Going Green - Short - video Dailymotion

Film Gorillas

11 years ago

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Tony Shalhoub.

00:04What is going green?

00:05Going green, I guess it's like, probably when, like you turn into the Incredible Hulk.

00:11Oh, you should know this.

00:12Where do I go with these questions?

00:14Going green?

00:15I can imagine the green party has something to do with this.

00:22You always want to stay green until the right time for it to be ripe and you pick it.

00:29Going green?

00:30It's molding?

00:31It's going old?

00:32Is that what it means to you?

00:33What do you think, America?

00:40Want to find out what going green really means?

00:43Want to find ways to save money and conserve resources like energy and water?

00:47Learn how to turn kitchen and garden waste into beautiful, healthy soil for plants and

00:51trees and reveal which hazardous everyday products are lurking in your home?

00:56Then join our tour of the original Echo Home, an older house renovated to be totally environmentally

01:02friendly and discover how you and your family can be more echo-friendly in your own home,

01:07even if you live in the middle of a city.

01:09Echo Home is in the heart of Los Angeles.

01:12For three decades, it's been the residence of echo pioneer Julia Russell and the headquarters

01:16for the Echo Home Network, where the goal is every home an echo home.

01:24People come from all over the world to tour Echo Home to learn the basics of healthy,

01:28earth-friendly living.

01:30Homeowners, renters, teachers, students, people from all walks of life.

01:35People who have started to ask the question, what can I do?

01:41What can I personally do to help solve the environmental problems that are facing us

01:47today?

01:49Now let's join the going green tour with Julia, Nico, Thomas, Lydia, Allison, Rachel,

01:55Anne, Lila, Katerina, Rosa, and Sam.

02:05Echo Home is a demonstration of what's possible in the way of living sustainably in the city.

02:14What average people, not people with huge budgets, people on limited budgets like most

02:20of us, can do over a fairly extended period of time to make their lives more affordable,

02:29more environmentally friendly, something that can actually help protect the life support

02:35systems of the planet instead of destroying them.

02:40Welcome to Echo Home's front garden.

02:43It's called a xeriscape.

02:46And this garden is very special.

02:48As you can see, it's not like any of the other gardens around here.

02:53And it's a garden that uses little or no extra water in the summertime.

03:00So I started out with native plants.

03:03Do you know what native plants are?

03:05Native plants are plants that grow and live here.

03:09Native plants are like Native Americans.

03:12They were born here and they grow here.

03:16They belong here.

03:17There are other regions around the world that have a climate like ours.

03:20So we can use plants from those regions too.

03:25That's right.

03:26Exotic plants.

03:27But exotic plants that are drought tolerant.

03:30So this is from Australia.

03:33Yeah.

03:34Australian grass tree.

03:36Exactly.

03:37Now, here's a plant that looks very different, but it's also from Australia.

03:41It's called pittosporum.

03:42And it's also very drought tolerant.

03:45Now the trees that we're standing under, these are from Chile.

03:48They're called golden medallion trees.

03:52And the street trees that I planted are jacarandas from Brazil.

03:57And the almond tree, which was actually the first tree I planted in this garden, is from

04:01the Mideast.

04:03Now the thing that's special about this garden is these plants survive and thrive just on

04:10rainfall.

04:11Although I do irrigate them.

04:13I do give them water once a year with normal rainfall.

04:16But when it's a dry year and it hasn't rained by October, I'll irrigate twice.

04:23Now do you guys have lawns or anything that you irrigate?

04:27Okay.

04:28How many times do you irrigate?

04:29Do you know?

04:30Do your parents tell you how many times?

04:33Okay.

04:34Two times a day.

04:35Two times a day.

04:36Whoa.

04:37And every day.

04:39Every day.

04:40There were a lot of ways that I could personally save water, both in the house and in the landscape.

04:47So that's when I started changing over my front yard, which was a lawn with a rosebush

04:54in it, like everybody else on the block, to what is now called a xeriscape, using a drip

05:01irrigation system that's solar powered, so that makes it kind of special.

05:06Drip irrigation.

05:07So it releases, sprinklers release like many, many gallons of water per minute, okay?

05:16These little emitters emit one gallon of water per hour.

05:25So you can see, this saves a lot of water.

05:28And so there's several emitters along each hose, and I just laid it on the ground and

05:36put mulch on top of it.

05:38And so when I do irrigate, even when I give the plants water, I give it to them very slowly,

05:46so it goes right into the soil, right where their roots are, where they need it.

