Monthly Archives: September 2011
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P&G Makes the Case to 100 Million Americans: Cold Water Washing Works
Fact A: Cold-water detergents are better for the environment. Fact B: Cold-water detergents save consumers money on energy while providing them with results equal to hot-water washing. They even cost about the same. Sounds like a win-win offer, right? So why do consumers avoid cold-water detergents? The answer is actually simple: They don’t care too [...]
The Problem with Politicizing Solyndra
“As much as I wish to be able to answer the members’ questions, I have been advised by my counsel that it is the better course for me to assert my constitutional right to decline to answer questions under the Fifth Amendment. While I hope to have an opportunity to assist this committee’s inquiry in [...]
Is There a Wooden Tee Shirt in Your Future?
Problems that are also opportunities, like the one we are facing now with our climate, have a way of taking us places where we never thought we’d go. For example, I thought a good way of solidifying my connection with Mother Nature was to go walking in the woods, not to start wearing them. But [...]
SunTracker: Leveraging GPS to Radically Optimize Daylighting
In recent years, much has been made of the energy savings and emissions reduction associated with switching to CFLs. What if every moment the sun was out you could go completely without electric lighting? Daylighting is an often touted solution. In my case, having skylights in our office meant hiding from it as the sun [...]
Track the Slave Labor Footprint of Common Products
Slavery Footprint is a website, launched last week, which calculates how much slave labor is used to produce the common products in our lives. The launch of the site, which is a creation of the California-based Fair Trade Fund and the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, coincided with the 149th [...]
EV Battery Staple to Be Produced at Geothermal Site
Using a “breakthrough, zero-waste” process that can be incorporated into geothermal power plants, the lithium carbonate, manganese and zinc produced from Simbol’s facility near the Salton Sea will be of of the highest purity available on the world market and help assure that US clean energy growth continues.
Carpooling Gets a Boost with $6 Million In New Funding for Zimride
One of the biggest problems with casual carpooling is that in most cases you really don’t know who you’ll be riding with. It can be a great person and the beginning of wonderful friendship (hey, that’s how Harry met Sally!), but you might also find yourself riding eight hours with some weirdo making it your [...]
Method Proves Value Matters More than “Green”
Instead of marketing “green-ness”, sustainable companies should focus their efforts on innovative design, and a clear message that is relevant to their customers’ experience. The fact is, for the truly successful sustainable companies, it’s not about being “green;” it’s about a superior product and a smarter message.
Could Cell Phones Benefit Women Entrepreneurs in Developing Countries?
The ExxonMobil Foundation has a long history of investing in women worldwide, committing nearly $50 million to date toward programs that have benefitted thousands. The foundation recently announced a $1.5 million grant awarded to The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women for research into how mobile phone technology can aid women’s business efforts in developing countries. [...]
Real Time Farms Crowd-Sources to Map U.S. Food System
Founded by Karl and Cara Rosaen, Real Time Farms (RTF) is a new crowd-sourcing online food guide that is every foodie’s dream, acting as a restaurant guide, local farm source map, and food artisan storytelling hub all wrapped up into one. As their website boasts, “As crazy as it sounds, our vision is to collectively [...]
Lighter and More Fuel Efficient, Boeing Delivers the First 787 Dreamliner
This week, US aircraft maker Boeing celebrated the delivery of it’s first new-generation 787 Dreamliner to the Japanese carrier, All Nippon Airlines (ANA). This follows a series of setbacks which have beset the launch, delaying deliveries by around three years. Despite the setbacks, Bloomberg reported in August that the 787 is the fastest selling aircraft [...]
400 Megawatt Solar Plant Planned for Florida’s Panhandle
National Solar Power will invest $1.5 billion to build the Southeast’s largest solar power farm, a 400MW solar power farm in Florida’s Gadsden County capable of supplying clean, renewable power to some 32,000 homes. Around 400 construction phase and 120 permanent jobs are expected to be created.
The Electric Car Branding Trick Even Nissan’s LEAF is Missing
In the past ten years, environmentally friendly cars have become a fixture in advertising. First came the Prius. Then BMW claimed its electric batteries boost performance, great for boosting the entire BMW brand. Chevy Volt, an electric hybrid, hypes range, innovation and American values, trying to minimize its differences from traditional cars. Nissan LEAF touts its green credentials, scooping up the ultra-green market.
Vietnamese Drug Detention Centers Use Forced Labor for Cashew Processing
A new report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) entitled The Rehab Archipelago: Forced Labor and Other Abuses in Drug Detention Centers in Southern Vietnam, indicates that drug addicts being detained in government-run “rehabilitation” centers often double as forced-labor camps where detainees process cashew nuts and manufacture other exports in southern Vietnam under harsh conditions [...]
Economic Development Boards Spur Renewable Energy Development in Hawaii
Every municipality has one, but most people don’t know what economic development boards do. At the Asia Pacific Clean Energy Summit, I attended a talk with a panel of leaders from economic development boards in the four main counties of the state of Hawaii to find out more about how these small business engines are [...]
Study: BP Oil Spill Can Cause Lasting Damage to Fish
As a self-proclaimed connoisseur of New Orleans cuisine, my 5th thought after last year’s BP oil spill gulf disaster (after “good lord, haven’t they been through enough?” “of course Halliburton is connected to this,” “at least this will get people to reconsider all the drilling,” and “so much for scuba diving off the east coast [...]
