Green Options

Two weeks ago, I wrote about a small sustainable plastic company, Metabolix, Inc. that had caught my attention in the previous months…but something happened that made their stock price jump up 5% in the past 24 hours. What exactly? The Target Corporation recently partnered with Metabolix to make their new gift cards out of sugar. As of today, Target uses them at 128 of it’s stores…a number that’s sure to rise in [...]

Today the U.S. House is likely to vote on the Udall-Platts Amendment to the energy bill. This legislation would require 15 percent of our nation’s electricity to come from renewable sources by the year 2020. It’s high time the federal government catch up to so many states that already have implemented 21st century policies like this one.

But in addition to broad state and federal programs, consumers can

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As an extension of last weeks post, Vote on Sustainable Design for the Future, there are simply too many design competitions out there: we must alert you to more. Many of these design competitions are open to people of all disciplines with good ideas. So maybe you should take a pen and paper and enter a keen green idea of your own if you want to see the world change.

Here is

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Editor’s note: As you’ll figure out from reading Christan’s posts, she watches the markets for clean technology and alternative fuels very closely. At the same time, though, she’s not a licensed financial advisor, so nothing in her posts should be taken as advice to buy, sell, or otherwise take action in the markets. She’s not trying to push anything here — just offering her observations.

Maybe you don’t read the NY Times religiously,

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Remember that big bully back in the fifth grade? Sure, we all wished he’d just go away. His early growth spurt meant wedgie sandwiches all around for the little guys. But what if, whenever he did something right, he was congratulated instead of being frowned at or ignored?  Today, the big kids of Corporate America are starting to do things right and it’s important to give them a

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Community activism—getting involved in your community to make positive change—is both thrilling and rewarding. But fighting against the current to do it can be hard work. To be effective at making change in your community, it’s a good idea to first learn what the community itself sees as its major issues. By learning about and responding to your community’s needs, you can generate popular support for your actions and more easily find

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Editor's note: Please welcome our newest writer, Christan Wasniewski. Based in St. Louis, Christan has worked in the world of international finance, and is now in the process of starting up the non-profit International Poverty Solutions, Inc., which will incubate and support businesses focused on alleviating international poverty, and finding market-based solutions to environmental challenges.

When was the last time we saw so many major companies make a mad dash to become more "eco-friendly"? From

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They may not have been rocking out at Live Earth, but business leaders from 150 companies around the world – including 30 Fortune Global 500 ones - have called for action on global warming.

The leaders signed a declaration at the United Nations Global Compact Leaders Summit, committing themselves to cutting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from their products and services and to report annually on their progress. They also called on

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When buying or selling your home, you have the chance to give big to the cause of your choice.

I’ll admit it: I am one of those Californians that everyone loves to hate. I left the “Golden State” and am considering buying a house in another state because, as radio host Garrison Keillor might say, outside of California, “all the women are strong, the mountains are good-looking, and all the Real

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Build it beautiful

In honor of the holiday and the American Dream of freedom and exploration, I am going to help you declare an “energy independence” today (at home anyway). Today, we are going to decrease our dependency on finite natural resources such as coal and natural gas used to generate much of the energy we consume in this country. The interesting lesson is that these finite resources are burned

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A group of 13 Canadian companies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have launched a pilot program in British Columbia (BC) to help the 370,000 small and medium-sized businesses there cut their global warming pollution.

Ecotrust Canada, the Pembina Institute, the David Suzuki Foundation, and corporate partners have developed the Carbon Neutral Workgroup for Small Business, which will help companies calculate their global warming emissions and identify efficient means of reducing those emissions. Even better, [...]