The numbers have been crunched by the Labor Department and the results are in: green jobs accounted for an eye-poppingly low 2.4% of the United States’ total employment in 2010. However, this was the first ever survey of green goods and services jobs, so we don’t yet have something with which to compare the results. [...]
Archive for the ‘Green Economy’ Category
Number Of Green Jobs In U.S. Measured For First Time
April 2nd, 2012 
Justin Manger 
Posted in Business, Economics, Green Economy, Justin Manger, News, Policy, President Obama 
Tags: Alternative Energy, Clean Energy, Green Product, Solar Energy 
No Comments »Japan Has World’s Highest Plastic Bottle Recycling Rate; Puts the U.S. to Shame
February 15th, 2012 Justin Manger Quick, off the top of your head what percentage of plastic bottles do you think the U.S. collects for recycling? 50%? Nah, Europe doesn’t even reach that, coming in at 48.3%. For the U.S., try more like 30% (29.1% to be exact), according to a report released by the Council for PET Bottle Recycling. Japan, on [...]
Posted in Behavior, Green Economy, Japan, Justin Manger, News, Policy, Recylcing, Sustainability Tags: Environment, Plastic No Comments »Intel (Again) Leads 2011 Green Power Purchasers List
February 13th, 2012 Justin Manger The EPA announced its annual list of top green power purchasers last month (here is the list from 2010, also with Intel on top). This includes categories for businesses, schools, and government. On the business side Intel takes the top honors while Kohl’s Department Stores slides into the runner-up position. Making a huge jump in the rankings was [...]
HMSHost Diverts Food Waste at Tampa International Airport
February 8th, 2012 Chris DeArmond At nearly 14 percent, food waste in the U.S. now represents the single largest component in the municipal solid waste stream. In 2010, this amounted to 34 million tons of food, less than 3 percent of which was recovered or recycled. This staggering amount of food waste is driven not only by individual households, but [...]
Posted in Behavior, Business, Conservation, Green Economy, Local Energy/Food, News, Recylcing, Sustainability Tags: Biomass, Chris DeArmond, Composting, Environment, Food No Comments »Welcome to the Uniiverse
February 8th, 2012 Eric Wilson Evoking the memory of E.F. Schumacher, the German born economist who wrote Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, a new service by the name of Uniiverse has launched with the goal of serving as a platform for collaborative living. Schumacher’s vision of local economies moves one step further with Uniiverse, which “is an [...]
Posted in Behavior, Business, Economics, Eric Wilson, Green Economy Tags: Bike Sharing, Collaborative Consumption, Triple Bottom Line, Video No Comments »Largest Windfarm in U.S. Slated for Wyoming
February 2nd, 2012 Justin Manger Even given the backlash over the very public bankruptcy of solar panel maker Solyndra, the Obama administration remains set on pushing clean energy. It has fast tracked plans for the largest windfarm in the U.S., a 2,000 to 3,000MW facility that will consist of 1,000 wind turbine generators and be built just south of Rawlins, Wyoming. [...]
“eBay for Rentals” Rentstuff Goes Nationwide
January 30th, 2012 Justin Manger Take a quick look in your closet. Or your attic. Or your garage. If you’re like most Americans, you’ve got tons of “stuff,” a lot of which you use rarely, if at all. It seems like someone, somewhere may be looking for something that you have. It sounds like there may be a trade waiting to [...]
Posted in Business, Conservation, Green Economy, Justin Manger, News, Recylcing Tags: Collaborative Consumption No Comments »Obama Returns to Energy Theme in State of the Union
January 26th, 2012 2nd Green Revolution As he has done previously in talking about the state of America, President Obama had several things to say about energy in Tuesday night’s speech (transcript here). For one, due to a surge in domestic oil production, imports of foreign oil have fallen to the lowest levels in 16 years and “American oil production is the highest that [...]
Posted in Behavior, Business, Clean Technology, Economics, Energy Efficiency, Eric Wilson, Green Economy, Justin Manger, News, President Obama, Renewable Energy, Sustainability, Transportation Tags: Alternative Energy, Clean Energy, Congress, Electricity Generation, Energy, Green Technology, Renewable Energy, Washington DC No Comments »52 Japanese Municipalities Now Energy Independent
January 24th, 2012 Justin Manger Given the dearth of natural resources, new concerns over nuclear power, and a “mottainai” mentality, it seems natural that Japan should look to put in place policies and develop technologies in order to increase renewable energy. A non-profit organization called Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies, in conjunction with a research lab at Chiba University, completed a study [...]
From Used Mattress to Commodity
January 23rd, 2012 Eric Wilson If you’ve ever wondered what happens to your mattress after you’re done using it, Spring Back Recycling has one answer. The new company started recycling the old foam and spring amalgamations. Spring Back Recycling, which was founded last year, charges patrons $10 per mattress to recycle the old sleep-aids. More than just an environmentally friendly [...]
