It makes sense that a company called General Electric would be bullish on cars with cords. But even by that standard the company is diving into the deep end, with what it says will be the biggest order ever placed for electric vehicles.

Of course, almost any order would be the biggest order, but CEO Jeffrey Immelt isn’t screwing around. Speaking in London yesterday, he said GE will order “tens of thousands” of electric vehicles in about a week, a move that is sure to jump-start the nascent EV market as automakers like Nissan and General Motors bring the cars to showrooms later this year.

The plan makes sense for several reasons.

First and foremost, General Electric builds the equipment that provides one-third of the world’s electricity, so of course it will do everything possible to promote the technology. GE is moving quickly into the EV space, building charging stations and working with A123 Systems to develop batteries. According to Bloomberg, Immelt says about half of the company’s sales force of 45,000 employees will drive electric vehicles. That will go a long way toward raising public awareness of the technology. And don’t forget that GE Capital has a vehicle-leasing division.

“GE has been one of the biggest players in this game and certainly has a lot to gain from the electric vehicle,” Brett Smith, a vehicle technology analyst at the Center for Automotive Research, told Bloomberg. “They’ve really truly tried to push this hard to get things going, and it seems to be a core corporate value.”

Immelt didn’t specify a timeline for when the purchases would be made, nor did he identify which manufacturer(s) would receive the order. Smith told Bloomberg an order of that size would be filled by several companies. But our money is on Renault-Nissan getting the bulk of it.

Here’s why:

GE and Better Place recently announced a “technology and financing partnership” to develop public charging infrastructure and accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles, especially by corporate fleets. Better Place, a Silicon Valley startup founded by Shai Agassi, plans to roll out charging infrastructure and battery-swap stations in Israel and elsewhere — and Renault is its partner in that endeavor.

Better Place and Renault signed a deal last year to put 100,000 EVs on the road in Israel and Denmark by 2016. Better Place also has been using converted Nissan Rogues to show off its battery-swap technology in Tokyo.

It’s worth noting that GE’s partnership with Better Place includes a plan to develop a mechanism for financing batteries — beginning with a pilot program to finance 10,000 batteries in Israel and Denmark. Who’s currently building the only car with a swappable battery? You guessed it — Renault. That car, the Fluence Z.E., is being tested in Israel.

General Electric and Nissan also are working together to develop so-called “smart charging.”

What’s more, Renault-Nissan is, at this point, the only company that looks like it could have the capacity to fill GE’s order. Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has made it clear he believes electrics are the future, and he is positioning the two automakers to lead the market.

Renault has at least three EVs in the works, and Ghosn has said it will have the capacity to build 200,000 EVs annually by 2015. Nissan’s Leaf arrives at the end of this year and will be followed by an electric Infiniti in 2013. Nissan says it has the capacity to build 50,000 Leafs worldwide next year and will increase that to 500,000 worldwide by the end of 2013.

This is all speculation, and there’s nothing to suggest GE won’t be buying some Chevrolet Volts or Ford Transit Connect Electric delivery vans or perhaps even some Codas or Teslas. But it looks like there are going to be a lot of electric Nissans and Renaults in GE parking lots before long.

And no matter how it works out, it’ll be an interesting play to watch.

Photo: Renault. The Renault Fluence Z.E. rolls in Paris.

OG25 Innovative Green Startup finalists will be showcased at this year’s Opportunity Green conference, September 23rd – 24th at Los Angeles Center Studios.

Mobile voting will be provided by MobileGive, whose innovative texting solutions are being utilized again this year.

Watch this site for the voting widget.

Stop & Shop announced yesterday that it has completed the installation of solar panels on eight of its stores in Mass., Conn. and N.J. The solar panels will reduce the amount of energy consumed by these stores by more than seven percent. The completion of this project marks an extension of the company’s commitment to reduce its carbon footprint by 20 percent by 2015 using 2008 as a baseline.

The photovoltaic (PV) solar power generating systems were developed by Alteris Renewables, Inc., the largest design-build renewable energy company in the Northeast.  The amount of electricity that will be generated by all eight stores annually is estimated to be 1,759,572 kWh, offsetting 1,264 metric tons of CO2. This is equivalent to the CO2 emissions from the total electricity use of 153 homes over the course of a year.

