Ahh – Christmas! Time for family, friends, food and gifts! I love the holidays, even if this time of year provides special challenges for those trying to live of low impact or man-, animal-, earth-friendly practices. Food and family can provide year- round challenges. Friends - hopefully none at all. But gifts – gifts can lead to awkward situations. I need to call up Miss Manners to see if there is a specified etiquette for such situations.
You wonder what challenges? Lets take me, for example.
The original goal of this blog was to limit my buying to items that are friendly to man, animal and earth. Extremely difficult, but not impossible I’m sure to the truly dedicated. Maybe one day I can be there, not there yet!
Still, as I’ve written in the past, I am more aware and have changed many buying habits - shampoos, makeup, food. I even turned down the blackberries on sale at Fred Meyer today because they were Nature’s Partner, and let me tell you I LOVE blackberries! So I know I’ve learned something. In fact, I’m way more educated that I ever thought I would be about world events. I get daily emails from organizations like amnesty international, change.org, FINCA, ACCION, Defenders of Wildlife, Farm Sanctuary, Action Aid International and on and on. I sign petitions, make donations, write letters to congress and adjust spending accordingly.
But many people aren’t aware these are priorities of mine. I don’t wear a sign indicating personal preferences. And I’m a little embarrassed to say I specifically avoid such discussions with some acquaintances just because I don’t always know the right things to say to get my point across without sounding stupid.
Being at a party or having a casual gift exchange with such people and receiving gifts on the “banned products” is undesirable but certainly excusable. If I don’t choose to educate them, then I understand this is what happens.
But what about the people that DO know this about me? What about the loved ones that witness these challenges on a daily or weekly basis? What do I say to them?
If there is a product that I feel is so bad, and the State of California even agrees enough with me to put signs on these products that say, paraphrased “use of this product is hazardous to your health” – do I accept this gift without comment?
So that’s the challenge I refer to. Sometimes people are so proud of the gift they buy it’s really hard to let them know it’s not exactly appreciated, even though the thought always is.
So I’m back blogging, really, for at least another 6 months : )
I need to look into so many products that I’ve not got to yet – dog food, toilet paper, laundry soap etc. I know I can do better.
And even though I’m not exactly blogging on vegan subjects, I’ll be attending a vegan blogging conference in Portland. Really looking forward to it – to meeting fellow like-minded people – and also to see an old friend or two in the Portland area. (So if you’re one of these Portland friends be sure to email me back to let me know you’re still around!)
I do have many projects in the works – to be blogged on later.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year Everyone!
life is good
Friday, December 24, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Palm Oil
Just when I think I’m really making progress in being animal and environmentally friendlier, someone points something out to me and whoosh…backslide.
I’ve stopped eating dairy most of the time because even on the organic farms, the male calves – a natural by product of keeping a cow in milk – are mostly worthless and sold for veal. Poor little boy calves, it’s not their fault! But it’s the same in the organic chicken and egg industry – what good are the roosters? You only need a few to keep things rolling, the rest are destroyed or raised for sub-standard food purposes.
Anyway, so in my quest to eat as I’ve grown accustomed to I continually look for vegan replacements of food staples, my mission to be able to create any dish in a vegan version. Finding the perfect butter – Earth’s Balance- was a godsend, or so I thought.
One of the primary ingredients of Earth’s Balance, and many vegan cheeses, is Palm oil.
Palm oil is found in around 50% of the products on the market today, including cosmetics and shampoos. It’s been great for the food industry because it’s not hydrogenated yet is solid at room temperature.
But lo, the communities it comes from – primarily Indonesia and Malaysia – have been seriously adversely affected by the greedy companies wanting to grow more and more. In the quest for land they destroy the equivalent of six football fields daily of rainforest. These rainforests supports more than 500 kinds of wildlife which must fight for the constantly diminishing space.
Including orangutans. The only native home for these cousins of ours.
