Social Action Through Career Choice

My last post on Friday (Introduction to Link Love posts with examples) had an article on MSNBC/Careerbuilder about "green collar jobs". I would like to, again, reiterate the fact that I am rue to link to anything on Careerbuilder but you're not likely to be inundated with spam by simply clicking on the link (like you will by signing up for their loosely titled "service") so I'll make an exception.

First off, it's important to point out that this article is about as far from me, with respect to intent, as it could possibly be. The point of this article is to point out that there's this great new sector that's likely to grow based on sound-bites from our presidential candidates. The article says nothing about personal responsibility, purpose in life, or altruism through self-sacrifice. Careerbuilder is certainly not going to help you find meaning in your work by guiding you in a direction to make a difference in any way. But I digress; this post is not meant to inaugurate "Bash CB Day."

The article talks, first, about the possibility of new jobs appearing based on forward-looking statements by Obama, Clinton, and McCain. I'll just quote the one that makes any difference whatsoever:

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama -- "We've also got to do more to create the green jobs that are jobs of the future. My energy plan will put $150 billion over 10 years into establishing a green energy sector that will create up to 5 million new jobs over the next two decades."

Brilliant! Hopefully it's clear to you why I'm excited about that but why should you care?

I have seen an interesting phenomenon with my own eyes time and time again and have even participated in it myself. People find it quite easy to remove the responsibility of their own participation in an industry or company by simply explaining to themselves (and others) that "it pays the bills." What can you do? You're working for the man, they pay your rent, it's not really your responsibility to ensure that your job is environmentally responsible or kind to humans and animals or even legal. Does this sound familiar? Is this logic rational? Do you even think about what you actually do at work and what you're contributing to?

Just so we're clear, if I'm pointing any fingers, there are certainly a few pointing back at me. At my last job, animal testing was done on-site. I found myself in a very uncomfortable moral and financial situation, one shared by a colleague. It all came to head (sorta) when a company memo was circulated that advised employees to be aware that animal rights activists might show up on-site. I asked myself if I could casually walk past a group of like-minded people picketing my building and report to my job. I knew the answer was no and I'm no longer employed there (for other, more pragmatic reasons as well).

Your contribution(s) to the job you hold play(s) a part in the success of whatever entity to which you belong. Your good job, good ideas, and hard work will, generally, have a positive effect on the structure above and below you. If this innovation, perspiration, and motivation is sold to a corporation/company/person who strives for environmental sustainability, community improvement, and/or financial equality than you also own a piece of those good deeds. If, on the other hand, your great work belongs to a company that exploits both people and nature, you, in turn, own a piece of that victimization. It's only fair that it works both ways.

As usual, there is an obstacle to making a career choice like this. There always will be ethical ambiguity in all the choices we make and actions we take. Maybe you decide to take a job with Ford Motor assembling Hybrid Escape SUVs. Every bolt you put in, every battery you connect, and every gauge you install moves this vehicle closer and closer to helping someone fulfill their desire to use less gasoline. On the flip side, every Hybrid Escape sold puts money in the pocket of a company named as one of our country's biggest polluter. What's a conscious citizen to do?

Adding "the fate of the known world" into your considerations for a career is a pretty heavy burden to absorb; you're not going to reverse global warming because you chose a company with fleet cars that had better MPG. You're also not going to feel very socially conscious if after talking up your new Prius purchase you have to admit the monthly payments come from Chevron's pockets.

My overall point is this:
Every choice you make has a potential social, cultural, and environmental impact. The first step is being truly aware of this, the next is actually doing something about it.

From the article, here are a few green career options that have my stamp of approval:

- Furniture making (there are some amazing examples of sustainable furniture designers out there)
- HVAC (if you pick your company wisely)
- Green landscaping (something I'm planning on really getting into when I buy a house [soon] and something that I imagine to be very fulfilling and relaxing)
- Green building (again, you have to be company conscious
- Part-time Chemistry student, part-time marketing coordinator, part-time freelance Technology Coach (not sure I would recommend this route).

Hrrrmmmmm....

This keeps coming up... via AutoBlogGreen again:

When people like GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz talk about how new fuel economy regulations are going to add $5-6,000 to the price of new cars and trucks, it's worth examining how they come to those numbers. Obviously there are some cars today that can achieve the 35mpg level without being insanely expensive. Unfortunately those tend to be smaller cars that the vast majority of American new car buyers seem to be unwilling to buy at current fuel prices. For any number of reasons, Americans still prefer vehicles that are larger, heavier and thirstier, in some cases for perfectly legitimate reasons.

