The top and then the topper

It's been a few months since I blogged here on Gotta Say, and that is mostly due to the fact that I was busy blogging (and hiking with my kids, and having a great time!) for Appalachian Mountain Club all summer. That was a great experience, and I loved sharing my adventures with a wider audience via AMC. I hope that lots of people read the blog -- if not immediately, then later -- and decide they need to go try one of the places I wrote about.

So other than guilt at my extended absence from this, my own space, what brings me here today? A milestone, of sorts. I accomplished something I have been working toward for months: I rode my bike up a pair of hills that have daunted me for years, and which I vowed shortly after reintroducing myself to my bike last spring that I would conquer.

I started out assiduously avoiding all but the smallest hills, but I always knew I wanted to end up on this particular road, which has an outlook I often drive to when I'm waxing poetic about where I live. In fact, driving here -- where I would park at the top and pull out my bike to take other, slightly less aggressive, but equally visually stunning routes around the area -- turned out to be the best training I could have done. It gave me the view I wanted as motivation, and got me used to similar terrain but at my own pace.

There wasn't really anything special about today that made it the day. If I weren't a chronic overdoer, I probably would have stuck to the easy route, since I had a moderately aggressive hill ride a couple of days ago and should probably have been giving the quads a break. But nah...I was in use-it-or-lose-it mode, so once again, I parked at the top, but this time, I turned around and went down one of the hills, then tackled the other for the first real climb. And when I got to the top, I turned back and did it in reverse, trying not to think of how long the hill was and how steep the hill was and how quickly I lost my momentum once it flattened out before the second climb.

It probably aided my effort that I put this pair of hills at the beginning of my ride when the legs and lungs were both fresh. But that doesn't take away an iota of the happiness I felt when I knew I was going to make it all the way up without a break or a walk. And the view may be one I've seen dozens of times, but it was all the more spectacular knowing I had propelled myself there.

But this morning's cycling pleasures weren't nearly over. Like I said, those hills were just the start of my ride today, and I had plenty of vim and vigor left over, plus the high from having achieved my goal, so time for a nice, easy ride to enjoy the fall weather, right? Eh. Not entirely.

After the hilltop, I went down the other side to where I often trained for today's milestone, a nice ribbon of road that takes me to other challenging hills and nice scenery. If I'd stayed on that road itself, I could've just had a nice cruise admiring the foliage, but no. I turned the corner to the nearby wildlife refuge, which is nestled down in the back of the hills I'd just been on...down being the key word there. Way down.

As I bombed down the road into the refuge, I told myself, "Hey, no pressure...you did your bit today. If you have to walk it (and you probably will), that's fine." But it must've been my day to conquer stuff, generally, because I didn't have to walk it (though I did get off a couple of times to take a picture and catch my breath). Once more, the view was somehow that much more spectacular knowing I had earned it.

I geared down to casual tourist mode after that, and decided to scope out the orchard I'd been seeing signs for during the past few weeks' rides in that area. It was a nice winding road that first took me through the waning corn fields and then on down past the orchard into a quiet wood awash in yellow leaves, all the brighter for today's overcast sky.


On the way back up the road, I walked the bike up the orchard path and looked into the options for coming back with the boys later today. I had a nice meet and greet with a couple of horses from the neighboring stable and then a short chat with some fellow leaf-peepers who had made their way up to the orchard to admire the view too.

Then it was time to head home for lunch, after one last good hill push, happy with myself as I rarely am for having set a goal and reached it and kept on going. I'm on the lookout for that next hill...any suggestions?

 

Love my recycling listserv!

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How many containers can you stuff in a mini-van
with a passenger? In our case, the answer was 70.

Good things come in brackets: The mail I get from the [Recycle-MA] listserv is always worth a look. First, it's always a great place to get educated about the issues of concern to the people who make recycling happen in our state's towns and cities, whether it's nitty-gritty stuff like "where can I recycle ______ material?" or political topics like the expanded bottle bill or extended producer responsibility or waste-to-energy vs. zero waste.

