Rona Fried, Author at Sustainable Business - Page 2739 of 2804Sustainable Business

Home
Articles posted by: Rona Fried (Page 2739)

"Forward Drive: The Race to Build the Car of the Future"

This new book by Jim Motavalli, E Magazine editor and auto syndicated columnist, chronicles the history and future of the coming “transportation revolution” that will bring us vehicles that promise to “not only greatly reduce pollution but also to perform better, be more reliable, cruise farther, and last much longer than anything the public has ever seen.” Jim is an insightful analyst; he gives you a close look at the details of the political and financial forces behind commercialization of clean-technology vehicles. Ford Motor Co. recently announced it will produce a line of hybrid-electric cars in 2003. You can submit your comments on features you would like to see in HEVs at their website and see how the company is presenting the concept to potential customers. The Honda Insight HEV is available for sale on the West and East U.S. coasts. So far, about 400 cars have been sold. Donella Meadows bought one and writes about it on Tidepool, an excellent environmental website geared to the Northwest. If you purchase “Forward Drive,” through the Natural Resources Defense Council’s website or by clicking through this link to Amazon.com, they will receive 5%.

After a dozen years of lifestyle market research Paul Ray identified a sub-culture 50 million strong in the U.S. - he calls them the Cultural Creatives. This review looks at what sustainable businesspeople need to know about marketing to Cultural Creatives.

Last Call for Nominations: UNEP Environment Prize

The United Nations Environment Programme is accepting nominations for the 2000 UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize valued at US$200,000. The Prize is awarded each year to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the management and protection of the environment at the global level. Some of the past winners are: Chico Mendes, the Brazilian rubber tapper; Lester Brown, Director, World Watch Institute; Dr. Swaminathan, founder of the ecological economics; and last year, Ian Kiernan, founder, Clean Up the World Campaign. (rallied 40 million people from 120 countries in a progressive clean-up effort!). Nominations must be received by April 30 and will be reviewed by an international panel in July. The award will be presented at a ceremony in New York in November. Elisabeth Guilbaud-Cox, Secretary, UNEP Tore J. Brevik, Director, Information & Public Affairs http://www.unep.org/unep/per/ipa/sasakawa

First Two Fish Certified

If forests can be certified, why not fish? The Marine Stewardship Council is learning from its cousin, the Forest Stewardship Council, and is offering its label for seafood that is harvested sustainably. MSC certified its first two fish: herring fished in the Thames estuary in the UK by independent fisherman, and Australian rock lobster. The World Wide Fund for Nature, which founded the Forest Stewardship Council, and Unilever, a multinational frozen fish retailer, spearheaded the MSC. It operates similarly to forest certification; a third party auditor verifies that fish are harvested to maintain long-term sustainable yield and a certification label is affixed to the product – in this case, packaging and restaurant menus.

Court Upholds EPA's Authority

When the U.S. EPA attempted to enforce more stringent air quality standards for 22 states and Washington D.C., several states and utilities challenged their authority to do so in court. The Washington DC. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the EPA; the agency has the authority to enforce more stringent regulations regarding nitrogen oxide emissions. The pollution from these states, located mostly in the Midwest and Southeast, drifts into Northeastern states making it difficult for them to meet air quality standards.

England Moves a Forest

Before construction started on widening a highway from two to four lanes, the UK Highways Agency embarked on a complex pilot project that may be a benchmark for future road building policy. The Agency is attempting to move an ancient forest that stands in the way of road construction. In concert with local environmental specialists, 10,000 tons of soil and a grove of 100 hazel trees were moved to a nearby forest. A giant tree spade was used to move the entire grove intact. They also planted 60,000 young trees. The goal of the project is recolonize the forest in its new location.

Turner Foundation Invests in Biomass Company

The Turner Foundation, known for its support of environmental non-profits, is the lead investor in Future Energy Resources Corporation, a company working to commercialize a gasification process that generates electricity from biomass products. Considered by many to be a significant technological advance, it is the first process that can use a wide range of feedstocks including grasses, agricultural waste, wood products and municipal waste. The resulting gas can be used for electricity and transportation; it provides renewable energy at an economical price with low emissions. It also provides an important revenue source for farmers. Farmers can market waste that was previously a burden, and plant grasses such as switchgrass that are valuable for crop rotation and to restore eroded land. The first-of-its-kind commercial scale gasifier mixes biomass products with sand and heats them to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, transforming carbon, hydrogen and oxygen to combustible gases. The technology holds the promise of allowing bioenergy plants to compete with fossil fuels. The U.S. Department of Energy provided $27 million to FERCO as a demonstration project at the Joseph C. McNeil Generating Station in Burlington, Vermont. The company was created in 1992 to commercialize a biomass gasification process developed by the Battelle Memorial […]

Results of Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory

Since 1994, Canadian industry has been required to report on its releases of 176 listed pollutants. In 1999, Environment Canada expanded the list to 246. Important as the NPRI is, it covers only stationary sources of pollutants; mobile sources are much higher. The recently released 1997 NPRI results show that stationary pollutants increased by 12.7 percent from 1996. The chemical industry still ranks number one among the major industries in on-site releases of pollutants for 1997, emitting almost twice the amount of second place paper and allied products industries. Metal industries ranked third. 67 percent of emissions were released into the air. Alberta, which cut its environmental protection budget by 32 percent and environmental regulations by 50 percent, reported the three largest increases in industrial facilities in Canada. They are: Browning Ferris waste management, Agrium Inc., and Syncrude. Agrium Inc., is one of the largest producers of nitrogen fertilizers in North America. On the positive side, companies in Ontario and Quebec reduced their overall emissions by about 15 percent, both greatly reducing water discharges (64 percent for Ontario, 50 percent in Quebec). You can download the report at the NPRI website: [sorry this link is no longer available] FROM The […]

Fuel Cell Company News

International Fuel Cells, Inc. has developed an technology that increases the power of automotive fuel cells by 15 percent while shrinking their size, an important step towards commercializing fuel cells for automobiles. IFC claims the system is quieter, less complex and more efficient than the pressurized systems more commonly under development. IFC, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., supplies the fuel cells used on NASA’s Space Shuttle. Plug Power Inc. – a fuel cell systems designer for residential power generation – cut the ribbon on its new 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Latham, New York, doubling its production space. The facility will begin producing Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells for field testing later this year in preparation for commercial sales beginning in 2001. The company also recently announced that it passed a significant milestone in its hydrogen-powered fuel cell – it has been continuously operating for over 10,000 hours. FuelCell Energy, Inc. announced plans to construct a 250-kilowatt fuel cell pilot power plant next year at a Mercedes-Benz production facility in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Southern Company, Alabama Municipal Electric Authority, and Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc. are contributing to the project. The company is in final negotiations with U.S. Department of Energy […]

Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety Signed

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is the first new environmental treaty of the 21st century, and is the culmination of five years of negotiations among senior officials from over 130 governments. Governments agreed on January 29 to a legally binding agreement regulating the import and export of genetically modified organisms. Countries will communicate to the world community via an Internet-based Biosafety Clearinghouse as to whether they will accept imports containing GMOs. All shipments must be labeled. More stringent standards will be applied to seeds, fish and other GMOs that are released into the environment. The agreement will be opened for signatures during May and June. It will enter into force when 50 countries have ratified it. You can read the Protocol Agreement at the Convention on Biodiversity website.

MenuMenu