Orangutans shot and killed on sight as their land is encroached upon. Or beaten with clubs and sticks. Retreating orangutans creating overcrowding, lower birth rates and disease.
And the elephants, poisoned by the plantations as the forests are cut.
Not to mention the livelihoods of the locals who depend on the forests or have had their own land raped by corporate greed. Or the negative overall environmental effects of the loss of these forests.
So I am brought back to reality about learning the source of my products. Doing my own homework. I can’t count on anyone else to tell me if a product is friendly to people, animal or earth because they just want my money. They won’t mention it or will flat out lie. Vegan doesn’t mean all-around good and friendly.
And of course, get back to nature. If I don’t eat processed foods I really don’t have to research every ingredient!
Some sources on Palm Oil:
http://nothoney.com/2009/06/15/vegan-cheese-is-just-as-inhumane-as-dairy-cheese/
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89747
http://www.rspo.org/
I’ve stopped eating dairy most of the time because even on the organic farms, the male calves – a natural by product of keeping a cow in milk – are mostly worthless and sold for veal. Poor little boy calves, it’s not their fault! But it’s the same in the organic chicken and egg industry – what good are the roosters? You only need a few to keep things rolling, the rest are destroyed or raised for sub-standard food purposes.
Anyway, so in my quest to eat as I’ve grown accustomed to I continually look for vegan replacements of food staples, my mission to be able to create any dish in a vegan version. Finding the perfect butter – Earth’s Balance- was a godsend, or so I thought.
One of the primary ingredients of Earth’s Balance, and many vegan cheeses, is Palm oil.
Palm oil is found in around 50% of the products on the market today, including cosmetics and shampoos. It’s been great for the food industry because it’s not hydrogenated yet is solid at room temperature.
But lo, the communities it comes from – primarily Indonesia and Malaysia – have been seriously adversely affected by the greedy companies wanting to grow more and more. In the quest for land they destroy the equivalent of six football fields daily of rainforest. These rainforests supports more than 500 kinds of wildlife which must fight for the constantly diminishing space.
Including orangutans. The only native home for these cousins of ours.
Orangutans shot and killed on sight as their land is encroached upon. Or beaten with clubs and sticks. Retreating orangutans creating overcrowding, lower birth rates and disease.
And the elephants, poisoned by the plantations as the forests are cut.
Not to mention the livelihoods of the locals who depend on the forests or have had their own land raped by corporate greed. Or the negative overall environmental effects of the loss of these forests.
So I am brought back to reality about learning the source of my products. Doing my own homework. I can’t count on anyone else to tell me if a product is friendly to people, animal or earth because they just want my money. They won’t mention it or will flat out lie. Vegan doesn’t mean all-around good and friendly.
And of course, get back to nature. If I don’t eat processed foods I really don’t have to research every ingredient!
Some sources on Palm Oil:
http://nothoney.com/2009/06/15/vegan-cheese-is-just-as-inhumane-as-dairy-cheese/
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89747
http://www.rspo.org/
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Pets and such
I found a white rat wandering about the back yard when I went out to work on building the chicken coop. Yes, the chicken coop should be done by now but the problem is I was building for 3 chickens. However when I got to the feed store there were so many breeds I just couldn’t decide so I brought home 6 of them! Needless to say, a 3 capacity coop was too small for 6 chickens so I’ve had to start over. I think the size of the new one will hold more like 12 – guess I got a little carried away this time!
Back to the rat- he (for the sake of not being able to determine a sex from afar) was only moderately skiddish and actually very curious about me. He hid behind some bricks while keeping an eye on me – and me an eye on him. He was very cute as rats go. Obviously not too afraid of humans.
A few days later I saw him bounding through the neighbors grass – a white rodent is pretty unmistakable in green grass. I could only watch him for a minute before he was out of site. I felt sad for him that someone would release their pet rat into the wid. How cruel was that owner, how could they? How was he supposed to fend for himself after growing up in a cage his whole life? And then it hit me, isn’t that what I want for caged animals? Is to be free?
