Browsing environmental news sources so you don't have to. Contact Laura Barnes (lbarnes@istc.illinois.edu) with questions, comments, and suggestions.
Follow ENB on TwitterRead the full story from the Register-Guard.
Forget paper vs. plastic — just bag the bags.
To the surprise of some, Eugene’s eco-warriors aren’t leading the legions of cities, countries and retailers banning or taxing “enviro-enemy” number one: plastic bags.
Read/listen to the full story from The Environment Report.
The people who make everyday items — from cars to chairs to cell phones — attractive and functional are called industrial designers. Now a new generation of industrial designers is learning how to create products that are environmentally friendly as well. That makes their jobs a bit more challenging.
Read the full story in the Washington Post.
There was a time, and it was pre-Al Gore, when buying organic meant eggs and tomatoes, Whole Foods and farmer’s markets. But in the past two years, the word has seeped out of the supermarket and into the home store, into the vacation industry, into the Wal-Mart. Almost three-quarters of the U.S. population buys organic products at least occasionally; between 2005 and 2006 the sale of organic non-food items increased 26 percent, from $744 million to $938 million, according to the Organic Trade Association.
For a full-color, graphic version of this newsletter, go to
http://www.greenbiz.com/enewsletter.
Hayward SMEs Save Energy and $700K
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55695
More than 2,500 businesses in this suburb southeast of San Francisco participated in an energy efficiency program that will save one megawatt of energy annually. That translates to roughly $700,000 a year in energy savings.
Investors Want Companies to Disclose Climate Change-Related Impacts
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55696
U.S. investors filed nearly twice as many shareholder resolutions with companies that will likely encounter business impacts from climate change.
Kodak, Wal-Mart to Recycle Materials From Photo Kiosks
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55688
The two companies plan to recycle 2 million pounds of plastic a year from photo kiosks nationwide.
PG&E Turns Cow Manure Into Energy
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55681
Pacific Gas & Electric has diversified its renewable energy interests with a project using methane from cow manure to provide power.
Nestle Reduces GHG Emissions, Packaging and Energy Use: Report
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55680
During the last 10 years, Nestle slashed its direct greenhouse gas emissions 16 percent and cut energy use 3 percent while at the same time, its production volume increase 76 percent. The company’s bottled water products now use nearly a quarter less packaging, according to a new company report.
Pitney Bowes Examines How to Make Mailings Greener
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55684
Pitney Bowes offers best practices on reducing the amount of waste, energy and materials related to mailings.
European Union Joins Methane-to-Energy Partnership
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55692
The European Union has formalized its commitment to participate in a global group to convert methane released by animal waste, landfills and coal, gas and oil fields to energy.
DuPont’s Energy Reductions Save $100M
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55675
Since 2001, DuPont Titanium Technologies has saved more than $100 million through cuts in energy consumption achieved through innovation and operational changes.
Socially Responsible Investment Assets Top $2.71T
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55687
Socially responsible investment assets grew more than 18 percent between 2005 and 2007, compared to a 3 percent growth rate for all investment assets during the same period, according to a new report from Social Investment Forum.
Global Effort Needed to Address Climate Change: Report
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55690
Addressing environmental problems today is possible and affordable, says a new report, while inaction could jeopardize the natural resources needed to sustain future economic growth.
U.K. Retailers Threatened With Plastic Bag Fee, Figures on Bag Use by Government, Stores Revealed
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55668
Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned of government action to make stores charge for plastic bags in the same week as figures on the amount of bags used by retailers as well as government marketing were revealed.
FTC to Revise Guidelines for Green Packaging Claims
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55673
The Federal Trade Commission is updating its environmental marketing guides for the first time since 1998. The agency’s second workshop will focus on packaging following its initial examination of carbon offsets in January.
Smarter Ways to Green: How to Make Sustainability Succeed in Your Business
http://www.greenbiz.com/toolbox/reports_third.cfm?LINKADVID=97402
This white paper explores seven keys to successfully incorporate sustainability initiatives based on experience from Xerox Corp.
Higher Education in a Warming World – The Business Case for Climate Leadership on Campus
http://www.greenbiz.com/toolbox/reports_third.cfm?LINKADVID=97399
This richly detailed guide from the National Wildlife Federation to climate action at colleges and universities focuses on the numbers — with examples from dozens of schools showing how they cut emissions, saved money and made a difference. For campuses just starting out, it gives how-to steps for conducting an inventory, creating a plan and leading toward a sustainable future.
The Future as a Design Challenge
By Chhaya Bhanti
http://greenbiz.com/news/columns_third.cfm?NewsID=55700
It is becoming increasingly clear that the challenges facing us as we work toward sustainability will not be completely overcome by managing what we have failed to manage thus far. Instead, we must design our way out, and there is no shortage of examples of how companies can do this.
Sustainable Packaging: Cost Vs. Price
By Dennis Salazar
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/columns_third.cfm?NewsID=55679
What does it cost for a manufacturer to deliver a more sustainable product or package to our retail store shelf and what should the resulting price be to us as consumers?
