So our landlord comes by the other day and wants to know if we are going to renew our lease in October. “Of course!” I tell him, “Why do you ask?” It seems that our neighbors, Bella Bridesmaids are bursting at the seams and the fall busy season is fast approaching. They need extra space. It didn’t take us long to realize they needed the space more than we did. I made one call to a friend and found out he had plenty of space in his building. Not only that but we are able to move sooner than our lease allows which is helping everyone out.

Keith and I spent all this morning moving our Edgewood office to the Cobb Lane Carriage House at 1314 Cobb Lane South. This is also home of the award-winning architecture firm, Thompson Architecture headed by LEED-accredited Robert Thompson.

We made some great friends and with all the great new restaurants we probably put on more than a few pounds. Just around the corner from us was Sam’s, Saw’s, New York Pizza, La Bamba, Edgewood Creamery and Dreamcakes. We also loved being in the hustle and bustle of this little neighborhood business district. We will truly miss Edgewood but now we have a whole new set of restaurants, businesses and new friends.

This is a great move for Resolutions and we hope you will stop by and visit us when you are in the neighborhood. 

At first count we received a total of 132 bags of linens and towels during our drive last Saturday. We doubled what we did last year. Once the volunteers at the Community Furniture Bank finish sorting I’ll let everyone know how many families it will serve.

When we came up with the idea to host a Linens & Towels Drive we knew it would take more than a few people to pull this off. I would like to say thanks to a few of them here.

Secure Document Destruction
They brought their on-site truck to the drive, accepting cash donations to the CFB in exchange for free document destructions

The Lollar Group
Holly Lollar and Tracy Smith gave their time to help us get the word out by providing PR services.

Trinity United Methodist Church
A long time supporter of the CFB, they let us use their parking lot for the second year in a row.

Twitter & Facebook Friends and Others
We depended on social media more this year and I want to thank my friends who help me spread the word about the drive through their retweets. I would also like to thank ABC 33/40 Talk of Alabama for letting us on their show and to al.com for posting our message on their site.

And I know I am missing many others and I apologize for the oversite. Thanks again and look for a few more messages about this years drive and get ready for next year.

EPA Creates Office of Sustainable Communities

Perhaps this is what we need to get local communities moving with sustainability initiatives. This, and money.

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Conservative - one who values “a society that conserves its soil and water” in order to sustain and replenish its natural resources for the benefit of all life.

I saw this in an article on the blog Switchboard, from NRDC. It was written by Chris Chanlett who wrote an op-ed commentary in the Charleston Gazette titled Why I am a “Friend of Wood.”

Chris is calling for politicians to provide some genuine moral leadership and protect Appalachia’s peaks and the citizens who live there. I could summarize what he said but I encourage you to visit the links above to so see how others are making a difference. And not just tree-hugging liberals but conservatives as well, no matter your definition.

I seem to have many friends and business associates that feel that just because we are Americans we are set. Things come our way because we are preordained or somehow chosen by a higher authority to continually be the leaders in democracy, innovation and wealth. Nothing can be further from the truth and on the eve of the SEC championship football game between the University of Alabama and the University of Florida I wanted to give an example of what could happen.

For generations, Alabama football fans believed they had the best football team in the country. And for good reason. They have 12 national championships and countless SEC championships, all-american players and a vocal fan-base. They had Bear Bryant, arguably the best coach in football. They had tradition and to some that is all they needed, but something happened along the way. College football changed.

To begin with scholarships were limited so the best high school players started going to their competitors schools. Alumni at these schools started to pump money into facilities such as weight rooms, practice facilities and enlarging the stadium. With the growth of multiple sports channels, these same teams started to show up on TV week after week. Assistant coaches with head coaching aspirations, many who worked for the Bear, turned these programs around – turning them into powerhouses.

So what did Alabama do? To start with they languished and watched other programs pass them by. They made bad coaching choices and couldn’t seem to get it together. They rested on past laurels and thought, “we’ll be fine, we’re Alabama.”

Eventually, Alabama upgraded the weight room, improved the practice facilities and enlarged the stadium. Then they went out and spent a load of money on a proven coach who could bring them back. The result, they are more competitive. Their ROI is pretty good seeing that if they win tomorrow they will play for the national championship.

And this story isn’t unique to Alabama, there are many programs that had to change to be competitive in a different football environment.

So what does this have to do with America and sustainability? We are facing a unique time in our history, a fork in the road if you will. We can keep doing things the way we always have or we can accept that the game has changed and we need to improve our facilities and hire the right coaches who will keep us at the top. If we don’t we run the risk of being passed by countries who are continuing to innovate and come up with better, efficient and green products. We run the risk of continuing to be dependent on other countries for our energy needs. It’s not too late but we need to get past this idea that it’s just going to happen.

I do believe that there is something special about being an American. This country was built by millions of people who left their homeland and families to invent a better life for themselves no matter the odds. Some did better than others but that drive was there for everyone. It’s in our DNA.

First handicapped, then expectant mothers and now this. I saw this sign at the Birmingham Zoo the other day. A selection of the best parking spaces are now reserved for those driving a hybrid car. A marketing ploy? Of course. But it does bring up a good point, if you want others to do better, or at least as good as what you are doing, then it helps to give them incentive to do it. A choice parking spot at a popular attraction is one way. Money to ride your bike to work could be another. Think about how you or your company could help promote green practices.

