December 19th, 2012

Its creators call it an Organic Transit Vehicle (OTV), a “new class of velomobile” that’s positioned somewhere between a bike and a mini-car.
The game-changing aspect of this newfangled vehicle, one model of which is called the ELF, is that its carbon footprint is near zero.

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July 23rd, 2012

Red wolves, commonly mistaken as coyotes, have stunning copper and gray coats. They live in packs composed of one alpha male and one female, along with their litter. When their pups are age 2, the males begin the search for another female to start their own packs, and their parents continue having litters once a year.

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February 16th, 2012

B Corps, or benefit corporations, have arrived in the state of New York.
Earlier this month, the legislature passed, and Gov. Cuomo signed, a bill (S.79-A) approving this new type of corporate structure in which companies promise to have a positive impact on the environment and watch out for the rights of workers and communities.
State officials then immediately registered 13 companies as B Corps on Feb 10, the same day the law was enacted.

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August 29th, 2011

The cost of Hurricane Irene will be hefty. It will take $5 billion to $7 billion, by early estimates, to repair roads, haul out downed trees and pump out flooded basements in North Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and the hurricane’s surprise last-minute victim, Vermont.

That’s similar to the $5.2 billion price tag placed on the Texas drought this year, which has caused extensive livestock and crop failures in the state, a major producer of beef, corn, cotton and other commodities.

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September 2nd, 2010

This satellite “Photo of the Day” from NASA satellite GOES-13 taken on Monday shows Hurricane Danielle skirting off to the north, while compact and ominous Hurricane Earl heads toward the U.S. (notice Earl’s eye is visible), and a tropical depression forms behind Earl (lower right).

But that was so Monday. Earl, as we now know, is even more muscular and threatening, imperiling barrier islands and beaches from the Carolinas to New England. For the lastest on Earl, we flip the channel to NOAA, where photos show how the storm’s winds are already battering North Carolina.

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April 22nd, 2010

Ten new customer sites across North Carolina will have solar panels installed on their building or grounds as part of Duke Energy’s distributed solar generation program, the company announced today. The Environmental Protection Agency’s facility in Durham is among the sites that will have solar equipment added.

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March 22nd, 2010

From Green Right Now Reports

North Carolina could benefit economically and add nearly 40,000 new jobs over the next 15 years if it follows a greener development path, according to a new study by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

The ACEEE’s study looked at how North Carolina, one of the fastest growing states in the nation, could benefit from enacting policies that promote energy and water efficiency and that “lock in” energy savings by building energy-smart buildings and creating eco-friendly communities.

The analysis by the non-profit ACEEE found that:

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March 9th, 2010

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

When Ric Richards recently acquired an aging McDonalds in Cary, N.C., he knew the place needed an overhaul. The 25-year-old store was fraying at the edges.

LED lighting at Cary McDonalds

Richards decided to give these particular golden arches a green touch.

Once he’d decided that the building needed replacing, the decision to go eco-friendly was not difficult. Richards knew it made sense from a business standpoint – it would cut energy costs dramatically – and he figured it would resonate with the educated customers living in the Research Triangle region, especially those interested in lower-carbon living.

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November 4th, 2009

By Harriet Blake

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.”

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July 21st, 2009

Green Right Now Reports:

FedEx has added 92 hybrid-electric trucks to its fleet, all of which are converted standard delivery trucks.

The increase represents a jump of 50 percent in the company’s hybrid fleet, bringing it to a total of 264 hybrid-electric vehicles. FedEx estimates that its hybrid fleet has saved an estimated 1,521 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions since 2004. That’s equivalent to taking 279 cars off the road annually.

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May 26th, 2009

By Harriet Blake

The best teachers inspire. Their grasp and excitement of a subject is contagious. Talking to Bertha Vazquez, Susan Vincent and Patrick Curley, you can’t come away without absorbing at least a sliver of their passion for the environment.

This month the National Environmental Education Foundation recognized Vazquez, Vincent and Curley for their innovative approaches to environmental education. Bertha Vazquez, a middle school teacher at a magnet school in Coral Gables, Fla., won the Richard C. Bartlett Education Award, named after the chairman of the Nature Conservancy of Texas. Patrick Curley, a middle and high-school teacher who works with at-risk students in Jacksonville, NC, and Susan Vincent, an earth and marine science teacher in East Harlem, NY, won certificates of merit.

“Kids have always related to the environment,” says Vazquez, who teaches at George Washington Carver Middle School in the Miami-Dade school system. “Teachers need to look for real-life connections that kids can relate to.”

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