Green Man Thriving

Greening Our Yard - Everything We Do Now Must Change

We live in a pretty typical suburban neighborhood in a town along the Florida gulf coast.  In the past our yard has been landscaped in a pretty standard way - a nice green lawn maintained by an irrigation system on city water, a yard sprinkled with palm trees and a couple of large trees for shade, and a house surrounded by annuals and perennials you can find at any Home Depot.  A landscape company comes at regular intervals to mow, fertilize, and lay down insecticide.

Our yard stays reasonably attractive and green. These practices are typical of most of our neighbors and homeowners everywhere in Florida.

But these practices are anything but green. My wife and I know all this must change.

As part of our commitment to going green, my wife and I have decided we have to transform radically how we keep, and how we view, the yard around our home. 

Why? How? So Whar?  Stay tuned to Green Man Thriving.

Be Green Forever and Recycle Yourself

Since this blog is about living a thriving green and sustainable life, contemplating the end of life is not the first topic that comes to mind. Of course we all will face our own demise some day, and, in my opinion, if I am an authentic human being, I will face my death with the same principles as I lived my life.

A new service in the Tampa Bay area gives a nice reason to fast forward our green life's journey to the end (at least in this world.) The Eternal Rest Memories Park and Funeral Home in Dunedin, FL (greenburialUSA.com) offers "Green Burials" that are friendly to earth and an interesting alternative to traditional burials or cremation.  A person's remains, rather than being embalmed or cremated and encased in a casket, are dressed in a dignified shroud or favorite clothes, buried in the soil, and allowed to return to dust whence the person came. A tree can be planted in the final resting spot, and the person's remains can nourish the tree.  The body is recycled.

Charles Scalisi, the owner of Eternal Rest, says that his service is unique in Florida and perhaps in the country. While there are a few other cemetaries that allow a green burial, he knows of no others that offer fully green funeral services on site.

The advantages of a green burial, aside from recycling that used-up body, is that it's cheaper than a conventional funerals, around $2,500 vs. $12,000, depending on the services offered, says Charles. And for those who recoil from the thought of cremation, this is a dignified approach and leaves a permanent final resting place for rememberance.  And there's zero CO2 emissions.

Green burials are done in a special part of the cemetary, towards the back of the property near trees and away from the road. No stand-up head stones are allowed, and green burials don't need markers. In fact, Charles uses digital wireless technology to identify the final resting spot. A sensor encased in a round plastic ball is buried with the body and can be read by a device owned by the funeral home.  Its manufacturer guarantees that the device will work for 150 years.  

I did not ask Charles if the sensor was made from recycled plastic.  I guess this plastic ball will be the closest we get to immortality on earth.  At least that's a better legacy than leaving our plastic water bottles and disposable diapers to fester in landfills for centuries. 

Call 727-733-2300 to find out more about green burials.

The sweet taste of buying local

Buying local first is a popular aspect of being green.  We Greens make the argument that by going local we get fresher food, keep money in the neighborhood, reduce energy consumption, and encourage socializing and closer-knit communities.

Traditional economics tells us that producing and buying locally in itself is irrelevant and should not be a factor except through price. Be that as it may, today I found a great reason to buy local.

Today I visited the new Downtown Clearwater Farmers' Market, which runs every Wednesday through April. It was cold and windy today, so there were not many shoppers in attendance, but I found one vendor worth the trip. 

The Honey Cart, owned by Don & Jo White, sells local raw seasonal honey from the West Central Florida Beekeepers Co-op. There's four types of honey produced - one for each season. Because the diet of the honey bees differ by season, each season produces a different taste. The Whites describe their honey as "a Sweet Taste of Florida."

I sampled Citrus in the Spring, Palmetto in the Summer, Black Mangrove in the Fall, and Strawberry in the Winter. A Sweet Taste of Florida indeed!

The Heavens and Seas Have Parted: Walmart's Going Deep Green for Good

In case anyone still thinks that green is a fad or just not that important, the actions of the new Walmart CEO seems to prove that "going green" as a concept in the corporate world is here to stay. New CEO Mike Duke declared in a company wide sustainability meeting yesterday he wanted to accelerate the company's sustainability efforts, which was begun under his predecessor Lee Scott in 2005.

The retail behemoth's goal is to its goal to become a zero waste operation and source all its energy from renewable sources, while stepping up pressure on suppliers to improve their environmental performance. (The plan is to reduce waste in U.S. Stores by 25%in 2009. When zero waste?)  So, Walmart vendor, watch out - whether you like it or not, the green tidal wave is about to hit you!

So I wonder how should we all surf this wave?