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FuelCell Falters

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Out of the Labyrinth

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In Carl Frankel's new book, he digs deep to give us insights that may enable the sustainability movement to fulfill our vision. Read this excerpt.

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Car Owners Turn to Vegetable Oil For Fuel

With gas prices going higher and higher, some Americans are getting creative. A recent Associated Press article reported than more people are fueling their cars with vegetable oil from their favorite restaurants. Every other week, Etta Kantor picks up a few buckets of used oil from her local Chinese restaurant to fuel her Volkswagen Jetta. When she gets home, she simply uses a colander and a bag filter to remove water and any food particles. Then she pours the oil into a 15-gallon tank that sits in the back of her Jetta, where a spare tire would usually be kept. With a touch of a button, located above the radio, Kantor can switch from diesel fuel to vegetable oil in seconds.“Oh, I zip around town, go fast on highways. It’s not any different,” said Kantor.Restaurants have to pay to get rid of their old vegetable oil and are happy to give it away for free.Shawn Reilly, a co-owner of a restaurant, says it saves them $40-$60 a month not having to get garbage pick-up for it. Aaron Schlechter picks up 30-40 gallons twice a month from the restaurant for his 170-mile daily commute. He says, “The only way I can […]

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Starbucks Supports Calvert in Sustaining Fairtrade Coffee Farmers

EcoLogic Enterprise Ventures (EEV) ($250,000) is a “green” loan fund that provides affordable financing to eco-enterprises located in environmentally sensitive areas of Latin America. Targeting the rural credit market, EEV provides small business loans to support coffee cooperatives and other businesses that foster biodiversity conservation and grassroots economic development. EEV has made 47 loans worth $4.8 million to rural enterprises engaged in organic and fair-trade agriculture, sustainable fishing and ecotourism. Prodecoop ($200,000) – Founded in 1991, The Promoter of Cooperative Development in the Segovias (PRODECOOP) provides credit assistance and training programs to small farmer cooperatives in Central and South America. 71 co-ops comprise PRODECOOP, which sells high-quality organic coffee to countries around the world. PRODECOOP was pivotal in providing disaster relief to Nicaragua after Hurricane Mitch in 1998 so that coffee farmers could maintain their income. Starbucks and Calvert have worked together domestically for the past three years. In 2001, Starbucks provided $150,000 to help finance affordable housing and non-profit/small-business facilities in low-income communities across North America. Starbucks investments through Calvert have helped support The Low Income Housing Fund in San Francisco, the Corporation for Open Land in Illinois, and ACCION New York, Inc. Calvert Community Investments is a pooled […]

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Toyota Expands Production of Hybrid Cars as Fuel Prices Climb

Toyota Motor Corp. , the first maker of cars powered by gasoline-electric engines, said it has expanded production of the Prius sedans, taking advantage of surging oil prices that boosted sales of fuel-efficient vehicles. Toyota in April increased the production of the so-called hybrid cars in central Japan's Aichi prefecture to 10,000 units a month from 7,500 a month, spokesman Shigeru Hayakawa said in Tokyo. Asia's biggest carmaker can now make as many as 130,000 Prius a year with overtime, 44 percent more than the earlier production target, Hayakawa said. The average U. S. retail price for regular-grade gasoline has risen 39 percent this year to $2. 051 a gallon. That has bolstered sales of the Prius, which can go as far as 55 miles on a gallon of gasoline. Toyota's Prius sales more than doubled to in the first four months to 37,396 units due to demand in the U. S. and in Japan. “The hybrid engine is the key technology for environmentally-friendly cars,'' Toyota President Fujio Cho said. The automaker, which sells its technology to rival Nissan Motor Co. is “open to cooperation with other companies that want to use the technology if it makes business sense,'' he […]

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