Grist | Topics | 114 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 25 of 114
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Just the Tip of the Bloomberg Mayor has big clean-energy goals for NYC		20 Aug 2008	News
Posted at 10:54 AM on 20 Aug 2008 New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg touted clean energy Tuesday at, aptly, the National Clean Energy Summit. He said his city has issued a formal request to companies for ideas on how to source electricity from the wind, sun, and waves. "Perhaps companies will want to put wind farms atop our bridges and skyscrapers, or use the enormous potential of powerful offshore winds miles out in ...
Topics: business, energy, local politics, New York City, news, placemaking, politics, renewable energy, wave and tidal power, wind power (all these topics)

Charge! Electric-car visionary would overhaul the way we get around		19 Aug 2008	News
Posted at 7:55 AM on 19 Aug 2008 Could the global auto infrastructure be overhauled in a way that's profitable for business, cheap for drivers, and easy on the planet? Meet Better Place's Shai Agassi and his plans for an electric-car future, featured in the latest issue of Wired. In Agassi's vision, gas stations are replaced with omnipresent recharging spots for electric cars. Vehicles are cheap, perhaps even free; money is mad ...
Topics: business, cars, Denmark, electric vehicles, energy, innovation, Israel, news, placemaking (all these topics)

Splitting Airs N.Y. wind rush brings corruption complaints, divides rural communities		18 Aug 2008	News
Posted at 8:28 AM on 18 Aug 2008 Lured by generous state subsidies, the wind industry is having its day in the sun breeze in upstate New York. But the scramble for turbine-friendly land has led to complaints of corruption and caused schisms in rural communities. At least two wind companies are being investigated for shady dealings, and evidence of possible improper influence or conflicts of interest have emerg ...
Topics: business, energy, New York, news, placemaking, renewable energy, wind power (all these topics)

Shifting Into Under-Drive Americans drive less, use less gas, buy fewer cars		14 Aug 2008	News
Posted at 10:56 AM on 14 Aug 2008 Americans are driving less, burning less gasoline, and buying fewer cars, and the feds have the stats to prove it. New numbers show that Americans drove 4.7 percent less in June 2008 than they did in June 2007, shaving off some 12.2 billion miles. For those keeping track at home, that makes a total 53.2 billion fewer miles driven between Nov. 2007 and June 2008 than in that eight-month ...
Topics: business, cars, economy, energy, gas prices, news, oil, placemaking (all these topics)

Vocation, All I Ever Wanted Employers scramble to make commutes less costly		05 Aug 2008	News
Posted at 1:43 PM on 05 Aug 2008 Recognizing the very real possibility of losing quality employees to jobs with shorter, cheaper commutes, employers across the country are scrambling to help their workers save on gas. Many companies have started to strongly encourage telecommuting, even paying for at-home workers' laptops, Blackberrys, and/or wireless connections. Microsoft has leased extra office space miles from its W ...
Topics: business, gas prices, green living, greening biz operations, news, placemaking (all these topics)

Globalization death watch, part II The beginnings of a continentalized global economy	Jon Rynn	05 Aug 2008	Gristmill
Your faithful blogger was surprised to find himself representing part of the environmental blogosphere in a New York Times article on Sunday, 'Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization.' It's very much worth reading, and prior to writing the article the reporter, Larry Rohter, talked with me about my first installment in this series, 'Globalization death watch, Part I.' In his article, after noting the recent collapse of global trade talks, Rohter writes: Some cri ...
Topics: business, economy, gas prices, oil, placemaking (all these topics)

Take a Short Walk, and a Long Peer Major U.S. cities ranked by relative walkability		17 Jul 2008	News
Posted at 12:31 PM on 17 Jul 2008 Software company Front Seat has released a ranking of the most walkable U.S. cities, rating the relative distance to and density of businesses like grocery stores, bars, book stores, and coffee shops to calculate an overall walkability score. San Francisco took top honors, followed by New York City, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia; the lowest scoring cities were Jacksonville, F ...
Topics: business, green living, news, placemaking, Smartish Cities, urban planning (all these topics)

If You Build It, They Will Green Insurance co. offers green-rebuilding coverage		09 Jul 2008	News
Posted at 10:58 AM on 09 Jul 2008 Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. has rolled out a home-insurance policy that covers the cost of rebuilding a home to green standards. The new coverage -- which can only be added to Fireman's top-tier insurance policy -- covers the cost of reconstruction with sustainably harvested wood, efficient lighting and plumbing, nontoxic paints and carpeting, and more. The coverage runs an addition ...
Topics: business, green building, news, placemaking (all these topics)

