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Green Building Conference Alongside OlympicsMany of the world’s greatest green buildings will be on display alongside this year’s Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The conference and exhibition, “The Physical Fitness of Cities: Vision and Ethics in City Building” will coincide with the games, February 1-3. Countries from around the world will display their approaches and leading examples of green design. Guess who is the keynote? [sorry this link is no longer available]Royal Institute of British Architects CompetitionThe theme of this year’s competition is urban sustainability. Using the Lochend Butterfly site in Edinburgh, Scotland, students and architects may submit entries that explore issues of environmental, social and economic sustainability. Previous themes have been Ideas for a Holistic Hotel, Ideas for a Sustainable School and Zero CO2 housing. First prize for this international competition is L10,000 (US $14,500). Deadline: February 28, 2002. [sorry this link is no longer available]Green Design SchoolsThe Ecosa Institute in Prescott, Arizona is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to incorporating sustainability into the design professions. Architecture, planning, and landscape design students participate in an intensive semester program that immerses them in ecological design and whole-systems thinking. The first Total Immersion Program In Sustainable Design graduated its first […]
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Nine universities across Europe with a reputation for teaching renewable energy are joining together to offer a Masters degree in Renewable Energy. The one-year course is devised for engineers or equivalent technical background. Predicting the number of people that will be employed as renewable energy expands is difficult, but one thing is certain: there are too few training and education programs around the world for the number of people that will be needed. EWEA (European Wind Energy Association) predicts the current 30,000 wind energy jobs in Europe will increase to 190,000-320,000 new jobs to reach 40 MW of wind power. For PV, about 100,000 employees will be required to reach a production capacity of 3 GWp. The European Biomass Association projects that employment will increase to 100,000 to realize current expansion plans.Currently, most training in the field takes place as part of other coursework. A 1995-6 study of 624 companies, organizations, research centers and universities concluded there are few postgraduate level teaching materials specifically on renewable energy. The Masters course is divided into 3 parts: a Core Module providing a technical foundation in key technologies; Specialization in one technology or implementation aspect; and a Project, during which the student gains […]
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Energy will be at the forefront of the political scene over the next six weeks. Bush is expected to emphasize the importance of passing his national energy policy in the State of the Union Address January 29. Majority Leader Tom Daschle plans to bring a Senate energy bill to the floor the week of February 11. The White House will likely release the federal budget in February, revealing the Bush Administration spending priorities. Regardless of the new Freedom CAR Initiative, increasing gas mileage standards for cars, SUVs and other light trucks is the best way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, increase our energy security, and cut transportation emissions. Ask your senators to support a strong increase in auto fuel economy standards. Energy legislation emphasizing renewable fuels could boost the U.S. economy by $300 billion and create as many as 300,000 new jobs by 2016, a study sponsored by the National Biodiesel Board concludes. It finds that increased use of American made fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol would generate an additional $71 billion over the next 15 years. [sorry this link is no longer available]Do we detect a murmur of citizen activism to cut energy use? Greenpeace asks […]
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This month's Ecos Insight Column: what does it mean when the former head of Greenpeace UK takes a job with global public relations giant Burson Marsteller?
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It's not hard to imagine why the U.S. Defense Department is the nation's largest energy user ( 1% of all energy) when their tanks get .56-mpg and aircraft get 17-feet-per-gallon. Amory Lovins tells us how they can root out waste, potentially saving us $10 billion a year.
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The Federal Network for Sustainability (FNS) is a new initiative to help agencies across the federal government implement sustainable practices. It functions as a trade group and consists of representatives from the Department of Energy (DOE), EPA, General Services Administration (GSA), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), National Park Service, U.S. Army, Air Force and Navy, Bonneville Power Administration, and NASA. There have been a number of attempts to direct the single largest purchaser of products and services in the world – the U.S. federal government – toward environmental purchasing. The Environmental Preferable Purchasing program launched in 1993 and President Clinton’s 1998 “Greening of Government” Executive Orders have met with only modest success. Recently, the EPA conducted a study to find out why. They found that surprisingly, federal employees do not perceive the programs as mandates because they were issued government-wide, rather than by top management in their own agencies. Also, few employees understand the “environmentally preferable purchasing” or how to do it. FNS hopes to rectify these problems. FNS has four initiatives slated for 2001-2002: 1. Electronic Products Stewardship: FNS is supporting EPA’s efforts to develop and promote electronic product stewardship initiatives. 2. Green power: promote the use […]
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What's the status of organic food certification is China?
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Beantrees, one of the few purely organic coffee companies, is positioned to rapidly expand the company as well as the organic coffee market. Coffee is a huge market - with equally huge environmental and social ramifications. Try a cup!
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Victory! Illegal Mahogany Logging Stopped in Brazil Amazon & Dutch banks pull out of palm oil plantations.
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The Alameda County Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California (see photo) will host the largest roof-top solar electric system in the U.S. (the fourth largest in the world). PowerLight Corporation will expand the Jails existing solar array from 640 kilowatts to 1.14 megawatts – to provide 30 percent of the facility’s power needs. Along with energy efficiency improvements, the system will save the county $400,000 the first year, and $15 million over its 25-year lifespan. [sorry this link is no longer available]— — —For the past seven years, Vestas Wind Systems (Denmark), the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, has owned a 40 percent stake in the second largest manufacturer, Gamesa Eolica (Spain). The companies have parted ways and Gamesa bought its shares back. Gamesa is also purchasing the Navarre government’s nine percent stake to buy back 100 percent of the company. Analysts say Gamesa’s plans to expand in the Danish company’s markets caused the rift. Will Vestas buy Enron Wind, the only U.S.-based manufacturer of utility-scale wind turbines? Vestas plans to begin manufacturing wind turbines in the U.S. if the U.S. Production Tax Credit (PTC) is extended. The company’s goal is to increase its world market share from 18 percent […]
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