Written by Marianne K. Amoss, Andrea Appleton, David Dudley, Greg Hanscom, Michael Hughes, Mary K. Zajac, and Andrew Zaleski

Photography by Mitro Hood

We scoured the streets, shook the trees, and quizzed the greenest people in town in the pursuit of environmentally minded businesses, goods, and services. There’s much more to say—Baltimore is getting greener every day—but this guide offers a selective overview of a revolution-in-progress.

Did we miss something? You bet. Let us know: Send suggestions for more resources to editor@urbanitebaltimore.com and bookmark the Guide online to check back throughout the year.


HOME


No nonsense: Michael Furbish says green features such as vegetated “living” roofs often make good business sense.

Top-Down Solutions
   
Michael Furbish’s house is made of straw. Straw bales, that is—prized for their insulating properties. But Furbish isn’t your typical eco-construction enthusiast. His background is in commercial real estate, developing office buildings and warehouses. In the early 2000s, however, he recognized the business potential of green building and jumped on it. Today, Furbish runs a sustainable building company with ten full-time employees and clients around the Mid-Atlantic.

When the Furbish Company started in 2003, it was a one-man show. Nevertheless, Furbish plunged into outsized green ventures, including a proposed twenty five-home straw-bale subdivision in Virginia. But his early projects foundered; lenders weren’t willing to shell out for something that hadn’t been market-tested. Furbish changed tactics, installing environmentally friendly building components such as solar panels and green roofs rather than approaching projects as the developer.

It was the demand for green roofs—those aerial gardens that alleviate stormwater runoff and keep buildings cool—that launched the business. The company, headquartered in a solar-heated industrial warehouse in Brooklyn, now installs everything from biofilters—living air filtration systems composed of tropical houseplants—to vegetated retaining walls.

Despite his own commitment to sustainability, Furbish recognizes that his customers are more focused on the bottom line. “It’s unlikely that somebody in a commercial environment will choose a living roof if it’s not cost-justified,” he says. But Furbish points out that since commercial operations are legally obligated to manage their stormwater runoff, living roofs lower municipal offset fees and can even eliminate the need to build retention ponds.

So far, Furbish’s no-nonsense, cost-benefit approach is working. In the last five years, the company has laid down 350,000 square feet of vegetation—the equivalent of six football fields—with projects ranging from the expansive rooftops of Baltimore’s new Hilton to the tiny vaulted roof of a boatyard restroom on the Patapsco River. Furbish is looking to expand the company’s reach into the rest of the country, and he hasn’t ruled out taking on new kinds of green technology. “We want to be pushing toward innovation and remain open-minded,” he says. “At the same time, we have to stay in business. It’s a balancing act.”

—Andrea Appleton



Architecture

Rare is the architectural firm that doesn’t offer sustainable/energy-efficient design these days, but we’ll point you to a few trailblazers. Architect Tom Liebel of Marks, Thomas has led the charge in integrating sustainable design into adaptive reuse of historic buildings (1414 Key Hwy.; 410-539-4300; www.marks-thomas.com). Peter Doo founded the Baltimore regional chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council in 2004 and now offers consulting services for those trying to navigate the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification maze (Peter C. Doo/Architects: 531 Piccadilly Rd., Towson; 443-463-5859). Steve Ziger and Jamie Snead have five LEED-accredited architects that design everything from high-end residential to institutional buildings (Ziger/Snead: 1006 Morton St.; 410-576-9131; www.zigersnead.com). If you’re looking to “greenhab” a rowhouse, talk to Gabriel Kroiz (Kroiz Architecture: 2226 Fleet St.; 410-522-6669; www.kroizarch.com) or Julie Gabrielli, who wrote a green rowhouse remodeling guide that is available on the state Department of Natural Resources website (Gabrielli Design Studio: 2002 Clipper Park Rd.; 410-530-0389; www.gabriellidesignstudio.com).


