Silicon Valley these days is the epicenter of all things green, home to renewable energy entrepreneurs, ecologically minded venture capitalists and global warming-fighting CEOs. Moreover, Sustainable Silicon Valley, a coalition of tech giants, utilities like PG&E (PCG), local governments and non-profits, has set a target of slashing the region’s greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2010. The valley is, in local parlance, eating its own dog food. On Tuesday, the group released its annual CO2 report. While some individual companies have dramatically cut their carbon footprints and the valley’s overall emissions have fallen slightly since 2000, Sustainable Silicon Valley won’t realize its ambitious 2010 goal. "Unless a miracle happens between 2007 and 2010, it’s highly unlikely," Sustainable Silicon Valley executive director Rick Row told Green Wombat.
Why? Blame it on the car in carbon. A whopping 56 percent of Silicon Valley’s greenhouse gas emissions came from the tail pipe in 2006 (compared to 40 percent for California as a whole). A trip down one of the valley’s traffic-choked freeways is a graphic reminder of the region’s dependence on and love affair with the automobile. The bottom line is that you can cover Applied Materials (AMAT), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and other companies in solar panels but you won’t make significant strides in cutting carbon emissions until you deal with the monster in the garage. "We don’t have traditional city centers and clear corridors that people can commute along," says Row. "The problem with cars is that people only think about the marginal costs of driving" not the global impact.
Some Silicon Valley companies are trying to cut their employees’ commute. About half of Sun Microsystems’ (JAVA) workers telecommute while Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO) dispatch biodiesel-powered shuttles to ferry employees to corporate campuses. Those companies and others also offer subsidies toward the purchase of fuel efficient cars and encourage car-pooling. But the Sustainable Silicon Valley report underscores the necessity of replacing the infernal combustion engine with electric motors and fuels cells. While valley VCs have invested in local electric car company Tesla Motors and various biofuel startups, they and the region’s legions of entrepreneurs have appeared more interested in solar energy and other green plays than solving the car carbon conundrum.
Green Wombat 
The best thing Google and self-described green tech companies could do would be to move to a skyscraper in the city. But they won’t because they like driving their sports cars and, in the case of google, having a private jet at nearby Moffet field.
If they stop providing free parking for non-environmentally friendly vehicles and subsidize those that are, they could make a difference. Tie raises to individual’s carbon footprints – drive a gas guzzler, too bad. Oh yes, and ditch the private jet.
As if private jets were the problem… NO it is the masses that are the problem. I like the idea of not providing free parking to gas guzzlers and subsidizing low emission vehicles. lowering pollution should not focus on a few but instead should encourage the hundreds of people driving V8’s to work every day.
the problem in silicon valley is that the public transportation is so disorganized and limited that it forces people to get in their cars everyday!
The Silicon solar cell have a four year energy payback. That means if you put a silicon solar system, it takes four years to pay back the energy it took to make the system. Most of these valley PV systems are actually made in China, with un-regulated coal power. The right answer is thin film PV made in America.
There a number of problems with valley traffic. One is that we have a bay that divides much of the area. Another is people can’t live near where they work. The housing problem is part bad planning, part high prices, part geography, part eco, a lot of google bucks and a bit of greed (the influence of backdated options on valley house pricing has not been published, but free money does do funny things to people). The light rail goes everywhere but where you want to go. No route to the San Jose airport is a fine example. The valley elite that run the green engine and go on and on about education and sustainable energy ship their work to China and India at the drop of the hat and live in homes that could house 100’s of Chinese workers. This group and its goals are as bogus as Al Gore and his fuel sucking yacht and homes.
IT’s those stupid worker bee’s and the wasteful rich who wouldn’t cought up all the free stuff we want. So we’ll stuff the global warming hoax down their throats and make them puke it up with the higher prices, taxes, greater good fees. Damm that cheap coal and the cheap electcity it makes. How can the nonprofits improve their fear tactics to get more money out of that non taxpaying public.? No!!! that wouldn’t work, THAT’S GOING TO EFFECT ME
Poor mix of planning/transporation options got us here. Also the long-time dependence on cheap energy (driving + suburbia) has made us fully invested in a really stupid transportation scheme.
Imagine if everyone paid into having good fast mass transit (think tokyo or HK) and real estate developers also developed the train lines… then you would have fewer cars (less need)..
Cars also fulfill psychological needs..they aren’t really “transportation” — cars let you go to the next town for a one night stand, run from your problems, avoid social contact, let you think of yourself as virile and strong….
car culture defines what america IS. without cars, what are we??
Its a pity the rest of America doesn’t think the same as you.
One of my favourite pastimes at lunchtime at work is browsing the various blog sites. I have found numerous well written articles of interest.
Today I was searching wordpress for ”environment” and came across this site
http://handsacrossoceanministry.wordpress.com/
My first reaction was shock, disbelief and anger. How can so called religious people not care about the environment and then have the audacity to use God in their justification of their beliefs.
These people need locking away.
Its a pity the rest of America doesn’t think the same as you.
One of my favourite pastimes at lunchtime at work is browsing the various blog sites. I have found numerous well written articles of interest.
Today I was searching wordpress for ”environment” and came across this site
http://handsacrossoceanministry.wordpress.com/
My first reaction was shock, disbelief and anger. How can so called religious people not care about the environment and then have the audacity to use God in their justification of their beliefs.
These people need locking away.
Readers are invited to check their ecological footprint at http://www.myfootprint.org