Plenty Magazine Issue 11 Aug/Sept 2006 by Plenty Magazine

PLENTY IT ’S EA SY BEING GREEN

WHICH IS THE

APRIL/MAY 2006 $4.95US $5.95CAN

72246 46347

GREENER

GENDER?

Energy independence? The answer may be growing in our own backyard.

Corn can do amazing things. Corn can be reﬁned into E85 ethanol — an alternative fuel made up of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline that not only burns cleaner than fossil fuels, it’s also a homegrown renewable energy source that can help reduce our dependence on oil. GM already has 1.5 million FlexFuel Vehicles on the road that can run on gasoline or E85 ethanol. And it’s just the beginning. Join the ride. Help turn your world yellow at LiveGreenGoYellow.com. Learn more about E85 ethanol, which

GM vehicles can run on it, where you can get it and how you can make a difference. One car company can show you how.

PLENTY IT’S EASY BEING GREEN

CONTENTS A P R I L / M AY 2 0 0 6

Waiting for the train

FRONT MATTER

GRAY MATTER

6 . . . . FROM THE EDITOR 12 . . . . LETTERS 15 . . . . NEWS AND NOTES

46 . . . . GREEN HOSPITALITY

Giant jellyfish; mammoth ecological surveys; electricity from trees; green (and red and blue) Easter-egg dyes; tissue-paper forests; and the link between produce prices and weight gain. 18 . . . . EVENTS CALENDAR Plenty’s roundup of eco-activities. 19 . . . . RETREADS Artistic new uses for old artillery. By Joshua M. Bernstein 22 . . . . TECHNOLOGY Harnessing the cooling power of deep-ocean water. By Amy Westervelt 26 . . . . WHEELS Will these four projects revive American train travel? By Mark Baard 30 . . . . GREEN BUSINESS This Philadelphia company will pay you to recycle. By Bari Nan Cohen 34 . . . . BOOKS Bill McKibben on Bruce Babbitt’s eco-memoir; Organic Inc. examines the business of green cuisine. 37 . . . . GREEN GEAR Eco-skateboards, surfboards, and gadgets.

Plenty tracks down the most eco-friendly hotels. By Evelyn Kanter 60 . . . . WHICH IS THE GREENER GENDER? Why men and women view environmentalism differently. By Richard Bradley 64 . . . . BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD Architects and product designers draw inspiration from nature. By Douglas Gantenbein 68 . . . . BRANCHING OUT A rock star yogi discovers the art of building tree houses—and his growing list of clients includes numerous celebrities. By Lisa Selin Davis 72 . . . . CHINA GARDENS A look at William McDonough’s visionary plan for “green cities” in China. By Richard Bradley 74 . . . . BUILDING PARADISE Can a planned eco-community in suburban Atlanta help combat sprawl? By Lisa Selin Davis

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MATTERS OF FACT AND FANCY 80 . . . . STYLE PROFILE

Husband and wife team Karen Stewart and Howard Brown are pioneers in the world of eco-fashion. By Christine Richmond 82 . . . . GREEN BLING Fresh new fashions and furnishings for spring. 84 . . . . GREEN HOME Six companies that make sustainable, stylish home decor. By Amy Braunschweiger 86 . . . . HOW WE LIVE All about the mysterious Russian tea known as kombucha. By Laurel Maury 88 . . . . HEALTH What are functional foods—and are they in your fridge already? By Juhie Bhatia 90 . . . . FOOD Anna Lappé and Bryant Terry on the food justice movement and their new party-planning book. By Jami Attenberg 92 . . . . INDULGENCES The best all-natural and organic cookies. 94 . . . . OFF THE GRID Blake and Nancy Rankin of Choice Organic Teas and their sustainable straw bale home. By Elizabeth Barker 96 . . . . THE BACK PAGE The Plenty green glossary.

PLENTY IT ’S EA SY BEING GREEN

WHICH IS THE

GREENER

GENDER?

ON THE COVER: Illustration for Plenty by Zed.

PHOTO UPPER LEFT COURTESY MANUEL VECCHINA; TOP RIGHT COURTESY STEWART + BROWN; LOWER RIGHT COURTESY Q COLLECTION

Organic fashion

FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF

IN LATE JANUARY we launched the got PLENTY? campaign at the Sundance Film Festival. The idea was simple: Get celebrities to donate some of the free items (swag) that marketers give them during the indie-film extravaganza, then auction them off on eBay and donate the proceeds to Global Green USA, a nonprofit that works on such issues as global warming and clean water. Besides the obvious goal of helping out Global Green, we wanted to highlight one of our core issues: sustainable consumerism. At Plenty we aren’t opposed to consumerism per se; we know that buying stuff is a fact of life, so we think it should be the right stuff. Sundance seemed like the perfect place to kick off got PLENTY?, as the festival had become an orgy of consumerism the past few years. Still, we weren’t quite sure how this would work out—after all, we didn’t have Brangelina lined up to give us a piece of Swarovski crystal. And we couldn’t afford to rent a big house on Main Street where celebs could drop off their contributions. Instead we had a street team of a few energetic women who boldly asked Hollywood stars to part with some of their favorite stuff. Apparently this was much more enjoyable than being “Bud Girls,” the typical role for spokesmodels. The response was overwhelming. Once we were able to recognize the celebrities behind their ski masks, most of them happily donated some of their gifts to our campaign. We didn’t have to toss anyone in the snow or do any excessive fingerwagging. Truth be told, no one gave up their Swarovski baubles, but I think this is more a comment on human nature than on the success of the campaign. We hope to replicate the success of got PLENTY? around the country in the months ahead, although we won’t always be collecting swag. The eco-friendly market grows larger every GOT PLENTY? GETS IT: Clockwise from top: day, but many natural resources are becoming scarcer (the big The bio-fueled Plenty car hits Sundance; the Plenty team the job with Peter Coyote; Adrian Grenier performs; one, of course, being oil). Yet we have an abundance of biofuels on Liz Phair donates with a smile. like switchgrass, which can be used to make ultra-efficient ethanol. And scientists continue to perfect ways of harnessing our unlimited supply of solar and wind energy. So keep an eye out for the biofuel-powered got PLENTY? cars as they roll through your hometown. ON ANOTHER NOTE, by the time you get this issue, we will have launched a digital version of Plenty at plentymag.com. Even though we use recycled paper, as an environmental magazine we believe it is critical to provide an online version. Paperless printing, after all, is still greener. We hope to continue to provide cuttingedge commentary on the green revolution through a variety of different media. Mark Spellun Editor in Chief & Publisher 6 | PLENTY

April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

PHOTOS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: DANIELLE CARRO, MELINDA HORN-WILLIAMS

got PLENTY?

NOW WEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;RE EVEN GREENER!

HAS GONE DIGITAL!

Subscribers now have free access to back issues of Plenty at plentymag.com Want to save paper AND keep up with the buzz in the green community? Read Digital Plenty! This new format allows you to easily flip through the pages of Plenty right on your computer screen. The current issue and all back issues are included. There is also a digital-only subscription rate of just $10/year.

PLENTY Publisher & Editor in Chief Mark Spellun Creative Director Catherine Cole Senior Editors Christy Harrison, Christine Richmond, Deborah Snoonian Political Editor Richard Bradley

Kashi ® foods look like real, natural food because that’s what they're made with. Like TLC® granola bars, with roasted nuts and oats.

Staff Writer Kate Siber Assistant Editor Jacquelyn Lane Copy Editors Sandra Ban, Tim Heffernan Contributing Editors Joshua M. Bernstein, Justin Tyler Clark, Bari Nan Cohen, Lisa Selin Davis Assistant Art Director Richard Gambale Editorial Intern Anngela Leone, Erika Villani

And TLC crackers with their hearty, whole grain texture.

PLENTY Advertising, 250 West 49th Street, Suite 403, New York, NY 10019 Deborah Gardiner, National Sales Director (Tel: 1-212-757-3794) Midwest and Detroit: Joe McHugh, BreakthroughMedia 21675 Coolidge Highway, Oak Park, MI 48237 (Tel: 1-586-360-3980)

Published by Environ Press, Inc. Chairman Arnold Spellun

PLENTY 250 West 49th Street, Suite 403 New York, NY 10019 Tel: 1-212-757-3447 Fax: 1-212-757-3799 And GOLEAN Crunch!® cereal with honey-toasted clusters. Jeff won’ t put anything in his food that he can’t ﬁnd in nature ﬁrst.

kashi.com

Subcriptions: 1-800-316-9006 or go to www.plentymag.com

Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, and other materials must be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. PLENTY will not be responsible for unsolicited submissions. Send letters to the editor to letters@plentymag.com or to PLENTY, 250 West 49th Street, Suite 403, New York, NY 10019. Copyright ©2005 by Environ Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Views expressed herein are those of the author exclusively. PLENTY has applied for membership to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. PLENTY (ISSN 1553-2321) is published bimonthly, six times a year, for $12 per year by Environ Press, Inc., 250 West 49th Street, Suite 403, New York, NY 10019. Periodical postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Plenty, P.O. Box 437, Mt. Morris, IL 61054-0437 or call 1-800-316-9006. PLENTY is printed on 30% post-consumer recycled paper and manufactured with elemental chlorine-free pulp. The remaining paper is FSC certified. Please recycle.

“Surﬁng changes how you

look at everything. Even oatmeal.”

JEFF JOHNSON Kashi ® Nutritionist

What the heck does surfing have to do with food? Everything. What Jeff ’s learned from surfing is to flow with nature instead of fighting it. So he makes great tasting, all natural food from seven whole grains. Food that works in harmony with your body. It makes him, and you, feel just awesome. Meet Jeff at kashi.com.

7 whole grains on a mission

CONTRIBUTORS RICHARD BRADLEY Plenty political editor Richard Bradley hesitated before tackling the subject of gender divisions within environmentalism. “On one level, it seems obvious that these divisions exist,” he says. “Just go to Whole Foods and see who the customers are. But of course it’s not that simple.” Bradley’s piece, “Which Is The Greener Gender?,” suggests that men and women approach environmentalism differently—and that those differences might be healthy. Bradley has authored articles for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and Mother Jones.

L AUREL MAURY Bronx-based Laurel Maury holds an MFA in poetry from Columbia University. Her interest in the intersection of science, the environment, and the bizarre started with her parents’ work in the space program and a childhood spent collecting fossils along the Chesapeake Bay. Her husband, Scottish archaeologist David Stewart, once threatened to microwave her pet tea-mushroom, the subject of her article, “A Cultural Awakening,” on page 86.

DOUG GANTENBEIN The author of “Back to the Drawing Board” (page 64), Doug Gantenbein knows that we have a lot to learn from nature. Several years ago, while researching a book about forest fires, he saw that millions of dollars were being spent to extinguish fires that in reality were as much a part of forest ecology as the white-tailed deer and the Ponderosa pine. More recently, while writing his article for Plenty, Gantenbein became intrigued by research on how mimicking whale flippers could lead to faster, more efficient airplanes. And, when vacuuming the carpets in his Port Townsend, Washington, home, he thinks about David Oakey’s designs for carpet squares that don’t show dirt. Gantenbein is the Pacific Northwest correspondent for The Economist and also writes for Outside, Smithsonian Air & Space, Travel + Leisure, and other magazines.

ZED This month’s cover illustrator was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1969. The son of artists, Zed spent his school breaks gathering students around his desk to see his drawings. By the age of 18 he was crafting illustrations for Brazilian magazines, and since then his work has appeared in People, Fast Company, and other international publications, as well as major advertising campaigns, books, TV animations, and CD covers. His goal is to use the powers of illusion and diversion to turn our attention to what really matters. Currently, Zed lives in São Paulo, Brazil, with his wife, actress Cléo De Páris, and their cat, Maestro. 10 | P L E N T Y

April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

“A return to earth- and animalfocused farming practices—like those of Ayrshire Farm—is a great way to help right many of the wrongs of intensive agribusiness.”

LETTERS AS AN EDITOR and co-founder of a 2-yearold regional arts magazine, I understand many of the challenges of starting and maintaining a magazine, and I applaud the job you’re doing. The magazine is attractive and well laid out, with obvious attention paid to overall flow and individual details. The articles are interesting to read and creative in concept. It’s with great enthusiasm that I open your magazine each time it comes to my mailbox. KIM BROWN EDITOR, ART SHOWCASE MAGAZINE, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN

IT IS NICE that Sandy Lerner is revisiting her childhood interests in a wildly capitalintensive way, and I would agree that raising meat the way that she does makes for healthier meat than factory farming, but I question whether this means of meat production is feasible for the billions of people who eat meat, in particular the meat-loving denizens of the richest countries. I also found the disjoint between the text and the images to be quite striking. In the article, Lerner rhapsodizes about the subtle flavors of the meat from the animals she raises, and yet there was nary a single photo of a piece of meat to be seen, let alone a picture of the compassionate means used to turn the animals pictured into the food she loves so much. Normally, I wouldn’t have such a bone to pick (no pun intended), but to see such an 12 | P L E N T Y

odd article in what I found to be an otherwise great magazine was a little jarring. I’d love to see some articles on sustainable food, as it is clearly one of the most pressing environmental issues out there. WILLIAM BENTON SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

KUDOS to Plenty for bringing farm-animal welfare and good environmentalism together by featuring Sandy Lerner’s Ayrshire Farm in a recent issue (“The Compassionate Carnivore,” February/March). For too long, industrial animal agribusiness and environmental degradation have been viewed as two unrelated issues, when really this assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. Modern agribusiness is motivated by ever-increasing efficiency—at any expense to animals and the planet. Factory farms cause billions of animals to suffer in abusive conditions while at the same time often polluting the air, water, and land around them. A return to earth- and animal-focused farming practices—like those of Ayrshire Farm—is a great way to help right many of the wrongs of intensive agribusiness. KATIE CARRUS COORDINATOR, FAMILY FARMING CAMPAIGN THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES WASHINGTON, D.C.

UNFORTUNATELY, most of the merchandise featured in “Green Gear” has only min-

imal positive environmental impact. The fuel cell-powered ENV motorbike featured in the February/March issue costs several times more than currently available electric motorbikes, and its fuel cell is powered by hydrogen for which a fuel station infrastructure doesn’t currently exist. For the $10,000 price tag of the ENV, you could buy four Honda Metropolitan Scooters (gas misers that get 80 miles per gallon) or four EVT electric motorbikes. Better yet, buy an electrically-assisted bicycle and enjoy some exercise while a little electric motor helps you along. Let’s not even discuss the solar panel kits for charging your iPod or digital camera; iPods and cameras already use very little electricity. It is a waste, of both time and money, to try to “green” products that are already green in terms of their low energy use. Unless you highlight products that make a real difference, you are misleading your readers into spending their money on products that don’t really help the earth. To really take a chunk out of America’s huge energy consumption, people should focus on those items that use the most energy: vehicles and large appliances. Buy a fuel efficient vehicle, or invest in an energy-efficient refrigerator, air conditioner, whole-house fan, washer, or dryer. DAVID D. TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA

I WOULD LIKE to take exception to item April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

anyway. In addition, regulatory requirements for water purity are stricter for municipal water than for bottled water: The â&#x20AC;&#x153;healthâ&#x20AC;? claims of the water sellers are mostly meaningless marketing nonsense. So get yourself a glass juice bottle, or an unbreakable stainless-steel bottle, or a Nalgene-type hikerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bottle, and fill it up yourself, instead of paying Coca-Cola or some other mega-corporation to take it from a community thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s probably struggling to keep its water-table high enough to keep the wells flowing.

(EALTHY 3HOES

.ATURAL 0OSTURE

KARIN ASCOT AUSTIN, TEXAS

I WAS EXCITED to read the excerpt from

PETER REALMUTO REALMUTO FURNITURE WORKS, INC. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

CORN-BASED, compostable plastic bottles are a great development, but they distract from a more important issue. Privatization of water resources is becoming a terrible threat to people around the world. Your bottled water is either somebody elseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spring or aquifer water (in which case you are helping to privatize a formerly publicly owned resource), or it is from a municipal source www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

4RADITIONAL 3HOES

WHITLEY RIVERS

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HERNANDO, MISSISSIPPI

I AM WRITING to express to you how much my colleagues and I enjoy your magazine. We greatly appreciate your focus on highlighting how profitability and sustainability are actually complementary business practices. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really refreshing to read an environmentally focused magazine that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t encourage readers to boycott certain companies or products, but rather to support those forward-looking companies. I shared the feature in your October/November issue on companies that are â&#x20AC;&#x153;self-greening,â&#x20AC;? such as GE, with my colleagues, because I think its positive message is very important. Thank you for your insightful magazine. MEREDITH YOUNGHEIN WASHINGTON, DC

Send your letters, comments, kudos, and critiques to letters@plentymag.com

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number four of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ten Ways to Detox Your Digs,â&#x20AC;? by Christine Richmond. She wraps up the point by suggesting that readers â&#x20AC;&#x153;opt for solid wood.â&#x20AC;? Yes, the off-gassing of formaldehyde in the substrates is a problem. However, low- or no-formaldehyde substrates are now available. My company uses these substrates wherever a piece of furniture is veneered. Also, veneering is a much better use of forest product as the amount of veneer yielded per tree dwarfs that of solid lumber. Only a very small area of a cabinet is visibleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;why use precious lumber in an area thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mostly hidden? Finally, there is the matter of cost. If cabinet-makers were to use only solid wood, the cost would be out of reach to many of us. Materials alone could be 50 percent higher or more, plus there would be a higher labor cost for preparing the stock. Otherwise, great reading; keep up the good work!

your article about Reverend Rich Cizik. I too am a conservative who is deeply concerned about our environment and ecosystem. I have been very dissatisfied with some Internet publications who have purported that they are non-partisan in their quest to preserve Earth, yet continue to be active promoters of certain causes while showing incredulity and scoffing at anyone who maintains other beliefs (i.e., conservatives). In my case, I believe that you can love people even when you disagree with them and hold fast to your religious beliefs while trying to save Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creation. I am looking for another outlet to get updated environmental news and I promise the next time I can get to Wild Oats I will check you guys out. Thanks for being a supporter of Ideal Bite, of which I am a daily subscriber and who first tipped me off about you guys.

WWW EARTH US

NEWS

NOTES

PHOTOGRAPH AFP YOMIURI SHIMBUN / STRINGER

Giant Jellyfish Take Toyko lobal warming may be to blame for the real-life sci-fi story now unfolding in Japan. The country’s waters were invaded by massive jellyfish last summer, and now the blobby creatures—which can grow up to 6.5 feet wide and weigh as much as sumo wrestlers (440 pounds)—are wreaking havoc on Japan’s fishing industry, crowding fishing nets and contaminating the catch with their toxic tentacles. Injury to humans is relatively rare; still, the invertebrates have killed people

www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

with their stingers, according to some reports. The behemoth jellyfish historically had been more common in China and Korea; no one knows for sure what caused them to “bloom” in Japan, but some researchers speculate that increasing water temperatures played a role. This change could be due either to global warming or to natural cycles, notes Leslee Matsushige, assistant curator at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Birch Aquarium. Higher temperatures would cause the plankton

population to grow, providing more food for jellyfish. Agricultural runoff could also be to blame: Adding fertilizer to the water causes a similar blossoming of plankton. Could the giant-jellyfish infestation spread? It all depends on how adaptable the species is, says Matsushige. “Those jellies sound like they’re temperate; they could maybe survive on Eastern side of the Pacific at the same latitude.” Watch your back, California. —Christy Harrison P L E N T Y | 15

NEWS

NOTES

Watts, Shoots, and Leaves he green movement has come a long way since the days of hugging trees: Soon we may be extracting electricity from them. MagCap Engineering, which also manufactures magnetic components for defense companies, has found a way to charge small batteries and power LED lights by connecting them to trees. Using a metal rod embedded in the tree, a grounding rod driven into the soil, and a connecting circuit to filter and stabilize the energy, MagCap is currently able to produce around 2 volts of electricity. In the future, says company president Chris Lagadinos, output will hopefully increase to 12 volts— enough to charge a hybrid car, or power offthe-grid street lamps and security systems. If the company is successful, tree power would directly compete with solar power, which already satisfies many of the world’s off-the-grid needs. MagCap believes tree power is preferable because trees are available almost everywhere, anytime—as opposed to sunshine, which is sometimes hard to come by. But clean-energy experts are skeptical. “I’m not sure why people would choose [tree power] over other alternatives, like solar,” says Joel Makower, a green business consultant and co-founder of Clean Edge, Inc. “While trees are more plentiful than solar panels, trees serve other functions that could be disrupted by putting metal rods

in them,” he adds. And Richard Bain, a research manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, has more questions than answers. “If it’s really feasible, what kind of impact does it have on tree growth?” Therein lies MagCap’s biggest challenge: proving that tree power is truly green. Lagadinos assures critics that MagCap’s trees are happy and healthy—they’ve grown steadily since they began producing power, and horticulturists have found no evidence of adverse effects—but the research has only been conducted over a two-year period, and the long-term consequences of tree power remain to be seen. —Erika Villani

igh produce prices may produce heftier children, a new study suggests. Last December, researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture published a report showing that kids who lived in areas where fruits and vegetables were relatively expensive (like big cities) gained significantly more weight over a three-year period than kids who lived in places where fruits and vegetables were cheaper. The study followed nearly 7,000 children—who shared similar characteristics and standards of living—from kindergarten through third grade. The USDA researchers concede that they lack the longitudinal data needed to confirm that rising prices actually cause people to buy and eat less produce; and of course their findings only prove a correlation between high prices and weight gain, not a causal relationship. Still, as mounting evidence links poor eating habits and obesity to diseases like diabetes, this study may provide an important piece of the puzzle. —C.H.

