Sustainability

  • Green Shopping Bags

    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…

  • Thoughts for a Green Consumer

    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…

  • A Truly Green Lawn

    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…

  • Joe Edwards: Community Champion

    It’s hard to tell the story of Joe Edwards without going back to what originally made him famous:  Blueberry Hill restaurant and music club in the Delmar Loop in University City.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…

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    Global Tree House

    The past few months we’ve been exploring different opportunities to embrace sustainability.  We examined a number of trendsetting advances in Germany that can be applauded and built upon, including an energy independent community and an ultra-efficient home that produces enough energy to also charge an electric vehicle. One thing that many Americans have come to…

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    Energy Independent Community

    Sustainability is generally defined as “meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”  Our abundant fossil fuel resources have been an enormous energy reserve that we’ve been able to use to build and grow with, and yet we have to recognize the finite nature of those fuels.  Debates may…