·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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For a full-color, graphic version of this newsletter, go to http://greenbiz.com/enewsletter.

Companies Tackling Climate Change Top $300B
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/10/13/companies-tackling-climate-change-top-300b
Companies that produce goods and services aimed at battling climate change generated $300 billion in annual revenues, surpassing the biotech and software sectors combined, according to HSBC.

Global Group Establishes Best Practices for Green Tourism
http://greenbiz.com/node/28502
Some of the world’s most influential groups in environmentalism and tourism have joined forces to set standards for eco-friendly and socially responsible business operations in the industries catering to travelers.

Rating System for Green Cleaners Debuts
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/10/10/rating-system-cleaners
The National Cleaners Association has developed a rating system for dry cleaners that looks at their entire operations.

Steelcase Earns Sustainable Forestry Certification, Pollution Prevention Award
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/10/09/steelcase-sustainable-forestry
The office furniture maker has received certification showing its wood products come from well-managed forests and a Canadian award for reducing energy and VOC emissions.

AT&T, Constellation Wines, Gap to Each Host 1- to 1.2-MW Solar Power Systems
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/10/08/att-constellation-wines-gap-host-solar
Gap Inc. has unveiled a 1-megawatt solar power system, and Constellation Wines U.S. and AT&T are each working with strategic partnerships of their own to host comparably large systems that will harness the power of the sun.

California Tops Energy Efficient Rankings as More States Improve
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/10/08/california-tops-energy-efficient-rankings-more-state-improve
The 2008 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard breaks down how states compare on eight issues and lists best practices in funding, incentives, standards and more.

New E-Tools Help Planners Pick Green Meeting Places
http://greenbiz.com/news/2008/10/07/e-tools-for-green-meetings
Event management and consulting firm Meeting Strategies Worldwide has launched two online tools to help planners select meeting sites based on the eco-friendliness of prospective locations and the estimated carbon emissions resulting from air travel.

3PL Green Initiatives Fail to Fuel New Business: Survey
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/10/10/3pl-green-initiatives-fail-fuel-new-business-survey
Green initiatives may be helping shipping and logistics companies achieve internal goals, but it isn’t useful in attracting or retaining business, according to a recent survey.

Leading From the Middle: The Power of the Green Champion
By Judith Nemes
http://www.greenbiz.com/feature/2008/10/13/leading-from-middle-the-power-green-champions
Businesses are tapping a wellspring of employees who may not sit on a green team or sustainability committee at their company, but are eager to roll up their sleeves and make pointed suggestions about reducing energy consumption, improving recycling efforts, or boosting water conservation.

What’s in It for Me?
http://www.greenbiz.com/feature/2008/10/10/whats-it-me
In this exclusive excerpt from Joel Makower’s new book, “Strategies for the Green Economy,” he describes how to tap into the prevailing mentalities of most shoppers in order to make green products appealing.

Wall Street vs. Green Street: Who is Doing Better?
Richard Seireeni
http://www.greenbiz.com/column/2008/10/06/wall-street-vs-green-street-who-doing-better
While Wall Street has suffered a meltdown that threatens credit flow around the world, Green Street has been hit, but not badly hurt.

Green IT Can Make a Splash in the World of Water
By Matthew Wheeland
http://www.greenbiz.com/podcast/2008/10/06/green-it-make-splash-world-water
Peter Williams, the Chief Technology Officer for IBM’s Big Green Innovations project, explains how the company’s idea for a new, nonprofit water organization can make managing our most precious resource even more efficient.

Vault Guide to Green Programs
http://www.greenbiz.com/resources/resource/vault-guide-green-programs
This new book, available only in digital form from Vault.com Inc., profiles the eco-friendly practices and programs of nearly 70 North American companies.

GreenWorks Book Club
http://www.greenbiz.com/resources/resource/greenworks-book-club
This new online book club created by the U.S. Green Building Council and Island Press offers books on green building for industry professionals. Recommended titles change every month. Discounts up to 40 percent for USGBC members.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

Escape From Berkeley could be the world’s most eco-friendly race, in which alternative-fuel-burning vehicles compete with the goal of completing the race using no petroleum.

Read the full story in Technology Review.

Conventional solar cells are bulky and rigid, but building lightweight, flexible cells has come with trade-offs in efficiency and robustness. A new method for making flexible arrays of tiny silicon solar cells could produce devices that don’t suffer these trade-offs. Arrays of these microcells are as efficient as conventional solar panels and may be cheaper to manufacture because they use significantly less silicon. The tiny solar cells could be incorporated into, among other applications, window tinting, and they might be used to power a car’s air conditioner and GPS.

Read the full story in Technology Review.

Solyndra, a startup based in Fremont, CA, has developed a novel type of solar panel that’s cheaper to install and produces more power than conventional panels.

