GoForChange

The Bodhi Clinic

Gordon — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:06:38 +0000

The Bodhi Clinic , located in Millersville, MD, helps enable clients to remove those factors that bring about disease in their lives, ideally using natural methods. Run by Dr. Stephany Porter, a licensed Naturopathic Doctor, the clinic views medicine as a continuum, where optimal health is ideally reached by the least invasive modalities, like lifestyle, diet, and exercise, but sometimes must be attained by pharmaceutical or surgery methods. Naturopathic Medicine operates with the notion that optimal health results from the harmonious functioning of our internal (physical, emotional, spiritual, genetic) and external (social, environmental) world. Based on that model, each person’s disease state requires unique medicines specific to their specific needs.

Strawbale Transformation

Julie Gabrielli — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:30:47 +0000

top photo by: eric stocklin; bottom photo by: mitro hood

The musician owners of a 1960s-era house are planning extensive renovations to the living spaces on the first floor. They are committed to using low-impact, non-toxic, sustainable materials. They also desire to wean themselves off fossil fuels, so energy efficiency is a high priority.

As part of a long-range master plan by Gabrielli Design Studio , the first phase was a small addition to the kitchen. Built on the existing foundation of a dilapidated screened porch, the structure is post-and-beam with infill strawbale walls and fiberglass-clad windows . The green (planted) roof drains to a chain drain and a rain barrel.

The new room brings daylight deep into the kitchen, while sweeping views upwards along a steep hillside to the sky. The straw walls are clad in lime plaster, the floor is the existing concrete, finished with a natural, plant-based stain and beeswax.

The next phase was going to be a kitchen renovation. But the new room has changed the character of the existing kitchen so dramatically, the owners may not need to renovate it for a long time.

Working with this family has been an inspiration. During the year we worked together on this project, they also chipped away at wasteful practices all around the house. Using tips from friends and from green websites such as Lime , they reduced their electricity use by 64%! What a difference a little curiosity and a lot of motivation can make in a household’s budget, as well as the health of our planet.

“Tool Box for Sustainable Living City”

alyssa — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:42:05 +0000

photo by: alyssa

It’s the title of a new book by Rhizome Collective members Stacy Pettigrew and Scott Kellogg. I was fortunate to hear Scott speak last night about this excellent city living users guide to a more holistic life. The talk began as I sat on a couch watching the sun go down though the brilliantly lit stain glass windows of the St. Paul’s church.

The book, as Scott describes highlights proactive uses for basic humans needs; how to pasteurize your own water because who needs all that added chorine from the water treatment plant. There are plants that can be easily grown in your small cement padded backyard, for example duckweed that has, as Scott mentions has more protein and nutrients then some meats. After the talk Red Emma’s hosted a reception complete with yummy vegetarian bean and corn dishes!

South Mountain Creamery

alyssa — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:53:26 +0000

drawing by: alyssa

South Mountain Creamery is a nationally recognized family-owned farm in Maryland, serving quality milk and dairy products. Most importantly, they promote an environmental health-conscious vision of food production. They use no hormones or antibiotics on any of their cows and encourage recycling of their glass bottles, sparing unnecessary landfill space. Using glass bottles not only maintains quality taste but also minimizes toxic residue seepage from cardboard or plastic. Come down and see the farm in Middletown firsthand; they welcome observation and assistance in milking and calf-feeding!

Mill Valley Center and Farmers Market

alyssa — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:52:37 +0000

photo by: alyssa

Located right next to the Route 83 exit with Baltimores emphamis crocodile mural, the Mill Valley Center offers only locally grown produce from the Chesapeake Bay Watershed area and garden supplies sourced from the U.S. You can also find fair-trade coffee, plants from local nurseries in addition to a host of other environmentally conscious small businesses.

Nia Baltimore

alyssa — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:43:48 +0000

photo courtesy of: susoyev.com

Baltimore Nia is an expressive, barefooted, dance/fitness practice with a wholesome focus on body, mind and spirit. Nia creates weight loss while providing the proper weight maintenance. This form of dance also improves muscle tone, calms the mind and relieves stress. Created by Carlos Rosas and Debbie Posas in 1983 Nia, is now brought you by Megan Charles Founder and instructor of Nia Baltimore. You can get involved through classes located at 3000 Chestnut Ave. on the first Sunday of every month, beginning in January.

Ecoprint

Gordon — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:42:00 +0000

drawing by: alyssa

Ecoprint , first founded in 1977, is a printing company that uses environmentally responsible printing processes that are 100% carbon neutral, with a net of zero greenhouse gas emissions. Offering a number of services, including printing, conceptualization and design, data work, storage, and mailing, Ecoprint has spent years doing research with ink manufacturers and paper mills to come up with new products and processes to create a higher standard of environmental stewardship in the industry, like using Eco-ink^® and recycled papers free of hazardous chemicals.

