Sustain2Green: Sustainability and Green Initiatives

PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS WITH LEFT RECURRENT LARYNGEAL NERVE PALSY

2013-05-19T08:55:00.002-07:00

A 36 year old female presented with dry cough ,irregular fever,progressive weakness and anorexia since last 6months and hoarseness of voice since 7 days. On examination there was a2*1.5cm lymph node in the right posterior cervical region.Her ESR was 92 and chest xray showed lt upper lobe opacity and elevated lt hemidiaphragm. Lymph node biopsy wasd consistent with granulomatous lymphadenitis with caseation necrosis. Sputum for AFB wasnegative.

So this case was dignosed as SPUTUM NEGATIVE PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS with TUBERCULOUS LYMPHADENITIS with LEFT RECURRENT LARYNGEAL NERVE PALSY.

ACUTE FLUID OVERLOAD SIMULATING UPPER LOBE CONSOLIDATION

2013-05-19T08:54:00.002-07:00

A 50 yr old female underwent an operation under ga for fracture rt olecranon.In the immediate postoperative period she started having respiratory distress and falling spo2.On examination bp was160/100,pulse96/min,regular,respiratory rate 46/min,afebrile,no pallor,jvp normal.auscultation revealed bl coarse crepts,more in the basal regions.On investigation tlc21400,n88,lft-wnl,rft-wnl,urine showed6-7 pus cells/hpf.Her chest xray revealed dense consolidation rul and streaky opacities lul.She had no cardiac or pulmonary ailment in the past.She was managed with niv,o2,antibiotics and diuretics. she was relieved within a few hours and the opacities in the chest xray disappeared in the same day. our diagnosis was fluid overload acute heart failure.However what appears confusing is the upper lobe distribution of the opacities,

If you observe carefully the initial xray was taken in the supine position.[ap view].In supine position there is equalization of blood flow in all the lung zones and the effect of gravity is abolished.This gave us the false impression of bacterial consolidation.The raised tlc was probably due to uti where urine c/s showed rich growth of Ecoli.

Invite to " Webinar on Global Accessibility Awareness Day",May 9th 2013

2013-05-10T02:45:00.004-07:00

UNDERSTANDING WEB ACCESSIBILITY!
On this Global Accessibility Awareness Day join us for a webinar on understanding web accessibility.
NASSCOM Foundation and BarrierBreak will be hosting a webinar to create awareness on web accessibility in India. We cordially invite you to join the webinar to understand how your products and services can be made accessible to a larger audience including persons with disabilities. The webinar will address issues like implementation of accessibility at the design, development and testing stages for aweb, mobile or cloud based application.

Webinar Platform: Google Hangout (Details will be provided shortly).

Register here

Topics:

Why accessibility and where do we need to take it?
How do persons with disabilities use technology?
Benefits of considering accessibility at the design stage
Implementing accessibility at the development phase
An essential step - Accessibility Testing

The new Volvo FH – a major challenge for Volvo Trucks’ designers

2013-05-10T02:43:00.002-07:00

The new Volvo FH – a major challenge for Volvo Trucks’ designers

Truck design is about much more than just colour, shape and attractive lines. Behind the new, safer, larger and more ergonomically optimised Volvo FH lies a significant design challenge. “Coming up with solutions where design and function go hand in hand was one of our most important tasks,” says Rikard Orell, Design Director at Volvo Trucks.

From the first stroke of his pen on the drawing board to complete truck, the process took just over five years. Several thousand hours and at least an equal number of decisions and procedures later it was finally ready – the new Volvo FH.

“The design challenge we were given was to create something that was exciting and fresh, while at the same time retaining and carrying over all those elements that were so highly appreciated in the previous model,” relates Rikard Orell.

In practice what the Göteborg-based design group had to do was to find solutions in which all the individual parts of the truck interlinked smoothly with each other and created a single cohesive feel. Every visible surface, inside as well as out, was examined in minute detail by the design department. So too were the sounds and tactile feel of the buttons and controls, the structure of the textiles and the in-cab lighting – all were tailored to meet the high demands and expectations of an all-new Volvo FH. Demands that are expressed in parameters such as tough standards regarding safety and driver’s environment.

“There is sometimes this misunderstanding regarding design – that it’s simply about appearance, about colour and shape. The reality is that design and function must go hand in hand. The designer’s task is to come up with solutions that make all the component parts of the truck – both the hardware and the software – join together in a single, cohesive visual and functional entity,” explains Rikard Orell.

One early stage of the design process required the design team to find an expression and an identity for the new truck. Shapes and lines were exaggerated with the aim of finding the overall visual message that the team wanted to convey.

“The first thing that was discussed was the various technical needs, but the basic drive during the concept phase has consistently been to advance and to increase the cab’s interior volume,” relates Rikard Orell.

Asok George, Chief Designer Exterior at Volvo Trucks and one of the team members, relates that work on the design of the new truck started with a pen on a sketchpad. And there was plenty of scope for giving his imagination a free rein.

“My inspiration came from everything from new technology and nature to Volvo’s heritage and Scandinavian culture and design. But my biggest source of inspiration by far was the drivers who actually use our trucks,” he says.

As the work progressed, the sketches moved into computer-generated models and the design took on more realistic lines.

“In the field of design it’s often all about the details. When you look at the truck it should have a design that instinctively feels just right,” says Asok George. “It’s the basic shape, the stance and the proportions that are crucial. All lines and curves should flow naturally and there mustn’t be anything that disrupts the eye,” he says.

In order to achieve this, the design group used physical clay models, both full-size and scale models. “Because even if modern computer programs help the designer to visualise his or her visions and ideas – the virtual tools are not always enough,” explains Asok George.

“In the computer the designer uses more of his or her analytical skills, but when working with clay models it’s more emotional, everything comes from the heart. For me it’s the combination of these two approaches that generates a perfect design,” he says.

Having said that, even if the creative aspect is an important part of the design of a new truck, it isn’t everything. The demands on the vehicle’s appearance must also dovetail with a variety of technical requirements and demands from the truck’s operating environment, for instance that the new FH must have a larger cab than its predecessor to enhance both comfort and driver safety.

In order to monitor driver needs, an important part of the design process involved interviewing drivers at truck stops throughout Europe. They got to sit in early mock-up models of the new Volvo FH and their feedback was subsequently used to refine and modify the design to satisfy driver needs.

“It makes no difference how many skilled designers or engineers we have at Volvo Trucks,” says Claes Hillén, who is responsible for driver interviews and customer clinics at the product development department. “We can never exactly understand precisely what a driver’s everyday working situation is like. The only way to gain an insight into their day-to-day reality is by asking them,” he says.

All told more than 2000 drivers were interviewed over a five-year period and together they provided hundreds of years of first-hand experience from truck driving.

One clear wish that the drivers expressed was for more and larger storage compartments. This meant the cab had to be bigger. And this in turn meant that the previously so characteristically raked-back A-pillars – a Volvo FH hallmark – had to be made more upright. So the design team worked hard on sloping lines and a slanting roof so as to retain the dynamic FH profile. The result is a cab that is now one cubic metre bigger and offers 300 litres more storage space. This also means the seat can slide back a further four centimetres, and in an accident there is more survival space than ever before.

“This is precisely what design is all about for me: ensuring that the product we create actually is tailored to the specific needs of the people who will use it,” says Rikard Orell. “That means not only going with the rational choices, since we human beings are not only rational but also very emotional. For a driver it’s a matter of being able to live and operate comfortably in the truck and also about feeling a sense of pride in the job. The truck’s functional and dynamic design has the task of contributing to that,” he adds.

Another example of the way design and function go hand in hand to improve safety in the truck is the new rear-view mirrors. In the new model they are attached to slimmer arms than before and the large cover surrounding the glass has been deleted.

