Sustainable Gardens Take Root in Japan

Community vegetable gardens in Saitama (northern Tokyo), Japan.

Farmers' photos and info who grow the produce sold at Bio Marche organic food stores in Japan.

JAS is the symbol for organic in Japan.

By Roland Oehme
May 18, 2012

 

TOKYO — Tokyo may seem like a technology-obsessed city running as efficiently as a clock with its gleaming skyscrapers, punctual subway system, and well-dressed people who are constantly in a hurry. Go just outside the city however, and you will see a more agrarian picture. There are many lovingly-tended community vegetable gardens and allotment gardens in the Tokyo suburbs. While on a recent visit to Saitama, a city about one hour north of Tokyo, I saw these community gardens up close.

Gardens are scattered all over Saitama, usually within walking or biking distance of their caretakers. I did not see any parking lots near the gardens. There were also larger vegetable gardens located along the river park that people walked, biked, or drove to. Here they grew rice in addition to veggies. Even in mid-March, there were many vegetable crops sprouting including winter-hardy plants like onions, peas, and mustard, as well as plants from the cabbage family like brocolli, kale, and collard.

Since the tsunami and nuclear disaster at Fukushima last year, many people in Japan are concerned about eating radiation-free produce. Many grocery stores in Japan will state where their produce is grown. Organic food stores will even have photos and descriptions of the farmers who grew the produce. Japanese people prefer to buy produce grown in the western part of Japan, and shun produce from the disaster area. Strangely enough, radiation awareness has not fully translated into widespread demand for chemical-free, organic produce, although interest in sustainable agriculture is growing.

There are also German-style “kleingaerten,” or allotment gardens, in Japan. ...

To read the entire article on SCGH's website, click here: 

http://www.sierraclubgreenhome.com/go-green/landscaping-and-outdoors/new-sustainable-gardening-models-take-root-in-japan/

Environmentally Friendly Tokyo Vacation

Wintersweet in flower.

By Roland Oehme

April 24, 2012 

TOKYO — Tokyo may be known as a worldwide culture and technology capital, but it has also been quietly making strides to embrace green and sustainable living. If you are visiting Tokyo, Sierra Club Green Home has some suggestions for how to have a green vacation in this fast-paced megalopolis of 35 million.

Let’s say you have just arrived at Narita Airport, and want to be whisked away to a beautiful green hotel. One of the greenest hotels is Hotel Grand Fresa Akasaka. This three-star hotel holds a Green Globe Certification, and offers modern amenities, a restaurant, and a full service spa. It is centrally located in the Akasaka neighborhood near Tokyo Tower, within walking distance of many sites. The hotel even rents out bicycles to guests.

For other green hotels in Tokyo, try a Web site like Travelocity, and select the “Green/EcoFriendly” option under “Accommodation Type.” The first hotel on the list, Hotel New Otani Tokyo, underwent a major renovation in 2004 to bring up its modern safety and comfort standards. The owners also added many green features like a roof garden, a water recycling plant, a composting plant, and local organic produce.

For the nature enthusiast, take a trip far away from the hustle and bustle of central Tokyo and stay instead at the Farm City Hotel. This green spa hotel is located on a hilltop overlooking Chichibu, a small city about a two hour train ride northwest of Tokyo. This hotel serves its own organic produce grown on its nearby farm, while the hotel’s restaurants also serve locally-grown produce. The main dining room serves a tantalizing blend of Japanese and Western cuisines buffet-style. Leftover produce is composted. The highlight of this hotel is its natural hot springs spa, or Onsen, where you can go to relax in the warm waters. Traditional Japanese style rooms with tatami (rice fiber) mats and Western-style rooms are available. There are many nature-oriented activities in the area, including visiting massive flower gardens in bloom, picking your own strawberries or peaches, or hiking in the hills. You can also take the train to Nagatoro, where you can take a cable car up the mountain to visit the Wintersweet and Ume Plum Trees and hike down to the village, or rent a bike, or go white water rafting.

Back in central Tokyo, there are plenty of places to do some green shopping. The interest in organic products has skyrocketed since the nuclear accident a year ago that spurred the Japanese public’s awareness about the toxins in what they consume. This means that organic options, especially baby products, clothing, and foods, are growing quickly in Japan, making it easy to be an environmentally friendly traveler.

First up is the Yoyogi Village, a new environmentally-focused shopping mall with restaurants, shops, clubs, and more, all located around a central garden courtyard. There is a clothing shop, One Mile Wear, which sells organic cotton from India. Also, there is the affordable Code Kurkku, an organic Italian restaurant.

People Tree manufactures fair trade, organic clothing in Bangladesh and organic chocolate which is available in various stores in Tokyo, such as the Mosaic Ginza Hankyu Department Store located in the central Ginza area.

