Greentime

As we mentioned in our previous episode, we re starting to reach out and try to engage groups in the community involved in green issues and activism. Rhett s become very passionate about his bike riding and using his bike as a commuter (he now frequently day-trips to Boca Raton and Miami in addition to riding in town), and so he decided to become more involved with Critical Mass, an unorganized coincidence of bicycle advocates. In this episode, Rhett also tries out Tri-Rail and MetroRail, two critical links in the South Florida mass transit system. As you ll see, their efficiency on the weekends isn t great part of the reason Rhett s finally just started cycling long distances. Interested in joining a Critical Mass ride? If you live in South Florida, you can join Rhett on rides with Miami Critical Mass and meet members of Emerge Miami. Check the link above for rides in other areas. Don t have one in your area? Why not start one? Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Quicktime (.mov) Tags: bike, bicycle, activism, critical mass, miami, green, greentime, green issues, green lifestyle, environmentalism

Whew! Life has thrown us a number of curve balls these last two months and it s been more difficult producing new posts. But, we re back and on some semblance of a schedule. Next time, we won t leave without at least warning everyone we promise! There have been a number of updates and additions during our hiatus, however, that we want to tell you about Our status bar is now a Twitter. If you d like to receive updates on show status, you can follow us. These updates can be followed with an RSS reader, posted to a LiveJournal, or sent via text message to your mobile phone. We ve started a Flickr group, and we d love it if you d join it and share some pictures of yourself with all the other Greentime lovers out there. We ve started a group in Second Life called Greentime SL . If you use the Second Life search system, click on the groups tab, and search for our name, you can find the group and join it. We re in the process of building the meeting place, but once we do, we ll update everyone with its location. So, aside from these things, we re working on trying to reduce the amount of stuff in our home. When we moved in together, we never really got rid of redundant possessions, and we also are carrying around a lot of the detritus from past hobbies, games we bought and never played, etc these things all add up and make clutter, making our home and life less efficient. So, we re finding ways to move these things on to new homes so our home can be better designed for our new, greener life. If you want hints on uncluttering your life, we suggest Unclutterer, a blog Rhett reads daily. Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv) Tags: green, greentime, green lifestyle, environmentalism, flickr, second life, uncluttering

Since the container gardening doesn t seem to have a high yield, and since our local organic market has expensive produce and the nearest real farmer s market is in the next town over, we ve opted to become subscribers in community supported agriculture (CSA), a relatively new business model for farms that should keep us in locally produced, seasonal, organic produce for months. CSA can be very cost-effective and convenient, but many people don t feel comfortable with the idea of cooking whatever it is the farm is growing. So, we ve brought along Ilona, our friend, local foodie, and fellow CSA subscriber. Rhett and Ilona go to town dissecting the first shipment from Redland Organics and discussing ways to make quick, simple, satisfying meals without bending over backwards. Interested in trying out CSA for yourself? Just check out Local Harvest to see if there s a farm near you! Show credits: The music in the montages is Earthen Fire and Dreams Away by Zen Debris. Foley effects for the wine pouring came from Percy Duke, stjin, and luffy, all courtesy of the FreeSound Project Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Quicktime (.mov) Tags: green, greentime, green lifestyle, food, agriculture, cooking, community supported agriculture, organic

Every 20th episode of this project is dedicated to looking back and putting a hard measure on how well previous experiments have worked out. Often, when we put out a show, we have just tried something out for the first time. Many green ideas seem green at first, or seem like they re easy at first but later on you just find they don t work out for you. Sometimes, the hard things turn out to be easy, too. We each sit down separately and share our perceptions of these last eight months with the camera and pick our big winners and big losers. Our points where we agree and disagree might surprise you! If you d like to see how each of us scored every experiment, please check out the full scorecard on our site! Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Quicktime (.mov) Tags: greentime, green, green lifestyle, retrospective, meta

