Kudzu: The Cancer of the South, Mankind’s Savior?

I live in the South, where Kudzu stretches for miles and miles. I’ve seen abandoned buildings completely taken over, and forests covered in an eerie Kudzu canopy. The oft-maligned, extremely invasive plant has been called ‘the plant that ate the South’. The idea of Kudzu ever having a positive use would leave many Southerners scratching their heads.

So it’s surprising to learn that Kudzu actually has many benefits - and might even be one answer to the world’s energy crisis.

What would you call a plant that may be mankind’s next great source of renewable biofuels?

That can leech the noxious chemicals out of contaminated soils?

That is an essential component of Chinese traditional medicines; a potential control drug for an alcoholic’s cravings; a plant whose starch makes pies and gravies light and delicious; not to mention a plant that can prevent stream banks from eroding, naturally increase the fertility of depleted farmers’ fields; can be ground up to produce fine paper and is a beloved by goats as forage?

I can tell you one thing - landowners around here would be more than happy to unload tons of this stuff on whoever wants it. That is, unless the greed that is such an ingrained part of human nature takes over and turns it into the next big cash crop. Yeah, that seems more likely.

Link [CBC News]

Photo: Flickr user meshmar2

New Invention Proves Even Old People Can Be Effective In Saving The World

Besides Winston Churchill, George Burns, and Hugh Hefner, few old people generally intrigue me. I could probably even beat up Clint Eastwood now.

But today is a special day as I’ve added a new geriatric to my list by the name of Lloyd Linson-Smith. What’s Lloyd done to make the world a cooler place? The man is saving you water — lots of it — with a new invention that came about by some simple nagging from his wife. From the article,

A Darling Downs resident has invented a valve that stops the average household losing 16,000 litres of water down the drain. Lloyd Linson-Smith’s Enviro Save device diverts and saves cold water that flows from domestic taps before hot water arrives. The $198 valve can be fitted to plumbing systems in new homes or retro fitted to older style houses for $475. Linson-Smith, 77, got the idea after he moved from Brisbane to Oakey, where his new home was supplied by tanks.

“We used to save the cold water in buckets for use in the garden but then my wife said, ‘Okay smart arse, you have spent a lifetime as a tool and light machinery manufacturer so you should be able find an easier way to save our precious water’,” he said. “So I came up with the idea of a brass valve that is installed in the hot water pipeline just before the kitchen sink,” he said. “The cold water ahead of the arrival of the hot water is identified by a thermal element and bypasses the sink.

Genius. This is all the more proof that behind every great man is an even greater woman. Let’s hope Lloyd’s invention makes it around the world. Oh, and if he ever wants to grab a beer, I’ll drop everything.

Link [Courier Mail]

Can a Power Company REALLY Be Carbon Neutral?

Yes, it can be done, and a New Zealand power company has been doing it for more than a year.

Worldchanging explains:

Meridian Energy generates around a third of New Zealand’s total energy demand (approx 12,000 GWh) exclusively from wind and hydro sources. The company has a history of advocating a carbon credit marketplace.

But not all New Zealand state-owned enterprises can boast the same carbon neutral certification.

Solid Energy is the largest coal mining company in New Zealand, and also state owned. It’s the company, I’m ashamed to say, that dig up and export New Zealand’s coal to be burned in China—and the ones that intend to create a new open cast mine in Happy Valley.

It sounds like a terrible place for a coal mine—even though I’m not certain what or where Happy Valley is (but then, what do Americans know about New Zealand really, except that it’s where the Hobbits live?). Before we all get too happy about this, I should note that Meridian Energy is carbon neutral in large part because they operate nine hydroelectric projects—big dams, that is, of the sort that would be considered an environmental disaster if they were under construction today, but are somehow okay if they already exist.

Meridian Energy also operate wind turbines—like the one in the photo above, in Wellington—on a really large scale.

Link [Worldchanging]

Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons

Green Vaporwear, Hucksterism, and Electric Cars- Wired Magazine Unloads on Zap!

