the decision was driven by a desire to make better use of existing hatchery facilities both in Salisbury and in North Carolina.)

In a telephone interview yesterday, O'Malley said his letter was prompted not so much by the Perdue moves, but by remarks made on a talk radio show by J. Charles "Chuck" Fox, senior advisor to the EPA administrator on the bay. Fox, calling in to WYPR's "Midday with Dan Rodricks,"  noted that EPA and Maryland regulators had been working to apply federal rules governing how large poultry farms must limit rainfall runoff from around their chicken houses.

(Prodded by EPA, more than 400 large chicken farms on the Shore have applied for "concentrated animal feeding operation" permits. The permits require them to submit plans for keeping the manure produced by their flocks from being washed by rain into nearby streams or ditches. Perhaps half the state's chicken farms are not affected by the federal requirement, though many may be covered by a less stringent state rule taking effect later this year.)

"We are going to look at further strengthening these regulations so we can protect the Chesapeake Bay," Fox said, according to a podcast of the Sept. 17 show on WYPR's Web site.

On that show and in earlier public statements, Fox has noted that while urban and suburban growth pose an increasing problem for the bay, agricultural runoff is a major source of pollution that has resisted solution to date through longstanding government practices of offering to pay farmers to take steps voluntarily to control runoff from their fields and feedlots.

But Fox's broadcast remarks apparently ruffled O'Malley. He said the EPA advisor's comments got "a lot of people in (my) administration scratching their heads."  O'Malley contends that Maryland leads other states in efforts to clean up the bay, though experts say there's doubt now about the effectiveness of many steps urged on farmers in all the bay states to curb pollution.

"What we don't want is to have a different set of regulations in Maryland," the governor said, adding that he feared that would lead to growers selling out, "swapping farms for McMansions" on septic systems. "That's not a good swap," he contended.

Farmers generally dislike any regulation, but have chafed particularly at federal oversight. Still, the concentration of large-scale chicken farms on the low-lying Shore poses a special problem, environmental scientists say, because the birds - and the millions of pounds of manure they produce - are relatively close to the bay, where they can easily foul its waters.

The EPA chief replied in writing this week to O'Malley's letter and phone call, explaining that EPA's rules on large poultry and livestock operations are "national in scope and apply uniformly throughout the country." Jackson pledged to give expedited review of state plans for enforcing the federal rules, and said EPA would work with Maryland to improve state efforts to curb runoff from farms and developed lands.

Finally, without directly addressing her aide's remarks, the EPA chief wrote that she preferred letting states like Maryland take the lead in tackling runoff pollution, rather than imposing federal rules specifically for the bay. But she said to avoid such "bay-only'' federal controls, state rules need to be "sufficiently protective" to clean up the Chesapeake.

O'Malley professed himself satisfied after reading the EPA chief's letter, declaring "whatever the national standard is, we want to meet it.... I'm not looking for any back-off." Meanwhile, he suggested, "there's some tension on her team" about how to deal with farm pollution.

Fox declined to comment, saying by email that he'd let his boss's letter speak for itself.  EPA and other federal agencies, ordered by President Obama to jump-start the lagging bay restoration, are scheduled to lay out their plan on Nov. 9.

(O'Malley: Sun photo; Jackson: AP photo)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, News
        

The Baltimore City Council will hold a public hearing today on the Equal Right for Bikes Task Force, which was introduced in April.

The purpose of the task force is to work within the Bicycle Mast Plan to promote a safety program for cars and bikes by clarifyin the rules of the road for all traffic, creating a system to monitor bike-invovled accidents, recommending bike safety initiatives and spreading information on bike safety.

The hearing is at 12:30 p.m. on the 4th floor of City Hall. The master plan, if you'd like to look in advance, is here.

Thanks to One Less Car for the heads up. There ought to be a good turnout, if the numbers from the bike and pedestrian advocacy group's last event are any measure.

The Tour du Port, a bike ride around Baltimore Oct. 4, brought out 2,000 riders. That was up from 1,250 last year.

And a reminder from the group: This Sunday from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. the southbound lanes of Roland Avenue will be closed to car traffic between Northern Parkway and Cold Spring Lane for the "Sunday Streets" program. So get out your walking shoes, bikes and skateboards! 

Baltimore Sun photo of this year's Tour du Port with Mayor Sheila Dixon out front/Amy Davis

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: News
        

This year’s Cut the Craft! Arts and Crafts Show will focus on sustainable products from regionally and nationally known artists. The event will be held indoors at the historical Wool Mill in Philadelphia on Saturday Nov. 21 from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 22 from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Cut the Craft! is the perfect place to buy and sell one-of-a-kind, sustainable arts and crafts including reconstructed clothing, handcrafted jewelry, alternative toys, avant-garde art, and more.

The application deadline is Oct. 23. To submit your application, visit Cut the Craft! online.

Posted by Christy Zuccarini at 9:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Events
        

USA Today writes today from Detroit, where a three-day conference is going on about the future of plug-in hybrid electric cars. The big question going around is: Who would buy one?

The concensus among industry people and observers is no one, unless they're fun.

Fun?

Wouldn't the answer be people who 1)care about the planet and 2)care about saving gas and 3)have a lot of extra money to spend and 4)don't have a super long commute.

But maybe the thrill is the No. 1 thing for drivers. That would explain sports cars capable of going 50 miles over the speed limit. And maybe even Nascar.

The car guys did acknowledge that the plug-ins would be expensive, at least until the cars are bought in large numbers. And that people wouldn't want them if they couldn't rely on them to make it from home to work.

So, what would make you buy one of these plug-ins?

AFP/Getty photo of a plug-in hybird car from this year's car show in Japan

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Going Green
        

Factories and power plants discharged more than 2 million pounds of toxic chemicals into Maryland waterways, according to a new report by Environment Maryland. And three-fourths of that wound up in Baltimore's Curtis Bay, ranking it among the top 50 waterways nationally for toxic discharges.

Drawing on toxic chemical releases reported by industries for 2007, the most recent year available, the environmental group argues that government has not done enough to minimize the health and environmental threats posed by allowing such discharges into the nation's waters.

In the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the group notes, the Susquehanna River ranked in the top 20 nationally for receiving toxic discharges, with industries reporting more than 2.6 million pounds released into the water body that supplies half the bay's fresh water. And at the other end of the bay, Virginia's James River received the 6th largest amount of toxic chemicals linked with developmental problems in children.

Toxic discharges are far higher in other parts of the country, the group's report reveals, with the Ohio, New and Mississippi rivers on the receiving end of the most pollution.  And the amounts industry reports discharging have been greatly reduced overall, since they first began reporting such releases two decades ago.

But there's still plenty that could be done in Maryland and the rest of the bay region to reduce exposure to harmful chemicals, argues Environment Maryland's Tommy Landers. He urged state and federal leaders not to skip over toxic pollution as they draw up plans for ramping up the bay restoration effort.  To see the full report, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, News
        

Environmentalists worry that the push to clean Maryland's air could wind up degrading the state's waters.

Under the state's Healthy Air Act passed in 2006, coal-burning power plants are required to reduce their emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury, which impair our breathing, foul the Chesapeake Bay and make some fish unsafe to eat in large quantities. Beginning next year, the plants are supposed to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by almost 70%, sulfure dioxide emissions by 80%, and mercury emissions by 80%.