Neighborhood Design Center

Gordon — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:46:57 +0000

photos by: Joe Stewart

The Neighborhood Design Center works throughout the Baltimore and Prince George’s County area helping residents, small non-profit organizations, and community development corporations do what they typically otherwise couldn’t: improve their communties. These communities many times are seeking to improve blocks and homes, renovate parks and school grounds, reclaim abandoned structures for new community uses, improve neighborhood commercial districts, etc., but simply lack the means. The Neighborhood Design Center helps by offering multiple free services: conceptual building and site plans, preliminary feasability studies and cost estimates, neighborhood master plans, and community development guidance. As the center itself is a non-profit, it does all this by mobilizing volunteer architects, planners, landscape architects, engineers, and other design professionals who donate their professional services to help neighborhoods in their initial revitalization efforts. Through their work the center hopes to strengthen community participation in neighborhood improvement efforts, educate the public about the value of good design, and serve as a catalyst for increased investment in neighborhood development.

It’s a Mystery!

Julie Gabrielli — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:36:42 +0000

photo by: Joe Stewart

More wisdom from "Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life," by Wayne Dyer. The 21st verse of the Tao is a poetic musing on the mystery of the all-knowing, all-providing energy that surrounds us always. The last two lines read:

How do I know the ways of all things at the beginning?
I look inside myself and see what is within me.

The Tao comes from the truth that is inside of us at all times. Another version of this, from the Sufi poet Hafiz:

If you think that the truth can be known from words
If you think that the sun and the ocean can pass through
That tiny opening called "the mouth". . . .
Oh! Someone should start laughing!
Someone should start wildly laughing –
Now!

Miss Earth US Meets With Local Environmental Businesses

alyssa — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:32:23 +0000

photo by: Will Patterson

Upon reading about us in City Living Baltimore Jana Murrell contacted GOforChange to find out more about Baltimore’s growing eco-scene. Jana, who is enjoying her new reign as Miss Earth United States 2008 , has worked as a newscaster in her hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, is currently a traveling physical therapist.

In her capacity as Miss Earth US, Jana has been involved with several eco-related promotions to build awareness for environmental causes. To continue her support, Miss Murrell and the team at GOforChange visited the Mill Valley Center and Farmers Market on Friday Aug. 1st from 6-8pm to highlight the garden center, great local vendors and the Baltimore Biodiesel Coop .

Read on for more details ……

For Immediate Release

Friday August 1, 2008, Baltimore-based environmental website GOforChange and Jana Murrell, Miss Earth United States for 2008, interviewed merchants at the Mill Valley Garden Center and Farmer’s Market and Baltimore Biodiesel Cooprative at 2800 Sisson Street, Baltimore, MD 21211 from 6pm-8pm.

In her capacity as Miss Earth US, 2008, Jana has been involved with several eco-related promotions. On August 1, she collaborated with the team at GOforChange to conduct interviews at the Mill Valley Garden Center and the Baltimore Biodiesel Co-op. We recorded the event and will soon post videos on our website. This event promoted the Garden Center, the Biodiesel Co-op, and also provides exposure to GOforChange as a leading online resource for positive change in the Baltimore/Washington area.

About GOforChange:

GOforChange is a website that presents stories of positive change in the Baltimore / D.C. region. This spirit of greening, advocacy, and social justice is being cultivated in our region by businesses, organizations, and individuals. Each one is a vibrant, hopeful thread in the shimmering tapestry that is weaving through our community. The site includes a social network, a marketplace (coming later in 2008), ideas exchange, and brief articles updated frequently.
www.goforchange.com

About Jana Murrell :

Jana has worked as a newscaster in her home-town of Omaha, Nebraska, and is currently a traveling physical therapist. She was crowned Miss Earth United States, July 2008 and will spend her reign increasing her knowledge of environmental issues, and helping groups and organizations raise environmental awarness. In November she will go on to compete in the Miss Earth pagent to be held in Pasay City, Philippines.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jana_Murrell

About Mill Valley Garden Center and Farmers Market :

The Mill Valley Garden Center and Farmer’s Market supports a local living economy, by offering as many products as possible that are produced in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed by locally owned farms and companies.
http://www.mill-valley.net/

GOforChange Contact:

Julie Gabrielli
2002 Clipper Park Rd., 4th Floor
Baltimore, Maryland 21211
julie.gabrielli@verizon.net
goforchange@gmail.com
410.530.0389