Sierra's Top 5 Insider Reader Stories from 2010

Sierra Club Insider, is a twice-monthly e-newsletter that gives readers the inside scoop on the latest environmental news, green living tips and urgent action alerts on important environmental issues. Here are the most interesting stories of 2010 from Sierra Insider readers.

1. Just Say No - to Oil: In April, the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico made it clearer than ever that we must transition to clean energy sources ASAP. The Sierra Club's Beyond Oil campaign challenged President Obama to develop a plan for getting our nation off of oil in the next 20 years.

2. Rush Gets His Backpack: In May radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh put his foot firmly in his mouth by suggesting that the Sierra Club that was to blame for the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, his absurd rant turned into a major fund-raising opportunity for the Club. Thousands of indignant "greeniacs" (Rush's mocking nickname) made donations to Sierra in response to his ridiculous allegations. The Sierra Club ended up sending Rush a giant thank you card signed by all the donors, as well as a complimentary Sierra Club backpack.

3. "Fracking: It Even Sounds Dirty": Many Americans first heard about fracking, the destructive method of extracting natural gas in 2010. Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune visited Pennsylvania to meet with people who've been affected by reckless drilling, and he blogged about how the industry is "exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act, parts of the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, as well as hazardous waste and cleanup laws."

4. Too-Cool Schools: Sierra magazine's annual Cool Schools survey is a report card for sustainability initiatives at colleges and universities around the country. It once again generated lots of interest and heated debate. Most people simply wanted to know whether their school made the Top 100 list, but the Cool Schools also includes the green dream team of all-star teachers and the profiles of several standout students who've made big differences at their schools.

5. The Best Internship on Earth: Announced early in 2010, The Best Internship on Earth was won by NYU film grad Evan Geary. He was given the dream assignment of creating a video blog documenting his experience with Sierra. The winning intern spent the summer traveling on different Sierra Club outings and creating numerous interesting and educational videos.


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Time's Top 5 Green Energy Inventions of 2010

Time Magazine has revealed its 50 top innovations of 2010. These include inventions spanning across several categories. Here is a summary of Time's best green energy inventions of 2010.

1. Deep Green Underwater Kite: The turbine, known as “Deep Green” was developed by Minesto, a privately-owned Swedish/UK company. Deep Green is tethered 100 meters above the sea bottom. It has a wingspan of 12 meters and a turbine one meter in diameter. The “kite” comprises a wing with a rudder to steer the turbine to face in the direction that will allow it to capture the maximum amount of tidal energy. Since seawater is 800 times as dense as air, it can generate 800 times more energy than if it were in the sky. It can generate up to 500 kW of electricity even in calm seas. The kite flies in a figure eight and travels 10 times faster than the water it is tethered in. The company believes the design could increase the market for tidal power by 80%. The first scale model will be unveiled next year off the coast of Northern Ireland.

2. Body Powered Devices: One device convert body heat into electricity and it involves the use of nano-technology. Forbes called this a “breakthrough technology”. Dancefloor Power was developed by Michael McAlpine and his collegues at Princeton University. Their device turn locomotion into power by embedding piezoelectric crystals into a flexible, biocompatible rubberlike material that, when bent, allows the crystals to produce energy. Put the crystals in shoes, or implant them directly into the body and they could produce enough power to charge personal electronics or internal medical devices. Telecommunications provider Orange introduced a prototype of Orange Power Wellies — rubber boots that convert heat into current. Campers at Britain’s Glastonbury Festival were the first to demo the footwear. (With the current model, it takes 12 hours of walking to charge a cell phone for an hour.) In Paris, engineers have captured the warmth generated by bodies on the Métro subway to heat a public-housing project. By 2011, the Métro heating system will cut carbon dioxide emissions from the housing project’s heating system by a third.

3. Power Aware Cord: The Interactive Institute, a Swedish nonprofit that explores technology and design has developed the Power-Aware Cord. It embeds wires around a cable that pulse light in relation to how much electricity is being drawn off the grid. The more current, the brighter and faster the blue light spirals. In testing the device, researchers found that making the invisible visible helped consumers to decrease their power usage.

