St. Patricks’ Day this week turned cities green literally – from landmarks to libations. But how green have major metro areas around the U.S. been throughout the year? The American Cities Business Journal group has released a new study on the matter.

Their inaugural Green Cities Index examined 43 U.S. cities, and ranked them based on 20 criteria encompassing residents’ environmental behavior, cities’ use or abuse of land and water, and presence of a variety of environment related projects and industries. The Green Cities Index 2010 survey results have been hot in the blogosphere ever since, with bloggers and residents bragging or bummed about their scores.

Portland topped the Green Cities Index 2010, with San Francisco in a close second place, Honolulu at third followed by Austin and Boston. The new study’s rankings fell in line with related studies by the Natural Resources Defense Council, and by Popular Science. But not exactly.

Surprising Strengths

Green Cities Index 2010 gave areas lacking environmental credibility overall some surprising points. Houston, one of the most traffic-choked cities in the U.S., held the top spot for Energy Star rated facilities, saving it from a much lower score.

Meanwhile, Albany ranked in the top ten on this list, though traditional manufacturing plants have caused severe pollution there for years. The city’s high score was influenced by Albany’s top score for “green jobs.”

At least the presence of more green jobs per capita in the area indicates the promise of a sea change.

It ain’t easy being green…

How important are green aspects of a city to the quality of life there? We think entirely important. That’s why we’re surprised that Green Cities Index 2010 chart topper Portland did not rank so highly in a separate happiness survey, the Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index which was released last month. The happiness study examined 162 cities, and Portland came in at 59. (That compares indirectly to 16th place on a 43-city list like Green Cities.)

Greensboro, North Carolina which came in dead last on the Green Cities Index, with the worst ranking for sprawl and its result, carbon emissions per capita, ranked 97th on the well-being index, which would put it at about 25th on a list of 43.

While there’s no apples-to-apples comparison between the studies, it’s worth asking: why aren’t the greenest cities always the happiest? Where does your city rank, and how happy are you?

Basic reading:

“A few hundred miles up the Ohio River from Cincinnati, Pittsburgh sits as a shining example of sustainability. After decades of working to clean its smoky skies and polluted waterways, the Steel City also has become a model for green building and sustainable design…” – A news feature discussing the reasons why Cincinnati Business Journal decided to launch its Green Cities Index

“Nine of the 10 cities that fare best on ‘life evaluation,’ assessments of life now and expectations in five years, boast a major university, a big military installation or a state Capitol – institutions that presumably provide some insulation from recession.” – A news feature breaking down a Gallup study of how happy people are in American cities, via USA Today

“If you want to be good to the environment, stay away from it…” From a 2009 study on Suburban vs. City living by Edward L. Glaeser

“No Northwest city is yet close to the destination of sustainability: carbon neutrality; widely shared prosperity; stable populations in strong communities; educational and economic opportunity for all; hyper-efficient use of natural resources; zero-pollution industries; and low-stuff, high-satisfaction lives.” – a different assessment of green cities from the Vancouver, B.C. news site, The Tyee

Further Resources:

News from OregonLive.com about the lack of trees in an otherwise green city, Portland: “Green Portland Isn’t Green Enough”

An Environmental Protection Agency air quality report

For contrast, a news report on air quality in Islamabad

A Greenbang.com story about London’s aim to imitate Copenhagen, Europe’s greenest city

A blog post calling for public transit support in Nashville, and referencing its low ranking on Green Cities Index 2010

Image Credit: Keith Skelton

This is the latest installment of EcoMeme, a column featuring eco news, tech and trends by EcoSalon writer and columnist Lora Kolodny.

San Francisco’s parking violations are among the highest in the nation at a whopping $63 at downtown spaces and $53 in the hoods. It can be pretty jarring when confronted with a dreaded ticket on your windshield when the meter expires – especially after holiday shopping and supporting local businesses. Those businesses face different challenges than the malls with their football field parking lots.

