·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
• • • • •

For a full-color, graphic version of this newsletter, go to
http://www.greenbiz.com/enewsletter.

GreenBiz Radio — Charting the Climate Course for the Next U.S. President
http://greenbiz.com/radio/radio_third.cfm?NewsID=36509
The Presidential Climate Action Project aims to give the next resident of the White House a running start on addressing the climate crisis. Longtime corporate sustainability leader Ray Anderson talks to GreenBiz Radio about what the president — and U.S. businesses — can accomplish.

IBM Leads Program to Share Clean Technologies
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=36521
IBM, Nokia, Pitney-Bowes and Sony are the first companies to join the newly launched Eco-Patents Commons, a coalition spearheaded by IBM to offer environmental technologies, processes and ideas to spur innovation around the globe.

Clorox and Sierra Club Announce Branding Partnership
http://greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=36522
The Clorox Company has formed a partnership with the Sierra Club as part of the company’s launch of Green Works, a new line of natural cleaning products made from plant-based ingredients.

GM Launches Partnership with Start-up to Commercialize Biofuels
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=36520
At the Detroit Motor Show, General Motors announced a partnership with Coskata to commercialize its process for creating low-cost ethanol from a wide range of feedstocks, including biomass, municipal solid waste, wood chips, even used car tires.

Banks Take Steps Addressing Climate Change but Long Road Ahead: Report
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=36513
HSBC and ABN led the pack of 40 banks and financial institutions examined by Ceres on the steps undertaken to address climate change.

Scholastic Embraces FSC-Certified Paper
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=36511
Children’s publisher Scholastic made a commitment to boost the amount of recycled paper it uses and help educate kids about the environment through a new website.

Report: Green Investments Creating First Sustainable Economy
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=36512
Worldwide Institute’s latest report looks at the growth of investments in sustainable efforts while encouraging further efforts for the betterment of the world.

F.T.C. Kicks Off Green Marketing Hearings
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=36510
The Federal Trade Commission is updating its green advertising guidelines a year before schedule because of the growing wave of environmental marketing claims. Its first target: carbon offsets.

GM, Ford Introducing Greener Cars, Engines
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=36508
GM and Ford are using two premiere events this month to unveil their latest energy- and fuel-efficient auto technologies and concepts.

Aurora Organic Dairy Takes Aim at its Emissions
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=36503
The milk and butter producer will join forces with the University of Michigan to measure and reduce its carbon footprint across the lifecycle of its product line.

Plan Aimed at Spurring E.U. Eco-Innovation
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=36502
The European Commission plans to promote innovative, environmentally-focused markets with a new initiative targeting eHealth, sustainable construction, technical textiles, bio-based products, recycling and renewable energy.

China Bans Plastic Bags, Sets Tougher Fuel Standards
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=36501
China banned the production of thin plastic bags Tuesday and outlawed their use in supermarkets and shops beginning June 1. Worries about pollution has also sparked the introduction of tougher fuel standards to improve air quality before the Olympics.

Archer Daniels Midland to Bury Carbon From Ethanol Plant
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=36493
One million tons of carbon will be buried and monitored from 2009-2012 to test effectiveness of carbon sequestration.

Toyota: A Hybrid Model for Every Vehicle Series
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=36484
Days after designating a Mississippi manufacturing facility a model of sustainable practices, Toyota’s president said the company plans to offer a hybrid model in every vehicle series.

The Eco-Patent Commons
http://www.greenbiz.com/reference/webguide_record.cfm?LINKADVID=95874
This project, launched by IBM with the World Business Council on Sustainable Development, is a first-of-its-kind effort to make patents relating to environmental processes and technologies open to innovators around the globe.

The Master ROI Table for Office and Building Products
http://www.greenbiz.com/reference/webguide_record.cfm?LINKADVID=95873
This comprehensive chart lists the added costs, annual savings, 10 year  savings, payback time and total return on investment for dozens of office and building products.

Pioneering a Sustainable Paper Industry
By Frank Marquardt
http://greenbiz.com/news/reviews_third.cfm?NewsID=36519
By adopting cutting-edge technologies and seeking to eliminate waste and increasing efficiency, Grays Harbor Paper has created a path to not only revive a struggling paper town, but one that also points the way forward for an industry that has only just begun to address its environmental impact.