Holy crap did Wired Magazine just unload on electric car company Zap!. It sounds like the company is run by a couple of shady hucksters who have enriched themselves at the expense of their customers, employees, and franchisees while screwing things up for all the real green car companies with their constant over promising and under delivering.

Here’s an snip, head over and read the whole article which Wired was kind enough to post in full to their site.

Over the years, ZAP has taken millions from investors and dealers eager to see the company’s line of green cars hit the road. But that line has never materialized. Of nearly a dozen groundbreaking eco-vehicles ZAP has promised in public announcements and on its Web site, only the Xebra and its sibling, a truck version, have ever made it to market. As a result, fans of electric cars have grown disillusioned, while individuals like Youssef have been financially devastated. What’s more, investment firms around the country have become cautious about financing electric vehicles after being repeatedly misled by one of the industry’s most visible companies.

In spite of all this, the pair now running the company, Starr and CEO Steve Schneider, enjoy lucrative employment packages that have made them millions. Their compensation — and ZAP’s continued existence as a business — heavily depends on the continual issuance of new stock shares. And although ZAP has earned an annual profit only once in its 16 years of existence (even that was the result of a one-time debt conversion) and its stock has been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, and the Pacific Stock Exchange, Starr and Schneider have managed to keep ZAP shares from becoming worthless. They’ve achieved this almost entirely through a relentless flow of press releases in which ZAP describes itself as “a world leader in electric transportation” and constantly claims to be on the verge of innovations and business deals that will yield breakthroughs in green transportation — claims that consistently fall short.

None of this would be possible without the optimism and naïveté of those eager to put their faith in the electric car future. When it comes to green technology, some people just want to believe. It’s easy to see why: Electric cars, after all, don’t run on gas, so they produce virtually no emissions. They do consume some fossil fuels, since they charge their batteries from the grid, which mostly uses coal and natural gas to generate power. But because electric cars are more efficient than gas cars at turning energy into miles, their carbon footprint averages out to be 50 to 90 percent less than that of traditional vehicles. (And that figure drops to nearly zero if the car is plugged into a renewable energy source like a solar panel array.) Electric cars could decrease dependence on oil, reduce global carbon emissions, and save consumers money. But while Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Ford, and General Motors all toyed with electric vehicles in the ’90s, these companies had effectively ended development by 2003, when California stopped requiring automakers to offer zero-emissions vehicles. Since then, electric car enthusiasts have been forced to pin their hopes on small independent companies — like ZAP.

“They tug at your heartstrings,” says Joseph Gottlieb, a ZAP dealer from the San Diego area who has filed an official complaint against ZAP with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “If ZAP was in any other business, the company would have been dead long ago. But they keep taking advantage of how much environmentalists — like me — want to see electric cars come to market.”

The lesson to be learned here: Greenies are easy to rip off if you tell them you’re trying to save the world.

Link [Wired] via [EcoGeek]

Guy Kawasaki Wants to Invent 500 MPG Car But Fears Valleywag and TechCrunch Won’t Like It

OK, this is a little tongue in cheek, but whatever- it’s Friday.

I got sent a link for an interview with famed (if you’re a geek) Apple Software Evangelist Guy Kawasaki over at Red Herring where he wraps up the interview by saying:

RH: Truemors has been much criticized for its cheap interface and for collecting more spams than news. How do you feel when you read the virulent attacks of your critics?

G K: Well I am a big target and no matter what I do I am a target. Let’s imagine that one day I invent a car that goes 500 miles per gallon with zero emission, and let’s say that TechCrunch writes that up, or Valleywag. The commentaries would be “it’s not that hard to do, this car could have been designed in one hour; and the only reason why Guy is getting attention about this car is because 25 years ago he worked for Apple.” It’s just my life.

Don’t let the haters hold you back Guy. If you feel there’s a 500 MPG car inside you, let it out. Al Gore will protect you from those meanies Michael Arrington and Owen Thomas.