Unless the cost of operating those vehicles rises dramatically, it seems Americans won't want to make the switch. Of course the cost may jump anyway, although the timing of such a rise is uncertain. As is all too often the case, trying legislate a simplistic solution to a complex problem is likely to lead to unintended consequences. If customers want their bigger vehicles but carmakers are forced either produce unaffordable versions of big rides or smaller vehicles people don't want, something has to give.

In Cuba, where nearly half a century of U.S. trade embargoes have eliminated access to new American cars, people have just learned to keep the cars that existed there in the fifties on the road seemingly indefinitely. During a discussion at the Chicago Auto Show, GM NA President Troy Clarke indicated something similar could also happen here in the coming years. If car-makers are unable to provide the vehicles customers want at a price they can pay, businesses that specialize in reconditioning used vehicles could step in to fill the gap. While this would benefit consumers by providing affordable transportation, it would negate the benefits of higher fuel economy standards by keeping those more efficient vehicles from supplanting older ones in the fleet. Unless car buyers have a real financial incentive to move to smaller vehicles, they will likely just move to the used car market.

Sounds familiar...

Entoo da feu-chah

I might just like this because of it's acronym, LAPCAT. This pic is, of course, computer generated:


It's basically a hypersonic beer can (mach 5 speed and no windows).

From Inhabitat (of course):

Not too far in the future you may be able to travel that entire distance in less than 4 hours - emissions free - thanks to an amazing hypersonic hydrogen jet project called LAPCAT. LAPCAT standsfor Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologie, and is funded by the European Space Agency. This type of hypersonic jet would put the Concorde to shame with it’s speed, and the best part is that it would not be powered by the typical fossil fuels, but instead by a much greener hydrogen alternative.

That about sums it up. There is, of course, the usual criticism about where the hydrogen comes from but those are so BORING.

The concept is basically a turbine jet engine that benefits from ram-compression, which is essentially air being smashed into the intake. If you're going really, really damn fast, you don't really have to worry about injecting oxygen, you simply use the rushing air in front of you.

From the LAPCAT site:

The Space Shuttle punches through the atmosphere as quickly as possible on its way into orbit, but the LAPCAT project is focusing on an aircraft that would remain well within the Earth's atmosphere throughout its flight. Whereas the Shuttle uses the thrust of its engines to fight the force of gravity, a hypersonic vehicle would use the aerodynamic lifting force generated on its wings and fuselage. This vision of sustained hypersonic flight requires air-breathing engines, which are highly efficient because they scoop oxygen from the atmosphere rather than from an onboard tank.

My take? It's completely conceptual right now which is uselss for the time being but I really like this concept... much more than the some of the car concepts I've seen. This overcomes two big hurdles: air travel time and the green factor of the jets themselves (leaving the generation part to be answered]).

My personal take? From the comments section (me):

I hate flying and I hate looking out the window at the wing/engine/ground. Doing everything you can to shorten my trip AND helping me avoid eye contact with what is around me is the biggest favor that the airline industry could do for me. Yay for supersonic beer cans!

Intersting move for Ferrari/Porsche

You know the "Green Movement" has reached new heights when the top sports car manufacturers take note. First up: Ferrari's new 430 Spyder Biofuel concept:


What's the skinny?

Labeled as the 430 Spider Bio Fuel, the roadster runs on the familiar mix of 85% natural ethanol and 15% gasoline, which reports suggest yield a modest 2% increase in power. That’s enough to bring the 4.3-liter V8’s output up to 500 from the standard 490 with torque rising 4% and fuel economy improving by 5%.

Our old friend, ethanol. Blech. Thankfully we're only looking at a concept for the time being. What might change the tides?

...a ferrari official has said that if E85 became widely available in California (where 10% of Ferrari’s worldwide sales are) then this Bio Fuel model would become a viable option.

I do my best to sort through the countless articles I read about this or that concept to bring you what I consider to be either a really good thing or a really bad thing. I leave the middle-of-the-road stuff to anyone that follows this type of news outside of reading my blog. There are plenty of generic green blogs out there, including ones that deal with cars.

Point being... stuff like this usually flies under my radar but, in this case, it is worthy of mention. For one thing, this particular model gets BETTER fuel economy and has MORE power than the gas version. What you find when you read about ethanol is that it contains less energy per gallon than gasoline... from a thermodynamic perspective. That means if you combust them the same way, you have to get either less power or worse MPG. What this means is that Ferrari made the 430 have much better fuel economy IN GENERAL which translates to better MPG for the E85 blend. That means that the regular fuel economy must be a lot better. I'm very interested to hear how they did that...

The other reason that this is worth mentioning is that we're looking at an industry-wide change - in a vary strange industry to be making this change. From here (quote from the official Ferrari press release which can be found on ferrariworld.com):

The development of an engine powered by the biofuel E85 comes as part of a research and development program announced during the Technological Innovation Conference held at Maranello last June as part of our 60th Anniversary Celebrations. On that particular occasion, Ferrari also unveiled projects focused on improving the energy of the whole car which would in turn lower fuel consumption and emissions levels. The ultimate aim being, of course, to cut the latter by 40% by 2012.