So , while many of you may think “it’s only a rat for god’s sake’, it made me wonder – what do I want for the caged animals of the world? It’s not easy thinkin’.
Obviously many animals are so domesticated that they couldn’t fend for themselves in a reasonable way and must depend on us to do that. Hopefully owners have respect for the pets in their care. But what happens when the owner crosses the line and is cruel? And we know there are many, too many, like that. What would be the best for the animal? Shelters run at capacity most of them time
It’s really no different for humans that mistreat kids, parents and spouses. There are no easy answers.
So to follow with the animal- and people-friendly theme, I guess we do anything we can, just one being at a time. I can’t save the world, I can’t bring home all the abused and care for them, much as I’d like to. But I can care for those I in my little world now, I can speak up if I see something out of line.
I fed that rat, despite my husband’s objections, but I knew he didn’t have much time left as there are too many predators in our woods. I haven’t seen him in over a week, I guess sometimes the best we can do is just love from afar.
What do you think?
Back to the rat- he (for the sake of not being able to determine a sex from afar) was only moderately skiddish and actually very curious about me. He hid behind some bricks while keeping an eye on me – and me an eye on him. He was very cute as rats go. Obviously not too afraid of humans.
A few days later I saw him bounding through the neighbors grass – a white rodent is pretty unmistakable in green grass. I could only watch him for a minute before he was out of site. I felt sad for him that someone would release their pet rat into the wid. How cruel was that owner, how could they? How was he supposed to fend for himself after growing up in a cage his whole life? And then it hit me, isn’t that what I want for caged animals? Is to be free?
So , while many of you may think “it’s only a rat for god’s sake’, it made me wonder – what do I want for the caged animals of the world? It’s not easy thinkin’.
Obviously many animals are so domesticated that they couldn’t fend for themselves in a reasonable way and must depend on us to do that. Hopefully owners have respect for the pets in their care. But what happens when the owner crosses the line and is cruel? And we know there are many, too many, like that. What would be the best for the animal? Shelters run at capacity most of them time
It’s really no different for humans that mistreat kids, parents and spouses. There are no easy answers.
So to follow with the animal- and people-friendly theme, I guess we do anything we can, just one being at a time. I can’t save the world, I can’t bring home all the abused and care for them, much as I’d like to. But I can care for those I in my little world now, I can speak up if I see something out of line.
I fed that rat, despite my husband’s objections, but I knew he didn’t have much time left as there are too many predators in our woods. I haven’t seen him in over a week, I guess sometimes the best we can do is just love from afar.
What do you think?
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Why I'm not blogging much right now...
This has occupied most of my time lately.
This and building a chicken coop, tending a garden, watching/judging indie film submissions, signing petitions, oh, and working (really, Boss, I am!)
Press release: For immediate release
New Service Makes It Easy For Restaurants to Capitalize On Vegetarian Market
Seattle company offers vegetarian consulting to traditional restaurants in order to increase their appeal to the vegetarian market
Bothell, WA, April 20, 2010 - Good Life Consulting is delighted to announce their vegetarian and vegan consulting services are now available to the food service industry. Restaurants, caterers and others will now be able to easily expand their market to attract the growing vegetarian crowd. Good Life Consulting assists restaurants in ensuring their existing meatless entrees are truly vegetarian and can offer expanded menu options. Many chefs and cooks are unaware of the hidden items in food that don’t meet vegetarian guidelines.
Until now many restaurants have not had a good resource to direct them in preparing tasty and true-vegetarian meals for their customers, leaving vegetarians dissatisfied and unlikely to return to the restaurant. In today’s economy restaurants need to look outside their traditional customer base in order to thrive.
