Organic Farming Yields the Finest Wines

Walk through the garden gate at C. Donatiello Winery, and aromas of raspberries, peaches, and fragrant flowers waft to your nose. Take your time. Stroll along, sipping from a glass of Maddie’s Vineyard Pinot Noir, made with organic grapes grown nearby. Savor the experience. You’ll soon understand why owner Chris Donatiello treats the land and the grapes in his vineyards with the care of a loving parent.

We interviewed Donatiello from his office near Healdsburg, California. We wanted to learn about the sustainable and organic farming practices that are integral to the production of C. Donatiello’s fine wines.

BPGL: How do you differentiate your winery from anything else in the Russian River Valley?

Entrance to C. Donatiello's Aroma Garden

DONATIELLO: There are two parts of who we are. Actually neither of them is about being “green” and “organic”; that’s something we do because it’s important to us, and we think it helps make better wine. From a wine profile perspective, we want the wines to show where they’re coming from.

The Russian River Valley is a special place with a lot of varied areas, different soils and vegetation; there’s no point in making a single vineyard if it doesn’t show the valley’s diversity. We look for balanced wines, food-friendly wines. From a wine-making and taste-profile perspective, that’s what’s important. The second part is that when people come here and picnic, we want them to feel our hospitality. We want them to stay as long as they want, to go to our garden and pick raspberries and peaches. Hospitality is a large part of what we do.

BPGL: What are you doing to be organic and natural?

DONATIELLO: It’s more what we’re not doing. We’re not putting Roundup on our fields. We don’t use any pesticides or herbicides that are not organic. We use a lot of organic oils to discourage insects. We’re not using rat poison. You may kill the rat, but then the cat that eats the rat dies, and then the vulture that eats the cat dies. It keeps going and going and going. It’s not healthy for the environment. As much as what we are doing, we pay attention to what we’re not doing. That’s a big component of our CCOF certified organic vineyards.

BPGL: So, are C. Donatiello wines considered “organic wines?”

DONATIELLO: There’s a difference between organically farmed grapes and organic wine. Organic wine requires organic grapes, but you can have organic grapes without making organic wine. It comes down to a winemaking decision. It’s more important from a global, environmental perspective to grow organic grapes. And from a taste perspective, it’s also important. If you don’t take care of the grape on the vine, in process, or in the barrel or the bottle, it will affect the taste of the wine.

Two offerings from C. Donatiello wines

None of our wines are technically “organic,” but we use organically grown grapes. Because there are sulfides used in the winery process, we can’t say the wine is organic. For example, Maddie’s Vineyard Pinot Noir is made with certified organic grapes. Even though we can’t advertise it as “organic wine,” using organically grown grapes to make it is important to us — and it improves the wine. Our Bradford Mountain Grist Vineyard Zinfandel and Syrah are also made from organically grown grapes.

BPGL: You mentioned that your vineyards are sustainably farmed. What does that mean in terms of how you tend the land and care for the grapes?

DONATIELLO: It means we’re tending the vineyards in a way that they aren’t going to run out of nutrients and harm the environment. Whatever we take out, we’re going to put back in. It’s not like in the past; when it got to the point that there weren’t enough nutrients, you moved to the next spot. We saw that before farmers started rotating crops. That’s not great for the environment, and not what we want to do. This land is here for a long time and it will continue to provide for us; we need to provide for it. We want to make sure the fertilizers we use and the cover crops we grow will improve the land. That’s not just for the grape vines, but for the land itself.

BPGL: What extra effort does it take to organically farm grapes?

DONATIELLO: The extra effort isn’t substantial. Some of the things we use to be certified organic — such as organic oils for pest control — cost a little more, but it shows. Whatever you do to the earth, it shows through. That’s especially true with the Pinot Noir grape; it makes such a light elegant wine. We choose our cover crops carefully and want to be as green as possible. We take about 8 to 10 tons off the land each year, and we plant about that much cover crop — New Zealand clover to peas, to yellow and white mustard. We plant between the vines, so that makes a home for the insects. We plant in October, and it grows through the winter. Then it decomposes and adds nutrients to the soil. It’s good for the earth.

Overlooking C. Donatiello Winery

BPGL: You mentioned earlier that you plant cover crops partly for the insects. Explain what you mean by that.

DONATIELLO: We plant certain crops to attract beneficial bugs, whether it’s the worms that are helping to aerate the ground or spiders. We love spiders! They spin their webs and catch the smaller insects that otherwise would be trying to feed off the grapevines. We’re in a pretty rural area, and we attract everything from field mice to spiders. We’ll be bringing in bees in another month or two. We don’t need bees for the grapes, as they’re self-pollinating; we want them for the garden. And we’ll sell the honey in the tasting room. We have the space and the facility to do it; it’s beneficial to us and to them, so why not do our part?

BPGL: Are most vineyards in your area using sustainable farming methods?

Rich, juicy grapes await harvesting at C. Donatiello

DONATIELLO: A lot of the vineyards are farmed sustainably. And, if they’re not fully sustainable, they’re working toward it. Vineyard owners tend to have a keen understanding of the need to take care of the environment and balance that with actually doing business. If you’re a vineyard owner and have a serious infestation, you might break down and use pesticides. That doesn’t mean you’re not looking after your grapes in every other way. But you need those grapes to pay the bills. I can’t blame someone who does use a pesticide to treat an infestation. All grape growers care about the environment. They want to see it maintained so generations to come can partake in their profession and not worry about what the generations before did.

BPGL: Is the drought affecting your wines?

DONATIELLO: Not really. The drought has become a problem for a lot of people, and we do need some rain. But we put very little water on the vines. We don’t dry farm, but we come pretty close. We want to stress the vines a little. We can always buy water if we need to. We have enough to grow good grapes. What we need it for is cleaning, sterilizing, and processing when we’re making the wine.

BPGL: I’ve been told that the best wines are produced when you stress the grapes. Is that consistent with your experience?

DONATIELLO: I think that’s especially true when you’re talking about some of the Italian or Bordeaux varietals. But the Pinot Noir is a very delicate grape. I say this all the time, “Pinot remembers everything you do to it, and holds a grudge.” It’s one of the reasons why some of our vineyards are organic, and the rest are sustainably farmed.

