Sungevity was founded by a group of friends who came together with a common vision to “make it easy, make it affordable.” Their unique talents make the business model possible: co-founder and President Danny Kennedy is a former campaign manager for Greenpeace; co-founder and CEO Andrew “Birchy” Birch is a former banker and BP Solar Executive (who also holds a master’s degree in photovoltaics); Chief Development Officer Patrick Crane is a former marketing guru from the social networking giant LinkedIn; and co-founder and Chairman of the Board Alec Guettel inspired Danny to start the renewable energy company. (Thank you, Alec.)

Based out of Oakland, Calif., the sunshine crew uses technology as a convenience, allowing them to lease solar energy like one would lease a car, providing affordable and accessible solar power to places as far as Australia.

An example of the iQuote system.

Sungevity’s iQuote system allows you to obtain a quote remotely, and their unique financing structure allows you to lease your power so there are no costs up front. Think of it like booking a vacation through Expedia versus going to a travel agency — your specific needs are met on your budget and on your time. In this instance, you also save energy and money. And in some cases, if you produce more energy than you consume in a year, some utility companies will pay you back. Seem too good to be true? I spoke with Danny Kennedy to find out how they do it.

What prompted you to found Sungevity?
We wanted to make solar power easy, affordable and attainable to more people. In particular, taking away the up-front costs, which was a big barrier to adoption historically, and making it easy and hassle-free …  so we innovated the online business model we have that really makes Sungevity unique.

What sets you apart from other solar energy companies?
Using modern technology and leveraging the internet … we built software that allows us to mesh up the satellite view or top down image with aerial photographs which come at an angle from an airplane and through that we can get the angles which give us the pitch of the roof and the circumference of the roof and those angles are important to calibrating what the production of that solar panel will be on your roof and how much electricity you’ll get out of it. So, effectively, we are able to image an aerial system without going to your home. And the level of engineering is as accurate or more accurate than the manual process. That, in turn, allows us to go out and get the financing solution that we have now, which is the solar lease, which allows you to pay for the electricity supply rather than paying for it up front.

How are you able to lease energy instead of obtaining money up front?
We partner with third party financiers to create funds that pay for everything that goes into installing and inter-connecting a homeowner’s solar system. We always wanted to do a lease-like solution, take away that up-front cost. The history being that you would pay for the whole thing. We had to pioneer the strategy of using the internet and get that going with the inside selling that goes with this [call center-based sales.] Before we launched [in 2008] that had never been done. Now most of the industry is doing call center-based sales, but when we started that was just unknown.

Why is it important to make solar energy more mainstream?
We want to create value in the economy. The book that I’ve written ["Rooftop Revolution"] is really about how solar power is going to create a whole new economy and save people money in their homes, create jobs…. It’s just a smarter better way to power society. A more modern reliable technology than the fossil fuel-based system that we’ve inherited from the 19th century.

There are several ideas out there about how to increase awareness and popularity of renewable energies, such as carbon taxes and financial incentives. What do you think would help advance the movement?
The main thing is certainty. One of the problems with a lot of policy making over the years — and this is what I used to do for my bread and butter for two decades almost — is that they kind of shift the goal post, change the policy, use this policy incentive and that incentive, whereas the current sources of energy have had a fairly stable playing field for a long time. So, one overriding request is that we let this business flourish on solid ground and not keep changing the rules of it. We can talk about different policy settings and structures, but … in the last ten years it’s grown into a multi billion dollar business with 100,000 employees and allowed us to have what’s called net metering, which allows us to sell electricity into the supply, into the grid. That net metering concept is a matter of regulation of the public utility commissions in different states and it is sort of under attack right now. The utilities are asking them to take that away from us. If you take that away it’s hard to create the stability to attract investment and to build growing companies and continue to serve customers easily.

Of course, there are people with vested interests, but … there’s a whole new cycle of innovation happening, solar panels, solar leasing … these businesses are growing like gangbusters. We’ve got to get in front of it and support the job creators and the new economic opportunities that are coming with that. What is more about energy independence than letting a family in America produce their own energy? Or some of it? Harvesting the sunlight falling on their own home.

Where do you see solar energy in five years? What role do you hope to play?
Solar energy is going to be huge in five years time. Just in the years since we’ve been in business, we have exceeded expectations as an industry in terms of jobs created, dollars saved, the cost structure of electricity. Sungevity will continue to grow as a business because the curve will continue. I think there will continue to be all sorts of new additional bundles of service. Just like simple computers that could word process suddenly became connected to one another though the internet, then came the platform to all sorts of software and new services. So to, the distributed architecture of solar power in every home, being involved in energy, will create more technology innovation and more finance innovation, bringing new value and new services we couldn’t have conceived of before. Here we are engaged in the creation and consumption of this service called electricity. There will be more other ways and business models of serving more people for less with solar electricity.

I believe Sungevity will definitely be at the forefront. We are an innovative company … with a unique team that combines business savvy and technology. Patrick is now helping us think through what’s next for solar as a social network, almost gamifying this spread of solar service. (And, of course, there’s the book.…)

What needs to happen next?
To move on in the conversation, make people think of it as a lifestyle choice. We need to get over the hackneyed debate of the 20th century that this stuff doesn’t work, it’s not ready. It’s powering millions of people’s lives today. It’s a 100 billion dollar business, today, it employs 100,000 Americans today. Let’s move beyond that knee-jerk debate and recognize this is neither left or right, it’s out front. It’s what’s helping America move forward, creating jobs, saving families money. We are the good news story of American entrepreneurship succeeding. That’s what we should be recognized by and for and not some kind of whipping post for the culture wars.