The solar project is among a series of green solutions Stop & Shop is rolling out across its 375 stores in the Northeast.

“Two years ago, we launched a storewide refresh and  brought customers new technology to simplify their lives – handheld devices for scanning groceries, digital kiosks for placing deli orders, and one-stop weigh stations in the produce department,” said Faith Weiner director of public affairs for Stop & Shop. “Now we’re rolling out new renewable energy solutions for our stores which enable us to conserve energy, while continuing to deliver the quality and value our shoppers expect.”

Faith Weiner continued, “Businesses are waking up to the benefits of solar power.  As one of the largest food retailers in the Northeast, we’re proud to incorporate solar panels into our building, and we appreciate the expertise that Alteris has brought to this tri-state project.”

Beyond solar panels, Stop & Shop has been exploring alternative ways to be green by installing energy-efficient lighting and refrigeration systems in stores and distribution centers.

Starting today, you can take part in history by placing your order for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. This moment is the culmination of several years of around-the-clock, steadfast work and I know I speak for the entire Volt team when I say we couldn’t be more excited!

For those of you looking to be among the first to own a Volt, simply locate and contact a participating Chevrolet dealer in Volt launch markets at GetMyVolt.com. Once your order is placed, a Volt customer advisor will contact you to answer questions and keep you updated on the progress of your order.

We’ve also pulled together a team of Volt advisors who, beginning today, will be available at 1-888-VOLT4YOU (1-888-865-8496) to answer general questions. The Volt will initially be available to customers in California, New York, Washington, D.C., Texas, Michigan Connecticut and New Jersey, but will be available nationwide in about 12-18 months from start of production this winter.

As far as the price, the Volt’s official MSRP is $41,000 – or $33,500 (including DFC) after the $7,500 U.S. Federal income tax credit. We are so confident in the resale value of the Volt, we will also offer a lease program with monthly payments as low as $350 (based on a 36-month term lease and $2,500 down), which also includes a lease-to-buy option.
Why are we so confident?

The Volt is an electric vehicle that gives you the freedom to drive wherever you want, whenever you want. With the Volt’s extended-range capability, you can drive electrically up to 340 miles on a full battery and tank of gas, with up to the first 40 miles powered by electricity from the grid. Plus, the Volt is an electric vehicle for all climates and seasons, comfortable in the freezing temperatures of the Northeast to the scorching temperatures of the deserts out West – we know, we’ve tested the Volt extensively in these conditions.

Plus, the Volt comes standard with an unprecedented battery warranty – eight years or 100,000 miles on all 161 battery components, the thermal management system, charging system and electric drive components. It will also be the first Chevrolet vehicle to offer, at no additional cost, five years of OnStar Directions and Connections service, which includes automatic crash response, stolen vehicle assistance and connected navigation.

And speaking of OnStar, the Volt gives you an unprecedented level of connectivity with the Chevrolet Connect mobile app by OnStar. This Volt mobile and web-based app will allow you to set the charge time, start your Volt, track mileage, unlock the doors and much more from your smart phone and even your home computer.

In fact, the personalized and connected ownership experience is just getting into full swing when you take delivery of your Volt because we’re creating a website designed specifically for Volt owners to collect diagnostic information as well as track and share your vehicle’s performance.

I could go on and on all day about all the benefits and premium features the Volt has to offer, such as screen-based navigation, an energy-efficient Bose premium sound system, Bluetooth for phone with phone book access and more, but then I would be keeping you from locating your dealer and placing your order. You can find more info at GetMyVolt.com.

It’s been a remarkable journey, and we’re confident you’ll be delighted with the outcome when you receive your Volt. The future is electric – we hope you’ll join us for the ride.

And make sure to join me here on Voltage later today for a video webchat from the show floor of Plug-In 2010 where Volt vehicle line director Tony Posawatz and I will answer your questions live at 4 p.m. EDT/1 p.m. PDT.

Location technologies are transforming how we experience, navigate, and ultimately better our world. From the global to the local, here are #10Ways geolocation is a positive force for good.

Social media has changed the world. It has revolutionized communications on a global scale, and the transformation continues with every status update, blog post, and video stream. The global citizenry has become a global network.