BPGL: You talk about wine like it has a human personality.

DONATIELLO: Each wine has its own character. We have expectations for our wines, just as I do for my daughter. I have an understanding of my wines, just as I do of my daughter. I watch them evolve from grape to wine to aged wine. They change and grow. There’s a parallel for sure.

Julia Wasson

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

Growing Citizens and Leaders through Organic Gardening

A group of kids gathers around a bucket at the invitation of volunteer Bob Packard. “Yuck!” says one 10-year-old, looking at the squirming mass Packard has scooped up in his hand.

Students at the Children's Vegetable Garden. Photo: Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Bexar County

“No way!” says another kid. “Worms are cool!”

Inside Packard’s bucket are dozens of red wigglers, earthworms that make gardening easier by processing vegetable matter into compost. Packard, a retired salesman and amateur vermiculturist, was recruited to teach these inner-city San Antonians about the benefits of using worm compost to grow vegetables. The kids are participants in the Bexar County Children’s Vegetable Garden Program. Each has a personal garden plot to sow, tend, and harvest.

“At first, the kids’ attitude was either ‘Yuck!’ or ‘Wow!’” Packard says. “Most went from ‘Yuck’ to ‘Wow’ by the end of the session.

In addition to finding out that worms are pretty amazing creatures, the kids in the program learn about organic farming and get some firsthand experience with the benefits of hard work. We talked with program director, Hector J. Hernández, Youth Gardens Coordinator for the Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Bexar County, to find out more.

A Master Gardener volunteer talks with the students. Photo: Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Bexar County

HERNÁNDEZ: This is one of the oldest children’s gardens in the nation. It was started in 1983 by Brigadier General Dave Thomas, who was a member of the San Antonio Men’s Garden Club. The men were all ex-military. They brought kids in and showed them how to garden.

Students who want to participate have to apply. There are only about 55 beds, so space is limited, and it gets filled every season. We have two planting seasons every year, and it takes about 17 weeks for one whole season. We meet every Saturday from 9 to 11 a.m.

A family works together on a student's garden plot. Photo: Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Bexar County

BPGL: Where is the garden located?

HERNÁNDEZ: We have approximately half an acre at the back of the San Antonio Botanical Garden, which is part of the City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department. The beds are about 3 1/2 feet wide by 12 feet long. One bed is assigned to each gardener; if two kids from the same family participate, they each get their own bed to plant.

BPGL: Are parents involved?

HERNÁNDEZ: Parents are welcome to attend, but the children do the work. Spending quality time together is a big draw.

BPGL: How do the kids decide what plants to put into their plots?

Tending the seedlings requires care. Photo: Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Bexar County

HERNÁNDEZ: We have two growing seasons, with two separate groups of kids. We have a list of plants that we help the kids with in the fall and another in the spring. For example, in the fall, we plant cole crops, like cabbages and broccoli. In the spring, we plant squash and beans. We plant tomatoes in both the fall and spring. We also have a section that is a bonus plot, where they can plant whatever they want with our guidance.

David Rodriguez, our county extension agent for horticulture, gives the children a schematic of what’s going to be planted where. Then we work with them to plant each item. One Saturday, we could be planting broccoli and cauliflower transplants and sowing carrot seeds. Another Saturday, we might transplant tomato plants. Other than the bonus plot, all the plots look the same. Gina Rodriguez directs the volunteers in the agenda for the day; she’s a great help.

BPGL: Are you teaching the kids about organic farming?

HERNÁNDEZ: At this point, the garden plots are not certified organic, but we are organic. And we teach sustainable farming methods. We use organic products to control pests and to fertilize the plants. We also teach students how to do companion planting. They plant marigolds to learn about using natural plants as pest control.

The children get guidance from volunteer Master Gardeners. Photo: Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Bexar County

When Bob Packard gave a presentation on vermiculture, the kids were very excited about the worms, and made their own community worm bin. Those worms would die if we put them into the soil here in San Antonio, so we keep them in the bin. They feed on the vegetable waste we give them. Then we spread the compost every three or four weeks, depending on how finely ground the food matter is when we put them in. It’s a quick turnover.

Reaping the benefits of hard work. Photo: Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Bexar County

BPGL: It sounds like there’s a bit of expense, buying seedlings for the students to plant. How do you fund the program?

HERNÁNDEZ: There’s a small participation fee, but much of the program is funded by the Bexar County Master Gardeners through fundraisers. They finance the program when it comes to seeds and fertilizer. They do a lot of educational outreach, such as water conservation and educating the public on gardening. They also do fundraisers like poinsettia sales and other plant sales. We get a lot of donations and support from San Antonio’s green industry. They also help train volunteers.

BPGL: What happens to the produce the kids raise?

HERNÁNDEZ: They get to harvest whatever they grow and eat whatever they want. What isn’t eaten gets donated.

BPGL: What else do the students learn through the program?

HERNÁNDEZ: They learn how to be good citizens and leaders by giving back to the community. And when the kids cultivate, they see the fruits of their labors. Sometimes their “fruits” aren’t as big as in another student’s plot. That gives them incentive to try harder next year. It also teaches them firsthand about the relationship between work and reward: You really do reap what you sow.

Julia Wasson

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

Keeping Recyclers in the “Green”

Early this week, Yahoo! News reported that recyclers all over the United States are facing “a dramatic slump in the recycling market.” Despite the claim made in the article that “Even the biggest players didn’t see it coming,” the downturn wasn’t a surprise to the owners of City Carton, one of the Midwest’s largest recycling companies.