What do you want people to learn from your book and where can they get it?
There is a sunny side up to the story of solar and how we make electricity going forward. The price is coming down enormously which makes it the best way to move forward. The way they can get involved is with activism or entrepreneurship.… Sungevity is part of the story, but we’re not all of it, by any means. There are millions of businesses that will grow in the next decades to rewire the world with this cleaner better way of getting electricity. That’s a huge good news story for the economy.

“Rooftop Revolution” will be available on Amazon.com or in bookstores starting Sept. 4th.

Note: The book also includes a forward by retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark, (former supreme commander of NATO) who emphasizes that a solar-based electricity supply with less dependence on foreign sources of fuel is a more secure one.

When an activist and a militant agree on an agenda, the message seems clear: “Solar is where it’s at right now.”

Main photo and additional image credit: Sungevity.com

The post Sungevity: A Solar Business Model that Works appeared first on REVMODO.

We spoke with Rohre Titcomb about the company and sustainable apparel.

How did Five Bamboo begin? What first inspired you?

Zahlen, Xtehn, Vehro, Qxhna and I have always loved collaborating on things. As kids, it was tree houses and forts, then ski jumps, and now it’s companies. We’re a good team because we all have different skills and aren’t afraid to tell it like it is. The kind of openness and honesty we have with each other allows for extremely productive disagreements.

In 2005, we founded our first company, a sports apparel company called Five Ultimate. Along the way, we realized that business can be a great vehicle for change. Our society needs to find a way of living that will allow us to exist and thrive within the ecological limits of our planet. So, we decided to pair our knowledge of the apparel industry with our passion for the environment to create a bamboo clothing company deeply rooted in sustainability. We try to provide consumers with quality, affordable apparel that treads lightly on the planet. Our hope is that, even in a small way, we will shift the apparel industry in a more responsible direction, and educate our customers on the environmental impact of the clothes they wear on a daily basis.

Bamboo fabric has a bad reputation in the sustainability world because of the processing involved. Can you explain how your process is different?

Gladly! Unfortunately, the majority of the bamboo apparel currently available on the market today is produced via the viscose process, which is chemically intensive and produces harmful byproducts. However, we make our fiber using the closed-loop lyocell process. Throughout the lyocell process no harmful chemicals are used, no harmful gases are released, and virtually no waste is created. The water consumption in the viscose and lyocell processes is very similar, but doesn’t come near to the impact of growing cotton. Cultivating cotton is extremely impactful because of the water, fertilizers and pesticides required. Soil erosion and water depletion are severe problems in cotton-growing areas. In contrast, bamboo thrives without the aid of fertilizers or pesticides, and is self-propagating, which means no cultivation is required.

To make our bamboo fiber, we mix raw bamboo pulp with a nontoxic organic solvent solution. The organic compound NMMO isolates the cellulose, leaving us with a thick mixture, which is sent through a shower head-like fixture (a spinaret) and rendered into filament form. What comes out is our fiber, ready to be spun into thread and woven into fabric.

Of course, everything has an environmental impact. We’re just trying to make clothing in a way that has the least impact possible. Sustainability is a moving target.

Do you think the rest of the apparel industry will follow your example?

We certainly hope so! There’s much room for improvement, and this industry is finally starting to see that. The Eco Index and Higg Index are good indicators of this. Action and intention don’t always go hand in hand though.

Do you plan to use any other fabrics than bamboo?

We currently use some organic cotton in our t-shirts, and know that we may have to add other materials into our fabrics to broaden our product offerings. In the short-term though, we’re just focusing on offering high-quality bamboo lyocell clothing.

Part of your mission is to partner with customers, communities, nonprofits and others to engage in causes — can you share an example of a partnership, or something you plan to do?

Our most exciting partnership at the moment is with the Bumbershoot music festival, a three day festival over Labor Day weekend here in Seattle. We’re running the merchandise program at the festival this year. In years past, all of the apparel has been made from conventional cotton, so we’re excited to work with the organizers to reduce the environmental impact of their festival by making the apparel items out of bamboo lyocell instead of cotton.

What products do you offer, and how do you plan on expanding your product line?

We design casual lifestyle bamboo apparel. We currently offer dresses, t-shirts, light jackets, skirts, leggings and Bamboxers. Our products are versatile yet stylish, and incredibly comfortable. We plan to expand our offering to include a full range of lifestyle apparel all the way from dress shirts to jeans. We want to provide variety so that our customers can complete their wardrobes with our environmentally responsible apparel and can wear their environmental values on a daily basis.

What needs to happen now?

For consumers: Change the way you wash and dry your clothes. Approximately 60 percent of the life cycle impact of an item of clothing occurs in the use phase. Wash cold. Hang dry. Also, buy less.

Want to try it out?

We’re giving away some sustainable clothing from Five Bamboo. One lucky winner will be able to choose from one skirt or two pairs of Bamboxers/Bamboxer Briefs. To enter, simply answer the question “Which Five Bamboo articles of clothing are named after Titcomb siblings?” Please email your response to Lisa@Revmodo.com by midnight EST on Thursday, Sept. 6. Winner will be chosen randomly from all applicable entries.

