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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?

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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.

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Calling all sustainability hounds: EcoTuesday, the sustainable business leaders networking forum, is launching its highly anticipated Ambassador Program. Through the program, people can produce EcoTuesday events in their city and generate income from event sponsorships. Ambassadors are responsible for organizing events, securing venues and speakers each month, and developing relationships with companies that want to sponsor EcoTuesday events.

EcoTuesday is currently held on the 4th Tuesday of every month in San Francisco, Marin/North Bay, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis. The event features opportunities for sustainable business leaders to network and learn about green issues from visiting speakers. Don’t be shy about attending; participants come from areas as varied as real estate, organic food, and climate change policy, just to name a few.

For more information on getting started with EcoTuesday, check out their website.

Photo Credit: EcoTuesday

The proposal was be enacted in a two stage process. Beginning in January of 2009, all foam products would be banned, but restraints and grocery stores would be allowed to switch to plastic products if they hadn’t found a biodegradable replacement. The second stage would go in to effect by 2010, at which time all plastics would be banned, leaving only biodegradables.

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This year’s journey of 100-plus canoes across the Salish Sea to Cowichan First Nation in Duncan, British Columbia, will include five canoes carrying water-quality probes and global positioning systems (GPS) for measuring various aspects of Salish waters: temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, dissolved solids, turbidity and pH. Leading the study will be Sarah Akin, a scientist with the Swinomish Tribe. Two scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey — Eric Grossman and Paul Schuster — are also advising the project at the request of the Coast Salish.

This is the first time the canoe journey has taken on a scientific flavor, but it comes not a moment too soon.

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The first biodiesel blend train pulled out of Creston last week, hauling 52 cars of wheat and 500 gallons of biodiesel in the locomotives saddlebag tanks.  Officials are using a 25 percent blend of biodiesel in the tests.

The fuel is made by Columbia Bioenergy, located in Creston, which uses canola oil, restaurant grease, soy and other crops as feedstock.

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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.

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If you think the energy/food potential for hemp is underutilized, wait’ll you get a gander at algae. This little microorganism really packs a punch.

According to The Book of General Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know is Wrong (2006, Harmony Books) (I highly recommend it, by the way — it’s packed with fascinating information and weird insights), algae breathes out more oxygen than all the world’s land-based plants and trees combined. Certain types of algae also deliver a whopping amount of protein and nutrients per farmed acre (20 times more than soy beans, in the case of spirulina).

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Based on data from the Uptime Institute, a technology consulting company based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the McKinsey report finds that, between 2000 and 2006, the amount of energy needed to power data centers doubled, and that consumption is likely to double again by 2012. In the U.S. alone, we would need to build 10 new power plants by 2010 just to meet the growing energy needs of this country’s data centers.

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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.

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The firm sees its new headquarters as an emblem of its sustainable approach to architecture. The most innovative feature of the building is its passive cooling design; the building will not be air conditioned at all.

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The switch is expected to take place between April and September, as the retailer runs out of supplies of its current propylene-handled shopping bags.

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According to a report in the Seattle Times, most of the city’s taxis are now Ford Crown Victorias that get less than 20 mpg.

Many cab drivers aren’t thrilled with the proposal, which would still have to be approved by the Seattle City Council. And a proposal similar to Seattle’s is also sparking cabbie criticism in San Francisco.

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“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.”

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Well, the record-breaking 1959 Opel T-1 wasn’t exactly tucked into a crate among millions of other crates in a giant warehouse a la “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (”We have top men working on it right now.” “Who?” “Top men.”)

But it did spend years, all but forgotten, at the Talladega, Alabama-based International Motorsports Hall of Fame until it was discovered — and purchased by — Evan McMullen, who owns Cosmopolitan Motors in Seattle.

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Both of the “regional building technology application centers” are being funded by a multi-million-dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Shirey Contracting, an Issaquah, WA-based construction firm specializing in custom residential homes as well as commercial facilities, plans to begin construction of its “Zero Energy Idea House” in Bellevue this month. Situated on Bass Cove and incorporating modern design elements, the 1700 sq. ft. house is intended to be a demonstration project. It will showcase products and systems that can move a home toward complete energy independence.

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The 793-megawatt plant was planned for Kalama in Cowlitz County, WA. Backers of the plant included a coalition of 20 public utilities that called themselves “Energy Northwest.”

