Passing Water Without the Water! Waterless Urinals Save H20, Dollars | 3BL Media

Al Gore has put his money where his, uh, urine is. The former VEEP and current environmental leader has invested in waterless urinals as a way to save energy and fresh water. I’ve used them, and I assume that Al tested them before investing as well. It’s something we have in common. These flushless, odor free urinals are a seemingly small step, but a significant one.

A recent article in Christian Science Monitor lays out the benefits of passing water without passing it through water. We all know that fresh water is a strained resource all over the world. Every drop counts. According to a report for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, a waterless urinal saves one to three gallons of fresh water per flush, compared with a normal model. Take a big office building or university campus with 10,000 men in it, peeing several times daily. That represents a savings of nearly 16 million gallons a year.

Waterless urinals have been installed everywhere from ballparks in the USA to the Taj Mahal in India. Still, less than 1% of the world’s urinals are waterless. With fresh water resources stressed all over the globe, pardon the pun, that should piss you off.

Some people think the idea of waterless urinals is gross. But they are well designed to let the stream flow, so to speak, while using special sealants and designs to keep odors out. Regular urinals, which are wet all the time, actually grow biofilms of growing organisms. And flushing creates a spray that lands on the rim, floor and as I can attest, sometimes the user, creating a breeding ground for bugs and germs.

Human urine is sterile and can be captured and made into fertilizer – it’s full of nitrogen. This waste to resource approach saves dollars and avoids petroleum based fertilizers, as well as avoids flushing nitrogen rich water into streams and oceans where they create algal blooms that suck the oxygen out of the water killing fish. And you thought peeing on your mother’s bushes was a killer.

A green-product company Ecovita in New Bedford, Mass has a urine diverting toilet and a waterless urinal that can be directed to a self-contained planter. This waterless urinal can also be used by women and is available on their website. Ornamental plants use the nitrogen in the urine- don’t tell the neighbors why the flowers are so fragrant!

Al Gore’s investment, Falcon Water Free Technologies has models that come in several styles and true to “guy stuff”, come with snappy names, from the F-1000 on the left, to the slimmer F-7000 and the sleek stainless F-9000SS! Why pee in an old plodding urinal when you can use one of these sleek models named like a jet plane?

The Benefits of a waterless urinal:

1. Cheaper to buy than flush urinals

2. Cheaper to maintain – no moving parts to break or leak

3. No water costs to operate

4. No more teenage boys stopping them up and flooding the men’s room

5. Water savings – one urinal can save up to 40,000 gallons of fresh water annually

6. Energy savings from water that does not need to be pumped, piped, or treated

7. Odor free

So men, stand up for waterless urinals! I mean, you’re standing anyway, right? Take matters in hand, so to speak, and hold your water until there’s no more water in your urinal! Ok, enough for now. All this writing and drinking coffee has gotten to me. I gotta go “water the garden.” And when you gotta go, you gotta go. Here, watch this video until I get back.

Falcon Water Free Urinals

Related Greenopolis posts:The Old Man and…the Urinal?

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Fidelity® Charitable Gift Fund and VolunteerMatch Form Alliance and Release Landmark Study on Volunteering

(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) December 3, 2009 – Americans who volunteer their time and skills to nonprofit organizations donate an average of 10 times more money to charity than people who don’t volunteer, according to a comprehensive national study on volunteering released today by the Fidelity® Charitable Gift Fund (“Gift Fund”) and VolunteerMatch.

The study found many Americans have a strong commitment to community service, with 43% volunteering in the last 12 months. More than a quarter (28%) of Americans, however, has never volunteered.

The study marks the start of an association between the two organizations. The Gift Fund is the third largest public charity3 in the United States and VolunteerMatch is a national nonprofit organization and the Web’s most popular volunteer resource4. Under a new initiative launching today, visitors to the Gift Fund’s website, www.CharitableGift.org, can now search VolunteerMatch’s award-winning network to discover volunteer opportunities with 73,000 participating organizations nationwide. The Gift Fund is the first national donor advised fund to have such an association with VolunteerMatch.

“This is exciting data that reveals a tremendous opportunity to tap the American spirit of volunteering and giving,” said Sarah C. Libbey, president of the Gift Fund. “Most Americans are motivated to volunteer to support a cause they care about. Yet, three in ten can’t find an organization that matches their interest. Together with VolunteerMatch, we’re offering a solution.”

“We always knew that volunteers pour their heart into making a difference, and now we know they put their money there too,” said Greg Baldwin, president, VolunteerMatch. “We’re proud to be working with Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund to help people put their time and treasure to good use.”

The volunteer study, conducted Oct. 21-25, 2009, looked at the community-service commitments and perceptions of more than 1,000 Americans nationwide. It reveals some key insights.

