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1. The Daily Sprout
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2. Akeena's Loss Widens, Quality Issues?
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3. Riverwired.com: Lotus Develops the Sound of Silence
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4. How to Build Your Own XR3 Plug-In Vehicle
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5. Dell Declares It's "Carbon Neutral"
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6. Verdiem Aims At Home PCs, Launches Edison
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7. Wind-Powered Vehicles Set to Race
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8. BP to Invest $90M in Cellulosic Ethanol Producer Verenium
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9. Taking a breather
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10. EEStor Joining Other Energy Storage Startups on the Grid
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11. The Daily Sprout
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12. Riverwired.com: 10 Tips for Greening Your Living Room
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13. Taking a breather
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14. Put away the bikinis and leave it to the pros; the DIY carwash is a bummer for our rivers
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15. Riverwired.com: Greener Garbage Bags
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16. Riverwired.com: Election 2008: Know Your Candidates
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17. Score one for digital downloads: EarthTalk weighs in on CDs, jewel cases and recycling (it's hard)
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18. Riverwired.com: Green Building Resources & Green Living Tips
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19. Riverwired.com: Freebie of the Week: B & B by the Sea
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20. Oregon needs help getting on this cool "nature spots" world map
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21. Riverwired.com: Songwriters Commune With Nature, Produce Excellent Tracks
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22. An office paper saver that does the work for you -- for free
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23. Riverwired.com: What Can & Can't be Recycled
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24. Riverwired.com: "WALL•E": The Greatest Environmental Film… Ever?
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25. Riverwired.com: Green Movement Wake-Up Call: Unite or Die
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26. Dwell's greenest home renovation in North America is in Southeast Portland
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27. EarthTalk talks energy and televisions: CRT, LCD or plasma?
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28. Calculate, compare neighborhood "walkability" with Walk Score
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29. Oregon professor to monitor Beijing's Olympic skies
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30. Suniva Secures $500M Solar Cell Deal With Solon
The Daily Sprout
Craig Rubens - Misc
Tesla Grabs Mazda Design Director: Franz von Holzhausen, former Director of Design for Mazda North America, has joined Tesla Motors as Chief Designer. This is the third auto industry vet Tesla has snapped up recently. The startup got a new EVP of Vehicle Engineering from Chrysler and just this week hired a new CFO from Ford - Press Release.
Nissan Shows Off Electric Car: Nissan unveiled a prototype electric vehicle as well as a new hybrid prototype, both sporting the auto maker’s lithium-ion battery pack. Nissan says it’s on track for a 2010 production debut of its electric vehicle - Press Release.
DOE Supports CCTO’s Green Building Competition: The National Renewable Energy Laboratory will support the California Clean Tech Open’s green building competition which will award $50,000 to the winning business plan. This is part of the DOE’s larger green building campaign, including the new National Laboratory Collaborative on Building Technologies - MarketWatch.
Super-lattice Could Yield Super Fuel Cells: Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Spain’s Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid say they have developed a “super-lattice” that can allow solid-oxide fuel cells to operate at much lower temperatures and lower costs than existing fuel cells - ScienceDaily.
The New Republic Parses Paris’s Energy Plan: Noting the absurdity that more voters might listen to Paris Hilton discuss energy policy than to either candidate, The New Republic delves into the the faux campaign ad from the celebutante to analyze her proposed energy policy - The New Republic.
Akeena's Loss Widens, Quality Issues?
Katie Fehrenbacher - Energy
Solar installer Akeena Solar, the company behind a Lego-like modular solar rooftop system, is in need of some sunshine today. The company saw its loss for the second quarter widen to $5.1 million from $1.92 million a year earlier, while its revenues shrank slightly, to $7.06 million from $7.51 million. Sales of commercial installations, however, dropped by a massive 80 percent.
Akeena CEO Barry Cinnamon attributed the drop in commercial installations to the fact that “commercial installations span multiple quarters,” and the company expects to “see continued revenue volatility as commercial projects become a larger portion of our revenue mix.” But the company has also been cutting its operating expenses, and in an age when you’d expect a solar installer to be expanding, the company has cut 36 positions since the beginning of the year. Cinnamon said that the economic weakness and fears that the investment tax credit won’t get renewed are also taking their toll on the solar industry.
The Street wasn’t feeling it. On a day when the U.S. markets overall posted their second straight session of gains, the Los Gato, Calif.-based company saw its shares drop 3.7 percent to close at $4.22. To make matter worse, yesterday Barron’s Eric Savitz reported that Pacific Crest analyst Mark Bachman says Akeena is having quality issues with some of its Andalay solar products. “Some panels are being returned to Akeena, depending on the severity of the defect," and the issues supposedly “involved the frame, and not the performance of the modules themselves.” Regardless, it’s still an issue.
