Quick answer…doubt it! As Op-Ed pieces and lawmakers debate the virtues of a government bailout of the American auto industry, General Motors is pointing to its plug-in hybrid vehicle, the Volt, as a sign that the car maker is on the right course. Not due to hit showrooms until 2010, the Volt is being touted by GM as the car that will change the industry (and save the ailing company’s hide).
But, it’s been a long time since Detroit’s innovation inspired the world. At the height of the Big Three’s prestige and influence, the decade following WWII, US automakers enjoyed a 95% market share. Now, as John Tamny writes in Forbes, General Motors market value is less than that of Bed, Bath and Beyond, with less than 25% market share of overall car sales in the US. As others have noted, if GM fails, it will do so under the weight of its pension and healthcare commitments, yes, but also because of its misplaced emphasis on that most American of ideals, ‘bigger means better.’ Continue reading ‘LTT Opinion: Can The Volt Save G.M.?’ »
The popular Taiwanese computer brand Asus, known for developing the first lead-free motherboard in 2004, as well as their “Four Green Home Runs” Initiative (Green Design, Green Procurement, Green Manufacturing, and Green Service and Marketing) is adding to their enviro-friendly lineup, launching their bamboo-paneled laptop in the US.
Last month, we wrote about the new ‘green billboard‘ that Ricoh is building in NYC’s Time Square. Green Fever must have hit the Great White Way, because now comes an announcement of a partnership between the city and Broadway to lower the theater district’s carbon footprint. “Broadway Goes Green” is a practical initiative that doesn’t require wholesale changes to the way business (and entertainment) is done on Broadway, but rather it looks to maximize efficiency, reduce unnecessary waste and educate employees and theater goers about a variety of conservation practices.
Those measures include changing the iconic marquees lights to bulbs with five times the efficiency of current bulbs. Inside the theater, lights in hallways, closets and backstage areas are also being switched to compact fluorescents or LEDs. As Mayor Bloomberg explains, “by this time next year the lights on Broadway will burn just a little bit brighter, but our energy bills will be a little bit lower, and our carbon footprint will be as well.” The challenge is to strike a reasonable balance between sustainability and commercial interests, but theater owners are beginning to appreciate the ways in which those two sets of interests are linked. David Stone, a producer of “Wicked,” acknowledged, “the theater community has always been at the forefront of social change, and we have been left behind on this one a little bit.”
Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, who is acting as an advisor for “Broadway Goes Green,” is encouraging the industry to consider other simple changes, such as recycling of Playbills and introducing eco-friendly guidelines for the trucking and transportation needs of each production. As he explains it, lasting change will be accomplished through “cumulative effect of a lot of small actions.”
For more info, read Stephen McElroy’s piece in the NY Times.
In his new book, The Green Collar Economy, Van Jones makes a case for a new ‘green stimulus package’ of $350 billion to fix what he calls “our two biggest problems,” the deepening economic crisis and global climate change. The solution, he argues, is to “retrofit and reboot America,” by creating a green New Deal. Developing green infrastructure, investing in renewable energies and “unleashing” the creative entrepreneurial spirit of America towards clean green solutions, he suggests, would create millions of new jobs. But much of the work doesn’t rely on new and future technologies, he insists. “The low-hanging fruit is a massive program to retrofit America, to weatherize millions and millions of American buildings to leak less energy…that’s using the caulk gun.” Echoing writers like Tom Friedman, Jones acknowledges that while private enterprise and entrepreneurship will solve global warming, the “market works according to rules,” and the government can help by creating incentives and conditions that stimulate a robust green economy. Continue reading ‘Books: The Green Collar Economy’ »
Time again to give thanks- should there really only be one day set aside for that?- and we’re certainly grateful for the tremendous feedback we’ve received since launching Love Tomorrow Today. As always, we invite you to let us know about programs and people making a difference or tips to incorporating simple change into our daily lives.
Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! This weekend, remember to reduce, recycle, reuse and…relax! Don’t forget, eating leftovers (delicious, food coma-inducing leftovers) is good for the planet!
Sam’s Club and Aquafina have teamed up once again in support of Keep America Beautiful’s ‘Great American Cleanup,’ the nation’s largest annual community improvement program. The partnership has produced the ‘Return The Warmth‘ program, aimed at challenging local communities and schools to contribute to the ‘Cleanup’ project. Through this year’s program, an estimated 189 million plastic bottles were recycled, exceeding the stated goal of 80 million and more than doubling the results from last year’s campaign, where 70.6 million bottles were recycled.
