|
|
Friday, October 21, 2005
|
|
| |
|
America's Big Three auto makers are playing catch-up in the hybrid car market, often having to lease or buy technology from Toyota. By JAMES BROOKE. [NYT > Science]
1:03:01 PM Google It! 
|
|
|
The retail giant, which is also the nation's largest grocery seller, is beginning to switch from petroleum-based to corn-based plastic packaging. [Environmental Health News]
1:01:19 PM Google It!
|
|
Ten leading associations representing state school boards, superintendents, principals, facility planners, architects, parents, and teachers are joining with the EPA to address critical energy issues in our nation's K-12 schools in conjunction with EPA's Energy Star Challenge.
Schools across the United States are facing higher energy prices this winter. Currently, the nation's 17,000 K-12 schools spend $1.3 billion on heating bills during the winter months - a cost that may rise by nearly 40 percent this year. This increase alone is equivalent to more than 10,000 teacher salaries.
However, school districts can save up to 30 percent on their energy bills each year while preventing greenhouse gas emissions and improving learning environments through cost-effective energy efficiency improvements. To encourage greater investments in efficiency, EPA is working with the following: National School Boards Association (NSBA), Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI), Association of School Business Officials (ASBO) International, Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS), National Parent Teacher Association (PTA), National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project, National Energy Foundation (NEF), Alliance to Save Energy -- Green Schools and Campuses (ASE), and American Solar Energy Society (ASES) -- Legacy Schools.
Through the Energy Star Challenge, school decision-makers assess how much energy school districts use now, establish efficiency improvement goals of 10 percent or greater district-wide, and make efficiency improvements wherever cost effective. EPA will recognize individual school districts that achieve a 10, 20, or 30 percent improvement as Energy Star Leaders.
To date, the following six school districts have earned the Energy Star Leaders distinction: Colorado Springs School District 11, Colorado Springs, Colorado; Rochester City School District, Rochester, New York; South Colonie Central School District, Albany, New York; Independent School District 197, Mendota Heights, Minnesota; Gresham-Barlow School District, Oregon; and York County School Division, Virginia.
Information on the Energy Star Challenge and K-12 schools is available at http://www.energystar.gov.
12:45:36 PM Google It!
|
|
|
Staff and pupils at Padstow School will soon become actively involved in the construction of their new ground breaking building extension. On Thursday October 20th, children will be able to work directly with Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce of ‘Cob in Cornwall’ preparing and applying cob to the walls of the new building. The children will also be given a tour of the building which utilises strawbale in its construction. [Source: Green Building Press]
12:42:08 PM Google It!
|
|
|
Two individuals, two municipalities and a nonprofit foundation are being recognized this week for their efforts to creatively and effectively use "green infrastructure" to make Wisconsin's communities more livable. The Community Open Space Partnership is awarding five Green Ribbon Awards during a "Green Makeover" conference this week in Milwaukee. [Great Lakes Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR) News]
12:36:50 PM Google It!
|
|
|
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) is recognizing the "cream of the crop" of drycleaners for their voluntary efforts to keep Indiana's environment clean. IDEM renewed 5-star status for seven drycleaners, and welcomes one new drycleaner to the 5-Star Environmental Recognition Program. These are facilities where owners, managers and employees do all they can to keep potentially harmful drycleaning chemicals from damaging Indiana's air, land and water. They join 45 other businesses in the program. [Great Lakes Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR) News]
12:35:55 PM Google It!
|
|
|
The 16,000 square-foot warehouse at 401 NE Rock Island Avenue is piled high with computers and televisions - all used. It's the place where Recycling for Illinois, a not-for-profit recycling company, seeks to stem the tide of an onrushing sea of electronic appliances. [Great Lakes Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR) News]
12:34:21 PM Google It!
|
|
|
Governor Edward G. Rendell announced Tuesday that the state has its first, multiple-customer, landfill-gas-to-energy project at Lanchester Landfill in Lancaster County. The venture, which was funded in part by a $235,000 Pennsylvania Energy Harvest grant, is another innovative way to reduce dependence on foreign oil. [Great Lakes Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR) News]
12:33:34 PM Google It!
|
|
|
Eco-friendly, or "green," buildings are one of the most talked-about trends in the trillion-dollar U.S. construction industry. Boosters say that for a relatively small up-front cost, such buildings can be cheaper to operate. Though more attention is paid to pollution by cars, buildings today account for a third of U.S. energy use, 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, and 30 percent of raw material use. Americans spend 90 percent of their time indoors.
