Green Drinks

By this point some of you probably picture my road to greenness as an unpaved gravelly path travelled only by determined people wearing Birkenstocks and being serious all the time. But if you just let me tell you about one of my favorite discoveries in the past year, you may change your mind.

The discovery? Green Drinks. There is a chapter in New Haven, organized by now-Alderman Justin Elicker and Debra Lombard, LEED AP which meets every third Wednesday in a different local bar, featuring reduced price drinks, free appetizers and a special guest. How cool is this — meeting over local brews to discuss things Green?

The first Green Drinks was held in London in 1989. There are now 656 chapters in 62 countries. The Green Drinks International website promises: “These events are very simple and unstructured, but many people have found employment, made friends, developed new ideas, done deals and had moments of serendipity. It's a force for the good and we'd like to help it spread to other cities.”

At our first Green Drinks we were met outside the door of the Anchor Bar by the local unicycle club, which was hoping to drum up some new members. OK, perhaps a little scary. But it was a hot summer night, and a cold brew would taste soooo good. The bar was crowded. The program was called to order by a person who could mimic the sound of a police siren and thus invoke silence for a fleeting moment or two. We had gathered to learn about solar panels. There was no elbow room and the speaker could hardly be heard over the din, but he was enthusiastic and persistent and had a panel with him for show-and-tell. We stayed a long time and indulged in some terrific sweet potato fries, got to handle the panel, and made some new friends. We were hooked.

At other Green Drinks, we have heard about Smart Growth, local honey and single-stream-recycling, as well as the theory that those in power are actually aliens who are trying to guide us to Mars.

For those in New Haven, note that I am posting far enough ahead that you can actually plan to attend the next Green Drinks, Wednesday, January 20, 6-8pm at the WestSide Bar & Grille in Westville.

For the rest of you, check out the website and search for the branch nearest you. There are active chapters in Pittsfield and Framingham, MA; in Philadelphia, PA; in suburban Chicago; in Palo Alto, CA; and in Copenhagen, to name but a few. If you do not find your city, the website has guidelines for setting up your own chapter.

At Green Drinks you never know what old friends you will see, what new ones you might meet, or what new idea you might encounter. But you can be sure that if you arrive there with an open heart and open mind, you are likely to come away with an expanded vision of the world, and it won’t just be a consequence of the drinks.

Have no fear, the drinks aren’t really green. (Unless, perhaps, your chapter happens to meet on St. Patrick’s Day.)

The Practical Christmas

2009 was the year of the useful gift — the year that practicality prevailed. Chalk it up partly to the economy, but in large part to the acute awareness of almost everyone we knew that we were all acquiring way too much stuff. We had our nomadic kids’ unclaimed belongings. We had our own years’ worth of detritus. And we had all recently helped a loved one to downsize (and inherited a few things in the process).

We were practical in our gift choices — clothes, yak traks, iTunes gift cards, cooking utensils, socks, artisanal soaps and lotions, chocolates — not a single wind-up, supersized, realistic-looking cockroach toy in the bunch.

We also shipped practically, subscribing to the USPS’ clever “If it fits, it ships.” campaign. We planned gift lists thinking about how they would fit into the post office’s flat rate boxes and were amazed at the speed at which things travelled from East to West. (A hint: This is a great way to ship out something like a doorstop. The heavier the item, the better deal for the customer.)

And we received practical gifts in return. There were edible gifts: homemade cookies, a coffee cake, roasted mixed nuts, smoked oysters from Maine where friends had vacationed, fair trade chocolate. Useful gifts: pajamas, a MOMA pot scraper, a calendar, a clever picture frame. And a most practical book: Green Cleaning for Dummies gifted by a friend who works for the City. Recommended by a contractor who is helping New Haven go green, it has numerous tips and very simple recipes for setting up and maintaining a green household. Plenty of projects of all sizes for the year ahead. Check it out.

It’s too cold to think about washing the windows, but I guess I could get those cleaners mixed up and be ready for Spring. Add large amounts of white vinegar to your shopping list.

A new day. A new year. A new decade.

Last week columnist and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman dubbed the past decade the “Big Zero” and declined to bid it a fond farewell. Few would dispute that it was not the best decade. For many of us last year was not the best of years. But I look back at 2009 and note some hopeful signs.

We have a new president. His words are taken seriously by the citizens of the world.

On October 24, people in nearly 200 nations united to call for action on climate change in Copenhagen, the result of an amazing organizing effort by visionary Bill McKibben and his group 350.org. The day’s activities made headlines around the globe, including the front page of the New York Times. No binding treaty was signed in Copenhagen in December, but our president and other world leaders came together to acknowledge the existence of global warming and to announce some dramatic steps to stem the rise of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, including establishment of a $100 billion climate fund to address the climate change needs of developing nations.

At home in the US, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act extended many consumer tax incentives originally introduced in 2005, including home energy efficiency improvement tax credits. And many, including my family, took advantage of them. We sealed leaks with rope caulk and installed two storm doors. Friends did windows. The credits last through the end of 2010, so adding insulation will probably be up next. I am hoping the makers of the very Green denim insulation will offer a choice with a higher R value.

All over the country people swapped incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescents. Federal rules will be phasing out the incandescent energy hogs between 2012 and 2014, so why wait for the inevitable when we can all be saving energy? Even more efficient ways of home lighting may soon be in our future.

Even in the midst of this recession, in many ways life in the City of New Haven is looking up. With the help of Yale’s Urban Resources Initiative and the hard work of spirited volunteers, parks continued to be reclaimed, new ones continued to pop up, and trees were planted.

There were many breakthroughs on the transportation front. You can now walk or ride your bike all the way from downtown New Haven to Cheshire on the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail (over 14 miles). The bike racks on the city buses are being used with greater frequency. The zip car came to town. After decades of talk, commuter rail service between New Haven and Springfield, MA (with connecting service to Bradley International Airport) has been included in the CT DOT Master Transportation Plan.

And single stream recycling should be instituted in all New Haven neighborhoods by the end of the Spring.

With so much good on the horizon, “Let’s all pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work”* in this new year.

I spent the first day of 2010 in the organizing mode — sorting, cleaning, getting ready. I made soup. My New Year’s resolution — to waste less and do more. I’ll keep you posted on how that does.

Happy new decade!

*President Barack Obama, Inaugural address, January 20, 2009