Wisdumb: Smart and Not-So-Smart

Al’s DC Environment Speech. It’s long, but worth the listen:

http://www.wecansolveit.org/

Unfortunately, I do not have the original article anymore, but I recently read a story about how knowing a car’s MPG doesn’t really help the average person understand what it really means - financially or environmentally. If your car gets 25 mpg vs 22 mpg, what does that mean? As such, outside the U.S., many car stickers don’t tell the buyer the car’s MPG but instead reverse the process and state how many gallons it takes to drive 10,000 miles (or kilometers per liter).

Anyway, if you knew it would take you 200 gallons to drive a certain distance versus 400 gallons, you would have a better idea of what it means. Knowing there is a 200 gallon difference gives you a better understanding. And, with this knowledge, you could fairly easily calculate in your head the financial implications. If gas is $4/gallon, saving 200 gallons equals a savings of $800. However, what if the math isn’t so easy? Quick, calculate 218 gallons at $4.21 a gallon. Also, besides the dollar amount, what is the environmental impact?

So, this inspired me to create a spreadsheet that would do all these calculations for me. Once I created that, I thought this new tool I had created would be useful to the management team at my company as they have a fleet of vehicles and the company is very concerned about its environmental impact, etc.

Anyway, with the help of my marketing team, we turned my simple spreadsheet into a pretty nifty web tool so it would be easier to use and so all of our employees could use it to help them make a better educated decision for their next car purchases. Since we put this tool online, it is essentially now public. As such, now anyone can use it. So, please take advantage.

Lastly, if you use this tool and find it useful, please comment here and let me know how it helped. I know this tool doesn’t take into account everything you might consider when purchasing a car (resale value, safety ratings, repair costs, etc.), but hopefully it simplifies one aspect of your desicion making process.

[I know www.fueleconomy.gov has a simliar tool, but their tool still makes you do the math to figure out the differences between the cars and it is not as easy or quick to change the values for miles driven per year and the price of gas]

Planet Green TV - which they bill as first and only 24-hour eco-lifestyle television network - has been on the air for a week now (premiered June 4), and I have seen a handful of shows. Overall, I am happy with and like what I have seen. I believe the channel was previously the Discovery Home Network, but I have to admit that I get my Discovery channels mixed up with the Learning channels and other such cable options. Anyway, some of the shows are new programming and others are shows that already existed. If you have access to it, check it out if you can… I especially liked the show Wa$ted.

Futerra Sustainability Communications has published “the Greenwash guide” which I heartily recommend. From the Futerra website, the guide:

analyses the current state of greenwash and what’s being done about it. You can also find guidelines for companies and agencies on how to prevent greenwash, and a ‘spotters guide’ for consumers to help avoid it.

Some highlights* from the guide:

• Most greenwash is due to ignorance and/or sloppiness rather than malicious intent, and businesses and advertising agencies can take simple steps to prevent greenwash slipping through.

• According to reports nearly £17 million was spent on advertising containing the words ‘CO2’, ‘carbon’, ‘environmental’, ‘emissions’ or ‘recycle’ from September 2006 to August 2007 alone. A similar search for the same terms in 2003 uncovers only £448k of advertising. [A 3694% increase according to my math]

• During 2008 the USA are reviewing their code and the UK is considering further guidance on theirs. It’s likely that the Australian, French and Norwegian codes will all encourage other countries to consider greenwash rules.

• Greenwash eats away at that market demand by confusing consumers and making them uncertain about buying green products. Eventually they’ll stop buying based on their green preferences altogether. Greenwash destroys the very market it hopes to exploit.

  Surveys in the UK and USA show this undermining of consumer confidence is well underway. In fact some show that 9 out of 10 of us are sceptical about green or climate change information from companies and governments. Half of us in the UK have no idea what to believe and 80% want to see companies back up ethical claims with proof. The same is the case in America. Seven in ten Americans either “strongly” or “somewhat” agree that when companies call a product green it’s usually just a “marketing tactic” and therefore to be mistrusted.

This story about solar thermal power is just one of the many new solar-based concepts currently in development, currently operating or being planned for future implementation.

[I know this isn’t really related… but it is bizarre, and the chorus is apropos]

The “Do The Green Thing” people our promoting a new spot. The video was made by *play.
(It kills me to have to do this, but just in case, the video below shows people sans clothing, i.e., it may be NSFW)

I think it is a good spot… compelling, funny, very well produced, etc. However, I am a little confused over the message. From what I can tell, the producers only intent was to get people to lower their thermostats a little and use some body warmth to stay warm at night. That is basically their concept, get people to make small changes, a different once each month — which I fully support.

However, I saw this spot before researching this group. I think there is a much bigger message in the spot, if they would have acknowledged it. The penguins can be even more of a metaphor for mankind. If we all work together, we can survive…

So, my question is — are they making the bigger point, or is it just another one of the small things you can do (in this case huddle) to lower your energy usage?

This article answers Nigel Tufnel’s question of “how much more black could this be?”

In case you don’t read the article, the gist is this… Scientist have come up with a new material that is significantly blacker than anything you have seen before. This new material which uses nanotube technology has a total reflective index of 0.045 percent — more than three times darker than the previous record, which used a film deposition of nickel-phosphorous alloy. For reference, black paint typically has a 5-10% reflectance value.

What does this mean? This could have major benefits to solar power collection (less light would bounce away so the solar collectors could be more effective) and conversion, new telescopes using this material would allow astronomers to see more distant or less bright stars and it could also help with “stealth” technology.

This isn’t the most exciting news about robots or “green”, but it is the first news I have come across that is about both. Story

Assuming the products really work, the new Green Works™ roll-out from Clorox is a very promising look at what is to come in consumer marketplace.

A nice grouping of products, a nice website and a great story to tell should all add up to success. I know my household will try it… I’ll report back on if I think it is a good buy. I am not promising to do any in-depth side-by-side comparisons, but I’ll let you know if it works or not.

UPDATE (2/28/08): Well, I have used the All Purpose Cleaner and I can say it worked fine. I didn’t do any side-by-side comparisons against any other products, but I cleaned up a mess quite nicely with it.

This could become a very important new development in regards to solar power storage and hybrid and electric vehicles. Not only that, the obvious consumer electronic uses are a also no-brainer. Story here.