Whole Travel Blog

This week, ExxonMobil announced that it will invest more than $600 million into research and development of next-generation biofuels produced from sunlight, water and waste carbon dioxide by photosynthetic pond scum. In a collaboration with Synthetic Genomics expected to last 5-6 years at a new test facility being constructed in San Diego, the hope is to develop the technology to a point where ExxonMobil can invest billions more into bringing it to commercial markets.

Pond Scum: the next source of renewable energy?

Craig Venter, founder and CEO of Synthetic Genomics, said, “There are different approaches to what is truly economically scalable, so we’re testing things and giving a new reality to the timelines and expectations of what it takes to have a global impact on fuel supply.” It’s a big strategy shift for ExxonMobil to move into developing renewable biofuel technology after years of publicly opposing investment in renewable energy. If all goes well, ExxonMobil and Synthetic Geonomics hope to be producing biofuels similar in structure to today’s conventional hydrocarbons, but from completely renewable sources, by the end of the project. You can read more about it at Synthetic Genomics’ website: www.syntheticgenomics.com.

Who owns one of the world’s largest vehicle fleets? Here’s a hint: it’s not Google or even Nascar. It’s the United States Postal Service, purveyors of your daily mail and walkers (er…drivers) of mail routes nationwide. With a fleet of aging, fuel-inefficient automobiles, the USPS recently announced a huge undertaking: replacing 6,500 vehicles with more efficient vehicles, including 900 hybrids and 1,000 alternative fuel vehicles.

Reducing the carbon footprint of your snail mail

The USPS currently has well over 200,000 vehicles in its fleet, so this is only a small percentage of the overall picture, but it is hopefully a proof of concept for the government agency that going green is the way to be.

In New Orleans, Louisiana, there will eventually be a 100% Cradle to Cradle Flow House. The design plans were unveiled by William McDonough & Partners last week, the first in a series of duplexes that hopefully revitalize the Lower 9th area of New Orleans that was devastated during Hurricane Katrina.

Cradle to Cradle Design: The Flow House in New Orleans

The entire philosophy behind Cradle to Cradle design is that the materials can be reused for other projects or recycled into the environment if and when the current structure completes its useful life. The local community in the Lower 9th provided substantial input during the duplex’s design to make sure it reflects the true need and desires of the local culture. There is ample daylighting and passive ventilation to keep energy needs low, and photovoltaic panels on the roof can hopefully completely power the structure and put power back into the grid.

Horses love the outdoors, so why not give them sustainable homes? That’s exactly what Blackburn Architects, a full-service architectural planning and design firm based in San Francisco and Washington DC, is doing. Their Greenbarns use passive lighting and ventilation, specify low-VOC materials for construction, and even offer additional solar panels and rainwater harvesting to take them almost competely off the grid.

Greenbarns - Let Your Horse Be Green

While the US Green Building Council (USGBC) does not yet have LEED certification for agricultural buildings, simply putting solar panels on the roofs of these barns could have a significant impact on the environmental footprint of ranches and farms around the world. A single barn roof of solar panels can often power an entire farm in the Midwest, and most farms have 2-3 barns.

Eat Green, Live Green?

Smart grid start-up Tendril and General Electric announced that later this year they will test a smart-grid system that allows GE’s networked appliances to take advantage of cheaper electricity rates. This joint test will allow consumers to control their appliances remotely - from home, a web-browser or even an iPhone application. GE’s use of Tendril’s software will also allow consumers to take advantage of utility special incentives. By cutting use during peak demand times, consumers will save money on their electricity bills.

The control panel of a GE smart fridge.

In order for this pilot study to work, the appliances must communicate with the electric utility company to determine when to use power and when to conserve based on fluctuating, real-time prices. Based on this information, a refrigerator can decide when to use the ice-maker and assumedly do so during off-peak hours for energy demand. Great way to improve energy efficiency in the home without changing your personal habits at all!

Nephelios, a solar-powered blimp, is completing test flights over the next 2 weeks in preparation for a crossing of the English Channel by the end of the summer. This will mark the first manned solar airship ever, proving that carbon-free air travel is possible. Flexible solar panels on the top of the blimp will power a small motor, turning two propellers and moving the blimp forward. The flight across the Channel is expected to take less than an hour, and be an amazingly quiet and serene experience for those onboard. You can read more about it here.

Some people swim the Channel, these guys float across.

In 2006, the house was still in its planning stages: a house built with more than 600,000 lbs of construction materials recycled from the Big Dig highway project in Boston. The “Big Dig” is the unofficial name of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, the chief highway through the heart of Boston and the most expensive highway project in the United States. The Big Dig House is literally made from much of the waste materials from I-93 overcrossings.

The Big Dig House - don't drive here anymore

The final cost was approximately $150 per square foot, with most of the materials provided only for the cost of shipping. Single Speed Design used this project to prove the point that infrastructure materials can be salvaged and reused to create amazing structures. Most of the materials were used as-is from the I-93 teardown, so they created a structure significantly stronger than necessary for a residence. As such, the house features an amazing garage-top garden. Not too shabby!

Park your car and walk upstairs!

The Obama administration released a report last week that outlines anticipated temperature, rainfall, sea level and other environmental changes for the rest of the century. Not only does the report cover the usual agricultural and food production problems, it discusses heat-related illnesses and deaths, weather patterns, wildfires, and flooding. What is currently predicted as a 100-year storm will likely occur every 10 years, significantly overcoming our engineering safety designs. One section reads:

“Escalating exposures to catastrophic weather events, coupled with private insurers’ withdrawal from various markets, are placing the federal government at increased financial risk as insurer of last resort.”

Every 10 years instead of every 100??

With all the political noise-making recently about global climate change, let’s hope the world gets a plan in place to help mitigate these risks and potential impacts. You can download the entire report here.

Thursday, Continental Airlines announced the results of its January 7 biofuel demonstration flight. Not only was the flight successful, the biofuel showed approximately 1.1% greater fuel efficiency over traditional jet fuel. So, not only was the fuel made from renewable sources, it actually beat traditional fuel outright. This type of fuel is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80% as well.

Flying the greener skies

“We look forward to working with our partners as biofuels go through the certification process, and we hope to see these fuels proceed into commercial quantities in the near future,” said Leah Raney, Continental’s managing director of global environmental affairs. Hopefully it’s not long until we see all jet fuel from sustainable sources.