We may be Macs at Love Tomorrow Today, but we’re quick to acknowledge that Apple doesn’t have a lock on innovation. IBM has unveiled a list of impressive innovations that could to change how people live, work and play in cities around the globe in the next decade. For this, our last post in this decade, we wanted to recognize IBM’s remarkable initiative to create “smarter cities.”

IBM officials point to an important milestone that the planet reached last year; for the first time in history, more people live in cities than in rural areas. An estimated 60 million people are moving to cities and urban areas each year – a staggering 1 million+ every week. Mindful of this unprecedented urbanization, IBM is working with cities to address increasing populations and deteriorating infrastructure, to make them smarter so they can sustain growth, be healthier, more efficient, less polluted. IBM is helping cities develop an infrastructure that resembles a living organism, one that can sense and respond quickly to incidents and save resources.

Earlier this year, we profiled the efforts of Amsterdam and Stockholm to become “smarter cities,” both working with IBM to create smart electricity grids, add smart meters and other broad and ambitious measures to reduce energy use throughout business, residential and public spaces.

As the former mayor of Denver, Wellington E. Webb, has said, “The 19th century was a century of empires. The 20th century was a century of nation states. The 21st century will be a century of cities.” Cities are complex systems of systems, and as our planet becomes more interconnected, more instrumented, we have an opportunity to connect these systems in intelligent ways that can improve our lives. It’s clear that IBM is leading those efforts.

Thanks for all the support this year, and, from those of us at LTT, here’s to a happy, healthy, innovative 2010!

For more on IBM’s effort, visit the company’s dynamic site The Smarter City.

Ford Fusion(Credit: CNET)

It’s a good news, bad news report from Ford. The company has reported strong numbers for its hybrid sales, up 67 percent this year, but the number only represents 2% of the car maker’s overall sales. The bump in hybrid sales comes amidst an overall industry slump of 11 percent.

Ford sold 31,000 hybrid cars through November, more than in any previous year. The Ford Fusion, which was released in March, represents 45% of all Ford hybrid sales for 2009. But as Sebastian Blanco explains on AutoBlogGreen, “this is great, but even in this down year, Ford sold over 1.4 million vehicles so far, making the hybrid portion decidedly tiny (about 2.1 percent).”

While innovative companies like Toyota and Honda have blazed a trail with hybrid technology, US car makers have been slower to stake a claim.

Ford is hedging its bet on future car technology, announcing it will only produce up to 2 million all-electric and gas-electric vehicles over the next 10 years. The car giant says its goal is to make between 10% and 25% of its fleet “electrified” by 2020.

Ford Fusion(Credit: AutoBlogGreen)

With a range that wide, you’d hardly call that a determined leap forward, but Nancy Gioia, Ford’s director of the newly created department of ‘global electrification,’ suggests that Ford will be ready for a plugged-in future. “We’ve finally demonstrated the technology, the life, the durability, the safety (of hybrids)–all of that has reached a comfort zone to make it viable. Now it’s going to be affordability that will drive mass market adoption,” she said.

As we wrote last year, a study by IBM’s Institute for Business Values predicts that by the year 2020 all new cars will be hybrids. Clearly, Ford didn’t get that memo.  It managed to avoid joining GM and Chrysler in the garbage heap and, to be fair, has done some things right recently. But hedging its bet on the technology of tomorrow seems a lost opportunity. Last year, Toyota announced that 100% of its fleet would be hybrid by 2020.

[Sources: CNET, AutoBlogGreen]

Seventh Generation, maker of household and personal-care products and a leader in corporate responsibility and sustainable business practices, has partnered with a leading global provider of educational services to individuals, schools and businesses, Kaplan EduNeering, to launch their new Sustainability Institute. The Kaplan EduNeering/Seventh Generation Sustainability Institute will provide business and governmental managers, employees, subcontractors and supply chain partners with best practices and specialized training in the development and implementation of sustainability initiatives.

