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| * Links are shown as listed in the original article and may not be current. |
| 398 2009-06-26 Singapore Finds Reusing Water Cheaper Than Desalination. |
| A Singapore engineering firm, PUB Consultants, and Global Water Intelligence, an international water industry analyst, have completed a survey of water reuse facilities around the world. Their study concludes that it is cheaper to purify the outfall from water reclamation plants than to turn seawater into drinking water. A new recycled water production plant in Changi, Singapore will charge 30 cents (Singapore) per cubic meter of water, comparing favorably to the 78 cents (Singapore)/cubic meter price of desalinated water from a nearby plant. Singapore’s water agency PUB has already exported its water reuse technology to countries such as Saudi Arabia. |
| Reference(s): (The Straits Times, June 25, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_394912.html |
| 398 2009-06-26 3rd Generation Prius Orders of 180,000 Far Exceed 10,000/Month Target. |
| Toyota Motor Corp. has booked 180,000 domestic for the new Prius gasoline-electric hybrid. The company had set a sales target of 10,000 units a month in Japan. The tally included 80,000 orders placed before the car debuted May 18th. Customers placing orders for a Prius as of today face a seven-month wait before taking delivery. The company has shifted workers to its Prius production plant in Aichi Prefecture and implemented overtime shifts to meet demand. Toyota states that the new Prius can travel 38 km/liter of fuel (89 mpg). It has a goal of selling 1 million hybrids annually in the 2010s. |
| Reference(s): (AOL.Money & Finance, June 19, 2009 Link(s)*: http://money.aol.com/article/toyota-gets-180000-orders-for-new-prius/486955 |
| 398 2009-06-26 Eco-points Program Promotes Use of Energy-Efficient Goods. |
| The Japanese government has unveiled a list of products and services that can be exchanged for Eco-points, a type of currency to stimulate consumption and promote use of energy-efficient goods. Eco-points are earned through purchases of energy-efficient air conditioners, refrigerators, and televisions. The points can be exchanged for three types of goods: coupons and pre-paid cards, energy –efficient products or products that promote regional economies. More points can be earned for a small fee by handing over old products for recycling and upgrading to a new appliance. |
| Reference(s): (The Japan Times, June 20, 2009 Link(s)*: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20090620a1.html |
| 397 2009-06-19 Japan Introduces CO2 Emissions Calculations on Shopping Receipts. |
| Eco-Hana, a citywide environmental accounting service in Naha City, Okinawa, has created Japan’s first service to enable bookkeeping of both finances and carbon dioxide linked to purchases. Data from shoppers are automatically processed based on CO2 emissions per unit sales and reflected on shopping receipts along with pricing and payment data. The CO2 values are derived through the Embodied Energy and Emissions Intensity Input-Output Tables generated by the National Institute for Environmental Studies. Restaurants and supermarkets in Naha City are cooperating with the initial service and there are plans to expand the service area of the program. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, June 7, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/029038.html |
| 397 2009-06-19 American Medical Academy Report Calls for Moratorium on GM Foods. |
| The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) has released a position paper on Genetically Modified foods stating, “GM foods pose a serious health risk” and calling for a moratorium on GM foods. The AAEM report determined that “there is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects,” and that “GM foods pose a serious health risk in the areas of toxicology, allergy and immune function, reproductive health, and metabolic, physiologic and genetic health.” The AAEM, founded in 1965, provides research and education in the recognition, treatment and prevention of illnesses induced by exposures to biological and chemical agents encountered in air, food and water. |
| Reference(s): (American Academy of Environmental Medicine, May 19, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.aaemonline.org/gmopost.html |
| 397 2009-06-19 Arizona State University Graduates First Degree Class in Sustainability. |
| Arizona State University, the first school in the country to offer degrees in Sustainability, has just graduated its first class of degree recipients. Thirteen students were in the first class. There are presently 55 enrolled graduate students and 300+ undergraduate majors in the School of Sustainability. The mission of the program is to train a new generation of sustainability scholars and practitioners and to develop practical solutions to pressing environmental, economic and social challenges, particularly as they relate to urban areas. Many of the current graduate students are coming into the program with graduate degrees (especially MBA, engineering, and law.) |
| Reference(s): (DotEarthBlogs, May 14, 2009 Link(s)*: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/author/andrew-c-revkin/ |
| 396 2009-06-12 Global Investment in Renewables Exceeds Fossil Fuels for the First Time. |
| The United Nations reports that wind, solar and other clean technologies overtook fossil fuels in attracting investment for power generation for the first time last year. The biggest growth for renewables investment came from China, India and other developing countries. Globally, renewables investment attracted $140 billion compared with $110 billion for gas and coal used in electrical generation. Counting energy efficiency and other measures, more than $155 billion of new money was invested in clean energy companies and projects. Europe remains the main center for clean energy investment, with $50 billion in projects, while the figure for the United States was $30 billion. |
| Reference(s): (The Guardian, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/03/renewables-energy |
| 396 2009-06-12 Voluntary Universal Health Care Identifier Reduces Errors and Costs. |
| A new company, Global Patient Identifiers, Inc. has developed a voluntary universal healthcare identifier system very different from earlier patient identifier efforts. The system features enhanced privacy protections with patient control and virtually eliminates patient identification errors and redundant tests, saving time and leading to more affordable health care. It also enables the unambiguous identification of patients to facilitate information sharing among participating provider organizations, improving both the quality and efficiency of health care. The system is based on ASTM international standards work developed over the past two decades. |
| Reference(s): Global Patient Identifiers, Inc., 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.gpii.info/ |
| 396 2009-06-12 “Growing Power” Works to Transform Midwest with Community Food Systems. |
| Growing Power is a Milwaukee-based organization working to develop Community Food Centers as a key component of larger Community Food Systems. Growing Power works through training, active demonstration, outreach, and technical assistance. Its projects fall into four essential areas: 1) demonstration projects and growing methods, 2) education and technical assistance, 3) food production and distribution through a year-round food security Farm-to City Market Basket Program, and 4) advocacy for food policy changes. Growing Power convenes a minimum of five national workshops on-site at its Milwaukee facility each year and has sponsored three national conferences focusing on food security. |
| Reference(s): (Growing Power, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.growingpower.org/about_us.htm |
| 395 2009-06-05 EPA Pulls Permit for Four Corners Coal Plant to Better Consider CO2 Emissions. |
| The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has decided to effectively withdraw the permit for the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant in the Four Corners area. EPA filed a motion with its Environmental Appeals Board for a voluntary remand of the air permit issued for the facility, which would be located on the Navajo Nation approximately 25 miles southwest of Farmington, New Mexico. In January of this year, the EPA withdrew the portion of its 2008 permit decision regarding emission limits and controls for emissions of carbon dioxide to seek further comment on the matter. EPA’s latest action addresses other issues still under appeal with the Appeals Board, including the use of PM10 as a surrogate to satisfy the PSD requirements for PM2.5; the consideration of integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) as a pollution control option for Desert Rock, the issuance of the final permit decision before completing the consultation under the Endangered Species Act, and the issuance of the final permit before completing an analysis of Desert Rock’s emissions of hazardous air pollutants like mercury. |
| Reference(s): (New Mexico Attorney General’s Office, April 27, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.nmag.gov/Articles/newsarticle.aspx?ArticleID=674#FullArticle |
| 395 2009-06-05 Military Board Cites Oil Dependence and Central Grid as Security Threats. |
| CNA is a non-profit research organization that operates the Center for Naval Analyses and the Institute for Public Research. CNA’s Board of twelve top-ranked retired generals and admirals has just released “Powering America’s Defense: Energy and Risks to National Security,” which finds that all fossil fuels as well as the nation’s fragile electricity grid pose significant security threats to military mission and to the country. The report finds that the impacts of energy demand and climate change are likely to increasingly drive military missions in this century. The Board advises the new Administration to clearly and fully integrate energy security and climate change goals into national security and military planning. |
| Reference(s): (CNA, May 18, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.cna.org/nationalsecurity/energy/report/ |
| 395 2009-06-05 Edinburgh Business School Creates Comparative CO2 Reduction Service. |
| The Edinburgh University Business School, backed by the Haymarket Media Group, is launching ENDS Carbon, which aims to provide companies with the information they need to reduce their carbon emissions. The venture will give companies detailed data, benchmarking their performance against their peer group. The first report will evaluate the performance of the UK supermarket sector. Last year Edinburgh launched an MSc in Climate Change and is developing an MSc in Carbon Finance. |
| Reference(s): (The Financial Times, May 4, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e8b3d956-3843-11de-9211-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1 |
| 394 2009-05-22 Spidrex Regenerative Cartilage System Features Protein From Silk. |
| The Wellcome Trust has awarded Orthox, a British company, 1.6 million British Pounds to develop its Spidrex regenerative meniscal (knee cartilage) system which uses a protein found in silk to repair damaged cartilage and bone tissue. Based on ten years of research, Orthox’s absorbable implant takes over the function of the damaged tissue, removing the need for permanent plastic or metal prosthesis. Commercially available silk is broken down into individual molecules and built back up again into tissue scaffolds using methods learned from how spiders spin silk. The device is essentially like a porous sponge designed to encourage the body’s own cells to grow into it and repair the tissue. |
| Reference(s): (The Engineer Online, May 11, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Articles/310320/Spidrex+sense.htm |
| 394 2009-05-22 “Air-Sandwich Curtain” Greatly Increases Thermal Performance of Buildings. |
| A Japanese interior design company, New Life Corp., has developed an insulated “Air-Sandwich Curtain” made of triple-layer fabric intended to improve building energy efficiency. The improved thermal performance of the “sandwich” structure improves efficiency of heating in winter and cooling in summer. The difference in temperature between the room side and the window side of the curtain is about 5 to 10 degrees C depending on the indoor conditions. A 2-meter by 2-meter curtain retails for about $290. Users report that it takes one-half as long to heat a room with the curtain than without it. |
| Reference(s): (Japan Technology Information, May 19, 2009 Link(s)*: http://japantechniche.com/2009/05/19/eco-curtain-offering-an-exceptional-power-saving-performance/ |
| 394 2009-05-22 Hitachi Develops World’s Most Powerful Lithium-Ion Battery for Vehicles. |
| Hitachi has developed the world’s most powerful Lithium-ion battery for a car, with output power density of 4,500 W/kg, 1.7 times higher in power density than its current Li-ion car battery. Hitachi reduced the internal resistance in the battery by employing a new manganese anode for its electrode as well as its original battery structure for thinning of the electrode and power collection method, resulting in the world’s highest output for this type of battery. The new battery is Hitachi’s fourth generation Lithium battery and comes with a smaller form factor, lighter weight, and longer life than previous generation batteries. |
| Reference(s): (Green Car Congress, April 26, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2009/04/hitachi-4500-20090426.html |
| 393 2009-05-08 Kansas Governor Vetoes Bill Limiting Growth Hormone Disclosure on Milk Labels. |
| Outgoing Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius vetoed legislation that would have limited the labeling of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rbGH) on dairy products in the state. The legislation’s “provisions on dairy labeling would have made it harder for consumers to get the information they want about the dairy products they consume and would have hindered dairy farmers’ ability to tell consumers that their milk is from cows not treated” with growth hormones, said Dr. Michael Hansen of Consumers Union. |
| Reference(s): (Organic Consumers Association, April 23, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17647.cfm |
| 393 2009-05-08 DOE Introduces Web-Based Advanced Energy Design Tool for K-12 Schools. |
| The U.S. Department of Energy continues to offer a no-cost, on-line webinar providing an overview of its Advanced Energy Design Guide for K-12 school buildings. The 120-minute webinar was first offered on April 16, 2009, and provides recommendations based on climatic zones to achieve 30% energy savings over baseline standard in both new and renovation building projects. |
| Reference(s): (U.S. Department of Energy, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energysmartschools/aedg_webinar.html |
| 393 2009-05-08 New York Governor Bans State Bottled Water Purchases. |
| New York State Governor David Patterson has, by executive order, banned bottled water purchases by state agencies. The ban applies to single-serve water bottles and applies to all executive branch agencies. New York is the first state in the nation to ban the purchase of bottled water. “Its manufacture, its transport, its storage, its chilling, everything that has to do with it is environmentally unfriendly,” said Patterson. |
| Reference(s): (Beverage World, May 6, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.beverageworld.com/content/view/36171/ |
| 393 2009-05-08 EU Parliament Votes for “Zero-Carbon” Building Rule. |
| The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly in favor of proposals to strengthen the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive that will require all new buildings to produce the same amount of energy they consume. The tough “zero carbon” building standards would apply to all new homes, shops, and offices built in the European Union from 2019. The proposals also set a tighter 2016 deadline for compliance with the rules for public buildings. |
| Reference(s): (Business Green, April 24, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.businessgreen.com/articles/print/2241041 |
| 392 2009-05-01 University Cafeterias Show Food Miles on Menu, Making CO2 More Visible. |
| In Japan, thirty-two cafeterias operated by 16 university cooperatives joined in a campaign earlier this year to display food miles and carbon dioxide emissions from food transportation for their menu offerings. The original campaign was a three-month pilot effort in Kyoto, Shiga, and Nara prefectures. A survey conducted of about 450 respondents from nine universities showed that half of the students became more careful in selecting food with a food miles display and said that food miles would need to be continuously displayed in the future. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, April 20, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/028907.html |
| 392 2009-05-01 “Great Neighborhood Book” Offers Do-it-Yourself Guide to Placemaking. |
| A new product from the Project for Public Spaces (PPS), the Great Neighborhood Book, explains how struggling communities can be revived not with vast infusions of cash and not by government, but by the people who live there. PPS is an internationally recognized non-profit that has worked in over 2,000 communities in 47 states and 26 countries. The Great Neighborhood Book offers real-life examples of placemaking that show the changes possible when individuals take small steps and motivate others to make change. The book is intended to motivate not only neighborhood activists but also urban planners, developers and policy-makers. |
| Reference(s): (EcoBrain, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.ecobrain.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=217&products_id=1016&affiliate_id=1829&it=1&filters=0&manufacturers_id=217 |
| 392 2009-05-01 “Enterprise Carbon Accounting” Provides Whole View of Corporate Footprints. |
| Climate Earth offers its Enterprise Carbon Accounting (ECA) system to help customers determine a more complete picture of their carbon footprint. The ECA system features a Comprehensive Environmental Data Archive (CEDA) with greenhouse gas emission factors for 480 U.S. commodities and services. It is the underlying data source for the production of a customers climate footprint. CEDA is being used by the European Commission, the Danish EPA, and the USEPA. In a case study of Cisco Systems, a study found that without ECA Cisco missed 80% of its enterprise carbon footprint originating largely from the core product operations of the company. |
| Reference(s): (Climate Earth, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.climateearth.com/ |
| 391 2009-04-24 Los Angeles Establishes Nation’s First Public Sector Green Retrofit Program. |
| A new ordinance in Los Angeles has created the nation’s first public sector green building retrofit program. The ordinance calls for the retrofitting of all city-owned buildings over 7,500 square feet using guidelines from the US Green Building Council. The ordinance sets a goal of 100 retrofits annually and projects will be given to buildings with high community-impact value. The ordinance also establishes two management positions, an interdepartmental task force and a stakeholder advisory council. At the same time, the city’s green careers program will feature training and placement for local, low-income and underemployed workers. |
| Reference(s): (Marketwatch.com, April 8, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/environmental-defense-fund-applauds-city/story.aspx?guid=%7B41636141-3125-4EB6-B238-A007EA92B9D0%7D&dist=msr_3 |
| 391 2009-04-24 CERES Identifies 600+ Insurance Industry Products Addressing Climate Risks. |
| A new report from CERES, “Insurer Responses to Climate Change: From Risk to Opportunity,” identifies over 640 real-world examples of products and services from the insurance industry aimed at reducing its risks related to climate change. CERES received responses to a recent survey from 246 insurers, reinsurers, brokers and insurance organizations from 26 countries. Insurance coverage for green buildings, renewable energy, carbon capture and carbon trading are being offered by more insurers than ever. For the first time, Zurich and Liberty Mutual have introduced directors and officers’ coverage specifically tailored to address liability risks associated with climate change. Industry leaders are also driving forward improvements in the climate science that will help governments better understand and prepare for future risks—government action that is critical to the preservation of the private insurance market. |
| Reference(s): (CERES, April 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.ceres.org/Document.Doc?id=417 |
| 391 2009-04-24 Fallow Fields Turned into Urban Food Security Vegetable Farms. |
| Fallowed fields around the Seki, Japan city hall have been turned into vegetable farms in an attempt to assure food security in times of disaster. A wide range of vegetables was grown in the first year of the project all without the use of pesticides. A volunteer group under the municipal social welfare council provided watering and weeding services. Some vegetables were kept to be preserved, pickled, and dried and other vegetables were kept to be stocked. The city held a drill in late 2008, providing hot meals to hundreds of people using the vegetables grown in the fields. As it continues the program in 2009, the city hope to combine awareness of disaster preparedness with the safety and reliability of locally grown vegetables. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, April 12, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/028886.html |
| 390 2009-04-17 USDA to Update Plant Hardiness Zone Map to Reflect Warming Climate. |
| For the first time since 1990, the USDA will be updating its Plant Hardiness Zone Map that will make clear how much rising temperatures have shifted planting zones northward. “Shifting hardiness zones are a very tangible result of climate change and people will see that change happening where they live over a short period of time,” according to National Gardening Association horticulturist Charles Nardozzi. |
| Reference(s): (The Daily Climate, March 23, 2009 Link(s)*: http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/usda/climate-change-comes-to-your-backyard |
| 390 2009-04-17 IceStone Makes Durable Surface Material From Recovered Glass and Concrete. |
| IceStone LLC uses recycled glass and concrete to create a range of high value-added products such as countertops, tabletops and commercial flooring that rival the strength of quarried stone. IceStone operates out of a day-lit factory in Brooklyn, provides living wage jobs, health benefits, education programs and life-skill training to it’s employees . Its donation program provides free or discounted material to projects that share similar social and environmental goals. |
| Reference(s): (Investors Circle, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.icestone.biz/ http://www.investorscircle.net/for_entrepreneurs/featured-company/icestone-1/view |
| 390 2009-04-17 Clearinghouse Web Source Created for Climate and Water Information. |
| The Water Research Foundation has developed the Climate Change Clearinghouse Web site to provide a single source of all information related to climate change and water. The Clearinghouse is part of the Foundation’s broader Climate Change Strategic Initiative which has goals of improving water industry awareness of climate change issues and providing water utilities the tools needed to identify and assess their vulnerabilities as well as to develop effective adaptation strategies. |
| Reference(s): (Water Research Foundation, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.theclimatechangeclearinghouse.org/Pages/Climate%20Change%20Clearinghouse.aspx |
| 390 2009-04-17 Major Japanese Homebuilder to Build Carbon Neutral Homes. |
| A major Japanese homebuilder, SxL Co., has announced that by then end of 2011 it will reduce to zero the net carbon dioxide emissions from the life cycle of the homes it builds. The program manages all stages of the houses’ life cycle, including home design, production, materials procurement, problem diagnosis, repair, and maintenance. SxL also aims to consolidate and standardize construction, install innovative energy-efficient technologies, and advise clients on reducing their own environmental footprint over the long-term. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, April 10, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/028886.html |
| 389 2009-04-10 Harvard Medical School and Culinary Institute Promote Healthier Eating. |
| The Harvard Medical School and The Culinary Institute of America have joined forces and placed doctors and chefs on the same team in an effort to fight obesity in the United States. The partnership features a twice-yearly event called “Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives.” The conference teaches doctors and other health care professionals about cooking better food during seminars and hands-on instruction taught by some of the best chefs in the world. The goal is to inform and inspire medical professionals to serve as role models for change when it comes to healthy eating. An annual “Worlds of Healthy Flavors” leadership retreat is aimed at industry chefs for chain restaurants, leading hotels, supermarkets, and volume food service operators. |
| Reference(s): (BlueCross BlueShield Association, March 31, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.bcbs.com/news/wellness/harvard-medical-school-and-culinary-institute-of-america-team-up-to-improve-americans-eating-habits.html |
| 389 2009-04-10 Extreme Weather Wind Turbines Enter Service in Antarctica. |
| Eight extreme weather wind turbines manufactured by Proven Energy are now operating at the Princess Elisabeth Station in Antarctica. The 6 kW turbines are designed to withstand temperatures of –60 degrees C and winds of over 90 meters per second (201 mph). The station is the only polar base operating entirely on renewable energy. Sited at a location with average wind speed of 53 mph the turbines will be generating the highest output of any small wind power system in the world. Previous installations of Proven Energy’s extreme weather wind turbines have weathered ice storms in Slovenia and typhoons in Japan. |
| Reference(s): (Proven Energy, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.provenenergy.co.uk/elisabeth.php |
| 389 2009-04-10 Zipcar and Zimride Partner Using Facebook Networking. |
| Zipcar, the world’s largest car sharing company, has partnered with Zimride, a fast-growing online carpooling service and will use social networking tools like Facebook to better match drivers and riders. The partnership is being launched first at Stanford University and will allow carpoolers to share rides even if they don’t own a car, using Zipcar’s hourly rental system. Zipcar members can post the date, time and destinations of their rental onto the Zimride Stanford University website, integrated with Facebook, and Zimride will then find and notify users looking for a ride. “In the next couple of months you will see dozens of these things rolling out,” said Zipcar chief executive Scott Griffith. |
| Reference(s): (The Wall Street Journal, April 8, 2009 Link(s)*: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123915473346099771.html |
| 388 2009-04-03 Addressable Streetlights Helping Reduce Energy and Maintenance Costs. |
| Recent development of electronic ballasts for streetlights combined with advances in networking technology are making it possible to create a flexible and powerful control system for cutting street lighting costs. Recent studies show that electricity used for street lighting accounts for as much as 40% of some municipal electric bills. The networking technology allows establishment of two-way communication with each fixture in a street lighting system and introduces the potential to control the lighting level of each device, turn it on and off, and monitor its condition, saving on both energy and maintenance costs. California-based Echelon partnered with European companies in 2004 to help make Oslo, Norway the first European city to install a managed street light system. Quebec City has recently become the first North American city to install such a system. |
| Reference(s): (Public works Magazine, December 1, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.pwmag.com/industry-news-print.asp?sectionID=0&articleID=828782 |
| 388 2009-04-03 Sponges Contain a Compound Restoring Bacterial Vulnerability to Antibiotics. |
| Research chemists from the Hollings Marine Laboratory have found a chemical from an ocean-dwelling sponge that reprograms anti-resistant bacteria to make them vulnerable to medicines again. Once-ineffective antibiotics proved lethal for bacteria treated with the compound, researchers found. The sponge’s chemical defense points to a compound called ageliferin. Fragments of the ageliferin compound successfully resensitized bacteria that cause whooping cough, ear infections, septicemia and food poisoning. The compound also works on Pseudomonas aeruginosa that causes horrible infections in wounded soldiers and on MSRA, bacteria resistant to multiple drugs. |
| Reference(s): (Science News, March 14, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/40894/title/Sponge's_secret_weapon_restores_antibiotics'_power |
| 388 2009-04-03 New Bank Makes Sustainability its Core Operating System. |
| For newly chartered e3Bank, being “green” or “sustainable” is not a suite of product offerings or a vertical market within a company. It is an operating system. “It is part of our DNA,” according to the Bank’s Chairman Sandy Wiggins. The bank’s name, e3bank, reflects its focus on a triple bottom line: sustainable enterprise, the planetary environment, and social equity. The bank has designed loan approval criteria to reflect all three dimensions of sustainability and that screen for environmental and social risk. Finance rates for a loan will be reduced, says Wiggins, as projects reach higher levels of sustainability. The bank’s employees will all be LEED certified. The Pennsylvania bank has just received its charter from the FDIC. |
| Reference(s): (e3bank, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.e3bank.com/Home.php |
| 387 2009-03-27 Tucson Hosts the World’s First Sustainability Living Library. |
| The world’s first Sustainability Living Library was held in Tucson, Arizona on March 21, cosponsored by the City’s Office of Conservation and Sustainable Development and Pima County Library. Library patrons could check out any of twelve individuals, each with expertise in an aspect of sustainability. Topics represented by the living books included backyard composting, home energy efficiency, carbon footprint, clothes mending, rainwater harvesting, bicycle basics, and more. For a half-hour, the borrower and his or her book enjoyed a free-ranging and unscripted conversation about whatever the borrower wanted to know about the topic. The idea for a Sustainability Living Library came from the worldwide “Living Library” movement, founded in Denmark in 2000. The Danish concept, now being modeled in cities around the world, lets a library visitor meet someone from a different ethnic, age, gender or cultural background and spend some time in personal dialogue and interaction. The goal is to help breakdown prejudice, foster diversity, and increase understanding among people living in an increasingly pluralistic society. Increasing awareness of the value of diversity is a fundamental element of sustainability and this allowed the originators of the Living Library to accept the variation introduced at the Tucson event. Living Library officials in Denmark permitted the Tucson group use of the Living Library logo, brand, and guidance materials for both “books” and borrowers. Sustainability topics were initially voted on by patrons of Himmel Park Branch Library, which hosted the event. All borrowers had to adhere to internationally accepted Living Library rules wherein the reader must return the book in the same condition as borrowed and it was forbidden to cause damage to the book or to hurt his or her dignity in any other way. Sponsors are already planning subsequent Sustainability Living Libraries elsewhere in the area, including one in Spanish. |
| Reference(s): (City of Tucson, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.tucsonaz.gov/ocsd/livinglibrary.php#TopOfPage http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/frontpage/112320.php |
| 387 2009-03-27 Sanyo Introduces Hybrid Electric Bike With Auto-Like Regenerative Braking. |
| Sanyo Electric Co. has introduced a new hybrid electric bicycle with a regenerative charging function to generate and charge itself while in use. The bike has a higher power assist function that detects various road conditions and automatically adjusts power assistance and regenerative charging. The hybrid system, generating electricity to the battery during braking and downhill riding, allows an increase of riding distance of up to 1.8 times compared with Sanyo’s non-regenerative bike. The system also decreases the number of times the battery needs to be charged with a dedicated charger. |
| Reference(s): (Sanyo, December 1, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.sanyo.com/news/2008/12/01-1en.html |
| 386 2009-03-20 US Insurance Companies Now Required to Disclose Their Climate Change Risks. |
| The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has just adopted a mandatory requirement that insurance companies disclose to regulators the financial risks they face from climate change. The companies must also disclose actions they are taking to respond to those risks. Companies must disclose how they are altering their risk-management and catastrophe-risk modeling in light of climate change as well as steps being taken to engage and educate policymakers and policyholders on the risks of climate change. Companies must also report as to whether and how they are changing their investment strategies in the face of new understandings of climate risk. |
| Reference(s): (NAIC, March 18, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.naic.org/Releases/2009_docs/climate_change_risk_disclosure_adopted.htm |
| 386 2009-03-20 Kusa Seed Society Works to Conserve and Regenerate Edible Seed Grains. |
| The Kusa Seed Society is working to conserve and regenerate rare and edible seed grains around the world. It’s aim is to increase humanity’s knowledge and understanding of its own historic relationship to edible seed crops, cereal grains, grain-legumes oil seeds and other precious edible seeds. Cereal grains are humanity’s most important renewable human food resource and have been called “culture elements” as pillars of civilization. “Kusa” is a word from the ancient Sanskrit language that came to be used in India as a name for a storied, ceremonial grass, a “sacred grass” known as kusa grass. The Society’s adoption of the word is intended as a gesture of botanical respect focused on the grain-producing cereal grasses of the earth. |
| Reference(s): (Kusa Seed Society, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.ancientcerealgrains.org/ |
| 386 2009-03-20 “Bike Box” Helps Tucson Cyclists and Motorists Stay Safe. |
| The City of Tucson has joined Portland, Oregon and several European cities in deploying a new feature for bicyclists and motorists aimed at keeping bike riders safer on shared roads. At one Tucson intersection there is now a rectangular green thermoplastic coating on the pavement to distinguish bike space from car space. The concept is to show, with the green color, where bicyclists should stop as they wait for the traffic signal to change. Drivers are supposed to stop behind the green “bike box.” The extra space for cyclists is to help prevent competition for position when the road narrows at the intersection and keep bike riders safer. |
| Reference(s): (The Arizona Daily Star, March 9, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/283432 |
| 385 2009-03-13 Ecotality and Nissan Partner to Advance EV Infrastructure in Arizona. |
| Ecotality, a leading electric vehicle infrastructure company, is now partnering with Nissan North America to help establish an electric vehicle charge infrastructure throughout Pima County, Arizona. The initiative is in conjunction with the anticipated 2010 launch of Nissan’s zero-emission electric vehicle. While the implementation of public charge infrastructure is planned to support the launch of Nissan’s vehicle, stations in the Tucson region will meet all electric vehicle charge system standards so as to be universally compatible with new grid-connected vehicles of other major automakers. |
| Reference(s): (Ecotality/Pima Association of Governments/Nissan, March 6, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.pagnet.org/documents/pressreleases/PR-2009-03-06-ElectricVehiclesinPimaCounty.pdf |
| 385 2009-03-13 66-City Study Shows Households in Urban Areas Have Lower CO2 Footprints. |
| Matthew Kahn, an economics professor at UCLA, and Dr. Edward Glaeser, a Harvard professor, have completed a study of 66 major metropolitan areas in the United States and found that carbon emissions are significantly lower for people living in central cities than in suburbs. In only four cases in the 66-city sample were carbon emissions higher in central cities than in suburbs. In Los Angeles, central city residents are using far more electricity than their suburban counterparts, possibly because newer, energy-efficient homes tend to be in the suburbs. But the study done by Drs. Glaeser and Kahn suggests a strong general pattern that households in dense urban areas have significantly lower carbon emissions than households in the suburbs. |
| Reference(s): (DC Examiner, February 11, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/Help-the-environment-stay-in-the-city-39422222.html |
| 385 2009-03-13 Continental-Scale Research Platform Studies Nation’s Ecological Challenges. |
| Described as the ecologists’ “Hubble Telescope,” the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) has been established by the National Science Foundation. Its aim is no less than to serve as a research platform to study and recommend best practice solutions to ecological challenges on a continental scale. Ecologists will use a distributed network of sensors linked by advanced cyberinfrastructure to predict responses of the biosphere to changes in land use, invasive species and climate. Each candidate site located in a wild land area represents the vegetation, soils, landforms, climate, and ecosystems performance of its given domain (i.e. Mid-Atlantic). Planning for NEON has taken over a decade. |
| Reference(s): (NEON, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.neoninc.org/about/overview |
| 384 2009-02-27 “Bio-Sprinkler” Effect Has Plants Watering Plants. |
| Nagoya University professor Katsuya Yano has discovered a “bio-sprinkler” effect while doing plant research in Japan. His work confirmed there is a hydraulic lifting phenomenon by which some deep-rooted plants take in water from lower soil layers during daylight hours and then drip water on the upper, drier layers at night when transpiration has stopped. An underground drip-like irrigation system designed around this principle would enable low-cost, high efficiency irrigation that avoids the high water loss of conventional irrigation as well as avoids the soil salinity accumulation that accompanies such practices. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, February 20, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/028750.html |
| 384 2009-02-27 “Great British Refurb” Targets Green Makeover for Every Home by 2030. |
| UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Miliband has announced government plans to increase the energy efficiency of every home in the country by 2030. Intermediate targets are to have 400,000 homes a year insulated by 2015 and to have 7 million homes insulated by 2020. Under the program, cavity wall and loft insulation will be available for all suitable homes. A Renewable Heating Incentive would tax utility companies and then use the money to build up smaller-scale energy networks. Financial incentives will also be available for low-carbon technologies such as solar panels and ground-source heat pumps, paid for by a levy on utilities. |
| Reference(s): (The Guardian, February 12, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/12/carbon-emissions-miliband/print |
| 384 2009-02-27 New Scorecard for Sustainability Ranking of Transport Projects. |
| The New York State Department of Transportation is now implementing Green Leadership In Transportation and Environmental Sustainability (GreenLITES), a self-certification rating program that distinguishes transportation projects based on the extent to which they incorporate sustainable design choices. This is primarily an internal management program for NYSDOT to measure performance, recognize good practices, and improve where needed. NYSDOT project designs will be evaluated for sustainable practices, and an appropriate certification level, based on the total credits received, will be assigned to each project. Approximately 150 discrete design elements are contained in the rating system. |
| Reference(s): (NYDOT, 2009 Link(s)*: https://www.nysdot.gov/programs/greenlites |
| 383 2009-02-20 Japanese Town of 8,000 Generates 161% of Energy Needs From Renewables. |
| The Japanese town of Kuzumaki, population 8,000, has over the past decade transformed itself into a model of energy self-sufficiency no longer dependent on oil. With 21 MW of wind turbines on nearby hills, photovoltaic panels on school roofs, dairy cows producing biomass waste for energy conversion, and wood pellets for heating stoves, the town now generates 161% of its annual electricity demand. The town sells the surplus to neighboring communities via the grid. |
| Reference(s): (Time Magazine, December 22, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1860920,00.html |
| 383 2009-02-20 Columbus Ohio to Demolish its City Center Mall in Favor of Mixed-Use Project. |
| Nearly 20 years after City Center opened as the shining star of central Ohio's retail universe, the obsolete and nearly abandoned mall will be demolished. It is to be replaced by an urban park and, within several years, a collection of buildings that will contain homes, offices, restaurants and shops. Since 2007, the number of tenants at City Center has dropped steadily. Today, it includes three fast-food restaurants, two dance studios that are open irregular hours and a luggage store that promotes a going-out-of-business sale. "Having watched the transformation of City Center from opening to its demise, I think it's an opportunity to redevelop the site as more than single-purpose or for a single generation," said Keith Myers, principal at MSI, a design firm working on revitalizing the downtown area now blighted by the obsolete mall. |
| Reference(s): (The Columbus Dispatch, February 4, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/02/04/copy/citycenter_plan.ART_ART_02-04-09_A1_MKCPKVM.html |
| 383 2009-02-20 Mitsubishi Achieves 99+% Recovery Rate for Plastics From Recycled Appliances. |
| Mitsubishi has developed a large-scale recycling and reprocessing system for high-purity plastics, recovering three major types of plastic from crushed plastic mixtures produced during the recycling of used home appliances. The raw materials are then used to remanufacture new products. Using specific gravity and electrostatic separation technologies the company recovers polypropylene, polystyrene and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene at 99+% recovery rates. It is the first time in Japan for a company to recover and reuse these three types of plastic at a purity of 99% or higher. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, December 31, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/028623.html |
| 382 2009-02-13 British Hospitals Take Meat Off Menus in National Carbon Reduction Strategy. |
| Meat-free menus are being promoted in hospitals as part of a strategy to cut global warming emissions across the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). In 2004 the NHS had over 18 million tons of CO2 emissions, 3% of all emissions in England. A sizeable amount of the NHS emissions were attributable to food. Last year the NHS served 129 million meals. Officials say that by offering fewer meat and dairy products the service would cut the high carbon emissions from rearing animals and poultry, as well as improving patient health. “We should not expect to see meat on every menu,” according to NHS’s Dr. David Pencheon. Elsewhere, the German federal environment agency went further, advising people to eat meat only on special occasions. |
| Reference(s): (The Guardian, January 26, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jan/26/hospitals-nhs-meat-carbon |
| 382 2009-02-13 Yannell Zero Net Energy Home Nears Completion in Chicago. |
| The Yannell Zero-Net Energy Residence in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago is moving toward completion. Energy-saving technology installed in the first functional zero net energy home in the city is already boasting its benefits. When temperatures reached -5° F outside on January 15, the indoor temperature of the Yannell residence remained a comfortable 67° F, thanks to the operation of only the geothermal heat pump. The geothermal system is only part of an integrated design package that includes solar thermal backup, and is powered by photovoltaic panels. When the home is fully commissioned and all renewable systems are operating simultaneously, the Yannell home may even surpass its conservative design accommodations and use less power than originally calculated. The Yannell project is being done under the LEED for Homes pilot program. |
| Reference(s): (Green Home Chicago, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.greenhomechicago.us/Site/Welcome.html |
| 382 2009-02-13 Novacem’s Cement Formula Absorbs Carbon Dioxide as it Hardens. |
| London-based cement company Novacem has developed an environmentally friendly formulation of cement that could change it from being a significant emitter to a significant absorber of carbon dioxide. The new cement is based on magnesium silicate that requires much less heating than traditional limestone. Conventional cement leaves an overall carbon footprint of 0.4 tons per ton of cement. The Novacem product emits no carbon during heating while absorbing large amounts of CO2 as it hardens, making it carbon negative overall (0.6 tons of CO2 absorbed per ton of cement manufactured). Novacem has already attracted the attention of major construction companies such as Rio Tinto Minerals and WSP Group along with investors including the Carbon Trust. |
| Reference(s): (The Guardian, December 31, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/31/cement-carbon-emissions |
| 381 2009-01-30 Utilities Score Success in Residential Energy Efficiency Competitions. |
| Utilities in ten major metropolitan areas have adopted a program begun in Sacramento that challenges residential electricity customers to achieve higher levels of efficiency. They do so by comparing a customer’s energy use to that of other customers in similar sized houses as well as to those who are especially efficient in saving energy. The utilities then award one or more Smiley faces on utility bills based on the relative degree of energy efficiency in a house compared to the others in the program. Energy use was cut by 2% almost right away by those who participated in the program compared to those who received standard billing notices. |
| Reference(s): (New York Times, January 31, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/science/earth/31compete.html?_r=1&ref=earth&pagewanted=print |
| 381 2009-01-30 New England Dairy Industry to be Growth-Hormone-Free by Late Summer. |
| Facing the threat of losing markets for its highly successful Cabot brand of cheeses, cooperative owner Agri-Mark will soon no longer accept milk from rbST-treated (artificial growth hormone) cows. “Cabot sales were at risk,” according to Bog Wellington, senior vice-president of Agri-Mark. The cooperative’s board of directors has set August 1,2009 as the cutoff for any rbST milk coming into its system, a decision which is essentially the deadline for both its member farms and all the rest of New England and eastern New York farms shipping into the New England market. |
| Reference(s): (Organic Consumers Association, January 23, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_16596.cfm |
| 381 2009-01-30 Sustainability Audit Assists Denver in Developing Form-Based Zoning Code. |
| Farr Associates has completed a sustainability audit on existing codes in the City of Denver and has proposed codes to preserve sustainable practices and take those practices several steps further. The proposed form-based code will preserve the density and diversity of Denver neighborhoods. It also addresses the next tier of sustainability topics such as increasing the solar-readiness of Denver’s existing housing stock and permitting urban farming and livestock within the city limits. The new Denver code will accommode emerging green technologies and new urbanist concepts. |
