Green Options » California

A Passion for Fish and the Planet: Passionfish Restaurant

John Ivanko — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:21:54 +0000

Some people say you eat with our eyes. At Passionfish restaurant in Pacific Grove, California, you do so with your heart — at a place where the local is celebrated, showcased, and conserved. Sometimes, savoring a meal can nurture our body while helping preserve or restore the planet. One day, every meal will be consumed this way.

While my family and I make every effort to eat local and lower on the food chain – mostly vegetarian – when we travel, we occasionally become “flexitarians” and enjoy a seafood dish or two when we’re at the edge of a vast ocean, perhaps with a wharf at the end of the street. At Passionfish, a restaurant nestled in the scenic Monterey Peninsula just a mile from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we connected with the Pacific Ocean by both its salty breeze and through the food we savored.

Opening in 1997, Passionfish is the brainchild of Chef Ted Walter and his wife Cindy Walter. Besides being restaurateurs, the Walters’ might as well be called “marine activists.” This dynamic duo have ambitions of changing the world by educating people about what they eat, especially if what they eat comes from the sea. Using their restaurant as the alluring (and delicious) platform, the couple promotes sustainable seafood as well as locally sourced, fresh, organic vegetables and fruits. Even their meat products are pasture-raised.

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Green Music: The Treasure Island Music Festival

Becky Striepe — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:00:55 +0000

One of my friends recently attended the Treasure Island Music Festival in San Francisco and texted me about their awesome green initiatives. From the show. Yes, I’m sort of a nerd for this kind of thing.

We’re all about musicians lightening their footprints around here. According to the folks at Live Earth: “A single concert event can produce as little as 9,000 kilos (close 20,000 lbs) to as much as 90,000 kilos (197,000 lbs) of solid waste in a single day.” That’s a ridiculous amount of waste and doesn’t even take into account things like CO2 emissions from concertgoers driving to the venue or indirect emissions from the food and whatnot.

The folks at Treasure Island Fest set out to do things a little differently. Not only did they have a kickass lineup that’s making me more than a little bit jealous, they implemented all sorts of impressive green initiatives. Check our their greening and sustainability statement:

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Spanish Solar Company SOLARIG Building 8 PV Parks in Italy

Zachary Shahan — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:15:24 +0000

SOLARIG, a company based in Spain that incorporated about four years ago, just began construction of eight photovoltaic parks in Italy this month. The parks will provide 8 MW of energy in total. Over the next few months, it plans to construct photovoltaic projects producing 30 MW throughout different regions of Italy.

But this is just the beginning. SOLARIG has a more global vision.

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Two Endangered Blue Whales Struck by Ships

Jace Shoemaker-Galloway — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:53:02 +0000

Earlier this week, an ocean survey vessel reported feeling a “shudder underneath the ship” in the waters of northern California. Soon after, a whale was spotted “bleeding profusely.” A few hours later, an endangered blue whale washed ashore in a rocky cove in California. According to reports, the apparent strike probably occurred about 7 miles from shore.

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Show Your Support for Water Recycling in SF

Rhonda Winter — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:23:15 +0000

If you are going to be anywhere near San Francisco City Hall this afternoon, please consider going to the fourth floor to voice your support for greywater recycling. There will be a meeting at the Building Inspection Commission today to vote on a SF city amendment which is attempting to make it more complicated for city residents to recycle and conserve our own water.

Time: Wed, Oct 21, pm @ 2pm

Where: SF City Hall, Room 416

Rain barrels made from recycled food grade containers for water conservation.

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7 African Countries to Get Utility-Scale Solar?

Zachary Shahan — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:05:08 +0000

California-based eSolar has just announced that it is expanding into southern Africa now. It has partnered with Johannesburg-based Clean Energy Solutions (CES) to create “eSolarSA” which will sell its concentrating solar power technology throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.

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New California Bill Gives More Money to Small-Scale Solar Projects

Zachary Shahan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:14:26 +0000

Governor Schwarzenegger just gave solar power a boost in California, especially for relatively small-scale solar generators.

Taking notes from Europe, perhaps, Schwarzenegger signed legislation for a “feed-in tariff” earlier this week that requires Calfornia utilities buy solar power from relatively small generators and at higher than market-value prices.

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Harvey Milk Is Finally Honored

Rhonda Winter — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:38:01 +0000

Visionary Civil Rights leader and revolutionary Harvey Milk has finally been honored by the state of California with an official day to celebrate his life and impact. Each May 22nd is now “Harvey Milk Day”. On that day state schools and educational institutions will now be encouraged to conduct relevant civil rights related exercises.

