Wiki:Current events
From Wiki
Return to TOPICS INDEX or TheGreenNova.org
Contents |
Call for Papers
Please feel free to add energy related Call for Papers items here. Be sure to preview the page before you save it.
CALL FOR PAPERS, SPEAKERS, and PANELLISTS
Return to TOPICS INDEX or TheGreenNova.org
Companies to watch
U.S. Green Building Council The U.S. Green Building Council is a 501(c)(3) non-profit community of leaders working to make green buildings available to everyone within a generation, custom essays Many events and courses are provided.
The Dallas Cowboys' New Facility
The Dallas Cowboys decided to pursue the Environmental Protection Agency’s green stamp of approval for their $1.1 billion stadium instead of going through LEED. The Cowboys’ facility would be the first NFL stadium certified under the EPA’s National Environmental Performance Track system. Cowboys speksman Brett Daniels stated "We believe the [EPA] program will allow us to create a framework to reduce stadium impacts [on the environment] above and beyond anything we could have achieved simply through obtaining LEED certification.”
LEED or EPA?
Some architects indicate LEED is more structured and comprehensive than the EPA’s system, which has fewer categories and allows the building owner to determine which areas to upgrade and improve within green guidelines. “The EPA’s program is not really comparable to LEED,” said George Halkias, a Kimball vice president and LEED-accredited professional. “It uses the ‘self-determined’ method of environmental protection.”
Source: Don Muret, SportsBusiness Journal, November 10, 2008. Page 24
The First LEED Silver Certified MLB Ballpark-Washington Nationals
Nationals Park is the nation's first major professional stadium to become LEED Silver Certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. The project incorporates a variety of sustainable design elements.
A Sustainable Site Nationals Park is categorized as a brownfield redevelopment that is located near the Anacostia River. It is anticipated that the ballpark will serve as an anchor for urban revitalization of the area, including a new mixed-use entertainment zone. The ballpark site was enrolled in the Voluntary Clean Up Program and therefore provides an opportunity to leave the roughly 25-acre site a much better environment then when it was received. Environmental remediation efforts are ongoing. The ballpark's location is easily accessible to public transportation, including access to nearby metro stations and local bus routes. 'Use of Materials Water conserving plumbing fixtures are used throughout the project, saving an estimated 3.6 million gallons of water per year and reducing overall water consumption by 30 percent. Energy conserving light fixtures help reduce light pollution and realize a projected 21 percent energy savings over typical field lighting. Content of building materials used on the project contain a minimum of 10 percent recycled content, and other interior materials including adhesives, carpet glues and paints were specified with low VOC contents. Many of the building materials used on the project were produced regionally, which cut down on transportation costs while promoting the local economy. Landscape plant materials specified are drought resistant, conserving water by eliminating the need for irrigation. Roof materials offer a high degree of reflectance, minimizing the amount of heat released to the environment. A 6,300 square foot green roof above a concession/toilet area beyond left field minimizes roof heat gain. 5,500 tons of construction waste were recycled.
Please feel free to add energy related Company To Watch items here. Be sure to preview the page before you save it.
Return to TOPICS INDEX or TheGreenNova.org
Controversies
Please feel free to add your energy related Controvery items here. Be sure to preview the page before you save it.
Undecided aboout global warming? Does it matter? Checkout this Playlist: How It All Ends How It All Ends Description: The entire video project detailing how we can choose what to do about global climate change WITHOUT HAVING TO BELIEVE what either side in the debate is shouting says. Contains the central, stand-along video "How It All Ends" (that's the place to start), plus hours of Expansion Pack videos which have anticipated and ALREADY ANSWERED every possible question or objection. Really. Give it a shot by watching "How It All Ends", and then "How It All Ends: Index," and How It All Ends: Menu." Bet you can't find a hole that's already been anticipated and patched. I double-dog dare you. http://www.youtube.com/user/wonderingmind42 From:wonderingmind42]
Return to TOPICS INDEX or TheGreenNova.org
Environmental Groups to Watch
Please feel free to add your energy related Events to Watch items here. Be sure to preview the page before you save it.
A
All at Once Community: singer and surfer, Jack Johnson's non-for-profit group
A SEED Japan
(Action for Solidarity, Equality, and Environment and Development) is a Japan based, international youth environmental Organization. Gomi Zero Navigation focuses on music festivals and encourages participation in a closed-circle, sustainable society through recycling and reuse.
C
Conservation International once focused on preserving natural areas as untouched relics of the past. All that changed in 1987 when a group of pioneers single-handedly redefined conservation.
