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Every day, the 550 half-ton Holstein cows on Dennis Haubenschild’s dairy farm near Princeton, Minnesota eat 90 pounds of food, produce eight gallons of milk and create 220 pounds of waste and manure.On another farm, cows making a quarter of their weight in waste pose a daily hazard. Manure from dairy farms festers in large lagoons, threatening ground and surface waters. It also creates global warming gases like methane, and the stench keeps neighbors indoors.But at Haubenschild’s, a family farm 10 times bigger than the average Minnesota dairy operation, each cow generates 5.5 kilowatt hours of electricity daily. That lets the neighbors smell the daisies on the windiest days and has eliminated the equivalent of 680 tons of carbon dioxide in 10 months.Haubenschild’s methane-fired electricity generator, engineered with assistance from the EPA’s AgStar Project, is a dream come true. “I’ve been interested in methane digestion since the 1970s,” he says. “I had no doubt that it would work; it just took quite a few years to tie everything together.”When federal regulators’ concern about the damaging greenhouse effects of methane – it’s 21 times as potent as CO2 – and Minnesota agriculture officials’ concern for declining farm incomes coincided in the […]
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Few people associate clean transportation with the smell of french fries sizzling in hot grease, but used vegetable oil can be converted into an alternative fuel with many environmental advantages. In 1995, the Hawaiian island of Maui became concerned about environmental and health problems resulting from restaurant grease clogging its landfill. Operators complained that static pile fires were becoming more frequent, and the oil could leak into groundwater. Robert King, owner of King Diesel on Maui, spearheaded the formation of Pacific Biodiesel (PacBio) in 1996. PacBio receives used oil directly from pump trucks that service restaurants and hotels, and the company converts this into 150,000 gallons of premium biodiesel each year. This fuel, made totally from recycled cooking oil, is used in generators, commercial diesel equipment, boats and vehicles. More than 40 tons of used cooking oil is recycled each month. Customers range from private businesses to farmers who fill their five-gallon buckets with fuel for their tractors. Biodiesel is safe for use in all conventional diesel engines, says King, and requires no engine modifications. Torgue, horsepower, and fuel economy characteristics are similar to regular diesel fuel. Engine durability may even be increased because lower sulfur content results in more […]
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One thing Ecos Corporation - a leading sustainability consulting firm - learned from the September 11 terrorist attack is the strong connection between safety and sustainability.
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It's easy for magazines to use recycled paper and the costs keep going down.
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Conservation International and Ford Motor Company have joined to create the Center for Environmental Leadership in Business. A five-year, $25 million contribution from the Ford Motor Company Fund supports the effort, which engages the private sector to create solutions to global environmental problems. The Center concentrates on industries with the greatest environmental impact and those with the potential to bring about positive environmental change – agriculture and fisheries, forestry, energy and mining, travel and leisure, transportation, manufacturing, and financial services. The goal is for industries to replicate proven best practices around the globe. Some of the initial projects are: * Water Conservation. The site of a Ford Motor Company manufacturing plant in Sonora, Mexico, will be used to develop replicable business practices and public policies that conserve water resources, enhance water quality, and protect watersheds in critical ecosystems. * Natural Resource Development. Industry and environmental leaders are developing best practices for oil, gas and minerals exploration and development. * Food and Agriculture. Leaders in the food and beverage industry are developing sourcing guidelines to conserve ecosystems affected by global agriculture.* Tourism. Tour operators are developing conservation principles for day-to-day operations environmental criteria for suppliers. http://www.celb.org
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Finding the terrorists should be part of a much more ambitious campaign - a New Marshall Plan, exhorts Dick Bell & Michael Renner of the Worldwatch Institute.
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Globalization and Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges for the Financial Services Sector, a UNEP Finance Initiatives Roundtable report. It covers implications for the insurance sector, lending banks and asset management, innovative approaches to environmental management and reporting in financial institutions, and microfinance as an opportunity for the financial services sector. fi@unep.ch“Sustainable and Responsible Investment Strategies: A Guide for Fiduciaries and Institutional Investors” is a new guide from SRI World Group to help institutional investors incorporate social, economic, and environmental factors into the investment process. It explains how institutional investors – representing about approximately $7 trillion in assets – can capitalize on market opportunities and generate social and environmental benefits for their participants. Strategies analyzed in the guide include corporate governance, proxy voting, shareowner resolutions, screening, and best-in-class investing. www.ishareowner.comAmy Domini, one of the originators of social investing, has published a book, Socially Responsible Investing: Making a Difference and Making Money. She shows readers how to evaluate companies to invest in as well as methods of investment.
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Achieving a green building demands a holistic approach, far beyond a little recycled plastic decking here, a few solar panels there, and a coat of low-VOC paint, says Steven Winters Associates, organizers of a new web site, the Whole Building Design Guide. Its producers hope to educate designers in environmentally sound design and simplify access to criteria and standards. www.wbdg.orgAnother site, Roadmaps to Energy Efficiency, is a step-by-step guide to retrofitting commercial properties to improve energy efficiency and reduce operating costs. There are three ways (RoadMaps) to do it: do it yourself, hire an energy consultant firm, or work with an energy service company. Case studies and calculators demonstrate the benefits that have been achieved in buildings throughout the country.http://energyroadmaps.org
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Want help in accessing the financial aspects of a renewable energy project? RET Finance (Renewable Energy Technology Financial Model) is an online calculator that simulates a 30-year nominal dollar cash flow for a variety of renewable energy projects. You can calculate project earnings, detailed cash flows and debt payments, based on your assumptions. It also computes the cost of electricity for a project, after-tax rate of return, and debt service coverage ratio. You an create several scenarios and save or send them. http://nrel.communityzero.com/retfinanceThe new version of RETScreen International – used to evaluate energy production, lifecycle costs and greenhouse gas emissions – is online. It can be used for off-grid, grid-connected and water pumping projects. [sorry this link is no longer available]Whether you’re a solar do-it-yourselfer or want to get into the profession, S??nergy provides an on-line course for you. Online offerings include PV, Passive Solar Design, Environmental Building Design, Wind & Water Power, Solar Hot Water, Solar Cooking and Drying & Water Purification. [sorry this link is no longer available]A new report, Solar Generation, concludes that solar power could provide energy for more than 1 billion people, creating over 2 million jobs by 2020, and 26% of global energy needs […]
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The newly re-named Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World) is two years old and is on its way to fulfilling its mission as a carrot for sustainability. Each year, the Zurich-based SAM Group analyzes the 2,500 largest companies in the Dow Jones Global Index looking for cream of the crop of companies that meet sustainable business criteria – the top 10 percent of each industry group. A year ago, the index consisted of 236 companies around the world. This year, the number of companies increased to 312 – 62 industries in 26 countries. SAM credits this increase to a greater interest among companies in incorporating sustainable business practices. ” It is encouraging to see the progress different sectors and companies made during the last twelve months,” says Ivo Knoepfel, Head of Index Research at SAM. ” The increasing level of sustainability competition creates value for the companies and for investors.” Alcoa and Starbucks are new additions to the index this year. Placer Dome, a Canadian mining company and Bethlehem Steel have been dropped. New indexes will be added to the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes family. Dow Jones Indexes, SAM Group and STOXX Limited just launched a regional index that […]
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