The Anheuser-Busch brewery in Houston, TX will have 55% of it energy needs met from landfill biogas. It’s a big move for the country’s leading brewer- AB holds a 49.2% share of U.S. beer sales and is a subsidiary of the world’s leading brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev- and, if the program is a success, could bring the entire industry along with it. Landfill biogas consists of roughly 50% methane, a green house gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and is created when organic material decomposes in landfills. It can be converted into alternative fuels, heat, steam or used to generate electricity.

The project is a partnership between the brewery, Republic Services (a leading provider of solid waste collection) and Ameresco Services (the largest independent energy services company in North America). Pipelines connect the brewery to McCarty Road Landfill, the main recipient of refuse from the residents and businesses in east Houston and surrounding suburbs.

In the project’s press release, AB explains, “the benefit of this clean energy project is equivalent to planting more than 121,050 acres of pine or fir trees or taking 97,550 motor vehicles off the road. Additional gas from the McCarty Road landfill also is captured, processed and sold to a local utility.”

Check out our previous posts on various green initiatives by brewers.

[source: Anheuser-Busch, PR Newswire]

In a presentation at TED in January (but published earlier this month), Kevin Surace, CEO of Serious Materials, discusses his company’s (potentially) world-changing invention, a new eco-friendly drywall material. He introduces EcoRock, a clean, recyclable and energy-efficient drywall created by his team at Serious Materials and explains why it can make such a difference.

As he explains, 52% of the world’s CO2 emissions is tied to building construction. In fact, the CO2 emissions from just one house are the equivalent to driving your car around the planet six times. With that in mind, Serious Materials began R&D to develop a new type of drywall that could dramatically reduce those emissions. After testing 5,000 different mixes, Surace’s team hit upon a winning formula. Popular Science magazine named EcoRock ‘Green Product of the Year,’ for its re-invention of drywall.

As the company explains,

Traditional gypsum drywall has remained virtually unchanged since its invention over 100 years ago.  Our increasingly fragile world requires rapid innovation to meet the changing conditions of our environment.  EcoRock is an evolutionary leap in drywall— an advanced solution that offers superior performance today, without sacrificing the prosperity of tomorrow.  We call this ecolution.

It’s Cradle to Cradle Gold certfied, uses 80% less energy to produce gypsum drywall, is made of 80% recycled materials and is designed to be entirely re-utilized at the end of its life. Bring on more ecolution!

Aveda just added to its considerable green credentials. The MN-based manufacturer of skin and hair care products has announced a new recycling initiative aimed at reducing the number of plastic bottle caps that end up in landfills, beaches, rivers and oceans.

Most bottle caps are non-recyclable, typically made from a more rigid type of plastic that is different from the bottle itself. But with the help of its network of salons and stores and in partnership with community schools, Aveda is seeking to collect these old caps that would otherwise be thrown away. The company will send the collected caps to its recycler where the material will be recycled into new caps and containers. Not all lids make the grade- “if you can bend or break the lid with your bare hands,” Aveda’s site explains, “then it does not meet the rigid plastic definition.”

Aveda has been a leader in sustainable innovation. Earlier this year, seven Aveda products were given Cradle To Cradle certification. The company also recently received a DuPont Award For Packaging Innovation for a shampoo bottle made from 96% recycled content.

[sources: Aveda}

PepsiCo this week opened its first overseas “green” plant in China in the western city of Chongqing, part of the beverage giant’s continuing efforts to expand its reach in emerging markets, broaden its portfolio of locally relevant products and achieve a range of ambitious sustainability goals.

The Chongqing plant is the first “green” beverage plant ever built in China - and the first plant of any kind in the industrial center of Chongqing- to comply with rigorous LEED standards. The plant uses over 35 water and energy saving designs and utilizes the world’s most advanced technology, including an environmental management system that monitors water and energy use on every production line and every piece of individual equipment in real time.

