Read the full story from Physics World.
Using the Amazon as a case study, researchers have explored the tradeoffs between four ecosystem services – agricultural production, carbon storage, biophysical climate regulation, and biodiversity. Their results highlight the difficulty of managing landscapes for multiple environmental goals, but could also help guide complex decisions and balance priorities.
Read the full story in the Washington Post.
In a quest to shrink national monuments last year, senior Interior Department officials dismissed evidence that these public sites boosted tourism and spurred archaeological discoveries, according to documents the department released this month and retracted a day later.
The thousands of pages of email correspondence chart how Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his aides instead tailored their survey of protected sites to emphasize the value of logging, ranching and energy development that would be unlocked if they were not designated national monuments.
Read the full story in Governing.
California became the first state in the nation in May to require that all new homes and apartment buildings three stories or fewer have rooftop solar panels starting in 2020. The move, according to the California Energy Commission, will cut energy use in new homes by more than 50 percent and “reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equivalent to taking 115,000 fossil fuel cars off the road.”
Read the full story in Corn & Soybean Digest.
The lack of a rapid, cost-effective test for soil nitrogen is clearly a problem. Soil scientists at The Ohio State University and Cornell University think they have found a solution. They have shown that a test originally developed for extracting a particular protein in soil is actually a good test for a variety of proteins. Proteins are by far the largest pool of available organic nitrogen in soil. A good, quick test for protein in the soil could also be used as a test for available nitrogen.
Read the full story in GreenBiz.
American consumers are growing increasingly concerned about food safety and chemical hazards. Over the past 10 years, the market has shifted away from products containing bisphenol A (BPA) — previously found in baby bottles, sippy cups and food packaging — following widespread consumer demand for safer products. But BPA is not the only chemical of concern in the food supply that should be on the radar of sustainability professionals.
Meet the new BPA: phthalates and PFAS.
This guide from Clean Production Action explains the environmental and health effects of PFAS and offers guidance on purchasing PFAS-free food service ware, including bowls, plates, and takeout containers.
Read the full story in Chemical & Engineering News.
Supporting the chemical management law is good for competitiveness, Europe’s chemical industry now says.
Read the full article in Science.
Humans and wildlife are continuously exposed to multiple chemicals from different sources and via different routes, both simultaneously and in sequence. Scientific evidence for heightened toxicity from such mixtures is mounting, yet regulation is lagging behind. Ensuring appropriate regulation of chemical mixture risks will require stronger legal stimuli as well as close integration of different parts of the regulatory systems in order to meet the data and testing requirements for mixture risk assessment.
Read the full story from Environmental Leader.
Target already exceeded its 2020 goal to divert 70% of retail waste from landfills through reuse or recycling, according to the company’s newly published 2018 corporate responsibility report. As a result, Target set a new goal to achieve a 75% diversion rate by the end of this year.
In 2017, Target says the company diverted 74% of their retail waste from landfills through salvage, donations, organics, reuse or recycling.
“Our progress is a result of the Salvage and Waste teams’ efforts in managing the salvage, donation, organics, recycling and trash programs for US headquarters, distribution centers, and Target stores,” according to the report.
Read the full story from Waste360.
The 40 under 40 winner shares how he came up with a process to move the campus’ first building toward zero waste.
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