As Mumbai recovers from the recent terrorist attacks, social worker Katia Savchuk reflects on how cities can be resilient to terrorism.

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A South American building boom can be credited for the steady demand for projects by American architecture firms.

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The mayor of London has announced plans to make the city greener than ever. He stated that opportunities abounded not just for emissions reduction, but for green job creation as well.

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A new report from the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development finds that a combination of high gas prices and airline industry woes have contributed to a dramatic increase in intercity bus ridership.

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The Bureau of Land Management hasn't gone through with its plans to auction off leases on land, apparently intended to be explored for oil and gas.

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According to Philip Myrick, communities that will fare the best economically are the ones that think locally and employ placemaking strategies.

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Author Paul Sorensen details the findings of a recent RAND study recommending short term (i.e., within five years) fixes for rampant congestion in Southern California.

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A proposed New Orleans hospital will have to be built on top of an historic neighborhood that some residents feel that they have just regained. Those in favor of the project insist that the selection of that site was necessary.

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Subway violence and crime in Philadelphia have been unofficially traced to truant students, who are enabled by unlimited rides on the SEPTA throughout the week. Whether or not the student TransPass system should be eliminated is being debated.

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Communities across the country are grappling with questions about what to do with their older buildings. While we generally think that preserving historic buildings is a way to honor our past, it's time to understand that it is also a way to protect our future, says Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

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In Sydney, Australia multiple groups of commuter bicyclists have gotten organized and adopted routes with scheduled stops calling themselves a "bike bus". The brilliance is the purposeful combination of the age-old tactic of safety in numbers, social interaction, and...

Pabst Farms is NOT brilliant. It's yet another exurban zone of tacky strip malls and low-grade McMansions. Well, is has a few minor merits - a bit more greenspace than average, for example. But basically it's another tragic waste of...

Take a look at this. I don't know anything about Tulsa, but this is one of the most well thought out urban renewal ideas I've seen in a while and to see it coming out of the bible belt is...

There's little I can say about this other than it's awesome. A welcome maship from google....

Rubber Sidewalks seem to be taking off. The city of Boston may start requiring them - article here. That's a pretty bold step for something relatively unproven, but will be very useful for other cities to watch and represents the...

This article's gotten a lot of play and it sound's like a truly brilliant idea: Make sidewalks out of recycled tires - it's cheap, they apparantly last longer, they are easier on the feet, they don't have freeze/thaw issues in...

One of my biggest complaints about my alma matter, Washington University in St. Louis, was the severe lack of interaction between the students and the city of St. Louis, which was always just a stone's throw away. St. Louis is...

LA County has placed solar panels on two key bus depots in the San Fernando valley. The panels should save the system $185k a year in electricity costs. Plus, it's a cool public display of solar potential. For a bigger...

The Milwaukee Connector is a project to build a decent - Caen style transit system in Milwaukee. It looks like a darn good idea, and ought to be considered. I worry that this time of transit system won't be a...

This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen regarding transit. Muni Haikus. A website devited to Haikus about the various bus lines in San Francisco. Some of them are brilliant, some are painful. Kind of like Muni....

This is truly brilliant. A group in San Francisco concerned witht the lack of greenspace in the city recently asked the question: As long as you put money in the meter, who's to say a parking space has to have...

The Government of Canada, in partnership with IBM and UN-HABITAT, have put together a 72-hour online event in preparation for the World Urban Forum, to be held enxt summer in Vancouver. It's called "Habitat Jam" and it'll basically be a,...

This website, ipodsubwaymaps.com, is one of the coolest, most useful web technology apps I've ever seen. William Bright has put a tremendous amount of effort into creating astonishingly accurate subway maps that you can download onto your iPod for handy...

I have a feeling this is more novelty than preacticalisty, since a cell phone could probably charge itself off a car's idling motor without any added deleterious effects. Nonetheless, here's a taxi with a wind turbine on the roof that...

San Francisco: On extraordinarily rare occasions the opportunity presents itself to develop a piece of land in ideal, truly brilliant fashion. Treasure Island is a former military facility on landfill in the middle of San Francisco Bay. It's laid largely...

I normally like Alaska Airlines. They're generally very nice, and in the case of a major delay (during which we had to turn around and return to the airport of departure) they were polite and professional. No big deal. To...

I know I'm not the first person who's complained about these things, but my respect for TSA security is so low I could scream. Twice recently I've had these idiots rummage through my bag in search of liquids and when...

I really love Google Maps. There's one problem with it though. When you search for something and get a typo, you typically get a left-hand sidebar with suggestions about what you might have done wrong. This is vaguely useful,...

JetBlue is a wonderful airline - they are hip, polite, and have cool features like live TV on the flight. However, their frequent flyer program, true blue, is a failure. Why? Because miles expire after one year. As a result,...

I never wanted to get into this battle, but I have to throw it in - Boeing's large jets are superior to those of Airbus, at least the Air France variety. Why? One and only one reason - the central...

A USB device is suppose to connect intelligently to your computer without any hassel. Not printers. If the even come with a USB cord (some printers actually make you buy this separately), you inevitable have to install an entire CD...

Northwest Airlines will now charge $15 to travelers who want to specifically reserve an aisle seat at check-in. Article here. This idea is so stupid it's gotten me to write something on my neglected blog (which takes a lot these...

This takes the cake. It's a bus that drives around Rio de Janiero. It's full of exercise bikes, and I guess you're supposed to get exercise and enjoy the view. Of course, Rio Already has fabulous weather, and apparantly, decent...

According to the South China Post, some Chinese cities are moving to ban electric bicycles in favor of automobiles. Europeans have the luxury of hindsight in this regard, and are ironically reinstating pedestrian and bicycle dominance in urban areas. The...

Chicago: I suppose this is more of a rant than a useful comment, but there are a few things in it worth thinking about. Bear with me. First of all, United Airlines insists on claiming that it has "direct" flights...

Chicago: As much as I think the current administration's attitude toward passenger rail is atrocious, I recognize that some Amtrak lines may indeed be less worthy of government support than others. If cuts must be made, let them be to...

Hong Kong: These photos were sent in by 'DickStock' from Hong Kong (thanks!). They show a dead-end door at the International Finance Centre that is labeled as a fire exit. The door literally opens into what is essentially a closet......

Your Imagination: I've been seeing these weird billboards around town for a wihile. They have a photo of this weird hairy beast-thing that looks like a Jeep with the word "Esuvee" in big letters. For the longest time I couldn't...

San Francisco: I just got ripped off big time. I was late to catch a train to Berkeley so I ran down into a BART station only to find out that the next train wasn't for 20 more minutes, so...

The Bank: This has nothing to do with sustainability, but sometimes I have to vent. I typically take $120 out when I visit ATMs that are not owned by my bank. The reason is that it minimizes the loss I...

Alternative energy schemes are going to be making important inroads around the globe. But the social implications of this should not be underestimated. A recent study by the Energy Savings Trust in the UK outlines how the scenario is likely to unfold in Britain.

