Originally published on InspiredEconomist.com On a mission to transform the globe “through ethical relationships with small-scale farmers, and an integral sustainability orientation at every point on the supply chain,” Alter Eco Foods has bitten off a big bite to chew on. But it sure looks delicious. Especially those chocolate truffles. Organic, fair trade truffles! In
Originally published on CleanTechnica. In 1974, a group of San Francisco’s pragmatic idealists, the Food Conspiracy, a grass-roots organization of food-buying clubs committed to buying and distributing wholesale food among themselves, became Other Avenues Worker Cooperative. Its mission is and was “food for the people, not profit.” Other stores expanded out of this group and yet, today,
One of the gayest districts in the world has gotten matching crosswalks. The most surprising thing is that it has taken so long for San Francisco’s Castro District to get rainbow crosswalks. Of course, there’s a whole LGBT thing to cover with regards to this, but that’s not really our beat. I decided to quickly
You might expect the #1 solar area in America to be a city like San Franciso or San Diego. According to One Block Off the Grid*, it isn’t one of the largest metro areas, though—it’s Fresno, CA, with a strong lead at 182 watts per capita. That rate is almost a full 100 watts per
The Union of Concerned Scientists’ Clean Vehicles program recently released an updated version of its rather comprehensive “backgrounder” on electric vehicles — “how much the technology is growing in the country, the opportunities it presents for consumers and automakers, and the challenges facing its adoption,” to be specific. Also included in the updated backgrounder is
Reposted from Bikocity: After overcoming several obstacles, the San Francisco Bay Area will begin a pilot bike sharing program that will be the first regional bike sharing program in the country. The pilot program, which will be run by Alta Bike Share, is set to launch this summer with 70 locations and 700 bikes from
I had a great opportunity to review some new, cool, super green, comfortable, vegan shoes recently. They are made of recycled and repurposed materials, and are a product of Unstitched Utilities. Here’s my review. […]
This is a pretty astounding stat from this year’s National Bike to Work Day — 75% of traffic on San Francisco’s Market Street was bikes that day, according to a traffic count from San Francisco’s organizers. Here’s a graphic from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition: The League of American Bicyclists has a whole host of
Salvaged urban trees, to be specific. Masterworks Wood and Design takes on the fun, creative, and totally green work of turning salvaged urban trees into wooden bicycles — sweet-looking ones! More via a video from Masterworks Wood and Design: “The story of these bikes goes from the felling of a family’s guardian tree, through the
I’ll admit it, I love numbers. And I love bicycling, as you know. So, running across this recent statistic on one of the sites I used to write for, Earth & Industry, brought a little light to my face. Here’s more from Alison Leahy on San Francisco’s bicycle ridership growth: “Urban cycling is on
Container ships are increasing in size yet the technology that keeps those massive containers strapped down is not. Unsurprisingly, given this, the number of containers lost over the side of these massive ships is increasing each year. But it’s a mostly hidden problem, one that is barely acknowledged by the authorities. Each year, an estimated
Some of the top green living, activism, and clean energy stories from the past day or so: Activism Greenpeace Gives Facebook “Unfriend Coal” Deadline Greenpeace has been pushing Facebook to “unfriend coal” and go the route of clean energy for awhile. Facebook, for the most part, hasn’t listened. Greenpeace is now telling Facebook it should
Ranking U.S. stadiums according to “the depth and breadth” of their green initiatives, national home solar company SunRun recently came up with a top 10 list of the greenest stadiums. Cowboys Stadium, where the Super Bowl is about to be played, came in at number 5. From the planning stages, when the Dallas Cowboys intended
We’ve covered the unfair plight of the Kalahari Bushmen in Botswana in a couple posts on Important Media recently. In order to help address the human rights battle being held in Botswana right now, Survival International (in coordination with notable celebrities like Gillian Anderson, Quentin Blake, Joanna Lumley, Sophie Okonedo, and Mark Rylance) has been
San Francisco activists are trying to catch up to India, where plastic bags have been banned in its largest state and several other places. How? By covering themselves in plastic bags (i.e. dressing up as “Bag Monsters.”) You have to love these pics. I can’t wait to see the ones from the event, and wish
[social_buttons] British environmentalist David de Rothschild, author of Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook, met with the San Francisco Conservation Corps on Wednesday to talk about “Plastiki,” a 60-foot catamaran made from recycled plastic (except for the masts), which he’ll use to sail from San Francisco to Australia: an 11,000 mile voyage! The boat is
As I mentioned earlier this week, Greenpeace will be holding rallies in 30 cities across America. Here in San Francisco, they will be showing off a 30 x 50 ft. banner (pictured here) in front the Golden Gate Bridge. Check back here at 1pm PST to see photos from the event.
Grassroot Groups Formed At A Chevron Gas Station In Protest Of Human Rights Violations By The Oil Giant Organizers from Global Exchange, Justice in Nigeria Now, and West County Toxics Coalition gathered at a Chevron gas station here in San Francisco on Monday in support for the Nigerian plaintiffs in a human rights trial against
San Francisco’s Prop H is taking on their biggest opponent today – PG&E! The utility company has spent more than $9.9 Million to prevent San Francisco from having cheaper and renewable energy. Come join the rally at: PG&E’s downtown headquarters at 77 Beale St at noon. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/IZuwXSbb6WA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1] They’ll be erecting three twelve-foot “Yes on H”
Treasure Island is a 400 acre island built from fill dredged from the bay for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. It is connected to land by the Bay Bridge on both sides leading from San Francisco to Oakland. Loosing money due to the depression and WWII, it was converted into a naval base in 1940. In 1996 it was decommissioned and opened to public control. Today San Francisco’s Department of the Environment is transforming it into the most sustainable community in the US by 2020.
The streets are going to be reoriented at an angle to maximize solar and minimize wind. It will include 6,000 units of high-density housing, without any single detached residences. Thirty percent of the housing will be affordable.
Last night at the Nob Hill Masonic Center Auditorium in San Francisco, the Ecocity World Summit hosted San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and former Mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, now Governor of Paraná Jaime Lerner.
Mayor Newsom started off proudly declaring San Francisco has the highest recycling rate in the country at 70 percent, with a goal of zero waste. The city accepts all types of plastics and even provides a bin to compost all food, including meat! One of the few items not accepted are plastic bags, but last year San Francisco banned plastic bags from all major grocery stores.
The city has one of the most aggressive green building programs in the US. This is important because construction and operation of buildings are responsible for 40 percent of total energy use, 65 percent of total electricity use, 40 percent of air pollution and 38 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. The building below is the California Academy of Sciences which is planned to be LEED Platinum,
