September 2011
125 posts
5 tags
Reuse - Patagonia & Ebay says don't buy new!
Another reason I like Patagonia. What other retailer do you know that would say “don’t buy new?” OutsideOnline.com reports that eBay and Patagonia have formed an partnership called the Common Threads Initiative.
“Together, they asked owners of fleece and Gore-Tex everywhere to pledge to reduce consumption, reuse old gear, recycle, repair what’s broken, and...
Eco festival to be included in SXSW
Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 9:52PM
South by Southwest Conferences and Festivals has announced it will host its inauguralSXSW Eco Conference in Austin on October 4-6. See their announcement here. Good see a conference like this in Austin!
Bikes, bikes, bikes... Free tacos!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 9:15PM
Gas prices crimping your style? Not enough time to get your exercise? No worries, it’s bike month… Save money… Lose weight!
May is National Bike Month and cities across the US including Austin are participating to encourage folks to bike to work, school, or any other destination you may have in mind.
This Friday is Bike to Work day as well! In Austin, there...
Eeyore's Birthday... Celebrate Spring in Austin...
Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 11:10PM
Spring came to life with Eeyore’s annual birthday celebration. Folks walked, biked, and some drove to Austin’s Pease Park today to celebrate and welcome Spring. As usual, kids and adults alike enjoyed nature and a great Spring day. Drums and music left many dance g while others enjoyed food and “other” treats throughout the day. this...
Earth Day is Here... A Billion Acts of Green.
Friday, April 22, 2011 at 5:22PM
Earth Day is here! We love seeing cOnservitude play out in other organizations andearthday.org is doing just that. The billion acts of green campaign his year, Earth Day’s theme is “A Billion Acts of Green.” Its people-powered campaign to generate a billion acts of environmental service and advocacy before Rio +20.
Just highlights that you may feel like you...
GE: Love 'em or hate 'em?
Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 6:59PM | tagged Mining, nuclear, wind
Nuclear, Solar, Wind, and Mining… Seems every day their is new on GE and its tough to call whether to love ‘em or hate ‘em. Just this week for example they were mentioned in ways that would lead environmentalists to applaud them for their work in Solar and Wind technology. But at the same time their financing arm has supported...
cOnservitude worthy
Kids at WAYA family day filled up reusable water bottles via this monster water tank. Not a plastic bottle in site!
Green Bank... a bank with a sustainable mission
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 9:53PM
Now environmentally-minded people can put their money where their heart is. Green Bank is a new bank focused on sustainability.
They also aim to support green organizations with promotions:
50k/$50 CD — For every $50,000 invested in 12-month or longer CDs, Green Bank will donate $50 to any non-profit that is a member of the Citizens’ Environmental...
cOnservitude worthy
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 2:53PM
I Uber Texas!
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 9:13PM
I wish we had thought of this! see the article on TechCrunch.
Great idea for Uber to advertise with Austin’s Pedicab for South by Southwest this week. Pedicab is just one way to go green for SXSW. Utilize Pedicabs to get where you need to go with old fashioned pedal power and get a bike ride to the best SXSW has to offer.
Human potential is far from exhausted!
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 2:39PM
Just read through the Warren Buffett annual letter to investors and I wanted to highlight few things he said that I thought were inspiring and relevant to the readers out there. First and most importantly he highlighted to not to underestimate America as the country seems down as of late. I love his point that:
“Human potential is far from exhausted”
There...
City of Austin embraces landscaping to conserve...
Friday, January 28, 2011 at 3:26AM | tagged conservation, water
The ambition-filled and/or caffeine-motivated human mind often tends to believe progress can only be made by hitting gargantuan goals or awe-inspiring targets. The clarifying and refreshing presence of reality makes evident that real progress is often made by laying down short-term, more immediate goals, that line the path toward a...
Charity:Water Goes 10 for 10 with its Haiti...
Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 1:01PM
Was just linking around today and found Charity:Water’s photo of the day… Inspiring to see our local Austin groups Austin Ventures and the LiveStrong Foundation supporting the village of Titans and Keisha as they work to rebuild their homes and village by matching public donations to this Charity:Water project.
The Project: Village of...
CNBC's Trash Inc. Inside a $52 billion industry.
Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 12:15PM | tagged wasteOver the long holiday weekend last week I saw Trash Inc. on CNBC. And leave it to CNBC to highlight the economics of just about anything, including trash. The show provided great insight into the economics of the industry and also highlighted the looming issues we face with managing our trash globally. You can watch the entire episode below or...
Carbon Dioxide Visualizer ... nice work David...
Monday, January 17, 2011 at 10:18AM | tagged carbon footprint, innovation
David McCandless & GE created a neat web application to visualize the carbon footprint of quite a few things and actions.
At the bottom of the page, drag the horizonal bar all the way to the right to see actions and objects which produce the highest levels of carbon dioxide. Interesting to see the Xbox and World of...
Flooding in Australia
Friday, January 14, 2011 at 10:19AM
Really incredible video highlighting the power of water and the danger associated with flooding.
Water Control
Sunday, January 9, 2011 at 11:40AM
Who’s is it anyway?
“Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting over.” ~Mark Twain
“Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting over.”
– ~Mark Twain
Bamboo
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 at 11:08AM
Is there anything bamboo can’t do? its the sustainable building material of the future and an antibacterial fabric for clothing and baby blankets. I suspect we’ll see it popping up in all sorts of products throughout 2011.
TerraCycle gets it... Trash for Cash
Monday, January 3, 2011 at 4:41PM | tagged capitalism, green, recycle, reuse
Its always refreshing to come across a company the embodies the essence of cOnservitude.TerraCycle is just one of those companies that gets it and is embracing a capitalistic approach to saving the environment. They are showing the world how to turn trash into cash, effectively making a boat load of money while also...
R.I.P. Henry Coetzee
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 9:55AM
Kayak expedition in Congo to highlight clean water crisis ends in tragedy.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Oregon is going coal-free by 2020
Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 5:02PM | tagged coal
Interesting that there is only one coal fired plant in all of Oregon but it will be 2020 before it is completely coal free.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/11/oregon-coal-free-2020.php
What the heck does Organic really mean anyway?
Thursday, November 25, 2010 at 5:55AM | tagged economics, green, organic, regulation
In honor of Turkey Day and due to an excellent dinner conversation, we decided to do some research on what actually constitutes an “organic” product here in the US. When you sift through much of the marketing hype (green, good for the earth, natural, etc.) there is a discrete list of items that can and cannot be...
Chinese are Green Leaders in the Name of...
Monday, November 22, 2010 at 5:36AM | tagged china, green, technology
China is embracing “green” initiatives faster and more effectively than anyone, including the US. Is this out of China’s universal love for the environment? No. This is about efficiency. Green is in many cases a more efficient use of technology and resources. Here’s a great example; China creating a massive biogas facility...
seesaw, kid, plant, confusion >> sums it up...
Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 9:09AM | tagged environment, population growth, social responsibility
Serbian collecting SKART put on an excellent exhibition recently; this image just about sums up everything perfectly;http://inhabitat.com/2010/11/20/serbian-pavilion-creates-an-interactive-green-garden-of-curious-games/skart-serbia-venice-architecture-biennale-2/
Recycle!!!
Monday, November 15, 2010 at 6:04PM | tagged recycle
Today is America Recycles Day… support your local recycling organizations.
Up and to the right!...
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 6:24AM | tagged population growth
Combine a population trend going up and to the right with everyone in the world aspiring to American-style consumption and what do you have…?
Rural drinking water in China. A looming issue!
Friday, October 22, 2010 at 8:50PM
The China Daily just released information a water study and the results are a looming issue for millions of rural residents in China.
BEIJING - The poor quality of natural water resources and devastating pollution threaten the safety of drinking water for millions of inhabitants across vast areas of rural China, a report warned on Wednesday. The report,...
Austin Tree Protection... Practice what you preach...
Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 5:54PM | tagged conservation, tree
For all the work the city does to force developers to protect oak trees in Austin this photo really frustrates me. Look at all the construction equipment and materials sitting in this trees drip line.
Update on Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 6:12PM by cOnservitude
That last photo was taken about a month ago but I never got it...
TechCrunch on energy saving
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 at 9:38PM
check out the latest from TechCrunch on how to save energy at home… Turning off lights is only part of the solution.
TechCruch
How do you get people to act as if they care about...
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 7:53AM | tagged environment
Excerpts and ideas from a talk by Dan Ariely;
“Can we get people to care? Can we get people to wake up in the morning and feel urgency about the environment?… in general, No.”
Global Warming: a problem that people do not care about;
Long in the future
Uncertain
Will happen in the future
We don’t see anybody suffering or any residue of...
"the desert is a metaphor for life"
Tuesday, July 6, 2010 at 8:10AM | tagged environment, green
Take a moment to watch the thought-provoking video below from Gary Waterworth Owen, founder of the ResponseAbility Alliance and managing director of Lengthen Your Stride. He talks about raising people’s ability to respond to the challenges of the twenty first century by learning about the environment, different cultures, water, the...
Pflugerville goes solar...
Friday, July 2, 2010 at 10:23PM | tagged solarPossibly becoming the largest solar farm in the United States, Pflugerville, located about 17 miles north of Austin, is close to signing an agreement with RRE Solar to build a solar farm on 600 acres of and 15 miles east of Plugerville. RRE Solar is backed by a group of Indian investors.Not being a pure skeptic, more an observer of how complex ideas...
Russia's Waterborne Nuclear Plants... "bad idea...
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 8:41AM | tagged environment, nuclear
Is this from one of Saturday Night Live’s “bad idea jeans” commercials?
Waterborne nuclear plants… putting a nuclear plant on a barge out in the water… what could go wrong? Well, quite a bit, but… is this any more dangerous than a normal nuclear reactor? Memories of the Chernobyl disaster ring a few alarm bells and many argue...
This is about right nOw
Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 7:27AM | tagged collective, environment
7am on a Sunday. Spare time, theoretically at least. Here are the typically circadian, often caffeine infused thoughts sounding echoes across the surprisingly cavernous space between my ears and behind that dull pain sometimes called my forehead, “What can I be doing right now that will help all of us live in a manner which is less...
