People, Projects, and Programs

EPA Aims at Largest Polluters, Backs Off Others

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to reduce inspections and civil enforcement cases against most industries over the next five years in an effort to focus on the biggest polluters. The EPA’s draft strategic plan proposes to cut the number of federal inspections by 33 percent and civil enforcement cases by 23 percent over the next four fiscal years, which end in Septem-ber, 2018. The agency says that focusing on the biggest violators would lead to the greatest cuts in pollution. The EPA also plans to emphasize real-time monitoring of emissions to prevent pollution, which, if successful, would lead to a decline in enforcement actions. “It’s simply a more-effective allocation of resources,” EPA spokesperson Alisha Johnson explains. “Our enforcement work will continue to save lives and protect the environment.” Environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, are displeased with the decision, saying it effectively “pulls the cops off the beat who have been protecting our air and water from big polluters.” Even former EPA lawyers such as Eric Schaeffer, who was at one time director of the EPA’s Office of Civil Enforcement, question the move. Schaeffer be-lieves tough enforcement has proven to be the biggest deterrent. “If this is signaling some kind of wind-down in the bigger enforcement cases and bigger pushes that only the EPA as the fed-eral regulator can do, then it’s worrisome,” he asserts.

DOI Okays Accidental Killing, Injuring of Eagles by Wind Farms

Wind energy companies may kill or injure a limited number of Bald Eagles or Golden Eagles without penalty if the companies are attempt-ing to boost interest and investment in green power, per a new ruling from the U.S. Depart-ment of the Interior. According to a report by the Associated Press, the change, requested by

People, Projects, and ProgramsNews from the field

the wind energy industry, will provide legal protection for the lifespan of wind farms and other projects if the companies obtain a per-mit and make efforts to avoid killing the birds. Companies must agree to take additional mea-sures if they kill or injure more eagles than they have estimated they would, or if new informa-tion suggests that eagle populations are being affected. The permits would be reviewed every five years, and companies would have to submit reports of how many eagles they kill. Until now, such reporting had been voluntary, AP reports. Wind farms, with turbines as tall as 30-story buildings and spinning rotors as wide as a pas-senger jet’s wingspan, can reach speeds of up to 170 mph at the tips. Flying eagles routinely spend their time looking at the ground for food and don’t notice the turbine blades until it’s too late, according to Audubon President David Yates. “The Interior Department has sanctioned the killing of an American icon,” Yates says. “Instead of balancing the need for conservation and renewable energy, [DOI] wrote the wind industry a blank check.” The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) sees it differently. “This is not a program to kill eagles,” AWEA Director of Policy John Anderson asserts. “This permit program is about conservation.” The Interior Department has not commented on the matter, but the Fish and Wildlife Service, states that the new rule enables it to better monitor the long-term environmental effects of renewable energy projects. “Our goal is to ensure that the wind industry operates projects in ways that best minimize and avoid impacts to eagles and other wildlife,” the agency notes.

Parched Dead Sea Could Be Saved by Red Neighbor—But at a Cost

Representatives of Israel, Jordan, and the Pales-tinian Authority have signed an agreement to link the Red Sea with the shrinking Dead Sea via the construction of a 180-kilometer pipe-line in Jordan. Under the terms of the agree-

Upfront

Under a strategic plan proposed by the agency, large industrial polluters would get most of the EPA’s attention while lesser violators might not see much restriction.

Bald Eagles and their golden-headed counterparts may be in for much more dangerous, even lethal, flights around wind farms.

MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC. • Vol. 7 No. 1 • February 2014 • DOI: 10.1089/sus.2014.9823 Sustainability 1

ment, some 200 million cubic meters of water will be drawn from the Red Sea annually and funneled through the pipeline over the next decade. A desalination plant will be built along-side it to treat roughly 80 million cubic meters of water, which will be shared by Jordan and Israel. The rest will be channeled into the land-locked Dead Sea, which will otherwise dry out by 2050. According to Israeli Energy and Regional Development Minister Silvan Shalom, the historic agreement addresses a crucial need for cheap, desalinated water for the neighbor-ing nations. It also comes at a time when peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians are floundering, making this an important sym-bol of cooperation and collaboration, Shalom asserts. Environmental groups such as Adam Teva V’Din (Israel Union for Environmental Defense) warn that channeling water from the Red Sea will destroy the Dead Sea’s one-of-a-kind ecosystem by forming gypsum crystals and introducing red algae. “This process will turn the Dead Sea into an artificial body of water that is fed by the Red Sea, will shut down the industry that is built around it, and will destroy its uniqueness,” says Sarit Caspi-Oron, Adam Teva V’Din’s water management director. “It will be a disaster for generations to come.” There is also no guarantee that the proj-ect will prevent the Dead Sea from drying out anyway, especially if the water needs of Israel or Jordan change in the future, Caspi-Oron notes.

Emory University Tops USGBC’s Best of Green Schools List

Emory University in Atlanta has been named the nation’s No. 1 higher education institution by the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Center for Green Schools in its 2013 Best of Green Schools report. According to Center for Green Schools Director Rachel Gutter, the designation goes to schools that demonstrate innovative approaches to school sustainability,

environmental initiatives, and a commitment to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Emory has an ongoing com-mitment to “maintaining sustainability as one of its top priorities” and has among the highest number of square feet of LEED-certified space of any campus in America, the USGBC notes. Ciannat Howett, director of Emory’s Office of Sustainability Initiatives, said the school was “honored and delighted” to receive the recog-nition from USGBC. The Best of Green Schools recognizes top performers in environmental efforts among public schools; colleges; ad-ministrative, business, and student leadership; activists; green partnerships; sustainable trans-formations; and environmental campaigns. For complete lists of schools named to each cat-egory, visit http://centerforgreenschools.org/bestof2013.

World Cup 2014 May Be Bad News for the Environment

The World Cup may be great for the host coun-try in terms of its economy, but it’s not great for the environment, according to the sport’s governing body, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). FIFA notes that the 2014 tournament, to be held in ven-ues throughout Brazil in June and July, will produce the equivalent of 2.72 million metric tons of carbon dioxide due to all the traveling involved. That’s as much CO2 as produced by 560,000 passenger cars in one year, according to the greenhouse gas calculator on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website. Fans will produce about 90 percent of World Cup carbon emissions, according to Federi-co Addiechi, FIFA’s head of corporate social responsibility. The rest—about 251,000 tons—is attributable directly from FIFA activity, including travel for teams, referees, FIFA offi-cials, carbon produced by their hotels, and the use of stadiums and other tournament-related activities. To counter this environmental threat, FIFA is spending several million dollars on carbon emissions-reducing projects such as tree planting, wind farms, and hydroelectric plants, Addiechi says. “Our goal is to offset 100 percent of those emissions,” he explains. He adds that despite the apparently heavy eco-logical impact, the World Cup is almost car-bon neutral compared to other industries. For example, the Ford Motor Co. calculates that its plants around the world emitted 5.1 million tons of carbon in 2012. In addition, the EPA calculates that the average American home emits 20 tons per year and that the United States’ coal-burning power plants each produce about 3.5 million tons annually.

Environmental groups

warn that channeling

water from the Red Sea

will destroy the Dead

Sea’s one-of-a-kind

ecosystem by forming

gypsum crystals and

introducing red algae.

The landlocked Dead Sea, projected to dry out by 2050,

could be saved by a plan to channel in water from the

neighboring Red Sea. But the plan poses a potential threat

to the Dead Sea’s fragile ecosystem.

The 2014 World Cup, to be held at stadiums like the Arena Das Dunas

in Natal, Brazil, will have a huge impact on the local ecology as

well as the economy.

