The City of Houston and Reliant Energy are launching a program to bring plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to the streets of Houston, to demonstrate the important role that electric cars can play in the city’s clean energy future.

Under the program, called the “Power of the Plug-In,” 10 city-owned Toyota Prius cars will be converted to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and 10 vehicle-charging stations will be installed to power them. The Power of the Plug-In is designed to raise consumer awareness and education about plug-in electric cars and to promote Houston and Texas as an electric vehicle center. Seven of the 10 stations will be available to the public, representing the largest public charging infrastructure in Texas, the city said.

“We’re committed to making Houston the nation’s green energy capital,” Houston Mayor Bill White said in a statement. “That commitment begins at City Hall and these clean-running electric cars and the charging stations that will be available to all Houstonians will get us farther down that road.”

The 10 Reliant-provided charging stations will be located around Houston, with public stations at City Hall, the Health Department office at 8000 Stadium Drive and at the Mayor’s Citizens Assistance Office at 9615 Rustic Wood in Kingwood. Reliant chose Campbell, Calif.-based Coulomb Technologies, Inc. to provide its ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations. Coulomb is a leader in networked electric vehicle charging infrastructure and its network will enable the city to administer consumer access to the public stations.

The 2009 Toyota Prius hybrids that will be converted are already used extensively by the city. The plug-in conversion module is the Hymotion L5 provided by A123 Systems, a leader in development of lithium-ion batteries for use in electric cars.

The converted plug-in hybrid electric vehicles can deliver up to 100 miles per gallon, helping to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Studies show plug-in hybrid electric vehicles with a 20-mile electric driving range can reduce vehicle carbon dioxide emissions by up to two thirds depending on the generation source for the vehicle’s electricity when compared with traditional gasoline-powered vehicles.

“We envision thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of electric cars on our roads in the coming years, making Houston’s air cleaner and the city greener,” Reliant Energy President Jason Few said in a statement. “Our pilot project gives both Reliant and the City of Houston the opportunity to learn more about the performance of electric vehicles and the needs of drivers while promoting consumer awareness and education about plug-in electric cars. Reliant is committed to making Houston and Texas the electric vehicle capital of the United States. We think big in Texas and we have big plans.”

Electric vehicles also provide long-term affordability, city officials said. While electric cars generally cost more to purchase, largely due to the high cost of lithium-ion batteries, the vehicles do not require typical engine maintenance, such as oil changes. Electric vehicles are also less expensive to operate because electricity costs less on a per-mile basis than gasoline.

Last week, Reliant and Nissan announced they have reached an agreement to work together to make Houston a launch city for the broader use of electric vehicles by the American public, businesses and public organizations.

The companies said they will advocate for policies that make it easy for consumers to make the switch from gasoline to electric-powered vehicles and will work together to establish the infrastructure of charging stations needed to support a critical mass of electric vehicles.

Hollywood’s feature films are greening up their productions thanks to the Producers Guild of America (PGA) Green Committee. Founded in 2008, the committee is reaching out to productions worldwide, reducing their carbon footprint and leading the industry in the fight against climate change. They are replanting trees, keeping Styrofoam out of their catering services, and recycling costumes, paints, props and fabrics.

“The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a national non-profit trade group committed to protecting the rights and credits of producers in film, television and new media. Given the current climate crisis and the significance of the environmental impacts of film production, a movement is growing to support sustainable production practices,” said Amanda Scarano Carter, Co-Chair of PGA Green Committee West.

While it is the producers who have joined forces to encourage people to limit their environmental impact, they are getting some celebrity help. On the set of “Knight & Day”, Cameron Diaz has been proactive. She made sure there were no plastic bottles on the set, and that recycle bins were placed all around. “It makes it a lot easier when you have someone as influential as Cameron Diaz setting the tone,” said Fred Baron, Chair of the PGA Green Committee.

The committee’s website provides tools for industry professionals to exchange ideas and make suggestions about greening the filmmaking process. In the near future the committee’s website will become an environmental portal for the six major studios and film industry as a whole. It will feature a carbon calculator and a green marketplace where sets, costumes, and movie accessories can be exchanged. “I am very excited about the direction we are going,”  Baron said.

The PGA Green Committee also is taking their sustainable efforts off the set. This past Saturday, they joined with the Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles to green up a Lynwood, California community. The project will put up LEED-certified houses.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

This Sunday, Nov. 15, is America Recycles Day, a nationwide initiative by Keep America Beautiful and the National Recycling Coalition. In its 12^th year, America Recycles Day is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to encouraging Americans to not only recycle, but buy recyclable products. There is more garbage going into landfills now than ever before. Recycling can not only slow climate change, but preserve and protect the environment around us. Everyone has the ability to do their part.

