Nation's Capital Gets Greener

Bicycling past the Lincoln Memorial on a sunny day in the nation's capital.

I've been writing for the past few years about how my hometown of Washington, D.C. is leading the way in America's transition to a sustainable economy. The wildly successful Capital Bikeshare program that recently celebrated its two millionth ride, will soon be the second largest bike sharing system in North America when later this summer New York launches Citi Bike.

But bikes aren't the only mode of transportation being shared in The District these days. Car sharing service Zipcar now has some competition in D.C. with the recent launch of Car2Go. The subsidiary of Daimler AG features Smart Fortwo microcars that easily fit into the smallest parking spaces and are great for zipping around the city. Plus, unlike Zipcar you can pick up and drop off the Car2Go vehicle at any metered parking space in most places throughout The District city limits. While in D.C. and other cities the Car2Go vehicles are gas-powered, in San Diego and Amsterdam the company launched electric vehicle service with a fleet of Smart Fortwo ED (electric drive) vehicles.

Car2Go parked in NoMa neighborhood.

And if you are able to afford Tesla's new Model S Sedan electric vehicle or are driving another EV, it is good to know that there are more public charging stations as the EV charging infrastructure is expanding. There is a charging station at 14th and U Streets that when I stopped by was being used by a Chevy Volt owner. And there is also this artistically designed GE charging station at the Harris Teeter parking garage at the Lee-Harrison shopping center in North Arlington, Virginia. The wind turbine mural is a great visual to along with the charging station.

Electric vehicle charging station at Harris Teeter parking garage in Arlington.

Chevy Volt charging at 14th and U Streets.

And hybrid owners are now getting perks for doing the right thing and driving a low emission vehicle. The below picture was taken in the parking garage at Tysons Corner Center shopping mall. This space is for hybrid vehicles only and towing is enforced. What a great way to incentivize hybrids by granting access to prime parking spaces.

Hybrid parking at Tysons Corner.

And for those people who ditched their car altogether and decided to walk and bicycle, well, we aren't Amsterdam yet, but as this bike parking at the Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon proves, there is definitely a demand for bicycle parking.

Bicycle parking at Solar Decathlon.

Drivers who still own an internal combustion engine vehicle but are concerned about the carbon emissions coming out of the tailpipe should know that with an ethanol 85 percent blend (E85) conversion kit you can reduce your tailpipe emissions, save money on fuel costs, promote a homegrown industry and the domestic jobs it provides while giving the finger to OPEC and the Saudis. But where do you find an E85 station in Washington, D.C.? There is this E85 fueling station on Capitol Hill, but you can also visit the website Alternative Fuel Prices for a map of E85, biodiesel, electric, hydrogen and natural gas stations around the country.

E85 ethanol fueling station on Capitol Hill.

Speaking of biofuels, it is great to see this Georgetown business convert hundreds of gallons of waste fryer oil into biofuels. Maryland-based Greenlight Biofuels is a waste vegetable oil collection company that services food establishments all across the Mid-Atlantic region. The waste vegetable oil is then processed into biodiesel that is used as a clean burning, renewable transportation fuel.

Waste vegetable oil into biodiesels bin in Georgetown.

For a long time it was discouraging to walk into major chains like Starbucks and ask the employees behind the counter if they recycled only to get blank stares. It is just amazing that with what we know about how landfills contribute to climate change and pollution that there are still so many businesses in the United States that don't have some sort of recycling or composting program. In fact, the U.S. wastes $11.4 billion a year by throwing away recyclables. That's why it was encouraging to see this recycling and landfill (trash bins should always be labeled landfill so people know exactly where that trash is going to end up) bin at a Starbucks in Arlington, Virginia.  And nationally Starbucks is at least making an attempt to address recycling at their thousands of coffee shops. The website states that "recycling success depends on the availability of commercial recycling services where our stores are located" and that these services aren't available in a lot of places. It seems to this observer that a national recycling and composting policy would go a long way to making recycling and composting easier for businesses everywhere in the United States.

Recycling bin at Starbucks in Arlington.

Lastly, since this is Washington, D.C., everything is political and every moment is a chance for a political protest of some sort. The Occupy movement and other social justice protests have given us some meaningful and clever signs and I've taken photos of many of them. Here are a couple of environmentally-friendly protest signs followed by a sign that I believe sums up the economic situation perfectly and a sign reminding everyone of why it is so important to a healthy democracy to exercise the right to protest.

The first picture is from a protest at the American Petroleum Institute headquarters.

This picture is from a pre-Occupy labor rights rally at the Lincoln Memorial titled One Nation.

And here are two signs from Occupy DC at McPherson Square.

Here is a Flickr photo slideshow with more Green D.C. pictures I've taken over the past couple of years.

Here are Green D.C. videos on my YouTube channel. Videos include everything from the Keystone XL Pipeline protest at the White House to the Dulles Airport Aerotrain people mover system. Click Playlist in the lower left corner to scroll through the 33 videos.