Cans in a recycling bin at City Carton. Photo: Julia Wasson
In fact, when I spoke with Andy Ockenfels, president of City Carton, a few weeks ago, he warned me that the industry is suffering a downturn due to the sluggish economy. For this green industry to stay viable, the alternatives are to find new markets or to ride out the storm until they can make a profit once again.
There’s a real crisis looming, he told me. “Without a market to buy the things we collect, they’ll eventually end up in the landfill. And if the downturn goes on too long, more and more recycling companies will go out of business. Then, when the economy does come back, there’ll be no companies around who can handle the waste.”
To many consumers, recycling is little more than a “feel-good” solution to the solid waste problem. We know it keeps trash out of the landfill, which keeps landfills from filling up so fast. Our main concerns are along the lines of avoiding tax increases or higher garbage fees and — perish the thought — having to find room for a new landfill somewhere near where we live.
Those of us who have to separate our recyclables into organized groups may grumble a bit. It’s inconvenient and requires vigilance to keep the plastics out of the mixed paper pile, the glass out of the tin.

Chipboard is a contaminant in the corrugated cardboard bin. Photo: Julia Wasson
If we’re lucky enough to toss mixed recyclables into a single, commingled bin at the curbside, it’s a lot less hassle. But it’s still an extra step that sometimes becomes optional, if we’re in a hurry or just don’t remember to do it right.
It’s easy to take for granted that our trash isn’t all going to be dumped into a netherworld of waste and that some of it will be reused. Consumers in general may not know exactly how, but we’re happy that each laundry detergent bottle and cereal box will have another life when it leaves our hands.
“Milk bottles can be made into things like deck ‘wood’ and outdoor benches,” said Brian Holtz, vice president of marketing and sales at City Carton, in Iowa City. “When the housing market is strong, there’s a big demand for this product. But when no homes are being built, there’s not as much need for recycled plastic.”
And that’s a problem. Recycling companies across the U.S. are feeling the pinch. I asked Holtz how recyclers will be affected if they don’t have enough buyers for the stuff they’re collecting.
“It’s like a farmer and a grain elevator. When he has to store grain because the selling price is too low, his costs go up. It’s an added line on his balance sheet.”
The temporary solution is to “stack it higher. Some items [like cardboard] can’t get wet, so we can’t stack it outside,” he says. “We have to put more bales into buildings.” That’s fine, as long as they have space to store it.
But what happens if a recycler runs out of storage space before selling the bales already warehoused? “If he keeps collecting, eventually it will have to go to the landfill, and he’ll lose money in landfill fees. If the price doesn’t go back up, that recycler will eventually go out of business,” Holtz said.
City Carton has been in the business of remarketing recyclable goods since 1967, long before “recycling” was a household word. This family-owned and -operated enterprise may feel the pinch somewhat less than other companies with shorter ties to their end market, according to Holtz, but the pinch is still there.

Phone books shouldn't be mixed with other papers. Photo: Julia Wasson
To understand why City Carton is holding strong, he says, it helps to understand the whole system. “Before we ship any materials to the end-market customer, we work with them to learn about their needs. We often go to their factories to see what they’re making and talk with them about how we can best meet their specifications. Then we provide them with the exact specifications they require.”
Holtz explained that companies he sells to have specific tolerances for contaminants, such as cardboard. “If a very small number of cereal boxes end up in the cardboard container, that’s okay. But too many will reduce the strength of the product made from recycled cardboard. The chipboard that’s used to make cereal boxes just isn’t as strong as corrugated cardboard. If we have too much chipboard mixed in, our materials will be rejected.”
And that rejection costs money. Picture 1,500 to 2,000 pound bales of cardboard. Then picture a convoy of semis trucking the materials long distances to the factories where they’ll be used. Now imagine what happens when the materials are rejected because they contain contaminants such as plastic garbage bags, magazines, or newspapers. The costs of rejection can be substantial. Worse yet, after all the effort of recycling, bundling, and shipping, those materials may still end up in a landfill.
City Carton’s differentiating factor, according to Holtz, is that they provide “quality product. We invest the time and effort to sort the materials,” he says. “And because our end markets know they can count on us for high-quality materials, we have long-term relationships that will survive the downturn.
“Still, we’ve seen a dramatic decrease in pricing [for what we sell], and some orders have been cut. This is the first time in history that we’ve seen this kind of drastic cuts. We still do have orders, but we’re feeling the slowdown.”
Everyday Goods from Recycled Materials
Yet, the housing market is hardly the only place recyclables end up. In fact, the there’s a lot most consumers don’t understand about the relationship between the junk that we toss in our recycling bins and the products we buy every day.
If you’ve got a box of tissues nearby, check the bottom. Chances are the box will be made from “100% recycled materials.” That’s an example of the chipboard Holtz was talking about. The same is likely to be true of the cardboard packaging that holds batteries, razor blades, pencils, and cake mixes. The rolls in toilet paper and paper towels are recycled materials, too.
And that t-shirt you’re wearing? If it’s not 100% cotton, hemp, or bamboo, it may just be made of soda bottles. After being thoroughly cleaned, the bottles are chopped and melted, then spun into fibers that are woven into cloth. A coarser fiber is used to make the polypropylene bags you find in nearly every grocery store chain.
Another impact on the recycling market is the downturn in the U.S. auto market. I was surprised to learn that Ford and General Motors both use a large amount of recycled materials in the new cars that they make. Trunk carpets and window frames are made of plastic soda bottles. And Volvo estimated that their S40 2007 car used as much as 47% recycled, non-metallic materials.
According to information on City Carton’s website, “New ways to use recyclable materials are invented all the time.” That gives hope to the prospect that recyclers will be able to find other markets for their goods. But we don’t have to wait for new markets to open up before we, as consumers, do our part to help keep these critically important businesses operating in the black — or should I say, “in the green.”
How to Help

Read and follow posted directions to prevent contaminants in the recycle bins. Photo: Julia Wasson
“The most important contribution you can make as a consumer,” Holtz said, “is to carefully separate your recyclables. Read the instructions we post by the bins. Then follow them. When you put the wrong item in a bin, that’s a contaminant. It costs us time and money to remove it — and sometimes we can’t.”
Before our interview, I looked inside of the City Carton collection bins. In the mixed paper bin, there were three full plastic garbage bags. They probably held shredded paper, though I couldn’t really tell. In theory, the person who brought them was doing something good: dropping off shredded paper to be used in another way. But what about the bags? “They’re contaminants,” Holtz said.
So, the same person who took the time to recycle their paper just cost City Carton money in labor to remove the bags. All they would have had to do was open the bags and dump the paper. They could even have reused the bags for another recycling run.
Glass bins are also a source of contaminants. Some people aren’t aware that mirrors, windows, and Pyrex containers can’t be recycled. “All we want is glass bottles,” Holtz said. “Be sure to read the labels on the containers.”

