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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

How to Make Your Moving GreenNobody likes moving. Regardless of whether you are moving to a better place or simply relocating, it is always a hassle – countless boxes, sorting, dealing with movers, planning, sorting again, then resorting after that, endless packing, even longer unpacking… The list goes on and on with very few, if any items one can look forward to except maybe for the pleasure of finally finishing it. It is not easy to minimize the cost and distribute the available resources in the most efficient manner. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

Las Vegas Is Home To Huge Conventions on Renewable Energy – And Essentially Everything Else

Sorry if this comes across as out-of-touch, but I’ve never had any particular love affair with Las Vegas.  When I was consulting to IBM and one of  its joint ventures in the late 1990s, my team and I spent three days in Vegas – quarterly.  Yes, that’s 12 out of every 365 days for each of several years—in a place that has never impressed me.

I’m turned off by idiots flying in from all over the country to lose money they should be saving for the children’s education. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Efficiency

Five Ways To Turn Your Office Into A Green Haven To Aid The EnvironmentSome people are becoming more aware of the effect their lifestyle is having on the environment and they decide to become a little more green at home, but there is still more we can all do. If you run your own business you could easily make your office building environmentally-friendly too, but since it’s a big building you might need a few tips and we’re going to look at some ways you can get started right now.

Start turning off equipment. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Unsustainable Use of Water

This week’s “To The Contrary” on PBS did a fabulous job on the growing water shortage in the Western U.S.  It seems that climate change and population growth have gotten the better of our ability to deploy technology and conservation, and are putting a severe crimp on agriculture in this part of the world, thus endangering the food supply and the jobs that are associated with this sector.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

Renewable Energy World’s Editor on Energy StorageHere’s a video featuring Renewable Energy World’s editor, Jennifer Runyon, discussing energy storage and the different roles it plays.  She describes how, at one time, storage is a generation asset (providing power at peak moments and coping with the variability of solar and wind), a transmission asset (smoothing out the “wave form” that defines our alternating current and reducing the overall amount of transmission that is required), and a load asset, enabling people to put some PV on their roof, and providing for all their power needs with renewable energy.

This sounds terrific on paper.  Isn’t it great that one single entity provides all these benefits?  (There are others as well that she doesn’t mention.)  Sure, but then we need to ask:  Who should pay for it?  That’s when the answers start to get harder to find.

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Does Google’s Personalized Search Present Me Web Pages Slanted in Favor of Environmentalism?Do you ever wonder how Google customizes/personalizes your search results based on what it thinks you want to know?  If I’m ordering a pizza in Santa Ynez, California, it’s true that I probably don’t want to see listings for Italian restaurants in Omaha or Buenos Aires, so I suppose there’s some value there.   But I’m very concerned that I’m not getting a fair representation of the news, because Google (I understand) is shaping what it’s showing me based not only on my location, but on my previous searches as well.  (more…)

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

A Few Cleantech Business Concepts at UCSBI spent a couple of hours yesterday evening at the “New Ventures Forum” at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB).  Guests had the opportunity to meet a total of 22 different teams of students, some of them Ph.D. candidates, and ask them to present their concepts for new businesses.    Great food, a little wine – a good time was had by all. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Geothermal

Geothermal Sees Solid Growth Internationally, But Not in the U.S.There’s a lot to like about geothermal, especially its lack of variability; utilities buy energy generated from the heat in the Earth’s crust as baseload, just as if it were coming from a coal or nuclear plant.  Linked above is a good article that points out that the trends here internationally are quite positive; 2013 saw 530 MW commissioned, the most in a single year since 1997.

Sadly, the renewable energy market in the U.S. is riddled with permitting issues and other elements of bureaucracy, and thus geothermal experiences extremely counter-productive boom/bust cycles.  Investors, understandably, are terrified of the uncertainty associated with all this, and are reluctant to get involved in an industry whose very underpinnings could change any minute.

Hey, here’s an idea.  Why don’t we create a stable energy policy, where everyone knows the plan for the coming years and decades?

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Marketing and Promotion – Not All Products Serve Society As Well As CleantechI hope you’ll check out this video on advertising and ethics.  It sure spoke to me – especially considering my background: 25+ years as a marketing consultant to the Fortune 500, helping the IT giants (IBM, Hewlett-Packard, etc.) generate demand for their products and services.  If you’ve ever faced ethical conflicts regarding the validity of what you’re promoting and how you’re going about your work, you’ll do well to invest a few minutes into checking this out.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

MicroBlend Is a Great Business Concept That Benefits the EnvironmentThree times in as many decades I have functioned as a marketing consultant to enterprises run by my “serial client” and close friend, business titan John Tyson.  John sits on the board of half a dozen large corporations, and currently serves as CEO of MicroBlend Technologies, a company that is redefining the paint industry.

John’s current gig is benefiting the world around him in many ways, and I’m sure he’s quite proud of the role of environmental stewardship he’s playing. (more…)

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