In case you’d forgotten, I’ve been blogging at KPCC’s environmental blog, Pacific Swell, for the last few months. If you’ve missed the news and event roundups, as well as the more local environmental stories that I often used to post, head over to Pacific Swell — You’ll find them there.

And this Tuesday, you can find me IRL at a KPCC event dubbed #pubmedialive!: Integrity vs. Page Views. This panel, put together jointly by KPCC and KCET, will be about the “struggles currently facing public media bloggers.” Here’s how KPCC describes it:

Should you publish quality content at the risk of pageviews? Linkbait instead of a well-reported story? How can you maintain journalistic ethic while being a popular blogger?

Honestly, the questions brought up above haven’t been huge issues for me. If what I was really going for were pageviews and popularity, I wouldn’t have picked environmentalism as my topic of choice.

But the discussion should be lively nevertheless! In addition to myself, Gary Dauphin, site manager and editor for KCET, and Leslie Berestein Rojas, emerging communities blogger for KPCC, will be on the panel. Either Kim Bui, social media specialist and community editor at KPCC, or Zach Behrens, editor in chief of KCET-TV Blogs, will moderate.

When: Tue., Feb. 8, 7 pm to 9:30 pm (first hour’s just socializing)
Where: The Crawford Family Forum, 474 South Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91105

The event’s free and open to the public — and even includes drinks and a social hour! Just RSVP online. I hope to see you there!

Photo by Alexander Baxevanis

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Thank to the 35 friends and readers who came to the green LA girl Green Beauty Party last night!

After 5+ years of blogging at green LA girl, it was high time for a party — with organic, macrobiotic eats from M Cafe, drinks from Whole Foods, mini makeovers from W3LL People, and a lot of socializing and shopping at The Green Life eco-store in Santa Monica.

Among the attendees were many of the young green movers and shakers in L.A. from Vital Juice, Your Daily Thread, Fahmina, BTC Elements, Faeries Dance, Evolue, The Daily Ocean, Low Impact Betty, LAist, Experience LA, Chill Out LA, EstarLA, The Girl Blogger, Everyday Goddess — and others! Thank you all for being there — and thanks to American Express ZYNC for the support to make this party possible.

I kept the first event small, so if you weren’t there, you can party vicariously via the great photos of the party taken by Whitney Lauritsen, Eco-Vegan Gal! Hope to see you at the next event.

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Twice-weekly green giveaways.

The party’s an intimate one, with just 35 of my favorite people ! Get to meet the greenest women in Los Angeles. To win a pair of tickets, comment by Fri., Jan. 21 to get into the drawing, which’ll happen Sat., Jan. 22 (more info on freebies here). Yes, the party’s for ladies only, and no, plane fare is not included — so local women entrants only!

Photo via W3LL People

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The upcoming Monday’s supposed to the the statistically most depressing day of the year — partly due to already-failing New Year’s resolutions. Well, they say keeping resolutions can be easier if you do them with a group and tell other people about them — which I think explains why, at least so far, my green New Year’s resolutions are still going strong.

If you remember, I resolved to take the No Impact Experiment during the first full week of 2011 — a challenge that I hoped would help me set a green course for the rest of the year. I blogged about the challenges all last week — and this week, got an email from the No Impact Experiment organizers asking me to share my “No Impact Fails.” After all, the goal of the challenge was to see if going green could bring greater happiness — and going green isn’t always easy. Were there eco-attempts I made that I never wanted to try again?

Honestly, it’s a bit early to tell for me. The two changes I made that I have the most concerns about are food related — reducing trash (Day 2) by composting with the help of a friend’s compost bin, and eating more greenly (Day 4) by shopping at the farmers market — with a transportation (Day 3) related twist. Basically, both the composter and the farmers market are a mile or more away from me — and both require carrying relatively heavy loads with me. I don’t think driving to the composter or farmers market is a green solution — which makes me wonder if the longish heavy walks will start to grate on my nerves over the long term.