Disclaimer: Five Bamboo will supply complimentary clothing for the giveaway winner.

Photo credits: Five Bamboo

The post Interview: Five Bamboo’s Eco-Friendly Clothing appeared first on REVMODO.

You wrote an interesting response when Johnson & Johnson announced its plans to phase out chemicals of concern in its baby products. You’ve said they can go farther, and faster. Can you explain?

It’s absolutely a good thing that J&J is going to reformulate the chemicals of concern in their formulas. That’s terrific. It’s a great step in the right direction. But it does raise a bunch of questions. I start with J&J’s credo; the credo guides J&J, and their credo challenges them to “put the needs and well-being of the people we serve first.” If that’s really the case, and they are putting the needs and well-being of the people they serve first, why is it going to take them years and years to formulate these out of their products? It isn’t that difficult to get those chemicals out of their products. Other companies have done it, and they [J&J] have done it in Europe to accommodate the REACH standard. So, why will it take years to do, especially on the baby products? Secondly, why are they setting a double standard for themselves? Why are they reformulating the chemicals of concern out of the baby products, but they’re not going to the same extent on their adult personal care products. It’s a good first step, but it is a half-measure, and it raises perhaps more questions than it solves.

For the adult products, I thought that was happening on a longer timeline. But you’re saying it isn’t even going as far in terms of removing chemicals?

That’s correct. They’ve been very clear about removing certain chemicals from the baby products, such as parabens. But they’re going to continue to formulate with parabens for the adult personal care products.

In Europe, REACH (government regulation of chemicals) has driven change. What pushed J&J to change?

The U.S. standard is a lower standard than the European standard, so, frankly, J&J is in compliance today. It’s not regulation that’s leading them to do this. They’re actually doing it for the right reasons, which is to protect human health and well-being, and they’re doing it under some pressure from industry groups who are particularly concerned with some of the chemicals they have in their baby products. So J&J has done this voluntary self-regulation which is applaudable, and yet they are not formulating to the standards that they formulate to in Europe.

Do you think that other large personal care companies will follow?

Consumers are increasingly aware of these chemicals in their personal care products. The natural segment of personal care is the fastest growing—and has been for over ten years. There are phenomenal brands out there that are formulating products without these chemicals, and more consumers are choosing them. So I think the law of the marketplace will lead these companies to begin to strip the chemicals out of their care products. I don’t think it’s going to be the hand of government or regulation, but I do think some of these consumer advocacy groups will increasingly put pressure on them, whether it’s the Environmental Working Group or the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. They’re both doing a really good job about raising awareness about what goes into these products.

In terms of regulation, can you talk a little bit about what the Safe Cosmetic Act would do, and whether you think that would go far enough in offering consumer protection?

We’re big proponents of the Safe Cosmetic Act. It will certainly help—it will be a step in the right direction. I think it goes a long way to helping safeguard human health and really taking the guesswork out for consumers. We’re ever hopeful that that’s going to create a new way to protect consumer health and well-being.

For Seventh Generation, have you faced any challenges as you formulate products? Can you explain why removing those chemicals might be challenging for other personal care companies?

It’s challenging on three levels. One, it’s challenging on a cost level. I would imagine that is the number one reason companies aren’t moving from synthetic, petroleum-based ingredients to natural-based ingredients. There is a big cost difference. Second, it’s harder to formulate. The stability is more challenging; it can be done, but it takes more time and science to get there. Third, these synthetic chemicals are readily available everywhere, whereas the natural ingredient supply is under development. So, I think there are all sorts of reasons that companies can point to as to why they haven’t done it. But really, truthfully, the bottom line is it’s a cost game, and they’re protecting and padding their margins. They make tremendous margins, and it is much cheaper for them to take the shortcut on human health with these chemicals than it is to use the natural ingredients.

Is Seventh Generation planning to expand the line of personal care products that you offer?

We have. We just launched a full, natural baby care range to go along with our diapers and wipes, which is terrific. That rolled out in April. We’re just now also launching a full adult personal care range that includes everything from sustainably-sourced palm oil bar soap to body wash, to body lotion, to facial towelettes. We are very much in the personal care business today.

Over time, as other companies move toward more natural and safer products, how will Seventh Generation continue to stand out?

We’re coming up on our 25th year of being a business rooted in human health and well-being, authenticity, and transparency. We were the first, for example, to put full ingredient disclosure on our labels in household cleaning. It’s something that’s not required of the industry, but we provided, and many others followed. We are going to continue to stand out by staying true to our core principles of being a vanguard of human and environmental health, by driving transparency, and by being a pioneer in the industry in pushing for a higher standard.

If consumers are concerned about environmental health and their own safety, what actions should they take?

The first thing to do is to learn a bit more about it. There are a couple of easy ways to do it right now. There are two organizations that provide really simple, easy-to-use information. One is GoodGuide. Consumers can research their products on GoodGuide, which has rated all your products and will give you a red/yellow/green rating and tell you what’s in it to potentially be concerned about, and what alternatives consumers could choose that might be safer. That’s a great place to start. You can check out ingredients more deeply on the EWG website as well. So there’s some resources out there, and that’s a good place to start for consumers.

Main photo credit: chadk/Flickr; secondary image credit: Seventh Generation

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We spoke with Grossman to learn about his experience with environmental reporting and glacial melt.

Your book Deep Water details your journey across Australia with several scientists studying the Pliocene era. How did you get involved with that project?

