Wes Chyrchel

I launched WesChyrchel.com a year ago today. It was a big deal for me. It’s a site where I can share ideas and interesting opinions about green products, services and about being green. A “green” lifestyle is something more personal for me and has more meaning than purchasing “green” stuff.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve realized that everyone needs to find out what green means to them. As with life, one of our many goals is to find out who we are. It’s an interesting question. What do you like or don’t like? What do you believe in or don’t believe in? What’s your passion? What motivates you? What do you stand for? These are all fascinating questions. One of the benefits as we get older, is that these life questions slowly get answered one by one. There is a huge sense of freedom knowing who you are. It’s moving.

For me, being green was an opportunity to take inventory. My life has progressed so quickly that I just tried to keep up. Life can sometimes get overwhelming and I would tell my nieces, “you don’t have to be the best, you just have to keep up!” Sure there is some truth to that, but what does “best” really mean? The best ever or the best you can do? I believe it’s the best you can do at the time. If you want to improve on it, come back later and take it to the next step, otherwise move on to the next thing.

To go green, the first thing I did was to start reading, a lot. I read every article, book and magazine I could get my hands on. I became a Certified Green Building Professional from Build It Green. I went to conferences, networking events and visited businesses. I really wanted to know what it meant to “be green.” I started getting overwhelmed with the thought of how people were going to be green. I thought, “no one is going to do this. No one is going to completely stop buying one product that they have used for generations and start buying another.” The truth is, yes they will. What worked for me, was to not do it all at once. I just did a little at a time, when I had the money. My biggest “aha moment” was composting. It really made me realize how much we throw away. My composting has grown from one composting unit to three. I almost never put anything in the green trash can anymore and the rest goes into the compost bin or is turned into mulch.

I now do rainwater harvesting, planted a garden, am switching old no-so-healthy plants out with edibles, like fruit trees and herbs, switched out my shower heads to 1.5 GPM, self recycle all of our bottles and cans and every time a lightbulb goes out, I replace it with a fluorescent bulb. This has all happened within a year. It’s been a lot of fun to see this grow. I have never imposed on my family any of these ideas and just told them what I was doing. Slowly but surely my wife and daughter have gotten on board. All of our detergents have been switched out with greener options, we buy more fresh food and produce, we all recycle and everyone uses the composting container in the kitchen. I guess the lead by example thing is working.

It’s not only about saving the planet, it’s personal

I’ve been working as a web developer for over 12 years now. It’s truly been a magical ride. I feel very privileged to see history unfolding right before my eyes. When working in this industry you more often than nought, work with startups. It’s a very interesting social experiment. These companies usually have a lot of money or they are bootstrapping it. Typically, the entrepreneurial spirit is high and dreams of being the next Internet millionaire are thick. It’s exciting and energy is high. Ego’s are at their peak and everyone is working at 200% capacity. You have to move fast, make good decisions and go the distance. That’s how make it or that’s what everyone tells you how it’s made. The sad result is that these companies rarely make it. They either die a quick and painless death, the company dissolves and shuts the doors or they lay off most of the company and slowly dies a public and painful death. Lives are ruined, friends become enemies and reputations are destroyed. Then they do it all over again.

It is a lot of fun and you learn a lot, but after years of this you learn what works and what doesn’t. You see your family grow and change and you start to think about what you want your life to be like. Friends and family confide in you about their lives and you see that your experiences with startups isn’t that unique. This seems to be the workforce of today in general. People want balance. They want part of their life back.

What’s happening is that people’s lives have changed and the working environment is slow to catch up. They want flexibility and they want to be a part of something great. They want their work to not just be the place where they exist for eight hours a day. They want to change the world. They want meaning.

Green has become a metaphor for sustainability and sustainability has become a metaphor for how we work and live. If we have to be more sustainable with how we live, we most definitely have to be more sustainable with how we work. It can’t just be at home. It has to be everything. Businesses need to learn to become sustainable in how they operate daily and in the future. This is the time for businesses to re-invent themselves and stop the bad habits of the past. The survivors will be the ones that embrace these sustainable changes and implement them quickly. The result will be leaner greener businesses that are profitable, scaleable and treat their employees as valuable assets. This is the next chapter of being green and on Earth Day we should take a moment and ask ourselves what we want our lives to be like in the future. How has everything been going? Is it sustainable? I think we all know the answer.

