University of California-Berkeley Archives - Environment + Energy Leader

UC Berkeley Building Earns TRUE Zero Waste Platinum Certification

January 18, 2019October 12, 2020 by Alyssa Danigelis

Chou Hall at the University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business recently earned TRUE (Total Resource Use and Efficiency) Zero Waste certification at the platinum level — a first for any academic building in the world.

The Future of Recycling, Waste Management is Resource Management, Experts Say

November 6, 2015November 6, 2015 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

The recycling industry has taken a beating lately in the press. Earlier this year Waste Management CEO David Steiner declared the US recycling industry is facing a “nationwide crisis” as recycling facilities increasingly lose money and demand plummets for recyclables. And while it’s not a new debate, John Tierney’s latest ... Read more »

UC Irvina Tops Sierra’s Annual College Ranking

August 13, 2015August 13, 2015 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

The University of California, Irvine, for the second year in a row tops Sierra magazine’s ninth annual “Cool Schools” ranking of America’s “greenest” colleges and universities. UCI took the top spot for diverting more than 80 percent of campus waste from landfills and using clean energy. The UC system has ... Read more »

Hitachi Targets Nuclear Waste Technology

May 28, 2015May 28, 2015 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

Hitachi has begun joint research with three American universities aimed at reducing the time required for decay in the radioactivity of nuclear waste materials and using radioactive waste as fuel. The research, conducted with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, and the University of California, Berkeley will ... Read more »

How Much Can Human Behavior Affect Supply Chain Sustainability?

January 6, 2015 by Jennifer Hermes

My past articles have included discussions of the Ricoh Comet Circle and the circular economy as reasonable representations of several (perhaps oddly) connected elements in a more holistic view of sustainable systems as they influence green manufacturing. Connections in the context of those discussions have been about “material” interactions and movement ... Read more »

Using Slurry for Economical, Energy-Efficient Carbon Capture

October 14, 2014October 13, 2014 by Ken Jennison

By combining carbon-capturing solids and liquids to develop a “slurry,” scientists from École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, University of California-Berkeley and Beijing have created a carbon capture method that is relatively simple to implement on a large scale, economical and energy efficient, according to Nature Communications. Currently, carbon capture is ... Read more »

Environmental Leader Introduces Editorial Advisory Board

July 10, 2014July 10, 2014 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

Environmental Leader LLC has assembled a group of experts from across the environmental, energy and sustainability industries, including end-users, vendors, consultants and academics, that will advise on the editorial direction of its leading group of environment and energy publications: EnvironmentalLeader.com, EnergyManagerToday.com and EnvironmentEnergyPro.com. “The Environmental Leader LLC editors and I ... Read more »

IBM Discovers New Materials to ‘Transform Manufacturing’

May 16, 2014 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

IBM scientists have discovered a class of polymer materials that can potentially transform manufacturing and fabrication in the fields of transportation, aerospace and microelectronics. The researchers say the new materials are the first to demonstrate resistance to cracking, strength higher than bone, the ability to reform to their original shape ... Read more »

Ecofys-Led Consortium Develops Product-Level GHG Benchmarks

September 17, 2013 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

An Ecofys-led consortium has helped the California Air Resources Board (CARB) establish product-level greenhouse gas emission benchmarks for various production processes. The benchmarks will be used to determine the amounts of free emission allowances for individual plants in the California cap-and-trade program, the energy and climate consultancy says. In addition ... Read more »

Could Smart Chairs End the HVAC Wars?

August 29, 2013August 29, 2013 by Tamar Wilner

As every facility manager knows, all the HVAC wizardry in the world won’t matter if your staff aren’t comfortable. Companies have shelled out big bucks for control and automation systems promising to deliver huge energy savings – only to find those savings out the window when employees are too hot ... Read more »

Universities’ Sustainability Initiatives Save Money, Resources

July 23, 2013July 22, 2013 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

The University of Toronto uses solar panels to heat water for athletes’ showers and McGill University imposes a student fee of 50 Canadian cents per credit that is matched by the university for its Sustainability Projects Fund. These are two examples of how Canadian campuses are integrating sustainability into university ... Read more »

Effective Utilization of Resources

July 22, 2013July 22, 2013 by Jennifer Hermes

How about resource productivity? As part of thinking about mechanisms and metrics, for driving green manufacturing, it came to mind that there is always a lot of talk, specially in the US, about the tremendous advances in labor productivity that have occurred over the last several decades. The Bureau of ... Read more »

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