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16 | P L E N T Y

Expensive Veggies, Expanding Waistlines

leenex may be the household name for tissues, but environmental groups say the brand, along with other major paper products, should be stricken from our cupboards. Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council recently launched a campaign to get consumers to choose eco-friendly paper products instead of major brands like Charmin, Puffs, or Bounty, which are made from ancient and endangered trees clearcut in the southern U.S. and Alberta, Canada. The groups calculate that if every household in the United States replaced just one box of tissues made from virgin fiber with a box made from 100 percent recycled paper, 163,000 trees would be saved; to save a million trees, U.S. shoppers could simply trade in one package of virgin-fiber paper napkins for recycled ones. (See nrdc.org/land/forests for more information.) —C.H. April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

NEWS World SCIENCE he nations of the world might not always see eye to eye on eco-policy, but at least they’re working together to make strides in green science. In January, an international coalition published a mammoth five-volume report detailing the findings of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA for short), a four-year research program that explored the complex relationship between humans and the environment. Launched by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2001, and prepared by more than 1,300 authors from 95 countries, the MA is by far the largest assessment of ecosystem change to date. It provides concrete scientific information about the current state of the environment and also predicts the future outcome of policies we enact today. Many of the MA’s conclusions about the current state of the planet are unsurprisingly bleak: Earth’s fresh water systems are in dire straits, becoming increasingly dry and polluted; human CO2 emissions are causing global warming; and forests are disappearing all over the world at a rate of roughly 23 million acres per year. However, the report is not all gloom and doom. According to MA authors, we have enough scientific and technical knowledge to begin making wiser decisions about resource use. The report outlines four possible scenarios for how the human race could develop economically, socially, and politically by 2050. In each scenario (they have cool names like “Adapting Mosaic” and “TechnoGarden”), trade policies are either increasingly globalized or increasingly protectionist; ecosystem management strategies are either reactive (addressing environmental issues only after they become honking problems) or proactive (examining situations preemptively so that things never get too dire). Every scenario has trade-offs as well as benefits. For example, TechnoGarden (globalized, proactive) sees a net increase in forest cover, strong reductions in dangerous emissions, and a high level of energy-efficiency, but it could lead to a loss in cultural diversity. Despite the trade-offs, the MA is good news for the future of environmental policy, giving decision-makers, politicians, and the public tools to make informed decisions. Now it’s just a matter of getting people to read the darned thing. —Jacquelyn Lane

NOTES

PHOTOGRAPHS LEFT PAGE MAGCAP ENGINEERING, LLC; RIGHT PAGE BETH CLOUTIER

www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

PLENTY TIP OF THE MONTH

EXPERIMENT WITH NATURAL EASTER EGG DYES IF YOU’RE PLANNING to do some good old-fashioned egg-dyeing this Easter, you may want to think twice about the pigments you use. Many food colorings have been linked to cancer and other health problems, such as allergies and chromosomal damage. A 1983 FDA study on Red No. 3 showed an association with thyroid tumors, and industry-backed trials found a link between Yellow No. 6 and tumors on the adrenal glands and kidneys. The FDA also concluded that Yellow No. 5 causes itching or hives in a small sector of the population, but the agency does not consider the potential for allergic reaction great enough to warrant banning the dye. Not to worry: your kitchen is probably chock-full of natural food colorings, from red cabbage to fruit juices. Phytochemicals, found in fruits and vegetables, are not only great for your health, but they also produce an array of natural dyes. Carotenoid phytochemicals, for example, are responsible for the red, green, yellow, and orange colors in certain fruits and veggies. Spinach gets its deep green color from lutein. Anthocyanins give blueberries and red cabbage their blue and violet hues. Take advantage of the coloring properties of these chemicals and create an edible Easter egg dye using one of two methods: THE ALL-IN-ONE APPROACH: Place your chosen fruit or vegetable in a pot of water and bring to a boil. Add the eggs—no more than will fit in the pot in one layer—and two teaspoons of white vinegar (which will help to create a more intense color and accelerate the dyeing process). Simmer for 20-30 minutes or until you’ve achieved the desired hue. THE TWO-STEP TECHNIQUE: Hard-boil the eggs, then remove them from the pot and refrigerate. In the same pot of water, add two teaspoons of vinegar and your colorful plant; boil for 20 minutes. Take the pot off the burner, and remove the fruit or veggie (for a more even color). Place the eggs in the dyed water for 10 minutes, or longer for a deeper shade. When the egg hunt is over, use your ingredients to whip up a nice meal, like spinach casserole with beets and hard-boiled eggs—just make sure you haven’t left the eggs unrefrigerated for more than two hours. HERE ARE SOME DYEING SUGGESTIONS, BUT FEEL FREE TO BE CREATIVE. GREEN – Spinach BLUE – Red cabbage; blueberries (crushed or canned) RED – Beets; cranberries YELLOW – Ground turmeric —Anngela Leone P L E N T Y | 17

APR 2006

PLENTY

1 From now until Earth Day, Buffalo Exchange (buffaloexchange.com) will donate your unwanted furs to Coats for Cubs, which uses them as bedding for injured wildlife.

event calendar 2

Daylight Savings Time! Don’t forget to set your clock forward and to enjoy that extra hour of sun.

First day of the California Desert Nature Festival held in Palm Desert, CA. Enjoy free seminars, children’s activities, arts and music, and a butterfly/native plant pavilion.

12 First day of Green Construction 2006 held in San Jose, CA. During this twoday conference, the Northern California building community comes together for sustainable building education, exhibits, and demonstrations.

13 First day of the Nausicaa Festival of Sea Imagery at the eco-conscious aquarium in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France (nausicaa.fr). Through April 17, documentaries and art exhibitions encourage visitors to care for the planet.

It’s Easter Sunday, which means it’s time for some eco egg-dyeing. (See page 17)

Get a great deal on an ecovacation at The International Ecotourism Society’s annual Eco-holiday Auction (ecotourism.org). Many of the companies that donate trips have received awards for their eco-prudent practices.

First day of the Whole Children, Whole Planet Expo in Los Angeles, CA (wcwpexpo.com). Enjoy seminars and exhibits on natural products, holistic medicine, and preservativefree foods.

Exert yourself for a good cause at Run for the Cheetah in Phoenix, AZ (cheetah.org). This 5K run/walk, along with other family-friendly activities, benefits the Cheetah Conservation Fund.

First day of the LOHAS 10 forum in Los Angeles, CA (lohas.com). Through the 28th, around 750 companies come together to discuss how to promote and reach the green consumer.

Arbor Day. Also, first day of the Inspiration Film Festival in Los Angeles, CA (inspirationfilmfestival.com). Check out award-winning ecofilms and documentaries, like The Real Dirt on Farmer John.

MAY 2006

May Day. Dance around a maypole, or celebrate organized labor—your choice.

First day of the first IFOAM Conference on Organic Wild Production in Banja Luka, Bosnia. This two-day conference will focus on establishing state-of-the-art organic wild production.

First day of the Living Green Expo 2006 in St. Paul, MN (livinggreen.org). Over 14,000 people attend this two-day conference, which features eco exhibits, workshops, art displays, and children’s activities.

First day of the IEEE Electronics & the Environment Symposium in San Francisco, CA (iseesummit.org). Through May 11, the forum will address eco-issues in the field of electronics.

Final day of the All Things Organic Trade Show in Chicago, IL. This three-day trade show includes speakers, exhibits and store tours, such as the Organic Fiber Walking tour, which spots organic fashion retailers in Chicago.

Vroooom! First day of the Tour de Sol green-car show and competition in Saratoga Spa State Park, NY. Through May 14, get acquainted with all the new eco-car choices including hybrid, natural gas, biofuel, electric, and fuel cell.

First day of Birdathon Week. Through May 18, help contribute to the Audubon Society’s largest annual fundraising event (audubon.org) by going birdwatching and collecting pledges.

Celebrate migratory bird conservation on International Migratory Bird Day (fws.gov/birds).

Mother’s Day. Indulge your mom with some delicious organic cookies (p. 92-93).

First day of Bike to Work Week, sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists (bike-to-work.com). If your bike has been collecting dust all winter, here’s an excuse to shine it up and start peddling.

BACKGROUND PHOTO © TAMMY HENRATTY, APR 13 PHOTO © J. LEROY-NAUSICAA

22 Final day of the Isle of Wight Walking Tour in Isle of Wight, England. This is the largest of the UK’s many walking festivals. Explore the scenery and history of the English countryside; includes a 27-mile hike and many shorter walks.

18 | P L E N T Y

April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

RETREADS

WEAPONS

OF RECONSTRUCTION

Old artillery finds a peaceful new life JOSHUA M. BERNSTEIN

DONOVAN FELL AND DAVE HALL are in the second-chance business. In a warehouse near the Zamperini Field Airport in sunny Torrance, California, their MotoArt sculpture firm refashions B-17 bomber propellers into mirror-shiny, Shaq-tall silver monuments. Circular 1940s plane-engine pistons mutate into reflective desk clocks. Boeing 707 wheel hubs become glass-topped tables. Hall describes his work as â&#x20AC;&#x153;saving aviation history from dying.â&#x20AC;?

BOMBS AWAY: Artists Dave Hall (left) and Donovan Fell at their DC-3 Martini Table, made from a recycled airplane propeller.

www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

P L E N T Y | 19

EXPLOSIVE SALES: MotoArt’s best sellers include an aquarium made from a discarded bomb (above left) and the “Blockbuster” coffee table (above).

20 | P L E N T Y

It’s a strange word choice, because some of MotoArt’s salvage is, quite literally, killer. In addition to rescuing plane parts, Hall and Fell also reclaim bombs—specifically, Vietnam-era ordnance, as well as 1940s naval training artillery. Such antiquated weaponry typically grows dusty in munitions depots, awaiting the smelter. Environmentally speaking, melting steel is beneficial: Replacing one pound of virgin steel with a pound of recycled steel, for example, saves enough energy to power a 60-watt lightbulb for a day. Yet “where one person sees $25 of scrap,” says Hall, “we see $2,500 of furniture.” The artisans began by converting bombs into tables, bars, and even an aquarium. “It’s [turning] death and destruction into art,” explains Hall. MotoArt solves a problem as old as war: What happens to weapons after the fighting’s over? “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares,” offers the Old Testament, “and their spears into pruning-hooks.” Sound advice indeed. And in a growing worldwide movement—from the United States to the conflict-torn countries of Mozambique and Cambodia—inspired recyclers are giving beauty and purpose to obsolete armaments. MotoArt fell into weapons work by accident. One day in 2002, head artist Fell, a goatee-sporting, cigarette-smoking 56-year-old, and his partner, Hall, a quick-to-smile 38-yearold, were searching for propellers inside a World War II collector’s hangar at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles. There they stumbled onto six zucchini-shaped World War II practice bombs. “What the heck are you going to do with those?” Hall asked. After working through the night, Fell built an answer: the “Get Bombed” table. A practice bomb is cut in half horizontally, then a round engine-turbine fan from a B-52 and a glass sheet are bolted together and sandwiched between the two halves of the bomb, like a layer cake. (“Get Bombed” is a double entendre, referencing the bomb’s nose, which swings open to reveal a beer-ready ice chest.) That design was only the beginning of the duo’s artillery fixation. Over the next several years, they bought scores of cigar-shaped, Vietnam-era MK-84 bombs from private collectors in the North Pacific. The bomb’s fin-equipped rear end (the part that aids flight) is removed, then set fin-side up and capped with a glass circle. Voilà!: the “Blockbuster,” MotoArt’s topselling bomb table. “It’s certainly an explosive conversational piece,” says Fell, laughing. More so than MotoArt would like. Its weapon furniture has drawn media ire: Soon after the first rockets battered Iraq in the latest war, Amsterdam’s De Telegraaf newspaper ran an article about MotoArt, with a headline roughly translating to, “While the U.S. Bombs Iraq, U.S. Companies Profit from Death and Destruction.” “They were reaching,” says Fell, dismayed by the coverage. “If anything, we’re trying to positively offset destruction.” Yes, but it’s easy to see why folks take offense. After all, not everyone would take MotoArt’s “Get Bombed” joke lightly. Nevertheless, many firearm recycling programs outside the United April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

PHOTOS THIS PAGE DODSTUDIOS.COM; RIGHT PAGE: UPPER RIGHT COURTESY PAC/SOKUNTHEA; LOWER LEFT CHRISTIAN AID UK/DAVID ROSE/WWW.CHRISTIANAID.ORG.UK/AFRICA2005/TREEOFLIFE

In a growing worldwide movement—from the United States to the conflicttorn countries of Mozambique and Cambodia— inspired recyclers are giving beauty and purpose to obsolete armaments.

RETREADS States share MotoArt’s mission. In Mozambique, for example, a clergyman named Bishop Dom Dinis Sengulane founded the nonprofit Transforming Arms into Tools after years of civil war left his country overflowing with machine guns, pistols, and rocket launchers. Mozambicans trade arms for sewing machines, bicycles, or even tractors and other farming equipment. The decade-old program has collected more than 600,000 weapons and passed along thousands to Mozambique’s Núcleo de Arte collective for extreme makeovers. Núcleo artists refashion arms as gallery-quality symbols of pacifism: Rifle barrels and magazine clips are twisted and bent into roaring motorcycles, proud peacocks, and a band of foot-tall jazz musicians. “Mozambican artists are building a culture of peace through [reusing] dismantled killing machines,” says Dr. Daleep Mukarji, director of the charity Christian Aid, which in 2002 organized a decommissioned-weapon exhibition titled, fittingly, “Swords into Ploughshares.” The artists were Núcleo members, who gained international acclaim for their weapon art. That year, the British Museum bought the exhibition’s Throne of Weapons—a chair fashioned from Portuguese and Russian rifles—for its permanent collection in the Sainsbury African galleries. This provocative creation became one of the museum’s most popular pieces, says Chris Spring, a British Museum curator. So popular, in fact, that the museum commissioned a companion piece, the tenfoot-tall Tree of Life. With AK-47 “leaves” and a rocket-launcher “trunk,” the tree embodies the artists’ power to turn weapons of destruction into what a Christian Aid spokesperson calls “weapons of reconstruction.” Mozambique’s Transforming Arms into Tools program has proven so successful that it inspired a well-intentioned copycat in Peace Art Cambodia (PAC). British-born do-gooders Neil Wilford, an activist who works to

PLACES OF REST: A Mozambican artists’ collective dismantles weapons, turning them into pieces like Throne of Weapons (left) and Tree of Life (below). The guns are cut into pieces in a very literal act of disarmament (below left).

curb civilian small-arms ownership, and Sasha Constable, a sculptor, launched PAC in fall 2003. In the program’s inaugural 18-month class, several dozen Phnom Penh college students became metalworkers specializing in M-16 and AK-47 rifle art—including a lifesize Bugs Bunny and a functional bicycle. The workshop culminated in the exhibition “To Be Deter-mined/At Arms Length,” featuring a variety of sculptures and even trophies, which were eventually awarded at volleyball tournaments. “Although the weapons haven’t lost their significance, [they have] become a material for making a beautiful object,” Constable told the Associated Press in 2004. (MotoArt has been asked to contribute weapon art to a future PAC exhibition, for which Hall and Fell feel “honored.”) Under the Cambodian government’s watch, more than 160,000 weapons have been destroyed since 1999—but many of these were burned in public pyres called Flames of Peace. Symbolically these burnings succeeded, but environmentally they posed a problem: the blazes destroyed the guns but were also wasteful. Think of all of the smoke created by the burning raw material—not to mention the air pollution. Diesel-oil-and-wood pyres burn for up to 48 hours, emitting noxious fumes. The end result is a pile of burnt-out weapons that are sold for scrap. It’s a convoluted way to recycle. MotoArt, on the other hand, never melts down weapons, preferring to preserve artillery. That is, when it can acquire firearms, an undertaking potentially more dangerous than the weapons themselves. Recently, Hall and a friend were returning from a Utah weapons run in a bomb-filled U-Haul truck. At the California border, the highway patrol corralled the truck with a roadblock. “It was serious hands-up stuff,” Hall says. “My buddy was in tears.” The situation ended peacefully, however, with the police nervously sending Hall and his friend on their way. Hall’s run-in with the law has hardly dampened his enthusiasm for refabbing artillery. “There are so many munitions on this planet,” Hall says gleefully. “We haven’t even started with the Communist ordnance yet.” ■ Got an explosive story you want to share? Tell us about your favorite vintage and reworked gear: retreads@plentymag.com

www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

P L E N T Y | 21

T E C H N O LO GY

THE BLUE-GREEN REVOLUTION IN A LAB built over craggy black lava fields, on a typical 90-degree day, researchers at the Common Heritage Corporation in Hawaii take a break from their work to enjoy the fruits of their labor—literally. They snack on grapes and pineapples grown in their test garden with their ColdAg method, a process that uses pipes filled with deep ocean water to cool hot soils and create condensation to irrigate crops. And when the researchers return to work, they, like the soil outside, are kept cool by seawater: Their building (which is on the grounds of the National Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority, or NELHA, an alternative-energy research facility) has cold ocean water running through its air conditioning system. In the last 15 years the Common Heritage Corporation (CHC), a privately held, forprofit company, has pioneered several innovative uses for deep ocean water. Led by ocean engineer John Craven, who also cofounded NELHA, CHC researchers have developed deep-ocean technologies like air conditioning, irrigation, freshwater production, and even electricity generation. Craven’s ideas have not taken over the world yet, but they are being embraced in many countries, including developing ones. The technologies are particularly attractive to island nations, which often have scarce natural resources, high living costs (because most goods need to be imported), and little industry except tourism. Unlike many eco-friendly technologies, cold-water air-conditioning pipelines are relatively affordable, generally paying for themselves within two to three years; these pipelines can also help significant22 | P L E N T Y

BY AMY WESTERVELT

ly reduce the cost of running hotels and other tourist destinations that use huge amounts of fresh water, electricity, and energy. How does ocean water work its magic? First, the air conditioning: water is siphoned from thousands of feet below the surface of the sea and pumped into traditional chilledwater air conditioning systems, which typically work by using a coolant to chill the water that is piped throughout the building. With CHC’s system, the electricity-guzzling chillers are unnecessary: Deep-ocean water is already a bracing 39 degrees. Seawater cooling systems save tenants more than 80 percent on their electricity bills, requiring very little energy to keep cold water flowing. Their byproduct, room temperature water (which is clean and poses no threat to the ecosystem), is returned to the ocean several hundred feet higher, so that the sea’s natural temperature variations are not disrupted. The pipelines are made of corrosion-proof plastic. Pipes carrying deep water can also run beneath gardens or fields; placed half a foot below the surface, the pipes chill the roots of plants, and the temperature difference between the water and the soil causes enough freshwater condensation on the pipes to irrigate the plants as well. By turning the flow of cold water on and off, researchers at CHC have found that they can effectively force plants into and out of dormancy to increase production. In their tests, researchers at CHC have harvested three crops a year from their vineyard and can produce a crop of pineapples in 8 months instead of 18. Plans for such technologies are already

well under way in several island nations. This year the Tahitian island of Bora Bora will become home to the world’s deepest ocean pipeline to date, more than 3,000 feet below the water’s surface. The pipeline, constructed by Makai Ocean Engineering (the same company that designed and installed pipelines for NELHA), will provide air conditioning to several beachfront hotels. Meanwhile, energy officials on the Caribbean island of Curaçao and the U.S. territory of Guam have been meeting with engineers to discuss the possibility of replacing conventional air conditioning systems with seawater systems for groups of hotels on their shores, and officials from the African island of Mauritius are looking to make the switch in the next few years. Dr. Craven and his CHC colleagues are planning a complex, much larger version of their NELHA project on Saipan, a U.S. territory in the Marianas and a popular island destination for tourists from nearby Japan (Tokyo is a two-and-a-half-hour flight away). Saipan has a limited supply of fresh water, so it must use an expensive desalination process to “create” more; the island also imports all of its oil and more than 90 percent of its food, which is extremely costly. CHC plans to install a two-foot-diameter pipe on the northern tip of the island, which would supply fresh water, air conditioning, cold-water irrigation, and partial electrical power to a 100acre development that it plans to build with the help of the local government and an asyet-unnamed business partner. The development would include town houses, a golf April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL BRUNETTI

Unlocking the eco-potential of deep ocean water

T E C H N O LO GY course, soccer fields, and an athletic complex. CHC will also sell fresh water to hotels and businesses on the island. Cold-water technology has gained traction elsewhere in the world. By 2007 many of the resorts, office buildings, and retail businesses in downtown Honolulu will get their air-conditioning from a pipeline that is 5.25 feet in diameter and 1,600 feet below the surface of the ocean. In addition to projected electricity savings of 80 percent (which means a lot in Hawaii, where air conditioning accounts for roughly 40 percent of annual electricity costs), Honolulu Seawater Air-Conditioning, the company that’s overseeing the project, estimates that the system will conserve 400 million gallons of potable water a year and eradicate the 126 million gallons of wastewater created annually by the coolants used in existing air conditioning networks. The technology’s usefulness is not limited to tropical zones; after all, deep ocean water in cooler climates is even colder. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, a joint project between

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THE SYSTEM WILL CONSERVE 400 MILLION GALLONS OF POTABLE WATER A YEAR AND ERADICATE THE 126 MILLION GALLONS OF WASTEWATER CREATED ANNUALLY.

the Canadian government and a private company tapped into deep ocean water in the late 1980s to cool a 350,000-square-foot office complex along the waterfront. Because of the area’s low water temperatures, the project required only a small pipeline at a depth of less than 100 feet, which cost only $200,000. Savings on electrical costs, maintenance staff, freshwater usage, water treatment, and cooling-tower maintenance totaled between $50,000 and $60,000 per year. Today the system has been expanded to serve the entire waterfront. And one of the most successful deep-water projects on

record uses cold water not from the ocean but from a freshwater lake. A pipeline in New York’s Lake Cayuga provides air-conditioning for the entire Cornell University campus, with an energy savings of 86 percent. By 2004 the Cornell project had convinced the City of Toronto to jump on the deep-water bandwagon, and now the Canadian metropolis boasts three 5.25-foot pipelines reaching 4.5 miles into Lake Ontario. The system air-conditions nearly 30 million square feet of office space in downtown Toronto; water used in the cooling system is recaptured and purified for drinking. Deep-water technologies are not for everyone, of course. The capital cost of a pipeline and distribution system is high, ranging from $2 million to $5 million. What’s more, there is an economy of scale associated with deep-ocean technologies: Air conditioning systems that hold less than 1,000 tons of water (enough cooling for a 500,000-square-foot building or group of buildings) are more difficult to justify. Deep-ocean air conditioning works best with what is known as a district cooling arrangement, where many buildings are cooled by the same system. On the bright side, Craven argues, the latest advancements in deep-ocean technology could have benefits for all of us, no matter where we live. Deep ocean water contains trace minerals that are believed to benefit human health. There are currently three companies at NELHA bottling and selling desalinated deep ocean water, a drink that has become popular in Japan. Meanwhile, Craven has been experimenting on himself, applying the water to various parts of his body, and has concluded that deep ocean water helps the body heal itself. Not one to sit around and dream, Craven has already patented his cold-water therapy and is talking about opening up a cold-water spa in Kona. If it’s anywhere near as successful as his other ventures, we could discover that we’ve been surrounded by the fountain of youth for centuries. ■ April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

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WHEELS

WORKING ON THE

RAILROAD The problems with U.S. train transit— and four projects that could save it. BY MARK BAARD

THE UNITED STATES IS A BAD PLACE to ride the rails. The huge country has hundreds of miles between its major cities, and connecting them is a massive undertaking. That’s one of the reasons why Europe and Asia are ahead of the U.S. in developing cutting-edge rail technologies like high-speed magnetic levitation (or maglev) trains and automated-travel vehicles. And then there is the lack of federal funding: Amtrak, the government-subsidized intercity railroad corporation, served a record 25 million passengers in 2004, yet President Bush last year recommended cutting the railroad’s budget entirely. U.S. senators voted last year to keep Amtrak going, but the railroad is still burdened by delays and inefficiencies caused by federal requirements that it haul freight behind its passenger cars and share its routes with other cargo carriers. In the U.S., freight rules the rails;

legislators and regulators backed by the rail industry have helped make the country the world’s leader in rail freight, while passenger rail faces a dearth of political support. At the local level, though, private companies are faring far better. Thanks to these entrepeneurs’ innovations, passengers in the near future could get from Las Vegas to Los Angeles by train in 90 minutes, less time (including check-in) than the trip would take by plane. We may also see vehicles without any other passengers that run on rails, meeting commuters at the train station and taking them, nonstop, to their destinations in downtown Chicago. New trains and railway-inspired projects are gaining, well, traction for their ability to take cars off the road while providing quick, comfortable rides. Here are four of the most promising technologies on the horizon.