| Reference(s): (Farr Associates Newsletter, January 21, 2009 [to subscribe – sustainableurbanism@farrside.com] Link(s)*: |
| 380 2009-01-23 Sustainability Strategy Makes Top Ten Change Ideas Sent to U.S. President. |
| On January 16th, Change.org announced the 10 top-rated Change ideas at the National Press Club after a two month-long competition that yielded 656,991 votes for 7,847 ideas. Among the ten winning ideas was “Develop and Implement a National Strategy for Sustainability.” Next steps include the announcement of plans for developing national advocacy campaigns behind each idea with the support of leading nonprofit groups. Plans include a blogging platform for each winning idea, a coordinated campaign to lobby Congress, and a stream of video from the front-lines of each campaign. The Top Ten Ideas for Change were formally accepted by Macon Phillips, who oversees WhiteHouse.gov (previously Change.gov) for the Obama administration. |
| Reference(s): (Change.org, January 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.change.org/ideas |
| 380 2009-01-23 “Permablitz” Movement Transforms Australian Yards Into Food Gardens. |
| Asha Bee, student at La Trobe University in Melbourne, has coined the term “permablitz”, a contraction of permaculture backyard blitz. (Backyard Blitz is the name of popular gardening and lifestyle show in Australia involving rapid backyard makeovers). The permablitz now spreading throughout Australia is thus basically a permaculture-inspired backyard makeover where people come together to share knowledge and skills about organic food production in urban gardens while building community and having fun. Homeowners are eligible to have a permablitz on their yards after participating as a volunteer in at least three other permablitzes. |
| Reference(s): (Permablitz.net, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.permablitz.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17 |
| 380 2009-01-23 Ancient Scandinavian Model Could Help Modern Mortgage Markets. |
| Banks in Denmark have continued to sell bonds and issue mortgages at a pace similar to that before the international credit crisis began due to an ancient Scandinavian lending model. Under this approach, when a Danish mortgage company grants a mortgage it is obliged to sell an equivalent bond with a maturity and cash flow that matches that of the underlying loan. The issuers of the mortgage bonds remain responsible for making payments on them. The mortgage holders can also buy the bonds in the market and use them to redeem their mortgages. Redeeming their bonds allows homeowners to reduce the amount they owe when house prices fall or interest rates rise. |
| Reference(s): (The Economist, January 3, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12855447 |
| 379 2009-01-16 Giant Plasma TVs Face Ban as Part of UK Climate Action Strategy. |
| High energy consuming flat screen plasma televisions will soon be banned as part of Britain’s battle against climate change, according to the UK government. Minimum energy performance standards for televisions are expected to be agreed across Europe this spring and will lead to the phasing out of the most inefficient televisions. Those not banned will have to be labeled with energy ratings that will make it easier for consumers to identify the most and least energy efficient televisions available. Giant plasma televisions – dubbed “the 4x4 of the living room” – can consume four times as much energy as traditional televisions that use cathode ray tubes. |
| Reference(s): (The Independent, January 11, 2009 Link(s)*: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/giant-plasma-tvs-face-ban-in-battle-to-green-britain-1299665.html |
| 379 2009-01-16 New Guide Helps California Businesses Succeed in a Low Carbon Economy. |
| The Climate Group and Arup, a global engineering and design firm, have collaborated on the production of “The Business Guide to the Low Carbon Economy” for California. It provides businesses with an introduction to California’s emerging greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction policies and a practical description of steps businesses can take to limit their greenhouse gas emissions. The document is designed to help businesses set priorities as they determine the optimal mix of abatement, efficiency and offsetting. The guide includes case studies and information resources that are intended to help firms learn how they can “step down the carbon ladder” from current or baseline levels to a reduced or potentially net-zero GHG emissions level. |
| Reference(s): (ARUP, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.sfgov.org/site/mayor_index.asp?id=93399 |
| 379 2009-01-16 Upside-Down Demolition Allows 92% Recovery of a Building’s Materials. |
| The Kajima Corporation, a Tokyo-based construction, architecture and engineering firm has come up with an inventive approach to building demolition that aids in the recovery of the building materials being deconstructed. The firm recently tore down two of its office buildings from the bottom up, one floor at a time. The support pillars of the lowermost floor were replaced with a series of jacks until the entire weight of the building rests on them. Workers then dismantle the interior walls and cart the materials away for recycling. The building is then lowered to the ground, one story shorter than before. The process is repeated until the entire structure is demolished. Kajima says that because the materials were easier to sort and salvage, it was able to reclaim 92% of the materials from the interior of its offices. |
| Reference(s): (The New York Times, December 14, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/magazine/14Ideas-section4B-t-002.html |
| 378 2009-01-09 Ecuador and Other Countries Begin Extending Rights to Nature. |
| In late 2008, Ecuador became the first country to extend constitutional rights to nature. The country’s Constitution now grants nature “the right to the maintenance and regeneration of its vital cycles, structure, functions, and evolutionary processes. ” The Pennsylvania-based Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund helped draft the new protections in the Ecuadorean Constitution. Ecuador is not alone in elevating the sanctity of nature as Spain has granted the great apes the right to be spared “abuse, torture and death” while an ethics panel in Switzerland called for protecting plants’ “reproductive ability. This requires Swiss researchers to apply for approval before conducting scientific research on even the smallest of flora. |
| Reference(s): (The New York Times, December 14, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/12/14/magazine/2008_IDEAS.html?scp=1&sq=ideas%202008&st=cse#p-ideas-2 |
| 378 2009-01-09 World Financiers Create “Climate Principles” as a Framework for the Sector. |
| “The Climate Principles” have become the first voluntary global framework to guide best practices across the financial services sector in managing the major risks and opportunities of climate change. While forward-looking and aspirational, the Principles require adopting institutions to have already achieved or be moving towards fulfilling key commitments. The Climate Group will act as the Secretariat for the Climate Principles and will review, benchmark and develop The Climate Principles to ensure they remain effective in accelerating and advancing robust disclosure and global best practices. |
| Reference(s): (The Climate Group, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.theclimategroup.org/about/corporate_leadership/climate_principles |
| 378 2009-01-09 Digital Initiative Extends Sustainable Farming Techniques to Indian Farmers. |
| “Digital Green” is a project of Microsoft Research India working to speed sustainable farming techniques to large numbers of small and marginal farmers in India via modern information technology. The Digital Green system includes a digital video database produced by farmers, and sequenced to allow farmers to progressively move from basic composting methods to more advanced concepts and practices. Farmers become motivated and trained by the recorded experiences of local peers and extension staff. The Digital Green initiative began as a Microsoft Research India research project but aims to leave the fold and become an independent no-profit organization within the next few months. |
| Reference(s): (Science, December 5, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.digitalgreen.org/ |
| 377 2009-01-02 Local Governments Join in Developing Playbook for Green Neighborhoods. |
| A consortium of more than 20 local governments, non-profits, government agencies and utilities have produced the first phase of the Playbook for Green Buildings and Neighborhoods. The Playbook is a web-based resource that provides tips and tools that cities and counties can use to take immediate action on climate change. It can be used by cities taking their very first steps in this area or those looking to take their programs to a higher level. |
| Reference(s): (GreenPlayBook.org, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.greenplaybook.org/strategic/index.htm |
| 377 2009-01-02 E4S Network in Ohio Includes Over 5,000 ‘Entrepreneurs for Sustainability.” |
| E4S is a diverse network of over 5,500 sustainability entrepreneurs in northeast Ohio who are providing support services to like-minded business leaders via both network connections and learning programs. The E4S network has an annual “Champions of Sustainability” program and recently issued a report identifying the top ten characteristics of a sustainable office. Its website hosts a Sustainable B2B Directory for anyone to use. |
| Reference(s): (Entrepreneurs for Sustainability, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.e4s.org/content/index.asp |
| 377 2009-01-02 China Begins Sales of First Commercially Available Plug-in Hybrid Cars. |
| The Chinese firm BYD (Build Your Dream) has introduced a commercially available plug-in hybrid that can travel for 60 miles without using its gasoline engine. BYD isn’t an automaker by pedigree, rather its history is as a rechargeable battery manufacturer. Its plug-in hybrid, the F3DM, retails for $22,000 but to date is only available in China. The F3DM’s electric batteries can be recharged without any special infrastructure. |
| Reference(s): (SFGate.com, December 15, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/12/15/financial/f002254S01.DTL |
| 377 2009-01-02 “Service From Google” Plots Trips Using Only Mass Transit Options. |
| A new internet offering, “Services From Google, Inc.” lets users plug in where they are and where they want to go and the service gives back transit options for the journey, including walking distance to bus and rail stations. The transit planner is one of the most extensive available, covering nearly 100 US cities and regions, plus a handful of international destinations in Taiwan, Canada, Italy and elsewhere. “Services From Google” works well with its existing maps for driving directions, allowing comparison of all options (including walking) with one search. |
| Reference(s): (The Denver Post, December 30, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.denverpost.com/technology/ci_11337024 |
| 376 2008-12-26 National Association of Counties Joins Effort to Preserve Urban Forests. |
| A new three-year program between the National Association of Counties (NACo) and the National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council is aimed at improving counties’ abilities to implement “green” infrastructure plans, programs, codes, and ordinances. NACo will assess County needs, create workshops for county officials and staff and write a new issue brief to all counties on these practices. The information will help Counties improve water quality, abate flooding, lower the heat island effect and sequester carbon dioxide. |
| Reference(s): (NACo, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.naco.org/Template.cfm?Section=Environment,_Energy_and_Land_Use&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=29138 |
| 376 2008-12-26 “Facing the Future” Offers Free Grades 6-8 Climate Change Curriculum Unit. |
| An educator empowerment group, Facing the Future, is providing one of its many curriculum units on climate change free for download. The “Climate Change: Connections and Solutions” two-week curriculum unit for Grades 6-8 encourages students to think critically about climate change and to collaborate in devising solutions. The free unit includes hands-on activities, student readings, homework assignments, reproducible handouts and assessments for gauging progress. |
| Reference(s): (Facing the Future, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.facingthefuture.org/Home/CurriculumDetails/tabid/131/Default.aspx?ItemID=CCMS |
| 376 2008-12-26 Avego Application for iPhones Connects Pools of Drivers and Riders. |
| Irish company Avego is demonstrating an iPhone application intended to let drivers and prospective passengers connect and share rides. When downloaded to an iPhone, the program records a driver’s preferred route, uploads it to the Avego network, which then stores it for access by prospective users. Users pay a per mile fee that is shared between drivers and the company. All payments are made by automated online accounting. |
| Reference(s): (The New York Times, December 21, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.dailyadvance.com/business/need-a-ride-check-your-iphone-314359.html |
| 376 2008-12-26 DOE Awards $80B for Efficiency, Renewables and Water Conservation Projects. |
| The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $80B in sixteen contracts for Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) at federally owned buildings and facilities. The federal government is the largest single user of energy in the United States. Each of the sixteen contracts provides for a maximum of $5B over the life of the contract, eliminates technology restrictions, and includes a greater emphasis on renewable energy and water conservation in federal buildings nationally and internationally. |
| Reference(s): (U.S. Department of Energy, December 18, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.energy.gov/energyefficiency/6804.htm |
| 375 2008-12-19 “Slow Money” Promotes Investment in Local Food Systems. |
| A newly formed non-profit, Slow Money is designing strategies for investing in local food systems and promoting new definitions of fiduciary responsibility around principles of carrying capacity, cultural and biological diversity, non-violence, and care of the commons. Slow Money’s mission includes the incubation of next-generation socially responsible investment strategies as well as helping increase foundation grant making and mission-related investing in support of sustainable and local economies. Slow Money is building the Slow Money Alliance, convening Slow Money Institutes, publishing books, and incubating new funding intermediaries. |
| Reference(s): (Slow Money Alliance, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.slowmoneyalliance.org/ |
| 375 2008-12-19 European Union Outlaws Incandescent Bulbs by 2012. |
| On December 8, 2008, the European Union banned the sale of incandescent light bulbs effective in 2012. The bulbs will be phased out in several steps over the three-year period, beginning later next year. The move follows earlier decisions in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, while the infrastructure program unveiled in the US by president-elect Obama includes a similar scope. The CEO of Siemen’s lighting affiliate Osram, one of two global market leaders in lighting products, noted that “The decision from the European Union will accelerate growth in our green product line.” |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, December 9, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5def0566-c593-11dd-b516-000077b07658.html |
| 375 2008-12-19 Japanese Retailer Offers High-Speed EV Charging Stations for Customers. |
| Aeon, a major Japanese retailer, has opened a new style of eco-shopping center in Koshigaya City, Saitama Prefecture. The store has systematically incorporated the latest environmentally-friendly technologies and systems including a high-speed charging station for electric vehicles (EV) and eleven chargers for electric motorbikes. The installation of such an automotive charging station is the first of a kind in a domestic commercial facility in preparation for the upcoming roll-out of electric cars in 2009. Mitsubishi and Fuji have EVs currently in fleet testing with electric power companies. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, December 5, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/028548.html |
| 374 2008-12-12 Financial Times and HP Roll Out a Climate Change Challenge. |
| Backed by Hewlett-Packard, The Financial Times has created the “FT Climate Change Challenge.” The Challenge seeks out the most exciting innovations to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Ideas must have the potential to be scaled up to a significant size and have a material impact on reducing GHG emissions. Entrants must also specify how they would use the $75,000 prize that goes to the winner. Innovations which have been developed by large companies or which already have financial backing will not be considered. |
| Reference(s): (Forum for the Future, November 12, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.forumforthefuture.org/FT-climate-challenge |
| 374 2008-12-12 EU Parliament Creates Bee “Recovery Zones” Across Europe. |
| The EU parliament has approved bee “recovery zones” across Europe, providing bees places to buzz that teem with a diversity of plants rich in nectar and pollen as well as being free of pesticides. The zones will be grassy lands left uncultivated and unfertilized where flowers can grow freely to the benefit of insects that feed on them. The goal is for EU member States to create enough recovery zones within their borders to transform at least one percent of the continent’s cultivated areas into havens for bees. |
| Reference(s): (The Christian Science Monitor, December 2, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1202/p04s01-wogn.html |
| 374 2008-12-12 Portland Company Rents Out Then Plants Living Christmas Trees. |
| The Original Living Christmas Tree Company in Portland Oregon is making it easy to enjoy a live Christmas tree in a house or office building without first cutting it down. The company delivers full-sized potted evergreen trees on a rental basis, returning after New Years Day to collect the trees and plant them in schoolyards and parks. Recipients pay a nominal fee for each tree planted. “We’re set to do over 400 trees this year,” says founder John Fogel. |
| Reference(s): (The Original Living Christmas Tree Company, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.livingchristmastrees.org/ |
| 374 2008-12-12 “OpenEco” Site Offers Global Carbon Accounting Tools. |
| Sun Microsystems is sponsoring OpenEco, a free online community designed to help participants calculate and track their greenhouse gasses, primarily from building energy use. OpenEco is unique in that it aims to build a community around shared information, experiences, and best practices for carbon footprint reductions. The free community incorporates standard, approved carbon accounting practices. Participants can compare building energy and GHG emissions performance with other participating organizations. |
| Reference(s): (OpenEco, 2008 Link(s)*: https://www.openeco.org/ |
| 373 2008-12-05 “Ask Nature” Web Portal Launch Offers Digital Library of Nature’s Functions. |
| The Biomimicry Institute has officially launched the “AskNature” web portal as the world’s first digital library of Nature’s solutions, organized by function, which can serve as a design and educational tool as well as a collaboration forum among biologists, engineers, designers and other innovators. The website currently features a starter culture of ideas – biological blueprints and strategies, bio-inspired products, and design sketches. Its “Biomimicry Taxonomy” presents dozens of ways in which nature collects and stores energy, builds, disassembles, cushions, makes light, maintains physical integrity, processes information, and much more. |
| Reference(s): (Biomimicry Institute, November 26, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.asknature.org/ |
| 373 2008-12-05 Bay Area Mayors Announce 9-Step Strategic Electric Vehicle Initiative. |
| The mayors of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose have announced a nine-step plan to jump-start the use of electric vehicles in the Bay Area. In conjunction with the news, Better Place, a global electric transportation company, announced it would enter the US market with California as its first state. The nine-step program includes: expedited permitting and installation of electric vehicle (EV) charging and battery exchange stations, incentives to employers to install EV charging systems, harmonization of local regulations and standards that govern EV infrastructure, common government programs that promote the purchase of EVs, securing suitable 110V outlets for charging EVs at every government building, and placement of 220V EV charging equipment throughout each city. |
| Reference(s): (City of San Francisco, November 20, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.sfgov.org/site/mayor_index.asp?id=93399 |
| 373 2008-12-05 Colorado Farm’s End-of-Season Open Harvest Draws 40,000 People. |
| Joe and Chris Miller of Platteville, Colorado decided to open their 600 acre farm 37 miles north of Denver for a weekend so that people interested in gleaning the last of their harvest could help themselves to free produce. Expecting perhaps 5,000-10,000 people, the Millers had 40,000 people arrive on a recent Saturday. An estimated 11,000 vehicles snaked over two miles around the fields while their owners hauled off more than 300 tons of potatoes, onions, beets and carrots. The free harvest, intended as a “thank you” to the community was scheduled for two days but ended up being cancelled on Sunday after the crowds picked the fields bare in just one day. |
| Reference(s): (The Colorado Independent, November 25, 2008 Link(s)*: http://coloradoindependent.com/16031/40000-clog-backroads-to-harvest-free-vegetables-at-colorado-family-farm |
| 372 2008-11-28 Court Finds Group Damaging Coal Plant Not Guilty – Cites “Lawful Excuse.” |
| After a ten-day trial, a UK court acquitted several Greenpeace defendants charged with causing $60,000 damage to a coal-fired power station. The court agreed with defense lawyers that the group has a “lawful excuse” under British law in that the damages caused by the coal plant were far greater than the damage caused by the groups’ painting of a slogan on the plant smokestack. The decision represented the first time a UK court has ruled that the damage from even one day’s emissions of greenhouse gases is so severe that protests are legally justified in causing damage to coal-fired plants in order to close them down. |
| Reference(s): (Climaticide Chronicles, September 11, 2008 Link(s)*: http://climaticidechronicles.org/2008/09/11/uk-court-rules-activists-may-damage-coal-fired-power-plants/ |
| 372 2008-11-28 Montana State University Scientist Finds Diesel-Producing Mushroom. |
| Professor Gary Strobel, a researcher at Montana State University, discovered a fungus in a South American plant that contains the essence of diesel that is available without having to process it at all. Strobel discusses his findings in an article published in the November issue of The Journal of Microbiology. The reddish fungus, Gliocladium roseum, produces an array of volatile hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives, including eight compounds that are the most abundant ingredients in diesel fuel. Strobel believes that if the fungus was used to make “myco-diesel” directly from cellulose it could skip a step in the normal biofuels production process and even be grown in factories like baker’s yeast and its gases stripped off to be liquefied into carbon-neutral fuel. |
| Reference(s): (The Herald Sun, November 4, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24603288-5005961,00.html |
| 372 2008-11-28 UK Forces All Major National Planning Decisions to Address Climate Mitigation. |
| The British government will now require that all national planning strategies make it clear how they will mitigate climate change. This replaces the practice of reaching strategic infrastructure decisions on a case-by-case basis and is expected to push through more large, nationally significant renewable energy projects. UK Minister John Healey noted that the planning bill “is the key to unlocking the modern green economy and subsequent new jobs and that is why business backs it. We simply can’t create a modern and greener economy using a post-war planning system.” |
| Reference(s): (BusinessGreen.com, November 5, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2229836/national- |
| 371 2008-11-21 “Gobbling Goats” Help Restore Acres of Invasive Plants in the Skagit Valley. |
| The Nature Conservancy is using a herd of 30 goats – mothers and kids – to gobble their way through five acres of blackberries, bramble and thorns to help restore the lower Skagit River landscape. The goats’ mouths are particularly hard and not bothered by prickly thorns. Their four-chambered stomachs digest seeds well enough to prevent future growth of the invasives. The herd is protected from coyotes by one guard llama named Fiber Festival. The goats are gaining in popularity in weed control efforts as they don’t require gasoline, are chemical-free and leave minimal product behind. |
| Reference(s): (The Nature Conservancy, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/washington/misc/art26013.html |
| 371 2008-11-21 OSU Engineers Reduce Energy Costs for Hydrogen from Bio-Waste by 75%. |
| Researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) have developed a new process that uses several types of bio-waste, including municipal sewage, to produce hydrogen at much lower cost and with 75% less energy than traditional electrolysis technology. While producing significant amounts of hydrogen from sewage, it also cleans the water. The OSU technology is a “membrane free” approach that is significantly more efficient than existing approaches. |
| Reference(s): (Oregon State University, October 8, 2008 Link(s)*: http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/newsarch/2008/Oct08/sewage.html |
| 371 2008-11-21 EPA Board Freezes Construction of New Coal-Fired Plants in the U.S. |
| The USEPA’s Environmental Review Board decided last week that the Administration had failed to offer a good reason for not regulating carbon dioxide from the proposed Bonanza coal-fired plant in Utah. The Board remanded the permit to the Denver Regional office for reconsideration of whether best control technology for CO2 should be required. Utility lawyer Jason Hutt told reporters that “All permits in the pipeline are now stymied.” |
| Reference(s): (Gristmill, November 14, 2008 Link(s)*: http://gristmill.grist.org/print/2008/11/13/165551/28?show_comments=no |
| 371 2008-11-21 Sunflower Project Seeks Zero Carbon Communities in Eight EU Countries. |
| The Sunflower Project is an effort of the European Union’s “Intelligent Energy-Europe” Program aimed at converting communities in eight EU countries into areas free of carbon dioxide emissions. The eight countries will receive EU funding that is intended to leverage additional investment for renewable energy initiatives in each community. Sunflower is being implemented in localities that are socially disadvantaged and impoverished and where economic activity alone is insufficient to drive technological investment. |
| Reference(s): (Inter Press Service News Agency, November 3, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44558 |
| 370 2008-11-14 Sterling Planet Becomes First to Pioneer “White Tags” for Energy Efficiency. |
| Sterling Planet was the first company to offer Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) and has now pioneered the issuance of “White Tags” or Energy Efficiency Certificates. White Tags become the latest energy trading certificates to be marketed and they are defined through energy savings calculations. Sterling Planet has built calculations to establish accurate (greater than 99.9%), scalable, and cost-effective processes for the measurement, verification, and certification of White Tags. To date, three states – Connecticut, Nevada, and Pennsylvania – have adopted legislation requiring energy efficiency credits as part of a mandated portfolio standard. Energy Efficiency Certificates are better known in Europe where the market originated in the UK, Italy and France. |
| Reference(s): (Sterling Planet, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.sterlingplanet.com/upload/File/Sterling%20Planet%20White%20Tags%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf |
| 370 2008-11-14 World Bank and Scandinavian Investors Introduce World Bank “Green Bonds.” |
| The World Bank, using its triple-A rated status, has issued its first “Green Bonds” as part of an initiative it hopes will result in billions of dollars of new investment in low-carbon technology for developing countries. The Bank has partnered with Swedish Bank SEB for an initial issue of $350 million, denominated in Swedish kroner. SEB is offering the bonds to investors throughout its distribution network. All proceeds to the World Bank will be used to finance carbon-cutting projects such as wind farms and solar parks in developing countries. The bonds responded to a demand from a group of Scandinavian investors. |
| Reference(s): (The World Bank Group, November 6, 2008 Link(s)*: http://treasury.worldbank.org/Services/Capital+Markets/News+for+Investors/GreenBond.html |
| 370 2008-11-14 Heinz Center Issues Guide for Managing Climate Impacts on Ecosystems. |
| The Heinz Center has released a comprehensive guide “Strategies for Managing the Effects of Climate Change on Wildlife and Ecosystems.” The guide presents a review of the scientific literature on climate change adaptation as it relates to biodiversity conservation and wildlife management. The Guide presents eighteen general strategies in the areas of land protection and management, direct species management, monitoring and planning, and the legislative and regulatory arena. It also reviews a series of actual climate change adaptation plans that have been developed in the US, Canada, England, Mexico, and South Africa. |
| Reference(s): (H. John Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.heinzctr.org/publications/PDF/Strategies_for_managing_effects_of_climate_change_on_wildlife_Nov_4_2008.pdf |
| 369 2008-11-07 UK Asset Managers Team to Probe Climate Impacts on Companies and Investors. |
| Four institutional investment firms in the United Kingdom have launched a study into the physical consequences of climate change on companies and their investors. Asset management firms Henderson Global Investors, Insight Asset Management, Railpen Investments, and Universities Superannuation Scheme are collaborating on the project. Together they represent more than $390 billion in investments. Produced in association with consultancy Acclimatise, the project will initially address UK-listed companies in four sectors: electric utilities, oil and gas, real estate, and water utilities. An initial briefing study – “Managing the Unavoidable: Understanding the Investment Implications of Adapting to Climate Change” – was released earlier this year and serves as a framing document for the sector studies. |
| Reference(s): (Henderson Global Investors, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.usshq.co.uk/downloads/pdf/all_sections/ri/managing_the_unavoidable.pdf |
| 369 2008-11-07 Termite Mound Design Lets African High-Rise Go Without Air Conditioning. |
| The Eastgate Development in Harare, Zimbabwe has been modeled on the design of self-cooling termite mounds, allowing it to function comfortably without conventional air-conditioning or heating. The building draws fresh air in from the ground floor, pushes it with fans to the core and then allows the fresh air to replace hot stale air that rises and exits through exhaust ports on the ceilings of each floor. The building uses less than 10% of the energy of a conventional office tower in similar size, saving management $3.5 million annually on air conditioning costs. |
| Reference(s): (Arup. 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.arup.com/feature.cfm?pageid=292 |
| 369 2008-11-07 Steel Roof Laminated with Solar Cellules Wins Award for ArcelorMittal. |
| The “Arsolar” roof cladding developed by ArcelorMittal features a solar cell laminate over profiled sheets of roofing steel. The Arsolar roofing material can be used on a wide range of roofs, from small housing to large, commercial solar-electric stations. The roofing /energy material is fully equipped with cables and connectors, inverter, and metering. Roofing “modules” are available in sizes from 122-260 W per module. 45 square meters of Arsolar roofing prevents the discharge of 30 tons of carbon, according to the company. The Arsolar product was awarded the Golden Innovation Medal at the Batimat Construction Fair in Paris last year. |
| Reference(s): (ArcelorMittal, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.constructalia.com/en_EN/news/actualidad_detalle.jsp?idDoc=2255455&idCat=250663 |
| 368 2008-10-31 Coastal Trees Become a “Green Wall” Against Tidal Surges in Bangladesh. |
| Relief organizations in Bangladesh, in conjunction with the government’s Tree Plantation Movement, are assisting coastal villagers in a campaign to plant millions of trees to reduce the impact of storms and tidal surges. The relief group Caritas highlights the role of “green walls” in protecting vulnerable areas from natural calamities. Through this effort, Caritas has intensified work begun two decades ago under its “social forestry” program that encouraged people to plant trees on fallow land and high embankments and along roads. To get the “green wall” program underway, the group recently distributed a quarter-million tree saplings, mostly in Bandarban. |
| Reference(s): (UCANews.com, July 8, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.ucanews.com/2008/07/08/caritas-helps-build-green-wall-to-protect-people-from-natural-calamities/ |
| 368 2008-10-31 Italian Farm Aims to Be World’s First Zero-Carbon Farm, Without Offsets. |
| A farm in the central Italian region of Umbria is aiming to cut its CO2 emissions to zero over the course of the next year. The olive and grape-growing farm is keying its push with a revolutionary liquid-based battery developed by the Australian company Cellstrom. Twenty-four solar panels plus the battery center will allow the farm to operate a variety of electric vehicles over a long cloudy or foggy day period. Miniature tractors will use biodiesel not sourced from food chain products. Olive oil boilers will use wood chips from tree-thinning practices. By the end of 2009 the farm hopes to be the first in the world to reduce their inherent net carbon footprint to zero without using off-site offsetting projects. |
| Reference(s): (BBC, October 18, 2008 Link(s)*: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7669522.stm |
| 368 2008-10-31 Living Building Challenge Goes Beyond LEED, Features Prerequisites Not Points. |
| The Living Building Challenge (LBC), started by the Cascadia Region Green Building Council is asking builders to create the living building of the future. It intends the Challenge to generate truly transformative approaches to building design and construction. The two basic rules are simple: all elements of the LBC are mandatory – there is no point system, and earning LBC designation is based on actual (one year’s worth) rather than modeled or anticipated performance. Among LBC’s 14 prerequisites are: all energy must be generated from renewable sources on-site; projects may only be built on previously-developed sites; net-zero water; 13 substances banned from products or building materials; and all occupiable space must have operable windows open to daylight and fresh air. |
| Reference(s): (Cascadia Region Green Building Council, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.livingshelter.com/Lb-challenge-v1-2.pdf |
| 367 2008-10-24 Tucson Passes Nation’s First Rainwater Harvesting Law for Commercial Buildings. |
| The City of Tucson Arizona became the first in the country to require commercial developments to harvest rainwater for landscaping use. The rules, which take effect in mid-2010, require that 50% of a development’s landscaping water come from rainfall. Developers will be able to use berms and contoured slopes on a site, along with cisterns as necessary, to meet the 50% requirement. The Arizona Builders Alliance, the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association, and the Tucson Association of Realtors supported the ordinance, along with other business groups. The Tucson City Council passed the ordinance on a 6-0 vote. |
| Reference(s): (Arizona Daily Star, October 15, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/262484 |
| 367 2008-10-24 “Pedal to Properties” Movement Uses Bicycle-Power to Show Home Listings. |
| A handful of real estate agents around the country have begun promoting the bicycle-appeal of their listings. Some even show houses exclusively by bicycle, wheeling through the neighborhood with potential buyers to show off bike lanes and bike-focused business and repair shops. Portland’s Kirsten Kaufman is one agent eager to replace the image of hauling clients around in fancy sedans or SUVs, while Boulder’s Matt Kolb began Pedal to Properties after a potential client found his own home by riding around town on a bike. Pedal to Properties now has five agents and 48 cruiser bikes. It plans a nationwide expansion next year. |
| Reference(s): (The Denver Post, September 25, 2008 Link(s)*: http://m.denverpost.com/topic/378-Style/articles/167912801 |
| 367 2008-10-24 EPA Website Highlights Measures for Coastal Adaptation to Climate Change. |
| The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has unveiled its new “Climate Ready Estuaries” program aimed at readying estuarine regions of the country to face the impacts of climate change. The program has four principal areas of emphasis: 1) assess coastal climate change vulnerabilities, 2) develop and implement adaptation strategies, 3) engage and educate stakeholders, and 4) share lessons learned with other coastal managers. Six coastal adaptation pilot projects are underway in conjunction with the National Estuaries Program. The website provides basic information on the likely climate change impacts to coastal systems and why coastal resource managers should focus their climate change efforts on adaptation. The site’s coastal toolkit provides help on getting access to data needed to develop adaptation plans. |
| Reference(s): (USEPA, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.epa.gov/cre/ |
| 366 2008-10-17 All New Homes in Wales to be Carbon-Neutral by 2011. |
| The Welsh Assembly government plans to make all new houses carbon-neutral by 2011 according to its Environment Minister. Previously, the Government intended to devolve its housing regulations with hopes to be completely energy self-sufficient within the next twenty years. The new goal is ambitious, stated Jane Davidson, Environment Minister, but she said the country would be “ahead of the UK devolving building regulations and insisting buildings become zero-carbon from 2011.” |
| Reference(s): (Dash.com, June 2, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.24dash.com/news/Housing/2008-06-02-All-new-homes-in-Wales-to-be-carbon-neutral-by-2011 |
| 366 2008-10-17 MIOX Technology Purifies Water Without Dangerous Chemicals. |
| The MIOX Corporation has developed a patented technology that can purify water without dangerous chemicals while enabling significant cost and energy savings compared to traditional treatment methods. The MIOX technology uses a process referred to as on-site generation (OSG) – the use of salt, water and electricity to produce a powerful chlorine-based disinfectant, “mixed oxidants,” on demand. Mixed oxidant dosing levels are controlled, minimal and highly effective unlike the necessary dosing requirements for bleach. With salt as the only bulk-transported and stored material needed, MIOX on-site generation eliminates bleach and chlorine gas safety threats. The technology has been successfully scaled and implemented in sizes ranging from community applications to individual use. |
| Reference(s): (MIOX Corporation, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.miox.com/markets/item/developing_countries/ |
| 366 2008-10-17 EDF Study Finds European Chemical Clampdown to Affect U.S. Production. |
| The Environmental Defense fund (EDF) has a new study – “Across the Pond” – that identifies the extent to which U.S. chemical production could be affected by sweeping new chemical rules in Europe. Europe’s new chemicals regulation, ”Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals” (REACH), identified “substances of very high concern” with the goal of limiting their use. The EDF study found that the European list will have ripple effects on chemical production and use in the US and on companies that make and currently export substances now being restricted in use or banned in Europe. "This report serves as an early warning to companies making and using these dangerous chemicals that they will be at a competitive disadvantage unless they proactively seek to eliminate exposures and develop safer alternatives," according the EDF’s Dr. Richard Denison. |
| Reference(s): (Environmental Defense Fund, September 30, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.edf.org/article.cfm?contentID=8456 |
| 365 2008-09-19 Rohm Develops World’s First Power-Free Circuit Board. |
| Rohm, a Japanese semiconductor manufacturer has developed a new technology that incorporates a non-volatile logic circuit in a register, which is the memory area available in a large-scale integrated (LSI) circuit. The LSI technology has a non-volatile memory that can retain data even without the power turned on. Rohm’s technology uses a ferroelectric structure that allows a central processing unit of a game consol with non-volatile memory to reduce overall power consumption 70% as it needs no standby power during a game. The technology will have applications in home electronics that now use standby power to store data when turned off. Mass production of custom LSI products using the non-volatile technology begins within the year. |
| Reference(s): (Rohm, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.rohm.com/news/080508a.html |
| 365 2008-09-19 Winery’s “One Bottle One Tree” Campaign Plants One Tree Every 12 Seconds. |
| The Trinity Oaks Vineyard in St. Helena California has kicked off a “One Bottle One Tree” campaign: one tree planted for every bottle of wine it sells during the next year. Collaborating with Trees for the Future, a non-profit group that specializes in sustainable agroforestry, the Trinity Oaks Vineyards’ trees will help restore tree cover to tropical landscapes throughout Africa, Latin America and Asia. Since the program began on July 1st, a tree has been planted roughly every 12 seconds. A running tally can be found at the website below. |
| Reference(s): (Trinity Oaks Vineyard, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.onebottleonetree.com/ |
| 365 2008-09-19 Effects of Urban Heat Islands Quantified in Monetary Terms. |
| Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology has calculated by quantifying the environmental impact of heat island phenomena in Tokyo’s 23 wards with respect to five categories of impact: sleep disorder, heat stress, heat stroke, cold stress, and energy consumption by air conditioning. Using a technique called life-cycle impact assessment based on endpoint modeling (LIME), the estimated financial cost of the heat island phenomena was about $42 million in the year studied - 2002. Among the five categories considered, the most significant impact was caused by sleep disorder, followed by heat stress, and then heat stroke. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, September 10, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/2191-e |
| 364 2008-09-12 Texas Mandates Computer Manufacturer Take-Back at No Cost to Consumer. |
| Effective September 1st across the state of Texas, manufacturers of computer equipment are required to take back their own brands of desktops, laptops, monitors, keyboards and mouse devices at no cost to consumers at the time of recycling. Retailers, including those on the Internet, may only sell the computer brands for which the manufacturers have submitted recovery plans to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and verified that they have compliant collection programs. Said one Texas official, “We think everyone wins when electronic waste has to meet its maker.” |
| Reference(s): (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Summer 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/comm_exec/forms_pubs/pubs/pd/020/08-03/outdatedcomputers.html |
| 364 2008-09-12 World’s First Commercial Tidal Power System Feeds Irish Grid. |
| The world’s first commercial-scale tidal turbine located in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough has delivered electricity into the grid for the first time. The SeaGen turbine, developed by British tidal energy company Marine Current Turbines (MCT), briefly generated 150kW of power onto the grid as part of its commissioning work ahead of reaching full capacity in a few week’s time. Once fully operational it will generate 1.2 MW of power. Irish energy company ESB Independent Energy, is purchasing the power generated by SeaGen for its customers in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. MCT’s next project involves several SeaGen devices in a 105 MW project off of north Wales. |
| Reference(s): (Marine Current Turbines, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.marineturbines.com/3/news/article/10/world_s_first_commercial_scale_tidal_power_system_feeds_electricity_to_the_national_grid__/ |
| 364 2008-09-12 Rock Ethics Institute Web Site Offers Forum on Climate Change Ethics Issues. |
| ClimateEthics.org is a project of the Collaborative Program on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change at the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State University. The Institute is guided by its commitment to ethical literacy, which it defines as the ability to recognize ethical problems and to assess the complex issues that they raise; and the ability to evaluate ethical problems from many perspectives and to assess disagreements on, and propose responses to, these problems. Climate Ethics.org is a commentary site on climate change science and policymaking by those working on climate change ethics. The goal of the site is to provide robust identification of ethical issues as well as to identify issues about which deeper ethical analyses needs to be done. |
| Reference(s): (Rock Ethics Institute, 2008 Link(s)*: http://rockethics.psu.edu/climate/policy/climateethicsorg.shtml |
| 363 2008-09-05 XCEL to Disclose Global Warming Risks. |
| XCEL Energy became the first utility to agree to give investors detailed warnings about the risks that global warming poses to its business. Under a deal with the New York Attorney General’s office, XCEL will analyze the likely effects on its business of current and future legislation or regulations in areas where it operates and to disclose that information in its investor filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. XCEL will also disclose the financial risks of lawsuits and of federal or state court decisions as well as the “material financial risks” to itself associated with global warming such as drought – coal plants are large users of water - or sea level rise. |
| Reference(s): (New York Times, August 28, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/business/28energy.html?hp=&pagewanted=print |
| 363 2008-09-05 Investor Groups Achieve Breakthrough in Corporate Climate Commitments. |
| CERES, a coalition of investors and environmental groups, said that climate change-related shareholder resolutions had achieved breakthrough results in the past year, reflecting growing investor concerns over global warming. Of 57 resolutions filed by investor groups concerned about climate change almost half were withdrawn after companies ranging from Continental Airlines to El Paso made commitments on setting targets for greenhouse gas emissions. In a sign of changing attitudes towards climate change, all the resolutions filed with US home builders this year had the support of Risk Metrics and Proxy Governance, two of the big three US proxy vote advisory firms. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, August 19, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/69bb6282-6edf-11dd-a80a-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1 |
| 363 2008-09-05 “Circle of Blue” Unites Journalists and Scientists on Freshwater Crisis. |
| “Circle of Blue” is an international network of leading journalists, scientists, and communication designers that reports and presents the information necessary to respond to the global freshwater crisis. In collaboration with the Pacific Institute, the network has recently launched its Circle of Blue News Desk, Water News, which is intended to be a logical daily extension of its long-form journalistic and scientific coverage of the global water crisis and its solutions. Its mission is to provide critical, timely, actionable data and reporting on the global water crisis in accessible and compelling formats to diverse audiences. |
