This first link is especially interesting, since it comes in the middle of my Negotiation and Conflict Resolution class:

On our vacation in January, we visited Costa Rica. I’d never thought much about the country before—in fact, I’m not sure I could have pinpointed exactly where in Latin America it was. But what I discovered really impressed me. Costa Rica is one of the most environmentally conscious countries in the world, and for good reason: the tiny country contains 4% of the total species estimated worldwide. It’s at the top of the 2010 Happy Planet Index, measuring a combination of well-being and environmental impact; fifth on the 2008 Environmental Performance Index; and winner of the 2010 Future Policy Award. The government’s goal is for Costa Rica to become the first carbon-neutral country by 2021.

Costa Ricans report the highest life satisfaction in the world. I’m trying to bring their concept of pura vida back home.

Things weren’t always this bright. From 1940 to 1987, forest cover dropped from 75% to only 21%. But that number has increased to 52% by 2005 thanks to a series of environmental laws. More than 25% of the country is now national preserve, a 1996 law restricted forest clearing, and a payment for ecosystem services (PSA) program has encouraged landowners not to clear their forested land. The PSA has been held up as a model for other countries, with 30% of its payments going to the extremely poor.

Ecotourism is now the largest employer in the country, constituting a higher percentage of GDP than the three largest cash crops: pineapples, bananas, and coffee. This is important, in that it shows that preserving natural resources does lead to financial benefits. However, it’s also important that the economy isn’t completely reliant on tourism. Electronic components and medical equipment manufacturing each pull in more money than tourism each year.

The picture’s not all rosy: There’s some question as to how effective the PSA program by itself has been; poaching is still a problem in national preserves; and the focus on deforestation has neglected some other environmental issues, such as air and water pollution. But the government has shown that it’s committed to environmental issues and that it’s possible to grow economically while still protecting natural resources.

If you live in Cambridge, like me, you’re in luck–HEET Cambridge has partnered with Sagewell, Inc. to offer free thermal scans of your home. Sagewell drives through neighborhoods with a thermal scanner (much like Google does with its Street View cameras) and captures a thermal image of the front of your house. You can see where you’re losing the most heat and get an analysis of the building with suggestions about what to fix.

Right now it looks like they haven’t covered many neighborhoods yet, but you can sign up to be one of the first.

It’s the future! Plastic-eating fungus—what’s next, jet packs?

• Newly discovered fungus eats plastic – Grist. I believed The World Without Us when it said this would happen eventually, I just didn’t think it would be so soon.
• Coop D’Etat: Farmers, Humane Society Partner On Chicken-Cage Revolution – NPR. United Egg Producers and the Humane Society helped draft a law that will phase out cages by 2015. Contact your representatives to tell them you support it, too. (Thanks, Liala!)
• What’s in your orange juice? – Boston Globe. Because my Tropicana uses oranges from Brazil, like most major orange juice brands, I’ve probably been drinking fungicide…
• The Thermostat Wars – Slate. It turns out Honeywell patented and then sat on many of the features of the popular Nest thermostat.
• What’s the Best Way To Get Users To Embrace Mass Transit? – Slate. I think Boston might be considered “low system/high empathy”.
• State of Maine Bans Use Of LEED In State Construction – Treehugger. Is there anyone in Maine who doesn’t think that LePage is completely nuts?
• Cotton’s Hidden Costs – Boston Green Drinks. Conventional cotton is one of the most water-, fertilizer-, and pesticide-intensive crops.
• Dirty Money – Slate. Would removing fossil fuel subsidies level the playing field and reduce carbon emissions?
• Why fixing up old homes is greener than building new ones – Grist. New energy efficient buildings take decades to catch up to the energy savings of retrofits.
• Farmer Groupies and Chicken Coddlers – Slate. Isn’t there a middle ground between well-off suburban dilettante and the poor Appalachians that the Foxfire books emulate?
• Orion Kriegman on Backyard Chickens & Community Resilience – JP Patch. Kriegman and his wife turned a vacant lot into a community orchard. (Thanks, Lesley!)
• Compost for Brooklyn – Locavore in the City. Suzanne’s a Berklee professor, with a book based on her blog coming out next year. Here she talks about how finding a place to compost helped her make connections in her new home.
• Recipes for the Semi-Vegan – New York Times. I missed you, Mark Bittman!
• The habit of pie – Harvard Press. Okay, so this doesn’t have much do with the environment directly, but Jonathan made the best pie I’ve ever had in my life using local honey, so it kind of fits…
• Sustainable – xkcd. Doing my part: sustainable, sustainable, sustainable, sustainable, sustainable, sustainable.