To meet those requirements, the coal plants are in the process of installing "scrubbers" to clean the pollutants out of their smokestacks before they get into the air. But environmentalists are concerned that the pollutants scrubbed from the stacks may wind up in the water if there aren't adequate safeguards to clean the plants' wastewater.

Even before the scrubbers are hooked up, they note, at least one coal-burner, Mirant Corp.'s Morgantown plant in Charles County, is discharging hundreds of pounds of toxic chemicals daily into the Potomac River. Based on the company's own sampling, the water coming out of the Morgantown plant's outfall pipe into the river is carrying more than 200 pounds of arsenic and nearly 600 pounds of selenium a day.

"It's just shifting pollution from one medium to another in an area already suffering from pollution,'' says Jennifer Peterson, an attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project in Washington. The University of Maryland's environmental law clinic pressed the group's concerns with the state Department of the Environment.

Selenium is of particular concern because it is highly toxic to fish and wildlife. Christopher Rowe, a scientist at the University of Maryland's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, says relatively small doses can impair fish reproduction.  The metal tends to accumulate in animal tissue, he points out, so exposure to seemingly insignificant amounts can build up over time. 

Yet company and state spokespersons say the concentrations of those poisonous metals in the Morgantown plant's discharge are below state water-quality standards, meaning they're so diluted by the massive amounts of water released by the plant that they're considered no threat to fish or people. UM scientist Rowe cautions that even if levels are low in the water, little is known about whether selenium might settle out on the bottom, where it could begin to build up and get into the fish food chain.  But Mirant spokeswoman Misty Allen maintains the contaminants aren't coming from the plant at all - levels at the outfall are similar to what's measured where the plant siphons water from the Potomac for cooling and other uses. 

In any case, notes MDE's Jay Apperson, since the university law clinic raised concerns, the state has required the company to do additional monitoring of toxics in its discharge and will reopen the five-year permit in six months to review whether any limits need to be imposed.

That review may be timely, as the plants will be removing even more harmful pollutants from the air when the scrubbers get turned on. Environmentalists worry that those pollutants have to get disposed of somewhere - and they want to ensure they're not flushed out an outfall into rivers and streams.

The issue isn't limited to Maryland - under threat of a lawsuit by environmental groups, the Environmental Protection Agency recently acknowledged it hasn't updated its nationwide standards for limiting water pollution from power plants in nearly 30 years and pledged to review them.  Given the slow pace of federal regulation, though, it may take years for new limits to be put in place - which is why environmental groups are pressing for state action. For more on the national issue, there was a New York Times article about it recently, which you can read here.

Baltimore Sun 2007 file photo

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Air Pollution, Chesapeake Bay, News
        

San Francisco's law requiring everyone to compost takes effect today. Residents now have three trash bins: blue for recycling, green for compost and black for trash.

Comments on the San Francisco Chronicle's story range from words of support to worries about rats, big brother and scavengers. I wonder what the reaction would be if Baltimore passed a similar law?

What do you think? Should more cities and states follow San Francisco and require composting just like they require recycling?

(AP photo)

Posted by Kim Walker at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Going Green
        

It's National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week and a group of children's advocates today called for an end what they say is a "tragic, costly and preventable" environmental disease.

To bring some attention to lead poisoning, which has long been a problem in older cities such as Baltimore, the advocates, lead by the National Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, are holding a press conference today. They will be joined by officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Maryland Department of the Environment, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Baltimore City Health Department, the Baltimore County Office of Community Conservation, Episcopal Community Services of Marylande and Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital.

They will offer an action plan, unveil an ad campaign and announce some grant money in Baltimore City and County.

The groups cite data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Maryland state officials that show there are more than 700 children with confirmed cases of lead poisoning every year. There may be thousands more that they don't know about.

The is good news: Lead poisoning has decreased by 96 percent in Baltimore City and 95 percent in the state since 1993. But lead-based paint remain in several hundred thousand housing units.

Around the nation, as estimated 250,000 kids have dangerous levels of lead in their blood. Poisoning can lead to irreversible neurological and organ damage. It is also tied to higher school drop out rates and violent behavior. There are still 24 million U.S. homes with exposed lead hazards.

The advocates say HUD research show for every dollar used to control lead $200 are saved in treatment and other expenditures.

To save money and ensure safety, the coalition is also working on a plan with other groups to integrate lead hazard reduction into weatherization and energy efficiency work. The effort will target low-income areas in the city.

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

The Associated Press has an interesting follow-up on Colin Beavan and his family, who spent a year trying to have zero impact on the environment. The story looks at what the family is doing now that the year is over.

They've mostly stuck to shopping at farmers' markets, they still don't have a TV, and they mostly use their bikes. But they use toilet paper again (sorry, but I see that as a good thing), buy some packaged items from the grocery store and take some flights for work and to visit family.

This week is the HuffPost's 'No Impact Week', where people pledge to reduce their eco-footprint.  Have you signed up? How low-impact would you go or have you gone? Share your examples with us.

(AP photo of Colin Beavan, Michelle Conlin, their 4-year-old daughter, Isabella) 

Posted by Kim Walker at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Going Green
        

Want to dig in the dirt for a good cause? 

Baltimore Green Works, the non-profit, volunteer-driven group that works for environmental education, is sponsoring Make a Difference Day this Saturday from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. in Fort Armistead Park.

Volunteers for the event will help with shoreline cleanup, invasive species removal, tree work and other things. That means lots of time in the dirt, on the water and in the woods.

It's sponsored by Lorenz, Inc. and Baltimore City Recreation and Parks. If you'd like to volunteer, contact Baltimore Green Works at bgw@baltimoregreenworks.com. 

There be other volunteer and learning opportunities. The group offers free and low-cost programming year round. That includes a Sustainable Speakers Series, Community GROWSHOPS and an annual Eco Ball. Check out the events page of the Web site for more information.

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Events
        

The environmental group Greenpeace plans to partner with 350.org (which was founded by author Bill McKibben, who wrote one of the first books on global warming, among others) to host a rally in the Inner Harbor on Oct. 24 to call for action on global warming.

Called the International Day of Climate Action, you can get more info on the local event here. The group plans to march from Port Discovery to Rash Field -- about a mile -- to draw attention to the growing problem.

If you'd like to attend, you can register here. 350.org is also looking for other people to organize such events. You also can watch a clip of McKibben on the Colbert Report below.

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Events
        

The numbers from the Baltimore Running Festival are in from the folks at Corrigan Sports:

--They collected 3.7 tons, or 7,440 pounds, of single stream recycled items such as bottles.

--They collected 1.1 tons, or 2,020 pounds, of compostable items such as cups and banana peels.

That's a lot of trash diverted from the landfill. They say they are happy with the numbers, which will serve as a baseline for future festivals. 

The efforts to collect the refuse from some 20,000 runners were aided by event sponsors Aquafina, which offered bottles that uses 50 percent less plastic at the event, and Under Armour, which handed out race shirts to participants that were made from 100 percent recycled materials.

They were also aided by a big group of volunteers and everyone who participated in the day's events: a marathon, half marathon, 5K and relay. Pretty amazing that people can run that far and still manage to toss their cup in the right bin.

So, did you help the effort? Think they labelled the bins well enough? What should the organizers do next year?

Baltimore Sun photo from the marathon/Kim Hairston 

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Going Green
        

Those who flush their old prescription drugs down the toilet may think they're safely disposing of the drugs. But studies show the pills end up in area waterways and in our drinking water.

