Climate Cities
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An interview with the innovators behind ioby.org
We’ve all heard that eating locally is one way to reduce your environmental impact. But what about donating locally? In the urban wilds of New York City, a new non-profit is betting that locally based, small-scale giving can have a big eco-impact. Ioby, whose name stands for “in our back yards,” connects people working on […]
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The folks behind the Nano take their vision to suburbia
On paper, the biggest U.S. export is capital goods–aircrafts, semiconductors, medical equipment, and such. But we’ve been exporting something else in force to developing countries: the suburban lifestyle. From American Village in the Kurdish area of Iraq to “Napa Valley,” a development outside Beijing, the McMansion and its watered lawns are making their way around […]
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Two homeowners, one monster, and a cutting-edge power source
There’s a monster in our basement. It eats fistfuls of dollar bills, guzzles No. 2 heating oil, and belches filthy clouds of soot and CO2. We have to kill it before it kills us. Only problem is, we and our tenants are dependent on it — this being New England, we need something down there […]
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Iowa City needs bike sharing
CPSC.govKnow what’s awesome? Bike sharing. Know what’s not awesome? Bike sharing programs that get wrecked by theft and general disregard. As many of them seem to do. But let’s hear it for optimism: Check out this editorial in the daily paper of the University of Iowa. It lays out plans for a bike-sharing program based […]
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Bike to work, bike from work
Today is Bike-To-Work day. If you don’t have a job and are feeling left out, you have other options. Frankly, I can’t think of a better way to wait out the recession than to take a bike tour. It’s cheap, especially if you camp. It’s the right speed to see a country. It’s carbon-free, natch. […]
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In some cities, the greenest buildings are already built
It’s a cliché of life in New York: on even the chilliest winter days, windows are flung open to let free the over-cranked, inefficient steam heat. “We literally blow money out the window,” says Nancy Biberman, founder of the Bronx-based WHEDCo, a family and affordable housing non-profit. About a third of New York’s building supply […]
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Green building in the West Bank
At the West Bank’s first green-building conference.Courtesy Eric Pallant Read more about Eric Pallant’s eco-explorations in the Middle East. Al Quds University in Abu Dis, Palestine, hosted the first Green Building conference in the West Bank this week. It wasn’t just students who showed up — there were suits, too. Forty-nine people attended, and the […]
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Failing grades issued for air quality in Seattle, other major cities
Photo: Peter Davis via FlickrIf Seattle were an 8th grader, she’d probably be grounded right now. And considering the poor scores the city received on its air quality report card (an F for ozone pollution and a C for particulates), it might not be a bad idea if we all stay inside for a while. […]
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EPA tosses flag on Cowboys’ new field
A mess in Texas?City of ArlingtonRemember how we reported on green sports venues, and one of them was the new stadium of the Dallas Cowboys, and the stadium was steeped in land-use controversy, but the good news was that the team was registering with the EPA to monitor the facility’s long-term performance? Turns out that […]
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The United States of Transit Cutbacks
This is eye-opening, by which I mean brutally depressing: Transportation for America has a map of transportation systems considering fare hikes, service cuts, or layoffs — and sometimes all three. The map went up in late January; they’re still compiling the news and updating the map as best they can, inviting the public to write […]