2 Sustainability MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC. • Vol. 7 No. 1 • February 2014 • DOI: 10.1089/sus.2014.9823

Upfront

Cities Could One Day Remove Colorful Graffiti in Green Fashion

A project that could make it cheaper and greener to remove graffiti from structures is in the works in Los Angeles. Current meth-ods involve using chemicals to remove paint from walls, sides of buildings, and other loca-tions. But those chemicals can cause toxins to leach into the soil. So the Institute of Research and Technical Assistance (IRTA) is testing a new, cleaner technique for removing graffiti by blasting it away with crushed recycled glass or dry ice pellets, then wiping it away with a mixture of soy and rubbing alcohol. The pro-cedure is also cheaper and could help cities save up to $12 billion annually in cleanup costs, according to IRTA chemical physicist Katy Wolf. The process has enough potential to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to help finance Wolf ’s work. “The goal is to pro-tect the environment as well as many of the neighborhoods where the graffiti ends up,” EPA Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld says. “These are nontoxic products, we know that they work, and in nearly every case they’re less expensive.” Once the research and testing is completed next year, the EPA hopes some of these greener graffiti-removal products will become commercially produced and roll out nationwide, Blumenfeld adds. The EPA is also considering what kind of label it could apply to greener cleaning products, similar to the Energy Star label on appliances.

Tropical Rainforest Populations Are Declining, HP Initiative Reveals

One-third of tropical forest animal and insect species monitored have experienced some type of decline in their populations over the past four years, according to data compiled by com-puter products manufacturer Hewlett-Packard (HP) environmental group Conservation Inter-national (CI). Through an initiative known as HP Earth Insights, HP and CI have determined significant population reductions in threat-ened species such as the wild boar found in Malaysia, the Western Gorilla in the Republic of Congo, and the banded mongoose in Tan-zania. According to Peter Seligmann, CI’s chair-person and chief executive officer, HP Earth Insights serves as an early warning system for conservation efforts, enabling proactive responses to environmental threats. “Until now, the right data, the technology and scale have been noticeably missing from our field,” Selig-mann states. “What once took a team of scien-tists weeks, months, or more to analyze can now be done by a single person in hours.” HP Earth

Insights manages three terabytes of critical bio-diversity information, including more than 1.4 million photos and more than 3 million climate measurements gathered from camera traps and climate sensors in 16 countries, according to Meg Whitman, HP’s president and chief execu-tive officer. “Tropical forests are a vital part of the planet’s life-support system—we need them for the air we breathe and to support a diverse and healthy ecosystem for agriculture, medicine, and recreation,” Seligmann explains. “We know that we can’t protect what we don’t measure.”

It’s Finally Lights Out for Incandescent Bulbs in Canada

It took seven years, but a nationwide ban on the sale and production of most incandescent lightbulbs finally went into effect as of Janu-ary 1, 2014. In 2007, the federal government announced an aggressive plan that would effectively remove most incandescent bulbs from retail shelves in favor of more-energy-efficient alternatives, such as compact fluores-cent lamps, or CFLs. The new rules were set to start in 2012, but then were postponed for two years to “allay” consumer concerns about cost and flexibility, according to a report from Environment Canada (EC). A newer kind of incandescent bulb, filled with halogen gas, will remain on store shelves even though it doesn’t meet the tough efficiency standards that were proposed in 2007, when the environment was a priority for most Canadians, EC spokesperson Mark Johnson says. The lightbulb initiative is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 6 million tons annually, he notes.

The Many Wonders of Coffee

Coffee is known for being a pick-me-up, but it also has environmental benefits ranging from laundry detergent to vehicle fuel, according to a report in The Guardian. Starbucks, which purchases nearly 400 million pounds of coffee annually, is working to convert the grounds—along with bakery food waste—into laundry detergents, bioplastics, and other products. Food giant Nestlé, which has been incinerating coffee to generate energy for decades, is now also using it as a heat source to cook food prod-ucts at 22 of its 28 coffee factories. An analy-sis by scientists at the University of Cincinnati (UCinn) determined that coffee grounds are 11 to 20 percent oil, by weight—roughly the same amount as palm oil, soybean oil, and some oth-er biodiesel feedstocks. Coffee grounds are also plentiful and widely available, making them “so cheap they’re almost free,” says Mingming Lu, an associate professor of environmental

Cities may soon be using recycled glass or dry ice pellets as an environmentally safe alternative to chemicals for removal of graffiti.