Link [Red Herring]

Photo credit: Flickr user Randy Stewart

The Oracle of Omaha Loves Him Some Railroad Stocks

Get this- railroads are hot again. CNN Money reports that Warren Buffett has been quietly buying up stock in railroad companies.- he got 18% of Burlington Northern Santa Fe in January. Railroads were deregulated in 1980 and the industry has been on an efficiency boosting tear since then. Productivity has more than doubled since 1990 and technological advancements have pushed fuel efficiency by more than 80% since 1980.

Railroads are a lot more efficient than trucks, emitting 65% less emissions than trucks alone on trips over 1,000 miles. Expanding capacity on the rail network is not easy and demand is rising so the railroads are able to raise prices. Railroad stocks have mostly been immune to the softening in the market and after word of Buffett’s buy got out the companies he bought into all saw boosted stock prices.

It’s good (for your bank account) to be green(er).

Link [CNN Money]

The Green Bohemian Grove- Richard Branson Hosts Meeting of Green Gurus on His Private Tropical Island

Never in my life have I wanted to be a rich green guru mogul more than I did after reading a story in the International Herald Tribune about a gathering Richard Branson threw on his private British Virgin Island island. He invited some of his smart green pals over, people like Elon Musk, one of the founders of PayPal, Tony Blair, Larry Page, Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, my favorite designer William McDonough, Vin Khosla, and Microsoft founder Paul Allen, even technically he didn’t actually step off his 200 foot long yacht moored off the island.

Great Flying Spaghetti Monster. It’s an green Bohemian Grove. It sounds like heaven.

And it’s exactly what the world need.

Small groups of rich and powerful men have been controlling everyone below them since we stepped down from the trees. Recently it’s been rich ass industrialists and energy barons who have tinkered and massaged the system to suit their extractive drive to generate wealth and maintain control. The future belongs to the big green players, people like Branson and his friends who are working together to get richer by saving the world.

Green Greed is right.

Green Greed works.

Green Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Green Greed, in all of its forms — Green Greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — will mark the upward surge of mankind.

And Green Greed — you mark my words — will not only save this malfunctioning country called the USA, but the world at large.

My apologies to Gordon Gecko.

Link [International Herald Tribune]

The Organic Food Space is Now Owned by Conventional Mega Food Corps

The next time you stack your grocery cart with your favorite picks from the Natural section in the grocery store, you might just be dropping money into the pocket of Big Food.

Kraft, the biggest food company on the planet, owns Boca Foods and Back to Nature. Pepsi (#3) has Naked Juice; General Mills (#6) has Cascadian Farm and Muir Glen; Dean Foods (#7) has Horizon, The Organic Cow of Vermont, and White Wave; and Heinz (#27) owns Arrowhead Mills, Garden of Eatin’, Nile Spice, Celestial Seasonings, and Spectrum Organic.

Good Magazine has a cool chart showing which Big Food corp owns a bunch of your favorite organic food brands. Click over and check it out, it’s kind of scary how consolidated the organic food space is.

Link [Good Magazine] via Boing Boing

Wal-Mart CEO is a Master of the Obvious: Our Company is Not Green

I have to give credit to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott Jr. for pointing out one of the more obvious things around- Wal-Mart is NOT Green. We’re talking about a corporation that has a bigger environmental impact than most nations and whose entire business model is built on making cheap crap on one side of the world and then shipping it to the other side to sell for a percent or two more. They are a gas guzzling, land eating, profits hungry corporate beast.

They have recently embraced the goal of becoming powered by 100% renewable energy and creating zero waste- a fine and noble goal with as much likelihood of happening as my plan of becoming all-knowing and all-powerful. It’s not going to happen in my lifetime, and I plan on living through my 90’s.

Lee made his comments owning up to Wal-Mart’s lack of true Green at the ECO:nomics conference recently held in California. I found the story over at the Wall Street Journals blog and nearly choked when I read the first sentence:

Lee Scott Jr. has earned a reputation as something of an environmental guru for actions he has taken over the past few years in getting Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to green up its act.

Show me someone who thinks Lee Scott Jr. is an environmental guru and I’ll show you someone who thinks George Bush is a great President. Lee appears to be a somewhat enlightened corporate suit at the head of one of the most sprawling companies on the face of the planet looking to use green to boost his margins. That’s fine- the world needs those enlightened suits- but only in the Bizarro World could the guy be called an “environmental guru”.

