KV Organics

seeking restoration of sustainable life... personally, professionally, & spiritually

pollution

Sara Salo

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This month has been super fun and busy for us.  The kids are loving school, we’re all adjusting to homework routines, I’m getting used to quiet mornings with just the baby, and… we got bikes!  This is something that I have been wanting to do for a while now, for both exercise and conservation reasons, but we’ve finally done it – and it was in part, inspired by my new friend Sara Salo.

Sara is an inspiration in so many ways.  She’s focused on helping people eat better and make healthier choices all around, and she is an awesome example of paving a new road in the face of a raging recession – two things about which I’m passionate myself.  Here is what Sara shared with me in an email last spring…

I came up with the idea for the Tour on a long trail run late last summer. I was trying to burn off some steam after getting frustrated with job hunting and all of a sudden I seriously had an ‘aha’ moment! Rather than apply for a job I wasn’t completely passionate about, why not put together something myself?! I knew I wanted to work in school food reform but I also loved cycling. Healthy living really needs to combine physical activity and good nutrition so I figured what better way to spread the word than by bike! At first the idea seemed really far-fetched but as I talked to people and got really positive feedback, I kept moving forward. Then, before I knew it, I had a website and was scheduling stops. And now it’s full steam ahead.  🙂

Check out the video below for an overview of what Sara’s up to while cycling around the country, and/or click here to check out and follow her blog.

 

Zero Commute

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Since starting this blog almost a year ago, I haven’t written much about my experience working from home, but it has definitely been a big part of my greener living/creation care journey.  Since leaving the “normal” work world in September of 2004, I have learned a great deal about options for working from home, both from my own experience and from talking with others who either own and operate home businesses of some kind or work from home for larger companies.

The possibilities for working from home are endless, really.  As I begin these ‘2nd week of the month’ posts on home businesses, my first focus will be on the creation care benefits of working from home.

As we explore these ideas together, please keep in mind that working from home need not be limited to people who start their own home business of whatever kind.  More and more companies these days are allowing their employees to work out flexible schedules, either partially, or sometimes even fully from home.  If that’s something you’d like to do, consider approaching your boss about the idea.  This is not where my experience has been, so it won’t be a focus of my blog; however, many of the points we consider together will apply in both situations (employees or business owners) and if you want advice on how to approach your boss about working from home, I can put you in touch with people who have done it.  Just let me know if you want that info.  🙂

Working from home is not for everyone.  For starters, there are many professions that obviously cannot be worked from home.  We still need teachers in public school classrooms and doctors in emergency rooms, for example.  And for some personalities, working from home simply isn’t a fit.  Some folks find being at home far too distracting to really accomplish their work.  “Oh, let me finish up that laundry or those dishes first, then I’ll get my work done…”

So, please know that as we explore the ‘green living’ benefits of working from home, I am in no way suggesting that everyone should work from home.  That’s neither practical nor ideal.  Following the examples found in all creation, we need diversity to thrive.  The arena of work is no different.  And if you are best suited to work outside the walls of your house, then by all means do so!  Even if working from home is not part of your life, I hope you’ll still find these ‘week 2’ posts interesting and helpful.  Some of the ideas may still be applicable in your situation, and if nothing else, then perhaps you can pass ideas to others.

For those who are so inclined to work from home, let’s start by considering one of the most obvious benefits.  And I only choose to start here because of a recent experience…

A couple weeks ago, my hubby and I were driving up toward NY, and I was absolutely shocked by the number of buses lined up and literally crawling into the city.  The traffic was so bad!  And these were folks using public transportation.  Here is the string of thoughts that went through my head…  “Yikes!  Can you imagine if they were all in cars? …  We need double-decker buses. …  What if these people didn’t have to commute to work but could work from home instead? …”

Working from home has the obvious benefit of zero commute, which means fewer vehicles on the road, which means less traffic, which means less idling on the highways, which means less pollution, cleaner air, and fewer asthma attacks for children.  Less traffic and less idling also means better gas mileage, which means better stewarding of oil resources, which can in turn help protect the waterways, and on and on goes the ripple effect.

One other quick thought, for those who might be afraid of being stuck in their houses all day: Home-based does not have to mean home-bound.  I don’t know too many people who want to stay forever inside their houses.  Having a home business can still get you out of the house plenty.  As much or as little as you’d like really.  It just happens to be based at home (which offers a whole ‘nother set of benefits we’ll look at next month).

