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Greensboro Beautiful will again hold an outdoor cleanup day as part of the annual North Carolina Big Sweep. This event takes place this year from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Sept. 19.

You can volunteer in one of two ways:
1. Find a stream, park, roadside, parking lot or an area in your neighborhood, near your school, office, or church that needs cleaning up.
2. Enlist the help of your neighbors to clean up the neighborhood. The City of Greensboro will provide assistance with equipment and other services to neighborhoods with the city of Greensboro. For large cleanup efforts, the City will provide trash trucks for bulk trash, yard waste and scrap tires.

Contact Gerry Alfano at 574-3547, or gerry.alfano@greensboro-nc.gov for more information.

The Triangle J Council of Governments, in partnership with the N.C. Solar Center and other organizations, has submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy (not Education as I mistyped before) a $39.1 million proposal for its Carolinas Blue Skies and Green Jobs initiative.

The funding would essentially help pay to expand the use of alternative fuels and advanced motor vehicle technologies in North Carolina and South Carolina. Anne Tazewell with the N.C. Solar Center explained the status of the grant application at a N.C. Mobile CARE meeting in Greensboro today.

Tazewell said the state expects the energy department to announce grantees in October. About $2.6 million of the grant would pay for Triad area projects, including: 

* 10 Toyota Prius hybrids in Guilford County;

* 2 compressed natural gas (CNG) trucks, one CNG refueling station and 10 hybrid vehicles for the city of Greensboro;

* 12 CNG vehicles and one CNG station in Eden; and

* 2 hybrid bucket trucks for Pike Electric.

People who want to learn more about the Solar Center's clean transportation program or how to get funding for alternative energy projects should check out this Web site.

Update: A ribbon-cutting will take place at Spartan Crossing on Monday at 4 p.m. at 700 Granite St. The developers will take non-traditional approach to it by planting rosemary and basil in the garden and cutting a recyclable newspaper chain instead of nylon ribbon.
 

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Spartan Crossing, one of the multiple apartment complexes popping up around UNCG, does not have the typical amenities of some of its student housing competitors: swimming pools, fitness centers and game rooms.

Instead, the new development boasts ENERGY STAR appliances, extended on-site recycling services and a community garden. Greensboro-based Emerson Partners is an example of businesses that are trying to practice environmental responsibility, but could easily fly under the radar because they don't carry LEED or other green building certifications.

"We think there's a responsibility to take care of the place you live," said Jay Robinson, one of the partners. "It's easy to be green when you're going to spend a lot of money. But how do you bring it down to the college or apartment level?"

Today, I took a brief tour of Spartan Crossing, where about 80 of the 116 bedrooms are pre-leased. It looks like a typical mid-market apartment complex (and the units even come with flat-screen TVs), but it has several notable features, including: 

* The use of low VOC paints and the installation of carpets made with recycled material;

* Aerators on all water faucets and low-flow fixtures to conserve water;

* Energy efficient windows and ENERGY STAR rated dishwashers, refrigerators, and clothes washers;

* Compact fluorescent lightbulbs in every unit (the maintenance staff safely disposes of them); and

* A Green Energy Challenge to encourage students to reduce energy and water consumption.

The developer also used locally sourced materials, donated three of the homes that were originally on the site to charities, and preserved a portion of the trees on the site. Robinson said the company waited too late in the process to pursue green building certification, but they did consult with a LEED-accredited professional and would likely have earned enough points. And all this was done within the original budget, he said.

"When you bring green to the general population -- Middle America -- that's when this stuff becomes successful," Robinson said.

Last week I tried to answer a reader's question about how to recycle or reuse prescription bottles for our "Ask a Reporter!" feature. Since then, readers submitted the names of two places that accept used medical bottles (clean and label-free):

* The Teacher Supply Warehouse in Guilford County (contact Cecilia Adams at 370-8355 or adamsc@gcsnc.com)

* Dignity Products, a durable medical equipment store in Winston-Salem. You can drop off the bottles at the store at 1409 Plaza West Road, Suite E, or at the Appearance Boutique on the second floor of the Outpatient Comprehensive Cancer Center at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. The bottles are sent to missions doctors who use them to prescribe medicines overseas.

I'll have details later, but just wanted to make local business owners aware of a survey that was released yesterday by the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce. The chamber is seeking input from local businesses on sustainability initiatives as part of a partnership with the new Sustainable Greensboro.

