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Gov. Perdue moved forward on her JobsNOW Green Economy Plan last Friday by signing House Bill 1481 and announcing 14 Green Business Fund grants.

The actions were part of a three-pronged strategy to make North Carolina a leader in green economy jobs by strengthening state leadership in energy policy, making smart investments to create jobs and foster innovation, and providing green-collar workforce training, according to a statement by the governor's office.

The bill: 

• moves the State Energy Office from the Department of Administration to the Department of Commerce, more closely linking the office’s activities with economic development;
• transfers the Residential Energy Conservation Assistance Program from the Department of Health and Human Services to the relocated State Energy Office; and
• strengthens the effectiveness of the Energy Policy Council by improving representation from environmental groups, alternative energy producers and energy services specialists. The council will focus on creating green jobs and protecting the environment.

Perdue appointed Tim Toben chairman of the Energy Policy Council. Toben serves on the N.C. Legislative Commission on Global Climate Change and is chairman of the Board of Visitors at the UNC-Chapel Hill Institute for the Environment.

Perdue also announced 14 awardees from across the state, who will receive up to $99,000 each from the N.C. Green Business Fund (scroll down to the bottom of this announcement to see the entire list of awardees).

Vesture Corp., of Asheboro, was the sole Triad-area awardee and it will use $75,000 to ramp up production of a new home insulation product that uses phase-change materials. These materials are solid at room temperature, but liquefy and absorb and store heat when the temperature becomes warmer. When the temperature drops, the material will solidify and give off heat, warming the house and reducing consumer energy costs.

Alice Walters, a renowned Slow Food activist, will serve as a special guest at the groundbreaking ceremony of an edible schoolyard at the Greensboro Children's Museum. The ceremony will take place at 4 p.m. on Sept. 24 (general admission fees apply).

The edible schoolyard will feature an outdoor gardening classroom, teaching kitchens, organic vegetables, herbs and fruits, and edible flowers. Details here.

A special fundraising event with Waters will also take place on Sept. 25 at the home of Jane and Richard Levy in Greensboro. Tickets are $250 per person. Call 574-2898 to make reservations. 

Folks in the Summerfield area who want to support local farms without driving to Colfax or downtown Greensboro can check out a new farmers market  hosted by Angie Besecker, owner of Dwelling, a home furnishings store located on N.C. Hwy 150.

The market, which started the first weekend in June, operates from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays until the end of October. Vendors sell locally grown produce, organic eggs, homemade organic breads, custom fresh flower arrangements, fresh herbs and ornamental house plants, blueberries, watermelon, apples, organic spreads like peanut butter, honey, baked goods and other speciality foods like Greek pastries, hummus and pesto from organic herbs.

The Hillsdale Farmer's Market is located at 1000 Hwy 150 West (across from the new Southern States) at the intersection of 150 and Lake Brandt Road, about three miles past Greensboro Day School. Call Dwelling at 298-4401 for more information. I will also include the market on a Triad area listing on goGreenTriad.com. 

Besecker said starting a farmers market was a natural next step to her promoting green living at home and work. Dwelling sells recycled jewelry and metal lamps, vintage tin mirrors and frames, soy candles, market totes made from recycled Hawaiian coffee bean bags, organic wine and body care and other items. Read about her business in a past Savvy Shopper column.

Besecker wrote in an e-mail:

"We recycle at home and work to teach our children about the importance of reducing their carbon footprint. We also use green cleaning products - whether we make our own furniture polish with olive oil and lemon juice or wash the mirrors and windows with vinegar and a piece of newspaper - or we use "organic" products where needed. We also use organic bath and body products and most importantly we are eating more healthy foods. I am spoiled by hosting the local market - last Saturday for dinner we entertained and offerred our guests everything from the market - hummus, pesto, cherry tomatoes, organic wheat bread, peach bread for dessert, sweet corn, etc. It was delicious!!"

Anne-Marie Scott started out in the same dietary and culinary ruts many Americans find themselves in today: eating frozen dinners, fast food and processed snacks because it seems so much easier and cheaper than cooking from scratch. And Scott is a dietitian, someone who gets paid to help people eat healthier.

Now Scott, a foods and nutrition professor at UNCG, buys most of her food directly from farms and prepares homemade croissants and risotto in her kitchen. She wants to help other families learn how to do the same.

"I'm just happier and healthier and feel like I'm part of a solution with the locavore lifestyle," said Scott, a former leader of Slow Food Piedmont Triad.

Scott wants to help a fast-food eating Greensboro family or couple convert to a local, whole foods diet over the course of a year. She wants to document the process and would like a family open to writing about their experience online. This is a personal "labor of love" for her and involves no outside funding, she said.

"I really just want to guide them," she said. " I want to teach them to cook, how to shop. I want to take them to meet farmers."