But last spring, Washington passed a law that said any new power plant must limit the amount of its global warming emissions to that of a highly efficient natural gas plant. If a plant emits more than that, then it has to capture and sequester the extra emissions permanently.

Energy Northwest said that it couldn’t sequester the emissions right away because of technology limits and, in fact, complying with the new law was futile. However, after they built the coal plant, the utilities promised they would come up with a plan about storing the future emissions. After the plant was operating for five years, they said they’d also consider buying carbon offsets from an unspecified source to cover the extra emissions.

That was their plan. They called it “adaptive management.” I’m going to remember that one.

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Editor's note: Since we missed the weekend review last week, we thought we'd give you a double shot this week.

On Memorial Day Weekend, Americans gear up for summer with BBQs, road trips, and camping. This year, for a twist on the Memorial Day camping trip, I attended the Sasquatch Music Festival at the Gorge Ampitheater in the middle of Washington. The twist was that the festival was carbon neutral, and so was our transportation.

The Gorge Ampitheater is an impressive venue. On the edge of the Columbia River Gorge, the sun sets just behind the stage and the seating is on grass-covered hillside. The view is spectacular, and since Michael Franti and Spearhead were playing, I had to go.

I was thrilled to find out that the concert was carbon-neutral, through a partnership with Sustainable Energy Partner's Carbon Harmony program (which we covered here). And since my boyfriend and I just got our "volksvegan" waste vegetable oil powered VW van up and running, we made most of the trip carbon-neutral as well!

Carbon Harmony projects are not just carbon-neutral, they go a step above by being over 100% offset:

Carbon Harmony is taking the fight against global warming up to 11! Going a step beyond carbon neutral, Carbon Harmony projects result in a net reduction in the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.

Carbon Harmony is taking action against climate change so that an event, vehicle, business or project actually has a reducing effect on the amount of carbon dioxide in the environment. We know that there is already too much CO2 in the atmosphere. It isn't enough to just put out less. We need to REDUCE the amount of CO2. That's what Carbon Harmony is about.

For every carbon harmony project, calculations are done to understand what the CO2 emmisions impact would be. Then, a larger amount of carbon reductions credits are purchased to offset the impact of that project and to actually reduce the overall level of CO2 in the air. Harmony amounts start at 10% more than neutral and can go as high as you want.

The more people that get involved, the less CO2 there will be, and the closer we will be to solving the climate change problem.

Going above and beyond carbon-neutral is definitely a good thing! Unfortunately, the way the event was run would never have led me to believe that sustainability was a major focus of the event. The Gorge may be a beautiful location, but the venue's operations certainly don't promote green living. The overpriced campground was full of mowed grass instead of local plants or even trees, there was garbage everwhere, and aside from one recycling tent, I didn't see a single recycling collection container in the campground or the concert venue. I saw toilet paper being thrown into the wind over the concert just for fun. I waited in line for half an hour only to find out that there were no more veggie burgers, and the only other thing that was vegan on the menu was a $5 cup of fries. So, Sasquatch may have been talking the talk, but the venue certainly wasn't walking the walk.

The low level of eco-consciousness at the venue and in the campground, coupled with the steep ticket, food, and camping prices, was almost enough to make me wish we'd stayed home. Then, they shut down the main stage because of high winds. The Gorge is always windy (and just across the river was a beautiful ridge full of windmills to prove it), but apparently it was too windy for the stage to be safe. They rearranged the schedule a bit and thankfully the wind died down in the evening. But, since the schedule was rearranged, I had to choose between Micheal Franti and the Beastie Boys, and would have really liked to see both.

Despite my disappointments of how the concert was managed, Michael Franti and Spearhead put on a great show of postive, passionate, protest music and made the whole thing worthwhile. I gladly support musicians like Michael Franti and Spearhead that walk the walk (Franti plays for prisoners and soldiers in Iraq, raises awareness of important issues, traveled to the Middle East, and is vegan). Of course, the fact that our test run with the grease system on the "volksvegan" went off without a hitch was a huge bonus to my weekend as well!

I appreciate that popular concerts and events are doing their part to help combat global warming - that's certainly a trend I'd like to see continue. But when the concert experience seems antithetical to the carbon neutrality and eco-consciousness of the event, the green message is only hindered and it makes it all seem like a greenwashing marketing ploy.

Nice try, Sasquatch. It was fun and all, but you can't just slap a carbon-neutral sticker on an event and call it sustainable. Apparently the Sasquatch needs to evolve…