Girl Scouts Finally Pledge to Use Certified Palm Oil in Cookies
Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) announced yesterday that they’ve committed to using GreenPalm certified palm oil in their iconic cookies. Starting with the 2012-2013 cookie season, each cookie box will feature the GreenPalm logo. Palm oil is grown primarily in Malaysia and Indonesia, with both countries accounting for 85 percent of all production. One [...]
Sierra Club: EPA Should Close Haz-Waste Loopholes
The Sierra Club is on the Environmental Protection Agency’s case about hazardous waste. Writing in Treehugger last week, Sarah Hodgdon, the Club’s Director of Conservation, says with the EPA “currently reconsidering their hazardous waste standards” under its Regulatory Review and Reform Initiative. Now is the time keep the pressure on the agency for stronger standards. [...]
“Tricking” Consumers Into Doing the Right Thing
All sustainable marketers are trying to accomplish the same thing: change consumer behavior. But how do we do this? As part of the green marketing community, we get it in our heads that we know how to stimulate behavior change…but do we really? We tend to think about what would motivate us to change our behaviors, but our behaviors are not the ones that need to be changed.
New Balance Creates Sneaker From Recycled Plastic Bottles
The entire upper of New Balance’s new sneaker, called newSky, is made from a fiber called Eco-fi, which is 95 percent post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. It takes about eight plastic bottles to make one pair of the sneakers, which will be available in October. Eco-fi is made by Foss Manufacturing which chops the bottles into [...]
Get Ready for Opportunity Green 2011 in Los Angeles
Although we promote and attend dozens of excellent conferences every year, there are a handful we’ve grown very close with. Opportunity Green – heading into its 4th year in Los Angeles is one of our favorites for a variety of reasons. Los Angeles is the global center of popular culture, from which messages (both green [...]
Video Interview: Foundation Source on How to raise $50k in 3 days
When the earthquake hit Japan this year, a $50k grant was given to International Medical Corporation in a matter of days to buy satellite phones to help with rescue communication. The grant came through Foundation Source , the nation’s largest foundation management platform, with over $4 billion in managed assets. Over $3 million dollars are [...]
ViridiSTOR “Green Box” Reduces Trade Show Waste
Innovations abound throughout the environmental movement, from highly engineered water-and waste management methodologies, to intelligent design and streamlined manufacturing techniques. In attempting to comply with regulatory or stakeholder requirements, companies have explored a variety of clean, green technologies. But sometimes, businesses can make a huge impact with even simple, low-tech ideas that fill a vital niche.
It Began with a Tomato: Engagement Lessons from Florida’s Tomato Land
What began as the quest for a fresh, juicy, flavorful tomato culminated in a landmark labor rights agreement which is transforming the lives of agricultural workers in the heart of Florida’s tomato land. Along the way we can learn lessons in stakeholder engagement. I had the opportunity to speak privately with Cheryl Queen, VP of [...]
Clinton: World Needs Better Immigration Laws for Climate Change Refugees
As part of the Clinton Global Initiative, former President Bill Clinton voiced his thoughts about global warming and climate refugees in a round-table discussion. Climate change will have an adverse effect on many people living in vulnerable areas, especially coastal regions. Island nations will be most severely hit, already hot countries will see an increase in [...]
Is Junk Food Really Cheaper? Maybe Sometimes
The Sunday New York Times Review section ran an interesting piece this week that posed the question, Is Junk Food Really Cheaper? The premise of Mark Bittman’s article was to debunk the often repeated notion that the reason people are obese is because it is cheaper to fill up on calorie-dense junk food than it [...]
Key Elements of a Successful Clean Energy Project: Venture Capital Perspectives
How does a planned clean energy project actually get built? The process is not simple, and with the utility usually owning the project after its backers have provided the funding to bring the project to life, the requirements can be overwhelming. One thing that helps virtually assure the project’s success is getting venture investment. At [...]
CouchSurfing Moves from NGO to B-Corps: Bona fide or Bogus?
CouchSurfing International is riding a wave of success since its August 2011 announcement of restructure, from non-profit public charity, to for-profit C-Corporation with B-corps certification and $7.6 million in funding from Omidyar and Benchmark. The web-based homestay organization has more than 3 million profiles created since 2003: pop the beverages and get the beach party going!
…or, not so fast: CouchSurfing (CS) has been hit with a tsunami of protest from its own membership over its reorganization. To date, nearly 2,500 CS members have joined an online forum, and a Facebook group, titled “We don’t want CouchSurfing to be a corporation”. The protesters seek to demand limited profits to investors, more control of their uploaded data, legal guarantees of transparency, and an end to organizational intrigue.
Their protest provides an early test case of B-Lab’s certification process: can a failed non-profit become a for-profit company and still be worthily characterized as a “socially responsible” B-Corporation?
Novozyme’s Charcoal Replacement Kills Six Birds With One Stone
This one almost seems too good to be true, which will, of course, bring the skeptics out. But I don’t see too much wrong with an initiative that addresses deforestation, land degradation, malnutrition, poverty, indoor pollution, and one of the leading causes of death across a vast area with one integrated solution that reduces carbon [...]
Researchers Link Ethanol Production and Financial Speculation to Rising Food Prices
A recent scientific paper, from the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) attributes the increase in food prices in 2007/2008 and 2010/2011 to ethanol and financial speculation. As the authors of the paper put it, “The two sharp peaks in 2007/2008 and 2010/2011 are specifically due to investor speculation, while an underlying upward trend is [...]
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