Vision Boarding - An Eco-Honored Tradition?

Vision Boarding - the process of decimating tens to hundreds of forms of print media to identify, cut and paste "resonate" words and images to create a colorful collage of who/what/where/when/how/water to depict (and lead me to) my desired future - is an artistic process I started two to three years ago. I honestly cannot remember how (or why) I started the practice… but I recognize that the scope, scale and style of my Boards have changed astronomically.

My first attempts were very typical - unsophisticated fashion magazine re-creations glued to a piece of bleached white poster board.When the Vision faded a few months later, these disposable collages traveled from my wall to my trash can. Quickly, the waste associated with that type of Board started to bother me. My eco-angst didn’t stop the Vision Boarding, but it did inspire me to start innovating!

Spring 2011 - see the boots?

There were experiments with sticky media – glue(s), gum (ewwww!), wax, rubber cement, tape(s), Quakehold putty, and push pins. There were experiments with hanging media – the aforementioned white poster boards quickly disappeared, and were followed by card board (boxes), Styrofoam, and a standard cork pin board. By taping or pinning my Vision to my ancient cork board (I’ve owned it since elementary school), I have been able to re-use images and words over and over and over again… if I feel so called.  (I have this amazing image of muddy steel toe work boots next to a pristine leather briefcase – the perfect balance of field and professional work – that will never leave my Boards since I have everything to say about it!) I source my magazines second hand from friends, family, co-workers, even other Vision Boarders… and about three months ago I discovered my best source yet - the library re-sale shop.  There one can find a diverse selection of media for $0.25 a piece (cheap!), my donations benefited a fantastic community resource (awesome!), and for magazines where I only used one or two and I was careful with page removal, I could close the loop and re-donate back to the store (recycling!). It has truly turned out to be a triple win. Given that Boarding involves cutting up a lot of paper, my methods seem about as eco-friendly as feasible... Right?

Perhaps/Perhaps not. The Environmental Defense Fund and the Paper Task Force have collaboratively developed a neat comparative calculator that looks at the environmental impacts of different types of paper. I tested the calculator to guesstimate the eco-footprint of one year of Vision Boarding (assumptions: 4x/year using 1 package of 0.5 lb of "Solid Bleached Sulfate paperboard" and 10 "Coated groundwood" magazines per Board). Of course the proposed Vision Boarding activity is of such a small scale that it didn't register for most of the enviromental impacts (tree cutting, waste byproducts, pollutant loads associated with erosion), but the calculator did project an equivalent of 45 pounds of Carbon production and 160 gallons of water use.  In constrast, an equivalent volume of 100% recycled "Paperboard: Coated Recycled Board (CRB)" would use about 20 gallons of water and produce 22 pounds of Carbon.

There is definitely a benefit to recycling, but source seems to be the main problem. In 2007, Web Leads, Print Pubs Improve Environmental Impact identified 100 of the 18,000 magazines in print that used some recycled paper content or used responsibly sourced virgin fiber. At the equivalent source website, I identified 119 magazine options. Only a few of these magazines are within my regional readership (key exceptions include: Cottage Life; MAKE; Ms.; SURFER; Whole Foods Market Magazine; and Yoga Journal). While I am sure there are many other eco-friendly magazine options available, the fact remains that the industry tends to lag behind newpaper and book publishers in the recyled-material revolution because of cost and appear/quality. Like so many other things, knowing who to support for being green and who to criticize for occasionally "green-washing" parts of publications, will fall to the already overwhelmed consumer.

There is also the possibility of going paperless and wireless all together (i.e., VisionBoardSite.com, www.mapourlives.com,  digitaldreamboard.com, http://www.visionboardinstitute.com, etc). But as someone who is computer-bound 8+ hours/day at work, I am not looking for more computer time.  Access to a plethora of Google images does not offset my eye strain and headaches. Besides, an on-line solution may not be the best solution.  In Web Leads, Print Pubs Improve Environmental Impact, Mark Glaser frames the eco- and econo- arguments to going wireless and highlights possible hidden costs - what about the impact of electronic themselves as they are “recycled”or otherwise discarded? What about the carbon footprint of electricity and power used for server farms?


