While visiting Minneapolis and enjoying another local lunch at the neighborhood food co-op, I saw this poster (to the left). It sounded like a great idea - an invitation to view the important and timely Green documentaries with your neighbors, for free! I’d heard of, but had not yet seen these films - End of Suburbia, The Power of Community and Oil on Ice. The name of the contact site, “Coffee Table Productions”, further intrigued me, so I took a look online and then contacted Deb and Doug Pierce, the minds behind this master plan - and around a coffee table.

Deb and Doug, both full-time professionals, have been growing progressive and sustainable ideas into working groups and community events - usually while sitting around a coffee table - for years. Doug is a licensed architect and sustainable design planner with Perkins & Will of Minneapolis, while Deb is an award-winning, published illustrator and graphic designer. Deb found time between their jobs and community efforts to speak with me about Coffee Table Productions. Read on.

Tao: What inspired you to take on environmental and social issues on a grassroots level?

DP: We each grew up in small towns where we could see firsthand the impact an individual or small group could have on a community. It gave us an understanding of the connection we all have with each other and the earth. We each became activists in college and over the years found that advocating for sustainability is a natural tendency, like caring for one’s family.

Tao: In your experience, what most motivates people to “be the change”?

DP: The personal connection with the issue, and believing they can do something that matters. Being able to engage in an authentic message delivered with love, respect and compassion.

Tao: You are currently spearheading an eco-film series in your community.  Why are these films important? Do these films reach the right audience or simply “preach to the choir”?

DP: The films are an excellent source of information and invite dialog. Even informed persons can benefit—we can’t know it all. “Preaching to the choir” isn’t  necessarily a bad thing. Even if those who attend our events are active and/or informed on current issues, my experience has been that they are grateful to see others like themselves. Not only can they teach each other, if they know they are not alone, they can feel more empowered in their work towards creating solutions for all.

Tao: If someone is interested in organizing their own community to take action for environmental and/or social issues, what advice would you give them?

DP: There are many things to consider, but the 3 things I think of immediately are: 1) Begin by focusing on a specific issue or event so you have a common goal and a good place to put your energy. As you grow, you can branch-out into other areas. 2) Know that one cannot separate environmental, social and economic issues, they are intertwined/connected. 3) ALWAYS make time to thank each other and those who have helped you in your efforts. HAVE FUN, the spirit must be nurtured to stay healthy and strong!

There you have it - local activism can begin with “waking up” over a cup of coffee with friends and end with a lot more than a caffeine buzz.

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

We are always searching for creative outlets - through our meals, our clothes, our hobbies and artistic endeavors. It’s human nature to nourish the innate creative force.  Little do we know, our convenient lifestyles have taken much of our every day creative opportunities away from us.  We’ve turned from tribal communities to masses without meaning.

In the midst of my eco-anxiety, I try to remind myself that the environmental and social problems we are facing  are also opportunities for creative change. It’s a familiar theme in nature, philosophy and even science - destruction before creation, death and rebirth, dwell in possibility, you know what they say - the opposite of war is not peace, it’s creativity…

We can open the many doors that are becoming available to us or we can sit on our butts and look out the windows. I’ve always been a door kind of person - and there is an abundance showing up now. Open them. Take a long, creative look and step through.

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

As it usually happens, if you spend time thinking about something and you’ll soon hear more about it. This hotel business has me thinking a lot about the difference between convenience and luxury. And, if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that luxury is not only wasteful, but greatly overrated.

I’m grateful for a way of life which allows me considerable convenience, but too much of a good thing simply makes many of us lazy, bored, neurotic and unhealthy. Electrical appliances and oil-dependent machines take over what was once, all in a day’s work. The consumer products “as seen on tv”, individually wrapped anything - and even things like yoga mat bags - baffle me. I don’t even have to mention the mess “convenient” paper cups and plastic bags has gotten us into.