“The purpose of America Recycles Day is to continue to promote the social, environmental and economic benefits of recycling and encourage more people to join the movement toward creating a better natural environment,” states their website.

Last year the amount of energy saved from recycling aluminum and steel cans, plastic PET and glass containers, newsprint and corrugated packaging was equal to:

• The amount of electricity consumed by 17.8 million Americans in one year.
• 29 percent of nuclear electricity generation in the US in one year.
• 7.9 percent of electricity generation from fossil fuels in the US in one year.
• 11 percent of the energy produced by coal-fired power plants in the US.
• The energy supplied from 2.7 percent of imported barrels of crude oil into the US.
• The amount of gasoline used in almost 11 million passenger automobiles in one year.

It is easy to get confused on what can and cannot be recycled. There are quite a lot of items that are acceptable such as: steel cans, aluminum cans, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, junk mail, plastic beverage bottles, milk jugs, glass bottles and jars, cereal boxes, other clean and dry cardboard boxes. Do not forget that your old electronics are also accepted at many retail stores including Best Buy. Stay away from items such as plastic grocery bags, Styrofoam, light bulbs, food-soiled paper, wax paper and ceramics because they cannot be recycled.

Take the pledge to not only recycle, but to tell others about the benefits.

There will be events held all over the country Sunday, find one near you.

If you already recycle at home, transfer that same philosophy at work or school. It is nice to have a day to remind us to recycle, but do not stop at one day, make it an everyday practice.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

California American Water has designated the week of Nov. 9 as “No Drugs Down the Drain” Week in its Los Angeles service area as part of a national campaign to reduce pharmaceutical pollution in water supplies. Items such as aspirin, prescription drugs and other medications should never be thrown down the drain or toilet, where they can seep into the ground and find their way back into the public water supply.

Los Angeles County residents will be encouraged to contact the County of Los Angeles’ Department of Public Works at 888-253-2652 or visit www.888cleanla.com to find out where they can drop off expired or unwanted pharmaceuticals and other household items free of charge.

California American Water also will sponsor the “No Drugs Down the Drain” outreach campaign in San Diego and Ventura.

“Ensuring that our water sources are protected and maintained is as important as ensuring we have enough water to meet our demands,” California American Water’s Los Angeles district manager Garry Hofer said in a statement. “Water utilities like California American Water treat drinking water to ensure that it meets or exceeds USEPA standards, but the best water treatment is to prevent water pollution at the source. Environmental stewardship can begin right at home through how we use and dispose of old medicines as well as other hazardous items such as used motor oil and paint.”

California American Water, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Water, provides water and/or wastewater services to more than 600,000 people. California American Water’s Los Angeles service district includes approximately 28,000 households and businesses, or a population of about 100,000 people, in the cities of Bradbury, Duarte, El Monte, Irwindale, Monrovia, Rosemead, San Gabriel, San Marino and Temple City, as well as unincorporated portions of Los Angeles County and the Baldwin Hills area.

Fact: America has an abundance of food.
Question: So why does anyone go hungry in this country?

A potato gleaning in Virginia (Photo: Society of St. Andrew)

Armed with this simple thought, the Society of St. Andrew (SOSA) took up the cause of feeding the hungry in 1979 with the idea of gleaning fields for salvageable produce.

“We do this in two says,” says Carol Breitinger, communications director. “We use volunteers in the field for hands-on gleaning, or we send out trucks to pick up surplus crops that farmers can’t use and would just end up in the landfill.”

Once SOSA obtains the produce, they distribute to food pantries around the country. Breitinger says they salvage 20 to 25 million pounds of food a year with the help of 30,000 to 35,000 volunteers. The volunteers come from church groups, schools, scout troops, and even from the people who need the food.

Becky and Dave Aduddell of Wake Forest, N.C., are two of SOSA’s veteran volunteers. “We’ve been doing this for five or six years now,” says Dave, who is a web programmer for a local community college by day and a bass player by night. The couple was hooked after a friend who was gleaning introduced them to the concept. “It sounded like such an eminently logical idea that we joined him very shortly after he started.”

Gleaning a field in North Carolina (Photo: Society of St. Andrew)

“Our interest in gleaning stems from that great desire within each of us to ‘do some good.’ We like it because it is very concrete and tangible. Writing a check to a charity gives one a good feeling and a sense of satisfaction, but going out and working to glean, then delivering the produce directly to the recipients is a very concrete act.”

The Aduddells bring their gleaned crops to a public housing complex in the small town where they live.

The couple acknowledges that the gleaning process wasn’t a big stretch – both of them come from farming families. “While we didn’t grow up on a farm, we spent time doing farm work as kids, so this is a nice déjà vu for us,” says Dave.