05:52To start going green in your garden, use native and other drought-tolerant plants.

05:57Install a low-cost drip irrigation system instead of water-wasting sprinklers.

06:02Apply a thick layer of mulch around all your plants to retain moisture in the soil.

06:08And consider replacing all or some of the grass with succulents, shrubs, and trees.

06:13To be honest, I don't save electricity, because I always fall asleep and I leave the television

06:19on.

06:20Turn the lights off.

06:21Turn the lights off when you're not using them.

06:22Compact fluorescent bulbs, solar panels.

06:26Sit instead of stand.

06:29I'm going to get your energy.

06:38Here in the kitchen, we get all of our light in the kitchen during the daytime from this

06:44sunpipe, or it's also sometimes called a solar tube.

06:50And it's called a sunpipe or a solar tube because there's a pipe coming through the

06:55roof all the way down through the attic and then through a hole in the ceiling.

07:01And the sun is shining into that pipe, and inside the pipe there's a lot of reflection,

07:09like mirrors inside the pipe, that are reflecting the light down, and it brings the sunlight

07:14and illuminates the whole kitchen with beautiful, natural sunlight.

07:19So I don't need to have any electric lights on at all during the day when I'm working

07:24in the kitchen.

07:25Another way that we save energy is by employing energy-efficient appliances.

07:31We have a very energy-efficient refrigerator, and there are many brands now on the market,

07:36but be sure to check the energy rating label.

07:42In 1998, the Department of Water and Power installed a very large, a two-kilowatt system,

07:49photovoltaic system, on the west-facing roof.

07:52You see those panels up there?

07:54That's our power-generating station.

07:57During the day, all of our electrical needs are supplied with solar energy.

08:04If you turn around and look back at the house, you can see the solar hot water panels going

08:13horizontally across the south-facing roof.

08:16The actual water goes up into those panels and circulates under the glazing and is heated

08:22by the sun and then is stored in the basement in a large storage tank.

08:28The photovoltaic panels produce energy for lighting and refrigerators and any kind of

08:36electrical system.

08:37We use a small portion of what's generated up there.

08:40The rest goes to our neighbors.

08:41So we're a little green generating station in our neighborhood for our neighbors.

08:50To conserve energy in your home, consider installing a solar hot water heater and solar

08:54panels.

08:56Sun pipes are inexpensive, easy to install, and let natural sunlight brighten your home.

09:01Replace standard light bulbs with compact fluorescents and consider replacing older

09:06appliances with energy-efficient ones.

09:10Household hazardous waste?

09:12Household hazardous waste?

09:13What's that about?

09:14Are we supposed to know this?

09:23Most people don't realize that they have hazardous waste in their own homes and that we shouldn't

09:31put hazardous waste into the regular trash containers.

09:35There's a special place to put hazardous waste.

09:39The county and the city run what they call hazardous waste roundups, and you should take

09:44your hazardous waste to those roundups so they can handle them properly, so it doesn't

09:50go into our environment and contaminate our environment.

09:53Do not throw it down your drain or put it in your trash.

10:03Now I have something that I can give you that might be useful for your family.

10:09It's a guide to household hazardous waste, because sometimes even your mom and dad don't

10:15know what's hazardous.

10:17So I'm going to give you these, okay?

10:20And this lists all the hazardous waste that you'll find in your home.

10:26Never throw hazardous materials in the regular trash.

10:30Toxins can seep into the underground water supply and poison it.

10:34Check with your local sanitation department to find out where to properly dispose of household

10:39hazardous waste.

10:40If you've got a dripping tap, fix it.

10:44Turn off the water while you're shaving your legs.

10:45If I'm washing dishes, like, turn it off if I'm not using it at that moment.

10:49Or take a shower together.

10:51Okay.

10:52Do you know what a gray water system is?

11:01Gray water, did you say?

11:02It doesn't sound very clean, though.

11:03What do you think?

11:04Is it reusing water from, like, washing your hands to washing the laundry?

11:11Precisely right.

11:13Our gray water system is hooked up to our washing machine, our clothes washing machine,

11:19our tub and shower, and our bathroom sink.

11:22The pipes take the water into a big 35-gallon drum in the basement.

11:28And then there's a pump there that pumps it out to the back and the side yards.

11:33So about 10 of the fruit trees that we've planted here are watered with gray water.

11:39Water that we have already used once.

