Last night I got thinking about the industry analyst firms and the environment. This was sparked by Gartner’s critique of the Green Grid (accessible here, but only if you have a Gartner account) and Simon Mingay’s comments in the press (see “Gartner Dumps on Green Grid”). After my initial reaction (“Jeesh, I know that Green Grid’s not perfect, but did it really deserve that at this early stage?"), I started thinking about the value that someone like Simon could bring to the process if he was involved, instead of sitting in the stands and critiquing the calls on the field.

Sun network total is now up to 2,706. That’s an increase of 11 in the last 24 hours.

I’ve been playing with Facebook, and its pretty cool. What’s been interesting is the size of the Sun network. It’s currently between 7% and 8% of employees (assuming the network is mostly currently employees. But what’s more interesting is how fast people are joining. Yesterday at this time the number was 2,676, and now its at 2,695 - 19 people joined in the last 24 hours. Since I’m using my blog to record the data, there’ll be more readings to come…

Started running today in a new pair of Air Zoom Elite 3’s (10.5’s). Needed to record it somewhere (runners will understand why), so here is as good as any.

_Leavin’ Texas, fourth day of July, Sun so hot, the clouds so low, the eagles filled the sky. Catch the Detroit Lightnin’ out of Sante Fe, The Great Northern out of Cheyenne, from sea to shining sea. _ Hope everyone’s getting some downtime this week. If you get some spare time, think of what you can do to make our country better.

It’s a holiday week here in the US, so a good time for a lighter topic, namely how to talk like a corporate environmentalist. This is a topic which I’ve done extensive research over the last year, having attending dozens of environmental conferences, having given dozens of talks myself, and having listened to many dozens more. Its also a timely topic, because at current growth rates, by 2010 there will be over 1,000 conferences with environmental themes each week in the US alone.

As I’ve become more aware of the environmental impact of things I do, certain things from my day-to-day life jump out at me as being totally environmentally irresponsible. And you know what? I’m probably going to keep on doing them. They’re my eco vices. Here’s three of them: Skiing trips - pile the family into a large SUV (need 4WD and room for lots of gear), and drive into the mountains during the harshest conditions.

Here in Concord, Massachusetts we run things the way they have since before the Revolutionary War - we get together at town meetings in person to debate and vote on the legal and operational aspects of the town. Town meeting opened tonight with some notes that were taken in the special town meeting of Dec. 31, 1772, where the members of the town voted to fight back against increased intrusion in their lives by the King of England.

Rajesh and Jonathan forwarded me an awesome article on the irrationality of not pursuing energy efficiency. It features this chart: The article goes on to explain: “The result is a testament to economic irrationality. The measures below the horizontal line have a negative abatement cost–in other words, by carrying them out, people and companies could both cut emissions and save money. At a macroeconomic level they would boost, rather than reduce, economic growth.

_ Picture a bright blue ball, just spinning, spinning free, Dizzy with eternity. Paint it with a skin of sky, Brush in some clouds and sea, Call it home for you and me. A peaceful place or so it looks from space, A closer look reveals the human race. Full of hope, full of grace Is the human face, But afraid we may lay our home to waste. _