Building

Here are a few outfits that wield green hammers. Baltimore Green Construction (814 W. 36th St.; 410-889-3193; www.baltimoregreenconstruction.com) and Green Building Alternatives (410-528-8899; www.gbalternatives.com) do eco-friendly rehabbing as well as new construction. Seawall Development specializes in socially and environmentally conscious adaptive reuse (2601 N. Howard St.; 443-602-7516). Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse is selling LEED-certified “parkhomes” at the Overlook at Clipper Mill starting around $500,000 (3429 Woodberry Ave.; 410-243-1292; www.clippermillhomes.com). (Disclosure: SBER founding partner Bill Struever is an Urbanite investor.) Southway Builders, one of the city’s larger general contracting firms, has combined sustainability and affordability with its green rowhouses in Brooklyn, which go for around $150,000 (1318 E. Fort Ave.; 410-332-4134; www.southwaybuilders.com).


Green energy

For those interested in cutting their ties with the grid, a host of companies have services to offer. Chesapeake Solar in Jessup offers solar consultation, as well as solar hot water and photovoltaic systems (7761 Waterloo Rd.; 443-733-1221; www.chesapeakesolar.net). Greenspring Energy in Towson installs solar electric and hot water systems, as well as energy-saving lighting and water heaters; it also offers home energy audits (8830 Orchard Tree Ln.; 443-322-7000; www.greenspringenergy.com). TerraLogos Green Home Services does energy audits as well, and provides customers with a list of qualified contractors who can do the follow-up work (1101 E. 33rd St.; 443-451-7130; www.terralogos.com). The 3E (energy efficiency experts) Team with the nonprofit Civic Works offers home air-sealing, as well as reflective, air conditioning-cutting “cool roofs” (2701 St. Lo Dr.; 410-366-8533; www.civicworks.com). Rebuilding Together Baltimore, the local branch of the national rehab nonprofit Rebuilding Together, has launched a free online energy-efficiency training program aimed at low-income homeowners (www.rtbaltimore.org). And Baltimore Gas and Electric will help save some energy (and money) with its PeakRewards program, installing programmable thermostats and energy-saving switches for your AC (1-800-309-PEAK; www.bgesmartenergy.com/peakrewards).


Inside

Wondering how to redo the floors and counters without killing the rainforest or poisoning the air? JG Architectural Supply in Linthicum offers green-certified and low-VOC flooring, as well as eco-friendly adhesives (513 Progress Dr.; 410-609-6137; www.jgarchitectural.com). Alterego’s showroom is full of sustainably produced cabinetry, countertops, and flooring, as well as Earth-friendly cleaning products (640 Frederick Rd.; 443-498-0144; www.alter-e.com). Both the Loading Dock (2 N. Kresson St.; 410-558-3625; www.loadingdock.org) and the Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity ReStore (505 Kane St.; 410-633-0506; www.baltimorerestore.org) offer all things salvaged, from cabinets and kitchen appliances to paint and plumbing supplies. Second Chance, in South Baltimore, has warehouses full of this stuff, plus a collection of antique furniture and trimmings (1645 Warner St.; 410-385-1101; www.secondchanceinc.org). And for an artistic selection of salvaged mantelpieces, banisters, and vintage lighting, check out nearby Housewerks, located in a historic BGE valve house (1415 Bayard St.; 410-685-8047; www.housewerksalvage.com).


Outside

Ah, and what to do with that grass-infested quarter-acre? Landscape architect Kirsten Coffin of Garden Architecture will take you through her own native plant demonstration garden, rain gardens, and xeric, no-mow lawn before retrofitting your yard (6425 Catalpa Rd.; 410-593-9989). Sharon Cohen of Native Design in Monkton will turn your yard into a native wildflower meadow (410-357-5352). Zolna Russell with Hord Coplan Macht specializes in native and organic landscape and garden design (750 E. Pratt St.; 410-451-2379; www.hcm2.com). Natural Concerns, a landscaping firm based in Sparks, offers design and installation of gardens that provide habitat for butterflies and birds—and require no chemicals to maintain (53 Loveton Cir.; 410-472-6860; www.naturalconcerns.com). Sacred garden specialist Mare Cromwell runs a small organic garden care company (410-448-3679; www.sacreddogllc.com). For the do-it-yourselfers, the Mill Valley General Store in Remington offers a range of gardening supplies, seeds, and tools, plus plants and local produce (2800 Sisson St.; 410-889-6842; www.mill-valley.net). True plant connoisseurs will like Green Fields for its variety of landscaping supplies and starts, plus the great selection of organic seeds (5424 Falls Rd.; 410-323-3444; www.greenfieldsnursery.com).


