The Brighter Planet Blog

Ditching your car for pedal power just got way easier.  Google announced today that they’ve added bicycling directions to Google Maps.  In doing so, they’ve helped to eliminate one of the biggest obstacles to getting people in the saddle — finding safe and easy routes through hilly, traffic-choked landscapes.

The new feature avoids roads that are unsuitable for biking, prioritizes flat and quiet routes, and unveils a new map notation that identifies in various shades of green bike-only trails, roads with dedicated bike lanes, and roads without bike lanes that are preferred for cycling.

The network of bike-only trails (more than 12,000 miles of them across the country), which was added in collaboration with Rails-to-Trails, is especially impressive, and especially appreciated.  I’ve already found bike paths in my area that I never knew existed.

I can’t wait to put this tool to the test, both for transportation and for recreation.  It couldn’t be a better time of year for this feature to launch, either, as thoughts around here are beginning to turn from skiing to biking.

We all know cycling is an environmental boon, but let’s not forget it’s also a joy — here’s a refreshing video we made on biking for biking’s sake:

A Reason to Bike from Brighter Planet on Vimeo.

–Matthew

In November, in response to a lack of good data about emerging employee sustainability engagement programs, we conducted a survey to get a snapshot of what’s going on in this space.  Last week, we presented some of our findings from that study as part of a webinar roundtable hosted by our friends at the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF).

Now, we’re pleased to see another clear-headed analysis being added to the growing buzz about employee engagement, this in the form of a report recently released by NEEF themselves, entitled “The Business Case for Environmental and Sustainability Employee Education.”

The white paper does a great job highlighting real world examples of companies that are frontrunners in employee sustainability.  Our partner Stonyfield Farms, for example, “challenged its employees to save energy at the company’s facilities. Savings were tied to employee bonuses for all workers, providing additional motivation. The company achieved its annual goal, reducing company energy use (per ton of product) by over 22 percent.”

But as NEEF points out in the report, sustainability practices and engaged employees can build major value for the bootom line, not just for the environment.  They identify six business benefits of employee sustainability programs:  improving operational efficiency, strengthening customer relations, innovation, supply chain management, strengthening community ties, and attracting and retaining employees.

You’ll find the full report on the NEEF website.

Recently we put out a white paper called, “The American Carbon Foodprint: Understanding and Reducing your Food’s Impact on Climate Change.” A couple of days ago Treehugger picked it up and wrote a brief post. Quickly a discussion started.

Is it better to be a vegetarian or a bicyclist? Are fresh vegetables more harmful than frozen meat? If a chicken eats broccoli, and then I eat the chicken, have I eaten chicken and broccoli or just chicken?

Some felt that bio-digesting cow manure makes red meat climate friendly. Others thought bio-digesting cow manure was absurd and gross. One felt that algae could save us all. Another thought the electric car could beat a hundred vegans in a race to the farmers market.

Some don’t believe in greenhouse gases; some do believe, but still can’t help buying avocados out of season from South America. They’re just too tasty.

Everyone of us has a distinct and personal story that informs our choices about what food we eat. I think those quirky personal stories are wonderful and important. If anyone reading this has a story about why you love food, or where you imagine it comes from, or how you secretly love fresh strawberries in the middle of winter even though it makes you feel guilty for days… please post it here.

I’ll start by posting a video about eggs. When I imagine cheap eggs, the ones in the grocery store from who-knows-where, this is what I see.

Watch the video at Vimeo.

-Daniel

There’s been a lot of buzz about the Olympic Games’ environmental impact. Carbon-conscious critics rightly point out that developing new infrastructure, powering these facilities, and supporting an influx of athletes and spectators adds enormous environmental pressures.

We went straight to the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) sustainability report to understand what their efforts to “green” this year’s competitions entail. Though a final review of the environmental actions taken by VANOC won’t be released until later this year, their most recent report illuminates their unprecedented commitment.

In fact, it turns out that the approach they adopted this year—which involves measuring their impact as best they can, reducing this impact whenever possible, and offsetting what they cannot cut—is the same approach we embrace here at Brighter Planet.

To reduce unnecessary emissions, VANOC and their partners selected and planned their venue sites to minimize their energy requirements and the need to travel between locations. They encouraged attendees to use expanded public transportation.

They adhered to sustainable design principles when building new infrastructure. The Richmond Olympic Oval, for example, host of the speed-skating events, boasts a ceiling of reclaimed British Columbia wood that had been infected by pine beetles. Its enormous roof harvests rainwater, much of which then irrigates surrounding vegetation or supplements toilet flushing. Its waste heat reuse system captures heat released when making ice and directs this energy to provide hot water. The space was also designed with flexibility in mind and can be used later by Richmond and the Paralympic games.

Overall, VANOC estimates that their initiatives have reduced the carbon footprint of the Games by 15 percent (that’s 57,000 tonnes of carbon emissions over business-as-usual)!  To meet their goal of carbon neutrality, the committee partnered with sponsors and a local British Columbia company to offset the Games’ direct emissions, projected to be 118,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents.

Spectators traveling to and from events are encouraged by Olympic athletes with Project Blue Sky to reduce and offset their indirect emissions.  Venue Energy Tracker charts the real-time energy consumption of the Games’ major facilities and compares this use with the amount that would have been incurred without the new sustainability strategies.

Overall, it’s uplifting to see that an operation as complex as the Olympics can be addressed with the same simple approach—measure, reduce, offset—we’re honing here. The precedent established by these Games is one that we should uphold even after the closing ceremony; let’s take it upon ourselves to maintain that momentum.

As always, we’d also love to hear your thoughts on the matter (especially if you’ve been lucky enough to have experienced these efforts on the ground in Vancouver)! Join the conversation here or on Twitter…

–Jessica

The Super Bowl wasn’t the only win for New Orleans this month – when polls closed on Monday night, Historic Green’s Spring Greening ended up with a whopping total of 3,931 votes. The Brighter Planet community has spoken – Historic Green New Orleans will now receive a $5,000 grant to fund a ten day volunteer event. The event will coordinate volunteers to work on implementing energy saving strategies in homes in the area, as well as three separate project sites. They will help build a LEED platinum certified community resource center, install recycled covering and renewable lighting at a local playground, and assist the Sierra Club with a clean-up and restoration effort at a swamp that is critical to stormwater retention.

There was a total of 11,036 votes cast this month for nine projects from six different states. Other projects in the running included a project in Boulder, CO to publish a homeowner’s guide to fight climate change at home with a garden, a renewable energy battery pack for the Women’s Prayer Lodge in Busby, MT, and a magazine by WorldChanging to advocate for climate-neutral cities.

Stay tuned for the March round of the Project Fund – voting will open again on March 1st!

-Matt V