It's good to see big names like Ferrari waving the green flag for any number of reasons. It's nice to see them have a conscience, first off. But they might also just see it as another obstacle to overcome. Their heart is in F1 racing and that's why their cars are so amazing. The technology that comes from developing some of the most amazing machines on the planet is mind-boggling. But, for street and occasional track use, how fast do they need to be? How light? How nimble? Cars can only be so fast and so capable before they start to exceed a human's ability to control them. Aside from that, looks are relative between the supercars.

But what would it say about your level of technology if you attained similar power numbers but got 30% better fuel technology? That, to me, says that there might be better, newer, stronger technology in that particular car. And, aside from that, what kind of message does that say FOR your customers? If I'm a greentech mogul and I run a sustainable company that, say, builds fuel systems for a new wave of biodiesel trucks, wouldn't I want to exclaim my green-ness? If I was a big car guy, I would want something really nice but I would also be wary, as a big green guy, of the mixed message I would be broadcasting by driving something that gets single-digit MPG. See what I mean?

In a similar vein, Porsche recently unveiled a hybrid Cayenne SUV idea:

The gas/electric hybrid Cayenne will cut fuel consumption by about 15 percent over the non-hybrid version. It will use a hybrid system being developed in partnership with Volkswagen, the same company Porsche partnered with to create the Cayenne and the Volkswagen Touareg SUVs. The Porsche/VW hybrid system will allow the vehicle's gasoline engine and electric motor to operate independently or together as needed. The Cayenne hybrid should be available by the end of the decade, the company said.

Not the exact car in question but you get the idea.

I see big technology muscle getting involved in fuel efficiency as a very good thing, even if their intention is simply to sell to a broader market. The more players, the bigger the game and as the competition gets hotter and hotter, the sustainable industry can do nothing but reap benefits. If Porsche and VW together design a great new hybrid system for the Cayenne, that means a couple years down the road that we'll probably see it in a Passat.

...and I can finally say I drive a Porsche because they share a bolt or two :)

If dreams were pennies...

According to the State Department, MIT is on-track to save the world. I always roll my eyes at these articles about concepts and dreams... I like to read articles about things hitting the marketplace or starting to be manufactured. On the other hand, it is MIT, the same group that brought you the "Flexcar2" idea. Here's the skinny:

Amy Jaffe is surprised that only very few people think she and her colleagues are crazy. What the Massachusetts Technology Institute (MIT) senior, about 400 other students and 30 faculty members from around the world want to do is not a small feat. The group plans to build, in just three years, a hyperefficient, supersafe four-passenger to six-passenger car called VDS Vision that will be produced and used with 95 percent less energy and toxic materials throughout its lifetime than an average existing vehicle.

Hyperefficient! Supersafe! Neither of these words are accepted by my browser spell check, just in case you were wondering.

Adrian Chernoff, who volunteers as a guide, mentor and adviser to program participants, says they face a tremendous challenge...Chernoff, an accomplished inventor and innovator, knows what he is talking about. As a chief architect and principal inventor behind General Motors's 2001 Reinvention of the Automobile program, he helped to bring about several concept and demonstration vehicles such as AUTOnomy, Hy-Wire, CARousel and Sequel. With many independent teams spread around the world, working together smoothly and efficiently will be the most difficult part of the project, Chernoff said. “In the end, it is about networking, collaboration and teamwork,” Chernoff said.

*Sigh*, the Hy-Wire...


It's funny that this car should come up in a article considering my recent reminiscing session. The Hy-Wire was the GM car that really got me excited about hydrogen power in cars. The innovation behind the car was less about its propulsion and more about its actual design. Hydrogen (and electric) cars allow (read: require) you to re-design the idea of a car from the ground up. Forget about steering shafts, drive-lines, engine placement, and cooling systems; everything needed to move the car is modular and doesn't really limit its placement in the vehicle. What this lets you do is include all this stuff into one "skateboard" section of the car and then rearrange the rest of it as you will. I did a Google Sketch-Up to illustrate:


So imagine the green as the batteries and/or fuel cell(s) and the blue for your electric motors. Computers are interspersed through-out and the car is drive-by-wire (so instead of the steering shaft actually turning wheels or your gas pedal actually feeding fuel, your inputs tell the computer to do it [my VW is drive-by-wire for gas input so this isn't crazy future stuff]). That means you can add and remove all the interior parts (seats, dash, etc) and even change the body on it and you won't be affecting how the car moves. It's a great concept and not that hard to actually make happen.

