·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
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Read the full story in the New York Times.

Building inefficient homes locks in waste for decades, but construction codes for many states and cities are weak.

Clean Water Infrastructure:  Design Issues and Funding Options for a Clean Water Trust Fund, by Anu K. Mittal, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.  GAO-09-893T, July 15.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-893T
Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09893thigh.pdf

Clean Water Infrastructure:  A Variety of Issues Need to Be Considered When Designing a Clean Water Trust Fund.  GAO-09-657, May 29.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-657
Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09657high.pdf

Read the full story in Scientific American.

Most people assume that their trash ends up in a landfill somewhere far away (if they think about this at all). But growing concern over the environmental impact of waste—discarded electronics, in particular—has prompted a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) to take a high-tech approach to studying exactly what people are tossing out and where those items are ending up.

Thursday, August 6 • 2-3 pm ET
For more information or to register: http://pe.wimba.com/eventreg/participant/registration.php?eventid=1272

“Going Green” — It’s all about preserving resources, setting the proper example for students and, of course, saving money. Today, “going green” permeates education, from decisions about construction materials and furniture to computers and cleansers. In this web seminar we’ll take a close look at sustainability, including trends, costs, hype and promise.

Join Web Seminar Editors J.D. Solomon, Tim Goral and a panel of experts for answers to questions like these:

• Do green initiatives have to suffer in times of budget cuts?
• How can the federal stimulus package support green initiatives?
• How should you incorporate sustainability in renovations?
• What are the latest trends in LEED-certification?
• How should schools be rated on sustainability?

Scheduled speakers

• Rachel Gutter, Senior Manager for the Schools Sector, U.S. Green Building Council
• Mark Orlowski, Founder & Executive Director, Sustainable Endowments Institute

Plus: A roundup of green products from Products Editor Kurt Dyrli.

Who will benefit: K12 administrators and college/university managers involved with sustainability, construction, buildings and grounds management, purchasing and technology.

Listen to the archived conference call.

Studies show that communications that employ social norms-based appeals for conservation are superior to those using traditional appeals. In this session, renowned social scientist, Dr. Robert Cialdini, will address how you can (1) incorporate the power of social norms into your sustainability messaging and (2) avoid a frequently-made error in the process.

This presentation is part of a new national conference call series about media strategies for sustainability. This event is sponsored by the U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development (USPESD), the Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium (HEASC), the Disciplinary Associations Network for Sustainability (DANS), and the North American Council for Staff, Program and Organizational Development (NCSPOD).

The topic for the August 2009 call is Understanding and Overcoming Psychological Resistance to Promote Environmental Behaviors.

Cool Campus! A How-To Guide for College and University Climate Action Planning is a manual to assist colleges and universities in creating climate action plans. It is intended to fill the gap in currently available resources by outlining a how-to approach for each of the various steps required to develop and implement a plan for campus climate leadership. It was released in July 2009.  Also available as a wiki.

Read the full story in Emory Report.

Printers, space heaters and small refrigerators were among some of the most frequently donated electric appliances collected in May as part of an Emory energy savings “Electronics Roundup” campaign.

Read the full story in the Lethbridge Herald.

Lethbridge College is getting even greener thanks to the efforts of a student-driven club on campus.

The Eco-Collective has received $12,000 in grants to launch two environmentally friendly projects. A $7,000-grant from Evergreen and Wal-Mart will be used to build a xeriscaping demonstration garden…

A $5,000 grant from the Alberta Ecotrust Foundation will be used to start a recycling program at college residences.

Read the full story from 7News.

At the University of Colorado Denver, students have created a greener way to clean up the school’s storm water.

Graduate students in the engineering program have transformed the “K” parking lot on the Auraria campus into a storm water test site. It’s located at the corner of Colfax Avenue and 7th Street.

The new water-purifying project is called a rain garden. Runoff from the parking lot eventually flows into the South Platte River.

Read the press release.

Colorado College estimates that during the course of its 14-week “aCClimate14” conservation campaign during the spring semester, the college saved nearly $100,000 in utility costs and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 378 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The “aCClimate14″ effort was a campus-wide resource conservation campaign designed to achieve a 14 percent reduction in electricity, heat and water use through behavioral change. Each of the 14 weeks in the semester focused on different daily habits, such as computing, bathing, transportation or studying.

The campaign included various communal tools to encourage behavioral shifts, including drying racks, outdoor recycling receptacles, shower timers and plug-in electric meters.

Read the full story at Inside Higher Ed.

Pressure on universities to live up to standards of carbon neutrality has led to increasingly diverse strategies for motivating people into action. One of the more offbeat approaches has been the creation of a campus-wide “year of sustainability” — often by senior administrators excited about the idea of a climate commitment. With multiple campuses, including Davidson College, New Mexico State, Villanova University and University of Denver having just finished up their years, the results have been varied, and some question whether the concept is more than a gimmick.

Read the full post at How Stuff Works.

Engineers are in the business of solving problems. It’s their job to find ways to achieve certain outcomes. The problem might involve finding a way to build a skyscraper that can withstand hurricane-force winds. Or it might be to discover a method to deliver a specific dosage of drugs to a single cell in the human body.

Engineers often look to nature to see if there’s already a solution to the problem they currently face. Not only must they recognize the solution, but also be able to study, copy and enhance that solution so that we can take advantage of it. There’s a special word for this approach: biomimetics. Ultimately, the engineer’s creation mimics the structure or function of a biological entity.

The results can be awe-inspiring or something people routinely take for granted. But even the basic inventions wouldn’t have been possible if engineers hadn’t paid close attention to the way things work in nature. We’ll take a look at five ways nature has inspired the technology we rely upon, listed in no particular order.

November 2–5, 2009
Portland, Oregon

This event brings together public health and environmental professionals from governmental agencies, industry, environmental and health advocacy groups and other interested parties to discuss the many issues related to the risks and benefits of fish consumption.

Who Should Attend?

Health and environmental officials from state, tribal, and federal agencies and others interested in discussing issues related to assessing, managing and communicating health risks and benefits associated with fish consumption.

For more information, visit http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fish/forum/2009/.