In the report, “An Assessment of Brownfield Redevelopment Policies: The Michigan Experience,” Professor Richard Hula of Michigan State University examines Michigan’s experience with brownfield redevelopment policies. It is a useful guide for federal, state and local government agencies that wish to implement similar policies. Download the report: http://endowment.pwcglobal.com/grants/Richard_Hula.asp
The UK Building Research Establishment (BRE) has developed an environmental rating system for homes, dubbed EcoHomes. The voluntary certification ranges from pass to excellent based on an independent auditor’s assessment. Auditors examine homes from seven perspectives: energy, transport, pollution, materials, water, ecology/land use, and health/well-being. The certification is available for both new construction and renovated houses and apartments. A companion reference guide, “Green Guide for Housing Specification,” describes the environmental impacts of the various materials most commonly used in home building. http://www.bre.co.uk
Designed by Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum (HOK), one of the leading architectural firms in sustainable design, the World Resources Institute’s offices include many environmental design features. You can learn about the easily available efficient appliances, commercial carpet and flooring products, furniture, lighting, paint, and other products by taking a virtual tour of their 38,000-square-foot office in Washington, DC. They list their suppliers with their contact information. Office doors, for example, are made from wheat straw; reception area floors are made from bamboo and cork. They made extensive use of energy efficient lighting and appliances, along with sensors to cut off or reduce the power supply when products are not in use. To learn more about the design elements used: [sorry this link is no longer available]
Worldwatch has released Vital Signs 2000: The Environmental Trends That Are Shaping Our Future. The series is known for graphically depicting key trends that often escape the attention of the news media and world leaders. The general conclusion of this year’s report is that severe social and economic inequities are confounding attempts to reverse environmental degradation. “From the global digital divide to the devastating AIDS and tuberculosis epidemics, the trends in Vital Signs 2000 are exposing numerous fault lines between the North and the South, within nations, and between men and women,” says Worldwatch senior researcher Michael Renner, co-author of the report. “At the same time, however, we need an unprecedented level of cooperation to solve global problems.” Third World debt hit a new high of $2.5 trillion in 1999, with some of the world’s poorest nations devoting 30 percent of their national budgets to debt servicing. Developing countries have been hit hard by devastating floods and landslides, worsened by deforestation. The report points to other problematic trends: the proliferation of synthetic chemicals; deteriorating water supplies; and increasing infections from HIV and Tuberculosis. Worldwide, carbon emissions fell .2 percent in 1999, marking a second consecutive year of decline. But much […]
Individuals and organizations that want to see emissions permits taken off the market can now purchase them online at Natsource’s Environmental Action desk. Greenhouse gas emission credits and SO2 credits are usually purchased by businesses that use them as a permit to pollute; in this case, purchasing them means making a direct contribution to cleaner air. Says Jack Cogen, President of Natsource, “The Environmental Action Desk caters directly to these groups by leveraging our brokerage expertise in emissions markets and our global reach to create a user-friendly trading structure facilitating retail trades.” Retail trades are conducted on the site via e-mail or fax and are administered by a retail trading expert. Environmental Club students from Los Altos High School (Los Altos, California) purchased the first GHG emissions reduction credits. They bought several hundred tons worth of credits generated by forest sequestration projects in Panama led by Futuro Forestal. The credits are verified by Centro Cientifico de los Tropicos, a nonprofit organization headquartered in San Jose, Costa Rica. The Environmental Club will permanently retire the credits. The Center for Neighborhood Technology purchased several tons of SO2 credits. The Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sustainable urban development, will retire the allowances. […]
The nonprofit dispute resolution organization IDR Associates has published The Process Of Business/Environmental Collaborations: Partnering For Sustainability. The book focuses on the process of business and environmental collaborations, providing case studies and practical advice to foster activities that meet environmental and economic goals. It covers the range of challenges organizations face when collaborating, from choosing appropriate partners to managing the partnership. Five in-depth case studies highlight how organizations can partner in the face of different motivations and values. The book draws from 40 case studies which are on the website. The case studies describe partnerships that benefit forests, water, land development, and wildlife. IDR: http://www.idrassociate.org. You can order the book through Amazon.com or Quorum Press.
Communities and citizens nationwide are frustrated by their inability to halt the disturbing pattern of ecologically destructive and aesthetically unappealing pattern of land development. William Honachefsky, in his book, “Ecologically Based Municipal Land Use Planning” promulgates that the solution to this dilemma lies in communities’ willingness to construct a Municipal Master Plan. “Until we get local land use planning under control, we will never clean up the environment or stop sprawl,” he says. He believes sprawl is a product of backward planning which puts the potential economic value of the land ahead of the valuable ecological processes the land is already performing. He shows how to elevate preservation of the community’s “ecological infrastructure” to the highest priority of the Municipal Master Plan. Otherwise, local planners are subject to the futile effort of mitigating impacts from a “death of a thousand cuts” as they review one development application after another. Amazon.com has this title.
A report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, “Clean Power Surge: Ranking the States,” documents and analyzes the surge of interest for renewable energy on the part of many U.S. states. Commitments made by about a third of the states will increase use of these energy sources in the U.S. by 40 percent over 1997 levels, providing clean power to meet the entire electricity needs of 4 million homes. This is equivalent to taking 3.4 million cars off the road in terms of reduced carbon dioxide emissions. States are ranked based on their accomplishments in supporting new and existing renewable electricity generation and capacity, increasing renewables’ share of state electricity use, and providing funding to support renewables. In general, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Texas, New Jersey, Minnesota, and California have made the most significant commitments to developing new renewables. UCS also identifies the states that have not shown support for renewables. [sorry this link is no longer available]
Automated Power Exchange (APX), an Internet trading firm that develops and operates power exchanges for electric energy, is pioneering wholesale renewable energy trades. APX operates markets in California and the Midwest and is expanding into New York, Washington State, and Ohio later this year. In the “APX Green Power Market green generators can sell their power into the commodity energy market on a yearly basis by trading green tickets. This helps the industry meet real-time end-user demand from renewable energy sources; geothermal, wind, solar, small hydro, biomass, and landfill gas. Renewable energy is traded as commodity energy that flows into the transmission grid and as a green ticket that represents the premium over and above the commodity price that buyers are willing to pay for the environmental benefits of this power. Says Ed Cazalet, CEO of APX, “Green tickets provide our customers with a simple way to lock in their prices for the green attribute up to a year in advance. For green power marketers, green tickets gives them the option to lock in their purchases. This also makes it easy for both baseload and intermittent generators to receive a green premium for every megawatt-hour they produce, since the number […]
Climate Ark is a new climate change Internet search engine which allows you to search the best Climate Change web sites. You can quickly scan the most recent news on the subject too. Pacific Institute’s Climate Change Website has a resource page with links to over 200 selected websites including science, impacts and mitigation measures. The list links to two research bibliographies, a 2,000+ citation bibliography of climate change impacts on wildlife species, and a 900+ bibliography on climate change impacts on U.S. watersheds. The Pembina Institute’s “Climatechangesolutions.com” is a new website of resources and success stories on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is aimed at Canadian companies but the information is easily generalized. The U.S. EPA’s Climate Information and Outreach Program is making its education and outreach materials on global warming available to individuals and organizations interested in informing the public about climate change. Brochures, fact sheets, slide shows, videos, and CD-ROMs can be downloaded free of charge from the ClimateLink website. A new State and Local Climate Change Outreach Kit on CD-ROM focuses on voluntary strategies state and local government leaders can take to reduce greenhouse gases while help states and communities save money, improve air […]
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