Tag: Sustainability
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Designers’ Role in Combating Climate Change
My company is updating employee bios and sent out a questionnaire to help craft the text. One question in particular spurred this blog post—What role do you think designers / planners play in addressing climate change? My answer in a nutshell was—a very important one. In 2017 the U.S. EPA estimated commercial and residential markets…
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Reducing Plastic in the Kitchen
A few years ago I was sitting in a Master Water Steward class learning how to be a better steward of the water resources in my community. The topic of plastic sandwich bags and whether washing and reusing them was more sustainable than throwing them away came up. On the one hand, you use quite…
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Why Thrift Shopping is Essential for Sustainable Living
Anyone that knows me well knows that I am not a big fan of shopping. I avoid it at all costs, unless going with a friend. Even then, I hardly buy anything, I just like to spend time with my shopping buddy. My shopping system used to involve two quick trips, one in the spring…
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Sustainable Spin on Thanksgiving
A few weeks before thanksgiving I started thinking ways I could reduce waste as I hosted ten people at my house. A few of the ideas I had time to implement, others I hope to introduce into next years festivities, and some I have been doing for years now. The actions ranged from using every…
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Ditching Plastic Razors: the Safety Razor
My second zero waste change might seem like a small one, but it has a large impact. I read a HuffPost article about the negative impact of plastic razors which lays out the argument to move to a more sustainable option quite well. The razors themselves are very difficult to recycle as is the plastic…
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Backyard Composting
My first zero waste change was a fairly easy one. While living in the Twin Cities metro I was first introduced to composting. In Columbia Heights the City provided residents with a starter kit that consisted of a 5 gallon bucket, roll of large compost bags, and a few coupons. There was one central location…
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Embracing Zero Waste: Simple Steps to Reduce Your Environmental Impact
have been reading a lot of books on trees, nature, buying less, and living simple. I also just finished watching The Handmaids Tale which is set in a future world where America is in the hands of people who think they are saving the country from destruction by returning it to a lifestyle reminiscent of…
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The Rise of Socially Conscious Advertising
I’ve notice a trend recently in the commercials playing between my latest show on Hulu. I know they are trying to tailor the types of commercials I see to my preferences; they literally ask me to pick between two images every so often. But answering those questions would not tell them that I am a…
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Revolutionary Edible Packaging: The Future of Sustainability
The average American throws away 185 pounds of plastic every year which takes between 500 and 1,000 years to degrade. Back in February I wrote a post on orange energy bags, a new advancement in reducing the amount of plastic waste sent to landfills (read about it here). The next wave of environmental sustainability is…
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Creative Redevelopment: Old Retail Spaces Finding New Life
The first big box store reuse that I witnessed first hand was in Seward, Nebraska. For years, the original small scale Walmart store sat empty along Highway 15, less than a mile from the new Walmart Super Center that replaced it. For a town of just under 7,000 people it was hard to imagine it…
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The Planning Lady 