The facility is designed to use 22% less water and 23% less energy than the average PepsiCo plant in China. To save water, the plant utilizes a high-pressure cleaning system, water-free conveyor belt lubricant and water-saving fixtures. Plant associates re-use water for landscaping and general cleaning instead of using potable water. To save energy, 75% of the plant’s indoor areas feature natural lighting, including a skylight in the packing area and warehouse. A roof garden insulates the office building and saves energy for cooling and heating.

The new plant is expected to help PepsiCo annually reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3,100 tons; water usage by 100,000 tons; and overall energy use by four million kilowatt hours compared to the former Chongqing plant. It also will serve as an educational center to raise awareness of good environmental practices among students in the local community.

“This plant reflects our deep and long-term commitment to China,” said Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo chairman and chief executive officer. “It is also an important milestone in our green journey, on which we are partnering with the Chinese government, industry and others to continue to promote the health and longevity of our planet.”

[sources: PepsiCo, PR Newswire]

Has the credit crunch got you cutting up and throwing out your oversized collection of credit cards? Does your tight budget have you staying in at night and playing guitar at home? A company called PickPunch may have the gadget for you! The Indiana-based company has developed a hand held punching device that allows you to make your own guitar picks out of old credit cards.

Maybe the folks at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have been watching Mark Wahlberg’s 2003 remake of The Italian Job* (with all those great car chases through LA’s subway tunnels and viaducts), or maybe it’s the sweet deal they were able to arrange with BMW (ten bucks a month!). Under a test program approved last week by the County Board of Supervisors, LA County sheriffs will get 17 electric-powered minis and electric charging stations.

“It’s clean-energy, it’s cost-effective and it could prove to be a boon for the county,” says Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore. As Andrew Blankstein explains in his piece for the LA Times, “the cars are being donated by Mini U.S.A., a subsidiary of BMW, and will cost the department a $10-a-month processing fee. Maintenance of the vehicles and charging stations will be covered by BMW. A lease for the car typically runs $850 a month.” In return, the car company is looking for “feedback” about the program.

In the land of crazy freeway chases (OJ, anyone?), it’s good to see a little bit of sanity.

*check out Michael Caine’s original, also with Mini Cooper car chases.

[Sources: LA Times,via Gas 2.0]

The San Francisco Bay Area has always been one of the country’s testing ground for cultural ideas, from Flower Power to solar power, and, in recent years, Mayor Gavin Newsom has positioned San Francisco as the unrivaled leader in green progressiveness. Yesterday, Newsom signed a new rule requiring residents to separate trash, recyclables and compost or face fines. The new rule, due to go into effect this fall, is thought to be the most comprehensive recycling and composting legislation in the country.

In a piece for the Huffington Post, Newsom explains,

“a number of years ago, San Francisco set a lofty green goal–we wanted to divert 75 percent of our resources from the landfill by 2010 and achieve zero waste by 2020. At the time, many people thought our targets were overly ambitious. However, San Francisco is poised to meet these goals. We are currently keeping 72 percent of recyclable material out of our landfill.

We recently conducted a waste-stream analysis and discovered that about two thirds of the garbage people throw away–half a million tons each year–could have been recycled or turned to compost. If we were able to capture everything, we’d be recycling 90 percent–preventing additional waste material from going to the landfill, and creating hundreds of green-collar jobs.

San Francisco already converts over 400 tons of food scraps and other compostable discards into high-grade organic compost every day. It’s so nutrient-rich that the final product is almost jet black in color. It’s snapped up by farms and vineyards across the Bay Area, we can barely keep up with the demand. By requiring all residents and businesses to compost, we’ll increase the amount of “black gold” available for sustainable regional agriculture and improve our environment…

I believe that composting will become second nature for Americans, just like sorting bottles and paper. It will take time, but I believe mandatory composting will spread across the country–improving the air we breathe and reducing our need for landfills.”