You also get slapped with the bloated fines for parking in neighborhoods during street cleaning hours in which a sweeper rolls by for five minutes during the three hour time frame in which you are warned not to park on the designated street.

It’s all part of the plan to make money for the city at the expense of its drivers. And while many local environmentalists are all for it as a way to encourage biking and bus riding and other modes of public transportation, it isn’t delivering the optimum results: Boosting city income and getting taxpayers to leave their cars at home.

The prices of citations were increased $3 last year to boost revenue for the hurting Municipal Transportation Agency which plans to collect an estimated $232 million in fines this year, according to the San Francisco Examiner. But gouging the city’s drivers won’t generate enough income for the $47 million operating shortfall. So, what can the agency do? Look to the meters again, of course.

Now the agency is proposing rate extensions at some 25,000 meters as a way to make up at least $9 million of the revenue shortfall. Most meters now end at six p.m., giving locals a break for patronizing restaurants or other businesses. In some locations they would extend to midnight and to Sundays. That means you best carry plenty of quarters or buy parking meter cards if you want to do the town by car because public parking garages are often full and can cost even more than a violation for a night of dinner and the theater.

The whole gouging system has residents shaking their heads, including respected former San Francisco Chronicle columnist Adair Lara, who opened the discussion up to her many Facebook friends asking if they, too, were exasperated by the insane fees. She got plenty of responses from those who have been burned – yet not deterred from leaving home. Starving the meters is really the only weapon tax payers have in protesting the fees, and would also result in fewer cars on the road.

Some, like Jim Lazarus of the SF Chamber of Commerce, applaud having meters operating on Sundays because it would encourage turnover which helps local businesses. Even so, he told the Examiner extending paid parking after six in the evening “is just an excuse to shake people down” and that “their primary purpose is not to be a cash cow for Muni.”

Transit Agency head Nathaniel Ford, credited with putting Muni “back on track,” argues he is coming from the heart and not the pocketbook with a  strategy that is more about managing congestion than drawing more revenue. Apparently, occupancy rates at meters are higher than 85 percent in some places. The agency figures extending parking meters will increase the availability of spaces and cut down on drivers having to circle blocks to find spaces.

I hear him, since I was forced to circle the bustling Richmond neighborhood of Geary on Sunday to park my car and meet my family on the avenue for lunch. I must have spent 15 minutes circling until landing a coveted spot on a side street, about five blocks away. I’m not sure if it would have been easier if the meters were operating. Across the bridge in Marin County, municipalities are offering the gift of free parking every day during the holidays as a “courtesy” to its taxpayers who are supporting local businesses. And the turnover seems to go pretty smoothly over there.

I am certain of one thing: A $63 parking violation is a violation of justice, a punishment that hardly fits the crime. If it is desired to have a stinging effect, it does. It is painful getting a ticket knowing you could use the money to pay your heating bill or even donate it to a worthy cause. I will never park in this god forsaken town again, you vow.

But it also leaves a bitter aftertaste directly associated with the city of San Francisco and its government. After all, we are still in the throws of a recession, even if it is hard to park amid the congestion.

Images: epugachev, SFMA

At first, it seems extremely eco-friendly, the biannual Compost Giveaway Events every fall and spring in San Francisco hosted by the city’s Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC).

Residents are offered free compost to produce soil for community and school gardens and local backyards. It’s the green and organic thing to do.

The problem is the mulch isn’t made of food scraps and manure but a combination of toxic sewage sludge from waste water treatment, green waste, yard waste and wood chips.

What’s in sewage sludge? Stuff that’s foul and harmful to people and other living things.

The True Food Network, which is leading a petition drive against the latest giveaway argues sewage sludge is shown by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to contain heavy metals, pathogens, pharmaceuticals, PCB’s, flame retardants and endocrine disruptors. In addition, organic pollutants are present in sludge samples, such as polybrominated diphenal ethers (PMDEs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, DDT degradation products, chlordadanes, synthetic musk products, triclosan and tributytin.

