Inhabitat readers might remember that we interviewed San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom back in October over a live webcast that was open to any of our readers who wanted to attend. The finale of our Green Talks series of live chats with green thought-leaders, this interview touched on subjects such as mandatory composting, electric vehicle infrastructure and political leadership in CA. Our interview with Mayor Newsom was provocative and inspiring, and was a can’t-miss bit of Inhabitat journalism, if we do say so ourselves. Happily, for those of you who missed this amazing interview – we finally have the videos together of the interview in its entirety. We’ve chopped the full 35 minute transcript down into 4 shorter, themed segments for easier viewing. Enjoy!

PART ONE: The Big Picture & Mandatory Composting & Recycling

PART TWO: How to Make Your Cities (And Your Politicians) Greener

PART THREE: Renewable Energy & Electric Car Infrastructure

PART FOUR: How to Get to Carbon Neutrality in 2020

Let us know what you think in the comments below!

PS- Big shout out to the awesome band Tanlines who provided us this great audio track for our videos. You can find out more about Tanlines here >

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Post tags: California, electric cars, Gavin Newsom, green building San Francisco, green politics in california, green san francisco, high speed rail in CA, INHABITAT GREEN TALKS, inhabitat interviews, mandatory composting, mandatory recycling, renewable energy, san francisco city hall, san francisco mayor gavin newsom, solar power San Francisco, Video, youtube video

CALLING ALL SAN FRANCISCANS & everyone looking to green their city!

We’re thrilled to announce that we’re going to be interviewing San Francisco mayor GAVIN NEWSOM TOMORROW at 12pm PST, and we’re inviting YOU to join in the conversation! Mayor Newsom has spearheaded an impressive amount of eco initiatives in San Francisco and he’s also a forerunner in the race to be California’s next governor, which makes this a CAN’T MISS opportunity to talk with him about greening your city and the future of the golden state. We want you to take part in our conversation and submit questions to us today. To encourage your participation, we’ll be selecting our favorite responses to win a FREE INHABITAT T-SHIRT and a Hymini wind-power charging device, so sign up for our green talk and submit your questions today!

SIGN UP HERE TO JOIN THE CONVERSATION >

SUBMIT A QUESTION TO WIN AN INHABITAT T-SHIRT! >

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Post tags: built environment, Gavin Newsom, green design, Green Talks, infrastructure, interview, public policy, sustainable design, Urban design, webcast

CALLING ALL SAN FRANCISCANS & those of you who want to green your cities!

We’re interviewing San Francisco mayor GAVIN NEWSOM next Wednesday the 28th at 12pm PST, and we’re inviting YOU to join us next for this live webcast conversation with the country’s greenest mayor! Join us to find out more about groundbreaking energy projects, mandatory composting, and how San Francisco got to be the greenest city in the U.S!

SIGN UP HERE TO JOIN THE CONVERSATION >

Read the rest of Join our Webcast With Mayor Gavin Newsom Next Wednesday at 12pm PST!

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Post tags: built environment, Gavin Newsom, green design, Green Talks, infrastructure, interview, public policy, sustainable design, webcast

San Francisco already diverts over 72% of its waste from landfills thanks to rigorous recycling efforts, and now the city is set to cut down on trash even more with the country’s first mandatory composting law, which took effect yesterday. Residents and businesses now have six weeks to start composting food waste, plant trimmings, and other items. Needless to say we’re thrilled by this initiative, and we invite everyone to join us as we chat with Mayor Gavin Newsom about it next Wednesday in our final Green Talks webcast!

Read the rest of San Francisco Implements Nation’s First Mandatory Composting Law

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Post tags: agriculture, compost, Gavin Newsom, green design, public policy, Recycling initiatives, San Francisco, sustainable design

CALLING ALL GREEN DESIGNERS!

