Archive for August, 2008
Sustaining the Future with Green Technology
Out of all of the policy decisions made dealing with the issue of climate change and sustainability, there is still inevitably conflict, and solutions are slow to emerge. What’s the solution?
China’s co2 emissions are at 22.9 gigatons compared to 9.8 gigatons in the US. American’s use seven times more co2 per capita than Chinese. A [...]
Plastics + Fire - Poisons = Fun
Ever been curious about what’s in your plastic? The fellas at NYCResistor (a DIY group, not an underground insurgency) have a handy video to show us if you’ve got some PVC on your hands. Their version uses a small blowtorch and some bare copper wire. This is infinitely safer than some other methods I’ve heard [...]
Daily Tip: Join the Freecycle Network
A work buddy of mine turned me on to the the Freecycle Network last week. Freecycle has been extensively blogged about (see here, here, and here for starters), but it’s certainly worth plugging again. Basically, Freecycle is a network of Yahoo Groups, based around cities and communities, where members post items to give away and [...]
Greening Existing Commercial Real Estate With Solar Panels
Most of the talk about greening real estate is about building practices. Until now, the focus has been on the development side of the business. But there are some interesting ventures popping up with innovative business models. One in particular capitalizes on the enormous potential of existing commercial real estate space, where the owners do [...]
Emerging technology…who needs it?
So yeah, I know I go on kicks about putting existing green technology into products. It’s sort of one of my “things,” you could say. But seriously, why can’t I get a laptop with a pull start like EVERY CHILD IN NIUE. I mean sure, maybe I could track one down, but usually I like [...]
Microcredit is Sustaining the Future
I have become absolutely convinced that microfinance is the best way to eliminate extreme poverty in the third world. The traditional thinking in the developed world is that poor people are poor because they are lazy and illiterate. And, of course, credit in the developed world relies on the past performance of the borrower. Robert [...]
GT Product Review: Kill-A-Watt
One of the features we’ve meant to start adding to the site was reviews of green products. Today’s product might not be as cool as an electric roadster, and probably wasn’t made with the ultra-green purity of an organic lip balm, but it is an essential tool for anyone looking at cutting a few bucks [...]
Publix to increase recycling via composting
While I was surfing around reading about the latest green trends, I stumbled across this post. Apparently, Publix, a supermarket chain popular in my home state of Florida, is increasing their recycling rate from 42% to 80%. Stores in Broward County are partnering with Organic Recovery to recover food waste, and the waste will be [...]
Talking Plants
Some NYU students came up with a new business that allows your plants to call you when they need water or more sunlight. Botanicalls.com will provide you with your sensors for your plants, and then will provide you with personal, and hilarious, pre-recorded calls from your plants when the sensor tells it to. [...]
The Benefits of Building Green
Norm Miller recently co-authored an academic paper along with two Costar executives. It is the first piece of research to compare the costs and benefits of developing green commercial real estate. This is quite an interesting article and well worth the read. Here is an excerpt of the findings:
Here we reveal the first systematic study, as opposed to [...]