In mid-October the Aduddells joined several hundred volunteers for the 19th annual Yam-Jam, sponsored by SOSA. The group salvaged unharvested sweet potatoes from a 50-acre field in rural Johnston County, North Carolina. The area had already been harvested by professionals. In addition to sweet potatoes, Becky says the group has collected corn, green beans, collards, tomatoes, watermelon, squash and blueberries.

“A good 20 percent of produce is lost in the fields,” says SOSA’s Breitinger. She says the USDA calculates that 96 billion pounds of food is wasted in this country before it gets to market.

Why do farmers leave good food behind? “Sometimes commercial growers must leave one field to move on to the next crop,” says Breitinger. Other times, the produce isn’t “perfect” enough for market – not quite the right size or color, but perfectly edible. Also, sometimes the farmer can’t afford to pay another crew to come through his fields again.

Gleaning a perfect cabbage in Virginia (Photo: Society of St. Andrew)

Farmer Leo Stallings says he has leftovers because there isn’t a big market for produce in Franklin County, the area of North Carolina where his farm is located. Stallings, who has been in the farm business for 40 years, grows a number of crops including sweet corn, beans, cantaloupe, collards, peas, squash and string beans. “This area is not very commercial. There are few markets. Growing is not a problem, but selling is. We don’t have a co-op to handle acres of crops.

“I try to plant about as much as I think will sell. But because the market varies, I often have leftovers.”

Stallings says SOSA volunteers come out in the summer and late fall to salvage his fields. He says he doesn’t mind giving it away. “I don’t want it to go to waste and they give us a tax credit for it.”

When large growers donate a tractor trailer load of food, SOSA might contact a group of volunteers, often a church group, to sponsor a “potato drop.”

“Imagine 45,000 pounds of loose potatoes dumped into a church parking lot,” says Breitinger. “Volunteers then put 10 to 15 pounds of potatoes into mesh bags. We contact the local food pantries to come to pick it up.”

In an effort to protect public health, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District will open the Winter Spare the Air season on Sunday, Nov. 1, and begin enforcing a regulation that restricts wood burning in the Bay Area through Feb. 28, 2010.

A pellet stove

Wood smoke is the largest source of wintertime air pollution in the Bay Area. Certain weather conditions in the wintertime cause the air to remain still. When these conditions occur, the Bay Area Air District calls a Winter Spare the Air Alert.

“This winter, Bay Area residents must check before they burn,” Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the Bay Area Air District, said in a statement. “It is illegal to burn wood or firelogs when a Winter Spare the Air Alert is in effect. Wood smoke pollution is associated with a number of serious health risks and is particularly harmful to children, the elderly and those with respiratory problems.”

This winter is the second winter season the wood burning rule has been in effect. The rule was passed in July 2008.

Between Nov. 1, 2009, and Feb. 28, 2010, the Air District will declare a Winter Spare the Air Alert when air pollution is forecast to reach unhealthy levels. During a Winter Spare the Air Alert, the use of wood-burning devices, including fireplaces, pellet stoves, wood stoves and outdoor fire pits, is forbidden. There are expected to be, on average, approximately 15-20 Winter Spare the Air Alerts during the season.

This season, Winter Spare the Air Alerts will be declared the day prior to the alert going into effect. Each day by 2 p.m., the Air District will issue an air quality forecast. If air quality is forecast to be unhealthy, a Winter Spare the Air Alert will be called for the next day. The Alert will be in place for 24 hours – one calendar day – active from midnight-to-midnight.

Those who burn during a Winter Spare the Air Alert will receive a warning for the first violation and a second violation is subject to a $400 ticket. The ticket amount will increase with any subsequent violations, depending on the severity of the infraction. Residents and businesses that burn wood as their only source of heat are exempt from the regulation.

Bay Area residents can check before they burn by:

• Visiting www.baaqmd.gov or www.sparetheair.org
• Calling 1-877-4-NO-BURN
• Signing up for e-mail Air Alerts at www.sparetheair.org or phone alerts by calling 800-430-1515.

Under the new rule, only EPA-certified wood stoves or fireplace inserts, pellet stoves, or natural gas devices can be sold or installed in new construction or remodels. The new rule also places year-round prohibitions on excessive smoke, and on the burning of garbage and other harmful materials in fireplaces and woodstoves.

Wood smoke is a major source of wintertime air pollution in the Bay Area and contains harmful pollutants such as particulate matter and carbon monoxide, as well as toxins such as dioxin, which is linked to increased cancer rates in adults. In the winter, wood smoke from the 1.4 million fireplaces and wood stoves in the Bay Area contributes about one-third of the harmful particulate pollution in the air.

