Climate Technology

Wal-Mart boss gets some tips from the Prince of Wales

Here is a story about Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott seeking greenie advice from the Prince of Wales. Any attempt on my part to summarize the tale wouldn't be nearly as good as the article itself, so I offer you the best tidbits of blunt British reporting. I love me some British.

The Times on Wal-Mart:

Mr Scott is desperate to transform the image of the monolithic retail organisation, which has a history of building huge superstores on the edge of towns on greenfield sites and squashing competition with an aggressive pricing policy.

The Times on the Prince of Wales:

[A] champion of green causes whose own lavish lifestyle often comes in for criticism.

The Times on Charles' twitterpation with Scott:

The Prince, who is acutely aware of the bad public relations profile of Wal-Mart, decided to go ahead with the meeting because it was a rare chance to meet the head of such a large company.

The Times on why the Prince shouldn't have been so twitterpated:

When Wal-Mart took over Asda [the second-biggest retailer in Britain] in 1999 it withdrew from Business in the Community, which is headed by the Prince and which seeks to introduce good corporate practice in all sizes of companies.

Apparently Scott and the Prince just talked and made out and stuff. No word on what tidbits of wisdom the Prince actually provided -- if you know what I mean. Incidentally, Wal-Mart, while making steps in the environment department, still sucks at taking care of its workers.

Two Prongs Make a Right

New coalition lobbies Big Auto to build plug-in hybrid cars Plug-In Partners is not, as the name might indicate, a swingers’ club. Rather, it’s a diverse national campaign — encompassing cities, electric utilities, national-security hawks, and others — pushing for plug-in hybrids: gas-electric vehicles with batteries that can be recharged via a regular wall socket. […]

New column offers advice to eco-job-seekers

As director of program development at The Environmental Careers Organization, Kevin Doyle knows a thing or two about job searching. In a new column for Grist, he'll explore the green job market and offer advice to eco-job seekers looking to jump-start their careers.

Remake a Living: Green job prospects for 2006

Here we are in the first month of a whole new year. If you're like me, you've already broken most of the champagne-fueled resolutions you made on New Year's Eve. At least, you think you made some resolutions, and you're pretty sure you broke them. The whole night was a little foggy, and anyway that was way back in 2005. But if one of your promises was to get a job this year in an environmental field, you may be in luck.

I recently reviewed the 2006 environmental-activist job market with senior leaders from major nonprofits like the Natural Resources Defense Council, professional associations like the Land Trust Alliance, and activist-training programs like Green Corps. I asked about hiring trends in comparison with 2005, and about specific job titles and skills that are in special demand. Here's what those in the know had to say.

Nice Work

A look at green job prospects for 2006 Can’t face another year chained to the same old desk or stuck in the same old cube? Itching to start a new career in an environmental field? Fortunately for you, Kevin Doyle of the Environmental Careers Organization knows a thing or two about job searching. He assesses […]

The Royalty Wee

Taxpayers have been getting screwed on oil and gas royalties A three-month New York Times investigation has uncovered a complex tale of oil and gas royalties, price discrepancies, accounting chicanery, and lax enforcement. But at its heart, it’s the same old story: The Bush administration is essentially helping energy companies screw taxpayers. The American people […]

A Greening Tide Lifts All Boats

Reports say cutting greenhouse gases will enhance California’s economy Curbing greenhouse-gas emissions will massively boost California’s economy, according to two independent analyses of the state’s ambitious plans for fighting global warming. The Center for Clean Air Policy, a D.C.-based environmental think tank, found that California could meet its proposed 2010 emissions goals — mandated last […]

How the Olympics are becoming a sustainable business

This month, as the Olympic flame makes its torch-uous journey to Turin, Italy, most people’s eyes are fixed on the upcoming games. But our eyes are focused a little farther down the track. In our role as sustainability consultants, we’ve joined the field of those helping the London 2012 Olympics committee work out how to […]

Clean Energy: The New Merger

Renewable power gets ever more hip with corporate America The Man just can’t get enough clean energy. This week, Walgreens and FedEx Kinko’s joined Whole Foods as corporate boosters of renewable power. The drugstore chain will install solar-power systems at 96 stores and two distribution centers in California, along with 16 stores in New Jersey. […]

The Joy PUC Club

California regulators approve landmark solar-power plan With one eco-tastic vote, California is set to become a global clean-energy leader: Yesterday, the state’s energy regulators approved about $3 billion in subsidies to promote solar power. Rebates will be paid to residential and business utility customers to encourage installation of enough rooftop solar-power systems by 2017 to […]

Just because General Motors calls it green doesn’t mean it is.

Joel Makower reports that General Motors will lead a joint demonstration project "to learn more about consumer awareness and acceptance of E85 as a motor vehicle fuel by demonstrating its use in GM's flexible-fuel vehicles."

The California Department of Transportation will use some flex-fuel vehicles and work with Chevron Technology Ventures to make sure there are filling stations that offer E85 (gas w/ 85% ethanol). A company called Pacific Ethanol will provide the liquid fuel. Filling stations that sell E85 will be receiving "a lucrative federal tax credit."

Joel passes rather lightly over the central problem with biofuels, a problem advocates have never satisfactorily resolved. We're always told that biomass for ethanol could come from crop waste, fryer grease, turkeys, or what have you, but what it inevitably will be made from is whatever's cheapest.

Right now it's cheapest to use corn, sugarcane, soybeans, and palm oil -- heavily-subsidized agribusiness products. Joel holds Brazil up as a model, boasting that it just became a net exporter of sugarcane ethanol. But right there in Brazil rainforests are being plowed down to plant crops, making carbon sinks into carbon sieves.

If there were more confident predictions and fewer just-so stories about how genuinely renewable sources of ethanol will become cheaper than biodiversity-destroying, CO2-increasing agricultural crops, I would feel more comfortable biofuel boosting.

I'm not ready to walk blindly into this future, holding General Motors' hand for comfort.