September 2011 - see the Wall of China?

The last possibility is to toss the Vision Board process all together, as suggested by Neil Farber, M.D., Ph.D. His critique focuses on the possibility for the Boarder to focus on Dreaming rather than Action.  Dr. Farber uses five interesting case studies conducted at universities across the United States to support his hypothesis. He has a point. In 2011, I spent a lot of time and energy constructing Vision Boards that did not take shape. The visions that were realized still blow my mind. Remember my favorite work boots/brief case image? After three years of trying to position myself for an emergency response effort, my company deployed me for the Joplin tornado effort... after Vision Boarding with that image for the first time. After I pasted the Great Wall of China on my Vision Board, I heard my supervisor and a project manager discussing staffing conflicts for a conference and a nameless river project. I stepped up to volunteer for the conference, and the project manager asked me if I wanted to go to Zhuzhou City, China for a river assessment effort. 

Coincidence or Visioning? I choose not to say. But I do believe that my goal setting brain has been opened to include possibilities I would've never imagine without the stimulation of this process. Sorry Dr. Farber, I will be Vision Boarding into the future no matter what your professional opinion... I just may be testing online tools and using recycled paper magazines more often than I do now.



Sustainable Wood

Two weeks ago I found a sturdy, scratched-up, old table behind the dance studio I regularly attend. I’ve been looking for a new art project. I liked the size/shape of the table… so I started to teach myself the art of carving inlays on its surfaces. I quickly discovered that the table consisted mostly of particle board. Particle board is a mind-boggling building material – effectively glued and compressed wood chips, shavings, and dust – it is cheaper, denser and more uniform than natural wood, which makes it the preferred material sold at IKEA. Particle board shreds, gouges and otherwise does not like to be disturbed by a chisel. Luckily, the table does have a thin real wood finish that works with my attempts to be artistic. I have had great fun learning how to make straight lines with consistent breadths and depths – as long as I get to work with the real wood. But real wood is expensive! I am not willing to throw away the money on my new “hobby” on the good stuff. Until my skills improve, I have found a few work arounds. I am starting to gather drift wood from the beach for small whittling projects and am contemplating contacting a man on craigslist about getting one of his hundreds of chopped down palm trees to have a go at making my own Tiki.

Why all this discussion about wood?

Well, on October 15, 2012, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) held the Green Life of Wood – Life CycleAssessment Workshop which was tasked to review the environmental impacts of wood from “cradle to cradle.” I have seen a few Youtube videos on the benefits of transforming wood into biofuel – a claimed carbon-neutral system through a balance of carbon sequestration during tree growth/re-growth and carbon release during combustion.  The presentation by Nicolas Mainville, a Greenpeace Canada representative, points out the potential for carbon mis-accounting, especially for large material exports between North America and Europe.  This, along with the potential environmental trade-off with regard to high water demands and potential water quality impacts due to urban runoff and air quality impacts of combustion makes me less-than-enthusiastic about biofuels in general, let along wood biofuels (see earlier comments in the post Energy from your toilet...). 

Sylvain Labbe proposed a series of taxes to provide a financial protection against a wood-industry related Tragedy of the Commons.  I studied this is solution/theory extensively in school. Theoretically the market system will balance out negative environmental impacts provided sufficient economic drivers.  The problem in implementation is “taxes” – they are politically unpopular, difficult to establish and then, as shown by the insanely complex US tax legal system, can be relatively easy to circumvent to loop-hole around.  Also, there arises the question of how a market functions when the system has limited to no resources to draw upon… Here I pointedly make an example of attempts for water trading/banking and function of the Australian water markets during the 12 year drought that recently ended. I love the idea of the economic market-based solution, but I have difficulty relying on that model.

