Environmental News

Does the retail chain measure up? EDF's Bentonville office weighs in. Source: GreenBiz, 5/17/13

The tool gives facilities a score for their water management efforts by shedding light on water use and prioritizing opportunities for conservation. Source: GreenBiz, 5/20/13

Green building-rating systems have been around for well over a decade. The best known in the United States is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), the certification system administered by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED is for the "horizontal infrastructure" world of buildings. But what about "horizontal infrastructure" -- our roads, bridges, railways, landfills, water and wastewater-treatment plants, power-transmission lines, and public spaces in our cities and towns? Source: Governing, 5/20/13

The burgeoning biochar industry may soon find footing in Kane County as a Michigan-based energy company made an early pitch Thursday to build a local production plant. Source: Daily Herald, 5/16/13

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has launched the first interactive website to help homeowners, contractors and builders choose the right light bulbs, fixtures and controls to maximize energy savings, calculate lighting costs and achieve lighting effects to meet a wide range of needs in their homes. It also shows how to design safe, healthy lighting for aging adults. Source: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 5/20/13

Connecticut has passed the nation's first-ever extended producer responsibility (EPR) bill for mattresses that supporters say will save local governments about $1.3 million and increase recycling opportunities for businesses. The law will require mattress manufacturers to finance and manage a mattress collection and recycling program. Source: Environmental Leader, 5/20/13

A series of workshops next month on compliance with RoHS and other directives will help US companies looking to break into the European market. A trio of trade groups -- ITI, IPC and SEMI -- in June will host UK environmental regulators Steve Andrews from the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills and Chris Smith and Matthew Bignell from the National Measurement Office for a series of private sector seminars on product policy and compliance. The speakers will provide implementation and enforcement updates on a range of European Union regulatory approaches, including RoHS, WEEE, REACH and the ErP Directives. Other company environmental professionals will discuss sector compliance strategies, and subject exports will cover US, Canadian, Asian and Latin America developments and conflict minerals issues. They will be joined by legal, technical and compliance experts from industry, law firms and consultants. The series will take place June 6 in Round Rock, TX; June 10 in Santa Clara, CA; and June 12 in Schaumburg, IL. One of the featured presenters, Chris Smith, Technical Manager, Enforcement Authority in the UK, spoke with Mike Buetow by phone on May 7. Source: Printed Circuit Design & Fab Magazine, 5/15/13

More than 100 million pounds of electronic waste has been collected in Wisconsin since it began an e-waste recycling program three years ago, state officials said. The Department of Natural Resources program, called E-Cycle Wisconsin, bars the disposal of many consumer electronics in landfills and incinerators. "It definitely adds up when you think about how many electronics we use now and how often we replace them," said Sarah Murray, E-Cycle Wisconsin coordinator. The DNR's latest household survey found that Wisconsin residents own about 7 million televisions, or about three per household. TVs are at the top of the list of electronic waste. More than 24 million pounds of old TVs were collected in Wisconsin in the year ending June 30, 2012. With spring cleaning underway at many households, the DNR is urging residents to take advantage of more than 400 registered collection sites across the state. Source: Associated Press viaTwin Cities Pioneer Press, 5/13/13

The Innovation Center for US Dairy has published a guide to help dairy companies and farms measure and report on sustainability. Source: Environmental Leader, 5/17/13

Two University of Illinois scientists have developed an environmentally friendly and more economical way of pretreating miscanthus in the biofuel production process. Source: Biomass Magazine, 5/15/13

On the exterior, the Ford Endeavour -- one of the best-known midsize SUVs in India -- may look like just any other rugged all-terrain transportation option. But the company hopes the advanced technologies accessible through the vehicle, including wireless communications and an open-source development platform called OpenXC, could inspire smarter and more cost-effective first responder and telemedicine solutions for rural communities, under-served urban areas or developing economies. Ford researchers recently completed a nine-month pilot test of these capabilities in Kodamaathi, a small rural village in India with an above-average infant and maternal mortality rate compared with other regions. The program, Sustainable Urban Mobility with Uncompromised Rural Reach (SUMURR), used Ford Endeavours with mobile phones and laptops to bring medical care to where it was needed, including areas that are difficult to reach with other modes of transportation and where communications networks haven't penetrated. In all, the initiative visited 54 villages, facilitating community awareness among 3,100 people and helping 41 women deliver their babies more safely. Source: GreenBiz.com, 5/14/13

GreenTouch, in a report released today, revealed how much more efficient ICT networks could be if the technologies and proposals developed by its members over the last three years are implemented by 2020. The numbers are dramatic, particularly in mobile networks, which are the most inefficient and also expected to grow the fastest. The study claims that energy consumption across all networks could be reduced by 90 percent compared to 2010 levels. That's despite projected traffic volume increases of 88.6 times in the United States, Europe and Japan. That means the overall energy efficiency of mobile networks -- defined as the ratio of useful traffic carried by the total energy required to support that traffic -- would increase 1,043-fold. Source: GreenBiz.com, 5/13/13

The Guardian published an article that ties climate change to real health concerns. As the article points out, as a society, we are much more inclined to take preventative action when it directly impacts our own health and well-being. By casting environmental concerns in the terms of public health -- something done to great effect in the 1970s during the passage of the Clean Air Act -- it's possible to shift the climate change conversation toward issues that impact people's daily lives. Source: Sustainable Industries, 5/14/13

Examines the issue of debris in the Great Lakes. Source: Marine Debris Blog, 5/14/13

In the most recent P2 Pathways column, Natalie Hummel, US EPA, discusses how converting waste from one company into a feedstock stream for another can generate revenue while reducing virgin material and energy use. Source: GreenBiz, 5/14/13

The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (VTANR) has been awarded Silver recognition from the State Electronics Challenge (SEC) --a Vermont-based national environmental stewardship program--for its achievements in decreasing the environmental footprint of its computer equipment. In its time in the SEC program VTANR saved enough energy to power almost 140 households per year, avoided greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 210 cars from the road, avoided almost 1,500 pounds of hazardous waste from being created, as well as avoiding the generation of almost 38,000 pounds of trash. VTANR achieved these results by purchasing only computer equipment qualified by the Electronic Procurement Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) standard, extending the life of its computer equipment, and by reusing computer equipment. Source: Vermont Business Magazine, 5/7/13