“Residents may be led to believe that the city’s sludge compost is organic,” says the network. “The USDA’s National Organic Program’s (NOP) regulations, however, strictly forbid the use of sewage sludge as a fertilizer or soil amendment, no matter if it is composted or otherwise treated. This compost is by no means organic.”

The Center for Food Safety and the Resource Institute for Low Entropy Systems filed a petition with Gavin Newsom, San Francisco’s Mayor and Ed Harrington, General Manager of SFPUC, asking them to immediately and permanently suspend the sewage sludge compost giveaways for the fall. Residents are asked to join the letter writing campaign to protect the health of its gardeners.

Image: SfLatchkey

No one growing up during the upbeat, Mattel-directed Sixties figures they’ll be worse off in middle age, forced to scrounge harder for work, buy less, live smaller.

Those Barbie songs my sister and I sang along to in our pink and green room constituted teenage visions of a supercalifragelistic future that we owned, co-starring Dick Van Dyke, four kids, a shiny Lincoln and full-service yacht.

“Here’s a cake, that you and I can make, I’ll share the recipe, if you say yes to me.”

But due to the recession and soaring costs of raising two girls in the city, I’m singing a different tune today on my birthday. Sure, I married Ken, but where are the other Camelot conquests I was guaranteed?

Gone is the wine country home, jaunts to spas on a whim, the black velvet boxes concealing gems he bought for me with cash from cases he settled.

Despite the unexpected Barbie plot twist, I can’t help but feel a deep sense of gratitude as I take inventory of what I do have.

For instance, I spotted a gold necklace on Fillmore Street with a round charm that that bore the words I am completely blessed. I didn’t dare buy the $600 trinket but I have kept the affirmation close to my heart.

So, I’ve decided to count my blessings today (my colleague Sarah Irani should know that quite a few of them came free!). Here are a whopping 50, plus one for good luck.

I am completely blessed because…

1. I birthed two healthy, spectacular daughters who teach me something new each day.

2. I married a great father.

3.  I follow my bliss every day that I write.

4. My girls are strapping amazons because God gave me super human breast milk.

5. I’m surrounded by friends who are like family.

6.   My mother is still around and down to just one biting criticism of me a day.

7. I am never hungry when I don’t want to be.

8. We live without war in the  streets of San Francisco.

9. I have not been killed by a truck like my brother.

10. My religious faith has connected me to a community of fellow yentas to grow old with.

11. My older sister is an exceptional auntie.

12. My older brother is keeping the family business afloat during rocky times.

13. My pug and cat think I’m their mommy and I am.

14. I married father nature.

15. I’m healthy and strong from exercise and can climb the fence when I get locked out.

16. The builder’s daughter has always had a roof over her head.

17. I have commercial-free TV.

18. I have art on my walls from friends who made it.

19. I have memorized dozens of bedtime songs.

20. My daughters sing the songs I have sung to them.

21. My children are known for being creative and kind.

22. My beloved camera almost always works.

23. My children can read and write and like to do both.

24. My children make me exquisite birthday presents and set a regal table with a tiara at my place.

25. I can walk to the movie theater on Saturday nights.

26. No one at the theater asks me if I want the senior discount.

27. My city has excellent public transportation.

28. I can still see very well when I wear magnified lenses.

29. My mom, who unloads much, has kept her box at the iconic Hollywood Bowl.

30. My children get to use the box at the Hollywood Bowl and hear live music.

31. No menopause yet.

32. Menopause will come sooner or later.

33. I think I’ve seen god.

34. I think god is the miracle of birth.

35. I have learned how to kayak.

36. I have learned Italian.

37. Henna makes me higher than jewelry.

38. I married a great teacher.

39. My husband rarely spends money. When he does, it is on books and candy.

40. I have kept my commitments.

41. I’m in a bad girls book club.

42. My book club is all about the food.

43. Decent chick flicks are still being made, i.e. Julie and Julia.

44. I can grow vegetables in my yard to make soup.

45. I can pick flowers in my yard for table bouquets.

46. I can find stylish Sixties-inspired fashion on sale.

47. My Weight Watchers Guru is a Stanford Nutritionist.

48. I have gained the wisdom to see my own culpability.

49. I was born a healthy female in a rich land.

50. I’m a survivor because my Polish grandparents were survivors.

51. Today is my 51st birthday.

Main image: Sparkleneeley

Second image: Luanne Bradley

This is the fourth in Luanne’s new lifestyle column, Life in the Green Lane.

