This discarded 1990s window design could help fight climate change
According to the United States Department of Energy, buildings use about 76 percent of electricity in the US and are responsible for about 40 percent of all direct and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the country. This means that reducing energy consumption from buildings is an Read More...
The rise in popularity of zero-waste stores
What are zero-waste stores? Zero-waste or refill stores, specialize in products with no packaging waste and are non-harmful for the environment. A wide variety of foods and household cleaning products can be found at many of these stores, with the hope in the future that mainstream supermarkets Read More...
Berkeley is the first city in the US with long-term plans to go vegan
Last week, the City Council of Berkeley passed a resolution to cut the number of animal product purchases in the city in half by the year 2024. However, this is just the beginning as the long-term goal of this resolution is the eventual phasing out of all purchases of animal products and replacing Read More...
Scientists develop robodogs for the visually impaired
Robot dogs with laser vision may sound like the main characters of a Saturday morning cartoon, but don’t be surprised if you see one out and about in the future. A team of scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, published a study on March 26 that detailed their robodog prototype Read More...
New material can pull precious metals such as lithium from wastewater
Wastewater is often polluted with heavy metals such as copper that could actually be of use, but the problem is that we haven’t had a way to separate these metals from the other contaminants in the water. Today’s wastewater cleaning process simply pulls out everything from nutrients and Read More...
This tax plan wants to help cities address climate change locally
Though it adopted a climate plan in 2009, Berkley, California, hasn’t had the necessary funding to make a significant dent in local emissions. Its transportation and building sectors, in particular, have made little progress in tackling the problem — even though they are among the biggest Read More...
Berkeley bans unhealthy snacks from grocery store checkout lines
Those tempting candy bars and chip bags flanking the grocery store checkout line aren’t placed there by accident, but these impulse buy items will soon be a thing of the past in Berkeley, California after the city became the first to ban “junk food” displays in checkout lines. The ban, Read More...
California city takes lead in ruling out disposable coffee cups
As it becomes increasingly important to change our consumer practices to fight the plastic crisis, Berkeley, California, has started the year off with the right environmental footprint by declaring war on disposable coffee cups. On January 1, the city rolled out the nation’s most comprehensive Read More...
Berkeley becomes the first city in America to ban natural gas in new buildings
For decades, natural gas was considered among the preferred energy sources for buildings and embraced as a bridge from dirtier fossil fuels to a green energy future. Now it seems that the transition period is coming to a close after the city of Berkeley passed a landmark ordinance that will ban Read More...