March 8, 2008 by Julie.

Two people Mark connected with by phone before we got to Atlanta were Mandy Schmitt and Lynnette Young, both wonderful resources and great speakers for the environment. We interviewed Mandy and joined her for dinner, and then saw her again the very next day during our moving interview with Lynnette Young at Dynamic Dish (another all organic, mostly local, mostly vegan establishment), where owner/Chef David Sweeney gave us a moment. We were fortunate to get a few words from Rashid Nuri (Truly Living Well natural urban farms) who was dropping off collard greens to the kitchen. Rashid kindly accepted our offer of compost from the car (thank you, Rashid!) (The TLW website is so cool - Go see how they make little garden farms out of regular urban spaces, like people’s backyards!) And we also met James Harris, who owns Harris & Clark - a high-end boutiqe grocery located in the incredibly beautiful sustainable community of Serenbe, just south of Atlanta.

There was still an hour or so left of daylight when we rolled onto the picturesque roads of the planned community of Serenbe. We met Garnie Nygren at the Blue-Eyed Daisy Cafe where we downed warm brownies and milk. Garnie explained to us how her parents bought the farm, not sure what they were going to do with it, but knowing that they wanted to preserve as much land as possible, and possibly build homes for people looking to live in harmony with the planet. They searched the USA for a model of sustainable development that married conservation and thriving community but didn’t find one they liked so they went ahead and designed their own.

The Serenbe approach to land conservation and neighborhood development is different than most “sustainable” communities we have come across. Serenbe wants to build a network of real neighbors, not the usual isolationist suburbia. The biggest difference to me in the way land is used is that the houses are built right next to each other, no yards, and share an amazing unspoiled forest as their backyard. Each home has a lovely open front porch, inviting owners outside, everything is within walking distance, (parking behind the homes)… Here, everyone’s back door opens into this wonderful woods, and further connections are made by walking paths and trails…I have to mention this again - The houses are built green and super close together and the preserved greenspace is SHARED by everyone. Garnie says that 70% of the land is being preserved as greenspace that way. It is beautiful and very exciting to see. There are even stables and a working CSA on site!

The other aspect that Serenbe has going for it, in my opinion, is that it has a relatively diverse bunch of folks starting to live there. Not that there is anything wrong with crunchy granola, tofu, Birkenstocks and braids, but not everyone feels comfortable in a totally hippie environment. Serenbe seems to have found residents who really care about the environment but who also might like to clean up and get into the city for a night at the opera… It appeals to the cosmopolitan part of me that loves all of the fine things in life…not just the natural world…

One neighborhood is completely finished and the next is being built right now. A third is in the design phase. Garnie told us that there will be more little neighborhoods within the Serenbe community but that there is no real rush - they will unfold as time goes by. She says she can’t wait for us to return in a year and a half to see the 2nd neighborhood completed and thriving. Sounds like a lovely invitation that we can hardly pass up. *Note: While Serenbe may not be affordable to people like myself, I think that its concept is cool and important and well-worth being repeated. Just maybe for some slightly less-wealthy folks. In case this intrigues anyone, there is also a B&B at Serenbe for further investigation..

OH! HEY! before we left Atlanta, the Weather Channel found YERT! They interviewed us on the street about the journey, for tomorrow’s episode of “Forecast Earth.” We have no idea how much airtime we’ll have but we are pretty excited for Your Environmental Road Trip’s National TV debut! Tune in to the Weather Channel tomorrow at 7pm, or Sunday at 5 and 7pm.

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March 4, 2008 by Julie.

Back in November, as Ben, Mark and I stood rolling tape and taking photos of shrinking Lake Walker and Lake Meade near sad Hoover Dam, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue called for Georgians to come out and join him in a prayer for God to send rain. I guess I don’t see anything wrong with that except that this is the same governor whose water conservation advice to citizens was to Avoid stepping out of the shower to make a phone call…

So, back to the issue at hand, Georgia: Water. It must have been September when we first started hearing about the drought in the Southeast, and specifically the decline of Lake Lanier in Georgia. Usually, during the winter, the lake rises by about 9 feet but, according to Shanna Udvardy, of Georgia Conservancy, this winter the lake has only been replenished by about a foot. And yet, the government has reinstated yard watering. Is this the right message? Udvardy wonders, especially when coming housing developments are expected to use up to 60% more water than today’s average homes…Here is a nice example of a yard that went thirsty this year due to the drought, right next to one that didn’t…hmmm…

