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 TwitterEPA is announcing the availability of almost $50 million in grant funding to establish clean diesel projects aimed at reducing emissions from the nation’s existing fleet of diesel engines.
Read the full story at News.com.
The Palo Alto Research Center — the heralded research labs that Xerox spun out as a separate company in 2002 — is examining ways of taking technology and ideas originally devised for copiers and printers into the clean-tech market. The idea, from a conceptual level, is fairly intriguing. A lot of the components and ideas at work inside printers exist to control physical forces and objects in a constantly changing environment. Thus, they should be useful in channeling sunlight or other phenomena on a larger scale.
It’s a dialogue we hear everyday. Can we? Do we? Will we really change our behavior to be environmentally responsible? IKEA believed we could and would. With the introduction of its leadership ‘bag the plastic bag’ program in March 2007, IKEA set a goal of reducing its US stores’ plastic bag consumption by 50%; from 70 million to 35 million plastic bags in the first year. The call was to go reusable with the iconic IKEA blue bag for $.59 or use an alternative reusable bag. And IKEA also said if that was not an acceptable solution, IKEA plastic bags could be purchased for five-cents, with all proceeds going to American Forests (the nation’s oldest non-profit citizens conservation organization) to plant trees to restore forests and help reduce CO2 emissions.
Read the full story at Stateline.org.
Reacting to an increase in toy recalls and consumer complaints, five states have targeted tainted toys in new laws that in some way regulate toy sales in their states.
In total, 29 states have pursued legislation on toy safety, with 20 of those states taking steps to ban four toxic substances sometimes used in toy manufacturing: lead, phthalates, bisphenol-a, and cadmium.
Via KnowledgeSpeak.
Electronic research databases provider EBSCO publishing (EBSCO), a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., US, recently launched a new freely accessible research database, GreenFILE. The database focuses on the relationship between human beings and the environment.
The database seeks to serve as an informative resource for anyone concerned about the issues facing planet Earth. It covers topics ranging from global warming to recycling to alternate fuel sources and beyond. Comprised of scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports, GreenFILE offers a perspective on the positive and negative ways humans have an effect on the ecology.
GreenFILE’s initial release will include A&I for more than 600 titles, including coverage from volume 1, issue 1 to present for titles such as Bioscience, Conservation Biology, Journal of Ecology and Journal of Environmental Planning & Management. The total number of records is about 295,000, and full text is provided for more than 4,600 records from open access titles.
For a full-color, graphic version of this newsletter, go to
http://www.greenercomputing.com/enewsletter.
Five Simple Ways to Help Your IT Infrastructure Go Green
By Preston Gralla
http://www.greenercomputing.com/columns_third.cfm?NewsID=55835
If you’re an IT pro, though, going green may well be new to you, and you may not know where to begin. So here are five simple ways to get started going green. You’ll be surprised how simple it is to get started, and how quickly you’ll start seeing results.
IBM Expands Data Center Services Globally with Three New Facilities
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55830
New Data Centers in Egypt, Switzerland and Austria showcase the company’s energy-efficiency solutions and innovation ways to reuse heat generated by server setups.
Utilities Explore Data Center Energy Efficiency
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55820
Led by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the IT Energy Efficiency Coalition met for the first time as part of an effort to reduce energy consumption in data centers. Helping customers conserve energy allows utilities to avoid the capital expense of building more power plants.
Toxics, End-of-Life Management Among Five Green IT Trends: Report
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55816
Infrastructure and operations professionals should expect — and be prepared for — the growing prominence of green IT practices this year, according to a new report from Forrester Research.
Aperture Introduces Real-Time Monitoring for Data Centers
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55807
The Aperture VISTA Infrastructure Monitoring system provide constantly-updated information on performance and resource use within data centers, giving managers a clearer view of how to achieve energy efficiency.
Consumers Hungry for Green Technology: Survey
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55799
A survey looking at consumer interest in green technology and eco-friendly vehicles find many would like or are interested in greener products.
Oxford University to Develop Free Green Computing Software
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55791
Created as a test project to improve the energy efficiency of the university’s own computers, the software will make it easy and free for institutions to reduce their electricity use by as much as 50 percent.
Samsung, Toshiba Take Top Spot in Greenpeace Survey; Nintendo Lags Behind
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55783
In the seventh study of the environmental performance of electronics manufacturers, Toshiba makes a big climb to tie with Samsung for first place, while Nokia made major gains from an earlier drop to end up in third place.
How Sustainable IT Can Meet CSR Challenges
http://www.greenercomputing.com/tools.cfm?LinkAdvID=77407
This report from the Butler Group examines how the increasing necessity of CSR programs by companies of all sizes is affecting IT managment, and explains how IT managers can take the lead in supporting their company’s sustainability goals.
Read the full post in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Buildings & Grounds blog.
When it comes to dealing with climate change, some people are looking for a silver bullet. Perhaps instead they should load up on “silver buckshot” – trying a whole bunch of ideas and solutions, says Matthias Ruth, professor of natural economics and director of the Center for Integrative Environmental Research at the University of Maryland.