Recycling

In addition to the curbside single-steam recycling, the Baltimore City Department of Public Works collects household hazardous waste, electronic recycling, and used motor oil at drop-off locations around town (410-396-8450; www.baltimorecity.gov/government/dpw/recycle/). IKEA in White Marsh collects used compact fluorescent light bulbs and batteries (8352 Honeygo Blvd.). You can take your food waste to the Whole Foods store in Harbor East for composting (1000 Lancaster St.). And scrap yards around the city will pay you for leftover aluminum and copper. The nonprofit Maryland Recycles keeps a full list of recycling and salvage facilities online (www.mdrecycles.org).


FOOD


The real thing: Frantz Walker and his family have built their honey business by spurning mass production and processing.

Sweet Sustainability

Open a jar of Really Raw Honey and you’re greeted with a layer of waxy comb, pollen, and an occasional piece of something vaguely bee-like. Many people swear by the medicinal qualities of this stuff, but it’s ultimately the honey—viscous, opaque, varying in color, and remarkably complex in flavor—that turns a curious purchaser into a fanatic.

Owner Frantz Walker was born into bees: The company started in his parents’ apartment in Brooklyn, New York. “My mother was into natural foods, and a beekeeper gave us some honey—just dipped straight out of the hive,” he says. “My family loved it, and when our friends started asking for it, we started selling to them. I remember sitting on the living room floor and scooping it into jars as a kid.”

The Walkers moved to Baltimore, and before long their honey was selling in health food stores here and in Philadelphia. In the 1990s, the family moved the business into a warehouse in Canton’s Broom Factory. But they remained adamant about purity. “It has always been unheated, unfiltered, and totally unprocessed,” Walker says. “It’s rich in enzymes, pollen, and propolis”—the sticky resin bees collect from sap and flower buds.

When the increasing use of pesticides and antibiotics in apiculture made meeting demand difficult, Walker offered to pay beekeepers a premium to shun chemicals and promised to pay for any hives they lost, no questions asked. “I consider it ‘fair trade’ in the U.S.—our beekeepers are making a good living,” Walker says.

Walker works only with small-scale beekeepers who have opted not to join the lucrative parade to California, where many outfits truck their hives to farms and orchards each year to pollinate crops. “It turns out that keeping the bees in a natural state and letting them forage for their own nectar is the best thing for them,” he says.

“It’s funny, but keeping things simple is difficult—and expensive,” Walker says. “But it also winds up creating the best-tasting product.”

—Michael Hughes


Groceries

The arrival of Whole Foods (1001 Fleet St., Harbor East; and 1330 Smith Ave., Mount Washington) and West Coast cult favorite Trader Joe’s (1 E. Joppa Rd., Towson; and 1809 Reisterstown Rd., Pikesville) have made it easier to pick up organic edibles. On the other end of the size spectrum sit the classic granola-slinging health food stores such as OK Natural Food Store (11 W. Preston St.; 410-837-3911) and the Charles Village food co-op The Village (2429 St. Paul St.; 410-235-3255). And don’t forget the city’s original local-food outlets: All of Baltimore’s great public markets, from the downtown Lexington Market (400 W. Lexington St.; www.lexingtonmarket.com) to the five neighborhood markets run by the Baltimore Public Market Corp. (www.bpmarkets.com) are mass-transit accessible, and many vendors are local growers and producers.


Farm fresh

To get closer to the farm, buy into community-supported agriculture. (See “A New Leaf” on page 65 of this issue.) Find a CSA at Local Harvest (www.localharvest.org). The biggest producers-only farmers’ market in the state is the Baltimore Farmers’ Market, held underneath the Jones Falls Expressway at Holliday and Saratoga streets on Sunday mornings from May to December. Uptown, the 32nd Street Farmers’ Market is open Saturday mornings all year (E. 32nd and Barclay streets; www.32ndstreetmarket.org). Whole Foods sponsors a Saturday morning FRESHFOOD Market in Harbor East (1000 Lancaster St.) starting in June and a Wednesday afternoon market at the store’s Mount Washington location. The Highlandtown Farmers’ Market, also on Saturday mornings, runs July to October (Bank and Conkling streets). Try the Park Heights Community Farmers’ Market at Pimlico Race Course (5201 Park Heights Ave.) on Wednesday afternoons from June through November, or the Village of Cross Keys Farmers’ Market (5100 Falls Rd.) midday Tuesdays, June through October. The Maryland Department of Agriculture’s website lists every farmers’ market in the state (www.mda.state.md.us/md_products/farmers_market_dir.php).


