Here’s an excerpt from my new book, Saving The World At Work:

Many employees spend their entire work life under artificial lights. This situation can affect their moods as well as their performance.  A landmark 2003 study for the Environmental Protection Agency by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found that natural light improves an employee’s vision, function, and productivity, but most important, mood — it wards off depression and alleviates job stress.

In their book Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough and Michael Braungart talk about a new Herman Miller furniture factory that was redesigned with bigger windows and skylights, allowing sunshine to pour into the entire workspace. The employees’ mood improved immediately, and so did productivity. (more…)

There’s science, and there’s applied science. Here’s some interesting applied science: Nanobamas. OK. We get that everything’s Obama right now. Obama-drama. Obama-rama. But nanobamas?

The scoop: John Hart, an assistant professor in the mechanical engineering department at the University of Michigan wants to expand our understanding of nanotechnology, which could be vital to developing better solar cells and batteries, disease treatments and the continuing perfecting of computer processors. Solar power could benefit from nano-thinking and already is, with experimental fabrics and even spray-on solar particles under development that could collect the sun’s energy wherever they go.

So who better to raise the profile of nanotech than the latest president elect?

Each tiny Barack Obama is smaller than a grain of salt. The images were based on Shepard Fairey’s red, white and blue poster of the president-elect. Scientists used lasers, glass plates and silicon wafers to miniaturize the picture, then grew the nanotubes on the pattern. Then they photographed the results under high magnification with an electron microscope.

And yes, that’s weird and a little scary that nanotubes grow.

Every portrait contains a mind-boggling 150 million carbon nanotubes “stacked vertically like trees in a forest,” according to a statement on these presidential electrons and protons. And the construction is drum-tight, with each carbon nanotube being very strong — and small, about 1/50,000th the width of a human hair.

That’s nano nano. Sure, jokes come to mind. Let’s just say we hope this is more foreshadowing of a mighty, new energy future, and not a metaphor for our shrinking economy.

(To read about nanotechnology see the U.S. government website, National Nanotechnology Initiative.)

Copyright © 2008 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The benefits of a rooftop garden are not only environmental, but extend to the human spirit. At the Ulfelder Healing Garden atop Massachusetts General Hospital’s Yawkey Cancer Center, those benefits are realized.

The 6,300-square-foot foliage-filled healing garden gives cancer patients and their families a much-needed retreat and helps the hospital conserve energy at the same time. It is just one of the many Boston sites included on tours during this week’s GreenBuild International Conference, a large annual gathering of builders and remodellers sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

Bringing green design into health care and hospital building is a growing trend across the U.S.. At Dell Children’s Medical Center, which opened in Austin, Texas in 2007, green has been the focus from the ground up. In fact, says spokesperson Matilda Sanchez, the hospital is waiting to hear if they have achieved “platinum status” in the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) program sponsored by the USGBC. Among the many green elements at Dell is a four-story interior healing garden with a waterfall that starts on the top floor, as well as a three-acre healing garden with a labyrinth that can be seen from many of the hospital rooms.

“Dell is setting the bar for hospital buildings,” says Sanchez. “While we were still under construction, many other hospitals looked at what we were doing. There was even a delegation from Australia who came to get ideas.” (more…)

If you’re planning a traditional Thanksgiving, you’ll be needing a bird. This year, organic and pastured turkeys are more available than ever. Check your local grocery now, and get on a list if need be. If you really want to try something new, reserve an heirloom variety bird or try one that’s been pre-soaked in brine.

Here are some places to look for a turkey that’s been raised on organic feed, and allowed a more humane existence.

• Local Harvest — If you’re into local heirloom turkeys or other pedigree varieties you may be too late! But don’t beat yourself up over it, local farmers in Texas have told us that many connoisseurs place their orders months ahead of time. Still, there’s a flock of healthier birds waiting. You can order free-range, pastured, organic turkeys online and have them shipped. You’ll pay for the privilege of all those hormone-free, pesticide-free certifications — from $150 to $250 a bird. But these are BIG birds, and they’re freer of chemicals than you are, having been fed organic foods, no additives and animal byproducts. Local Harvest can also direct you to local farmers that sell direct to the public. The online marketplace also offers a panoply of pesticide-free fruits and veggies, including the requisite Thanksgiving cranberries.

(more…)

Wildlife habitats might not have the same impact on global warming as electric cars, but they help hold down corners of nature that are threatened by climate change, human development and the contamination of outdoor spaces.

So raise a toast to Anheuser-Busch, which has been supporting wildlife conservation for many years and can now boast of hosting ten wildlife habitats certified by the Wildlife at Work, a program of the Wildlife Habitat Council.

The St. Louis-based company touted this benchmark in a news statement this week that outlined the ways in which its wildlife refuges support nature: They provide alligators a place to hang out at the brewer’s farm ponds in Jacksonville, Fla. (employees have adjusted); support pollinators at a garden in a Georgia rice mill and allow peregrine falcons to roost atop a malt house in Manitowoc, Wisc. (more…)

If global warming wasn’t so devastatingly tangible, it would sound like part of a doomsday cult. Consider these projections of the future for a swath of the U.S.

First up: Kansas, the American heartland, breadbasket to the world, a place of amber waves of grain…a place we might not recognize by century’s end.

Under projected global warming scenarios, Kansas will become hotter and drier, with more insects and more storms during the next several decades. By century’s end, western Kansas will be so arid, it will need 8 more inches of water to sustain crops there. Eastern Kansas will be wetter, but so warm that evaporation will claim the extra rainfall and southwestern Kansas will be a virtual desert. All this according to a report released last week by University of Kansas scientists Nathaniel Brunsell and Johannes Feddema for the Climate Change and Energy Project based in Salina, Kansas.