The town of Greensburg, Kansas was destroyed after a tornado ripped through their community in May of 2007, but it is not only coming back stronger than before, but much greener.

One project currently taking place in Greensburg is the Chain of Eco-Homes. When completed, 12 homes will serve as a “living laboratory” for unique environmental building. Two Eco-Homes already exist, Silo Eco-Home, equipped with a vegetable garden green roof, and Solar Eco-Home, the winner of the 2005 Solar Decathlon Competition and donation from the University of Colorado.

Greensburg GreenTown and FreeGreen.com invited designers and architects from all over to submit sustainable designs for the next three homes in the Chain of Eco-Homes Design Competition. There were more than 230 entries submitted.

“This Chain of Eco-Homes contest is a great way to show how the concept of crowd sourcing can help advance green residential design.  With over 439 participants in this contest, Greensburg, Kansas was able to gain access to the world’s best green designers,” said David Wax in a statement, FreeGreen’s CEO and founder.

Steven Learner, Mike Stevens, and their team at New York-based Steven Learner Studio submitted the winning design, Meadowlark House. Their modern style home is 1450 square feet with three bedrooms and two baths. While their design will be featured as one of the houses in the Chain of Eco-Homes, the first place winners also receive the grand prize of $10,000.

There are many environmental components to the Meadowlark House. Perhaps the most unique aspect of the design is the use of an HIB modular wall system. HIB consists of recyclable wood blocks made from sustainable resources that stack together like LEGOs. They provide a high level of insulation, reducing energy costs, and are designed to resist the forces of strong winds, and all without the use of any chemicals.

“The home is planned to be 50% more energy efficient than a typical code built home.  We would like it to be net-zero energy, but are waiting to hear back from a number of renewable energy companies which we have solicited for donations on that,” said David Andrew Goldman, Global Communications Director for Expansion Media.

Other sustainable elements include:

• Building is oriented along an east – west axis, maximizing southern exposure
• Evergreen landscaping along the north side of the site deflects cold winter winds
• Roof drainage ties into an underground cistern for reuse in site irrigation
• Deep roof overhangs to the south and west reduce summertime solar glare, while allowing winter sun to provide light and warmth
• A whole house ducted energy recovery ventilator (ERV) provides fresh air while recycling the home’s temperature
• High thermal mass floor receives and absorbs solar radiation during the day and re-radiates it at night
• Low-E triple glazed, operable windows allow ventilation while minimizing heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer

“Our goal was to design a house to meet the needs of the people of Greensburg.  We wanted to provide a sustainable, comfortable home that can be built quickly and affordably, with flexibility to accommodate many families’ different needs,” said first place winner, Steven Learner.

The winning design is estimated to cost “$154,000 to $200,000 without Renewable Energy Systems (i.e. with the home saving 50% vs. a typical code built home),” said Goldman.

Stuttio Workshop’s Root/Breathe/Endure Design came in second place winning the Enviro-Ment Masonry Unit (EMU) category. Their EMU wall system is a lime-based masonry block that naturally absorbs carbon dioxide from the air.

Daniel Day, an architechture and design studio in Dallas, placed third overall with its design Linear Villa, which won the Insulating Concrete Form (ICF) category. Second and third place winners each receive $1,000.

Construction for all three houses is planned to begin early next month.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Though the economy remains weak and the unemployment rate is still high, a new report released by the Chicagoland Green Collar Jobs Initiative cites the job creation potential of green collar jobs in the Chicago region.

The report highlights numerous policy opportunities – including climate legislation, additional resources for environmental programs, and changes to environmental standards – that may help spur the development of new green collar jobs throughout Chicagoland. The specific occupations most likely to experience significant growth are energy efficiency measure installers and auditors, primarily in response to the projected increase in the number of residential retrofits expected to be completed in the coming years.

“Both the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Illinois Capital Bill contain significant investments in environmental programs, including expansion of the Weatherization Assistance Program and Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant, improving building energy efficiency, and developing sustainable transportation,” Paige Finnegan of e-One and a member of the Initiative Steering Committee, said in a statement.

Chicagoland is well positioned to respond to these opportunities by training new workers and providing supplemental training to the existing workforce. The region already has a strong workforce development and training infrastructure, a track record of developing successful industry-specific initiatives, experience in green curriculum development, and an extensive network of workforce development and training providers on which to draw.

Jennifer Keeling, of the Chicago Jobs Council and director of the Initiative, said “the Chicago area has significant experience and resources on which to build. The region has developed successful sector-focused workforce development strategies in the past, and can draw on its extensive network of community-based training providers, community colleges, and other training organizations to respond to these new opportunities. What will be critical is to ensure that the trainings developed in response to these emerging green collar jobs are accessible to a range of job-seekers, including those with low skill levels.”

