A rally in Kansas against the pipeline/via NWF
Last week, Friends of the Earth released emails it received through a Freedom of Information Act request that showed how Paul Elliot, now a TransCanada lobbyist, lobbied for the company before he was a registered. Elliot, who was once a staffer for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, appears to be usin...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Image credit: The Vegan Zombie
From cooking vegan French toast surrounded by undead monsters, to fettuccine Alfredo in a vegan hide-out, the Vegan Zombie has already produced some awesome examples of animal-free extreme cookery. Now the show hits the road, as The Vegan Zombie hits New York in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.
And he even proves that good vegan dessert is not an oxymoron. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photo credit: Peter G Trimming/Creative Commons
The red squirrel is common throughout Europe but the prospect for the species—and many other small mammals—in England is not good. Pollution, pesticide use, and habitat loss are driving many of the declines. For the red squirrel, the threat comes from competition with the invasive gray squirrel and a rapidly spreading disease that targets the species.
How bad is the problem? A recent survey estimates that the...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photo: Kelly Rossiter
I've been know to make pesto from lots of things like kale and asparagus, in addition to the classic basil pesto, but it never occurred to me to make it with cherry tomatoes. The tomato plants in my garden are producing quite a serious amount of cherry tomatoes, and it's been a bit of a challenge to keep up with them. This recipe was such a terrific use for them, fast and easy to make, with the wonderful flavour ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Images credit Parker Urban Greenscapes
Don't know how I missed this the first time around. In 2009, LTL Architects designed offices for the The Open Planning Project (TOPP) in New York. The highlight is an 84' long walnut bookshelf that is a map of Manhattan from the southern tip to the top of Central Park. The park itself is a living wall, complete with lakes.
...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Image: SunSaluter.com
The idea is such a simple one: rotate solar panels to follow the sun throughout the day so they capture the most of the sun's energy as possible. Solar power tracking systems have been around for some time, but a 19-year-old claims to have done existing systems one better. Eden Full is the lady behind the SunSaluter, a technology that can optimize energy collection by up to 40 percent—for a total cost of $10 per installation....Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photos by Michelle Kaufmann
Michelle Kaufmann judged this year's Solar Decathlon and here are some of the photos she took at the event which took place at the National Mall's West Potomac Park.
...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photo: Anonymous
It's well-known that dams have a huge environmental impact: they are destructive, expensive, displace millions and threaten pristine wildlife habitats and populations worldwide. Not...Read the full story on TreeHugger
If you’re like me, you don’t think much about carpets.
Except maybe when you spill on one.
But like so many everyday things that we take for granted, carpets have a story to tell, and it’s becoming an intriguing sustainability story. Shaw Floors, the world’s largest carpet manufacturer, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, recycled 121 million pounds of used carpet last year– reclaiming it from homes or offices, breaking it down into caprolactam, a compound which is a building block of nylon, and then redeploying the nylon to make new carpet.
The carpet pictured above is branded as EcoWorx. It’s a PVC-free, fully recyclable alternative to traditional carpet tile, designed from the get-go to be broken down and remanufactured into itself again and again. More than half of the carpet sold by Shaw is now certified as Cradle to Cradle, the protocol developed by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry.
In Shaw’s sustainability report, Buffett writes:
Companies today have to consider what kind of impact their decisions will have on both their businesses and the planet – ten, twenty, thirty or forty years from now. And when in doubt, it’s wise to err on the side of the planet.
Nice. Recently, I met with Paul Murray, Shaw’s vice president of sustainability, and David Wilkerson, director of sustainability, to talk about Shaw. It’s a big company–revenues topped $4 billion last year and Shaw employs about 25,000 people, most in manufacturing jobs in the southeast, near its headquarters in Dalton, Ga., the world’s carpet capital. Like its peers, Shaw is enduring hard times because its business is closely tied to the real estate industry; its sales have fallen from a peak of $5.8 billion in 2006.
Shaw has embraced green practices since the 1990s and got formally organized around sustainability about five years ago when Vance Bell became CEO. “A successful sustainability group within a corporation needs support from the top,” Wilkerson said. Bell talks easily about the “triple bottom line” and notes that even during the downturn Shaw has invested in projects like Re2E (reclaim to energy), a plant that turns old carpet into fuel.
[Shaw's work has been overshadowed by the sustainability pioneer in the carpet industry, Ray Anderson of Interface, who died last summer. In case you missed it, here's Paul Hawken's eloquent tribute to Ray.]
Changing the way an industry operates is never easy. Traditional carpet is made from petrochemicals–the surface is typically nylon, the backing is primarily polypropylene. When carpets wear out, most are sent to a landfill. In 2010, about 3.4 billion pounds of carpets were discarded and only about 338 million pounds were diverted or recycled, according to the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), an industry group. Partly that’s a matter of habit, partly it’s economics and partly it’s because breaking carpet down into its component parts isn’t simple. “It’s more like unmaking a layer cake than melting down a bowl of Jello,” Wilkerson said.
