Green Warriors

Ghost Town Tests Green Technology Solutions

September 20, 2011

A 20-square mile desert ghost town will soon be a green technology testing ground. Pegasus Global Holdings plans to build a testing center in New Mexico modeled after a typical mid-sized American City. The replica town will enable testing of renewable energy, smart transportation and next generation wireless networks in a way that mirrors the real world. Pegasus says the purpose of the replica city is to provide testing and evaluation of green technologies and innovations to determine the benefits and costs they would have on our existing infrastructure.

The proposed design, called The Center, is based on a town with a population of 35,000 with a complete working infrastructure. There will be urban, suburban and rural areas complete with roads, buildings, power, water and telecommunications. The Center will allow private companies, non-for-profits, educational and government agencies to test innovations in a real world setting.

In the field of green energy, there are challenges integrating new technologies into dated infrastructure. Pegasus says The Center will help drill down the cost of introducing solar, wind and smart grid technologies in a real world setting to help determine the next steps to success. For example, developers of solar technology could measure how their systems could be used in multiple households with different thermostat settings. The nearly $200 million dollar testing center will be the first of its kind in the U.S.

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California Considers Styrofoam Container Ban

August 31, 2011

Lawmakers in California are on the verge of passing historic legislation that would make the state the first in the nation to ban Styrofoam containers. The bill would prohibit restaurants, grocery stores and other vendors from packaging food in polystyrene containers, commonly known as Styrofoam. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates Americans throw away 25 billion foam cups every year. The author of the Styrofoam ban bill (SB 568) says litter from foam containers is one of the most common forms of trash found in city streets, sewers and beaches. State Senator Alan Lowenthal says foam is not biodegradable or compostable and if it breaks up in the water it can last for thousands of years.

The proposed ban on foam containers would exempts school districts and communities that recycle at least 60 percent of their foam waste. Environmental advocates say when foam breaks into small pieces it is easily mistaken for food by wildlife and marine animals. Styrofoam contaminated with food residue is also difficult to recycle. The California Chamber of Commerce says the bill threatens manufacturing jobs while increasing costs for restaurants.

More than 50 California cities and counties already have similar bans. The proposed statewide ban passed the appropriations committee and is headed to the Assembly floor for a vote. You can help reduce the amount of foam and polystyrene in the environment by choosing reusable serving items instead of disposable. For more information watch this Do Your Part video for tips on greener ways to entertain.

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White Roofs Save Energy and Slash Emissions

Photo Credit: NREL, Department of Energy

July 28, 2011

White paint can go a long way in reducing carbon emissions. Environmental and energy experts say painting roofs and road surfaces white can help save money, energy and drastically reduce carbon emissions. According to the White Roof Project, painting every roof white could save a year’s worth of emissions. Project officials say white roofs can reflect 85 percent of the earth’s sunlight compared to 20 percent for dark roofs. Buildings with white roofs also stay up to 35 degrees cooler which saves electricity needed to cool the building. Black surfaces in the sun can also become up to 70 degrees hotter than most reflective white surfaces.

Bill Clinton is the latest big name to endorse the idea of white roofs. He told Newsweek magazine that painting black tar surfaces white is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to save money and energy. Clinton says the cost of paint and labor would be recovered within a week for most buildings. Energy Secretary Steven Chu also backs the idea of white roofs and surfaces. He says whitening the world’s roofs and roads would have the same effect on global warming as removing all of the world’s cars for eleven years.

The White Roof Project is recruiting volunteers in New York to help cover all of the roofs in the East Village white by the end of August. Mayor Michael Bloomberg also started a program to hire and train young workers to paint New York’s roofs white. Large cities like New York are especially vulnerable to the increased heat and emissions of black surfaces. Cities with a population of one million or more can be up to 22 degrees hotter than nearby suburbs. Heat trapping black pavement and rooftops in large cities create what is called an “Urban Heat Island”.

If 5 percent of roofs in the U.S. were covered with white paint every year, it’s estimated they would all be transformed by the year 2030. In addition to energy savings, white roofs could also save $5 billion dollars in energy costs in the U.S. and save 14 power plants’ worth of energy in 11 large cities.

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NC Grows Green Industries

North Carolina is turning a new green leaf when it comes to eco-friendly industries in the state. The N.C. Sustainable Energy Association just released its Clean Energy Data Book which identifies the state’s clean energy projects and reports how many people are employed by those projects. This is the first comprehensive catalog of North Carolina’s clean energy initiatives to be compiled all in the same place. The book showcases several exciting green programs such as a large solar farm in the Triad to a wind turbine system at Appalachian State University. These initiatives have created roughly 12,500 jobs and were sparked by green job initiatives, new legislation, state tax credits, and more.