We re back from the impromptu hiatus causeed by all our friends deciding to get married at the same time. We d like to extend our fondest congratulations to Cat and James as well as to ChrisAnn and Mark. We ve got a lovely montage of wedding pictures for Cat and James (set to the music of their band, the musical voice of Greentime, Zen Debris), and we hope we can show you some of ChrisAnn and Mark when they get back from their honeymoon! Amy s in front of the camera this week, opening the viewer mailbag. Then she dives into our most recent project, reducing the water use in our shower. We ve replaced the hilariously surreal showerhead with a more practical one that offers two kinds of low-flow options as well as a pause setting. Ever heard of a navy shower ? Check out this episode and find out how to get in your daily bathing without wasting 20-50 gallons of water. Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Quicktime (.mov) Tags: green, green lifestyle, bath and shower, water, water conservation

So, we re starting to make that plunge towards conserving our automobile use.  As you may be aware from previous episodes, Amy is already a telecommuter, so this one falls mostly to Rhett.  Just by taking a bike for his daily commute and changing his lifestyle around slightly (read: no going home for lunch), he s able to carve off a good 90 miles a week.  That might not sound like much, but he really doesn t drive very much as it is.  If we re not going on a road trip (which is rare), then that s probably at least a 50% reduction. Commuting and running errands with a bicycle is pretty easy.  Just hop over to t or your local bike shop and get a nice, sturdy, used bike then replace the mountain bike tires with slicks designed for use on the roads.  A couple of small and simple tools to go with it, and you ve got a vehicle that s mighty fun, healthy, and green to ride. Oh, and did we mention it s the most energy efficient mode of transport?  Yes, even if you take a very pessimistic analysis, it is not only more efficient than virtually any other choice in ground transport, but shaping your lifestyle around a bike encourages conservation.  Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v) Tags: bike, bicycle, commute, bicycle commute, green, green lifestyle, new urbanism, travel

Rhett s in the kitchen this week showing off some simple ways that we reuse water in the home. Greywater, or the water coming out of (non-kitchen) sink drains, washing machine drains, and shower drains, is ripe for reuse and constitutes 50-80% of household waste water. Just through the simple application of bucket and spout , it s possible to water significant portions of your garden or even flush your toilets. The simple methods shown here are motivational examples and they re only the tip of the iceberg. For more ideas, check out our resources and show notes: The Greywater Guerrillas - activists for greywater reuse and recycling. This site is ripe with projects and ideas for homes of all sizes. WVU on Greywater - Great rules for the safe handling and use of greywater. Colorado State on Greywater - A moredetailed coverage of greywater handling. It also mentiones rainwater harvesting. New Mexico State University - The basics of New Mexico s laws on greywater. Also has an excellent coverage of safe handling guidelines. Greywater irrigation - Stats on greywater production, use, and pollution. It also includes material on greywater treatment options. Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v) Tags: green, green lifestyle, apartment living, reuse, reduce, greywater, water

Thanks for the patience while we got this episode out! We ve been at Dragon*Con doing panels about video podcasting, we ve been sick, Rhett s had to go out of town to be at his research lab life in general has gotten in the way. The new Greentime logo is out now. As we said, we won t be making merchandise of our own, but we encourage you to get the logo and make your own. (png format) (svg format) Anyway, we re now back and greening our lives once again! Rhett goes off to the mailbox and throws a little tizzy over the junk mail held therein. Here s how: Contact the Direct Marketing Association to get on their opt-out list for circulars and direct mail. Get on the opt-out list for all the major credit bureaus. For more information, check out these guides from the Native Forest Network and No Impact Man. Conveniently enough, they re also where we got our statistics. And don t forget that, if you want to have someone take care of this for you, GreenDimes offers a fairly comprehensive service, complete with tree plantings. Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv) Tags: green lifestyle, green, environmentalism, reduce, junk mail, solid waste

A lightbulb suddenly burns out and Rhett springs into green action, replacing the lightbulbs in our front room with CFLs. These things are great they put out a beautiful white light and use 25-33% of the electricity of incandescent lights. Granted, they have mercury in them, but it s not hard to work around that. They re cheaper than LED lights and they really sip the electricity for what they do. Some important links: Did you know consumers prefer CFL light? Really. Check out this Popular Mechanics study. What about the mercury content? Again, Popular Mechanics is there. Energy Star on CFLs, including proper disposal. Find a CFL recycling facility. CC Crane is pretty famous for LED lights, for the mercury-phobic. Check out the CFL Epidsode of Real World Green, our distant cousin green vlog. Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv) Tags: cfl, reduce, electricity, green lifestyle, green, environmentalism

