Current Stories
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Can Housing Be Green, and Cheap?
Portland Tribune
05/15/2008
A Portland nonprofit agency that builds and sells new homes is showing how cheap, green homes can be done. HOST Development Inc. is finishing work on the first homes in its Helensview Homes development -- the first traditional single-family neighborhood project in town to receive LEED-ND (Neighborhood Development) certification.
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Conspiracy Theory
Atlantic Monthly
05/14/2008
Climate-change litigation is heating up. Will the legal strategy that brought down Big Tobacco work against Big Oil?
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San Francisco Mayor Touts Green Standards
San Francisco Chronicle
05/15/2008
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom testified before Congress on Wednesday about the city's tough new green building standards and urged lawmakers to pass similar rules nationwide.
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Views: Sustainability-Fueled Profits
San Francisco Chronicle
05/14/2008
Far from being a cost to society and business, sustainability is emerging as a huge opportunity for both. The key to sustainability is innovation, and that in turn spells competitive advantage, which economists define as above-average profits.
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Snohomish County Proposes Eco-Development
Seattle Times
05/14/2008
Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon unveiled plans Tuesday for an environmentally friendly development of businesses, housing and recreation on 600 acres of county-owned land off Cathcart Way near Highway 9.
The county envisions a job center, a transit hub, four-story condominiums and "green" businesses such as hydroponic greenhouses and solar-energy production on land once slated for a county landfill.
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Starbucks Struggles with Recycling
Seattle Times
05/14/2008
Starbucks customers who care about the environment ask first about the paper cups.
The cups are not recyclable, and even if they were, many Starbucks stores do not have recycling bins.
Ben Packard, Starbucks' vice president of corporate social responsibility, knows it's an issue.
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Green Sell: Do You Buy It?
The Tyee
05/14/2008
The evolution of green from a movement of zealots as fierce as anything politics and religion have spawned into a mainstream marketing phenomenon has been fascinating, but I've yet to decide if it is A Good Thing. Unfortunately, the EPIC trade show in Vancouver last month left me no more certain.
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Columbian Gets Nod for Eco-Friendly Building
Vancouver Columbian
05/12/2008
The Columbian's headquarters on Monday became the second downtown Vancouver property to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. The U.S. Green Building Council's four LEED designations recognize different levels of energy efficiency and environmentalism in building designs.
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Solar industry needs workers
San Francisco Chronicle
05/10/2008
California's fascination with solar power has created thousands of jobs in the state and will probably add thousands more, according to a new survey of the industry.
The survey, by two community college researchers, estimates that solar companies in California now employ between 16,500 and 17,500 people and may hire another 5,000 in the next year.
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A Company Ahead of Its Time
New York Times
05/09/2008
Had you caught “Big Ideas for a Small Planet” on the Sundance Channel on Tuesday night, or read last week’s issue of Fortune, you might have been intrigued by reports about the environmentally conscious philosophy of a Portland, Ore., fashion company called Nau. But if you had then visited the company’s Web site, you would have discovered a notice that Nau is going out of business.
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HP, Google Rate High in Climate Change Actions
San Francisco Chronicle
05/07/2008
Several Bay Area companies like Hewlett-Packard and Google got high marks today from a group that monitors corporate response to the threat of climate change, but others like eBay and Apple were criticized for inaction.
Climate Counts, a New Hampshire nonprofit group, released its second annual report rating 60 large consumer companies on their efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, which contribute to climate change.
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Companies Greener, But Not Green Enough
New York Times
05/07/2008
This just in from Climate Counts, the nonprofit group that scores consumer products companies on their green track records: consumer companies are getting greener, but they are still a pretty carbon-intensive lot.
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How 'Green' is That Shirt?
Christian Science Monitor
05/07/2008
An 'organic cotton' label doesn't make it 'carbon free.' But a new factory in Sri Lanka moves a step closer to that claim.
