Month: September 2014

New Tool Offers Global Access to More Than 10,000 U.S. Water Resources

Read the full story from Sustainable Brands.

The U.S. Water Partnership has announced the launch of a new platform that offers the global community simple online access to a growing library of U.S.-generated water data and knowledge.

H2infO was created to increase global access to important U.S.-generated water information resources, filling a gap in knowledge management identified by the international water community. By the end of 2014, more than 10,000 water resources from leading U.S.-based institutions will be centrally accessible through this expanding tool.

Happy Pollution Prevention Week

Pollution Prevention (P2) Week, held during the third week of September each year, highlights the efforts of organizations across the country in making pollution prevention a cornerstone of sustainability. The 2014 theme is “Pollution Prevention: The Clear Choice for Environmental Sustainability.”

The National Pollution Prevention Roundtable and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have information about events occurring throughout the country. NPPR also has a handy P2 Week Toolkit for organizations looking for ways to participate.

The Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable will be posting each day about a different aspect of pollution prevention. Check out their blog and Twitter feed (look for the #P2Week hashtag) for information and resources.

2014 P2 Week Poster

The Really Important Reason Why Cutting Carbon Emissions Might Improve Britain’s Economy

Read the full post at Think Progress.

Staying on course to meet its climate goals will leave Britain with a slightly bigger economy and more jobs, according to an analysis released Wednesday.

But what’s particularly striking about the paper is it found those improvements would come from the first-order changes the economy would have to make to decarbonize. Plenty of other studies have found that cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will leave economies better off. But usually it’s because of second-order effects — avoided damage from climate change, or health benefits from reduced air pollution — that offset economic drag caused by the first-order changes. The assumption that cutting carbon itself will damage the economy is widely held in both economics and politics, and contributes to a lot of hesitation to aggressively confront climate change.

Alternative Energies Debate—All Things Considered on the Net Benefits of Low and No-Carbon Electricity Technologies

Read the full post from the Brookings Institution.

Editor’s Note: This post is part of a discussion on the net benefits of low and no-carbon electricity technologies. Discussants include Charles Frank, a nonresident senior fellow in Global Economy and Development at Brookings and Amory Lovins, cofounder and chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute.

In my last two blogs, I dealt with assumptions about capacity factors, capital costs, nuclear costs, and avoided capacity costs. In this article I attempt to deal with Mr. Amory Lovins’ remaining criticisms.

Global Warming Science

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2014.

MIT OpenCourseWare, a free online education initiative, was launched in 2002. Starting with 50 courses, by 2007 the university had posted over 1,800 courses in 33 academic disciplines. This revealing undergraduate module, based on a class taught by four MIT professors in 2012, focuses on the fundamental physical processes that shape climate. The course also covers evidence of past and present climate change, an overview of climate models, and discussions of climate change consequences. Navigating the system is easy. Begin with the Course Home page; then look over the Syllabus and Calendar before browsing the Readings, Lecture Notes, Assignments, and Projects.

An Adorable, Tiny First Aid Kit So Anyone Can Help Rescue The Bees

Read the full story in Fast Company.

Honeybees are dying around the world, and so one designer in Italy decided to create a small first aid kit in an attempt to help.

The Bee Saver gadget, a keychain holding a small bioplastic container of artificial nectar, is designed to be carried along on a walk. If someone sees a bee in need, they can set the container of nectar next to it. To attract the bee, the container is shaped like a flower, smells sweet, and is shaded a pleasing blue. If all goes well, the bee will take a sip and fly safely back to its hive.

Sustainability Concepts in Decision-Making: Tools and Approaches for the US Environmental Protection Agency

Download the document (or purchase a print copy for $48).

In its current strategic plan, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) describes a cross-agency strategy to advance sustainable environmental outcomes and optimize economic and social outcomes through Agency decisions and actions. Sustainability has evolved from an aspiration to a growing body of practices. The evolution includes a transition from the development of broad goals toward the implementation of specific policies and programs for achieving them and the use of indicators and metrics for measuring progress. Without losing focus on implementing its existing regulatory mandates, EPA’s incorporation of sustainability considerations into its decision-making about potential environmental, social, and economic outcomes involves shifting from a focus on specific pollutants in an environmental medium (air, water, or land) to a broader assessment of interactions among human, natural, and manufactured systems. EPA has indicated that it will need to consider the use of a variety of analytic tools and approaches to assess the potential sustainability-related effects of its decisions and actions in response to complex environmental challenges.