San Francisco already offers composting pickup service, even that is something few cities in the U.S. provide, and the new regulations making composting mandatory goes a big step further. Whether mandatory composting will trend like recycling has in most cities remains to be seen, but we’re curious to see which cities will be next. Burlington? Boulder? Austin? Portland?

Read more at the city’s recycling programs site - www.sfenvironment.org/.

We had the chance to spend some time at a remarkable new development in Hinesburg, Vermont, where contractor Chuck Reiss (Reiss Building & Renovation) and architect Rolf Kielman (Truex Cullins & Partners) are leading the way in building tomorrow’s homes today. Set on 24 acres of prime agricultural land on the outskirts of town (not far from Burlington), the South Farm homes have been designed and built to be “net zero,” meaning they will produce all the energy they need on site.

The land was bought in partnership by Vermont Building Resources (which Reiss formed along with a limited pool of like-minded investors) and the Russell Family Farm, and the goal was to ensure a modest but responsible development of this 24 acre parcel. Fourteen acres were set aside for continued farming, while a cluster of six passive/active solar homes was built on a portion of the land’s southern facing slope.

As Kielman points out, the principle of orienting a home on a piece of land to maximize efficiency is not a new concept. “You can go back to some of the basic principles involved in Greek town planning,” Kielman says, “you go to Delphi for example…all these Greek communities sit in these south facing bowls…and this was a perfect south facing bowl,…we could shelve all of these houses into the hillside, put most of the glass to the southside,…it’s a little like a tree, the way it sort of searches for the sunlight to sustain itself.”

Beyond positioning, Reiss and Kielman had to consider a range of factors to help reduce the homes’ overall energy load, including tightening the envelopes (limiting the homes to 1500-2000 square feet), using locally sourced materials where possible and introducing triple pane windows. Other environmental features include geo-thermal heating, radiant concrete floors, super insulated walls and roofs, active PV solar panels and significant south facing glass, which provides solar gain and great views down the valley.

The homes have been certified by the Vermont Builds Green program, which recognized the development’s conservation of agricultural soils and wetlands, location within 3 miles of a school and food store, building design (built into the hillside and with a roof oriented for maximum solar exposure) and its energy rating.

The homes will actually produce more energy than they use, making them each a little utility company.
“Green Mountain Power charges 13 cents per kilowatt hour,” Reiss explains. “It buys back electricity at 6 cents above that rate,…and when rates go up, the house earns more.”

“One of our goals was to say, ‘look, you can do this. This is not something that’s happening in the future.” I personally feel if we can demonstrate that with a subdivision of six homes, I don’t see why we’re building any other way.”

For more, check out the project’s brochure.

View the video on youtube or vimeo.

Being that it’s June 18th, which, as every Beatles nut such as myself knows, is Sir Paul McCartney’s birthday (67 years old today), we thought we’d give the poor man some press. The former Beatle (and vegetarian/animal rights activist) has launched “Meat Free Mondays,” in hopes of convincing people to give up eating meat one day a week. The initiative, which he created with his daughters Stella (fashion designer) and Mary (photographer), is aimed at reducing the significant amounts of carbon emissions related to the meat industry (from livestock gas to the gas used to transport the food).

As McCartney explains, “a couple of years ago the United Nations came out with a report that said for people to eat less meat would have a big impact on the environment. It’s all got a bit out of hand and I think people want to do their bit to bring it back into line, and this is an answer we’ve got involved in.”

Apparently, the McCartneys have stolen someone else’s thunder in the process. Chantal Cooke, co-founder of Passion for the Planet, had been preparing his July ‘09 launch of “Meat Free Days” for over 12 months with exactly the same aim. “Meat Free Mondays” launched two weeks ahead of Cooke’s initiative.  As Cooke explained, “it’s one of those weird situations where you are both pleased and fed up at the same time. I am thrilled that someone with the profile of Sir Paul is supporting the idea of having a meat free day,… [but] I can’t help but feel a bit deflated that a year’s worth of work has to be binned.”

