Donate to the Portland Fruit Tree Project
In 2009 over 14,798 lbs of fruit was collected and given to those in need, saving it from falling and going to waste on the sidewalks. The Portland Fruit Tree Project is an amazing idea that both helps fight hunger and waste, while increasing urban sustainability in a very green way. The PFTP collects fruit from trees in the city that would otherwise go to waste, all fruit is either in a public space or has been donated by the property owner. No more walking down the street to find perfectly good plums rotting and squishing underfoot from where they fell, now the little old lady with too many plums can have volunteers collect them from the trees in her yard and then then take them to the food bank. Fresh fruit and vegetables are critical to a healthy diet, yet often are unavailable at a reasonable cost which prevents lower income families from enjoying fresh food. With the Portland Fruit Tree Project, all of the food is used and used by those who need it most.
Now through December 31st, 2009 the Portland Fruit Tree Project has a generous anonymous donor that will do a 50% match on whatever donations are collected. That means that your donation now can make 50% more of an impact to the hungry of the Portland area. You can also Gift a donation. The donation goes to the project and they send a holiday gift card to the person who you gifted it for thanking them for the donation in their name. Give the gift of local healthy food to the hungry and urban sustainability for us all to share.
To donate to this amazing project write a check to or donate online:
The Portland Fruit Tree Project
1912 NE Killingsworth St
Portland, OR 97211
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Seattle gets a look at the Nissan Leaf
In the year 2010 900 Seattle area residents are going to become the lucky new owners of the Nissan Leaf. The Nissan Leaf is poised to become the most affordable all electric car available at $28,000 to $35,000 before a $7,500 government kickback. The Nissan Leaf has zero emissions, and to prove it just try to find the tailpipe (Hint: There isn’t one). The car can charge using a 220volt charging outlet (like the one that your dryer runs on), which will be installed in the owners garage as well as in public places around town. The car also has a solar panel that is able to keep the clock running even if you run out of charge. The public charging stations are going to be at some downtown parking spots as well as being increasingly spotted at supermarkets and businesses around the Puget Sound area. The GPS unit inside of the car can even help you find the nearest charging station if you are running low on juice. Thanks to a $100 million dollar grant as part of the stimulus package many more areas of Seattle are going to get electric charging stations as Mayor Greg Nickels tries to push his city ahead of Portland and San Francisco, two other west coast cities that are wiring their cities for the electric vehicle revolution. Click here to read more from the Seattle Times.
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Hawaii to use cold ocean water for A/C
Joining Toronto and Stockholm, Hawaii is soon going to be cooled by cold water from the depths of the ocean. Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning LLC is installing seawater cooling in 40 buildings before 2012 when the first ones go live. The deep sea water is transported through the buildings to cool them instead of taxing the energy grid during peak hours in order to keep the air conditioning running. Hawaii’s energy is particularly expensive, so this will mean a great deal to the island. The wastewater is returned to the ocean at a depth where that temperature of water is natural and will not be harmful to the aquatic life. See more photos and an arial map at Inhabitat.
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Walkscore Transit
Walkscore is a website that ranks the walkability of a location based on what is around it and how far away it is. A high Walkscore means that you live in a walkable neighborhood with close access to everything that you need. A low Walkscore means that you are going to have to use your car to get to the basics of life, unless you like walking long distances. Walkscore calculates the score of a location based on an evolving algorithm that now includes the public transportation lines for many cities in the US (and more are being added all the time). By including public transportation lines, the Walkscore number is now more accurate than ever. However, Walkscore is asking for your help. Many cities will not publish their transportation routes to the public internet via a feed, but they will provide it to Google. Walkscore needs this information in order to bring their new algorithm to all of the supported areas. Cut the red tape and let the information flow, Sign the Walk Score Transit Feed Petition
Filed Under: News | Tagged:
Coke upgrading all bottles. Now 30% plant material
Calling it the PlantBottle, Coke is changing all of their bottles to include 30% plant material. The plant material is molasses and sugar cane which are leftovers from sugar making processes, which reduces the overall waste of the sugar refining process as well as giving Coke the perfect recyclable plant based matter to use in their bottle. The change in their bottle will create an estimated 25% drop in the carbon emissions from the Coke product. This is just a stepping stone towards Cokes official goal of having a 100% renewably bottle. I did not see anywhere in the articles that I have read whether or not these bottles would then be biodegradable, but my assumption is that they are not now, but will be in the future. See more on Inhabitat.