11:41So it's water that we already used for washing our clothes or our bodies, and then it goes

11:47out and it irrigates the plants, and then it slowly goes through the soil, and when

11:53it goes through the soil, it gets purified by the organisms that live in the soil, and

11:59ultimately goes down again into our underground aquifers, which is where we have water that

12:06we can use again.

12:08I also have a manual gray water system, and that involves a dish pan.

12:13That's what my mother used to call it, but of course she was not as high-tech as I am.

12:18Just washing dishes in a dish pan instead of underflowing water, catching that water.

12:25Of course I'm using biodegradable, non-toxic cleaning products.

12:29When you put it, when you put the water into the flowers, would it mess it up?

12:33Would it mess up the flowers?

12:34That is such a good question, because it is important when you reuse water that you've

12:40already used not to put anything in it that will damage the plants.

12:44So I use very special cleaning products.

12:48These are non-toxic cleaning products, so they will not cause any kind of contamination

12:53or pollution in the water that they go into, or into the air.

13:00That's one very simple thing that everyone can do.

13:03Right now, today, between that, all those recycling systems, and low-flow irrigation

13:11systems, and our low-flow shower head, and our low-flush toilet, we really have reduced

13:18our water use here quite significantly, even though we are growing a lot of our own fruit

13:24and vegetables.

13:26Everyone in your family can start today to conserve water by turning off the water when

13:30brushing their teeth, shaving, or washing dishes.

13:34Countless gallons of water are saved by fixing leaky faucets and installing low-flow shower

13:39heads and toilets.

13:42More water is saved by using a front-loading clothes washer.

13:46Installing a gray water system means conserving water used both inside and outside your house.

13:51Compost.

13:52Who?

13:53Compost.

13:54What is it?

13:55I don't know.

13:56Tell me.

13:57Compost.

13:58Compost.

13:59Yeah.

14:00Compost.

14:01I don't know.

14:02I heard of CompUSA.

14:09So, this is my compost drawer.

14:15See that?

14:16This is where all the materials that I don't eat, like apple cores, I'm going to cut you

14:22all a piece of apple now from one of the apples that grow out in the backyard, and I'm going

14:27to put the apple core in the compost, and then we're going to take it back into the

14:31compost bins, and you'll see how it gets composted.

14:35But this is the first step in the composting system.

14:38Now, the thing that's important about composting is that it is the way we can recycle the nutrients

14:48of life.

14:49The nutrients that are in the stuff that we throw away, what we call garbage, is actually

14:56a lot of food that can, could, and should go back into the earth as food for new life.

15:04So, all of my garbage, my organic garbage, my food garbage, goes back to Mother, Mother

15:12Earth.

15:13So, when I take out my compost, I say, okay, I'm going out to feed Mother now.

15:21Organic gardening?

15:22Oh, I have no idea.

15:25Like, you plant something?

15:27You want to give them a gallon worth of real milk so that they open up their minds.

15:33The plants are alive, but they need to be alive again.

15:35There are no pesticides, no GMOs, you can use organic fertilizers, you can use compost.

15:41The garden area itself is not really very large, but I've tried to concentrate the food

15:51growing plants as much as possible.

15:54We have 28 fruit and nut trees, and we have four vegetable beds that I grow vegetables

16:03in year-round, both summer crop and winter crop.

16:07This is where garbage and garden waste is turned into food for new life.

16:14So, Thomas, do you want to just dump that garbage right in the compost bin?

16:19Empty it so there's nothing left.

16:23Okay.

16:24Now, this is the first bin.

16:26This is bin number one.

16:27So after I put the garbage from our compost drawer into the compost bin, I'll cover it

16:34with some dry leaves and garden waste.

16:41So that keeps the flies away, and it keeps it from getting too wet and too compacted.

16:49Okay, so we fill this up to about this high.

16:53It takes about three months to get it up to about there, and then we turn it into this

16:59bin over here.

17:01This really looks different, doesn't it?

17:03A cookie.

17:04You want to take a look at it?

17:06It's almost fully composted now.

17:09You can still see some leaves and some sticks and maybe some things you can identify, but

17:15most of it has turned into soil, and that's what composting is.

17:21It's the transformation of waste into food for new life, and the food for new life is

17:29in the form of fertile soil that plants can grow in and be healthy and produce more healthy

17:37food for us.

17:38Yes?

17:39Why are there so many bugs and stuff?

17:45There's trolling bugs.

17:46Okay, they are all part of the composting team.