Riverwired.com: Lotus Develops the Sound of Silence
khallgeisler - Bikes & Cars
Lotus Engineering, which I imagine looks like Q’s lab in the James Bond films, has found a solution to the problem of nearly silent electric motors: the Safe & Sound system. The Toyota Prius demonstration car has a speaker attached at the front of the car next to the radiator that emits a “realistic engine sound,” according to the company.
Earlier this year, groups like the National Federation of the Blind pointed out that blind people and their seeing-eye dogs rely on the sound of approaching cars to determine the safety of crossing the street. This spring, a boy on a bike was hit by a Prius, an accident his mother blamed on the silent electric motor (never mind that the car is not equipped with invisibility, like Wonder Woman’s jet). In reaction, people have been searching for a way to make quiet cars safer for pedestrians. One potential solution was the Vibering concept, which would sense hybrid and electric motors and tell the wearer when one is nearby.
Lotus’s system was ironically born from its noise-dampening technologies. Safe & Sound synthesizes the engine sound and varies it depending on speed so people waiting at a crosswalk or walking across a parking lot can hear the approaching vehicle. If it’s a hybrid, and it goes fast enough to engage the gasoline engine, the system automatically shuts off. Also, once the car passes, the sound is no longer heard.
How to Build Your Own XR3 Plug-In Vehicle
Craig Rubens - Misc
With $200, a full machine shop and some mechanical savvy, you can now build your very own XR3 plug-in electric vehicle. Robert Q. Riley Enterprises, a product design firm in Glendale, Ariz., is selling plans for its three-wheeled, two passenger diesel-electric hybrid — the XR3 — to do-it-youselfers. Licensed as a motorcycle in most states, the XR3 uses a diesel engine to power the front two wheels and an electric motor to power the rear wheel, and can reach highway speeds. For $200, you get the 149-page construction manual and a CD stock full of CAD templates. At the high end, the company estimates construction of the vehicle will cost over $25,000, which includes a $9,000 lithium-ion battery pack.
The car can toggle between power sources with a simple flip of a switch. The company claims that in diesel-only mode, the car gets 125 mpg, and with its 3-gallon tank can go over 300 miles on a fill. In all-electric mode, the li-ion battery pack can provide a range of 40 miles, while the hybrid option provides a fuel efficiency equivalent of 225 mpg. But DIYers can choose to scale up the vehicle’s power systems. With a bigger fuel tank the XR3 can get a 1,000 mile diesel-only range, whereas by adding more batteries the car can get over 100 miles per charge, the company says. It’s all up to the builder.
The diesel and electric systems aren’t integrated through a computer like most hybrids. Instead, there’s a simple throttle integrator, so that once in hybrid mode, the electric motor only kicks in to help when you’re accelerating quickly. “Think of it like the passing gear in an automatic transmission,” founder Robert Riley tells us of the electric motor. “The idea is to avoid running on electric power but save it for high acceleration needs.”
The company has just finished filling some 2,500 back orders for these plans. According to Riley, the company has gotten interest from bigger players including ZAP, an electric car maker that makes a similar three-wheeled vehicle. Riley serves on the advisory board for Mattruck, a startup that plans to import the all-electric SARGE Truck from China next year. He hopes to be able to connect with Mattruck’s Chinese manufacturers to make XR3 kits.
If you’re not such a DIYer but want to add a plug to your Prius, check out list of installers who will retrofit your hybrid car for you.
Dell Declares It's "Carbon Neutral"
Celeste LeCompte - Big Green
Dell said this morning that it has achieved its “carbon neutral” goal in less than a year’s time — about five months ahead of the computing giant’s previous schedule — through a combination of energy efficiency, voluntary green power purchases and carbon offsets from rainforest preservation in Madagascar. The program aimed to eliminate or offset 475,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from Dell’s operations in its first year.
Going carbon neutral isn’t easy to do right, but Dell seems to have gotten the essentials down: Get the numbers in place; go for efficiency upgrades first; then offset the rest. (That’s Neal Dikeman’s “Evaluate, Efficiency, Environmental Offset” trinity.) The company dedicated $5 million to the project, which was spent over a period of about two years.
