All-around great news, on the anniversary of the stimulus bill’s passage:

The Department of Transportation awarded more than $22 million today to a proposed offshore wind manufacturing and port facility in Rhode Island.

The Quonset Development Corporation has been touted by Rhode Island officials — including Gov. Don Carcieri — as a crucial building block for offshore wind development in New England.  The facility has a deep port and two existing piers.  The lack of suitable port facilities is often cited by experts as a significant hurdle to the industry.

Unfortunately, there’s minimal coordination between the state’s various ports — so Providence and Quonset were competing against each other for ARRA funding.  Does anybody know what this means for the Providence application?

Christopher Walken has a house on Block Island? Did everybody know this but me? The state PUC held a hearing yesterday regarding the proposed offshore wind farm to be erected south of the island and Block Island residents had an opportunity to air their concerns with Paul Rich of Deepwater Wind. Walken and wife Georgianne were in attendance.

Walken asked several questions, including why Deepwater needs to build a small wind farm just for Block Island. Couldn’t the developer connect the island to a 100-turbine farm proposed further offshore? he asked.

Fair enough, but . . .

One reason is that Deepwater is planning the Block Island wind farm as a precursor to the utility-scale project. . . a cable connecting Block Island to the mainland would be built only if the smaller wind farm goes forward.

Full story in the Wednesday ProJo.

Jef’s reporting on the recent study by the Environmental Working Group which ranks our water second-best among large metro areas.

This was originally posted on RIFuture, by AgentGreen:

In 1986, Rhode Island became the first state to pass mandatory recycling legislation, setting an incredibly ambitious 70% recycling rate as its eventual goal. At the time, according to a 2008 issue paper by the Rhode Island Senate Policy Office, Rhode Island was widely viewed as a leader and forward-thinker in the field of waste recycling.

Flash forward to last week’s Providence City Council meeting, where several councilors spent more than an hour excoriating the implementation of the city’s new “no bin, no barrel” recycling policy. Several important facts did not get mentioned during the City Council debate, including:

• The overall recycling rate in Rhode Island has hovered between 15-20% for years, with Providence bringing up the rear at 10%.
• The “no bin, no barrel” program is expected to improve the city’s recycling rate to 20%, which would save the city more than $200,000 per year.

How did Rhode Island go from forward-thinkers in 1986 to where we are today? And, with the state’s landfill rapidly running out of space, where do we go from here? You’ll have a chance to hear what a few key Rhode Island thinkers, advocates and decision-makers have to say about recycling in Rhode Island at a public forum on Dec. 3 in Providence.

The forum, sponsored by the Apeiron Institute, will feature Mike O’Connell, executive director of the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC), Daisy Diaz Rivera from the Providence Department of Public Works, Amelia Rose, from the Environmental Justice League, who helped train dozens of “Green Block Captains” ahead of the launch of Providence’s new recycling initiative, and Sheila Dormody, Rhode Island director of Clean Water Action, who helped pass Rhode Island’s producer responsibility laws that are taking the burden of handling toxic trash off of Rhode Island’s municipalities.

The Thursday, Dec. 3 forum will be held in the atrium at 17 Gordon Ave. in Providence. It’s free to Apeiron members and students. (You can also get in free if you tell them “Agent Green” sent you.) The doors open and snacks will be served at 5:30 and the panel discussion will begin at 6:30. Click here to find out more and register for the forum.

Bill Mott, social enterpriser (founder of The Ocean Project), committed environmentalist (founder of Providence Green Drinks), and city resident would like to see the city become a little more creative in how it runs the government. Writing for RI’s Future,

Earlier this year, Mayor Cicilline unveiled plans designed to make Providence a “creative capital” for the 21st century. Granted, it has been focused on the arts, but all the uproar about the City’s new recycling program and the contentious City Council meeting last night make it pretty clear that the city needs to get much more creative all around, and much more effective at communicating, when designing and delivering new programs that entail any type of behavior change.

Community-focused social marketing is one of the most effective ways to bring about positive change, and there are many examples to pull from around the world on recycling, waste reduction, energy efficiency, pollution prevention, transportation, and a host of other health and sustainability challenges that our city faces.

While part of the challenge of the No Bin/No Barrel program was having essentially no budget, if more of us creative capital denizens get plugged into what is going on in City Hall, we can make a difference ourselves in how our city runs. Incentivizing behavior is a reward in itself, and Mott echos Pecha Kucha facilitator and social media maven Stephanie Gershon’s suggestion at a recent sustainability forum, that the recycling program should have had more carrots. Some of the school engagement ideas were part of the plan, but just didn’t make it past the cutting room floor as staff figured out the best way to implement the program with their limited resources.

In cases such as these, would the city benefit from a permanent citizens’ commission on creative communications that attempts to bridge some of the politics between the City Council and the Mayor’s office and provide creative and positive approaches to city issues that we could all play a more active role in solving.

