- green = + green

So I moved into my summer sublet apartment this week, and I have to say that the first thing that I realized is that the best way to make sustainable living popular is through pinching pocketbooks. Oil, water, and electricity costs are sky high, so greenness is not the only thing motivating my roommates and me to flick off the lights, take shorter showers (and turn off the water in between scrubbing), and let the yellow mellow.



Why pay for furniture if we could adopt it? Our couch was so-conveniently left by the road across the street, beds and shelving units were picked up on Craig’s List, the TV was bought from the previous apartment owner, and parents, aunts, and grandparents handed down kitchenware and other miscellaneous items to fill the cabinets.

my t-shirt bags

Oh the joy of being home with nothing to do. Today my friend and I made reusable shopping bags out of old t-shirts! It was quick and easy, and we didn't have to incorporate any new materials. And they are going to be so useful.

50 ways to help the planet

click here for fifty ways to help the planet

home is where the green is

Finals are finally over. Wahoo! Since this blog originally started as a project for a class, it may seem to shift and take new form now that it is truly able to become my own. With that said, let's get back to green business.

Today was my first day back in my home town of Worcester, MA - a historically industrial city that is, today, somewhat rundown (even though it still has its charming parts), and doesn't seem to have too much green about it except for the fact that it happens to be situated in the heart of the great green state of Massachusetts. Still, I spent the day with my sister and my friends romping around the city visiting some old and discovering some new green hot spots along the way.

Even though I put a green theme to every place I went today, what I first realized was how difficulty it is to be true blue green when I am away from my college campus. I can no longer walk everywhere, and although there is some public transit around these parts, it's easy to give into the convenience of driving. Fortunately, I stayed pretty much in the same area all day so we didn't drive too far.

First stop was a lunch date with my sister at the new Asian/vegetarian eatery, Buddha Hut, which opened a few months ago about 2 miles from home for me. (If I didn't have to drive my sister to work right after lunch, I totally would have walked there!) I did wonder however, as I munched on my our veggie lo mein and faux chicken - is eating out or eating in is more sustainable? According to this blogger on Not Eating Out in New York, eating in is much more sustainable than dining out. But I figure, if I'm going to have a special day with my sister and eating out is going to be a part of it, supporting a family-owned, vegetarian restaurant was the way to go. Never mind the fact that the food was delicious (don't worry - those smoothie cups were recyclable).

The next 2 stops were Classic Toy Shop, a local toy store, and Unique Boutique, a vintage/consignment shop just to look around.

Final destination was Tush, a new boutique downtown - and I think one of the only high end clothing stores in the entire city. I had never been and I honestly wasn't planning on going to this designer shop for a while - given the fact that I'm a broke college student and striving to be sustainable shopper. But overall, the experience was a green-heart-warming surprise.

(stay tuned for pictures)

We walked in, and the first shirt that caught my eye was one that read "Little Miss Green." No where on the tag could I find whether the top was made from recycled or organic cotton, but the tag itself was made from 100% recycled paper. At this point I was thinking, OK, probably not going to find anything green here, but then I turned around and spotted some bags on display that looked like they were made from magazines and newspaper. Turns out that they were! The designer, Jen Sherr, a local, uses decoupage techniques to create funky bracelets and decorate shoes and handbags. She also makes really cool bangles. Talk about sustainable style.

Along with Sherr's designs, the store owner told me that all of the jewelry sold in Tush is from local designers. And I was most impressed by an effort by the store to collect old designer jeans that customers no longer wanted. They were offering a rebate for bringing in your reject jeans, and planning to hold a thrift party to re-sell the jeans. The next step is to donate any left over jeans to a local charity come the holidays. It turns out that you don't have to be an ecoboutique to have hints of green.

it's called "smart growth"

Paul Krugman's NY Times column yesterday, "Stranded in Suburbia," highlighted the need in the face of rising gas prices - never mind climate change - for Americans to change our lifestyles - our neighborhoods, our driving habits, etc. I'm with ya pal. It's a concept called Smart Growth, and it's nothing new. There's just finally a real incentive (with a $ value) for it to catch on.

I never thought that I would be giving a little environmental policy lecture in this blog (thanks to my ENSP102 professor I know this stuff), but I think that changing our style of living goes hand in hand with popular culture in that these types of neighborhoods and cities are only going to be built and lived in if the idea gets ... POPULAR, so here it goes. The principles of Smart Growth are as follows:

• mixed land use (allow for residential aka homes, "industrial" aka workplaces, and "commercial" aka shopping in the same zoning areas)
• strengthen and direct development towards existing communities
• take advantage of compact building design (not necessarily all small structures, but houses that are closer together, that use space efficiently and that are are efficiently built)
  
• create a range of housing opportunities and choices
• provide a variety of transportation choices
  
• create walkable neighborhoods
• foster a distinctive sense of place
  

The reason that the first few concepts are bold is because they are exactly what Krugman is writing about - and exactly what our communities need to shift towards if we are going to create a sustainable future. Mixed land use is really the key, especially when it comes to driving less. Think about living on a college campus - minus all of the crazy drunk 18-20 year olds - but for a different stage of life. Everything is pretty close together, and there are pedestrians on every sidewalk. You've got your shopping and you're workplace, and you really don't have to leave too much. And if you do, there's accessible public transportation - at least on my campus - to get you places.

So what does this all have to do with popular culture? Well, if popular culture is an expression of our everyday lives, then what does it NOT have to do with popular culture? Suburbia arose as a popular phenomenon, fueled by affluence and cheap oil. The idea of the LOCAL - community based living where we don't have to drive to the nearest sprawling parking lot / shopping plaza to fulfill basic material needs but can walk there, bike there, take a bus there, bump into our neighbors there, this is where our communities need to be heading. But in order for these communities to be built, people have got to warm up to the idea. And as Krugman points out, maybe our suburbanocentric culture isn't ready for it yet. But if not now, when will the tipping point come?

Check out the trailer to the documentary, "The End of Suburbia." It basically says what I just said in a much more entertaining way.