Sustainable Living Resources Archive
We are not the only people working to promote sustainable living. This part of our blog is where we like to highlight interesting projects being done by other people, or ideas to help other people live in a sustainable and eco-friendly way.
Please come visit the ALL NEW Earth Embassy website and blog.
We will be updating the new site with news and photos regularly.
Be sure to change this bookmark, as we will be phasing out this existing blog and bringing you all of our new news on the new new site.
We found the best drying space for our herbs is in a well lit and aerated space. 5 days drting on our stage our herbs are crisp and green and ready for packaging. Move over Elvis, Mr. Mint is here!
Our carpenters have been building thatched roof homes with traditional techniques for the Iyashi Sato Village near Lake Saiko for the last 2 years. Thatched roof was a dying art just 10 years ago in Japan, but the superior comfort, insulating qualities and sustainable nature of the materials has generated a renewed interest in this time tested technique. Learning from the last generation of men who still practice the old methods, our team has become expert at the process and has established a new generation of carpenter who can continue this great tradition.
The new Shojiko Traditional Village restoration project website is up!!!
Featuring photos, videos and the newly finished High Village House. Visit the site for more information on available homes, investment opportunities and to arrange a viewing.
link: Shojiko Traditional Village homepage
The complete restoration of the High Village house in the Shojiko Traditional Village will be finished later this month. We have added a new sunroom to the kitchen, pictured here with our crew of carpenters, investors and volunteers.
You can see more photos and details of the reform on the new Shojiko Traditional Village website
The house is for sale and available for viewing by appointment.
Call Jake Reiner for more info 090-9346-3774.
Ok, we used a little fossil fuel for this one, but the pizza plates we are making are 100% home grown. We had to cut a pine tree behind the cafe because it was too close to the roof. SO instead of just making firewood, we cut a few new pizza plates. The wood gives the crust the slightest hint of pine flavor. You have to taste it to believe it! Delicious.
Our second antique Japanese home will be complete in September 2009, located in the traditional village along Lake Shojiko on Mt. Fuji.
The 150 year old classic farm house sits at the very top of the village with a beautiful little Japanese garden overlooking the village and a view of the lake. The home is being completely redone with a modernized interior, new floor heating system, double glazed windows for insulation, an expansive second floor loft, a new sun-room and deck opening into the garden off of the kitchen, a cedar lined bathroom, and too many fine features to mention.
The house was recently featured on a nationwide TV program called Eco Life.
The mini documentary aired on BS1 (NHK) in August and featured a tour of the house under construction and interviews with the designer Jake Reiner and the lead carpenter Susumu Watanabe.
Please contact Jake to arrange a viewing.
Tel. 090-9346-3774
Email jreiner@earthembassy.org
Our eggs were mysteriously disappearing. One Sunday we found the culprit asleep inside the chicken coop. Jake took the large grass snake for a walk into the woods and had a long talk with him. We tried to be kind but forceful, explaining we didnt mind sharing a few eggs, but taking them all for his fat snake self was just not fair. Seems to have worked as the snake hasn't been seen since!
私たちの卵を不思議に消えていた。 1日は、鶏小屋の中に眠って原因を発見した。ジェイクは、森に散歩には大きな蛇草を取り、彼とは長い話をしていた。我々が強制的なことに、私たちの心を数個の卵を共有didn't説明試みたが、すべての脂肪ヘビ自衛のために公正なことだけではありませんでした。蛇として働いているようだから見ていない！
The crew from NHK were up to film a short documentary on our farm and eco village projects. It aired August 15th on the BS1"Eco Life" program. Here Gennieve is giving an interview about the importance of thinking global and eating local.
Cabbage is very hard to grow without chemical because of the "aomushi" cabbage moth. This small white moth loves laying eggs on cabbage leaves and the large green caterpillars that result can eat an entire field in days. We have been trying to convince our neighbors to go organic for years, but they say it is impossible. So we are trying to develop a technique to grow organic cabbages by planting them between rows of mint. The cabbage moth dislikes the menthol oil of mint, and hopefully our mint stalks will sufficiently hide the young cabbage plants from the marauding moths. If we are successful, we will bring by the locals and encourage them to follow a similar practice. The other advantage is that the mint serves as a cover crop, lessening the need for weeding and herbicides, and produces a valuable crop in the unused spaces between the cabbage rows.
