Express News

Home About Us Services

Research & Development Services & Solutions Strategic Communications The ABC of Carbon The book you've been waiting for

Links Contact Us Media

Media Coverage

ABC Carbon Express Issue 41: 3 – 16 January 2009

Express Greetings for 2009

A new approach for a new year – 16 items of mostly good news for the planet. Plus 8 events to watch out for and attend in 2009. And in a departure from the norm – three book reviews on subjects that are important for our minds, hearts and stomachs, but not so much to do with carbon or climate change. After all the excesses of Christmas and New Year, here’s wishing you a year that is climate friendly, peaceful, kinder on the wallet and the body. And for a world that starts to really get on track to deal with climate change. Ken Hickson

Article 1

Profile on Carol Browner

"Carol understands that our efforts to create jobs, achieve energy security and combat climate change demand integration among different agencies, cooperation between federal, state and local governments and partnership with the private sector," President-elect Obama said at a press conference to announce her as Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change.

From the President-elect office on the day of the announcement:

Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change

Browner is Principal of The Albright Group LLC, where she provides strategic counsel in the critical areas of environmental protection, climate change, and energy conservation and security. Prior to her current position, she served as Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a Cabinet-level position she held for eight years. Browner developed partnerships with business leaders, community advocates, and all levels of government. She is widely known for championing common sense, cost-effective solutions to pressing environmental and public health challenges. At EPA, she brought the climate change issue to the forefront and established climate change as an important environmental issue requiring action. Before EPA, Browner was Secretary of the State of Florida's Department of Environmental Regulation. She also served as Legislative Director for then United States Senator Al Gore.

From Time magazine:

As Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head from 1993 to 2001, Carol Browner was perhaps "the greatest administrator [the] EPA has ever had," according to Bill Clinton's former chief of staff (and Barack Obama's current transition co-manager) John Podesta.

She brings to the role of energy "czarina" a hefty amount of experience in environmental policy-making and consulting. What appears to be causing more speculation regarding her appointment is what exactly her newly created position, officially titled Energy Coordinator, will entail.

Browner, herself a member of Obama's transition board, mentioned earlier this month that the new position would not change the duties of the Secretaries of Energy and Interior or the Environmental Protection Agency administrator. Her role seems to be that of an overseer, promoting smooth cooperation among the different energy and climate entities.

From New York Times:

Brings to the job: Strong résumé in environmental protection, law and management consulting, and a clear determination to break from the Bush record, which she has called “the worst environmental administration ever.” She was administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Bill Clinton for nearly eight years, the longest anyone has held that position. She also sits on the board of the Audubon Society, the League of Conservation Voters and the Alliance for Climate Protection, which advocates control of greenhouse gases.

Is linked to Mr. Obama by: Campaign appearances on his behalf in several battleground states, in events organized by the League of Conservation Voters. She was named to the transition team for the Environmental Protection Agency, but has previously said she does not want to return as head of the agency.

In her own words: “Time and time again, when the nation has set a new environmental standard, the naysayers have warned that it will cost too much, that it will impose an enormous economic burden on the American people. But, once we have set those standards, American ingenuity and innovation have found a solution at a far lower cost than predicted. ... American businesses have risen to these challenges before, and they will do it again; all they need is predictability and flexibility.” (Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, Sept. 18, 2008)

Used to work as: After leaving the E.P.A. in 2000, she has been a principal of the Albright Group, a consulting firm, and Albright Capital Management, an investment advisory firm, both named for Madeleine K. Albright, the former secretary of state. Before joining the Clinton administration, Ms. Browner was secretary of environmental regulation in Florida, 1991-93; legislative director for Senator Al Gore of Tennessee, 1988-91; and a chief legislative aide for environmental issues to Senator Lawton Chiles of Florida, 1986-88.

Carries as baggage: Her early and strong support for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. She has also lost some friends in the industry because of her record as a strict enforcer of environmental laws during the Clinton years.

Résumé includes: Born in Florida, Dec. 16, 1955 ... graduated in 1977, law degree in 1979, both at the University of Florida ... named “mother of the year” by the National Mother’s Day Committee in 1997 and Woman of the Year by Glamour magazine in 1998 ... married to Thomas J. Downey, the former Democratic congressman from Long Island ... has a son from a previous marriage.

From the Allbright Group:

Carol M. Browner brings her background as Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Cabinet-level position she held for eight years, to her role as a Principal of The Albright Group LLC and of Albright Capital Management LLC, an investment advisory firm focused on emerging markets. Utilizing her expertise to position clients from a broad range of sectors, Ms. Browner, an attorney, provides strategic counsel in the critical areas of environmental protection, climate change, and energy conservation and security. Leading the EPA from 1993 to 2001, she was the longest-serving Administrator in the history of the $7 billion, 18,000 employee agency. In that position, Ms. Browner developed partnerships with business leaders, community advocates, and all levels of government. She is widely known for championing common-sense, cost-effective solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental and public health challenges. Ms. Browner currently serves on both corporate and non-profit boards. She recently joined the board of APX, Inc., the leading infrastructure provider for environmental and energy markets. She also serves on the board of several non-profit organizations, including as chair of the National Audubon Society, one of the nation’s oldest environmental organizations, and as a member of the Board of the Directors for the Center for American Progress, the Alliance for Climate Protection and the League of Conservation voters. She earned her B.A. and J.D. from the University of Florida.

Article 2

An innovative hydrogen tractor on track

New Holland Agriculture has won a gold medal at the SIMA Innovation Awards 2009 for their NH2 hydrogen-powered tractor, in a project that hopes to free farmers from the cost of purchased fossil-fuel and allow them to achieve fuel autonomy.

Based on the popular T6000, the experimental NH2 tractor replaces the internal combustion engine with hydrogen fuel cells to generate electricity, which drives electric motors to power the tractor. The NH2 tractor is a 120hp working prototype able to perform all the tasks of a T6000, while operating virtually silently and emitting only water.

