Innovation | Grist

Good policy pays off

Proof of concept: Well-crafted standards spur innovation in lighting 1
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
Well-crafted standards spur innovations in energy efficiency. These technologies would not be evolving if not for the federal standard.
Next on climate: Improve Waxman-Markey innovation provisions in Senate 0
Posted 5 months ago
Few aspects of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill matter more than the insufficient degree to which it applies future revenue to clean energy innovation. Quite simply, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) makes only a modest start toward promoting the technology breakthroughs that will make clean energy cheap, reduce carbon emissions, and create thousands of cleantech jobs.
Sunday on Bourne Street

Getting to know the neighborhood — through its trash 0
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
What do the contents of curbside trash bins say about a place's past, its present, its future? Plenty -- you just have to know where (and how) to look.
Zen and the art of anxiety maintenance

Why I’m not freaked out about the Waxman-Markey climate bill 36
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
Will the Waxman-Markey bill spark a full-scale energy revolution? No. Not in the next 10-15 years. But I've been trying to focus on the bigger picture: will there be an energy revolution? The two questions are not the same; thinking they are is the road to freakout.
Mustache speaks; you listen

Tom Friedman chats with Grist about the green challenge and globalization 2
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
At a Grist gathering in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, we were pleased to host New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman for a chat on the state of green. Our intrepid video expert was on hand to tape the event.
Radiant Cities: Driving It Home

One man’s plan to re-create suburbia, sans cars 1
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago
If Sherman Lewis has his way, he and 950 other homeowners will soon be living in a car-free California paradise. But can he shift his vision into high gear, or will it stall out?
Recycling a House

How we found 133 Bourne St., and how we almost lost it 3
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Andrée Zaleska explains how she and Ken Ward bought the JP Green House just as the real-estate bubble was bursting, how their own bubble burst not long after, and how they got back on their feet.
Welcome to the JP Green House

In which we chronicle the creation of a groundbreaking eco-home 5
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago
When the JP Green House is finished, it will be an eco-home like no other -- but there's a long way to go before that happens. Follow the adventures of Grist contributor Ken Ward and his family this summer, as they work to make their zero-carbon dream a reality.
Love in a time of cataclysm

Fighting climate chaos with a hammer and a heart 4
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Activist Ken Ward finds that his emotional responses to the climate crisis vary wildly, from despair to hope to anger. But one feeling remains constant: his love for partner Andrée and their JP Green House undertaking. He explains -- and invites others to share their experiences.
Ray (and Shaun and Lisa) of Hope

Feds get cozy for sustainable communities 3
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago
A new partnership will promote affordable housing, public transit, and walkable neighborhoods. Pinch us, we're dreaming.
Hot Data

Clean-tech and urban renewal in one fell swoop 3
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Could a green-data collaboration between MIT, EMC, Cisco, and UMass be the shot in the arm that Holyoke, Mass., needs? City leaders hope so. Like, really, really hope.
State of plug-and-play

Hot new clean-tech startups are plug-and-play 4
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
You gotta be crazy to start a clean-tech company these days, right? But green start-ups competed fiercely to make their elevator pitches in front of a panel of VCs in Silicon Valley recently, and the common thread was plug-and-play.
Point A to Point Whee!

The best U.S. transit systems you never knew existed 15
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Certain cities are public transit all-stars: New York, San Francisco, D.C. But what about the rest of the country? As cities rethink how their residents get around, we take a look at transit innovations gaining speed in unexpected places.
And the 'Willie' goes to ...

UPDATE: Reuters and Greenbiz.com attack all federal clean energy technology development 1
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
If they gave out awards to columnists for advice that would cause the most harm to the nation if anybody actually followed it, then Greenbiz.com, Reuters, and Fortune contributor Marc Gunther would be a serious contender with his astonishingly uninformed piece "Beware of Obama's ‘Battery Gold Rush'." Let's call this award the "Willie" named after George Will.
tech your children well

Clean technology innovation: reaping the rewards 2
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Clean technology has more potential for wealth creation than information technology. Yet despite numerous breakthroughs, the clean energy and technology space has yet to generate the type of home runs on a company level or growth on an economy-wide level needed to reinvigorate the American economy and get wages moving upwards again. What can be done?
The Cairo speech

Obama calls for cooperation on clean energy and green jobs in Mideast 0
Posted 6 months ago
No one expected President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo on Thursday to focus on climate change, and it didn’t. But in speaking of how the well-being of the United States and the Muslim world are linked, Obama argued that clean energy development can be a common goal.
Sexy Retrofits: Catch-Up Edition

Yeah, that’s right, I’ve been to boot camp 2
Posted 6 months ago
With federal money flowing and high-profile peeps taking up the cause, cities are getting serious about trimming their waste-lines through retrofits.
Strengthening the Movement by Shrinking It

An interview with the innovators behind ioby.org 0
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
Can small-scale, local giving have a large-scale environmental impact? The anti-NIMBY activists behind the first green micro-lending site think so. Stephanie Ogburn reports.
Radiant Cities: Levittown, India-style

The folks behind the Nano take their vision to suburbia 5
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
What's the next big thing in international architecture? It might be tiny, tiny houses.
We Are the Chompions

Ask Umbra on mowing with goats 8
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
With Google making the switch to goats, a reader wonders if animals really are the best lawn-mowing alternative.