The study, entitled Power in Numbers, underscores the vast untapped potential of schemes that are organized at local and community level. "Today energy generated by communities could produce about 13% of all household needs. With the right policies in place this potential could rise to 54%," according to the report.

The Energy Savings Trust, which aims to promote the efficient use of energy and carbon footprint reductions, proposes to create community energy services companies (ESCOs) set up to initiate and finance projects. Non-technical barriers should also be eliminated if local and community energy schemes are going to work, the organization said in its report.

The practical set up of the schemes sounds alluring because considerable savings can be made by scaling up wind, solar or biomass schemes from individual to community-sized projects. Private households could save 34% of the cost of producing solar hot water and 18% of electricity from wind turbines.

Similar logic echoes through the pages of a global energy reduction report written by the global consultancy McKinsey. The document points out that while energy demand will continue to grow, ''there are sufficiently economically viable opportunities for energy-productivity improvements that could keep global energy-demand growth at less than 1% per annum - or less than half of the 2.2% average growth to 2020 anticipated in our base-case scenario.''

The consultants calculate that global energy demand can be cut by the equivalent of 64 million barrels of oil per day, or almost 150 percent of today's entire U.S. energy consumption. This scenario outlines how these alternative energy schemes can be successfully realized.

Successful alternative energy projects will require cross fertilization between energy and information technology/social networks. Scientists both in the US and Europe are already signaling this repeatedly. The European Science Foundation issued a communique only yesterday entitled Harnessing Solar Energy for the Production of Clean Fuel in which it outlined a few of the social implications of overturning the energy paradigm. ''Direct conversion of solar energy into fuel represents one of the very few major options that humankind has to provide socially, economically and environmentally robust and resilient renewable fuel with energy security that is guaranteed in a humanitarian instead of confrontational manner,'' according to the briefing.

Social initiatives can help overcome opposition to this future energy landscape. ''The overall goal of the social research in this regard will be to forecast the alternative paths in a future solar energy socio-technical system. This would allow for more adaptive and interactive planning instruments'', the organization says.

And US engineers and computer scientists at USC Viterbi stressed a few highly practical issues in a white paper about the intersection of energy and information science. ''This is an area where Viterbi has a significant track record,'' one engineer was quoted as saying by ScienceDaily. ''Furthermore, we believe other organizations have overlooked the impact that information technology can make on this very important area of research: energy.''

A hearing on Capitol Hill of Dan Reicher, the head of Google's energy and environment unit is probably one of the most insightful events on what US opinion leaders are pondering on the subject. ''The increasing interplay between energy hardware and information software - and the corresponding rise of the Internet and the connectivity it brings - adds to the potential to make and to use energy more productively,'' Reicher told the Joint Economic Committee Hearing on ''Efficiency: The Hidden Secret to Solving Our Energy Crisis''. A development that might provide a speedy impulse in adapting people to new energy set ups could be smart metering to a smart grid - all the devices that enable people to monitor and manage their energy.

The McKinsey research affirms that the residential sector is going to play an essential part in achieving global energy-productivity improvements. Energy productivity can receive a boost in various curious ways - for instance it can be achieved by reducing the energy inputs required to produce the same level of energy, or from increasing the quality or quantity of economic outputs. That's the biggest picture of what we're dealing with without a doubt. The report concludes that globally the largest untapped potential for cost-effective energy productivity gains -->10% Internal Rate of Return-is lying dormant in the residential sector (e.g. better building shells and more efficient water heating and lighting), power generation sector (e.g. more efficient power plants and electricity distribution) and industrial sector (e.g. less energy-intensive oil refineries and steel plants).

What we're going to be seeing a lot in the future are community and local schemes that are capturing on hitherto dormant potential. But no doubt significant policy changes will have to made to facilitate the process. And the inefficiencies including information gaps and agency issues won't just go away either.

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When Temple Nightclub and Zen Compound founder Paul Hemming first conceived of his idea for a nightclub and cultural venue in San Francisco, he immediately sought to create an established that would pursue the triple bottom line and his idea of the world as "one living organism and one family".

Born of a Mormon father and Buddhist mother, Hemming was from an early age familiar with the concept of "East meets West" and combines this sensibility to his efforts in creating a nightclub built around the idea of sustainability.

I recently had an opportunity to talk with Mike Zuckerman, Temple Nightclub and Zen Compound's director of sustainability since 2006. While I would expect some club owners will take exception, Mike counts Temple as one of three sustainable nightclubs in the world, the other two being Club4Climate in London (which apparently had a bit of a controversy this summer with Friends of the Earth) and the appropriately named Watt in Rotterdam. Watt bills itself as the "first" sustainable nightclub, opening just earlier this year, and E Magazine mentions other clubs around the U.S. as "eco-friendly, but Zuckerman says that Temple (which Hemming reincarnated from the old DV8 and Caribbean Zone clubs) isn't really trying to compete for eco-marketing rights. He's more interested in building awareness and community, both locally, regionally, and globally.

As the old saying goes: think globally, act locally.

Temple Nightclub/Zen Compound LLC is a member of the Business Council on Climate Change (BC3), a partnership between the Bay Area Council, the San Francisco Department of the Environment, and the UN Global Compact.

Businesses throughout the Bay Area have joined BC3 in their commitment to address climate and sustainability issues in regard to their own business practices and operations. Many of these businesses are becoming leaders in the sustainability community, and Zuckerman is proud of the role Temple Nightclub plays in promoting sustainability and community.

Waste, water, energy

Mike Zuckerman's approach to sustainability rests in the five principals laid out by the Business Council on Climate Change. The first of those principals is internal implementation. Temple began the process with an energy audit from Pacific Gas & Electric (which he recommends every business do), a water audit from the Public Utilities Commission, and a waste audit from NorCal Waste. From there Temple placed its initial focus on the Big Three for any hospitality business: Waste, Water, and Energy.

Waste

• 89% of Temple's waste is diverted from landfill.
• All food and drink is either recycled or composted.
• All kitchen grease is donated to GoToGrease for conversion to biodiesel.
• Temple uses interface carpet tiles, when one gets ruined (which I'd guess might happen a lot in a nightclub), only that portion needs replaced.
• No UV coating on any flyers for any Temple event. Yes, paperless is best, but UV coated flyers are the norm, un-recyclable, and usually end up in drain sewers and eventually in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. At least non-UV flyers can be (and are) recycled.
• All cups and straws are corn-based.

Water

• Temple uses all low-flow toilets, using 1.26 gallons per flush (using at least 50% in water use).
• Regular leak inspections.
• All faucets have low-flow aerators installed.

Energy

• All energy consumption is offset through PG&E's Climate Smart program.
• LED lighting retrofit. Temple nightclub will receive a $17,000 rebate once all the full retrofit recommendations from the PG&E audit are completed
• To the extent possible, employees are encouraged to conserve their own energy use while at work (taking the stairs instead of the elevator, etc.)

