·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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A conference content portal designed as a one-stop knowledge source on green meetings practice, policy, and technology was launched this week by the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC), in partnership with The Conference Publishers Inc.

The Portal will bring together resources for meeting planners, venues, hotels, and destinations to better understand the steps involved in making all meetings sustainable. Organizers expect the site to consolidate key content from at least a dozen conferences in its first six months of operation. Coverage will continue for at least a year.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

A new RAND Corporation study examines how policymakers can evaluate competing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission policies using more than just cost-effectiveness as the criterion.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

Product Policy Institute has launched a Web site — www.productpolicy.org — connecting local communities across North America that have begun to work for a new approach to recycling.

The approach is called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) or Product Stewardship. When established in law, this approach makes manufacturers responsible for the life cycle impacts of their products, including providing take-back programs for recycling. This reduces community costs and risks from waste management and drives improved product and packaging design. EPR “framework” laws like those in Canada and other countries establish consistent EPR principles and procedures that are then applied to specific products, notably household hazardous products and packaging.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

The American Institute of Architects and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have selected the top 10 examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions that protect and enhance the environment.

The 2009 COTE Top Ten Green Projects program celebrates projects that are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems, and technology. They make a positive contribution to their communities, improve comfort for building occupants, and reduce environmental impacts through strategies such as reuse of existing structures, connection to transit systems, low-impact and regenerative site development, energy and water conservation, use of sustainable or renewable construction materials, and design that improves indoor air quality.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on April 13 released its annual assessment of leading utility green power programs.

Under these voluntary programs, consumers can choose to help support additional electricity production from renewable resources such as wind and solar.

According to the analysis, more than 850 utilities across the United States now offer green power programs. Green power sales in 2008 increased by about 20 percent over 2007, and they represent more than 5 percent of total electricity sales for some of the most popular programs. Wind is the primary source of electricity generated for green energy programs nationwide.

Read the full story in the Peoria Journal Star.

Just in time for Earth Day, some very goopy earth is finally moving on one of the area’s most long-awaited environmental projects.

Overall, 200 acres of muck and silt may be dredged from Lower Peoria Lake to create three islands in the Illinois River. The effort begins with one 21-acre island north of the McClugage Bridge.

Read the full story from CNet.

Despite formidable political challenges, the United States has a good chance of passing legislation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in the next nine to 12 months, energy industry experts said here on Monday.

The critical factor to passing climate change laws is managing the transition to low-carbon energy sources without sharply raising prices for consumers, said panelists at the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference.

Read the full story from CNet.

From a technology perspective, things have changed a lot since the first Earth Days of the 1970s.

After barely moving for decades, there’s been a surge in innovation in energy the past five years, fueled both by society’s growing interest in clean energy and by the technology revolutions in other industries, like IT and biotech. That has expanded the definition of clean energy from solar and wind to many other areas.

“We are in a new era of energy innovation,” declared Daniel Yergin last week at a forum on clean-energy policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Yergin is someone who should know. As the author of “The Prize,” a book about the history of the oil industry, and co-founder of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, he advises CEOs of giant oil and gas firms on energy strategy. Like many people in green tech, he’s not a typical 1970s-era tree hugger but a hard-boiled business man who sees technology change driven by economic, environmental, and national security reasons.

Innovation “runs across all sectors and it has a very strong climate change focus,” Yergin said. “Clearly, one of the areas of major innovation is the nexus of transportation, smart grid, and renewable and alternative” energy.

Which technologies specifically have a good shot at making the biggest impact? As part of our Earth Day 2009 coverage, we try to handicap technologies that bear watching.

Read the full story in Technology Review.

Ethanol derived from corn consumes up to three times more water than previously thought, according to a new study.

Read the full story in Technology Review.

Nanoscale generators can turn ambient mechanical energy–vibrations, fluid flow, and even biological movement–into a power source. Now researchers have combined a nanogenerator with a solar cell to create an integrated mechanical- and solar-energy-harvesting device. This hybrid generator is the first of its kind and might be used, for instance, to power airplane sensors by capturing sunlight as well as engine vibrations.

Series of videos by Peter Sinclair that rebut climate change deniers.

Dates: May 18-20, 2009
Location: Hyatt Regency Chicago
For more information: http://www.cleanmed.org/2009/

CleanMed 2009 is the 6th international conference to catalyze environmental improvements in the health care sector. The conference draws a diverse mix of over 600 health care leaders, materials/ purchasing managers, Environmental Health & Safety staff, nurses and providers, architects, designers, and medical and building product vendors from across the United States—to a program that inspires and activates environmentally preferable advances in health care.

Read the full post at Lifehacker.

MapsEco isn’t as fluffy as the yard sale treasure map or the movie time mashup map. It does however give you some interesting data about the chemicals being used around you.

Via Docuticker.

21st Century Energy Technology Deployment Act
Source: U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources
From press release:

Today, the Committee posted to its website a joint discussion draft and summary for the “21st Century Energy Technology Deployment Act.” This proposal, put forward by the bipartisan Committee staff, seeks to improve the loan guarantee program at the Department of Energy and to provide additional options for deploying energy technologies. The basis of the bill is to shore up the existing program at DOE, then transition to a new financially-focused agency to perform and expand upon the duties of the program.

Read the full article in Time Out Chicago.

Earth Day comes around next week, but a give-and-take model of cost-effective, eco-conscious practices is at work every day in Chicago’s restaurant world.

The Science and Practice of Ecology & Society Award is an annual award given to the individual or organization that is the most effective in bringing transdisciplinary science of the interactions of ecology and society into practice. Examples of possible winners include, a high school teacher who develops a special curriculum, a mayor with initiatives and actions for her/his town based on scientific concepts, a journalist who brings scientific insights to a broader audience, or a NGO group who facilitates local knowledge production in rural communities.

The purpose of this award is to recognize the importance of practitioners who translate the scientific findings and insights of the scholarly community to practical applications. We want to identify innovative practitioners so that their story can be an example for others.

The Award
The award consists of 1000 Euro and an article in Ecology and Society devoted to this person or organization. This article will be written by those who send in the nomination.

Who can be nominated?
A person or organization that has succeeded in translating transdisciplinary science theory into practice.

Who nominates?
Any academic scholar or group of academic scholars can nominate a person or organization. An accompanying letter will argue why this person or organization is an exemplary example of the interface of practice and science in the domain of ecology and society.

Where to submit nominations?
The deadline for nominations will be July 1, 2009. Nomination letters can be sent, preferably electronically, to Dr. Marco Janssen, Email: Marco.Janssen@asu.edu. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Box 872402, Tempe, AZ 85287-2402.