The donation comes in the form of a promissory note, not as cash, which the Gates Foundation said “gives the Global Fund the flexibility and authority to distribute funds efficiently based on immediate needs.”

“By supporting the Global Fund, we can help to change the fortunes of the poorest countries in the world,” Gates said in a statement. “I can’t think of more important work.”

At a news conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Gates said the funds could be used immediately to “saves lives, whether it is bed nets (to protect against mosquitoes carrying malaria) or TB (tuberculosis) treatment, those are two diseases that don’t get perhaps the visibility of the work done in HIV but they are every bit as important.”

The investment comes on top of $650 million the Gates Foundation has already contributed since the Global Fund was launched 10 years ago.

The fund has been under scrutiny after controversy over the possible misuse of funds. Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the fund, said Tuesday he would resign in March after leading the organization for five years. Kazatchkine cited the fund’s decision to appoint a general manager as part of its “ambitions transformation plan” as the reason for his departure.

Speaking to journalists with Simon Bland, the Global Fund’s chair, Gates downplayed the controversy.

The way it had been written about was “pretty disappointing,” he said. “If you are going to do health programs in Africa, you are going to have some percentage that is misused.”

“The interest is saving lives,” Gates said, adding there were “all sorts of things that are going on that far overwhelm any amount of misdirection or whatever it was.”

Thanks to CNN for this story..read it here…

In January 2007, Rachel P. Salazar and Ruben P. Salazar were living 9,000 miles apart and completely unaware of each other’s existence. But when an email meant for Rachel accidentally went to Ruben, it wasn’t long before an ordinary mistake began to look like an extraordinary stroke of luck.

See Storycorps website here

When asked why they went brown, companies are transparent: The color “symbolizes” eco-friendliness. Brown paper products have been shown to make people “feel like they were doing something good for the environment.” Consumers need “visual differentiation” to know which products are environmentally sound. It’s not even so important that a product be brown, just “that it’s not white.”

The Journal points out the obvious: Brown doesn’t necessarily mean green. Today, “white paper can be made from 100% recycled fibers and whitened without chemical chlorine, traditionally the primary complaint against it.” Seventh Generation actually adds a step to the production process—brown pigmentation—to make its diapers appear eco. It’s not clear whether Target, Dunkin’, and Cinnabon’s new napkins are any better for the environment than the old ones were, they’re just browner.

And at this point, it doesn’t really matter: Brown is firmly linked to green in the consumer’s mind. Eco-minded consumers now reach for brown, flecked products because they assume less environmentally conscious paper companies would take pains to dye them white. In fact, they may be rushing to tint everything beige.

Our thanks to www.good.is, see the story here..

Granted, it’s a small slate. The 3,500 clients who benefitted from the bank’s largesse had debts of 150 euros or less (about $190) with the Crédit Municipal de Paris, also known as the “Mont-de-piété,” the bank of the poor, which has for centuries allowed the needy to get loans against their valuables—a kind of ethical pawnshop, or the original microlender. The small kindness was welcome for many.

“I’m very happy, it’s the first time I get something for nothing,” said Geneviève, an elegant woman in her fifties who was at the bank to get back a gold coin and a small wedding band she had pawned three years ago. “There came a point when I needed money. They’re not worth much but they’re important to me.”

The unexpected gift is a way for the bank to celebrate its 375th anniversary. The Crédit Municipal de Paris was created in 1637 by Théophraste Renaudot, a doctor, journalist and philanthropist who wanted to combat poverty by giving the needy access to fair banking.

“The goal was to combat usury,” explains Thierry Halay, who authored a history of the Mont-de-piété. “Interest rates at the time could go up to 130 percent,” which quickly turned small loans into unmanageable debt.

The good doctor’s idea was to give the poor people of Paris loans they could reasonably hope to repay, at decent rates for the time (about 10 percent annually) against whatever collateral they could produce: pots and pans, linens, silverware, artisans’ tools. Halay found evidence of a 19th-century woman so destitute her only possession was her mattress. Every morning, she would carry it to the bank and pawn it. With that money, she’d buy potatoes, sell them for a profit during the day and buy back her mattress at night.

Today, the bank stores more than a million objects, from the puny piece of jewelry to the grand masterpiece, in headquarters covering a city block in the historical center of Paris. With a capitalization of 60 million euros, the bank had 93 million euros in pawn-broking loans outstanding in 2010. Its 2010 profit of 1.3 million euros was partly assigned to improving shelters for the homeless.

“It was the country’s first secular, welfare institution. It was a safety net,” Halay says.

