·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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Don’t miss the chance to tour the “Greenest Home in Chicago!”

You’re invited to explore a real, three-story modular and sustainable “green” home in the Museum’s own backyard to learn about the ways, big and small, that you can make eco-friendly living a part of your life.

The home, conceived by Michelle Kaufmann Designs and built by All American Homes, forms the exhibit Smart Home: Green + Wired, Powered by ComEd and Warmed by Peoples Gas, which is open through January 4, 2009.

Celebrating exciting new directions in sustainable living and spectacular, environmentally-friendly technology, Smart Home offers guests guided tours of the 2,500 square-foot home and grounds, located in a park on the east side of the Museum. Bring your family to discover the latest innovations in reusable resources; smart energy consumption; sustainable gardens and green roofs; and clean, healthy-living environments in a contemporary setting.

Green Patriot Posters is a new environmental campaign utilizing art and design to inspire Americans to face the ecological crisis and global climate change. From the About page:

During World War II the United States was able to mobilize industry and motivate its citizens in breathtaking speed. Factories were overhauled and consumption habits transformed. Conservation (in the form of rationing) became a patriotic act. Strong, graphically compelling posters played a crucial role in the success of this campaign.

Taking action was presented in these posters as vital for the common good of the nation and those who were willing to sacrifice were portrayed as attractive, dynamic American heroes.

To face the ecological crisis posed by global climate change today a similar mobilization of America is required.

View current posters here. In September, Green Patriot Posters will launch an online competition. Participants will be able to submit Green Patriot Poster designs, as well as to view and vote on posters from the rest of the online community.

One caveat: the site appears to be optimized for Internet Explorer. I had some display problems when I viewed it using Firefox 3.

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

EU Votes to Include Airlines in Cap-and-Trade System
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/07/09/eu-votes-include-airlines-cap-and-trade-system
The European Parliament voted Tuesday to bring into the fold of its cap-and-trade system all airlines that fly to or from Europe beginning in 2012, causing an uproar from non-EU carriers struggling against high jet fuel prices. Aviation trade associations questioned the legality and promised a battle in the courts.

G8 Nations Aim to Halve Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2050
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/07/09/g8-nations-aim-halve-greenhousegas-emissions-2050
The Group of Eight has made a nonbinding agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050 and work towards a binding reduction goal with other major emitting countries.

Building a Better Carbon Label
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/07/08/building-a-better-carbon-label
“Check-Out Carbon,” published by Forum for the Future, a sustainable development charity, found that a majority of consumers want more information about the environmental impacts of the products they buy but labeling effectiveness faces several challenges.

New Cars in California Must Display Global Warming Score
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/07/07/cars-california-global-warming-score
Beginning in 2009, any new car for sale in the state must have a label showing its global warming rating.

Report Analyzes Greenhouse Gas Reporting Methods
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/07/07/greenhouse-gas-reporting-methods
The Ethical Corporation Institute looks at the many ways companies are reporting greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate Change Poses ‘Game-Changing’ Opportunity for Forestry, Study Says
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/01/01/report-climate-change-poses-game-changing-opportunity-forestry-0
Despite challenges posed by climate change and efforts to address it, the forest products industry largely stands to gain from new opportunities that emerge as policies and practices evolve in the drive to combat global warming, according to a report released this week by the World Resources Institute.

A New Partnership for Efficient Data Centers
http://climatebiz.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.

Nat’l. Semiconductor Enters PV Market
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/07/01/natl-semiconductor-enters-pv-market
National Semiconductor Corp. is the latest technology company getting into the renewables industry with a chip that can make solar panels work more efficiently.

Carbon Trust Launches New Biz Certification
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/06/30/carbon-trust-launches-new-biz-certification
The new certification launched last week is geared toward United Kingdom businesses that reduce their greenhouse gas emissions without using offsets.

California Unveils Sweeping Climate Change Plan
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/06/27/california-unveils-sweeping-climate-change-plan
he California Air Resources Board released its Climate Change Draft Scoping Plan Thursday, a wide-ranging proposal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2020 using a variety of measures that will touch every sector of the state’s economy.

