Florida isn’t called the ’sunshine state’ for nothing! Fuel Miami LLC, an ‘out-of-home advertising‘ company, is installing 600 solar-powered bus shelters throughout the city of Miami. The media company, which is a subsidiary of Fuel Outdoor Holdings LLC, has signed a 20 year agreement with the city to provide these shelters, in return they power the ad displays off the city grid and sell ad space to their customers. Here’s a piece from Shirley Siluk Gregory on Ecolocalizer. more…
A new study suggests that by the year 2020 all new cars will be hybrids. Can there be such a wholesale shift in the automotive ecosystem in just 12 years? According to IBM’s Institute for Business Values, the car industry “is in the midst of significant change, with increasing challenges in consumer demands, technology development, globalization, integration and collaboration,” and, to survive, car-makers must consider environmental responsibility and fuel efficiency as increasingly vital components of consumer interest.
It’s been a rough year for the car business. Americans will buy fewer cars this year than any year since the early 1990s. US automakers in particular are sputtering. When Ford announced its second quarter financial results, they turned out to be the worst-ever recorded by the company, an $8.7 billion loss. But of the few success stories in the car industry in recent years, the hybrid is chief among them. more…
California’s wine industry is going greener. While wrestling with the contradictions inherent in ‘green wine-making,’ many wineries are experimenting with a variety of sustainable practices, from harnessing solar power, to reducing reliance on large machinery, to releasing ladybugs for pest control. But many see a risk in making wholesale changes to established practices that might affect the wine and the vineyard ‘experience,’ as vineyards become less “pristine and pretty with neatly mowed rows and chemically controlled weeds.” As Deborah Grossman writes in the San Francisco Chronicle, “the goal of sustainable winegrowing is to create an environmentally sensitive, socially responsible and economically feasible product,” but what that means exactly seems to be in the eye of the beholder. more…
In an effort to conserve water, many college campuses across the U.S. are dropping the use of trays from their cafeterias. Faced with severe droughts, schools like Georgia Tech and University of Florida have joined the growing list of schools experimenting with no trays. Georgia Tech, with a student body of 18,000, claims to be saving 3,000 gallons of water a day. Similarly, University of Florida, with an enrollment of 50,000 students, predicts its annual savings will be as much as 470,000 gallons that would otherwise have gone to washing trays. Proponents of the ‘tray drop’ say the benefits go beyond water conservation and include reduced waste, reduced over-eating and reduced pollution (from detergents and other cleaning by-products). Here’s a piece by John Raby for The AP.
We enjoyed this piece by Bryan Walsh, in Time Magazine, where he suggests the most effective way to engage people (especially here in the U.S.) in the cause of sustainability and environmental responsibility might be to quite literally declare war on climate change.
How to Win the War on Global Warming
Americans don’t like to lose wars—which makes sense, since we have so little practice with it. Of course, a lot depends on how you define just what a war is. There are shooting wars—the kind that test our mettle and our patriotism and our resourcefulness and our courage—and those are the kind at which we excel. But other struggles test those qualities too. What else was the Great Depression or the space race or the construction of the railroads or the eradication of polio but a massive, often frightening challenge that we decided as a culture we ought to rise up and face? If we indulge in a bit of chest-thumping and flag-waving when the job is done, well, we earned it.
We are now faced with a similarly momentous challenge: global warming. The steady deterioration of the very climate of our very planet is becoming a war of the first order, and by any measure, the U.S. is losing.
Home electronics and household appliances continue to draw substantial amounts of energy, even when the power is off. This phenomenon is known as ‘leaking electricity.’ According to a recent study, ‘leaking electricity’ accounts for roughly 45 billion kilowatt-hours of ‘wasted’ electricity consumed by U.S. households each year, at a cost of more than $3.5 billion annually. From chargers that continue charging even when a product is fully charged, to products that are always ready to be activated (such as remote controls, televisions and computers that remain in ’sleep mode’), leaking electricity has long been seen as a by-product of tech convenience. In recent years, the tech industry has begun addressing ways to plug the leak and maintain that aura of convenience that, ultimately, all tech gadgets seek to provide, from Green Plugs to energy-smart software. more…
In recent decades, the cause of conservation and sustainbility has been taken up by some of the world’s wealthiest individuals. In a provocative piece in The Telegraph, ‘Save The Planet? Buy it!’, a few of these so-called wildlands philanthropists are profiled. Some, including Douglas Tompkins (founder of Esprit and The North Face), have purchased and protected enormous tracts of land. Tompkins has invested over $200 million in buying or organising the purchase of around 25 properties covering 2.2 million acres in Chile and Argentina for the creation of state-run national parks. But others, like the late Paul Fentener van Vlissingen, a Dutch supermarket mogul, choose not to endow ownership of the land, instead preserving them for ‘private ownership but public access.’ more…
In the on-going conversation about sustainability, it’s easy to become a bunch of Dr No’s (don’t do this, don’t do that…), and pretty quickly the notion of environmental and social responsibilty becomes a negative movement. At Love Tomorrow Today, we’re driven by the idea of positive change and that substantive change takes hold one degree at a time. In the context of real life (life in the year 2008), it’s not realistic to trade in your lifestyle, but it can be easy to tweak it!