Since becoming widely adopted just a couple years ago, social media has supercharged social action, cause marketing, and social entrepreneurship. Indeed, the true value hasn’t been the technology itself but how we’ve used it. Today, a second wave of innovation is defining a new era and setting the stage for change over the coming decade.

Mobile technologies will extend the global online network to anyone with a mobile device while enabling countless local networks to form in the real world. We’ve decentralized media production and distribution. We’re doing the same for energy. And we’ll continue this trend for social networking, social action, and commerce.

The combined forces of smartphones, mobile broadband, and location-aware applications will connect us in more meaningful ways to the people, organizations, events, information, and companies that matter most to us—namely, those within a physical proximity of where we live and where we are. Can location-based services (LBS) change the world? Here are #10Ways:

1. Checking in for Good: If Gowalla and Foursquare have taught us anything, it’s that people respond to simple incentives. By offering badges, mayorships, and other intangible rewards, millions of people are checking in to the places they go. Apps like Whrrl take this a step further and enable like-minded “societies” to form on a local basis. The next step is for these apps to add greater purpose by encouraging more meaningful checkins and offering corresponding badges and stamps, thus mapping the cause universe. Or for a dedicated app to be developed that rewards conscious consumption, social responsibility, and civic engagement. Yes, the CauseWorld app features a cause element, but it’s not about cause-worthy places.

2. Eating Locally: Sustainability demands that we source our food as close to its point of production as possible. Many so-called locavores subscribe to the 100-mile diet, which requires that one “eat nothing—or almost nothing—but sustenance drawn from within 100 miles of their home.” Given the difficulty of accessing and verifying this information in order to live by this standard, there’s a geo-powered Locavore app. It gives you info on in-season foods, those coming in-season, farmer’s markets, and links to recipes. This rather simple app is clearly just the start. In time, location-aware apps will guide us not only to the grocery store or farmer’s market but through them. All the while identifying foods based on our particular diet or sensibility.

3. Political Organizing: In the next presidential election, politics will not only be local but location-enabled. We saw the power of social media in Obama’s 2008 landslide victory. In 2012, location-based apps and technologies will play a central role in how campaigns are organized, managed, and ultimately won. Much of this will be visible through mobile apps and location-aware browsers. Activists and volunteers will be more empowered. Voters will be more engaged in the moment, right down to casting their votes. Behind the scenes, though, we’ll see massive new sets of data available to campaigns for targeting, empowerment, and optimization. The party, candidate, and/or cause that has the best handle on geolocation will have a measurable advantage. (The Elections app will soon be updated for 2010.)

4. Finding Green Businesses: The web has effectively replaced the paper Yellow Pages as a way to find local businesses and services. However, this “stationary web” experience is quickly being supplanted by the mobile web and mobile applications, which give us access to this information when we most need it. The Yelp and Around Me apps are popular ways to find restaurants, coffee shops, or hotels wherever you are, but what about green-rated businesses? Greenopia has transformed its printed, local guides into a dynamic, nationwide mobile application that lets you find local, green-rated businesses in any category. No more paper and a much better experience. The Green Map app is another that facilitates discovery and connects us to local green environments.

5. Traveling More Efficiently: We’ve had access to GPS navigation systems and static traffic information for some time, but only now are we seeing the full potential of these technologies. With access to more detailed traffic information that is specific to your route and updated in real time, we can minimize congestion and maximize traffic flow (as much as physically possible). The new turn-by-turn MapQuest 4 Mobile app is a good start, as you can get traffic alerts specific to the route you program. However, user-generated information from apps like Trapster and Waze can crowdsource more specific details, such as whether to avoid an intersection due to a toxic chemical spill. Or, if you want to avoid automobiles altogether, Google Maps makes it easy to use public transportation and take a bike.

6. Scanning for Ethical Products: With online shopping, we’ve become accustomed to reading reviews and making comparisons before we buy. This can now be done in the physical world through games like MyTown and services like Stikybits. By scanning a product barcode using a smartphone camera, you can unlock a treasure of additional information (not to mention deals) that can help with your purchase. This might include where it was produced, how far it traveled, the reputation of the manufacturer, chemical contents, carbon footprint, or the full lifecycle analysis. Location-aware applications can also transform commerce itself by giving us better access to local inventories and locally-produced goods. Whether it’s fruits and vegetables or books and electronics, if something can be found within blocks of your current location, it makes no sense to ship it from afar.