In a Washington, DC hotel room on a cold February night in 1987, a small group of pioneers single-handedly redefined conservation. Instead of keeping places intact as relics of the past, it envisioned conservation as a working model of the future – a future in which people lived in harmony with nature.
Conservation International has made this future a reality with the support of an ever-expanding list of key players. For more than twenty years, we have empowered communities in jungles and deserts to make conservation part of their livelihoods. From early partnerships with Patagonia and Starbucks to our ground-breaking relationship with Wal-Mart, we’ve worked with companies large and small to make conservation part of their business model. Governments from Costa Rica to China have worked with us to make conservation a core component of their national policies. Throughout this process, every strategy, every action has been guided by ground-breaking science.
E
EarthShare is committed to making environmental support as easy as possible by giving working people the ability to donate through workplace payroll contribution campaigns. Founded by its member charities in 1988, EarthShare is an opportunity for environmentally-conscious employees and workplaces to support hundreds of environmental groups through a charitable giving drive. EarthShare participates in campaigns at hundreds of public and privates sector workplaces.
Today EarthShare represents and supports more than 400 of America's most respected environmental and conservation groups, including 39 national organizations and hundreds of local groups in 18 affiliate states. EarthShare's member organizations work hard every day to safeguard your health and the environment by combating global warming, protecting ancient forests, protecting our water from toxic contaminants, saving endangered species and so much more. All of these efforts are supported by EarthShare's mission.
S
Solar Living Institue Established in 1998 as a spin-off from Real Goods Trading Company, the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, CA, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization whose mission is to promote sustainable living through inspirational environmental education. The Institute provides practical, education by example and hands-on workshops on renewable energy, green building, sustainable living, permaculture, organic gardening and alternative, environmental, construction methods.
The Institute is headquartered at the Solar Living Center, a gorgeous 12-acre renewable energy and sustainable living demonstration site visited by nearly 200,000 people annually in the heart of Northern California’s wine country in Hopland, California. Since its inception nearly two million visitors have experienced the Solar Living Center.
The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of our world’s oceans, waves and beaches. Founded in 1984 by a handful of visionary surfers in Malibu, California, the Surfrider Foundation now maintains over 50,000 members and 80 chapters worldwide.
Return to TOPICS INDEX or TheGreenNova.org
Events to Watch
Please feel free to add your energy related Events to Watch items here. Be sure to preview the page before you save it.
2008 Green Building Expo on December 3rd 2008@Monterey Conference Center
The Surfrider Foundation Action Network It is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's oceans, waves and beaches, for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education. People who are interested in taking environmental action with surfers, this website offers network in many areas.
Return to TOPICS INDEX or TheGreenNova.org
Products to Watch
Please feel free to add your energy related Products To Watch items here. Be sure to preview the page before you save it.
HOW GREEN IS YOUR COMPANY? NEW GREEN PERFORMANCE INDEX UNVEILED BY LBG ASSOCIATES STAMFORD, CT January 7, 2009 --/WORLD-WIRE/-- Do you know how green your company really is? Philanthropic consultancy LBG Associates has created a proprietary rating system to help you find out. The Green Effect: How Community Involvement Is Embracing Environmentalism, a new research study, reveals not only the top environmental trends and practices among 51 of today’s leading corporations, but also includes a self-diagnostic tool that helps determine if a company is a Peridot (becoming green); a Jade (green in many business and community involvement practices); or an Emerald (extremely green). The report is now available for purchase at www.lbg-associates.com. LBG Associates is also holding a one-day conference on February 12, 2009, in New York City to discuss the research findings. 51 corporate participants in landmark environmental survey include AT&T, Dow, FedEx, Ford, IBM, Intel, LL Bean, Patagonia, Starbucks, Steelcase, Timberland, Toyota, Yahoo, among others
Scientists set new record for solar cells efficiency
Researchers at the Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) announced that they have succeeded in improving the efficiency of solar cells, which are designed to convert available light into electricity. The quantum electronic phenomenon called the photovoltaic (PV) effect makes this possible. The team said the effectiveness of III-V semiconductor multi-junction solar cells , used in PV concentrator technology for solar power stations, has been increased by 2.1% to 39.7% — a new European record. The work, which is funded to the tune of EUR 8.34 million, is part of the EU project FULLSPECTRUM.
San Jose Unveils Hybrid Plug-in Stations ABC Local News SAN JOSE, CA (KGO) -- Jan 06, 2009. A metal box attached to a light pole could be the gas station of the future.
