Friday, December 18, 2009

"Meaningful" agreement in Copenhagen? I don't think so

The only value I see from the "agreement" -- that the countries should set a goal of limiting temperature rise to 2 degrees C., and tell each other how they're going to do it-- is that it reveals the pettiness, parochialism of all the big countries. Which we knew going in. A few million people (judging by the participation in various online and in-person protests) were hoping for a different discovery. Not today.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Green Metrics: Don't Get Lost in the um, Grass...

Andrew Winston, co-author of Green to Gold and the new Green Recovery, says in Harvard Business Review online that the typical detailed and multi-layered, multi-sourced effort to measure a company's or a product's carbon impact is tough and expensive, especially now. Not to worry! Get it directionally right, back-of-envelope close, and/or borrow from other industries' work and you'll at least know where to focus your efforts.

Friday, November 6, 2009

"Sustainable Energy -- without the hot air" -- Download free

Download the entire book free, or just high-resolution graphs and charts. As David MacKay writes, if you can add and subtract, you can grasp the real issues, and understand what has to be done: "Numbers, not adjectives." And tell all your friends, colleagues, opponents, skeptics, to visit this site, and just start reading: http://www.withouthotair.com

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Finance renewable energy projects through property taxes

Santa Fe, New Mexico: This very liberal small city has embraced green goals, and introduced a green building code, but it's also the capital of a coal and oil producing state, so its main utility company has talked a bigger renewable game than it has delivered so far. (It's great to see the handful of solar panels along the main north-south highway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, in front of the conventional power plant -- and a vane of a giant wind turbine lying alongside them--but it's also a symbol of the tokenism of the company.) PNM has challenged the legality of the city's attempts to contract with a 3rd party for solar power for city buildings, claiming that as a regulated utility, they, PNM, have a monopoly on power supply.

Now the county of Santa Fe has created a renewable energy district and any entity, home or business, can apply to become part of the district. This gives you the ability to pay back the solar or other renewable energy construction costs via a property tax surcharge, which stays with the building even after a sale. Funding from private sources will be sure to flood in, and the city and county should be able to keep it all going with bonds.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

First good system for measuring sustainability progress -- sorry, universities only

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, AASHE for short, has released its beta assessment tool - completely transparent, pretty easy to use, by the looks of it, and with 70 beta users already signed up. Check it out. How does it compare to industry metrics? (I

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Replace asphalt with ruggedized solar panels: why not?

Grist's David Roberts doesn't go into great depth here on the pilot project, but he does remind us that big problems require big solutions. But how build support for such a radical, wonderful project? Department of Energy is at least funding a demonstration project. The classic way to build Congressional support is to put some of the jobs created in each Congressional district. This meets that requirement handily!



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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Intel's energy investments reveal patterns

It won't come as much of a surprise that the first five investments from Intel's venture capital arm's green initiative revolve around saving energy, smart grid and the like -- and are computing intensive. Check them out in Cnet's story.

Monday, August 3, 2009

New social network/industry association for sustainable energy

I've been asked to serve as one of the (unpaid) members of the Advisory Board of a new site that launched August 1. Sustainable Energy Alliance - http://www.sustainea.com -- aims to bring together people and their organizations working on solar, biofuels, wind, geothermal, wave and any other alternative energy solution. The idea is that the industry associations charge too much (thousands of dollars) but you don't get quite enough from the free groups, such as those on linkedin.com. Check it out!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Sustainable Energy Meets Social Network

The site's not complete yet, and on the surface Sustainable Energy Alliance appears to compete with many other sites in a few areas, but I like the idea of categorized membership levels (and different rates).

Monday, July 6, 2009

Want a green-collar job, but can't find one? Create your own

Great list that's going to reach 200 ideas over the next few days: http://greenbizplan.wordpress.com/200-green-businesses/

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Climate change impact where YOU live/work

Useful mashup of the new report on the impact of climate change on the U.S. with Google Maps -- thank you, New Scientist!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Stimulus money, um stimulates climate change industry

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

NGOs' climate change treaty draft: science and equity

World Wildlife Federation says it's "the first time in history that a coalition of civil society groups has taken such a step. Together, the NGOs involved  have
produced the most coherent legal document to date showing balanced and
credible climate solutions based on equity and science."
Check it out, and get your government to cut and paste! http://blogs.panda.org/climate/2009/06/09/ngos-write-benchmark-copenhagen-climate-treaty/

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Greenforall explains how to apply for $500 million for green job creation

Van Jones' old organization will host a conference call Thursday. The money is probably going to go mostly to state and local and non-profits, but companies SHOULD get a shot at it. Check it out: http://tr.im/nkrd

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Green social/business networking

How many Linkedin networking groups with green in the title or description? Would you believe 658? http://tr.im/lUhy