Dell focused on three categories: Direct emissions from actual energy production and fuel use (scope 1); indirect emissions from facilities energy use (scope 2); and employee air travel (scope 3). Carbon emissions from building energy use made up 80 percent of Dell’s calculated impacts, so that’s where the company focused its efficiency efforts, trimming 20,000 tons (4 percent) of carbon dioxide annually. While we’re encouraged by Dell’s plan, we think the company could find additional opportunities for energy efficiency; without major attention to efficiency, buying premium-priced green power is sort of like buying a closet full of new suits just before going on a diet.
So far, Dell has focused on efficiency improvements with a return on investment of three years or less: upgrading lighting fixtures at the company’s Texas campus, updating heating and cooling systems at facilities around the world, and implementing smaller measures across its facilities, such as occupancy sensors for lighting and a power management system for all networked computers. “You can imagine how big our network is!” Dell spokesman Bryant Hilton remarked.
The company has purchased a total 645 million kilowatt hours of green power through voluntary utility programs and renewable energy certificates (as well as VERs), accounting for a total savings of about 400,000 tons of carbon. “If you look at the whole picture, we invested the RECs and VERs…primarily in projects in India, China and the U.S., where we have significant operations and the green power supply needs to be developed,” Hilton noted.
The remainder (and a little extra for good measure) was offset through a partnership with Conservation International. Dell’s next steps are focused on working with its supply chain to reduce carbon inputs to its product lines.
In addition to its carbon-neutral dreams, Dell has started to offer more low-power, eco-computing products. Dell said back in May that it would design its laptops and desktops to consume up to 25 percent less energy than its current computers by 2010. The company plans to meet that goal by adding more energy-efficient circuits, fans and power management features, and by investing in energy-efficient hardware like chips, power supply and memory. And of course there’s that eco-chic bamboo PC that started rolling off Dell assembly lines last week.
Verdiem Aims At Home PCs, Launches Edison
Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups
The company says Edison is its answer to all those home PCs that don’t have the power settings enabled; Verdiem’s VP Marketing Allison Cornia said on a call this week, 90 percent of the world’s desktop computers have energy management settings disabled. The software itself is slick and easy-to-use, with settings to manage power for work hours and non work hours. The company is even planning to work with Carbon Rally to offer the opportunity to use that power (and carbon) saving data in a social network setting; the idea being you can see how green you are compared to your peer group.
But, as Cornia pointed on the call, about half of U.S. PC users don’t know what power management software is or how to use it. While Edison is pretty simple, convincing the average user to visit Verdiem’s web site and actively download the software will take a lot of convincing, i.e. marketing. For that, Verdiem is hoping to work with partners and eventually bundle the software with big OEM partners; HP already bundles an HP-branded version of Edison for business customers. Microsoft is also asking Windows PC users to download Edison to “augment” current PC power settings. Major deals like that could put the software on PCs much more quickly.
Above all, Edison seems like a savvy marketing move for Verdiem. It likely won’t make up a substantial part of company sales, but it’s good for getting the company’s name out there and likely wasn’t too expensive to build. And as John Skinner, co-chair of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative’s Marketing Workgroup said to us on a call, home desktop computers are the low hanging fruit — the CSCI is looking to reduce carbon emissions from computers 54 million tons by 2010 and calling for 10 million downloaded copies of Edison this year. With 2 percent of carbon emissions attributed to computing, small initiatives like Edison could make a real dent. That is, if the company can get the word out.
Verdiem does have some newly raised marketing money. In April the company closed a round of $12 million, led by NCD Investors (formerly Northgate Capital) and existing investors Kleiner Perkins, the Westly Group, Catamount Ventures, Falcon Partners and Phoenix Partners. Final thought: We want a Mac version.
Wind-Powered Vehicles Set to Race
Craig Rubens - In the Lab
The race is being organized by Windenergy Events as part of the the Tall Ships Races 2008 taking place in the waters off Den Helder. According to the competition rules wind-powered vehicles must have at least three wheels, a rotor area of no more than four square meters and be no more than 3.5 meters tall. Prizes will be awarded in nine categories, including fastest team, best design and even “bad luck” for those who can’t get the wind behind them.
If we have any E2T readers near Stuttgart, the Ventomobile engineers are demoing their vehicle on August 12 and any attending the Tall Ships Races, make sure to report back on how the Aeolus race goes. For those who won’t be able to visit the land of tulips, wind mills and now wind-powered vehicles, check out the videos after the jump of the Ventomobile’s construction.