Similar city-owned, not-for-profit banks opened all over the country on the same principle: Pawn an object and you get a yearlong loan. Pay off the interest (4 to 8.9 percent annually) and you can extend the loan; pay off the principal and you get your property back. If your valuable is sold for more than you owe, the profit is yours. These banks were eventually granted a state monopoly on pawn-broking loans, which continues to this day; France is thus a country without pawnshops.

Celebrities of the day secretly used the bank: Victor Hugo, Claude Monet and Napoleon’s first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais, among others. Prince François d’Orléans, third son of King Louis-Philippe, once pawned his watch to settle a gambling debt. Ashamed when asked what happened to his precious timepiece, he answered, “I left it at my aunt’s (ma tante).” To this day, getting help from “ma tante” is a discrete way of saying one’s been going to the “poor people’s bank.”

“People were never very proud to go to the Mont-de-piété,” Halay says. It may be why people turned away from it: With the prosperity of the 20th century, people wanted to forget this symbol of poverty.

But it is no longer forgotten. As the economic crisis rippled through Europe, the Crédit Municipal de Paris saw a 29-percent jump in attendance in December 2011, compared with the same month in 2010. France’s economy grew about 1.75 percent in 2011, but economists expect less than one percent in 2012, maybe even a recession. Unemployment is at 9.8 percent, reaching 10-year highs and still climbing.

“We get more and more young people, students and retirees, too,” says Florence Marambat, a spokeswoman for the bank. “People used to get their property back after 11 to 13 months; now it’s closer to 24 months. But nine out of 10 still get it back.”

“Our director likes to say our waiting room is like that of a hospital emergency room,” she adds “Everyone comes to it at some point.”

Nearly 700 people come through here every day, on awkward hallways and too-small waiting rooms. Some are clutching a jewelry pouch, others have a letter, which the bank started sending out last week, notifying them to come claim their valuables for free. The operation will continue in waves through the end of February.

Thanks to good.is for this great story! Read it here..

But when a steady stream of customers began coming through the door before the family-owned Chagrin Hardware had even opened for the day on Saturday, it was clear that it had turned into much more than that.

The idea started with Jim Black, a resident of Chagrin Falls, a close-knit village in Cleveland’s eastern suburbs that is part artist colony and part bedroom community. Black posted the email to a group of his friends. “Let’s show our support for one of our local businesses,” he wrote. “I challenge everyone to spend AT LEAST $20 at the hardware on the 21st.”

Although his email referred to the idea of a “Cash Mob” or the notion to “Occupy CF Hardware,” he really had no political agenda. And it wasn’t meant as a protest against the big-box stores that have created an ever-tightening circle around the community.

It was just a way to thank Chagrin Hardware’s owners for a beloved shop that has been a fixture in the village since 1857.

“These are good people who needed our support,” Black said. “It’s just that simple.”

The store, overlooking meandering Riverside Park and the Chagrin River in the middle of town, has been run by the Shutts family for the last 72 years. It passed from uncle to father to older brothers Rob and Kenny and the three youngest, Steve, Susie and Jack, who run the store today.

Black’s note was forwarded and forwarded and forwarded again. Calls started coming in from folks out of state who wanted to make a purchase over the phone.

And when the day came, so did the shoppers – one by one, with dogs on leashes and children in tow, hour after hour until the hardware was teeming with customers.

“This is small-town America,” said resident Martine Scheuermann, a bag of pet-safe ice melt in her arms and her Springer Spaniels tapping their toes on the worn wooden floor at her feet. “This is a special family business in a town where everybody knows you.”

The store has seen its share of tough times. Road construction on Main Street at the store’s front door some years back crippled business for a time. More recently, the weakened economy and the big boxes have stolen away customers.

On this day, though, those storylines were forgotten.

By 10 a.m. the place was jammed. By 1:30 p.m., the credit card machine was overloaded and had to be reset. “This is so cool,” said Steve Shutts, a mix of joy, wonder and happy exhaustion spread across his face. “I’ve seen people today I haven’t seen in years.”

The line at the checkout stretched in two directions as people with snow shovels and light bulbs and fireplace grates and vintage movie posters and horse shoe caulk – yes, horse shoe caulk – waited to pay.

Chad Schron, 38, came with his 8-year-old son Robert. “We didn’t have anything we had to get, but we found things we had to get,” he said. As he spoke, Robert clutched an Ohio State desk lamp and two flying monkey toys to his chest.

“When I was a kid, my Mom would send me down here with a note to let me buy BB’s,” Schron recalled. “Lots of kids did that back then. The notes still are in a drawer over there,” he said as he pointed past the register to a wall of wooden drawers containing everything from old springs to screws. In the drawer still labeled “BBs” were stacks of crumpled notes dating to the ’50s, from mothers just like Schron’s

When the final customer had finally left well after closing time with her fuzzy dice and floodlights, Schwind and Steve Shutts tallied the day’s receipts. Shutts shook his head at the wild and unexpected ride.