Though the Chicagoland region already has a strong foundation, to fully realize the potential of the expanding green economy and green collar job opportunities, the Initiative recommends: prioritizing collaboration and partnerships, creating a process for ongoing standardization of curriculum for green training programs, ensuring comprehensive workforce strategies to engage low-skill workers, establishing a standard weatherization process, promoting the development of integrated green workforce and economic development strategies, and establishing minimum common building standards.

(HONOLULU) – Hawaii has found a new place in the sun. With a local in the White House and clean-energy tech booming, this sunny, windy island state is blossoming into an exotic garden of alternative-power innovation with nearly $1 billion in clean energy projects underway. The aggressive  initiatives are driven by history and necessity.

Wind turbines on Hawaii Island (Photo: Hawaiian Electric Light Co.)

Necessity, because Hawaii gets 90 percent of its energy from imported oil, while its isolation makes it vulnerable to frequent power outages (no neighbors to send in reserves – until wave power is tapped). Not-so-distant history, because native Hawaiian culture is rooted in respect for nature, a vibe that resonates “take no more than is needed and squander nothing that is taken”.

Currently, islanders pay 25 to 55 cents, per kilowatt hour for electricity – three to five times the national average. Gas prices are the highest in the country.

As solar-tech pioneer and Honolulu-based Sopogy founder Darren Kimura puts it, “We only have about 5 to 7 days worth of energy stored here. And if we were cut off, we’d be stuck. Tourists would be stranded, transportation would stop, food would run out. … We have a very small grid here, and power outages aren’t uncommon.”

Kimura, who just won the Blue Planet Foundation’s Honua (meaning “Earth”) Award for Clean Energy, illustrates his point with a lighter note: “Last year in December, President Obama was out here on vacation, and we had a minor incident and lost power to the entire island. Talk about being at center stage and the lights going off. The President’s visiting and at the house where he’s staying, the power goes out. … The unfortunate reality was (driven home) – how fragile the energy grid is here.”

Fortunately, America’s 44th Commander-in-Chief was born and partly raised in Honolulu; he’s probably used to the outages. Kimura guesses it didn’t freak him out too badly.

But there’s been plenty for Hawaiians to ballyhoo in the news lately, besides ‘ownership’ of a President: In January 2008, during her State of the State address, Gov. Linda Lingle told constituents she would make energy a priority. Within a few days, Honolulu had signed the historic Clean Energy Initiative with the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), whereby America’s 50th state would shift from a fossil-fuel driven economy to one that buzzed with power from wind, sun, water (and biofuel and geothermal tech and hydrogen fuel…) by 2030. Specifically, the plan calls for Hawaii to get 70 percent of of its power from clean energy – 40 percent from actual renewable power, 30 percent from energy efficiency and consumer conservation.

Since then, several other major policy changes have occurred.

• Last year, the state passed a law requiring all new homes to have solar-heated water. Jeff Mikulina, executive director of Hawaii’s influential Blue Planet Foundation (started by Blue Planet Software founder Henk Rogers) does the energy math: “We’re building about 5,000 homes a year in Hawaii, and most experts say the measure will save four or five barrels of oil, per household per year,” Mikulina says. So…that’s 20,000 to 25,000 barrels per year that we won’t consume.”

• In December 2008, California-based Better Place, an alt-energy outfit, announced it would use Hawaii as a test site in setting up an infrastructure for electric cars (Israel, Denmark, Australia and California are other test sites). The plan, agreed to by Hawaii’s utility service, calls for Better Place to build 50,000 to 100,000 recharging and battery-swap stations by 2012; they will be run using renewable energy purchased from the local utility. Various electric-car manufacturers have expressed interest in the plan, and recently Hawaii’s governor signed a law requiring large parking lots to provide additional space for electric cars by 2011. The state hopes to see 10,000 electric cars on the road by 2014. Experts say Hawaii is an ideal place for them, because travel distances aren’t very far (usually less than 100 miles). It’s a series of islands – eight in all, thank you.

• And most recently, Mikulina – whose name is familiar to many eco-advocates because of his long career with first the Sierra Club’s Hawaii Chapter and now with Blue Planet – points to the Feed-In Tariff, announced by the state’s Public Utilities Commission on Sept. 25th that levels the price-point playing field for alt-energy providers, knocking down hurdles for clean-energy development. (Essentially a feed-in tariff sets a price that utilities must pay to renewable energy providers, removing uncertainties in the market that hinder development.)

So, the groundwork for a clean-energy conversion has be laid, and the sky literally is the limit.