The Energy Independent Farm concept envisages farmers producing their own compressed hydrogen from water, using a process called electrolysis or directly from methane by burning waste or biomass. Production systems would be powered by wind farms or solar panels and the hydrogen would be stored at the farm in underground tanks.

New Holland believe farmers are in a unique position to benefit from hydrogen technology. They have the space to install alternative electricity generation systems, such as solar, wind, biomass or waste plants, and then store that power as hydrogen. Apart from the environmental benefits, such a system would allow farmers to become energy independent and improve their financial stability, as fuel costs form a significant proportion of their operating costs.

New Holland Agriculture has won both Gold and Silver medals at the SIMA Innovation Awards 2009 for the impressive NH2 hydrogen-powered tractor and the advanced EasyDrive™ transmission respectively. The brand also received a Special Mention for its Intelligent User Interface, a fully-automated combine optimisation system, highlighting the broad scope of innovative technology New Holland develops for the benefit of its customers.

The hydrogen-powered NH2 tractor is a key element in New Holland’s Energy Independent Farm concept, a project that hopes to free farmers from the cost of purchased fossil-fuel and allow them to achieve fuel autonomy. The concept is a natural fit with the brand’s Clean Energy Leader position.

Based on the popular T6000, the experimental NH2 tractor replaces the internal combustion engine with hydrogen fuel cells to generate electricity, which drives electric motors to power the tractor. More than just an idea, the NH2 tractor is a 120hp working prototype able to perform all the tasks of a T6000, while operating virtually silently and emitting only water and vapour.

Hydrogen-powered vehicles have been in development for several years, offering many benefits over battery-driven vehicles, which are efficient only in a stop-and-start cycle and take a long time to recharge. The working cycle of agricultural vehicles is similar to a car running on the highway at a constant speed. Vehicles powered by hydrogen overcome these obstacles by using a compressed-hydrogen fuel to feed automotive fuel cells to generate electricity. Fuel cells have a long working life and avoid the environmental issues of disposing of batteries, which lose their accumulation capacity during their life. Energy-dense compressed hydrogen can be stored conveniently in a tank, allowing the energy to be stored for an extremely long period and the vehicle to be refuelled quickly.

Traditional barriers to the use of hydrogen centre on its distribution and availability. New Holland’s Energy Independent Farm concept envisages customers producing their own compressed hydrogen from water, using a process called electrolysis or directly from methane by burning waste or biomasses. Production systems would be powered by wind farms or solar panels and the hydrogen would be stored at the farm in underground tanks, taking advantage of tractors’ and combines’ short working distance from the farm, when compared to cars or lorries.

Farmers are in a unique position to benefit from hydrogen technology. They have the space to install alternative electricity generation systems, such as solar, wind, biomass or waste plants, and then store that power as hydrogen. Apart from the environmental benefits, such a system would allow customers to become energy independent and improve their financial stability, as fuel costs form a significant proportion of their operating costs now and in the future.

Source: www.agriculture.newholland.com and www.envirofuel.com.au

Article 3

Hollywood rolls out the green carpet

With a huge carbon footprint, and possibly more influence than any other industry, big TV networks and movie studios are partnering with major environmental organizations to go green. A growing list of behaviors once cutting-edge such as recycling, composting, and using wind, solar, and alternative fuels have become commonplace in Hollywood.

By Daniel B. Wood
The Christian Science Monitor

America's dream factory is out to put its reputation for waste in the can.

Not just season shows but high-profile awards events - such as the coming Golden Globes on Jan. 11 and the Oscars in February - are increasingly incorporating green ideas. These include red carpets made of old plastic bottles, chalkboards for signage, electric generators powered by soy waste biodiesel fuel, and party tents lit by solar panels. Gift bags at award shows now often include items such as low-energy light bulbs.

Such practices seemed faddish just a few years ago, but gained currency with the 2006 release of Al Gore's Oscar-winning film on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth."

By using more renewable energy, the 2008 Oscars avoided an estimated 630 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

"A year ago these practices were fad driven and everyone was just talking, 'How do we do it, how do we go green?'" says Charisse McAuliffe, founder and CEO of Gen Green, a Colorado-based company which helps promote environmentally conscious lifestyles.

"This year a lot more companies have implemented what they were talking about last year. They are in execution mode. I think Hollywood gets it, and they understand their power that they can help others to get it."

More productions are including serious environmental goals in their mission statements. Fox Broadcasting Company adopted the slogan, "Green it. Mean it," with the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2010.

The company has taken the lead in greening large special events. It reduced the power needs for lighting at the 2007 Emmys by 75 percent, using low-wattage LED and fluorescent lighting in the press tent and solar panels to drive air conditioning. It also turned the 2008 American Idol Finale into a zero-waste event by composting organic materials and recycling bottles, cans, metals, and cardboard.

Fox has now created a comprehensive online handbook on environmentally conscious productions and events, which includes a worldwide "green" vendor guide.

"This cross-fertilization of ideas is very important at this early stage," says Sasha Mervyn, director of development for Laura Ziskin Productions. She was asked to head the greening of the Oscars two years ago and recalls that she pretty much had to "start from scratch."

The growing list of environmentally friendly practices shows that the town is doing more than just talking about responsibility, say observers.

"Hollywood is taking great effort to go green," says Zahava Stroud, president and cofounder of iHollywood Forum, which organized an environmental conference this month for networks and movie producers. The impetus, he adds, is "coming from the top CEOs down."

Ninety-five percent of the new green practices are not noticed by viewers and audiences, says Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and ecological adviser to ABC, Sony, Warner, Capitol Records, and others. "The reduced ecological impact happens at the raw material acquisition stage and in processing, refining and transportation stages," he says.

What may have an impact, however, is when announcers mention the activities on camera - such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Al Gore did at the 79th Oscar telecast in 2007.

