Keith Rockmael

While most people continue to look upward (into the air) as far as CO2 emissions, many people have overlooked looking down (into the oceans) but they won’t make that mistake after seeing the interesting, informative yet personal enviro-doc Sea Change. Unlike so many other “green” films and documentaries that hit people over the head with stats and charts not to mention fire and brimstone, director Barbara Ettinger ("Independent Lens" - Two Square Miles) takes a more personal approach (aided by having her on-screen husband Sven Huseby) to explore the causes behind the rapid rate of ocean acidification. And rapid it is.

As a former college professor and current grandfather, Sven serves as a genteel informant/host/interviewer willing to learn and listen rather than comment and direct. He offers the natural ability to teach and engage in conversation. Even non-greenies can admire his feelings and interest as a grandfather intested in educating himself and others about the dangerous status of the ocean life for the sake of his grandson.

Shot in a soft tone (the filmmakers never used location lights to cut down on their carbon footprint) the Sea Change uses just a sprinkling of numbers and stats to make their points, and instead uses interviews with various scientists, artists and writers to bring home the points. Ettinger makes solid use of comparing the Exxon Valdez footage and spill catastrophe to demonstrate what will happen to communities should ocean acidification continue - devastation.

The film lacks the scolding element so common in other green films. It creates more of subtle quality to emphasize the important aspects of what continues to happen to our oceans. It’s easy to ignore something that you don’t see like garbage going to a dump or meat coming from a factory farm.

Sea Change creates a climate where we can think of the ocean acidy issue now like the threat of nuclear war back in the 50s, it is that serious just less political. If this film doesn’t get your fish sticks shaking then nothing else might.

Screens at 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival April 30

Although the 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival didn’t set out to program Green films, it may be no coincidence that several environment related or themed features and docs snuck their way into the diverse programming.

One of those films, first time director Aristomenis Tsirbas’s lushly animated Battle for Terra spotlights the peaceful planet of Terra where these wide-eyed tadpole looking denizens live. The Terrareans share the landscape (and skyscape) with sucking plants (a la Fantastic Planet) and flying whales in a healthy, peaceful environment - until the aliens attack. Only this time, humans represent the invaders complete with a jingoistic and aggressive mentality. The thing is that the humans used up all their resources back on Earth so then they decided to try their luck next door - Mars and Venus. Soon after colonizing the virgin neighbors, the three planets got into a battle royal and blew each other up so now the humans (in the form of Earth Force) need to take over the unspoiled Terra.

This environmental Star Wars attempts to create ethical and moral dilemmas but really only creates a green-handed (or green heavy handed) story that creates black and white distinctions between the exploitative humans and the passive Terrareans.

Tsirbas must have watched a lot of films before he took to directing because aside from the other films mentioned previously, he borrows heavily from Planet of the Apes, Starship Troopers, 1984 and other dystopian film worlds. Offering a nod or wink to a film can be cool if used subtly but here the homage borders on film plagiarism.

Environmental films will no doubt become more of a focal point in the coming years and hopefully the other Green films in the festival will offer a more intriguing and thought provoking slant.

Battle For Terra screens: April 25, 29

If it works for one San Fran hotel then it must work for another. No, we’re not talking about more upscale mini bar items but Greening a hotel. In this case, the Orchard Garden Hotel’s (which garnered LEED-NC certification) sister property the Orchard Hotel just nabbed LEED-EB certification. The Orchard represents San Francisco’s only hotel to earn this honor, the Orchard Hotel is the second hotel in California and fourth hotel in the world with this certification.

The inspiration from these green hotels comes from its 85-year-old owner, Mrs. S.C. Huang, who has pushed her environmental agenda and created more environmentally safe and sustainable hotels after the untimely cancer-related deaths of three family members.

We know that points don’t represent everything but for those strictly into the numbers the hotel achieved 35 out of a possible 36 points on the LEED-EB scorecard.

Those not familiar with LEED-EB shouldn’t expect alt energy (but it would be nice), large scale green building materials (foundations, roofs, etc) and other large ticket green building attributes. Here the sustainable aspects come more in the form of interior and service. We like the fact that the hotel is Energy Star rated and 90% more energy efficient than comparable hotels. It also contains a plate and frame heat exchanger installed on the rooftop which decreases power needed for climate control and cooling.

At night, guests can sleep (or whatever they else they do in bed) better knowing that the mattress covers are made from organic and naturally anti-microbial fibers, and the wood in guest room bed bases comes from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified sustainably harvested forests.

