Keith Rockmael

The saying “Up, up and away” used to bring excitement for air travelers but certainly not for travelers who wanted to reduce their carbon footprint. We have not noticed any plug in hybrid 747s buzzing through the skies yet, so what can a carbon conscious air traveler do? We know that some airlines now offer carbon offsets but they often offer no verification and it only seems to be a marketing ploy.

All the details have not been hammered out but likely beginning in the spring, travelers flying out of San Francisco International Airport (SFO) will be able to minimize the impact of their air travel (and their guilt) by buying certified carbon offsets at airport kiosks. We know what you’re thinking, those carbon offsets especially here in the U.S. just end up as subsidies to various green entrepreneurs. The difference here would be that San Francisco based 3Degrees will offer more creditability to the program. To us, the difference can be seen as 3Degrees sources VERs (Verified Emission Reductions) that they source from specific projects that result in real, quantifiable, permanent greenhouse gas emission reductions and offer credible and transparent third-party verification standards such as Gold Standard, Green-e Climate and California Climate Action Registry (CCAR)

We understand that these carbon kiosks would resemble the self service airline check-in stations where a traveler would punch in his or her destination. The machine would calculate the carbon footprint and the cost to offset the damage done by the airline flight. With the swipe of a credit card the traveler could help save the planet and receive a printed receipt listing the specific projects that the money benefits.

We don’t enjoy the restrictions, fees and hassles associated with flying but at least if this plan goes though that we can at least not feel too guilty about being jet-setters.

Sometimes being green means taking on the “less is more” philosophy. Such would be the case with the Cavallo Lodge over in Sausalito. For the recently opened lodge, about half of the current lodge rooms they converted from the previous officers quarters, military barracks and the like. But don’t think of this place like Full Metal Jacket but rather Organic Cotton Robe.

We visited there a few months ago for the Going Green conference but we didn’t get a chance to survey the property much. This time, we got to stay over and even check out the spa. (Life is tough) The lodge, waiting for LEED Silver certification, offers new rooms and the classic ones. Even though the new ones offer radiant heating and the hot water comes via tankless water heaters, which reduce the energy consumed by those dinosaur era traditional water heaters. They installed photo-voltaic panels on 12 of the 14 new buildings’ south-facing, standing seam metal roofs which produce about 75 percent of the electricity necessary to run the buildings.

We cozied up in one of the existing building rooms which offer more charm (like the tine roof ceilings and the detailed antique radiator). By reusing the existing buildings, they already considered their carbon footprint. We can only be impressed by the fact that the brains and money behind the lodge used nearly 100% of the building shells and retained or repurposed roughly 75% of the building cores. We applaud these efforts as they not only extend the life cycle of existing building stock, conserve resources, and reduce waste but it also retains cultural and historical resources.

Although we couldn’t see the insulation we knew that they used blue jean insulation in the contemporary lodging and a portion in the Healing Arts Center. Speaking of the Spa, they constructed the floors and ceilings from rapidly renewable materials such as bamboo, wool or cork. Besides green building attributes they offer creativity by repurposing plastic dry cleaning bags (that come off site) for spa guests to take home their wet bathing suits.

Almost no other plastic can be seen on property and the staff couldn’t be nicer (as well as pretty well informed about the green aspects. Now if they could only get rid of the few incandescent bulbs (in the spa and the lodge) then we would be that much more pleased.

Photo by Kodiak Greenwoodh

In a supposed progressive green city, it won’t be until today that San Francisco finally gets its own biodiesel station – Dogpatch Biofuels. It’s been a long time in the making with permits, and inspections and the like. Hasn’t San Francisco seen biodiesel before? You’d think that they were dispensing nitroglycerin the way the approval process worked like molasses.

We’re not counting the Olympic Station that sells B20 to mostly fleet vehicles and trucks or the op-op that used to operate in SoMa. Here, we have an honest to goodness B100 (or rather B99.99999) biodiesel station for autos. All the Mercedes and converted vehicle owners can rejoice at not having to drive to the East Bay or San Mateo to fill up their tanks. Even better, we can all rejoice at the fact that the station owners get their fuel not from GMO corn or switchgrass or any food but rather from San Francisco’s own waste grease program, so we can all be proud when consuming those greasy fries.

