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

A team of MIT researchers on July 15 announced Trash Track, a project that aims to get people thinking about what they throw away.

Trash Track relies on the development of special electronic tags that will track different types of waste on their journey through the disposal systems of New York and Seattle.

The project will monitor the patterns and costs of urban disposal and create awareness of the impact of trash on our environment — revealing the last journey of our everyday objects.

Read the full story at GreenerBuildings.

Eco-friendly exterior wall coatings that incorporate heat reflective technology helped a Florida office building earn a LEED-Gold green rating and won the project recognition from an industry magazine.

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

Why hasn’t the gaming industry been looked at by the sustainability media and ranking organizations, and through mainstream media’s sustainability lens? Are there leaders and learners, and what are they doing? Why aren’t there Energy Star slot machines?

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

We live in an era in which green innovation reigns — and, at times, rains, even pours, from companies, universities, and research labs. A wide range of disciplines, from biotech and nanotech to cleantech and infotech, are enabling the design and manufacture of things that are lighter, simpler, cheaper, smarter, less wasteful, less toxic, and less resource-intense. Not much of it yet truly qualifies as “sustainable,” in the purest sense of being endlessly cycled from raw materials to finished product and back again. But the trend is unmistakable, even during a recession — or, perhaps, because of it.

Genuine progress, however, remains elusive, as scientists, innovators, and companies often travel down parallel paths, each reinventing the same metaphoric “wheel.” A handful of companies have seen fit to share their innovations openly with other firms, including competitors. But it is often hit or miss, with no way of tracking the uptake of those innovations, let alone measure the salutary impact they may have on reducing industry’s overall environmental footprint.

A small group of companies spearheaded by Nike have partnered with the nonprofit Creative Commons to try to change that. Their novel initiative, called GreenXchange, aims to allow companies to share intellectual property for green product design, packaging, manufacturing, and other uses. If it succeeds, this budding coalition could accelerate innovation across companies and sectors. At minimum, it stands to rewrite the rules about how companies share.

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

It’s going to take me sharing a bit of background to get across the point of this blog entry, but hang in there. The end result is some critical thinking about how to balance creating high-impact marketing/advertising with doing the right thing for the planet.

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy today released a spreadsheet calculator that will estimate the number of jobs likely to be created by state or municipal energy efficiency projects that are funded by the federal government’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), commonly known as the stimulus program…

The calculator, as well as a user’s guide and the rest of ACEEE’s stimulus resources, is available online at http://www.aceee.org/energy/national/recovery.htm.

Read the full story at Scientific American.

Hypospadias, one of the most common birth defects among baby boys, apparently is not increasing in the U.S., casting doubt on whether boys are harmed by phthalates and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals thought to trigger reproductive abnormalities.

Researchers have reported that the hypospadias rate stayed the same in New York State between 1992 and 2005. An earlier study also found no increase in California boys between 1984 and 1997.

Read the full story at Scientific American.

A car may look sparkling clean after a wash, but the grime, oil and suds hosed onto the pavement don’t do much for the cleanliness of the environment.

Read the full story at Scientific American.

Grassoline it ain’t. After a jury ordered a leading cellulosic biofuel company to pony up millions for defrauding investors, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will likely come in 60 million gallons shy of its 100 million gallon target next year.

Read the full story at GreenerDesign.

A scientist pondering the growing problem of brewery waste in Europe has devised a way to tap into the power of beer:

He and his partners designed a system to recycle spent grains and wastewater to produce energy that can fuel the beermaking process.

Read the full story at GreenerBuildings.

A Chipotle Mexican Grill in Illinois with its own wind turbine and a 2,500-gallon underground water cistern to harvest rainwater was certified by the U.S. Green Building Council at the organization’s highest rating.

Read the full story at GreenerBuildings.

Over the past couple of weeks, the U.S. Green Building Council announced that it is incorporating energy and water usage reporting requirements as a precondition for achieving LEED V3 and Google announced it will debut a cloud-based operating system some time in the next 18 months.

The answer to how these two entities are similar is simple: Both entities announced good ideas perhaps before their time.

Read the full story in Biodiesel Magazine.

The 2009 Collective Biodiesel Conference, dubbed “the national conference for home brewers,” will be held July 31 through Aug. 2 at American University in Washington, D.C.

Read the full story in Biodiesel Magazine.

Two reports issued from the United Kingdom’s Renewable Fuels Agency and the European Biodiesel Board this week give a snapshot of the European biofuels industry.

Read the full story in Biodiesel Magazine.

The Methanol Institute (MI) today released a Methanol Safe Handling Manual to be shared across the global methanol distribution chain to increase awareness of the chemical and promote safe handing in order to protect workers, consumers, and the environment. This manual will be accessible to everyone who comes into contact with methanol, from research engineers to shipping managers, from tank truck drivers to plant operators and will be available throughout the world. The manual will also be a valuable resource for emergency first responders looking for information on the physical properties of methanol and incident management. To ensure accessibility, the Methanol Safe Handling Manual has been translated into Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and Arabic to reach the broadest possible international audience.