BP to Invest $90M in Cellulosic Ethanol Producer Verenium
Katie Fehrenbacher - Energy
Verenium has managed to stay at the front of the pack of biofuel producers looking to build cellulosic ethanol plants in the U.S., and this morning has announced backing from a major oil player that could help it progress even more. UK oil giant BP will invest $90 million into Verenium over the next 18 months to both access Verenium’s cellulosic ethanol technology, and with plans to create a joint venture to work on cellulosic ethanol production.
The move represents one of BP’s larger commitments to biofuels and particularly cellulosic ethanol. Previously the oil giant committed about $60 million to take a 50 percent stake in Tropical BioEnergia, a Brazilian company that plans to build two ethanol refineries in Brazil. BP is also funding the $500 million academic and industry collaboration the Energy Biosciences Institute, as well as Craig Venter’s biofuel startup Synthetic Genomics.
For Verenium the move is a validation of its progress. On the news of BP’s investment Verenium’s [VRNM] shares rose over 50 percent $3.04. As one of more than a dozen companies racing to build cellulosic ethanol plants in the United States, the company was able to claim a “first” earlier this year; in June the Massachusetts-based company said it had officially opened a “first of its kind” demonstration facility in Jennings, La., which will produce 1.4 million gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol. The company says its demo plant is now in the commissioning phase (final testing and evaluation) and is supposed to be on track to start construction of a 30-million-gallon-per-year commercial plant "in the middle of next year."
Verenium claims it will also be the first company to build a commercial cellulosic ethanol plant in the United States, and the company is working on 10 different sites it could tap for commercial cellulosic ethanol production, mostly in the Southeast and all in various stages of development. A variety of other startups with similar aims include Range Fuels, Coskata, Mascoma and BlueFire Ethanol.
Verenium has been around longer than some of the younger companies. Founded in 1994 as Celunol, the company reportedly raised more than $60 million from Khosla Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures, Charles River, and Rho Ventures. In 2007 Celunol was bought by Diversa for over $100 million and was renamed Verenium in 2007.
Though one thing to remember with all this “racing to be first to build cellulosic ethanol plants in the United States” is that the ethanol market has gotten considerably more difficult as of late. The price of corn has gone sky high and the political landscape has started to move away from supporting biofuels. Verenium's stock had been dropping for months, down 12 percent in February on its weak earnings; for the quarter ended Dec. 31, Verenium posted a loss of $21.6 million, compared with $6.1 million, for the same period a year earlier. This Thursday Verenium announces second quarter earnings.
Taking a breather
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
EEStor Joining Other Energy Storage Startups on the Grid
Craig Rubens - Startups
EEStor, maker of the supposedly killer energy storage device, might soon plug its “electrical energy storage unit” (EESU) into the grid to help solve renewable energy’s intermittent power generation problem of when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. MIT Technology Review reports that the stealthy Austin, Texas-based startup is in “serious talks” with potential solar and wind energy partners to help boost grid capacity by providing utility-scale electricity storage. But before EEStor puts its EESUs on the grid it will have start making them and CEO Dick Weir has said production will start by the end of 2009.
EEStor joins AltairNano and A123 Systems as startups looking to connect their energy storage devices to the grid. The idea is that large capacity, fast-charging storage devices could sit on the grid, storing and providing energy to the grid as necessary. Excess energy generated at night could be stored and then used during the day during peak demand. Large, static storage devices could allow operators more flexibility and help renewable energy offer a stable base load. Weir claims that by partnering with wind and solar energy producers, EEStor could put 45 percent more energy on the grid.
AltairNano is developing ceramic lithium-ion batteries with nano-structured materials that allow for large amounts of surface area for fast charging. AltairNano’s new CEO Terry Copeland told us earlier this summer that the startup had successfully charged and discharged two megawatts of power to the grid in 30 minutes from one of their batteries in a partnership with AES.
Battery darling A123 Systems said in June it is already working with its investor General Electric to use its lithium-ion batteries for “grid stabilization.” Ric Fulop, founder and vice president of business development, said on a panel of energy storage experts organized by the New England Clean Energy Council that the battery technology is already there. “Now it’s a question of building the systems. Megawatt-level systems are all about systems integration.”
EEStor has a long way to go before it tackles systems integration. The startup just had its materials verified for purity and consistency, a necessary step, but far off from a working EESU. “I’m not going to make claims on when we’re going to get product out there,” Weir Told MIT Tech Review unapologetically. “That’s between me and the customer. I don’t want to tell the industry.”
The Daily Sprout
Craig Rubens - Misc
Ontario Poised to Steal California’s Cleantech Crown?: The Canadian province has lured numerous cleantech startups north with billions in infrastructure upgrades, municipal clean power purchases and green collar job training - VentureBeat.