| Reference(s): (Circle of Blue, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.circleofblue.org/ |
| 362 2008-08-29 Anti-Biofilm Technology Learns From Seaweed’s Disabling of Bacteria Colonies. |
| Biosignal Ltd. has discovered that the eastern Australian seaweed Delisea pulchra produces natural furanones that disable bacteria’s ability to colonize. Existing anti-bacterials and antibiotics generate bacteria resistance and bacteria produce resistant strains when faced with strong selective pressure by killing agents or growth-inhibitory agents. Biosignal is using furanone compounds now to reduce infection risks without killing bacteria or inhibiting their growth, simply aiming to stop their ability to colonize and do damage. Its compounds have prevented biofilm formation of E. coli by 90% in lab trials. Biosignal’s compounds are proving effective against bacterial colonizing on surfaces such as pipes, membranes, medical devices, and even lungs, skin and teeth. |
| Reference(s): (Medical News Today, September 30, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/52820.php |
| 362 2008-08-29 U.S. States Tout “Feed-in” Tariffs After Germany and Spain Successes. |
| A global warming task force for Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle has called for implementation of Advanced Renewable Tariffs similar to the ‘feed-in” tariff policy mechanism that has fueled rapid growth of Germany and Spain’s renewable energy industry. Such tariffs provide a guaranteed rate of return and full recovery of capital costs fixed over a period of time for renewable energy project developers for electricity fed into the grid. The California Energy Commission has also called for feed-in tariffs as a remedy for the failure of the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard. In Canada, Premier Gordon Campbell has echoed the call for feed-in tariffs for his province of British Columbia. |
| Reference(s): (GreenBizSite, August 18, 2008 Link(s)*: http://climatebiz.com/print/27092 |
| 362 2008-08-29 Seattle to Double Energy Efficiency Gains with $185 Million Plan. |
| The City of Seattle and Seattle City Light have announced a $185 million plan to double the city’s energy conservation over a five year period. “We’re putting our conservation program on steroids,” said Mayor Greg Nickels. The efficiency goals will be met through a series of initiatives including relamping and other power-saving electronics and incentives for upgrading and constructing energy-thrifty buildings. The plan will insure that the city meets the mandate of a voter initiative that requires the state’s largest utilities to capture all of the “cost-effective conservation” available in their service area and to set efficiency goals that will be independently audited. |
| Reference(s): (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 20, 2008 Link(s)*: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/375793_citylight21.html |
| 361 2008-08-22 Toshiba to Halt all Incandescent Bulb Manufacture by 2010. |
| Toshiba Lighting & Technology Corp. will close down all of its production lines of incandescent light bulbs by the end of 2010. The company has been producing incandescent bulbs the entirety of its 120-year corporate history and in 2006 turned out 40 million units. Toshiba will halt production of 81 types of incandescents in favor of compact fluorescent (CFL) and light-emitting diode (LED) lamps. Toshiba pioneered the world’s first ball-shaped CFL in 1980. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, August 9, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/2160-e |
| 361 2008-08-22 Refrigerator-Free Vaccines Build on Nature’s Process for Rehydration. |
| Cambridge Biostability has taken a lesson from the Resurrection Plant which can dry out for as long as 100 years and yet return to life rapidly when rehydrated. The plant produces high concentrations of glass-forming sugars in its tissues, which preserve the cells in a state of suspended animation. The UK firm used a modern version of this process to develop a technology that allows vaccines to be stabilized, transported anywhere, and administered immediately without refrigeration or reconstitution. The vaccines are rehydrated by the body’s own fluids, releasing the active ingredients unchanged and unharmed. |
| Reference(s): (Cambridge Biostability, 2008 Link(s)*: http://biostability.com/ |
| 361 2008-08-22 Wireless Power System by Intel Promises to Eliminate Chargers and Batteries. |
| Intel has displayed a wireless electric power system that analysts say could free devices from transformers and wall outlets. At its developers’ forum in California, Intel’s chief technology officer sent electricity wirelessly to a lamp on stage, lighting a 60-Watt bulb. Intel’s Wireless Energy Resonant Link technology involves transmitting energy using the magnetic field not the electric field. ”Initially it eliminates chargers and eventually it eliminates batteries all together,” said one analyst at the forum. |
| Reference(s): (Ubergizmo, August 21, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/08/intel_wireless_power_system.html |
| 361 2008-08-22 Japanese Bank Offers Term Deposit That Includes Carbon Offsets. |
| Japan’s Shiga Bank is offering a carbon-offset term deposit plan wherein the bank purchases greenhouse gas emission credits equivalent to the amount of term deposits at its own expense. Customers save their money in a fixed deposit and the bank buys credits at a constant rate of .1 percent of deposits. It has already purchased 200 tons of carbon credits at $60,000 ($300/ton). The credits will end up being transferred to the Japanese government. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, August 5, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/2153-e |
| 360 2008-08-15 “Modest Needs” Website Links Small-Scale Donors and Recipients. |
| Former University English teacher Keith Taylor created a website, “Modest Needs,” in 2002 on which he personally offered to help others with small portions of his $33,000 salary. The “Modest Needs” initiative has expanded now to a 5-person operation that last year gave away almost $900,000 to over 1,500 people with one-time needs such as a month’s rent, a doctor bill, or to buy new tires for a single mom’s car. Prospective donors go on-line and elect to support the modest need of their choice. Payment goes to the bank, landlord or business that needs to be paid. Twenty percent of the 2,000 applicants per month win final approval and, once their need is met, 7 out of 10 recipients log back in to the site as future donors. |
| Reference(s): (Forbes, August 11, 2008 Link(s)*: http://forbes.com/forbes/2008/0811/066_print.html |
| 360 2008-08-15 Procter and Gamble Aims to Localize its Production Sites. |
| Asking “What is our business going to look like in 2015?” and “What happens if oil is $200 a barrel?” Procter and Gamble (P&G) is reframing its business model towards more local production of its products. The world’s largest shipper of consumer goods has seen its storage and transportation costs exceed the operating expenses of its factories. Its long supply chain model was established when oil was $10 a barrel, a model that is now “upside down” according to the head of Global Supply at P&G. The Company is also moving toward reduced product size, sustainable packaging, and future demand and production based on regions, rather than the current centralized structure. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, June 27, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/35a7da52-43e7-11dd-842e-0000779fd2ac.html |
| 360 2008-08-15 Green Rehab Guide Designed for Multi-Family Properties. |
| The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) in Minnesota has released a tool to help affordable housing owners and contractors integrate green building and energy efficiency into the upgrades of their multifamily properties. Developed with Build It Green, a California organization, the 58-page guide - free for downloading - contains four sections: Site condition and systems; Building construction; Mechanical systems, and Interior spaces. The Guide describes dozens of specific measures for how to incorporate energy efficiency, water conservation, resource conservation, and healthy indoor features into rehab projects. It also looks at the cost and cost-effectiveness of green strategies to assist affordable housing developers in making decisions about which measures to include in their rehab projects. |
| Reference(s): (Local Initiatives Support Corporation, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.lisc.org/content/article/detail/6946 |
| 359 2008-08-08 Santa Fe “Living Treasures” Nears 25 Years of Honoring Community Elders. |
| “Living Treasures” is a Santa Fe, New Mexico program that is nearing a quarter century of honoring community elders who have generously served and inspired others over their lifetimes. Treasures include teachers, nurses, artists, writers, farmers, weavers, builders, dancers, physicians, naturalists, healers, pueblo governors, volunteers and people from many other walks of life. More than 170 Santa Fe Treasures have been honored since 1984. In 1997, portraits and excerpts from the interviews of the first 104 Santa Fe Treasures were compiled into a book, Living Treasures: Celebration of the Human Spirit. The Santa Fe organization has also developed a free how-to handbook for other communities interested in starting their own Living Treasures program. |
| Reference(s): (Santa Fe Living Treasures, 2008 Link(s)*: http://sflivingtreasures.org/about_us.html |
| 359 2008-08-08 Misawa and Sekisui Roll-out Zero Carbon and Zero Energy Homes in Japan. |
| Two major Japanese home-builders are building and marketing homes designed in one case to be zero-carbon and in another to be near zero energy. Misawa Homes has completed a house called the “Next Generation Zero-Energy House,” in Hokkaido. It is equipped with devices that not only provide the power required for daily life but also recoup the energy used during construction. Its insulation efficiency is twice the value specified by the national government’s New Energy Saving Standards. Sekisui House Ltd.’s Carbon Neutral House uses advanced technology such as LED lighting and highly efficient air conditioners. Although it is priced almost 10% higher than the company’s standard houses its annual heating and lighting cost is estimated to be about $500, about $1,700 cheaper than standard wooden houses built in the 1980’s. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, July 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/2140-e http://www.japanfs.org/db/2140-e |
| 359 2008-08-08 “Susiclimate Populator” Displays Computer CO2 Emissions as You Work. |
| Susigames, an independent game art label created in 2003, has developed an application that calculates the CO2 emissions caused by a computer and shows the user the information as you work. The free program shows light bulbs that light up as the organization’s energy use increases, with each light bulb icon representing the CO2 emissions-equivalent of a 30-Watt light bulb. The program takes into account workload, programs and processors. Initially developed for MAC-OS X, additional versions are under development for Windows and Linux. |
| Reference(s): (ClimateBiz, December 11, 2007 Link(s)*: http://climatebiz.com/resources/resource/susiclimate-populator |
| 358 2008-08-01 Chicago Electric Utility to Cut GHG Emissions Below Total 2008 Emissions. |
| Exelon, a Chicago-based electric company, has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2020 by an amount larger than its total emissions in 2008. The reductions will come by making Exelon’s operations more efficient, cutting the energy use of its electricity customers, and building low-carbon generators to displace older, less-efficient plants, many operated by rivals. One reason for its pledge is to seek credit for actions that cut emissions of other companies. Some of the improvements would cut costs up to $70 a ton of carbon dioxide saved after expenses. |
| Reference(s): (New York Times, July 15, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/business/15emit.html?_r=1&oref=slogin |
| 358 2008-08-01 “Toyota Home” Reflects Car Company’s Move to Green Housing Sector. |
| Toyota is hoping to play a leading role in defining not just how Japanese drive but how they live. The global automotive company has a little-known pre-fabricated housing division, Toyota Home. Designed to cut down on waste from demolition of traditional wooden homes in Japan, Toyota’s steel-framed modular homes are selling at a rate of 5,000 a year. With the planned 2010 launch of its plug-in gas-electric hybrid cars with powerful lithium-ion batteries Toyota is testing an electronic monitoring system in its craft homes that would charge the vehicle during off-peak hours to keep utility bills low while the car’s battery can serve as an electrical back-up, powering the homes during blackouts. Toyota engineers are also experimenting with using solar panels as house siding and powering homes with fuel cells. |
| Reference(s): (The Wall Street Journal, July 2, 2008 Link(s)*: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121496449430221935.html |
| 358 2008-08-01 “Transmaterial” Showcases Better and Greener Building Blocks. |
| University of Minneapolis architecture professor Blaine Brownell has created a clearinghouse of information on the latest innovations in green building materials and products. His website, www.transmaterial.net, along with a companion book “Transmaterial,” has catalogued over a thousand products. Brownell offers a product-of-the-week to more than 3,000 people who receive his weekly e-mail message. The products featured on the transmaterial website often come from start-up companies such Calera (a concrete product that soaks up carbon dioxide) and Serious Materials (a zero-carbon drywall called EcoRock). While initially focused on new construction, Brownell envisions transmaterial products emerging for the large existing building retrofit markets around the country. |
| Reference(s): (New York Times, July 13, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/realestate/commercial/13sqft.html?em&ex=12168720 |
| 357 2008-07-25 German Insurer Allianz Extends Home Rebuilding Coverage to USGBC Criteria. |
| A U.S. unit of German insurer Allianz SE will begin offering homeowners’ protection next month in California designed to cover the cost of rebuilding houses to criteria set by the US Green Building Council. The green policies offered by Fireman’s Fund Insurance extend to replacing home appliances covered by a claim with energy-efficient models. Older heating and air conditioning units could be swapped for newer types that reduce a home’s carbon footprint while plumbing fixtures could be updated with water-saving models. The coverage extends to wood used for rebuilding, allowing lumber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council to be used. Green home insurance costs roughly $70 per $1 million in home value and is offset by the average 30% reduction in annual energy costs in homes rebuilt to green standards. |
| Reference(s): Link(s)*: (http://www.allianz.com/en/allianz_group/press_center/news/business_news/insurance/news_2008-07-08.html?hits=green+home |
| 357 2008-07-25 World Bank Signs its First Carbon Finance Agreement on Waste Composting. |
| The World Bank signed its first greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction purchase agreement in Egypt for a municipal solid waste-composting project. The Cairo Southern Zone Composting Project will avoid the generation of GHGs associated with landfilling. Under the agreement the Egyptians will sell 325,480 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent GHG emission reductions to the Carbon Fund for Europe, managed by the World Bank. The Cairo facility uses aerobic composting of organic waste that reduces the amount of methane and other GHGs that would otherwise be created by landfilling. In addition, compost generated by the project will be available for sale to agricultural and horticultural buyers within 90 days after the project’s late 2008 start of operations. |
| Reference(s): (The World Bank, 2008 Link(s)*: http://newsletters.worldbnk.org/external/default/main?contentMDK=21826656&theSitePK=442942&pagePK=64109805&piPK=64106905 |
| 357 2008-07-25 enXco Unveils Nation’s Largest Customer-Driven Solar Electric System. |
| An EDF Energies Nouvelle Company, enXco, has unveiled a 1.2 MW photovoltaic array near Sacramento. It was developed and built for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). enXco will sell the energy under long-term contract to SMUD who will then deliver it to customers singed up under its SolarShares Program. This customer-driven PV project is the first of its kind and the nation’s largest solar plant built to serve customers enrolled in a voluntary green pricing program. The 8.5-acre project uses some 17,000 solar panels, all of which were made in the United States. Already customers are clamoring to get their “share” of the system. |
| Reference(s): (PV-Tech, July 16, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.pv-tech.org/lib/printable/1477 |
| 356 2008-07-18 High-Emission Car Tax in France Follows “Bonus-Malus” System. |
| France is about to slap an annual green tax on high-emission cars, such as sports utility vehicles, and extend punitive damages to more environmentally damaging products in an attempt to revolutionize consumer behavior and combat climate change. The “bonus-malus” aims to cut taxes further on environmentally friendly products while raising them on the most harmful ones. Consumers who buy low emission vehicles or turn in cars more than 15 years old receive bonuses in the range of $300 - $4500 while purchasers of high-emission vehicles will pay a tax equal to about 10% of the price of the product. The government intends to extend the “bonus-malus” principle to other consumer products by the end of the year, including electronic goods. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, July 2, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e167e258-47a0-11dd-93ca- |
| 356 2008-07-18 Zephyr Unveils Wind/Solar Hybrid Power Systems for Small Scale Users. |
| Zephyr Corporation Inc., a Japanese manufacturer of small-scale renewable power generation systems, has begun marketing three models of its new Owl series, its latest line of wind power and wind/solar hybrid power generation systems designed for households, schools, and office buildings. All three models of the Owl series have an Internet server pre-installed as standard equipment to provide a remote monitoring function via the Internet to check and record the amount of electricity generated and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions avoided -- a world first. The equipment also enables the sale of any excess electricity generated to the grid of power companies -- another world first in the small-sized wind power market. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, July 11, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/2132-e http://www.zephyreco.co.jp/en/ |
| 356 2008-07-18 British Environment Agency Cuts River Withdrawals to Protect Habitats. |
| The UK’s Environment Agency has required water companies in the country to slash the amount of water they take from rivers and aquifers and find alternative supplies. The move came after a review that found current withdrawal practices responsible for widespread damage and threats to wildlife, including precious chalk rivers and wetlands, and other protected habitats for water voles, salmon and other wildlife. One company has been required to reduce by half the amount of water it takes during summer months. The Consumer Council for Water said that customers face price rises of up to $60 year, and that total nationwide costs could approach $900 million. The country’s water regulator, Ofwat, will decide in 2009 how much rates could increase to pay for alternative supplies and other demands such as higher water quality standards and better sewers and drains. |
| Reference(s): (The Guardian, July 12, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/12/water.wildlife |
| 355 2008-07-11 Whale Tubercles Inspire More Efficient Wind Turbine Blades. |
| A University of Pennsylvania biology professor has been inspired by the tubercles along a whale’s fins to produce serrated blades that increase the efficiency of fans, compressors, pumps, airplane wings and wind turbine blades – almost anything that cuts through air, water, steam or oil. In nature, the whale’s bumpy, pointed tubercles redirect and channel water along the leading edge of its fins and allow it to make tight turns and to move with great agility. From the discovery, a company called WhalePower has been established to market wind energy technology based on the tubercle-design of turbine blades. Using the design on fan blades has already proven to reduce energy use by 20%, reduce blade noise, and distribute air more evenly. |
| Reference(s): (WhalePower Corp., June 16, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.whalepower.com/drupal/ |
| 355 2008-07-11 California Abandons Plans to Spray Pesticides in Urban Areas. |
| California’s Food and Agriculture Department has abruptly cancelled a State program to spray chemicals to combat a crop-eating moth in urban areas. The State abandoned plans to send up pesticide-spraying planes over an area that included the densely populated San Francisco bay region. Officials will instead keep the invasive pest from reproducing by releasing sterile moths that will render the moths’ eggs useless. “This is a landmark victory for the public,” said David Dilworth, a spokesman for groups fighting the spraying. “People had to spend thousands and thousands of hours of high-level work to get a bureaucracy to do the obviously moral choice.” |
| Reference(s): (Organic Consumers Association, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_13098.cfm |
| 355 2008-07-11 “Slow Home Movement” Calls for End to Poor Construction and Bad Home Design. |
| The Slow Home Movement has been developed into an international movement devoted to bringing good housing design into real life. Slow Home provides design-focused information to empower individuals to take more control of their own homes and improve the quality of where they live. Slow Home’s website offers profiles of leading architects, planners and builders who champion Slow Home principles aimed at ending poor construction, bad design, misleading marketing, unfair lending practices and environmental neglect in the housing industry. The website also provides examples of Slow Home design, interviews with leading thinkers, a design studio, networking, news, and more. |
| Reference(s): (The Slow Home Movement, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.theslowhome.com/blog/index/category/News |
| 354 2008-07-04 Arizona County is First Government Agency to Provide LEED Certifications. |
| Pima County, Arizona will soon become the first government agency in the country to provide LEED certifications to homebuilders. Pima County Chief Building Official Yves Kwawam says that the same people who review plans for compliance with county codes can review plans for compliance with LEED standards for just over half the cost of many LEED-certified private contractors. Pima County already has a local green building standard that is based on LEED and adapted to the Southwest desert environment. Khawam said it took nearly two years of negotiations with the U.S. Green Building Council to obtain permission to provide the certifications. Khawam said the County hopes to rollout the program by late July. |
| Reference(s): (Arizona Daily Star, June 27, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/245731 |
| 354 2008-07-04 Lord Stern and IdeaCarbon Group Launch Carbon Credit Ratings Agency. |
| Lord Nicholas Stern, author of the UK’s Stern Report on climate change, has begun a new carbon credit ratings agency, the first to score carbon credits on a similar basis to that used to rate debt. The agency, run by the IdeaCarbon group said it would offer investors a guide to the quality of the credits and the likelihood that they would be delivered. Sellers of carbon credits would have to pay to have their products rated, while buyers would also pay to gain access to the ratings. The agency aims to be “a vital tool to bring greater clarity, transparency, and certainty to the market,” according to Lord Stern. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, June 25, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/897fc1b4-4219-11dd-a5e8-0000779fd2ac.html |
| 354 2008-07-04 “Smart 2020” Shows Role of Information Technology in a Low-Carbon Future. |
| A partnership between GeSI and The Climate Group has developed “Smart 2020” which is intended to give a clear picture of the key role that information and communications technology (ICT) plays in addressing climate change globally. The role of ICT, according to the report, not only includes emissions reductions and energy savings in the ICT sector itself, but also benefits from the adoption of ICT technologies to transform the way society works and people behave. “Smart 2020” presents the case for a future-oriented ICT industry that can enable the low-carbon economy in the information age. |
| Reference(s): (The Climate Group, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.climatebiz.com/files/document/Smart-2020-Report.pdf |
| 353 2008-06-27 UK House of Commons Supports Personal Carbon Trading. |
| The Environmental Audit Committee of the British parliament is urging the creation of a personal carbon trading scheme for all citizens of the UK. The system would provide a set of carbon emission allowances to each citizen and establish a national carbon budget. Citizens would begin each year with the same carbon quota and those who chose to partake in activities that would exceed the allowed limit would need to obtain the necessary carbon credits from another individual. While acknowledging implementation difficulties, the committee said such a system would reduce emissions more effectively than a carbon tax that would fall most heavily on the poor. |
| Reference(s): (BBC News, May 26, 2008 Link(s)*: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7419724.stm |
| 353 2008-06-27 Biodiesel Alliance Crafts Sustainability Principles. |
| A new non-profit organization, the Biodiesel Alliance, has been created to promote sustainable biodiesel practices, including the harvesting, production and distribution of biodiesel fuels. The ultimate goal of the Alliance is to create best practice standards for verifying that all points in the production and distribution chain are in compliance with the SBA’s certification standards. The group’s current draft sustainability principles may serve as a basis for standards and criteria for a biodiesel certification process or as a framework for drafting more specific codes of practice for sustainable biodiesel production and use. Principles include: biofuel production should not damage soils, deplete water production, nor jeopardize food security, but should provide fair compensation to farmers, should minimize and eliminate wherever possible the use of dangerous agrochemicals and should have a bias towards local consumption of the biofuel. |
| Reference(s): (Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.sustainablebiodieselalliance.com |
| 353 2008-06-27 Dallas Utility to Install 3 Million Smart Meters. |
| Landis+Gyr Holdings, an international utility meter company will furnish Dallas utility Oncor Electric Delivery Co. with “smart” meters for three million homes and small businesses. The meters are intended to help consumers control electricity costs and help utilities lower operating costs, cut peak energy demand, and improve system reliability. Oncor is proposing to give all low-income consumers free in-home display monitors to gauge power usage and costs. Earlier in May, Houston-based Centerpoint Energy announced its intent to install roughly 250,000 meters across its service area. |
| Reference(s): (The Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2008 Link(s)*: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121185846630321989.html?mod=dist_smartbrief |
| 352 2008-06-20 Xeros Ltd. to Commercialize Near-Waterless Washing Machines. |
| The UK company Xeros, Ltd., spun out of Leeds University, is planning to introduce a washing machine using as little as a cup of water for each washing cycle. The new machines would use less than 2% of the water and energy of a conventional machine. Reusable plastic chips and a small amount of water remove dirt from clothes, leaving them dry, as there is no need to use a dryer after the washing cycle. The price of the machine was not expected to be drastically different from current machines. |
| Reference(s): (PlanetArk, June 10, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.planetark.com/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=48719 |
| 352 2008-06-20 Water Harvesting Apprenticeship Program to Certify Community Instructors. |
| The Watershed Management Group in Tucson, Arizona is beginning a Water Harvesting Apprenticeship program this summer offering hands-on training to those seeking certification as a Water Harvesting Instructor. Certified instructors will work in the greater Tucson community and are eligible to work in the Group’s residential co-op program. |
| Reference(s): (Watershed Management Group, June 2008 Link(s)*: http://watershedmg.org/images/stories/docs/apprenticeship_announcement.pdf |
| 352 2008-06-20 Sustainable Community Development Code Enters Beta Testing. |
| The Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute (RMLUI) has released a beta version of its new Sustainable Community Development Code. The RMLUI initiative seeks to spotlight sustainability as a land use issue and show how local governments can support sustainable communities through innovative land use codes. Objectives include identifying key sustainability issues and finding ways to address them in the land use regulatory process through new standards, incentives, and the elimination of barriers as well as analyzing how current approaches to zoning must evolve in order to promote sustainable communities. |
| Reference(s): (Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute, 2008 Link(s)*: http://law.du.edu/images/uploads/rmlui/rmlui-sustainable-betaV1-1.pdf |
| 352 2008-06-20 Japan’s First-Ever Social Sharing Network Helps People Share Possessions. |
| Enigmo, the Japanese internet business developer, has launched “ShareMo,” the nation’s first-ever social-sharing service. “Sharers” list goods they want to share while “renters” use goods and then pass them on to other renters. Renters can borrow (by paying shipping only) or buy items offered. Sharers and renters who pass items along gain points that can be used to keep rented items. Enigmo hopes to expand the program to other types of content such as services and information. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, June 4, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/2096-e |
| 351 2008-06-13 Encyclopedia of Earth Launches On-Line Climate Change Collection. |
| The Encyclopedia of Earth has recently launched the Climate Change Collection, anchored by an electronic version of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change reports. It also includes articles by climate experts, biographies of individuals who have made important contributions to climate science and policy, a timeline of key events in the history of climate science and policy, a climate glossary, and more. It offers the essential knowledge underlying the issue of climate change. Readers are invited to contribute to the collection. |
| Reference(s): (Encyclopedia of Earth, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.eoearth.org/article/Climate_Change_528collection%29 |
| 351 2008-06-13 “Guerilla Gardeners” Turn Vacant Public Space Into Floral and Food Gardens. |
| There is a growing movement of “guerilla gardeners” who plant without approval on land that is not theirs. In London, Berlin, San Francisco, Miami and southern California, free-range tillers are having nighttime planting parties or solo “seed bombing” runs as they aim to turn neglected public space and vacant lots into floral and food outposts. The activity has been fueled by internet gardening blogs and sites such as GuerillaGardening.org where before and after photos of the latest planting areas are posted. At a time of shrinking city budgets, advocates of guerilla gardening see it blossoming into approved brigades of citizen gardeners helping cities turn wasted space into food and flowers. |
| Reference(s): (Guerilla Gardening, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.guerillagardening.org |
| 351 2008-06-13 Danish Low-Water Street Washer Saves Tens of Thousands of Gallons. |
| A new water-stingy street sweeper technology has been developed by Nilfisk-Advance, a unit of the $1.2 billion Danish cleaning equipment company NKT. The cleaning machine – informally called a Cyclone – cleans concrete surfaces at pressures of 2,000 to 4,500 pounds per square inch, so intense that it cleans without detergents. Instead of letting water run off to storm drains the Cyclone keeps most water inside an enclosure on the bottom of the truck which allows it to recycle the water some 500-600 times for more washing. In drought-plagued Georgia, one contractor on a typical job (20,000-25,000 square yards of concrete) used about 250 gallons of water compared with 50,000 – 100,000 gallons for machines that don’t reuse water. The contractor stated he was recycling close to 95% of the water normally used. |
| Reference(s): (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, June 1, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=19418069 |
| 350 2008-06-06 California Bay Area Air Quality Board First to Levy GHG Emissions Fees. |
| California’s Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board has become the first in the country to levy fees on businesses for the greenhouse gases they emit. The nine county board has decided to collect a total of $1.1 million in annual fees from 2,500 businesses based on the tons of various greenhouse gases each emits. The fees will be applied to refineries, print shops and other businesses that already have air pollution permits restricting their amount of smog-forming gases. The fees will cover the costs of the District’s annual program to calculate and study local sources of GHG and consider ways to reduce them. |
| Reference(s): (The Mercury News, May 22, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_9343567?source=email |
| 350 2008-06-06 Community Voluntary Gas Tax Used to Fund Bicycle Projects. |
| A small group of citizens in the town of Goshen Indiana are taxing themselves an extra $0.50 per gallon of gasoline and giving the money to groups working to break the nation’s oil addiction. Since April the Gas Tax Club of Goshen has already donated more than $400 to a local bicycle club that is providing bicycle-powered curbside recycling, second hand bike recycling, and advocating improved bike paths in the community. The voluntary tax organizers see the initiative as a way “to be more mindful of how much gas we do use and take that negative use of our oil addiction and put it into something that has a positive benefit.” |
| Reference(s): (Tribtown.com, May 31, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.tribtown.com/news/gas_8216___article.html/tax_oil.html |
| 350 2008-06-06 Sustainability “Benefit” Program Requires Changes to Articles of Incorporation. |
| A new sustainability initiative run by Philadelphia-based “B-Lab” (B stands for “benefit”) has now certified over 100 privately owned small and medium-sized businesses such as Method and Seventh Generation. These “B-Corporations” are certified based on a set of rigid environmental and social criteria using audits of company operating practices. After qualifying through the audit, a B-Corporation must then amend its articles of incorporation to require its board to take into account the interests not only of shareholders but also of “current and retired employees, suppliers, customers” and “the communities and society” in which it operates. Method co-founder Adam Lowry states that the governance change “makes legally binding what we already do as a moral and ethical imperative of business.” |
| Reference(s): (The Financial Times, June 2, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/670acb38-2e78-11dd-ab55-000077b07658.html |
| 349 2008-05-30 British Survey Teams to Create Climate Change Layers for Google Earth. |
| A new project, “Climate Change in our World,” is the product of a collaboration between Google, the UK Government, the Met Office Hadley Center, and the British Antarctic Survey. The project provides two new layers, or animations, available to all users of Google Earth. One animation uses world-leading climate science to show world temperatures throughout the next hundred years under medium projection of greenhouse gas emissions. Another animation shows the retreat of the Antarctic ice caps since the 1950s. Users can also access information on action that can be taken by individuals, communities, businesses, and governments to mitigate climate change. “This project shows people the reality of climate change,” states UK Environment Secretary Hilary Benn. |
| Reference(s): (EurekAlert, May 19, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/bas-nvo051908.php |
| 349 2008-05-30 Germany Bans Chemicals Linked to Honeybee Deaths. |
| The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has banned a family of pesticides blamed for the death of millions of honeybees. BVL has suspended the registration for eight pesticide seed treatment products used in rapeseed oil and sweet corn. The move followed reports from German beekeepers of massive bee die-off following application of Bayer’s clothianidin to the seeds of sweet corn planted a long the Rhine this spring. |
| Reference(s): (The Guardian, May 23, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/23/wildlife.endangeredspecies |
| 349 2008-05-30 ZigBee Alliance Announces Certification of 19 Smart Energy Appliances. |
| The ZigBee Alliance is a “global ecosystem” of companies creating wireless solutions for use in energy management, commercial and consumer applications. It recently announced the official certification of 19 products using its Smart Energy public application profile. The products enable wireless communications between utility companies and common household devices such as smart thermostats and appliances, helping consumers manage consumption more precisely on a near real-time basis while choosing from a large global ecosystem of companies supplying interoperable products. Southern California Edison is relying on ZigBee Smart Energy products to connect homes to its industry-leading Edison Smart Connect program. |
| Reference(s): (ZigBee Alliance, May 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.zigbee.org/en/index.asp |
| 348 2008-05-23 Well-Being Index Designed to be the Dow Jones of Health. |
| Gallup and Healthways have joined to create a Well-Being Index created through a survey of 1,000 Americans every day. The initiative is designed to be the Dow Jones of health, giving a daily measure of people’s well-being at the close of every day. Survey respondents are asked a series of questions associated with health and well-being across a range of income and conditions. The Index will be the largest collection of data related to health and well-being of large populations ever assembled. |
| Reference(s): (Well-Being Index. 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.well-beingindex.com |
| 348 2008-05-23 Piezoelectric Effect Captures Energy From Train Commuters’ Footfalls. |
| The East Japan Railway Company has demonstrated a new power-generating floor at a Tokyo Station. The floor is embedded with small piezoelectric elements (600/square meter) that produce electricity by harnessing the vibrational power generated from passengers’ steps. The power will be used for station facilities such as automatic ticket gates or electric signage. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, May 9, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/2073-e |
| 348 2008-05-23 Juneau Grid Collapse Brings 30% Power Conservation in Four Weeks. |
| Four weeks after a massive avalanche cut down power lines connecting remote Juneau, Alaska to a hydroelectric dam that provided 80% of its electricity, the city has cut consumption by 30 percent through a series of personal, business and governmental energy efficiency actions. Unplugging lights in business display windows, municipal thermostat adjustments, home and business relamping, and switching to line drying of clothes were all part of the steps taken in the community. As happened under similar circumstances in Brazil a few years ago, the hope is that some of the initiatives will endure after the damage has been repaired, which may not be until early July. |
| Reference(s): (The Independent, May 17, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/alaskas-capital-goes-green-after-avalanche-cuts-power-lines-829931.html |
| 348 2008-05-23 IPCC Scientists Evaluate Need for More Frequent Reporting. |
| Some climate scientists responsible for last year’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 4th Assessment Report are calling for more frequent, shorter special reports more useful to policy makers on how to fix the problem. NCAR’s Kevin Trenberth states “Do we need to say we are now really, really, really certain that human influence is changing the climate? No, the questions have changed.” |
| Reference(s): (Science, April 4, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.sciencemag.org |
| 347 2008-05-16 Northern California Homebuilders Support Mandatory Green Building Standards. |
| The Home Builders Association of Northern California (HBANC) has announced its support for mandatory sustainable green building standards in all Bay Area cities and counties. HBANC becomes the first major building association in the state of California and possibly the nation to embrace strong mandatory green building standards. HBANC also announced that its member builders have agreed to reduce overall energy consumption by 50% over 1990 levels by 2020 in all new homes. HBANC will partner with Build It Green’s Green Point Rated standards that the Association will work to make mandatory in area cities and counties. HBANC President Joseph Perkins says making the standards mandatory is “good for the environment and our planet…good for business, good for consumers, good for our growing clean tech economy and is the right thing to do.” |
| Reference(s): (Business Wire, January 14, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080114006096&newsLang=en |
| 347 2008-05-16 “Natural Edge” Offers 600+ Page Online Text for Climate Change Mitigation. |
| The Natural Edge Project in Australia has developed a comprehensive and accessible climate change resource entitled “Energy Transformed: Sustainable Energy Solutions for Climate Change Mitigation. This 600+ page online textbook provides free access to a comprehensive education and training package that brings together the knowledge of how countries can achieve at least 60% cuts to greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The training program seeks to compliment other initiatives encouraging the reduction of greenhouse gases through behavior change, sustainable consumption, and constructive changes in economic incentives and policy. |
| Reference(s): (The Natural Edge Project, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/Sustainable_Energy_Solutions_Portfolio.aspx |
| 347 2008-05-16 Arizona Pharmacy Offers Free “Spent” Pharmaceutical Take-Back Program. |
| Larry Shoetack, Manager of the Costco outlet in Prescott, Arizona, states that Costco clients can bring any unused or expired medications into the store and Costco will dispose of them free of charge. Shoetack reported that about every four months he boxes up spent medications returned by customers and mails them to MedTurn for proper processing. MedTurn Healthcare Services offers a variety of reverse logistics services for retail, wholesale and distributor sectors of the pharmacy and health care industries. |
| Reference(s): (Prescott News, April 20, 2008 Link(s)*: http://prescottenews.com/community/yavapai-county/how-safe-is-our-drinking-water.html |
| 346 2008-05-09 Missouri Town Set to Become 100% Wind-Powered. |
| Officials of the town of Rock Port, Missouri report that the town is set to become the first in America capable of meeting 100% of its electricity demand from wind power. The Loess Hills wind energy facility is located on agricultural lands within the city limits and it will produce up to 16 million kWh of electricity annually. This exceeds the 13 million kWh that Rock Port uses each year. Electricity not used in Rock Port will be purchased for use in other communities while the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission will supply Rock Port’s power needs when the wind turbines are not generating at capacity. |
| Reference(s): (North American Wind Power, April 15, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.nawindpower.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.2095 |
| 346 2008-05-09 Virginia Town First to Ban Chemical and Radioactive Bodily Trespass. |
| Earlier this year the Town Council of Halifax, Virginia voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance banning corporate chemical and radioactive bodily trespass. The Council acted to confront concerns about a proposed uranium mine in an adjacent county. The ordinance establishes strict liability and burden-of-proof standards for culpable corporations and government entities that permit and facilitate corporate bodily trespass. The ordinance also strips corporations of constitutional protection within the town, becoming the 10th municipality in the nation to refuse to recognize corporate constitutional rights. |
| Reference(s): (Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.celdf.org/Default.aspx?tabid=504 |
| 346 2008-05-09 “Matter of Trust” Uses Manmade and Natural Surplus for Education and Action. |
| “Matter of Trust” is a non-profit organization whose mission is to “link ideas, spark action, and materialize sustainable systems.” It concentrates on ecological and educational programs for manmade and natural surplus. The organization began by matching non-profit needs with in-kind donations through a Reuse of Society’s Abundance (ROSA) program and its online component, “Excess Access.” A recent project involves donations of human hair from thousands of salons in the US for use in manufacturing mats to soak up oil spills. The mats are being used in a San Francisco area spill project where they are inoculated with fungal spores from which mycelia then break down soaked-up oil into harmless constituents. |
| Reference(s): (Matter of Trust, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.matteroftrust.org/ |
| 345 2008-05-02 Draft Regional Comprehensive Plan Builds on Climate and Peak Oil Constraints. |
| The draft Southern California Comprehensive Plan now under review explicitly acknowledges the role of climate change and peaking world oil production as forces which need to be considered in developing the region’s response to major national and international challenges. The draft plan spells out consequences of inaction on both the climate and peak oil issues and offers near-term feasible policies to address both. |
| Reference(s): (Southern California Association of Governments, 2008 Link(s)*: http://scag.ca.gov/rcp/pdf/draftrcp/01_Draft08RCP_ExecSum.pdf |
| 345 2008-05-02 New Study Finds GM Crops Produce Less Food Than Conventional Agriculture. |
| A three-year study at the University of Kansas confirms earlier work at the University of Nebraska and finds than genetically modified (GM) soybeans produce about 10% less food than their conventional equivalent. The studies found that the very process of modification depresses productivity. A similar result has occurred with GM cotton in the US where the total cotton crop has declined even as GM technology has taken over. |
| Reference(s): (The Independent, April 20, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/exposed-the-great-gm-crops-myth-812179.html |
| 345 2008-05-02 New Ontario Rule Prohibits Clothesline Bans; Utility Gives 75,000 Free Lines. |
| The Province of Ontario Canada has issued a new regulation that prohibits clotheslines from being banned in subdivisions or almost anywhere else in the Province. It not only prohibits new clothesline bans but also voids most that already exist. The rule comes under a larger Provincial Act that empowers the government to remove barriers to energy conservation, including covenants and municipal bylaws. Meanwhile, Toronto Hydro has launched a giveaway of 75,000 clotheslines through four Canadian retail chains. |
| Reference(s): (YourHome.ca, April 18, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/articlePrint/415836 |