Eating out

Many restaurants make noise about locally sourced eats, but here are a few standouts: Chef Spike Gjerde’s upscale/rustic Woodberry Kitchen sets the standard for sustainable eating (2010 Clipper Park Rd.; 410-464-8000; www.woodberrykitchen.com). Watertable applies a similar formula to more contemporary Inner Harbor hotel dining (202 E. Pratt St.; 410-685-8439; www.watertablerestaurant.com), while Gertrude’s at the Baltimore Museum of Art reflects chef John Shields’ affection for traditional Chesapeake Bay cuisine (10 Art Museum Dr.; 410-889-3399; www.gertrudesbaltimore.com). Midtown Belgian beerhall The Brewer’s Art (1106 N. Charles St.; 410-547-6925; www.thebrewersart.com) and French-influenced Chameleon Café in northeast Baltimore (4341 Harford Rd.; 410-254-2376; www.thechameleoncafe.com) are also heavily invested in seasonal local ingredients. Hampden’s Dogwood Restaurant adds nonprofit job training for ex-addicts and ex-offenders to its do-gooder dossier (911 W. 36th St.; 410-889-0952; www.dogwoodbaltimore.com). The Atwater’s soup-and-sandwich shops in Belvedere Market and Bare Hills, and at Kenilworth in Towson, are scrupulous users of local produce, often organic (www.atwaters.biz). Vegetarian and/or vegan? Get thee to the Yabba Pot in Charles Village (2431 St. Paul St.; 410-662-8638; www.theyabbapotcafe.com). VegBaltimore (www.vegbaltimore.com) maintains a comprehensive database of local vegetarian-friendly eateries.



TRANSPORTATION


Super-charged: Luis MacDonald says his low-speed electric vehicles are perfect for zipping around the city.



Green Machines

Luis MacDonald is a big, jovial guy with a warm handshake and an easy laugh. He’s the kind of man you’d buy a car from, which is good because that’s his job. His company, Autoflex, sells and leases “zero-emissions” electric vehicles. You’ve seen them around: They’re the bubble-topped buggies used by the cops in the Inner Harbor and by campus security and maintenance at Hopkins, Loyola, and MICA. And without MacDonald, they probably wouldn’t be here.

MacDonald got his start in auto sales working for a friend who owned a Chevy dealership, which led to a career managing corporate vehicle fleets. When the federal government started using alternative fuel vehicles—and hiring more minority contractors (MacDonald is Peruvian American)—he found a niche. Between 2000 and 2002, he supplied the U.S. Postal Service with a fleet of 500 electric mail trucks in California.

When he brought electric vehicles to Maryland in 2001 and learned that he couldn’t register them in the state, he lobbied to pass a bill legalizing the use of low-speed electric vehicles on streets where the speed limit is 35 miles per hour or lower. The law passed in 2006.

Today, MacDonald and his son Daniel sell and lease two- to six-passenger electric vehicles manufactured by Global Electric Motorcars, a subsidiary of Chrysler. The GEM cars run on a 72-volt battery system and can hit 25 miles per hour, with a range of about 35 miles per charge. The business, which operates under the “Clean Cities” banner, is based in a former broom factory in Pigtown, and sells mainly to schools and government agencies. MacDonald plans to put solar panels on the roof and turn the business into a full-blown dealership.

Sitting in his office looking out on his future showroom, MacDonald produces a copy of the documentary film Who Killed the Electric Car? “Who killed the electric car?” he asks, waving the DVD case. “Nobody killed the electric car. It’s right here. It still has a future.”

—Greg Hanscom



Mass transit

Baltimore’s public transit system is the object of much grousing, but many buses are now equipped with bike racks, and the “trip planner,” a new Google-powered feature on the Maryland Transit Administration homepage (www.mtamaryland.com), makes point-to-point journeys on bus, Metro, and Light Rail easier. Just type in your starting point and destination, and the computer kicks out an itinerary for you. For a free map of the city’s transit system, drop by the Transit Center at 6 St. Paul Street or call 410-539-5000.


