Archive for the ‘Transportation’ Category
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
Plastiki arrival in Sydney
It seemed like just a short while ago that David De Rothschild set sail from San Francisco aboard his boat made of 12,500 plastic PET bottles, the Plastiki touched base in the planned destination of Sydney the other day.
De Rothschild and his crew completed the historic expedition in four legs: San Francisco – Kiribati – Western Samoa – New Caledonia before reaching the Australian Coast (Mooloolaba) on Monday 19 July and continuing on to Sydney. The innovative catamaran carrying a crew of six made its trip without major incident.
De Rothschild’s inspiration for this journey came after reading the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) report ‘Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Deep Waters and High Seas’. His journey included sailing through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
While most cruise ships maintain poor to awful records of creating pollution the Plastiki set out to educate people about the use and misuse of plastic bottles. The Plastiki which uses core principles of “cradle-to-cradle” design and biomimicry receives 68% of her buoyancy from 12,500 reclaimed plastic soft drink bottles and the super structure is made of a unique recyclable plastic material made from a self-reinforcing PET called Seretex.
Hopefully more people will put down their two liter plastic soda bottles to realize how much plastic we overuse in our throwaway society and how we can move toward inspired ideas as a sustainable alternative.
Tags: David, David de Rothschild, Environment, Plastic, Plastiki, San Francisco, sustainability
Posted in Environment, Interesting ideas, Plastic, San Francisco, Transportation | No Comments »
Monday, July 19th, 2010
Shai Agassi and Mark Johnson
Sometimes when walking into a room you can just feel the buzz and in this case the buzz came from the talk of electric cars and batteries by Better Place CEO Shai Agassi. We actually heard about this guy sometime ago with his vision to make zero emission vehicles a worldwide standard. Seeing Agassi in person at the Churchill Club event on July 15, moderated by Mark Johnson of Innosight, offered insight into Agassi’s thinking and business model of his company and infrastructure that will allow the electric car to move from back of the bus status into a major transportation option.
Americans simply don’t want to give up their $20,000 pollution emitting cars due to convenience. Americans don’t consider the $40 of black gold that they fork out each week to fill their tanks. Add that amount up versus the price of a rechargeable electric battery and the car expense seems less prohibitive. In terms of car expense, Agassi mentions that when the electric car is priced like a 3-year old gas car, then we will hit a tipping point. The cost to recharge batteries is based on “cheap electricity” like charging a battery in the middle of the night, so the costs are less. Even before the BP disaster, the cost to extract oil keeps rising and costs 20 times more to get than any other energy source.
Agassi made an interesting technology analogy where in the past we used snail mail, then moved to faxes, then to email and similarly we went from gas cars to hybrids and now we won’t move back to gas cars but forward to more technology driven electric cars. Agassi claims that each year batteries have improved eight percent so eventually we wont need (battery) switch stations.
Of course, the US and the moribund US automakers will take a wait and see attitude. Renault has put forth 15 percent of its R&D budget to work on the electric cars. The last company chief who put 15% of the R &D to a non-existing product was Steve Jobs (Ipod, Ipad). Agassi whose switch stations now dot Israel and Denmark said that the electric car versus the end of using oil would be a huge factor that determines the survival of the US dollar and US economy. If we can get crawl out form the oil wells and at least offer the same oil type incentives (subsidies) to people like Agassi and the electric car industry, then America and other counties will definitely find themselves in a Better Place.
Tags: batteries, Better Place, Churchill Club, co2_emissions, electric cars, Mark Johnson, oil, Shai Agassi
Posted in Business, Eco-Entreprenuers, Energy & Fuel, Energy Efficiency, Interesting ideas, Resources, Technology, Transportation | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 24th, 2010
Mousetrap at Maker Faire
Unbelievable but true but this past weekend marked the first time that we attended the Maker Faire. True, in terms of numbers, we only stand a few behind those Makers who’ve made it there since its inception. Our Green posse scurried from the ingenious to downright crazy exhibits. For us Maker virgins, Donna our unofficial group leader for the day, mentioned that people might place this fair somewhere between Burning Man and Exploritorium. That description nailed it.