It was a long process. The trip was actually in 2009, so it’s been a little while. Part of the reason why it took that long was because there was a lot to learn after the trip.

I had actually met Maureen Raymo, the lead scientist, a few years before the trip. We got together every once in a while and chatted about climate issues. One day, she told me she was going to Australia, and said she thought it might be interesting for me to come along. We figured out a way where it would be worthwhile for me to do that by getting a grant together from the National Science Foundation, which paid for me to produce some videos about her work.

We’re working on three videos. The first is about the process of finding samples in Australia, called “In the Field.” The second is the process of finding out how old those samples are, called “In the Lab.” And the third one is making sense of it all, once they figure out they have samples from the right age, so it’s more about the theory.

A lot of people probably have a hard time wrapping their minds around sea level rise not being uniformly spread out. Could you explain why water does not rise equally across the globe?

If this planet was only water — a complete round sphere with a layer of water around the planet — that water would be thick. And if you brought a pipe in and added more water, it would get even thicker. Now, if you stick a couple continents on there that are a fixed distance from the center of the planet, the water would go up and down on those shorelines. The land moves up and down with respect to the center of the planet, and the water is also moving up and down.

There are many reasons why the land moves up and down, and those movements happen on many different scales. We know certain parts of the world, like the area around New Orleans, is actually sinking fairly fast. It’s sinking fast because the sediment is compacting, which is brought down by the Mississippi River. Under normal circumstances, that sediment would be replenished by more sediment from the river, but the levees prevent that from happening. In comparison to other parts of the United States, sea level is rising faster there because the land is sinking. If you’re standing on a sinking piece of land, you’ll notice the ocean is rising.

There are parts of the world where land is going up. It’s most exaggerated in Hudson Bay in Quebec. It was covered by an ice sheet in the last ice age. The enormous weight of the ice sunk into the land, and then when it melted the land began to rise back up. Because the mantle is not very supple, it takes tens of thousands of years for the crust under where the ice sheet was to rise back up. In those areas, sea level can actually fall even if it’s rising elsewhere in the world.

We hear a lot about general glacial melt, but your book clearly separates the Greenland and West Antarctic Ice Sheets from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. What makes the Eastern sheet so different?

The Eastern Antarctic Ice Sheet is different from the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet because most of the Western sheet is grounded underwater. If you look at a picture of Antarctica, it looks like one giant white mass, and you can also see the Transantarctic Mountains. If you picked up the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, you would see land underneath. But if you removed the western side of Antarctica, you’d mostly see a bunch of islands with water in between. The sea is relatively shallow there, and the ice sheet is mostly sitting on the floor below sea level. It’s like if you put an ice cube in a bowl and several inches of water, it will just float on the top. But if you put a big chunk of ice in the bowl, it will sit on the bottom. Sitting on the ocean floor is what makes the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet much more prone to collapsing and getting disrupted.

Last month we saw Greenland’s ice melt at an incredibly fast rate. Where is all of that water going?

I’m not really sure where it’s all going, but there are two main factors to take away from that event. One is that a lot of the surface area melted, but it’s not a lot of water. What’s disconcerting about this is not that all of a sudden Greenland produced a lot of water. What’s important is that it is widely believed the water on the surface of Greenland and Western Antarctica plays a very important role in how ice streams move. The theory is that a glacier is defined as permanent ice that flows. The ice is always flowing, but it’s solid ice that’s flowing. It moves very slowly from the interior of the ice sheet out to the sea.  Scientists are not entirely clear on how fast it could flow in the future, but they agree that it speeds up when water drops to the base of the ice sheet and makes the bottom more slippery, allowing the ice to move faster. It flows through cracks in the ice sheet, so when you have 97 percent of the Greenland Ice Sheet above freezing temperatures, that means more water will flow through these cracks to the base, making it more likely these glaciers will speed up.

The Greenland Ice Sheet has progressively had more water on the surface during the melt season since its been monitored. This was a highly unusual event, but it’s just part of a larger picture, which is that Greenland is melting more each summer. The amount of dripping from the surface or through cracks really matters because of how it affects ice streams. What will cause sea level to rise is if the ice streams flow faster, which break off into the sea and eventually melt. These ice streams, if we set them in motion, will add a large amount of potential water to the ocean.

Note: Lisa invited Grossman to create and answer his own question here.
How about you ask me if reporting on all this makes me depressed and lack hope?

It’s sometimes depressing to report on these issues because much of the public seems to believe the science is controversial, even though the basic science of climate change is so clear. Although there are many questions that need to be answered, like how fast sea level could go up this century, the basic shape of what’s going on is clear. Carbon dioxide is increasing, the planet is warming, and all sorts of things are being caused by that. To look around and have so little attention paid to this subject, and to see the motivations of dedicated scientists questioned, and hear it all called a hoax — that’s depressing. It’s possible things are set in motion right now that will be unstoppable in the future. We can’t be leisurely about it. The public needs to come to grips with the fact that this is the crisis of our century, and that something needs to happen.

Europe uses half as much energy as America. They come here and like coming here to indulge, perhaps in an SUV on a road trip because our gas is cheaper. It’s like someone with a healthy diet going to a steakhouse. It’s kind of nice to indulge sometimes, but they live comfortable and satisfying lives from what I can tell. We can too, because there are models to cut significantly back in terms of transportation, how we heat our homes, and how energy can be used. I hope we’ll adopt existing technologies and make advancements to help us confront this, and not put us back to another era. It’s going to cost money, and we would have to live a less lavish lifestyle. I suspect when my kids are my age, they won’t be flying in airplanes as often and with as little forethought as I do. The point is, it’s technically feasible, and it could be done without going back to pre-industrial society.