"Hollywood is among the most culturally influential institutions on the planet so the impact is twofold," says Hershkowitz. "One [impact] is the amount of energy and waste saved, the other is the message it sends to consumers and other industries."

Key individuals have made a difference in the Hollywood greening movement. Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson broke new ground when he used videoconferencing while filming the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy in New Zealand. It enabled him to remain in a central location while filming all three installments simultaneously. By plugging off-location cameras into the conference system, Jackson could make changes in lighting and camera angles from afar, saving air-travel emissions.

Jackson's techniques are now must-haves used by other industry leaders from Lucas Film to Disney and Bad Robot Productions.

Hurdles remain for Hollywood's new green agenda. Besides habit, there are technical and economic challenges, not to mention unfamiliarity with new products, materials, and processes.

But more and more studios have assigned "green gurus" known as EVPs or VP of environment, says Meredith Bergmann, spokeswoman for Green Media Solutions, a company that brings together environmental experts and production consultants.

What is helping drive each new advance is the realization that money can be saved, she says.

"If you reduce the number of cases of bottled water bought, reduce the number of locations, use less gas by renting hybrid vehicles, reduce the ... charter flights, you will save money," says Bergmann. "It is getting more attention now that we see how costly - both economically and healthwise - neglecting the environment can become."

Source: www.features.csmonitor.com

Star Spotlight: Cate Blanchett stars in The curious case of Benjamin Button with Brad Pitt. It is a great movie based on the fantasy short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is a must see. And because Cate is such an eco-friendly person – supporting EarthHour and the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Who on earth cares campaign, we can fully justify showing her. If anyone should take a walk down the green carpet it is Cate.

Article 4

Fuel Up With Banana Peels

SRI researchers have shown that in a single step, they can take pulverized coal -- or anything else that contains carbon, including human waste or banana peels, for example -- and directly transform the fuel's chemical energy into electricity by electrochemically oxidizing the carbon.

Mad scientist Doc Brown powers his time machine by feeding coffee grounds and other biowaste into the DeLorean in Back to the Future.

While time travel is still in the realm of science fiction, carbon-based fuel cells are about to become science fact -- rendering a similar scenario all the more possible. SRI announced in November that it has developed direct carbon fuel-cell technology.

The process is 70 percent efficient, double that of traditional coal power plants, according to Larry Dubois, vice president of the physical sciences division at SRI.

The byproduct is carbon dioxide -- but it is emitted in such a pure form, Dubois said, that it's easy to contain. "If you have a conventional gas-fired coal plant and capture the (carbon dioxide) -- 75 percent of the cost is separating carbon dioxide from air," he said.

The new technology could also help to reduce dependence on foreign oil, he said.

"(The United States has) a 250 year supply of coal," he said. "If you think about that as a strategic asset for the U.S., exploring the ability to use coal in a clean efficient manner is beneficial."

Dubois said that while it is theoretically possible to power a small business, a home or even a car with carbon-based fuel, SRI has its eyes on larger power plants.

Another bonus is that unlike hydrogen, the other alternative-energy option, carbon fuel is very easy to come by, said Roberta Gamble, an energy analyst at Frost and Sullivan.

Despite its benefits, however, carbon fuel cells may be too costly, she added.

"If it's prohibitively expensive you'll be hard pressed to find a restaurant that's going to give up perfectly good traditional energy," she said. She suggested it might take a decade before a carbon fuel system paid for itself, which is probably longer than most users are willing to wait.

"We're finding if (new fuel sources) can provide an economic benefit within five years then there is a potential benefit to that," she said.

For now, the carbon fuel cells are producing small amounts of power on the scale of a few watts at SRI's laboratory in Menlo Park, California. But Dubois expects their capability to rise to 10 kilowatts by 2009, to 100 kilowatts by 2011 and to 500 kilowatts by 2015.

"Is this early stage?" he said. "Absolutely. Is it risky? Absolutely. But the payoff potential is tremendous."

This story was first published in Wired in 2005. We thought it was about time the story and the technology was given some airing again.

Source: www.sri.com

Article 5

Ending the energy binge

Keith Orchison in Business Spectator

While much of the debate on Australian carbon abatement focuses on the use of renewable energy versus fossil fuels to make electricity, one of the most important developments over the next 10-12 years will be how users manage power consumption.

The latest Federal government report, released in mid-December by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural & Resource Economics (ABARE), shows both how business, which accounts for 72 percent of electricity demand, has made some gains and how complex the issue is.

ABARE has been looking at energy intensity – the amount used per unit of output.

The ABARE report deals with all energy, not just electricity, and its outcomes are couched in petajoules or PJs, a hard one for laymen to handle unless they are sleepwear.

A petajoule is a measure of energy, equivalent to the heat content of 43,000 tonnes of black coal or 29 million litres of petrol – you’d have to drive your car for several millennia to use that amount of fuel.

Every petajoule of saved electricity delivers a national economic benefit of around $20 million – and ABARE finds that, without the efficiency gains since 1989-90, Australian manufacturing, mining, construction, services and agriculture would have used 759 PJ more energy by 2005-06.

The gains would be greater if the mining and petroleum sector had been able to follow the trend – ABARE reports that its energy intensity has risen as miners dig deeper and exploit lower grade ores and the LNG business, which uses a lot to chill gas for export by ship, keeps growing. This has pushed up energy requirements by about 112 PJ a year, the agency estimates.

The 2007 APEC meeting in Sydney set a target for member countries of reducing energy intensity by one percent a year out to 2030. The ABARE report shows that, while total energy consumption here is rising 2.5 percent a year, Australia is broadly on track to deliver this – and emissions trading plus the renewable energy target will give our efforts more oomph.

Emissions have been driven up, of course, by higher energy demand over the past two decades – we used 48 percent more energy in 2006 than in 1990, but, as ABARE points out, without efficiency gains, that rise would have been 62 percent.