After 8 years of little by little, this year our shop is finally full home-made goods from our team. Kanda-sans little organic rice farm has grown and he is now offering packs of 7 grain rice and black rice in the shop. Miho's Ramon tree nuts from her small naitve women's fair-trade cooperative in Guatemala, are now branded in Japan as MayaNuts, and her NGO Tierra Madre is selling the flour for baking all over Japan. The proceeds help buy and protect native forests. Come try MayaNuts cake with local wild honey at the cafe! The wild honey is harvested by Izuru's dad in Kawaguchiko, also in packs with honey combs in our shop. Shoko's home spun neon hats still available. And her latest, Thai Fisherman style pants, made from old kimonos. Some of the silk is actual gold obi material her grandfather wove years ago. Classic.
Our eco-home building partners at Honka and BeBorn let me take this little Italian beauty for a test drive. The fully electric Girasole seats two and had no problem riding around the back roads of Lake Yamanaka as we looked at some land on which to build our next demo eco-home. The top speed is 65 km per hour (41 mp/h) and travels distances of up to a 120 km on a full battery, so it wont be driving us down to Tokyo, but seems good for getting around town and turning a few heads.
At first in trying to figure out the switches, I couldnt get it moving and fully depressed the accelerator quite hard. Then when I finally got it moving, the accelerator was stuck on full speed for a few seconds and I had to grab the emergency break to keep from hitting one of the Honka log homes. So still a few kinks to work out, but generally glad to see these little guys coming on the market.
more info at http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/01/the_girasole_an_1.php
Earth Embassy's Mint Tea is HERE! 地球大使館のミントティーはこちらです！
At long last, after 3 years of planting, planning, pruning and preparing, we proudly offer our 100%, All-natural, no-chemical mint grown on MT Fuji in Yamanashi. Our mellow mix of white peppermint and spearmint make for a smooth tea, hot or iced, and the special apple mint we add is so sweet you wont need sugar!
ついに、植栽、計画、準備中の3年後の剪定と、誇らしげに、当社の100 ％、すべての自然を提供する化学ミント富士山の山梨県で栽培。ホワイトペパーミントとスペアミントのまろやかなミックス当社の円滑な紅茶、ホットまたはアイスで、私たちを追加して、特別なリンゴミントwont必要があるので、砂糖は甘い！
We would like to tell you it is Organic, but we cant as the word is certified by the government and the inspection and registration will cost us about $3000. SO until then, you'll have to take our wrod for it, its darn good!
Available by mail-order in 10 tea bag packages. Contact us for pricing and ordering info. info@earthembassy.org Tel. (81) 0-90-9346-3774
私たちは有機なのかわかりますしたいと思いますが、その言葉は、政府と私どもの検査とregisrtationによって認定されている価格は約￥30,000をカント。それまでのSO 、あなたはそれを私たちのwrodを取る必要があるでしょう、そのせい良い！
メールで使用可能な- 10ティーバッグのパッケージでご注文ください。お問い合わせ価格や情報発注。電話info@earthembassy.org 。 （ 81 ） 0-90-9346-3774
The 150+ year old house we bought last year near Lake Shojiko is almost fully reformed. We have repaired all the roofs, super insulated the house and added double pane windows. It has new cypress floors in the living room and cherry wood floors in the kitchen and dining areas. Two rooms will have heated tatami floors. And the new sunroom on the South side of the house will have a small garden room and a bath looking out on the gardens.
It has been a lot of work so far, but we are finally getting close!
Thanks to a two-year ad campaign by Forest Ethics—attacking Victoria’s Secret printing catalogs on paper made by clearcutting Canada's boreal forests—the lingerie retailer has decided to relent and go green.
The felling of trees to produce paper for the 360 million annual catalogs was destroying endangered Caribou habitat in the great white north. They will now be printed on paper made from sustainably harvested FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) certified fiber.
Thanks to the pressure applied by Forest Ethics, Victoria’s Secret has also agreed to look for even more ecological friendly ways to produce their catalogs. So now you lust with a clear conscience.
Weblinks
www.victoriassecret.com
www.forestethics.org
To read more about sustainable living, see Jake Reiner's column in Outdoor Japan
H₂O. Water. You know the story; all living creatures on Earth came from the sea, and the human body is 70 percent water. In another sign proving that businesses are catching on to the eco-trend, bottled water sales are booming. There are more than 80 types of water available in markets across Japan.
In addition to straight water, many stores are now stocking slightly flavored carbonated waters with no sugar or additives. Stay away from the “No-Calorie” and “Calorie-Off” waters because they are filled with artificial sugar substitutes (much worse than the real thing).
Weblink
www.mizuhiroba.jp/en
To read more about sustainable living, see Jake Reiner's column in Outdoor Japan
Most modern soaps are synthesized from petroleum, that black oily stuff we fight wars for. Yuck. Dr. Bronner’s soaps are all organic, 100 percent eco-friendly and made from natural, fair-trade oils such as coconut, hemp, almond, lavender and peppermint.