“This solution reduces the number of blind spots for the driver so the safety gains are immense. What’s more, I feel the new design also gives significant aesthetic benefits,” says Rikard Orell.

One important factor to bear in mind during the design process was that the new truck had to retain its distinctive Volvo profile. That typical Volvo design, based on low-key Scandinavian colours, simple elegance and efficient lines – played the lead role.

“The result is a truck that is honest, straightforward, without unnecessary adornment. Everything you see is there for a reason. Although we’ve changed just about everything on this truck, we’ve nonetheless succeeded with our aim: to capture the heritage of the previous FH and at the same time give the new truck a more composed, self-assured attitude,” concludes Rikard Orell.

Watch a film about the design process here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y194ZJioiwI

For further information, please contact:

Ida Mattsson?PR and Media Relations

+46 31 323 63 42?E-mail: ida.mattsson@volvo.com

GE Volunteers partner Lead India 2020 launches a special programme for the differently-able youth in Chennai Donates computers to enhance training and skills of differently-abled youth

2013-05-07T06:42:00.004-07:00

GE Volunteers partner Lead India 2020 launches a special programme for the differently-able youth in Chennai

Donates computers to enhance training and skills of differently-abled youth

India, May 07, 2013 – GE Volunteers, in collaboration with Lead India 2020 has launched a special programme in Chennai. In order to make a difference to the lives of ‘differently-abled young minds’, the Lead India 2020 team is leading this nationwide initiative where the team would provide computers to individuals and organizations. The Lead India 2020 in partnership with GE is bringing together an experienced set of individuals who would be contributing in providing the requisite training and skills.

Swanalakshmi, one of the beneficiaries of this programme studying with Little Flower Convent, Chennai; and who also represented India through the Children Parliament Programme in UN for International Women’s Day congratulated the efforts of GE volunteers. Expressing his joy, his father went on to compliment the initiative and said “The efforts of GE Volunteers to encourage the differently-abled will surely go a long way in enriching the lives of many young minds. Such noble gestures are instrumental in helping them realize their optimum potential.”

Several key dignitaries graced the occasion with their presence. Commenting on the noble initiative,Sylendrababu, ADGP, government official, said, “The future of India will be shaped by the youth of this country that symbolizes and represents and true driving force for India. The youth of this country can play a pivotal role in inspiring themselves and their peers.”

Mrs. Kannagi Packianathan, IAS, Secretary-Adi Dravidar & Tribal Welfare, Government of TN added, “We are extremely delighted to be associated with this initiative driven by GE. The government is always keen to provide support such initiatives which have a deeper impact on society.”

Highlighting the role of Lead India 2020,Dr. Ponraj, Scientific Advisor to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam said, “Lead India 2020 is Dr. Abdul Kalam’s vision, focused on igniting and channelizing the potential of youth in driving the country’s growth. We look forward to our partnership with GE, and their instrumental role in supporting our partners in Hyderabad and Coimbatore as well”.

Joe Mastrangelo, Vice President & CEO, GE Power Conversion, one of the key dignitaries present at the event added “I feel extremely privileged and proud to be part of the occasion and wish all the children a very bright future ahead.”

The launch event was followed by a distribution of 22 desktops and 5 laptops to beneficiaries; differently abled individuals and several organizations including The Presidency College, The District Differently-Abled Welfare Office and The Special school for Muscular Dystrophy.

About GE Volunteers

GE Volunteers is a global community service organization with225 councils in 51 countries donating 1.3 million volunteer hours on 6,200 projects in 2011 to the communities where they live and work.GE Volunteers are committed to improving their communities, their company and their lives through volunteerism, leadership and camaraderie. The India Volunteers team has over 3,500 members and has grown to seven chapters - New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai, Kolkata and Baroda. In 2012, GE Volunteers spent over 25,000 volunteer-hours, partnering with 35 not-for-profit organizations to support projects across 12 Indian cities.

About GE's presence in India

Present in India since 1902, GE works to innovate, partner and develop technology solutions in energy, healthcare, infrastructure and financial services that improve the quality of life in the country. With about 15,000 employees, GE's imagination is taking the nation to the future with ideas designed and developed in India - for India and for the rest of the world.

The technologies that GE provides in India cover a diverse portfolio ranging from healthcare innovations; clean & efficient energy solutions, fuel-efficient and low-emission locomotives & diesel engines for rail; high quality, energy efficient lighting solutions and fuel efficient jet engines and financial services.

With around 6000 engineers, GE's research centers in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai are developing new technologies for both India and the world while the 13 local manufacturing and service facilities bring products, services and technologies closer to the customers. GE in India has partnered with a number of Indian companies to develop localized solutions, meeting the needs of the country. Committed to social development across the world, GE in India is closely engaged with local communities on social and environmental issues.

For more information visit us atwww.ge.com/in

Shared with Sustian2Green by email

www.genesisbm.in

Amartya Sen who is the Nobel Prize winning economist who is currently a professor of economics and philosophy in Harvard University has said that India should consider the number of deaths that can occur due to delay in clearing of the Food Security Bill.

2013-05-07T06:22:00.000-07:00

Amartya Sen who is the Nobel Prize winning economist who is currently a professor of economics and philosophy in Harvard University has said that India should consider the number of deaths that can occur due to delay in clearing of the Food Security Bill.

'State Of The World's Mothers 2013' published by the Save the Children ranked 176 countries on child and maternal mortality.Indian is ranked at the top of the list.

2013-05-07T06:06:00.002-07:00

In a recent report titled 'State Of The World's Mothers 2013' published by the Save the Children ranked 176 countries on child and maternal mortality. Every year over 309, 300 children in India die in the very first day. This constitutes about 29% of the global figure. Indian is ranked at the top of the list.

Work Remote for safer loading

2013-05-02T02:24:00.003-07:00

Remote control makes loading safer and more efficient for drivers

For drivers, loading and unloading is a time-consuming activity. Volvo Trucks has therefore developed Work Remote, a wireless remote control device that streamlines the load handling process. The gains are lower costs for haulage firms and a better working environment for drivers.

It is not exactly news that time equals money in a haulage firm. Nor does it come as a surprise to hear that time savings are a valuable commodity in everyday operation.

“For a haulage firm, it is important to have high productivity, which is all about transporting freight from point A to point B in the safest and most efficient way possible,” says Christer Pehrson, Business Manager Long Haul at Volvo Trucks.

One area in the transport sector where efficiency can be improved is loading. In order to check that the weight of the cargo is properly distributed, at present the driver has to climb up into the cab several times during the loading process to check the load indicator in the instrument panel. Other load-related functions, such as raising or lowering the truck, are also currently performed from inside the cab. This takes a lot of time, is very tiring and represents a risk of driver injury since he or she can trip or fall.

Volvo Trucks developed Work Remote to help save time and reduce the risk factor. The new device is a wireless remote control unit which brings together all the functions that the driver requires while loading or unloading. With the Work Remote it is possible to control everything from raising and lowering of the truck’s air suspension system to kneeling the vehicle, activating the power take-off, regulating engine revs, switching off the engine and locking the truck. Extra controls fitted in the instrument panel via a Volvo Trucks accessory module can also be linked to the remote control, such as controls for a crane or pumps.

“In the remote control the driver can immediately see the indicated load weight and its distribution across the axles of both the truck and trailer. In other words, the driver has all the necessary information in his or her pocket instead of having to run back and forth. Loading is more efficient,” says Christer Pehrson.

In addition to saving time, the Work Remote also saves the driver’s energy. This can help promote better traffic safety.

“For many, loading is a stressful task, and stress leads easily to accidents. With the Work Remote we eliminate much of this stress since the driver doesn’t have to run back and forth the whole time. If loading is easier, this also means there’s a more relaxed driver behind the wheel. This leads indirectly to a more alert driver and promotes improved traffic safety,” says Christer Pehrson.

