·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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white pollution n. Litter, particularly plastic bags, but also papers, cups, and food containers.

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

Lessons Learned from IBM’s Big Green Initiative
By David Metcalfe
http://www.greenercomputing.com/column/2008/07/02/lessons-learned-ibms-big-green-initiative
IBM will spend billions of dollars on its “Big Green” initiative over the next several years. David Metcalfe, Director of Vendantix, takes a look at the initiative, and offers six lessons that IT managers and CIOs can learn from it.

Green Electronics Scores Fall as Greenpeace Adds Criteria
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news/2008/07/02/green-electronics-scores-fall-greenpeace-adds-criteria
In its latest Guide to Greener Electronics, Greenpeace started looking at a number of energy issues, causing many companies’ score to drop drastically.

A New Partnership for Efficient Data Centers
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news/2008/07/01/partnership-efficient-data-centers
The Carbon Trust and the British Computer Society have teamed up to provide software for viewing and simulating data center energy use and carbon emissions.

Existing Technologies Can Nearly Halve Energy Use: Report
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news/2008/06/30/existing-technologies-can-nearly-halve-energy-use-report
Data center managers have technologies at their disposal that can nearly halve energy consumption and reduce associated greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equal to taking 8 million cars from the road, according to new research.

New Dell Power Supply First to Earn Gold 80-Plus Certification
http://www.greenercomputing.com/news/2008/06/26/dell-first-earn-gold-80-plus-certification
The new server power unit is a year in advance of several energy-efficiency certifications, and is part of Dell’s overall strategy to be the world’s greenest tech company.

Guide to Greener Electronics – Version 8
http://www.greenercomputing.com/resources/resource/guide-greener-electronics-version-8
Greenpeace’s eighth version of its Guide to Greener Electronics, released in June 2008, provides increased scrutiny of the environmental records of the world’s 18 largest electronics companies, causing many of them to score lower than previously.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Coal Combustion Products Partnership (C2P2) is presenting 20 organizations and individuals with awards for safely increasing the use of coal combustion products. Coal combustion products are the byproducts generated from burning coal in coal-fired power plants. Some of the achievements recognized include finding new uses for coal combustion products and developing a web-based educational tool that teaches civil engineering students about the benefits and uses of these products.

“Our C2P2 partners are showing how scientific innovation and resource conservation efforts are adding up to big environmental benefits,” said Susan Bodine, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. “By using 15 million tons of coal fly ash, our nation reduced greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the annual emissions of nearly 2.5 million passenger vehicles.”

Using coal combustion products conserves natural resources, conserves energy, is cost effective, and helps to combat climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Our nation currently uses 43 percent of coal combustion products, up from 32 percent in 2001, when C2P2 was started. EPA’s goal is to reach a 50 percent utilization rate by 2011.

The Coal Combustion Products Partnership program has more than 170 private and public partners. C2P2 is co-sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Energy, the American Coal Ash Association, the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group, and the Electric Power Research Institute.

For more information about C2P2: epa.gov/c2p2/

For more information about the award winners: epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/conserve/c2p2/news.htm

Read the full story from Xinhua.

An international architectural design competition for the so-called “Sun-lit Schools” was launched here Wednesday, to seek solutions for solar-fueled school buildings in the countryside.

Read the full story in Health Care Design.

The Green Building Initiative (GBI) has completed the first public comment period for its proposed American National Standard for commercial green buildings, known officially as the “GBI Proposed American National Standard 01-200XP: Green Building Assessment Protocol for Commercial Buildings.”

During the six-week public comment period that concluded on June 9, the GBI received more than 400 comments from a diverse group of individuals and organizations, including the U.S. General Services Administration, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the University of Arkansas, and the University of Georgia, among others.

Read the full story from ABC News Australia.

As the Federal Government wrestles with the implementation of a national emissions trading scheme, the British Government is preparing for what it says is the biggest shake up in power generation since the Industrial Revolution.

Read the full story at News.com.

National Semiconductor is jumping into the solar business with technology that’s designed to maximize the output of solar panels.

Read the full story at News.com.

Shifting a fourth of U.S. freight from trucks to railroads by 2026 would spare each American an average of 41 hours of travel time, 79 gallons of fuel, and $985 in gas expenses each year, according to the seventh annual Congestion Relief Index on Tuesday.

