IntelEfficient

“You are what you eat.”  We’ve all heard this, and yet most of us never read the ingredients in the foods we eat.  And if we do, we have little awareness of whether the ingredients are harmful or not.  Our bodies are amazingly resilient, and can survive repeated exposure to unhealthy substances.  And yet we wonder why, in spite of the advances in modern medicine, we continue to suffer from chronic conditions.

Organic food is getting more attention these days as people are taking a more thoughtful look at what they’re eating.  For most of my life, I simply trusted that if it’s on the shelves of the grocery store, it must have passed some sort of test of the FDA or the USDA, which have been granted the authority to monitor and regulate the safety our food supply.  While I’m not completely cynical about the good work that these organizations do, I have little confidence that they are acting in the best interest of consumers – particularly as the food industry seems to have a virtual revolving door into their offices. Continue reading →

In thinking about how to live a more sustainable lifestyle, many of us are drawn to a simpler lifestyle.  It is thought that some of the happiest people are those that live with less, like the story of the Mexican fisherman.  In this story, an American tourist coaches a the Mexican on how he could turn his small-time fishing operation into a huge empire, and after 25 years of industrious work, could retire with his fortune – living exactly what the Mexican described as his current lifestyle!

John Robbins, heir to the Baskin-Robbins family, walked away from the family business fortune to seek out his own definition of the “good life.”  After graduating from college, he and his wife used personal savings to buy several acres of land on a remote corner of an island off the coast of British Columbia.  They built a small one-room cabin, grew their own food and lived what many might consider a desolate life.  And yet, in looking back on the experience, Robbins recalls with fondness how the beauty and pristine quality of nature enabled them to grow personally.  They embraced yoga and meditation, and each other, in the silent wilderness for ten years. Continue reading →

I am pleased to head up a “Green Team” at our office.  The company I work for, Microgrid Solar, recently moved into a new and much larger office space, so I now have a private office that rivals the home office I’ve been so comfortable in the last few years.  Working everyday with a great team is fun, and I’m honored at the chance to provide some leadership on our sustainability initiatives.

One of our policies is to divert at least 90% of our waste in the office and at job sites, so in the office kitchen, we often have to decide where the trash goes – recycling or landfill?  Given the variety of standards, food packaging is one of the more challenging items to determine whether it goes in the recycling bin or the trash. We are fortunate to have access to a variety of restaurants in Clayton, and we often run out to pick up food and bring it back to eat at the office.  I’m pleased to see more restaurants using recycled and recyclable materials in their packaging, including paper, plastic and foil.  We have single-stream recycling (which means you can throw all recyclables into a single container), but it’s still far from simple when it comes to proper disposal.  Since different waste haulers have different standards, it’s important to check with yours to find out what they’ll accept in the recycling bin. Continue reading →

Several months ago I discovered a book called Just Green It on a friend’s coffee table.  Thumbing through it, I could quickly tell that this was a great resource covering all aspects of our busy lives.  The final hook that begged me to borrow the book was likely the inclusion of one of my favorite quotes from Gandhi – “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Authors Ron and Lisa Beres, founders of GreenNet.com, provide a vast set of “dos and don’ts” to help us navigate an increasingly complex set of consumer choices.  The bulk of the book is in a concise format that shows opposing options.  For each of 100+ product categories, they offer one page, called Green It! that highlights “The Good,” “The Green,” and “The Convenient Truth.”  These pages are filled with facts and recommendations on how to live a more sustainable lifestyle by choosing a greener alternative.  The book promotes a variety of real name-brand products as a service to help consumers identify pre-vetted products.  As busy as we all are, this seems like a great resource to minimize the research necessary to find truly green products. Continue reading →

In October, I scheduled a long overdue quiet retreat.  Years ago I took a similar getaway to do some soul-searching when I was at a crossroads in my career, and found the Vision of Peace Hermitages in Pevely, Missouri, which is about a 30 minute drive south from St. Louis.  On my first trip there in 2003, I spent three days in the quiet surroundings, and so I chose to do another mid-week stint this year.

Of course, it was a prime time of the year for the changing colors of the trees.  Nestled on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, the hermitages are surrounded by privately owned forests of trees.  Most of the hermitages are built into the hill, with the ceiling, floor and three of four walls touching the surrounding earth.  A single exterior face of each hermitage is exposed to the elements, so they are very energy-efficient, requiring little to heat and cool the space. Continue reading →

I guess we should consider ourselves blessed that, in the ten years that we’ve had our golden retriever Shannon, we’ve never had a flea problem.  But this summer, we discovered what a frustrating and challenging problem a flea infestation can be.  We’re not sure who to blame (the groomer?  Another dog?  Life?), but we’ve cursed and sworn that once we get past this, we’ll monitor things much more diligently so we never have such an outbreak.

Our veterinarian, who is a fairly “green” kind of guy, suggested that the most common remedy is to deploy a flea bomb.  Given my predisposition for clean, healthy air, I was certainly reluctant to take this advice, and sought out to find a healthier, non-toxic alternative to solve the problem.  As it turns out, there are a number of more eco-friendly options, although not as convenient as setting off a device that spews a dense cloud of insecticide to cover the entire interior of our home.  Of course the manufacturers of these products will claim that they are safe to use, assuming you follow all of their instructions and leave the house for a few hours while the “dust” settles.  In fact, this poison settles on virtually everything in your home, resulting in what I’d consider a hazardous waste site.  In addition, continued use of these pesticides ultimately leads to higher resistance from pests, which creates a need for even more toxic enhancements.  It’s much healthier to use a holistic approach to the problem. Continue reading →