The Projo is generally correct in its take on the city’s new recycling program.

(Despite the strange speculative asides — like suggesting that it’s “perhaps” the same inertia that discourages people from voting that has them complaining here. More than half of the residents of this city are under-age, non-citizen immigrants, and/or students whom the Projo encourages to vote elsewhere. The recycling program requires their participation…)

It’s the right thing to do, and will save the city money. The recycling rate has already more than doubled. There will always be kinks in any new undertaking that requires the participation of 200,000 people or so, and the bitching and moaning is an inevitable part of that — the consternation and media focus on the issue are good things, as they’ll help spread word of the program.

I have sympathies for the plight of the handful of constituents whom I’ve heard from who sorted their trash and recyclables by the book, but were still skipped over — but the garbage collectors and city’s managers of the program have a learning curve too, and will get better at their part as we move forward.

And, one hopes, the state will quickly move to single-stream recycling, which will allow people to stop separating different sorts of recyclables, and use just a single bin. It typically further increases recycling rates — meaning Resource Recovery will have more recyclables to sell, and an increased revenue stream to use to fund the construction of a new single-stream facility. (Which would come with scores of construction jobs and several new permanent ones.)

Graphic at right is map of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Figuring out the world together — come learn about the hot environmental issues of the day from regional experts. What does ‘climate change’ mean for you, and what can you do about it? Join Sandra Brownell, of the Environmental Protection Agency, and other community members to discuss these topics at a special AS220 Happy Hour.

Monday, November 16, 5:30pm, AS220, 116 Empire St

From ECRI:

“Tapped” is a 2009 documentary about the effects of the bottled water industry on America’s economy, environment, and public health.  A coalition of Brown University student groups and the Environment Council of Rhode Island are sponsoring a free, public screening of “Tapped”, November 10 at 8pm in the Salomon Center on the Main Green.

Americans spent $15 billion on bottled water in 2007, a 30-fold increase in consumption per capita since 1976.  Producing these bottles used the equivalent of 17 million barrels of oil, excluding the cost of transportation.  Whereas bottled water costs $7.50 to $11.00 per gallon, tap water costs $0.01 per gallon.  24% of bottled water sold in the US, including Dasani and Aquafina, is not spring water but simply purified, repackaged tap water.

Compared to bottled water, tap water is regulated more rigorously and tested more frequently by the EPA.  Bisphenol-A, the chemical from which 5-gallon water cooler jugs are made, has been linked in 200 independent studies to illnesses including obesity, prostate cancer, breast cancer, diabetes, and brain disorders.

Free, 8pm, Tuesday, November 10, Salomon Center, Brown University, 91 Waterman Street

Well, it was news a week ago.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy released the 2009 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, and along with New England neighbors Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and Maine, we in Rhode Island are enjoying the view from the Top 10.

The Ocean State earned 27.5 points out of a possible 50. We’ll play stronger next year with a better showing in the categories of State Government Initiatives and Combined Heat and Power.

The ProJo reported last Friday. Geeky commentary available from EmPowerBrown blog.

Do you believe we need pro-environment leaders? Clean Water Action does too. And you can join them October 1 at the Hot Club, where we will all raise a glass, and lend our support to help elect more pro-environment candidates and take charge of our environmental future.

Sip Sip Hooray! This event is sponsored by none other than Trinity Brewhouse and Newport Storm. You know that can’t be bad.

And to cap it all off, attendees can compete in a political slogan contest. Make your own button with Clean Water Action’s one of a kind button maker and enter to win prizes awarded by Special Guest Judges. It’s hush hush on those names for now, but expect to see some folks who have real experience with slogans.

See you there!

Having moved from St. Louis, where our “model” sustainable home was in the city, it has always puzzled me why we had to go such a long way from the urban core in Rhode Island to learn more about how to live sustainably. The Apeiron Institute home in Coventry is worth the trip, and the summer festival out in the woods a good time, but it is nevertheless a trip.

Now, fortunately, sustainability comes home to the city, this Saturday, with the Providence Sustainable Living Festival.

Accessible by bus. Walkable for many. Genuinely informative and inspiring workshops. More info at livingfest.org.

free, 10am to 6pm, Saturday, Kennedy Plaza and Burnside Park

Sure, there’s lots going on tomorrow night, but what did you have planned for the morning and evening? Shake off that hangover, get your Ganny canny in gear, and head to the Valley to do your part to support our National Heritage River.
Saturday Morning Cleanup — Participating in the International Coastal Cleanup, the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council is running not one but two cleanup parties tomorrow morning, both in Providence from 9am to noon. Come down to either Riverside Park on Aleppo Street or the dam at Rising Sun Mills on Valley Street. (It’s best if you call ahead to Lisa at 401.861.9046.) Tools will be provided, but be sure and wear working clothes. A limited supply of hip waders will be available for those going into the water to pull out the less desirable artifacts of our industrial and consumer heritage, but you can also just works the banks if you prefer.
Oh, and did we mention that volunteers will get refreshments and T-shirts?
Saturday Evening Flying Fish — The WRWC fleet will be on the water paddling with giant bright fish from Clear Currents (as seen above) symbolizing our community’s commitment to improving the water quality of our river and bay!
There are a couple spots left for experienced paddlers: Call Bruce Hook at 401.351.5747 right now!

