Entries tagged with ‘environment’
For those of you scrambling around preparing for Christmas, I thought you wouldn’t mind having some helpful tips on making holiday festivities as eco friendly as possible. I asked some friends and Laneo Members from around the world to send me the URL’s of sites they thought provided some worthy advice.
Here’s a list 9 sites, in no particular order. If you have some of your own, please add them to the list via the comments.
1) USA
2) Canada
3) Australia
4) UK
5) France
6) Spain
7) Germany
8) Italy
9) Belgium
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: society, environment
This world-renowned & unique Sailing race has done quite a bit over the years in terms of both reducing the race’s eco footprint and encouraging those involved to take part in eco initiatives surrounding the event. This year’s race went even further with each navigator signing an official charter, initiating a Forest replanting program in Bahia that will offset the CO2 emissions and launch the “More for Bahia – Mission” (Helping respect sustainable development criteria in coffee farms & sending two students on a mission to Brazilian coffee farms).
Those of us that have sailed know that the values of sailing go far beyond the lakes, bays and oceans. Popular professional events such as the Transat Jacques Vabre show that every sport is starting to take part in this global challenge!
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: races, society, environment
Lately Laneo organizers have been receiving a lot of sponsorship requests from expedition organizers. Yes, those organizations that zigzag the planet in an effort often related to some form of educational, social or scientific goal while visiting the most hostile and remote areas of our planet. Everyone ranging from small initiatives, made up of just a few outdoor adventurers to sophisticated organizations that have solid institutional backing and impressive CV’s has been asking us for sponsorship.
Since these virgin areas of our planet are fewer and fewer today, these expedition teams go to incredible lengths to plan often very complex and entangled voyages, that carry heavy price tags.
What do you think? Should we assist these types of projects and if yes, which type? Please use the comments function below this post – hope to hear from you soon!
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: community, environment
I’m really proud of the people behind the design and functionality of the Laneo Blog. Not only did they do a great job in my opinion, but I recently learned they make “eco-music”. Paul who runs TWO THIRTY (the agency that designed and maintains our Laneo blog) is an avid surfer and back country camper. He is also a very accomplished musician whose group MOJAVE has just finished recording a great new album called “Stories”.
Paul and I have often talked about the place music has in our outdoor sports experience. Paul says to me – “it brings background music to the dances of waves and the ballet of leaves” and even though I’m not a musician, I really understand what he means.
Everyone’s personal taste in music is different of course, but I’m sure you’ll find his approach to distributing it, a compelling story. You see MOJAVE is only distributing their music via on-line means, specifically because of all the waste and pollution associated with producing and fabricating CD’s, and they’re not stopping there. They also belong to the “1% for the PLANET” which means they donate 1% of their album sales to actions in favor of the planet.
In times of ultra competitive ambition and ruthless capitalism, we at Laneo find this outright fantastic. When you have a minute, pop over to iTunes and listen to a sample of MOJAVE. I believe you will enjoy the music as much as we do – and maybe even end up purchasing a copy for yourself.
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: music, community, environment
Ever wonder where all those words like “carbon footprint” or “carbon neutral” came from? As I had breakfast this morning, I asked myself; are we going to invent even more words as the whole world starts “talking about”, the planet?!
So we all know about “Green”, “Eco” and “Planet” but new ones like “Habitat”, “Species”, and “Ecosystem” are being used more and more by the media, even though at the origin they designed to describe the distribution and abundance of organisms, their relationships with each other, and how they influence and are influenced by their environment.
It isn’t “easy being green” today because installing energy-efficient light bulbs and showerheads in your home is no longer enough. You have to describe it in words. “Offsetting”, is that what you’re doing? This “new thing” (a compensating equivalent) has also become increasingly trendy recently (note: Laneo does not support these initiatives), and there are a number of sites around the world that have sprung up to answer demand, but where did that word come from? I ran across a blog post at The Guardian by Alison Benjamin on “Green Language” that’s worth a read as she develops this topic even further.
I think it’s interesting to see how we as a society “label” most everything we do. What I believe is most important to increase global awareness and action for our planet is that each culture and language maintain their own unique way of explaining their acts and beliefs.
Maybe one day that will come to be known as – “ECO-TRADITION”.