Why do we love this event and can’t believe that we hadn’t attended before? Not only did we encounter mad scientists of a sort but because almost every artist, scientist, inventor at the fair reuses, repurposes, and recycles other object to create art, cleaning robots, giant mousetraps, and transportation (mostly creatively built bikes).
Even the entertainment had a sustainable element with a solar stage but we caught the band Fossil Fuel at the Human Powered Stage where the bands powered their instruments and amps from bicycle powered generators. That way, we earned our music. Maybe people should try this with their TV so they would have some incentive to exercise.
Now, we can’t be sure about how sustainable it is to jolt 1,000,000 volts of electricity from two five foot Tesla Coils into a guy wearing a grounded metallic suit but the sheer spectacle of watching the long electrical arcs made us think how the electro guy might be able to creatively energize a small town.
Seeing all of the innovations like Algaelab which creates a personal algae photo-bioreactor and the not so practical but highly amusing inventions like the giant mousetrap made us believe that humans can still create mind-boggling inventions and art while not using up precious resources.
Tags: art, bicycle, Burning Man, Exploitorium, Exploritorium, inventions, Maker Faire, San Mateo, scientists, sust, sustainability
Posted in Eco-Entreprenuers, Events, Interesting ideas, Lifestyle, Materials, Technology, Transportation | No Comments »
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
It’s getting to be almost a cliché here in San Francisco with large music festivals that have either a green backbone or a heck of lot of social justice behind it. Both Outside Lands and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass sit only slightly in the rear view mirror but this weekend we hit the Treasure Island Music Festival to check out the music, happenings and the overall Green flavor.
Considering that several thousand people crammed into the festival space on Treasure Island we think that overall they handled the transportation issue in a pretty Green way. We made our way to the festival via zero-emission Bauer buses that picked most of the masses up at AT&T Park. The only real griping we heard came from East Bay attendees who said that they had to drive or take BART to SF instead of having shuttle buses come to the East Bay as well.
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Tags: b20, bauer, clean vibes, green, hardly strickly bluegrass, house music, MGMT, MSTRKRFT, Outside Lands, San Francisco, Sustainable Living Roadshow, treasure island music festival, zero emission buses
Posted in Events, Lifestyle, San Francisco, Transportation | No Comments »
Saturday, August 29th, 2009
Live from Outside Lands day two (Green posse in tow), today we focus on some of the artists. After all, for most people Outside Lands remains about the music. But unlike many festivals or shows Outside Lands offers a significant numbers of bands and singers who either have some direct social justice, environmental or artistic causes that they support or create.
Pearljam, who rocked us (despite poor Eddie Veder’s scratchy throat) last night has been offsetting their tours since 2006. The social and environmentally minded rockers fight corporate monopolies, create and cover songs with social and environmental angles (no surprise that they they covered Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” among other tunes last night), and donate even donate their bank to alt energy projects.
Tonight, another powerhouse in the sustainable movement the Dave Matthews Band hits the main stage. These band helped start a project called the Bama Green Project which maintains a partnership between Reverb and IZSTYLE, and encompasses various environmental efforts that the band commits to while on the road, in the studio and at home. The DMB and the Bama Green Project works on educating DMB fans around the world about how to take simple and positive environmental actions. It’s good to know that we have some help in this educational environmental thing.
It’s not all about the big bands, smaller bands such as Blind Pilot, who toured the West Coast twice now on their bicycles, Lila Downs (who unfortunately canceled at the last minute) creates education funds for women down in Oaxaca Mexico), and West Indian Girl did their last tour with a bio diesel RV.
Hopefully, Outside Lands and other festivals will invite more bands with a social and environmental conscience. Sure the music is important but it doesn’t mean that the bands can’t do something good for someone or something else as well.
Back to work as the music continues…..