NAME: Southern California Maglev Project TYPE: Magnetic levitation (maglev) HOW IT WORKS: The maglev uses the interaction of powerful magnets in trains and guideways—roadways with raised tracks and concrete

26 | P L E N T Y

walls that keep the trains on course—to levitate and propel the vehicles forward at superhigh speeds. The guideways can be either on the ground or built above

existing highways to minimize environmental impact. The proposed California maglev network will cover 275 miles and move 500,000 riders rapidly between cities and to major airports, according to organizers. THE RIDE: Ever-so-smooth and quiet. You’re floating on a cushion of air, after all. Hovering an inch or so above the rails, the maglev is pushed forward by magnetic fields generated by a “propulsion coil” system embedded within the guideway. SPEED: Without the friction caused by the contact between steel wheels and tracks, speeds on the maglev can reach

April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

NAME: BladeRunner TYPE: Dualmode Group Rapid Transit

310 mph—double that of Amtrak’s Acela high-speed train. THE BENEFITS: Reduced congestion, air pollution, and noise. Superhigh speeds may make the maglev a viable alternative to short airplane hops. The first planned maglev in California will take passengers from Union Station in Los Angeles to Ontario International Airport, east of the city, a distance of 56 miles. The trip, which will include four stops, is expected to take only 29 minutes. Try beating that in your car on the notoriously congested Santa Monica Freeway. THE PROSPECTS: Very promising.

www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

Southern Californians may have little choice but to embrace train travel if they hope to move between their cities and airports in the coming decades: The region’s population is expected to grow by 6 million people over the next 30 years. Working maglev trains in Shanghai and Germany are already showing the technology’s potential. And China has announced it will be constructing a maglev system to run between Shanghai and Hangzhou, with a possible extension to Beijing in the coming decade. In the U.S., federal legislation in 1998 got the wheels turning on the Southern California maglev project and others on the East Coast.

HOW IT WORKS: British-designed BladeRunner is a futuristic double-decker bus, which can fairly seamlessly switch between road and rail (hence, “dualmode”). The bus has two tires on each axle, and a metal rim on the inner tire fits onto lightrail tracks on the street. BladeRunner could also conceivably be tweaked to make it capable of using freight train tracks and other major rail systems, according to its developers. And in the city, BladeRunner can connect to existing overhead cable lines used by electric trams and trolleys, enabling it to run on diesel or electricity. THE RIDE: Beats any bus or train. BladeRunner’s “bogie,” a swiveling axle that is common on most railcars, is located at the rear of the vehicle, making the ride at the back of the bus as steady as the middle, on or off the rails. SPEED: BladeRunner can book along safely at 80 mph on rails or on the highway. On lightrails in downtown urban areas, it will move more slowly, perhaps 25-35 miles per hour. THE BENEFITS: The BladeRunner will come to a street corner near you, perhaps even to your door (depending on your town’s transportation scheme). No more racing in your car to the train station, only to be stuck parking at the outer edge of a massive lot. THE PROSPECTS: Better than ever. BladeRunner relieves oil dependency, increases energy efficiency, and reduces road damage and congestion. And it requires no infrastructure changes, so the first BladeRunner vehicles can be used in cities where light-rail tracks are already in place, like London, San Francisco, and Boston, according to BladeRunner lead engineer Carl Henderson.

P L E N T Y | 27

WHEELS NAME: Las Vegas Monorail and Seattle Monorail Green Line TYPE: Monorail (A Classic!) HOW IT WORKS: Linked cars straddle a single beam that also provides electricity for the train, which can run fully automated (though current systems often have drivers). The Las Vegas Monorail is a fourmile-long, privately owned route with seven stations connecting downtown casinos; its parent company also plans for eventual expansion to other parts of the city and the airport. The Seattle Green Line, meanwhile, was a proposed 14-mile extension of the current Seattle Monorail system (which, in turn, was originally constructed for the 1962 World’s Fair). THE RIDE: Rubber tires should make the ride quieter and less bumpy than the one you’d get on steel wheels. SPEED: Average 20-30 mph, top speed 50 mph. Monorail proponents say that convenience in congested downtown areas, rather than speed, is the technology’s major attraction. THE BENEFITS: Reduced air and water pollution from cars. Seattle had also indicated that recycled and nontoxic construction materials could be used to build the elevated guideways. Similar to hybrid cars, the monorail trains can use electric motors and dynamic, regenerative braking—meaning the trains generate electricity every time they hit the brakes. THE PROSPECTS: Not so hot. In Vegas there is no firm timeline for expansion; market forces will drive any progress. In Seattle, voters overwhelmingly rejected the city’s monorail expansion project after seeing its multibillion-dollar price tag, which included the cost of building overhead tracks (considered by many to be an eyesore), new cars, and automation systems.

28 | P L E N T Y

April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

NAME: SkyWeb Express TYPE: Personal Rapid Transit

Thanks to their innovations, passengers in the near future could get from Las Vegas to Los Angeles by train in 90 minutes, less time (including check-in) than the trip would take by plane. www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

HOW IT WORKS: Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) “cars” are fully automated vehicles that travel along guideways. The cars go directly to stops set by passengers on a control panel within the vehicle. The system’s guideways also include rails that provide electricity to power the cars. SPEED: Varies, but top speeds could reach 60 mph or higher. (The technology is still under development, and speeds will vary depending on local regulations.) “We don’t want it to be an amusement ride,” says Mike Lester, the company’s vice president. “We want it to be transit.” THE RIDE: The cars are as comfortable and well-appointed as most U.S. automobiles, with air-conditioning and other amenities. Each PRT is about the size of a compact car. THE BENEFITS: Privacy (unless you choose to share a ride with someone headed your way), near-zero wait times, and no emissions. SkyWeb Express is designing its system with enough cars so that empty vehicles will be waiting for most commuters when they reach the station. All trips are nonstop because the PRT cars steer off the main guideway to pick up passengers, rather than holding up the whole line as trains do. THE PROSPECTS: Iffy. PRT guideways may remind too many people of monorail projects, notorious for their runaway costs (as in Seattle) and for their conspicuous raised tracks. But SkyWeb Express, based in Minnesota, says its PRT guideway system can be built with a much lower visual profile, and at lower cost, than a traditional monorail. And in the United Kingdom, a pilot project using PRT to connect passengers between terminals at Heathrow Airport is under way. P L E N T Y | 29

GREEN BUSINESS

IT PAYS TO

RECYCLE How one Philadelphia-based start-up plans to revolutionize the way we think about waste. BY BARI NAN COHEN

READY TO ROLL: Recycle Bank’s trucks at work (above); the company’s logo is meant to evoke the money saved through recycling (above right).

There was a time in my life when I took recycling for granted. I lived in New York City, separated my recyclables in my building’s incinerator room, and went about my business. But when I moved to Park City, Utah, the lack of convenient recycling there was a shock. Eco-conscious residents of the outdoorsy, nature-centric city had to haul their own recyclables to the drop-off center. Recently, matters have somewhat improved: A private curbside recycling collection business began in my neighborhood—for an annual fee. But a friend of mine refused to recycle until he didn’t have to pay for the privilege. What, I asked him, you want them to pay you? In an ideal world, or in Philadelphia, that desire would not be out of the question. In 2004 two friends who went to high school together just outside the City of Brotherly Love launched a business called RecycleBank, which does, in fact, pay residents to recycle. The concept’s execution is 30 | P L E N T Y

stunningly simple: homeowners get a single bin into which they deposit all of their recyclables, no sorting required. The bin is equipped with a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip. Fill the bin up, wheel it to the curb on garbage day, and the city sanitation truck—newly tricked out by RecycleBank with a scale and an RFID reader—recognizes the address, weighs the recyclables, and sends the data to the homeowner’s Recyclebank.com account. Homeowners then log on to the site and redeem their “RecycleBank Dollars,” which can be either donated to selected charities or swapped for discounts at specific stores, ranging from national companies like The Home Depot and Starbucks to local businesses. While this arrangement means the stores give away some freebies, the RecycleBank Dollars also bring in more customers and thus more revenue. Ron Gonen and Patrick FitzGerald, the brains behind RecycleBank, hatched the

idea for the company in 2003 after noticing that their hometown’s residents took a decidedly lackadaisical approach to recycling. While the two friends were working and living in New York City at the time— Gonen had recently left a major consulting firm to enroll in Columbia Business School, and FitzGerald was working as an attorney with a Wall Street firm—they saw an opportunity to start a business on their home turf. “I thought, if we could pay people for it, it would encourage them to recycle more,” Gonen says. Their reasoning: Manufacturers expand their profit margins by using recycled goods, and recycling centers also make money by selling recycled waste to manufacturers, so why shouldn’t consumers get part of the take? In Gonen’s estimation, recycling is valuable to cities because it saves precious real estate from being annexed for landfills. And landfilling itself is costly, given the ever escalating price of property. And then there’s the value of recycling to corporate America, which finds making paper products and, say, aluminum cans from recycled material cheaper than mining aluminum or making paper from trees. For Gonen and FitzGerald, the hardest part of the process was selling the city on the idea. Government typically encourages people to do the right thing by imposing taxes and fines if they don’t, says Gonen. “It’s hard to get government to change. But when Philadelphia found that it was losing $17 million per year by not having efficient recycling, it became pretty apparent how we could help.” RecycleBank retrofits the trucks, provides the special garbage bins to households, and then, with all of this increased efficiency, “splits the savings with the city.” The company launched a pilot program in two Philadelphia neighborhoods in February 2005 and expanded the service to April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

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GREEN BUSINESS TRASH INTO CASH (clockwise from left): Sanitation workers collecting RecycleBank loot; Ron Gonen, one of the company’s founders, with a signature RecycleBank receptacle; Patrick FitzGerald, co-founder.

“IF I CAN’T RECYCLE IT AND GET SOMETHING BACK, MAYBE I SHOULDN’T BUY IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.” a nearby suburb that October. Meanwhile, the company continued to negotiate with city officials to bring RecycleBank to all 530,000 of the city’s households. Longtime recycling proponents in the waste management industry were thrilled with the concept. “The potential is phenomenal, truly revolutionary,” says David Biddle, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Commercial Recycling Council and a member of the Mayor’s Recycling Advisory Committee in Philadelphia. “This is not just a neat little pilot demonstration program. If you can make it work in Philadelphia, you can make it work anywhere.” Gonen and FitzGerald don’t just stop at encouraging more recycling; they’re stimulating more green thinking throughout the community by increasing visibility for the small, local, eco-friendly businesses that partner with them. “Something like PhillyCarShare could never afford the kind of advertising they get on our site,” Gonen says, referring to RecycleBank’s Web site, www.recyclebank.com. “And we even offer coupons for the Energy Cooperative, an alternative utility.” If there is an irony in the idea that the more you consume, the more recycling pays, it’s not lost on even RecycleBank’s most ardent supporters. “One of the things I’ve been after them about is to find a way 32 | P L E N T Y

for consumers to redeem points for online music,” says Biddle. “If you don’t have to buy CDs, why should you? That’s a start. And if the program gets picked up citywide in Philadelphia, I’d like to see more green utilities on the site and the ability for people to use points toward public-transit passes.” Of course the argument can be made that people are, by and large, going to shop anyway, and that recycling as a business thrives on having material to process. Moreover, the business may start to change the way consumers think about, well, consumption—and the way community responsibility factors into even the smallest of businesses. “Honestly, this system has made me rethink which stores I use,” says Betsy Torg, a resident in one of the Philadelphia pilot neighborhoods. “If a shop doesn’t accept RecycleBank coupons, I’m starting to wonder if I want to do business with them.” For his part, Gonen is trying to get consumers thinking more along the lines of “If I can’t recycle it and get something back, maybe I shouldn’t buy it in the first place.” THE STRENGTH OF GONEN AND FITZGERALD’S concept is evident in its early successes: recycling in some of the pilot neighborhoods, for example, shot up from less than 20 percent to nearly 90 percent in a matter of months. But the two entrepreneurs aren’t

resting on their laurels; they are already progressing with expansion plans for the next two years, launching RecycleBank municipal and subscription-based programs in Delaware and New Jersey, and creating opportunities for people to use RecycleBank in train stations, stadiums, and apartment buildings in every city where RecycleBank has a presence. And these guys aren’t stopping with the Northeast Corridor. They’ve recently teamed up with Casella Waste Systems, a company that provides waste management services in select communities on the East Coast, to bring RecycleBank to several other states including Massachusetts and Vermont. They hope to eventually expand nationwide. Big business? Absolutely. “The term ‘eco’ is as much about economy as it is about ecology,” says Gonen. “We want at the end of the day for people to look at their waste stream and say, ‘I pretty much recycle everything I purchase. And then if I don’t, I don’t get value for that and I should rethink my purchasing habits.’” ■ April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

BOOKS

THE OPEN-SPACE OPERATIONS MANUAL

Writer BILL MCKIBBEN reviews Bruce Babbitt’s eco-memoir, exploring the former interior secretary’s enduring legacy. CITIES IN THE WILDERNESS BY BRUCE BABBITT ISLAND PRESS, $25.95

HERE’S AN INTERESTING THOUGHT: How would the Clinton administration have handled Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath? The former president, one imagines, would have been at his empathetic best, out working the floodwaters and hugging evacuees like the accomplished pol he was. It’s even possible that he would have taken the opportunity the hurricane presented to raise public consciousness about global warming. But might his administration also have seized the chance to think creatively about some of the landscape along the Gulf Coast? Cities in the Wilderness, a fine new book by the man who served as Clinton’s interior secretary throughout both of his terms, suggests that the answer is yes. Bruce Babbitt was a consummate politician himself—engaging, genial, shrewd. And he was willing to contemplate ideas about the relationship between people and land that few American leaders have ever entertained. Consider what is perhaps Babbitt’s most famous moment, when he supervised the demolition of the Edwards Dam on the mouth of Maine’s Kennebec River. It was the first large dam ever removed by federal action, which came after protracted talks among utilities, sportsmen, and environmentalists. What’s more, the decision to dismantle Edwards represented a small move toward acknowledging that Americans had overstepped the bounds of common sense in their centuries of manipulating the nation’s landscapes. “Our waters must be used and managed in a holistic blend of development and ecological protection,” writes Babbitt, and it was this philosophy that underpinned his opening of the Kennebec. His resolve was evident in many other preservation efforts around the country. Babbitt relates these tales with a touch of the politician’s self-satisfaction, but he tempers it with a larger dose of insight and reflection than the average officeholder usually musters. 34 | P L E N T Y

He brokered the deal that may or may not save the Everglades—the damage to the Florida wetlands is so extensive that the new measures may have come too late. But, as Babbitt points out, the Everglades is only one of many river systems around the country damaged to the point of dysfunction. He describes his failed attempts to find similar compromises on the Missouri-Mississippi watershed and his more auspicious effort in California’s Central Valley. The take-home lesson is that smaller bites are easier to swallow. Compromise is the politician’s knack, and Babbitt was good at it. If you’re creating an urban growth boundary, for instance, like the one that he helped formulate for Las Vegas, the interested parties are often willing to sacrifice long-term results for immediate gain— so draw the line before the subdivisions have reached the edge of the land you want to protect. And if you want to persuade ranchers and landowners to negotiate with environmentalists about protecting open land around, say, Tucson, it helps to threaten unilateral federal action to declare the land a national mon-

ument. Indeed, Babbitt clearly enjoyed playing the rogue on occasion. He tells of a few times when he overstepped his bounds and got a presidential scolding. But he also recounts how, late in Clinton’s second term, he handed the president an index card with a scrawled list of acreage totals, showing that with some last-minute acquisitions Clinton could overtake Teddy Roosevelt as the president who had preserved the most land in the lower 48. The upshot of that talk was the creation of the Otay Mountain Wilderness near San Diego, the San Jacinto Mountains National Monument above Palm Springs, the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area in Oregon, and half a dozen other preserves. All of those, thankfully, live on from the Clinton days. What doesn’t live on is Babbitt’s spirit of experimentation, his willingness to push the limits of traditional land-management philosophy. Most of President Bush’s choices for interior secretary and other environmental posts have been ideologically minded mediocrities doing the bidding of mining and timber interests, essentially uninterested (or worse) in the natural world. And one result of these appointments is that when important and novel events take place, there is no one looking to see if they provide openings for real change. Hurricane Katrina, for instance, demonstrated the cronyism of the current administration and the endemic poverty of the urban South. But it also demonstrated that we need to think differently about land along the Gulf Coast. One reason for Katrina’s devastating power was that the marshes and wetlands that border New Orleans had been damaged by years of overdredging and other manipulation. In retrospect it seems increasingly clear that we need to return some land to wild nature, a kind of Katrina National Park, in order to buffer the effects of subsequent storms (especially because, thanks to global warming, the sea level is rising). But even to mention such an idea takes great courage for a politician. Babbitt had that kind of bravery, which is why he is so sorely missed. —Bill McKibben April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

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A NEW LOOK AT THE BUSINESS OF GREEN CUISINE ORGANIC, INC. BY SAMUEL FROMARTZ HARCOURT, $25.00

WHEN BUSINESS JOURNALIST and amateur chef Samuel Fromartz noticed that his local Whole Foods had become almost too crowded to bear, he couldn’t help but ruminate on the store’s success. It was driven by more than just advertising, he observed; people chose to shop there for deeper reasons. The green grocery giant “was the alternative supermarket not just for foodies but for the health conscious, for mothers concerned about what their kids were eating, for anyone who was uneasy about the conventional food system and all of its familiar brands.” Indeed, sales of organic food have increased by about 20 percent per year since 1990, spurred largely by consumers’ concerns with health and quality. But behind all the shiny, nutritious produce, Fromartz uncovers a fractured community of growers, entrepreneurs, and government officials ensnared in a battle of ideals. As he demonstrates in his engaging new book, the widespread acceptance of organics could mean an ecologically significant reduction in pesticides and other environmentally destructive farming practices. Yet it could also mean fewer family farms and questionable (though government-sanctioned) practices for processing organic foods. Ultimately, these developments could lead to the demise of one of the primary ideals of the organics market: growing wholesome, chemical-free crops on a small scale. Fromartz adeptly steers the reader through the history of organics by analyzing products like Silk soy milk, Earthbound Farm spring mix salad, and Kashi cereal that helped create markets where there were none before. He keeps the academic number-crunching to a minimum, letting the facts speak for themselves as the stories are told through the eyes of the farmers or the products’ innovators. I found myself rooting for the little guy as he clawed his way to the 36 | P L E N T Y

top, and booing those companies that had turned away from their humble roots. Silk founder Steve Demos, for example, spent decades perfecting the model for what is now the most successful organic product anywhere, only to get ousted by the company’s buyer, Dean Foods; he had to watch from the sidelines as Dean launched several new Silk products that are made with non-organic soybeans. Still, the story is not biased toward the underdog; Fromartz recognizes that a ban on prepackaged organic food, as has been proposed by some food purists, could decimate the industry. For the market to continue to flourish, he argues, large organic manufacturers and small family farms must learn to coexist. Their current contentious relationship is “like two people in a room of one hundred arguing about who has the most righteous alternative to what the other ninety-eight are doing. Both are right for different reasons and can thrive simultaneously.” And while Fromartz’s suggestions for compromise are vague at best, his main point— that the organic food market is a small and fragile system that needs room to evolve in order to survive—is well taken. —Jacquelyn Lane April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

GREEN GEAR

Spring

Forward

The days are getting longer. Make the most of them with these

FAST ON YOUR FEET $119-$169 (sector9.com) Plenty loves skateboarding— it’s a human-powered form of transportation that gets you out in the fresh air. But there’s another reason to flip for these three boards from Sector 9: They’re made from renewable bamboo. The ecoconscious company sells organic cotton T-shirts, too.

skateboards, surfboards, and gadgets.