Pedal power

Light Street Cycles in Federal Hill sells Strida folding bikes that are easy to carry on the bus or train and stash in the corner of your office (1015 Light St.; 410-685-2234; www.lightcycles.com). For the serious cyclist, there’s Mount Washington Bikes, a.k.a. Joe’s Bike Shop (5813 Falls Rd.; 410-323-2788; www.mtwashingtonbikes.com); for the commuter, try Baltimore Bicycle Works (1813 Falls Rd.; 410-605-0705; www.baltimorebicycleworks.com) or the Velocipede Bike Project, a nonprofit in Station North where volunteers fix up old bikes for sale and donation (4 W. Lanvale St.; www.velocipedebikeproject.org). The city’s 2006 Bicycle Master Plan lays out a (still-unfinished) network of bike lanes and paths and can be found online or at all Enoch Pratt libraries (www.ci.baltimore.md.us/government/planning/bikeplan.php).


Car sharing

Johns Hopkins University and Goucher College have teamed up with the national service Zipcar to provide car-sharing programs around their campuses (www.zipcar.com). Cars are parked in designated locations for members to use when they like. Just return the car when you’re finished. You pay by the hour or the day. A nascent nonprofit called Baltimore Carshare, hatched by the city Parking Authority, was apparently bombed on the runway this winter, but officials say a citywide car-sharing programis only a matter of time. Stay tuned.


Petrol-free

If you want to kick the fossil-fuel habit, join the Baltimore Biodiesel Co-op, which sells plant-based fuel at the Mill Valley General Store in Remington (2800 Sisson St.; www.baltimorebiodiesel.org). Taylor Oil Co. in Brooklyn will also sell you biodiesel in bulk if you call at least forty-eight hours in advance (28 B Thomas Ave.; 410-636-9000; www.tayloroilco.com). And for those who don’t have kids to drag along, the newly opened Green Rider in Fells Point sells the super-svelte line of Motorino electric scooters, with cargo trailers for the groceries. Down the road, the company plans to add electric bicycles, conversion kits, and electric motorcycles (723 S. Broadway; 410-522-5857; www.greenriderusa.com).



LIVING


Neat freaks: Ecolistic Cleaning “specialists” such as (left to right) Jane Vincent, Gavin Tucker, Lizz Mazer, and Kasey Simcoe use bagless vaccuums and nontoxic cleansers.


Courtney Kellogg hadn’t planned to start a cleaning company. She enjoyed running a successful holistic daycare from her Annapolis home, but with the birth of her third child in 2003, Kellogg decided she needed a change. “I was with children all day and all night,” she explains. Then a neighbor hired her to clean his house. She asked if she could use her own homemade, non-toxic cleaning products. “I don’t care what you use,” he told her, “as long as it’s clean.”

It was. That job led to an ad on Craigslist, and Ecolistic Cleaning was born. Kellogg is now a single mother of four living in Lewes, Delaware, with a business that boasts more than a hundred clients around Baltimore and Annapolis, and in Sussex County, Delaware.

The idea is as basic as it is radical: cleaning up shouldn’t pollute. Ecolistic’s employees use unbleached paper towels, recycled biodegradable trash bags, and Dyson bagless vacuums, as well as only non-toxic cleansers made from ingredients like sea salt, vinegar, baking soda, and essential oils. 

The company’s minimum cleaning fee is $125 and can range up to $225, depending on the size of the house. Ecolistic’s staff includes part-time musicians and artists. They bring all-natural treats for clients’ dogs and leave the company’s signature lavender-peppermint room spray lingering in carpeted rooms, plus two organic chocolates—a riff on hotel turndown service. Clients, in turn, have been known to present cleaning crews with pies, cakes, and homemade sandwiches, according to Baltimore manager Jane Vincent.

Ecolistic employees are paid between $12 and $15.25 an hour and go through rigorous training to teach them the art of cleaning green. “I feel like with each new employee, they’re getting an education,” Kellogg says, “and that gets passed on.”
 
