2nd Green Revolution

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 »

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 »

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

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 »



Source of original image: Bizarro

One of my favorite concepts to teach in my science classes revolves around population growth. Looking at the exponential growth of the human population over the past two centuries always gives me pause for reflection. How can the earth support this continually growing number of people? What is its carrying capacity?

It is with this in mind that I debated having children. The impact of more people, especially with regards to the level of consumption in Western society, weighed heavily on my mind. Watching National Geographic’s special The Human Footprint a few years ago made me ponder this fact even more.

Now that I have a child, born on Tuesday night, I have the ultimate responsibility to the next generation. Read the rest of this entry »

With the movement for outdoor education and increasing youths’ general experiences in nature gaining steam, legislation referred to as “No Child Left Inside” (NCLI) passed its first major hurdle. Directly related to the work of Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, NCLI aims to combat what Louv terms nature-deficit disorder.

The state of Connecticut has their own initiative of the same name. Intended to “encourage Connecticut families and visitors alike to enjoy all the recreational resources and outdoor activities available in Connecticut’s state parks, forests and waterways”, the state’s directive aims to reconnect families with Connecticut’s natural environs. Read the rest of this entry »

Last month’s lengthy post titled “Inefficient Devices and the Laws of Thermodynamics” failed to relate the abstract laws of thermodynamics to everyday life. This post aims to tie the two together in a more easily digestible package.

Devices that consume excessive amounts of energy, convert energy inefficiently, or perform tasks that can be accomplished with less energy are wasteful and need to be replaced. This latter option, achieving a goal with less energy (i.e. carpooling instead of driving individually or cooking indoors on a cold day and leaving the oven ajar to release heat throughout your home) represents a version of low-hanging fruit.
Read the rest of this entry »

The term biomimicry has shown up in a number of posts and served as a central theme in Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce. However, it remains somewhat nebulous as a concept. The December/January issue of National Wildlife contains an article titled “Mimicking Mother Nature.” Covering a range of inventions that mimic nature, the article espouses the concept of biomimicry – which the spell check on the word processor does not recognize. Literally meaning to imitate nature, biomimicry is widely taken to mean looking to adaptations of organisms when designing products. Read the rest of this entry »

U.S. National Debt

The $3.8 trillion budget that President Obama proposed today to Congress for fiscal year 2011 (starting October 1, 2010) is a record. With two on-going wars, money to spur an economic recovery, enormous costs for entitlement programs, and ballooning net interest payments on an estimated $1.3 trillion deficit ($12 trillion national debt) it seemed almost a forgone conclusion that this year would see the largest budget numbers ever. To be fair, this was not Obama’s making but it’s now his problem. Spending beyond our means has finally caught up to us and foreshadows an erosion of U.S. influence that will change international politics and the global balance of power. The new budget also shows the reality of how low clean energy and green technology rank in terms of priorities. Read the rest of this entry »