·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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Read the full story in Crain’s Chicago Business.

The city will ban vendors from using plastic shopping bags at Chicago-run farmers markets starting next year in an effort to reduce landfill waste.

Vendors at the city’s 24 farmers markets will be told later this week that they can’t use plastic bags if they want to participate in next year’s selling season, said a spokeswoman for the Mayor’s Office of Special Events. She said she doesn’t expect vendors to drop out because of the ban.

Read the full story in Technology Review.

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are better than compact fluorescent bulbs–LEDs use less energy, last longer, and contain no toxic mercury–but for general white-light illumination, they’re still far too expensive for mass adoption. Now, researchers at Purdue University have taken a step toward making white LEDs with cheaper materials.

Read the full story in Technology Review.

A new way to make advanced lithium-ion battery materials addresses one of their chief remaining problems: cost. Arumugam Manthiram, a professor of materials engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, has demonstrated that a microwave-based method for making lithium iron phosphate takes less time and uses lower temperatures than conventional methods, which could translate into lower costs.

Read the full story in Plenty Magazine.

Recycling is a lot like working out—you know you should do it, but at the end of a long Monday when the dirty dishes are piled up in the sink and the couch never looked so inviting, if often gets pushed back to Tuesday, or Wednesday, or… never. Ron Gonen knows a lot about that lack of motivation. That’s why in 2004 he co-founded RecycleBank, a program that makes recycling worth your while.

The concept behind RecycleBank is simple: because economic incentives motivate recycling more effectively than green principles, reward people for recycling and watch the rates soar. The RecycleBank system is quick and painless: each customer on the garbage route gets a bin fitted with a computer chip. When garbage trucks pick up the bins, they weigh the bins and scan the cards, keeping track of how much each family is recycling. For every pound of material recycled, participants earn 2.5 RecycleBank points (up to about 400 points per month), which can then be cashed in at retailers like Bed, Bath and Beyond, CVS Pharmacy, and Petco.

Read the press release.

Answering the need to save money and reduce carbon emissions when it comes to residential energy efficiency, the new website GreenMadeSimple.com presents the first comprehensive database for local, state and national incentives, rebates, and special offers on the Internet.

Visitors to the site enter their zip code to quickly find local residential incentives and rebates covering appliances, lighting, cars, home improvement and construction, energy audits, solar and other renewables, recycling and financing options. Additionally, users are able to create an account to keep track of their projects, incentives and other offers.

The August 2008 issue of Biomass Magazine is now available. Highlights include:

• Flexible Biomass Conveyance
• Building Better Biofuels
• Sprucing Up Wood Waste
• Breaking Through to the Other Side of Biofuels
• Cleansing and Reforming Syngas
• A Sweet Energy Source
• Green Acres is the Place to Be
• A Multi-Prong Approach to Carbon Neutrality

The mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today launched the first in a series of audio podcasts to bring to a listening audience environmental news and feature stories as well as helpful consumer tips.

Called “Environment Matters,” the podcasts will be presented regularly on the region’s Web site, www.epa.gov/region3 and will be available as an RSS feed for automated distribution.

The series begins with a podcast featuring tips on saving gas and in assessing claims by the makers of gadgets promising better fuel economy.

Other upcoming “matters” will include:

• An EPA program for inner-city students that is helping to build the next generation of environmental leaders.
• Work by EPA and others to monitor the state of ocean water at beaches.
• Back-to-school recycling tips that will save money and reduce waste
• A brownfields “revolution” in York, PA.
• An initiative to put “green” into black and white highways.
• A class that won an EPA contest to lower its school’s environmental footprint.
• New ways of targeting environmental improvements.
• Saving money and water

Future segments will cover the range of environmental topics handled by EPA.

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

Charting the Climate Course for the Next U.S. President
By Matthew Wheeland
http://www.greenbiz.com/podcast/2008/04/14/charting-climate-course-next-us-president
In this episode from the GreenBiz Radio archives, longtime corporate sustainability leader Ray Anderson discusses the Presidential Climate Action Project, which  aims to give the next resident of the White House a running start on addressing the climate crisis, and explains how U.S. businesses can help.

PHEVs in the Spotlight
http://greenbiz.com/news/2008/07/23/phevs-spotlight
The race to create the infrastructure for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles is on — the city of San Francisco, state of Tennessee and a slew of automakers and utilities announced separate plans to lay the groundwork for the mass introduction of PHEVs beginning in 2010.

Marks & Spencer’s Plastic Bag Fee Reduces Use, L.A. Passes Plastic Bag Ban
http://greenbiz.com/news/2008/07/25/marks-spencers-plastic-bag-fee
The U.K. retailer has given out 80 percent fewer plastic bag since adding a bag fee, and Los Angeles has approved a plan to eliminate plastic bags in the city.

Building-Integrated Photovoltaics Market to Top $4 Billion by 2013: Report
http://greenbiz.com/news/2008/07/24/building-integrated-photovoltaics
The market for building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) will exceed $4 billion in revenues by 2013 and surpass $8 billion in 2015, according to a new report from a leading industry analyst firm.

