FEATURES AND NEWS
Eight US states located on the East and West Coasts have released a plan to put 3.3 million zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) on the road by 2025. The Multi-State ZEV Action Plan, in which the states pledge to develop infrastructure, coordinated policies, codes and standards, is the first promised milestone ... Read more »
American Electric Power emitted the most carbon from power plants in 2012 — some 141,226,882 tons of CO2 — followed by Duke Energy at 134,277,330 tons, according to a report on US power plant carbon pollution. Benchmarking Air Emissions says the top five — AEP, Duke, Southern Company, NRG and ... Read more »
To help regional businesses reduce their demand for landfill disposal and identify cost savings opportunities, the Greater Cincinnati Green Business Council (GCGBC) has released a free waste management toolkit. The toolkit will help businesses meet and exceed the region’s goal — to reduce waste sent to landfill by 33 percent ... Read more »
A draft EPA memo leaked to DeSmogBlog.com details stricter standards for hydraulic fracturing permitting and makes clear that fracking wastewater discharges are covered under the Clean Water Act. The document sets limits to protect water-quality and technology standards in the Clean Water Act. Clean Water Action attorney Myron Arnowitt, who reviewed the document ... Read more »
Danone has committed to sourcing traceable palm oil with no links to deforestation, setting a goal to map its palm oil supply chain by the end of next year. The pledge comes after the global food company fared poorly in a recent scorecard on palm oil policies released by the Union ... Read more »
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Agricultural companies can better measure, manage and report greenhouse gas emissions with Agricultural Guidance from the World Resources Institute. This sector is responsible for 17 percent of global GHG emissions but 75 percent of agricultural producers targeted by CDP do not report their emissions, WRI says. Unlike industrial sectors, agricultural ... Read more »
Evoqua Water Technologies’ type-approved SeaCURE Ballast Water Management System can help shipping companies meet international ballast water requirements without additional chemicals, the company says. The SeaCURE system utilizes a patented process that first injects biocide into ballast seawater before it reaches the large surface filter intakes to reduce the growth ... Read more »
Beverage distributors JJ Taylor has opened a second compressed natural gas fueling station in Florida at its Fort Myers location. The station was designed by CNG fueling infrastructure firm TruStar Energy. ClipperCreek has launched its ETL listed utility smart grid connected charging station, the CS-40-SG2. The CS-40-SG2 charging station features ZigBee Smart Energy Protocol 1.1 demand ... Read more »
Stolt-Nielsen Gas (SNG), SunLNG Holding (SunLNG) and LNGaz have teamed up to provide natural gas to remote mining operations and other industrial customers in northeast Canada at a lower cost than diesel and residual fuel oil, which are the primary energy sources today. The new startup company will focus on ... Read more »
Quality management started as a movement to ensure consistency in manufacturing. With the development of systems like Six Sigma, ISO 9000, and PDCA, quality management has been applied to virtually every vertical and organizational structure. Today’s energy management, as a movement, can be compared to the early days of TQM. ... Read more »
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On June 2, President Obama will announce new EPA guidelines for greenhouse gas emissions from the electric power sector under the Clean Air Act. The president has said he will use his executive authority to cut carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants by up to 20 percent, according to The ... Read more »
As of January 2014, on-bill energy financing programs are operating or preparing to launch in the United States in at least 25 states, according to a new report “Financing Energy Improvements on Utility Bills: Market Updates and Key Program Design Considerations for Policymakers and Administrators.” The report, prepared by Lawrence ... Read more »
The Scarborough Hospital (TSH) in Ontario, Canada, is implementing facility upgrades via an energy savings performance contract (ESPC) valued at $6.1 million with energy-management partner Ameresco Canada. The measures will be financed solely by energy cost savings generated by the retrofits. Ameresco Canada already replaced the two existing chillers at ... Read more »
Schneider Electric completed a facility improvement project as part of an energy savings performance contract (ESPC) with the city of Kirksville, Mo. With more than $4.7 million in renovations, the project is expected to provide the city more than $340,000 in annual savings and pay for itself within a 15-year ... Read more »
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., is using its newest building – the Energy Systems Integration Facility – to test the latest microgrid concepts. NREL is using the ESIF for work on devices that can intelligently manage energy from batteries, electric cars, wind, solar, and biofuels as it aims to move ... Read more »
Community solar developer Clean Energy Collective (CEC) recently began construction on two new community-owned solar facilities in Golden, Colo., making available 684 kW of energy to Xcel Energy customers. Once the facilities are complete, Xcel will provide more community solar capacity than any utility in the country. Part of Xcel ... Read more »
The new branch office for the National Bank of Arizona in Prescott installed energy efficient LED lighting and HVAC technologies from LG Electronics and advanced control systems from Daintree Networks. Within the 3,000-sq-foot facility, slated for completion in June, Daintree’s ControlScope will manage 13 lighting zones controlling LG’s LED fixtures ... Read more »
Panduit launched its SmartZone Rack Energy Kits that allow smaller data centers to integrate data center infrastructure management (DCIM) capabilities. Panduit says SmartZone delivers energy efficiency and physical infrastructure management. SmartZone Rack Energy Kits manage multiple data points through one single IP address. Data is displayed through a GUI platform. ... Read more »
Hilton Worldwide’s manager of corporate responsibility, Katelin Kennedy, wrote about the value of partnerships: “To realize our waste reduction goals, we sought the additional support of experts in the field in areas that were material to our waste operations including Good 360, Global Soap Project, Feeding America and Global FoodBanking ... Read more »
In Florida, a promising group of businesses and associations has come together to encourage recycling. The Florida Recycling Partnership (FRP) includes organizations representing restaurateurs, beverage makers and waste management companies, among others. While it doesn’t presently include municipal members, it does show how it pays off to pool resources, and ... Read more »
After a five-year decline, CO2 emissions in the US are on the rise, according to the latest data from the US Energy Information Administration. CO2 emissions from fossil fuel consumption had been declining since their record high in 2007 and were 12.52 percent lower in 2012 than they had been ... Read more »
Energy Manager Today and its sister publication, Environmental Leader, today released the 2014 edition of its annual Insider Knowledge Report, made possible by Enviance. The report includes lessons-learned, tactics, insights and case studies from experts working in the trenches of corporate environmental, sustainability and energy management. Executives from Schneider Electric, Canon USA, ... Read more »
Streaming videos online has a lower carbon footprint than using DVDs, according to research published in Environmental Research Letters. Shifting all DVD viewing in the US in 2011 to video streaming would have saved about 30 petajoules of energy and avoided 2 billion kg of CO2 emissions. In total, DVD ... Read more »
The Green Globes rating system is “greenwash,” according to an open letter to the Green Building Initiative’s (GBI) board of directors. The letter, spearheaded by Greenwash Action, a joint initiative of Sierra Club and Greenpeace, and signed by several environmental and green building groups including the Natural Resources Defense Council and ... Read more »
Divestment, acquisition, international expansion and offering “total solutions” are four strategies that air pollution control companies can use to adapt to a shrinking market, says market research organization the McIlvaine Company. Suppliers of air pollution control systems in the US have relied on huge purchases by owners of coal-fired boilers as ... Read more »