There has been a bit of a green theme to my week.

First off, I did some filming for a Norco Lifestyle video where I talked about riding my bike around town to do errends. It was pretty funny, at the grocery store parking lot, a fellow came up to me and asked about my Norco VFR bike, the typical questions like “ooh, is that an aluminum frame?”, then “how many gears does that have?” Anyway, as he was walking away, he looked back and said, “right on, I’ve gone green too”. I had a chuckle, I love this trend…Reminded me of this funny and somewhat truthful video:

Then I filmed a TV interview and segment showing me riding my bike to go teach yoga and to talk about project blue sky.

Alos, I’ve been grossing out Caryn by making green vegetable drinks, well experimenting with making them, I guess she was justified in her green gruesome feeling …I’m figuring it out though…

Then to cap it off, and this is the best part, I just watched my nephew’s school Christmas Play and it was titled “Santa Goes Green”, haaa! Awesome. Good positive ideas presented in a fun way. Children will be living with a whole new set of green standards and bringing their parents along with them.

Cheers Folks,

Ryan

I figured I’d acknowledged that I had a blog and share my whereabouts. We started the drive (or should I say swim-heavy torrential rains) south to Monterey, California today for the Sea Otter Classic cycling festival. I’m caravanning my truck and trailer along with Norco’s truck and trailer.

Hmm, that’s about all I have to say right now. Okay, I’ll share a thought. We were watching the movie Old School in the hotel room tonight (we made it to Salem, WA), and a Walmart commercial came on advertising a handheld vacume cleaner. They claimed to be green because this product was made from 50% recycled material—then they went on to say how good it would if every customer, all two million of them, bought one of these, how much material they’d save and how “clean” that would be.

It’s great that they’re endorsing products like this, but no matter how green the product, we can’t consume our way in to a green world—and no, don’t replace your vacuum cleaner that is perfectly good with one that is made partly from recycled material to be green! 

Okay, it’s late, gotta wake up early…

I have enjoyed reading Sarika Suzuki’s diary from the trip she made to Europe with her dad to film a documentary on sustainability. An excellent read with some obvious and eye opening thoughts and observations. I highly reccomend the read, got to:

The Suzuki Diaries at CBC Online

You can watch some of the interviews online aswell, be sure to watch the piece from Ikea in Copenhagen – they actually have bike trailers to take all your stuff home with, brialliant! 

This prompted me to youtube Copenhagen cycling, check out this amateur video of a cycling city, extraordinary! Yes, it is possible, and the benefits are truly endless.

For more cycling, Copenhagen style, this is a great website:

Copenhagen Cycle Chic

Ride ON Everyone, lets all strive to be a little more like Copenhagen!! I know I’m inspired!

Another animated environmental edit. A bit harsh at times, thought it deserved a post though for shock value. Whew! After watching it (it’s only a minute long), check out some of the other related videos on the player screen.

I’m packing up and getting set to fly to Nevada today, it’s InterBike time again. I’ve been doing this yearly trip for about a decade now. Fortunately I don’t have to expose myself to the radiation of Las Vegas for long since I’ll only be present for the dirt demo days, which takes place up in Boulder City, a cute town about 45 minutes SE of Vegas, and just a few minutes from Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam.

The Outdoor Dirt Demo portion of this trade show is showing some green signs, such as:

• Biodegradable concession ware
• Organic Food options
• Recycled bins located throughout Demo
• Carbon offset program for shuttles
• Recycled/recyclable Demo bags

Trade Shows in general are very waste abundant and energy intensive. I’m glad to see that the InterBike show is taking steps in the right direction with their “Green Steps” initiative.

The headline on the Green Steps page of the site reads as follows:

“The Interbike Expo is 100% wind powered and uses 25% recycled carpet. And we are just getting started.”

At first glance, I had the vision of electricity used to power the Sans Convention Center with windmills located down the valley from the trade show. A little more digging and you’ll see that they bought carbon offsets for the equivalent power used at the show from an offset company that invests in windmill plants – which is great! They’re moving in the right direction.

They’re also encouraging visitors and exhibitors to buy offsets for their travel, I’ll have to encourage Norco on this one again; personally, I’m still Playing it Cool.

Alright, better get to the airport….

Hey Folks,

Just threw this video together from EuroBike ‘08. It shows some of the environmentally friendly products and trends in the bicycle scene. It’s by no means an exhaustive list, just some stuff that caught my eye…