Commuting could take on a whole new meaning with the Safe Road Trains for the Environment (SARTRE) research project funded by the European Commission.

The project, based on the concept of linking vehicles together using wireless sensors, is aimed at finding an inexpensive and environmentally friendly way of getting cars to travel together, convoy style.

The way to do this, according to project SARTRE, is to create road trains of up to eight separate vehicles – cars, buses, and trucks – which has the potential not only to reduce fuel consumption, but also improve journey times and reduce congestion.

Lead vehicles would be driven by a professional driver controlling the road train. Any vehicle could use their sat-nav sensor to determine if a road train’s going their way. If it were, they would be able to approach the moving road train and indicate that they wish to join. The lead vehicle would then take control of the vehicle, positioning it and pulling it closer, allowing the newly joined driver to sit back, relax and enjoy the scenery rather than focusing on driving.

The SARTRE project, scheduled to run for three years, aims to first determine the true feasibility of these “road trains” and then track test it in the UK and Sweden, with further plans for public road trials in Spain.

If successful, road trips as we know them will never be the same again.

Read more about this project here.

Image: pedrosimoes7

A new study has found that the American health care sector accounts for 8 percent of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions.

The study, conducted by University of Chicago researchers and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, measured how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases the health care industries (hospitals, scientific research, pharmaceuticals, etc) released. It is the first-of-its-kind calculation of health care’s carbon footprint.

Using the environmental input-output life cycle assessment (EIOLCA) model of environmental impact developed by the Green Design Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University, the researchers were able to determine exactly how much health care activities directly and indirectly affected the environment.

Not surprisingly, hospitals release the largest amount of carbon emissions, mainly due to their high energy needs for temperature control, ventilation and lighting in large and often aging and poorly structured hospital buildings. But interestingly, the second largest contributor of carbon emissions was the pharmaceutical industry, primarily because of associated manufacturing and transportation.

While the researchers realize that hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are more concerned with treating people than the environment, they hope that the results of this study will encourage them to look at ways of providing health care and researching and developing drugs in a more environmentally friendly way.

Image: tacitrequiem

Coffee makes the world go around. Well, at least my world anyway. Without it, I’m a bit like one of  Snow White’s dwarf’s – sleepy, grumpy and dopey.

But I won’t drink just any coffee. Bad coffee doesn’t get past my lips. It not only has to taste good to me but it also has to be good for the environment. Which makes the Seattle based roaster Grounds for Change my perfect coffee match.

And here’s why. Grounds for Change:

- Deals not only in certified organic and fair trade coffee but also shade grown coffee which helps ensure healthy and safe habitats for migratory birds.

- Contributes 1% of all their sales to environmental groups worldwide through the 1% For the Planet organization.

- Their policy of offsetting 100% of the global warming emissions associated with their coffee has resulted in Grounds for Change becoming the first U.S. coffee roaster to obtain a CarbonFree® Certified Product label.

- They use sustainable energy (wind, solar and biomass) through Puget Sound Energy’s green power program. In turn, the energy company gives its customers Grounds for Change coffee as an incentive to join the energy-saving program.

- They support community-based programs in coffee growing countries such as the Café Femenino Mexico program that provides a blend of coffee that is grown, processed and traded exclusively by a group of women in the southern Chiapas state.

In other words, Grounds for Change coffee is seriously green.

In fact, this company is so green that it was one of the top ten nominees for this year’s Green America’s Green Business of the Year award.

All in all, Grounds for Change may be just the right brew for anyone who has a well-developed coffee conscience.

Now, here’s the fun part: leave a comment on this post and you could be one of four EcoSalon winners to receive a free supply of Grounds for Change coffee!

Editor’s note: this is a sponsored post. See giveaway rules.

Energy, that is. With few energy resources of its own, Japan is literally reaching for the stars in its attempt to turn unlimited clean energy into reality by 2030.

The nation’s plan, known as the Space Solar Power System (SSPS), involves positioning huge, floating photovoltaic dishes to hover in the geostationary orbit just outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

These photovoltaic dishes would harvest the solar energy that, at this level, is at least five times stronger than on earth and beam it down to earth through lasers and microwaves. On earth, gigantic antennae, located in restricted areas at sea or on dam reservoirs, would collect and store the solar energy.