Volunteers Donate Significantly More Money to Charities than Non-Volunteers

The study found that the average amount of money donated to nonprofits by Americans who have volunteered in the past 12 months is $2,593 annually, more than 10 times the average $230 donated by Americans who have never had a volunteering experience.

Two-thirds (67%) of Americans who have volunteered in the past 12 months say they generally make their financial donations to the same organizations where they volunteer. And, those same active volunteers say they are more likely to increase their charitable donations in 2010 when compared to people who have never volunteered (32% of volunteers compared with 26% of non-volunteers).

Most Americans Have Volunteered

The study showed that 72% of adult Americans (18 years old and older) have volunteered at some point in their lives, and 43% are currently volunteering or have within the past 12 months. More than a quarter (28%) has never volunteered.

Many Barriers to Volunteering

The top reasons cited by Americans for not volunteering, the study found, were lack of time (46%), lack of interest in volunteering (32%), pressure from organizations to give more time than people want to give (32%), and the inability of Americans to find the right organization to match their interests (30%).

The Gift Fund study also found that six in 10 (60%) Americans say that charities have become too much of a big business and nearly as many (56%) believe that many charities have disorganized management. These attitudes are especially prevalent among people 55 years old and older.

“There’s a tremendous opportunity for nonprofits to build greater awareness and understanding of how they manage their organizations by sharing insights into their funding structure, project management and volunteer coordination practices,” said Libbey. “Transparency through open and frequent communication with current and prospective donors should always remain a priority.”

More than a third (38%) of those surveyed say they want to see immediate results when they volunteer, while 44% indicate that if an organization cannot take advantage of their specific skills, they will likely volunteer elsewhere.

Changing Attitudes Toward Volunteering

Almost half (47%) of those surveyed say volunteers today are more motivated by what they get from the experience than by what they can do for others. Half (51%) are more likely to volunteer for an organization that has other volunteers in their age group. This attitude is especially prevalent among those under 35 years old (59%). Adults under 35 are more likely to volunteer in order to network professionally (33%) than adults 55 years old and older (14%).

Regardless of the motivation, the act of volunteering remains valued. Six in 10 (63%) Americans cite a renewed sense of the value and importance of community service within their network of friends and family. The study found that two-thirds (66%) believe “true philanthropy” includes the giving of both time and money, with one-fifth (19%) saying that every American should be required to give a certain percentage of both each year to nonprofits. When asked if volunteers should be provided an incentive, such as a gift card, to give of their time, the vast majority (84%) disagreed, believing there should be no incentive or reward attached to volunteering.

Top Reasons to Volunteer Include Supporting a Cause, Setting Family Example

Seven in 10 (72%) say supporting a cause they care about is among their top reasons to volunteer. Other top reasons include: because it’s the right thing to do (69%), to fill an unmet need in the community (54%) and to set an example for family and children (53%).

Almost one-third (31%) of the respondents say they are more likely to volunteer time given the recent economic downturn. Among those who volunteer, almost half (49%) do it monthly or more frequently. Nearly one-third (31%) volunteer a few times a year.

The mission and work of an organization is a big factor in whether people choose to support it (61%), as is the fact that an organization is serving local community needs (59%). Roughly half say the reputation of an organization and being able to use a specific set of skills are also key influencers on whether they volunteer.

Volunteering Habits Vary By Education, Age and Gender

Volunteering rates increase with education. Six in 10 (61%) Americans with post-graduate degrees volunteered this year, compared with 56% with college degrees and 36% with high school degrees. Middle-aged adults aged 35 to 54 years old are more likely to have volunteered this year (54%) than those younger (33%) or older (38%). Women are more likely than men to volunteer monthly or more often (54% for women vs. 43% for men).

Donations in 2010

While most people surveyed don’t plan to increase their charitable donations in 2010, nearly three in 10 (29%) do. Of those who expect to increase their donations, one in four (23%) plan to increase them by less than 5%, four in 10 (43%) by 5% to 10%, and 15% by more than 20%. Almost half (45%) of those who plan to increase their charitable donations say it’s because they’ve seen the good that donations can do.

The Methodology

Data for the Gift Fund’s survey was collected via telephone by Harris Interactive from Oct. 21 to Oct. 25, 2009. It included 1,005 respondents at least 18 years old.

About Fidelity® Charitable Gift Fund

The Fidelity® Charitable Gift Fund was established by Fidelity Investments® in 1991. The purpose of the Gift Fund is to further the American tradition of philanthropy by providing programs that make charitable giving simple and effective. As of Sept. 30, 2009, more than 56,000 donors had recommended grants totaling more than $9.5 billion to over 130,000 nonprofit organizations nationwide since the Gift Fund’s inception.

