Read the full story in Forbes.
The first UK high street beauty business to certify as a B-Corp in 2017 meant Jo Chidley’s Beauty Kitchen had high standards to set.
Day: May 20, 2020
Plant flowers for pollinators this World Bee Day
Read the full story at The Citizen.
Today we celebrate Earth’s miracle workers on the third annual World Bee Day.
Bees, which are integral pollinators, are responsible for almost 75% of the world’s food crops. They perform a service that is almost impossible to replicate.
From coffee to cucumbers, we have bees to thank for the fruit, vegetables and many of the beverages we consume everyday.
According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), there are over 20,000 species of bees, many of them wild.
Webinar: Air Compressor Master Controls to Prevent Control Gap
Thu, May 21, 2020 1-2 pm CDT
Register here.
Join Keynote Speaker, Tim Dugan, President and Principal Engineer, Compression Engineering Corporation, to discuss the air compressors’ need to be matched to load effectively and efficiently. He will also review the instability and/or inefficiency that can result if the air compressors’ range of variation can’t be matched to the system variation. He will also discuss the problem with control gap and what to do to avoid it.
Our first Sponsor Speaker is Pascal van Putten, CEO, VPInstruments. His presentation, “How Insertion Flow Meters Combined with Compressor Controls Save Energy at a Glass Factory,” will discuss how the glass factory uses more than 20 flow meters for insight into their compressed air consumption. He will also review the new master controller that was installed in 2019 and how the factory saves $150,000 annually on their compressed air consumption.
Our second Sponsor Speaker is Josh Borrego, Product Manager, BEKO. His presentation, “A Holistic Approach to Compressed Air System Measurement and Control,” will discuss the importance of compressed air measurement, understanding what the data entails and how to best utilize the data that is received.
This is an interactive webinar, with the opportunity to ask questions before and during the live event. Questions for Tim Dugan, Pascal van Putten and Josh Borrego can be submitted to kimberly@airbestpractices.com.
As Snowmelt Declines, Farmers in Western U.S. Could Be Among the Hardest Hit
Read the full story at e360.
As global temperatures continue to rise, farmers in the western United States who rely on snowmelt to water their crops could be one of the most severely affected agricultural communities in the world, according to a new study in the journal Nature Climate Change. Two of the most vulnerable regions to climate change will be the San Joaquin and Colorado river basins, both major producers of crops and livestock.
Coronavirus closures could lead to a radical revolution in conservation
Read the full story at The Conversation.
In the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, social media was flooded with reports of animals reclaiming abandoned environments. According to one widely shared post, dolphins had returned to the canals of Venice.
While many of those stories have since been debunked, conservationists are providing legitimate reports of cleaner air and water, and wildlife reclaiming contested habitats.
With widespread closures of parks and conservation areas around the world, could this be an opportunity to transform the way we manage and use these protected environments?
Developer sPower Teams Up With Navajo Power to Replace Coal Plant With Solar
Read the full story at Greentech Media.
Solar heavyweight sPower and local startup Navajo Power are chasing a 200-megawatt deal with Arizona utility Salt River Project, but that’s just the beginning.
Cost of saving natural gas through efficiency programs funded by utility customers: 2012–2017
This study estimates the cost of saving a therm of natural gas from energy efficiency programs funded by utility customers during the period 2012 to 2017. Berkeley Lab researchers compiled and analyzed efficiency program data reported by investor-owned utilities and other program administrators in a dozen states representative of the four U.S. Census regions — Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Utah. Depending on the year, the dataset accounts for about 50 percent to 70 percent of annual national spending on natural gas efficiency programs.
The estimated cost of saving natural gas during the study period is $0.40 per therm. The analysis also includes estimates of the program administrator cost of saved energy for three core sectors for natural gas: commercial and industrial, residential, and low-income households. It aggregates these sectors to provide regional and national values. Our metrics include savings-weighted averages, unweighted medians, and interquartile ranges (25th and 75th percentiles) of the levelized program administrator cost of saving gas, in constant 2017 dollars. In addition, the study analyzes cost trends during the study period, finding that average program costs trended downward.
Alternatives to Conventional Pesticides
Read the full story in Food Technology Magazine.
Agricultural pesticides are collaboratively regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA utilizes peer-reviewed literature and human consumption patterns determined by the Total Dietary Study to establish tolerances for pesticides. The FDA monitors and enforces those tolerances by testing residue amounts of more than 700 pesticides in human food and animal food. And the USDA provides organic standards through its National Organic Program (NOP), information on organic certification, and lists of allowed and prohibited pesticides. Consumers have shown increased interest in agricultural practices—especially regarding the environmental stewardship and safety for themselves, their children, and their pets as well as farm workers.
Solar Storage and End-of-Life Use and Recycling
Read the full story at Greentech News.
This training session provides information on solar storage and end-of-life use and recycling measures and practices. The content covers the need for energy storage, solar PV combined with storage technology, solar PV end-of-life management and battery end-of-life management.
Bumble bee disease, reproduction shaped by flowering strip plants
Read the full story from North Carolina State University.
Flowering strips — plants used to augment bee foraging habitats — can help increase bee reproduction but may also increase pathogen infection rates.
Environmental News Bits 