Being green around the holidays can be tricky. Many of our best rituals (Thanksgiving, July 4th, Labor Day, Super Bowl Sunday…) rely heavily on consumption (and, by extension, produce a ton of waste). So, for this July 4th, we thought we’d share some simple tips for green tweaks.

1.) Go Local

You don’t need read Michael Pollan to know food just tastes better when you know where it’s from. Maybe it’s the satisfaction of knowing you’re supporting local farmers. Perhaps it’s because your body knows when you’re eating fresh and when the food is processed. Either way, you’ll be doing the planet some good by buying food that hasn’t been trucked in from across the country.

2.) Go Easy

It’s nice to have leftovers, but how many hamburger patties and hot dogs got tossed last year at your July 4th party? When you’re buying and prepping the goodies, go easy. When you’re stacking your plate with potato salad, beans, ribs, hot dogs, watermelon and whatever else, keep in mind you’ll probably be throwing some of that out. So for all the piggies out there- myself included- there’s no shame in multiple trips to the food table.

3.) Go Gas

If you’re a purist, charcoal might be the only option for you. Try a 100% All Natural Hardwood Lump Charcoal. Fewer chemicals are always a good thing, but they also produce less ash than generic charcoal. Another good option is Wicked Good Charcoal, which is made from industrial scrap wood. Kingsford Charwood is good too. But gas is probably your greenest bet- it produces about half the emissions of charcoal.

4.) Go Silver

Well, maybe not silver, but at least think about using the silverware. Most July 4th meals are finger foods anyway (do we need more than a spoon?), but it might be worth busting out the cutlery instead of using the plastic alternatives. But if you’re hell bent on disposable products- and, I’ll be honest, I don’t blame you- there are some good biodegradable products you could choose. Branch and Eatware both have some good sustainble/compostable picnic accessories.

5.) Go Green

Let’s see, in my July 4th overall roundup… Be safe. Have fun. Recycle. Compost (if you can). Enjoy the fireworks (hopefully these new “eco-friendly” fireworks will catch on). Don’t go on any carnival rides- I’m still not feeling right from my ride on the tilt-a-wheel.  Go see The Hangover (finally saw it and it’s hilarious!). And, oh yeah, go U-S-A!

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}

During the recent Tube strike in London, one commuter decided to capture the thrill and convenience of riding to work on his bicycle. The youtube clips, from kmcyc, which have the feel of a real-life video game, provide a fascinating vantage point of how to beat the chaos caused by the underground strike. As kmcyc writes, “anyone want to see lots and lots of cars going nowhere? Well hop on your bike and cycle around the Tube Strike!”

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]

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.

In another example of “finally, someone’s using their head,” British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has opened what it calls the first “people-powered” store. At one of the company’s stores in Gloucester yesterday, Sainsbury’s unveiled “kinetic road plates”, new green technology that will capture the energy of each car that enters and exits the parking lot, harnessing about 30 kWh each hour, enough to power its checkouts.

According to Alison Austin, Sainsbury’s environment manager, “this is revolutionary. Not only are we the first to use such cutting-edge technology with our shoppers, but customers can now play a very active role in helping make their local shop greener, without extra effort or cost.”

The Gloucester Quays location boasts some other innovative practices beyond the “kinetic plates.” The store plans to harvest rainwater to flush the store’s toilets and solar panels will heat up to 100% of the store’s hot water during the summer. As the store was being built, more than 90% of the construction waste was re-used or recycled.

[sources: The Guardian, via PSFK]

I’m still mulling over Jennifer Boulden’s piece in the Huffington Post, considering that balance between advocating “green tweaks” or “green leaps.” As I mentioned in the last piece, Boulden is the co-founder of Ideal Bite. For those of you who haven’t read Ideal Bite- what’s wrong with you?- it’s a site that provides daily tips for living green, promoting the positive and empowering value of “incremental environmentalism.” In her piece for the HuffPo, though, Boulden reveals a more ambitious philosophy emerging, a call for bolder action and bigger leaps forward. Will baby steps get us to where we need to be?