“There is now compelling evidence that sustainable companies enjoy a competitive advantage over organizations that continue to embrace an exclusive focus on short term profits,” said Jeffrey Hollender, Executive Chairman of Seventh Generation. “That business paradigm is now seen as counterproductive, not only for society and the natural world but also for company stakeholders. Organizations are beginning to understand that responsible corporate behavior has become a business imperative and that it will only become increasingly more important in the future.”

Although recent studies confirm the belief among business professionals that environmental, social and governance activities create shareholder value and increase consumer loyalty, a study by MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group reports that only 30% of firms are implementing sustainability practices.

The Kaplan EduNeering/Seventh Generation Sustainability Institute provides:

•    An online library of courses, including Sustainability 101, Sustainable Supply Chain and Greenhouse Gas Management.  Each of these modules addresses one of the essential business practices in an effective sustainability program. The Sustainability Institute courses are also a good primer for companies seeking distribution with Wal-Mart and that must adhere to Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Index.   Kaplan EduNeering is a pioneer in online learning and has developed more than 4,000 custom courses and learning exercises for its clients and a library of 550 standardized compliance and regulatory courses.

•    Ten video modules for ongoing sustainability learning, with topics ranging from “Developing a Sustainability Mindset” to “Be Transparent.”  The video series includes five modules centered on sustainable business practices.  Each of these modules addresses one of the essential business practices in an effective sustainability program.  The videos feature Jeffrey Hollender, Seventh Generation’s co-founder and current Executive Chairman.  As the company’s Inspired Protagonist, Jeffrey has advised Fortune 500 companies and authored best-selling books including  How to Make the World a Better Place: A Guide for Doing Good and What Matters Most - How a small group of pioneers are teaching social responsibility to big business - and why big business is listening.  Jeffrey’s newest book, The Responsibility Revolution, is scheduled for publication in March 2010.

•    An online toolkit called the Sustainability Communication CoachSM (SCC), which includes articles, brochures, mini-training modules, case studies and other resources to develop and sustain an ongoing, enterprise-wide sustainability communications program. The SCC is modeled after Kaplan EduNeering’s widely used Ethics Communication CoachSM, which now includes 2,000 tools and celebrates its ten-year anniversary in 2009.

•    Optional services, including sustainability consulting, through Seventh Generation’s professional staff and an exam prep package for the LEEDv3 (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).  A Green Associate certificate awarded by the Green Building Council can be provided by Kaplan AE Education.

The holiday season always provides ad agencies and design firms a chance to exhibit their irreverent side. Creativity- if you don’t read it, bookmark now!- has collected some of the best ‘Christmas cards’ from the creative community. Our favorite is the above music video from SF-based Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. Other highlights from their list include Droga5, from Down Under, putting junior creative Baldrick in charge of writing his first creative brief, the agency’s Christmas card. Like an advent calendar, Baldrick posts a new idea each day until the 25th and solicits feedback from all. Also, London’s Lean Mean Fighting Machine sent a virtual radio including a playlist from staff members, and a slightly cringe-inducing parody of “Do They Know It’s Christmas Time” about social media.

For more, check out Creativity’s full list of picks.

Can a YouTube video help shape the debate surrounding Climate Change? The issue of whether climate change is caused by humans seems to provoke emotional responses from both sides. With deniers and doomsday predictors pitted against each other on cable news, the debate turns to feedback and white noise after a certain point. Greg Craven, author of the book “What the Worst That Could Happen? A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate,” presents the argument dispassionately, and his accompanying YouTube series might be able to do what Al Gore, for example, could not.

Two years ago, Craven, a high school science teacher, shot an online video he dubbed “The Most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See” offered as “a suggestion for how to cut through the shouting match and draw your own conclusion in the debate, without needing to decide which side to believe.” In two years, the video has been watched nearly 8,000,000 times, spawned 7 hours of follow-up videos, led to an offer for his own TV show (which he declined) and a book (which has been hailed as a ‘must read’ by the likes of Bill McKibben, Gen Anthony Zinni and others).