Sustainability Concepts in Decision-Making: Tools and Approaches for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency examines scientific tools and approaches for incorporating sustainability concepts into assessments used to support EPA decision making. Using specific case studies, this report considers the application of analytic and scientific tools, methods, and approaches presented in the 2011 NRC report Sustainability and the U.S. EPA. This report examines both currently available and emerging tools, methods, and approaches to find those most appropriate for assessing and/or evaluating potential economic, social and environmental outcomes within an EPA decision context. Sustainability Concepts in Decision Making also discusses data needs and post-decision evaluation of outcomes on dimensions of sustainability. A broad array of sustainability tools and approaches are suitable for assessing potential environmental, social, and economic outcomes in EPA’s decision-making context. The recommendations of this report will assist the agency to optimize environmental, social, and economic outcomes in EPA decisions.

Call for papers/presentations for the Midwest Bio-Economy and Safer Products Summit

Share your innovations, insights and strategies at the Regional Conference for green chemistry and the bio-economy taking place February 18th– 19th, 2015 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Abstracts are now being accepted for presentations and posters. This is the fifth annual conference hosted by the Minnesota Green Chemistry Forum.

This year the conference will be exploring the theme “Regional Innovation for Solving Global Problems” through crafted tracks.  The following general topic areas are being proposed for the conference and the final agenda will be chosen, in part, from the areas represented by the topics submitted:

  • Bio-Based Technology Development
    • Product Development
    • Feedstock Innovation
    • Supply Chain Management
    • The Advancement of Cellulosic Conversion
    • How Higher Education Institutions are Driving new Bio-Based Technologies
    • Academic Collaboration for Research and Innovation
    • Case Studies: Successes and Failure of Bio-based Technology
  • Consumer Safety: Greening the Supply Chain and Sustainability Initiatives 
    • Supply Chain Integration of Green Chemistry Strategies
    • Product Safety: Avoiding Regrettable Substitutions
    • Product Risks and Hazard Assessments
    • Company Policies and Sustainability Initiatives
    • Substitutions for Problem Chemicals
    • Marketing Green Products
  • Regulation and Policy
    • New State Regulations
    • New Opportunities and Innovation Driven by Regulation
    • Safer Product Legislation and TSCA Reform
    • REACH
    • California Safer Chemistry Act
    • MN Toxic Free Kids Act
    • The Future of Chemical Policy in the U.S.

Visit the Conference Program page today for more information on the summit’s topics.

UTSA, SwRI researchers prove biochar is low-cost, effective method to treat fracking water

Read the full story from the University of Texas San Antonio.

Researchers at UTSA and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have determined that biochar, a substance produced from plant matter, is a safe, effective and inexpensive method to treat flowback water following hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

 

Black is the New Green: Biochar Beats Wood in Cook Stoves

Read the full story from Michigan Tech.

It’s one of the world’s biggest killers, leading to lung cancer, heart disease, and COPD, not to mention child pneumonia and low birth-weight babies. It affects billions of people. And if you think it’s tobacco, you are wrong, but understandably so. The smoke from wood-fired cook stoves in the developing world is a best-kept secret in the pantheon of unhealthy things we humans inflict upon ourselves.

The solution is not simply a matter of telling women (for it is mostly women who cook) to find some other way to prepare the family meal. Alternatives to gathering your own wood are typically too expensive or simply nonexistent for subsistence farmers. However, that may soon change in the West African nation of Benin, thanks to a partnership between students at Michigan Technological University and the French firm AFI.

The key ingredient is biochar. If you’ve ever thrown a bucket of water on a campfire and returned the next morning to get it going again, you know about biochar: it’s the black, charcoal-ish transition stage between burning wood and the pale ash left when the fire is completely burned out. But this simple, flammable form of carbon has a big advantage over wood: it’s smokeless.