Fortune Brainstorm Green: breaking news Think all-electric vehicles coming to the U.S.	David Roberts	21 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Ray Lane, the managing partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is about to announce some news. (He's up on stage with Jan-Olaf Willums, CEO of Think Global AS, and Wilber James, managing general partner of RockPort Capital Partners.) Ah. He's launching Think North America -- bringing Think vehicles to the U.S. Hundreds of the cars will reach the states this year, mainly for use in fleets. After that they'll be offered to consumers, first in Californ ...
Topics: business, cars, electric vehicles, innovation, placemaking (all these topics)

Peak Oil? Bring it on! Solving the climate problem will solve the peak oil problem, too	Joseph Romm	30 Mar 2008	Gristmill
I have a new article in Salon on perhaps the most misunderstood subject in energy: peak oil. Here is the short version: We are at or near the peak of cheap conventional oil production. There is no realistic prospect that the conventional oil supply can keep up with current projected demand for much longer, if the industrialized countries don't take strong action to sharply reduce consumption, and if China and India don't take strong action to sharply reduce cons ...
Topics: Big Auto, business, energy, fuel efficiency, hybrids, oil, placemaking, politics (all these topics)

Zipcar merges with Flexcar, effs it all up Has the east coast car-sharing company screwed up the west coast car-sharing company?	David Roberts	29 Feb 2008	Gristmill
Late last year, the country's two major car-sharing companies, west-coast Flexcar and its larger east-coast cousin Zipcar, merged and became, um, Zipcar. Flexcar fans were concerned about the effects of the merger. Sadly, Flexcar fangirl Erica Barnett reports that they were decidedly negative: more expensive, fewer cars, less friendly service, etc. Zipcar, what hath thou wrought? Any Gristians have car-sharing experiences to share?
Topics: business, cars, placemaking, public transportation (all these topics)

Our Kind of Guy Engineer plans to sell compressed-air car in India within a year		13 Feb 2008	News
Posted at 4:44 PM on 13 Feb 2008 Could folks in India be driving a car that runs on compressed air within a year? French engineer Guy Negre says it will be so. Tata Motors has backed his invention: a five-seater called the OneCAT, which would produce no emissions and cost around $5,000. "The first buyers [of the car] will be people who care about the environment," says Negre, who hopes that investors arou ...
Topics: business, cars, India, news, placemaking (all these topics)

Tiny Tata Tata Motors unveils world's cheapest car in India		10 Jan 2008	News
Posted at 10:16 AM on 10 Jan 2008 Photo: TaTa Motors The world's cheapest car was unveiled in India today by Tata Motors, which hopes that its new $2,500 subcompact will help make car ownership a reality for tens of millions of people. The Tata Nano gets respectable gas mileage, up to 58.8 miles per gallon, and meets India's emissions standards, but its introduction was met by protests from greens fearful that more-accessible autos will ...
Topics: business, cars, India, news, placemaking (all these topics)

Better Truck Next Year Analysts predict slow auto sales in 2008		04 Jan 2008	News
Posted at 4:45 PM on 04 Jan 2008 The U.S. saw a December slump in vehicle sales, and analysts predict that 2008 may be the weakest year for auto sales in the U.S. in at least a decade. (Will it correspond with a boost in public-transportation ridership? Probably not, but we can dream.) Sales of pickups, generally a sure bet in the U.S. market, hit the wall last year; the pickup slump helped bump Ford Motors down to the No. 3 highes ...
Topics: Big Auto, business, cars, news, placemaking (all these topics)

So MINI to Choose From Hybrid Technologies converts gas-powered cars to electric		18 Dec 2007	News
Posted at 4:09 PM on 18 Dec 2007 Obsessed with MINI Coopers but also like the idea of zero-emission electric vehicles? Have your car and drive it too: a company called Hybrid Technologies guts cars such as the MINI, smart fortwo, and PT Cruiser, and replaces their gas tanks with an electric motor and a stack of lithium batteries. Convinced? Starting in 2008, you'll be able to buy your electric MINI at Wal-Mart -- f ...
Topics: business, cars, electric vehicles, greenish companies, news, placemaking, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

The Great Carnac I ain't Assessing my predictions from last year	David Roberts	17 Dec 2007	Gristmill
At the end of last year, I made 20 predictions for 2007. As a pundit in good standing I am, of course, unaccountable for my predictions. (How do you think we all stay employed?) Nonetheless, it's worth looking back and seeing how the predictions panned out, drawing sweeping conclusions from the things I got right while minimizing and excusing the things I got wrong. Let's see how I did! Al Gore will a) win an Oscar, b) announce that he is not running for presid ...
Topics: business, climate, energy, placemaking, politics (all these topics)