UT O D E DECK

www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

P L E N T Y | 37

H E A LT H

GREEN GEAR

fast forward 3

SECOND ACT $42 (beckycity.com) Where do worn-out skateboards go when they retire? If they’re lucky, they end up in the hands of artist Beck Hickey, who turns them into these clever money clips.

AHEAD OF THE CURVE $60 for the board; $150 assembled (cometskateboards.com). The wind turbine and solar panel images on these skateboards are a nod to Comet’s eco-initiatives: The company makes its decks from sustainably harvested wood or renewable materials like bamboo; uses water-based low-VOC coatings; and powers half of its operations with solar energy. This summer it will start using a soy-based resin it created in collaboration with Cornell University. Comet is also working to have all of its products be Cradle to Cradle certified.

THE GRASS IS GREENER $95 (cannaboard.de) Not only is hemp a fast-growing plant, but it’s also known for its strength. That’s why German company Cannaboard chose it for its skateboard decks.

HIT THE R OA D

5 ROLL WITH IT $250 (landroller.com) LandRoller has updated the design of inline skates, angling the wheels so that larger ones can be used. The result? A more comfortable and stable ride.

38 | P L E N T Y

April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

GREEN GEAR

GET STOKED (edenproject.com) The UK’s Eden Project, an eco-educational center that’s home to the world’s largest greenhouses, has created a prototype surfboard made from balsa wood, hemp laminate, and a plant-based resin. It was designed by Eden’s sustainability director Chris Hines (shown holding the board) and has been sent on museum tours.

wave of the future

40 | P L E N T Y

BEACHY KEEN

SURF

’S UP

$470-$1,400 (oceangreen.org) This surfboard is made from hemp cloth instead of fiberglass. Ocean Green also crafts boards out of sustainably harvested balsa wood, and it continues to experiment with eco-friendly resins and other materials.

April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

GLOBAL WARMING WE CAN. The science is documented. The threat is real. But now there is a weapon you can use to help undo global warming: undoit.org. Sign the online petition supporting vital legislation, discover a few modest lifestyle changes, and more. To learn all about global warming, and how you can help undo it, go to undoit.org

GREEN GEAR

MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD $25 (inkastore.com) Forget those wasteful, disposable pensâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;this one has a lifetime warranty. The pressurized ink cartridge allows it to work underwater, upside down, and at high altitudes.

9 TUNED IN $160 (dynamism.com) Audiophiles, take note: You can get incredible sound and show off your sustainable side with these earphones, made with light yet strong bamboo.

design minded 11

CASE CLOSED $17 (heyjute.com) Canadian company Hey Jute makes these affordable iPod cases out of renewable jute. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re 100 percent biodegradable and recyclable and are made to fit fourthgeneration iPods, the new video iPods, and the iPod nano.

42 | P L E N T Y

ECO A

S E I R O S CCES

TIMELESS $600 (citizenwatch.com) A tiny solar cell stores the energy needed to power this Citizen Eco-Drive watch, even in the dark. This latest release for men is made of durable titanium; new spring styles for women are also available.

April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

2006

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GREEN GEAR

E N E R GY

KEEP TALKING $25 (istdesigns.com) This hand-powered cell-phone charger and LED light weighs only 2.5 ounces. Thirty seconds of charging gives you five minutes of light; crank the handle for two minutes, and you’ll have six minutes of talk time. The SideWinder works with a number of phone models, including Audiovox, Ericsson, Kyocera, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sanyo.

EFFICIEN

A BRIGHT IDEA $40 (zelco.com) Perfect for outdoorsy types, this lightweight lantern is made with energy-efficient LEDs, and it’s also an AM/FM radio.

smarter gadgets 14

$100 (semsons.com) This GPS works anywhere in the world and uses Bluetooth wireless technology. But its most impressive feature is the built-in solar charger.

STAY THE COURSE

MUSIC TO OUR EARS

44 | P L E N T Y

$240 (gaiam.com) Get accurate forecasts with this solar-powered weather station: It measures humidity, wind speed, barometric pressure, indoor and outdoor temperatures, and more.

(toshiba.co.jp) Toshiba’s prototype fuel-cell cartridge, powered by methanol, would serve as an alternate power source for digital music players like the iPod, providing 35-60 hours of playing time on a single charge. The real deal is expected to hit stores next year.

WEATHERPROOF

REMOTE ACCESS $25 (smarthome.com) Be a more eco-conscious couch potato with this handpowered universal remote. A full charge from the windup generator lasts seven days; the remote can power up to six different devices, including your television, DVD player, VCR, and cable box.

April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

Register now for earlybird rates! Join entrepreneurs and innovators from around the globe who share a commitment to creating an economy that preserves community character and vitality, promotes economic justice, and protects ecological health and diversity. Speakers include: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Michael Ableman, organic farmer and author of Fields of Plenty John Abrams, South Mountain Company, author of The Company We Keep Ben Cohen, True Majority, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association Gary Erickson, Clif Bar, Inc. Omar Freilla, Green Worker Cooperatives Gwendolyn Hallsmith, Global Community Initiatives Denise Hamler, Coop America Jeffrey Hollender, Seventh Generation David Korten, Yes! Magazine, author of When Corporations Rule the World Frances Moore Lappe, author of Diet for a New Planet & Democracy's Edge Greg LeRoy, Good Jobs First Michelle Long, Sustainable Connections

• • • • • • • •

Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism, Inc. Bill McKibben, journalist & author of The End of Nature & Wandering Home Stacy Mitchell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance Will Raap, Gardeners’ Supply and The Intervale Foundation Bernie Sanders, VT Independent Representative to the US Congress (invited) Michael Shuman, author of Going Local & The Small-Mart Revolution Greg Watson, Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust Judy Wicks, White Dog Cafe

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY SHANGRI-LA HOTEL AND RESORTS

46 | P L E N T Y

April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

GREEN HOSPITALITY Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eco-conscious traveler can now find hotels and resorts where managers do more than merely ask guests to turn off lights and reuse their towels. So which ones are the most innovative? From San Francisco to Hong Kong, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve rounded up hotels that are working the hardest to protect the very scenery, wildlife, and indigenous cultures that attract visitors in the first place. BY EVELYN KANTER

www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

P L E N T Y | 47

GREEN HOSPITALITY

TRAILBLAZER: The Canadian Mountain Holidays lodges in Alberta Canadian Mountain Holidays (CMH) operates a small collection of remote mountain lodges in the Bugaboos and Monashees for summer hiking and winter skiing. Stewardship is central to the entire operation: Lodge employees assist with studies of native caribou and wolf species, and the company eschews products with excess packaging, like individual packets of sugar and salt. CMH has enough clout to demand that its ski equipment suppliers change their shipping methods: Volkl wraps each pair of skis in a plastic sleeve for retail stores, but bundles five pairs to a sleeve for 48 | P L E N T Y

CMH, saving nearly 800 a year from being helicoptered in and ending up in a landfill. Hot tubs are kept warm via waste heat from generators. CMH also pays an extra five cents a gallon for fuel from Edmonton so that it can be piped to Calgary instead of brought in by truck, eliminating 240 hoursâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; worth of driving (and the emissions it produces) each year. Guest rooms are stocked with all-natural soaps and lotions produced in Canada by the Rocky Mountain Soap Company, and each lodge has a trained chef (some larger lodges have a pastry chef, too). Breakfast buffets include April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

ISLAND PARADISE: The 3 Rivers Eco Lodge in Dominica

PHOTOS LEFT PAGE TAMMY HENRATTY; FAR RIGHT JEM WINSTON

This rugged collection of mountain cabins is named for the three rivers that run through it on the way down to a spectacular black volcanic sand beach that’s a 20-minute hike away. The lodge meets Green Globe 21 standards, as do all of the hotels in Dominica, the only Caribbean island to be completely eco-certified. 3 Rivers was built on the site of a former banana plantation, and the rich earth of the surrounding rain forest supports much of the sustainably grown food served to guests. Breakfasts consist of sweet rolls and seasonal fresh fruit; Caribbean-style lunches and dinners include veggies and grilled fish. Leftover cooking oil gets turned into biofuel to run

the lodge’s single truck, reducing emissions by a whopping 93 percent, and solar energy powers the entire compound, including nighttime footpath lights. DURING YOUR STAY: Take a hike in the lush Morne Trois Pitons National Park adjacent to the lodge; swim in one of the natural river pools on the property; marvel at the 200-foot twin waterfalls of Trafalgar Falls. If you’re a foodie, visit the Macoucherie Rum factory and indulge your taste buds at La Belle Creole, a family-run restaurant in nearby Roseau that serves locally grown food. TO RESERVE A ROOM: Cabins start at $40 per night; sites for tent camping, $15. 3riversdominica.com

fresh fruit, homemade scones, and granola; dinner menus offer crab legs, venison, Alberta lamb with black cherry sauce, and wine. There’s also dessert and warm chocolate cookies for bedtime snacking. DURING YOUR STAY: Ski, hike, enjoy the scenery and camaraderie, and bring extra film or digital memory cards so you don’t forget any of it. TO RESERVE A ROOM: A typical Heli-Hiking package is three nights at $1,898, twin share. cmhski.com www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

P L E N T Y | 49

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY SHANGRI-LA HOTEL AND RESORTS

GREEN HOSPITALITY

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April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

URBAN OASIS: The Shangri-La Hotel in Vancouver, Canada When it’s completed in 2008, the swanky Shangri-La Hotel will occupy the first 15 floors of a new 60-story building that will also contain shops, restaurants, and condos. Not only will this be Vancouver’s tallest tower, it will also be the city’s most ecofriendly. With features like low-flow toilets, a green roof, and a recycling center for both residential and commercial occupants, the building was designed to achieve LEED silver certification (see the “What Those Certifications Mean” sidebar, page 57, for information on LEED and other programs). The entire building will use underground geothermal heat and steam to generate power, a strategy that’s gaining popularity for tall buildings (although backup generators will be available because of the building’s size). Shangri-La will irrigate its gardens and fill its fountains with collected storm water, and the walls of its guest rooms will be colored with low-VOC paints. Rooms will also be outfitted with key card–enabled lighting and thermostats so that people can’t leave everything on when they head out. Of course, guests might not wander much farther than the hotel’s Chi Spa, which offers holistic, Easterninfluenced treatments. DURING YOUR STAY: Visit Stanley Park, a huge green space in the middle of town. Walk the sixmile seawall, tour the rose garden, and marvel at the 40-foot-tall totem poles carved by native people and artists. TO RESERVE A ROOM: Prices have yet to be determined. shangri-la.com www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

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GREEN HOSPITALITY

THINK GLOBALLY: The Kandalama Hotel in Sri Lanka Conservation is a no-brainer at this 162room resort—after all, it’s nestled on the edge of a pristine mountain lake and is surrounded by a national wildlife refuge and two World Heritage sites (as designated by UNESCO). The first resort in Asia to be certified by Green Globe 21 and the first in the world to meet LEED standards, Kandalama uses solar power to heat its water, saving 80,000 kwh a year (roughly the amount that eight U.S. homes use annually). It’s also conserving an additional 75,000 kwh per year by replacing several hundred incandescent lightbulbs with fluorescents. Kandalama actively reforests its surroundings with a dual-purpose treeplanting program. It uses discarded coconut shells as seedling containers and has regional school children do the planting, teaching them a great deal more than the names of the trees. Rooms are equipped with recycled paper products, and the vegetables served at its coffee shop and three restaurants are locally grown. DURING YOUR STAY: The resort offers safaris by boat and nature photography classes. You’ll also want to tour the two UNESCO sites: the Golden Temple of Dambulla, a monastery in a cave, and Sigiriya, an ancient city located high atop a steep granite peak. TO RESERVE A ROOM: Rates start at $220 per night, double occupancy. aitkenspencehotels.com 52 | P L E N T Y

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PHOTOS COURTESY AITKEN SPENCE HOTELS

www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

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GREEN HOSPITALITY

Quite literally a breath of fresh air in this pedestrian-filled and exhaust-choked city, the Grand Stanford started with the “six Rs”— recycle, repair, reuse, refill, replace, reduce— for a recent renovation. The hotel, one of the first to introduce the ISO 14001 environmental management standard to Hong Kong, has a “green committee” of employees who seek out new eco-technologies and ensure that standards stay high. A high-tech laundry system conserves resources by electronically measuring water and detergent levels for specific items (like linens, towels, and uniforms), and a filtration system in the swimming pool 54 | P L E N T Y

reduces chlorine pollution by up to 25 percent. The Grand Stanford’s sleek new $12 million green glass facade serves two purposes: It saves energy through increased insulation and serves as a striking architectural respite to neon-cluttered Kowloon. As for dining, the hotel cooks with seasonal ingredients from small farms and artisans whenever possible. The Grand Stanford’s Australian and Italian chefs tap sources from their home countries for sustainably raised meats and other foods, and chef Leung Fai Hung of Hoi King Heen, the hotel’s Cantonese restaurant, shops regularly at the local markets.

DURING YOUR STAY: Sure, you could visit the Hong Kong Museum of Art or drink in the view from the top of Victoria Peak (take the tram), but Hong Kong is really about shopping and eating. Find bargains in the Mong Kok district, where shops are open until 11 p.m. Sample everything from Spanish tapas to Caribbean curries in one of the trendy restaurants along Knutsford Terrace. TO RESERVE A ROOM: Rates start at about $320 per night, double occupancy. www.hongkong.intercontinental.com April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

PHOTOGRAPHS THIS PAGE COURTESY INTERCONTINENTAL GRAND STANFORD HONG KONG

WASTE NOT: The InterContinental Grand Stanford in Hong Kong

PARK PRESERVER: The Zion Lodge in Utah Xanterra operates hotels, lodges, and campsites in national parks and state parks, but even if their contracts didn’t require eco-smarts, the view outside lodge windows would inspire it. At the Zion Lodge in Utah’s red-rock Zion National Park, an extensive recycling program has reduced solid waste by approximately half since 2000. The hotel also installed low-flow fixtures and reduced irrigation of landscaped areas; water usage is now down by 40 percent. Half of Zion’s electricity is wind generated; the hotel also installed solar panels and composts about 50,000 pounds of food annually. Zion serves organic, fair-trade coffee; environmentally responsible fish; organic wine; and whenever possible, locally grown produce and sustainably raised meats. Guest rooms include recycling bins and eco-friendly soaps in bulk dispensers but offer few other amenities, so pack your toothbrush and favorite organic shampoo. At press time, the lodge was completing the retrofitting of six suites to make them completely sustainable—from the bamboo flooring to the organic sheets. DURING YOUR STAY: Take advantage of the hotel’s “lodging and learning” programs: guided day tours done in partnership with the Zion Canyon Field Institute (ideal for families). Hike up to Angel’s Landing, a narrow spine of rock that rises 1,500 feet over the valley floor, for a view that stretches to infinity. Sit on the outdoor terrace at Pentimento, a restaurant in Springdale located just outside the park entrance, and watch the sunset make the towering rocks glow copper. Then, pop into the adjoining gallery of Ansel Adams–style photos snapped by a local artist. TO RESERVE A ROOM: Rates start at $132 per night, double occupancy. zionlodge.com www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

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GREEN HOSPITALITY

The moment you enter the lobby, you know San Francisco’s Hotel Triton is different: A perpetual pop soundtrack plays, and the Vegas-meets-Venice colors and decor give it the feel of an LSD trip. But the most distinct thing about this financial-district locale is less obvious. In 2004 California’s EPA designated the 140-room property the state’s first green hotel, and a year later the Triton—founded in 1991 as part of the Kimpton empire of hotels and restaurants— became the flagship for the company’s new EarthCare program. Today guests can find 56 | P L E N T Y

organic coffee and tea in the lobby each morning, and the 24 rooms on the Triton’s “eco-floor” have organic cotton linens, air purifiers, recycling bins, recycled-paper products, and low-flow bathroom fixtures. More eco-amenities are coming by year’s end, including green furniture, carpeting, paint, and even bathrobes. Throughout the hotel, low-wattage bulbs help conserve energy, and the housekeeping department uses nonchemical cleaners. In addition, the Triton’s celebrity-designed eco-suites provide green glamour (Woody Harrelson’s

yoga-themed oasis is outfitted with bamboo flooring, sustainable hardwood furniture, and plenty of hemp—from the shower curtain to the drapes). The adjacent Café de la Presse, which also handles the hotel’s room service, actively participates in San Francisco’s aggressive composting and recycling programs, using takeout packaging that’s recyclable and serving antibiotic-free meats, organic or fair-trade tea and coffee, and sustainably farmed local produce. —Andrew Sessa April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

PHOTOS COURTESY KIMPTON HOTELS

GREEN GLAMOUR: The Hotel Triton in San Francisco

WHAT THOSE CERTIFICATIONS MEAN

COMPANY’S COMING: The Orchard Garden Hotel is scheduled to open this summer in San Francisco (it will be just down the hill from its sister hotel, the Orchard Hotel). It’s aiming to be the first LEED-certified hotel in the U.S. Amenities will include Aveda grooming products and a rooftop terrace. theorchardhotel.com. —E.K.

DURING YOUR STAY: San Francisco’s green business program has designated two of the city’s eateries as “green” restaurants: Jardinière (jardiniere.com) and Warming Hut (415-5613040). Eco-foodies should also wander into the Ferry Building (ferrybuildingmarketplace.com), which houses acclaimed sustainable restaurants, organic food shops, and a farmers’ market on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The BART and MUNI mass transportation lines get you around the city in streetcars, buses, and trains. San Francisco Bay Whale Watching (sfbaywhalewatching.com) arranges eco-tours. TO RESERVE A ROOM: Rates start at $169 a night. hoteltriton.com www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

LEED: The LEED Green Building Rating System is a voluntary program spearheaded by the U.S. Green Building Council, a coalition of more than 6,000 architects, builders, universities, government agencies, corporations, and nonprofits that promotes the construction of environmentally responsible, healthy, profitable buildings. usgbc.org GREEN GLOBE 21: Based in Australia, this international sustainable tourism organization grew out of the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. To stay on its list, participants must meet stringent certification requirements and pass annual assessment reviews. greenglobe21.com CARIBBEAN ALLIANCE FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM (CAST): This is a subsidiary of the Caribbean Hotel Association, which certifies member hotels for environmental efforts using Green Globe 21 and other standards. Certified hotels are listed alphabetically by island and/or country at cha-cast.com/ GreenGlobeProperties.htm INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR STANDARDIZATION (ISO): This Genevabased group examines everything from pencils to construction. ISO 14001 is an environmental standard awarded to large buildings, including hotels, that have implemented green policies, products, activities, and services. iso.org —E.K.

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PLNE TY MAN VS. NATURE

Is human nature at odds with the natural world, or can we learn to coexist? In the pages that follow, you’ll meet eco-visionaries who are dreaming up ways to harness the beauty and utility of nature without damaging it. In what could someday be a model for greener urban development, eco-designer William McDonough has been commissioned by the government of China to develop desirable lowimpact housing for 400 million rural farmers; the country hopes to encourage them to move into cities by 2030. On a smaller scale, one Atlanta businessman is building a model eco-village in the stillpristine Chattahoochee Hill Country of Georgia in the hopes of combating urban sprawl; and a renaissance man is helping celebrities and everyday folks alike become one with the environment by building their dream treehouses. You’ll also learn how plants and animals serve to inspire human innovation in the blooming field of biomimicry. And finally, the battle of the sexes continues: Political editor Richard Bradley explores differences in how men and women view nature—and suggests how greenies can exploit this gender divide to further the environmental movement.

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WHICH IS THE

GREENER GENDER? BY RICHARD BRADLEY

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We disagree about pro football, Schwarzenegger movies, and Sex and the City. So why should men and women feel the same way about the environment? The answer is, we don’t. And that might not be so bad. NOT LONG BEFORE THE NOVEMBER 2002 CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS, Republican pollster Frank Luntz, a well-connected Washington insider, distributed a lengthy memo to GOP officials arguing that the party risked losing female voters because of the way it spoke about the environment. When it came to the natural world, Republicans sounded callous and clinical, Luntz argued. He suggested that Republicans should steer clear of cold economic language and instead stress their desire to “preserve and protect” nature. Otherwise, he warned, “our suburban female base could abandon us.” What Luntz didn’t explain was why women in particular were so turned off by the desire of the GOP in general to roll back environmental regulations. He simply took it for granted: Women care more about the environment than men do. And he’s hardly the only person to think so. A 2003 survey commissioned by Rachel’s Network, a women’s conservation group named after environmentalist Rachel Carson, found significant differences between American women and men on the environment. Among them are that women are more likely than men to support pro-environmental government spending; women are less sympathetic to business than men are when it comes to environmental regulation; and women are more concerned than men are about environmental problems that create health and safety risks, particularly where children are involved. The Rachel’s Network survey is backed up by decades of polling on environmental issues. According to Elizabeth Blum, an environmental historian at Alabama’s Troy State University, polls regularly show “women, and often women with children, express more interest in environmental issues, particularly local ones, than [do] men.” Yet these polls haven’t led to a thorough understanding of the relationship between gender and environmental attitudes because, as Blum wrote in a 2001 paper on the historiography of women and the environment, “most environmental history has centered on elite male concerns” like the role of men in national environmental politics. Are women really greener than men? And if so, why? Questions about gender and the environment may be relatively recent issues in the field, but they’re important. After all, two of the most powerful sectors of American society—big business and the Republican Party—are male dominated. Generally speaking, they’re also hostile to the environment, or at least to the environmental movement. Is there something about nature and/or environmentalism that alienates many men? And if so, should the environmental movement change to address that disconnect—or is it men who need to change?

