My that's a large footprint you have

Part One of Two

Some days all I need to be recharged is to see my daughter laugh until she snorts over the silliest of things.  Now that she’s at least one plane change or two solid days of driving away, it’s not as often as I selfishly would like. Keeping a small carbon footprint in check when your family and friends or work take you around the world is a challenge to state the obvious.

The close of summer is just a few days away, and with it ends one of the busiest travel seasons in the U.S.  Increasing fuel and travel costs have curtailed some of our shuttling from location to location, but is that a bad thing? It’s certainly diminished a small portion of our very large carbon footprint associated with travel.

If you’ve never calculated your carbon footprint, it’s an eye-opener (for a quick look, try www.terrapass.com for their carbon footprint calculator or for a more comprehensive look try The Nature Conservancy's calculator at http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/index.htm).  I made a decision several years ago to limit my air travel and rediscover road trips with my high mileage, low emission diesel Jettawagen. (And, don’t even get me started on how I would prefer to travel by rail service in the U.S as I have in Europe.) Even with reducing air travel my footprint is still larger than I like, so what are my options?  Mitigate my travel by supporting projects through carbon offsets (http://www.carboncatalog.org/), travel less or travel smarter.  For me, it’s a little of all three.

The hospitality and travel industries include many options for smarter travel.  On a global scale, travelers and hospitality professionals can learn much from organizations like Sustainable Travel International (http://www.sustainabletravelinternational.org/documents/au.html).  On a domestic level, we have the choice to support businesses incorporating sustainable practices like one of my favorite B&Bs, Rosemont Inn and Cottages, whose owner supports Farm to Table  by purchasing and serving local foods. Your travel can be greatly enriched with a little research in advance on locally-owned restaurants, businesses and recreational opportunities located along your route.

Shared travel with family and friends as well as regional staycations have my photo album full and ready for viewing next time I’m snowed in!

Part Two: Helpful guides, practicing the RRRs on the road, and a different way to travel

The F words

Feathers, flip-flops and fads

I love fashion.  My admiration for design, creativity and fabric began as a teenager when Mom made my clothes to stretch the budget and accommodate my taller than usual frame. Great advertising campaigns and celebrities grabbed my imagination early on, fueled “trendy” fires and I was off to the consumers’ races just as soon as I began earning a paycheck and learned to drive. That's me in the photo on the rear of our scooter in the floral tunic with slim white shorts.

Fashion is still one of my loves but the fads that accompany this industry are disturbing when product success is completely disconnected from impact and the concept of cradle to cradle*. 

This brings me to feathers and flip-flops.

To the dismay of many fly fisher-men and -women, the trend of feather hair-extensions has exhausted the limited supply of “hackles” (http://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-anatomy.html) or delicate and exotic feathers that require a year to grow and generally the life of the rooster growing them. Celebrities helped fuel the trend that began with Twenty- and Thirty-Something’s and has now spread to throngs of pre-teens, some of whom were getting feathers weaved into their hair during my recent salon visit.  I was reminded of the origin of National Audubon Society, a century-old nonprofit that began with the goal of protecting bird species decimated by the hat industry and the trend of grand plumage.

I was thinking about this while taking the stairs and experienced a flip-flip blowout halfway down the flight.  No way to fix it, so how to dispose of it? I checked online to see if the manufacturer recycled and perhaps offered an incentive for continuing to support their product. No luck. Earth911.com sent me to Nike Reuse-A-Shoe (only for Nike or Converse shoes), Soles4Souls (for usable shoes repurposed to those in need) and College Hunks Hauling Junk (pick-up and recycling service). All great programs, but nothing for flip-flops.

At that moment it occurred to me that unusable flips flops fall into the same category as plastic bags –mostly a cradle to grave product with one recyclable life.

Search “how to recycle flip flops” and you’ll find some interesting recycling and repurposing options, and you can also take a look at what many flip flops are made of (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-grayson/eco-etiquette-how-can-i-r_b_637415.html).  A partial congratulations to trend-machine Old Navy for offering a Flip-Flop recycling campaign this year, a full one when you make it a permanent program. My favorite solutions were producers who accepted recycled sandals or used recycled and natural materials and rubber versus latex.

It is possible to value the art of fashion and value our resources equally. Conscious consuming can drive profit and production as much as trends.

*http://storyofstuff.org

A degree in mattering

Welcome to SeineLiving – a snapshot of efforts toward sustainable living. Granted, “sustainability” has been so misrepresented in the marketplace that I find myself in search of a new word to describe low impact living and an economy that values success and resources equally. It’s a challenge.

Four years ago, I moved for a job to a small home on 42 isolated acres.  How isolated?  Functional Internet access is limited to those who invest in personal hotspots. The nearest large retail center and airport are 45 minutes away. Thunderstorms block satellite at pivotal points in movies and games. And, speaking of weather, I rely on a landline-phone call to alert me of severe conditions and not a siren because there isn’t one.

Now you get a sense of how the remoteness has come to feel like a degree program in what matters.  The curriculum has included: planning; investing in housing, services and products that are durable and renewable; alternatives to traditional energy and communications services; local industry and food; native plants and wildlife; efficient transportation; limiting waste; the three Rs - reduce, recycle, repeat; happiness in solitude; and, building community.

That’s what I’m thinking sustainability is. Colleagues, clients, neighbors and friends are expanding that definition for me daily.

Join me as I work toward my advanced degree in “mattering” and share stories of organizations, communities and individuals who are great case studies. (P.S. There may also be the occasional DIY post.)

Suzanne

Seine Marketing Communications