More Hip Than Hippie #254 - Sustainable Community

Sustainability: A Personal Journey to a Built Sustainable Community...and an Amazing Picture of What Life Will Soon be Like by Stuart W. Rose, Ph.D. offers guidance on how and why to live sustainably.

The Hipsters chat with Dr. Rose (we get to call him Stu!) about his sustainable community of homes in Virginia, as well as his ideas for navigating societal changes that may be coming our way. Also, Dori and Val prepare for the release of 4 new beers from Sierra Nevada Brewery! Life is good.

Beer and Chocolate:

Beer: More easy-drinkin' brew from the Big Easy. Abita Beer's Fall Fest has a great taste for any season.

Chocolate: Mouthgasm! In the name of all that is sacred, get yourself some truffles from Pix Patisserie in Portland, OR. Each piece is a scrumptious work of art. Thanks, Jillicious!

Hip News and Finds

Finds:

• Val's Favorite Thing! Need a great lunchbox for grown-ups? Try the stainless steel Lunchbot, a safe plastic-free option that's just the right size for your yummy leftovers. Go ahead, glue on a picture of Scooby-Doo or the Brady Bunch.
• Fear of fur. Love the look of fur, but hate the cruelty? Sport faux fur by Imposter, a new line that donates 10% of sales to saving animals. Look for the IM logo.

Hip News

• How sweet it ain't. Fake sweetener aspartame now wants to be called AminoSweet, so you'll forget it's bad for you. Skip the agave nectar too; it's processed like HFCS. Bitter is better.
• Olympic metal. Kudos to Vancouver! Their Olympic medals are the first in history to contain gold, silver and copper recovered from end-of-life electronics, eh!

Teenie Weenie Greenie™

Break the mold! Instead of using bleach to clean up areas affected by mold, try this chemical-free alternative: mix a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution with 2 parts water. Put it in a spray bottle and blast away the mold safely and inexpensively!

 

Sustainable Community

Sustainability: A Personal Journey to a Built Sustainable Community...and an Amazing Picture of What Life Will Soon be Like by Stuart W. Rose, Ph.D. offers guidance on how and why to live sustainably. He strives to show a way to reduce the depletion of Earth's natural resources and to predict global changes which could occur in the next few years. Rose hopes that Sustainability will help suppress the fears connected to living on Earth's natural resources by sharing how sustainability has worked in an actual housing development.

"My goal in writing this is to provide a real, practical and positive picture of what we can do to make it through the coming transition - and realize a fantastic new way of living."

• Guidance. Dr. Rose's book details his experience with starting a housing development and offers tips for living sustainably.
• Community. Stu and his wife live in Garden Atriums, their housing development in Virginia.
• Inspiration. The writings of Lester Brown, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, led Dr. Rose to pursue life in a sustainable community.

Listener E-mails

• Annie in California found PeopleTowels, a green company helping us cut waste by bringing own towels to public restrooms.
• Carri in Kansas recommends checking out Mother Earth News, which she reads cover to cover. She also tipped us off to non-GMO Baker Creek Seeds.
• Megan in Montana wants to stop using plastic bags at the bulk bins. Try these mesh bags for everything except flour.

Twitter goes green on #EcoMonday! Follow us on Twitter: GrnDiva, MoreHipDori and JRich9 at your service! Add us to your friends on Facebook and MySpace!

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More Hip Than Hippie is sponsored by Greenfeet.com.