I’ve always liked the look and feel of those richly illustrated and thoughtfully produced Dorling Kindersley books, so I was pleased to read about their efforts to be a little greener:

UK book publisher Dorling Kindersley has created an imprint that aims to ‘green’ an industry whose dependence on dead trees doesn’t necessarily make it an eco frontrunner. So far, four titles have been released under the company’s Made With Care brand. All deal with eco-aware topics such, including green baby care and organic gardening. …continued at Springwise.

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We’ve probably all wasted more time on YouTube than we’d care to admit. But there are alternatives!

There are brilliant ideas, expressed everyday in public discussions and events, all over the world.

Don’t miss them.

FORA.tv delivers discourse, discussions and debates on the world’s most interesting political, social and cultural issues, and enables viewers to join the conversation. It provides deep, unfiltered content, tools for self-expression and a place for the interactive community to gather online.

Check out this great interview with Bill McKibben.

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As the price for staples like corn and rice escalate rapidly attention has focused on the (mis)use of food crops for fuel. Energy Farms Network is working on solutions:

Using science, proven tools, and evolving methodologies the Energy Farm Initiative seeks to demonstrate systems of agriculture that can sustain both farms and communities in the face of climate change and peak oil. This program weaves threads of the Relocalization vision into a fabric of local currency, local food and biofuel systems, revitalization of local industry, and community cooperation.

Energy Farms Network is a program of the Post Carbon Institute.

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In a line reminiscent of this blog’s mission, KPCB Partner John Denniston launched a new VC fund with these words: “The world has embarked on the next industrial revolution.”

Kleiner Perkins’ new Green Growth Fund will invest $500 million over the next two to four years in established companies that demonstrate progress in delivering clean-technology innovations, said partner John Denniston, who will co-manage the fund.

At the same time, clean-tech start-ups may join counterparts in information technology and life sciences to seek funding from Kleiner Perkins’ new $700 million KP XIII fund - the 13th in the firm’s storied 35-year history.

The Green Growth Fund comes less than six months after former Vice President Al Gore joined Menlo Park-based Kleiner Perkins as a partner.

- Press Release

KPCB partner John Doerr was talking up the opportunity a year ago at TED stating that green “may be the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century.”

This kind of money and business building methodology stands in stark contrast to my previous post on open sourcing enabling tools and technologies…but maybe not. Open source leader MySQL was acquired by Sun in January for $1B. If there ends up being a business in giving away the ’secrets’ to sustainability, all the better!

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Acquaintance Ben de Vries forwarded me this email:

Global Villagers,
Last week we spoke at the University of Missouri, Columbia, about the Global Village Construction Set: Open Source Engineering for Sustainable Living. I focused on the construction of economies that utilize local resources. I proposed the route of open source, flexible fabrication - applied to Community Supported Manufacturing – as a viable route to an industrial system free of geopolitical compromise.
Please view the presentation and pass it around: http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=198

This lead me to reading the Factor E Farm which journals an “experiment of Open Source Ecology“, and onwards to some quick reading on Open Source Economics:

“Our mission is to extend the Open Source model to the provision any goods and services- Open Source Economics. This means opening access to the information and technology which enables a different economic system to be realized, one based on the integration of natural ecology, social ecology, and industrial ecology. This economic system is based on open access- based on widely accessible information and associated access to productive capital- distributed into the hands of an increased number of people. We believe that a highly distributed, increasingly participatory model of production is the core of a democratic society, where stability is established naturally by the balance of human activity with sustainable extraction of natural resources. This is the opposite of the current mainstream of centralized economies, which have a structurally built-in tendency towards of overproduction.”

“Instead of waiting around for solar panels to become affordable, why don’t we collaborate and make them ourselves.”

I look forward to learning more…

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Fortune’s David Kirkpatrick interviews the always-brilliant Jane Benyus, the woman who coined the phrase “Biomimicry” and who continues to inspire a generation with wisdom from the wild. See also CNN post.

Photo credit: TED.

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It was a relatively small event in downtown San Jose, but still a number of green products on show, and a great daily one hour introduction to green building and remodeling by Joshua Foss of Thrive Design Studio - check out his blog that goes by the name “Metro Hippie“.

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This closing slide says it all!

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Dang! Two important events crossing over. Web2.0 Expo and EcoCity World Summit. I recommend the later if you can make it - runs through Saturday in San Francisco.

A Green City is an ecologically healthy city. No such city presently exists. ..

…Instead of trying to improve an unhealthy automobile and oil based infrastructure, this conference calls for the city, town and village to be redesigned around the measure, needs and potential of the human being and based upon ecological principles.

…Specifically it calls for urban diversity at close proximity, instead of scattered uniformity. It calls for land uses, architecture and a steadily and rapidly growing infrastructure for pedestrians, bicyclists and transit, powered by renewable energy sources and balanced with preservation and restoration of natural and agricultural lands and waters.

I’ll be at Web2 till mid-day Friday, then down to San Jose for the Home Show and back in SF for EcoCity on Saturday - if you’re attending any of these let me know and lets connect!

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Cleve Reeves from Home Comfort Zones called by the new house today to demonstrate their solution indoor climate control.

Nothing impacts your comfort at home more than maintaining the proper temperature. Unfortunately most homes don’t have the control to ensure every room is the temperature you want it to be. Home Comfort Zones provides a room-by-room temperature control and energy management system that guarantees you’ll always be comfortable in every room of your home….

…No more cold or hot spots and uneven temperatures upstairs or downstairs; just perfect temperature control … and that’s just the beginning. The MyTemp™ temperature control system is “zoning” taken to the next level. Simple to use yet powerful and flexible, it can provide energy savings of up to 40%.

Builders are a fairly skeptical bunch when it comes to new fangled devices, but my (green) builder was nodding in agreement as Cleeve presented his solution. Its not inexpensive, but when you add up the energy savings plus the increased comfort…seems like a smart choice. Check it out at Home Comfort Zones.

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