| 345 2008-05-02 Website Lets Viewers Watch Ads and Rate for “Greenwashing.” |
| EnviroMedia Social Marketing has created a Greenwashing Index website to evaluate today’s advertising claims of environmental benefit. The site gives viewers a chance to submit and rate individual ads, to see what others have said, and to see what score ads receive on the Greenwashing Index. Criteria include whether the ad misleads with words, with visuals or graphics, makes a green claim that is vague, unprovable or exaggerated, or leaves out important information. |
| Reference(s): (Greenwashing Index, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.greenwashingindex.com/ |
| 344 2008-04-18 Firm’s “Non-Eco” Product Labels Signal Still-Insufficient Environmental Concern. |
| The Kokuyo Group of leading Japanese manufacturers and marketers of office equipment and stationery has placed “Non-Eco” labels on its own brand of products in its 2008 catalog of stationery and furniture. The purpose was to honestly indicate their own still-insufficient concern for the environment. The Group has decided to develop and sell their products based on the principle that environmental consideration should not be an added value but taken for granted as normal procedure. Kokuyo intends to identify and indicate how many “Non-Eco” products remain in stock as way of raising environmental awareness within the Group as well as among its customers. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, April 11, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/2047-e |
| 344 2008-04-18 “Alliance for Restoration Ecology” Helps Communities Reduce Use of Land. |
| Two Tucson scientists affiliated with the University of Arizona’s Desert Laboratory have initiated the Alliance for Restoration Ecology to help the average Tucsonan reconnect to the city’s true desert landscape. Larry Venable and Michael Rosenzweig intend the Alliance to extend knowledge developed in the laboratory to the greater Tucson community. Using principles developed in their species diversity work, they want to give citizens help in building habitat linked to specific species. They want the community to be able to turn to the Alliance for “special nature recipes” – such as what to plant if you want to attract more quail or hummingbirds to an area. Expertise from the Desert Lab will be used to enhance urban nature as well as empower people in their own neighborhoods. |
| Reference(s): (Tucson Weekly, November 22, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=103462 |
| 344 2008-04-18 “New Forests” Aims to Optimize Timberland and Forest Ecosystem Services. |
| The forestry investment management firm “New Forests” investment philosophy is unique in seeking assets that deliver traditional timber returns as well as returns from emerging environmental markets such as carbon, water quality and biodiversity. Its “beyond timber” strategy has New Forests working to uncover and optimize the multiple layers of value provided by traditionally under-valued land-based assets such as water filtration, soil regulation, and recreation. |
| Reference(s): (New Forests, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.newforests.com.au/about/aboutus.htm |
| 343 2008-04-25 World’s First Stand-Alone, Utility-Grade, 100% Renewable Power System. |
| Research. business and municipal partners in Japan recently succeeded in providing the world’s first stand-alone operation of a high-quality, utility-grade electric power system using electricity generated form 100% renewable energy sources. Mitsubishi Research Institute, Mitsubishi Electric Co., and Hachinoe City cooperated in providing off-grid electricity generated from photovoltaic, wind and biomass gasification power to six major facilities for eight days. The pilot program demonstrated that it is possible for a stand-alone renewable energy network, separate from the utility grid, to supply utility-grade voltage and frequency. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, April 4, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/2036-e |
| 343 2008-04-25 Slovak Scientist Finds Earthworm Enzyme Destroys PCBs, Phenols and DDT. |
| A Slovak scientist, Oto Sova, has succeeded in using enzymes from a Californian earthworm, Eisenia foetida, to remediate soils contaminated with petroleum derivatives or, most ambitiously, toxins such as phenols, cresols, DDT, and even PCBs. Ground-up in a solution called Enzymmix, the mixture works in situ, either by being sprayed directly on contaminated surfaces or by being injected into the ground through plastic tubes. Sova's remedy has been successfully tested at gas stations, on airport runways, and at other contaminated sites in five European countries. |
| Reference(s): (World Ark Magazine, March/April 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/heifer/worldark_20080304/ http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/05spr/frontlines4.asp |
| 343 2008-04-25 Ecowaters Text Profiles 50+ Eco-wastewater System Success Stories. |
| A new book from Ecowaters, “Reusing the Resource: Adventures in Ecological Wastewater Recycling,” profiles more than 50 successful ecological re wastewater recycling systems, complete with 300+ color photos and diagrams. The systems use plants to stabilize, clean, filter and consume wastewater or discharge it to be used again to flush toilets, nourish plants, provide fuel, while sequestering carbon and nitrogen. One system is a large, regional wastewater recycling plant producing effluent so clean that it is used to grow strawberries sold throughout the United States. |
| Reference(s): (Ecowaters, 2008 Link(s)*: http://ecowaters.org/rtr.html |
| 342 2008-04-11 “Low Impact Living” Site Offers Green Home Calculator. |
| The Low Impact Living website offers a wide array of products, practices and service providers to help meet a homeowner’s environmental goals. Now, the site features an online green home calculator that allows users to input data on house size, energy, water, travel, waste, storm water and other unique resource use categories. With these data, the calculator provides a Low Impact Living Index that gives each user a numerical score as well as a comparative ranking compared to an average American home. The calculator also allows users to select from dozens of efficiency technologies and lifestyle changes that would, if implemented, incrementally improve the user’s index and ranking. Finally, for each improvement identified, the site offers a selection of commercially available products and sources for each. |
| Reference(s): (Low Impact Living, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.lowimpactliving.com/ |
| 342 2008-04-11 Zero-VOC Paint to be Sold Exclusively at Home Depot. |
| Fresh Aire Choice is a new paint brand without volatile organic compounds (VOCs) found exclusively at Home Depot stores. Fresh Aire Choice comes in 65 of Home Depot’s most popular colors and carries a lifetime warranty on performance and appearance. Fresh Aire colorants are VOC-free as well as the paint, making Fresh Aire the first to be VOC-free from start to finish. The Greenguard Environmental Institute, a nonprofit organization that establishes stringent indoor air standards for indoor products, has certified Fresh Aire Choice paints. The paint cans, labels, packaging and color strips are both recyclable and made from recycled-content materials. |
| Reference(s): (Metaefficient.com, March 2, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.azfamily.com/3tvexclusives/stories/phoenix_craft_corner_031408_paint.54b7e40e.html |
| 342 2008-04-11 “Green Chip Stocks” Finds Niche in Social Justice and Sustainable Living Firms. |
| “Green Chip Stocks” is a new investment advisory service aimed at directing funds toward the next generation of renewable energy and natural foods companies. Green Chip Stocks offers conventional investment services as well as special reports on national and international markets in renewable energy and other sustainable product sectors. The service aims to be a “catalyst for the first real social-impacting profit trend of the 21st century.” Interested parties can receive a free “Green Chip Review” e-letter through the service’s website. |
| Reference(s): (Green Chips Stocks, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.greenchipstocks.com/about |
| 341 2008-04-04 Prix Pictet Creates Global Sustainability Photography Prize. |
| The Prix Pictet is a major new global prize in photography that focuses on sustainability. The Prize is being sponsored by Pictet & Cie, in association with Financial Times. A single annual prize of 100,000 Swiss francs will reward photographers and the images they use to tell stories of urgent global significance. Each year the Prix Pictet will focus on a distinct sustainability theme. The theme for 2008 is water. |
| Reference(s): (Prix Pictet, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.prixpictet.com/ |
| 341 2008-04-04 Canadian Farmer Defeats Monsanto and Gets GMO Plants Removed. |
| Saskatchewan Farmer Percy Schmeiser has spent the last decade bogged down in court battles with the Monsanto Corporation. Monsanto originally sued Schmeiser for unintentionally growing the company's patented canola seeds, even though the genetically modified plants that were growing in Schmeiser's field were there due to drift and contamination. The courts originally ruled in favor of Monsanto, saying that regardless of contamination, a farmer cannot grow patented seeds. But Schmeiser recently counter-sued Monsanto, claiming the company should be liable for the damages that their property causes others. Last week, Monsanto settled out of court and paid Schmeiser what it cost to have the invading biotech plants removed. |
| Reference(s): (Organic Consumers Association, March 28, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob131.cfm |
| 341 2008-04-04 Wind Provides Record 40% of Spain’s Electricity in Late March. |
| On Saturday, March 22, 2008, Spanish wind farms delivered 9,862 Megawatts. This output, combined with low Easter holiday weekend use rates, gave wind energy a 40.8% share of national electricity generation at the moment of peak output. Over that entire weekend, Spanish wind power systems contributed an average of 28% of electricity demand in the country. |
| Reference(s): (Treehugger.com, March 31, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/spain-wind-power-record-41-percent.php |
| 341 2008-04-04 Boeing Achieves World’s First Hydrogen Fuel Cell-Powered Flight. |
| At its Ocana, Spain research center, Boeing has achieved the world’s first successful hydrogen fuel cell-powered flight. The small, piloted prop-driven plane flew at a speed of 62 miles per hour for about 20 minutes at an elevation of 3,000 feet. The plane weighed 1,760 pounds and had a wingspan of 51 feet. Boeing conducted three successful flights of the fuel cell plane in February and March at the Ocana site. |
| Reference(s): (MarketWatch, April 3, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/boeing-flies-plane-powered-fuel/story.aspx?guid=%7B12B8DA69%2D01B1%2D4338%2DBFCD%2D13A21F5B8A13%7D&siteid=yhoof |
| 340 2008-03-28 Eight U.S. Water Utilities Form Alliance to Address Climate Change. |
| Eight of the nation’s largest water utilities have been united by concern over the challenge that climate change poses to the delivery of high-quality drinking water They have formed the Water Utility Climate Alliance and will work to improve research into the impacts of climate change on water utilities. The Alliance will also develop strategies for adapting to climate change and implement measures to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions. Alliance membership comes from the water utilities of Denver, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Southern Nevada, New York City, and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. |
| Reference(s): (San Francisco Water, February 26, 2008 Link(s)*: http://sfwater.org/detail.cfm/MC_ID/20/MSC_ID/357/MTO_ID/552/C_ID/3867 |
| 340 2008-03-28 “Green Grannies” Use Sonoran Kitchen Gardens to Link Schools, Food and Jobs. |
| Three local Tucson women formed the “Green Grannies” and have set about creating a Sonoran bioregion model of the Alice Waters Edible School Yard Garden concept. Their organization, Sonoran Kitchen Gardens, works to establish school kitchen gardens based on permaculture principles, with rainwater harvesting and proper site design to maximize sun, wind, shade and other site assets. Schools interested in a garden site assessment but without resources can pay in the form of mesquite pods harvested from local trees. The school projects also encourage participating high school students to form and spin off natural resource based green cottage industries. |
| Reference(s): (Sonoran Kitchen Gardens, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.heartzfoundation.org/sonorankitchengardens/index.html |
| 340 2008-03-28 Scale of Japan’s “Urban Mine” Stocks Rivals Those of Exporting Countries. |
| The Chief of the Natural Institute for Materials Science in Japan has calculated the total amounts of recyclable metals stocked across the country in an effort to determine the extent of the nation’s “urban mine.” His analysis reveled that the scale of the urban mine in Japan can compare with stocks held by the world’s leading mineral resource-rich countries. Metals analyzed included gold, indium, lithium, silver, lead and tin. Japan intends to use this information to develop systems for recovery and recycling of products containing the metals in the face of rising demand and supply crises worldwide. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, February 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/en/newsletter/200802-1.html |
| 339 2008-03-21 Free-Standing Turbines Deliver Hydropower Without Dams. |
| A new generation of free-standing turbines is offering an alternative to dam-centric hydroelectric energy generation. One design, the Gorlov Helical Turbine, works in any stream and with whatever direction of water flow exists. Gorlov won the Edison patent award for his invention and the turbines have been commercialized by Lucid Energy Technologies. A second design, from the American firm UEK, aligns in river or ocean current like a windsock in an aerodrome. Easy to install and maintain, they are being used in remote areas of developing countries as well as in Nova Scotia. A third design from Ireland’s Open Hydro radically changes the placement of coils and magnets in an open-center turbine reducing need for lubrication and maintenance. A freestanding tidal turbine project is also underway in New York’s East River. |
| Reference(s): (The Economist, February 19, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10715508 |
| 339 2008-03-21 Italian Village Becomes the World’s First “LED City.” |
| The Italian village of Torraca has proclaimed itself the world’s first “LED City” after unveiling new streetlights that emit a bright, white and ecologically green glow. The small town and comune in the province of Salerno in southwestern Italy converted all 700 of its streetlights to LED technology, slashing energy and maintenance costs by 70%. Each lamp contains 54 LEDs. The LED lights are combined with photovoltaic modules to make the project energy self-sustaining. Torraca’s new lights should earn the town a place in history, alongside Holborn Viaduct in London, where the first electric streetlights were deployed in 1878. The project has already won for Torraca the Kyoto 2007 prize. |
| Reference(s): (LEDs Review Magazine, December 6, 2007 Link(s)*: http://ledsreview.com/25/ |
| 339 2008-03-21 Denver’s Driving Pattern Pilot Targets Greenhouse Gas Reductions. |
| In a pilot program called “Driving Change” the city of Denver, Colorado is equipping cars with an electronic device to measure how driving behavior affects fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Four hundred cars, half from the city fleet (including one belonging to Denver Mayor Hickenlooper) and half privately owned, will take part in the pilot. A small device produced by the Denver company Cartasite fits under the dashboard and will record how patterns such as speeding, acceleration, idling and fast stopping affect the gas gauge and tailpipe emissions. Drivers will be able to review the results online. |
| Reference(s): (Denver Post, March 12, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_8544792 |
| 338 2008-03-14 95% of Mortgage Company Loans go to “Earth-friendly” Homes. |
| A Pagosa Springs, Colorado company, Mountain Classic Mortgages, has been financing “alternative and earth friendly” homes for ever five years and it makes up approximately 95% of their business. The company funds loans in all 50 states. It has financed al types of alternative homes including domes, strawbale, earthshelter, insulated concrete foams, adobe, earthship and solar. Mountain Classic Mortgages reports a 98% success rate on their alternative home financings. |
| Reference(s): (Mountain Classic Mortgages, 2008 Link(s)*: http://greenhomebuilding.com/QandA/financial/appraising.htm |
| 338 2008-03-14 Victory Garden Revival Aims to Boost Local Food Production. |
| A San Francisco pilot project aims at reestablishing the World War II phenomenon of Victory Gardens in its neighborhoods. Backyard garden plots will be constructed for 15 gardeners chosen to mirror the City’s ethnic, geographic and economic spectrum. They will be asked to take an oath to live in the city for two years, attend workshops, and open their plots to tours. A web site map will depict all the Victory Gardens in the city. |
| Reference(s): (Dallas News, February 29, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/home/gardening/stories/DN-nhg_wirevictorygarden_0229li.ART.State.Edition1.2b1cf74.html |
| 338 2008-03-14 Utility “Smart Grid” Technology Helps Boulder Lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions. |
| XCEL Energy and Boulder, Colorado are teaming up to demonstrate “smart grid” technology in residential homes. During the next year, half the city’s homes will receive advance meters that will allow homeowners, or the utility with advance permission, to remotely control lights, air conditioners or other devices. With regulatory approval, the utility could use real-time data to price electricity more dynamically thus leading to increased efficiency in home energy use. |
| Reference(s): (Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2008 Link(s)*: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120537871607432823.html?mod=homes_left_column_hs |
| 338 2008-03-14 County Green Building Guide Give Points for What You Don’t Do. |
| Unlike many national and international Green Building rating programs, Pima County Arizona’s new green building rating system is unique in that it awards points for what isn’t there. Builders earn points for aspects such as energy and water efficiency as in most programs. However, Pima County also gives points for homes omitting fountains, carpets, wall paint, garbage disposals, misters, and swimming pools. Points are given a home for each 200 square feet under 2,300 square feet, which is the County average. Further, points are deducted for every 200 square feet of house size above 2,800 square feet. |
| Reference(s): (Arizona Daily Star, February 25, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/byauthor/226714 |
| 337 2008-03-07 Sumitomo Develops DNA Identification Tool to Trace Wood Products. |
| Sumitomo Forestry has developed technology to identify tree species and to trace wood products such as seedlings, trees, timber, or plywood from source to final product. The technique is intended to determine if wood products originated from forests planted with several varieties and under sustainable forest management. The identification method is rapid, inexpensive, and easily performed with specific equipment. Sumitomo plans to use the technology in a business package providing verification of the legality of wood products from forests under sustainable forest production. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, February 18, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/1988-e |
| 337 2008-03-07 “Facing the Future” Releases Climate Change Curriculum for Educators. |
| Seattle-based “Facing the Future” has just released a comprehensive climate change learning curriculum for varying grade levels. The curriculum is intended to lay the foundation for understanding some of the forces behind climate change and its connection to numerous economic, social and environmental factors. It includes student texts and teacher lesson plan books, curriculum units and additional resources. The curriculum has been aligned with the U.S. National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) Standards and National Science Education Standards (NSES). Saving the Future’s website offers free downloads of selected materials. |
| Reference(s): (Facing the Future, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.facingthefuture.org/ |
| 337 2008-03-07 XCEL Tests Megawatt Scale Battery to Store Wind Electricity. |
| XCEL Energy is about to test a 1 MW battery storage technology to demonstrate its ability to store wind energy and move it to the electric grid when needed. The utility has signed a purchase contract with NGK Insulators Ltd. for commercially available sodium sulfur batteries, versions of which are already in use in Japan. The XCEL demonstration in rural Minnesota will be the first US application of the battery as a direct wind energy storage device. Xcel will configure 20 50kW-battery modules, roughly the size of two semi trailers, which will be able to store about 7.2 MWh of electricity with a discharge capacity of 1 MW. |
| Reference(s): (North American Windpower, February 29, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.nawindpower.com/e107_plugins/content/content_lt.php?content.1879 |
| 336 2008-02-29 A “Pattern Language” Guide for LEED Neighborhood Development. |
| A new book by Douglas Farr, “Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature” presents a template for creating walkable and transit-served urbanism integrated with high-performance buildings and high performance infrastructure. After presenting the case for sustainable urbanism, Farr’s implementation discussion focuses on communication approaches (and community engagement strategies) to help sway decision makers whose thinking needs to change in order to implement sustainable urbanism concepts. The heart of the book is nearly 200 case studies from around the world that embrace sustainable urbanism concepts at many different geographic scales. |
| Reference(s): (Sustainable Urbanism, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.farrside.com/book/ |
| 336 2008-02-29 Ultra-Capacitor Alternative to Car Batteries Unveiled at Detroit Motor Show. |
| A Washington company, AFS Trinity, has helped integrate a fast-discharge capacitor into a conventional hybrid-electric drive train promising the equivalent of 150 miles per gallon. The prototype three-way hybrid was demonstrated in a standard Saturn Vue, dubbed the XH-150, at this year’s Detroit Motor Show. Ultimately, ultra-capacitors upon which the XH-150 is based may supplant rather than supplement a car’s batteries. Zenn Motors and EEStor are teaming to replace lead-acid batteries in Zenn’s urban electric cars with EEStor’s ultracapacitors capable of rapid recharging for ultimate highway use. |
| Reference(s): (The Economist, February 2, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10601407 |
| 336 2008-02-29 Medical Use of Honey for Wound Care Supplants Antibiotics in the Antipodes. |
| Honey was in common medical use before the advent of antibiotics and it is now making a comeback of sorts in Australia, New Zealand and Europe. An Australian company, Medihoney, makes a product for medical application, which has also been certified for use in Europe. Research is showing that patients with bacterial infections resistant to penicillin see the infection disappear completely when treated with honey. Saturated sugars in the honey deprive bacteria of liquid needed to thrive and a glucose oxidase in the honey reacts with wound liquids to form a hydrogen peroxide that ensures regular bacterial washes of a wound. |
| Reference(s): (Comvita, 2008 The Economist, April 28, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.medihoney.com/ http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9070837 |
| 335 2008-02-22 “Encyclopedia of Life” Aims at a Web Page for Each Species on Earth. |
| A sweeping informatics project called the Encyclopedia of Life is scheduled to launch its first trial entries on the Web in late February. The encyclopedia portal will provide access to roughly 30,000 Web pages of specialist’s date – one page for each known species of fish. A consortium of museums and science institutions, led by Harvard University and the Smithsonian, and bankrolled by major foundations, are contributing to the Encyclopedia project. The plan intends to have ready, a decade from now, easy access to a Web page (www.eol.org) with definitive, current information for every species on earth. Harvard’s E.O. Wilson estimates 10 million Web pages being needed to accomplish this goal. |
| Reference(s): (Science News, February 2, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20080202/bob9.asp |
| 335 2008-02-22 British Columbia Introduces North America’s First Full-Fledged Carbon Tax. |
| In an attempt to engineer a social movement to get British Columbians to cut their greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), the government introduced North America’s first full-fledged carbon tax. A tax, to take effect July 1, applies to virtually all fossil fuels, including gasoline, diesel and home heating fuel. The tax will rise and continue to climb over the next five years. The initial price of $10 per ton of GHG emissions will rise to $30/ton in five years. Designed to reduce a total of 3 million tons of GHG in B. C. over the next five years, “We promised you green and today we delivered green,” said B.C. Finance Minister Carole Taylor upon introduction of the new provincial budget. |
| Reference(s): (The Globe and Mail, February 20, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080220.wbcbudget20/BNStory/National/home |
| 335 2008-02-22 Investor Network Issues Nine Point Climate Risk Action Plan. |
| Major world financial institutions met at the United Nations last week aand dopted a nine point Climate Risk Action Plan to address climate risks in their investment portfolios. Signatories to the Action Plan currently have $1.75 trillion in assets under management. They include the public employees and teachers pension funds, labor unions, treasurers from the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island Maryland, and North Carolina, plus City comptrollers. In the private sector, signatories include financial services firms such as Domini, Calvert, Trillium, Khosla Ventures, and Parnassus plus several foundations. The Action Plan requires asset managers to consider their investment climate risks, to invest capital in clean technologies, to improve the energy performance of real estate portfolios, to push the SEC for guidance on corporate risk disclosure and to support a mandatory national policy to reduce GHG by 60-90% below 1990 levels by 2050. |
| Reference(s): (Investor Network on Climate Risk, February 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.ceres.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Document.Doc?id=279 |
| 334 2008-02-15 Aurora Colorado Takes New City Buildings to LEED Gold Standard. |
| Policymakers in Aurora Colorado have mandated that all new city-owned buildings be constructed to achieve the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED NC Gold Standard. It becomes the first of its size in the State of Colorado to require such stringent standards in new buildings. The resolution mandating the practice for city buildings also requires that all construction of new buildings and all major renovations of existing structures incorporate the energy and resource standards of EPA’s Energy Star program. City leaders note that the long-term savings – financially and economically - far outweigh any nominal additional up-front costs for new buildings. |
| Reference(s): (Colorado Building Green, September/October 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.usgbccolorado.com/news-events/documents/USGBC_CO_SepOct07.pdf |
| 334 2008-02-15 Mobile Matanza Helps Pueblo Bison Producers Get Meat to Market. |
| Matanza is the name for the traditional gathering in northern New Mexico when an animal is butchered. The Taos County Economic Development Corporation has now introduced a “mobile matanza” to travel to area ranches and farms to slaughter livestock and prepare the meat for sale. One of the first uses of the mobile matanza was to butcher a bison on the Pojoaque Pueblo, one of many rural locations where ranchers can’t get meat to market economically. Pojoaque has 40 bison on about 1000 acres. New Mexico State extension agent Lucia Sanchez says that economic development in rural New Mexico needs to be measured by a unique standard. “We might not be measuring job creation but we measure cultural sustainability.” |
| Reference(s): (Santa Fe New Mexican, October 19, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/SantaFeNorthernNM/Sustaining_a_culture |
| 334 2008-02-15 Public Shade Tree Trust Seeks Compensation for Lost Public Trees. |
| The Massachusetts Public Shade Tree Trust was formed to help protect the urban and community forests across the state. The urban forests in the state were found to be at risk due to potentially damaging natural gas leaks along municipal streets. Gas leaks in the vicinity of urban shade trees were often choking the root systems of oxygen and hastening their death. The groundbreaking Public Shade Tree Trust helps communities interested in halting loss of trees gain the technical and legal assistance needed to both recoup past damages and restore the integrity of the aging pipeline networks serving them, thus protecting the legacy of their urban shade assets. |
| Reference(s): (Massachusetts Public Shade Tree Trust, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.masspublicshadetreetrust.org/index.php |
| 333 2008-02-08 Investment Banks Make it Harder to Get Financing for New Coal Plants. |
| Three of Wall Street’s largest investment banks have announced that they are imposing new environmental standards that will make it harder for companies to get financing to build coal-fired power plants in the United States. Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are requiring that utilities seeking financing for coal-fired plants be able to prove the plants will be economically viable even under potentially stringent federal caps on carbon dioxide. The banks are also requiring utilities to consider energy efficiency and renewable energy options before seeking financing for coal plants. The utilities must ensure the plants will be allowed to charge electricity rates high enough to cover the cost of buying emission allowances under an expected national greenhouse gas cap and trade system. |
| Reference(s): (Wall Street Journal, February 4, 2008 Link(s)*: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120209079624339759.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us |
| 333 2008-02-08 A Regional Food System in the Pacific NW Takes Shape. |
| The Gorge Grown Food Network is taking shape in the Columbia Gorge region of the Pacific Northwest. The Network will serve as a central source to farmers, food producers, and consumers as it works toward regional food self-sufficiency. One way the Network intends to link regional food producers and consumers is via a mobile farmer’s market trailer to help bring rural produce to population centers. The region to be served by the Network extends from the Cascade Locks to The Dalles. |
| Reference(s): (Gorge Grown Food Network, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.gorgegrown.com/ |
| 333 2008-02-08 Major Car Rental Companies Move Into Car Sharing Business Model. |
| Enterprise Rent-a-Car has initiated a car-sharing program called WeCar. Customers sign up for an annual membership and then pay hourly or daily usage rates for the cars, which they reserve on-line for a set length of time. After reserving a car, customers use an electronic device to unlock their vehicle. Gas, insurance and an allotment of free miles are included. Environmental benefits accrue as numerous members share a few cars, taking vehicles off the road and reducing emissions. The cars are often fuel-efficient as well. In the WeCar program in St. Louis, all of its nine vehicles are Prius hybrids. |
| Reference(s): (Wall Street Journal, February 7, 2008 Link(s)*: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120235251027849679.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us_business |
| 332 2008-02-01 Insurers Help Homeowners Rebuild “Green” Even if Above Replacement Costs. |
| Two major insurance companies, Fireman’s Fund and Lexington Insurance, have begun “green” insurance programs that will let homeowners reconstruct property with more environmentally-friendly building materials, appliances and landscaping even if it costs more than the replacement value in their policies. Fireman’s green upgrade program will be free to its California clients affected by recent fires. Helping clients rebuild to greener standards is an insurer’s hedge against climate change and the more frequent natural disasters brought on by warming temperatures. |
| Reference(s): (Associated Press, January 11, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0111biz-greenrebuilding0111.html |
| 332 2008-02-01 “Backbone Campaign” Presents Creative Organizing Tool for Citizen Activists. |
| “Procession for the Future” is a creative organizing tool for inspiring students, youth and others to be effective citizen activists in an election year. Developed by the Backbone Campaign, the Procession for the Future is a touring parade using high production value art and spectacle to deliver a compelling progressive vision for the country. Giant puppets and floats will portray policy priorities such as climate stabilization, ecological sustainability and renewable energy, healthy local economies, governmental accountability, humane and fair immigration, and election integrity. The education-through-art effort will be augmented with additional organizer training to provide participants with effective tools “to claim their role as guardians and authors of their future.” |
| Reference(s): (Backbone Campaign, 2008 Link(s)*: http://backbonecampaign.org/page.cfm?id=129 |
| 332 2008-02-01 “Biologists at the Design Table” Workshop Aims to Improve Built Environment. |
| The Biomimicry Institute is holding a “Biologists at the Design Table” workshop later this year. The workshop is intended to train people with backgrounds in biology, ecology and/or natural history to help meet the increasing need for biological knowledge from companies trying to solve design challenges in the built environment. The workshop will present examples of biomimetic success stories, lessons on how to facilitate biomimetic design and practice applying the tools of biomimicry with professionals from engineering, architecture and business. Applications are being accepted on the Institute’s website. |
| Reference(s): (Biomimicry Institute, 2008 Link(s)*: http://biomimicryinstitute.org/education/training/ |
| 331 2008-01-25 Religious Orders Take on the Bottled Water Industry. |
| The Franciscan Federation is one of several religious organizations speaking out and taking action against the use of bottled water. The Federation’s web campaign is in an interfaith collaboration with Protestant churches as they highlight the negatives of bottled water. Elsewhere, the Sisters of Mercy in St. Louis prohibit bottled water at their offices and housing facilities while the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity in Dubuque, Iowa is a bottled water-free campus. The $100 billion/year spent on bottled water could be used to create and maintain safe public water infrastructure, says a recent Earth Policy Institute news release. “Somebody has to take this on,” replies Sr. Sharon Dillon of the Franciscan Federation. |
| Reference(s): (National Catholic Reporter, January 11, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2008a/011108/011108j.htm |
| 331 2008-01-25 Israel Plans to be Off Oil in Ten Years with Solar and Electric Autos. |
| A privately funded plan in Israel will build 500,000 recharging and battery exchange stations for electric cars in the next 18 months. Renault and Nissan will develop an electric car to be mass-produced from 2011. The plan will cut the country’s oil imports by half with the remainder eliminated by a one-time $5 billion investment in solar plants. President Peres states, “In one decade, we will not need oil.” |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, January 21, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4ba47e38-c795-11dc-a0b4-0000779fd2ac.html |
| 331 2008-01-25 Multi-Nationals Driving Small Suppliers to Disclose Carbon Footprints. |
| Multi-national companies such as L’Oreal, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Reckitt-Benckiser have begun notifying some suppliers to measure and disclose their carbon footprint. Each company is selecting a group of 50 suppliers for the pilot after which the companies plan to extend the program across the supply chain. Results will allow the larger companies to compare their suppliers with their peers and find cost savings from eliminating practices that waste energy. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, January 21, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e16ca708-c784-11dc-a0b4-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1 |
| 331 2008-01-25 San Francisco Incentives Cut Home and Business Solar Costs in Half. |
| The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has approved a new local subsidy for residents and businesses that install solar power. The incentive plan would provide between $3,000 and $5,000 for a home installation and up to $10,000 for businesses. Combined with existing state and federal incentives, the city subsidy could eliminate more than half the cost of a solar installation. |
| Reference(s): (San Francisco Chronicle, January 9, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/09/BAMVUBFT5.DTL |
| 330 2008-01-18 Companies Launch “Eco-Patent Commons” to Speed Technology Sharing. |
| Several multi-national companies, including IBM, Sony, Pitney Bowes and Nokia, have created what they call a patent-sharing plan for companies to donate their intellectual property that serves the goal of environmental improvement. The project is called “Eco-Patent Commons” and builds on the experience of the open-source software movement in which programmers freely share their programs. The Commons will be administered by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). The founders of the Commons are donating about 30 patents to get it started. Any company can join in by contributing a patent and all patents offered are available to anyone in the world on a website maintained by the WBCSD. |
| Reference(s): (World Business Council for Sustainable Development, January 14, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=Mjc5OTk |
| 330 2008-01-18 A Network for Grateful Living Promotes “Sustained Gratefulness.” |
| “A Network for Grateful Living” (ANG*L) organization and website was created a few years ago to spread awareness of the benefits and appreciation for living gratefully. Interest in its message has grown greatly in recent years. ANG*L writers emphasize that living gratefully leads to attitudes of profound appreciation and then to a sense of frugality. This in turn leads to a simpler lifestyle and care for the environment. The group’s website offers lessons and readings on gratefulness, applications for daily practice, a place to share intentions and prayers, and opportunities to find local groups already organized around gratefulness. |
| Reference(s): (A Network for Grateful Living, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www.gratefulness.org/ |
| 330 2008-01-18 University of Wisconsin Issues Toolkit for Local Government Sustainability. |
| Authors from the University of Wisconsin Extension and the 1000 Friends of Wisconsin have published “Toward a Sustainable Community: A Toolkit for Local Government.” The toolkit provides ideas and descriptions of specific actions that a local government can take to transform itself into a model of sustainable practices. The focus of the toolkit is on the internal workings of local government, specifically energy, buildings, transportation, purchasing, investment and hiring. It provides practical tools for making these functions of local government more supportive of the long-term human and environmental health and well being. Further, it provides strategies that can be implemented through traditional means of policy development, fiscal administration, local government and education. |
| Reference(s): (UW-Extension, 2008 Link(s)*: http://www4.uwm.edu/shwec/publications/cabinet/reductionreuse/SustainabilityToolkit.pdf |
| 329 2008-01-11 Berkeley Offers Free Sustainability Solutions to Residents and Businesses. |
| The City of Berkeley, California is partnering with several non-profit organizations and agencies to help its citizens and businesses with many free solutions to common environmental problems. The City’s website provides “Free Things!” links to nearly two dozen programs offering free products and services to both the residential and commercial sectors. These include: free energy efficient light bulbs, clotheslines, and other home energy-saving products and services; free used oil recycling services; free household hazardous waste recycling; and free safe disposal of mercury thermometers and expired medicines. The City also provides a free “Ask an Expert” about Green Building section on the website for both homeowners and businesses. |
| Reference(s): (Berkeley Energy Office, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.cityofberkeley.info/sustainable/residents/ResSidebar/Freebies.html |
| 329 2008-01-11 UPS Limits Left-Hand Turns and Trucks Save 3 Million Gallons of Gas. |
| UPS now employs a “package flow” software program, which among other hyper-efficient practices involving the packing and sorting of cargo, maps out delivery routes for every one of its drivers, drastically reducing the number of left-hand turns they make. The software has helped the company’s 95,000 big brown trucks shave over 28 million miles off their delivery routes. The tiny improvements in efficiency of each one will translate into huge savings overall. It has for now resulted in a savings of roughly 3 million gallons of gasoline and CO2 reductions of 31,000 metric tons per year. |
| Reference(s): (New York Times, December 9, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09left-handturn.html?_r=1&oref=slogin |
| 329 2008-01-11 Low-Cost Bamboo Microscopes Bring Wonder of Science to the Poor. |
| Creative minds at a non-profit in New Delhi, India, have developed a light, compact, eco-friendly microscope that is granting students first-hand access to an otherwise unaffordable scientific tool. Staff at the non-profit, Jodo Gyan (literally “linking knowledge”), fashion the microscopes out of bamboo shards and fit them with a 20x lens. The microscopes are priced at 150 rupees (about $4), not much more than it costs to produce them. So far Jodo Gyan members have built and sold about 2,500 bamboo microscopes for use in schools, educational non-profits and, in at least one case, research. One Indian ecologist who has set up a rural seed exchange to conserve dozens of endangered folk rice species in West Bengal routinely uses Godo Jayan’s microscopes to study the surface of rice grains. |
| Reference(s): (Nature, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v13/n10/full/nm1007-1128a.html |
| 328 2008-01-04 Moixa Energy Wins Awards for its Rechargeable USBCell Batteries. |
| USBCell Batteries have been recognized for their sustainable design that reduces landfill, resource, and CO2 waste along with being more energy-efficient to use and reuse when compared to other rechargeable batteries. They can be reused anywhere simply by charging from a USB port. USBCell Batteries won the 2007 UK Energy Efficiency Award for consumer products as well as the Power/Energy category at the 2007 IET-Innovation in Engineering Awards. In this competition they beat a nuclear power station and a high speed train. Its AA Batteries are sold via the internet as well as being stocked in mass-market stores such as OfficeMax, Staples and REI. Additional USBCell formats are nearing commercial readiness, including 9V and batteries for mobile phones. |
| Reference(s): (Moixa Energy Media Release, December 7, 2007 Link(s)*: http://energyawards.org.uk/ |
| 328 2008-01-04 “Simple Prosperity” Covers 17 Lifestyle Assets Based on Real Wealth. |
| A new book – “Simple Prosperity” - by leading sustainability author David Wann presents a compelling case for readers interested in discovering “real wealth in a sustainable lifestyle.” Wann’s book presents 17 assets based on real wealth that are available to everyone. Some of these include: “Mindful Money – more value from better stuff,” “The Bonds of Social Capital – the more we spend the more we have,” and “Higher Returns on Investment – twice the satisfaction for half the resources.” Simple Prosperity aims to persuade readers that using 17 key assets like these makes it “quite possible for each American to gracefully reduce her or his resource consumption by half, along with all the stress, anger, and dysfunction that often goes with it.” |
| Reference(s): (David Wann, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.davewann.com/excerpt.html |
| 328 2008-01-04 UK Commission Issues Roadmapping Guide to Sustainable Products. |
| The UK’s Commission on Sustainable Development has issued a 20-page primer outlining the opportunities for business and government in taking a products-focused approach to sustainability. The approach centers on a twelve-point checklist for business wishing to develop new products or assess existing ones. Product Roadmaps for Sustainability are intended to help society visualize how it wants products to evolve and how to support progress towards that goal. The guide further provides a tool called “Choice-editing” which is about eliminating the option to buy inferior quality products or components with a poor social or environmental record. |
| Reference(s): (Sustainable Development Commission, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications/downloads/roadmap_booklet_es%20(2).pdf |
| 327 2007-12-28 “Swarm Logic” From Ants’ and Bees’ Behavior Used to Cut Peak Grid Power. |
| Toronto-based Regen Energy has developed a wireless device that allows major electrical appliances in a building to communicate with each other at a very basic level with the goal of minimizing how much power these appliances collectively use at a given point in time. It believes its devices will reduce a building’s peak load by 20 to 30 percent. The approach mimics the way bees, ants and other social insects communicate, coordinate and organize without any single bee giving orders from central command. The way they come together as part of a larger, seemingly more intelligent collective is an example of an “emergent” system, an area of study sometimes called “swarm logic.” They are leasing the systems, promising “immediate payback with no multi-year financing required.” |
| Reference(s): (Toronto Star, September 3, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.regenenergy.com/Article_TorontoStar_20070903.pdf |
| 327 2007-12-28 PG&E Makes 2MW Long-Term Wave Energy Power Purchase. |
| Pacific Gas and Electric has contracted with Primavera Renewables on a long-term 2-Megawatt (MW) power purchase agreement. Primavera’s utility scale wave energy plant will be located some 2.5 miles off the Humboldt County coast in Northern California. Primavera’s system consists of modular AquaBuOYs moored at the offshore location. Energy transfer takes place by converting the vertical component of wave kinetic energy into pressurized seawater and then to a turbine and generator for seafloor cable transmission to the on-shore grid. The PG&E project will generate 3,854 MWh of clean, renewable electricity annually. |
| Reference(s): (Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Finavera Press Release, December 18, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.finavera.com/files/2007-12-18%20Finavera%20Renewables%20signs%20power%20purchase%20agreement%20with%20PG&E.pdf |
| 327 2007-12-28 “Name and Shame” Website Maps Locations of 4,000 Polluters in China. |
| Ma-Jun, founder of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, has developed a Chinese language “name and shame” website with an “Air Pollution Map” that identifies the locations of more than 4,000 air polluters in the country, including 40 multi-national corporations. Companies can get their names removed from Mr. Ma’s website by correcting problems and asking a third party to audit operations. The move highlights a push by environmental activists in China to put pressure on polluters. The air pollution map follows last year’s water pollution site that listed 9,000 water polluting companies in China, including multinationals such as Carlsberg. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, December 14, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c177f1aa-a9cf-11dc-aa8b-0000779fd2ac.html |