Work Remote will be launched together with the new Volvo FH series and will be available on the market in 2013.

For further information, please contact:

Ida Mattsson, Volvo Trucks Global Brand, phone +46 31 323 63 42

E-mail: ida.mattsson@volvo.com

Who Cares About Sustainability [webinar]

2013-05-02T02:22:00.005-07:00

Who Cares About Sustainability [webinar]

Learn more about how the current approach many organizations take on corporate environmental sustainability and why it is a failed model.

Shared with Sustain2Green by email from Enviance

A Method to Compare Facilities' Environmental Performance

2013-05-02T01:37:00.000-07:00

A Method to Compare Facilities' Environmental Performance [white paper]

Learn more about how to compare facilities' environmental performance by using environmental compliance and sustainability data, such as emissions and water, in a summary mode to produce "smart scores".

Shared with Sustain2Green by Enviance over email.

Guide to Government Incentives for Green Commercial Trucks

2013-04-28T23:55:00.003-07:00

Guide to Government Incentives for Green Commercial Trucks

There are numerous benefits for utilizing fuel-efficient commercial trucks. In addition to being better for the environment, fuel-efficient trucks boosts your company image and positively impacts your bottom line.

While these vehicles are more expensive than their less-efficient counterparts, the U.S. government has set up incentive programs to provide loans, offset costs and offer tax credits and exceptions to help companies outfit their transportation operations with green fleets.

At the federal, regional and state level, there are five types of incentives for those that purchase new commercial vehicles or upgrade in fuel-saving trucking equipment:

Grants

Rebates and vouchers

Low cost loans

Tax credits

Tax exceptions

However, it’s important to consider who qualifies for these programs. Many incentive programs commonly stipulate vehicle type, fuel type, state/region of operation, vehicle weight limit, fleet size and overall company revenue. In addition, the application for each type of incentive is nuanced, and each program has its own requirements.

To help, Software Advice, a software review company, has put together a comprehensive guide that breaks down the federal, regional and state incentive programs and provides contact information for each program. In addition, the guide provides a quick, four-step process to help guide your application process.

For more detailed information on these programs, check out the guide here: http://blog.softwareadvice.com/articles/scm/government-incentives-fuel-efficient-commercial-trucks-0413/.

Shared with Sustain2Green by email from Brittany Richards

Canadian Carbon Audit Report Delayed Amid Charges Of Bias And Overreach

2013-04-26T05:44:00.002-07:00

Canadian Carbon Audit Report Delayed Amid Charges Of Bias And Overreach

Country Name: Canada

Author: Steve Zwick

By all accounts, Duke Carl von Württemberg loved Darkwoods and shared it with his neighbors. After buying the 55,000-hectare Canadian wilderness as a refuge from the Cold War in 1967, he harvested just 57,000 cubic meters of timber per year and let the general public wander its trails.

But when he put the property on the auction block in 2005*, the Nature Conservancy Canada (NCC) feared the worst. After all, NCC reasoned, the odds of finding another eccentric German duke were slim at best, and this was prime timberland.

So NCC approached von Württemberg with an offer to save large swathes of the land for posterity. In order to finance the deal, NCC then created the Darkwoods Forest Carbon Project which would earn carbon credits for the trees it saved and then use those credits to help finance both the purchase and upkeep of the land.

Many of those credits were then purchased by the Pacific Carbon Trust, a government-owned entity that uses carbon credits generated within British Columbia to offset emissions of schools, hospitals, and government agencies across the province.

Over the past year, provincial Auditor General John Doyle has been examining both the Project and the Trust as part of a performance audit or value for money audit that examines not just the accounting, but the management of an organization or program. Critics say that, in this case, the process ran amok, with inexperienced auditors either getting in over their heads or intentionally trying to discredit the program.

Assistant Auditor General Morris Sydor disputes the characterization, but says he's prohibited from commenting until after the report is released.

"Once our report is public and you have had a chance to review it, I would be happy to talk to you to clear up the misinformation," he says.

Originally slated for release on Tuesday, the audit report was shelved indefinitely by Bill Barisoff, the Speaker of British Columbia’s Legislative Assembly, after leaked letters revealed the degree of anger over the way the audit was being carried out. In a statement, Barisoff’s office said the report was being delayed not because of its content, but because of the leaks.

“Since a breach of Parliament may have occurred, the report will not be distributed until the Speaker has concluded his discussions with the Auditor General,” the statement said.

Ecosystem Marketplace spoke to people close to the audit and identified three areas of contention. First, say project proponents, the audit lacked transparency and expertise – with Doyle refusing to disclose which outside experts he’d contracted to support the audit and no known carbon experts being identified as participants. Second, project proponents say Doyle disregarded the rules of carbon accounting – a move akin to a corporate auditor discarding generally-accepted accounting principles and instead writing his own. Third, they say he ignored evidence – going so far as to conclude the discovery phase of the audit before all questions were answered.

To understand the accusations, it helps to examine the Trust and the Projects themselves

Carbon-Neutral Government

The audit focused on the Pacific Carbon Trust and its administration of British Columbia’s Carbon-Neutral Government program, which buys carbon offsets in the private market and then sells them to government entities across British Columbia. All of those offsets must originate in the province, and all must be verified and validated according to recognized third-party standards. Several governments around the world see the program as a template for their own initiatives, but it has drawn fire at home for the high price it charges government agencies.

“Back when the program was created, the Ministry of Environment set the price we charge at $25 per ton,” says Scott MacDonald, the Trust’s Chief Executive Officer. “They did this for two reasons: first, to provide an incentive for the public-sector to reduce emissions, and second, to give us enough flexibility to buy the kinds of quality offsets we need within British Columbia.”

Over time, however, the Trust has managed to buy credits well below C$25 per ton, at a cost that MacDonald says averages between C$11 and C$12 per ton – a differential that helped spark the audit over a year ago.

“There were reasons the price was set up the way it was, and all the money has been put back into government,” MacDonald says. “Now we’re four years in, and the Minister has committed to reviewing the price”

Within the Trust’s portfolio, the audit focused on two projects: Darkwoods and a gas-flaring project.

The Darkwoods Deal

The project began in 2008, when Darkwoods was on the block. NCC pre-empted regional loggers with a lowball offer of C$125 million. Their offer, however contained an embedded promise to manage the land sustainably. NCC then cobbled together external commitments of C$60 million, including C$25 million from the government, and used carbon credits to help cover its part of the purchase as well as provide for long-term upkeep.

To calculate the number of credits generated, they used rules prescribed by the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) to determine what another buyer would likely do with the land, and then they compared this to what they planned to do.

“These are rules that have evolved over 15 years of peer review and debate,” says David Antonioli, Chief Executive Officer of the VCS Association. “It’s how a standard works – whether it’s an accounting standard or a carbon standard: you get agreement on the rules, and you follow the rules, and you create a process for updating the rules over time. But you don’t just let anyone come in and arbitrarily change something that hundreds of people have already agreed on.”

In this case, NCC calculated its credits by following a common procedure used by forest-carbon projects around the world: it compared Darkwoods to similar properties in the same region, then it examined the financial demands of for-profit logging companies, and finally it determined the number of trees it would save by keeping the property out of the hands of loggers.

They found that if Darkwoods continued to harvest just 50,000 square meters per year, it would have to miraculously achieve a profit margin about twice that of surrounding logging operations to equal a rate of return comparable to surrounding timberland – and that’s assuming a 4% cost of capital, which in turn assumes a zero risk of default. Going a step further, they saw that, if the new owners did what every owner in the area had done, the older trees would be gone in about 15 years to jump-start a 100-year rotation period of planting and harvesting. Using the econometric model and the regional precedent, they projected a rate of deforestation that standard logging practices would generate, and used this as their baseline.