Sustainability is a journey

Other aspects of Temple's sustainability plan that are either planned or in place include:

• A vertical urban garden. The test area will eventually lead to the entire exterior surface of the building covered in native plants to help promote biodiversity and provide a habitat for bees and butterflies.
• Public transit discount for customers. Clubbers that can show some form of proof that they arrived using public transit (a BART ticket, Muni FastPass, etc.) get a discount for admission into the club.
• Energy-generating dance floor. One of the first things I asked Mike about was the piezoelectric dance floor I'd read about while doing my research for our interview. Mike was not surprised by the question and, alas, explained that the several reports of the energy-generating dance floor at Temple (from other blogs which shall go unmentioned)p are not accurate. Not yet anyway. Zuckerman told me Temple plans to install a piezoelectric dance floor as soon as possible.
• Urban wind generation. Temple is investigating several options for installing wind power generation, and fully supports the City's efforts to streamline the permitting process of such systems.
• Growing their own food. Part of the Temple/Zen Compound is Prana Restaurant. The compound's geodesic dome will eventually be used to grow food for use on Prana's menu.

Community and transparency

Two other important principals from the Business Council on Climate Change are community leadership and full transparency of real efforts toward sustainability and their results by actively sharing best practices and lessons learned with other businesses and the public at large - principals that Zuckerman takes seriously. He especially sees the community leadership role Zen Compound plays as an entertainment and cultural "third space" (derived from the concept of Third Places). Temple has always tried to help other entertainment and hospitality venues throughout the Bay Area find ways to go green. Zuckerman is now taking on a more organized role in working to create a community of like-minded business owners assisting each other in their efforts to achieve sustainability and work toward the triple bottom line. "Going green does not cost money", Zuckerman told me. He wants to show any business interested how his own experience has repeatedly shown this to be true.

Temple Nightclub/Zen Compound has been a member of the Bay Area Council on Climate Change since its inception. Zuckerman served on the original Advisory Council. Using the business' assets to "tell a story of sustainability" and making available the venue for other organizations (like the Urban Alliance for Sustainability that we reported on earlier this year) for events that promote eco-awareness are key roles that Zen Compound play in the community.

And the winner is...

In October, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce hosted the 17th Annual Ebbie Awards for excellence in business. Zen Compound/Temple Nightclub won the Ebbie Small Business Award.

It may be true that most people looking for a crowded, thumping nightclub to dance the night away aren't thinking much of sustainability. But then again, thanks to the vision owner Paul Hemming and the effort and commitment of Mike Zuckerman, maybe more and more folks are.

Read about Temple Nightclub's sustainability practices and their results on the Temple (Please click the headline if you would like to comment on this post)

The Wharton Energy Conference has become one of the top energy events for MBA's, bringing together energy industry leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, government officials, journalists, academics and students for a day of learning and networking. This year's conference incorporated a number of innovative events that broke the monotony of traditional conferences, delivering beyond expectations.

Entrepreneurship in Energy

The morning kicked off with an in depth account by Wharton alum Jacob Susman of the niche that he saw and of the challenges he faced in founding Own Energy. This wind development company partners with local communities to develop economically viable wind farms. Susman's path has not been easy. If not for a recent round of investment from EnerTech Capital Partners the company may have been unable to continue in this tight credit environment. Key relationships with GE allowed Own Energy to have access to turbines. Susman is confident that Own Energy will ''lead the coming shift to locally owned renewable power generation by enabling today's clean energy entrepreneurs.''

NIMBY - Not In My Back Yard Look at Nuclear and Wind Power

Peter Harris led an innovative session on NIMBY. In a room filled with a few hundred attendees, he asked us to pretend that we were a community considering plans to build wind farms and nuclear power plants in our town. To promote audience interaction, audience members were provided with a device that was connected to an electronic audience response system. At the beginning of the session Harris asked us to rank how comfortable we felt having wind farm development. In general most attendees said they would support it. Surprisingly (to me at least), when asked if we wanted a wind farm in our own town, support diminished significantly. Next, a wind developer from BP and a lawyer who represents nuclear power plants made the case for siting power-generating assets in our community. Nicholas Hiza from BP made some great points such as that the noise level from wind farms would be basically zero from more than a few hundred yards away, that cats are much more likely to kill birds than wind turbines are, and that wind farms would bring economic benefit to our town. Paul M. Bessette had a tougher task, convincing us that nuclear plants were safe. This interactive approach illustrated how difficult it is to site nuclear plants and wind farms. Ultimately, I left the session more convinced than ever that the only new nuclear reactors in America will have to be built next to existing reactors.

The Investment Case for Demand versus Supply Technologies

During the investment panel expertly moderated by Wharton alum Tucker Twitmyer, and composed of leading Venture Capitalists, one especially interesting theme emerged. With plummeting oil and gas prices and fluctuating commodity prices, demand-side companies may be better positioned than supply-side companies to profit from a push for clean technology. For example, Paul Holland of Foundation Capital asserted that his investments in electricity demand management companies EnerNoc and Silver Spring Networks are safe unless consumers, utility companies and governments decide that energy efficiency is not something they want to pursue. In contrast, investors in bio fuel plants that depend on volatile commodity prices have been squeezed over the past year.

And Much More....

The conference contained an array of interesting information, including a remarkable sit-down interview with Stephen Chazen, President and Chief Financial Officer of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, an inspirational presentation on human innovation by award-winning writer Vijay Vaitheeswaran, and an insightful panel on Opportunities in Global Power. The conference also had 20+ themed networking tables that offered great opportunities to discuss issues important to participants. In conclusion, Conference Chair Michel Di Capua and his team set out to make this ''a very special kind of conference'', and they succeeded with flying colors.

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The two-week COP14 climate talks which start today in Poznan Poland, are the halfway mark in a two year negotiation effort by no less than 190 countries on a replacement for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

The new concept is way more ambitious than Kyoto which was signed by only 37 industrialized countries who committed to reducing carbon emissions to below 1990 levels by an average 5% by 2012. China, which had been hesitant about some of the issues on the table made a u-turn in its policy last December when it agreed to commit to a target in emissions reductions - on condition that it wouldn't be bound to the same limits as industrial countries, and only if the rich world assists the poor countries in transitioning to cleaner production methods.

The Poznan conference will begin reviewing ideas on how to help poor nations in their efforts to combat climate change. A major part of this will be ideas as to how to finance the technological transfer that's needed and what kind of targets are fair. Another focus point will be how to incentivize countries to successfully cut back on deforestation. Efforts will be made to agree to a time table for all these issues and achieve agreement by December next year.

"Poznan really marks the moment in which serious negotiations can begin to narrow down all of those ideas into what then needs to become an agreement in Copenhagen," said Ivo de Boer in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "Finance is very much at the heart of the solution in Copenhagen."

The U.N. climate change secretariat estimates that it will cost countries around the globe a total of $200 billion annually in order to get carbon emissions 25 percent below 2000 levels by 2030. The organization says this is money well spent because hundreds of billions more may be needed to deal with the effects of global warming -- rising
seas, water scarcity and required shifts in farming.