About VolunteerMatch

VolunteerMatch is a national nonprofit dedicated to strengthening communities by helping good people and good causes to connect. Its award-winning online service, www.VolunteerMatch.org, makes it easy to find a way to make a difference by location, expertise, or availability. VolunteerMatch provides many of the nation’s most recognized businesses, campuses and organizations with Web-based solutions to facilitate and track volunteer engagement at local and national levels. As the #1 ranking for “volunteer” on Google and Yahoo!, the VolunteerMatch network regularly welcomes more than 180,000 visitors each week and has become the preferred volunteer recruiting service for tens of thousands of participating nonprofits across the country.

Harris Interactive is not affiliated with the Fidelity® Charitable Gift Fund.

The Fidelity® Charitable Gift Fund is an independent public charity with a donor-advised fund program. Various Fidelity companies provide investment management and administrative services to the Gift Fund. The Charitable Gift Fund logo is a service mark of the Trustees of the Fidelity Investments® Charitable Gift Fund. Fidelity and Fidelity Investments are registered service marks of FMR LLC, used by the Gift Fund under license.

—

1 Survey conducted via telephone by Harris Interactive from Oct. 21 to 25, 2009. It included 1,005 respondents at least 18 years old.

2 Volunteers are defined as those who volunteer currently or have volunteered within the last 12 months.

3 The Philanthropy 400, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, October 2009 (based on contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations)

4 According to data from Google, MSN and Yahoo! as of October 2009.

What’s The Social Purpose of Your Business?

What’s the fundamental question at the core of capitalism? “The question of how you have the right sort of performance with integrity,” said Ben W. Heinman, former General Counsel for GE and Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. 

I think of performance with integrity in terms of the “social purpose” of corporations – a concept that has three key ingredients:

1. Return on Integrity: Telling the truth and being transparent, establishing an “ethical balance sheet”, and ensuring accountability among directors and executives through good governance.

2. Responsible Products and Services: Ensuring that what you make or do has as small an impact on the environment as is possible, choosing suppliers whose operations align with your environmental and social priorities, and marketing what you do in a way that isn’t manipulative – especially among children or others that may be easily influenced.

3. Social Impact: Aligning with social issues and social organizations that resonate with who your company is and what is does, demonstrating the social outcomes of your investments in the community, and understanding and addressing the needs of your employees.

Have you defined and operationalized the social purpose of your business?

More on this topic (What’s this?)

GE Sets Up Comcast Venture With Buy of Vivendi’s NBC Universal Stake (Money Morning, 12/1/09)

New Technology Turns Coal Into Clean, High-Powered Gas (Money Morning, 11/19/09)

Read more on General Electric Company at Wikinvest

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Give a Gift of Optimism, Inspiration, and Insight Supporting a Purposeful Course in the New Year

(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) SAN FRANCISCO, December 3, 2009 – “Always you have been told that work is a curse and labor a misfortune. But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born. And in keeping yourself with labor you are in truth loving life. And to love life through labor is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.”

~ Kahlil Gibran, twentieth-century Syrian-born mystic poet and philosopher 
 
“This book is about the life we choose to create for ourselves within our work, the businesses we bring to life, and how we relate to ourselves and each other in the process. It addresses the question: How do we become more human in the context of our work, so we can build life-affirming organizations that serve the greater good, while serving ourselves?” states author, Jeff Klein. “My intention with this book is to provide a meaningful context and the essential tools to support you in deeply and fully expressing your humanity through your work; to open to the vulnerability that makes you invulnerable; to establish a sense of aspirational purpose grounded in principles that sustain you in the face of adversity; and to find rich experience and deep fulfillment.”
 
In the opening of his classic book Working, Studs Terkel writes, ‘This book, being about work, is, by its very nature, about violence—to the spirit as well as to the body. It is about ulcers as well as accidents, about shouting matches as well as fistfights, about nervous breakdowns as well as kicking the dog around. It is, above all (or beneath all), about daily humiliations. To survive the day is triumph enough for the walking wounded among the great many
of us.”
 
Klein continues “This book, and the very idea of Working for Good, are meant to be an antidote to the violence people do to themselves and each other through business and work. People may may read Working for Good because they would like to do something to address some of the challenges facing humanity, because they believe that business provides an opportunity to do so, and because they want to understand more deeply how this vision can be manifested. This is what motivates many of us, especially young people; members of the Millennial Generation almost require that the companies they work for or build have a higher social purpose and act responsibly. Readers may also sense a calling to service and want to pursue it more fully. They may want to change their existing business or job, start a new business, or find a new place to work that is more deeply aligned with their purpose and principles. And they may want to learn new skills that will make them more effective in building a conscious business and make your business more responsive to the increasing market demand for good corporate citizenship. Working for Good acknowledges the power of these desires and provides tools for addressing them.”
 