NCC then developed an improved forest management (IFM) strategy and calculated its own rate of tree loss. Then it drew up a project methodology that would generate carbon credits for the difference between the baseline approach and NCC’s IFM approach and sent the methodology through the VCS wringer – which meant sending it to groups of experts who try and poke holes in the methodology. After making a few adjustments, the project won approval and started issuing credits.

Specific Points of Contention

In letters to Doyle and interviews with Ecosystem Marketplace, project proponents identified several points of contention.

Additionality: Antonioli says that auditors either failed to understand or willfully ignored standard practices for determining whether a project is “additional”, meaning whether the carbon offsets actually caused the reductions. Specifically, he says auditors didn’t understand the concept of “regulatory surplus” – or whether the project was trying to earn credits for doing something it was already required to do by law.

In his letters and in an interview with Ecosystem Marketplace, he provided two examples. First, he says, auditors focused on a so-called “Eco-Gift” that NCC had received from the government to help it complete the purchase. The Eco-Gift came with conditions requiring it to preserve most of the land, but it also came after NCC had presented its carbon proposal to the government.

“The auditors kept saying that the conditions of the Eco-Gift were somehow a pre-existing regulation, which meant the project didn’t meet the criteria for regulatory surplus,” Antonioli says. “But that’s not what it was. The Eco-Gift was just another piece of the financing puzzle, and the conditions simply said that (NCC) had better do what they say they will do with it. The fact, however, is that if NCC had not purchased the land, then the grant would not have given, and if they didn’t have the carbon component, they would not have purchased the land.”

On another occasion, he says, the auditors criticized VCS for not following the same protocol as California’s Climate Action Reserve (CAR) – a different standard specific to the state of California.

“It was the last point of discussion after a very long day,” says Antonioli. “They pulled out this attestation form that CAR requires project developers to fill out. It basically says that I, the project proponent, hereby state that there are no regulations requiring me to take these actions, etc. Well, it’s echoes information we require as part of the project documentation, but CAR adds more legal language to it, and the auditors wanted (NCC) to sign this.”

Although not required under VCS, Antonioli asked NCC President and CEO John Lounds to draw up an affidavit stating that the project met the criteria of regulatory surplus, and Lounds complied. Then Antonioli sent it to the auditors and waited for a response.

“They ignored it,” he says. “We went to them and said, ‘Here you are. Is this what you need?’ Then we waited for a reply, but they completely ignored it.

The Baseline: Several project proponents said auditors questioned the methods used to determine the project baseline.

“The Auditor General seems to be saying that a rational forester would recognize the long-term benefits of a balanced harvest approach and would not pursue liquidation logging, but would instead pursue a sustainable harvest,” says James Tansey, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business and founder of Offsetters, one of the companies that purchased credits from Darkwoods.

“But there’s no basis and no precedent for that, and we have no idea why they think it’s defensible,” he says, adding that overreach on the part of government auditors adds an element of risk that puts all carbon markets at risk.

“If the carbon process is at risk because an unqualified auditor enters into the equation, it makes it difficult for us to enter in and take risk on the system,” he says. “This kind of audit activity is a real risk for something that you’re calling a market, and shouldn’t be within the scope of the program.”

Rules vs Methodology: Project proponents also said that auditors failed to differentiate between VCS’s rules and the individual project’s methodology. The rules are general guidelines for designing specific projects, but the methodology is the project’s own set of rules, which must be created in accordance with the more general rules.

Transparency: Finally, proponents said the process lacked transparency. Although Doyle claimed to be consulting various experts, he refused to offer names and also denied a freedom of information act request on the grounds that experts needed to remain confidential.

One of the few experts the Auditor General did cite was University of Ottawa Law Professor Stewart Elgie, who told MacDonald that he had not heard from the auditor in more than seven months.

* We initially stated the property had been put on the market in 2008, but in fact it was put on the market in 2005. NCC completed its purchase in 2008.

Steve Zwick is Managing Editor of Ecosystem Marketplace. He can be reached at szwick@ecosystemmarketplace.com.

http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=9654&section=news_articles&eod=1

Reprinted based on a request from ecosystemmarketplace.com

Two Venezuela born US citizen inventors named Luis Solorzano and Eudes Vera respectively have invented a machine that's capable of extracting atmospheric heat and convert it into power

2013-04-26T05:28:00.003-07:00

Two Venezuela born US citizen inventors named Luis Solorzano and Eudes Vera respectively have invented a machine that's capable of extracting atmospheric heat and convert it into power. A small prototype is already made and successfully tested with positive energy balance. Patent application is also filed. Now, they want to make a bigger prototype and need funding for that. They are also ready to license their invention. They also have formed a company named KASGIS Enterprise based in Miami, Florida. Business plan with executive summary is also available. For more details reach out to Pranab Jyoti pranabjyoti_calcutta@rediffmail.com.

Chairman of Yahoo! Inc. Fred Amoroso has resigned. The U.S. Web portal is the largest web portal and is currently undergoing a restructuring by CEO Marissa Mayer.

2013-04-26T05:24:00.000-07:00

Chairman of Yahoo! Inc. Fred Amoroso has resigned. The U.S. Web portal is the largest web portal and is currently undergoing a restructuring by CEO Marissa Mayer.

Apple has decided to add another $55 billion in cash to return to its shareholders. This will bring the amount to total of $100 billion through 2015.

2013-04-25T06:47:00.002-07:00

Apple has decided to add another $55 billion in cash to return to its shareholders. This will bring the amount to total of $100 billion through 2015.

Investors around the world have responded positively to the re- election of 87 year old Giorgio Napolitano as Italy’s President. He says he will prefer a new government rather than new elections.

2013-04-22T06:15:00.002-07:00

Investors around the world have responded positively to the re- election of 87 year old Giorgio Napolitano as Italy’s President. He says he will prefer a new government rather than new elections.

BC And The Baseline Brouhaha Part Two: Seek Not, Find Not

2013-04-19T05:54:00.003-07:00

Two weeks ago, British Columbia’s Auditor General said the Nature Conservancy of Canada had issued bogus carbon credits by exaggerating the number of trees its Darkwoods Carbon Project had saved. We've been shining the bright light of transparency on its findings, and none of them look as good in the sun as they did in the dark.

NOTE: This is the second in an emerging series examining the BC Auditor General's audit of the Pacific Carbon Trust. Our coverage focuses on the Darkwoods portion of the report, and begins with BC And The Baseline Brouhaha: Dissecting The Darkwoods Documents. If you are unfamiliar with the processes we explore here or the documents we reference, we suggest you start there. This is an emerging story, and we welcome feedback and input.

12 April 2013 | Christian Schadendorf says he was taken aback when he read “An Audit of Carbon-Neutral Government”, the provincial Auditor General's (AG) much-ballyhooed take-down of the Pacific Carbon Trust (PCT), a state-owned enterprise that buys carbon offsets in support of the province’s Carbon Neutral Government program. Especially surprising was the report’s assessment of the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC) Darkwoods Forest Carbon Project, a massive conservation effort funded in part by carbon credits that NCC generated by saving trees from “liquidation logging", a term NCC had created to describe the practice of harvesting all mature timber on a property as quickly as the market can absorb it.

“(W)e found limited support for a ‘liquidation logger’ scenario,” the AG's report said. “No such companies bid on the property, and it was widely reported at the time of sale that the owner’s preference was to sell to a buyer who would appreciate or maintain the area’s forest and wildlife values.”

The owner was Duke Carl von Württemberg, and Schadendorf was the Duke’s right-hand man in that sale. Contrary to what the report said, Schadendorf had received formal letters of interest from several bidders whose practices would have qualified as liquidation logging, but NCC swooped in with a contract at the asking price before the others could be finalized (a process we will explore in detail later in this series).