The Carroll County government is among the few area jurisdictions that plans on collecting the drugs for proper disposal. A quick check didn't reveal any Baltimore area government collection sites but Montgomery and Prince George's seem to hold at least periodic collections.

For information on where to drop your expired or unwanted drugs in Carroll, beginning Oct. 24, click here.

The reason many other jurisdictions do not collect the drugs is probably because law enforcement must be on site. A county, for example, can just decide to allow the drugs to go right into the recycle bin.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy offers these tips below for those who can't find a place to take back the old drugs that can't be flushed.

Take the drugs out of the original containers. Mix the drugs with an undesirable substance such as cat liter or used coffee grounds. Put the mixture in a disposable container with a lid, such as an old margarine tub, or into a sealable bag. Conceal or remove any personal information, including the Rx number on the empty containers by covering it with black permanent marker or duct tape, or by scratching it off. Place the sealed container with the mixture and the empty drug containers in the trash.

The Food and Drug Administration has a list of drugs that it recommends be flushed here. And here's a number in case you have questions: 1-888-INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332).

Associated Press file photo

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

Jean Michel Cousteau, son of famed undersea explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, pays a visit to Baltimore on Tuesday.

Now president of the Ocean Futures Society, Cousteau is scheduled to speak at 8 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall as part of the Baltimore Speakers Series. Admission is via a subscription to the entire speakers series.

For those who want to get a free preview, though, he will be speaking at 12:15 p.m. at Stevenson University's Inscape Theatre, 1525 Greenspring Valley Road, Stevenson, MD 21153

I interviewed Jean-Michel nearly 30 years ago, while a reporter in Norfolk, VA.  The Virginia city had offered the Cousteau Society offices and dock space for Calypso, Jacques Cousteau's equally famed research vessel.   The society still maintains its US headquarters in the Hampton Roads area.

After Jacques Cousteau's death in 1997, however, control of the society passed to his second wife, Francine, a development that created a split in the family.  Jean-Michel formed his own Ocean Futures Society in 1999.  From the California-based group, the son produces filmed sea adventures and continues his father's legacy promoting conservation of the earth's oceans and marine life.

(AP 1994 photo)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 7:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Events
        

As we wait for the next program to encourage us to buy Energy Star rated appliances, the New York Times comes out with a story that says an Energy Department audit shows that the agency may not be properly tracking manufacturers who slap on the label.

The report says that manufacturers are allowed to self label on washing machine, refrigerators and diswashers. The label is suppose to insure that the products meet energy efficiency standards. Those manufacturers that make light bulbs and windows are required to get independent verification of efficiency.

The Energy Department is looking into the matter. Hopefully the authorities will figure this out before the stimulus money gets handed out.

The state is now working out the details of how to distribute the $5.4 million it will get. Will it add to the money companies such as BGE hand out for buying energy efficient appliances or add more kinds of products? They aren't yet sure.

Rebate money is expected to be available by the end of this year or early next year.

To read a story I wrote about the program click here.

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

Ilya, the adventurous Florida manatee that showed up this summer in the upper Chesapeake Bay, may have ventured too far this time.

The sea cow, which visited Havre de Grace and Perryville in July, reportedly had been sighted as far north as Massachusetts and in New York harbor.  Last week, it was seen hanging around an oil refinery outfall pipe in New Jersey. Scientists identified the manatee by its distinctive scarring and speculated that it was there seeking warmth as water temperatures dropped.

Worried for the mammal's survival , wildlife officials had planned late last week to try to capture Ilya and return him to warmer waters in South Florida.  But then a nor'easter hit the East Coast, and the animal hasn't been seen since Friday.  Authorities hope the manatee is headed south on its own.  Phone home, Ilya.  Better yet, head home, if it isn't too late already.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

Community "greeners" get feted on Wednesday (Oct. 21) at Parks & People Foundation's 14th annual Greening Celebration at the Inner Harbor.

The event, to be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, 701 E. Pratt St., also marks the 25th anniversary of Parks & People.  The foundation has worked since 1984 to restore Baltimore's neighborhoods, expand and improve the city's parks and green spaces, notably the Gwynns Falls Trail, as well as engage youth in sports and the environment.

Admission is free, but RSVP’s are requested. For details, contact Simone Martell at (410) 448-5663 ext. 119 or simone.martell@parksandpeople.org 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Events, Going Green
        

A few commenters on our wood stove post pointed out that the Mill Valley General Store on Sisson Street will be holding a free series of green workshops on Saturday. Doors open at 9 a.m.

Baltimore Biomass will be touting their corn stoves, Falkenham's Hardware will be demonstrating DIY projects for the winter, Molly Gallant will be showing how to plant trees in the fall, and Clean Currents will be talking about buying renewable energy.

The first 100 people to arrive will receive a goody bag and a free tree from Tree Baltimore. For more info, visit Mill Valley's web site.

Anyone planning to attend?  

Posted by Kim Walker at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Events
        

The American Craft Council is looking for 15 rising craft artists to participate in the AltCraft section of their annual flagship show in Baltimore on Feb. 25-28.

AltCraft celebrates the innovative techniques and materials of the burgeoning handmade movement. This is an opportunity for talented artists and indie designers to gain national exposure at a well-established show, which typically attracts more than 25,000 guests annually.

Applicants are eligible only if they have NOT shown in an American Craft Council show previously. Embellished commerically-bought items (such as t-shirts and notecards) are not eligible. The deadline has been extended to Monday, Oct. 19.

Crafters, you are asked to submit:

3 low-resolution images of your work
a brief description of your work (materials, dimensions, techniques)
contact information (mailing address, email addresses & website)
if the application is for the Baltimore, Atlanta or both

Send submissions and inquiries to Erika at altcraft@craftcouncil.org. Finalists will be announced in mid-November. To read more about the show, visit the ACC web site.

Image courtesy of The American Craft Council

Posted by Christy Zuccarini at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Events
        

Washington College's decision to buy a contaminated waterfront tract on the Chester River is a proverbial win-win, according to an official with the small Eastern Shore liberal arts college.

Writing in the Chestertown Spy, Bryan Mathews, director of athletics and associate VP for administrative servcies, calls the five-acre plot "a wonderful gift" that the college got at a bargain and will clean up after sitting undeveloped for decades because of the toxic chemicals left behind in the ground by farm chemical and fuel storage businesses that once operated there.

"It won’t cost the citizens a thing, and in fact everyone will benefit many times over," Mathews writes. He doesn't mention the $400,000 in federal funds school officials have said they intend to apply for to help with the cleanup, which two different assessments have said could cost either $1.6 million or more than $4 million.

As reported in B'more Green earlier, the college intends to build a new boathouse there, plus a new headquarters for its Center for Environment & Society.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Government and university biologists are mounting another, perhaps last search for the elusive Maryland darter, one of the world's rarest fish, which hasn't been seen in 21 years.

As reported in The Baltimore Sun today, scientists plan to check again the few Harford County streams where the little fish has only sporadically been found over the past century. But they also intend to broaden their search and bring in some new "electro-trawling" gear to see if the darter could be lurking in the Susquehanna River. A West Virginia biologist who's joining the search has had success finding other seemingly lost fish using the technique.

Rich Raesly, the Frostburg State University biologist who was the last to see the bottom-feeding member of the perch family in the wild, has searched in vain since then. He says the coordinated and expanded search, which scientists hope to make for two years, offers a "glimmer of hope" for the state's namesake fish.

