Day: June 6, 2017

Webinar: Tribal Community-Based Social Marketing Training Guide: Strategies to Promote Sustainable Behaviors

Wed, Aug 2, 2017 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM CDT
Register at https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/3116426452296876546

The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa partnered with the U.S. EPA Region 5 to create a Tribal Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM) Training Guide. This training guide provides an overview of how to use the CBSM process to increase sustainable behaviors in tribal communities. CBSM combines marketing techniques with community engagement and has proven to be far more effective in leading to sustainable behaviors than information dissemination alone.

Learn how the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College used CBSM to increase its campus recycling rate by 41%, how to use the Tribal CBSM Training Guide, and how tribes can receive peer mentoring to develop their own CBSM projects.

The Consequence of the Trump Administration Slashing the EPA’s Science Office

Read the full story in Pacific Standard.

The Office of Research and Development has been at front lines of virtually every environmental crisis. Trump wants to cut its funding in half.

Is Recycling Broken?

Read the full story in Governing.

To survive and prosper, local recycling efforts are forging ways to update, upgrade and educate.

A large part of the problem is that recycling programs have done a great job of teaching people to recycle, but a not-so-great job of driving home the reduce and reuse parts of the 3Rs. We don’t have to figure out how to get rid of waste if we don’t generate that waste in the first place.

Bloomberg News Two Part Series: How a Melting Arctic Changes Everything

Eight countries control land in the Arctic Circle. Five have coastlines to defend. The temperature is rising. The ice is melting. The race for newly accessible resources is beginning. And Russia is gaining ground.

 

Don’t call it ‘climate change’: How the government is rebranding in the age of Trump

Read the full story in the Washington Post.

As Trump sets new priorities for Washington sharply at odds with what the town has seen for the past eight years, some officials working on hot-button issues such as the environment, nutrition and foreign aid are changing the names of offices and programs that might draw skepticism from the conservative Republican leaders he has installed atop agencies.

‘Expert in a suitcase’ cuts power bills 10% in small commercial buildings

Read the full story from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

The knowledge and expertise of a seasoned energy efficiency professional has been packed into a high-tech suitcase.

The Sensor Suitcase is a portable case that contains easy-to-use sensors and other equipment that make it possible for anyone to identify energy-saving opportunities in small commercial buildings. The automated and reusable system combines hardware and software in one package so its users can identify cost-effective measures that save small commercial buildings about 10 percent on their energy bills.

Jointly developed by two Department of Energy labs, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Sensor Suitcase has been licensed by two companies that plan to provide products or services based on the technology. The licensees are GreenPath Energy Solutions and Cultural Quotient.

Pay-to-view blacklist of predatory journals set to launch

Read the full story in Nature.

The blacklist is dead; long live the blacklist. Five months after a widely read blog listing possible ‘predatory’ scholarly journals and publishers was shut down, another index of untrustworthy titles is appearing — although this version will be available only to paying subscribers.

8 Startups Crafting the Future of Urban Agriculture

Read the full story at Triple Pundit.

Vertical farming is not a new concept. Farmers used it for centuries to grow more food in less space. But over the past decade, innovative startup companies reclaimed this forgotten method to bring sprawling farms into controlled spaces in dense urban neighborhoods.

Once a niche market, the urban farming space is booming — and many upstarts gained fast acclaim only to sputter out. But as the industry gains more profile (it was a hot topic at this year’s Sustainable Brands conference in Detroit), a growing number of companies are turning greens into gold.

Underserved Twin Cities neighborhoods to benefit from EPA grant

Read the full story from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

A $300,000 federal grant may help pump economic life into some formerly polluted lands in the Twin Cities area. On May 31, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) selected the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to receive $300,000 in funding for brownfields site revitalization. The funds will be used to help assess, cleanup and redevelop vacant and unused properties in underserved neighborhoods in the Twin Cities region.