The first week was fine — My feet were buoyed by the novelty of my new green challenges — so the real test is the coming weeks. If I start resenting the walks, I’ll look for a new solution — whether in the form of a folding bike, an organic produce delivery service, or rogue composting.

But those are really the only potential “No Impact Fails” I can see (and they may not even end up being fails, necessarily). Of course, perhaps the fact that I decided I was already a green angel when it comes to energy-efficiency (Day 5) and water conservation (Day 6) may have something to do with my sanguine outlook. But really, my other green changes have improved my life a bit.

For example, I reduced my consumption (Day 1) and bought nothing but food last week — and enjoyed the financial savings plus the time freed up from shopping. I’m not much of an impulse buyer to begin with — I’m slightly anal about researching the green aspects of items I need and blogging about them before shelling out the money — but the tip to write down what I plan to buy in the coming week is a good habit I plan to adopt permanently. This way, I can make sure I’m really buying things I want and need instead of making frivolous purchases I’ll later regret.

And my decision to drive less (Day 3) by cutting back on trips to Santa Monica is already saving me time and reducing my stress level — while encouraging me to explore my still-newish West Hollywood neighborhood more.

I even feel a bit ahead of the game, because my first day of giving back (Day 7) as a volunteer for the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition will be on Monday — the MLK Day of Action. Instead of scrambling last minute to find and make time for a volunteer opportunity, I simply have readymade plans to volunteer on Monday. And I have a feeling that, at least for me, Jan. 17 won’t be the most depressing day of the year.

Want to try the No Impact Experiment yourself? Get happy by signing up now to find out when the next experiment is happening. In the meantime, how are your green New Year’s resolutions going?

Image via No Impact Project

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When I wrote about my low electricity bill, most people responded positively. Some asked curious questions about my apartment, others shared their own efforts to reduce energy costs, and yet others left encouraging messages to keep up the good work.

Then there were the haters.

Now, I generally resist writing back to unnecessarily negative commenters, trolls, and flamers — but I thought you might find it amusing to read about how angry people can get about other people saving energy. One confident but misinformed reader who went by the handle “itsme” wrote:

every electric company in the usa has a minimum charge, it is impossible that you only had a $5.00 bill, you may have lowered it somewhat, but you lowered your standard of living to that of someone on the street along with it.

A Nicholas Maniatis was equally incredulous. He wrote on Facebook:

I… call SHAM on the $5… you haven’t referenced any blogger or website and have given NO data… Your posting is WORTHLESS without credible documentation. MNN is a sham when it comes to credibly documenting their assertions. Siel Ju… yes… this is a BS call. Show your bills for a 6-month period.

Well if you read the post, Nicholas, you know that I don’t have bills for a 6-month period because I only started getting bills when I moved a few months ago. At my old apartment, electricity was included in the rent — so moving finally gave me a chance to see how much energy I was really saving.

In any case — Without further ado: Here’s another snapshot of my last electricity bill.

Top photo by AZAdam

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When I revealed my plan to start rogue composting — by sneaking in my compostables in my neighbor’s green bin — I was met with mixed reactions. Some, like Eco-Vegal Gal, revealed she’d already been rogue composting for sometime. Others, like heidi who said “don’t mess with other people’s cans,” were less enthused with my idea.

And a few gave suggestions for making my composting plans less rogue. “If you can muster the courage, it might be worth it to put up a CL post or just ask a neighbor if you can use their bin,” wrote Leah, blogger at penn. Cai was more snappish about it. “Is there a reason you can’t knock on a door of someone who uses the green bin for compost and just ask their permission?” he wrote.

Well, I reserve the right to try rogue composting in the future, but Leah and Cai got me thinking — Do I know anyone in Beverly Hills who might let me use their green bin? That’s when I thought of Ellen Lutwak (above), an environmental activist who started a group called NetWalkers90210 to encourage walking in Beverly Hills.

