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 in Environmental Protection.
Expanded grain ethanol production will lead to further growth of corn acres in the near term, with unintended negative water quality impacts, according to a group of scientists.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
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 report released on March 26 by Public Agenda.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
Iowa State University, ConocoPhillips, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have signed a memorandum of understanding to identify promising cellulosic biomass conversion technologies over the near, mid- and long-term.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
Questions of what will happen to millions of analog TVs following next year’s transition to digital television (DTV) have been answered with news that is also good for the environment, according to a new study by the Consumer Electronics Association of Arlington, Va.
Read the full story from Environmental Protection.
For the 6.5 million American children with asthma, newly mandated environmentally friendly inhalers will come at a greater cost to low- and middle-income families – most will see a significant increase in their prescription co-payments or out-of-pocket costs, especially since a generic version of the medication will not be available.
Earth Day 2008 is April 22. And now, with the ever rising cost of gasoline, a sluggish economy, and the dangerous greenhouse gases and pollutants that vehicles produce, the need to implement economic and eco-friendly alternatives like carpooling has become a vital necessity. A prime example of how carpooling and going green go hand and hand is Divide The Ride (www.dividetheride.com), a safe and secure carpooling website designed to help busy families by creating carpool calendars based on their schedules and driving availability.
YouTube has video of a school assembly on zero waste lunches. Not sure of the location (school name is Franklin), but there are some neat ideas here.
Another good video is Going Green: The Trashless Lunch. It looks like it’s from the same school.
With daily headlines about global warming and rising energy costs, it is easy to feel concerned about the environment. Too often, headlines about problems are more prominent than headlines about solutions. This Earth Day, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) encourages New Yorkers to take action by participating in some of the state’s high-impact residential energy efficiency programs.
Groups working on solutions to local environmental and public health issues can apply for grants from the Environmental Protection Agency and its Environmental Justice Small Grants (EJSG) program.
Nonprofits, cities, counties and federally recognized tribes can submit grant proposals until June 30, 2008.
The EJSG program is designed to provide funding for eligible applicants working on, or planning to work on, a project that addresses a local environmental and public health issue within an affected community. Projects should increase understanding of issues, identify ways to address these issues at the local level, and educate and empower the community. Grant recipients can receive up to $20,000 to help with their projects.
Interested applicants can get more information on the Environmental Justice Small Grants program and how to apply for grants by contacting Shirley Quinones at 214-665-2713 or visiting http://www.epa.gov/compliance/environmentaljustice/grants/ej-smgrants.html.
Read the full story in Environmental Leader.
Dell is now powering 100 percent of its 2.1 million square-foot global headquarters campus with 100 percent green power, the latest step in meeting the company’s 2008 carbon neutral commitment.
Read the full story in Environmental Leader.
Frito-Lay is planning a major ad campaign to tout that one of the factories that makes SunChips is powered by the sun. A field of solar concentrators at Frito-Lay’s Modesto, Calif. manufacturing facility will go online April 21, one day before Earth Day.
Read the full story at Environmental Leader.
Companies are rushing to create green supply chains, basing purchasing decisions not only on the value that vendors deliver, but also on their compliance with green initiatives and other key corporate values.
Just as vendors have been required to be compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley regulations, they will soon need to achieve a certain level of compliance with environmental initiatives and other social responsibility imperatives, according to Jari Tavi, chief technology officer at Basware.
New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and EPA Regional Administrator Alan J. Steinberg have announced the opening of the third New York City Green Building Competition. This national competition seeks projects and ideas that promote the New York City as the pre-eminent cultural and sustainable urban epicenter. Design projects are encouraged that integrate whole-building principles, employ the tenets of green building construction and end-of-life considerations, anticipate post-occupancy concerns, and complement the community in which they reside.
Public awareness of the Energy Star label has grown to more than 70 percent in 2008, an increase of about 20 percentage points over the last five years, according to a report released today. In many major markets where local utilities and other organizations use Energy Star to promote energy efficiency to their customers, public awareness of Energy Star is even higher, averaging nearly 80 percent.
As Earth Day approaches, remodelers are leading the charge to provide eco-conscious solutions for home remodeling projects, according to the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI).
A full-color, graphic version of this newsletter is available online at:
http://www.greenerbuildings.com/enewsletter
Southern California Edison Plans Country’s Largest Solar Project
http://greenerbuildings.com/news_detail.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.
Going Green: Panelists Discuss Trends, Challenges
http://greenerbuildings.com/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55868
Every year, the Industrial and Office Real Estate Brokers Association of the New York Metropolitan Area showcases the projects of dozens of regional developers and includes a panel discussion on a pressing industry issue. This year, it was going green.
Parking Structure Serves as Unexpected Spot for Green Building Practices
http://greenerbuildings.com/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55861
What may be viewed as an unlikely candidate for green accolades, a parking structure in in this Southern California city has pushed the envelope toward sustainability.
Interactive Tool from Siemens Helps Users Visualize Building Energy Consumption
http://greenerbuildings.com/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55808
The GreenTouchScreen, which can also be used as an educational tool, translates numerical building operational data into visual information to reveal the amount of energy being used, the amount saved over time and associated greenhouse gas emissions.