“It’s really a win-win situation, both for the restaurant and for the vegetarian diner,” says owner and head consultant Karen Mallonée, “now the diner can be confident their food has been verified as vegetarian and the restaurant has just opened up their potential customer base by about 20%”.
Recent studies show the vegetarian population has grown over 25 % in the past five years and continues to expand. Additionally about 40% of diners are now choosing meatless meals more often and taking full advantage of “Meatless Mondays” offered at many restaurants.
Good Life Consulting initially offers these services in the Pacific Northwest with plans to expand nationwide as more consultants become trained.
For more information please visit www.vegverify.net or call 206-350-0895.
About Good Life Consulting
Good Life Consulting understands that many culinary schools and nutritional advisors are unable to offer in-depth vegetarian and vegan instruction and so they are prepared to assist chefs, cooks or servers perfect those skills knowledge. Services offered by Good Life Consulting include menu verification, server and cook education and menu development, as well as individual or custom consulting.
Good Life Consulting was created to meet the growing demand of pure vegetarian and vegan food available at conventional restaurants along with helping these restaurants gain exposure to the vegetarian market.
More information can be found on the internet at www.vegverify.net ,email Karen@vegverify.net or calling 206-350-0896
###
This and building a chicken coop, tending a garden, watching/judging indie film submissions, signing petitions, oh, and working (really, Boss, I am!)
Press release: For immediate release
New Service Makes It Easy For Restaurants to Capitalize On Vegetarian Market
Seattle company offers vegetarian consulting to traditional restaurants in order to increase their appeal to the vegetarian market
Bothell, WA, April 20, 2010 - Good Life Consulting is delighted to announce their vegetarian and vegan consulting services are now available to the food service industry. Restaurants, caterers and others will now be able to easily expand their market to attract the growing vegetarian crowd. Good Life Consulting assists restaurants in ensuring their existing meatless entrees are truly vegetarian and can offer expanded menu options. Many chefs and cooks are unaware of the hidden items in food that don’t meet vegetarian guidelines.
Until now many restaurants have not had a good resource to direct them in preparing tasty and true-vegetarian meals for their customers, leaving vegetarians dissatisfied and unlikely to return to the restaurant. In today’s economy restaurants need to look outside their traditional customer base in order to thrive.
“It’s really a win-win situation, both for the restaurant and for the vegetarian diner,” says owner and head consultant Karen Mallonée, “now the diner can be confident their food has been verified as vegetarian and the restaurant has just opened up their potential customer base by about 20%”.
Recent studies show the vegetarian population has grown over 25 % in the past five years and continues to expand. Additionally about 40% of diners are now choosing meatless meals more often and taking full advantage of “Meatless Mondays” offered at many restaurants.
Good Life Consulting initially offers these services in the Pacific Northwest with plans to expand nationwide as more consultants become trained.
For more information please visit www.vegverify.net or call 206-350-0895.
About Good Life Consulting
Good Life Consulting understands that many culinary schools and nutritional advisors are unable to offer in-depth vegetarian and vegan instruction and so they are prepared to assist chefs, cooks or servers perfect those skills knowledge. Services offered by Good Life Consulting include menu verification, server and cook education and menu development, as well as individual or custom consulting.
Good Life Consulting was created to meet the growing demand of pure vegetarian and vegan food available at conventional restaurants along with helping these restaurants gain exposure to the vegetarian market.
More information can be found on the internet at www.vegverify.net ,email Karen@vegverify.net or calling 206-350-0896
###
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Lower Impact Woman
I discovered it was very difficult being green in Vegas. I think if I worked harder at it I might have had better luck, but by my second week there I just wasn’t too inspired after experiencing lights, noise, more lights and booze galore.
