·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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Climate Culture invites college and universities to apply for its America’s Greenest Campus contest, which aims to motivate institutions to reduce the carbon footprint of their students, faculty, alumni, and staff. Institutions have until October 5, 2009 to get as many campus members to reduce their carbon footprint as much as possible. Carbon Culture will keep track of the number of people participating from each school and will award up to $10,000 to two winners – the school with the most participants and the school with the most carbon reductions per participant.

Read the press release.

Ernst & Young LLP has announced the three winning teams for the 2009 Your World, Your Vision campus competition. The competition, which had entries from more than 60 colleges and universities, invited teams of students to develop and submit proposals for how they could make a difference in their communities in the areas of education, entrepreneurship, or the environment. The winning teams are from University of Calgary, University of Minnesota, and University of Southern California. Each team will receive $10,000 from Ernst & Young LLP to implement the programs.

Read the full post at Trendwatching.com.

While financial woes may hold back some green initiatives, the future has never looked greener. Mainly because creating a more sustainable economy is not an option, but a necessity. And we all know that necessity is the mother of invention. Which is why this month, amidst crumbling banks, G20 meetings and stimulus plans, we highlight 12 eco sub-trends that any marketer or entrepreneur can act on today.

Read the full post at Lifehacker.

Instructables user kcrox1017 posts simple plans for a mini greenhouse will help you protect your seedlings from any unexpected cold snaps, and start growing them ahead of mother nature’s schedule. While he used an old window, with a little extra tweaking, you can use a sheet of scrap glass or acrylic instead.

Read the full story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Seattle will host a Preservation Green Lab that will study and suggest ways to make historic buildings more energy efficient, officials announced Wednesday morning.

The Sierra Club has launched Sierra Club Green Home, a web site dedicated to helping you create a more sustainable home environment. According to the web site:

Sierra Club Green Home was developed with a simple mission in mind: to help Americans make their homes more energy efficient, environmentally sustainable and healthy. We do not sell products or services. Instead, we provide great education to help you have a more sustainable home and make it easy for you to find local green businesses.

Read the full post at Oh My Gov:

With paper in decline and the private sector and government alike moving toward digital publishing, you might think an agency called the Government Printing Office (GPO) would soon be obsolete. Not so fast; GPO is reinventing itself for the changing world.

Last month it launched the Federal Digital System (FDsys), an advanced digital system that will enable GPO to manage government information from all three branches in a digital form. The main functions of the system will include publishing, searching for information, preserving information, and version control.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

President Barack Obama will find out two things as he studies how to make the White House more environmentally friendly:

No. 1: It’s already been done.

No. 2: It needs to be done again.

It was Earth Day 1993 when President Bill Clinton launched his ambitious “greening the White House” project. That effort saved more than $1.4 million in its first six years, largely from improvements in lighting, heating, air conditioning, insulation, water sprinklers and other measures.

During George W. Bush’s two terms, workers installed three solar systems, including a thermal setup on the pool cabana that heats water for the pool and showers, and photovoltaic panels atop a maintenance shed that supplement the mansion’s electrical supply. Bush also made a big push to recycle office paper, although the overall go-green effort lost momentum during his tenure, according to many outside observers.

Obama promised before he took office that he wanted to sit down with White House staff to evaluate what can be done to conserve energy in a 132-room behemoth of a mansion/office that leaves an EEE-sized carbon footprint.

Over on Red, Green, and Blue, Jennifer Lance has an interesting proposition:

Turning foreclosed homes into parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and urban gardens could be just what the Motor City needs to revitalize itself.  Considering the price of these foreclosed homes, it would be affordable for any grassroots organization to undertake.  I volunteer to buy a home and donate to any group willing to take on this challenge.