I hate it when this happens. I just bought three reusable grocery bags and along comes this gem, the 
Porter Grocery Tote. Designed in intricate detail to replicate the look of a traditional brown paper bag, the Porter Grocery Tote is made from the same cloth as typewriter (an old-world machine for you youngsters out there) ribbon.
Of course, at $122 each, I probably wouldn’t be carrying three of these.
Porter Grocery Tote at B Yoshida.
Restaurants in Santa Monica, CA have until February 9th to comply with a new law that bans the use of polystyrene (plastic foam) and non-recyclable plastic. Many restaurants have made the switch in preparation for the upcoming deadline, but owners of smaller eateries have found the change to be daunting.
Green containers can be at least twice as expensive as their conventional counterparts and the limited number of suppliers can make it difficult to find cheap alternatives.
The group in charge of enforcing the ban has budgeted an underwhelming $15,715 for an additional employee to monitor the city’s restaurants. At just over $1,000 per month, it’s hard to believe that the new employee will be working enough hours to visit many businesses.
Story from the Los Angeles Times.
Now that “locavore” has earned a spot in the New American Oxford Dictionary, it’s safe to assume that the term will soon be making the jump from niche interest to mainstream use. Among the other food trends to keep an eye out for in 2008 include:
Story from The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Designed from the start as a hybrid, the newest truck from Toyota will borrow the Hybrid Synergy Drive system from the Prius and be roughly the 
size of the current RAV4. Going by the code name A-BAT, the new truck will occupy a spot below the Tundra and Tacoma which have moved upmarket in size, price, and features with the most recent redesigns.
The A-BAT will be built on a car platform, providing owners with increased levels of handling, safety, and fuel economy. Ford, GM, and Dodge had better pay attention, as Toyota is not so subtly going after the last stronghold of the big three American automakers.
Story from Business Week.
Led by venture capital veterans Josh Becker and Benjamin Black, New Cycle Capital is raising an early 
stage fund to invest in companies in the extended green economy and domestic emerging market.
Extended Green Economy: Non-energy generation businesses that take advantage of the economic dislocation resulting from new energy and resource usage patterns.
Domestic Emerging Market: Businesses and entrepreneurs who either focus on lower-income and ethnic populations or lack access to traditional sources of risk capital
So far, the company lists four companies in the portfolio on its website; TerraPass, Positive Energy, Sneaker Villa, and CitizenHawk.
Story from VentureBeat.
1 Odd Duck is certainly a fitting name when you consider that this LEED certified drive-thru 
prototype is not only eco-friendly, but also contains technology that can track employee hand washing through the use of biometics, change the outside appearance of the building using high-tech lighting, and customers can pay without ever talking to an employee.
On the green front, the building is outfitted with wind turbines, solar, rainwater retention systems, and an emission collection device that captures exhaust from idling cars and scrubs it before releasing it back into the air.
Building licensees will the option to outfit their respective buildings as they see fit so we’ll need to wait and see how many opt for the full roster of green features.
Story from QSR Magazine.
With 31,000 restaurants in 118 countries, McDonald’s has perhaps the greatest distributed research 
infrastructure in the world. From this mass of restaurant and franchisee owned outlets have come such “innovations” as the Egg McMuffin and Filet-O-Fish. Now the company is using these stores to test new “green” initiatives.
New restaurant designs include the use of more natural light, energy-efficient equipment, and the installation of waterless urinals in a restaurant in Switzerland. One particularly ambitious in Georgia even open the first LEED certified McDonald’s.
Story from Reuters.
The Story of Stuff is a humorous, easy-to-follow look at how the consumption habits of Americans impacts the greater economy 
and environment. Hosted by Annie Coleman, the 20 minute movie walks you through a quick tour of the production-consumption-disposal lifecycle of the products that we use on a daily basis.
Interesting tidbits and stats are sprinkled throughout the piece and the message will certainly make you think about your own habits.
It’s time for end of the year wrap-ups and with the holidays around the corner the number of posts may be slowing to a trickle. So, I present ten most popular posts from an eventful 2007.
Note: The top 10 list reflects the popularity of posts authored in 2007. Several posts from 2006 would have ranked in the top 10 for overall popularity.
Set to begin providing clean, renewable energy by 2012, a new wave power plant off the coast of northern California will provide PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric) 
with two megawatts of power. The plant will be situated 2.5 miles offshore and serve customers in the northern and central parts of the state.
The project will consist of a cluster of buoys that convert vertical wave power into electricity that is then sent to shore by an undersea transmission line. The profile of the buoys is such that they are easily spotted by boaters, but small enough as to not adversely impact the aesthetics of the coast.
Press release from Finavera (pdf).
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