Browsing environmental news sources so you don't have to. Contact Laura Barnes (lbarnes@istc.illinois.edu) with questions, comments, and suggestions.
Follow ENB on TwitterRead the full story in Discover.
When people think of climate change, they think of carbon dioxide. But while CO2 represents 77 percent of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions, its relative contribution may be declining. According to two studies published late last year, atmospheric levels of other, more potent gases that also affect climate are on the rise.
Read the full story in Discover.
Want to cool a building? Steal a trick from the forest canopy and use leaves for shade, as Osaka University did with its Frontier Research Center. Builders, architects, and designers seeking better ways to go green are increasingly turning to nature — the original green — for solutions that have proven track records in the real world.
Steelcase Sponsors Scholarships to Greener By Design 2009
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/04/02/steelcase-greenerbydesign-scholarships
GreenBiz.com has partnered with Net Impact and Steelcase to create the Steelcase Sustainable Design Scholarships — four full scholarships to the 2009 Greener by Design conference. The four lucky winners will receive full conference registration, as well as travel and lodging at the event, scheduled to take place May 19-20, in San Francisco, Calif.
Power Management Summit Shows How Companies Save Millions
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/03/30/power-management-summit
An online meeting for professionals in IT, sustainability, facility management and more outlined the easy ways that companies are managing their PC fleets to save millions in energy costs and reduce their environmental footprint.
Aviation Advocates Better Navigation for Shorter Flights and Fewer Emissions
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/04/01/aviation-shorter-flights-fewer-emissions
International aviation trade groups today called for the widespread adoption of Performance-based Navigation (PBN) to trim trip length, fuel and greenhouse gas emissions.
General Motors to Seek $2.6B to Build Plug-In Hybrids
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/04/03/gm-2billion-funding-hybrids
The company plans to use the money to build one new hybrid vehicle and two spinoffs from the Chevy Volt, which is due out in 2010.
Ceres Report Outlines 600+ Green Insurance Offerings
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/04/02/ceres-report-green-insurance
The annual “From Risk to Opportunity” report looks at how insurers are adding or changing offerings in response to climate change. The result: Hundreds of new initiatives covering green buildings, vehicles, renewable energy production and carbon capture and storage.
IBM Launches Green Shipping Tools
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/04/02/ibm-launches-green-shipping-tools
In partnership with sensor manufacturer Omron Corporation, IBM is developing new solutions for reducing energy and emissions while improving efficiency in companies’ shipping operations.
Most Small Biz Owners Say Customers Won’t Pay More for Green: Survey
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/04/01/small-biz-customers-wont-pay-more-green
The Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index found 67 percent of small business owners don’t believe customers will pay more cash for green products. And although most are adopting at least some green practices, one in three admit the bad economy is impacting plans to become greener companies.
McDonald’s Agrees to Study and Push Best Practices for Reducing Potato Pesticides
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/04/01/mcdonalds-reduce-potato-pesticides
In response to shareholder concerns, McDonald’s Corporation — the largest
potato buyer in the U.S. — has agreed to survey its American supply chain and promote best practices for reducing the use of pesticides on spuds.
House Introduces Draft Climate Change Bill
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/04/01/house-introduces-draft-climate-bill
The House Energy and Commerce Committee released a broad discussion draft climate change bill today that promises to transform the economy in a bid to slash emissions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Pepsi Tests Efficient, Lower-GHG-Emitting Vending Machines
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/03/30/pepsi-efficient-vending-machines
PepsiCo’s new vending machine pilot project includes 30 machines around
Washington, D.C., that use less energy, put out fewer emissions and use carbon dioxide as a refrigerant.
Scaling the Green Learning Curve
By Sarah Fister Gale
http://www.greenbiz.com/feature/2009/04/06/scaling-green-learning-curve
It is always a good idea to refresh your skills, and outside of conventional
business school programs, there are a growing number of educational
opportunities for mid-career professionals to develop and hone their knowledge of green business strategies to position themselves ahead of the competition.
A Sober Optimist’s Guide to Sustainability
By John Sterman
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/04/03/an-optimists-guide-sustainability
John Sterman, head of MIT Sloan’s System Dynamics Group, explores how to get people to think for real on sustainability, why the conventional wisdom about energy is just a myth, and how to live as if there’s just enough time left to save the world.
Should Businesses Invest in Renewables While the Rules are Shifting?
By Kevin Moss
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/03/31/should-businesses-invest-renewables
These can be a tough times for businesses that have been first movers. What
happens when rules change, and what seemed like the right decision at the time suddenly looks less so going into the future? Kevin Moss offers his thoughts.
How to Build a Green Future: Sort Through the Sounds of Discontent to Find Notes of Change
By Tom Savage
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/04/02/build-green-future-sort-through-sounds-discontent
Tom Savage says it jars his entrepreneurial instincts to listen too closely to
the chorus bewailing the economic crisis. The entrepreneur’s nature is to rise
above the fray, to spot opportunity where others see problems and to rail
against the norm. possibility. But entrepreneurs should learn to engage and
listen, he cautions, because somewhere in the din lie the answers.
