“Understand and Benefit from the Green Trend”
Learn more about the biggest trend in the building and retrofit industry in a fast paced, interesting seminar from an industry expert who is in demand as a speaker.
Speaker: Barbara Collins is a Senior Building Science Consultant with ERH West, a company that specializes in green consulting, and maximizing building energy performance.
Register: Phone: 775-823-8800, Fax 775-823-8805 Email: info@rsar.net
The following is a guest post by Edward Quevedo, Esq of Paladin Law. and Leilani C. Latimer or Sabre Holdings. It concerns work done by 3p’s new sponsor, Dominican University’s Green MBA program. You can look forward to a new series of posts by Dominican in the coming weeks.
Can Green Teams help companies innovate beyond internal operations and actually influence product and service innovation? If so, what will it take to realign and redesign these teams so that their energy and social capital can be optimized? This was the focus of a recent research study published by Sabre Holdings, Dominican University and Paladin Law Group.
Going into this project it had already been widely established that “Green Teams”, or employee- led teams focused on environmental and sustainability initiatives, were infusing the workplace with much needed education and catalyzing awareness about the issues. What was less apparent, however, was the extent to which Green Teams had been able to harness their energy in such a way as to drive product and service innovation, or add what we call “Enterprise Value.”
Our research study produced several compelling insights. The study – a result of interviews with 14 companies across industries that are recognized leaders in employing differentiating sustainability initiatives and Green Teams – found that Green Teams are barely scratching the surface when it comes to generating sustainable value externally. Given the significant management and employee time and energy that goes into these teams, the generation of Enterprise Value would seem to be a given, but typically this is not the case.
Read the complete article at Triple Pundit.
The National Academies’ America’s Energy Future project aims to stimulate and inform a constructive national dialogue about the nation’s energy future. With a sustained national commitment, the United States could achieve considerable energy-efficiency improvements, acquire new sources of energy supply, and effect substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions through the accelerated development and deployment of a portfolio of existing and emerging energy-supply and end-use technologies.
The future of America’s energy is closely connected to the development and direction of the transportation sector. This webinar will explore America’s Energy Future project through the eyes of transportation professionals. Presenters will discuss the impact that petroleum has on the economy and national security, the ability to incorporate liquid fuels produced from coal and biomass into U.S. energy strategy, and the development of efficiency technologies and new vehicles that could reduce projected U.S. energy use. People interested in the intersection between energy and transportation should attend this webinar.
Session presenters:
Michael P. Ramage, National Academy of Engineering member
John B. Heywood, National Academy of Engineering member
Moderated by: Jim Zucchetto, National Research Council
Registration: Participants must register 24 hours in advance.
There is no fee for National Academies employees; current chairs of TRB standing committees, sections, or groups; or AEF committee/panel members.
There is also no fee for employees of TRB Sponsors: http://bit.ly/9tduwj. TRB Sponsors: Please use your work email to register.
New payment category! Learn how to subscribe to TRB Webinars: http://bit.ly/cdhzI0
Other sites must pay $99 per site.
Questions? Contact Reggie Gillum at rgillum@nas.edu or 202-334-2382.
The Drug Enforcement Administration and government, community, public health and law enforcement partners today announced a nationwide prescription drug “Take-Back” initiative that seeks to prevent increased pill abuse and theft. DEA will be collecting potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs for destruction at sites nationwide o n Saturday, September 25th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.
Collection sites in every local community can be found by going to www.dea.gov . This site will be continuously updated with new take-back locations. Collection sites in Reno include Walgreens, Scolari’s and Save Mart.
ScienceDaily (Aug. 18, 2010) — The concentrations of toxic nitrogen oxide that are present in German cities regularly exceed the maximum permitted levels. That’s now about to change, as innovative paving slabs that will help protect the environment are being introduced. Coated in titanium dioxide nanoparticles, they reduce the amount of nitrogen oxide in the air.
