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 >

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
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

The Bottle Bank Arcade is a recycling bin that encourages a higher rate of returns by rewarding bottle recyclers with musical notes and tons of fun. It’s one of several kooky and kinetic entries in The Fun Theory competition, which will award £2500 ($4185) for the best idea that proves “fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior … be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different.” Registration is currently open and the Contest closes Dec. 15, so enter your project today!

+ The Fun Theory

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: behavior, change, contest, fun, fun theory, kinetic, theory

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

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: agriculture, compost, Gavin Newsom, green design, public policy, Recycling initiatives, San Francisco, sustainable design

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

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
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

Would seeing exactly where our trash goes change our consumer habits? That’s what a team of MIT researchers set to find out with Project Trash Track. The innovative system uses special electronic tags to track different types of waste in New York and Seattle as it journeys to its final resting place. The ultimate goal of the project will be to monitor the cost and patterns of urban disposal while creating awareness about the impact of trash on the environment.

Read the rest of Track Your Trash: Want to Know Where Your Starbucks Cup Ends Up?

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: MIT Research, recycling, SENSEable City, Trash Track

Maybe you simply didn’t have enough time this year to think about it. Or maybe you’ve already gotten so many biodegradable plates, composting bins and other eco-hookups for your Fourth of July shindig that you feel you can’t possibly get any greener. Wait! Here are a few super simple and practically free ways to make your BBQ, beach bash or rooftop gathering more about celebrating and less about waste. Uncle Sam would be proud!

Read the rest of 5 Cheap and Easy Last Minute Ways to Green Your Fourth of July

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: eco-friendly july 4th, green bbq, green celebration, green independence day, green party, sustainable july fourth, uncle sam wants you to have a green 4th of july

Wondering how to turn all of those plastic bottle caps running rampant in your household into a green, planet saving endeavor? Well, lucky for you, and for marine life everywhere, Aveda has come up with an alternative solution for all of the un-recyclable rigid plastic caps that invade your medicine cabinets, refrigerators and kitchen drawers. The very same ubiquitous bottle-toppers pose a dangerous threat to oceans, birds and marine life when they are improperly disposed of and wind up in landfills or sent down storm drains. Aveda’s Caps Recycling Program will re-purpose these toxic plastics as a base for new packaging, in an effort to eliminate them from our oceans before it’s too late.

Read the rest of Aveda is Saving Oceans & Marine Life One Plastic Cap at a Time

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: aveda, beauty, cap recycling, caps, caps recycling, recycling

Just yesterday On June 23rd, the City of San Francisco signed into effect the nation’s first law mandating that all residents and businesses separate their recycling and compost material from normal trash. While many other cities in the US require recycling, no other city requires separation of food scraps and foot material to be composted. The measure, which will take effect this fall, is intended to help increase landfill diversion rates to 75% by 2010 as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Read the rest of San Francisco Signs Mandatory Recycling & Composting Laws

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: compost, composting, Gavin Newsom, law, mandate, Mayor Newsom, Recycle, recycling, San Francisco

What to do if you are a creative young artist with a defunct Skoda Fabia? Why, you make it disappear of course! When University of Central Lancashire art student Sara Watson found herself in possession of an old junker from a local recycling company, she decided to turn it into an incredible piece of environmental art. By painting the vehicle to match the parking lot in front of her art studio’s entrance she created a wonderful and mind-bending optical illusion that acts as a call to recycle.

Read the rest of Art Student Creates Invisible Car

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: art projects, creative advertisement, Green Transportation, invisible car, recycling ad, recycling vehicles, sara watson

Happy Holidays everyone! Now that Christmas has come and gone, we trust that many of you are relaxing and tidying up all those boxes, ribbons and bits of wrapping paper from yesterday’s gift exchanges. Despite many of our best intentions in our gift wrapping (using silk scarves, brown-bags or socks), most of us will still be left with piles of wrapping paper to clean up. So what to do with all that wrapping paper that can’t be salvage for next year’s presents? We’ve got some ideas for you over at Inhabitots >

READ MORE AT INHABITOTS >

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: can i recycle wrapping paper, how to recycle wrapping paper, how to recycle wrapping paper and packaging, recycle wrapping paper, wrapping paper crafts, wrapping paper recycling how to, wrapping paper reuses

The Wat Pa Maha Chedio Kaew temple has found a way to bottle-up Nirvana, literally. The temple, which sits in Thailand’s Sisaket province, roughly 370 miles northeast of Bangkok is made of more than a million recycled glass bottles. True to its nickname, “Wat Lan Kuad” or “Temple of Million Bottles” features glass bottles throughout the premises of the temple, including the crematorium, surrounding shelters, and yes – even the toilets. There’s an estimated 1.5 million recycled bottles built into the temple, and as you might have guessed, they are committed to recycling more. After all, the more bottles they get, the more buildings they are able to construct.

Read the rest of Thai Temple Built From One Million Recycled Bottles

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Bottle Bricks, eco building, Green Building, Recyclable Building Materials, recycle bottle building, recycled architecture, Recycled Bottle temple, Sustainable Building, Temple of a Million Bottles, Thai Temple Built From One Million Recycled Bottles, Wat Pa Maha Chiei Kaew

HP has rolled out a system that identifies eco-friendly features of its products to customers. It’s called the Eco Highlights label, and it provides quick facts about the product that may or may not convince the customer that it’s environmentally friendly. But as a company inextricably tied to the paper industry, how can HP promote sustainable consumption? We caught up with Michelle Price, HP’s worldwide environmental strategic marketing manager, to ask her a few questions about HP’s latest green initiatives.

Read the rest of IS IT GREEN?: HP Printers

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: "energy efficiency", Green Appliances, green business, green printers, hewlett-packard printers, hp sustainability, Recycled Materials, Recycling initiatives, sustainable business practices

Alexena Cayless of British design collective Farm Designs recently exhibited her wonderful fly-tipped furniture collection at Eco Age and Beyond the Valley in London. Alexena scours the streets for unloved and discarded furnishings and then gives them a brand new lease of life. These white-washed pieces serves as blank canvases for Alexana, who is interested in the interaction of human memory and furniture.

Read the rest of Flytipped Furniture by Alexena Cayless

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: alexena cayless, beyond the valley, discarded furniture, eco age, farm designs, fly-tipped furniture, flytipping furniture, london design fesival, re-invented furniture, salvaged furniture

Although consumer electronics are tending towards rechargeable batteries these days, those ubiquitous alkaline disposables continue to present an environmental problem. Now Sungwoo Park and Sunhee Kim have designed the Energy Seed, an illuminating way to encourage battery recycling. The street lamp is powered by the residual energy left in spent batteries, establishing an immediate visual connection with the act of recycling. Simply deposit your dead batteries in the cylindrical storage compartment and their energy is pooled to power a luminescent LED halo.

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags:

Early on a sunlit mid-September morning, on the banks of The Grand Union Canal in London, 25 designers, writers and academics from London Design Festival’s Greengaged hub, took residence on the Beauchamp ‘Electric Barge’ to take a trip to Powerday waste recycling plant in west London. Docked at Little Venice in Paddington, the Beauchamp is a silently-running and environmentally-sound answer to canal travel. Inhabitat writer Kate Andrews was on the trip and shares her insights from the experience.

Read the rest of London Design Festival: Designers Visit Recycling Center

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: designers and recycling, Greengaged, London Design Festival, powerday london, recycling center