Houston Hooker and Edd Bass

In this video,Arthur Potts in his TED TALK, goes over how he is trying to change the way restaurants are operating by making them more Eco friendly and creating less waste to go to the dumps. In one of his restaurants that he talks about, he explains how the kitchen itself is in the front of the restaurant instead of the back so people can choose how much food they want to consume there so there is not a lot of waste. Also other very important things that he has in his restaurants are reconditioned and reused items, worm farms, co0mpost bins, water tracks to make the water cleaner to reuse. Another restaurant that he owns uses the water channels temperature and current to power the entire restaurant's appliances, such as air conditioning. His vision is to encourage restaurants to create less waste and recycle all items that can be recycled. During his TED TALK, he explained how this was possible so that others can follow in his footsteps to creating a more sustainable future for restaurants.

Electric Cars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNeEVkhTutY

The Nissan Leaf represents the future of cars. Its electric and sustainable build contributes to sparing our environment. It has no tail pipe, so its not letting out any bad fuels, it runs on an ion battery and much more. It is a 100% electric, no gas car. If we aren't releasing the burning gas into the air, we aren't polluting the air through cars anymore. So why not do this for every car? If every car was electric the amount of fossil fuels going into the air would lessen greatly. These fossil fuels are what are causing problems such as global warming (as shown in this video) and if these fossil fuels stop coming into our environment at an unnatural rate, then global warming, and other things, would be much less of a problem. The fossils fuels are releasing the CO2 very very quickly and this heavy amount of CO2 is trapping heat and polluting our world. The less were releasing these fuels, the less were contributing to the pollution and the more were sustaining this world. Electric cars needs to be the future of cars if we want to sustain our world and create a safe environment for the future generations.

Building a New Green Economy- David W. Orr

In the video, “Building: A New Green Economy” by David Orr, he discusses how before our economic downturn, we were much more wealthy than we thought, and we lost it all very quickly. As a result, Orr wants to find environmental alternatives quickly and in inexpensive ways in order to withstand any problems presented in the future. Currently 7 billion tons of carbon are released into the air each year and the amount of carbon eliminated per dollar spent will either make or break our strive to obtain alternative energy resources. The author all states how we must become more self efficient and find new technology to start a new revolution and bring us back to prosperity and fairness. The main argument that he presents in the video is the need to bring all levels of sustainability into one project containing agriculture, urban renewal, education, and climate neutrality. The way this will happen is by having a downtown be a large part of the driving economy and build a green belt surrounding it. By doing so, we will have a cheap fossil fuel economy and the town will move to carbon neutrality. Orr finally concludes his speech by convincing the audience that we need to envision a better world that is not necessarily that same world we grew up in, but one that will be sustainable for everyone in the future.

Stephanie Kerbis and Gino Inzerillo

To imagine a sustainable future for the planet and its inhabitants is not an easy task at the present moment. However, when looking to implement change the corporate structure of capitalistic society seems to be an obvious and ever more accessible solution in the current state of the economy. As corporate giants look to win over every aspect of the consumer market, the role that each company plays as a sustainable part of the community is becoming ever more important. With the goal of the corporation in mind, it is important to take notice of how effectively and genuinely a company implements sustainable ideology. Cemex, the company we chose to analyze, is making conscious and genuine efforts to remedy realistic ecological problems in society.

"Sustainability is central to our business strategy and one of the keys to our future growth. As the largest concrete producer in the world, we have both a responsibility and a great opportunity to help lead the transition to a truly sustainable construction industry. That, in turn, would be a critical element of a low carbon economy."

Lorenzo H. Zambrano
Chairman of the Board and
Chief Executive Officer

Second nature is a nonprofit organization that is working to create a sustainable future by transforming higher education. At this moment, college students make up around 2% of the country's population. However, college student are the key to creating a sustainable future. If college students are given knowledge and skills for living a sustainable life they will be able to generate ideas that are beneficial to society. Currently 673 colleges are apart of the ACUPCC and are integrating the ideas of a green society in their curriculums. Hopefully this green trend will surpass the college student population and expand worldwide.

Second Nature

American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment

Santa Clara's Sustainability Practices

Celebrities Going Green

Making Sustainability as Cool as Entourage

"Let's begin to SHFT our lifestyles

to create a sustainable future"

Alexa Signorino & Caitlynn Wentworth

Celebrity Status

Celebrities can have a major influence in our movement in creating a sustainable future. As a celebrity Adrian Grenier has influenced so many of his fans to follow in his footsteps and go green. He started SHFT, a website, that can be looked at across the globe and persuade people that "sustainability is as cool as Entourage". Peter Glatzer has the ability to rally up followers to go green due to his position within the film making industry. Both celebrities have always been interested in going green, but now have used their stardom to spread word. Like Adam and Peter, celebrities from all over are starting to go green. Celebrities can truly make an impact in our efforts to reaching sustainable living because so many people look up to them and use celebrities as role models.

What Is SHFT?

SHFT is an organization created to show people that sustainability can come in all different forms. Changing

"SHFT is a multi-media platform founded by film producer Peter Glatzer and actor-filmmaker Adrian Grenier. Our mission is to convey a more sustainable approach to the way we live through video, design, art and culture." - SHFT

What Are The Webbys?

"The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web's infancy, the Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which includes an Executive 750-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities, and Associate Members who are former Webby Award Winners and Nominees and other Internet professionals." - The Webby Awards

Electric Cars: Our Future?

