Most people are familiar with hydroponics, a method for growing plants in nutrient rich water instead of soil. It’s the technique behind those upside down herb gardens they advertise on late-night TV and the big, red tomatoes available in the dead of winter at conventional grocery stores.

Less people are familiar with aquaponics, a bio-integrated system that links recirculating aquaculture with hydroponic vegetable, flower, and/or herb production. In case I’ve already lost you, here’s a better description from the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service:

“In aquaponics, nutrient-rich effluent from fish tanks is used to fertigate hydroponic production beds. This is good for the fish because plant roots and rhizobacteria remove nutrients from the water. These nutrients – generated from fish manure, algae, and decomposing fish feed – are contaminants that would otherwise build up to toxic levels in the fish tanks, but instead serve as liquid fertilizer to hydroponically grown plants. In turn, the hydroponic beds function as a biofilter – stripping off ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, and phosphorus – so the freshly cleansed water can then be recirculated back into the fish tanks. The nitrifying bacteria living in the gravel and in association with the plant roots play a critical role in nutrient cycling; without these microorganisms the whole system would stop functioning.”

Whew! So basically, an aquaponic farmer sets up a sort of symbiotic relationship between plants and fishes, with each taking at turn filtering out contaminants and bacteria from the one common ingredient- water.

According to the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service (formerly known as ATTRA), the concept of aquaponics is catching the attention of fish farmers, hydroponic farmers and greenhouse growers alike. The reason?

-Hydroponic growers view fish-manured irrigation water as a source of organic fertilizer that enables plants to grow well.

-Fish farmers view hydroponics as a biofiltration method to facilitate intensive recirculating aquaculture.

-Greenhouse growers view aquaponics as a way to introduce organic hydroponic produce into the marketplace, since the only fertility input is fish feed and all of the nutrients pass through a biological process.

Beyond these practical applications, some have taken the functional requirements of aquaponic systems and used them to inspire an experiment in local, sustainable agriculture, recycling and art called the “Farm Fountain.”

Farm Fountain is a system for growing edible and ornamental fish and plants in a constructed, indoor ecosystem. Based on the concept of aquaponics, this hanging garden fountain uses a simple pond pump to circulate vwater through 2-liter plastic soda bottles that serve as planters and continuously recycles the water in the system to create a symbiotic relationship between edible plants, fish and humans.

Click here to watch a video of the Farm Fountain 4 in action at Te Papa Tongarewa, the national museum of New Zealand.

Wanna know more? Check out these cool sites:

http://www.farmfountain.com

Aquaponics– Integration of Hydroponics with Aquaculture

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com

- The Team at GenGreen

(Images from www.farmfountain.com and www.backyardaquaponics.com)

Don’t get me wrong, I love having a tree for the holidays. It smells great and somehow brings a warmth and homeyness to the living room that is missing the rest of the year. It also brings about a million needles as we finally try to shove it out the door, long past New Year’s Day. Here are some ideas about what to do with your tree, and other holiday shrapnel now that the holidays will soon leave us swirling in their wake.

1. Recycle (or plant) That Tree!

If (like me) you succumed to the lure of a 6 foot fir sans roots this season, allow it to live on by recycling it as mulch. Check out GenGreenLife.com or your city government’s web page to determine if municipal tree collection/drop off programs exist. Also, check to see if landscaping companies in your area allow trees to be dropped off for a minimal charge. Whichever route you choose, just be sure that the trees are really being recycled and not just hauled off to the dump. Ditto for wreaths.

If you were a super green little elf and bought a living tree, then enjoy watering and watching it grow until Spring when you can plant it!

2. House of Cards

Finding yourself adrift in a sea of expired holiday greeting cards? Save a tree (and some money) by salvaging them for next year. Use scissors or an exacto knife to separate the front panel from the rest of the card. Next year, paste the decorated fronts on to recycled construction paper, or use the clippings from several to create a holiday collage and resend!