| 326 2007-12-21 NOAA Sponsors New Guidebook on Climate Adaptation for Local Governments. |
| “Preparing for Climate Change” is a new 172 page report produced by the Climate Impacts Group, ICLEI, and King County, Washington. The NOAA-funded Guidebook is designed to facilitate planning for climate impacts by specifying practical steps and strategies that can be used to build community resilience into the future. It offers a 14-step checklist to scope climate impacts across major sectors, building support for climate change preparation, building a climate preparedness team, conducting vulnerability assessments, as well as developing a preparedness plan and measures of resilience to track progress in plan implementation. |
| Reference(s): (King County Washington News Release, September 11, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.metrokc.gov/exec/news/2007/0912globalwarming.aspx |
| 326 2007-12-21 “Project Laundry List” Promotes “Right to Dry.” |
| A new non-profit organization, “Project Laundry List” has been established to promote the right to air-dry clothes. The group uses art, advocacy and education as it promotes the “right-to-dry.” Currently only three states -- Florida, Hawaii and Utah--have laws written broadly enough to protect clotheslines. Project Laundry List’s slogan, with apologies to Benjamin Franklin, is: “We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately." |
| Reference(s): (Project Laundry List, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.laundrylist.org/index2.htm |
| 326 2007-12-21 Europeans Ready CO2 Labeling for Cars Akin to Cigarette Health Warnings. |
| The European Commission is expected soon to recommend rules on car advertising akin to the health warnings on cigarette packs. Carmakers would have to devote at least 20% of the space on advertisements to data on carbon dioxide emissions “in an approved format, ” according to a draft report. |
| Reference(s): (The Financial Times, December 13, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/caf49268-a91d-11dc-ad9e-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1 |
| 326 2007-12-21 Ceravision Designs Low-Cost, High-Efficiency Lamp Without Electrodes. |
| Scientists at UK’s Ceravision have designed a new form of lamp that eliminates the need for electrodes. The device uses microwaves to transform electricity into bright light and through a process that is energy-efficient. The Ceravision lamp has efficiency greater than 50%. Because the lamp has no filament scientists believe it can last for decades. An added advantage is that the lamp is mercury-free. |
| Reference(s): (The Economist, September 8, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.economist.com/search/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9719129 |
| 325 2007-12-14 First Legally Enforceable GHG Limits for Real Estate Development. |
| The State of Massachusetts has approved an initial environmental review pact for a Harvard University property development that sets the first legally enforceable limit on greenhouse gas emissions from a major real estate development in the nation. Conditions agreed to by Harvard include a voluntary commitment to construct its Science Complex buildings so as to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from energy use by 50% compared with national ASHRAE standards. The action follows Massachusetts’ first-in-the-nation GHG Policy that requires proponents of certain projects to quantify the GHG emissions associated with their projects and describe the steps they could take to avoid or mitigate such emissions. |
| Reference(s): (Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Press Release, September 17, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.mass.gov/envir/press/pressreleases/091807_harvard_allston.pdf |
| 325 2007-12-14 “Ecothresholds Project” Studies Role of Thresholds in Global Change. |
| The Heinz Center, The Nature Conservancy, and the Joint Global Change Research Institute, have begun the Ecothresholds Project. The intent of the Project is to promote understanding of the physical, natural and social dynamics that underlie ecological thresholds in order to best inform ongoing adaptation measure and response options across scales of decision-making. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the US National Academy of Sciences have each suggested that ecological systems may not always change gradually and that a better understanding of thresholds and uncertainties is required. The Project is developing a framework for relating and understanding threshold dynamics, particularly related to global changes in climate and land use. |
| Reference(s): (Heinz Center, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ecothresholds.org |
| 325 2007-12-14 Firefly Unveils Carbon-Graphite Foam as Alternative to Pb-Acid Batteries. |
| Firefly Energy has developed an innovative material science that it claims removes almost all limitations on current lead-acid batteries. It uses a new architecure that features carbon-graphite foam grids that give positive and negative plates enormous surface area advantages over conventional lead-acid grid structures. This provides enhanced fast recharge capability, greater high-rate/low-temperature discharge times, and a much-improved active material utilization level (from a historical 20-50% to the range of 70-90%.) Firefly says its performance parameters are comparable to advanced materials batteries (i.e. Li-ion) but a much lower costs. |
| Reference(s): (Firefly Energy, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.fireflyenergy.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=204&Itemid=89 |
| 324 2007-12-07 Red Barn Nets First Sale Under U.S. Nutrient Trading Program. |
| Red Barn Trading Co. has executed the first nutrient credit sale under an initiative designed to clean-up the State of Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams and help the State meet its obligations to improve Chesapeake Bay water quality. Nutrient and sediment trading is a market-based program that provides incentives for entities to go beyond statutory or regulatory goals. The credits can then be traded to others to help them meet their goals. Red Barn’s landmark first sale covers credits over a five-year period for a Susquehanna County development which is using credits toward permitting a package sewage treatment plant for a different residential development. Red Barn’s trade is the first related to compliance with Chesapeake Bay standards. |
| Reference(s): (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Daily Update, November 2, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/news/cwp/view.asp?Q=514426&A=3 |
| 324 2007-12-07 SustainUS Paper Competition Seeks Citizen Scientists. |
| CitizenScience of SustainUS is a nation-wide youth-led non-profit organization committed to providing a platform for young people to engage in policy discourse and share scientific expertise as it relates to sustainable development. In a paper competition, which closes January 1, 2008, students will focus on selected themes to be addressed at the upcoming UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), making technical aspects of those themes relevant and understandable to the general public and to influence sound public policy. This year’s UNCSD topics are Africa, Agriculture, Desertification, Drought, Land, and Rural Development. The annual competition winners have their work published in the on-line journal CITIZEN SCIENTIST and are given the opportunity to present at the UNCSD meetings in New York in May 2008. |
| Reference(s): (SustainUS, 2007 Link(s)*: http://sustainus.org/images/stories/CitSci/2008/2008_call_for_papers.doc |
| 324 2007-12-07 43% of Canadians Live in Cities with Residential Pesticide Prohibitions. |
| As of November, over 13.7 million Canadians, 43% of the country’s population, live in cities or towns that ban or greatly reduce the application of residential pesticides. This figure includes the “gold standard” province-wide protection provided under Quebec’s Pesticide Management Code. The largest municipality with the ban is Toronto, at 2.5 million, and the smallest is Sainte-Paule at 229. The aggregate number of pesticide by-laws currently stands at 136, with an additional 14 pesticide by-laws at the draft stage pending adoption. |
| Reference(s): (Mike Christie, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.flora.org/healthyottawa/BylawList.pdf |
| 323 2007-11-30 Germany to Require RE on New Homes and Vehicle Taxes Based on Emissions. |
| German Chancellor Angela Merkel has confirmed that her cabinet will next week adopt aggressive new measures to cut greenhouse gases. One measure requires all new or renovated homes to install equipment to generate energy or heat water for central heating or domestic use. Technologies could include solar, geothermal or other renewable energy systems. Germany’s 16 states are expected also to change the basis of vehicle taxation from engine size to level of emissions. Both measures are expected to create big markets for environmentally friendly products. The German government projects cost savings from the measure to exceed $5 billion by 2020. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, November 28, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/557a1dd4-9d54-11dc-af03-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1 |
| 323 2007-11-30 CARMA Database has CO2 Emissions for 50,000 Power Plants Worldwide. |
| Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA) is a massive database containing information on the carbon emissions of over 50,000 power plants and 4,000 power companies worldwide. CARMA is the first global inventory of a major, emissions-producing sector of the economy. CARMA reports emissions for the year 2000, the current year, and the future based on published utility plans. CARMA also aggregates data on individual plants to the level of operating companies, parent corporations, and a variety of geographic entities such as states and cities. Additional reports are prepared for U.S. metropolitan areas, congressional districts and counties - all of which are updated quarterly. |
| Reference(s): (Carbon Monitoring for Action, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.carma.org |
| 323 2007-11-30 Arizona Lighting Company Buys Back Incandescent Bulbs to Spur CFL Transition. |
| An innovative program to spur the use of compact fluorescent bulbs and recapture them for safe handling has begun at Sun Lighting, with outlets in both Tucson and Tempe, Arizona. Under The Company’s “Bulb Buyback Program” customers who bring in old incandescent or fluorescent bulbs for recycling receive retail trade value for the bulbs, working or not. The bulbs are recycled at no cost to the customer at the HTR Group resource recovery facility in Montana, where 100% of everything collected, including sockets, glass, wire, and metals such as mercury, is recycled. The Company offers the buy-back money as a credit for buying new energy-efficient bulbs - which are themselves eligible for a full retail buy-back at the end of their useful lives. |
| Reference(s): (Arizona Daily Star, November 11, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.azstarnet.com/business/211003 |
| 322 2007-11-23 GreenRoofs Portal Provides Registry of Professionals, Projects and Performance. |
| The website GreenRoofs.com is the international green roof industry’s resource and online information portal. Now eight years old, the website has the mission of providing and facilitating free information on the green roof movement. Among its features are a Green Roofs Forum for the exchange of information and comments on topics such as design/build, research and policy. It also features a database with over 640 green roof projects from around the world. The portal contains a “Green Roofs 101” sub-web site as well as guest feature articles, a green roofs resources directory and a classifieds section for professional assistance on all aspects of the green roof topic. The “upcoming events” section lists beginners, intermediate and advanced classes in green roof design/installation, drainage and green walls. |
| Reference(s): (Greenroofs.com, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.greenroofs.com/ |
| 322 2007-11-23 Food and Water Watch Issues New Booklet – “Take Back the Tap.” |
| A new 18-page bottled water report by Food and Water Watch, ”Take Back the Tap,” explain reasons why choosing tap water over bottled water is better for one’s health, one’s pocketbook, and the environment. The booklet discuses the issue of comparative purity of tap and bottled water as well as issues rising from the use of chemical plasticizers in water bottles. The report also identifies the magnitude of the disposal challenge posed by the billions of plastic water bottles produced annually. “Take Back the Tap” contains a guide to home tap water filtration, which it argues is cheaper and safer than bottled water, 40% of which is simply purified tap water itself. |
| Reference(s): (Food and Water Watch, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/pubs/reports/take-back-the-tap |
| 322 2007-11-23 “Kitchen Sync” Podcast Covers Foodsheds, Food Security and Healthy Eating. |
| Well-known chef, author and publisher Kate Manchester recently began the Kitchen Sync podcast to cover issues related to food security and nutrition. It was started to broaden her community of friends in food “by sharing information, ideas, inspiration and news that affects our food supply, foodshed, and the health of our local as well as global community.” The podcast invites participants to become engaged in specific projects and solicits feedback on all content of the show. Since 2006, Manchester has also been publishing “Edible Santa Fe,” a quarterly publication that celebrates the abundance of local foods, season by season. |
| Reference(s): (Kitchen Sync Podcast, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.kitchensyncpodcast.com/ |
| 321 2007-11-16 “Louisville Charter” Helps Communities Phase-out Chemicals. |
| The Louisville Charter for Safer Chemicals was designed by a network of groups and individuals with a common goal to protect human health and the environment from exposures to unnecessary chemicals. The Charter calls for eliminating the use and emissions of hazardous chemicals through substitution, redesign of processes, and re-examination of product function. It also calls for the phase-out of persistent, bio-accumulative and highly toxic chemicals, giving the public the full right-to-know on chemicals use issues in their communities, and taking action on early warnings even when some uncertainty remains regarding the nature and magnitude of harm represented by a chemical. Nearly 100 endorsing groups range from the United SteelWorkers to Hartford Citizens in Action to Breast Cancer Watch. |
| Reference(s): (The Louisville Charter for Safer Chemicals, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.louisvillecharter.org/thecharter.shtml |
| 321 2007-11-16 Nature’s 100 Best - “Mentor Organisms” Help Zero-out Waste. |
| “Biomimicry” author Janine Benyus and eco-entrepreneur and educator Gunter Pauli are teaming in the development of a list of “Nature’s 100 Best” solutions to help businesses and communities emulate elegant, non-toxic approaches to meeting human needs harmlessly. Entries on the list will be unpatented, making them available to everyone. The “mentor organisms” studied by Benyus’ team reveal ways to control bacteria without breeding resistance, harvest metals from polluted waters, and make flexible, inexpensive solar cells that work on vertical surfaces in low light. Companies that profit from concepts in the 100 Best will be encouraged to donate a percentage of profits to protect the habitat of the organism that inspired the innovation. “It is a way of finally saying ‘thank you’ as a culture", says Benyus. |
| Reference(s): (ZERI, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.zeri.org/natures100.html http://www.bioneers.org/node/2337 |
| 321 2007-11-16 Tesco Downsizes and “Greens” its “Fresh and Easy” U.S. Chain. |
| One of the UK’s top grocery retailers, Tesco, is branching out to the US in different style. Its “Fresh and Easy” stores will be a quarter of the size of typical U.S. grocery stores and will be located close to where people live, both in affluent and low-to-moderate income neighborhoods. The Fresh and Easy brand stresses all natural ingredients and environmental awareness. Fresh vegetables and fruits are packaged and displayed without energy-consuming chiller cabinets. The green-painted stores will include parking reserved for hybrid cars and bicycle racks while its distribution center will have one of the largest solar roofs in the U.S. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, November 5, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/946bf560-8b09-11dc-95f7-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1 |
| 320 2007-11-09 Waterless Carwash Options Move From Europe and Australia to the U.S. |
| Waterless carwash techniques have been popular in Australia and Europe for several years and now they are making their way to the United States. "Eco Touch" is one such product, its formula a combination of organic light soaps and surfactants, free of petroleum, silicone or kerosene. When applied, it encapsulates dirt which is then wiped away with a microfiber towel. Other products include Lucky Earth's "Green Earth Waterless Carwash" solution introduced this fall as well as the "No Water" wash brand, which has been selling in Europe for the last six years. Lucky Earth's Lisa Perry projects a savings of 28 billion gallons of water if half of U.S. car owners used a waterless carwash just once a month instead of a conventional carwash. |
| Reference(s): (The New York Times, October 24, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/automobiles/autospecial/24CARE.html?_r=1&oref=slogin |
| 320 2007-11-09 Free Bike Commuting Classes Give Away Helmets, Pumps, Locks and Lunch. |
| Pima County and the City of Tucson have combined to offer a series of free bike safety classes to help spur bike ridership in the Tucson metropolitan area. The classes are taught by League of American Bicyclists Cycling Instructors. Classes are targeted to both general audiences as well as special "street savvy, confidence and safety" classes for women, "training and fitness" classes for advanced riders, "getting to work safely and cheaply" courses for bike commuters, and an introductory kid's course for children and their parents. To support development of a bicycle ethic among class participants, sponsors provide free equipment such as a bike light kit, a bike frame pump, helmet, insulated water bottle, safety reflective tape, tire levers, as well as a free lunch for all. |
| Reference(s): (Walkin' and Rollin', July-August 2007 Link(s)*: http://bikeped.pima.gov/Safety/October-November%20Schedule%2007.pdf |
| 320 2007-11-09 "Fill Your Plate" Database Links Arizonans to Local Produce. |
| The Arizona Farm Bureau (AFB) has developed a "Fill Your Plate" database and matrix on its website that allows citizens to forge a relationship between Arizona's farmers and ranchers. The database allows users to enter an item, like chile or corn, and select a city to search for producers there who sell directly to the public. Many growers have a link to their own websites on the AFB database where people can learn more about produce and product distribution and seasonal availability. Users benefit by knowing where to purchase Arizona-grown -and-raised produce and products, from amaranth greens to wool. Arizona farmers and ranchers benefit from the increased exposure of their quality products and services. |
| Reference(s): (Arizona Farm Bureau, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.azfb.org |
| 319 2007-09-21 Sony Develops “Bio-Battery” Generating Electricity From Sugar. |
| Sony announced recently the development of a “bio-battery” that generates electricity from carbohydrates (sugar) utilizing enzymes as its catalyst, through the application of power generation principles found in living organisms. Test cells of this battery have achieved a power output of 50 mW, currently the world’s highest level for passive-type batteries. The output is sufficient to power music play back on a memory-type player. Sugar is a naturally occurring energy source produced by plants through photosynthesis. It is therefore regenerative, and can be found in most areas of the earth, underlining the potential for sugar-based bio batteries as an ecologically-friendly energy device of the future. |
| Reference(s): (Sony Press Release, August 23, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200708/07-074E/index.html |
| 319 2007-09-21 “Forests Now” Pushes Valuation of Carbon Stocks and Forest Ecosystems. |
| The Global Canopy Program is sponsoring “The Forest Now Declaration” in an effort to encourage early government action and new market mechanisms that recognize the value of carbon stocks and forest ecosystem services. Major sponsoring organizations include Conservation International, Wetlands International, The Green Belt Movement, and Sustainable Forestry Management Ltd. The group’s aim is to broaden awareness and action that will incentivize the regeneration and sustainable use of degraded land and ecosystems and remove incentives to forest destruction. The group’s message states that “This is not just about carbon.” Forest ecosystem services targeted for protection include rainfall generation, regional climate regulation, habitat conservation, watershed stabilization, and soil stabilization. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, September 12, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.forestsnow.org http://www.globalcanopy.org |
| 319 2007-09-21 Bamboo Frame Bike Design Takes Hold In Ghana. |
| Master bicycle designer Craig Calfee first designed and built a bamboo bicycle frame in 1996. What began as a publicity stunt has now matured into a growing initiative to create cost-effective and eco-friendly transport in the West African nation of Ghana. With funding from the Earth Institute, Calfee is using native bamboo and the interest of locals to show the value to village economies that comes from inexpensive, reliable transport bicycles. Fast-growing, renewable bamboo turns out to be easy to work with, having a higher strength-to-weight ratio than steel and its vibration dampening is better than carbon fiber, according to Calfee. |
| Reference(s): (Bicycling, October, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.worldbike.org/craig-calfee-collaborate-columbia-team-bamboo-bikes-ghana |
| 318 2007-09-14 “The Big Green Box” Program Eases Battery and Electronics Recycling. |
| A national program called “The Big Green Box” offers companies, consumers, municipalities and other generators a low-cost, easy and feasible way to recycle batteries and portable electronic devices. The Big Green Box is a corrugated container that, when purchased, comes pre-labeled and includes pre-paid shipping to and from the recycling facilities (Ohio and California) as well as all recycling fees. Users simply buy the box, fill it, seal it, and call UPS for pick-up and delivery. The 13”x13”x8.5” box has a 43-pound weight limit and comes with instructions, self-adhesive tape and built-in insert flaps for safety in shipping. The Big Green Box meets USDOT and UN packaging standards and is approved by the General Services Administration for use by the Federal government. |
| Reference(s): (The Big Green Box, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.biggreenbox.com/Page.bok?template=faq |
| 318 2007-09-14 On-Line Map Shows Factory Farms and Animals by State and County. |
| The organization, Food and Water Watch, has produced an on-line data base with maps showing the number of animals on factory farms in each state and county as well as the number of factory farms in each state and county. The animals include cattle, hogs, dairy, broilers and layers. Data on numbers and locations of farms and animals are taken from US Department of Agriculture census information. Users of the Food and Water Watch map search tool can see top factory farm polluters by county and state for each of the animals and some combination of animals listed above. |
| Reference(s): (Food and Water Watch, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.factoryfarmmap.org/ |
| 318 2007-09-14 Michigan Survey Shows Organic Yields Equal or Beat Conventional Farming. |
| Researchers at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment surveyed almost 300 organic farms and found that organic yields equal or beat yields from conventional agriculture. In addition to equal or greater yields, the researchers found that those yields could be accomplished using existing quantities of organic fertilizer, without putting more farmland into production. The report published in the Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems journal reports that model estimates indicate that organic methods could produce enough food on a global per capita basis to sustain the current human population, and potentially an even larger population without increasing the agricultural land base. |
| Reference(s): (University of Michigan Press Release, July 10, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.snre.umich.edu/news/details.php?id=1774 |
| 317 2007-09-07 Argentine Company Develops Local Supplier Program. |
| Ledesma is an Argentine-owned company active mainly in the sugar, paper, and fruit industries. The company employs more than 5,600 people in Argentina and it strives to align its economic growth with social programs and environmental protection. Its Local Supplier Development Program aims to strengthen job-creation in and the economic development of the province of Jujuy, particularly in the area where employees live. The company decided to identify Jujuy-based small and medium enterprises that could, with management assistance and finance, replace other suppliers from outside Jujuy. Ledesma benefits from reduced transport costs and gains the opportunity to have its suppliers closer to its operations. Eleven Jujuy companies took part in the first development cycle and their combined sales to Ledesma increased by 80%. |
| Reference(s): (World Business Council on Sustainable Development, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.wbcsd.ch/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MjUzMTk |
| 317 2007-09-07 Team Seeks Beneficial Genetic Traits of Rice to Magnify in Field Tests. |
| A new collaboration between the University of Arizona and the Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, China, is seeking to grow more rice per acre under environmentally-friendly conditions. At a Tucson Arizona laboratory, researchers from the Shennong Center for Crop Functional Genomics are cultivating, replicating and analyzing rice DNA to identify and isolate genetic traits that can lead to better crops. Knowledge gleaned from lab research is taken to rice fields in China where rice varieties with natural drought-tolerant, disease-resistant characteristics are planted. The world’s rice consumers could see benefits from the project within five years, according to the researchers. |
| Reference(s): (Tucson Citizen, August 27, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/61207.php |
| 317 2007-09-07 Retail Giants Lead Move to Bovine Growth Hormone-Free Milk. |
| Retail food giant Kroger’s recent ban on the sale of genetically modified (recombinant bovine growth hormone - rBGH) milk is the latest indication of an rBGH-free trend sweeping the nation’s dairy industry. All milk produced in Oregon is now rBGH-free. Other dairies and retail businesses banning the GMO additive include Wilcox Dairy, Sinton Dairy in Colorado, Great Plains Dairy in North Dakota, Associated Food Stores in Utah, and the 900 Publix Super Markets in the South. Chipotle Mexican Grill is serving only rBGH-free sour cream in all of its 530 or more restaurants. Starbucks has asked all of its suppliers to go rBGH-free while California Dairies, which produces 8% of the milk supplied in the U.S., banned the use of rBGH this month. |
| Reference(s): (Organic Consumers Association, August 7, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_6688.cfm |
| 316 2007-08-31 Slow Food Inspiring Slow Everything. |
| When Carlo Petrini founded the Slow Food Movement he had little way of knowing how his philosophy would inspire many new “Slow” movements. The Slow Food movement was developed to celebrate our global heritage of small-scale quality foods that are under threat of industrial standardization at the dinner table. Now there are: “Slow Cities,” a global network of cities that prefer to restore old buildings and create walking paths instead of developing malls (www.cittaslow.net); “Slow Journalism,” a new approach to news reporting in which stories are prepared carefully with a good grasp of the facts; “Slow Management,” a new approach to running an organization (www.slowmanagement.nl); “Slow Design,” featuring radical concepts, like an email service that integrates a deliberate slowdown in the delivery of digital mail (www.slowlab.net): along with Slow Home (www.theslowhome.com), Slow Trade, and Slow Travel (www.slowtrav.com). |
| Reference(s): (Ode Magazine, September 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.odemagazine.com |
| 316 2007-08-31 8,550 Chubb Insurance Agents Gain Green Energy Underwriters Team. |
| The Chubb Group of Insurance Companies has formed a green energy team made up of experienced underwriters and loss control specialists. Chubb has taken this step in response to the accelerating development of environmentally-friendly energy sources, products and technologies. Chubb’s member insurers form a multi-billion dollar organization providing property and casualty insurance through a global network of 8,500 independent agents and brokers. Building on its underwriting and loss control expertise in the energy sector, Chubb will broaden its strategic scope for clients in the areas of wind/solar/geothermal power generation, renewable and clean fuels, energy-efficient products and renewable energy users, including businesses with energy-efficient and environmentally friendly properties. |
| Reference(s): (Chubb, August 15, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.chubb.com/corporate/chubb7645.html |
| 316 2007-08-31 High Mowing Seeds Grows Its Near-Exclusive Organic Seeds Business. |
| High Mowing Seeds, located in Wolcott, Vermont, is an organic seed producer and seller, one of two companies in the country that sell exclusively organic seeds. It is the only company focused on commercial growers. The company both produces and sells organic seeds and is on a steep growth trajectory. In six years it has grown from $35,000 in annual sales to $800,000. It harvests its own 40-50 acres in Vermont and cleans and packages 350 different varieties of seeds. High Mowing Seeds supplies gardeners and farmers with open-pollinated, heirloom, and hybrid seed varieties in small packets or large bulk amounts. Over 750,000 packets were sold in 2006. |
| Reference(s): (Honolulu Advertiser, August 18, 2007 Link(s)*: http://highmowingseeds.com/ http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Aug/18/bz/hawaii708180351.html |
| 315 2007-08-17 Retail Products Beginning to Carry Carbon Intensity Labels. |
| A bag of Walkers potato chips in the UK now sports a label stating that the 34.5 gram bag also “contains” 75 grams of carbon dioxide. The 75 grams is a calculation of the amount of gas released into the atmosphere as a result of making that amount of product, from growing the potato to packaging and distributing the finished chips. A handful of companies in the UK are now working with the Carbon Trust to put carbon footprint information on their products. In addition to supermarket giant Tesco, others embracing the labeling partnership with Carbon Trust include J Sainsbury, Marks and Spencer, and Cadbury Schweppes. All of the companies that the Carbon Trust has worked with on labels have found that they could make energy savings as a result of what they discovered during the process - cutting their costs as well as their carbon output. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, August 13, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com |
| 315 2007-08-17 Friends Center Turns “Quaker Gray” Into “Quaker Green.” |
| The largest “vegetated roof” in Philadelphia is taking shape atop the Friends Center, a 34-year old Quaker office building downtown. The Quaker community determined that “greening” its structure was the only way to be true to Quaker principles of peace, simplicity and social justice. The building also has a 10 kW array of solar electric panels, a water capture system that will eliminate almost all of its potable water bill, and it will soon draw heat from six 1,500-foot-deep geothermal wells under the sidewalk. These will all help, as Center spokeswoman Patricia McBee notes, “turn Quaker Gray into Quaker Green.” The first engineering firm for the Center, when presented with the plans for the green makeover, said “That’s impossible, you can’t do that.” That firm was replaced, said McBee. |
| Reference(s): (Philadelphia Inquirer, July 6, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_region/20070706_Friends_indeed_to_conservation.html |
| 315 2007-08-17 4,000 Mile Cross-Country Bike Ride Becomes the “Ride to Sustain.” |
| Last month Colin Davis began a 4,000 mile bicycle ride across the United States aiming to raise awareness of climate change and to seek out and highlight what innovative individuals and companies can do to curb their greenhouse gas emissions. Davis is pulling a bicycle trailer full of camera gear to film a documentary on sustainability along the way. His website blog is updated as he moves from town to town. The website also features a section called “Sustainability Resources” offering information on climate science, renewable energy, green building, environmental economics and clean technology. Finally, his website lets readers post their own questions for Davis to ask as he interviews climate and sustainability experts along the journey. |
| Reference(s): (Ride to Sustain, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ridetosustain.com/ |
| 314 2007-08-10 Columbia College Chicago Grounds MFA Design Program in Sustainability. |
| Beginning this fall, Columbia College Chicago’s Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) programs in Architectural Studies and Interior Architecture will be centered on sustainable design, making Columbia among the first schools in the nation to ground its academic architecture design training in sustainable practice. The programs were developed in collaboration with the City of Chicago’s Department of Environment and will feature cooperative arrangements with the Chicago Center for Green Technologies. The curriculum will prepare students with knowledge and skills regarding sustainable practice in multiple areas of design. The MFA programs will offer concentrations in the areas of sustainable design, museum design, adaptive reuse and exhibit/furniture/product design. |
| Reference(s): (Columbia College Press Release, July 19, 2007 Link(s)*: http://web3.colum.edu/press_releases/archives/005596.php |
| 314 2007-08-10 Bioneers Themes Influence College and High School Classrooms. |
| Across the United States themes from the annual Bioneers Conference are making their way into college and high school classrooms. At Georgia Tech, John Mlade’s class “Learning from the Bioneers” is cross-listed in biology and architecture. Mlade’s students are taking on a service-learning project involving the Georgia Tech food system, with the intention of making recommendations for bringing a sustainable food system to the campus of 15,000 students. At Chico State, Jillian Buckholz’ classroom created a range of projects based on experience at the 2006 Bioneers. These included mushroom composting inspired by mycologist Paul Stamets, a film screening of Maquillapolis, and appearances on local radio stations to discuss the themes and experiences from the conference. In Santa Fe, Earth Care International has created Ecology and Community, a year-long course for students in grades 10-12 examining ecology, social justice and economics through the operating systems of water, waste, energy, and food. |
| Reference(s): (Bioneers, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.bioneers.org/node/1495 |
| 314 2007-08-10 Children and Nature Network Wants “No Child Left Inside.” |
| The Children and Nature Network, formed in April 2006, sees itself as an umbrella organization for local campaigns around the country aiming to reconnect children with nature. Connecticut talks about “No Child Left Inside,” and in Texas it’s called “Grow Outside.” The Network is responding to the condition described as “Nature Deficit Disorder” coined by Richard Louv in his book Last Child in the Woods. The Network has a website that provides news from around the country and disseminates research and feature articles from people working to better understand the benefits children receive from enhanced contact with nature in the way of creativity and improved problem-solving skills, better self-esteem, and improved academic performance. |
| Reference(s): (Bioneers, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.bioneers.org/node/1498 |
| 313 2007-08-03 Washington County First to Mandate Climate Analysis in State EIS Reviews. |
| King County Washington Executive Ron Sims has issued an Executive Order requiring County departments to consider climate change impacts as part of their project reviews under the Washington Environmental Policy Act (SEPA). The Order, first of its kind in the country, notes that when acting as a SEPA lead agency King County is in a unique position to require appropriate consideration of climate impacts when considering both public and private projects undergoing County review. The Executive Order becomes effective September 1, 2007. Earlier Executive Orders in King County require County departments to employ innovative environmental management and to employ coordinated strategies of land use to mitigate and adapt to global warming. |
| Reference(s): (King County Executive Order, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.metrokc.gov/exec/news/2007/pdf/climateimpacts.pdf |
| 313 2007-08-03 Israeli Architecture Students Design Low-Tech Water Vapor Harvest System. |
| Students at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed a low-tech way to harvest water vapor for drinking. Their system, called WatAir, resembles a 20-foot-wide inverted tent. At night, water vapor gathers on its sloping sides. Droplets form – up to 12 gallons worth by morning – and gravitationally funnel moisture into a collective source at the bottom. Inspired by spider webs and the dew-catching properties of leaves, WatAir can be made with canvas sheets or other fabrics. It is designed to be light enough to airlift to remote regions and compact enough to fit on urban rooftops. |
| Reference(s): (Inhabit, April 16, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/04/16/watair-turning-air-into-water/ |
| 313 2007-08-03 “Green Savers” Program Promotes Plant and Ecosystem Literacy. |
| The Tree and Environment (TE) Network non-profit in Japan has been implementing a training and testing program for “Green Savers.” A Green Saver is a person who has acquired sufficient knowledge of plants and ecosystems from a scientific and cultural perspective to then work on a variety of environmental conservation activities. The TE network has designated ten sites in Japan where people can directly interact with nature, including deep village forests urban green spaces and other areas. Green Savers play leadership roles in promoting local conservation activities. By January of this year, more than 1,900 people were certified as Green Savers. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, July 29, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/1789-e |
| 312 2007-07-27 Sustainability Discounts at Permaculture Credit Union. |
| Now seven years old, the Permaculture Credit Union (PCU) continues to be an active reinvestment tool for people who believe in the ethics of permaculture – care of the earth and the care of people. PCU applies pooled financial resources of its members for reinvestment in earth-friendly and socially responsible loans and investments. PCU provides sustainability discounts of about .75% off current loan rates for purposes such as permaculture landscaping, solar energy, bicycles, land and home equity, rainwater harvesting, alternative fuel vehicles, and more. PCU assets passed the $3 million mark in the second quarter of this year, well ahead of its financial goals for the period. |
| Reference(s): (Permaculture Credit Union, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.pcuonline.org |
| 312 2007-07-27 Somali Refugees Bring Organic Farming Skills to New Colorado Home. |
| Three years ago, Somali Bantu families who had relocated to Denver as part of a national resettlement program, began farming a small plot of land in east Denver. This month marks the first time the Bantu farmers are taking their organically grown vegetables to market in an effort to forge a path to becoming full-time farmers. Their original plot of land was soon too small and so they acquired access to land at Delaney Farms, a Denver Urban Gardens community farm in nearby Aurora, Colorado. Proceeds from the sale of the crops are going into an account to be used for future farm investment. The Bantu not only work their own area but also care for the entire farm as part of the community agreement. “My life is in the farm because we have a community of Somali Bantu here,” says farmer Rukia Chiukalal. |
| Reference(s): (The Denver Post, July 27, 2007 Link(s)*: |
| 312 2007-07-27 Study Shows Organic Crops Less Harmful Than Chemical-Treated or GM Crops. |
| A recent Science magazine article reports on the first study to analyze environmental impact data from field experiments worldwide involving corn and cotton plants with a Bt gene inserted for its insecticidal properties. Researchers analyzed 42 field experiments for the effects of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) gene modification, conventional chemical pesticides, and organic farming methods on beneficial organisms such as ladybird beetles, earthworms, bees, and other non-target insects. The study found that organically grown crops appeared to be better for the environment than either Bt crops or conventional crops treated with pesticides. Researchers said that compared with organically grown crops, Bt crops reduced the abundance of some types of beneficial, non-target insects, worms, and other species. The study is accompanied by a searchable global database for agricultural and environmental scientists studying the effects of genetically modified crops. |
| Reference(s): (Science, June 8, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/316/5830/1475 |
| 311 2007-07-20 Sustainable Colorado Eatery Has No Trash Cans. |
| V.G. Burgers is a plant-based fast food restaurant in Boulder that lets customers eat their way toward sustainability. The restaurant’s green attributes include the following: the menu offers only plant-based food, the restaurant is 100% wind powered, its food containers and utensils are all made from compostable, biodegradable plant starch (potato, corn, and sugar cane), and the restaurant itself is zero-waste, having no trash cans. V.G. Burgers donates all left-over food to local animal rescue efforts. V.G. Burgers founder Tim Gargiulo plans to open stores in Ft. Collins and Denver soon, and then on to locations on the East and West Coasts. |
| Reference(s): (The Denver Post, April 21, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5718930 http://www.vgburgers.com |
| 311 2007-07-20 Scientists Find Compost With Beneficial Fungus Can Replace Chemical Fungicide. |
| Agricultural Research Service plant pathologists have found that a mix of peat, compost, and the beneficial fungus Trichoderma hamatum is custom-tailored to fight plant diseases and can work much better than systemic fungicides. The Trichoderma fungus prevents Botrytis from infecting fresh plant wounds and also produces compounds that keep Botrytis spores from germinating. In a test with begonias, the scientists found that the mix reduced Botrytis gray mold caused by the Botrytis cinerea fungus better than did the standard fungicide chlorothalonil. This gray mold is the most common disease of greenhouse flower crops. Another benefit of this systemic mixture, as opposed to spraying the plant leaves, is that it does not leave a residue on the plant that harms plant market value. |
| Reference(s): (Agricultural Research Service, June 15, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2007/070615.htm |
| 311 2007-07-20 California Alliance Develops Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices. |
| The California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA) has been created to promote the benefits of sustainable winegrowing practices, enlist industry commitment, and assist in implementing a sustainability program among its members. One Alliance member, Meridian Vineyards, has created a 60 acre wildlife corridor in its growing area and has installed hundreds of owl boxes to naturally control rodents. A key tool for the group is a Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices for vintners and growers to use in assessing their practices. Also, the California Wine Community Sustainability Report marks the first time an entire industry has used a common assessment tool to publicly report on the adoption of sustainable practices. |
| Reference(s): (California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.sustainablewinegrowing.org/aboutcswa.php |
| 310 2007-07-06 California and Washington Eliminate All New Coal Electric Capacity Additions. |
| On May 23, 2007, the California Energy Commission banned municipal utilities from entering into new contracts to purchase electricity emitting more than 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour generated. The commission imposed a similar ban for private utilities earlier this year. These actions effectively eliminate coal from California’s energy portfolio. Similar coal bans are included in a bill signed into law by Washington Governor Gregoire on May 3, 2007. |
| Reference(s): (High Country News, June 11, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=17057 |
| 310 2007-07-06 HSBC, Governments, Name High-Level Climate Advisors. |
| HSBC, the world’s third largest bank, has named Sir Nicolas Stern, former chief economist of the World Bank, as a special advisor on climate change. HSBC Chair Stephen Green noted that “this is the theme that will be with us for all our working careers and our children’s too – so I think it needs to be properly directed, guided and resourced.” Germany has named two high level climate advisors, the British government’s new Prime Minister Gordon Browne appointed Al Gore as advisor last October. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, July 3, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com |
| 310 2007-07-06 Honeybee Gardens Offers Ethical, Organic Body Care Products. |
| Peel-off, water-based, non-toxic, odor-free fingernail polish is one of several cosmetic and body care products offered by Honeybee Gardens. Its raw materials suppliers practice responsible harvesting, its packaging is 100% recycled content, and no products are tested on animals. Honeybee Garden’s contracted manufacturing facilities are located at many locations across the U.S. helping provide jobs for local economies. Its soap company in Pennsylvania provides product overruns to area charities and shelters for abused women and children and the homeless. |
| Reference(s): (Honeybee Gardens, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.honeybeegardens.com/mission.html |
| 310 2007-07-06 Students Combine Glycerin and Wine By-Product to Make a “Green” Polymer. |
| A team of engineering students at Oregon State University (OSU) have blended by-products from bio-diesel production and winemaking to produce an environmentally-friendly polymer that could one day replace polystyrene foam meat trays. It may also be valuable in the manufacture of furniture, particle board, fire logs, insulation, and even hair gel. The students combined glycerin, a by-product of bio-diesel production, and tartaric acid, a by-product of wine production, to achieve a hard, bubbly polymer. “Now it seems that even the waste from green industries can be put to another good use,” according to Dr. David Hackleman, Linus Pauling Chair at the OSU School of Engineering. |
| Reference(s): (Oregon State University, June 20, 2007 Link(s)*: http://oregonstate.edu/research/student/index.htm |
| 309 2007-06-29 Carbon-Trading Banks Move to Self-Regulation. |
| A group of more than ten banks, including Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, and Deutsche Bank, has agreed upon a self-regulating standard for the developing voluntary carbon credit markets. The banks agreed to base their carbon offset standard on a system of checks set up by the UN under the Kyoto protocol. Companies selling offsets based on the standard will have their operations checked by independent third parties to deter fraud. To conform, offsets must be based on reduction projects that use one of a small number of clear methodologies for cutting carbon. Also, companies cannot claim offsets from generating nuclear power or from large hydroelectric dams. |