Romm Calls Obama’s Proposal “A Real Energy Plan”: Romm writes unequivocally: “This is easily the best energy plan ever put forward by a nominee of either party.” He then labels McCain’s plan as “Nothing but Nukes” - Huffington Post.
Lotus Engineers Make Electric Car Noisier: Tapping into their active noise cancellation technology, Lotus engineers have synthesized automobile sounds to make it easier to hear electric cars coming toward you for safety reasons - Green Car Congress.
Akeena Solar Opens East Coast Operations: Residential solar installer Akeena Solar will expand to the east coast with a Connecticut office to serve customers in the New England and New York areas. As fertile markets like California begin to saturate we’ll likely see installers moving out to claim new territory - Press Release.
Riverwired.com: 10 Tips for Greening Your Living Room
jchait - Home & Garden
Let’s kick it off with a high traffic area - the living room:
- If you have a fireplace or woodstove, make sure that you close the damper when you don’t have a fire going. You can save a lot on your energy use and electric bill by containing the air or heat you keep inside your house.
- Buy furniture made from sustainable woods or recycled materials.
- Try to buy soft furniture and fixtures, like sofas, carpet, chairs, and blankets in organics or natural, renewable fabrics and materials.
- You can also go for alternative non-carpet flooring choices.
- Turn off the television at least two nights a week (more if you can). It’s summer so you can head out for an evening game of Frisbee with the family, or simply have a family game or quiet-time night.
- Unplug equipment when not in use. Your stereo does not need to be plugged in 24/7 and it drains electricity.
- Choose the best air conditioner for your space.
- Buy plants that actually help to improve air quality - your whole family will feel better.
- Use LED lighting to light small reading areas, and use long lasting eco-friendly light bulbs in other lighting accessories. Once in a while try lighting organic soy candles instead of turning on the lights.
- Clean and dust your living room without the use of toxic chemicals.
Taking a breather
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
Put away the bikinis and leave it to the pros; the DIY carwash is a...
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
Riverwired.com: Greener Garbage Bags
jchait - Home & Garden
Plastic trash bags pose pretty large threats to the environment; both in terms of the sheer amount of plastic trash bags leave in landfills, and in terms of manufacturing these bags. Some bags break down some while hanging in the landfill, but most don’t, especially if they’re stuck at the bottom of a trash pile, not exposed to the elements.
Choices:
You have some choices when it comes to what to bag your trash in. Sadly, not many. Trash bags are a huge convenience for most families. The best choices are as follows.
Create less trash. This is an easy one; well not easy, but it does eliminate many trash bag issues. If you can compost old food, and recycle as much as you can. You can buy less stuff, which will help. You can also buy items in reusable containers or packaging.
Paper bags are a good choice for trash, except they don’t hold wet stuff all that well. You can compost (as noted above) to eliminate this wet food in a paper bag issue. Look for recycled content paper bags to use for trash.
Recycled plastic bags are another, better choice, than conventional bags. Many recycled plastic bags contain a large amount (sometimes 80% or more) recycled plastic. They aren’t quite so polluting to manufacture as new plastic bags, and use less petroleum as well. They aren’t perfect but are far better than brand new plastic trash bags.
Where to find recycled plastic trash bags:
So, all in all, thinking about your trash may not be fun, but it can help the earth.
Riverwired.com: Election 2008: Know Your Candidates
Marcus - 2008
It's no surprise that the environment is going to be a central theme in the next presidential administration. Global warming has become a serious issue in the mainstream political consciousness, and Americans are eager to know how our prospective presidents measure up on the issues. With oil prices at record highs, the country needs to seriously reexamine how we utilize our resources, and whoever takes up residency in the oval office come November is obviously going to play a critical role in establishing environmental policy in the years ahead. Here at RiverWired, for your convenience and political enlightenment, we've laid out the primary aspects of each candidate's stance on the environment, so you can make the most informed, environmentally-conscious decision in the voting booth this fall.
John McCain
Mr. McCain favors a 60% decrease in 1990 emissions levels by 2050—a very ambitious number. Just last week, Japanese officials at a G8 summit reached an "historic" agreement to cut emissions 50% by 2050. He supports offshore drilling off the coasts of Florida and California, but opposes it in Alaskan wildlife refuges. McCain feels that drilling domestically will reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil and lower gas prices, although critics predict that offshore drilling will not begin producing significant amounts of oil until at least 2030, at which point the impact on oil prices will be relatively insignificant. Mr. McCain is also a proponent of further investing in nuclear power (which already receives 4 billion dollars annually), having proposed the construction of at least 45 nuclear reactors by 2030.