Watch for yourself, and let us know if you think Craven has a bulletproof approach. But more interesting, perhaps, is whether this “little YouTube video that could” might help shape the conversation.

When Nissan’s all-electric vehicle, the Leaf, arrives next year, the on-board communication system will help drivers locate charging stations. One of the challenges for the EV market has been the lack of infrastructure that could support widespread use and long distance travel. While efforts are being made to address the infrastructure issue- Better Place, in particular, has raised a remarkable $200+ million and partnered with governments and utilities to develop the necessary infrastructure and technology to make the electric vehicle a viable alternative to conventional (gas-guzzling) cars- the scarcity of charging stations will remain an issue in the near term. The Nissan Leaf may be the necessary stop gap until people like Better Place’s Shai Agassi can raise more money.

The Leaf’s communication module will connect via satellite to Nissan’s global data center. Similar to existing telematics systems, such as GM’s OnStar, the Leaf’s module will display usage, remaining battery life, the location of charging stations and which stations are within range. If the driver sees the battery is low on power, he can put the car into “limp” mode, so it drives at the most-efficient speed to ensure maximum range.

Once at a charging station- at least one that is equipped with high-voltage plugs- the recharge will take as much as 30 minutes, an eternity compared to a conventional fill up. Recharges at home will take 16 hours, based on voltages available in the U.S. or Japan.

Could telematic systems be the answer to the infrastructure question? Nissan is counting on it. “Most people think that the charging infrastructure is the Achilles’ heel of an electric vehicle project. But it’s really not,” says Mark Perry, Nissan’s director of product planning and advanced technology strategy. “We are doing this to address peace of mind. We think people will recharge at home 80 percent of the time. But this lets people feel comfortable with the what-ifs,” he added.

[Source: Technology Review]

The Super Bowl will have a different feel this year. No, we think the AFC will win again this year (the NFC has only won 3 times this decade). The big change, of course, will be that Pepsi is scrapping its entire Super Bowl advertising budget to focus on the new Pepsi Refresh Project. It’s a bold strategy that has the ad world and blogsphere atwitter. Pepsi has earmarked $20 million of its ad dollars to go, instead, towards grants for community-based projects proposed and selected by consumers. as part of the Refresh Project.

The bev giant, the largest advertiser in last year’s Super Bowl, will focus less on a singular event and more on cause-related marketing. Pepsi has also increased their online advertising budget by 60% for 2010.

If Pepsi succeeds, cause-related marketing could well be the next trend, a natural marriage of the corporate responsibility movement and the interactive power of social media. Pepsi has a long record of achievements in both areas, so we’ll be interested to see how the Refresh campaign plays out.

[Sources: PSFK, Wall Street Journal]

Earlier this year, we wrote about how US Air Force Academy cadets were designing more fuel efficient wings for the massive KC-135R air tanker. Meanwhile, the Korean Air Force Academy is doing some innovating of its own, announcing that its cadets have developed a pedal-powered aircraft. Dubbed the Sky Runner, the airplane weighs in under 100 lbs, has a wingspan of roughly 100 feet and is a propeller craft that is to be pedaled during take-off and flight.

During its early test flights, the Sky Runner flew up to 500 feet, which the team apparently accepts is inadequate, but they contend the distances will improve “through systematic pilot training.”

The developers suggest the pilot needs to pedal fast enough to generate roughly 0.3 horsepower to keep the plane flying up to 1.2 miles. That’s some serious pedaling, though, in fairness, no one is quite sure how much power a horse would actually produce on a bicycle.

The Air Force Academy says the project has cost about $290,000 and makes South Korea the world’s fifth country to fly a human-powered aircraft.