As the “mother nature’s son” might himself say, ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on.

Jim Stevens/McClatchy Newspapers

Countless people buy homes for the location and tear down the existing structures before starting from scratch. But I’m guessing not too many of them get a $100,000 write-off for doing it, but that’s exactly what Mike and Tricia Barry received when they decided to recycle the materials rather than send them all to a landfill. The Barrys, of Danville, CA, took down their home piece by piece and, with the help of California Deconstruction and Building Materials ReUse Network, donated the materials to non-profits like Habitat for Humanity of the East Bay. An estimated 80 to 85% of the house was reused- “wood, windows, appliances, flooring, roofing and even the nails,” even the plumbing, bricks and interior fixtures.

As Laura Casey writes in her piece for The Seattle Times, deconstruction takes about two weeks longer than demolition, and, in the case of the Barrys, the difference in cost was smaller than you might imagine. The Barrys were looking at about a $14,000 demolition bill, and the cost of deconstruction was about $23,000, not counting the sizable tax write-off. Oh, and the feeling of not sending another old house-worth of materials to a landfill.

[source: Laura Casey/Contra Costa Times]

When someone shows a talent for gardening, we say they have a green thumb. But many of the tools we use to keep a garden manicured, from weedkiller to gas-powered mowers and blowers, are anything but green. There are sites that provide some useful tips for more eco-friendly gardening, but, really, how many people will turn in their riding mower for a push mower? 

While production might be five years away, Husqvarna has unveilved a concept riding lawn mower that runs entirely on electricity and just might put the green back in gardening. The Panthera Leo runs on a lithium phosphate battery and can provide two hours of cutting time. The mower has five motors and is fitted with sound-absorbing cutting decks to minimize the noise. That’s good the planet and your neighbors!

[sources: Husqvarna, via CarTech Blog]

Ramping up its commitment to sustainability efforts enterprise-wide, Dunkin’ Brands, Inc., the parent company of Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins, is the newest member to join the Ceres company network. Ceres, a leading coalition of investors, environmental groups and public interest organizations, works with companies to address a variety of sustainability challenges, including global climate change.

“Dunkin’ Brands has demonstrated positive steps towards creating an effective sustainability program,” said Ceres president Mindy Lubber. “There are significant opportunities for the company to integrate sustainability throughout its business and Ceres is excited to work with Dunkin’ Brands to help advance its social and environmental efforts.”

“We look forward to working with Ceres as we continue to build on our existing corporate social responsibility and sustainability program achievements,” said Nigel Travis, Dunkin’ Brands Chief Executive Officer.  “As we grow both domestically and internationally, our partnership with Ceres will be an integral component in further developing and delivering on our commitment to social and environmental goals.”

In a piece last year about the company’s growing effort to go green, we wrote, “Dunkin’ Donuts boasts tremendous brand loyalty and, subsequently, has the opportunity to bring a genuine eco-message to a broad customer base.” With more than 14,800 points of distribution in 44 countries worldwide, 8,835 Dunkin’ Donuts franchised restaurants and 6,013 Baskin-Robbins franchised restaurants, Dunkin’ has the opportunity to not only affect change but spread an important message of sustainability to their suppliers and brand loyalists.

Amsterdam has long been one of Europe’s most progressive cities. The Dutch capital is known for its Red-Light District, its museums, cannabis, canals and cobble stones. Soon it might be known for something else entirely- being Europe’s first “smart city.”

The city has begun a process of modernizing its infrastructure, adding 300 power hookups around the city to recharge electric cars, installing solar panels on bus stops and historic 17th century townhouses alike. While other cities (most notably Stockholm) are aiming to become “smart cities,” investing in renewable technologies and adopting stiff emission controls, Amsterdam is the poster child.

This month, the first 1200 homes were fitted with smart meter systems from IBM and Cisco. Some were provided financing from local banks, including ING and Rabobank, to retrofit their homes with cost/energy-saving upgrades.