What needs to happen now?

I would never dissuade anyone from conserving energy personally or trying to encourage alternative energy, but I think the scale of this problem is large enough that we can’t leave it to the goodhearted people of the world to solve. Their efforts will be overwhelmed by people who have huge carbon footprints. I wouldn’t discourage anyone from taking those measures, but I don’t think anyone should be comforted by taking those measures.

This has got to happen on a governmental level. For example, I may choose not remodel my house with better insulated windows, but I’d vote in favor of a policy that made energy so expensive that it would make economic sense for me to put those windows in. We need policies that encourage us to do things to reduce our carbon footprint. We have to make dirty, carbon-dioxide-producing sources of energy — like oil and gas — more expensive, and subsidize clean kinds of energy — like wind and solar. It’s has to happen at a governmental level. But there’s hardly any movement in that direction today. That’s partly because responding to climate change has become a partisan issue. That’s unfortunate, because we need to get our act together. I didn’t used to be think that monetary incentives are the way to go. But I realized everyone has a price they’re willing to spend to do some good. If you change the price structure of things, people can be influenced to adopt green kinds of energy and to use energy more efficiently.

Image credits: Dan Grossman

Video credit: Maureen Raymo

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In their Green New Deal, Dr. Stein and her running mate, Cheri Honkala, are proposing an ambitious plan to put 25 million Americans back to work with green jobs, thereby building a strong, sustainable economy by rerouting tax dollars away from corporations and Wall Street and towards local communities.  She is the only candidate to vocalize the need for the federal government to support local food systems and to recognize publicly the clear link between what we eat, the environment we live in, and our health. She is also the only candidate calling for an end to drilling for oil and the use of fossil fuels, not to mention the only one to be arrested for protesting against housing foreclosures.

Stein and Honkala will not be on ballots in every state, hurting their already slim chances of making it to the White House. But as the first ever Green Party member to qualify for matching federal funds, they will likely influence the policies of whoever does end up sitting in the Oval Office.

Dr. Stein managed to squeeze some time into her busy schedule to answer some questions about her policies to make food and clean technology drivers of a thriving green economy.

Q: What role do you see food playing as a driver of the economy and social change?

A:  We see food as really an integral plank of what we call the Green New Deal, the centerpiece of our agenda. It’s a program to create jobs and solve the economic emergency that we face, at the same time that it solves the climate emergency, which as you know, has huge food impacts. We’re seeing that right now with forest fires, with the heat waves and with the drought. Specifically we’re looking at massively rising food prices right now. The grave concern is that this is going to cause a real food shortage, especially in corn but potentially in soy and wheat, the other basic staples of the American food system and really the world food supply.… It’s really important that we have a secure food system and that it be resilient, and we know that agribusiness as a food supply is not secure. The industrial food system is highly dependent on water and on fossil fuel and pesticides, which are derived from fossil fuels as well, so we badly need to have a sustainable food system. Yet, our tax dollars subsidizes the agribusiness industrial food supply. So we’re calling for a shift in those tax dollars to be able to jumpstart the small farms, the community farms, community sustainable agriculture, all different ways to ensure we have a healthy, secure food supply.

Q: In some urban areas, like New York City or San Francisco, it can be very easy to get fresh food. But what about places like Detroit or Baltimore?

A: There is actually a wonderful renaissance in food going on in those very places, in some of the most poor and devastated urban areas. And this is without the support that it needs. So instead of directing all of our tax dollars to the GMOs and the industrial food economy, you can imagine how well the local food economies will do if we start to put some of our support actually into that economy. It’s been having to fight tooth and nail to survive, but when you begin to support it because it provides security, and the quality of food that we really need, that industry is really going to take off.

Q: Where does the federal government fit into local food systems? The food economy is Milwaukee is very different from the one in San Francisco.  How can the federal government support all of those systems?

A: What we’re suggesting is a job creation program that actually puts resources into the hands of local communities. So the federal government directs those resources to the local communities, but the local communities themselves decide. They decide what kinds of jobs are sustainable, and I think it’s pretty clear that food is a common denominator and everybody needs it. Even in the areas where agribusiness is thriving, local people don’t have the fruits and vegetables, and the foods that they really need.

Q: How can the federal government phase out our reliance on meat raised on CAFOs?

A: I think it really comes down to what we as taxpayers decide to do with our tax dollars.… There are these systems that are very entrenched right now, that rely on our tax dollars, rely on subsidies that are harmful to our water systems, to the land, they are polluting and when you raise animals on CAFOs, the nutrients in the animal change, they also require antibiotics which is very dangerous. They are force fed so they’ll be fat… All these traditions really degrade the nutrition, and they can be quite harmful. They lose their omega 3s and instead gain a lot of saturated fats, which are problematic.  So we are subsidizing a food system that makes us sick.  The food that comes out of this system is high fat, high calorie. We need to align our health with our food system.

Q: What do you see as the most promising advances we’ve made in clean technology?

