The U.S. will account for 54 percent of worldwide electric-charging stations by 2015, according to ABI Research. ABI predicts that global revenue from chargers will reach $11.75 billion for the installation of 3 billion stations by 2015.

In 2010, there will be only 20,000 charging stations worldwide, but ABI expects 2011 to be the breakout year. Following the U.S. will be China, which will account for 23 percent of the world’s charging stations by 2015. The rest of the world will make up the other 23 percent.

“Infrastructure supporting electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles is on the cusp of a rapid and sustained growth curve,” says ABI research director Larry Fisher. “The charging infrastructure technology is here. We’re just waiting for the release of these vehicles into the market. Given the limited range per charge, however, early adopters will need to keep their journeys relatively short.”

San Francisco has been one of the most active cities in promoting vehicle-charging stations. This February, the city revised its building codes so that all new homes and offices will be wired for chargers. The city also announced a “sustainable financing program,” which offers citizens low-interest loans for the purchase of electric cars.

In a rather old-school show of civic symbolism, the city has installed chargers outside of city hall. San Francisco is currently looking at 22 garages where additional stations can be set up.

A business’s ownership of a charging stating is doubly beneficial. First, there’s the social cachet that comes with being one of the first to offer such a cutting edge and sustainable service. It’s good for PR. Secondly, charging electric cars takes time, anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours, so retail, dining or entertainment venues can benefit from extra customers while cars are charging.

Amee (amee.com) is a website that helps you track your CO2 emissions. Its CEO Gavin Starks introduced to the Green:Net Conference’s audience interesting figures like the mass of CO2 that it takes to build, use and recycle a 2,5 kg-product Mac Book: 460kg! Fortunately it’s the “greenest family of notebooks….” He then explained why we had to urge governments to tax Carbon instead of allow its trade, in order to avoid a “Venus Syndrome” on Earth and a decrease of the human population to 1 billion or less by the end of the century.

Every CO2 emission has to be measured, compiled and then reduced, the main obstacle being that it involves tracking down the purchases, precise energy consumption, travels … of every individual. CO2 ID could represent the most complete amount of data about one’s lifestyle. Therefore, for obvious privacy matters it would require all personal data to be handled with extreme care to make sure it is not embezzled by ill-intentioned third party.

Continue Reading »

Google continues its push to become leader of the free world, releasing last week an updated version of “Clean Energy 2030”, a comprehensive proposal that would “drive trillions of dollars of new investment in clean energy and create millions of new jobs.”

Four of the proposal’s major themes are: keep investing in renewable energy, build a smarter electricity grid, make home energy use more efficient, and “Green the Government.”

“Google’s proposal will benefit the US by increasing energy security, protecting the environment, creating new jobs, and helping to create the conditions for long-term prosperity. Some of the necessary funds will be public, but much of it will come from the private sector — a typical approach for infrastructure and high technology investments.”

Continue Reading »

EcoMoms have made it to the front page of the New York Times. This is an impressive group of green moms, 9,000 altogether, and growing strong. A group that is representative of a very active subculture in Northern California where I live. These women are on a mission and nobody can resist them, not even their husbands or children. They fill Whole Foods‘ parking lot with their Priuses, and are not shy about voicing their newly found green convictions all over the blogosphere, as in here, and here, and here.

By Larmarguerite, a valued contributor of Atelier

FEEDBACK
For comments on this article,
email us at editorial@atelier-us.com

Green Plug
Green Plug, develops a chip that enables real-time collaboration between electronic devices and their power sources, using the Green Plug Universal Power Protocol (UPP). Green Plug is the developer of Green Talk - a digital protocol for real-time communication between devices that require power and their power sources. This technology allows for the charging of multiple DC powered devices with differing power requirements from a single power supply.

Celsias Project
Celsias launched last year as a blog to fight global warming that has grown in traffic by 65% each month. They are launching “Celsias Project” here at DEMO. It allows participants to create a project and become a project leaders, so people can join and support it. Celsias Project offers a set of online tools to help the project leaders and the projects supporters to raise funds and reach their goals. Read more from my previous article.

Find all the sources, and discover more consumer electronics news and reviews at Ubergizmo.com.

This morning, I joined the crowd of concerned environmentalists on DotEarth, and lamented with them on the outcome of the Bali talks. And declared,

Talk is nice. My concern is what can I do as a citizen, to become a part of the solution. Here are my resolutions:

1) to continue to explore the psychology of green in my blog
2) to try my best to green my life
3) to join a green business venture, hopefully in the next few weeks
4) to act as a responsible citizen and make sure the right person gets elected as our next President
5) to explore ways that I can spur green initiatives in my immediate community
6) to channel the anger, frustration, I feel as a result of these talks, productively, into positive actions.