Vehicle Makers Reduce ‘New Car Smell’ Chemicals
http://greenbiz.com/news/2008/07/24/vehicle-makers-reduce-chemicals
Some car manufacturers have made gains in reducing chemicals that can be emitted as fumes.

JohnsonDiversey Reformulates Floor Care Line
http://greenbiz.com/news/2008/07/21/johnsondiversey-reformulates-floor-care-line
The maker of Signature, Johnson Wax Professional and Butcher’s said its reformulation of floor finishes has decreased the volatile organic compound (VOC) content of a leading product line, achieving a result more than two years earlier than required by the California Air Resources Board.

Green Purchasing Makes Slight Gains
http://greenbiz.com/news/2008/07/22/green-purchasing-makes-slight-gains
TerraChoice’s survey of procurement professionals found that green purchasing policies have grown and discovered which issues have increased in importance.

Greening the Links in the Supply Chain
http://greenbiz.com/news/2008/07/25/greening-links-supply-chain
Driven by soaring fuel costs and the public’s call for greater environmental responsibility, more firms are trying to green their supply chain and increasingly are looking for outside help to improve the eco-friendliness, economy and efficiency of their transportation and logistics, a new study says.

Coca-Cola Aims to Increase Recycled Content, Reduce Weight of Bottles
http://greenbiz.com/news/2008/07/25/coca-cola-increase-recycled-content
The Coca-Cola Company is building a bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in South Carolina to increase the availability of food-grade recycled plastic.

Climate Change Fight Requires ‘New Deal’ Effort
http://greenbiz.com/news/2008/07/23/climate-change-fight-requires-new-deal-effort
A U.K. group is calling for a climate change strategy similar in scale to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, including a massive investment in renewables and major shake-up of taxation and financial systems.

More S&P 100 Companies Reporting CSR Progress: Study
http://greenbiz.com/news/2008/07/22/more-sp-companies-reporting-csr-progress-study
Eighty-six percent of companies on the Standard and Poors 100 Index have corporate sustainability websites, compared to 58 percent in 2005. Roughly half produced a sustainability report last year, 26 percent higher than the 39 companies that issued one two years before.

2008 Healthcare Energy Efficiency Indicator
http://greenbiz.com/resources/resource/2008-healthcare-energy-efficiency-indicator
Healthcare executives place greater importance on energy efficiency compared with their counterparts in other industries, according to findings of a new study commissioned by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) and Johnson Controls.

Ecomarkets 2008 Summary Report
http://greenbiz.com/resources/resource/ecomarkets-2008-summary-report
Procurement professionals reveal their attitudes and actions on green purchasing programs.

Designing a Greener Road Trip
By Mary Catherine O’Connor
http://greenbiz.com/feature/2008/07/28/designing-a-greener-road-trip
Whether taking a close look at packaging materials, optimizing shipping logistics or even changing the types of pallets in use, the world’s supply chain players are working to lessen transportation’s impact.

Lessons from Deathcare: The Greening of the American Funeral Home
By Andrew Whitaker
http://greenbiz.com/column/2008/07/28/green-lessons-from-deathcare
Unlikely as it may seem, the obstacles, benefits and opportunities encountered in the greening of the funeral home business offers take-aways applicable to making change happen in any industry.

How Your Company Can Benefit from Green Social Networking
By Perry Goldschein
http://greenbiz.com/column/2008/07/25/company-benefit-green-social-networking
It seems like everyone is signing up and logging in to Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace and countless other social networks; according to a recent study, five of these are among the most fertile ground for green messaging, provided your company follows these do’s and don’ts for the online world.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

L.E.D.’s have replaced standard bulbs in many of the nation’s traffic lights. The bright, long-lasting bulbs are starting to show up in some high-profile places too.

Read the full story in Technology Review.

The Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL) is to begin work testing a catalyst developed by Dow Chemical, the industrial giant based in Midland, MI, to see if it can be used to massively boost the production of ethanol made from biomass.

The partnership will attempt ways to make ethanol biofuel from cellulosic biomass, such as waste from corn or wood, using thermochemical processes. Specifically, NREL is looking to use a Dow catalyst to convert syngas–a mix of hydrogen and carbon dioxide made from the gasification of the biomass–into a mixture of alcohols, including ethanol. The joint agreement calls for the partners to demonstrate the process on a pilot scale and evaluate the feasibility of an integrated commercial-scale facility.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

The average American home has 27 power-sucking devices that are always on — but how much they actually consume, most people don’t know.

Via Lifehacker.

Google Maps wants to help you get where you’re going on foot with a new option to switch your step-by-step driving directions to walking directions. The main difference between walking and driving directions appears to be time estimates, with Google estimating your walking pace at about 19 minutes per mile. The walking directions appear to deviate from driving directions at times, though from trying it in my neighborhood I can’t pinpoint why it’s changing for the walking route. The other main difference is the ominous warning that I should “use caution when walking in unfamiliar areas.” Thanks for the dose of fear, Google. (I guess the same doesn’t apply to driving?) We’d heard some users were seeing walking directions rolled out a few weeks ago, but it looks like Google has recently unveiled the feature to all users.

Read the full story in The Coloradoan.

CSU on Tuesday launched a new “School of Global Environmental Sustainability” aimed at crossing department boundaries to better educate the green-collar workers of tomorrow.