Curricula on marine debris from NOAA

Turning the Tide on Trash: A Learning Guide on Marine Debris

This set of lesson plans and background information introduces educators, students and researchers to the topic of marine debris. The interdisciplinary education guide is designed to provide maximum flexibility in the classroom: it can be used as a stand-alone teaching tool or to supplement work in other subject areas.

Appropriate for grades 1-12.

The Educator’s Guide to Marine Debris

This guide is designed for educators in both formal and informal education situations. It is a regional introduction to three main categories of marine debris: litter; derelict or abandoned boats; and lost or abandoned commercial and recreational fishing gear.

Appropriate for grades 5-8.

Download Marine Debris Activities and Puzzles
Puzzles, coloring books brainteasers, and hands-on activities for children.

An Educator’s Guide to Marine Debris

Designed as a standalone teaching tool, or to supplement lessons for educators in both formal and informal settings.
Appropriate for students grades K-12, with a focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) objectives.

 

 

 

Big data to help keep fresh water clean, manage waste and detect tsunamis

Read the full story in the Financial Post.

In the wake of urbanization, climate change and industrialization, big data is driving new ways to resolve old issues in water management. Using sensors to collect data in the field isn’t new, but the amount of data, and the speed and frequency of which it is available, as well as the ability to integrate it all together, is providing a breeding ground for regional, national and even global innovation.

Global Shale Gas Development: Water Availability & Business Risks

Download the document.

For many countries, shale gas could strengthen energy security while cutting emissions. However, drilling and hydraulic fracturing of shale resources requires lots of water for short periods—and shale resources are not always located where water is abundant.

Global Shale Gas Development: Water Availability & Business Risks analyzes water availability across all potentially commercial shale resources worldwide, and shares four recommendations to help governments, companies, and civil societies protect water security while minimizing risks.

Government Works: Federal Agency Actions on Energy Efficiency

Download the document.

Federal agency actions on energy efficiency under existing legislative authority are saving consumers money, creating jobs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, and reducing oil use and imports. In this paper we examined four sets of recent and prospective agency actions on energy efficiency: appliance standards, vehicle standards, power plant emissions standards, and select housing policies.

We estimate that collectively these policies could save the American people $2.6 trillion (net present value of savings after needed investments for measures taken through 2040). They could cut cumulative carbon dioxide emissions by 34 billion metric tons, more than the total emissions from fossil fuels in this country over six years. They could reduce oil use by 3.4 million barrels a day in 2030, and 4.7 million barrels a day in 2040. And they could cut electricity demand in 2030 by one-fourth. Half of the energy savings are from policies that have not been issued yet.

To achieve them, agencies will need to use system-wide savings, considering the whole electric system for the carbon dioxide emissions standard for existing power plants, and the engine, tractor, and trailer for the fuel economy standard for heavy-duty trucks. Agencies also will need to end delays, setting long overdue standard for manufactured housing and criteria for new homes with federal loans, and lighting standards outside an appropriations rider. Without further legislation we still will not fully use efficiency to meet national goals, but these agency actions are strengthening the economy, the environment, and national security.

This deep dive into 10 years of LEED unearths surprises

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

The U.S. Green Building Council and Ember Strategies recently released the results of a deep dive study into the design energy efficiency of a decade of LEED buildings (PDF). Ten years of LEED data shows the evolution of the best in the architecture, engineering and construction industry — and a few industry quirks — as they strive for more efficient building designs.

Buildings are certified at varying levels in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standard — from basic Certified to Silver, Gold, and Platinum — based on the number of points they earn across the categories of green building, such as energy, water, indoor environment, location and materials. Having a LEED certification is one way commercial real estate owners prove their building is one of the best in the world as they work to attract tenants. This study looked at the New Construction rating system for building design and construction and specifically certain energy efficiency related credits.

Before digging in to the data, it is important to understand that a LEED rating system is born, grows and eventually dies and is replaced by a new rating system. This is unlike a building code or standard. The LEED rating system is tweaked in each version to raise the bar for achievement, of course, but also to try to fix credits that just aren’t working. If no one achieves a credit, there is no environmental benefit to having it. USGBC uses feedback from the market to improve the rating system over time.

The study was released at the ACEEE’s 2014 Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, the biennial gathering of building efficiency nerds in Pacific Grove, Calif.