Microgrid Solar’s translucent solar panels are pushing the envelope on solar aesthetics. They’ve been used to create canopies in a variety of settings, and for the first time are being used as a solid roof at the kitschy Moonrise Hotel in St. Louis.

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Scott Bergford has spent his entire home building career searching for the balance between energy efficiency and affordability. For nearly 30 years, Scott has worked to build homes that exceed building codes and use little energy to run.

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The European Union votes to give honey bees a reprieve from a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, long suspected of triggering massive bee deaths that threaten agriculture worldwide. The pesticides are still be allowed in the United States.

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Major American businesses are pushing Washington to act boldly and quickly on climate change, because it will be better for the planet, and for business. The signers of the new Climate Declaration wield some muscle, employing nearly half a million Americans. See who belongs to this new green group.

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A retailer who’ve come to rely on for cough syrup, toothpaste and greeting cards has decided to push the envelope on green energy with a model net-zero store that hopes to turn a loss — of energy costs.

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Beekeepers and environmental groups sued the EPA this week for allowing pesticides that are causing an epidemic of bee deaths. The suit asks the agency to suspend the permits for certain pesticides, which have been shown to poison bees, which in turn threatens a wide array of crops dependent on bee pollination.

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Several years ago researchers pinpointed a class of insecticides known as neonicitinoids as having an especially devastating impact on honey bees. Now, European scientists said they are convinced that the neonicitinoid pesticides pose a clear threat.

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In the midst of the domestic energy boom, livestock on farms near oil-and-gas drilling operations nationwide have been quietly falling sick and dying. While scientists have yet to isolate cause and effect, many suspect chemicals used in drilling and hydrofracking (or “fracking”) operations are poisoning animals through the air, water, or soil.

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We may have reached “peak farmland” on earth, meaning we have enough cultivated land to support our bulging human population, according to a report released this week.
Even as the planet reaches a population of 10 billion people by around 2060, it will still have adequate farmland — and be able to return a sizable chunk of arable land back to nature — thanks to more efficient agriculture, stabilizing populations and changing food tastes, say the three authors of “Peak Farmland and the Prospects for Sparing Nature,” being published in Population and Development Review (PDR) in 2013

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Like most Americans not involved in agriculture, the massive 2013 Farm Bill falls into the realm of ho-hum government business that’s a) complex beyond belief and b) is going to happen with or without your input.

And Monsanto — the world’s biggest pesticide maker and owner of seeds (and by extension food) — is counting on that.

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Half Moon Ventures, a Chicago-based developer of solar and wind energy products, unveiled a rooftop solar installation the size of two pro football fields at i.Park Hudson, an office/industrial park in Yonkers, N.Y.

The solar project is expected to produce 1.2 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, enough to power more than 120 homes and equivalent in reducing air pollution to taking 160 cars off the road.

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How do you plan on doing away with your tasty Thanksgiving leftovers? According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Americans throw away a grand total of $282 million worth of uneaten turkey each year. And you can bet that that number is just as high for wasted Christmas ham and roast birds.

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