On Monday, Chattanooga mayor Ron Littlefield declared Feb 26th “Give our Friends in Georgia a Drink Day,” and sent an aide down to the City Hall in a coonskin cap with a truckload of Tennessee bottled water…Ben called our friend Richard, at the Chattanooga mayor’s office to ask how it went over. (They weren’t sure yet.) We made an exception to our rules and bought a bottle of water from a Tennessee bottling company to give to Rob Hunter, Water Commissioner for the city of Atlanta. He accepted our offer and asked us to relay a message: If the Mayor of Chattanooga wants to send over some FLEETS of trucks with bottled water, Atlanta would make sure that parking spaces were available. Seriously, though, Hunter feels that the most important understanding people of GA can have is that How we use and conserve water in our daily lives has to change…forever, from here on out.

Meanwhile, Clayton Co, GA has not been suffering the drought like other GA counties have. Mike Thomas, General Mgr for Clayton County Water Authority, said that their approach to water planning was born of necessity, back in the 70’s. 4000 acres of mostly-forested land was purchased and, in the 80’s, a reservoir and pump station built, with over 300 miles of pipeline and 20,000 sprinklers, to irrigate forests to catch water. After awhile, it was discovered that this practice was “not quite sustainable on Piedmont clay soil” so Clayton Co went back to the drawing board and came up with a new solution: wetlands. Thomas says the switch has worked wonders, and they have the added benefit of increasing bird population! Who says you can’t have your water and feed birds too???

Back to prayer, as it were.
Along with the obvious 16 month+ drought that has been pinching Georgia this year, the other issue we have been following with interest, and were happy to focus on in the peachtree state, is the happy combination of treehugging and religion!

The role that faith-based organizations have begun to play in environmental sustainability is encouraging, to say the least. Looking forward to finding out more about this fairly new and important development, we drove to Little Five Points in Atlanta to talk to Katy Hinman. To Katy, a “bat biologist in a former life,” the move from chiroptology to Seminary seemed, to her, a completely natural progression. Her position as Director of Georgia Interfaith Power and Light gives her the opportunity to help people make the natural connection between being good stewards and being faithful followers, a role which she relishes. “Creation care,” as she calls it, is very much a part of most great religious philosophies, and some reference can be found in every text, without having to dig too deeply. Even the mountains are said to praise God in the Scriptures, she says. How can that be when we are blowing them up for money, polluting the water, the land and the air? (Ben remembered a comment from our Vineyard friend in Idaho who said that when the Christ comes he wants to be caught with his hands dirty, tending the Garden, not sitting there doing nothing to care for His Creation.)

When we asked Katy what she could personally do to be more “green,” she said she could probably be a vegetarian but she thinks she needs her strength as she has taken up a new sport. Katy is now one of the Atlanta Rollergirls. Awesome. I can’t wait till she gets her clergy robes and we can see her perform as the Pastor of Disaster.

*Ben and Mark also talked to Dr. Michael Battle of ITC (Interdenominational Theological Center) about TheoEcology, which i sadly missed due to pregnancy sleep-in. They said the interview was wonderful. The website looks totally cool.

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March 4, 2008 by Julie.

I’ve long been curious about the town of Athens, GA, mostly bc it’s the birthplace of the B52’s and REM, two of my favorite bands growing up. We did not see Michael Stipe. But we did stop long enough to see how a little company called Eprida is sequestering carbon by converting different kinds of biomass into charcoal, then using the charcoal as a soil supplement (it is extremely slow to break down but immediately improves the soil). Additionally, the process captures the resulting waste smoke and steam, turning it into syngas, and hydrogen (for energy), among other things. I confess I do not completely understand what happens in this process, so I am including an interesting charcoal-to-syngas link in case it might provide some clarity for those who are interested in finding out more…

Rebecca Oglesby met us and showed us around, explaining that all is still in the research phase at their facility but, as they move forward, she hopes this will become a viable technology for small-scale farmers who are looking for better ways to improve soil and who are concerned about CO2 emissions and our changing climate. Rebecca also pointed us to the whole BIOCHAR community, called the International Biochar Initiative, that is always working to find more beneficial, sustainable uses for charcoal…

After a short demonstration of how “Bertha,” the charcoal-making machine, does her thing, and some cool audio recording of Bertha’s whistles, clanks, and hoots, Rebecca sent us off in the direction of downtown Athens and an eatery called Farm 255, which is local in every sense of the word, sourcing about 75% of its food from its own organic farm. We enjoyed a delicious dinner there and got to talk to one of the founding owners about some of the challenges of turning your love of organic farming into a thriving business. Yum.

next stop: Atlanta!

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