What are you all choosing to do on a personal, concrete level?

Later in the day, I decided to go to the gym with Prad. Charlotte saw me grab my car keys. “You are not taking your bike?” Prad offered to ride with me if I wanted to. No, it was too cold, and I just wanted to get to the gym, fast. We drove.

What happened? Why such discordance between what I know to be the right action, and what I end up doing? I have become obsessed with understanding what goes on in my brain during those split seconds, when I decide to not follow my green conscience. Several times before, I have tried to revisit similar moments, to grasp the thoughts, the feelings, that trigger such behavior. I am convinced, if I can reach down far enough, I will retrieve valuable insights, that will help get to the roots of the behavior. If I can nail down the cause, it may be easier to figure out some solutions.

Back to the gym moment. I was tired with a slight cold. The idea of going out in the damp weather, and of spending a half hour biking, did not feel good. Compared with the comfort of our warm car, the bike did not come close. In that moment, all I could think of was, cold versus warm, hard work versus easy ride. I did not feel so good. I wanted warm and comfort. A curtain came down between my green conscience, my morning discourse, and the reality of my present physical need.

I surprised myself with the strength of my response to Charlotte and Prad. ‘No way, I am riding my bike. I am tired and it’s cold.’ Never mind that I was going to the gym to exercise. My heart was set on swimming, not biking. Still, if I had enough energy to swim, I probably could have biked. It is just that I was thinking exercise equal gym. To exercise I needed to go to the gym. Although I was tired, I am very disciplined about exercising every day, and I was willing to make that effort. In my mind, going to the gym, was in the transportation category, not the exercise file. Transportation meant, I was going to naturally choose the option that was most efficient time wise, and comfortable.

Now, why was I willing to make the effort to exercise (swim) although I was not feeling so good, but not to bike instead of driving? The answer is, I consider exercise a direct personal benefit to my health and my well being. Biking instead of driving, because of environmental concerns, does not affect me directly. (that’s assuming I maintain earlier ‘logic’ of biking not as an exercise form, but as mode of transportation). Its benefit gets diluted both in time and space. The big pot problem again. When I exercise, I feel an immediate personal benefit. When I consider acting from my green conscience, it falls in the higher category of ‘I and many other enlightened people know it’s the right thing to do, but it is not part yet of the commonly accepted set of ethical behaviors’. Where I get in trouble is with that latter part. The lack of collective consciousness in the green category, and the resulting lack of environmental laws and best practices, give me license to err.

Am I that selfish of a person that I never do anything for the greater good? Actually, there are many instances when I can act selflessly. My maternal instinct makes sure I always put my children’s interests before my own. I find great pleasure in mentoring my Little Sister. For seven years, I spent my time helping people as a profession. In the green category even, I now make sure that I bring my recyclable bags to the grocery store. I try not to flush. I have diminished my shopping significantly. I only heat the house very selectively. I always turn off the lights. I take the train whenever I go to the city. . . My laziness with biking is one of the last fortresses of my unconscious, not so green self, and a window into the ways most of the civilized world behaves. Here is what I saw:

1. We are creatures of the flesh. Trapped in our physical body, and at the mercy of our basic needs for physical comfort, pleasure, and immediate gratification. Without the external reinforcement from state or spiritual laws, these primal needs take precedence over our conscience.
2. We are lemmings. We look around and tend to emulate others’ behaviors.
3. We are self-centered. Our priorities start with getting our personal needs met first. Needs for security, personal health, financial security, comfort, safety, education, etc. Environmental concerns are at the bottom of the pile.
4. We are products of our culture. In America that means capitalism, money, greed, consumerism, extremes, convenience, industrialization, technology, cars, invincibility, man over nature.
5. We are creatures of habits. Our thoughts and behaviors are set in certain ways. To unset them requires tremendous energy and outside forces.
6. We are inherently lazy. Given the choice, we will most often pick the easiest, most convenient alternative.
7. We are not rational beings. The way we derive our thoughts is often circuitous, and leads to behaviors that fly in the face of reason.

Next, is how can we take into account these seven characteristics of human nature, and formulate winning behavioral change strategies for a greener planet. Plenty of material for another article…

By LaMarguerite, A valued contributor of Atelier.

FEEDBACK
For comments on this article,
email us at editorial@atelier-us.com

According to the updated Green Brands 2.5 Research, there is an uptick in purchase intent for most consumers when it comes to green products and services, particularly those that are relatively simple to implement such as installing environmentally friendly lighting and upgrading to energy-saving appliances.

