To be built between 2011 and 2012, the Caithness Shepherd’s Flat project in North-Central Oregon will involved 303 wind turbines across 30 square miles. This will make it one of the world’s largest fully permitted wind farms, but it won’t require any additional or upgraded transmission lines, speeding the time frame for operation.

The project is expected to generate 2 billion kilowatt-hours per year of renewable energy - more than 10% of SCE’s total renewable energy portfolio.

Read more of this story »

According to the Princeton Review’s new Green Ratings for institutions of higher learning, 11 colleges stood out from the national field of 534. All 11 earned a rating of 99, the highest score possible in the Princeton Review’s new tally.

So which schools are tops in all things green?

Read more of this story »

Rogue prefers his steak medium-well. But when it comes to sniffing out a rare plant, this dog performs work that’s very well done, indeed.

The 4-year-old Belgian sheepdog is part of a Nature Conservancy collaborative project to test the efficacy of using dogs to sniff out the threatened Kincaid’s lupine. The plant is host to the endangered Fender’s blue butterfly, found only in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

Watch a video of Rogue in action!

Using detector dogs for such inventory work is new territory: No one’s tried it before.

But since dogs use their remarkable sense of smell to uncover illegal drugs or locate missing persons, why not use them to help find and protect endangered plants and animals?

Rogue’s reward for finding the correct plant? That steak. (Or sometimes mackerel.)

Read more of this story »

The challenge, launched last year, honored its first winner this past June: a plan for a “Comprehensive Design for a Carbon Neutral World: The Challenge of Appalachia,” submitted by John Todd, a research professor at the University of Vermont and founder and president of Oceans Arks International. And just last month, the institute unveiled its Idea Index, which provides details on entries in every area from community and energy to transportation and water. It’s too much to take in all at once, so today, let’s look at some of the innovative ideas in one area alone: food.

Read more of this story »

Some of the features of the remodel include:

• Preserving existing teak trim, mirrors, stone vanities and tubs.
• Using Forest Stewardship Council certified wood that adheres to all the practices of the Smartwood Rainforest Alliance.
• 40% recycled content tile on the walls and floors.
• Use of LED lighting custom designed by Eleek Lighting and Design.
• Shower heads that reduce water usage by 10 to 20 percent.
• Toilets that will reduce water usage by 50 percent.
• Approximately 95%, by volume, of the debris from the bathroom demolition was donated to Portland’s ReBuilding Center, the largest non-profit building materials resource in North America.

The Heathman is not new to sustainability and conservation.  It was one of Portland’s first hotels to receive incentives from the Energy Trust of Oregon for energy efficiency upgrades.  It also participates in Pacific Power’s Blue Sky program, purchasing 30 percent of its electricity from Blue Sky renewable sources.  Chris Erickson, the Heathman’s general manager, said, “We are thrilled to team with AMAA (Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects), a company that shares our sustainable values and commitment to community.  They’ve helped to take our existing sustainability efforts to the next level.”

The Heathman’s guests are invited to see, and experience, how luxury and sustainability can coexist.

Oregon is once again taking the lead with renewable energy by installing the country’s first highway solar energy project. The project will consist of a 104 kW solar photovoltaic system that covers 8,000 square feet and produces 112,000 kWh each year. That’s 28% of the energy needed to power the project’s location, the Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 interchange in Tualatin.

Electricity for the interchange will be provided by PGE. The solar panels will come into play by producing electricity during the day, giving the power to the PGE grid, and getting the equivalent amount of power back at night from PGE to power lighting on the highway.

Read more of this story »

In a paper that is available online and will be published in an upcoming issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Goldberg and his colleagues write about how a basalt formation off of the coast of Oregon and Washington could potentially store anywhere from 120-150 years of carbon produced by the United States in its cavities (assuming current U.S. emission rates do not increase).

While initially I was extremely skeptical of this idea (because I thought that it might cause all kinds of unintended ecological havoc), by the end of the interview, I was somewhat more optimistic.

Read more of this story »

The Shepherd’s Flat Wind Farm will contain 303 wind turbines and will double the state’s wind-generating capacity. It will boost the local economy by creating 250 to 300 new jobs, and lease payments to landowners will supplement farm incomes.

Read more of this story »

According to Wikipedia, workforce housing has four defining elements:

• Affordability
• Home Ownership
• Key Workforce (in other words, composed of critical members of a community’s workforce such as police officers and teachers), and
• Proximity (to employment centers)

Read more of this story »

Oregon: the land of volcanoes, beautiful coastline, forests…and trash? Unfortunately, that might be the case if Hawaii gets its way.