A total of 25,000 fleece jackets made from recycled plastic bottle material have been distributed to the 100 schools that collected the most bottles. In addition, the top 50 schools received a $1,000 Sam’s Club Gift Card. “Return the Warmth has been a testament to Sam’s Club and Aquafina’s creativity in putting Keep America Beautiful’s message of ‘closing the loop’ to work, and teaching it to school children across the country,” said Keep America Beautiful President & CEO Matthew McKenna. “Nearly doubling our goal in collecting 189 million PET bottles through our Great American Cleanup participating organizations has been simply astounding.” Continue reading ‘Sam’s Club & Aquafina Team Up To ‘Keep American Beautiful’’ »
I didn’t know the “green nightclub” was a trend, but head over to the Times’ Green Inc. blog to read how NYC’s hottest new eco-hotspot Greenhouse wants to show people “that partying and sustainability aren’t mutually exclusive.” Oh boy…
We’ve blogged about the environmental considerations of the new MacBook, and now Apple’s touting their new line as “The Greenest Family of Notebooks.” Watch the ad, let us know what you think.
Last month, we wrote about Better Place, the Palo Alto-based company started by software entrepreneur Shai Agassi that is single-handedly changing the way people think about the future of electric cars. Better Place is partnering with local governments and private backers to invest in the type of ‘green infrastructure’ that could support widespread use of electric vehicles. Development is already under way to build ‘electric highway networks’- powered by renewable energies- in Israel, Denmark, Australia and now here in the United States.
The mayors of Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose approved Better Place’s $1 billion plan to build up an electric service network. Unlike Prop 1A, which authorized a $10 billion public investment from the state for a bullet train- and that was just the down payment- Better Place’s plan is supported by private investments and involves installing thousands of parking-meter-size plugs in homes, lots, garages, and shopping centers for an electric fill-up. San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom suggested public contributions would come in the form of tax incentives and rebates. Continue reading ‘Bay Area Becomes ‘Better Place’’ »
Earlier this year, FEED Projects introduced it’s newest initiative, the FEED 100 bag. Available exclusively at Whole Foods Market, each bag will provide 100 school meals to hungry children in Rwanda through the UN’s World Food Program (WFP). FEED Projects was started in 2007 by Lauren Bush, the model, activist and honorary spokesperson for the WFP, and Ellen Gustafson, a former United Nations Communications Officer, to feed and educated children in impoverished places.
We see the bag as a great example of the possible synergy between fashion trends and responsible consumerism.
This time next week, we’ll be emerging from our turkey comas. Ah tryptophan! My favorite of the essential amino acids! Thanksgiving is, for my money, the best holiday of the year. It’s one we all share- as Americans- and, without the stress of having to find the right presents, the focus is food, family and gratitude. But the holidays can also present certain challenges to sustainable living. For starters, Thanksgiving is the busiest time of the year for US travelers. With all that travel, shopping, cooking and eating…it’s a holiday that produces a lot of waste.
With a few tweaks to your normal routine, it’s possible to save time, money and waste this Thanksgiving. Often, simply being conscious of your consumption guides you towards responsible decisions. According to the Nature Conservancy, an estimated 96 billion pounds of food are discarded nationally every year, 5 million tons of trash during the holiday season alone. So, maybe if no one really finished your homemade pumpkin pie last year, make less this time around! I know, I know, you mistakenly put in a cup of salt instead of a cup of sugar, but, seriously, back away from the stove…!
What’s our point? Well, while some green sites might suggest things like a vegan menu, we know, in reality, you’d probably get expelled from all future family events for a stunt like that. And why drastically change one of the greatest days of the year? As you’re thinking about Thanksgiving, consider all the little decisions that go into the day, and then consider tweaking them. Carpool to your Aunt Barb’s house, or, if you’re flying somewhere, consider offsetting the carbon (roughly $12 for a cross-country flight), where possible buy products with less packaging, and don’t forget the best part of Thanksgiving…leftovers!
According to a new study, 2009 will be a big year of growth in the green building market. McGraw-Hill Construction’s recently published “Green Outlook 2009: Trends Driving Change” projects a “possible tripling in the value of eco-friendly construction starts to reach as much as $140 billion.” Given its recent forecast for a 7% drop in overall construction starts, the “green growth” means the greening building market could represent more than a quarter of the overall construction market within a few years.
In September, McGraw-Hill Construction released a similarly optimistic study predicting a “big jump” in the growth and profits in green construction worldwide. “Green growth is phenomenal across the globe,” Harvey M. Bernstein, McGraw-Hill Construction’s vice president of Industry Analytics, Alliances and Strategic Initiatives, said in a statement announcing the report. “The business opportunities afforded by green building, even in the midst of a global economic crisis, are real and recognized by industry players.”
