by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

I spent last weekend at the bi-annual Shakori Hills Music Festival in Silk Hope, NC. This a beautiful piece of forest and fields which hosts a green-style, grassroots event that once experienced, captures your heart and soul. At times like this, I’m reminded just how much Music Matters – it brings us together and it spreads positive and passionate energy like wildfire.

Four music stages, a dance tent and an almost never-ending drum circle around a bonfire at Shakori provides all styles of musical magic. A young local group, The Beast, highlighted Saturday afternoon with their Hip Hop, soulful jazz. The band has been described as “beautifully rebellious and refreshingly conscious.” The lead singer, Pierce Freelon, brought down the house with his heartfelt lyrics and tribute to his mom, grammy-winning Jazz vocalist, Nnenna Freelon, who came up on stage to sing with her son, finishing with a moving bearhug between the two. In fact, it didn’t finish – the audience pounded the stage for an encore.

Saturday night brought the “old time” sound of Donna the Buffalo, as well as one of my favorites, an electrified blues rock group called Scatterbones, which rocked me into a second wind that I used later to drum into the night. In fact, sleep was not a top priority once the stars were out and it’s probably not an accident that the dance tent is next to the Coffee Barn, serving up Fair Trade and Organic Larry’s Beans coffee, “25 hours/day”.

This festival is also a model of mixing fun with green-ness. All food vendors are required to compost and recycle, a portion of the lightlighting was solar powered and a bio-deisel bus brought people in from stops all throughout the Triangle for 4 bucks/ride.

Why does music matter? Because it has the ability to bring us deeper into ourselves, beneath the layer of conformity and apathy. Because music carries messages, subtle and otherwise that can plant the seeds of Change.

More and more musicians are gaining green creds, from Radiohead to Black-eyed Peas, an inspiring part of our collective journey. Go to IdealBite to download a playlist by the artists doing right by the planet.

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

It’s officially Earth Day – year 39 and counting. Have we become more aware of saving the Earth? I think so. Has naming a day for the earth helped or hurt the cause? I’m not sure. It’s possible that designating one day for the earth has had a placebo effect. If it’s a national holiday, that means somebody is out there taking care of things, right….? Take a look at Earth Day History from Grist.org and see what you think.

In fact, in the early years, Earth Day events were a little like the debate over LiveEarth – a lot of trash and carbon for a little awareness and fun. Even just a few years back, Whole Foods decorated the stores and handed out lots of plastic party favors in the form of balloons and buttons, all in the name of the Earth. Fortunately, most events now have a handle on compostables, recyclables and offsets but as the writer, Jennifer Oladipo points out here, the Earth Day impact may have lost its luster.

However, Earth Day is a miracle marketing tool for green zines and green goods, so if you have been thinking about finally getting those CFLs, a composting bin, or LEDs, now’s the time to browse sites like RealGoods.com, who is offering 20% off popular items.

This Earth Day celebrates more green orgs and efforts than I can keep up with, so I’ll tip my party hat to that. Al Gore had a hand in starting it all and he’s still at it with WeCanSolveIt.org and RePowerAmerica, where he says, “In order to solve the climate crisis, we can’t just change light bulbs — we need to change laws.” Let’s think bigger than balloons, so we will really have something to sing about. Happy Earth Days. Tao

Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. Buying used lessens the impact on our resources and environment. The site is super user-friendly, with over 30 lists and categories, including, Green Festival Books, Oprah’s Book Club, Todays Top 20 and Best-selling Fiction and Non-Fiction. You can also browse the Bargain Bin, where you can get 5 used books for $15. Here’s part of the story from their really comprehensive web site:

We were founded in 2002 by three friends from the University of Notre Dame who started selling textbooks online to earn some money, and ended up forming a pioneering social enterprise — a business with a mission to promote literacy.

We’re not a traditional company with an add-on “cause” component. Social and environmental responsibility is at the core of our business. You could say it’s in our DNA.

We’re breaking new ground in online bookselling. We believe that education and access to books are basic human rights. That’s why books sold on BetterWorldBooks.com help fund high-impact literacy projects in the United States and around the world.