Hawaii Island gets about 30 percent of its power from geothermal (Photo: John Lund, Geothermal Heat Center)

With its sun, wind and surf, Hawaii is ideally positioned for such a sea change. Here, solar energy is a given, wind power a duh, and wave-power possibly just a Hang-Ten away. Not to mention the geo-thermal power contained in all that volcanic activity. In fact, with policy wonks, techno geeks and eco-interests all looking toward the same goal, the Aloha State is poised to become a global force in sustainability, exporting know-how and technology instead of importing fuel and food.

Blue Planet Foundation’s Mikulina and Rogers believe Hawaii can be energy-independent within a decade.

But what, more specifically, makes Hawaii a mecca for alt-fuel seekers while simultaneously making it vulnerable to fossil-fuel peddlers?

“First of all, there’s the geographic isolation of the island,” says Kimura. “We’re one of the most, if not the most, isolated locations in the world. We’re literally in the middle of the Pacific Ocean – 2,500 miles from LA and 4,000 miles from Asia in general… It’s not like it’s convenient to get here (ditto for imported foods and fuels). … We import I’d say 50 to 60 percent of our food, and as a result of that – and importing oil – we export $7 billion of our capital. We spend $7 billion annually for that energy. When you take all of those factors together, the fact is that we have no economic security, and Hawaii needs to move toward an oil-independent, clean energy/fossil-free future. … Also, take into account that the economy here is largely tourist based, and the cost of living is almost two times higher than in  just about every major city in the United States.”

The flip-side, Kimura says, looks better.  “I see two opportunities here. First of all, the opportunity for us to be self-sustaining. We have some of the best wind, some of the best solar, some of the best access to the ocean and to waste-biomass because of our agriculture industry. … All these are natural resources that could be converted into power, or even just fuel for our cars, like biodiesel. I think that’s step one — becoming energy efficient. Step two is exporting our knowledge and our technology. … It might not be mission-critical for others today, but it will be. These problems are magnified in Hawaii, but they become a reality within ten years in other parts of the world. That second point could become a key economic driver for Hawaii.”

All across O’ahu are impressive indicators for the future.

Hickam Air Force Base has a hydrogen fueling station where many of its vehicles – electric-drive vehicles, be they fuel-cell or internal-combustion that burn hydrogen – can fill ‘er up. That was built about three years ago. Now the station is powered by 146 kilowatts of solar power – enough to energize about 30 homes. The 180-watt panels were manufactured and installed by Honolulu based Sunetric. The hydrogen plant itself was a joint venture between the state of Hawaii and the United States Air Force.

Nearer to Waikiki, the historic Punahou School, where President Barack Obama graduated high school, class of ‘79, has green shoots sprouting every which way. The circa-1841 campus is home to one of the most aggressive pushes toward sustainability of any school in the nation. Across 76 acres, 44 school buildings are spread, many with solar panels and other signs of sustainability. But since 2004, Punahou has taken greenness to a whole new level, with the opening of the LEED Gold Case Middle School in 2004-2005, and, now with construction underway on the uber-clean Omidyar K-1 Neighborhood and Tennis Complex, which Punahou hopes will receive LEED Platinum upon its completion in 2010-2011.

In 2006, Punahou’s Case Middle School was named “Greenest School in America” by the GreenGuide. It features waterless urinals, photovoltaic arrays, as well as curricula and field-trips that focus on all elements of sustainability, from eating local food to being socially responsible and community driven, to being environmentally active. Oh, and the vending machines don’t have candy.

Over at Sopogy, the company is, to use surfer lingo, throwin’ some serious heat.

Sopogy's Solar Nova Concentrator (Photo: Sopogy)

Founded by Kimura in 2002 (one of several clean-energy/eco-friendly companies he’s pioneered over the past 17 years), Sopogy introduced a new product yesterday at the Solar Power International Conference and Expo in Anaheim, Calif. – the first commercially available rooftop Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) collector – called the SopoFlare. CSP’s have previously been designed for deserts, or spread across acres and large fields.

“These are about 30 percent cheaper than traditional solar collectors. And the cool thing is that when we launched the product, we had so many hits on our website that it went down. It’s back up now. But people were freaking out!” Kimura said.

But that’s only the beginning, local entrepreneurs say. A number of new projects are coming online – have actually been announced – that amount to almost a billion dollars worth of clean-energy projects in Hawaii. They span the universe of clean energy, from activated carbon to burning sugarcane to create power, to biodiesel projects to Sopogy’s own steam-energy advances, which use mirrors to intensify the energy of the sun, creating steam and then collecting it.

It could be colder in Boston this time of year. With overnight lows in the upper 40s, it’s not the worst or best condition for sleeping outside.