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Wireless Climate-monitoring System for Better & More Crops

Zachary Shahan — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:56:53 +0000

Turkey farmers growing greenhouse tomatoes have been using this technology since 2005. California is going to get it before the end of this year.

LA-based ClimateMinder now completely owns the Turkish company Kodalfa and it is eager to bring some of its technology to the US. This company’s “new” climate-monitoring and control system helps greenhouse farmers to monitor their crops and adjust the conditions of their greenhouses with wireless technology. This helps farmers and consumers in numerous and significant ways.

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Highway 101 in California Goes Electric

Beth Graddon-Hodgson — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:07:35 +0000

The process of turning California’s Highway 101 into an electric roadway is beginning, and for a short period of time the charging stations that will be installed can be used for free. Beginning in October, Solarcity will be installing vehicle charging stations alogn Highway 101 between San Francisco and Los Angeles in order to reward those who have already made a move to adopt a cleaner lifestyle with clean technology in their vehicles.

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BrightSource Splits Utility-Scale Solar Site With Giant Housing Developer

Susan Kraemer — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:31:06 +0000

It is easy enough for solar companies to sign contracts under new RPS laws requiring utilities to buy more and more renewable energy. But building any new power sites or transmission is fraught with difficulties, even when these are for a societal good like renewable energy.

But BrightSource has been creative in finding sites for its utility-scale solar thermal plants. Here’s a new example.

They have just made a deal with Nevada housing developer Coyote Springs Land Company to site a 960 MW solar thermal plant on 12 square miles of a 43,000 acre housing development planned before the economic real estate apocalypse. Some solar was part of Coyote’s original plan for its golfing community 50 miles north of Las Vegas, but not 12 square miles of it!

Now with housing in free-fall, the expertize of housing developers comes in handy to help us meet the need for more renewable energy. Solar power developers could piggyback on the experience of housing developers with the know-how to get through red tape.

This could be how renewable power overcomes siting hurdles - and how the construction industry digs its way out of a deep recession. A marriage made in heaven.

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Editor’s Note: CleanTechnica Offers to Host Meg Whitman / Gavin Newsom Debate

Clayton B. Cornell — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:54:39 +0000

In response to the contention caused by Meg Whitman’s OP-Ed on rescinding AB32 climate-change legislation, and the pointed response by Mayor Gavin Newsom, CleanTechnica.com is formally offering to host a discussion between the two gubernatorial candidates.

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REALLY, MEG? Suspending Climate-Change Legislation AB32 is Backwards Thinking

Gavin Newsom — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:03:34 +0000

Meg Whitman penned an op-ed last week stating she’d suspend California’s landmark climate-change legislation, AB32, on her first day if elected governor. This is backwards thinking, and I disagree.

Experts estimate that the four largest clean-energy industries (solar, wind, biofuels, and fuel-cell) will have combined annual revenues of $255 billion by the middle of the next decade. The question isn’t whether the world will move towards cleaner living – the question is how soon this trend will take hold.

There is no better, more fertile place in the United States for green technology and green-collar jobs to take shape than California.

California’s challenge is competitiveness, grasping as much of the share of these markets as possible by being the industry leader in greenhouse gas abatement technology. To date, we’ve done a great job – California captured $6.6 billion in green capital between 2006-2008. And all these start-ups need workers; so green jobs have the potential to be for California what the defense industry was in 1980s.

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New Species of Ghostshark

Zachary Shahan — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:50:54 +0000

A new species of ghostsharks, a relative of sharks, was recently named. Ghostsharks (also called chimaeras, ratfish or rabbitfish) are some of the oldest fish alive today. The name of the newly identified but ancient species is Eastern Pacific black ghostshark.

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Solar Energy Blowing Up, & in Surprising Places!

Zachary Shahan — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:07:49 +0000

Global Solar Center just finished a comprehensive, 50-state survey of solar incentives and adoption. Who leads the nation? It is surprising. As they say, it is the states who were “solar laggards” that are now “solar leaders”. But incentives aren’t the only issue.

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Army’s Desert Tortoise Translocation Plans Successfully Halted

Rhishja Larson — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:53:31 +0000

The Army’s proposal to move 1,000 desert tortoises has been placed on hold by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, amid concerns over the Army’s previous plan that resulted in the death of 252 out of 600 tortoises.

The Center for Biological Diversity announced that a plan by the Army to move over 1,000 federally and state-listed threatened desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) from their Fort Irwin habitat to Bureau of Land Management lands has successfully been halted.

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San Francisco’s New Recycling and Composting Laws

Becky Striepe — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:30:52 +0000

In just five weeks, San Francisco residents will face fines if they fail to separate their food scraps from their aluminum cans.

