CleanTech, Sustainability, Environment & Green Business - monthly presentations, networking & idea sharing

The insurance industry should view two recent climate change stories of significance as a clarion call to action. Ignoring the risks could one day open up a flood of legal troubles for the industry.

Coca Cola signed a 10-year contract with UTC Power that will bring two fuel cells to a southern New York bottling plant, where they will produce enough heat and energy to satisfy nearly a third of the facility's needs. The state of New York also provided $2 million for the project.

Efforts by the world's leading cement companies slowed the rate of growth of carbon dioxide emissions from the industry's manufacturing process even while production climbed by 53 percent, according to a new report by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Cement Sustainability Initiative.

In the search for a clean, planet-friendly fuel, the startup Qteros has discovered and refined a microbe it calls the Q Microbe that turns biomass -- switchgrass, wood chips, grass, corn stover or even municipal liquid waste -- into ethanol.

Green building experts from the 7group consultancy and integrative design pioneer Bill G. Reed provide a clear, practical manual on the whole-building approach to sustainability.

The EPA announced plans to create tougher rules to reduce air pollution from U.S.-flagged ships Wednesday, the same day new fuel regulations for ocean-going vessels went into effect in California. A day earlier, the state finally received a long sought-after waiver that allows it to regulate vehicle tailpipe emissions in its efforts to address climate change.

Inexperience can be a tremendous asset when it provides the opportunity to look at a problem with fresh eyes. Asking the naive question may lead to initiatives that will save companies money while also reducing environmental impacts.

This report from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's Cement Sustainability Initiative summarizes the work thus far in the nearly 3-year-old effort by the council and the industry's largest companies to make global cement production cleaner and greener.

Yahoo! today said it will no longer purchase carbon offsets for its operations, focusing its climate strategy on reducing the energy used by its data centers.

Behavioral economists will tell you that the simple act of placing an electricity consumption meter in plain view can substantially cut a home's energy use. The same goes for real-time miles-per-gallon meters in cars, which change the way we drive. When the price of costly activities isn't hidden from us, we're more likely to pursue those activities prudently.
Tuesday
Thursday
July 9, 2009 from 7pm to 10pm – 5TANDA SONIC, Gotanda
Wednesday
August 5, 2009 from 10am to 11am – Online Webinar
Monday
Thursday
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Businesses wanting to adopt “greener” landscaping in their office complexes increasingly will find more products and companies offering such solutions.
Landscape maintenance companies are implementing eco-friendly practices. As an example, Team Innovative Inc. uses an inverter inside its equipment trailer to charge reusable batteries while getting power from a battery charged by the truck, reports Kitsap [...]
By 2015, SAB Miller, which markets more than 200 brands of beer and is the world’s largest bottler of Coca-Cola products, hopes to reduce by 25 percent the amount of water used to brew each hectoliter of beer.
Currently, the $25 billion company uses 4.6 hectoliters of water per hectoliter of beer produced. The goal is [...]
Building on its smart-grid initiative announced in May, Cisco Systems has unveiled its Smart Connected Buildings solution, at Cisco Live in San Francisco, as a key component for delivering its vision for Smart+Connected Communities.
The networking equipment giant also rolled out the first Smart Connected Building solution, the Network Building Mediator, which will interconnect and enable [...]
UTC Power, a United Technologies Corp. company, announced it will supply two of its new PureCell Model 400 fuel cell systems to Coca-Cola Enterprises’ production facility in Elmsford, N.Y.
The two fuel cell systems will generate energy and heat for 30 percent of the facility’s operations, according to UTC Power, based in South Windsor, Conn. The [...]
Nearly 17 percent of all single-family homes built nationally in 2008 earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Energy’s Energy Star label, up from 12 percent in 2007, indicating that both home builders and home buyers continue to invest in energy-efficient homes.
Energy-efficient features including properly installed insulation, high-performance windows and high-efficiency heating and cooling can reduce home [...]
In a study of consumer opinions of marketing claims, survey respondents identified most with the “100 percent natural” claim, according to research conducted by the Shelton Group.
The EcoPulse survey found that 60 percent of Americans say they’re looking for greener products.
Consumers said they were searching for greener products mostly in the following three product categories:
Home [...]
Architecture firm Black & Veatch’s new global headquarters will showcase sustainability standards that architects may incorporate into new designs for customers.
The Overland Park, Kan., building site has been leased by the company since 1976. Now it is purchasing the building for $60 million with an eye towards a green retrofit. The purchase is boosted by [...]
To help consumers sort out sometimes false and misleading environmental claims, Green Seal has launched its Green Seal certification for personal care products after 18 months in development.
Touted as the first U.S. standard to address the health, environmental, and labeling concerns of infants, children and adults, consumers can use the standard as a guide to [...]
From smaller electronics companies to national electronics organizations, a war is being waged against the various state regulations that mandate manufacturers provide recycling of consumer electronics.
With the recent conversion to digital television programming, more and more older television sets are being put on the curb.
To reduce environmental damage from electronics waste, governing bodies from Washington [...]
REI, Founding Farmers and The North Face are the inaugural winners of the Association for Retail Environments’ (A.R.E) Sustainability Awards launched at GlobalShop 2009 to encourage excellence in sustainable retail design. Judges awarded the highest honors to projects that balance comprehensive sustainability programs with good design.
REI’s Round Rock, Texas, store won the Project of the [...] © 2009 Created by Laurence Smith on Ning. Create Your Own Social Network