Unrinsed containers attract rodents and bugs, presenting a health issue for workers. Photo: Julia Wasson
But sorting isn’t the only problem for recyclers such as City Carton. “It’s important to rinse out the cans and bottles before bringing them in for recycling,” Holtz said. “Clean materials help control rodents and bugs. It’s a health and safety issue for our workers.”
Common Misconceptions
Taking advantage of my captive audience, I asked Holtz to solve some of my own recycling dilemmas. These guidelines are true for City Carton, but be sure to check your own recycling company to find out if they also apply to you.
BPGL: I’ve always heard that lids from plastic bottles, such as milk bottles, can’t be recycled. They don’t have numbers on them. Can they be recycled?
Holtz: Yes, you can toss them into the plastics bin.
BPGL: What about the plastic pumps for hair products, window cleaners, and the like? They have springs inside. What should I do with those?
Holtz: Toss them in with the plastics. The springs are very tiny and the amount of metal they add to the plastics isn’t enough to go over the contaminant limits.
BPGL: I noticed that the sign on the plastics bin says 1-5 and 7, but not 6. Can’t I recycle number 6 plastics?

Check the numbers on the bottom of bottles before recycling. Photo: Julia Wasson
Holtz: Yes, you can, but only the plastic bottles. We removed the #6 from the sign because people recognized it as polypropylene, the same material that a lot of other consumer products are made from. They started bringing in kids’ swimming pools, toys, hoses, even bowling balls.
We can’t recycle those things, and we spend a lot of money cleaning them out of the bins. Then we have to pay landfill costs to dispose of it. People don’t always realize that by dropping off their trash, they’re dumping waste on our property, and that’s breaking the law.
BPGL: I’ve seen a particular man take magazines out of the bins on several occasions. Is that legal?
Holtz: No, in fact, it’s stealing. Once the materials are placed in the bins, they become our property.
BPGL: Is it safe to put confidential papers, like bank statements, into the bins? After all, the bins are huge, and a single piece of paper will get lost in all the rest.
Holtz: Until those bins are taken into our warehouse, they are unsecured. Again, it’s illegal to take anything out of our bins, but that doesn’t stop some people. My best advice is to do what I do with confidential papers and anything that has their name and address: shred them. Identity theft is a huge problem.
BPGL: Many consumers are moving to the use of canvas shopping bags to reduce the waste associated with plastic bags from the grocery store. Can those plastic bags be recycled?
Holtz: Yes. We have bins that are marked “Plastic Bags,” for just that purpose. Be sure to put only clean and empty bags in the bins, however. Those aren’t trash cans.
BPGL: What’s the most important thing we can do to assure that recyclers like City Carton will stay in business?
Holtz: Keep bringing us your clean recyclable materials. And follow the guidelines for sorting. The economy will recover, and if we can keep our expenses in line, we’ll still be here once the market improves.

Joe Hennager
Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

Green Carpenter “Turns Liabilities into Assets”

“If you’re building a LEED-certified house in Iowa, but you fly the bamboo flooring in from California or China, that’s not green,” says carpenter Roger Gwinnup. “On the other hand” he points out, “you can pull up the oak flooring in an old house that’s being torn down, then drive across town and nail it in place in another house. That’s greener.

A salvaged stairway pillar that turns from "liability" to "asset" when it's reused. Photo: Joe Hennager
“Green building is supposed to be about lower energy use,” Gwinnup adds. And that includes the energy used to get the materials to the site. “You can have a quantitative measure of how green a building is by calculating the foot-pounds used in getting the materials to the site.”
Gwinnup should know. He’s been in the business of carpentry since 1973, and he lives his convictions. As a nearby city council debated what to do about houses condemned after last spring’s floods, Gwinnup approached them with an idea. “‘The top half of the buildings are still good,’ I told them. ‘Condemn the buildings you need to condemn, then use undamaged parts from the tops of those to repair the bottoms of the ones that can be saved.’” But the city council had other ideas. “Before I knew it, the houses were being torn down.”
It’s a disappointment Gwinnup takes to heart. His appreciation of the beautiful, old woodwork and his understanding of the craftsmanship and quality of historic homes are undeniable. What may have seemed expedient to the city council for reasons of their own is a needless waste in Gwinnup’s estimation.
“They have over 70 houses that they’re just crunching up and throwing away,” he says. “I saw truckloads of lap redwood siding laying by the road [for the landfill]. You can’t even get redwood siding anymore. Some people see these old homes as a liability instead of an asset. You can turn your liability into an asset by reusing it for a little bit longer time.”

The Gwinnups' home has unique decorations inside and out. Photo: Joe Hennager
As a visitor to the Gwinnup home, I was awed by the unique features this talented carpenter has added by converting other people’s liabilities into assets. Walking up to their house in rural Johnson County is akin to approaching a fairytale cottage in the woods.
When Roger’s wife, Donna, found a picture of an elegant Gothic-style arch from a Welsh monastery window, Roger sculpted it out of wood. With the ingeniousness of a master carpenter, he fashioned two identical pieces to overlay the glass on both sides. The wood on the inside is made from salvaged 1″ x 8″ yellow pine, shiplap sheeting boards. The glass is from an insulated picture window rescued from a house in Iowa City. The wood on the outside is cedar.

Reproduction of Russian architecture on the side of the Gwinnups' home. Photo: Joe Hennager
Along the back and sides of the house, he has duplicated a design from Russia, with row upon row of scalloped trim. “Whenever we had some scrap, we added it,” he says. And the result is magical.
Inside the house, glowing stained glass windows reflect Donna’s talent and current artistic passion. Other features proclaim the couple’s seriousness about reusing whatever they can in unique and interesting ways.
Every corner of the home holds another delightful surprise. And almost all of it was salvage. In fact, the Gwinnup home is a museum of architectural history: The floorboards, trim boards, doorknobs, radiators, lighting fixtures, faucets, mirrors, even a copper European-style toilet, are now assets that were once someone else’s liabilities.

