The Green Triangle

The Green Triangle, or Sustainability Triangle, is a concept about which I was recently having a conversation with a friend. I stumbled through explaining the concept: roughly every action that you take can be plotted on a triangle. The three points of the triangle are economics, social equity, and the environment. I know that my incredible diagram below is making you question whether or not I was a famous artist in a previous life. The answer is clearly 'or not'.

Many choices a person makes can be plotted on this triangle, and the best choice is one that equally respects all three of these issues. For example, taking the bus (or other form of transportation besides a car) is economical because it costs less money, it is environmentally friendly because you are cutting down on your emissions and producing less waste, and it is good for social equity because you are supporting a system that benefits the public good. In some cases, I have seen health replace social equity. While I have problems of symmetry (there is no way to get health to start with an 'E' - i know - i have tried), the alternative transportation issue still works: you get more exercise walking to a bus stop or riding your bike than you do walking to your car. Many things can fall onto this scale. A few examples:

1. Recycling
2. Gardening
3. Making your own cleaning materials
4. Composting
5. Eating organic or locally produced food
6. Supporting your local parks by using them for healthy activities
7. Reducing your energy consumption
8. Properly disposing of things instead of dumping things down storm drains
9. Using less pesticides
10. Drinking tap water (with a filter if you must)
    

This is just a list I came up with in the past 15 seconds, so I am quite sure it is no where near inclusive. As we push this triangle further, we can plot points within the triangle to compare 2 or more situations. Lets return to our walk or take public transportation dilemma. Riding a bike or walking fairs best in all three categories, so points are plotted closest to the words in the left triangle. While taking public transportation does well also, clearly it is not as good as walking, so

the triangle on the right is slightly smaller. The idea is, bigger the triangle better the option. Now, clearly this 'decision matrix', if you will, is not perfect. There is no axis for 'it is cold, there is 8 feet of snow, and I have to go 20 miles.' (although one could argue economic use of ones time in that situation, I feel) However, I think that this is an interesting concept that I like to keep in the back of my mind when making decisions. For a more in-depth explanation, I recommend this 3 minute YouTube video.

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Garbage and the Climate

Yesterday, an article on MSNBC talks about the 'other' greenhouse gasses.  Although methane is not as popular as carbon, it is much more potent.  While carbon is off getting movements named after it (after all, haven't you checked your carbon footprint lately?), methane has quitely become a larger problem.  Landfills are the number one human-related producer of methane in the US.  This is created by organic things slowly starting to decay in landfills.  What to do?  Some landfills now capture methane to use as power.  In America, a general estimate is that 25% of that gas is captured.  While this is clearly a better use than just pushing the gas into the atmosphere, it would be best not to create the gas at all.  Composting organics is an easy way to reduce the amount of organics sent to the landfill, thereby reducing the amount of methane created.  Not to mention, you save your municipality disposal costs and get a rich soil additive for yourself.  Information on composting can be found in previous posts or our website.

Robin from Wisconsin

This past weekend I had the opportunity to work with a friend from the Milwaukee office to participate in Halloween Glen with Milwaukee Parks & Rec.  We had beautiful weather and a great time.  The idea behind the event is that families walk around the park and stop at stations to watch funny skits to learn different things about animals and the environment.  My friend and I were a warbler (which I still can't pronounce very well and really can't make the proper bird sound despite hours of practice) and a robin, respectively.  Our skit was about these birds migrating and how devastating deforestation can be for migratory populations.  And lots of bird puns - it was down right fowl.  Sorry.  I couldn't resist.  Deforestation seems like a very distant and not-so-relevant problem when you are living off of ramen noodles and red bull to make it through the next big project.  However, when you need some medication because you have worked yourself sick, remember 1/4 of all drugs prescribed in the US contain derivatives from tropical forest plants and 70% of the plants identified by the National Cancer Institute as useful in the treatment of cancer are only found in the rain forest.  Deforestation also causes soil erosion, disrupts the water cycle (who doesn't remember having to color that picture in elementary school!?!), and releases carbon into the atmosphere.  

However, recycling and some other very easy, small changes can have a large affect in helping slow or stop deforestation.  Bauxite comes from the tropical regions of Brazil and Jamaica to make our aluminum.  It takes 10 tons of mining bauxite to get 1 ton of aluminum.  Most of this would be unnecessary if we just recycled all of our aluminum.  Despite the high price being paid for aluminum right now, only about 50% actually gets recycled.  In America, we throw enough aluminum away every 3 months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.  