But, back to hotels. Convenience which crosses a certain boundary becomes a luxury - something we can enjoy, but need to be wary of. Often, as a consumer, I feel ridiculously pampered. Luxury hotels (as well as restaurants and stores) pander to our desires to elevate our fragile egos to royal proportions and we buy into it - literally and figuratively. This is all part of what has made the process of hotel-greening a slow and resistant one, according to an article I found yesterday in Mother Jones magazine.

Despite my excitement over the Kimpton chain’s commitment to social and environmental practices, it turns out that it’s still only a fraction of this industry which actively engage in the process of becoming more sustainable - and, as reported by Kimberly Lisagor, Kimpton is the only chain using non-toxic cleaning supplies. Even more shocking, it turns out that the energy cost of an average single hotel room is $2,196 per year - equal to the energy use of an average American household for the same period.

Bottom line? It’s up to us (as consumers) to ask for what we want and then be willing to get out of the lap of luxury. The Green Hotel Association recommends that travelers can and should demand green services, helping dispell the myth that standards set by an excess of amenities. Call ahead to request nontoxic cleaning products, BYO toiletries (shampoo/body bars are airline friendly), turn off the AC, heat, lights and other appliances, avoid maid service, use less water and linens.

The biggest difference you can make is to travel less when possible and opt for the “staycation” otherwise. And when you really gotta/wanna hit the road, check the links below for B&Bs, hostels and earth-friendly hotels and enjoy the “luxury” of greener travel.

For lists and reviews of greener accommodations, visit GreenHotels.com, EcoTourism.org and ItsaGreenGreenWorld.com.

Off-grid living is part of our future evolution. There are as many reasons to do it as their are ways to do it. Most involve a desire to live more simply, more authentically and more sustainably. My friends, Jeannie and Michael, have recently embarked upon their own off-grid journey in a camper. Jeannie is going to share some of her experience here, on Tao of Change - posted each Sunday for the Summer. Tune in and share the adventure each week. Jeannie’s introductory entry below:

From Jeannie:

Michael and I decided to camp for the summer outside of Crested Butte, CO (~9000 ft elevation) in a 14.5 foot ‘57 camper that we purchased, that’s right, on Craigslist. Michael knows a lot about remodeling, so he was able to perform all kinds of electrical and interior maintenance on our little summer home. We painted & fixed her up and now it’s time to live the dream.  We decided on this course of action for several reasons including, but not limited to:

we are tree huggers and we love to run around in the woods
mountains impress us
we are experimenting with reducing our impact
we are attempting to be mindful about what we use / waste
we are re-defining materialism & consumption for ourselves
we want to save $$ for skiing this winter

Our disclaimer is that we are not self-proclaimed environmentalists and we apologize for faux-pas we may commit.  Suggestions are welcome!

Entry 1:
Michael and I finally found a camping spot - Cement Creek, just south of Crested Butte (right out of CB South) and have been out in the camper the last couple of days.  It is super cozy, but it snowed all day today so we came in to town because we had a little bit of cabin fever (camper fever.)  Really, we wanted to hit up Thomas’ hot tub!  It’s warm and comfortable living in the camper, though, and we really like it.  We’ve been hiking and biking around a lot, and making food in the original 1957 camper oven / stove.  Michael is killing me with some of the hikes we’ve done!  Everything around is beautiful though, hiking or not.  When more of the snow around town melts, we will camp closer in, and we’ll be a 20-minute bike ride from town, which means we can keep our dirty little wheels off the road and those gas dollars in our pockets.

Crested Butte is a really cool town where people are ALWAYS outside - biking, hiking, paddling, etc.  It has a very young, but rustic and old-timey feel.  Many of the people here are very friendly and will talk to strangers, which is always cool.

And so the adventure begins..

By Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

Jerry, the Change founder, attends/speaks at a Green Fest each year. He could attend more, but instead tries to choose a new location each time. Sticky green business , this travel thing. While most companies can significantly reduce the frequency of employee travel through tele-communicating, web-casts and other tech-savvy alternatives to moving people about the world via airplanes, grounding the workforce completely is simply not an option.