With that in mind, here’s a piece we saw on Earthfirst.com about how slowing down on the highway can be a simple green tweak, by reducing oil consumption by millions of barrels, and, oh by the way, it’s safer.
There’ll be plenty of beer consumed at next week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver. Not all of it will induce hangovers. A fleet of GM flex-fuel vehicles transporting delegates, members of the press and other convention guests will be running on clean-burning ethanol, derived from waste beer produced by MillerCoors. The program is the latest headline-grabber for the growing ethanol industry, but it also highlights the evolution of biofuel technology. As the debate continues about the merits of traditional corn-based ethanol, newer forms of ethanol are emerging. From waste beer to landfill waste, these newer forms of ethanol promise an environmental double, fuel that burns cleaner AND reduces waste.
Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, has announced its $10m investment in what it calls ‘the killer app of energy,’ developing geothermal technology that seeks to tap vast amounts of energy trapped in deep, underground hot rocks. The search-engine giant announced the investment as part of its drive to bring about renewable energy that is cheaper than coal, focusing on three main technologies: solar thermal power, which uses the sun’s heat to generate electricity; advanced wind technology; and, now, a way of tapping geothermal energy called enhanced geothermal systems, or EGS.
In a previous post, we mentioned how New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg has drafted some ambitious green initiatives, such as his mandate for an all-hybrid taxi fleet within three years. In another bold move, Bloomberg has announced plans to put wind turbines on the city’s bridges and skyscrapers, seeking to broaden New York’s renewable energy program. It’s a move that will stir debate within the city, and, if it’s successful, could have a major influence on the future of urban sustainable energy. more…
If you’re like me, you’ve found yourself in this situation: you’ve been exploring a new city as a tourist for a few days, your feet are beginning to kill, and you do what you swore you’d never consider- you shell out an arm and a leg to ride in a pedicab. No? Well, maybe the promise of a free ride that’s emissions-free will sway you next time. This past spring, the Dublin-based company, Ecocabs, began offering pedicab rides within the city center free of charge. Subsidized by sponsors seeking to promote their products in a new way and associate their brand with sustainabilty, these tricycle pedicabs have put a new spin on the old rickshaw. Since its debut in April, Ecocabs has been so successful that similar services have launched in other cities, including Berlin, Stockholm and Toronto, as cities and sponsors embrace the chance drive home a message of sustainability, convenience and reduced congestion.
As we detailed in a previous post, some big retailers are seeing the financial, environmental and PR advantages of investing in renewable energy, especially in the form of solar power. On a global scale, solar power is beginning to see its day in the sun, as ambitious schemes to build solar farms take hold. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) recently announced plans to build two enormous solar farms in California, with a combined output of a remarkable 800 megawatts, enough to power almost 250,000 homes. Smaller solar farms already provide power to places throughout Europe, as the E.U. continues to be at the forefront of solar technologies. As a recent article in The Guardian details, efforts are underway to build vast farms of solar panels in the Sahara desert that could provide clean electricity for the whole of Europe. more…
Editor’s Note: We particularly enjoy the insights and articles on worldchanging.com, a blog on sustainability and social innovation. Founder Alex Steffen leads a team of editors and writers that have helped put the site at the forefront of solution-based environmentalism. LoveTomorrowToday and WorldChanging share the view that a sustainably prosperous society is possible, one that relies on “new technology and improved design to live within the planet’s ecological limits while increasing the potential for economic growth, human social development and individual quality of life.”
WorldChanging.com recently asked its readers to imagine life in a post-green world, one in which sustainability has been achieved. The concept of a post-green world is thought-provoking and seems a futuristic fantasy, but, as the article suggests, arriving there requires the ability to first conceive of it. We’ve included the article here.
The sun is shining a little brighter on some of today’s largest retailers, as many of them are exploring the benefits of renewable energies like solar and wind power. Big players like Whole Foods, Ikea, Wal-Mart, Macy’s and Safeway have all started outfitting some of their locations with solar panels, boosting their eco-credentials as well as taking advantage of tax incentives. While generating electricity from solar panels remains considerably more expensive than from coal, tax provisions for renewable energy, tightening emissions control on coal and growing environmental concern on the part of consumers all suggest solar power can provide competitive advantages.