| Reference(s): (The Financial Times, June 28, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com |
| 309 2007-06-29 BioBags v. Plastic: the Tale of Two Samoas. |
| Two Samoas, and two very different approaches to the problem of plastic bag litter on islands, litter that is not only unsightly and a use of non-renewable resources, but damaging to both avian and marine species. Stores in the U.S. territory of American Samoa, like most stores in the world, send customers away with their purchases held in conventional petroleum-plastic bags. Meanwhile, not far away, the independent island nation of Samoa, less economically-developed than its more well-to-do American cousins, has enacted a regulation that bans the importation and use of non-biodegradable plastic bags. Stores, public markets, and other retail establishments, not only on the main island of Upolu but on the more remote island of Savai’i as well, use biobags, the world’s largest brand of 100% biodegradable and compostable bags made from GMO-free starch. Printing on the bags tout their non-toxicity, soft touch, biodegradability, good air permeability, non-release of dioxins if burned, and the environmental contribution of these bags to the young generation of Samoans. |
| Reference(s): (Samoan Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.mnre.gov.ws/ |
| 309 2007-06-29 San Francisco Bans Public Purchase of Bottled Water for City Employees. |
| San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome has issued an executive order banning city departments from buying bottled water, even for water coolers. The mayor cited the environmental impact of making, transporting, and disposing of the bottles, as more than a billion of them end up in the State’s landfills each year. City and county offices must now dispense municipal tap water from a reservoir. At this June’s US Conference of Mayors meeting, Newsome, along with Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Ryback, introduced a resolution emphasizing municipal water quality protection and calling for a study of the impact of bottled water on city waste. The measure was passed by the Conference of Mayors. |
| Reference(s): (CNN.com, June 24, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/24/bottled.water.ap/index.html |
| 308 2007-06-15 Chattanooga’s Goats Succeed in Taking Out Invasive Kudzu. |
| The invasive kudzu vine runs rampant throughout much of the southeastern United States. Earth-friendly eradication efforts have not been plentiful until the appearance on the scene of kudzu-munching goats now being employed on Missionary Ridge above Chattanooga, Tennessee. There, the vine poses a safety issue where it drapes down over the entrance to a highway tunnel through the ridge. Chattanooga city officials hired a local farmer who released his goat herd on the ridge last fall and the vine has now been eaten away over both the tunnel and the hillside above. Llamas serve as guardians for the goats, keeping predator dogs at bay. The city recently sponsored a four-day academy for goat farmers, hoping to stimulate a micro-industry of kudzu-fighting hers for hire. |
| Reference(s): (The New York Times, June 5, 2007 Link(s)*: http://heraldtribune.com/article/20070605/ZNYT02/706050729 |
| 308 2007-06-15 Rensselaer Graduates Create “Greensulate” Insulation From Mushroom Spores. |
| Two Rensselaer graduates have created a patented “Greensulate” formula for sustainable insulation. Greensulate is an organic, fire-retardant board made of water, flour, oyster mushroom spores ( Pleurotus ostreatus) and perlite, a mineral blend found in potting soil. The inventors say that tests show it to be competitive with most insulation brands on the market. The process to make Greensulate requires little energy or expense as the product is grown from organic material. The oyster mycelia grow (consuming the flour starch) around the mineral particles to fill out a panel form which is then dried to prevent other mold from growing. The finished product resembles a giant cracker in texture. |
| Reference(s): (Newsday.com, June 9, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--mushroominsulatio0609jun09,0,4621127,print.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyor |
| 308 2007-06-15 Dutch Make Electricity From Seawater With “Reversed Electro Dialysis.” |
| Researchers at Wetsus, the innovative Dutch water technology institute, have developed a breakthrough technology for generating power from salt water. It features a generator, a flywheel, a few filters, and three containers of water, one filled with fresh water, one with salt water, and one a combination. When salt and fresh water sources are introduced into a membrane filter, the associated flywheel turns and electricity can be generated. In this “reversed electro dialysis” process, membranes separate the positively and negatively charged ions from one another. Each time an ion goes through the membrane 0.1 volt is created (about 5 watts per square meter of membrane). A square meter of filter material has dropped in cost to one Euro and a 20 kW project is now being completed in the town of Harlingen. |
| Reference(s): (Ode, March 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.blog4brains.com/2007/03/02/new-discovey-another-new-green-techonology |
| 307 2007-06-07 WiserEarth Provides NGO Directory for Sustainability and Justice Movement. |
| WiserEarth is a new community directory and networking forum for not-for-profit and non-governmental organizations addressing the central issues of our day: climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights, and more. It is an open source, community-editable international directory and networking forum that maps, links and empowers the hundreds of thousands of organizations within civil society that address social justice, poverty, and the environment. WiserEarth is the first of three projects to be launched under WISER (World Index for Social and Environmental Responsibility): WiserEarth will be followed by WiserBusiness and WiserGovernment respectively. Another WISER offshoot currently in development is the WiserCommons project. |
| Reference(s): (WiserEarth, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.wiserearth.org/ |
| 307 2007-06-07 FAO Conference Links Organic Agriculture to National Food Security. |
| A recent International Conference on Organic Agriculture and Food Security, organized by the Food and Agricultural Organization, has highlighted the potential for organic agriculture “to secure a global food supply, just as conventional agriculture is today, but with reduced environmental impact.” A paper at the conference calls on national governments to allocate resources for organic agriculture and to integrate it within their national agricultural development and poverty reduction strategies, with particular emphasis on the needs of vulnerable groups. It also insists on investment in human resource development and skill training in organic agriculture as part of sustainable development strategies. |
| Reference(s): (UN Food and Agriculture Organization, May 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.fao.org/organicag/ofs/index_en.htm |
| 307 2007-06-07 “Noah’s Ark” Seed Vault Takes Form in Norway’s High Arctic. |
| As a service to the world community, the Norwegian government is building the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the island of Svalbard, nearly a thousand kilometers north of mainland Norway. It is expected to store up to 3 million seed varieties in an effort to protect the world’s agricultural gene pool. Existing seed vaults safeguard roughly 1.5 million varieties but these collections are fragmentary and loosely organized. Many are vulnerable to threats from floods, civil strife and simple mismanagement. The Svalbard facility will be a backup to the backups, preserving the DNA of every crop on the planet along with wild relatives . The seeds will be released only if every other source has been depleted or destroyed. The Global Crop Diversity Trust is spearheading the project, expected to cost $6 million and be completed in October of this year. |
| Reference(s): (Global Crop Diversity Trust, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.croptrust.org/main/arctic.php?itemid=211 |
| 306 2007-05-25 Domani and Garnet Offer First Sustainability Insurance Program. |
| Domani Sustainability Consulting, an executive management consultancy, and Garnet Captive Insurance Services, have announced an alliance to create the first captive insurance program designed exclusively for companies that meet a series of sustainability guidelines. The program, called “Green,” is expected to reduce significantly the insurance premiums of companies that enroll. “Green” will offer worker’s compensation, general liability, and automotive liability insurance policies to qualified companies. Companies will be evaluated based on factors such as risk profile, business needs, and commitment to sustainability – measured through factors such as use of renewable energy, LEED certified buildings, energy efficiency best practices, and which provide services or products which support healthy lifestyles. |
| Reference(s): (MarketWire, May 15, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=253331&tsource=3 |
| 306 2007-05-25 Groovy Green Lists 100 Things You Can Do to Prepare for Peak Oil. |
| Two recent issues of Groovy Green contain a listing developed by Sharon Astyk of “100 Things You Can Do To Prepare Yourself For Peak Oil.” The list is intended for practical individual action in the face of coming expensive oil, but Astyk adds that it is also provides action ideas for responses to “whatever else comes down the pike.” Subject areas under which the action steps are clustered include: home, garden, clothing, family, community, and transportation. The peak oil tool kit also recommends many behavioral changes that will increase in value in the time of expensive energy. |
| Reference(s): (Groovy Green, March 5, 2007 Link(s)*: http://groovygreen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=347&Itemid=57 |
| 306 2007-05-25 “Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens” Works Throughout the UK. |
| The Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens (FCFCG) supports and represents 59 city farms, nearly 1,000 community gardens, 66 school farms, and over 200 city farms throughout the UK. The organization has a pool of seasonal fieldworkers to provide advice to new and existing member groups. The member farms and gardens engage over a half million volunteers each year and have a combined annual turnover of 40 million Pounds. The FCFCG also promotes the government’s Every Action Counts campaign aimed at helping community groups develop action plans as well as offering public liability insurance coverage for city farms, community gardens and allotments. |
| Reference(s): (Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.farmgarden.org.uk/ |
| 305 2007-05-18 British Columbia Announces Funding for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus Fleet. |
| The British Columbia (BC) government in Canada has come up with the cash to follow through on its plan to develop the world‘s first hydrogen bus fleet. The Premier of British Columbia has announced that the province will provide $40 million towards the production of 20 hydrogen fuel-cell buses and the development of hydrogen fueling stations in Whistler and Victoria. The funding will ensure that a hydrogen highway running from Whistler to Vancouver, Surrey and Victoria will become a reality. B.C. is also working with U.S. partners to extend the highway to San Diego by 2010. |
| Reference(s): (FuelCellWorks, April 30, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.fuelcellsworks.com/Supppage7274.html |
| 305 2007-05-18 NOAA’s New Tool to Distinguish Between Natural and Human Carbon Emissions. |
| The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in conjunction with partners in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France and other countries, has released a new tool to measure the effectiveness of efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The CarbonTracker tool will help experts distinguish between carbon emissions that are natural and those which are the result of human activity. The tool will use continuous measuring stations, with data fed into computer models covering 135 ecosystems and 11 ocean basins around the world. One of CarbonTracker’s most powerful assets is its ability to detect natural variations in carbon uptake and release by oceans and vegetation, which may either help or hinder efforts to curb fossil fuel emissions on a seasonal basis. |
| Reference(s): (NOAA, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/carbontracker |
| 305 2007-05-18 GRX Disassembles E-Waste at Denver Facility for Safe Reuse. |
| Guaranteed Recycling Xperts (GRX), one of the leading recyclers of computers and electronics in the nation, has a goal to return 100% of all materials accepted to the manufacturing process, with no land-filling, no incineration, and no export to developing countries. GRX is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and serves the entire western U.S., with service in places such as: Salt Lake City, Cheyenne, Billings, Albuquerque, North and South Dakota; Boise, Omaha, Oklahoma City, and Reno. GRX disassembles all materials to their core constituents at its Denver facility and the company then ships the material to its downstream partners who are carefully selected based on GRX environmental audits of their processes. The company recycles TVs, monitors, printers, copiers, PCs, Macs, cell phones, PDAs, scanners, and other electronic equipment. |
| Reference(s): (GRX, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.grxrecycles.com/disposition.html |
| 304 2007-05-11 Judge Rules Against USDA and Allows Private Testing for Mad Cow Disease. |
| U.S. District Judge James Robertson has ruled that the federal government must allow meatpackers to test their animals for mad cow disease. Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, based in Arkansas City, Kansas, had wanted to test all of its cows for the disease but the company had been threatened with prosecution by the USDA if it tested all its animals. The USDA currently tests less than one percent of the 36 million cows slaughtered annually in the U.S. Larger meat companies had feared that if Creekstone had tested its meat and advertised it as safe they could be forced to do the same. |
| Reference(s): (Organic Consumers Association, March 30, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4655.cfm |
| 304 2007-05-11 UK Conference Showcases “Code for Sustainable Homes” Examples. |
| The upcoming OFFSITE2007 conference, sponsored by the UK’s BRE green building consultancy, will feature buildings which reflect Level 5 (near-zero carbon) and Level 6 (zero carbon) design and construction. These are the highest levels in the UK’s new “Code for Sustainable Homes,” a rigorous green building design and construction rating system. The model structures will be demonstrated at “The Big Build” site for the conference. These will be full-scale real buildings and exhibits and a demonstration area where innovative building technologies and intelligent systems will be on show. The conference will also explore how modern construction and advanced technologies are coming together to deliver higher performing and smarter buildings. An additional focus will be on how this “coming together” is benefiting housing, health care, and education as well as help the country prepare for the 2012 Olympics. |
| Reference(s): (OFFSITE2007, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.offsite2007.com/page.jsp?id=2 |
| 304 2007-05-11 Northwest Council Spurs Pharmaceutical Take-Back Program. |
| The Northwest Product Stewardship Council has developed a pilot demonstration pharmaceutical take-back program with the goal of seeing if such a program can operate securely and efficiently. The pilot involves a coalition of governments and non-profits who have been selected to work with pharmacies willing to participate. When the pilot is proven to work, other locations will be added and ultimately all pharmacies in Washington will be able to offer the service. The pilot program involves the household return of unwanted and expired medications for free and safe disposal. Items accepted include: prescription medicines, over the counter medications, medication samples, pet medications, inhalers, and liquid medication in glass or leak-proof containers. The program, which extends to pharmacies over a five county area, will end in late 2008. |
| Reference(s): (Northwest Product Stewardship Council, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.productstewardship.net/productsPharmaceuticalsMedicines.html#Pharmacies |
| 303 2007-05-04 Hybrid Solar Air Conditioner Unveiled by SolCool One. |
| Last month SolCool One unveiled the SolCool Millennia 4 hybrid solar air conditioner. The unit, sized to cool a large room, can be run on solar panels, from a wall socket, or batteries. It operates on direct current at a maximum of 500 Watts and has an energy efficiency rating (EER) of 30. The latest version can also heat a room and has attachments for purifying water and running other direct current appliances like lights and ceiling fans. |
| Reference(s): (New York Times, March 20, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.nytimes.com |
| 303 2007-05-04 IKEA’s CFL Take-Back Program Keeps Mercury Out of Landfills. |
| At the West Sacramento IKEA store, visitors can recycle their compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs for free at the Recycling Center conveniently located at the Returns and Exchanges desk in the store. The West Sacramento outlet is among the 29 US IKEA stores offering the CFL take back program. The program is extended globally to all IKEA outlets worldwide and is intended to help end-of-life management of the mercury-containing CFLs. |
| Reference(s): (IKEA, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/IkeaNearYouView?storeId=12&langId=-1&catalogId=10103&StoreName=west_sacramento http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7431198 |
| 303 2007-05-04 Micro-Wind Turbines Suitable for City Dwellers Introduced in Hong Kong. |
| Engineers at the University of Hong Kong and a private renewable energy company have developed a new micro wind turbine that can generate electricity even if wind speeds are as low as two meters per second. The small turbines are ideal for crowded cities because they can be installed on rooftops and balconies. Simple plastic gearwheels, each about 25 centimeters in diameter, are linked to one another and moved with the wind. Hong Kong’s Sea School for basic seaman training installed the new micro-turbines on its roof last month. |
| Reference(s): (VOANews.com, March 18, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2007-03/2007-03-18-voa10.cfm?CFID=128804245&CFTOKEN=24436212 |
| 303 2007-05-04 Enzymes From Naturally-Occurring Bacteria Used for Fuel Cell Power. |
| Researchers from the University of Oxford’s Isis Innovation Limited technology transfer company have developed an enzyme-based biological fuel cell that takes oxygen and hydrogen from an atmosphere to power electrical devices. The enzymes that are used are isolated from naturally-occurring bacteria that have evolved to use hydrogen in their metabolic processes. Since the enzymes can be grown, they represent a cheap, renewable alternative to the expensive platinum-based catalysts used in other hydrogen fuel cell systems. |
| Reference(s): (FuelCellWorks.com, April 1, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.fuelcellsworks.com/Supppage4893.html |
| 302 2007-04-27 First Global Warming Index Allows Investor Hedge on Climate Change Exposure. |
| UBS has launched the world’s first Global Warming Index this week, allowing businesses most affected by the uncertainty of climate change to hedge their profits against it. Businesses ranging from ice cream salesmen to makers of winter coats will be able to buy exposure to or short sell the index much the way they would with the Dow Jones or FTSE indices. If temperatures rise, so will the value of the index. The index is based on weather derivative contracts for winter and summer which measure the difference between average daily temperatures and a given temperature base in a number of cities. |
| Reference(s): (TheFinancial Times, April 24, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/a3eaf348-f201-11db-b5b6-000b5df10621.html |
| 302 2007-04-27 Berkana Exchange Convenes Leaders to Begin Practicing Sustainability. |
| The Berkana Exchange works to connect and support pioneering, life-affirming leaders from around the world who strengthen their communities by working with the wisdom and wealth already present in its people, traditions and environment. This year’s annual gathering brought together 50 leaders from 12 countries who met around the theme “living the world we want today.” There, they practiced the sustainability they intend to teach by preparing their food, managing their waste, working on the land, and by entering into deep dialogue about questions such as staying committed in the face of resistance. |
| Reference(s): (The Berkana Institute, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.berkana.org/ |
| 302 2007-04-27 All UK Homes to Receive Free Time-of-Use Electric Meters. |
| Every household in the UK will soon be able to request a free time–of-use meter to show how much electricity is being used in the home at any one particular moment. These “real-time” monitors are expected to spur changes in homeowner energy use patterns and result in both cost-savings and greenhouse gas reductions. A small sensor will be placed near the home energy meter and a portable display unit can be carried around the house to note how much energy is saved when different appliances or electronics are switched off. |
| Reference(s): (BBC News, April 16, 2007 Link(s)*: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6550361.stm |
| 302 2007-04-27 Hong Kong Mulls Fines For Patrons Leaving Restaurant Left-Overs. |
| A dozen or so Hong Kong restaurants have begun warning customers that they risk being fined if they order more food than they can eat. These fixed-price, “all you can eat” facilities often see customers take more food than they can eat, leading to significant food wastage. One restaurant charges per ounce of food leftover, others by the plate. Restaurant owners issuing the warnings are finding their food costs lowered as customers comply. |
| Reference(s): (China Daily, April 18, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/lifestyle/2007-04/19/content_854597.htm |
| 301 2007-04-20 Coalition Offers Searchable National Listing of Organic Lawn Care Services. |
| The group “Beyond Pesticides” has developed a national on-line data base of companies offering natural and organic lawn care services. The data base is part of the group’s ongoing education campaign to offer consumers and professionals information on the hazards of pesticides, least and non-toxic land care practices, organic training and an ever-growing list of local professionals. The Safety Source for Pest Management directory is intended to be used for pest problems in homes, lawns, commercial sites, schools, parks, golf courses, and more. Companies are listed in the directory because they have completed a Beyond Pesticides survey and indicated that they use one or more practices and/or materials that the group categorizes as “non-toxic” or “least-toxic.” The companies' survey responses in provided in the companies’ own words. |
| Reference(s): (National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.beyondpesticides.org/lawn/ |
| 301 2007-04-20 Drexel Students Develop Cement With 90% Less CO2 Than Portland Cement. |
| Students at Drexel University are part of a research team developing a revolutionary cement which produces 90% less CO2 than Portland Cement, requires little processing, and uses ubiquitous materials found easily even in developing communities. The “geopolymer” technology, as it is called, was first used in the construction of the Egyptian pyramids. Drexel students are developing the geopolymer concrete to simultaneously address the lack of adequate housing in developing countries s well as reduce green house gases which are significant in traditional cement manufacturing. Samples from the Drexel work are several times stronger than Portland and rival it in cost. |
| Reference(s): (Drexel University, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.materials.drexel.edu/news/Item/?i=948 |
| 301 2007-04-20 Natural Farrowing System to Help Small Pork Producers Raise Pigs Sustainably. |
| Twenty years of research has led Natural Farrowing System, L.L.C. to the design of a standardized alternative to confined hog production based on the natural instincts and behaviors of pigs. Farrowing in large confined hog operations often results in high mortality of newborns. The “natural farrowing” approach is intended to allow pigs to breed and raise newborns in a more natural way. The approach offers a non-confinement environment, low labor and odor impacts, no hand cleaning or hand feeding, no pressure washing, and dry manure. The company provides the system and full-service technical support to interested farmers and meat marketing companies, enabling them to launch a hog production operation in an economically viable, socially responsible, and ecologically sound manner. |
| Reference(s): (Natural Farrowing System, L.L.C., 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.naturalfarrowingsystem.com/ |
| 300 2007-04-13 “Green Planet Paints” From Clay and Soy Resin Make National Debut. |
| A new line of ecological, clay-based paints has been developed in southern Arizona (Patagonia) under the name of Green Planet Paints. Available on-line and in ten stores in the western United States, the paints come in 43 colors. What makes these paints different from conventional brands is the absence of a petrochemical source. Green Planet Paint’s founder Meredith Aronson reports that her paint formula combines 11 ingredients including water, marble, porcelain clay and a soy-based resin. Aronson continues to develop new formulas and she is working on designing a line of paints suitable for commercial use, while remaining committed to hiring locally and keeping her focus on ecologically beneficial products. |
| Reference(s): (Arizona Daily Star, April 6, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/177105.php |
| 300 2007-04-13 Arizona Offers Tax Credits for Residential Gray-Water Systems. |
| Beginning in January this year, the state of Arizona now offers a new tax credit of up to $1,200 to builders and homeowners who install gray-water systems, devices that allow people to divert slightly used water to irrigate their yards. Prompted by the chronic drought and the increasing reality of permanent water shortages, the State legislature passed the tax credit in 2005. For the next five years, builders and homeowners can apply for a credit of up to $200 toward the cost of installing plumbing and $1,000 toward the cost of installing an irrigation system that will distribute the gray-water water to plants. The tax credit is aimed at two distinct markets: first, the builders who can begin adding the double plumbing up-front when the cost is negligible, and eventually the buyers of new homes who hopefully will begin demanding it. |
| Reference(s): (Arizona Daily Star, April 8, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/176867.php |
| 300 2007-04-13 Colorado Stormwater Group Produces Low-Impact Development Photo Database. |
| The Stormwater Quality Committee of the Colorado Association of Stormwater and Floodplain Managers now offers an on-line photo data base of low-impact development approaches. Structure types include porous concrete, modular block pavement, porous landscape detention, grass buffers, green roof, and level spreaders. The low impact development approaches featured in the data base provide benefits such as keeping more pollutants out of waterways, reducing the size and cost of stormwater collection and conveyance infrastructure, reducing the volume required for detention and water quality capture volume facilities, and significantly reducing scour, degradation and habitat modification in receiving waterways. |
| Reference(s): (Colorado Association of Stormwater and Floodplain Managers, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.casfm.org/ |
| 299 2007-04-06 “Carbon Coaches” Emerge in the UK to “Eco-train” Individuals and Companies. |
| So-called “carbon coaches” are helping Britons who want to learn how to live greener. For a fee, advisers assess a family’s energy usage and recommend ways to reduce it – everything from adding insulation and using halogen bulbs to installing a rooftop system to capture and reuse rainwater. Donnachadh McCarthy, founder of London’s 3Acorns Eco-Auditing says he conducts at least two home audits a week and is now getting requests from companies. London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s Green Homes program will soon sell home energy makeover tips to Londoners for about $400 a session. Dave Hampton, who runs Carbon Coach, in Marlow, is planning to set up a side business in training others for the carbon coaching trade. |
| Reference(s): (Business Week, April 9, 2007 Link(s)*: |
| 299 2007-04-06 Natural Rubber From Desert Plants Offers Alternative for Latex Intolerance. |
| Two companies, Yulex Corp and TechDevice Corp., have teamed to use natural rubber from locally-grown plants to make medical devices for patients with latex allergies. It is the first commercial deal for Yulex, which makes latex from a plant called guayule grown in the Arizona desert. TechDevice will use the natural rubber latex to make allergy-free balloon catheters that will be used for a variety of medical procedures. Up to six percent of the general population is allergic to latex and 10 percent to 17 percent of health-care workers are allergic to latex, a problem that will be eliminated with the bio-based rubber. |
| Reference(s): (The Arizona Republic, March 27, 2007 Link(s)*: http://wwwazcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0321biz-yulex0321.html |
| 299 2007-04-06 One Earth One Design Offers All-Green Line of Home and Furniture Products. |
| Seattle-based One Earth One Design is one of a growing number of retail outlets addressing consumer interests by going all-green, rather than just carrying bits and pieces of sustainable products. One Earth One Design specializes in sustainable residential and commercial design and products and co-owner Paul Campbell reports that “everything here is safe and…researched.” The company offers both its Seattle retail outlet and on-line shopping. The on-line service provides detailed information on the non-toxic attributes of all its products as well as explanations of certification programs, issues and dangers with conventional chemicals and materials used in furnishings. The products offered by the company include carpeting, linens, cleaning equipment, furniture, games/toys, office supplies, fabrics, and edibles. |
| Reference(s): (One Earth One Design2007 Link(s)*: http://www.1earth1design.com/design/philosophy/ |
| 298 2007-03-30 National Academies Introduce Monthly Sustainability Update. |
| The National Academies has just instituted a monthly update, Sustainability at the National Academies, highlighting activities relating to sustainable development from throughout the National Academies. The first issue, released in March 2007, features information on the following topics: Ongoing Activities (People and Their Communities, Life Support Systems, Economy and Industry, Natural Systems, Institutions and Indicators, and Sustainability Research and Development); New Projects, Projects in Development, Recent Publications, and Upcoming Meetings. The monthly update is supported by the National Academies’ George and Cynthia Mitchell Endowment for Sustainability Science. |
| Reference(s): (National Academies, March 2007 Link(s)*: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/sustainabilityroundtable |
| 298 2007-03-30 “Sustainability Street” Communities Expand Across Australia. |
| Close to sixty communities in New South Wales and Victoria have now embraced the “Sustainability Street” approach that first began in the Australian town of Moreland in 2001. The approach involves people getting together as local communities to learn about ecological sustainability and then begin to assist or teach others individuals and communities. A six month training period for communities is loosely organized around four stages: Learning, Planning, Doing and Influencing. It is intended to work on two levels – in the home, and in the community. One outcome is that communal sustainability projects which could not have been imagined or hoped for by agencies have been successfully developed by small groups of local people, including community garden projects, demonstration water tanks in schools and neighborhood homes, a food co-op and even local sustainability festivals. |
| Reference(s): (Vox Bandicoot, 2007 Link(s)*: http://voxbandicoot.com.au/sustainability_street.html |
| 298 2007-03-30 “True Cost Clearinghouse” Opens its Doors. |
| The Science and Environmental Health Network has just unveiled its on-line “True Cost Clearinghouse.” The Clearinghouse includes articles and reports documenting the economic, health, and social costs of pollution, worker exposures, and resource exploitation, as well as the underreported benefits of remediation and precautionary policies. Both quantitative economic analyses and qualitative value analyses are included. Topics featured include: air travel true cost, chronic disease cost, coal bed methane cost, environmental disease burden cost, air pollution cost to crops, climate change cost, and petroleum costs. |
| Reference(s): (Science and Environmental Health Network, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.sehn.org/tcc.html |
| 297 2007-03-23 Inaugural FT/Citi Private Bank Awards to Recognize Business Carbon Efficiency. |
| The Financial Times and Citi Private Bank have announced their inaugural Environmental Awards program, “Meeting the Carbon Challenge.” The awards will recognize SMEs and large businesses from around the world that have significantly improved their environmental performance over the past year as measured by the greatest improvement in carbon efficiency in their size categories. The awards will acknowledge transparency and winning companies will also have demonstrated that they have reduced carbon emissions in their operations when compared to turnover and that they are more carbon efficient than their peers. Regional awards and two global awards will be announced at an awards ceremony in London on September 19, 2007. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, March 19, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ftconferences.co.uk/environmentalawards/home.asp |
| 297 2007-03-23 Companies Offer “Farm Codes” Saying Where/How Organic Food is Grown. |
| Dole Foods and Organic Valley are two companies which have begun to label their organic product offerings with “farm codes” to help customers check the veracity of label claims. Dole’s organic banana “stickers” send consumers to doleorganic.com where typing in the three-digit code identifies the plantation that grew the banana, along with organic certification details, worker photos, and satellite map images from Google Earth. Organic Valley has offered a similar feature on its soy milk cartons since 2004. Entering the expiration date at organicvalley.coop/soy brings up the bios of the farmers who grew the beans. |
| Reference(s): (Business Week, March 19, 2007 Link(s)*: |
| 297 2007-03-23 MBA Students Meet for Finals of Sustainable Innovation Summit Challenge. |
| Teams of MBA students from 10 top business schools around the world arrived on the Glendale, Arizona campus of Thunderbird School of Global Management this week for the final round of the first annual Sustainable Innovation Summit. The Summit challenges teams to develop innovative and sustainable business concept plans to address real-life challenges faced by global corporations. The 3-day Summit’s events are all dedicated to best practices driven by innovation, and environmentally and socially-sound business practices. The ten school finalists in the Challenge were pulled from a pool of 88 teams from 45 universities in 13 countries. |
| Reference(s): (Thunderbird School of Global Management, March 20, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.thunderbird.edu/about_thunderbird/news/top_stories/2007/_finalists_named.htm |
| 296 2007-03-16 Niman Ranch Supports Family Ranchers With Sustainable Livestock Production. |
| California’s Niman Ranch Pork Company has developed a successful business model that promotes family ranchers and sustainable livestock production. The company contracts with over 500 small hog farmers who receive a premium in addition to the protection of an established floor price for raising their livestock sustainably. Niman Ranch certifies that its pigs have never been given antibiotics of any kind, artificial hormones or growth promotants, have never been fed meat or meat by-products, have been raised on pasture or deeply bedded pens and according to the Animal Welfare Approved Standard for Pigs. |
| Reference(s): (Catholic Rural Life Newsletter, February 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.nimanranch.com/ |
| 296 2007-03-16 EEStor Crosses Batteries and Ultra-caps for Fast-Charge Auto Energy Storage. |
| Texas-based EEStor has announced that it plans to begin shipping a 15-kilowatt-hour electrical energy system that can propel a small electric car 322 kilometers and takes just minutes to recharge. EEStor’s technology is a cross between a battery and an ultra-capacitor and the company claims it has better energy density than Li-ion and Ni-metal hydride batteries. Its first customer is Toronto-based Zenn Motor which makes electric vehicles. |
| Reference(s): (MIT Technology Review, March/April 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18330/ |
| 296 2007-03-16 EPA and AIA Team to Develop Lifecycle Building Challenge. |
| EPA, the American Institute of Architects, West Coast Green and others have teamed to develop the Lifecycle Building Challenge. The Challenge is a national competition inviting engineers, designers, planners, and contractors to submit ideas for buildings and building materials that facilitate and anticipate future changes to and eventual adaptation, disassembly, or dismantling for recovery. The top entrant in each of nine categories (3 students and 6 professionals) will be recognized at West Coast Green in September. Additional cash, recognition and in-kind prizes will be awarded. |
| Reference(s): (West Coast Green, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.lifecyclebuilding.org/ |
| 296 2007-03-16 “City Repair Project” Promotes Ecologically-Oriented Placemaking. |
| Portland’s City Repair Project is an organized group action that aims to educate and inspire communities and individuals to creatively transform the places where they live. City Repair began its work with the idea that localization (of culture, of economy, of decision-making) is a necessary foundation of sustainability. Fields of work include cultural identity and bioregionalism, urban planning and design, and ecological and social sustainability. The group’s Placemaking Guidebook helps with ideas and organizing strategies. |
| Reference(s): (The City Repair Project, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.cityrepair.org/wiki.php |
| 295 2007-03-09 Bank of America Earmarks $20 Billion to Promote Green Practices. |
| The Bank of America Corporation has launched a $20 billion initiative to promote “green” business practices at its own facilities and by its commercial and individual customers. Of the $20 billion, $18 billion will be dedicated to helping commercial customers finance the production and use of new, environmentally-friendly products, services and technologies. Bank of America will also launch the capability to trade carbon emission credits. The bank will further provide mortgage loan incentives to customers who buy homes that meet environmentally-friendly standards. Finally, Bank of America will also spend $1.5 billion for eco-friendly construction of its own new office and banking facilities and for energy efficiency measures at its existing facilities. |
| Reference(s): (Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2007 Link(s)*: |
| 295 2007-03-09 Small Wind Turbines Gain New Inverter for Grid Connections. |
| Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd. is offering a new inverter to deliver power from small wind turbines to electricity grids at the same high efficiencies available to solar photovoltaic applications. The new inverter incorporates recently developed proprietary software which enables it to operate in a grid interactive mode with very high efficiencies and to switch to battery-based mode for back-up power during grid outages. The inverter is also capable of working in a hybrid mode, incorporating both solar and wind energy systems. The first product application will be for a residential scale wind turbine, the AIRDOLPHIN Mark-Zero, developed by Japan’s Zephyr Corporation. |
| Reference(s): (Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd., February 20, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.sustainableenergy.com/set-home/index.html |
| 295 2007-03-09 New GEMI Unveils New Sustainable Development Planner Gateway Tool. |
| The Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI), an organization of leading companies fostering global environmental, health, and safety excellence through the sharing of tools and information, has launched its SD (Sustainable Development) Planner Gateway. The SD Planner Gateway, a new website, enables businesses to address environmental, economic, and social issues in a way that creates business value. It is designed to be used systematically to raise awareness of sustainable development concepts, identify business cases for action on sustainable development and serve as an “on ramp” for GEMI’s existing tool, SD Planner. |
| Reference(s): (Global Environmental Management Initiative, March 1, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.gemi.org/sd/ |
| 294 2007-03-02 Delaware Researchers Find Cheap, Non-Chlorine Treatment for Water Viruses. |
| University of Delaware researchers have developed an inexpensive, non-chlorine-based technology that can remove harmful microorganisms, including viruses, from drinking water. The technology uses elementary iron in the filtration process to either chemically inactivate or irreversibly adsorb viruses to the iron. Research findings document the technology’s success in achieving 99.99 percent removal of viruses ranging from E. coli to rotavirus in twenty minutes time. With additional time, removal efficiency increased to 99.999 percent. The elemental iron also removed organic material such as humic acid that can react with chlorine to produce disinfection by-products. The elemental or “zero-valent” iron is inexpensive, currently costing less than $0.40 a pound. |
| Reference(s): (CNN Magazine, February 26, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ccnmag.com/news.php?id=4880 |
| 294 2007-03-02 Chase Launches Bond Index to Account for Corporate Climate Exposure. |
| J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. has launched a corporate bond index that will take into account a company’s exposure to toughening global warming emission rules when assigning an index weight to that company’s bonds. The launch of the index on February 28, 2007, reflects J.P. Morgan’s belief that an intensifying push to address global warming will create “winners and losers” among companies. The company announced the J.P. Morgan Environmental Index-Carbon Beta because it expects that global warming will make some companies debt a better bet and others worse. Among utilities, the debt of FPL Group Inc. gets a higher rating under the new global warming index than under the usual index. |
| Reference(s): (Wall Street Journal, February 27, 2007 Link(s)*: |
| 294 2007-03-02 U.S. Leads World in 2006 Wind Energy Capacity Additions. |
| According to the American Wind Energy Association the United States wind energy industry installed more wind turbines in the U.S. last year than were installed in any other country. U.S. wind generating capacity now totals 11,600 MW. Texas overtook California last year as the state producing the most power from wind. It wants to double its own wind energy production by 2015 and nearly double it again by 2025. Ceres, an investor coalition interested in climate change, said that it costs $23 to $59 to produce a megawatt hour of power from wind, compared with costs for coal of $56 to $83 per megawatt hour if the potential costs for reducing carbon dioxide emissions were taken into account. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, February 27, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com |
| 293 2007-02-23 “Deconstructing Dinner” Program Helps Listeners Understand Food History. |
| Kootenay Co-Op Radio in Nelson, British Columbia produces and records the program “Deconstructing Dinner,” designed to assist listeners in making more educated choices when purchasing food. Content is balanced between situation analysis and the exposition of businesses, organizations and individuals who are addressing food in a more conscientious way than is found within the dominant industrial food system. The program is broadcast predominantly on radio stations throughout British Columbia although it also appears on stations across Canada and the United States. The program aims to “deconstruct” the processes and actions behind food to achieve a more discriminating consumer awareness. |
| Reference(s): (Kootenay Co-Op Radio, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.cjly.net/deconstructingdinner/about.htm |
| 293 2007-02-23 Colorado Brewer Aims for Biodiesel From Waste Pond Algae. |
| The New Belgium Brewing Company in Ft. Collins, Colorado is working with a local energy startup company to make biodiesel fuel from algae based partially on the waste products from the brewery. The biodiesel technology belongs to Solix Biofuels, located just 500 yards from the Brewing Company. New Belgium will provide the carbon oxide captured from the brewing process to help Solix’s lipid-producing algae grow in a bioreactor. There it will mix with water and sunshine to provide nutrients to the algae. The lipids will be collected and refined into biodiesel fuel. Scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory report that algae have the potential of yielding about 10,000 gallons of oil per acre, whereas soybeans can produce 50-100 gallons per acre. |
| Reference(s): (Rocky Mountain News, February 9, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5339051,00.html |
| 293 2007-02-23 Old Country Roofing, Xantrex and Fat Spaniel Team to Push Solar in California. |
| Northern California’s largest roofing company, Old Country Roofing, has signed agreements with Xantrex Technology and Fat Spaniel Technologies to offer a comprehensive solar energy conversion and monitoring program for Old Country’s more than 100 homebuilding customers. The program will feature Xantrex grid tie solar inverters to convert solar installations from DC to AC as well as net-metering of surplus electricity into the power grid. The agreement with Fat Spaniel will provide real-time monitoring of their solar installations via the Internet. This is intended to provide a simple, accurate web-view of solar energy system performance to help maximize production and minimize performance problems throughout the systems’ lifetime. |
| Reference(s): (Renewable Energy Access, February 12, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.renewableenergyacess.com/rea/news/printstoryid=47422 |
| 292 2007-02-16 Toyota Roof Gardens Makes Creating Green Roofs Simple as Carpet Tiles. |
| Toyota Roof Gardens, a subsidiary of the Japanese carmaker, has developed the TM9 self-watering turf mat which allows Japanese owners of homes with flat roofs to use them easily. The modular system is designed to make creating a green roof as easy as laying carpet tiles. It is comprised of 2-inch thick and 20x20-inch square squares of grass on a base that connects directly into a roof’s drainage system so they are self-watering. Both lighter and less expensive than conventional systems, it delivers all the benefits of excellent thermal insulation. The grass used is a regional species, Korean velvet, which needs to be cut only once a year. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, February 10-11, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com |
| 292 2007-02-16 Wealth of Green Features Highlights New EPA Regional Office. |