Just the big-box facts New tool helps groups assess large retail proposals	Erik Hoffner	13 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Big-box stores have significant impacts on a community's economy, environment, and character. The Big Box Evaluator (created by the Orton Family Foundation, which offers numerous programs that aid good land-use planning) is a new online tool designed to help citizens, activists, and municipal officials get the basics on these impacts in an unbiased manner.It's interactive, and lets you plug in variables like tax rates, community demographics, size of a hypothetical bi ...
Topics: business, placemaking (all these topics)

Climate change direct action	David Roberts	07 Nov 2007	Gristmill
It's beginning.
Topics: business, climate, coal, energy, placemaking (all these topics)

Remake a Living: Green career tips for locavores How to find a job in your local area	Kevin Doyle	01 Nov 2007	Gristmill
I've been on the road. I started the first week in October at the University of Michigan and ended it at a "career visioning" retreat in the Connecticut woods with students from Yale. My impressions? At both universities, I found aspiring environmental professionals who are committed to building a sustainable society. (I also found great vegetarian food.) GRIST JOB BOARD As we talked about "sustainable solutions" careers ...
Topics: business, green jobs, placemaking (all these topics)

Two Become One Major car-sharing companies will merge		31 Oct 2007	News
Posted at 12:31 PM on 31 Oct 2007 Major car-sharing companies Flexcar and Zipcar announced yesterday that they plan to merge. Zipcar, the larger of the two, has had strong growth mainly in large cities on the East Coast; Flexcar is more widely available on the West Coast. In both schemes, members can reserve a car over the phone or the interwebs, generally at a cheap hourly rate, then return it to its same location. Gas, repairs, parking, and ...
Topics: business, cars, news, placemaking (all these topics)

Brit's Eye View: The future becomes us Envisioning possible green futures helps create a greener future	Peter Madden	23 Oct 2007	Gristmill
Peter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe. There has been much discussion lately of the need to turn the green agenda from a negative to a positive one. I think that an important part of this is developing some more positive visions of what living in a sustainable future might be like. My organization, Forum for the Future, has set itself this task. Partly because we think the ...
Topics: business, consumerism, green living, green products, placemaking, shopping (all these topics)

A greener economy from the grassroots New book details successes; join a chat with Paul Hawken	Erik Hoffner	02 Oct 2007	Gristmill
At work today I received a review copy of Building the Green Economy: Success Stories From the Grassroots, which just hit the presses and looks interesting. It's a diverse roundup of grassroots efforts aimed at stewardship and urban renewal toward a cleaner economy and greener, more just communities. Green economy superstar Van Jones is interviewed, of course, but I didn't notice a nod to Paul Hawken right off the bat, whose pioneering books on the topic of greening the ...
Topics: books, business, grassroots activism, placemaking (all these topics)

Putting your inner political superego on hold A utopian realist agenda	Jon Rynn	01 Oct 2007	Gristmill
Recently Nordhaus and Shellenberger (N&S) posted on Gristmill, wrote in The New Republic, and published a book, all with the aim of offering a better alternative to the mainstream environmental agenda. In my estimation, they made three important points: Americans would respond to a positive vision of the future; global warming can only be solved if, in addition to regulatory policies, we embark on a program of public investment; and the public is quite open to the idea ...
Topics: business, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, placemaking, politics (all these topics)

Our Jaw: Still Dropped Wal-Mart's eco-initiatives turning Arkansas into sustainability hotspot		07 Sep 2007	News
Posted at 9:14 AM on 07 Sep 2007 Attention shoppers: we bring you news of the latest sustainability hotspot, none other than Fayetteville, Ark. Green start-ups are flocking to town, the University of Arkansas has established an Applied Sustainability Center, and the mayor rides an electric bike to work. Why? Because of a certain retail giant whose headquarters lies half an hour away. Say it with us no ...
Topics: Arkansas, business, green living, greenish companies, news, placemaking, Wal-Mart (all these topics)

Hybrid wars Honda fights to regain green car company mantle	David Roberts	29 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Honda entered the hybrid market before Toyota, but over time it made a fateful mistake: it failed to visually distinguish its line of hybrids. The Prius' distinct shape is like peacock feathers -- it signals your identity to the world. Who wants to be virtuous if nobody knows about it? Now Honda's gotten the message and it's returning to the fight: [Honda is] working on a new high-profile hybrid -- a Prius fighter that analysts expect will have the highest mileage ...
Topics: business, cars, electric vehicles, green living, hybrids, placemaking, Prius (all these topics)

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