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 Scientific American.
In a bid to take the lead in algae-based biofuels, ExxonMobil will plow $600 million into genome guru Craig Venter’s company Synthetic Genomics and plans to construct a pilot facility in San Diego, Calif.
Read the full post at Green, Inc.
In a post today on The New York Times’s new “You’re the Boss” small-business blog, Jay Goltz discusses how the Whole Foods grocery store near his home in Chicago has set aside several prime parking spots for hybrid vehicles.
Read the full post at Green, Inc.
With the developing world now generating half the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions, one of the thorniest challenges facing climate change negotiators in Copenhagen will be apportioning national reduction targets in coming decades.
Leaders from the Group of 8 leading industrialized nations — United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia — agreed in L’Aquila last week that developed nations should aim to reduce emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 – a formula that essentially requires the developing world to make a 20 percent cut.
Read the full story in Consulting & Specifying Engineer.
Schools hoping to be certified as U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED now will face more rigorous standards.
Read the full story at GreenBiz.
As both a response to and a driver for the greening of the hospitality industry, the American Automobile Association will include in its 2010 TourBooks an “eco” icon for hotels, motels and other lodgings that are green certified.
Read the full story at GreenBiz.com.
Wal-Mart will make a big announcement this week: The company, working with consumer-goods manufacturers and a group of universities, will unveil plans to measure the sustainability of every product it sells. In time, sustainability labels could provide us with information about the environmental and social attributes of consumer goods, much as nutrition labels tell us about the content of the foods we eat.
Read the full story at GreenerDesign.
Ford Motor Co. and researchers at the University of Liverpool are developing a car ignition system that swaps spark plugs for a laser beam to start vehicles while generating fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Read the full story at GreenerComputing.
An announcement from the University of York’s Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence offers a highly innovative potential use for e-waste, one that also brings a cradle-to-cradle mindset to disposing of technology.
Researchers at the university’s Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence have found a way to recover a chemical that’s widely used in LCD displays and put it to use in medicine.
Read the full story at GreenerComputing.
Texas Instruments (TI) saved $5.1 million last year by undertaking 159 projects designed to save energy, water and other resources.
The wafer fabrication processes used in semiconductor manufacturing means that energy accounts for more than 60 percent of the Texas-based company’s carbon footprint, and 94 percent of its overall utility budget. Water is responsible for 6 percent of its utility expenses. TI shrunk its global carbon footprint by 2.8 percent in 2008 to 2.07 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Since 2005, TI has reduced emissions by roughly 6 percent, the company said in its 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Report, which is available online.
Funding Opportunity Number: DE-FOA-0000119
Current Closing Date for Applications: Aug 15, 2009
Expected Number of Awards: 56
Estimated Total Program Funding: $296,000,000
Award Ceiling: $37,000,000
Award Floor: $100,000
CFDA Number(s): 81.127 – Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program
Eligible Applicants: State governments
The Recovery Act provides $296M to implement Section 124 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005) establishing DOE support for States rebate programs for residential ENERGY STAR appliance products (those that represent improvements in efficiency compared to the majority of products in the market). States will receive formula-based funding to establish or supplement established ENERGY STAR appliance rebate programs. Federal funds, awarded from this FOA, may be used to pay up to 50% of the administrative costs to carry out the rebate program. The Appliance Rebate Program Objectives are:
From the website:
Apple will recycle your school’s old, unwanted Mac computers, PCs, and qualifying peripherals from any manufacturer for free. There’s no purchase required and all accredited K-12 and higher education institutions with at least 25 pieces of recyclables are eligible to participate. Just register in time, follow the steps, and we’ll do the rest.
How the recycling works
To take advantage of this opportunity, you’ll need to register by July 31, 2009. All products must be packaged according to the instructions and collected by August 31, 2009. Remember, you must recycle a minimum of 25 pieces (computers, printer, or displays) in order to participate.
In addition to the 25 pieces, we accept all brands of the following equipment: computers, monitors, laptops, printers, fax machines, scanners, desktop-size copy machines, CD drives, hard drives, TVs, VCRs, projectors, overhead projectors, networking equipment, cables, keyboards, and mice.
