- This amazingly clever and well-done campaign is worth seeing how to adapt it to your city. At a talk last night by the head of our city’s Solid Waste, Regina Wheeler explained Santa Fe’s goal of zero waste and said how difficult it was to do the “Reduce” part of the famous “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”- ie. getting people to stop consuming so much. Having highly visible goals and an aggressive inclusive campaign are a good start! Watch the inspiring, well-done video. - Editor

Vancouver’s Innovative Talk Green to Us Campaign
Vancouver has adopted a set of bold and inspiring goals for the long term. They will require harnessing our city’s greatest resources—people, businesses, organizations, schools, and institutions. We won’t get to perfection by 2020, but we’ll start on the path to global green leadership.
We invite you to be a part of this historic transformation. Help us find the solutions to creating a prosperous and sustainable economy, a healthier planet, and happier people. What would you do to make Vancouver the greenest city in the world? Among all of the great green ideas out there, which would you pursue first? Help us prioritize between blue-sky visions and immediate opportunities. Give us your pet ideas and your audacious possibilities. Please provide your input and vote on the ideas that you think will work best before October 7, 2010. 
http://www.talkgreentous.ca/about.php
http://www.talkgreentous.ca/index.php

 The Douglas County School District (and several business partners) have announced the development of more than 3 MW of solar projects at 31 different sites, including 30 schools and one athletic stadium. The school district has entered into a power purchase agreement with REgeneration Finance, which will own and finance the solar electric generating projects. The project will be built at a cost of $18.3 million at no capital, operational, maintenance, insurance, financing or ownership expense to Douglas County School District taxpayers, and it is estimated this project will save the school district $5.5 million over a 25-year period. Installation will take approximately nine months to complete
http://www.solarindustrymag.com/e107_plugins/content/content_lt.php?content.6121

- We wrote about this innovative grid project months ago that now has added an important element- new powerful batteries that aim to solve the barrier that renewable energies of solar and wind have by storing the energy so it can be used when there is demand, not just when it is created. Exciting! If you have investment capability, there are opportunities here. - Editor
 

Xtreme Power
The startups that have teamed up to build a transmission hub to connect the U.S.’s three major grids in the east, west and Texas are adding another startup player for energy storage. This afternoon, Tres Amigas, the Santa Fe, N.M-based company behind the transmission project, announced that they have partnered with Xtreme Power, a startup which provides groups of batteries for energy storage for the power grid. Xtreme Power’s batteries would provide storage for the SuperStation to help balance the flow of electricity, and importantly, to enable the addition of more clean power, which is variable, depending on the wind and sunlight, which aren’t always available. Xtreme Power’s batteries would store and release power in response to fluctuations in demand and supply at the hub. For its batteries, Xtreme uses a PowerCell battery chemistry that it calls a “chemical capacitor,” which it says can beat lithium-ion batteries in terms of energy storage, efficiency, cycle life and cost. CEO Carlos Coe told us that Xtreme’s PowerCell battery tech acts more like capacitors: charging and discharging at high speeds, while at the same time, maintaining the qualities that make batteries better than capacitors for long-term energy storage.
http://earth2tech.com/2010/08/18/xtreme-power-joins-the-transmission-hub-project/

Global subsidies for fossil fuels dwarf support given to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power and biofuels, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said. Governments last year gave $43 billion to $46 billion of support to renewable energy through tax credits, guaranteed electricity prices known as feed-in tariffs and alternative energy credits. That compares with the $557 billion that the International Energy Agency last month said was spent to subsidize fossil fuels in 2008. “One of the reasons the clean energy sector is starved of funding is because mainstream investors worry that renewable energy only works with direct government support,” said Michael Liebreich, chief executive of New Energy Finance. “This analysis shows that the global direct subsidy for fossil fuels is around ten times the subsidy for renewables.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-29/fossil-fuel-subsidies-are-12-times-support-for-renewables-study-shows.html

- Different strokes for different folks. Not a bad idea to get sign-ups for renewable energy from those motivated by loyalty to a different cause. - Editor

