- Home
- Featured (Page 106)
Featured
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 […]
Read More
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?
Read More
Top 20 for EnvironmentThis was the first year the Financial Times included an environmental category in its annual survey of the world’s most respected companies. 914 CEOs from 65 countries and 110 media commentators and nongovernmental organizations were asked which 20 companies they perceived as having the best environmental reputation. Surprisingly, both camps chose BP (British Petroleum) as number one! Apparently, both groups gave BP an “A” for effort. A CEO commented, “They have got this ‘beyond petroleum’ tag these days, but I think they do live up to it.” And an activist summed it up, “Although they have a long way to go, they deserve credit for their effort.” CEOs picked Royal Dutch/ Shell as number two, another highly regarded oil industry leader; the media/activist group chose The Body Shop. Toyota placed third with CEOs; Honda and Ford placed third and fourth with the media/activist camp, and Shell rated fifth. Toyota and Honda won praise for taking the lead on efficient vehicles and for recycling car parts. Ford received support for its Michigan factory roof garden, its recycling efforts and support of national parks. From here, the groups diverged. CEOs like ExxonMobil, media and activists like McDonald’s (for their […]
Read More
The Asian region is taking a leadership position in industrial ecology, with at least 100 projects planned for China, Thailand, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Japan. Funded by the Asian Development Bank, this handbook provides an overview of every facet of eco-industrial park development: policy; financing; urban planning and education; specific architectural, technical, recruitment, and management considerations in industrial park design. It includes examples from around the world. While this new edition is regionally-based, most of the content is fully applicable for projects in other regions, developed and developing alike. Contact the author: Ernest LoweDownload the handbook: http://www.indigodev.com/Handbook.html
Read More
What's the status of organic food certification is China?
Read More
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.
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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!
Read More
Victory! Illegal Mahogany Logging Stopped in Brazil Amazon & Dutch banks pull out of palm oil plantations.
Read More
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 […]
Read More
Loading...