7. Networking Neighborhoods: One of the hottest categories in geolocation is neighborhood networking. The vision for many of these apps is to strengthen the very fabric of our communities. With DeHood, you can keep track of what’s happening in your neighborhood, share your favorite places, and grease the wheels for actually meeting people. After all, if you’ve made contact through the app, it’s a lot easier to say “Hello” in the real world. Blasterous is another that lets you share information locally, whereas BlockChalk does this on an anonymous basis. Finally, NeighborGoods uses your street address to facilitate one-to-one borrowing and trading of useful stuff. In the end, making connections with your neighbors can lead to safer, more productive, and more sustainable communities.

8. Tracking Environmental Disasters: The size and scope of environmental disasters appears to be growing. In 2008, we had the Tennessee coal ash spill, which was billed as “the largest environmental disaster of its kind in the United States.” And that was before we realized it was three times bigger than originally estimated. More recently, the BP oil spill set daily records for “largest environmental disaster in the U.S. ever.” In each case, geolocation technologies can be used by engaged citizens to monitor and track the effects. They can be used by response teams to coordinate containment and cleanup efforts. Ultimately, these technologies can be used to accurately measure the size and impact of a disaster in order to better understand its damages and costs.

9. Viewing the World Through an Eco Lens: Augmented reality (AR) follows geolocation as one of the hot trends in mobile technology. It enables you to view the world through a smartphone camera (or similar device) and see layers of geo-specific content or information. One of the most popular apps is Layar, an augmented reality browser/platform that lets you choose specific data layers or experiences. The potential for green- and cause-related content is tremendous. You might view green-rated businesses, LEED-certified buildings, or virtual GHG emissions as they enter the atmosphere. Combined with smart meter technology, you could see the most efficient and inefficient homes around you in real time. And for the cynics among us, you could view our mountains, forests, rivers, and oceans as they once were…before the effects of climate change and so many environmental disasters.

10. Capturing the Moment: Better access to information about what’s happening around us—right now—can dramatically improve quality of life. This sense of “geospatial awareness” is possible through today’s smartphones, whereby a piece of content or information—a moment—is captured and preserved based on the unique time and place in which it occurred. It is essentially to document spacetime. Protests, natural disasters, sporting events, parties, political crises…real-time information about anything happening anywhere at any time, as well as the history of what happened. This will take several years and a number of different applications to realize. In the end, though, it will revolutionize how we access and consume content. It will complete the democratization and decentralization of news and information…based on time and location.

Cautionary note: Privacy is the single biggest issue in the LBS industry. It’s important to understand what information you are sharing with regard to your location and with whom.

Rob Reed’s note: We’ll be hosting geolocation events for Social Media Week in Los Angeles this September. This is the third in Max Gladwell‘s #10Ways series of distributed blog posts. It was published simultaneously on as many as 300 blogs.

Obviously, you’re not going to dump your brand-new living room set; luckily, if you’ve had said furniture for a while or have a penchant for vintage, much of the VOC impact is lessened. But if you do plan to invest in brand-spanking-new furniture this year, there’s no better place to get inspired than Environment Furniture. Crafted from truly eco-friendly materials—many of them recycled, like the old army tents that upholster the brand’s signature couch—Environment Furniture makes a sustainable statement in every room.

Take this butcher table, crafted from sustainable reclaimed hard wood.

Or this one, which is wheeled for portability.

For more on this story visit the full story on EcoStiletto here.

The no-holds-barred video features a cross section of people wearing a black T-shirt that reads “UNF–K THE GULF” and unleashing on BP, the federal government and the whole mess in a way that millions of people wish our leaders would.

Sick of yelling at the TV in frustration over the Gulf spill, environmental activists Luke Montgomery and Nate Guidas produced the video as a way to channel their “f–king righteous anger with all that is going on and not going on in the Gulf into something positive.” They put out a casting call on Craigslist for people upset over the oil spill, cast the best in the video, and created the website www.UnF–kTheGulf.com.

“It’s both therapeutic and funny to see people go off in an F-bomb-laced tirade about the spill,” Montgomery said. “There’s a lot of anger out there and people need to vent about the destruction but we also need to have a laugh at the expense of those responsible.”