The negotiations are expected to be troubled by the approach of two European countries; the host country Poland and Italy. These two countries broke ranks with other countries during a climate summit last October, threatening to veto the official EU climate policy. The plan was that European countries unanimously stick to a so-called 20-20-20 goals structure; a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions from 1990 levels, a 20 percent reduction in overall energy consumption and an increase in renewable use to 20 percent of all energy sources by the year 2020.

Poland and Italy only tentatively agreed to this, demanding that a few key decisions be delayed until a future summit on Dec 11-12. The reason why Poland is against the target is that it relies to a greater extent on coal for its energy provision than any other European country.

The Italians say that it's not fair that the EU should impose its carbon limiting targets as the emissions, when it does not pollute the environment nearly as much as the United States and the bloc of emerging nations called BRIC -- Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Meanwhile, observers are pointing out that the global economic crisis might actually bring China and the US closer to working together on resolving environment issues. The latest developments in the Chinese economy show that the global recession might actually speed up its transition to a service based economy. A central part of this is the
recently announced $586 billion stimulus package is aimed at promoting economic restructuring and essential green infrastructure. The Chinese government launched this after three years of similar measures to kick start energy efficiency and renewable energy projects; something the effects of which are already noticeable.

In order to hold on to the healthy GDP growth, China will focus on continuing steering away from energy-intensive to knowledge-intensive jobs and be rewarded for doing so. Why? Because GDP growth in China's service sector produces more jobs than does the industrial sector. Now that the global recession will have a knock on effect on China´s GDP, the country´s leaders will be forced to focus even more on the service industry to generate enough new jobs. Previously, the economy could depend to some extent on its industry, but now it´s going to be looking at its economic investments to foot the bill.

And that is pretty much the deal in the US as well. "With both the U.S. and China looking to use clean energy investments to reinvigorate their economies-and with China's slower emissions growth-we have a unique opportunity to make progress on our shared interests in resolving climate change and creating healthier, more sustainable economies", according to a report in the Guardian recently.

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As many as 9,000 participants are expected to attend the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's 14th Conference of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Poznan starting tomorrow, including an official US delegation led by Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Dr. Paula Dobriansky. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) will lead a Senate delegation. Members of President-elect Obama's transition team are also expected to attend.

The climate change talks in Poznan mark the critical halfway point between the 2007 meeting in Bali in which a draft blueprint of a global action plan was set and next year's COP meeting in Copenhagen, which is expected to result in the establishment of a global climate agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Kerry warned that although the US is now in a position to play a leading role in global climate change negotiations, Congress and the incoming Obama administration's ability to offer greenhouse gas emission reduction incentives to rapidly industrializing countries such as China and India would be limited by the economic crisis. "The bottom line is we are not going to be in the position we were two years ago in the short term to do as much technology transfer or economic assistance in terms of transitional issues that might have led other countries to participate," Kerry was quoted as saying in a news report.

UNFCCC executive director Yvo de Boer warns of the dangers of failure and urges participating countries to turn hardship into opportunity and, if anything, dedicate more effort and resources to mitigating and adapting to climate change in a video address released in advance of the climate change talks commencing (see video link in the body of this post).

COP-14 ''is taking place in the broader context of the current global financial crisis and impending recession, but we cannot allow this to detract from the fight against climate change,'' de Boer says.

''We must now focus on the opportunities for 'green' growth that can put the global economy on to a stable, sustainable path. The need for real progress on tackling climate change has never been more urgent. The effects of climate change that science has identified are already weighing heavily on those most vulnerable, and those who await the financial and technological resources they need to deal with these impacts.''

Seeking Clarity

The UNFCCC has put out an advance agenda outlining the key issues and basis for negotiations in Poznan. Participants are expected to agree on a plan of action and programs of work for next year's final negotiations and make significant progress on ongoing issues necessary to further implementation of Kyoto Protocol requirements.

These include enhancing the capacity of developing countries to carry actions out; reduce emissions from deforestation-the REDD framework; improve technology transfer and adaptation; advance understanding and commonly held views for a new climate change regime; and strengthen commitments to the process and timeline.

Time is of the essence, de Boer emphasized in his video address. ''We have little more than a year to agree on strengthening action on mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology.''

Participants are presented with the challenge off realizing three essential aims by next year's COP meeting in Copenhagen in order to ''unleash ambitious, concerted action through a ratified, agreed outcome,'' he continues: clarity on how to generate additional financial resources; clarity on an institutional framework for adaptation and mitigation; and clarity on the nature of commitments.

''Ministers will discuss their vision of long term cooperative action on climate change. They'll have the opportunity to give a strong signal as to a shared vision on the types of mechanisms, the financial mechanisms, and the institutional structure that are needed to deliver results,'' de Boer said.

Concrete progress needs to be made on several key issues during the Poznan talks and in the run-up to next year's meeting in Copenhagen and the 2012 expiry of the Kyoto Protocol, particularly with regard to developing countries, according to de Boer. These include adaptation, financing, technology transfer and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Another major topic is improving the effectiveness of the Clean Development Mechanism and its geographical reach.

What will be required of developing countries when it comes to commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions-even the definition of ''developing countries''--are points that the US State Department's delegation intends to zoom in on during the climate talks, Dobriansky said during a panel discussion in Washington DC earlier this month.

And while the US administration agrees on the appropriateness and value of ''differentiation'' when it comes to the emissions reductions commitments in specific economic, industrial and other sectors individual countries are willing and able to commit to, the US believes that more attention needs to be paid to what outcomes should be common across all countries.

A third key issue the US State Dept. delegation intends to address is encouraging and enabling countries to establish national mitigation action plans in a way that is ''measurable, reportable, and internationally verifiable.''

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Investment managers at cleantech funds are looking at the world with totally new eyes these days - the financial crisis, which has ravaged stock prices and wiped out major financial institutions, offers buying opportunities that are unprecedented. Now's the best time to snap up bargains, they say.

The hard numbers prove this ain't illogical. The US clean tech sector rose 55% to more than $2.4 billion over the past twelve months. One of the main drivers of this could be the US government's $700 billion Housing and Recovery Act stimulus package. The tax concessions boosted wind energy, geothermal and biomass projects and are expected to have a long lasting effect on the capital markets.

Clean tech investment managers responsible for huge amounts of assets, are set to go on a spending bonanza in the months ahead. Not only the US clean tech sector but also Chinese markets are set to benefit from this. For instance, Climate Change Capital, a fund in London, announced earlier this week that it will invest $732 million in Chinese environmental investment objects within the space of 12 to 18 months. The Chinese clean tech scene is unquestionably the fastest growing clean tech market in the world. The investments that Climate Change Capital will consider range from clean technology firms to industrial waste management companies.

Ka Keung Chan, managing director and head of China investments at the fund, said there are a lot of cheap assets which he is considering to purchase. "If you see the right company, this is the best time to negotiate," he told Reuters news agency.