A: I think it’s pretty clear that the biggest bang for the buck right now is in conservation. So, for example, power and heat systems that reduce energy loss at the source are helpful. But in addition, reducing energy loss at the point of utilization is really critical. So we need the whole spectrum of efficient devices as well as insulation and weatherization. That alone could save us a huge amount of energy and put a lot of people to work, weatherizing our homes, government buildings, schools, businesses etc. So there’s a lot to be done just at the very simple technologies of insulation, weatherization efficiencies. Add to that solar hot water, heat, and solar energy production. Wind, of course, is also very important.

Q: Do you have any policies that will induce small businesses or individuals with limited cash on hand to make large upfront investments in green energy? 

A: Yes and there are some very good programs around the country and I’ll name two of them.  One was in the Bay Area, basically the city subsidized the cost of solar installation and then allowed the renters/users to pay them back through the cost differential in their energy prices. That sounds like an obvious way to go. It will take some resources to do that, but that’s what the Green New Deal is about. It’s all about making those resources available, providing money to jumpstart these good programs. Another one, called the Feed-In Tariff, what’s used in Europe. It provides a payment to the source that provides their excess energy that they’re not using, so they’re making an income right away.

Q: How do you respond to voters whose interests are aligned with your policies but worry that a vote for you is one less vote for Obama and could lead to a Romney presidency.

A: Here’s what I’m really worried about. If you go into the voting booth and you vote for either Wall Street-sponsored candidate, you are giving a mandate for four more years of these policies, which are not just taking us in the wrong direction, they are accelerating in the wrong direction… Obama embraced the “Drill, baby drill” policies of George Bush. He has built more oil pipelines than any other president, he’s opening offshore oil, the Arctic wilderness, the Gulf, our national parks, more mountaintops for coal – he’s become Dick Cheney basically on the environment.  If Romney were in power, people would be mobilized to fight for what we need. What I worry about is when there’s a Democrat in power, people go to sleep or they’re told to be quiet. I want to win the White House and turn it into a Green House.

The post Exclusive Interview: The Green Party and Dr. Jill Stein appeared first on REVMODO.

What does Vertical Home Gardens do?

Vertical Home Gardens L.L.C. designs, manufactures and sells products for vertical gardening in small spaces. We sell them to urbanites, schools and institutions, businesses with rooftop or vacant-lot space, and commercial farmers.

We are committed to simple, but well thought-out products that are earth-friendly, functional and made with first-use, reused, recycled or re-imagined components. Our containers make real gardens that can fit on your balcony and produce enough vegetables to pay back your investment in as little as one growing season.

We sell accessories and supplies and connect our customers with global social networking sites with the theme of Personal Green Production and green lifestyle.

My passion is applying new ideas in innovative ways that are in tune with local culture and lifestyle. I was a winner of the 2007 Sustaining Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development (SEED) Initiative Award. I’m a co-founder of Vertical Home Gardens L.L.C., along with Julie Jackson and Eddie Blyden.

What inspired you to begin your business? When did it begin?

Myself and the co-founders of the business were laid off in 2008 as the economic downturn hit Northern California, and I decided to develop a prototype of the Phytopod as a project with my two children who do not have access to a garden. I was surprised that the design worked, and decided it might be an important product to enable people to grow their own produce as food prices were going up. I continued to experiment to make it work better, and looked for a simple, easy-to-ship design that was earth-friendly yet robust.

What sort of work did you do before launching your business?

It took 18 months to get the Phytopod to work properly as an out-of-box  product. Myself and Julie spent many hours trying different configurations and parts, wandering around hardware stores and Home Depot. We had no capital, and so had to wait until there were enough excess funds from other things before trying the next design. The thing about a Phytopod is that you have to patiently grow it before knowing how well any design has worked. Many of the pictures of Phytopods on our website were grown and tended by us — we also ate all those good looking greens you see growing on them!

Where are your products sold?

Currently, we sell our products through our ecommerce webstore at www.verticalhomegardens.com. You can also buy through Facebook, eBay and Google stores we have set up. Our product is also sold by a number of affiliates who have their own webstores online.

For retail, we now have a great new partnership with the Urban Garden Center in New York which is a great center for incubating green companies in addition to being the coolest garden center in New York City — great place to visit if you are in New York!

Do you have a favorite story of how one of your customers has used your products?

We have been really humbled by the way people have responded to our product ever since the first day we plucked up the courage to take it to a Nursery Garden trade show! Especially when we first started, it was sometimes difficult to get things to customers on time, but people were very patient with us. I think the prize goes to David who lives in Ontario, Canada, and who not only embraced the Phytopod by buying four of them, but then proceeded to build a complete affiliate website by hand in order to share Phytopods with his fellow Canadians. The fact that he can grow lettuce and other greens in the cold north on his Phytopod really makes the point that our product can make a difference to those who would otherwise not be able to garden.

What’s next for your company?

Even though our product offers 20 sq. ft. of planting area on a 2′ x 2′ footprint, we still get many people for whom even this is too big! We have therefore developed what we believe is the first true “plug-and-play” hydroponic system, called the Phytopod Hydro, that can be used indoors. We are close to launching this product as a modular system that can be easily used by anyone and that comes with everything needed except the water and the plants!

In addition, we are looking for votes to support our entry on quirky.com for an exciting new window greenhouse Phytopod accessory that can fit in an apartment window! We are also now selling complete Mini-Farms in a shipping drum that are designed for emergency agriculture or microenterprise farming.

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Want to try it out?