Still, I like the idea of non fossil fuel sources of energy and pushing for sustainable building materials. Every technology and emerging solution has a slow start-up and sustainable wood, may indeed be sustainable in the long term. I continued my research on specific trees that are proposed to be sustainable and found:

·       Cork oak, a slow-growing tree used to create cork, can be harvested/stripped up to 16 times during its 200 year lifetime. Cork is used for wine bottle stoppers and certain building materials.

·       Poplar, a fast-growing species of tree that produces soft, light weight wood used for biofuel and/or materials constructed for light-weight and cheapness rather than durability.

·       Pongamia pinnata / karum tree / poonga-oil tree, a fast-growing, drought hardy evergreen that thrives in hot-dry climates and supposedly does not require pest control and as a non-food crop can be grown on marginal lands.

·       Bamboo is an incredibly light, tough building material that can be harveted within 3-5 years (compared to 10-20 years for most soft woods). Bamboo is used for scaffolding, fences, bridges, furniture, flooring and bricks. Bamboo is a popular sustainable wood, with draw-backs. It is water thirsty. It is a key food for the endangered Giant Panda and improper harvesting can be harmful. It growth like a weed and can become an invasive plant if not maintained properly. 

·       Teak, an exotic hardwood from Asia, has a reputation of being sustainable.  Native trees have become engangered by overharvesting - there are a few sustainble farmed options, but in general, environmentally sound teak is hard to come by - Burma is the only country that still exports teak from natural forests, mostly illegal.

 

Articles  also looked at the sustainability of Ash (typically only farms because forests have been destroyed), Pine (same as Ash), Mahogany (mostly endangered), and a variety of other woods. The jury is out on wood as a sustainable building material and possible biomass, but this research definitely opened my eyes to the need to be very careful about all wood purchases made in the future!

2012 Nobel Prizes

Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 21, 1833. He was an innovator, engineer, chemist, writer, and concerned citizen of the world. Nobel invented and patented 350 different creations, his most famous invention being dynamite.  When his brother Ludvig died in 1888, a French newspaper erroneously published Nobel's obituary, proclaiming Le marchand de la mort est mort ("The merchant ofdeath is dead.”). It is believed that this condemnation motivated him to change his legacy, resulting in much of Nobel’s wealth (i.e., 31,225,000 Kronor or approximately $4,700,000 US) to be willed to the establishment of five Nobel Prizes. The Nobel Prizes have been awarded annually since 1901 for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace.

As a Swede, I have a soft spot for Nobel. When I was in 3^rd grade, I even went to school wearing a full navy blue pin-stripe suit with red clip-on bow tie in order to more fully embody him as I presented his biography to my fellow classmates… Needless to say, I am aware of the awards and their history. On Friday, October 12, 2012, the Nobel Prize committees (Sweden and Norway) announced this year’s winners. I saw the original announcement on the Swedish consulate’s website, but have obtained the following from www.nobelprize.org.

• PHYSICS - Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems"
• CHEMISTRY - Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian K. Kobilka "for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors"
• PHYSIOLOGY/MEDICINE - Sir John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent"
• LITERATURE - Mo Yan "who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary"
• PEACE - European Union (EU) "for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe"
• ECONOMICS - Alvin E. Roth and Lloyd S. Shapley "for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design"

I cannot comment on the worthiness of the awardees, but I have found this year’s peace prize selection interesting.  At first I objected to the idea of the award going to an organization, not an individual. Then I recalled that the United Nations and Red Cross have won multiple times and I fully supported the award going to the International Panel on Climate Change in 2007. Upon further research, I was surprised that in the last 111 years, 24 awards went to organizations. The first went to the Institute of International Law in 1904. That Prize was awarded for the organization’s influence on international law and peace through actions such treaty arbitration (e.g., Suez Canal) and the formulation of customary international law (Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907 utilized its studies on the laws of war).