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: society, environment
A friend of mine sent me a link today to NOE, which is a new participative website to collect ideas for the “Grenelle of the Environment” here in France.
We were really proud to see that Laneo has been cited as being one of the “Top Initiatives” in this collective effort.
Alain Juppe, former Minister of Ecology and Sustainable Development announced the “Grenelle” earlier this year to serve as a broad consultation on environmental issues. Six workgroups are currently underway and any French citizen can contribute to the debate, results are expected this fall. The name “Grenelle” is an expression that refers to the famous “Grenelle Agreements of of May 1968”, a multi-party debate that brought together representatives from the government, trade associations and other ONG’s on the subject legislating and giving an opinion.
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: society, news, environment
Fall, my favorite time of year, is almost upon us. This beautiful season is the same in any language and it happens in almost every place across the Planet. The bright hues of red, orange and yellow appear almost overnight and nature’s internal clock signals a gradual slow-down.
What’s funny is that we also enjoy our favorite outdoor activities – differently come autumn. Our friends and training partners slow down after the summer full of exploits, and a more causal enjoyment becomes the number one objective. The very way we experience nature changes drastically too. The air and water temperature cools which change the way we feel and breathe. The fact that we have to wear different “layers” changes our contact with the outdoor elements. And even our energy levels change requiring different amounts of food, water and sleep.
And of course the environment changes around us too. Water currents change, as do wave patterns. Leaves fall off the trees and decorate our favorite trails. Rain makes an occasional and unexpected appearance, and even our favorite animal friends suddenly change coats, migrate to warmer climates, or disappear all together to hibernate through the winter. All of this makes for a tantalizing piece of art that only nature could create.
So in the upcoming months, take a moment to enjoy the changes happening around you on your regular training routes or weekend trips. And remember to slow down and celebrate this special time of year with an “après” Cappuccino and Hot Wine with your friends.
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: society, environment
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of hearing all these catastrophic statistics and data on climate change and tragic images of wildlife and landscape. Sure we need to raise awareness, but intimidating people with apocalyptic scenarios isn’t going to get us anywhere. In my opinion, the focus on dramatizing environmental issues is counter productive. There is a moment when all of it becomes “too much”. People lose track, get confused, don’t know what to do, and most of all – give up – because it seems too big to solve with simple answers. In reality however, simple changes and tiny commitments are all that is needed to make a huge difference.
The recent rise in public eco-consciousness is due to the massive media coverage of literally millions of initiatives around the world. Some fueled by capitalistic opportunism, others purely by civic responsibility. Whatever the root cause, what’s at stake is not market share or consumer trends – it’s the environment. Hype is for shopping, not for social issues. But with this huge onslaught of information, just picking through the available news is a job on its own. You practically have to be a PhD expert to understand it all and be able to differentiate fact from myth.
At Laneo, we steer clear of all the hype and clutter. By talking about what’s new, who’s doing what, where the initiatives are going, and how you can participate if you wish – Laneo offers you a positive approach to make your own choices and your own level of impact.
What interests us is the great outdoors. Those picture perfect swells, the mist rising off the lakes, the silence of country trails and the majesty of century old boulders. Getting everyone outside to experience this, whether they’re beginners or experts (and at whatever dose they choose), that is our “hands-on training” of what’s right and what’s wrong for our planet.
Outdoors should be fun and it should enlighten adults as it does children. It should never ever become a terrain for hopelessness, regret or restraint. So go out there and play. Enjoy the spirit of life and nature. Because only when you get out there and experience it for yourself, will you understand what you yourself can do to protect your planet.
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: society, community, environment
Social networking websites are sprouting up around the globe faster than we can keep up with them. It’s no wonder that small companies have found a new “gold rush” in supplying a wide variety of innovative tools and services for their members. Each promising newer and more amazing features so that their members can create better and more personalized “windows” of themselves. (Makes me think of all those quaint storefronts in Salzburg, Austria at Christmas.)
I belong to quite a few of them and have tested many of the “options & gadgets” that are offered. One of them has just caught my eye – I AM GREEN available on FACEBOOK.