But unlike other so-called green products -- such as hybrid cars and compact fluorescent lightbulbs -- some green buildings are little more energy-efficient than traditional structures. Yet they manage to earn a coveted certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, a leading, private environmental organization. [Source: Wall Street Journal via the Pittsbyrgh Post-Gazette]
12:28:46 PM Google It!
|
|
|
As The Villager reported over a year ago, Mary Spink, executive director of the Lower East Side People’s Mutual Housing Assocition, is developing 228 E. Third St. and three other buildings with Benedict and Gifford as low-income housing. These buildings will rent to tenants making less than 50 percent of median income. For Spink, the logic behind an energy-efficient, "green" building is practical. "We have an affordability clause for 99 years,” she says. “If you’re going to do that, you have to save some money." [Source: The Villager]
12:26:30 PM Google It!
|
|
|
The World Bank has long denied any responsibility to prevent or reduce climate change. Now America's neocons are looking to the global financial institution to 'address' the problem. [AlterNet.org: EnviroHealth]
12:21:24 PM Google It!
|
|
|
On the eve of the 16th annual Bioneers conference, co-founders Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simon discuss the changing nature of living and acting green. [AlterNet.org: EnviroHealth]
12:20:23 PM Google It!
|
|
|
WASHINGTON -- It seems hard to go wrong with a hand soap that ''kills 99 percent of germs'' it encounters. But critics of anti-bacterial soaps in the home say there's plenty to be concerned about. [Chicago Sun-Times]
12:18:47 PM Google It!
|
|
|
Via sustainablog:
The UK's Building for a Future announces the winner of the RIBA Sustainability Awards.
Cobtun House, Worcestershire, built of mud, straw and corrugated iron, and designed by Associated Architects, has scooped this year's RIBA Sustainability Award. The announcement was made at a special awards ceremony for The RIBA Stirling Prize in association with The Architects' Journal at the Royal Museum in Edinburgh.
RIBA Sustainability Award rewards the building which demonstrates most elegantly and durably the principles of sustainable architecture. The winner was presented with a cheque for £5,000.
The RIBA Sustainability Award judges -- Bill Gething, Bill Bordass, Jeremy Till and Tony Chapman -- had this to say: "For sheer vision, the seamless and unobtrusive way the design was tailored to the client's needs, and the commitment and persistence of architect and client, the judges thought Cobtun House was a worthy winner of the RIBA Sustainability Award. Not only were some aspects of its construction truly innovative - particularly in the use of materials such as earth, sand and aggregate from the site itself - the architect and the contractors so entered into the spirit of the job that they made a point of arriving on site by public transport or bike.
The outcome is inspirational and pleases not only the client and his family and friends, but is regularly visited by people keen to learn all about sustainable construction." I haven't checked if I beat Treehugger to the punch on this one, but this house certainly looks like a tribute to the idea that a green building can stylish and beautful also.
12:11:52 PM Google It!
|
|
|
From the US Department of Energy, a brief report on the role renewable energy technologies, particularly solar panels and biodiesel, are playing in the post-Katrina recovery effort. Among the details: DOE and the Florida Solar Energy Center are "providing solar electric charging stations to the town of Kiln, Mississippi, to help residents recover from Hurricane Katrina," police in Louisiana are using solar-powered lights, and coastal towns south of New Orleans are using biodiesel provided by the Veggie Van Organization, West Central and the Naples, FL, City Council. Solar power systems in particular proves a life saver in disaster situations: "They provide a source of power when the power grid is down, and they don't require any fuel." [sustainablog]
12:09:26 PM Google It!
|
|
|
Mud from farmland in the upper Mississippi River valley may soon be transported south to Louisiana to fill in wetlands tattered and punctured by Hurricane Katrina.