He wouldn’t say how much the store made that day, but was clearly pleased with the outcome.

“Thanks to Jimmy Black,” he said. “Thanks to everyone. Thanks to Chagrin Falls.

“What a place to live.”

Thanks to the Huffington Post and AP for the story, see it here…

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) found that slightly over 6,810 megawatts (MW) were installed domestically in 2011, an increase of 31 percent for the year. 8,300 MW are under construction this year, it says.

California has the highest MW installations, followed closely by Illinois, according to AWEA. Kansas has the most MW under construction for 2012, and Ohio was gusting ahead as the fastest growing state in wind power for 2011. The leading vendors were Generic Electric, Vestas Wind Systems, and Siemens, respectively, Bloomberg reports.

“This shows what wind power is capable of: building new projects, powering local economies and creating jobs,” said Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association. “Traditional tax incentives are working. This tremendous activity is being driven by the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) – which leveraged an average of more than $16 billion a year in private investment over the last several years and supported tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs.”

The PTC is slated to expire at the end of 2012 if Congress does not renew it. President Obama asked Congress to act during his State of the Union address, but there is substantial opposition to its extension within the Republican Party.

Only New Gingrich has expressed support for the PTC’s renewal out of the GOP Presidential candidates. The wind energy sector attracted US$74.9 in private equity last year, second only to solar power.

See the full facts and figures on Smartplanet.com

Three solar-powered lampposts shaped like towering palms are illuminating a pedestrian street downtown, thanks to the technology of a company called Energetika and a city pilot program experimenting with renewable energy sources.

Solar panel discs bloom at the end of 16-foot fronds. When charged with six hours of sunlight, they can shine for nearly 10 hours straight.

Along Alhóndiga street, the “solar trees” appear like an outdoor sculpture during the day. In the evening, they illuminate a tree-lined corridor packed with vendors of low-priced clothes and goods and buyers looking for a good deal.

The trees echo the design of Ross Lovegrove, the U.K. designer who first put solar trees on the scene in Vienna with an exhibit outside that city’s MAK Museum in 2007.

The Mexican version, called Na2Light, draws its power from 11 solar cells of 15 watts apiece for a total of 165 watt-hours of energy. The solar power illuminates LEDs. The “solar trees” are built to last 10 years.

Creators Roberto Calderón and Alejandro Chico told Mexico City’s Reforma newspaper their innovation is not just about aesthetics but responds to the needs of a major urban area.

The city is in talks with Energetika to continue the program, which in this initial stage cost the city nothing. The “solar trees” were manufactured by prisoners in a city jail.

Thanks to smartplanet.com and Lauren Villagran. See the full story here!

Say hello to the Hiriko, the real-life result of the MIT CityCar prototype launched this week in Spain. Not only is the electric two-seater a mere 100 inches long (about the size of a Smart), it actually folds up into itself so that when parked, it is only 60 inches long. Since that is the width of a typical car, three of these tiny urban EVs could conceivably fit into a parking spot (see the video below for a demonstration).

If that weren’t enough on crowded city streets, the car’s robotic wheels have the ability to tilt, such that the car can spin around its own center
Once parked, the driver and passenger exit the vehicle through the front of the car – via a retractable windshield that lifts up, similar to a garage door.

Hiriko means “urban car” in Basque – a fitting name considering its only goes as fast as city speed limits and gets a range of 75 miles per charge. The low maximum speed is probably a good thing: considering how close passengers are to the windshield, it’s unlikely to provide significant protection in the event of a high-speed crash.

The Hiriko, conceived by the MIT Media Lab and developed by seven Basque design firms, integrates electric motors, steering, and brakes in the wheels, while systems are managed digitally through a drive-by-wire system.

The EV was presented on Tuesday to the European Commission at the launch of the Hiriko Driving Mobility project. Spain intends to lease the vehicles it produces out to city dwellers through a car sharing system similar to ZipCar. The Hiriko will also be sold for around $16,350, according to reports.

Thanks to SmartPlanet.com for this story, go here to watch the video too!

On a blistering hot day in July PositiveTV went to witness the start of the Rally from Oxford, via The Building Research Establishment Innovation Park in Watford to The Mall in London.

The rally was packed with famous faces and fantastic eco cars, such as the Tessla, GT lightening and the Delta E4 Coupe.

Everywhere there were new innovations on show such as the Beetle powered by sewage gas and Prince Charles’ Aston Martin which is fueled by WINE!

We cover the run to the BRE in the first show, and will release the Run to the Mall in the second show soon, remember to look out for it!