In recent posts on Planetsave and EcoWorldy about moratoria on soya and cattle products related to Amazon destruction, it was mentioned that McDonald’s is helping to save the Amazon. With the company also delving into green building, progressive energy saving software, and charging stations for electric vehicles, is McDonald’s a green company?

Read more of this story »

World Fertility Rate Map

The current world population is approximately 6.5 billion people and growing. By or before 2050, that number will grow by almost 50% to 9 billion. With the availability of birth control and better education rates for women being higher in developed (industrial or post-industrial) nations, most of this increase is projected to come from the developing  world–those nations that are just now making significant progress away from exclusively agrarian societies, and towards full industrialization.

And despite the prevalence of fatal diseases, civil wars, and high infant mortality rates (note: the US has the highest infant mortality rate of any developed country), most of these developing countries continue to show population increases–especially as more effective medicines and health education (via government and private sector programs) become available.

Read more of this story »

Hangar 25 at Bob Hope airport in Burbank, CA - Interior

Shangri-La Industries has introduced its newly formed business unit, Shangri-La Construction, at today’s unveiling of their inaugural project: Hangar 25, the world’s first aviation hangar to achieve Platinum certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Rating System™ at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California.

Shangri-La Industries is a diversified firm integrating environmentally-conscious development, sustainable construction and innovative green technology to create the next generation of business solutions. Steve Bing, the founder and environmental advocate recognized that reducing energy consumption would not only yield environmental benefits, but also generate significant cost savings.

Read more of this story »

In order to bring awareness to this waste of energy, Best Buy has created National Vampire Awareness on October 30th. They are working to educate consumers on the effects of vampire loads and how to avoid unnecessary energy use. They have a Halloween spoofy video on their website to help them do the job as well as some facts and tips.

Read more of this story »

As the world continues to be shaken up by horror stories on Wall Street, it might be worth taking a few steps back to consider your immediate quality of life.

SustainLane, a San Francisco based green media company has just announced its brand new U.S. city rankings today. Starting in 2005, SustainLane went through an exorbitant examination of sustainability initiatives in U.S. cities looking at a variety of factors: average traffic commutes, affordable housing, waste diversion, green space, energy usage, green buildings, natural disaster risk, air quality, water quality, public transportation, local food sources, and government innovations. James Elsen, the founder of SustainLane explains it in his article What’s A Sustainable City, Anyway ?

Read more of this story »

From  Green Options’ sustainablog

In SustainLane’s first city ranking, released in spring 2005, Portland came out on top, with San Francisco and Seattle not far behind. In the words of James Elsen, West Coast cities and “blue” cities (New York, Chicago, Boston) turned out to be way ahead in the green game than “red” ones. The latest city rankings report benchmarks each city’s performance in 16 areas of urban sustainability, including an essential new measurement this year: Water Supply.

>> Read the rest of this post at sustainablog 

Today I would like to look at a situation where the reverse is true, visiting the Germany eco-town of Freiburg .

At first glance, those Germans may appear to have limited green credentials. Fearful of potential impact on their high performance car industry, Germany has lobbied aggressively in recent months to delay new EU legislation aimed at improving vehicle fuel economy. Germany is also home to six of Europe’s ten most polluting power stations and has been keeping quiet about plans to build 24 additional coal powered plants.

However, in terms of concrete and practical actions aimed at making a real difference to the environment, this nation of passionate recyclers, high speed railway builders, and renewable energy nuts appear to be way out in front.

Read more of this story »