"Sleepers" gather in Boston

Still, that’s what dozens of college students and environmental activists across the state have decided to do to make a point about clean energy and press Gov. Deval Patrick to promote a bill that would power Massachusetts with 100 percent clean energy by 2020.

The students, organized through the student-led Leadership Campaign, began their “sleep out” protest this past weekend with about 70 students and community members sleeping out in Boston Common.

Participants came from Harvard and Boston Universities; from Clark University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute and even from Westfield State College and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the western part of the state. Community members came from all over the state and included ordained clergy, according to organizers.

The plan: To sleep outdoors instead of in dormitories and houses powered by “dirty electricity”, until a plan is in place to power homes with clean electricity. Monday morning, after the first sleep in, students lobbied legislators at the Statehouse.

How long will the students shiver in the night? They’ll be back every Sunday night in Boston Common, and on other campuses students will continue to sleep out through the week,  until early December, if necessary. The activists want Patrick to introduce and pass a bill before Dec. 7, when global climate negotiations begin in Copenhagen. (Find out more about sleeping out on their website.)

“Massachusetts has already led on this issue,” said protest coordinator Craig Altemose. “When the science said 450 parts per million [of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was the safe upper limit], the Legislature passed a bill putting the Commonwealth on track with this target.

“But now the science says 350 is the highest safe level.  We’re now at 390, so we know that the Legislature and the Governor will again step forward and lead us to a clean energy future with accurate science-based targets.”

What the students and activists are asking for is realistic, says Dan Abrams, a spokesman for the Leadership Campaign.

Tents in Boston

“…There have been numerous reports that state that we can get a very high percentage of our energy in Massachusetts from wind and solar alone.  I have read a report that says we can get around 60% of our energy from wind alone. I also have heard of a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists that says we can get 92% of our energy from wind and solar (and that doesn’t include off shore wind or energy conservation),” Abrams said.

But moving to clean energy is not really a choice dictated by how easy or not it will be to shift the infrastructure and electricity generation, he said.

“The science has clearly stated the world needs to cap the carbon in our atmosphere at 350ppm and we must do whatever it takes to get us below that number; 10 years is how long we are giving our government because it’s very scientifically possible to get to this goal much sooner but it is the politics that take a little bit longer.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

A group of Ohio business leaders released a new economic analysis that says a strong federal clean energy policy could create up to 61,000 jobs in Ohio, while increasing annual incomes by $992 and growing the state economy by $3.7 billion.

The new study was released the day before US Senate deliberations begin on clean energy and climate legislation. The research — co-released with E2, the national investor coalition Ceres and the Clean Economy Network — was conducted by the University of California in collaboration with the University of Illinois and Yale University. It examined of the impacts of three pillars of federal legislation: energy efficiency, renewable energy and limits on carbon pollution.

“This report shows that the stronger the federal energy and climate policies, the more Ohio stands to gain economically,” Eric Zimmer, CEO & founder of Tipping Point Renewable Energy, said in a statement. “Those who say we cannot afford to take action now do not understand the opportunity we stand to lose by not acting. There is an emerging multi-billion dollar global clean energy market and Ohio is poised to capture its leading edge.”

Nationally, the analysis concluded that full adoption of the American Clean Energy and Security Act’s package of pollution reduction and energy efficiency measures would create between 918,000 and 1.9 million new jobs, increase annual household income by $487-$1,175 per year, and boost GDP by $39 billion-$111 billion. These economic gains are over and above the growth the U.S. would see in the absence of such a bill.

Using a new forecasting model called the Environmental Assessment in General Equilibrium (EAGLE), the study conducted detailed economic assessments of climate and energy policies currently under consideration in Congress. The study modeled both moderate and aggressive implementation of policies that create a market-based program to reduce carbon emissions, as well as set strong standards for and investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The Ohio findings include:

• Aggressive policy implementation results in greater economic and job growth in Ohio by 2020 than moderate or no implementation.
• The strongest policies could generate up to 61,000 additional jobs in Ohio, increase Ohio real Gross Domestic Product by $3.7 billion and real household income by $992 per year (as measured in 2008 dollars) by 2020.
• Even moderate implementation drives economic growth in Ohio, generating $1.6 billion in GDP, and $452 in annual household income growth.
• More carbon dependent state economies have more to gain from climate action, assuming they adopt balanced policies that combine all three pillars (energy efficiency, renewable energy and carbon pollution limits).

The Ohio Business Council for a Clean Economy, which released the report, said results from the EAGLE study are consistent with projections by agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Congressional Budget Office, and the Department of Energy – all of which show substantial economic benefits from more efficient energy use.