3. Reuse that Wrap!

Even if you couldn’t resist tearing it…paper, gift wrap, bows, ribbon, shirt boxes and gift bags can ALL be saved and reused! They come in handy all year long and can help avoid waste and spending next year.

Got some more creative holiday reuse/recycling ideas? Send ‘em over. info@gengreenlife.com

- The Team at GenGreen

(Image above found at The City of Yuma, Arizona’s Web site).

I am from the South. In East Tennessee, Winter means two months of rain and school cancellations when the forcast calls for “a chance of flurries.” Now I find myself in the Northern Colorado…the Mountain West..where something called “wind chill” is becoming a terrifying member of my vocabulary. Though I may be lamenting its skin-peeling qualities, I admire the wind for it’s energy generating ones, and had to share this cool company that is turning the wind energy industry on its frozen ear.

The concept of wind generated power seems so simple, but then you throw in a monstrous turbine, converting technology and geographical needs, and the concept springs out of reach of the common man…or so you thought.

Quiet Revolution Ltd. is a British company that believes that “Within fifty years we will be living in a world which is powered predominantly by renewable energy, with no sacrifice to quality of life.” Quiet Revolution develops and supplies elegant renewable energy solutions, especially small wind products optimised for use at the point of energy demand. Their goal is to promote and enable wind energy as a key technology to renewable and distributed energy generation and microgeneration.

After seeing a need for a less conspicuous turbine that would work well in the urban environment, where wind speeds are lower and wind directions change frequently, the company developed the QuietRevolution (QR) with an elegant helical (twisted) design that ensures a robust performance even in turbulent winds. It is also responsible for virtually eliminating noise and vibration. “At five metres high and three metres in diameter, it is compact and easy to integrate, and with just one moving part, maintenance can be limited to an annual inspection.” QuietRevolution turbines can be ground or roof mounted and come in two different mast sizes for each.

Watch a Video of the qr5 Turbine in Action

But the company’s plans for the wind turbine don’t stop there. The QR will soon be available in a unique model capable of creating a striking visual display that is part artwork, part renewable energy device, part communications medium. Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) embedded in each of its three S-shaped blades will fire in sequence as the blades rotate, painting a video screen that appears to hang in the air. This full color and motion image will be clearly visible day and night. The quietrevolution display can be used either as a temporary installation at a high profile event or as a permanent feature. Early customers for quietrevolution display have included mostly city councils across the UK attracted to this unique means of communicating with the local community on climate change and its solutions.

Learn more at http://www.quietrevolution.co.uk

- The Team at GenGreen

Winter is the time of rejoicing for snow sports and snow sport lovers. Skiing, snowboarding, telemark skiing- you name it, people will do it down the side of a mountain. Recently, however, ski resorts have been feeling the negative effects of global climate change in a big way. Increased temperatures and erratic precipitation cycles, and substantial carbon footprints threaten the life blood of the ski resort industry, which relies on fuel-hungry snow making machines, snow cat rescue vehicles, and dormitories to keep the snow bunnies safe and happy.

According to officials from the Aspen Skiing Company, even with a plan to reduce emissions by 2050, skiing in Aspen and other popular resort towns in Colorado could be severely hampered, even gone.

Fortunately, the skiing and snowboarding populations are also some of the most environmentally concerned citizens, and many resorts have taken the initiative to nip this problem in the bud by implementing serious sustainability practices.

Aspen Mountain Ski Resort, Buttermilk Mountain Ski Resort, Aspen Highlands Ski Resort, and Telluride Ski Resort all received A’s from the Ski Area Citizen’s Coalition for their environmental policies and practices. The Coalition provides a scorecard of ski resorts in several areas, as well as a form for petitioning your favorite resort to clean up their act at skiareacitizens.com.

