Your Green Ability » innovations

EcoCar2 competition seeks greener, safer cars

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 21:06:49 +0000

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has launched the EcoCar2: Plugging into the Future competition, with 16 university teams selected to participate. EcoCar2 is a unique educational partnership between the DOE and General Motors aimed at helping prepare future engineers for opportunities in clean energy and advanced vehicle industries. The three-year collegiate engineering competition challenges teams to reduce the environmental impact of an existing vehicle without compromising performance, safety or consumer acceptability. Read more here … Related posts:

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EcoCar2 competition seeks greener, safer cars

The Need for Innovation in Local, Diversified Food Production

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 07:24:23 +0000

How Frito-Lay Can Take Their Compostable Packaging Failure Out of the Dumps

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 11:32:54 +0000

Can failed environmentally-friendly innovations, especially when at the hands of highly visible players, push the sustainability movement two steps back instead of two steps forward?

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How Frito-Lay Can Take Their Compostable Packaging Failure Out of the Dumps

The WashPost gets it wrong again: The replacement of old technologies by new ones drives growth

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:12:40 +0000

Guest blogger Kate Gordon is CAP’s VP for Energy and Climate Policy. In yesterday’s Washington Post , Peter Whoriskey argues – predictably for the Post these days – that making lightbulbs more efficient puts Americans out of work. The last US-based GE factory to make old-school incandescent lightbulbs is going out of business, and here is Whoriskey’s explanation: During the recession, political and business leaders have held out the promise that American advances, particularly in green technology, might stem the decades-long decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs. But as the lighting industry shows, even when the government pushes companies toward environmental innovations and Americans come up with them, the manufacture of the next generation technology can still end up overseas. But the real story is, as usual, more complicated. First of all, the U.S. is not the only country to move beyond wasteful incandescent lightbulbs, which burn out ten times faster than fluorescent bulbs. The European Union, Australia, Canada, Russia, Brazil, and Argentina are among the other countries that have passed regulations to phase out these old-school bulbs. So it isn’t a question of the U.S. driving these manufacturers overseas; instead, we are talking about a global shift to newer, more efficient technology. Second, the phase-out of incandescent bulbs may be bad for this one factory, but it is not a job killer. In fact, U.S.

If global warming were caused by aliens….

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 23:04:06 +0000

A humorous cartoon: In my DOE days, getting media coverage for clean energy innovations was so hard, we used to joke that maybe we should start a rumor that it was all based on alien technology a la the X-File s….

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If global warming were caused by aliens….