January 2007 | Mindful Living
Smart Women, Fuelish Choices
At the Alt Car Expo, the future is now
Beneath graying Southern California skies, Edwin Correa stood on tiptoe to peer into the open sunroof of a diminutive ZENN neighborhood electric vehicle. After rocking back on his heels, he pursed his lips and stroked his goatee, eyeing the NEV’s slick fit and finish.
“I’m not going to buy something that looks like it’s from the future. I just want to buy a car, you know?” he said. “Something that looks like anything else out there on the road, but I can feel good about.”
The ZENN, a two-person hatchback built for cruising a few miles at 25 miles per hour, didn’t fit the bill for Correa, a father of two from Culver City. Instead, he strolled along the line of cars parked — some more easily than others — at the used and new car lot at last month’s Alt Car Expo.
Tommy Chong’s tricked-out, black-on-black Toyota Prius drew barely a raised eyebrow, but when Correa arrived at the first of several used, natural gas-powered Crown Victorias — a modified version of the familiar police interceptor — he stopped and smiled.
“Now we’re talking.”
Touted as the largest ever spread of electric, hydrogen, natural gas, biodiesel, ethanol and high MPG vehicles, the two-day Alt Car Expo aimed to make this kind of introduction: People, meet your future. Meet your present, while you’re at it.
“There’s a universe of choice now,” actor and true believer Ed Begley Jr. enthused. “You can drive these cars yourself. It’s not just some pie-in-the-sky thing: ‘Oh, they’re working on this; it’s research.’ There are many, many vehicles that are available now or will be available next year.”
Begley’s comments underscored that, when it comes to personal transportation, the era of easy decision-making is over. Practice will hone the increasingly familiar technologies over the next few years. But most are far from perfect, and likely never will be.
NEVs like the ZENN target short, low-speed jaunts to the store and back. They charge at home using the existing electric grid, but eventually, the heavy metal-laden batteries will need to be recycled.
Like Correa’s Crown Vic, Honda GXs use the same natural gas as your stovetop. They’re cheaper and cleaner than gasoline engines, have none of the range limitations of electrics and can be refueled at home for commuting. But they still burn fossil fuel.
Domestic automakers GM and Ford are betting heavily on flex fuel vehicles, which can run on up to 85 percent ethanol produced from corn. But corn growers use fertilizer produced from petroleum to up their yields. Biodiesel appears the better choice — recycled vehicles, sometimes running on recycled fuel.
Hybrids are out there, of course, although technically they don’t run on alternative fuel. Advocates of plug-in hybrids are trying to bridge the gap to full electric cars.
On that front, a breakthrough may already have happened. Phoenix Motorcars, an Ontario, Calif.-based startup, is pioneering the use of safer lithium-ion batteries it says can fully charge in 10 minutes instead of the hours it takes conventional lithium ions — the kind that can make laptops explode.
Phoenix CEO Dan Elliot is looking to move hundreds of freeway-speed pickup trucks and SUVs this year and several thousand in 2008, mostly to vehicle fleets. Once they’re out there, the idea is to keep them running.
“With a traditional lithium ion battery, you might get a thousand, 1,500 deep discharge cycles. We’re cycling these right now, in testing, at over 11,000 cycles. So we’re saying these have a 12-year life,” Elliott said.
If so, by the time the first batteries quit, personal transportation may look very different from now. Ultimately, it will be up to consumers to decide what stays and what goes the way of the horse and buggy.
It can’t be more difficult than, say, moving away from an oats-and-hay economy.
—Andrew Moyle
Realty Bites
As the broker for one of the first green real estate firms in the US, KJ Marmon knows he and his agents have a unique opportunity to shape the future. “We can teach people how to remodel their homes green, how to build green and how to save money on their utility bills,” he says.
To that end, Beverly Hills-based KJM Real Estate has partnered with Global Green USA, a non-profit organization that promotes sustainability and environmental responsibility, to create the Green Building Resource Center. The Resource Center, located onsite at the KJM offices and open to the public, offers information on environmentally-friendly building materials and resources for new home construction and renovations.
“What we don’t want consumers to believe is that they have to go all out and have an entirely green home,” says the eco-broker. There are many different levels of green design, he explains, from installing Energy Star appliances or using VOC-free paint to designing a home with radiant floor heating and solar panels.