Turns out, Ellen’s got a compost bin! So instead of my usual run, I walked to Ellen’s place this morning — toting two small bagfuls of compostables. A mile and a half later, Ellen introduced me to her slightly cobwebby composter — and announced plans to get more serious about composting properly, now that I’m adding to the pile!

Next to the composter was a gigantic grapefruit tree so fruitful that it was dropping citrus onto Ellen’s yard. I helped Ellen shovel some of those into the compost bin — and was rewarded with some low-hanging fruit.

Now, I not only have a not-so-rogue composting option, but I’m also citrus-rich!

Why don’t I just get my own composter? As I mentioned before, my apartment is just really small — less than 400-square-feet small. Thinking more broadly, I also don’t think personal composters are always the solution. In the same way many cities make mulching and composting of yard waste easier through green bins that collect and streamline the work, I think larger, city-wide composting programs could make urban composting more efficient — and more popular, as more people are willing to separate out compostables for green bins than are willing to compost the compostables themselves. We’ve already got green bin programs for single-family homes, so why not make all the green bin programs around the L.A. area accept food waste — and expand the program to apartment buildings too?

At the very least, I think all L.A.-area farmers’ markets should offer compost drop-off programs — like some of the farmers’ markets in New York City do. That seems preferable and less wasteful than, say, equipping every small apartment dweller with a $300 Naturemill composter — or even a less expensive worm composter for the less wriggly-phobic.

In the meantime, I’m composting with the help of my neighbor. How about you? Do you share your compost bin?

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I’m taking the No Impact Experiment for the first week of January. Here’s Day 1: Consumption, Day 2: Trash, Day 3: Transportation, Day 4: Food, Day 5: Energy, and Day 6: Water.

Pretty much every year, I make a New Year’s resolution to volunteer more for environmental causes. This may seem an altruistic desire, but honestly, the main reason I want to volunteer is that I think it’ll make me happier — with a feel-good sense of achievement, deeper sense of community, and a cleaner environment to live in.

So far, I’ve never followed through on that goal.

It’s not that I don’t volunteer. I pitch in for the occasional event, like showing up for Hands Across the Sand (above) or the occasional beach cleanup. It’s just that volunteering is not a consistent practice for me. I feel great after I volunteer — and I think if I volunteered consistently, I would benefit consistently — perhaps exponentially.

Yet I still don’t volunteer regularly. Last year, I even signed up for American Express’ Members Project — a joint project with TakePart that lets cardmembers earn rewards points for volunteering — to goad myself on (full disclosure: I consult for American Express’ ZYNC card). That sign-up meant I got an email from the Members Project every couple weeks — nice reminders that, after feeling a quick pang of guilt, I deleted.

But after reading about Carlo Garcia and his Living Philanthropic project, I got more serious about giving back — and finally made a more concrete volunteering new year’s resolution goal for 2011: To volunteer for an environmental cause once a month. Of course I didn’t get on that right away — but luckily, No Impact Challenge’s Saturday topic — Giving back: Pay it forward. Feel the benefits of service — made me get on it.

So I finally went back to exploring the Members Project site — and plugged in my city into the not-that-search-friendly search engine to find volunteer programs near me. The top result: volunteering with the The Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition, either cooking for or serving food to neighbors in need.

Serendipitously, I’d been reading “American Wasteland” (expect a review soon) about how the U.S. creates a lot of environmental waste by throwing away about half its food — even while a huge chunk of our country’s population goes hungry. The Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition was a place that was offering a partial solution, since it collected its food from local eateries and grocery stores like La Brea Bakery and San Vicente Market — perfectly good food that would have otherwise have gone to waste. I shot an email over asking if I could volunteer just once a month (the Coalition serves food every day, rain or shine), and quickly got a welcoming email with all the volunteering details.

My first volunteer session will be next week. I’ll report back to share how that goes. What about you? Do you regularly volunteer for an environmental organization or cause? If not, do you plan to start this year?

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I’m taking the No Impact Experiment for the first week of January. Here’s Day 1: Consumption, Day 2: Trash, Day 3: Transportation, Day 4: Food, and Day 5: Energy.

