Nov 22, 09
New Study: Changes to Economic Policy Necessary for Switch to Low-Carbon Economy
by Bill Becker New Study: Changes to Economic Policy Necessary for Switch to Low-Carbon Economy In case we need more evidence that an urgent economic transformation is required to avoid catastrophic climate change, it can be found in a new study commissioned by World Wildlife Fund International. Conducted by Climate Risk Pty. Ltd. of Great Britain and Australia, the study concludes: Runaway climate change is almost inevitable without specific action to implement low-carbon...
"Reverse Trick-or-Treaters" Deliver Fair Trade Chocolate
Dressed in masks and outfits reminiscent of the film The Matrix, a group of foreign exchange students celebrated their first Halloween in proper fashion on Saturday in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. But the classmates turned the U.S. tradition on its head. In addition to accepting candy, the students handed back their own Fair Trade-certified, organic dark chocolate. "Farmers are paid more with Fair Trade, so they don't have to live in poverty and their children can get an...
Wanted: Smart Workers for Smart Grid
Promise of a smart grid depend on trained workers. Early this week, President Obama gave a speech touting the $3.4 billion in grants the federal government has awarded to local companies, utilities and cities working to improve the country’s aging and outmoded electric energy grid. The awards will support “smart grid” technology that enables easier and more effective transmission of electricity from one region to another. One of the recipients is Pacific Northwest Generating...
Net Zero Water
Designing water-neutral homes Water and climate change are inextricably linked. As the planet warms, weather patterns will shift, exacerbating drought in some areas and delivering more rainfall to others. Water itself requires energy to deliver, so excess use compounds our energy problems. And many renewable sources of power, such as solar, require massive amounts of water as an input, creating further pressure on limited resources. Net zero water is an analogous concept to net zero...
The Nauhaus: Out to Save the World
By Daniel Flahiff As public support for sustainable residential architecture grows in the U.S., the number of green-building demo projects continues to proliferate. The challenge for both consumers and builders is to cut through the hype to find the tools and techniques that make sense both environmentally and economically. Stepping into the breach is a new firm out of Asheville, NC, The Nauhaus Group, which unapologetically states, "It’s no secret that the Nauhaus Group is out to save...
See it Before it Disappears: Reconciling and Regulating Disaster Tourism
In 2007 The New York Times wrote a snarky piece on disaster tourism. “Vanishing” was the watchword that year as the media compiled must-see lists of disappearing landscapes and publishing companies raced to put out guidebooks on the same theme. Kimberly Lisagor and Heather Hansen weighed in with the able Disappearing Destinations: 37 Places in Peril and What Can Be Done to Help Save Them. (For a preview of the book see the writers’ blog, Endangered Places.) Frommer’s then seriously...
Sticker Shock: Walmart’s labeling scheme will be costly, but will it be effective? Two views.
Eco-labeling is becoming globally hot, thanks in part to Walmart. Here are two perspectives. The first is from Stephen Stokes of AMR Research, by way of Climate Inc., edited by David Levy, Professor of Management at UMass, Boston. Addressing climate change and other environmental issues requires real action at the facility and process level – just creating product labels may not be effective Walmart’s product environmental labeling aspirations went public in the New York Times and...
Controlling the Ranching Boom That Threatens the Amazon
by Rhett Butler Clearing land for cattle is responsible for 80 percent of rainforest loss in the Brazilian Amazon. But with Amazon ranching now a multi-billion dollar business, corporate buyers of beef and leather, including Wal-Mart, are starting to demand that the destruction of the forest be halted. In the Brazilian Amazon, 80 million head of cattle — nearly as many as exist in all of the United States — now graze on land that once was tropical rainforest or the biologically rich,...
Temporary Spaces and Creative Infill
Visiting Jackson, Wyoming earlier this month, I stumbled upon a local gem: the Everest Momo Shack, a family-owned BYOB where a friend and I feasted on the Nepalese dumplings that give the place its name. We enjoyed it so much that the next afternoon we returned with SOs in tow, but were met with a surprise: a crew of bearded, suntanned and decidedly American cooks were serving up stuffed-to-the-gills breakfast burritos. I chatted with the kitchen staff to confirm the restaurant's split...
Does Green Building Have to Break the Bank?
by Roger Valdez Myth buster: Green building doesn't mean expensive and complex. The intuitive view of most people might be that building green is going to be vastly more expensive and complex than building to the most basic standards required by local code. It follows that we assume affordable housing probably isn’t going to be green. But a recent article in the Communities and Banking magazine published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (FSB) this spring busts the myth that...
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