Hot time, late summer in the city!

Except for those dreaded Friday nights when all that’s on your buff arm is your reusable canvas shopping bag.

Lumbering home from your hood’s green grocer, you pass that trendy Indian bistro and spy handsome couples in the window on double dates. They’re nursing ginormous chalices of red wine and laughing up a storm, eyes tearing from the tandoori and terribly clever banter. You feel resentful. You like red wine, too.

Take heart, neo nester. It’s commendable to eat in and save money. But hey, don’t do it alone, silly! Invite your cheap friends over Saturday night and play frugal gourmet as a unit.

For seven tips, I went to the source, Executive Chef Annie Somerville of the celebrated Greens Restaurant of San Francisco.

Greens is owned by the San Francisco Zen Center and Somerville teaches classes throughout the year at its Green Gulch organic farm. She has earned an international reputation for her imaginative approach to elegantly composed and simple vegetarian cooking, and is the author Everyday Greens (Simon & Schuster, 2003).

Here’s her greenprint for wearing your own chef’s hat and becoming the coolest home-buddy in town.

Annie’s Guide to Planning and Entertaining at Home in August:

1. Sustain your energy.

Don’t overextend yourself. You are having friends over so make sure it is fun for you, too.

2.The shopping is part of the deal.

It should begin at the farmers’ market and you should enjoy the entire experience as you plan your evening.

3. Shop at your local farmers’ market.

There is so much great seasonal produce right now at the farmers’ market, so cook up some great dishes using these fresh choices. I know it sounds cliche, but the most fun thing to do is grilling, which is great when you are running behind.

Appetizers: Stone fruit is good now, like peaches and nectarines. We are brushing a little olive oil on them and grilling them lightly, then drizzling lightly with local honey and serving on watercress, or any greens. Add a nice cheese like fromage blanc or a fresh white goat cheese. You can also shave cheese over the fruit. For figs, which are coming in now and will last quite late into the season, I use a big, aged balsamic or golden vinegar to create a reduction, and serve with goat cheese.

Entree: You could make a rustic, savory tartlet filled with eggplant, peppers and  grilled onions. You can grill those ingredients or roast them. You could also do corn which is so good now, making a tart filled with corn, chilies, onions, cheddar and cilantro. A simple dish is rounds of eggplants with big slices of peppers, onions and summer squash, all roasted separately. Make a gratin, layering in a baking dish with some cheese and big, torn up leaves of basil. Sprinkle Parmesan and crunchy delicious bread crumbs over the top. Put it in the oven, bake and serve. Delicious! The best of summer.

Side dish: Another thing we are doing as a side dish is using rosemary skewers, leaving a few sprigs on the tops, and grilling fingerling potatoes, wedges of squash and torpedo onions. You can put a big cherry tomato on them. The sprigs are fun and taste good.

Salad: Make a big green salad adding quinoa, parsley, tomatoes, olive oil and lemon. This is always a refreshing salad people dig into.

3. Invite your guests to help cook.

If things aren’t coming together as quickly as you like, ask friends to step in. They love to get involved and it actually puts them at ease, socially. Hand  someone a pair of tongs and say, “Hey, can you flip these onions?” I taught an outdoor cooking workshop at Tassajara and got everyone involved. It gets people engaged in a real way.

