Scottie, Shields Up!

Advantage Window Systems, Inc. became the owner of IN’FLECOR Control Systems in April of 1999 and moved the company from Canada to Aledo, Texas, just west of Fort Worth, Texas.

They now are manufacturing the world’s first magnetic reversible solar panel that could heat in the winter, keep your home cooler in the summer, keep your furniture and carpet from fading from the UV’s, and cut the UV’s by up to 92%. A see through Insulating Panel mounted to the inside of windows, doors or skylights. The panel is manufactured of a metalized, coated, polyethylene sheet laminated to a sheet of carbon graphite PVC that is then perforated and laminated to a sheet of clear polyester. (more…)

Note to CEO’S: We Are Not Lemmings

From Wikipedia: Greenwash – a term used to describe the practice of companies disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly …. The term is generally used when significantly more money or time has been spent advertising being green rather than spending resources on environmentally sound practices.

From TerraChoice’s December 2007 study “The Six Sins of Greenwashing” – more than 99% of 1,018 common consumer products randomly surveyed for the study were guilty of greenwashing.

* Sin of the Hidden Trade-Off: e.g. “Energy-efficient” electronics that contain hazardous materials. (more…)

Yesterday, President Barack Obama announced a $2.4 billion program to boost development of plug-in electric vehicles in the U.S., including grants to finance domestic production of auto batteries. Out of that total, $1.5 billion is available for U.S. battery manufacturing and $500 million for related technology, such as electric motors. He said the Department of Energy has now started taking grant proposals from electric-vehicle battery makers.

Here’s a little data on how the market is coming along:

Ford plans to market a battery-electric vehicle by 2011, a plug-in by 2012. No price available.

Chrysler is building 100 all-electric cars by the end of this year and plans to have four electric models on the road in 2013. Like the Chrysler Town & Country EV. A plan that will certainly remains to be seen. (more…)