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Archive for September, 2009

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Beautify Burnt Fork Creek in Decatur with the 2009 Rivers Alive and Hands on Atlanta clean-up day!

Posted by Our Green Atlanta on September 30, 2009

This Saturday, October 3, 2009, join your Decatur and Atlanta neighbors for a clean up in beautiful Mason Mill Park near Medlock Park and Emory! 2009 Rivers Alive and Hands on Atlanta are hosting a creek clean-up of Burnt Fork Creek and South Fork of Peachtree Creek, which intersect in the park. For more information or to volunteer to organize other sites along BFC or SFPC please email Carol Hayes, who chairs the Burnt Fork Watershed Alliance at cehayes@bellsouth.net. Also, Carol has just put up the Burnt Fork Watershed Alliance’s new website here!

October 3rd is Hands on Atlanta Day, so you can click here to volunteer for projects all over Atlanta!

Posted in Parks, Volunteer | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Review of the Doug Kessler 10K race in Sandy Springs: great race, but no recycling!!

Posted by Our Green Atlanta on September 27, 2009

Ugh! On Saturday morning, my boyfriend, his family, and I ran the Doug Kessler 5K and 10K in Sandy Springs, which is a great, relatively flat course that tends to yield qualifying times for the Peachtree Road Race. However, a continued source of intense frustration for me reared its ugly head again – there was no race recycling!! How hard can it be?? To make matters worse, the water stops were stocked with 1.5 liter plastic water bottles for hundreds of runners (instead of water coolers filled from bath tubs or garden hoses) and little hard plastic cups provided by juice-maker Fuze alongside some paper cups). At the end of the race, they handed out small Aquafina bottles to thirsty runners who, after a very humid run, probably drank 2-3 of them each. So, a lot of water was handed out in many small plastic containers and none of it was recycled. I should have enjoyed the run, but had to struggle to keep my blood pressure down!

Well, we’re about to change all of that. Race recycling (and the lack thereof) is something that has bothered me for a very long time (read here), but now we’re going to start working with B Green Services to provide race recycling services across metro Atlanta. Emil Bekyarov heads B Green Services, which currently provides complete recycling solutions to hotels and restaurants around Atlanta, and we’re going to work together to institute race recycling at the Silver Comet Half-Marathon in conjunction with Dana Greene of Get Fit Atlanta! I’m incredibly excited about this and will be posting more about it in the near future, so stay tuned!

Are you interested in race recycling? Do you know of a specific race or race production company that could use our help in recycling at their race(s)? Would you be interested in volunteering with us to make race recycling a reality? Please leave a comment below and let me know!

Posted in Be Active!, Environment, Recycling, Volunteer | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Atlanta’s own transit system MARTA awarded grant for solar panels

Posted by Our Green Atlanta on September 23, 2009

Atlanta’s mass transit system, MARTA, is taking eco-friendly strides towards cleaning up their energy usage by installing new solar panels over 220 bus parking stalls at their maintenance facility in Decatur. How is this possible with all of this talk of MARTA running out of money? They received a $10.8 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration, along with 43 other public transit systems also slated for grant money.

The new solar panels will generate enough electricity to more than cover the Laredo Bus Maintenance Facility’s consumption each year and will become the largest photovoltaic system in Georgia. The transparent panels will let in light during the day and light up the facility at night.

Read the article from the Atlanta Business Chronicle here!

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“Know your farmer, know your food” program launched by U.S. Dept. of Agriculture!

Posted by Our Green Atlanta on September 22, 2009

In an effort to increase awareness of local farmers and to strengthen bonds with the food we eat, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is debuting a new program: “Know your farmer, know your food!” In the upcoming months, $65 million in grants will make its way from 2008 Farm Bill allocations and into the hands of local food distributors. Read more about it here. And we’ll see what this holds for local food here in Atlanta!