But we can work our way through this enviro-issue with some discipline, planning (and offsetting!), as well as watching the size of our footprints once we’ve landed. So, after offsetting the flight, The Change made reservations at a hotel that has raised the bar regarding social and environmental responsibility.

Kimpton Hotels has developed Kimpton EarthCare, “uniting guests, employees, partners, and suppliers with one common goal - to decrease the use of Earth’s resources and increase sustainable business practices.” Their earth and people-friendly commitments include but are not limited to, the use of non-toxic and natural cleaners, energy and water efficiency systems and policies, organic and fair trade coffee service, recycled paper printed with soy inks, linen reuse, formalized recycling programs and on-property “Best Practices” contests for employees.

And it doesn’t stop there. Kimpton also mentors employees to be socially responsible through grassroots philanthropy, offering paid time-off to volunteer and make active contributions to the community. Kimpton Hotels also raises funds, makes contributions and holds events for the AIDS Red Ribbon Campaign, Parks for People, and other charitable organizations. Kimpton and their employees are also very active in and support the LGBT communities.

Here’s what Jerry had to say about his stay at one of the Kimpton Hotels in Chicago -

“Typically, at hotels, you can feel the commerce everywhere. Every time you make a decision regarding your comfort, pleasure or other travel needs, you can usually sense the billing mechanisms grinding away behind it. Entering The Hotel Burnham felt like an alternative world. The atmosphere was elegant but real, not calculated to look ritzy. It was what it was - and it was beautiful.

But the best part was the people who worked there. Every interaction, whether with the front desk, room service or others, was a genuine, enjoyable human experience. In every case, I felt like a guest, not a customer. These qualities, coupled with Kimpton’s corporate conscience, made me never want to stay elsewhere. Sorry to be so effusive, but - the truth is your best tool.”

For other green accomodations throughout the world, visit Itsagreengreenworld.com, a global listing of green and eco-friendly hospitality destinations of all kinds. They believe that travellers should actively benefit the places they visit, supporting those who provide sustainable services and accommodations. Read and subscribe to their newsletter here.

I’m outing myself today. I’m Tao and I don’t pee in my toilet.

Ahh. I feel better already - and encouraged by the increasing acceptance of visibility (figuratively speaking) of people who distribute pee outdoors rather flushing it away along with gallons of purified water. With drought increasing in frequency and intensity around the world, people are saving water in every way and beginning to understand the logic of recycling this nutrient-rich “liquid gold” back into the soil.

For me, it all started in the NC drought of 2001, when the idea of flushing away gallons of water with a little clean urine suddenly seemed ridiculous. “Letting it mellow” just wasn’t cutting it anymore, especially when bathroom odor became an issue. I knew about composting toilets, which actually turn waste in rich soil supplements, but alas and alack, they are not yet implemented into the urban system. Instead, I piled some sawdust in my backyard and started my own odor-free, compost pile, which I distributed around my yard over time and refreshed occasionally with new dust. These days I simply dilute and pour around my trees and plants All it takes is a user-friendly pitcher kept in the loo and a stroll to the garden after use.

Emma Cooper of HowToDoThings.com provides details about using urine in the garden. In diluted form, it nourishes all plant life and used straight-up, can effectively and safely eliminate weeds. As she puts it, “…it’s not a backward step, it’s space-age technology…” Read the complete article here.

Carol Steinfeld, writer, researcher, and resource-recycling specialist is the author of Liquid Gold, The Lore adn Logic of Using Urine to Grow Plants. Educated in ecological resource management solutions, she leads workshops worldwide and is projects director of Ecowaters, a nonprofit public information project. Mark your calendar - from the website:

Pee On Earth Day(s) announced

Pee On Earth Day, a day to bring one’s urine outside to nourish plants and save water used to flush toilets, will be June 21 in the northern hemisphere (Dec. 21 in the southern hemisphere). A free downloadable kit with tips for safe outdoor urine application will be available on the Liquid Gold web site soon!

by Tao Oliveto

By now, we’ve all heard about the many benefits of a consistent yoga practice - calmer mind, healthier organs, detoxification, better digestion and sleep, balanced nervous and hormonal system, muscle flexibility and strength, stronger core, back and joints. And I can tell you from both my practice and teaching experience, that all this can be realized through regular practice of a reputable system of yoga.

