JOHN ADDISON – Electric car sales triple in the U.S. each year – 20,000 in 2011, 60,000 or more in 2012, 180,000 or more in 2013. Accenture forecasts 1.5 million electric vehicles in the United States by 2015. Over 10 million electric vehicles are possible by 2020, especially if oil prices rise as battery prices fall. Single electric utilities have scenarios for charging over one million electric vehicles in their own service area by 2020.
Category: Sustainability Successes
Patagonia: Building A Strong Brand Out Of Old Clothes
MARC STOIBER – Every once in a while, a completely counterintuitive idea comes along, shakes up our assumptions, and becomes the new normal. I believe Patagonia Clothing’s Common Threads initiative is an idea like that. If you follow green business news, you’ll recall Common Threads making headlines a few weeks ago.
Green Transition is on the Global Agenda
HAZEL HENDERSON – Every country in the world is actively participating in preparations for Rio+20, the follow-up Earth Summit in Brazil, June 2012, to stimulate the transition to a green economy. The powerful 34 countries of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) have a Green Growth Strategy; the EU views “a transition to a green economy is imperative;†the U.S. focuses on “elimination of fossil fuel subsidies;” and Switzerland calls for a “green economy roadmap.”
10 Myths That Keep Us From Creating The World We Want
FRANCES MOORE LAPPE – From Diet for a Small Planet exactly 40 years ago, it dawned on me that humans are actively creating the scarcity we say we are trying to escape. Whoa! Why would our bright species do such a thing? Researching my new book, EcoMind, Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want (Nation Books), I discovered that it is the power of ideas.
Our Future Is Not Being Televised
PETER BERGEL – On Tuesday night a reported 100,000 Americans joined Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz for a national conversation about breaking the partisan gridlock in Washington DC. It was another great example of the growing willingness of ordinary people to reclaim their power from those to whom they have delegated it, only to see it abused.
North Dakota’s Economic “Miracle” – It’s Not Oil
ELLEN BROWN – The state-owned Bank of North Dakota is credited with the state’s relatively healthy economy.
Green Sectors Top $2.4 Trillion at Midyear
ETHICAL MARKETS MEDIA – Ethical Markets Media (USA and Brazil) has released its August 2011 update of the Green Transition Scoreboard® which tracks private sector investments since 2007 in green companies and technologies globally. These investments now totalmore than $2.4 trillion.