USGS Finds Sources for New Jersey-Sized Dead Zone in Gulf
By Matthew Wheeland
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/04/02/usgs-finds-sources-dead-zone
Every year, excess fertilizers and animal manure flows down the Mississippi
River and empties and increasingly large swath of the Gulf of Mexico completely lifeless. Now, the U.S. Geological Survey has pinpointed the top 150 culprits.
Trashing The Idea of Waste
By Jonathan Bardelline
http://www.greenbiz.com/podcast/2009/03/31/trashing-the-idea-waste
Tom Szaky, founder of Terracycle, the company that’s turning everything from food wrappers to saw blades into new products, speaks with GreenBiz Radio about the thought process behind giving trash a new life and why end-of-life must be considered at the start of every design.
Doing Well By Doing Good
http://www.greenbiz.com/resources/resource/doing-well-doing-good-green-rents
A study by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors finds a clear link
between buildings with Energy Star ratings and higher rental earnings.
Sustainability and Branding: The Imperative of Continuity
http://www.greenbiz.com/resources/resource/sustainability-and-branding-imperative-continuity
This white paper, recently released by ADC Partners, identifies a number of the underlying reasons for initiating or maintaining sustainability programs, and for aligning a brand.
Via Docuticker.
U.S. Offshore Wind Resources Could Lead America’s Clean-Energy Revolution
Source: U.S. Department of the InteriorU.S. offshore areas hold enormous potential for wind energy development near the nation’s highest areas of electricity demand – coastal metropolitan centers, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said today.
“More than three-fourths of the nation’s electricity demand comes from coastal states and the wind potential off the coasts of the lower 48 states actually exceeds our entire U.S. electricity demand,” Salazar told a summit meeting of 25X’25 America’s Energy Future, a group working to lower America’s carbon emissions.
Citing major findings of a report he commissioned from Interior scientists, Salazar also said the Outer Continental Shelf energy resources report found huge information gaps about the location and extent of offshore oil and gas resources.
“Along the Atlantic Coast, for example, the seismic data we have is twenty-five years old,” Salazar said. “How should we gather the information we currently lack about our offshore oil and gas resources? How do we manage the costs of gathering seismic data? Are there areas on the OCS that should be of priority for information collection?”
Read the full story in the New York Times.
Complete with mug shots, the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of fugitives was established to draw attention to serious environmental crimes.
Via Docuticker.
An Assessment of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) in Sediments and Bivalves of the U.S. Coastal Zone
Source: Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (NOAA)
From press release:NOAA scientists, in a first-of-its-kind report issued today, state that Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs), chemicals commonly used in commercial goods as flame retardants since the 1970s, are found in all United States coastal waters and the Great Lakes, with elevated levels near urban and industrial centers.
The new findings are in contrast to analysis of samples as far back as 1996 that identified PBDEs in only a limited number of sites around the nation.
Based on data from NOAA’s Mussel Watch Program, which has been monitoring coastal water contaminants for 24 years, the nationwide survey found that New York’s Hudson Raritan Estuary had the highest overall concentrations of PBDEs, both in sediments and shellfish. Individual sites with the highest PBDE measurements were found in shellfish taken from Anaheim Bay, Calif., and four sites in the Hudson Raritan Estuary.
Watersheds that include the Southern California Bight, Puget Sound, the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico off the Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla. coast, and Lake Michigan waters near Chicago and Gary, Ind. also were found to have high PBDE concentrations.
Via Docuticker.
New Public Agenda Energy Learning Curve Finds Public Worried and Unrealistic, Posing Challenges for Leadership
Source: Public AgendaDespite partisan debate, the American people find common ground on their support for a number of measures to address the nation’s energy problems. At least 10 major energy proposals that would provide incentives for energy efficiency, reduce gasoline usage and support alternative energy have widespread support. But the public may not yet be prepared for the tradeoffs and challenges needed to make these proposals a reality, according to a new survey, “The Energy Learning Curve™,”released today by Public Agenda, the nonpartisan opinion research and citizen engagement organization.
The study, based on an in-depth national survey of 1,001 Americans, is being released in conjunction with “Planet Forward,” [www.planetforward.org] an innovative web-to-television-to-web initiative produced by the Public Affairs Project of The George Washington University, designed to advance the discussion on energy and climate change with both citizens and leaders submitting their ideas. Additional findings from the survey will be released on the Planet Forward television premiere, scheduled for 8 p.m. on April 15 on PBS (check local listings for exact show times in your area).
The public’s interest in energy alternatives is broad and not necessarily dependent on its worries about gas prices, according to the survey. Three quarters of the public (73 percent) disagrees with the statement that “if we get gas prices to drop and stay low, we don’t need to be worried about finding alternative sources of energy,” and fully 53 percent “strongly disagree.” While the survey found consensus on many aspects of the energy challenge, there are also significant barriers in building public support for change.