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

I came across another list of tips for going green at home. I love lists since they help my brain keep things present. I know some people disagree, but the “list” actually helps free up space in my head, offering assurance that I won’t forget things. So, instead of thinking about my to-dos 100 times per day, I can think of them once or twice, when I look at my list.

Anyway, list person or not, you have to appreciate Green Lists – I always read them because they help me see what I may have missed – one more  thing I can do – or not do – to simplify my life, feel healthier and/or green my daily habits. I came across this list offered up by Millie Barnes at OptimumNutrition.com, who manages to have a really clean, green life at home as a working single mom.

Then I came to step # 7. “Used cloth diapers for all 5 kids.” Impressive, but hey, wait a minute. 5 kids? I think she missed a step on the socially responsible way to be green on our crowded planet. That’s still a lot of diapers, washed in a lot of water, using a lot of detergent and that’s just where the consuming begins when it comes to raising five children, who become five adults in five homes of their own, with five cars of their own, with kids of their own, and so on.

Let me be clear. I’m not anti-kids. I am anti-”have-as-many-as-you-want-despite-the-fact-that-we-are-outnumbering-our-capacity-and-that-there-are-many-children-who-need-foster-and-adoptive-parents”. Steven Kotler, author of West of Jesus: Surfing, Science and the Origins of Belief, says it a lot better than this on PsychologyToday.com.

Want a chip off the ol’ block experience? That’s inevitable and a beautiful plan of nature. So, do your biological thing – after all, those little green footprints are adorable – and then, if you want more, consider the alternatives.

Still, I read the rest of the list and learned something new about composting. It’s a good list by a motivational and inspirational person. Take a look.

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

Many students studying sustainability come for tours here in my co-housing community. Ashley visited and interviewed me for a school project yesterday and her biggest questions concerned why I’m here. The answer that sums it up for me is that this kind of modern commune living is truly and realistically, the best of both worlds. Her next question was, just how does this work? And my short answer on that is simply, by sharing.

This seems so logical to me that I got especially excited when I heard about WannaStartACommune.com, a project sharing these positive and simple concepts, applicable not just to planned “intentional” communities, but to existing neighborhoods of all kinds. Whatever you know or don’t know about communal living, if you’re taking a second look at your environmental or economic lifestyle, it sounds irresistible, doesn’t it?

Stephanie Smith is a Harvard-trained architect and social designer, who launched this project at the end of last year. Back in 2003, she started a green design lab in Joshua Tree, CA, calling it Ecoshack, a design firm focused on low-impact design, mass production and alternative forms of community.

Her project, WannaStartACommune is a plan that allows neighbors to commune as a way to share resources, grow food together, share transportation, even get off the grid, and, perhaps most importantly, manage the stressful economic time in a productive and communal way. “Every single neighborhood in America and around the world is a commune,” Ecoshack’s Smith says. “And every single apartment building is, and every office building is, and every single thing is built new using guidelines around sharing resources. Nothing less than that.”

VIsit the site for a look at the complete “Tools for Commune Starters” 24 page document, including:

Using a few simple tools you can start sharing with your neighbors, friends or co-workers today. You’ll save time and money, connect more deeply with those around you, and do right by the planet.

– ‘Getting Started’ Checklist
– ‘What’s in a Commune?’ Resource-sharing Guide
– Potluck & Workshop Planning Tools
– Simple Organizational Documents
– Technology Tips to help you manage and grow your commune

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

No matter what you want to say about the Govenator, Arnold, I have a thing for the guy and his good green creds. Although Van Jones, author of “The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems”, deserves the credit for the big idea, Arnold has put an initiative and program into motion which will begin to redefine the American workforce and revive the economy. The California Green Corps program will be “a statewide effort to train young adults between 16 and 24 years old to work in the state’s fledgling green-tech industry.”

Funded by both Federal money and the private sector, the 20-month pilot program will be in at least 10 locations throughout the state. The training will include certifications in solar installation and wind turbine manufacturing. Mr. Jones is right, this plan can be a viable solution to both rising energy costs, environmental pollution, and the declining job market. (Though what about a training program for all ages!?)

