|
| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
50 most sustainable cities
|
David Roberts |
23 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| SustainLane's annual ranking of the sustainability of America's 50 largest cities is out. Grist is happy to be located in No. 3 overall, No. 2 in knowledge base, No. 2 in energy and climate change, No. 2 in green economy, and No. 3 in city innovation. There's no margin in being No. 1 -- draws too much attention and pressure. Special shout out to Kansas City for having the cleanest tap water. |
|
| Topics: Seattle, placemaking, innovation (all these topics) |
|
|
Us and Chem
Companies move toward nontoxic chemicals and products |
|
15 Sep 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 3:53 PM on 15 Sep 2008 Here's a crazy fact: A baby's body contains nearly 300 chemical compounds by the time it takes its first breath. It's the consequence of a chemical industry that has long paid little mind to where its products end up or what they do to people and the planet; of the estimated 83,000 chemicals on the market, some 80 percent lack basic health and safety data. But in reaction to stricter regulation an ... |
|
| Topics: green cleaning, green products, health, innovation, news, toxics (all these topics) |
|
|
Shelter from the Storm
White roofs could help keep climate change at bay |
|
10 Sep 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 10:54 AM on 10 Sep 2008 This whole climate-change debacle could be significantly slowed down if the world's 100 largest cities thing installed white roofs and more-reflective pavement, says a new study to be published in the journal Climatic Change. It may sound like greenwhitewashing, but physicist Hashem Akbari crunches the numbers: By bouncing heat away from the Earth, a 1,000-square-foot white roof offsets 10 ... |
|
| Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, climate science, innovation, news, placemaking (all these topics) |
|
|
'Hot, Flat, and Crowded'
Tom Friedman talks up the need for an 'energy revolution' on 'Meet the Press' |
Kate Sheppard |
08 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman was on 'Meet the Press' yesterday, discussing the need for an 'energy revolution.' The appearance coincided with publication of his new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution -- and How It Can Renew America. Said Friedman, 'What we need today is an earth race with China, with Europe, with Japan, to see who can create the technologies to make the earth livable for man.' Watch it: |
|
| Topics: books, energy, innovation, Muckraker, tech, video (all these topics) |
|
|
Insight Seen
Honda rolls out new cheap hybrid with familiar name |
|
04 Sep 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 11:01 AM on 04 Sep 2008 At the Paris International Auto Show next month, Honda will unveil a prototype of its new low-cost hybrid: the Insight. A lot has changed since 1999, when the company debuted the first hybrid to hit American roads: the, um, Insight. Has Honda exhausted its supply of car names? Nay, says the company: "The name Insight was chosen to denote Honda's 'insight' into a new era in which hybrid vehicle ... |
|
| Topics: Big Auto, business, cars, greening biz operations, hybrids, innovation, news (all these topics) |
|
|
Don't Shoot the Messenger
New HP laptop packaged in messenger bag instead of box |
|
03 Sep 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 12:03 PM on 03 Sep 2008 Don't take Grandma to Wal-Mart: the big-box store's new Hewlett-Packard laptop "will be displayed on shelves wearing only the HP Protect Messenger Bag." Scandalous! But actually, there's no need to avert your eyes: the HP Pavilion dv6929 is served up in a recycled, reusable messenger bag instead of a box, cutting cardboard and plastic packaging by 97 percent. Thinking outs ... |
|
| Topics: business, green living, green products, greening biz operations, greenish companies, innovation, news, shopping, tech, Wal-Mart, waste (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) |
|
|
I Wear My Sunglasses at Night
With research breakthrough, solar power could work when the sun don't shine |
|
01 Aug 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 10:51 AM on 01 Aug 2008 Wind and solar energy face a distinct hurdle: sometimes the wind don't blow and the sun don't shine. But new research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests a breakthrough in the intermittency problem. In a study published Friday in Science, researchers demonstrate a photosynthesis-inspired process to use electricity from renewable sources t ... |
|
| Topics: energy, innovation, news, progress, renewable energy, scientific research, solar voltaic power (all these topics) |
|
|
Random and wiggy video of the day
|
David Roberts |
16 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
|
|
| Topics: China, education, India, innovation, population, progress, video (all these topics) |
|
|
The Window to the Sol
Your windows could collect solar energy, says study |
|
10 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 3:49 PM on 10 Jul 2008 Have windows? Then you could collect solar energy, says a new study published in the journal Science. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a light-absorbing dye that, when painted on a window, transfers energy via the glass into solar cells at the window's edges (through a process we don't pretend to understand). If the dye-coated glass is placed atop a s ... |