After having such a proud moment over my electric bill, I kind of wish I also had a water bill. Unfortunately, water’s included in my rent — so I’m unable to tell how much water I actually use.

But for yesterday’s No Impact Experiment topic — Water: Soak up the personal benefits of using less water — I calculated my water footprint at Waterfootprint.org. My score: 1172 cubic meter per year — compared to 2483 for the average American.

Twice as water-efficient is good, but since my electricity use was a tenth that of the average American, I was a bit disappointed. But after closer examination, I’ve come to the conclusion that the problem is not me, but the calculator.

Why? Waterfootprint.org’s calculator has some quirks — that go beyond asking for the weight of your food in kilograms, not pounds. The calculator splits your water footprint into three areas — food, domestic (water use inside the home), and industrial (everything else). Now, the rough food calculation has some imperfections, since the number’s calculated simply by asking me for the amount of each type of food eaten without considering the fact that my organic, mostly local food may have a lower water footprint. The domestic water footprint is similarly rough.

But the industrial number is roughest of all, simply giving you a figure based entirely on the money you spent in a year! What if I’d spent a lot of my money on water-saving gadgets and on donations to water charities? (I didn’t, but you get my point)

Still, the water footprint calculator’s a good educational tool that reminds people there’s a water cost not only to the water used in the home, but to the food they eat and the things they buy. What is your water footprint?

Update, 1/10/11: Don’t miss the rest of the No Impact Experiment series! Here’s Day 1: Consumption, Day 2: Trash, Day 3: Transportation, Day 4: Food, Day 5: Energy, Day 6: Water and Day 7: Give back.

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I’m taking the No Impact Experiment for the first week of January. Here’s Day 1: Consumption, Day 2: Trash, Day 3: Transportation, and Day 4: Food.

Before I moved, the utilities for my apartment were included in my rent. That meant all my energy-saving efforts — from cleaning out my fridge coils to installing Practecol switches to simply turning out lights when I wasn’t using them — didn’t reap any financial benefits.

So when I moved to West Hollywood, I was kind of excited — to be paying for electricity. I’m a curious person. I wanted to see just how much electricity I was using — or not using!

I am proud to say my last month’s Southern California Edison bill came to just $5.03. I used just 35 kWh in December!

Of course, I had to see how my energy usage compared to the average American. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, “the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 11,040 kWh, an average of 920 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per month.” However, I live alone, while the average American household is made up of 2.59 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Calculated per person, the average American burns through 355 kWh a month — which means I use up a tenth of the energy the average American does!

This is despite the fact that I work from home — which means my wireless router and laptop (with energy-saving settings) are sipping up energy all day long, along with my mini-fridge. However, those are the only things I have plugged in at all most days. All kitchen appliances (except the fridge) remain unplugged, as do the printer, stereo, cell phone charger, and a few other electronics, except when in use.

And at night, everything’s turned off and totally cut off from sucking vampire energy with the help of Practecol switches — the computer, the wireless gateway, and — believe it or not — the mini-fridge, because in my tiny studio apartment, the thing makes too much noise when I’m trying to sleep.

Yes, I have energy-efficient light bulbs too. I have exactly three bulbs — two CFLs, and an even more efficient LED bulb for the closet.

I get an extra reward for using less energy. Southern California Edison’s tier system means that those who use less pay less per kWh. You can see from the handy chart SoCal Edison puts on each bill (delivered and paid for electronically sans paper, of course) that I’m in the low end of the “tier 1″ pricing level.

After comparing my energy usage to other Americans, I felt so awesome about myself that I declared yesterday’s No Impact Challenge topic — Energy: Replace kilowatts with ingenuity — conquered for now. I mean, my next steps would be somehow rigging up solar panels in my apartment complex or getting rid of the mini-fridge altogether or inventing a solar-powered laptop — and I’m not ready to go there yet.