For my town, the listserv just served up something that will have an immediate impact: a giant pile of free recycling containers! About a week and a half ago, I saw that listserv member Paul Degnan, of E.L. Harvey and Sons in Westboro, had posted an item about Dover Trucking having 100+ recycling bins it hoped could be reused when it switched its customers to another type of container.

Me (left) with Kelley Bassett of
Dover Trucking.

Having just been in dealings with my regional school district about its recycling efforts, I knew they could use these bins and called Dover Trucking's owner, Stephen Bassett, to see if the containers were still available. A few had been claimed, but there were plenty to go around. After working out the details last week with Stephen's wife Janice, I went to pick them up today, and got help loading up from the Bassetts' daughter Kelley. So from the Ayer-Shirley Regional School District, three cheers to Dover Trucking!

The entire experience was typical of the general atmosphere of goodwill that pervades the recycling community...everyone just wants to help everyone else. What's not to love? And it all started with the listserv, so thanks to the moderator(s), as well. Read those e-mails: you never know who might have the very thing/solution/experience you are looking for.

My dude with a bunch of dude-sized stacks of containers freshly delivered to his regional school district.

 

One scrappy, student-powered school composting program: Quabbin RHS

A program alum and current participants ready to play
in the dirt.

Several years back, I went to an environmental conference and ended up at a session that had to do with community gardens and composting. One of the presenters, if memory serves, was from Vermont and spoke about composting food scraps from school lunches. 

This was around 2009, and I was still a newbie in the environmental world, so the idea of a such a program seemed -- to me, anyway -- very cool, but also exotic and, well, Vermont-y. (It is the Green Mountain State.) 

That was before the proposed 2014 ban on food waste for institutions producing more than a ton a week...yes, coming our way right here in Massachusetts. The recycling community is talking about this issue plenty, with many wondering if it will really happen, and others wondering how they can get ahead of the curve.

Earlier this week, I trekked out to Barre and got a look at a school composting program that's been running since even before I went to that long-ago conference and is thriving in a way that even a few Vermont schools might envy. Even better, it's run chiefly by the program's students.

Bin there...
Quabbin Regional High School's Composting and Organic Gardening Program came to life in 2008, with a "very generous" initial grant from Waste Management, according to program founder Karen DiFranza. That's when students and a parent teamed up to build a 12X12-foot bin with four separate chambers for various phases and materials needed for the composting process.

This set of bins -- protected from weather and would-be rodent invaders -- is where students taking part in the composting program bring cafeteria waste to empty and mix with the right share of carbons (leaves, mostly donated to the school by the local DPW following town property cleanups). Here's what the different compartments hold: 

Karen DiFranza shows off the centerpiece
of the composting operation.

 

 

• this year's pile of food scraps mixed with leaves, just beginning the process
• compost that's further along, but not yet optimally broken-down
• material ready to use in the garden and on school grounds
• leaves for mixing in.

Ready-to-go compost.

A key to the program's success, DiFranza observes, is having student volunteers monitor the collection of scraps at lunchtime. Typically, a pair of students staff a table near where students offload recyclables and trash, and remind students of what can and can't go into the 5-gallon compost collection buckets. 


(Self) Sustainable gardening
Some school programs draw the line at composting food scraps to keep them out of the waste stream. Quabbin's program takes the next big step and uses the compost to
nourish a student-farmed community garden. Produce from the garden, from baby carrots to cherry tomatoes to a variety of herbs, is used by the high school's food service, sold at the local farmer's market and donated to the Barre food bank. 

The 25 students in the program work on a range of tasks, both in the garden and out. Besides weeding vegetable and herb beds and turning compost, and monitoring the scrap collection, students also gain other kinds of experience, such as making organic value-added products like lip balms, salves and essential oils, harvesting seeds, and designing logos and packaging for their merchandise. These products -- along with numerous grants -- make the program self-sustaining (DiFranza points out that it receives no school funding).

One of the most rewarding parts of the program, she notes, is getting kids to realize that the choices they make are all a part of the earth's cycle. "It's a real teachable moment," she says.