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Green Search Engine Helps Environment

Protecting the environment can now be as easy as sitting at your computer. Carbonfund.org just launched an eco-friendly search engine which donates profits to environmental charities. Envirosearch.org is a free online search engine powered by Bing and fueled by ads through Yahoo. The revenue from the ads is then donated to Carbonfund.org’s environmental projects throughout the world like reforestation efforts and wildlife preservation. The site will initially support tree-planting programs in India, Haiti and the United States. Envirosearch will also sponsor clean energy and other environmental programs. The green nature of the search engine does not change the results in any way. Earth Techling reports a side by side comparison of search results from Envirosearch and Bing show few differences. There are other green search engines like the Google-powered CarbonNeutralSearch which buys carbon offsets to make searches carbon neutral. The search engine EcoSearch is also powered by Google and donates 100% of its profits to environmental charities listed on the site. Users can even request that additional eco-friendly charities be added. Other green search engines like GreenMaven filters results and only returns hits from sites that are environmentally friendly or promote a green cause.

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Plant a Shoe, Watch it Grow!

Photo Credit: Oat Shoes

A newly unveiled shoe gives new meaning to the term ‘repurpose’. The world’s first biodegradable shoe can actually be planted in your backyard and will sprout into a patch of wildflowers. The Dutch Oat Shoe company is using innovative biodegradable technology combined with style to make sporty shoes that leave no mark on the environment when they are thrown away. The sole of the shoe is made of a flexible cork that is embedded with seeds. The Oat Shoe company spent two years researching the ecological properties of materials and visiting several factories before coming up with the biodegradable sneaker. The shoe won second prize at the Green Fashion Awards during the Amsterdam International Fashion week last month. Oat will debut its collection this spring in Europe with a limited 900 piece run that the company hopes will expand to other countries. Oat’s mission is to connect people with their environment in an imaginative way. Founder and designer Christiaan Maats tells Ecouterre “We all like the nice bits of fashion so why not make those bits biodegradable? You can call it a vintage-killer, but you leave something much better behind: a tree, flowers, or even a cotton plant that provides you with your new shirt”.

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Green Ideas Awarded in New Contest

Do you have a smart or innovative idea that helps the environment and makes the world a more sustainable place? You may want to consider submitting your green idea to a new contest recognizing environmental leaders. The Green Awards Program will offer prizes to the winners in each of four categories including green civic leader, green entrepreneur, green local organizer and green parent. Many of the country’s leading environmental groups are partnering with the Green Giant brand to shine a spotlight on people who work to make the world a greener place and provide inspiration to future generations. A survey sponsored by Green Giant shows most families are interested in protecting the environment. The survey shows 97 percent of moms take steps to be green at home and encourage their children to do the same but most wish they had more time to focus on being green and helping the environment. To submit your green idea go to www.thegreenawards.com and submit a short one minute video that describes your idea and how it has a positive environmental impact or inspires others to take steps toward sustainability. The Green Awards Program will award a total of 120,000 dollars among 12 finalists within each of the four categories. Submissions will be accepted until March 6th, 2011.

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Major Companies Enlist in Climate Corps

Leading corporations including Microsoft and Facebook are among the first round of companies to enlist in the 2011 Climate Corps. The Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corp program places top MBA students in companies to help the businesses come up with energy efficient plans that cut costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The program is heading into its fourth year with thirty companies signing on for the summer of 2011. Since it started, Climate Corps has helped 66 major firms save a total of $439 million dollars and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 557,000 metric tons, that’s the equivalent of taking 86,000 SUV’s off the road. Climate Corps fellows that are placed with companies are specially trained in energy efficient practices and strategies. Some of this year’s applicants to the Climate Corps program are enrolled in top MBA programs at schools including Columbia, Harvard and Northwestern University. Companies enrolling for 2011 will join current participants including McDonald’s and AT&T.

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Green Movies Take the Stage at Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival has become a premiere showcase for independent films including several environmental documentaries that have gone on to the big screen including “An Inconvenient Truth”. This year at the Sundance there are two green films getting a lot of buzz. “The Last Mountain” by filmmaker Bill Haney takes a look at mountaintop coal mining and the destructive lengths that coal companies will go to harvest coal. According to the documentary, mountaintop coal removal has destroyed 500 Appalachian mountains, flattened one million acres of forest and buried 2000 miles of streams. The film focuses on Coal River Valley, West Virginia where a small group of citizens are trying to stop corporations from mountaintop coal removal. Activists say the practice of dynamiting off the top of a mountain to mine for coal pollutes the air and water and is responsible for the serious health problems of nearby residents. Another environmental film at Sundance this year is called “If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front”. The documentary is about Oregon-based activist Daniel McGowan and the radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front. The film relates the tale of McGowan who was brought to trial on charges of eco-terrorism. McGowan was accused of participating in arson plots against companies involved in deforestation and other environmental destruction practices.

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Smart Clothes Could Help Power Your Gadgets

Scientists are working on harnessing a new type of renewable energy. It doesn’t involve the sun or wind but the clothes we put on every day. Researchers are developing brush- like fibers that generate electricity from movement. The BBC reports those fibers could be weaved into material used for clothing. The “smart” clothes could use your body movement to power portable electronic gadgets. The latest research was authored by a team including Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Wang says the goal is to eventually make self-powered nanotechnology. Similar research is happening at the University of Texas at Dallas where scientists are spinning yarn out of power infused nanotubes. Researchers hope to weave the energy-transmitting yarn into lightweight batteries that could be worn. Experts say this type of nanotechnology could also be used in health care to help power small medical devices like pacemakers or cochlear implants.

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