- The Team at GenGreen

It’s coming down to the wire and i haven’t even begun to send off cards or gifts to loved ones back home. If you are also feeling the impending doom of procrastination breathing down your neck, have no fear. The last, and possibly most stress relieving, installment of the GenGreen Gift Guide has arrived just in the (St.) nick of time.

Books! The marvelous and almost-lost art of reading books which stimulates the mind and imagination…giving the gift of books is a no-brainer for the holidays and one that’s easy to do sustainably.

Take for instance a great little company called New Society Publishers: an activist publisher focused on solutions and social change. New Society specifically offers books that serve as tools to build, well, just that- a new society. As their site states, “[Our books will] help you to know the talk, and walk the talk. They’re packed with analysis that’s hard to find, ideas to keep you current, inspiration for the daily struggle, and practical tools to change the world.”

A few really cool titles I found while browsing their online catalog:

Guerilla Gardening: A Manualfesto by David Tracey

The Trouble Maker’s Teaparty: A Manual for Effective Citizen Action by Charles Dobson

Bothered by My Green Conscience: How an SUV-driving, imported-strawberry-eating urban dweller can go green by Franke James

The best part? Ordering online means you can have the book shipped directly to the lucky recipients, making books the perfect choice for far away friends and family.

Check them out at NewSociety.com

- The Team at GenGreen

Fort Collins, CO (December 16, 2008) — GenGreenLife.com and Carbonfund.org, based in Washington D.C., today announced their partnership, a collaboration that will make it easier for any individual, business or organization to reduce their environmental footprint and hasten the transformation to a clean energy future.

“We encourage everyone to work on reducing their carbon footprint,” said GenGreen CEO Charisse McAuliffe, “our partnership with Carbonfund.org facilitates this by allowing us to recognize companies that have made an effort to combine sensible energy reductions with cost-effective carbon offsets to reduce their overall environmental impact.”

GenGreen chose to partner with Carbonfund.org because of their exemplary leadership in the fight against global climate change and their unique position as the nation’s leading non-profit offset provider. Carbonfund.org not only offers its members cost-effective ways to save energy, it also educates the public about the dangers of climate change and participates in outreach to promote organizations that are doing their part to make this planet a cleaner, healthier place.

As a result of the partnership, businesses and organizations listed on GenGreenLife.com that have become a CarbonFree® Partner will be able to display the Carbonfund.org logo on their listings. GenGreen encourages people to browse our site and support businesses displaying the Carbonfund.org logo. A person can also learn more about Carbonfund.org by clicking on the logo wherever you see it displayed on GenGreenLife.com. The partnership between GenGreen and Carbonfund.org comes at an appropriate time as more and more people are giving carbon offsets as holiday gifts to their green-minded friends and family this season.

“Alternative gifts are becoming more popular, especially carbon offsets, as global warming becomes a more important issue in the public’s eye,” said Jason Fitzgerald, a Carbonfund.org representative. “Carbonfund.org does see an increase in donations during the holidays as people like to offset their emissions and give offsets as gifts. Since about Thanksgiving time, we have seen our individual donations more than double compared with the rest of the year.”

Those interested in learning more about the partnership and how to utilize Carbonfund.org for their offsetting needs are encouraged to visit our site and get started.

Carbonfund.org is a leader in the support of renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects globally that reduce carbon dioxide emissions and the threat of climate change. Unlike other carbon offset providers, Carbonfund.org is a 501(c)(3) charitable, nonprofit organization. According to Fitzgerald, this means Carbonfund.org does not “sell” offsets – instead supporters donate money which is then used to purchase and retire carbon offsets on their behalf.

About GenGreen LLC
The mission of GenGreen is to help people learn how to live more sustainable lives by making them aware of the environmentally conscious businesses, organizations and people in their local communities. We accomplish this through our web site, GenGreenLife.com, which is the most comprehensive and diverse resource available for people looking to live a locally-focused, environmentally conscious lifestyle. Currently, we offer a directory of over 35,000 business and organizational listings, and hundreds of green events, green-collar job listings and volunteer opportunities across the entire U.S.