Dairy Industry Discusses Carbon-Cutting Options
http://climatebiz.com/news/2008/06/26/daily-industry-carbon-cutting-options
A gathering of dairy industry leaders has resulted in a laundry list of ideas for cutting greenhouse gases.

Can the Solar Industry Spin Sunlight into Gold?
By Lee Barken
http://www.climatebiz.com/feature/2008/07/09/can-solar-industry-spin-sunlight-gold
Above-market costs, changing customer tastes and rising material prices are just a few of the challenges facing the solar industry in the coming years. How companies anticipate and respond will determine if solar faces blue skies or grey for the future.

Tax vs. Trade, or Attitudes in the Carbon Economy
By Brian Thomas
http://www.climatebiz.com/column/2008/07/02/tax-vs-trade-carbon-economy
In the looming debate over regulation of carbon emissions in the United States there is much confusion and controversy over a cap-and-trade program or a flat carbon tax, as each would affect business — and the environment — in fundamentally different ways.

G8 Climate Scorecards 2008
http://www.climatebiz.com/resources/resource/world-wildlife-fund-g8-climate-scorecards-2008
The G8 Climate Scorecards 2008 found that the U.S. has done the least among the world’s eight largest economies to address global warming. The study also said none of the eight countries are making significant enough improvements to prevent temperature increases that would cause catastrophic climate changes.

Trees in the Greenhouse: Why Climate Change is Transforming the Forest ProductsBusiness
http://www.climatebiz.com/resources/resource/climate-change-transforming-forest-products-business
This 74-page report by the World Resources Institute examines how climate change would affect the forest products industry, outlines risks and opportunities, and highlights possible next steps and strategies for the industry and investors.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

A growing number of people are skipping out on grocery stores and instead going right to the source by buying shares of farms — in essence hiring personal farmers.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

The sobering reality behind the G-8 summit was that it ended without an agreement on firm targets on reducing greenhouse gases, some experts said.

This article gives a good overview of hybrid car technology and includes links to Bright Hubs’ reviews. Useful for people considering a hybrid purchase.

Read the full story in BusinessWeek.

Architectural firm RMJM Hillier weighed sustainability, awards, and both expert and residents’ opinions in its list of top 10 U.S. cities for design.

Chicago placed first. NYC was second. Boston, Los Angeles, and Portland, OR rounded out the top five.

Read the full post at Green Car Congress.

Preem, Sodra and Sveaskog  have signed an agreement to acquire approximately 60% of the shares of SunPine AB, a company building a production plant in Piteå, Sweden to convert crude tall oil (CTO) either to “crude tall diesel” for subsequent hydroprocessing at a refinery into a renewable diesel component or, via purification, into standard EN14214 biodiesel. (Earlier post.)

Read the full post at Green Car Congress.

The just-released Gallagher Review of the indirect effects of biofuels production, requested by the UK government from the Renewable Fuels Agency (RFA) earlier this year, concludes that while there is a future for a sustainable biofuels industry, feedstock production must avoid agricultural land that would otherwise be used for food production.

Read the full story in the Greenwich Time.

The town has dropped a plan to use a soy-based biodiesel fuel to power about half of its 300-vehicle fleet after the price of the environmentally-friendly fuel became too high, officials said.

The town turned aside the lone bid for biodiesel fuel, from Santa Buckley Energy of Bridgeport, which offered the town a rate of $4.45 a gallon, town Fleet Director Betty Linck said.

Read the full post at The Industry Standard.

Sequesco joins a growing list of startups that are using synthetic biology to custom-produce advanced biofuels. But unlike competitors SunEthanol and Amyris, which are engineering microbes to make cellulosic ethanol from various plant biomass sources, it uses waste carbon dioxide as its primary feedstock.

The idea is to pump CO2 from large emitters like coal plants or biorefineries into the firm’s bioreactors, in which large colonies of bacteria would use the greenhouse gas and a nutrient broth to produce ethanol, biodiesel and other valuable byproducts. The protein-rich byproduct could be sold as animal feed or fertilizer, while the lipid-rich byproduct could be converted into bioplastics.