4. Make it informal and family style.

Anytime I can eat outdoors I do, and the more relaxed the better, and that is my rule for restaurants, too. I don’t feel like I’m a captive inside. I like the idea of everyone sitting down to a long, informal picnic table with big platters of food and good wine. Maybe you can set up a second table for a buffet if you need to. The more informality the better to make people feel at ease. These days everything is so structured and people need to relax and have a good time.

5. Opt for light, refreshing drinks.

A fresh iced mint tea is always good or  lemon verbena spritzer with lemonade and mineral water and sprigs of  verbena from the garden. On a warm night, a beautiful rose is ideal. I also like Spanish wines and Sauvignon Blancs on a warm summer night.

6. Use beeswax candles for ambiance.

Candles for sure, they are fun. Sometimes I resort to any ones I have. I have just been given beautiful beeswax candles from the farmers’ market people who produce honey for us, Snyder’s Farm. They are at the Tuesday farmers’ market at the SF Ferry Building.

7. Extend the simplicity to the dessert.

It’s always nice to offer coffee and tea and can be great to have a wonderful dessert wine, really simple. I love fruit crisps and cobblers. Short cakes also are easy to do. But if you can’t bake, just make a simple sundae with delicious vanilla ice cream and an assortment of berries. You can mash them and make a sauce. Or serve some good cookies and berries. A cluster of grapes is even good or melons and a cheese plate (light fresh goat, a cow’s milk cheese and  a sheep milk cheese, with toasted walnuts and almonds). Add a pretty platter with toasted bread.

* These days, Annie is “keeping her nose to the grindstone at Greens” but come the start of the year, you can visit her at the Chef’s Holiday Series at the Ahwanee Hotel in Yosemite.

Images: mccun934, Marilynn Taylor

From organic cotton garb to reusable serving ware, they have raised the bar in San Francisco this week as more than 1,500 Jewish teen athletes from 40 U.S. cities and four international countries (Mexico, Guatemala, Israel and Canada) compete in the Maccabi Games 2009.

This year, for the first time, organizers introduced a Green Team – a committee chaired by Miriam Gordon, an environmental activist, and games director, Jackie Lewis. Their game plan: a zero-waste event that completely circumvents the dreaded landfill.

Instead of the usual bottled water and other plastic beverage containers supplied to thirsty players, the participants have been issued reusable stainless steel water bottles to be refilled throughout the week of competition.

Garbage cans at every venue, from the polo fields in Golden Gate Park for soccer matches to the ritzy Meadow Club for golf – will be called eco-stations with recycling and composting labels for dispensing with waste.

“It’s a whole new way of doing the event,” Gordon told the Jewish News Weekly, adding that in addition to the reusable bottles, the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco (the event sponsor) will serve athletes kosher meals on reusable/compostable plates with reusable utensils.

Apparently, this will also cut down on a huge litter problem on fields and event sites witnessed at past games held throughout the country.

Lewis says it’s not unusual to see water bottles scattered on the ground or thrown in the garbage because the kids are so preoccupied with matches, they aren’t thinking about what they are doing (ahh, yes, those clueless days!).

But greening the event reinforces the message that the kids must learn to be the stewards of the planet and do their part to conserve resources and consume wisely. In other words, be keen green teens!

Other gold medal eco moves:

The transportation company hired to drive the teens uses buses that run on biofuels, posters have been printed on reclaimed cardboard, volunteer tees were made from organic cotton and the food served to athletes will be mostly organic and locally-produced. The organizers also made an effort to produce fewer paper programs and notices, and whatever they did print was double-sided and on post-consumer, recycled products.

Not to miss a beat, even the pins (above) that the San Francisco delegation was issued to trade with other athletes were forged of recycled PVC-plastic.

There’s also an online component that allows spectators and participants to calculate their carbon footprint during the week of games. They can offset the pounds of carbon produced by making a contribution to the Jewish National Fund or the Carbon Fund.

