Environmental Activism

PUMA: GM and Segway's Solution for Urban Transportation

Every year, more people worldwide flock to cities, where congestion and pollution are becoming intolerable. GM and Segway have teamed up to build what they believe is the solution: a two-seat, two-wheeled Segway with zero emissions.READ»

Can Wind Power a Rural Renaissance?

Jon Bergstrom, a cotton and hay farmer in Sweetwater, Texas (population 10,472), looks outside his window every day and feels grateful. The giant white towers spinning on the near horizon have everything to do with it. Sweetwater is ...READ»

Movie Ratings: Running the Numbers

On November 1, 1968, bowing to howls that movies were corrupting youth, the film industry unveiled a voluntary rating system, which told youth what to see to be corrupted. The ratings have evolved (X is now NC-17, though we still say "X" since "triple-NC-17" sounds lame), but kids' desire to sneak into R movies hasn't changed. Here's a look at the system and its stats.READ»

• Now November 2008

New Ways to Measure Energy Use

Intelligent systems can now monitor buildings, traffic, even bodies of water. READ»

• Attack of the Green-Tech Geeks
• High-Tech Ways to Go Green at Home

Green Washing

I enjoyed reading your excellent article about the Sierra Club's endorsement of the new Clorox Green Works line ("Cleaning Solution," September). As marketing professors and researchers, my colleague Cathy Hartman and I ...READ»

Updates

Texan Trees"Carbon Boom" (July/August) addressed the idea of offsetting greenhouse- gas emissions by preserving forests, largely in tropical regions like Brazil and Indonesia. Now the so-called forest carbon trade has come ...READ»

• Feedback

The Port of Los Angeles is the Gateway to Ingenuity

L.A. and Long Beach invested $1 million in the first hybrid tugboat, due out this fall. Software on board decides how to deploy the two diesel engines, two generators, and 21,000 pounds of batteries. Tug maker Foss expects fuel ...READ»

Chicago is the Creative Capital of ohe Universe. Discuss.

Skyscrapers, green roofs, and house music -- a very American metropolis. READ»

Saving the World at Work

Fast Interview: Tim Sanders, author of Saving the World at Work: What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond Making a Profit to Making a Difference, talks about how employees are greening their companies from within, the death of the casual consumer, why bosses are welcoming their ideas, and how the new exclamation of approval is "That's off the grid!"READ»

• Building Green Homes
• Are Beijing's Olympics Really Green?

The Green Traveler: Seven Offbeat Eco Trips

Rajashtan, India: Camel rides across the Great Indian Desert, in western extreme part of the state of Rajasthan, are a carbon-friendly way to see the country’s ancient temples and the rugged Aravalli mountain ...READ»

7 Offbeat Eco Trips

You’ve slept in a yurt in Big Sur, cruised the Galapagos and roared with the grizzlies in Denali. Ready for some new eco-travel ideas? Here, seven unexpected trips worth a look.READ»

• The Green Traveler: Seven Offbeat Eco Trips
• Voluntourism: 14 Vacations for the Socially Conscious

Forces of Nature

Renzo Piano's California Academy of Sciences is a home for flora and fauna -- and a feat of engineering. READ»

Green Business: Plastic Potion No. 9

Recycling should be the easy way to get people involved in helping the environment. Too bad the businesses behind it are blowing it.READ»

• The Global Electronic Waste Problem

How TerraCycle Plans to Takeover the Garbage Industry

Fast Interview: In this Q&A, TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky talks about why eco-friendly products don't have to be expensive, his quest to corner the trash market, and why his wife performed in Carnegie Hall in a dress made from recycled juice pouches.READ»

• The Global Electronic Waste Problem

The Olympics: Green or Brown?

Beijing's pollution isn't a secret. But as part of its bid to secure the Olympic contract, the world's 13th filthiest city (according to a World Bank study) embarked on a massive cleanup to improve air quality, sanitize drinking water and purify the rivers in time for the games, which began on Thursday. New sports stadiums were built with solar power and other energy-saving technologies, while new public transit systems were introduced to the streets. But can Beijing really claim this summer's games are green?READ»

• Are Beijing's Olympics Really Green?
• The Power of Green

Good Enough to Eat

How seven execs are making the food supply cleaner, greener, and healthier.READ»

• Clean, Healthy Food

Timberland's Jeff Swartz on Corporate Responsibility

No one preaches corporate responsibility quite like Timberland's Jeff Swartz. Embraced by hip-hop trendsetters, his boot company grew eightfold in market capitalization from 1992 to 2005, hitting $1.6 billion. He used his position to deploy social initiatives galore, instituting some of the toughest worker-protection standards in the manufacturing industry, planting 1 million trees, and sponsoring thousands of volunteer events. He won accolades from Wall Street and social activists alike. But with his company's revenue soft and the stock price tumbling, is his own job sustainable?READ»

• The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies

Clorox Goes Green

Since Clorox enlisted the Sierra Club to hype a new green product line, sales are booming. But the club is dealing with a nasty little stain.READ»

• Are Beijing's Olympics Really Green?

Reflection: A Century of the Automobile Industry

September 2008 is a milestone month for U.S. automakers: General Motors and the Ford Model T both turn 100 years old. We wish they had more to celebrate, but in their honor, here's a look at the business of cars.READ»

• The Business of Cars
• Meet: World Low-Cost Airlines Congress
• Listen: Songs of Autumn
• FC Calendar September 2008

Big Wind from Texas

Fast Interview: Jerry Patterson, Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office, on how Texas became the leader in wind power development.READ»

• Tilting at Windmills: The Unfulfilled Promise of Offshore Wind
• Jim Gordon May Have an Answer to our Energy Problems
• 10 Questions with Wind Power Entrepreneur Jim Gordon
• Texas Oil Tycoon Tackles Renewable Energy

FastCompany's July/August 2008 Calendar

What's happening in July and August, from the G8 get-together to Bill Gates's last day on the job.READ»

• Convene: Donkeys & Elephants
• Numerology: Hot Dog!

P&G's Sustainability Initiatives -- Not So Sustainable

The giant wants to sell $20 billion worth of eco-friendly innovations by 2013. But what about those controversial ingredients?READ»

• Wal-Mart: The New Green Giant?
• 9 Daring Ideas That Blend Fashion and Sustainability

The Carbon Industry's Main Players

Professors dominate the emerging carbon market from finance firms to industry, nonprofits to the World BankREAD»

• Carbon Boom
• The King of Green Investing
• Silicon Valley's Angel Investors
• The Music Industry Goes Green
• Music Goes Green
• The Green Housing Boom
• Building Green Homes
• Can Carbon Credits Slow Global Warming?

Can Carbon Credits Slow Global Warming?

Legal limits on greenhouse-gas emissions are coming fast, with a $1 trillion carbon market emerging. At the core: A cadre of young, idealistic Yale forestry grads. But will carbon offsets do anything to slow global warming?READ»

• Green Family Tree
• Silicon Valley's Green Angel Investors
• The King of Green Investing
• Infographic: Credit Scores
• The Music Industry Goes Green
• Music Goes Green
• The Green Housing Boom
• Building Green Homes
• The State of the Climate Change Debate

Vinod Khosla's Green Ventures

Most of Vinod Khosla's environmental startups are efforts to reduce our dependence on petroleum -- both by making better use of oil and by finding other sources of liquid fuel. The rest address solar and geothermal power and ...READ»