The hotel even took over the formerly Vignette restaurant (now christened Daffodil) and changed the menu to consist of mostly local ingredients and organic produce and meats from small California farms however we have yet to dig our forks into the new fare so we’ll have to see about that Green aspect later. After all, fares fair.

Clint Eastwood's iconic Dirty Harry character uttered “A man's got to know his limitations” but can say the same thing about the Green progress of a company? In the case of the smaller and less capitalized Lake Tahoe ski resort Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort we looked at skied, snowboarded, walked, and peeked around at what Green goings on here at this resort. Like all ski reports they should be concerned about their carbon footprint and global warming because with no snow they have no business.

Sierra, unlike some of the larger resorts like Heavenly, don’t have as much capital to spend on LEED certified buildings, high output photovoltaic systems or biodiesal powered snow-cats but then again they have a smaller footprint in terms of actual buildings (LEED or otherwise) or the amount of high energy snow making machines.

In truthfulness Sierra’s green initiatives don’t have that “wow” factor but that doesn’t mean that they ignore the green philosophy. Under there PROJECT: GREEN SIERRA they have instituted many educational, community and environmental programs. Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort works local school children to collect plastic bottle tops in exchange for a free day of skiing and snowboarding. The collected plastic tops will be recycled into new bottle tops by Aveda™ in their Caps Recycling Program.

In terms of using the green thumb for building, Sierra “saved” their sister ski area Northstar from creating more landfill when they rescued the doors and installed them at the Grandview and Base lodge. They also used recycled material to rebuild the roof-top decks above their main lodge and above Grandview Lodge. On the below side, they replaced carpet in the main lodge with a carpet that is 25% recycled and contains 100% recycled backing. We have to like that carpet has Cradle-to-Cradle certification.

Speaking of recycling, Sierra makes a point to use 100% eco-friendly disposable products for all their restaurants. All plates, bowls, cups and flatware come from renewable sources such as sugar cane, potato starch and corn resin. When trying to be somewhat progressive with their recycling program unexpected things occurred. Next to their blue recycling bins they labeled their garbage bins “landfill” because that’s where it ends up. Skiers and riders, feeling guilty by not wanting to create more landfill, started tossing everything into the recycle bins. We had to laugh too. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. People in this region just need to be educated that a half eaten chili burger can’t be recycled. Now, Sierra needs to look at compost bins.

A lot of times it comes down to what you don’t do that can be classified as Green. Sierra only uses four snow guns which use a ton of energy and they have no condos. Their changes might seem small scale to many but at least the changes continue. We hope that soon Sierra will implement some major alt energy source, change their menu to more organic local based cuisine (although they do offer free Wednesday wine tasting from three local winemakers), and work on their water conservation efforts. When they accomplish some of sustainable ideas then it will really “Make my day”.

Instead of usual colors that we associate with wine such as white or dark red, our color paradigm might shift to say Gold. With the CADE Winery just about to open, this solar powered and organically farmed winery, hopes to garner LEED Gold status and if so, would be the first Estate Gold LEED certified winery in the Napa Valley.

When visiting a winery, people’s olfactory system normally goes into overdrive but instead of inhaling the aromas of vanilla, rosemary, oak and sage here we took deep breaths of the air. As in indoor air quality. No stuffy AC here as the building relies on natural ventilation. While others admire the wines, we admired the other green aspects. CADE will utilize 100% solar power and organic farming methods which both sound tasty to us.

From top to bottom, we got our buzz from the other building features like the concrete composed that contains a generous amount (30 percent) of fly ash, steel made up of 98 percent recycled material, FSC glass and wood, as well as blue jeans for insulation and its own concrete mass for cooling.

The Green aspects just don’t stop at the building. It’s too bad that we didn’t bike or drive our electric car (we did carpool) because the winery offers a plug-in base for hybrid electric cars; and bicycle racks. Even better, they offer a shower (hopefully with low flow showerhead) so cyclists can clean up before tasting or event.

One the eating side, they will have a full-time chef on site who will focus on organic, sustainable cuisine grown on site. We haven’t had the chance to sample some of the sustainable cuisine but we’ll report back when we do.

We, like many people, wondered about the name. The winery name CADE derives from a Shakespearean term used for an oak cask or barrel, -- comprises more than 60 acres, 23 of which were planted as vineyards in 2003. Of the remaining land, 28 acres will be protected in a land trust to ensure that they will always remain open space. Now there should be a big “Cheers” to that fact.