“The EPA hopes some

of these greener graffiti-

removal products will

become commercially

produced and roll

out nationwide.”

—Jared Blumenfeld

Incandescent bulbs (left) are now banned for sale and production in Canada.


engineering at UCinn. The UCinn group is also studying the possibility of converting the coffee grounds into activated carbon, which is used to filter and remove pollutants from air and water, as well as burning the leftover biomass as an alternative energy source, Lu explains.

European CFOs Combine Sustainability, Financial Issues

The chief financial officers of some of Europe’s preeminent corporations, with the support of the Prince of Wales, have launched a network aimed at embedding environmental and social issues into company strategy and finances. The Chief Financial Officer Leadership Network (CFOLN) is the first group to focus on the role CFOs play in integrating environmental and social issues into financial decision mak-ing, according to John Rogers, co-chairperson of the Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) Project, which will oversee the leadership network. “This will bring sustainability issues into the very heart of corporate governance and accounting,” Rogers notes. “What used to be seen as greenwash needs to become as natural to company finance teams as it is to CR departments or even NGOs.” Inaugu-ral member organizations of the network are Anglian Water, BUPA, Burberry Group, British Land, The Crown Estate, Danone, Royal DSM, Marks & Spencer, National Grid, Sainsbury’s, SSE, South West Water, Unilever, United Utili-ties, Walmart EMEA, and Yorkshire Water. The network will be expanded throughout 2014, CFOLN notes.

U.S. Now Behind Other Nations in Producing Electronic Waste

China and other emerging economies have overtaken Western nations in dumping old

electronic goods, from TVs to cell phones, and will lead a projected 33 percent surge in the amount of waste from 2012 to 2017, according to a report by the United Nations Alliance on Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP). The re-port, the first to map electronic waste by coun-try to promote recycling and safer disposal of often toxic parts, shows how the economic rise of developing nations is transforming the world economy even in terms of pollution, StEP Executive Secretary Ruediger Kuehr says. It’s literally a growing problem: By 2017, the weight of electronic goods discarded every year would make the annual piles of old washing machines, computers, refrigerators, electronic toys, and other goods with an electric cord or battery the weight equivalent of 200 Empire State Buildings or 11 Great Pyramids of Giza, StEP’s report asserts. Much of that waste has come from emerging nations like Brazil, India, and South Africa, as well as Russia and other for-mer Soviet bloc countries, which in 2012 com-bined have produced more garbage than the total from the United States, the European Union, Japan, and Australia. But the United States hasn’t fallen completely behind the world: StEP’s report also shows that the aver-age person on the planet produces 7 kg of elec-tronic waste every year. Americans are among the highest with 29.8 kg each.

Ecolog Product Helps Solve Africa’s Deforestation, Unemployment

Two businessmen in the southern Africa nation of Namibia have come up with a way to solve two of the country’s biggest problems: defor-estation and bush encroachment. The indirect culprit in both cases is cattle grazing, which re-sults in cleared land that is quickly taken over by thorn bushes, an extremely fast-growing and hard-to-remove weed. Until now, the solu-tion has been to clear-cut trees to create more grazing land. But Heiko Meyer and Norbert Liebich realized that the thorn bushes could be converted into ecologs, which burn cleaner than wood. The bush is also plentiful, which makes the logs fairly inexpensive to produce, and the production process, much of which must be done by hand, generates employment for many of the impoverished residents. “This product also has the ability to relieve the bur-den on households that are dependent on wood for cooking and heating water,” asserts John Mbango, acting head of lending at Develop-ment Bank of Namibia, which financed Meyer and Leibich’s new company, Omuriro Biomass. “Many households spend hours every week col-

Coffee is good for a morning buzz, but its waste coffee grounds are proving to be a bigger pickup for the environment.