Accenture has been brought on to help the city create a smart electricity grid, add smart meters and other broad and ambitious measures to reduce energy use throughout Amsterdam’s business, residential and public spaces.

[sources: Business Week, Accenture]

A good day for NY. See the High Line site for more info. Some good pics over at Inhabitat as well.

Here’s a clip (via Ecorazzi) of Roland Saekow who, like millions of other graduating college students, is entering the “real world,” with its battered economy and fragile environment (or is it fragile economy and battered environment?). But with people like Saekow bringing their ideas and energy, the future is looking bright (green).  We thought it was time to tip our caps to this new wave of thinkers.

Saekow built this solar powered graduation cap for his big day at UC Berkeley. The mini “green world,” with a model house, functioning solar panel and wind turbine and a remote-controlled sun that rises, is a pretty good representation of the future this generation of minds expects to cultivate. While a student at Cal, Saekow helped pass the Green Initiative Fund legislation on campus, “which generates $200,000 annually for green projects at Berkeley.” As he writes on his website. “I also taught the Joy of Garbage DeCal course for six semesters. This course explored the impact of our waste on the past, present and future. Finally I was the Waste Reduction Manger (WRM) at my housing cooperative for four semesters.”

We’re looking forward to seeing what he does next!

[source: Ecorazzi)

SunChips and National Geographic have joined forces to create the Green Effect, an initiative to inspire individuals to spark a green movement in their communities. They’re inviting people to submit “green ideas” for ways to make a different in the community (and for the planet). Submissions are due by June 8, and ten finalists will be announced July 7. Online viewers and a “distinguished panel of judges” will review the ideas, and $20,000 will be awarded to the groups or individuals with the best ideas for green change. The winners will also be profiled in National Geographic and be invited to Washington DC to share their ideas with environmental leaders.

[Also check out our earlier post on Sun Chips compostable packaging.]

Facebook, it turns out, can help you do more than reconnect with your fifth grade girlfriend. Timberland, one of the most forward-thinking retailers out there, has partnered with changents to create a new eco-trivia facebook app called Earthkeepers Hero: Mission Possible, where players are invited to “get down-n-dirty for environmental change.” You’re presented a “mission,” and green trivia gets you through each scenario.

Timberland Earthkeepers is the retailer’s eco-division, launched to educate consumers about protecting the outdoors and to focus the company’s efforts in minimizing its impact. As the company explains, “we realize that by making our products, we’re part of the problem. We believe it’s time for companies, like ours, to take a look at how the way they do business affects the environment and do something about it. Earthkeepers is one way we’re trying to do exactly that. Our goal—inspire and engage one million Earthkeepers.”

The Facebook app is a fun way to do just that.

Ford has avoided the grisly fate of the other two-thirds of the (once) Big Three. From escaping the heavy weight of tax payer anger/high expectations by NOT accepting Federal bailout money to developing cars that actually aren’t bad- the Ford Fusion just made headlines when NASCAR’s Carl Edwards drove one 1445 miles on one tank of gas- the company seems to have its duck in a row.

In his piece for Low Impact Living, Jason Pelletier writes about the latest indication that Ford is chugging along in the right direction. Ford recently highlighted some of its green initiatives inside the car, including soy-based polyurethane foam seat cushions and backs- cutting its use of petrochemicals by over 1,000,000 pounds- post-industrial and post-consumer recycled content in seat fabrics- reducing C02 emissions and energy use in some models by as much as 60%- and plastic underbody shields made from recycled detergent bottles, tires and battery casings- which diverted 25 million pounds of waste landfills in 2008.

As Pelletier explains, “75%+ of the energy used by a car over its lifetime is consumed in the operation of the vehicle, so this focus on efficiency is well-placed. But we shouldn’t forget about the other 25% of energy use or the environmental impacts that come with it - hazardous chemicals that off-gas when our cars sit in the sun, components that are difficult to recycle, and loads of plastics made from petrochemicals among them.”

