Sustainability

  • Great Green Resource

    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…

  • Green Getaway

    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…

  • Non-Toxic Flea Control

    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…

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    Achieving Net Zero

    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…

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    Carrots and Sticks

    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…

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    Saving with Solar

    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…