[Sources: EcoFriend, Hanopolis]

Unnerved by the sight of post-Christmas trees heading en masse to the wood chipper, Scott Martin, Los Angeles-based landscape architect, saw a business opportunity and a chance to make Christmas a little greener. As Jennifer Steinhauer explains in her NY Times piece- Business Delivers Christmas Trees For Rent- Martin’s “new business is delivering live, potted Christmas trees that are taken away once the toys have been unwrapped and, possibly, already broken, and the New Year’s confetti has been swept away.”

Rentable Christmas trees is not an entirely new concept, especially in eco-minded cities (Portland, Oregon, for one), but, as Martin tells Steinhauer, the idea is a perfect match for Los Angeles, “where Christmas trees have’an image issue,’ and escaping a drive through traffic with a tree strapped to a car roof is especially welcome.”

Steinhauer writes,

To rent a tree, a customer visits his Web site, www.livingchristmas.com, picks out a tree from among several varieties and then awaits delivery. Delivery days are determined by geography, to save time and gas. Prices range from $50, for a two-to-three-foot number, up to $185 for something considerably bigger. While two weeks is the recommended length of stay for a live tree in a house, Mr. Martin lets his customers keep them for three weeks.

The tree is then picked up to join its evergreen cousins; they will summer together on industrial properties where Mr. Martin rents space for pennies on the dollar to house his inventory. People who want the same tree next year ask for the tree to be tagged with their name, so it might return next December, taller.

Extra-credit groovy points: The delivery trucks run on biodiesel; the trees are cared for by adults with disabilities; the drivers will pick up donations for Goodwill and used wrapping paper for recycling; and his Web site also sells eco-friendly, fair trade ornaments.

[Source: NY Times]

LA Metro: Promoting Mass Transit from EMBARQ Network on Vimeo.

When Los Angeles Metro set about trying to make Mass Transit more relevant in a car crazy city, it did something no other transit agency in the country has ever done: it created an in-house ad agency to launch an ambitious new rebranding effort. The above video, shot by Emily Calderone and posted by EMBARQ (an organization focused on supporting sustainable transport solutions in cities), details how those efforts are beginning to pay off.

In Eat Big Fish marketing terms, the villains were clear: the stress and expense of owning/operating a car, the inconvenience of getting snared in the web of the city’s absurd traffic, and some of the worst pollution anywhere in the United States. Ads proposed Mass Transit as the hero, the solution to all these stresses. Matt Raymond, the Chief Communications Officer for Metro, tells Embarq that the creative services department’s job was also “to make public transportation cool.” So buses were repainted vibrant fun colors (California Poppy, or, to you and me, orange) and Metro purchased space its playful billboard campaign.

Raymond suggests that the Creative Services division of Metro was instrumental in the success of Measure R, a 1/2 cent sales tax that is expected to generate 40 billion dollars over the next 30 years for improving transit services in LA. To get the 2/3 vote required, Metro convinced the vast majority of Angelinos, most of whom commute by private car, that they should pay for transit out of their own pockets.

In the video, Clayton Lane from Embarq poses an interesting question- if the auto industry spends $20 billion a year promoting their products, what if transit agencies spent a similar amount promoting mass transit? The early successes of LA Metro provide a tantalizing view of that potential and also speak to the power of innovative marketing.

[Source: Embarq]

During the dog days of the most recent Presidential campaign, CNN partnered with YouTube to solicit questions from YouTubers for it’s televised debate between the sparring candidates. During the campaign, CNN also introduced the Wolf Blitzer/Darth Sidius hologram machine, but we digress. CNN and YouTube are at it again, this time providing viewers an opportunity to pose questions to world leaders at the COP15 climate conference in Copenhagen. As part of a live CNN debate on December 15, viewers can submit recorded questions to be aired to a collection of world leaders and influencers attending the climate change conference in Copenhagen. Submit your own at youtube.com/cop15.

[Sources: GOOD, CNN, YouTube]

It’s that time of year again- when “Top lists” and “Best Picks” start popping up. We actually like sifting through those things, but we’ll forgive you for having “List” overload. One list we do recommend is the NY Times annual “Year In Ideas” list. The Times Magazines looks back on the past year for the most compelling ideas. For a recap of 2008, check our post from this time last year.

