Saturday

The Green Police On Superbowl Sunday

Sponsored by Audi who is using the PSA's to help promote their new diesel technology, these Green Police commercials are teasers that will be aired, tomorrow, on game day.

Check out the CheapTrick Riff on Dream Police... The Green Police are hitting the streets Super Bowl Sunday and they're coming after you for Eco-violations such as wasting napkins, using styrofoam cups and carting your power strips to the game and leaving all your crackberry devices plugged in. LOL!

Can't See The Video?

Click Here to Watch

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Friday

Greening Vancouver: 2010 Olympics - Premier Gordon Swoops In To Take Green

Looking something akin to an Olympian Superhero, Premier Gordon Campbell kicked off this pre-Olympic Weekend by flying over Robson Square, not quite in a cape but certainly the next best thing...on the zip line at Robson Square.

"The harness was quite comfortable," he said afterwards.He and Olympian Charmaine Crooks were the first to ride the Zip Line and launched what will be free rides offered starting Feb. 12th, the first official day of the Winter Games.  The ride speeds revellers off a four-storey-high tower and along a 170 meter wire.

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Photo Courtesy VanCityBuzz

“That was great. I was trying to do a somersault backwards and I didn't quite make it," yelled the super-fly Premier Campbell to reporters watching below. “This is going to be a fun place for people to come,” he said. “I want everyone to know it's there for them, it's free for them, it's their Olympics, so come down and have a good time.”

<<More Here>>

Campbell was out and about promoting all things green that VANOC (Vancouver Olympic Committee) and the Province of B.C. has done to make these games green.

FACT: The 2010 Winter Games will produce only about a tenth of the carbon dioxide emissions generated by previous Winter Games. The games will be run primarily on clean renewable hydro electricity provided by BC Hydro.  For a complete rundown on how the timing devices and broadcasters et al will be powered by Clean Energy go to the Power Smart Village site.

The 2010 Winter Games will produce the lowest carbon dioxide emissions from power generation in the history of the modern Games, at only about a tenth of previous Winter Games.

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Club Energy is one of the Fun things offered at the Power Smart Village.  The dance floor actually lights up as you dance, powered by your energy. And it's sustainable.  No bouncers, no cover charge.  They challenge you to prove you really can "Light up a room!"

For Sustaianability and the Winter Games, the Power Smart Village is Renewable Energy Central for the 2010 Winter Games. It thrives on people power. It’s a free, interactive gathering place in downtown Vancouver. It promises to "deliver fun and insight into living greener in B.C." And, well, why not the World!

On February 10th, they're hosting a So You Think You Can Dance session at 3pm and 6pm.

Contestants will have the choice between two to three songs to perform their best dance moves, concentrating both on creativity and movement. Judging will be based on number of steps taken within the allotted time, as well as audience preference.

More Things to do at Power Smart Village: Tour an energy-efficient Home of the Future, or join the cheering as Games events are broadcast live on a 65-inch energy-efficient TV. Get creative with their digital Expression Wall. Create electricity – literally – on their sustainable dance floor.

AT 333 Dunsmuir Street, Downtown Vancouver

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More Places to check out:

House of Switzerland opening today, Casa Italia opening tomorrow. We got a sneak peek inside Irish House and sees the castle being built for a DJ. Check back regularly as new info is being added daily leading up to and during the Games.

 

 

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Thursday

Grammys Night Gets Some Organic Goods

By Sara Paul

Sara is Founder of www.CSAcalifornia.org

"World Peace through Sustainable Individualism"

There were so many events to choose from on this night, I decided to let the universe guide my path. At first I thought I would be meeting one of my “Be the Change” girls at either the Warner Brothers event or an Alanis Morissette party, but her phone died and I wasn’t sure where the events were or what the deal was.

So I looked in my emails at a list of Grammy parties and found myself drawn to the Jamie Foxx event at the Conga Room in downtown. So I spontaneously went, found $5 parking, and tried to schmooze my way in. After an unsuccessful attempt, I decided to email the contact person. I waited patiently for a response and decided to take off after about 30 minutes.

On with the adventure…..I love going out solo! My friend, who is a chef at the Farmers Kitchen in Hollywood called me and insisted that I pick him and a bunch of fabulous organic, vegan, farm fresh food up and head out somewhere. 

Needless to say, I was so thankful that life guided my path.

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I did know that Louie Vega, house music producer, deejay, and Grammy winner was performing at Deep, an event that happens every Sunday at the Vanguard and is produced by Marques Wyatt, also an amazingly talented deejay, producer, and yogi. So I picked up my friend and the goods and we bounced over there.