David Wigder’s Green Marketing Strategies
Shopping for Green Online
http://greenbiz.com/Blogs/marcgunther.cfm
Andy Savitz’s Triple Bottom Line
Getting Trumped On My First Speech On Sustainability
http://greenbiz.com/Blogs/getsustainable.cfm
Deadline: April 4, 2008
The Coca-Cola/National Recycling Coalition Recycling Bin Grant Program supports local community recycling programs by providing selected grant recipients with containers for the collection of beverage container recyclables in public settings. Selected grant recipients will receive actual recycling bins instead of funding.
The grant program is open to government, civic, school, nonprofit groups, and for-profit companies. Eligible activities include, but are not limited to, establishing or enhancing a recycling collection program. This includes the use of specialized containers at community events or functions, public facilities, and programs or events conducted by applicants.
Bin grants are awarded twice annually in the spring and fall during open solicitation periods. The next scheduled grant application will open March 3, 2008 and extend through April 4, 2008.
Visit the program’s Web site for further information.
RFP Link:
http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/10011727/bingrant
Deadline: May 1, 2008
The Turnaround Management Association (http://turnaround.org), an international nonprofit association dedicated to corporate renewal and turnaround management, is accepting applications for the 2008 Butler-Cooley Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes teachers who have changed the lives of students and communities in which they live.
The program, funded by the John Wm. Butler Foundation, provides $5,000 cash stipends to each of three to five public or private school teachers as well as travel and lodging expenses to TMA’s 2008 Annual Convention and 20th anniversary celebration in New
Orleans, Louisiana, October 27-29, 2008.
Applicants must be licensed and active elementary or secondary school teachers employed by accredited schools for at least five years. Teachers may nominate themselves or be nominated by others.
Guidelines, applications, and a list of previous winners are available at the Turnaround Management Association Web site.
RFP Link:
http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/10011726/turnaround
Via Docuticker.
EPA Finally Sets Plans for Mercury Limits on Cement Kilns
Source: EarthjusticeUnder intense pressure from states and local and national environmental and public health groups, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced in a recent court document plans to regulate mercury pollution from over 100 cement kilns across the country by September 2009. The announcement marks a dramatic shift in EPA policy which, until now, had been to resist requiring mercury controls for cement kilns.
“After nearly a decade of litigation and multiple court orders directing EPA to regulate mercury from cement kilns, it seems the agency is finally paying attention,” said Earthjustice attorney James Pew.
Three times in the last ten years, federal courts have ordered EPA to set emission standards to control cement kilns’ mercury emissions. Until now, EPA has ignored these orders or sought to evade them. EPA finally indicated that it would set mercury emission standards in papers filed on February 20, 2008, in a fourth case brought by Earthjustice on behalf of Sierra Club, Downwinders at Risk (TX), Friends of Hudson (NY), Montanans Against Toxic Burning, Desert Citizens Against Pollution (CA), and the Huron Environmental Activist League (MI). The States of New York, Michigan, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania also filed suit.
“Cement kilns are among the nation’s worst polluters, and their free ride on mercury pollution needs to end at long last,” said Jane Williams, executive director of Desert Citizens Against Pollution.
+ Portland Cement Association v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, et. al.: Respondents’ Motion to Govern (PDF; 526 KB)
Via ASME’s Capitol Update.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has released the third in its series of Climate Change Legislation Design White Papers as the next step in the legislative process leading to enactment of a mandatory, economy-wide climate change program. In a letter to Committee members, Chair John D. Dingell (D-MI) observed that “a comprehensive national approach to climate change will be most effective when all levels of government – Federal, State, Tribal and local – play active roles.” Read the Chairman’s letter.
Entitled Appropriate Roles for Different Levels of Government, the 25-page white paper explores key factors that the Committee will need to consider and balance as it constructs a national greenhouse gas control program which rationalizes the roles of different levels of government.
Those factors include:
- The global effect of greenhouse gas emissions;
- The effect on the level and cost of national greenhouse gas reductions;
- The efficient use of government and societal resources;
- The benefit of States, Tribes and localities as laboratories;
- Differing local circumstances;
- The burden on interstate commerce;
- Imposition of costs on other States; and,
- Stakeholder needs.
For more information about the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s
Legislative Design Papers, and to review this recently released paper,
please visit http://energycommerce.house.gov/Climate_Change/.
Letters of intent due by 04/09/2008 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
Applications due by 05/07/2008 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
This Financial Opportunity Announcement (FOA) seeks to develop transformational industrial processes and equipment to reduce the energy intensity and carbon footprint of the U.S. manufacturing industry. A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact industry activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide. The emphasis is on new processes and technologies that can be commercialized within the next five to seven years. Therefore, preference will be given to technologies that are in stage 3 or 4 of the Stage-Gate process. The Stage Gate process is a tool to manage the progress of a project and guide disciplined decision-making throughout the course of research, development and commercialization. It is comprised of five stages:
In coordination with two regional environmental tracking systems, the Center for Resource Solutions today launched the Environmental Tracking Network of North America (ETNNA) — North America’s first network organization for renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions tracking systems and registries.
