San Francisco 1, Plastic Bags 0

Thanks to a tip from Outside Magazine, I recently subscribed to Daily Grist, an eco-news summary that comes out, yep, daily. As a lifelong trash-hater and recycling fanatic, I literally squealed with delight when I read one of the headlines on Wednesday: "San Francisco approves first-in-nation ban on non-recyclable plastic bags." San Francisco businesses alone hand out 180 million of these puppies each year, so you can imagine what the world wide usage is like...the good news is that bans are also in place in South Africa, Bangladesh, Taiwan, and Paris. Next up, Baltimore or Washington DC?

I tried to think back on how I ended up with such a distaste for disposable things like plastic bags and styrofoam cups. I do remember watching my mom doing laundry at a young age and cutting every dryer sheet in half, loudly exclaiming that each load of laundry does NOT need an entire dryer sheet and she would NOT get suckered into buying more of a product than necessary. Stick it to the man mom (those Peace Corps habits die hard). I adopted her philosophy and began re-using my brown school lunch bags (because using a lunch box was way uncool in middle school)...each day after lunch carefully folding it up and putting it in my pocket to take home and pack with lunch for the next day. Only when they bags were stained and literally falling apart did they get thrown in the trash.

In college I got many questioning looks when I told people I was majoring in economics and environmental studies. "But don't those two, like, not go together?" Of course they do! Businesses use resources, resources cost money, and if they can cut their resource use while delivering the same product, they will, ta da, make more profits. Or, if my mom can cut dryer sheets in half and use fewer boxes, she's buying less and going easy on the environment. Each plastic bag grocery stores hand out in San Francisco costs them money and they then provide this product for free to customers and it likely ends up in the trash. They should be thanking the San Fran government for helping them stop literally throwing money away!

My other rant on this subject is the disposable coffee cup-- namely Starbucks since you see the most of those around (in the trash, gutters, sidewalks, everywhere). On a long training run through DC I stopped counting the number of cups I saw people carrying around, and it wasn't even the morning coffee rush! Now I spend a good part of running time dreaming up schemes to get Starbucks to stop using so many cups. Allegedly they do have non-disposable cups for use in the store (though I've never seen one handed out) and they also have a measly 10 cent discount if you bring your own mug (though many cashiers aren't aware of the rule). My best idea at the moment is a sticker with barcode you put on your own mug that lets you accumulate points each time you bring it in, and after a certain number of drinks purchased you get a free one. I know, I know, a store with a highly addictive product does not need a reward system, but consumers need more than 10 cents to overcome the laziness hump and bring their own cup-- and a free drink on the fifth day (free coffee Fridays?) just might do it.

Last, while I've been dreaming up ridiculous coffee mug schemes and feeling like the only person in America who squirms at the thought of trashing a Starbucks cup, I found Bring Your Own, a great resource with both website and blog. At least I'm not the only one dragging a ten year old mug around everywhere I go-- and after surviving the Boundary Waters tornado of '99 together, I think the mug and I have a few more years left in us!

Don't tell my grandparents I'm in Ann Arbor...

Seriously. Growing up as a third generation Ohioan (on both sides of the family), I learned early to bleed scarlet and gray, root for the Ohio State Buckeyes, revere heroes like Woody Hayes (who famously pushed his car across the state line rather than purchase gas in Michigan and give "that state up north" any of his tax dollars), and most importantly, HATE Michigan. I mean, do children in any other state sing nursery rhymes titled "I don't give a damn 'bout the whole state of Michigan?" (refrain: 'cause we're from Ohio, O-H! I-O!) I distinctly remember a needlepoint my grandmother had framed and hanging on the wall that said "Thank God I'm a Buckeye and not just some nut."

I was reminded of these aspects of my childhood recently during the wedding planning process when the most difficult part of finding an agreeable Saturday in Columbus for my family to celebrate the beginning of the rest of my life mostly centered around avoiding the OSU football schedule, particularly home games, and especially (god forbid) the Michigan game. Part of me wanted to pick an important football Saturday just to see what the relatives would have actually chosen (though fear that I would lose to script Ohio and fierce Big Tem rivalries left me marrying on Oct. 21, following the guaranteed victory over football weakling Indiana).

Yet here I am in Ann Arbor for the first time, attending a conference put on by the William Davidson Institute about Global Social Innovations in the Third Sector (the things I do for the love of social enterprise!) It's been really interesting so far, especially sharing ideas and challenges with people from other organizations around revenue generation, sustainability, venture philanthropy, grantmaking, etc. Despite speaking last in the day on a panel that had already run overtime, I (hopefully) managed to speak coherently about the GG model and student contributions.

Conference aside I've been pleasantly surprised by my time in Ann Arbor...the sun came out this afternoon and I had a great run through the UM arboretum, enjoying the spring weather and attempting to keep to a training schedule for Boston. Dinner at Zingerman's was fabulous (as predicted by my coworkers) and merits its own post-- all I'll say for now is the sweet potato fries were the best I've ever tasted and the speech by Ari, the founder, inspiring. The UM campus reminds me a bit of Chapel Hill, and I think it must be the good public university vibe...lots of populist for the people by the people kind of feeling, mixed in with a healthy dose of state pride and leaning a bit lefty/crunchy/hippie. A few things have reminded me that while Ann Arbor reminds me of my college years, it's geographically closer to my hometown Columbus-- the car driver yesterday, when asked about good local restaurants or bars, offered up Buffalo Wild Wings and Damon's (and I promptly had a flashback of being 12 years old post-gymnastics meet and digging in to a Damon's onion loaf, one of the more sketchy appetizers I've ever eaten though delicious at the time). To top it all off, the front desk guy at the hotel reminded me I could get "ice and POP" just around the corner from my room. Thank goodness for the midwest, onion loaves washed down with pop, and bits of nostalgia even in a most hated rival town.

Begin It Already!

Roughly four months after intending to start a blog, here I am writing my first post and finally getting started...yet again at the tail end of another technology frontier but excited nonetheless about a new project! I named the blog "Begin it Now" for few reasons, ranging from the practical to the philosophical:

• I did actually start blogging four months ago, it was just in my head where no one else could read it. So the title is an admonishment to myself to stop procrastinating and do the damn thing, for real, in public.
• After fifteen years of competitive gymnastics, striving for a perfect 10 yet constantly falling short (and getting publicly judged in the process), I'm trying to ditch the fear of failure and mistakes (which usually just leads to procrastination, see above bullet). Hopefully this new beginning will let me experiment and enjoy not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.
• I'm a firm believer in the power of individual action to drive positive change, but this power can only be realized if we overcome inertia to start new things, big and small. I feel like there's a lot of exciting bits and pieces of innovation flying around these days, that when added up can lead to a tidal wave of good stuff.
  

Of course the title is just the beginning, and after four months of internal blogging I've got all kinds of posts swimming around upstairs-- the unavoidable bloggy navel gazing, but also the daily obsessions of work and running, inspirational people and events, sports and settling into a new city, and anything else that crosses my path. I can promise that it won't be perfect, but I hope it might be a fun ride along they way.