Meet the Queen of Clean Tech, Rhonda Dibachi – show 36

Rhonda Dibachi is a women to watch. Her company, The Noribachi Group, has funded and is building several Clean Tech businesses from LED/solar lighting to custom solar material manufacturing to light-powered consumer electronics to home energy storage systems. She believes that clean tech offers the same promise of transformation to the masses as the internet did in the ’90’s. Instead of info, it’s energy. Why? According to Rhonda, “Everyone has more power, more control over their power destiny.” And that is going to change the energy game very soon. “The way we live is going to be very, very different in the next 5, 10, 15 years,” she pronounced. She’s right. After listening to Rhonda, I am doubly excited about it all.

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Putting Solar’s Pedal to the Metal – show 34

First, she found a 1950’s vintage gas pump and installed batteries, inverters and charge controllers inside it. Then she connected it to mini solar panels and voila! A fully functional solar pump that will charge your cell phone, laptop or the cool electric bike I got to whiz around in at the Bioneers conference. It doesn’t get more fun than that.

Beth Ferguson is an environmental designer and her company, Sol Design Lab, wants to make solar super accessible to the public. If she had it her way, this bright yellow outdoor charging station would be on college campuses nationwide.

Want to see how it works? Watch this.

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The Story of Cell Phone Stuff: A How-To, by Grazi Benedet

Annie Leonard, “The Story of Stuff” creator/internet sensation, recently came out with a new informational video called, “The Story of Electronics: Why Designed for the Dump Is Toxic for People and the Planet.” You can see that video at Story Of Stuff. In it, she discusses how our electronics are essentially made to be broken, outdated and thrown away. She highlights the toxins that go into them, the process of disposing of them and at the end of the video talks about ways we can correct the issues (by encouraging the companies creating the junk take care of the junk!).

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