Atlanta courier company switches over to hybrids

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An Atlanta-based courier service changed their name to Green Express in conjunction with a switch in their fleet from conventional to hybrid vehicles. As a delivery service their business is particularly sensitive to rising gas prices. Their fleet runs about 2,500 miles per day and gas prices approaching $4 a gallon will definitely increase their operating expenses.

They began running some hybrid vehicles at the beginning of the year and so far they are using forty-six percent less gas than the conventional cars in the fleet and averaging 47 mpg. When the cars are running in traffic they frequently operate in EV mode meaning they aren’t contributing to the already severe pollution in the Atlanta area. By promoting their new hybrid vehicles the company has been able to pick up thirty-five new customers since the beginning of 2007.

[Source: The Auto Channel]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

LA Chickens

Article Photoby Worldchanging Los Angeles local blogger Jennifer Murphy Last week we adopted two more chickens from Path to Freedom. We’ve had backyard chickens for almost three years now. It’s been a rewarding experience. They are easy, entertaining and inexpensive to keep. Like home-grown vegetables, home-raised chickens connect our family to the cycles of the earth, make us more self-sufficient, and provide delicious healthy eggs for the table. As homeschoolers, we’ve found many learning opportunities arising from these feathery friends running around the yard. We got our original chickens from Path to Freedom too. Those two were in need of a home after being raised by the school next door as a science project. Now the Dervaes are hatching and raising chicks themselves to sell as part of their Peddler’s Wagon. Our new girls came from the first batch they raised successfully. Twenty-three people have ordered chickens since February. Jordanne Dervaes says by the time she’s done this year, she will have raised about 140 birds. Their blog journal has kept us abreast of their progress, from egg to pullet, including a couple of rocky spots along the way. Jordanne has a special knack with animals and she does a lot… (more)

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Food and Farming at 1:12 PM)

LA Chickens

Article Photoby Worldchanging Los Angeles local blogger Jennifer Murphy Last week we adopted two more chickens from Path to Freedom. We’ve had backyard chickens for almost three years now. It’s been a rewarding experience. They are easy, entertaining and inexpensive to keep. Like home-grown vegetables, home-raised chickens connect our family to the cycles of the earth, make us more self-sufficient, and provide delicious healthy eggs for the table. As homeschoolers, we’ve found many learning opportunities arising from these feathery friends running around the yard. We got our original chickens from Path to Freedom too. Those two were in need of a home after being raised by the school next door as a science project. Now the Dervaes are hatching and raising chicks themselves to sell as part of their Peddler’s Wagon. Our new girls came from the first batch they raised successfully. Twenty-three people have ordered chickens since February. Jordanne Dervaes says by the time she’s done this year, she will have raised about 140 birds. Their blog journal has kept us abreast of their progress, from egg to pullet, including a couple of rocky spots along the way. Jordanne has a special knack with animals and she does a lot… (more)

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Food and Farming at 1:12 PM)

Haute GREEN 2007: Reclaiming Design

Article Photoby Worldchanging New York local blogger Starre Vartan Terrarium light fixtures, a chair of ribbons of HDPE recycled plastic, gorgeous oversize flowers crafted from wool blanket scraps, and a chair seat made from seatbelts exemplified Brooklyn-based eco-designer Matt Gagnon’s comment, “Green design is good design.” Gagnon was one of four panelists at Reclaiming Design, a discussion event held on Sunday evening that was part of Haute GREEN 2007. After having a chance to check out all the amazing creations (most of which were recognizable as great modern design first, and sustainable or recycled second) moderators Jill Fehrenbacher and Emily Pilloton of Inhabitat kicked off the conversation. [Jill’s also a contributor to Worldchanging.com. — Ed.] Tejo Remy of iconic Dutch design group Droog, Carlos Salgado, furniture designer for Scrapile, and Sam Grawe, Editor of Dwell Magazine joined Gagnon on the panel. Salgado of Scrapile introduced his repurposed wood creations, in which raw material is recovered from the dumpsters of woodworking shops and construction sites, by highlighting some of the differences between traditional designs and those that are made from recycled materials: “Most designers think of the concept first, but we have to look at the material first and design around that… (more)

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Sustainable Design at 1:07 PM)

Defending Whales: Captain Killmore’s Whale Removal Service

Posted by Dave (in Anchorage, Alaska)

captain_killmore

Well, we all heard about those pesky whales that got stuck in the Sacramento River, right? Well, Captain Killmore, created by Mark Fiore has a novel way of getting back whales “where they belong… on the end of a harpoon!”. Also, meet Captain K’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd mates – Japanese “scientific” whalers, and that “quiet lot” – Iceland and Norway. Then there’s the “countries of the night” – countries like Laos (which has no coastline!) that has recently signed up to support Japan’s push for a return to full-blown commercial whaling. (Check out the Laos t-shirt in the movie), and of course, the US Navy and their wonderful underwater weapons…

Fantastic work from Mr. Fiore. Grim, yet amusing…

Watch Captain Killmore’s Whale Removal Service »

Take Volvo’s CO2 Challenge

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Volvo has introduced a nifty little ‘game‘ on their website who’s purpose it is to educate us mere mortals about which fuel types emit the most CO2. First you pick which fuel types you want to know the stats on. When you click ‘Start,’ it shows each car with its specified fuel type run around a maze (with authentic traffic noise in the background – ooohh… ahhh…). Each car stops when it has discharged 10 kg of carbon dioxide. What’s interesting about the calculation is that it includes not only the CO2 discharged when the fuel is combusted in the engine, but also the CO2 produced in the extraction, production and distribution of the fuel. I won’t spoil it for you, so see if you can guess which one wins.

After the ‘course’ is run, you see the results of the different fuel types of the cars you’ve chosen, or you can look at the results from all of them. After that, for an “In-depth analysis,” it will show you the CO2 produced specifically in “Well to Tank” and “Tank To Wheel” phases of the fuel’s life cycle.

Making learning this information fun is one of the key steps to global awareness necessitating change. Props to Volvo for taking the initiative (but don’t think we didn’t notice that those cars are S80s). Click “Which way is the future?” for a nice little P.S.A.

[Source: Volvo, Thanks for the tip, Sarah T.]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

“Design for the Other 90%” at the National Design Museum

by Worldchanging New York local blogger Amy Shaw: This summer the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum is featuring an ambitious and refreshingly different kind of design exhibition: Design for the Other 90%. The show features ingenious yet low-cost functional objects that, according to the museum, highlight “the growing trend among designers to develop solutions that address basic needs for the vast majority of the world’s population not traditionally serviced by professional designers.” Well arranged in the museum’s magnificent garden, Design for the Other 90% treats the viewer to one good idea after another, in the form of solar-powered portable LED lights, devices that store rainwater for irrigation, and insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria (shown at the bottom). Many of these products are already in use in dozens of countries around the world, including the United States. I found a few products especially useful, economical, and well built. The LifeStraw, shown here, is a portable water-purification tool that one drinks through to turn any still water into drinkable water. The Q Drum, designed to make it easier for people in drought-prone areas to carry water over distances, is a wide donut-shaped container with a rope strung through so that the… (more)

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Sustainable Design at 1:04 PM)