·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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Read the full story in the New York Times.

As part of a campaign to upgrade its image by changing the way it does business, Wal-Mart has pledged to cut the energy used by many of its products by 25 percent.

Read the full story in E: The Environmental Magazine.

Re:Vision, a group that has launched a series of urban design competitions, has asked contestants to think boldly about what that model city might look like. The first part of the competition, Re:Volt, looked at intelligent urban energy. The second, Re:Route, focused on transportation. Three additional contests are underway: Re:Store, about urban economy; Re:Connect, about urban planning; and finally, Re:Vision, remaking a city block into a thriving mixed used area.

Read the full story in E: The Environmental Magazine.

Ever since humans discovered fire, our food preparation has involved consuming natural resources and releasing global warming gases by burning wood or fossil fuels. And now electricity prices are climbing. Luckily, there are some simple products and practices that will help keep and cook food more efficiently, without overheating the planet and our home economies.

Read the full commentary in E: The Environmental Magazine.

The Swiss have a sensible solution to garbage collection and recycling that is so, well, Swiss. In most North American cities one hurls great numbers of black garbage bags into trash cans, where they’re often ripped open by marauding animals. Of course, some of the bags are green, boasting of extra-strength-easy-grip twist-ties or whatever “new” labor-saving innovation is being peddled at the mega-shopping center.

Our system celebrates free enterprise, but the Swiss discard their garbage in official state-produced bags that come in three sizes: 15-, 30- and 60-liter and cost around $1.50 for the medium bag. In other words, you pay real money for the amount of trash you create. On the eve of garbage day, then, one can look down the road and see neat stacks of identical blue bags, and there’s something soothing in this uniformity.

Read the press release.

A unique agreement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in Newark will help usher “green chemistry” into school laboratory experiments at the institute and other colleges and high schools in the area. These green chemistry experiments involve the innovative use of new techniques and technologies in lab experiments, which minimize the need to use reagents, usually some type of solvent, to produce chemical reactions. The agreement grew out of an EPA complaint in which the Agency cited the school for violating federal rules that govern how to handle hazardous waste. It requires NJIT to spend at least $125,000 to showcase greener lab practices and to measure the amount of solvents and energy reductions that can be achieved when practices, such as microwave technology, are used in school laboratory experiments rather than traditional chemistry practices. NJIT must also pay a $31,740 penalty.

Read the full story in the Los Angeles Times.

Making broad pronouncements about the need to protect the health of children in their care, the Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday restricted the district’s ability to build schools near freeways and other sources of air pollution.

Read the full story in Newsweek.

Green technology might save you a buck and even help save the planet, when automakers actually get it on the road…But safety technology can save your life. Safety, though, lacks the buzz of an electric car like the gull-wing Dodge Zeo concept or the egg-shaped Chrysler ecoVoyager fuel-cell minivan (both are miles away from actually hitting the road). “Green is in right now,” says Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “And safety is taking a back seat.”

Read the full story in the Environmental Leader.

Beginning this month, SC Johnson will be slapping its Greenlist logo on its eco-friendly products, and it’s going to start with Windex. The announcement comes just days after Clorox announced that all products in its new line of line of environmentally-friendly cleaners, called Green Works, will carry the logo of the Sierra Club and that the products will be available in 24,000 stores nationally, including Safeway and Wal-Mart, on the same shelves as Windex.

Read the full story in the San Jose Business Journal.

Safeway Inc. said Friday [1/18] it plans to become the first major retailer in the nation to convert its entire fleet of delivery trucks to use of biodiesel fuels.

Read the full story in the Telegraph.

Cruise ships emit three times more carbon emissions than aircraft, new research has revealed.

Carnival, which comprises 11 cruise lines, said in its annual environmental report that its ships, on average, release 712.kg of CO2 per kilometre. Carnival’s ships carry, on average, a maximum of 1,776 passengers. This means that 401g of CO2 is emitted per passenger per kilometre, even when the boat is entirely full. This is 36 times greater than the carbon footprint of a Eurostar passenger and more than three times that of someone travelling on a standard Boeing 747 or a passenger ferry.

Read the full story at KTAR.

For the first time in Super bowl history, the field won’t be the only thing that’s green.

