I was doing some research on Tata Motors and learned some 20 things that I listed up.

One of the things I learned was Tata Motors has a 50.3% holding in electric vehicle technology firm Miljø Grenland^/Innovasjon of Norway. So, off to Norway I went to learn something about this technology.

The company bills itself as a “Driving for a Cleaner Environment.” A bit of an oxymoron, but nonetheless, everyone needs a slogan, right?

Miljøbil Grenland imagines a car made for driving in town, that is environmentally friendly, that is reliable and enjoys all the bells and whistles.

Miljøbil Grenland imagines a car which is economical, which needs little service, which needs little maintenance and be charged by plugging into an average outlet.

Miljøbil Grenland imagines a car which doesn’t make a lot of noise, and which doesn’t release poisonous emissions into the atmosphere.

Miljøbil Grenland imagines it a reality with the backing of Tata Motors. That was a half dozen years ago. What are they doing now, we wonder?

Tata Motors has electric versions of its passenger car Tata Indica and its commercial vehicle Tata Ace.

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Toyama prefecture is located in northern Japan. It gets cold there in the winter, but not really cold enough to freeze a lake or a pond. Not to worry, Japan has an answer to those who still want to go skating. There’s a skating made out of resin, plastic. It’s 300-square-meters square and  billed as environmentally friendly.

The two reasons are – 1. The rink doesn’t use water to make ice and 2. the rink can be operated at half the cost of conventional ice rinks. There is no need for a cooling system. So, why only half the cost, I wonder?

The rink uses some 80 pieces of plastic glued together and skaters can frolic about as if they were on ice. Speed is slower because of greater friction and I don’t suppose your hands get cold when you fall down. Ah, and no worrying about going through the ice and into the drink either.

he problem is not why Japan cannot meet its protocol goals. The problem is why Japan doesn’t know WHY it’s not meeting its goal. Consider these two most recent Christmas displays.

This one is not technically a Christmas display, but it’s Christmas, and here it is. It’s called the Kobe Luminarie in central Kobe, home of Kobe Bryant and Kobe beef. The Luminarie has been running annually since 1996. It will end on Dec. 15th. It is built to remember the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake. GP thinks that Japan could remember those who died in the earthquake by taking better care of the environment left for those who are still alive.

This one is a Christmas display.

It is the Caretta OCEAN Christmas 2008 at Shiodome in Tokyo and will run through Dec 25.

Maybe…maybe…Japan could learn a lesson from the guys who made this tunnel at the Toki no Sumba resort in Shizuoka prefecture. The entire thing is lit up with lights from solar power.

Now, if they could just figure out how to do the Christmas displays and commemorations with solar power at night, eh?

So, you really think you are green, eh? Just how green are you? Fellows, no need to read any further. Ladies – how about reusable maxi pads – made in Japan – where being clean and being eco-friendly go together?

The pads, and this is more information than any man would want to know, come in many different designs, including Alice in Wonderland. They come with detergent so they can be used and rewashed. They also challenge even the heartiest green advocates in their commitment to the environment.

Seriously, just how far can this go?

Please don’t anybody ask me how I found this at Rinkya.

Jason Keath at “Jason Keath – Where Old Media Goes to Die” offered up his 5-step plan to “Green Hosting”.

1. Buy Your Own Offset Credits -Resources: How to buy carbon credits (Ehow.com) | Carbon credit price comparisons. Read Jason’s tip.
2. Use Hosting that Buys Credits – Jason’s recomendation – One good option in this direction is Dreamhost.
3. Use Hosting that Buys Green Energy – Better than buying credits when you use energy from wind farms, solar panels, and so on. Jason’s Resources: ThinkHost | HostPapa | HostGator
4. Use Hosting that Produces Green Energy -
   Some, but not all, in this category (from Treehugger.com):

   WebCtel – Solar

   SolarWebWorks – Solar

   EcoSky – Solar & wind

   The Green Web Host – Mixed sources, mostly wind I think

   Locomotive Media – Wind

   Elfon – Wind

   SustainableMarketing – Wind

   Aiso – Solar

   Taproot Hosting

   SolarHost – Solar

5. Use Your Own Green Powered Servers. Build you own wind turbine or hang solar panels.

Great ideas, Jason! Thanks!

Image courtesy of Nico Macdonald

41pounds.org stops junk mail and saves the planet.