Barack Obama
Mr. Obama would like to decrease 1990 emissions levels 80% by 2050—an even more ambitious number. While both candidate's figures are indeed encouraging, it's apparent that Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama are both responding to the public concern over the environment with big plans—whether or not these plans can actually be realistically implemented remains to be seen. Obama opposes offshore drilling entirely, and instead feels that we need to be focusing on renewable energy sources like solar and wind power. With this in mind, Obama would like to require all corporations to purchase a certain percentage of their energy from renewable sources. In terms of nuclear power, Mr. Obama remains open-minded about its potential, but is more hesitant than Mr McCain, citing unresolved issues with nuclear waste disposal.
Well, there you have it. In short, both candidates seem to be giving the environment the attention it deserves, which is a refreshing change of pace from the Bush administration's skepticism that global warming even exists. The major differences between the candidates stem from how they want to address the problem of climate change in the short term, with McCain vying for domestic drilling and nuclear energy, and Obama favoring renewable energy and conservation. While this blogger will refrain from passing editorial judgment, I'll just leave you by saying Mr. Obama is backed by the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Friends of Earth Action. Just the facts, people. Just the facts.
Sources:
www.usnews.com
www.cnn.com
Score one for digital downloads: EarthTalk weighs in on CDs, jewel...
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - EarthTalk
Riverwired.com: Green Building Resources & Green Living Tips
jchait - Home & Garden
I don't know if you're aware of this, but Best Green Home Tips used to be located in a different spot, at the RiverWired network. Over there, we looked at many a green building and remodeling tip. I thought that if you missed these posts, it would be cool to catch you up to speed.
Following are some of the best posts that you may have missed the first time around…
Green building:
- The New LEED for Homes - LEED Benefits
- Locating Green Goods & Services
- What Is Sustainable Building?
- Basics of Green Roofs for Residential
- 22 Earth-Friendly Homes
- Beware of Greenwashing While Building Your Eco-Friendly House
- Build A Green Home for Less Money
- 50 Sustainable Home Design Features & Resources
- 10 Reasons To Consider Building a Straw Bale Home
- Proper Disposal of Paints & Other Home Finishes
- Environmentally Friendly Paints for Your Home
- Super Slick Solar Home Lighting Design
- Can You Use LED Lights In Your Home?
Alternative energy & energy saving:
- Inexpensive Residential Wind Turbine — Wind Power
- Four Easy Tactics You Can Use In A House To Conserve Water
- One Easy Home Cooling Option - Roof Whitening for Energy Saving
- Build Your Home for Energy Efficiency
- The Top 4 Ways to Save Energy in Your Home
- The Zero Energy Home
- Passive Solar Home Building
- 25 Tools, Ideas, & Activities for Off-Grid-Living
This catches you up on about half of the green building blog. Later this week, I'll post a second batch of great links that can help you to build and live green.
Riverwired.com: Freebie of the Week: B & B by the Sea
RiverWired.com - b and b
Need a restful, organic vacation? How does this sound -- five nights at a Bed & Breakfast overlooking the beautiful Mendocino Coast of California. And breakfast comes from the certified organic gardens. Stonyfield Farm will not only pay for the stay at the Inn, but the air fare to get you there -- for you and a guest. No purchase necessary. Start clicking.
Oregon needs help getting on this cool "nature spots" world map
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
Riverwired.com: Songwriters Commune With Nature, Produce Excellent...
Marcus - ben gibbard
You may have heard about Jack Johnson's commendable effort to record his entire latest release on solar power earlier this year, or perhaps about how Linkin Park or Radiohead have incorporated green initiatives into their band business models. In addition to these progressive rockstars, though, another green trend is emerging in a handful of this year's releases: the retreat to the natural world as a source for songwriting inspiration.
Throughout 2008, there has been a small, but significant, contingent of songwriters who have spent time alone in various isolated parts of the country, apparently utilizing the serenity that comes from a solitary commune with nature, in order to write material for their latest works. And the results are impressively good. Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie went to Big Sur, California, while writing songs for his band's new album, Narrow Stairs, and stayed in the same cabin where Jack Kerouac composed some of his most memorable prose. Justin Vernon, the force behind the critically-acclaimed Bon Iver, retreated to a cabin in Northwest Wisconsin to record his excellent debut, the beautiful, haunting For Emma, Forever Ago. Finally, Minnesota native and spiritual songsmith Mason Jennings headed to a cabin of his very own in a secluded corner of his home state to record an entire album, In the Ever, completely by himself and entirely on Garageband.
