The Haas Business School will now have a program for students interested in green technology and offer education on clean energy technology, policy and economics. The Haas Center for Energy and Environmental Innovation already offeres classes such as energy project financing and the Energy Biosciences Institute was founded two years ago to develop biofuels.
This is excellent news as many schools are offering similar degrees now. I am sure it will get plenty of interest as there is no better place to learn about green technology than at U.C. Berkeley which is in they bay area surrounded by green technology companies and research.
I am sure many people wonder what we can really recycle and put in the recycling bin and what can’t be recycled. Usually items that can be recycled have the recycle triangle on the item somewhere and if it doesn’t have it, then most likely it can’t be recycled. Different cities also have different recycling programs but for the most part, the items that cannot be recycled are usually pretty similar. For example, in South San Francisco where I live, we have just one recycling bin that we put everything which makes it really convenient for us. The items will get sorted at the collection center but it doesnt hurt to help them out some more.
Here are 3 links that have some pretty useful information from the cities of San Francisco, South San Francisco, and Palo Alto.
Starting in the Spring, San Francisco International Airport will have kiosks where flyers will be able to purchase carbon offsets. This will be the first of its kind and sounds like an interesting idea. Since people are usually bored waiting for their flights, a kiosk will intrigue people to do some minor splurge spending to help the environment. The offsets are not tax deductable and are provided by 3Degrees, a San Francisco firm that sells renewable energy and carbon reduction investments. As you can see from the chart above, the offest price is minimal and 3Degrees gets 30% of it while the rest goes to carbon reduction projects.
The Bay Area plans on spending $1 billion to build the nation’s first electric vehicle network that includes service stations to recharge batteries and garages to swap batteries. The electric vehicle charging stations are provided by Palo Alto based company, Better Place and should be rolled out all over the Bay Area by 2012. The electric outlets will start appearing on public buildings next year in San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
This will be a good advancement for the Bay Area to take the lead in promoting greener cars. By making it easier to operate and charge electric cars, it will make people more likely to purchase them in the Bay Area. As more car companies release new models of electric cars, it will be exciting to see where the auto industry will go in the next five years. Looking at how the economy and recession is hitting the American automakers, it will also be interesting to see whether GM, Ford, and Chrysler will still be around. Hopefully the economy will be better by 2010, which is when there should be a lot of new Hybrid and electric car models coming out.
The San Francisco 7th Annual Green Festival is here Nov 14, 15, 16th at the Concourse Exhibition Center. The event will feature 125 renowned authors, leaders, and educators, 350 eco-friendly businesses, workshops, and more. If you want to be involved or learn more about being green, this is a good place to start. The Green Festival is a joint project by Global Exchange and Co-op America.
