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

Read the full story in Time Magazine.

Propelled by mounting anxieties over soaring oil costs and climate change, biofuels have become the vanguard of the green-tech revolution, the trendy way for politicians and corporations to show they’re serious about finding alternative sources of energy and in the process slowing global warming. The U.S. quintupled its production of ethanol–ethyl alcohol, a fuel distilled from plant matter–in the past decade, and Washington has just mandated another fivefold increase in renewable fuels over the next decade. Europe has similarly aggressive biofuel mandates and subsidies, and Brazil’s filling stations no longer even offer plain gasoline. Worldwide investment in biofuels rose from $5 billion in 1995 to $38 billion in 2005 and is expected to top $100 billion by 2010, thanks to investors like Richard Branson and George Soros, GE and BP, Ford and Shell, Cargill and the Carlyle Group. Renewable fuels has become one of those motherhood-and-apple-pie catchphrases, as unobjectionable as the troops or the middle class.

But several new studies show the biofuel boom is doing exactly the opposite of what its proponents intended: it’s dramatically accelerating global warming, imperiling the planet in the name of saving it. Corn ethanol, always environmentally suspect, turns out to be environmentally disastrous. Even cellulosic ethanol made from switchgrass, which has been promoted by eco-activists and eco-investors as well as by President Bush as the fuel of the future, looks less green than oil-derived gasoline.

Read the full story in the Washington Post.

Former vice president Al Gore will launch a three-year, $300 million campaign Wednesday aimed at mobilizing Americans to push for aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, a move that ranks as one of the most ambitious and costly public advocacy campaigns in U.S. history.

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.

ComEd was still calculating Sunday how much in dollars the Earth Hour electric-light turnoff on Saturday cost the utility in decreased electricity usage.

But company officials figured that about 840,000 pounds of carbon dioxide were kept out of the air.

Read the full story at Fortune Magazine/CNNMoney.

From corn-based beer cups to flex-fuel team cars, pro baseball is going green.

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

The Power of the Big Green Purse
http://www.greenbiz.com/radio/radio_third.cfm?NewsID=55806
According to author Diane MacEachern, women hold the upper hand in the majority of business and consumer purchasing decisions, and as a result can play a big role in growing the green economy. GreenBiz.com editor Joel Makower spoke with MacEachern about her new book, “The Big Green Purse.”

Southern California Edison Plans Country’s Largest Solar Project
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55814
The utility aims to cover 65 million square feet of rooftops in southern California with enough solar panels to generate 250 megawatts of electricity. Planned to start in August, the utility hopes to install one megawatt a week over the next five years.

Patagonia Shares Eco-Footprint of Select Products with Consumers
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55788
This year, Patagonia will track the environmental footprints of 10 more products on its microsite unveiled last fall called the Footprint Chronicles.

Law Firm Adds Sustainability Initiative
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55784
Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP unveiled last week an initiative to boost energy efficiency, reduce waste and improve its bottom line.

EPA Helps Small Businesses Bring Green Technologies to Market
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55815
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will award $1.75 million to 25 small companies to spur development of new environmental technologies through the Small Business Innovation Research program.

Shell and Virent Partner to Produce ‘Biogasoline’
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55810
Royal Dutch Shell and Virent Energy Systems inc. formed a five-year partnership to produce a gasoline alternative from plant sugars that won’t impact food prices or require modified gasoline engines.

Xerox’s Sustainability Calculator Tracks Environmental Impact of Office Equipment
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55787
The company’s newest Office Services tool helps customers find out how their printers and copiers are impacting the environment as well as calculate the effect of reducing their equipment and changing their office practices

Coca-Cola Aims for ‘Water Neutrality’
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55786
Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) released last week a report detailing the evolution of The Coca-Cola Co.’s water management strategy.

Credit Suisse to Invest $300M in Renewables
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55813
Credit Suisse and its partners will invest at least $300 million in the renewable energy sector through private equity firm Hudson Clean Energy Partners.