If scientists still can't find it after that, the federal government will be left with a tough call - whether to declare it extinct and remove it from protection under the Endangered Species Act. No one likes to do that, if only because long-lost fish sometimes turn up. In the mid-1990s, Raesly and another scientist independently spotted another missing fish, the stripeback darter, after it hadn't been seen in 51 years.

For more on the Maryland darter, and the state's rare plants and animals, go here.

(Illustration by David Neely, courtesy of the MD Department of Natural Resources)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

The University of Maryland was named a winner of the "America's Greenest Campus" contest for its efforts to raise awareness about energy use and reduce its carbon footprint.

There were 450 universities in the competition and Maryland had the highest number of students, faculty and staff participating -- 2,257 signed up on contest sponsor Climate Culture's Web site. The site offers a tool to calculate your carbon footprint.

The university reports that Rio Salado College in Tempe, Ariz., had the highest carbon reduction, or 4.4 percent among 524 participants, based on contest results released this week.

Both schools won $5,000.

The university says the award comes on the heels of its carbon action plan to reach carbon neutrality on campus by 2050.

"Winning this contest reinforces the level of activism and interest that our students have in environmental issues," said Mark Stewart, Maryland's campus sustainability coordinator, in a statement. "Through the Student Government Association, through this contest, through constant petitioning outside the [Stamp Student] Union, there's just wonderful activism, and I'm inspired daily by the passion of our students.

Go Terps!

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

The AP is reporting that wood and wood pellet stoves are growing in popularity as secondary heating sources. The story's pretty timely given that Frank Roylance over at Maryland Weather is reporting predictions that Maryland is in for the coldest, snowiest winter since 2002-2003.

The story says that depending on the household, these stoves, which go for $3,000-$4,500, can help cut energy costs. And the federal government is offering a 30 percent tax rebate in 2009 and 2010 for purchases of wood or pellet stoves that meet a 75 percent efficiency requirement.

Is anyone considering getting one? For those who already own one, have you found that it helped with energy costs?

(Photo of Lennox T300P pellet-burning stove courtesy of Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association)

Posted by Kim Walker at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Going Green, Products
        

This egret has reason to dance.  The photographer who snapped this stunning picture, My Phuong Nguyen of Burtonsville, took overall top honors in a photo contest run by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

More than 300 photographers entered nearly 1,500 images in the annual competition, spread over six categories.  "Egret Dancing" won first place in the bird category; another Nguyen picture, "Water Dripping on Bleeding Heart," also secured top honors in the wild plant group.

Winning photos are to be published in DNR's quarterly magazine, as well as in the department's 2010 calendar.  To see the rest of the winning photos, go here.

(Photo by permission MD Department of Natural Resources)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Contests
        

Washington College is looking to expand its Chestertown campus by purchasing some land on the Chester River, where the small liberal arts school intends to build environmental laboratories, as well as a new boathouse, classrooms, and a dormitory. The move was announced last year.

The college couldn't ask for a better place to study the environment, since the five-acre riverfront tract it's acquiring is apparently contaminated with the toxic legacy of a farm chemical storage businesses that once occupied the sites. An investigation earlier this year found the soil tainted with high levels of toxaphene, a now-banned insecticide; arsenic, chromium and other hazardous substances, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.

College officials have said they plan to forge ahead, despite a consultant's estimate that it could cost $1.6 million to get rid of the tainted soil. The school hopes to get a $400,000 federal "brownfields" grant to help with the cleanup once it acquires the property. Officals plan to close the deal today. 

But in the past several days, a grimmer assessment of the land's contamination has surfaced. An investigation done 22 years ago found the soil riddled with petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants, pesticides and heavy metals. It also warned that there was a risk that toxic chemicals from the site could be seeping into the river via the ground water. The consultant warned that "worst case" cleanup could cost more than $4 million (in 1987 dollars).

The 1987 investigation - first reported by the Chestertown Spy, an online newspaper - was commissioned by John Wayne, owner of a security business in town.  Wayne, 59, says he hired a consultant to check the site then because he had an option to buy it.  But he walked away from the deal, he says, when he learned how tainted it was.

Now Wayne says he worries the college may be rushing into a toxic quagmire. "As an alumnus of the college, some of my concern is my alma mater buying something that's going to cost a lot mroe than they know they're getting into," he says. He says he also wonders if the contaminated site could be polluting the Chester, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.

Meredith Davies Hadaway, vice president for college relations and marketing, says the contamination of the future riverfront campus has been the subject of "exhaustive study," and the earlier study was taken into account. She said she did not know why the cleanup cost estimates varied so greatly.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: News
        

This from our friends at Consuming Interests:

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Going Green
        

The city of Baltimore held one of its twice-a-year hazardous waste drop offs last weekend and got a little less than the average response, according to the folks at Public Works.

Just more than 900 vehicles came by with paint, cleaner, batteries and other bad stuff that can't go in the regular garbage. The average for these events is 1,100. Weight figures won't be available for another week.

The city and surrounding counties have to pay to have this especially nasty stuff hauled away, so they don't expect to add a lot of new drop off events. (Sorry, but you'll have to keep the stuff in your basements until the next event.) Public Works doesn't have a cost estimate for this year, but the average cost going back to 2006 is $73,000.

Here are some other upcoming hazardous waste disposal opportunities:

Baltimore County plans its next event from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Nov. 1 at the Western Acceptance Facility, Transway Road, Halethorpe. Residents may drop off unwanted household chemicals, paints, pesticides, medicines, mercury thermometers, fluorescent bulbs, rechargeable batteries, computers and home electronics, ammunition and automotive fluids for recycling or proper disposal. No trash.

Anne Arundel will allow resident to bring a similar list of stuff from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Glen Burnie Convenience Center, 100 Dover Road, Glen Burnie.  

Howard County allows residents to drop off hazardous stuff at its Waste Drop-off Center at the Alpha Ridge Landfill, 2350 Marriottsville Road, Marriottsville, Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. April through November.

Baltimore Sun file photo of hazardous waste disposal at the Alpha Ridge Landfill in Marriottsville/Doug Kapoutsin

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: News
        

In the spring you clean your basement. And if you live in Baltimore, in the fall you clean your backyard. Baltimore's 2009 Fall Cleanup is slated for this Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Public Works is asking neighborhoods to pick an alley, lot or illegal dumping site for special attention. Officials say if community representatives call 311 to register, they will be provided with containers for debris collection (on a first come, first served basis.)

Those participating are asked to bag and stack debris at designated point so it can be picked up on Monday. The city will give community reps the location when they register.  

So, if you're an organizer, call 311 and get recruiting volunteers. If you want to volunteer, call your community association.

Baltimore Sun file photo of a Fall Cleanup/Chiaki Kawajiri

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Events
        

When is "silencing" a journalist censorship, or simple fairness?

The blogosphere is still reverbrating about the verbal scuffle last Friday between former Vice President Al Gore and an Irish filmmaker over the status of polar bears and the global warming skeptic's subsequent stifling at the Society of Environmental Journalists' conference in Madison, Wisconsin.

I had more than a ringside seat on the incident, as it turns out.  I was the one who asked the filmmaker, Phelim McAleer, to stop hogging the microphone and sit down.  As a member of the board of director of the society, I was there to see that working journalists and society members - who'd paid to attend the five-day conference - got a chance to ask their questions.