Even if your home business takes you out on the road every day, the power to decide not to be clogging up the roads during rush hour traffic is a huge benefit to both the planet and your sanity.  🙂

Tricksy Triclosan

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OK, yes, I said ‘tricksy’ and, yes, I love The Lord of the Rings (my little tribute to Gollum).

Another silly tidbit about me:  Prior to beginning this post, I spent nearly 20 minutes debating whether or not to first recategorize all my old posts according to this revamp plan I’m following.  As laid-back and wingin-it as I have become with four kids, that detail-oriented, and uber-organized, pre-motherhood nature still likes to poke through now and again.  I decided I’d better silence that voice and get on with my ‘Week 1: Ingredients’ post for now.  Will sleep on the idea of bothering to recategorize at some point or not – let alone figuring out how!  🙂

I suppose it’s incorrect to somehow suggest that I’m not still detail-oriented.  That’s the part of me that digs into labels and researches to find the hidden impacts of the choices we make – on ourselves, our neighbors all over the world, and the planet on which we all depend together.  You might think that this is obsessive and unhealthy, but I actually find it quite freeing and exciting.  More on that in a couple weeks, when I touch on the ‘Deeper Whys’ of green living.

For this first week of August, in our official ‘new and improved’ (hee-hee) category around ingredients, let’s talk about Triclosan.  This is a very common ingredient in antibacterial hand soaps and wipes.  It’s also used in toothpastes, antiperspirants, and other non-personal care items such as clothing, bedding, and more.  It is an endocrine disruptor and a good example of an ingredient that is problematic both via its journey through our skin (it’s in clothing and bedding, too?!  sigh…) and down our drains.

As an endocrine disruptor – meaning it messes with our hormones – there are looming concerns over triclosan’s potential toxic and carcinogenic effects on people.  And it is highly toxic to marine life – aquatic systems on which I might remind you, in case you haven’t thought about grade school science for a long time (as I hadn’t until a little over a year ago), we are dependent.

Truth is, we don’t need all this antimicrobial stuff.  It may be weakening our immune systems and creating super bugs (which we then can’t defeat) all at the same time.  If you don’t want all the details, just know to read your labels and avoid Triclosan (and its cousin Triclocarban).  If you want more information, here are a handful of good resources.

Breast Cancer Fund on Triclosan
Dr. Mercola’s recent article on Triclosan’s damaging effects to people and planet.
Triclosan’s MSDS (material safety data sheet)

For natural alternatives and defenses, check out things like essential oils and probiotics.  In our home, we make our own hand sanitizer (2/3 aloe gel, 1/3 water, tea tree oil and an aromatic oil of choice – peppermint, eucalyptus, lemon, orange, whatever you prefer.  How many drops of oil depends on your container size).  Oregano oil is amazing for so many things. We really enjoy Miessence’s certified organic (entirely untouched by synthetic chemicals) foaming hand soap and its refill concentrate.  We also really like their dish soap, which is so effective, concentrated (a little goes a long way), and contains only one synthetic ingredient – the biodegradable, corn and coco based surfactant.  And of course, their probiotics (my kids prefer this one).

I’ve heard that somewhere around 80% of your immune system is in your gut.  If your gut is healthy and functioning well with friendly good bacteria being fed nutritious real foods, then you’ll be able to fight off the bad bugs you come in contact with here and there.

I used to be quite the germophobe.  Hand sanitizer, antibacterial soaps and wipes, the whole works.  While I’m still no big fan of slimy trash cans and less-than-clean public toilets, I feel so much more comfortable with the world around me – all the bad bugs included – now that I know how the immune system works, how to keep it healthy in my own body and the bodies of my kids, and natural germ fighting methods that aren’t toxic to our bodies or the waterways.  And I’d say, anecdotally and thankfully, we’ve been a lot healthier since making these changes.

Skip the Triclosan.  🙂

Healthy Homes

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So sad to be missing the “Healthy Homes in Toxic Times” event tonight at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philly…  Had registered hoping to go, but knew fully well that it would be a last minute decision to really go or not…  As the day progressed, it became apparent that it would just be too much to try and schlep myself and a ravenous four-week-old nursling into Philly on a cold winter night.  However, I have instead spent a little time surfing the websites of the groups presenting at the forum.