The point I eventually intend to make is that this little Hy-Wire guy has been out and about for many years, at least 7 if my memory serves me right. Despite its great ideas and "potential to revolutionize the blah blah blah," it's gone nowhere. Well, Wired got to drive it at least, that's something.

I admire long term goals ("the group's goal goes beyond that; members also want to change the way cars are produced and used") but it's important to take this kind of news for exactly what it is: a step in the right direction and a promise of absolutely nothing. I would hate for someone to read this and go "here it is! The future is now! Problems are solved!" There are quite a few safe and economic options out there to begin with and not everyone is rushing to get them. You can buy and own an electric vehicle, you can choose a hybrid SUV, you can drive differently. All of these things contributes towards the same goal and this project: using less oil, changing our economy, and polluting less. If people the way we produce and buy and use our cars was apt to be changed, wouldn't we already be doing everything we could?

Simply put, there are not enough people out there (yet) who care enough to make this kind of radical change. Never stop dreaming, never stop building, never stop designing, never ever. But make sure you have the big picture in your head too: there's more to overcome than just the products that are available. There is a massive, interconnected, complicated sociology, psychology, and infrastructure in place that just won't shift directions for a product like a Saint Bernard for a milkbone.

Keeping dreaming but don't quit your day job (see number 7):

THE SEX & CASH THEORY: "The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task in hand covers both bases, but not often. This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended."

Great minds think alike I guess

Great post from Seth Godin about Whole Foods and this whole eco-movement thing:

A trip to the Whole Foods Market used to be really fun. It's an amusement park for food, a place where the lights are bright, the vegetables are fresh, the potato chips apparently guilt free.

Sometime in the last year, it feels to me, the story changed.

The mantra of "less" which is a natural offshoot of carbon-footprint thinking, combined with the mantra of "less" which is a natural offshoot of overfishing, combined with... have made shopping in a store like this a contest over who can have less impact.

So, here's a can of tuna, but maybe that's not okay because it's a can and it's tuna.

And here's an avocado, but maybe that's not okay because it came a long way in a truck.

And on and on.

For me, local and organic is a treat. I feel great doing it and I'm happy to invest the time to go to the Union Square market. I wonder, though, about how long the legs on that story are. If we're going to make people feel guilty when they spend money, pretty soon they're going to start ignoring the story that makes them feel guilty.

Do you remember when you were a kid and you were supposed to clean your plate when eating because somehow that was going to help some starving kid in China? That story didn't last so long.

I'm more and more convinced that the best hope for the eco movement is to tell a story of efficiency and growth and ingenuity. More is easy to sell. Less almost never is.

Bold emphasis is mine...

Efficiency, growth and ingenuity... certainly things you've read on here, right?

"My" Idea

I say that because this came to me a little while back. I certainly claim no sovereignty over it, just explaining why I thought this was so neat.

The article

On a beautiful, crisp late fall afternoon, rock icon Neil Young took his 1959 Lincoln Continental for one last spin before a team of mechanics ripped out its gas-guzzling engine to make way for an electric motor.

What a great idea! Reminds me of the high school I posted about a few months ago. I love the idea of switching such a great, old car into a symbol of sustainable transportation. It's also nice to see celebrities doing the right thing.

Car in question (not actually his):



The article goes on to quote Neil as saying it will get 100 MPG and runs off of biodiesel. Transformation apparently takes 45 days... I'm sure Neil has a replacement.

More interesting than this specific car is the idea itself. I was asked a while back what my dream job would be and I said "CEO/owner/prez of a company that either built sustainable cars or modified current cars to be sustainable." I feel like that would really stretch my business sense, let me work individually with people, keep me in the auto world, let me be an innovator in terms of technique, and really work my entrepreneurial spirit (which really has not had a chance to be seen at this point). It's the perfect job, IMHO. In fact, being the CEO may not be exactly what I want but having something to do with a company like that would be ideal.

Well, the company that is changing this Lincoln is doing just that:

Goodwin is making a name for himself -- and his company, H-Line Conversions -- by turning gas-guzzling behemoths like Hummers, Cadillac Escalades, Jeeps and other big American cars into clean-power machines. The first thing he does is remove the old inefficient engine -- even if it's a brand new vehicle -- and replace it with a diesel engine that can run on biodiesel. What's the drawback of his method? You guessed it. Cost. "It's not cost-effective for someone to run out and spend $40,000 to double the fuel economy, but I have no shortage of customers," Goodwin says. Including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's having his Wagoneer converted to biodiesel. Goodwin, 37, drives a 1987 gas burning Wagoneer, rents his home and will sheepishly tell you he didn't graduate from high school. Expect to hear a lot more about Goodwin in the future. Companies are knocking down the door to work on projects with him.

