In the most recent rendition, the University of Maryland’s entry won the 2011 competition. Stephen Chu, the DOE’s director, is quoted in the release as saying that “we need to ensure that the next generation of America’s architects, engineers and entrepreneurs have the hands-on experience and training they need to lead our nation’s clean energy future.”

The Solar Decathlon provides students with the experience in green building, which is an important part of the exercise. This training and hands-on experience is key to supporting growth in sustainable housing.

The following teams have been selected from around the world to compete in Solar Decathlon 2013:

• Arizona State University and the University of New Mexico (Tempe, Ariz., and Albuquerque, N.M.)
• Czech Technical University (Prague, Czech Republic)
• Hampton University and Old Dominion University (Hampton and Norfolk, Va.)
• Middlebury College (Middlebury, Vt.)
• Missouri University of Science and Technology (Rolla, Mo.)
• Norwich University (Northfield, Vt.)
• Queens University, Carleton University, and Algonquin College (Kingston and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)
• Santa Clara University (Santa Clara, Calif.)
• Southern California Institute of Architecture and California Institute of Technology (Los Angeles, Calif.)
• Stanford University (Palo Alto, Calif.)
• Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, N.J.)
• The Catholic University of America, George Washington University, and American University (Washington, DC)
• The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Charlotte, N.C.)
• The University of Texas at El Paso and El Paso Community College (El Paso, Texas)
• University of Calgary (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)
• University of Louisville, Ball State University and University of Kentucky (Louisville, Ky.; Muncie, Ind.; and Lexington, Ky.)
• University of Nevada Las Vegas (Las Vegas, Nev.)
• University of Southern California (Los Angeles, Calif.)
• Vienna University of Technology (Vienna, Austria)
• West Virginia University (Morgantown, W. Va.)

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Uniiverse, which launched earlier this week, bills itself as the “first online platform to take an offline approach for its users.” The service works by its users offering services or activities for others, some for free and other for a fee. The takes a similar idea to that of Craigslist and classifieds and adds the human component. This marks yet another move in the direction of collaborative consumption, a trend that has gained quite a bit of traction lately.

A proliferation of sites offer “collaborative living”, as Uniiverse refers to it. Car and Bike sharing programs have become increasingly popular, especially in denser, urban areas where these modes of transportation supplement public transit and walking. Collaborative consumption helps reduce waste and over consumption, both of which benefit the environment and bottom line. Uniiverse goes one step further by encouraging face-to-face interactions, moving closer to the triple bottom line, or “People, Planet, Profit.”

For more information, see the video below.

Uniiverse – why are we here? from uniiverse on Vimeo.

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I, sitting at my desktop, am not immune. While living in a 30-unit apartment building and “only” owning one car, my family does use fewer resources than if we were in a single family home (suburban, urban, or otherwise). However, there are now 30 families (probably 50 people) living in the space of what was former about three single family homes. That’s roughly 40 more people in a confined space. By building up (the structure is three stories) more people can fit in a smaller space.

The density achieved by apartments, condos, and townhomes means that people tend to use less energy (think heating and commuting) than they would if they lived further apart. However, the increase in population allows for ever greater numbers of people to inhabit a small space and import resources. I cannot, for one, grow my own food in my apartment. I do have a few plants, some of which are edible.

I think what it comes down to, other than behavior, is carrying capacity. How many people can the earth support? Also, what is the cultural carrying capacity (the number of people the earth can support given consumption patterns)? “Cultural capacity is inversely related to the (material) quality of life presumed.” In other words, the greater the consumption – or lifestyle – the fewer people can be supported. Makes sense. If we all consume like Americans, it doesn’t really matter where we live.

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Honda unveiled the Fit EV last fall at the Los Angeles Auto Show. In the press release, the company states that the car will be available summer of 2012. Specifically, Honda will begin “leasing the Fit EV to customers in select California and Oregon markets next summer [2012], and will expand to six East Coast markets in early 2013. The Fit EV’s Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price² (MSRP) is $36,625 with an estimated lease priced at $399 a month.” Depending on market penetration, Honda “expects volume at this early stage of production to be approximately 1,100 Fit EV’s over the next three years.”

According to a more recent press release, “Honda delivered a 2013 Fit EV battery-electric vehicle to the city of Torrance . . . as one of the first major steps in the Honda Electric Vehicle Demonstration Program, a prelude to the retail market launch of the Fit EV with customers in California and Oregon this summer.”

Stanford and Google were also included in the “Honda Electric Vehicle Demonstration Program.” Honda reports that “Each program participant will provide Honda with real-world feedback on the Fit EV. Individually, each participant will use the Fit EV to further initiatives such as research into human behavior and various usages like personal, fleet and car-sharing.” Google’s non-profit arm has built up a fleet of electric vehicles. Google’s efforts have led to “2,000 cars [being taken] off the road as a result of our shuttle program and electric vehicle charging stations, equivalent to 14,000,000 vehicle miles per year.”

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RecycleMania represents another in this long line. It is a “friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities.” For 8 weeks during the spring, schools tally weekly trash totals. This year’s competition begins this Sunday, February 8th. Registration is currently closed, but RecycleMania is an annual activity. Final results will be posted in mid-April.

RecycleMania is a non-profit “governed by a steering committee made up of recycling and sustainability managers from a variety of participating universities.” Beginning in 2001 as a friendly contest between two rival schools (Miami University and nearby Ohio University). Since then, it has grown to include more than 600 universities and colleges. For the past 8 years RecycleMania has partnered with the US EPA WasteWise program, the same group behind the aforementioned Game Day Challenge. Last year, more than “7.5 million students and staff participated, collectively recycling 91 million pounds of recyclables and organic materials were recovered. This activity helped to prevent the release of 127,553 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E), equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of 25,000 passenger cars, or the electricity use of more than 15,500 homes.”

RecycleMania has four overall goals:

Check back later in the spring for results of the competition.

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