BugE Personal Electric Vehicle

An Oregonian company called Blue Sky Design engineered a single passenger electric vehicle as an alternative to driving an SUV or station wagon around town. The idea behind the BugE is that an SUV is over engineered for running errands such as picking up groceries or going to the post office or commuting to school or work. So Blue Sky Design engineered a vehicle that was more appropriately sized to the task. The BugE is available as a kit from Blue Sky Design’s website (http://www.bugev.net/). A basic kit cost $3500 plus shipping, while a complete kit, including lighting and power, cost $5,276 plus shipping.

An advantage of the BugE is that all the parts are common components on motorcycles, so this means they are easily available and affordable. This also allows the builder to make their own modifications to the design. For those not interested in building their own BugE Harvey Coachworks (http://harveyev.com/bugE/) offers production versions starting at around $10,000 for the standard version. A rang extended version is also available for under $13,000 and triples the standard range to 120 miles per charge. Since the BugE is designed for around town and city driving the car has a top speed of 45 mph.

Besides the fact that the BugE never uses gas and a full charge cost about as much as as running a dryer, the BugE can be especially useful for college students who have trouble parking on campus since it can be parked in the motorcycle parking space. Unlike a motorcycle though the BugE is mostly enclosed, so it will protect you from the elements when the weather is bad. There is storage in the front of the vehicle for about three grocery bags and there are hooks on the seat for attaching a backpack.

A Greener Cup

You may not pay much attention to the corrugated sleeve that Starbucks now slips on to every cup of coffee they serve, yet this simple innovation allows the company to save both resources and money. Before the innovation Starbucks simply gave their customers a second cup if the customer complained that the paper cup was too hot. This may not seam like a big deal, but when you consider the billion cups of coffee that Starbucks serves you begin to get the picture that this simple idea is indeed a big deal.


Besides the sleeve Starbucks also tries to use recycled materials in their cups. You might not think that making an environmentally-friendly cup would be that hard, but there is a lot steps involved before you can start using a new cup. For instance the cup needs to comply with regulations set by the FDA. Before the eco-cup no company in the industry had every used recycled material near food, not to mention near a steam hot beverage.


Since Starbucks introduced the new cup they have saved 300,000 trees. Currently the cup is made from 10% post consumer fiber, and the company plans to make the cup completely recyclable. One issue that still remains is that the cups still cannot be recycled in all communities in the U.S. because of the plastic inside the cups meant to prevent spillage. Starbucks is apparently running a pilot program in New York with Green Global USA’s Coalition for Resource Recovery. Paper cups will be gather with corrugated cardboard for recycling.