I ran across this article on today on Planet Green and I thought it did a great job in summing up why we need to care about the big climate change meeting going on in Copenhagen.  The best quote in the article is simply put,

“We can reduce emissions sufficiently with current technologies and ones which are due to reach commercial stage shortly. The costs may seem high but they pale in comparison to inaction and will likely actually spur job growth. The main hurdle to be cleared right now is not technical, it is political.”

You can read the full article as well as many other resources about COP15 here, http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/cop15-stake-minutes.html

Saying that you want to “go green” is a lot easier than doing it. You have to make new choices every day. There is a big learning curve, what is green, what isn’t green and so on. It could get so frustrating that you may just want to walk away from it all together. Don’t. Let me show you the right way to go green.

Why would you want to go green?

First you have to go green in ways that it makes sense for you and your family. For me I started to realize how much we were throwing away and it just blew my mind. Also, I wanted to save money and eat better. We have achieved those goals and now I am onto new goals. Earlier this year the water company literally doubled our rates.  There really was nothing we could do.  You end up just paying the extra charges.  Our bill went from $75 to $150 per month.  That’s a pretty big jump! It forced me to look at our biggest water wasters.  Here is what the biggest water wasters our and what I have started to do to save money,

• Garden – Uses up to 50% of a households water – I now water every other day. I am adding more rain barrels around my house to catch rain water and I am in the process of changing all the planters around my house to drip systems.
• Showers – After laundry, the biggest water user inside the home – Most fairly new and 10 year old homes have shower heads that put out about 3.5 to 2.5 gallons per minute.  That’s a lot of water.  I am in the process of switching all of my shower heads out to .5 gallons per minute, to possibly the Bricor B100 Ultra Max .55GPM Showerhead
• Removing parts of my lawn – Lawns use 30% of the 50% of garden water usage – I live in California and lets face it, we may have a lot of sun to enable things to grow, but we are a desert and lawns just don’t make it out here without an incredible amount of water. There is a great book that I am reading titled, “food not lawns,” that talks about replacing much of your yard plants with edibles and stop wasting water on your lawn.

I am pretty confident that with some changes and a small investment, I can reduce my water bill back to where it was and recoup my investment, within 6 months.  Saving water is being green and if you can save yourself some money in the process, then why not?

Soon you will realize there are other areas where you can save money. Your gas bill, electric bill, food bill, transportation, entertainment, etc. The trick is to not just go out and buy a bunch of trendy green gadgets.  You hear this often, but there is a reason, first reduce your consumption or use then implement a solution.  The reason you do this first is to figure out how much you really use. For example, the biggest waste of money right now is people putting in massive solar systems on their house. The reason is that until the price comes down, it just isn’t a good investment.  People are thinking they are saving the environment by adding these systems to their homes, but they are not reducing the amount of energy they use. So they are buying larger solar systems than they actually need and that is waste. If they just conserved, changed out lighting, turned off electricity when not in use, etc., they would find that their electricity demand was not that high. That saving right there, might just be enough to wait out the purchase of a solar system altogether.

At the very least “green” is about conserving and that translates into cash.  It’s inevitable, when you take less from the planet, you put out less too.

How to understand your environmental impact: take a breath

When I was young growing up in Southern California we would have days that you couldn’t play outside.  I didn’t understand. The problem was that when you looked out the window, it looked fine.  It wasn’t raining.  The sun was shining. It wasn’t windy. It wasn’t too hot.  What was it?  Those days were called “Smog Alert” days. The air quality was so poor from the pollution that we generated, that it was dangerous to breath.