DuPont Teams with TERI to Promote Green Building in India
http://greenerbuildings.com/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55849
DuPont signed a memorandum of understanding with The Energy and Resources Institute to promote green building in India.
Green Roofs’ Benefits Detailed at Construction Industry Gathering
http://greenerbuildings.com/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55839
Dramatic reductions in energy use and costs, as well as supporting biodiversity, reducing flooding and combating climate change were among the benefits touted at a seminar organized by CIRIA.
First Green Bank to Cater to Eco-Friendly Projects
http://greenerbuildings.com/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55828
A new bank in Central Florida plans to specialize in services for environmentally friendly businesses and building projects.
CoStar Study Finds Higher Demand, Rent Prices for Green Buildings
http://greenerbuildings.com/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55817
A comparison of similar green (LEED certified or Energy Star labeled) and non-green buildings finds that the greener options are in higher demand, have higher occupancy rates, charge more for rent and sell at higher prices.
Meeting Green: The Office Equipment Industry’s Guide to Managing Product Emissions
http://greenerbuildings.com/tool_detail.cfm?LinkAdvID=97590
This report serves as a manufacturer?s user guide for understanding the types of indoor contaminants emitted from electronic office equipment and the health impacts associated with chemical and particulate emissions.
Built to Last: Measuring the Life Cycle of a Facility
By Sarah Fister Gale
http://www.greenerbuildings.com/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55870
Unlike individual products that have well-defined shelf lives, buildings stand for decades and endure climatic extremes, making it difficult to execute life cycle assessments. The arsenal of tools to perform LCAs is expanding to meet the growing interest in a concept that allows architects to take a long-term approach to sustainability.
Bush Energy Bill Taps GSA to Green the Building Industry
By Andrew Burr
http://greenerbuildings.com/news_detail.cfm?NewsID=55802
Federal influence on sustainable real estate practices in the private sector is poised to increase considerably as government officials begin implementing measures from the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, signed into law by President Bush in December.
Read the full story at News.com.
Bob Metcalfe thinks we’ll solve global warming if we take our cue from the Internet.
Metcalfe, best known as a co-inventor of the Ethernet and now a venture capitalist at Polaris Venture Partners, on Wednesday laid out his vision of the “EnerNet,” the concept of applying the lessons of building the Internet to the energy business.
Caribbean Refrescos, Inc., a Coca-Cola Company subsidiary in Cidra, Puerto Rico and the Cutler Hammer Electrical Co. in Coamo, Puerto Rico have volunteered to minimize pollution beyond environmental regulatory requirements while reducing landfill, water and energy use. They are among the newest additions to a growing list of facilities that have been accepted into the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Environmental Performance Track Program. Members commit to develop a set of processes that will reduce environmental impacts, called an environmental management system, and set three-year goals to continuously improve environmental performance, while working closely with their communities and reporting publicly on their performance. There are now 20 facilities in Puerto Rico that have been accepted into EPA’s Performance Track program. Nationally, there are nearly 540 members.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and partners are calling on the nation’s architects, builders, students and others to participate in the second Lifecycle Building Challenge. The competition seeks designs that facilitate building material adaptation and reuse, minimize waste, and cut greenhouse gas emissions. Ideas generated by the contest will jumpstart the building industry to help divert more of the 100 million tons of building-related construction and demolition debris sent each year to landfills in the United States.
Read the full story in E The Environmental Magazine.
Last June, the aluminum industry reported that the 2006 recycling rate for aluminum beverage cans (known as ABCs) was 51.6 percent. Slightly better than half of ABC cans are recycled today, but it’s a figure hardly worth boasting about. In the 1990s more than 60 percent of them were recycled, and the aluminum industry is now moving further away from its recycling goal of 75 percent, set a decade ago.
The U.S. manufacturing sector spent $5.9 billion dollars on capital expenditures and $20.7 billion dollars on operating costs for pollution prevention and treatment in 2005. These figures represent less than five percent of total new capital expenditures and less than one percent of total revenue for the sector, respectively.
The estimates, which to EPA’s knowledge are the most comprehensive publicly available, were reported today in a U.S. Census report, “Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures (PACE): 2005″. The PACE report is the latest in a series conducted since 1973 to assess annual costs for pollution abatement by the manufacturing sector. This is the first year of data since EPA, in consultation with U.S. Census, began a multi-year effort to evaluate the quality of the survey instrument, and the accuracy and reliability of the data collected in the survey responses. As a result, an improved survey was developed by EPA and administered by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2006 to collect the 2005 expenditure data.
The report provides additional details on pollution abatement expenditures, categorized by type of pollution media and abatement activity by industry and state. The reported costs include capital and operating costs for treatment/capture, prevention, recycling, and disposal, as well as depreciation of pollution abatement equipment.
