Greeneroo

San Mateo County students will join schools across the country and globe as they walk to school on October 6!
On October 6, nearly one third of San Mateo County School Districts will join schools from 40 countries around the world to celebrate International Walk to School Day.
Students from Redwood City, San Carlos, Millbrae, Pacifica, Daly City, Brisbane, and Hillsborough will walk, skateboard and bike to school, alongside parents, teachers and community leaders. San Mateo County Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson will join students from the Redwood
City School District on the walk to school. She will award each district’s participation with a certificate of appreciation at a board meeting.
With obesity rates on the rise nationally, walking to school is a great way to get active and reverse the trend. This event will highlight the health and environmental benefits of walking to school and the importance of maintaining streets that are safe to pedestrians. International Walk to School Day will bring families, schools and community members together to take important steps to build
connections and maintain a healthy world.
In the United States, 5,000 schools plan to participate in International Walk to School Day. Events in San Mateo County are organized by local school districts, San Mateo County Health System, San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, and the National Center for Safe Routes to School.
For additional information about Walk to School Day events in San Mateo County, contact

• Wale Adeniji,  San Mateo County Public Health Educator 
•  (650) 573-2978,
• wadeniji@co.sanmateo.ca.us.

For more information about International Walk to School Day, visit:
International Walk to School in the USA  www.walktoschool.org
National Center for Safe Routes to School   www.saferoutesinfo.org
International Walk to School  www.iwalktoschool.org

There is still room to register for our Eklhorn Slough event this Saturday, October 2nd, 2010. The event will be from 10 am to 12:30 pm. Don’t miss out on a great opportunity to go on a family friendly water safari!

From the moment you enter the waters of Elkhorn Slough, you will learn all about one of California’s largest coastal wetlands. This precious wildlife-rich reserve winds inland seven miles and provides an important feeding and resting place for a fantastic variety of wildlife such as playful sea otters, curious harbor seals and hundreds of species of waterfoul and migratory shorebirds.
It is an Amazing habitat, full of birds, seals, life!

Thank You,
Henly Velarde
Development Coordinator
Marine Science Institute
henly@sfbaymsi.org

p.s. the Marine Sciences Institute has all kinds of adventures, here are some more (remember to register):

• Aquarium Spotlight !    Saturday, October 16th and November 13th  2 ~ 5pm
• Shark Day!   Saturday, October 30th      9am ~ 12pm
• Plankton Day!   Saturday, November 13th      9am ~ 11am
• Discovery Voyage!  Saturday, November 20th   10am ~ noon   AND   1 ~ 3pm
• Ginger-fish Decorating Party!    Saturday, December 11th  10am ~ noon

MSI takes to the tidepools for a treasure hunt of nature’s beautiful intertidal secrets. We’ll spend the evening taking advantage of the low tide to reach the outer edges of Pillar Point, and take in spectacular sunsets as we slowly retreat to shore. Will we find crabs, sea stars, eels and octopus!?

• October 9th    4pm ~ 7pm
• December 4th    1pm ~ 4pm

This is a great all-ages, family event. $10 for MSI members, $20 for non-members. Space tends to fill up for these events quickly, so please RSVP soon.

Find out more about our programs and sign-up information at www.sfbaymsi.org
Contact Henly for reservations (650) 364-2760 x12, or email henly@sfbaymsi.org

In an informative article in Consumer Reports, they discuss the need to be cautious when joining causes/think tanks or especially donating money to green organizations. The list of environmental fakers gets longer during elections.
For example, Americans for Balanced Energy Choices concentrates on political agendas and is supported by coal producers, transporters, and power companies. There are many others, the Environmental Literacy Council is supported by ExxonMobil, Georgia Pacific, International Paper and Weyerhaeuser.

It is not as clear as you might think, AND the name can be accurate or mean nothing. Consumer Reports does a great job at sifting the real from the fake. The term “green washing” has been used lately to call out this kind of marketing and influence peddling.