Ford isn’t the only automaker trying to chip away at that 25%. Lexus uses plant-based eco-plastics, and its manufacturing plants recycle over 98% of its waste. Honda is also working to reduce the volatile organic compounds in its car interiors.

For more, check out Pelletier’s article.

golf in the desert?

Golf courses have long been a target for environmentalists, many of whom view them as the ultimate symbol of wasteful consumption of natural resources (water and land) and unapologetic polluters (pesticides and fertilizers)- one critic insists the 18,000 courses in the U.S. are devastating the environment.

But are they going away? No, of course not. And, it’s worth noting that the Professional Golf Association (PGA) is perhaps the most philanthropic of any major sporting body, with each weekly tour event bringing in roughly $5-7 million to local causes.

That said, since it’s just unreasonable to strive towards a golf course-free America, it’s good to know people like Matt Shaffer are finding ways to lower the environmental impact. As Larry Dorman writes in his piece for the NY Times, Shaffer is a course manager at the celebrated Merion Golf Club, in Ardmore, PA, home to a record 17 U.S.G.A. championships. Seeking a way to drastically reduce water use while maintaining the integrity of the course, Shaffer turned to wireless sensors. In 2005, he installed a product called RZ Wireless, which led to four years of improved water conservation.

Looking to go further, Shaffer recently decided to upgrade, selecting now from a growing and decidedly more sophisticated marketplace than in 2005. “Well, what I thought was dry isn’t even my baseline,” Shaffer tells Dorman in the article, “these sensors are just so much more sensitive, so much better, so much more complete. I am now hooked. I’m a sensor addict.”

For the article, Dorman rates the leading companies in the space. The best so far “is a system called UgMo, a network of wireless sensors that mine subsurface data and link to a software package developed by Advanced Sensor Technology of King of Prussia, Pa., the original manufacturers of the RZ system,” which can cut an average of 10% of a course’s typical water use. That amounts to millions of gallons of water each year, which, for most courses, would mean the system pays for itself within the first year.

Shawn Emerson, the superintendent at Scotsdale, Arizona’s Desert Mountain Golf Club, a complex of six courses that span 500 acres, believes the sensors will save a total of more than 100 million gallons of effluent water and roughly $113,000.

Dorman continues, “competitors include the industry giant Toro, of Bloomington, Minn., and Environmental Sensors, Inc., based in Victoria, British Columbia,” each of whom has introduced wireless systems designed for golf courses within the past four months.

For more, check out the original article here.

from The Economist, illustration by Claudio Munoz

As we began bracing for a long and painful recession, many believed the first casualties of corporate budgets would be green initiatives and corporate social responsibility (CSR) progams. The economic downturn was seen as a stress test of companies’ best intentions; would it be possible to do what’s right for the planet and their shareholders? A recent article in the Economist suggests that “so far the recession has not produced a wholesale retreat from corporate do-gooding. Instead it has led firms to cut things that were at best peripheral to their business interests and, at worst, a waste of time and money.”

The paradox of this ’stress test’ has been that as profit margins shrink, our collective understanding of the climate crisis- and of our role in causing it- increases. But according to Economist, green results have been a by-product of cost-saving measures, rather than the driving force. Later this year, Gap, the San Francisco-based retailer, will hold a strategy meeting for its CSR team. Rather than having employees fly in from over 20 countries, as in previous years, the company will conduct the meetings via online conferencing. The move is a cost-saving one, but there’s a clear emission-saving benefit.

A survey of 329 corporate-travel managers and business travellers published earlier this year by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives found that only 17% of them now ranked environmental sustainability as a high priority, down from 29% a year ago. Like Gap, the consultancy Accenture will save $8m this year by using “telepresence” systems and, as bonus, will avoid generating 2,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

Advocates of ‘corporate greening’ have long touted the cost-saving potential that comes with trimming excess and eliminating waste. “Another reason for optimism,” the article suggests, “is that consumer interest in companies’ sustainability credentials remains strong in spite of the recession,” but “it would also damage a firm’s chances of recruiting future stars,” with college students “far more informed about sustainability than their predecessors.”

