While the question with solar is always “How much?” some nano-engineering students at RPI have developed an anti-reflective coating to make solar cells capture the full light spectrum - 96% to be precise - from all angles, sunrise to sunset. An amazing breakthrough, especially if it allows current panels to be upgraded, and be introduced into the market swiftly. Clean Technica call it a “solar power game changer.” Read more there:

Clean Technica - Rensselaer Researchers Nano-Engineer Solar to ‘Near Perfect’ Efficiency

Growing up in Queens, I loved sneakers before kids waited on line all night for them. And I have always worn Nikes. When Nike Considered launched, I was excited by the natural look, focus on impacts, and the process they went through developing them with Staple Design. It clearly didn’t catch, though, and Considered became more about the process, than the look, evidenced in the development of the Air Jordan XX3. Now, their focus is on all products being ‘Considered’ by 2020, including the first Considered running sneaker, the 25th Anniversary Air Pegasus, shown above. A lofty goal, one even Patagonia has struggled with. We’ll be watching.

Hypebeast - Nike 2009 Considered Design Program

Business Week - Patagonia’s Ongoing Recycling Program

With its bright lights and bustling of activity, Times Square is, in many ways, the energetic center of Manhattan, but it’s also its epicenter of consumption. Its mention wouldn’t necessarily make you think of the green revolution. But thanks to Ricoh Americas Corporation, the office supply and document-storage company, Times Square is about to get a bit greener. Ricoh is building a $3 million billboard on the northwest corner of Seventh Ave and 42nd Street that will be powered by the sun and wind.

The sign (pictured here in an artist’s rendering) will feature 16 wind turbines and 64 solar panels and will measure 126 feet wide and 47 feet high. Construction  is expected to begin later this month, with an official lighting ceremony scheduled for early December. According to the NY Times, the sign will likely cost Ricoh as much as $200,000 a month. But that cost is standard for such a prime location, and unlike the other billboards in Times Square, the payback will be quantifiable, “generating its own electricity — enough to light six homes for a year — the sign could save as much as $12,000 to $15,000 per month” and up to 18 tons of carbon a year. As Ron Potesky, a senior marketing VP for Ricoh explains, a the sign will serve as a message “to customers, other companies and the world that resources and energy can be used creatively. The point is that there are ways of being environmentally friendly to the planet, even on a billboard.”