But coffee can be very unsustainable. The way it is grown, harvested, shipped and processed are all topics for later posts. Today I am concerned with the end user.  Caffe Ladro is my favorite Seattle coffee place. They show great interest in providing coffee that is is fair trade, shade grown and all those things that any good environmentally conscious consumer wants in their coffee house. As I sat there with Izzy, doing alphabet games I started to count the number of cups and lids that left the cafe. I was as guilty as everyone else, there on our table were two cups, no lids mind you, one for my americano and one for Izzy’s hot chocolate. I carry a thermos to work with me every day and thought to myself how many paper cups have I saved over the past ten years by using my thermos? Of all the people who came in to get a cup of coffee only three, that I saw, had reusable containers. That makes for a lot of coffee cups used and thrown away. I kept thinking this is why some decisions need to made from the top down. If the cups were from a sustainable source like Sustainable Party then it would be less of an issue. Don’t get me wrong I am not suggesting that people should not be responsible for their own actions but there are so many things to think about in our lives. If the coffee place we go to thinks about beans and how they are processed I don’t see any problem with them making the decision of what kind of cup we use for us. It just gives we the consumer one more reason to shop there instead of the place that doesn’t think about those things.

Be responsible think about the things you buy and why you buy them.

I believe that part of being sustainable is being aware and responsible of your surroundings. Turning off a light that isn’t being used, not holding the refrigerator door open while you decide what to eat, turning the heat down at night and when you are not in your house, carry your own bag to stores are all simple things you can do to effect your environment. When thinking about how you live you are thinking about the environment right around you. It is very hard to think about environmental issues on a global scale but it is easy to do when thinking just about your own space. I believe that thinking globally is important but sometimes you have to be more topical to think on a large scale.

Last weekend Zanne, Izzy and I went out for our Sunday breakfast at our favorite breakfast place. It was cold this past Sunday, really cold by Seattle standards in the twenties. The wait staff tried very hard to get people to use a door not right by where all the patrons were sitting. They put signs up on the door large with many colors. It didn’t work, people would look right at the signs and just walk right though the door. I was flabbergasted at the apparent lack of awareness or maybe apathy that these people showed. The wait staff placed some chairs in front of the door and people would take the time to move the chairs hence holding the door open longer, the last resort was to lock the door. It is unfortunate that things had to come to that. People never cease to amaze me with how stupid and complacent they are.

Change the world. Disrupt the apathy.

My father built a solar house in the 70’s. At the time PV panels were not an option but using solar for the heating of water for preheating was. I was young when he was building his house but I have vivid memories of installing 20 4′x8′ copper panels on the roof and building plexi-glass containers around them to focus the heat on water pumped to them from the basement. In the basement were 4 1200 gallon fiber-glass tanks that acted as heat exchangers. Hot water from the panels came off the roof and heated water in the tanks which in turn preheated water for the radiant heat and domestic hot water. It was really a very impressive system and I remember on day it being 10 above zero, after having been like that for a couple days and my father being so happy because the preheated water coming to the water heater was at 103 degrees. In the end I don’t know how much money he saved in heating the water but I think his project instilled in me a sense that we all should participate in using the energy that is all around us to take care of our heating and electrical needs.

The solar heating system my father built was probably not cost effective but today to do what he did would be far less expensive and more efficient. Pre-heating water is a great way to save on heating costs and if you use PV panels to produce your electricity than you will rarely need an exterior input from the grid.

Think about where your energy comes from.

Plug in America covers all things about plug in vehicles. Plug ins are cars that are available now for us to buy that can make substantial differences in carbon emissions. Yes I know when you plug in you are still using dirty energy because the electricity is probably made with coal but the end result is far less emissions and less cost for you: Plug in America has all the numbers. Buying a plug in also sends a message that you are concerned with emissions when gas prices are low. I keep hearing this argument that consumers wont want to buy hybrids or other more sustainable vehicles if the price of gas is low. What are you all crazy. If gas is 1.25 a gallon and you own a car that gets 60 MPG that means you can go 600 for about 13 dollars compare that with your Hummer or Escalade getting around 8-10 MPG wait it is going to cost you 75 dollars to go the same distance. Save the money pay off your credit cards.

Don’t let apathy run your life. Think about the decisions you make.

That is a great question and it is one which can be easily answered on a basic level and more complexly answered when it comes to how it must come to function in our global community. Simply put being sustainable is making the world around you able to continue to be the way it is as you pass through it. We should want to leave as small an impact on the place we are as we can. To do this many things must be taken into account. Simple things like recycling, reusing, using things fully and making our living spaces efficient can make a great impact but a grand scale must be created if we are reverse the effects that have reared their heads. One simple way to become more in sustainable in your day to day life is to only buy what you can afford. Over consumption has led, in great portion, to our current environmental and financial disasters. It will take time but if we all learn to live a little more simply the system will evolve and constant growth will not be necessary to maintain it. And lets face it the credit card companies are doing nothing to make the current situation any easier. As money gets tighter for everyone they are raising peoples interest rates and making it harder for people to pay off their debts. There is nothing sustainable about credit in this fashion lets all come together and force them to act responsibly.

Cut up your cards. Pay with cash.

A lot of things contributed to my becoming a vegetarian and I gave up meat slowly. I stopped drinking milk just because I didn’t like it and then red meat because I couldn’t afford it. Then my printmaking professor at Pratt Institute introduced me to the idea of being a vegetarian. We talked about it a lot but he never preached at me. I think David is most responsible for how I choose to proselytize my beliefs and that is through actions. The last thing I stopped eating was fish, that was in 1991 after reading an article in the NY Times about King crab numbers being depleted by over harvesting. I stopped eating meat all together and began to research industrial harvesting of meat, poultry and fish. This was the beginning of my interest in sustainability and now the catalyst of this interest is in the news again. I am not asking the world to become vegetarians but I ask all you flesh eaters of the world to harvest your food in a sustainable way.

Think about what you eat.

The air car is just the kind of innovation that the automotive world needs. I do not think it is a panacea for all the ills of a commuter driven world. I do believe that it is a great start. This car uses a motor that is similar to a gasoline engine in how it functions except it uses compressed air to move its pistons instead of an explosion for the ignition of gasoline. Check out their site for the specifics and sign up for their updates.

We can change the world.

We need to make a fundamental change the way we approach life. Turn the heat down, turn off lights when we are not using them, carry our own bags to the grocery store, make our homes more efficient all of these things can make a difference but all of these things won’t change the world even if everyone does them. Renewable energy sources on a grand scale and creating sustainable lifestyles for all are a must if we want to effect change on our world. Signing this petition is a way to show your support for a future that relies on energy sources that are renewable and clean.

Byron sent me this link. Birthday and other parties are one of the least sustainable activities we all participate in. How many parties have you been to where you have seen bag after bag of plastic covered paper plates, plastic forks, spoons, knives and cups? Well now you can do something about that at your next party. Check out Sustainable Party and find out how you can be less of a part of the trashing of our green spaces.

Compost everything you can.

Simple decisions in your life can make you more sustainable. Keeping your food fresh is a key aspect to not wasting. My friend Byron created Clip-N-Seal to do just this. My grandmother always said “waste not want not”. It was one of those things a grandmother, who grew up during the depression, would say to a grandson who she was trying help understand the fundamentals of thrift. I wish now I had listened more carefully.

Less waste - Less waste - Less waste.