Environmental News Network - Spotlight

Maharishi University of Management's Sustainable Living Center Net Energy Producer!

Editor, ENN — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:01:00 EST

Maharishi University of Management's new Sustainable Living Center, which opened recently, has the distinction of being one of the few net-zero energy buildings in the country—it will produce as much if not more energy than it uses. Sustainable Living Center To Be "Net-Zero Energy Building" The building is designed to eventually be completely off the grid, including for water usage and waste treatment, as more funds are available. However, it will initially be connected to the grid, using electricity as needed during extreme weather conditions. At those times when the solar arrays and wind turbine produce more than the building uses, it will feed excess energy into the campus grid for use in other buildings. Annually the building will produce more energy that it will consume.

The Atlantic Cup Presented by 11th Hour Racing Announces Green Initiatives for all Three Legs of its Upcoming Class 40 Race

Andrea Oki, JDP Communications — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:13:00 EST

With less than a month until the start of the second annual 2012 Atlantic Cup presented by 11th Hour Racing, Manuka Sports Event Management, is pleased to announce their ecological plans to run the first carbon neutral sailing race in the United States during its three legs of competition; Charleston, S.C. (May 11) to New York Harbor (May 14-19) to Newport, R.I. (May 26-27). The Atlantic Cup's carbon neutrality initiatives will be supported by Green Mountain Energy Company, the nation's longest serving green power retailer. The race features an international fleet of 13 competitors, with teams from France, England, United States and Germany all slated to be on the start line for what will be the largest fleet of Class 40s ever to race in the United States. The 2012 Atlantic Cup carbon footprint will be calculated prior to the race start by Green Mountain. Based on these calculations and a post-race assessment, carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates (RECs) will be retired in order to offset emissions associated with the event, such as staff air travel, ground and water transportation, staff hotel stays, and event electricity usage. "It's been a challenging endeavor to organize and run a carbon neutral sailing race, and it's possible in large part to the continued support and guidance from 11th Hour Racing and partnership with Green Mountain," said Hugh Piggin, Manuka Sports Event Management Founder and Atlantic Cup Race Director.

Bike Nation to Make Four Thousand Bicycles Available For Use By Los Angeles Commuters and Visitors

Andrea Oki, JDP — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:41:00 EST

April 15, 2012 (Los Angeles, CA) – At the CicLAvia event in downtown Los Angeles today, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced plans for a bike sharing demonstration project in the City. In the spirit of Mayor Villaraigosa's invitation for "Angelenos to get out of their cars and on to the streets," Bike Nation, the only Southern California-based bike share company, plans to install 400 kiosks with a total of 4,000 bikes throughout the City of Los Angeles, with the first kiosks expected to be in operation during the fourth quarter of 2012. "Bike share programs have proven successful in urban areas around the world and in major cities in the United States," stated Navin Narang, Founder, Bike Nation. "We are excited to work with the City of Los Angeles to implement this demonstration project and provide healthy, low-cost transit options and connectivity between transit connections, business centers and regional destinations." The bicycle sharing demonstration will be a service in which bicycles are made available for public use and are checked-out and returned to self service kiosks. The usage fees for the bicycle share system are incentivized for turnover and trips of less than 30 minutes in duration. Bike Nation will create a system that is safe, efficient and dependable and will provide well-trained, supervised staff and maintenance crew to operate the system.

Europe announces huge green energy package for developing nations

ClickGreen staff — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:11:00 EST

The European Commission has announced a new multi-million Euro initiative to support developing countries in their drive towards sustainable energy generation. The green aid programme will prove specialists from across Europe to help poorer nations develop low-carbon sources of energy. And the scheme will provide hundreds of millions of Euros to underwrite the roll-out, which has the goal of providing sustainable energy to 50 million people by 2030. Speaking at the EU Sustainable Energy For all Summit in Brussels today, José Manuel Durão Barroso, President of the European Commission, announced details of the plan. He said: "We have now clear scientific evidence that we need to embrace new ways of producing energy to avoid damaging global climate; we need to act upon this advice. The EU is therefore ready to help those countries that demonstrate such commitment, and to increase its efforts. To that end, I am delighted to announce today the launch of a new Commission initiative: Energising Development. Firstly, we will create a world-leading EU Technical Assistance Facility, initially in excess of 50 million euro over the next two years, to stand behind and support those countries that "opt in" to the initiative and commit to the necessary reforms. We will draw on the best EU experts in the field and promote the development and growth of expertise in developing countries themselves. I mentioned before that the Commission is already spending over 600 million euro per year in supporting energy; collectively EU Member States are spending even more than this, as we will no doubt hear later today. This is a strong base and, with our Agenda for Change and the mainstreaming of "green aid", we can confidently expect this figure to significantly increase from 2014 onwards, concentrating on sustainable and inclusive energy investments."