McAleer had every right to pose his question, and to follow it up when Gore didn't answer it directly.  (To be fair, the issue raised by McAleer was hardly new - he brought up a British judge's finding in 2007 that Gore's award-winning film "An Inconvenient Truth" contained assertions about climate change that did not reflect the mainstream scientific consensus - though the judge did not dispute the film's main point that emissions from human activity are warming the planet.)  You can watch a video of the exchange between Gore and McAleer here or listen to the entire speech and Q&A here (note: big file).

McAleer, it should be pointed out, has co-produced a film that claims to expose "the true cost of global warming hysteria."  He and others have used the widely publicized incident at the society's conference to plug his film, "Not Evil Just Wrong," which is scheduled for official release in the next several days. 

That aside, he was not asked to sit down because he was putting Gore on the spot, but because there were about 10 others waiting behind him to ask questions.  The filmmaker and the former vice president had begun to repeat themselves, and time was growing short.   I posted to an unofficial SEJ blog over the weekend, summarizing the episode, which you can read here.

McAleer later complained to me that he shouldn't have been cut off because Gore hadn't answered his question.  Environmental journalists should be asking tough questions, not protecting politicians like Gore, he argued.  I agree. That's why he was able to ask his question in the first place -  SEJ insisted that Gore answer questions as a condition of his appearance, something he has only rarely done.  McAleer even got a chance to follow it up, but when it became clear their repetitive exchange was going nowhere, I decided it was time to move on.  None of the other questions posed to Gore was as pointed, but then again, there was only time for a few more after McAleer finally took his seat.

As for the substance of the mini-debate between Gore and the filmmaker, the former vice president asserted polar bears were endangered, while his questioner countered that their numbers are increasing.  McAleer may have a point, of sorts, but the weight of scientific judgment again is in Gore's favor.

Polar bears in the US are officially classified as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act - a decision made by the Bush administration, which was otherwise accused by environmentalists and scientists of foot-dragging in dealing with climate change.  The bears' protection under federal law stems from scientists' findings that sea ice is melting in the Arctic, threatening to deprive the bears of the ability to find enough food to sustain themelves. The government scientists found that unless the ice stops melting so rapidly in summer, the bears' status will deteriorate to "endangered,'' at imminent risk of disappearing.

Climate change skeptics frequently argue that polar bears have increased from an estimated 5,000 worldwide in the 1960s or '70s to somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 today.  Bear specialists discount the eariler estimate as little more than a guess, though, noting that there were no coordinated international efforts to assess the bears back then.  They generally agree the bear population may have increased some in that time, though just as likely for other reasons, such as hunting restrictions.  You can read more on that here. 

The status of polar bears throughout the Arctic today varies, the experts say, but the overall trend is not good. There are some 19 different "sub-populations" of bears in the US, Canada, Greenland and Russia.  Meeting earlier this year in Copenhagen, where climate treaty negotiators will gather in December, polar bear specialists found only 1 of those 19 groups was increasing in number, while three are stable and eight are decreasing.  The group reiterated a warning it had issued four years ago that unabated global warming will ultimately threaten polar bears everywhere.

Now you have the facts - from my perspective, at least - behind Friday's Warholian kerfluffle, the latest sideshow in the serious questions swirling around climate change and the policy response. Judge for yourself if it was worth letting Gore and his interrogator continue to talk past each other - or time to move on to those other questions.

(AP file photos)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: News
        

Some of us have a hard time looking beyond today. But when it comes to thinking about growth and development - perennial hot topics virtually everywhere - what if we took a longer view? What do we want our communities to look like? Not next year, or ten or even 20 years from now. A century from now.

That's what nearly 100 businesses, civic and environmental groups and government agencies and hundreds of citizens have done in the region bordering Washington's Puget Sound. Starting four years ago, the participants hammered out the "Cascade Agenda," a call to conserve working forests, farmlands, shorelines, parks and natural areas while also making cities and towns attractive places to live, work and raise families.

Now, in Maryland, environmentalists and development interests who are often at odds want to see if taking a similarly long view here can lead to some broad agreement on how and where to grow in this state. They've come together to examine the Cascade effort and how it might work in Maryland at a one-day conference Oct. 28 at Martin's West in Baltimore County.

John E. Kortecamp, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Maryland, says he's intrigued by how looking way beyond tomorrow altered attitudes and decisions about growth in the Seattle area. His group is among the sponsors, along with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, municipal and county governments and the University of Maryland Center for Smart Growth Research.

Usually, planners project no more than 20 years, Kortecamp notes, which is a time window in which most people assume they'll still be around to see the results. "It's about their house, their school, sewer and water," Kortecamp says of the standard 20-year planning debates. "When you talk 100 years out, they know it's not about them. The 'me' component of the discussion falls off ... The conversations become much more objective and much more unbiased by current activities."

The Washington effort, led by the Cascade Land Conservancy, focused on preserving the distinctive natural features of the region, such as the Cascade Mountains and the Puget Sound, notes Kortecamp. But the builder says the long-view planning also exposed the flaws in down-zoning farmland to keep it from being developed. While that might preserve some green space bordering communities, he argues, it also prevents them from growing, however smartly, over the next century.

"Maryland: The 100-year Horizon Conference" runs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. It costs $95 to participate. It might seem like a lot of money, but not if you look at it as a 100-year investment. For more, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

On Saturday, Oct. 17, the Baltimore Urban Agriculture Task Force will host its first annual Harvest Festival from 2-5:p.m. at 4500 Harford Road (where the Hamilton Tuesday Market is typically held). The event is open to anyone interested in learning more about Baltimore's fresh food movement and connecting with local community gardeners. So come enjoy locally grown food, information booths, kid's activities, storytelling, and traditional contra dancing music by Megan and Charlie Beller.

Harvest Fest is a free event, with a suggested donation of $5-$10. For more information or to volunteer, contact Drew Harris at drew21211@gmail.com or visit www.baltimoreurbanag.org.

Image courtesy of BUATF

Posted by Christy Zuccarini at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Events
        

Giving up meat, chicken, fish, eggs, milk and cheese sounds daunting -- not to mention tasteless and boring.

But the growing number of people who have gone vegan say this is not the case. And furthermore, it's downright hip to be a vegan now, according to a story in the Hartford Courant.

There are now Vegan cookbooks with glossy, gastro-glam pictures and sassy attitude, the story says. There are fancy vegan bakeries in Manhattan. And Ecorazzi.com, a "green" gossip website, just named Ellen DeGeneres, Ginnifer Goodwin, Alicia Silverstone, John Salley and Emily Deschanel the "top vegan celebrities" of 2009.

Here are some more celebs gone vegan.

About a million Americans identify themselves as vegan, according to a 2008 Harris Poll commissioned by "Vegetarian Times," the Courant story says. Apparantly, the environmental movement, including the push to buy local, has given a boost to the numbers.

So, you willing to drop the burger and the scrambled eggs in the name of health and the environment?

Photo courtesy of the Hartford Courant

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Going Green
        

Looking for craftwork with a green flavor? There's a new glass gallery opening this month in Baltimore that proclaims itself "100 percent green."

Portable Rainbows Glass Art Gallery, at 6500 Brook Avenue, will get all of its electricity from wind power, purchased through a local renewable energy brokerage, according to scupltor/owner Frances Aubrey. Aubrey says she gets her glass from an environmentally conscious Oregon source, and she volunteers her time in working to get climate-change legislation passed.