Source: www.businessspectator.com.au

Article 6

Ten Green Bottlers - excellent resolutions for all

WWF-New Zealand is putting the call out for all Kiwis to go green and make 2009 the year we protect nature in our backyard. It has come up with 10 "green resolutions" to protect nature in 2009.

The New Zealand branch of international conservation organisation WWF, which reported in October the country has one of the largest ecological footprints in the world, has come up with 10 "green resolutions" to protect nature in 2009.

WWF's Living Planet report showed that only the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Kuwait , Denmark and Australia had larger ecological footprints than New Zealand on a per-head basis.

The WWF calculations included carbon emissions from the production of imported goods and services and showed New Zealanders' use of natural resources was excessive.

But with the year about to end, WWF-New Zealand says there are signs that things are starting to change for the better in New Zealand communities.

"In the last 10 years Enviroschools has grown from a community project to a national movement," it says.

"The organisation reports nearly a quarter -- 23 percent -- of our schools are now enviroschools, growing from 419 schools in 2006 to 635 today.

"The green revolution is here, and the surprise is that it's not a revolution at all -- it's everyday Kiwis, doing the stuff that counts. With that in mind conservation organisation WWF-New Zealand is putting the call out for all Kiwis to go green and make 2009 the year we protect nature in our backyard."

Ten green resolutions:

1) Feed your garden not the landfill. Set up a composting system or worm farm at home. Find out how at: www.sustainability.govt.nz/goal/organic-waste

2) Say "no" to plastic bags at the supermarket check-out. Take your own recyclable bags with you when you shop.

3) Recycle. Find out what recycling services and facilities are available in your area and then make sure you recycle as much as you can.

4) Insulate your hot water cylinder. Water heating is the single biggest energy consumer in the average home. Visit: www.eeca.govt.nz

5) Go car-free one day each week. Get out of your car and find an alternative way to work one day a week. 1.2 million of us drive to work each and every day.

6) Lose the road rage and save vital energy. If you have to drive your car, lay off the aggressive behaviour -- research suggests that as much as 25 percent extra fuel is used with heavy acceleration and braking.

7) Get involved in a local conservation project. Visit: www.conservationvolunteers.org.nz. Or if you want to set up your own local conservation project to restore nature, check www.wwf.org.nz to apply for funding through their Habitat Protection Fund.

8) When purchasing new whiteware appliances make sure you read the Energy Rating Label so that you get the most energy efficient model.

9) Celebrate WWF's Earth Hour. On Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 8.30pm people all over the world will be turning out their lights for one hour as a symbolic gesture to show their support for action that tackles climate change. Visit: www.earthhour.org

10) Don't make Earth Hour a one night stand -- commit to switching off your appliances at the wall and turning out any unnecessary lights. Switching appliances off at the wall is more energy efficient and can save you money.

Source: www.au.news.yahoo.com and www.wwf.org

Article 7

Getting wind of a big battery pack

Xcel Energy has become one of the first utilities in the US to install a giant battery system in an attempt to store some of that wind power for later. Twenty batteries are capable of delivering roughly one megawatt of electricity almost instantaneously, enough to power 500 average American homes for seven hours.

By David Biello in Scientific American

Winter winds howl off the Dakota prairie through Minnesota, turning the 1,100 megawatts worth of wind turbines in Xcel Energy's system in that state. By 2020, the utility expects to more than triple that amount in a bid to avoid more polluting energy sources. But the wind doesn't always blow and, even worse, it often blows strongest when people aren't using much electricity, like late at night.

So Xcel Energy, Inc., has become one of the first utilities in the U.S. to install a giant battery system in an attempt to store some of that wind power for later. "Energy storage might help us get to the point where we can integrate wind better," says Frank Novachek, director of corporate planning for the Minneapolis-based utility with customers in Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, the Dakotas, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. "The overall cost of electricity might be lower by using energy storage."

The energy storage in question—a series of sodium–sulfur batteries from Japan's NGK Insulators, Ltd.—can store roughly seven megawatt-hours of power, meaning the 20 batteries are capable of delivering roughly one megawatt of electricity almost instantaneously, enough to power 500 average American homes for seven hours. "Over 100 megawatts of this technology [is] deployed throughout the world," Novachek says. The batteries "store wind at night and they contract with their utility to put out a straight line output from that wind farm every day."

That removes one of the big hurdles to even broader adoption of wind power: so-called intermittency. In other words, the wind doesn't always blow when you want it to, a problem Texas faced earlier this year when a drop in wind generation forced cuts in electricity delivery. But with battery backup, the 11-megawatt wind farm outside Luverne, Minn., can deliver a set amount of electricity at all times, making it more reliable or, in industry terms, base-load generation. Plus, the battery effectively doubles the wind farm's output at any given moment—both the megawatt being produced by the wind farm itself (that would otherwise have gone to charging the battery) and the megawatt delivered by the battery.

But it is expensive, costing roughly $3 million per megawatt plus millions for start-up and testing. "Right now, they're a little too expensive," Novachek says. But "it's getting in the ballpark where it looks like the economics might be there. Testing will help us understand the value."

So far the battery has been through five charging and recharging cycles and testing will continue through next year, Novachek says. Other utilities, including the Long Island Power Authority in New York State and American Electric Power in Ohio, have used similar or the same batteries to better manage their grids, but this would represent the first battery to store wind power in the U.S.

The battery is not the only storage experiment Xcel Energy is running: It has been testing using electricity from wind and solar installations to generate hydrogen and then burn the hydrogen in a generator to turn it back into electricity when as needed. And the utility has paired with the city of Boulder, Colo., to test plug-in hybrid electric cars as a means of providing electricity during the day when people are at work and not driving.