This advertisement basically makes fun of society's addiction to fossil fuels. It is persuading audiences to purchase electric cars because they are a greener alternative to nonrenewable resources. Electric cars are currently the new trend of the automobile industry. According to studies, they use 35% to 60% less carbon dioxide pollution compared to the pollution from the oil of a conventional car.

Myths About Electric Cars

Rob Hopkins' Ted Talk

Rob Hopkins talks about the effect that oil is having on our planet. For many years, oil was a reliable source of energy, but it is no longer an infinite source of energy. At this point in time, consumers are using more oil than we are discovering and we can't keep consuming at this current level forever. He talks about how we need to move towards a more local mindset and find new sources of energy before it's too late. We need to resort back to values such as hard-work and determination because it isn't going to easy to transition towards new forms of energy.

In Transition -- The Movie

"‘In Transition’ is the first detailed film about the Transition movement filmed by those that know it best, those who are making it happen on the ground. The Transition movement is about communities around the world responding to and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities. It is positive, solutions focused, viral and fun.

In the film you'll see stories of communities creating their own local currencies, setting up their own pubs, planting trees, growing food, celebrating localness, caring, sharing. You’ll see neighbours sharing their land with neighbours that have none, local authorities getting behind their local Transition initiatives, schoolchildren making news in 2030, and you'll get a sense of the scale of this emerging movement. It is a story of hope, and it is a call to action, and we think you will like it very much. It is also quite funny in places."

Taken from In Transition 1.0 on Vimeo

To view the film, just go to In Transition--The Movie.

Transition Town: What's It All About?

Transition Towns New Zealand

Bill Rees on the Human Ecological Footprint

Urban Cities and Their State of Emergency

As we continue to abuse our environment, the less fortunate people of America suffer at a much higher degree than most might think. This is due impart because the waste of the upper class can be shipped to these less desirable areas, completely disregarding the wellbeing of their fellow citizens. Kunstler asserts that me must shift to a more localized community where people are responsible for their own waste, and thus will take their consumption more seriously. With this, urban areas will see an improvement in quality of life and as a whole, waste and pollution will be treated with more care since people will be responsible for what they produce.

As our environment continues to get worse, we turn a blind eye to the amount of hopelessness we are getting ourselves into. Kunstler believes this to be the “greatest misallocation of resources to date” and that our quality of civic life that we take for granted today will only continue to get worse unless we can reverse the negative actions we are placing on our environment. In the past, people took conservative approaches to their cities, where the towns never got too large, the people always provided for themselves, and people all depended on one another for the production of goods. The culture of civic design and the organization of cities went down the drain after the Industrial Revolution, and all of our principles of sustainability and space conservation went down the drain with it as well. We want to get to the point where we can dwell in a hopeful present, and not worry about a future full of despair.

Chipotle, The Sustainable Fast Food Movement

From the beginning, fast food chains have been producing and selling food in the fastest and cheapest way possible. Until recently, some chains have been promoting sustainable efforts in creating there food, although many have little evidence to support their claims. Many believe this effort is a hoax in order to make people believe that they are trying to be environmentally friendly. Unlike other fast food chains, Chipotle, under the control of Steve Ells has been using free-range animals, in local farms to produce their food. Steve Ells the Chairman and Co-CEO of Chipotle sparked a movement in fast food production before sustainability became popular. This shows that the core values of the restaurant have been there from the beginning and their efforts of being sustainable are solely to be sustainable rather than appear sustainable.

History of Chipotle

Annie Leonard and "The Story of Stuff"

Annie Leonard has put together a great film, entitled "The Story of Stuff." As with many good ideas, Stephen Colbert invited her to be interviewed on The Colbert Report. Her Story of Stuff is so popular, it's been viewed by millions. Check out her other films, "The Story of Cosmetics," "The Story of Citizens United v. FEC," "The Story of Electronics," and "The Story of Bottled Water." Coming out on Nov. 8--"The Story of Broke"--an interesting and controversial take on economics.

Green Business

Link:

10 Green Giants-Fortune Magazine

Video:

A dramatic change in the paradigm of capitalism is being experienced as the corporate world embraces sustainability. Reform is necessary in today’s capitalistic society because companies throughout the industrial revolution up to today have been living in a culture that tolerates waste. No more! Sustainability has become an important part in the production equation because businesses have recognized the advantages of operating sustainably. Businesses are still seeking to maximize production but with as little impact on their environment as possible. The first link is to a Forbes magazine article, called “10 green giants”. The article lists ten large revenue companies that are making headway in sustainable business operations. Companies like Honda, GE, PG&E, and Hewlett Packard stand out as well known names. For example, Honda has been investing in multiple forms of energy for their vehicles like, hydrogen fuel cell and natural gas. Honda is unique because it is a conglomerate, which has been a benefit to the consumer because Honda has been incorporating their car technologies in their other products within home energy as well as in infrastructure. However, big companies are not the only ones pursuing sustainability, small-scale efficiency in operations has grown in popularity with homeowners to small businesses. The second link is a video of an Australia-based company called, Green Biz Check, that offers green advising and counseling to small businesses. This company is unique because their job is not traditional; in fact, sustainable managing is a job that has emerged in the past decade. Many companies, large and small, are tackling the problem of sustainability in hopes that they will run a leaner, more cost-effective business because it will increase profits and ultimately create a life-sustaining culture.

Tracy Chapman--New Beginning

Paul Hawken on Blessed Unrest