L.A. Green Bean

Photo: BOMBARDIER REGINA train for Gröna Tåget research project Normally we try to stay away from the third person on this site, but I think it’s safe to say that TreeHugger likes trains. They’re one of the most efficient ways to move goods and people over long distances, and from this passenger’s perspective are the far most enjoyable form of public transit. That said, Bombardier has announced one more reason why you should like trains. ‘Green Train Project’ Makes Test Trip In Swedish it’s a Gröna Tåget, but in English you can call it a Green Train. Developed by Banverket the Swedish Railway Admin...

Don't Celebrate Too Fast The price of oil has been falling in recent days, and some people are already bringing out the party hats and daydreaming about Hummers. We think that a more sober look at the situation is needed, and thanks to the nice people at The Oil Drum Europe, we have this great graph (above). Historical Data: Recent Crude Oil Prices It shows at least 6 different instances during the past 5 years when the price of crude oil dropped by similar percentages to the current drop, but most importantly, it shows an overall trend of 30% yearly increases in price. Nobo...

image: Hyperion Power Generation About nine months ago we reported on a portable nuclear power generator made by Hyperion Power Generation which we dubbed a “nuclear hot tub” because of it’s size. We weren’t overly keen on the idea and comments ranged from incredulous to defensive. The executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group wasn’t exactly supportive either: “The whole idea is loony and not worthy of much attention. Of course, factoring in enough cronyism, corruption and...

This post is one in a series of video blogs about biking across America with WE ADD UP to raise awareness about how to stop global warming. Check out more posts in this series here. Day 8 was the last day before the first rest day of the bike trip across America. If only the rest day for the body and mind meant a rest day for the appetite! Kicking back in Stow, Ohio, Carson and Eric cooked a big chili meal of the vegetarian sort. E...

Image source: Car Free Days Mark Your Calendars, its time once again for the 5th annual Sustainable Ballard Festival, full of fun festival games like “how to grow chickens in the city” and “the best compost contest.” While this is not your typical festival, Sustainable Ballard hopes to encourage self-reliance among community members and reduce dependence on foreign oil. The event is free to the public and will be held September 27th & 28th from 11am-5pm at Ballard Commons Park....

Agree or disagree with him, there’s no misunderstanding where Prince Charles thinks about, well, whatever he chooses to speak out on. In a recent interview with with the

Image source: Deploy Workshop While the materials may not be organic, Deploy Workshop has attempted to create outfits that you can mix and match and reuse over and over, regardless of season. With strategically designed snaps, "a dress becomes a skirt, or a blouse becomes a dress." Consider it recycling fashion....

First Modern Bike-Sharing Program in the USA The District of Columbia joins Barcelona and Paris today with the launch of its high-tech Smart Bike Program (other cities have bike-share initiatives, but not as big and sophisticated as Vélib-style programs). At first, 120 bikes will be available at 10 self-service racks, mostly in the downtown area, including near the Gallery Place, Shaw and Judiciary Square Metrorail stations. Not exactly Vélib with its 1,500 stations and 20,000 bicycles, but it's a start. How Does it Work? "A $...

image: BioSolar You might not think that cotton and castor beans could be the answer to making solar panels less expensive, but that’s just what California-based BioSolar is trying to make happen. The company has just unveiled a new backing for solar panels which it hopes manufacturers will find financially and functionally more compelling than the petroleum-based backing sheets currently used for most panels. Renewable and Less-Expensive, BioSolar Says Announced at the Solar Energy + Applications conference in San Diego this week, BioSolar says the new backing sheet is made of a mixture of cotton and a nylon...

Welcome to SustainStyle, a weekly digest from the writers at 1plus1, a blog dedicated to eco-friendly fashion. SustainStyle runs every Wednesday. Los Angeles Market Week kicks off with a green fashion show including Perfectly Imperfect, Emily Katz and Manimal. A new gossip girl that's green, grown, sexy, and not your average blah blah blah. Equita throws a mid-...

