Zerofootprint already helps corporations and governments in evaluating and reducing their carbon emissions through various methods. It also helps households through innovative technologies such as this one. This new TalkingPlug is for corporations or households (or anyone with electrical sockets) and will have an initial price tag of about $50. The price may go down considerably if it can make the product on a larger scale.

How does it work? What are its advantages compared to Google’s PowerMeter and other similar up and coming technologies?

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The articles of association for the DESERTEC Industrial Initiative (DII) were signed by the joint venture group of 12 companies and the DESERTEC Foundation in Munich on October 30.

Additionally, a CEO for DII was appointed — Paul van Son.

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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.

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Naked bicyclists, folding bikes, balloon bikes, and more — enjoy this bicycle photo tour of Barcelona.

The third B in a row, Barcelona is next on this list of great bicycle cities (right ahead of Basel, Switzerland and Bogota, Columbia). As a dense city with a wonderful climate, Barcelona is naturally a wonderful place for bicyclists. However, a lot has been done to make it more so. The biggest carrot encouraging bicycling, by far, is Barcelona’s relatively new bike sharing program — Bicing. This is perhaps the best or second best bike sharing program in the world. It is one of a new generation of sophisticated, smart bike sharing programs. Read more about it on page 2.

Beyond Bicing, the city is also working on creating new bicycling routes and bike parking and it hosts fun Bike Week celebrations every year in May. Also, it has been creating better infrastructure for bicyclists due to so many more people bicycling within the past few years. It is transforming itself into a truly world-leading bicycle city.

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Mid-August 2009 poll results

A Washington Post – ABC News poll from mid August included questions on how the President is handling energy policy. The results showed very strong support for energy efficiency as a way to fight climate change. The accompanying published article, however did not mention efficiency and instead talked about solar, wind, nuclear (including the NIMBY issue) and transportation.

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UK company AFC Energy claims to have developed fuel cell technology that can “generate and export electricity to a grid as efficiently as traditional electrodes.”

AFC tested its alkaline-based technology in Germany recently and found that its efficiency matched that of traditional platinum-based electrodes that cost more. This high efficiency moves the company one step closer to full-scale production of its fuel cell technology.

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New research at the University of Florida (UF) has just brought to light a new method in the capturing and guiding of energy that may lead to cheaper and more efficient solar cells.

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China just awarded Bombardier Sifang a contract to build 80 “very high speed trains” for the country.

These are super progressive trains that are energy efficient as well as lightning fast. China intends to invest a total of $300 billion in high speed trains by 2020.

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Many commuters have GPS installed in their cars, or have purchased portable devices to try to get them where they’re going. A recent study by NAVTEQ, a data provider for navigation systems has demonstrated that using a GPS device can not only save drivers time spent in traffic, it can also reduce emissions from vehicles by up to 21%.

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What you see above (center) is one of the most well-engineered “Franken-cars” of all time: a factory-modified 1980’s era Mercedes-Benz 190 diesel, stuffed with the company’s latest BlueEFFICIENCY CDI engine, which makes more than double the horsepower and nearly three times the torque of the original 1988 D.

How far we’ve come in 20 years!

More photos, and MBUSA’s own comprehensive press release, after the jump.

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Labor Day will soon be upon us, and with it, the unofficial end of summer. Back to school time. Summer is the season for camping, getting out of the city and getting a little dirty in the woods. Some folks like to tent it. Some folks like a travel trailer, with their own bathroom (my wife included).

But one problem with campers is how much they weigh, the large vehicles needed to tow them and frequent trips to the gas station. Travel trailers are getting lighter and lighter, however, and easier and more affordable to pull. Take a look at the latest entry, from EverGreen (like the tree) in Middlebury, Indiana.

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Editor’s Note: Carrotmob is a form of consumer activism that invites businesses to compete in order to win a mob of customers. But everyone wins, because the extra money the winner makes goes toward things like improving their energy efficiency. Usually the business who promises the largest percentage of revenue from the event wins, but this Carrotmob was done a little differently. Each contestant explained what they’d do if they won, and what they were currently doing around sustainability, and the general public voted, actually choosing the one who had already shown the greatest commitment to sustainability. Epicenter wanted to get some feedback from the public around what type of to-go containers to use.

What is the most sustainable type of take-out packaging?

