Strive for green

A personal message from the author:

Since October of ‘07, I have been involved in a green marketing campaign. My passion lies in creating and using technology to solve problems, but after graduating from UC Berkeley, I decided that it would be an important first step to understand how people perceive environmental problems and how to reach them with solutions. My focus over the last two years developing and marketing an internet startup and a green marketing campaign has brought me to a point where I feel confident that I have developed a solid core of marketing knowledge and experience.

Now I find myself considering the future of the United States, and what I see are two possible scenarios:

1. Maintain the status-quo:
   We as a nation proceed in the same direction we have been for decades now, and continue to be a nation focused on irresponsibly mass-consuming, and relying on foreign sources of oil. Given that the marginal cost of extracting additional quantities of fossil fuels will continue to climb along with global demand, this scenario results in the United States and its citizens essentially going bankrupt. We are already seeing the first signs of this scenario manifest in rising energy and product prices. If this happens, pretty much any career path has a dismal future, and we will find ourselves scrambling desperately to keep the country running.
2. Become energy-independent:
   It is no mystery that the American lifestyle is highly dependent on oil - in the united States, we consume the energy equivalent of 8 tons of oil per person per year, while countries like Japan use about half that amount, and Peruvians use just 1/16th what the average US citizen does (Earthtrends). Every day, we import about 13 million of the 21 million barrells of the oil we consume, and at current prices a basic calculation shows we are sending about (13,000,000 barrells * $130/barrell) = $1,690,000,000 dollars abroad each day (CIA world fact book)!

   Beyond the pure insanity of how much money we are sending away, using oil contriubutes to a whole host of environmental problems, not the least of which is global climate change. So in this scenario, we wake up as a country, and elect leaders with the vision and determination to make the United States energy independent. In this future, developing renewable sources of energy like solar and wind become the major drivers of our economy. We simplify our lives and come to realize that we can live great lives without buying and consuming endlessly. I don’t know about you, but this future sounds pretty good, and full of opportunity.

Considering these two scenarios, I have decided to set my sights on exploring and pursuing opportunities in renewable energy. And if the second scenario or anything close to it happens, there will be endless opportunities. I get excited thinking about developing products and businesses that will not only make a profit, but will also help this nation become energy independent, its citizens safer, and the environment healthier! I have always been captivated by technology and passionate about the environment, and what better place to combine these interestes than renewable energy. What exactly I do next is uncertain, but it should be an interesting journey!

- Nicholaus K. Harris, June 17th, 2008

We try to reduce and re-use as much as possible in our apartment, but as everyone knows, it is pretty much impossible to not generate waste (especially in our culture of mass consume/mass dispose). We buy in bulk, purchase milk in refillable containers, bring our own bags to the supermarket, etc., but by the end of the week we always have a sizable bin-full of recyclables which I sort into the containers outside our building.

As I took out the recyclables today, I was stopped in my tracks by the dentist at the office next to our building. As I lifted the lid to the container for paper, the dentist asked me “what are you doing?” I replied, “Recycling” to which he informed me these were his recycling containers. Incredulous, I suggested there was no harm in dropping my recyclables in the containers as they are owned by the City of Berkeley. Apparently, he has to pay the city, and has had problems with the containers getting overfilled by occupants of my building.

So, I figured my building MUST have its own recycling containers – this is Berkeley, right?

Wrong! I first asked one of the building maintenance guys who I see on a regular basis, and he told me there are no recycling bins for our building and to just throw it all into the trash. Yeah… NO!

I live across the hall from the managers of my building, and they informed me that the landlords (Everest Properties) do not want any recycling bins because they will get in the way of paid parking spaces.

Next I called the City of Berkeley Recycling and Refuse center (510-981-7270) and talked to a very nice lady named Rowella. She informed me that recycling services are provided free to businesses and large apartment buildings in Berkeley (the dentist was either mis-informed or lied, but I think the former). In order to set up recycling, my landlord simply has to call them and they will provide us with bins.

So the obvious solution is to just ignore the dentist and recycle after business hours, but I want to be a good neighbor and not contribute the the over-stuffing of his bins. So now I need to convince the landlord that there is space next to the building for our own recycling bins! I never imagined there would be large apartment buildings in Berkeley of all places that still do not have their own recycling containers!

So why write a blog about striving to be green? Can we prevent the world from completely falling apart? Are efforts to protect the environment futile since we are going to utterly ruin it in the end? Is there any point at all to green our own lifestyles when doing so may not accomplish anything in the grand scheme of things?

We are going to focus many of the upcoming posts on these very questions, but for now, I would love to hear some feedback from others out there. What do you think?

We depend on our beautiful planet to provide us with the means to live, and now the earth depends on us choosing to live responsibly in order to keep on providing. We may feel insignificant and unable to cause change through our choices, but everything starts with individuals and grows into movements that create real progress. Strive for green is the voice and spirit of Bio Pac and we sincerely hope you will join us in our quest to live healthy and environmentally friendly lives!