Planting a school garden

Sustainable Danville Area Tip of the Month – May, 2013

By Cindy Egan and Marilyn Lucey, Co-Chairs Green Your School Summits

Spring has finally sprung, the days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer and it is time to plant our summer gardens.  Planting a garden is a wonderful way to teach our children about how vegetables grow and how to be responsible for caring for a garden patch.  Although many of us have room in our yards for a small garden, some of us aren’t able to support a vegetable garden at home.  If you have a student attending one of the 35 schools in San Ramon Valley Unified School District (SRVUSD) it is possible that you and your child can get involved with the garden at their campus.

The benefits of school gardens are many.  “Tending to new plants teaches children responsibility and teamwork. It provides an opportunity to bring science, math, social studies, and language and visual arts to life through hands-on learning. Vegetable gardens let children taste the wonders of fresh food. In addition, parents, students and teachers can all enjoy the growing feeling of community that comes from sharing a new adventure“, says Marika Bergsund of GrowingGreat.org.  This organization is a great resource for planning a garden and for standards based curriculum.

Currently, 15 of the schools in our district have or are starting a garden on campus.  These gardens vary in size and are used for a variety of purposes including science projects, sources of food for culinary classes, and for donations to the local food bank.  Greenbrook Elementary has a California state award winning organic and watershed wise garden that offers lunchtime education activities and donates fruits and vegetables to the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano Counties.  Charlotte Wood Middle School has a garden used primarily by Judy Kerns, the culinary arts teacher and graduate of Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard program. These are just a few examples of how our schools are using gardens in the classroom and beyond.

While it is great that there are so many schools with a garden program, there are 20 schools that currently don’t have a garden.  If that includes the school your children attend, you can get involved by talking to the PTA, teachers and administrators about starting one.   Most of our campuses have room for a small garden but teachers need assistance with the manpower to build the beds and then plant and maintain the garden.   Sustainable Danville Area’s Green Your Schools Summit organizers Cindy Egan and Marilyn Lucey can advise you on how to start and maintain a garden program.

The Green Your Schools committee of Sustainable Danville Area is working with the Wellness Committee of SRVUSD to coordinate with the schools that have gardens and to encourage more schools to start gardens.   In April, we hosted a meeting at a local nursery where teachers and parents learned about suitable organic vegetable choices for the climate in the Danville area.  We were inspired with ideas to incorporate native plants and organic fruit and vegetable plants in our garden.  Here are some of favorites to try:

• Golden muscat, red flame or table grapes on an arbor or fence -  delicious to pick and eat when ripe.
• Alpine strawberry – grow in a hanging pot or at the edge of the bed so the berries trail off the side, sweeter than most strawberries,
• Microgreens – grow in a 2 inch deep flat, great project for kids
• Dwarf citrus – grow these in barrels or as shrubs, yes, as shrubs instead of trees so that kids can pick the fruit easily
• Herbs – variegated mint bush and lime thyme are great for cooking, wonderful sensory smell experience and are natural pest repellants
• Lavendar and Salvia – these drought tolerant plants are beautiful and attract our pollinator pals.

Along with plants and flowers blooming, the pest population that feed on our bounty can explode as well.  Here are some suggestions for integrated pest management:

• Interplant marigolds and alyssum amidst your vegetables
• Amend your soil with bloodmeal and moles, squirrels, gophers will stay away
• Set your traps for wasps and yellow jackets NOW in hopes of catching the queen early, if you catch the queen, you won’t have a problem with the army later
• Whitefly infestation?  Find the main host plant, bag it and toss it – do not compost it, then repeatedly treat the other affected plants with sprays of soapy water

Local nurseries like Sloat have a Growing Up Green program for teachers and school garden parents.  Sign up and you receive discounts on plants and an abundance of free, excellent advice.

In May, our meeting will focus on resources for gardens and developing feeder programs between our schools.  Students, teachers, parents from our SRVUSD schools are invited to share their green and garden programs.  We strongly encourage interested students to attend – our stewards of the future mean a lot to us and we want to make their contribution visible. The May meeting will be held on May 15^th at Dougherty Valley High School.  For more information on location and time, visit Sustainable Danville Area’s website and follow us on Facebook.

