Browsing environmental news so you don't have to
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has developed a training video for people who use Grants.gov to find and apply for federal funding.
According to the summary:
This video will assist applicants in learning more about registering, searching, and applying for Federal grant opportunities.
Read the full story at GreenBiz.
Most efforts to upgrade buildings have focused on big ones so far, but now the Department of Energy (DOE) is turning to small ones, too.
Schools, churches, strip malls, restaurants and grocery stores will benefit. Those make up 90 percent of our commercial buildings and consume 20 percent of U.S. energy. They are less than 50,000 square feet.
Read the full story in R&D Magazine.
It might be easier than previously thought for a planet to overheat into the scorchingly uninhabitable “runaway greenhouse” stage, according to new research by astronomers at the University of Washington and the University of Victoria, B.C., published July 28 in the journal Nature Geoscience.
In the runaway greenhouse stage, a planet absorbs more solar energy than it can give off to retain equilibrium. As a result, the world overheats, boiling its oceans and filling its atmosphere with steam, which leaves the planet glowing-hot and forever uninhabitable, as Venus is now.
Read the full story in GreenBiz.
What could generate a standing-room-only crowd in an upscale hotel in Menlo Park? It was an event earlier this month focused on the Green Button initiative. The agenda offered the opportunity to hear from Nick Sinai, deputy chief technology officer at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and two presidential fellows, John Teeter and Matt Theall, talk about the past, present and future of energy consumption data, which is tremendously enabled by smart grid technologies. Event sponsors Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Siemens also spoke about future directions for Green Button data and the actionable information derived from it.
Read the full story from NOAA.
NOAA-supported scientists found a large Gulf of Mexico oxygen-free or hypoxic “dead” zone, but not as large as had been predicted. Measuring 5,840 square miles, an area the size of Connecticut, the 2013 Gulf dead zone indicates nutrients from the Mississippi River watershed are continuing to affect the nation’s commercial and recreational marine resources in the Gulf.
Read the full story at GreenBiz.
Based on two decades of the world’s best academic and industry research, this guide answers the question: How can companies innovate to become financially, environmentally and socially sustainable?
Some organizations define innovation as new technologies and processes that don’t exist anywhere else.
This research, however, asserts that innovation can show up in almost any of your company’s operations, including how you design, package and promote products, how you hire and train employees and even the type of business you run. Innovation can be free and simple or expensive and complex.
Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.
Owners of large buildings would be required to publicly disclose how much energy their buildings use and how they measure up against their peers under a proposed city ordinance.
The goal is to cut energy use in half of Chicago buildings by 30 percent by 2020.
But some building owners are concerned that the information could be used to shame owners of older buildings who already are struggling to find tenants. Owners of historic buildings also say they aren’t allowed to make certain modifications like replacing old windows without running afoul of rules governing landmark structures.
The Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago is opposed to publicly disclosing the information, suggesting that it should only be released to “interested parties,” such as buyers, renters and financers who have expressed interest in a property.