I'm torn between seeing this as a massive opportunity for the future or scared that someone is already doing it....

What do you do when you see someone else living your dream and it's suddenly very clear to you how real that dream could be??

Sh*t.............................................................

Hybrid Choo-choo

Taking us one step closer to that hybrid jet I've been designing on the weekends, GE announced that they are working on a hybrid powered locomotive. "Wow, cool," you might be saying and I am saying the same except it's more like "HOLY SH*T! COOL!" and it's probably for a different reason. First, an interesting fact from their site:

The energy dissipated in braking a 207-ton locomotive during the course of one year is enough to power 160 households for that year.

That fact is probably one of the coolest I've heard in a while (and I live an existence bombarded by facts). First, that is a helluvalotta energy which makes sense because trains, because of their weight, generate a lot of momentum (the product of speed and mass). Now add in deceleration (reducing speed) and you have energy, joules of power. Second, the comparison to 160 households is simply incredible. I'm floored... in a good way.

But here's why I'm so excited:

GE's hybrid locomotive's lead-free rechargeable batteries will be able to provide superior performance by allowing operators to draw an additional 2,000 horsepower when needed.

What a great way to test, research, and develop high-horsepower and high-torque applications for electric motors! Right now, there's not a lot of propulsion methods that will work for a semi-truck or a bulldozer or, well, a train simple because big, heavy things need a big push. It is difficult to get an electric motor to push that mind of weight around which is why you'll find a lot of weight-saving features on hybrids and EVs. GE is going to have a fantastic, constant lab to try new things in the high-load realm.


Getting big, thirsty, heavy, dirty diesels off of the road, whether we clean up diesel fuel and engines and replace everything or find a new method, is an important piece of the sustainable transportation puzzle. You better BELIEVE that if these hit tracks, I will replace some/all of my air travel with them.

KINEDAAAAA!!!!

Anyone get that?


This bike looks like a lot of fun! Maybe not as much as the last one I posted but still... driver position is great; it looks like you might be able to stand it for the 110 miles it gets per charge. And a top speed of 92 isn't too shabby either.



To avoid any awkward situations involving bad jokes, I'll end by saying that there is no official mention of the inclusion of leather-clad asian girls but I'll leave the ironing out of those details to the company.

As a side note, their website is beautiful if not immediately legible.

Toyota RiN

Meant to blog this a week ago. silly education getting in the way of all of my hobbies!

I present the Toyota RiN


This little car, while not being primarily marketed as an eco-friendly, is a breath of fresh air in terms of automotive transport... and not one we're likely to see either. Features include (quoted from the article above):

-> green glass that is said to reduce the infiltration of ultraviolet and infrared light

-> oxygen-level conditioner and pinpoint humidifier

-> seats designed to maintain good back posture

-> headlights feature light distribution control that takes into consideration pedestrians and vehicles coming in the opposite direction

-> image displays aligned with the driver's psychological state are conveyed within the meter cluster of the 'mood-training' steering control

Flexcar on a new level

Based on the Flexcar "shared-use" concept, these little guys provide maximum maneuverability, ecological consideration, and innovation.


How does it work?

The MIT group sees the vehicles as the linchpin in a strategy that aims to mitigate pollution with electric power, expand limited public space by folding and stacking vehicles like shopping carts, and alleviate congestion by letting people rent and return the vehicles to racks located near transportation hubs, such as train stations, airports, and bus depots.

I love it! Sign me up for sure...

What makes this whole thing even better is the innovation behind it. This is not just a little electric vehicle that looks different and can fit into small spaces. The propulsion on these adorable little car-lets is nothing short of revolutionary (though not a totally new concept). I'll let the article explain:

At the heart of these vehicles is an omnidirectional robot wheel that the team has developed. The wheel encases an electric-drive motor, as well as suspension, steering, and braking systems. With no engine or mechanical parts between the wheels and the driver's controls, the system offers great flexibility in design. The driver can, in fact, fold the car up (see below image). Six to eight folded and stacked City Cars can fit into one conventional parking space. General Motors sponsored the development of the car.

This is the only way out, folks. Saving the world through design and innovation. This idea can revolutionize the way we move ourselves and give public transportation a whole new name. The motivation to get rid of/significantly lower the use of your car is made higher by offering something you don't have. Can you fit your car in a third of a parking spot (while staying intact)? Can your car drive sideways (without using your parking brake at 100 mph)? Is your car purpose-built for a city (an Excursion is not, FYI)?

Those guys at MIT are smarty-pants.