In this economy, we’ll take this as further proof that businesses are recognizing the duel bottom line of sustainable construction, where thoughtful design and responsible construction can save money and resources. Continue reading ‘“Green growth is phenomenal across the globe”’ »
Curitiba, Brazil is known amongst environmentalists and urban planners alike as a world model of sustainability - 30 years ago, they implemented the ’Curitiba Master Plan’ to address the problems of urban living through progressive transportation systems and enviro-friendly social programs that address recycling creatively, expand green space and develop industry. I could go on (30 years ago!?!) but check out Frontline’s great coverage here. Pepsi recently announced their own model - a new facility in Curitiba that will focus on energy management through light conservation - that will serve as the standard for future PepsiCo facilities. The light system was created by Orion Energy Systems, who have retrofitted 80 PepsiCo facilities in the US so far.
Inspired by an onion? Well, according to those quirky folks at Nissan, an onion inspired the look of their new all-electric concept car, the Nuvo. As the above video shows, the Nuvo is a big step forward for Nissan, which, unlike Toyota and Honda, has been slow to get into the hybrid/electric game. According to Nissan, the car has a top speed of 75 mph and a range of roughly 80 miles. With a battery that fully recharges in 3-4 hours, and charges to 80% after only 10 minutes, the Nuvo is not just another empty offering but could spell a new direction for Nissan. In fact, it could spell a new direction for the electric car biz. Carlos Tavares, Nissan’s VP for product planning and development, predicts that in the future people will choose to buy cars but lease the batteries, as technology and storage capacity continue to evolve dramatically from generation to generation. For more on that, see this post on PSFK. As for the car, let’s hope that new car smell isn’t inspired by an onion too! -Rich Continue reading ‘Nuvo Brings Nissan Up To Speed’ »
While the question with solar is always “How much?” some nano-engineering students at RPI have developed an anti-reflective coating to make solar cells capture the full light spectrum - 96% to be precise - from all angles, sunrise to sunset. An amazing breakthrough, especially if it allows current panels to be upgraded, and be introduced into the market swiftly. Clean Technica call it a “solar power game changer.” Read more there:
Growing up in Queens, I loved sneakers before kids waited on line all night for them. And I have always worn Nikes. When Nike Considered launched, I was excited by the natural look, focus on impacts, and the process they went through developing them with Staple Design. It clearly didn’t catch, though, and Considered became more about the process, than the look, evidenced in the development of the Air Jordan XX3. Now, their focus is on all products being ‘Considered’ by 2020, including the first Considered running sneaker, the 25th Anniversary Air Pegasus, shown above. A lofty goal, one even Patagonia has struggled with. We’ll be watching.
With its bright lights and bustling of activity, Times Square is, in many ways, the energetic center of Manhattan, but it’s also its epicenter of consumption. Its mention wouldn’t necessarily make you think of the green revolution. But thanks to Ricoh Americas Corporation, the office supply and document-storage company, Times Square is about to get a bit greener. Ricoh is building a $3 million billboard on the northwest corner of Seventh Ave and 42nd Street that will be powered by the sun and wind.
The sign (pictured here in an artist’s rendering) will feature 16 wind turbines and 64 solar panels and will measure 126 feet wide and 47 feet high. Construction is expected to begin later this month, with an official lighting ceremony scheduled for early December. According to the NY Times, the sign will likely cost Ricoh as much as $200,000 a month. But that cost is standard for such a prime location, and unlike the other billboards in Times Square, the payback will be quantifiable, “generating its own electricity — enough to light six homes for a year — the sign could save as much as $12,000 to $15,000 per month” and up to 18 tons of carbon a year. As Ron Potesky, a senior marketing VP for Ricoh explains, a the sign will serve as a message “to customers, other companies and the world that resources and energy can be used creatively. The point is that there are ways of being environmentally friendly to the planet, even on a billboard.”
Is it just me or have things at NBC really taken a turn for the better since they hired Jack Donaghy as the Head of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming? NBC, and its parent company GE (a subsidiary of the Sheinhardt Wig Company), is “going green” again.
