Thursday, 03 Mar 2005

Should enviros trade in their Birkenstocks for Manolo Blahniks? Writer Lou Bendrick thinks so. Gently used Manolos, at least. And she argues that if they did, they might get a little more respect. In making her case, she points to Condoleezza Rice's sexy Matrix-style duds, mannequins in cat suits, and one savvy Green politician's Trojan horse tactics. Bendrick hands out fashion advice and backhands activists who refuse to retire their flannel -- in Soapbox, today on the Grist Magazine website.

You Say Tomato, I Say Hidden Costs of Transport

Locally grown food greener than organic, British study says

Though organic farming is relatively easy on the environment, buying locally grown food, even the pesticide-sprayed variety, is usually more earth-friendly than buying organic, a new study contends. Published in the journal Food Policy, the study found that the transportation of food over long distances -- anywhere outside a 12-mile radius -- can cause more harm than the growing of food with non-organic methods. Researchers calculated the hidden costs of farming and food transport and found that the U.K. would save some $4 billion a year in environmental and traffic costs if all food consumed was locally grown, and an additional $2.1 billion a year if all food were grown organically. The study authors called on supermarkets to label items with the number of "food miles" they travel to get to the store. "The most political act we do on a daily basis is to eat, as our actions affect farms, landscapes, and food businesses," said study coauthor Jules Pretty of the University of Essex.


After receiving piles of letters from American readers wanting to join her in fleeing the U.S., and piles of letters from Canuck readers welcoming her to the land of curling and, well, that other stuff Canada is famous for, Umbra decides it's time to come clean to her readers and Canadian immigration officials about her move north. Find out what all the fuss is aboot -- in Ask Umbra, today on the Grist Magazine website.

AAA for Effort

Legislation would force EPA to get realistic about fuel-efficiency stats

A bill debuting in Congress today would require the U.S. EPA to revamp its gas-mileage tests to more accurately reflect real-world driving conditions. Currently the EPA determines mileage ratings for vehicles by using 30-year-old tests that allow vehicle engines to get warm, never push the speed above 60 mph, never run the air conditioning, and never accelerate quickly. Enviro groups have long argued for reform of the tests, but now the bill has garnered the support of behemoth auto club AAA, which has conducted its own tests and found that the EPA is overestimating average gas mileage for several vehicle models, sometimes by almost 10 miles per gallon. The AAA's test, though not scientific, involves drivers around the country "getting groceries, getting stuck in traffic jams, driving the same way you would," says AAA spokesdude Mantill Williams. Now if only AAA would stop lobbying for more highways and fewer emissions standards ...

The Cradle-to-Cradle Will Rock

Smart, eco-friendly design making inroads in the business community

The seminal 2002 book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, by architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart, inspired a slogan for 21st century designers: "Pollution is a symbol of design failure." They proposed that every material used in manufacturing should be capable of either biodegrading harmlessly into the soil or returning with no loss of quality into the manufacturing process. More and more businesses are embracing the C2C concept, for economic as well as environmental reasons. Office design company Herman Miller Inc. hopes to have 50 percent of its products meet C2C specs by 2010. Carpet maker Shaw Industries now offers to pick up and recycle all of its carpet tiles, reducing both waste and money spent on new materials. Office furniture company Steelcase has released "Think," a 99 percent recyclable office chair. Going C2C is getting easier, too, as industry introduces new eco-friendly materials and economies of scale push the prices down. As that happens, more companies, says Shaw's Steven Bradfield, "will quietly adopt this as a basic business practice."