|
| Topics: energy, innovation, news, renewable energy, scientific research, solar voltaic power (all these topics) |
|
|
Pickens Choose
Texas oilman unveils Pickens Plan to avert U.S. energy crisis |
|
08 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 12:48 PM on 08 Jul 2008 T. Boone Pickens. Photo: University of Texas America has a problem, and T. Boone Pickens has a solution. "U.S. dependency on foreign oil has reached an economic crisis point," says the infamous Texas oilman, who in response has unveiled The Pickens Plan. The 80-year-old billionaire proposes that private investors fund the construction of thousands of wind turbines from Texas n ... |
|
| Topics: energy, innovation, natural gas, news, renewable energy, United States, wind power (all these topics) |
|
|
TGIT
State workers in Utah will enjoy mandatory three-day weekends |
|
07 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 3:16 PM on 07 Jul 2008 Starting in August, thousands of Utahns will begin enjoying mandatory three-day weekends. Some 17,000 government employees will switch to a compressed workweek -- four days a week, 10 hours a day -- as the state undergoes a yearlong experiment aimed at reducing energy and fuel costs as well as greenhouse-gas emissions. While employees of various U.S. counties and cities mandate a shortened week, ... |
|
| Topics: business, climate, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, innovation, news, progress, Utah (all these topics) |
|
|
Cool idea of the day
|
David Roberts |
12 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Floating wind turbines that can be placed farther out at sea (and in heavier wind) than typical anchored offshore turbines. Next: high-altitude wind! |
|
| Topics: energy, innovation, renewable energy, wind power (all these topics) |
|
|
Beam me down, Scotty
Can we shoot concentrated solar power down from space? |
David Roberts |
03 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| CNN takes a look an energy long shot that could change the game on climate change: space-based solar power. The idea is to launch satellites covered with solar panels up into geosynchronous orbit, where the sun is always shining, and beam the power back down to land-based receivers. A 2007 Pentagon study concluded that 'a single kilometer-wide band of geosynchronous Earth orbit experiences enough solar flux in one year to nearly equal the amount of energy contained wit ... |
|
| Topics: energy, innovation, solar voltaic power (all these topics) |
|
|
Vertical farms and future cities
Sustainability a big theme at the World Science Festival |
Maywa Montenegro |
02 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| What do vertical farms, green roofs, soft cars, breathing walls, and Dongtan, China, have in common? They were all subjects of discussion at Friday's Future Cities event in New York City, part of the four-day 2008 World Science Festival. To a packed house, Columbia University microbiologist Dickson Despommier described his vision for feeding the planet's burgeoning, and increasingly urban, population. The vertical farm takes agriculture and stacks it into the tie ... |
|
| Topics: food, innovation, local food, placemaking, tech, urban planning (all these topics) |
|
|
Plastic makes a comeback
Recycled plastic products gain ground |
Tia Ghose |
22 May 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The New York Times has an interesting article up about recycled plastic products. They're profiling a company called Recycline, which makes those bright green recycled plastic cutting boards, strawberry red colanders, and even toothbrushes. According to the article: Recycline's products, sold under the Preserve brand, make new products out of things that would otherwise be likely to end up in landfills. The company uses mostly recycled polypropylene, much of it from ... |
|
| Topics: green living, greenish companies, innovation, recycling (all these topics) |
|
|
In Good Company
Green group highlights biz innovations |
|
21 May 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 10:49 AM on 21 May 2008 The Environmental Defense Fund has produced a new report highlighting processes, products, and technologies that are making the biz world more eco-friendly. The green group's Innovations Review 2008 draws attention to developments good for both business and the environment. The report focuses specifically on innovations on the cusp: not yet widely implemented, but not still in the R&D phase. So what's on ... |
|
| Topics: business, Environmental Defense Fund, greening biz operations, innovation, news (all these topics) |
|
|
Whatever Speeds Your Boat
Hybrid speedboat makes its debut |
|
19 May 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 1:28 PM on 19 May 2008 You knew it had to happen sometime -- luxury speedboats have gone green! Well, at least one has: California resource officials got a ride Friday in what Austrian manufacturer Frauscher Bootswerft says is the world's first hybrid recreational boat. The speedy, sleek 25-footer has a combo electric-diesel engine. California Resources Secretary Michael Chrisman's reaction after his ride around San Francisco ... |
|
| Topics: green living, hybrids, innovation, news (all these topics) |
|
|
How's that for an incentive?