Some believe that the invigorated interest in all things China by clean tech professionals might just be the endorsement the Chinese clean tech sector was waiting for. Thus far, the Chinese renewable energy market, despite its size has remained a relatively obscure area for clean tech venture capitalists. BusinessGreen reports that recent venture capital statistics indicate that investments in Chinese clean tech firms totaled a meagre $111 million this year so far. This compares with $1.7 billion in US clean tech firms.

The world's fourth-largest insurer, UK based Aviva said it is launching a E500 billion cleantech investment fund that will invest in a range of renewable energy projects including biomass, biogas, geothermal, solar and wind projects.

The fund, which will be managed by SachsenFonds Group (based in Germany) will invest amounts varying between €30 to €75 million in renewable energy projects. The launch had been occasioned by growing demand for green investments from customers. But Aviva's chief executive Alain Dromer, speaking at the Triple Bottom Line Investment conference on sustainable investment in Amsterdam, called for stock market authorities to demand that listed companies provide information on their sustainability credentials. He suggested companies could provide these reports together with their quarterly financial reports.

"I would like to see all stock market listing authorities make it a listing requirement that companies must evaluate the responsibility and sustainability of their business model, and either put a forward looking sustainability strategy to the vote at their AGM or explain why they were unable to do so," Dromer said.

This year's stellar performance of the US clean tech sector is a continuation of a trend that set in last year. Investments by VCs in the sector totaled $2.6 billion during the first three quarters of 2007, marking a 46 percent rise compared to the full year performance of 2006, according to a report from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and research firm Thomson Financial. In 2006 $1.8 billion worth of clean tech investment cash was injected in 180 ventures.

You might wonder at the end of the day what the difference is between 'green' pushing up the stock market and the ordinary goings on. The short answer is 'not an awful lot'. But if you look closer there might be a tiny bit of solace in the fact that the businesses that are the objects of greed this time around are beginning to have the makings of something that might make a difference to the environment.

That's what the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachuari, was talking about a few days ago. He said that by the time the financial sector will have pulled itself together it's likely that sustainable development will be a central focus point in direct as well as stock market economic growth.

Let's hope that cuts it.

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Apologies for the delay in delivering this weekly wrap up! I am still recovering from my Tryptophan haze.
This was a big week in sustainable business news! Read on for the biggest stories:

Five Reasons You Should Consider Generating Your Own Green Energy While 3P's own Ryan Mickle doesn't much like the idea at least as compared with other solutions for combating climate change, there are some compelling reasons for going off the grid, not the least of which is turning on every light in the house and blasting Blondie when the power goes off on your block, just to stick it to your neighbors who refuse to compost.

Electric Car Network on the Fast Track in San Francisco San Francisco joins the fine company of Israel and Denmark as one of Better Place's inaugural networks for electric cars. A couple of us from 3P were at a presentation by Better Place's founder last week, and they've got it all figured out! Plug-in parking spaces at home, work, and shopping centers, battery exchange stations, and the cars are pretty cute to boot. I'm working on getting Nick to buy us one, for business use only of course. Click on lots of pages, people!

LA wants a Seat at the Green Team Table LA has no shortage of sunshine, and Mayor Villaraigosa made a commitment last week to put it to better use than tanning aspiring actresses: he committed the city to reaching 10% solar by 2020. That is a fine, fine commitment, Mayor! Keep it up and we'll work on getting you a fancy electric car network too.

Can Wind Farms Change the Weather? Ecogeek has given me another reason for eco-panic insomnia. This gives http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect#Theory">the butterfly effect a whole new meaning (with one turn of the windmill...). Luckily it looks like the windfarm would have to stretch from Texas to Canada to have an impact. That doesn't mean this isn't fodder for another eco thriller B movie.

Walmart Goes Big with Two Newspopping Stories
First they pledge to buy 226 million kilowatt-hours of renewable power each year from a wind farm that's set to be up and running by April 2009 (avoiding the production of a staggering 139,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually).
Then CEO Lee Scott, champion of the superpower's green initiatives, resigns. Will this mean the end of the green happy face?

http://www.greenerdesign.com/news/2008/11/21/bioplastic-sales-growth"> Corn Based Plastic Sales Skyrocket Sales have jumped 450% in the most recent period recorded. Now you know where to put that money you yanked out of the stock market. Just don't forget to compost your bio-plastics! (Otherwise they offgas methane in the landfill and contribute to global warming.) Just call me the eco-Debbie Downer.

A Cap and Trade Thanksgiving This is a great piece about the compromises inherent in any 100 mile meal undertaking. I love me some carbon humor.3P had its own share of Thanksgiving coverage: sustainable turkey farming and food economics in a fuel based economy.

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The German solar panel company SolarWorld has installed solar panels on the roofs of the Vatican. The Pope switched to the system earlier this week and is expected to announce drastic plans to expand on the project. The solar panels are placed on top of the massive roof of the Vatican's Nervi Hall, where the pope receives general audiences.

A total of 2,400 photovoltaic panels have been attached to this 5,000 square meter roof. They are not noticeable from the ground below and can provide all of the energy for the hall and a few other buildings adjacent to it. Exact output is 300 kilowatt hours (kWh) annually.

The solar panels reduce the 108-acre city-state's carbon dioxide emissions by about 225,000 kilograms (225 tonnes). They also save the equivalent of 80 tonnes of oil on an annual basis. The Vatican plans to be 20% self sufficient for its energy needs by 2020.

In the near future, the Vatican wants to set up a solar energy system project on a tract of land north of Rome called Santa Maria di Galeria, which it owns. The land which is currently used as a radio transmission center for Vatican Radio, will generate over six times the energy needed for the radio station and the Vatican will transfer the excess energy back to the (Italian) national grid for power for surrounding communities.

Pope Benedict XVI is arguably the most environmentally-conscious pope to date. The Vatican is more than carbon neutral already because all greenhouse gas emissions that it produces are offset by renewable energy credits and carbon certificates. On top of that, the Vatican is the owner of enough trees in Hungary to totally offset all carbon emitted from Vatican City. Now, the city is the only sovereign state in the world that classifies as carbon neutral.

Earlier on in the year, the Church replaced the historic list of seven deadly sins with a list of seven "social'' sins which has a rather eco conscious tone to it. The new list of sins includes environmental pollution and genetic manipulation as well as practices which lead to poverty.

The new Seven Deadly are:

Environmental pollution
Genetic manipulation
Accumulating excessive wealth
Inflicting poverty
Drug trafficking and consumption
Morally debatable experiments
Violation of fundamental rights of human nature.

The social sins echo the idea of the seven cardinal vices - which were devised in the sixth Century. Kind of neat especially because the punishments have been left out this time around.

Pope Benedict is however not all too keen on discussing his green credentials - spokespeople at the Vatican refused to inform Newsweek journalists whether the Vatican has switched to energy saving light bulbs. They wouldn't divulge either whether the pope is trying to cut back on gas use.