We d like to welcome everyone who s coming to see us for the first time thanks to our redistribution at greenerMIAMI. We re so proud to see our first site affiliation. Hungry to shrink our electricity bills this summer, we go after our monster appliance sucking 1800-5000W of power. That s right the clothes dryer. We look into the inexpensive and surprisingly not-inconvenient option of letting the miserable heat of Florida s summers do the work for us by drying on racks. See how this is going for us and check out some information on how you can get involved. Links: Project Laundry List - A group promoting information and advocacy of a clothes dryer-free lifestyle and a return to the clothes line. They re a great place to start if you need information on fighting deed restrictions. We live in a right to dry state. Do you? Find out. Treehugger.com - A discussion about deed restricted communities, difficulties in putting up clothes lines and drying racks, and property values. Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv) Tags: green, green lifestyle, environmentalism, reduce, electricity, appliances, clothes, clothes line, hang out

Amy returns to Sustainability Test Kitchen to show off some of the homemade beauty products we re dedicated to using. Remember, doing it yourself is a surefire way to ensure to reduce packaging and use raw ingredients that you ve selected for their sustainability. Amy shows how she makes body scrub from old coffee grounds, facial scrub from cornmeal and orange juice, and a mask from banana and honey. We re always looking for more green recipes, whether they be for food, beauty supplies, or virtually anything else. If you have a good recipe you use, don t forget to email us. We love to learn and share your tricks and hints with others! Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v) Tags: green, green living, environmentalism, beauty products, reduce, diy

Rhett summarizes his bumbling adventure through the world of commodities economics and intangible assets as he attempts to figure out how the green electricity program for Florida Power and Light works. In the process, he lays out criteria he finds sufficient for a carbon offsets company and discovers NativeEnergy, a company which meets his standards. We apologize for the long running time, but there s no quick way to do this topic, and it s a very important one. Photo credits: wind farm by rasmithuk, coal plant by mikkoit, hippie dog by sis, and tree by terinea. All photos are available on a CC attributions license. The free carbon offset certificate humorously provided by http://www.freecarbonoffsets.com. To find out more about FP s green energy program, please see their FAQ here. For a list of America s biggest REC purchasers, see this list from the US Department of Energy. We d also like to bring this report (note: PDF) from Clean Air Cool Planet regarding the state of business practices among offset companies. Also, we d like to make it clear that we have not been paid or even asked to promote FP s green electricity program or NativeEnergy in any way, nor should this video be construed as an endorsement. We re too insignificant to get paid for our endorsements. The purpose of this video is to explore the market forces of RECs and offsets and show how we ve come to a conclusion about how we believe we can buy an offset productively. To provide a more balanced perspective, here s an opposing article from FoxNews.com about Congressional investigation into offsets, including NativeEnergy. This was released while we were shooting. Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v) Tags: green, green lifestyle, energy, renewable energy, renewable energy certificates, rec, carbon offsets, offsets, carbon neutral

Thanks for your patience!  We re back from the honeymoon and ready to sustainably kick some butt.  Amy was recently asked by a friend how to figure out if her coffee is good for the planet, and the result was a bunch of research into what various fair trade and sustainable certifications actually mean.  Amy reviews Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, Bird Friendly, and Utz Kapeh.  The results might surprise you.  Also, a big thanks to Ilona for the link to Fat Free Vegan. Formats available: Quicktime (.mov) Tags: green labeling, green lifestyle, green, coffee, food

