FEATURES AND NEWS
LSE Professor Nicholas Stern discusses his thoughts on the environment and the economy.
Currently available technologies could reduce global GHG emissions 35 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, according to a report released by McKinsey and Company. The total cost of implementing all of the measures contained in the report would be less than 1 percent of global gross domestic product. Pathways to ... Read more »
According to a report by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company and the Uptime Institute, the average data center consumes the same amount of energy as 25,000 households. Data centers in general may surpass the airline industry as a top greenhouse gas polluter by 2020. Clearly, as the global business ... Read more »
The American Trucking Associations (ATA) is seeking support for the industry’s environmental initiatives from Congress. The initiatives are expected to cut fuel consumption by 86 billion gallons and reduce all vehicles’ carbon footprint by almost a billion tons over the next 10 years. The association is asking Congress to enact ... Read more »
In March 2008, Denver launched a pilot test of Driving Change, an Internet-based vehicular greenhouse gas tracking system. The program found that from May through November 2008, the city and county of Denver reduced vehicle idling by more than 35 percent among participating vehicles – equivalent to reducing a little ... Read more »
Partner Content
Five electric utilities in the U.S. and Canada have joined the Electric Power Research Institute to host studies of the impacts of retrofitting carbon capture technology to existing coal-fired power plants. The five host companies are: Edison Mission Group’s Powerton Station in Pekin, Ill.; Great River Energy’s Coal Creek Station ... Read more »
HO Manufacturing has completed redesigning and upgrading its lighting systems. The retrofit project is expected to save the company nearly 201,000 kilowatt-hours per year and eliminate about 362,000 pounds of CO2 emissions annually. Lime Energy removed the company’s old metal halide lights and installed sensor lights so lights are turned ... Read more »
Recession has driven consumers to cut costs, slowing sales of organic food in the U.S., Britain, France, and Germany, Reuters reports. In the U.S., typical growth rates of 20 percent to 30 percent for organic food sales eased in the second half of 2008. Sales in December were up 5.6 ... Read more »
In 2008, University of Iowa avoided emitting 69, 000 metric tons of CO2 by using one system to generate both heat and energy for the campus. A member of the EPA’s Combined Heat and Power partnership, UI burns coal, natural gas and oat hulls at its power plant to generate ... Read more »
Intel and PepsiCo topped the EPA’s annual list of Green Power purchasers for the second year in a row, with Intel buying 1.3 million megawatt-hours – the largest renewable energy purchase in history. While PepsiCo bought slightly less green power, their 1.1 million megawatt-hours represents 100% of the company’s total ... Read more »
Partner Content
Wal-Mart announced this week goals to reduce phosphates in products in the Americas region by 70 percent by 2011. The move is part of a larger environmental plan for the region, which will also include more sustainable packaging. Phosphates, a chemical commonly found in laundry and dish detergents, pollute the ... Read more »
McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) has launched Cradle to Cradle Approved Ingredient certification, which assesses the sustainability of product ingredients for human and environmental health, as well as their capacity for being recycled or composted. This is the second certification program developed by MBDC. With the new addition, MBDC moves ... Read more »
Vacation-planning company Travelocity announced this week the launch of their new green directory to help consumers plan responsible travel. The Green Directory is a destination guide for people interested in ecotourism, but goes a step further by creating a list of hotels that are making sustainability efforts so that those ... Read more »
Al Gore spoke to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this past Wednesday about key legislation that needs to be passed to control climate problems. The Inconvenient Truth author gave a brief slide presentation showing how today’s emissions could lead to a temperature rise of up to 7.5 degrees over the ... Read more »
Kellogg is testing a shorter, deeper cereal box size and shape – made with 8% less packaging material – that it believes will save space in cupboards and revolutionize the cereal aisle, MediaBuyerPlanner writes. The new box will contain the same amount of cereal, but it will fit into pantries ... Read more »
Not long after President Barack Obama pledged to tackle climate change, the pressure has risen for him to take meaningful action ahead of the climate-change talks scheduled for December in Copenhagen. Stavros Dimas, the E.U. environment commissioner, published an open letter challenging the U.S. to be a powerful leader in ... Read more »
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named Todd Stern, a former senior White House official, as the new administration’s principal adviser on international climate policy and strategy – as well as its chief climate negotiator, Reuters reports. From 1997 to 1999, Stern coordinated climate change policy for the Clinton administration, acting ... Read more »
Cisco has introduced a new networking tool to help partners monitor energy use across an entire company. Called EnergyWise, the new system allows managers to monitor and manage energy consumption of Internet Protocol devices such as phones, laptops and access points. Cisco estimates that the program will help it save ... Read more »
Raytheon’s Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) business announced it is now participating in the Cool Planet Project and will begin reporting GHG emissions. The company has saved 7.9 million kilowatt hours of energy by participating Southern California Edison’s energy management programs. Between 2006 and 2008, SAS reduced overall energy consumption ... Read more »
Ford Motor Company announced that its 2010 Fusion and Fusion Hybrid are setting a new standard for technology innovation, having filed almost 120 U.S. patents and applications. Ford was ranked above other automakers in “Research Intensity and Industry Impact” on the Top 10 Innovators in Automotive & Transportation Patent Scorecard ... Read more »
During the Super Bowl, GE will launch its new advertising campaign, called “NOW,” with the theme of “innovation you don’t have to wait for.” The campaign will incorporate three themes including ecomagination, healthcare and global research, with a key focus on Smart Grid technologies. Last September, GE and Google announced ... Read more »
Citigroup began tracking its virtualization efforts in January 2007. So far, 10 percent of Citi’s North American IT environment is virtualized, which saves the company about $1 million per year, Citigroup Green IT director Michelle Erickson told Computerworld. The move has allowed the company reduce energy consumption by 73 percent ... Read more »
Travel site Hotwire.com has started selling carbon offsets to its customers. Through the program, Hotwire says that customers will only have to pay half of the cost that TerraPass typically charges because Hotwire will cover the other half. Once Hotwire customers make a hotel, car rental, or flight booking, they ... Read more »
Staples is now offering rewards to consumers who participate in their ink and toner recycling program. In exchange for bringing an empty cartridge to the store, they will give consumers $3 in Staples Rewards, which can be used at stores, for online shopping, or to order catalog items over the ... Read more »
In an effort to reduce its packaging by 1,400 tons, KFC is now switching from cardboard to recyclable and biodegradable paper wrapping for some of its products, Marketing Week reports. The new packaging will apply to KFC’s Fillet and Zinger burgers, which will be repackaged in paper wrappers, and the ... Read more »