Karen DiFranza shares her expertise at conferences and as a consultant. You can contact her via her Web site, Hands to Earth. Learn more about Quabbin's program at http://www.quabbincompostingandgardening.org/quabbinhome.html.

Volunteer gig paves the way to dream job

Most people who have known me for more than five minutes know that I lean green, and that I am a cheerful recycling pest. A few weeks ago, I got a chance to go to MassRecycle's R3 Recycling & Organics Conference & Trade Show, where I hoped to broaden my circle of fellow recycling geeks and maybe even find a lead or two toward a new green career. I was also looking for good info to bring back to share with my own town's recycling committee.

The first conference session I sat in on was about free ways to promote town and municipal recycling programs. One of the speakers was Gretchen Carey, who became the Town of Bedford's Recycling Coordinator about six months ago. She was on hand to speak about "Getting to Know Your Allies" in the media, something she learned firsthand during a multi-year stint as a founding member of her hometown Burlington's Recycling Committee.

Something about her volunteer-gets-dream-green-job bio prompted me to hoist my hand in the air at the end of her presentation to say that I'd like to talk to her further. She graciously said "sure thing," so I e-mailed her after the conference and we agreed to have lunch so I could probe her about how she managed to pull it off.

In one e-mail, she said, "I am one of those rare and lucky people who found a way to get paid for doing what I love. (No, getting there was not easy, but it did happen- due to networking!)"

Carey's route to her present job began about five years ago, when the stay-at-home-mom and former genetic scientist attempted to answer her then-8-year-old daughter's questions about climate change. 

"She asked me, 'What are we going to do?' And when I didn't answer right away, she said, 'No, really. This is a big problem. What are we going to do?' And I looked at her intense little face and said, 'You're right. Can I get back to you on that?' " It wasn't long after that that Carey got involved with Burlington's newly-forming Recycling Committee.

During her time there, Carey helped the committee spread the word about ways to max out Burlington's recycling by writing articles, marching in parades and staffing a booth on election day, among other efforts. Maybe most significantly, she learned to use public-access cable to communicate with the town, via instructional videos about recycling dos and don'ts, and also "worked my way through the entire Burlington School System," getting kids, parents, teachers and custodial staff bought into recycling as a way of life. 

"I believe in training children," she adds. "If you can train them early, recycling is a no-brainer to them." 

As Burlington's committee chair, she got to know people from Department of Environmental Protection and the local recycling cooperative. It was one of these contacts that alerted Carey to the opening that led to her becoming Bedford's Recycling Coordinator. She works two full days a week, staying in touch with various businesses and institutions in town to see that they have what they need to get their recycling done. She also spends a significant amount of time training town employees.

"Really, it's about getting the message out. That's the job," she says. 

Getting people on board often is about "the why," she says. "I say, 'I'm here because I believe in recycling. I like nature. I like hiking and kayaking. If I can recycle this can instead of someone strip mining the next mountain....I like the view, and I want to keep it that way, so it's worth it to me.' "

And, she adds, "If they (the people she seeks to persuade) have kids, they usually get it. I tell them, 'I have a 14-year-old daughter, and the place (Earth) is a mess. I owe it to her to try and clean it up.' "

Standing-room-only crowd flocks to Devens job fair

A packed house: Job seekers and employers filled the Devens
Common Center on Jan. 25.

The Devens Common Center was packed to the gills on January 25 with better than a thousand local job hunters navigating their way through a room dense with displays for dozens of area employers at a very well-publicized regional job fair.

According to State Representative Sheila Harrington (R-Groton), one of the lead planners of the fair, "Fourteen hundred job seekers connected with 60 employers seeking to fill more than a thousand positions. There was a real sense of optimism in the room as job seekers passed out their resumes and spoke to employers. That was really why I wanted to organize the job fair in the first place: I wanted to do something to give people hope."

Among the employers on the scene were HealthAlliance and Lowell General Hospitals and Nashoba Valley Medical Center, as well as Rand Whitney Packaging Corp., Radant Technologies, and a host of local manufacturers. Several staffing agencies were also represented.

