EcoStiletto Fashion by Rachel Sarnoff

Think you can’t get great organic denim for under a hundred bucks? Think again. Try Good Society, which is all organic cotton, made on vintage shuttle looms, hand-sewn, fair-trade and designed by some geniuses because seriously the fit is buttah. Emphasis on the butt.
But wait, are you sitting on it? Because these babies are $99. That’s right, you heard us loud and clear. The best-fitting organic denim jeans we’ve found in years and they’re selling full-price for less than other eco-faves on sale. Of course, that’s just your basic denim. Any one of eight other washes will set you back an additional 10, count ‘em, $10. Like the gorgeous jet Linden, or weathered Light Vintage, or our personal to-die-for, the oh-so-au-courant, silvery-gray Dayton. $109. Oh, yeah.

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BYD Electric Autos from Asia

The First Mass Produced Plugin Hybrid In the World comes from…CHINA. Build Your Dreams - is simply named ‘BYD’ a new Car company that intends to make new green cars. They went on sale Dec 19th 2008, and normal people ( in CHINA ) are driving them. They cost $22,000 or so. There is something to this since MidAmerican ( aka Berkshire Hathaway / Warren Buffet ) likes it enough to invest in it.

“We are thrilled to be partners with BYD and the people of China. Mr. Wang Chuanfu has an extraordinary managerial record, and we welcome the opportunity to work with him,” said Warren E. Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

“MidAmerican is pleased to make an investment in BYD – a high-caliber organization, committed to making a dramatic environmental impact with their products,” said David Sokol, chairman of MidAmerican. “As worldwide discussions relating to global climate change and environmental respect continue, the technologies being developed by BYD will be an integral part of the future.”

These are great little cars, based mostly on the Battery Technology used in them, the 1 liter generator is rather a normal and proven system. The great part is that they dont look all space-cadet stupid future car in styling. ( unlike GM that thinks electric means change the basic sedan into a funky retrocrappy scifi look ) These are cars you will actually want to buy, using sensible hybrid components and normal car parts.

http://www.byd.com/f3/f3Features.asp?show=f3&color=a

They Made History
On Monday Dec 19th , BYD Auto began selling the first mass-produced plug-in hybrid car in the world.

Excerpts From NYT:

Unlike conventional gas-electric hybrids, the F3DM can be charged from a wall outlet. No supid fancy proprietary adapter nozzle plug. ( Tesla, VOLT etc all use nonstandard plugs making them useless if you run out of gas and power away from home )

It has a range of about 60 miles on a full battery charge. Its lithium-ion batteries can be fully recharged in as little as seven hours, said BYD, which stands for Build Your Dreams. And the batteries can be 50 percent recharged at a special station in 10 minutes.

The car also has a 1-liter gas engine, which, according to media reports (Treehugger and Autoblog Green), recharges the batteries to extend the range.

BYD Auto only began building cars in 2003.
Note that…. If you are a smart shopper you will not likely be getting your next car from the big 3 and unlikely changes in corporate behavior just do not take place. Expect: more like Toyota, Honda, BYD, Fisker… these are can-do companies that get it done.

For those of you keeping score, BYD Auto has beaten General Motors and Toyota in bringing a plug-in hybrid to market. The Chevrolet Volt goes on sale at the end of 2010. Toyota is planning a plug-in hybrid, also for 2010.

“The development of electric-powered vehicles is the best way for the Chinese auto industry to surpass other leading countries,” Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s founder and chairman, told reporters at an unveiling ceremony in Shenzhen.

Mr. Wang added that the F3DM, with a price of about $22,000, initially will be aimed at government agencies and corporate customers. READ: Rally support for ramping up big-time.

CTN green really likes that car, its price-point and sensiblility.

America, usually in First Place, is now forever fighting for the bronze in an area we should have totally captured by now.

Fashion News from Ecostiletto By Rachel Sarnoff

We love it when we get those emails soliciting our business, like for printing materials, and we email them back and ask them if they’re using recycled paper and they say it’s just not possible! Our costs would go through the roof! The recycled sky is falling, the recycled sky is falling! And then we forward them the pricing info from www.greenerprinter.com , which uses recycled paper, buys offsets that make them 100% wind powered and is cheaper than Kinko’s.
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Antarcticia: A Call to Action

 
PHOTOGRAPHY by Sebastian Copeland
FOREWORD by Orlando Bloom
Hardcover, 96 pp. Over 100 full-color photographs
ISBN-13: 978-1-60109-027-0

Master photographer and Global Green member, Sebastian Copeland, issues a global clarion call for decisive measures to counteract global warming in his latest book Antarctica: A Call to Action, the sequel to his bestselling Antarctica: The Global Warning. Copeland’s awe-inspiring images of the frozen continent capture the beauty of the glaciers, biodiversity, and wild wide seas of the Drake Passage.
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Happy Holidays

The Staff and editors at CTNgreen would like to wish you and yours a happy Holiday season, with this full screen virtual scene and christmas card.
Happy new year

