Latest Articles

IKEA will ship disposable furniture on disposable pallets

IKEA knows from disposable. So when the company realized it could save money and shipping space by using cardboard shipping pallets, it tossed out its traditional wooden pallets like last year's BILLY bookshelf. The new pallets can support loads as heavy as the wooden pallets could, but they’re only a third as high and weigh […]

America and Germany Getting Their Clean Energy Just Desserts

Germany is the unquestioned world leader in renewable energy.  By mid-2011, the European nation generated over 20 percent of its electricity from wind and solar power alone, and had created over 400,000 jobs in the industry. The sweet German success is no accident, however, and the following pie chart illustrates the results of a carefully […]

Critical List: $4 billion for energy efficiency; SUVs rise again

President Obama and former President Clinton are announcing $4 billion to make buildings more energy efficient over the next two years. A fierce wind storm hit the West yesterday, taking down trees and fanning fires. Coke ditched those white, pro-polar bear holiday cans preeetttty fast. Apparently they confused Coke drinkers, some of whom thought the […]

Farming: A New York state of mind [VIDEO]

Farms aren’t the first thing that come to mind when one thinks of New York City. But walk along its streets and you will pass hundreds of urban gardens; jump across its rooftops and you might find yourself in the middle of a commercial farm. Heck, drive just 20 minutes from downtown and you could […]

Coloring inside the lanes: Art that creates community

Sunnyside Piazza.Photo: Daniel Etra Cross-posted from Sightline Daily. What if all it took to build better neighborhoods was a little paint? Walking in southeast Portland, I once stumbled on a horizontal rendition of a sunflower, painted curb to curb on the intersection of Southeast 33rd and Yamhill. Sunnyside Piazza, it is called, which may seem a […]

Why Miracle on 34th Street delights my cold cynical heart

Miracle on 34th Street is the perfect Christmas movie for those who hate fake sentimentality. It is not that the classic 1947 film lacks schmaltz, but that a sly script hides a sharp edge under every schmear. Most of the plot advances come when characters, good and bad act out of self-interest. Two exceptions are […]

Now's not the time to hide from cleantech's challenges

In October, Third Way raised alarms that a decline in early stage venture capital investment in clean energy technologies threatened America’s ability to compete in the $2.3 trillion global clean energy market. Some in the clean energy community dismissed this warning, citing the massive growth of wind and solar capacity in the United States over […]

Confessions of a former Coke addict

Coked out.Photo: Lazurite Yes, I’ve battled a Coke “addiction” more than once. Just when I think I have it beat, it worms its way back into my life. No, this Coke isn’t that white, powdery stuff; it comes in a can, and my drug of choice is Cherry Coke Zero. Do you ever wonder why […]

Yet more evidence that shutting down coal plants will not threaten reliability

Light bulb: not going off.Photo: Pascal BovetRemember way back, uh, two days ago when I wrote a post arguing that new EPA rules will not threaten electric system reliability? Well, just in the last day or so, more evidence has emerged to support that position. I enjoy being right, so I’m doing a follow-up post. […]

The most heartbreaking polar bear picture, ever

I don't know if this guy is actually trying to push this icebreaker ship away from his home. Maybe he just thinks there's a free buffet if he can climb aboard. But in the context of the polar bears' plight, with their numbers dwindling due to climate change and habitat loss, this looks like a […]