I have often fondly talked about my experience with biking in the Danish capital Copenhagen, but a the Crowne Plaza has come up with a great idea to take this to a new level. They have installed two bikes in the hotel lobby that are used to generate electricity. This by itself is a brilliant idea, not so much different from the idea of a gym powered by the patrons (one of our Greener Truth bloggers has always wanted to start a gym like this called the Powerhouse), but they have taken this idea a step farther and passed the savings along to the people doing the work. If you are staying at the hotel, a short workout on the bikes will earn you a free meal or drinks at the bar. This is the first such program that I know about and the Crowne Plaza is using this as a test program before expanding to other hotels. On top of this idea, the hotel was designed with energy saving in mind and uses 90% less energy than traditional buildings. Here are just a few of the energy saving ideas that have been implemented.
-solar pannels on the roof and exterior
-a geothermal well for heating and cooling
-the use of a biogas facility for organic waste
-organic food
-water saving faucets
-low energy lighting and electronics
I think that this is a great idea and would love to see these sorts of ideas catch on. To date, most business think of green practices as costly and unnecessary, but ideas like this will show that it is possible to run a greener business and save money as long as people are willing to think out of the box.
Lance Armstrong may be 17 minutes behind the leaders in the Tour de France this summer, but that is ok with me, because he is stepping up to lead the charge for the Nissan Leaf. Not long ago, Lance was named the official spokesperson for the electric car, and now he stars in their new commercial about the clean design of the car.
While this may just be another paycheck for the cycling superstar, he is also set to be the first recipient of a Leaf and genuinly seems dedicated to the cause. More celebrities are standing up for causes they care about, and in a culture that is always trying to find the best deal, this is one way that alternative forms of transportation and renewable energy are going to take hold. Next time you see you see Matt Damon or Brad Pitt driving around in a sporty Tesla Roadster, don’t think about the $100K that they dropped to get the car, but the service they are doing to promote a cleaner driving experience for us all.
More Information about the Nissan Leaf and Electric Cars
I am always excited about new eco adventures, and here is one that I think would be a ton of fun. The Pterosail is a recumbant trike that is equiped with a special stable sail. For me, this is the perfect combination, because I love riding a bike and sailing. When I was 12, my grandmother gave me lessons in a little sunfish, and since then, I have always loved being on the water, but now that I live in colorado it is chalenging to get to an ocean. The Pterosail solves this problem, and they will be proving it over the next few weeks. On June 28th they started a journey from San Diego, CA to St. Augistine, FL. So far they are averaging 50-60 miles a day thanks to the wind and the sun. Along with the sail and peddle power, there is also a solar pannel that rides above the driver and powers electronics and a small electric backup motor. I am sure that they are getting some wierd looks, but at this rate it won’t be long before they make it to the Atlantic. Right now, these wind powered trikes are crazy expensive ($5500), but I hope that with time that will come down some. From my experience traveling by bike, I am sure that this is a great way to see the country and I hope one day I will get a chance to try it out.
I have railed on Starbucks (and all the other coffee stores) in that past over all of the wasted paper coffee cups, but after a long time coming, the company has joined with the Betacup program and decided to make some improvements. The Betacup program initially asked for sugestions from customers on how to fight the coffee cup waste. Here is a video explaining the problem and how to find the solution.
Now the winning idea has been chosen, and it is a brilliant one. Instead of redesigning the reusable coffee mug, the solution was simply to give folks an incentive to remember their mug. Every coffee addict that I know has multiple reusable mugs, but I don’t often see them being used. Reusable mugs are hard to clean and easy to forget, so to help people remember, the Karma cup idea will reward every tenth customer bringing a reusable mug with a free cup of coffee. This is so much smarter than a punch card, or a discount, because you never know when you are going to be a winner, so you always have to be on your toes and bring your mug. The only addition that I would make would be mug cleaning station. How many times have you had a reusable mug, wanted to use it, but just couldn’t stomach drinking out of the same cup for another day without washing it? So now, what if Starbucks had a quick wash station so that while you were waiting in line, you could wash out and sanitize your mug? Now that would be convenient, and with the addition of the Karma cup idea, could change some attitudes about coffee.
More information on Betacup and the coffee cup problem
Considering all of the horrors of the gulf oil spill, I don’t think that there is an American left that doesn’t wish for a better alternative than oil. Then again, with some of the responses floating around lately, maybe I am wrong. Natural gas, which many tout as a greener alternative than oil, has become more popular and accounts for 17% of Us electricity and over 50% of heating. It is true, that natural gas releases less carbon dioxide and other pollutants per unit of energy released, but the consequences shown in this video from the new documentary Gasland blew me out of the water.
YES, if you were wondering, that is the tap water catching fire! And by the way, this is not because of some horrible spill, but just a normal (and expected) consequence of extracting natural gas from the ground. As explained in the video, this is caused when natural gas companies use a process called fracking (hydraulic fracturing) that releases the gas buried deep in the earth so it can be extracted. The side effect of this this process is that natural gas leaks into the water supply, leading to contamination and eventually tap water that catches fire. Here is a great article from the makers of the movie Gasland that explain fracking and natural gas production in more detail.
It is hard to believe that the oil spill is still gushing as much as ever and that we still have no idea how to fix it . To top it off, our politicians are too busy arguing over money and apologizing to BP to do anything productive about the situation. We haven’t even effectively paused off-shore drilling in the gulf of mexico due to the recent legal setback. John Stewart says this better than I could.
Because of my work at a national lab, I get e-mails from the Department of Energy, but this one from last week really surprised me.
Subject: DOE Email Address for Deepwater Horizon Solutions
Employees are encouraged to submit ideas and suggestions in topic areas including, but not limited to: sub-surface containment, surface containment, shoreline cleanup and remediation, safety improvements, and flow stoppage.Effective immediately ideas should be sent to oilspillsolutions@hq.doe.gov
As part of the Department of Energy’s response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf, the Office of Fossil Energy has established a new email address to collect the best ideas from within the Department’s research community (i.e. DOE labs, universities, contractors and others that interact with DOE) on how to stop or contain the oil’s release and mitigate impact on the environment. Please send ideas and suggestions directly to oilspillsolutions@hq.doe.gov.Submissions will undergo an internal vetting process and the most immediately applicable suggestions will be elevated to senior DOE leadership for accelerated consideration.
However, ALL suggestions will be placed in the Government’s public Deepwater Horizon database for evaluation by an interagency team.This will ensure that innovative ideas, which are directly applicable to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, receive the highest attention.
Working with the Department of Energy, I know how many smart people there are working here, but this seems a little desperate. The only thing that most people know about the spill is what we hear on TV and it seems a little unreasonable to expect us to be able to put fourth an effective solution without doing a better job of outlining the details of the problem. Here is a start at explaining the technical details if you happen to be up for taking on the challenge. This is a disaster on an unprecedented scale (I am not going to say how big because we can’t even tell you that accurately) and we need to learn something from it. Going forward, I think that it is important to learn from this mistake and in the short term use a lot more caution in oil exploration, while focusing on the long term goal of weaning ourselves off of oil and onto renewables. The cost of fossil fuels is much higher than the price that we pay at the pump and if this is the disaster that makes the world realize that, then maybe we can turn a horrible situation into a turning point for the energy economy.
More information about Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Sustainable Design: To eliminate negative environmental impact through skillful, sensitive design, while requiring no non-renewable resources, having minimal environmental impact, and relating people with the natural environment.