ILLUSTRATION BY ZED FOR PLENTY MAGAZINE

THE HOT BUTTON OF SEX The relationship between gender and environmental philosophy is a touchy subject within the green community, one that many environmentalists would just as soon avoid. After all, any discussion of gender-centric attitudes toward the environment has the potential to degrade into stereotype-laden, Mars-and-Venus-style clichés about the differences between men and women. When I sent an e-mail requesting an interview to one female environmental consultant who has worked for decades on gender issues, I received the following response: “If your article is premised on gender determinism—i.e., women are a homogeneous class, men are a homogeneous class, and gender trumps other social variables in determining attitudes toward www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

environmentalism . . . then I’ll take a pass.” Fair enough. Making the matter even more delicate, much of the research into male and female attitudes toward the environment actually reinforces such stereotypes: Men dominate the public arena (business, politics, law, science, national environmental groups), while women rule the domestic sphere. Most of these studies “assert that society conditions men toward an economic provider role, which demands and encourages competition and rationality as well as domination over nature,” writes Blum. “These studies show that women, on the other hand, lean toward a more nurturing, emotional role as mother”—and as a result, they take a greater interest in the connection between the environment and health, particularly children’s and reproductive health. As Blum points out, studies on attitudes toward the environment are often riddled with methodological flaws and tend to imply biological explanations for what may simply be, well, man-made phenomena. But these studies do capture demographic snapshots that may help explain the environmental gender gap. And though the origin of these differences—nature versus nurture—can be endlessly debated, simply knowing about and being able to discuss them can help the environmental movement make progress in areas that are now hostile territory. For instance, big-picture studies consistently suggest a gender divide when it comes to consuming natural resources. International research in particular emphasizes that men see themselves as providers who have to make money off the environment—fishing, mining, hunting, farming. Men’s daily need to monetarize nature in order to support their families makes them less likely to prioritize long-term environmental problems, particularly in developing nations. Around the world, says Roger-Mark de Souza, director of the population, health, and environment program at the Population Reference Bureau, “women tend to be more the custodians of the environment than men do, and men tend to be the extractors and consumers of the environment.” By contrast, women seem to have a stronger bond with the environment at home. Though the statistics are gradually changing, women are still far more involved in creating and running households than men are. The number of American women in the workforce has been steadily growing in past decades, to around 60 percent, but women still dominate the ranks of full-time homemakers. And they still spend about thrice as much time with children than men do, according to a recent Penn State study. They also do more of the cooking and cleaning: According to a 2004 survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 19 percent of men reported regularly doing housework like cleaning or doing laundry, compared with 54 percent of women. Thirty-five percent of men did food preparation or cleanup versus 66 percent of women. Women also make most household purchasing decisions. According to the National Mail Order Association, female consumers “buy or influence the purchase of 85 percent of all the products” sold in the United States. This purchasing power helps explain why advertising for sustainable foods and eco-friendly cleaning products is almost invariably targeted at women. Women are more likely than men to buy organic milk, recycle cans and bottles, turn off the lights, lower the heat, and so on. Another traditional female duty, caring for children, may make women more attuned to environment-related health issues than men P L E N T Y | 61

WHICH IS THE GREENER

GENDER?

are. When you feed your child, you worry about allergies and food poisoning. When you play with your child outdoors, you worry about asthma and pollution. “That’s one reason why environmental justice movements are typically driven by women,” and often women of color, explains Monica Casper, a professor of women’s studies at Vanderbilt University. “Women do it because of [the threats to] their kids and their families.” Women are also far more attentive to their reproductive health than men are, and environmental factors play a significant role in fetal development. “The fetus really is a canary in a coal mine, so vulnerable to environmental toxins,” Casper says. In fact, according to the Rachel’s Network survey, women are so prevalent in grassroots movements that their critics often try to undermine them by portraying them as “irrational housewives” who don’t care about the plight of working men. Their concern for the family is framed as “unscientific” and “emotional”—even when science is on their side, as was the case with Lois Gibbs, the housewife who in 1978 helped found the Love Canal Homeowners Association. But there’s another reason why big business and its political allies often fight back against these women’s stories: They constitute powerful pro-environmental narratives. The eco-heroine has inspired popular movies such as Gorillas in the Mist, Silkwood, and, above all, Erin Brockovich, the story of a single mom who becomes an environmental crusader. As GOP pollster Luntz warned in his memo to Republican officials, “the popular movie ‘Erin Brockovich’ presented a courageous woman fighting against an impersonal corporation that poisoned the public with cancerous chemicals with impunity.” Luntz insisted that investigative journalists later “conclusively demonstrated that the real-life Erin Brockovich’s legal case was full of holes.” In spite of this debunking, he lamented, “the public had it’s [sic] emotional story, and no number of exposés will ever come close to matching the power of that story.” Again, women’s stories were emotional, and although effective, their emotion made them—at least in men’s eyes—untrustworthy. Luntz was suggesting that environmentalism itself had become, somehow, “feminized,” and for Republican officeholders, the vast majority of whom are men, that was an ominous event.

TEDDY VS. RACHEL The bifurcation of male and female attitudes toward the environment—and environmentalism—did not start with Julia Roberts in a push-up bra, of course. But in this country, you could probably date the polarization back to two great figures of the 20th century: Teddy Roosevelt and Rachel Carson. If, in the American imagination, environmentalism has come to have different meanings for men and women, it is Roosevelt and Carson who are most responsible. Teddy Roosevelt was not what you’d call a natural outdoorsman. In his youth he was slight, asthmatic, and considered somewhat effete. “Roosevelt was terribly anxious about his own masculinity,” argues Stephen Ducat, a professor of psychology at New College of California and the author of The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars, and the Politics of Anxious Masculinity. As a young man, Ducat says, Roosevelt “was often derided as being an effeminate aristocrat, and a critic once described him as ‘a man given to sucking the knob of an ivory cane,’” a phrase whose implication was less than subtle. And so the ambitious Roosevelt transformed himself—made himself more “masculine”—by conquering the great outdoors. He bought land in South Dakota and started referring to himself as the “cowboy of the Dakotas.” Later, fighting in the Spanish-American War, he was a Rough Rider. As president, he led his cabinet on chal62 | P L E N T Y

lenging hikes in Rock Creek Park, and when he wasn’t in office, he traveled to Brazil to navigate the Amazon and to Africa to hunt big game. “The joke I love to tell is that Teddy Roosevelt really loved animals—he really loved to shoot them,” says Steven Hayward, an environmental scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank. Roosevelt was a hugely charismatic figure whose example resonated in popular culture, defining one thread of American environmentalism: The conservationist movement. For Roosevelt and his descendants, nature did not exist to be stared at and admired, but to serve as a stage for human adventure. Manly adventure. The turn of the 20th century saw the emergence of a “huge conservation movement led by none other than the president of the United States,” says Ithaca College environmental historian Michael B. Smith. “But there was still a sense that [the resources being conserved] were principally there for future human use. It’s very utilitarian.” Roosevelt’s legacy informs that small surviving sector of the modern Republican Party that can be considered pro-environment, including activist groups like Republicans for Environmental Protection or hunting organizations like Ducks Unlimited, a national group that tries to preserve wetlands in order to facilitate duck hunting. Half a century later, journalist Rachel Carson put a distinctly female spin on environmentalism with her landmark book Silent Spring. Carson’s 1962 investigation of chemicals’ impact on the American environment proved hugely influential, of course, creating a national debate and underpinning subsequent environmental legislation. But the book’s—yes—emotional writing style and portrayal of an America bereft of nature had a particular resonance among women, as evidenced by such female environmental groups as Rachel’s Network. “Rachel Carson really struck a chord with ’50s suburban housewives who had imagined that their nice green suburban world was safe and then suddenly discovered that it was riddled with poison,” says Smith. Male critics from the chemical industry and elsewhere struck back by insisting that Carson’s passion invalidated her science. Writing in the journal Feminist Studies, Smith argued that “the prevailing attitude among many of Carson’s critics was that she was an uninformed woman who was speaking of that which she knew not.” Time magazine called Silent Spring “hysterically emphatic” and “an emotional outburst.” But despite the outraged howls of unsettled men, Silent Spring led to something of a heyday for environmentalism, a time when both Democrats and Republicans, men and women, could endorse its goals. As Hayward points out, “the environmentalism of the 1960s and early 1970s was remarkably nonpartisan.” Archconservative Barry Goldwater was a member of the Sierra Club, Richard Nixon shepherded the EPA into existence, and California governor Ronald Reagan compiled a surprisingly positive environmental record—surprising to those who remember his antienvironmental rhetoric and policies while he was president. “The environment was seen as the new consensus domestic policy issue around which the nation could move forward in a bipartisan fashion after the train wreck of social policy in the 1960s,” says Hayward.

THE BACKLASH AGAINST ECOFEMINISM What has changed since then? Hayward argues that the more popular environmentalism became with the left, the more conservatives came to regard it with distaste—especially because liberals’ approach to saving the environment invariably entailed government regulation. And at least part of the left didn’t simply adopt environApril/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

If environmentalism was not only a repudiation of men but a rebellion against capitalism, it’s not hard to see why male conservatives felt threatened by it, or stopped taking it seriously, or SIMPLY REJECTED IT ALTOGETHER.

mentalism in a way that alienated conservatives; it adopted environmentalism in a way that alienated men by claiming that women had a special relationship to the environment. That claim was made in an intellectual and political movement, also partly inspired by Rachel Carson, that came to be known as ecofeminism. Emerging from the fusion of women’s lib and the new environmental movement, many ecofeminists argued that women have a closer connection to nature than men do and are therefore more qualified to resolve environmental problems than men are. Ecofeminism is a messy ideology, hard to define, with lots of different strands and offshoots. But perhaps the most prominent ecofeminist, scholar Carolyn Merchant, argues that “the identification of women with nature has been very close in most of the history of western culture, and in other cultures,” up until the “masculine” scientific revolution promoted a more mechanistic view of the world, as she put it in a 2002 interview with California Monthly magazine. Other ecofeminists, including writers such as Starhawk and Barbara Epstein, argued that it wasn’t that nature had been constructed as feminine; nature is feminine. Both nature and women, they said, share certain supposedly female characteristics: They are nurturing, cooperative, and interdependent. But a male patriarchy had dominated nature just as it dominated women, and the resulting phallocentric capitalism had to be jettisoned and replaced by a more “feminine” social structure. Ecofeminism lives on in the work and words of activists such as Julia “Butterfly” Hill, who lived in an old-growth redwood for 738 days in order to prevent it from being chopped down. Hill called the tree Luna. As her website notes, “She learned to stand strong as helicopters buzzed the tree, as loggers harassed her, as corporate might was marshaled against her and Luna. In the rain, in the dark, in the cold, in the wind, Julia wielded a cell phone more powerful than any machinery the lumber giants could throw at her and she stood tall, hand to branch with Luna.” It’s Julia and Luna against the big, bad, macho world. If environmentalism was not only a repudiation of men but also a rebellion against capitalism, it’s not hard to see why male conservatives felt threatened by it, or stopped taking it seriously, or simply rejected it altogether. And indeed, says Hayward, “starting in about the mid-1970s, most conservatives came to regard environmentalism as a central and important enthusiasm of the left.” Underneath the shift also lay a profound economic and cultural insecurity. American men were being challenged in ways that they had never before confronted. Their social power was under attack, and certainly in the 1970s their economic power seemed on the wane. Consequently, they felt threatened by environmentalism, a heavily female movement that seemed to strike at men’s ability to earn a living. The battle lines were drawn. And one of the strategies conservatives used to fight back was to portray environmentalists as female— to paint them as effete and effeminate, just as, ironically, Teddy Roosevelt’s early critics had done to him. Ron Marlenee, a former Republican congressman from Montana, used to call environmentalwww.plentymag.com April/May 2006

ists “prairie fairies.” Antiregulation, prodevelopment conservatives have stigmatized Democrats from Jimmy Carter to Al Gore to John Kerry as “tree huggers,” a term by which the action of hugging is implicitly sensitive, weak, and feminine. Kerry was “French,” which made him both anti-American and, ostensibly, a bit of a sissy. Gore was, like Roosevelt, the Harvard aristocrat, with all that was implied by that. Carter was the man who wore cardigans, urged Americans to turn down their thermostats, and put solar panels on the roof of the White House. Gender-related division in the environmental movement may have in part been the result of ecofeminist influence, but the Republican Party has seized that division and exploited it with such political efficacy that in national political campaigns it’s now almost as awkward to proclaim oneself an environmentalist as it is to self-identify as a liberal.

A BIPARTISAN SOLUTION? And that, of course, is a big problem for the environmental movement, which needs bipartisan support to do more than fight a rearguard battle, especially when Republican men control the federal government and many state governments. But the division also presents an opportunity. If environmentalists can reframe the gender debate by emphasizing that being pro-environment is manly, there’s enormous potential for political bridge-building. What could be more classically masculine than wanting to protect your family from external threats? To safeguard your wife’s body from toxins that could cause a miscarriage or protect your children from chemicals in their food? What is more masculine than wanting to defend your progeny by leaving a cleaner, healthier world for your children and grandchildren? “Many men keep a gun in the home to protect their family from burglars,” says Smith. “Why shouldn’t they want to protect their families from all the other threats that can come in through an open window?” The idea of men as protectors may be a stereotype, but it’s one that the environmental movement can exploit. Environmentalists need to reach out to the best impulse of both men and women: their desire to protect their loved ones. For now the arguments may be slightly different for each gender. Men must accept that in one way or another, hurting the environment hurts their families, while preserving it might actually be a financial boon. There’s money to be made off eco-tourism and natural products, as well as the careful preservation and utilization of natural resources. In these ways the environmental movement can appeal to the ostensibly business-oriented male psyche. For their part, women might have to accept that men don’t much appreciate language that frames them as rapists of nature while claiming that women have a special, exclusionary bond with the planet. There’s nothing wrong with emotion, passion, even love when talking about the environment. But women don’t have a monopoly on those qualities. And in time, thanks to the emphasis on family and the deterioration of the stereotypical roles that men and women play in society, the gender distinctions will blur, and environmentalism might be seen not as a male or female pursuit but as a universal one. ■ P L E N T Y | 63

THE LOTUS, AN AQUATIC PLANT COMMON IN MUCH OF ASIA, has a problem. Like all plants, it must use light to photosynthesize, drawing on the energy of the sun to produce the sugar on which it feeds. But it also lives in a muddy environment, so keeping its leaves clean—and able to perform their photosynthetic magic—would seem impossible. To cope, the lotus evolved. Its leaves are covered with tiny ridges that cause raindrops to bead up in nearly perfect spheres instead of trickling all over and mixing with dirt particles to form mud. The beads simply roll off the leaves, collecting the dirt particles and whisking them away. The lotus stays clean and thrives. About a decade ago, German engineers at Sto Corp., a maker of paints and coatings, found a way to duplicate the lotus’s self-cleaning properties for industrial applications. They created a paint that dries to a texture that mimics the surface of a lotus leaf, wicking away water. The paint, called Lotusan, hit the market in the United States last year. Buildings painted with Lotusan stay cleaner longer and resist the effects of mold and mildew. The paint, in effect, copies nature. And it’s only one example of how the growing field of biomimicry—the study and replication of designs found in the natural world—could change our everyday experiences. Scientists hope that through biomimicry we will make better use of resources, reduce waste and pollution in manufacturing, and develop products that simply work better. Most scientists credit the Swiss inventor George de Mestral with the development of biomimicry in 1948. Fed up with the burs that snagged his clothing and his dog’s fur when the two went for walks, de Mestral decided to examine the prickly plants under a microscope. He discovered that each bur was covered with tiny hooks that grabbed anything that had a loop, like fiber or human hair. De Mestral realized he could create a fabric fastener that acted like the burs. The result: Velcro, the clingy stuff with a million uses. But the notion that we can learn from nature how to engineer a wide variety of products didn’t take hold until relatively recently. One of the pioneers of modern biomimicry is Janine Benyus, a 47-yearold biologist and nature writer based in Montana. Through her research into ecosystems, she had already learned to appreciate how beautifully nature adapts plants and animals to a particular environment. In the early 1990s, Benyus began to notice a growing number of scientific papers focusing on how natural processes or designs might be adapted to human use. “I started to ask myself, ‘What might we learn from these organisms if we were to mimic them?’” A box into which she tossed relevant clippings soon filled, followed by another box, and finally a filing cabinet. “Then,” she says, “I knew I had a book.” Her 1997 release, Biomimicry: Innovation by Nature (William Morrow), quickly became something of a bible for the new movement. Benyus believes that biomimicry could change the way we see the world around us. In the past, she says, people tended to view the planet as a warehouse full of the things we need, like oil, seafood, timber, and gold. But rather than just taking what we need from the earth, we can learn, through biomimicry, to view the world as a source of ideas. “It’s a way to seek sustainable solutions to problems by asking advice from the organisms and ecosystems that have had up to 3.8 billion years to grapple with and solve those same problems,” Benyus says. Nature can show us how to create new chemical processes, material- and energy-efficient structures, and sustainable businesses and communities, she adds. 64 | P L E N T Y

April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD Architects, inventors, and even paint and carpet manufacturers are looking to nature for design inspiration.

BY DOUGLAS GANTENBEIN

www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

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STRUCTURAL COLOR: Pigment is usually the only word in industrial color production. The trouble is, creating pigment on a large scale is not an environmentally sound process. Just the names of the chemicals used in the pigmentation process scream “unsustainable industry”: Cadmium, chromium, selenium. But there is another way to create color. The peacock achieves its bright plumage not through pigment but instead through the positioning of a series of transparent layers in its feathers. When put together properly, these layers absorb certain spectrums of light, thus creating colors that have been shown to be up to four times brighter than colors achieved through pigmentation. In 2004, two groups of Japanese scientists, one from Osaka University and the other from the University of Hyogo, won top honors in L’Oreal’s annual Art & Science Color Prize for their work in reproducing the mysterious shimmering blue color of the South American Morpho butterfly. While the beauty industry is especially interested in structural color, anti-counterfeiting experts are also exploring the field with hopes in creating unreproducible watermarks on currency.

THE LOGARITHMIC SPIRAL: Mathematicians have long been obsessed with this naturally occurring feature, but it’s taken a while for designers to understand the practical benefits of using the spiral in their products. The spiral is readily seen in seashells, the arms of tropical hurricanes and the calculated circling of a hawk approaching its prey. Pax Scientific has taken the spiral and applied it to fans, turbines, and propellers. The result is a product that is quieter (by 75%) and more energy efficient (50%) than conventional fans and turbines. THE ECONOMY WEB: New diagrams of thriving ecosystems, from coral reefs to stable wetlands, detail densely packed, 3-D structures. In a coral reef, a piece of organic matter dropped onto the surface will not be ignored—it will be consumed and utilized. Nothing gets through the web. Biomimicry enthusiasts are trying to get us to look at the economy as a similarly themed web, albeit one in need of serious repair. Our economy right now allows for waste, and even calculates it in, hemorrhaging money. Benyus wants us to consider looking at the economy the way we view an ecosystem. It’s a common-sense approach

A growing number of scientists are proving Benyus right. Last year, for example, a team of researchers at West Chester University in Pennsylvania who were studying the flippers of humpback whales found that tubercles, small bumps on the fins, reduce drag and improve lift on the flippers. If aviation engineers took a tip from the whales, they could design tubercle-dotted airplane wings that would allow for speedier and more fuel-efficient flights. Helicopter rotors and ship rudders might also benefit from these bumps. There’s also the lowly (albeit tasty) mussel. Recently, Oregon State University scientist Kaichang Li, a specialist in wood chemistry and adhesives, was walking along the Oregon coast and began to wonder how mussels were able to cling so tenaciously to rocks even as they were pounded by the surf. “Thinking about it, I didn’t know of any other type of adhesive that could work so well underwater and withstand so much force,” he says. That mussel moment led Li and his research group to examine the mollusk’s chemistry and develop new wood adhesives made with soy protein. The adhesives are so strong that they can endure being boiled for several hours without losing strength, something even the best “marinegrade” formaldehyde-based plywood glues can’t manage. And because they’re made with a nontoxic ingredient that’s cheap and abundant in the U.S., Li’s adhesives could have an edge in a market that brings in $2 billion a year. Commercial success, says Benyus, will largely determine whether biomimicry becomes a world-changing force or simply an interesting diversion for a few do-good researchers. “Biomimicry needs to result in products that perform better, have an environmental win, and are cheaper to produce [than existing ones],” she says. “Then the market will respond to and accept them.” That success has come to David Oakey, a designer for the flooring 66 | P L E N T Y

that emphasizes recycling, salvage, and sustainable practices. If less gets through the economy web, fewer businesses fail, and fewer people go hungry. TAML: Terry Collins, the Thomas Lord Professor of Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University, and his team have developed a compound that allows washing machines to use less water, deactivates dangerous bacteria like anthrax, kills insects, and whitens wood pulp without the use of chlorine. The trick is that oxidation is a huge part of the industrial process, but it traditionally requires the use of elements that wreak havoc on the environment. However, oxidation occurs in nature constantly without the use of harmful chemicals. Emulating nature, Collins and his team created a compound that uses the harmless household favorite, hydrogen peroxide, to do its dirty work. TAML has been patented and is being tested for use in a variety of fields and household and industrial processes. —Jason Sacher For updates on the latest projects, visit Benyus’s official biomimicry Web site, biomimicry.net.