You can find out more about the project at her new blog, where you can contact her and sign up. She also was featured in the summer edition of the UNCG Alumni Magazine. I met Scott today and took a brief tour of her Sunset Hills backyard, where she planted blueberry bushes and raises three hens all named Henrietta (they're a rare heritage breed called Dorking, if you're curious).

"In a shady yard my choices were mushrooms, bees, rabbits or chickens," she said. "Chickens just seemed like a good idea."

Scott's had her share of cooking blunders ("I tried to make salmon mousse and I made salmon Alpo") and frustrating experiences, such as shopping at a crowded and confusing downtown farmers market. 

Scott considers herself an oddball in the dietetics field, one who prioritizes whole, fresh foods over counting calories and buying processed foods that happen to be low-fat: "Real food is not low-fat or low-carb. When you enjoy slow food your body is so viscerally satisfied that you don't need to overeat."

Leon's Beauty School in Greensboro took its environmental efforts to the next level this week by installing a solar hot water system; it plans to add photovoltaics for electricity in the next couple months. I wrote about the company's previous efforts to go green in April.

I stopped by the school this morning to check out the work being done. Extend Energy in Greensboro installed three panels and a 120-gallon water tank that will take care of most of the building's needs. Travis Simpson, the company's chief executive officer, said he will return in late August or September to oversee the installation of 170 photovoltaic panels that will generate about 140 kilowatt hours of electricity each day. One of the workers helping to install the panels was Adrian Wright, a department chair of industrial systems at GTCC. This assignment provided on-the-ground training for Wright who is helping to implement a green technologies program at the college.

"I will have complete south-facing sun between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. every single day," said owner Parker Washburn. "With all the tax credits this year it just made sense."

Washburn estimated that both solar systems will pay for themselves in five years. She will cut down one leaning tree and trim four others to optimize the sun exposure.

Washburn said she was embarrassed of her industry's poor environmental record; she bemoaned Leon's "65 years of trash" as she reflected on how much plastic and other garbage was sent to landfills over the years. That era of Leon's is over: I walked into a break area and saw an empty gray trash can sitting next to a full recycling bin. 

"I spent three quarters of my life screwing up the environment," Washburn said. "I figured I'd spend the last quarter helping it."

This Sunday's N&R centerpiece will be about the growing interest in local foods, particularly urban agriculture. But you don't have to wait to check out this video of Urban Harvest, whose work in the Aycock neighborhood is included in the print piece:

Some of the best memories we carry with us through life are created on vacations. We reminisce about the roller coaster adrenaline rushes, gooey marshmallows around campfires, romantic walks on the beach, and savory brunches in European cafes.

Those memories, like our travels, are about our enjoyment. We could care less about how the resort we stayed in handled our trash or if the waitresses who served us earned a living wage. We return home oblivious to the lingering impacts we had on the natives and wildlife we left behind.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can all travel responsibly in ways that not only benefit ourselves, but guarantee the social and environmental health of the places we visit.

For example, we can conserve resources by choosing accommodations that recycle wastewater on site or use energy-efficient appliances. We can refuse to purchase products made from endangered plant and animal species, and help fund efforts to improve medical care or education in the communities we visit.

And don’t think this applies only to backpackers, kayakers and other people who prefer to spend their vacations outdoors. Everyone, from convention-attending corporate executives to sports fans can make better choices (i.e. check out Marriott's extensive initiatives). Of course, this might require some of us to reduce the number of vacations we take in order to spend more money on better quality accommodations and venues. Find tips for sustainable travel here and here.

Interest in sustainable tourism is growing throughout the world as the industry adapts to changing consumer preferences, government regulations and grassroots advocacy. (I recently wrote about efforts to improve recycling rates at special events.) The North Carolina Center for Sustainable Tourism at East Carolina University promotes changes through research, outreach and a new master’s degree. The center is also studying the effects of climate on tourism and second homes in tourism communities.

“In the last year we’ve seen literally an explosion in interest both from travelers and tourist destinations,” said Alex Naar, the center’s outreach coordinator. “Almost everybody that I’ve talked to from the mom and pop businesses to large businesses has shown an interest.”

The center lists several North Carolina businesses that practice environmental and social responsibility: the N.C. Zoo in Asheboro, Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, Bed and Bike Inn near the Uwharrie Mountains, Weeping Radish Farm Brewery on the Outer Banks.

Elsewhere one can find sustainable practices at Devil’s Thumb Ranch in Colorado, the Biosphere Reserve in Mexico and Kapawi Ecolodge & Reserve in Ecuador.

The Ol Donyo Wuas Lodge and the Maasailand Preservation Trust in Kenya use proceeds from tourist fees to provide education and medical care to the resident Maasai community. The trust and partnering organizations also reforest the land and protect wildlife by compensating the tribe for cattle lost to predators.