"The Midwest is a great [wind] resource and we are strategically placed to use that and reduce our carbon footprint," Novachek notes, by replacing some of the 16 coal-fired plants and 28 natural gas power plants the company now operates. "New technologies that are out there might really help us get more green than people had hoped—and energy storage is one of those."

Source: www.sciam.com

Article 8

Small business catching Wave One

As Palo Alto in California works toward the city council's ambitious goal of reducing citywide emissions by 15 percent from 2005 levels, it's getting a push from a local developer who believes small businesses, collectively, can make a big difference.

By Will Oremus of the Bay Area News Group

As Palo Alto works toward the city council's ambitious goal of reducing citywide emissions by 15 percent from 2005 levels, it's getting a push from a local developer who believes small businesses, collectively, can make a big difference.

Jim Baer, chief executive of Premier Properties, believes going green tends to be relatively easy for governments and big companies, which can hire consultants and implement sweeping plans, and private citizens, who can simply change their personal habits. But organizing small- and medium-sized businesses around climate change goals is tougher, because there are so many of them but none is large enough to make much of an impact on its own.

It's not that they don't want to make their operations cleaner and more efficient, Baer said. It's just that they're not always sure the best way to go about it.

Enter Wave One, the initiative he launched in May to enlist banks, architects, real estate agents and other small firms in the fight against global warming. Instead of expecting each to find its own way toward saving energy, Baer's plan is to organize them into clusters that can all take the same measures at the same time.

Baer launched the project with a goal of getting 25 businesses per month to reduce their water and energy use, enroll in the Palo Alto Green program and become certified as green businesses. He has already hired three part-time staff members, teamed up with the Palo Alto-based environmental group Acterra to gain nonprofit status, and lined up some 75 business owners willing to participate.

The interest has been so strong, he said, that the goal of 25 per month might end up being conservative.

"Right now there's the willingness of businesses, the good intentions of businesses, but when they decide to contact the city our the county or a nonprofit to help them, it's random access," he said. "That inevitably creates inefficiencies."

Eliminate the randomness, however, and the process becomes smoother.

"If we're organizing the light auditors for 10 businesses on Emerson Street on the same day, or the replacement of 10 lights for businesses downtown, then it's efficient," Baer said.

Palo Alto insurance agent Jeri Fink was one of the first to sign up and has already had her business evaluated. She said the auditors' advice has shown her that becoming a green business doesn't have to be daunting or complicated.

"That's the biggest thing — is they're there to guide you," Fink said of Wave One. "Otherwise a lot of people won't make the effort."

Mayor Larry Klein called Wave One an "exciting idea" that could be instrumental in helping the city meet its climate targets.

"We need things like that," he said. "We're not going to get anywhere in the fight against global warming without people participating in a lot of different ways. We can't just depend on the government."

If it works in Palo Alto, Baer said, Wave One could become a model for cities nationwide. In fact, that's the genesis of the project's name.

"We view this as an intensified pilot program," he said. "We're just the first wave of a thousand waves. We have to have the business community organize itself to make this happen."

Source: www.mercurynews.com

Article 9

Jatropha is the new oil in the air

Air New Zealand ended the year by testing a passenger jet powered partially with jatropha oil, in efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and cut its fuel bill. The latest carrier to experiment with alternative fuels, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from aviation, which are projected to rise by up to 90% by 2020, according to European Commission projections.

By RAY LILLEY, Associated Press Writer Ray Lilley, Associated Press WriterWELLINGTON, New Zealand

Air New Zealand has tested a passenger jet powered partially with oil from a plum-sized fruit known as jatropha, in efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and cut its fuel bill.

With its test flight Tuesday, the airline became the latest carrier experiment with alternative fuels, partly due to the threat of rising oil prices but also to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from aviation, which are projected to rise by up to 90 percent by 2020 according to European Commission projections.

Air New Zealand said the two-hour flight from Auckland International Airport was the first to use what are known as second generation biofuels to power an airplane. Second generation biofuels typically use a wider range of plants and release fewer emissions than traditional biofuels like ethanol.

One engine of the Boeing 747-400 airplane was powered by a 50-50 blend of oil from jatropha plants and standard A1 jet fuel.

"Today, we stand at the earliest stages of sustainable fuel development and an important moment in aviation history," Air New Zealand Chief Executive Rob Fyfe said shortly after the flight.

Along with investing in new technology to replace outdated fleets and new designs that reduce weight and air resistance, the International Air Transport Association says airlines are experimenting with a range of plant materials in an effort to find the jet fuel of the future.

The association, which represents 230 airlines, said it wants 10 percent of aviation fuel to come from biofuels by 2017 as part of a broad climate change plan. Air travel now generates only 2 percent of global carbon emissions that are believed to contribute to global warming, but the industry's high growth rate has raised concern about future emissions.

"There are very promising biojet fuels, and jatropha is one of them," association spokesman Anthony Concil said Tuesday, adding that the industry is also looking at switch grass, algae and salt-tolerant plants called halophytes.

Jatropha is a bush with round, plum-like fruit that has been found in parts of South America, Africa and Asia. Seeds from jatropha are crushed to produce a yellowish oil that is refined and mixed with diesel.

Tuesday's flight was a joint venture by Air New Zealand, airplane maker Boeing, engine maker Rolls Royce and biofuel specialist UOP Llc, a unit of Honeywell International.

In February, Boeing and Virgin Atlantic carried out a similar test flight that included a biofuel mixture of palm and coconut oil — but that was dismissed as a publicity stunt by environmentalists who said the fuel could not be produced in the quantities needed for commercial aviation.

Continental Airlines has said on Jan. 7 it will operate a test flight out of Houston using a special blend of half conventional fuel and half biofuel with ingredients derived from algae and jatropha plants.

Simon Boxer, of environmental group Greenpeace New Zealand, said it was inevitable that airlines would show greater interest in sustainable biofuels as travelers become more aware of the harm that air travel causes the environment.