It’s Time for a Picnic

Sustainable Danville Area Tip of the Month – April 2013

By Cynthia Ruzzi, President Sustainable Danville Area

Just two days past Spring Equinox and Mother Nature has spring fever.  The poppies are flourishing along with so many other colorful blooms and even after what has proven to be our driest winter, our hills are green.  The sun is warm and my concentration is so poor; I had to ask for a deadline extension for submitting this month’s tip of the month.  This month’s column has more than just one Sustainable Tip of the Month, but it’s a picnic – a smorgasbord of ‘Where to Find Sustainable Tips’.

For almost three years, we have shared tips on everything from the benefits of biking, local food, sustainable landscaping to home energy diets, eco-travel, raising chickens and eco-friendly art supplies.  These articles are still available to you online from Danville Today News/Alamo Today News and on the Sustainable Danville Area website. 

Often, I’m asked to describe what sustainable living is and simply it’s ‘making choices that allow our resources to continue to be available for our children and their children’, ‘living as though there’s no Planet B’ and remembering that ‘Planet Earth is the only one with chocolate’.  With this in mind and in honor of Earth Day, celebrated worldwide on April 22nd by hundreds of millions of people in over 184 countries, here are some of our favorite places for information and tips to care for our corner of this wonderful planet.

Gardening:  Hands down the Contra Costa Master Gardeners have it ‘going on’. These trained volunteers are residents of local communities that provide University of California research-based horticultural information to the citizens of California. Besides engaging local lectures, their website is filled with tips for school gardens, edible gardens and drought and native landscaping.

Composting & Recycling:  Central Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority offers terrific information on where to recycle just about anything.  You’ll also find a calendar for composting workshops, including worm composting too.

PG&E:   Saving energy in your home is not just good for the planet, it’s good for your pocketbook. PG&E has great tools to track your electric and gas usage online and they make it easy to do a self-audit of your home energy to find and prevent energy loss.

Environmental Working Group  This powerhouse site is our ‘go-to’ place for everything from their cosmetic database, the Dirty Dozen list (which recommends the best fruits and vegetables to buy organic to avoid pesticides) and guides on sunscreens, home cleaners and other daily products.

Want more?  Well then, Picnic on the Green! The Town of Danville, The Danville Library and Sustainable Danville Area present the 3^rd Annual Town of Danville Earth Day Event on Saturday, April 20th 12pm – 4pm on the Town Green, in  the Danville Library, at the community center and the Village Theatre Art Gallery.

The Town of Danville Earth Day event is a free, fun and informative way for residents and visitors of all ages to learn about green building, sustainable landscape design, solar power, home energy efficient products, waste reduction, recycling, water conservation, hybrid and electrical vehicles and much more!

Pack your picnic or purchase lunch and snacks al fresco from La Boulange Bakery while enjoying music from local band, Other People’s Money.  Play with our Giant Earth Ball, visit with hybrid/electric car and electric bicycle owners and participate in popular hands-on activities at interactive booths, including:

•  Get ready to experience nature with Peanuts…Naturally! Fun, creative environmental crafts and activity stations presented by the Charles M. Schulz Museum.
• Plant a seed to start your summer vegetable garden with The Bounty Garden and Urban Farmers.
• Explore the Wonderful World of Worms and Composting for Busy People.
• Make an Earth Day pledge to reduce, re-use or recycle. See how Every Choice Counts and help the Earth Day Tree grow!  Everyone who adds a ‘leaf pledge’ will be entered into an hourly raffle to win a “Get Your Green On” reusable book bag.
• Afternoon speaker series will help you Green Your Home, Replace your Lawn with Drought Tolerant Plants and Enjoying Local, Organic Foods for a Healthy Planet.
• Be inspired at Story Time with special tales and eco-friendly ideas to celebrate the Earth all year.
• Measure your carbon footprint.Discover if solar energy is right for your home?
• Be dazzled by art from local students at the Earth Day Student Art Show in the Village Theatre Art Gallery. (Students: click here for  details to enter contest before 4/5/13)
• Try new veggies from Community Supported Agriculture Farms – Full Belly Farms & Doorstep Farmers.

