Environmental sustainability has recently become an important variable in guiding corporate business practices. 70 percent of the respondents from an MIT Sloan Management Review survey said sustainability is permanently on their management agenda—and an equal percent of those respondents said they had done put it on their ageda in the past six years. With more [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Chris DeArmond’
How Good Analytics Can Drive Sustainability
October 4th, 2012 
Chris DeArmond Diesel Finds a Following
September 27th, 2012 Chris DeArmond If you talk to European car enthusiasts, they simply won’t understand why diesels aren’t more popular in the United States. Diesel-powered vehicles return significantly better gas mileage than gasoline—usually between 25 and 30 percent—and are not anywhere near as loud or dirty as many people would have you believe. But, it wasn’t always so. Until [...]
Posted in Behavior, Conservation, Energy Efficiency, Transportation 
Tags: Carbon Dioxide, Cars, Chris DeArmond, Diesel, Environment, EPA, Fuel Economy 
No Comments »Texas Toll Road Bets Drivers Will Pay to Drive 85 MPH
September 20th, 2012 Chris DeArmond A while back, we posted about cutting the speed limit as an easy way to increase fuel efficiency. If speed limits nationwide were reduced to 55 MPH, as they were between 1974 and 1995 under the National Maximum Speed Law (NMSL), American motorists would save billions of dollars each year. Why, then, does it make [...]
How the Mars Rover Will Help Us Learn About Climate Change
September 6th, 2012 Chris DeArmond After NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory in November last year, the Mars rover, Curiosity, landed on the Gale Crater on August 6th, exactly one month ago. Armed with a nuclear generator (solar panels were repeatedly covered by dust on the previous rover, Spirit), and high-tech instruments to gather, vaporize, and analyze Martian soil, Curiosity’s [...]
Drought Causes Lawmakers to Question Ethanol Mandate
August 30th, 2012 Chris DeArmond With heightened attention surrounding the Midwest drought and the resulting spike in corn prices, members of both parties are beginning to question policies that mandate increasing amounts of ethanol in gasoline—namely, the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Created as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, RFS requires a minimum amount of ethanol to be [...]
Posted in Agriculture, Policy, Renewable Energy Tags: Chris DeArmond, EPA, Ethanol, Food No Comments »How Much Energy Do Hospitals Use?
August 23rd, 2012 Chris DeArmond This was the exact question answered by a 2007 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) on the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) “What’s New” page. While nobody’s advocating that hospitals go on a stringent utility diet, it’s nonetheless interesting to look at how different types of commercial buildings use energy and where they can save. [...]
Toyota CEO Confirms $50,000 Hydrogen Sedan for 2015
August 16th, 2012 Chris DeArmond Though word had been out for a while that Toyota was aiming to produce a hydrogen-powered sedan (called the FCV-R), Jim Lentz, Toyota Motor Sales President and CEO, officially confirmed the plans last week. In a recent speech to the Center for Automotive Research, Lentz stated that a “hydrogen fuel-cell sedan” would be part of [...]
Penn State’s Center for Green Roof Research
August 9th, 2012 Chris DeArmond As we have discussed on 2ndGreenRevolution in the past, well-designed roofs can do more than just protect you from the elements. At the Penn State Center for Green Roof Research, students are gathering data on how green roofs can positively impact stormwater, energy efficiency, and plants/nutrients, among other things. The research has been part of [...]
Hurdles and Outlook for Batteries in Electric Vehicles
August 3rd, 2012 Chris DeArmond Even if you’re not much of a car buff, you probably have the sense that traditional, internal combustion vehicles generally have the edge in cost over electric vehicles (EVs). And you’d be right. As Stephanie Yin notes in her article, “The Long, Winding Road to Advanced Batteries for Electric Cars,” battery technology has come a [...]
Five Friday Facts: Green Car Sales
July 27th, 2012 Chris DeArmond As noted in an article posted Wednesday, hybrids and electric vehicles (EVs) are starting to gain traction in the U.S. market. Here are some interesting sales figures from GoodCarBadCar.net: Despite halting production after disappointing sales in January (603 units) and February (1,023), the Chevrolet Volt has averaged nearly 1,800 sales per month through June. In [...]
Posted in Five Friday Facts, Transportation Tags: Cars, Chevy Volt, Chris DeArmond, Electric Vehicles, Hybrids, Nissan Leaf, Prius, Tesla Motors No Comments »