In case you missed it – we’re doing a LIVE INTERVIEW TODAY with Tom Hicks of the USGBC, to discuss a brand new USGBC initiative to test and analyze the performance of ‘green buildings’. This is an extremely exciting BRAND NEW initiative from the USGBC, and Tom is leading the charge on establishing performance accountability for green buildings. For those of you who have ever thought to themselves: “LEED is all fine and good, but what happens to LEED-rated buildings after they are built and get their certification?” – make sure you join us in this Inhabitat Green Chat to find out more about this great new Building Performance Initiative from the USBGC.

If you want to watch the interview and participate in the chat, SIGN UP NOW to join us at 2:00pm EDT/11:00am PDT today.

SIGN UP HERE TO JOIN IN THE CONVERSATION >

Read the rest of REMINDER: Live chat with Tom Hicks of USGBC TODAY at 2pm EDT!

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In the wake of the United State’s recently terminated Car Allowance Rebate System, Russia has announced that it will be implementing a “Cash for Clunkers” program of its own early next year. The plan aims to encourage domestic vehicle sales while emphasizing the environmental benefits of purchasing more energy-efficient vehicles by offering 50,000 rubles (approximately $1,500) for the trade-in of vehicles that are more than 10-years-old towards the purchase of a Russian-made car.

Read the rest of Russia to Launch its own “Cash for Clunkers” Program

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Post tags: car recycling program, carbon footprint, cash for clunkers, energy efficient vehicles, Ford Motor, general motors, Nissan Motor, obama, Renault SA, russia, Volkswagen AG

Today is the last day for NYC’s Summer Streets 2009!

NYC DOT has been closing Park Avenue from Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park on Saturdays, from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. to all motor traffic so that NYC residents can walk, run, or bike along city streets. This is the third and LAST Saturday for this great initiative, so we hope you are planning on getting out there. Why, you ask? Well, we support anything that encourages people to get outside and enjoy the warm weather, but foot traffic is also a boon to local business. Speedy transportation often facilitates the growth of chain stores and fast food joints. So please slow down your pace today and show your support for NYC, this initiative, and a more livable and friendly city!

+ Summer Streets NYC 2009

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Post tags: bicyclists, new york city department of transportation, nyc dot, pedestrian friendly, summer events new york city, summer streets

They say that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, and nowhere is this more true than in the world of design. Oftentimes it doesn’t matter how brilliant an idea is, if it can’t be visualized effectively it is often hard to convince people of its merit. Readers who are familiar with Inhabitat will know that we are guilty of this visual bias as much as anyone: we are suckers for sleek, glossy, eye-candy renderings. Imagine our surprise then, when we realized that some of the best ideas submitted to our Reburbia Design Competition were the ideas with the least visual punch. In fact, one of the most powerful (and certainly the most workable and cost-effective) idea submitted to the Reburbia Competition isn’t a design proposal at all, but instead a policy proposal — called Entrepreneurbia — to get rid of the idiotic zoning laws which led to most of the major problems in suburbia in the first place. Makes a lot of sense, right?

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Post tags: entrepreneurbia, Entrepreneurbia Case Study: McMansion Turned into Restaurant Lounge, entrepreneurism in the suburbs, Entreprenurbia, Mixed Use development in the suburbs, mixed use suburbia, Mixed Use Suburbs, Rezoning the Suburbs, start up suburbia, start-ups in suburbia, suburban start-ups, suburban zoning laws, zoning laws in the suburbia

The small Australian town of Bundanoon just set a new standard for sustainability by voting to do what no community has ever done before: ban bottled water! The measure was founded over concerns about the tremendous amount of resources used to extract, package, and transport bottled water, and it passed nearly unanimously in a town hall meeting. Will this be the beginning of a trend?

Read the rest of Australian Town Bans Bottled Water

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Post tags: australian town bans bottled water, bottled water ban, no more water bottles, public policy, Waste reduction

It seems virtually everyone—from Wall Street bankers to small business owners—has been affected by the economic downturn. Now, the recession’s latest victims may be American cities. The Obama administration is reportedly considering plans to raze sections of 50 economically depressed US cities, condensing these towns’ shrinking populations and city services to smaller areas. The plan, dubbed “shrink to survive,” may seem kooky, but it could be big news for environmentalists: In many cases, bulldozed districts would be returned to nature via forests or meadows.