This controversial plan sounds like something you’d only find in a Sci-Fi novel.

But the Japanese government thinks it has huge potential. To that end, it has established the Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer (USEF), a consortium of companies (including Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Fujitsu and Sharp) and scientists who will be working on finding ways of turning the SSPS into reality.

Image: Velo Steve

First Kanye West and Jamie Foxx, now gold diggers have upset environmentalists and economists. It’s been like 1849 online with blogs abuzz over gold prices, prospectors and water use in California.

The precious metal is priced at a record dollar high now, thanks in part to China and India snapping up gold reserves. Panic and pricing like that drives laid-off Californians to go panning and miners to “explore,” sometimes damaging the farthest corners of the Earth to get gold.

Eco- and business-bloggers alike want to know: Is the “value” of the ore real, especially since jewelry demand declined in the recession, and industrial demand for gold can often be met with other materials?

A fashion and custom jewelry designer, Lisa Linhardt, of Linhardt Design in New York City, says lots of bling seekers have no idea what environmental impact their fashion choices have until they find her. Focused on making “beautiful, sculptural pieces” first, she is also a green gold jeweler, in a good way.

Linhardt buys 100% recycled gold from casting houses and refineries that extract it from post consumer material, not newly-mined. She can also melt the jewelry you never wear to form something new in her studio (constructed with reclaimed barn wood). Gold’s value is real, she believes, but the industry needs a makeover.

Other designers should demand “Strict gold certification so we know what we’re buying is 100% recycled, and that the labor involved is fair trade,” she suggests. For now, she’s willing to do the original research and footwork herself.

Basic Reading:

“Jewelers are increasingly concerned about young shoppers who are becoming more educated about the impact of their purchasing decisions…” - GreenBiz.com feature on Cartier’s buying more responsibly-mined gold

“Gold is unlike any other commodity. It is costly to extract from the earth and to refine to a reasonable degree of purity. It is costly to store. It has no remaining uses as a producer good – equivalent or superior alternatives exist for all its industrial uses…Surprisingly people like to attach it to their earlobes or nostrils or to hang it around their necks.”- Financial Times blog entry discussing the true value of gold

“Many want to hide the unsavory aspects of how business is conducted in the jewelry industry. But a Blue Sky approach would have us differentiate ourselves by eliminating anything that disguises, hides or obfuscates practices within our industry. We want to differentiate ourselves by being upfront and having full disclosure. Then we want to advertise where we are supporting fair and ethical practices.” – An open letter to jewelers on how to deal with the “dirty” gold issue in FairJewelry.org

“Driven by record-high gold prices – [recently] $1,056 an ounce, double that of just three years ago – prospectors are flocking to the state… Gold mining permits, or claims, on file with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for California have shot from 15,606 in 2005 to 23,974 this year…” – San Francisco Chronicle story on the New California Gold Rush

“California’s second gold rush has also created one recession-proof business. Keene Engineering of Chatsworth, Calif., makes the equipment you need to find gold – from plastic pans to large commercial rigs. The owners say their business has doubled…”- NBC Los Angeles segment on Gold Prospectors in Southern California

Further resources:

MotherJones feature on the history of land use in California

The official homepage of the No Dirty Gold campaign lead by Oxfam and Earthworks

A Geology.com guide to the many uses of gold

A Wall Street Journal story on a predicted rise in demand for gold jewelry

This is the third installment of EcoMeme, a column featuring eco news, tech and business highlights by new EcoSalon writer and columnist Lora Kolodny.

Image: courtesy Linhardt Design Studio

Unsightly, decaying and unused, the “brown” industrial lands found throughout the United States serve only to remind people of changing technologies and economic downturns. The lands used to house factories and warehouses that hummed with activity and production. Now, they stand empty, overgrown, rusting, falling apart.

On the face of it, these lands appear only as environmental eyesores, but look a little closer and you’ll find these urban industrial sites can hold surprising ecological significance.

Scientists and ecologists around the country are working to redevelop many strategically-located “brown” sites into wildlife refuges and habitats.

Take, for example, the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, where once chemical factories, power plants and a former missile site were operating. Now, it’s not only the stop-off point for over 300 species of migratory birds that rest, nest and feed there. It’s also home to foxes, raptors, lake sturgeon, the spotted turtle and eastern fox snake.  Aiming to maintain and encourage this activity, the area is due to undergoing revitalization, with plans to restore native vegetation, cap polluted soils, restore native vegetation, and re-establish the natural shoreline.