Students from San Ramon Valley High School Environmental Club are hosting free bicycle parking for the event, so please consider two wheels or your feet as parking is limited for the event.  Hope to see you there!

The Essence of Herbs

Tip of the Month – March 2013 

By Joey Mazzera, Danville Area Sustainable Business Owner, Green Apple Acupuncture 

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) herbal medicine is at the root, so to speak, of achieving balance in the body. For thousands of years Chinese doctors have used nature and more specifically food as not only preventative but also active medicine. When we think of herbal medicine we tend to think of sticks, roots, flowers and maybe even some obscure animal parts. All of those do in fact make up the Chinese Pharmacopeia however everyday foods are also considered medicine. In TCM, dietary choices are the anchor of health and healing. As an acupuncturist people are always asking me about weight loss, a faster metabolism, and what specific foods they should be eating; The fact of the matter is how you eat is just as important as what you eat. Keep it simple and listen to your body.

Every body is a different machine that requires an individual and specific dietary plan. The TCM diet is very much a personalized approach to food and nutritional health. The foundation begins with eating fresh foods, eating as seasonally as possible and acknowledging how your body reacts to certain foods. Eating mindfully with intention can teach us how we are assimilating our foods and how we may need to change our dietary ways. The preparation of foods changes the energetic properties. For instance, a raw carrot may cause a different metabolic reaction than a baked carrot. Understanding what you need from an individual food will change the way you prepare it. For someone who can’t digest raw vegetables a light sauté may be the way to incorporate those important veggies. If someone runs too hot but still wants spicy food pairing that dish with something cooling in nature is a way to eat those spicy treats. When you start to look at foods as a balancing act you begin to understand how to create the perfect harmonious plate.

When we use food as medicine it is important to think of food in terms of energetics. All foods and herbs are composed of three elements – Energy, Movement, and Flavor.

The energy of foods relates to a foods ability to either create heat or act as a coolant. When a person generates too much heat in their body we can see things like hot, itchy skin issues or a hot red face. In these cases its beneficial for that person to eat foods cool in nature. Bamboo shoot, chrysanthemum (a staple Chinese herbs) and bananas all have a cooling effect on the body. Contrarily a person with arthritis that is exacerbated by a cold and damp day would do better with warm foods: pumpkin, onions, peppercorns, etc.

When we think of movement of foods we think in terms of guiding the “Qi” of certain foods. Food and herbs have the ability to move inward, outward, up and down. For example when at first sign of a cold you can make a strong cup of ginger and garlic tea in efforts to induce a sweat (an outward motion) to expel pathogens and help body recover from the cold more quickly.

Finally, there are five flavor categories that food falls into – salty, sour, bitter, sweet, and pungent. Each of these flavors has a specific action in your body and are often used in conjunction with each other to create a balanced meal. Understanding the flavor relationship can enhance your digestive assimilation of nutrients as well as help guide you to the food your body needs. The flavors of foods are often associated with specific organs and related processes.

Using food as medicine is a primal and instinctive way to get in touch with our bodies and reconnect with our health. Food should be fun and interesting and used a way to nourish not only our bodies but also our heart and souls. Bon appetite!

Sustainable Danville Area and The Danville Library present The Essence of Herbs on Thursday, March 21, 2013 at 6:30pm  at The Danville Library, Mt. Diablo Room 400 Front Street.  With Joey Erwin Mazzera, Green Apple Acupuncture a  Diplomat of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine with the NCCAOM and a licensed Acupuncturist with the state of California we’ll explore the five food categories and dozens of herbs that delight the senses, enhance food and your health.  For more information, visit www.sustainabledanville.com and follow us at www.facebook.com/sustainabledanvillearea

For Love of ….Chickens

Tip of the Month – February 2013 By Cynthia Ruzzi

To everything there is a season, even food. Incorporating seasonal, local, whole foods into your daily diet provides a healthy balance for you and the environment.  Eating vegetables and fruits soon after harvest maximizes the nutrients in the food.  Besides being better for the environment, seasonal, local food is usually more cost effective and generally tastes much better.  My husband and I certainly think so.

