As a reformed North Carolina loyalist, I recognize the ability to take amazing day trips as one of the amazing perks of this great state.  One example of the perfect day getaway is Pittsboro, which I took my dear friend Sara to visit while she last visited the Triangle.  It is a cheery gem of Chatham County thriving with personality and charm.

Oh, Pittsboro, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways:

1. Locally-owned storefronts.  I found tons of nutty antiques and second-hand stuff, like at Oldies But Goodies.  French Connections also amused us with tons of unique new items, much of which were unfortunately made in India or China.  These were just the beginning…
2. Local craftsmen and artisans.  Like Vespertine, an inspirational and happy store with an amazing woman (Ginna) who owns it, runs it, and creates products for it!  Sara bought the cutest glass sculpturette by Leslie Fesperman and Ginna from here!  Lots of locally-made herbal soaps, fun jewelry, unique stationary, and more live here too.
3. Quirk galore.  Pittsboro = quirk.
4. Cats in windows.  Sara and I loved the cat here!
5. Locally-grown foods and co-ops.  We grabbed a DELICIOUS lunch at Chatham Marketplace restaurant!  I have previously visited General Store Cafe as well, and highly recommend it.

If you are located in the Peidmont of NC, particularly central or so, consider taking a day trip to Pittsboro.  Be forewarned:  going mid-week insures that some of the great storefronts will be closed, so consider a Saturday for the full lineup.  Pittsboro is known as well for plenty of great festivals.  The residents and history are rich, the downtown quaint yet ahead of the game.

If you are on twitter, check out ChathamNC, ChathamMarket and the Pittsboro Convention Visitors Bureau too.

(Side note: please pardon the truly horrid cellphone pics. WHY did I not take real photos that day?!)

I should plan another trip to Pittsboro…

Until then, sustainably yours,

Ashley Sue

Our Pittsboro Cheat-Sheet:

Eating:

Chatham Marketplace, www.chathammarketplace.coop, 480 Hillsboro St, 919.542.2643

General Store Cafe, www.thegeneralstorecafe.com, 39 West St, 919.542.2432

Locally-made:

Vespertine, www.vespertinecafe.com or www.ginnae.etsy.com, 64 Hillsboro St, 919.356.6825

Joyful Jewel, www.joyfuljewel.com, 919.545.6836

Bizu, 18 E. Salisbury St, 919.545.9255

Quirky:

Unity Books & Stuff, www.unitybooksandstuff.com, 80 Hillsboro St, 919.545.0619

New Herizons Trading Company, www.newhorizonstrading.com, 52 Hillsboro St, 919.542.7366

Chatham Habitat for Humanity Home Stores, www.chathamhabitat.org, 467 West St, 919.542.0788

French Connections, www.french-nc.com, 178 Hillsboro St, 919.545.9296

Oldies But Goodies Collectibles, 106 Hillsboro St, 919.542.1126

Have a blast!

Not literal rockstars, but Larry’s Beans Coffee is pretty close to stardom, and they are a crown jewel in the Triangle’s hip and green market.  Yesterday,  I noticed a full-time job opening at Larry’s Beans as an Account Manager.

Larry’s Beans coffee is organic, fair trade, kosher and a plethora of other fantastic certifications.  The beans are roasted here, they have a cool bus, and their coffee is as awesome tasting as their names are fantastically whimsical. Seriously, who can pass up a cup of “El Salvador Dali”, “Bean Martin”, “Frank Sumatra”, or my favorites, the “3 Moon Peru” and their holiday blends.

These coffee addicts and self-proclaimed fair trade mavericks are one of my favorite coffee brands, period.  Add to that their sustainability school, and you can see why I love this company.

By now you should be sold on why this company would be great to work with, but just in case, look at the awesome Rock Star characters you would work with in this small, kickbutt company.

So, if you feel like you could get stoked to be a full-time ambassador of fair trade, sustainable company ethic and coffee, click here to get a better look at the job and how to apply.