Hundreds of creeks are in trouble, and who knows better than us, the people that love being near the water and the people that walk along our creeks. South Bay Coyote Creek, Saratoga Creek, and the Guadalupe River are in the top ten of trash-impaired waterways in the South Bay. In Santa Clara county alone, there are 800 miles of creeks, many are part of recreation areas. When trash collects in the creeks if affects all of us, our water quality, fish and aquatic life and the ocean.

Monitoring is a key in clean up and prioritizing which hot spot gets help first. Now we can help, an innovative IBM researcher, Christine Robson has made an app for the iPhone. You send water level, flow rate and picture using the CREEK WATCH app and it helps the scientists monitor our waterways. The iPhone app is in beta test now and being reviewed by Apple to go live soon. Take a look at this link from from abc7news.com:   “Scientists use iPhone app to collect creek data”

“Apps and Tools to Energize your Base” was the title of a useful session at the Women Who Tech TeleSummit. If you are trying to run a non-profit, fight the good green fight, or make environmental solutions more available, it is the hardest “job” you’d ever love. Don’t you wish you had a team or a staff or a …. this is a good start… make use of the wonderful world of apps that can help you. Take a look at Ryann Miller’s post, it will inspire you, on FrogLoop, Care2′s marketing blog. I use many of these, they don’t put an end to “hard work” but apps like Google Analytics are essential to help you know where you have been and who is watching,

Teller Andrea W. of Denver is an banking agent on a mission.

Her green bracelet identifies her as one of Wells Fargo’s first “sustainability agents”—banking store team members who help customers and fellow team members better understand the company’s green practices and products and commitment to environmental stewardship.

Working together, the Environmental Affairs team and Distribution Strategies & Services launched the program last spring. Today there are 35 agents in Arizona, California, Colorado and Illinois. Coming soon: sustainability agents in stores in Kansas, Missouri and Texas.

“Many customers come into our stores wanting to know what measures we’re taking to protect the environment,” said Sheri Lucas, program manager for LEED Construction & Standardization (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design®).

“It’s one thing to have a poster or brochure describing your conservation efforts, but it’s much more effective to have a team member who can answer questions in a meaningful way,” Lucas said. “Through our sustainability agents, we can be sure these efforts are being effectively communicated, promoted and practiced in our stores. Our plan is eventually to have agents in stores nationwide.”

Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, the LEED program provides third-party verification that a building was designed and built to conserve and protect natural resources.

Store managers nominate team members, who then undergo four hours of training each year. Although the program focuses on stores that have solar power and stores that meet LEED standards (either as new or renovated buildings), team members from any banking store can participate if selected by a manager.

Sustainability agents are go-to sources for:

• Local recycling guidelines (and compost, if available).
• Use of recycled paper products and paper reduction efforts, including two-sided printing for internal items and paperless campaigns for customers (Envelope-FreeSM ATMs and online statements).
• Purchase of environmentally friendly supplies such as compostable utensils and plates in break areas and Energy Star-rated office equipment.
• Energy-saving practices such as turning off the lights after business hours or when leaving conference rooms.
• Health and comfort issues (such as “green cleaning” programs).
• Solar programs and products such as the store’s solar panel installation and customer options for solar financing.
• Green store features and Wells Fargo’s other environmental stewardship programs.

Andrea W., who joined Wells Fargo in August 2009, works in the Highlands Ranch store—one of 10 solar-energy-powered stores in a pilot of the technology in Denver. Since being selected by her manager, she’s not only become an expert on the store’s solar power system and company practices but also has found some of her own ways to lessen environmental impacts.

“At the conclusion of each business day, we used to put deposit slips in envelopes bundled together until the deposit slips needed to be shipped out,” she said. “I changed the practice so we now rubber-band the deposit slips from each teller with a date slip. This has saved us 50 envelopes a week and taken some of the paper waste out of our daily usage.”
Mary Wenzel, head of Environmental Affairs, said Wallace’s actions illustrate another benefit of the sustainability agent program.

