Source: www.climatebiz.com

MESA, AZ — An Arizona company began operating today what it is calling the nation’s second carbon neutral taxicab service.

Clean Air Cabs is comprised of 26 Toyota Prius hybrids, with plans to increase the fleet to more than 200 hybrids instead of the conventional Crown Victoria models used in many taxicab fleets.

The company will offset resulting emissions from its operations with carbon credits, in addition to subsidizing tree planting in Brazilian rain forests.

The company follows in the footsteps of EnviroCab of Arlington, Va., which billed itself last year as the country’s first all-hybrid taxicab fleet. The company also offsets the emissions generated by its fleet of 50 hybrids, as well as the emissions of 100 non-hybrid taxis in service in the greater Washington, D.C. area.  

As far back as 2005, Yellow Cab and Luxor Cabs, both of San Francisco, added hybrid SUVs to their fleets.

The hybrid taxicab movement promises to gain significant steam in the coming years due to potential federal action. The Kerry-Boxer climate change bill before the Senate includes a provision that would allow cities to mandate hybrid taxis. Boston, New York and Seattle have tried to introduce the requirements but failed following legal challenges.

Source: www.futureofbusiness.info

One might say that a more traditional form of green business is a farmers market. A non-profit organization, eatlocal.org located in Vancouver, BC, Canada offers vendors a medium to sell their organic fruits & vegetables, free-range chickens and a vast array of other amazing eco-friendly products. The market offers space for vendors in the following categories; farm, prepared food, and crafts. They also designate space for service providers, from on-site coffee vendors and bike repair to massage therapy. Many farmers markets, such as those put on eatlocal.org, support eco-friendly vendors. Do some research to find a farmers market in your area so you can support a local small green business owner.

Source: www.environmental-expert.com

The FilterPave™ system is the newest green evolution in hard-surfaced porous pavements, with features, performance and environmental benefits that vastly surpass standards for pavements of its kind. The FilterPave porous pavement system is truly in a class by itself. The system can be designed to handle light-to-heavy pedestrian or vehicular traffic loads with permeable base when required for loading or stormwater storage.  The specially-processed and bonded glass is as safe as any traditional surface on which to walk or drive.

Highly-Aesthetic Architectural Surface:  With architectural aesthetics, the FilterPave surface is an attractive and colorful mosaic of recycled variant-colored glass bonded with a high-strength natural binder.
High Porosity Reduces Stormwater Runoff:  The structurally-sound system is twice as porous as other hard-surfaced porous pavements, resulting in a greater reduction of stormwater runoff.

High Recycled Material Content:  The pavement utilizes a high percentage (~90%) of 100% post-consumer recycled glass in the mix, allowing the constructive use of abundant materials that are traditionally landfilled.

Low Environmental Impact:  The highly permeable FilterPave surface is a natural Low Impact Development (LID) Best Management Practice (BMP) for reducing stormwater runoff, managing stormwater on-site and reducing the requirements and costs for stormwater collection systems.

LEED® Green Building Credits
The FilterPave system contributes to LEED® green building credits in the following categories:

• Reduced Site Disturbance
• Stormwater Quality and Quantity Control
• Reduced Heat Island Effect
• Recycled Material Content
• Regional Materials (if project is within 500 miles of material source)

Source:  http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech

Who said that an entrepreneur needs to be young? Sven Ingvar-Nilsson is a 77-year old Swedish farmer, but he also owns a company which wants to help the world to be a better place. He’s selling dry toilets and this might help countries where water or sewerage systems are a concern, as reports India News in “eco-friendly dry toilets turn human waste into manure.” These toilets work by keeping the urine and the solid waste separate and using the second to create manure for farms. So far, the company has sold about 2,000 dry toilets, but the demand is growing worldwide. Read more…

Here are some short excerpts from the India News article.

‘Don’t mix, don’t flush, don’t waste’ is the slogan of a Swedish entrepreneur selling dry toilets - a revolutionary concept that not only saves water but also converts human waste into manure.

Sven Ingvar-Nilsson, 77, [and owner of Wost Man Ecology AB,] has been successfully using the dry toilet design for the last 11 years at his massive farm on the outskirts of this small Swedish town. He says that the concept not only uses human waste but also saves a lot of water that is wasted every time you flush.

Below is a diagram of one of these toilet systems, the ClearVac_Duo (Credit: Wost Man Ecology AB). “Urine is flushed by gravity to a tank. The solid wastes are flushed by air together with 0.5-0.7 litres of water to a compost tank.”

And below is another system, the WM-Barrel, a better solution for houses with an accessible basement (Credit: Wost Man Ecology AB). Its main advantage is it “is totally free from odour even when you use it!”

The company gives more details on how the system works on its Web site.

The urine section is rinsed using approximately 0.1 litres of water each use. The urine is led to a tank where it is collected for further transport, preferable for spreading as fertilizer in garden or agriculture. Solids fall into a bin housed in an insulated container in which negative pressure is created by a fan and vent.

The solid waste dries and thus bacteria and viruses are eliminated by a simple and reliable method. After a drying period of six months the solids can be composed, burned or dug down in the soil where it is quickly broken down. A standard bin (holding 80 litres) will need to be emptied every three months for normal family use.

Source:  www.bslvideo.com

The Beach Solar Laundromat uses eight solar thermal panels to heat water for the Laundromat, potable water for the second floor apartment and for space heating in radiators.

The building was built in 1939, and the mechanical retrofit took place in 2002 and 2003.

