Wednesday, January 11, 2006

[Mud to parks] Illinois’ next big export product could be ... mud Another story on Mud-to-Parks, this time from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 4:06:54 PM Google It!    [Renewable energy] Industrial Biotech in Pacific Rim Considers Renewable Energy The purpose of a conference in early January on industrial biotechnology in the Pacific Rim countries "is to highlight the emerging field of industrial biotechnology, which is being used to convert agricultural wastes to renewable energy and to make many types of manufacturing processes more environmentally sustainable," said Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO's Industrial & Environmental Section. [Source: RenewableEnergyAccess.com] 4:04:09 PM Google It!    [Biomass energy] European Union to Accelerate Biomass Energy in 2006 Amid industry reports projecting growth, size, and momentum of wood biomass in the renewable energy industry, Green Energy Resources says it expects to benefit from the 2006 forecasts. Twenty new European Union actions to be implemented in heating, electricity and transportation will help accelerate biomass power generation. [Source: RenewableEnergyAccess.com] 4:02:23 PM Google It!    [Biofuels] 2005 Year in Review, U.S. Biomass Energy Policy Until recently, biomass has been on the backburner for many renewable energy advocates, but the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), numerous agriculture organizations and several Members of Congress have been promoting this renewable energy source for years. [Source: RenewableEnergyAccess.com] 4:00:11 PM Google It!    [CCA-Treated Wood] Research: Treated Wood Poses Long-term Risk Arsenic from treated lumber used in decks, utility poles and fences will likely leach into the environment for decades, posing a possible threat to groundwater, according to two research papers announced on Dec. 23, 2005. Researchers from the University of Miami, the University of Florida and Florida International University examined arsenic leaching from chromated copper arsenate, or CCA-treated wood, from a real deck as well as from simulated landfills. The deck wood leached high levels of arsenic into rainwater runoff and the soil -- and treated wood only continued leaching arsenic while sitting in simulated landfills, according to their findings. Citations for the papers are: Townsend, T., Dubey, B., Tolaymat, T., Solo-Gabriele, H. (2005) "Preservative Leaching from Weathered CCA-Treated Wood." Journal of Environmental Management, 75(2) 105-113. Stook, K., Tolaymat, T., Ward, M., Dubey, B., Townsend, T., Solo-Gabriele, H., Bitton, G. (2005) "Relative Leaching and Aquatic Toxicity of Pressure-Treated Wood Products Using Batch Leaching Tests." Environmental Science and Technology, 39(1) 155-163. 3:57:51 PM Google It!    [Green building] The Hydrogen House: Fueling a Dream In the northernmost reaches of Scottsdale, Arizona, Bryan Beaulieu, an engineer and inventor with 20 patents in structural systems, recently built a $2 million solar-and-hydrogen-powered 'dream" house. Though not the most expensive residence in this affluent community, the 6,000-square-foot luxury home is, by far, the most environmentally sustainable. [Source: E: The Environmental Magazine] 3:47:17 PM Google It!    [Painting] Mazda, Nippon Paint Develop Eco-Friendly Coating Process An electro-deposition basecoat known as e-coating that substantially reduces both volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has been developed by Mazda Motor Corp., a major Japanese automaker, in collaboration with Nippon Paint Co. Mazda had already developed a "Three-Layer Wet Paint System" that combined the primer, base and clear coats into one painting process, and introduced it to all its plants in Japan. The new e-coating developed at this time significantly reduces environment-impacting substances included for rust protection in the base coat process. [Source: ClimateBiz.com] 3:45:59 PM Google It!    [Metals] New Manufacturing Process Helps Metals Lose Weight A pioneering manufacturing process that can turn titanium, stainless steel, and many other metals into a new breed of engineering components could have a big impact across industry.  [Source: GreenBiz.com via ClimateBiz.com] 3:44:46 PM Google It!    [Biofuels] Buenos Bios: How South American Biofuels Are Gaining Steam Brazil and Argentina are exploring how to make and export cleaner fuels. And as the U.S. prepares to take its own biofuel production to another level, some are wondering if the global market will end up smelling more like salsa or apple pie. By Kelly Hearn [Source: ClimateBiz.com] 3:43:39 PM Google It!    [Climate change] Work Hard They Will: The New Dynamics of Climate Change U.S. efforts on climate change are coming strictly from the bottom up. By Michael S. Ashford with Al Jubitz [Source: ClimateBiz.com] 3:42:24 PM Google It!    [Grants] NOAA's Great Lakes Ecosystem Research Applications due Mar 15, 2006 Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) is actively involved in research on ecological prediction, aquatic invasive species, physical environment prediction, and environmental observing systems. Specific research projects include studies on the zebra mussel in the Great Lakes, the impacts of climate change on the Great Lakes and mid-U.S. water resources, the development of coastal environmental forecast systems, Great Lakes water supplies, water level forecasting, food web interactions and regulation and forecasting risks to Human Health (e.g. beach closings, drinking water quality and harmful algal blooms). 3:39:44 PM Google It!    [Alternative fuels] 2005 Year in Review for Renewable Fuels The passage and subsequent presidential signature of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 this past August was a watershed moment for the renewable fuels industry, the impacts of which may not yet be fully appreciated, but will provide immeasurable benefits to the nation for generations. [Source: RenewableEnergyAccess.com] 3:34:14 PM Google It!    [Renewable energy] The Hydrogen Economy We are in the early stages of an historic change in the way we organize the earth's energy. The Industrial Age, which began with the carrying of coal from Newcastle several hundred years ago, is now winding down in the oil fields of the Middle East. Our petro-geologists tell us that global production of oil is likely to peak as early as 2010 or as late as 2037. by Jeremy Rifkin [Source: RenewableEnergyAccess.com] 3:32:27 PM Google It!    [Corporate environmental responsibility] West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum Makes a Difference For more than 20 years, the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum (SBF), an initiative of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WMEAC), has been bringing together regional furniture and textile manufacturers, architects, contractors and other businesses to discuss business in relationship to the environment. The history of the SBF marks a series of paradigmatic shifts in the thinking of the group. For example, their first reaction to antipollution regulations was defensive: they would at best comply with the law but do little else. In the mid-1990s, they moved to the intermediate posture of recycling materials, which was not required by law but helped appease environmentalists. But, in scarcely a decade, the consensus has moved toward a wholehearted embrace of renewable resources and energy conservation as a way of replenishing nature and maximizing profits. The SBF enables companies to share information about waste reduction, renewable materials, energy conservation and "best practices" to help save the environment during the quotidian activity of making money. The most compelling aspect of the forum is the willingness of its participants' companies, often in direct competition with one another, to collaborate, sometimes to the point of treating proprietary information as a common resource. SBFs influence doesn't stop on the shores of Lake Michigan. Members of the forum are increasingly sought out by manufacturers in other part of the country (including the automakers of southeast Michigan), to create similar platforms for sustainable practices. [Source: Metropolis, Dec 05, p 70, by Stephen Zacks via GreenClips.com] 3:26:46 PM Google It!    [Green building] Design and Construction of an Eco-House A multiple-year course at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota examines global issues by designing an eco-efficient campus residence. Taught by Richard Strong, Carleton facilities director, and Gary Wagenbach, director of Carleton's Environmental Technology Studies, the course is targeted to liberal arts students. Carleton envisions teaching the class for up to five consecutive spring courses. "Since the class is open to freshman through seniors from all disciplines," Wagenbach says, "We have to respond to the mix of students who walk through the door." Thus, the instructors have sought a "structured openness" by blending conventional classroom lectures with guest speaker presentations, field trips, computer exercises and hands-on construction activities. While each segment of the EcoHouse course addresses aesthetics, energy use, life-cycle costs, and the relationship between a building and its site, community and culture, the course themes and two-thirds of the course content vary from year to year. The inaugural class (2004) focused on answering the question: "What is natural for Northfield?" In 2005, the instructors narrowed the focus by selecting one site from four finalists and prescribing straw-bale walls for three sides of a student-built test structure. In spring 2006, students will design a "living machine" and explore ways to minimize waste. In one to two years, EcoHouse will be built on campus, using the student research. Meanwhile, research leading up to and resulting from the course is spilling into other Carleton building projects, such as a 40-unit student residence design that will break ground in fall 2006. [Source: Architecture Minnesota, Nov/Dec 05, p 56, by Heather Beal via GreenClips.com] 3:23:45 PM Google It!    [Meetings] Register Now for the 2006 National Electricity Delivery Forum, Feb 15-16 The 2006 National Electricity Delivery Forum will be held in Washington, DC, on February 15-16, 2006. The forum will provide an opportunity for participants to discuss near- and long-term steps needed to expand and modernize the electricity delivery system in the United States. During the past two years, energy policy makers and regulators in many areas have realized that much of their electricity infrastructure is aging and has become significantly dependent on natural gas. Because natural gas prices are high and likely to remain so for some time, many state and local energy agencies want to diversify the generation mix with new technologies, including renewables, to meet growing electricity demand. Implementing these technologies will require regional-scale, multi-state generation and transmission planning. The forum is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), and the Consumer Energy Council of America. 3:19:38 PM Google It!    [Mud to parks] Illinois Wants to Serve Tons of Mud Pie to Louisiana's Starving Marshes Los Angeles Times article about the expansion of the Mud to Parks project to Louisiana marshes devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Extensively quotes WMRC's John Marlin. 3:13:21 PM Google It!    [Great Lakes] Great Lakes Pacts Would Boost Jobs Jobs and the economy are changing so fast and furiously in the Great Lakes Basin that Ohio Governor Bob Taft says he can’t take notes quickly enough. In between signing two historic water-protection agreements last week, Governor Taft and other Great Lakes states leaders paused for a 30-minute lecture from one of the region’s top economists. [Source: Michigan Land Use Institute, 12/23/05] 3:10:05 PM Google It!

© Copyright 2006 Laura L. Barnes. Last update: 2/2/2006; 3:48:01 PM.