Archive for 'Clean Tech'
A Whale of Design: WhalePower Bumps into Engineering Innovation
Posted on 24. Aug, 2011 by Michael Chapdelaine.
The groundbreaking work of WhalePower: bringing new, high efficiency, tubercled airfoil designs to the marketplace. Stephen Dewar, VP of Business Affairs and Director of R&D, elaborates on their inspiration, discoveries, and practical applications in this exclusive, in-depth interview.
Continue Reading
Hurry! Register Today to Receive the 50% Early-Bird Discount!
Posted on 08. Aug, 2011 by OppGreen Insights.
Early registration is NOW OPEN for the 5th Annual Opportunity Green – the premier sustainable event happening November 10-11, 2011 at Los Angeles Center Studios. Sign-up before August 16th to receive the 50% early-bird discount, while it’s still available.
Continue Reading
Top Ten Green News Stories of June 2011
Posted on 01. Jul, 2011 by Alissa Masutani.
OG|10: Green News Monthly Roundup featuring the top ten green news stories from June 2011 as followed and covered by Opportunity Green.
Continue Reading
Top 7 Eco-Friendly Father’s Day Gifts
Posted on 16. Jun, 2011 by Sara Glaser.
Are you scouring to find that perfect gift? Of course, you didn’t forget Father’s Day is this Sunday. But in the unlikely event that you did, we at Opportunity Green have come up with a list of prospective eco-friendly gifts to give your dad that any other father would be green with envy to receive.
Continue Reading
I Love My New York Water: Mark Ruffalo Rallies Celebrity Troops for Anti-Fracking PSA
Posted on 14. Jun, 2011 by Sara Glaser.
On June 13, 2011 Senior Attorney in NRDC’s New York Urban Program and fracking expert, Kate Sinding, was joined by actor Mark Ruffalo to discuss his Anti-Hydro Fracking Campaign and the release of his new PSA.
Continue Reading
Top Ten Green News Stories of April 2011
Posted on 04. May, 2011 by OppGreen Insights.
OG|10: Green News Monthly Roundup featuring the top ten green news stories from April 2011 as followed and covered by Opportunity Green.
Continue Reading
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: The Future is Making Every Home a Power Plant and Every American an Energy Entrepreneur
Posted on 07. Feb, 2011 by Kristall Lutz.
Opportunity Green attended the Los Angeles Business Council Clean Energy Forum with special guest Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been at the forefront of fighting for the environment for over 20 years. He makes a very compelling case that “good environmental policy is identical to good economic policy” and that we are not only fighting for the environment, but also for democracy in moving towards sustainable energy.
“Nature is the infrastructure of our communities and we need to make an investment in that infrastructure”.
Kennedy began his speech with the very poignant point that economic prosperity and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive of each other; as many current business leaders, policy makers and pundits would like us to believe. In fact history has shown that environmentally driven change has led to great periods of wealth. In the 1970s, Iceland de-carbonized and began using its own geothermal energy resources and went from being the poorest nation (100% dependence on foreign oil and coal) to the fourth richest country in Europe (prior to the 2008-2010, economic collapse, brought on in large part from overinvestment in the króna, and put to a head by the global financial crisis [source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%932010_Icelandic_financial_crisis]). In 1996, Sweden moved towards closing all of its nuclear power plants and taxed carbon and is now the sixth richest country in the world (based on GDP). These are only two examples of the economic benefits of adapting greener technology and policy.
Kennedy outlined three hurdles President Obama faces in moving the United States from a carbon and oil burning nation to a sustainable energy nation successfully using abundant natural resources like wind and solar.
What stands in the way of successful sustainable power:
- Subsidies
o In the current system, government subsidies are being given to the polluters. Kennedy showed an angry passion on this subject when reminding the audience that the coal and nuclear industries (both very mature and profitable industries) still receive large government subsidies for doing business.
- Antiquated Power Grid
o A smart grid that can handle long haul transmission of wind and solar power needs to be created. Our national system, which was set up a hundred years ago is currently incapable of moving energy captured in the windiest and sunniest states for long haul usage.