Unlike conventional solar panels, which are made of flat solar cells, the new panels comprise rows of cylindrical solar cells made of a thin film of semiconductor material. The material is made of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium. To make the cells, the company deposits the semiconductor material on a glass tube. That’s then encapsulated within another glass tube with electrical connections that resemble those on fluorescent lightbulbs. The new shape allows the system to absorb more light over the course of a day than conventional solar panels do, and therefore generate more power. What’s more, arrays of these tubes offer less wind resistance than conventional flat solar panels, which makes them easier and cheaper to mount on roofs, the company says.

Read the full post from News.com. You can follow Environmental News Bits on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EnvNewsBits.

People use Twitter to warn of natural dangers including earthquakes and hurricanes. Other environmentally related uses for the micro-blogging tool include measuring energy use at home and rigging up plants to “tell” Twitter when they’re thirsty.

For a green-news junkie overwhelmed by dozens or even hundreds of RSS feeds, Twitter can be an entertaining and mobile filter. Writers at blogs and traditional publications increasingly use it to broadcast 140-character alerts of stories and observations, which can provide an early and more casual take on their blog posts and formal articles.

Via Docuticker.

Unconventional Fossil-Based Fuels: Economic and Environmental Trade-Offs<;
Source: RAND Corporation
From press release:

Alternative sources of fossil fuels such as oil sands and coal-to-liquids have significant economic promise, but the environmental consequences must also be considered, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.

The study by RAND, a non-profit research organization, provides a review of coal-to-liquids and Canadian oil sands technologies, considers possible impacts on fuel costs from future limitations on carbon dioxide emissions, and compares costs of the alternative fossil fuels to conventional petroleum fuels in 2025. The study was funded by the National Commission on Energy Policy.

“With concerns about high and unstable world oil prices, there is strong interest in developing alternative fuel sources,” said Mike Toman, lead author of the report. “Oil sands and coal-to-liquids represent economically important options for expanding global fuel supplies that can ease upward pressures on oil prices.”

However, Toman noted, current methods for oil sands production require large quantities of water and can harm local water quality, though technical advances are lessening these pressures. Development of oil sands can also cause large-scale disturbances of land and habitat.

+ Summary (PDF; 164 KB)
+ Full Document (PDF; 708 KB)

Read the full story in the Ann Arbor News.

University of Michigan researchers have figured out a way to help trace the origins of environmental mercury.

Using molecular “fingerprints,” they’ve found they can potentially identify the sources of mercury pollution in the environment. If policy makers know where the pollution comes from, they might be better able to figure out how to regulate it.

The research was published this week in the online issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Read the full story in The Guardian.

A chemical found in mushrooms could one day replace the expensive and polluting heavy metals at the heart of fuel cells and conventional batteries, say chemists at Oxford University, boosting the development of clean power.

Read the full story at SustainableBusiness.com.

Commercializing fuel cells and shifting from gasoline to hydrogen could generate 675,000 new jobs over the next 25 years, according to a Department of Energy (DOE) study sent to Congress last week.

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.

There is no question that green has captured the imagination, if not the pocketbooks, of new-home buyers. But that begs another question: What can sellers of existing homes do to compete with builders for the hearts and minds of potential customers?

The October 2008 issue of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) E-Bulletin is now available. Read this month’s issue to learn about:

• 128 U.S. manufacturers being honored with 2008 Save Energy Now award.
• A new report that summarizes ITP’s 2006 successes, including 104 commercial technologies that have saved $5.54 billion
• How the steel industry is reducing energy consumption by participating in Save Energy Now assessments
• Managing energy costs and generating revenue with demand response
• A recertification process for DOE Qualified Specialists and training instructors
• Providing your input on a new ISO energy management standard in development
• The Superior Energy Performance Web site, which provides the latest news on an ANSI-accredited Plant Certification Program, ISO energy management standard, and more
• An opportunity to test new energy assessment draft standards
• How to improve High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamp efficiency by 40%  with energy-saving controls
• These upcoming events: J.R. Simplot Energy Symposium; the Society of Plastics Engineers New Technology Symposium; Supplier Relationship Management for Utilities Conference and Seminar; and a Virtual Energy Forum
• ITP project opportunities, software tools, technical publications, six no-cost webcasts, and more

Read the full story in the New York Times.

A growing number of “eco-kids,” steeped in environmentalism, are holding their parents accountable.

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

• Technological Innovation Driving Renewed Interest in Geothermal Energy
• Addressing the Variability Factor: Can Wind Power Reliably Be Part of the Electricity Mix?
• Inside Renewable Energy podcast: The Beginning of a Geothermal Renaissance
• The Art of Geothermal: Investing in and Capitalizing on the Heat Beneath Your Feet
• What Utility Involvement in the Distributed Solar Market Means for the Future of the Solar Industry

Read the press release.

Armed with survey results revealing public misperceptions about energy use, The Pink Panther(TM), Chief Energy Officer at Owens Corning (NYSE: OC), today broke his decades of silence to focus national attention on the massive amount of energy used to heat and cool buildings. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), 40 percent of U.S. energy is swallowed by buildings, yet most Americans believe transportation and industry are the largest offenders.