Green Leaf Report

Fast Company and BusinessWeek are currently running opposing articles on T. Boone Pickens and his wind/water plans for North Texas. The Fast Company article addresses his plans for a $10B wind farm in the panhandle and mentions the water project as almost an afterthought, while the BusinessWeek article talks about the $100M Pickens’ has […]

Recently a senior executive I interviewed went on a long spiel about a study that showed telecommuting could cause job dissatisfaction among the employees not telecommuting.  The idea he stressed was that employees don’t like feeling that they’re covering for other employees and having all of their meetings pushed onto a certain day when […]

Today for the first time, US gas prices reached an average of $4/gallon.
Over the past 15 years, many companies have been moving more of their content onto web platforms and secure electronic processes.  The companies that have embraced these developments are well positioned now to reduce operational costs and employee out-of-pocket expenses […]

When I bought my house about four years ago, we took advantage of the interest rate effect on home prices:  when interest rates are low, the monthly mortgage payment will be lower for a more expensive home. While the interest rate effect is established and known, a new factor coming into play is the […]

Sometimes the small things in life can be the most annoying. For example, when visiting the local cafeteria, why do they serve meals onto Styrofoam clamshell packages instead of onto washable, reusable plates?  A friend of mine asked one day, and was told: “We can’t use these Styrofoam containers in California anymore, so they […]

*The title is meant to be sung to the Barney tune of “If Raindrops were Gumdrops.”
Every night my son and I share a bowl of ice cream, and I’ve noticed a parallel between my household’s ice cream interaction and the global economic demand and supply of oil. In this story:

I will represent the American economy. […]

Yesterday I met with the work/life coordinator at my employer and continued to encourage telecommuting.  I’m building the call to action for our website; now the challenge is to work this through the required approvals.  It still feels like I keep hearing that telecommuting is a privilege for specific persons in specific roles, not an entitlement.  I don’t want to […]

I recently attended a work/life seminar, and was surprised by the differing ideas of what it means to telecommute.  One of the guest speakers gave a long talk on the great flexibility of her job, because she has an hour-and-a-half commute (each way!!!), and telecommuting allows her to take conference calls while she’s driving to work.  I felt […]

I hadn’t heard this term before, but I like it- Ecomoms.  While I’ve been involved in environmental projects for years, I can certainly say that my commitment became more pressing after the birth of my son and the devastation of my home town of New Orleans.  Everywhere I look, I see something to change: the plastic toys, […]

 Several years ago, some friends bought an adorable craftsman style house in a desirable part of Dallas.  Because they jumped so quickly on the deal, they didn’t have a house inspection until after the house was purchased.  The inspector told them to not use the 2nd bathroom because the shower drain dumped straight into the […]

Happy New Year to everyone- I hope we’ve all resolved to make 2008 an even better year than 2007.  I watched the very interesting Edith Piaf biopic La Vie En Rose recently and have decided to approach environmental 2008 with her words from Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien:  I won’t worry about the good or bad […]

As an undergrad, I worked on a research project where we ran bayou sediment samples through X-ray fluorescence equipment to determine the heavy metal content, and thus the amount of long-term pollution. A recent article highlighted that labs are now using the same equipment on new toys destined for our kids, with scary results:
“Tests […]

I recently put together a list of my top 10 green lifestyle changes, and I left off one item, because it wasn’t a change, it was so ingrained in the way I was raised:  buy locally made items.  Over the years, I’ve adjusted this attitude somewhat because locally produced goods can be so hard to […]

Today I signed up to stop catalog delivery to my home through Catalog Choice, a service supporting sustainable industry best practices.  My biggest pet peeve is the Pottery Barn catalogs- a few years ago we bought a natural fiber rug from Pottery Barn for our living room.  Unfortunately, our dogs seemed to think the […]

We all need optimism to survive; we all need to feel like we matter, that we can make a difference, don’t we?  I’ve changed my life over the years to try to lessen my impact, to live a more environmentally aware lifestyle; the changes can be so small, but I feel better with each one. My […]

At lunch the other day, a friend and I were debating the plastic water bottle problem- how do we reduce the amount of waste within our company from employees drinking multiple small bottles of water every day, and thus reduce the amount of trash we generate?  As we brainstormed over removing the drink machines (very unpopular, I’m […]

 I learned about a new plant today: the inedible jatropha plant that grows in scrubland and generates 30 - 40% of its seed-weight in oil.  BP is partnering up with a biofuel company, D1 Oils, to produce this plant in Africa, thus helping struggling economies while lessening the global reliance on non-renewable fuel sources.  BP […]

About five years ago, a real estate agent told me about a friend of his; this friend had recently declared bankruptcy and then, one week later, had been approved for a mortgage. The point, at the time, was that anyone could qualify for a mortgage. The many under-qualified buyers created exuberant demand for homes […]

Today I read an interesting article about the tradeoff between solar panels and reflective white paint in the amount of carbon dioxide prevented. By mimicking the reflective effects of an iceberg, white paint can both cool homes (thus preventing some energy use) and bounce solar radiation back from the surface of the planet.  It’s an important point- fancy […]

After all my venting about the phonebook that we received last week, what did I find on my doorstep yesterday?  Another phone book.  This second book was from a different phone company, but with the same lawyer advertising on the front cover.  So now I want to revise my analysis: I’ll multiply the total number […]