Not all episodes of Sundance's The Green programming block feature green vehicles, but when they do, they do. Tomorrow night (Tuesday, the 22nd), the Big Ideas for a Small Planet segment goes for a "Drive." And it looks like fun.

"Drive" follows the same breezy pace as the other Big Ideas episodes (like the first one, "Fuel"), with cool people talking about cool cars and all saying that the world can certainly become a better place. It's engaging and a good way to keep beating that "EVs are golf carts" stereotype (well, until we get to the NMG, anyway).

The four big ideas are as follows:

First, the electric sports car. This segment features – surprise, surprise – the Tesla Roadster. Man, that car is still so cool looking, even after seeing so many pictures and videos of over the last 10 months. Chelsea Sexton, of Plug In America, and David Friedman, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, give a condensed version of the last 100 years of the electric car and we also go on a visit to Tesla Motors. CEO Martin Eberhard introduces viewers to the car; and we tag along on a short ride and drive for people who've agreed to buy a Roadster. Phil, who I'm pretty sure is the same Tesla employee who drove me in the Roadster prototype last summer, takes some advance purchasers for a spin and we see "Who Killed the Electric Car?" director Chris Paine driving the Roadster. Scott Burns, the producer of An Inconvenient Truth, says the Roadster is the first car he's ever purchased without taking it for a test drive.

The second idea is high performance hybrids, and here we get to go 100 mph down the AMCI test track in a Lexus hybrid with Paul Williamsen, National Manager of the Lexus College. Williamsen's work is mostly training service technicians and he tells us that the LS 600h features a hydrocarbon absorber that holds onto hydrocarbon emissions until the catalytic converter is warm enough to process them. The Lexus hybrids aren't solely designed to reduce emissions, but more to increase power without adding emissions.

Idea three is the electric commuter car, here embodied as the NMG, what used to be known as the Sparrow. Dana Myers, founder of Myers Motors, Myers says that the average American spends four hours a year at the gas station, so plugging your car into your garage outlet at night saves time as well as money. He gives the camera crew a quick tour of the factory, and we see the engineers experimenting with a polymer lithium ion battery option in the NMG. It's not a 100 percent smooth, but they do get the tiny, three-wheeled NMG to zip with the new batteries. It sound like the NMG's range with these batteries might be between 50-80 miles, according to Myers.

There's more on the show, and a clip of the Tesla ride and drive after the break. Try not to be too jealous.

[Source: Sundance]

While not as specifically auto-related as episode #1 (which aired last week and is probably widely available as reruns on the Sundance Channel or online; my review is here), the second week of The Green does bring the automotive and green/environmental worlds together again.

Called "Waste = Food," the film (much shorter than A Crude Awakening and not as powerful), features a segment about the greening of the Ford Rouge Center, where the first Ford was built 80 years ago, was long the site of serious environmental pollution. A $2 billion, 20-year project to clean up the Rouge River site, called the Heritage Project, started in 2000. The project was the result of a meeting between Bill Ford and Bill McDonough, and environmental architect who is interviewed extensively in the film.

What's quite enlightening is Timothy O'Brien, deputy chief of staff at Ford Motor Company, describes the initial dismissal he (and others at Ford) gave when they first met McDonough and others behind the project, people who wore berets and bowties. O'Brien says he has no time for dreamers, just for people who are inspired and go out and make things happen. McDonough certainly did that, designing a plant that uses natural methods to clean water used at the plant, uses sunlight as interior lighting, and was build considering all of the waste that would be coming out of the plant. There is also a meadow on the roof which, while more expensive to install than a standard roof, is saving Ford money by filtering rainwater

During the Ford segment there's also a bit of video of the 2003 Ford Model U concept car in action.

While the narrator does mention that the fact that for decades Ford Motor Company officials didn't give a rat's behind about the waste they produced along with the cars, it drops that line of inquiry in favor of how the company acted in Detroit and then focuses really on the upcoming green future for producers. McDonough says that it's economic forces (not moral issues) that will force company's hands to go green in the future. Ford doesn't get a pass on 80 years of pollution by investing in one clean showcase plant, but as an inspiration, the Rogue River plant works just fine.

Other companies in the film include Nike and Rohner. You can watch a bit here.

Sundance's The Green premieres Monday and the folks who have been working hard to bring A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash to your screens next week have slipped us three promos for the show. You can watch them edited together in the clip up above. They're about ethanol in Indy cars and biodiesel from waste cooking oil.

We also got a copy of the full first show to review, and we'll have our thoughts on the documentary on the final years of this non-renewable resource soon.

And, while digital distribution at least doesn't make for any paper waste, the entire promotion campaign is not as green as it might be, says Ecorazzi.

Related:

• Got a big idea for a short video? Submit it to Sundance for $10,000 and a Lexus lease
• Crude Awakening for Sundance Channel's new The Green documentary series

[Source: Sundance Channel]

The new Sundance Channel environmental programming block "The Green" is coming our way in a few weeks and Sundance wants potential viewers (which hey, might be you) to submit short video clips on the theme "What's the Big Idea?" Why would you do this? The winner gets $10,000 and a one-year lease on a new Lexus hybrid. The contest is open until the end of the month and after April 30 Sundance will put the 25 top videos to an online vote. The top five vote getters will then be ordered by "by a panel of environmental experts who will pick the winner; pieces will be judged on creativity, overall theme, feasibility and presentation."

For more details on the contest, you can read the press release after the jump (overwhelming number of exclamation mark alert). If you missed the earlier announcement about what The Green is, click here. Then you'll know whey I'm unhappy they haven't stopped using all capital letters to refer to THE GREEN.

[Source: K.C. Webster / Special Ops Media]