by jboullion | Jun 3, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a story by Avrum Lank in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Sturgeon Bay – John Hippensteel believes a person has only one original idea in a lifetime.
His can be summed up in two words: flower power.
Not the kind expressed in bright splashes of color on psychedelic concert posters or daisies put down gun barrels during anti-war demonstrations, but actual power from flowers.
OK, not real flowers. Rather from sculptures that look like flowers – and rather unusual sculptures at that.
A professional engineer, Hippensteel designs, builds and installs large arrays of photovoltaic solar panels made to look like flowers. He hopes the product line he and wife, Ann, have dubbed Solar Flairs will be the key to a blossoming of their business, Lake Michigan Wind and Sun Ltd., which they run out of a 100-year-old farmhouse on 40 acres near the Lake Michigan shoreline in the southern Door County Town of Clay Banks.
by jboullion | Jun 2, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a story by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
How’s this for oil-shock value: Scott Olson of Brookfield went to his car dealership to get the oil changed on his sport utility vehicle and drove home in a new SUV that gets nearly twice the gas mileage.
“I was filling it up every five days,” he said of his old Ford Escape. “Now I’m only filling it up every eight or nine days.”
Olson, 43, now the proud owner of a blue Mercury Mariner hybrid SUV that gets nearly 40 mpg in city driving, is part of the latest crowd of buyers bothered by fuel costs who are now in the hunt for hybrid electric vehicles.
Until recently, most hybrid buyers could be characterized as having a “green streak,” concerned about the environment and pollution released from tailpipes, said John Dolan, hybrid sales specialist at Smart Motors in Madison.
“But once oil got to $100 a barrel and on toward $130, we’re starting to see more and more people who don’t even characterize themselves as environmentalists,” he said. “They’re just looking at buying a hybrid as a dollars and cents thing.”
by jboullion | May 30, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a story by Mary Louise Schumacher in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
From a coffeehouse with a green design to a gathering place in a former industrial wasteland, from a dynamic railway station to a new airport concourse, from a face lift for what’s now an upscale Cajun eatery to the restored roof of an old Polish church, 27 projects will be honored today by Mayor Tom Barrett for contributing to Milwaukee’s urban landscape.
Barrett will present the Mayor’s Urban Design Awards, for design excellence, and the Cream of the Cream City Awards, for smart preservation, at a reception at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning, 2131 E. Hartford Ave., at 5 p.m.
The design awards will go to projects completed by the end of 2007, including the Dr. Wesley L. Scott Senior Living Community, 2802 W. Wright St., for creating an environmentally sustainable building with a rooftop solar energy system (pictured above).
by jboullion | May 29, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a press release issued by Governor Doyle:
NEENAH – Governor Jim Doyle today announced the 2008 Pulp and Paper Energy Efficiency Awards, recognizing Proctor and Gamble Corporation of Green Bay and Neenah Paper of Neenah for outstanding achievement in implementing an energy efficiency projects. Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Secretary Rod Nilsestuen presented the awards on behalf of the Governor at the Wisconsin Paper Council Annual meeting in Neenah. . . .
Proctor & Gamble Corporation won the 2008 Project for Innovation award for construction of a new energy efficient tissue paper machine at their Green Bay location. The machine uses new technology to deliver its product using 19% less natural gas and electricity than most modern machines. This improvement in energy efficiency will contribute significantly to Proctor and Gamble’s sustainability and energy goals.
Neenah Paper won the 2008 Project for Energy Efficiency Implementation award for its wastewater treatment facility optimization project. The project involved using variable frequency drives to improve the efficiency of the aeration system and feed forward dissolved oxygen control. The project also reduces turbidity in the final waste matter and prevents the release of 1,260 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year.
Governor Doyle established the Pulp and Paper Energy Efficiency Award to recognize the Wisconsin pulp and/or paper mill that best shows outstanding achievement in implementing an energy efficiency project.
by jboullion | May 21, 2008 | Uncategorized
The interest group Paths to a Sustainable Future will show Escape from Suburbia, the sequel to the award-winning film, The End of Suburbia, about the future of the American dream after the oil age. This film focuses on viable alternatives for communities working at the local level.
The movie will be shown at the interest group’s meeting which begins at 6:00 p.m. at the Urban Ecology Center, 1859 North 40th Street, (414) 344-5460.