But he said it wasn't clear whether jatropha was really sustainable. He questioned what the environmental impact would be if jatropha grew popular and more land and resources were needed to produce it on a commercial scale.

Ken Morton, a Boeing spokesman, said he expects more airlines will embrace biofuels as countries introduce emission taxes and emission trading schemes that will impact the industry.

"It makes a lot of commercial sense to invest in these biofuels," said Morton, who was on hand for the New Zealand flight. "Certainly, it is what the public wants."

Jatropha on first glance appears to have many of the attributes demanded from the industry.

It grows almost anywhere, so it wouldn't compete with food crops as corn-based ethanol does and has a lower freezing point than traditional biofuels like palm oil.

India appears to be most bullish on jatropha, with plans to plant 30 million acres (12 million hectares) by 2012. Already, the Indian government says it has successfully run dozens of trucks and buses on jatropha-based biodiesel and 18.5 million acres (7.4 million hectares) of jatropha saplings are growing along the country's railroad tracks.

While Air New Zealand heralded Tuesday's flight as successful, Group Manager Ed Sims cautioned that it will be at least 2013 before the company can ensure easy access to the large quantities of jatropha it would need to use the biofuel on all its flights.

"Clearly we are a long, long way from being able to source commercially quantifiable amounts of the fuel and then be able to move that amount of fuel around the world to be able to power the world's airlines," Sims told New Zealand's National Radio.

Source: www.news.yahoo.com

Article 10

Eco and sustainability ideas for 2009

Springwise and its network of 8,000 spotters scan the globe for smart new business ideas, delivering instant inspiration to entrepreneurial minds. Concepts that will continue to provide entrepreneurs with plenty of opportunities in 2009. It's no surprise that the green sector continues to be a hotbed of innovation.

Published on 30 December 2008 in Springwise’s Eco & Sustainability section

Springwise and its network of 8,000 spotters scan the globe for smart new business ideas, delivering instant inspiration to entrepreneurial minds.Time to start the next big thing!

We're deviating from our regular schedule to bring you the best new business ideas spotted in the last 12 months—smart concepts that will continue to provide entrepreneurs with plenty of opportunities in 2009. It's no surprise that the green sector continues to be a hotbed of innovation.

Ten of our favourites:

Ecovative — Instead of Styrofoam, fungus and rice hulls www.ecovativedesign.com

Wattson, HomeJoule, Ambient, AlertMe — Visualising energy use www.diykyoto.com — www.consumerpowerline.com — www.ambientdevices.com

La Petite Reine — Cargo bikes for greener business deliveries in congested cities www.lapetitereine.com

Green Homes Concierge — Green concierge reduces home's carbon footprint www.greenhomesconcierge.co.uk

Qurrent — Neighbourhood approach to renewable energy www.qurrent.com

RoofRay — Using Google maps to determine a home's solar potential www.roofray.com

Fiat, Microsoft and Honda — Feedback for greener driving www.hondanews.com/categories/1097/releases/4878

Carrotmob — Crowd clout meets eco persuasion www.carrotmob.org

My Farm, Your Backyard Farmer — Homegrown veggies without the sweat www.yourbackyardfarmer.com

Free Green — Free plans for eco homes www.freegreen.com

Source: www.springwise.com and www.wotnews.com.au

Article 11

More are dying for a greener end

What began as a baby-boom after the Second World War is about to end with a 20-year boom for the funeral industry. The wave of deaths is going to sweep away many of the traditions we have about death and dying. Is the idea to turn your body into compost as food for trees?

Ian Townsend gave this report on the ABC’s Background Briefing:

In the next few years, Australia's death rate is going to start rising fast as more than 5-million baby-boomers approach a statistical cliff.

A few weeks ago, Evelyn Green was buried in the bush on the New South Wales North Coast.

John Gough: What do you reckon, Johnno? Good spot, yes. It was a wonderful idea to go with this time, and the more we're heading into bad financial times, the better this is for people, the idea that can do something difference. It's being happy in the environment, yes. It is wonderful, wonderful. And the way we're handling this is the way we wanted to do it. Hands on, family managed, and I like this idea, it's freedom and family you know and you can grieve, grieve hanging out, you know.

Ian Townsend: It's a sunny winter's day in the hills behind Lismore. Her family has invited me to this funeral.

They've chosen a grave in the long grass beneath a big gum tree, and John Gough has made a simple pine board coffin for his mother-in-law.

John Gough: It's the first bit of carpentry I've done for years, and I really enjoyed doing it again. Because I was a bit worried to get the length of the body, and so I pulled out a tape; it's not the time to do all of that stuff. So I got the minimum size so the boys could know what they're up to. It's worked out well, and there's nothing galvanised, no plastic, no nothing in it. It will just rot away I suppose you could say, like the earth.

Ian Townsend: There'll be no headstone on this grave. Instead, the coffin will be buried with a magnet so the grave can be found later with a metal detector. The grave's co-ordinates will be recorded, and if you want to visit, you'll be able to find it with a GPS.

Ian Townsend: It all seems a very new age, northern New South Wales thing to do, but Evelyn Green was from a traditional farming family. She died at a nursing home in Ballina at the age of 97.

This is the first burial in a BushLand cemetery, set aside by Lismore Council for what's called 'natural earth burials'. It's something that's taken off in the past 10 years in England, where a survey recently found that 35 percent of people now wanted to be buried in one of the dozens of natural woodland burial grounds scattered around the UK.

The idea is to turn your body into compost as food for trees.

At the moment in Australia the baby boomers are still organising the cremation and traditional burial of their parents, but when they start making arrangements for their own funerals, it'll be a different story.

Funeral directors such as Phil Connolly, on Queensland's Gold Coast, say the industry's getting ready for not just a big increase in business, but demands for more choice.