Roger Gwinnup reflected in a salvaged cabinet, with the brick shower behind him. Photo: Joe Hennager

Innovative use of used building materials provides interest in the Gwinnup home. Photo: Joe Hennager
The couple heats with an antique wood stove and passive solar. They added a loop of copper tubing along a kitchen wall to circulate heat from a second wood stove — another example of Gwinnup’s skill and innovation. The kitchen island is cleverly pieced together from many sources. In fact, nearly everything in the kitchen had a previous life.
The one-of-a-kind master bathroom shower is constructed from old bricks the city of Iowa City pulled up when repaving a street. Boards as wide as 21 inches provide a rich paneling in the bathroom. “You can’t get boards that wide anymore,” Gwinnup says. “They only cost me a couple of bucks. Someone was going to throw them away.”
Gwinnup is like any good carpenter. He loves the wood. He appreciates craftsmanship. But unlike those who prefer to buy new materials and scrap the old, he hates waste and does all he can to prevent used materials from going to the landfill. “It hurts to see a house thrown away like a Styrofoam cup. It just doesn’t make sense,” he says.

Julia Wasson
Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

Renewable Energy, a Tool for Social Equity

A dozen volunteers swarm the yard of the Villareal house on the east side of Austin, Texas. The atmosphere is jubilant, almost celebratory — a real coming together of people with a purpose. By the time the volunteers leave today, the home will have been retrofitted with improvements in energy efficiency that the family could not have afforded to make themselves.

Rays of Hope volunteers spend retrofit the Villareal home in Austin, Texas. Photo: Mike Frisch
This retrofit — and others like it — are the work of a group called Rays of Hope, the brainchild of Effie Brunson. We visited by phone with Brunson.
BPGL: What motivated you to start Rays of Hope?
Brunson: I was participating in a leadership program in which our directive was to start a community project. The project was supposed to last about six months, from beginning to end. But I wasn’t satisfied with that! [She laughs.] I had to make it much more difficult and create an ongoing project.
BPGL: Were you always interested in improving energy efficiency?

Solar panels being installed on the roof of a Rays of Hope project.
Brunson: My chief concern was in the area of green building. It’s my passion. When I started the group, I was just beginning to get interested in renewable energy and how it could be utilized as a social equity tool.
BPGL: What you mean by a “social equity tool”?
Brunson: It seemed to me that the only people who can afford renewable energy are wealthy people. That’s upside down. The ones who really need it are the poor people. It just doesn’t make much sense.
I had read about a project where a nonprofit set up systems of solar collectors in poor countries, places where there was no running water. They used the solar energy collectors to pump water for drinking and to create electricity. It gave the people lighting at night to extend their working hours and to bring them basic quality of life.

Effie Brunson, development director and founder, Rays of Hope
Helping poor people seems like the highest and best use, instead of people putting solar energy panels on top of their house to power their subzero freezer. It’s not that I think it’s bad for them to use solar that way, it’s just that’s not the highest and best use of the technology. My goal was to find the highest and best use, locally, for renewable energy technology.
BPGL: Who is benefiting from your project?
Brunson: We started with a population that isn’t necessarily overlooked, but that’s getting squeezed lately. Property values are rising for close-in neighborhoods. Residents are less able to pay their property taxes and expenses. Together with Meals on Wheels and More, we have served a lot of people in that neighborhood.
This coming year, we’ll work with Austin Energy to find people who are struggling to pay their utility bills. That will be the focus for our next solar energy and retrofit projects.
BPGL: I understand that Rays of Hope has combined efforts with 1 House at a Time. Tell us about that.

Mike Frisch founder of 1 House at a Time, now combined with Rays of Hope
Brunson: 1 House at a Time was started by Mike Frisch, who had the idea to upgrade low-income homes by replacing old, inefficient appliances; adding rain water collection, insulation, compact fluorescent light bulbs, low-flow shower heads, and so on. My own idea was to install solar panels on top of low-income homes. We’ve joined forces and now we work together under Rays of Hope.
BPGL: What have your volunteers accomplished so far?
Brunson: We’ve completed seven retrofits and one solar photovoltaic (PV) installation.
BPGL: How is solar PV different from other solar energy collectors?
Brunson: There are two common technologies used in retrofits. Solar hot water systems just heat water. They’re less expensive and use lower technology. Solar PV is more expensive, but it creates electricity for the entire home. The entire utility bill is reduced. But, for the average homeowner, it’s a lot quicker return on investment to install solar hot water.
BPGL: What’s involved in the energy efficiency retrofits?
Brunson: In the energy retrofits, we’re doing all we can to reduce the load in the home without applying renewable energy technology. If the household qualifies for help from Austin Energy , we first let them come in and do their part with energy audits, insulation, solar screens, and such. Then it’s our turn to do whatever they haven’t. This is a lot more efficient than trying to do everything ourselves.
If Austin Energy hasn’t already done so — perhaps because the homeowner lives out of their service area or for another reason — we look at the thermal envelope to see if there’s air leakage. In some homes, we add insulation. In others, where a door is off its hinges, for example, we repair it to seal up the leaks. We take out [incandescent] light bulbs and replace them with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).

Replacing an air conditioner for a Rays of Hope home. Photo: Rays of Hope
In some homes, we replace older appliances. We might install a rain barrel for people to water their gardens. We also install faucet aerators and low-flow shower heads. If the toilet needs replacing, we put in a low-flush model. Or, if it’s newer, but not low-flush, we put something in the tank to displace water so not as much goes down the drain. And we insulate hot water heaters.
Each house is different, and it depends a lot on our volunteers. If we have a group of skilled carpenters, we can do a lot of repairs that other volunteers aren’t able to handle. If we have folks who haven’t done a lot of hands-on work, then we focus mainly on things like replacing light bulbs, installing new appliances, replacing shower heads, and adding faucet aerators.
BPGL: You say you install appliances. That has to be pretty expensive. How do you pay for that?
Brunson: Sears Commercial gives us a heavy discount on Energy Star appliances. The project raises the money for all the equipment we buy. Usually, the money comes from individuals and corporate underwriters. Donations are all tax-deductible, because A Nurtured World is the 501(c)3 entity that is the fiscal sponsor for Rays of Hope. [Editor's Note: Watch for a forthcoming profile of the founder of A Nurtured World, coming soon.]
BPGL: How did you go about finding the participants in the project?