By 2017, the weight

of electronic goods

discarded every year

would make the annual

piles of old washing

machines, computers,

refrigerators, electronic

toys, and other goods

with an electric cord

or battery the weight

equivalent of 200

Empire State Buildings.


Upfront

lecting or buying wood, and a product such as this has the ability to free those hours for pro-ductivity and education.” Production began in September 2013 and the logs are already avail-able in about one-fourth of the tiny nation. The company is now introducing the product into South Africa, the Middle East, and several countries in the European Union.

Food Giant Wilmar Switches to All Sustainably Produced Palm Oil

Singapore-based Wilmar International, the world’s largest trader of palm oil, announced that it will now provide only products that are “free from links to deforestation or abuse of hu-man rights and local communities.” Wilmar’s “No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation” policy is considered a victory by environmen-tal groups such as Greenpeace International, which have been trying to get the major food industry player on board with any campaign that encourages businesses to only buy sustain-ably produced palm oil. “Wilmar’s commit-ment to “No Deforestation” has the potential to transform the controversial palm oil industry,” declares Bustar Maitar, head of the Indonesia forest campaign at Greenpeace International. Palm oil is a cooking oil popular in develop-ing countries, such as India, and it’s a major ingredient in processed foods consumed in developed economies. Palm oil consumption has quintupled since 1990, and demand is expected to double by 2020, according to the World Bank. That has led to worries about the environmental impact of palm oil plantations taking the place of old-growth trees, and of destruction of carbon-rich peatland, which releases large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Other giants in the food industry, such as Nestle and Unilever, have already made pledges to use more-sustainable palm oil and avoid oil grown on plantations carved out of virgin rain forest. “We know from our custom-ers and other stakeholders that there is a strong and rapidly growing demand for traceable, de-forestation-free palm oil, and we intend to meet it as a core element of our growth strategy,” Wil-mar Chairperson and CEO Kuok Khoon Hong says. “We welcome more participation from the industry, financial institutions, and civil society to join this initiative, which will accelerate the achievement of our common goals.” The policy can be read at www.wilmar-international.com.

New York Times Scales Back on Green Journalism to Cut Costs

Environmental journalism is in decline at the New York Times—at least, for the foreseeable

An ecolog development project is helping control deforestation and weed encroachment in the south African nation of Namibia.

future. According to the Times’ Public Editor Margaret Sullivan, recent actions by the paper—such as the dismantling of its environment bu-reau and the shutdown of its green blog—have given readers the impression that the Times is no longer interested in green news coverage. But the newspaper’s management stresses that it’s merely “taking [sustainability] out of its silo and integrating it into many areas of coverage,” Sullivan asserts. “The changes were made for both cost-cutting and strategic reasons, and the blog did not have high readership.” Sullivan’s own analysis from the past year indicates that the Times has dropped its environmental cov-erage to about one-third of what it was in 2012, and the number of deep, investigative serials has declined from 12 to three. “Part of the decline stems from the fact that news is generated by events or controversies,” Sullivan notes. “There hasn’t been as much as in the past.” It’s not just the Times downshifting: Overall news cover-age on green issues, such as climate change, has plummeted from its high point in 2009, she adds. Eric Biber, a professor of law at the Uni-versity of California at Berkeley, finds the trend disturbing. “Press coverage of environmental issues is a vital component of informed deci-sion making by policy makers and informed voting and activism by citizens,” Biber explains. “This is particularly true in an area as complex as the environment.” Even former Vice Presi-dent Al Gore, a longtime champion of green news coverage by the Times, can only shake his head. “Simply assuming that this is an inter-esting controversy that we should check in on occasionally is not correct,” Gore states in a Times editorial. “The survival of human civi-lization is at risk. The news media should be making this existential crisis the No. 1 topic they cover.”