Sustainability is no longer a moral imperative, it’s seen as a way to stay in the black.

[original article: The Economist]

Engineers at England’s Warwick University have built a Formula 3 racecar made entirely from sustainable and recycled materials, in an effort to prove that racing doesn’t have to be a “gas-guzzling disaster.” As this video from Reuters shows, the team incorporated carrots into the steering wheel, potatoes into the wing mirrors, soybean oil into the seat and flax and hemp into the body of the car. They also used recycled carbon fiber and recycled bottles that make up the resin in the composites.

It’s not just a gimmick, though. The car, which runs on bio-waste from chocolate factories, will soon be able reach to speeds of up to 160 miles-per-hour. Ahhhh, what’s up doc!

A new experimental community on the outskirts of Freiburg, Germany is getting some attention for thinking outside the box, I mean car. As Elizabeth Rosenthal writes in her piece in the NY Times, the town of Vauban is completely “car-free”- “except the main thoroughfare, where the tram to downtown Freiburg runs, and a few streets on one edge of the community.” Car ownership is allowed, but residents can only park their cars in two large garages at the edge of the development, “where a car-owner buys a space, for $40,000, along with a home.”

Rosenthal continues,

As a result, 70 percent of Vauban’s families do not own cars, and 57 percent sold a car to move here. “When I had a car I was always tense. I’m much happier this way,” said Heidrun Walter, a media trainer and mother of two, as she walked verdant streets where the swish of bicycles and the chatter of wandering children drown out the occasional distant motor.

Vauban, completed in 2006, is an example of a growing trend in Europe, the United States and elsewhere to separate suburban life from auto use, as a component of a movement called “smart planning.”

more…

Thule, Swedish-based makers of car rack systems, has launched an impressive 318-kilowatt solar array on the roof of its Connecticut facility.

The array, which consists of over 1,800 solar panels, will offset about 26% of the energy used at Thule’s Seymour manufacturing and office facility.

“If you think of our 26% offset in electricity in terms of products, it is the same as saying that every carrier in the bicycle product group is now made with solar power,” said Tripp Wyckoff, Thule’s vice president of marketing, sales and service.

Two Sweden-related posts in as many days! Swedes are on a roll!

In a post earlier this year, we looked at the impressive environmental legacy of the Sundance Film Festival, and of its founder Robert Redford. Apart from being a film legend, half of the coolest screen duo of all-time and a powerful advocate of creative (indie) freedom, Redford has been a leading voice on environmental issues for decades. He has promoted the development of renewable energies since the early 1970s, and he’s using that experience and his celebrity to focus attention once again on the need for green innovation.

For a recent piece on the Huffington Post, he writes,  “I remember when America was leading the pack on clean energy in the 1970s. We abdicated that leadership,” but, he argues, “we are a nation of innovators, and we can harness that resourcefulness again to build a better future.”

Producing a film in 1975 called ‘The Solar Film,’ Redford saw economic, environmental and political reasons for believing solar technology would gain momentum. “I was too early in my efforts to promote solar power,” he acknowledges, “but now is the time. We are getting a second chance–another American trait. If we don’t seize this moment, we will be too late to get the competitive advantage in a global marketplace, too late for the economic dividends, and too late to stave off the worst of global warming.”

For the Salt Lake Tribune, Redford writes about the possibilities in renewable energy in his adopted state of Utah. “Anyone who knows Utah knows the power of wind, water and sun. You can see that power in Utah’s sculpted arches of stone, in our majestic mountains capped with snow, and in the cracked earth of our deserts.”

more…

As promised, more pics of the new 070 below, which has been delivering on casual comfort. We’re also glad to see NB recognizing that process efficiency and eliminating waste can impact both the environment and profits. Looking forward to seeing more from their entry into this category.