·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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The Helpful Gardener web site has excellent information on all aspects of gardening, including organic gardening and gardening with native plants. You can also ask questions in the Garden Forum.

How do you grow future leaders to develop sustainable energy solutions for America? Start with the sun and the wind. That’s what EPA’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) grantee Matthias Fripp is doing at the University of California at Berkeley with his three-year award.

Matt collected data on the estimated power from potential wind farm sites and solar power facilities, and found that because solar and wind power are available at different times, using both sources together makes a more reliable and cheaper power system than just using wind or solar alone.

And Matt Fripp is only one of 32 dynamic, creative students who received EPA STAR fellowships to complete their masters or Ph.D. degrees and work on solutions to important environmental challenges for the future. Another 22 new students were awarded Greater Research Opportunities (GRO) fellowships to complete their graduate and undergraduate degrees.

“These remarkable young people will undoubtedly have an impact on the future of our environment, “said George Gray, EPA’s assistant administrator for the Office of Research and Development. “We are proud to help educate these fellows who are making an environmental difference.”

EPA’s Office of Research and Development supports several fellowship programs in an effort to address our country’s most important environmental workforce needs. EPA’s STAR graduate fellowship program supports some of the nation’s most promising masters and doctoral candidates. A total of 879 applicants competed this year for 32 fellowships.

EPA’s GRO fellowship program helps build environmental studies programs at universities with limited funding for research and development. A total of 156 applicants competed this year for 22 fellowships. Several former GRO fellows now work for EPA, including 2002 GRO fellow Toiya Goodlow who works as a chemist in the Office of Pesticide Programs, and 1990 GRO fellow Dr. Brandon Jones, who is a marine biologist in the Office of Research and Development.

Since the fellowship program began in 1995, EPA has awarded more than 2,200 fellowships to students in almost every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. All applications for EPA’s fellowship programs are rigorously peer reviewed.

EPA is now accepting applications from students for GRO undergraduate fellowships. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or be lawfully admitted to the U.S. for permanent residence.

2008 STAR and GRO Fellowship Awardees: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/08fellowships

Via the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

The Sustainable Endowments Institute has launched an interactive website for the newly released College Sustainability Report Card 2009. The new website provides sustainability profiles and grades from the Report Card for 300 schools with the largest endowments. It allows users to create side-by-side comparisons of schools, using a broad range of sustainability criteria. Users can also search for schools with specific programs, ranging from green dorms and car sharing to shareholder advisory committees and renewable energy investments. The average grade for all schools surveyed came to “C+,” with more than 75 percent of colleges and universities earning sustainability grades in the “B” and “C” range. In related news, the Sustainable Endowments Institute has announced the winners of the Sustainability Innovator Awards and the Champions of Sustainability in Communities Awards. Recipients of the Champions of Sustainability in Communities Award include: Dalhousie University (NS), University of Chicago (IL), University of Minnesota, University of New Hampshire, and University of Oregon. Recipients of the Sustainability Innovator Awards include: Green Mountain College (VT), Northland College (WI), and University of Prince Edward Island (PE).

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

• Powerful Relationships-It’s the Talk of Tualco Valley
• Building Better Energy Crops
• Trash Tactics in Iraq
• Giving Back
• Waste Not, Want Not
• Power and Fuel From Plastic Wastes
• Determining the Ownership of Landfill Gas
• Knocking Down the Dust
• Sustainability of Biofuels: Future Generations

Read the press release.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) today announced the 2008 recipients of fellowship grants through the company’s Industrial Ecology Faculty Fellowship program. Grants totaling $75,000 have been awarded to three academic research teams.

AT&T has a long history of enabling research on industrial ecology — a multidisciplinary science that investigates how the economy and the environment can coexist — through the AT&T Industrial Ecology Faculty Fellowship program. The annual grant program, which provides awards of $25,000 to three academic research teams at universities across the country, is designed to advance the development of research and help universities produce faculty and students who can contribute to solving global and regional environmental problems and help shape environmentally and economically efficient strategies.