| In January, 900 employees and contractors of the Denver Regional Office of the US EPA moved into a new headquarters building in downtown Denver that has already become a hallmark of environmental sustainability. The LEED certification process for the building is still on-going however EPA anticipates that the building will be certified as the second Gold-rated new construction building in Colorado. Major sustainability attributes of the new building include: high efficiency and waterless plumbing fixtures, 100% wind energy purchase offsets, natural light in 85% of floor space, rooftop photovoltaic panels, a 20,000 square foot green roof, under-floor air distribution, and formaldehyde-free bamboo wall panels and bleacher steps (perhaps the first building in the world to have these). The building is sited a block from major transit hubs and its architecture connects it to the historic character of the 19th century commercial district in which it is located. |
| Reference(s): (USEPA Region 8, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.epa.gov/greeningepa/facilities/denver-hq.htm |
| 292 2007-02-16 Oregon Neighborhood’s Porous Pavement Easily Absorbs Record Rainfall. |
| Pringle Creek Community a 32 acre residential neighborhood in southeast Salem, Oregon is the nation’s first full-scale porous pavement project. In contrast to typical asphalt mixes which makes rainwater carry oil, grease, chemicals and other pollutants across ecosystems, porous pavement lets water soak into the soil eliminating the need for a conventional stormwater management system. The porous pavement system, fully 7,000 feet of green streets and 2,000 feet of green alleyways, absorbed the full brunt of Salem’s record 15 inches of rainfall in November 2006. It did so without flooding or clogged storm drains and is estimated to have returned 90% of the rainwater to the aquifer. |
| Reference(s): (Sustainable Development Inc., December 11, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.pringlecreek.com/news/12_11_06.htm |
| 291 2007-02-09 London Suburb Ties Auto Parking Fees to Vehicle Emissions. |
| Richmond Council, a southwest London suburb, has said that high carbon dioxide emitting vehicles will now incur three times the normal residential parking fees. Richmond officials agreed to a sliding scale of charges, meaning the owners of the biggest CO2 polluting vehicles will pay nearly $600 a year for a permit to park on city streets. BBC London has found that there are a further eight London councils considering following Richmond’s move. Council leader Serge Lourie stated that “climate change is the defining issue of our age...I am delighted that Richmond Council has become the first local authority to implement this radical scheme.” |
| Reference(s): (BBC News, 2007 Link(s)*: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6309281.stm |
| 291 2006-02-09 Local Governments Extend Green Building Principles to Private Development. |
| A small but growing number of local governments are taking formal measures to require future public and private construction to meet “green building” measures. One of the latest is Montgomery County Maryland that now requires private non-residential and multi-family residential buildings to achieve a LEED certified rating. Buildings covered by the law include any newly constructed or extensively modified building in the above categories with at least 10,000 square feet of gross floor area. Pasadena, California has also acted to require private developers to build environmentally friendly projects. The District of Columbia was poised late last year to become the first major city in the country to require most large construction in the city – commercial and city-funded residential to meet green standards. |
| Reference(s): (Washington Post, November 16, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/15/AR2006111501624.html |
| 291 2007-02-09 Silverjet Adds Mandatory Carbon Offset Charge to Airline Ticket Price. |
| The British airline Silverjet claim to be the world’s first carbon neutral airline. Included in its ticket prices will be a mandatory carbon offset component – about 10-11 British Pounds – for a return London-New York flight. The arrangement is set up in partnership with CarbonNeutral Company, a greenhouse gas business exchange. The Edinburgh Center for Carbon Management has assessed the carbon emissions of Silverjet aircraft per mile and of associated ground activity. This is converted into a cost per passenger and shown as a mandatory item in the ticket price. Eventually Silverjet customers will be able to choose to earn “carbon points” rather than frequent flyer points and help select climate-friendly projects where points can be invested. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, January 19, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.flysilverjet.com/Website/press-release-2007-01-30.aspx |
| 290 2006-02-02 Integrated Circuit Tags Made From Paper to Substitute for Plastic IC Tags. |
| The Hyogo Paper-Box and Corrugated-Box Industry Association has developed a recyclable paper integrated circuit tag as a substitute for barcode labels on cardboard boxes. The paper IC tag can record far more detailed data than a conventional barcode can and unlike plastic IC tags it does not have to be removed before the box can be recycled. The light weight paper tags can be mass produced enabling them to be less expensive than plastic tags. The Association aims to commercialize the new tags first in the corrugated box industry and then in the manufacturing industry where they can be attached to any product. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, January 22, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/1607-e |
| 290 2006-02-02 Beetle’s 3D Structural “Secret” Offers Alternative to Conventional Whiteners. |
| Researchers at the University of Exeter have discovered how the Cyphochilus beetle develops its brilliant white shell. The beetle uses its unique surface structure, scales one 200th of a millimeter thick, to produce its whiteness. The scales have highly random internal 3D structures which effectively scatter light far more efficiently than the fibers in white paper or the enamel on teeth. Researchers hope the structural features of the beetle will help them make brilliant white ultra-thin materials as an alternative to current industrial mineral coatings. Scientists believe the beetle’s whiteness has evolved to mimic local white fungi as a form of camouflage. |
| Reference(s): (University of Exeter Press Release, January 18, 2007 Link(s)*: http://newton.ex.ac.uk/research/emag/butterflies/white_pressrelease.html |
| 290 2006-02-02 uShip and TerraPass Offer Carbon-Balanced Shipping. |
| uShip and TerraPass have formed a partnership to provide carbon balanced shipping to people moving large items such as a piano, large furniture, or a boat. Under the program, trucking companies sign up to balance the greenhouse emissions from their deliveries. These “TerraPass Certified Providers” will be highlighted on the uShip web site so that customers can easily select providers who have taken steps to mitigate their climate impact. To help jump-start the program, uShip itself is paying for the first month of carbon offsets for any shipping company that participates. With uShip, customers post a request and service providers bid for their business. Users can review feedback on the service providers and select the one they prefer. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, January 19, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.terrapass.com/terrablog/posts/2007/01/wanted-my-grandfathers-piano-carbon-balanced-shippers-only-.html?utm_source=terrapass&utm_medium=emai |
| 289 2007-01-26 British Supermarket Giant to Label Carbon Intensity of Every Product it Sells. |
| The British supermarket giant Tesco will become the first supermarket chain to assign a carbon rating to its products. The world’s fifth largest retail chain said it will work with Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute to create an index to measure the carbon required to produce, transport, and consume every product it sells. Tesco, which has a presence in 12 countries, also promised to halve emissions from its stores and distribution centers by 2020. Tesco’s Chief Executive Sir Terry Leahy said, “We have to make sustainability a significant mainstream driver of consumption.” |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, January 19, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/133d5be4-a718-11db-83e4-0000779e2340.html |
| 289 2007-01-26 “Slugging” Catches on as Instant Carpooling. |
| Known as “slugging,” citizen-organized, impromptu carpooling among strangers offers the benefits of traveling in a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane without forming a traditional carpool. Riders, known as slugs, typically meet in a predetermined public area that has ample available parking, nearby public transit and close proximity to an HOV lane. Drivers display a window sign with their destination. No money changes hands. After travel along an HOV lane, passengers are dropped in a public location, typically in a downtown area of a big city. Currently this instant carpooling occurs in San Francisco, Houston and Washington, D.C. |
| Reference(s): (Journal of Public Transportation, University of South Florida, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.nctr.usf.edu/jpt/journalfulltext.htm |
| 289 2007-01-26 UK Met Office Taps Quarter Million Home PCs to Validate Climate Models. |
| A computer model of climate change has been run on about a quarter million home personal computers in conjunction with the British Broadcasting Company. Each PC user downloaded software from climateprediction.net onto their home computers, each running a single simulation of the future. Users were spread across 171 countries and each downloaded program ran when their computers were otherwise idle, with results being fed back to the central server. The results agree with other climate models predicting a 3 degree Celsius rise in UK temperatures before the end of the century. The climate model was developed by the UK Meteorological Office’s Hadley Center and each simulation required about three months of computing time. |
| Reference(s): (BBC News, January 19, 2007 Link(s)*: http://bbc.cpdn.org/help.php |
| 288 2007-01-19 Santa Monica Formally Launches Bid to be First “Net Zero” City. |
| Solar Santa Monica has initiated an effort to become the nation’s first “net zero” energy city. Through energy efficiency, solar and other renewable energy, the city envisions generating clean energy that matches its total energy consumption. The city will offer residents packages that take advantage of pre-negotiated discounted energy efficient appliances, solar products, and simple financing. To save money, the city is pre-qualifying “preferred partners” to install efficiency upgrades along with streamlined purchasing, permitting, installation and financing. Santa Monica’s 20-year plan is expected to eliminate electricity produced by coal and natural gas plants and all the resulting greenhouse gas emissions. |
| Reference(s): (Cleantech Blog, December 14, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.cleantechblog.com/2006/12/solar-santa-monica.html |
| 288 2007-01-19 ENEL Reaps Benefits of Providing “Smart” Meters to 30 Million Customers. |
| Time-of-use or “Smart” meters are catching on as a way to help utilities and customers monitor and cut excess electricity demand. Pacific Gas and Electric plans to install 9.3 million smart meters in California homes, while European and Canadian energy officials are promoting the meters on a wide scale as well. The lead belongs to ENEL, the Italian-based utility that is providing smart meters to almost all of its 30 million customers in Italy. ENEL not only uses the meters to manage demand but to improve response to customer requests or complaints, to detect and repair outages, and to cut labor costs on user calls. The ENEL meters are expected to pay for themselves within a few years and the company plans to install them in other countries where it operates such as Spain and Romania. |
| Reference(s): (Economist Intelligence Unit, December 15, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.viewswire.com/index.asp?layout=EBArticleVW3&article_id=+1311633516 |
| 288 2007-01-19 First U.S. Industrial Hemp License Expected in North Dakota. |
| North Dakota’s Agricultural Commissioner has accepted the first application from a farmer for a state industrial hemp license. The license, which is expected to be granted, will go to farmer and North Dakota Assistant House Majority Leader David Monson (R-Osnabrock). Representative Monson operates his farm in Osnabrock, ND and is only 110 miles from the nearest hemp seed processing facility, Hemp Oil Canada, in Ste. Agathe, Manitoba. Health Canada statistics show that 48,060 acres of industrial hemp were produced in Canada in 2006, while VoteHemp estimates that the total value of hemp products sold in the U.S. is now $270 million annually, a market in which US farmers hope to be allowed to compete. |
| Reference(s): (VoteHemp, January 15, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.votehemp.com/PR/01-15-07_nd_farmer.html |
| 287 2007-01-12 Denver Restaurant Offers “Pay-What-You-Can-Afford” Organic Food. |
| Brad and Libby Birky had a plan. They would open a restaurant that served fresh, organic and gourmet foods, and they’d find a location convenient for people who have little access to anything beyond fast food. And they would run it entirely on donations. Late last year they opened SAME (So All May Eat) on East Colfax Avenue in Denver. They are already ahead over their business plan. So far the donations have covered food, rent and expenses. Down on their luck parents bring their children for a warm meal and drop whatever they can in the donation box. “There’s even one homeless man who stops in pretty much every day drops money in the box and doesn’t accept any food, says Libby.” “He just loves the idea.” |
| Reference(s): (Denver Post, January 3 Link(s)*: http://www.denverpost.com/newscolumnists/ci_4938875 |
| 287 2007-01-12 White Lotus Home Offers Organic, Synthetics-Free Bedding and Mattresses. |
| A New Jersey company, White Lotus Home, offers natural, organic cotton mattresses, bedding, pillows and children’s bedding free of synthetic chemicals. The company’s pillows are made from kapok which is harvested in the rainforest, protecting the life ways and ecosystems of indigenous people, and hand-stuffed in the USA to make the most eco-friendly pillows on the market. Other materials used by White Lotus Home include wool, buckwheat and organic and green cotton. Mattresses are made without springs or foam, instead using 8 to 10 two-inch layers of green cotton compressed into a standard six-inch mattress size. White Lotus Home has also committed to purchase 100% wind power to electrify its manufacturing operations. |
| Reference(s): (Bedroom Magazine, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.bedroom-mag.com/FA06/FA06-AATBpg16-2.htm http://www.whitelotus.net/ |
| 287 2007-01-12 India Aiming to Expel Junk Food in Schools and Universities Across the Nation. |
| The Indian government is pushing for a ban on colas and soft drinks in schools and universities across the country. At a December Health conference in New Delhi, India’s Health Minister Ambumani Ramadoss said that “We want all forms of junk food like pizzas, chips, samosas and burgers banned from canteens.” He has written to his counterparts at the state level requesting them to make plans for a partial ban on fizzy drinks and junk food blamed for rising levels of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity across the country. “Human development indices say we are 126th in the world.” Minister Ramadoss plans to introduce health and life style classes in the nation’s schools. |
| Reference(s): (The Financial Times, December 16/17, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com |
| 286 2007-01-05 Arizona State Opens World’s First School of Sustainability. |
| Arizona State University (ASU) begins enrolling students this month in its School of Sustainability. The school, the first of its kind in the world, will offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in sustainability. Within five years, the school expects to have 450 undergraduate students and 50 students each in its master’s and doctoral degree programs. The innovative curriculum encompasses such fields as science, technology, public policy, economics, education, and urban planning. The ASU sustainability initiative was started two years ago with help from a $15 million planning investment from philanthropist Julie A. Wrigley. |
| Reference(s): (Arizona State University, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.asu.edu/news/stories/200610/20061004_sustainability.htm |
| 286 2007-01-05 China Halts Use of Corn for Biofuels, Citing Food Security Concerns. |
| Worried over surging crop prices, China has clamped down on the use of corn and other edible grains for producing biofuels. The National Development and Reform Commission has told local governments to stop approving new projects that process corn for “industrial use. While it wants to support the growth of alternative energy sources, Beijing says the issue of national food security should take precedence. Experts warn that if ethanol production continues to be corn-based China will be forced to import the crop by 2008. Chinese planners are also worried because arable land is reported to have shrunk by 8 million hectares between 1999 and 2005. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, December 21, 2006 Asia Times, December 21, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/HL21Cb03.html |
| 286 2007-01-05 East Brunswick Becomes 8th Local Government to Strip Corporations of “Rights.” |
| The Board of Supervisors for East Brunswick Township in Pennsylvania has unanimously passed a law declaring that sludge corporations possess no constitutional “rights” within the community. The ordinance is the result of countywide ferment against state regulatory interference in local decision-making on behalf of sludge disposal and dredge corporations. East Brunswick becomes the eighth local government in the country to abolish the “rights” and legal privileges claimed by corporations and it becomes the fourth community to recognize the rights of nature. Specifically, the ordinance recognizes that ecosystems in East Brunswick possess enforceable rights against corporations. |
| Reference(s): (Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, December 6, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.celdf.org |
| 285 2006-12-29 Japanese Team Uses White-Rot Fungus to Remediate Dioxin-Laced Soil. |
| A research team led by Taisei Corporation in Japan has developed a new method for treating dioxin-contaminated soil using white rot fungus. Practical application of the method was expected by the end of the year. The white rot fungus produces enzymes capable of degrading lignin, an organic compound integral to plant cell walls. These enzymes, with highly-active oxidizing properties are extracted from the fungi and added in liquid form to dioxin-contaminated soil under conditions optimal for increased microbial activity. This unique property of white rot fungi is expected to be useful in many types of environmental remediation, including toxic pesticides, PCBs, and dioxins. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, December 15, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/database.cgi?cmd=dp&num=1571&UserNum=&Pass=&AdminPass=&dp=data_e.html |
| 285 2006-12-29 Coalition Works for Economic Justice and Human Rights on Florida Farms. |
| The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker community group, has was been formed to confront the retail food industry with the reality of suppressed farmworker wages, poor living conditions, and mistreatment in the fields. The Coalition currently counts over 3,000 members, joined by thousands more from diverse faith backgrounds speaking out on issues of economic burden and extreme poverty imposed on agricultural laborers. Last year the Coalition’s efforts resulted in YUM! Brands (the parent company of Taco Bell) agreeing to directly pay farmworkers in its supply chain and enforcing a Code of Conduct for agricultural suppliers monitored by workers. This allows for full transparency of its tomato purchases in Florida. |
| Reference(s): (Catholic Rural Life Magazine, Winter 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.ncrlc.com/magazine-webpages/05_Wood_W06.html |
| 285 2006-12-29 Draft Retail GHG Reduction Product Certification Standard Released. |
| The Center for Resource Solutions (CRS has just released (December 20, 2006) a draft standard aimed at providing a credible consumer protection service to the burgeoning voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction consumer market. CRS envisions the “Green-e Retail GHG Reduction Certification Program will provide a three-step customer assurance service to providers of GHG reduction products. The standard aims to ensure: 1) Supply Equals Sales, 2) GHG Reduction Types Retired are the Same as those Retired, and 3) GHG Reductions Originate for Certified GHG Products. The program aims to help expand avenues for credible voluntary action to reduce global warming. |
| Reference(s): (The Center for Resource Solutions, December 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.resource-solutions.org/mv/ghg.html |
| 284 2006-12-22 Boeing’s Spectrolab Solar Cell Achieves 40% Efficiency. |
| Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab, Inc. has announced a new world record in terrestrial concentrator solar cell efficiency of 40.7%. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has verified the Spectrolab test results. The high efficiency was achieved using a new class of metamorphic semiconductor materials for optimal conversion of the solar spectrum. Spectrolab principal investigator Dr. Richard King added that “the excellent performance of these materials hints at still higher efficiency in future solar cells.” Spectrolab recently signed multi-million dollar contracts for its high efficiency concentrator cells. |
| Reference(s): (Boeing, December 6, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2006/q4/061206b_nr.html |
| 284 2006-12-22 “Organic to Go” Stores Spread, Offering Wholesome, Fast, Casual Food. |
| Founded two years ago, Organic to Go is focused on preparing and serving healthy casual meals and bringing accessibility to organic foods and ingredients to the food service market. The all-natural and organic cafe and corporate meal delivery service has outlets in three states on the west coast with plans to expand to other regions of the country in 2007. Organic to Go is the first fast-casual restaurant and retailer to receive organic certification by Quality Assurance International (QAI), the leading third-party certification agency in the organic foods industry accredited to the National Organic Program by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). |
| Reference(s): (Organic to Go, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.organictogo.com/about_us.cfm |
| 284 2006-12-22 Bay Area Group Completes One Year Without Buying Anything New. |
| Ten friends from the San Francisco area have completed a year of living secondhand, not buying (almost) anything new. The only new products they allow themselves are food and bare necessities for health and safety (toilet paper, brake fluid, underwear) in their effort to go completely without buying anything new. They call their initiative “the Compact,” which they say has to do with the Mayflower and the Pilgrims’ pledge to live for the greater good. The “Compactors” have all decided to renew their pledge for another year. |
| Reference(s): (Washington Post, December 18, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/17/AR2006121701122_pf.html |
| 283 2006-12-15 Solar Panels Now Mandatory on All New and Renovated Buildings in Spain. |
| Solar panels are now mandatory on all new and renovated buildings in Spain as part of the country’s new technical building code. The regulation will affect more than half a million new houses a year. Three years ago, the Andalusian capital of Seville introduced the same measure which is now being adopted nationwide. A single two meter solar panel can cut a home’s water heating bills by up to 70% according to government estimates. This equates to a cost savings of at least 80 Euro a year per home in addition to reducing greenhouse gases. |
| Reference(s): (TimesOnLine, November 9, 2004 Link(s)*: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1350946,00.html |
| 283 2006-12-15 Napa Wineries Say “No” to GMO Yeast Via Buyer Education Program. |
| Concerned over the introduction of a genetically modified wine yeast (ML01) this year, Napa Valley wineries in California have begun identifying themselves as to whether or not they have used or intend to use the e GM yeast. The GM yeast is only currently available in North America where GMOs are unregulated. To help consumers who prefer to avoid consuming genetically modified products and to help local wineries distinguish their wines from those that may be using GM yeast, a “Shopper’s Guide to Buying Non-GMO” website was established (listed below). |
| Reference(s): (PINA, 2007 Link(s)*: http://www.preservenapasag.org |
| 283 2006-12-15 “PaperStone” Counters and Tiles Made From 100% Post-Consumer Paper. |
| KlipTech has introduced an improved product line, PaperStone Certified. It features a line of solid surface tables, counters, floor tiles, wall covering, siding, decking and bathroom partitions made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper that is FSC certified by SmartWood. The PaperStone products feature a water-based resin system that uses non-petroleum-based phenols derived in part from cashew shells. |
| Reference(s): (KlipTech, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.kliptech.com/paperstone_certified.htm |
| 283 2006-12-15 New Resource Bank Targets Green Investments. |
| New Resource Bank is billing itself as the nation’s first “green” commercial bank with a focus on serving sustainable businesses. Bank founders say their specialized understanding of green industries will enable them to better underwrite loans while lowering the bank’s risk. Bank investors include green building experts, clean-tech venture capitalists, and the founders or co-founders of Lotus Development, BrightMail, Ofoto, SunPower Sybase, and Mendocino Wine Company. |
| Reference(s): (San Francisco Chronicle, November 29, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/29/BUGJEMLGL81.DTL&hw |
| 282 2006-12-08 Organic Cotton Jeans Made in U.S.A. and Not Sold in Malls. |
| The Certified Jean Company offers a range of “Certified Jeans” made from 100% U.S. organic/transitional cotton grown without chemicals in California and Texas fields and milled and manufactured in North Carolina. The 100% home-grown jeans are thus subject to U.S. labor laws where workers operate in clean, well-lit and properly ventilated facilities. The company pays its sewers double minimum wage, countering competitors’ claims that they needed to move jean manufacturing to other countries in order to stay in business. Certified Jeans are not sold in suburban malls as the company sees such malls as a “primary generator of residential and commercials sprawl and are often responsible for losses of wetlands, natural habitat and agricultural land.” In 2007 Certified Jeans will begin offering natural colored, undyed jeans that will derive their white, beige, brown or greenish hue from the cotton itself. |
| Reference(s): (The Certified Jean Company, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.certifiedjean.com/about.html |
| 282 2006-12-08 Non-GMO Futures Market Launched for Grains. |
| Diapason Commodities Management SA, a fund manager with $5 billion in assets, has just announced the establishment of its agricultural commodity-based index which incorporates only non-genetically modified organisms. The Non-GMO Index includes five futures contracts: Tokyo Grain Exchange Non-GMO Soybeans, Euronext Milling Wheat, Euronext Feed Wheat, Euronext Corn, and Euronext Rapeseed. The Agriculture Non-GMO Index is published in US dollars and includes only those commodities whose exports represent more than 0.1% of global world trade. The Index will offer traders a reason to watch closely for signs of changes in consumer acceptance or prospective regulation of GMO grain-based products. |
| Reference(s): (treehugger, November 29, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/11/diapason_nongmo.php |
| 282 2006-12-08 ETH Zurich Holds International Sustainability Competition for its Science City. |
| The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) has announced its International Sustainability Competition Science City. This is a global competition for interdisciplinary teams to provide ideas for how Science City can realize its vision of a new model for the sustainable integration of science and society. Entrants will be asked to combine competencies from different fields and must demonstrate sound knowledge and experience in sustainability-related topics. Science city is intended to become a built example and test laboratory of the sustainable European campus. Winners of the competition will be invited to participate in the first international conference of the “Sustainable Campus” network to be held in 2007. |
| Reference(s): (ETH Zurich, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.sciencecity.ethz.ch/index_EN |
| 281 2006-12-01 Maryland Builds Mechanical Engineering Curriculum for Bioinspired Design. |
| Current mechanical engineering curricula do not cover the manufacturing technologies and design principles relevant to the development of bio-inspired products and devices. The University of Maryland has been enhancing its mechanical engineering curriculum so that undergraduate students are better able to integrate recent advances in bio-inspired sensors and actuators, kinematics and dynamics principles utilized in nature, and the identification of material and geometry-based limitations for designs. The school notes its aim to provide a biologically-oriented pedagogical approach to engineering education that ensues broader access to the knowledge needed to enhance the skills of future engineers and researchers. |
| Reference(s): (Bioinspired!, September 22, 2006 Link(s)*: mailto:newsletter@biomimicry.org |
| 281 2006-12-01 25th Year for Thermomax’s Vacuum Tube Solar Collectors and Controllers. |
| Since 1981, Thermomax has been pioneering the design and manufacture of hi-tech vacuum tube solar collectors and sophisticated temperature controllers. Millions of Thermomax systems are now providing solar hot water and space heating or cooling worldwide. Thermomax evacuated heat-pipe arrays were used in the winning DOE sunwall design competition and they can deliver high performance even in unfavorable cloudy, windy and cold conditions. Thermomax technology has been used in a solar cooling application at a NASA facility in Florida by way of desiccant chilling. |
| Reference(s): (Thermomax, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.thermomax.com |
| 281 2006-12-01 Teko Products Reflect “Thinking Beyond Organic.” |
| Teko socks are made in a variety of materials – cotton, wool, polyester, and ingeo – each intentionally selected for its sustainability and renewability attributes. The company states that its products reflect more than just meeting a set of standards somewhere. Materials come from U.S. supplies of organic cotton, EcoMerino wool from a single Tasmanian farm following sustainable farming techniques, ingeo corn sugar-based fiber, and recycled polyester. In addition, the company offsets its 100% U.S. manufacturing carbon by purchasing U.S. wind energy credits as well as offsets for the transportation of all its materials and goods. The company donates 10% of its on-line sales to Leave No Trace, Conservation Alliance, and cityWild. |
| Reference(s): (Teko, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.tekosocks.com |
| 280 2006-11-24 Tucson “Fruit Mappers’” Harvest Self-Sufficiency for Somali Refugees. |
| The Iskashitaa Refugee Harvesting Network was established in Tucson in 2003 to help the city’s nearly 1,000 Somali Bantu refugees achieve greater food and economic self-sufficiency. Network volunteers began to systematically map Tucson neighborhoods by walking around and identifying fruit trees by sight, over garden walls or from alleyways. That information is entered onto a computer database and an aerial map of fruit trees is created. Homeowners are contacted and invited to either harvest their own fruit and vegetables for donation to the network or to permit network volunteers to harvest it for them. The network now harvests an estimated 20,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables a year, used first to help feed the Somali participants with the excess sold at farmers markets to augment refugee income. The group has now mapped four Tucson neighborhoods and has plans to expand. News of the network is spreading nationwide. |
| Reference(s): (Arizona Star, November 19, 2006 Link(s)*: |
| 280 2006-11-24 DEET-Free, All-Natural Mosquito Patch Based on Vitamin B1. |
| The “Mosquito Patch” is a new product produced by AgraCo Technologies International and used to repel mosquitoes, flies and gnats without DEET. The patch is designed to be worn on the body like a smoker’s patch. The company claims the patch is effective over a 36-hour period and needs to be applied at least two hours before needing protection from biting insects. Each patch should be worn for 24 hours, and subsequent applications should be applied at different locations of soft skin on the body (inside of the ankle, arm or thigh, back of the legs, lower hip area, etc.) Each patch contains 300 mg of Vitamin B1 (Thiamin) which when absorbed and released by the body proves a repellent to biting insects. |
| Reference(s): (AgraCo Technologies International, LLC, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.agraco.com |
| 280 2006-11-24 AgriBoard Turns Wheat and Rice Straw Into Green Building Systems. |
| AgriBoard Industries now manufactures agriboard panels and cores from compressed wheat or rice straw. The panels are intended for use as sub-floor decking, walls, and roofs. The wall panels can be configured as structural or curtain walls and can be pre-engineered to meet specific building applications. No adhesive additives are added to the wheat straw insulation and only borax compounds are added for safe control of mold and insects. The panels meet all ASTM standards for sound insulation, air exchange, odor emissions, moisture vapor sorption, fungi resistance, and fire tests. |
| Reference(s): (Agriboard Industries, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.agriboard.com |
| 279 2006-11-17 Worldchanging Offers 600 Page Users Guide for the 21st Century. |
| Wordchanging has just released a compendium of innovative solutions, ideas, and inventions emerging today for building a sustainable, livable, prosperous future. The “Users Guide for the 21st Century” contains over 600 pages, divided into seven sections: stuff, shelter, ties, community, business, politics, and planet. It features entries ranging from consumer consciousness to a new vision for industry, from non-toxic homes to refugee shelters, from microfinance to effective philanthropy, from socially responsible investing to starting a green business. A United States and Canada book premier tour is currently underway, concluding in Denver, CO on December 14, 2006. |
| Reference(s): (Worldchanging, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.worldchanging.com/book/ |
| 279 2006-11-17 Global Carbon Trading Doubles Over 2005. |
| According to the World Bank, nearly $22 billion of carbon has been traded globally in the first nine months of 2006. This compares with $10 billion during 2005. Traders in the United Kingdom have been responsible for contributing 43% of the carbon traded under the Kyoto protocol. The market for buying and selling carbon credits has a market value of about $3 billion, with the most popular location for projects generating carbon credits being China. It took a 63% share of the market in 2006. India generated 12% of the credits, and African countries nearly 6%. The lion’s share of the carbon trading market is taken by the European Union’s greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme, with a value of $19 billion. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, November 17, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com |
| 279 2006-11-17 VeraSun Plans to Co-Produce Biodiesel and Ethanol From a Single Feedstock. |
| VeraSun recently announced plans to produce two renewable fuels – ethanol and biodiesel – from one feedstock. It will produce the biodiesel from oil extracted from distillers grains, a co-product of the ethanol production process. Removing the oil from distillers grains both increases the value of the oil for fuel use and enhances the resulting distillers grains as a livestock feed by concentrating protein and reducing fat content. By increasing the energy content extracted per ton of corn, the process could also reduce the relative amount of farmland devoted to renewable energy production. |
| Reference(s): (VeraSun, November 3, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.verasun.com/press/release2006-11-03.htm |
| 278 2006-11-10 Los Angeles College District to Take its Nine Campuses Off the Grid. |
| The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) intends to become the first community college district in the nation to generate all of its own electricity. The initial plan is to install one megawatt of photovoltaic panels at each of its nine college campuses. This will be more than sufficient to meet current daytime loads. Future plans call for using excess solar electricity to convert water to hydrogen and oxygen and to use the hydrogen in the evening to power fuel cells for nighttime loads. In addition, the LACCD is creating a sustainable development curriculum that integrates classes, green building education and certificates along with solar learning kiosks on each campus. |
| Reference(s): (Building OnLine, October 26, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.buildingonline.com/news/viewnews.pl?id=5558&subcategory=171 |
| 278 2006-11-10 “EMERGENCY SMART” Standards Aim at Carbon Neutral Buildings by 2030. |
| The American Institute of Architects and it partners, including Market Transformation to Sustainability (MTS), have developed the EMERGENCY SMART©Sustainable Building Product Standard. It covers all of the thousands of products and materials in the whole building environment for buildings and homes across the global supply chain. It is now receiving final consideration and ballot vote. The standard is considered an Emergency standard due to urgent global need to counter long-term and rapidly increasing signs of climate change. The standard aims at reducing fossil fuel use in buildings by 50% in 4 years and carbon neutrality for buildings by 2030. |
| Reference(s): (SustainableProducts, 2006 Link(s)*: http://mts.sustainableproducts.com |
| 278 2006-11-10 “Gene Marker” Technology Continues to Expand as Alternative to GMOs. |
| Thanks to decoded genetic blueprints, seed producers can now know with precision which plants carry a desirable trait and which genes cause it. At the heart of the new technique are “gene markers.” Once scientists identify a gene that imparts a desired trait they mark a DNA fragment or marker unique to that gene. Crop breeding monitoring can occur faster, letting breeders know quickly whether a given plant has inherited the natural trait they want to encourage. Armed with this knowledge, crop breeders can accelerate the use of old-fashioned selective breeding rather than genetic manipulation, to achieve desired characteristics in crops, characteristics present in the plant’s genetic code but dormant. Farmers used to need a decade to develop marketable new seeds by traditional selective breeding but can now do it in half the time due to the decoded genetic blueprints of the plants. |
| Reference(s): (Wall Street Journal, October 31, 2006 Link(s)*: |
| 277 2006-11-03 Iowa County Gives Property Tax Break for Farm Conversions to Organic. |
| Woodbury County Iowa has passed the first-in-the-nation policy that provides a property tax break to landowners who convert farmland to certified organic production. Up to $50,000 in tax breaks can be given in any given year and an individual landowner can qualify for up to $10,000 in abatements annually. The County Supervisors also passed another breakthrough policy requiring that whenever the county buys food it must be organically produced and processed within a 100-mile radius of the courthouse in Sioux City. The Leopold Institute will do a year-long modeling study to determine the overall economic impact of Woodbury County’s new policies. |
| Reference(s): (The Land Stewardship Letter, Jan/Feb/March 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.woodbury-ia.com |
| 277 2006-11-03 Dairy Waste to Provide 24 Hour Power for Wastewater Treatment Plant. |
| Tulare City, California has selected FuelCell Energy to supply an ultra clean power plant that will run on a renewable supply of fuel from dairy processing waste, generating electricity to run a municipal wastewater treatment plant serving the San Joaquin Valley region. Three fuel cell units will provide around-the-clock electricity for the wastewater plant while surplus heat produced from its operation will be used in generating the gas to be used as fuel. The plant does not require Tulare to purchase $600,000 of Emission Reduction Credits which would required if the city had employed traditional on-site power equipment such as reciprocating engines. |
| Reference(s): (Novomer, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=FCEL&script=410&item_id=921161&layout=23 |
| 277 2006-11-03 Construction Begins in Colorado on First-Ever Net Zero Impact Home. |
| Construction began in Boulder, Colorado last week on America’s first “Net Zero Impact” home, in which the home’s reduced ecological footprint will be measured and offset through additional green power purchases and natural lands preservation and restoration. Specific features of the EcoBuild home include: an “earth tube” to deliver preconditioned fresh air to the ventilation system, passive design and insulation levels sufficient to eliminate the need for a furnace or air conditioner, the purchase and restoration of grassland sufficient to absorb the carbon produced by the manufacture of all materials used in the building, generation of all its own energy, and the use of local, agricultural and recycled materials such as reclaimed wood and earthen plasters. |
| Reference(s): (EcoBuild, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.eco-build.com/netzero |
| 276 2006-10-27 Colorado “Choose Local” Coupon Book Spurs Economic Relocalization. |
| The Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Association has developed a new kind of coupon book, the “Be Local Coupon Book,” that promotes independent stores, farmers, trades people, art groups, restaurants, and more. The initial book features more than 115 “Buy Local” coupons from 75 independent area businesses that amount to a savings of over $2,000 to the user. The book also features a “Choose Local: Walk the Talk” resource guide for making positive choices, a mini-directory of local tradespeople from the National Center for Craftsmanship, a dozen stories of innovation, heart, and leadership from local programs, and an “Eat Local” map identifying nearby outlets for locally grown foods. |
| Reference(s): (Sustainable Living Association, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.SustainableLivingAssociation.org |
| 276 2006-10-27 Chemists Synthesize Biodegradable Ingredients for Innovative Catalysts. |
| University of Cornell chemists headed by Geoffrey Coates have identified ways to make biodegradable plastics from limonene (the chemical that gives orange peels their scent) and carbon dioxide to form a novel polymer that breaks down much more quickly than ordinary petroleum-based plastic. The polymer can replace the polystyrene used in food packaging, plastic utensils, and other products. Applications planned for the CO2 and other bio-renewable material catalysts include: drug delivery, flexible electronics, ceramic binders and electrolytes for energy storage devices. Coates and his colleagues have founded Novomer, a company to market the technologies developed by their sustainable chemistry research group. |
| Reference(s): (Novomer, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.novomer.com/index.htm |
| 276 2006-10-27 The Hundred Dollar Laptop Has a Working Prototype. |
| One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is working to design and produce an inexpensive ($100) and durable laptop to be distributed to children in poor countries. Founded by members of MIT’s Media Lab, OLPC now has a working prototype. It uses flash memory instead of a hard drive, custom-made energy efficient chips, and a LINUX operating system. It will draw power from one of a number of human-powered ways such as hand pull or treadle power. The hand-pull generator has a goal of 10 minutes of power for every minute of pulling. Thailand will test 500 units this year with an eye towards buying one million units. |
| Reference(s): (MIT Technology Review, September/October 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17416&ch=infotech |
| 275 2006-10-20 Cascades Auburn Fiber Becomes First Deinked Market Pulp Mill in U.S. |
| The Chlorine Free Products Association announced recently that Cascades Auburn Fiber, Inc. has completed a third party auditing screen and passed the Processed Chlorine Free (PCF) requirements. In becoming the first deinked market pulp plant in the US to receive PCF Certification, any and all of its customers can now take the next step to produce PCF Certified papers. |
| Reference(s): (PR Newswire, September 12, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/09-06-2006/0004427849&EDATE= |
| 275 2006-10-20 Sicilian Winery Uses “POEMS” Method to Chart Environmental Performance. |
| The small Milazzo winery in Sicily still uses hand-picked grapes to make its award-winning red wines. The winery recently allowed researchers from the University of Palermo to observe production from the first vine to labeled bottles in order to calculate the cost to the global environment of producing one bottle of Sicilian red. They used the Product Oriented Environmental Management System (POEMS) to determine how much energy and what waste is generated at each step across the production process for a particular item in order to identify “hot spots” that can be fixed. As a result, energy and water use was lowered, waste disposal eliminated and pesticides discontinued in the winemaking operations. |
| Reference(s): (International Herald Tribune, October 14-15, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/13/business/wbwine.php |
| 275 2006-10-20 “Quiet Revolution” Brings Vertical Axis Wind Turbines to the Built Environment. |
| A new UK company, Quiet Revolution Ltd is leading development of a new generation of small, vertical axis wind turbines designed especially for the built environment (ground or roof mounted) where wind speeds are lower and wind directions change frequently. With only one moving part, the triple helix blade minimizes noise and vibration and improves efficiency over competing designs. |
| Reference(s): (Quiet Revolution, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.quietrevolution.co.uk/faq_general.htm |
| 275 2006-10-20 EU Green Energy Standards to Drive Multinational Compliance. |
| The European Commission is set to announce this week sweeping proposals that demand new energy efficiency targets for 14 priority products, including boilers, air conditioning, appliances, cars and building materials. The measures will establish de facto global standards in that all exports into the European market will have to comply, including those from U.S. manufacturers. The initiative is aimed at slicing $125 billion off the European Union’s annual energy bill. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, October 17, 2006 Link(s)*: http://ft.com |
| 274 2006-09-29 New Booklet Helps Parents Deal With Advertising Effects on Children. |
| A free 32-page booklet has been produced by The Center for the New American Dream that features tips, personal stories, and resources to help parents deal with the effects of advertising and marketing on children. The Center believes the booklet will help children reclaim valuable noncommercial “mental space” in their lives – time to be innocent children, time to be in nature, to be with family and loved ones – and time not to be mere consumers. Author Mary Pipher comments that this booklet “helps parents give their children childhoods.” Those who register their email can immediately receive one free pdf file of the booklet. |
| Reference(s): (The Center for a New American Dream, April 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.newdream.org/kids/brochure.php |
| 274 2006-09-29 Food Alliance Offers Ten Tips to Support Biodiversity on Farm Lands. |