For recycling to grow, Shaw and the carpet industry need to both figure out how to recapture plenty of old carpet (assuring ample supply) and find uses for the material at costs that make economic sense (assuring ample demand). Shaw, its execs say, has been working the problem from both ends.
On the supply side, Shaw works with about 50 regional recyclers. A big obstacle for consumers is cost. According to the Carpet America Recovery Effort, “it will likely cost between 5 cents to 25 cents per pound of old carpet to recycle.” (Carpet typically weighs about 4-5 pounds per square yard). Some people have no choice but to pay because their local landfills no longer accept carpet.
On the demand side, Shaw reopened its Evergreen Nylon Recycling plant in Augusta, Ga., in 2007. (It had acquired the facility, which had been shuttered for several years, in 2006.) The plant processes a popular type of nylon, known as Nylon 6, melting it down, and turning it into virgin-quality nylon. That’s the best economic use for old carpet. Alternatively, post-consumer product can be turned into other plastic products, from chairs to auto parts. A third option is to make the carpet into fuel.
“The BTU content of this material is about 25% higher than coal, and it’s about 35% cleaner in terms of emissions,” Wilkerson said.
All of this is a work in progress, and the economics are shaky. Until the value of old carpet rises to the point where consumers are rewarded for recycling, most will probably throw it away. On the plus side, demand for the EcoWorx and a hardwood product called Epic which is also cradle-to-cradle certified continues to grow. Commercial customers, influenced by LEED building standards, are increasingly demanding environmentally-preferable product.
“If you don’t have recycled content on the commercial side, you’re at a competitive disadvantage,” said Murray, who joined Shaw after leading sustainability efforts at furniture-maker Herman Miller.
The bottom line: Shaw can fairly claim the mantle of industry leader. “We reclaim and recycle more carpet than the rest of the industry combined.” said Wilkerson. But there’s lots of work still to do.
Photos by Michelle Kaufmann
Michelle Kaufmann judged this year's Solar Decathlon and here are some of the photos she took at the event which took place at the National Mall's West Potomac Park....Read the full story on TreeHugger
Image credit: BBC
Update: There has been intense speculation as to whether the BBC were hoaxed into believing Rastani was a trader. It looks like speculation of a Yes Men style hoax is overblown, but an interview with the UK's Telegraph raises some important questions regarding Rastani's status as a professional trader.
When I argued that ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photos by Jaymi Heimbuch
Growing up, the cucumber was a culinary staple. It was prominent in many of the Armenian dishes my mother made and, well, it has now become a staple at my house. This is my go-to cucumber recipe; it's simple, quick and tasty. Enjoy this salad with a glass of Pinot Grigio.
...Read the full story on TreeHugger
photo: USFWS Mountain Prairie/CC BY
The conventional environmental wisdom (not unwarranted) on energy subsidies is that fossil fuels got way more government support in their infancy than renewable energy is getting today. A new report, highlighted by the New York Times last week, attempts to ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photos by Michelle Kaufmann
Michelle Kaufmann judged this year's Solar Decathlon and here are some of the photos she took at the event which took place at the National Mall's West Potomac Park.
...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photo by rarebeasts via Flickr CC
I've been going into craft mode lately. I think it stems from a combination of clinging to summer weekend fun and knowing the holidays are quickly approaching and I need to whip up some gifts. With that in mind I've been doing some digging around in the TreeHugger archives since we often write about rad projects, and I found 10 crafts with a geeky edge that are all pretty darn cheap. If you're looking for something interesting to work on, these suggestions will keep you busy for a good while....Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photos by Michelle Kaufmann
Michelle Kaufmann judged this year's Solar Decathlon and here are some of the photos she took at the event which took place at the National Mall's West Potomac Park.
...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Images credit KB Homes
Whenever KB Home or another subdivision builder introduces a new "green" model I do my usual rant about how it is just lipstick on a pig or polishing a turd. But in fact, perhaps it is time that I acknowledge that perhaps the building industry is actually changing, and it is not just about putting a solar cherry on top of the same old sundae....Read the full story on TreeHugger
Kristine Tompkins, former CEO of Patagonia Inc, and Rick Ridgeway, Patagonia's Vice President of Environmental Initiatives, pose with The Nature Conservancy's Carlos Fernandez, Ovi XXI's Pablo Borrelli and Patagonia Argentina's Raul Costa at the presentation of the project event. Photo: Patagonia Argentina.
It seems odd how some groups argue that preserving the environment is bad business when the opposite is many times the case. Such an example is wool production: the key to great quality wool is good food for sheep, and key to good food ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
As solar costs are droppping dramatically; Wal-Mart expands its solar plans; and even the Fox Network is pushing solar in some circles, there is much to be excited about in the world of solar power. But critics are still taking aim at clean tech in general, and solar in particular. And among the most common complaints is its reliance on State and Fed...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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