It was inevitable, perhaps, that the sustainability movement would extend into sexual aids. And what better time to learn about Green Sex than as Valentine’s Day approaches? The public is invited to hear “loveologist” Wendy Strgar and Vickie Kriner of Scarlet Girl talk about ...

Progressive economist Jared Bernstein will be the keynote speaker of the Green Professionals Conference in Portland on Feb. 16, an opportunity for job seekers to learn about green job opportunities. Bernstein will discuss green job growth, economic trends, and jobs bills proposed by the Obama ...

Debris from last March’s Japanese earthquake and tsunami is headed to Oregon’s coast this year and next, according to researchers from Oregon State University. A group of agencies, university researchers, political staff and others are preparing for the arrival of the debris. Jack ...

The Portland Water Bureau will turn the spigot back on Tuesday to tap water from its Bull Run water supply, and discontinue the short-term use of groundwater from its Columbia South Shore Well Field. The water bureau expects to return to 100 percent water from Bull Run by late Tuesday, Jan. ...

Trees are a vital component of a healthy urban community, providing a multitude of benefits that include clean air, clean water and psychological well-being. They also provide economic return. US Forest Service economist Geoffrey Donovan has been studying the effects of urban trees, especially in ...

Portland Community College announced Friday that it will build a 35,000-square-foot solar array at its Rock Creek Campus near Hillsboro. The two-acre complex of solar panels will provide 60 percent of the energy needed for a 72,000-square-foot office and classroom building on campus. SolarCity ...

Multnomah County’s efforts to address climate change are expanding into new terrain, including a Sustainable Jail Project, new public health initiatives and emergency planning to adapt to extreme weather events. County staff presented details of the new initiatives Thursday during a briefing ...

There’s been a surge of imported Chinese solar panels in the U.S. in recent months, perhaps in anticipation of action by the U.S. to slap import duties on the heavily subsidized products. The Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing, a coalition of domestic solar panel producers, reported ...

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is spreading the word about how to cut waste, particularly those bulky, unneeded phone books delivered to your home. DEQ estimates that 6.5 million sets of white and yellow pages were distributed in Oregon in 2003, to 1.3 million households. ...

Three environmental groups filed notice Thursday, Jan. 19, that they intend to sue the state over what they claim are harmful clearcutting practices in state forests. Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity and Audubon Society of Portland argue that state timber-cutting in the ...

There’s been a run on 100-watt light bulbs lately in the Portland area. Starting this month, U.S. light bulb manufacturers and importers must meet new energy-efficiency standards, much like fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles. Incandescent 100-watt bulbs are the first to disappear, once ...

The Plug-in hybrid decal is not mandatory, unless you want to flaunt your green cred. Spending time with an early version of the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in offers lessons about the potential of electric vehicles – and the limitations of the public charging-station infrastructure. Prius is ...

Cars and motorcycles are going electric, and so are commercial trucks. Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp., a division of Portland’s Daimler Trucks North America, hopes to move into mass production this fall of an all-electric delivery van. They call it the E-cell. The company is still ...

Electric and hybrid vehicles are a hot commodity in the Portland area — so hot that local automobile dealerships are scrambling to get enough supply. “We finally have the Mitsubishi i in stock,” says Sean Trimble, Internet director for the Herzog-Meier Auto Dealership in ...

Electric vehicle owners can “fill up their tank” for free on Electric Avenue and try out one of several battery-charging systems. While the cars are docked at one of eight charging stations on a single block at Portland State University, researchers hope to glean some insights about ...

Gail Zuro refers to her Nissan Leaf purchase as her mid-life crisis. “I’m very analytical,” says Zuro, a project manager at Planar Systems. “It’s outside my character to be one of the first to buy an electric car.” Still, it was hardly an impulse purchase. Zuro ...

Most Portland-area electric vehicle companies are still in the startup phase or waiting for their first big break, but there’s one segment of the industry where this area is already a world leader: forklifts. In Fairview, a team of 250 people is creating new electric forklifts for NACCO ...

The hand-lettered sign on the bar in the tiny town of Grand Isle, La., caught our eye at once. “Daddy’s Money,” it read. “Oil wrestling featuring the girls from Slidell.” Amid the jukeboxes and fraternity-like atmosphere, tired bar owner Jack Jambon sat on a bar ...

Avoidable food waste accounts for 2 percent of all carbon emissions in the United States, according to a new study by Kumar Venkat, a Bethany resident who operates CleanMetrics Corp. About two-thirds of the waste occurs at the production and processing stage, Venkat calculates. “There is a ...

On Tualatin Acres Farm, the grass is thick, the air feels clean and the cows look happy. No machine noises can be heard. No cramped cages or feeding lots can be seen on this fourth-generation family farm outside Hillsboro and Cornelius. It’s no wonder there’s a growing perception that ...