We love trying new, local foods and so, we were delighted when Jake, our 11 year old neighbor and self-professed Chicken Farmer invited me to learn more about ‘growing’ fresh, local eggs.  Jake has wanted to raise a brood of hens since 2^nd grade when he hatched chicks as a classroom project.   Roadie, J.J., Chevy, Hazel and Fluffy make up Jake’s clucking crew.  He started off with six chicks, but Scrambles was retired to a rural farm when one morning, the family heard crowing.  Apparently, crowing is the first identifier that a chick is a rooster and not a hen.  Danville keeps the peace by banning roosters within city limits.

Jake’s brood started laying eggs when they were just under 5 months old and will continue to offer eggs for about 2 years.  It takes a chicken 24 hours to produce an egg, and production is dependent on having at least 13 hours of daylight – so maximum production is 35 eggs per week. Jake basically knows which chicken has laid which egg because he has different breeds that lay different colored eggs; including a Rhode Island Red, two Brahmas and Hazel and Fluffy his Americana chickens.  These girls lay green eggs!  Yes, there really are green eggs – just like in the Dr. Suess book, Green Eggs and Ham.  The family picked these breeds because they can handle both our hot summers and cold, wet winters with aplomb. 

Jake spends between 10 – 30 minutes a day caring for his brood.  The chickens greet him when he opens the screen door to give them their feed or a special treat of cantaloupe (in season of course).  The girls mostly ignore the family when they sit out in the backyard.  Jake says the chickens have a great relationship with his cat, Nutmeg – especially since the chicks have grown larger than the cat.  Jake recommends adopting chickens all at one time to limit competition (pecking order) between the hens. 

Jake’s chickens have plenty of room to ‘eat local’ roaming around a large part of the backyard eating bugs.  Thanks to Jake’s dad, Chris, these hens have a chicken palace to rival anything offered in the William Sonoma catalog.  Chris admits he didn’t save much money ‘DYI’ – though he used reclaimed wood for all the construction.  Chris said one of the most important architectural elements for the coop is to include lots of ventilation in the design and to secure on all sides, including underneath the coop, to protect from raccoons and other predators.

As a ‘parting gift’ – or perhaps in exchange for the chocolate chip cookies I brought with me, Jake gave me eggs that were laid that day.  Excited, I picked some spinach from my garden and cooked up a simple omelet that very night.  Can you get more seasonal or local than that?

At EMBRACING THE SEASON FOR A HEALTHY, BALANCED DIET, Sustainable Danville Area’s forum – February 20^th forum 6:30pm – 8:00pm  Veterans Memorial Building  400 Hartz Avenue – you’ll learn how to savor local flavors from our guest speakers as they talk about the inspiration they gain by embracing the seasons.  Sebastian Miller, Executive Chef of Piatti’s Danville, is known for bringing contemporary flavors to the plate using seasonal, local ingredients prepared in a simple, unpretentious manner.  Sebastian reveals how he creates the ever changing ‘market menu’ at Piatti’s and how you can do the same at home.  Angela Stanford, Registered Dietitian and Holistic Food & Nutrition Advisor, Vital Nutrition & Wellness, holistic approach to eating combines 20 years of working in the food and health industries with roots on her family farm and love for cooking and organic gardening. For more information, visit www.sustainabledanville.com and join us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/sustainabledanvillearea).

Reprinted with permission from Danville Today News

Want to learn how to raise your own chickens?  Check out Papa John’s Chicken-Raising Workshops in Lafayette.

Chicken-Raising Workshops with Papa John
February & March Raising chickens has never been easier. The popular workshops with Papa John Keifer are the best way to get started. Close to 300 people have attended in the past three years. Classes are on Sundays from 1-3:30 (2/10, 2/17, 3/2).  Free, but registration is required.See more information on our Chicken Workshop flyer or email Papa John at khkiefer@comcast.net.