Rays of Hope volunteers relax after a successful solar PV installation. Photo: Rays of Hope
Brunson: In 2008, we used Meals on Wheels and More. We looked at their client list and asked them to do a screening to make sure they fit our list of criteria. At this time, we only assist homeowners. We haven’t figured out a way to make the project work for renters, unfortunately.
BPGL: I imagine there are a lot of people who would like to participate in the renewable energy project. How do you decide whose house to put the solar panels on?
Brunson: What we’ve found is that there are a lot more houses that need our services than meet the criteria for renewable energy. Part of our screening process is to do a Google Earth search to make sure that they aren’t shaded and will have a big enough roof for solar PV. For the houses that don’t meet that criteria, we give them energy retrofits.
BPGL: What are the limiting factors?
Brunson: The amount of work we can do is very much based on donations. It’s also somewhat limited by our personnel — our capability for putting on the workshops.
BPGL: Workshops?

The Martinez family gets a new refrigerator from Rays of Hope. Photo: Rays of Hope
Brunson: We have two approaches. For the retrofits, we use volunteer labor. It’s like an energy-focused Habitat for Humanity. We bring in skilled leaders who teach the volunteers how to install certain appliances.
The solar photovoltaic workshops are one-day workshops led by professionals. We charge a small fee for attending the workshop, and that has worked fairly well. It’s a winning model.
The participants are generally upper and middle class people who are considering installing SPV or making a career change. Or they might be students in a solar energy installation program who need the hours to count for their degree. We have a big pool of participants who come for various reasons.
The other thing that helps draw people is that there’s not a lot being offered as far as a hands-on workshop in installing solar. Our workshop costs $300. The only comparable program is a more intensive, week-long seminar by Solar Energy International in Carbondale, Colorado. Theirs is $1,500. By contrast, ours is fairly affordable.
BPGL: How has the solar PV installation worked out?
Brunson: We’ve only done it once, so we’re somewhat untested. We installed a 3.2 kW system with 18 modules on a new house. It was purchased by a low-income family that’s been in house for just a few months. We want to get a full year of data and compare it to the energy efficiency of the house across the street. Both houses were built the same way, but the house across the street doesn’t have solar energy collectors. The houses were built with FlexCrete, and the duct work runs inside the conditioned space.
BPGL: Do you get any rebates for the energy-efficient changes you’re making?
Brunson: Austin Energy offers a $4.50/watt rebate for renewable energy installations. That takes a considerable chunk of cost out for us. There’s a federal legislative tax credit of 30%, but our constituents can’t take advantage of that because they don’t have a tax burden — their incomes are too low. And there’s no sales tax on the equipment, which is also a help.

Workers relax after installing solar panels on a Rays of Hope home. Photo: Rays of Hope
BPGL: What is the typical cost of a retrofit?
Brunson: The retrofits typically cost between $1,000 and $1,200. We take advantage of several energy efficiency programs that help keep our costs down:
Free weatherization from Austin Energy
Free energy audits from Green Home Zone
Free air conditioning system and duct cleaning, and repair from Ductz
Rebates on water-saving devices and low-cost rain barrels from Austin Energy’s water conservation program
The solar PV installations cost between $8,000 and $10,000 after rebate. We recover approximately half of that cost from the workshop tuition.
So, when all is said and done, each home receiving our full project services costs approximately $6,000.
BPGL: What kind of savings have the retrofitted houses seen?
Brunson: Some of the families have seen a 40 percent reduction in their energy costs.
BPGL: What are your plans for the future?
Brunson: We’ll work on 10 houses, and five of them will get solar PV installed. Hopefully, the project will grow a little each year.

Julia Wasson
Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

Green Technology Improves Air Quality

You wouldn’t know it by the smell, but there are 2,000 hogs living about 10 feet away from where we’re standing, in rural Johnson County, Iowa. Swine production has a reputation for producing one of the most unpleasant odors in the farm business. But with installation of a biofiltration device manufactured by Odor Cell Technologies (OCT), many hog and poultry farmers are becoming better stewards of the environment — and better neighbors.

Roger Treloar points to the bark inside an Odor Cell box. Photo: Sam Dundon
The man primarily responsible for the biofiltration system that’s improving the air quality at this farm and others like it is Roger Treloar. Roger grew up on a family farm in Iowa, but the lure of a career trading Japanese treasury bills took him to Singapore for five years. Living abroad and traveling the Pacific Rim provided wonderful experiences for him and his family, but Roger longed for an acreage, a garden to come home to.
We interviewed Roger Treloar and his son, Chad, after visiting a hog confinement to see (and smell) how well OCT’s device is working. Our conclusion? The improvement in air quality is amazing.
BPGL: What sparked the idea behind the development of OCT’s biofiltration system?
TRELOAR: I came back from living overseas in 1995 and bought some farmland, then put up the first [hog confinement] building in 1997. When we expanded in 2002, the biggest concern from our neighbors was what we were going to do about air quality.
I grew up on the family farm with cattle on an open lot. We also had 3,000 hogs that we put in barns and any place that had a roof on it. Every farmer up and down the road had animals, and no one complained about the smell then. Now, it’s become a very hot issue with a lot of people.
BPGL: Your invention solves a lot of that problem for farmers. Describe it for us.
TRELOAR: The odor cell is a stainless steel box, about four feet high, that we place at the point where the air blows out of the hog confinement. The box has four sections, right and left sides, front and the top. Each section is a wire mesh box filled with chips of bark. As the air flows into the back of the cube, it is forced through the walls of wood chips. The thickness of these walls is 5 inches — or 10 inches for more aggressive treatment.
BPGL: What is the purpose of the bark?