and upholstery manufacturer Interface Inc. Oakey used lessons from Benyus’s book in his quest to manufacture a line of eco-friendly modular carpet squares for use mainly in office buildings. “I started to wonder what nature could teach me about carpet squares,” Oakey says. “There is no such thing as uniformity or sameness in nature. So if nature designed carpet squares, one wouldn’t be the same as any other.” In 2000 Oakey introduced a line of squares called Entropy. The weaving machines used for Entropy allow for small imperfections in the material that would have caused the rejection of some squares in Interface’s other lines. Because no squares are deemed “defective” and thrown out, the manufacturing process generates almost no waste. The concept has proven to be wildly popular with customers: Entropy and its latest offshoot, the i2 collection, are Interface’s best-selling modular carpets. Despite these commercial achievements, biomimicry still has billions of years’ worth of natural processes to tackle. For instance, robotics specialist Roger Quinn at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland notes that agile, efficient robots could be built using insects as models. But bugs are capable of such complicated movement that duplicating them remains a huge task. “If we could just imitate an insect brain, it would be a revolution,” Quinn says. On a smaller scale, however, Benyus observes that biomimicry can change not only the way people design or make things but also the designers themselves, prodding them to view the world in a different way. Oakey certainly exemplifies that turnaround. “For 25 years of my life, the model for my design process was uniformity—making those carpet squares look like a wall-to-wall carpet,” he says. “But the word ‘perfect’ is now something I use in a completely different way. Perfection to me now is to accept variations that we used to think of as ‘defects.’” ■ April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

PHOTO BY JIM FRANK

HERE ARE SOME OF THE EMERGING INNOVATIONS THAT ARE GETTING CONSUMERS AND COMPANY EXECS EQUALLY EXCITED

“I started to wonder what nature could teach me about carpet squares. There is no such thing as uniformity or sameness in nature. So if nature designed carpet squares, one wouldn’t be the same as any other.”

www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

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BRANCHING

OUT RODERICK ROMERO has a boyish face and a sideways grin. He wears his hair in reddish-brown braids that fall to his waist (it was last cut in 1990, when he took a Swiss army knife to it in the middle of a concert he was performing with his band, Sky Cries Mary). His strong forearms are covered in tattoos of voodoo and Santeria symbols and illustrations from the Indian writer Rabindranath Tagore’s firefly poems. While he has been many things—rock star, yogi, premed student, aspiring tennis pro—his current incarnation may be the most unlikely: He is a tree house designer, and his growing list of clients includes Sting, Donna Karan, and Julianne Moore. This new career began in 1998, when a friend asked him to contribute an art piece to an outdoor exhibition she was curating in Bald Hills, Washington. “I told her I would build this big nest,” Romero says, “and you could sleep in it.” He had no idea he would tap into a national fascination with tree houses. For the next nine months, Romero was firmly steeped in the world of his nest. Like a bird, he gathered fallen twigs and reeds and vines from nearby trees and then had to figure out how to build something structurally sound, sustained at 30 feet off the ground. “It was coming straight out of the ether,” he says. “I had no idea what I was doing. It was purely conceptual, but it had to be engineered well. It had to be safe.” The result was a creation that looks sort of like a bearded bungalow perched among the branches of a giant leaf maple. When his brother saw the nest, he requested one, so Romero built him the Eagle House, a pine-and-cedar trapezoid that straddles four trees in the Cascade Mountains. A few months later, Romero was visiting Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, at their home in Tuscany (Romero knows them through the yoga world). He told them about his first two tree houses, at which point Trudie asked, “Why don’t you build us a tree house?” And so came tree house No. 3, followed 68 | P L E N T Y

PHOTOGRAPHS BOTH PAGES BY MANUEL VECCHINA

A ROCK STAR YOGI DISCOVERS THE ART OF BUILDING TREE HOUSES—AND HAS CELEBRITIES LINING UP TO PLACE ORDERS. BY LISA SELIN DAVIS

SKY HIGH: Sting and Trudie Styler’s Casa del Sole di Mezzanotte offers ample room to sunbathe (above) and features Romero’s handcrafted details (left and right).

by two commissioned by Donna Karan, who had stopped by Sting and Trudie’s place and heard about their tree house plans. After Julianne Moore read about one of Romero’s projects, she ordered one, too: a nest in her Greenwich Village backyard. The celebs use the structures for different purposes: Moore’s is for her children; Karan set up one of hers for yoga; and Sting and Trudie threw a party in theirs but now use it as a quiet retreat (Sting sometimes takes his guitar up there).

ith the publication of Pete Nelson’s book Treehouses: The Art and Craft of Living Out on a Limb (Houghton Mifflin) in 1994, tree house enthusiasts—many of whom are not rich and famous—discovered they were not alone, and the subculture started growing. There are now thousands of tree house books and Web sites, and many tree house–building companies (including Daniels Wood Land, which hollows out giant felled trees and then builds houses atop the logs—so even if you don’t have a tree, you can still have a tree house). Nelson’s TreeHouse Workshop, a company with which Romero often works, builds tree houses with amenities ranging from electricity to indoor plumbing; one client had a hot tub installed. There are tree house bed-and-breakfasts and hotels (see “Vacation in a Tree”). A couple in Tennessee homeschools their children in their very own educational tree house called Grand Oaks Academy. Romero views his tree houses as both sculptures and structures, and P L E N T Y | 69

BRANCHING

OUT

“IT’S NOT AN ARTIFACT OR ART PIECE THAT SITS ON THE MANTLE...IT’S A LIVING SCULPTURE...EVENTUALLY, IT COULD BE DESTROYED.”

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he devotes himself entirely to them, living and sleeping in them as he works. “I can’t just start at 9 and shut off at 5,” he says. “I go until I can’t really move much anymore.” He adds, “you could tweak a tree house forever, but at a certain point you give it over to a family.” When he does, what he delivers to them is a spiritual retreat, high off the ground, where they can commune with nature and reconnect with their childhoods. Indeed, when Romero talks about his tree houses, he looks like an excited child, face flushing, words tumbling quickly from his mouth. “It’s such an adventure, getting these 30-foot beams up, getting 900 pounds 40 feet up in the air,” he says. “I’m always thinking, ‘How are you going to do this?’ It’s like a magic trick.” As for his celebrity clients, Romero is unimpressed by their status. He talks about each of them as being “so nice and so generous,” as if unaware that they live in a separate realm from the rest of us. “No one scares or intimidates me,” he says. “If I’m around someone so-called very famous, it’s like, whatever—they’re just another person, just like me.” And despite the fact that these folks can pay $40 for a bottle of shampoo, Romero doesn’t inflate prices to match their financial capabilities. He’s cagey about the subject of fees, as if embarrassed that money has to be part of the process at all, but concedes that the average price is around $50,000, which includes labor (he hires a team of carpenters, mostly guys from the TreeHouse Workshop) and materials (although much of what he uses is scrap lumber and salvaged pieces). “If I really added up all the hours, I’d probably make a dollar an hour,” he says, laughing. “What I charge is ridiculously low,” he explains, because he feels he is creating something impermanent, not an investment that will grow. “It’s not an artifact or art piece that sits on the mantle cast in bronze that’s going to last forever,” he says. “It’s a living sculpture; eventually, after 100 years or so, or 200 years, it could be destroyed.” Evidently Romero is a man made for another time: In the age of disposability, he thinks 200 years is temporary. Not all of Romero’s customers are stars; in fact, he has made tree houses for modest communities as well. In a public garden in New York’s East Village, Romero constructed a tree deck for neighborhood kids (and grownups), so that even urban dwellers could experience the magic of sitting in the trees. “If you can walk into the woods and climb 20 feet up, you’re on another plane,” he says. The East Village structure was built only six feet off the ground, but, Romero says, it gives people the unusual opportunity to “sit with a tree coming up through the floor and a canopy of a beautiful willow above—in the middle of New York City.” It was at that very spot that Romero conceived of his next project: teaching street kids to build tree houses. Not only would they learn the marketable skill of carpentry, but they’d also have a little fun in the process. Romero decided to start in Tangiers, where a friend of a friend was already doing some charity work. With the help of a felApril/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

PHOTOGRAPHS PAGE LEFT: RODERICK ROMERO; INSET BY MANUEL VECCHINA; THIS PAGE CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: MILES TREEHOUSE BY JULIA TIMPANELLI O’DOWD; RODERICK ROMERO, AND INTERIOR OF MILES HOUSE BY JULIA TIMPANELLI O’DOWD.

low gardener, actor Sean Gullette (who starred in the movie Pi), Romero started a nonprofit, the 212 Society. Then his connections really paid off. “I called up Trudie, and I called up Donna’s people,” he says. “And I was talking to Russell Simmons, and he said, ‘I’m all over it. That sounds awesome. How much do you need?’” Romero and his crew from the TreeHouse Workshop spent 15 days in Tangiers. The children created a 160-square-foot structure in a ficus overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar, and they were introduced to Romero’s other avocation: “I had this whole group of street kids doing sun salutations,” he says. Though he hopes to do more work in Tangiers, Romero will for now be teaching yoga moves to a kid of his own—he and his wife, Anisa, welcomed their first baby in July 2005. But the band, and the tree house construction, will continue. In the strangest of twists so far in Romero’s life, his tree houses were offered in the Neiman-Marcus Christmas catalog as the store’s fantasy gift. The exact price wasn’t listed (it read, “starting at $50,000”); it will depend on what the buyer wants, and how Romero feels about him or her. “If I don’t like the client, if someone asks me to make a hunting lodge or something,” he explains, “I can just put the price so high that they say no.” ■ NESTING INSTINCTS: Clockwise from far left: Om Home, at the Modern Art Museum in Tacoma, Washington, was Romero’s first conceptual piece; Romero building a nest; Donna Karan’s rustic tree house; the Willow House, a community gathering spot in New York City; Julianne Moore’s “Maple Nest”; an interior view of Karan’s tree house; and inset right, Sting and Trudie’s abode. www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

VACATION

IN A TREE Don’t have the money—or the space—for a backyard tree house? Spend a weekend at one of these tree house resorts: Fur ’n’ Feathers Rainforest Tree Houses Malanda, Australia rainforesttreehouses.com.au Pezulu Tree House Lodge Hoedspruit, South Africa pezulu.co.za Treesort Takilma, Oregon treehouses.com Cedar Creek Treehouse Mt. Rainier, Washington cedarcreektreehouse.com Green Magic Nature Resort Kerala, India travel.vsnl.com/palmland/treehouse P L E N T Y | 71

CHINA GARDENS Designer William McDonough is envisioning clean, sustainable cities for the world’s most populous country By Richard Bradley

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IT’S A MEASURE OF WILLIAM MCDONOUGH’S unusualness that no one seems to know just what to call him. He’s been described as an “eco-innovator,” an “eco-architect,” and an “eco-urban designer,” terms that are true but feel incomplete. Perhaps McDonough, a 1976 graduate of the Yale School of Architecture and a partner in two design firms that advocate environmental responsibility, can best be explained in terms of what he believes. His popular 1997 PBS series Planet Neighborhood first put him on the map with the public as he profiled manufacturers who were finding ways to recycle and reuse their wastes. In his recent book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (cowritten with designer Michael Braungart), McDonough speaks of “a world of interdependent natural and human systems, powered by renewable energy, in which everything we make flows in safe, healthful, biological and technical cycles.” His design work has ranged from solarpowered houses and energy-efficient university buildings to a 10.5-acre “living roof” atop a massive Ford automotive plant in Dearborn, Michigan, that insulates the building and purifies polluted rainwater. But lately he’s turned his attention to China, a country that aims to move 400 million rural villagers into cities by the year 2030 to promote industrial development. Not

everyone thinks such massive relocation is a good idea, but it is happening—even though some of those cities don’t exist yet. The China Housing Industry Association and the China–U.S. Center for Sustainable Development have tapped McDonough to design six new urban areas, expected to house 14 million people, from scratch. His challenge is immense: to create “green cities” that reduce China’s energy consumption (it’s second only to the United States in energy used) while building places where people who’ve spent their lives on farms would actually want to live. McDonough’s designs prioritize community and sustainability by emphasizing walking, public transportation, and parks. Mixed-use, solarpowered buildings will feature stores on the ground level, apartments above, and farm plots on the roof; farmers will walk from building to building on connecting bridges. And all the cities will aspire not just to avoid polluting the water and the air, but to clean them by, for example, planting trees and creating wetlands to treat storm water. Lots of things could go wrong: funding, bureaucracy, politics. But McDonough is unfazed. “The urgency of China’s environmental problems…will open up vast markets for forward-looking energy and technology companies,” he has said. Proof that the label that may best describe McDonough is optimist. ■

April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

URBAN GREENERY: Rooftop gardens, rainwater collection, and a “jade necklace” of parkland are featured in McDonough’s master plans for the Chinese city of Liuzhou.

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Building

PARADISE

AN ATLANTA BUSINESSMAN IS BUILDING A PLANNED COMMUNITY THAT CHALLENGES TRADITIONAL SUBURBAN DEVELOPMENTS. n the middle of a 900-acre forest of white oak, sweet gum, and fir WILL IT WORK? trees, 32 miles southwest of Atlanta, the planned community of Serenbe is rising from the red clay soil. The development is the BY LISA SELIN DAVIS

vision of Steve Nygren, a prominent Atlanta businessman who wants to combat sprawl, preserve open land, and prove that he can make money in the process. He doesn’t want to prevent development, but to steward it toward sustainability. If he’s successful, Serenbe (serenbecommunity.com) could become a model for future suburbs. Nygren’s plan for Serenbe (pronounced “SER-en-bee”) arose in response to the unchecked expansion he saw around him. Atlanta’s population density of nearly two people per acre of land is among the lowest of any city in the United States. In 1998, the city’s 36.5-minute average commute was the longest in the country and one of the most polluting, violating the Clean Air Act and causing the city to forfeit its federal highway funds. Essentially, Atlanta became a victim of its own desirability; rapid growth put pressure on its infrastructure, taxed its natural resources, and created an aesthetic mess of unbecoming houses suffocating the last extant pockets of green. Atlanta’s population grew by almost 40 percent between 1990 and 2000, and of that growth, almost 70 percent occurred in the city’s northern suburbs. Meanwhile, Atlanta’s southwestern side—what’s become known as the Chattahoochee Hill Country—evaded sprawl mostly because there was little infrastructure to support it. The relatively traffic-free South Fulton Parkway, which connects the area to the airport, is still under construction. Flanked with fir trees, it feels a bit like a country road, save for the subdivisions with unintentionally ironic names

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like Le Jardin and The Village springing up alongside it. But mostly, its narrow two-lane roads wind by one-room churches and horse farms and lonely colonial houses sitting on large swaths of land. It is true countryside, with clear night skies in which you can still see a million stars twinkling. It was clear to Nygren that these rural qualities were endangered—he’d already heard the hum of bulldozers on nearby land. Once one or two owners sell their land to developers, he reasoned, other residents who craved the rural life would flee, too. So Nygren used an old-fashioned organizing technique: a phone tree with everexpanding branches. He began calling a few neighbors, and each of those neighbors called a few more. Eventually, they reached all the landowners within some 65,000 acres. Thus was born the Chattahoochee Hill Country Alliance, a group committed to protecting the area’s rural landscape. In 2003, the Alliance adopted a Transfer Development Rights ordinance, under which developers are allowed to build more densely only if they buy building rights from their neighbors, who agree never to build. (The concept is similar to pollution credits.) The ordinance covered four counties and called for three main “villages”— 500-acre-minimum mixed-use developments—and any number of smaller “hamlets” that could be developed on a minimum of 200 acres, conserving 60 percent of the open space. The idea was to replicate the countryside as it used to be, with small towns anchoring stretches of farmland. It was one of the most ambitious anti-sprawl plans in the country. But there was one problem: fear. Banks and businesses were too scared to build such anomalies in the middle of the countryside, and neighbors were afraid to sell their rights to developers. Nygren realApril/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRIAN WOODCOCK

THE GREAT OUTDOORS: Homes at Serenbe, ranging in size from 800 to 3,000 square feet, feature porches and yards that lure owners outside to relax and socialize.

www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

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Building PARADISE Malibu in the 1950s and plopped down among its more traditional neighbors. Nygren deliberately selected a range of architectural styles to recreate what happens naturally in many neighborhoods, where older housing stock is razed and replaced with contemporary buildings. The houses are a testament to Nygren’s urban planning, and they help Serenbe seem authentic, even if they don’t actually make it so. Serenbe is so convincing, in fact, that were it not for the construction crews hammering away at the newly plowed lots, I would have believed that this community had existed for decades.

W SOCIAL CENTER: Owner Angie Mosier and her husband Johnny (far right) serve up cakes and cookies at Serenbe’s favorite gathering spot, the Blue Eyed Daisy Bakeshop.

ized he would have to go the final step. “I had to take my own money and put a stake in the ground,” he says. He decided to carve up his own 900 acres as an eco-friendly urban/rural prototype, and thus, Serenbe: Chattahoochee Hill Country’s first official hamlet.

he first thing I noticed when I stepped out of my rental car was the smell: earthy, oaky, and sweet. And then there was the land, sloping gently toward the horizon, and that red soil, and dogs roaming freely, and horses gnawing on the dewy grass. Serenbe is ringed by farmland—80 percent of its 900 acres will be conserved as such—which gives way first to what will be a wildflower meadow (land that was originally cleared for an airstrip, before Nygren got hold of it), but is for now a tumble of umber earth. Then, passing through a thin curtain of trees, a sort of Georgian Oz appears. First are what Nygren calls estate lots: freestanding houses dangerously close in size to McMansions (but better looking) on quarter- to half-acre lots. Then come “cottages” of 1,200 to 3,000 square feet; then 3,000 square-foot townhouses; and then live/work spaces, at 800 square feet per floor. Behind the houses on Selborne Lane, Serenbe’s main drag, acres of forest with a network of winding trails spill away. Environmentallyfriendly features like recycled wastewater and storm water routed for irrigation have been incorporated into the design. And there are signature Serenbe elements all around: sculpted wrought-iron streetlamps, specially crafted park benches. It’s Del Webb-meetsRestoration Hardware. Each of the houses erected so far is a simulacrum of earlier architecture: Craftsman bungalows, Adirondack cottages, and Italianate townhouses, each built to meet the certification standards of EarthCraft, an Atlanta-based green building program. There’s even an International Style house—it looks as if it were plucked straight from

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ithin Serenbe, Nygren is a kind of Andy Griffith figure, albeit it with the white hair of Griffith’s Matlock years. He’s 60, with bushy eyebrows, ruddy skin, and laugh lines that cut along the side of his face like parentheses. He has the polished manners of a Southern gentleman; when I first met him he had on a proper bowtie. He often wears a big brass Serenbe belt buckle and a matching button-down shirt in the same earthy tone as Serenbe’s promotional materials. The homeowners with whom I spoke described an almost mystical transformation after talking to Nygren. Long before a single foundation had been poured in Serenbe, people were buying—the first 20odd lots were sold within 48 hours. “I saw [the design], and it immediately captured a little piece of my heart,” says Sandra Storrar, who got so caught up viewing images of her future home that she not only sold her 3,600 square foot house in the affluent Atlanta suburb of Roswell, but also became Serenbe’s real estate agent. When Fred Vetter, who had known Nygren before he began developing Serenbe, stopped by for a peek with his wife, he says, “I talked to Steve for an hour, and then I wrote him a check.” In the town’s commercial and cultural hub, an arts center and a restaurant are now under construction, as is a pavilion for group gatherings, including a farmers market that will sell produce from Serenbe’s organic farm. In the live/work buildings, two artists, Tom Swanston and Gail Foster, have opened a gallery called StudioSwan; nearby, in a low brick building reminiscent of a renovated garage, the Blue Eyed Daisy Bakeshop has quickly become Serenbe’s social nucleus. Owner Angie Mosier, a Southern beauty with red hair, sparkling blue eyes and a wide, slightly crooked smile, worked for years as a wedding cake designer. She serves up local home-cooking fare like fried pimento cheese sandwiches but offers cappuccinos as well. On the day I stopped by, the bakery case was filled with Mosier’s signature cupcakes, topped with dollops of periwinkle icing. Someone had ordered a birthday cake—red velvet with cream cheese icing in a basket-weave pattern—but had not picked it up. She was reluctantly contemplating whether to start requiring credit card deposits. “It’s Mayberry,” she says, referring to the fictional town in North Carolina where The Andy Griffith Show took place. “You’re supposed to be able to come in and order a cake and not pay for it up front.” Vetter admits that he was initially worried that Serenbe might turn out to be artificial. “Just putting people in proximity to one another does not build community,” he says. But he’s confident now that Nygren “doesn’t want it to get too precious. He wouldn’t want it to be too much like a movie set,” alluding perhaps to the Disney-built Celebration, Florida, or to Seaside, Florida, which inspired the setting for The Truman Show. Serenbe is meant to mimic a community that grows naturally, in which individuals (in theory) determine the desApril/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

LITTLE HOUSES ON THE PRAIRIE The Wellington neighborhood in Breckenridge, Colorado, where you can always find a snowball fight.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRIAN WOODCOCK

“It’s Mayberry,” she says, referring to the fictional town in North Carolina where The Andy Griffith Show took place. “You’re supposed to be able to come in and order a cake and not pay for it up front.” www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

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Building PARADISE

Nygren has a staunch following, for both his architectural and social visions. COMMUNITY BUILDING: Steve Nygren (left in photo right) chats with a few of Serenbe’s residents; below, the community’s organic farm.

Serenbe is an example of New Urbanism (cnu.org), a movement that emerged in the 1980s and championed pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use communities over the suburban monoculture of single-family homes and shopping malls. Though many agree with the principles of New Urbanism, the developments it has spawned have been derided as tacky (for replicating old styles of architecture), oppressive (for imposing strict design codes), and wolves in sheep’s clothing (for having gentrification as a hidden agenda). Despite these criticisms, New Urbanist communities continue to be built. Here’s a brief look at some successful (and controversial) examples. SEASIDE, FLORIDA, 1981: The first and bestknown New Urbanist development has enjoyed flocks of tourists and immense media attention. Though estimates on property values vary, some sources say that housing prices in this community on Florida’s

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panhandle have increased nearly a hundredfold since it was founded.

the neighborhood also has access to public transportation.

