·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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For a full-color, graphic version of this newsletter, go to
http://www.greenbiz.com/enewsletter.

SunChips Gathers Energy From its Namesake
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55852
A Modesto, Calif., SunChips plant will turn on a field of solar concentrators later this month, eventually gathering enough heat from the sun to power its chip manufacturing line.

Ford Yields to Shareholder Pressure, Outlines Plan to Reduce GHG Emissions
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55871
Bowing to pressure from a bloc of shareholders, Ford has become the first automaker to detail its strategy to reduce its fleet’s greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2020.

Paper Purchasing of Major Office Suppliers Shows Improvement
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55859
Major office supply companies have made progress incorporating more environmentally responsible practices, according to a new report card, which gave Staples and FedEx Kinkos top scores.

Marriott Pledges $2 Million to Protect Brazilian Rainforest
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55860
Marriott International has committed funds to preserve a 1.4 million acre rainforest in Brazil and has announced new and expanded environmental goals for its hotels and supply chain.

U.K. McDonald’s Turn Trash Into Energy
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55878
A pilot program sending trash from McDonald’s restaurants to an incinerator has reduced carbon emissions related to waste disposal by more than 50 percent.

Wal-Mart to Expand Environmental Efforts to Chinese Suppliers
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55866
Wal-Mart will meet with many of its Chinese suppliers later this year to set goals on environmental initiatives, the latest step the retailer has taken to green its supply chain throughout the world.

United Steelworkers Join NGOs to Promote Green Collar Jobs
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55874
North America’s largest manufacturing union teamed with the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council to perform grassroots organizing, stage public events and spread the results of independent reports that have studied the economic potential of shifting to a green economy.

Office Depot Launches Green Product Line
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55865
The product line called Office Depot Green runs the gamut to include remanufactured ink and toner cartridges to chairs made from recycled content. Meanwhile, Amazon unveiled Green3, a collection of its green products and opportunity for customers to name their favorite green products.

P&G and Domtar Step Up Sustainable Foresty Committments
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55877
Procter & Gamble and Domtar Corp. joined the North America Forest & Trade Network (NAFTN) in a bid to make their wood-based products more sustainably sourced.

Fiji Water Discloses Supply Chain Carbon Footprint, Plans to Reduce Environmental Impact
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55872
Fiji Water has revealed the carbon footprint of its entire supply chain as well as plans to reduce emissions, reduce materials used and help reforest Fiji.

HP Offers Free Ink Cartridge Recycling to California State Agencies
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55858
Hewlett-Packard is working with state agencies to take back and recycle ink cartridges for free, along with providing rewards points for buying HP products.

Nevada Utility’s Coal Pursuit a Risk for Investors, Ratepayers: Report
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=55856
A plan to build a new coal-fired power plant in Nevada will expose the shareholders of Sierra Pacific Resources to “significant financial and environment risks,” according to a financial advisory firm.

Unisource Greenfinder
http://www.greenbiz.com/reference/webguide_record.cfm?LinkAdvID=97612
Unisource Worldwide, a distributor of paper, packaging and facility supplies, launched its UnisourceGreen website, which provides details on some of its greener supplies, explains the various environmental certifications and labels available for paper and lets customers search for paper based on certain qualities.

ESCOs and Utilities: Shaping the Future of the Energy Efficiency Business
By Andy Frank
http://greenbiz.com/news/reviews_third.cfm?NewsID=55883
Energy Service Companies like Johnson Controls and Ameresco have developed a partnership with utility companies that, through cooperation and competition alike, shows that in the post-Enron world, energy efficiency can be both profitable and beneficial.

Sustainable Packaging and the Five Stages of Grief
By Dennis Salazar
http://greenbiz.com/news/columns_third.cfm?NewsID=55863
Many in the business community reflect on the how the green economy will impact their industries with reactions reminiscent of the “Five Stages of Grief.”

Joel Makower’s Two Steps Forward
A Deeper Dive into the Business of Water
http://greenbiz.com/Blogs/makower.cfm

Marc Gunther on Corporate America
Marriott Tree Huggers
http://greenbiz.com/Blogs/marcgunther.cfm

David Wigder’s Green Marketing Strategies
Open Skies Agreement Provides a Glimpse of What’s to Come in a Carbon-Regulated Environment
http://greenbiz.com/Blogs/marketinggreen.cfm 

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

The recycling industry offers investors one of the few ways to profit during the current recession, according to a report released April 2 by Progressive Investor, “Investing in Recycling.”

This WRI/WBCSD publication is an information and decision-making tool to help customers develop their own sustainable procurement policies for wood and paper-based products. It also has information on existing approaches to procurement from legal and sustainable sources.

Via Docuticker.

REN21 – Renewables 2007 Global Status Report
Source: Worldwatch Institute

The Renewables 2007 Global Status Report provides an integrated perspective on the global renewable energy situation. It gives testimony of the undeterred growth of electricity, heat, and fuel production capacities from renewable energy sources, including solar PV, wind power, solar hot water/heating, biofuels, hydropower, and geothermal.