Treloar explains the biofiltration system. Photo: Joe Hennager
TRELOAR: When the odor-laden air flows through the spaces in the bark, the bark acts like a sponge to soak up the particulates. There’s a natural bacteria living in the bark. When you add the particulate matter (dust, feed, skin, fecal matter, and whatever else blows out of the fans), the resulting mass is organic, and the bacteria feed on it.
The odor is comprised of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and particulates. We’re addressing the odor and particulates at point source and reducing their transfer distance. We’ve had test results showing 70% reduction in emission levels.
BPGL: Will just any bark do, or is it special in some way?
TRELOAR: It’s a particular kind of pine bark containing a natural terpine oil that acts as a preservative to give it a long lifespan. My brother, Bob, is a biologist. He’s worked a lot with the Environmental Protection Agency and Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) teams. He came up with the material that we put in the filter.

Particulates collect inside the box, where bacteria breaks them down. Photo: Sam Dundon
BPGL: How does the process work?
TRELOAR: It works a lot like a compost pile. There, you have an earth-friendly, natural process, where bacteria break down organic matter. We wanted to use that same principle, but to have a durable media that will last a longer time. So, Bob identified a particular type of pine bark, which breaks down very slowly. Some of this media has been working for five or six years. As the bacteria break down the particulate and the bark, we end up with extremely fertile dirt at the bottom of the box.
Under a microscope, you can see that these bacteria live in clusters, or communities. When you add animal dust, grain dust, the ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, and a little water, the bacteria will grow exponentially.
BPGL: Is there any maintenance required?
TRELOAR: A bit. The farmer needs to add water from time to time to keep the bark wet and the bacteria healthy. We have a sprayer system that’s easy to set up when the farmer determines it’s time to get the bark wet.
And as the bark breaks down, every few months, we add some more wood chips to fill the container back up again. By keeping the old bark in with the new, we maintain the colony of bacteria so the process continues pretty much at the same pace. When the compost at the bottom builds up enough, we scoop it out and spread it on a garden.

Wood chips act as a sponge to filter the air. Photo: Joe Hennager
Normally, the terpines in pine bark would kill even the good bacteria, but with this bark, that doesn’t happen. One of the unique features of our patented process are how we create a micro-ecosystem for the hungry little bacteria to flourish.
BPGL: There are about 43 million hogs raised in the U.S., and 27 million of them are in Iowa. Why are there so many hogs in Iowa?
TRELOAR: It all interrelates. Pigs eat corn. For a while, there was an attempt to get a lot of swine production started in areas outside the Corn Belt. But, economically, it’s better to bring the corn to the pigs, not the pigs to the corn. The best fertilizer for corn is hog manure. If the pork prices are down, like they are right now, the hog manure is more valuable than the hogs. We have some of the best soil in the world here in Iowa. It’s a huge advantage. We raise quality corn and quality hogs. It all works together. It makes sense to do it here.
BPGL: I’m amazed by this bark. Will it work on other industrial smells?
TRELOAR: We have filters at a facility that makes pet food flavorings, and there are odors involved in that. They use lot of by-products from animal food processing. It’s good flavoring for dog and cat food, but there are air quality issues involved with that process. We’re helping the pet food industry deal with that.
Our filters have made a lot of townspeople very happy. In fact, one mother, who had just had a baby, wrote me a letter after we installed the filters. She said, “Thank you for giving a better life to my daughter.” The filters make a huge difference in air quality.
BPGL: What does one of your filters cost?
TRELOAR: For the standard size, it’s around $1,500. Some farmers don’t want to set up their own Odor Cells, so set up and maintenance contracts are available. I think it’s a fair price for the technology. We’re producers ourselves. We had to ask ourselves, what would we pay? Our company goal was to make a product that was efficient, cost effective, and user friendly.

A fan blows air from the building into the biofiltration box. Photo: Sam Dundon
BPGL: What is the return on investment, the ROI, for your product?
TRELOAR: The Odor Cell doesn’t make the farmer any money.
BPGL: So why would a farmer choose to spend the money to install it?
TRELOAR: The reason farmers — and industries like pet food companies that release organic odors — are putting these in is because they want to improve air quality. Farmers buy these because they want to be good stewards of air quality, just as they are good stewards of the land.
Fifty years ago, most farms were a few miles from the nearest city or town. Now the town has grown out to the farms, and just across the fence is a housing project. Those are the farmers who have a greater incentive to improve air quality and avoid legal issues.
By eliminating the particulates that cause the unpleasant smell, the Odor Cell improves the air quality for everyone. That’s the right thing to do. And that’s the real ROI for this product.

Joe Hennager
Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

Ecopreneur Makes Paper in Paradise

“Waste is a resource. But when people think of waste, they usually think of it as trash, rather than asking, What can we do with it?
“Everything we use at Costa Rica Natural paper products is totally disregarded material,” says Harry Johansing, the company’s founder. “There’s no other use for it. When I approach a new fiber, I look at it as, Is this completely trash? and then I ask, How can I use it?

Harry Johansing, founder of Costa Rica Naturals
Costa Rica Natural produces Ecopaper, a high-quality paper made from the discarded agricultural byproducts of bananas, coffee, or tobacco, combined with post-consumer waste. Other specialty papers include byproducts from mango, lemon, and hemp.
We interviewed Johansing by phone from his California home.
BPGL: How do you approach a new raw material to determine if you want to use it to make paper? Take celery, for example.
JOHANSING: Here’s how I would approach celery. I would look at it on the perishable side; I don’t want to compete for a food source. I’d have to go spend time in the fields, to see how it grows. I like to work with the workers to see what they go through. I’ll spend 2 or 3 days doing the hard labor. I’ll go to the packing plant to watch where all the waste is. I’m not familiar with celery as a crop, so I’d check to see how much waste there is, what’s thrown away.
BPGL: Why did you choose to make paper out of bananas?