At LTT, we think about this a lot. Are “greener products” only “less bad,” rather than actually “good?” Should we be moving with a greater sense of urgency towards a “sustainable future?” To a point, and yes. But while we don’t believe in half measures, we do believe in the efficacy of realistic alternatives. But maybe Boulden is right, maybe we now have the necessary ingredients for creating a new framework. Maybe we’re reaching that tipping point, where individuals, governments and corporations are absorbing the message.

Every major brand is addressing this in some way or another- there are a lot of innovative companies out there that get it and others that are starting to get it. But whether it’s the size of the slow-moving ship, the nature of their industry or the state of the economy, “going bold” sometimes gets watered down to simply “taking action.”

But, still, we look to those big fish to reshape the priorities of their own industry. PepsiCo , a company we admire (we’ve covered a number of their initiatives), is an interesting contradiction. On the one hand, it produces a staggering amount of plastic bottle waste, and, because of its global distribution, produces waste (in the form of emissions and landfill fodder) everywhere you can imagine. On the other hand, PepsiCo is among the most progressive Fortune 50 companies in terms of corporate social responsibility, recycling (check out Aquafina’s partnership with Keep America Beautiful), industry-changing innovation (Frito Lay’s compostable bag) and so on, and that global reach can bring a message of sustainability to unlikely places. Other examples, companies like Timberland, Green Mountain Coffee and Whole Foods, have shown the broad appeal of integrating responsibility into a company’s core identity.

Whole Foods is adopting some innovative practices, from exploring renewable energies at stores, banning the use of plastic bags, or pushing the entire industry towards responsible aquaculture guidelines. Their Mid-Atlantic region recently established a commitment to diverting 90% of its waste from landfills by 2009. We had a chance to speak with Mark Smallwood, Whole Foods’ Green Mission specialist, who says the company is well on its way. To achieve this remarkable goal, Whole Foods is working to minimize packaging, enhance its composting programs and further develop its recycling. After a recent garbage audit, Smallwood says, “we found roughly 60% of our waste going to compost, 25% was being reused or recycled (including pallets, totes, milk jugs and so on) and 15% was going to landfill, mostly packaging.”

Boulden’s right, it does seem as if the pieces are positioned to fall into place for a new (sustainable) economy. But it takes a confluence of understanding, energy and innovation. It takes not just consumers demanding greener products but companies anticipating (like Honda and Toyota did a decade ago with hybrid/EV technology) how their industry needs to evolve. Baby steps or big leaps, the scene is set for us to “cook up a new type of economy.”

For more on Boulden, check out her piece on the Huffington Post.

We love this technology! John La Grou, a long-time electronics inventor, audio designer and entrepreneur, and a team have created a new, smarter type of electrical outlet that will save lives, money and wasted energy. In a recent presentation at TED (see above video), La Grou began with a slide of a smoke detector- “a world changing invention” that has saved countless lives. But, La Grou points out, the smoke detector detects fires, it does not prevent them. Since one of the main causes of fires is electricity- faulty and misused wiring and appliances- La Grou and his team set out to prevent electrical fires before they begin. They created an inexpensive data receptacle that could be embedded in an appliance- in its plug- that could communicate with the power supply so that, if a fault is detected, it could shut off the electrical flow. The Intelligent Electrical Outlet- thanks to the Electrical Fault Circuit Interrupter (EFCI)- prevents overloads before they happen.

The invention also eliminates the need for parents to worry about those pesky “fork in the socket” mishaps. Each year in the U.S., over 2500 children are admitted to emergency rooms due to accidental electrocution. The Intelligent Electrical Outlet would make those accidents a thing of past, since the power is always off unless a smart plug is detected. Genius! And yet such a simple concept. A green, life-saving invention!

[source: TED]

I’ve enjoyed a recent exchange of emails with Jennifer Boulden, co-founder of Ideal Bite. Like LTT, Ideal Bite was founded on the belief that “if we all knew what we could do in the day to day to impact the planet and our communities in a positive way, we’d do it.” The idea of “guilting people into going green” or shocking them in action by grim reports of a climate catastrophe doesn’t seem particularly effective.

