A homeowner in Menlo Park, CA recently discovered that his home had 14 picoCuries/liter of radon, three times the EPA action level of 4 picoCuries/liter (pCi/L).  He tested his home for radon because he was concerned about his new granite counters.  However, his granite was not the source of the radon.  He had “geologic” radon coming from the soil beneath his house.

Homeowners in Atherton, CA and Carmel, CA both learned last year that they had 8 pCi/L of radon, twice the EPA action level.  The homeowners in Atherton tested their home because they were concerned about their granite.  They discovered they had geologic radon instead.  The family in Carmel had some radon emitted by their granite, but the majority of their radon was coming from the soil.

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Shai Agassi founded Better Place in October of 2007 with $200 million in venture capital. The vision of Better Place is to reduce global dependency on oil by creating a market-based transportation infrastructure that supports electric vehicles and renewable energy.

Within the first six months of its founding, Better Place forged cooperative agreements  with business and government in Israel and Denmark, most recently announcing a deal to bring Better Place to Australia. And with today’s announcement the electric car infrastructure model is set to come to California, starting in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Fisker Automotive yesterday announced (PDF) the opening of a 34,000 square foot Engineering and Development Center in Pontiac, Michigan, that will house up to 200 engineers and designers in support of Fisker’s much anticipated plug-in hybrid car, the four-door Fisker Karma.

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Let’s kill the business card, the paper one that is.

Why do we need it anyways? It does that hideous bent corner thing when you take out of your wallet (excuse us “Mr. That’s-why-I-get-my-cards-lamented”, you are an exception), the VP of Financial Genius gets tossed next to the Hatha yoga instructor and besides, that font you chose, with painstaking care, is ugly anyways.

Like Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief of NextWeb.org, I feel impelled to stop the “ruthless hitmen” and their budding online appetites to belittle and ultimately, kill the paper business card and switch to rmbrME’s bzCard or some other gadget.

Little surprise, most visitors, many with entrepreneurial backgrounds, on the original TechCrunch post by Jason Kincaid weren’t too fond of the whole “death warrant” idea.

“You guys need to get out of the [Silicon] [V]alley more. The business card, and your other page view bloating proclamation about voicemail, is not going away any time soon. You do realize that most business people only use their phone for voice calls and e-mail? Most business people don’t even belong to a “social network.”"

- Alex Valentine

“Most successful people I know simply don’t own a computer, sure as hell not a cell phone. There is no substitute for a business card in the real world.”

- Anderson

“They’re clumsy? What is that supposed to mean? They’re pieces of paper.They’re easy to lose? When did pants stop sporting pockets? Useless? Do the words fall off if the card is shaken or something? And seriously? Trying to throw in the “it’s the green thing to do” line? Come on. That line is wearing thin.”

- David H.

Now, from a sustainability in business perspective, the bzCard (or other eCard, vCard, etc.) can save paper, save trees and contribute to cuts in greenhouse emissions, right?

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Palo Alto, San Francisco and East Palo Alto (then, coming to a city near you)–Each year, the eleven year-old UN Association Film Festival chooses a theme related to the UN Charter, and this year it is “Blue Planet, Green Planet”.

Numerous other human rights issues will be addressed as well, but the environment and our collective relationship to it will be explored in all sorts of creative ways. And if you think that documentary films are like the “talking heads” we used to sit through in elementary school, be prepared to be very pleasantly surprised.

Between October 19th and 26th, the Festival will screen 41 documentary films from as many countries. Having seen at least a couple of the films every year since the Festival’s founding, I can tell you that great storytelling is great entertainment, and real life stories can be even more engaging than fiction.

Hopefully, the schedule of films in the main festival will be posted on the UNAFF site by the time you are reading this, but the general schedule is:

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The Arnold Palmer is an exceptional beverage. It takes two individual beverages, iced tea and lemonade, each very good in their own right, and creates an even better one. That’s how we feel about social media and green living i.e. sustainability.

There is nothing inherently green about social media. The Web 2.0 revolution is driven by code and the Internet as a platform. According to Wikipedia, it describes this as a trend in “technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users.” This is largely a virtual world.

The move toward sustainability, on the other hand, is taking place entirely offline in the actual world. It is about balancing our impact and more wisely managing our natural resources. The United Nations describes it as commitment to “the provision of a secure environmental, social, and economic future.”