Today is Blog Action Day ’09 and the focus this year is on Climate Change. Something very important to us here at Resolutions LLC and something that should be important to everyone. The problem is that there are some people out there who don’t believe that climate change is happening due to anything we as humans are doing but it’s just the earth doing what it has always done. These people treat this not as an environmental or social issue but as a political issue.

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday and asked her opinion of global warming. That got her motor running. She told me we couldn’t work together anymore if I believed that (a joke) and then we bantered back and forth about our views on this subject. During our discussion It came to me that she was just uninformed about the subject. She was treating the issue as a political issue. The largest issue to her and some others is that they feel like it’s a way for the government to tax them. The funny thing is, by ignoring global warming we will end up paying more than this phantom tax would ever take from us. And not just in money but in lives, jobs and quality of life.

There are almost 9,000 sites that will be blogging about climate change today. Most will have done serious research and give facts and figures and will be truly great essays about climate change. I encourage you to seek these out and educate yourself. For a lot of people the idea of climate change is almost too much to grasp. We need to focus on what we can do as individuals. So instead of trying to save the world lets focus on saving ourselves.

The NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) has a five-step plan to help solve global warming and I feel that is is a great way that we as individuals and businesses can do our part.

1. Set limits on global warming pollution
2. Invest in green jobs and clean energy
3. Drive smarter cars
4. Create green homes and buildings
5. Build better communities and transportation networks.

Lets run through these.

1. Set limits on global warming pollution

By setting limits, our energy producers will need to look in other areas for ways to generate energy such as solar, wind and biomass. In my neck of the woods Southern Company has been investing in biomass and I am sure is looking into other options.

2. Invest in green jobs and clean energy

Jobs and more jobs. There are many skilled people in this country whose jobs have gone overseas. By investing in green jobs and clean energy we can employ those hard working Americans. Face it, you can’t ship a green job overseas. After so many miles that job or product ceases to become green.

3. Drive smarter cars

The next time you buy a car you should consider a more fuel-efficient car. Not only will it save you money when you drive it but you will also help reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Most of these countries we buy our oil from treat their citizens horribly. You don’t need the skills of your own people if you are making a lot of money from your oil. And finally, whether you believe in peak-oil or not, gas prices will rise over the next few years and decades.

4. Create green homes and buildings

Resolutions is a member of the USGBC (United States Green Building Council), a non-profit community of leaders working to make green buildings available to everyone within a generation. They have been training architects and certifying them as LEED accredited for awhile now. As more and more people become skilled at green design and make energy-efficient buildings we will reduce our energy usage, reducing carbon in the atmosphere and saving us money. According to Architecture 2030, we have the technology to design buildings to use 50% to 80% less energy than we are doing now. I am starting to sense a theme.

5. Build better communities and transportation networks.

The trend during the last century was to build far-flung car-dependent suburban towns. By rethinking how we need to live we can build a better community. One that we can walk in, meet our neighbors and get back to the original social networking. And guess what? We shorten drive times, create less pollution, reduce our dependency on oil and save ourselves money.

So lets summarize what you get from combating climate change. New green industries creating new green jobs. Actual money savings from energy efficient homes, better quality of life, fuel-efficient cars and reduce our dependency on foreign nations that don’t like us.

This is just a start. As you educate yourself you will find more and more ways you can make a positive impact on the globe and your wallet. Don’t look at the battle against climate change as some flash-in-the-pan, hippie love-the-earth movement. This is a way to create new jobs and industries, a way to reduce our dependency on foreign nations and create a better life for our children. This is nation building.

Stopped by the Vestavia Library yesterday. On their Featured Books shelf, close to the main counter, is a whole collection of “Green” books. I was pleased to see them out in front, instead of buried in their respective sections. The books hit on greening home and work, “How To” books for families, some philosophical books on why we should reduce our impacts, and even one on more environmentally-friendly lawn care.

“The End of Nature” by Bill McKibben was there, too. It may be a tough sell in that neighborhood.

All this is part of the continued messaging coming out of our future “Library in the Forest.” I’m glad they’re continuing to put these issues front and center in more and more places. Hopefully, residents will come to see environmental responsibility as less threatening and less “radical left fringe”, and come to understand it as something that we all benefit from, individually and collectively, and as a City.

The hardest part about my job as a sustainability consultant is defining sustainability to people. Luckily for me it is becoming more and more part of our every day conversations. In the July 27, 2009 issue of Time Magazine they gave a good example of sustainability.

The article is Postcard: Bristol Bay. There is a proposed gold and copper mine in Alaska called The Pebble Mine that could be worth more than $300 billion at todays prices. Just 100 miles downstream from this mine is Bristol Bay, home of some of the richest commercial-fishing grounds in the U.S. About 40% of our wild seafood is caught right here. It should also be familiar to fans of The Deadliest Catch.

But back to our definition. Author Bryan Walsh called sustainability “the idea that there are alternatives to exploiting natural resources without regard for the consequences.” Verner Wilson, a Yupik Eskimo and Bristol native summed it all up. “Do we want to embrace the mine, a resource that will be played out in 50 years? Or do we want to embrace a resource like the fish that we can manage for thousands of years?”

Companies, cities and individuals are starting to ask these question every day about every conceivable issue. Do I want to take the short-term profit not matter how it impacts me or do I want to go for the long-term and leave things for those behind me?

If you are not asking yourself these questions maybe you should start now.