Friday Oct 10, 2008
I'm back from the annual EPA Climate Leaders partners meeting in Chicago, where I had the privilege of accepting the Holy Hockey Puck on behalf of Sun for achieving our first greenhouse gas reduction goal. My boss, Dave, was more timely in blogging about the milestone, and you can also read our official press release here. I'm most flattered by being gifted with a cartoon self, courtesy of our GDS director. Now I feel a certain obligation to come up with a creative Halloween costume - better get out the sewing machine!
The CL Partners meeting is always worth going to, primarily for the opportunity to hear from the other companies trying to lower their GHG emissions and meet the individuals working to make that happen. It's a diverse group, and its growing by leaps and bounds. 74 new partners have signed up since our last meeting, bringing the total to 227. Quite an achievement for a voluntary program. EPA estimates that the partner companies represent (or did until recently) 11% of US GDP. Of course the economy was a major topic of conversation. Though there's definitely some anxiety, there's also a pervasive belief that energy efficiency and other measures targeting carbon reduction are part of the solution to our current economic pain. That's not a new way of thinking, but it's encouraging to hear it persist in the face of the incredibly doom-filled news coverage of the past couple of weeks. Not surprisingly, there was also some talk of what's going to happen on the legislative front post-election. Everyone I talked to, whether large emitter or small, is hopeful that regardless of the outcome, the new Administration will move swiftly to enact carbon reduction legislation.
As usual, the meeting reinvigorated me and I'm looking forward to getting to work on our new goal of a 20% reduction over 2007 levels by 2015. This one's likely to be tougher than the last one to meet early, but we have more support than ever from the management and employees at Sun to make it happen. It's a cool position to be in.
Wednesday Oct 01, 2008
This surely illustrates (as if it needs to be) how puny a creature ol' homo sapien is.
Want more of that nature-y goodness? Check out the online gallery for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition in the UK. There's a few shots from this year's contest in this article.
Monday Sep 22, 2008
I'm experimenting with the "Embed Chart" function on OpenEco.org. Check it out:
Tuesday Aug 05, 2008
Wildlife researchers said Tuesday that they've discovered 125,000 western lowland gorillas deep in the forests of the Republic of Congo, calling it a major increase in the animal's estimated population.
It's always a momentary relief to hear about something in nature that is improving, or at least isn't as bad as previously thought. No doubt thanks to their adaptability, our cousins have been clever enough to retreat away from the disease and poaching threats that continue to spell doom for so many others. I can only hope that this population will stay blessedly isolated for a long time.
Wednesday Jul 30, 2008
...despite these measures, the Chinese capital remains mired in a gray haze, and the government's pollution readings have exceeded its own safe levels four out of the past eight days.
Looks like the atmospheric models need tweaking, or perhaps the input emissions data were optimistic? It will be interesting to see the damage control machine kick in if they skies over Beijing refuse to cooperate with the planned illusion. I could be a ridiculous optimist, but maybe having the eyes of the world water at the sight of the smog haze will insight a greater sense of urgency around cleaning up our act.
Tuesday Jul 01, 2008
It's always a bummer to hear about yet another "precious" resource being exploited into oblivion.
Entertainment Scientists Warn Miley Cyrus Will Be Depleted by 2013
Friday Jun 27, 2008
Clever, cruel Nature. Always disguising menace in the cloak of furriness.
What's next? Ground squirrel-engineered IEDs?
Friday May 16, 2008
OK, so I got busy yesterday and missed Critter Thursday. Fear not! I was really waiting around for just the right thing, and Huffington Post was kind enough to compile the week's five cutest animal videos. While "cats on a treadmill" is a classic (and there are plenty more where that came from on YouTube), the doberman and the waterslide is my favorite.
Happy weekend.
Monday May 12, 2008
"It's almost like we hit a point where, 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore,' and that point was about $3.50 a gallon."
Back in the day when I used to consult about transportation control measures (TCMs), we would often do local surveys and other opinion research regarding how to get people out of their (usually single-occupant) vehicles and on to transit alternatives. We would invariably find that pricing measures (such as increased parking fees) needed to be relatively extreme in order to change the minds of a substantial number of people. For instance, increasing a fee from $2 to $5 would only get you a few percent, and double-digit percentages required increases of $2 to $10 or more.