As different as they are, these two trends share one key quality: they’re changing the world for the better. They are changing politics, business, culture, and society. In the following we explore 10 ways that the trends of social media and sustainability intersect as well as align.

Special Note: Sustainablog and Max Gladwell are supporting Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C). By clicking this link and signing up for SocialVibe, once featured in our Ten Ways to Change the World Through Social Media, you’ll effectively donate $1 to the cause. We also encourage you to watch the live telecast on ABC, CBS, and NBC, September 5th, at 8:00pm ET/PT.

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A new milestone was reached recently in the race to make fuel from algae a conventional oil alternative: high-octane gasoline that is compatible with any gas-guzzling vehicle. The feat was performed by Sapphire Energy, a company that manufactures “green crude”. Sapphire uses single-cell algae to produce a chemical mixture that contains extractable fuel for cars and other transport vehicles. While the green crude is chemically identical to crude oil, it is completely carbon neutral.

The algal energy doesn’t require the use of agricultural land and water, and it deliver 10 to 100 times more energy per acre than crop-based biofuels. The company hopes that their green crude will ultimately be injected into normal crude pipelines.

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First, what we’re all interested in…the moolah. I’ve been hearing a lot about the investment going into clean tech these days. The first keynote speaker, Ira Ehrenpreis of Technology Partners in Palo Alto also explained why this is so.

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  ]]> http://ecolocalizer.com/2008/05/15/clean-tech-investing-and-solar-taking-off/feed/ http://gas2.org/2008/04/16/tesla-motors-sues-fisker-automotive-over-electric-car-design/ http://gas2.org/2008/04/16/tesla-motors-sues-fisker-automotive-over-electric-car-design/#comments Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:47:53 +0000 Clayton B. Cornell http://gas2.org/2008/04/16/tesla-motors-sues-fisker-automotive-over-electric-car-design/

  As reported by the New York Times yesterday, the two leading manufacturers of electric cars in the US are involved in a serious quarrel over alleged theft of vehicle design and trade secrets.

  Tesla Motors, who recently began production of their electric Roadster, claims that Henrik Fisker took on an $875,000 design contract with Tesla in order to access confidential design information. After producing “inferior work,” Fisker launched his own company, Fisker Automotive, and released an $80,000 competing vehicle—the Fisker Karma—less than a year later.

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  ]]> http://gas2.org/2008/04/16/tesla-motors-sues-fisker-automotive-over-electric-car-design/feed/ http://ecoscraps.com/2008/04/07/ca-solar-shade-act-invoked-by-neighbors/ http://ecoscraps.com/2008/04/07/ca-solar-shade-act-invoked-by-neighbors/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:41:35 +0000 Jennifer Lance http://ecoscraps.com/2008/04/07/ca-solar-shade-act-invoked-by-neighbors/

  If your trees are shading your neighbor’s solar panels, you could be fined $1,000 a day. The 1978 California Solar Shade Act deems shading trees a nuisance. In Sunnyvale, CA, Prius driving Carolynn Bissett and Richard Treanor were convicted under the law after electric car driving neighbor Mark Vargas complained .

  Source: New York Times

  Read more interesting news from Silicon Valley:

  • 5 Pounds of Pot Recycled in San Jose
  • Al Gore says the solution to climate change is in Silicon Valley
  • Silicon Valley loves the Prius- jumps to #1 best selling car in 2007
  ]]> http://ecoscraps.com/2008/04/07/ca-solar-shade-act-invoked-by-neighbors/feed/ http://cleantechnica.com/2008/02/27/laws-and-money-ending-the-free-ride-for-carbon-emissions/ http://cleantechnica.com/2008/02/27/laws-and-money-ending-the-free-ride-for-carbon-emissions/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:29:43 +0000 Carol Gulyas http://cleantechnica.com/2008/02/27/laws-and-money-ending-the-free-ride-for-carbon-emissions/ “Personal choices, no matter how virtuous, cannot do enough. It will also take laws and money.”

  The New Yorker has published an illuminating article on carbon emissions and carbon “cap and trade” systems, which shares the example of the successful reduction in sulfur emissions to illustrate how carbon emissions could be reduced. The passage of the Clean Air Act in 1990 mandated massive acid-rain reductions, and created a market for sulfur-dioxide emissions that forced companies to “pay to pollute”. Once a cost was associated with sulfur-dioxide emissions, companies could save money by installing scrubbers. Emissions were reduced from eighteen million tons to nine million, and acid rain evaporated as an environmental problem. Cap and trade is already happening, at the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), where carbon futures are traded like pork bellies.

