Made In The Shade
BWP

Shade your home or business with FREE trees to keep air conditioning costs lower! Trees are nature’s air conditioners with the ability to reduce air conditioning use from 10% to 50%.

Residents can select up to 3 shade trees for free. Businesses up to 20 shade trees all for free.

A certified arborist will help you select the best planting sites and the best trees for those sites. BWP will also provide stakes, ties and arbor guards, also for free!

Burbank renters can also participate if they receive written authorization from the owner. Call the BWP at 818-957-8196 to schedule a consultation at your property.

Losing our cool: uncomfortable truths about our air-conditioned world (and finding new ways to get through the summer)
Stan Cox
New Press, 2010
306.46 COX
Losing our Cool shows how indoor climate control is colliding with an out-of-control outdoor climate. In America, energy consumed by home air-conditioning, and the resulting greenhouse emissions, have doubled in just over a decade, and energy to cool retail stores has risen by two-thirds.

Barry Commoner: Pioneer of the Environmental Movement

Barry Commoner Dead: Pioneering Environmental Scientist and Activist Dies at 95
Huffington Post: 10.01.2012 by Peter Dreier

Described in 1970 by Time magazine as the "Paul Revere of ecology," Commoner followed Rachel Carson as America's most prominent modern environmentalist. He viewed the environmental crisis as a symptom of a fundamentally flawed economic and social system. A biologist and research scientist, he argued that corporate greed, misguided government priorities, and the misuse of technology undermined "the finely sculptured fit between life and its surroundings."

Commoner insisted that scientists had an obligation to make scientific information accessible to the general public, so that citizens could participate in public debates that involved scientific questions. Citizens, he said, have a right to know the health hazards of the consumer products and technologies used in everyday life. Those were radical ideas in the 1950s and 1960s, when most Americans were still mesmerized by the cult of scientific expertise and such new technologies as cars, plastics, chemical sprays, and atomic energy.

Commoner linked environmental issues to a broader vision of social and economic justice. He called attention to the parallels among the environmental, civil rights, labor, and peace movements. He connected the environmental crisis to the problems of poverty, injustice, racism, public health, national security, and war. READ MORE !

Making Peace with the Planet
Barry Commoner @ CalCat
New Press, 1992
ISBN-13: 9781565840126
Reviews the vast efforts made in the public and private spheres to address and control the damage done and shows us why, despite billions of dollars spent to save the environment, we now find ourselves in an even deeper crisis. It is a book of hard facts and figures whose conclusion--that environmental pollution can be prevented only through fundamental redesign of the way we produce goods.

Composting Workshop
October 3 - 6:30 PM
Burbank Recycle Center
500 S. Flower Street

Burbank'sComposting Program
Since December 1989, the City of Burbank has provided residents with free composting instruction and top-quality composters. Over the years, composting has played an essential part in the City’s ability to divert 50% of its waste from the landfill as required by State law. The City collects over 1,000 tons of green waste per month at the curb and takes it to a composting facility outside of Burbank. Backyard composting helps to reduce this amount.

Getting started
If you are interested in backyard composting, please call the Burbank Recycle Center at (818) 238-3900 weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., and ask about upcoming workshops.

Residents receive free composters at the workshops. The compost bins available through the City are selected based on a variety of attributes including bin capacity, quality, ease of assembly and handling, cost, attractiveness, and durability. Brand names vary, depending on the best available product on the market at the time. If you move within Burbank, please take your composter with you, and call the Recycle Center with an address change. If you move out of Burbank, please call the Recycle Center so that your composter can be returned and reused in Burbank.

The compost specialist: the essential guide to creating and using garden compost, and using potting and seed composts
David Squire
New Holland, 2009
631.875 SQUIR

In our ecologically aware times, composting is one smart way to minimize our carbon footprint and help the earth. This new entry in the highly successful Specialist series gives gardeners all the guidance they need to start making, storing, and using their own compost.

