Save the Earth - Drink Vodka

360 Vodka is getting a bit of free marketing on BeforeGreenWasGold today. I just cannot help myself I guess.

Saturday night my engineer friend and I bought a liter of the newest, environmentally friendly vodka to hit the shelves.

I am going to do some more research on this brand and let you guys know the scoop.

Making Green Being Green

So back in November it was announced that Al Gore was made partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. KPCB is one of Silicone Valley's oldest and most-leveraged venture capital groups. (www.kpcb.com) Gore will be heading up their climate change solutions group.

In Inc.com's February issue (www.inc.com), the magazine for entrepreneurs asked a group of five business leaders what they would like to see from Gore's involvement with KPCB. The first four answered reasonably, yet typically.

1. Invest in H2O (water is a limited resource)
2. Invent the Electrinet (the electric grid is not optimized well through technology - adding more coal and gas-fired plants is the current solution)
3. Focus on Micromanufacturing (biocomposites, soy-based polymers, etc.)
4. Think as Big as Big Oil

But the last response was the most interesting. Shayne McQuade is the CEO of Voltaic Systems (www.voltaicsystems.com) a company that makes back packs witht solar cells that charge hand-held electronic devices. "Alternative energy is the right place to start. Solar, wind, and wave all need to be pursued. But really, I just want Al Gore to make a fortune, because if he does, a lot more resources will flow into the industry... There's this sense that the environmental movement is supposed to be not-for-profit, and I disagree with that. We need Gore to get righ, and then we'll end up with even the Bush family investing in businesses that make ethanol from switchgrass."

I couldn't agree with that more.

British Airways Carbon Offsetting

I haven't done any air travel in a little while, so this post is prefaced by saying this may not be news. But I haven't heard of any American airlines doing this...

I am looking to book a flight to England and I see that British Airways allows you at check out to "offset" the carbon emissions of your flight by making a monetary donation towards UN certified emission reduction projects. For my flight it would cost $32.12US. The Q&A below is from ba.com.

"How does carbon offsetting work?
The money you pay to offset the emissions from your flying is used to buy and cancel carbon credits that will have been registered and verified through the United Nations Kyoto Protocol. These carbon credits balance the effect of your CO2 emissions by funding projects that reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.

Where does your money go?
Your money goes towards supporting projects in developing countries and typically focus on providing new sources of renewable energy and in promoting energy-efficiency schemes. In addition to balancing your CO2, the projects we have chosen must also bring social and economic benefits to the communities in which they are based and often bring health benefits from improvements to local air quality.

What are the projects?
Morgan Stanley funds emission reduction projects in developing countries across the world and maintains a portfolio of carbon credits on behalf of British Airways customers."

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/ba6.jsp/carbonoffmoreinfo/public/en_us

I am interested in learning more about the mechanisms that allow the funds to flow through Morgan Stanley and then be reallocated to Morgan Stanley selected projects. I am also interested to see if any American companies have instituted similar programs. More research and findings to follow.

Bigger IS Better (at least for now)

I guess it is a sign of progress when our alternative energy solutions are being produced bigger. It suggests that the level of acceptance of these technologies has moved from the individual level (think hybrid cars and solar panels on homes) to a community-wide level. Municipalities are demonstrating willingness to utilize their capital and real estate to purchase and house technology such as the 100,000 sf mirror system in Tucson, Arizona (see link below).

Of course, much like the way of Don Johnson's first cell phone, as manufacturing processes and technological advances become more efficient, the solutions will retract in size. This will enable urban centers to employ certain technologies that are only feasibly employed in the middle of big swaths of land. (Right now most folks in NYC can't get the NFL network because the dishes outside our windows are too small, can't pick up signal, etc... finding space for a 100,000 sf mirror may be a long time coming.) But Arizona Public Service is appropriately using progressive technology.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/business/businessspecial2/07big.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Heat from the Street

Solar panels are big, black panels designed to absorb radiation from the sun... but as this engineer and author point out, aren't cities filled with things very similar to this already...?!

http://www.economist.com/search/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10202728

PlaNYC Greening NYC's Building Codes

When: December 17, 2007, 5:45-8:00pm
Where: The New School, Tishman Auditorium
66 W. 12th Street
What: NYC First in the new UTC Sustainable Cities Dialogue series, featuring Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff and Dept. of Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster. USGBC-NY Executive Director Russell Unger moderates a respondent panel that includes William C. Rudin (President, Rudin Management Co.), Edward Ott (Executive Director, NYC Central Labor Council) and Ashok Gupta (Director, Air & Energy Program, NRDC).

http://usgbcny.org/events.htm#17

Martian Warming

The emerging Martian consumer market is definitely one I need to begin exploring... I should probably check the data before promulgating these kinds of stories, but the laugh factor is high.

Fred Thompson, Republican Presidential Candidate on Global Warming, "Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever. Now scientists are telling us that Mars is experiencing its own planetary warming: Martian warming. It seems scientists have noticed recently that quite a few planets in our solar system seem to be heating up a bit, including Pluto. NASA says that the Martian South Pole's ice cap has been shrinking for three summers in a row. Maybe Mars got its fever from earth. If so, I guess Jupiter's caught the same cold, because it's warming up too, like Pluto. This has led some people, not necessarily scientists, to wonder if Mars and Jupiter, non signatories to the Kyoto Treaty, are actually inhabited by alien SUV-driving industrialists who run their air-conditioning at 60 degrees and refuse to recycle. Silly, I know, but I wonder what all those planets, dwarf planets and moons in our solar system have in common. Hmmmm. Solar system. Hmmmm. Solar? I wonder. Nah, I guess we shouldn't even be talking about this. The science is absolutely decided. There's a consensus. Ask Galileo."
-- Paul Harvey Show, April 13, 2007