Thanks so much for your patience while we get back on track! We got married on June 3 and we ve been recovering from it ever since, but we finally got episode #10 done. In this episode, aside from showing wedding pictures, Rhett shares his experiences in using Amtrak to travel around the state of Florida. Taking the train rather than driving is often touted as an excellent green choice in travel, but what happens when you try to make the green choice might surprise you. Resources for this episode: Amtrak fare and schedule finder Wikipedia entry for Amtrak (Amy corrects a mistake in Rhett s commentary) Remember, if you have any knowledge or personal experience with buying carbon offsets for travel or tourism, please let us know so that we can try to make an informed choice about our honeymoon. Formats available: Quicktime (.mov) Tags: amtrak, green travel, wedding, green lifestyle, green, environmentalism, carbon footprint, travel

Amy jumps in this week with an update on the garden.  After that, she introduces the concept of voluntary simplicity, its implications for work, consumption, and gift giving, and talks about using Freecycle. Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (protected) (.m4v) Tags: voluntary simplicity, gardening, green, green lifestyle, gift giving

Amy jumps in this week with an update on the garden.  After that, she introduces the concept of voluntary simplicity, its implications for work, consumption, and gift giving, and talks about using Freecycle. Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (protected) (.m4v) Tags: voluntary simplicity, gardening, green, green lifestyle, gift giving

We ve been featured in Riptide, the blog of New Times Miami, a newspaper dedicated to local culture!  Thanks go out to Tamara Lush for making this possible. You can see the article about us here. Rhett shows you how to use a brewing technique similar to methode champagne to put bubbles in flavored sugar water and make your own soda.  This is the traditional technique for making soft drinks such as ginger beer and sasparilla, and it makes for something sweet to serve with dinner or at parties. Rhett s ginger beer recipe: place 1/2 cup sugar, 1/8 tsp yeast, 1 tbsp (to taste) ground ginger root, juice of 1/2 lemon, and water to fill to 1 head room in a 1L bottle. Cap, shake, and let the yeast do the hard work for 24-48 hours at room temperature. This easy recipe came to us via this WikiHow article.  This technique can be adapted to any number of flavorings and levels of sweetness.  The only limit is your imagination! If you d like to make cola, a good recipe can be found in OpenCola.  WikiHow provides a simple-to-follow recipe. Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (protected) (.m4v) Tags: soda, homebrew, diy, diet, do it yourself, reduce, green lifestyle, green, environmentalism

Rhett takes some time to answer some viewer mail. In addition, we ve been tagged with the Thinking Blogger Award! So, in keeping with the award, here are our five favorite blogs and podcasts (they re blogs, too!). If you write for any of these, consider yourself tagged! We give a blurb about each of the blogs in the video Green As A Thistle Visualize Whirled Peas America The Green Podcast Practical Green Living GreenerMiami.com For this week s project, Rhett gives some pointers on how to get started growing oyster mushrooms on old coffee grinds. This sort of direct to food decomposition is a real godsend for those of us who don t have back yards or large gardens for making and using compost. Put your kitchen scraps to work making gourmet mushrooms! For more information, check out this primer.  For more information and supplies for growing your own mushrooms at home, or to get a professionally made oyster mushroom starter kit, you can also check out Fungi Perfecti (this is not a paid endorsement), Rhett s favorite mycoloculture supplier.  Growing mushrooms can be easy and a really fun way to get rid of kitchen waste.  Give it a try! Formats available: Flash Video (.flv), MPEG-4 Video (protected) (.m4v) Tags: mushrooms, mycoculture, composting, sustainable living, sustainability, organic waste, green lifestyle, green, environmentalism

Amy draws on her experiences owning a green cleaning agency to share with you the basics of keeping a spotless home in an environmentally conscious way.  Even if you know the basics of citrus oil and vinegar, check out some of Amy s big secrets for polished chrome or glass!  You ll be reducing your footprint, making bulk cleaners, and keeping your home clean for less.  Don t forget we always love to hear new tips from you, so comment or email us! Formats available: Flash Video (.flv), MPEG-4 Video (protected) (.m4v) Tags: cleaning green, cleaning, green, green lifestyle, sustainable living, sustainability, environmentalism

