Author Archives: Mike Nelson Pedde

Being Green – Biomimicry

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Hi Folks:

It’s Friday evening as I write this week’s ‘Being Green‘ post.  I had the opportunity this past week to watch a webinar on Biomimicry presented by Marie Zanowick, Certified Biomimicry Professional at the US EPA.  The talk was called, “Biomimicry in Action: Using Nature-Based Principals to Promote Sustainable Solutions (.wmv file).  You can also download the Powerpoint presentation (with notes).  This talk was well done, but it wasn’t my first introduction to the idea of biomimicry; that came from two TED talks given by Janine Benyus: “Janine Benyus shares nature’s designs” and “Biomimicry in action“.

Essentially, the idea behind biomimicry is to look at the rest of the planet and see how nature deals with specific challenges, then to adapt those ideas for human use.  The results may lead to better ways to capture and store water in dry regions, better ways to manage waste, less toxic alternatives to chemicals currently in use, and much more.  People involved with biomimicry start with a question such as, “How would Nature move through the air?” and then come up with different strategies on how this is done.  Ms. Zanowick’s talk covered the essentials of biomimicry very well, but I believe she also touched on something important when she asked the ‘opposite’ question – namely, “If nothing else in Nature is doing _____, should we?”  It reminded me of the slogan on the ‘3 Rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’, and someone suggested adding a fourth – ‘Reject’.  If a product is over packaged for example, don’t buy it.  If a chemical or process brings harm to living creatures, why use it?  Is there a better way to achieve the same result?

When it comes to ‘being green’, understanding and utilizing biomimicry principles is one tool in the toolbox, but it has vast potential to improve the way we interact with the world.  Some of the species with which we share this little blue marble have been in existence for millions of years, adapting perfectly to their environments.  It would be the height of folly to ignore them.

There are three ‘branches’ to the Biomimicry Group.  The Biomimicry Institute is the not-for-profit organization.  The Biomimicry Guild is the innovative consultancy that seeks to develop solutions to challenges.  One of their projects is ‘Ask Nature – the Biomimicry Design Portal‘.  And next spring the Biomimicry Group will be offering an 8-month biomimicry training program called the ‘Regional Specialist Program (BSpecialty-Biomimicry Specialty Program)‘.  If you’re not familiar with biomimicry and what answers it may have for the challenges your company is facing, I highly recommend checking them out.

Okay, the links for this week include:

That’s it for now. Have a great week!

Hugs,
Mike.

P.S.  The 2011 Random Acts of Kindness Week will be coming up in a couple of months (Feb. 14-20, 2011), and I thought these might give you some ideas to consider:

  1. The Giving Effect – matches donors with organizations
  2. Man bikes 25,000 miles promoting kindness
  3. William Ury: The walk from “no” to “yes” (TED video)- one way to promote peace in the world

Photo of the Month

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Hi Folks:

In our last ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post I mentioned that we’re currently house sitting for a friend, and that our new (if temporary) home is only six houses away from the ocean. Therefore, it only seemed fitting to make November’s ‘Photo of the Month’ an image of the mountains in Washington across the Juan de Fuca Strait. I was walking by there yesterday and the light was so incredible I had to stop and make a few images. This one is combined from 7 images using Autopano Pro, and finished in Lightroom.

Juan de Fuca Strait

I think this image turned out pretty well. I’ll definitely be back.

Now go out and make some photographs!

Mike.

Eating Our Way Through Victoria… Tea Time!

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Hi Folks:

In a couple of previous ‘Food‘ posts we’ve discussed some of our favourite coffee shops in and around Victoria.  We thought we’d switch that up a bit and talk about tea instead.

1) Murchie’s Tea and Coffee: Murchie’s has been an icon in Victoria for somewhere around a century.  Located on Government Street, it’s a short walk from the Inner Harbour, and a ‘must stop’ location on many visitors’ agendas.  Murchie’s has a seating capacity of 110, and in addition to fine teas and coffees they have a wonderful lunch menu and many different choices for desserts or accompaniments to ‘afternoon tea’.  There’s also a large shop with loose teas, coffees, spices, teapots, coffeemakers, cups, saucers, kitchenware and more.  The ‘tea rooms’ at the top of the stairs also feature work by local artists.  If you’ve walked out of Munro’s Books (just up the street) with a package under your arm, this is a great place to sit and flip through your purchase! Continue Reading →

He Says, She Says… Moving Day

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Hello, Dear Reader:

Things have been a little quiet lately here in our little corner of the ‘net, but since we have three or four blog posts to do, let’s see if we can’t change that!  This ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post is going to be primarily a ‘He Says’, but as always Marcia gets the final edit.  I have an idea for this blog post but  I’m  having a little difficulty forming words around it; be patient and we’ll get there.

