FEATURES AND NEWS
Building Energy Marketplace, a data-powered marketplace for lighting-as-a-service marketplace is, is open for business, according to Building Energy. The marketplace enables building owners and service providers to identify opportunities, get funding and track results, according to the company. At the same time, Building Energy and Allumia announced deal under which Allumia is committing ... Read more »
DENCO II, a Morris-MN ethanol plant, has received a grant of $750,000 from the Minnesota Department of Economic Development. The funds will be used to improve the energy efficiency of the facility, according to Ethanol Producer. The 24 million-gallon-a-year (MMGY) facility is installing a fermenter and a hammer mill and ... Read more »
Positive Energy Buildings (PEBs) – buildings that generate more energy than they use — is the pinnacle of green building design, according to Andrew Solberg, Coy Miller, and Keith Kibbee, authors of an article at Consulting-Specifying Engineer. The idea is to create buildings designing these buildings is to design buildings that ... Read more »
Typically, power sources that can work independently of the electric grid are viewed as a competitive threat to utility companies. Community-based microgrids, and their potential to provide grid resiliency in response to a severe weather event or other emergency, are beginning to change that. An article in Wind Power Engineering ... Read more »
Ashland Foundry & Machine Works has deployed LED lighting from Digital Lumens in its 215,000-square foot facility. The Digital Lumens Intelligent LED Lighting System will cut 85 percent of energy used for lighting, according the company. Ashland replaced 400W and 1000W metal halide fixtures. Since deployment, the company has saved ... Read more »
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The flagship Weis Markets store in Kelly Lewisburg, PA, is the first in the chain to use LED as its sole source of lighting, according to WNEP. The store also has installed sensors on some of the lights that turn them on and off as necessary, a further cost savings ... Read more »
AT&T’s Smart Cities Organization aims to use the Internet of Things (IoT) to help communities save energy and money. The platform will connect utility meters, street lights, water systems and similar infrastructure elements, the company said. One use of the platform, the company says, is conserving energy by using motion sensors in ... Read more »
A single, integrated engineering team should collaborate on all software programming and optimization tasks — controls, analytics and workflow management — during design and construction. The resulting data platform can evolve into a building energy management system that will serve the building’s on-going commissioning needs through its useful life. In ... Read more »
Boma Brown-West is the manager of consumer health at the Environmental Defense Fund. She is an advocate for reducing people’s exposure to toxic chemicals. By working with stakeholders across the retail supply chain, she works to promote the development and use of safer chemicals in consumer products. This article was ... Read more »
Cargill has reached an administrative civil settlement with the EPA over alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at its Vitamin E manufacturing facility in Eddyville, Iowa. Cargill’s Eddyville facility uses the hazardous air pollutants methanol, methyl tertiary butyl ether, and formaldehyde to produce Vitamin E and similar compounds from ... Read more »
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Here’s the latest news on hirings, promotions and departures among environmental leaders. USGBC: The sustainable buildings membership organization has named chief operating officer Mahesh Ramanujam (pictured) as incoming chief executive officer. He will move into the role after Rick Fedrizzi, co-founder of USGBC and current CEO, steps down at the ... Read more »
A new guide on how to prepare a downstream user chemical safety report has been published by the European Chemicals Agency. If a downstream user’s use of a substance is not covered by the supplier’s exposure scenarios, the user has an option to prepare a downstream user chemical safety report. ... Read more »
The Lego Group is making good on its promise to spend 1 billion Danish Krone ($150.5 million) to develop new sustainable materials for its plastic Lego toys and packaging materials. This includes the establishment of the Lego Sustainable Materials Centre in Billund, Denmark. In a statement about Lego’s financial performance ... Read more »
NewCO2Fuels and Acumentrics have been awarded the $1 million 2014 BIRD Foundation’s Energy program grant to further develop the two companies’ core technology aimed at converting CO2 into an alternative fuel. BIRD Energy is a joint initiative of the US and Israel governments and funded by the US Department of ... Read more »
The Sustainable Electronics Recycling International’s (SERI’s) R2 electronics recycling standard has been accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). SERI says the accreditation is significant because the US government places a premium on the use of voluntary consensus standards in its procurement and regulatory activities. SERI sites the National ... Read more »
Innovyze has launched the latest version of its water management system for utilities. V4.0 of SCADAWatch is an “out of the box” network data management and business analytics and optimization system for water distribution systems, which turns traditional offline analyses into real-time, actionable intelligence for better, faster decision making and ... Read more »
Eleven casino resorts affiliated with Caesars Entertainment were awarded property tax incentives by the state of Nevada for energy and water savings conservation steps involving tens of millions of square feet of commercial space. The incentives awarded as a result of the resorts receiving Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) ... Read more »
Three firms have made announcements that further the evolution toward 1500 volt inverters within solar infrastructure. GE Energy Management Power Conversion has signed a supply agreement with Next Era Energy to deploy 1500V inverter solutions to solar plants generating more than 1 GW of electricity across the United States, , ... Read more »
Eaton has introduced the Power Xpert C445 intelligent motor management and protection relay, which is designed for heavy industrial and continuous process operations. The goals, according to the company, are to hike energy awareness compared to traditional methods, enhance operator safety and improve operations through enhanced diagnostics. Industries with complex startup and ... Read more »
The Easton, MA, school system has received a $212,500 energy grant from the state, according to The Enterprise. The award, which is from The Department of Energy Resources, is in two parts. Most of the funding — $200,000 — is earmarked to upgrade the system’s energy management systems. The other ... Read more »
The SunSpec Alliance has launched a $4 million pilot project to investigate the application of interoperable smart inverters, solar PV and energy storage to enhance grid stability. The project team includes 10 SunSpec Alliance member companies — ABB, Enphase, Ideal Power, KACO, OSISoft, Outback, SMA, SolarCity, SolarEdge and Underwriter’s Laboratory ... Read more »
The board of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District has approved the construction of a 10.88 MW solar power array at Rancho Seco, a 62-acre property it owns, according to The Sacramento Bee. The SMUD formerly ran a nuclear power plant at the site. The project will feature a 20-year purchase agreement ... Read more »
PACE Equity is adding $200 million in funding for Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) commercial real estate funding, the company says. The organization also is adding to its team of experts. PACE, which is headquartered in Milwaukee, offers innovative ways to finance initial construction, rehabilitation and redevelopment of commercial buildings. ... Read more »
Duke Energy will spend $4.4 million on environmental mitigation projects and pay a $975,000 civil penalty as part of a settlement reached with the EPA and US Department of Justice. The settlement, announced yesterday, resolves long-standing claims that Duke violated the federal Clean Air Act by unlawfully modifying 13 coal-fired ... Read more »
Companies should get rid of their corporate social responsibility and public relations departments, according to Lord Browne, the former chief executive of BP. As PR Week reports, Browne was promoting his soon-to-be published book, Connect, on Radio 4’s Today program. The book says managers should take responsibility for their companies ... Read more »