One thing I did do is order the “carbon offset credit” from the car rental company (and my employer even paid for it). It’s only $1.25 a rental and the idea is that the money is invested in companies that help offset our carbon footprint. I haven’t done any personal research on the corporations they feed the money to, but they sound promising. There are a lot of landfill projects and one dairy project in Outlook, Washington - George DeRuyter and Sons Dairy is an anaerobic digester project in the state of
Pearl Jam is also trying to offset their impact for their recent tour. They are planting 33 acres of trees in
Is this possible to reverse? I mean I guess it’s better than nothing, but it seems odd to go out and create a huge amount of carbon dioxide emissions and then just plant some trees to try and take care of it. I think the bigger impact would be to reduce the emissions in the first place, wouldn’t it? I’m obviously not an environmental scientist so I really don’t know the details of this, but if I’m vandalizing someone’s property on the west side of town every day and go to the east side of town once a week to help them clean up, it’s not equal or making everything better, it’s just better for one side but worse for the other.
No Impact Man seems to have a learned a lot of strategies for, well, lowering carbon impact. A great documentary about a
And I thought my project was ambitious and even part crazy at times, but he makes me look like I’m not doing anything! I mean when I start looking at toilet paper and tampon alternatives I feel like I’m going overboard, but I really haven’t even scratched the surface.
If I do an quick inventory I know I’ve made some significant personal changes that I think are in the right direction – different make-up, shampoo, mostly organic food and products, mostly vegan, have large garden in and partially planted, built chicken coop and got babies 2 days ago (so cute!), composting more – that’s a partial list, but I know I have so much more to do. It still takes research, one of my goals is the dog food, I buy a pretty expensive brand because of dog’s allergies, but I understand pet food production is horrific, so I better look into that.
I gave myself a year though too, so I have some time to look into everything. It’s good to be inspired now and then by those that have done it first – it makes it more possible and reasonable to try and be more animal, man and earth friendly.
But, kind of like Pearl Jam - If I'm doing what I can, does it offset the actions of other people in my house?
Two of the new baby chicks!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Text Dolphin to 44144?
Somehow I happened in front of the TV during the Oscars this year just in time for Best Documentary Feature. I’m not a big fan of the Oscars but if someone in the house is watching it I’ll stop what I’m doing for a few minutes to see what’s going on, and this time I was drawn in by scenes of Buddhists (movie Burma VJ) first, then the beautiful blue ocean with a haunting background music and dozens of swimming dolphins amidst a chaos of fisherman, one holding a sign “don’t take photos”. then scenes of my new favorite movie “Food Inc”, so of course I sat down to watch.
As they announced the winner “The Cove” I watched with mixed feelings. I thought for sure Food inc would take it, but what I saw of The Cove looked promising as well, it was animal-centered so I automatically approved. I got up to leave during the Thank You speech and glimpsed a sign go up behind the speaker as I walked out the door. Wait, what did that say? Thank god for DVR, I reversed the show to see the sign again.
“Text Dolphin to 44144”. What? So I had to investigate, and I’ll just say now, it’s not pretty.
The movie itself looks very good, but I’m not sure I could handle watching it as it seems I’ve become much more sensitive about watching any living creature forced to endure mistreatment by human hands.
The Cove exposes a cove in Japan, out of site and off limits to the public, where they lure dolphins in to slaughter and to catch for sale to the entertainment industry. The meat, which is not edible due of toxic mercury levels, is then sold to restaurants, usually as whale meat, and to the schools for school lunches. Pure greed is making these barbarians kill and these beautiful animals and then poison their own countrymen and, worst of all, their children.
I know it is legal to kill dolphins in Japan, and whales too, but it doesn’t make it right. It’s illegal to kill whales in all but 3 countries (Japan, Iceland and Norway), every other country agrees we shouldn’t kill them. By the way, you may have unknowingly had whale meat recently if you’ve eaten at “The Hump” in Santa Monica, they were charged with selling the endangered Sei Whale in their sushi this week.