Another big culprit of deforestation is paper.  When you purchase items made from virgin tree paper, there is a good chance that an old growth forest may have been cut down for that item.  There is this great statistic floating around that we have more forests in America than we did 70 years ago.  However, this is not accurate.  There may be more trees than 70 years ago, but single species tree farms are replacing diverse forests.  This affects bird migration and wildlife as well.  By using recycled paper products, we can harvest fewer trees and when we do harvest trees, it can be for far more permanent uses than toilet paper.  This is especially a problem in Canada:

"Many logging companies over-harvest and target late seral or "old-growth" forests at levels that are not sustainable. . . . Forestry companies preferentially select the oldest stands for harvest because these stands have the greatest tree volume and are at risk of being lost to fire or insect damage. . . . Catalogs, copy paper, lumber, newspapers, magazines, and even toilet paper are made from Canada's old-growth forests. U.S. consumption accounts for about a million acres of clearcuts in the Canadian Boreal every year." 

- Bringing Down the Boreal, ForestEthics, 2004

Also, by purchasing items made from recycled materials, we support the market strength for these items.  

Other causes for deforestation, worldwide, include other mining needs, needs for building supplies, and clear cutting land for growing crops and grazing land.  I'm not building a house anytime soon, but I do eat - a lot.  Beef takes up a lot of space.  By cutting back on the red meat, even a few times a week, will require that less land be used for grazing.

Well, I didn't think I would end up assessing my own dietary habits (I already reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost all the paper I can) would be a result of dressing up like a bird in a park for a few hours, but I guess that little life lessons can be found everywhere.

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Quick Leaf Composting

Autumn leaves are a great source of carbon for composting. Composting with a bin or in a contained area is ideal for quicker leaf decomposition. Popular methods of composting large quantities of leaves include using a grass trimmer in a large garbage can to thrash the leaves into smaller pieces, or simply running a lawnmower repeatedly over the leaves until well mulched. Both methods increase the surface area for microbes and organisms to break down the leaves during composting.

To compost leaves most efficiently without a bin, loose leaf piles should be at least 4 feet in diameter by 3 feet in height with a maximum size of 5 feet by 10 feet.  Unless leaves are collected in a very wet condition, add water while placing them in the pile. Without moisture, the microorganisms will not function. Moisten to the point where it’s possible to squeeze droplets of water from a hand-held mass of leaves.

Dead leaves alone lack adequate nitrogen for rapid decomposition, so if speed is a concern, a high-nitrogen fertilizer added to the pile may hasten the process.  While additives are generally unnecessary, the compost end-product will have a higher nutritive content for use in next season’s gardens. Add about one-half cup of 10% nitrogen fertilizer per 20-gallon can of compacted leaves. Remember that aeration (turning, poking) and moisture are keys to making compost happen!

Leaves Come Tumbling Down

What a beautiful time of year!  I thought life would slow down now that summer is over, but quite the opposite has happened.  Looking forward to the long winter, it seems as though everyone is trying to squeeze in a few last nice days outside.  Even things like yardwork take on a somewhat enjoyable feel with our recent weather, but I would much rather be talking a walk, playing football, or be carving a pumpkin than raking and bagging all those leaves!

This past Saturday, at Retzer Nature Center in Waukesha I assisted with a presentation on alternative ways to deal with leaves.  Many people spend hours raking and bagging or, worse, raking and burning.  These traditional ways to handle leaves are costly, both economically and environmentally.

• Economically, it is very costly for municipalities to provide leaf collection and disposal to residents.  
• Environmentally, picking up leaves uses a lot of natural resources.  Also, when you remove leaves from your property you are also removing all of the nutrients from your yard that went into making those leaves.
• Environmentally, burning leaves creates large amounts of very small particulates that cause air pollution.  This air pollution can be especially harmful for our youngest and oldest residents and anyone with asthma or heart problems.  For more information about local air quality, visit the DNR's air quality website.

So, what to do?  Keep your leaves on your property and allow them to replenish the soil by naturally and quikly breaking down.  There are several options that allow you to quickly handle our fall visitors.

1. Mulch in Place.  Using a sharp, regular lawn mower blade, or a special mulching blade in your regular mower, cut your grass like normal.  By mowing over the leaves (sometimes requiring an extra pass) you allow them to filter down to the soil and quickly break down, getting your lawn ready for winter.  This can work for a large or small amout of leaves.  The key is to never let the leaves sit on the lawn for more than 4 days and once cut, to make sure that you can see the tips of the grass blades.
2. Compost.  Use our quick leaf composting recipe to quickly make compost out of all of your leaves.  This is faster than traditional composting and allows you to use the compost on your lawn or any other plantings you will do in the spring. 

Now with all this extra time, go grab your bike and go for a ride on one of the great local trails!

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