Amy shares her experiences having owned a green cleaning service in her younger days and dispenses some tips on how to meek your home clean without throwing away massive amounts of packaging or using harsh chemicals. Included are many of the standards of green cleaning such as vinegar solutions, citrus oil, and sodium carbonates. Already using those? Well, there are some tips for getting a chrome or glass shine we re sure you probably haven t heard! Of course, we re always looking for more ways to keep our apartment clean in an environmentally friendly fashion, so don t forget to send us your tips! Formats available: Flash Video (.flv), MPEG-4 Video (protected) (.m4v) Tags: cleaning, cleaning green, green lifestyle, green, environmentalism, sustainable living, sustainability

Amy comments on The Green on Sundance Channel, the opinions of some of its hosts, and the establishment of green prestige product industries. We really liked seeing more green programming on TV, but there s another side that might surprise you. Then, Rhett takes to the kitchen to show you how you can make soy milk at home, getting one more industrial product out of your refrigerator. The recipe: just 425g of soybeans and 3L of water! References for this episode: Plenty, Apr-May 2007 Cornell Study: Organic farming 15% more labor-intensive; uses 30% less energy

Rhett and Amy talk about solid waste and the preferable choices to recycling. Think recycling is the way to go? The answer might shock you. This week s project focused on the oft forgotten ideas of reducing and reusing. Intrinsic to this is adopting a DIY lifestyle where you control the amount of final packaging because you make as much as possible. Since the DIY food production projects together would be too much for one post, they will each be covered in coming episodes. Stay tuned to see how easy it can be to provide your own necessities! Links: Graphic on packaging waste from the UNEP Justin Stockdale s comments from America the Green Podcast #21 Don t forget to email us with your tips for reducing and reusing. Viewer mail always gets a special place at the beginning of each episode. Formats available: Flash Video (.flv), MPEG-4 Video (protected) (.m4v) Tags: reduce, reuse, recycle, solid waste, sustainable living, sustainability, green lifestyle, green, diy

Thanks so much for all the support and all the viewer email we ve gotten! We dig into our mailbag this week, and then after that show off our next project to try and lighten the burden on the world a new set of vegetable and herb gardens in our apartment. They re still quite new, but we give some ideas on how to grow food in an apartment cheaply and with limited space. Links to websites submitted by viewers: Josh s vegan tasting menu (very tasty) The Mouth Revolution (very silly) Livestock s Long Shadow (very informative) Remember, if you have pictures or a link or a question or anything else that you d like to share with us, you can always email us at greentime@weatherlight.com! Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (protected) (.m4v) Tags: eat local, garden, gardening, green, food, food miles, vlog

Sustainability doesn t just start at home it starts with your stomach!  Things we unavoidably consume daily are ripe with opportunities to optimize for a greener tomorrow.  We ve gone and done some digging in the American diet and found out something that s obvious to anyone who s eaten out Americans eat too much meat.  So, we re kicking off our personal projects in sustainability by scaling back significantly.  Hear how we ve made eating only one meat/dairy dish a week work for us, from our personal comfort to our household budget. It s a lot to cram into five minutes, so look for future episodes to contain recipe ideas, tips on shopping without breaking the bank, and much more.  Don t forget to email us!  We ll read our mailbag on the show. Resources for this episode: ERS/USDA Briefing Room - Food Consumption Earth Policy Institute - Plan B 2.0 Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (protected) (.m4v) Tags: vegan, vegetarian, food consumption, sustainability, green, green lifestyle, environmentalism, urban life, sustainable living, meat, food, diet

Rhett and Amy introduce themselves, talk about what sustainability and green living mean to them, talk about the unique challenges facing urban apartment-dwellers when they want to think green, and ponder things to come. Please don t forget to get involved visit the website, comment, email the show, and keep coming back! Help us help make a difference and be good examples for others! Oh, and Zamis the cat makes his first cameo.

This is just a short little teaser and promo for Greentime. We re testing out the infrastructure and thought it d make a fun way to also spread the word! The music is Concrete Horizon from Zen Debris. They re a phenomenal band. You should totally check them out. Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv) Tags: green, greentime, eco, ecological, sustainable, sustainable living, home and garden, lifestyle