It does not have gasoline in it, but the box does have electricity for plug-in hybrid or all-electric cars
Board Makers Offer the Green Option By JESSE HUFFMAN; Published: January 2, 2009; New York Times
A growing number of new snowboards are going “green” this winter, heralding a change in manufacturing practices that has found some brands challenged to adapt, and others gaining belated recognition for their longstanding alternative approach to making boards. During a recent tour of the Burton snowboard factory in Williston, Vt., the parts of Burton’s first green snowboard, the Eco Nico, were displayed on a worktable. Fashioned from a startlingly simple palette of materials — a Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood core, a lacquer-free top sheet, 90-percent recycled steel edges, 100-percent recycled sidewalls and a 50-percent recycled base — the Eco Nico, said Todd King, Burton’s snowboard business unit director, “is the greenest of the green, the most sustainable board that we’ve ever made.”
More snowboard makers than ever, from grass-roots innovators like Mervin in Sequim, Wash., to multinational companies like Burton, are offering green or eco-friendly boards this ski season. And the trend is just beginning. Boards made with sustainable materials account for just 2 percent of the $140 million board market, according to Snowsports Industries America, a trade group.
A growing awareness of environmental issues and a demand for greener products led to the new additions in equipment lines, said Alex Warburton, product line manager for Salomon Snowboards of France.
“Snowboarders are attached to the natural world,” he said. “They are going to be more apt to buy something that he or she feels is ecologically better for the planet. And if more sales are determined by how green you are, then you’re going to have everybody doing it.”
Salomon won a 2008 Volvo Sports Design award for Eco Design for the construction of its Sick Stick snowboard. By using structural bamboo in the construction of the board, Salomon was able to both reduce the amount of resin in the board and make it lighter.
“I’d like to think that sales of green boards would grow by 10 to 20 percent per year,” Mr. Warburton said, “with the goal of penetrating so deep that it’s not even a marketing term anymore.”
Few companies have more than a few years of history with environmentally friendly construction. But Arbor, based in Venice, Calif., has been making snowboards with renewable materials like Koa wood, cork and bamboo since 1995, and has only recently gained recognition as a leading green company.
“It’s been a stance, a value that we hold for our brand,” said Bob Carlson, a co-founder of the company. “To snowboard, we need snow. That simple premise should be driving everybody toward not just flagship boards, but greening everything they do.”
What made the current shift in construction possible, board makers say, is the sport’s culture of innovation and boarders’ hunger for constant technical improvements.
“The snowboard industry is run by a bunch of individuals that are passionate about the sport,” said Doug Sanders, a snowboard development manager with K2 of Seattle. Mr. Sanders oversaw the design of K2’s Zero board, which minimizes resin by using ultra-high-quality fiberglass and a fabric-based finish instead of a top sheet.
“We have a lot of freethinking ideas, and can implement them relatively risk-free, and relatively quickly,” he said. “And that allows us to try a lot of different things that you just couldn’t do in a more static and complex industry like automotive.”
Mr. Warburton said Salomon was originally researching a way to make its boards lighter when it came across bamboo. “The weight is attached to the resin, and if you compare the (Salomon) Answer and Sick Stick to similar boards made in a traditional fashion,” he said, “they are about 10 percent lighter — a huge performance benefit.”
Boards like the Eco Nico, Answer and Zero fall into the high-end category, and are priced between $500 and $700. The majority of most companies’ sales are in beginner boards, which retail for about $300.
Manufacturers cite higher material and manufacturing costs as the reasons it has taken until this season to generate this first major offering of green snowboards. They also say that their pricing reflects research and development costs.
“If you can lessen the glass in one model, why not do it throughout the line?” Mr. Warburton said. “Because it just gets too expensive, and then you can’t provide a $300 board.” Mr. King said that for the 2010 season, 50 percent of the items on each Burton snowboard’s list of contents will be made up of the materials that are going into this season’s Eco Nico model, and that this large-scale integration of green technology will not increase the retail cost.
“The scale of our market allows us to do that,” Mr. King said. Burton’s market share ranges 40 percent to 70 percent, depending on the region. “Once you get to that tipping point, and have the numbers behind you, it’s really easy to justify — because instead of just buying enough materials for the Eco Nico, you’re buying for the whole line.”
For Mervin Manufacturing, which makes Lib Tech and Gnu-brand snowboards, green has been the standard for more than 20 years. “We came from building snowboards and working in the factory,” said Pete Saari, one of the company’s co-founders. “We didn’t want to be working in a toxic environment and throwing materials away.”