Super Bowl XLII at University of Stadium in Glendale will be powered completely with renewable energy. Solar, wind and geo-thermal energy will offset greenhouse gas emissions.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

Patients prone to heart disease may one day be told by physicians to avoid not only fatty foods and smoking but air pollution, too.

A new academic study led by UCLA researchers reveals that the smallest particles from vehicle emissions may be the most damaging components of air pollution in triggering plaque buildup in the arteries, which can lead to heart attack and stroke. The findings appear in the Jan. 17 online edition of the journal Circulation Research.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

Proposed legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will have little impact on America’s future economic growth, according to a new report by researchers at RTI International (http://www.rti.org) and Harvard University for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Read the full commentary in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Environmentalism strives to fire citizens up, get them to act collectively, politically; to organize and force real change. Environmental awareness does push many people toward activism, for sure, but we now see that environmental awareness can also lead to this other response, in which people act not as political subjects, not as citizens, but as consumers who seem interested only in individual acts of self-protection, in trying to keep contaminants out of their bodies.

Read the full story in the Pequout Lakes Echo.

The Pequot Lakes School District is poised to save more than $36,000 per year through an energy conservation program that’s in the final stages of implementation.

Read the press release.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) today announced a new recognition program that rewards communities for their proficiency in economic planning, ability to attract new business, and capability to successfully take on 21st century challenges like environmental stewardship. The “Siemens Sustainable Community Prizes” will recognize governments, chambers of commerce, convention bureaus, economic development authorities, and similar organizations.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

In cutting across-the-board subsidies for biofuels, governments in Europe are discovering how difficult it can be to figure out whether a particular fuel has been produced in an environmentally friendly manner.

Via Consulting & Specifying Engineer.

The Environmental Law & Climate Change Center, launched in December, was set up to provide a comprehensive look at state and federal decisions related to climate change.

In addition to news related to climate change litigation and regulations, the site includes analysis from attorneys with Jenner & Block LLP and Marten Law Group.

The Environmental Law & Climate Change Center also includes podcasts and blogs, with all aspects of the site covering information such as recent case law, legislative activity, regulatory changes and EPA decisions.

Read the nomination guidelines or submit an application.

Eligibility: Both domestic and international submissions will be accepted for group, company, organization, or individual nominations, providing submitters adhere to the following:

• The entry form must be complete, accompanied by the correct entry fee, and received by the stipulated deadline;
• Previous submissions are eligible, but prior award winners will not be considered; and,
• Self-nominations are acceptable from all except Alliance Board of Directors and their companies, who can submit nominations for others but cannot self-nominate.

All entries will be screened to verify eligibility. An incomplete and/or late submission will be returned to the submitter. All eligible entries become the property of the Alliance to Save Energy and will not be returned. The Alliance reserves the right to publish or electronically post the nominations received.

Deadline: All entries must be received by the Alliance by March 28, 2008.

Fee: There is a mandatory entry and processing fee for each submission of $100. If you submit your nomination by February 15, 2008 the processing fee is $50.

Entries: Each entry must include the following:

• A completed Alliance entry form.
• An overview and/or explanation of the nomination that does not exceed one-page. A page is defined as one side of an 8½ by 11 sheet of paper – typed and single-spaced.
• A $50 or $100 check or money order made payable to the Alliance to Save Energy, noting the 2008 awards, attached to your nomination.

Submission: Nominations should be submitted electronically at www.ase.org/nom. Conversely, submitters may send nominations and payments to the address provided on the nomination form.

Read the full story in Nature.

A century-long record of levels of inorganic carbon in the Mississippi, extracted from the water-treatment plants of New Orleans, documents the changes wrought by shifting agricultural practices in the river’s basin.

Read the full story in the Los Angeles Times.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s staff concluded last month that greenhouse gases pose a threat to the nation’s welfare, which would require federal regulations to rein in emissions from vehicles, factories, power plants and other industrial polluters under the Clean Air Act, sources in the agency told The Times.

The conclusion, known as an “endangerment” finding, has been sent to the White House for review, and comes as the agency is under a Supreme Court order to examine risks from greenhouse gases. The agency also faces a lawsuit from at least 16 state governments over their attempts to regulate vehicle gas emissions.

EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, who had promised to propose regulations of vehicle emissions by the end of last year, has been summoned to testify before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today to answer questions about why he refused to allow California to enact its own law, despite clear signals from his staff that the state’s request was justified.