Washington, DC Sustainability / Energy Calendar

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Saturday, June 20, 2009

Gigaton Throwdown Initiative (GiT)

Details at Global Climate Change Coalition.

June 24, 2009: The Gigaton Thrown Initiative (GiT) (www.ileonardo.com/group/13173/Gigaton-Throwdown), founded by Sunil Paul, will present on June 24 of what they claim will be a "groundbreaking" report outlining a path to a major economic opportunity, job growth, energy security, energy independence, and climate stabilization by 2020. Speakers include:

- Senator John Kerry;
- Sunil Paul, Founder of the Gigaton Throwdown Initiative;
- Marc Porat, Chairman, Serious Materials, CalStar Cement, ZETA homes;
- Martin Lagod, Firelake Capital Management;
- Will Coleman, Mohr Davidow Ventures;
- Harrison Dillion, Co-founder and President, Solazyme;
- Dan Kammen, UC Berkeley;
- Sabrina Spatari, Drexel University;
- Claire Tomkins, Gigaton Throwdown Initiative;
- others from the clean energy and academic communities.

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Friday, June 19, 2009

Earth Ball 2009: Friday, June 19th

Details at Global Climate Change Coalition.

Earth Ball 2009 is an Earth Awareness Soiree to highlight major national and local environment issues in honor of Earth Day. The event is from 6pm to midnight at the Mott House, 122 Maryland Ave NE (just next to the Capitol building).

There'll be plenty of food and drinks (complimentary beer!), a DJ spinning, a Green Exhibit Gallery, and various leaders and activists in the green/environmental movement.

Tickets are $25, and in keeping with the Think Global, Act Local theme, ALL proceeds will be donated to urban vegetable garden programs benefiting moderate and low-income residents of the District to develop an urban garden in Anacostia/Ward 8.

You can learn more at: http://earthball2009.homestead.com

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Saturday, June 6, 2009

Ridesharing Space Heating Up With Uber-Networkers

Details at Global Climate Change Coalition.

Despite some prior claims that US automobile miles driven was price inelastic, the runup of gasoline prices—which peaked at $4.16 in mid-2008—did induce consumers to seek transportation alternatives, including walking, bicycling, public transit, and carpooling. Prices fell to $1.61 in January 2009 but have been climbing steadily since them, and are now at $2.61(1). While the decline in gasoline from their 2008 peak has reduced the financial incentives associated with non-private automobile transportation, price is only one of a number of factors that US consumers consider when making their transportation choices. Another significant consideration is the relative convenience offered by each transportation alternative.

Private automobiles, walking, and bicycling have in common the fact that individuals have complete choice over when and where they go, while public transportation and carpooling require participants to coordinate their travels with others. As a result, the experience provided by the first three modes of transportation can't be improved through technological innovations such as social networking or other communication technology. The experience provided by the latter two modes of transportation, however—public transportation and carpooling—do lend themselves to improvement through technological innovation.

We decided to evaluate a number of carpool alternatives, and began with a Google search for "carpool services." Though Google found over 4 million results to our query, we immediately narrowed our focus to sixteen alternatives that appeared in Google "sponsored links" and the listings at two sites that appeared "above the fold," Planet Green (www.planetgreen.discovery.com), and Rideshare Directory (www.rideshare-directory.com). We the did a brief review of these sixteen sites—looking for first impressions about ease of use, interface, partnerships, relevance, etc.—and narrowed this list down further to five sites which we tested, or at least attempted to test: CarpoolWorld.com, eRideshare, GoLoco, nuride, and Zimride.

To be successful, first and foremost sites have to attract users. Only those that attract users will have any hope of earning revenue in the long run—revenue that will pay development costs and returns to the investors. Some of these sites have had and have extensive ongoing development efforts, while others are bare bones operations with little evident ongoing development effort. One of the sites—Craigslist—is famous (or infamous)—for contributing to the steady decline in newspaper revenues as classified advertising has moved from newspapers to Craigslist and other online sites. Craigslist didn't make our cut of five sites to look at more closely though because the other sites offer more than just the same no-charge approach as Craigslist—they each also offer capabilities more suited to carpool needs.