“I was surprised to read that assessment in the AG's report,” he says. “We had calls from several timberland buyers who would qualify as ‘liquidation loggers’, but NCC got there first.”

He wondered why the AG had relied on the news media to characterize the terms of sale even though one of its auditors had interviewed him personally, and he suspected the reference to “widely reported” knowledge meant items like this:

The duke laid down a tough list of conditions for the sale. “No speculators, developers or timber cutters needed to apply,” said Schadendorf. “We wanted someone who could appreciate and maintain the unique beauty of the forest and its wildlife riches.”

Schadendorf doesn't dispute his own quote, but says the first sentence, which is not part of the quote, overstated things a bit – an error that seemed harmless enough at the time.

“Yes, we preferred a buyer who would maintain the unique beauty of the forest," he says. "But there was no restriction on who would be eligible to bid or not, and we wanted full fair market value.”

That reality was also "widely reported", albeit not "at the time of sale" in Canadian Geographic (a publication with a long lead time and the ability to double-check stories without the pressure of a daily deadline):

The Duke sought a buyer who would treat the land with respect, but he also wanted fair market value for a property valued at around $100 million. The usual suspects were interested: forestry companies and land developers that would inevitably strip the timber value, then subdivide the hell out of the place.

Schadendorf says he'd have gladly clarified the point for auditors, too, if they had asked him – but they didn’t. And he's not the only person with intimate knowledge of the transaction or expertise in the timber business whose evidence was ignored by auditors over the course of their 18-month investigation. In just the two weeks since the report came out, I’ve contacted nearly two dozen easily-identifiable sources – from respected timber economists and carbon practitioners to investors who bid on the property – and only a handful say they heard from the auditors, while so far none who've commented say they were taken seriously.

Rather than seek out new information, the auditors seem to have fixated on anything that supported their "findings" – be it a stray paraphrase, a sentence in a newsletter, an outlier transaction, or a very narrow definition of a word with wider meaning – and ignored the vast body of evidence in front of them.

Take, for example, their assertion that NCC didn’t consider carbon finance until after purchasing the property.

“For the NCC, offsets were not a critical factor in the decision to acquire the Darkwoods property,” they wrote. “A carbon offsets feasibility study was not completed until January 2009. The NCC did not approach the Pacific Carbon Trust about offsets until late 2009.”

The last two sentences are correct, but they don’t in any way support the first – as lead auditor Morris Sydor himself conceded during our interviews – because the question isn’t when NCC conducted their formal study or approached the potential buyer, but whether they factored carbon offsetting into their finance plan before buying the property.

“The technical requirement is that you're looking at legal documents, board minutes, etc,” said Sydor. “If you go back to that period when they purchased the property, there's nothing publicly available that (indicates) they were going to need offsets to go ahead with this.”

Well, that’s true – but when I asked NCC’s Director of Land Securement, Tom Swann, if there was a paper trail, he sent me two internal memos and one external letter that clearly showed the Conservancy was not only considering carbon credits but actively looking for partners to buy them, and this was more than a year before the purchase (see “The Additionality Paper Trail”, below). I then asked Sydor – a cordial man with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the facts related to Darkwoods – if he had reviewed these documents.

“They had referred to these documents during our meeting,” he said, “but I was not provided copies.”

Did NCC withhold them? No. The auditors simply didn't ask.

Then there’s the issue of “regulatory surplus”, which basically says you can’t earn carbon credits just for doing something that the law already requires. The auditors point out – rightly – that NCC used an “Ecological Gift” as part of its financing mix to purchase the property. Once NCC accepted that gift, they were obligated to preserve the land. The report alludes to the gift several times, implying that the gift means that the property was already protected when NCC bought it, when in fact the property became protected because NCC purchased it.

“We also found that the NCC’s potential harvesting activities are significantly constrained by a legal obligation to conserve the land, thereby limiting the baseline options available to the NCC,” the report states – a clear implication that the gift meant the property failed the regulatory surplus test. But when I asked Sydor why he said the report didn’t meet the regulatory surplus test, he silenced me by saying, “We don't have anything like that in our report.”

I went back and read it again, and he was right – nowhere does the report explicitly say that Darkwoods fails the regulatory surplus test, but it certainly implies it. Page 24 has a sidebar explaining the Ecological Gifts Program, and a sentence – in bold letters – stating, “The Nature Conservancy of Canada had a legal obligation to conserve the property.” They even created an elaborate and misleading timeline that showed when when NCC carried out the property appraisal for the Ecological Gifts Program (August 2007) but makes no reference to earlier efforts to secure carbon finance.

It goes on and on about the program and the obligations that NCC assumes for using the gift to fund its purchase, but nowhere does it explicitly state that there was a pre-existing law – just as nowhere does it really explain the gift’s role in the financing package.

Who Are the Sources?

Then there is the question of sourcing. The document cites only one academic source – an agricultural economist named G Cornelis van Kooten, whose self-described mission includes supporting an effort “to refute the results of computer models that attribute anthropogenic emissions of CO2 to be the leading factor in causing catastrophic global warming.” He’d written a paper critical of the Darkwoods deal – albeit one that was neither published nor peer-reviewed – so it certainly makes sense to contact him. But to make him (or anyone for that matter) the only cited source in the whole paper?

A project like this normally brings in paid consultants who are eager to get their names on the final product, but this one is radioactive. None of the paid consultants seem to want their names on it, and the only two I know by name say they quit. The most recent is Canadian engineering consultancy Stantec, which was retained last April.

“We were not provided with the opportunity to, and we did not, review or provide any comments on the draft or final OAG Report and as such, resigned from our role as an expert advisor,” said Daniel Hegg, the Discipline Lead for Stantec Climate Services, in an e-mail.

That sounds a lot like Stewart Elgie, the associate director of the University of Ottawa’s Institute of the Environment who also resigned after being frozen out of the process.

“I will simply say that I have not been shown or reviewed any of the BCAG’s draft reports for the past 7 months,” he wrote on March 23, 2013, in a letter to PCT. “Before that time, the materials I did review indicated that the audit findings were heading in a direction that was inconsistent with the expert advice I provided in several major areas, particularly concerning the Darkwoods project.”

I urge anyone who did advise them to contact me.

The Baseline Brouhaha (Again)

Then there’s the auditor’s critique of the project baseline, which is the foundation on which all carbon projects are constructed. It represents the consensus agreement on what would probably have happened to the property if NCC hadn’t stepped in to purchase it – a question that we can only answer by looking at other potential bidders and their expected rate of return (See BC And The Baseline Brouhaha: Dissecting The Darkwoods Documents for a more detailed introduction). Sydor and NCC offered widely differing views on this, but NCC backed their views up with reams of data and scores of experts. Sydor offered nothing.

In my interviews with timberland consultants – both those referred by NCC and those I found randomly on the internet – it quickly became apparent that Sydor was basing his analysis on a different expected rate of return than the one that timber analysts I kept running into were using. This matters, as we’ll see in our next installment, because it shows what a commercial buyer would do with the land. Sydor insisted that his data came from several unnamed experts – but he refused to connect me with any of them.

Keep in mind, these are experts who earn a living providing their professional opinions, and not whistleblowers with inside information of wrong-doing. To have one or two off-the-record sources is understandable, but to have none on the record – especially for a report like this – is unheard of.

Finally, after much prodding, Sydor offered an article from 2007 entitled “Rates of Return for Investments in Timberlands – How Low Can You Go?”. It had been written by a team of analysts at Cortex Consultants, but wasn’t an overview of market behavior. Instead, it was a warning to customers that tough times may lay ahead. Indeed, while it asked the question of how low rates could go, it never really answered it. When I e-mailed Cortex, the authors of that report seemed horrified to learn that this letter might have been used to support a major audit.

“This little paper was definitely not meant as an (even pseudo-) academic paper on the issue,” said one, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Of course, Sydor never actually says he used the paper as one of his sources.