One component of the program, announced by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack last week, will be 86 grants worth $4.5 million as part of the 2009 Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP). These funds will go out to local farmer’s markets as well as electronic benefit transfers (EBT), projects to help low-income individuals gain access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Read the USDA’s press release here! Recipients in Georgia include:

  • Main Street Statesboro/Downtown Statesboro Development Authority – $19,077
  • Upper Ocmulgee River RC&D Council, Inc. – $97,961 (EBT budget $97,961)

The Department of Agriculture encourages you to contact them and let them know what you think by emailing KnowYourFarmer@usda.gov and visiting www.youtube.com/usda.

Thanks to my brother for sending this along from his new home outside San Francisco! One day, Georgia will rival that city in its sustainable practices… :-)

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Stop loving so much – you’re killing it!

Posted by Our Green Atlanta on September 19, 2009

For the third time this summer, my across-the-street neighbor has torn up his yard and, after previous unsuccessful attempts at grass-growing, is trying sod.

For the third time this summer, my across-the-street neighbor has torn up his yard and, after previous unsuccessful attempts at grass-growing, is trying sod.

Sometimes, you can love something too much. My across-the-street neighbor, who you may recall from this previous post, enacts such loving care on his lawn that he overwaters it, kills it, and has to tear it all up again and replant it. This is the THIRD TIME he’s done that THIS summer! A quick recap:

  1. Last summer, he spent hours and hours in his yard seeding and watering by hand. Gallons and gallons of water…
  2. This spring, he bulldozed and graded his entire yard. Then reseeded it and spent hours upon hours watering it by hand.
  3. He installed an above-ground irrigation system using a series of hoses and nozzles.
  4. The grass started dying.
  5. A couple of months ago, he dug up a large grid system in order to put in an on-ground irrigation system. He then reseeded and continued his successful campaign of watering the curb and street.
  6. The grass continued dying.
  7. He dug up a huge section of yard on Thursday (see picture) and, by Friday afternoon, had installed sod.
  8. It’s only a matter of time before he loves that to death, too.

Of course, with the past few days of torrential rains (and we’re still under a flash flood watch), the meticulously-placed sod probably stands a chance of sliding off the muddy surface, down the street, and into the drainage ditch that runs through my yard. And it will probably grow beautifully in my ditch!

So here are some money-saving suggestions for a beautiful lawn:

  1. Plant native grasses that are meant to thrive this climate.
  2. Plant in the spring and fall – not the heat of summer. It’s costly to keep seeding and watering – both in utility bills and time.
  3. Are any store-bought grasses truly drought-resistant like they say? Maybe not, but you can try one of those varieties.
  4. Water from a rain barrel or water-collection tank. You can buy pumps to push the water through your hose and into any part of the yard.
  5. Add in some flower beds to break up the amount of grass you have to maintain (with native plants, of course).
  6. If you must water, water in the cool of the evening or the morning – not in the heat of the day! Plants absorb water best in the morning and when it’s cool – it’s a waste of water during the day.
  7. Or, my favorite, plant mondo grass or some sort of ground cover that doesn’t really need water, stays green all year, and will fill in to give you an incredibly lush lawn. And you don’t even really have to mow it all that often.

Alright, I’ll step down off of my soap box now. I just have a such a hard time looking across the street and seeing these blatantly thoughtless antics. Does anyone else have neighbors like this??

Posted in Gardening | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Eating locally in Atlanta and Decatur keeps getting easier! Check out these local food articles for tips…

Posted by Our Green Atlanta on September 14, 2009

Thanks to increased media coverage of local Atlanta food, farmers’ markets, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), and farm-to-table restaurants, the idea of transitioning to a locavore lifestyle is becoming an easier proposition. With the growing movement of shopping locally growing, more stories have popped up on ways to take the steps towards local, sustainable living, and below are a series of articles from Atlanta Magazine and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. And yes, I’m a little belated in posting this information since it was published a few weeks ago, but it’s still relevant!