Besides its green pedigree, the gallery will be a bit different in its emphasis - featuring methods of creating glass art other than blowing, such as fusing, slumping, casting, and painting. Aubrey says she'll display and sell glasswork from several other local artists as well as her own sculptures and jewelry. Sculptures are to be priced from $300 up, and glass jewelry under $100.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Buy local, Events, Fashion
        

When federal government employees go shopping for new technology and goods, they must now consider their energy effeciency and environmental impact, according to a story in Federal Computer Week.

President Obama said so in an Oct. 5 executive order. This excludes weapons systems, but not the other 95 percent of new products and services the feds buy. Employees must consider such things as the products' use of water and energy and if it's made of recycled materials, the story said.

The order also says consideration for the environment must be given when disposing of goods.  

The order says its goal is “to establish an integrated strategy towards sustainability in the federal government and to make reduction of greenhouse gas emissions a priority for federal agencies."

The story says White House officials hope to create a clean energy economy and promote energy security with the new rules.

So, do you consider the environment when you make purchases? Is it appropriate for the federal government to lead by example or save taxpayer money and buy the cheapest stuff?

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: News
        

Why purchase this year’s Halloween décor at Target or WalMart when you can buy local? Local crafter Niswander Ceramics is currently producing a limited edition series of whimsical bowls, mugs, shakers, lanterns, and that will make your hair stand on end (in a good way). I am particularly fond of the spooky salt and pepper shakers, hand thrown and finished with a perfectly shiny glaze. Also check out the gargoyle lantern, hand built from stoneware slabs – not only is he twisted and creepy, he is completely one-of-a-kind.

Images courtesy of the artist

Posted by Christy Zuccarini at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

If you see goats chomping their way around an overgrown stretch of unused Druid Hill Park today, don't worry, they're the hired help.

The Parks & People Foundation brought 40 of them to the Auchentoroly Terrace site at the park to help clear overgrown vegetation and invasive species.

The effort is part of a $10 million project to put the 9-acre parcel and an old mansion back into use. The foundation will eventually use the property as its headquarters, but much of the space will be used for community events. They will also create trails and connect the space to the rest of Druid Hill Park.

The goats have been feeding for two days to make way for construction crews to get near the mansion. They will come back to do the rest of the land at some point.

If you are wondering more about these creatures:

+a herd of 30 goats can eat up to a quarter acre of vegetation a day

+they eat all kinds of poisonous and invasive species of plants including poison ivy

+they can reach vegetation up to six feet off the ground

+the droppings provide natural fertilizer

+they eat brush and not grass

+they have four-chambered stomachs and special enzymes which allow them to digest plants

+these particular goats are a mix of Boer and Spanish species

Supplying the goats was Eco-Goats, a Davidsonville-based company specializing in “environmentally friendly vegetation control."

I have to say, they do nice work. And they're pretty cute, too.

Baltimore Sun photo/Meredith Cohn

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Going Green, Parks
        

It's the EMC3 Commuter, a ragtop two-seater that's a cross between a motorcycle and a car and claims to get a whopping 60-plus miles to the gallon.  If Michael Plumhoff has his way, Marylanders will be able to test-drive and buy these babies in a couple months.

Plumhoff, of Finksburg, is the Maryland, Delaware and DC rep for the ECO Motor Co., a Seattle family-run outfit that developed the little commuter vehicle and unveiled it there last year.  Now the company is aiming to expand to the East Coast, and Plumhoff is scouring the region looking to find dealers willing to sell them.

The teardrop-shaped EMC3 Commuter is big enough to seat two 6-footers, yet small enough to fit in tight parking spaces, according to the company's Web pitch.  With a 10-gallon fuel tank, it has a 600-mile range, and its cycle-like features mean it can be driven solo in carpool lanes that allow motorcycles, the company says.    Besides its gas-sipping 3-cylinder engine, the vehicle also sports a modest sticker price - $13,995 for a manual transmission, $14,995 for automatic.

The EMC3 Commuter is a more affordable green car than some of the hybrids and electrics now on the market or in development, contends Plumhoff.  Its nearest competitor is the Smart  car, another diminutive two-seater that also runs on a 1-liter, 3-cylinder engine and gets 33/41 miles per gallon, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's 2009 rating. 

For those  who wonder about the ride and comfort in a three-wheeler, Plumhoff points out the EMC3 can do 75 miles per hour, and has all the creature comforts of a car, plus safety features like driver and passenger airbags, side-impact door beams and a steel rollbar.

For now, at least, the Smart car has the edge in the economy commuter market around here, because there's a dealer in Annapolis and a few more in the Washington area.  Plumhoff hopes to get an EMC3 to show prospective dealers and customers by next month.   Until then, he'll drive his Honda Civic hybrid.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

By the third decade of this century, NASA expects astronauts to  be living and working on the moon. And that means they'll need a steady supply of water. Now, getting one liter of the stuff in space costs $20,000. 

That's the cost of transporting a kilogram of supplies such as water to the International Space Station. Getting it to the moon will be even more costly. (NASA's even sending a rocket to punch a  crater into the moon in search of water.)

So, NASA is asking students to figure out how to manage the water issue with its Waste Limitation and Management of Resources Design Challenge.

So, if you're a fifth through eigth grader and have up to five classmates, get designing and testing that water recycling system.

The top three teams will win awards and the first place team will receive an all expense-paid trip to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

They're looking for teams of up to six students and one teacher or mentor. They'll need to  submit proposals and results to NASA for evaluation by Feb. 1. Teams can be based in U.S. schools, science museums or science centers. Home school groups are also welcome.

The winners will be announced in May. 

The students who end up in Florida, will learn about NASA missions, get behind-the-scenes tours of launch facilities and learn about future aerospace and engineering careers.

NASA is hoping the competition will not only help solve a problem but bring some attention to science, technology, engineering and math disciplines that the space agency depends on.

For information about the contest and learn how to apply, click on this NASA site. 

Baltimore Sun file photo of a full moon over E. Lafayette Avenue in Baltimore/Karl Merton Ferron

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Contests
        

In this blog, we often highlight people, products and practices aimed at improving the environment. This time, I'd like to shine a spot on some journalists who've done outstanding work informing the public about environmental problems and solutions in their communities, and nationwide.

Newspaper reporters, book authors and correspondents for radio, television and online news organizations from across North America were honored Wednesday night at the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference in Madison, WI

The society, of which I'm a board member, handed out $20,000 in prizes and recognized 31 entries for powerful stories about pollution near schools, the impacts of longwall mining, climate change and a variety of other topics. 

The top prize for investigative reporting went to Blake Morrison and Brad Heath from USA Today, who mined government data to discover that children attending thousands of schools across the country could be breathing toxic air pollution from nearby factories and power plants.  The paper's revelations prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to begin testing the air outside of some of the schools.  For more on their special report, "The Smokestack Effect," go here.

A Canadian writer, meanwhile, cast a spotlight on the environmental, social and economic impact of the massive extraction of oil sands in Alberta - an issue that ought to be of concern to residents of the United States, since as author Andrew Nikiforuk points out, one in 20 barrels of oil consumed in this country comes from that industry.  To learn more about Nikiforuk's book, Tar Sands, winner of SEJ's Rachel Carson Environment Book Award, go here.

Earlier in the week, those three and a few other journalists were honored in Washington as well for their work, at the annual presentation of the Grantham Prize for excellence in reporting on the environment.  Morrison and Heath picked up the top prize there of $75,000.