An icon of the ’60s and '70s counter culture, Dr. Bronner used his soaps to promote ecological businesses and his “All-One” message of peace (written in fine print all over the bottle).
These amazing liquid soaps can be used as shampoo as well as for face and body. Gentle on the skin, they leave no residue, and the fragrance of the essential oils is rejuvenating.
Non-animal tested, 100 percent post-consumer recycled packaging. Employee profit sharing. Best of all, they are finally on the shelves in Japan. (Most recently spotted near the checkout of the Don Quixote store in Shibuya.)
Weblink
www.drbronner.com
To read more about sustainable living, see Jake Reiner's column in Outdoor Japan
Solar panels have been around longer than you think; since 1883, to be exact.
So why aren’t we getting all of our energy from the sun?
P.V. (photo-voltaic) cells make electricity by energizing silicon with sunlight.
The drawbacks are efficiency and cost.
Until now the cells only converted seven percent of light into electricity, and the payback time on installation cost was 20 years.
But as sales have increased, production cost is dropping, and SunPower of California is now making panels with 22 percent efficiency.
Japan now accounts for 30 percent of all sales in the world (Germany is the top with 39 percent and the U.S. third at nine percent).
Another incentive to install them is that you can now sell your excess power to the grid.
Your meter will actually spin backwards, and the power company will owe you money.
Weblinks
www.sunpowercorp.com
www.kyocera.co.jp/prdct/solar
To read more about sustainable living, see Jake Reiner's column in Outdoor Japan
Bright shiny things sometimes have a dark and dirty story behind them. Too many of the diamonds circulating the world today are “blood diamonds,” also known as conflict diamonds. These stones come from environmentally destructive African mines, often worked by slaves and children.
Every time you buy one of these diamonds, you send money to fund dictators and warlords’ brutal campaigns in violence-stricken countries such as the Congo and Sierra Leone. But because of eco consumers such as you demanding an alternative, many companies are now offering “conflict free diamonds.”
These range from recycled stones from family heirlooms to community-based projects in Africa to sustainable mines in Canada and South America. So if you are getting ready to go down on one knee, or thinking about an early birthday present for yourself, be sure to tell the salesperson you’ll only buy certified “conflict-free” diamonds.
Hope she says, “Yes!”
WEBLINKS
www.brilliantearth.com
www.dejoria.co.uk
www.diamondsforafricafund.org
To read more about sustainable living, see Jake Reiner's column in Outdoor Japan
Snow season is here. On the slopes, out in nature, fresh air and sunshine – it must be eco. But ski areas are actually not very green. Huge amounts of energy are required to run those lifts and heat the lodges. Chemicals used in snowmaking and run-off from parking lots poison local rivers, but sustainable options are available and starting to spread.
Aspen Resorts in Colorado is now purchasing 100 percent of its energy from wind farms. Their buildings are extra efficient, and they use biodiesel in all their snowcats. They also support environmental groups and are ISO 14001 Certified, a standard for companies to help organizations from negatively affecting the environment.
Falls Creek resort down in Australia is also powering its lifts with renewable energy. They established a plastic bag-free zone to reduce waste and also replant native vegetation on the mountain to offset global warming. Let’s hope the Japanese resorts take some lessons from these guys.
WEB LINKS
www.aspensnowmass.com/environment
www.fallscreek.com.au
To read more about sustainable living, see Jake Reiner's column in Outdoor Japan
Another shameless plug for my friends at Treehugger.com. This great Website bringing you everything “green” now has an online TV station, “dedicated to everything that has a modern aesthetic, yet is environmentally responsible.” So whether you are an expat missing the Discovery Channel or Japanese and wondering what goes on in the rest of the eco world, check it out.
WEBLINK
www.treehuggertv.com
To read more about sustainable living, see Jake Reiner's column in Outdoor Japan
Bicycles are a great eco way to travel. Of course, you need a light if you ride at night, but a good eco-warrior eschews batteries, as they are full of toxic chemicals and difficult to recycle.
Luckily there are lights that generate their own power from the simple motion of your bike. The Reelight uses efficient LED lights. Magnets are attached to your spokes generating a friction-free charge as the wheel spins. And the latest innovation from Taiwan is a small wind generator that attaches to your handlebars.
WEBLINK
www.reelight.com
To read more about sustainable living, see Jake Reiner's column in Outdoor Japan
This video describes an amazing new type of free, renewable energy. A German company has built a solar wind tower in Spain, that simply generates electricity using hot air rising off the ground on a sunny day. Too good to be true? You just need a giant chimney, a turbine, and a lot of clear plastic, acres of it. But it is an economically viable option and very low impact process. Take a look. It also gives hope; showing us how we are surrounded by so many simple solutions to our looming energy crisis.