“Working for Good is a way of conducting business and approaching work that orients us on a path of personal growth, development, and service. Based in the skills and practices of awareness, embodiment, connection, collaboration, and integration, Working for Good guides our thoughts and actions to create businesses that value more than financial return on investment, respect people and the planet, deliver broad-based service to society, and promote widespread well-being.”  
 
About Jeff Klein: As CEO of Cause Alliance Marketing, Jeff Klein designs and facilitates collaborative cause-related marketing programs. His current clients include the Conscious Capitalism Alliance, of which he was a founding member, and O.N.E. Drinks, for whom he is producing a campaign to educate moms and others about the health benefits of coconut water. In the context of a Working for Good Collaborative, Jeff is in the process of launching the Working for Good Alliance, with a related web-based platform and integrated education and engagement campaign, and a Working for Good “Greenhouse” and Seed Fund to germinate and cultivate conscious companies.
 
Jeff was one of the visionaries and driving forces behind Private Music, the career of Yanni, Spinning, and Seeds of Change, and has consulted for the Esalen Institute, the National Geographic Society, GlobalGiving, the Institute of Noetic Sciences, among others. He wrote his new book, Working for Good: Making a Difference While Making a Living, to support conscious entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, leaders, and change agents at work.  
 

via 3blmedia.com

New Book for Kids featuring Lu and the Earth Bug Crew Keeps it Green and Keeps it Fun

The new children’s book Lu and the Earth Bug Crew Zap the Energy Spikes is making its way into hearts, homes and retail stores across the nation. Written by Derek Sabori and illustrated by Steven Riley and Mark Adams, the books about Lu and his friends are intended to reel kids into an active and healthy lifestyle that focuses on conservation, environmentalism, being a good friend and having fun doing it all!

A True LEED-er for Green Building: Interview with David Gottfried | 3BL Media

You’ve got to hand it to David Gottfried – he walks the talk. Not only is Melissa’s interviewee one of the founders of the US Green Building Council and the World Green Building Council, with  over 70 chapters and projects in over 50 countries, but he recently embarked on a project to green his own home, a 1915 Craftsman bungalow he bought in 2007.

Energy was relatively cheap and global warming was virtually unknown when this house was built, but as Bob Dylan famously sang, “things have changed”.  But rather than bulldoze and build from scratch, Gottfried saved the “embodied energy”- the labor, fuel, electricity and know how it took to build the house in the first place and instead ‘recycled” this classic home into a state of the art LEED Platinum certified green building.

He put together a cohesive team to look at the house as a system, to make the plumbing, electric, heating and cooling, health of the occupants and landscaping all work together to maximize both livability and minimize environmental impact. The house is framed with reclaimed and sustainably harvested wood. David and his crew saved the historic character and features of the house, while bringing it up to the highest energy savings standards, putting in new efficient electrical and plumbing runs and double glazing the windows. The kitchen countertops are made from Syndecrete, a lovely, lightweight, high recycled content concrete surface, and surround state of the art stoves and other appliances.

The bathroom reuses grey water (what went down the drain when you washed your face with this morning) to flush toilets and water the landscape, making it 50-75% more water efficient than required. Also the cast iron tub is 97% recycled steel – see our piece on steel roofs - and is a much better choice than a tub made of petroleum-based plastic resins. Of course the house is powered by the sun and has a solar hot water system as well.

What David has done is something you can do too, step by step. Don’t build new – recycle that old house of yours into a green showpiece, one piece at a time.

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Sustainable South Bronx Calls For Leadership at U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen

(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) South Bronx, New York, December 3, 2009 – Sustainable South Bronx, a nonprofit organization delivering economic and environmental solutions to urban communities, is calling for strong leadership at the upcoming U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. 

Miquela Craytor, executive director of Sustainable South Bronx, provided perspective in an article that was originally published on GreenBiz.com. The article can also be viewed at the following link: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/12/01/how-local-ingenuity-can-model-success-sustainable-solutions-global-scale
 

About Sustainable South Bronx

Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx) has been championing hope and opportunity for the people of the South Bronx and other urban communities since 2001. Our unique comprehensive approach to problem solving combines public advocacy, job training and education to improve economic and environmental conditions, resulting in more prosperous and revitalized communities. For more information, please visit www.ssbx.org.

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CSR Minute: 12/3/09 – LG’s New CSR-Driven Lab; Bank of Philippine Islands + World Bank’s Energy Project

CSR Minute: LG Electronic’s New CSR-Driven Lab; Bank of the Philippine Islands + World Bank’s Sustainable Energy Finance Project