The sun is a beautiful and mysterious ball of gas and fire. It makes flowers, heat, light and sunburns possible. And now, thanks to one creative Carribean based musician, it also makes music.

“I wouldn’t call myself a ‘green musician’,” said Turtuga Blanku (meaning ‘white turtle’), ” sunlight has so much more colors in it…”

Blanku uses only solar power to produce his music. “Solar energy can power up any kind of business, including the music business. It enables me to be environmentally conscious and to produce music with modern day’s luxuries at the same time,” says Maarten Schuit, the sun bronzed creative mind behind Turtuga Blanku.

Blanku creates and records his fresh and catchy songs in a studio he calls the Green Machine, which runs completely on solar power.

Sunlight is captured by panels on the roof of the studio, and the converted energy is lead to a special meter cupboard and six deep loading batteries. Those are a bit different from your regular car battery. They are 6 Volts, but connected in parallel as to put out 12 Volts DC. A converter further changes this into 110 Volts 60 Hz AC.

Because of the batteries, the Green Machine is also operational after the sun has set. However, to keep the power usage low, the set up of the studio itself has deliberately been kept simple; some basic hardware (including instruments like guitars, bass and piano) and then a lot of software.

If you want to hear what such sunny music sounds like, check out Blanku’s website where he releases singles as they are produced! The catchy lyric-melody combinations with a touch of funky reggae sound sunny and fresh at the same time, and are sure to keep you smiling….even in winter.

- The Team at GenGreen

If I could sum up the last couple of years and the evolution of the green movement in the US, I would have to say that 2007 was the year of the awakening (thank you Al Gore).  2008 will be known as the year of strategizing and planning.  2009 is set to be the year of implementation and execution, with 2010 poised to be the year of measuring the results.

Companies, government agencies, and schools across the country almost all, at some level, have environmental initiatives being put into place or starting to roll out. There are few companies that have disregarded the need for being involved in practicing good environmental stewardship in some facet of their business operations; in fact, there are many who have made it their platform for performance. It is even gotten to the point where companies find it is so important and pivotal from a branding and consumer confidence position, they choose to be dishonest about their efforts. I felt comfortable saying “we’ve arrived” when this started happening.

Companies big and small have started to put into place guidelines and educational tools for their employees and suppliers to use when making decisions about everything from purchasing to printing. One great example of implementation in action is happening here locally at HP.

HP Fort Collins sustainability group is a chapter of the globally distributed broader HP Network.  This network’s vision is that HP leads in sustainable operations and invests in technologies, products and solutions that help customer do the same. Their Mission is to embrace concepts of sustainability to help HP become more profitable and competitive; model and promote HP’s Global Citizenship objectives and help employees conduct their personal and professional lives more sustainably. The group promotes sustainability through events such as Earth Day, speaker’s series and other education and recognition events and looks at opportunities both locally and globally.

As the changing of the guard occurs at the White House this January, we will be expecting to see a multitude of new incentives programs introduced that are environmentally focused.  Having a good environmental standards program in place could become the make or break agent of the government contract a company is counting on. Increased tax incentives could mean the difference between profitability and finishing “in the red” for others during our 2009 recession.

In 2007, when we all had our awakening and started planning how we were going to save the planet from peril, no one was predicting the economic disaster that would soon be upon us. We were unaware at that time that these same lessons that we were learning how to adopt about reducing our impact, would also be critical for another reason, to conserve resources and save money so our businesses and households could survive the financial fall-out of 2008 and2009.

The unusual timeline of events has proven to be a great blessing in disguise. Making large scale changes to policy for the huge corporations (that remain the backbone of our country) are like turning massive cruise ships, they don’t happen quickly.  I know there were executives across our country recently giving thanks for more than just their turkey dinner, but for the fact that the ball was already in motion for things like shipping efficiency and resource reduction.  And for teams like the sustainability group at HP here in Fort Collins, they will be hearing the praises from their superiors for their foresight and proactive innovative decisions surrounding sustainability for years to come.

