Why Are They Greener Than We Are?
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
When it comes to designing buildings that are good for the environment, Europe gets it.
The Accidental Environmentalist
By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN
Whether with paper, old containers, glass or steel, Shigeru Ban makes buildings that waste nothing. Just don’t call him green.
The Zero-Energy Solution
By MARK SVENVOLD
How a system installed in your own backyard may one day power your house and your car.
Al Gore Has Big Plans
By JAMES TRAUB
Another book, another slide show, another global rock concert — another run?
This Old, Organic House
By ADAM GOODHEART
Americans have been experimenting with green architecture since the very beginning.
The Worm Turns
By ROB WALKER
How one company strives to turn invertebrate excrement into a hip brand.
Hollywood and Green
By EDWARD LEWINE
Ed Begley Jr., the star of the HGTV reality show ‘‘Living With Ed,’’ tries to make his two-bedroom house in Los Angeles as environmentally sound as possible.
This New York Times article hits the nail on the head with its focus on the bottom line. For all of our awareness and good intentions, people care about how energy efficiency will affect their pocketbook, and the results of this McKinsey study lead to some interesting conclusions.
“At a recent conference on energy efficiency and investment strategy, Pedro Haas, an energy expert at McKinsey & Company, said his consulting firm recently asked people worldwide what payback time they would find acceptable before investing money to save energy.
One fourth of them said they would never spend any money to improve energy efficiency; 50 percent said they wanted to earn back the investment in two years or less.
“That means about 75 percent of the public will require economics that are just not there,” Mr. Haas said.
The alternative is to let utilities make the investment. James E. Rogers, the chief executive of Duke Energy, said he would like to persuade regulators to let his company invest in energy efficiency on customers’ premises, and receive a profit on those investments.”
We need a scenario where everybody wins financially or we are doomed to failure, in my humble opinion.
“ElectroCity is a new online computer game that lets players manage their own virtual towns and cities. It’s great fun to play and also teaches players all about energy, sustainability and environmental management in New Zealand. There are some great prizes up for grabs too.”
It’s free.
It takes 150 hours to play – makes Monopoly and Risk look speedy.
Even though it is based on New Zealand, the game is worth checking out. Very sophisticated, especially for a product where no palms are crossed with silver (=don’t have to pay).
EcoGeek comments on the New York Times piece about yellow cabs going green:
“Holy Moly. I guess these are the kinds of things you have to do quickly if you want your city to produce 30% less carbon in a mere 30 years. Bloomberg’s plan will see a 20% increase in hybrid taxis every year for the next five years.
The current standard taxi, the Crown Victoria, gets about 14 mpg in the city. It’ll be replaced by a wide variety of new taxis, from the smaller Prius, to the Ford Escape hybrid SUV. 13,000 Taxis is a lot to replace, but apparently a 20% per year churn is about what taxi companies deal with in New York, so, basically, every new cab they buy will have to be a hybrid.”
Will cab fare prices go up as a result?
Will people use more public transportation or walk as a result?
What do you think?
According to theWatt, the overall energy cost of a hybrid car exceeds that of its conventional counterparts. From the article:
“A Honda Civic has a dust-to-dust energy cost of $2.42/mile, compared to the Honda Civic Hybrid which has a dust-to-dust energy cost of $3.238/mile. This means that although the hybrid version has better fuel efficiency, over the entire life of the car, the Honda Civic will be using less energy than the Honda Civic Hybrid.”
It’s worth eyeballing the comments on this one, which cast aspersions on the data cited in the study. What do you think?
Interesting that even business travel, traditionally the epitome of excess and luxury, is taking on some aspect of green behavioral modification. Full story here.
• Don’t keep your house cool when you aren’t in it. A programmable thermostat helps you regulate your air conditioning use for specific hours of the day.
• How cool do you really need it to be? Every degree of cool air ups your energy usage by about 10%, so set your programmable thermostat for the temperature you really need to be comfortable.
• Trust the experts: Set your programmable thermostat to the recommended temperature setting of 78°F in the summer.
Rob, in his blog “The Mind of a Madman,” shares his issues with BP’s move from serious, reflective ads concerned with the future of the environment, to cartoon kids having fun filling their cars up with gas and whistling (see below).
I disagree. Since the ads a company produces are not necessarily indicative of their real values anyway (ever heard of “greenwashing”), I would not get all hot and bothered by a change in marketing direction. My guess is that their level of commitment, whatever that may be, has stayed consistent, despite the shift in tone in their ads.
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