Brad Pitt “Make It Right” in New Orleans with a Green Project

Making good on his promise earlier this year to galvanize the rebuilding of the NoLa's Ninth Ward, Brad Pitt visited this week and organized with key players of his Make It Right campaign.

Even more innovative than inviting now 2-year itenerants home? And better even than building costs that cannot exceed $150,000 per house?

You guessed it; Make It Right did so in flaming green. All of the houses will be eco-friendly.

Yesterday he announced finalists, including design plan from firms in Philly and Los Angeles for the project, which he is leanding in tandem with producer/philanthropist Steve Bing.

The project works with Global Green and includes collaborators from around the country. For more, catch Brad on Larry King Live online clicking on the image below.

Watch Brad's Pitt's NBC Today Interview:

LED Lights for Christmas and Holidays - Choose Energy Efficient LEDs

Save energy, and money, this holiday season by switching your old strands of incandescent bulbs with new LEDs (light emitting diodes).

Appearing during the darkest time of the year, holiday lights brighten hearts, as well as neighborhoods and landscapes. The good news is LEDs use a fraction of the energy of conventional light bulbs (up to about 15% currently), and they last for many years. Based on semiconductors, they're cool to the touch and extremely durable, meaning they are great for many applications (especially where there is a fire hazard).

In the past, LEDs have been relatively expensive, but prices have been steadily coming down. Today, a strand of LED holiday lights typically goes for between $20 and $30. They are available in a wide range of colors and styles, from icicles to snowflakes and more, and can be ordered online, from local hardware stores or big box retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's, Target and Big Lots.

HolidayLeds.com will even take back your old incandescent strands. The first 100 participants will receive one free set of LED lights, and the next 100 will receive a 10% coupon.

Learn more about LED holiday lights and check out our gallery of great new styles.

Source: The Green Daily http://www.thedailygreen.com/going-green/tips/led-holidays-christmas-lights?src=nl&mag=tdg&list=dgr&kw=ist

New York Mayor Bloomberg Announces Hybrid Taxi Initiative

New York launched a 5-year initiative to "hybridize" the city's taxi fleet and cut its CO2 emissions by an estimated 200,000 tons a year.




As part of its "Be a Better Planet" program, Yahoo! donated ten hybrid Ford Escape taxicabs to operator Team Systems. The cabs will be used to replace gasoline-only powered Ford Crown Victoria vehicles, saving tens of thousands of gallons of fuel over a taxicab's service lifetime, and reducing carbon emissions by more than 16 tons per vehicle each year. The vehicles being donated today get approximately 36 mpg (city streets). Yahoo! kicked off the "Be a Better Planet Challenge" in Times Square last week.


Watch the announcement at the Today Show

Google's Brighter Future - Solar Energy

In October 2006, Google announced a commitment to solar energy production and launched the largest solar panel installation to date on a corporate campus in the United States. Google has installed over 90% of the 9,212 solar panels that comprise the 1,600 kilowatt project. Panels cover the rooftops of eight buildings and two newly constructed solar carports at the Googleplex (check out this fly-over video).

This installation is projected to produce enough electricity for approximately 1,000 California homes or 30% of Google's peak electricity demand in our solar powered buildings at our Mountain View, CA headquarters.

They built a web page to monitor and share the day to day production of clean, renewable energy from Google's very own rooftops.

Google's headquarter in Mountain View California, the largest solar panel installation to date on a corporate campus in the United States.

Google's Goal: Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal

Google Could Outspend the Federal Government

Google aims to make electricity derived from the wind and sun and other renewable sources of energy cheaper than burning coal, and the Web search giant has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars toward the effort, including tens of millions in 2008. It didn't release specific figures, but it did set the goal of producing enough electricity to power San Francisco in "years not decades."

The initiative will focus first on solar thermal power, wind power and geothermal systems.

Depending on how fast Google spends its money, its investment could rival the federal government's investment in renewable energy. A Government Accountability Office report found that Department of Energy spending on research and development of biomass, wind and solar energy sources totaled just $65 million in 2006. (Since this was posted this morning, the folks over at reddit have identified other Department of Energy budget documents that make the GAO estimate seem far too low, with $1.16 billion being appropriated for energy efficiency and renewable energy in 2006, and $1.24 billion requested for 2008.)

The Google initiative will create jobs, though how many is unclear. It's the latest sign that renewable energy technology development can be a growing source of economic power in the coming years.

"If we meet this goal," said Google co-founder Larry Page, "and large-scale renewable deployments are cheaper than coal, the world will have the option to meet a substantial portion of electricity needs from renewable sources and significantly reduce carbon emissions. We expect this would be a good business for us as well."

Source: The Daily News
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/google-renewable-energy-47112801