“Know Your Non-Profits” Series, #3, Ecological Landscaping Associaton

Our third segment in the series “Know Your Non-Profits is by Penny Lewis, Executive Director of the Ecological Landscaping Association, www.ecolandscaping.org

Are you concerned about the quality of water in our watersheds, the health of the lawn your family and pets play on, the spread of invasive, exotic plants?

So are we – the Ecological Landscaping Association (ELA).

In 1992, a dedicated group of landscapers started looking for alternatives to traditional landscapes and traditional landscaping methods that relied on man-made chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. They were interested in biological diversity, healthy soils, native plant conservation, clean water, and reduced pesticide and fertilizer use. They learned how to build healthy, sustainable landscapes that nurtured the delicate balance between all types of life and the environment without the use of toxic chemicals that threatened the health of the landscape and its residents. They found others who shared their commitment to gathering and sharing information and formed ELA.

For nearly two decades, ELA’s commitment to improving the environmental impact of landscaping has continued and grown. ELA is a member-based non-profit whose membership continues to grow and includes landscaping professionals, community activists, estate managers, schools, golf courses, and home garden enthusiasts.  Alongside a growing membership, ELA’s educational programs have expanded and been instrumental in raising awareness of environmental issues.

Now, as ecological, sustainable, and organic landscaping becomes even more widely sought after, ELA remains the source for accurate, reliable information. The public’s heightened awareness of ecological landscaping and concerns for the environment have magnified interest in the ELA’s educational offerings such as the ELA Conference & Eco-Marketplace, Roundtable presentations, Eco-Tours, and free monthly newsletter. If you want to learn to develop healthy soils, maintain an ecological lawn, harness rainwater potential, understand climate change & tree stress, control invasive species, produce edible landscapes, and more, check out ELA’s calendar of upcoming events at www.ecolandscaping.org.

Our Mission: ELA advocates for environmentally responsible stewardship of land and natural resources in the landscaping and horticultural practices of professionals and the public. Through education, collaboration, and networking, ELA promotes the design, installation, and maintenance of landscapes that are guided by a knowledge of, and respect for, natural ecosystems.

Know Your Non-Profits Series- #2, Sustainable Business Leader Program

This week’s “Know Your Non-Profits” Blog piece is by Emily Kanter, Program Director of the Sustainable Business Leader Program, a program of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Boston.

Also, don’t miss SBLP and SBN-Boston Executive Director Laury Hammel’s  interview with NPR’s WBUR Host Robin Young at D2E on April 10th!

Small Businesses Bring in the Green

With mainstream media attention focused on Walmart’s “green” initiatives these past few months, there’s been little-to-no coverage of the efforts of small, independent businesses to become sustainable leaders.  These businesses, especially in Boston, make up the backbone of the communities we live in, and are the unsung heroes of the green movement.

23 Boston companies completed the SBLP assessment process and reduced their collective carbon footprint

Although it’s difficult for a small business to have a major impact on overall carbon emissions, their efforts can create a domino effect.  As of 2006 there were approximately 651,000 small businesses in Massachusetts.  Collectively, they have the power to affect significant environmental change by becoming more energy, waste and water efficient, and by demanding cleaner sources of energy.

The Sustainable Business Leader Program, founded in Boston in 2008, has worked with over 60 small businesses to green up their individual practices and promote those efforts to the public.

Harvard Bookstore has posted creative literary signage, encouraging employees to reduce their water consumption.

In Cambridge, MA, Harvard Bookstore offers Metro Pedal Power bike-delivery service to their customers, many of whom are students and professors purchasing heavy textbooks.  They also saved thousands of dollars on their energy bills by switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Economy Hardware and TAGS Hardware offer free-drop off points for used CFLs (which contain mercury) to residents and business owners.  In Boston, Boston Duck Tours rewired their massive garage so they can now light only the areas in which they are working.  Boston Building Materials Co-op sells competitively priced low-flow aerators to their customers, including Red Sun Press, with whom they print their marketing materials and stationary using low-VOC inks on recycled-content paper.

Small businesses in Greater Boston and around the country have begun to champion their sustainable efforts, and work collectively to support the tide of global change.

________

The Sustainable Business Leader Program meets the unique needs & challenges of local businesses in their pursuit to become more environmentally sustainable.

Through a 6 step process, this dynamic program takes a comprehensive and holistic approach to sustainability by addressing all of the practices of a business that impact our environment.  It assists participating companies in making changes in their business practices in the following areas:

1. Energy Efficiency
2. Water Conservation
3. Waste Management
4. Pollution Prevention & Safe Alternatives
5. Transportation
6. Sustainability Management

To become a Sustainable Business Leader contact Emily at emily@sustainablebusinessleader.org.

The Fishmonger in Cambridge is now working with Save That Stuff to compost more than 85% of their waste.

Tags: boston businesses, green business, local business, save that stuff, Sustainable Business Leader Program, Sustainable Business Network

Know Your Non-Profits Series, 1: Liveable Streets Alliance

Steve Miller, Board Member of the LiveableStreets Alliance is our first guest blogger for our series “Know Your Non-Profits” which introduces you to non-profits doing work in the Great Boston Area.

Creating a Sustainable Transportation System

Transportation shapes where and how we live, which shapes our life style options and consumption decisions. But for too long the overwhelming focus of transportation planning was solely on moving cars as fast as possible.  All other travel modes (transit, walking, bicycling, wheel chairs) and all other uses of the street space (socializing, shopping, playing, celebrating, and community building) were ignored.  As a result, our air has become polluted and noisy, our streets unfriendly and unsafe, our neighborhoods under-developed.

Sidewalks and streets are often the single largest physical asset owned by a municipality.  It is an enormous waste of limited tax money to reserve this huge asset solely for the use of cars.

In contrast, a livable street – including everything from the sidewalk to the roads and the buildings around them — has been structured around the needs of everyday human life.  It maximizes the opportunities for personal interaction, for accomplishing everyday tasks, for experiencing beauty and culture, for heath-promotion activity, for local shopping, for fun.

In five years, LivableStreets Alliance has helped change the nature of Massachusetts transportation advocacy – and many aspects of official transportation planning.  We worked with Boston to start the Hub On Wheels Bike Festival, which laid a foundation for the growing Boston Bikes program.  We’ve helped reform parking policies, road designs, and bike parking in nearby urban cities.  We sit on state-level advisory committees pushing for greater balance among travel “modes.” We combined public education with citizen activism.

Our publications (a weekly news summary and a monthly newsletter) and our monthly educational events are all free.  If you would like to learn more or get on our low-volume mailing list, please go to http://blog.livablestreets.info/

Tags: green living, liveable streets alliance, sustainable lifestyle

New Guest Blog Series – Know Your Non-Profits

Hi All,

Down:2:Earth is in just a few weeks (April 9-11!) and we’ve been hard at work making sure this event is the best it’s ever been. But we are also thinking about what happens after the conference is over, after all the exhibitors pack up and the speakers go home, what is left? Have we done our job if you go home without next steps and resources? We think not.

For that reason, we are introducing the “Know Your Non-Profits” Guest Blog Series. Each week, we’ll be introducing you to two to three non-profits doing work in the Greater Boston community. Your job is to connect with the organizations that resonate with you and then:

• Volunteer with them.
• Go to their events.
• Blog, tweet, facebook, email and talk to people about them.
• Post comments about them on this blog.

So many ways to make a difference. Let’s get started!

Tags: community, green boston, non-profits