Apr 02 2012

Ford Focus EV Team Takes Steps to Avoid Chevy Volt’s Pitfalls

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Undoubtedly sobered by the plight of the Chevy Volt, which recently idled production for five weeks, furloughing 1300 workers in an effort to draw down excess inventory, the Ford Focus EV team has taken a number of innovative steps to avoid a similar plight.
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Nov 23 2011

Sustainability Culture Saves Billions for DuPont

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Davide Vassallo is a global practices leader for DuPont's Sustainable Solutions Group. As environmental stewards for a company that is the owner and operator of more than 150 production facilities around the world, his group has found that energy efficiency improvements can often be achieved for little or no cost. After running a large number of workshops on the subject, he has found that moving personnel from a culture of consumption to a culture of conservation is key to significant savings.
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Sep 22 2011

Is Climate Change Already Causing Violent Conflict?

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For years, the Pentagon has been saying that climate change is perhaps the biggest threat to American security of all. Back in 2004, a report commissioned by Pentagon defense adviser Andrew Marshall, the man behind the restructuring of the US military under Donald Rumsfeld, predicted that "abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies." The report went on to declare that the threat to global stability posed by climate change was indeed greater than that of terrorism.
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Sep 09 2011

New Japanese Wind Turbine Triples Power Output Without Increasing Size

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Necessity, as we’ve all been told can sometimes be the mother of invention. In Japan, there is a necessity for a power source that does not require fossil fuels, since they don’t have any. So the Japanese invested heavily in nuclear power, which, at the moment, is looking like a tenuous investment given the recent Fukushima meltdown. Fortunately, they did not put all their eggs in one basket, either. In fact, researchers at Kyushu University, which houses the International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research, had a hunch that the answer just might be blowin’ in the wind, if only they could squeeze a little more out of it than what conventional technology would allow.
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Aug 19 2011

Doctors Join Fight Against Livestock Antibiotics

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A number of doctors are beginning to express concerns about the growing incidence of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria in humans. Much of this proliferation is believed to be the result of the widespread use of antibiotics in livestock as a preventative measure in response to the overcrowded and often unsanitary conditions that the animals are often kept in. According to the Worldwatch Institute's 2006 State of the world report, 74 percent of the world's poultry, 43 percent of beef, and 68 percent of eggs are now produced this way.
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Jan 04 2011

Is LEED No Longer in the Lead?

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"It seemed like a good idea at the time." Is that what they will be saying about the LEED standard for green buildings, a few years from now? Was it perhaps a bit ahead of its time when it was first developed back in 1998? Has our collective understanding of what it takes to make a building truly sustainable evolved over the past few years to the point where a different standard is needed?
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Nov 03 2010

Scott Naturals: Tube-Free Toilet Paper: When It’s Gone It’s Gone

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In the "what will they think of next" category, Scott Paper Company just announced the introduction of a new tube-free toilet paper. The innovation, which is the result of a proprietary winding process, eliminates the cardboard roll that has formed the core of the roll since 1880. According to information from Kimberly Clark, who also makes Kleenex, 17 billion paper toilet paper tubes are produced every year in the US. If my math is right, that's about 56 rolls per person. That sounds a little high to me, but then again, I'm a guy.
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Oct 15 2010

How the Government Looks at Green Jobs

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), an agency of the US Department of Labor has been given the responsibility and funding for the collection and implementation of data on green jobs. After considerable study they arrived at a formal definition...
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Sep 27 2010

Is the EPA America’s Secret Economic Weapon?

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Do you remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? The tortoise won the race because he ran the whole race, taking the long view, seeing the big picture, unlike the rabbit who, given his speed, didn’t see the need. While China seems to be roaring ahead right now with unchecked economic expansion, the significant environmental challenges they are accumulating will eventually catch up with them. The International Fund for China’s Environment estimates that the cleanup of this mess will cost well over $100 billion annually, more than 2% of their GDP. In fact, the Academy for Environmental Planning estimates that back in 2004 China spent over 3% of their GDP on environmentally related costs and in 2007, according to the World Bank, that number was 6%
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Sep 24 2010

When Pigs Fly: Halliburton Makes the Dow Jones Sustainability Index

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When we think of companies that stand out as role models of exceptionally responsible behavior in the realm of sustainability, Halliburton is hardly one of the first to spring to mind. Which is why I was a little surprised to learn that "the company we love to hate" was just named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) as both a North American and a World leader. This means that they were considered to be in the top 10% among companies in the oil field services sector.
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