Schools kept students inside, sports activities were suspended and the elderly were to be watched. It was crazy.  As I got older, it didn’t get much better. When I taught swimming lessons, we had to keep children out of the pool.  Can you imagine dozens of children show up for a swimming lesson, suits and goggles in hand, only to be told to turnaround and go home, because the air has been poisoned? Wikipedia has this to say about smog alerts in Los Angeles, “The number of Stage 1 smog alerts has declined from over 100 per year in the 1970s to almost zero in the new millennium.” Much of this “improvement” has only occurred within the last 10 years or so and we have only begun to understand the impact of those years on the population.

Believing in “green” is not siding politically with one group or another. You don’t have to change what you wear, what you eat or who you are. What it means is understanding that everything you do has an impact and every little bit makes a difference. Down the road it will become essential that every person and every business implement green practices. At first these will start out as recommendations. Currently they are being drafted into more strict laws. Then the penalties and fines will start for those that don’t conform. You can start now by just thinking about what you do every day and making a choice to conserve. Please don’t wait until the last possible minute.

There is a new movie that is starting to come out this month called “No Impact Man.”  It’s about a man named Colin Beavan and his family in New York who decide to not only “go green,” but create a zero impact on the environment for one whole year.  This guy goes extreme, getting rid of his TV, stops buying non-essential items, eating local in season foods, starts riding a bike everywhere, not throwing ANYTHING away, turning off his refrigerator and possibly driving his family crazy at the same time!

I like the appeal of this movie for multiple reasons and can’t wait to go see it.  First, I love the discipline this guy has.  To be able to endure 12 months of cold turkey getting rid of many habits in your life to save the environment is nothing short of a major accomplishment.  Second, this is a great look into how a person who is living in the city and not on some farm can make a difference.  This documentary is a lot like the rest of us who live in urban areas and are trying to figure out what we can do to make a difference.  Though this is an extreme example, its a humble example of how we can all do more.  Check here to see if there are any theaters showing it near you, www.noimpactman.com

It starts with one green person in the family

I can’t help but relate to this movie.  I have always been a project guy, but when I started doing green projects around the house, it definitely took my family some getting used to.  At first we started recycling…like everything.  I was digging through the trash for all the recyclables and going behind people and picking the stuff out of the trash when they put it in the wrong container.  I then bought a 3 bin trash can so people could do it themselves.  A year ago I started composting and that was actually a pretty easy transition.  Putting all of our vegetable scraps and egg shells in coffee containers and then me dumping it out in the bin out back a couple times a week.  Rainwater harvesting was no issue at all, except for removing a rose bush that was in the way, my wife wasn’t happy.  We are doing more, changing lightbulbs, limiting A/C and mostly trying to conserve first.  My wife and daughter have really been supportive and actually think its fun.  Sure, you get “looks” now and again from family, but you have to start somewhere. I’m curious to see if I take my family to go see this movie if they will be inspired to do more.  Hopefully it will!

Get the book

Today, the No Impact Man book is for sale.  I will be buying this book and he has constructed the book in the most low impact manner.  You can buy it here, No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process

The No Impact Man Trailer

Many times when I am working, I will play music, a podcast or a movie in the background to keep things moving.  I haven’t really spent that much time on hulu.com and I thought I would go see if there was anything interesting.  That is where I ran across a truly mind blowing documentary, The Future Of Food.  My wife, daughter and I have been talking about planting a garden for some time now and recently we started getting the ball rolling.  I know it’s late in the season, but there are still some things we can plant.  My garden will be “organic.”  I came to that conclusion after watching my gardener dump chemicals on my lawn for years and the “bug man” spray our WHOLE yard with a mystery “safe” chemical.  For that reason and others, I canceled their services.  The chemicals they could have been using, may have been safe, but I really didn’t know.  I think that’s the point of this documentary.  Some of the foods that have been coming to our table for years have been genetically modified.  Do you know what that means?  How do you think they get our corn looking so perfect, with no blemishes, full size and crunchy?  The truth is, that corn that you have been eating for years has been genetically engineered to look that way and it’s happening all across the globe.  The problem is that one company, Monsanto, is slowly gaining control of the foods we eat.  They literally have the power to decide what we eat, when we eat it and how much they are going to produce.  Do you really want one company having that much power over the worlds food?

Watch the documentary

Below is the full documentary on hulu.com.  It’s long, a little over an hour, but very intriguing and very disturbing.  I didn’t want to ruin the movie for some, so the last part of my review will be below the film.