You can hear more about Sustainable Greensboro's short-term goals and the chamber's role at a community meeting to be held at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Proximity Hotel.

Forsyth residents can help the county earn some cash by participating in two national challenges that aim to reduce energy consumption.

The county is participating in the National Association of Counties' green county competition that runs from July 1 to Nov. 30. The first challenge asks residents and county employees to save energy at home and the second focuses on reducing automobile gasoline use. The participating counties are eligible for a $5,000 grant from Walmart and a $3,500 grant from AutoZone. 

Forsyth construction manager Gary Key said the county would allocate any winnings to its energy management fund, which has a budget of about $5,000. Key said the county has done several things over the past year to save energy, including installing a program in the spring that electronically raises the temperatures in buildings at night and on weekends during the warmer months. He estimated that the government center on Chestnut Street would save $80,000 a year in energy costs using the technology; the public health and social services buildings are getting the technology this summer.

Those of you interested in the push for local food systems (as expressed in urban farms, community gardens, CSAs, etc.) should read this analysis by a British nonprofit that has been promoting sustainable agriculture for years. You can find the East Anglia Food Link report, "Limitations of a Provenance Approach to Local Foods," here.  

I have been reporting on the growing interest in local food systems over the past few months and was glad to read about the hard lessons and experiences of this group; I believe this Western (albeit non-American) perspective could be useful to those pushing for such a system here. 

From the report: 

"In short, there is a danger that, by focusing the concept of local food on the very particular issue of “local provenance”, we commodify local food. This makes it easy for the supermarkets, agribusiness and the big food manufacturers to appropriate and MacDonaldise local food and to convince consumers that they can deliver it.  In doing so we betray other, equally important agendas including the craft/relationship agenda and the diversity agenda discussed above.

"This betrayal will be all the more pointless if the other points made in this paper turn out to the true: that local provenance turns out to be at best relatively unimportant, and at worst potentially negative, in terms of environmental sustainability. If there are times when an emphasis on local provenance is actually normal">in opposition to other agendas like diversity or craft/relationship (i.e. when local provenance is being appropriated by “big food”), then environmental sustainability is just about the only argument left for it. If that argument too is open to challenge, we have a problem."

Paul Thompson, a Minnesota resident and renewable energy advocate is touring the country this summer to engage community members, local government staff, and elected officials in conversations about local climate action work. He will make a stop in Winston-Salem this Wednesday.

Thompson is a Peace Corps volunteer, the founder of Cool Planet (no Web site yet) non-profit in his community, and a commissioner with the Edina Energy and Environment Commission in Minnesota. I spoke to Thompson today and he said his main goals are to network with concerned citizens, build awareness about the proposed American Clean Energy and Security Act, and motivate them to organize local events as part of 350.org's International Day of Climate Action on Oct. 24.

Please contact Paul directly by e-mail at ptflydisc@aol.com or by phone at 612-363-9115 if you would like to meet with him while he’s in Winston-Salem. He will be at the Panera Bread at 2209 Cloverdale Ave. from 5-7 p.m.

The community college says it will convert a portion of a wetland on campus to native vegetation as part of its green instructional efforts. 

The field on the southwest end of the campus is a floodplain that borders the Haw River. Its status as a wetland results from water runoff by the rest of the campus. Closer to the river, a natural dip occurs at the tree line where drainage collects.

Faculty and students in the horticulture technology and biology departments will plant shrubs, grasses, and possibly native wetland tree saplings acquired from the U.S. Forest Service on a portion of that site, according to a statement by the college. The project would involve some maintenance for the first couple years.

“We haven’t had a moist vegetation area on campus,” Daniel Sigmon, biology instructor. “This would establish that. It will show our students what a restored wetland area looks like.”

The college's new Sustainable Technologies "Green" program will utilize another portion of the field to teach the use of solar and wind energy.

Sustainable Greensboro will hold a community meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 22, in the Weaver Room of Proximity Hotel. Background here.

From founder Brian Higgins: 

"The goals of this new organization are important and the time to start taking action to meet these goals is now. We all have a role to play in pushing Greensboro, its leaders, its institutions, businesses, residents, and ourselves towards sustainability. Together we can accomplish much and we are eager and excited to get down to work. Come help shape the future of our organization, the future of your neighborhood, and the future of Greensboro.

"We will be unveiling the results of our initial strategic planning session, sharing our short-term priorities, and outlining ways in which you can help. This meeting will also be your first opportunity to become a member of Sustainable Greensboro so that you can help support our work."