Green
Environmentally friendly, green ways of living
There are 363 posts filed in Green (this is page 17 of 37).
RTP seeks to be more inviting for smaller companies
RTP seemed like a great idea 60 years ago but the tide has turned against the idea of putting job centers in the boonies. The younger workers (you know, the ones graduating from the schools that put the triangle in “Research Triangle Park”) don’t want to own cars. They want to work where they live. They want to work in a dynamic environment, not one with “large amounts of green space.” Collaboration with others spurs new ideas, not navel-gazing in green pastures (or former pastures, as is the case with RTP).
Skyrocketing gas prices and different priorities among today’s younger workforce are what dooms RTP. Yes, RTP could survive if it can become a place where one can not just work but also live and play, but it’s an uphill battle that RTP cannot win. Durham and Raleigh are light years ahead of RTP in this regard and that’s where the job growth will go.
Two years ago, concerned about competition from other research parks within the state and around the globe, RTP hired a New York urban design firm to update its master plan for the first time since the park was formed in 1959.
Since then, the urgency has also heightened as new competitors – Durham’s American Tobacco Campus and N.C. State University’s Centennial Campus, to name two – have attracted numerous start-ups.
The park, meanwhile, has been hurt by appearing to be content to be a suburban, isolated campus environment, said Joel Marcus, CEO of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, a California company that has been in the park since 1998 and today owns nearly a million square feet of lab space in RTP.
“That’s really not today’s world,” he said.
via RTP seeks to be more inviting for smaller companies, quick innovation – Economy – NewsObserver.com.
Apple plans nation’s biggest private fuel cell energy project at N.C. data center
I’ve been meaning to blog about this all weekend. The N&O’s John Murawski has uncovered a very interesting aspect to the datacenter Apple is building in North Carolina: the country’s largest private fuel cell project.
North Carolina will be home to the nation’s largest private fuel cell energy project, a nonpolluting, silent power plant that will generate electricity from hydrogen.
Apple (yes, that Apple) filed its plans with the N.C. Utilities Commission on Thursday to build the 4.8-megawatt project in Maiden, about 40 miles northwest of Charlotte. That’s where Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple has built a data center to support the company’s iCloud online data storage system and its SIRI voice-recognition software.
The fuel cell project, the nation’s largest such project not built by an electric utility company, will be developed this year. It will be located on the same data complex that will host a planned 20-megawatt solar farm – the biggest ever proposed in this state.
But it’s the fuel cell project that’s generating buzz, eclipsing anything ever dreamed of in California, the nation’s epicenter for fuel cell projects.
“That’s a huge vote of confidence in fuel cells,” said James Warner, policy director of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association in Washington.
I’ve written before about how large companies build their datacenters in North Carolina to take advantage of the cheap electricity: electricity generated from dirty coal. Yet, fuel cells are (still) incredibly expensive and are among the cleanest energy sources around.
Why would Apple build a fuel cell plant in our state? It’s ironic, really, since all of Apple’s products are manufactured in China – powered by coal-smoke-belching power plants.
Does this mean that my dream of one day having a dishwasher-sized fuel cell power my home is moving closer to reality? What’s really going on here?
Young Americans not driving? Why would they?
I was mulling over the last post about young Americans not feeling the need for cars and I think I have one idea why.
It used to be that if you were a kid curious about the world we live in, you’d have go out and explore it. This usually required a car of some sort. Things are radically different now. Through the magic of the Internet (and 500+ channel cable/satellite TV), the world now comes to the kids! Kids nowadays can find out far more information on places and people than I ever could as a kid growing up. Outdated, dead-tree encyclopedias and magazines only take one so far.
While there’s still no substitute for actually being there, technology today can get one pretty close. With so much exploring available at their fingertips, kids can take their time deciding where they want to go.
Cheap Thoughts: buoyant disposables
With a built-in air pocket, this can might have stayed at the top of Falls Lake, not the bottom.
On my greenway ride last weekend I couldn’t stop staring at the trash floating on the surface of Crabtree Creek. The trash was mostly plastic bottles: sealed but empty plastic bottles, that is, and therefore buoyant.
I thought it would be far easier to fish floating trash out of the creek as opposed to submerged trash. Empty plastic bottles are easy to fetch, but what about empty aluminum cans? Most go under as soon as they are filled with water.