Since its inception in 1993, the AT&T Industrial Ecology Faculty Fellowship program has provided environmental research grants to leading universities and their outstanding academic researchers across the country. In 2008, AT&T has awarded three grants to academic research teams at the following universities:

Carnegie Mellon University, for a project titled “The Role of Information and Communications Technology in Carbon Risk Management.” The research team will analyze the impact of information and communications technology (ICT) in helping other industries manage the risks associated with carbon emissions.

Arizona State University, for a project titled “Virtual Activity Fulfillment: Mapping the Shift From Transport to ICT Infrastructure” and a second titled “Multiple Functionality and Personal Digital Infrastructure: Substitution Versus Complementarity.” The first research team will study how an expanded virtual-reality realm is changing the way commerce is conducted, how workplaces function and how public infrastructure systems are used. A second team will research the environmental implications that are associated with the growth of multifunctional electronic devices, such as accumulation of e-waste, and how the telecommunications industry can help address such implications.

Green Mountain College, Clark University and Oregon State University, for a project titled “Understanding Business and Environmental Value Opportunities in the Global Supply Chain of China’s Information and Communication Technology Industry.” The research team will investigate and document how the ICT sector can achieve business and environmental value opportunities within a changing policy landscape in China.

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

Can You Make a Green Product in a Gray Company? Part 2
By Sarah Fister Gale
http://www.greenbiz.com/podcast/2008/09/25/can-you-make-a-green-product-a-gray-company-part-2
The second half of this two-part podcast series with Jim Hartzfeld of InterfaceRAISE looks at how the company took a cue from nature to break new ground in carpet design.

Putting a Cost on Carbon
By Tilde Herrera
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/09/25/putting-cost-on-carbon
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) begins auctioning off permits today for the carbon dioxide that can be produced by more than 200 electricity generators in 10 Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. The event comes on the heels of a key development of the Western Climate Initiative, another cap-and-trade plan being pushed by seven states and four Canadian provinces.

Building Brands for Green Businesses that Stand the Test of Time
By Leslie Guevarra
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/09/29/building-green-brands
Marketing strategists Dev Crews, the chief sustainability strategist for Luminesa Communications, Sean Dunn, partner and account executive at Groove 11, and David Almy, principal at ADC Partners, shared their advice on building credible brands and strong foundations for eco-friendly businesses at the 2008 West Coast Green Conference.

Clinton Global Initiative Brings Big Corporate, NGO Commitments
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/09/26/clinton-global-initiative-big-corporate-commitments
Suzlon Energy announced it would contribute $5 billion to clean energy development; Yum Brands committed $80 million to the World Food Programme; and microfinance, water quality and health care were all in the spotlight during the three-day event in New York.

From Sports Drinks to Tractors, Reusable Packaging Nets Numerous Savings
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/09/26/from-sports-drinks-tractors-reusable-packaging-nets-numerous-savings
Companies as diverse as John Deere, Gatorade and Ghirardelli share their stories on how reusable transportation and storage packaging is benefiting their operations and the environment.

Business Students Show UPS Benefits of Landfill Gas
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/09/25/business-students-show-ups-benefits-landfill-gas
The company can save $7 million in six years by adding power from landfill gas, according to a student team from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Colleges Receive High Marks from GreenReportCard.org
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/09/24/colleges-receive-high-marks
More than 75 percent of the 300 colleges surveyed received higher than a C in sustainability.

Companies’ Carbon Offset Strategies, Practices Detailed in New Report
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/09/24/ecosecurities-climatebiz-carbon-offset-strategies-report
A new survey from EcoSecurities and ClimateBiz released today shows how large, multinational corporations are addressing their carbon footprints from within, and what strategies they’re using to offset the emissions they can’t avoid.

Big Gap Between Climate Awareness and Action for S&P 500
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/09/23/big-gap-between-climate-awareness-and-action-sp-500
Although many U.S. companies are preparing for possible climate change regulation on the horizon, they are far behind their European counterparts in setting and disclosing emissions reductions targets.