Most Executives Believe in Limited Long-Term Green Strategy

Almost 90 percent of executives believe a sustainability-oriented strategy is essential to long-term competitiveness, but only 10 per-cent are fully tackling issues such as pollution and employee health, according to a study by the Boston Consulting Group and MIT Sloan Management Review. The fifth annual report also notes that there is a distinct difference between companies that “walk the talk” on sustainability, and those with beliefs that are “out of sync.” In general, according to the re-port, “walkers articulate a clear sustainability strategy, place sustainability permanently on the top-management agenda, develop a busi-ness case for sustainability, and change their business model to address the sustainability is-

“We know from our

customers and other

stakeholders that

there is a strong and

rapidly growing

demand for traceable,

deforestation-free palm

oil, and we intend to

meet it as a core

element of our

growth strategy.”— Kuok Khoon Hong


sues that matter most.” Walkers also go beyond general pronouncements and assign responsi-bility for doing something about these concerns operationally. They’re also much better at mea-suring progress on performance. As a result, they are more likely to profit from their sus-tainability efforts. The full report, Sustainabil-ity’s Next Frontier: Walking the Talk on the Sus-tainability Issues That Matter Most is available at http://sloanreview.mit.edu.

AACC Receives $1.1 Million Grant for Sustainability Education

The Kresge Foundation has awarded the American Association of Community Col-leges’ (AACC) Sustainability Education and Economic Development (SEED) Center a $1.1 million grant to expand clean technology train-ing and sustainability education innovations at community colleges nationwide. According to AACC President and CEO Walter Bumphus, the SEED Center, which has 472 member col-leges across the country, provides a platform for colleges to share promising practices, from green career pathways to technical program design to creating campus-based living labo-ratories. The grant will enable the center to expand and highlight the role of two-year col-leges in helping communities to better prepare for and recover from extreme weather, energy, and economic challenges. “The grant from Kresge supports our growing commitment to educating and training workers for successful careers in energy, transportation, resource con-servation, and lean manufacturing,” Bumphus says. “It also will position more community colleges to play leadership roles in moving their own communities to be models of resiliency.”

Canal Project across Nicaragua Could Save or Decimate Nation

A plan to build a trans-ocean canal across Nicaragua is being viewed as a miracle by most of the impoverished nation’s populace but as a potential disaster by legal and environmental experts. The $40 billion waterway, projected for completion as soon as 2020, will be more than three times the length of the Panama Canal and will include tax-free side projects such as ports on Nicaragua’s Pacific and Atlantic Coasts, an oil pipeline bisecting the country, a cargo rail-way, two free-trade zones, and an international airport. Beijing-based telecommunications CEO Wang Jing was granted a 50-year renew-able concession to build the project, and he will be required to pay Nicaragua $10 million a year for 10 years and gradually transfer ownership to Nicaragua. Legal and environmental experts

allege that the waterway is economically unfea-sible; for example, it will have to immediately draw $1 billion a year in business to be profit-able, effectively siphoning off half of the Pana-ma Canal’s shipping. It’s also ecologically risky, as no environmental impact studies will be re-quired. Other opponents note that there is no requirement for Jing to actually build the canal; he could instead choose to build only the tax-free side projects and avoid paying operational fees, or avoid having to transfer ownership of anything. But experts say these warnings are largely falling on deaf ears, as are charges that President Daniel Ortega is merely using the canal as a way to gain reelection. Many in Nicaragua, from wealthy businesspersons to the struggling working poor, say it will be worth all the government concessions if it gen-erates badly needed jobs. Forty percent of the nation’s 6 million populace live in poverty, and the canal “brings a much-needed ray of light to the people,” asserts Manuel Coronel Kautz, manager of Nicaragua’s Great Inter-Oceanic Canal Authority.