The point of such awards is not the money, but the recognition by peers of their commitment and creativity in producing stories that matter about their - and our - environment. 

For more on the Grantham winners' work, go here. And to read, hear and see more award-winning stories honored by SEJ, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The lagging Chesapeake Bay cleanup has been criticized over the years for its largely voluntary approach to restoring North America's largest estuary. Now, with the Obama administration vowing to step up the pressure to make progress, federal officals are toying not just with new regulations and mandates, but with sanctions that they might impose on state and local governments in the region if they fail to live up to their commitments to reduce pollution.

J. Charles "Chuck" Fox, special bay advisor to the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, said in a telelphone briefing Wednesday that agency officials are mulling ideas for "consequences" should the cleanup effort continue to dawdle.  Among them: EPA scrutinizing or even blocking permits for new or expanded releases of nutrient pollution into the bay or its tributaries, and possibly withholding federal funding. 

That could slow economic or residential growth in some areas, if new businesses or sewage treatment plant expansions are held up.  Environmental groups, though, contend the bay will never be restored if new pollution is allowed before already fouled rivers get cleaned up.

But Fox indicated the federal government also wants to extend a helping hand, not just a hammer. He  said he would be seeking additional funding for farmers to help them keep manure and fertilizer from their fields and feedlots from fouling the bay's waters.  He also said state and local governments need financial help to fulfill their obligations to clean up the growing tide of polluted storm runoff from urban and suburban lands.   But he warned that the federal government faces its own funding crunch, so all the additional resources to clean up the bay can't come from Washington.

"None of us is happy with the progress made in the last 25 years," Fox said.  He said ramping up cleanup efforts is a daunting challenge, but he said he was optimistic because all concerned seemed eager to reform the restoration effort.

The EPA has been receiving lots of feedback and suggestions about how to jump-start the bay cleanup, Fox said.  For more on the ideas being mulled by federal officials, go here. And to see the public reaction so far - or leave your own comments - go here.

Another recommendation rolled in today, with a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council urging more testing and cleanup of pollution at the many swimming beaches around the bay and its tributaries.  This past summer, the Washington-based environmental group reported in its annual nationwide review of beach pollution that bathing and swimming spots on the Chesapeake were cleaner than most around the country, but were still more contaminated with potentially harmful bacteria than Atlantic Ocean beaches. 

The NRDC's Nancy Stoner said tackling the sewage and runoff causing bacterial contamination at bay bathing beaches would help with the overall restoration of the bay's crabs and fish.  "It's a two-fer,'' she said.  "You clean up the sources of contamination to the beaches, you help the seafood as well."

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay
        

Global Exchange and Green America's Green Festival will take place Oct. 10-11 at the Washington Convention Center. Organizers promise 125 speakers and 350 exhibitors as well as films and workshops. Scanning the schedule, I spotted a few Baltimore area companies, including alterego, which offers sustainable building materials, and chocolaterra, which uses organic ingredients and fair-trade certified chocolate.

I'm looking forward to Ed Begley Jr.'s presentation, "Live Simply So Others Can Simply Live" and workshops on indoor composting, greening your home on a budget and making beauty products from items in your refrigerator.

Is anyone planning on going?

Posted by Kim Walker at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Events
        

So it seems that Goucher College, not Johns Hopkins University, scored the highest grade among Maryland schools on the College Sustainability Report Card.  I confused the two in my earlier post about this annual ranking of environmental policies, practices and endowments.  

Indeed, Goucher pulled down a B-plus, like the University of Maryland improving over last year's mark.  Hopkins, on the other hand, came in third among state schools rated, with a B-minus.  Goucher also joined UM on the ratings honor roll of "Campus Sustainability Leaders."  To find out more, go here.

Thanks to Kory Dodd, Goucher's media relations coordinator, who emailed me to point out my error. Blame my bleary eyes for writing the original post late last night.   Apologies to all the Gophers for slighting them - hope this separate post gives them their due.

I should also point out, as a commenter did, that the report card did not rank environmental practices at all Maryland schools.  Most of the public and private campuses, in fact, were not included.  Only Goucher, UM, JHU and Loyola got graded.   This green rating puts a greater emphasis on endowments than some other campus sustainability surveys, and it looked at the 300 schools with the largest endowments, though this year it added 32 less-endowed institutions that asked to be included. 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

You may be wondering: What's this guy doing, cooking out on a grassy parking space downtown?  No, he's not tail-gating before a Ravens game.  It's a somewhat unusual come-on for a novel approach to car-sharing that's getting a tryout in Baltimore.

Relay Rides is the brainchild of Shelby Clark, pictured above.  With a small but dedicated team, the long-haired Harvard graduate business student is signing up people in Charm City who want ready access to wheels from time to time.  Nothing unusual about that, you say?  Like Zipcar, right?  Well, he's also rounding up car owners willing to rent out their vehicles when they're not using them.  He wants to help the two groups find each other.

Clark, a Denver native, says he got the idea for "peer-to-peer" car-sharing after finding once that he had to slog two miles through wintry streets in Beantown to pick up the nearest Zipcar available on short notice. "I was biking through the snow and hating life,'' he recalls, "And, passing cars sitting on the side of the road, I was thinking how inefficent this is.  'These cars haven't been driven in weeks,' he says he thought to himself. 'Why can't I take one of these?'"

Not that he dislikes Zipcar.  Clark says he's used the car-sharing service a lot since his car died in San Francisco a couple years ago.  But he says he's learned the hard way you can't count on getting a convenient vehicle if you don't plan at least a couple days ahead.

"This idea makes a lot more sense - it's for the people and by the people,'' says the 27-year-old MBA student.  The appeal for car owners?  "Everybody could use a couple thousand dollars right now."  And for someone wanting to start a business on limited capital, he says, it helps not to have to buy the vehicles you plan to rent out. "Since we don't have to pay for these cars, we can grow the system much much quicker," he notes.

If you're wondering what's in it for car owners, Clark says they'll be able to rent their vehicles out when they're not using them for something like $5 to $12 an hour, depending on the size and quality of the ride.  Owners can set their own price and the times when their vehicles will be available to rent. Relay Rides will screen the driving records of those who want to rent cars, and insure the vehicles against any accidents, theft or damage, he explains. 

Owners who sign up will have to have their vehicles outfitted with an electronic lock.  Member renters can unlock the designated vehicle by waving a membership card with a computer chip in it that transmits an individualized ID code.  For now, at least, owners also will need to be city dwellers who park their rides off-street in a fixed, publicly accessible spot, so renters can easily find them.  Clark says once the system grows, it may branch out to handle vehicles parked on the street, using GPS trackers to find them, or even in the suburbs.

Clark has no prior experience in car rentals. Before heading to Harvard, he worked in business consulting out of college, then joined Kiva, a "microfinance" service making small loans to help poor entrepreneurs in developing countries.  But he's enlisted as his chief operating officer for this new venture the operator of a car-sharing service in Portland, Ore.  They recently hired the first Baltimore employee.

Why Baltimore?  Clark says Boston is already fairly saturated with car-sharing, while Charm City seems to have untapped potential.  He hopes to start the service once 25 vehicle owners have signed on and grow it from there.  So far, after a few weeks of promotion - including staging faux tailgate parties - the company has 15 people signed up.  Five of them aren't even from Baltimore, Clark says, but thought the idea was so neat they signed on anyway to urge its expansion to their cities. 