Since there’s a dearth of green homes currently on the market in LA (in fact, none, at the moment), KJM — a member of the United States Green Building Council — plans to focus on its eco-friendly education endeavors, as well as building and remodeling.
“One of the obstacles we’re overcoming is that we’re having to create a lot of this inventory, but the demand is out there and things are moving towards green design,” Marmon adds.
—Jessica Ridenour
What Ya Gonna Do With All That Junk…?
Wait, is that you? Drowning beneath that snowdrift of junk mail? When you can’t find Fido under all those mailers with big-eyed kids desperate for your donation, or you’ve lost Fluffy chasing SASEs amidst the credit card “exclusive invites,” you know it’s time to get off the junk.
As WLT has oft-reported, there are ways to stop junk mail insanity — which consumes 100 million trees, 28 billion (that’s 28 with 9 zeros) gallons of water, and adds to a third of the 235 million waste tons in landfills each year. You can contact the Direct Marketing Association (dmaconsumers.org) and add your name to the “Do Not Mail” list; or you can call the companies directly. (Visit http://ecocycle.org/junkmail/ for more free tactics.)
But if that sounds too tough, too time consuming or too irritating for words, let greendimes.com do it for you. For a wee fee, the company will police the evil junk dealers to stop burying you and Fluffy in daily landslides of wasted paper. Even better, a portion of the fee goes toward helping GreenDimes plant trees — 24,375 trees and 12,000 pounds of junk mail saved so far, just four months after they’ve launched.
—Lucinda Michele Knapp
Don’t Just Get Mad… Get Active
The champagne popped, the ball dropped, and millions of us resolved to create positive changes in our lives. Typical New Year’s resolutions are pretty self-serving, but there’s no reason our efforts can’t benefit others as well.
To help you achieve your goals for ’07, we’ve collected some resolution-worthy volunteer opportunities around LA to usher in a happy New Year for all.
So your resolution is:
Lose 10 pounds. Focus on feeding those less fortunate with Hope for the Homeless, and your own diet issues will waste away. Visit hopeforthehomeless.info or call 213.624.9258.
Get creative. 826 LA is always seeking inspired volunteers to coach kids ages 6 to 18 in creative writing and the secrets to a compelling college essay. Visit 826la.org or call 310.305.8418.
Quit smoking. Join in Heal the Bay’s monthly Nothin’ But Sand Beach Cleanups. A few hours spent retrieving millions of butts from the seaside will make you think twice about firing up another cancer stick. Visit healthebay.org or call 800.HEAL.BAY, ext. 145.
Exercise more. Lend your eyes and surefootedness to the Braille Institute as a walking and exercise guide to the blind. Visit brailleinstitute.org or call 323.663.1111.
—Jessica Ridenour
I Do... Want My Wedding to Match My Values
The holidays are all about red fuzzy sweaters; for funerals, think black; and at weddings the bride wears... green? Well, sure — that is if Portovert, a brand new wedding magazine for green-leaning spouses-to-be has anything to do with it. At Portovert.com (the mag is online only, for energy-saving reasons, natch!) lovebirds looking to stage socially-responsible celebrations browse bridal gowns of organic silk or vintage couture, and bouquets of pesticide-free roses. Meghan Yudes Meyers, founder and editor-in-chief, designed the webzine to appeal to everyone from the die-hard tree-hugger to the tentatively eco-curious. “If The Knot or Martha Stewart Weddings is your thing, great,” she says. “But take those ideas and make them greener by visiting Portovert.” Marriage, after all, is a period of change — a sensible time to closely consider the type of life you’ll build together.
A sneak peak into the first issue reveals articles about creating eco-smart registries (hint: choose energy efficient appliances) and the chemi-free advantages of wet cleaning services. The site includes a resource guide, a blog and a “Vertique” — a boutique of unique collections from eco-friendly artisans. Because honeymoons go hand in hand with weddings, a percentage of Portovert proceeds are donated to eco-tourism. And for newlyweds looking to stay green after the big day has come and gone, the publication plans to expand to cover home décor, pregnancy and raising healthy tots.
—Jenny Rough
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