The report is the product of an international team of over 140 researchers and contributors from both developed and developing countries, drawing upon wide-ranging information and expertise across technologies, markets, and countries. Sections include: Global Market Overview, Investment Flows, Industry Trends, Policy Landscape, and Rural (Off-Grid) Renewable Energy. The policy section provides overviews of: policy targets for renewable energy, power generation promotion policies, solar hot water/heating policies, biofuels policies, municipal policies, and green power purchasing and renewable electricity certificates.

+ Executive Summary
+ Full Report (PDF; 480 KB)
+ Past years’ reports

Read the press release.

The Wildlife Management Institute, joined by eight of the nation’s leading hunting and fishing organizations, today released a new report — Seasons’ End: Global Warming’s Threat to Hunting and Fishing — detailing the predicted impacts of climate change on the fish and wildlife habitat and the future of hunting and fishing in the United States.  The group also announced a new website, www.seasonsend.org, which will provide updated information on the impacts of climate change on fish and wildlife and what can be done to address this challenge.

Relevant links

• Full report (available in sections)
• Issue in Brief
• Understanding the Science

Read the full story in the New York Times.

Researchers are looking for new ways to use renewable sources like corn and switchgrass instead of petroleum as the raw ingredient in plastic.

Read the full story in The Guardian.

Schools struggling to meet carbon footprint targets are about to be offered a shortcut – the chance to dress their pupils in a uniform made entirely from old Coca-Cola bottles.

Britain’s first line in completely recycled polymer jackets and trousers goes on sale next week from an outlet in Yorkshire which previously pioneered the waterproof, odour-resistant blazer.

Watch the video podcast at The Guardian (U.K.)

A big shake up in the geography curriculum has meant that climate change will now be taught in all secondary schools. But with climate change encompassing so many topics, what is the best way to teach it?

David Lambert from the Geographical Association and climate change expert Ed Gillespie from Futerra meet with geography teacher Dave Dixon from Hampstead School in London to discuss the most effective ways of teaching climate change.

Broken down into digestible parts, David and Ed explain various ways of organising the curriculum around the key concepts of interdependence, physical and human processes that cause change, place and space and diversity.

Dave devises a lesson plan where he calculates the carbon footprint of a celebrity and then compares it to a teacher at the school, engaging students and promoting debate about whose responsibility climate change is.

Other episodes in the series:

• Week three: An A-Z of climate change
• Week two: The impacts
• Week one: The causes

Read the press release.

As Earth Day approaches, Anheuser-Busch will begin airing four new television ads featuring employees discussing the company’s commitment to the environment. At the same time, thousands of Anheuser-Busch employees across the country and their families are gearing up for the company’s annual “Green Week” activities.

Read the full story at News.com.

Wind power is worth it, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

ERCOT studied the costs and benefits of wind power in three scenarios and concluded that expanding wind power in Texas would outweigh the total costs of boosting the state’s electrical grid with conventional technologies. (Renewable Energy Access has a more detailed story here.)

Read the full story in Building Design and Construction.

Office Depot has broken ground on its first green store, in Austin, Texas. Designed to achieve a LEED Silver rating from the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council, the store is one the first prototypes in the USGBC’s retail portfolio program, a pilot program that enables owners to submit one LEED application for a portfolio of newly constructed buildings.

Dr. Seuss Enterprises and Youth Venture are proud to bring you the Lorax Challenge, in partnership with Earth Island Institute. It’s an opportunity for people ages 12-20 across the country to turn their dreams of saving the planet into reality. Five grand prizes winners get a FREE trip to the University of Florida for a weekend of activities, learning and fun! (Please note that only high school students are eligible for the Grand Prize.) DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS IS MIDNIGHT, MAY 31, 2008!

Read the full story at News.com.

In one corner of a massive warehouse, workers pick through bins of computers, keyboards, and mice, painstakingly cleaning each part.

There’s a special room where peripherals such as mice go for washing and another where they go for drying. Once the hardware is reassembled, often with a few new parts added to the mix, the first set of testing takes place, to make sure all of the hardware functions as it should.

In another area, the newly rebuilt systems get their collection of software–Windows 2000 and a several-generations-old version of Office. Then the machines go through another round of testing to make sure they are working properly, before being wrapped and packed in broken-down Styrofoam and being shipped out to destinations throughout the country.

Even printers are refurbished–and not just inkjet, but years-old dot-matrix printers that have long since been pushed out of the commercial market. It’s all part of a project known as Computadores para Educar, which refurbishes thousands of computers each year for Colombia’s schools.

Read the full story in Metal Finishing.

Continental Airlines, the industry’s fifth-largest carrier, has received an award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Design for the Environment (DfE) Program. The honor is in recognition of the airline’s use of PreKote, an environmentally friendly, non-chromium surface pretreatment for its aircraft. Continental is the first commercial air carrier to use this technology — which is produced by Pantheon Chemical — on its aircraft.

Read the full story in the Detroit Free Press.

Lower lake levels, less ice cover, more algae, more invasive species and more waterborne diseases linked to sewer overflows after severe storms.

Those are among the dire forecasts about the impact of global warming on the Great Lakes from scientists who concluded two days of presentations Thursday at Michigan State University.

Read the full story in Environmental Capital.

As the U.S. Congress gropes its way toward a new energy policy, it’s creating unlikely alliances. The latest? The National Association of Manufacturers is lobbying senators to support tax-credits for renewable energy and energy efficiency.