Images: Luanne Bradley

Welcome to Chloe’s Closet, the ideal source for gently-used maternity and baby gear and garb. Not everyone has older children and cousins to pass on hand-me-downs or the money to buy brand new. Face it, with baby, brand new gets old pretty fast thanks to spit-up stains, dirt patches and faded dyes from wash and wear.

This San Francisco source lets you buy, sell and consign – even register your wish list (a crib, car seat or winter coat) and hear back when it becomes available.

Located on Courtland Avenue in San Francisco’s artsy Bernal Heights neighborhood (home of the Liberty Cafe Bakery which makes the world’s best chicken pot pies), Chloe’s Closet has all the essentials the resourceful green parent is looking for:

The finds include gently strolled strollers

Books, games and toys

Shoes galore

Racks of clothing in a variety of sizes

and even carriers and nursing essentials for mommy

Check out the website and see if it meets your needs. This closet is the new way to shop, providing a system for recycling all of those objects little people outgrow quicker than you can say Benjamin Button.

Image: Stern Grove

We Shall Overcome sung in Farsi? Whatever works!

Adding a verse of the civil rights anthem in Persian roused the throng of Iranian concert goers joining some 10,000 fans blanketing San Francisco’s Stern Grove to hear folk legend, Joan Baez, speak to them. Her appearance was the highlight of the 2009 summer series of free performances at the popular outdoor venue.

The folk singer’s legendary soprano voice, showing only the slightest hint of rust at age 68, is now reaching Iranian Americans, like Susan Javaheri (below), who spread out blankets early in the morning to save seats for dozens of her friends. They are moved and encouraged by the singer’s  solidarity with citizens protesting the recent elections in their homeland and murder of Neda Soltan, the beautiful artist shot to death by a sniper during the unrest.

“Joan Baez wrote a song about us, about our plight, and she’s going to sing it,” she told me. “We have a green scroll we are having signed which we are going to wave today during the concert, and take with us to hang at the Eiffel Tower.

The scroll is part of a worldwide project of sewing many squares together to form the world’s longest petition scroll. It reads, “Ahmadinejad is not Iran’s President” and the goals, articulated at the scroll website, include sending the final banner to the United Nations and for foreign powers not to recognize him as president.

As Baez made her dedication to the Iranian cause, audience members held up their banner and moved towards the stage, while others were busy handing out flyers advertising upcoming mega rallies, including one at San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza July 25th.

Meantime, the “barefoot Madonna” reached baby boomers with classics, such as Forever Young (which she dedicated to her 96-year-old mother who was in the crowd), Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice and the old folk tune, Silver Dagger.

“In the dagger song, nobody dies, believe it or not,” joked the singer. “I usually have a rule of only singing songs in which somebody dies.”

A tie-dyed Andy Rod (above) understands the death part of the protest songs. “My brother was a Vietnam vet who died of Agent Orange and my dad fought in the Japanese war,” he told me. “I listened to her music growing up and the stuff she says really touches my heart.”

She touches my heart as well, reminding me of the days when I played guitar and sang her songs with my own brother who was killed in 1974. The first album my dad ever gave me was a Baez anthology, along with an accompanying book of the guitar music of folk legends (Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Joni Mitchell).

You could say Baez is one of the few surviving guitar heroes of my generation, a tenacious and influential voice that has endured long after the passing of Woody Guthrie and John Lennon. She joins contemporary, Neil Young, who has persisted challenging the establishment, as well, with songs like Looking for a Leader during the disastrous Bush administration. “He’s wandering among us and we have to seek him out,” Young composed. “May it’s a woman or black man after all.”

Maybe it is a woman, one with cropped, white-streaked hair and a multicolored scarf billowing in the breeze. Baez sends the message – not too loud but still quite clear – that she is on our side, whatever side that might be: Against global warming; for the rights of farm workers; opposed to genocide anywhere on the globe.

It appears many of the gray-haired, comfort-shoe recipients of the message at Stern Grove were among the restless youth who flocked to protest meccas San Francisco and Berkeley in the 60s seeking social change and an end to the war.