China’s Auto Industry Agrees to Parts Recycling Program
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55790
Fourteen motor vehicle and auto parts companies have signed onto a pilot auto parts recycling program.

Toyota Joins Audubon in Latest Corporate-NGO Partnership
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55811
In another high-profile partnership announced recently, Toyota gave the Audubon Society its largest grant ever — $20 million — to fund conservation projects, train environmental leaders and boost volunteerism, the company said Wednesday.

U.K. Water Industry to Get New Carbon Calculator
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55797
A carbon calculator will be developed to measure the amount of embodied carbon used by the United Kingdom water industry. The framework will be part of U.K. Water Industry Research’s (UKWIR) project to draw up carbon guidance for the industry.

JPMorgan Buys Carbon Offsetting Company
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55805
JPMorgan has acquired ClimateCare and plans to integrate the carbon offsetting company into its Environmental Markets group. The companies will invest in large-scale carbon emissions reduction projects and trade the resulting carbon reduction credits in the voluntary and compliance markets.

Toxic Toy Regulations Take Shape Across States, Nation
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55795
More than two dozen states and the federal government are considering new restrictions on lead and other materials in toys, resulting in a patchwork of regulatory ideas that could hamper businesses in the sector.

Sustainable Value in Automobile Manufacturing
http://www.greenbiz.com/toolbox/reports_third.cfm?LINKADVID=97567
This report looks at the environmental and social records of 16 automobile manufacturers around the world. By looking at emissions, waste produced, water use and other factors, the authors of the report assign each company’s performance a monetary value.

The Zero Waste Office: Is it Possible?
By Jonathan Bardelline
http://greenbiz.com/news/reviews_third.cfm?NewsID=55821
Large companies in sectors from retail to automobiles have taken innovative steps in design, facility management and across operations to reduce the trash they produce to zero. Here’s how just about any company can achieve nothingness.

Authoritarianism and Scientific Elitism
By Brad Allenby
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/columns_third.cfm?NewsID=55822
Science and technology have led us to our current environmental crisis, and many believe that it also holds the most promising key to getting us out of this predicament. But several new books explore the notion that the rise of ’scientism’ can lead to an erosion of personal freedoms.

Joel Makower’s Two Steps Forward
The Death and Rebirth of “50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth”
http://greenbiz.com/Blogs/makower.cfm

Marc Gunther on Corporate America
The greening of the summer game
http://greenbiz.com/Blogs/marcgunther.cfm

David Wigder’s Green Marketing Strategies
Green Religiosity
http://greenbiz.com/Blogs/marketinggreen.cfm

Read the full story in the New York Times.

Garbage that doesn’t seem to know its place may also be suggestive. It is, at least, in a modest series of display windows at New York University, at the corner of West Third Street and La Guardia Place in Greenwich Village. The windows, installed on Friday, are a result of a collaboration between the university and the New York City Sanitation Department and were previously shown at the department’s quaintly named Derelict Vehicles Office, where abandoned cars and wrecks enter Purgatory.

The windows, at the Kimmel Center for University Life, describe themselves as “the first step toward founding a museum for the Department of Sanitation,” for this is an agency that, unlike its brethren the New York City Police and Fire Departments and the Transportation Authority, does not have its own museum. The exhibit grew out of a course given last fall, “Making a Museum,” that had the unfortunate subtitle “Materializing Regimes of Value With the New York City Department of Sanitation.”

Read the full solicitation.

This program aims to establish a national network of learning environments and resources for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at all levels. The program has four tracks: Pathways projects are expected to provide stewardship for the content and services needed by major communities of learners. Services projects are expected to develop services that support users and resource collection providers that enhance the impact, efficiency, and value of the NSDL network. Targeted Research projects are expected to explore specific topics that have immediate applicability to collections, services, and other aspects of the development of the NSDL network.

The NSDL Resource Center will provide collaboration assistance across all projects; undertake strategic partnership development on behalf of projects particularly with respect to non-academic entities; coordinate and, in some cases, perform thematic research and evaluation studies related to the program; synthesize findings across the portfolio; and disseminate findings of the accomplishments of the NSDL program.