Read the press release.

Cummins Filtration (NYSE:CMI), the leader in filtration, exhaust, coolant and fuel additive technology for all engine-powered systems, announces the release of Fleetguard ES Compleat Glycerin, an innovative heavy duty engine antifreeze/coolant using non-toxic glycerin in lieu of traditional ethylene glycol (EG) or propylene glycol (PG).

Read the full story from Reuters.

European Union energy chiefs considered an accord with Brazil over biofuels on Saturday at the end of a three day meeting in Paris during which they backed away from the EU’s controversial biofuels target.

Read the full post at Green Car Congress.

After ten months of research, forums, lectures, consultations, and review of public comment, the Australian government has released a draft of the Garnaut Climate Change Review, a comprehensive economic evaluation on the potential impacts of climate change to Australia’s economy, with recommendations for medium- to long-term policies and policy frameworks that will “improve the prospects of sustainable prosperity” for the country. The report, which follows February’s Interim Report, is named for lead author Dr. Ross Garnaut, who is chief climate change advisor to Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as well as a professor of economics at Australian National University.

Read the full story in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Every business looks for a trademark, and Matthew Danchanko has spent five years toiling to make quality the mark of his general contracting company in Johnstown.

But since last week, the most discernible quality of Danchanko Inc. might be that its dump truck smells like french fries.

With diesel costs climbing locally to nearly $4.90 a gallon, Danchanko began researching biodiesel and invested about $3,500 in the equipment and supplies he needed. Biodiesel is made through a process of straining used cooking oil – procured from restaurants for a small fee – that is mixed with select additives.

Read the full post at Green Car Congress.

A new report published by the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis (ITS) suggests that there are many net-beneficial “no regrets” climate change mitigation technologies — where the energy savings of the technologies outweigh the initial costs — and that most of these technologies are not being widely adopted.

According to the study, transportation technologies represent approximately half of the “no regrets” mitigation opportunities and about one-fifth of the least-cost greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation measures to achieve a benchmark 1990 GHG level.

The study by Nicholas Lutsey (from his 2008 PhD dissertation) develops a framework to integrate current research on climate change mitigation technology alternatives from all sectors of the US economy on an equal footing.

Read the full story in the Houston Chronicle.

Between breaks to sharpen his machete under the equatorial sun, Gregorio Hurtado laid waste to row upon row of 9-foot sugar cane stalks.

Like plantation labor of a bygone era, the cane harvest remains a backbreaking task. Even though Hurtado earns just $3 for every ton of the fibrous stalks he cuts, he’s happy to have a job amid the chaos of Colombia’s sugar industry.

For that, he can thank several new ethanol plants towering above the sea of green cane fields that cover this patch of western Colombia. Even as low world prices and the weak U.S. dollar have hurt sugar exporters here, Colombia’s biofuels industry is growing by leaps and bounds.

Ahead-of-the-curve planning, technological breakthroughs and government incentives have helped Colombia emerge as the No. 2 producer of ethanol in Latin America, behind Brazil, and a leader in the manufacture of biodiesel.

Read the full Washington Post story at SouthCoastToday.

Brewing biodiesel, once a quaint hobby for green-minded citizens and budding chemists, is becoming more mainstream. The spike in gas prices is making fryer oil, the messy aftermath of super spuds and mozzarella sticks, a hot commodity. It has even spawned a crime wave. Law enforcement officials have reported a surge in fryer oil thefts. Officials suspect the culprits are finding a ready market for the waste oil.

Read the full article in Eos. AGU is the American Geophysical Union.

No print subscriptions to AGU journals will be available after 2010. Since 2002, when the electronic journal was made the version of record, it was clear that the day would come when the print version would be unsustainable…

There may be some concerns about the lifetime of online journals. AGU understands this concern and has taken steps to ensure the continuing availability of its archived online material such as using only nonproprietary
software, converting text and graphics to file formats that can be carried
forward, endowing a dedicated long-term care trust fund, and arranging to have
redundant copies of its online material on three different tectonic plates. These steps not only protect the archive but also assure that the content of journals can be migrated to new formats as technology changes.