1. Who they are -41pounds.org is a nonprofit organization wanting to eliminate a big personal nuisance and environmental hazard — junk mail.
2. Why they’re here -41pounds.org was started because of being overwhelmed with unwanted and wasteful junk mail.
3. What they do -Sign individual up, contact 20 to 30 direct mail companies to stop the majority of bulk mail that comes every day.
4. What it means -Raised thousands of dollars for important programs to reduce the impact of junk mail on the planet and our daily lives.

41pounds.org is saving time, saving trees and saving the planet. But can 41pounds.org stop the credit card companies, too? How about 41pounds.org for a Christmas present?

Image courtesy of kahunapulej

Seven Eleven Japan, the convenience store plans to equip all its new stores with LED-based signboards and outdoor lighting. The effort is to reduce emissions of global warming gases. LEDs will likely be able to allow 7-11 to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 3%, or 1.8 tons per store per year times 1000 new stores each year.

The Seven & i Holdings Co. estimates that it will spend more than 1 billion yen a year on LED lighting. An initial investment per new store will cost 1-2 million yen. Down the road, Seven-Eleven Japan is expected to use roughly 75% less power than fluorescent lights, thus getting back their investment. LED lights also last four to five years, compared with a year or so for fluorescent lights.

Rival convenience store operators, Lawson Inc., FamilyMart Co. and Circle K Sunkus Co. have been testing LED-based signboards, however, 7-11 is the first to take the plunge on a large scale.

Convenience store operators are also turning to more power-efficient air conditioning to reduce their CO2 emissions.

Shall we call this a convenient truth?

Source: Nikkei
Image courtesy of chishikilauren

There’s a green prison farm, the Cedar Creek Corrections Center, about 25 miles outside Olympia, the capital of Washington state, where inmates, murderers and elsewise, are being used to cultivate the green prison farms.

A medium-security inmate at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center, uses a botanical keybook to identify moss as part of a forest conservation research project

It is estimated that the States have paid $49 billion to feed, house, clothe, treat and supervise 2.3 million offenders in 2007. It’s about time the inmates of the 1,821 facilities begin feeding for themselves, in the least, making good use by recycling what they can.

One prison grew some 8,000 pounds of organic vegetables. Another prison uses waste wood chips to run water boilers. Yet another uses a wind turbine to generate power, saving $2,280/year. A Blythe, CA prison makes use of 6,200 solar panels, enough to provide power to 4,100 homes.

In North Carolina a prison switched to chemical free cleaners and vegetable based inks. In Oregon, old appliances were replaced with energy-efficient ones. Old prison blues are recycled to make diaper bags for women’s shelters and dog beds for animal shelters.

Yeah, it’s easy to tell inmates to recycle, be good stewards, make better use of materials. I wonder, do we all need to take a turn behind bars to learn what is best for our planet?

Image by DiscoverMagazine

Here’s a novel way to reduce our exploitation of the planet’s resources, that is, no iron or steel use and no need for fossil fuels.

A Chinese chemistry teacher built a boat out of paper, took it on an 800-meter voyage propelled by nothing but ping-pong paddles. He made the boat from everyday paper and used cooked flour soup for glue. Ah, no pollution….

Now, if he can just figure out where to haul the 1,000 cruisers and 1,000 staff that might want to take a voyage with him, we are in business. Don’t forget the gallery, the entertainment area, and the library and the whole bunch of them. How do people come up with these kinds of ideas, I wonder.

“Whatcha gonna do today, Wang?”
“Well, I think I’ll make a boat out of paper, get my ping-pong paddles and go for a mini-cruise.”

Pollution is killing more than AIDS in Sao Paulo, says a Sao Paulo University report Air Pollution Lab.

According to the study, some nine people die each day because of pollution – which makes it some 3,500 a year. Less than half of that number of people, 1,624, die each year as a result of AIDS and traffic combined.

Sao Paulo will spend $1.5 billion on pollution-caused diseases, caused mainly by the six million cars in the city. Is it just me or that sounds like, if the cars don’t kill you in traffic, they will kill you with what comes out the back?

Nearly two-thirds of the air pollution is caused by 10% of the total vehicles, the ones that run on diesel fuel. Statistics say that there are about 150 lives lost each year due to sulfur releases from diesel-fueled vehicles and 232 deaths caused by AIDS.

Sao Paulo will adopt a “clean diesel” in 2009 hoping to reduce pollution by at least 5%. Seriously time for the “B” in Bric to clean up its act. – via Xinhuanet

Image courtesy of Auntie P