EcoPapers uses agricultural waste to make paper. Photo: Harry Johansing
JOHANSING: When we choose a fiber, we look at how much harm it does to the environment, and how much effect we can have by using some of that waste to make paper. Every agricultural process leaves a byproduct, and it’s different for each crop.
Banana is the number one eaten fruit in the world; it’s grown almost everywhere. There’s a tremendous amount of waste in the banana industry. It’s natural waste; it’s how the banana tree grows. The banana tree has a thick stalk, and the bunches of bananas hang on another long piece of stalk, called the pinzote. Each year, more than 10 million metric tons of pinzote is thrown in landfills or in local rivers. There’s so much pinzote that they can’t put it back in the field. It’s a huge environmental problem. I couldn’t even guess about the total world-wide waste from the banana industry.

Banana stalks are a waste product, until made into paper. Photo: Harry Johansing
BPGL: Is there as much waste with the other agricultural byproducts you use?
JOHANSING: With the other fibers we choose, we end up doing something to help the environment; but on the grander scale, it’s not nearly as much impact as bananas. We’re removing hundreds of thousands of tons of waste by making banana paper. With our coffee paper, we’re removing 20 or 30 tons annually.
BPGL: Your product labels say that you use “post-consumer waste.” Does that mean your products are like other products that are made from “recycled paper”?
JOHANSING: If you speak to a paper mill representative, they’ll tell you that the label “recycled paper” means nothing. Let me give you an example: In the paper mill, at times they’ll create a larger sheet of virgin pulp than they need. Say they cut a stack of 11 x 17-inch sheets of new paper in half. One half of the stack is 8 ½ by 11-inch sheets that they put in reams and sell as new product. The other half, also 8 ½ x 11-inch sheets of virgin paper, is now excess. It might go back in the mill in rerun, or it might be used in another paper product and be labeled “recycled” without ever hitting a consumer process. The label “recycled paper” can be very misleading to consumers.
At Costa Rica Natural, we use 100% post-consumer waste. This means it actually has already been used for another purpose — such as old financial records that have been shredded. The unique thing about the post-consumer waste we use is that most of it is the waste the other paper mills are unwilling to deal with. If we didn’t use it, it would end up in a landfill.”
BPGL: So, how do you take post-consumer waste and an agricultural product like banana stalks — pinzote — and turn it into paper?

Chopped pinzote and post-consumer waste are mixed in a vat to make paper. Photo: Harry Johansing
JOHANSING: We have a small mobile pulping facility. We go to the plantations, where the waste is. Pinzote is wet; it’s comprised of 92 percent water. We use that water in our pulping process; we don’t use any new water. Then we return the water from the pinzote to the irrigation system.
We dry out the fibers, put them in something we call a “floor mat,” which is about 1 ½ feet thick by about 6 feet long. We stack those and send them to the paper mill. At the mill, we chop the floor mats into something that looks like pencil shavings. Then we mix the pinzote pieces with 100 % post-consumer paper and stir it all around in a big vat.
When you look at our paper, you’ll see the long fibers of the banana. We don’t use any chemicals in our process whatever. We maintain the consistency of our color by how we select the post consumer waste and by the banana fiber used. We only claim a minimum 5 percent banana fiber, but it can be up to 20 percent or more sometimes.
That can be translated into tons. We estimate that for every one ton of banana fiber we use, 17 trees are saved.
BPGL: That’s impressive. Could you make paper in other places, using different agricultural products?

A worker counts sheets of Ecopaper in Costa Rica. Photo: Harry Johansing
JOHANSING: Yes, in fact, my vision is to have regional paper mills, everywhere around the globe, using raw materials that are available in each local area. In Iowa, you might make paper from corn byproducts; in Ireland maybe they’d use potato vines. People could even use yard waste.
Our resources are so abundant and we don’t even utilize them. You can take the cover from a cereal box and make a nice notebook out of it. Or make paper out of it. There are so many things we could actually reuse.
But, being a small company, I work on what I can do effectively now. We’re working out of three different facilities. My main converting plant is in Costa Rica. That’s where we do all the finished products.
BPGL: How did you end up making paper in Costa Rica?
JOHANSING: I started working at Kinko’s when I was just 19. I grew with Kinko’s, and we made gazillions of copies — and waste. In 1989, I went to Costa Rica to surf, and fell in love with the diverse ecological region. I never wanted to leave. Around 1990, I started thinking about the waste we were producing, and that was the beginning process of this company, seeking out new alternatives.

Costa Rican workers display a new journal design. Photo: Harry Johansing
Pretty soon, I was living in Costa Rica, making colorful notepads to sell to tourists. I traveled around the country, trying to find fibers for the notepads, when I completely fell in love with the environment there.
BPGL: How much of the year do you spend in Costa Rica?
JOHANSING: A lot. I spend probably 60% of my time there. I have a home in Costa Rica and an apartment near our facility. The rest of the time, I’m in Ventura [California].
When I started the company, my desire was to move to Costa Rica. Eventually, I realized how blessed I am to have Ventura too.

Harry Johansing, surfer and ecopreneur
BPGL: I understand you used to compete as a surfer. It must be like paradise for you to live on the coasts of both California and Costa Rica.
JOHANSING: Surfing was always my passion. I loved the idea, when I was 14, of living in a grass shack and surfing every day. Then I realized that grass shacks are really hard to come by. So I developed a career concept: If you can make your career revolve around what you love, and keep that first, everything else should fall into place.
All the most successful people I know are surfers. If you’re going to be a surfer, you have to manage your time. If you want to continue your sport, you have to have a career concept that supports your lifestyle. I’m happy with the choice I made to be an entrepreneur. I’m modest in my lifestyle, but I get to surf. Surfing is about how I see the environment.

A portion of Costa Rica Natural sales supports Costa Rica's Hospicio De Huerfanos San Jose orphanage.
I’ve seen people mess up paradise. There are people who live in places we’d be in awe of, and the problems they create for themselves are unbelievable.
I’ve been feeding the homeless in downtown Los Angeles for 18 years now. I always thought Skid Row was an address, then I realized that paradise is a state of mind. Wherever you are, you can decide to get up in the morning and say, “This is awesome.”

Julia Wasson
Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)