Tom LaRock, of Winston-Salem, has organized private safaris on the land and said these partnerships help maintain ecological diversity and preserve the cultural heritage of an indigenous group pressured by industrialization. Only about 20 people visit the 270,000 acre preserve at one time, he said.

“It’s not just about the ecology,” said LaRock, of Safari Professionals Unlimited. “It’s not just about the environment. It’s just not about the wildlife. It’s about the whole community and the people who live there.”

Learn more:
N.C. Division of Tourism
Ecotourism.org
Sustainable Travel International
Renewabletourism.com
 

I wrote in June about the Greensboro Currency Project, which aims to create a local currency and is partly motivated by the recession's impact on local businesses.

It turns out about 80 Triad area businesses participate in a bartering system called Velocity Trade Exchange that Cathi Vogel, of Greensboro, started in 2007. (I will add here that Deep Roots Market has its own incentive program that provides its members with discounts at a number of local businesses.)

Vogel said she started the company, which is affiliated with a national business bartering organization, after learning that her brother-in-law in Wisconsin joined one.

"It just clicked," she told me last week. "The clouds parted, the lights came down and the angels started singing. I knew this is what I was supposed to do."

The exchange basically works like this: Members earn U.S. dollar-based credits for products and services they supply other members in the network. Vogel, whose company has two full-time employees and one part-time employee, earns a fee from member companies for managing the program.

"I couldn't have timed it better," Vogel said about starting the company in 2007. "We started before the recession really got going. We had time to get established and form a reputation."

Member companies benefit in that they can save money on certain expenses and attract customers who might be hesitant to spend cash on an unfamiliar business, Vogel said. But the system does not work well for companies that can't handle additional customers, don't get paid directly from clients (such as insurance agents) or provide specialty services with mostly non-local supply chains (i.e. pharmaceutical company).

I spoke today with Velocity member Lea Frederick, who started All Wrapped Up Gifts in Greensboro about three years ago. Frederick said she has used her credits to pay for brochures and business coaching. Once she earned $100 in credits for making a gift for another member's wife. She then spent those credits on boarding her dog and getting a pedicure.

"I have a lot of customers in the exchange so its been very beneficial because I might not have them as customers (otherwise)," she said.

Frederick added that she would be interested in a local currency because she already makes a lot of gift baskets from locally-sourced items. The Greensboro Currency Project differs from Velocity Trade Exchange in that the group is interested in circulating a physical currency throughout the community rather than primarily bartering services/products between businesses.

Still, maybe the Greensboro Currency Project should talk to Vogel.

"One of the things I'm trying to do is start a movement about the local economy," Vogel said. "I think there's a lot of things we can do as a community beyond barter and currency to partner and work together for the greater good."

Nurturing saplings – both the human and plant varieties – is something the grassroots Trees Asheboro has worked to perfect over the past five years.

Founders Owen George and Tim Womick officially renamed the organization Trees NC this year and now aim to cultivate new leaders and beautify communities throughout the state.

“We’ve developed some very successful programs that allowed people from diverse communities to work together to make their home a better place to live, both in the environment, the aesthetic beauty of the community and most importantly in the friendships,” said Owen George, president and co-founder of the organization. “Now our vision is to make our model programs available to cities and towns statewide.”

The group’s activities in Asheboro are extensive. Trees NC coordinated the planting of magnolias, river birch, crepe myrtles, oaks and other trees at dozens of public locations. It partnered with the city to create a mayors tree grove at North Asheboro Park. It donates greenhouses to local schools and built a vegetable garden on the grounds of East Side Homes, which houses low-income seniors.

“We’re proud of Trees Asheboro,” said Mayor David Jarrell. “They do a good job of assisting us in a lot of projects.”

Earlier this month, youth painted a townscape mural on a retaining wall on Church Street. And members of the Central Asheboro Boys & Girls Clubs mulched trees and weeded a formerly neglected grassy area sandwiched between a public housing complex and convenience store on East Salisbury Street.

George explained that the groups intend to build a park with benches and playground equipment for the residents to enjoy.

“It looks 20 times better than it did before,” said 17-year-old Donald Brower, who lives near the park. “I’m hoping it will give (residents) a clue that we’re trying to help the community and make it better.”
 

I started creating online maps this year as one way to help readers locate various products, services and events. I recently completed maps on Greensboro recycling drop-off sites and the Guilford County Community Garden Tour. Today I finished mapping out biodiesel/ethanol fuel retail and co-op locations in North Carolina.

I will try to maintain a list of Google maps under the Green Notes "links of interest" sidebar until I can create a permanent link on the goGreenTriad.com site. E-mail me with any updates or corrections to the maps as well as ideas for future Google maps.