FEATURES AND NEWS
Beyond delivering maximum thermal benefits, and reducing the amount of energy used to heat and cool the building, denim insulation also has a high percentage of recycled content.
Companies are increasingly looking for better ways to report on sustainability performance, driven by customer and investor demands. Last month’s COP 21 climate talks in Paris saw more than 100 companies including Ikea, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Walmart, Kellogg and Dell commit to set and report on “science-based emissions targets,” in line ... Read more »
Leading oil and gas companies are failing to adequately disclose meaningful information on emissions of methane, according to a new report by the Environmental Defense Fund. The report, Rising Risk: Improving Methane Disclosure in the Oil and Gas Sector, examines the current state of voluntary reporting on methane in the US ... Read more »
Arizona Public Service – which serves more than 1 million customer as the largest electric utility in the Grand Canyon State – has refused to respond to a request (Docket No. AU-00000A-15-0309) from the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) “to voluntarily refrain from making campaign contributions in support of, or in ... Read more »
Sequim, Washington-based Clallam County Public Utility District #1 (PUD) voted on December 15 to recommended 3.8 percent increase in retail electric utility rates paid by its 30,000 customers. The retail electric rate increase is equal to about $4.20 per month for the average PUD residential customer, who uses about 1,200 ... Read more »
Partner Content
GRI’s Sustainability and Reporting 2025 Forum met in Rome in October to sketch out the future of sustainability reporting they see emerging. Climate change was a hot topic among attendees including Amy Zalman (World Future Society) and Giuseppe Onufrio (Greenpeace Italy).
The leading environment, health and safety software suppliers are CMO, Enablon, Gensuite, Intelex, Medgate, ProcessMAP, IHS, SAP and Rivo, according to a Verdantix benchmark. The study findings are based on a 185-point questionnaire, live product demonstrations and buying preference data from interviews with 312 EHS managers in 18 countries around ... Read more »
Through a technology licensing agreement with Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies, ACWA Services will offer an advanced nutrient recovery solution to UK water companies and anaerobic digestion (AD) operators. Ostara’s Pearl process recovers 85 percent of the phosphorus and nitrogen from wastewater streams at municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants and ... Read more »
One thing that they have plenty of in Marana, AZ, is sunlight. The town’s 18-facility school district, which is spread over 550 square miles, is taking advantage of that abundant resource with a two-phase solar project. The goal, according to officials, is to save $175,000 annually for the next two ... Read more »
LEDs offer advantages to the horticulture industry that go far beyond those they provide to other industries and to consumers. Scientists say that light at certain spectral levels is more helpful to chlorophyll absorption than others, according to LEDs Magazine. Thus, LEDs – in which spectral output can be controlled – ... Read more »
Partner Content
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Better Buildings Challenge recognized Placer County, CA, for improving efficiency across its footprint by 20 percent over a ten-year period, according to Proud Green Building News. The showcase project, the Granlibakken Conference Center and Resort, expects to cut energy use by 43 percent and ... Read more »
The United Kingdom’s largest battery array is now online, according to Business Green. AES UK & Ireland said that its Kilroot Advancion Energy Storage Array in Northern Ireland is now available for Harmonised Ancillary Services provision, the story said. The capacity of the facility is 10 MW. The plan is ... Read more »
China has become the first country in the world to issue official rules on issuing “green bonds” — bonds that are dedicated to financing sustainable solutions. The new rules are aimed at kickstarting a booming green bond market in China to raise much-needed capital from the private sector globally to ... Read more »
Building owners and facility managers are continually monitoring building conditions while trying to balance performance and occupant comfort with the cost of running a building efficiently. It’s an important balancing act. Efficiency is important but it cannot come at the expense of comfort, which can impact a person’s productivity and ... Read more »
Major US coal producer Arch Coal filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today. Arch Coal says it expects its mining operations and customer shipments to continue uninterrupted throughout the reorganization. The company says the restructuring agreement with lenders will eliminate more than $4.5 billion in debt from its balance sheet ... Read more »
Houston-based AP Gas and Electric (APG&E), a retail energy provider (REP), filed with the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) (Docket No. 45486) on December 30, requesting that a declaratory or other order be issued, “stating that the mayor of the city of McAllen … exceeded the city’s jurisdiction when ... Read more »
One Big Switch – an aggregator that claims to be “the world’s largest discount energy club, with over 800,000 members” – has entered the U.S. market in Dallas and is seeking licenses to do business in other states. Founded in 2011 in Australia, the company expanded to Scotland and then ... Read more »
New hazardous waste rules will limit retailers’ ability to recycle or reuse unsold consumer products and pharmaceuticals and could cost retailers millions — if not billions — annually, according to a handful of trade associations. The EPA proposed the waste management regulations in September in an attempt to protect waterways and ... Read more »
Breeze has released a new version of AERMET, the meteorological data preprocessing software for the AERMOD Modeling System for environmental health and safety (EHS) professionals. The AERMOD Modeling System is a steady-state plume model that incorporates air dispersion based on planetary boundary layer turbulence structure and scaling concepts, including treatment ... Read more »
From the conceptual standpoint, cogeneration makes a tremendous amount of sense. After all, it’s difficult to argue with the idea of meeting two needs with a single platform. The good news for proponents is that use of cogeneration – combined heat and power – is growing. Two examples of the progress that ... Read more »
The Berryessa Union School District in California has invested $11 million in solar panels, according to The Mercury News. The story says that OpTerra Energy Services told the district in October 2015 that it plans to install panels and the district’s 13 schools and the district office. The presentation, the ... Read more »
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded $46 million to the Vermont Energy Investment Corp. (VEIC) to improve energy efficiency and increase use of renewable energy in rural areas of the state. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack is quoted in the release as saying that the aid will help spread costs ... Read more »
A new study conducted on behalf of the Omaha, Nebraska-based Platte Institute for Economic Research has found that, while electricity rates in the Cornhusker State are the third-lowest in the West North Central (WNC) region of the country, they are increasing at a much faster pace than those in neighboring ... Read more »
The Public Service Commission (PSC) of the District of Columbia has formally “sunsetted” its Retail Competition Working Group (RCWG), effective December 17 (Order No. 18065). The Retail Competition Working Group was formed in 1999 with the mandate to make recommendations to the commission on the steps required to implement retail ... Read more »
Water conservation and saving money on water bills are likely top of mind for facility managers and owner/operators going into the new year. Forty out of 50 state water managers expect water shortages under average conditions in some portion of their states over the next decade, according to the EPA. ... Read more »