Drink beer, fight climate change |
Adam Browning |
13 May 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Many efforts to fight climate change involve some kind of sacrifice. This invention, however, merely requires the drinking of lots and lots of beer. I see it as a game-changer in the debate over the best way to incentivize a solar market. |
|
| Topics: brilliance, China, energy, innovation, solar thermal power (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) |
|
|
Fortune Brainstorm Green
Shai Agassi talks electric cars in Israel |
David Roberts |
21 Apr 2008 |
Gristmill |
| I'm watching Shai Agassi, founder and CEO of Project Better Place, talk about the scheme he put together to fill Israel with electrical cars and recharging stations, with the ultimate goal of eliminating oil as a transportation fuel in the country. (He's going to do it in Denmark as well.) (A side note: this meeting room is filled with Herman Miller Aeron chairs. Sweet!) I'm a little behind on the details (dude talks fast), but it's a torrent of goodness. We're t ... |
|
| Topics: business, climate, electric vehicles, energy, innovation, Israel, oil (all these topics) |
|
|
A new carbon sequestration method
Coal and bottled water -- better together! |
Gar Lipow |
01 Apr 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Unnatural carbonation. |
|
| Topics: carbon sequestration, coal, funnies, green products, health, innovation (all these topics) |
|
|
Urban Decay
Boston looks to generate electricity from indoor composting |
|
26 Mar 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 3:07 PM on 26 Mar 2008 The city of Boston is looking to build an urban, indoor composting facility. Most cities, if they compost at all, transport food and yard waste in gas-guzzling trucks to dumps outside the city limits, where energy and methane from decomposing biomass get lost to the atmosphere. The first-of-its-kind proposed Boston facility would generate electricity from rotting leaves and fruit, enough to ... |
|
| Topics: Boston, energy, innovation, news, placemaking, urban planning, waste (all these topics) |
|
|
Water problem? What water problem?
|
David Roberts |
26 Mar 2008 |
Gristmill |
| There's no water problem. Dean Kamen solved it: More details here. |
|
| Topics: funnies, health, innovation, water crisis, water pollution (all these topics) |
|
|
Whatever Floats Your Boat
Sail-powered cargo ship returns home, wave-powered vessel sets off |
|
17 Mar 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 4:20 PM on 17 Mar 2008 A cargo ship partially powered by a gigantic kite-like sail has completed a 12,000-mile roundtrip voyage across the Atlantic. Captain Lutz Heldt, who says the ship used around 20 percent less fuel thanks to kite power, says, "We can once again actually 'sail' with cargo ships, thus opening a new chapter in the history of commercial shipping." Not to be outdone, ... |
|
| Topics: business, energy, innovation, news, wind power (all these topics) |
|
|
|
©2008. Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Gloom and doom with a sense of humor®.