“I’ve provided one of the articles that passed our way during the audit,” he said in the e-mail accompanying the link. “It shows that timber returns were high in the 1990s but had dropped so much that returns of 5% to 6% were not unrealistic at the time of the Darkwoods sale.” (We will explore this in more detail later in the series.)

It just passed his way? What does that mean? Did he dig any further? Did he contact the authors? Who knows? And why didn’t he talk to other people who showed an interest in the property?

Schadendorf won't name the bidders, but I have found two through other channels. One is Jack Julseth of Three Point Properties Ltd. He says he sent a formal letter of interest to Schadendorf, only to learn that NCC had the property "under contract".

“My group was definitely interested in pursuing the opportunity and at the time had the capacity to do so,” he wrote in an e-mail to NCC. “If my group had been the successful bidder and followed through with a purchase, our intentions at the time were to create a managed forest, to initiate an appropriate and sustainable logging operation, and to subdivide and develop the land – as appropriate – to realize its highest and best use.”

When I asked him what that highest and best use might be, he said that he would have been looking to develop cottages and vacation homes – a scenario that NCC dismissed as being too aggressive to even consider.

To be fair, Julseth also said that NCC entered its bid before he could perform due diligence on the property, so he can't say for sure what sort of development he'd have done; and Alec Orr-Ewing, who provided the initial timber evaluation that von Württemberg used to set his asking price, says the real-estate potential was quite limited.

“If you look at a contour map of the area, and also at its minimal water frontage, the chances of real estate are minimal, from my point of view,” he wrote in an e-mail. “The lake frontage is west-facing, behind a steep mountain ridge, also there is no legal access to all of the properties.”

Schadendorf says there is legal acces, but by boat. Either way, my point isn't that this was a done deal, but it was a legitimate inquiry, and it's one of two that I have independently varified. When I asked Sydor if he knew of Julseth's inquiry, he simply pointed out that “real estate companies are not eligible for this type of project.”

“When you look at the protocol, it says the only scenarios that should be considered are ones where forests remain forest,” he said – meaning that if von Württemberg had sold to a real estate developer, then the Verified Carbon Standard would not have recognized it as a carbon project, which doesn' really have anything to do with whether there were competing bids or not.

“Now, in the real world, I guess the question is: Did the vendor actually consider Three Point Properties’ bid?” Sydor added.

That is, indeed, the question, and Schadendorf says he did consider it, but NCC moved too fast. He also says Three Points Properties weren’t the only ones who approached him, but they were the only ones he would ackowledge by name, and that because Julseth had already come forward.

“We had calls from several timberland buyers who were known for liquidation logging,” he says. “And we had some industrial timberland buyers look at the property – companies that are in the business of managing timberland sustainably – but they basically concluded that they would have to liquidate it in order to meet their investment objectives, because they have investors to answer to.”

So, does this mean that the baseline the auditors advocated – one based on very low harvests in the near-term – wouldn’t have been economically viable?

“They said, ‘If we manage this sustainably, our expected rate of return will not be met, so this property doesn’t work for us,’” Schadendorf answered.

So, if these other bids existed, why didn’t Schadendorf tell the auditors about them?

“They never asked those types of questions,” he says.

The Additionality Paper Trail

There seem to be plenty of questions they didn’t ask, as I learned when I asked NCC’s Tom Swann if there was a paper trail to demonstrate additionality. Without hesitation, he provided three documents that showed what Sydor said couldn’t be shown. One of them was a letter to Patty Richards, Shell Canada’s Manager, Community Investment. It was dated March 5, 2007 (See “Shell Letter”, right) and makes it clear that carbon offsets were, indeed, a very critical factor in NCC’s decision to acquire the Darkwoods property, despite the auditor’s contention to the contrary. Here is an excerpt:

NCC has entered into a conditional purchase agreement to buy the company that owns the property and we are now actively seeking the resources to complete the sale and ensure that future management of the forest contributes to the survival of the mountain caribou and other species.
It is our understanding that Shell Canada and Shell International are involved in projects at various places around the world to realize goals that combine biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration. We would be very interested in exploring the possibility of Shell Canada or Shell International working with NCC to achieve these goals at Darkwoods.

As you know, standards for calculating carbon increase and resultant CO2 equivalent sequestration are evolving, but I enclose for your information a draft calculation that projects 114,504 volume tonnes of CO2 equivalent sequestered annually in the standing timber alone at the Darkwoods property, which is largely treed with conifers.

Another of those documents was an internal memo (See “Carbon Calculation”, right) from Bill Freedman, a professor of biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the Chair of NCC’s National Board of Directors. This is dated March 2, 2007, and it offers a calculation of the carbon potential that NCC had been using to make the deal happen.

And a third (See “Issues Analysis”, right) offers an undated analysis of carbon markets in general.

Also, in a notarized affidavit dated February 5, 2013, NCC CEO John Lounds saind that "NCC considered the potential value of carbon credits on the Darkwoods property from as early as September 2006, when carbon sequestration was discussed by NCC fundraising contractors as a potential source of stewardship revenue at Darkwoods." He says formal inquiries began in December, and that his staff met with Corinne Boone, Managing Director of carbon project developer CO2e, to explore its options.

Finally, there’s a paper co-authored by Freedman (See “Carbon Credits and Biodiversity”, right) and submitted to the Environmental Review on August 27, 2008 – shortly after the property was purchased. The paper clearly shows his thinking on how carbon credits could be used to save biodiversity-rich forests like Darkwoods, and it was just a Google search away.

COMING UP IN THIS SERIES: How The Deal Came to Be, What The Neighbors do, What the Models Say, and other interesting tidbits.

Steve Zwick is Managing Editor of Ecosystem Marketplace. He can be reached at szwick@ecosystemmarketplace.com.

http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=9678&section=news_articles&eod=1

BRITAIN BATTLES TO CUT CARBON

2013-04-19T04:27:00.000-07:00

NEWS RELEASE

For immediate release 16 April 2013

BRITAIN BATTLES TO CUT CARBON

• New research finds 80% of population are doing their bit to cut CO2

• Global contest launched to find Co2 cutting ideas

New research has today revealed that over 80% of the British population are taking active steps to reduce their personal CO2 footprint, which is good news in the light of damning evidence that the UK's CO2 emissions increased by 4.5% in 2012*.

However, the research by Censuswide, on behalf of People’s Postcode Lottery, also revealed that not all Brits are doing their bit. Whilst those most likely to be taking action are aged 35-44 years, those under the age of 24 are most likely to be doing nothing at all to change their habits (24% have made no effort in the last three years to lower their CO2 footprint).

The research to identify what activity (if any) the general population of Britain was doing to lower their CO2 footprint is of great importance to People’s Postcode Lottery as it launches the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge global competition today at Sustainability Live, in Birmingham with the help of previous finalist and sustainable entrepreneur, Robert Matthams.

The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge looks for innovative new products or services that combine sustainability, entrepreneurship and creativity to help the world cut its CO2 emissions. Entrepreneurs have from the 17 April until the 17 July 2013 to submit their green business plan for their chance to win over £430,000** (€500,000) in addition to invaluable support and guidance from leading industry experts.

Traditionally, Britain has always done well in this annual competition, with three entrepreneurs walking away with funding in the competition’s six years, and 2009 finalist, Robert Matthams, hopes that this will be a record year for entries.

Each year, the judging panel of international business and public sector experts are blown away with the level of creativity in the business plans received. Last year’s winner from America, Molly Morse of Mango Materials, invented a technique which uses bacteria to turn methane into biopolymer granules to create biodegradable, affordable plastic.