—Mary K. Zajac



Beauty

You can be nice to yourself and the planet, too. The Avenue in Hampden is home to ReNew Organic Day Spa (843 W. 36th St.; 410-400-2745; www.reneworganicdayspa.com) and Sprout: An Organic Salon (925 W. 36th St.; 410-235-2269; www.sproutsalon.com), both of which utilize eco-friendly products and boast interiors constructed with natural building materials. Eastbank Hair in Mount Washington (5726 Falls Rd.; 410-435-4414; www.eastbankhair.com) and Alpha Studio in Fells Point (817 S. Bond St.; 410-327-1300; www.alphastudiobaltimore.com) use only naturally derived, plant-based Aveda products, and you get 20 percent off all Aveda products at Eastbank if you walk, bike, or use public transit to get there. And if you’re in the market for locally made, earth-friendly skin and beauty products, check out Biggs and Featherbelle (www.biggsandfeather.com), Shelissa’s Lip Balm Company (www.shelissa.com), Mundo Botanica (www.mundobotanica.com), and Kaylala (www.kaylala.com).


Clothing, new

For eco-friendly apparel, shop Baltimore-based ecosumo.com’s inventory of women’s tops and coats and men’s sweaters and T-shirts made from organic cotton and bamboo; Simple shoes, constructed with unbleached hemp, recycled car tires, and silk; and sleek handbags with former lives as truck inner tubes. For the outdoorsy set, both Hudson Trail Outfitters in Towson (424 York Rd.; 410-583-0494; www.hudsontrail.com) and REI in Timonium (63 W. Aylesbury Rd.; 410-252-5920) carry a selection of organic cotton, hemp, and bamboo clothing by brands such as Patagonia, prAna, Green Label, Royal Robbins, and Quicksilver. Dress your kids up in tough, organic, Baltimore-made duds from Uglyfish Organics (www.uglyfishorganics.com). And for the really wee tykes, Soft and Cozy Baby in Pikesville sells cloth diapers, diaper covers, and fabric baby slings by appointment (3400 Hatton Rd.; 410-446-4525; www.softandcozybaby.com).


Clothing, used

Sometimes the greenest clothes have already been worn. Value Village’s most-loved location is at 800 W. North Ave.; others include 5013 York Rd. in Govans and 3424 Eastern Ave. in Highlandtown. Village Thrift in Middle River (10 Stemmers Run Rd.) gives weekly discounts on high-end labels. The Clothing Warehouse recently expanded its vintage empire with a Baltimore franchise (1211 S. Charles St.; 410-244-6554). The Fashion Attic sells—and buys—gently used women’s fashions from brands such as Banana Republic, Urban Outfitters, and Betsey Johnson (1926 Fleet St., Suite A; 410-276-0817; www.thefashionattic.com). The Baltimore Free Store sets up shop at various locales around the city (www.freestorebaltimore.org). Baltimore also has a chapter of the national Freecycle.com network, a Craigslist-esque enterprise that connects people with free stuff (www.freecycle.org).



Crafting

The members of the Charm City Craft Mafia (www.charmcitycraftmafia.blogspot.com) and the Baltimore Etsy Street Team (www.baltimorecraft.com) make all manner of locally sourced art and crafts, often with eco-friendly materials. Jennifer Strunge creates her stuffed Cotton Monsters out of recycled clothes. Shannon Delanoy of Sweet Pepita builds children’s apparel from old T-shirts. Phuong Pham of Phampersand Press relies mostly on recycled and found materials and organic pigments to create books and paper. Red Prairie Press’s Rachel Bone sources organic cotton for some of her children’s apparel. Val Lucas of Bowerbox Press looks to recycled maps and atlases for her line of books. Heather von Marko of HVM Designs crochets wearable art from bamboo and soy fibers. And Carly Goss of Carlybird hand-weaves scarves and other textiles with bamboo and Tencel threads.


Gifts

Ladybugs and Fireflies sells books, organic toys, and green items for children and 'tweens (1049 S. Charles St.; 410-244-0472; www.ladybugsandfireflies.com).