Ian Townsend: We're heading to a site that he's hoping will be the first of a new sort of city cemetery, a natural earth burial ground, where a tree will be planted beside each new grave.

Kevin Hartley: There's a piece of land that's owned by the State Government which is just north of the original Aldinga township, and the area has been vacant for years, it's been talked about as being a buffer zone between the suburbs and the township.

Ian Townsend: Kevin Hartley's been in the funeral business for 25 years and earlier this year, he started White Knight Funerals. He's been burying people in biodegradable shrouds since January.

A few months ago he was on the ABC television program The New Inventors, with a coffin he invented called the 'Transporter'. Most State laws say you have to be taken to your grave in a coffin, but they don't say you have to be buried in one. Kevin Hartley's exploiting this loophole.

Kevin Hartley: I took in fact one of these bizarre, elaborate American coffins which I've got to say look fantastic, but they're made out of sheet metal, heavier than the average motor car, and we modified that so it has a trapdoor device in the bottom, through which at the end of the service the body slowly lowers under gravity, a lowering device, and over a period of a minute, ends up at rest in the bottom of the grave. (HORN SOUNDS) In a hurry to get to the cemetery. Sorry, what were you asking me there, I was distracted?

Ian Townsend: The Transporter, the body's lowered into the grave. That seems to satisfy a lot of people's I suppose ideas of what should happen.

Kevin Hartley: Look, it meets all the legal criteria for a start, but what I discovered when we first did this was the difference. And the difference is that these funerals feel different to any funeral I've ever been to, because there's zero pretence, and there's zero façade. What you're seeing is what you're getting, and I've said to you I think that the funeral industry is a bit of a façade. It's all just show for the day, whereas when you get to the end of a funeral and you're standing around that grave and you look down and there's a shrouded body there that you know is there, you know that's the relative, and as a lady said to me just very recently at a funeral, she went to say goodbye to her sister, and she said, 'And I really can say goodbye, because she's just and I know it.'

Ian Townsend: The site we're driving to is Kevin Hartley's dream cemetery. There are a couple of cemeteries around the country that do offer bushland burials in shrouds or eco-coffins, such as the Lismore BushLand Cemetery and the Kingston Cemetery in Tasmania, but there's nothing on the scale of what Kevin Hartley's planning.

We're approaching a bare, windswept hill on the edge of Adelaide, which he hopes one day will be a forest, fertilised by the remains of nearly 30,000 people.

Kevin Hartley: But when you think about it, if you bury a body in a medium-depth grave, not shallow, not six foot in the ground necessarily, you're burying it at a point where it will actually decompose naturally. Quite the contrary if you put a body in a plastic lined box where the decomposition naturally is limited by the barrier of the plastic, what in fact you get - and it's a terrible term - it's putrefaction, it's rotting. Because not only is it sealed in a box but at a six foot depth you're down through the zone where you're into an anaerobic area. So you've got a situation, I would suspect that from a health point of view or a bacteria point of view, you'd actually have a much worse problem sealed away in that six foot down plastic-lined one-room apartment under the ground, than you ever would by returning that body directly into the ground would it could decompose naturally. We've arrived!

A few pine trees have been planted down the middle there for a windbreak because as soon as they knocked all the trees down, they realised all the wind would blow the soil away. So here we stand.

Ian Townsend: Here, on this hill, there'll be nothing but a tree to mark each grave, and we're left to imagine nearly 30,000 people lying beneath us.

This is an edited version of the full ABC Background Briefing broadcast, which can be heard or read in full on: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2008/2444924.htm

Article 12

Insurance giant connects catastrophes and climate change

Insurance is one of the business sectors that long has lobbied governments to take the lead in setting global rules to tackle climate change. Munich Re, a reinsurance group, renewed that campaign with a warning that natural catastrophes are increasing in frequency, and it called for an international plan to halve emissions by 2050.

By James Kanter in the New York Times

Insurance is one of the business sectors that has long lobbied governments to take the lead in setting global rules to tackle climate change.

This week (29 December 2008) one of the biggest companies, Munich Re, a reinsurance group, renewed that campaign with a warning that natural catastrophes — apparently driven by climate change — are increasing in frequency, and it called for an international plan to halve emissions by 2050.

This year (2008), adjusted for inflation, was the third most expensive year on record, exceeded only by 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina, and by 1995, the year of the Kobe earthquake, according to Munich Re.

“Climate change has already started and is very probably contributing to increasingly frequent weather extremes and ensuing natural catastrophes,” said Torsten Jeworrek, a member of the board of management at Munich Re. “These, in turn, generate greater and greater losses because the concentration of values in exposed areas, like regions on the coast, is also increasing further throughout the world,” he said.

Earlier this year, a climate consultancy, Ecofys, carried out a study on behalf of environmental organization WWF and the insurance company Allianz, warning that none of the G8 countries — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Britain and the United States — appeared to be on target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to avoid the risk of catastrophic climate change.

In fact, many environmental activists say the rich and powerful insurance industry could be doing a great deal more to mitigate the causes of climate change. Some activists have spent years trying to push the financial services industry — and the massively powerful reinsurance sector — to redirect investment towards cleaner businesses and away from fossil fuels.

Others critics have warned that the insurance industry is lobbying hard on the climate change issue to help prepare the way for government bailouts in the event of exceptionally costly catastrophes.

Munich Re, in its statement this week, said it was doing a great deal to help promote a cleaner, less catastrophe-prone world — including promoting renewable energy technologies to help secure affordable coverage for ambitious and hazardous projects, like offshore wind farms.

The company also said it was cooperating with Nicholas Stern, the noted British economist, to push research forward on the economic impacts of climate change.

James Kanter, of Green Inc, New York Times, has been a staff correspondent for The International Herald Tribune in Paris and Brussels since 2005, covering European business affairs and the business of green. His previous experience includes four years in Southeast Asia, where he was the editor in chief of The Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh and oversaw coverage of environmental issues like uncontrolled logging.

