A Steven Jobs for the Green Movement: Shai Agassi

Picture: Grist and BetterPlace

Grist pointed me to a new name in the Green movement. Shai Agassi is hailed and the visionary of the Green Movement and the in His blog is "The Long Tailpipe." His company: " A Better Place." He has been featured in magazine after magazine. He was a speaker at TED.

Waste Paper Furniture?

Now that's creative. It just shows you that some people are really working on finding a solution instead of saying there is nothing that can be done. I once had a student that made a wallet out of duct tape. It was great. Not very green, but it showed creative thinking. This is very creative too. Hope they can find an eco-friendly resin. By designer: Jens Praet.

The Eco-Echo Chamber

I have been using goole alerts to follow some of the green topics emerging in the market place. What I see happening is an eco-echo chamber. One important story or report comes out and then everyone passes that information along. The story is repeated over and over again. Sometimes, like today, I feel like I'm just a an echo in this eco-echo chamber and. The Mckinsey Global Institute released a report on Monday that is making it's way through the green eco-echo. It is a big deal but not really that new. I read China Inc. last summer and the author said the same things that are in this report: "giant super cities in China were on the way." The book was several years old when I read it. No one really paid that much attention to it. But now that people are waking up to the potential for resource scarcity and carbon limits, this news has taken on a new dimension.

If you Google “population of China”, here is what you get: 1,321,851,888. Another report, reporting on the McKinsey report says that China will produce 15 "super cities" with an average population of 25 million by 2030. Stop and imagine living in a city with 25 million people. I live in the Orlando area and according to one state report, this Metro area has a total of 1,645,000 people. Let's round that off to 1.5 million people. The traffic here is horrendous. The quality of life in suburbia American is questionable. We live in a very nice neighborhood, but really don't know our neighbors. Discussing suburb life in America will wait for another post, but can you imagine living with 25 million people in one city? What would that look like? How can you make that sustainable and have any quality of life beyond living like rats in a cage? How would you deal with sanitation issues?

How high would you have to make the buildings; how small the living space; did I mention food to feed that many people? Where will they work? Where will they play? How do you do that?

I'm glad there are people like William McDonough and Ed Mazria out there working on finding a green, sustainable solution to a greener future. But we also need another Albert Einstein to figure out how to fix the energy needs for cities with 25, 000, 000 people… Wow!

First of it's Kind! A free Life Cycle Calculator

So how do we get to that zero sum game? How do we know which products are the best to buy, which products will decrease our footprint? How do we know if it's green washing or legit. IDC (Industrial Design Consultancy) is the first to come out with an Life Cycle Calculator. Thanks! This is a step in the right direction!!

Portable Energy

Click here to go to video

I'm not ready to buy one of these yet. Looks like some interesting products are being developed. Here is an example of why we need government regulation or at least green standards.

Wal-Mart 2.0?

Will Wal-Mart flex its muscle to convince suppliers to go green?The CEO of Wal-Mart, Lee Scott, was supposed to have had an awakening after Hurricane Katrina. Wal-Mart's supply chain was instrumental in getting desperately needed supplies to survivors througout the region after the storm hit. Since then Mr. Scott has been moving Wal-Mart toward sustainble business practices and pushing their suppliers in this direction as well. Many in the environmental community held their noses, a few clapped, most were skeptical. Others have been taking a wait and see attitude toward the giant retailer, waiting for proof that it is not just PR. Today, I read about Wal-Mart's new effort to influence China to supply cleaner products. The article said that Wal-Mart still wants low prices for its consumers, but not at the expense of polluting the air and water in China. Now that's a switch, isn't it. Let's hope they can nudge China toward greener supply chain practices.

Ever wonder how a power grid works?

Here's a good resource for understanding our powergrid.

Green Titles 08

Here is a link to the Publisher's Weekly Magzine listing all the new Green book titles for 2008. Do you see a trend?

Let's hope Exxon will be hit hard

See post below

G-Living Network! My pick of the day

Baby Boomers, Me Generation, Gen-X's, Gen-Y's and now we have the Gen-G or G-Living generation. They have the most to lose and the most to gain at this point in history. This is a really "hip" look at the "G-Living Generation"!

Disney goes green... sort of

Disney is taking small steps to go green.

(Or at least as much as the visitors will tolerate)