By Reenita Malhotra •
September 22, 2008
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 [...]
By Reenita Malhotra •
September 22, 2008
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 [...]
By Gavin Hudson •
May 4, 2008
In many ways, Shinhyocheon is just a typical suburb. It’s in Nam-gu, on the southern outskirts of Gwangju, one of South Korea’s biggest cities. In fact, if you don’t look closely, the Shinhyocheon solar village is easy to miss. Of the 1.4 million people living in Gwangju, most have never heard of it. Local taxi drivers wrinkle their brows and shrug; even the tourist information center in downtown Gwangju has trouble finding it on the map.
But for those who know it, Shinhyocheon deserves a place in energy history. In 2004, it became South Korea’s first solar village – a neighborhood of 64 solar powered houses where residents enjoy cheap, clean energy. The solar panels in this neighborhood generate over 115 KW of energy in a year. For each resident, that translates into an annual savings of around $589 USD, or a total of $37,700 for all 64 houses combined.
Inspired by Shinhyocheon’s success, the local government is planning to expand the number of solar houses in Nam-gu by adding 340 new sun-powered residential buildings.
By Max Lindberg •
October 25, 2007
She’s back, ready for another challenge and promising to stay active as an environmental protester. Betty Krawczyk is in the news again, this time planning to run for Mayor of Vancouver, BC, Canada in November of 2008. I talked with her after her release from the Alouette Correctional Center a few weeks after our first interview, and she spoke of many things: the new political party she’s joined as a
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By Max Lindberg •
July 20, 2007
The small (25,000 pop) South-Central Nebraska city of Hastings, recently captured the title of "America’s Greenest City". Hastings was one of more than 300 communities across the country competing in Yahoo’s "Be A Better Planet", Greenest Cities in America" challenge.
The city received a grand prize of $250,000, and Mayor Matt Rossen told me the community is now planning how to best
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