In FY2008, within the first three tracks the program will accept proposals for large grants in 1) the Pathways track, 2) a new sub-track: Pathways – Stage II, and 3) specific sub-tracks of Services – including a single Technical network services project to provide technical infrastructure support across the NSDL network. In all tracks, except for the NSDL Resource Center, the program will also accept proposals for small grants that extend or enhance results from existing services, collections, or targeted research activity so as to enlarge the user audience for the NSDL network or improve capabilities for the user.

Read the full story in the International Herald Tribune.

As climate change raises the alternating risks of urban flooding and drought, cities around the world are seeking better ways to manage water. In Europe and North America, two strategies are becoming increasingly popular: installing “green” roofs covered in vegetation and collecting rainwater for household use.

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.

As more urban homeowners look for ways to green their personal corner of the asphalt jungle, green residential rooftops are a growing trend. Covering house or garage tops with plants slows movement of water into city sewer systems and helps lessen the urban heat island effect, lowering heating and cooling costs.

Green roofs also soften and beautify harsh landscapes, and can act as sound barriers to city clatter.

Read the full story in Today’s Facility Manager.

In May 2006, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) began to monitor the performance of a green roof installed on its Washington, DC headquarters building.

Read the full story in The Age.

Of all the cities in the United States, Chicago might be the most ready for something like Earth Hour.

For much of the past decade, Chicago has pioneered a “green roofs” program: literally gardens growing on roof tops, which officials say cool buildings and mean less power is consumed.

Read the full post at EcoGeek.

You can’t say there’s anything wrong with paying someone to plant a tree in some spoiled corner of the Earth. But it’s not exactly the most rewarding thing. That tree, the buyer assumes, is out there…but it’s quickly forgotten and impossible to actually imagine. But the World Wildlife Fund is hoping to chance that, with a little help from Google Earth.

Your $5.50 donation will buy a tree, lifelong care and feeding, scientific study of the forest that it becomes a part of, and the exact coordinates of where that tree is on our big beautiful Earth. Linking that data with Google Earth shows the precise location (on the island of Borneo) of the tree, as well as all of its hundreds of neighbors.

Read the full post at EcoGeek.

But buildings can also be retrofitted to be greener, and with great effect. In fact, since only 2% of buildings in America were built in the last few years, retrofitting is going to have to be a huge part of this. And it’s pretty inspiring to see that we’re starting with the largest retail building in the world, the Chicago Merchandise Mart.

The Merch Mart is HUGE, more than 4 million square feet. During the day, 20,000 people inhabit this single structure. It has its own zip code (60654).

When it was built, it was the largest building in the world.

But, due to the leadership of its owners, and the City of Chicago, the Merchandise Mart has a new spot in the Guinness book…as the largest Green Building in the world. It now uses 35% less water and 10% less energy than before the upgrades.

Via Docuticker.

Putting the Pieces Together: How Do Citizens and Experts See the Energy Issue?
Source: Public Agenda
From press release:

When it comes to terms like conservation, energy security and energy costs citizens and experts define them and think about them very differently. And that may be part of the reason why those concerned about U.S. energy policy can’t seem to generate national consensus on how to face the energy challenge, according to a new report released by Public Agenda today. The exploratory study was conducted on behalf of the Kettering Foundation.

The report “Putting the Pieces Together: How Do Citizens and Experts See the Energy Issue?” describes the findings from a series of focus groups across the country and interviews with experts on an array of energy issues. It lays out some of the commonalities and differences in thinking between voters and a cross-section of government, technical, industrial, and policy experts on energy issues and illuminates a number of communications and policy challenges and opportunities.

One striking insight from the research is the frequency of citizens accusing corporate and government leaders of colluding to keep energy alternatives out of the market. Many citizens had a “strongly felt perception that ‘movers and shakers’ are either actively making matters worse or are simply abdicating responsibility and leaving problems to fester,” the report says. Energy experts had a more nuanced, although not entirely contradictory view. “Most experts saw the forces behind the energy leadership vacuum as a combination of the prevailing culture of partisanship and the corrupting influence of big money on public decision-making,” the report’s authors say.