| The Food Alliance has published a compendium of ten ways to protect and enhance biodiversity on farm lands. The suggested steps show how agricultural landscapes can make a significant contribution to providing natural habitat that meets the needs of multiple species. They show how on many farms opportunities exist to accommodate the needs of local species with only minor changes to farming practices. The ten steps include: controlling and removing invasive species, using conservation incentive programs, restoration of native habitat, habitat-sensitive scheduling of mowing and tilling practices, managing fallow fields for wildlife, and building connectivity between habitats on adjoining farm lands. |
| Reference(s): (Food Alliance, 2006, August 28, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.foodalliance.org/biodiversity/index.html |
| 274 2006-09-29 “Smart Glass” Technology Moves Closer to Commercialization. |
| “Smart Glass” technology is now in the process of commercialization in Japan. The glass, developed by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has a multilayer thin-film structure, with semiconducting, photocatalytic and other materials coated on the surface. The glass always transmits visible light, while blocking most ultraviolet light. For near-infrared radiation, which makes people feel warm, the glass automatically controls its transmission in response to changes in outside temperature. Due to high levels of far-infrared reflectance the glass also provides thermal insulation. AIST and Nippon Sheet Glass Company plan to start selling new residential glass at prices competitive with conventional energy saving glass by 2008. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, August 31, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/database.cgi?cmd=dp&num=1473&dp=data_e.html |
| 273 2006-09-08 Wingspread Principles Call for Immediate Climate Action by U.S. |
| Organizations and individuals who believe the United States must take immediate, comprehensive action against global warming can now go to the website below and sign on to the “Wingspread Principles on the U.S. Response to Global Warming.” The 12 Wingspread Principles are: Urgency, Effective Action, Consistency and Continuity of Purpose, Opportunity, Predictability, Flexibility, Everyone Plays, Multiple Benefits, Accurate Market Signals, Prudent Preparation, International Solutions, and Fairness. The Preface to the Principles states that global climate change “tests our capacity to make intelligent changes in our economy, policies and behaviors in the interest of all people and all generations .” |
| Reference(s): (Wingspread Principles, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.summits.ncat.org/energy_climate/statement.php |
| 273 2006-09-08 Honolulu’s Punahou School Named America’s Greenest School. |
| The Green Guide has named Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii first in its America’s Top Green Schools report on environmentally conscious academic communities across the country. The school built its Case Middle School according to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards complete with waterless urinals, photovoltaic arrays, and even a Hawaiian plant nursery. Punahou has committed to building all future buildings on its campus according to the LEED standards. The Green Guide noted Punahou’s commitment to healthy lifestyles and singled out the fact that its vending machines do not include candy. Punahou was praised for its commitment to policies that “aim to make children’s lives healthier and help the environment.” |
| Reference(s): (The Green Guide, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.thegreenguide.com |
| 273 2006-09-08 Expedia Offers Travelers a Chance to Offset Airline CO2 Emissions. |
| Expedia has become the first online travel agency to offer environmentally conscious travelers a quantifiable greenhouse gas reduction program to balance out the global warming impact of their flights. Expedia is offering the service through TerraPass, the leading retailer of greenhouse gas reduction projects in the United States. Travelers can now pay a small fee to sponsor a measured, verified reduction in greenhouse gas emission directly proportional to the emissions created by their plane flight. TerraPass funds domestic clean energy projects, such as wind farms, innovative “cow power” methane capture plants, and the retirement of carbon offsets on the Chicago Climate Exchange. |
| Reference(s): (Expedia,Inc., August 28, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.expedia.com |
| 272 2006-08-25 “Clean Stream” Converts Sewage Into Clean Water and Renewable |
| “Clean Stream,” a new product from MicroMedia, is a cutting edge ultra filtration system that can reduce incoming municipal sludge volume by up to 70%. An optional gasification module converts the 30% dry solids from the wastewater into 1050 Btu natural gas. Only 4% of total volume remains as waste, virtually eliminating waste hauling and disposal costs. A new installation of Clean Stream offered by a Santa Barbara company, Natural Water Systems Inc., costs a third as much as a traditional waste treatment system, outperforms current membrane technologies, and produces Title 22 clean water. Spokesman Jim Smallwood reports that the system “represents an almost 100% recycling of water, one of our most precious resources.” |
| Reference(s): (PR Web, August 1, 2006 Link(s)*: http://natural-water-systems.com |
| 272 2006-08-25 Caterpillar Knowledge Network Helps Communities’ Leverage Their Expertise. |
| The Caterpillar Knowledge Network is a web-delivered software system that provides on-line collaboration and access to expertise through “communities of practice” – groups of people associated by common interests that cross business unit, geographic, even corporate boundaries. Users ask and answer questions, share information, research specifications, and otherwise organize, preserve, and leverage an organization’s collective expertise. People outside the organization can also participate under the control of the Caterpillar Knowledge Network’s security levels. The Network has been operational at Caterpillar since 1999. Internally-focused communities of practice had an average 200% return on investment (ROI) while externally focused communities of practice enjoyed an ROI of about 700%. Caterpillar is currently negotiating to license the Network with several organizations. |
| Reference(s): (Yet2.com, August 2, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.yet2.com/app/list/techpak?id=32895&sid=360&abc=0&page=tpoverview |
| 272 2006-08-25 U.S. District Court Rules Biopharming Illegal in Hawaii. |
| Earlier this month, a U.S. District judge in Hawaii concluded that the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), which grants permits for the planting of genetically engineered crops, should have first investigated whether crops genetically engineered to produce medicines and vaccines and planted on hundreds of acres in Hawaii posed a threat to any of that state’s hundreds of endangered species. The ruling is the first by a federal court on the controversial practice of “biopharming.” Opponents of biopharming have asked the court to enjoin the issuance of any biopharm permits anywhere in the country unless and until APHIS completes a programmatic analysis of their regulatory program. |
| Reference(s): (Washington Post, August 16, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.washingtonpost.com |
| 271 2006-08-18 Polish Parliament Bans GMOs in Animal Feed. |
| The Polish Sejm (lower house of Parliament) on July 22, 2006 approved a ban on the use of genetically modified (GM) animal feed186. Earlier in the week, the Polish Senate had approved the same law. The law bans “the introduction, the putting into circulation and the use of genetically modified fodder and genetically modified organisms destined for fodder in animal feeding.” The action, coming two months after passage of a bill that outlawed planting GM seeds in Poland, gives evidence that the governing Law and Justice Party intends to carry out its campaign promise to make Poland “GMO free.” |
| Reference(s): (GMWatch, July 25, 2006, August 7, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.gmo.icpcc.pl.eko-cel.pl |
| 271 2006-08-18 Dutch Project Captures Refinery CO2 for Greenhouse Agriculture. |
| Dutch engineers have developed a system to exploit the link between surplus and nearly-pure carbon dioxide produced as a waste product at Shell’s oil refinery outside Rotterdam and the demand for CO2 at the banks of greenhouses that stretch from there to Amsterdam. Greenhouse operators are accessing the surplus CO2 via pipeline and are shutting off the heaters they normally use to generate carbon dioxide for greenhouse flowers, fruits, and vegetables. This saves money and earns government credits for cutting overall CO2 emissions. According to Shell, 95 million cubic meters of natural gas will be saved each year and CO2 emissions will be reduced by 170,000 tons annually. |
| Reference(s): (Nature, August 3, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7102/full/442499a.html |
| 271 2006-08-18 Indian Farmer Uses Local Seeds and Bacteria to Develop Natural Pesticide. |
| A local farmer in Andhra Pradesh, India has developed a natural pesticide from jatropa, pongamia, and annona squamosa seeds and D compost bacteria. The mixture is prepared, stored and allowed to react, and then applied over seven day intervals. The farmer has been practicing this method for over two years with excellent results in his sugarcane, banana, grape, cotton and vegetable farms. The natural pesticide ingredients have proven inexpensive compared to the alternative of chemical pesticides. |
| Reference(s): (Engineers Without Borders-International, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.ewb-international.org/pdf/Natural_pesticide.pdf#search='jagadeesh%20nayudamma%20centre%20for%20development%20alternatives |
| 270 2006-08-11 Ethiopian Vernonia Oil Proves a Living Source of Epoxy Compounds. |
| The Ethiopian Government is teaming with Vernique Biotech, a UK-based start-up to commercialize vernonia oil as a “green Chemical.” The black seeds of the Vernonia, a tall weed found in the dry valleys of Eastern Ethiopia, yield an extraordinary oil that is a living source of epoxy compounds that are currently produced entirely from petrochemicals. The company will pay the government a mix of license fees, royalties and shared profits while employing hundreds of local farmers to grow vernonia on land that is too poor and arid to grow crops. Other uses for vernonia oil include as a base for paints and adhesives and in a potentially wide range of pharmaceutical applications. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, August 7, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com |
| 270 2006-08-11 American Public Media Offers “Marketplace” Sustainability. |
| American Public Media’s new website dedicated to sustainability contains features from “Marketplace” and “Marketplace Money” as well as sustainability-themed stories which appear on its “Speaking of Faith” and “Weekend America” programs. The website also allows people to join a “Living a Sustainable Life” discussion group. The new focus for American Public Media gives web viewers and radio listeners a chance to review recent sustainability stories reported on, find resource links, use online surveys and simulations on topics explored in its reporting. Recent topics covered include stories on new methods of testing for mercury in fish, lessons in eco-driving, and Kenya’s Green Belt Movement. |
| Reference(s): (American Public Media, 2006 Link(s)*: http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/sustainability/ |
| 270 2006-08-11 Youth at Junior Summit Deliver “Change the World” Address to G8 Leaders. |
| Young people from the G8 nations met in St. Petersburg last month for the Junior 8 (J8) Summit 2006. The youth prepared a common document that was submitted to national G8 leaders and which covered the J8’s four main topics of concern: Education, Infectious Diseases, Tolerance, and Energy Security. The J8 youth expressed their desire to live on a clean planet and in a peaceful world, and pledged to put their ideas into action at the conclusion of the Summit. In addition, they called for the young people of other, non-G8 counties to be involved in future J8 Summits, particularly those from developing countries. The full text of the J8 Declaration is available at the J8 website. |
| Reference(s): (The J8 Story, August 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.j8summit.com/J8_homepage/ |
| 269 2006-08-04 USDA: “Growers Make More Money by Going Organic.” |
| A recent study by the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has concluded that Minnesota grain farmers could make more money by switching to organic grain crops. With the 130 acre Swan Lake Farm as a representative farm, ARS researchers used four years of trial data to predict that over 20 years organic soybeans fetched up to $14 more per bushel, organic corn up to $3 more per bushel, and wheat up to $5 more. Another projection resulted in farmers netting an average of $50-60 more per acre even if organic prices were to drop by half. |
| Reference(s): (USDA Agricultural Research Service, July 25, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2006/060725.htm |
| 269 2006-08-04 First North American Climate-Neutral Fleet Program Underway. |
| PHH Arval is a leading fleet management company and a subsidiary of PHH Corporation. It has teamed with Environmental Defense to create a pilot of a new climate-neutral program for vehicle fleets. It is the first program of its kind in North America. PHH Green Fleet is designed to give companies the tools they need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, measure remaining emissions, and offset these emissions with verifiable carbon offsets. As part of its commitment to the initiative, PHH Arval has offset its own fleet GHG emissions. |
| Reference(s): (Ecosystem Marketplace News, July 18, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=1925&topicId=100002042&docId=l:408065094&start=23&dateId=20060718 |
| 269 2006-08-04 MedAssets Helps Get Organic Food into 2,000 U.S. Hospitals. |
| MedAssets, a leading group purchasing organization for the health care industry has teamed with United Natural Food Incorporated (UNFI) to arrange the first contract between a major health care buyer and an organic food distributor. UNFI is the largest publicly traded wholesale distributor to the natural and organic foods industry. Under the contract, more than 2,000 hospitals in the U.S. now have access to natural and organic foods. According to Jamie Harvie of Health Care Without Harm, the contract “demonstrates the growing awareness in the health care industry about the health impacts of current large-scale agribusiness practices. |
| Reference(s): (Health Care Without Harm, April 24, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.noharm.org/details.cfm?type=document&ID=1290 |
| 268 2006-07-28 Zopa Eliminates Banks; Directly Links Borrowers and Lenders. |
| Zopa is a new concept in lending and investing that lets people extend personal loans to one another. Zopa lets people who have money to spare lend it to people who want to borrow it, without a bank as a middleman. To minimize risk, the money each lender puts in is spread amongst at least 50 borrowers (and likewise, each borrower gets their money from a number of different lenders.) No one gets to borrow from the same person twice. All lenders and borrowers enter into a legally binding contract with their respective borrowers and lenders, while Zopa manages the collection and distribution of monthly payments. Zopa makes its money by charging borrowers and lenders a fee, for borrowers 0.5% of their loan amount and lenders a 0.5% annual service fee. |
| Reference(s): (Zopa, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.zopa.com/ZopaWeb/ |
| 268 2006-07-28 Inner City Bakery Sustains the Social Mission of Greyston Foundation. |
| The Greyston Bakery in Yonkers, New York is a successful gourmet wholesale-retail bakery that serves as a model for other socially conscious businesses. The Bakery’s profits support the community development work of the Greyston Foundation, which includes housing, child care and health care. Greyston also actively recruits Bakery workers from Yonkers’ hard-to-employ population. Every other Wednesday is “open call” day where anyone can walk in and apply for a position on the production line. Greyston gives these individuals a chance to join its apprenticeship program if they are selected through its randomized lottery system. Today 40 of the bakery’s 45 employees started as entry level applicants with no questions asked. CEO Julius Walls explained that “We don’t hire people so we can make brownies. We make brownies so we can hire people.” |
| Reference(s): (Greyston Bakery, 2006 Denver Post, July 14, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.greystonbakery.com/bakery.html http://www.denverpost.com |
| 268 2006-07-28 Los Angeles Car Rental Firm Offers Only Hybrids. |
| With 425 cars and eight rental locations on the West Coast, EV Rental Cars is a Los Angeles agency devoted solely to hybrid vehicles. EV’s fleet of hybrids enjoys an average monthly utilization rate (portion of days in which a vehicle is out generating revenue) of 90%. This compares with an industry norm of 80-85%. EV’s cars command a premium of at least $10 a day, renting from $35 - $75 per day. The EV fleet includes Toyota’s Prius, Camry and Highlander, the Honda Civic, and the Ford Escape. EV turned a profit last year on revenue of $4 million. EV Chief Executive Jeff Pink expects to have 1,500 hybrid cars in rental service by the end of next year. |
| Reference(s): (EV Rental Cars, 2006, Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.evrental.com/press/wsj.html |
| 267 2006-07-21 Edible Estates Begins Transforming Front Yards to Food. |
| From Kansas to California, the concept of Edible Estates is gaining traction among those seeking to reduce the chemical and resource footprint of the conventional residential lawn. The brainchild of Los Angeles architect Fritz Haeg, the Edible Estate was first introduced in Salina, KS on July 4, 2005. It is part of a growing “delawning” movement concerned with replacing lawns around the country with native plants, food crops, prairie grasses (in suburban Chicago) and cactus gardens (in southern Arizona). In Salina, Stan and Priti Cox offered up their conventional front yard for transformation into a living, thriving edible installation. The process not only furnishes the family with a hearty supply of food, but provides an education in seasonal cycles, organic gardening, and regional biodiversity. The second Edible Estate was just initiated by Haeg and the Foti home in Lakewood, CA. Haeg has plans for nine more projects over the next three years. |
| Reference(s): (Edible Estates, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.edibleestates.org |
| 267 2006-07-21 Bi-o-Kleen Adds Soy Lube to Inventory of Products. |
| Soy Lube is a 100% renewable, 100% biodegradable, and 100% plant-derived product that serves as an alternative to petroleum-based lubricants. Made from soybean oil, other vegetable-derived oils, orange peel extract and vegetable-based corrosion inhibitors, Soy Lube has hundreds of uses, including lubrication of parts-in-motion, penetration of stuck or slow-moving parts, sealing and drying out moisture in engines and spark plugs, cleaning with dissolving action, and protection against corrosion and rust. Soy Lube is non-flammable, non-harmful if swallowed, not a breathing hazard, not a severe eye irritant, and without volatile organic compounds. It is another in a wide product line of non-toxic products offered by Bi-o-Kleen. |
| Reference(s): (Bi-o-Kleen, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.bi-o-kleen.com/company.htm |
| 267 2006-07-21 International Network Explores Solutions to Corporate Power in Food Systems. |
| Co-sponsored by the Center of Concern and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, the Agribusiness Accountability Initiative is a growing international network of academics, activists and food systems experts from farm, labor, environment, consumer, church, and development organizations. The Initiative explores and provides alternatives to the vertical integration among trans-national agro-food companies and the challenge they pose to the sustainability of the global food system. The group’s website provides a clearinghouse of resources and research, links to promising civil society global responses to oligopoly power, and data on horizontal and vertical integration in the global food industry. |
| Reference(s): (The Agribusiness Accountability Initiative, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.agribusinessaccountability.org/ |
| 266 2006-07-14 Community “Green Drinks” Chapter Explores Energy and Environmental Concerns. |
| Tucson Green Drinks is one of over a hundred and twenty worldwide chapters of Green Drinks International. Green Drinks is an organization supporting the development of networks of people who meet regularly over dinner and drinks to discuss energy conservation and other environmental concerns. The International movement began in England but has quickly spread worldwide. The Tucson Chapter has had to move its meeting space twice to accommodate the growing numbers interested in the networking opportunity and fellowship. Participants include a local architect, the curator of the local zoo, environmental science graduate students, local government representatives and a variety of other environmental professionals. |
| Reference(s): (Arizona Daily Star, July 5, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/136517.php http://greendrinks.org/ |
| 266 2006-07-14 Missouri Firm Demanufactures Computers, Monitors, Printers, and PC Boards. |
| EPC is a St. Charles, Missouri computer electronics refurbishing and reselling firm. After struggles to find companies that recycled computers properly, EPC went into the business itself. A desktop computer contains nearly 40 pounds of plastic, lead, aluminum, and iron, along with small amounts of arsenic, mercury, zinc and gold. EPC currently “demanufactures” 150 tons of electronics equipment a month for about $10 a computer. Workers take apart monitors by hand and send the leaded glass tubing to a Missouri smelting operation. A hulking baler crunches plastic hardware to a tenth its size for resale, and metals are extracted and sold. Equipment recycled by EPC in this way includes monitors, hard drives, printers, and motherboards. |
| Reference(s): (Time, Inside Business, May 2006 Link(s)*: |
| 266 2006-07-14 New Sensor Collects Environmental Information Without a Battery. |
| An Intel researcher, Josh Smith, has developed a sensor that can collect environmental information and transmit it without a battery. The sensor uses an antenna similar to those found in battery-free RFID tags. When the sensor comes in range of an external “reader” emitting radio waves the antenna and circuitry harvest power from the radio signal to turn on the sensor. As long as the reader is in range of the antenna, the sensor collects and processes environmental information, such as tracking the temperature of food shipments. Sensors currently used require batteries which must be replaced often. |
| Reference(s): (MIT Technology Review, July/August 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.technologyreview.com |
| 265 2006-07-07 Grass-fed Bison Get Delivered to Your Door. |
| Buffalo Groves, Inc. is a small enterprise based in Kiowa, Colorado that specializes in “everything buffalo.” The family-owned company focuses on gourmet, 100% grass-fed buffalo meat, with no additives, no antibiotics, no hormones, no preservatives, no grain, and no feedlots. Their herd spends its days eating natural, native grasses and is finished on grass the same way. The company offers free home delivery in the Denver/Colorado Springs, Colorado area and ships vacuum sealed and frozen buffalo meat product across the United States. The company raises all the bison that it sells and offers a full range of meat cuts and sizes that are USDA Inspected and Nutritionally Labeled. |
| Reference(s): (Buffalo Groves. 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.buffalogroves.com |
| 265 2006-07-07 Healthy Hues From Mother Earth Nursery Designs. |
| Baby’s Healthy Hues is a line of zero VOC paint, in eight pre-tinted colors, offered by Mother Earth Nursery Design (MEND) that is intended to help brighten the walls in the rooms of newborns. A Healthy Hues Drywall Primer, also zero VOC, is available from the company. The paint and primer are crystalline silica free, low odor, and have a durable, washable finish. The wall coverings are among an array of sustainable products offered by Mother Earth Nursery Designs which include baby mattresses made with pesticide-free organic cotton and fire-retardant free wool, solid wood cribs, and organic bath products for babies and moms. |
| Reference(s): (Mother Earth Nursery Designs, 2006 Link(s)*: http://store.motherearthnurserydesigns.com/index.php?cPath=80&osCsid=a550b42abc0f4a284e892990c3138e4f |
| 265 2006-07-07 New Release Offers 147 Tips for Teaching Sustainability. |
| Six Ft. Collins, Colorado-based sustainability thinkers and educators have joined to co-author "147 Practical Tips for Teaching Sustainability." The book features ideas and suggestions for what to include when designing sustainability curricula or any other effort at communicating the broad principles of sustainability. The core concepts featured include: systems thinking, interconnections between nature and human society, ethics, values and the sacred, learning from nature, the best use of technology, the role of personal responsibility, and the collective need for new visions. The authors offer concise, accessible explanations for each of the 147 tips provided along with a recommended activity to help see an idea in practice. |
| Reference(s): (Atwood Publishing, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.atwoodpublishing.com/books/245.htm |
| 264 2006-06-30 New Policy Codifies Goldman Sachs’ Aggressive Sustainability Commitment. |
| Goldman Sachs, arguably the most prestigious investment bank in the world, has adopted an environmental policy that is essentially a green handbook for its 22,000 employees. Goldman’s framework goes further than the Equator Principles by calling on world governments to tighten restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions and by committing to invest a billion dollars in renewable energy. It is the first investment bank to address the climate change issue, recognizing the “scientific consensus…that climate change is a reality.” |
| Reference(s): (Goldman Sachs, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.gs.com/our_firm/our_culture/social_responsibility/environmental_policy_framework/ |
| 264 2006-06-30 High Intensity Liquid Garlic Selectively Targets Mosquitoes, Ticks and Fleas. |
| “Mosquito Barrier” is a very strong liquid garlic much more potent that the garlic found in grocery stores. It has a natural sulfur which repels insects and has been used by farmers and master gardeners for generations. When mixed with soybean oil, Mosquito Barrier coats any standing water with a thin film of natural oil that suffocates mosquito larvae developing in standing water. Unlike chemicals, it doesn’t harm bees, butterflies or birds. |
| Reference(s): (Garlic Research Labs, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.mosquitobarrier.com/ |
| 264 2006-06-30 Marketplace Tracks Ecosystem Services Trading Programs. |
| “Ecosystem Marketplace” provides a comprehensive source of information on markets and payment schemes for ecosystem services such as water quality, carbon sequestration and biodiversity. It features information essential to the proper functioning of any market: prices, transactions, how the services are measured, packaged and sold, as well as the location of buyers and sellers. Ecosystem Services featured in the marketplace also include wetlands banking, salinity trading, conservation banking, and hydrological services. |
| Reference(s): (The Katoomba Group, 2006 Link(s)*: http://ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/section_landing.tools.php |
| 264 2006-06-30 Fourth California County Bans Biotech Crops. |
| On June 20, 2006, Santa Cruz County joined Trinity, Mendocino and Marin Counties in prohibiting the planting and production of genetically engineered (GE) crops within county lines. County supervisors based their action on findings from a nine month study of the laws and risks associated with genetically engineered crops. While GE crops draw controversy around the globe, no opposition was present as the County Supervisors considered and made their decision. |
| Reference(s): (Santa Cruz Sentinel, June 21, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2006/June/21/local/stories/10local.htm |
| 263 2006-06-23 Wisconsin Researchers Find White-Rot Fungus That Devours Plastic Resins. |
| Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse have shown that common white-rot fungus can break down complex phenolic resins, a waste which now clogs landfill sites. In tests at the University, the species Phanerochaete chrysosporium semi-digested chips of phenolic resin, though the research still needs to determine how quickly complete decomposition can occur. Researchers already know that white-rot fungi can digest other plastics such as polystyrene. |
| Reference(s): (news@nature.com, June 6, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060605/full/060605-5.html |
| 263 2006-06-23 Parent Company of Kenworth and Peterbilt Aims for Hybrid Trucks. |
| Paccar Inc., the Bellevue, WA parent company of Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks, intends to make hybrid-power medium-duty trucks available in 2008. Paccar is also promoting a hybrid-driven battery-charging system, so that when a truck is parked the battery can run heating and cooling systems and electrical accessories for hours without having to idle the engine. Using that system in place of the national average of 1,850 idling hours per truck per year would produce an 8 percent improvement in fuel efficiency. |
| Reference(s): (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 9, 2006 Link(s)*: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/273308_paccar09.html |
| 263 2006-06-23 British Scientists (and Bacteria) Make Hydrogen From Confectionary Waste. |
| Scientists at the University of Birmingham in Britain have demonstrated the production of hydrogen by bacteria using confectionary waste as a feedstock. The waste was supplied by Cadbury Schweppes, a partner in the initiative. Selected bacteria consumed the sugar, producing hydrogen and organic acids. A second type of bacteria was introduced into a second reactor to convert the organic acids into more hydrogen which was fed into a fuel cell to generate power. |
| Reference(s): (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, May 23, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/PressReleases/SweetSuccessForPioneeringHydrogenEnergyProject.htm |
| 263 2006-06-23 Great Lakes BrewPub Uses Waste to Make Bread, Grow Mushrooms. |
| Cleveland’s Great Lakes Brewing Co. (GLBC) has a zero waste initiative that involves “The Fatty Wagon,” worms, bread, pretzels, mushrooms and, yes, beer. Spent brewery grains are used as a substrate for growing organic shitake and oyster mushrooms. A local baker uses spent grain to make cracked barley beer bread and pretzels. GLBC operates a shuttle bus called The Fatty Wagon and a delivery truck that run on straight restaurant vegetable oil. Office paper, spent grain and kitchen wastes support vermicomposting, castings from which are used to fertilize herb and vegetable gardens at the Brewpub. |
| Reference(s): (Great Lakes Brewing Company, 2006 Link(s)*: http://greatlakesbrewing.com/companyEnvironmentZW.php |
| 262 2006-06-16 HSBC Overall Winner of Financial Times’ First Sustainable Banking Awards. |
| The world’s third largest financial services group, HSBC, was selected as overall winner in the first Financial Times Sustainable Banking awards. HSBC’s award was largely based on its becoming the first big bank to achieve carbon neutrality. It was also commended for assembling a financing package for a low emission bus network for Santiago, Chile. Other award winners and their accomplishments included Credit Suise’s Sustainable Energy Deal of the Year (successful flotation of Suntech Power, a Chinese energy company, on the New York Stock Exchange) and Citigroup and Financeria Compartamos’ Sustainable Bankers of the Year (the first peso-denominated investment grade bond issue to finance loans for poor entrepreneurs, mainly rural women). |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, June 13, 2006 Link(s)*: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c1f6fade-fafa-11da-b4d0-0000779e2340.html |
| 262 2006-06-16 “Complete Ship” Environmental Management Integral to Navy Vessel’s Operation. |
| The USS O’Kane, a Navy destroyer home ported in Pearl Harbor, has successfully implemented a “complete ship” approach to environmental management, winning environmental awards from the Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operations. The “complete ship” approach involves educating and encouraging the entire crew, not only its engineers, in proper environmental practices. Programs have addressed potable water conservation, solid waste management, energy conservation, and feature an onboard Environmental Protection Council. The ship’s use of automated fuel, water and liquid load reports allowed it to achieve a total loss of zero gallons by inventory and zero gallons due to spills for all of 2004. |
| Reference(s): (Currents: The Navy’s Environmental Magazine, Winter 2006 Link(s)*: https://www.denix.osd.mil/denix/Public/News/Navy/Currents/2006/Winter/Win06_O-KANE_Complete_Ship.pdf |
| 262 2006-06-16 Mitsubishi Blends Plant-Based Plastic and Bamboo for Automotive Interiors. |
| Jointly with the Aichi Industrial Technology Institute, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. has developed a car interior made of plant-derived plastic consisting of polybutylene succinate (PBS) combined with bamboo fibers. Compared with petroleum-derived plastic, the formula proved capable of reducing CO2 emissions by more than 50% over the lifecycle of the automobile interior. PBS is a plant-based resin primarily composed of succinic acid and 1,4-butanediol. Succinic acid is produced by fermentation of sugar extracted from sugarcane or corn. The bamboo fibers provide rigidity to the new material, called “Green Plastic” by the company. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, May 2, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/database.cgi?cmd=dp&num=1389&dp=data_e.html |
| 261 2006-06-09 WSU Offers Nation’s First College Major in Organic Agriculture. |
| Washington State University has won Board approval to offer the nation’s first college major in organic agriculture. Following approval, the University set up a 3-acre organic farm near its Pullman campus. Students in the major will work on the farm as well as the classroom, learning how to plant crops, studying the weed technology involved, learning pest and insect management techniques, as well as developing skills needed to sell the food to local markets. Career opportunities from the new college major beyond the farm also include retail sales and the certification of new organic production. |
| Reference(s): (Northwest Public Radio, May 30, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.nwpr.org/HomepageArticles/Article.aspx?n=1922 |
| 261 2006-06-09 New Hydroponics Technique Uses 100% Organic Fertilizers. |
| The National Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science in Japan has developed a hydroponics cultivation method using 100% organic fertilizer instead of conventional chemical fertilizers. Results using this technique have shown vegetable growth comparable to that with chemical fertilizers. The Institute claims that cultivation techniques using unprocessed organic matter such as fish stock and oil meal have not yet been reported elsewhere in the world. The organic nutrients in the experiment were provided by fish stock and corn steep liquor, leftovers from starch production. The technology enables both crop cultivation and degradation of organic waste, such as beer yeast and tofu lees. Future trials will use corn and fish meal. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, May 24, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/database.cgi?cmd=dp&num=1378&dp=data_e.html |
| 261 2006-06-09 AIG First Major U.S. Insurer With Policy on Climate Change. |
| American International Group, Inc. has become the nation’s first major insurer to adopt a policy on climate change. AIG put up the policy on its website with no publicity. Examples of specific actions and initiatives include: private equity investments in greenhouse gas mitigation, participation in the greenhouse gas trading of EU compliance instruments, adding carbon credits to the Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index, “bundling” of insurance products for developers of renewable energy, and reduction of the firm’s own carbon footprint. AIG had $2.1 billion in insured losses from hurricanes in 2005. |
| Reference(s): (Insurance Journal. May 17, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2006/05/17/68491.htm http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/76/76115/aig_climate_change_updated.pdf |
| 260 2006-06-02 Innovia Offers Transparent, Cellulose Films for Custom-Tailored Uses. |
| Innovia Films has developed a transparent packaging film, NatureFlex that is both biodegradable and compostable. NatureFlex is made from renewable wood pulp that is sourced exclusively from plantations operating sustainable forestry practices. The film has a very wide heat sealing temperature range while eliminating the need for glue for an all together cleaner sealing process. |
| Reference(s): (Ferret.com.au, February 28, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.ferret.com.au/articles/6c/0c03d76c.asp |
| 260 2006-06-02 US Navy Adopts Biodiesel Hybrid-Electric Ferries at USS Arizona Memorial. |
| The U. S. Navy has announced that it will be replacing five existing utility boats used to ferry visitors to and from the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. The new ferries will feature a hybrid electric vehicle series propulsion system that will be optimized for biodiesel fuel. The boats will be made of fiberglass and will have a maximum length of 78 feet. They will be funded by a U.S. Department of Transportation transit grant to the Hawaii Department of Transportation. |
| Reference(s): (Pacific Business News, May 9, 2006 Link(s)*: http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2006/05/08/daily22.html |
| 260 2006-06-02 Eprida Advances Carbon Dioxide-to-Soil Technology. |
| A new technology for removing CO2 from the air and putting carbon into topsoil has been developed by Eprida, Inc. The technology uses agricultural waste biomass to produce hydrogen-rich biofuels and a new, restorative high-carbon fertilizer. In tropical or depleted soils, the fertilizer improves oil fertility, water holding and plant yield beyond what is possible with nitrogen fertilizers alone. The hydrogen can be used to make ethanol and ammonia, and the entire process is carbon negative, storing more long-term carbon in soil than is released. |
| Reference(s): (Eprida, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.eprida.com/ |
| 260 2006-06-02 IGEL Becomes First Thin Client Manufacturer to Meet EU Waste Requirements. |
| Next month, the European Union’s RoHS (Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances) directive goes into effect. As of July 1, 2006, companies have to forego the use of heavy of heavy metals and brominated flame retardants in the production of electronic equipment. In anticipation of this deadline, IGEL has become the first thin client manufacturer whose entire product line complies with the RoHS directive. This makes thin clients even more environmentally friendly than conventional PCs, since they use about 50-70% less energy and resources than PCs. |
| Reference(s): (Thin Planet, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.thinplanet.com/news/generic.asp?v=NE87612 |
| 259 2006-05-26 Association Established to Advance Sustainability in Higher Education. |
| In late 2005, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) was formed in response to a demand for a North American campus sustainability association. Its mission extends to all sectors of higher education - from governance and operations to curriculum and outreach. It provides a professional home for campus sustainability professionals, with businesses, NGOs, and government agencies participating as partners. AASHE offers an online Resource Center that houses a sustainability policy bank and links to campus strategic plans and master plans incorporating sustainability. |
| Reference(s): (AASHE, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.aashe.org |
| 259 2006-05-26 Researchers Achieve Allergen-Free Soy Without Genetic Manipulation. |
| Crop scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the USDA have isolated two non-GMO Chinese soybean lines that can grow without the primary protein linked to soy allergies. The scientists say that the two lines will be given away free to breeders seeking to produce new varieties of allergy-free soybean without genetic engineering. Researchers made their discovery after screening more than 16,000 soybean lines kept in the USDA’s National Soybean Germplasm Collection. |
| Reference(s): (Genewatch, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6526 |
| 259 2006-05-26 Food Alliance Certifies First Two Sustainable Food Processors. |
| Food Alliance, the most comprehensive third-party certification program in North America for sustainably produced food has just certified the first two food processing companies to complete requirements under its new Handler Certification Program, Stahlbush Island Farms and Truitt Bros. The new program ensures the traceability of Food Alliance certified products back to the farm as well as environmentally and socially responsible practices at the handling facilities themselves. |
| Reference(s): (Food Alliance, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.foodalliance.org/certification/index.html |
| 259 2006-05-26 World’s First Sewage-to-Biodiesel Production Achieved in New Zealand. |
| The New Zealand firm, Aquaflow Bionomic has produced its first sample of biodiesel fuel from algae in sewage ponds. It is believed to be the world’s first commercial production of biodiesel from “wild” algae outside the laboratory. To get the fuel, the algae are processed into a pulp before lipid oils are extracted to be turned into biodiesel. The company expects to be producing at the rate of at least one million liters each year beginning next year. |
| Reference(s): (New Zealand Herald, May 12, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10381404 |
| 258 2006-05-19 “EcoBrokers” Certified to Offer Energy-Efficient Green Homes. |
| EcoBroker is a third-party environmental certification program for real-estate professionals. Through specially targeted educational courses offered by EcoBroker, real estate professionals acquire the knowledge and resources to become Certified EcoBrokers and assist clients in their pursuit of properties with green features. Real estate, energy, environmental, educational, marketing, and information technology specialists comprise the core of the EcoBroker team. Once certified, EcoBrokers are able to understand the value of energy efficiency, environmental technologies, reduced liabilities, and sustainable design in real estate and offer specialized assistance to residential and commercial clients. |
| Reference(s): (EcoBroker International, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.EcoBroker.com |
| 258 2006-05-19 NEC Moves to Quarterly Environmental Reporting for Stakeholders. |
| NEC Corporation of Japan will increase the frequency of its Environmental Activity Reports from once to four times a year. Through the timely provision of environmental information NEC hopes to enhance communication with its stakeholders and incorporate lessons learned in its activities. For the first half of fiscal 2005, NEC achieved an 8 percent reduction in energy-derived carbon dioxide emissions per unit of net sales, by reducing CO2 emissions by 60,000 tons, or 10 percent on a year-on basis. Significant initiatives reported by NEC during this period also included development of a kenaf fiber-reinforced bioplastic for mobile phones, and the launch of an afforestation project as part of its refurbished personal computer business. |
| Reference(s): (Japan for Sustainability, May 3, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.japanfs.org/db/database.cgi?cmd=dp&num=1342&dp=data_e.html |
| 258 2006-05-19 “Kitchen Sisters” Discover How Food and Story Help Build Community. |
| Best friends, not sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, are known as the “Kitchen Sisters.” They are a San Francisco Bay Area-based team that has recently completed an award-winning 13-part NPR series on Hidden Kitchens. They used the series to seek out and report on hidden kitchens across America, where communities come together through food and story telling. They sought to draw attention to the larger implications of food and land and agriculture and culture, and the consequences to the earth as agricultural lands are paved over. The Kitchen Sisters addressed such questions as “What food tradition is disappearing from your life?”, “Who are the ‘old stoves.” the local legends cooking in unofficial kitchens, and “Who glues your community together through food?” Said Nelson, “Food seems to be this way to cross cultures and races and religions – the things that often divide people.” |
| Reference(s): (The Arizona Daily Star, May 10, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/128332.php |
| 257 2006-05-12 Montana Growers Union Launches “Homegrown” Label for Local, Organic Food. |
| The Western Montana Sustainable Growers Union located in Missoula, MT has launched the “Homegrown” label which guarantees that products sold to consumers are not only organic but were produced within a 150 mile radius of their markets. Growers Union members pledge to grow naturally, protect air and water, maintain fair labor practices, and to sell and buy in their communities. The Growers Union hopes that close relationships between customers and their food growers will eliminate the need for third party regulation. Many of the farms will drop the USDA-approved Montana Organic Certification altogether. One member farm, Lifeline Farms, sells to five markets in the Missoula area but it no longer has to chase the organic demand. |
| Reference(s): (Organic Consumers, April 19, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/article/7778/C8/L8 http://www.organicconsumers.org/btc/montana060420.cfm |
| 257 2006-05-12 World’s Largest Solar Plant Takes Off in Portugal. |
| GE Energy Financial Services announced the world’s biggest single solar power plant is to be built in Serpa, Portugal in one of Europe’s sunniest areas. The 11 MW plant will be designed, operated, and maintained by PowerLight, a U.S. company that makes photovoltaic systems. The installation will produce enough electricity to power more than 8,000 homes and will save more than 30,000 tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions. The plant is scheduled to be in full operation by January 2007. It is GE Energy’s first solar power project in Europe and brings the company’s renewable energy portfolio around the world to almost $1 billion. |
| Reference(s): (Financial Times, April 27, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.ft.com |
| 257 2006-05-12 Canadian Recreation Retailer Switches to BioBags From Non-GMO Corn. |
| Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC), a 34 year-old Canadian retailer of outdoor recreation products decided to end its reliance on the use of a half million plastic bags a year across its ten store chain. MEC struck a deal with BioBag Canada, Inc., the Canadian partner for Norway’s Polar Gruppen AS, and committed to replace all disposable shopping bags at its stores (with the exception of Halifax) with plastic bags made from non-genetically modified corn. The bags are produced with less energy and will break down in a landfill or home composter within four to 12 weeks. Though the bags are more expensive for now, the firm determined “that the ecological advantages of BioBags – compostability and biodegradability – outweighed the higher costs.” |
| Reference(s): (The Toronto Star, May 8, 2006 Link(s)*: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1147039809168&call_pageid=970599119419 |
| 256 2006-05-05 Model “Corporate Chemical Trespass” Ordinance Drafted. |
| A Pennsylvania non-profit law firm has developed a model “Corporate Criminal Trespass” ordinance for anyone interested in mobilizing their communities to confront chemical trespass by chemical corporations and the directors of those corporations. The model ordinance developed by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, defines “chemical trespass” (toxicants entering our bodies without our consent), prohibits it, and punishes corporations (and their directors) if they do it. The ideas embodied within this ordinance emerged from open debate by Pennsylvania citizens intended to define corporations instead of merely regula |