There are three Bio Marche stores in the greater Tokyo area: two in the Tokyo suburbs of Saitama and Omiya, and one in Chiba, east of Tokyo. They sell primarily organic foods, but also some organic clothing, cosmetics, toiletries, and baby supplies.

By now you must have worked up an appetite. Luckily, there are many choices for healthy dining in Tokyo. One of my favorite cafes is the Brown Rice Café, a well-designed, serene, Zen-like restaurant with delicious organic, vegan, and macrobiotic Japanese foods. Located near the Harajuku train station, this café is hidden in a sunken level with indoor and outdoor seating and also sells organic groceries. ...

To read the entire article on SCGH's website, click here: 

http://www.sierraclubgreenhome.com/lifestyle/environmentally-friendly-tokyo-vacation/

Bike Maryland's Director on the Future of Bicycling

By Roland Oehme

Last month, Bike Maryland hosted its 15^th Annual Maryland State Bicycle Symposium. The symposium gathered bike enthusiasts, public policy makers, and various organizations together to evaluate the state’s “bikeability,” and where better bicycle policies are needed.

Here Carol Silldorff, executive director of Bike Maryland, answers some questions about the future of bicycling in Maryland and the United States.

1) Explain the Maryland State Bicycle Symposium and its purpose. Has the symposium met its goals?

The state symposium is an opportunity to bring together decision makers, business leaders, legislators, off-road, and on-road bicyclists to learn more about bicycle initiatives and opportunities in Maryland.

It’s been hugely successful! This year about 150 people attended. It’s an educational opportunity for all of them. And the more people know about the environment or green homes or alternative transportation or bicycling, the more opportunities will exist for those things to be enhanced.

2) Tell me about your organization, Bike Maryland.

Bike Maryland is a nonprofit organization and our goal is to increase the number of cyclists, to enhance infrastructure, to support a pro bike agenda on the state and county level (meaning advocating for pro-bike legislation), and to be a voice for all bicyclists in Maryland.

We have a number of different programs. One is our Bike Friendly Maryland program. The other one is our Bike Minded program where we host free youth workshops and adult commuter classes to make sure that those who are on the road are cycling safely. And, we have lots of initiatives throughout a variety of counties to promote and advocate for bikeability.

Our annual fundraiser is Baltimore’s premier bike event and it is called Tour du Port. And, that is going to be held on September 30. 2,000 cyclists get the opportunity to tour the waterfront areas, historic neighborhoods, and parks.

3) How would you compare bicycling conditions between Washington, DC, Baltimore, and New York City?

New York has taken off substantially in its bikeability and bike friendliness, and DC is moving ahead quickly. They have Capital Bikeshare, the largest bike share program in the country. So, tourists can rent bikes to get around town for hardly anything.

Baltimore is moving up the ladder. I think Baltimore might have been rated 11^th in the country, and Maryland was rated 10^th in the country out of all of the states.

When you talk about green homes, just having an environment that is bikeable is important. The best places to bike are the best places to live, meaning the best places to live are the best places to bike. It just enhances the quality of life.

4) What are the major challenges facing bicycling in Maryland and nationally?

There needs to be more awareness campaigns, both for the cyclist and the motorist. There is not as much as you would like to see taking place by the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Maryland Department of Transportation, and some of these other groups that really regulate drivers.

We would like there to be more education, more signage, more of an awareness campaign. While I think we are doing great legislatively, we just don’t have enough enforcement or education programs that are really taking place in Maryland. So, there are a lot of pluses, but there are definitely areas where improvements can be made.

5) What progress has been made in Maryland and nationally?

There has been a tremendous amount of progress in just the last 3 years or so. There have been six bills that have passed on the state level to really enhance bikeability. There have also been a lot of things happening throughout the state on the county level.

Baltimore City has fines now, so if a car is blocking the bike lane, there is a $75 fine. We are seeing these things pop up in other areas of the state, too. Baltimore City now has bike racks on all of its buses. Bike Maryland was the organization that made that happen, and now other cities are following suit with that.

Universities and businesses want to learn how to be more bike-friendly, and now there is a program through Bike Maryland where we can teach them to do that.

There are more bike lanes, a lot more bike facilities, more pro-bike laws, and more educational campaigns for the bicyclists.

6) What do you want to see happen in the future with bicycling?

Well, I would like to see organizations like Bike Maryland really get a lot of support and increased membership. ...

To read the entire article on SCGH's website, click here:

http://www.sierraclubgreenhome.com/green-news/bike-marylands-director-on-the-future-of-bicycling/

Maryland Bicycle Symposium: Greening Our Cities

Blog post by Roland Oehme

ANNAPOLIS, MD — I attended the annual Maryland State Bicycle Symposium in the beautiful capitol of Annapolis on February 22. This annual event is open to everyone, and encourages the public to learn the latest in bicycle advocacy issues statewide.

