It seems a perfect storm of events has lined itself up to create a political environment that *should* push forward a carbon tax. Will it happen, what would it do, and could it work? Let’s start with a quick definition. A carbon tax, in its simplest form, is simply a tax on polluting carbon emissions. […]
Last week, I gave much love to the city of New York (see Green, New York Style, March 15th). Today it’s time to drive some good spirited competition into the mix, based on the following press release I received this morning. It was titled simply, “Boston Rules.” The full, very concise text read as follows,
Boston vs. New York: which city is greener? Read More 👉
The Big Apple has moved decisively in the direction of being the green apple in recent years. Here’s the coolest green happenings in the big city. Transportation The city has moved aggressively to create an infrastructure that encourages cycling as a form of commuting, both to alleviate traffic and air quality issues and to facilitate
Green, New York Style: A Sustainability Tour of the Big Apple Read More 👉
I can’t help myself! I review the shopping venues shelves, such as my local supermarket and Walmart, to investigate what manufacturers are doing to make the packaging of their products more sustainable. I have to admit that I focus on the negative. I really notice the packaging tragedies, and cringe to see just how bad
Bad Bad Packaging Read More 👉
As the world’s population grows, so does demand for resources – especially clean water, which is becoming increasingly scarce. But efforts are under way to find solutions to this growing problem. One potentially revolutionary water recycling solution has been developed at the State University of New York at Delhi. The massive project will divert a
New York To Benefit From Delhi Clean Water Project Read More 👉
It is refreshing watching cities like San Francisco take a leadership role on issues like controlling the amount of energy that is used in the city’s commercial buildings. Recently the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) announced it was providing detailed energy usage information for some 300 municipal buildings in the city – part of
Measuring the Economics of Energy Consumption in San Francisco Read More 👉
One of those projects I’ve kept an increasingly excited eye on is the Business and Biodiversity Offset Program (BBOP .. an acronym which always makes me want to dance!). This month is something of a BBOP milestone as they’ve published their very first standard. This takes the initial 10 principles around which BBOP is based
Introducing the Biodiversity Offset standard Read More 👉
By the time this century hit, real estate was now considered by many to be a great short-term play that could yield as much as 10 or 20 percent. Commonplace homes and condominiums, priced from $125,000 to $150,000, were said to return tidy profits in less than two years. No muss, no fuss; just let inflating prices happen. All one needed to do was buy a ticket on the real estate train and make sure they were on board.
Planned Obsolescence & the Bubble That Burst: Part 4 Read More 👉
At that time, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, a man donning a pair of visionary goggles and a remarkable engineering aptitude, boldly predicted that the number of transistors on a chip would double about every two years. His prediction turned out to be accurate – even if few understood what he was saying at the time – and came to be known as Moore’s Law.
Moore’s Law & Planned Obsolescence Construct a Technology Traffic Jam: Part 3 Read More 👉
Diesel engines are a big deal in America. They are used to haul the food we eat and the goods we otherwise consume. The biggest challenge in the wide use of the diesel engine is that its emissions will often pose a problem for maintaining clean air. The good news is that advancements in technology
EPA Allows Illegal Engines As Long As Feds Get Paid Read More 👉
The theme of the Irish economic rehabilitation continues as the country has successfully staged an auction to sell long-term bonds to investors. This is the first time the island has been able to do such an operation since entering the EU-IMF program in November 2010. In total, €5.2bn was raised, with €4.19bn of that money
Success for Ireland in bond markets as first long-term bonds are auctioned off Read More 👉
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
Congress has apparently reached a bipartisan agreement on a transportation bill that includes $109 billion to support the nation’s roads, bridges, and railways. 1.9 million jobs hung in the balance, and the political bickering delayed the bill’s passage several months, but the real question is…why subsidize highways at all? If we were to sell off
Why Not Privatize Highways? Read More 👉
Has the green economy failed us? The latest jobs report showed modest growth in the private sector with roughly 80,000 new jobs (the disappointment in the jobs report was partially due to the public sector shedding some 14,000 jobs last month). It’s not as fast a recovery as some would like, and the economy continues
Is green the next big economic driver? 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 👉
The world of international development has so many buzzwords floating around, it’s hard to know what is legitimate and what isn’t. Over the past 10 years or so, the phrase “sustainable development” has entered the lexicon and appears here to stay. While there are a number of definitions for the term, ultimately it has to
VisionSpring: A Model TOMS Shoes Would be Wise to Adopt Read More 👉
According to the venerable source, Wikipedia (there’s actually a citation from the 2002 book The World of Social Entrepreneurship by J.L. Thompson), social entrepreneurship is defined as, “A social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change (a social venture). While a business
So You Want to Become a Social Entrepreneur? Read More 👉
Back in May Google Inc. invested $38.8 million in two North Dakota wind farms. This was the company’s first investment in a utility-scale wind-energy project. Google’s green business operations manager, Rick Needham, said then that Google is “aiming to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy—in a way that makes good business sense, too.” Yesterday it
Google Makes Big Investment in Wind-Energy Read More 👉
Recently, the New York Times Magazine has been a hotbed for articles covering business in or affecting developing countries. Last week I wrote about a potentially more unconventional way of looking at the counterfeit goods trade from the perspective of major apparel companies. More recently, an incredibly impressive article was written by Andrew Rice, on
Plumpy’nut and the Role of the Private Sector in International Development Read More 👉
A recent post by Aron Cramer, President and CEO of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) prompts the consumer to look inwards when contemplating what went wrong with the BP oil spill and the crisis on Wall Street. These recent crises have a common thread, he points out, insatiable consumer demand. Who doesn’t want the latest gadget
Sustainable Consumption: Proliferating a Discussion Read More 👉
Two decades have past since a solar thermal power plant has been approved in California and on Wednesday, the California Energy Commission approved a 250 mega-watt solar thermal plant. The Beacon Solar Energy Project will be a step forward for California coming closer to the law that was set out for investor-owned utility companies to
More Renewable Energy in California: Solar Thermal Power Plant Approved Read More 👉
Chicago is most notably home to Wrigley Field, the world’s first sky scrapper, and the deep-dish pizza. What most might not know is that inside the Windy City there are more LEED-certified buildings than anywhere else in the U.S. and the city will soon boast the largest LEED for Neighborhood Development project where residents live
2010 Greenbuild: Generation Green is Redefining Our Future Read More 👉
Energy efficiency service companies (ECOs) soon may be venturing abroad to take their businesses into regions where the demand for energy is growing tremendously. The most notable countries in need for energy efficiency technology and services are China, India, and countries in the Middle East. Although China’s solar energy industry is among the world’s largest,
Emerging Markets and Foreign Opportunity for Energy Efficiency Service Companies Read More 👉
Piggy-backing on my recent post regarding Pittsburgh’s # 6 spot in a sustainability ranking of most sustainable metros conducted by Site Selection magazine,  I wanted to point out that the United States is not to be found on the “top ten list”  of its sustainable nations.  This news is not surprising. A similar ranking regarding global
Where does the U.S. Stand on Sustainability? Read More 👉