Rep. Harrington said, "I had the idea around August 2012 to hold a job fair for my district. The idea initially came from wanting to do something from my position as a State Representative to help alleviate the unemployment problem in my part of the state. My legislative office, headed by Kaitlyn Hyslip, in conjunction with a legal assistant from my law practice, Sean Rourke, went to work planning the event, picking the venue and calling companies."

A bipartisan planning team: L to R, State Sen. Jamie Eldridge,
State Reps. Jim Arciero and Jen Benson, and lead fair planner State
Rep. Sheila Harrington.

The fair's proportions expanded dramatically when the North Central Career Centers of Leominster and the Career Center of Lowell got involved, Rep. Harrington noted. "All of a sudden, we had 60 companies on board and 900 job seekers registered.

"We also had a lot of help from the Nashoba Valley Chamber of Commerce, as well as from State Representatives Jennifer Benson (D-Lunenburg) and James Arciero (D-Westford), and State Senator Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton), who helped us get in touch with companies in their districts."

In addition to the enthusiastic participation from companies looking for new hires, said Rep. Harrington, "we were especially surprised by the amount of manufacturing and technology jobs employers were looking to hire for in the area. Usually, that's a strong indicator of a strengthening economy and job market, so that was very encouraging in terms of looking forward to the improvement in the economy."

"I was heartened to see the immense turnout at the fair, not only by job seekers, but by employers as well," said Rep. Benson. "This is encouraging news to all of us who are actively tracking the economy and the opportunities available in our region."

Nashoba Valley Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Melissa Fetterhoff said, "In talking with several of the participating employers, they were quite pleased with the turnout and the quality of applicants. I am hopeful that the showing from hiring companies is a positive sign. Last November, the Nashoba Valley Chamber and four other chambers partnered with Mount Wachusett Community College on a hiring trends survey to the business community. The outlook for hiring trends in this region for 2013 was rated as 'fair to good' by a majority of employers who participated."

Besides helping to bump up participation in the job fair, North Central Career Centers of Leominster was on hand that day to provide free resume critiques. Job seekers queued up for brief reviews of their resumes' content, appearance and efficacy.  

 

Allen Camara, an Ayer resident who attended the fair hoping to connect with the right employer, had a mixed experience: "I was a little disappointed that there weren't more companies in my current field of study, energy management. I only handed out three resumes. One was to AEcomm, for an outdoor air quality technician position, and one to Microtech Staffing Group, who I stopped to talk with about their IT offerings, but that's looking backwards (to his former career) really. 

"The third was to UMass Lowell, in the hopes that it would have something amongst its advertised '60+ other openings.'"  But, he says, none was a fit for him.

However, he added, "There was a woman at one of the booths, I think it was Marathon Staffing, that looked at my resume, and when she saw that I was working towards a Bachelor's degree in energy management, said, 'That's really good, keep doing that, it's an up and coming field. Get that degree!'  Made my day!"

 

Gotta Say! Edition 3: Middlesex, Worcester citizens share hopes for environmental causes with State Senator Eldridge

Last Saturday, volunteers and employees from a range of environmental organizations across Middlesex and Worcester Counties carpooled and, in at least one case, biked to Acton to get an update on green legislation filed for review by the current session of the State Senate and to give voice to issues on which they hope to see movement.

Lincoln-Sudbury High School students air hopes and frustrations with
their school's pending solar project before State Sen. Jamie Eldridge.

Jamie Eldridge, State Senator for the district, hosted this meeting of his Green Advisory Council at the Parker Damon Elementary School. Among the towns represented were Acton, Ayer, Harvard, Lincoln, Maynard, Shirley, South-borough, Stow, Sudbury and Westborough. 
Attendees came from energy advisory councils, recycling committees, agencies concerned with protecting rivers and groundwater, an energy audit company, community preservation committees and other organizations driven by environmental concerns.