Food For Thought

Tip of the Month – January 2013   By Cynthia Ruzzi

Food For Thought   Having just concluded the ‘Thanks-ukah-mas-year’ eating fest, many of us are facing the first week of our New Years’ resolution to stop eating convenience foods filled with empty calories, fats and chemicals. Perhaps our indulgence – or hard work – during the holiday makes us shy away from the thought of more family meals, but it is now more important than ever to eat together.

Eating as a family weaves the fabric of the relationship.   With everyone in the family heading in different directions during the day, family meals at home are a perfect time to work together to enjoy simple pleasures and connect on a regular basis. Family meals provide more than enhanced nutrition.  A shared family meal provides nourishment, comfort and support for those we love. Our children learn about the world every day from many sources and the dinner table is a perfect opportunity to provide a routine time to share within a family space.  Celebrate your family and come together at your table to explore family culture, food, teach your children dining and conversational social skills and get in touch.

Eating as a family is less expensive, more efficient and healthier.  Avoiding convenience foods and cooking at home is often more economical, healthy and tasty. Serving organic, fresh foods that are minimally processed and locally sourced guarantee improved nutrition and because they have more natural flavor, whole food can be prepared simply – saving time in the kitchen.  Incorporating herbs, vegetables and fruit from your garden or the farmers’ market enables a child to learn about where our food comes from.  You’d be surprised how much broccoli a kid will eat when the child has tended and picked it themselves.

Eating as a family teaches children food sustainability.  As part of the evenings’ blessing and discussion take time to recognize where the food on our table comes from to encourage understanding and appreciation of the bounty.  Few of us know where bananas come from or have traveled the distance one has to take to come to our table.  Exploring the origin of foods as part of the evening meal provides an opportunity to discuss everything from farming, to manufacturing, packaging and even disposal – or hopefully, composting.

Eating as a family takes practice.  With every new practice, there are sure to be some difficulties and adjustments.  Professionals say that the less time a family spends eating together at home, the more awkward those first few experiences will be, so first, try setting a goal for two times a week. Here’s two suggestions critical for success:

• Turn off the mobile/texting devices.  View the family meal as a time to ‘plug into each other’ and avoid the distraction of phone calls and text messages that remind everyone of the world beyond the family.
• Get the whole family involved in the planning, shopping and preparation.  Learning to plan, shop and cook a meal are invaluable skills for children when they leave home.  You’d be surprised how impressed girls will be when your son cooks a meal instead of going to a restaurant for a date.  Engaging everyone in the shopping helps each member appreciate what food costs.  Even young children can be helpful in the kitchen given a little direction. You’d be surprised how quickly the time flies when all hands are engaged making a family dinner.

Sustainable Danville Area feels so passionately about food that along with The Danville Library we present a three-part speaker series FOOD FOR THOUGHT to nourish our spirit, our mind, our body and the environment.  Our January talk Get Your Family Back to the Table – with Real Food – January 23^rd 6:30pm at Veterans Memorial Building 400 Hartz Ave. brings you two speakers: Heather Clapp, Co-owner of Jules Organic Thin Crust Pizza who understands there’s time when you need to eat outside the home without forgoing nutrition. Heather, dedicated to educating her three active boys on where real food comes from, will provide inspiration to create organic vegetarian meals that will sustain and nourish your entire family and Lisa Evaristo, Co-owner of Back to the Table Cooking & Baking School, also a parent of three children, teaches families that spending time cooking together, then sitting down and sharing a great meal is where the magic happens.

Food is also the topic of our first 2013 Green Your School Summit.  Join us January 15^th 4pm at SRVHS, special guest, Town of Danville Mayor Newell Arnerich kicks off the afternoon with speakers, Cindy Gershen, Founder of Wellness City Challenge and Dominic Machi, Director of Food Services, SRUVSD.  Cindy will share the importance of nourishing our children with whole, healthy food and Dom will update us on “What’s Cooking in the Lunchroom”.  For more information, visit events on http://www.sustainabledanville.com or join us on Facebook.