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Wind farm in Utah goes live 203MW
Utah just went live with their largest wind farm yet, 203MW of clean pollution free electricity is now being generated in the first phase of what will become an even larger project. 203MW is enough to power 45,000 homes with clean renewable energy. Though Utah will be getting $86 million dollars injected into their economy for the project, all of the power that is generated is not going to homes in Utah, all of the power is being sent down to California where a 20 contract for the energy has been signed. First Wind is operating the project and the wind farm which is located in the Beaver and Millard counties of Utah. See more about this project on TreeHugger.
Filed Under: Green Energy, Wind Power | Tagged:
Frickin’ Finally!
Finally! Cars are going to become more efficient and safer than ever before thanks to a new European technology. The most dangerous part of a car, and the part that causes 99.999% of all accidents is the human behind the wheel. Humans are imperfect creatures that are distracted, emotional, and stupid. These shared traits should keep us from driving cars in the first place, but it doesnt. The new car train idea would give your car the ability to link up to a professionally driven “car train” which is a series of cars all traveling in a caravan controlled by a computer system that links all cars to the first in the line. The first car in the line would be driven by a professional driver who would keep everyone safely and efficiently moving. Anytime you wanted to enter or leave a car train, your cars computer would handle the merging in and out, and you would gain control of your car again once you left the car train. By traveling so closely together, cars can gain 20% more fuel efficiency just in reduced air drag. In a car train, you could also pay attention to the other things in your car while the car itself did the driving. This would reduce accidents, fuel consumption, traffic jams and road rage. Yes, it would reduce traffic jams, as impossibly as that seems. It would work because all it takes is one idiot senior citizen going too slowly in the fast lane to ripple into a traffic jam before long. This would reduce the number of people operating their cars on the freeway, and therefore reduce the number of idiots driving at the same time. See more about this on TreeHugger.
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Saharan solar farms to power Europe?
12 companies forming the Desertec Industrial Initiative have put together a $555 billion (yes, billion with a ‘b’) idea to supply 15% of the total power needed by the entire continent of Europe by installing solar concentration farms in Saharan Africa. The plan also includes seawater desalination plants that are supposed to bring fresh water to the people of Africa. This would be the largest renewable energy project in the world.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of it, but something just does not seem right with this. Unfortunately solar concentration facilities generally need a ton of water to zap into steam and run turbines, so this would mean that the desalination plants would need to supply the solar concentrators first and then the people of the region second. The other thing that worries me is the fact that this sounds too good to be true, which is generally an indicator that it is. This strikes me as an Enron-esque in size, and a lot of organized crime happens these days under the guise of environmental and humanitarian efforts. This is all just opinion here folks, and I have no evidence at this time to back me up other than that “gut feeling”.
Cheers and good luck to these guys if they are the real deal. See more about this on Inhabitat.
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Solar Heart: Keeping you warm in colder climates
The Solar Heart by Colorado’s Cool Energy Inc is a special generator that creates a lot of electricity in a very creative way. Using a special chambered system that creates energy when Hydrogen is heated and cooled. The system needs the controller (the brain), low heat solar panels on your roof or yard, and the SolarHeart engine in the house. Designed to work best in northern climates like Alaska and Canada, the SolarHeart can generate 80% of the electricity needed by a household, as well as 60% of the heat needed. All of this with ZERO emissions! The SolarHeart could drastically reduce the need for fossil fueled electricity and heat for the homes that need it the most. See more at Inhabitat.
Filed Under: Eco Ideas, Green Energy, Green Home, Solar Power | Tagged:
Portlands Bike Plan to 2030
From October 5th to November 8th drop by the Portland Bureau of Transportation to give your two cents on the bike plan for 2030. Portland started its bike plan in 1996 and has gone through several revisions. The plan paves the way for changes to the city to make it more walkable, bikable, and downright more livable. Mayor Sam Adams (@MayorSamAdams on Twitter) strongly believes in the bike community and the contribution that they make to green minded and healthy Portland. Because of his support and the forward thinking ways of the city, the original bike plan took the 30 miles of bike lanes and changed it into 300 miles of city bike lanes. The new plan will be completed at the end of this year and be used from now until the next revision as the master plan for the city’s direction. More bike lanes are planned, as well as the new buffered roads that provide room for the MAX light rail as well as bikers, pedestrians, and cars (both parked and moving). Click here to see more on the 2030 Bike Plan for Portland and make sure to bring your thoughts and concerns up to the city during the community review time.
While I am writing a pro-bike article, I should take this time to put in a quick personal and unrelated gripe to kindly request that Portland bikers please pay attention to your right of way. It might just ruin my afternoon if you run the stop sign just in time to pop in front of my car and get smeared all over the pavement. Your bad. Stop for the stop signs.)
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