Listening to these three albums as a meditative, contemplative suite is indeed an eye-opening experience. Each work is incredibly personal and vulnerable, often painfully so, and the albums have an uncanny ability to meaningfully connect with the listener. Gibbard's sweeping tenor is markedly resonant on the album's opener, "Bixby Canyon Bridge," in which he ponders his ongoing lack of fulfillment despite the successes he's found. On For Emma, the longing and isolation in Justin Vernon's voice is palpable, as if you can hear how removed from the world he is as he sings song after heartbreaking song about a relationship that went tragically awry. Finally, Mason Jennings offers what could be considered his most personal release to date, a thought-provoking examination of love, spirituality and mortality that is at turns as fragile and delicate as it is vivacious and fun.
All three works speak to the importance of personal reflection in quality songwriting, and are particularly intriguing in that these songwriters are able to achieve such profound results by temporarily leaving their urban environments and attempting to reach a part of themselves more accessible when immersed in the natural world. If this trend continues to gain popularity, we can perhaps look forward to more exceptional music in the months ahead. It seems, if you want to write a poignant ditty, all you have to do is pack up your guitar and head for the wilderness.
An office paper saver that does the work for you -- for free
Shelby Wood, The Oregonian - Eat Your Greens
Riverwired.com: What Can & Can't be Recycled
jchait - Home & Garden
Yesterday we looked at Getting back to Basics - Recycling in Your Community - where to learn about recycling in your community and neighborhood.
Today let’s take a look at what can and can’t (in most cases) be recycled…
What you can, in most cases, recycle:
Paper
Glass
Plastic - you’re limited in what plastics you can easily recycle. You honestly should not be buying plastic drink jugs and milk jugs (paper or glass is better). Overall, the best plastic tip is to buy as little as possible.
Misc garbage - clothing, old paint, computers, and batteries are just some of the misc trash you can recycle. It depends on your area, but if you contact Earth 911 you can find a place to recycle these sort of items.
Metal - tin cans, soda cans, and foil items can usually be recycled.
Things that are difficult to recycle: (difficult, as in some areas offer recycling for said items, and some may not. Also people who are creative can recycle many items.)
Aerosol cans made from combined materials.
Some juice boxes.
Squeeze plastic bottles - like ketchup. Glass is a better option.
In some areas light bulbs, broken glass and pottery, foam, plastic silverware, plastic bags, carbon paper, and more can’t be recycled. Try to limit buying what can’t be recycled in your community.
Riverwired.com: "WALL•E": The Greatest Environmental Film…...
Marcus - andrew stanton
Once the opening strains of "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" from the Broadway musical "Hello, Dolly!" began at the start of the film, I knew that "WALL•E" was going to be an experience I wouldn't soon forget. And I was not disappointed: what followed was a truly groundbreaking cinematic achievement, not just in the realm of computer-animated features, but in film, period. "WALL•E" writer/director Andrew Stanton, who dazzled audiences in 2003 with the impeccable "Finding Nemo," has outdone himself, and in turn has provided us with one of the finest films likely to hit the screens this year.
But forget how visually dazzling the epic, dystopian version of the future that Stanton paints is. Forget how effectively the film is able to convey robot emotion through the use of minimal dialogue and two songs from a musical written over fifty years ago. Forget, even, that "WALL•E" is one of the most poignant, heart-warming, resonant love stories in recent memory. Even without these elements, "WALL•E" remains an important fable about the dangers our planet faces, and the potential catastrophic results in store if we don't amend our ways.
The world that "WALL•E" is set in is a world in which humans have incorporated mass consumption so inextricably into their lives that the earth becomes completely submerged by garbage. Eventually, conditions get so dire that the entire human race leaves on massive, cruise-ship-esque space stations, only to let their bodies and minds deteriorate over generations as they rely on machines to do all their physical tasks and thinking for them. WALL•E himself is created for the purpose of helping to collect and aesthetically redistribute garbage but, as all humans abandon the planet, he soon becomes marginalized, a relic of a bygone era programmed to perform a service that is no longer needed in the absence of human life.