The Future of Food review

After watching the movie you kind of wonder, how did we get to this place.  Have you ever walked through the produce section at the supermarket and you see an employee going through the fruit and randomly picking up pieces and throwing them away?  I wonder how many other people have done that before that was the employee’s job?  I kind of look at the Genetically Modified (GM) food the same way.  The companies are doing that job for us.  The thing is, we didn’t ask them to.

It is no surprise that organic food in most grocery stores is usually displayed in weird places and looks damaged. The bananas are classic.  They usually have organic bananas displayed behind the enhanced bananas.  The contrast is incredible.  The organic looks older and bruised, while the enhanced bananas are bright green and yellow.  Which one would you select?  As long as enhanced food is cheaper than organic, grocery stores will always sell it and people will always buy it.

I think the most disturbing section of the movie was learning that Monsanto’s seeds have been so genetically modified that they only germinated when activated by their companion product Round-Up.  So, you could put all the water you wanted on the product and it may or may not grow, but if it did, it may not even bear the edible portion of the plant or fruit!  What if Monsanto decided to not sell Round-Up to farmers who weren’t buying enough of their seeds?

Monsanto’s actions constitute nothing less than extortion.  This corporation has become so large and powerful that they are influencing markets and politics.  Ashcroft received the largest donation during his campaign from Monsanto.  Later Ashcroft went on to endorse Monsanto.  It’s clear we are dealing with a corporation that is performing sweeping acts of terrorism, under the guise of capitalism and world hunger.  Why this has gone unchecked for so long is unfathomable.  If this were the tech industry Microsoft, Apple or Google would be under an anti-trust investigation about now.

It’s time to grow and buy organic

We can minimize our exposure to GM’d foods, by buying and growing our own organic fruits and vegetables.  The end of the movie seemed very optimistic about the resurgence of the importance of organic foods.  The part that resonated with me the most, is that organic farmers seem to take a more holistic approach to farming.  They are stewards of their own land and feel that their is a strong social component to what they are doing.  Its almost as if there is a collaboration between the farmer and customer.  What is happening is that food is special again.  The value that is being created, is not quantity, but rather quality.

This was a small well done event. Promoted by San Diego Loves Green, the event let the running for congress Lt. Governor, John Garamendi, give some insight into how California Legislators, and himself, feel about sustainability in California.

The Venue

The event was held at the newly built conference center, Scripps Seaside Forum adjacent to the Scripps Pier.    It was a unique complex and the main hall is where we heard Garamendi speak.  The building is very modern and unique.  As the sun set, it came right through the front windows and into our eyes. It was a little difficult at times to see Garamendi up at the podium.  The hall isn’t that big, but the acoustics were great.  We could hear him speak clearly with and without the mic.  Another cool thing I liked about this complex is that they published how the complex was built green by creating a green fact sheet right on their website.   It gives you a glimpse as to the extent they went through to make the building green. It was a great venue, but I wish I could have spent some more time there looking around.

The Speech

The title of the speech was Future of Sustainability in California.  Renewable Energy was largely the most talked about topic.  California, as a whole, has the unique opportunity to take advantage of many renewable energy technologies, besides the obvious, Solar and Wind. Geothermal, Tidal Power and Wave Power are additional technologies that California can take advantage of because of our close proximity to the ocean.  There is no doubt that the future of California is the use of conservation and Renewable Energy.

Other highlights in his speech that I found interesting were small discussions around, Feed-in Tariff , Government Oil Subsidies and Title 24, California’s Energy Efficiency Standards for Residential and Nonresidential Buildings.

Feed-in Tariff is essentially a new tax that would raise everyones energy bill by pennies so that we can subsidize the growth of renewable energy in California. Basically the state of California would make it obligatory for power companies to buy renewable energy instead of old carbon based energy.  This would help finance the renewable energy growth and scale it rapidly.  The U.S. has used this method before in the 80′s, but several countries in Europe have had great success implementing similar programs, increasing renewable energy use by 20%.  Everyone tends to shy away from any sort of new tax, but in the end, it’s all the same thing, whether we are subsidized or not.  The Feed-in Tariff is more policy based and would have more chances of success, because it moves a large population towards sustainability faster than volunteer rebates, which is what we have now.