Amazing Bike/car

I'm totally in love... vid speaks for itself



BIKE OR CAR - video powered by Metacafe

Santa Monica Alt Fuel Car Expo

I drove up to Santa Monica with the girly yesterday for the Alt Car Expo and had a great time walking around the exhibit. This was certainly a lot better than the San Diego one I volunteered for at Balboa Park (thankfully... a 2 hour drive to see 8 cars would not have made me happy). It was also pretty sweet sitting in traffic on a Saturday afternoon for absolutely no reason.

BTW: If you're thinking about hosting an alt fuel event in the San Diego area, I would love to help out and always have great ideas! About everything! Constantly!

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If these things came to the US with the 1.3L turbo that I drove, I would be on the list for sure. I think you can buy them gray market but I'm not totally sold on the idea of a car with no product support and no mechanics willing to touch it. This thing feels surprisingly roomy inside; I fit without a problem and had room to spare. The "trunk" wasn't even that bad. I wouldn't help anyone move in it but you could take a week-long trip no prob. Maybe. At the very least, it was comfortable and quick too!

That's me driving in case you were wondering if I had put on a bunch of weight and changed my hair color. The answer is no.
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Here is the Mercedes Benz F-Cell prototype. It's a prototype because the car actually exists (the platform that is... it's an A-type, sold in Europe) but the hydrogen fuel cell drivetrain is not commercially available. I like the looks of these quite a bit. Unfortunately I was not able to get behind the wheel of this one.
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This was a private vehicle that some guy converted to biodiesel. It was a very well done and had really neat custom badging on the back ("veg powered" on the left and "biodiesel" on the left). It also had an alien badge back there which, combined with the owner's overly serene attitude, made me wonder if he was from Mars... or Venice Beach.
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This big-pimpin' Benzo was an attention-getter for the Earth Friendly Moving company. I met the owner, Spencer Brown, who explained how they take opaque plastic from recyclers and turn it into these tough, plastic containers which they then rent out and deliver to people who are moving (like, from home to home or biz to biz). You pay a low rate, they drop a bunch off, you use them and then they pick them up! No need to drive around looking for boxes or deal with cardboard that falls apart! Spencer was a great guy to talk to so big plug for him:

http://www.earthfriendlymoving.com/

Cool ride too... built by Pimp My Ride, it broke a biodiesel speed record!
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I loved this car... an all-electric converted Porsche 911. It looked like it had some odd 959 kit on it but all the work was very well done. It was great to see such an iconic car with a plug coming out of it!
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I wish I had gathered a little more information on this one but it is an all-electric drag race car. More info (and better pictures) here.
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Same deal here.. not a lot of information to give you. I believe it is an all-electric chopper. It had a lot of presence in person though it does seem awkward in the picture.
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Tesla roadster competition I would assume... very neat looking car in person. Lighting was terrible in this airplane hanger so it does look a little awkward as well. Car has attitude in person, for sure. Interior is just awesome in person; Recaro seats, DVD player, the whole nine. 250 mile range with the battery upgrade, top speed over 100, 0-60 in 7 seconds. More info here
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The star of Who Killed the Electric Car in the, uh, flesh.
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I liked the looks of this little guy... insect-looking, 3-wheel, one-person EV.
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An electric-converted Scion xB (that's its powertrain in the foreground), a Zenn EV commercially available electric vehicle, and a Xebra 3-wheel EV you can buy and register as a motorcycle. These are all totally available to buy and use right now. Good stuff!
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That about does it for my coverage... I will remain forever impressed by the power of human ingenuity and, likely, forever disappointed by the motivation behind the vast majority of its products. This was definitely the minority. Keep fighting the good fight out there! More commentary to come...

BTW: It was great to see you Bridget! Good luck with everything at Fearless Records.

Quickies

I certainly would rather be writing in here than transferring online BioChem powerpoints to bullet-pointed Word files but school calls.

I did, however, want to share two quick things: a source and an article from that source. Since the article is, once again, outside my usual transportation scope, I wanted to provide an explanation. First, the site:

INHABITAT

The site is a feed and can be added to your reader program (if you have no idea what I'm talking about but would like to, comment and I'll help you out).

In their words:

Inhabitat.com is a weblog devoted to the future of design, tracking the innovations in technology, practices and materials that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future.

Design to save us all. Making sustainability part of "the cool" is, simply, the only way to get it to catch. Make the coolest thing the most sustainable (or vice versa) and it happens, just like that.

I've always found minimalist construction and design the most beautiful. Aesthetics to me have more to do with working with what you have rather than brute force. For example: a domicile constructed into a hillside is far more beautiful than one that was built on the flat grave site of the same hill.

In the same vein, remodeling old structures and outfitting the inside with modern design elements appeals to me A LOT. There is a building here in San Diego that gutted an old, unused church to make huge loft condos.

So, it makes sense that this structure is, in my eyes, undeniably gorgeous:





Read the article for more information but contemplate this little nugget of happiness...