According to the Portland Tribune, Honolulu is quickly running out of space in their main landfill. In order to prevent overflow, the city has hatched a plan to send ships full of garbage up the Columbia River in Oregon, where trash will be put on trucks and trains headed to the Columbia Ridge Landfill.

It may seem strange that Hawaii wants to send its trash to a state known for being so environmentally conscious. Interestingly enough, that’s exactly why they want to do it.

Read more of this story »

Whatever the cause (and there’s good reason to blame all three to some degree), most so-called experts these days aren’t expecting oil prices to drop anytime soon. In fact, Newsweek this week features a sobering article titled, “The Coming Energy Wars,” that predicts we’ll soon see oil prices top $200 a barrel. When that happens, the authors warn, we can expect everything about our daily lives to change.

Read more of this story »

Among the wine-makers using solar power: Far Niente, Frog’s Leap, Fetzer, Domaine Carneros, Ridge and St. Francis, among others. According to one solar company executive, the region’s wineries are going solar 40-plus times faster than any other type of business in California.

Read more of this story »

Read more of this story »

In 2000, Gerding Edlen Development selected GBD Architects to renovate 5 blocks of historic brewery buildings located in a former industrial area of Portland, Oregon known as the Pearl District. The success of the Brewery Blocks project sparked a rebirth of the neighborhood; in 2005, The Sierra Club recognized the Pearl District as one of the nation’s best neighborhood redevelopment projects. Since that time, the district has continued to thrive; Gerding Eldlen’s latest building in the Pearl District, also designed by GBD Architects, is a 16-story condominium tower known as The Casey.

Read more of this story »

With gasoline prices in the U.S. breaking new records weekly, for example, law enforcement officials are seeing more cases of cooking grease thefts from fast-food establishments and other restaurants. Why used grease? Because cooking oil can be converted into biodiesel fuel that can be sold at a cool profit.

Read more of this story »

The farmers’ market season may not yet be in full swing so we don’t see — nor appreciate — the flurry of farm activity going on across the country as growers get ready to keep us freshly stocked all summer. But Bradbury, a fledgling Oregon farmer starting her growing venture this season, along with thousands of small-scale, family farmers across the country, have been putting in long work days for weeks.

Read more of this story »

Texas wind turbines generated 4,446 megawatts of energy in 2007 — enough to power nearly 1.2 million homes. The state added 1,618 megawatts of new wind power capacity last year, more than double the amount of second-place Colorado.

Read more of this story »

“These documents paint a picture of an Environmental Protection Agency in crisis. They show the dedicated professional staff of the EPA working hard to do what they are paid to do by the American people - protect our health and our environment. At the same time, we see more and more evidence of Administrator Johnson ignoring the science and the facts, and discarding the advice of his professional staff.”

“I believe this decision will be reversed by the next President or by the courts, but the Administrator can save the taxpayers time and money, and can get us started cleaning up our air if he would simply follow the law, the facts, and the advice of his agency professionals.”

Read more of this story »

At Little Marmara, we believe in simple things. That we should treat the environment as we would treat ourselves. That nothing should go next to our children’s beautiful skin that we would not place next to our own. That clothing for little people can and should be as artful and well made as clothing for big people. And that at no point from the cotton fields to our customers should the earth or any of its inhabitants suffer in the slightest for our cause.

Founded in 2005, Little Marmara just recently launched its website and online store in July of this year. Unable to find anything she liked (and her two kids felt comfortable wearing), Ackerman started Little Marmara to solver her own clothing conundrums as well as those of other parents and their kids. Made from 100% organic Turkish cotton under fair labor practices, all of Little Marmara’s creations are printed with low impact dyes, featuring gender-neutral Turkish designs from the Ottoman Empire era. The designs, and the brand itself, is a nod to Ackerman’s children’s Turkish heritage, with the line taking its name from the Marmara Sea and the ancient Middle Eastern trade routes that used to follow its shores.

So far, the line currently only features long-sleeve shirts and cuddly, machine washable pillows that come with their own bag. Ranging in size from 6-12 months to 4T, all shirts are $28 each, perfect for warm days or laying as the temperatures drop. The future holds great things for Little Marmara, including organic cotton pants, blankets, sweaters, hats, washcloths, towels and even toys. With our whole world connected via the internet, bridging the East with West and the North to South, our society seems to be so quick to forget about combining the past with the future and the Earth with ourselves. Our children learn from everything they see, hear, touch, or wear — Little Marmara is a great way to introduce our next generation to our newly-established world culture.