Ah yes, the burning question that keeps many an environmentalist tossing and turning well into the night. On the one hand, PLA, aka “polylactic acid” comes from plants, not petroleum, so it must be good, right? But which plants does it come from? And what part of the plant? Is it waste being upcycled? Is it replacing food crops? It must be good, right, it’s not petroleum!?

Epicenter Café, being a very conscientious Carrotmob winner, wants to be sure they make the right choice. They also want your input, sage readers. So I present to you the options, because even the Green Café Network does not take an official stance on this ever-evolving topic. There is an increasing array of options for eco to-go containers.

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The summer of 2009 has been cooler than usual in the Midwest, but Mother Nature can still pack a punch.

August has seen some 90-degree days in places like Michigan.

When it get this hot, some people like to stay inside in front of the air conditioner (based on recent Twitter and Facebook updates). But it doesn’t have to be this way.

The air conditioner, I mean.

A “whole house fan” that uses the attic for venting can keep your home cool with less electricity (and for less money) than modern-day air conditioning.

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You know the drill. You flush the toilet, walk away, come back later and it’s still running.

You jiggle the handle. Hopefully that makes it stop. Maybe you take off the top of the tank and swear a little.

Or, you could install H2Orb, a toilet gadget from a California company that takes clean tech to a whole new level.

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How do you make a better wind turbine? With lasers, of course.

The Manassas, Virginia-based Catch the Wind(TSX-V: CTW.S) has signed an agreement to work with the National Renewable Energy Lab in Boulder, Colorado, to test the company’s Vindicator laser wind sensor.

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Austrian scientists are putting the ‘fun’ in ‘fungus’ by forcing organisms which are usually asexual to have sex instead.

The hope is that the fungus would then be easier to breed, which would allow researchers to create organisms that are more efficient at degrading cellulose for the purpose of making biofuel.

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Barnacles, algae and other marine biofilm can reduce a ship’s fuel efficiency by up to 40%, and the U.S. Navy is working on a way to keep its hulls clean without using expensive chemicals.  Up to now, the Navy has been relying on biocides to keep the pesky hitchhikers at bay.  On top of harming marine life, the chemical regime is not ideal for keeping high-performance warships operating at peak efficiency.  The Navy estimates that it spends an extra one billion dollars yearly on chemical biocides and extra fuel, so in addition to pure environmental altruism there are significant tactical and bottom-line incentive to find a better way to prevent biofouling.  In what can only be described as poetic justice, naval researchers are turning to the marine environment itself to find safe, effective solutions to the problem.

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As it stands, most vehicles in the world right now run on one of two fuels: gasoline, or diesel. While they perform the same function, and on the outside the engines look the same, they work in very different ways. While diesels have made progress in becoming cleaner burning, gasoline cars still dominate America’s highways.

But what might happen if someone mixed these two fuels up in the same engine? According to a research group from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the engine not only becomes more thermally efficient but cleaner burning, too.

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You’re waiting at a red light, your engine idling lightly. You check the crosswalk signal: 20 seconds, you have some time. You turn your classical music up a notch to the perfect volume and you close your eyes, relaxing on your way home from work. But your moment of relaxation is interrupted by the thump thump of bass coming from the car next to you. You look over at the car, the tinted windows keep you from seeing the driver. But the car’s engine revs. The light changes green and, as you lightly press the gas, the car next to you squeals past you, burning rubber.

Now, there is a lot of that situation that you would probably change. But I wonder if rubber made it high on your list. Well, it’s high on the list of researchers at Oregon State University. Their idea is not to do away with rubber altogether, but they are looking at the possibility of using trees in the tire-making process, which means that you and I could drive around on tires made partially out of trees some day.

Wood science researchers at Oregon State University have made some surprising findings about the potential of microcrystalline cellulose – a product made easily from almost any type of plant fibers – to partially replace silica as a reinforcing filler in the manufacture of rubber tires.

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Researchers at the University of Huelva have proven that high-oleic sunflower oil has the efficiency it takes to be an environmentally-friendly base for industrial lubricant.

The study found that the biolubricant shared similar characteristics to traditional lubricants, only sunflower oil has a lower volatility and is entirely biodegradable. Using the sunflower oil as an alternative should also help reduce the cost of keeping industry clean.

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