REI's first annual Sustainability Report

Actions have results. I have been working on an "action learning project" team at BGI where we are helping REI initiate some reductions in their corporate waste stream. We started the project in October, and it will run through June. During Nov-Jan, we designed and implemented a survey to measure the total waste from REI's retail stores (both trash and recycling).

The company just published its first annual Sustainability Report, and they used our data. BGI is even mentioned in the report (on this page:http://www.rei.com/aboutrei/csr/2006/sustain_waste.html).

It feels satisfying to have contributed to something concrete, even just in the form of data collection. I can attest that REI is serious, not just greenwashing.

Stuart Island Energy Initiative

Neat! There is a fellow up on Stuart Island in the Puget Sound who runs his house off-grid using a solar-hydrogen system. He has published a clear and comprehensive description of the equipment he used and how he put it together on this website.

From the Philosophy section:

This system generates hydrogen on-site with solar energy, stores the hydrogen, and uses it to run a fuel cell on cloudy days. The hydrogen acts as a storage medium for the solar power, substituting for extra batteries. The fuel cell, which exhales only water vapor, substitutes for a back-up generator. Thus the system is carbon-neutral and pollution-free.

The system embodies an ideal end-state for our global energy infrastructure. That is, it's an example of one of the things we must do if we are to wean ourselves from fossil fuels and their carbon pollution. As Joseph Romm explains in his excellent book, The Hype About Hydrogen , this end-state will not be practical on a large scale for decades: In the short term the most efficient use of any grid-tied renewable energy source will be to directly replace polluting sources such as coal-fired generators. This gives the greatest CO2 reduction. Thus a surplus of renewable energy with which to make carbon-neutral hydrogen will not be available for many years yet (hydrogen made from natural gas is not carbon-neutral).

However, where there is a local surplus of renewable energy, a hydrogen system is practical and appropriate, here and now. This is precisely the case in an off-the-grid location such as ours. These locations have the privilege of being among the first truly viable spots for the hydrogen economy.

We believe it is critical to implement new technologies in the field: Only by true field-testing does a technology become robust enough to do useful work. There as a huge difference between theory and practice. On this basis we carried out our experiment. Indeed, we found that installing a hydrogen system is by no means a straight shot. But the bulk of the challenge stemmed from the lack of field experience with these technologies; the kinks are not yet worked out. We were particularly interested in finding out the weak links in the system. Our goal is to pass on what we have learned, in order to smooth the way for other installers, and ultimately to help these great technologies attain off-the-shelf efficiency. (We also wanted to have fun, and for that hydrogen is a great way to go.)

Maha Ghosananda

It's been a while, but I am back. Today I want to honor Maha Ghosananda, a Cambodian monk who died on March 12. He was somewhere between 65 and 95; it seems his age was not entirely known. But this does not matter.

Ghosananda embodied sweetness, lovingkindness, and peace. He was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize for his deep spiritual work in helping the Cambodian people to heal after the era of Pol Pot. I know only small portions of his life, thanks to the assistance of others pointing me toward them, but feel it is important to share even these small bits.

Ghosananda ordained in his teens and later headed to Nalanda University in India. Nalanda University is mentioned way back in the earliest Buddhist texts-- it was a vast center of learning in the ancient world that attracted scholars from all over the oriental world. It was evenutally destroyed, and today consists of hundreds of acres of ruins. But a newer version of Nalanda has been built, and Ghosananda attended, becoming a specialist in multiple languages, including Pali, the language of the Buddha.

He went on to study with a Japanese master and then a Thai master. While he was in Thailand, the incredible destruction of Cambodia took place. It is said that his teacher prevented Ghosananda from going back to Cambodia as he wished to, even going so far as to shield him from news of what was happening. It seems that his teacher was waiting-- with great compassion-- for Ghosananda to let go of the powerful urgency to try to fix things there. That desire would have gotten him killed, given the awful things that were going on. Eventually Ghosananda fully accepted the situation, and went back to Cambodia with an open and free heart. His whole family was gone, and the country was ravaged. Instead of crying or despairing, Ghosananda organized a walk from one end of the country to the other. He walked peacefully, taking in everything (good and bad), and smiling. More and more people joined him as he walked. This began the long healing process that is still going on. His amazing purity allowed him to feel no anger or desire for revenge, only the desire to help, to love, and to reestablish peace.

There were only three Cambodian monks alive in the world after the destruction of Cambodia, and he was one of them. Because he lived and came back to his country in peace, he brought great benefit to his people, much more than if he had been killed along with nearly everyone else who was a monk, was educated, or didn't support the revolution.

For the rest of his life, he was known for beaming silently. His face was sweet and always slightly smiling. He rarely said much-- an irony because he was a language expert. In fact, near the end of his life, he stopped speaking completely. Some say his mind had slipped and that he was no longer able to speak. I wonder if he was giving a gift: The proof that deep wisdom and lovingkindness come from a place where words are unnecessary.

One story: He once visited Harvard and met with some grad students there. They were full of intellectual questions, as well as the desire to impress him with their knowledge. They crowded around trying to tell him what they were researching and how much they had learned in their studies. As he navigated his way out of the room, someone pointed out to him that there was a man there wanting to see him. It was the janitor, who was Cambodian. The janitor came forward humbly and silently offered Ghosananda a small gift. He accepted the gift and gave his full attention to the janitor, ignoring all the grad students.

His whole life, he embodied peace, kindness, and love. He was willing to live among the rest of us and shine with his natural light. As he once said, "We're all in the same boat."

And now he has departed. Fare thee well, Maha Ghosananda.

Kim's housekeeping tip

I rarely venture into the realm of blogging about housekeeping, but this one is pretty neat. A friend sent me this:

The clothes dryer stopped drying. The repairman went to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. We always clean the lint from the filter after every load of clothes. He told us that he wanted to show us something. He took the filter over to the sink, and ran hot water over it.. I am sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. WELL...the hot water just sat on top of the screen! It did not go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a waxy film to build up over the screen, and this does not let the air pass through, so the heating unit overheats and burns out. You cannot SEE the film, but it's there. This is also what causes dryer's to catch fire, and potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower because your clothes will dry faster) is to clean that filter after every load, and wash it with hot soapy water with an old toothbrush (or other brush) every three months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long!

So of course I checked mine. Darned if the water didn't just float on top of it. Check out yours!

Beeline

Three BGI students have succeeded in early rounds of competition to arrive at the Doors of Perception conference in India, presenting their plan for a way to reduce food miles-- called Beeline.

There's a write-up on the conference site about Beeline, which was created as a class project at BGI, then turned into a larger system. Dawn went to London a few weeks ago to present it before a panel in competition with many other groups, and the BGI team won. Congratulations Dawn, Jyoti, and Mary!