OPINION Biofuels 2.0: It’s Time for Congress to Act
Efforts to replace oil with biofuels in the United States are at a critical juncture. Double-digit growth in the production of corn-based ethanol has contributed to a sharp increase in grain and soybean prices while failing to deliver the environmental gains that had been hoped for. It's time to reduce the incentives for food-based biofuels and accelerate the transition to more sustainable alternatives - the so-called "next-generation" cellulosic technologies, which are expected to become viable in the coming years.


Solar Industry Needs Workers
California's fascination with solar power has created thousands of jobs in the state and will probably add thousands more, according to a new survey of the industry. The survey, by two community college researchers, estimates that solar companies in California now employ between 16,500 and 17,500 people and may hire another 5,000 in the next year.


After years of confrontation, green groups and companies finding common ground
Corporate America and major green groups are starting to build ties as companies see the benefit of getting ahead of a trend toward environmental responsibility. While partnerships have been emerging case-by-case, environmentalists are starting to ramp up their efforts to target money mangers and investors in an attempt to change how corporations do businesses.


Clearing the Air on Liquid Natural Gas (Updated)
Every month when I see the magazine Seed in my mailbox I can’t wait to sit down and read it. This month I found a DVD inside the magazine with the oil company Shell’s short movie, Clearing the Air on it. My attention peaked, and I watched the movie. Clearing the Air is a fictional account of the development of gas to liquid (GTL) or liquid natural gas (LNG). The California Energy Commission defines LNG as “fuels that can be produced from natural gas, coal, and biomass using a Fischer-Tropsch chemical reaction process.”� However, in the movie LNG is used to refer to converting natural gas into liquid for fuel.


India's green revolutionary is back in spotlight
Forty years after he helped rescue the world from growing famine and a deepening gloom over the future of food supplies, Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan is once again agitating for revolution -- this time a perpetual one. The 82-year-old scientist, dubbed here the father of the Green Revolution for helping development a hybrid wheat seed that allowed Indian farmers to dramatically increase yields, says the current food crisis offers the world a chance to put farmers on the right road to unending growth.


American Apparel Finally Comes Clean(er)
American Apparel, a company well known for sexual harassment suits, scandalous barely legal marketing imagery, and de rigeur retro basics, is quietly known among environmentalists for something different”�setting the bar for fair wages in manufacturing and incorporating solid steps towards environmental sustainability. Now clearly, a manufacturing behemoth is going to have a tough time calling itself “sustainable,”� but American Apparel doesn’t even try. They do. Since 2006, 20% of their electricity for their factory in downtown LA is produced by solar energy, there’s recycled content in their shopping bags, and a majority of their manufacturing scraps get reclaimed for the making of their smaller items, like thongs and such.


Voluntary Carbon market is fast becoming big business
If anyone had doubts about the importance of the voluntary carbon market they would certainly have been overcome by the announcement last month by Merrill Lynch of a new carbon offset service to assist businesses to reduce emissions through voluntary offsets.


Consumer group ranks companies on emissions efforts
Consumer companies are getting greener, but they are still quite carbon-intensive, according to a study to be released today. Nonprofit group Climate Counts will release its second annual rankings of 56 consumer companies today on how they measure greenhouse gas emissions, their plans to reduce them and how fully they disclose their efforts.


Celulose Irani - Biomass to Electricity
Located in Vargem Bonita, Brazil, the Celulose Irani Project demonstrates how one paper manufacturer is finding economic value in what was once considered waste. The facility uses byproduct biomass from their paper production process to generate sustainable energy for their facility. Irani thus provides a model for biomass projects that reduce both waste and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), promoting sustainable development through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).


In food price crunch, more Americans seek help
BALTIMORE (Reuters) - Carolyn Stanley, a single mother with five children, receives $327 in food stamps each month to feed her family. With prices for staples like bread and cheese going ever higher, each month is harder than the last. She buys hot dogs over higher-quality meat and feeds her kids cereal, but even with other government support she often has to seek help from local churches and from friends.


Collaboration Calls for New U.N. Agency to Oversee Transport Emissions
A newly formed watchdog of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is proposing that the U.N. establish a new authority to regulate emissions from high-carbon international activities such as aviation and shipping. The International Scientific and Business Congress on Protecting the Climate, a group of climate change policy negotiators, scientists, and business stakeholders, suggested that the UNFCCC establish a World Carbon Authority to oversee a global emissions cap-and-trade scheme that would apply initially to the transport sector.


China’s Huge Self-Sustaining Soar LED Wall
It’s called the GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall, and with 2,292 individual color LEDs, comparable to a 24,000 sq. ft. monitor screen, it’s said to be the largest color LED display in the world. The wall is solar-powered too — photovoltaics are integrated into the wall’s glass curtain, and it harvests power during the day, to illuminate the display at night. Designed by, Simone Giostra & Partners Architects, the GreenPix wall is part of the Xicui Entertainment Complex in Beijing, near the site of the 2008 Olympics.