According to Nobel Prize Director Geir Lundestad, the EU was selected for its long-term influence on peace (which is so unlike President Obama’s award in 2009 after less than 1 year in office). In addition to being a pivotal organization for establishing French/German relations, he pointed to the recent peaceful developments in the Balkans, like how Croatia plans to join the EU in 2013, and the promotion of human rights in Turkey. Lundestad sidestepped a question about the Prize’s influence on the European economy, instead focusing on the unanimous (5 of 5) vote for the EU, in spite of the Norway’s strong non-EU political position. The EU selection will be controversial, but likely not enough to stir the pot like the Dali Lama did in 1989.

I was also a little sad to see another year with no female Laureates. As a female engineer, I look to these types of international awards as a societal sign post. In 2007 and 2008 there was at least one woman Laureate, and in 2009 five of the recipients were women. This group represented expertise in chemistry, medicine and economics (I really connected with Ostrom’s work on the tragedy of the commons while in school) in addition to the more traditional literature Prize. (Alternatively women tend to receive the Peace Prize, but as I mentioned before, it went to Obama). In 2011 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman shared the Peace Prize for their “non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work” in the Arab world. I would’ve loved to see the first female Olympians from Saudi Arabia, Wojdan Shaherkani and Sara Attar, recognized… but there are also many arguments against their selection – including the fact that they are brave athletes who were saluted at the London Games this summer.

I could continue this blog by going into a technical review of the Laureates (I am intrigued by the quantum physics articles), but I feel complete with this discussion for tonight. Congratulations to all of the 2012 Nobel Prize winners – I look forward to watching and cheering you on with my fellow Swedes at our Nobel annual dinner.

S

Oh, and don’t be like Sinclair Lewis, the 1930 Laureate in Literature, who was frightened by his early morning visit by Santa Lucia and her entourage. Enjoy the morning coffee and song... she's human, not an angel, I promise.

A Day Without Water

I live in a three bedroom house in San Diego and today my home has no water. I live in an affluent region of one of the most affluent countries in the world. “I don’t have water” is a very odd statement for me to make… and it’s an incredibly surreal way to live. When I turn on the faucets in the kitchen or bathroom, all I hear is the slurping suction of moist air and a rattling of the old copper pipes. I am afraid to flush the toilet because, well, I like my liquids! So I am developing a longer-term agreement with the color yellow and have placed a temporary “extra” rubbish bin next to the loo.

We do have two 1-gal glass jugs of drinking water, plus a container full of about the same of tap water for washing+other. It’s a short term fix.

A very short term fix.

I was conscious of just how short term that supply will be as I carefully measured out a glass of water for my morning toiletry/bathing activities. It was like being back at Burning Man, minus the dust. A month ago John and I consciously chose to spend eight days in the desert plus one in Yosemite with a 27 gallon water supply. Water consumption (i.e., drinking and cooking) was carefully orchestrated. Bathing was usually by means of baby wipes or the communal camp “shower” (i.e., being soaped up and sprayed down with help from a hand-pump pressurized power washer, a system to which we happily donated five gallons of water - showers for ~20 of our campmates).  I’ve gotten water-greedy since coming home and balk at the idea of being limited to 1.2 gallons of water today. Last night’s pipe accident has been a sustainability wake-up call!

Oh, did I mention that our lack of water is our own fault? John was out in the yard, prepping the front-side area for re-landscaping, when he hit a shallow copper water line. According to the 2010 California Plumbing Code, all underground piping shall have a minimum 12-in of cover, which is what made finding pipe at 6 inches (or less) so surprising.  We patched the leak with hose clamps and plastic. It was enough that we could fill up our emergency containers (Alas, I cannot say that we were so prepared as to having pre-filled containers!) and John could rinse off the mud before we turned off our connection to the water main.

 

The sun is up and as I drink my careful alotment of tea, I contemplate materials for our at home repair job - solder (lead free 95/5 tin/antimony), k strength copper pipe and couplings, flux, cutters, sand paper and a blow tourch, as well as good ways to drain an underground, shallow water system at the lowest point in the house.

 

Needless to say, it's going to be an interesting day.

Happy Sunday!

S

A Flight full of Sunshine! Solar Impulse Crosses the Straight of Gilbrater!