Tags: Bama Green Project, Blind Pilot, Dave Mathews Band, Eddie Veder, Environment, Lila Downs, Neil Young, Outside Lands, Pearljam, Reverb, social justice, west indian girl
Posted in Events, Lifestyle, San Francisco, Transportation | No Comments »
Monday, August 17th, 2009
It was a one in 20 chance encounter. I felt like a paparazzi who got a chance to spy a celebrity but in this instance my camera caught a shot of the Tango, the car that makes look the Smart Car look like a Lincoln Continental. Only about 10-20 Tangos exists which makes the sighting more special. Actually my neighbor (a solar guy who already drives an EV-4) had the thing in his driveway in the Lower Haight and a crowd of passersby, tourists, and green auto enthusiasts formed around this electric only car.
As they say, looks can be deceiving. My neighbor said that the Tango can beat a Tesla in terms of acceleration. The Tango can accelerate from zero to over 130 mph in one gear. It accelerates from zero to 60 mph in about 4 seconds. We say Zoom to that.
Don’t think that just because this little guy is small that it isn’t safe. Okay, relatively safe. It contains a crash tested roll cage (like they use for race cars). More importantly is comfort. You’d think that anyone sitting in the back would be subjected to eating their knees but the back seat allows more room than one might guess with the running boards for legroom. (more…)
Tags: electric car, Smart Cars, Solar, Tango, Tesla
Posted in Eco-Entreprenuers, San Francisco, Transportation | 1 Comment »
Friday, February 6th, 2009
With the economy in turmoil, a real estate prices dropping, green communities and green building will become more important. It’s easy to see how broken our current community model is in terms of the urban sprawl; the average American commute continues to grow longer. Between 1969 and 2001, the number of vehicle miles traveled for commuting jumped from 4,180 to 5,720.
The Sierra Club notes that today’s average American driver spends what amounts to 55 eight hour workdays behind the wheel every year. Gas won’t stay at the current level so we need to look at developing more sustainable communities.
San Francisco area architect Michelle Kaufmann & Kelly Melia-Teevan came up with a top 10 (sorry Letterman) EcoPrinciples for Communities.
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Tags: american_driver, burbs, current_community, economy, green_communities, michelle_kaufmann, real_estate_prices, sierra_club, sustainable_communities, urban_sprawl, vehicle_miles
Posted in Technology, Transportation, health | No Comments »
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
In another case of put your money where your hybrid is, San Francisco via Mayor Newsom just launched a green hybrid car rental program at San Francisco International Airport. So, after flying in with a heavy carbon footprint, car renters will be able lighten their footprint and fatten their wallet somewhat by taking advantage of this new hybrid program. Customers who rent hybrid cars that get an EPA rating
of at least 18 will receive a $15 discount at the counter. Cars in this category include the Honda Civic Hybrid, Nissan Altima Hybrid or Toyota Prius. Fifteen bones won’t go so far in this City but the discount will bring hybrid rental prices down closer to normally fully polluting cars as well as some green awareness. (more…)
Tags: car_renters, conventional_vehicles, corporate_bean_counters, high_mileage, honda_accord, honda_civic_hybrid, hybrid_car, hybrid_cars, hybrid_program, mayor_newsome, mileage_vehicles, nissan_altima, nissan_altima_hybrid, rousing_ovation, toyota_prius
Posted in San Francisco, Transportation | No Comments »
Friday, December 28th, 2007
Tags: b100, b20, biodiesel, biofuel, carbon_monoxide, diesel_exhaust, diesel_vehicles, fleet, hydrocarbons, mayor_newsom, muni, petroleum_diesel_fuel, san_fran, san_franciscans, street_sweepers, toxic_emissions
Posted in Energy & Fuel, Energy Efficiency, San Francisco, Transportation | No Comments »
Sunday, October 29th, 2006
You might say that San Francisco Green thinking still has a way to go after we spotted a un-Green SUV (Range Rover) in the garage of an already well publicized Noe Valley Green house.
After speaking with the one of the owners they admit that it’s hardly Green to drive the gas guzzler but they say that it’s leased. And they have a hybrid SUV on their radar for their next purchase. As for how they’re adapting to and how they like some of the interior green attributes inside the house well that’s for a future entry.
Tags: Eco Homes, Environment, Green Building, Green Real Estate, Noe Valley, Real Estate, San Francisco
Posted in Green Building, San Francisco, Transportation | No Comments »
