Less Lawn, More Food (and Wildlife)
The lawn at our house is disappearing nearly as fast as delectable desserts do. Our half-moon metal edger has a big appetite. It nibbles back turf to enlarge perennial beds. It carves around the...
Category: Sustainable Practices
Solar a Sound Investment Compared to Fossil Fuels
It was not a morning for sunny-day optimism. Intermittent snow showers pelted down and a raw wind buffeted us as we stood in a long-abandoned pasture. Yet strangely, we felt warmed by a sense...
Reimagining Schools for the 21st Century
“… Creativity must, in the last analysis, be seen not as something happening within a person but in the relationships within a system.” — Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi, Creativity Innovation is critical to achieving sustainability, making...
Living amid Wireless Devices
When the topic of cellphone safety arises, common responses harken back to grade school – stopping just short of the fingers-over-ears intonation “I can’t HEAR you!” Our addiction to these captivating devices is not...
With Weddings, Small is Beautiful
When the editor of Source invited a column for this sustainable weddings issue, I confess that my reply was flippant: “Can’t people just elope?” In terms of low environmental impact, a courthouse wedding is...
Factoring in Local and Organic Foods on a Budget
The Press Herald recently reported that Maine residents spend a third more on food than the national average. This was not news for those of us tallying up grocery bills. We live daily with...
Minimizing Reliance on Credit Cards
When a gas pump rejected my credit card, I assumed its card reader was broken. Later that afternoon, another store clerk returned my card unused and told me, “It may be shut down for...
Making a Difference
Portland teacher Gus Goodwin has more than two decades of classroom experience, but recently students caught him by surprise. He was swept up in what he calls a “very powerful experience, one of the...
