Beth's Meanderings

Each August, I have the pleasure of getting my nephew for a week of vacation. This year, it was the truly the great American road trip to the Grand Canyon with Granddaddy George.

Georgia Power recently released a new solar energy program to replace its Green Energy program which it retired in late 2016.

This week has been another tragic week for America. The recent shootings of innocent citizens in Louisiana and Minnesota followed by the terrifyingly, violent, rampage in Dallas have broken so many hearts.

No one seems to think about the cost anymore except taxpayers and people who have to think about the costs

As we all get prepared to celebrate our planet, I wanted to give you my top five picks for earth day schwag.

As many of my readers know I am all about as much transparency as possible. So no, I am not going to share my deep secrets from college, but I am going to share a story that I hope will help everyone who is preparing for a move whether personal or business.

When I first started Southeast Green, I started off each year with a list of New Year’s Determinations (The idea of resolutions drives me crazy). I intentionally chose determinations because by golly, I was going to do them! Maybe not perfectly but I was going to do them.

It's seems like there is always time for tennis. While you are preparing for your next league match or just for fun keep these ideas handy to make your tennis game greener.

Recently in the Washington Post an article entitled, American recycling is stalling, and the big blue bin is one reason why, appeared stating that basically America had topped their recycling rates and that recycling was on a decline.

For the last couple of years my time has been spent in the natural food world and one word keeps on popping up…Paleo.

Many months ago, Cheerios, manufactured by General Mills, made a national announcement that they would make Cheerios GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) free.

I have been on a journey during 2013. It started at the Georgia Organics Annual Conference last February entitled Farm Rx. The journey took me to the Ancestral Health Symposium, the conference for the Paleo movement and wrapping up with the Weston a Price foundation Wise Traditions conference in November 2013. Along the way I signed up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), found out how to purchase unpasteurized eggs and milk from a local farmer and started to see some health concerns I had recede.

Okay so this meandering is a little off my usual topics. However, you know when something keeps on popping up over and over and over again? Well that topic for me is lionfish. Crazy I know. See, I am a big fan of ABC's Shark Tank. For those of you who don't know, Shark Tank is a weekly show that has entrepreneurs come in front of a panel of “shark” investors to pitch their company for investment dollars. It’s addictive! It is interesting to see how businesses present themselves to investors and what people have come up with for a business.

The electric bill. Although many of us loathe it depending on the time of year, in some ways the electric bill is secretly embraced. Electricity has been found to be directly linked to quality of life. Who doesn't enjoy coming into an air-conditioned home, drinking an ice cold Coca-Cola, reading your favorite book at night, playing tennis video games with your 70+-year-old father?

I recently finished the book and was struck by the fascinating, exciting and yet so disappointing rise and fall of the Chicago Climate Exchange which this book explores in great detail.

So let’s start off with some transparency. As much as I consider myself environmentally aware, I am by no way perfect. No where near. However, I also understand it’s all about, as my friend Betsy likes to say, Progress not Perfection. As I look over my life in the last five years and the simple changes it’s truly amazing how much my lifestyle has changed. I have learned so much because of Southeast Green’s mission.

I recently had the pleasure of attending a legislative hearing on the subject of electric vehicles a.k.a. EVs at the Georgia State Capitol. Unfortunately, I got there a little late. Although most of what I heard presented was not new to me, it's always interesting for the tech geek that I am to hear what's happening with new technology. I did get there in time for the questions from the legislative panel. I have to say that as I smugly sat there and accused the elected officials as ignorant and tweeting away that the real ignoramus was me.

Last month I was honored to attend a tour of the Suniva, Inc manufacturing plant in Norcross, Ga. Commissioner Kathie Gannon of DeKalb County Commission and creator of the DeKalb Green Commission which I am a member of, invited the commission to join her. There was a small group of us who attended. We were greeted at the plant and international research & development hub of Suniva with a small presentation and then the tour.

