Magnolia: Vermont’s first “certified green” restaurant from lovetomorrowtoday on Vimeo.
LTT’s One Degree TV visits Magnolia Bistro in Burlington, VT to see how Vermont’s first “certified green” restaurant is making it work. Co-owners July Sanders and Shannon Reilly talk about how they blend their own business interests with those of their community. “It’s not rocket science,” says Reilly, but “it’s really just a lot of thought behind little things” that makes the difference.
LTT spent time with Peter Johnson, owner and innovator at Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury, VT. Pete talks about his remarkable four-season organic farm, how the local food movement is helping to revive this area of Vermont and how, if they can do it, anyone can!
Pete’s Greens: at the heart of the locavore movement from lovetomorrowtoday on Vimeo.
We’re part of the cheering section for Burlington’s own Green Cab VT, a taxi service that uses vehicles that run on fuels other than petroleum or are powered in part by electricity. The above video (from the good people at UVMtv) provides a glimpse at the operation.
The company was “founded with the undestanding that the current situation in transportation is outdated. The internal combustion engine (ICE) was invented 185 years ago and has stuck around ever since.” As the company’s site explains, “there are enough intelligent people on this planet who realize the damage that is being done by the pollutants emitted by the ICE and the desire for the fuel necessary to power it. We hope to affect some small change in the way that people perceive alternative fueled vehicles”
Hail hail Green Cab!
In another webisode of One Degree TV, we pay a visit to Burlington, VT-based Lunaroma to talk with owner Leila Bringas about some of the benefits of botanically-based essential oils and how mainstream synthetic alternatives are not only confusing our senses but also posing health risks.
The guiding philosophy at Love Tomorrow Today is that positive change in our lives begins with small decisions. It’s daunting and unrealistic to make sweeping and swift changes to our daily lives, to our economy, to our manufacturing, to our health. But, as Leila suggests, pausing to consider small decisions can help guide us in a healthier direction. Or as we like to say, one degree changes…everything.
For more info on the amazing products on offer at Lunaroma, visit them in Vermont and Hawaii or at their web site. Stay tuned for part two, where Leila helps us create a Love Tomorrow Today ’signature scent.’
Lunaroma: Part One from lovetomorrowtoday on Vimeo.
2009 was an interesting year! We looked at Neckties made from recycled cassette tapes, the rise of “Smart Grid-compatible” appliances, the coolest band in the world (U2) having a massive carbon footprint on tour, Upcycled Medals for the upcoming Vancouver Olympics, the amazing story of William Kamkwamba (aka ‘the boy who harnessed the wind’), ESL light bulbs becoming more energy efficient than highly touted CFLs, the BigBelly Solar Powered trash can, the ‘E-Rockit’ man, and many, many more innovative ideas, interesting people and trends that we’ll be tracking tomorrow.
We also created some videos we’re proud of- check them out.
This year, while continuing to track green technology, LTT will broaden its focus to cover innovative ideas, promising and creative solutions to tomorrow’s problems and people and concepts that inspire us.
Happy New Year!
We had the chance to spend some time at a remarkable new development in Hinesburg, Vermont, where contractor Chuck Reiss (Reiss Building & Renovation) and architect Rolf Kielman (Truex Cullins & Partners) are leading the way in building tomorrow’s homes today. Set on 24 acres of prime agricultural land on the outskirts of town (not far from Burlington), the South Farm homes have been designed and built to be “net zero,” meaning they will produce all the energy they need on site.
The land was bought in partnership by Vermont Building Resources (which Reiss formed along with a limited pool of like-minded investors) and the Russell Family Farm, and the goal was to ensure a modest but responsible development of this 24 acre parcel. Fourteen acres were set aside for continued farming, while a cluster of six passive/active solar homes was built on a portion of the land’s southern facing slope.
As Kielman points out, the principle of orienting a home on a piece of land to maximize efficiency is not a new concept. “You can go back to some of the basic principles involved in Greek town planning,” Kielman says, “you go to Delphi for example…all these Greek communities sit in these south facing bowls…and this was a perfect south facing bowl,…we could shelve all of these houses into the hillside, put most of the glass to the southside,…it’s a little like a tree, the way it sort of searches for the sunlight to sustain itself.”
Beyond positioning, Reiss and Kielman had to consider a range of factors to help reduce the homes’ overall energy load, including tightening the envelopes (limiting the homes to 1500-2000 square feet), using locally sourced materials where possible and introducing triple pane windows. Other environmental features include geo-thermal heating, radiant concrete floors, super insulated walls and roofs, active PV solar panels and significant south facing glass, which provides solar gain and great views down the valley.
The homes have been certified by the Vermont Builds Green program, which recognized the development’s conservation of agricultural soils and wetlands, location within 3 miles of a school and food store, building design (built into the hillside and with a roof oriented for maximum solar exposure) and its energy rating.
The homes will actually produce more energy than they use, making them each a little utility company.
“Green Mountain Power charges 13 cents per kilowatt hour,” Reiss explains. “It buys back electricity at 6 cents above that rate,…and when rates go up, the house earns more.”
“One of our goals was to say, ‘look, you can do this. This is not something that’s happening in the future.” I personally feel if we can demonstrate that with a subdivision of six homes, I don’t see why we’re building any other way.”
For more, check out the project’s brochure.
Print Media and The Environment from lovetomorrowtoday on Vimeo.
For our latest installment of One Degree TV, we sat down with Brad Robertson, the Publisher of the Burlington Free Press, a Gannett paper,. We struck up a conversation with Brad after we had written a post asking whether the demise of print media was possibly a good thing for the planet. After an interesting email exchange, we arranged a sit down to discuss further. We’re looking forward to continuing the dialogue in the coming months as this topic is on a lot of our minds. Thanks Brad.
Carbon Offsets With Brighter Planet from lovetomorrowtoday on Vimeo.
Back with more One Degree TV, our series of webisodes that focuses on green innovation and simple change. We’re highlighting the efforts of companies and individuals moving the needle one degree closer to “better.”
In this one, we ask Matt Kling and Robbie Adler, from Brighter Planet, to give us the basics on their industry, a sort of “Carbon Offsets 101.” The Middlebury, VT-based offset company works with experts in the environmental movement and partners like Bank of America to create practical solutions to climate change for individuals and businesses.
For those of us looking to make simple tweaks in our daily lives, the idea of a carbon offset makes sense, but it’s not quite as tangible as other green efforts. We wanted some help in demystifying the concept, and, as Matt and Robbie point out, in the new green economy, as a value is assigned to carbon, offsets will play a more important role. Watch the video, and send it around!
The Skinny Pancake Project from lovetomorrowtoday on Vimeo.
We’re kicking off One Degree TV, our series of webisodes that will focus on green innovation and simple change. We’re excited to highlight the efforts of companies and individuals moving the needle one degree closer to “better.”
“The Skinny Pancake Project” follows our collaboration with a Burlington, VT-based restaurant, The Skinny Pancake. When owner Benjy Adler asked us to develop a “sustainable take-out container,” the challenge was to find something that was cost-effective and practical but also consistent with the restaurant’s deep commitment to the environment. The first question was could we find a material that was leak-proof AND compostable? Once we had that figured out, the second question was could we make one container work for two shapes of crepes (rectangular and triangular)? The answer, thanks to our own Eric Li, was “sustainable origami.”