Asia and The Age of Sustainability: Where The East Has an Edge
By Rick Seireeni
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/columns_third.cfm?NewsID=36518
The Western world is in the throes of a green revolution that is slowly spreading around the globe. When the powerhouse Asian economies pick up speed, expect them to grow ever more powerful, and dramatically speed up the process of innovation to boot.

Renewable Energy Firms Strike Gold with Green Employee Benefits
By Dawn E. Dzurilla, RenewableEnergyAccess.com
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/columns_third.cfm?NewsID=36517
Leaders of companies across industries — but most noticeably in the clean
energy field — are providing eco-perks as a way of developing an
environmentally sustainable company culture, and makes employees happier,
healthier and more productive.

Read the press release.

Leading members of the corporate community have come together in a first-of-its-kind effort to help the environment, unleashing dozens of innovative, environmentally responsible patents to the public domain.

Availability of these patents will encourage researchers, entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes in any industry to create, apply, and further develop their consumer or industrial products, processes, and services in a way that will help to protect and respect the environment.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and IBM (NYSE: IBM)– named today by IFI Claims as the leading earner of United States patents for the 15th consecutive year — are initiating this effort in partnership with Nokia, Pitney Bowes, and Sony. The pledged portfolio, dubbed the “Eco-Patent Commons,” is available on a dedicated, public Web site hosted by the WBCSD (http://www.wbcsd.org/web/epc).

Read the full story in the New York Times.

A growing international trade in discarded mobile phones is helping the world’s poor. But will it poison the earth?

Read the full press release from the Association of American Publishers.

January 3, 2008 — The Association of American Publishers today criticized a controversial new NIH research publication policy that was enacted as part of the omnibus appropriations package for 2008, and reaffirmed that journal publishers who have opposed the policy will continue to pursue their concerns with Congress regarding the policy’s negative impact on science publishing and the protection of related intellectual property rights. Publishers will also urge NIH to conduct a rulemaking proceeding, with opportunity for public comment, before implementing the new policy.

Read the full story in Scientific American.

Welcome to a Scientific American experiment in “networked journalism,” in which readers — you — get to collaborate with the author to give a story its final form.

The article, below, is a particularly apt candidate for such an experiment: it’s my feature story on “Science 2.0,” which describes how researchers are beginning to harness wikis, blogs and other Web 2.0 technologies as a potentially transformative way of doing science. The draft article appears here, several months in advance of its print publication, and we are inviting you to comment on it. Your inputs will influence the article’s content, reporting, perhaps even its point of view.

So consider yourself invited. Please share your thoughts about the promise and peril of Science 2.0.—just post your inputs in the Comment section below. To help get you started, here are some questions to mull over:

• What do you think of the article itself? Are there errors? Oversimplifications? Gaps?
• What do you think of the notion of “Science 2.0?” Will Web 2.0 tools really make science much more productive? Will wikis, blogs and the like be transformative, or will they be just a minor convenience?
• Science 2.0 is one aspect of a broader Open Science movement, which also includes Open-Access scientific publishing and Open Data practices. How do you think this bigger movement will evolve?
• Looking at your own scientific field, how real is the suspicion and mistrust mentioned in the article? How much do you and your colleagues worry about getting “scooped”? Do you have first-hand knowledge of a case in which that has actually happened?
• When young scientists speak out on an open blog or wiki, do they risk hurting their careers?
• Is “open notebook” science always a good idea? Are there certain aspects of a project that researchers should keep quite, at least until the paper is published?

Via Docuticker.

Switched-on India: How can India address climate change and meet its energy needs?
Source: Institute for Public Policy Research

India is a country that acutely illustrates the nature of the challenge involved in developing its economy and preventing dangerous climate change. India’s economy is growing at the rate of 9 per cent per annum, while pumping out large amounts of greenhouse gases. Yet the vast majority of the population literally live in darkness. Almost half of India’s households do not have electricity, and women and girls spend a total of 80 billion hours each year collecting firewood, a fuel that damages the lungs of 24 million adults. It will cost US$130 billion simply to ensure that all Indian households enjoy access to electricity by 2030 – a cost that would rise if this power were to come from clean fuel sources.

India’s dilemma raises significant questions of social justice. First, in a profoundly unequal world, how much effort should each country contribute to the protection of the global atmosphere? Second, what policy architecture and mechanisms can be devised to reach

climate goals and who will pay for these policies?

+ Full Paper (PDF; 424 KB)

Read the full story in ES&T Online News.