This is just one of many restoration projects happening around the country. To learn more, have a read at emagazine.

Image: country_boy_shane

Anyone who subscribes the KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid) philosophy will appreciate the results of this new study recently completed by Thomas Dietz and his colleagues at Michigan State University.

In a first of its kind study, the researchers examined the potential emissions reduction (PER) of 17 well-known energy saving actions that individuals already do or could do without any major lifestyle disruption and minimal to little damage to the wallet.

What they found was that if these 17 simple household actions were universally adopted by Americans, US carbon emissions could be reduced as much as 7% over the next 10 years. The actions include:

- Home weatherization

- HVAC equipment

- Changing HVAC air filters

- Tuning up AC

- Installing low-flow showerheads

- Using an efficient water heater

- Using energy saving appliances

- Buying low rolling-resistance tires

- Driving a fuel-efficient vehicle

- Sticking to routine auto maintenance

- Lowering the laundry temperature

- Lowering the water heater temperature

- Reducing standby electricity use

- Trying minor thermostat setbacks

- Line drying clothes

- Employing conservative driving behavior

- Carpooling and trip-chaining

They’re easy changes all. So, the next time someone asks you what the average person can really do to combat global warming, you can say that according to Dietz and colleagues, plenty.

Image: Andy_5322

You gonna eat that? Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that once planted in the wild, genetically modified organisms, such as bio-engineered fruit, grain or vegetables can change native, wild plant neighbors’ DNA. In the future, food activists worry, you might not even have a dietary choice.

A flurry of news stories, blog posts and Tweets have “cropped up” in recent weeks around this study and related events. Even teenagers are dialed into the debate over the merits and dangers of GMOs, says Jenny Kessler, who founded and directs the Garden Program at The Automotive High School in Brooklyn, New York.

Kessler teaches English, ESL and a class called “Food, Land and You.” Through this coursework or participation in the Garden Program, Automotive students learn about farming and industrial agriculture and gain hands-on experience cultivating and cooking food.

“Some of my students agree with economist Jeffrey Sachs that genetically modified crops should be used to alleviate world hunger now, since they can grow on depleted land in bad conditions,” Kessler says, “but most are concerned that GMOs aren’t tested enough before they enter our mainstream food supply. Or they worry that modified seeds and cross-pollination will make natural products scarce and expensive, or even extinct.”

The Garden Program group (as seen on Flickr.com/autogarden) wishes for – after a personal visit from Anna Lappe or Michael Pollan – better information about the effect of modified crops on human and plant health, and to inspire Americans to buy more locally produced food.

Basic reading:

“A report by a team from the United States and China appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, [where] researchers point out that gene flow between crops and their wild relatives is common and difficult to contain. They note concerns that wild plants could, as a result, gain genetically engineered resistances. And these could affect the natural balance in their environment.” -VOA Special English Agriculture Report transcript

“While disease-resistant crops have been a boon to commercial farmers, ecologists worry there might be certain hidden costs associated with the modified crops. There is concern in the ecological community that, when the transgenes that confer resistance to viral diseases escape into wild populations, they will (change) those plants…and impact the biodiversity of plant communities where wild [plants] are native.” -US News And World Report feature

“Bayer CropScience AG is responsible for financial damage sustained by Missouri farmers when their rice crops were contaminated by genetically modified seeds, the growers’ lawyer told a federal court jury in St. Louis…Testing of one of the ‘LibertyLink’ [rice] strains at Louisiana State University was completed in 2001. While there has never been a specifically identified contamination event…studies suggest an event of cross-pollination with ordinary rice or a mixing of regular and genetically modified seed occurred then.” -Bloomberg news story

“The number of people affected by food shortages is starting to rise again. Is the solution a new biotech version of the Green Revolution, or a green Green Revolution based on organic farming?” -BoingBoing.net opinion, discussion

“The debate over genetically modified crops has flared up in India, where critics have stalled the commercial release of insect-resistant eggplant, despite recent approval from the country’s biotechnology regulatory committee.” -Scienceline.org news feature

“This week the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science, called for an extra £2bn to be spent on research into global food security. In order to achieve the estimated 50% increase in food crop production that will be required by 2050, the society is calling for a grand plan that involves developing…crop varieties using conventional breeding and genetic modification.” -Small Cap News profile of the company Futura Gene

Further resources:

”..Say No to GMOs” Natural News blog opinion

The website of The Center For Food Safety (CFS) a D.C.-based organization that lobbies for slow food, organic and sustainable farming practices, and against “harmful food production technologies.”

