Greenpeace flew a blimp over Silicon Valley today to champion tech companies that have gone emerald green and shame those who are more of a tea green. The latter? Amazon, Twitter, Netflix and Pinterest.

“Apple, Facebook and Google are racing each other to build a greener online world, and that’s a race that we all win, since it means a greener offline world for everyone too,” said Greenpeace Senior IT Analyst Gary Cook. “Amazon, Twitter, Pinterest and Netflix can still join the vanguard of the green internet and avoid permanently chaining their fast-growing services to dirty energy if they commit to powering their operations with 100% renewable energy now.”

Wait, Twitter has a garden on its roof. And Pinterest has, like, employees who ride bikes. Surely they're all verdigris, aren't they? Not so, according to Greenpeace. (No shade, techies! Why, just this morning I tossed away a compostable carton into the trash. It happens.)

"At Greenpeace we love using Twitter and Pinterest, but we want to use them knowing they're not hurting the environment," David Pomerantz, Greenpeace Press Officer, explains to SFist. "Right now both companies are using rapidly growing amounts of electricity to power the data centers that store all of our Tweets and Pins, and most of that electricity for both companies is coming from polluting sources of energy like coal and gas. Facebook committed to 100 % renewable energy, and now is well on its way to that goal. We think Twitter and Pinterest can do the same."

Based on a report Greenpeace released on Wednesday, Twitter uses only 21 % clean energy for its data centers. Pinterest, as a customer of Amazon Web Services, uses only 15% clean energy. Unlike Facebook, neither Twitter nor Pinterest have made any commitments to renewable energy, according to Greenpeace.

And just to show you Greenpeace isn't only about wagging its finger, today's airship also tipped its hat to companies doing well. Behold:

Similar to the way electric cars have regenerative breaking, the very attractive Maxwell von Stein, 22, a graduate of The Cooper Union, invented a bike that harnesses your pedaling power. His beta bicycle uses a flywheel (pulled from an old Porsche) spinning between the crossbars to create energy. According to NPR's Science Friday, "The flywheel stores the kinetic energy until Max wants a boost, then he can transfer the energy back to the wheel using a shifter on the handlebars."

This would do wonders while riding on the hilly streets of San Francisco, yes? It's a good way to get a kick in your bike sans the use of gasoline.

"I'm not trying to reinvent the bicycle. It's a platform to learn more about his new hybrid," he explains. Von Stein's goal is to a) get a job and b) put his flywheels on all cars. He stands an excellent chance of doing both. But don't take our word for it. Watch Max demonstrate his wonderful doohickey in the following video:

Today the Department of Energy announced a pretty big windfall of funding "for 37 ambitious research projects," ones that involve energy sources such as wind and solar, something crazily awesome about bacteria being used to to "produce automotive fuel from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide," and more. In total, the Golden State received $20.8 million in new funding to help improve the environment. Which, of course, is necessary.

NorCal green businesses benefiting from today's eco-splurge:

• Envia Systems (Hayward): "High energy density Lithium-ion batteries with 3x better energy density than current batteries. Based on novel nano silicon-carbon composite anodes and manganese composite cathodes discovered at Argonne National Laboratory. Could lower the cost and speed the adoption of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles." Piece of the pie: $4,000,000

• NanOasis Technologies, Inc. (Richmond) - "Carbon nanotubes for reverse osmosis membranes that require less energy and have many times higher flux. Could dramatically reduce the cost and energy required for desalination to supply fresh water for our crops and communities." Piece of the pie: $2,031,252

• PAX Streamline, Inc. (San Rafael) - "'Blown Wing'" technology for wind turbines. Creates a virtual airfoil by jetting compressed air along a wing. Can be dynamically adjusted to maximize power under a wide range of wind conditions. A new design that can be manufactured at a fraction of the cost." Piece of the pie: $3,000,000

• Porifera Inc. (Hayward) - "Carbon nanotubes integrated into polymer membranes to increase the flux of CO2 capture membranes by two orders of magnitude. Could enable much less expensive carbon." Piece of the pie: $1,077,992

• Stanford University: "Sensors, software, and controls to track and improve energy use patterns. Could lead to substantial reductions in building energy use by changing human behavior through timely information and usable controls." Piece of the pie: $4,992,651

Created to "develop nimble, creative and inventive approaches to transform the global energy landscape while advancing America’s technology leadership," the funds were awarded through the Department of Energy’s new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (“ARPA-E”).

In an effort to conserve energy, Board of Supervisors President David Chiu introduced legislation yesterday that "would prohibit downtown commercial buildings from leaving the lights on after hours," according to reports. If passed, Chiu's idea would "require commercial building owners to phase in the darkened skyline over one year," which would make San Francisco the only city in North America to shut off their office building lights at night to converse energy. If your recall, Aaron Peskin introduced similar legislation last year, which failed after the Building Owners and Managers Association of San Francisco gave it a thumbs down.