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A great opportunity for the US to break free of the foreign oil trap presents itself before the incoming Obama administration and the US Congress, according to the Set America Free Coalition, a non-profit organization dedicated to breaking America's dependence on foreign oil: any use of public finance to bail out the ''Big 3'' automakers should include establishing an Open Fuel Standard so that most new cars sold in the US will run on a variety of liquid fuels.

The Detroit-based automakers have conveniently shunted aside any real move towards making flex-fuel vehicles though they have said they are willing to commit to make 50% of new cars sold in the US fuel flexible by 2012. Indicative of a glaring lack of responsiveness, or sense of social and environmental responsibility, they have zealously maintained this stance despite the fact it costs only around $100 per vehicle for them to do so, according to Set America Free research.

The ''Big 3'' auto executives are shuttling back and forth between their monolithic Detroit headquarters and Washington D.C., again crying wolf to lawmakers in order to preserve their own bacon. The present political-economic drama is shaping up as yet another instance of throwing good money after bad, in the form of public funds and financing no less, something that has become the norm in the US. Lawmakers can change all this by requiring the automakers to do what they've chosen not to do for decades.

Set America Free is behind a push on Capitol Hill to pass the Open Fuel Standard Act (Senate bill S.3303; House bill H.R. 6559), a piece of legislation that would catalyze the transition to flex-fuel vehicles and give the driving public their choice of liquid fuels. Enacting this legislation would be beneficial in a number of important respects: it would set us squarely down the path towards cutting the cord on our reliance on oil, imported oil in particular, thereby enhancing energy and national security, promote the development and use of cleaner, less polluting and environmentally damaging biofuels, it would be complementary and smooth the transition to hybrid electric vehicles, and it could lead to a much reduced military presence and sacrifice of life in oil-rich, geopolitical hot zones.

Moreover, it would save consumers money. The price at the pump of methanol, including taxes, distribution and mark-up, comes in at $2.03 per gasoline equivalent gallon, according to Set America Free.

Time for Some Real Change

The Fed and Treasury have been given a free hand to dole out hundreds and hundreds of billions in taxpayer funds to private companies that by all rights should be allowed to fail. Instead, in time honored tradition, the Bush administration has favored and pushed for a ''rescue'' that allows Fed chairman Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Paulson to bail out the very same managements that led their banks and funds over the brink by spreading the pain broadly across the base of US taxpayers.

Rather than lending to small businesses and easing the terms of existing mortgages, the money's going to mergers and acquisitions. Now it looks like the US Congress, sitting president and president-elect are contemplating doing the same for the very well entrenched managements of the ''Big 3.''

With a strengthening US dollar-thanks to massive de-leveraging and a flight to safety-the price of crude oil has plummeted in recent months. How have our friends in OPEC responded? Two production cuts, and the likelihood of more. Saudi King Abdullah says oil should be at $75 a barrel. Right or wrong, our dependence on oil and fossil fuels has become a greater and greater liability.

Though other factors are involved, the cost to the public of fighting two wars in the Middle East, not to mention Gulf War I and all the other foreign aid and investment of our military in the region down through the decades has never been factored into the cost of the oil we receive from exporters in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world.

Moreover, any forward thinking organization with public responsibility and accountability, especially government, has to seriously consider and plan for somehow addressing the growing risk and costs of climate change and environmental degradation. Clearly, the present administration has not only consciously chose not to do so, they've promulgated policy decisions and taken actions likely to worsen the situation.

Passage of an Open Fuel Standard would rectify a lot of this. The OFS legislation before Congress would require that by 2012 50% of new vehicles would be warranted to run on gasoline, ethanol and methanol or biodiesel. That would rise to 80% by 2015.

As Set America Free points out, the US should take a lesson from Brazil. ''Fuel flexibility is complementary to other vehicle technologies such as plug in hybrids. It is a simple and inexpensive feature that should be standard in cars, like seat belts or airbags. The ratio of flex fuel vehicles in Brazil increased from zero to 70% within three years, and thus as oil prices increase consumers in Brazil can protect themselves by putting alternative fuel in their fuel tank.''

To find out more, check out the video and all the other info on the Set America Free Coalition's web site.

Here's a link to another short video which puts the big picture numbers behind ethanol and foreign oil in some perspective.

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Petroleum Development Oman, the state owned oil company of Oman (partly controlled by Shell), is in discussions with geologists who claim they've found a type of rock that can be used to soak up huge quantities of carbon dioxide.

The rock, known as peridotite, is layered just under the surface of a desert in Oman. The peridotite was found to react chemically with CO2, forming solid minerals. What's more, it absorbs hot water infused with a concentration of CO2 that engineers can drill deep into it.

Theoretically, the peridotite in Oman alone could take in 4 billion tons of atmospheric carbon a year and transform it into marble and limestone. Total global annual carbon emitted is around 30 billion tons.

In most places in the world, peridotite usually resides some 20 kilometers or more below the earth's surface. But in Oman, it's been pushed upwards due to geologic activity making it far more accessible.

Previously, scientists had assumed that peridotite formed by a process unconnected to the atmosphere and that the veins of peridotite are almost as old as the 96-million-year-old Omani rock encompassing it. But the Omani project dated the underground carbonate mineral veins back to 26,000 years on average. That means that the rock is still actively absorbing CO2. As a matter of fact, the peridotite naturally absorbs 10,000 to 100,000 tons of CO2 every year.

Similarly large exposures of peridotite are known on the Pacific islands of Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia, and along the coasts of Greece and the former Yugoslavia; smaller deposits occur in the western United States and many other places.

Engineers simply have to drill a hole and inject heated water containing pressurized CO2 in it. By injecting water in this manner, the absorption process is sped up 100,000 times and more. The naturally generated heat would further speed up the chemical reaction because large portions of rock would be fractured creating even more space for CO2 reactions. Plus, the further down the process takes place, the higher the temperature due to heat generated by the earth itself. It's one of the more perfect carbon traps around.

"This method would afford a low-cost, safe and permanent method to capture and store atmospheric CO2," according to geologist Peter Kelemen, who co-authored a paper about the project. Kelemen and his colleagues have filed patent papers for the method. But the geologist warns that their find doesn't have guaranteed silver bullet potential. "We see this as just one of a whole suite of methods to trap carbon. It's a big mistake to think that we should be searching for one thing that will take care of it all," Kelemen points out.

One unknown side effect is that the cracking and expansion of the underground substances might produce localized micro-earthquakes. Yet Kelemen reassures us that this activity would not be perceptible to humans.

More at ScienceDaily.com

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The U.S. healthcare system is in sorry shape. The Commonwealth Fund Commission gave the U.S. healthcare system a score of 65 (out of 100) when compared to other industrialized countries. The overall performance of the healthcare system did not improve from 2006 to 2008, and access to healthcare decreased. The efficiency of the healthcare system continued to be low.

The U.S. spends twice the amount per capita on healthcare that other industrialized countries do, but ranks last among 19 industrialized countries. It ranked 15th last year. The rate of uninsured adults increased from 35 percent in 2003 to 42 percent in 2007. According to the Commonwealth Fund Commission, ''We are headed toward $1 of every $5 of national income going toward health care.''

