·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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U.S. supermarkets and restaurants sell fresh fruit and vegetables from all over the world. This resource shows common origins of more than 95 different produce commodities that are shipped into or across the United States each year. Use it to find the:

• volume of shipments each year
• leading state that produces it
• regions or countries where shipments originate
• percent (by volume) of total shipments each month, one indication of when a fruit or vegetable crop may be in season.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) on Feb. 3 announced The Pace Energy and Climate Center has been selected to develop a renewable fuels roadmap and sustainable biomass feedstock study that will help guide state policy on renewable fuels.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

Working with the state affiliates of the National Recycling Coalition, the Alcoa Recycling Company will be providing approximately 25,000 recycling bins for placement in a variety of settings where bins had not previously been available, such as schools, government and office buildings, and low-income communities.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

The Solid Waste Association of North America’s (SWANA) Applied Research Foundation (ARF) recently released five new research reports from FY 2008. They are:

• “Curbside Collection of Residential Food Waste”
• “Benchmarking of Solid Waste Collection Services: FY 2008″
• “Waste-to-Energy and the Solid Waste Management Hierarchy”
• “Benchmarking the Performance and Costs of MSW Landfills”
• “Long-Term Environmental Risks of Subtitle D Landfills”…

Four of the five reports are available for purchase at www.SWANAstore.com. The research memorandum on the “Curbside Collection of Residential Food Waste” is free to SWANA members at www.swana.org.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

On Feb. 5, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley lead an 18-state coalition, the Corporation Counsel for the City of New York, and the City Solicitor of Baltimore, urging U.S. Environmental Protection Administrator Lisa Jackson to act in response to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA.

Read the full story in The Scientist.

Biofuels made from algae are the next big thing on the alternative energy horizon. But can they free us from our addiction to petroleum?

Via the Notre Dame Office of Sustainability. Thanks to Mary& Ellen Popit for the pointer.

10) You’ve debated a flat-tax or cap-and-trade system to limit campus print quotas.
9) Priest says: “Be more pious.” You hear: “Buy a Prius.”
8) You didn’t shower or turn on a light the entire week during the dorm energy competition.
7) You’ve tried to figure out how to harness the thermal energy generated at the grotto.
6) You feel a need for reconciliation after buying an incandescent bulb.
5) You’ve emailed the Vatican, asking that ‘energy inefficiency’ be listed as the eighth deadly sin.
4) When the title ‘holy father’ is used, you first think of Al Gore.
3) You’ve googled “carbon-neutral prayer” – just in case.
2) Upon graduation, you look up at the dome, shed a tear, and ask “why haven’t we covered that thing with photovoltaic cells yet?”
1) You actually read the GreeND newsletter.

-Joe Kindt, MBA ‘09