Mike Olson, also a co-founder and vice president for research and development, said he began replacing ABS (a thermoplastic, some of whose ingredients have been listed as toxic by environmental organizations like Greenpeace) sidewalls with 100 percent recyclable polyethylene in 1986, when Mervin was called Slope Tools Inc., and starting using sustainable polymer top sheets and bamboo cores in 1995.
The current Lib Tech and Gnu boards all feature an array of green ingredients, including certified wood cores, 100 percent recyclable bases, basalt as an alternative to traditional fiberglass, and a top sheet material called Beans, made from castor beans. The factory itself recycles seven tons of waste each month, including all scrap steel from edges, base and sidewall materials and sawdust from making and milling wood cores.
Mr. Saari attributes the brand’s high level of green technology integration to owning its own manufacturing plant, experience with alternative materials and processes and a business model that allows spending more on each board.
“The Beans top sheet is twice the price, but our formula with Lib Tech and Gnu is just high end,” Mr. Olson said. Mervin’s lowest-priced board is $399 (the highest is $1,200), he said, adding: “The fun part is that we don’t have a $300 board. That’s how we licked that problem.”
The answer, for others, is just doing it yourself. Mike Basich, a professional snowboarder, decided to create his own certifiably recycled snowboard in 2007. Pressed by Smokin’ Snowboards in Lake Tahoe, Calif., the Basich Pro Model features a wood core milled from a 400-year-old, 80-foot pine tree that had fallen on Mr. Basich’s 40-acre Donner Pass, Calif., property. Mr. Basich produced a run of 33 boards, available for $599 apiece through Smokin’ with additional decks limited to “what the tree has to offer.”
“I’m trying to keep production right here in the U.S.,” Mr. Basich said. “If you buy something that was made in someone’s backyard, and it rides just as good and lasts maybe longer, it’s a much healthier thing for the environment.”
SkySails-Fuel Conservation System December 2008
SkySails, based in Hamburg, Germany are developing an international patent pending propulsion system, harnessing the power of wind. World trade relies on cargo vessels to transport good around the globe with 98.2% of all intercontinental goods carried via sea, and 98% of all cargo vessels powered by diesel engines. All this equates to the fact 25 billion Euros worth of fuel was bought in the year 2002 alone. The innovative SkySails system saves a considerable amount of fuel over long voyages, therefore cutting costs and helping the environment. The Skysails system consists of a large towing kite filled with compressed air, and an autopilot and wind-optimised route management system. The features of the SkySails technology enable ships to use wind power with entirely novel performance characteristics.
Chlorophyll Organic Battery
Taiwan's scientists invent eco-friendly reusable chlorophyll organic battery The eco-friendly battery will replace the conventional batteries, experts said. 2008-11-03
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) - The faculty and students of the National Formosa University's Graduate School of Electro-Optic and Material Science in Yunlin County must be very proud because the world's first Chlorophyll organic battery has been vented by their colleague and students.
Professor Chungpin Hovering Liao (廖重賓) and two graduate students Yang Ping-huang (楊秉晃) and Chen Chun-lang (陳俊郎) jointly created the world’s first chlorophyll organic battery.
Given today’s rising environmental awareness, eco- friendly practices gradually become a global trend. As a result, the new invention is a great progress in human efforts to preserve and protect the environment.
The chlorophyll organic battery runs on any liquid—even urine can do—to power up. It doesn't take much time to start juicing the battery, either. Within 10 seconds of being doused with liquid of any sorts, the battery starts providing power.
Yang and Chen demonstrate how the environmentally friendly battery works by putting the battery in water for 10 seconds and than the battery can provide electricity to an LED light bulb. The magical invention by Taiwan’s scientists is clearly a blessing for the environment.
Liao said that Chlorophyll is responsible for transforming carbon dioxide in the air to oxygen and it uses the energy of the sun to manufacture nourishment for the plant. Chlorophyll is a concentrated sun energy and located within the membrane of the chloroplasts, which are small, green organelles found in plant cells. Chlorophyll is a large molecule composed of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and magnesium coordinated with four central nitrogen atoms. It functions to initiate photosynthesis, a complex biochemical pathway in which solar energy is used to convert water and carbon dioxide to glucose and other carbohydrates.
The chlorophyll organic battery is very suitable for using outdoor because it only requires water to be functional. Even more surprising is that the battery is environmentally friendly and will not harm to ecosystem since it does not contain toxic substances used in conventional batteries. On top of the above, the battery also has the low production cost of NT$1 to NT$2.