Of the five that we looked at, nuride stands out in a number of ways—as the only one that requires participants to belong to a pre-existing group, the only one that promises rewards in the form of discounts and coupons for usage, and the only that is most aggressively seeking sponsors. Of the four remaining, the first two—CarpoolWorld.com and eRideshare—have an older look and feel and are visibly dependent on Google ads for revenue.

The remaining two—GoLoco and Zimride—have a number of things in common. Both are betting heavily on the "networking" aspects of the social-networking space. Both have a strong web 2.0 look and feel. Both clearly have experienced management and, presumably, either deep pockets themselves of access to deep pockets to pay for continued development. Furthermore, both of these sites have deep connections with carsharing site Zipcar. GoLoco's CEO Robin Chase is founder and former CEO of Zipcar, and has brought along Zipcar's former CTO on as well. Yet while GoLoco may tout having former Zipcar personnel, it is Zimride that announced a partnership for the future with Zipcar in May 2009. As part of this partnership, when reserving a Zipcar, users will be able to automatically post their reservation on Zimride, making it easier for Zimride carpoolers to link up with Zipcar drivers. In the business arena, at the moment, it appears as though Zimride is king; the implications being that Zimride will generate more growth and have access to more capital, if necessary.

One of the complications of carpooling is its complexity in terms of frequency, origin and destination, as well as the personal human interactions. We decided to test these five sites for their apparent utility in providing transportation between two Virginia locations not served by the metro rail system: Leesburg, Virginia 20176, and the intersection of Leesburg Pike and Chain Bridge Road, Virginia 22102, 34.6 miles distance (according to maps.google.com) in the heart of northern Virginia. What we found was that none of the sites could provide a match with the desired origination and destination. One of our conclusions is that it isn't essential for riders' originating and terminating locations to be identical—so long as it is "convenient" for the driver to drop riders off at their destination. Another conclusion is that carpooling communities—universities, governments, businesses—are critical to establishing sufficient number of riders and drivers to make carpooling worthwhile.


FIVE TEST SITES:

CarpoolWorld.com (2)(3)(4) www.carpoolworld.com.

Evaluation:
- About: Owned and operated by Datasphere Corporation, Jericho, NY.
- Size: registered trips with email: 87,258;
- Revenue model: Google ad supported; free sign up;
- Our experience: no matches within 3 miles of origination and destination locations; multiple trips are not allowed.


eRideshare (2)(3) www.erideshare.com.

Evaluation:
- About: based in Edwardsville, Illinois.
- Size: 19036 daily carpools, 349 groups; Users: 25,000-35,000(5);
- Revenue model: Google ads; free signup;
- Our experience: no matches within 3 miles of origination and destination locations; interface is cumbersome.


GoLoco (2)(3) www.goloco.org.

Evaluation:
- About: managed by a team with extensive credentials, including: CEO Robin Chase, founder and former CEO of Zipcar; CTO Roy Russell, former Zipcar CTO; Transportation Planning and Development Director Mark Chase, who teaches transportation planning at Tufts;
- Size: Users: 10,000(5);
- Revenue model: takes 10% of transaction payment if there is a transaction (GoLoco recommends equal sharing of transportation cost);
- Our experience: web 2.0 / social networking look and feel; able to see and contact friends; Facebook app indicates 102 monthly active users with a 3.4 out of 5 rating; anyone is able to join a group, group invitations may be sent by entering email addresses, from address books, and from current GoLoco members; only people with community email addresses can join communities; very friendly, easy to use interface; no matches within 3 miles of origination and destination locations.


nuride (4) www.nuride.com.

Evaluation:
- About: emphasis is on tracking savings and earning rewards for taking a "greener" trip; based in Virginia, co-founders include E. Scott Kasprowicz, former Deputy Secretary of Transportation for the Commonwealth of Virginia; operates in six US locales;
- Size: 41,015 members; Claims to have coordinated 2 million rides and provided $ 1 million in rewards;
- Revenue model: Users earn rewards for taking trips; rewards paid by government, employers, and business sponsors;
- Our experience: Can only sign up as part of an approved organization, cannot sign up individually; awaiting authorization.


Zimride (2) www.zimride.com.