Perhaps in looking for a leader, we should look no further than Baez. She leads us in genuine, tried-and-true hymns that bring us to tears, reminding us of all the good one citizen with a set of pipes and conviction can do. How many leaders do you know who can do that?

Images: Luanne Bradley

Slow down and take time to smell the rosés.

That’s our highly recommended approach to the eco-sensual pairing of artisanal food and terroir-expressive wines at this Sunday’s Golden Glass Wine Event at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Pavilion.

It’s also the prevailing philosophy of sponsor Slow Food USA, an organization dedicated to advocating the importance of sustainable farming practices that respect traditional knowledge and taste.

Complementing more than 100 no-pesticide wines from around the globe will be exclusive sampling from some of the Bay Area’s top restaurants and artisanal producers, including: A16, Absinthe, Aquarelle, Heaven’s Dog, La Poggio Trattoria, SF Baking Institute, Slow Club, Stella Cadente and Trattoria Corso.

Whew! And you thought this coming Sunday was for popping the top off a Bud Light for dad as he basted ribs on the BBQ in celebration of Father’s Day. How “˜bout a radical departure? Treat him to a brave new world of pure, delicious food and fruity no-nonsense wines fast by the San Francisco Bay.

The best news about the Slow Food Movement – as on display in this event – is that it combines high-minded principles with unsurpassed gourmet pleasures.

A few bites and sips later, your dad just might be more than happy to trade in his brewski and back rib for a Bordeaux and brioche.

When: Sunday, June 21, 2009
General admission: 2:00 ““ 6:00 p.m.

Entrance fee: Advance purchase: $60 (Slow Food members: $55); at the door $70; Food only and under 21: $20 (all entry tickets include 5 food tasting tickets. Additional food tickets can be purchased in groups of 5 for $20).

Where: Fort Mason Center, San Francisco
The Festival Pavilion

Images: Joe Budd Photography

The San Francisco Public Library is lending an ear to the landfill crisis by piloting a new library card program that substitutes plastic cards with ones made from corn. You’ve seen the corn utensils. This invention is just as ingenious, but it fits into your wallet much better.

Check out the new ecocard. It’s a true-blue alternative that might catch on in other cities if it proves to hold up to wear and tear. The card idea isn’t as corny as a baseball field of dreams, but I do believe if libraries bill it as the wave of the future, the rewards will come.

“Just like the issue of plastic water bottles, San Francisco is once again leading the way on alternatives to use of plastic,” explains Mayor Gavin Newsom. “By piloting a program to use biodegradable material for library cards, our Public Library is showing that real alternatives to the use of plastic exist.”

Corn is a sustainable and renewable resource unlike traditional petroleum-based plastics, and can be composted in the city’s composting system. We all know many plastic products never break down. Library patrons obtaining the new ecocards are being asked to share their e-mail addresses to answer a survey as part of an SF Environment test project to evaluate its durability and usability.

“We hope the new corn-based cards will turn out to be a good alternative to the traditional plastic library cards and that we can one day create all of the city’s library cards out of sustainable materials,” says Deputy City Librarian Jill Bourne. “The card is just one more way that the Library is working to instill more environmentally-conscious practices in its operations while providing public information, programming and events focused on green issues.”

Meantime, the Library is still distributing its traditional cards which come in four colorful designs created by San Francisco students as well as a “classic” design. To avoid adding materials to the waste stream, the new ecocard will only be offered for free to new library card holders and may be obtained as a replacement for a lost card for a $1 fee.

The old cards are visually exciting, but not as healthy for the planet. “Once the eocards cards can no longer be used, people can return them to the earth by putting them in the city’s green compostables cart,” says Jack Macy, Commercial Zero Waste Coordinator at SF Environment.

The card is the latest step in the new Green-Stacks Program, a partnership with SF Environment and Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, designed to promote sustainable and renwable efforts at the Library and around the City.