In addition to just bragging, I hope I’m making clear in this post that switching out light bulbs and turning off electronics when not in use and preventing vampire power loss really do make a difference — both for the environment and your pocketbook. How are your own energy-savings efforts going? And do you have any not-too-far-out advice for me so I can get my bill to under $5 a month in 2011?

Update, 1/10/11: Don’t miss the rest of the No Impact Experiment series! Here’s Day 1: Consumption, Day 2: Trash, Day 3: Transportation, Day 4: Food, Day 5: Energy, Day 6: Water and Day 7: Give back.

Update, 1/12/11: For the skeptical, here’s another snapshot of my electricity bill.

Photo by AZAdam

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I’m taking the No Impact Experiment for the first week of January. Here’s Day 1: Consumption, Day 2: Trash, and Day 3: Transportation.

I used to have my green eating habits all set up. I had a box of local organic produce delivered to my door — and could supplement that delivery with a short walk to my local farmers market, Co-opportunity, or Whole Foods, all of which offered local produce with clearly-marked origins — fresh, loose, and packaging free.

Then I moved to West Hollywood.

Moving’s tough after you’ve lived somewhere for a few years, carefully settling into an eco-routine. Now, the produce delivery company’s gone out of business, the local farmers market is 2.5 miles away (I no longer have my bike, as I mentioned yesterday), and the local grocery options are Pavilions and Trader Joe’s. To be fair, both those stores offer organic produce — if you’re satisfied with a very limited, non-local, unnecessarily overpackaged, and, in the case of Pavilions, frightfully overpriced selection.

Good local organic food was my main justification for my weekly fossil-fuel burning trips to Santa Monica. There I loaded up on bulk organic fair trade coffee, organic California brown rice, and all sorts of organic beans and nuts. That said, I wasn’t buying that much produce even though I could carry it home in a car — because my new tiny apartment only has a mini-fridge. With the amount of produce I go through on a daily basis, what I can fit into the mini-fridge only lasts me a half a week at most.

In any case, I nixed those carbon-intensive weekly trips as of Tuesday — which means I needed to get more creative for yesterday’s No Impact Challenge: Food!

Luckily, I was recently introduced to the Melrose Place Farmers Market on Sundays — which isn’t in West Hollywood, but is nonetheless closer to my place. However, that market’s still a little over a mile away — a too-long distance to carry more than a couple days’ worth of produce.

But I’ll start there for now, making sure to make the trip every Sunday. I’m also going to get a CSA delivery or organic produce delivery — a regular CSA subscription’s not possible because I can’t find one with a pickup location I can walk to and from while carrying a large bag of produce.

And though I’m done with weekly trips to Co-opportunity, I’m still planning to make monthly trips on the second Tuesday of each month, when Co-opportunity offers a 10% discount to members. That’s when I’ll stock up on all my bulk grains and beans and fair trade coffee, to keep it all packaging-free.

What I’m trying to point out with this whole exercise: Eating local and healthy can be easy, and traveling green can be relatively easy too. But eating local and healthy while traveling green — if you don’t have a bike — can be a serious challenge, due to the simple weight of the produce involved.

One thing I’ve noticed with L.A. eco-foodies is that they often choose to ignore their own fossil-fuel intensive travel miles, while getting almost fanatically obsessed with the travel miles incurred by food items before they’re bought — and loaded into their cars. This despite the fact that solo driving is the worst kind of travel miles, far worse than the travel miles incurred by trucks and ships that move a lot of food for a lot of people in one go.

When you go food shopping, what do you tend to focus on first? Car-free accessibility? Fair trade? Locally-grown creds? Plastic packaging-free status? Organic certification?

Earlier:
>> Organic produce delivery in L.A.
>> Organic fruits and veggies, simplified
>> Organic meals, delivered in Los Angeles

Update, 1/10/11: Don’t miss the rest of the No Impact Experiment series! Here’s Day 1: Consumption, Day 2: Trash, Day 3: Transportation, Day 4: Food, Day 5: Energy, Day 6: Water and Day 7: Give back.

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