Mr. Ruth spoke at the Smart and Sustainable Campuses conference at the University of Maryland at College Park on Tuesday, where climate change — and colleges’ role in addressing it — was of course a big topic of conversation. The conference was sponsored by the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
The latest issue of Renewable Energy Weekly is now available. Highlights include:
Read the full story in Technology Review.
Offshore wind-farm developers would love to build in deep water more than 32 kilometers from shore, where stronger and steadier winds prevail and complaints about marred scenery are less likely. But building foundations to support wind turbines in water deeper than 20 meters is prohibitively expensive. Now, technology developers are stepping up work in floating turbines to make such farms feasible.
The New York City-based National Audubon Society has announced a five-year, $20 million grant from Toyota Motor Corp. to launch a new nationwide conservation program.
The grant — the largest ever received by the Audubon Society — will fund the TogetherGreen program, which is designed to support on-the-ground projects that employ creative approaches and engage diverse communities to help achieve measurable land, water, and/or energy conservation results. The grant also will fund fellowships for up to two hundred promising environmental leaders, as well as “volunteer days” at Audubon Centers and other locations that provide volunteers with opportunities to take part in environmental restoration activities.
Habitat for Humanity International and The Home Depot Foundation today announced a national green building initiative, Partners in Sustainable Building. The program will provide funding and resources to assist in making at least 5,000 homes built by Habitat affiliates more energy efficient and sustainable according to nationally recognized green building standards. Sustainable homes cost less to operate and maintain and have less of an impact on the environment. The Home Depot Foundation is providing $30 million in financial and in-kind support, technical resources and training to establish a foundation of green building expertise that will impact Habitat builds for years to come.
Yahoo! recently completed a survey of U.S. consumers to find out how they plan to celebrate Earth Day, what environmental issues are top of mind, and how much recycling and reusing are a part of daily life. The answers may surprise you – more than half of all those surveyed didn’t even know that April 22nd was Earth Day.
Consumer knowledge of key environmental terms
The word global warming, reuse and carbon neutral can mean many things to many individuals. Most Americans claim to know how to define global warming and understand the concept of reuse. However, only a third of all Americans can define the word carbon neutral.
Impacting The Environment
Consumers believe that reuse, recycling and curbing car use is the most effective way to positively impact the environment. However, education about global warming is still needed as less than half believe that Global warming is bad for their personal health, and only one in ten believe that eating meat might be bad for the environment.
Interestingly enough, only 1/2 of all consumers believe that their individual contribution has any impact on the earth as a whole.
Thinking And Action
63% of consumers recycle and 57% reuse products every chance they get. Many are also using energy efficient appliances and light bulbs around the home. However, apart from recycling, consumers are significantly less likely to give up red meat, take public transportation, carpool and even buy environmentally friendly cleaning supplies.
Boomers have an elevated sense of urgency when it comes to the environment. They feel significantly more positive about their individual contribution maybe because of their elevated belief that global warming will impact them in their lifetime. That train of thought and thinking leads significantly greater action in recycling, reuse, and green clean product buying. This thinking translates into advocacy, as a quarter will convince friends to buy eco-friendly products when they ask my opinion on purchases.
However, not even they are more likely to take more public transportation, carpool or abstain from meat.
Even with all these initiatives around the environment, nearly half believe Global Warming won’t impact their generation or lifetime and 1/5 believe it is a sensationalized story by the media.
Recycling and reusing, why not?
Among those who don’t recycle, the biggest reason is difficulty where they live, simply forgetting and not knowing where to go to recycle. Nearly 4 in 10 don’t know why they don’t reuse more. Lack of knowledge is the biggest barrier to reusing different products.
The biggest driver to product reuse is cost savings which is at parity with the positive environmental impact. A functional cost savings message tied with the positive impact on environment may most appeal when talking about reuse to consumers.
One very positive outcome is that nearly 90% of Americans would consider product reuse products if more education was done on the matter. In fact, a third of Boomers are ready to make a change to reuse products every chance they get if provided with the right information.
39% of all consumers will pay a little extra for environmentally friendly products
Earth Day
More than half didn’t know that April 22 is Earth Day. 44% of all consumers have no plans to do anything during Earth Day. However, among those who do know about earth day, almost seven in ten will participate in an earth day event. Most will participate in recycling or tree planting. A quarter will participate in an earth day event.
Today the Design for the Environment (DfE) Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized Continental Airlines for its corporate stewardship in implementing a non-chromium surface pretreatment for its aircraft. The product, PreKote, is produced by Pantheon Chemical, a recognized partner in EPA’s DfE program, and uses chemistry that is safer for the environment and human health.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
PlanetReuse.com is the world’s first Web site that connects buyers and sellers of reused and reclaimed construction materials and equipment and allows them to purchase products with integrated shipping online.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
Recent software advances offer dynamic opportunities to comply with EH&S regulations more efficiently and completely. With the right technology, it is even possible to exceed requirements, establishing you as a leader among green companies. Now everyone in the boardroom and on the plant floor can know exactly what is needed to achieve compliance excellence.