The Times presents the list “from A to Z, the most clever, important, silly and just plain weird innovations we carried back from all corners of the thinking world.”

On the list this year, and starting from the top, is the advertisement that watches you, designed by the Hamburg-based firm Jung von Matt (which bills itself as being in the business of “attention warfare”). The ad, for Amnesty International, uses face-tracking software with a working range of about 16 feet to modify the ad and react to passersby. A Potsdam company called Vis-à-pix created the technology and says the technology has been improved. “New posters can even identify the sex of onlookers. Consider a poster created for the service counters of the rental-car company Sixt: when a man gets close, he is tempted with an image of a limousine; if the customer is a woman, she sees, instead, a spunky Cabriolet.”

Another idea that made the list, the Hourglass Surfboard, a new take the classic longboard whose shape has changed little since surfing was invented by the ancient Hawaiians. But Swedish designer Thomas Meyerhoffer has introduced a new design, with a corseted waist and a narrow tail, with a bottom that is more deeply contoured than a typical board. All that curvaceousness is meant to lend the maneuverability of the shortboard, typically ridden by skilled surfers, to the more stable longboard. For more on the board and NY Times “Year In Ideas,” click here.

[Source: NYT]

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

It’s nice to be reminded that we’re smarter than we know. In the above clip, from this year’s World Science Festival, Bobby McFerrin demonstrates an unexpected shared understanding of music theory. The pentatonic scale, he shows, is something we know, even if it’s not something we know we know. The demonstration shows the audience can recreate the scale even when the exercise goes beyond the explained instructions.

What other knowledge do we have lurking in our subconscious that might be worth exposing?

The presentation was part of the “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus” event which took place on June 12, 2009.

[Sources: DesignVerb, PSFK, The Rumpus]

Anyone who has traveled overseas knows there is a dizzying amount of power outlet configurations. Why? I’m sure there’s a number of perfectly reasonable explanations- but, seriously, can’t we all just get along? It’s also a technology that, at least in this country, hasn’t seen a great deal of updating. The three-pronged plug was patented in 1928, eventhough it didn’t become standard until about 20 years ago. It’s time for another update, and the good people at FastMac are presenting this step forward: the dual-port power-outlet with USB.

The USB outlet will include 2 sockets for USB cables and will be available from FastMac for $9.95 as early as Q1 next year. FastMac explains the port’s conservation of energy:

The USB ports only draw power when something is physically connected to the port. We didn’t want a vampire port that continually sucks and wastes power when not in use so this was one of the features on the top of our priority list during the design phase.

The USB ports will be able to charge mobile phones, iPods, iPhones, PDAs, MP3 players, PSPs, & digital camera.

Also check out our post from June of this year on John La Grou’s “intelligent electrical outlet.”

[Sources: FastMac, PSFK]

Much of what we do at Love Tomorrow Today is fixated on this tenuous and irrepressible marriage between science and design. Can we make something better? Better for convenience? Better for the planet? The art of improving the things around us relies on this back and forth between scientists and artists. In the above clip, MOMA design curator Paola Antonelli provides a fascinating preview of her museum’s latest show “Design and the Elastic Mind” and explains that this relationship is a vital as ever.

Antonelli begins by explaining this concept of the ‘elastic mind,’ one that can process a multitude of ideas. She sets up this divide between the elasticity of the modern (multi-tasking) mind on one side and the malaise of the mind resistant to change (her father, as an example, who refuses to embrace the internet).

The advent of “nano technology,” she suggests, has strengthened this link between science and art. Conceptual technology and nano physics has brought scientists into the realm of designers, and vice versa, and that collaboration is yielding some remarkable results- some of which she references in the 17 minute presentation.