+ Full Report (PDF; 435 KB)

Read the full AP story in the Kansas City Star.

You have to be a little crazy to tilt at windmills — or sometimes, just to build them.

Michael Reynolds has been raising hell and building what he calls earthships in the Taos, N.M., desert for more than three decades. With his long gray hair, salty language and almost surreal single-mindedness, Reynolds is a larger-than-life man of eco-action.

He thinks he is here to save the Earth, if only out of self-interest.

“I feel I’m in a herd of buffalo, and they’re all stampeding toward a 1,000-foot drop-off…,” he says. “If humanity takes the planet down the tubes, I’m dead.”

Reynolds is the star of the documentary “Garbage Warrior,” which helps open the second season of Sundance’s “The Green” at 8 p.m. Tuesday. And he is a magnetic presence, whether he’s building houses out of old tires and bottles, providing shelter for tsunami survivors or battling politicians.

Deadline: April 30, 2008

Outdoor gear and clothing company Patagonia (http://patagonia.com/) provides funding for environmental work and is most interested in making grants to organizations that identify and work on the root causes of problems and that approach issues with a commitment to long-term change.

Patagonia supports “small, grassroots activist organizations with provocative direct-action agendas, working on multi-pronged campaigns to preserve and protect the environment.” The company funds work that is action-oriented; builds public involvement and support; is strategic; focuses on root causes; and accomplishes specific goals and objectives. The company’s funding is limited to the United States, Canada, Japan, Chile, Argentina, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Luxembourg, Italy, Ireland, Germany, France, Denmark, Belgium, or Austria.

The company does not fund organizations without 501(c)(3) status or a comparable fiscal sponsor; general environmental education efforts; land acquisition, land trusts, or conservation easements; research, unless it is in direct support of a developed  plan for specific action to alleviate an environmental problem; environmental conferences; endowment funds; or political campaigns.

Most grants are in the range of $3,000 to $8,000 each.

In addition to the company’s corporate grant program, each Patagonia retail store administers a grants program. Retail store grant applications are accepted year round.

See the Patagonia Web site for complete program guidelines, eligibility quiz, and application procedures, as well as information on the retail store grant program.

Read the full article from the Agricultural Research Service.

Sugar beets supply one-third of the world’s sugar. Each year, America’s $1.27 billion sugar beet industry generates about 40 million tons of pulp­most of which is used as an inexpensive livestock feed or disposed of at cost.

But ARS scientists in Peoria, Illinois, and Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, have teamed up on a project to breathe new economic life into the pulp. Led by ARS chemists Victoria L. Finkenstadt and LinShu Liu, the team has found a way to turn the fiber-rich pulp into a biodegradable filler material that could make polylactic acid (PLA) more cost-competitive with some petroleum-based thermoplastics, like polypropylene and polystyrene.

PLA is considered a promising natural alternative to such plastics because it is biodegradable and has comparable tensile strength and other mechanical properties. But PLA costs more because of the process by which it is obtained from fermented corn sugars.

Use of fillers helps manufacturers cut the cost of the product,” notes Finkenstadt, who is with ARS’s National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria.

Read the full story in Process Cleaning.

Performance of an alternative is not the only selection criterion that needs to be addressed when looking for a new cleaning product. In keeping with the objective of the Toxics Use Reduction Institute’s (TURI) Surface Solutions Laboratory (SSL) to develop and promote environmentally-friendlier, safer alternatives to hazardous solvents, the determination of a product’s overall risk is based on five environmental indicators: volatile organic content, global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, flammability/reactivity and toxicity/carcinogenicity.

Read the press release.

EPA’s independent National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT) today released a new report urging the agency to make stewardship its unifying theme and ethic and become the world’s premier model and catalyst for this approach to environmental protection. It recommends that EPA focus all of its tools — strong regulatory programs, grants, voluntary partnerships and information programs — in this direction.