Hippy Green

Are you a savvy business person in NYC who uses a car service everywhere you go, or needs one for a trip to the aiport, but want to be more environmentally friendly? Need a eco-luxury private car service? Have no fear, OZOcar is here!

OZOcar is a car service that uses hybrids (Toyota Prius and Lexus RX400h) as their cars to pick you up and drop you off. OZOcar was started by Jordan Harris and Roo Rogers in 2005 with the goal of providing customers with style, service, and sustainability.

So not only are you “saving the environment” with a hybrid but you are also get some nice perks from OZOcar, such as the usage of a Apple iBook with free wifi to check your email, 200+ satellite stations to listen too, and some enjoyable refreshments.

So if your in the NYC area and need a ride, call 1 866 OZO 5966 or 1 886 696 5966.

Are you planning on laying out on the sand and get your tan on? Do you plan on bring your iPod, iPhone, mp3 player, and/or electronic gadgets. Well if you are like me, you are always looking for an outlet to “recharge”, we theres a new green solution for an outlet.

Reware is now selling beach bags equipped with solar panels built in that allow you to bring your towel and charge your electronic device. The techno pale nerd inside of you, can now get a tan and listen to some tunes. I think integration solar panels into current products is not only an amazing idea, but something that needs to be picked up by the masses! I would also be interested in mailing or shipping my current “product” to a company and get a solar panel integrated into it. For example, I have thought about picking up a new crumpler, but want one with a solar panel. Maybe this is a sign I should start a company that does this and converts popular products like clothes, cars, anything that is outside and could require power. Do you want to preorder one? Have a bag you like but want to go green?

Maybe I should try and team up with timbuk2 and/or other companies and either get them to go green, or allow me to license their product for resale with solar panels attached to them. Anyone interested?

Well okay, maybe not all the cool technology, but the researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology have created a way a solar cell can be painted on flexible plastic sheets.

Somenath Mitra, PhD, professor and acting chair of NJIT’s Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences says, “Imagine some day driving in your hybrid car with a solar panel painted on the roof, which is producing electricity to drive the engine. The opportunities are endless.”

The researchers have developed a way to utilize carbon nanotubes to produce the power for these inexpensive solar cells. One day we may even see household printers that allow for printing solar onto clothes, houses, etc.

So the next time you think New Jersey what’s that smell, remember NJ is on the ball creating the technology to paint on solar.

I love when readers submit stories and I received an email this morning from Fred who writes:

Check out this US Carbon Footprint Map, an interactive United States Carbon Footprint Map, illustrating Greenest States to Cities. This site has all sorts of stats on individual State & City energy consumptions, demographics and more down to your local US City level.

This is a great link to go with our think carbon post today. This is a pretty pimp site that shows some cool stats. These stats are great because it shows the carbon footprint of each state as well as compare it to the per capital population of the state.

This is a great reference and thank you Fred for contacting us and letting us know. I always love hearing feedback/comments from readers. (positive or negative, their all great to me!) I especially like to see users submitting or suggesting stories. I know my buddy Steve is always submitting stories on del.icio.us you can to just use the tag hippygreen and anyone and see it.

Again please feel free to submit stories directly.

Today is a great day to rethink your carbon foot print. I have posted previously about your carbon foot print and gave ideas, but here is a way to take the Low Carbon Diet. Yes, you can work on your Body&Soul by lowering your footprint!

Now the article is from the UK, so if your in other parts of the world (USA?) you can buy fresh produce from farmer markets rather then shipping them abroad, or eat in season. Please comment on ways you are cutting down on your carbon footprint.

Spectrolab has developed a low costing solar cell. The average solar cell cost about $2.30 to generate one watt of electricity, where as these newly developed solar cells cost about 10 cents a watt! This is a BIG DEAL because the upfront cost of solar can be a hit to any persons bank account. By drastically cutting the cost to go alternative then we can look at getting every person in the world going solar!

One thing that I have to bring up because I am traveling out to Arizona soon is the LACK of solar in Arizona! Come on people, get with it! Scottsdale, AZ averages over 300 sunny days! I have recently been looking at buying a condo out there and have found it scary that HOA (Homeowners Associations), the “people” who tell you want you can and can not do to your condo, are stating you CAN NOT INSTALL SOLAR PANELS! I even discussed setting up two 230watt panels off the porch and was told that it would “ruin” the view, but was later told the 17 inch Satellite dish is fine! WTF PEOPLE!!!

I am about to just buy some land and put up energy efficient condos that run completely off solar panels! We could run net meter houses and/or use batteries and run off grid! This can cut electric costs as well as do thing GOOD for the ENVIRONMENT! With these new cheap solar cells it would make even MORE sense to install these and pass the savings on to the resident. Imagine putting your electric cost into a 1 time fee into the mortgage and NOT have an electric bill! Think its not possible, well if we build a mini solar power plant on the roof of condos, we could. Google has build a 1.6 MW solar power plant, why the $@&!# not?

Well, its been a while since last post, sorry about that, but hopefully with me doing this startup I can focus at least 1 hour a day and get some blogging done, rather then all this “traveling” I have been doing the past few months.

With all the Green Google is making, their putting it right back into the environment. Google is starting to reduce its CO2 emissions by cutting oil by using plug-in hybrids. Google has launched RechargeIT.org, a fleet of converted Prius to plug-in hybrids. Google is working with A123 Systems and Hymotor to convert a Toyota Prius into a plug-in hybrid which allows the car to run on electric power stored in batteries rather then a gasoline engine. This allows a Prius to be plugged into an outlet and use electric power and cut down on oil usage, this also allows for alternative energies to charge the Prius such as wind, solar, etc.

Each Prius is equipped with GPS for tracking and monitoring fuel consumption and is calculated and displayed on RechargeIT.org. By using a plug-in hybrid, the cost savings is pretty amazing, driving on electricity cost 2-4 cents/mile rather then 8-20 cents/mile for gasoline miles. I have already discuss other green projects Google is running, and this is just the icing on the cake. With the solar installation at Mountain View these cars can run completely on alternative energy and not only save money but save our planet! Google is going green and even rethinking its current power consumption.

The past friday Goveneror of New Jersey, Jon Corzine (D) signed a bill to bypass the Bush administration and passed the Global Warming Response Act, which requires teh cut of greenhouse gases in New Jersey by 16 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.

Other states are joining in on hitting the goal of a 80 percent cut in greenhouse gases within each state, but these goals are targets that each state has set rather then a requirement. New Jersey is leading the charge followed by California who has similar target goals, but is not a hard mandate.

This Act tries to cut emissions mainly in cars by enhancing public transportation, car-pooling, and using rail roads instead of trucks.

Jon Corzine is hoping this bill is a WAKE UP message to Washington telling them, DO SOMETHING NOW about greenhouse gases, and yet all I can think about is HOW FAR WE ARE FROM MISSING THE BOAT!

So we are exicted because we are CUTTING emissions, okay thats great, but Toyota is going completely hybrid by 2020. Lets set the bar HIGH and do the same. Lets tell GM, Ford, and Daimler Chrysler that you have to be completely hybrid by 2015! This can be as simple as putting some battires and a regenerative braking system in place! We already have a car company who is rasing the bar but will only have an outreach to the upper class and not middle America.

Jon, I am with you on sticking it to Washington and trying to go green, but we need the technology behind it to invest and fund these projects that will give a larger piece of the pie. If you really want to see some changes taking place, contact Google! Google has enough cash to buy GM! Think about that as a possibility…