This Ultra-Tiny House Proves Sustainability Comes in All Sizes

After a messy divorce and a foreclosure, architect Macy Miller wanted to own another home, but she didn’t want to deal with a new mortgage. So, she built herself a new one and decided to go green along the way. The Boise, Idaho, resident built a 196-square-foot house on a flatbed truck for $11,400. She did most of the work herself. The house is connected to the power grid and has potable water, and warmth comes from radiant-heat floors. The house also has an environmentally friendly composting toilet, which requires sawdust instead of water and doesn’t need to hook into a septic system. Miller plans to live in the house until she can save enough to buy a larger house. “My goal is a 600-square-foot cabin in the woods,” she says. “I have a plan in the works for a different kind of sustainable small home.”

USGBC, WGBC Launch Global Coalition for Green Schools

The U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Center for Green Schools and the World Green Building Council (WGBC) have established the Global Coalition for Green Schools (GCBS). The coalition will collectively shape schools and communities to change the way students learn about the world around them, according to Rachel Gutter, director of the Center for Green Schools at USGBC. Each of the 29 founding

A proposed trans-ocean canal across Nicaragua is viewed

as an economic savior by the poverty-stricken nation’s residents

and a potential ecological disaster by legal and environ-

mental experts.

At 196 square feet, it’s small, but this Boise, Idaho, house makes up for its size with a

few green amenities.


Upfront

members will establish and lead a coalition for green schools within each of their respec-tive countries. “The goal of these coalitions is to promote a shared vision of green schools for all within this generation,” Gutter notes. “Mem-bers of the coalition will share best practices, resources, and case studies, provide tools and infrastructure to this growing network, and in-troduce programs, initiatives, and campaigns that can be replicated around the world.” The founding members of GCBS include Argenti-na, Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia, Peru, Qatar, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, Turkey, and the United States.

UL Raises Bar on Green Standards for Tablets and Wi-Fi Hotspots

UL Environment, a business unit of Under-writers Laboratories, has released new sets of sustainability requirements for tablets and wireless hotspots. According to Lisa Meier, UL Environment’s vice president and general manager, both sets of requirements—UL 2841 for Slate Style Tablets and UL 2853 for Mobile Hotspots—are based on UL’s 110 standard, which was the certification company’s first collaborative effort to develop a sustainability standard for mobile phones. “These standards ensure that these additional mobile devices are evaluated for environmental impacts in the same way that UL 110 has effectively measured sustainability criteria in mobile phones,” Meier says. The company says it’s working closely with a number of manufacturers, including Novatel Wireless and Sprint, to complete certification to UL 2841 and UL 2853, respectively. Once a mobile device has achieved Ecologo Certifi-cation, it is listed in UL’s Sustainable Product Guide. Certified mobile devices can also carry the Ecologo Certification mark, indicating they’ve successfully completed the certification process, Meier notes.

NM Water Resource Institute Up for $2 Million in Research Funding

New Mexico lawmakers are proposing $2 mil-lion in funding to help the New Mexico Water Resources Institute (WRRI) support research and innovation in water infrastructure in the state. According to a release from New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez’s office, the funding will allow the institute to meet any additional water research needs associated with drought, water security, water planning, and water qual-

ity issues. The institute, housed at New Mexi-co State University (NMSU), will distribute the funding to several universities including NMSU, the University of New Mexico, and New Mexico Tech, NMSU President Garrey Carruthers says. The institute will also be able to hire researchers, technicians, and scien-tists to address water needs in New Mexico, as well as encourage college student-led research projects. Such projects include state-of-the art technology to assess water via satellite im-ages, and data collecting technology that will provide current water conditions. “This will have a great impact in the community and the state, especially if there is continuing funding to allocate to a statewide water assessment, and research into water treatment and water-shed management,” asserts Alexander Fernald, director of WRRI.