From the folks at Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council. Take some time to check this out if you can. A rare opportunity to see the city from a completely different perspective, and appreciate how the river used to fit into our economy.
This was one of my favorite paddles of all time.

WOONASQUATUCKET RIVER PADDLE

On Wednesday, September 2 at 5:30pm the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council  (WRWC) is leading a canoe/kayak trip on the downtown portion of the Woonasquatucket River. This easy two hour paddle from South Water Street to Atwells Avenue and back will give participants a new perspective on the city. We will travel past some of the old mills as well as through Waterplace Park and past downtown Providence where the Woonasquatucket River meets the Moshassuck River to form the Providence River.

“While this is definitely an urban river, we have seen red-tailed hawks, great blue herons, peregrine falcons, and many other birds in this stretch of the river,” says Bruce Hooke, WRWC board member and paddle leader.

The complete round trip is about 4 miles. The WRWC has canoes and kayaks available but participants can also bring their own. Life jackets and paddles will be provided with WRWC boats but must be brought by the paddler if they use their own boat.

For participants who are using a WRWC boat, the cost is $20/person. For participants bringing their own boat, the price is $10/person.

This event is part of a series of paddling events called “Explore the Woonasquatucket,” organized by the WRWC this summer and fall throughout the Woonasquatucket River Watershed. Details on the full schedule of paddling events is available on the Watershed Council’s website: http://www.woonasquatucket.org .

To register or for more information, call or email Bruce Hooke at the Watershed Council at (401) 351-5747 or bhooke@woonasquatucket.org . Advanced sign-up is required so that we can determine how many boats we need and keep the trip from getting too large.

From Amelia Rose of the Environmental Justice League:

Want Your Own Home Garden?

Home gardens provide healthy food for your family and can save you money.  But here in Providence, if you want to grow food in your backyard, it’s important to make sure your soil is safe from lead paint contamination, which can be extremely harmful to your health. Come learn how to create your own safe and healthy backyard gardens. You’ll learn what lead hazards exist in Providence, how to test your soil to make sure it’s safe, and how to create a garden — even if you don’t have a backyard.  The workshop includes a short walk and will end with refreshments.

Brought to you by English for Action, Southside Community Land Trust, Childhood Lead Action Project, and the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island. Contact Amelia at 383.7441 or amelia.rose@ejlri.org for more information.

2pm to 4pm, Saturday, 122 Manton Avenue, Room 710, Olneyville

If you buy from Clean Water Action you’ll get a cheaper rate, and the money will go to CWA:

Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals are drawing near, the lineups are stronger than ever, and your favorite crew at Clean Water Action has the best deal in town: Purchase your tickets at $15 below market value, through us, and all of your dollars will go towards Clean Water Action and our continued fight for a healthier environment, OR if you’re willing, roll up your sleeves, dig into some recycling barrels and come in with us for FREE.

Tickets are $54 (instead of the pre-sale $69, or {Gasp!} $75 day-of price).
Volunteer spots are limited and go fast, but they’re here now!

331-6972 to purchase.

Blue State’s new Thursday lecture series starts tomorrow (competing with transit advocates’ celebration of the new funding RIPTA is going to get), returns next week, competing with Green Drinks, and will continue to conflict with other environmentally-concerned happenings all summer long. Seriously, environmentalists, we’ve talked about this before: Pull it together already and stop holding all of your events on Thursday evenings!

(Beth — what’s “Latte” supposed to be a hokey homophone for? “Lotta?”) The speakers are all wonderful, and you get free coffee:

We are proud to announce the “A Latte Green Lecture Series” at 300 Thayer Street in Providence. Starting Thursday 7.8.09, this exciting series has some of the best environmental minds in the state talking about the work they are doing in their respective fields. Lectures will start at 7:30PM with a discussion to follow. We are running a buy one- get one free brewed drink special for these lectures so bring a friend!

Thanks,

-Alex Payson

A LATTE GREEN Lecture Schedule
Join Us Thursdays 7:30 to 8:30pm. At 300 Thayer Street, Providence, RI

July 9th SAVE THE BAY

· Jonathan Stone- Executive Director will be speaking on the future of the Bay, environmental challenges, and Save the Bay’s evolving mission.

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