Seattle startup Vu1 Corporation plans to launch a new type of light bulb that functions like a TV tube. Contrary to what you'd think, the technology is amazingly environmentally friendly. Vu1(View One) has raised $13 million to develop a brand new technology by fusing three existing technologies. "It is not induction lighting. It is not plasma. It is not fluorescent. It is not halogen.

Business should use the global downturn to forge ahead with green technologies that will save hard pressed firms money as well as the planet, a U.N. environment agency said on Thursday.

Proven and commercially available technologies can cut buildings' energy use by 30 percent without a significant increase in investment cost, said Angela Cropper, deputy executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP).

Algae farming is a relatively safe bet in the current financial climate. Algae, a sludge colored illuminatingly lime to moss green, has going for it that it can be made anywhere –even in desert climates- and that it can be relatively swiftly adopted. A big negative is that the price of producing one gallon worth of algae based petroleum is still relatively cost inefficient compared to oil. But even at the negative end of this spectrum, there’s masses of potential.

According to Professor Demain, the petroleum-based economy in the US is getting close to the end of its lifecycle. Global oil reserves and new petroleum discoveries will not be enough to meet the annual demand worldwide. It is therefore essential to anticipate and avoid any shortfall in future supply and to provide access to new bioenergy alternatives for the marketplace.

PITTSBURGH—Inspired by the aquatic wriggling of beetle larvae, a University of Pittsburgh research team has designed a propulsion system that strips away paddles, sails, and motors and harnesses the energy within the water's surface. The technique destabilizes the surface tension surrounding the object with an electric pulse and causes the craft to move via the surface's natural pull. The researchers will present their findings Jan.

ROTHERA BASE, Antarctica (Reuters) - U.S. geologists working at an Antarctic base hailed President Barack Obama's inauguration Tuesday and expressed hopes for a stronger focus on science.

"It's a very exciting time," David Barbeau, assistant professor of geology at the University of South Carolina, told Reuters after watching the inauguration at the British Rothera research station on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Planting crop varieties that better reflect sunlight back out to space could reduce summertime temperatures by more than one degree Celsius in some parts of the world, researchers announced yesterday (15 January).

The reduction, they say, would at certain latitudes be equivalent to a seasonal offset of about 20 per cent of the regional warming expected by the end of this century due to the build-up of carbon dioxide.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Austin seeks to go "zero waste or darn near" it according to drafters of the proposal adopted by the city.
The city has committed to reducing per capita solid waste sent to landfills and incinerators by 20 percent by 2012 and diverting 90 percent by 2040.

About 65,000 people have become LEED Accredited Professionals (LEED APs) since the program began in 2000 as a way to recognize experts in the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC’s) LEED Rating System. In November 2008 at the Greenbuild conference, the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI), the organization that administers the LEED AP credential, announced substantial revisions to the program.