Through the journey of sharing Eco ideas, we've met some wonderful people. One group that stands out is TheClimateCommunity.com! They do an amazing job engaging young people to take action.

Watch our video as we tell you all about the site & how passionate they are about our cause.

Watch More Videos! 



Learn more about TheClimateCommunity.com!

 

Congratulations to Archibald England this weeks Climate Community Citizen of the Week!

Archibald is a student at The University of Chicago and participated in our recent Chicago Challenge. In the Challenge students were asked to comment on the proposition: Agree or Disagree: The United States should end ALL fossil fuel subsidies. The entire question can be found at Citizen of the Week Special Contest and was posted by another one of our winners Kyle Gracey who is a teaching assistant to Professor Sabina Shaikh (one of our founders and authors).

The following is the answer that Archibald submitted:

 Agree: Fossil fuels create negative externalities in production and consumption, with this cost coming in a range of forms, from greenhouse gases that exacerbate the problem of climate change to air pollution in urban areas that have health implications. Between 2002 and 2008, $72.5 billion was spent on fossil fuel subsidies, over double the $29 billion spent on renewable energy subsidies. Ending subsidies would allow the total cost of energy to the individual, and society as a whole, equate (or at least more closely reflect) to the actual price. It is established economic fact that by subsidizing fossil fuels more heavily, they become relatively cheaper as a source of energy than renewables. By banning all fossil fuel subsidies, the relative cost of renewable energy will decrease, increasing its consumption while not having the negative externalities associated with fossil fuels.

Yet, the environment is not the only concern that should be considered in this discussion. If we are to assume that the overall goal is to maximize the benefit to American (or world) society, then we must weigh fossil fuels' negative externalities against the benefits of cheaper electricity and the aid that provides to the economy as a whole, particularly manufacturing, as well as the benefits to the individual realized by lower energy bills. Fossil fuels are integral to the U.S. economy, forming 71% of the electricity production and 97% of the transport sector's consumption, and so the removal of subsidies would have a powerful impact on the U.S. economy. Yet, if the payments that account for fossil fuel subsidies were instead transferred to subsidizing renewable sources, then the economic consequences can be somewhat ameliorated, although there would most likely be an increase in costs in the transport sector (although arguably this would be a good thing as true cost would reflect price, and thus people would travel less and produce less emissions, for example).

Since the essence of this debate revolves around what makes most economic sense in the long term, we must consider the economic cost of inaction, with fossil fuel subsidies maintained. The U.S., as the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China, while also providing international leadership should factor the long-term economic cost of emissions from within the U.S., and from the world as a whole. By eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, the U.S. would both reduce national greenhouse gas emissions as consumption decreases, while also making political discussions on emission reduction agreements more likely. The potential economic cost in GDP terms, by 2100, is expected to be 3.6% if no action is taken against climate change (National Resources Defense Council). Thus in the context of long term horizons, the economic costs incurred by removing fossil fuel subsidies will likely be dwarfed by the long term costs of failure to act against climate change. Therefore, although the U.S. is currently navigating turbulent economic waters, and the removal of fossil fuel subsidies will apply economic costs across the U.S. economy as energy prices, transportation prices, etc increase, the short-term economic cost borne is a price worth paying to help steer the U.S. economy away from a more dramatic decline caused by the impact of climate change in the long-term.

To conclude, the impact of climate change in the long-term is huge 3.6% of GDP. Removing fossil fuel subsidies is a key step to reduce the impact of climate change, while also producing benefits in the form of lower health costs, greater energy independence, reduction of acid rain, etc. as consumption of energy from fossil fuels decrease. If we, as Americans, want to seek the least-cost solution to ensuring long-term economic growth in this nation, a repeal of fossil fuel subsidies is an important, and necessary step; who knows, it may even spur more international action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

We would like the thank all those who participated!

Learn more about Allisyn & Become part of the community & learn more by visiting The Climate Community. 

In my next few posts, I'll be walking you through how to build a profitable website that can be green as well as promote your green business, endeavor, networking group, or opportunity.

What we've found at my web development company is that many people who are thinking of creating a website realize that they first need to organize their own content, such as their products list or line item of services, their mission, vision, and values, their contact information, and their about page.

We've found that planning to create a website actually helps you plan out your own business model.

Recently, we've been utilizing Drupal as a content management system. There are five main reasons we recommend this tool:

1) There are hundreds of available, free modules that have been developed by the Drupal community for you to use

2) It is free and open source to download

3) There are many ways to make this web tools fit your particular needs, depending on what you are promoting or selling

4) The balance of power for your niche market will tip in your favor with a  the search engine optimization inherent in Drupal (do a search for "successful woman" or "green business women" and you'll find my two community sites)

5) There is a learning curve, but once you pass it, you are able to do unlimited options on your site

Examples of ways to integrate Drupal functionality into your site include: 

• Photo albums
  
• Calendar of Events with RSVP
  
• Announcements
  
• Member listings
  
• Trouble tickets
  
• Job board
  
• Private messaging
  
• Member-created groups around topical or industry areas
  
• Mapping through Google Maps, such as creating a map of available properties in an area, or creating a user map of local network members
  
•  Blogs
  
• Forums/discussion boards
  
• "Friendslists"
  
• Facebook-style "wall" functionality
  
• User points for participation
  
• Comments, reviews, and star ratings 
  
• E-commerce

and the list goes on.

If you are interested in some of the capacity of Drupal, I invite you to review my slideshow with some samples.

http://www.slideshare.net/monicadear/samples-of-drupal-functionality-sm

Consider what would be beneficial in developing a member community around your particular niche interest. For example, you could allow participation for free but users who want additional access to members-only items must pay an additional fee. Or, you may offer micropayments for access to some functionality: a user may have to purchase "credit" with you in order to participate in some section of the site.

