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Sustainability

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Skyscrapers Designed To Make You Happy If You Work In Them

The definition of what it means to be sustainable in the 21st century needs to be broadened to include a skyscraper's ability to sustain the human spirit, says a design director at Gensler. Imagine energy efficient towers whose walls might slide open, allowing office workers to step outside, into the sky, for a breath of fresh air. Towers where seasonal gardens grow vertically and where friends might meet by a kumquat tree on the 68th floor for a cup of coffee on a beautiful spring day.

Start-Up Wins $630,000 for Making Bio-Plastic Out of Greenhouse Gas

A young start-up called Mango Materials has won a Green Challenge prize of $630,000 for its plan to use bacteria to turn the most abundant organic compound on earth, methane, into a biodegradable material that would be a low cost substitute for plastic.

By Jeanne Goddard

26 September 30 Views

Postal Service Reduces Energy Use by 26%

Since 2003, the United States Postal Service has reduced its energy use by 26 percent. Energy efficiency improvements at the USPS's 33,000 buildings have saved enough energy to meet the power needs of 90,000 households for a year. In 2011, alone, the USPS saved $22 million with its 1 trillion BTU reduction in energy use.

By Jeanne Goddard

01 September 32 Views

Denmark's Near-Zero-Waste Wonder

The small city of Kalundborg, 64 miles west of Copenhagen, was the first municipality to have engineered a symbiotic relationship between all its industries so that the excess heat, water, waste and other resources leftover become feedstock for other industries and farms, creating a closed loop system.

By Jeanne Goddard

04 August 34 Views

China Airline Hails First Flight Powered by Discarded Cooking Oil

In a milestone Saturday for sustainable aviation, China became the latest nation to transport passengers on a commercial airline flight powered by used cooking oil.

By Jeanne Goddard

24 March 25 Views

3M Vows Not to Source From Deforested Areas, Ignore Human Rights

3M announced this week a new sourcing policy that ensures all the virgin wood fiber going into its paper-based products and packaging comes from sources that protect forests and respect human rights.

By Jeanne Goddard

07 March 28 Views

Keurig Coffeemakers Unveil Recyclable K-cups (Finally)

Keurig coffee fans might love the convenience of the single-cup system, but the amount of plastic being thrown into landfills was worrying the rest of us. Now the coffee-selling giant has announced a recyclable coffee pod that may ease customers' guilt.

By Jeanne Goddard

27 March 30 Views

Check Out the Surprising Products Being Made From Coffee Grounds

More and more, we're seeing brilliant uses for household items once discarded as trash. You will never look at coffee grounds the same way.

By Jeanne Goddard

09 May 25 Views

In This Fashion Library, You Check Out Clothes Instead Of Buying Them

Instead of buying a whole new outfit for a wedding or graduation, fashionistas can visit a 'fashion library' and take home their favorite threads on loan.

By Si'mone Lewis

07 May 25 Views

43 CEOs: Climate Debate Is Over, Carbon Cuts Are Good for Business

43 leaders of huge corporations joined together as Ambassadors for Climate Action. They challenged governments and big business to do more on climate change.

11 May 23 Views

Baltimore is a Five-Star City - Gets the Rating to Prove it

Baltimore, Maryland has been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately, but one organization is shining a positive light

By Olivia Jennings

18 June 28 Views

1,500 Employees Skip Holiday Party to Transform Local Farm

In place of a holiday party, computer technology company NVIDIA conducted one of Silicon Valley's largest-ever employee volunteer events, with 1,500 employees and community members gathering to bolster a local farm's ability to continue providing students and families with access to fresh local produce. NVIDIA's annual holiday initiative called Project Inspire began on December 9 and in two days transformed Full Circle Farm's operations, building structures to enable it to become financially self-sustaining and to expand its ability to provide nutrition education to students and families in Silicon Valley.

By Jeanne Goddard

23 December 41 Views

Vancouver Students Take Their Plastic Eating Bacteria Idea to TED Stage

High School seniors Miranda Wang and Jeanny Yao want to continue pursuing a solution for how to make plastic decompose using natural bacteria already evolving on the planet. The two were finalists for Canada's top student biotechnology award, the 2012 Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge, where their project was judged to have the greatest commercial potential of any project entry, valued at $10 million. Now they are bringing their ideas to the TED stage.

By Jeanne Goddard

16 March 28 Views

The Greenest Colleges in America

A U.S. Green Building Council partnership released its third annual report listing the greenest colleges nationwide. The online-only guide, available as a free download, includes brief summaries of sustainability initiatives at each of the top 311 school, as well a dozen or so data points on things like renewable power use, energy efficiency and waste disposal.

By Jeanne Goddard

06 May 35 Views

Ford Cuts Global Waste by 100 Million Pounds and Counting

This week the Ford Motor Company announced impressive results in efforts to cut waste produced in its factories. Since 2007, the car company has slashed by 44 percent its global waste output -- a total of 100 million pounds. Expanding on the success, Ford plans to further reduce the amount of waste it sends to landfills by 10% per vehicle by the end of the year.

By Jeanne Goddard

27 April 34 Views

Composting Project Puts 12 Tons of Dog Poop to Good Use

It's been almost three years since a grand experiment began in a dog park in Ithaca, N.Y., and the results are finally in. Dog dung poses public health risks if left on the streets, hurts the environment when left near trails and takes centuries to decompose in plastic garbage bags that end up in landfills. Now, the poop is being composted along with yard waste to produce valuable soil.

By Jeanne Goddard

07 April 32 Views

12 Year-old Recycling Entrepreneur and Philanthropist

At the ripe old age of 12, Sam Klein is a dedicated CEO of his own recycling business. He collects empty printer ink cartridges from local businesses, keeping them from the landfills, while earning hundreds of dollars by sending them back to manufacturers. Even more impressive, Sam has given more than $1,000 to charity.

By Jeanne Goddard

06 June 29 Views

Restaurant Uses Fresh Food That Grocery Stores Throw Out

A Danish restaurant features different dishes every night, created using produce and bread that would otherwise have gone to waste. 'Rub & Stub' opened in Copenhagen in 2013 after a group of environmentally-conscious friends decided to do something about the huge amount of food waste in the restaurant business.

By Jeanne Goddard

03 November 33 Views

Paris Restaurants Turn Food Scraps into Biogas

A group of Paris restaurants is turning food scraps into biogas and compost ahead of a new law that will force thousands of French food outlets to recycle their organic waste.

By Jeanne Goddard

14 February 27 Views

Artist Sews Ripped Clothes for Free on SF City Sidewalks

One day a month artist Michael Swaine can be found on a San Francisco sidewalk using his vintage sewing machine with foot pedal to mend the holes in people's clothes for free.

By Jeanne Goddard

15 March 28 Views