Rachel Sarnoff/ Ecostiletto

 Okay just how friggin’ cute are these bags? Seriously, they could be made out of Earth-killing polyester and they’d still be cute. Okay, maybe not. But thankfully, Heather Heron works only in naturally insect-resistant, anti-microbial, organic hemp, which requires no herbicides, pesticides or chemical fertilizers to produce, yet is still a felony to cultivate in America. Huh? Seems like nothing could be more American: Read more

MARCAL PAPER IS 100% RECYCLED PAPER

The new Small Steps line of 100 percent recycled paper products gives consumers just that: a convenient way to go green without compromise. The new and improved Small Steps line of bath tissue, paper towels, napkins and facial tissue will arrive on retailer’s shelves starting in early 2009.  And by choosing Marcal, versus regular non-recycled paper products, consumers can feel good that they are making a difference.   By simply switching to Marcal, consumers can help save 1million trees. Read more

Loyale Organic and Sustainable Clothes BY Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff, EcoStiletto.com

Oh we are so loyal to Loyale. Having flipped for the eco-faux fur Costilla jacket this season, we’re lusting for a fling with the company’s sweet little collection of tunics, brawny prints and party dresses crafted completely from sustainable materials.

We keep flipping back and forth through the Fall 08 collection on their website, letting the clothes inspire fantasies of high teas and safari jaunts: The Elsamere dress on the stunning white beaches of Kenya, perhaps? The Thorpe jumper on Tanzanian Safari? But it’s the Pomeroy throw that we really, truly want to take home. All marshmallowy and soft, this is the kind of throw you take on a lost weekend where you spend the afternoon snuggled up in front of a fire, preferably at home. 

Want a smaller carbon footprint? Beginning in January 2009, www.EcoStiletto.com is giving away a free pair of eco-friendly shoes worth $500 or more every month! Get on the list now, and get the lowdown on shrinking your carbon footprint from an Ugg boot to a Manolo with daily green fashion, beauty, lifestyle, parenting, celebrity and eco-events nationwide and change the world, one small step at a time. Stiletto-size me! 

 

SunCatcher - exceeds efficiency goals - Wins Huge Contract

Usually solar power of any sort has a basic problem of being low yield /low energy density. Suncatcher by Stirling Energy is breaking all barriers with a 30% efficiency solar concentrated modular system that has won a pair of huge contracts for SoCal Edison to be installed in Imperial Valley and brought online in less than 2 years.

As Reported In Popular Mechanics and other sources, this breakthrough is really the first solar farm of such a scale that can seriously power the peak load daytime use of a good sized city. And in essence it is simple, modular and relies on technology that harkens from thermodynamic engines.. the Stirling cycle. Very Cool… At the focal point of each dish is a self contained unit that is a heat collector - Stirling motor that spins a generator.

“Planted in the New Mexico desert near Albuquerque, the six solar dish engines of the Solar Thermal Test Facility at Sandia National Laboratories look a bit like giant, highly reflective satellite dishes. Each one is a mosaic of 82 mirrors that fit together to form a 38-ft-wide parabola. The mirrors’ precise curvature focuses light onto a 7-in. area. At its most intense spot, the heat is equivalent to a blistering 13,000 suns, producing a flux 13 times greater than the space shuttle experiences during re-entry. “That’ll melt almost anything known to man,” says Sandia engineer Chuck Andraka. “It’s incredibly hot.”

The heat is used to run a Stirling engine, an elegant 192-year-old technology that creates mechanical energy from an external heat source, as opposed to the internal fuel combustion that powers most auto­mobile engines. Hydrogen gas in a Stirling engine’s four 95 cc cylinders expands and contracts as it is heated and cooled, driving pistons to turn a small electric generator. The configuration of the dish and engine represent the fruit of more than a decade of steady improvements, developed in collaboration with Arizona-based Stirling Energy Systems.

Here is  the best part. Usually people think that solar power should be done in Hot climates only. This Technology actually works better in cool ambient air and bright direct sunlight, since the Stirling cycle of heat/cool relies in part on thermal differentials. The System basically just needs clean mirrors and low cloud density.

The challenge remaining is to turn the prototypes into a low-cost, mass-producible design—“just a question of good, old-fashioned engineering,” according to Osborn. To that end, Stirling Energy signed the two largest solar energy contracts in history with two Southern California utilities, promising to build up to 70,000 SunCatchers and provide power for a million homes. Construction starts next year.

http://www.stirlingenergy.com/default.asp

National Law Journal Reports Law Firms Find Work in Promoting Renewable Energy

Today’s on-line copy of the National Law Journal reports that some law firms that have enjoyed expertise in financing renewable energy are finding lucrative projects in this area during the economic downturn.  They are involved in such matters as building power lines in Asia, trading carbon credits in Europe, promoting new technologies, such as acoustic systems for electric cars, electricity from ocean tides and transferring hydroelectric power from Central Asia to India and Pakistan as an alternative to building coal power plants.  What is clear is that the one growth area during the global financial crisis is the environment and that law firms already positioned to assist in this area are going to ride out the economic storm with aplomb. For further information on this topic, check out today’s on-line copy of the National Law Journal at www.nlj.com.