·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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Read the press release.

If you live in an older community, you have probably noticed a lot of renovating going on. Rather than trading in their homes for newer ones, many homeowners are opting instead to build an addition to get those extra bedrooms for their growing families.

A renovation project is the perfect time to turn your home into a green building – one that uses energy and water efficiently, saves on operating expenses, and lowers the building’s impact on the environment. When most people think of green buildings, they think of new construction. But in the last several years, even minor renovations have been getting the green treatment. And experts are saying that eco-friendly homes full of features such as programmable thermostats, skylights, and Energy Star appliances can add up to 25 percent more to the value of your home.

Read the full story at News.com.

Investing in green buildings is getting easier, says Genyzme, a company that knows from experience.

The biotech company on Wednesday hosted a teleconference with bloggers where it shared its views on green buildings and getting the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.

Read the press release.

Engaging and educating young people is one of the many important steps needed to curb energy use in the United States, and this fall, high school teachers will have a new way to teach the subject. Ford Motor Company Fund introduced a new course today, as a part of its award-winning education program, Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies (Ford PAS) called Working Toward Sustainability. Through it, students will have the opportunity to learn about energy consumption and the related issues associated with fossil fuels, as well as the potential alternative energy sources—from solar to hydrogen to nuclear energy.

For a full-color, graphic version of this newsletter, go to
http://www.climatebiz.com/enewsletters/2008/climatebiz/index.html.

New Guide Helps Companies Make the Most of Climate Partnerships
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/06/19/helping-companies-climate-partnerships
Developed by Business for Social Responsibility and the U.S. EPA, the guide aims
to be a one-stop resource for helping navigate and choose the most appropriate
of the EPA’s 35 climate-related partnership programs.

Cisco Aims to Cut Emissions by a Quarter
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/06/25/cisco-aims-cut-emissions-a-quarter
Cisco aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2012 in absolute terms
by further investing in networking innovation, renewable energy, energy
efficiency and site improvements.

World’s Largest Firms Demand Global Emissions Target
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/06/24/worlds-largest-firms-demand-global-emissions-target
The heads of 100 multinational corporations have issued a call for G8 political
leaders to deliver a post-Kyoto deal based on and “unambiguous” commitment to
cut greenhouse gas emissions in half.

Honda Releases Fuel-Cell Car While Automakers Take Heat
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/06/18/honda-releases-fuel-cell-car
The Honda FCX Clarity is the Japanese company’s new hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle
that will go on sale in a very limited fashion this year; in the meantime, oil
companies and automakers are feeling pressure from all sides due to rising gas
prices.

Intel, IBM, HP Build Links Within the Solar Industry
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/06/18/it-giants-build-links-solar-industry
The three tech giants are moving — or moving further — into the renewable
energy market as Intel spins off its photovoltaic business, while IBM and HP put
ink to new solar-power partnerships.

Bayer Increases Production, Not Emissions
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/06/16/bayer-increases-production-not-emissions
Bayer has announced that in the last year it has increased production without
significantly increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Intelligent IT Deployments to Cut Global Emissions 15 Percent: Report
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/06/20/smart-it-cut-global-emissions-15-percent
Even as the technology sector’s carbon footprint is expected to double in the
next 12 years, applying tech tools to monitoring energy use, maximizing energy
efficiency and reducing the need for travel, shipping and resource use could
save businesses billions of dollars and cut overall CO2 emissions, according to
a report released today.

Researchers Propose New Ways to Model Forest Adaptation to Climate Change
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/06/13/forest-adaptation-climate-change
A new research paper says forest dynamics models need to take into account
biodiversity, but to do so, software companies will need to provide resources.

The Difference Between Product and Supply Chain Footprinting
By Ryan Schuchard
http://climatebiz.com/column/2008/06/26/difference-product-supply-chain-footprinting
The question for companies taking the lead on carbon footprinting now is: What
is the relationship between product footprinting and supply chain footprinting,
and what should your company be doing?

Energy Help: A Primer for Smaller (and Bigger) Companies
By Joel Makower
http://www.ClimateBiz.com/column/2008/06/22/energy-help-a-primer-smaller-and-bigger-companies

Green Power Player
By Marc Gunther
http://www.ClimateBiz.com/column/2008/06/19/green-power-player

Energy and Climate Change: Creating a Sustainable Future
http://www.ClimateBiz.com/resources/resource/energy-and-climate-change-creating-a-sustainable-future
This book covers all aspects of energy, from the basics of what it is to how it
affects the environment, touching on sustainable energy sources and climate
change.

