By Frances Lefkowitz Day two of my sustainable wine tour of Mendocino County is all about sheep. I descend into the rugged Anderson Valley, just one narrow mountain range in from the ocean, as the morning fog is lifting. By the time I reach Breggo Cellars, the sun is out and the sky is blue.”Breggo”...
By Seth Bauer There’s no better way to tour a California vineyard than on horseback. So when Karl Wente, the 30-ish head of the 3,000-acre Wente vineyards in Livermore Valley, suggested that we saddle up late yesterday afternoon, I happily lied and told him I’d ridden enough times to handle it. Though he’s from the...
By Wendy Gordon I was curious to see how Wikipedia defined “sprawl” and sure enough, it was appropriately harsh: “Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is the spreading of a city and its suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area…The term urban sprawl generally has negative connotations due to the...
By Wendy Gordon A couple of Fridays ago, George Soros, the author of The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Mean, suggested that efforts to build a green economy could be the “motor of the world economy in the years to come.” I certainly hope so, and hope...
By Shannon Arvizu We live in an exciting time for alternative car technologies. Innovations to increase energy efficiency and decrease unhealthy emissions are emerging at a rapid rate. From the popular Toyota Prius to the sexy Tesla Roadster, new green cars use less (or no) petroleum while satisfying driver demand for top performance. Purchasing a...
By Wendy Gordon What if you could be rewarded for recycling? Just think about it: a frequent-flyer program for recyclers. Put your recyclablest in an electronically tagged bin for pickup by a truck, which weighs how much you are recycling–and transmits the data to a web site. By the time you’ve reentered your home, you...
By Wendy Gordon According to a report released in May 2008 by the market research firm, Information Resources, 53 percent of consumers said they were cooking from scratch, more than they did just six months before. The researchers assume the uptick in home cooking is in response to the rising cost of prepared foods. I’m...
By Wendy Gordon If you want to bike to work but have met resistance from your employer, this may help your cause – the massive bailout bill passed by both houses of Congress a couple weeks ago includes a Bicycle Commuter provision. No, not a nickel of the $700 billion the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act...
By Emily Main Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her dedication to environmental preservation both in her native Kenya and around the world. Starting in 1976, her grass-roots efforts to plant trees and end deforestation have grown to larger issues such as democracy and human rights and have garnered her both...
By Wendy Gordon “While climate change is a worldwide issue, 75 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions are generated in the world’s urban areas. Reducing energy use and emissions in cities is therefore fundamental in any effort to reverse the trajectory of global warming.” So reads page six of the Chicago Climate Action Plan, released...