Upon arriving, it was like a path was cleared for us. We slid in there, danced like crazy for hours, and provided happiness for all of the bartenders and talent with the delicious food that we brought. I realized that I had gone out that night in the hopes of influencing some big wigs with my visions of an organic world all the while searching for something that has been with me for years…..house music. And when I say house music, I mean deep, funky, soulful, spiritual, get down all night long kind-of music, in a place where dancers and free spirits drink more water than alcohol. There was only one thing missing, which my friend and I provided….the conscious food.

The next day I saw an email response about the Jamie Foxx event with a password to get in. Had I waited another 20 minutes, I would have been in. Needless to say, I was so thankful that life guided my path.



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Green at The Grammys 2010?

By Janine Johnson

[Founder of GreenWave]

People, businesses, and events that have great influence are responsible for messaging that permeates our society's standards and perpetuates them. I think it is critical for the success of our future for us to collectively do our best now and I would of course, extend this to The Grammys.

In 2008 there is a copyright on GreenGrammys.org showing written material supporting the ideas which would lead to a green event.  In 2009, there was an eco-gifting suite put on by "Green with Music".  In 2010? ...

Honestly, I'm not sure what happened or not.  Admittedly I am not your typical reporter or investigative journalist.  I write for green blogs purely from the heart.  I observe what is going on around me. This year I was lucky enough to be the date of my dear and loving boyfriend, Ken Jordan who was nominated for a Grammy for Divided By Night, the latest studio album produced by his band, The Crystal Method.

We attended a few pre-Grammy gifting suites, The Grammy's, The Grammy's after-party, and a William-Morris Endeavor after party, none of which were overly "green" credit worthy. I know what we did on our end.  We went to a local green designer, 7 Lightning Bolt to create a custom jacket, and asked the help of our eco-conscious stylist friend Phu Styles to assist with the rest of his outfit.  We brought our reusable organic cotton"FEED" bag, which I carried as a second purse and drove our hybrid to the event. I feel, however, that everyone needs to do their part, the best they possibly can.

Although there is debate on possibly hyped up global warming statistics, I see changes in climate and I read reports from scientists globally indicating what seems to be human-induced change.  It may not happen as fast as we are told, but with the exponentially exploding population and unchanging lackadasical and neglectful environmental habits, I don't see our scientific predictions of rapidly decreasing natural resources, which sustain our current way of living, being too far off.

I was hoping when going to The Grammys I would see a much bigger effort.  I am happy for what they provided but I just felt like the organization did not meet their potential.  They definitely did their part in doing "some part" but I felt like it could have been much more. 

Waste Management was a sponsor to the event and I did notice they had recycling receptacles around the venue but as I know from throwing private events, I can only hope all recyclables made it into the recycling as I am not sure if trash would be sorted as I do personally at my parties. I would have liked to see Waste Management employees or volunteers standing by each receptacle providing the public with education on waste management and assuring each type of waste went into it's proper place including perhaps potential compost since Los Angeles accepts food scraps in the green bins. 

Or, why not have public service announcements about recycling or even putting a "free ad" in on the hundred plus page program? 

The cover was done by Shepard Fairey who supports humanitarian and environmental causes but ... I'm not clear if it was printed on FSC certified paper or by a green printer (although I would guess it might be considering the NRDC is supposed to be their green adviser). Regardless, it would be nice to know so that it sends a positive message to people that they are doing their part to better the world. 

Sometimes people need to see others make strides and broadcast those efforts in order to spread the idea to others to do the same.

Speaking of messages ...the performances of The Grammys were of course, amazing.  There was a Michael Jackson tribute that showcased a short environmental film that has survived Michael but I am not sure if the message set in as well as it could have when people were stuffing their faces right beforehand with the fast food vendors outside the venue.

It seems to me that as a collective culture, we suffer large disconnects. It's easy to say "you should care" and make people feel bad that they don't, but we must be provided a solution, a way to make a difference or our efforts are ineffective. 

Fast food vendors promote not only cheap, and unhealthy food but environmentally unhealthy disposable lifestyle and life disgracing factory farm practices.  I realize there are conflicts of interest in sending certain messages ... how do you tell people to not do something if it funds the station that broadcasts the show? However, we need to bring such topics up because we desperately need to find alternatives to the systems which perpetuate the deterioration of our world.

I continue to believe that every effort helps and so I am thankful to any and all for their efforts in bringing environmental awareness to this event.  Hopefully we will go back next year to witness as much passion involved in positive environmental messaging as we see in the production of their hallmark shows.



Picture Tags:

TV Guide Picture, Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland of The Crystal Method.  Ken in a recycled plastic bottle shirt and eco-friendly jacket made by local design group 7 Lightning Bolt.


