Carl Boyd graduated from UIC’s Industrial Design program and has worked professionally in exhibit and product design. He interned at Prairie Fish, one of the nation’s first retail design firms committed to green design. As an initial member of the Foresight Design Initiative, he launched Chicago Green Drinks, organized Chicago’s first Eco-Transportation Show, and designed exhibits for the Chicago Department of Environment.
He’s served as a judge of green design for the 2008 International Housewares Show, and Chicago’s Greenworks Awards.
Carl Boyd co-pilots an ongoing project called Normal - started in 2003 - designing modern, practical products that are locally-made using sustainably-preferable materials and processes. Normal products are sold across North America, have been featured in Wallpaper, TIME, New City, Chicago Tribune, Time Out and in several TV spots. They have been selected for Museum exhibits nationwide and abroad.
Carl currently teaches product design, focusing on sustainability issues, at Columbia College, as well as at the Art Institute this coming Spring.
Ted is always looking for ways to minimize his ecological footprint. Professionally, Ted is working to gain the skills necessary to turn his passion for sustainable development into action, as an entrepreneur or financing sustainable businesses.
Ted studied economics and international business at Saint Louis University’s campus in Madrid, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and was honored as the Distinguished Student in International Business for his class. As the founder and president of the SLU Madrid Business Club, Ted focused the club’s activities on sustainability.
While working for commercial real estate multi-national Jones Lang LaSalle’s Madrid office, Ted strove to implement sustainable practices both within the firm and for its clients. He proposed and designed an Environmental Sustainability Action Plan for JLL Spain. Green Building and Environmentally Sustainable Development remain a passion for Ted: he believes that the intersection of sustainable infrastructure and sustainable attitude is where we’ll find a sustainable society.
Ted currently works for a private equity firm in Madrid, learning skills that he hopes to apply to finance Environmentally Sustainable Development in the United States and around the world.
Cherl Petso is the Associate Editor at Disaboom.com, an online magazine for people with disabilities. Her writing expertise includes articles about the environment and sustainable living, and vegan/vegetarian issues. A vegetarian for 16 years and a recent vegan, Cherl is passionate about animal rights and issues. She enjoys writing about simple ways to lessen the impact on the Earth.
Cherl recently moved to Denver, Colorado from Bellingham, Washington. She enjoys hiking and hanging out with her puppy.
A freelance writer specializing in environmental and health topics, Linda recently was part of a core team of writers who developed content for GreenYour, a website devoted to greener living.
She wrote an environmental column for five years for Good Housekeeping magazine called Green Watch. You can find her articles in Plenty Magazine’s online newsletter, Fit Pregnancy, Good Housekeeping, Arthritis Today, Profiles (Continental Airline’s in-flight magazine), and Microsoft’s Encarta.
She served on her town’s environmental commission for 15 years and remains an active volunteer. Her personal essay column for the local newspaper offers her take on the natural world and on environmental topics in her neck of the woods.
Dayanti Karunaratne is a freelance journalist based in Canada's capital city, Ottawa.
Since graduating from Carleton University's journalism program in 2006, Karunaratne has worked on the news desk at the Port Hope Evening Guide, the Ottawa Citizen, and the Molokai Times. Karunaratne's writing appears in the Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Magazine, the Globe and Mail, and other lifestyle publications.
Christie Nash is currently a Projects Coordinator at the Trent Centre for Community-Based Education whose mandate is to bring local organizations and academic resources together to create community- inspired research projects. She has recently completed her M.Ed in Education and Community Development and Comparative International Development Education at OISE/UT. Her professional experience has taken her around the world, including Thailand, India, Nunavut, and other parts of Canada.
She currently resides in Omemee, Ontario (where Neil Young spent his formative years!) in an 1861 log cabin with her boyfriend, Mark, and cat, Fergus.
Marie Oser is a best-selling author, columnist, and host/producer of VEG TV. A vegan lifestyle expert, and environmental advocate with a focus on nutrition and its role in disease prevention, Oser specializes in creating original gourmet recipes with a solid nutritional bottom line.
Many prominent medical and nutrition professionals endorse her work, including Dr. Colin Campbell, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University and principal researcher of the groundbreaking CHINA STUDY, and Neal Barnard, M.D. founder and president of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, DC.