Here’s a quick three minute video of Mr. Scott’s interview:

Link [Wall Street Journal]

Photo credit: Flickr user Code Poet

It’s a Long Way Back to The Office- A Pull Back in Work At Home Policies?

Tempers are likely to be rising high in offices around the country soon, as teleworkers are forced to rejoin the sheeple and go in to the office.

Intel recently began requiring many telecommuters in its information-technology group to report to the office at least four days a week. Full-time home-office workers now make up 1% to 2% of Intel’s 5,500 information-technology workers, down from less than 4%, a spokeswoman says; managers wanted “to keep the team spirit strong, which requires face-to-face interaction, impromptu dialogues, collaboration and mentoring,” she explains.

Here’s a few things former home workers need to think about before heading back into the office:

1. Personal Hygiene
2. No more Spontaneous Singing
3. No more Porn
4. Coffee
5. Computer allpaper
6. How to share the paper clips
7. YouTube
8. No more easy Dog Walks
9. Gotta be Discreet when shopping online
10. Household chores have to wait until after work.

In short, it’s going to be tough - who is going to want to give up all the perks of home working?
Not to mention the environmental effects of a zillion extra miles commuting to an office you don’t recognize, to interact with people you don’t like, causing higher levels of stress and various other forms of bad karma as workers are forced to regiment themselves into patterns of work they are not used to. Pollution, congestion, stress, millions of extra shirts to wash, gallons of extra coffee…
If office workers were meant to be together, the Flying Spaghetti Monster would have made office work enjoyable. It’s obvious when you think about it.

Our friends over at Web Daily Worker have some good home-working news - due to tax breaks, 135 businesses in Georgia have instituted new teleworker programs.

Do yourself a favor. Move to Georgia and negotiate yourself a nice four-day working teleworker job.

Then relocate yourself somewhere more interesting.

I hear Bermuda is nice at this time of year.

Link [Business Opportunities]

Photo by Flickr user WadeRockett

As Green as You Can Get: Shipping Wine With the Winds

Here’s something that I hope I read more of: French wine makers are using a three mast sailing vessel to ship 60,000 bottles of wine from France to Dublin, Ireland.

Brilliant!

Using wind to ship things around the world is something we’ve been doing for a long, long time. When the steam engine, and then later diesel burners, came onto the scene, the winds were mostly left behind. There has recently been some hopeful movements back to using wind to ship cargo in the form of the super kite- a giant rig that connects to traditional bunker oil burning ships that can save 15-20% of the fuel otherwise needed.

Each bottle of greenly shipped wine will come with the label “‘Carried by sailing ship, a better deal for the planet.’” Here’s a quick bit from the Guardian:

Later this month 60,000 bottles from Languedoc will be shipped to Ireland in a 19th-century barque, saving 18,375lb of carbon. Further voyages to Bristol, Manchester and even Canada are planned soon afterwards.

The three-mast barque Belem, which was launched in 1896, the last French merchant sailing vessel to be built, will sail into Dublin following a voyage from Bordeaux that should last about four days. The wines will be delivered to Bordeaux by barge using the Canal du Midi and Canal du Garonne, which run across southern France from Sète in the east, via Béziers in Languedoc. Each bottle will be labelled: ‘Carried by sailing ship, a better deal for the planet.’ Although the whole process will end up taking up to a week longer than a flight, it is estimated it will save 4.9oz of carbon per bottle.

Link [Guardian] via Environmental Graffiti

Windy Leader: Burt’s Bees Offers Wind Credits in Employee Benefits Package

Here’s a quick bit of cool personal news. One of the companies I’ve started in my career as an entrepreneur is Colorado based Renewable Choice Energy, a leading provider of clean wind credits. Me and my two pals Quayle Hodek and Kris Lotlikar started it the week before 9/11 in Quayle’s basement and it’s since grown to be a profitable 50+ person strong leader in their market.

