·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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Read the full story in Technology Review.

Plastic solar cells are lightweight, flexible, and, most important, cheap to make. But so far, these devices have been too inefficient to compete with silicon solar cells for most applications. Now researchers from a few institutions claim to have made polymer solar cells with record-breaking efficiencies. These cells still aren’t good enough to compete with silicon, but polymer efficiencies have been increasing at a rate of about 1 percent a year. If they can keep this up, say researchers, plastic solar cells will be competing with silicon within a few years.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

The last incandescent bulbs in the station have been replaced with compact fluorescent bulbs, a move that benefits the environment and helps keep six people employed.

Serious Materials Reclaims a Second Shuttered Window Factory
http://www.greenerbuildings.com/news/2009/04/30/serious-materials-reclaims-second-factory
By GreenerBuildings Staff
Serious Materials is working to revive another failed factory by rehiring
workers and replacing the product line of the former owner with the California
company’s brand of high-performance windows. Drawn by the firm’s efforts, Vice
President Joe Biden, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Roland Burris and Chicago
Mayor Richard Daley paid a visit to the site earlier this week.

Clean Technology and the Aroma of Emerging Opportunity
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/04/29/cleantech-and-emerging-opportunity
By Joel Makower
Joel Makower writes from the annual gathering convened by the cleantech venture
fund VantagePoint Venture Partners, which is meeting in Northern California’s
wine country this week.

Cracking the Mystery of Green Jobs
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/04/29/cracking-mystery-green-jobs
By Paula Hendricks
As a first step to understanding the world of green jobs and the green economy
– not to mention as a way of knowing where to find a green job — we first have
to know exactly what makes a job green. The answer is more complicated than you
might expect.

Hawken: ‘I’m a Slut for Change’ … and Other Provocative Comments from Brainstorm Green
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/04/24/slut-for-change-and-brainstorm-green
By Marc Gunther
Marc Gunther recaps highlights of the Brainstorm Green conference with comments
from Paul Hawken, Bill Clinton and other thought-leaders on climate change and
the role of industry in working toward sustainability.

Building Sector, Governments Must Act Now to Curb Energy Use: Report
http://www.greenerbuildings.com/news/2009/04/29/buildings-govts-must-curb-energy-use
The building sector and governments have made progress but are not doing enough
to improve energy efficiency in the built environment — and will not meet
targets to address global climate change unless sweeping action is taken
immediately to slash energy use, according to a new report by the World Business
Council for Sustainable Development.

Citi’s Frankfurt Data Center Earns First-Ever Leed Platinum Certification
http://www.greenerbuildings.com/news/2009/04/23/citi-data-center-first-leed-platinum
From green roofs to heavily virtualized servers, the new facility uses 70
percent less energy than a typical data center its size, and makes use of free
outside-air cooling almost two-thirds of the time.

IES to Roll Out Upgraded Toolkits for Eco-Friendly Design Analysis
http://www.greenerbuildings.com/news/2009/04/29/ies-rolls-out-upgraded-toolkits
Integrated Environmental Solutions Ltd., a building analysis software firm
headquartered in Glasgow, is launching enhanced versions of its VE-Toolkits to
support sustainable design analysis.

New Product Verification Tool for Green Builders Launches in South Africa
http://www.greenerbuildings.com/news/2009/04/30/product-verification-south-africa
Ecospecifier, an online product verification tool for green building materials,
has launched in South Africa.

Intel, PepsiCo, Kohl’s Top EPA’s List of Green Power Buyers
http://www.greenerbuildings.com/news/2009/04/27/intel-pepsico-kohls-green-power-buyers
The U.S. EPA has released its latest list of the country’s top 50 buyers of
green energy. Intel hangs onto its top spot as Kohl’s doubles its green power
purchases and some new faces, including Wal-Mart and Motorola, make it onto the
list.

How Sustainable Thinking Can Change Design
http://www.greenerbuildings.com/podcast/2009/04/16/how-sustainable-thinking-can-change-design
By Jonathan Bardelline
Terry Swack, co-founder and CEO of SustainableMinds.com, spoke with GreenBiz
Radio about how sustainable design can help companies through the economic
downturn and into the future, and where design changes need to be made to have
the biggest impact.

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.

Federal agents raided government offices in south suburban Crestwood on Wednesday, less than two weeks after a Tribune investigation revealed the village had secretly pumped drinking water from a polluted well for more than two decades.

Read the full post at Sustainable IT.

Yet another corporation can attest to the benefits of embracing green-tech practices. At the world’s first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum-certified datacenter, financial behemoth Citi is using 70 percent less energy than would a conventional datacenter of equal size. That adds up to significant cost savings, combined with significant environmental gains.

Read the full post at Sustainable IT.

There’s a striking difference between the list of Green 15 winners from 2008 and 2009: In 2008, the list was dominated by companies in the tech industry, including EMC, HP, IBM, Fujitsu, NetApp, Sun, and Juniper. This year’s honorees represent a far more diverse array of industries, with winners such as Procter & Gamble, Burt’s Bees, the U.S. Navy, Con-Way Freight, GlaxoSmithKline, and California State University East Bay.

Indeed, green technology appears to be flourishing at organizations of all sizes around the globe, driven not only by good intentions and corporate social responsibility, but also business needs, such as cutting costs (electricity, fuel, paper, hardware refreshes, datacenter expansions, and travel) and boosting productivity.