From a distance, the long and skinny shape of the Solar Impulse (HB-SIA) could almost be mistaken for a UFO, a dinosaur bird, or maybe a hopped up paper airplane. Closer observation would reveal a solar powered flying machine!

This spring the Solar Impulse team kicked off a mission to fly "more than 1,500 mi (2,500 km) without using one drop of fuel." Pilot Andre Borschberg flew the first leg of the journey, and marked history for the first transcontinential flight from Payerne, Switzerland to Madrid, Spain. The plane made excellent time and rather than circle the airport for two hours in high turbulence, was able to land at 01:28AM, on May 26, 2012. On June 5, 2012, Bertrand Piccard and the HB-SIA completed the world's first intercontinental flight, a 19-hour voyage from Madrid to Rabat, Morocco, directly over the Straight of Gilbrater. The plane was met by the ground crew of the Solar Impulse, journalists and representatives of the Morrocan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN), who were celebrating the construction kick-off of the world's largest solar-thermal power plant.

The plane requires 12,000 solar cells to power the four electric motors that allow it to stay aloft. The cruising speed of 44 MPH may be a little slow compared to fossil-fuel powered commercial craft, but the plane represents a huge step into the future. The HB-SIA flies on direct solar power during daylight hours, and when there is energy in excess, it is stored in one of four batteries on board, allowing the plane to reliably travel under both daylight and nighttime conditions. This fantastic design allows the Team to prepare for their 2014 mission... fly around the world on solar power alone.

I welcome the Solar Impulse and watch for more news!

--

The YouTube video Solar plane's first international flight is worth watching. I personally, like making the comparison with its 2001 unmanned predicessor, the Helios. (Check out the flapping effect of the Helios in turbulance - it starts at minute 1:43 on the YouTube video).

Energy from your toilet...

Scientists from Singapore have designed a new low-flow toilet which separates human solids and liquids and requires a reduced water volume per use. According to the article the new design reduces water use 90% compared to standard Singaporian systems. (((Note - The water reduction appears a little inflated. Singapore mandates use of high efficiency toilets: ~1.6 gal/solids flush and/or ~0.8 gal/ liquid only flush. The new toilet uses 0.2 gal/liquid only flush, a 75% reduction; and 1 gal/solids flush, a 60% reduction. The 90% is a comparison of the old solid/new liquid water use. Still, these reductions are significant, provided a proven design... pilot test results pending.))) The remains would be separated on site for materials reuse - liquids for fertilizers; and solids for biomass fuels.

I have heard a lot about biomass, and was intrigued by the  idea, so more research ensued. There are many organizations and public agencies working with various types of biomass materials, ranging from corn-based ethanol, to (clean) coal, fecal matter, and even trash!!! combustion. Each of these areas have a common intent to upcycle perceived waste materials into an alternative fuel, but all are subject to different governing criteria. Typically a biomass' energy is harnessed through burning. My father was the air quality expert, not me, but having grown up around the industry, I feel hesitant to sign-off on burning as a clean, green, renewable means to harness energy. But as a conservationist, I also do not condemn the entire biomass fuel supply in favor of a wind/solar-only energy grid.

Generally, I agree with the Energy Justice position that Anything that creates pollution in the course of producing electricity shouldn't be considered clean... or renewable. I do believe that...

• Wastewater sludge is the best and greenest biomass option. It has an renewable, endless human supply (yes, I am a future fan of the No-Mix Vacuum Toilet design). Sludge/solids biomass is an improvement upon raw fossil fuel combustion, but it is associated with four odors and green house gases. These side effects may be controllable on a smaller scale. I can think of a few start up technologies useful for inline treatment. We shall see.
• Agricultural waste is a not-so-great biomass option. Anaerobic digestion of this type of waste  helps factory farms manage their chemical-laden non-organic biproducts. In reality, agricultural waste should be incorporated back into the land, or composted before it is burnt. Landfills don't need more slop.
• While wood is a biomass, it is also a valuable, dwindling resource. I prefer straight upcycling to its destruction. Also, wood biomass has a potentially toxic risk - accidental burning of wood treated with copper chromium arsenate (CCA) is toxic and shown to be carcinogenic. According to Energy Justice, 30% of biomass wood burned contains CCA (eeep!).
• Burning trash is a horrible option, only slightly less bad than raw fossil fuels and a wonderful waste of potential resources. 