Reprinted with permission from Danville Today News

 

 

Let There Be Light

Tip of the Month – December 2012 By Cynthia Ruzzi, President

Could that be the inspiration for the many holiday lights that fill our community throughout the season?  Or perhaps it’s just our resistance to the daylight savings time change, plunging us into the dark an hour earlier each winter evening.  Whatever the reason, the post-season electric bill is probably the one gift you wish you could return.

While I’d like to recommend you consider saving the energy and hours of untangling and hanging thousands of blubs outside your house, I don’t really want to take the chance of becoming known as the ‘Environmental Scrooge’.  So instead, may I suggest you trade-in your outdated incandescent holiday lights and ‘deck the halls’ with LED holiday lights?

Switching to LED lights can mean a higher initial investment, but the real savings comes from reducing your holiday energy costs.  As this year’s holiday advertisements rolled in, I noticed many stores offering trade-in and discounts on LED holiday lights.  Do a little legwork, comparison shop wisely and you’ll save yourself some green for your pocket. Also, don’t forget to look for sales after the holiday – it’s a great way to gain additional savings for your holiday wonderland.

A quick search on the Internet points to a multitude of cost savings models demonstrating what can be realized by switching from incandescent bulbs to LED lights.  Most comparisons start with the assumptions that the average home holiday light display contains at least 500 light bulbs (a conservative estimate for some spirited neighborhood competitors), that the light strings are turned on from sunset to bedtime (6 hours per night), and that the season lasts a minimum of 30 days.  In the average holiday light string each incandescent bulb (C7) uses 6 watts.  When we compare the LED bulbs usage of .08 watt each, it’s not hard to imagine the savings boost for your holiday decorating fever.  So not to completely bore you with the price of kilowatt hours in the PG&E 3, 4 and 5 tiers, let me just say that the larger your holiday light tradition, the more dollars there is to save.

If saving green for your pocket or ‘doing good’ for the planet isn’t your thing, then consider that LED lights are more durable and safer to run than incandescent lights.  LED bulbs generate less heat improving the life span of your holiday twinkle.  You can expect LED light strings to last up to 100,000 hours – using our assumptions above at 180 hours a season – your LED lights will outlast Santa! The limited heat output of LED bulbs that contribute to their lifespan also provide safer illumination.  Definitely worth considering as you trim your family Christmas tree this year.

Of course, there are advantages of LED lighting over traditional bulbs and CFLs beyond the holiday season.  While incandescent 100-watt bulbs have been phased out throughout the US, the cost savings of replacing these inefficient blubs still in your home with LED or CFL is over 75% energy savings.  PG&E has a simple efficiency chart online that shows the watts for different bulbs at various lumens (brightness) which can be found at http://www.pge.com/myhome/saveenergymoney/rebates/light/products/index.shtml.

As a honest disclosure, I am not a big fan of CFL bulbs.  Each of these bulbs contains a small amount of mercury which means used bulbs must be treated as hazardous waste.  That means it is against the law to put these bulbs in your landfill or recycling bins. Instead, please bring them to your local Ace Hardware or Home Depot that as a courtesy to their customers, will properly dispose of your residential CFL bulbs. Also, PG&E has a fact sheet, Recycling CFLs: What You Need to Know http://www.pge.com/includes/docs/pdfs/myhome/saveenergymoney/rebates/factsheet_recyclingcfls.pdf including important information about proper clean-up procedures for broken CFL lights.  Please keep your family safe and follow these valuable instructions.

Sustainable Danville Area hopes the joy of connecting with your family, friends and neighbors over simple meals and activities will light your holiday season and all the days of the New Year.  As ‘tradition’, there will not be a forum in December, so that we can devote time to our loved ones.

We hope to see you next year, when The Danville Library and Sustainable Danville Area host a three-part speaker series, FOOD FOR THOUGHT, to nourish your spirit, feed your mind and body and help the environment. For more information, please visit us at www.sustainabledanville.com  and on Facebook.

