Derek Markham, Author at Ecopreneurist

Derek Markham

lives in southwestern New Mexico and digs bicycles, simple living, organic gardening, sustainable lifestyle design, slacklining, bouldering, and permaculture. He loves good food, with fresh roasted chiles at the top of his list of favorites. Catch up with Derek on Twitter, RebelMouse, Google+, or at his natural parenting site, Natural Papa!

From Food Scraps to Fuel: Fueling a Fleet with CNG Made from Waste

December 8, 2014

by Derek Markham

There’s no denying that some renewable energy technologies are more visually appealing than others, especially the highly visible ones that look decidedly more ‘space-age’, such as solar power and wind power, but it’s going to take a variety of approaches, including not-so-sexy technologies such as converting waste to energy, to create a true clean energy future. One of the more common waste products in the developed world these days is food waste (which is a sad truth in a world…

Green Building Material: High-Tech Fiberboard Made from Waste Fibers

December 5, 2014

by Derek Markham

There’s a new green building material on the market that is light, strong, and flexible, and can be made into just about any shape, including complex molded shapes, without the need for any glues, harmful chemicals, or toxic ingredients. This material, ECOR, is made using only water, heat, fiber, and pressure, and takes a low-value product (waste fiber) and turns it into a high-value green building material. At its most basic, ECOR, from Noble Environmental, is a corrugated panel that…

Waste to Energy Biofuel Project Aims for Community-Powered Energy

December 4, 2014

by Derek Markham

While some cleantech entrepreneurs are looking to further develop solar power, wind power, and marine power to meet some of our future energy needs, others are looking much closer to home with their own renewable energy projects, including in an unlikely spot – the organic wastes produced by communities every single day. The move to a cleaner, more renewable energy future isn’t going to come through a single technology, but rather through a number of different approaches, including increased energy…

Crowdfunding a Road Legal Solar Car: Sunswift eVe 2.0

December 3, 2014

by Derek Markham

With everyone and their brother planning their own crowdfunding campaigns, in the hopes of raising enough cash to fund the further development or production run of their big idea, the crowdfunding environment is getting more and more crowded every day. Between wishful thinking, downright silly projects that get funded (or not), it’s easy to feel skeptical about this funding option, but as the crowdfunding industry begins to mature, we’re starting to some great reasons for using crowdfunding to bring a…

An Advent Calendar of Invention, Fabrication, and Repair, from Sugru

December 2, 2014

by Derek Markham

When the next hot product to hit the internet starts showing up in all of our social feeds, many of us react by saying, “I wish I’d thought of that,” but some of us begin kicking ourselves, because we thought of that idea, months (years) ago, but never did anything with it. A great idea by itself is virtually worthless, and one that lives only in our brain or our notebook or in an email thread is quite a bit…

How to Keep Multitasking From Ruining Your Productivity

December 2, 2014

by Derek Markham

The myth of trying to increase your productivity by being busier and trying to cram more into your day can actually end up backfiring on you. Whether it’s by burning you out quicker because of trying to do so much, or through causing chaos in your life or business due to having too many commitments, or even just incidentally, because of too many little tasks that you take on personally, which can end up falling through the cracks and never…

Pitch Your Green App Idea to Thousands of Developers at Once

November 19, 2014

by Derek Markham

Got a great idea for an eco-app, but don’t know the first thing about developing an app, or where to find a developer? This mobile app developer community could be a great way to get started. Mobile apps are a dime a dozen, it seems, as both free and paid apps abound these days. And while there are many useful apps that do exactly as they promise to, there are also a great number of apps that don’t, which are…

This Social Network Connects Solar Homeowners

November 17, 2014

by Derek Markham

Can a social network, crowdsourced performance data, and collaborative analysis of home solar power systems lead to smarter solar power, and more of it? If the direction that Generaytor is heading is any indication, then the future of wiser solar will come, at least in part, through connecting people, data, and insights from real-world solar homes, into a virtual community of solar homeowners. The increasing adoption of solar power for homes and businesses is being driven by a number of…