Besides purchasing locally made fuel, the owners painted the office using mostly zero-voc paint, and set up and eco-shop using reused desks, cabinets and shelves. The few products they sell (more to come) either fall into the organic, natural or non-toxic categories. They tell us that when things get up and running, that they will offer green auto/hybrid/bio-fuel educational classes to bring a community spirit to the station. Try getting that at your local Exxon station.

As Bugs Bunny used to say “What’s up Doc?” In the newly opened chiropractic office the reply would be “green”, as in green building. Yes, green building continues its march into the homes and offices across America and some doctors realize that sustainable interiors means healthy patients (or at least healthier). Take for instance, the new Executive Express Chiropractic designed by Martinkovic Milford Architects and built by Peacock Construction. A small place to be sure but the designers make good use of space to mention the healthy additions.

When we entered, we couldn’t help but notice the curved leather wall. We even stuck our grills right against the wall to smell the leather. Yep, it smells like leather. It actually is. But the green minded architects didn’t lose their minds, they used EcoDomo, which uses real leather scraps from shoes, and other leather manufacturing facilities, then grind it into shreds. They use water and other natural binding ingredients (mostly natural rubber and acacia wood bark) then eventually deliver them with a sticky peel-off back that requires no off-gassing adhesives.

We never claimed to be interior decorators but we can appreciate the Maya Romanoff paper wall covering that smartens up the treatment area. The covering looks even smarter when considering that it comes by way of stamping rayon fibers on wet wood pulp, which produce an attractive wall covering that displays both texture and depth. The wall covering comes from rapidly renewable materials, particularly Mulberry, and is 100% biodegradable.

The designers added several other green elements including: Benjamin Moore Eco-Spec paint, the treatment room dividers come from the 3-form “full circle” line that uses a form of fair trade for the families in Nepal who helped raise the silkworms to create the striking panels, and even the artwork and mirror framing employs FSC certified wood.

One thing kind of bugs us. The marble countertops and shelves come from EuroStone which create these products from and combo of 90% recycled marble chips and a polyester resin as binding agent. Excluding the resin as a natural element, it’s walking a pretty thin line to claim that using marble chips from quarries would be considered green. If they didn’t mine the resource in the first place then no chips would exist.

Who’s next in the waiting room?

At the San recent Francisco pit stop of the Green Festival, while trying to avoid the masses searching for samples of organic this and sustainable that, one of San Francisco’s green builders Chris Connors mentioned to a few of us attendees, “Wow, this festival has gotten big.” Indeed, for those who haven’t attended in a few years – yes, the festival continues to grow faster than FSC certified bamboo.

For those lucky enough not to suffer from green claustrophobia, attendees could choose from a potpourri of Green rock stars – such as Van Jones who spoke about the new green collar economy, the incredibly interesting and sometimes bizarre Paul Stamets who seems like the Fox Mulder of the mushroom world and the dynamic food sovereignty trio of Raj Patel, Eric Holt-Giménez and Miguel Altieri who, among other things, discussed how the food shortage is an ecological issue not just a political topic.

Taking a break from the speakers, we had to cruise the exhibitor marketplace. With so much to choose from we took a look at the numerous additions to the myriad vender booths. Myriad, as in about 50 percent of these companies use this festival for marketing or promote a “green lifestyle”. Okay, we’re not going to call it outright greenwashing but some of these businesses really milk this whole green thing. Of course we’re happy to see new honest additions (or at least venders that we have not seen before here) such as Mozilla and we can and should throw our support behind the community powered, open source FireFox Browser.

With more additions come some subtractions. Most notably, what happened to Burt’s Bees? We heard that the lip balm buzzers got 86ed from the festival because they happened to be owned by uh --- who was that again? – oh yes, Clorox. No problem there but then the green playing field needs to be level right? So, that means no Ben and Jerry’s (even if they switched to all organic ingredients). So, what’s the deal with Honest Tea? The Coke owned or partially owned company had booth in the middle of food sample frenzy. What gives?