Food activist Anna Lappe’s website

Economist Jeffrey Sachs’ official bio, including recent news by and about him

Changemakers.com GMO competition page soliciting “solutions that educate consumers about what they’re eating, and the effect their food choices will have on the environment and society”: includes profiles of the winning ideas (via Ashoka.com)

Editor’s note: This is the second installment of EcoMeme, a column featuring eco news, tech and business highlights by new EcoSalon writer and columnist Lora Kolodny.

Image: liangjinjian

The casting call went out last January, not to big Hollywood agents but to animal shelters and rescue groups across the country.

Looking for four-legged crooners, black and white, who can get along with others on tour, do the old soft paw on stage, and won’t leap off into the audience when they hear the sound of applause.

Dozens of shelter dogs got the parts for the The 101 Dalmatians Musical including Rascal, a puppy with a broken leg found on the side of the road. Like the others, he has been given a new leash on life by getting to reside on a Florida ranch and travel in a celebrity tour bus while the show begins a national tour this month, starting in Minneapolis.

Animal trainer, Joel Slaven, told the Associated Press it was tough finding dogs to cast for the show.

Apparently, following the release of the popular live-action Disney “101 Dalmatians” in 1996 there was a rush on Dalmatians as  family pets, a role not suited to the breed. After the cute puppy stage, many new owners abandoned the dogs which flooded  shelters. Since then, canine rescuers are protective of the animals being exploited.

“When the movies came out, they were over-bred and that made the breed, which already has some health problems, even worse. People got the dogs, couldn’t afford the vet bills, found the dogs untrainable, or that they didn’t get along with kids. Shelters, Humane Societies and rescue groups don’t want anyone to use these dogs for entertainment, and they don’t want to help someone who’s going to do this again,” Slavin said.

I guess they came around when Slavin convinced them the animals would be treated like divas and dapper, leading men. Training the newbies like Rascal (above) involved helping the choreographer stage a three-minute finale of all dogs performing a dance routine to a tune by composer Dennis De Young of Styx fame. I hear it’s “jaw dropping.”

But instead of using the Dalmatians throughout the show, their parts are primarily played by actors, as in the musical Cats.

Images: Bree Bailey, The 101 Dalmatians Musical

Watch out Washington, Erin Brockovich is coming your way. And it’s not a social visit. She’s on a mission to shake, rattle and overhaul the nation’s toxic chemical laws, in particular the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

The TSCA, which was passed in 1976, is seriously outdated and  offers the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) no real authority to obtain information needed to evaluate whether a chemical used in home products is or isn’t a health and safety risk.

A reformed TSCA, drafted by Senators Frank R. Lautenberg (NJ) and Representatives Holida Solis (US Secretary of Labor) and Henry Waxman (CA), will be going through Congress this fall. A main component of this draft is the requirement that chemical manufacturers conduct safety testing before a chemical is used in products. The new Act would further require that the safety testing information be made available to the public.

These are actions that you would think happen automatically. Sadly, that isn’t the case. In fact, in the past 33 years, the EPA, due to its limited authority under the TSCA law, has required testing on just 200 of the more than 80,000 chemical compounds developed for products used in the home.

And that’s where Brockovich comes in. She has teamed up with the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families (SCHF) coalition, Autism Society of America, Breast Cancer Fund, the American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Seventh Generation (a  leading brand of non-toxic and environmentally safe household and personal care products).

Together, they have organized a Million Baby Crawl on Washington in support of the reformed TSCA or Kids Safe Chemical Act. The Million Baby Crawl, while symbolic in nature, aims to first of all create awareness amongst parents about the need for and the importance of the Toxic Chemical legislative reform, and second, to collect a million signatures to present to Washington in January 2010 when the voting on the toxic reform legislation occurs.

Further reading: Seventh Generation for EcoSalon

Image: brunkfordbraun