By Lucille Chi •
October 27, 2009
Have you ever done the math on commuting to work? Telecommuting saves money, it’s a fact. Yet most folks are fearful of stepping out of the in-person environment. Luckily the barriers have been broken by Adobe as their new Acrobat Connect Pro software has video, audio, and interactivity that create an almost in-person experience for meeting attendees.
In addition, Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro online meeting software is now offering a free trial and every time someone signs up they donate twenty-five dollars to help a school go green. In fact, Adobe has partnered with the U.S. Green Building Council and the mayors of Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco to help schools go green in their communities. Each city will receive up to $100,000 to create classrooms that foster learning alongside smart environmental practices.
By Nick Chambers •
September 29, 2009
The demise of retail giant Filene’s Basement may have a positive effect on proponents of vertical urban farming and algae biofuels alike. Since 2007, the developers of a Filene’s site in downtown Boston have been unable to find funding to move the project forward. But now Höweler + Yoon Architecture and their partner Squared have put forth a proposal to erect a temporary vertical, modular, algae bioreactor high-rise in its place.
No doubt many of you have read or heard about David Nichol’s woodgas F-150. I came across it during a media hailstorm a few months ago (which has since petered out). But while I was doing research on the One-Gallon Challenge, I saw that David’s truck was going to be participating. I gathered up my camera and notepad and my best friend (who I sort of tricked into coming) and took the drive to Greenfield Mass. last Wednesday night to get a look at this truck, and other fuel-sippers in person.
I learned a whole lot more than I bargained for.
By Jerry James Stone •
August 24, 2009
Hand-built, eco-modified, and wood-powered cars raced across the Bay State this weekend driving 100 miles on just a single gallon of fuel. Aptly named the One Gallon Challenge, the event was part of a four-day long festival in Boston that celebrated clean technologies. Welcome to GreenFest 2009!
Frustrated with the price of filling up his Toyota, Jory Squibb built the Moonbeam. It has [...]
Global warming. Climate change. The greatest threat to continued human survival. The rhetoric these days can be awfully scary regarding new energy and oil. Sometimes it feels like we’ve all been doomed already by a hyper-active media always looking for the “next big story” to terrify us with. But I don’t really take anything seriously, so I am always on the lookout for a fun twist on a real problem.
What could be fun about climate change, you ask? Well, besides the fact that my home might end up as beach front property one day if we don’t mend our sins, how about a race? One that challenges contestants to go 100 miles on a single gallon of gas? That is the goal of the One-Gallon Challenge, where six contestants and their very different vehicles have to make the journey from Greenfield, MA to Boston in three hours using as little fuel as possible.
By Suneet Bhatt •
July 27, 2009
Fireflies have always been one of nature’s most beautiful and intriguing miracles. I could still spend hours and hours on a hot, dark summer night tracing the paths taken by the fireflies in my parents’ backyard. The fun, of course, comes from tracing the path between “blinks”, when the firefly fades to black and you are left guessing as to where they’ll appear next.
Perhaps this nostalgia explains why, when I saw the “Firefly Watch” site from the Museum of Science, Boston, I was both transported and transfixed.
By ZipCar •
June 25, 2009
Last year, 300 folks across North America turned in their car keys for a month as part of the 2008 Zipcar Low-Car Diet. And, in addition to cutting congestion, they also walked 85% more, biked 136% more and decreased their miles driven by 71%. Pretty impressive, eh? Starting July 15, a new crop of participants from all Zipcar cities worldwide* will begin the 2009 Low-Car Diet: one full month of living [...]
By Tom Schueneman •
March 13, 2009
Changents provides the platform for Down2Earth and the City of Boston to promote the semi-finalists in the Pitch the City contest aimed at engaging the community to think up new ways to make Boston greener.
By Sonya •
February 24, 2009
Are you finding it challenging to choose a summer camp for your child?
Choice Camps, a Boston-based summer camp and youth travel referral service, has just launched a great resource for parents - ChoiceCamps.com. It’s a website designed to improve the way families find summer camps and teen travel programs online.
Says Nick Riotto, co-founder of Choice Camps:
“Until now, there has been no comprehensive, trusted resource for families to find safe, reliable, and top-rated summer camp and teen travel programs online. Through our online and phone components, it is our goal to inspire families to send their kids to camp, help them make informed decisions, and guide them in selecting an appropriate summer experience.”
By Andrew Williams •
February 4, 2009
Fifteen-year-old Bostonian Jordan Star has emerged as the surprise driving force behind a bill to ban the cruel practice of ’surgically silencing’ cats and dogs by removing their vocal cords.
Star, a freshman at Needham High, decided to take action after coming across a dog that had been debarked and abandoned. “It was just horrible,” he said of the dog’s struggle to get his attention. “It was just like a hoarse, wheezy cough. In a shelter, all they are is a mutilated animal, which makes them harder to adopt.”
By Sean Sullivan •
January 10, 2009
Mark the date.
Planners and volunteers met yesterday to brainstorm for this year’s annual Boston GreenFest, a celebration and education of all things environmental. The fair at City Hall Plaza, which will take place Friday and Saturday this August 21 and 22, includes hundreds of exhibitors and sponsors and promises to be the greenest and fullest showing yet for the Massachusetts festival.
Bright, abundant sunshine and strong winds pervaded the city during the late-morning meeting, natural resources that seemed good omens for the summer festival and that will undoubtedly be featured in solar and wind power exhibits there.
The informal Boston GreenFest committee, comprised of occupations and talents as varied as insurance professional, fundraiser, student and community activist, discussed the character and message of the event, as well as its participants.
“The broadest scope possible is the answer,” said Dr. Karen Weber. “We believe the message has to get out in the broadest sense possible.”
Weber heads Foundation for a Green Future, the organization hosting Boston GreenFest.