The latest issue of Renewable Energy Weekly is now available. Highlights include:

• Finding a Second Life for Retired Wind Turbines
• UK Launches New Blueprint for Renewables
• US Rep. Inslee Introduces Renewable Energy Pricing Legislation
• Inside Renewable Energy podcast: Community Wind: Building a Democratic Industry in Canada
• Breaking Free from Oil
• Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion and CO2 Sequestration
• Progress in Technology Needed for 25% Renewable Energy To Be Affordable
• Westward Ho! US utilities scramble for wind

Read the press release.

Rio Tinto Alcan and the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) are pleased to announce the US$1 million Rio Tinto Alcan Prize for Sustainability* 2008 is now open for entries. Information on eligibility criteria and how to enter the Prize is available at www.alcanprizeforsustainability.com. The closing date for receipt of entries is midnight, 12 September 2008 (GMT).

Read the full story in The Atlantic Monthly.

With the Chevy Volt, General Motors — battered, struggling for profitability, fed up with being eclipsed by Toyota and the Prius — is out to reinvent the automobile, and itself.

The Onion has published it’s Obligatory Green Issue. Set satire detectors to high before reading further. Some featured stories include:

• Bush Urges Expanded Drilling Of Alaskan Wildlife
• Report: 98 Percent Of U.S. Commuters Favor Public Transportation For Others
• Green-Conscious GE Develops Hybrid Lightbulb
• Cheney Celebrates Earth Day By Breathing Oxygen
• Richard Branson’s Global-Warming Donation Nearly As Much As Cost Of Failed Balloon Trips
• EPA Warns Human Beings No Longer Biodegradable

Read the full story in The Guardian.

Prince Charles only gets round to driving his beloved 38-year-old Aston Martin a couple of hundred miles a year, but as he tootles round the roads of Gloucestershire, critics may be reassured to learn that he doesn’t have a tiger in his tank but converted plonk. And what’s more, patriotically, it’s English plonk.

That his car has been converted to run on bioethanol, made from surplus wine, was one of the minor examples of Charles’s green credentials touted in the annual review of his income and activities published yesterday. What’s more, all the prince’s other cars – Jaguars, an Audi and a Range Rover – have been converted to run on used cooking fat.

The full-colour 60-page annual report – which contains 43 pictures of the prince and the Duchess of Cornwall in its first 40 pages – lists a catalogue of green measures adopted by Charles and his staff to burnish his environmental credentials: from woodchip boilers installed in his homes at Highgrove, Gloucestershire, and Birkhall, Scotland, to rainwater used to flush toilets attached to Highgrove’s Orchard Room, where the prince meets the public during receptions. Bicycles have been provided for staff at St James’s Palace in London.

Read the full story from Environmental News Service.

A Fulton County Superior Court judge today issued a decision that blocks construction of the first coal-burning power plant proposed in Georgia in more than 20 years. The judge ruled that the new plant must limit its emissions of the heat-trapping gas carbon dioxide.

Via Docuticker.

Sunscreen Summary — What Works and What’s Safe
Source: Environmental Working Group (EWG)

In a new investigation of 952 name-brand sunscreens, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that 4 out of 5 sunscreen products offer inadequate protection from the sun, or contain ingredients with significant safety concerns. Leading brands were the worst offenders: None of market leader Coppertone’s 41 sunscreen products met EWG’s criteria for safety and effectiveness, and only 1 of 103 products from Banana Boat and Neutrogena, the second- and third-largest manufacturers, are recommended by EWG.

Many products on the market present obvious safety and effectiveness concerns, including one of every seven that does not protect from UVA radiation This problem is aggravated by the fact that FDA has not finalized comprehensive sunscreen safety standards they began drafting 30 years ago. Overall we identified 143 products that offer very good sun protection with ingredients that present minimal health risks to users. Find out which in our best and worst lists.

More Americans than ever are using sunscreen to protect from sunburn and guard against skin cancer. Top choices include products with high SPF ratings, and that are waterproof or that advertise “broad spectrum” protection. Most people trust that the claims on the bottle will ensure that the product truly protects their health and their families’. Nothing could be less certain.

+ EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Safer Sunscreens (PDF; 96 KB)

Read the full story in Technology Review.

This week, city counselors in Ottawa, Ontario, unanimously approved a new waste-to-energy facility that will turn 400 metric tons of garbage per day into 21 megawatts of net electricity–enough to power about 19,000 homes. Rather than burning trash to generate heat, as with an incinerator, the facility proposed by Ottawa-based PlascoEnergy Group employs electric-plasma torches to gasify the municipal waste and enlist the gas to generate electricity.