Our primary focus on this forum is the discussion of products and ideas that promote simple and realistic change in an individual’s life. But because we focus on everyday lifestyle choices, we also keep an eye trained on what major corporations are doing to be greener. In ‘State of Green Business 2008,’ Joel Makower and the editors of Greenbiz.com recently evaluated these efforts. As Makower explains,
The state of Green Business is improving, slowly but surely, as companies both large and small learn the value of integrating environmental thinking into their operations in ways that align with core business strategy and bottom-line goals. Green business has shifted from a movement to a market. But there is much much more to do.
Below are some excerpts from the interesting 65-page study.
A growing number of US cities are exploring streetcars as a way to revitalize local economies and reduce pollution. According to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), twenty-three cities have active streetcar systems, and more than half of them are planning extensions. As many as 70 others have considered streetcars of their own. Once considered quaint and out-dated, streetcars are popular again, thanks in part to rising gas prices, growing congestion and the systems’ potential environmental benefits.
On these pages, we track future ideas and innovations for enhancing sustainable lifestyles. In this post, we consider how the old streetcar- in its new 21st century form- might enable simple, sustainable change.
As Saqib Rahim writes for EarthNews, “these lines were sent into oblivion by buses and America’s car culture. But as America’s energy woes and climate problems mount, what goes around comes around. Rising gas prices are driving many motorists out of their cars.”
The good folks at Inhabitat.com, led by founder Jill Fehrenbacher, have rolled out their new site, Inhabitots.com, a blog devoted to sustainable design for the next generation. Highlighting new and innovative products and ideas for parents with babies and young children, Inhabitots will be “a resource for exploring and researching modern, sustainable, healthy design for kids,” including “interior design, furniture, clothes, toys, and green lifestyle choices to help benefit the little ones in our lives.”
On the eco-blogsphere and beyond, Inhabitat.com has become an important advocate of sustainable living, with it’s profiles on new technologies, innovative ideas and game-changing companies and individuals. As parents to young kids, we at LTT look forward to tracking the latest and greatest in green parenting! Thanks guys!
-Rich
Tracking the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’
Millions of pounds of our annual PET waste ends up in landfills. Much of it, however, finds it way through drains, into sewers and then into our oceans. A giant floating island of debris and waste twice the size of the state of Texas (roughly 80% of it made up of plastic bags) is being tracked by marine biologists drifting somewhere between San Francisco and Hawaii. Known as the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch,’ the mass of waste continues to grow, with circular currents and winds serving as the perfect conditions to trap debris.
In his piece in the SF Chronicle , detailing this ‘floating continent of trash,’ Justin Berton explains that scientists have been tracking the ‘Garbage Patch’ for ten years. “With the winds blowing in and the currents in the gyre going circular, it’s the perfect environment for trapping,” says one official. The patch has been growing, along with ocean debris worldwide, tenfold every decade since the 1950s, said Chris Parry, public education program manager with the California Coastal Commission in San Francisco. The report found that 80 percent of the oceans’ litter originated on land. While ships drop the occasional load of shoes or hockey gloves into the waters (sometimes on purpose and illegally), the vast majority of sea garbage begins its journey as onshore trash.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is particularly dangerous for birds and marine life, said Warner Chabot, vice president of the Ocean Conservancy. Sea turtles mistake clear plastic bags for jellyfish. Birds swoop down and swallow indigestible shards of plastic. The petroleum-based plastics take decades to break down, and as long as they float on the ocean’s surface, they can appear as feeding grounds. “These animals die because the plastic eventually fills their stomachs,” Chabot said. “It doesn’t pass, and they literally starve to death.” Check out Berton’s piece for more alarming details.
Is downloading music good for the environment? Is paying your bills online socially responsible? How green is your CD- compact disc and certificate of deposit? When we stop to consider the ‘ecological backpack’ of the CD (compact disc) and that little plastic jewel case, it might just be that downloading our favorite band’s greatest hits is the greenest way to grow our music library.
The German scientist Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek coined the phrase ‘ecological backpack’ to describe the overall environmental impact of a product. In a 2006 article in The Guardian, Leo Hickman explains:
“Similar in thinking to a person’s ecological footprint, [a product’s ecological backpack] is a measure used to calculate the amount of resources - fuel, minerals, water etc - that must “be moved” throughout the full lifespan of a product. For example, a 10-gram wedding ring has an ecological backpack of five tons, whereas a 3kg laptop has a backpack of about 400kg.”
As detailed on www.reusablebags.com
Facts and Figures on Plastic Bags
Top Facts - Consumption
is committed to developing products and ideas that enable a sustainable lifestyle. Our blog is a forum for ideas on simple change. On these pages, we’ll highlight innovative products, profile the efforts of difference makers and reflect upon the issues that will shape our tomorrow.
The name ‘Love Tomorrow Today’ reflects our philosophy that adaptable change, change that is both achievable and sustainable, happens one degree at a time and begins today. As we started exploring ways to develop products and ideas that enable a sustainable lifestyle, it became clear that there should be a forum for sharing our ideas and for shining a light on the ideas of others that have impressed and inspired us. more…