Household

Eco-chic home décor has come a long way since the Chia Pet. Bluehouse, the luxe eco-friendly home shop and café, closed its doors in Harbor East, but the business lives on at the Shops at Kenilworth in Towson and online (872 Kenilworth Dr.; 410-337-8700; www.bluehouselife.com). Mount Washington-based Working Wonders specializes in home furnishings made from recycled, organic, and sustainable materials (1416 Clarkview Rd., Ste. 100; 866-569-0339; www.workingwondersus.com). Hampden’s Red Tree carries fun, funky furniture and home accessories—and gets some of its electricity from the wind (921 W. 36th St.; 410-366-3456; www.redtreebaltimore.com). Earth Alley is filled with home and gift items that little resemble from whence they came, such as garden sculptures from old oil drums and bowls made from telephone wires (3602 Elm Ave., 410-366-2110; www.earthalley.com).


Investing

Want to put your money where your mouth is? Stephen Siegel with Responsible Planning and Investing offers a range of green investing services, from investment management to by-the-hour consultation (3314 Shelburne Rd.; 410-764-6476; www.firstaffirmative.com). Richard Torgerson with Progressive Asset Management has special expertise in shareholder activism (410-751-7054; www.progressive-asset.com). For folks who have lots to invest (think $1 million and up), John Campagna of Benchmark Asset Managers can help make sure your bucks support companies and initiatives that are a positive force for the environment (2002 Clipper Park Rd.; 410-878-7084; benchmarkam.com). Both Campagna and Dara Hewat of Sustainable Land Investments in Owings Mills (10055 Red Run Blvd.; 443-471-2700; www.sli-usa.com) are working to leverage investment dollars with “ecosystem service credits” to protect large tracts of land. Calvert, based in Bethesda, offers the nation’s largest selection of sustainable and socially responsible mutual funds, as well as financial advice and services (4550 Montgomery Ave.; 1-800-368-2746; www.calvertgroup.com).




ONLINE


Mapmaker: Designer and urban planner Janet Felsten charts the city's eco-charms.


Everything in its Place

Janet Felsten is all too aware of the map many people use to take the measure of Baltimore: the homicide map on the Baltimore Sun website that documents exactly where the bodies have been found. Felsten, an insistently positive designer and urban planner, is not a fan of this grim cartography. “Why should that map be the signature image of Baltimore?” she asked in a blog post on the Open Society Institute-Baltimore website last year. Over the past eight years, Felsten has been patiently developing an upbeat alternative: the Baltimore Green Map, a collaborative effort to document the city’s eco-assets, from hiking and bird-watching spots to community gardens and vegetarian restaurants. “Maps are a tool for people to figure out what they’ve got and what they want,” Felsten says. She hopes that her map will inspire people to make the city a greener place.

Making a good map is a deceptively tricky undertaking, Felsten says. In the early stages of the project, she worked with a Maryland Institute College of Art class that experimented with where and how best to present the streets, icons, and other information. That was in 2002. Six years later, with help from the Jones Falls Watershed Association and the city Recreation and Parks Department, she managed to get the first map printed. It charts the Jones Falls watershed and includes a detailed inlay of Druid Hill Park.

Felsten has also created an online map (www.baltimoregreenmap.org) with tools provided by the nonprofit Green Map System, founded by eco-designer Wendy Brawer, who created the first-of-its-kind Green Apple Map of New York City in 1992. The Baltimore map, powered by Google, went live online last April and continues to evolve: As of early March, users have added close to 300 sites. All of the pinpointed sites are categorized into “sustainable living,” “nature,” or “culture and society,” and are marked by icons that allow you to discern, at a glance, the difference between, say, a bus stop and a bike shop. This system of icons, developed by an international team of professional and citizen mappers, is now used in more than 350 green maps from Barcelona to Yellowknife, British Columbia.

Down the road, Felsten envisions neighborhood-scale maps of communities such as Waverly and Reservoir Hill, and more collaborations with colleges and even elementary schools. For those who are getting used to learning about their surroundings by jiggling their iPhones, the folks in New York are working on a mobile-device gizmo. Still, Felsten says, “There will always be a place for maps.”