Affinity electricity- How many Aggies/Longhorns does it take to screw in a light bulb
Branded Retail Energy Co. created an affinity program for electricity similar to a credit card affinity program. Sign up for electricity through the state’s largest universities, and a portion of your monthly bill goes to your team.
The University of Texas and Texas A&M athletic departments will help market the electricity service. Customers will receive freebies and coupons similar to the stuff affinity credit card holders receive. The electricity will be entirely renewable, and the price will be comparable to other renewable electricity plans. (There are also) considering affinity electricity plans for other nonprofits, perhaps cancer research or other popular causes.
http://energyandenvironmentblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/07/how-many-aggieslonghorns-does.html
For the company- http://www.brandedretailenergy.com/

- Such business opportunities also move us forward. - Editor

- Separating utilities now hidden inside rent has potential to greatly reduce energy usage- another low-hanging fruit. - Editor
Honeywell Buys Another Grid Company: E-Mon
Today, Honeywell announced that it will buy E-Mon, which makes sub-metering equipment for apartments and commercial buildings. Sub-metering essentially allows landlords to put tenants onto individual electrical meters and thereby encourage conservation. It is often cited as one of the more effective techniques for getting companies and individuals in shared buildings to think about power.
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/honeywell-buys-another-grid-company-e-mon/

- One of the ideas Dr. Meadows shared was in order to be able to adapt, we must rethink our economic system, and begin a local monetary system as a major way to adapt when the large systems do such damaging fluctuation, which appear completely inevitable. A year ago, when I went to join a local credit union, it took awhile because so many others were joining this popular new trend. Supporting local banking is a beginning.  – Editor
 

Taking Financial Reform into Our Own Hands
The economic crisis is not over, and the rot and malfunctioning at the heart of our banking system remains. Indeed, since the collapse, giant banks have only grown bigger and more powerful, and less responsive to the needs of the real economy. While the financial reform bill includes several worthwhile measures, it will not set the industry right. Much of what big banks have been up to over the last two decades has involved devising ways to extract ever more wealth from households and the real economy. They’ve saddled their own customers with high fees and dangerous products, swindled borrowers and investors, and more. So how do we change course and revive a banking system that is more local and responsive to the needs of communities? We can and should take financial reform into our own hands. That means moving our money—and not just our savings, but our borrowing too. Tens of thousands of people have already broken up with big banks and moved to locally owned institutions, and many communities are starting “bank local” campaigns. Another smart move some states are beginning to consider is establishing a publicly owned “bankers’ bank” modeled on the Bank of North Dakota. By serving as a secondary market for loans, BND as helped North Dakota’s community banks thrive. The state has more local banks per capita than any other. And while that’s not the only reason North Dakota escaped the Great Recession, it hasn’t hurt.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/taking-financial-reform-into-our-own-hands
For more details on North Dakota’s improved system- http://www.newrules.org/banking/rules/bank-north-dakota and http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/reviving-the-local-economy-with-publicly-owned-banks

People need to be able to exchange goods and services at the local level no matter what happens to Wall Street and beyond. Here is some info on local currencies touted by Dr. Meadows- the step beyond local banking. - Editor
National Association of Trade Exchanges
“I’ll give you some of mine, if you give me some of yours…”  Since time began, Barter has been an honored tradition of assisting with commerce between people and businesses. Although traditional methodologies of trade between people in small communities still exists, the utilization of technology launches Barter Organizations into the 21st century.
Cutting edge technology facilitates NATE members (independently owned barter organizations) throughout North America.  This network connects thousands of clients with one another, increasing scope and customer base for those wishing to barter goods and services from one company with another within the membership base.
http://www.natebarter.com/generaldetail.asp?ID=435 (the video is encouraging.)

AND as a successful local currency example-
 

BerkShares are a local currency for the Berkshire region. Dubbed a “great economic experiment” by the New York Times, BerkShares are a tool for community empowerment, enabling merchants and consumers to plant the seeds for an alternative economic future for their communities. Launched in the fall of 2006, BerkShares had a robust initiation, with over one million BerkShares having been circulated in the first nine months and over two million to date. Currently, more than three hundred and sixty businesses have signed up to accept the currency.
http://www.berkshares.org/whatareberkshares.html

- This weekend I was speaking with an executive in Dubai who reported that it was 123 degrees that day. With the need for local food, I wondered to myself- how do you grow food under such harsh conditions? Today’s news provided a glimpse from Dubai based restaurant consultants. Zero food miles for at least some of the food, and getting the water from the air. - Editor