Orange Peel Tires
Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 10:56AM | tagged eco-friendly, environment, racing, sustainability
image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hankzby/4514142181/
300,000,000 car and motorcycle tires are discarded by domestic drivers each year in the United States..! Wouldn’t it be nice to figure out how use less petroleum oil in these?
Hats off to the engineering and product development teams at...
1 tag
Reuse: pass your boxes forward
My wife and I are in moving mode and it got me to thinking. We’ve been searching for boxes all over the place. As luck would have it, we had some friends just move and they passed along their boxes after the move for us to use. I thought this was a great cOnservitude gesture. There is really no reason that folks go out and buy new boxes for a move when there are so many that can be reused....
Daddy always said quit wasting water!
Saturday, June 19, 2010 at 5:02PM | tagged environment, waste, water, water bottles
How many times did your father tell you to quit wasting water when you were growing up? “Turn the water off while you brush your teeth”… “Fill the sink up to wash dishes vs just running water to do it”… Show dad that his rants and raves stuck with you by buying him a stainless steel water bottle as the ultimate...
Live Video: BP Oil Spill
Sunday, June 6, 2010 at 4:14PM | tagged environment, oil
Live video by Ustream
SuperWeeds on the attack... Here come the...
Friday, June 4, 2010 at 11:49AM | tagged GMO, H2O, ecosystem, organic
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported today that an outbreak of “superweeds” in the U.S. Farm Belt is leading to the need for more harsh herbicides to kill them off. These superweeds have become immune to the less harmful round up currently and most commonly used by farmer. As a result the more potent herbicides of the past...
Water: The Rush for Blue Gold
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 5:00PM
Headed to the CleanTx forum tonight…
Providing clean water globally remains one of the most vexing problems for humankind. In the United States and Europe, we accomplish this task by investing enormous sums of energy (for water treatment and distribution) and money (for infrastructure, pipes, and large, centralized water treatment plants). At the same time, the...
What is cOnservitude? Help spread the word.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 10:43PM
It’s the little things that can make a big difference those contributions are aggregated in a community. Really that is what cOnservitude is all about. IHere are a couple of examples.
(1) replace just one light bulb in your house with an energy star bulb. if every U.S. home did it, we’d save enough energy (and money!) to light 3 million homes for a year. Of...
Upcycling Hits: TVs to Fashion & Fashion to...
Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 9:58AM | tagged economics, innovation, recycling, social responsibility
Really great to see two innovative approaches to recycling. Both Olsenhaus and HelloRewind take recycled material and “upcycle” it into innovative products
TVs to Fashion
Almost the entire Fall 2010 line from Olsenhaus is clad in a polyester microfiber made from trashed television...
Tyranny of Small Decisions
Monday, February 22, 2010 at 7:22AM | tagged decision making, environment
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19378856@N04/ / CC BY 2.0
How decisions get made in practice is far different than what we all initially assume. Rather than sweeping and decisive change, we often find ourselves boxed in to situations due to a series of small, short-sighted decisions by people who cannot or will not see the...
"Green Alarmists vs. Deniers" will Green put us in...
Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 6:39AM | tagged climate change, environment
Fora.tv has an excellent video of a thought provoking debate between some believers and skeptics of climate change. Leading thinkers from Reason Magazine, the American Enterprise Institute and the NRDC participate. The spirited discussion occasionally devolves into personal attacks.
Slate's "The Hive" Focuses on Minimizing Home...
Friday, February 19, 2010 at 1:55AM
Slate Magazine has launched a new concept called The Hive. This is a series of projects designed to harvest the best ideas from Slate readers about practical problems. The Hive’s first initiative called “The Efficient Life” intends to find ways to use less energy at home and to save money. Top ideas will be selected next month and then implemented over the...
Patagucci, some Prius owners and all the other eco...
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 8:13PM | tagged conservation, economics, efficiency
Echoing some thoughts and ideas expressed across the web in recent weeks; how beneficial to the environment are products like the Toyota Prius? Sure, comparing the gas mileage of a Prius with a Suburban makes the use of a Prius look more beneficial. But, we believe an overall attitude toward conserving resources is...
COP15, not a donut convention, but, possibly, just...
1/19/2010
COP15 (15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), what did it actually get done? Was this a big decision-by-comittee event that might have really been a waste of time? Perhaps the real value of this event was to prove how hard effective decisonmaking around climate change can be…
Green Lifestyle Magazine on Bottled vs. Tap Water
1/12/2010
Nice to see some other articles popping up to validate our cOnservitude positioning. In it’sarticle, Green Lifestyle magazine compares bottled water to tap water and lays out the benefits and issues related to each. There are a ton of helpful facts outlined as well related to chlorine, BPA, fluoride, contaminants, etc. Give it a read and see for yourself.
The magazine also...
Small and Significant?
How can a planet so small compared to our broader conception of known space contain people with knowledge that goes so far?
What is really going to happen when technology allows humanity to expand out into the universe? (see previous posting about “cockroaches”)
How ironic that we believe we have knowledge stretching 13.7 billion light years in to space (past/future) but we cannot see the...