Daily Archives: January 1, 2009

Image credit:National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, “Concrete Is Green”

‘Green’ as a term of popular culture is on life support and barely hanging on: not just because some academic said so, and not because few “green” magazines of 2008 stayed around, and not only because of advert abuses (as pictured above), but because people are screaming to have Green taken off life support. Lake Superior State University, which, since 1971, has published an annual list of words or terms that need to be “banned” from the English language, reports tha

Ten Large Retail Corporations Profiled Using EthicalQuote

With the Pendulum Effect likely to come back in play during 2009, and regulatory teeth emerging in basic environmental and ethical regulatory regimes again (see explanatory post – The Pendulum Effect: Review And Prospects For Sustainability

), corporate sustainability tectonics long in play could soon have noticeable effect with with investors and consumer markets. For examples of early indicators or “indexes” of ethical and environmental choices, see the above graphic, drawn for this pos

As a child growing up in Berkeley during the ’60s, educator Patricia Donald loved reading National Geographic and Time magazines, where she says she learned about the pollution of the earth and its oceans, and the human-caused disruption of the balance of nature.

“There was a lot of scary stuff going on in those days,” said Donald. “It just felt really important to try to empower people to understand the space and the habitat they lived in, to help protect it instead of fighting against it all the time. Luckily, I had a lot of people who helped me believe in my dream.”

And what a successful venture her dream has become in Berkeley, California.

TreeHugger is providing more original content than ever, but also acts as a filter, reviewing hundreds of other websites. As the “about” page says: “Partial to a modern aesthetic, we strive to be a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information.” To do so, I look at over three hundred websites every day in many different fields; here are some of my favourites that I want to thank for keeping me in posts for 2008.

Design Jill of Inhabitat and Harry of Mocoloco have been around as long as TreeHugger, and continue to be the st

Ecotricity CEO’s EV is Ready for a Name
When I last posted on Dale Vince, CEO of Ecotricity, and his plans for an electric sports car to rival the Tesla, many readers felt it was another pointless show project, rather than a practical transportation option. But others pointe

Image Via: Steve King

While so many people are working so very hard to help educate kids about environmental issues and what they can do to make a difference, there’s a pair of Canadians who’ve been on the run, literally, since May 4 of last year to raise awareness and educate kids at the same time by putting in a full marathon daily to make their way across the continent of North America as part of their Run For 1 Planet.

Photo via exfordy

Today is a happy day for elephants because eBay’s ban on ivory sales begins today. We saw the ban pop up on the Hugg radar a few months ago and are interested to see what happens now that the rule is in effect.

Photos via Yanko Design

A concept device by designer Yasuhiro Akama would be pretty handy to have while walking in cities. It uses different colors of LED lights to alert users to the quality of the air they’re breathing

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Wendy Carlson for The New York Times

Who would have thought that cyclists were fair weather friends and that that bike sales would drop over winter? Many bike shops laid in extra cold weather gear, expecting “legions of new bike commuters.” But the recession, cheap gas and the traditional sales pattern for bikes have conspired to make it a hard winter.

According to the New York Times, bike industry analysts say that what bike shop owners perceived as a commuter trend was probably not

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2009 has been declared the Year of the Gorilla (YoG) in order to avoid the extinction of the largest living primate, by the UNEP Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), the UNEP/UNESCO Great Ape Survival Partnership (GRASP) and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). After similar schemes for dolphins and turtles, “the Year of the Gorilla 2009 will place gorillas on a higher pedestal,” says John Mshelbwala, U.N. Convention of Migratory Species expert. Gorillas, whose DNA is almost 100% identical to that of humans, are one of the most endangered species on the planet

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