- A “Byzantine” System
o Kennedy described the U.S. power grid as a Byzantine System, with about 200,000 miles of power lines divided among 500 owners where transmission upgrades often involve private land owners, multiple companies, state governments and numerous permits.
o In 1979, the government funded the building of a grid that would carry information among networked computers. Because of that investment in infrastructure, we now have free access to information via the internet forever. Kennedy bets that the same thing will happen with electrons when the grid is built for transmission of solar and wind power.
What are the solutions to these challenges:
- Create a national market place for sustainable energy.
o Free market capitalism is the greatest economic principle in Kennedy’s opinion. A law that encourages every home to become a power plant and put energy into the grid would not only be efficient and environmentally sustainable, but enrich entire communities (versus the current model where ‘polluter’ companies enrich themselves while impoverishing the rest of us of natural resources).
o On a macro level, Kennedy suggested that our federal government should make it illegal for corporations to contribute to political campaigns.
o Allow utility companies to make money by encouraging energ y usage reduction and/or switch to renewable energy sources.
“We need to recognize that our nation’s dependence on foreign oil causes destruction of our environment, our democracy and public trust”. While it is promising that the President addressed this issue in his recent State of the Union address and talked of moving the country to sustainable energy, the real change and policy making isn’t happening at the federal level; it is happening on the state and local level with mayors and city councils leading the way.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa reconfirmed his commitment to continue to chart a greener, more sustainable path for Los Angeles. He pointed out that Los Angeles is using the same amount of water as 30 years ago. And even more importantly, achieved its 20% renewable energy goals in 2010 (LA was using only 3.5% renewable energy when the goal was set six years ago) and plans to up that to 33% by 2020. With these improvements, the city is conserving 19 times more energy than 2005.
Kennedy closed with this: “The cost of extracting and burning coal is greater than the cost of refitting our infrastructure for the New Energy Economy. Let’s work towards making every American an energy entrepreneur and every American home a power plant!”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is author of Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Highjacking Our Democracy and The Riverkeepers: Two Activists Fight to Reclaim Our Environment as a Basic Human Right.
Continue Reading
Morning Keynotes: We’re All Connected
Posted on 23. Sep, 2010 by AHA.
Interconnectivity was the definitive theme of this morning’s keynotes.
First, Rick Ridgeway, Rick Ridgeway, vice president of environmental programs and communication for Patagonia, addressed the need to create landscape connectivity. Wildlife, Ridgeway explained, need corridors to roam for food and find mates—a need that has only increased with global warming.
“What happens when that need to roam is blocked?” Ridgeway asked. “Their ability to survive is diminished. And what are the consequences of that for us?”
Patagonia is tackling the need for landscape connectivity firsthand with its Freedom to Roam initiative. As Ridgeway explained, they’re connecting with big players across a number of industries—beginning, somewhat controversially, with BP and the oil industry.
Why sit down with the supposed enemy? Ridgeway explained that Patagonia has a philosophy of inclusion rather than exclusion. “We feel that the only way to bring long-term protection is to include the excluded,” Ridgeway said.
Because, after all, we’re all connected.
Steve Westly, managing partner of The Westly Group, also underscored the significance of interconnectivity. “Eighty-three million people in China will die of lung disease in the next 25 years,” he said. China has surpassed the U.S. as the world’s largest polluter, and its air pollution is affecting air quality as far away as the U.S. In fact, Westly said China is now responsible for 25% of L.A.’s smog.
But China, Westly argued, has taken stronger, swifter actions to fight pollutants and climate change—including stricter fuel economy standards and the largest reforestation project in history.
“The good news is that we’re seeing the best and the brightest minds turning their attention to the cleantech revolution,” Westly said. Cleantech is now the largest U.S. venture sector, he pointed out; in the third quarter of 2009, it finally eclipsed both biotech and IT.
Westly urged OG2010 attendees to join the revolution: “I challenge all of you to be the innovators who see a new world, and continue to make the U.S. the entrepreneurial leader of the world.”
Written by AHA! for Opportunity Green.