Evaluation:
- About: received grant from Facebook-funded fbFund; Android mobile application developed by Ecorio; partners with Zipcar;
- Size: over 300,000 users; Facebook application advertises 49,844 monthly active users;
- Revenue model: appears focused on premium services, such as ridesharing for organizations (e.g., Wal-Mart), and venues;
- Our experience: web 2.0 / social networking look and feel; difficulties creating a single event; Facebook application failed to install; no matches within origination and destination locations;


SIXTEEN PRELIMINARY SITES:
- AlterNetRides (3) www.alternetrides.com
- Carpool Connect (2) www.carpoolconnect.com
- Carpooling Network, The (4) www.carpoolingnetwork.com
- CarpoolWorld.com (2)(3)(4) www.carpoolworld.com
- Craigslist (3) www.craigslist.com
- digihitch (3) www.digihitch.com
- eRideshare (2)(3) www.erideshare.com
- GoLoco (2)(3) www.goloco.org
- hitchhikers.org (3) www.hitchhikers.org
- icarpool.com (4) www.icarpool.com
- Local Motion (3) www.alexride.org/carpool.php
- nuride (4) www.nuride.com
- RideCheck (3) www.ridecheck.com
- Ridester (3) www.ridester.com
- willyoujoinus (4) www.willyoujoinus.com
- Zimride (2) www.zimride.com


Sources:
(1) http://gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx.
(2) http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/internet-carpool-site-review.html.
(3) www.rideshare-directory.com/.
(4) Google Ads.
(5) http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/07/24/how-to-hitch-a-ride-on-the-web/.


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Saturday, May 23, 2009

Cap and Trade Protest Leads to Arrest in US Capital

Details at Global Climate Change Coalition.



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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

US END USERS NOW ABLE TO GET PAID TO SPEND LESS ON ENERGY

Studies have shown that many consumers who are concerned about climate change are reluctant to spend anything to reduce CO2 emissions, and this reluctance is likely to be even greater in today’s difficult economy. Earth Aid Enterprises (www.earthaidenterprises.com) has just launched Earth Aid (www.earthaid.net), which offers a financial incentive for reducing carbon emissions. Consumers can join Earth Aid and be paid the market rate for carbon reductions—currently $ 15.15 per metric ton—for the difference between the consumer’s emissions over the past twelve months and the emissions over the next twelve months. For example, according to Earth Aid’s review of our electricity use, we consumed 1,564.23 kwh per month, which resulted in 1,882.42 lbs of CO2 per month, which equals 22,314 lbs and 10.25 tons per year. If we are able to reduce consumption and thereby emissions by one ton (slightly less than 10%), Earth Aid will pay us $15.15 (on top of our own lower energy bills).

To use the service, consumers provide Earth Aid with access to their online utility bills. Earth Aid recognizes that emissions per kwh vary by utility, and adjusts accordingly. Earth Aid “sells” the emissions reductions, known as “carbon credits,” in the voluntary carbon market. Earth Aid says companies like Yahoo! are already spending millions on carbon credits.

Earth Aid Enterprises is a startup founded in 2007, and utilizes patent-pending technology. Earth Aid’s revenue model includes revenue from selling carbon credits and from selling products and services that reduce emissions. Consumers can purchase “Earth Aid Kits” consisting of a combination of products of their choice, such as CFLs, faucets, LED lights, etc. Partners include the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org), 350.org (www.350.org), Habitat for Humanity of Washington DC (http://habitat.earthaidkit.com/), and Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) (www.coejl.org).

The management team includes Ben Bixby, a graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, and Greg O'Keeffe, a U.S. Green Building Council LEED Accredited Professional.

Details at Global Climate Change Coalition.

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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Coming up the rest of this month . . .

Monday, May 18
18:00: Green Business Networking Reception
18:00: InfoDev: Climate Adaptation Grant Deadline!!!
Tuesday, May 19
18:30: MITEF: Green and Clean Technologies
Wednesday, May 20
18:00: Climatini
Wednesday, May 27
All day: NCSE: Proposals for The New Green Economy!

Details at Global Climate Change Coalition.

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Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Climate Change Problem . . .

The New York Times Magazine has an interesting article, "The Civil Heretic" by Nicholas Davidoff, that appears to pit two renowned scientists, Freeman Dyson and James Hansen, against each other on the issue of climate change. According to Davidoff, Dyson thinks climate change might be a good thing, while Hansen says coal is the greatest threat to civilization and all life on our planet.