Information Design, as an example, presents data in such a way that the aesthetic of science is visible.  The term has come to be used specifically for graphic design displaying information effectively, rather than just attractively or for artistic expression. Another example, so-called ‘Existenzmaximum,’ sees design and technology working together to change the way we perceive reality. Consider, she explains, how you can be in a crowded subway, but thanks to the design and functionality of your iPod, you can virtually experience a sort of isolation, almost enjoying your own physical space.

A fascinating look at the connectivity of science and design. For more, visit TED.

We’ve been loving the newly launched 20,000 Songs blog, started by musician/teacher/writer Jeff Symonds last week. Over the last year, Symonds has been whittling his massive music collection down to the essentials, trying to build the perfect iPod. He went through every album he owned (at 750 Gigs worth of mp3s, quite a collection), every “Top” list he could read and revisited albums he hadn’t heard or had summarily rejected. The result? The definitive music collection, 20,000 songs he thinks everyone should hear.

He explains, “I’m pretty confident that I’ve given just about every major or minor band a considered listen” and “very carefully loaded and edited down a 160GB iPod with every single song I’ve ever liked. This project is the result. I’m going to let fate (or at least iPod shuffle) guide me as I lead you through my list of the very best music released in the last 100 years. Consider this blog a series of letters from one music lover to another– you gotta hear this stuff.”

With only a week’s worth of entries so far, we can already tell this will be a journey worth taking. Symonds blends an encyclopedic (Rain Main-esque) knowledge of music, hilarious personal anecdotes and the context that only a musician can provide, all to great effect.

What has this got to do with anything? Nothing, but we love it!

Ben Gulak with The Uno on Dragon’s Den from Mariusz on Vimeo.

This does not look safe. But it’s green (or greenish), and, if you’re looking for a crotch rocket that says “I’m on the cutting edge and I love the environment,” this “motorUnicycle” has your name on it!

From BPG Motors, the Uno, part Segway, part high performance motorcycle, has two wheels side by side, rather than front and back. From the mind of Ben Gulak, designer/founder of BPG Motors and a student at MIT, the Uno weighs about 120 lbs and runs for about 2.5 hours on an electric motor. Gulak has won numerous science and design awards in his native Canada, and the Uno was selected by Popular Science Magazine as one of the Top 10 Inventions for 2008, appearing on the cover in June 2008. The same year, Gulak was named as one of Canada’s “Top 20 Under 20.”

Gulak says he designed the Uno after a 2006 trip to China with his father on a business trip. When he saw the incredible pollution in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, much of it produced by smoky two-stroke scooters and motorcycles, he knew that electrics would make ideal substitutes—if they were cool. There, of course, have been electric motorcycles and scooters before (some of which we’ve profiled on this site), but this may be the most interesting.

[Sources: UNO, GreenUpgrader]

What are the secrets to being a great innovator? According to a study published in this month’s Harvard Business Review, researchers have identified five key traits for coming up with game-changing ideas: associating, questioning, observing, experimenting and discovering.

A group of professors from Harvard Business School, Insead and Brigham Young University recently completed a six-year study of more than 3,000 executives and 500 innovative entrepreneurs to determine some commonalities. In essence,  the study asks what makes people like Apple’s Steve Jobs, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Ebay’s Pierre Omidyar and Dell’s Michael Dell tick?

One of the men behind the study, Insead’s Hal Gregersen, told CNN, “What the innovators have in common is that they can put together ideas and information in unique combinations that nobody else has quite put together before.” The researchers call this first skill “associating.” Jeff Dyer of BYU explains, “it’s a cognitive skill that allows creative people to make connections across seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas.”

Dyer continues,

The second skill is questioning — an ability to ask “what if”, “why”, and “why not” questions that challenge the status quo and open up the bigger picture. The third is the ability to closely observe details, particularly the details of people’s behavior. Another skill is the ability to experiment — the people we studied are always trying on new experiences and exploring new worlds. And finally, they are really good at networking with smart people who have little in common with them, but from whom they can learn.