Atlanta Magazine published an “Eat Local” section in their August 2009 issue. Here are links to the articles they ran, both in print and online:

If you get a chance to pick up a copy of the issue, I recommend it!

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published these local food articles:

And there’s a lot more where those came from! Just wanted to share a few…

Posted in Environment, Food | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Morningside Parks Fall Fund Drive for Sidney Marcus Park in Atlanta!

Posted by Our Green Atlanta on September 8, 2009

This just in from the Morningside / Lenox Park yahoo group today!

Morningside Parks is continuing its Engraved Brick Fundraiser for an environmentally-friendly playscape / play structure at Sidney Marcus Park that is suitable and safe for infants and toddlers. Each individual gift of $75 will purchase an engraved brick to be placed on the Sidney Marcus playground plaza. Please visit www.morningsideparks.org to learn more about MPC, to join, and to download a Brick Order Form. Please mail in your Brick Order Form and $75 check by October 31, 2009.

The Morningside Parks Commission offers fundraising services for the improvement and maintenance of the first-class parks, trails, and green spaces of the Morningside/Lenox Park neighborhood, as well as to provide a cohesive vehicle for communication with respect to their management.

Thanks!
The Morningside Parks Commission, Inc. Team

www.morningsideparks.org |  po box 8683  |  atlanta georgia 31106  |  a nonprofit organization

* Please also connect with MPC via its blog and Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn pages.

Posted in Donate, Parks | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Fall planting season is nearly here! And I’m looking for mondo grass if you have any you’d like to get rid of…

Posted by Our Green Atlanta on September 7, 2009

It’s with dirt under my fingernails and a beer beside my computer that I sit down to write a quick blog tonight. Fall planting season is upon us again and I spent the afternoon weeding my yard in anticipation. Due to the large number of trees and abundant shade in my yard, I embarked on a quest a couple of years ago to carpet my lawn with mondo grass, which grows great in shade. So far, so good, but I have a lot more ground to cover. When I started this project, I used large amounts of mondo from my parents’ yard in combination with dwarf mondo from Pike’s wholesale nursery. The native mondo has grown leaps and bounds over the dwarf mondo, but that’s probably due in part to the fact that dwarf mondo spreads at a pace that rivals mollases.

So, I’m looking for native, regular mondo grass (not monkey grass or lirope, but the smaller version) in the Atlanta and Decatur area. If you have native mondo grass in your yard – in any amount – that is taking over and you would like to cut it back, please email me or leave a comment below and I will come by with my shovel and dig it out for you! Thanks!

And thanks to my mom’s friends in the Lullwater Garden Club who donated mondo grass to the cause this past spring and who’s doors I will be knocking on again in the next few weeks. :-)

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Greenco Environmental leads the way in Atlanta for commercial composting and making the Zero Waste Zone a reality!

Posted by Our Green Atlanta on September 4, 2009

Greenco Environmental takes food scraps from Atlanta restaurants and Zero Waste Zone as well as yard waste from landscaping companies and combines and tills it in their commercial composting facility in Barnesville, GA. 90 days later, organic compost is born!

Greenco Environmental takes food scraps from Atlanta restaurants and Zero Waste Zone as well as yard waste from landscaping companies and combines and tills it in their commercial composting facility in Barnesville, GA. 90 days later, organic compost is born!

Never underestimate the power of two when it comes to impacting our environment! No strangers to the entrepreneurial spirit, the husband and wife team of Melia and Tim Lesko channeled their energies into founding their green, Atlanta-based composting company: Greenco Environmental. Greenco works with restaurants and landscaping companies across the Atlanta area to collect food scraps and yard waste into sought-after local, organic compost.