Natural Gas consumption has been reduced by approximately 30% as a result of the energy initiatives undertaken.

Revenues grew 160% over eighteen months as customers actively choose the Beach Solar Laundromat because of its environmentally friendly energy initiatives.

The Beach Solar Laundromat was recognized in April 2004, by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment as the Best Small Business in Canada for Pollution Prevention and the Best Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction project in Canada.

In September 2004, the wash and fold service at the Beach Solar Laundromat was recognized by the City of Bremen, Germany with the Bremen Partnership Award. Under the patronage of the United Nations Environmental Programme, the award recognizes profound environmental innovation achieved in partnership with a non-goverment organization.

Canada has supported the solar installation through REDI, the Renewable Energy Deployment Initiative, which has since been supplanted by the ecoEnergy program.

Source:  www.businessweek.com

Chicago’s Green Exchange will be the first shopping center in the U.S. for environmentally responsible and socially conscious businesses.

Marilyn Jones was a green-business pioneer. Since 1973, the owner and president of Chicago-based Consolidated Printing has been using soy-based inks and recycled paper in her sheet-fed and digital-printing business. And while she admits that in the beginning it wasn’t easy being green, Jones says the past three or four years have brought tremendous attention and attracted numerous fellow practitioners to green and socially responsible business.

So many new practitioners have emerged, in fact, that the first mall in the U.S. dedicated to green and socially responsible businesses—Green Exchange—will open in Chicago early in 2008. When it does, Consolidated Printing will be one of its original tenants.

Jones is ecstatic that Chicago will soon have a place where “greenies” can help each other expand their businesses—and attract a critical mass of consumers. “A lot of people are unaware of how many things they can actually purchase that are green,” Jones explains. “And it’s certainly going to give [small green businesses] visibility on a grander scale than they could achieve as an independent.”

Plum Location

The 250,000-square-feet building will hold about 100 vendors. And not just retail outfits. Besides Consolidated Printing, Green Exchange will house an organic restaurant and café, a sustainable furniture store, a green building supply company, an eco-friendly printer, architects and designers focused on sustainability, an environmentally-friendly clothing company, a car-sharing service, a bike shop, and more. And the location is plum: an estimated 350,000 motorists pass the site each day.

The development is capitalizing on a booming market for all things green, organic, and socially responsible (see BusinessWeek.com, Summer 2006, “Do You Need to be Green?”). The Organic Trade Assn. says sales of organic foods are expected to expand by 20% annually over the next few years, and the market for green residential construction and building materials, not counting residential remodeling, is forecast to grow from $7.2 billion in 2005 to between $19 billion and $38 billion in 2010, according to the National Association of Home Builders and McGraw-Hill Construction.

By providing a concentration of green and socially responsible businesses, Green Exchange is helping small green providers get bigger and attract more business in an environment that reinforces their ideals. “Since we have this mission, having a place to rent that goes along with that mission is really important,” says Ori Sivan, president of Greenmaker Supply, a Chicago-based building materials supply company that will be a Green Exchange tenant.

Taking the LEED

It’s also making it easier for individual small businesses to help each other. Future tenants are working together on “a collaborative marketing and support network,” an online community that provides an e-commerce platform, and a number of events that will eventually be planned for the space. And one of the tenants, Greenmaker Supply, is offering to help each tenant build out their own space using green materials.

Once completed, Green Exchange won’t only be a home for green businesses, it will be the product of one. Baum Development, a 40-employee Chicago-based real estate development company, is developing the site according to LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) standards, which is a rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The LEED Green Building Rating System provides benchmarks for the design, construction, and operation of green buildings by recognizing performance in five key areas: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.

The Right Mix

Hartshorne & Plunkard, the construction company carrying out the building project, along with Baum, is taking care to preserve many of the historical features of the building. At the same time, the team will also comply with LEED standards when renovating by incorporating an energy-efficient environment, a green roof, clean air quality, a landscaped courtyard, bike rooms, meeting and event space, priority hybrid parking, and on-site parking.

Of course, an entirely green project presents its share of challenges. Since the building will only be open to tenants who are doing some kind of ecologically responsible business, the potential pool is smaller than normal. But therein lies the project’s uniqueness. “Our biggest challenge is finding the tenant mix, but that will also be what will make it fantastic,” says David Baum, co-owner of Baum Development.

If successful, the idea of a green mall could soon spread to other cities. If it does, then the next generation of mall rats just might be helping to save the world when they shop.

Source:  www.springwise.com/

Sports apparel is a huge industry dominated by a few giant brands. So it’s refreshing to see a small company from Arlington, Virginia gathering support across the United States. Which is probably due to Atayne’s unique angle: its athletic clothing is made from trash.

Atayne uses recycled polyester (from post-consumer plastic bottles) and recycled cotton. For odor control, fabrics are treated with naturally-derived chitosan. The concept for Atayne’s product line was born when founder Jeremy Litchfield discovered that his traditional red running shirt contained petroleum, dioxins and other potentially harmful chemicals that might be absorbed by his body when he perspired. Which sparked the idea for a performance apparel company that would put people and the planet first, instead of solely focusing on convenience and aesthetics.

Not only does Atayne’s approach mean less waste in landfills and less energy used manufacturing materials, it’s also likely to attract enthused and loyal customers who’d rather sport one of Atayne’s eco-proud slogans than a mega-brand’s logo. (Related: Recycled plastic bottles into graduation gowns.)