7.29.2010

An open letter to hotels


(hotel name removed to protect the guilty)

Dear Every Hotel I've Ever Stayed In:

Can we talk? I know you claim that you want to help the environment and save resources by reusing towels. That's technically fair, since not washing things means you're not expending the water, electricity, and chemicals to wash and dry those things. Still, I'm going to call bullshit.

Yep. I said it. Your "environmental" claims are a sham, and not the ornamental pillow covering kind, either. I've seen this placard pop up in any number of hotels in the US and internationally. It's fine, and I usually reuse my towels anyway. Still, if you *really* cared about the environment, I'd have seen ONE hotel EVER with recycle bins in the rooms. ONE. EVER. I have not yet encountered this elusive hotel (even in eco-friendly areas), though I hear claims that they exist. Maybe there's one in Shangri-La, and it's staffed by unicorns and happy-faced gnomes.

I mean, it's not like it's much more labor intensive (if at all), and the tipping fees for recyclables are generally cheaper than tipping fees for landfill dumpsters. It's kind of a common sense thing, really.

More than that, you'd also make some effort to have more energy-efficient lighting, and every hotel room I walked into wouldn't be approximately 62 degrees in the summer or 86 degrees in the winter. Seriously. It's downright frigid.

You wouldn't keep your rooms supplied with individually-wrapped disposable nightmares, and you'd have water-efficient shower heads and low-flow toilets, and sink aerators (which I think you might occasionally have, so bravo). And why are none of the appliances in my room Energy-Star? Don't you know you can get tax breaks for Energy-Star compliance?

Anyway, there's a laundry list of other opportunities for you to improve, but for Pete's sake, these are seriously the ones that should be universal.

Anyway, I hope we can work things out.

Sincerely,

Stacie

7.26.2010

I love the smell of old books

but this is pretty stinkin' awesome.

7.19.2010

A few links on sustainability

On the proliferation of green ratings and accreditations, and why they're important despite being confusing. Working for a non-profit that specializes in triple bottom line certifications for small businesses and non-profits, I found this one pretty interesting.

A side-by-side comparison of the Global Reporting Initiative and the Climate Disclosure Project. Sustainability reporting standards can be confusing.

An expose on the waterless urinal, and why it hasn't caught on everywhere.

I often assume other people are familiar with the Life Cycle Analysis, and I'm often quite wrong. Here's 10 thoughts on LCAs.

"I think our problem is going to be: Are six acres enough?"

Fantastic news from out of Cleveland, with land-use management tactics that should be applied in every urban municipality.

7.13.2010

Supply chain, manufacturing, and China

Why one 3PL thinks manufacturing has experienced, and will continue to experience, migration to China.

I think the comment at the bottom of the page is particularly interesting. As Chinese labor strikes, demanding better wages and more just working conditions, and as rent and shipping increase in cost, I wonder how whether more and more manufacturing will come back to the U.S. What will happen if this occurs? Will we face shortages of land and infrastructure? Will we face issues of lost skills in the workforce? According to a recent NYT article, signs point to yes.

At the very least, I should have an interesting career to look forward to as a supply chain professional.

The long-term effects of sleep deprivation

This explains quite a bit about my undergraduate years.

7.09.2010

In less creepy news...

A discussion on how sustainability and energy efficiency are ultimately at odds. While I disagree that energy efficiency does nothing for the environment (the first goal of an individual or organization should always be to reduce), I do agree that the overarching goal should be a move to clean energy.

On that note, a solar plane just completed a history-making 24-hour flight. While this isn't going to revolutionize air travel tomorrow, it points to pretty awesome future potential.

And now, a final note on how the quality and sustainability movements converge. I've sort of hinted at this territory before with logistics quality, and HBR published a nice article on this in April (it's worth checking out), but it bears repeating.

"Uncanny" is perhaps an understatement

A Canadian filmmaker has replaced his eye with a video camera. I'm kind of creeped out that I think it's awesome. So, so awesome. And yet, a shining example of what exactly roboticists mean when they discuss the "Uncanny Valley."

*shudder*

7.07.2010

Paper Life Cycles

CSRwire has published a press release for a new paper life cycle tool. Hopefully, this will be a useful tool for individuals and businesses hoping to go green with their paper, but not necessarily sure how to.

The actual site for The Paper Life Cycle.

This week (or month) in energy

Architecture lust! This drool-inducing new building from the US Department of Energy is to be the largest energy-neutral in the US.

Neat. Forthcoming "nutrition" labels on lighting are pretty useful, informative, and just cool in a totally geeky way.

A quick bit from the place where I'm doing my fellowship on conducting energy audits.

Starting in fall or spring, Durham Tech will be offering cleantech classes. Eventually, this will turn into a certificate program, for people who aren't already electricians. I'm pretty excited; hopefully it's cheaper than the program at NC State.

7.04.2010

Happy 4th of July

In its honor, an ode to what makes me love my country, and what makes me miss it while I'm gone--diversity.

In that vein, I'd like to share a brief post on English acquisition by foreign-born individuals. Pretty concise.