Source: www.nytimes.com and www.munichre.com

Article 13

Questions for Obama’s science gurus

President-elect Barack Obama pledges to put a lot of emphasis not only on reinvigorating science, but on making decisions that are grounded in science. Andrew Revkin of the New York Times Dot Earth blog is going to seek answers from his environmental and science team to the questions that received the most reader recommendations.

11 Questions for Obama’s Science Team

By Andrew C. Revkin in Dot Earth in The New York Times

President-elect Barack Obama pledges to put a lot of emphasis not only on reinvigorating science, but on making decisions that are grounded in science. As promised, I’m going to seek answers from his environmental and science team to the questions that received the most reader recommendations. Here are the top 10 (actually, 11 because of a multiple tie):

1. Green Education? (James L. Elder, Boston, Mass., 98 recommendations).

President Obama has astutely recognized the linkages between climate change, economic stimulus, and energy security by declaring that the transition to a green economy is his top priority. He further recognizes the importance of investing in “green” job training as part of the solution. But he has been relatively silent on the related need to invest in “green” education to help make the green economy a reality.

It seems to me that green manufacturing workforce development programs are just one piece of what is needed; the green economy will not be driven by manufacturing workers alone. Transforming our nation’’s economic, energy, and environmental systems to move towards a green economy will require a level of expertise, innovation, and cooperative effort unseen since the 1940s to meet the challenges involved. Architects, engineers, planners, scientists, business managers, financial experts, lawyers, entrepreneurs, political leaders, resource managers and many others as well as workers will all be needed – not to mention environmentally literate consumers - to drive the green economy. In short, American workers, managers, and professionals at all levels and in all sectors must understand the fundamental dynamics and principles underpinning a green economy.

2. A Fusion Push? (Josh King, San Diego, Calif., 52 recommendations)

To Prof. John Holdren: I am a graduate student of U.C. Berkeley doing thesis research on magnetic fusion energy (MFE) at the DIII D tokamak in San Diego, CA. I have recently learned that you were a member of the MFE theory group at Lawrence Livermore National Lab during the 70’s and still remain a consultant. In light of this, I hope that the nature of my questions and comments are well received, and I apologize in advance if many of my comments are old hat.

Climate change is causing drought, inclement whether, and sea level rise. The results of these effects are famine, the rise of 19th century pestilent diseases in underdeveloped countries, and rates of species extinction comparable with astronomic events of millions of years past. Beyond climate change, the fossil sources of cheap energy on the planet are quickly becoming depleted. Adding moral complexity to this fact are the rising standards of living in developing countries, which are largely attributable to the availability and exploitation of cheap, CO2 emitting sources of power like coal. Finally, the synergistic combination of the aforementioned facts is even more damning, as combating climate change’s most devastating effects requires the use of additional energy. Case and point, the rise of energy intensive desalination plants in drought-ridden areas.

The only way I see of breaking this vicious feedback loop is through the development of an environmentally benign, cheap, reliable, and abundant energy source. None of the current alternatives (i.e. solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels, and conventional fission) fit all four of these criteria, and the only possible source of energy that could, is fusion. Read more…

3. Can Science Get Respect? (Mr. Kit Wilkinson, Salt Lake City, Utah, 32 recommendations)

As a 7th grade science teacher I am confronted with the greatest problem with our scientific community. The problem is not global climate change or energy issues. It is the stigma that American students have with learning science, math, and technology. If the next generation has no innovative minds to scientifically, mathematically, and technologically tackle our greatest problems, then these problems remain. What do the science advisers plan to do about this? It is not a problem of education. It is a problem with the media incorrectly representing science, math, and technology and the people that work in these fields. Thank you all so much for your time.

4. What Price Carbon? (Charles Komanoff, New York, N.Y., 32 recommendations).

Question for Profs. Chu & Holdren — Prof. Chu recently and forthrightly stressed the imperative of full-cost pricing of gasoline (”Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” Wall Street Journal, Sept. 2008.) Prof. Holdren’s commanding intelligence and integrity presumably dictate that he feels similarly concerning all fossil fuels. Will the two of you then insist that the Obama administration push aggressively for transparent carbon pricing, preferably via a revenue-neutral carbon tax, as the cornerstone of policies to preserve Earth’s climate?

5. Why Not Tax Instead of Cap? (jfb, Hampton Roads, Va., 21 reccomendations)

To Steve Chu or Carol Browner: Why do you prefer cap-and-trade to a carbon tax? Do you not think it possible to educate the public and Congress on the advantages of a carbon tax in simplicity and removal of opportunity for political horse-trading?

A steadily escalating carbon tax, perhaps $20/tonne in FY11 escalating at $10/tonne/year to $150/tonne [in 2010 dollars], would provide a long term environment for private investment and be clearer to all participants than a cap-and-trade system with auctioned rights. Perhaps a third of the funds generated could be rebated evenly per capita with the rest used to reduce the national debt. The Clinton administration showed that there is a virtuous cycle in budget matters with benefits for running a surplus when not in recession. The G.W. Bush administration showed problems when a surplus is turned into unbalanced tax cuts and wars.

6. Will Population Be a Priority? (Steven Earl Salmony, Chapel Hill, N.C., 20 recommendations)

Dr. Holdren has been clear for many years about the threat that is potentially posed to the family of humanity and life as we know it by the huge scale and fully anticipated, unregulated increase of absolute global human population numbers in Century XXI. By contrast, Dr. Lubchenco and many too many top-rank scientists appear to have remained silent on the topic of the human overpopulation of Earth.

With human population projections indicating that the human community will have 9+ billion members by 2050, perhaps it is time to open discussions here and elsewhere about the profound implications of a 40% increase in the human population in the coming four decades. Read more…

7. Will You Make Science ‘Cool’? (Chris, New York, 19 recommendations)