Sustainably yours, Ashley Sue

My first day in the Wildlife Commission Hunter Safety Course started off rocky enough as I drove to class with a head full of preconceived notions.  Leaving later than intended and encountering a pile of unexpected traffic, I could clearly see walking into the class tardy:

The class would have maybe 15 participants.  All men except for me.  Middle-aged men and their 10 or 12-year-old sons.  All of them dressed in camouflage.  They would all stare as I tried to enter the room.  “Ooh, haughty vegetarian girl is too good for showing up on time,” they would say.  The instructor, a longtime gamesman and warden himself, decked head to toe in camo, would tell me not only was attendance mandatory but so is punctuality.  Then he would tell me I needed to leave.

This was the scenario in my head, at least.

Upon pulling up to Camp Kanata in Wake Forest, I eventually found the camp’s “mess hall” and a number of parked cars.  I prayed as I ran out of my car and to the doors that this was the right location.  I also prayed that because it was the first day, they would start at 630 instead of 6.

They had started at 5:50.

Instructor Wyatt Currin (more…)

Funny to think that a few years ago, Marc and I regularly gorged ourselves on spray-cheese-in-a-can and prepackaged dinner packs, but the more we learned about how food effects us and our environments, our food philosophy changed dramatically.  Now grocers such as Earth Fare and Whole Foods are in on their own food philosophies.

Marc and I spend seemingly exorbitant amounts of money on our food in comparison to our days eating dry, crumbly, cheap ingredient foods out of boxes, but now we eat not only for today but for a long, healthy life.  I knew with the weight-gaining of the last decade – and by looking at my family – the health problems I have lurking ahead if I do not eat better now.  Further, I really hope to have a child one day.  I have to consider more than what I food habits I want to share with that child, but I also have to consider what I consume today that affects my health and fertility and can affect my (albeit hypothetical) fetus.

I happily began supporting (more…)

The list of companies claiming natural and green efforts grows every day, and often, unfortunately, these companies have little to offer.  Two national companies, however, showing progress in their sustainability practices are Reynolds and Kerr Drug.

What do these two companies have to offer?

Reynolds finally caught on to recycled foil.  For an Earth Day promotion, they gave away coupons for a free roll of their 100% recycled aluminum foil.  I am partly excited by this because I do think Reynolds foil is often better quality than many off-brand foils.  Plus, Aluminum, which can be recycled countless times, is a great way to practice your Rs.  When you finish with using foil, you can recycle it or reuse it yourself.  No matter what, make sure you clean off the foil.  Any foil with residual grease and oil cannot be used by recycling facilities, and you certainly do not want to reuse sticky foil.

Kerr Drug, which I never thought I would be giving thumbs-up, sent a “Naturally Kerr” flier in the mail this week.  Claiming to carry “over 3,000 natural and organic products for a healthy lifestyle”, I opened the paper and gave it a look.

Honestly, I was thrilled to see how many legit products they stock.  From organic groceries such as sugar, Late July brand crackers, FEED granola, JASON and Avalon Organics toiletries, natracare tampons and organic cotton pads, Seventh Generation products, Amy’s Organics, gluten-free foods, vegan foods, and even Pirate’s Booty snacks (I wonder if they carry Tings), Naturally Kerr by Kerr Drug is setting a standard for what a chain pharmacy/store can provide for their communities.  Who knows where this chain can go and where they are headed!

If you have not noticed, I rarely give chains a shout-out, so this post is a big deal for me.  Naturally Kerr, which is located at Harvest Plaza, 9650 Strickland Road, Suite 105, Raleigh, and 1124 Patton Ave. in Asheville, even had an Earth Day celebration today.  They gave away free reusable tote bags filled with natural and organic goodies.  The store also had drawings for a free mountain bike, as well as gift certificates to my absolute favorite Raleigh restaurant Irregardless Cafe and Flying Biscuit (never been).  I love the local aspect of this.

So, Kerr and Reynolds, cheers.  Keep up the amazing progress and set even higher standards.  Ready, set, go!