WM was a sponsor for both The Grammy's as well as The Grammy's after party


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Wednesday

Greening Hollywood: This Is Our Moment

This Is Our Moment

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As Obama said, “the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy.”

WIND

We say, all eyes on China:  The world’s largest wind power project is currently in Texas (with a capacity of 782 MW), but China “is in the midst of building a wind corridor that could grow to a staggering 20,000 MW, 25 times the size of Texas’ Roscoe Wind Farm.” This wind farm in China is expected to have a capacity of 5,000 MW by the end of this year.

SOLAR

And in the fall, China announced plans to build a 2000 MW solar photovoltaic farm, “33 times bigger than the world’s largest today, a 60 MW farm in Spain.”

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Thoughts from Zachary Shahan...

Hollywood

Well, coming out of left field with this one, this is my final idea of who might be more powerful than Obama. Of course, like “the media” this isn’t a single person. Nonetheless, it is something to consider.

As we all know, climate change rose to the top of national and even global concern when Al Gore made “An Inconvenient Truth” and people saw this movie on the topic. This, without the flash and flare of Hollywood even, was a prime example of how popular forms of media can affect the population and politics.

Millions of people watched Obama’s State of the Union speech, but how many millions more saw Avatar?

The popularity and influence of Hollywood could be a stronger force getting more people behind climate and clean energy legislation than Obama ever could (at least, in the population at large — the people who do elect members of Congress).

A new video on the web has just come out along exactly these lines, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Felicity Huffman, Forest Whitaker, Ed Norton, Justin Long, and others. I am writing about that in my next post, so stay tuned. If “Hollywood” continues on this path, I think it alone could drive the necessary public support for climate and clean energy legislation, but they need to really get behind it, (do more than a youtube video).

Well, it is a string of thoughts here. And I guess the point of it is, we cannot only pin our hopes and disappointments on Obama or even Congress. We have to look at the issue more broadly; tackle tragic media coverage of these issues; engage in our democracy more ourselves to get people in all sectors energized around the fact that if the US doesn’t give Obama and Congress some support and some push, China is going to win the game before we realize we’re playing with them; and hope that some bigshots in Hollywood or other popular arenas help get the common citizen behind strong climate and clean energy legislation.

 

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American Idol And Clean Energy

The University of Michigan and DTE Energy sponsor Clean Energy  Prize competition to promote sustainable energy technology.

Image: Stage lights by Richard Anderson on flickr.com

By Tina Casey    [Originally on CleanTechnica]

In a high tech, low key twist on American Idol, green technology competitions are springing up all over the country.  Among the newer ones is the Clean Energy Prize sponsored by the University of Michigan and DTE Energy, and it offers some clues about the technology stars of the sustainable energy future.  For one thing, they better be prepared to go on stage and pitch their talent – one element of the competition is an oral presentation before a panel of judges.

DTE’s involvement is another interesting aspect of the competition.  A large part of the company is a conventional natural gas utility, Detroit Edison, but an emerging part is DTE Energy Ventures, which focuses on sustainable energy tech.  That puts DTE among a growing list of large energy companies that are turning more investment resources over to sustainable fuels – yet another indicator that peak times for fossil fuels are on the horizon.

The Clean Energy Prize Competition

The competition has already winnowed the starting field of 32 hopefuls down to eight teams from six different Michigan colleges and universities.  The projects include advanced energy storage, services that help consumers manage energy consumption (especially peak demand), kinetic energy for wireless devices, biogas digesters/composters for restaurants, and “green” silane gas production (silane is used in electronics, flat screen displays and solar panels).  Like California’s Cleantech Open, the competition focuses squarely on commercialization.  Advancement in the competition is based on a written business plan, and the prize money is targeted towards jump starting new clean energy businesses.

Conventional Utilities and Emerging Clean Energy

DTE is by no means the first conventional utility to jump from fossil fuels into sustainable energy.  Industry giant Duke Energy already owns more than 700 megawatts of wind power and last year it announced plans to build hundreds of mini-solar energy plants in North Carolina.  Just this month Duke also announced the purchase of a 14 megawatt solar plant that will provide energy for San Antonio, Texas.

Start-Ups and Clean Tech Competitions

Clearly the big players see a potential gold mine in moving away from fossil fuels, and they have the resources to go after it.  The emergence of clean tech competitions helps start-ups get in on the sustainable energy action, providing seed money in the form of prizes or investment opportunities (the ZINO Society is a good example).  They can play an especially important role in developing sustainable technologies that are scaled to individuals and small sites, which are an essential part of the sustainable energy puzzle but may not represent an attractive market for larger companies.

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