A couple of months ago the Green Buildings Discussion Group of the New York Academy of Sciences hosted a panel discussion titled Achieving Urban Infrastructure Efficiencies Through Building Networks. The link to the Academy eBriefing was just posted last month and you can find the audio and slides from the discussion under the “Media” tab of the eBriefing. At this event, experts focused on the idea that realizing the full urban potential for deep energy reductions will require a reconceptualization of urban infrastructure: we must begin to think of cities not as collections of discrete buildings but as networks of buildings that can share information and better manage resources collectively.

We produce a lot of waste. In 2008 alone, Americans generated 250 million tons of trash, and though about a third of that was recycled, a lot went into landfills or was incinerated. Our culture is centered around disposability, and only we have the power to change that.

Take stock of the disposable, overly-packaged, and single-use products that you use, and then look for reusable alternatives. Not sure where to start? Here are more than two dozen items that many people use . . . and can easily live without.

25 Wasteful Things You Can Live Without:

1. Tin foil — Use an oven-safe pot or dish with a lid.
2. Plastic wrap — Instead, use a container with a lid.
3. Disposable cleaning cloths, dusters, etc. — Use a microfiber cloth that can be washed.
4. Paper towels — Use a tea towel, instead.
5. Disposable pens — Buy a good pen that only needs the ink well changed

Rest

On April 12, 5:30-7pm, the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and the Cherokee Gives Back organization present a conversation (in person or via webcast) with William McDonough, author of Cradle to Cradle, Remaking the Way We Make Things

CRADLE TO CRADLE’S® TRIPLE TOP LINE: GROWING THE ECONOMY, THE ECOLOGY AND SOCIAL REVENUES.

Welcome and introduction by Thomas F. Darden, CEO of Cherokee Investment Partners – Koury Auditorium, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School – registration site

William McDonough is a world-renowned architect and designer and winner of three U.S. presidential awards: the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development (1996), the National Design Award (2004); and the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (2003). Time magazine recognized him as a “Hero for the Planet” in 1999, stating that “his utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that—in demonstrable and practical ways—is changing the design of the world.”

Mr. McDonough is the founding principal of William McDonough + Partners, Architecture and Community Design, an internationally recognized design firm practicing ecologically, socially, and economically intelligent architecture and planning in the U.S. and abroad. He is also the cofounder and principal, with German chemist Michael Braungart, of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), which employs a comprehensive Cradle to Cradle design protocol to chemical benchmarking, supply-chain integration, energy and materials assessment, clean-production qualification, and sustainability issue management and optimization.

More about William McDonough

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COLUMBIA, SC – March 10, 2011 –  Amid blue bins and carts, schoolchildren with signs, economic impact posters, artwork, and about seventy-five attendees; political, recycling-industry and conservation leaders promoted a new ABC recycling bill and announced the economic impact of recycling to the state earlier today in the lobby of the Statehouse.

Senator Ray Cleary (R-Georgetown) discussed his bill (S.461) which calls for establishments that are permitted for on-site consumption of alcohol to implement a recycling program in the next two years for plastic, corrugated cardboard, aluminum and glass.

Rest at http://midlandsbiz.com/articles/7496

Martin LaMonica has posted an interesting article / video at CNET Green Tech about an “ecoATM” – check it out here!

And this is a bi-coastal result for the United States because the USC that won is the University of SOUTH CAROLINA – not some “johnny-come-lately” USC located much closer to UC – Berkeley.  You can read about the announcement recently made in Cancun, Mexico on the Great Power Race website (you have to scroll down a little to see the post and videos).

The Nature Conservancy is promoting Monday as Green Gift Monday rather than Cyber Monday.  As we use the Internet to do our shopping, we should consider giving green gifts that are beneficial to the environment (a donation in your loved one’s name to a green charity) or that do the least amount of harm from among the various choices provided by manufacturers and retailers.  You can find out more by clicking on the badge below.