don’t just wear green, 
BE green

For the second year in a row, SLO Regional Rideshare is putting a twist on the traditional St. Patrick’s Day celebration with a challenge - Don’t Just Wear Green, Be Green. On March 17th, county residents are encouraged to be green and leave their car behind when they commute to work. As an incentive to walk, bike, rideshare or bus instead of driving alone, Rideshare is handing out stickers to individuals so they can wear their GREENness with pride (and avoid the pinch). The stickers proudly state, “I AM Green” and will be available at several locations indicated on the I AM GREEN webpage at www.rideshare.org.
Rideshare is currently looking for businesses and organizations who want to pass out the stickers to employees and customers who do not drive alone to work on St. Patrick’s Day. To be added to the online list, simply contact Rideshare to have stickers mailed to your office/retail business. After all, the less we drive, the more green county residents will save on gas and have to spend on the local economy.
“Sometimes the smallest things make the biggest difference. If someone leaves their car behind just one day a week, it can have a huge impact on their wallet, the environment and even their health,” stated Kelsie Greer, SLO Rideshare’s Program Coordinator. In anticipation of San Luis Obispo County’s green movement, Rideshare has compiled a list of helpful tips on how to get around without driving alone at www.rideshare.org.
For more information about the Don’t Just Wear Green, Be Green campaign in San Luis Obispo County, visit www.rideshare.org or call 781-4362

We are fully in the sustainability age and there are terms thrown at us daily. What do all these terms mean? Who came up with them and do they affect me? These questions you may be asking yourself and getting different answers. Here is where we can sort them out together.

The most basic terms are those that refer to the whole of a situation. Eco, for instance is becoming a widely used pronoun. “Oh, buy this eco-product. It’s biodegradable!” The Greek word oikos means house. So Eco is the relationship between people and their “house” or environment where they live. It does not necessarily relate to sustainability.

Sustainable is a word that we use often when we are talking about the management of our Natural Resources. The Forest Service Council ensures that trees are harvested sustainably. Sustainable management means that the resources we use today will not interfere with their availability for future generations. The resources which can be sustainable must also be renewable. Fossil fuels are not renewable…well they are but cannot be renewed in a living lifetime. It will take millions of years to replenish the fossil fuel reserves. Sunlight and wind are renewable because the sun will always come up and will always drive the movement of air. Water, a highly controversial resource, is in fact renewable. Sustainability is one of those buzz words that is fast becoming overplayed like a song on the radio, but when we can understand what the word really means, we can appreciate the efforts made on our collective behalf that go into using our resources sustainably.

Another word that needs to be wholly understood is organic. You can walk into your supermarket and find anything that is organic. The word itself is very interesting because paired with food, the meaning changes. Originally, organic is anything derived from a living organism. Living organisms are made of carbon. The human body, a worm in the soil, a tree, these are all living organisms made of carbon. You have heard that a stand of trees or forest is a carbon sink. Forests actually pull carbon out of the air to store in its body and produces vast amounts of oxygen which is why forests are more valuable to us in tact than cut down.

When we pair the word organic with a food product the meaning changes to that which has been grown without using chemicals or pesticides. In protein products like meat, organic means that it was allowed to range in open air and fed a natural diet free of chemicals and antibiotics. The ability to use organic in marketing a product should tell you that the grower underwent vigorous testing and verification. It is a highly regulated term. The certification process to get permission to use the term on any packaging may take up to 5 years. However, if it says organic, that does not mean you don’t have to read the label.

These terms are not new. They have been talked about for millennia. In an age where we could consume without regard, these terms were forgotten. Now they are resurfacing and are becoming part of our daily conversations. So it is important that we understand their meanings. Scientists are adding more terms to our vocabulary. Try this one on for size. Eutrophication. That’s a story for another time.

Lauren Bell is a Green Consultant and the founder of GLOBellConsulting.com. She helps businesses, schools and homeowners save money and resources by transitioning to greener lifestyles.

April 22nd
1970-1990-2010

Earth Day was founded by grass roots groups and policy makers, forty years ago, in response to the environmental problems of the 60s.  Proclaimed as a day to nurture neighbor and nature the first, less heard of, Earth Day took place on the first day of spring, March 20, 1970. Later the United Nations sanctioned that the first day of spring be recognized as Earth Day. To this day, each year, the tradition continues and the peace bell rings at the first moment of spring.