As one who has traveled through more than a couple of countries, openly as an American, it really grinds my gear to hear Americans scoff "Learn to speak English!" Generally, they'll say this of people who a) already speak English, but with a noticeable accent, b) can't understand their own dialectic English, or c) look brown.

Having traveled in other countries, I've found almost every region outside th U.S. to be quite encouraging of foreigners (especially Americans) who try to speak their native tongues. In Spanish-speaking countries, every person is a Spanish teacher. What's more, they'll laugh *with* you, rather than sneering about your choppy textbook grammar.

Moreover, having worked alongside a number of immigrants (especially Spanish-speakers and Asians), I can tell you that most of them are trying hard to learn English, but may have limited time (2 or more jobs) or resources (frequently minimum wage) to take formal classes. Often, they learn English from their children.

I find it somewhat ironic that in a nation characterized by its diversity, we can be so uptight about our language. This wrongheaded notion of a great "melting pot" leads to a devaluation of what makes our nation truly impressive--that so many cultures can coexist, pretty much as one.

Anyway, this graph is a nice exposition on why ignorant people shouldn't make assumptions about people's ability to speak English or efforts toward learning it.

7.02.2010

Durham cares

No, not the (quite neat) charity, which matches individuals interested in volunteering with charities and non-profits based on skill/interest matching.

Rather, I'm referring to a pride-swelling summation from former DCVB-head Reyn Bowmann on the state of giving-through-volunteerism in Durham. As far as personal volunteerism is concerned, Durham is close to the top of the state in percent of citizens actively volunteering (33.3% to Asheville's 36.5%), but the tops in average number of volunteer hours per person (an impressive 49.4 hours averaged per person, versus the national average of 34.4 and North Carolina average of 30.6).

See the original (national) report here.

7.01.2010

Capital Q

Last post of the day, I promise. Well, okay, I don't promise, but I'll cross my fingers on your behalf.

I sometimes get a little annoyed at the LGB community for forgetting the T's and us Q's. Q's--generally accepted as "Queer," sometimes stated as "Questioning"--don't really fit in the fairly binary boxes of L, G, or B. Likewise with T's, but as an outsider, I don't feel qualified to speak on their behalf today.

Anyway, that's really just a side rant.

In Queer news, I wanted to share a couple of links here.

First, a post from Offbeat Bride on the crossroads between heteronormative expectations and Queer identity in the wedding planning process. As a Queer female who married a Queer male, and who was pronounced married by Luke Skywalker in front of an abandoned building while dressed as Mr. and Ms. Pac Man, I totally get this. My partner and I wanted to break from the normative politics of a traditional wedding. Mostly, though, we wanted to have fun.

Still, we were pressured into paying for catering rather than having a pot luck or going Dutch, guilted into sending paper invites by expectations of some attendees, and instructed to have a gift registry (we hadn't wanted gifts, but figured we could have the option of charitable donations). Moreover, as the wedding got closer, the stress of planning a "real" wedding started to hit. This wedding was supposed to be fun, like having a party; why had that changed?

Anyway, it's worth a read, and made me think a lot about Queer identity and the way it can be hard to reconcile with the institution of marriage. Which we already knew, but despite our feelings on marriage--and especially on the lack of marriage rights for all--US immigration laws wouldn't acknowledge our partnership without a certificate. So, anyway, we figured we'd make a big old Queer spectacle of it and try to preserve our own values while still honoring the commitment asked of us.

Bit I digress...

The second link is just a pretty awesome link someone shared with me about an international Queer film festival in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. I really appreciate the way foreign films tend to deal with LGBTQ issues more intricately, and with less stereotyping, and I'm excited to see how many of these films I can find on Netflix and online.

Learn Chinese

That's what I'm thinking I'll need to do in order to work in cleantech. This isn't meant as a derogatory statement, since I've been incredibly impressed by China's sustainability efforts. Still, cleantech is shaping up to be the Millenials' Cold War.

Case in point, China, who five years ago wasn't even on the figurative map of wind producers, just jumped past Germany to the number two spot. Now at 25.9 gigawatts of installed capacity--DOUBLE its installed capacity in 2008--China stands poised to give the US--at just over 35 gigawatts--a run for its money.

Coupled with this April 2010 article from The Economist on the emergence of developing countries as innovation centers (rather than mere production centers), we could be looking at an impending shakedown and restructuring of the global economy.

...and now, in green news

The webinar mentioned in my previous post, plus a few more from GreenBiz.com

First up, a piece on IBM's fairly aggressive energy and waste reduction efforts. Pretty impressive, on the whole. Once again, business is proving that sustainable practices can be profitable.

Second, a pretty interesting piece on some changes at Ford Motor Co. Namely, that they're using more soy foam in car production, with especial interest in compostable foam. Pretty neat stuff, and it indicates to me they ought to have started in this direction a long dang time ago.

Finally, a piece from Interface, Inc--a really progressive carpet manufacturer whose aim is to go zero-waste over time--on 10 tips for making sustainability a core value in your organization. Much of it has already been said, but I like having things in tidy lists.