In that sense, Al Gore was preaching to the choir in “An Inconvenient Truth.” However necessary and affecting that film was, I wonder how many people walked out of the theater scared but largely unchanged. And how many people who should have seen it didn’t because of the loaded political associations?  As the Ideal Bite folks explain, “we don’t want someone to tell us what’s wrong…unless we understand how we can help.” That serves as the basis for Ideal Bite’s brand of “incremental environmentalism,” and the site offers “ideas for real people who lead busy lives and want to make small changes that up to big results.”

In a recent article published on the Huffington Post, Boulden proposed a more ambitious brand of green thinking. In “You Gotta Break A Few Eggs To Make An Omlette,” she writes about her experience at the Fortune Green Business Conference in Laguna Nigual, CA, reflecting on that “fine (nagging) line” that one treads when one chooses green products; “greener options are definitely better, but at the same time, they are only just less bad,” she writes. “The fact is we need a big, dramatic departure from the core structure of our economy. Why? Because it only works when we buy more and more things.”

Just when I was considering packing my bags for New Zealand to live a life of blissful ignorance, Van Jones spoke. Obama appointed this social change leader into a Green Collar Job position to make sure that the $20B - $40B allotment to stimulate green economic activity actually did just that, and that it the cash infusion benefited all of people in this country. His battle cry was, “Be Bold,” and I dig it.

I am no economist (even though I slogged my way through an Econ major at William & Mary), and I am no business pundit (although I hid from the economic downturn of 2001 by receiving a ‘green MBA’ from George Washington U). I am, however, someone who thinks that we need to rethink some core tenants under which we are surprisingly comfortable operating.

She continues,

Ask yourself, “why not be bold?” — and let me know what you come up with. Luckily I got my inspiration to fight the good-n-green fight for the next year from the conference. Not because anyone was spouting off warm-fuzzy platitudes that glossed over the abysmal state of the environment, but because I realized that we may just have the right ingredients for cooking up a new type of economy. Very intelligent, passionate people are shaping a new framework. Yes, there will be some short term costs and some temporary pain and discomfort. But remember, you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet.

Tomorrow, I’ll delve deeper into that question that we all seem to be wrestling with- are baby steps enough?

For more, check out Ideal Bite. For Boulden’s full article on HuffPo click here.

For those of us who work towards a more sustainable future- and, thankfully, that’s a quickly growing demographic- the challenge is in opening our eyes to the gravity of our situation while maintaining a healthy dose of optimism. With all the doomsday reports, it’s sometimes difficult to see our way out of the mess we’ve created.

I once asked Roger Lang, a remarkable conservationist and entrepreneur out in Montana, whether he thought of optimism as a vital component of the environmental movement.  “I don’t think so,” he replied. “I have dark days when I’m convinced developers will pave all these beautiful open spaces. But I think these bouts of pessimism actually keep me engaged- pure optimism is synonymous with naivete. I think to be dedicated to conservation means you better have a good appreciation of the challenges, or else you’ll be blind-sided by them.”

A new study by researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies provides, perhaps, the right balance of realism and optimism. An analysis of 240 independent studies, it found that most polluted or damaged ecosystems worldwide can recover within as little as 5 to 10 years “if societies commit to their cleanup or restoration.”

The Yale researchers studied seven ecosystem types and their recovery from man-made disturbances (logging, mining, oil spills, overfishing, industrial pollution…) and natural disasters (hurricanes, cyclones…). They found, for example, that forest ecosystems recovered in 42 years on average, while ocean bottoms recovered in less than 10 years. While the damages to these ecosystemss are serious, the researchers see the results as an indication that “if societies choose to become sustainable, ecosystems will recover. It isn’t hopeless.”