By Charisse McAuliffe, Founder and CEO of GenGreen LLC based in Fort Collins, CO.
Originally printed in the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

Now that I live states away from many of my friends and loved ones, sending holiday greeting cards has become a cherished, albeit cheesy, tradition. But so much paper and energy is wasted on these one time expressions of thoughtfulness and cheer, can it be justified? And the alternative, sometimes pricey, online greetings just don’t have the same charm, especially for my less than tech-saavy grandparents who probably won’t figure how to open it until April…

For those of struggling with the same decision, the brilliant folks at Cradle to Cradle have created the perfect solution.

ReProduct.net is a really cool site offering zero waste greeting cards and custom photo cards. The cards are created using a patent-pending process using materials that are healthy for both humans and the environment. According to the site, “the card is 100% re-used in the manufacturing of Shaw carpet tiles. The card is sent to the recipient in a two-way envelope (think ‘Netflix’). Once the recipient is done with the card, they simply place it in the postage paid return portion of the envelope and it is sent to Shaw Industries where 100% of the card is re-used in the manufacturing of new carpet tiles.”

ReProduct is a subsidiary of C2C Holdings, Inc was inspired by the Cradle to Cradle design philosophy whose overall goal is to eliminate the concept of waste by designing products so that their material value can be harnessed again and again in future products instead of ending up in a landfill.

There are 9 designs of greeting cards available currently, including five by the National Wildlife Federation, a ReProduct partner, and a four-pack of holiday custom-designs from singer/songwriter John Mayer. The cards are reasonably priced, from $5 for the John Mayer 4-pack, to $24.95 for an 18 pack of the NWF designs.

Check them out at ReProduct.net and this year, send a truly sustainable greeting instead!

- The Team at GenGreen

P.S. If you’re looking for a sustainable marketing alternative, ReProduct also offers Zero Waste Annual Reports and Marketing Collateral!

Got a ramp rider on your holiday list? Looking for an extreme alternative to the bicycle commute? Consider the gift of wheels this holiday season- and give a sustainable skateboard.

Boards today are hardly the skinny, stiff models of the sport’s beginning. Today boards come in many different shapes, sizes, flexibility levels, and wheel sizes, but best of all- thanks to a couple of innovative companies, they now come planet-friendly.

SuperGreenBoards makes long boards- longer, wider boards better suited to transportation thanks to their ability to gather more momentum- made of sustainably harvested bamboo (pictured at top). As the SGB website states, bamboo is the worlds fasting growing SuperGreen Plant. It takes only 5 years for a stalk to mature compared to 100 for maple. It is also an excellent converter of CO2, converting more than 8 times that of trees. And it is also 17% harder than standard Maple, making it an excellent material for Longboards. But SGB doesn’t stop there. They currently use a very low VOC epoxy on their boards, but are looking to switch to laminates made from soy polymers, as soon as they’re available. And they give all their boards, totally rad names, like the GreenGasm and GreenEggs&Surf!

BambooSk8, of Oceanside CA, also makes bamboo boards, except they specialize in the shorter, thinner style designed for trick and vert riding (pictured above). As members of the Action Sports Environmental Coalition (how cool is it that such a thing even exists?), they are walking the walk of a truly sustainable company that aspires to “revolutionize the way the action sports industry views and uses natural resources, creating a better product for a better world built around sustainability.”

While surfing around the Web for these companies, I heard chatter about another sustainable skateboard producer, called Shiva Tech, who was supposedly making boards out of hemp…but alas, the URL was bunk and a google search failed to turn up the company’s site. If anyone knows what they’re up to these days- let me know! Meanwhile, check out the web sites of both these companies and find out where you can buy their boards.

- The Team at GenGreen