Which brings me to another great animal issue of late – Tillicum at Sea World Orlando. Tilly grabbed on to his trainers ponytail and dragged her underwater to her death. This is not the first time Tilly has killed, but Sea World insists this was human error. Bullshit. Sea World, and all other industries that exploit animals, will tell lies so the public thinks the animals are happy confined to their tiny pens their entire life. By placing the blame on the trainer, they instill a false sense of security in the public mind that “oh, it’s okay, the whale is not unhappy, he was just confused”. If we thought it was Tilly’s fault we then might think he was acting out, and then we’d wonder why he’d do that, which would lead to all kinds of horrible thoughts that might keep us away from Sea World.
While these animals do not think and reason the same way humans do, they do have an evolved intelligence and they do know there is more out there and their nature is to move freely and swim long distances, not to be confined in pens barely twice their size, even if they were born there. A former Tilly trainer said Tilly has a mean streak, and shouldn’t he? Wouldn’t you?
If you had been born and raised and lived in a closet your entire life, you would know something more existed, your gut, your soul, your sense would tell you, It’s the same for the whales, the dolphins, the sea lions and the bears in the zoo. They all deserve more, but again it’s money driving the exploitation and suffering of these animals.
It’s great to be able to experience wildlife, but we should do it in their environment. If we want to experience them, shouldn’t we be the ones to take the risk? How selfish are we to think that animals are here to only serve our purpose?
I know it’s hard go against these things, I had a difficult time deciding whether or not to view the Lion habitat at the MGM this week. The path from my room to car took me past it daily, but always before or after they were “open”. It was heartbreaking just to see the small, glass enclosed area of fake rock and trees that was supposed to be their home.
But this is what people think we need, so now we need to think for ourselves.
“The Cove” trailer is below, you decide.
As they announced the winner “The Cove” I watched with mixed feelings. I thought for sure Food inc would take it, but what I saw of The Cove looked promising as well, it was animal-centered so I automatically approved. I got up to leave during the Thank You speech and glimpsed a sign go up behind the speaker as I walked out the door. Wait, what did that say? Thank god for DVR, I reversed the show to see the sign again.
“Text Dolphin to 44144”. What? So I had to investigate, and I’ll just say now, it’s not pretty.
The movie itself looks very good, but I’m not sure I could handle watching it as it seems I’ve become much more sensitive about watching any living creature forced to endure mistreatment by human hands.
The Cove exposes a cove in Japan, out of site and off limits to the public, where they lure dolphins in to slaughter and to catch for sale to the entertainment industry. The meat, which is not edible due of toxic mercury levels, is then sold to restaurants, usually as whale meat, and to the schools for school lunches. Pure greed is making these barbarians kill and these beautiful animals and then poison their own countrymen and, worst of all, their children.
I know it is legal to kill dolphins in Japan, and whales too, but it doesn’t make it right. It’s illegal to kill whales in all but 3 countries (Japan, Iceland and Norway), every other country agrees we shouldn’t kill them. By the way, you may have unknowingly had whale meat recently if you’ve eaten at “The Hump” in Santa Monica, they were charged with selling the endangered Sei Whale in their sushi this week.
Which brings me to another great animal issue of late – Tillicum at Sea World Orlando. Tilly grabbed on to his trainers ponytail and dragged her underwater to her death. This is not the first time Tilly has killed, but Sea World insists this was human error. Bullshit. Sea World, and all other industries that exploit animals, will tell lies so the public thinks the animals are happy confined to their tiny pens their entire life. By placing the blame on the trainer, they instill a false sense of security in the public mind that “oh, it’s okay, the whale is not unhappy, he was just confused”. If we thought it was Tilly’s fault we then might think he was acting out, and then we’d wonder why he’d do that, which would lead to all kinds of horrible thoughts that might keep us away from Sea World.
While these animals do not think and reason the same way humans do, they do have an evolved intelligence and they do know there is more out there and their nature is to move freely and swim long distances, not to be confined in pens barely twice their size, even if they were born there. A former Tilly trainer said Tilly has a mean streak, and shouldn’t he? Wouldn’t you?
