The Piaggio Group USA, a US subsidiary of the famed Italian maker of Vespa scooters, is giving Vespa riders and enthusiasts a chance to express their passions with the launch of its "Go Green Vespa Video Challenge."

Launched on August 20th, potential entrants have until October 15th to make a video (15 seconds - 2 minutes in length) that highlights "Vespanomics," or the facts about scooters’ contributions to reducing gas consumption, carbon emissions and traffic congestion. A few claims made by Vespa:

• Did you know that if Americans were to switch just 10% of their total mileage to scooters, they would save roughly $42 million on gas and consume 14 million gallons less fuel PER DAY (based on $3/gal average).
• If Americans were to switch just 10% of their total mileage to
  scooters, carbon dioxide emissions could also be reduced by 324 million
  pounds per day.
• By shifting the daytime vehicle mix to 80 percent cars / 20 percent
  scooters in the Manhattan (New York City) Central Business District
  (stretching from 60th Street to the lower tip of Manhattan), there
  would be a total decrease in delay of more than 4.6 million hours per
  year - which translates to time savings of nearly 100 working hours per
  person annually.

The prizes for winners are, as you might guess, Vespa scooters. The grand prize winner takes home a GTS, second place scores an LX150, and third place a LX50. Official contest rules are available here.

Apparently, Vespa also has hybrid scooters in the prototype stage… we’ll keep an eye on this.

As many of you know, Green Options is not my first foray into the world of green blogging: I started sustainablog in 2003, and have written for Treehugger for about 14 months. Since Green Options launched, I've had to curtail my blogging a bit — I cut back on my Treehugger schedule, and put sustainable on hiatus at the end of May.

Things change, though, and during a recent discussion with TH founder Graham Hill about the direction and success of Green Options, we decided that it was a good time for me to "call it a day" as a TH contributor. I've got nothing but respect and admiration for the folks at Treehugger, and thoroughly enjoyed my time writing for them. But, it is time to move on… I've got plenty to handle here!

At the same time, a blogger blogs… and I'm definitely a blogger at heart. So, I've decided that the split from Treehugger means it's a good time to get sustainablog going again. I also looked at the calendar and realized that tomorrow, July 10th, is sustainablog's fourth anniversary. So, to celebrate that anniversary, I'm relaunching sustainablog. While I should probably wait until tomorrow, I'm just too excited… my baby comes out of hiatus tonight.

Please come by, say "Hi," and let me know what you think. I'll keep my writing at sustainablog largely separate from the work I do here — maybe an occasional cross post, but, otherwise, I won't be "GO's Senior Editor and Content Director" there. Rather, I'll go back to where I started: a passionate student of and advocate for sustainability in all of its myriad forms. I can't wait…

Well, it seems we're all getting a little media attention lately. I had my turn last week; this week, David gets to shine in an interview with Entrepreneur 27, a site devoted to promoting entrepreneurship in the tech sector and featuring young business leaders. We like to think our boss qualifies there (and I'm not just saying that because he's my boss…). Here's a sneak peak at the interview…

Where do you see Green Options a year from now?

We have many projects in the pipeline, most of which I can’t talk openly about yet, but suffice it to say that web 2.0 media is only a starting point for Green Options. There is so much information out there that is waiting to be formatted and marketed correctly in order to make it accessible to the rest of society. Hopefully, 2008 will see GO providing a wider variety of innovative tools to accomplish that goal. There are angles to take that can make a solid case for sustainable living to people of every persuasion and perspective (except maybe Dick Cheney), including those who feel belittled or condescended by preachy rhetoric. Those people need to be included in the process to create change on the scale necessary, and that starts with making information accessible to a wider range of audiences.

Check out the rest at Entrepreneur 27.