For everyone out there who hates the look of compact fluorescents, German designer Felix Stark of Formstark offers this new design that looks just like an incandescent, with a filament and bulb around it. This will, I am sure, satisfy all objections, right? ::Formstark via ::NotCot Other Lovely to Look At Compact Fluorescents on TreeHugger The Power of the Compact Fluorescent : TreeHugger TreeHugger Picks: Compact Fluor...

That's the Kathleen and May, pulling into Dublin with 22 pallets--that's 21,000 bottles of Fair Wind Wine--from Languedoc, carried by the Compagnie de Transport Maritime à la Voile (CTMV). They are the "owners and operators of the first European fleet of merchant sailing ships, and the current market leader for clean, environmentally friendly transport." Transportation by sail has one-seventh the carbon emissions of a container ship. (Why that much? Because they have generators for the navigational instruments and diesel for maneuvering in port or down rivers.)...

Image source: Ambrose Hotel The Ambrose Hotel, in Santa Monica, CA, was just awarded the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) Certification by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) for a hotel - this the first-ever US hotel to earn such a distinction....

Architectural writer and teacher does one of his great slide shows of his visit to "Home Delivery," the prefab show at the Museum of Modern Art. He writes, "Prefabricated houses have remained an elusive goal for architects, and the MoMA show is a stylish litany of second-place finishers, also-rans, if-onlys, and downright losers." Good eye candy at ::Slate More Home Delivery on TreeHugger First Pix of Home Delivery Prefabs in New York System3 by Oscar L...

One Tank Controversy Yesterday, I wrote about a college student's plan to use only one tank of gasoline this summer. The post generated a lot of comments, so instead of replying directly, I've decided to write this follow up post. I probably should have made it clearer that I thought FOX's sensationalistic coverage was ridiculous ("surviving"?!). She didn't do anything we're not constantly talking about here on TreeHugger (walk<...

When we recently pointed out that some school districts were eyeing a four day school week as a way to cut costs and save energy there were some who thought the whole idea was just too outlandish to pull off. And at the K-12 level it just may be; but when faced with huge cuts in state aid the officials at Brevard Community College in Dayton Beach, Florida took the plunge and the students and staff members are reaping enormous benefits. But what benefits are they now enjoying? ...

photo: Fraunhofer-Gesellshaft Earlier this year, a study done on the visual and aural impact of wind farms in the EU showed that, depending on how close the turbines are built to houses, the noise produced by the whooshing blades is viewed as an annoyance by some people. Even if this percentage is relatively small, for those people affected it could be a genuine problem. Science Daily gives us the details on work being done in Germany that would make wind turbines quieter: ...

How to be a Green Entrepreneur While the traditional economy slows down, green is booming. Riding the wave of the green trend, people are finding or creating unusual new jobs. Earn money and save the planet -- all in a day's work! To further inspire this trend, TreeHugger has collected a list of curious green entrepreneur opportunities we can find in the booming green economy. ...

A few weeks ago I wrote about a company using algae to produce what it calls “Green Crude”, a fuel chemically identical to high-octane gasoline. The advantage of course is that such a fuel, in addition to being renewable, is that it could be used in existing vehicles and shipped through the existing fuel infrastructure without modifications. Similarly, a San-Francisco-based company is betting it’s easier to create a fuel compatible with what we already have, rather than start afresh. In the video clip above, CNN does as good a job as one can do in a two-minute clip...

I am not certain that bentwood chair inventor Michael Thonet would approve, but the wiz kids over at Evil Mad Scientist show how to mash your favourite old jeans with your favourite old chair in need of reupholstering. After all, "A broken-in pair of jeans is one of the comfiest things in the world. Unfortunately, they do eventually wear out. Luckily, they leave behind the best upholstery material: soft, comfy, durable denim. Chair seats wear out, too, especially kitchen table chairs, which can take a lot of abuse."...