2nd Green Revolution

Here is a quick announcement regarding the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). In an email to members earlier today, the USGBC introduced a new Web site called GreenHomeGuide.com. Designed to help companies in home construction and remodeling, the site is also available to the public. The new site contains

• A searchable services directory helps green-minded consumers connect with local green building professionals
• Editorial content, written by green building pros like you, helps homeowners find answers to green home questions that are relevant to their location and project

Read the rest of this entry »

Whether you love him, hate him, or are indifferent, Steve Jobs has major street cred. His company makes products that are elegant, well-designed, easy to use, and revolutionary. The hype and excitement that accompanies the lead up to and release of a major Apple product is second to none. Not only that, but the products go on to be wildly successful, while turning entire industries upside down. Think the Macintosh in the computer industry, the iPod in the music industry, the iPhone in the mobile device/phone industry, and now perhaps the iPad in the publishing industry. The presence of Apple has done wonders not only for Apple but for the entire electronics sector. People are excited about seeing the next useful technology and how it is integrated into a computer, phone, or GPS system. All this begs the question: Is there someone who can lead a company to develop breakthrough technologies and integrate them in products in the clean energy sector that consumers will get excited about? Is it even possible to have that in regards to green technology? Who would be a candidate for the role? Read the rest of this entry »

EcoATM (first profiled here), the San Diego based provider of a convenient in-store, trade-in solution known as Automated eCycling Stations for recycling your electronic “e-waste” is burnishing its green credentials by taking a leadership role in the Electronics Recycling Coordination Clearinghouse (ERCC). The ERCC will “provide a forum for information exchange about state agencies implementing electronics recycling laws.” From a press release received via e-mail: Read the rest of this entry »

That is the phrase that shows up on the back of the new Frito Lay Sunchips 100% compostable bag. I’ve written several posts about the bag already but for some reason I just find the idea very cool. I’ll keep this post about the bag short.

I bought a bag of SunChips in the new eco-bag the other day and one of the first things I noticed is how loud it is. I walked home holding the bag in my hand so I didn’t have to pay the new 5 cent DC bag tax and was a little self-conscious about the noise it made. But is the loudness a deal breaker? I’ve actually heard some people are complaining that they can’t hear the TV over the noise the bag makes! How loud is the bag? I recorded a few seconds of the noise so click here to find out. Read the rest of this entry »

From the fashionably famous French comes Machja, a creator of chic and casual clothes for men and women (catalogs can be found here). From their sales pitch, “Machja, an online fair-trade shop, offers a wide range of organic clothing for men, women and kids: jeans, pants, skirts, tops, shirts, lingerie, pajamas, leggings, dresses. Discover an ethical and green clothing line made of 100% organic cotton and silk.” Here’s their back story: Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday KUNC, National Public Radio’s Northern Colorado affiliate reported that the clean energy economy had created 17,000 green jobs. According to GreenBiz.com

Venture capital is flowing into Colorado for green startups that see promise in the smart grid, energy storage and other clean tech technologies. “In 2008, we had $458 million of venture capital investments in Colorado. It’s just astounding,” Colorado Climate Change Coordinator Alice Madden said, noting that such investments have helped create 1,700 clean tech businesses in Colorado that provide 17,000 jobs.

The Colorado Governor’s Energy Office recently commissioned a green jobs report along with the Green Jobs Working Group (GJWG) and the American Solar Energy Society. The findings calculated that Read the rest of this entry »

As the first part of a multi-stage revamping of the 2nd Green Revolution website, we are proud to announce that we have a new logo. The design was done by The Creative Armada, a graphic design and web design firm located in the Washington, DC area. We wanted to unveil the logo as the first of several exciting new developments related to our site.

The two leaves sprouting from the “r” symbolize the “2″ in our name and represent the growth and spread of sustainability through green and clean technologies, business practices, and behavior.

- Justin and Eric

On or around the first of every month, 2nd Green Revolution updates the green events calendar for the coming month. Last November we began including a post highlighting some of the intriguing events for that month. Many of the events on the calendar for March take place in India and China. Half of the events featured below are in California. In addition, at the end of the month is the biomimicry design workshop, hosted by the Biomimicry Institute, which was highlighted in a recent post.

Here is a sampling of conferences that caught our eye. Read the rest of this entry »

The following article is by Alison Hopcroft,a sustainability and carbon management consultant who works for Fluid Market Strategies in Portland, Oregon. Alison is leading a free webinar on carbon management this Tuesday, March 2nd at 12pm EST.

Despite the fact that hope for meaningful climate legislation has all but completely disappeared for this session of Congress, climate regulation will be arriving at some point in the near future. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the avenue for this regulation, and although many industry groups and a group of senators are challenging the EPA’s Endangerment Finding released last December advocating for a slower phase-in of regulations with higher reporting thresholds, the EPA’s Final Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Rule is still in effect (Read more about these challenges in the New York Times and the Washington Post)

Regulation means that there will be an increased need for professionals who can quantify and verify greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Quantification is the accounting of all of an organization’s emissions, otherwise known as developing a GHG inventory. Verification is essentially an audit (the act of verifying that the quantification was performed accurately) and follows the reporting protocols and meets reporting standards. Read the rest of this entry »

As reported in a post last summer, Frito-Lay is set to unveil a 100% compostable bag for their Sunchips product on April 22nd for the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. It appears, however, that the bag is already in use (picture at right) and being sold at stores, specifically the Super Target at 4301 East Virginia Ave. in Denver, CO. The video/commercial below shows time-lapse disintegration of the bag.
Read the rest of this entry »