Last night we watched Where to Invade Next, a film by Michael Moore. While many people disregard Moore as a provocative liberal, he identifies a number of policies and programs that other countries have implemented that seem very enviable and ideal. Moore travels to nine largely European countries under the ruse of an invader attempting…
When I saw the first production design Volt in 2008, I was fascinated. It was a great looking car, and the idea of running on electricity was particularly alluring. Now, if the truth be told, I had not been a fan of GM since I was a kid coveting the Camaro or many other of…
“We’re the negative force—we’re just trying to stop stuff.” – Marc Morano, Executive Director of ClimateDepot.com, a leading site for climate change skeptics. This quote sums up the theme of Merchants of Doubt, a hard-hitting and at times discouraging documentary which details the campaign to discredit scientific climate research. Morano is one of those talking…
This is an exciting time in the energy industry, unless you work for an electric utility company. Just like changes that happened in the telecom industry not too long ago, these utilities are in for a shake-up. The three-prong disruptive forces of electric vehicles, solar photovoltaics (PV), and energy storage are combining to create a…
Americans love their lawns. Though manicured grasses originated in England, we continue to adorn our homes with expansive lawns that require a lot of maintenance, including water and mowing. At our suburban home, we’ve been slowly reducing the size of our own lawn each year, yet it still requires an hour of mowing and trimming…
Chances are that if you’ve stayed in a hotel lately, you’ve seen cards inviting guests to choose to re-use their towels and have their beds made without changing the linens. This certainly began in areas where water is less abundant, like California, but has made its way into even mainstream hotels in the Midwest. Laundering…
Fireplaces have long established a sacred spot in the center of our living or family rooms. The nostalgic sound, feel and smell of a crackling wood fire has a cozy, romantic feel. Many traditionalists believe that a natural wood fire is well worth the mess and effort it takes to build the fire. And yet,…
Ecotourism is a new way to embrace sustainability in travel. Per the backpacker’s motto – “Take nothing but pictures; leave nothing but footprints.” – ecotourism is a style of travel that has a low-impact on the environment, and usually involves pristine or undisturbed natural areas off the beaten path of more commercial destinations. Travelers that…
Growing up, our family started recycling because my frugal father received a small pittance for our aluminum cans and newspapers, so we had special bins in the garage for each. We’d crush the cans to optimize the space requirements, and haul them off to a specialized facility that would weigh them and pay us by…
From the ground up, the Holiday Inn Express near the Lambert – St. Louis International Airport was designed to be a “green” hotel. Owner Vinod Patel of OHM Hotel Group envisioned an energy-efficient and eco-friendly hotel that would appeal to business travelers who want to reduce their carbon footprint while on the road. “We are…
