Planet Varner

Plastic Gets There First Plastic pollution is ubiquitous, you see it everywhere you go.  This video from the Plastic Pollution Coalition with surfing legends and filmmakers Chris and Keith Malloy shows how their travels around the world to the most remote spots on earth, no matter where they landed, even with no signs of human […]

Sustainability, Organic Grapes, Green Building and Fine Wine Venturing into the heart of the picturesque Rutherford region of Napa Valley we wine “disciples” meandered past an old historical red barn towards the Frog’s Leap Winery “green” hospitality farmhouse. We weren’t here looking for green wineries or organic wine, nor were we looking for frogs.  We […]

Your home improvement may be green without your knowing it. “The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.” – Mark Twain The tax man cometh, so in an effort to help you gain back some of your hard earned green and reducing your energy bills I […]

These are several excerpts from my diaries in the Peace Corps.  I was a Natural Resources Volunteer in the town of Tarariras, Uruguay, South America in early 1990. Peace Corps Diaries – Fire While in the Peace Corps I was sitting in my little Uruguayan home staring through the door of my “salamandra” (wood burning […]

$6 billion dollars to spend on building and they’re doing it green I attended a U.S. Green Building Council-Inland Empire meeting at the Frontier Project (a green demonstration building at CVWD) in Rancho Cucamonga last Thursday night.  The guest speaker was an innovative out of the box thinker and doer named Larry H. Eisenberg, the […]

Green Buildings EPA Style The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just announced its 2009 list of American cities with the most energy efficient buildings that earned Energy Star Certification in 2009.  Though the sprawling City of Los Angeles doesn’t make the top 25 list on most, or any for that matter, green cities lists, the […]