Katie Martin was one of those hooked by the tailgate spoof.  The 26-year-old says she owns a 2003 Oldsmobile Alero, but drives it only about once a week.  She lives downtown and walks to her government job every day and says she's actually thought about getting rid of the car, since she uses it so infrequently.  She keeps it to visit family out of the area on weekends or for the occasional spontaneous trip.   But she hopes by renting it out during the week, she can recoup some of the $250 a month she figures she pays in parking and insurance to keep her car.

"The times when I really need it are few and far between," says Martin. And she's not that worried about renters trashing her wheels.  "If they spill something in it, it's not a big deal. It's just a car."

For more on Relay Rides, go here.  What do you think?  Would you be interested in making a little extra money by renting out your car, or are you too attached to it?  Can you bear not having it at the ready at all times?  

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Air Pollution, Going Green, News, Products, Urban Issues
        

The University of Maryland improved its grade in yet another rating of sustainability among US colleges, though it fell short of true-green academic stardom because of the way in which it handles its endowment. 

The flagship of the state's university system scored a 'B' on this year's College Sustainability Report Card, the fourth annual evaluation not only of the green policies and practices on college campuses across America but also of how the schools handles their endowments.  The rating is prepared by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a nonprofit group dedicated to socially responsible investing of donors' gifts.

College Park moved up from a B-minus last year and landed on the rating's list of "campus sustainability leaders."  Indeed, UM matched or nudged out almost every other peer institution in Maryland and in the Atlantic Coast Conference.  In-state, only private Johns Hopkins did better.  And in the ACC, UM was bested only by Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  But on this score, UM President Dan Mote can brag about outgreening the University of Virginia (full disclosure, I'm a Wahoo alum, and parent of a Wahoo and a Terp).

UM garnered As on five of six categories rating the green-ness of college campus operations, including food and recycling, building and transportation.  It also got an apple for student involvement, in part because undergrads gave administrators a hard time last spring over plans to chop down an ecologically important eight-acre grove of trees.   The report card didn't otherwise factor the woodland destruction issue into its grading of the university's overall sustainability efforts. 

The school flunked, though, on endowment transparency and "shareholder engagement."  The University of Maryland Foundation provides only limited information to the public on how it invests donors' gifts, according to the report card. Nor does the foundation seem to embrace social responsbility in investments or open up to shareholder proxy voting on such questions, the report card contends.  

The institute that does the ratings believes universities should actively consider climate change and other sustainability issues in deciding how to invest their endowments, and should weigh the views of students, faculty and alumni.  To be fair, relatively few universities measured up in this category - the average grade was a D.  There's a longstanding tension in the endowment/trust fund world between those who think money should be invested solely to get maximum returns, and those who believe investments ought to directed to good corporate citizens and away from businesses that pollute or oppose any government action to mitigate climate change.

Of 332 colleges and universities rated nationwide, more than half earned B-minus or better on sustainable campus practices.  Only 12 schools, however, picked up top grades for open and socially conscious handling of their endowments - and just 26 campuses scored as overall sustainability leaders.

For details on UM's grade, and how it stacks up against other schools, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Going Green, News
        

With green jobs all the buzz, Maryland's community colleges have announced they are offering classes in performing home energy audits and weatherizing structures to reduce heating and cooling costs.

Thirteen community colleges offer a home energy analysis course beginning this month until next April, while five have classes in weatherization tactics from now until March.

Offering the Home Energy Analysis course are Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore city, Baltimore County, Carroll, Chesapeake(Queen Anne's), Cecil, Frederick, Howard , Harford, Montgomery, Prince George's and Wor-Wic. Baltimore city and county, Frederick, Montgomery and Prince George's offer the Weatherization Tactics course. Call 443-840-5059 for class start dates and times and for registration contacts.

The job training in energy efficiency techniques has been arranged in partnership with the Construction and Energy Technologies Education Consortium, which aims to train the construction industry in building sustainable and energy-efficient structures.

(Photo by Amy Davis of The Baltimore Sun)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Don't throw away old paint and pesticides! Baltimore plans a hazardous waste pickup this weekend, Oct. 10 and 11, from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute parking lot.

That's at Falls and Cold Spring Lane (use the Cold Spring entrance). 

Residents can drop off paint, pesticides, herbicides, car and household batteries, propane tanks, drain cleaner, gasoline, pool chemicals and other items.

The city will not take mixed refuse, unknown or unlabeled materials, acids, asbestos, ammunition, explosives, fire extinguishers, fireworks, industrial or medical wastes, acetylene tanks, small propane cylinders and radioactive materials, including smoke alarms with a radioactive symbol and mercury (thermometers or switches).

You must show proof of city residency, such as a driver's license or telephone or tax bill.

For more info, go here or call 311 for more information.

Baltimore Sun file photo of a similar event in Carroll County/Kim Hairston 

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Events
        

Great Green Careers is a website that connects employers and job seekers in the green jobs industries. The site contains an abundance of “green” job listings that fall under the categories of energy, environment, skilled trades, and transportation. You can post your resume, search jobs all over the country, or, if you are an employer, post a job listing. A service of Ogden Publications, Inc., Great Green Careers also has a resource page of green-specific web sites, career resource sites, and articles of interest from their magazine Mother Earth News. So check it out and try green on for size.

Image courtesy of Great Green Careers

Posted by Christy Zuccarini at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

How do growth and development affect the health and welfare of poor and minority communities? The Maryland Commission on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities plans to tackle that question and discuss solutions at a symposium tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 3) at Morgan State University.

The session is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the William Donald Schaefer Engineering Building (Building 43). For directions, go here. And for more on the commission and environmental justice, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

This Sunday, Oct. 4, offers two great reasons to get up and out of the house early: taste locally produced foods prepared by top area chefs at the Baltimore farmers market, then tour solar-powered homes and businesses and get your questions answered about renewable energy and energy-efficient design.

At the downtown farmers market, from 8 a.m. 'til noon, you can see and taste foods prepared by a dozen local chefs paired up with market farmers. The event is sponsored by Toyota, which will be offering marketgoers rides in a 3rd Generation Prius or a 2009 Highlander Hybrid. Check it out, underneath the Jones Falls Expressway at Holliday and Saratoga streets.

If you're not too stuffed after that, you can take a free, self-guided B'more B'green Solar Tour of 10 area homes and businesses. Sponsored by solar energy businesses and trade groups, it's a chance to see and learn about ways to green your nest with everything from solar arrays to green roofs, strawbale walls, rain barrels and more. You've got to love the tour's name - though we have to point out it's in no way afffiliated w/ our B'more Green blog. The places are open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. And at the end, there's a picnic at Black Ankle Vineyard, a green-certified winery in Mt. Airy.  To learn more and get a map of places to visit, go here.

(Baltimore Sun photo by Algerina Perna)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

The Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance (CSBA) will hold its next monthly meeting at the lovely Boordy Vineyards in Hydes, Md. A discussion panel of local food producers will include Joan Norman of One Straw Farm, Kate Dallam of Broom’s Bloom’s Dairy, Bobby Prigel of Bellevale Creamery, and Bob Deford of Boordy Vineyards. These panelists will talk about the development of sustainable agriculture in the Chesapeake region. The meeting will also feature wine tastings, local food, and chocolate truffles by Chocolaterra.

There’s plenty of free parking at Boordy. Registration begins at 6 p.m. and the evening will wrap up around 8. Click here to register.

Image courtesy of CSBA

Posted by Christy Zuccarini at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Events