“It’s a great way to generate new ideas and best practices that can be shared throughout the company,” Wenzel said, noting plans to launch an internal social media site for agents to make the exchange even easier. “It’s like a continuous green communications loop! Plus, it’s a great way to gather feedback from our customers and to listen to them and use that knowledge to continue to put them at the center of everything we do.”

Green practices also are good business, Wenzel said, noting national studies showing 92 percent of young professionals prefer to go to work at environmentally friendly companies. The research also suggests those already employed are more than four times as likely to stay at such companies versus those with less-stellar environmental records.

Although it’s just one part of her daily routine, Wallace said that being a sustainability agent has made her more conscious of her own choices.

“The most important piece of the program to me is the fact that we’re trying to make the eco-friendly attitude a part of everyone’s daily life—something that everyone is conscious of every single day,” she said. “Whether it’s turning off lights or putting things in the proper recycling bin, being an agent has changed my personal life as well. Now, I’m making other people aware of how little things can add up to big savings, and it’s become a passion of mine.”

Note: Most companies have this opportunity to make a difference. Great corporations like Wells Fargo, can make a difference, and promote green policies. It is thrilling and inspiring to see the changes in the corporate mindset.  The team members have more job satisfaction and customers are pleased to know that this company is in line with thier green thinking.  - Jacqueline

Recycle your wine Bottles the fun way!! On November 6 (additional dates follow)  La Nebbia Winery will be filling your bottles, any size, any label and they will cork them!

Update: THE NEW 2011 CALENDAR IS OUT. I just went to this event on Sept 18 – I had so much fun. Met some really nice people so even standing in line to fill up was fun. You’ll get a glass of wine, to try out what you are bottling. The “wine steward” is in the bottling area and will give you a filled glass. Grab one or two, one for your neighbor wating in line, and go back to your spot. The line moves pretty quickly, but your are chatting with your neighbors in line, so the time flies by.

HINTS: save your bottles, but if you don’t get enough, ask a restaurant if they can give you some empties! They are usually glad to do it, less recycling for them.

TO CLEAN bottles: put them in a bin of water, fill each bottle half full with water to “‘hold them down”. Leave a cork in the bottle so stuff doesn’t fly into them, you can take corks out at bottling time. Dump in a box of Baking Soda, let them soak for a week and the old label slides off. Voila clean bottle!

I’ll do it again next time,  the wine was great, easy parking (there is a big dirt lot), and they filled the bottles/corked while we watched.
The price? For a Standard 750 ml bottle, its just $4.95.
If you are planning a special event you can bring in your custom labels and they will put them on your bottle. How fun is that?  My labels said, “Jackie’s Joy Juice” – they were fun to design.

If you can’t be there on a bottling day, you don’t have to miss all the fun, you can drop off  your bottles prior to the event, or call 650-726-9463 to place an order. There were cases of empty clean bottles with names on them, awaiting filling. So even people that couldn’t make this event will have their own bottles.

Bottling Day Schedule for 2010 (occurs every month or so):

• September 18 – Red Wine
• November 6 Red Wine
• November 13 White Wine
• December 11 Red Wine
• April 9 White Wine
• April 16 Red Wine
• Check the schedule at La Nebbia for more dates and wine type

Contact information:

La Nebbia Winery

12341 HWY 92

Half Moon Bay, CA  94019

Just before you reach the town of Half Moon Bay, going west it is a Left turn. If you are heading away from the beach, it is a Right turn.  Parking is easy, in front of the winery. Make sure to try the Port in chocolate cups, nothing ends a hard work day bottling like that!

Make sure to visit the Half Moon Bay Art Glass around the corner. They are making up a batch of Pumpkins, jelly fish and hearts to celebrate the season. They also give lessons, if you have ever wanted to try glass blowing. Please have you lesson BEFORE the wine tasting, ok?

HMB Glass Contact info:

1234-1 San Mateo Rd. (Highway 92), HMB 94019

Phone: 650-283-5626    Open weekends, Friday through Monday 10-5pm

Don’t miss the 38th annual Car Show featuring electric and hybrids. Free Admission! 