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Greening Away Poverty
San Francisco Bay Guardian
05/01/2008
If green is the new black, eco-populism is the new environmentalism.
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Missoula's Green Cabbie
Missoula Missoulian
05/01/2008
Since he started Green Taxi, Mick Murray has driven a euphoric skier down from Snowbowl and navigated his Prius through a blinding winter storm to deliver a tourist to Paws Up Resort.
At first, Murray didn't sleep much. But since February, when he opened the environmentally friendly cab business in Missoula, he's managed to clock more than 6,000 miles on his Toyota hybrid.
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Suit Accuses Cosmetic Makers of Organic Ruse
San Francisco Chronicle
04/29/2008
A long-simmering dispute over the definition of organic personal care products boiled over into court Monday, when Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps filed a lawsuit charging many of its competitors with deceptively marketing their soaps and lotions.
The lawsuit - filed in San Francisco Superior Court - targeted many widely known cosmetic manufacturers including Estee Lauder, Kiss My Face, Hain Celestial and Stella McCartney America. It also named smaller firms such as Mill Valley-based Juice Beauty.
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REI explores the environmental cost of eco-tourism
Seattle Times
04/28/2008
The retailer's REI Adventures unit sells vacation packages to people who are interested in exploring faraway places while cycling, kayaking, hiking, climbing or taking photographs.
REI Adventures accounts for nearly one-third of the retailer's annual greenhouse gas emissions, mostly because of the air travel involved with getting vacationers to and from their destinations.
That's a dilemma for the member-owned cooperative, which has pledged to become "climate-neutral" by 2020.
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Green-Collar Good Times in Oregon
Portland Oregonian
04/22/2008
When the Oregon Legislature joined other West Coast states in passing its "renewable energy standard" and enlarged tax credits for renewable energy projects, it had a hand in whipping up a small tsunami of jobs.
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Victoria's Eco-Utopia
Toronto Globe and Mail
04/22/2008
A green dream is becoming reality for 2,500 residents of Dockside Green, a super eco-friendly development in Victoria that is already being hailed as a design icon
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Portland Aid Group Opens Green Facility
Seattle Times
04/22/2008
Mercy Corps is building a new headquarters in Portland that will incorporate green building practices and an education center that will offer visitors a virtual tour of poverty.
The groundbreaking ceremony was held Monday, with plans to occupy the new headquarters in the summer of 2009.
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To LEED or Not to LEED?
Portland Oregonian
04/22/2008
During the past decade, Portland has established itself as a national leader in sustainable design and building construction at a time when demand for green buildings is growing rapidly. Portland has more LEED-registered projects, for example, than anywhere else in the United States, and locally-based companies are attracting green work nationally.
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Are Your Products Truly Green?
Portland Oregonian
04/22/2008
As more companies jump on the green-products bandwagon, businesses that genuinely fit the mold are having to work harder to get their message across to consumers.
Their challenge: How to differentiate from those that have effectively "greenwashed" their image and products, labeling them as environmentally friendly when they may not really be.
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Portland Capitalizes On Green Resume
Portland Oregonian
04/22/2008
Taken seriously, a sustainable practice addresses the environmental, economic and social impacts of human activity on the long-term survival of the planet -- or in this case, the city. "Green" is the oft-used shorthand.
Here's a closer look at Portland's greenest attributes, and the ways in which they might continue to flourish.
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Green Design Humming in Portland
Portland Oregonian
04/22/2008
As the economy has inched toward recession, Portland's design and development community has felt the impact. However, expertise in sustainable, high-density urban design is offering patches of blue in an otherwise cloudy sky.
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Green Branding Not Always Best
Vancouver Sun
04/22/2008
Too many companies engage in "knee-jerk green marketing" even though most consumers have higher priorities than the environment, sustainability marketing consultant Kierstin De West said Monday.
Her comments came after her company -- Conscientious Innovation -- released online poll results showing that although B.C. residents care about the environment, they are still more concerned with their own well- being.
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