Under President-elect Barack Obama's plan, people who like their health insurance plans can keep them, but their costs ''will go down by as much as $2,500 per year.'' However, the uninsured and people who don't like their coverage ''will have a choice of new, affordable health insurance options.''

Obama's plan will create a National Health Insurance Exchange which provides a ''range of private insurance options'' and a ''new public plan'' similar to the one that members of Congress receive. According to his transitional website, Change.gov, ''Everyone who needs it will receive a tax credit for their premiums.''

For small businesses, Obama's plan will create a Small Business Health Tax Credit so small businesses can offer health insurance coverage. Large businesses that do not offer coverage or provide low contributions will have to contribute a portion of payroll toward the costs of healthcare coverage.

The reduction in healthcare costs would come, in part, from lowering drug costs by allowing medicines to be imported from other industrialized countries, and increasing the use of generic drugs in public programs.

The Commonwealth Fund Commission believes that Obama's plan will reduce the amount of uninsured people by 34 million in ten years. The Urban Institute thinks it will ''greatly increase health insurance coverage.'' However, the Urban Institute also believes that it will leave about six percent of the non-elderly population uninsured.

John Sheils, senior vice president of the Lewin Group, characterizes the plan as ''quite traditional.'' Sheils analysis of the plan found that it will decrease the amount of uninsured by 26.6 million in 2010, but will cost $1.17 trillion from 2010 to 2019.

Robert Ostrander of the Daily Messenger criticizes Obama's plan because it ''relies on employers to buy most health insurance.'' He points out three problems with an employer-based healthcare coverage system: the employer is the customer in such a system and not the patient, multiple payers and benefit packages do not simplify the system, and adding ''regulatory bureaucracy'' adds to the cost of healthcare.

A single payer system?

''Until we move to a single-payer system and get rid of the profit motive in financing of health care, we will not be able to fix the problems that we have,'' said Dr. Rocky White, who is on the board of Healthcare for All Colorado and author of Health Care Meltdown: Confronting the Myths and Fixing Our Failing System.

White points out that a multi-payer system is still ''for profit'' healthcare coverage. ''You know, this industry is a $2-trillion industry, and the profits in the for-profit insurance industry are so huge and it's so deeply entrenched into Wall Street.''

In 2003 Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) introduced the ''Medicare for All'' Act or HR 676. He reintroduced the Act in 2007. The Act would extend Medicare coverage to every U.S. resident. A National Health Insurance Card and ID number would be issued, and coverage would include prescription drugs, mental health services, emergency care, primary care and prevention, and vision care.

''The goal of the legislation is to ensure that all Americans will have access, guaranteed by law, to the highest quality and most cost effective health care services regardless of their employment, income or health care status,'' Conyers' website states.

In a February 2007 poll on healthcare, 64 percent preferred a universal health insurance program, even if it meant higher taxes, and 66 percent in a poll taken last summer. Sixty-four percent of those polled in November 2007 believe it is the responsibility of the federal government to make sure all Americans have health insurance coverage.

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Much as LEEDâ„¢ has transformed the building industry, the people behind the STAR Community Index hope to transform the way local governments set priorities and implement policies and practices to make their cities more sustainable.

The STAR Community Index isn't the first to try and rank or rate the greenness of cities. SustainLane for example has already put out three rankings on the sustainability of cities, including creating a network for government officials to exchange best practices.

However, as SustainLane's methodology has sometimes been criticized, The STAR Community Index is taking a slightly different approach. GreenBiz writes, ''The Star Community Index is the only thus far that intends to use the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design as a working model for development.''

According to its website, The STAR Community Index is a national, consensus-based framework for gauging the sustainability and livability of U.S. communities. STAR will be launched by 2010, and is currently being developed through a partnership between ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and the Center for American Progress (CAP).

Program Director Lynne Barker said, during a briefing at the USGBC's Greenbuild conference, "We want to create a common agenda through a national process."

As Jetson Green writes, some of the aims of STAR are to offer a globally recognized green standard system for local governments, increase accountability in data and actions, create a roadmap to track and achieve environmental goals, enable peer-to-peer learning among communities, and engage public support and participation.

Taking a page out of the LEED rubric, STAR is soliciting community, volunteer participation to establish the framework of indicators and metrics by which cities will be rated. The volunteer based technical committees will focus on:

* Natural Systems (ecosystems, habitat, water, storm water, air quality, and resource conservation)

* Planning & Design (land use, transportation and mobility, and parks, open space and recreation)

* Energy & Climate (energy, emissions, renewable energy, and green building)

* Economic Development (clean technologies, green jobs, local commerce, tourism, and local food)

* Employment and Workforce Training (green job training, workforce wages, and youth skills)

* Education, Arts, and Community (education excellence, arts, civic engagement, and social equity)

* Children, Health, and Safety (community health, access to health care, and public safety)

* Affordability and Human Dignity (affordable, workforce housing, poverty, and human services).

The people behind STAR say it will become the definitive means by which local governments measure and ''certify'' their achievements.

Readers: What do you think are the most important elements, listed above or what was left out, to help make a city more sustainable?

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As you read this, someone close to you may be cleaning, stuffing, or slicing a turkey. Over 45 million turkeys were purchased for Thanksgiving out of the 265 million raised this year alone. The vast majority of these birds were grown on industrial farms. Perhaps your bird is organic, free range, or locally grown, but odds are you won't be dining on a heritage turkey this holiday. You may be surprised to learn just how much healthier these birds are, how crucial they are for the future of our food system, and why its hard for this niche to turn a profit.

Heritage turkeys - birds with genetic lines that predate the engineering that defines the current poultry market - are bred and raised in a traditional, humane, and sustainable manner. To meet the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy standard, they must mate naturally, live productively outdoors, and grow slowly in order to develop strong bodies. In contrast, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, 99% of American turkeys are Broad Breasted Whites. These turkeys are the product of the 1960's shift to industrial farming and have been bred to grow the maximum quantity of white meat. Such genetic selection is inhumane, dangerous to human health, and ultimately not commercially viable.

A recent study on chickens led by Bill Muir, a Purdue University animal sciences professor, was the first to analyze the genetic diversity of a complete agricultural commodity. The study concludes that ''commercial birds are missing more than half of the genetic diversity native to the species, possibly leaving them vulnerable to new diseases and raising questions about their long-term sustainability.''

Similarly, by the late nineties, only three corporate breeders supplied the entire turkey market worldwide. Canadian poultry geneticist Roy Crawford calls the genetic base for international poultry ''extremely narrow'' and ''vulnerable to genetic disease.''

Frank Reese, a renowned fourth generation turkey farmer, explains that even farmers selling locally grown poultry buy from the same breeders as industrial growers. Mr. Reese runs the Good Sheppard Turkey Ranch in Kansas, where his birds have genetic lines traceable to the late 1800s.