During the symposium, I sensed an appreciation for past accomplishments as well as a strong desire to increase bicycle safety and awareness, and improve bicycle facilities and infrastructure.

In the United States (with the exception of a few regional examples like Portland, Oregon) most people cannot use bicycling as a safe and convenient commuting method. Bicycling is still rather an anomaly, used by only a few strong souls to commute and by suburbanites who recreate by first driving to bicycle trails– and they frequently have to drive many miles, since trails are not always located where people live.

This despite the fact that bicycle-friendly communities in any setting, whether urban, suburban, or rural, promote a stronger connection to local places and people, a healthier lifestyle, and cleaner air. ...

To read the entire article on SCGH's website, click here:

http://www.sierraclubgreenhome.com/green-news/maryland-bicycle-symposium-bike-friendly-cities-are-livable-cities/

Green Holiday: Shop Less, Celebrate More

Blog post by Roland Oehme

Want to have a green holiday? Do you ever wonder how the holidays became the biggest shopping frenzy of the year? Is it Santa’s marketing genius? Is it just force of habit?

If you are tired of the same ritual of trudging off to shop at the mall, jostling through the crowd, waiting hours to park, and struggling to find gifts within your budget, there is a solution. Yes, the solution to enjoying the holidays and not getting overwhelmed with shopping till December 25 is really quite simple.

Sierra Club Green Home’s green holiday solution is to shop less and spend more time doing fun activities that bring joy to your family and friends—and quite possibly even to strangers. After all, the holidays are meant to instill in us the spirit of giving, and this can mean many things besides material goods.

One company even made its new campaign about consuming less during the holidays. Can you believe it? What kind of a store would do such a crazy thing?

As I thought about this idea of consuming less, I realized that there are so many ways to have good times with your loved ones that I could never list them all. In fact, it’s an endless list! So instead, I will tell you some of my favorite holiday activities, and I invite you to share yours by commenting on this post or on the Sierra Club Green Home Facebook page.

Our family enjoys driving into the rural countryside to cut down our own Christmas tree, which is a great way to spend time together and get some outdoor exercise. Christmas tree farms also protect vital open space and help cool the planet.

We also like to take our son to visit the local holiday train garden displays. He absolutely adores the trains, as many other children do.

We like to make holiday foods together, whether it’s cookies, cakes, and desserts or complete, delectable meals. Sometimes, we attend a holiday vegan potluck party, ...

To read the entire article on SCGH's website, click here:

http://www.sierraclubgreenhome.com/holidays/green-home-for-the-holidays/

Holiday Shopping? Check the Eco Price

By Roland Oehme

Before you saddle up and head to the mall for your holiday shopping, let Sierra Club Green Home give you the lowdown on how your purchases can help or harm your health and the planet’s.

What’s the harm in heading to the local superstore? Well, that lower price tag is often hiding the costs to the environment and to human health, especially for products made abroad. Most of the items for sale at chain stores contain toxins, are created using polluting and unsustainable practices, use up fuel being shipped far distances, and are made by workers who are paid low wages and work in poor conditions. Even animals are often harmed in conventional manufacturing. Many corporations still test their products on animals and use unnecessary animal ingredients.

This season, we have a choice as to where and how we spend our money, and it is a very important one. That’s why Sierra Club Green Home is showing you how to find products you can feel good about buying, whether you’re shopping in your town or on the Web.

Not sure if your corner store has goods that are truly green? One way to tell is by looking for green labels certified by a credible third party (i.e., not the company that made the item). Examples of trustworthy labels include Green Seal, Green America Business Seal of Approval, Transfair USA (fair trade), USDA Organic, Forest Stewardship Council, and Rainforest Alliance Certified. You can check out more green labels online. ...

To read the entire article on SCGH's website, click here:

http://www.sierraclubgreenhome.com/go-green/body-care/check-the-real-price-tag/

12 Green Things I am Thankful For

Blog post by Roland Oehme

Ring in the New Year with gratitude for what this year has given us, and excitement for what the next year holds. Here Sierra Club Green Home writer Roland Oehme shares the top 12 things he is grateful for going into 2012.

12 Green Things I Am Thankful For:

1) My family and friends are the most important things in my life. I am grateful for the time I’ve been able to spend with them this year.

2) My local nature park that I enjoy daily walks in. The simple act of exercising in nature rejuvenates my body and spirit. I think everyone should be able to take walks in forests, meadows, hills, valleys, streams, wetlands, and other natural ecosystems.

3) I enjoy relatively clean air, water, and soil. However, I see this as the minimum of what is acceptable. Much more can be done to clean up my local environment, especially the Chesapeake Bay (the largest estuary in the United States). ...

To Read the Entire Article on SCGH's website, click here:

http://www.sierraclubgreenhome.com/go-green/food/12-green-things-i-am-thankful-for/