Buried in the article is what I think is one of the key issues in this debate:

"Beyond the specific points of factual dispute, Dyson has said that it all boils down to 'a deeper disagreement about values' between those who think 'nature knows best' and that 'any gross human disruption of the natural environment is evil,' and 'humanists,' like himself, who contend that protecting the existing biosphere is not as important as fighting more repugnant evils like war, poverty and unemployment."

First, let me acknowledge that I have no idea as to whether Davidoff has accurately portrayed Dyson's position. We do know that Hansen feels so strongly that Davidoff misrepresented Hansen that Hansen has issued a public explanation and apology to Dyson.

Second, regardless of whether Dyson's opinion was accurately represented, I don't believe it is accurate to portray this as a choice between a "nature knows best" camp and an anti-evil camp, as if the "nature knows best" camp are evil loving Luddites. I think the real argument is between those who believe that our environment is very delicate and those who believe that any damage that man does to nature can be corrected by science and engineering. This, I believe, should be a central aspect of the debate. - Stuart M. Whitaker

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Saturday, February 14, 2009

Events coming soon . . .

For everyone interested in sustainability, here's a list of terrific events coming soon . . .

Tuesday, February 17
- NCF: Energizing the Job Market
- EcoTuesday DC
Wednesday, February 18
- NBM: The Greener Good: A Green World
- PDA: Stop Global Warming Conference Call
Monday, February 23
- FES and 2020 Vision: Growing Green Jobs
- GMU: Renewable Energy Policy
Tuesday, February 24
- NCF: Constructing the Employment Solution
Wednesday, February 25
- WABA: Active Transportation Town Hall Meeting
Friday, February 27
- Power Shift 09!
- VSBN: Washington Metro Green Job Fair
Saturday, February 28
- Power Shift 09!

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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Events coming soon . . .

Tuesday, February 17
- NCF: Energizing the Job Market
- EcoTuesday DC
Wednesday, February 18
- NBM: The Greener Good: A Green World

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Monday, February 2, 2009

ARE MAJOR REDUCTIONS IN CARBON EMISSIONS WORTH THE MONEY?

In an "Oxford Style Debate" that was not heard in the US because it was aired during the first hour of the NFL Superbowl, Intelligence2 held a debate on January 13 in New York City on the motion "Major reductions in carbon emissions are not worth the money." Intelligence2 is an initiative of the Rosenkranz Foundation, and is being distributed on the Internet, in the US by NPR, and in the UK on BBC World News.

This debate was moderated by correspondent John Donvan. Arguing for the motion was author and attorney Peter Huber, author Bjorn Lomborg, and author and professor Philip Stott. Arguing against the motion was attorney and consultant L. Hunter Lovins, author Oliver Tickell, and advertising executive Adam Werbach.

Though at the end of the debate opposition only narrowly led support for reduced carbon emissions--49% to 48%--opposition was the clear winner, having increased in support from 16% at the beginning. Support for reduced emissions increased only slightly from 42% at the beginning.

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Sunday, January 25, 2009

Events coming soon . . .

The inauguration is history but the sustainability action is still in its infancy! Here are a few of the upcoming events:

Wednesday, January 28
- Climatini
Thursday, January 29
- Efficiency First: An Energy Efficient Virginia
Saturday, January 31
- Solar Energy Symposium
Wednesday, February 4
- Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference
Thursday, February 5
- Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference
Friday, February 6
- Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference

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Sunday, January 11, 2009

Events coming soon . . .

Washington is practically ALL about the incoming administration and related inaugural events right now! You'll need pull to get tickets to the 2009 Green Inaugural Ball, so perhaps you should consider the Cool Inaugural Ball instead!

Despite the inaugural excitement, there are still other climate change events you may want to attend:

Tuesday, January 13:
- MIT Club: Energy Policy and Technology;
- GreenDrinksDC.
Thursday, January 15
- Alliance to Save Energy: Smartgrid / Technology
Saturday, January 17
- Cool Inaugural Ball
Monday, January 19
- VCN Lobby Day
- 2009 Green Inaugural Ball

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