Sustainably yours, Ashley Sue

In the quaint, beautiful North Carolina city of Durham, an incredibly inspirational couple lives off the grid in an effort to have The Carbon-Free Home.  This couple, the Hrens, released a book in 2008 named “The Carbon-Free Home”, which is a practical, easy-to-use guide for 36 different remodeling projects that will help you reduce your own carbon footprint.

Sunday, 17 May 2009, the Hren’s invite you to an OPEN HOUSE from 10am-4pm.  From edible landscaping from their housemates of Bountiful Backyards to their exciting renewable energy installations, you are guaranteed to walk away with fun, creative ideas on how you can save both the planet and your wallet!

What? You are questioning how legit these cats are and why you want to spend your Saturday at their house?  Simply check out all of the media coverage of the Hren’s book and lifestyle (including a full-hour radio interview on The State of Things, magazine coverage in Ode and Preservation magazines, and more).

Other sustainable ideas while in Durham:

Durham Farmers Market

Durham Central Market Coop Grocer

Guglhupf (a personal FAV locally-owned restaurant and bakery)

Eno River (BEAUTIFUL walking along the river)

…Waft the Eno, too! Boo on DPR… But Tree Camp is great too!

Make the trip, enjoy Durham, learn how to help the environment (and your wallet)!

Sustainably yours, Ashley Sue

230 W. Trinity Ave., Durham, NC 27701, corner of Trinity Ave. and North St., just north of downtown.

http://www.thecarbonfreehome.com/?q=node/31

People who care for the natural environment tend to embrace or reject many labels.  Greenies.  Environmentalists.  Conservationists.  Conservatives.  Liberals.  Hunters.  Vegetarians.  Gas guzzler.  Clean coal.  Wasteful.  Shop-a-holic.  Hybrid.  Republicans.  Just kidding about that last one, by the way, and feeding on the stereotype of a Treehugger.

Environmentalists are blamed by some for hating.  A lot.

Seriously, Google “Environmentalists hate”, which I did to see what kinds of words would pop up.  ”Solar”, “Grass”,  ”America”, “blacks”, “minorities”, “the poor”, and “humans” all make the list of who and what environmentalists seek to destroy.

Googling “anti-green” yielded interesting results, too.  As it turns out, a slew of webpages devoted either  to railing the environmental movement due to people feeling annoyed by “greenie” superiority complexes or to proving the environmental movement theories as we know it to be wrong.  A couple were just humor blogs… and some, I frankly could not tell how serious they were.  Just look here, here, here and here for a few examples of these sites.

My biggest issue, however, are those that are sustainability and conservation-minded basing each other.  The ends do not justify the means for many, and the semantics over how to achieve a healthy ecosystem create confusion, misunderstandings, and blatant failure of communication.

After all, when is the last time you heard a “vegetarian” speak nicely of a “hunter”, or vice versa?

I attended the Dixie Deer Classic ~ a hunting type of convention at the N.C. State Fairgrounds in Raleigh a couple weekends ago.  I brought a video camera because I wanted to ask some hunters to share their visions of conservation and environmentalism for my blog.

I realized, however, being approached by a vegetarian “greenie” with a video camera may be a little threatening and questionable.  So instead, I simply opted for conversation.

As it turns out, I spoke at great length with the Wake County Wildlife Club, and learned a lot.  I will be sharing, shortly, more regarding that conversation, some of the inspirations I gained from that weekend, and questions that arose for me.

Thus, I bring you a Green Grounded featurette ~ “Face of Sustainability”.  Starting this week, I will occasionally chronicle one person, one every day normal person, who in lengths great, small, or controversial, are environmentalists.

I look forward to bringing you this segment, and if you are in the Asheville or Raleigh area and would like to share your views, feel free to contact me.

Until then…

Sustainably yours,

Ashley Sue

After my quick post questioning Costco as being a blessing or a blight to the communities it serves, I intended to write on more general levels for follow-up posts.  Which will happen…

Then, however, Jo commented regarding a Costco proposal for New Brunswick.  The Costco in question could be destroying wetlands in order to bring forth their mega-store.  Many residents are rallying to defeat the giant from entering their community.  On the other side, some citizens support the expansion.  From the previously linked articles to a Facebook group regarding the controversy, comments show support both for and against Costco.  Philip Lee is chronicling the advances and debate within the community (like here, here and here).  The comments section from the Daily Gleaner article chronicles those that simply hate Costco, those that blindly love it, and those that think it will be good for their community, but not at that location.  Anywhich way, this is certainly of major concern for environmentalists.