It was great to read that Renewable Choice has partnered up with Burt’s Bees on a very cool new program. Burt’s Bees, which was bought by Clorox for almost $1 billion last year, not only purchased 3,954,000 kWh’s of wind credits as a company, but now reimburses employees for half of the cost of getting wind at their homes. To the best of my knowledge they are the first company to offer wind credits in their employee benefits package.

Very cool.

Link [Environmental Leader]

Stupid Utility Rules: 612 Year Wait for New Minnesota Wind Projects

Tell me how much sense this makes: due to some major old school bureaucratic clusterfuckery there is now a 612 year waiting list to build renewable energy projects in Minnesota. That’s right, if you want to put up a nice clean wind farm up in Garrison Keillor’s home state you have until 2620 to get everything together. What’s the holdup?

The Midwest Independent Transmission System (MISA) is the group in charge of the power lines and decides which power generation project gets to connect to them. Their regulations say they have to take two years to review each application and that they can’t look at more than one app at a time.

Those rules worked back in the day when the only thing going up was big ass coal plants but it got bogged down quite a bit with a flood of new wind farms wanting on the grid. Even with smaller operators bending the law a bit by clumping their projects together in one application there’s at least a fifty year wait. How dumb is that? Dumb enough to expect it’ll get fixed soon, but still… wtf.

Link [Solve Climate] via EcoGeek

Honest Tea Founder Lays Out Some Honesty- Why They Sold (Out) to Coke

Honest Tea is a slightly sweetened tea brand that just turned a decade old. They recently announced that they were selling a 40% stake of their company to Coke, the world’s largest beverage company.

There’s been a flurry of consolidation in the organic and natural food industry with Ben & Jerrys getting bought by Unilever, Stonyfield Farm’s purchase by Groupe Danone, Tom’s of Maine selling to Colgate-Palmolive, and Burt’s Bees going to Clorox. It’s understandable that Honest Tea’s founders would want to cash out while getting access to the resources and distribution Coke has at their disposal but the path is fraught with peril. Big multinational corporations like Coke aren’t exactly known for their ability to integrate social and environmental principles with the bottom line concerns.

I wish the best of luck to Honest Tea founder Seth Goldman in navigating the stormy waters of working with Coke. We’ll be watching.

Here’s a snip from an article Seth wrote for the Inc. blog, swing over and read the whole piece, it’s good.

When Barry and I launched Honest Tea in February 1998 the only assets we had were the name Honest Tea, a Snapple bottle with a label pasted on it, and five thermoses (and the thermoses were on loan!). Our beginnings were modest but our vision was bold — we wanted to create a delicious, healthier drink with a consciousness about the way the ingredients are grown. We always hoped that the Honest brand would stand for a different way of doing business — a product that is what it says it is, a company that strives for authenticity in the way it treats its customers and stakeholders.

Despite our 66 percent annual compound growth rate (70 percent in 2007), we still aren’t reaching all the people we want to reach. Our business has inspired many, (most recently we were delighted to see Kraft join our Terracycle Drink Pouch Brigade), but we also want to see Honest be a change agent through our own actions. When we buy 2.5 million pounds of organic ingredients, as we did in 2007, we help create demand for a more sustainable system of agriculture, one that doesn’t rely on chemical pesticides and fertilizers. But when we buy ten times that amount, we help create a market that multiplies far beyond our own purchases. When we sell 32 million bottles and drink pouches with less than half the calories of mainstream alternatives, as we did in 2007, we help displace 2,400,000,000 empty calories. That’s important, but when we sell ten times that number, we help lead a national shift toward healthier diets.

So what does it take to get to the next level of impact — to see Honest products sold wherever beverages are sold, in schools, colleges, restaurants, and all the other places Coke is found? Certainly, access to capital plays a role in making that happen, and we are fortunate that our 100-plus private investors have never failed to support our ambitions and growth plans. But money on its own doesn’t make distribution happen (I note with caution the story of my friends at Jones Soda, who last year saw their market value grow fivefold without a comparable rise in sales).

Link [Inc.com] via Unique Business Opportunity

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