The “UnF–kTheGulf” video has received more than 20,000 views in one week and raised more than $5,000 in funds through T-shirt sales, exceeding organizers’ expectations and rapidly circulating on social media. This unconventional charity fundraising campaign allows the public vote on how the funds are spent. For each $13 shirt, $5 is donated directly to four Gulf wildlife rescue and environmental charities.

Montgomery and Guidas report receiving hundreds of positive email responses, several complaints, and dozens of requests for uncensored versions of the T-shirt.

In response to the controversy of using such raw language, Montgomery said it is a calculated tactic to get noticed and thereby raise more funds to assist in the Gulf recovery. The organization did recently tame their Twitter name to a censored version, however, to encourage more people to share.

The Gulf oil spill is being called the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

“This is a heinous crime against the environment, people’s livelihood and the ecosystem’s ability to support life,” Montgomery said. “People realize that the really offensive thing is the oil spill, not the word.”

UnF–kTheGulf will soon launch a week-long Facebook and Twitter “F-Bomb-a-Thon” campaign of status updates geared toward building buzz and raising at least $25,000 for the cause. The F-Bomb-a-Thon will run from July 26-August 1.

It’s been exactly a year since Walmart’s historic launch of a Sustainability Index and other measures to assess suppliers and products and, remarkably, the sun still rises in the East and sets in the West.

Most skeptics say there is less than meets the eye. A brief review: Last summer, Walmart announced that it would assess its suppliers on environmental and social criteria. It announced a Sustainable Product Index to “establish a single source of data for evaluating the sustainability of products,” the company said.

Walmart said it would introduce the initiative in three phases, beginning with a survey of its more than 100,000 suppliers around the world. The survey includes 15 questions that “serve as a tool for Walmart’s suppliers to evaluate their own sustainability efforts.
For more on where Walmart stands one year later, visit GreenBiz here.

A $1 million grant from Kaiser Permanente helped to construct a community health clinic that could be the first of its kind to earn LEED certification.

The newest La Maestra Community Health Center located in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego will sport a slew of green features expected to earn the facility a LEED Gold certification. Project designers had a goal of constructing a building that would play many roles: Aside from providing a high level of comfort and using less energy, the building would also serve to introduce the concept of green building to the community.

Green elements include high performance insulated glass, a rooftop solar photovoltaic array expected to generate 15 percent of its energy needs, recycled materials, energy management system, and materials with low volatile organic compounds. The site was the building was chosen for its solar orientation and prevailing breezes. A high-efficiency landscape irrigation system was installed, in addition to drought resistant and native plants.

For more on this story, visit GreenBiz here.

Last Friday Apple CEO Steve Jobs stepped in front of the world to address the widespread iPhone 4 antenna issues that effectively made the smartphone lose reception when a user engaged in the “iPhone death grip.” He addressed his wide consumer saying, “You know, we’re not perfect. We know that, you know that. And phones aren’t perfect either.” Most iPhone 4 owners claimed they didn’t experience these problems but once notorious tech media writers got a hold of Jobs acknowledging the claims, word spread like wildfire.

Thus the wildfire led to the press conference last Friday. Many skeptics brewed over what they could possibly announce. Some thought they would issue a recall, which incidentally would amount to a $1.5 billion cost to recover 600,000 iPhone 4s. Meanwhile, others thought they would receive an apology from Jobs for overhyping the amazing antenna. Finally, some analysts thought the Cupertino-based company should offer bumpers, rubber cases that mitigate the issue at hand.

In the end, Jobs announced they were offering free bumpers to users this week until the end of September. During the Q&A a member of the press asked if the company considered a recall but Jobs avoided answering the questions. In any case, had the company issued a recall they would not only have a large operating cost on their hands, they would have created physical waste with unused new iPhone 4s. Some of the parts could be reused or refurbished. However, given all the packaging that would be used, fuel required for shipping the phones to and fro and the paperwork needed to account for all items, Apple may have just done the greenest thing possible.

While some iPhone 4 owners are unpleased and others are happy to get their bumpers, Apple shows that a common business decision can inadvertently promote corporate social responsibility for both the enterprise and the consumer.

Does shipping the bumper make them environmentally friendly or not? Does Apple still need to address their factory conditions before they claim to be the greenest device maker around? We’d like to hear your thoughts!

Photo courtesy of Engadget