It is hard to label a company as leading corporate America in sustainability if they build a gasoline bar in a wetlands lot.  On the contrary, perhaps that is a sign of corporate America… not perfect, but progressing.

Turns out, Costco alone seems to deserve a thorough look-over on Green Grounded.

To be fair, I am starting with support of Costco because I feel like positive is the natural start in a compare and contrast.  Maybe that is just me, but I am not apologizing for it.

The Good of Costco (through my perspective):

~ Rwanda’s President recently thanked Starbucks for using Rwandan coffee and boosting the farm community there.  Starbucks became involved with Rwandan coffee farms upon suggestion and coordination from Costco’s CEO Jim Sinegal.

~ Costco is a big fan of solar energy, both using and selling.

~ Costco CEO Jim Sinegal works to put transparency in his company.  Huge.  Pays their employees well with great benefits. Some stakeholders aren’t impressed.  Yet, Costco, unlike one of their major competitors, is known for taking good care of their staff, even encouraging “van pools” to reduce gas use and price-effect for employees.

~ Though most produce and florals are not local, many are still supporting great environmental causes.

~ Costco takes your unwanted electronics, and even pays for some, for recycling.

~ My personal joys:  they have many biodegradable soaps and products from great Triple-Bottom Line companies, they carry a large variety of hormone-and-antibiotic-free meats for Marc, they have organic juices and fairtrade chocolates I can get for gifts or for our home, and, yes, I like things being cheaper there… meaning…

~ Many people in the lower-rung of the middle-class are upon very difficult times.  People are out of jobs, people who have jobs are taking pay and benefit cuts, yet we still have to pay all of our bills and buy groceries and buy gas to get to work.  These are real issues, right now, for a growing sector of our society.

Now with the bad of Costco:

~ Mega-box chains do perpetuate suburban sprawl.  Lots of people still do not mind sprawl, but it is inherently bad for a community.  The chain is always more concerned with making money than protecting that individual community, meaning location choice can be quite damaging.  Such as with the Fredericton, New Brunswick case.

~ For every item Costco sells that is eco-friendly and sustainably-oriented, they also continue to sell “a totally unnecessary product with extraordinarily bad consequences”, such as air-in-a-can convenience office-cleaning product.

~ As with today’s greenwashing trends, Costco, like many other retailers, does carry some products that market themselves as “green” but are highly skeptic, if not disproved, by the environmental community.

~ Costco carries plastic bottled water.  I get it, people like their plastic-bottled water.  Regardless, it bites.

~ Costco carries a large number of “individually packaged” products.  Drinks bottles, cheezy poofella pouches, etc. for easy lunch-box packing or for mass crowds.  These items have their use, but that does not make them environmentally sound.

~ Even buying a major national pharmaceutical product there (like we do ~ as it is much cheaper) hurts a local business owner who you could be buying from.

Costco shopping round up:

Buying from the local coop, or even the local Earthfare / Wholefoods just is not a realistic option for many Americans right now.  I blew through money buying local organic fairtrade in 2008.  Some of those products came from Costco.  Now, Marc and I are really having to decide where and what we can buy.  Basically, we are having to decide on a case-by-case basis, every day, what our priorities are in accordance to what we can afford.  That is unfortunate and true.

I am not advocating throwing one’s hands up at spending more for local / organic / fairtrade, but we each have to find the balance we (individually) can afford with the reality of today.

Today, I heard a coworker saying he does not support Wholefoods because they carry produce from Chile.  While that environmentally is a valid energy concern, I feel we cannot hang Wholefoods’ Chilean produce as hypocritical to the green movement if we consumers are drinking coffee or tea in our daily routine.  Or consuming chocolate.  Those products are grown down the road.

I argue the answer lies in finding the balance.