We’re giving away one Phytopod Hydro to the lucky winner of a random drawing! To enter the drawing, simply answer the question “What would you grow in your hydroponic garden?” Please email your answer to Lisa@Revmodo.com. We will be accepting answers through midnight EST on Friday.

Disclosure: The Phytopod gardening system designated for giveaway has been provided by Vertical Home Gardens L.L.C. Revmodo is not affiliated with Vertical Home Gardens L.L.C.

Images by Vertical Home Gardens L.L.C.

The post Vertical Home Gardens: Profile of a Sustainable Startup appeared first on REVMODO.

Quicksilver was an 80s movie where Kevin Bacon… Oh never mind. Instead of a euphemistic description of psychotropics, the TAEBT will be using actual electric bikes; bicycles designed to use a lithium-ion battery to take the strain off of the rider on hills and other difficult to pedal terrain, thereby extending their range drastically. And this bike tour has a long range. How long?

About 4,000 miles long.

Alternative transportation and tech entrepreneur Boris Mordkovich will be joined by environmental scientist Anna Mostovetsky on a journey that will take them from New York city across the country to San Francisco on electric bikes, provided by Evelo Electric Bicycles. The trip should take them about two months to complete.

As they get ready for this amazing trip, Boris was kind enough to answer a few questions we had about their impending journey.

What will you do if you encounter any really horrific storms (lightning, tornadoes, etc)?

This question comes up fairly frequently in some shape or form when we discuss the trip with others. This is one of those things that seem worrisome on the surface or when planning out the trip, but is actually much more manageable when you’re actually going through with it.

The reality is that when you’re biking and the weather takes a turn for the worst, you simply make a plan right then and there and adjust accordingly. If it’s a minor rain, you generally keep going. If it’s a storm or hail, you take a break and try to find shelter for a few hours until it calms down. The only thing that we need to do differently is to waterproof the battery, as it is an electrical component and doesn’t like water. But that can be done as simply as putting a small bag over it.

A bigger problem for us is something else – instances when there is ice forming on the roads in the mountains in places like the Rockies. But even if that does happen, it’ll only be for a short distance in a specific region.

We haven’t come up with a plan for a tornado yet, though.

One of the electric bikes that will be used during the tour.

Will we be able to track your progress on Google maps?

To some degree. Our entire route is posted on a Google Map on our website, so anyone can see the planned stops and the dates when we’re planning to be there.

As far as real-time updates, we’ll be blogging regularly and posting photos and Twitter updates on a daily basis to keep folks in the loop of where we are.

What is your plan for finding a place to charge your batteries every night?

We were quite fortunate to receive a sponsorship from a company called Airbnb.com, which allows us to book accommodations with locals in most of the cities that we’re passing through. It’s actually really quite amazing, as you get to meet and spend time with people who live in the communities and cities we’re passing through – something that you generally can’t get from a hotel. We’ll be charging the batteries overnight when we stay in these places.

When we are going through more remote areas, like a 600 mile stretch from Omaha, NE to Denver, CO or 550 miles from Salt Lake City, UT to Carson City, NV, we’ll generally stay in small inns and motels where available.

It’s somewhat impossible to plan out the entire route and accommodations in advance, so we generally try to have a plan for about 7-10 nights ahead of us and trust that everything will work out further on.

Do you have a backup plan if you are unable to recharge some night?

Well, that’s the beauty of electric bikes – even if we are unable to recharge some night, we are still able to simply pedal through on our own power (fueled by power bars and nightly pasta). It’ll make it a bit more difficult, especially if we’re going through a mountainous region, but it’s not anything that would stop us in our track. The only downside is that we’ll probably end up covering a bit less distance than we otherwise would.

Boris Mordkovich and Anna Mostovetsky of the Trans-American Electric Bike Tour.

How was the planning for this trip different because you are doing it on electric bikes?

Good question! There were a few factors to consider.

On one hand, the electric bikes will enable us to cover slightly more distance per day than we would do on a regular one – perhaps by around 30% or so. So, this enabled us to plan to complete the trip with about 50 cycling days (plus rest days and others when we’re doing talks and presentations in different cities)

Carrying cargo is also less of an issue. We’ll have a bike touring trailer and panniers attached to the bikes with a combined total of about 80 to 100 pounds of gear, ranging from bicycle tools, spares and extra batteries to food, water and clothing.

Finally, this makes it easier to do difficult road stretches, such as the Appalachians or the Rockies, where there are elevation gains and drops of several thousand feet that can go on for days.

On the other side, it makes us think more about our accommodations. So, where as with a regular bike, it would be easier to camp out along the way, on this trip, we’re planning to spend virtually all nights with an actual roof over our heads. This also forces us to stay closer to cities and towns, as opposed to being able to spontaneously pitch a tent on a mountaintop.

The purpose of the trip is also a bit different than a regular vacation-style tour. Here, we are focused on creating more awareness about electric bicycles and alternative transportation, as well as gaining a better understanding of urban transportation challenges and issues in different cities. As a result, we also had to figure out how to be able to work and stay connected throughout the trip. This means that our packing list also includes things like laptops, wireless internet device, and other things of that nature.

What distance are you traveling per day and what’s the actual range of the electric bikes?

When we were planning our the tour, we tried to keep the daily distance at no more than 80 miles. However, as we actually began to plan out the routes between cities, it does vary. There are some days when we’re just cycling 40-50 miles and a number when we go over 100 miles. The longest day planned so far is 130 miles – a stretch of road between Cedar Rapids, IA and Des Moines, IA. Not a lot of places to stop there in the middle!

