One of our favorite companies is at it again! Better Place, the Palo Alto-based company focused on developing ‘electric highway networks,’ will now be partnering with Hawaii to make mass adoption of electric vehicles powered by renewable energy a reality in the state by 2012. Hawaii becomes the fifth market in the world (along with Israel, Denmark, Australia and the San Francisco Bay Area) to recognize that, before the electric vehicle can be a viable alternative to dirty technologies, we need a green infrastructure that can support its use.

Also this week, Better Place announced an agreement with the Japanese government to develop a pilot project there in collaboration with Japanese automakers.

As Tom Friedman suggests in his latest NY Times column, the fact that we’re seeing this sort of innovation  in places other than Detroit only proves that “whatever can be done, will be done. The only question is will it be done by you or to you. Just don’t think it won’t be done.”

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Sisters are doing it for themselves! The Benedictine nuns of the Convention of Our Lady of Consolation are leaving their historic home, Stanbrook Abbey (pictured here), in favor of a more eco-friendly monastery. Built from “responsibly-sourced” timber, and utilizing recycled rainwater and solar panels, the new abbey will be located in the North York Moors national park, in the north of England. In recent years, the Church has been more vocal on issues of environmental stewardship. Earlier this year, the Vatican installed 2700 solar panels, in its effort to become the first carbon neutral state.

For the 24 nuns of Stanbrook Abbey, leaving the order’s home of 170 years and the impressive 50,000 volume library makes both financial and environmental sense. According to Dame Andrea Savage, the abbess (head nun) of Stanbrook, the wastefulness that comes with caring for the 79,000 square feet complex [that's about 3300 square feet per nun] and its 22 acre grounds posed a threat to the environment and their austere lifestyle.

Stanbrook is on the market for $8 million, a sum that may go some distance to paying for the Sisters’ new eco-monastery.

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