carolstimmel.net

The Carbon Addict project is an educational resource for medical students.  Started by the Campaign for Greener Healthcare (CGH), the idea is to learn day-to-day practices for a sustainable, low-carbon lifestyle.

It has come to the attention of the health profession that common usage patterns of carbon-based fuels bear all the hallmarks of a substance dependence syndrome.  Once recognised as a medical condition, its enormous clinical impact is producing shock waves in the health community.  However, although extremely serious, carbon dependence has been found to be eminently treatable, and evidence-based guidance on its diagnosis and management is now available - as presented on the pages of this site.

Get your diagnosis here.

What if the Garden State actually became a garden?  The Toronto Sun released a story with an Les Klein’s rendition of 7 km of new park space built on top of the Gardiner Expressway.

“I have always believed that change in cities is best done when it’s organic,” Klein told the Sun yesterday following his presentation. “When I look at it (the Gardiner) and hear people say ‘Tear it down,’ it just doesn’t strike me as the right thing to do. It’s not organic.”

With a price tag of $500-$800 Million, the project may not lift off anytime soon, the concept becomes more “interesting” than anything.  You can see the pictures here.

Since it is well established that I’m a GTD junky, I thought I would explore the idea of applying GTD principles to living a sustainable life.

There are two major axes to sustainable living; efficiency and reuse.  And a major principle of GTD, if it takes less than 2 minutes to get it done; do it.  

Here are 10 things you can do for the environment that don’t require more than a moment to complete.  

Water Bottles

1. Wash you clothes on the Gentle Cycle.  The motor doesn’t have to work as hard. (Estimated Time: Less than 2 seconds).

2. Replace a lightbulb with a Compact Fluorescent. Lasts 10 times longer, burns cooler, and uses about a quarter of the energy to operate. (Estimated Time: 1 minute).

3. Close the Door Behind You.  Don’t cool or heat rooms you aren’t using. (Estimated Time: 2 seconds).

4. Shave with an Electric Razor.  Water not required. (Estimated Time: 2 minutes to pick up the razor at Target; 0 to choose it)

5. Grab your Travel Mug on the Way out the Door.  Stop using all that paper at the Coffee Shop. (Estimated Time: 2 minutes to find the mug and rinse it out)

6. Refill your water bottle at the Water Cooler. Stop filling the landfill with those little plastic bottles. (Estimated Time: 1 minute)

7. Turn on Cruise Control on the Highway.  Be smooth and conserve expensive fuel.  (Estimated Time: 20 seconds).

8. Set your Refrigerator to 37 degrees F.  The Fridge accounts for 20% of your household electricity use. (Estimated Time 2 minutes to find and set, though depending on your unit, you mileage may vary).

9. Put on a Sweater and a Pair of Socks.  Before you turn up the heat put on some clothing. (Estimated Time: 2 minutes). 

10. Unplug your Appliances. Avoid overtime wasted electricity.  (Estimated Time: 2 seconds per plug).

One of my side affections is beautiful buildings.  This makes it all the more painful that I’ve yet to visit Italy (as anyone who follows my tweets @traktrgrl, knows has recently been annoying me).  When Don Olson and I wrote The Manager Pool: Patterns for Radical Leadership (Software Patterns Series) we took our inspiration from Christopher Alexander, the architect, who identified what he called a Pattern Language.  He believed there was a timeless way of building that could be identified, within which we all feel alive. With A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series) as our guide we worked to identify a structure, through a series of patterns, wherein a software worker would be motivated, creative and inspired.

I read a blog called The Web Urbanist. They recently posted an amazing post of pictures of incredible homes from around the world.  Some of the architecture identified is phenomenal in how it emerges from nature itself.  Their scheme is coherent and beautiful.

Amazing Homes

These homes are living organisms to me, as if they emerged like the stars.  They have their own life.  Like Christopher Alexander, I believe that if we make simple observations, see how things work and study them, we can distill and catalogue the essentials.  And these essentials can actually apply to shared human experience and common feelings.