And yes, it's certainly amusing to watch the humans in the film bumble around like disoriented infants, and the message is not exactly subtle, but that doesn't make it any less timely or relevant. While it may be unlikely that Broadway-loving robots will become intergalactic heroes in the centuries ahead (then again, what do I know?), the finite, fragile portrayal of our planet and its resources is all too real. The fact that WALL•E's resilient spirit and optimism are eventually what turn things around for him (not to mention all of mankind) is a testament to the fact that positive, proactive thinking about the state of our earth is the only way to go from here on out. Without giving away too much of the plot, let's just say that WALL•E is instrumental in helping the humans he encounters to realize the joys and value of preserving the natural wonder of the earth, and his tenacity comes as a much-needed breath of fresh air. "WALL•E" shows us that, while we're facing some challenging obstacles as a planet, it's not time to throw in the towel yet.
In short, see the movie. Oh, and if you get a chance, check out "The Dark Knight." It's bad ass.
Related:
Check out RiverWired's Top 10 Eco-Films
Riverwired.com: Green Movement Wake-Up Call: Unite or Die
ProgressiveKid - Sustainable Ideas
As an American woman who spent most of her life in a rock and roll band, I understand the concept of independence. Even after my injury (I dove off the stage and no one caught me, in an ironic manifestation of American isolationism), my inclination was to recover alone, and I spent months of therapy walking by myself. But it wasn't until I reached the West Coast and, looking out over the Pacific, I saw how I couldn't walk any farther that I figured out there wasn't any walking away from anything or anyone.
Nothing is more true in the green movement. We're either in this together or we're going to fail. And by we I mean all of us, including our animal brothers and sisters and the trees and the water. I just watched the John Adams HBO miniseries, which begins with images of colonial American flags, the first being the famous snake cut in segments, each segment bearing the initials of one of the colonies. As every former U.S. schoolkid knows, the flag bears the words Unite, or Die (or in another version Join, or Die). I guess it was that kind of ultimatum that the colonists, who were the original independents having left their motherland for freedom of many varieties, needed in order to combine forces and interests.
But today we're not talking about an American army. We're talking about interdependence on a wider and yet more detailed scale:
- Smaller communities organized and designed to reduce the need for driving.
- Reliance on local food sources.
- Reliance on local, sustainable power sources.
- Reliance on small, local businesses run by people known in the community and use of the Internet to select and obtain needed specialized goods (i.e., syringes, prosthetics, buses, books) not available locally (thus concentrating certain types of manufacturing in the communities where they make the most sense from the standpoint of transportation, skills, and resources).
- Sharing of resources, from tools to information to arts to skills.
- Community-based child care and senior care (including multigenerational family care).
- Community investment in and protection of local open and wild spaces, flora and fauna, and water, air, and forests.
- Community-based rites, festivals, and celebrations.
- Community participation in schools and libraries.
- Local volunteerism.
- Community-based activism in social issues such as health care, education, infrastructure, and land development.
- Economies that are based upon concern for the health of all citizens, not solely for the profits of corporate shareholders.
- A broad definition of community that also encompasses the entire planet.
Number 3 is tricky because it can result in manufacturing dead zones where workers sacrifice their health and safety for a manufacturing job that meets the needs of distant others. Once again, such communities must be organized by the principles already stated, with community involvement in facility management.
Number 12 is especially important because the American independence personality trait will turn the community experience into a new kind of independence—my community, self-sufficient and free—that we cannot afford on a small home planet with growing human populations. Our concept of community must be both local and broad so that we do not fail to care for and notice the larger issues that most certainly will affect us all.
Last time we Americans got this message, we required a hard-hitting marketing campaign with a strong visual metaphor and a common enemy: the snake flag, King George. It's hard to imagine we hardheaded independents won't need that again. So here we go: Our common enemy is a small, powerful elite that seeks power and/or profit at the expense of the many. For an image, how about a snake in segments labeled man, woman, black, brown, white, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, East, West, North, South, gay, straight, human animal, other animals? The tag line? It worked before, so let's use it again, only this time not so metaphorically: Join or Die.
©2008 ProgressiveKid
Image by Pete Welsch, 2008, Creative Commons license.
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Suniva Secures $500M Solar Cell Deal With Solon
Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups
It’s a significant customer win for the two-year-old startup, and follows on the heels of Suniva’s announcement that it has signed a five-year contract with Norwegian polysilicon producer REC to have access to $300 million worth of silicon wafers to produce cells. The company will use that polysilicon supply in its first manufacturing plant it is building in Gwinnett County, Georgia; the plant will have initial solar production capacity of 32 MW, with a potential for expansion to 100 MW.
While the company makes its cells from silicon, it manufactures them thinner, reducing the overall cost. At the same time the company claims a high efficiency of over 20 percent. The company is backed by over $50 million from New Enterprise Associates, Advanced Equities, Goldman Sachs Group, HIG Ventures and Quercus Investments.
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