But wait, Dorothy, there’s more.

Public health experts speaking in Tuscon Arizona over the weekend projected that climate change could bring a rash of asthma, Nile virus, malaria and dengue fever to the desert Southwest.

How does climate change unleash this cloud of locusts? Warmer weather drives disease-bearing mosquitoes north from Mexico; higher temperatures aggravate respiratory ailments and sudden heavy rainstorms (the erratic weather predicted with climate change) nurture a set of waterborne illnesses. So say scientists speaking at a health conference and quoted in the Arizona Daily Star.

To be fair, these climate projections are just projections. The Tuscon speakers acknowledged that trying to pinpoint where the heavy rains and droughts will occur is tricky science. The Kansas scientists say we could turn it all around, by working very hard to reduce carbon emissions.

Discouraging as all this is, the reaction of some people reading the Daily Star story on the conference was nearly as disheartening. Dozens of comments derided the experts for even trying to project the future, accusing them of being alarmists. “The sky is falling!!!” cracked one.  An astroid could hit the earth, noted another.

People do have enough troubles, without adding global warming. As one Arizona reader pointed out, he’s more concerned about his job security and ability to get health insurance than whether the oceans rise in 50 years and California drops into the Pacific.

Speaking of California. We don’t need projections to outline the effects of global warming there. Extreme drought and high winds have led to some of the worst wildfires seen in Southern California. Hundreds have lost their homes and thousands have been displaced over the past several days as rapid walls of flame descended on their neighborhoods. Firefighters have been fighting fires across four counties, Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and Santa Barbara. (See the Los Angeles Times map of the affected areas.)

Are these fires climate change related? We can’t know for sure. Is this the sort of thing that climate change models predict? Most certainly.

At least Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t dithering about it.

“I think that everyone has recognized that this is a different situation now than we had in the past. I think the last two years or so we have seen that this is not anymore a fire season in the fall, like we usually have had but there is fire season all year round,” he told news reporters.

“We have seen the fire(s) starting in February. We have fires in March, in April, in June. We have them now. They will continue. I think it is because of the weather change, the climate change.”

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Our refrigerators, which can be the biggest electricity hogs of all household appliances, have been getting the once-over from the Energy Star program for several years now, with those bright yellow tags alerting us to what sort of electrical consumption we can expect. Washers and dryers, ditto.

Now our dishwashers, which have been insidiously luxuriating in hot water all this time, are getting the full review by government energy gurus.

The reason: Snap! They use water. (more…)

Jamie Swise, a Chicago-based weatherization expert, said President-elect Barack Obama made his job a whole lot easier when during a recent debate he urged Americans “to weatherize” their homes to save energy.

Obama made the appeal at a presidential debate last month before his election in response to a question about sacrifices his administration would ask Americans to make during these tumultuous economic times.

“Here you have the soon-to-be president of the United States stressing the importance of weatherization,” Swise said after the election. “He’s got a lot of people thinking about how weatherizing their homes can help save energy. You can’t beat that.”

Swise, who has been in the business of weatherizing homes for 10 years and works with the Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County, one of the largest weatherization programs in the nation, says having such support coming from on high is important because the issue has long been ignored. Ignoring the issue, Swise and other experts say, is foolhardy because weatherization adds up to savings and goes a long way toward helping to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint. And in some cases, the effort doesn’t cost a dime.

Easy Steps, Money Back

“Most people can start by lowering the furnace (settings),” Swise said. “Most people have it up too high. They should also change the filter. These simple steps can result in immediate savings.” (more…)

Here’s one of the most inspiring stories from Saving The World at Work (The Joan story).

Joan works in the legal group in one of Microsoft’s business units in Washington.  She’s passionate about the environment, and wanted to help Microsoft become a leader in this area.  She moved the needle at that massive company by forming a network of Micro-Greenies and pointing them in the right direction.

Download the Joan Krujewski mini eBook

Read more from Tim at SandersSays and at the Saving the World at Work site.

Move over Seattle, Portland, and Austin and other green heavyweights — make room for some like-minded  newcomers.

Columbus, Ohio; New Orleans, La., Syracuse, N.Y., and Louisville, Ky., residents might not be wearing Birkenstocks and basking under solar tubes. But they are living in some of the growing number of mid-sized American cities that are making impressive green strides, changing their attitudes and getting smarter about eco-choices.

Syracuse, led by Mayor Matthew Driscoll,  is becoming a greener “Emerald City” of New York with its sustainability website, partnerships with area universities and an impressive number 17 placement for 2008 on Popular Science’s list of the 50 Greenest Cities in the U.S..

“Going green makes sense — we’re the third largest collegiate community in America — we have major research institutes all right here. We’re a plethora of green activity, making green-collar jobs available,” Driscoll said. “Just ten years ago, I was talking about going green and people didn’t really get it. Now, with people paying four bucks a gallon in gas at times, people are listening. They’re very much in tune with conservation and transitioning into a green city.”

Also looking at a greener horizon, Mayor Michael B. Coleman is easing Columbus toward the earth-friendly forefront. “There are many, many green initiatives going on right now. We have an award-winning green fleet program, and we are making our city buildings green. We have a new “Green Spot” program with over 650 businesses and community groups signing up so far to make sure our city is making greener choices,” he says. (more…)

– Nima Kapadia

– Nima Kapadia