2o
The Plenty
eggs, meats—more than 200
products in total. And they offer
a lifeline to struggling family
farms, paying them up to 40 percent more than what they’d get
for conventionally-grown fare.
7
TESLA MOTORS
SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA
The old knock on electric cars
was that they performed more
like golf carts than sports cars
(or even sedans). Tesla Motors
wants to change that. The company’s electric Roadster, which
sells for a cool $100,000, has the
look and pick-up of a worldclass sports car—and it’s just as
reliable as many of the high-end
gas-guzzlers on the market. Plans
are also in the works for more
affordable models, according to
CEO Martin Eberhard: Tesla is
aiming to produce a $50,000
electric sedan by 2009.
To date, Tesla has already sold
more than 200 Roadsters, mostly
sight unseen. This year the company will launch customer centers,
where consumers can kick the
tires on the Roadster, then squeal
off down the street for a test
drive—no gas required.
8
er introduced the Skystream—the
first small wind turbine designed to
easily hook into a home utility system. With a price tag of $10,000
to $13,000 (including installation),
the Skystream costs half of what its
predecessors did. And the resulting
power is not only clean, it’s cheap:
only 10 cents per kilowatt hour, as
opposed to the 15 to 35 cents that
local utilities typically charge.
Granted, you’ll need at least a
half-acre property and a breeze of
ten miles an hour or more to make
it work. And depending on local
zoning rules, you may need to get
a permit for the 35- to 100-foot
Skystream rising from your backyard. But assuming that conditions
are right, Skystream can enable
homeowners to make their houses
greener and cleaner.
ties without your knowledge. At
Domini, analysts don’t just look at
the financial performance of the
companies they invest in, they take
social and environmental factors
into account as well. Armed with
$1.8 billion in assets, Domini has
filed more than 140 shareholder
resolutions with more than 60
corporations, actively engaging
high-level management on issues
ranging from product safety and
sweatshop labor to climate change.
The company has talked to CocaCola about human rights; coached
the computer giant Dell on energy
conservation; and convinced J.P.
Morgan Chase, a $1.1 trillion
bank, to adopt a comprehensive
environmental policy.
9
TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA
DOMINI
NEW YORK CITY
Do you support deforestation?
Child labor? Companies that pollute? Maybe not consciously, but
your investments in mutual funds
may sustain these very activi-
10
TOYOTA
When greenies hear “Toyota,” they
think of the company’s popular
Prius hybrid. But Toyota has more
to boast about than this: Both its
other hybrids (the Highlander, the
Camry, and the Lexus RX400h)
and its wider eco initiatives.
Domini
convinced J.P.
Morgan Chase
to adopt a
comprehensive
environmental
policy.
The auto-maker made environmental stewardship a key
component of its business when it
established its first Earth Charter,
a statement of environmental
responsibility, back in 1992. In
2006, Toyota put nearly nine
million fuel-efficient vehicles
on American roads and recycled
500,000 pounds of materials,
including plastic wrap, solvents,
and even engine blocks. From
steel and urethane foam to plastic
bumpers, 85 percent of a Toyota
vehicle needs never hit the landfill—any dealer trade-in that’s not
resold is recycled by the company.
The new parts are also delivered
to dealerships in returnable
packaging, eliminating the need
for the wood pallets and cardboard boxes they usually arrive
in. And despite the company’s
growth over the past several years,
its overall disposal of waste has
declined by 86 percent. Rumor
also has it that Toyota may have a
pluggable electric Prius on dealer
floors by 2008.
SOUTHWEST WINDPOWER
FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA
These days, you don’t have to be
an engineer to convert your home
to run on alternative energy. After
years of research and development
(and cash infusion from investors),
last summer Southwest Windpow-
52 | Feb/Mar/07 plentymag.com
11
WHOLE FOODS
AUSTIN, TEXAS
Whole Foods opened its first
store in 1980, when “natural
foods” were barely a blip on
the culinary radar. It’s now the