17:50Nature has a huge army of animals, worms and bugs and beetles, but mostly little microscopic

18:02animals that are so tiny you can't even see them, and they do all the work of composting

18:11this waste into food for new life.

18:15The more bugs, the better.

18:16The more composting is happening.

18:18Lots of roly-poly.

18:20Yes, lots of roly-polies.

18:21The roly-polies really do a good job.

18:23I don't have snails and slugs in this garden because my irrigation system is in soaker

18:30hose underground.

18:32It's about three inches underground, so it doesn't produce the habitat for slugs and

18:38snails.

18:39The surface of the soil stays dry.

18:42The moisture is underground where the roots are.

18:44Now sprinkler systems create perfect, ideal habitat for slugs and snails.

18:52When I'm ready to use the compost, and I use the compost twice a year, once in the spring

18:57when I plant the summer garden and once in the fall when I plant the winter garden, I

19:01take the compost, the finished compost from bin number two with this shovel and I put

19:08it in here.

19:09I've already done some here, okay, so you can see it.

19:12I don't have a chipper shredder.

19:14I don't use a chipper shredder.

19:15Guess why?

19:16Why?

19:17It's not a real thing.

19:18It uses electricity.

19:19This is what I use to chop up my green waste for my composting bin.

19:25Instead of using those big, ugly, noisy, polluting electrical or gas machines to chip and shred

19:32my material, I get to release all my hostilities on my green waste and chop it up into teeny

19:41little pieces so it will compost beautifully.

19:48So I've put a screen here.

19:50When I put this compost from bin two into bin three, it falls on the screen and I'm

19:56going to sift it so that any big pieces that aren't fully decomposed stay on top of the

20:03screen.

20:05So underneath, I have sifted compost, much finer and not compacted the way it is in the

20:14other bin.

20:16So this is really ready to go back onto the garden.

20:22There are many ways to compost kitchen scraps and garden waste.

20:25Some are very simple with no bins and very little labor required.

20:30Use sprinklers with a soaker hose and never use toxic pesticides or herbicides.

20:36Many plants can deter harmful insects, while other plants and herbs attract beneficial

20:41insects.

20:42And worms are great for gardens.

20:45Whoa, look what we did.

20:49There are so many doors to the possibility of making a difference in what we do every

20:58day.

21:00I encourage people to start in those areas that are most compelling to them, because

21:06people are most motivated from that point.

21:10And then it seems that once we start with a change, it naturally kind of opens doors

21:20to other changes.

21:21And we can say, oh, I could do this, and oh, yeah, and I could do this, this too.

21:26I picked these tomatoes.

21:29They're organic.

21:31And we start, as our whole consciousness starts to change, our impact, the impact of every

21:39action and failure to act of what we do every day begins to permeate our consciousness.

21:50So we begin to recognize that everything that we do and everything that we don't do has

21:55a direct impact on the environment.

21:59And that, in turn, comes back to us as an impact on our quality of life.

22:08Okay, now, take your tomatoes and put them in the blender, and now I'm going to put a

22:18few more pieces of ice, a few more tomatoes, a few more pieces of ice, more tomatoes.

22:25Going green means, to me, changing your way of thinking, your everyday actions, your lifestyle,

22:34maybe even your way of doing business to align with the life support systems of planet Earth.

22:39Let's make an apple shake.

22:41This is my spot.

22:51I don't even need this.

22:54It looks like strawberry banana.

22:56Yes, sir.

22:58Are you ready for the best tomato juice you ever tasted?

23:02No.

23:04It's gritty.

23:06We're going to drink it?

23:08Yeah.

23:10Okay, Sam, what about you?

23:12That's enough.

23:14That's enough.

23:16Okay, there you go.

23:18I'm not going to drink that all.

23:20Well, maybe.

23:22For more aspects of eco-friendly living, contact Eco Home Network.

23:52When my heart was broken, I just had this for the first time.

24:00Funding for this program has been provided by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,

24:06Los Angeles Department of Water and Power,

24:09the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County,

24:12and County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works.

24:15Tomatoes.

24:17Tomatoes.

24:22Tomatoes.

24:24Tomatoes.

24:26Tomatoes.

24:28Tomatoes.

24:30Tomatoes.

24:32Tomatoes.

24:34Tomatoes.

24:36Tomatoes.

24:38Tomatoes.

24:40Tomatoes.

24:42Tomatoes.

24:44Tomatoes.

24:46Tomatoes.

24:48Tomatoes.

Going Green - Short

Category

Transcript

Recommended