Honeywell, Dyson, Denver Water Agency Among Honorees for Green Excellence
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/09/24/green-excellence-awards
Corporate giant Honeywell, appliance innovator Dyson and Denver’s water agency are among the North American recipients of Frost & Sullivan Green Excellence Awards, which honor companies, public agencies and individuals for outstanding efforts in devising successful green business strategies, tools, services, products and solutions for a global marketplace.

Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs
http://www.greenbiz.com/resources/resource/green-recovery-a-program-create-good-jobs-and-start-building-a-low-carbon-economy
This report describes a green recovery program that could lay the foundation for sustainable economic growth while boosting the country’s energy security.

How to Start an Employee Commute-Benefits Program in 10 Easy Steps
http://www.greenbiz.com/resources/resource/start-employee-commute-benefits-program
How you establish an employee commute program depends on your type of business, the flexibility of your employees’ work day, and your company’s organizational and decision-making style.

From a Movement to a Market
By Joel Makower
http://www.greenbiz.com/feature/2008/09/29/makower-from-movement-to-market
Feature In this exclusive excerpt from Joel Makower’s new book, “Strategies for the Green Economy,” a four-minute history of green business.

Green Supply Chain: Thinking Outside the (Cardboard) Box
By Justin Lehrer
http://www.greenbiz.com/feature/2008/09/25/thinking-outside-cardboard-box
Companies from industries as diverse as chocolates to newspapers are finding the financial and environmental benefits of switching from one-use packaging and shipping products to reusable boxes and pallets.

Strategies for the Green Economy
By Joel Makower
http://www.greenbiz.com/column/2008/09/29/strategies-green-economy
A behind-the-scenes look at what went in to my new book — my first in 14 years — which is just hitting the bookstores. Strategies for the Green Economy is the product of the past few years of speaking, writing, publishing, and working with a handful of both large and small companies.

A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste
By Hazel Henderson
http://www.greenbiz.com/column/2008/09/24/crisis-is-a-terrible-thing-waste
The meltdown currently enveloping Wall Street is the result of decades of mismanagement and malfeasance by market managers, but it also offers us the opportunity to further grow the ethical markets that provide an alternative to profit-at-any-cost capitalism.

Paulson, China and Climate
By Marc Gunther
http://www.greenbiz.com/column/2008/09/21/paulson-china-and-climate
Since returning from the Beijing Olympics last month, Hank Paulson has been a nonstop crisis manager.

Read the full story in Technology Review.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a simple, two-step chemical process to convert plant sugars into hydrocarbon fuels. The compounds created during the process could also be used to make other industrial chemicals and plastics.

Read the full story in Technology Review.

After nearly 30 years at Caltech as a professor of theoretical physics and, eventually, provost, Steven Koonin took a leave of absence in 2004 to become BP’s chief scientist. After a year of study, he recommended a strategy for the company that has included investments in unconventional sources of oil as well as renewable energies such as solar. The company has also invested $500 million in research on biofuels. Technology Review’s energy editor, Kevin Bullis, sat down with Koonin after his talk at this week’s EmTech conference to discuss BP’s strategy and whether it will be possible to meet the world’s energy challenges.

Read the full story in Technology Review.

Adding nanoparticles to a water purifying membrane can double its efficiency, according to a startup company based in Los Angeles. With global water usage on the increase and fresh water in limited supply, the company, NanoH2O, says its novel approach could make such purification technology a viable solution to a growing problem.

Carbon Offsets:  The U.S. Voluntary Market Is Growing, but Quality Assurance Poses Challenges for Market Participants.  GAO-08-1048, August 29.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-1048
Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d081048high.pdf

Climate Change:  Federal Actions Will Greatly Affect the Viability of Carbon Capture and Storage As a Key Mitigation Option.  GAO-08-1080, September 30.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-1080
Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d081080high.pdf

Fast Company’s October 2008 issue has several excellent articles on three of the greens: business, design, and building. They are:

• Building a Sustainable Design Community
• Biomimicry: Nature-Inspired Designs
• Steven Holl’s Global Architecture Footprint
• America’s Greenest City
• Green Business: FedEx’s Hybrid-Truck Program Stalls