Green Economy

Although I don’t think the Girl Scouts are going to be selling boxes of CFL lightbulbs instead of cookies any time soon—why change a good and delicious thing?--groups of other stripes are always looking for creative ways to raise money for their organizations. Now your group can choose to sell recycled paper goods, green home cleaners, energy-efficient showerheads, and yes, low-energy lightbulbs through several Web-based green fundraising organizations. You register your group on the Web site, tell your prospective buyers to visit it and make their purchases, and your group gets a check in the mail.

LetsGoGreen.biz and Greenraising.comoffer groups the opportunity to earn between 25% and 40% of the price on each eco-conscious product their friends and relatives buy. This percentage is not as high as on traditional fundraising items—typically 50% to 75%--because traditional items are mass-produced, often overseas, thus cheaper to produce, making it easier to pass on a greater percentage of the profit. But green fundraising contains an educational and pro-environmental aspect—for both buyers and sellers--that can make up for the lower profit.

And if consumers like the products, they can keep on buying through the fundraising websites, generating additional income for the group after the initial drive is over. So if your group can operate with a steady stream of income instead of a one-time payment as in the traditional model, green fundraising may be something to think about.

Now if only there were a way to keep on buying Girl Scout cookies…

The Presidential Forum on Renewable Energy is sponsoring a nationwide essay contest for college students between the ages of 18 and 24 asking them to submit a plan on renewable energy, sustainability, and conservation for America. Each of three winners will receive an educational prize of $10,000 to coincide with the celebration of Earth Day in April.

But hurry: the essay is due by February 1, 2008. You can enter online here.

Students are asked to write a four- to six-point renewable energy plan for America, laying out a strategy for the next five to ten years that will minimize our current dependence on nonrenewable energy sources.

The essay contest grew out of a November 17, 2007, forum in which presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Dennis Kucinich spoke about global warming and America’s energy future. The event, sponsored by Grist and PRI’s Living on Earth, was presented by the Presidential Forum on Renewable Energy in partnership with League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, California LCV Education Fund, Center for American Progress Action Fund, and NRDC Action Fund.

Good luck!

UPDATE: After we posted this story, we heard from the folks at Divide The Ride, a service that busy parents can use to form carpools for their kids. Parents enter their kids' activity schedule and invite families they know and trust to join the carpool. A carpool calendar is created and families who join the carpool will be emailed a complete schedule and reminders. Divide the Ride claims it's the only service designed exclusively for parents...and what parent couldn't use an extra set of wheels, for free?

My mother likes to tell a story about my father going to get gas for the car one winter’s night, long ago. Our regular gas station was about a half-mile away; under normal circumstances, a less-than-15-minute errand.

But there was nothing normal about the energy crisis of 1973.

Later – after two hours and one frantic call from my mother to a neighbor to go out and track him down – my father returned with a tale of going to our gas station, only to wait on line and watch the gas run out before he got any. He went from empty station to empty station, and was able to find some gas somewhere, eventually. Soon after that he joined a four-man carpool of co-workers for his daily 30-mile trip (one way) from our home in suburban Long Island to his job at John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens.

And here we sit, 35 years later, alone again in our cars, again running out of gas…

As we enter the era of post-peak oil production, carpooling is reappearing as a strategy to cope with dwindling supplies and sky-high prices. But instead of asking around at work to find potential co-riders (still a great option), you can use one of a handful of Internet-based companies to find or offer your ride. NuRide, Essex, Connecticut, matches potential carpoolers using profiles and criteria that users choose, and provides an email system so they can contact each other. Users can earn rewards such as gift cards to major retailers when they earn a certain number of points based on rides completed. According to NuRide, in 2007 its members arranged 400,000 carpools, traveled about 12.5 million miles less, and saved half a million gallons of gas. NuRide requires users to be affiliated with an organization such as a university or a business, so there is some level of security for users.

So pair up and start your Prius…

MonsterTRAK, an online career and recruitment Web site, wants to help you out with that major decision. It has developed GreenCareers, a site for college students and recent graduates listing environmentally responsible jobs and internships. GreenCareers includes entry-level, part-time, volunteer, and internship opportunities at organizations of all sizes that positively impact the environment. These are both "green jobs" and jobs at "green companies." The site also features career advice and articles on living green, green activism, and related news.

GreenCareers was developed in partnership with ecoAmerica, a consumer research and marketing environmental nonprofit, and is sponsored by Environmental Defense, a nonprofit organization linking science, economics, and law to find solutions to environmental problems.