Drug Take Back Day: Sep 29

Drug Take Back Day
September 29: 10am – 2pm
200 N Third Burbank

The Burbank Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration are providing the public with an opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous prescription drugs. The public will be able to drop off their expired, unused, and unwanted pills at the Burbank Police station, in the rear parking lot, free of charge, and no questions asked. By doing so, they will be helping prevent drug abuse and theft.

Prescription Medication
Our water has a drug problem, and as a result, we’re all taking in way more medication than we bargained for. Drinking water in many major metropolitan areas is contaminated with all kinds of pharmaceuticals—from antibiotics to antidepressants—and it’s not just the result of them passing through our bodies. Instead of flushing your prescription meds down the toilet, donate drugs that are still usable. Not every state has a recycling/redistribution program or allows patients to donate directly.

Are your prescriptions killing you?: how to prevent dangerous interactions, avoid deadly side effects, and be healthier with fewer drugs
Armon B Neel
New York : Atria Books, 2012
615.7042 2012 NEEL

Los Angeles River Presentation: Sep 27

Los Angeles River: Past, Present & Future
Sep 27, 2012
7:00pm - 8:00pm
Buena Vista Branch Library
300 N. Buena Vista St.

A multi-media presentation with Kari Rasmussen, Education Coordinator at Friends of the Los Angeles River.
For further information, call 818-238-5620.

The Los Angeles River: its life, death, and possible rebirth
Blake Gumprecht
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999
979.493 GUMPR
Three centuries ago, the Los Angeles River meandered through marshes and forests of willow and sycamore. Trout spawned in its waters and grizzly bears roamed its shores. The bountiful environment the river helped create supported one of the largest concentrations of Indians in North America.

World Rivers Day - September 30

October 4 PremierRock the Boat
Downtown Independent Theater

A thoroughly awesome doc about the 3-day kayaking expedition, and a smart, funny, wise film about the LA River.

Burbank Green Spotlight Award: August

Burbank Sustainable Commission
Green Spotlight Award
Each month the Commission will present the award to a resident or business for sustainable efforts. The Award was established at the December meeting.

SUSTAINABLE BURBANK COMMISSION

August 20, 2012 MINUTES

 

III. BURBANK GREEN SPOTLIGHT AWARD PRESENTATION:

Mr. Carlson announced that the August 2012 recipients of the Burbank Green Spotlight Award are Burbank residents Kurt Ballash and Ingrid Rushing. Mr. Carlson introduced Mr. Ballash and Ms. Rushing and provided a brief PowerPoint presentation. Mr. Ballash and Ms. Rushing planted California native and drought tolerant plants in their yard, and by using bubblers, significantly reduced their monthly water usage. The Commissioners congratulated Mr. Ballash and Ms. Rushing, and Mr. Lewis presented them with the Burbank Green Spotlight Award.

World Carfree Day: Sep 22

World Carfree Day: Sep 22

A “celebration of cities and public life, free from the noise, stress and pollution of cars.”

As the climate heats up, World Carfree Day is the perfect time to take the heat off the planet, and put it on city planners and politicians to give priority to cycling, walking and public transport, instead of to the automobile.

Burbank Bicycle Riders !    September 22

Bike - In - Movie

Megamind

Bike Safety Workshop 2pm
Learn basic traffic safety skills, lane positioning, door-zone, proper etiquette, doorzone, and avoiding hazards on the road.
Flat-Fix How-To Session 4pm
Community Bike Ride to the Bike-In-Movie 5pm
Bike-In-Movie / Picnic 7pm
After our ride, we will be settling in at McCambridge Park where FREE food and refreshments will be awaiting: sandwiches with vegetarian options available, a snack and water. MEGAMIND! Kid friendly and fun for adults too.

The Burbank BikeStop is a high-capacity indoor bicycle parking facility located at the Downtown Burbank Metrolink Station. The facility is designed to meet the growing demand of commuters that bike to/from transit. The Burbank BikeStop helps us promote a healthier, more sustainable Burbank!