FEATURES AND NEWS
Twenty cities, representing just 0.1 percent of the land area of the United States, account for 7 percent of solar PV capacity in the United States, according to a report from the Environment California Research & Policy Center. These top 20 cities contain more solar power today than was installed ... Read more »
City officials of San Luis Obispo, Calif., collaborated with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to replace more than 2,000 outdated high pressure sodium streetlights with Cree XSP Series LED streetlights, reducing the city’s annual energy consumption by more than 65 percent. The city also expects to cut maintenance and ... Read more »
Between 20 and 32 percent of wild-caught seafood imported into the US is likely illegal, according to a new study published in the journal Marine Policy. Valued at $1 billion-to-$2 billion annually, this represents between 15-to-26 percent of the total value of wild-caught seafood imported into the US, according to Estimates of ... Read more »
Four months of continuous operation at the pilot plant in Orlando has shown that photobioreactors produced results that Proterro’s patented sugar-making process scalable, the company reported. The company provided an update on its development of a clean sugar feedstock for biofuels and biobased chemicals. While sugar production has begun at ... Read more »
LiquiGlide said it has produced the world’s first commercially viable super-slippery coating for paint and paint colorants. The permanently wet coating prevents paint products from sticking to cans and manufacturing equipment. LiquiGlide’s paint coating allows for easy and complete evacuation, reducing waste. For paint manufacturers, the company said it mproves ... Read more »
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Renewable Energy Group (REG) reached a milestone of having sold 1 billion gallons of advanced biofuel during its 17 year history. REG said it achieved this milestone through investments in a fully integrated value chain including its manufacturing, sales & marketing, and supply chain management. The company went from marketing ... Read more »
This article is sponsored by Procter & Gamble. As interest in purchasing sustainable products becomes more mainstream among consumers, corporations are increasingly invested in creating sustainable brands, and spending on product sustainability initiatives is expected to accelerate, according to a study from Verdantix. The report found that 69 percent of ... Read more »
“Spotlight on Award Winners” is a series of articles featuring winners from the Environmental Leader Product & Project Award winners. Read Sprint’s complete award listing here. Sprint’s Network Vision is a plan to consolidate multiple technologies into one new network, with the goal of increasing efficiency and enhancing coverage, call ... Read more »
What are you doing at home, at work, and in your community to fight climate change? Write to me at sara.gutterman@greenbuildermedia.com or follow me on Twitter or Facebook. Sara is the Co-Founder and CEO of Green Builder Media. An experienced entrepreneur, investor, and sustainability consultant, Sara specializes in developing companies ... Read more »
Cities with a mayoral pledge or formal city council action to curb carbon emissions are making progress on their goals, with two-thirds reporting quantifiable reductions in emissions from city operations and one-third for citywide emissions. So says the US Conference of Mayors climate survey released on Earth Day. The survey ... Read more »
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Whole Foods Market will deploy technology that converts food scraps into organic fertilizer for sale to farmers and consumers. The WISErg Harvester unit will be installed at Whole Foods Market Bellevue in Washington State in May. The Harvester unit will enable the Bellevue store to reduce food waste sustainably, and ... Read more »
The first water efficiency standards in the US for new toilets, urinals and faucets have been fast-tracked by California officials as the state faces its worst drought in a century, Reuters reports. The new standards are expected to save 8.2 billion gallons of water in the first year after they ... Read more »
The EPA cut its requirement for the use of cellulosic biofuel last year by more than 80 percent after the industry failed to meet production goals, Reuters reports. EPA had required 6 million gallons in a plan it finalized last August, but that was reduced to 810,000 this week in ... Read more »
Hawaii, the cornerstone of corn-growing operations by the world’s leading seed companies, has become a flash point in the debate over genetic engineering in agriculture. As companies have expanded their seed crop operations in Hawaii, opposition to genetically modified organisms has grown. It’s become a particularly touchy subject because so ... Read more »
University of Louisiana at Lafayette have developed a speedy, low waste method for converting alligator fat into biofuel. Conversion of animal fat to biodiesel has been around for some time – an earlier, but more-wasteful, way to process aligator fat into biofuel was developed in 2011, but the traditional biodiesel process ... Read more »
Across the United States, economics are increasingly favoring investment in renewable energy at the expense of dirty coal energy. As the price of solar dips below coal and even natural gas in some instances, the domestic demand for coal wanes and a growing number of companies are eager to get ... Read more »
Specialty chemical company Clariant has committed to major investments in the Chinese plastics industry. The company identified supply- and service-related investments that respond to the megatrends affecting the region, and local needs for more innovative and sustainable products for end-markets such as packaging and electrical & electronics (E&E). Clariant’s established ... Read more »
Locus Technologies has expanded its environmental information management (EIM) software to automate the generation of self-monitoring report forms (SMRFs). Locus says EIM solves the problem of expensive, labor-intensive manual SMRF generation by completely automating the process. SMRFs are required by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, and are meant to ... Read more »
The Council for Responsible Sport has received 33 applications just this year as the organization notes it has certified 76 events for sustainable practices during its existence. CRS updated certification standards earlier this year were specifically developed to apply to a broad range of sports event types, unlike previous standards. ... Read more »
Although energy storage is getting a lot of press as a great way to avoid peak energy spikes, using batteries for energy storage is not the most economical, according to The New York Times. “It costs hundreds of dollars to store a kilowatt-hour of energy in a battery, while nationally ... Read more »
British Gas, the United Kingdom’s largest utility, hired Pulse Energy to conduct behavioral-based energy efficiency programs for the utility’s commercial customers. Opower has had success in the residential arena by providing utility customers with information on how their energy usage compares to their neighbors. Opower recently filed its Initial Public ... Read more »
THG Energy Solutions received OpenADR 2.0b certification from the OpenADR Alliance for its automated demand response system. THG’s software as a service (SaaS) consists of a customer portal, as well as a proprietary ADR controller designed to provide commercial facilities with electricity price and event-based response capability. The OpenADR 2.0b ... Read more »
The places to make strides in emissions reductions and energy costs are large institutions and corporate facilities, according to JLL, who says the companies most focused on energy efficiency typically share five strategies: 1) Keep it simple—at first. Companies need to take small and immediate steps that produce immediate returns. An energy audit ... Read more »
The international geothermal power market is booming, and the US could soon lose its status as the world leader in geothermal energy production, according to a report from the Geothermal Energy Association. For instance, the US has about 1,000 MW in the pipeline and 3,400 MW nameplate capacity for a ... Read more »
In the first quarter of 2014, BuildingIQ says it signed over $1.2 million in contracts and increased buildings under management by 50 percent, more than triple on a year-on-year basis. The company says it also expanded into two new sectors, deploying its solution in nine buildings across a higher education ... Read more »