For more information, visit
GreenCareers

Happy hunting!

Two members of the New York City Council have introduced a trailblazing bill, Intro. 104, the Electronics Collection, Recycling, and Reuse Act, which, if passed later this year, would be the first mandatory municipal electronics recycling law in the country. It would make manufacturers responsible for collection and disposal of products when no longer usable, instead of leaving this task to consumers, who often simply dump them in the trash.

The bill’s 43 council sponsors believe it would encourage manufacturers to adopt more environmentally friendly designs, since they would held liable if products are not disposed of properly. It would also reduce the more than 25,000 tons of discarded electronics New York City collects each year. These products comprise the fastest-growing part of the city’s waste stream, and can contain mercury, lead, cadmium, and other hazardous materials. When burned or deposited in landfills improperly, they leach into the soil and are released into the air.

Intro. 104 is supported by Consumers Union, and the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups, who are urging Mayor Michael Bloomberg to sign the legislation. If it is passed this year, companies would have a year to design collection plans, and the bill would take effect in 2009.

To learn more about the bill, visit
Intro. 104

To learn what you can do to support the bill, visit
NRDC's Action Campaign

On Thursday former President Bill Clinton spoke at the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Climate Protection Summit about the possibilities of a "green economy."

"In my view for the United States, it is the greatest economic opportunity we've had since we mobilized for World War Two," Clinton said. "If we do it right, it will produce job gains and income gains substantially greater than the 1990s."

Clinton said initiatives to combat global warming, such as the retrofit of old buildings and switching to more fuel-efficient cars, would create jobs and boost wages.

Read the whole story on Environmental News Network.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global sales from clean energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal power and biofuels could grow to as much as $1 trillion a year by 2030, U.S. bank Morgan Stanley has estimated.

Global population growth and soaring prices for fossil fuels are driving the market, along with dropping costs in clean energy and concern about energy security and climate change, the bank said in a research note issued on Wednesday.

On the market's upside, revenues could reach $505 billion in 2020, or nearly nine times the level in 2005, and hit $1.02 trillion 10 years later, the bank said.

As a comparison, the gross domestic product of the United States, the world's largest economy, hit $13.2 trillion last year.

"The global risks posed by climate change are driving spending and investment in clean energy solutions, which (unlike the oil shock that spawned the first wave of energy solutions in the 1970s) is durable and accelerating," Morgan Stanley said in the note.

The bank also initiated coverage of the clean energy industry. It rated the following companies as overweight-volatile: thin film solar company First Solar Inc, solar company SunPower Corp, biofuel company VeraSun Energy Corp., and emissions reducers Fuel Tech Inc.

The report cautioned that sales could be reduced in the unlikely event that world governments change direction on climate change policy and stop taking steps to monetize greenhouse gas emissions. Peace in the Middle East could also push down oil prices, which could slow growth.

Shares in renewable energy companies also could be volatile in the short term, it said.

The bank was particularly bullish on solar power. Market penetration of solar in electricity generation could rise from levels almost too small to measure in 2005 to 11.2 percent in 2030, while wind power could go from 0.9 percent to 9.6 percent by 2030, it said.

Solar would take more market share as costs decline for things like panels that convert the sun's rays into power. The cost of solar power should sink from $8 per Gigawatt installed in 2005 to $1.60 per GW by 2030. Wind power, which was $2 per GW. would cost about the same through 2030, it said.

Penetration of biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel in transportation could grow from around 1 percent in 2005 to 21 percent in 2030, it said, assuming cars boost fuel efficiency.

Morgan Stanley was not the only bank this week to highlight green energy. Government efforts to tackle climate change are creating a "megatrend" investment opportunity that should tempt even those skeptical about the nature and pace of global warming, Deutsche Bank analysts said on Thursday in China.

Deutsche Bank has attracted about $8.55 billion into climate change funds, which target companies that cut greenhouse gases or help people adapt to a warmer world, in sectors from agriculture to power and construction.

Global investment in renewable energies jumped to a record $100 billion in 2006 and will likely rise to about $120 billion in 2007, the U.N. Environment Program said this summer.

Morgan Stanley owned 1 percent or more of a class of common equity securities of green energy companies Aventine Renewable Energy and ReneSola and within the last 12 months managed or co-managed public offerings of securities for EnerNOC, First Solar Inc, Motech, SunPower Corp. and VeraSun Energy.

The bank said late last year it planned to invest some $3 billion in carbon markets over the next five years.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner)

(Additional reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison in Beijing)