Here is a summary of the event from the ANS website:  “In a large city like Philadelphia, pests, air pollution, and other sources of detrimental environmental exposures impact the quality of our daily lives. The methods we choose to control pests, the cleaning and personal care products we purchase and use, and how we care for our immediate home environment can have consequences on our health. As we navigate our weekly routines, we can all find ways to reduce harmful exposures and enhance the health of our home environments.”

If anyone doubts the toxic effects of everyday products and pollutants on our health, here are more voices calling out and asking you to consider the issue again – for the sake of your own health, the health of the planet on which we’re all dependent, and the health of future generations.  Your everyday choices really do make a difference.

Women’s Health & Environmental Network (WHEN)
Pennsylvania Integrated Pest Management
National Center for Healthy Housing

And an article on personal care products, quoting WHEN founder and Temple University professor, Julie Becker.




Energy Choice

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We first ran into this topic in August 2009 when a door-to-door salesman for an alternate gas supplier came by.  We decided to give it a shot, signed up, and then forgot about it.

In August of this year, we started getting various offers from alternate electricity suppliers also.  This prompted us to go back and check our bills from the previous year of alternate gas supply, which left us quite skeptical because it turned out to have cost us an extra $129 over the year.  However, since we had also been learning more about energy conservation and green energy, that skepticism drove us to research the topic more thoroughly instead of just tossing our hands up and staying with the utility out of fear of the unknown.

One of the questions a friend (who owns a very successful energy consulting firm in Philly) told us to ask was whether a company was a licensed supplier or a broker.  As I understand it, broker companies are not necessarily bad, but they generally drive the price up because they’re an extra link in the chain getting a cut of the profits.  Turns out the alternate gas company we had said yes to was a broker company…  Ah-ha!  Check – look for a licensed supplier (and verify it with a third-party resource, such as a list of alternate suppliers found on your local utility’s website).

In early November, while still researching energy choice options, we came across Viridian and were really impressed.  Although I have seen some hype and accidental misinformation out there from their independent sales force (which is a risk of using the otherwise solid direct sales model), the company itself is straightforward in its message and mission, and they resonated with us as potential customers because of their green energy focus at a savings.

We decided to become Viridian customers ourselves, and since 1- energy conservation and renewable energy is something we’re also passionate about, 2- it ties in on some level to the work I already do in organics, and 3- I had researched it a great deal and felt I could help answer people’s questions about energy choice in general and the company specifically, I decided to do a little consulting work for them on the side.  My purpose in this is to add a realistic, no-hype voice into some of the confusion & misinformation out there in the popular buzz about both Viridian and energy choice companies in general, and to help people figure out if Viridian specifically would be a good fit for them or not.

So, if you’re looking into alternative energy suppliers, here are a few other things I’ve learned to ask in general, in addition to the licensed supplier vs broker question…

1- Is it a fixed or variable rate plan?  You might be surprised to learn that variable is often better than fixed, though it can depend on your preferences.

2- Are there sign-up fees, lengthy contracts, early termination fees, hidden fees? Can you cancel at any time?  We loved that Viridian was “cancel at any time with no penalties.”

3- If you also care about long-term sustainability and air quality issues (which tie closely into stewardship, pollution, and health issues), ask about a company’s “energy content,” or percentage mix, of “dirty/brown” energy vs “clean/green” energy sources.  For example, our local utility currently uses only about 7-8% renewable sources.  And many of the 3rd party suppliers who are not necessarily “green-focused” in their company vision statements offer about the same.

4- If you want to buy/support greener energy, find out the percentage vs cost. For example, we found that Viridian offers the highest percentages of greener energy at lower prices compared to other green options we’ve seen so far.  Their basic option is 20% renewable energy generally below your cost from the utility (who almost certainly has a much lower percentage of renewable content).  So, their “everyday green” option supports a higher percentage of green power while saving you money at the same time.  And their 100% renewable energy option costs only slightly more than the utility rate, instead of a higher ‘premium price’ for 100% renewable content that other green suppliers are offering.  For example, one company we looked at would have cost us, on average, $24 more per month for 100% renewable energy, whereas with Viridian, we could do their 100% “pure green” option for an average of just $5 more per month.