What if all disposable bottles and cans were mandated to float? What if each was made with air pocket built in that would force the empty container to float? I think it would make it far easier to corral trash that floats before it fouls our seas than trash that doesn’t float. Recycling the materials would be boosted as well, since containers which might have ordinarily been flushed into the oceans could be better recovered.
I wonder if something like this could be done.
Can we revisit our can policy?
Recycling bin
I made an unexpected trip home from my office Wednesday to fetch something I had left behind. On this brief trip I saw two different homeless men walking with bags of cans. No, I didn’t call the cops, but I did realize that more homeless people seem to depend on these cans than I had first thought. No one wants to jail homeless people for trying to get by and I know our police officers aren’t interested in doing that, either.
My issue with recycling theft stemmed completely from seeing men in pickup trucks systematically scouring recycling bins, never with the homeless people trying to get by. Perhaps Raleigh’s recycling theft ordinance should be adjusted so that those taking smaller quantities might not be unfairly targeted.
One suggested adjustment the ordinance I’ve heard would simply make the contents of the recycling bin the city’s property and make it a crime to remove them, omitting the spelling out of any penalty. Raleigh could then choose how to respond based on the level of the theft. It’s definitely worth considering.
On fracking: Faison opposed, Dalton supports with caution, Etheridge unknown | newsobserver.com projects
Hey N.C. Governor candidates: if you support fracking, I don’t support you. Clean water trumps jobs, every time. Please don’t bring this disaster to North Carolina!
Gov. Bev Perdue’s move Wednesday toward fracking is putting the Democratic candidates vying to replace her on the spot.
Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton’s campaign issued a statement Thursday trying to take a middle-of-the road approach. Dalton supports fracking but suggests it needs more study before moving forward to know if it can be done safely.
Sustainability: riding out the boom and bust
Falls Lake, December 9, 2007
Here’s another thing about how crucial sustainability is for Wake County. We’re one of the fastest-growing areas in the country. We’re not the sleepy little county we were just 20 years ago. With more people arriving every day we need to ensure we have the resources to support them.
Above is a photograph of Falls Lake taken a little over four years ago when it was near its record low depth. It was a scary time. People here don’t normally think of our natural resources in Third World terms, but our frequent droughts present real, growth-killing crises. Falls Lake is Wake County’s primary water supply: if the lake disappears it will take Wake County’s future with it. How many companies do you think will want to set up shop here if all we’ve got is a muddy hole for a water supply? How many families will want to move here if their daily water rations number in the dozens of gallons?
As a community it is crucial that we smartly manage our limited natural resources or else we put our quality of life at risk. That’s what sustainability is all about. It’s not some amorphous, tree-hugging, UN-flag-waving creed, it’s prudent planning for an uncertain future. It’s certainly not something to be dismissed for the gain of short-term political points.
Coble throws volunteers under the bus
I’m still in disbelief over last week’s meeting of the Wake County Commissioners in which chair Paul Coble completely dissed a report on sustainability that the Commission itself requested and whose task force Commissioner Joe Bryan chaired.
I have served as an unpaid, volunteer member of various city boards for over three years now. I don’t do it for the money, or to enrich myself, or for the prestige. I do it because I love Raleigh and want to help it grow. The countless hours I’ve devoted to these causes; all the evenings I missed tucking my kids in for bed; all the soccer, baseball and basketball games I’ve missed; those are sacrifices I’ve accepted because I feel its important to serve the greater good. Like everyone else, I have only so many days to live on this planet and I like to know that my time matters.
Continue reading
Recycling theft ordinance
While on my morning walk this past Friday I was crossing Glascock at Brookside when I noticed a blue pickup truck pull past me. I’d seen this truck the week before and suspected it was involved in some suspicious activity, so I stopped to watch what it did. From across the street I watched as a man hopped out of the truck, crossed the street, and began rummaging through the neighbor’s recycling bin, fishing out the aluminum cans. It wasn’t the suspicious activity I’d thought it was but noted the license plate anyway and continued walking.
I took the kids to school by car that morning and when I returned to the neighborhood I was amazed to see yet another man in a pickup truck, rummaging through a neighbor’s recycling bin. This wasn’t a case of some homeless guy collecting a few cans to get by, this looked like an entire team was out to steal the cans people had put out for the city.
Continue reading