If you can afford to buy only local / organic / fairtrade, kudos.  Further, advocating conscientious buying habits amidst your peers is always Rockstar.  Questioning corporations and demanding transparency, promoting progressive goals, and striving for triple bottom line standards is necessary.

Whether or not you can afford to buy only local /organic / fairtrade, considering our fellow humans, both those working on farms, and those living two blocks over, is the most important part of community.  My organic coffee helps workers not be exposed to poisons and gives them a decent wage to live on.  The fact that my in-laws (both jobless due to unavoidable circumstances) cannot afford to indulge in such things as $10 lb. coffee is also something I refuse to hold against them.  I do what I can, and they do what they can. 

…and what I “can do” is becoming increasingly less during this time of my life.

I, for one, will continue my Costco love/hate membership for a third year.

I will do my best with what they offer and what I can afford to buy elsewhere.

Sustainably yours,  Ashley Sue

In the world of sustainability, “buy local” is a big trend and catch-phrase.  I question, frequently, the balance we need in such a global economy where our local businesses are closing doors.

I moved from Raleigh, NC recently, to Asheville, NC (well… I’m trying to make the move, which requires finding the right job in WNC).  Raleigh is a glossy land of commercialism and capital, where chain stores and big-box rule the land.  

The Asheville Kingdom, on the contrary, is comprised of what feels like thousands of locally-owned independent stores to fill all our needs and whimsy.  From wigs to chocolates to fuels to clothing, lest us not forget the plethora of ethereal culinary delights, Asheville is ruled by the individual.  Chains are relegated to the outskirts of town and rarely do Ashevilleans patron such stores.

The truth is, however, I miss Costco.  I do not miss any other chains, at all, but Costco.  The giant mega-store mentality that Asheville rails against happens to be a great location for me to pick up affordable storage-quantity items like biodegradable dish soaps, and five pound bags of chicken for Marc.

Where’s the balance?  I’m sure I’ll write deeper on this topic shortly, but I wanted to through out here that Costco, as corporate and impersonal as they are, also leads in pushing “green” items into mainstream at prices that the everyday man can afford.  By the way, Asheville has plenty of people struggling to get by… further complicating the notion of what a community really needs to be supported.

*coming posts (working titles):  

When Independently-Owned Sells China

Is Cheap and Green Better Than No Green At All?

Series: Face of Sustainability

Sustainably yours, Ashley Sue

Granted, I assumed when The Real Yellow Pages publicized their going green campaign last year, they would have an incredibly difficult time abiding by their attempt to reduce waste.

The story goes, by heading over to yellowpagesgoesgreen.org, you can opt out of receiving the Yellow Pages at your doorstep.  I wrote about this a while back (and here too), and immediately signed up.

Imagine my disappointment when Marc and I walked up our stairs this weekend to find a plastic bag with The Real Yellow Pages sitting on our doormat.  So much for accuracy in the going green campaign.

I revisited the YellowPagesGoesGreen.org website to see what I could find out.  As it turns out, this page isn’t sponsored, operated, managed, or even affiliated with The Real Yellow Pages at all.  This site was created by a Missouri student, overwhelmed by his and his neighbors own piles of unsolicited phonebooks, who decided to create a site to educate the general public about the need to tell publishers to stop sending them.

Just above the fold of the page, the website says “OPT OUT and Stop the Delivery of Unsolicited Telephone Books” and below that, “We Will Notify the Publishers to Stop Sending Books”.

How exactly they “notify” the publishers, I cannot tell you.  That, actually, is explained as that the website group will send a list of names of people who do not want to receive the phone books anymore.

Really, however, the telephone book companies rely on printing massive amounts in order to ask advertisers to spend what they do on a paper ad.  ”Our telephone books reach X amount of households annually” sounds much better when pitching to get ad money than “well, we print a ton of books, most of which end up in dumpsters”.

So, if you go to YellowPagesGoesGreen.org, realize you are not ACTUALLY opting-out of anything, but think of it more as signing a petition that says you support an uncluttered, untrashed doorstep at your home.

Sustainably yours,

Ashley Sue