SMART 2020: Enabling the Low Carbon Economy in the Information Age
http://www.ClimateBiz.com/resources/resource/smart-2020-enabling-low-carbon-economy-it
This report from The Climate Group and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative
explores the ways that information technology can play a positive role in
fighting climate change.

A new document intended to help small businesses comply with the new Lead-based Paint Renovation, Repair and Painting Program requirements (40 CFR 745, Subpart E), was issued April 22, 2008 (73FR 21692). The guide, Small Entity Compliance Guide to Renovate Right: EPA’s Lead-Based Paint Renovation, Repair and Painting Program, is for contractors, painters, property managers, maintenance personnel, and other professionals that disturb painted surfaces while working in homes and child-occupied facilities, such as child care centers and schools, built before 1978. This document is published by the EPA as the official compliance guide for small entities, pursuant to section 212 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (SBREFA).

The Green Remediation: Incorporating Sustainable Environmental Practices into Remediation of Contaminated Sites technology primer was developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation (OSRTI). As part of its mission to protect human health and the environment, the U.S. EPA is dedicated to developing and promoting innovative cleanup strategies that restore contaminated sites to productive use, reduce associated costs, and promote environmental stewardship. The practice of “green remediation” uses strategies to consider all environmental effects of remedy implementation for contaminated sites and incorporates options to maximize the net environmental benefit of cleanup actions.

Read the full story at News.com.

What do you know? The do-gooders had a good idea: A 50 percent reduction in power consumption by computers by the year 2010.

This was a central plank of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a nonprofit initiative which is celebrating its one-year anniversary this month. Most of the usual suspects have thrown their support behind the project. (Here’s a link to the full list. These folks aren’t signing on out of any woolly eyed desire to save humanity–though that’s a nice idea. They’re doing it to help their bottom line. (Even better!)

So it is that on Wednesday comes news that Dell has developed a server power supply which complies with the 80 Plus Gold certification. A good first step, though the bigger question of clean technology and the role it might play in helping to curb data centers’ energy output remains unclear.

Read the full story from PBS.

Rising oil prices and improvements in battery technology are fueling new interest in electric cars. Many car companies — including industry giant General Motors and small start-up Tesla Motors — are planning to release new vehicles in the next two years. Tonight on the NewsHour, Spencer Michels looks at the future of the electric car.

Read the full story in Newsweek.

It ain’t easy being green. But surprisingly, big-city dwellers have less of an environmental impact than their country cousins. According to a new report by the Brookings Institution released Thursday, residents of the 100 biggest metropolitan areas emit on average 2.47 metric tons of carbon per person per year, 14 percent less than the 2.87 ton American average. The cities with the smallest carbon footprint per capita: Honolulu, Los Angeles and metropolitan Portland.

Read the full story at Planetizen.

It is no longer good enough to plop housing on top of a retail strip, call it “mixed-use,” and expect to intelligently improve the urban setting, or build real value. True metropolitan development – and real, long-term commercial success – fuses many uses together, including hotels, retail, restaurant-bars, museums, stadiums, libraries, movie theaters, housing and even creative live/work light industrial, writes Keith Ray.

Read the full white paper from the American Institute of Architects.

As state and local governments work toward a sustainable future, the American Institute of Architects is serving as a facilitator to provide information on implementing comprehensive green building policies in our nation’s communities. The AIA is focusing its energy on promoting sustainability at the local, state, and federal level by working with our partners to promote green building. Local Leaders in Sustainability – Green Incentives is an analysis of the current state of green building incentives at the state and local level.

This white paper analyzes data from local and state-level research on green incentive programs, including the Local Leaders in Sustainability study, as well as input from the Developers Roundtable, a discussion among relevant stakeholders on incentive options for the building sector.

The AIA continues to bring together important parties in the discussion, including state and local politicians and officials, as well as representatives from within the design and construction/development industry, in order to establish best practices and credibly discuss the current state of green building law and practice. As such, the AIA held the Developers Roundtable on December 3, 2007, at its headquarters in Washington, DC. The group included architects, representatives of development companies, the finance/investment sector, retailers, building owners and operators, the insurance industry, and other pertinent stakeholders. The purpose behind the Roundtable was to identify a series of green building incentives that have wide appeal in the private sector and further encourage the construction of green buildings by establishing them as the smartest choice in new development.