More information on the 2005 PACE data, including the efforts to evaluate the data and redevelop the 2005 survey: http://yosemite.epa.gov/ee/epa/eed.nsf/pages/pace2005.html
EPA today launched the Environmental Indicators Gateway Web site to provide enhanced public access to environmental and health information generated by EPA. Information is presented in the context of “environmental indicators,” numerical values that provide insights into the status and trends of environmental and public health conditions over time. The Gateway establishes a single catalog of EPA’s indicator work that allows browsing and searching among existing EPA Web sites and indicator materials. The site allows users to browse EPA’s environmental indicator reports by geography, topic area, or time period. For each report featured on the site, users can find information on key details of the project including geography, project purpose, contact information, and data quality considerations.
In addition to enhancing public access, the Gateway provides a resource for EPA and other federal agencies and partners to better coordinate their own environmental indicator work. By sharing key information and best practices among existing projects, EPA can improve its ability to generate environmental indicator information in the future. To better accomplish the goals of EPA’s Environmental Indicators Initiative, EPA plans further enhancements to the site, which will improve coordination among existing indicator work and provide additional tools for accessing environmental indicators and information across EPA.
New Environmental Indicators Gateway: epa.gov/indicators
Read the full story at News. com.
Energy utility executives say that the environment and greenhouse gas regulations top their worry list.
Researcher Platts and consulting firm Capgemini on Tuesday published the results of a survey that asked 100 executives from the utilities industry what their biggest concerns are.
FIJI(R) Water announced today that it had joined the Carbon Disclosure Project Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration to fully disclose the carbon footprint of its products. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the world’s largest investor coalition on climate change, will work with FIJI Water to engage with suppliers to disclose their emissions.
For a full-color, graphic version of this newsletter, go to
http://www.greenercomputing.com/enewsletter.
The Difficulty of Gauging Workstation Power Consumption-And How to Get it Done
By Andrew Binstock
http://www.greenercomputing.com/columns_third.cfm?NewsID=55864
Andrew Binstock gives you the lowdown on how you can gauge workstation power today, without having to wait for industry benchmarks.
Don’t Let Recession Hinder Green IT Efforts: Gartner
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55862
The research firm advised companies to move forward with green IT initiatives, especially those that can have a near-term impact on the bottom line, such as power savings efforts.
AQS Releases Report on Office Equipment Emissions
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55853
A new report from Air Quality Services Inc. (AQS) aims to help the public understand the indoor contaminants produced by standard office equipment, such as computers, printers and fax machines
Climate Savers Joins Forces with New Partners at the U.S. EPA and in China
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55847
The group, founded by computing giants like Google, Dell and Intel, has teamed up with the EPA’s Energy Star program and the China Electronics Energy Saving Committee to expand energy efficiency amongst computer systems.
CDW Survey Finds Support for Telecommuting Growing in Private Sector
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55843
A survey by CDW Corporation finds that support among private companies for teleworkers has jumped greatly over the years, as has employee interest in being able to telecommute.
HP Workstation Line Scores Gold
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55837
HP’s entire workstation line scored a Gold rating based on the guidelines of the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), making HP the largest holder of EPEAT Gold registered products.
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.
Federal Electronics Challenge: Electronics Environmental Benefits Calculator
http://www.greenercomputing.com/tools.cfm?LINKADVID=77403
This tool aims to assist organizations in estimating the environmental benefits of greening their electronics purchases, usage and disposal.
Read the full story in the New York Times.
Farmers are taking their fields out of a government conservation program that pays them not to cultivate.
The latest issue of Renewable Energy Weekly is now available. Highlights include:
SustainLane announces the release of the pilot episode of “Gorilla in the Greenhouse,” an action-packed, web-based, animated show that inspires kids to take real-world steps towards a healthier planet. The show is set in a magical greenhouse in San Francisco and features a visionary green gorilla and four kids who use their imagination, their network and their music to tackle the environmental challenges facing their generation.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
Results from a survey conducted by a University of Missouri professor reveal that the U.S. public, while aware of the deteriorating global environment, is concerned predominantly with local and national environmental issues.
Read the full story in Environmental Protection.
Imposing a carbon tax on Chinese imports may be the only way developed nations will be able to achieve real cuts in global greenhouse gases, finds a new report released from CIBC World Markets of London on March 27.
Six major industry sectors are in particular danger from climate change risks, claims professional services organization KPMG today.
Aviation, healthcare, tourism, transport, oil and gas and the financial services sector all feature in the “danger zone” in a report on climate change risks from KPMG — meaning that they score highly on the risks which face them yet score poorly in terms of their preparedness to face these risks.
Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.
IBM has unveiled a new supercomputer that is the precursor to a $208 million system the University of Illinois will switch on in 2011, hoping that the machine’s massive brainpower will enable research in disciplines ranging from energy to astronomy to logistics.
IBM said the technological breakthrough is not only in its speed, but in its use of water, rather than air, to cool the system. At the end of this year, U. of I. will break ground on a $72.5 million building on its Urbana-Champaign campus. The facility will be home to the “Blue Waters” supercomputer, which will come online in 2011 and be available to university researchers.
See also News.com’s related story: IBM uses plumbing, watercoolers to chill supercomputer