Residing under the “Applications” section of the FACEBOOK site, this option to lets you check off eco-actions (or leaves, as they call it) to indicate the things you typically do in favor of the planet. These engagements then show up on your profile and you can then invite your “Facebook friends” to join you. It has spiraled into over 24,500 users and over 700,000 different “leaves”!
And while creating personal “windows” on social networking sites may be a fad, “greenness” is most likely here to stay. Everyday, more and more people are changing the way they live and once they do, they are not turning back. I for one am very happy to see that Facebook is providing people with an opportunity to express themselves in different ways.
The people behind I AM GREEN state; “When we commit to doing something good, we inspire each other to do that, and more.”
They must have read my mind.
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: technology, society, community, environment
Laneo aims to support environmental protection by leveraging outdoor enthusiasts and their love or outdoor sports. Why? Because anyone who enjoys outdoor sports, whether for leisure or serious training, shares a common sensitivity to the role that nature’s beauty plays in moments of happiness. Some who get pleasure from sports in natural surroundings also enjoy extending that sensation to urban backdrops but the drawbacks of breathing in pollution, accessing installations, work hours, and the dangers of traffic often make the task difficult. Those that succeed literally have to “invent” workarounds.
For example – if you live close enough to your work, you could technically bike there, however there is no place to securely store your bicycle when they get there, there is no changing room to switch your clothes, and there most likely aren’t any bike paths on the route from you home to your work. Bikes loaned or rented by municipalities (like the ones in the picture in the Flickr Feed to the right, in Stuttgart, Germany where I passed through a couple of weeks ago) have started to spring up in major cities around the globe, but the return stations still remain far from many end destinations. A few companies have started to revisit the foldable bicycle (one of our partners did a wonderful job, Mobiky) and have successfully found this to be a new way to bridge the gap.
The point is that as individuals and companies we need to continue to find ways to bring our outdoor passion into our urban jungle – instead of dividing them into two different categories. The more successful we become at this, the more successful we will be at protecting them both. Preserving our great outdoors is not just for “the weekends”.
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: partners, environment
Why do we have parks? I mean, we all love them and like to romp around in them but, why do we really need all the rules and regulations that go with them? I personally don’t like the feeling of paying to enter a park, a place that is supposed to be natural and accessible by anyone.
According to Wikipedia “A national park is a reserve of land, usually declared and owned by a national government, protected from most human development and pollution”. Protected? From what? From us? That’s what bothers me. Why would anyone want to destroy (willingly or involuntarily) something as beautiful as a great reserve of nature at it’s finest. I think it’s a question of attitude. You can call it something else if you prefer but most often attitude stems from some form of education. In the case of pollution or destruction of natural resources, it’s a “lack of” education. Some of us regard people that harm the outdoors as irresponsible but I think it the opposite. Remember how it was the first time your grandparents or parents took you into a forest and showed you the trees, plants and animals? How did you feel? Some children are negatively overwhelmed by this experience and carry it forward to their adult life where it expresses itself as disrespect towards nature. Littering, destruction and overuse of our natural habitat are all forms of this subconscious apprehension. Laneo aims to serve as a community that brings awareness to this issue and promotes a new attitude towards nature and society.
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: community, environment
I’ve got quite a growing collection of partially recycled outdoor wear, basically shirts and polar sweaters, and I keep asking myself is it really as efficient as I think it is. The Economist wrote an interesting article recently about the “Truth of Recycling” (The Economist Quarterly, June 9th 2007) that I suggest you get you’re hands on and it provided a number of conclusions that answered a few of my questions notably; the future of recycling.
When I talk with manufacturers about this issue they are quick to point out that although it is technically feasible for certain products, it is costly and they are uncertain about its impact on sales, thus reluctant to make the investment. When I created Laneo, I imagined one day being able to help manufacturers in developing new products, collaboratively designed by Laneo’s member community. The Economist article underlines this by pointing out the need to design products with recycling in mind – meaning “closed-loop” manufacturing cycles, that obliges people to look at the entire life-cycle of a product. This conclusion clearly defends the positive impact that such a strategy would have on energy consumption, raw materials and pollution.
Recycling, in order to be really efficient, needs to be taken into account at the design stage. I believe a real revolution is coming. Prices of renewable products will drop dramatically and the end customer will really benefit from the “green” advantage.
Posted by: andrew |
Tags: news, environment
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