The study does conclude that about 15% of damaged ecosystems are beyond recovery. But the researchers suggest that, as bad as things are,  “speculation that it will take centuries or millennia for degraded ecosystems to recover” is, in general, wrong. Holly Jones, one of the study’s co-authors added, “we recognize that humankind has and will continue to actively domesticate nature to meet its own needs. The message of our paper is that recovery is possible and can be rapid for many ecosystems, giving much hope for a transition to sustainable management of global ecosystems.”

[Sources: Yale University, Jeff Kart- Clean Technica]

Just as it’s done with taxes (TurboTax) and bookkeeping (Quickbooks), the popular software company Intuit has just launched a free service aimed at helping small and midsized companies better understand their carbon footprint.

Green Snapshot pulls expense data from a company’s QuickBooks and estimates the carbon footprint of that business, providing customized recommendations of ways to go greener, save money and improve the efficiency of operations.

To create the app, Intuit partnered with Cooler, environmental software company, whose methodology, known as the Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Analysis (EIO-LCA) is backed by leading environmental organizations like the Natural Resources Defense Council, The Environmental Defense Fund and the National Wildlife Federation. The EIO-LCA calculates emissions based on financcial and economic data..

As Joel Makower writes in his piece for GreenBiz, “since the dawn of the green business movement, small and midsized firms have been largely left out of the picture. Regulators and activists have focused on large industrial players — the ones with the spewing smokestacks, drainpipes, and dumpsters — all but ignoring the roughly 98 percent of the companies around the world that have under 100 employees” Makower continues, “Will it work? Hard to know — the product is barely a couple weeks old — but you’ve got to like the strategy: a free add-on to a popular product that provides genuine value to customers and, just maybe, to Intuit itself, all the while burnishing the software company’s green cred.”

For more visit Intuit, and check out Makower’s full article.

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)

As Candace Lombardi suggests on CNET, Tremont Electric’s “Personal Energy Generator” gives a whole new meaning to term “power walking.” Harnessing a person’s kinetic energy, the PEG allows you to recharge your handheld electronic devices while you walk, run, or bike.

We’ve been tracking the innovation of kinetic energy harvesting (KEH) with great interest. Last year, I wrote (wistfully) “someday we’ll put nanogenerators in almost everything. Imagine capturing the energy of a tennis match in the handle of your racket. Imagine storing the energy used to type on your keyboard all day long. Imagine nanogenerators in your ski pants that could power your iPod.”

Aaron LeMiex, Tremont Electric’s founder and PEG’s inventor, has brought us closer to that reality. The device doesn’t store the energy like a battery- instead, Lombardi explains, “it’s more of a kinetic energy real-time converter that must be plugged in to the device as it’s moving for the kinetic energy to be transferred as electricity immediately to the device.”

At 9 inches and weighing about 9 ounces, the PEG isn’t exactly ‘nano,’ but unlike some other KEH devices, you don’t need to wear this one. Simply slip it in a backpack, go for a walk, and in about an hour your portable device is charged up to 80%. It’s compatible with 90 percent of portable electronic devices including BlackBerry, iPhone, iPod, LG Chocolate, Magellan GPS, Nintendo DS Lite, Palm Treo, and most cell phones from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sanyo, and Sony.”

[sources: Tremont Electric, CNET]

The Eco-Media Player Revolution

The good people at Baylis sent us their new Eco-Media player, the terrific Revolution. While it may never dethrone the iPod, the Revolution deserves some attention for somehow being both innovative and old school. Trevor Baylis, the British inventor best known for inventing a wind-up radio in the 1980s in response to the need to communicate information about AIDS to people in areas of Africa with no electricity, has steered the concept towards today’s generation of music players. The Revolution is a wind-up MP3 player that features video playback, a photo viewer, an FM radio, a voice recorder, a line input recorder, a text reader, expandable memory, and a flashlight. You can even use it to charge your cell phone.

Just 1 minute of winding will provide around 45 minutes of music play, and a full charge (via USB) will provide 48 hours of play time. The on-board generator makes it perfect for camping, long flights, or anytime you’re nowhere near a plug. But it’s also a nice bit of “green innovation.” We’ve enjoyed having one, and, if you’re looking for a fun “green gadget,” the Revolution is a good option. Terrapass offers it here for about $200.