But, the battery's flexibility does come with a catch: it only produces half the power of a conventional battery. But, power duration problem will be solved in future, said Liao. The eco-friendly battery will replace the conventional batteries, experts said. Liao is currently in the process of applying for patents in Taiwan and the United States.
Environmental Management: Reading and Cases (2nd edition)
By Michael V. Russo
© September 2008 680 pages
Sage Publications, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA
Paperback
ISBN: 9781412958493
$59.95
Description: This Second Edition will inspire readers to find creative solutions to the challenges of maintaining sustainable enterprise while restoring our ecological community. Featuring a highly esteemed group of contributors with content from premier journals —including Harvard Business Review –this comprehensive reader fills a major gap in the teaching of business and the environment. If you have read this book, please add your thoughts about it in the Reviews Section, under Book Reviews.
Return to TOPICS INDEX or TheGreenNova.org
Projects to watch
Please feel free to add your energy related Projects to Watch items here. Be sure to preview the page before you save it.
Tidal Energy in CanadaAtlantic Canada's Bay of Fundy has some of the world's highest and most powerful tides. Every day, 100 billion tonnes of seawater surge in and out of the bay - a perfect source of clean, reusable alternative energy, if it can be properly harnessed. In 1984, Nova Scotia opened a small plant that takes advantage of the massive Fundy tide as it rushes up the Annapolis River, funnelling the surge through turbines to generate power. That Annapolis plant produces about 20 megawatts a day, enough to power about 4,000 homes. Now Nova Scotia is preparing for a much bigger Fundy project, one that is unique to North America and could eventually produce 100 MW of electricity, about 10 per cent of the province's peak load. The $50-million pilot project, set to begin by next fall or the spring of 2010, will be different from previous tidal efforts not only in size but also in method.
How Green Is Plant-Derived Gasoline?
Thursday, October 09, 2008 Fox News
Fossil fuels don't all come from fossils. Scientists now are developing gasoline that is synthesized from plants that are not so old.
This so-called "green gasoline" is chemically derived from sugars in corn and other grains or from cellulose found in the tough, woody parts of plants.
Unlike the most common biofuel, ethanol, this new fuel requires no tweaks to a car's engine.
"It is virtually the same as gasoline from crude oil," said John Regalbuto, director of the Catalysis and Biocatalysis Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF). "It is a drop-in replacement for what you get at the pump."
The NSF has funded several projects to develop green gasoline. One of these converts sugar into gasoline, diesel or jet fuel and is being commercialized by Virent Energy Systems in collaboration with the oil company Shell.....(read more)
The Zeus Project is an awesome new solar thermal electrical generator technology designed and scalable for home use. Read more here, and keep you eyes open for more about this great solar project.
Blowing Offshore Power Into Oregon: Startup Principle Power is raising $20 million and working to place about 30 wind turbines off the Oregon coast. by: Rachel Barron October 8, 2008 Principle Power is working to develop a 150-megawatt offshore wind power plant using a foundation developed by Marine Innovation & Technology in Oregon. Renewable-project developer Principle Power told Greentech Media that the firm is raising $20 million in funding and pushing ahead with its first project: a 150-megawatt offshore wind park.
20% Renewable Energy from EU by 2020 Video from Youtube
2008 Philadelphia Eagles Go Green Film I
2008 Philadelphia Eagles Go Green Film II
The Houston Astros started the team's "PlayGreen" campaign in 2008. They encouraged their fans to participate, encouraing them to pick up bottles and drop them into the appropriate containers during a fifth-inning "recyling stretch" at each home game. They plan to increase the budget to continue the PlayGreen compain for 2009.
(Source: SportsBusinessJournal November 10th, 2008). Video from MLB
Making Sweden an OIL-FREE Society June 21, 2006
Technologies to Watch
Philippine Patent has been granted to a Filipino Invention converting Trash Plastics into newly refined Diesel & Gasoline usable as motor vehicle fuel. Recovery of Diesel/Gasoline from Trash Plastics is 80%. Is there anything like this technology elsewhere? Filipino Inventor offers his technology as his contribution to JV possibilities to anyone interested...contact Ernesto C. Del Castillo for more information.
Return to TOPICS INDEX or TheGreenNova.org
Wikis to Watch
Please feel free to add your energy related Products To Watch items here. Be sure to preview the page before you save it.
Wiki Green custom research papers
Return to TOPICS INDEX or TheGreenNova.org