The sky is the limit with this powerful tool.

Social Networking for Women in Business, 136 pages of tips on managing your social media.

Use discount code begreengirl to download the e-version for $5.99: all major credit cards accepted.


Monica S. Flores @monicadear is committed to educating, empowering, and connecting women in business. She is available for consulting on web development through 10K Webdesign. She believes in the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profits. 

This past Monday was my first, official, voyage into the ocean of possible wedding planning. Although we have not yet figured out a wedding date, I received an invitation to this event and decided to go and see what I might find.



Copper-Willow is what they call an Eco-Luxe Letterpress studio. They specialize in special occasion invitations, most notably weddings. They use eco-friendly papers, all of which are a minimum of 30% recycled content up to 100% recycled content and are FSC or Green Seal approved. Copper-Willow also offers tree-free papers and inks are soy based.

 

Copper-Willow started out by the wives, (Leora and Jill) of two best friends coming together to create a business they felt good about which would also allow them to raise a family. Now on board is one of the ladies mother, Susan, offering a creative alternative to fresh flowers for events. Susan can make flowers out of eco-friendly papers, such as papers made from mulberry. The paper flowers hold up better on cakes (don't wilt). If they get squashed, they can be re-fluffed. And they have a MUCH longer life span than traditional flowers so brides can keep their bouquets and pass them down. Although there is a chemical process you can do to preserve fresh bouquets, chemicals are not a green girl move and by Susan's own personal experience, they don't preserve color (possibly turning the flowers brown in the process) whereas the color is preserved with the paper bouquets.

One of Susan's selling points to the possible brides that night was that she can re-create bouquets from pictures, so if a bride went with a fresh bouquet, she could then have it re-created (and therefore preserved for memories) after the wedding, and paper bouquets make probably the best kind of bouquet for the toss. She can of course make table decorations, hair pieces for the bridal party, and boutineers for the groomsmen and groom. She also has a special flower she can make by recycling save the date cards!

You can reach Susan through Copper-Willow Eco-Luxe Studio.

You can follow me on Twitter @GreenGeisha

Learn more about Janine at Green Wave

We are living at the dawn of a New Era, a time in history where we have never had this much access to information and technology as well as native cultures from all regions of the world.  
 

photo via thegardenroomguide

With the evolution of design, building and architecture, we have an unprecedented amount of responsibility considering the state of our natural world.  Globally, the earth is changing at a dramatic rate, human population continues to grow exponentially and we continue to tap our natural resources.      With the evolution of modern technology and intuitive living, we can shift from a society that extracts to one that is regenerative and in turn is balanced.    By incorporating, site location, human scale, and natural elements such as, weather patterns and local materials into the design of buildings, we can begin to return to a localized way of designing our communities.      For the past several decades, we have been using templates of cookie cutter homes, buildings and commercial structures to design our urban cities.  What we have discovered is that every region is specific with its own climate, topography and natural resources.  Beginning to integrate all these elements, in addition to, the orientation, the design, materials, and culture of a place we can we begin Designing for a New Era.  Design can be defined as the creation and execution of an object, space or system. In its broader terms, it has the capacity to represent many things, in this context design is not only referencing our homes and workplace, but also to our landscapes our neighborhoods and in turn our cities.

In taking a journey through design, we begin with the interior and work our way out, painting a picture on how everything is interrelated. 
 

Often times, sustainable design is not seen, but rather it is felt. Now is a time to see interior design as a hybrid of combining such key components as green building and design as well as ecological interior and exterior spaces. 
 

One of the biggest problems we face are environmental toxins, chemicals and other materials, created largely from industry, masked as dryer sheets, smoke, scented candles, antibacterial products, air fresheners, cleaners, furniture, deodorizers, cat litter, sprays, perfume/cologne and synthetic fibers. 
 

These chemicals have saturated our water, food and the very air we breathe, but most important, they have entered our bodies and now we are passing this on to our children.   
 

So, what is in our interiors? 
 
 

•   Phthalates – Found in plastics, plastic wrap, plastic bottles, plastic food containers and fragrances
•    Phenols – Found in household cleaners, perfumes, polishes, waxes and hard plastics.
•   Urea Formaldehyde – Found in furniture, carpets, upholstery, plastics, building materials and foam insulation.
•   Biological Pollutants – Found in dust, mold and mildew.
•   Organochlorine Compounds – Found in pesticides, chlorine, paints, waxes, plastics, PVC and vinyl.
•   VOC   : volatile organic compounds – Found in paint, furniture and carpeting.
•   PBDE : polybrominated diphenyl ethers - Found in flame retardants found in furniture, soft furnishings and electronics.

Many of these chemicals are not only found in our living environment, but have made their way into our food supply through the various natural cycles found in life. 
 

Common practice uses a variety of chemicals in our soft furnishings, carpeting, electronics and fabrics; information that should encourage us to be as discerning as possible.  It is key to eliminate these chemicals, in addition to, a host of many others that have never been tested for their toxicity levels to human life.   
 

These days there are material and product selection for all things green. Consult your experts and always source products that are built to last, made properly, non-toxic and healthy. 
 

There is a new approach to the conventional way of designing and building that incorporates new ways of thinking, in a more fundamental manner, such as incorporating lifecycle analysis as well as form and function, amongst so much more. 
 

Let us start designing and creating a future that does not require purchasing food, clothing and furniture that does not have chemicals in them, but rather making sustainability standard practice and green building and designing becoming a way of life.

For more on Nancy, visit Astrid Design Studio