As the old saying goes, “You won’t recognize the house when you come to visit; we’ve moved.”  Actually Sunday and Monday were primarily occupied in getting our ‘stuff’ over to the new house.  Moving is nothing new for Marcia and me; so far, in the years we’ve been a couple we’ve occupied 17 different homes – together or separately.  Last summer the folks at Victoria’s Boulevard magazine asked people to submit entries of 300 words or less on the subject of ‘home’; I wrote in and told them that Marcia would say I couldn’t write anything in 300 words to save my life, but the concept of ‘home’ has been an interesting one for us.  We’ve each been planning to come here to Victoria for quite a number of years, even before we met, and we’re rather liking the idea that we don’t plan to move again.  The editors at Boulevard were kind enough to include my letter (edited for length!) in their recent 2010 Home Design Annual. Continue Reading →

Being Green – Thanksgiving

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Hi Folks:  It’s Thursday as I write this week’s ‘Being Green‘ post, even though you won’t get to read it until tomorrow.  It’s just that tomorrow also happens to be the birthday of someone very special to me, and, well, we have other plans.

Today is also Thanksgiving for our friends south of the border, a day where everyone takes time to reflect on that which is important to them.  By some strange twist of fate tomorrow is ‘Black Friday’ in the US, which I understand is like Thanksgiving Day for retailers and credit card companies.  Here in Canada we celebrated Thanksgiving last month, a topic that Marcia and I covered in our weekly ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post, but one can never have too many things to be thankful for! Continue Reading →

One Year Later…

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Hello, Dear Reader:

Well, it’s November 23rd, which means that our little corner of the ‘net, M&M’s Musings, was launched one year ago today.  In the past year we’ve published 246 blog posts in a dozen different categories, and compiled 130 pages.  Some of those pages relate to creative stories that we’d already written, but there’s also our ‘Twitter‘ page on social networking sites and most of the pages relate to our weekly ‘He Says, She Says…‘ posts.  Has it been worth it?  Well, it’s been both a challenge and a delight to us at different times, depending on the subject we’ve taken on.  Is it worth it for you?  We certainly trust that it is, and we’ll keep doing our best to keep our posts current, informative, and maybe even a little bit fun.  We’ve received some wonderful comments from people on the content here, and we appreciate everyone who takes the time to come by and visit with us.  We look forward to seeing you again soon!

Hugs,
M&M

P.S.  Many thanks to our son Nick for setting this up for us! (It didn’t take TOO much prodding to get us started…)

Being Green – Greenbuild 2010

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Hi Folks:

A short ‘Being Green‘ post this week, and a day late it is, too.  T’is now November 20, and that means the Greenbuild International Expo is winding down for this year; people are taking down their booths and taking in their final tours of the ‘Windy City’.  I wasn’t present for this conference, but I’ve been following what’s been happening through the web and through Twitter, and there have been some great presentations.  A number of videos from the conference are available through the Greenbuild Speakers page; more archived sessions will be added shortly.  In addition, the people at ED+C magazine have a blog site dedicated to Greenbuild, available here.

I don’t know if Greenbuild is the largest conference of its kind this year.  It certainly isn’t the only one, and more and conferences, sessions, workshops, etc. have been coming into being around the world every year.  I find it fascinating to see because when I wrote my first letter about Canada’s environmental issues to a federal politician some 37 years ago, I couldn’t imagine the tour de force that the ‘green’ movement has become today.  Entire new industries have been created, new products invented, new policies and regulations brought into being, and thousands or more likely millions of people now work in a field that in one way or another helps the planet and its inhabitants.

When I used to write those first letters all those years ago, I had one subscript that I added to all of them:  This earth may be some 25,000 miles in diameter, but she’s a tiny blue marble in the vastness of space.  If we screw this up, we have nowhere else to go.  So, to everyone who works in an environmental or ‘green’ field, to everyone who helps to educate upcoming generations to understand their amazing legacy, and to everyone who, in his or her own way, tries to walk a little more lightly on the earth, my thanks.

Hugs,
Mike.

P.S.  A part of the Greenbuild conference has been a number of walking tours of the host city, Chicago.  Seeing ‘green’ skyscrapers is probably the better option, but I have to admit that the ‘Chocolate Tasting‘ tour would get my vote… assuming it’s organic, fair trade chocolate, of course.

He Says, She Says… Sweet Innocence of Children

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Hello, Dear Reader:

Our ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post is a day late this week because we were off visiting our grandchildren yesterday.  Such a wonderful time for us to reconnect with family and to live in the ‘now’ that these little ones experience.   It sparked our topic for this week, the “Sweet Innocence of Children“.

Hugs,
M&M

Follow these links to read what He Says/She Says: Marcia’s View / Mike’s View

Being Green – ‘Biophilic Design’

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Hi Folks:

Friday once again, and time for this week’s ‘Being Green‘ post.  The title for this week’s post came from a webinar I watched this week called, “What is Biophilia, and What Does It Have To Do with Sustainability and Illusions of Nature in Architecture?“  It was the title of that webinar that attracted me to it, because ‘biophilia’ translates as ‘love of life’.  It’s a term first coined by biologist E. O. Wilson and described in his book of the same name.  Basically, biophilia means that we have an innate and unbreakable connection to this little blue marble we call earth.  Nalini Nadkarni’s TED talk “Life science in prison” speaks well to this. Continue Reading →