MASHPEE COMMONS, MASSACHUSETTS, 1986: Officials in this Cape Cod town created a plan to convert an existing strip mall into a New England–style village with stores, restaurants, offices, and some housing. Its construction has been phased to reflect the area’s growth, and the plan has expanded to include six neighborhoods within walking distance of the central business district.

PLAYA VISTA, CALIFORNIA, 1998: Once home to Howard Hughes’s aviation empire, this development of upscale shops, residences, and businesses was embattled from the start. Opponents said it would damage the nearby Ballona Wetlands, and that methane from a local utility’s storage reservoir was collecting underneath the site and endangering residents. Ultimately, Playa Vista’s plans were scaled back and modified to include more parkland and preservation of the wetlands.

CRAWFORD SQUARE, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, 1990: Steel City’s Hill district suffered massive blight when riots broke out following Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968. This mixed-income development, mostly residences interspersed with parks, resulted from a joint venture among the city, the developer, and local community organizations. Located only a five-minute walk from downtown Pittsburgh,

STAPLETON, COLORADO, 2001: The site of Denver’s former airport is now host to the city’s largest planned neighborhood of houses, big-box retail stores, and offices. The master plan, known as “The Green Book,” identifies Stapleton’s economic and social objectives and lays out environmental goals like reusing existing facilities. —Deborah Snoonian

April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRIAN WOODCOCK

NEW PLANS, OLD IDEAS

tiny of their neighborhood as much as the guiding hand of a developer. The idea is that diversity will inevitably become a binding force. One reason for the mix of housing types is to attract people from all walks of life. So far, though, the residents are mostly white and wealthy—or at least wealthy enough to pay a minimum of $300,000 for a house. Among those who’ve made the move are an Atlanta city councilwoman, a blogging pioneer and his family, a single mother with four sons, and a speech therapist and her management consultant husband. Storrar estimates that 40 percent of Serenbe’s current residents are weekenders, mostly families with young children. Those who live there year-round tend to be empty-nesters like Vetter and Storrar. Communities like Serenbe, which aim to dissolve the class divisions that traditional suburbs helped create, face an uphill battle: They become so desirable that the market drives up prices, and then only the wealthy can afford to live there. Nygren’s hope is that those who buy townhouses can live on one floor and rent out the others. Perhaps someday, that will happen. One major element distinguishes Serenbe from places like Celebration or the traditional suburban model: Builders have learned that you can plan for social development, not only residential or commercial structures. Thus, residents whose homes cozy up to one another will inevitably interact, friendships will form, and the more they invest in their whole community—not only in their houses and lawns—the more desirable the community will be, and the higher property values will rise. The place’s social and financial values, then, become inextricably linked.

body to start one. Nygren clearly has a vision for Serenbe, and, at least in these initial stages, he has found the people he needs to bring it to life. Like many of today’s developers, Nygren believes that surrounding new towns and cities with a ring of vibrant rural life, especially organic farming, is essential to their success. If Serenbe’s full potential is realized, the organic farm—which, as part of a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program, delivers organic produce to local subscribers and Atlanta-area farmers’ markets—will have a prominent role in the community. Mosier tries to use as much produce as possible from the farm. “I’m interested in the craft of food,” she says, and so her goods are lovingly sculpted as well as local. “It’s around food that people join together,” says Vetter, noting that he often dines with his new neighbors, which gives them all the sense of belonging that most were missing. “Nobody has roots,” he adds. “They live in cities they didn’t grow up in. I see a hunger for roots in younger people…Suburban life has really stripped out the sense of community.” So far, Serenbe has enough elements in place that Nygren’s experiment can be gently tested. Residents say they feel a strong connection to their neighborhood and their neighbors, and attribute it to the development’s dense design and single commercial district. “There’s a real camaraderie between the younger and older folks here,” says Vetter. Still, Nygren’s mission includes a larger goal—to convince developers to follow his lead—and to do this, he must make a profit. But, ever the Southern gentleman, he declines to give many details about financing. When pressed about how much cash he’s invested in Serenbe, his response is brief: “A lot.” Serenbe’s success depends not only on whether residents buy into ygren has a staunch following, for both his architecits ideals, but also on what happens when Nygren’s full vision is realtural and his social visions; those who bought during ized. It’s hard to imagine this tiny village, hiding among the fir trees, the first round could ameliorate all of Atlanta’s were mostly his sprawl problems. How will colleagues and Serenbe’s new residents affect the SUSTAINABLE SERENBE acquaintances. It could seem as South Fulton Parkway, which is HERE’S A LOOK AT THIS COMMUNITY’S ECO-AMENITIES: though he were designing the resslowly inching its way through the idents as well as the hamlet, but forest? Will the town attract ● Energy-efficient and environmentally-sensitive homes built Storrar assures me otherwise. enough live/work residents to put to meet the standards of EarthCraft, an Atlanta-based green “Not everyone is hand-picked by an end to long commutes? We’ll building program Steve,” she says. Still, inherent know only when other hamlets within the idea of a masterstart springing up. In a perfect ● An organic farm that has a CSA program to provide planned community is the master world, of course, more people produce to local businesses and residents himself, and Nygren’s influence would move in, and public trans● The Living Machine, an eco-sensitive treatment system in can be felt everywhere, including portation would extend from which microorganisms, small invertebrates, and plants Serenbe’s commercial ventures. Atlanta’s center to collect those purify wastewater He didn’t leave it up to the market who live in the villages; eventual● Collected storm water runoff used for irrigation to decide what business would ly, when unsightly commercial move in—he wanted a bakeshop, development knocks at the edges ● Landscaping with native plants to reduce the need for for instance, so he found someof the Chattahoochee Hill Country, pesticides —L.S.D. the residents won’t let it in. ■

www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

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STYLE PROFILE

Cut From the Same Cloth Husband and wife team Karen Stewart and Howard Brown have found the perfect creative outlet for their skills and eco-friendly ideals: their own clothing company. BY CHRISTINE RICHMOND KAREN STEWART AND HOWARD BROWN’S first date was a George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars concert in Philadelphia. They met while working together at Urban Outfitters 13 years ago, and since then, the two have collaborated on everything—they married, had a daughter (Hazel Stewart Brown, now three), and created an ecologically responsible clothing company called Stewart + Brown based in California. The couple had the chops needed to launch their own line— Brown held creative/art director positions at Anthropologie, ESPN, and other corporations, and Stewart was a fashion designer at companies like J.Crew and Patagonia. But a series of relocations and new jobs stalled them from pursuing their project. Then September 11th happened, forcing them (and all of us) to reevaluate their priorities. “Karen and I sat down and said, Someday is today—it’s now or never,” Brown says. “We also felt like the timing was right, because there was a change in people’s attitudes about sustainability and environmental issues,” he adds. 80 | P L E N T Y

April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY STEWART + BROWN

A year later, the brand was born, and today, Stewart + Brown is known for its stylish, wearable clothing—wardrobe staples that are fashionable but never fussy. (Most of the items are designed for women, but the label makes some men’s and children’s clothing, too.) “We’re essentially a lifestyle brand,” Stewart says. Casual skirts and graphic tees are crafted from organic cotton; sweaters and hats are knitted out of luxurious cashmere sourced from Mongolia through a fair-trade partnership. The program began as small-scale experiment between the young clothing company and the fledgling co-op. “We’ve grown together,” Brown says. “Now they’re flourishing, and we’re flourishing too.” The couple visits the country at least once a year, seeing first-hand how the community is benefiting from the business. Stewart + Brown also works with surplus fabrics, using other companies’ manufacturing scraps to create special, limited-edition products like tote bags. Each season’s collection gets a theme, and this spring’s is “organic pioneers.” It’s a fitting metaphor for the couple: Not only were they among the first designers to introduce green ideals to the world of high fashion, but they also continue to be innovators, especially in the realm of ecotextile development. For spring, they blended durable linen with lyocell, a silk-like fabric made from wood cellulose. They also took hemp—a fast-growing, ultra-sustainable fiber that’s in desperate need of an image makeover—and softened it with organic cotton to make garments with an elegant drape. They’re allowed to be as experimental as they want, Stewart says, because they’re the decision-makers of the company and don’t have to report to anyone else. “We have a lot of flexibility,” she says. Further research is underway—they’re studying bamboo and soy along with more unexpected, avant-garde materials. “We have our secrets,” Brown says, adding that “it’s an exciting time to be a designer.” Stewart and Brown didn’t always have so many opportunities. When they first started, people in the industry would say, “Organic? Call REI, we don’t do that stuff here,” Brown says. They had to learn how to explain the benefits of organics while showing people that going green doesn’t have to be synonymous with looking frumpy. Brown describes the target Stewart + Brown customer as an educated, cultured woman who “frames her worldview through the eyes of her family and votes with her dollar.” But, he adds, “She’s not going to walk out of her house wearing some ill-fitting hemp gunny sack.” Fortunately, such customers exist in growing numbers. “There used to be pockets of savvy environmentalists in cities like Portland, Brooklyn, Seattle, and San Francisco,” Stewart says. “Now there are bigger circles of people, and other cities are getting involved.” Today the green movement is in full swing, affording Stewart and Brown the chance to work on whatever they’re inspired to create. They hope their company will help bring eco-conscious people together. “We’re optimists,” Brown says. “It’s our mantra to continue to challenge ourselves to be part of this change for the better that’s happening right now.” ■ www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

PICTURE PERFECT: Clockwise from far left: A look from the Stewart + Brown spring collection; Brown and Stewart visiting Mongolia, where their cashmere is sourced; scenes from their studio in Ventura, CA; another stylish-yet-wearable outfit for spring.

WHEN THEY FIRST STARTED, PEOPLE IN THE INDUSTRY WOULD SAY, “ORGANIC?”

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GREEN BLING

home improvement

UPDATE YOUR DECOR WITH FURNITURE AND ACCENTS THAT GO EASY ON THE PLANET

ENLIGHTENED DESIGN $165 (vivavi.com) MIO Collection strives to make designs (like this pliable Bendant Lamp) that are durable, energy efficient, and easy to recycle.

VITAL VOTIVE (aveda.com) Aveda’s limited-edition Light the Way candle is made from organic ingredients, and all proceeds will fund endagered plant protection. BACK TO BASICS $98 (kstudiohome.com) This “woodland creatures” rectangle pillow is made from a blue polyester material that’s 70 percent recycled.

HAVE A SEAT (qcollection.com) Q Collection’s new Todhunter Club Chair is both modern and inviting. Read about the company’s extensive eco-initiatives on page 84.

PILLOW TALK $70-$80 (balanced-design.com) This hip and whimsical Green Shade pillow is silk-screened by hand using water-based dyes. Choose from three fabrics: linen, a hemp/linen blend, and organic cotton canvas.

REST EASY $1,400-$1,700 (crateandbarrel.com) Get some sustainable sleep on Crate & Barrel’s new Bento bamboo bed, which is fitted together using Chinese joinery techniques instead of nails. 82 | P L E N T Y

BOWLED OVER $60 (nghome.com) Sales of this lotus flower bowl go to the World Cultures Fund, a group that supports archeologists, artists, and others.

NATURAL SELECTION $180 (delanocollection.com) Delano Collection’s snail vase is made from recycled lead-free glass and is fired in a 100 percent wind-powered furnace. April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

clothes-minded

THESE EIGHT ECO - GARMENTS MAKE IT EASY TO GREEN YOUR WARDROBE WITHOUT SACRIFICING YOUR STYLE. FOR THE GUYS

FOR THE GALS LOYALE CLOTHING’s slip-on Ibiza dress ($155; loyaleclothing.com), made from 92 percent organic cotton, is perfect for warm weather.

ECOLUTION’s tailored hemp button-down for men ($80; ecolution.com) looks like linen but is more durable and eco-friendly.

PANDA SNACK’s versatile polo shirt ($72; pandasnack.com) is made of lightweight, supersoft, and breathable bamboo.

PRELOVED reused a sweatshirt to make this V-neck cardigan ($100; preloved.ca).

GLOBE HOPE makes its stylish clothing out of vintage garments, old curtains, and even hospital blankets. The company reused knitwear to create this “asa” pullover ($100; globehope.com). ARMOUR SANS ANGUISH used vintage fabrics and ribbons to piece together this “foundfabric corset” ($60; armoursansanguish.com).

BIZA’s asymmetrical scoop-neck bamboo T-shirt ($50; bizasport.com) is embellished with a contrasting graphic print.

CERTIFIED JEANS made these “summer lite” twill jeans (in navy/steel; $88; certifiedjean.com) from certified organic cotton. www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

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GREEN HOME

DECOR THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE Your furniture doesn’t have to be made with toxic materials or wasteful manufacturing methods. These six companies prove that everything from office chairs to lamps can be sustainable and stylish. BY AMY BRAUNSCHWEIGER

BERKELEY MILLS: The clean lines and elegant curves of Berkeley Mills’s Asianinspired pieces—fitted together with oldfashioned techniques, like wood pegs instead of screws—evoke a sense of calm. So does the knowledge that the company avoids products containing formaldehyde, a carcinogen. The California-based designer also uses sustainable maple and cherry when custom-crafting its cabinets, tables, and Japanese screens. And while only 30 percent of the mahogany it gets from Guatemala is sustainable, that number has climbed from zero over the past ten years. Many Guatemalans are used to burning wooded areas in order to create grazing space for cows, says founding craftsman Dave Kent, “so they sacrifice the long-term viability of the forest in the name of shortterm survival.” To help make the sustainable timber industry an attractive alternative to raising cattle, Kent is partnering with a group of craftsmen in Guatemala, giving them the tools and technology they need. With outreach and support from Berkeley Mills, Kent hopes to substantially boost the supply of eco-friendly mahogany over the coming years. (berkeleymills.com) KNOLL: With its stunning Bauhaus-chic shapes, Knoll’s furniture has consistently drawn applause from design experts. But the company has garnered equal praise from greenies; the EPA even published a case study on Knoll’s eco-initiatives in 1999. The company’s four North American factories have each achieved ISO 14001 certification (awarded by the Swiss-based International Organization for Standardization to businesses that effectively lessen their impact on the planet), and for the past ten years Knoll has recycled almost all of the scrap metal and paper created during the manufacturing

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April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

process. Wood chips get a second life as animal bedding, and the company continues to look for creative ways to reuse its castoffs. Many of Knoll’s desk chairs and office systems (think cubicles on steroids) are free of unhealthy volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and can be made with sustainable wood and recycled fabrics. (knoll.com) METAFORM STUDIO: Daring designs are MetaForm Studio’s signature. “A lot of green companies make conventional products, little tables and chairs,” says founder Khader Humied. “I want to make it more distinguished looking.” Junkyard scraps find their way into a number of pieces. The company’s modern version of a rocking chair uses strips of discarded tire rubber, stretched taut, to form the back and seat. MetaForm used bungee cords to make another chair, whose clever design requires no nails or glue. Wood vegetable crates become stylized light fixtures, and water pipes are used for the frame of the Pipe Dream Sofa. In the future, Humied says, he hopes to create cushions made from natural latex, which is tapped from rubber trees and is biodegradable, instead of cotton, which, when conventionally grown, is ridden with pesticides. (metaformstudio.com) Q COLLECTION: Q Collection’s founders continue to prove their dedication to the environment; they even asked their supplier of goose down to feed his free-range birds organic pellets. The eco-friendliness of every rivet and thread is researched—a massive undertaking because upholstered furniture is made from 20 to 30 different materials. (Wood pieces have three to four.) They report findings to their advisory board, a group of environmental science professionals. Yet it is design, not science, that sells settees. Q Collection uses soft angles, a feature that separates the company from the minimal/modernist herd, and it avoids the heavy look of some traditional furniture. Pieces are upholstered with hemp, satin, and wool, colored melon orange and mustardseed yellow with low-impact dyes. And this summer the company will introduce a line of key chains and coasters made from its wood scraps. (qcollection.com)

water-based glues and hunting down organic fabrics are standard practices for the company. And it’s not only what goes into the furniture that’s important. Steelcase rates its products according to 19 human and environmental health criteria, looking for anything that may increase cancer risk, contribute to global warming, or affect aquatic life. Its flagship chair, Think, is 99 percent recyclable and ergonomically molds itself to the changing positions of the user’s spine. The company’s West Michigan wood manufacturing plant received a silver LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council in 2001. Currently, Steelcase is on target to eliminate the use of polyvinyl chloride (also known as PVC or vinyl) by 2012. “PVC is used everywhere,” says Allan Smith, director of global environmental strategy. Phasing it out, he adds, requires coming up with viable substitutions for a number of products, including wall coverings, chairs, and even wiring. Office jockeys never had it so good. (steelcase.com) WHIT MCLEOD: A former biologist who spent two years taking inventories of Douglas fir forests, Whit McLeod decided to help stem the razing of woodlands by building furniture from discarded timbers. Today McLeod sources all of the oak in his pieces from salvaged wine barrels once used by California’s wineries. In fact, his employees find much of their needed lumber and scrap metal by dumpster-diving outside industrial sites. Craftsmen finish the wood of the Arts and Crafts–style furniture with such natural substances as plant oils. Upholstered items like the captain’s chair can be made with hemp canvas. In order to reduce its garbage, McLeod’s company is currently brainstorming uses for one of its main waste products—round wine-barrel heads. “One of those [uses] is a toilet seat,” McLeod says, laughing. (whitmcleod.com) ■

DESIGN COUNTS: Clockwise from far left: Q Collection’s elegant Bessie chair; a Knoll workstation; Berkeley Mills’s sustainable cherry Lambda chair, inspired by the letter in the Greek alphabet; Steelcase’s groundbreaking Think chair; Whit McLeod’s folding chair made from salvaged oak; Metaform finds a new use for discarded tires.

STEELCASE: Nearly 100 years old, Steelcase—the largest maker of office furniture in the United States—ranks as the grandfather of sustainable design. Using www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

P L E N T Y | 85

HOW WE LIVE

KICK BACK with an appealing cup of cool greep tea (above); just don’t look at the bacterial culture that it comes from (below).

A Cultural

Awakening

Greep (aka kombucha), a mysterious tea brewed with bacteria and yeast, won’t cure all your ills—so why do Russians swear by it? BY LAUREL MAURY IT RESEMBLED A RANCID PIECE OF LARD floating in a jar of brown fluid. Round, covered in layers of gray-yellow growth. “It’s our pet jellyfish—want some?” asked Vicka, my new Russian mother, pouring me a glass of oak-colored juice. I was living with a family in St. Petersburg in an effort to perfect my Russian during college. I’d spent less than twenty-four hours with them, and suddenly I was holding a glass of brown fluid with small tendrils drifting in it. The family looked on, grinning, fully expecting me to freak out. I took a breath and drank. 86 | P L E N T Y

It was pleasantly sour, mildly effervescent with an aftertaste of flowers. For a week, they teased me for drinking jellyfish pee. Then the father, Zhenya, took me aside and told me it was from a mushroom called eta greep’ (or sometimes chainij’ greep’), meaning tea mushroom. You’re supposed to float the greep in sweetened black tea for a few days, he explained, then pour off the resulting fermented beverage. They drank greep tea at breakfast and as a soft drink. It’s healthy, he said, like Pepsi for breakfast, only good for you. April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

WEB ADS PANDER TO PEOPLE WITH ILLNESSES WHO DREAM OF MIRACLES, OFFERING KOMBUCHA AS A CURE FOR EVERYTHING FROM HIGH CHOLESTEROL TO DIABETES TO BALDNESS. NONE OF THESE CLAIMS ARE PROVEN.

WHAT’S IN A NAME? Called “greep” in Russia, the tea is part of traditional healthy living (above); in the U.S., “kombucha” is sold as a miracle drug (right).

Greep isn’t really a mushroom. It’s a symbiotic culture of yeast and bacteria that’s also called Manchurian or Siberian mushroom. No one really knows where it comes from—some speculate Germany, others Japan. In Russia, educated middle-class folk—in my circle, they included an architect, a German teacher, an engineer, and a stockbroker—believe that greep is healthy. “There are a lot of things that are considered healthy in Russia, like kefir and raw garlic,” says Anna Critchfield, a petite, pretty Russian-born computer expert, who preferred not to give her age. During the Soviet era, good food wasn’t always available, Critchfield explains. “Greep was among the things we were told were healthy. It wasn’t medicine. It was,” she says, searching for an English description, “medicinal living.” Greep, along with kefir, yogurt, cabbage soup, and molochnij’ www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

greep (or milk mushroom, a culture in which milk is fermented), was part of the struggle to stay healthy in the face of Soviet deprivations. Soon after that first sip, I was slurping the stuff down—greep is yummy. I was probably drinking half a liter a day, more than U.S. health practitioners recommend, but about what a healthy, greep-loving Russian like Zhenya might quaff. And though at the time I didn’t know exactly how greep was supposed to make me healthier, I could have sworn it aided my digestion. The few scientific studies on greep indicate that it may have antibiotic properties. Greep is known as kombucha in the United States, where it’s sold in the worst tradition of snake-oil salesmen. Web ads pander to people with illnesses who dream of miracles, offering kombucha as a cure for everything from high cholesterol to diabetes

to baldness. None of these claims are proven. (Anecdotal evidence suggests kombucha can cause complications, even death, in diabetics.) Moreover, advertisements emphasize that a single kombucha, like certain plants that can be regrown from cuttings, can grow innumerable “children.” Invest in one kombucha, the theory goes, and you can make endless profit selling it. Critchfield explains that kombucha farms would be unheard of in her homeland. “In Russia when I was growing up, we distinguished between buying with money and ‘dostadt,’ which means obtaining or getting,” she says. “We did not buy greep. We got it from our friends or family.” In Soviet Russia, many things were simply gotten, not bought. “If I wanted another one now, I would simply call my friends, see who has greep, and get it from them,” she adds. Before I left St. Petersburg, my Russian family peeled off a layer of their greep for me to take home. It was a gift that, like their recipe for homemade cheese, I could enjoy wherever I was in the world. They were tickled that a Westerner wanted her own “jellyfish.” I promptly named it Ethel. I put Ethel into a bottle and carted her off to Scotland on an archaeological dig, refilling her container with sweet tea every three days. Ethel scared the archaeologists— mugs of greep tea grow baby greeps if left overnight. I never converted anyone to drinking greep; I think the key is making sure a person doesn’t see the “jellyfish” before they taste its tea. Ethel expired in a move from Missouri to New York, after having lived for four years in a gigantic mayonnaise jar on top of my refrigerator. Now I’m looking for another Ethel. I’ll ask around until I find a friend of a friend who has one and suggest a trade. ■ P L E N T Y | 87

H E A LT H

A YOGURT A DAY A GROUP OF EDIBLES KNOWN AS FUNCTIONAL FOODS MAY HELP WARD OFF DISEASE. BY JUHIE BHATIA

Rx Functional foods are loosely defined as foods that may provide a benefit beyond basic nutrition; that is, they can help PROMOTE WELL-BEING and

reduce the risk of disease.

