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We’ve all been through it, and millions do every day: rush out the door to be at work on time, get on the expressway—and sit. It’s not like the time spent sitting in traffic is productive; hands on the wheel, foot alternating between the gas and the brake, attention out on the road ahead. Some cheat and actually check their e-mail, send and receive text messages and make business calls during this time. But strict laws are catching up with these folks and soon it will be a thing of the past—and again, we will just sit.
Green design Archive
Tesla Revisited—for Us More Sensible Folks
by Bruce Boyers
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Sometime back, I did a feature article on the very first fully electric high-performance car—the Tesla Roadster (see Organic Connections, Sept–Oct 2008). It was quite an experience for a middle-aged man. While I couldn’t drive the car, I was able to see it up close—a sleek, low-to-the-ground vision of speed in gray and black—at the Los Angeles Tesla showroom. When Alex, the intern who was guiding me through the Roadster and its features, asked me if I wanted to climb in and sit in it, I gulped in disbelief and did so.
Sustainably Sexy, Meet the Tesla Roadster
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As fossil fuel consumption has come under heavy criticism due to the carbon load into our atmosphere, and as gasoline prices have soared beyond belief, vehicles that use little or even no fossil fuel have become all the rage. But since I come from a long-ago time in which low-mileage, high-powered performance classics such as the Corvette and the Mustang ruled the roads, I have watched with some trepidation as a number of these eco-friendly things started being snapped up and zipped around Los Angeles. It’s probably just my own outdated gas-guzzling taste, but after my first up-close viewing experience of a vehicle that was environmentally friendly yet had all the style and speed of every “sensible” car I’d ever shunned, I beat a hasty retreat to my Infiniti G35, mashed down the pedal and ripped away in an emotional confusion of total guilt and sheer pleasure. At some point later the thought crept into my mind, “Am I really going to be forced to drive one of those someday?”
GREENBRIDGE, A Building That Gives Back to the Environment
When you think of building construction, you probably don’t think “environmentally friendly,” and for good reason. Buildings utilize components made of PVC, which never decomposes. Wood is taken from lands being denuded and deforested. Petroleum and chemical-based materials are generously used resulting in harmful vapor off-gassing. And at the end of the life cycle, most components are never recycled but continue to pour into landfills spreading across our quickly disappearing landscape. Read the rest of this feature »
BMW, The ultimate environmental machine?
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When one thinks of a high-performance automobile, it’s usually not in the same mental moment as preservation of the environment. In fact, it’s ordinarily quite the opposite: if a person is in the least environmentally conscious, he or she normally feels a bit guilty if they own one. Such vehicles as a rule require high-octane fuel and have a trade-off in lower mileage for higher performance. It may feel great while you’re speeding down the highway, but one glance off to the side at the forest or the ocean or hearing yet another news item about the world’s dwindling fossil fuel supply and those feelings of guilt come back again.
Fossil fuel shortages, global warming and pollution are complex problems that won’t be solved until each contributor to these problems is doing his, her or their part to reverse them. Fortunately, BMW has stepped up to the plate and has taken some remarkable steps to address these issues. Read the rest of this feature »
Environment: Apple leads the way
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Today, Apple Inc. (formerly Apple Computer) is probably no stranger to anyone. With innovations—and extremely hot marketing items—such is the iPod and iPhone, they are well known everywhere. It’s been a hard-won battle; although Apple was one of the first companies (some argue the first) to place a user-friendly personal computer on the market, and remained chief innovators and favorites in the graphics and motion- picture industries throughout the years, it wasn’t until the 1998 release of the iMac—a computer which could be set up and used by even a child in minutes—that they managed to put a dent into the locked-down market controlled by Microsoft and its supporting hardware vendors. With recent releases, their artistic innovation is finally paying off and they are truly getting their due. Those innovations have not been limited to technology, however—even if the world wasn’t quite aware of it. Read the rest of this feature »
