Perpetual Innovation

Author: SustainMe

Energy ‘wedges’ – MIT News Office

Energy ‘wedges’ – MIT News Office

Here’s a great visual. Wedges. Click on the symbol to see what happens if we get serious about solar, wind… and EE.
Of course doing nothing is not a very good option.

31 October 2011
MIT’s 5-part series on the energy & energy efficiency
MIT 5-part series on Energy scaling up (or scaling
down in terms of energy efficiency).

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/energy-scale-part1-1024.html #1

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/energy-scale-part5-1028.html
# 5
- Read part 1: “What can make a dent?“
- Read part 2: “Where the wind blows“
- Read part 3: “Shining brightly“
- Read part 4: “Harnessing the Earth, the atom
  and the leaf“
- Read part 5: ‘Conserve,
  conserve, conserve’ A
  megawatt saved is better than a megawatt made, and there are plenty of ways to
  save energy without sacrifice.
30 October 2011
Skeptic finds he now agrees global warming is real – Yahoo! News

Skeptic finds he now agrees global warming is real – Yahoo! News: “Still, Muller said it makes sense to reduce the carbon dioxide created by fossil fuels.”

So the long-term denier Muller has finally decided that there really is global worming. Duh.

At least as important is that the funding is by Koch Foundation. It looks like they will stand behind the findings and push on for more research as to the cause of global warming.

Apparently Muller has a presentation on Monday and is preparing for peer-review publication of 4 articles on the research.

That is why I really like approaching the whole issue from the perspective of “Sustainability”. If it can’t be done in the long term (like population growth, deficits, fossil fuels) then it is not sustainable. We/you/me have to start planning to change our evil ways, now at a time of our choosing… or later at a time that is much less convenient and likely far more expensive. Ouch! or Double Ouch!:-(

Thanks to Jim H for bringing this up…

‘via Blog this’

30 October 2011
The iPod’s Inventor: a far better Thermostat?!

The iPod’s Inventor Strikes Out On His Own, And Invents…A Thermostat?! | Co. Design:

Oh, you are gonna like this. Programmable thermostats should, theoretically, save you a ton on your utilities.

But you will love this. Only about 6% of programmable thermostates are actually — you guessed it — are actually programmed.:-(

So maybe, just possibly, the answer is better training for the users. Nope. That will never do. How about something more intuitive and easier to use.

That’s the ticket.

It is iPod intuitive. Sounds really cool. Check out the promo video.

A programmable thermostat that works intuitively with and for you.

Hummmm….

‘via Blog this’

29 October 2011
Making Mad Money on Sustainability Mega trends

Check out the episode of Mad Money on September 29 (Thursday) when Cramer talks about three mega trends where you can make money. Even in the current insane marketplace.

One it energy efficiency: Look for HON, JCI and more. All favorites of this blog. looking at big EE savings (vs EE&E planning… 🙂

World food shorage: stocks to buy include Deer (DE) and Potash.

Healthy food trends include: Chipoltle, Haines & Panera.

He’s looking for decade-long trends, or longer.

Even if you can’t do anything else about sustainability issues, you can make a little GREEN off of the mega trends.

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000048374

1 October 2011