Here’s a cheese-ball video of Baylis- is that Top Gun music in the background?- introducing the device to “a new generation.” But it’s hard not to root for Baylis and think…English inventor? Driving an old sports car? O.B.E.? Awesome!

We saw on Triple Pundit some big news about the growth of small wind. According to the site, the number of small wind turbines in the U.S. grew 78% last year. American Wind Energy Association reported a few days ago that 17.3 megawatts worth of new small wind turbines (with generation capacities of 100 kilowatts and less) was added last year. When one considers that the largest market segment of small wind turbines remains the residential kind (between 1 and 10kW), that’s a good number of individuals who are turning to wind- and taking advantage of some federal stimulus, renewable energy stimulus and other types of incentives.

We’re be posting a new webisode of One Degree TV about a development of homes (designed by Truex Cullins and built by Chuck Reiss) that combines thoughtful design elements, locally sourced materials and some green tech. These ‘net zero’ homes are elegant examples of the fact that we can (and should) be incorporating green/efficient thinking into all new homes!

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.]

Click here to watch the World Wildlife Fund’s effective (and affecting) new video. According to the WWF, 1,000,000 plants and animals could disappear within the next fifty years. Almost 1,000,000 square kilometers of ice field has melted in the last thirty years. 250,000 hectares (roughly 618,000 acres) of tropical forest disappears each week.

Aside from the vid’s message, we enjoyed director Matthieu Jacobs‘ aesthetic and sound production.

With beleaguered automaker Chrysler moving closer to a deal with Fiat, it’s worth noting the green innovation the Italian parent company can bring to this union. Fiat and Microsoft have developed the eco:Drive system, a program that allows the driver to plug a USB flash drive into the car so that driving data can be collected. The driver can then plug the drive into a computer where the software can analyze the data. With Microsoft’s Blue&Me System, the eco:Drive’s onboard computer, the driver can measure fuel consumption, speed, breaking style, and gear shifts to determine ways to drive better.

Since its debut at last year’s Paris Auto Show, the system has been wowing the industry. During the recent MediaGuardian Innovation Awards in London, the eco:Drive system won the top prize for digital technology. The system may help European drivers meet E.U. efficiency requirements, which are more aggressive than ours, and, while it may be a while before we see the eco:Drive system in cars here in the U.S., it provides at least one reason to think Chrysler may be in good hands.

Microphone check. One. Two. [Ahem] Allow me to vent for a minute about buttheads and poop. There are possibly only three types of people in this world 1) people who think it’s okay to drop a (still smoldering) cigarette on the ground, where, by the way, my one year old may crawl by and pick it up and, as with everything he touches, put it in his mouth. 2) people who don’t pick up after their dogs. [these people are sometimes the same people]  3) people who would run for office in city hall if only to pass some ordinance that required the first two groups of people to serve 100 hours of cigarette and poop cleanup duty.

Admittedly, the issue of “not scooping the poop” is not necessarily an environmental one- someone prone to doing it might argue that ultimately it’s good for the soil, or it’ll be gone in a week so what’s the big deal, or “hey, I’m not using a plastic bag to pick that up because it’ll just end up in a landfill.” That person would be an idiot, but the argument could at least be made. But the larger point is, of course, it flies in the face of the type of self-responsibility we all expect from one another. The plastic bag argument, I suppose, raises an interesting dilemma for people who have, otherwise, successfully avoided using disposable plastic bags in their daily lives. For those people I recommend something like FlushEze, the flushable, biodegradable poop bag. And cigarettes… - smoke, don’t smoke, I don’t care, but would a person who recycles at home, is conscious of not being wasteful, etc…drop a cigarette butt into the gutter? And if he/she did, why that disconnect? Incidentally, a cigarette butt takes up to five years to biodegrade. On a walk recently, I saw a woman who, no joke, was wearing a shirt that said “Hug Your Mother Earth,” who in the span of two minutes, tossed her cigarette butt into the bushes and watched idly as her bulldog had a morning constitutional on the side of the bike path. It was the perfect trifecta of douchebaggery. I knew it was time for a post about buttheads and poop. Now…, back to our normal fare.