All this week, the network is profiling environmental issues, sustainable organizations and the efforts of those making a difference to the planet. In a repeat of last year’s initiative, the hosts of the Today Show are heading to “the ends of the earth,” to explore climate change. In a dramatic live broadcast last year, Ann Curry reported from the South Pole, Al Roker from the equator and Matt Lauer from the Artic Sea. Once again, NBC is offsetting the carbon footprint of its traveling hosts. In addition, the Today Show will be offering a host of segments focused on educating viewers on greening their daily habits, such as “It’s Easy Being Green: 7 Ways to help the planet.”
NBC’s “Going Green” web site provides still more environmental pearls of wisdom. One of the offerings is “Jay’s Green Garage,” where Tonight show host Jay Leno profiles some innovations in green vehicles and sustainable car care. Here’s a video of Jay learning about Honda’s Natural Gas Civic. Continue reading ‘NBC Goes Green’ »
The organic food movement, for all of its imperfections, has been good for the environment. Greater scrutiny of how food is grown and how animals are treated has brought issues of sustainability to the fore. But in contrast to agriculture, so-called aquaculture - fish farming, shrimp farming and so on- has been slower to evolve, and retailers have been slower to demand it. That’s beginning to change.
Earlier this year, Whole Foods became the first major retailer to announce a comprehensive set of aquaculture guidelines, adopting strict standards aimed at avoiding damage to sensitive habitats, limiting waste and reducing pollution. The move is being welcomed by environmental groups, like the Environmental Defense Fund and the World Wildlife Fund, both of which have contributed to the “aquaculture dialogue.”
Starting two years ago, Whole Foods began consulting with environmental groups and scientists and visiting its suppliers’ farms to develop its own comprehensive set of guidelines, which includes a ban on preservatives, antibiotics, hormones and other chemicals commonly used in fish farming. “Right now, we need a way to source our seafood in a way that meets our customers’ expectations,” said Carrie Brownstein, seafood quality standards coordinator at Whole Foods. “We don’t want to be waiting on the sidelines. We want to be very active in the process.”
Residential solar power sounds great, especially with the rising costs of “dirty electrical” power. But solar is still prohibitively expensive for most people. Enter 1 Block Off The Grid, a community-based purchasing program aimed at promoting widespread adoption of residential “clean tech” energy by addressing the principal barriers, cost and complexity. To address issues of cost, 1BOG aggregates large numbers of buyers, leveraging a group’s bargaining power to negotiate large discounts for members, and streamlining the sales process for vendors. To address issues of complexity, 1BOG helps buyers wade through the many considerations, such as how to apply for local energy rebates, how many panels are necessary and what technologies are available in their area.
1BOG started as a consumer-based initiative in San Francisco and rapidly became the largest group purchasing program for green products in the country. After a successful pilot program in San Francisco, 1BOG was purchased by Virgance, a company that scales new activism ideas. Virgance has now launched 1BOG programs in 20 cities, including Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle and Miami.
We’re all pretty well trained at this point to drop our bottles into the recycling bin. Seeing someone throw a bottle or can into the regular trash is like seeing someone light up a cigarette- sorry smokers, but it’s true, it goes against what we now know to be common sense for our own health. Post-consumer sustainability is increasingly a mainstream interest. But how about Pre-Consumer sustainability? A new environmental program in the United Kingdom is engaging the leading retailers, brand owners and their supply chain to identify collaborative approaches to reducing the amount of packaging waste. Packaging optimization is not a new concept (see our recent post about Hewlett Packard for example), but the initiative, known as WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme), is encouraging widespread packaging changes a scale not seen here in the United States. The folks at WRAP found that as much as 50% of household waste in the UK was originating from the five leading supermarket chains and that targeting those retailers could affect change throughout the industry.
WRAP has been particularly successful in encouraging bottlers to convert to lighter weight glass. In the past year, more than 60 bottlers (of beer and cider) in the U.K. have optimized their bottles, eliminating over 32,000 tons of glass. With slight changes to a bottles height and diameter, the beverage companies are able to reduce the weight and amount of material needed by up to 30 per cent.
Pre-consumer sustainability programs like these have a direct (and positive) impact throughtout the supply chain, and we think it’s time for a WRAP-style initiative here in the U.S.
Few cities have been hit harder by the decline of the US auto industry than Flint, Michigan. As Detroit’s car makers fumble and falter, due in large part to their stubborn reluctance to be innovators in green technology, Flint has fallen on hard times. But the city is hoping to recast itself as a hub for green transportation by turning sewage into fuel for its bus fleet.
