Green Harbor

After a little too much time off, our section on Sustainable Styles is back again and with some new featured designers.

Sustainable Styles is back with more of your favorite designs and styles to keep you eco-chic and eco-fabulous. As always, all the styles and the designs highlighted are made from reclaimed, recycled, fair-trade, and/or organic materials.

Our goal to is to make sure you’re not only informed about the latest Green News but to also make sure you have the latest Green Fashions.

This time we look at the top designers featured at this year’s New York Fashion Week at The GreenShows Eco-Fashion Week event.

The eco-designers with the new spring/summer line are:

• Bodkin
• Izzy Lane
• Bahar Shahpar
• House of Organic
• Lara Miller
• Mr. Larkin
• STUDY by Tara St. James

Stay Green!

It has been a few months since Copenhagen and many are upset that the global climate meeting was not what was expected.  Some blame the leaders of the developed nations, but two of largest developed nations have finally announced a decision regarding Copenhagen.

China and India, two of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, have finally released statements in regards to their country’s stance on the Copenhagen Accord.

Unfortunately, China’s and India’s response still clearly acknowledges the rifts amongst the leaders of developed nations on how the new global climate standards should be developed and negotiated.

China and India have both agreed to be “listed” as parties to the Copenhagen Accord but not “full association”. They also restated their position and belief that all climate change talks should be handled through the United Nation processes and procedures.

Their statements are direct shots at the U.S. and England who’s legislative leaders seem to still be at a stand still on the climate change and carbon emission reduction matter.

As the U.S. federal government continues to drag its feet and gets stuck in partisan politics, state and local governments pick up the slack and keep the Green Initiative moving forward.

The latest climate and environmental policy to emerge from a state government in an increase in required renewable energy generation in the State of Colorado.

The Colorado legislature has recently increased the renewable energy generation requirement from 20% to 30% by 2020. This is only second to the State of California.

The Colorado officials also require that 3% of this renewable energy must come from distributed projects such has rooftop and small-scale wind power and solar power.

The new legislation is also expected to create 3,333 new Green Collar Jobs every year.

If the legislation works as planned, Colorado could be a shining example for other state legislatures to follow.

It may seem hard to believe that the state that led the way in oil is also leading the way in renewable energy, but that’s exactly what’s happening in Texas.

Last week, wind turbines on the ERCOT energy grid produced 6,272 MW of energy. This is a record for Texas wind energy, however, it is not an accurate number since all the wind farms in the “panhandle” are tied to a different power grid and not calculated in these numbers.

According to the American Wind Energy Association, Texas leads the way with potential wind energy production followed by Iowa and than California.

In fact, due to transmission line and energy storage constraints, some wind turbine operators in Texas are forced to shut down their turbines due to over production. Energy storage is still a big hurtle in the effort to bring more wind power online.

But it will be fun to see if the energy industry will give Texas wind power another second name such as calling oil “Texas Tea”.

A new study released last week in Science magazine reports that new areas of methane gas emission release has been discovered around the margins of the Arctic Ocean.

The new study was conducted by researchers from the University of Alaska that are trying to research the amount of methane gas emissions released from within the Arctic Ocean.

Since methane gas is 30 times more efficient at trapping heat in our atmosphere it poses a far greater threat to our planet and global warming. The researchers state that our satellites are great at measuring methane gas release from land but not from the ocean.

The researchers discovered a vein of methane gas emissions release that is releasing 8 trillion grams of methane gas into the atmosphere annually. However, they are uncertain if this pocket of gas release is new or 20+ years old. But this research will help establish a base for future methane gas emission release studies.

Although, the researchers worry that if it is a new release of emissions than that could present an ominous trend of events to come.

For awhile now our choices for electric vehicles has been very limited but that is all about to change very soon with 6 new electric cars being debuted.

Now, that doesn’t mean these are your only other 6 new all electric vehicle options, but they are the most recent cars that are still in concept form. The 6 new cars are:

1. Nissan Leaf
2. Chevy Volt
3. Ford Focus
4. Coda (based in California)
5. Fisker Karma
6. Think City

These all electric plug-ins will be the next talk-of-the-town with many of them debuting to high expectations. Hopefully they can all deliver what they promise and by all accounts they do look like they will provide our Green Lifestyles with even more energy efficiency.

We really want the new Fisker Karma… but that’s our “champagne tastes on a beer budgets.”

The popularity of “Cash for Clunkers” has certainly died out (with questionable success) but that doesn’t mean that the U.S. Federal government and local state governments aren’t eager to apply this concept to other consumer products.

Many government officials and experts really believe that the quickest and most economical way to reduce our energy and fossil fuel use is through energy efficiency.

This can be achieved by making sure that all the products in our lives operate as efficiently as possible without wasting any energy unnecessarily. Examples of this is making sure you have insulation in your home, light colored roofs, high mileage vehicles, EnergyStar appliances, opening windows on a warm day, etc.

Due to these reasons there are now many U.S. federal and state incentive programs for consumers to update their appliances or add renewable technologies to their homes or daily lives. Check out DSIREusa.org for the most up-to-date database for your local Green Incentives.

Even though it seems as though Haiti has passed through many of our minds (especially now with Chile) there is still much work to be done. The biggest question is how to recycle the rubble in the capital city.

However, the Chinese symbol for “destruction” is also made with the similar strokes as “opportunity” and that is exactly what some recycling construction companies see.

Many experts believe that Port-au-Prince offers enough scale to be able to effective experiment with the on-site recycling and re-use of construction materials.

Not only would it be the most environmentally friendly form of new construction, but it could also prove the most economical for the island nation.

Unfortunately, activities might not be moving as fast as people would like but officials are doing everything they can.

Recycling is always better than just throwing away and when it comes to old rubber tires, recycling old tires is always the best option.

Until recently, there were only a few uses for old tires so the majority of all tires were just ground into smaller rubber pellets and placed in landfills. However, this process uses a lot of energy and fills up landfills quickly.

Now, old tires are finding new life as Tire Logs. It has recently been discovered that the old tires can be recycled into a durable, “flex-not-break” construction material that is proving to be extremely effective.

These Tire Logs are being used as seawalls, earthquake zone building materials, and erosion control measures just to name a few examples.

These new uses keep the old tires out of the landfill, reduce fossil fuel energy use, and they also protect water sources since they replace chemically treated woods in some construction projects.

Very few people may ever think about the importance of the Great Lakes, but for a water system that holds 20% of the World’s freshwater it should be on everybody’s mind.

The Obama Administration is finally taking action on its campaign pledge of $5 billion to help preserve and restore the Great Lakes.

The Obama Administration has recently released a detailed 41-page document outlining explaining how $2.2 billion in federal money will be used to protect and preserve the Great Lakes.

First, there will be a “zero-tolerance” policy for all invasive species such as Asian Carp as well as clean up funds for the most toxic areas of the lakes.

Hopefully the rest of the funds will be used to update many of river lock systems and further protect what can be argued as the World’s most precious resource despite what people say about oil.

We can live without oil, we cannot survive without fresh water…