Read the rest of US Government May Bulldoze 50 Cities; Create More Green Space

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Post tags: bull dozed, destruction, green design, public space, raze, shrink to survive, sustainable design, tear-down, united states cities, urban space

Why does NYC send easily recyclable PET plastic containers to landfill?

New York City recycles plastic – or so I thought! For the last several years I have been carefully scrubbing all plastic number 1 (PET) and number 2 (HDPE) containers (such as most deli containers that you get when you buy tomatoes or sliced fruit) and collecting them for NYC recycling. Just yesterday the superintendent of my building brought a giant bag of deli containers back up to me from the recycling bin and said ‘This all needs to go in the trash – NYC won’t recycle it‘. I stared at him disbelief until he pulled out a flyer from the NYC government stating that it WON’T TAKE ANY PLASTIC EXCEPT PLASTIC BOTTLES – even easily recyclable #1 (PET) and #2 (HDPE) plastic!

This news blew my mind – why would the New York City government waste a chance to recycle all the PET and HDPE in non-bottle containers such as fruit and deli containers? Especially when most other cities (such as San Francisco) DO recycle all plastics? According to the NYC recycling website, it seems that the reason NYC is not doing it is because ‘it is not worth the effort’:

Read the rest of GREEN RANT: Why Won’t NYC Recycle Plastic?

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Post tags: HDPE recycling, NY Plastic REcycling, NYC Plastic Recycling, NYC Recycling, PET, PET containers, PET recycling, PETE, PETE containers, plastic number 1, Recycling PET in NYC

Americans demand low prices and giant warehouse stores where they can buy anything they want. We may not like it, but big box retailers are a part of life. But don’t assume that being big is bad. Massive, world-wide retailers can make a difference especially because they are that big. Enter IKEA, a company with stores all over the world. Critics say that IKEA is a landfill-waste generator because they make huge volumes of stuff that doesn’t last. IKEA only started working toward sustainability in 1999, when it published its first set of environmental priorities, but their new slogan is “low price, but not at any price.”

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Post tags: green design, ikea, ikea furniture, ikea solar investment, is it green, Recycled Materials, sustainable business, sustainable retailer

Part of the fun of following future-forward design is tracking the trends of each year and seeing how they inform future developments. With this in mind, we’d like to cast our projections for the coming year in green design! From a more environmentally sound political climate to conscientious changes in the way that goods are designed, produced, and consumed, there’s plenty to look forward to in 2009 – read on for our editor’s predictions!

Read the rest of INHABITAT 2009 EDITOR’S PROJECTIONS

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Post tags: design predictions, editors predictions for 2009, Green Design Predictions, Inhabitat Predictions for 2009, new years predictions

This week’s Is It Green comes to you from the lush city of Portland, Oregon. I have lived in many cities, from Los Angeles to New York City to the suburbs of DC to Singapore. I have traveled to many more cities – Key West, Montreal, Tokyo – and can say that Portland embodies the culture of sustainability more than any of them. From green transportation to sustainable agriculture and public policy, Portland offers a shining example that all cities should aspire to. Read on for an in-depth report on the city’s green merits.

Read the rest of IS IT GREEN?: Portland, Oregon

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Post tags: green city planning, green policy, green urban design, local food, portland is-it-green, portland oregon sustainable development, sustainable public policy, sustainable transportation

We all know it: Green is the new black. One of the many manifestations of the environmentalist trend/movement is that labels and certifications designed for the environmentally-conscious consumer have been proliferating like mad. Even if you’re savvy enough to know about LEED and FSC, there are dozens of lesser-known eco-labels. It’s hard to derive information from a label you’ve never seen before, but you may be able to figure out which category of label you’re looking at – government, proprietary, or independent agency. I’m taking this week’s Is It Green to blitz through some of these and give a little context to those logos.

Read the rest of IS IT GREEN?: Eco-Labels and Certifications

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Post tags: "leed", eco friendly labels, fsc certified, Green Building, green certification labels, green certification review, green design, is it green, sustainable certification labels, usgbc