Right now California is the largest producer of oil in the country, providing up to 15% compared to other states.  Oil and California have a long history.  As our energy consumption continues to grow and fossil fuels get more difficult to produce, the oil and gas industries have seen record profits in the realm of hundreds of billions.  Subsidies were set in place a long time ago to help these energy producers grow and flourish.  The movement now is that these subsidies should be given to the renewable energy companies to do the same thing.  It just doesn’t make sense to still subsidize an industry that is turning out hundreds of billions in profits.  It is obvious that they don’t need our help anymore.

Title 24 is one of 28 titles of the California Code of Regulations that was established in 1978 to reduce California’s energy consumption. The last update was made in 2005 and the most recent update is set to go live January 1, 2010.  Looking at the most recent changes to the Standards, it seems there is much more emphasis on insulation.  Basically, retaining the energy that you already have.  This means putting into law, the installation of more efficient windows, water systems and heating and cooling methods.

The Take-Away

For a short period, energy is going to continue being expensive.  This is good, because we need to use less.  Many of the buildings in our infrastructure are not energy efficient, so keeping the costs high allow for the subsidized growth of the renewable energy sector while at the same time keeping everyone in check to use less.  As our buildings, habits and technologies improve, these sources will get cheaper.  Feed-in Tariff lays the foundation for growth, Title 24 allows for more efficient energy use in our buildings and restructuring oil subsidies provides more money to the renewable energy sector while making the fossil fuel industry more responsible for its sustainability.

My Take:

I’m going to this event.  I don’t know much about John Garamendi, but I am impressed with what he has accomplished.  My interests in going are to find out more about how politicians view sustainability in business in California.  I would like to know the governments take on this and how the impact of the recession has changed, if any, the views of how businesses operate in California.  In a nutshell I would like to know what sustainability in business means to him.  What is your take?  How do you view sustainability in business in California?

Description:

Date:  Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Time:  4:45pm – 5:45pm

Location:  Scripps Seaside Forum

Street:  8610 Kennel Way (formerly Discovery Way)
City/Town:  La Jolla, United States

Phone: 619-634-2720
Email: dawn@sandiegolovesgreen.com

Link:  Future of Sustainability Event Link

Come hear Lt. Gov. Garamendi as he shares what is in store for California and our sustainable future. As a State Senator, Assembly Member and Lt. Governor, John Garamendi has been a champion for our environment and sustainability policy. For those concerned with reversing Climate Change and Global Warming, John is one of California’s most important assets. Come out and be inspired at this FREE public event!

Brought to you by the Sustainability Alliance of Southern California, Heartland Foundation-United Green and Scripps Institution of Oceanography

This book caught my attention.  Its a wild ride!  Make no mistake, this book is a call to action and a cry for help.  Whatever your opinion on climate change, the fact that resources are running low and our economy is suffering is something that cannot be ignored.  Van Jones is emotionally charged and continuously challenges your ideas and beliefs throughout the book.  He pushes you.  He makes you uncomfortable.  He is trying to send a message.

On the surface the book has a strong overtone of race relations in the United States.  He continues that overtone throughout the book.  I found myself re-reading sections because I really wanted to get through some of the outer-lying issues and get to the meat of what he was trying to say.  I think that everyone who reads this book needs to understand that.

The title says it all.  The United States could become the poster child for sustainability and conservation.  We have a very unique time in our history to start again and to right some wrongs.  Since this books publication we have made several steps in that direction.  Now we are seeing “Green” everywhere.  Things are moving forward and we can do more.

Van Jones did not set out to write a “How to Go Green” book.  He does not claim to have all the answers.  He does however offer many suggestions and possible direction.  Implement Green policies from the top and jump-start this country.

Not everyone is going to like this book or what Van Jones is trying to say.  I think there are strong ideas in this book that this country and many businesses can take to heart.  This book is an alarm.  We just have to decide how much we are going to listen.