That’s all for now. As always, if you come across anything interesting this week, send it my way .

I mentioned that in January, Jason and I went on vacation—on a cruise through the Panama Canal. Jason had read David McCullough’s Path Between the Seas, about the construction of the canal, and he really wanted to see it himself. But I worried about the environmental impact of the trip—cruise ships are notoriously wasteful. They’re basically giant luxury hotels propelled hundreds of miles through the ocean. So I did some research to find the cruise line that has the best environmental reputation.

Holland America's MSS Statendam

We chose Holland America because it’s been highly rated by Treehugger and its transparency in sustainability reporting is impressive. See its 2009 sustainability report as an example. Since 2006 the ships have been managed in accordance with the ISO 14001 international environmental management standard, as certified by the independent auditor Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance. ISO 14001 is voluntary, on top of the flag state, port state, local, and international regulations (like MARPOL) that the ships must comply with.

While onboard the MSS Statendam, I got to talk to to the ship’s safety, environmental, and health officer, Jason Grimes. He held a presentation about what Holland America is doing to reduce its impact (watch the video) and gave me some hard numbers on their actual improvements from 2010 to 2011:

• Goal: Reduce total quantity of solid waste by 5%
• Actual: 8.9% decrease, 11/11 versus 11/10 (cumulative decrease of 8.7%)

• Goal: Increase total quantity of recyclable materials generated by 5% from 2010
• Actual: 94.8% increase, 11/11 versus 11/10 (cumulative increase of 24.8%)

• Goal: Reduce copy paper use by 10% from 2010
• Actual: 38.1% decrease, 11/11 versus 11/10 (cumulative decrease of 12.1%)

• Goal: Implement a sustainable seafood program
• Actual: 100% of all fish served are sustainable in November 2011

• Goal: Reduce fuel consumption by 2% below budgeted amounts
• Actual: 5.6% below budgeted amounts in November 2011

• Goal: Reduce refrigerant releases 10% from 2010
• Actual: 32.3% decrease, 11/11 versus 11/10  (1,351kg)

It’s especially impressive that they’ve been able to do this while adding more ships to their fleet. Outside of these larger goals, Holland America takes many other actions to reduce its impact.

Wastewater – A wastewater purification system treats water to a higher quality than most municipal treatment systems, and the discharge is “clean enough to meet drinking water standards in many communities.” Digestive bacteria, filters, UV light, and oily water separators are all used to clean the different types of wastewater: black water (sewage), gray water (from all other uses), and ballast.

Water use – Outside of water conservation that’s familiar from hotels, like towel reuse and low-flow showerheads, faucets, and toilets, freshwater evaporators use waste heat from the engines to make freshwater from seawater. Condensation from cooling units provides enough water for cleaning purposes.

Emissions – Holland America’s voluntary air emissions standards are stricter than U.S. standards. Some ships, like the Zaandam, even have a seawater scrubber that removes sulfer and particulates from emissions.

Other things they do:

• Use environmentally friendly cleaning supplies from Ecolab.
• Encourage crew compliance with recycling by depositing savings from recycling into a recreation fund for the crew.
• Paint hull with silicone-based paint (refreshed every three years) to reduce growths on the hull and therefore friction, leading to a 5.6% savings on fuel.
• Dry clean without perchloroethylene.
• Print with soy inks.

As a testament to its commitment to the environment, Holland America is the only major cruise line that still sends ships to Antarctica, after increased regulations prohibited heavy fuel oil (diesel) use in Antarctic waters.

There are definitely some smaller National Geographic/Lindblad and sailing cruises that would be more environmentally friendly than a traditional cruise, but those can cost twice as much—prohibitively expensive for us. Maybe someday…