Close to home
You may have heard of Atlanta’s Zero Waste Zone – a huge project launched by Holly Elmore of Green Foodservice Alliance to divert trash from our landfills and into the hands of those that can reuse and recycle it. Greenco is a significant part of the picture as the go-to company for composting for downtown Atlanta’s big players, such as the Georgia World Congress Center, Centennial Olympic Park, Georgia Aquarium, Georgia Dome, Philips Arena, the World of Coca-Cola, and restaurants and hotels. For businesses that seek a zero waste standard, Greenco both assists in the process and leads the way!

In a truly local operation, Greenco transports the compost collected from local Atlanta restaurants down highway 75 to Barnesville, Georgia, where the food scraps, yard waste, and wood chips spend the next 90 days of their existence biodegrading in their 32-acre commercial composting facility. After 90 days of tilling, the finished product of rich, organic fertilizer is then bagged and sold in bulk to local Georgia farmers and garden stores.

Driving forces
Greenco Environmental builds their business on the following principles:

  • Greenco is committed to working with companies and municipalities on their green initiatives by helping with their waste diversion needs.
  • Greenco is partnering with landscape communities across the Southeast as a supplier and provider of services and organic product.
  • Greenco is providing alternatives to the high cost of fertilizer and organic-based products for agricultural communities.
  • Greenco is determined to leave the planet in a better place than it was when we arrived.

And they just keep growing…
So what is Greenco up to these days in between working with Atlanta’s Zero Waste Zone? Melia Lesko has her plate full training the employees of new customers joining the composting movement, including nine restaurants under Buckhead Life Group. And that’s in addition to the three big university food diversion programs she started last week for Emory, Georgia Tech, and Agnes Scott! Keep an eye out for more a lot more coming from the Leskos and from Greenco Environmental in the future – they’re quite an asset to Atlanta’s green movement and to bringing the concept of zero waste to everyday business.

Interested in purchasing organic compost from Greenco Environmental? Just give them a call at 770.872.3777! You can also find it retail at Farmer D’s Organics at the corner of LaVista and Briarcliff Roads.

Be sure to check out Greenco Environmental and Atlanta’s Zero Waste Zone on CNN and Greenco and composting organic matter in Waste Age Magazine, too!

Posted in Environment, Food | Tagged: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Free bikes for Atlanta residents from Bicycling Magazine’s “Biketown USA” program!

Posted by Our Green Atlanta on September 3, 2009

Are you looking for a change? looking to improve your health and community? Jamis Bicycles and Bicycling Magazine has posed this question to Americans across the country for the past seven years with the opportunity to win a bike and a chance to make big changes in their lives! Now, Bicycling Magazine has brought the contest to Atlanta and will award a commuter bike to one lucky applicant! Read on below for the details of the contest and when the winner will be announced (thanks to Mallory of Bicycling Magazine for sending this press release along!)…

The gift of a bike unites communities and improves lives

Free bikes for Atlanta residents from Bicycling Magazine and Jamis bikes!

Free bikes for Atlanta residents from Bicycling Magazine and Jamis bikes!

Emmaus, PA (August 20, 2009) –What do you want to change about your life? Do you wish you were in better health? Wish you were more connected to your community? Do you wish you could save money on gas?

Bicycling Magazine and MetLife have the solution: Start riding a bike. In its seventh year, Bicycling’s BikeTown USA, presented by MetLife, is giving away 30 bikes to Atlanta residents.  People interested in changing their daily lives will have the opportunity to see how a bike can improve life for themselves, their families, and even their communities.

“In our seventh year of BikeTown USA, we wanted to refocus the program on neighborhoods, where people spend time with their family and friends,” said Loren Mooney, editor-in-chief of Bicycling. “A bike becomes the ultimate neighborhood multi-tasking tool – you can connect with your community, improve your health and travel to the local coffee shop all by riding a bike.”

Anyone interested in receiving a new bike simply needs to tell Bicycling, in 50 words or less, how having a Jamis Commuter 1 or Citizen 1 bike would help make a change in his or her life. Bicycling’s editors will select what they feel are the 30 best essays and the selected writers will each receive a bike to keep.