Redesigning Global Economic Governance
A distinct set of global institutions governs the international economic system: the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. Each has its specialty, and they are complemented by a number of even more specialized institutions with more restricted membership, such as the Bank for International Settlements and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Each institution is aware of the others, but none is responsible for the overall coherence of their various policies, let alone the achievement of international objectives.


Latin America: profitable business and sustainable development through inclusiveness
Lately our news feeds about the business sector, government and development activities in Latin America have painted a stark picture; mostly surrounding resource competition between filling bellies and producing biofuels. The current crises elucidates the range of dilemmas faced when business and development needs are out of harmony, when they are placed in competition to one another. What results is negative local community development, compromised business outcomes and strained relationships between governments, industry and civil society.


Will New Eco Clothes be on Target?
One of the biggest complaints women have about "going green" concerns the challenge of dressing "green," and that means more than the color. Apart from the occasional organic cotton nightgown sold at Wal-Mart, or the jackets and vests Patagonia remakes from recycled soda bottles, it's been hard to find eco-friendly clothes at an actual store -- where you can feel them, compare them and try them on. Most "green" clothes shopping has had to be done on-line, an experience that leaves very little to be desired when choices are limited, sizes are unpredictable, and the delivery lag sometimes seems interminable.


Goodbye for Nau
It is with a heavy heart (though FAR from a discouraged one) that I share with you, and I am sure I am not the first, that Nau, Portland based sustainable retailer, announced on Friday, May 2nd, just 14 months after launching the business, that they will be ceasing operations. Read below for more details from the Oregonian.


Big business muddies EU's biofuels debate
Soaring food prices and starving children provide a stirring backdrop to Europe's debate on its biofuels targets, but the big businesses of farming, forestry and automotive could have a heavier influence on policy. The green credentials of biofuels have come under attack in recent weeks over fears they compete for farming land and push up food prices around the world.


General Motors' Quest to Become "Green Motors"
On Thursday, Rick Wagoner, Chairman and CEO of General Motors came to San Francisco to speak about the future of the company and "green" auto technology. It's fascinating to think that not long ago, General Motors was a company beloved by most Americans, a symbol of the innovation, spirit, and the pleasant lifestyle typical of American culture. Today, it is the target of much criticism, when Wagoner must watch his words carefully and bring along a security outfit, for fear of protest. One did break out, but certainly nothing violent or warranting more security than was provided for Nobel Prize winning social entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus, who had none present at a Commonwealth Club event at the same venue, which he actually more than filled up.


Labour pains - Clean-technology firms
A talent shortage hits green start-ups ON MAY 1st applications closed for the first intake of a novel kind of executive-education programme. Set up by a bunch of venture-capital firms and other companies in New England, the three-month course will teach its "fellows" about renewable energy. To qualify for a fellowship, applicants must be successful entrepreneurs from other industries, such as IT or health care, and be zealous about profiting from greenery.


Can Green Trade Tariffs Combat Climate Change?
In recent months, China has taken center stage in the international debate over global warming. It has surpassed the United States as the world's largest source of greenhouse gases, and it became developing nations' diplomatic champion at the recent United Nations climate negotiations in Bali. Now China may become the target of a full-fledged trade war that could destroy—or perhaps rescue—the chances of bringing rich and poor nations together to fight global warming.


Advertising Watchdog Receives Record Complaints Over Corporate 'Greenwash'
The number of complaints lodged to the advertising standards watchdog relating to environmental or green claims has more than quadrupled in the past year, according to a report released this week. The annual report from the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) shows that in 2007 the ASA received 561 complaints about environmental claims in 410 adverts, compared with just 117 complaints about 83 adverts the year before - a more than fourfold increase.


'Small Wind' Power Plants Are Blowing Strong
On a recent sunny afternoon Bob Loebelenz pauses to gaze 72 feet into the air at the spinning blades of his wind turbine, a small "clean, free electricity" smile creasing the corners of his mouth. While giant wind turbines that supply power to utilities sprout along ridgelines across the United States, far smaller residential wind generators, like the one Mr. Loebelenz erected in 2003 to power his suburban Boston home, are still unusual in densely populated places.


U.S. closes most of West Coast to salmon fishing
The U.S. government on Thursday closed almost all of the ocean off the West Coast to salmon fishing, clearing the way for governors of states hard hit by years of declining catches to seek federal relief aid for losses estimated at $290 million. West Coast salmon populations have declined sharply in the last few years, with experts citing a variety of reasons including climate change and hungry sea lions.


Taco Bell Taking a Step into Sustainability
Taco Bell recently announced their plans to install new “Grill-To-Order”� cooking machines in all of their locations. The company is making this step to not only reduce water and energy usage, but also improve cost efficiency. Each installation is estimated to save $5,900 a year in electricity cost per store. System-wide Taco Bell expects to save more than $17 million a year.


Dawn of an energy famine
This week the shape of the global energy crisis came into its sharpest focus yet. The world needs renewable energy fast, but as BP and Shell announced record profits, they also demonstrated that they are in essence retreating from renewables, perhaps with the exception of biofuels. They intend to focus their record billions on expanding production of what remains of traditional oil and gas, plus tar sands and liquid fuels from coal - ruinous in their effect on the climate.

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