Reprinted with permission from Danville Today News

 

ECO-TRAVEL, FAR OR NEAR

Tip of the Month – November 2012

By Cynthia Ruzzi, President, Sustainable Danville Area

Often the telltale sign of a person’s recent vacation is the burnish on their face from the suntan they acquired during their travels.  Last week, renewing my car insurance with local Danville Area Sustainable Business, William White Allstate, I couldn’t help but notice owners Bill and Teresa had a glow that went beyond the color on their face.  Teresa explained to me that their family had just returned from an eco-tour to Borneo, Malaysia.

The family chose to spend their vacation visiting the tropical rainforest as Teresa shared, “As a family we have a balanced perspective on environmental protection – we’re definitely not tree-huggers – but we wanted to visit Borneo because rainforests offer so much to people and our planet.  We wanted to learn more about the impact irresponsible development has on endangered species both within the forest and the surrounding ocean”.  The Whites’ avid scuba divers who have long practiced “taking pictures, but leaving only bubbles,” applied the same philosophy to their land-based eco-tour.  This time they “hiked the miles, left no trace – except the smile on their face”.

While rainforests absorb a great deal of carbon dioxide from the air, help make rainfall and are home to more than half of the worlds’ plants and animals, I wondered if this was the cause of Bill and Teresa’s collective glow?  Bill chimed in that their time spent together in Borneo was other-worldly filled with animals, birds and plants that they had never imagined.  Bill shined, “it was really meeting and talking with local people and learning some of their customs that was most humbling and heart-warming”.

With the holiday season just around the corner, and my husband and I eschewing ‘things for the sake of things’, I had to ask – what is eco-tourism?  Eco-tourism, along with eco-travel, responsible tourism, sustainable tourism and a bunch of other expressions commonly used, defines travel that is environmentally, socially, culturally and economically aware, that strives to appreciate, to nurture and enhance – not exploit – the visited destination.

A search on the Internet brings up numerous examples of ‘green-washing’ within the travel industry, with every other hotel chain touting a green veneer to market their weak sustainability efforts to gain sales. Organic shampoo and body wash, but offered in mini-plastic bottles?  Honestly?  Due diligence is necessary to research the tour operations before committing to your trip. Write or call to ask direct questions about the tour company’s ecological practices, lodging, activities, transportation and how they involve local communities and economies.

While eco-tourism doesn’t necessarily mean roughing-it, it is important to understand how water, heating, food and transportation are supplied for visitors’ convenience.  What measures do your accommodations take to reduce waste and conserve local resources?  How do they heat water and provide electricity?  The Rainforest Lodge in Borneo, where the Whites’ stayed, is an ‘off-the-grid’ lodge hosting a maximum of 60 guests.  Solar panels connected to batteries provide most of the electricity and full-house nighttime demands are met by various staff members hopping on bicycles (guest participation is optional) rigged to generate additional power.   Teresa assured me that this unique system was reliable and that we have more electrical blips locally then experienced at the lodge.

When visiting local sights, does the tour company use low-impact forms of transportation?  Often the best way to experience someplace new is to take the bus or the train and meet the people. Respect the customs and try the food. However beware that endangered species may be on the menu without your knowledge, so in preparation check with local conservation organizations to know what to avoid.  Bill and his family believe to gain the best experience from an eco-tour one must also be a good eco-tourist.  Responsibility begins when you start to plan your trip.  Consider travel to World Heritage sites where conservation, nature and culture are the key attraction. Visit UNESCO World Heritage at http://whc.unesco.org/en/list and Protected Planet at www.protectedplanet.net to gather ideas before researching specific tours.  The International Union for Conservation of Nature has a useful top-ten list for eco-tourists at www.iucn.org/?uNewsID=7253.

For more ideas and tips on eco-tourism Sustainable Danville Area invites you to our Thursday, November 8^th forum, 6:00pm at San Ramon Valley High School Career Center, lower level of the administration building.  Our evening speakers, Judith Scott, Travel Consultant from Alamo World Travel and Tours & Alma Megeath, President Eco-Adventures along with hosts William White Allstate will have lots to share – including fun snacks and beverages.  For more information about Sustainable Danville Area and upcoming events, visit us at www.sustainabledanville.com and on Facebook.

Reprinted with permission from Danville Today News