The embodied energy in existing materials has been diluted through an extension of the structure’s viability. Through reuse and adaptation the cost of demolition, trucking and land filling debris, the manufacturing, transport and installation of new structural materials has been eliminated. The result is a quiet lesson in “stealth green” - reuse brings both ecological and cultural advantages.

By not wrecking this building to create another, the whole renovation paid for itself. Let that sink it...

Back to the powerpoint

New Suzuki gives birth!

Very innovative...

Low-speed portable tool "PIXY ([pikushi])" of one person riding, uniting with this tool, it depends on automobile which makes movement as an automobile possible, is based on the sharing system type portable unit "SSC (s s sea)" lightly, it is easy to the person, concept of the new vehicle, " SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY ([sasuteinaburumobiritei]) "is proposed. In 2007 May from the economic industrial ministry it was announced it is put out with the "next generation automobile fuel initiative", it is the portable tool which produces the new city traffic where to also "the greatest in the world it paralleled easy car social" conception, possibility of new personal mobility and the sharing system is proposed.

Uhh right. There is something to be said about losing the beauty of a language through a computer auto-translator.

Link to article here

230 MPG?!?!

I'm impressed... and intrigued!



From the Gizmodo article:

How's 230mpg while driving at 55mph? Yes, that's short of the 330mpg first promised last year, but that's a real world number demonstrated as the company rolled out the first working prototype of this diesel-electric car in March. Part of the secret to that great mpg number is its drag coefficient of 0.11, extremely slippery. The company's also claiming a 0-60 time of 10 seconds.

It looks way-cool, too. We especially like the view from the rear of this car—it looks like a flying saucer, and the view from the side? Why, it's a banana on wheels, and we mean that in the nicest way.

And the pricing? The company insists all this tech will cost around $20K, and say the first Apteras will be delivered in "approximately 12 months." That's a long time to lend someone $500 interest-free, but hey, this is an extraordinary design so maybe we'll give 'em a pass this time.

The chicken & the egg: supply and demand

This very short article got me thinking about how consumer-oriented business works these days. First, a blurb:

One of British capital’s top tourists destination-Science Museum-... will showcase two high performance green-machines that can reach speeds of up to 150mph.

Developed by researchers at Imperial College for the Formula Zero competition, the hydrogen powered car runs off hi-tech hydrogen fuel cells. A full-size version could accelerate faster than a Porsche.

The car enthusiasts will also be able to see Warwick University’s 95% biodegradable and Recyclable racing vehicle with a shell sourced from hemp, tyres from potatoes and cashew nut shell brake pads.

Since I have been frugal with the images lately (for no reason), I submit, for the sake of education alone, a picture of a Porsche (2008 GT2 to be exact):



Perfection... but I digress.

I love the idea of eco-racers and other esoteric uses of non-petroleum fuel. They generate excitement uniquely and open people's eyes to the CAPABILITY of the existing alternatives. Both of these alone are great reasons to continue a pursuit like this. But I also like it for a completely different reason.

How does business work in 2008 (I'll call it that since everyone seems to live a year ahead of themselves)? To answer this question, think about where and how people spend their money outside of absolute necessities. There is no reason to figure out where this money comes from, how it could be spent differently or how much each person spends for this example. We're just looking at where money that doesn't keep you alive, sheltered and basically fed.

This money, regardless of source, tends to flow quickly out of your possession into the hands of companies that sell products and services. Maybe you splurge on a pair of jeans or sunglasses, maybe you let yourself buy that sexy little iPhone, maybe, because you were good, because you deserve it because you work so hard, because why should you have to live the ascetic life?, you traded your 4-year-old piece of junk car for something that smells like new polymers and redefines (kg x s)/m^2. Maybe you did all three. You devil you.

What you did in all those cases is fall prey to some type of marketing. Am I judging or condemning you? Not at all, marketing is effective. You don't want the iPhone because you have a primal need for wi-fi connectivity and real-time traffic, you want it because it looks like sex and works like a charm in the pure white womb of the Apple store. Businesses vying for your surplus cash (also known affectionately as "available credit") have to convince you that you need this, they have to install a sense of desire or you will have no reason to buy what they sell.

What I am saying is not new or creative or innovative; I am stating the (hopefully) very obvious. Here is where it gets interesting...

Right now, no one really NEEDS a hybrid or solar panels or hydrogen fuel. Gas can be $2, $3 or $4 and your day-to-day life does not change. The earth can gain 1 or 2 or 3 degrees and, honestly, you probably won't even notice. If you save energy, consume less, re-use more and recycle, you're doing it altruistically and I commend you for that.

But, put plainly, we're not going to improve our general environmental situation with altruism. We're going to get there with money, lots and lots of money. And where is this money going to come from? Trees. That's right, big money trees....