This article fills me with a little glimmer of hope that gas prices are starting to have this precise effect on transit ridership, at least in some markets. From a related New York Times piece:
“It’s very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.”
Well, duh. Unfortunately, it's likely that it will take even more dramatic financial incentives to get people to vote for things like transit infrastructure bond measures and the like, but it's a start.
Thursday May 08, 2008
Ah, Nature is truly a wonder. And not without a sense of humor. Consider that adorable walking taxidermist's hoax, the platypus. Truly a "what's up with that" moment in evolutionary history. Well, now we know the deep-down origins of this unique critter:
According to a study released Wednesday, the egg-laying critter is a genetic potpourri -- part bird, part reptile and part lactating mammal.
Yep, the 2.2 billion base pairs spread across 18,500 genes of the platypus' genome have been decoded. Interesting article and, most importantly, I now know that a baby platypus is called a "puggle."
That's about enough cuteness for today.
Friday Apr 25, 2008
You know, sometimes it seems like little or no progress gets made in the direction of saner resource use, but then a little (LED) light gleams in the vast darkness:
As gas prices pass $3.50 a gallon nationally and the economy teeters on recession, independent used car dealers like Hoyos and massive chains like AutoNation Inc. are having trouble selling used SUVs as buyers prefer smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles likes hybrids and crossovers (CUVs). Crossovers such as the Ford Edge, Honda CR-V, and Toyota RAV4 have more interior room and more rugged styling that the average car, but with a lighter chassis and generally better gas economy than an SUV.
Go out and hug your Prius today.
Wednesday Mar 12, 2008
In this line of work, I read a lot of "environmental" news. Most of it is pretty grim and even veers toward doomsday-speak on occasion. Not so with this story. Not only is it an amazing example of interspecies communication, but also highlights that humans don't always have the answers.
Overall, a happy ending to what usually is a sad scenario. Yay!
Think I'll go re-watch "Whale Rider" now...
Thursday Feb 14, 2008
On this day when we reach out to express love and appreciation to friends and family, a big red heart goes out to the latest addition to Club Mammalia: Rhynochocyon udzungwensis.
This little sweetheart, essentially a kind of elephant shrew (which has always seemed a bit of an oxymoron) was discovered in Tanzania's Udzungwa Mountains by a researcher with Italy's Trento Museum of Natural Sciences.
If you find our new cousin's formal name a bit of a mouthful, he/she will also answer to "gray-faced sengi."
Monday Feb 11, 2008
Interesting article in Forbes about the end of open source as a counter culture movement. Of particular note was the use of Sun's acquisition of MySQL as an example:
Sun has changed its entire business model to focus on open source programs, which can be used and copied free of charge and enhanced, Wikipedia-style, by volunteers.
While I'm definitely not endorsing the overall message of the article (the writer clearly isn't one of Sun's biggest fans), it got me thinking again about how "environmentalism" really needs to give way to pervasive "green thinking." It should be the dream of all of us with "sustainability," "green," or "eco" jobs to eliminate the need for them. One of my favorite refrains for this year is definitely going to be: Don't ask how to get a green job. Go make your job green.
There's been a lot of discussion and education on open source that's come with being swept up by the OpenEco wave. We're committed to opening up the platform to developers not only because Sun philosophically embraces open-ness, but also because it's critical to the long term vitality of the community. There is huge amounts of enthusiasm out there to evolve OpenEco into a much more comprehensive calculation package, dashboard and information resource for organizations. The trick is executing on all that opportunity. Our vision/hope/wish is for a network of open source Java developers who are interested in using their skills to support sustainability, and injecting all that creativity into the OpenEco community. It would be unlike anything that's ever been tried. Pretty exciting (and daunting) stuff.
Namaste.
Monday Nov 19, 2007
Once customers catch on, they get kind of excited, she says. "They like being a part of something so green," says Ms. Pelkey. "Yeah, we serve burgers and fries, but we're also as environmentally friendly as they come."
This is a great example of showing "regular people" how greener choices are not, by definition, all about scarcity and denial of conveniences. Yes, I read Fast Food Nation and am well aware of the negative cloud around the industry, but I'm all about giving folks props when they do something positive.
I'm also intrigued by the Green Restaurant Association (GRA), mentioned in the article. This sounds like and excellent potential partner/source of participants for OpenEco. It would be cool to be a conduit helping the GRA reach more potential members as well as educate the OpenEco community about their mission and resources.
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