4. Bloom Box: Cost is the problem commonly associated with hydrogen fuel cells. The Bloom Box is a much less expensive, it generates electricity using solid oxide fuel cells, which provide power by oxidizing a fuel source. The fuel source is natural gas, though the company hopes to substitute cleaner sources in the future. About half the size of a shipping container Silicon Valley companies like Google and eBay are already using Bloom Boxes for greener backup power, at a cost of about $800,000 each.

5. The (Almost) Waterless Washing Machine: The Xeros process was invented by Stephen Burkinshaw, it uses one cup of water, detergent and 20 kg (or 44.092 lb) of plastic chips per load. The plastic chips supposedly do most of the work by removing and absorbing dirt and even stains. A typical washing machine uses about 35 kilograms of water for every kilogram of clothes, in addition to the power needed to heat the water and dry the clothes. A commercial version is due out next year.


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The Most Important Green Business Stories of 2010

On December 21, Bloomberg Business published Harvard Review's most important stories affecting the greening of business in 2010. Here is a rough summary of the review.

US Politicians Fail to Pass Climate Legislation

The US Senate's failure to pass climate change legislation impedes global efforts to address climate change and undermines the competitiveness of American companies. The Republicans midterm election victory in the House of Representatives have definitively killed any hope of US climate legislation for at least two years. While the American legislature dithers, governments in the rest of the world are helping businesses to make the transition to a low carbon economy.

China

China has assumed a leadership role in renewable energy. China is now the world's largest solar producer and they now control almost half of the $45 billion global market for wind turbines. While China's support for its renewables companies may violate the WTO accord, there can be no doubt that China is investing massively in the low carbon economy through technology and innovation driven development that focuses on energy saving, environmental protection, and the low-carbon economy.

Declining Resource Availability

Climate change is impacting on countries around the world and this is directly effecting the availability of resources. Russia had the worst drought in 1,000 years and Pakistan was inundated by flooding. These weather events directly affect resource availability. The drought in Russia destroyed 40% of its wheat crop, pulling 1/6 of the world's trade in the crop off the global market, driving up wheat prices. The floods in Pakistan helped double the price of cotton. There is also evidence that rare earth metals, so vital to green technologies, may soon be in short supply.

The Growth of Electric Vehicles

A number of electric vehicles are now available in America and around the world. The Nissan LEAF and the Chevrolet Volt are amongst a plethora of electric vehicles that entered into the marketplace in 2010. An increasing number of companies are greening their fleets. This year GE announced that it would purchase 25,000 Electric vehicles including the Chevy Volt.

The Growth of Renewable Energy

The market for renewables is growing fast, in countries like Portugal almost half (45%) of the countries electricity comes from renewables. HSBC says the market for clean tech and climate change solutions will top $2.2 trillion by 2020.

The Growth of Sustainable Supply Chains

Despite the recession, there were numerous green supply chain announcements in 2010. These announcements include Wal-Mart which said it would eliminate 20 million metric tons of GHG emissions from its supply chain. We also saw major supply chain announcements from companies like IBM, Pepsi, Tropicana, P&G, and Kaiser Permanente.

Corporate Waste Reduction

Many corporations are working hard on waste reduction. GM announced that 62 of its plants now send zero waste to landfill, and UK retailer Marks & Spencer reached a 92% diversion rate on the way to its zero goals. Sony set a goal of zero environmental impact across its operations by 2050.

Sustainable Corporate Goals

Many large corporations are setting aggressive targets. Panasonic said it wanted its GHG emissions to peak by 2018 and it would greatly increase sales of eco-products. Unilever has announced that it would double sales by 2020 while halving its environmental impact the company has also announced other big goals.

The Greening of Small Business

Small companies are also seeing the value of going green. The fact that California's Bowman Design only has 10 employees and just 2,000 square feet of office space in Southern California has not prevented it from reducing the companies GHG emissions by 65% and saving $9,000 savings annually.


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