Date/Time: Saturday September 25, 2010  from 10:00am – 4:00pm
Location: Palo Alto High School
50 Embarcadero Rd
Palo Alto, CA, California 94301

Palo Alto High School is across the street from Stanford University, next to the Town and Country Shopping Center Easy to get to, carpool or take mass transit or Cal Train. This event is held in PAHS’s north parking lot at the corner of Embarcadero and El Camino Real.

The 38th Annual EV Rally has production and converted electric vehicles on display (some available for test rides or ride-alongs). Cars, trucks, SUVs, scooters, bikes, and more!

The Electric Auto Association (EAA)has been organizing this event for more than 30 years to help the public learn about electric vehicles. Experts, inventors, students, fans of EV will all be there.Talk to people who have been using electric cars, bikes, scooters, trucks, and SUVs for years!  Taking a “tour” in an electric car is great fun, many of the vehicles are prototypes or one of a kind! Some look like they are straight out of the Jetsons or Flintstones cartoons, colors, shapes, styles and innovations abound.

Exhibit vehicles  include:

• Tesla Roadster
• Corbin Sparrow
• Chevy S-10 Truck EV
• Ford Ranger Truck EV
• Toyota RAV4-EV
• VW Golf EV conversion
• Mazda Miata EV conversion
• MG Midget EV conversion
• Porsche 914 EV conversion
• Other conversion EVs
• Electric bikes, scooters, and motorcycles
• … and many others

There will be EV component suppliers, solar panel vendors, local clean air organizations, and a solar oven display. ( quick rambling: I’ve had chocolate chip cookies from baked in a solar oven, not to be missed!) For vehicle display and rally participation (for drivers), we request $20 for the first car, and $10 for each additional car. For interested vendors, please see our website for contact information.

Please visit EAASV’s web site for vehicle participation registration form, instructions, and the latest details on expected vendors and vehicles.

This book by Micahel S. Sanders captures so much history, agriculture, soils, weather and love of wine-making and packs it into one book. His look at family life and love of the grape is detailed and compelling. I’ve learned so much, truly a great story of the Cahors region of Southwest France.

His telling of a wine disaster bears repeating (from page 73):

The first great upheaval in the modern history of Cahors came with the invasion of that vine pest, phylloxera, originally brought in on importaed American rootstocks being used for grafting experiments. Whereas Amerian vines have a natural resistance to it, Eurpean vines do not. This lesson took some time to sink in , apparently, as the nascent California wine industry was all but destroyed just after this by the same pest gfrowing on the same kinds of vines. French vinestocks imported to America! Phylloxera continues to appear periodically there.

If we are what we eat, then we are in TROUBLE? This headline in the NY Times article, really knocks my socks off: “U.S. Meat Farmers Brace for Limits on Antibiotics”. Our meat is in trouble. I think we should switch to organic lentils. That is hard for me to do, and others love their meat too. To read the whole article, click here.  

Even if you are growing your own garden full of delights, it is more difficult to raise meat, and butchering is not for the faint of heart. I raised three rabbits with the intent of having them for dinner, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail lived a long rabbit life. I just didn’t want their meat in my stew pot bad enough to do the deed! There are options to eating meat, other ways to get protein and food combinations that will keep you healthy. This is a bigger question, however, of how do we want food regulated?, and what has big business has done to our food supply?

Suggested Reading:   The Omnivore’s Dilemma | Michael Pollan

Dispensing antibiotics to healthy animals is routine on the large, concentrated farms that now dominate American agriculture. But the practice is increasingly condemned by medical experts who say it contributes to a growing scourge of modern medicine: the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including dangerous E. coli strains that account for millions of bladder infections each year, as well as resistant types of salmonella and other microbes.

Now, after decades of debate, the Food and Drug Administration appears poised to issue its strongest guidelines on animal antibiotics yet, intended to reduce what it calls a clear risk to human health. They would end farm uses of the drugs simply to promote faster animal growth and call for tighter oversight by veterinarians.