Bicycling tracks participants’ progress for three months, with results featured in the magazine and on Bicycling.com. Previous stories have been astonishing – thousands of pounds have been lost, blood pressure and diabetes medications dropped, marriages saved, impromptu bike clubs started, and countless bike commuter miles logged to save money on gas and help the environment. In essence, thousands of people enjoy their lives more because they spend more time on a bike.

“On behalf of MetLife, we are proud to sponsor this year’s BikeTown USA to help bring bicycling to people across the United States and in Atlanta next month,” said Michael J. Vietri, executive vice president, Individual Distribution, MetLife. “As a company, we have a long-standing history of community involvement and are particularly focused on people’s health and well being. Through bicycling, our clients and their friends and families have an outlet to relieve stress, improve their health and have fun.”

Participant entries are being accepted on a rolling schedule at www.bicycling.com/biketown until August 31st. The BikeTown event will happen in a local park on Tuesday, September 8, 2009 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. All selected participants will receive a new Jamis Commuter 1 or Citizen 1 bike, a helmet from Lazer and a lock from OnGuard.

“Jamis is proud to join the team as the Official Bike of BikeTown 2009,” said Carine Joannou, President of Jamis Bicycles.  “We’ve been building bikes for 30 years and know firsthand how cycling can change lives.  We are really looking forward to helping BikeTown participants achieve their goals.”

Bicycling’s BikeTown USA will also be traveling to:

City                                                     Date
Chicago, IL                                        August 21
Miami, FL                                          August 27
Westbury, NY                                   September 3
Los Angeles, CA                               September 10
Jackson, MS                                     September 17
Phoenix, AZ                                      September 26

###

About Bicycling Magazine
As the world’s biggest bicycling magazine, Rodale Inc.’s Bicycling is the voice of cycling, providing the stories on the personalities, trends, and techniques behind the sport.  Appealing to readers of every ability and interest level, the magazine features expert reviews of the latest equipment as well as training and fitness tips. Published 11 times a year, Bicycling is the magazine for the athlete for whom the bicycle is the centerpiece of an active lifestyle. For more information, please go to www.bicycling.com.

About MetLife
MetLife, Inc. is a leading provider of insurance, employee benefits and financial services with operations throughout the United States and the Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions. Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, MetLife, Inc. reaches more than 70 million customers around the world and MetLife is the largest life insurer in the United States (based on life insurance in-force). The MetLife companies offer life insurance, annuities, auto and home insurance, retail banking and other financial services to individuals, as well as group insurance and retirement & savings products and services to corporations and other institutions. For more information, visit www.metlife.com.

About Jamis Bicycles
Jamis Bicycles rolled out the first Earth Cruiser bicycle in 1979 and has since built a reputation as a brand unmatched in performance, value, and style.  Jamis Bicycles are sold in the US from coast to coast and in over 40 countries.  A unit of G. Joannou Cycle, one of the oldest and largest bicycle companies in the US under original family ownership, Jamis is committed to advancing all forms of cycling.  The company is the official bike sponsor of the Colavita/Sutter Home Cycling Teams presented by Cooking Light and the US Pro Tri Professional Triathlon Team.  Jamis bikes are the choice of world-class riders in mountain biking and cyclocross, including Olympian Seamus McGrath, six-time Israeli National Champion Rotem Ishay, US champions George Ryan, Kathy Pruitt, and Jordie Lunn, and Jesse Anthony. The company also supports elite athletes through its partnership with Full Throttle Endurance and the GS Mengoni USA Cycling Team. Jamis is the Exclusive Bike Partner of Bicycling’s BikeTown USA, presented by MetLife, and the company’s grant to Transportation Alternatives has made possible the largest bicycle valet program in New York City’s history.

CONTACT:
Josephine Parr  |  Bicycling magazine  |  212-808-1358  |  josephine.parr@rodale.com

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