Louisiana officials want to bolster the marshes _ already badly eroded before Katrina _ as a barrier against potential storm surges from future hurricanes. They are in early talks with Illinois to transport by barge or pipeline large amounts of mud to the Louisiana coast.
"The material we have here is very much like what the delta was built up with," said John Marlin, senior scientist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. [Source: Associated Press via KSLTV.com. Thanks to Jerry Brown for the link]
12:07:47 PM Google It!
|
|
|
Via sustainablog:
Apologies for getting here late today -- mid-term grades were due at noon... Since I've got education on the brain, I found this article from the BBC interesting: apparently, the Brits are finding that a lack of college graduates in physics may eventually undermine their renewable energy goals.
The Institute of Physics report - entitled The Role of Physics in Renewable Energy Research and Development - highlights a lack of general skills and specific technical skills which it says will hamper efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Encouraging more physicists to study renewable energy sources could help plug that skills gap, the report says.
But there is very little data available to show exactly which skills are lacking, it adds.
Report author Judith Bates said:" A solution to this problem would be to estimate the future skills and educational needs, from research and development through to applied engineering, and make an effort to ensure these skills are provided." I have to wonder if similar situations won't arise in other parts of the world -- I know that in the US we're often lamenting our lack of scientific knowledge generally, or the dismal test scores of our secondary students in science, so I wouldn't be surprised to see findings like these here. At the same time, I have to wonder if the promise of a "renewable energy future" might entice some students this way -- either for the excitement of being part of something big, or (and probably more likely) for the high-paying jobs renewable energy's growth will likely create.
11:56:52 AM Google It!
|
|
|
Via sustainablog:
I found this article from RenewableEnergyAccess.com interesting in light of yesterday's one lonely post on a new framework for rethinking sustainable development. It appears that the American Council on Renewable Energy is also engaged in thinking about how to reframe our conception of the role of renewable energy in the US in order move these technologies forward:
The American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) and over 35 Supporting Organizations are calling for new national goals and a public policy framework called "Phase II" for Renewable Energy in America. Decades of research and development have provided the technologies to move renewables foward. It's time to move on to Phase II: a major deployment phase for these technologies....
In December 2004, ACORE and the Phase II Supporting Organizations convened a policy forum entitled "The Call for Phase II" to ask the renewable energy community: has Phase I been successful, and are we ready for a Phase II? The answer, from all of the reports we gathered on technology and market readiness, was a resounding "yes." The Phase II coalition then turned to the question, what would a Phase II look like? Or, more specifically: "What are the national policies that will result in renewable energy contributing 20% - 30% - 40% of national energy supply by 2020 - 2030 - 2040?"
This presented a new policy challenge, breaking away from decades of thinking about developing new technologies, overcoming institutional barriers to commercialization, and creating initial demand to drive down costs through volume manufacturing.
But how to break out of the mindset we have been in for so long? How to change our lexicon from "a tax credit to help spur initial demand so that we can drive down the cost curve" to something like "fair tax treatment and policies in proportion to the public benefits that are generated by renewable energy?" A series of "regional roundtable meetings" produced a set of questions meant to spur thinking in different directions. Among the questions raised:
- Would the U.S. be a higher or lower taxed society if renewable energy increases? The answer appears to be "lower" and should be analyzed carefully as a new rationale for support.
- How would electric utility decision makers see renewable energy options differently if all utilities were required to offer customers 5-,10-, and 20- year fixed rates?
- How much more would it cost Detroit to produce all vehicles with flex fuel capability? Some say that the answer is "zero". This would allow every American to purchase biofuels wherever available.
- What are the current government incentives for consumers to purchase more efficient cars and/or biofuels? Some would say "none" because the current incentives are directed at the suppliers, not the consumers. How could we have missed this, for all these years?
- What would happen if we had to get a building permit not to put a solar system on our new houses? This is raises very basic questions about why we have permitting to begin with.