“Improving energy efficiency cuts costs for transportation, heating, cooling and other energy demands,” David Roland-Holst, the study’s author, said in a statement. “Money saved on energy puts dollars back in household bank accounts, and gives consumers the freedom to spend on things they want. This spending represents 70 percent of Gross State Product, so it represents potent growth and job stimulus for the Ohio economy.”

If anyone doubted that there’s a global grassroots movement to fight climate change, they may reconsider after viewing the photos that streamed in this weekend from the International Day of Climate Action.

Demonstrators in Sydney at the Opera House

From Sydney to Barcelona; the Himalayas to Hollywood, people in more than 180 nations gathered to display the number 350 — the benchmark that many scientists consider to be the safe upper limit for carbon in the air. Above 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide (Earth’s atmosphere is already at 390), greenhouse gases play havoc with arctic ice and the oceans, sending Earth toward a tipping point that climatologists around the world would bring disastrous floods, coastal losses, droughts and vast alterations in farmland.

The organizing group behind the demonstrations, 350.org, asked concerned citizens and like-minded groups to coalesce around this single number to make a point that the people across the globe want solutions.  Specifically, they want their national leaders to take serious steps to curb global warming at the upcoming United Nations’ climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

350 in Bangladesh

The wave of actions that rippled across the planet this past weekend began in the Pacific, where many islands could be inundated by the rising seas created by greenhouse gases. It moved with the time zones around the planet, to the mountains where glaciers are thinning to Africa where the ability to grow food is threatened.

In Bonn, activists make their desires clear (Photo: Robert von Waarden, Spectral Q)

In Europe activists used the day to express their hopes that political leaders will act decisively. Environmentalists are concerned that politicians may move too slowly, and that without a firm move toward clean energy and away from polluting fossil fuel industries, the planet’s atmosphere will continue to fill with greenhouse gases.

At 11 a.m. on Saturday, Columbia University’s two largest student environmental groups gathered in the middle of campus to bang on drums, strum guitars, blow through horns and yell at the top of their lungs. For one ear-throbbing minute the campus erupted– all in the name of the environment.

The literal wake-up call to the Upper West Side of New York City kicked-off the day-long festivities, organized by Green Umbrella and Eco-Reps, for the International Day of Climate Action, a world-wide day of events organized to deliver a unified call to action for bold leadership on the climate crisis.

Demonstrators at the Brooklyn Bridge

“This movement may be small today, but we’re not alone at all,” said Greg Tulchin, the head organizer of Columbia’s 350 Event. “We’re connected to all these millions of people around the world.”

Despite the relentless downpour in the city, scheduled events carried on in NYC, with the grand finale in Times Square including supporters chanting and carrying signs as jumbo screens streamed climate day slogans. At Columbia, a small group of students and neighbors huddled under tents while creating their own 12-foot banner for Times Square. They made newspaper pots for planting and watched eco-related performances.

Students at Columbia College (Photo: Sommer Saadi)

“There is a lot of information out there [about climate change] and it can be really overwhelming,” said Elizabeth Kipp-Giusti, publicity director of EcoReps, one of the organizing groups. “If we can do a little bit to facilitate that process of going through it all, then that’s a step toward having people be more environmentally aware and that’s all we can ask for.”

With the goal of the day being to raise awareness about 350 and the December UN Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen, being in the middle of the campus, in the middle of the city, making lots of noise translated to success—no matter the weather.

Theater Troupe in Trujillo, Peru (Photo: Valkiria)

While rained soaked events from Boston to Washington D.C., demos in the rest of the US fared better, with people turning out in tiny towns like Orono, Minn., and major cities, including larger gatherings in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Everywhere people made a point about the effects on climate change on their corner of the world, declaring “We love our snow” in Alaska, with that changing to “Save Our Coasts” on Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles.

The sun shone also on events in South America, which has been losing natural habitat to over-development, and in Africa, is already hitting hard. Many island nations and countries in low-lying areas, which stand to lose coastal lands to rising seas as well as worsening storms, participated in the demonstrations, from the Maldives and Micronesia to the Caribbean.

School children in the Dominican Republic

Bill McKibben, environmental activist and founder of 350.org, declared the day a huge success to supporters and urged anyone who’s curious to visit the website and see the photos.

“It was so sweet to watch the day move around the globe, with thousands upon thousands of pictures appearing, sometimes a dozen a minute! There were photos of climbers high on the glaciers of Switzerland holding 350 banners, of bicycle parades from Copenhagen to San Francisco, of organizers in Papua New Guinea beating their church gong 350 times while churches in Barcelona rang their bells 350 times.”

“…Together, we’ve shown the world that a global climate movement is possible and set a bold new agenda for the upcoming United Nations Climate Meetings in Copenhagen this December,” he said. “The 350 target is the new bottom line for climate action and world leaders must now meet that target.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media