• 90% of Americans agree that there are important green issues and problems, and 82% believe it is important for companies to implement environmentally-friendly practices.
• Consumers perceive green as a direct and positive reflection of their social status, in addition to recognizing its broader value to society and the world.
• Bright Greens remain sad and skeptical about the future outlook and one in three feel anger about the situation. They care most about the environment, animal rights and education.
• One in five Dull Greens is satisfied with the current state of the environment. Dull Greens prioritize crime reduction, religious organizations and health care as their main causes.

FEEDBACK
For comments on this article,
email us at editorial@atelier-us.com

Barely recovered from the post-Thanksgiving Black Friday mania, I am being asked to step right into Christmas mode. There is no avoiding the ads, the Christmas aisle at the drugstore, the daily mentions of preparations in the paper, and the creeping frenzy that I feel in my surroundings.

Real vs. Fake, Which Tree is Greener? Not only do I have to get a Christmas tree, but beforehand I am to do some research and read a whole page article. Nothing is ever simple anymore. Just reading about the pros and cons of each options was enough to give me a headache:

1. The new fake tree. It looks so real, you won’t even notice the difference. Some even have a fake smell to imitate the real thing. The stuff will last you for years. Imagine, no more trip to the tree farm every year. No more loading the monster on the top of your car. No more mess of pine needles throughout your house. No more watering. Done, you are set. And why worry about how to dispose of it? By the time you are done with it, it will be years, and hopefully by then, we will have figured out how to dispose of plastics without taxing the Earth too much. Still, there is the environmental cost of producing yet another man made plastic object.
2. The used fake tree. There are tons of those floating around. You are not generating new plastics. This is a very reasonable option. I can’t help but wonder about the life of those trees prior to being recirculated. Did they witness happy Christmases? Who were their prior owners? How come they got ditched?
3. The real tree. If you are like me, and can’t stand the idea of a plastic tree, go ahead, indulge yourself and your family, and don’t change a thing to your tradition. Gather your whole crew into the biggest car you own, and set out to your usual spot. Go to a tree farm to cut down your own, or just visit the nearby lot with already cut trees. It’s so much fun trying to pick the perfect tree, not too crooked, not too tall, not too short. Will it fit? We never made it as far as the tree farm, always went to the same lot close to our house. If you are environmentally correct, this is something to think about. How much gas will you use to drive to the tree farm?
4. The live tree. Forget all that cutting and buying a fake. Instead go to the nursery, and buy a potted tree that you can reuse every year. You can bring it inside for Christmas, otherwise keep it in your yard. Of course, this is not an option for people without a yard. Nothing wrong with that option, that I can think of.

Last year, Prad and I opted for a live tree, and we will be bringing it back into the house next week. The nursery did not have a suitable pine tree, so we ended up with a holly tree instead. I kind of liked the idea of branching out, of not getting the same boring old pine. The children were disappointed. Yesterday, Catherine asked about the Christmas tree. When were we going to get one? I reminded her about the holly tree. She stormed down to her room. ‘Getting a real pine tree, that’s what Christmas is about‘

By La Marguerite, an valued contributor of Atelier

FEEDBACK
For comments on this article,
email us at editorial@atelier-us.com

My article on ‘The Failure of the Green Media to Communicate Simply‘generated a very rich discussion amongst readers. All agreed on the importance of not overwhelming people with extensive green to-do lists, and the need to direct the focus instead, on the top household contributors to greenhouse gases emissions.

This is where numbers come in. I searched and found this chart from the Energy Information Facts Agency at the Department of Energy, the best in my opinion, in terms of its ability to showcase actionable data.

Another way to massage those numbers is to aggregate car and home contributions and rank the resulting contributions, in terms of percentage of direct household emissions:

1. car 49%
2. space heating 24%
3. lighting and appliances 12%

1. drive less and drive more fuel-efficient and less polluting cars; carpool, take mass transit, walk, or bike whenever possible
2. use Energy Star appliances, replace your old light bulbs with CFLs (compact fluorescent lights), and ask each household member to be responsible for turning off different appliances, lights.
3. contact your city for home energy audit; insulate your home, and install programmable thermostat, set temperatures to recommended levels.

Still a lot to chew on, for most people, myself included. But a useful framework for green communication strategies and behavioral interventions at the household level. Next, I will try to address my friend Anne’s request of ‘Tell me the one green thing I should do‘.

By La Margueritte,

FEEDBACK
For comments on this article,
email us at editorial@atelier-us.com