A more mature friend recently sent me an e-mail about how the older generation knew how to recycle. They also knew how to save way before anyone of my generation did. It was one of those smug little diddies written by some person who was a child of the depression or a child whose parents had lived during the depression. Now, don’t get me wrong! I agree that more seasoned folks understood how to reduce, reuse and recycle and better yet knew how not to accumulate in the beginning, but somewhere along the way they forgot. So needless to say I wasn’t necessarily impressed with its sentiment.

My Sunday School class is awesome! They push me. They aren’t “green”. They are mostly quite a bit more seasoned in life than I am. This is the one place where I consistently get out of my “green” sandbox and into where most people are living their lives.

So I have to confess. I spend a lot of time with folks who think like me. You know the “I feel guilty if I don’t recycle, I will drive anywhere to pick my own organic fruit, if you leave that light on there will be dire consequences, carpool as much as you can then you don’t have to buy gas, save water shower with a friend” kind of people. So when in a group of, well, anyone else, I can be a pain and can get quite frustrated with my inability to explain why some things are so important.

I have done VBS for at least four years now. Work prohibits my ability to be there the whole week so I offer my services as the chief Martha Stewart of Vacation Bible School sets. This year, my thoughts solidified on why this had become a chore for me instead of a joy. After all if you are going to do anything for the Church, you should do it with joy, right?

I admit it I used to love IKEA. Today I discovered that the love affair had ended. I loved IKEA partly because I was an exchange student in Sweden my Junior year of high school. Going to IKEA brought back fond memories of words, tastes, smells and stuff. Stuff like cute little straw Christmas decorations and the hjãrtas (hearts) that are everywhere in Sweden and IKEA.

Okay so this is a boast of a sorts or maybe it is just an opportunity to brag about my home girls in Alabama. I was home a couple of weeks ago and I was sitting on a dock over Weeks Bay, drinking beer with a bunch of girls from high school. One thing led to another and we got to talking about politics and green things. I am such an oddity in my political and green views for my friends that they can' t help their curiousity. I am like a strange creature in the zoo. Questions always get asked about my opinion on something, and let me tell you if you ask my opinion you'll get it. I'll probably tell you even if you don't ask...

I was at Six Flags the other day with my friend Tyrekus. I have known him since he was three and his anxious 10 year old body was ready for the big trip.

I was tickled when I heard my sister recently talking about her efforts to recycle all the card board from a school event. Even more delighted to hear that her efforts encouraged another parent to at least verbally commit to start recycling at home. So I decided to do a little family inventory of changes that I had made that inadvetently led to changes with my family. Both my Mother and Sister now carry fabric bags to shop at least some of the time. All members, except my brother's family, are switching out light bulbs as they burn out. Everyone has reduced bottled water consumption except my brother-in-law who got a water bottle for Christmas. All of this just happened with casual conversation and dialogue about what I was doing.

Sometimes it's not about money or scale. Sometimes being an agent for change is about helping communities of the most modest means. Enter Tony Anderson.

80% of what you throw away can be recycled. Here's a list of unusual suspects.

6:00 am is an awful time to have to get up. Quite frankly, it's one of the reasons, I haven't attended Sustainable Atlanta Round Table hosted by Southface. It's just too darn early. However, after receiving a personal invitation and knowing one of the student speakers, I dragged myself down to MARTA and made the trek to All Saints Episcopal Church on West Peachtree. Although I wasn’t awake, I was energized by the large crowd. With over 150 in attendance, SART (Sustainable Atlanta Round Table) is a group of diversified professionals and interested individuals all coming to learn, share and network on sustainable issues.

I spent about two hours the other day with Karen Raymer and Sarah Boardman of Waldenour. Karen used a term that really struck home with me...repurpose.

I recently had the pleasure of attending the Governor’s news conference announcing his new Conserve Georgia initiative at Pratt Industries recycling plant located in East Point.

Recently it was reported on an evening news program that 16 billion gallons of oil are used each year…not on cars…but on making plastic items.

I hate New Year's resolutions. So in the spirit of the original intent of resolutions, I decided to make New Year's determinations. Last year, I determined that I would start carrying my own cloth bags shopping…especially to the grocery store. I had a bunch laying around the house from trade shows and giveaways. So I didn’t even have to buy any.