No, the subject isn't cold drinks made with evaporated cane juice, organic yogurt, and shavings of ice from distilled water. EcoShakes are an artificial shingle made from wood chips and recycled PVC piping that were shown at GreenBuild.

I thought they looked awful.

Granted, I was seeing them at fairly close range under artificial light, and they might look a lot better espied from street level on a typical day in the suburbs. But in those conditions, they looked as fake as fake could be.

My longest-standing friend in the world turned out to be an HVAC engineer (who voted for McCain — I don't think I even know him anymore), and the last time we got in touch, before I could tell him what I've been doing, he started telling me how much he dislikes LEED. "We do most of that stuff anyway, but now we have to spend a bunch of time we don't have filling out forms to prove that we did them.

One "future growth opportunity" for our green practices at home is capturing the rain as it falls, to be used for irrigation. To me, the barrels are mostly unsightly and they are a potential breeding ground for mosquitoes. I was thinking that I would need to get a big tank, pay someone to dig up the yard, and then put in pumps — all pretty invasive, not to mention expensive.

I had never heard of Mr. Petrovic until encountering him at GreenBuild. He is vice president of Dadanco, a company I had never heard of until encountering it at GreenBuild. It makes HVAC "solutions." I became aware of Mr. Petrovic because his company sponsored Van Jones's speech, and had the opportunity to say a few words before Jones began. And he did — he said a few words, and sat down. A day later, I happened by the Dadanco booth, still without realizing what Dadanco did.

Even at (especially at?) Greenbuild, you can find greenwashing. 'Course, that's a subjective term, and some of it is more egregious than others. But one of the first booths I happened upon Wednesday morning was promoting the coal industry. As I've said before, is there anyone, anywhere, who favors coal in any form expect "left in the ground," apart from people who are economically tied to it?

Another in a series of miniprofiles of sustainability-minded people who are working to reduce humankind’s footprint on the planet. They're "mini" not only because they're short, but because all the questions are 10 words or less, and the answers are requested to match. (Please, no counting.)

ADDIE CRANSTOUN, 29, Manager, Green Depot, Waltham

Green Depot sells building materials focused on environmentally friendly products. Stoneham is one of five locations for the company, which is headquartered in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Green epiphany: "In elementary school, one of the first major issues I tackled was concern about our ozone layer."

Green hero: "Jane Goodall. Not only for the work she’s done, but recently, she’s doing more speaking and trying to educate children that they can have sustainability at the forefront of their future."

Writing at offgrid.com, Nick Rosen discusses micro-nuclear plants, which, the story says, could power 20,000 homes for 10 years or more.

The devices, said to be only a few feet across, would be buried well underground, have no moving parts, and be powered by low-energy uranium that would be difficult to enrich into nuclear weapons. All the steam, to run turbines, and waste would be contained underground.

On the NYT's Greenbiz blog, an entry says that pro-nuclear interests are trying to rebrand the industry, in part by seeking ways to make the plants more good looking.

I kid you not.

OK, so now we have the guy we wanted in the White House. So what is the outlook for clean tech?

Martin Lamonica, green-tech writer at CNet, surveys the landscape. I am always informed by Martin's writing.

[added] Greenbiz.com covers some of the same ground, but also looks at how voters reacted to clean-energy referenda nationwide.