If you had been born and raised and lived in a closet your entire life, you would know something more existed, your gut, your soul, your sense would tell you, It’s the same for the whales, the dolphins, the sea lions and the bears in the zoo. They all deserve more, but again it’s money driving the exploitation and suffering of these animals.
It’s great to be able to experience wildlife, but we should do it in their environment. If we want to experience them, shouldn’t we be the ones to take the risk? How selfish are we to think that animals are here to only serve our purpose?
I know it’s hard go against these things, I had a difficult time deciding whether or not to view the Lion habitat at the MGM this week. The path from my room to car took me past it daily, but always before or after they were “open”. It was heartbreaking just to see the small, glass enclosed area of fake rock and trees that was supposed to be their home.
But this is what people think we need, so now we need to think for ourselves.
“The Cove” trailer is below, you decide.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Viva Las Vegas
I’m finally doing the first overnight business trip to Las Vegas, hopefully a little more eco-friendly than if I had done it a year ago. Not sure what I’ll find, but I am hopeful about many of the restaurants and stores I’ve found on happycow.net. I will coming here for the next 3 weeks (anyone want to join me?), so I hope by the end of the trip I’ve found good solutions. But then, who has the luxury of time in most situations? Not me.
My hotel is certainly not at the top of the list of environmentally friendly lodgings, but it is on the list. It’s the MGM Grand and as I looked at the criteria for it being awarded 2 green trees (out of 5) I noticed it was only slightly better than most business class hotels I’m used to – different only in that they educate staff to being green and having fresh air available. I can’t really say what they are training their staff to do, but they do have a flyer that tells guests what they’re up to- washing sheets and towels every 3 days, using organics in their restaurants, recycling, conserving energy with motion sensors. I’ve also noticed excessive use of mirrors near the lights which does lighten the room a lot for the few lights in it. However, walk downstairs into the casino or the clubs and you see money and energy being pumped into the atmosphere with amazing speed!
From a business perspective, the room sucks. I’m moving after a day just because I can’t work in this room, it’s uncomfortable and dark. Maybe it’d be ok if I were playing all night and sleeping all day, but I have work to do it’s just not conducive to that.
I’m not moving to another hotel on the list, not this week anyway. Although some of the new casinos and resorts have done a great job at green construction they are priced way out of my business budget, so I’ll need to investigate these a little more for the next two weeks. And for what it’s worth, I don’t have access to fresh air in my room, what are they talking about?
I’m relatively happy with my airline as well. I know that there is no good air travel, so I have to settle for the lesser of the evils. My research for domestic travel shows Southwest Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Air at the top of the green-friendly list.
Southwest has slowed down planes by 1-3 minutes a route- which is more fuel efficient, and are also working on lowering the per-person weight of on-board supplies by 5 pounds, which will result in less fuel per trip. They also unveiled a “green plane” lately that has recycled carpet that can then be recycled again once it’s worn out. My biggest issue with Southwest is that I can’t take direct flights many places, which is a priority with me. That and assigned seats, I like to know I’m not sitting bitch all the way to my destination.
Virgin America with its newer fleet makes it more fuel efficient to start with, but they also employ more fuel saving techniques such as single-engine taxing and regulating cruise speed. Rumors are they are also looking into biofuels.
Alaska has recycle programs in place and uses soy-based ink in its magazines. As a corporation they do a lot of philanthropic work and encourage employees to do the same. I love Alaska, even if they’re never on-time. But then, I fly them enough that they treat me really well so I may be a little baised.
Worst on the list? United and US Air. That doesn’t surprise me, at least not United, I’ve written before about how bad they’ve been to employees. I think they also have the least amount of legroom in coach class. Legroom is bad that if the person in front of you puts their seat back, you better hope you didn’t have your computer open and on the tray because it just got smashed. There is no working on United Air, there just is no room to do anything.