The second and most recognized Earth Day took place across America on April 22nd in 1970. Organized by grass roots volunteers and supported by government agencies, an estimated 20 million Americans gathered for rallies, teach-ins, speeches, and publicity gimmicks.  To countless articipants, that first Earth Day was a turning point in their lives, which they remember to this day with awe and reverence.

In 1990, twenty years later, still focused on solutions and to preserve and protect the environment, the Earth Day movement went global. Locally, members of the grass roots community worked under the umbrella of ECOSLO as the Earth Day Coalition to create the first Earth Day event in San Luis Obispo County.

Realizing that coordinating an annual Earth Day event requires its own dedicated energy, fund-raising and outreach, in 1999 the group applied for nonprofit status under the name of the Earth Day Alliance, Inc. Its main mission is to coordinate an annual Earth Day event in San Luis Obispo County and in doing so connect and create alliances in the environmental movement and bring environmental education to the community by creating or participating in events.

Learn more about Earth Day SLO 2010 by visiting the www.earthdayalliance.com. Feel free to call the Earth Day Alliance, Inc. at (805) 544-8529 or send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Twenty years ago if you walked into a typical bicycle shop you would be presented with only two choices. Did you want a road bike with drop bars and skinny tires or a mountain bike with straight bars and fat tires? Today you would be presented by a fascinating and somewhat bewildering array of two wheeled transportation ranging from single speed "fixies" with fixed gears and no brakes to extended frame bikes designed to haul everything from kids to lumber. This renaissance of bicycle design has been driven by a variety of factors, among them the cost of gasoline, the availability of safe bicycle lanes and bike paths, the recognition of cycling as a healthy recreational pursuit, and a certain cool factor, a cache that has attached itself to arriving by bike.

If you look carefully at cyclists as they pedal by you will even see that there is a uniform of sorts, depending what kind of bike they ride. Fixed gear riders, those with single speed road bikes with both flat and drop bars often favor rolled up jeans (both sides), a "messenger bag", and T-shirt.

Transportation riders are less interested in looks or style and are more often identified by looking slightly out of place, as if they had stepped out of their houses and mistakenly put on a helmet and ridden away on a bike rather than gotten in a car. Here in San Luis Obispo you are likely to see them riding in one of the many bike lanes on our city streets, or even on a street designated as an official bikeway (Morro Street). Bicycling's many advocates at the Local, State, and Federal level have kept money flowing into bicycling related transportation projects, such as the Railroad Bicycle Trail, downtown bicycle parking, adding bike lanes when road work is planned, and making access to bike paths and bike routes well signed and safe.

The availability of more and safer routes to ride has allowed a greater number of people to ride and generated interest in bicycles that do more than just get you from point A to B. Kona Bikes took a leap of faith when it introduced the Kona Ute, a true beast of burden, with a stretched frame, disc brakes, fenders, and available waterproof panniers. The Specialized Globe, a fendered cruiser with chain guard and internal gearing, makes it more maintenance free and cleaner to ride. Lesser-known brands, Raliegh, Jamis, and Fugi all make sturdy and entertaining touring and commuter bikes that are user friendly, comfortable, and low maintenance. If your last bicycle was a ten speed with a seat like a block of wood and shifters that required a rocket scientist to adjust, you will be fascinated and amazed at the variety and quality of the bikes available today!

National and local resources:
http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica/
http://www.slobikelane.org/cm/Home.html

SLO County Planning Commission Bans Sewage Sludge Land Application on Open Space Lands

At its Oct. 23 meeting, the SLO County Planning Commission approved Open Space Policy OS 2.4, which prohibits land application of sewage sludge and composts containing it on open space lands in SLO County.  The Commission is conducting hearings on the County's new Conservation & Open Space Element (COSE) of the General Plan. OS 2.4 is in the Open Space chapter. Staff recommended the prohibition.
The prohibition is consistent with proposed County policy restricting land application exclusively to agricultural-zoned lands producing food and feed and used for grazing.
The prohibition stems from the recognition that unmanaged land application of materials containing sewage sludge poses an unacceptable risk to public health and environmental integrity. This is due to the toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic and pathogenic pollutants concentrated in sewage sludge, which persist in the environment.
The SLO County Board of Supervisors will have the final say on OS 2.4 and the COSE.