Electric motorcycles gain traction in North America and world wide

I am currently in Asia for work.  My first stop is Shanghai.  Although growing up in Taiwan, I’ve never had a chance to visit China, and I had been looking forward to this trip. I enjoyed my trip so far, very imprssed with the development, size, and entertianment of the city while noticing (but not unimpressed with) some really old/rundown buildings and really good deals co-existing. Overall, I am mostly not surprised at what Im seeing in Shanghai, except the number of electric bicycles and motorcycles! I wanted to dig up the number of electric-assisted motorocycles/mopeds/bicycles in Shanghai - I want to know the “environmental impact”.  I’m sure such study exists, so when I get it I’ll share with you all.  

For now, I found another article on CTV.ca which discusses Zero S, a new generation electric scooter coming to the US this year.  Some basic specs:

• 1 charge lasts 60 miles
• mileage is equivalent to 60miles/gallon
• $9,950

The California based company Zero has had a sucessful product - Zero X, an offroad dirt bike.  Zero X was sold out (not sure how many were produced) with a 6-months long wait list.  They are not expecting the slow down of the economy would impact their sales.  In fact, in US alone, 1.1 million motorcycles were sold last year.  For Honda, 15.1 motorcycles were sold world wide in 2008.  Therefore I think there will be a pretty significant market for electric motorcycles in the world.  What do you think?

USELESS - a People brand and not a Consumer brand….

I came across this blog tonight and the first posting caught my eye right away - there was a logo like the one you’re seeing here “USELESS”.  How brilliant!  We should definitely use less!  I went on and read the article, it discusses how “people” are not always “consumers”; in fact, we should try to be people and not consumers!  I like the idea.. and I agree with the concept.  

Some of the products are very interesting:

• the messenger bags are made of used billboards: 700,000 billboards are used annually (and discarded annually) in the US!
• the “USELSS earth” costs $25 and you can by it made of 100% nothing  - all proceeds go into funding clean water projects 
• all products “locally” made in US
• 10% of all sales go to funding clean water projects

Have a look at the website and this blog article, i enjoyed both!

Are you a consumer or a person?

Grand & Toy offers 48-hour delivery as sustainable option for Canadian businesses

Grand & Toy is a large Canadian based office supply company, very similar to Staples.  In 2008, Grand & Toy delivered 8.4 million orders to more than 200,000 customers.  Now that’s a lot of overnight deliveries!  In fact, 4500 tonnes CO2-e was emitted for the 2008 delivery, whcih is equivalent to flying from Vancovuer to Toronto 4500 times a year!  Earlier in 2009, Grand & Toy started a pilot program called “48 Hour Delivery”.  Essentially, recommending their customers to choose the 2-day delivery option, Grand & Toy is able to optimize logistics issue and be more (energy and carbon) efficient in making deliveries.  During the pilot project, Grand & Toy found that 50% of the customers would choose the 48 hour delivery option as an eco alternative.  Grand & Toy is now rolling out this program nation wide!  Personally, I am a little skpetical about the carbon savings that can be acheived, but I would love to be proven wrong and see some data in their carbon footprint for 2009!

Green Gadget - World’s greenest business card?

I came across the Traffic & Marketing Design website today which is marketing and selling “world’s greenest business cards” as one of the products.  It uses 100% post consumer paper and is produced in Canada.  The ink is vegetable based.  I like the idea and I think companies should consider these green business card options. However, I’m not convinced with some of the envirnemental benifits claimed as shown in the table below.  The references included there were not useful in convincing me.  I agree that no new trees are cut to make these business cards, but the water and energy savings as well as emission and waste reduction need to be further verified.  Recycling paper is quite an energy intensive process which requires a lot of water and chemical; further, not all paper is recyclable and I would think that there is still solid waste associated with paper recycling process.  Furthermore, the process energy and solid waste would all results in emissions.  It would be more realistic and environmentally responsible for such comparison.  Just my thought… what do you think?

1 FriendsOfTrees.org: http://www.FriendsOfTrees.org/
2 H2Ouse.org: http://www.H2Ouse.org/tour/details/
3 EPA.gov: http://www.EPA.gov/cleanenergy/powerprofiler.htm
http://www.EPA.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/calculator.html
4 Montgomery.gov: http://www.MontgomeryCountyMD.gov/

Green Event - Hydrogen + Fuel Cell 2009 in Vancouver

HFC2009 is coming to Vancouver this Sunday!  It’s Canada’s largest hydrogen and fuel cell conference and is held every other year.  I used to work int the fuel cell industry - more specifically on hydrogen storage system and I’m excited about this conference as I’ll be seeing some old friends, colleagues, and supervisors.  The conference itself is quite technical and pricy, but between 1:30pm and 4pm on June 1 and June 2, the trade show is open to the public if you bring this FREE VISITOR’S PASS!  Lots of exhibitors including the usual suspects like Ballard, Hydrogenics, and Plug Power.  There’re also booths for projects such as the Hydrogen Highway for the Olympics and Hydrogen Village project in Toronto!  If you’re interested in fuel cells, this is a great opportunity to show up!  You might even get a ride in a fuel cell car!