When you visit the New York times website on Sunday evening, the list of most emailed articles is usually topped by either the big news story of the day, a particularly relevant Frank Rich article or some pithy commentary from Maureen Dowd. This past Sunday it was a 4,000 word article on noted academic Freeman Dyson, who has been comfortably employed as a big brain for over 50 years at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey.
Why the sudden interest in a man now is his mid 80s?
Dyson has always been considered a contrarian. As one of his colleagues observed, “… when consensus is forming like ice hardening on a lake, Dyson will do his best to chip away at the ice.”
While Dysons’s latest idea… [view entry]
From the “Game of Life’ Files, comes this stub about Adaptive Meter, a company who has invented an internet application that makes energy conservation an engaging game.
The company, which makes web applications such as Stickychicken and Twitterlike, is developing an interactive gaming platform in which players bet on others’ energy usage. The stock-market style game, called Lost Joules, will use smart-meter data from consenting players, and other participants—including those without smart meter —will be able to stake virtual cash on whether those players can reduce their energy use or not.
Do you remember Bill Nye the Science Guy? This summer cable nework Planet Green launched a new series called “Stuff Happens,” in which Mr. Nye investigates the environmental impact of common products and practices with his typical light-hearted flair. If you have Comcast, check it out on channel 233. Even if you don’t get Planet Green, it should be available via On Demand under News & World > Planet Green > Bill Nye.
From Canada comes the rather amazing story of Cansolair, a company that reuses soda cans to make solar panels. Once installed, this soda/solar unit can provide up to 30% of the heating for your house. All this in the cloudy, foggy Labrador region. All without adding another CO2 particle to the environment. Maybe Coke knew it was onto something when they introduced this new flavor last year.
Check out this video to see how it’s done.
This car will be competing in October in the World Solar Challenge race across Australia. About a dozen team members are expected to go to Australia for the race, although only four will drive the solar car in the competition. By the way, the car’s name is Eleanor and when the sun shines, it will do 55 mph all day long.
Framingham-based Bose Corporation has long been known for it’s innovative and high-quality sound products. The Bose Wave we have at Energy 2.0 HQ is without a doubt the best investment we have made in the last 3 years.
Now, Bose will be part of the revival of an American icon. Right after the first Chevy Volt hits the road in 2010, GM will be releasing a newer version with a Bose Energy Efficient Sound Series that uses 50% less energy than any previous car-based Bose system. This will go a long way towards achieving the Volt’s promised 40 miles operating range on electrical power only. That number is significant as it covers the daily commute of over 70% of the working population of the US.
Energy 2.0 wants it’s readers to be as efficient as possible. That’s why we bring you stories from around the Web that help you live the life you want without increasing your carbon footprint. From our recent travels on the information superhighway, we’re pleased to note many other fine media outlets are also sharing information on keeping it green close to your body.
One of Energy 2.0′s favorite political sites, The Huffington Post, has figured readers might be all caught up on Barack Obama and ready for some other useful info. If you’re reading this article from the campus of one our fine educational institutions here in Cambridge, you’ll find this article on how to make your own hacky sack a must read.
Beyond the weird,… [view entry]
Amazon has just released the new version of their book reading device, the Kindle 2. The new hard drive (2GB) holds 1500 books and features a new “Read to Me” feature which allows the…. user to hit a button and let the Kindle read for you. In other words it’s a book that comes with it’s own ‘Books on Tape’ mode. All improvements over the first Kindle, which was essentially a high resolution black & white screen with a hard drive attached.
Many media pundits are using this launch to dust the cobwebs off their Books Will Soon Be Extinct storyline. Many of these people have also speculated that if Amazon can’t make the leap to digitally delivered products, their future looks awfully shaky. An ironic twist given many of… [view entry]
From a recent Reuters Report:
The Obama administration has high hopes that millions of “green” jobs will be created by investing billions of dollars in renewable energy, but a report on Tuesday warned not all those workers would earn good pay.
“Green jobs are not automatically good jobs,” according to the report commissioned by several U.S. labor and environmental groups, which looked at pay practices at renewable energy companies.
One of the things you’ve probably heard floating around with all the talk of ‘stimulus package’ and ‘green jobs’ is they are the answer to bringing high-paying jobs back into our economy. The Reuters article highlights that the manufacture of renewable energy technology will end up being ruled by global economic realities. If the manufacturing capability exists for it to be… [view entry]
I think we can all agree 2008 was an historic and constantly surprising year:
The folks over at Marketing Profs also noted 2008 was the year major companies and major brands saw that terms like carbon footprints, CO2 emissions, alternative energy and energy efficiency weren’t going away. OK, so Energy 2.0 is now part of the mainstream. What does that mean and where can we expect ‘green’ marketing to go in 2009.
Here are the some of the trends worth noting:
Green campaigns are being created and awarded. On the other hand, organizations who engage in ‘greenwashing’ (i.e. making false claims about their environmental record or the carbon footprint of their products) will be found out and called out by the many watchdog and activist groups using the Internet… [view entry]
