Pairing the words “economy” and “energy” in the same sentence seems straightforward enough. Yet these two words–combined with the word “sustainable”–open up a world of controversy as well as immense opportunity. The controversy comes from differing opinions of how best to tap the Earth’s resources to meet humanity’s power needs. The opportunity is the number […]
Energy Production – Economically Speaking Read More 👉
One Billion Cars For many years, it was assumed that the primary emphasis on decreasing greenhouse gas emissions should concentrate on automobiles. After all, as a recent “Huffington Post” article decried, the world now has over a billion cars and their greenhouse gas emissions to deal with. In an April 2010 article, “Impact of Aviation
Green Aviation? The Sky’s the Limit for Job Creation Read More 👉
Sustainable tourism certification programs are increasingly important to safeguard tourism providers from loss of market position due to negative social and environmental impacts induced by their operations. With the plethora of certification systems and ecolabels proliferating in the tourism industry, it is difficult to distinguish the credible sustainable tourism certification programs from superficial ones. Among
Virginia and West Virginia, as little as five or ten years ago, were reliably supportive of their respective party’s presidential candidate. The politics of clean energy seems to have changed both states’ political tune, with Democrats picking up the 13 electoral college votes in Virginia from Republicans, and ceding the 5 electoral college votes of
The Green Economy has changed national politics: Virginia and West Virginia case studies Read More 👉
BP would be happy if we put the Oil Spill out of our minds. Therefore they spend millions to assure that the public forgets the long term damage to wildlife. The message from BP is that most everything is back to normal, sponsoring ads to entice tourists back to Gulf, and funding university research on
For Appearance Sake: The BP Oil Spill Now Read More 👉
Our aching planet just needs you to be thoughtful as you plow into your next venture. If you are, everyone wins, and wins sustainably into the indefinite future. A sustainable business considers the impacts of every facet of its operation and then attempts to address each, from paper consumption to human resources, in a way
You Think You Might start a Green Business? Read More 👉
In a year where most mainstream media outlets have proclaimed the BP oil spill to be the country’s largest story, it was a relief to receive yesterday’s news from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation that the Bay’s Blue Crab population is up modestly. The 2010 State of the Bay Report tracks environmental quality in America’s largest
Great Environmental News of 2010: Chesapeake Bay Recovering? Read More 👉
Fair trade continually interests me. It’s a great example of a development “policy” that at first glance, seems perfect. Companies (generally in foodstuffs like coffee or cocoa, but clothing and related items as well), basically agree to set the prices of the goods they purchase at a higher than market price in order to provide
Starbucks and the World of Fair Trade Read More 👉
After watching nearly five hours of last week’s boisterous NFL kickoff special in New Orleans, one might forget that the Gulf region is still recovering from one of the worst environmental calamities in American history. And yet, the media’s recent coverage of the oil cleanup has been sunnier than Taylor Swift’s pre-game ballads. As bacteria
Going Green… When Nobody is Looking Read More 👉
If you have never had the chance to visit Lake Tahoe, please add it to your top 10 of U.S. sites that are a must see. Lucky to have had a reason to visit this summer, I was shocked by just how blue Lake Tahoe really is! But as it turns out, it’s not as
Green ways to keep Lake Tahoe Blue Read More 👉
Feller-gatherer harvesting trees in the FSC- and SFI-certified forests of the Adirondacks for Finch Paper Recently, I blogged about a trip I made to Finch Paper in Glens Falls, NY, where I got to see sustainable forestry and integrated, environmentally sensitive papermaking in action. One of the most powerful images in my mind from the
Minimum Impact Logging? Read More 👉
How does recycled paper get from your office’s blue bins to the shelf at the office supply store? Here’s an overview of the whole paper recycling process.