The researchers suggest these traits are largely learned and acquired, rather than innate, and, they say, anyone can become a better innovator. Gregersen proposes that the ability to think differently comes from the ability to act differently.

Here are “five keys to innovation” according to the study:

FIVE KEYS TO INNOVATION

Researchers say they have identified five skills that drive innovation:

Associating: The ability to connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas from different fields.

Questioning: Innovators constantly ask questions that challenge the common wisdom. They ask “why?”, “why not?” and “what if?”

Observing: Discovery-driven executives scrutinize common phenomena, particularly the behavior of potential customers.

Experimenting: Innovative entrepreneurs actively try out new ideas by creating prototypes and launching pilots.

Networking: innovators go out of their way to meet people with different ideas and perspectives

[Sources: CNN, HBR]

We actually think this was a brilliant bit of marketing from the folks at Chevy. The car maker held a contest to name the Volt’s lead paint color, and David Thomas, 40, of Sanford, FLA provided the winning name, “Viridian Joule.”

About 27,000 people- or half of all visitors to www.chevroletvoltage.com during the two week entry period- submitted a color name. Chevy narrowed the field to three finalists, judging them on originality, creativity and “the ability to capture the innovation and spirit of the Volt.”

As for the winning name, what inspired Thomas to come up with ‘Viridian Joule?’

“I looked at the photo of the Volt on the contest web site and thought it looked emerald in color, which led to jewel and then to an alternate yet appropriate play on that word - joule (a unit of electrical energy),” said Thomas.

It was no runaway victory for Thomas, with only 300 votes separating ‘Viridian Joule’ from the second-place entry, “environMINT.” The third place finalist washe company named “EV-ergreen.”

“This was a fun way to engage Chevrolet and Volt enthusiasts by inviting them into the process and naming our lead color, and the name reflects the innovation of the Volt’s extended-range technology,” said Maria Rohrer, Global Volt and Global Marketing Director at Chevrolet. “When our Volt marketing materials arrive in dealerships, you’ll see “Viridian Joule” as the official name of the silver exterior with an emerald hue.”

[Source: PRNewswire]

Copenhagen is dreaming of a green Christmas this year. As it prepares to host the highly anticipated international climate change conference (some have called it the most important meeting in the planet’s history), the city is relying on volunteers to pedal-power the traditional Christmas tree in City Hall Square.

Fifteen bicycles encircle the large tree, and, when pedaled, will provide the power for the 700 LED light bulbs on the tree.

During the lighting ceremony this past weekend, a group of children, the city’s mayor, and a handful of international VIPs pedaled together to power the Christmas lights.

For more on the conference- and the host city- read some of our previous posts.

[Source: CNET]

Over the summer, New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg outlined a 33-point plan to improve the MTA’s efficiency (making crosstown buses free, installing “countdown clocks” on subway platforms, creating integrated and contactless “smart cards” for transit riders…). The MTA has now announced plans for more improvements to its bus system.

The MTA will purchase super-stretch buses and will create dedicated bus lanes on First and Second Avenues. Borrowing some bright ideas from the successful TransMilenio bus system of Bogotá- read our profile of TransMilenio from July- the MTA will install curbside MetroCard readers, allowing riders to swipe their cards at bus stops, helping to speed up the boarding process. The city also plans to revamp streets to be “generally more friendly towards pedestrians, buses and bikers.” Included in the proposal is mention of a wireless technology to change red traffic signals green when the bus approaches an intersection.

[Sources: PSFK, NY Daily News]

Time again to give thanks- should there really only be one day set aside for that?- and we’re certainly grateful for the tremendous feedback we’ve received since launching Love Tomorrow Today. As always, we invite you to let us know about programs and people making a difference or tips to incorporating simple change into our daily lives.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! This weekend, remember to reduce, recycle, reuse and…relax! Don’t forget, eating leftovers (delicious, food coma-inducing leftovers) is good for the planet!

[this is a recycled post]