to solve this problem, two scientists from columbia university’s lenfest center for sustainable energy took inspiration from trees and invented a plastic “tree” that absorbs carbon at a much higher rate than mother nature. the technology could also turn that captured carbon into a valuable energy source.

energynow! correspondent josh zepps looked into a new technology that pulls a thousand times more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere than trees, and could one day power our cars and trucks.

“you can remove co2 anywhere you want, and it can deal with emissions from anywhere else on the planet,” said allen wright, a scientist at the lenfest center. “there’s no real major discovery or invention that has to happen that would prevent us from deploying that technology tomorrow.”

beyond just removing co2 from the atmosphere, the new technology could also turn it into a valuable commodity. “you can add hydrogen to those (captured) carbon atoms and re-create gasoline,” said klaus lackner, a scientist at the lenfest center. “it has a zero net impact on the environment because you’re taking the carbon out that burning the gasoline will put in.”

energynow! correspondent dan goldstein explored how innovative carbon capture and storage, or ccs, technologies could keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and help prevent the climate from changing.

“the same types of materials that are used in shampoo and conditioners were materials that we thought we could use in this particular instance to capture carbon,” said bob perry, a chemist with general electric. “with the co2 we’ve captured, we now have it in a confined space and can move that toward someplace for storage, for sequestration.”

ccs may be key to reducing carbon emissions, but installing it on america’s coal-fired power plants won’t be cheap. “the consumer is going to see an increase in the cost of electricity of 5 to 10 cents per kilowatt hour,” said gary rochelle, a chemical engineer at the university of texas in austin who has developed a technology to raise carbon dioxide out of power plant smokestack emissions. “that’s a 50 to 100 percent increase in what they’ll be paying for electricity.”

the building uses 10 megawatts of power per year, with an annual electric bill of about $11 million. but after a 5-year, $500 million retrofit is complete, its energy use will drop by 38 percent and the bill will be cut almost in half. the makeover includes almost $20 million work of energy efficiency improvements.

the building’s heating and cooling will come from a combination of steam power and wind energy credits. also, each of its 3 million lights will be switched from incandescent to fluorescent, reducing lighting costs by 75 percent. every one of the building’s more than 6,500 windows will be upgraded with a film coating and argon and krypton gas between the panes. this allows the building to retain more heat in the winter while keeping it out in the summer, while making better use of natural light. the building is also letting in more light by moving air-conditioning units from the ceilings of each floor to the ground.

founded by a pair of engineers, the company is working to make not only a replacement for styrofoam “peanuts” but a variety of other materials from home insulation to kitchen counters. the company has found some high-profile customers, making parts for ford and packaging for dell computers.

josh also takes us into the woods to see why mushrooms could be nature’s perfect packing, and to ecovative’s labs to see how a few cottonseed husks and some mushroom cells can grow into something useful and beneficial for the environment.

energynow! chief correspondent tyler suiters looks at how the smithsonian environmental research center is duplicating the effects of rising co2 levels on a small-scale, then forecasting what it means for plant ecosystems. he interviews patrick megonigal, a biogeochemist at the center and gary peresta, an environmental engineer. they give him a tour of the center and a look at how the research — and the researchers themselves — have evolved over the past two decades.