Recently I had the opportunity to use a Nissan Leaf™ for several full days, a much more interesting exercise than a simple test drive. As someone working in the sustainability area, as a co-chair of the California Clean Cars campaign and as a likely car buyer in 2012 (my current vehicle has over 230,000 miles on it) I am very interested in the electric vehicle (EV) market.
Nissan’s Leaf™ is among the handful of low emission cars that are presently authorized to carry a Clean Air Vehicle Sticker, entitling a single occupant to use the carpool lanes during rush hours – a very nice side benefit to EV ownership that helped speed my commute this week.
My general impression of EV driving is very favorable. Read more
At this time of year, when many of us will be traveling to visit families--either by plane, train or automobile, it is worth reflecting upon one of the United States’ seminal pieces of environmental legislation, the Clean Air Act.
The Clean Air Act, established in 1970, is celebrating its 41st anniversary this December 17.
In 1970, California’s population was only 20 million. During that same decade, in 1975, the Los Angeles basin recorded 118 Stage 1 smog alerts. By 1980 the state’s population had reached 24 million and 17 million automobiles racked up over 155 billion vehicle miles (!) By 2010 our population reached over 38 million, a doubling from 1970, but many air quality statistics demonstrate some remarkable improvements: the number of smog alerts in the South Coast has fallen by over 95% and some years have seen zero such incidents; emissions of nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons from cars are down 200,000 tons from the peak in 1990 despite vehicle miles growing to 280 billion miles annually. Read more
A gathering of 2000+ twenty-somethings these days is usually a rave party or another edition of Occupy Wall Street. The gathering I attended last week in Portland, Oregon, however, was something much different, it was a convening of young people from universities around the country and abroad, all of whom are vitally interested in using business skills to tackle the world’s toughest problems. Read more
For the third year in a row, Applied Materials has been named to NEWSWEEK Magazine’s Green Rankings – an annual environmental ranking of the 500 largest U.S. companies.
Newsweek made some significant changes to the ranking methodology this year and, consequently there was quite a bit of musical chairs in the results. One change in the methodology that undoubtedly proved important was the elimination of a reputation score and the addition of a disclosure score (evaluating the breadth and quality of company environmental reporting).Read more
Let’s face it, inspiration is some time’s hard to come by in the business world. Thankfully there are programs like the Global Social Business Incubator at Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology and Society. Having just returned from listening to several of this year’s business plan presentations, I am thoroughly inspired with the good works I heard described. Read more
Recently I had the opportunity to use a Nissan Leaf™ for several full days, a much more interesting exercise than a simple test drive. As someone working in the sustainability area, as a co-chair of the 
At this time of year, when many of us will be traveling to visit families--either by plane, train or automobile, it is worth reflecting upon one of the United States’ seminal pieces of environmental legislation, the 
A gathering of 2000+ twenty-somethings these days is usually a rave party or another edition of Occupy Wall Street. The gathering I attended last week in Portland, Oregon, however, was something much different, it was a convening of young people from universities around the country and abroad, all of whom are vitally interested in using business skills to tackle the world’s toughest problems. 
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