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…
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…
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…
Most people would love the possibility of having a clean, renewable energy system that produces all of their electricity. As utility rates continue to climb, our summer electric bills have gotten our attention and seem to scream for an alternative solution. Many people are discovering that solar electric systems are well suited to accomplish this…
Legislators have long used a variety of incentives and disincentives to encourage or discourage certain behaviors. Subsidies, like tax credits and loan guarantees, help jumpstart and grow new businesses. Taxes, penalties and outright bans make it uncomfortable or illegal to continue doing what we’ve done in the past. So when the federal government banned the…
For those of you who’ve been following my blog or Going Green column for a while, you may recall the success story on home energy efficiency I wrote about late last year. Since our first energy audit in 2007, we’ve made a number of improvements to our home to reduce the amount of energy we…
Last month Los Angeles became the largest city to adopt a ban on plastic bags. For some, this may seem like a harsh and overly restrictive regulation that is at least inconvenient. We’ve come to expect retailers to provide free paper or plastic bags for us to carry out our consumables, and this new restriction…
I attended my daughter’s high school baccalaureate tonight. Unfortunately my daughter couldn’t attend, because she graduated early and is working as an au pair in France. I found myself lamenting that my oldest child, now a young adult of eighteen, wasn’t able to hear the heartwarming and inspiring words of her school’s administrators, teachers and…
We Americans certainly love our lawns. The small yards of urban dwellings have grown into relatively common quarter-acre lots, and larger homes often rest on sprawling plots of land that are 2-4 times that size. Corporate properties sport lush lawns and landscapes that offer a country club quality. In total, we have over 40 million…
It’s hard to tell the story of Joe Edwards without going back to what originally made him famous: Blueberry Hill restaurant and music club in the Delmar Loop in University City. At a time when this once-popular business district was in an alarming state of dilapidation, Joe Edwards took a big risk to invest in…
