California's coastal and bay-side power plants use an outdated cooling technology known as "once-through cooling" (OTC) that needlessly kills massive amounts of aquatic life each year including fish, larvae, plankton, sea lions and turtles. Once-through cooled power plants dramatically impact the health of our ocean and the viability of our coastal economies. There are readily available, and more efficient, alternatives to once-through cooling already in use at numerous inland power plants in California. Surfrider Foundation has been working with numerous organizations including the California Coastkeeper Alliance and its member Waterkeepers, Heal the Bay, and many others to phase out OTC. You can support our efforts by sending a message to the State Water Resources Control Board.


Let your voice be heard!  Send a message to the State Water Board urging them to adopt and implement a strong policy to eliminate once through cooling at ALL power plants in California.  Don't let the power industry lobbyists weaken protections for the ocean!


Leilani Münter, self-proclaimed ‘Carbon Free Girl’, is not afraid of a challenge. In addition to being one of the top-ranked women in motor sports, Leilani has taken a leadership position in promoting green products and behaviors to the auto racing community. Her improbable pairing of auto racing and carbon-free messaging has sparked a wide range of reactions from racing fans and environmentalists. We like this story, because it pushes the envelope in terms of marketing and outreach. And in a larger sense, it’s a parable about green leadership in the mainstream, and the power of a unique and authentic message.

Leilani’s interest in the environment has roots. She has a Bachelors degree in Biology from the University of California San Diego. She is a vegetarian and an eco activist; she serves as an Ambassador of the National Wildlife Federation, and has made several visits to Capitol Hill to speak with members of Congress on behalf of clean energy and climate change legislation. Since 2007, Leilani has adopted an acre of rainforest for every race she enters.   

Leilani started racing in 2001, and in 2004, became the fourth woman in history to race in the Indy Pro Series, the development league of IndyCar. In 2006, she set the record for the highest finish for a female driver in the history of Texas Motor Speedway when she finished fourth. According to Sports Illustrated, she ranks as one of the top ten female race car drivers in the world. She is currently pursuing her stock car career with the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), and hopes to move into the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2011.  

So how did she bring her two distinctly different interests together? In 2006, Leilani began to gather eco-business sponsorships, driving in the Indy Lights series with the support of Smart Papers, a maker of paper from recycled and waste paper materials. In 2008, she ran a hydrogen cell-powered Ford Focus in the Viking Rally for zero-emissions hydrogen and electric cars in Norway. All of the ads on her Carbon Free Girl website are for green products or services. Her environmental messaging is edgy and personalized, peppered with slogans such as "just because you’re green doesn’t mean you can’t be fast" and "life is short – race hard, live green."   

In a recent interview on greenbaypressgazette.com, Leilani explained how, in 2006, she realized she wanted to tell race fans and others about her environmental concerns, and what the fans could do to help. "…it started a dialogue in the racing community. If you're an environmentalist, you need to reach out to people who don't agree with you," she said. The ‘dialogue’ started in a fan forum on NASCAR's website. Leilani described some of the comments posted to the forum as ‘nasty’, "but other people chimed in and supported me," she continued. "It actually got to the point where they were posting graphs (showing environmental statistics) on the site. That's when I had that moment where I said, 'Man, I got them talking about climate change on a NASCAR forum.' It made me realize I can have a purpose, to talk about environmental issues to a group that normally doesn't talk about them." 

As Leilani says, "one in every three people in America is a race fan -- that's about 100 million." The way she sees it, "if I even get 10 percent of them to not use plastic at the grocery store, that's better. They can do something easy, not hard, and that'll help. I can show them composting is cool, recycling is cool, and I hope that some of them will join me." 

And, she is drawing an audience. In a recent blog post, Bill Zahren notes, "As green awareness has risen in the US, more companies are interested in using racing (an inherently non-green activity) to reach a wider audience. And Münter's ‘carbon free girl’ image has her in pole position to represent those companies."  

Thomas H. Rawls, Vice President, Sales and Marketing for NativeEnergy, aptly defended his company sponsoring a driver in such a high CO2 producing sport in a blog post titled ‘Have I Lost My Mind?’ Rawls notes, "If we only address those who already agree with us, nothing changes. And if we work only with people who already believe in what we do, who is going to change the minds of those who don’t? Leilani Münter is a proven and committed environmental advocate. That has been demonstrated beyond a doubt…. Leilani is also a race car driver, and racing leaves an oversized carbon footprint. So there’s a contradiction. And in that contradiction lies the opportunity: To reach some 75 million individuals who are avid racing fans. My guess is that a fair share of them are not troubling themselves about global warming. That is why we decided that it makes perfect sense to support Leilani and her mission."  

So where is this all heading? Will ‘green’ really become a factor in auto racing? It could, but the performance bar will be high. Leilani is now working to form the ‘Eco Dream Team,’ a group of sponsoring companies looking to collaborate on bringing sustainability more broadly to racing technology, racing events, and the racing audience. Leilani’s current sponsors include: GREENandSAVE, NativeEnergy, groSolar, LED Saving Solutions, Eco Academy, Home Efficiency Report, National Wildlife Federation, and HuntGreen LLC. Leilani is partnering with LED Saving Solutions to promote more efficient lighting. Here’s how she described the partnership in an interview with Planet Green: "… a ground breaking program that can provide lighting upgrades with light emitting diode (LED) lights that reduce electricity demand by up to 80 percent, allowing a business or property owner to reduce costs immediately as well as a means to reduce a facility's carbon footprint. The partnership offers companies of all sizes a tremendous opportunity to save money, go green, and become sponsor on my race car -- all without spending a dime."  

With her ‘Eco Dream Team,’ Leilani hopes "to send a powerful message. A message that says, we know we are not perfect but we are going to do everything we can to make the world a better place. And with each step we take, we get closer to a better tomorrow. A tomorrow where green technology can power race cars to 225 mph. A message that says together we can change the world." We sure hope she succeeds.  

By Don Bray with Anneke Hohl
 
Tags:  Carbon Free Girl  Eco Academy  Eco Dream Team  GREENandSAVE  groSolar  Home Efficiency Report  HuntGreen LLC  IndyCar  LED Saving Solutions  Leilani Munter  NASCAR  National Wildlife Federation  NativeEnergy

 

 

 

 

Coordinated Sustainability Intelligence Generates Potential Tax Benefits

Jenny Bravo
Anthony Rydell
Deloitte

jenny rydellAn evolution in green IT is under way as it rounds the bend from a siloed cost-reduction strategy to an enabler of corporate responsibility and sustainability. In this next wave of green IT, smart companies are elevating green IT to the enterprise level and focusing on sustainability intelligence – the information in green IT – to help make strategic decisions.

In particular, companies are proactively leveraging sustainability intelligence to help them pursue tax and financial benefits as well as greater regulatory compliance.