Here's a rundown on the environmental bills Sen. Eldridge filed last week:

• An act to require producer responsibility for collection, reuse and recycling of discarded electronic waste -- Goals for this bill, which has been filed several times in the past 10 years, are to boost public access to e-waste recycling for items such as computers, televisions and printers, and remove the financial burden for collecting and recycling these materials from municipalities, placing it instead on manufacturers.
• An act to create a grant program for municipal and regional energy managers -- This bill aims to allow Green Communities grants to help fund salaries for energy managers who could be hired to develop, coordinate and monitor comprehensive energy-use reduction plans and work with town agencies and officials on administering them. According to Sen. Eldridge, when the town of Acton was becoming a Green Community, it created such a position, and the savings generated by the energy manager's work more than offset her salary.
• An act relative to streamflow standards -- This bill would update the Water Management Act, and is aimed at using science-based streamflow standards to ensure adequate water flow for the people, habitats and wildlife that depend on waterways. Sen. Eldridge noted that there is also a separate Water Infrastructure Bond Bill that would provide $2 million to help communities across the Commonwealth learn how to manage their water infrastructures.
• An act to encourage municipal recycling and composting -- This bill would formally require all cities and towns to establish recycling programs for solid waste, and require residents to separate recyclables and compostable waste. 
• An act relative to plastic bag reduction -- If passed, this bill would strike dramatically at the environmental impacts caused by single-use plastic carryout bags by banning their use from Massachusetts stores and requiring that stores only supply reusable bags or recyclable paper bags.
• An act relative to energy efficiency funds generated by municipal lighting plants -- Currently, independent municipal light plants (such as those operating in Littleton and Hudson) are not required to apply funds collected from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative toward energy efficiency programs. This bill would require that they do so. 
• An act to promote zero net-energy buildings in the Commonwealth -- This bill would give the Board of Building Regulations and Standards authority to establish definitions of residential and commercial zero net-energy buildings, with an eye to having all towns adopt these standards for residential buildings by Jan. 2020 and commercial buildings by Jan. 2030.
• An act to protect the natural resources of the Commonwealth (known as the "no net loss bill" redraft) -- In essence, this bill says that if open space is sold for development or private use, the same amount of land must be purchased to replace it. This system is already more or less in effect; the bill would formalize it to help protect against a current trend of cash-strapped municipalities selling off formerly protected land to raise revenue.
• An act further promoting energy efficiency and green jobs (the Home Oil Heat bill) -- Establishing a fund similar to those natural gas and many electric customers pay into, this bill would assess 2.5 cents per gallon on home heating oil to be used by oil heat retailers to develop improved energy-efficiency programs, and would coordinate with existing Mass Save programs to allow customers to get energy assessments, weatherization services and efficiency rebates.  

"How to improve political will"
While these bills have been submitted, Sen. Eldridge observed, they face some formidable challenges. "There continues to be a focus at the State House on pure job-creation versus sustainable job-creation." The Senator's legislative aid Kelsey Smithwood added that environmental bills that call for certain kinds of changes are often portrayed by the opposition as a tax, "and it's very hard to overcome that in this climate," she says.

Said Eldridge, "We need to focus on how we improve the political will to get these bills through."

Smithwood called for "people who are passionate about these topics to come testify at public hearings to help move them and keep bills alive."

One session participant suggested raising consciousness via more online petitions. Another wondered if the Eldridge's office could put out public hearing alerts to interested constituents. Smithwood said she'd use the contact information from the sign-in sheet for that day's event to get in touch with members of this group, who could in turn spread the word to their own contact lists. 

Practical exchange
That sort of practical exchange -- a key purpose of the meeting -- went on throughout the session. During discussion of the e-waste bill, an audience member pointed out that there are very few players currently equipped to reclaim the materials from this type of equipment, and suggested creating incentives for developing such a business in Massachusetts.

A woman who works preserving the Sudbury and Assabet River watershed areas spoke about the need for homeowners to recognize that water and sewer rates are lower than they ought to be and called for them to support increases to bring the rates in line with the demands on the system. She also suggested the possibility of requiring area pharmacies to participate in more pharmaceutical take-back programs to help reduce river pollution from these substances.

A Maynard volunteer who also works for Tufts University noted that the school's low-impact development class, where students work on real-world projects, could provide a free resource for towns looking for help with designing their water districts. And in another exchange, volunteers for several towns' Green Communities committees shared current and past experiences with the process of adopting the Stretch Building Code.