YOU PROBABLY EAT FUNCTIONAL FOODS every day without realizing it. A bowl of oatmeal counts. So does calcium-fortified orange juice. Functional foods are loosely defined as foods that may provide a benefit beyond basic nutrition; that is, they can help promote well-being and reduce the risk of disease. The category includes foods eaten whole (like broccoli) and ones that have a health-boosting ingredient added (like that fortified juice). Although the concept of health-enhancing foods doesn’t seem revolutionary, the rising popularity of functional foods might make you think otherwise. Sales of functional foods increased by nearly 7 percent each year between 1999 and 2004, bringing in almost $19 billion in 2004, according to market analyst Datamonitor. The term “functional foods” didn’t emerge in the United States until the early 1990s, although food has been fortified to prevent disease since the 1920s, when iodine was added to salt to combat goiters and other thyroid conditions. New regulatory changes are helping fuel the current demand for functional foods: The Food and Drug Administration began allowing companies to make health claims on food labels in 1990. “Demographic changes, regulatory changes, new technologies, and marketing are all contributing to interest in this topic,” says Clare Hasler, Ph.D., executive director of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science at the University of California, Davis. “Consumer desire to be healthy is also affecting this field.” Still, there’s no official legal word from the medical community on what exactly defines a functional food, and that’s making some critics skeptical. Stephen L. DeFelice, M.D., chairman of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine, feels that more studies need to be done. He says that we’re bombarded with messaging about how various products can improve our health— even though the medical community hasn’t

proven that those claims are true. “I’m not saying that functional foods don’t work,” he adds. “It’s just that we’ve never shown they work.” Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition at New York University and author of Food Politics (University of California Press, 2002), thinks the functional foods trend is mostly a marketing tactic. “Functional foods keep food scientists in business and generate profits for food companies,” she says. Regardless, experts like Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak, R.D., director of health and nutrition at the International Food Information Council, predict that this is only the beginning of the functional foods boom. “Science that lets us know what exactly about these foods makes them beneficial continues to emerge,” Kapsak says. We could see a rise in foods that are genetically modified to be more nutritious, and fortified versions of our favorite groceries might start appearing on store shelves.

FIVE TO TRY NOW Functional foods might be a bit controversial, especially because they don’t have a clear-cut definition, but scientists nonetheless agree that the five listed below do more than provide sustenance. So dig in, but remember that no snack can be a miracle worker. “These foods should be part of a lifestyle that includes a diet of moderation, balance, and variety, as well as appropriate physical activity,” says Roger A. Clemens, Dr.PH., a food science expert for the Institute of Food Technologists and a professor at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy.

1. SOY An Asian diet staple, this protein-rich bean may help protect against heart disease by lowering blood cholesterol levels. It has April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

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also been linked with a reduced risk of certain cancers and a decrease in menopausal symptoms. Find it in foods like tofu, soy milk, tempeh, miso, and edamame.

Besides fish like salmon and tuna, omega-3 fats are found in flaxseed, walnuts, and omega-3 or DHA eggs.

4. YOGURT 2. OATS Wilford Brimley was right; a bowl of oatmeal is a smart breakfast choice. Oats contain a soluble fiber called betaglucan, which may help lower blood cholesterol, reducing the risk of heart disease. In 1997 the FDA awarded its first food-specific health claim to oats for this benefit. In addition to oatmeal, oats can be found in low-fat granola, whole-oat bread, and other whole-oat products.

3. FISH Fish and fish oil contain “good” fats called omega-3 fatty acids (specifically, two types of omega-3s called DHA and EPA). These fats may help lower the risk of heart disease, and they’ve also been linked to improved mental and visual functions.

Believe the Hype? THE FOLLOWING FIVE EATS AND DRINKS are essentially functional foods in training. “These foods have some interesting science,” says food science expert Roger A. Clemens, Dr.PH. “But none have significant scientific agreement.” Here’s a roundup of the research: CHOCOLATE Chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, is full of powerful antioxidants called flavanols, which may be linked with lowering blood pressure and contributing to heart health. Of course chocolate is still high in saturated fat and calories… WINE There is some evidence that wine, especially red wine, may reduce the risk of heart disease. Scientists are paying close attention to antioxidant plant chemicals in wine called flavonoids and a substance called resveratrol, which is found in grape skins. Drinking in moderation—that’s one glass a day tops for women, two for men—is key. For a more in-depth look at wine’s health benefits, check out the December/January 2006 issue of Plenty. www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

Milk isn’t the only dairy product that does a body good. Yogurt is high in calcium, which helps reduce the risk of osteoporosis; and it’s also a probiotic, meaning it contains good bacteria that may benefit your gut and your immune system.

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5. TOMATOES While all fruits and veggies are good for you, tomatoes contain an illness-fighting plant chemical called lycopene. There is strong evidence linking lycopene to a reduced risk of prostate cancer, but the chemical has also been studied for its ability to decrease other cancers and heart disease. Find lycopene in whole tomatoes or tomato products (like salsa and tomato sauce). GREEN TEA Although all tea is likely beneficial, green tea in particular has been the subject of recent scientific studies. It’s loaded with catechin polyphenols, natural plant chemicals that are powerful antioxidants. Green tea may help prevent certain cancers, and it could also preserve heart health, promote weight loss, and more. But Clemens warns that people would need to drink large amounts of green tea to experience all of these benefits. POMEGRANATE JUICE Tangy, deep purple pomegranate juice is suddenly very trendy, and many people are drinking it because it’s high in antioxidant-rich polyphenols as well as other plant chemicals like tannins and anthocyanins. All of these ingredients are thought to help fight certain diseases, and the juice may also have heartprotective properties. Clemens warns, however, that there have been almost no extensive human studies showing pomegranate juice’s benefits. GARLIC It may be worth adding a clove or two of garlic to your next meal. The plant contains natural sulfur compounds, particularly allicin, that may help protect against certain cancers, maintain heart health, and support the immune system.

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FOOD MORE THAN A PARTY: Grub authors Bryant Terry and Anna Lappé (right).

Grub, I paired different “experts” with each menu to provide a sound track for cooking and eating. For example, for the Straight Edge Punk Brunch Buffet, we brought in James Spooner, who’s the director of the film Afro-Punk, which is about AfricanAmericans in the punk movement. For the Down South of the North American Border menu, a Mexican-inspired menu, we have this amazing Mexican-American singer, Lila Downs, who provides the sound track. This book is about more than us; it’s about community.

Eco-activists Anna Lappé and Bryant Terry tell you how to host an entertaining—and enlightening— dinner party. BY JAMI ATTENBERG THROWING A SUCCESSFUL DINNER PARTY is an art form, and let’s face it: not everyone’s up to the challenge. But the right combination of food, music, and people can create a powerful, memorable moment, one that— according to Anna Lappé and Bryant Terry, authors of the recently released Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen (Tarcher/Penguin)—can even create change across the planet. Lappé is cofounder of the Small Planet Institute and author of Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet (Tarcher, 2002), while Terry is a chef and founder of b-healthy!, a nonprofit that teaches young people about healthy eating and cooking. The two food-justice activists sat down with Plenty to discuss the dinner party primer they’ve created. How can we change the world through eating? BRYANT TERRY: In the book, we start with

how you as an individual can change your diet, how you can start in your family and your community. And then it’ll have a ripple effect, which eventually moves larger market trends and the food system in a bigger way. ANNA LAPPÉ: Changing what you eat and creating brand-free zones in your home where food is closer to its whole form—to what came out of the ground—gives you more energy and makes you feel better. It also helps you feel more engaged in the world. So many people are disconnected, 90 | P L E N T Y

especially people who live in cities, from the actual process of how food gets made and brought to them. A lot of the food choices that we talk about are designed to reconnect you, whether it’s choosing Organic Valley dairy or becoming a member of a community-supported agriculture farm where you know the farmer. Sometimes it’s hard to know what you should be buying. AL: Grub is definitely about how to become

savvier consumers. So we can say, OK, choosing Organic Valley, a farmer-owned cooperative, is supporting small family farmers; choosing big-brand organic might not be. Being able to make those distinctions is invaluable. The next step is putting pressure on those big companies to follow the true ethics of organic agriculture and on the regulators not to allow companies to run massive 4,000-head factory farms and be able to slap the organic label on them. What do you need to have a Grub party? AL: It’s basically a dinner party but with

intentionality about it—from thinking about where you’re buying your ingredients to bringing an interesting mix of people together. It’s about building a community that might not be your existing set of friends. And there are suggested sound tracks for all of these meals, correct? BT: When I was composing the recipes for

educated and have enough disposable income to buy a book like this have power as consumers to influence the market. Grub offers them real tools, and does so with a hip, urban aesthetic. Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation and Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me did a really good job of framing the issues, and we wanted to provide real solutions, giving people tools to shift their diets and the way they think about food. ■ WILD STYLE SALAD Preparation Time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 45 minutes Inactive preparation time: 1 hour, 30 minutes For the salad 1 cup wild rice, rinsed and soaked overnight in the fridge 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt 1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced 1/4 cup diced carrots 1/2 cup thinly sliced celery 1/2 cup golden raisins 1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions 1/2 cup cashews, toasted and chopped For the dressing 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 1 teaspoon maple syrup 1 clove of garlic, minced 2 tablespoons chopped parsley 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt Freshly ground white pepper to taste 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil FOR THE SALAD In a medium saucepan over high heat, combine the rice with 3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat, transfer to a strainer or sieve, and rinse under cold water for a few minutes, or until the rice is completely cool. In a large bowl, combine the cooked rice, bell pepper, carrots, celery, raisins, scallions, and cashews with clean hands. FOR THE DRESSING In a small mixing bowl, combine the apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, maple syrup, garlic, parsley, and sea salt. Mix well. Whisk in the oil while pouring slowly. Pour the dressing over the rice and toss well with clean hands. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour to allow flavors to marry. Remove rice from the fridge 30 minutes before serving. Recipe by Bryant Terry for Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen (Tarcher/Penguin). April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY SEBASTIAN KIM

What Organic Food Brings to the Table

It seems like you’re trying to reach a younger audience with this book. Are they the future of the food justice movement? BT: Young people who are fairly well-

Green. With envy.

Green.

What shade are you? Green is feeling it more, not less. Green is living a lifestyle that supports innovation. Green is never compromising.

eco travel green gadgets organic goodies fair trade fashion politics with a twist

Subscribe today and save 60% off the newsstand price. Call 1-800-316-9006 or visit www.plentymag.com

INDULGENCES Gone are the days when eating well meant doing without. Whether you’re trying to avoid animal products or just buck conventional agriculture, there’s a treat (or thirty) for you on supermarket shelves. Of course, the best desserts usually come from a local bakery or your own oven. But when your inner Martha Stewart takes a holiday, look for these natural and organic cookies—Plenty’s favorite picks.

smart cookies Organic Orange Blossom Chocolate Chip Cookies Crummy Brothers (crummybrothers.com) $12.99/box of 5 Intense orange flavor and aroma with ample hunks of dark chocolate. Big and thick as they are, these cookies are surprisingly savory and speckled with tiny bits of orange blossom. Three actual brothers named Crummy launched the company this January with a mission to revolutionize the cookie world.

Route 11 Potato Chip Cookies

Whole Wheat Flower Power Cookie

Immaculate Baking Co. (immaculatebaking.com) $4.60/7-oz. bag

Bite Me (bitemeinc.cc) $1.99/2.5-oz. cookie

Crumbly, buttery, bite-sized shortbread-almond cookies flecked with salty potato chip bits: the sweet-savory combination at its finest.

Butter-rich shortbread with thick, sugary frosting—a child’s dream cookie.

Immaculate Baking Company uses only natural ingredients, and it donates 5 percent of its profits to the Folk Artist’s Foundation, which it cofounded.

Certified Organic Maple Stroopwafels Shady Maple Farms (shadymaple.ca/en) $3.99/8.5-oz. box Firm, slightly crunchy waffled exterior with a soft maple-syrup center and a buttery flavor. Those who don’t shy away from sweets in the morning may come to view these cookies as the perfect portable breakfast food—no more waiting until the weekend for your waffles.

The no-holds-barred sweetness and vibrant colors (which come from plant extracts) may make you forget that you’re eating whole-grain organic flour, but there’s no mistaking that all the ingredients are simple and natural.

Peanut Butter Chocolate-Chip Cookies Uncle Eddies Vegan (uncleeddiesvegancookies.com) $4.79/12-oz. bag Quite possibly the most peanut-buttery cookie on the market, and certainly among the top vegan options available. With their rich taste, it’s hard to believe these crumbly confections contain no butter or eggs; they are also made with mostly organic ingredients.

Ginger O’s Newman’s Own Organics (newmansownorganics.com) $3.99/16-oz. package A subtle ginger spice is balanced nicely by the cream filling, which has a much smoother and more natural mouthfeel than conventional sandwich-cookie “creme.” It’s no coincidence that these dunkable delights contain none of the hydrogenated oils that are packed into their mainstream competitors.

Organic Oaten Biscuits

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies Whole Foods Market Bakery (wholefoodsmarket.com) $5.99/bag of 6 Dense and chewy, studded with velvety bits of bittersweet chocolate: satisfying to bite into and equally pleasurable to savor. It’s surprising to find a vegan chocolate chip cookie that’s so substantial and classic-tasting—but then, the folks at Whole Foods have had more than 25 years to perfect their recipes.

Duchy Originals (duchyoriginals.com) $6.79/8-oz. box

Organic Parisian Macarons

Crisp and lightly sweetened, with a hearty oat texture— somewhere between a cookie and a cracker.

Fine sugar crust gives way to a nutty, not-too-sweet crumb of ground almonds surrounding a buttercream or ganache filling (no coconut in sight).

The U.K.-based company, which had its humble beginnings on Prince Charles’s organic farm in Gloucestershire, sources its ingredients from that and other local farms. www.plentymag.com April/May 2006

Miette Organic Pâtisserie (miettecakes.com) $12/box of 6

These unleavened cookies come in both classic flavors (chocolate, hazelnut) and slightly offbeat ones (pistachio, grapefruit), and the tiny San Francisco bakery uses organic ingredients. P L E N T Y | 93

OFF THE GRID AMONG THE TREES ON THE QUIET ISLAND OF LOPEZ, BLAKE AND NANCY RANKIN BUILT THEIR DREAM HOME: A MINIMALIST STRAW-BALE STRUCTURE POWERED BY WIND AND SUN. BY ELIZABETH BARKER

Into the

Woods

BLAKE RANKIN SPENT HIS TWENTIES hopping between Japan, where he studied meditation, and Seattle, where he worked at a natural foods company. But these days, when the 57-year-old is not in the Emerald City at the Granum Inc. office (he founded the organic food company in 1981; it includes fair-trade pioneer Choice Organic Teas), he can be found at home on the nearby island of Lopez, a pastoral piece of land about the size of Manhattan but with only 2,000 residents and an ambience that Blake calls “tranquillity to the nth degree.” There, on 30 acres of woodsy land, stands the 100 percent wind-and-solar-powered straw-bale home that Blake shares with his wife, Nancy, 45, and their 15-year-old son, Addison. The Rankins finished building their 1,050-square-foot structure in 2000, two years after buying the property and partially built house. “We saw a listing for a halfbuilt straw-bale house, but in reality it was about one-third built,” Nancy recalls. “The blueprints were done on graph paper, and the electrical plan had been written out on a napkin.” With a combined construction experience totaling zero, the Rankins set out 94 | P L E N T Y

to complete their new abode. For their first few months on the property, they went truly back to nature, sleeping in a tent and cooking all of their food on a camp stove. After taking a workshop on solar energy from the educational group Solar Energy International (SEI), Nancy and Blake built a straw-bale shed to house their inverter (an appliance that converts energy to AC power) and mount their solar panels. The couple then volunteered to host an international SEI workshop on wind generator installation, in which the workshop members helped the Rankins get their wind power up and running. The entrance to the Rankins’ property now proudly displays a logo for RedTail Power and Light, named for the dirt road that leads to their home. “We generate our own power, so RedTail is our own power company,” Nancy explains. But the sustainable straw bale—a building material made from stucco and the waste product from wheat, oat, barley, rye, and rice farming—and renewable energy sources aren’t the only green ingredients in the Rankins’ impressively humble residence. There’s also the plank cork and natural April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY NANCY RANKIN

THE GRASS IS GREENER: The Rankins’ eco-home is situated on 30 acres; right to left: Nancy, Blake, and Nancy’s Auntie Roz at the Lopez Island ferry landing (upper right); the Rankins’ building materials (below left).

linoleum flooring; the stairwell and windowsills carved from recycled old-growth lumber; the blue-jean insulation in the mudroom; the PVC-free underground water lines running from well to house; the rainwater catchment for the garden; and, maybe most far-out of all, the kitchen tiles made from recycled airplane windshields. “This house is a piece of art,” Nancy remarks, crediting Seattle’s Environmental Home Center, a green building-supply store, for many of the family’s eco-arty finds. “We’ve chosen to have each element of the house become the decoration, rather than adding a lot of stuff to decorate it.” In fact, the switch to straw-bale living actually involved a good deal of taking away: In the spirit of simplicity, the Rankins sold all of their belongings when they left Seattle. “A lot of people come to visit and say, ‘It’s really . . . Zen. Where’s all your stuff?’” Nancy says, laughing. “To me, though, learning to let go has been the therapy of living in this house.” Perhaps forever spared the need for feng shui–inspired decluttering, the Rankins plan to keep their space free and clear. “I get accused of being a minimalist, but I’d just as soon stay sideways of all the gadgets and gizmos out there,” says Blake. And although Addison lobbied for an iPod for Christmas, his previous campaign experience is much more aligned with his family’s principles: On last year’s Earth Day, the teen got every student and faculty member at his school to sign a

“When I look at our product, it’s a personification of our CORE VALUES AND THE WAY OF LIVING that Blake and I practice.”

BUILDING BLOCKS: The Rankin’s home mid-construction (left); a 2400-gallon water catchment tank, one of three on the property (above); a decorative tile reflects the house’s heritage (right); some varieties of Choice Organic Teas (below).

petition to convert their buses to biodiesel, the fuel that powers both Blake and Nancy’s Volkswagen Jettas (Nancy’s bears a bumper sticker that reads, “No War Required”). The Rankins are no strangers to activism, beginning with the days at UCLA when, Blake says, he was “involved in anti-Vietnam War protesting and vegetarianism and dope—everything everyone else was into at the time.” The self-described former “forlorn hippie” has infused his products with that same social consciousness, making Choice Organic Teas the first tea company to fairtrade-certify all of its qualifying blends, from mango Ceylon with vanilla to classic white peony. In 2004 the EPA recognized Choice’s eco-positive efforts, honoring the company for acquiring all of its electricity from wind power. “When I look at our product, it’s a personification of our core values and the way of living that Blake and I practice,” says Nancy. And as a steadily brewing fair-tradetea movement across the country coincides with a peaked interest in straw balebuilding, the Rankins’ core values seem to be catching on. “Just about everything we’ve done is a little ahead of the curve,” Nancy observes. “We’ve been living this way and practicing these things for so long, and then you look around and realize, ‘Wow, this is our time.’” ■ P L E N T Y | 95

T H E B A C K PA G E

The Plenty Magazine Green Glossary FIVE TERMS EVERY ECOPHILE* SHOULD KNOW Bridge to nowhere – n. An initiative that does nothing to resolve the environmental issues it is ostensibly designed to address: Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would be a real bridge to nowhere. Origin: In 2005, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens came under fire for his proposal to build a bridge that would link a virtually deserted island (population 50) to the Alaskan mainland at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars—i.e., the bridge to nowhere. Captain Planet – n. Someone whose actions or policies are blatantly contradictory to the eco-conscious lifestyle: That Dick Cheney is a real Captain Planet. Origin: ’80s cartoon star Captain Planet was heralded for his pollution-fighting ways. The show’s earnest theme song states, “Captain Planet—he’s a hero / Gonna take pollution down to zero.” Linguists are uncertain as to how the character’s name came to be used sarcastically. *Ecophile – n. An individual who feels strongly about protecting the environment, possibly to the point of engaging in obsessive behavior (e.g. turning the compost pile more than ten times daily). Greenbacking – n. The endorsement of a corporation’s products or environmental initiatives by a well-known green group: When General Electric launched its new “Ecomagination” campaign, it sought greenbacking from the World Resources Institute. Treehugger - n. Once a derogatory term used to mock eco-conscious citizens, this word has been reclaimed in recent years by treehugger.com, a website that chronicles the modern green movement.

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April/May 2006 www.plentymag.com

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Recycling thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to wrap around.

Wrapping yourself around a plan that recycles your used rechargeable batteries is easy. Just check the rechargeable batteries in your cordless phones, laptop computers, camcorders, cell phones, two-way radios and power tools. If they no longer hold a charge, recycle them by visiting one of many collection sites nationwide, including those retailers listed below. For a complete list of rechargeable battery drop-off locations, visit www.call2recycle.org or call toll free 877-2-RECYCLE.

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