Green Options

Mot of the developing countries have refused to accept emission reduction goals but with the proposed financial help from developed nations they can certainly set renewable energy targets for themselves.

With mounting pressure from US and promise of assistance by EU, China has indicated that it is ready to cooperate on an international deal to reduce carbon emissions.

How do you create effective organizations focused on sustainable social impact? For those who believe in combining social mission with the efficiency of a market-based approach, the answer is: “Social Enterprise.”

As the demand for biofuels increases, so too will food prices around the world.  The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s recent report notes that “the historic linkages between agriculture and the energy sector are becoming stronger and are changing in character.  Biofuel demand will continue to exercise upward pressure on agricultural prices for considerable time to come.”  Biofuel production based on agricultural commodities increased more than threefold from 2000 to 2007, and now covers nearly two percent of the world’s consumption of transport fuels. 

Renewable energy is big, big, big: Josh just wrote about the world’s largest wind farm possibly going up in South Dakota (yahoo!), California could see the world’s largest solar power plant, and now Singapore is in the foray with landing the largest solar manufacturing facility the world’s ever seen.

A Norwegian company called Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) will build the complex, which will be completed in different stages to incorporate wafer,

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Last night, Thursday, October 18th, at the National Design Awards Gala in New York City was the announcement of the Peoples Design Awards. As part of National Design Week, Copper-Hewitt supports an annual competition where people nominate great design.

Voting has been open to the public online since mid September. As it is too late to cast your vote, it isn’t too late to congratulate the winner and find

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Warning: the online "edutainment" game at www.freerice.com is addictive. Side effects include the ability to sound smarter, increased levels of altruism and good karma, and the possibility of warm tingly feelings in your stomach.

What’s unique about the vocabulary-building game at Freerice.com — and the reason we think you should give it a gander — is that as you play you’re donating rice to feed hungry people through international aid agencies. A sister site

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Several contests launched this month in honor of Fair Trade month. From free chocolate to trips, there’s a chance for everyone to win.

Divine, a delicious Fair Trade chocolate company, has a tasty deal for all the top chefs out there. They’re looking for recipes that have "heaps of creativity, Divine appeal, and powerful statements about why contestants are hungry to change the world through Fair Trade." The sweetest

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Heave ho and the horn blows. It’s departure time for another container ship. Port of embarkation: Savannah, Georgia. Destination: Adana, Turkey. About 25 of the containers on this ship are filled with Georgian cotton. Despite the enduring cotton crisis in America, half a million tons of the fiber pass through the port of Savannah each year, representing some 500 million dollars in exports that are shipped to countries around the world, including China, Pakistan

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When I talk to people about thinking sustainably, they inevitably ask for books to read, and although there are several books I love about sustainability, they’re all very specific to one area of sustainability. Want to read about food? Try Michael Pollan, Peter Singer, or the new Barbara Kingsolver book. Climate Change? How about The Weather Makers