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18 articles by Laura Waldman
Innovation
Rising Stars: High Schoolers Win National Contest on Sustainability
Jul 30th, 2014 | By Laura Waldman
A few months ago, a couple of local high school students came to us for help with a project. They were looking for information about sustainability and green practices for a video they were producing. We were happy to help, but little did we know how far that video would take them.
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Eco Living
Cooking for One With Zero Waste
Apr 22nd, 2014 | By Laura Waldman
For us singletons living alone out there, and hey, there are a lot of us — 27% of U.S. households to be exact — cooking for one can result in a lot of wasted food. Food packaging sized for bigger households, recipes designed to feed families, and confusing expiration dates all make it difficult to create properly portioned meals for one without wasting food and money. But with a few smart strategies, it's possible to stop throwing cash down the garbage disposal without resorting to eating frozen Lean Cuisines every night.
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Eco-Living
INFOGRAPHIC: Grow Where You Are
Nov 5th, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
After our recent interview with Dan Susman about Growing Cities, his new documentary about urban farming, we were inspired to translate the movie's core message—"Grow where you are!"—into a digestible guide. Whether it's planting a windowsill garden, joining a community garden or even building a backyard chicken coop, there are numerous ways to move from relying on factory farms to growing food for yourself and your community, even in a big city.
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Food System
'Growing Cities' Digs Into Urban Farming
Oct 17th, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
Recently we had the pleasure of speaking with Dan Susman, director and producer of the new documentary *Growing Cities*. The film follows Dan and his co-producer Andrew Monbouquette across the United States as they examine the growing urban farming movement. The Nebraska natives visited a total of 80 farms in vacant lots, rooftops, and backyards and interviewed the passionate people from all walks of life who tend them. Along the way, they learned a lot about community, food justice, and eating urban squirrels (spoiler: try at your own risk).
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Eco Living
Live Green CT: A Zero-Waste Affair
Sep 17th, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
This past weekend we had the pleasure of sponsoring Live Green Connecticut!'s 4th annual festival bringing together environmental educators, nonprofits, and businesses alike to showcase the latest in green technology, recycling, conservation, health and wellness, climate protection, and sustainable living. Last week we wrote about our goal to "Make a Green Fest Greener" and we did just that.
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Food System
Food Waste For Fresh Produce
Sep 6th, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
Hello Compost launches a program to help low-income New York City residents trade in their food waste for locally grown fresh produce.
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Eco Living
Save Fuel With Your Smartphone
Aug 22nd, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
Fuel economy is obviously very important to American drivers, and yet many drivers have no idea that poor driving habits can reduce fuel economy by as much as one-third. Drivers typically evaluate vehicles by their fuel economy, but simple actions like strong accelerations, abrupt braking, and idling can stand in the way of taking full advantage of a vehicle's efficiency potential. And guess what, there are apps for that. Here's a look at several that help save fuel.
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Transportation
Rental Cars Are Going Greener
Aug 21st, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
In addition to being eco-friendly and saving money on fuel on vacations and business trips, renting an alternative-fuel vehicle is a great way to test one out before making a purchase. Most rental car companies are now catering to eco- and cost-conscious drivers by offering a variety of hybrid and electric cars for both long-term rentals and shorter, by-the-hour use. For some consumers, a rental my be their first experience with this new technology.
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Eco Living
Music, Summertime and Food Waste
Jul 29th, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
Public events like conferences, concerts and festivals present a great opportunity to make a dent in the 40% of food wasted in the United States. With that in mind, we've partnered with the Alive @ Five concert series in Stamford, Conn., this summer to help divert the event's food waste to be composted rather than where it usually goes: the landfill.
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Innovation
Engine Start-Stop Systems
Jul 17th, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
As we continue our initiative to end unnecessary idling, we wanted to take a closer look at an existing technology that could go a long way to reduce the needless burning of gas at stoplights and drive thrus: engine stop-start systems.
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Food System
First Ag-Bioscience High School to Open This Fall
Jul 5th, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
Global Impact STEM Academy, a new public high school in Springfield, Ohio — and the first in the nation to focus on agricultural biosciences — is now recruiting students. The concept for the school was developed to address the region's widening gap between the skills of its workforce and the skills required for the agbioscience industry and give young people real-world experience in areas with strong job and economic growth — agriculture, energy and the environment.
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Eco Living
Solving the Truck-Idling Problem
Jun 19th, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
As part of our new anti-idling campaign, iturnitoff.com, we've been talking a lot about a simple personal change that can make a big difference — restarting your car instead of idling. But what if you drive a truck for a living? Drivers of heavy vehicles and tractor trailers often take breaks or even sleep in their trucks, and turning it off in extreme weather becomes is a safety issue rather than an environmental one. But with new anti-idling laws that can carry steep fines for idling more than a few minutes, not to mention the harmful impact on the environment, companies are starting to take note and explore alternative solutions.
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Eco Living
Announcing the 'Turn It Off' Anti-Idling Campaign
Jun 10th, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
Sustainable America is launching the "I Turn It Off" campaign to raise awareness about the negative consequences of idling and educate drivers on how a small change to a daily habit can make a big impact. Learn more and pledge to curb idling at iturnitoff.com.
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Food System
New York City's Food Waste Challenge
May 22nd, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
If we're going to get serious about reducing the staggering amount of food wasted in the United States—40 percent!—it's going to take more than a few backyard compost bins. Restaurants and food service providers, which account for approximately 22% of food wasted in this country, have plenty of room for improvement. But, as NPR reported last fall, many restaurants simply don't make food waste reduction a priority. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is hoping to change that with his recently announced Food Waste Challenge.
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Transportation
Trucking Industry Moves Toward Natural Gas Vehicles
May 17th, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
With approximately eight million heavy- and medium-weight trucks consuming three million barrels of oil a day, or nearly 15 percent of the United States' total daily consumption, the trucking industry has a huge opportunity to make a lasting impact on oil dependance. A few recent developments point to a possible shift to truck fleets running on natural gas, which emits less CO2 than gasoline and diesel and is abundant here in the United States.
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Transportation
9 EV-Friendly National Retailers
May 10th, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
EV charging isn’t just for your garage anymore. To meet increased demand from electric-vehicle drivers for convenient places to charge up, national retailers are partnering with companies like ECOtality and ChargePoint to install charging stations in key markets across the United States. Here's our list of the top nine retailers that are leading the EV charge.
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Innovation
Startups: Apply to Compete for $50,000
May 3rd, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
We are excited to announce our upcoming participation in the 2013 VilCap/VentureWell – Louisville Agriculture and Cleantech Accelerator program, a sustainable energy and agriculture business competition in Louisville, Kentucky. This competition is seeking the next generation of enterprises focused on technology-driven solutions to the country’s most pressing agriculture and energy issues.
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Innovation
To Live and Drive in Las Vegas
Apr 29th, 2013 | By Laura Waldman
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has an ambitious plan for reinventing the transportation system in Las Vegas. Set to launch later this year, his Project 100 is a new ride-sharing system that aims to persuade residents to ditch their cars for a mobile app they can use to access a private, on-demand network of electric cars, bikes, and shuttle buses.
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