See on Scoop.it – Green & Sustainable News
Ohio lets energy companies keep emergency-management officials in the dark about the fracking chemicals they use. The EPA says that has to stop.
See on grist.org
See on Scoop.it – Green Building Design – Architecture & Engineering
Green building is taking off in the hospitality and retail industries, […] This year, retail owners that are building green for over half of their projects rose to 38%, up from just 18% in 2011. That’s expected to rise to 52% by 2015.
>”Green building has taken such hold in the industry that even sectors with unique challenges, such as retail and hospitality, are making stronger investments,” says Harvey Bernstein, vice president at McGraw Hill Construction. “Clearly the benefits that owners are reporting are key reasons for their green building investments, and as they find better ways to measure those impacts and quantify the value to their sales velocity and to the well-being of their staff, customers and guests, we expect even more rapid engagement in green.”
While lower operating costs are the most frequently reported reason for going green (66% of retailers, 73% of hotels), other factors are also considered very important in their decision-making process:
Utility rebates – Protecting/enhancing brand – just as important as costs for hotels
Improving ROI […]Energy efficiency is still a key goal, recycling and waste management are also critically important. A strong majority say they require green practices from suppliers, especially on waste handling (75%). <
See on www.sustainablebusiness.com
See on Scoop.it – Green & Sustainable News
The popularity of JEA’s Home Energy Evaluation Kit Backpack program has spurred the utility to add a water-use evaluation kit to the tools offered to homeowners to help them reduce their utility bills
>The kits have been checked out 2,143 times since the pilot program started in 2010. The backpacks are available at all Jacksonville public libraries and the Bartram Trail Library in St. Johns County, because it is in the JEA service area.
“Prior to the backpack program, customers would have to schedule an appointment with a technician who would visit the home, but the backpack allows them to get started with conservation on their own, … The hardest part about developing the kit was the instruction manual, … “We wanted to make sure it was functional, yet understandable,” said Reed.
Kits can be checked out for three weeks and are available on a first-come first-served basis, unless customers attend a JEA workshop.<
See on ht.ly
See on Scoop.it – Green & Sustainable News
See on insights.wri.org
See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development
This presentation comes from Puerto Rico’s Universidad del Turabo, and explores the benefits of solar thermal air conditioning, the technology that makes this application possible, and how its use can be expanded in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.
Interesting technologies in Solar and Waste-Heat powered A/C
See on solarthermalworld.org
See on Scoop.it – Green Building Design – Architecture & Engineering
(PRWEB) May 18, 2013 WPL Publishing soon will kick off a four-part webinar series to help people prepare for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Associate (LEED GA) exam.
The series, which will begin June 4 and end June 25, is intended to bridge the gaps between other exam preparation resources, such as the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) “Green Building & LEED Core Concepts Guide” and “LEED Green Associate Study Guide.” To register for the four-part series, entitled “LEED Green Associate Exam Preparation,” visit http://tinyurl.com/crfdy5m.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1254975#ixzz2TgoQsny8
See on www.digitaljournal.com
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The industry must fight the perception that wind energy cannot compete with fossil fuels
>Borrowing a page from environmentalists
To that end, some wind power advocates argued that the industry should borrow a page from the environmental movement by challenging renewable energy naysayers head on and ratcheting up its rhetoric on wind energy’s environmental benefits relative to fossil fuels rather than seeking to peacefully coexist alongside the oil, coal and gas sectors.
Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation and one of several high-profile environmental leaders addressing the Chicago conference, told AWEA members that they represent “an insurgent industry” that is “taking on an incumbent industry that plays hardball.”
“I would urge you all to become more aggressive,” he added, “because if you don’t be more creative, more aggressive, more willing to take risks, this industry will move along at a pace that will not solve our problems.”
See on www.scientificamerican.com
See on Scoop.it – Green & Sustainable News
Daniel Lee Kleinman and Sainath Suryanarayanan: Recent controversies over honey bees remind us of their environmental and economic importance, but should also prompt us to reflect upon the structures of expertise we rely upon…
>Despite the conclusion of beekeepers across the globe, based on their field research, that neonicotinoid insecticides were likely contributing to increased bee mortality, some chemical company representatives, scientists and government regulators dismissed or disparaged their findings. Our view is that commercial beekeepers have real-time observational knowledge of the crisis facing honey bee pollinators and that we should take their research seriously (see our Social Studies of Science paper for more). Our point is not to say that commercial beekeepers always know best. Rather, it is to argue for more genuinely participatory research that brings beekeepers’ knowledge and scientists’ knowledge into a creative and egalitarian dialogue toward a fuller understanding of why honey bees are dying.
[…]
The US government has opposed taking neonicotinoid pesticides off the market in the absence of conclusive evidence of their adverse effects on honey bees. The UK has taken broadly the same position. This is a classic dilemma in science. But it is not simply a matter of data. The US and UK governments share a value-based preference for false negatives over false positives. A false negative amounts to incorrectly concluding that neonicotinoid pesticides are safe when they might not be. Advocates of the precautionary principle share a preference for the reverse. They have supported taking the neonicotinoid pesticides off the market in the face of suggestive evidence based on scientific laboratory and field studies, and beekeepers’ observations. Given what is at stake here, we are on the side of those who prefer to err on the side of caution. And as policymakers and citizens increasingly confront complex challenges fraught with tremendous risk, we may want to make a precautionary orientation our default position.
We all eat and so we should all be concerned about the alarming uptick of honey bee deaths, but the current crisis can also be an opportunity to consider how to do things differently.<
See on www.guardian.co.uk
See on Scoop.it – Green & Sustainable News
Sweden isn’t the only nation in the throes of a serious trash deficit. As it turns out, Norway is also desperately seeking rubbish to burn in its cogeneration plants. Perhaps the U.S. could lend a helping hand?
Excerpts…
Norway’s garbage woes aren’t an anomaly in Scandinavia and across Northern Europe where the demand for trash to fuel garbage-burning incinerator plants is high but the supply is devastatingly low due in part to residents’ pertinacious recycling habits. In fact, Northern European countries only produce 150 million tons of trash annually, while the overall capacity of incinerating plants is 700 million tons and growing.
[…] While the burning of garbage is not an environmentally flawless method of producing energy, modern day cogeneration plants are relatively high-tech affairs and the pollution generated is far less than coal. This method also renders landfills nearly irrelevant.
See on www.mnn.com
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