Read the full story in Biodiesel Magazine.

A small biodiesel refinery in Sedgwick, Kan., Healy Biodiesel Inc., has signed a letter of intent with Cetane Energy LLC to license its patent-pending hydroprocessed renewable diesel technology. Cetane Energy operates a standalone hydroprocessing plant in Carlsbad, N.M., which started operations late last year.

Read the full story from Mother Earth News.

Many green energy experts have been touting wind power as a potential source of renewable energy sufficiently abundant to meet current energy demand in the United States. But a new report from Harvard University published this week by the National Academy of Sciences puts the total U.S. wind capacity much (much) higher than expected.

Read the full story at News.com.

Tucked in the back corner of a nondescript office park is an early shoot in the budding green-energy economy–a start-up with big plans for small wind turbines.

Last month, I took a detour from a summer road trip to visit WindTronics and see a prototype of its wind turbine designed for individual homes and commercial buildings. The company’s lab, housed in a nearly empty warehouse, is a glimpse into the fervent experimentation going on among green-tech entrepreneurs and, specifically, in small wind.

Below are my five most recent bookmarks on Delicious. There’s a link at the end if you want to join my network. Page down to read the most recent blog posts.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

A new national poll by the Sacred Heart University Polling Institute found that just 7.1 percent of all 800 respondents have tried to measure their own personal or household carbon footprint. Of this group, 88.1 percent suggested the information was very (47.5 percent) or somewhat (40.7 percent) helpful in understanding how their own lifestyle impacted the environment.

Overall, 31.8 percent of all Americans surveyed suggested they were aware of the term “carbon calculator.” However, of this group, 43.3 percent indicated they understood how it works. A larger percent, 65 percent said they were aware of the term “carbon footprint” with 69.6 percent suggesting they understood the term.

Read the full story in Consulting & Specifying Engineer.

One of the most well-known landmarks in North America will soon be powering one of the most-visited websites in the world.

Internet search engine Yahoo has announced that its newest data center will be primarily powered by Niagara Falls, the nearly 170-ft high waterfalls located on the border between New York state and Canada. Ground will break in August 2009 and the center is expected to open in May 2010 in Lockport, N.Y.

Read the full story in Green, Inc.

With the summer’s first run of sultry weather due any day now, the question facing retailers is whether they’ll resist the temptation to over-air-condition their stores or leave the doors propped open so chilly gusts entice sweaty passers-by.

Last summer, New York’s City Council unanimously passed a provision that would fine businesses that pump air-conditioning into the street via open shop doors. A warning is issued for the first offense. But businesses caught a second time will be fined $200; the third time costs $400.

But tales of over-cooled shops and offices abound in the summer months, which increasingly feature a vicious warming cycle: Paving and a build-up of smog create urban heat islands, generating spikes in air-conditioning use, which in turn drive increased electricity consumption, driving up emissions, creating more smog, and so forth.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

From baby bottles to shower curtains, iPods to lipstick, and “new car smell” to non-stick frying pans, thousands of news stories have warned the American public about the hidden dangers of toxic chemicals in everyday items. But a new survey of scientists specializing in toxicology calls into question the risks associated with many of these chemicals as they are routinely depicted in the media. Majorities of toxicologists rate most government agencies as accurately portraying chemical risks, but they rate leading environmental activist groups as overstating risks, according to the survey by George Mason University researchers.

According to survey director Robert Lichter, Ph.D., “This survey suggests that the public doesn’t get a full and balanced picture of chemical risk.” SOT Vice-President Michael Holsapple, Ph.D., adds, “Ultimately, the media and scientists share the responsibility for how chemical risks are portrayed to the public.”

To view the survey online, go to http://stats.org/stories/2009/are_chemicals_killing_us.html

Read the full story in Science News.

Biofuels are liquid energy Version 2.0. Unlike their fossil fuel counterparts — the cadaverous remains of plants that died hundreds of millions of years ago — biofuels come from vegetation grown in the here and now. So they should offer a carbon-neutral energy source: Plants that become biofuels ideally consume more carbon dioxide during photosynthesis than they emit when processed and burned for power. Biofuels make fossil fuels seem so last century, so quaintly carboniferous.

Read the full story in Science News.

The world’s vegetation soaked up carbon dioxide more efficiently under the polluted skies of recent decades than it would have under a pristine atmosphere, a new analysis in the April 23 Nature suggests. The trend hints that relying on forests and other vegetation to sequester carbon may not be effective if skies continue to clear, researchers say.

Read the full story in Environmental Protection.

The Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recognize ASHRAE guidance as a means for creating healthy homes.

Earlier this month, Acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson released The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Healthy Homes, calling for Americans to prevent disease and promote healthy environments in homes. ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2007, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings, was recommended as an effective way to reduce indoor air pollution through ventilation in the CDC’s and HUD’s supporting guidance for builders and homeowners.

Read the full story at Ars Technica.

If information isn’t online, it may as well not exist. In the latest sign that the world of traditional print has become a world of hurt, the American Chemical Society is reported to be planning to switch to an online-only publishing model for its journals.