The electric range of the bikes varies, depending on the terrain, headwind, weight of the rider, and other factors. Overall, you can get up to 40 miles on pedal-assist mode or 20 miles on electric-only mode with a single charge. Each of us is carrying a 2nd battery to extend the range, so it should work out just fine. Especially, since we don’t engage the assist all the time.

If somebody wanted to do a trip like this of their own, what advice would you give them?

Set a date and commit to doing it! Everything else will fall into place after that. Don’t think that you have to be an athlete or in perfect physical shape. A lot of it is mental – as much as physical, so being enthusiastic and open to adventure will take you a long way.

Also, think about where you want to do it – USA, Europe or somewhere more exotic; who you want to do it with – you  can do it alone, with a friend or a tour group; and how much time you can allocate to this trip – 2 weeks is much easier to plan out than 2-3 months. Once this framework is in place, it becomes easier to plan out the logistics.

I’ve actually written a more comprehensive article on this topic, if anyone is interested. And, of course, I’m always happy to answer questions and share feedback from our own tour.

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We wish Boris and Anna the best of luck, and hopefully the only events on their trip are good ones.

The post Interview: Boris Mordkovich of the Trans-American Electric Bike Tour appeared first on REVMODO.

There’s a saying out there that everything is science fiction until the moment it’s not. For the field of atmospheric energy, which conjures up images of floating blimps and thunderstorms, this is particularly true. While engineers such as Nikola Tesla and Hermann Plauson conducted groundbreaking research and experiments on capturing this free energy source in the early 20th Century, it’s an industry that has remained largely untapped.

SEFE, Inc., based out of Boulder, Colorado, is one company that’s building on the work of Tesla and Plauson with an aim to turn the atmospheric energy industry into a viable and leading renewable. With its Harmony III atmospheric energy system in full development, and a rich portfolio of patents, the publicly-traded company is on the doorstep of turning science fiction into reality. SEFE is the major sponsor of Revmodo.com.

“As these pieces come together, we continue to move the science forward,” said Don Johnston, CEO of SEFE. “As the first and only company in a position to exploit atmospheric energy, and particularly with the launch of our new Science and Technology Center in Boulder, we’re in the process of designing and testing the exclusive technologies that will take us into the next phase.”

As part of our on-going look at atmospheric energy and the potential it has to uproot traditional sources of electricity, we recently contacted Director of Engineering at SEFE, Inc. Michael Hurowitz for an update on the Harmony system and the challenges faced in developing the technology.

Can you explain the potential benefits of harvesting energy from the atmosphere?

The SEFE approach to the production of electricity has several benefits over other forms of energy. The Harmony system produces electricity using the earth’s natural electric field. This electric field is largely maintained by the flux of solar wind that continually replenishes the ionosphere. The fields in the lower 1-3km of the atmosphere are sufficient to drive useful work to some degree. The approach is inherently elegant in its simplicity & ability to produce power off the grid for remote applications. The carbon footprint involved in manufacturing & operating SEFE systems is very low.

Have attempts been made before to harness atmospheric energy? What’s the history?

Yes, you can find examples of this technology all the way back to Benjamin Franklin’s time when his famous kite, key and string experiment was able to charge a Leyden jar during a thunderstorm. Franklin also invented the first electrostatic motor. Nikola Tesla was working on various projects dedicated to producing and transmitting electricity from the atmosphere. Hermann Plauson was probably the most successful in history at developing an actual prototype power generating system in this manner. We aim to build primarily on Plauson’s design using more modern techniques and materials.

Atmospheric energy capture as imagined by Plauson in the early 20th Century.

In an easy-to-understand way, how does the Harmony III capture and store energy?

The Harmony system takes advantage of the natural electric field of the earth and uses it to produce useful electricity through a proprietary electrostatic generator designed to operate on the high voltage available in the atmosphere.

What are some of the challenges associated with capturing energy from the atmosphere?

There are several challenges we’re facing in developing this technology. The biggest source of uncertainty for us is the circular nature of the design. We’ve got to isolate the ideal operating parameters and use that to determine engineering requirements. Things like the type of lift vehicle, altitude of lift, weight of tether and conductors, weight of collection elements and onboard electronics. A lot of the design parameters remain to be resolved.

What industries could benefit from this tech?

We are focusing on being a supplemental technology in the short-term. We’d like to provide a boost to utility companies, mining and other resource extraction operations, relief organizations, and remote construction sites. Many businesses are too exposed to energy prices that impact their profitability, SEFE aims to help with this burden.

What are the price benefits of atmospheric energy over other renewables like wind and solar?

Unfortunately we do not have a highly accurate cost model at this time. The technology is “ballpark” competitive with other renewable sources. Exactly how it stacks up to other renewable remains to be determined.

Tell us about your new Science and Technology Center in Boulder, CO – how will this new facility help speed up development of the Harmony system?

The STC is an excellent location, we’ve got access to a huge talent pool & some of the world’s leading atmospheric scientists. The space will be adequate for us to grow over the next couple years. We’ve got room to add more people, equipment, and projects to ensure SEFE’s success.

To learn more about SEFE, Inc. and their Harmony III system, please visit their official website here.

 SEFE is the major sponsor of Revmodo.com

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