Wednesday, May 25, 2005

[Future] Magazine Covers from the 22nd Century The Magazine Publishers of America, the dominant industry organization for consumer magazines, recently had twenty or so of its members create magazine covers from the 22nd century - from more than 100 years hence. See in particular Smithsonian and Newsweek. [via Z+ Blog] 4:39:04 PM Google It!    [Green purchasing] Closing the Loop on Paper Procurement Via sustainablog: From Two Steps Forward, Joel provides a brief overview of an article on business paper procurement in the latest Green Business Letter (his newsletter). The problem with many of these policies is that most companies focus on the forest management aspects of paper buying, and fail to consider the whole life cycle of the product. So, while many companies act with good intentions, the actual environmental effects of these "eco-conscious" buying decisions may be negligible. [sustainablog] 3:47:11 PM Google It!    [Plastics waste] Plastic Roadways Via sustainablog:   That's what an Indian businessman is creating out of waste plastic. According to this Treehugger post, K Ahmed Khan came up with an idea to mix recycled plastic with ashphalt to lay roadways. Khan has been running his company, KK Polyflex, for 20 years, producing plastic sacks. About 8 years ago he realised that the anti-plastics lobby had a point, and that the industry was ignoring the problem of plastic waste. He rolled up his sleeves to create an opportunity out of the situation. The plastic appears to have strengthened roads by enhancing ashphalt's bonding ability, and made the roads longer lasting by rendering them more impervious to water. The effort seems to be paying off, as Khan has a contract to lay 500 miles of road in Bangalore. One commenter on the post, though, notes that improved imperviousness may have environmental drawbacks: "We need as much infiltration of as possible. When you consider that most development of land can take up to 70% (or more) of the pervious water absorbing ground and that most is from paving, you really need to devise a system utilizing recycling techniques, but far more serious is the permeability of the roadway." [sustainablog] 3:46:15 PM Google It!    [Electronics waste] Afterlife for Old Computers Is Envisioned in Council Bill In New York the City Council is considering a law that would require manufacturers of electronic equipment to collect and recycle the discarded devices. By ANTHONY DePALMA. [NYT > Technology] 3:35:16 PM Google It!    [Biomass vehicles] Drivers Lining up for Converted Restaurant Oil to Fuel Vehicles In the kitchen of a Culver's restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin, dark vats of oil bubbled at 352 degrees Fahrenheit, and the smell of french fries hung in the air. It's the smell, it turns out, of fuel. [ENN Business Headlines] 3:20:28 PM Google It!    [Biomass] Natural Resources: Federal Agencies Are Engaged in Numerous Woody Biomass Utilization Activities New GAO Reports and Testimony (PDFs) Source: General Accountability Office + Testimony Natural Resources: Federal Agencies Are Engaged in Numerous Woody Biomass Utilization Activities, but Significant Obstacles May Impede Their Efforts, by Robin M. Nazzaro, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, House Committee on Resources Highlights ||| Full Report [ResourceShelf's DocuTicker] 3:09:45 PM Google It!    [Hybrid vehicles] Hybrid Cars Jump Past Electric Ones The growing popularity of hybrid cars and an upcoming California "Hydrogen Highway" proposal highlight how cheaper, more convenient or politically expedient technologies have leapfrogged vehicles powered by rechargable batteries. [ENN Business Headlines] 3:08:20 PM Google It!    [Chemical industry] Top 50 Chemical Producers Chemical Industry Source: Chemical & Engineering News Top 50 Chemical Producers (PDF; 479 KB) "C&EN's 2005 survey of U.S. chemical producers shows an industry enjoying the best of times. Sales and operating profits have risen dramatically for most companies as strong demand for chemical products--particularly petrochemicals--has provided chemical makers the leverage needed to raise prices." [ResourceShelf's DocuTicker] 3:06:59 PM Google It!    [Pollution] Taking Stock: 2002 North American Pollutant Releases and Transfers Pollution Source: North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation Taking Stock: 2002 North American Pollutant Releases and Transfers From press release: "A new report by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) today warned that, although lead pollution has been in decline since the phaseout of leaded gasoline in the 1980s, the metal and its compounds remain the leading developmental toxicant released by industrial facilities. Lead ranks as the top chemical linked to cancer, birth defects and other reproductive harm with releases totaling 43.4 million kg. This figure accounts for 24 percent of the total releases of all 77 developmental toxicants listed in the CEC's Taking Stock report, an annual study that compares industrial pollution data submitted by 24,192 facilities to the governments of Canada and the United States." Full document (PDF; 15 MB) [ResourceShelf's DocuTicker] 3:04:51 PM Google It!    [Biomass] Cow Manure and Cotton Gin Waste to Fuel Ethanol Plant in Texas If you want to convert grains into a biofuel such as ethanol, what better energy source that biomass energy? So goes the thinking for an ethanol plant that will start to be built in Texas this summer. A nearby biodiesel plant follows the same philosophy by drawing on landfill gas for its energy needs. [EERE Network News] 2:48:17 PM Google It!    [Solar energy] New Technologies Promise to Revolutionize the Solar Power Industry Quantum dots, "nano-scale particles of semiconductor material", could potentially yield new solar cells that convert 65 percent of the sun's energy into electricity, according to a new DOE study. Other solar power innovations include power-generating flexible plastics and foils. [EERE Network News] 2:47:50 PM Google It!    [Solar energy] Growth in Solar Power Drives Changes in Silicon Supplies Silicon solar cells are in such high demand right now that the demand for polycrystalline silicon is exceeding the supply. As a result, a new U.S. factory producing silicon only for the solar industry is expanding, and other companies are developing processes to also manufacture "solar silicon." [EERE Network News] 2:46:51 PM Google It!    [Innovation] Imagining Your Organization's Future: Finding the Intersection An excellent post at How to Save the World about innovation and how it occurs: Great ideas, and real change, almost always occur at intersections, at juxtapositions that are often serendipitous but can be tweaked to advantage if you know where to find them. Innovation usually happens at the intersection of three spaces: What's happening, What's possible, and What's needed. 2:36:06 PM Google It!

© Copyright 2005 Laura L. Barnes. Last update: 10/25/2005; 12:10:41 PM.