Pink on Green: How to Ignite the Second Electrical Revolution

Elisa Wood — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 09:41:00 EST

The electric industry is good at building things. That's how it solves problems. Is there a threat of blackouts? Develop a new natural gas-fired plant. Worried about climate change? Build wind and solar power. Does electricity cost too much? Install a transmission line to import cheaper power. But build-to-solve represents only half of the equation in the new world of smart grid. The other half, the part that stumps the industry, is solve-without-building. Rather than adding more energy, smart grid tries to wring maximum efficiency out of the system by changing the way we consume electricity. But it turns out, trying to direct human energy behavior makes cat herding look easy. To get people to pay attention to their energy use, utilities and private companies are experimenting with alluring gadgets and social motivators. So far, success has been minimal. Thomas Edison's light bulb has been such a smashing success for the last 100 years, none of us want to turn it off. So what will it take? The Edison Foundation recently looked outside the industry for some answers, inviting Dan Pink, best-selling author of "DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" to speak at last month's Power the People 2.0 conference in Washington D.C. Consumer motivation has become a common conference topic. But Pink's talk was different. He stepped back and took a broader view and asked: How do we motivate the people who are trying motivate the consumer? Pink calls this "the science of how people do extraordinary things."

IPCC predicts rise in extreme climate events

T.V. Padma — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:30:00 EST

Climate change could mean unusually high temperatures occurring much more often in most parts of the world by the end of the century, according to a special report on extreme weather events from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). "A hottest day that occurs once in 20 years is likely to become a one-in-two year event, except in the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, where it is likely to be one-in-five years," according to Sonia Seneviratne, a climate expert at ETH Zurich, which is part of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Seneviratne was speaking at the Planet Under Pressure conference, which is being held in London this week (26–29 March). She was a member of an IPCC group set up in 2009 to compile the Special report on managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation (SREX), which was published today (28 March). Contributors to the report include experts on disaster recovery and risk management, together with members of the physical sciences and climate change mitigation and adaptation disciplines. The report marks the first time that the scientific literature on extreme events has been synthesised by a single team, Seneviratne told the conference. It assesses observations and predicts changes in temperature extremes, heavy rainfall and drought for 26 regions. According to the IPCC, it offers "an unprecedented level of detail regarding observed and expected changes in weather and climate extremes, based on a comprehensive assessment of over 1,000 scientific publications."

Global aviation sector commits to support a sustainable future

ClickGreen staff — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 09:48:00 EST

Leaders of the aviation industry have sent a reminder to governments of the vital role the sector plays in economic growth, providing jobs whilst taking its environmental responsibilities seriously. At a meeting in Geneva today, chief executives and directors from 16 global aviation companies and organisations signed the Aviation & Environment Summit's Declaration as a joint message to world governments due to meet at Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June. The industry leaders, representing airports, airlines, air navigation service providers and the makers of aircraft and engines, signed the declaration in a show of unity on the issue of sustainable development. Paul Steele, Executive Director of the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), the organisation coordinating the Summit, said that the declaration shows that aviation takes its role in sustainable development seriously. "Sustainable development – and the Rio+20 process – is about finding ways to balance the needs of growing economies and higher standards of living across society with the need to more carefully manage the resources we are using and the impact that we have on the world. I am pleased to say that aviation is committed to doing just that. In 2008, we were the first global sector to commit to global cross-industry action on climate change. That declaration set the agenda for cooperative action across the aviation industry to reduce fuel use and emissions. The cooperation between industry partners and the projects underway are impressive."