So I have a silly question, maybe someone out there can answer it? While reading about Southwest’s efforts to lower per person weight I began to wonder about food and drink. So here is my question. If there is 10,000 pounds of people weight when the plane takes off, and there is 2000 pounds of food and drink. If the people eat all the food and drink, what will the collective weight then be? Does it all stay the same? Obviously you have a fixed environment when the plane takes off and when it lands, I would assume no weight would be lost or gained, but I may be wrong? Anyone out there want to tackle this?
So next week I try to find a hybrid car. I had to take an Impala this week, I figured it was the most fuel efficient than the SUV or minvan.
Seriously though, anyone want to join me in Vegas?
My hotel is certainly not at the top of the list of environmentally friendly lodgings, but it is on the list. It’s the MGM Grand and as I looked at the criteria for it being awarded 2 green trees (out of 5) I noticed it was only slightly better than most business class hotels I’m used to – different only in that they educate staff to being green and having fresh air available. I can’t really say what they are training their staff to do, but they do have a flyer that tells guests what they’re up to- washing sheets and towels every 3 days, using organics in their restaurants, recycling, conserving energy with motion sensors. I’ve also noticed excessive use of mirrors near the lights which does lighten the room a lot for the few lights in it. However, walk downstairs into the casino or the clubs and you see money and energy being pumped into the atmosphere with amazing speed!
From a business perspective, the room sucks. I’m moving after a day just because I can’t work in this room, it’s uncomfortable and dark. Maybe it’d be ok if I were playing all night and sleeping all day, but I have work to do it’s just not conducive to that.
I’m not moving to another hotel on the list, not this week anyway. Although some of the new casinos and resorts have done a great job at green construction they are priced way out of my business budget, so I’ll need to investigate these a little more for the next two weeks. And for what it’s worth, I don’t have access to fresh air in my room, what are they talking about?
I’m relatively happy with my airline as well. I know that there is no good air travel, so I have to settle for the lesser of the evils. My research for domestic travel shows Southwest Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Air at the top of the green-friendly list.
Southwest has slowed down planes by 1-3 minutes a route- which is more fuel efficient, and are also working on lowering the per-person weight of on-board supplies by 5 pounds, which will result in less fuel per trip. They also unveiled a “green plane” lately that has recycled carpet that can then be recycled again once it’s worn out. My biggest issue with Southwest is that I can’t take direct flights many places, which is a priority with me. That and assigned seats, I like to know I’m not sitting bitch all the way to my destination.
Virgin America with its newer fleet makes it more fuel efficient to start with, but they also employ more fuel saving techniques such as single-engine taxing and regulating cruise speed. Rumors are they are also looking into biofuels.
Alaska has recycle programs in place and uses soy-based ink in its magazines. As a corporation they do a lot of philanthropic work and encourage employees to do the same. I love Alaska, even if they’re never on-time. But then, I fly them enough that they treat me really well so I may be a little baised.
Worst on the list? United and US Air. That doesn’t surprise me, at least not United, I’ve written before about how bad they’ve been to employees. I think they also have the least amount of legroom in coach class. Legroom is bad that if the person in front of you puts their seat back, you better hope you didn’t have your computer open and on the tray because it just got smashed. There is no working on United Air, there just is no room to do anything.
So I have a silly question, maybe someone out there can answer it? While reading about Southwest’s efforts to lower per person weight I began to wonder about food and drink. So here is my question. If there is 10,000 pounds of people weight when the plane takes off, and there is 2000 pounds of food and drink. If the people eat all the food and drink, what will the collective weight then be? Does it all stay the same? Obviously you have a fixed environment when the plane takes off and when it lands, I would assume no weight would be lost or gained, but I may be wrong? Anyone out there want to tackle this?
So next week I try to find a hybrid car. I had to take an Impala this week, I figured it was the most fuel efficient than the SUV or minvan.
Seriously though, anyone want to join me in Vegas?
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