- What is the "natural geography" of strategies that will put renewable energy into widespread use in America - national, multi-state regional, state, sub-state regional, or local? The consensus seems to be that the natural boundaries for renewable energy markets are regional, not matching the lines of political jurisdictions. The implication is that there is a need for collaboration between levels of government. While ACORE certainly has a vested interest in getting such questions on the table, one might argue that the rest of us do, too. Questions like these will be addressed at the "Renewable Energy in America: the Policies for Phase II" conference, which begins tomorrow in Washington, DC.
UPDATE: Almost immediately after posting this, I found a response from James Howard Kunstler. He's not so convinced by ACORE's thinking, and believes the organization itself represents the same big corporate mindset on energy development that we've seen in the oil and gas industry. [sustainablog]
11:54:55 AM Google It!
|
|
|
Via sustainablog:
Thanks to my buddy Doug for pointing me to this post at BOPNews that proposes a framework for moving towards a more sustainable society: the "National Sustainability Drive." While I think we can (and should) argue about details within the plan, I do think that a broad framework like this is absolutely necessary for making genuine sustainable development a priority in the US. We, as a country/society, encourage individual actions (recycling, lower consumption) as well as single communal actions (higher CAFE standards, adaptation of more renewable energy), but without a plan to shift our context on the notions of development and growth, we're largely flying blind. While, unfortunately, I don't see such an ambitious plan receiving attention under our current political leadership, it's probably time to start discussing broader frameworks within the environmental/sustainability community -- we're often a bit too willing to focus our energies on the kinds of actions mentioned above without a broader vision (or, at least, without really promoting the larger vision).
As I mentioned to Doug and some other online buddies, I do think that frameworks like this have to re-conceive the relationship between the public and private sectors. Ultimately, I think we have to shoot for a relationship that looks much more like that proposed in Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce (affiliate link): government acting slowly and deliberately in protection of the commons (in the broadest sense), and business acting quickly, flexibly and productively within the framework established by government. I'm largely butchering the concept in the interest of brevity, so feel free to correct and instruct...
11:37:48 AM Google It!
|
|
|
The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday ordered the manufacturers of more than a dozen appliances and products, ranging from traffic signals to commercial ice makers, to create products that use less energy. [Environmental Health News]
11:32:13 AM Google It!
|
|
|
A new study by a leading environmental group ranks Canada among the worst polluting nations in the industrialized world, according to 29 key environmental indicators. [Environmental Health News]
11:31:08 AM Google It!
|
|
|
Toyota caused a stir with a new one-seater "mobility machine" that allows users to zip along sidewalks upright on two wheels and swing into three-wheeled mode for the road. [Physics Org]
11:30:08 AM Google It!
|
|
|
Letter of Intent: 12/07/2005 by 08:00 PM Eastern Time
Application Due Date:01/25/2006
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is seeking applications for cost–shared research, development, and demonstration of Innovative Energy Systems that can be widely applied throughout the U.S. Chemical Industry. Energy Systems, referred to in this announcement as the Energy Supply Chain, are defined as those technologies and systems, located on or near the chemical plant, that produce and/or transport energy (electrical, thermal, mechanical) to the process, and/or recycle waste energy streams resulting from the chemical process. The Energy Supply Chain in this announcement excludes the chemical process itself. DOE is only requesting applications for only those projects that do not duplicate development of technologies currently being funded elsewhere within DOE’s Industrial Technologies and Distributed Energy Programs.
11:26:08 AM Google It!
|
|
|
On Oct. 17, EPA's National Exposure Research Laboratory announced the release of three separate reports related toxic pollutants in water. Topics include organophosphate pesticides, lead and cadmium (from Superfund sites), and fecal contamination. All three documents can be accessed in PDF format from the laboratory's Web site (http://www.epa.gov/nerl/index.html -- click on "Recent Additions"). [Source: Water & Wastewater Products E-News]
11:17:34 AM Google It!
|
|
|
|
© Copyright
2005
Laura L. Barnes.
Last update:
11/1/2005; 1:07:44 PM.
|
|
| October 2005 |
| Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
| 2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
| 9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
| 16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
| 23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
| 30 |
31 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Sep Nov |
|
