1 // Arizona is confused about daylight-saving

The state of Arizona doesn’t observe Daylight Saving Time. But it is the law in the Navajo Nation, located in Arizona’s northeastern corner. The Hopi Nation—situated inside the Navajo Nation—follows the rest of the state and disregards DST. So if you drive the length of Route 264 during the summer, you might have
to reset your watch three times.

2 // Venezuela is off by 30 minutes

In 2007, Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, turned the country’s clocks back 30 minutes—saying
if people wake up in the daylight, they will be more productive. (Some speculate that he made the switch just to mess with El Norte.)

3 // All of China is on Beijing time

China spanned five time zones until 1949, when the entire country was synchronized to
the same hour.
So when dawn breaks in Beijing at 6:43 am, it’s also 6:43 am more than 2,000 miles west
in Kashi, where the sun won’t rise for another two hours and 45 minutes.

Continue reading " 3 Smart Things About Time Zones "

photo: Storm Crypt

A few quick wind power predictions to file away: One of the most interesting statistics coming out of the Global Wind Power conference in Beijing (the news of which comes via Cleantech) is that not only does China have the fattest growing wind power market, it is also expected to be the largest manufacturer of wind power equipment in the world by the end of the 2009.

Other wind power stats/predications coming out of the <a href=”http://www.gwec.net/fileadmin/documents/Pub…

Continue reading " China Will Be the Biggest Wind Power Equipment Manufacturer by End of 2009 "

To GE execs like Ferdinando “Nani” Becalli-Falco, China looks like a gold mine. But is it a green mine? As the clean tech industry in the the People’s Republic of Greenhouse Gases grows to be the world’s biggest, GE stands to make a big profit while helping the country get cleaner across the range of sectors in which it specializes. Eco- was the major prefix at the GE pavilion at the Olympic Green in Beijing, which focused on the fiv…

Continue reading " The TH Interview: Ferdinando “Nani” Beccalli-Falco — President and CEO of GE International "

If Wal-Mart is ever going to achieve the status of a company truly committed to sustainable business practices, there’s one 800-pound gorilla that it must address: China. The company’s sustainability summit on October 21 and 22 in Beijing was an attempt to do that, both from a PR perspective, but also in terms of “laying down the law” with its suppliers in China.

Green to Gold author Andrew Winston attended the summit, and listed the following commitments and statements that came out of it in a blog post at Harvard Business’ “Leading Green” blog:

• Supplier commitments: All suppliers will sign new agreements indicating compliance with environmental laws, starting with Chinese suppliers to the U.S., UK, and Canada in just 3 months. Over the next 3 years, all suppliers globally will sign.
• Audits: Wal-Mart will “strengthen” its surprise and third-party audit program
• Supplier goals: The top 200 suppliers will achieve 20% energy efficiency improvement, and most importantly, “By 2012, all suppliers that we buy from directly should source 95% of product from companies that have the highest ratings in audits.”
• Product goals and quality: Zero defective merchandise returns by 2012. Lee Scott connected quality to sustainability in very funny, specific terms: “Customers want a sock that will not fall down even if washed.”
• Transparency: Suppliers must reveal the name and location of every factory they use to make a product, as early as November for apparel, then home goods, toys, and others by the end of 2009. As [Wal-Mart’s Vice Chairman Mike] Duke said, “If you sell us tennis shoes, we expect you to know and tell us where it was made and which sub-contractors were involved…If you don’t pose these questions, our customers will…in this age of YouTube there is no trust without transparency.” (Wal-Mart will have more insight into what’s going on at factories than ever before thanks to the work of Ma Jun who runs an NGO that has compiled compliance data on every factory. See his group’s stunning water pollution map here.)
• Dropping suppliers: Wal-Mart will work with suppliers that fail to comply, but “if after a period of time, the supplier does not improve, we will move our business.”

Read more of this story »

Continue reading " Wal-Mart and China: Will Sustainability Commitments Produce Results? "

Image from marinephotobank

For a company that supposedly prides itself on being more than just your “regular” oil firm (is it just me or was every other ad during the Beijing Olympics an ad for ExxonMobil’s “softer” side?), ExxonMobil sure has a strange way of showing it. Indeed, while it continues to rake in record profits (most of which I’m guessing does not derive from its non-oil initiatives), it has fought tooth and nail in court to avoid making the interest payments it owes to the victims of the 1989 Valdez oil spill. The <a href=”http://www.publicintegrity.org/blog/ent…

Continue reading " ExxonMobil Still Fighting Hard to Avoid Making Interest Payments in Valdez Oil Spill Debacle "

Green but not Forgotten.
Federal Government is Duping the American Taxpayer on the $700 Billion Bailout!

Bail Out or Rescue? Picture Credit: BigBird3
New Definition of Affordable Housing?
Taxpayers paying for people’s houses who’s inhabitants cannot make their house payments because they could not afford payments in the first place.! Our tax dollars are bieng used to pay […]

Continue reading " Don’t Be Duped! U.S. Government lying about $700 Billion Bail Out? "