KCRag Forum

Green Wineries
http://www.dailytidings.com/apps/pbcs.d ... 04/-1/news

  By Michelle Locke
For The Associated Press
January 12, 2010

ANGWIN, Calif. ? John Conover was looking for the best place to grow the Napa Valley's famous cabernet sauvignon grapes. Turns out the same southwest-facing, sunny hillside that gives him great grapes also raises a mean crop of solar panels.

"We wanted to be as green as we can be," says Conover, a partner in the Cade winery, which is on track for Gold certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

Green wine is catching on.

"We're seeing a trend toward more sustainable wineries," says Ashley Katz, spokeswoman for the Green Building Council.
cont.....

KCMax wrote:Anyone done this here in KC? Any suggestions on native grasses or plants or ways we can convert our front yard without being too much of an eyesore? 

These might be good places to start:

http://grownative.org/

http://www.kansasnativeplantsociety.org/resources.htm (there's a section with links on Landscaping with Native Plants)

For architects this decade, building efficiency will replace grandiosity

Sustainability is becoming an indispensable building attribute embraced by real estate developers, many of whom now perceive that being green is a necessary marketing asset. Whether selling to buyers or renting to tenants, they think that offering sustainable architecture provides a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Success of Sprint "Green" Reclaim..

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/s ... ily25.html

more:
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/i ... n_pow.html

LINCOLN CITY --

More than 50 people showed up to celebrate the unveiling of the first electric car charging stations on the Oregon coast. Not bad for an event in a public parking lot on a gray Monday in January. It was a proud day indeed for Lincoln City, and one that's become common as this central coast town continues to go green.

Lincoln City first won national recognition for its sustainable practices in 2007 when it earned the EPA designation of "Green Power Community," a first on the Oregon coast. It did so by getting 5 percent of homes and businesses to sign up for Pacific Power's Blue Sky Program, which purchases renewable energy.
cont.....

Interesting look at how surprisingly successful DC's 5 cent tax on plastic bags has been:

Why D.C.'s Skimpy Bag Tax Works So Well

The fee may drive people crazy, and the Journal may grumble about ?bureaucracy,? but it actually seems to work: Stores report giving out half as many bags as they did before they started charging for them. And the reason seems to be rooted in how our brains operate:

http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/inde ... al_ai.html
SALEM -- Five years ago, Klamath Basin tribal leaders, longtime farmers, fish-loving environmentalists, PacifiCorp suits and government regulators sat down to take a shot at ending one of the West's grittiest water wars.

Jeff Mapes on Politics
In Salem, Arnold Schwarzenegger is still a star.
"We had people around the table who could barely look at each other, let alone speak to each other," said Thomas O'Rourke Sr.,  chairman of the Yurok Tribe.

O'Rourke and 29 other representatives from all sides of the Klamath battle gathered in the Capitol rotunda Thursday to sign a peace accord that might double as the United States' biggest dam removal and river restoration compact ever.
cont......



This is cool news for us out this way.

Kauffman Foundation clean-tech network seeks to speed path to market

The network could be used to, among other things, help entrepreneurs find researchers who are developing new technology, connect fledgling companies with customers, show state and local governments ways to encourage clean energy development and pave the way to regional clean energy experiments.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 3612.story

Very interesting house construction. Low Impact Woodland home. Live like a hobbit!



http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm

my local area makes the WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... TopStories

BizJournal study ranks KC 16th among green cities

http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansa ... a=e_du_pub

the downtown bristol will be taking used wine corks soon.

forgive my cynicism, but if you forego buying just one bottle of wine during your lifetime, that will probably have a greater environmental benefit than recycling all of the corks from all of the bottles that you do buy.

enough wrote: forgive my cynicism, but if you forego buying just one bottle of wine during your lifetime, that will probably have a greater environmental benefit than recycling all of the corks from all of the bottles that you do buy.

we buy a lot of the newer box wines and bottles with screw tops (which are, i think, aluminum). since wine is not available in any other way, it's hard to work around it (versus beer, water, or sodas... which are all available unbottled). ideally, i suppose wine could be shipped in larger, airtight containers and then refilled in something like beer kegs or distilled water jugs.

but yeah, there's a reason REDUCE is the first item in the REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE mantra.

another one:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/04/2 ... esore.html

J Gilbert's is doing the same thing. It's a start, but I'd be more impressed if they announced that they were starting to recycle all of the bottles through Ripple.

DaveKCMO wrote: the downtown bristol will be taking used wine corks soon.

10 Ways to Go Green and Save Green

1/ Save energy to save money.
2/ Save water to save money.
3/ Less gas = more money (and better health!).
4/ Eat smart.
5/ Skip the bottled water.
6/ Think before you buy.
7/ Borrow instead of buying.
8/ Buy smart.
9/ Keep electronics out of the trash.
10/ Make your own cleaning supplies.


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