  “…CCX members buy and sell the right to pollute. Each makes a voluntary (but legally binding) commitment to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases—including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—and hydrofluorocarbons. Four hundred corporations now belong to the exchange, including a growing percentage of America’s largest manufacturers. The members agree to reduce their emissions by a certain amount every year, a system commonly known as cap and trade. A baseline target, or cap, is established, and companies whose emissions fall below that cap receive allowances, which they can sell (or save to use later). Companies whose emissions exceed the limit are essentially fined and forced to buy credits to compensate for their excess.” — Michael Specter, The New Yorker

  This isn’t just a method for punishment and reward. Establishing a carbon market allows money to flow toward developing the new energy technologies that will help companies save money. And if Silicon Valley is ever going to become “Solar Valley”, as some have predicted, the money needs to flow. Obama, Clinton and McCain are all advocating a cap and trade system.

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  ]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2008/02/27/laws-and-money-ending-the-free-ride-for-carbon-emissions/feed/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2007/07/20/silicon-valley-loves-the-prius-jumps-to-1-best-selling-car-in-2007/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2007/07/20/silicon-valley-loves-the-prius-jumps-to-1-best-selling-car-in-2007/#comments Fri, 20 Jul 2007 21:35:49 +0000 Noelle dEstries http://planetsave.com/blog/2007/07/20/silicon-valley-loves-the-prius-jumps-to-1-best-selling-car-in-2007/ Smart people drive green cars. I love the smell of Smug in the morning.

  Toyota’s Prius hybrid has become the bestselling car in Silicon Valley.

  Through May, 1,627 Prius registrations have been recorded in Santa Clara County, according to R.L. Polk. That puts the Prius ahead of Toyota’s Camry and Corolla and Honda’s Accord and Civic, all cars that outsell the high-mileage, gas-electric sedan nationwide. Locally, the Prius was No. 5 behind those models last year.

  “Are we ahead of the curve, or what?” asked Rod Diridon, executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University, and a Prius owner.

  The Prius’ newfound status reflects the continued greening of Silicon Valley. Diridon listed sustained higher gas prices, the availability of carpool-lane stickers
  for solo Prius drivers - no more are being issued - and the intelligence of local residents as factors in the Prius’ popularity.

  “The intellectual capacity within Silicon Valley is amazing,” he said. “That higher level of education reflects a higher level of understanding of the terrible consequences of global warming.”

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  ]]> http://planetsave.com/blog/2007/07/20/silicon-valley-loves-the-prius-jumps-to-1-best-selling-car-in-2007/feed/ http://amystodghill.greenoptions.com/2007/02/05/al-gore-says-the-solution-to-climate-change-is-in-silicon-valley/ http://amystodghill.greenoptions.com/2007/02/05/al-gore-says-the-solution-to-climate-change-is-in-silicon-valley/#comments Mon, 05 Feb 2007 13:21:09 +0000 Amy Stodghill http://amystodghill.greenoptions.com/2007/02/05/al-gore-says-the-solution-to-climate-change-is-in-silicon-valley/ Photo Credit: Dai Sugano/Mercury NewsAl Gore spoke in Silicon Valley on Friday, the same day as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fourth assessment was released. The report issued by the official scientist consortium concluded that global warming is happening, in large part due to human activity.

  However, instead of touting the all too familiar gloom-and-doom global warming scenarios of the future, Gore’s message to Silicon Valley was hopeful. He sees the climate crisis as an opportunity for businesses, and sees green technology as the key to revitilizing Silicon Valley.

  According to CNET’s review of Gore’s remarks:

  The work already done in information technology, computational science, biotechnology and other specialties that are present in this valley, more than any other place in the world, are going to be the most valuable resources” to combat the crisis, he said. “Just as information technology changed the world, clean tech and green tech right here based in Silicon Valley…you can chart the course and save the future of this civilization.

  A report released by the Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network does show that green and clean technologies are already helping the area economy demonstrated by the first significant job increase since the dot-com bust.

  The report also found that venture capital funding awarded to clean technology firms increased 266 percent last year, with investments of about $300 million by the third quarter alone.

  Via CNET
  Watch CNET video of Gore’s talk to Silicon Valley.

  ]]> http://amystodghill.greenoptions.com/2007/02/05/al-gore-says-the-solution-to-climate-change-is-in-silicon-valley/feed/