#esavestheworld

lunasays:

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have beenopened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it’s not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer

We Are Family
Humanity

When it comes to our families, we sometimes see only our differences. We see the way our parents cling to ideas we don’t believe, or act in ways we try not to act. We see how practical one of our siblings is and wonder how we can be from the same gene pool. Similarly, within the human family we see how different we are from each other, in ways ranging from gender and race to geographical location and religious beliefs. It is almost as if we think we are a different species sometimes. But the truth is, in our personal families as well as the human family, we really are the same.

A single mother of four living in Africa looks up at the same stars and moon that shine down on an elderly Frenchman in Paris. A Tibetan monk living in India, a newborn infant in China, and a young couple saying their marriage vows in Indiana all breathe the same air, by the same process. We have all been hurt and we have all cried. Each one of us knows how it feels to love someone dearly. No matter what our political views are, we all love to laugh. Regardless of how much or how little money we have, our hearts pump blood through our bodies in the same way. With all this in common, it is clear we are each individual members of the same family. We are human.

Acknowledging how close we all are, instead of clinging to what separates us, enables us to feel less alone in the world. Every person we meet, see, hear, or read about, is a member of our family. We are truly not alone. We also begin to see that we are perfectly capable of understanding and relating to people who, on the surface, may seem very different from us. This awareness prevents us from disconnecting from people on the other side of the tracks, and the other side of the world. We begin to understand that we must treat all people for what they are—family.

From dailyom.com

From Environmental Leader:

November 25, 2009

The city of Boston continues its “green” city initiatives to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by upgrading streetlights with new light-emitting diode (LED) lighting on the Boston Common. The city recently installed LED lights along the “Mayor’s Walk” to showcase the technology and solicit community input.

Boston has also joined the national LED City program, an international initiative led by Cree, a manufacturer of LED lighting, to promote energy-efficient LED lighting. LED streetlights use less than half of the energy and last three to four times longer than traditional streetlights, which reduce replacement costs and the incidence of unlit streets, according to the city.

Currently, Boston’s streetlights generate 24,000 tons of carbon (CO2e) emissions annually, which accounts for about 8 percent of all municipal emissions. By converting to LED technology the city estimates it would cut its emissions from streetlights by about half.

It’s also expected to reduce lighting costs. As an example, more than 11,000 traffic signals and 1,800 pedestrian crossing lights in Boston were gradually replaced with LEDs over the past ten years, which has saved the city nearly $400,000 annually in energy costs.

Other cities across the nation are also making the move to LED lighting to reduce cost, energy and carbon emissions. As an example, the city of Flint, Michigan, which was recently awarded a $1.1-million stimulus grant for energy-efficient improvements, plans to spend part of the money on a streetlight LED retrofit, reports MLive.com.

In February, the city of Los Angeles announced it was spending $57 million to retrofit 140,000 streetlights with LED bulbs, which was touted as the nation’s biggest lighting retrofit programs.

Federal stimulus funding also produced a flurry of LED streetlight retrofits across the nation including in Seattle, Wash., Arlington Heights, Ill., and Boise, Idaho.

melaniedreser:

Sustainability
· Meeting present needs without compromising future generations
· Creating a system that can continue

Threefold Model
· ecological sustainability: sustain environment and nature for future generation
(diversity of species, climate protection, economical and considerate exploitation of land)
· economical sustainability: subsistence strategy: lastig, stable foundation for acquisition and prosperity, protection of economic resources from exploitation
· social sustainability: participation of all members in the society, balance of social forces; lasting, sustainable, worth living society

With True Blue, we also add Cultural Sustainability - noting the importance of preserving the arts, traditions, and indigenous cultures in our everyday life!

‘Mons Lavabo’ Eco-Friendly Sink Helps Kids Save Water While Washing Hands Gallery via www.inhabitots.com

Exhibit A:
via Inhabitat

Plans for the Green George W. Bush Presidential Center Released

“All U.S. Presidents get a center named after them upon completion of their term in the White House, and George W. is no exception. Plans for his presidential center were just revealed, and considering how energy efficient his ranch in Crawford is, it really should come as no surprise that the new center is chock full of green design elements. To be located on the edge of the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, Texas, the George W. Bush Presidential Center will serve as a commemoration of all of his accomplishments [insert joke here].
…
Regardless of the architecture, we’re pleased to report that the building is aiming for LEED Platinum certification and is expected to open in 2013. The center will be very energy efficient and feature green roofs, photovoltaic panels, and extensive use of recycled materials throughout. Additionally, a large garden, designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, on the campus will be full of drought-tolerant native grasses, plants and wildflowers which will not be mowed, and water runoff will be harvested for irrigation purposes. The garden will also serve as a test bed for drought-tolerant turf grasses for Texas.”

Exhibit B:
via TreeHugger

“Only your dispassionate Canadian correspondent could write this without colour or favour, but is it possible that George Bush is a secret Green? Evidently his Crawford Winter White House has 25,000 gallons of rainwater storage, gray water collection from sinks and showers for irrigation, passive solar, geothermal heating and cooling. “By marketplace standards, the house is startlingly small,” says David Heymann, the architect of the 4,000-square-foot home. “Clients of similar ilk are building 16-to-20,000-square-foot houses.” Furthermore for thermal mass the walls are clad in “discards of a local stone called Leuders limestone, which is quarried in the area. The 12-to-18-inch-thick stone has a mix of colors on the top and bottom, with a cream- colored center that most people want. “They cut the top and bottom of it off because nobody really wants it,” Heymann says. “So we bought all this throwaway stone. It’s fabulous. It’s got great color and it is relatively inexpensive.” Hmm, back to that vote about the Greenest President? ::off Grid via ::EcoRazzi”

Went last night to the film premiere: Sustainability in South America.  The evening was a fantastic compilation of short documentary films, produced by the ever inspiring Green Living Project - with Rob Holmes at the helm - documenting sustainable work being done in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador - and some deviation up to the newer North American projects in Maine.  It took place at Eastern Mountain Sports in Soho (Broadway and Spring), with beer provided by Brooklyn Brewery (<3!). 

I didn’t win the raffle, which was a number of outdoorsy items provided by the store and two 4-day trips in Ecuador.  DAMN.

I’m so enamored with Green Living Project because they are so brilliant in their project management.  Instead of constantly trekking to all four corners of the earth, they take their time to develop projects that are relatively close to each other, consolidating time, resources and manpower in the filming of their subjects.  They ingeniously tie in smart corporate sponsors to promote fantastic non-profits worldwide, essentially using the money of the rich to “feed” the poor… persay.

You can see the S.A. docs online - they’re fantastic, inspiring and informational - and short… here’s a few:

Cristalino Jungle Lodge

ACA Brazil Nuts

Maquipucuna Foundation

Mountain Lodges of Peru

Tierra del Volcan

Macy’s and Schneider National - a provider of transportation and logistics - released the results of their participation in the Empty Miles Service, a program that maximizes efficiency by filling one company’s empty trucks with another company’s cargo. Macy’s has reduced annualized transportation costs by $25,000 for each lane opened to the program. Schneider reports saving 5,554 gallons of fuel and increasing dedicated “backhaul” revenue on specific accounts by 25 percent.

(From Saatchi S - Strategy for Sustainability November 2009 newsletter)

http://www.vics.org/join/about-vics/emptymiles/