Partnering with local Kettering University and the Swedish company, Swedish Biogas International, Flint is looking to turn its municipal sewage into biogas, which officials hope will begin powering buses by next summer. Biogas is often seen as too expensive an alternative to gasoline, but Swedish Biogas President Peter Unden believes the Flint plant can produce biogas that is 20 percent less expensive than gasoline. City officials hope it will attract other renewable energy projects and investments. As Kettering University President Stanley R. Liberty explained, “the future will be based on a science-and-technology economy. GM was a startup company; we need to go back 100 years and rediscover the entrepreneurial spirit that existed here.” Continue reading ‘Places: Flint, Michigan, A Hub of Green Transportation?’ »
New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg is helping to place the city at the forefront of urban green thinking. The newest initiative is a proposed 6 cent tax on the use of plastic bags. Other cities in the U.S. and throughout the world (particularly Europe and Australia) have already taken steps to address the vast amount of waste pollution created by plastic bags. An estimated one trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. Instead of opting for an out-right ban of plastic bags, as other cities have chosen to do (most notably San Francisco), NYC is hoping a tax can dissuade people from using bags and generate added revenue for the city. As David W. Chen points out in his piece in the NY Times, “city officials estimate that the fee could generate $16 million a year, a figure that Mr. Bloomberg would no doubt appreciate, given the lingering and concussive effects of the global economic crisis on the city’s economy.” The 6 cent tax is considerably lower than the 33 cent tax introduced in Ireland in 2002, where use of plastic bags dropped 94% within two weeks. Continue reading ‘NYC- Bloomberg Calls For Plastic Bag Tax’ »
Among TIME Magazine’s just published list of the Best Inventions of 2008, we find ten directly related to issues of sustainability. There may well be others, but I’m not really sure what the world’s largest particle accelerator does exactly (other than overheat and need shutting down until spring). As this blog and others can attest, there has been an impressive range of new innovation in sustainability (from ‘Smart Meters’ to mobile phone/GPS carbon calculators, from wave-energy technologies to solar-powered bus stops), so TIME’s list is, of course, incomplete but interesting. Below are the links to those ten inventions, with my own brief description of each.
#2. The Tesla Roadster: With a price tag of $100,000, this is by no means a mainstream invention, but this sportscar will change the way people think about electric cars.
#7. Chevy Volt: No one thinks of ‘green innovation’ when you mention Chevy, but that’s exactly what the US auto maker has finally delivered. With an all-electric range of 40 miles, it’s a good step towards catching up with the rest of the world (particularly Toyota and Honda).
We’d all like to rest easier at night. If you’ve got a Hollander pillow, there’s more of a reason to feel comfortable. Hollander Home Fashions, the largest manufacturer of pillows in the U.S., plans to send zero waste to landfill within two years. The Oakland, CA-based company claims to be well on its way to meeting that goal, having found recycling streams for much of its trash.
Hollander, which sells over 35 million pillows a year through most major retailers, estimated it was putting 250,000 pounds of wrapping in landfills annually. The company has developed new manufacturing practices to minimize inefficiencies in production. “We took a look at everything we were throwing out, and we wanted to target the big things first,” said Ron Capranos, senior vice president of manufacturing and head of Hollander’s sustainability efforts. Hollander is able to sell its waste to recyclers, but it has also seen its disposal costs go down to about 38 percent less than last year. Hollander is also working to cut the carbon emissions of its trucking and reduce product packaging, sustainability efforts that compliment its Zero Waste program. The company estimates it has cut 4.2 million square feet of corrugate and uses 2.3 million less cubic feet of shipping space annually.
Mission Our mission is to enable a sustainable lifestyle through simple change. We approach this by developing meaningful products and ideas that consider the impact of our daily lives on the future of our planet.
Blog The LoveTomorrowToday blog is intended as a forum for ideas on simple change. On these pages, we'll highlight innovative products, profile the efforts of difference makers and reflect upon the issues that will shape our tomorrow.
LoveTomorrowToday Bag One of our ideas was to make a bag from 100% recycled PET plastic bottles. Less than 1% of bags are recycled. Nearly a trillion bags are consumed worldwide each year. Roughly 45 billion PET plastic bottles and roughly 4 billion pounds of PET waste will end up in US landfills this year. Over the life of our bag, use it everywhere and save tens of thousands of plastic bottles and bags from ending up in landfills.
Check back as we roll out some of our other ideas and as we run across innovative people and products.
Quick answer…doubt it! As Op-Ed pieces and lawmakers debate the virtues of a government bailout of the American auto industry, General Motors is pointing to its plug-in hybrid vehicle, the Volt, as a sign that the car maker is on the right course. Not due to hit showrooms until 2010, the Volt is being touted by GM as the car that will change the industry (and save the ailing company’s hide).
