Green Traveler: California

Nissan Leaf electric vehicle charging up in Santa Monica, California.

December 24, 2011-January 2, 2012 -- California is on the cutting edge of America's green revolution, so whenever I visit the Golden State there is always something new to write about on Green Forward.

San Francisco Airport

The last trip to the Left Coast took me first from Washington Dulles International Airport on Virgin America (the best domestic airline in my humble opinion) to San Francisco International Airport's spectacular new Terminal 2, where I was greeted by a Google representative at something called a Chrome Zone pop-up shop. He explained to me that as a promotion, Google was renting out their new Chromebook laptop to Virgin America customers. The Chromebook could either be used while waiting in the terminal for a connecting flight or on a flight to another airport with a similar pop-up shop where it could be returned.

Professional Hockey Player Andrew Ference Goes Green

Picture credit: National Geographic Channel

Most hockey fans know about Boston Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference because of the team's Stanley Cup championship run last season. And recently Ference made headlines for a three-game suspension he received after a hit on the New York Rangers' Ryan McDonagh. But the National Geographic Channel is showing another side of Ference that many NHL fans might not be aware of: eco-warrior.

"Beyond the Puck," a web video series featuring new episodes every Thursday, provides brief glimpses (the videos average only a few minutes) into the off-ice life of Ference and his family as the Edmonton, Canada native goes green. Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki inspired Ference to pursue a carbon neutral lifestyle and helped him start in 2007 the NHL's first environmental program that encourages players to go carbon neutral and think about their impact on the environment. 

Green Traveler: New York, New York

Photo credit: Inhabitat.com

A few green observations from a recent visit to New York City:

• Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park was green. How green? When I visited the encampment they were generating electricity and heat from a stationary bicycle. The pedal power on display was part of a sustainability showcase that also featured the importance of plants to the ecosystem and a grey water recycling system.  

• New York has an aggressive public recycling program as evidenced by the blue and green recycling bins strategically located across the city. The green bins are for newspapers and magazines and the blue bins are for bottles and cans. 

• While riding the NYC subway I saw ads encouraging New York homeowners to "join the evolution" by switching to clean, renewable and homegrown bioheat. The Bioheat website states that right now they are capable of blending biodiesel with traditional heating oil at only 2-5% but that they are working on increasing the biodiesel blend. Here is a great video presentation on what bioheat is all about.

• The NYC Department of Parks and Recreation is greening their fleet and since 2006 has been operating trucks on a 20% biodiesel blend (B20) made from soybeans and 80% ultra low sulfur diesel. And the department has been conducting trials using a B50 blend. So B20 is only a stepping stone to using more clean, renewable biofuels in city vehicles.  

• One noticeable change I've seen over the years in NYC is the increase in hybrid taxis and hybrid police cars. The NYPD features a fleet of Toyota Prius patrol cars, Nissan Altima Hybrids, Ford Fusion Hybrid sedans and Ford Escape Hybrid crossovers. And as of July 2011 there were 4,980 hybrid taxis in service representing 38% of the total fleet -- the largest hybrid fleet in North America.

• NYC aims to plant a million trees throughout the five boroughs over the next decade as part of a public-private partnership. So far the city has planted 527,315 trees.

And if New Yorkers need to be reminded why there is such a sense of urgency among city leaders to make the Big Apple the greenest city in the world, all they have to do is take a trip to Midtown Manhattan near Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. At this busy intersection they will see a large billboard sponsored by Deutsche Bank with a rapidly rising number signifying the metric tons of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. I went on the website and the carbon counter is currently at around 3.92 trillion GHGs.