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.
Filed Under: Eco Ideas, Green Energy, News, Northwest, Sustainable | 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.)
… Read the full story »Rooftop Wind Turbines in Portland
Southwest Windpower has just installed 4 wind turbines to the new residential tower on 12st street in downtown Portland, Oregon. The 4 wind turbines will power a portion of the buildings electrical needs and will serve as an experiment for the viability of rooftop wind power. The Energy Trust of Oregon paid for the turbines atop the LEED Platinum certified tower where they will only provide about 1% of the total power for the building. See more (including a video) at Jetson Green.
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Hanes Embraces Hemp
Portland based Naturally Advanced Technologies has come up with a natural enzyme based process that makes hemp fiber as soft as cotton. That would launch hemp fiber into the mainstream as a competitive alternative to cotton as the softness is the only thing keeping this crop from being the biggest and most sustainable way to make fabrics for cheap with less environmental impact. Hemp can grow in harsher conditions, grows faster, longer, and produces far more (the whole plant can be used rather than just bits of fluff from the pods). All of this makes hemp a very cheap way to have organic fabrics for the masses. The only environmentally friendly alternative to mainstream cotton at this time is organic cotton. Although organic cotton does exist, it is over 60% more expensive than regular cotton and has nearly zero market presence because of that. If the Crailar hemp technology takes flight, then you can expect to see denim, paper towels, paper, and clothing fabric all to be made out of hemp in the future. Hanes has already taken notice, so the next time you pick up a pack of tightie whities they might just be made of hemp instead of cotton.
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“The Sage” LEED home in Eugene, OR
US Green Buildings Council founder David Gottfried (the makers of the LEED certification) had his own LEED certified home built in Eugene, OR by Arbor South Architecture called “The Sage“. The LEED platinum home received a record 110 points on the LEED scale. The 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom beauty is situated on a low maintenance drought resistant landscaped property. Active solar water heating and PV solar panels are installed on the roof to provide most of the electricity needed for the home and cleverly planned window placement give natural lighting to the entire home. The $450,000 home is about $60,000 greater than an average home in the area because of all of the environmental features. Check out more on the Tour of Homes.
Filed Under: Green Home, LEED, Northwest, Solar Power | Tagged:
Seal products banned in the European Union
In the first large move ever made to protect seals from the barbaric yearly hunt that has been threatening their populations and their very existence for hundreds of years, the European Union has completely banned the purchase, sale, or transport of any seal products in any of its 27 countries. Canada and the supporters of the seal hunt are already preparing their plans to contest the decision. The 550-49 vote with such a huge majority has little chance of being appealed. The law goes into effect before the seal hunt begins for next year, so maybe Canada will call the whole thing off if they are not able to sell the products (which have little to no market outside of Europe). Source: European Union Bans Trading of all Seal Products.
Filed Under: Green Government, News, Northwest | Tagged:
Obama administration protects Oregon forests from Bush
The Obama Administration has stopped the single greatest natural disaster ever to hit the United States: George W. Bush. Now they are working to repair some of the damage, and here in Oregon the most recent cleanup has been the restriction of logging in Oregon in order to protect the Northern Spotted Owl and its habitat. This move has been widely hailed by tree huggers and conservationalists alike. By protecting this forest, Obama can protect the owl habitat as well as the Oregon old growth forests that were handed over to loggers under a Bush era contract. See more information on the full article at Oregon Live.
75MW Solar Power plant in Cle Elum, WA
Cle Elum, Washington is going to be the new home of 75MW of solar power in an installation of up to 400,000 individual panels. Senator Maria Cantwell who has been spearheading the path for this project is also trying to establish a local manufacturing facility to create those panels instead of shipping them in. Where the solar power plant is a done deal, the manufacturing plant is not for sure yet. Source: Renewable Energy World
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Composting now mandatory in San Francisco
San Francisco, California has a great city recycling program with nearly everyone participating by recycling everything possible in their daily lives. With a lofty goal of being zero waste by 2020, Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco is striving to meet that goal by making composting mandatory. New green bins have been distributed to homes and businesses for a total of 3 bins per business and household. The green bin is for compostable organic matter, the blue bin is for recyclables, and the black bin is for the remaining trash. The mandatory composting will bring SFs current 72% deferred waste rate (amount of waste that does not end up in a landfill), to over 90% deferred waste. That means that only 10% of the city’s waste is actually ending up in a landfill. Go Cali! Check out Inhabitat for the original article.
… Read the full story »Filed Under: Eco Ideas, Northwest, Sustainable | Tagged: composting, san francisco
Sustainability at Portland State University
One of the greatest things about living in the greenest and most sustainable city in the country is that our great local university offers some of the finest courses available on ecology and sustainability. Portland State University in downtown Portland offers both Bachelors and Masters programs on Evironmental Science Management, and even minors for sustainability, or Sustainable Urban Development. Check out http://www.pdx.edu/esm/ for more information
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