This winning idea is obviously something larger that organisations can get behind, but the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge research has revealed that Britain is using a range of smaller tactics to make an effort to cut their own emissions with men and woman favouring different methods. Women tend to reduce their CO2 emissions through small everyday tasks, such as; recycling, purchasing fair trade brands and growing their own produce or buying local food. Men, on the other hand, are more inclined to take larger steps, which although initially quite costly, offer longer CO2 emission savings, such as insulating their home, installing solar panels and actively selecting a green energy supplier.

People’s Postcode Lottery, Managing Director, Jo Bucci said:

“These findings highlight that the British population are taking seriously the fact that they have a role to play in helping to reduce Britain’s CO2 footprint. This is one of the reasons why competitions, such as the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge, are so important.”

Robert Matthams, managing director of Shiply.com and the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge finalist, said:

"The UK has a relentless drive to create, innovate and tackle the large underlying environmental problems we face today. However, often entrepreneurs are unable to raise the necessary funding or make the required industry connections to really make things happen at scale.

“The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge offers a fantastic platform for entrepreneurs, providing access to unrivalled contacts and valuable resources that can help make a huge difference to their idea and the environment and I am forever grateful for their support towards Shiply.com.”

Now in its seventh year, the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge has produced winners from around the world, with ideas that range from a new micro-organism that will replace expandable foam and portable solar energy devices, to a water recycling shower and roof-top turbine that sits along the roof ridge, both of which were developed by British designers.

The top three regions in the UK revealed as making the most effort to reduce their carbon emissions were; Northern Ireland with 89% undertaking some sort of CO2 reducing activity, followed by Wales (85%) and the South East of England with 83%. Increased recycling was the most popular activity to reduce lower the carbon footprint; followed by insulating homes and purchasing fair trade products.

Jo Bucci added:

“The contest has always featured a Brit as a finalist, until last year. This year, we are hoping that more British entrepreneurs with the next big green sustainable idea step up and enter as it is clear from our survey that there is appetite amongst British consumers to lower their carbon footprint.”

This year the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge was launched at Sustainability Live. As the leading event for UK sustainable industries, its ambitions of supporting businesses in being more sustainably aware made it the ideal launch platform. Jane Lewis, marketing manager for Sustainability Live, commented:

“As Britain’s leading sustainable business event, we are thrilled to host the launch of the seventh annual Postcode Lottery Green Challenge and hope that the event inspires sustainable innovators from throughout the UK to put their ideas forward.

“Climate change is a problem that needs tackling urgently and throughout the world businesses are faced with the on-going challenge of trying to reduce their CO2 emissions, whilst remaining profitable. Over the three days, Sustainability Live will showcase to hundreds of organisations and individuals the latest developments across energy, water and energy from waste sectors, introducing the latest products and services designed to make businesses more sustainable.”

Jane continued:

“The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge offers a fantastic platform for Britain’s innovators who are trying to make a real difference through their sustainable developments and it is important these ideas are put forward. Who knows, the next big idea could be right here in the NEC.”

CASE STUDY

Robert Matthams, 2009 finalist, MD at Shiply

Since reaching the final stages of the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge in 2009, managing director Robert Matthams has seen the growth of his online transport marketplace business, Shiply, rapidly accelerate around the world.

The 28-year-old was inspired whilst at university to fill an obvious gap in the market for loading lorries to their capacities for all their journeys, he said:

“I had a pool table delivered to my student house in Manchester and the driver mentioned that he would be returning to London with empty cargo. This struck me as a waste, but it turned out that this was common in the haulage industry, where 25% of lorries run completely empty and a further 50% only part full. It seemed to me that there should be a way of matching this capacity with people needs to move goods.” Eventually, Shiply was born to fill this need.

Since 2009 Shiply has taken 52 million truck miles off the road and saved almost 19 million kg of CO2 – the equivalent of flying from London to New York over 30,000 times! The business now supplies over 950,000 registered users and operates internationally across 10 countries, working with more than 65,000 hauliers – including Royal Mail Parcels and are the exclusive partners for eBay Motors.

Robert commented:

“The biggest challenge facing businesses in reducing their CO2 emissions lies in resolving their logistic and packaging waste issues. Shiply can help them achieve part of this. The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge is perfect for businesses that have real solutions to the big problems like these; they can make a positive change on a mass scale.

“The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge gives entrepreneurs with viable, sustainable business plans access to the valuable resources and contacts they need to achieve great things for the environment. It is hard to say just how much they have supported Shiply along the way and I am forever thankful for that support.”

Entrepreneurs are encouraged to step up to save the planet and log onto www.greenchallenge.info for more information and to download the application form, which must be submitted before 31 July 2013.

- ENDS -

Notes:

* information taken from the Department of Energy and Climate Control media statistical release: 2012 UK greenhouse gas emissions, provisional figures and 2011 UK greenhouse gas emissions, final figures by fuel type and end-user (released 28.03.13)

**Exchange rate March 2013

The Censuswide survey was commissioned by People’s Postcode Lottery and interviewed a sample of 2,046 from across the UK from 19.03.13 – 02.04.13

Full version of Robert Matthams case study available on request.

The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge 2013

The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge is an international creative competition from the Dutch Postcode Lottery, championed in the UK by its sister lottery, People’s Postcode Lottery. The competition encourages creative green entrepreneurs to submit innovative, carbon-cutting ideas for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
A top prize of £430,000 (€500,000) is presented to the entrant with the best idea to execute his or her business plan. A further £170,000 (€200,000) is also available for either one or two runner-up initiatives.
Backed by Sir Richard Branson, the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge is aimed at creative, innovative people who can instigate change. The jury of judges are looking for products and services that could contribute to an eco-friendly lifestyle and directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in addition to scoring well on convenience, quality and design.

About People’s Postcode Lottery

Ÿ People’s Postcode Lottery is a charity lottery. Players play with their postcodes to win cash prizes while raising money for good causes across Great Britain.

Ÿ People’s Postcode Lottery manages multiple society lotteries promoted by different charitable organisations, which support a range of good causes. For details on which society lottery is running each week, please see postcodelottery.co.uk/drawcalendar

Ÿ Players of People’s Postcode Lottery’s support four Trusts; People’s Postcode Trust, Postcode Care Trust, Postcode Culture Trust and Postcode Green Trust. The Trusts are funded entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery

Ÿ People’s Postcode Lottery players have raised over £24.7 million for great causes across the country

Issued by The BIG Partnership on behalf of the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge.

For more information, please contact:

Kelly Paterson

T: 0141 333 9585 M: 0788 215 2914

E: kelly.paterson@bigpartnership.co.uk

Lucy Nicolson

T: 0141 333 9585 M: 07972 110 570

E: lucy.nicolson@bigpartnership.co.uk

Grant Thomson

T: 0141 333 9585

E: grant.thomson@bigpartnership.co.uk

Received by email.

How to Determine Average Water Usage for a Home Before You Buy It

2013-04-19T04:10:00.002-07:00

One of the things you want to know before purchasing a house is how much water you'll use to keep everything up and running. There are several determining factors that affect the number that can fluctuate with the seasons or occupant behavior, but there are a few ways to get a ballpark figure you can work with.

Call the Water Utilities Department

The easiest way to figure out the levels of water usage at a particular home you’re looking at is to call the utilities department directly. In most cases, they'll just need the address to provide you with information regarding the average use for the previous year. If there are multiple utilities departments servicing a particular area, instead of calling each of them until you find the right one, the real estate agent should be able to provide this information.

Homes that are in the process of being built will not have this information, but it's an effective and efficient way of determining average water usage for existing properties before extending an offer.

Use a Water Consumption Calculator

There are water consumption calculators available online that help determine how much water usage a specific household will average in a month. Simply fill in the information to the best of your knowledge to complete the equation. Some of the questions asked may be difficult for you to know, such as how many gallons of water flow from the faucets in your home, since you don’t live there yet, but use your best judgment. This is more of a general estimate for how many people living in an average house will use water weekly, monthly or annually than a direct estimate for a particular property, but it may be one of your only options for newly built homes..

