Our buddy Justin, who appeared in episodes 9 and 10 is forming an expedition. While pursuing graduate studies, Justin and some friends conceived of an idea to do a Field Trip to discover ecological brilliance in the American West. We wish them luck on their journey.

Unemployment is high, stocks are down, and people are cynical, but successful entrepreneurs often launch innovative ideas in the middle of a downturn. Some friends of mine in Portland have started a green business powered by bikes. Portland Pedal Power has partnered with retailers, restaurants, and CSAs to deliver food to your door via bike. Besides delivery, PPP also does marketing and mobile signage for local businesses. They also have a slick website to boot so check them out if you’re in Portland.

Is it any surprise that the best environmental rapper in the game is a kid. Kids have the most to lose if we don’t start getting our green acts together. Lil Peppi is a young rapper from Florida who has been sponsored by the Captain Planet Foundation. He is bringing a green message to the youth of Florida. Meanwhile, I”m in Miami Beach and I can’t find a recycling bin anywhere. I am enjoying the sun and surf here, but I miss the bay area consciousness already.

March madness is over and our beloved Spartans came up short. As we bleed green, we can no longer blame basketball, or ski season, or classes for being derelict in our duty to update Greenrapper.com.

What has been on my head has also been on my mind. I got a lot of sheet for wearing my Gilligan style MSU hat circa 1996 to the tournament watching party in San Francisco this week. I hid my ancient head gear even though it is a perfectly good hat. After the semifinal game, I went home and watched this amazing video called “The Story of Stuff” and started to rethink my embarrassment. Though the Story of Stuff might be great for kids, it is also a great reminder for us adults who get wrapped up in our own champagne wishes and caviar dreams. Check it out!

A company called Soler is currently marketing Natural Charcoal Briquettes called Green Hearts. The product claims to be carbon neutral, with a focus on bio-diversity and social justice. The company grows the briquettes from cultivated eucalyptus forests in Brazil with no child laborers. Now if they can only teach me how to light the briquettes without a ton of lighter fluid. Word is you can get them at Whole Foods.

As we throw billions of dollars of public money at energy and finance problems with our fingers crossed, law-makers should think about incentivizing at least some of the solution-seekers. The X-prize has proven that cash rewards are a huge motivator for inventors, entrepreneurs, scientists, and financiers to attempt to solve seemingly impossible problems.

American energy use has increased 200% since 1990, and 40% of that energy consumption occurs in the the home. Statistics like these have mobilized a coalition of public and private institutions to offer prizes to those intrepid souls who can build the next generation of “energy-free” buildings.

The Energy-Free Home Challenge defines an “energy-free home” as a modern building that produces as much energy as it consumes. It must be scalable and within the cost of an average consumer. The prize purse that will go to the team that can make this dream a reality is $20,000,000.

Interesting note in the category of “that’s how the world works”: I tried to Google the “Energy Free Home Challenge” and the top result was their lobbying statistics on Open Secrets ($65,000 in 2008).

I recently got back from a trip in the South. We took the easy, cheap route and flew Southwest, a no-frills airline that puts its employee’s first. Our flight attendant told us that a week earlier she counted Al Gore among the all-coach passengers. Much has been made by Al Gore’s political enemies of his energy consumption (in the name of environmental awareness), but no one can doubt his thrift.

This got me thinking about how the airline industry could become more green. There were some definite misgivings when Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic flew a plane on biofuel. Changing out jetfuel is a large step, but I think airports and airlines could take some very small steps to improve their environmental record. The TSA has made a lot of cash by picking up coins dropped from the security screening process. How much have they made from recycling all those water bottles they confiscate from folks at the gate?

Here’s a quick idea I drew out for making the refreshments on planes a little more environmentally-friendly, safer, and less staff-intensive. Each seat in the plane would have a magnetic valve projecting from the armrest that would act as a cup holder. A metal-bottomed cup could be passed out by flight attendants and cups would be filled from the bottom with pressurized refreshments stored in the back of the plane. Obviously, the planes would have to be fitted with piping for the drinks, but the system would cut down work for staff and would eliminate the waste of disposable cups, cans, and bottles.

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