But, can yoga really make life easier? Well, yes and no. Obviously, all of the above things can make you fell a heckuva lot better than the average, non-yoga person. Still, yoga cannot make the outside problems and harsh realities of life vanish. So, while yoga does not make life easier, it does make you easier with life. “Through a regular yoga practice, we become less hindered by our past and less invested in our fantasies”, says Donna Farhi, one of America’s most respected yoga teachers and author. Practice gives you direct access to an inner place of grounding and presence which can allow us to stop feeling overwhelmed by thoughts and emotions stirred up by daily events and relationships. In this space of stillness, we can find more acceptance and listen to the messages and wisdom that come from the mind and heart working together.

Now that we have our sh** together, what about the world “out there”? It is difficult not to experience periods of hopelessness in the midst of the world’s suffering and uncertainty. Yet, be hopeful we must, as well as find the things that we can do to be part of world change in both small and large ways. Ultimately, more people finding hope and peace will have an effect on the world. So, just how do we get there? Here’s some ideas:

1. Have hope about the future even while accepting uncertainty. Share that hope in some way each day. Discover valid reasons why we can expect good things to happen and tell others.

2. Develop your awareness. Live with continually increasing openness and sensitivity towards others, the earth, animals and yourself.

3. Do a lifestyle check. What are the consequences of the way you live and consume natural resources? What could you, your workplace, your business, be doing differently?

4. Contribute to a cause outside yourself. We have a big job ahead of us and it will take everyone to get it done. Resist the temptation to sit back and wait. Become pro-active in your life and community.

5. Stay informed (but not always from television news). Turn to less sensational news sources, read and talk to others.

5. Send out positive, life-changing energy. Choose a mantra or a prayer of your own and repeat it to yourself several times a day.

6. Smile and breathe.It’s o.k. to find a happy, peaceful place inside yourself. Go there to heal and restore when you need to. Laugh, entertain each other and have some fun. The people around you will benefit and you will be able to accomplish more.

7. Keep practicing yoga daily. It makes all the above possible.

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

I was on my bike the other day, enjoying the long-awaited green grass and flowers of Spring. Many people in Carrboro resist the urge to chop  and manicure, leaving wild grasses, clover and wildflowers to adorn their yards and provide nourishment for all things that creep, fly and buzz. Yesterday, I saw this sign along one of the public easements, which was in full Spring bloom, asking, “Please do not mow”. I realized they were asking the town to consider the value of the wabi sabi of nature along roadsides instead of mowing it down. I stood looking at the tall grass waving in the breeze and hoped it would work - at least for awhile.

I lived in Phoenix for a short time and admired the ingenuity of the of the homeowners who covered their woud-be lawns with green gravel - a logical solution to living in arid climate never meant to grow green grass. (Unfortunately, much of the Southwest hasn’t figured this out, yet, still using mega-doses of water and fertilizers.) It made me realize that we can quench our desire for order and beauty in many creative ways without messing with nature’s master plan AND without spending endless days applying chemicals, pulling weeds, watering or mowing.

Here’s are some photos from my neighborhood. The first is my backyard, covered with mulch, gravel and a little ground cover. I pull thistle weeds twice/year but otherwise it is maintenance-free. Our only expense was pouring some white gravel in a circle - we think of it as a labryinth. The others belong to neighbors, one who enjoys making rock and wood sculptures and another who lets the wildflowers rule. The possibilities are endlessly artistic, better for the planet, less work and more fun.