At Emeraldology, we feel it’s important to share examples of how individual actions are affecting change at the local, national and global levels. For example, this week SDOT reported record high bike share ridership in Seattle! Woohoo!
The following articles show making Earth-friendly choices, over and over again, adds up to real change. Plus, it’s nice to see good news once in a while!
By Niki Seligman in SDOT Blog, December 3, 2019.
- Recent reports showed 750,000 bike share trips were taken in Seattle between July and September 2019. That brings the total for the first nine months of the year to over 1.6 million.
- SDOT set a goal to build 1,500 bike parking spaces in 2019 and had completed 1,250 by late November.
- The report also found: “Only 0.1% of the bikes we audited this past quarter violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and 5.3% of bikes were parked in ways which created barriers under a stricter, more comprehensive standard we adopted earlier this year.”
By Veronica Haze in BloombergNEF, December 3, 2019.
- Battery prices have fallen 87% since 2010 and are expected to fall below $100/kWh by 2023.
- The $100/kWh benchmark “is seen as the point around which (electric vehicles) will start to reach price parity with internal combustion engine vehicles.” Prices will vary depending on location and vehicle.
- Falling battery prices will likely encourage consumers and manufacturers to invest more in electric vehicle technology, reducing auto industry’s reliance on fossil fuels.
From Renewable Energy World, December 3, 2019.
- Amazon announced solar energy projects in Illinois, Virginia and Spain that will provide a combined 329-megawatts of renewable energy.
- The projects are part of Amazon’s Climate Pledge to reach “80% renewable energy by 2024 and 100% renewable energy target by 2030 on its path to net zero carbon by 2040.”
- Amazon’s renewable energy projects include 21 wind and solar farms, and 50 rooftop solar installations on its warehouses.
Feature photo (c) 2014 Tony Webster / Flickr.