5- If anyone is showing you an example bill, or when you begin looking at your own bill to compare prices, please make sure you know what you’re comparing.  Supply portion only.  I have seen a handful of reps for Viridian accidentally comparing the wrong two parts of the bill, which made the savings look bigger than it is.  They were very nice people, not being intentionally deceptive at all – they just misunderstood.  The savings is still there, just not as amazing as it may look if you’re not comparing the right things… and it will also depend on whether you’re a low or high usage household.  If you’d like someone to go over your bill with you to help you understand what to compare, get a realistic idea of your potential savings, and figure out if an alternate supplier would actually make sense for your situation or not, I can help you with that since I’ve gone through it myself.

If you want more details on any of the above, feel free to contact me.  There is also a good list of FAQs under the “Energy Service” section of their website.  While obviously Viridian-specific in the answers, these FAQs are good to ask any company you may be considering.

If you decide to you’d like to become a Viridian customer, as we did in our home, would you please consider calling them at 866-663-2508 to sign up (instead of signing up online) and giving them my referring ID#11636?  Disclosure statement – I am not actively growing a business with Viridian, but yes, I will get a small commission for referring you.  Thanks!  🙂

 

 

Earth Exploders

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Ever heard of MTR?  I hadn’t until a month or so ago.  It stands for a common coal mining technique called Moutaintop Removal, and apparently, over 3 million pounds of ordinance is detonated every day, blowing up entire mountains just to get at a thin layer of coal – to help feed my home electricity.  For a variety of reasons, I’m not at peace with that.

Now, to be sure, every source of energy has its benefits and challenges.  Coal, nuclear, hydro, gas/oil, wind, solar, biomass, and others all have their “issues” to be weighed, and no one particular source is perfect.  There will never be a one-source answer to energy problems.  In fact, the best answer has nothing to do with sources – it is conservation.  If everyone used less energy at home, and took tangible steps away from the consumer lifestyle that demands so much energy use across the country to make “stuff” for us that we don’t really need, there would be far less of a problem at hand.  But more on this another time.  In this post, I’d just like to share a bit of what I’ve been learning about MTR so that you can consider these issues for yourself.

From a website for “Coal Country,” a documentary:  “Most Americans are shocked to learn that nearly half of the electricity used in the United States today is produced by coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel…  The tops of mountains are blasted away, exposing seams of coal, while debris is pushed into valleys and streams. Residents endure health problems, dirty water in their wells, dust and grime on their floors…” (liaisondistribution.com).

Many coal companies bury streams with mountain debris and then plead innocent to polluting the water on the basis of there being no water there anymore.  “To date, the legal system has bought this kind of logic to the tune of twelve hundred miles of vanished streams and rivers in the state of West Virginia alone” (Sleeth, p.13).

Not only are we destroying God’s mountains, forests, valleys, streams, and ecosystems to power our country’s excessive consumer lifestyle, but we’re making people in Appalachia (and all around the world) sick to do it.  Both the human health and the environmental sides of this are equally problematic to me, since the long-term health of people depends on the health of this planet given to sustain us.

“A typical family uses 1,800 pounds of coal per year powering just its electric clothes dryer.  An average of 20,000 pounds of forest, dirt, and rock must be dumped in a stream in order to get that amount of coal.  It is easy to rail against greedy corporations and corrupt judges.  It’s a little harder to actually do something about mountaintop removal by changing our behavior” (Sleeth, p.14).  “Environmental topics can get so politicized and polarizing that we absolve ourselves from personal responsibility” (Sleeth, p.65).

We had already started line drying clothes as part of our household move toward “intentional downward mobility” and increasing conservation, but learning about MTR has helped to solidify the commitment that much more.

Wherever you are on this issue or journey, please know that my intention is to lovingly challenge and encourage.  For example, please do not feel bad, guilty, or defensive if you use a clothes dryer!  That is so not my intention at all.  But please do some prayerful soul-searching on these big-picture issues and how our personal everyday choices help combat or perpetuate the overall societal problems.  And please also be encouraged – you cannot make these changes all in a day and that’s OK.  Lord knows I still have a ton to learn and alter myself!  But challenge yourself to continually learn more and take steps to make changes as you’re able.

These days, you can find energy conservation tips just about anywhere. But one of my favorite resources for everything “green” including energy conservation tips is Nancy Sleeth’s book, “Go Green, Save Green: A Simple Guide to Saving Time, Money, and God’s Green Earth.”

Additional quotes above from Matthew Sleeth’s, “The Gospel According to the Earth.”