Plan B, however, has the money coming from the same place it always does: the marketplace. Without demand, there simply is no product. If you have a product to sell that does not immediately alleviate some condition, you create some kind of demand for it through creative and/or persistent marketing.

So if you have supply and no demand, you create demand. If you sense a demand without a product, make the product. What if there is no demand AND no supply but a clear reason for both to exist? You have to get creative. You create the demand (the vehicle) without a product (the fuel).

Make things you just can't make the old way. Give people value and innovation and creativity. Build it for the early-adopters, the ones who have to have the the have-to-haves. Open the source up, reach out to the people for ideas, start internet forums, cruise the blogs. Hold eco-racing events, invite people to drive your new ideas, get the buzz going. Explore every possibility, watch all the technologies, experiment perpetually. Uniquely design them, make them stand out and grab people's attention.

Understand that it is the right thing to do. Then understand you will make gobs of money from it. The first company to put it all of this together in a truly sustainable package will set the bar... and rake in the cash.

Make these vehicles and the supply, the power to move them, will follow.

VW Up! yours

Fun new VW concept... no word on the powerplant yet though.

Step 1: Steal Underpants Step 2: ?? Step 3: Profit

This is the much-delayed response to the article I posted a week or more ago written by the former GM exec who said that raised CAFE standard (i.e. industry-wide increases in MPG) takes too much money, technology and time. Here are several options the automakers can do to raise fuel efficiency without major R&D:

Lose weight, drag, RPMs and running time.

"We need solutions for the next 20 years, not just dreams," [Axel] Friedrich told the Journal. And to prove his point he hired a group of university engineers who managed to reduce the carbon emissions (and therefore improve gas mileage) of a regular VW Golf (aka Rabbit) by 25 percent using existing materials and technologies. Most of the changes made by Friedrich's engineers are straight out of Auto Engineering 101: reducing weight (lighter seats and carbon fiber hood) aerodynamic drag (substituting tiny cameras for side mirrors) and mechanical drag (fitting low rolling resistance tires). The team also installed longer ratios in the transmission to reduce engine revs at cruising speed, and put a gearshift indicator in the cabin to show the most efficient time to shift gears.The highest-tech change made by the team was to modify the Golf's engine so it stopped when the car was halted, and started when the driver depressed the gas pedal to move off. But even this is hardly cutting edge technology -- I can remember driving a prototype Golf fitted with a similar system developed by VW's own engineers at least 15 years ago.

Reduce friction and resistance; increase aerodynamics, gearing and induction.

Called the [Volvo] C30 Efficiency, this special car will sip diesel fuel at the rate of 4.5L per every 100 kilometers. That's 52.26 mpg to us Yanks. It achieves these numbers using a variety of techniques. For the engine, efficiency was increased by using low-friction transmission oil and optimizing the engine management software. An age old trick for good gas mileage, higher gearing, was used on 3rd, 4th and 5th gears to eek out a few more kilometers, as well. Low rolling resistance tires, another common strategy for higher mileage, were also used. Finally, Volvo made the C30 slipperier through the air by reducing its ride height, adding a special rear roof spoiler, new rear bumper, and even adding underbody panels to smooth out the car's belly. Even the new 16-inch rims are aero-optimized! The C30 Efficiency's engine is a 1.6L turbodiesel producing 105 hp. Not only does it achieve 52.26 mpg, but it also emits less than 120g of CO2 per kilometer.

Optimize navigation software for fuel consumption, teach people how to drive and assist the alternator (which, in turn, lowers engine loads) with electricity care of a mild hybrid regen system.

"the driver himself retains a major responsibility for a driving style that contributes to reduced fuel consumption. Individual driving style can reduce fuel consumption, and with it emissions, by up to 30 percent — without compromising on speed and dynamism." ...Audi's new nav system is said to incorporate "consumption-relevant data" and give route recommendations based on that information. "The necessary information about road conditions or traffic lights will be available with the next generation of digital road maps," Audi said. "Here, many Audi TDI and TSFI engines are equipped with an innovative energy management system, which uses the coasting and braking phases to generate and store electrical energy," it said. "At a standstill and when accelerating, this energy can be used to relieve the load on the alternator and the vehicle electrical system. Moreover, a new generation of start/stop systems is being developed."

Like Spaulding said, it isn't rocket science

Cool cats!

Russ from the RI high school project I posted about below wrote back!

I can sense and understand the frustration that the technology for many of the alternative energy applications is already here and just needs to be mass produced and applied. The gap between fuel cell hype and availability/visibility led us to create the band with the simple vision: here is a fuel cell, here it is powering a rock and roll band.

He sounds like a great man championing a great cause. Check out their website:

Fuel cell band and Model T

Hot looking ride!