I have a lot more to learn on this topic. Input and counter views are welcomed.

Cheers ~
S

Tûranor PlanetSolar

I love reading in the mornings - it takes one places! Today, over a lovely cup of Yerba Matte, I traveled around-the-world journey with the Tûranor PlanetSolar and her crew. The Tûranor, literally named power of the sun based on J.R.R. Tolkien's elven language, is the largest solar powered catamaran in the world. The vessel is 102ft (31m) long, 49ft (15m) wide, 20ft (6.1m) tall, and covered in 0.13 acres (537 m^2) of solar pannels. The Tûranor weighs a mere 95 tons, due to a light carbon material used in its construction. Her maiden voyage was in March 2010 in Kiel, Germany. The world circuit started on September 27, 2010 at Monoco, and the vessel and her four person crew traveled westward, along the equator. The 584 day journey included a planned series of outreach events at major international cities (i.e., Miami, Cancun, Brisbane, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, etc.), and a unplanned encounter with pirates!



Tûranor PlanetSolar

A blog describing the journey and the captain's log is available online <http://www.planetsolar.org/>. I am slowly exploring both - Having grown-up on boats, I feel a little warm and fuzzy thinking about the constant push for sustainability both on land and at sea!

A Question of Personal Sustainability

I love looking at the roots of words. The word sustainability is derived from the Latin sustinere (tenere, to hold; sus, up). While it has a unique legal application (to sustain or approve/uphold in terms of laws and/or previous legal decisions), the noun, defined in terms of enduring, maintaining, supporting, continuing... has been used synonymously with the environmental movement since the 1980s. According to the 1987 United Nations Report of the World Commission on Environmental Development: Our Common Future <http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-02.htm> “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." I personally consider the UN definition to be a great mission statement but hard to pin down as a definition... what does "needs" mean and who in each generation gets to decide what is needed? In 2005, the World Summit refined the concept by proposing three mutually reinforcing focus areas - environment, social equity, and economic demands - the three pillars of sustainability. I see the logic of the triple bottom line, working within society's predominant  structure to create partnerships and tempting carrots to further drive the environmental transition forwards... At the same time, I struggle. How will supply and demand "fix" the fact that “the biosphere is finite, nongrowing, closed (except for the constant input of solar energy), and constrained by the laws of thermodynamics” [Herman Daly, former World Bank economist]. We use the resources of three worlds but only live on Earth. I briefly considered pursing a masters degree in economics to better understand... but then decided to stick on my environmental engineering/planning/policy route. I'll leave the theory for others.

Homo erectus currently thrives with the help of science and technology! What we seek to point out through the sustainability/environmental movement is that our amazing modern society is based on a 5,000 year loan from the Earth... and we have an exponentially growing interest rate. I personally believe that humanity's loan will be called in the next generation or two. Environmental bankruptcies will take place and the crash will be more painful than any downturn experienced to date. I only hope that our forward momentum in understanding of the nature of our loan (carbon tracking, trash gyre mapping, renewable energy studies, rain forest renewal, etc) will allow us to start rapidly making payments to mitigate the long term pay-off curve. We can innovate out of disaster, provided a basic understanding of what we have to work with, and an opportunity to practice and gain the wisdom needed for that coming difficult time.

Home-grown sustainable communities are cropping up across the world, as are home gardens, use of organic foods, upcycled materials, local business initiatives... and so much more. Social media is slowly pulling sustainability out of the academic heights and impassioned extremes of society to every man, woman, and child. As we celebrate each success, we need to re-dedicate ourselves to the process - Our personal convenant with the Earth for personal sustainability and environmental endurance for one and all.

Here's to the heart and the spirit needed to sustain, endure and thrive!