In Germany, ambient air quality is not always as good as it might be — data from the federal environment ministry makes this all too clear. In 2009, the amounts of toxic nitrogen oxide in the atmosphere exceeded the maximum permitted levels at no fewer than 55 percent of air monitoring stations in urban areas. The ministry reports that road traffic is one of the primary sources of these emissions. In light of this fact, the Baroque city of Fulda is currently embarking on new ways to combat air pollution.
Special paving slabs that will clean the air are to be laid the length of Petersberger Straße, where recorded pollution levels topped the annual mean limit of 40 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3) last year. These paving slabs are coated with titanium dioxide (TiO2), which converts harmful substances such as nitrogen oxides into nitrates. Titanium dioxide is a photocatalyst; it uses sunlight to accelerate a naturallyoccurring chemical reaction, the speed of which changes with exposure to light. The “Air Clean” nitrogen oxide-reducing paving slabs were developed by F. C. Nüdling Betonelemente. Proof of their effectiveness has subsequently been provided by the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME in Schmallenberg, where researchers also determined the risk to the environment posed by the resulting nitrates. Their work was funded by the German Environment Foundation.
Dr. Monika Herrchen, a scientist at the IME, says: “Experiments in Italian cities had already shown that photocatalytic paving slabs can improve the air quality. We wanted to see if they would also be effective here in Germany, where we have lower levels of light intensity and fewer hours of sunshine. Of course, the more intense the sunshine, the quicker the degradation of harmful substances, so our aim was to identify the formula with the highest photocatalytic efficiency rating.”
Read the complete article at Science Daily
Americans are using less energy overall and making more use of renewable energy resources, according to a report released by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
According to the report, the U.S. used significantly less coal and petroleum in 2009 than in 2008, and significantly more wind power. There also was a decline in natural gas use and increases in solar, hydro and geothermal power according to the most recent LLNL energy flow charts.
“Energy use tends to follow the level of economic activity, and that level declined last year. At the same time, higher efficiency appliances and vehicles reduced energy use even further,” said A.J. Simon, an LLNL energy systems analyst who develops the energy flow charts using data provided by the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration. “As a result, people and businesses are using less energy in general.”
Estimated U.S. energy use in 2009 declined by approximately 4.5 percent from 2008, LLNL reported. Energy use in the residential, commercial, industrial and transportation arenas all declined by 1.95, 1.06, 9.92 and 3.27 percent, respectively.
Wind power used for primary power generation increased dramatically in 2009 by 37.25 percent from 2008 levels. Most of that energy is tied directly to electricity generation and thus helps decrease the use of coal for electricity production.
“The increase in renewables is a really good story, especially in the wind arena,” Simon said. “It’s a result of very good incentives and technological advancements. In 2009, the technology got better and the incentives remained relatively stable. The investments put in place for wind in previous years came online in 2009. Even better, there are more projects in the pipeline for 2010 and beyond.”
Read the complete article at Environmental Leader
Please make plans to attend the Nevada Woody Biomass Collaborative’s teleconference/meeting on Thursday, September 2, 2010, from 2:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. We will be meeting in Ely, Las Vegas and Carson City at UNR’s Cooperative Extension Offices (addresses below). We will be fortunate to have the USFS’s leading authority on the Fuel’s For Schools program, Dave Atkins, from Missoula, Montana, in person in Carson City. Dave will explain the program, how it worked (and, cases points, where it didn’t). Nevada has only one such program still operating and needs more to make use of locally-sourced woody biomass.
Dusty Moller will be in Carson City, giving a review of woody biomass happenings over the past months as well as previewing the upcoming Pinyon/Juniper Summit that’s slated for December in Ely, Nevada. We’ll be getting updates from Nevada Department of Forestry, BLM and USFS attendees and the rest of our utilization partners. So, mark your calendars, post your Facebooks and Blackberries or chalk mark your sundial, Tweet—whatever it takes to get you to one of these Coop Extension locations, on time, on Thursday, September 2, from 2 P.M. to 4 P.M.:
Ely: 996 Compton Street
Carson City: 2621 Northgate Lane
Las Vegas: 8050 S Maryland Parkway (@ Windmill Lane exit on the 215)