Mr. Reese explains that his biggest obstacle is infrastructure. As his turkeys became the focus of national attention and began to sell across state lines, he needed to work with federally certified plants.

Every aspect of the mass production system is designed around a single product, the Broad Breasted Whites. From transport to processing machinery, the heritage turkey faces costly obstacles. The linear mass production system is highly centralized, most turkeys are grown in just three states, and not adaptable to diversity. Furthermore, industrial infrastructure allows costs to be externalized, leaving taxpayers to cover expenses from subsidies to environmental damage.

The cost differential between a Butterball and a heritage bird is the infrastructure gap. ''To reestablish the infrastructure,'' Mr. Reese allowed, ''it will take major players who care about the animals, family farmers, and the environment.''

Yet, recent fluctuations in the price of grain challenge the industrial model and raise questions about how turkeys will be fed. Unlike heritage birds, the industrial turkey market depends on cheap corn.

At the same time, the success of Proposition 2 in California evidences the power of consumer awareness even in times of economic hardship.

Through the development of the nonprofit Standard-Bred Poultry Institute, Mr. Reese will train farmers interested in preserving the genetic pool of heritage breeds. The institute works closely with Farm Forward, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing sustainable agriculture. Thanks to Farm Forward, and numerous supporting organizations, Good Sheppard Turkey Ranch is thriving and advancing methods of poultry farming necessary for a healthy food system.

Be thankful for the foresight of family farmers and check back soon for more on Farm Forward. Happy Turkey Day.

Want more Thanksgiving Coverage? An Efficient Thanksgiving Day Turkey

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The free-range turkey we bought for this year's Thanksgiving was ordered through a local organic and natural foods store. And it was about three times the cost of the conventional turkeys they were selling at the mega-supermarket.

But our turkey was raised naturally, without genetically-modified feed grown with synthetic, nutrient-depleting fertilizers. The feed wasn't covered in pesticide residue either. There was also minimal processing, minimal storage, and transportation was less than 30 miles.

From farm to table, this turkey represents the workings of a sustainable and efficient food system. A system that, unfortunately, is not more widely utilized and accepted.

Most of the food we produce today is done so in an unsustainable way. And I'm not just talking about environmentally unsustainable. I'm talking about bottom-line sustainability. For instance, when energy prices shoot back up (and you better believe they will once we get a respite from this economic downturn), more and more agricultural operations will be forced to pass those higher energy prices onto you...the consumer. Just like we saw this past summer.

You see, an enormous amount of fossil fuel is required in industrial farming. And not just for transportation and fueling machinery either. In fact, the biggest chunk of fossil fuel usage in industrial farming actually comes from chemicals.

That's right, as much as 40 percent of energy consumed in the food system can be traced back to artificial fertilizers and pesticides. Most industrial fertilizers today are synthesized from nitrogen and natural gas.

The U.S. Department of Energy has estimated that it takes an average of 5.5 gallons of fossil fuel per acre. And the USDA has stated that reducing repetitive fertilizer application on the 250 million acres of major U.S. cropland would save about $1 billion worth of petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides per year.

Of course, transporting all our food is energy-intensive too.

Most industrial farming utilizes economies of scale to gain a competitive advantage. And that means that today, most of our food is grown in concentration-specific areas. However, as we just saw six months ago, when oil prices skyrocketed, that competitive advantage began to deteriorate. This is a trend that will only continue to get worse. And don't let the current price of oil fool you. That price is heading right back up once the dust of today's recession settles. And when it does, once again the cost to transport all that food from one centralized area will soar. This is a big country, folks. And it ain't cheap to move tomatoes grown in California's San Joaquin valley to Baltimore.

Point is, we've become very accustomed to having unlimited access to cheap, and abundant fossil fuel resources. But those days are coming to an end. And just like we must transition our transportation infrastructure to accommodate an eventual shortfall in gasoline and diesel, we must transition the way we grow, process and move our food. This means embracing agricultural systems that don't use synthetic fertilizers and costly pesticides. This means moving away from the centralized industrial farms and supporting local farms and co-ops. This means allowing animals to feed themselves on grass and distribute manure, fertilizing pastures without the assistance of added chemical fertilizers.

Now I realize that some may look at this as just some treehugger rant. But this isn't just about doing what's right for the environment. This is about doing what's right for the long-term economic stability of the nation. With fossil fuel depletion comes an enormous vulnerability for a country that relies too much on oil, coal, and natural gas. And while we can't transition our transportation systems overnight, we can certainly begin to make the necessary adjustments to our food systems. If we don't, it won't matter that you can't afford to drive to the grocery store anymore. You won't be able to afford the food in it.

Okay, perhaps I'm being a bit dramatic. But you get my point.

Have a great Thanksgiving. Enjoy the food, and more importantly, enjoy the time you spend with your family. It is invaluable.

Want more Thanksgiving coverage? The Business of Truly Sustainable Turkey Farming

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UPS announced this month it will deploy a new combination scanner and paperless printing device developed by HP that will print millions of sorting labels directly on packages, helping Brown make further inroads on greening their operations by slashing its consumption of paper while reducing costs at the same time.

Called the HP Handheld sp400 all-in-one (kinda rolls off the tongue) The innovative device offers UPS a win-win situation by increasing efficiency and reducing waste.

"Leveraging technology innovation is critical in today's tough, competitive economy," said Dave Barnes, senior vice president and CIO of UPS. "The new HP handheld device means increased efficiency and effectiveness at a lower cost, with less waste. This is a perfect example of how technology helps to drive business solutions at UPS."

Once fully deployed, the printer/scanner will save over 1,300 tons of paper annually, with millions of dollars in operational savings for UPS.

The device is currently in use in 41 U.S. processing centers, with plans to expand to a total of 850 printers in 55 centers by the end of the year. The company expects to process 1.5 million packages with the new system by mid-2009. By 2010 3.1 million packages should be handled using the device.

How it works

The HP handheld device brings the label printing device to the package, instead of the old way of bringing the package to the device(s), which included a PC, large thermal printer, and scanner.

With the new system, the wireless, wearable device works in concert with UPS's Package Flow Technology for optimal route planning. The PFT system designs delivery routes that minimizes left-hand turns for the driver (see our earlier post on the UPS Telematics system), and also provides specific instructions telling the loader the exact spot to load the package on the truck for delivery the next day.

When a package enters a UPS sorting facility, an employee scans the shipping label with the HP sp400, which then retrieves, via a WiFi network, the correct sorting information from a UPS database. That information is then printed directly onto the package using a specially formulated, fast-drying ink.

The device not only eliminates the bulky computer/monitor/printer/scanner setup from before, it is also easier to use, improves package processing time, and reduces the rate of mislabeled packages to "virtually zero". Training new employees on the new system is made more efficient as well, with a training "manual" consisting of a single page.

From Telematics, to its data center operations and innovative fleet of vehicles, UPS continues to show how seeking out sustainability solutions makes the most business sense.

It's where Brown meets Green.

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