What Happens to All That Recycled Paper, Anyway? Read More 👉
On Monday, the E.P.A. announced that over 100 cement kilns will have to reduce the pollution they emit. This will be very costly to the cement industry, with each producer estimated at having to spend around $1 billion a year to keep up with the E.P.A.’s regulations. A majority of the mercury and particulate matter
Capturing Carbon and Building With It: Calera’s Vision Read More 👉
Today kicks off the American Business Conference’s 4th part of a global series of Sustainable Agricultural Summits. And what better city for this summit to take place, but San Francisco. California is home to 81,500 farms and ranches and tallied revenues of $36.2 billion last year alone. That figure represents 11.2% of the nation’s total.
A Meeting of the Minds: Sustainable Agricultural Summit Begins Read More 👉
I just spent three days at Finch Paper, one of the few remaining small, integrated paper mills in the country. Nestled in the Adirondacks, the Glens Falls, NY company invited a few industry analysts to tour their mill and forests and get an inside look at their environmental commitment. Finch Paper is one of the
If Cutting Trees Is Bad, Why Are Foresters Helping Them Do It? Read More 👉
San Diego lobster fisherman Shad Catarius (no relation to the spawning fish) supports an annual trapping tax of of $300 currently before the California legislature. The tax on the $7.8 million annual spiny lobster market would raise the cost for Catarius to make a living on his boat McGhee Marie. In a San Diego Union-Tribune
California Fisherman Doesn’t Want to Catch the Last Lobster Read More 👉
Please consider the environment before printing this email. We’ve all seen taglines like this. It makes us think about a very important issue, which is the environmental footprint of the media we use. Whether we are making decisions about the use of media for marketing, corporate identity, and administration or simply being consumers of media,
Digital Vs. Printed Media — False Dilemmas and Hidden Opportunities Read More 👉
Looking for more reasons to hate spam? Here’s one. According to McAfee and ICF International, annual spam energy use totals 33 billion kilowatt-hours (KWh). That’s equivalent to the electricity used in 2.4 million homes in the United States, with the same GHG emissions as 3.1 million passenger cars using two billion United States gallons of
Measuring the Carbon Footprint of Spam Read More 👉
On April 15, bring a reusable travel mug into your local Starbucks and get a free brewed coffee. When you hear the date April 15 what comes to mind? Taxes, taxes and more taxes. Well, how about a free cup of coffee? Sounds too good to be true. There must be a catch, right? What
Bring In Your Tumbler and Get Free Coffee at Starbucks Read More 👉
On March 19th the EPA and DOE announced new steps to strengthen the Energy Star program. A few days later the GAO issued a report showing that the Energy Star Program certification process is (nicely put) “vulnerable to fraud and abuse.” The day after the GAO report was issued I sat down with Andrea Fabbri,
Q&A: Andrea Fabbri, COO of EcoAlign, Focuses on Energy Star Read More 👉
A new EcoPinion report was released this week on consumer perceptions of the “Energy Star” brand for energy efficiency. The report contends that Energy Star is one of the few credible brands in the energy efficiency space, so there is a lot riding on its continued success and relevance, not the least of which are
What Do Consumers Really think of Energy Star? Read More 👉
My last post on questioning conventional wisdom on recycled paper generated some terrific comments. After all, when you look more deeply into some of these issues, they aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Is possible that post-consumer waste (PCW) paper isn’t as green as we think it is? The question was worth asking.
Does PCW Paper Really Save Energy? It’s Worth Asking the Question Read More 👉
I’ve been thinking about postconsumer waste lately (apparently, I have too much time on my hands). What I was wondering was this: Postconsumer waste is only one of three waste streams for unused paper. There is also mill broke (scrap collected at the mill and recycled back into the same type of paper from whence
Questioning Conventional Wisdom on PCW Recycled Paper Read More 👉
It’s the time of year when people are making resolutions to lose weight, better manage their finances, better manage their anger, and myriad other things. Is increasing your commitment to environmental sustainability on that list? As I wrote in my very first post for The Inspired Economist in the fall of 2008, the neat thing
What’s Your Green Resolution for 2010? Read More 👉