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…

If you watch television here in the United States, chances are you’ve seen the IBM ad about creating “smarter traffic systems.”  IBM worked with the City of Stockholm to implement smart toll systems to reduce gridlock, lower emissions and save the city’s residents time and money. It’s a great reminder that much of the technology we need to build a cleaner, more efficient tomorrow already exists and, in some forward-thinking cities, is being implemented with success today.

The Stockholm Trial reduced traffic by 25%, and the city saw a drop in emissions from road traffic of up to 14%. Greenhouse gases have fallen 40% in the inner-city. For more info, IBM has a more complete summary of results.

It’s not hard to find evidence to support Tom Friedman’s ‘Flat Earth‘ theory, especially these days. The U.S. subprime meltdown went through the global economic bloodstream like a virus, infecting economies big and small- poor Iceland is still in intensive care. Speaking of viruses, the World Heath Organization says the Swine Flu pandemic is imminent, classifying it as a Phase 5 outbreak. Chrysler announced yesterday it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and merge with European carmaker Fiat. The pitfalls of globalization are everywhere you look, but they also stand as a reminder of the speed at which change can arrive- for worse, clearly, but also for the better.

When it comes to green innovation, we’re often left daunted by the challenges. Can we act fast enough to stave off climate disasters? Won’t it take years to integrate these new green products/technologies into the mainstream? And as long as China is building coal plants at a rate of once a week, aren’t we putting our own economic interests at risk by setting strict emissions standards?

While it’s true we lag behind on a lot of green thinking, the US is still the flagship in the fleet of trends. If we can go green, the world will follow. If we can invest in cost-effective, energy-efficient smart grids, plug-in hybrid technologies, electric vehicle infrastructure like the kind Shai Agassi at Better Place is developing, the world will buy it.

Am I suggesting the current world crises could have been avoided with a little more “green thinking?” Pretty much, yeah. Chrysler? I’m sure there are lots of factors (labor costs, stiff foreign competition, yadda yadda), but, c’mon, have you seen these cars? Do they look like the cars of tomorrow? Is the Sebring exciting you? The Chrysler Aspen Hybrid? Really? That’s what you’ve got?

Some are already seeing the Swine Flu outbreak as a result of factory farming. “When the CDC and the USDA conduct their investigation in Mexico,” writes Sarah Fobes, “they will start with the industrial scale pig farms that have been growing in numbers over the last decade…[noting that many] American pig companies have been opening up pig factories in Mexico, where the outbreak started.”

And, while it was probably greed and a lack of oversight and personal responsibility that helped create the conditions for the subprime meltdown, green innovation might help create the conditions for recovery. Just yesterday, the Metropolitan Transit Authority said it will save $200,000 annually just from having changed to compact fluorescent lightbulbs at Grand Central Terminal.

With our tongue firmly in our cheeks, we say, yes, of course “going green” will solve the world’s problems!

Meet Green Thing from Green Thing on Vimeo.

After seeing GreenThing founder Andy Hobsbawm speak at a TED conference last year, we’ve been enjoying their clever videos. The London-based not-for-profit public service group seeks to inspire people to lead a greener life by focusing on seven things each of us can do - and enjoy doing- today.

1. You get from A to B without any C when you Walk The Walk
2. It’s delicious but it causes more CO2 than cars so go Easy On The Meat
3. Resist the urge to buy the latest and Stick With What You Got
4. Turn down the central heating and turn up the Human Heat
5. The art of wasting nothing and using up everything: All-Consuming
6. Instead of jetting your way around the world, Stay Grounded
7. Don’t leave it on or even put it on, Plug Out

Here’s another good one about what can happen if you choose to “walk the walk.”