New research published in ES&T (DOI: 10.1021/es702272s) identifies for the first time a flame retardant known as HCDBCO (hexachlorocyclopentadienyldibromocyclooctane) in the environment and shows that it can be found at high levels in Canadian homes. A second paper published in ES&T (DOI: 10.1021/es702378t) reports that a U.K. home contains the highest concentrations ever documented in residential dust of another more well-known flame retardant, HBCD (hexabromocyclododecane). Together, the papers suggest that people in the developed world may be exposed to significant concentrations of flame retardants beyond PBDEs in their homes.

Read the full report [PDF, 60 p.]

On March 1, 2007, the Speaker and the Majority Leader directed the Chief Administrative
Officer of the House to develop a “Green the Capitol Initiative” that would demonstrate
leadership to the nation by providing an environmentally responsible and healthy working
environment for employees.

Global warming and climate change are serious issues. Scientists agree that the introduction of carbon into the atmosphere is causing climate change. Efforts to reduce carbon emissions need to begin immediately. Such changes will have a positive impact on the environment and the economy.

This report on the “Green the Capitol Initiative” meets the directives set out in your letter. “We cannot ask the American people to address global warming and climate change issues,” you noted, “without first carefully examining ways to reduce our own energy consumption and develop sustainable workplace practices.” This report, and its recommendations, will enable the House to be a leader in sustainable operations.

Environmental responsibility is our duty to future generations. Now is the time to act to reduce our energy consumption as well as our energy dependence. To accomplish this, we will change the way we do business. A sustainable House Capitol complex will recognize the full environmental impact of our decisions on energy and water consumption, materials use and the quality of our workplace. By taking these steps, we not only reduce the impact of House operations on the environment, but also provide leadership by example.

Read the full story in Printed Circuit Design and Fab.

Significant attention and a great deal of effort have been expended on understanding the reliability of lead-free solder joints. However, difficulties posed by lead-free soldering as it relates to the reliability of PCB interconnect structures is perhaps more significant. Problems with PCB viability after the assembly process comes primarily from one source – the temperatures required to attach components during the lead-free assembly soldering process. These reliability issues required the development of a White Paper from which the materials in this article were taken.

Read the full story in American Drycleaner.

New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is issuing a plan to phase out perchloroethylene use in drycleaning, with a full ban effective in 2021.

Read the full report [PDF, 96 p.]

Abstract: Rapid growth in the nanoparticle industry is anticipated in the Nordic countries owing to highly focused national research and investment initiatives. Knowledge on consequences for occupational exposures to engineered nanoparticles and appropriate technical control levels is still limited. This report explores existing knowledge on exposure risks and technical control approaches. The report concludes that data are too limited to allow general conclusions to be drawn regarding risks of exposure to engineered nanoparticles. Engineering techniques for controlling nanoparticle exposure can build on the current knowledge and approaches to control exposure to, for example, welding fumes and carbon black. There is a need for improving the quality of information provided in Material Safety Data Sheets.

Read the full report [PDF, 32 p.]

Abstract: Massachusetts can be a leader in the global shift to a clean tech economy. While clean technology activity is robust in many parts of the world, the only country that has developed an overall plan to reorient its economy and economic competitiveness towards clean technologies is Germany. No U.S. state to date has developed a similar plan. But Massachusetts has the strengths and leadership to be the first in the nation based on initial findings of Clean Tech: An Agenda for a Healthy Economy, a project spearheaded by the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The purpose of the Clean Tech project is to identify specific opportunities and benefits of making Massachusetts a leader in a range of clean technologies that serve the world, and recommend a path to get there. The ultimate goal is to create an identity for Massachusetts that makes it an international magnet for the innovation and adoption of technologies that minimize harms and help restore our health and our environment.

Some of the world’s leading names in the agriculture and biofuels world will visit the Reuters bureaus worldwide to participate in the annual Global Agriculture and Biofuels Summit on January 14-15. During closed on-the-record sessions, summit speakers will discuss the current issues and outlook for agriculture and biofuels. Exclusive stories from the summit will be posted online at www.reuters.com/summits.

Some current highlights on the web site include:

• OECD wary on biofuel policies
• EU seen imposing duties on US biodiesel
• Indonesia to switch 10 pct petroleum to biofuel
• Biofuel impact on farm prices overplayed
• Hunan Rivers turning waste oil into biodiesel
• Indian taxes a roadblock in biofuel drive