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California Fires Not the Only Thing Hurting Communities in California

Zachary Shahan — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:41:09 +0000

Communities of all sorts are being disturbed by the fires in California. As another result of climate change, bird communities are expected to see some big changes in other ways, according to a new report released on September 1.

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Outside Lands Day 3 - Give, Take and Green

Keith Rockmael — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:02:33 +0000

It’s still relatively early here out the third day of Outside Lands, people either circulating with cups or beer or coffee (or both). We’re taking a slight music break to check out some of the tents, behind the scenes offerings, and offer other general musings about the festival.

We checked out a local SF band Big Light early today - 1) to check out a local band and 2) because they played at the Solar Stage (completely powered by solar like last year). Wouldn’t it be nice to have all of the stages powered by solar? They actually used solar on a larger scale for OL uno but they had power issues which apparently turned into economic issues this year.

Behind the scenes, most people think that a lot of drinking and eating goes on, which is true but people like Ice Cream Man sits in his ice cream van and just gives out ice cream - free. Why does he do it? He wants to just give something simple like ice cream (we downed a few Cherry Garcias while we talked with him) just to promote community and show people that you can simply give stuff away without expecting anything in return. Ice Cream Man hits the festival circuit but we’re more impressed when he hits various childrens’ hospitals and gives out free ice cream to sick kids. Now that’s a wonderful dessert.

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Outside Lands - Day 2 - Bands and Sustainability

Keith Rockmael — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 22:34:19 +0000

Live from Outside Lands day two (Green posse in tow), today we focus on some of the artists. After all, for most people Outside Lands remains about the music. But unlike many festivals or shows Outside Lands offers a significant numbers of bands and singers who either have some direct social justice, environmental or artistic causes that they support or create.

Pearljam, who rocked us (despite poor Eddie Veder’s scratchy throat) last night has been offsetting their tours since 2006. The social and environmentally minded rockers fight corporate monopolies, create and cover songs with social and environmental angles (no surprise that they they covered Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” among other tunes last night), and donate even donate their bank to alt energy projects.

Tonight, another powerhouse in the sustainable movement the Dave Matthews Band hits the main stage. These band helped start a project called the Bama Green Project which maintains a partnership between Reverb and IZSTYLE, and encompasses various environmental efforts that the band commits to while on the road, in the studio and at home. The DMB and the Bama Green Project works on educating DMB fans around the world about how to take simple and positive environmental actions. It’s good to know that we have some help in this educational environmental thing.

It’s not all about the big bands, smaller bands such as Blind Pilot, who toured the West Coast twice now on their bicycles, Lila Downs (who unfortunately canceled at the last minute) creates education funds for women down in Oaxaca Mexico), and West Indian Girl did their last tour with a bio diesel RV.

Hopefully, Outside Lands and other festivals will invite more bands with a social and environmental conscience. Sure the music is important but it doesn’t mean that the bands can’t do something good for someone or something else as well.

Back to work as the music continues…..
Our focus on green industries has reaped benefits for our local economy. We have the eighth-lowest unemployment rate in California. New cleantech companies are opening their doors week after week.

We accomplished this growth by ensuring that our city offered an affordable business climate and the best-trained workforce in America. Much as we did in San Francisco, we need development policies that co-equally concentrate on growing business and developing the workforce.

California should explore the feasibility of two-year payroll tax exemptions for new hires in cleantech, modeled after the state’s existing hiring credits – instead of targeting groups of workers or areas, we’ll focus on hiring into industries. We need pointed business-attraction strategies to aid in the formation of cleantech clusters. Let’s be aggressive in pursuing green industry startups and companies looking to relocate.

On the jobs side, our state needs cutting-edge workforce development programs, including clean-industry apprenticeships, job-placement assistance, tuition subsidies, and state policies to encourage growth in green industries.

I’m excited about the potential of the emerging green economy for California, both in economic growth through venture capital and entrepreneurship as well as the vast number of jobs we stand to create. I believe our fundamental and stark difference of opinion on AB32 merits a discussion in a public forum, so today I am inviting candidate Whitman to participate in this debate. I encourage her to accept so the voters of California can get a clear view of our positions on this vital issue.

At this critical juncture, we need leadership that’ll drive economic growth through green-collar industry development, not tired old jobs vs. the environment rhetoric that ignores the vast growth potential of cleantech in California. I look forward to pursue an ambitious green collar jobs strategy for the state, just as we’ve managed to successfully do in the City and County of San Francisco.

More from Mayor Gavin Newsom:

Photo Credit: Peter Kaminski via Flickr under Creative Commons License