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SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utility District) offers customers the opportunity to purchase rooftop solar PV panels through their PV Pioneer II Program. Units are net metered; any excess power is sold back to the utility. and on days when the PV panels can’t meet a household’s demand, the customer buys the additional energy from SMUD. SMUD will “buy down” over half the cost of the system. A typical 2-kilowatt system generates enough energy to offset about half the annual energy needs of a household and costs under $4500 through SMUD (total cost is over $10,000). A financing program to provide a loan is also available. In Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has started a $1.2 million Residential Photovoltaic Program. It will install 125 PV rooftop systems on customer homes in 1999. Six 75-watt modules will be placed on the roof, providing about two-thirds of the energy needed for a typical home. Interested people are encouraged to contact them to find out if the roof meets specifications. The PV program has been successfully tested on six homes. SMUD: riwasko@smud.org [sorry this link is no longer available] FROM Solar Today
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By 2050, the ozone layer is likely to return to the condition it was in before 1970, when freon was first used, according to the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion 1998, by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The predicted recovery depends, of course, on fully implementing the Montreal Protocol, including its ultimate goal of a total ban on ozone-destroying chemicals in the 165 countries that are parties to it. The U.S. has kept its commitment to ban CFCs and developing countries will begin phasing out the chemicals this year. Unfortunately, one of the riders passed for this year’s U.S. budget postponed the phase-out of methyl bromide until 2005. CFCs already in the stratosphere will peak at about 2020 before gradually declining. FROM E Magazine
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New York City is a leader among municipalities that are incorporating green building practices into the construction process. The results of their efforts thus far are in High Performance Building Guidelines. Besides covering the usual topics – site design, energy, indoor environment, materials and products, water – it examines post-construction issues of construction administration, commissioning and operations/maintenance. Each chapter contains a series of “Performance Goals” and strategies for reaching the goals. It includes NYC’s green guidelines, and a high performance building workplan and sample. 144 pg., $25. City of New York Department of Design & Construction: [sorry this link is no longer available] You can also find High Performance Building Guidelines from Pennsylvania at the website in the previous article. FROM Environmental Building News
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“Industrial Systems of Tomorrow: Finding Sustainability Through Natural Cycles” is a documentary film for grade 10 – Adult which demonstrates the efforts of several pioneers who are finding ways to improve the bottom line through pollution prevention and other forms of sustainability practices (soft & hard) found throughout business. The video introduces the theory and reality of a sustainable business in four innovative companies: * Digital Equipment Corporation: their reclamation and refurbishment processes alone have saved them many thousands of dollars. * Robins Company, a medium sized metallurgical corporation: industrial analysis allowed them to cut their water needs by 95%. They reclaim, reuse, and recycle what was formerly considered industrial waste into new profits. * Tom’s of Maine challenges their personnel to think and act green, creating improved sales. * Stonyfield Farm demonstrates that what is good for the environment has to be good for the bottom line. The Video Project: Media for a Safe & Sustainable World: 800-475-2638 videoproject@videoproject.org [sorry this link is no longer available]
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A new study, “Instruments of Change: Motivating and Financing Sustainable Development”, has been written for UNEP by Dr. Theodore Panayotou of the Harvard Institute for International Development. It comprehensively examines how the proper uses of market-based incentive systems and improved institutional arrangements can offer policy-makers, especially in developing and transitional economies, a menu of effective economic tools in their efforts to protect the environment and conserve natural resources. It cover tradeable permits, user fees, pollution charges, subsidies, environmental taxes, fines, among many others. Earthscan Publications: earthinfo@earthscan.co.uk UNEP Environment, Economics and Trade Unit: eteu@unep.ch
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Amory Lovins and Ernst von Weizsaecker will be teaching a two-week residential course, Natural Capitalism, at Schumacher College, England, in June 1999. Previous industrial revolutions needed to make people 100-fold more productive because the relative scarcity of people was limiting economic development. Today we face a new pattern of scarcity in which people are abundant but nature is becoming scarce. The cornerstone of the next economy will be radically improved resource productivity. Natural capitalism redesigns industry on ecological principles, with closed loops and zero waste. It shifts the economy from the episodic acquisition of goods to the continuous flow of value and service. And it reinvests in restoring, sustaining and expanding the stock of natural capital. Applications to participate in this course are invited from those already working in the business world who are able to take advantage of a pragmatic guide to redesigning their business’ logic, structure, culture, processes, and products – people who are best placed to become the leaders in the next Industrial Revolution. Taught by Amory Lovins, co-author of Natural Capitalism and Ernst Von Weizaecker, president of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, and co-author with Amory Lovins of Factor Four. schumcoll@gn.apc.org [sorry this […]
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Solar power can produce steam and will do so for the first time in a national electricity grid in two Federal government projects. Stephen Kaneff, of Anutech, a recipient of the funding, began work on the dish system 30 years ago. Sunlight is focused on a boiler to produce steam at about 500 degrees Celsius. The project will generate an estimated 2 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 1500 houses. He believes this will jump-start an internationally competitive Australian industry for large-scale solar thermal power. This is one of five installations being funded through the Renewable Energy Showcase Program. The others are: a 5-megawatt solar thermal power array at a power station, a biomass cogeneration plant, a process which separates organic matter from municipal waste and converts it into electricity, and two variable-speed wind turbines.
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A resource for business- to- business matchmaking is available between Indian and foreign companies in environmental technologies, products and services, with a special focus on clean and greenhouse gas mitigating technologies. Environmental companies are invited to send their company profiles for listing in the Environmental Information Centre business database. This is joint project of The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Rita Chaudhury, Manager, Environmental Information Centre: emcisee@del2.vsnl.net.in
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Collins & Aikman, the first U.S. company to use a carpet-into-carpet manufacturing process, is using only 100 percent recycled-content carpet backing for its line of modular carpet tiles. The company will reclaim any carpet product ever made. The initiative offers recycled products that are superior to virgin materials, at a comparable cost. 121 companies have already are purchased the Powerbond ER3 backing. The manufacturing process eliminates volatile organic compounds, which impact indoor air quality. Because their carpet tiles can be installed using a glue-free adhesive, Collins & Aikman is the only manufacturer to pass the State of Washington’s strict air-quality protocol for carpet. Four billion pounds of carpet backing are disposed of annually.
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According to a report by Resource Data International (RDI), a Boulder, CO. consulting and energy information firm, green electricity represents one of the fastest growing consumer markets in the U.S. By the year 2003, the green market will capture up to $37.5 billion or half of the $75 billion in annual sales of residential electricity in the U.S. In 1997 test market programs, 20 percent of New Hampshire customers selected a green electricity option, while green electricity captured 31 percent of the market in Massachusetts. As the green market for electricity grows, it will drive construction of renewable energy plants by 40 percent over the next 10 years nationally, and by 60 percent in the Western U.S. Todd Myers, Resource Data International: tmyers@resdata.com
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