Determine How Old the Toilets and Faucets Are

Are you looking at an older home or a newer one? The older the toilets and faucets, the less efficient they'll be when it comes to water and energy use. Energy-efficient toilets are becoming more popular, and are considered standard equipment for newer homes and remodeling projects. In fact, newer toilets will use up to 75% less water than a twenty-year-old toilet. If you cannot determine the age of the facilities, then take a guess for the higher. That way, the number you come up with will be skewed in favor of the more expensive end of the spectrum and any surprises you have will be the kind that save you money.

Keep Differences In Mind

Not all homes come with their appliances, so keep in mind the differences in the ones you’ll be bringing into the house versus the ones that have been used by the owners. If you have a high-efficiency washing machine and the owners of the home you’re looking at do not, then you will probably use less water than they did when it comes to doing laundry.

Be sure to figure out if there are the same number of residents now as there will be if you move in. The number calculated or told to you may change drastically if there are only two people living in the house now but there will be four once you move in.

If the grass is particularly green at that location, then the owners may take great pains in watering it regularly. Your outdoor water usage might differ if you do not water the lawn daily, saving you money. Look for differences in lifestyle and behavior that could indicate a similar difference in household water usage.

Consider Living in the Country

One way to avoid astronomically high water rates is to consider living out in the country where well water is used, instead of going through the utilities department. You will avoid having to pay a fee for connecting to the main sewer line and you will not have a monthly water bill to pay. However, there are drawbacks to this solution that you should keep in mind. You may need to drill a new well at some point, which can be costly. Also, you will have to have your septic tank pumped regularly to avoid backups. But, the cost of pumping the tank will only come once every other year or so, and it may be decades before you may need to drill a new well, if at all.

Look for Ways to Conserve Water

To lower your water bill, try these methods of conserving water: replace your appliances with more efficient ones, only use your washing machine if you have a full load to clean and hold off on running the dishwasher until it's full. Look for signs of a leaking toilet or dripping faucets, and repair them immediately. Install low-flow shower heads and water your lawn less frequently.

Water usage can always be changed in some form or other. If the home you want to buy turns out to have a high water usage rate, remember that there are things you can do to lower that water bill. Don’t let the previous owners’ habits scare you away, especially if you spot signs of wasteful behavior and inefficiency. Buy the house you want, and make minor changes here and there to keep things reasonable.

Resources:

http://www.epa.gov/WaterSense/pubs/indoor.html

http://www.csgnetwork.com/waterusagecalc.html

http://savings.whitefence.com/articles/how-determine-average-water-usage-home-you-buy-it

Contributed by Amanda Kostina

Leveraging GHG Data for EPA’s Subpart OOOO Compliance - New Webinar!

2013-04-19T04:01:00.005-07:00

If your company is a producer of oil and natural gas and you are facing the new requirements of Subpart OOOO, this webinar is for you! Subpart OOOO (a series of modifications to existing federal air emissions rules) has many new recordkeeping and reporting requirements. However, if you have reported GHG emissions for the oil and natural gas production segment of Subpart W, you can use some of your GHG data to facilitate compliance with Subpart OOOO.
Spend 20 minutes with Greg Gasperecz, Enviance's VP, Environmental Health and Safety in an educational session to learn more about how to leverage existing data for Subpart OOOO purposes. Greg has developed a set of integrated GHG and criteria pollutants emissions data for oil and gas production sites.
This brief webinar focuses on emissions and reporting requirements for flowback venting from fractured gas wells, reciprocating compressors, and storage tanks.

Download webinar now!

From Enviance

Celebrating Earth Day with Greenpeace

2013-04-19T02:57:00.002-07:00

Earthquake of magnitude 7.8 has hit Iran according to USGS

2013-04-16T04:37:00.002-07:00

An Earthquake of magnitude 7.8 has hit Iran according to USGS.

Blasts in Boston Marathon kills 3 people and has injured many others

2013-04-16T01:38:00.002-07:00

Blasts in Boston Marathon kills 3 people and has injured many others.

Water crisis is affecting the economic growth of Ghana. Water crisis is one of the most serious issue of urban Africa.

2013-04-15T05:24:00.002-07:00

Water crisis is affecting the economic growth of Ghana. Water crisis is one of the most serious issue of urban Africa.

Investment in Clean energy has dropped by 22 % compared to last year. This is a direct fallout of the various programs that have been stopped by governments which were primarily started during the financial crisis.

2013-04-15T05:20:00.001-07:00

Investment in Clean energy has dropped by 22 % compared to last year. This is a direct fallout of the various programs that have been stopped by governments which were primarily started during the financial crisis.

Sustain2Green: Sustainability and Green Initiatives

PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS WITH LEFT RECURRENT LARYNGEAL NERVE PALSY

ACUTE FLUID OVERLOAD SIMULATING UPPER LOBE CONSOLIDATION

Invite to " Webinar on Global Accessibil​ity Awareness Day",May 9th 2013

The new Volvo FH – a major challenge for Volvo Trucks’ designers

GE Volunteers partner Lead India 2020 launches a special programme for the differently-able youth in Chennai Donates computers to enhance training and skills of differently-abled youth

Amartya Sen who is the Nobel Prize winning economist who is currently a professor of economics and philosophy in Harvard University has said that India should consider the number of deaths that can occur due to delay in clearing of the Food Security Bill.

'State Of The World's Mothers 2013' published by the Save the Children ranked 176 countries on child and maternal mortality.Indian is ranked at the top of the list.

Work Remote for safer loading

Who Cares About Sustainability [webinar]

A Method to Compare Facilities' Environmental Performance

Guide to Government Incentives for Green Commercial Trucks

Canadian Carbon Audit Report Delayed Amid Charges Of Bias And Overreach

Carbon-Neutral Government

The Darkwoods Deal

Specific Points of Contention

Two Venezuela born US citizen inventors named Luis Solorzano and Eudes Vera respectively have invented a machine that's capable of extracting atmospheric heat and convert it into power

Chairman of Yahoo! Inc. Fred Amoroso has resigned. The U.S. Web portal is the largest web portal and is currently undergoing a restructuring by CEO Marissa Mayer.

Apple has decided to add another $55 billion in cash to return to its shareholders. This will bring the amount to total of $100 billion through 2015.

Investors around the world have responded positively to the re- election of 87 year old Giorgio Napolitano as Italy’s President. He says he will prefer a new government rather than new elections.

BC And The Baseline Brouhaha Part Two: Seek Not, Find Not

Who Are the Sources?

The Baseline Brouhaha (Again)

The Additionality Paper Trail

COMING UP IN THIS SERIES: How The Deal Came to Be, What The Neighbors do, What the Models Say, and other interesting tidbits.

http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=9678&section=news_articles&eod=1

BRITAIN BATTLES TO CUT CARBON

How to Determine Average Water Usage for a Home Before You Buy It

Call the Water Utilities Department

Use a Water Consumption Calculator

Determine How Old the Toilets and Faucets Are

Keep Differences In Mind

Consider Living in the Country

Look for Ways to Conserve Water

Leveraging GHG Data for EPA’s Subpart OOOO Compliance - New Webinar!

Celebrating Earth Day with Greenpeace

Earthquake of magnitude 7.8 has hit Iran according to USGS

Blasts in Boston Marathon kills 3 people and has injured many others

Water crisis is affecting the economic growth of Ghana. Water crisis is one of the most serious issue of urban Africa.

Investment in Clean energy has dropped by 22 % compared to last year. This is a direct fallout of the various programs that have been stopped by governments which were primarily started during the financial crisis.

Invite to " Webinar on Global Accessibility Awareness Day",May 9th 2013