Marie is president of VEGTV, Inc., a video production company producing content for TV and new media. VEGTV streams hundreds of lifestyle videos to more than 1,000 sites globally. In her role as Director of Product Development at Smart Planet Kitchen, she has created, Marie Oser’s Lean & Green, a new line of vegan and Fair Trade Certified products. Marie has appeared on CNN, ABC, National Public Radio, QVC, WUSA, WNBC, KCAL, KOVR, Home & Garden Television (HGTV), FINE LIVING, TECH TV, and Discovery Channel.
Vegetarian since 1971; vegan since 1990, Marie left a career in TV advertising to pursue her interest in food, health, and nutrition. Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, she studied psychology at St. Joseph’s University. Marie is a gourmet cook and organic gardener living in California, writing her 5th book and hiking every day with Travis, her Yellow Lab companion.
Fisker Automotive will begin deploying its government loan designated to spur U.S. production of fuel-efficient vehicles by buying and restoring an out-of-use GM plant in Delaware. Fisker paid only $18 million for the idle plant, but plans to spend an additional $175 million on refurbishing it. This Wilmington plant will be the manufacturing site for the company’s second model, a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) sedan.
The factory–originally built by GM in 1947–will reach full production capacity of 75,000-100,000 vehicles a year by 2014. By that point Fisker estimates that reopening the plant will create 2,000 factory jobs. The automaker expects production from this plant will create an additional 3,000 vendor and supplier jobs. …read more of Fisker Starts Putting Government Loan to Use here
While, personally, it gets my heart racing a little to see hot new fuel efficient models on the street, fuel efficiency is not generally associated with sexiness. Green cars can, however, be engineering marvels both visually and in terms of performance.
Whether you’re looking for an eye-catching sports car or a safe, reliable way to transport your family, some high-end models are more fuel efficient than others. This efficiency will save you money on gas, and is an easy way to lower your ecological footprint.
Below is a list of some green luxury options, organized by fuel source. Of course, some of the fuel sources themselves are greener than others. Some key stats accompany each model, or click on the model name itself for a link to the product page on the manufacturer’s website. …read more of Green Luxury here
For New York City dwellers, fleets of yellow cabs are as part of the scenery as the skyscrapers. For many people living there, taking a cab is a common form of transportation.
If you’ve hailed a cab there recently, you may have noticed an increasing number of hybrid taxis honking their horns as of late.
The city of New York has a goal in which the entire taxi cab fleet will become hybrids by 2012. So far, they’ve doubled the number of hybrid taxis and expect to meet their goal. So, with 15% of their fleet made up of taxis, they’re doing pretty well, but San Francisco is right there with them. San Francisco boasts 14% of their taxi fleet as being hybrid, while only 1% of Chicago’s fleet is going hybrid. One of Denver’s taxi companies is made up of 10% hybrids as well. …read more of Hybrid Taxis: We’re Almost There here
Most new technologies experience a quick price decrease as technology improves, economies of scale (larger quantities manufactured = lower per unit costs) are realized, and competition enters the marketplace.
Hybrid cars have not experienced as radical a price deflation as other novel technologies–perhaps because they entered an already mature, ultra-competitive car market where overpriced goods just won’t sell–but their price has begun to come down.
Not long ago the hybrid was the most innovative, greenest automotive option not only on the market, but also on the horizon. In the past few years, however, electric vehicles (EVs), plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), micro-compacts (such as Mercedes’ Smart), and ethanol/biofuels have become the next frontiers for the auto industry. …read more of 2010 Prius Priced from $21,000 here
As gas prices start to drop, the alternative fuel buzz seems to go down with it, making green fuel advocates a bit exasperated.
When gas is $4 a gallon, even the biggest SUV fans are looking for a biodiesel station or checking out hybrid prices. With current prices down to a remarkable $1.91 for regular gas, everyone seems content with fossil fuels once more.
While I enjoy the lower prices as much as the next person, part of me wishes they would go up again to spur the alternative fuel urgency that was so pervasive this time last year.
Discover the latest developments in improving technologies, tightening auto standards, fuel alternatives and how to make your current car eco-friendly. Find out which companies are investing in energy efficient vehicles.
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