"I'm really pleased with the efforts of the Green Advisory Council," said Sen. Eldridge. "The members continue to bring me their ideas on how to better protect the environment and reduce global warming, some of which I have turned into legislation to file. With that kind of grassroots activism on the ground, I'm confident that Massachusetts will continue to lead the nation in alternative energy and conservation policies."

Gotta Say! Edition 2: A Passive approach to green building that's anything but

A few years back, I started a blog called Green Ayer News. It served as a clearinghouse for environmental news from town organizations and other local groups who provide services or educational activities to people around town and beyond. I moved on from the blog some time back, but still get updates and occasional invitations to events. Last weekend, I RSVPed yes to a couple of events and came home with both my green mojo and sense of community energized. Today, I'll cover the first: a Green Building Roundtable presented by the Devens Eco-Efficiency Center. Next up, I'll fill you in on the latest meeting of the Green Advisory Council for Middlesex and Worcester Counties, where State Senator Jamie Eldridge set the stage for a number of environmental bills he has just filed for the current legislative session on Beacon Hill.

Last Friday, the Devens Eco-Efficiency Center hosted its quarterly Green Building Roundtable. These roundtable discussions give participants a venue to gather new information about trends in environmentally-sustainable building practices and share their own insights and experience with others who might benefit.

This quarter, the roundtable zoomed in on Passive House energy design, an energy-design standard aimed at driving residential and commercial buildings' energy consumption toward and even below zero. A US take on the European Passivhaus standard, Passive House takes "buttoned up" to a new level, relying on tight construction and insulation techniques to keep the indoor climate comfortable and clean while slashing the need for power-chugging equipment to heat or cool the space.

Five elements
Neil Angus, an environmental planner with the Devens Enterprise Commission and moderator of the roundtable discussions, pointed to five key elements that make the Passive House standard what it is:

• superinsulation from a combination of double-wall construction and air sealing of all seams, which helps maintain consistent temperatures
• energy-efficient, triple-glazed windows and reduced thermal bridging (heat lost through gaps in construction or insulation)
• passive solar heat gain and thermal massing (using interior materials such as granite or concrete, which absorb heat and then release it slowly, as well as heat put out by other sources, like electrical equipment and even humans)
• avoidance of heat gain and reduction of the need for cooling via shading and well-thought-out window placement
• use of heat recovery ventilation (HRV) or energy recovery ventilation (ERV) units to provide fresh air while conserving heat and energy already in the building

With all these methods in place, buildings can be heated or cooled with one to two small, wall-mounted units, such as the Mitsubishi Mr. Slim. In fact, Angus noted, the savings on mechanical systems for heating and cooling are a significant offset to additional material costs for the difference in construction techniques.

A leading-edge standard
The move for builders to adopt energy-design practices like these is accelerating. In Massachusetts, it's driven in part by Governor Deval Patrick's Zero Net Energy Buildings Task Force, which is pushing for all new construction to be net-zero energy by 2030.

Passive House is out in front of many of the other current energy design standards, Angus added. For instance, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard calls for a finished building to use 25-30 percent less energy than a traditionally-built design; Passive House angles for a 60-90 percent reduction in energy usage. 

And while a house built according to the current Stretch Energy Code (which many Massachusetts towns have recently adopted in their quest to become Green Communities) needs to meet a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) rating of 70 (down from 100 for a standard code-built house), homes built using Passive House techniques typically achieve a HERS rating of no more than 20, and frequently a negative number. Angus noted that the latest of the Transformations Inc. Net-Zero Energy Homes built on Devens Green (which used Passive House methods) has a HERS rating of -36.

Angus rounded off the Roundtable discussion with two key examples of Passive House design at work:

• The Glasswood Passive House, a commercial retrofit in Portland, Oregon
• The Sonnenschiff, a commercial and residential complex in Freiburg, Germany

"It is really great to see these energy efficient design and construction methods catching on," said Angus,"and even better to have examples in our own backyard."