—Greg Hanscom



Green Pages

The Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance’s “Buy Local Baltimore” business directory, available in print and online, includes an extensive list of local businesses, many with an eco-friendly bent (410-342-1482; www.buylocalbaltimore.com). Baltidome is a new, homegrown, circus-themed website created by Hampdenite Tina Carroll, whose day job is restoring fine objects and ceramics. The site includes a fairly extensive list of antique, consignment, and salvage shops around the city, as well as job and apartment listings and information about switching to wind power (www.baltidome.com). The California-based website Greenopia has an online eco-business listing for Baltimore as well (www.greenopia.com/BA/local_city.aspx). The Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University has produced a “Green Living Guide” catering to Hopkins students, but many sections, such as the tips for buying green electricity, are handy for non-students, too. (www.jhsph.edu/green/green_living_guide.pdf). And a new website created by Marjie Roswell, a member of the city’s Urban Ag task force, keeps you up-to-date on farming and slow-food-related activities in the city, and includes a good list of links as well (www.baltimoreurbanag.org).



Blogs

Baltimore Sun environment reporter Tim Wheeler has done an admirable job of keeping the Bay and Environment blog alive with regular updates on legislation and lawsuits that don’t always make it into the paper (weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bay_environment/blog/). The crew at the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University blogs mainly about sustainable agriculture and food issues (www.livablefutureblog.com). And science geeks will find a running commentary on everything from climate change to “dinochickens” at the Maryland Science Center’s blog (sciblog.marylandsciencecenter.org). Architect and sustainability consultant Julie Gabrielli’s online project, GoForChange, provides a steady stream of information connecting the environment, health, social justice, and business (www.goforchange.com). The architecture firm Ziger/Snead’s sleek-looking sustainability blog, Greenline, covers green design, along with energy and climate change issues (greenlineblog.com). On the ALM Green Blog, structural engineer Amy Mussen ruminates on green living tips and environment-related events (almgreen.blogspot.com/). Self-described “graduate student, full-time employee, part-time employee, snowboarder, mountain biker, yoga practitioner, mom, dog lover” Elizabeth Flesher chronicles her adventures in living sustainably on her I Could Sew Do That blog (icouldsewdothat.blogspot.com).




Good, Green Fun


Chalk one up: Kids get the ya-yas out with sidewalk chalk and nature activities at the annual EcoFestival in Druid Hill Park. | photo by Douglas Ritzler

Going green isn’t all work and self-denial—there’s fun to be had, too. The mother of all local green parties is Baltimore Green Week, which kicks off April 18 with the annual EcoFestival in Druid Hill Park, and includes tours of city recycling facilities and a new LEED certified office building, plus a sustainable art opening and happy hour (www.baltimoregreenweek.org). Baltimore Green Works, the nonprofit that puts on Green Week, now sponsors the EcoBall and the Sustainable Speakers Series, which debuts May 15 with Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (www.baltimoregreenworks.com). The Baltimore Bioneers festival, held each fall, features three days of speakers, panel presentations, and discussions of cutting-edge, cross-discipline ecological thinking—some of them in the flesh, others beamed live from the Bioneers mothership in San Francisco (www.cultivatingchange.org). And don’t miss the spectacle of “the Jones Falls Expressway—minus 40,000 cars” during the Rally for the River held every other September (the next one is in 2010). Kids can watch frog races and skateboard competitions; people of all ages bike, dog-walk, and stroll with impunity; and vendors hawk all manner of green goods. There’s even kayaking and canoeing on the Jones Falls itself, which winds under its namesake concrete artery (Jones Falls Watershed Association: 410-366-3036; www.jonesfalls.org).

Looking for a grittier, street-smart celebration? Check out Urban Earth Day in October, focusing on environmental health, justice, and education in the inner city. This year’s event in Waverly will feature pollution-monitor training as well as craft booths, music, recycling bins, tree seedlings, and free T-shirts and meals for kids (e-mail earthseed@gmail.com). On Rebuilding Day, which falls on April 26 this year, volunteer workers will descend on the communities of Turner Station and Park Circle to repair and rehab homes, do energy efficiency training, and undertake green projects (Rebuilding Together Baltimore: 1014 W. 36th St.; 410-889-2710; www.rebuildingtogetherbaltimore.org). Environmental Justice Partnership board member Glenn Ross will take you for a Toxic Tour featuring leaky sewer pipes, industrial waste dumps, and cemeteries where the bodies were embalmed with arsenic—and a few sites where the nasties have been cleaned up. He charges a “flexible fee” and asks sponsors to provide transportation and a driver. Elementary school groups are free (443-449-5749; glenn6032@comcast.net).








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