Are you salivating over a new green job but don’t live in CA, or happen to be over age 24? Get some green career coaching over at BrightGreenTalent.com. Here you can receive advice on what job is right for you, how to network, what’s available now, what training and education you may need and where to get it, and help with your resume. Phone sessions are 30 or 60 minutes at a reasonable cost of $57 or $97.

What are the Ten Best Jobs for the Next Decade? Fast Company gives you this list:

Farmer, Forester, Solar Power Installer, Energy Efficiency Builder (way beyond LEED), Wind Turbine Fabrication, Conservation Biologist, Green MBA/Entrepreneur, Recycler, Sustainability Systems Developer, and Urban Planner. Go here for more details.

[Photo by Hardy Wilson, The Chronicle]

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

Nearly a century ago, President Teddy Roosevelt asked this important question: whether “civilized people ought to know how to dispose of the sewage in some other way than putting it into the drinking water.” Unfortunately, we have yet to ask – let alone answer – this question since then. Sewage treatment guzzles energy, uses a shitload (pun intended) of drinking water. The problem is compounded by old sewer systems not equipped to handle waste from a population which, in some cities, has doubled since the system was built, sending excess sewage-polluted water into the nearest river daily, all according to this op-ed by Rose George, author of, “The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters.”

When these concentrated nutrients are dumped in waterways and oceans, they seriously disrupt fragile ecosystems. Sewage discharge causes “dead zones” in oceans and waterways, depleting food supply, harming wildlife and making people sick. And “sick people” send our health-care costs soaring, complicating another component of social well-being.

Flush toilets were, of course, greatly welcomed and considered a sign of a successful, “civilized” society. Like the garbage trucks that consistently appear at your curb to take away what we so casually and consistently “throw away”, the flush toilet feeds the illusion that anything going down the toilet “disappears”, whether it is human waste, prescription drugs or trash (my neighbor once flushed a live mouse to “get rid” of it!?!)

Yet, sewage contains nutrients which can be used as a valuable fertilizer. Urine, in particular, contains many fertile nutrients, such as phosphate and nitrogen, and hardly any of the pathogens of excrement. Systems of urine separation (called urine-diversion) can greatly decrease energy use of sewage systems as well as replace a finite reserve of virgin phosphates used in agriculture which are otherwise collected from a finite supply in the ground. Urine diversion also makes for richer sludge and produces more methane, which can be turned into gas or electricity, “turning a :guzzler of energy into a net producer”, says Jac Wilsenach, a researcher and civil engineer, quoted in the NY Times recent Op-ed, “Yellow is the New Green”

In the meantime, most of us are stuck with a flushing system. What can we do while we wait for change? I’ve already posted on this topic a couple times – Flush less, Pee on the Earth, consider the savings of a low-flush toilet or consider a composting version.

Q and A with Rose George, here.

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

Why do creative people create? Of course, we are all creative and eventually discover the ways we can express our gifts. But some people just can’t stop and it’s a beautiful thing to behold! My co-housing neighbor, Giles Blunden, is one of these people.

His comfortably compact, 800sqft home is a work of wabi-sabi art always in progress. He lives off-grid on solar power with an outdoor shower and has an underground cistern holding thousands of gallons of rainwater captured from the roof. He has no grass lawn, but instead, an artistic array of stones, branch sculptures and wildflowers surrounding the house. He rides a bicycle to work each day, some rainy/windy days with a DIY “windshield” attached, and sometimes accompanied by his wife on what I call the “Green Machine” – a double seater that he has rigged as a extra comfy bicycle built for two.

Recently, our community lost some of our chickens to predators, so we’ve been reluctant to restart a brood, wanting them to have both safety and room to roam. Giles came to the rescue, immediately putting his creative mind to work – you can usually see it on his quietly smiling face. The result is this “Chicken Chapel” – made from fallen branches and soon to be enclosed with a comfy indoor coop inside. It just makes you smile, doesn’t it? (His house is in background, in photo below, on right.)

I consider myself darn lucky to be next to such an inspired, purposeful creator and his work. It’s helping me understand that quote that says, “The opposite of war is not peace, it’s creativity.”

Giles Blunden is a sustainable architect. You can visit his web site at

BlundenStudio.com