Phillips 66, Sapphire Energy Plot Effort for Real Green Power

Phillips 66 and green crude oil pioneer Sap-phire Energy Inc. have announced a plan to commercialize development of crude oil derived from algae. Algae-based fuel could potentially replace 17 percent of oil imported for use in the transportation sector, and more than 65,000 barrels per day could be produced—but not until at least 2025—Sapphire Chief Execu-tive Officer Cynthia Warner says. The agree-ment follows up a test effort between Sapphire and a subsidiary of Tesoro Corp., in which the two companies will produce 100 barrels a day of green crude oil starting in mid-2014. “This next step is a vital part of introducing a new fuel to market, and Phillips 66’s interest is an-other sign that algae cultivation technologies are gaining steam,” Warner asserts. However, green crude is nothing new: Exxon Mobil in 2009 reached an agreement to explore algae-based fuels in a $600 million deal with Synthet-ic Genomics. But in 2012, Exxon said getting algae to the commercial level was more difficult than expected. A study by the Energy Depart-ment that assessed the potential for algae-based fuels in the transportation sector also found that production requires more water per bar-rel than petroleum and may cost three times as much. Still, Phillips 66 and Sapphire Energy ex-ecutives believe the expense will be worth it in the long run. Algae store natural oils as a source of energy. Used as a fuel source, it’s essentially carbon neutral because photosynthetic organ-isms survive by metabolizing CO2. Develop-ing algae as an alternative could offset climate concerns expressed this year by the internation-al community, according to Merl Lindstrom, vice president of technology for Phillips 66.

Makers of tablet PCs and operators of Wi-Fi hotspots are now subject to sustainability requirements, just like mobile phones.

Common green algae found on the tops of lakes could be a major source of an alternative fuel, but not for a decade or more.


Dubai Makes Big Green Plans as It Prepares To Host Expo 2020

Officials in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates are developing plans to beautify and add more greenery to the area prior to Expo 2020, the world’s largest cultural events confer-ence. In December 2013, Dubai won the bid to be the event’s host city. According to Taleb Abdul Karim Julfar, the city’s director of Pub-lic Parks and Horticulture, the plan aims to use “the best and most suitable plants available to give a wonderful view for the roads and inter-sections in the city.” The municipality will plant saplings and seedlings on all the arterial roads connecting Dubai with neighboring emirates and countries. It has already planted 30 mil-lion seedlings of flowering plants across Dubai since late 2013, Julfar notes. The city will also construct as many residential parks as pos-sible for leisure and entertainment activities in all parts of the emirate, and improve existing

parks. Nine new parks are currently planned. “This is a huge event for this city. We want visi-tors to see as much beauty on the way to the Expo as they will experience once they arrive,” Julfar says.

Environment Is Nature’s Biggest Influencer of Genetic Change

No matter what challenges a species meets regarding survival, the No. 1 driver appears to be the environment, according to a study by researchers with the Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. A study of fruit flies living on opposite slopes of a natural envi-ronment known as Evolution Canyon revealed that even with migration, cross-breeding, and sometimes the obliteration of the populations, the creatures genetically adapt depending on whether they live on the drier, hotter side of the canyon, or the more-humid, cooler side. The two slopes of Evolution Canyon, at Mount Carmel, Israel, are little more than two football fields apart at their bases. But the south-facing slope is tropical and may receive eight times as much sun, while the north-facing slope is more like a European forest. Researchers discovered that between the populations, 572 genes were “significantly different in frequency,” corrobo-rating previous observations of differences in heat tolerance, life history, and mating behav-ior, according to the study. In addition, genetic changes were accumulating in chromosomal “islands” in the north-facing-slope flies, sug-gesting adaptive gene mutations would sweep through the population over time. The research confirms that natural selection—the process in nature in which organisms genetically adapt to their surroundings—is a powerful influence in the canyon, according to Pawel Michalak, an associate professor at the Virginia Bioinformat-ics Institute.

The city of Dubai has big green plans for when it hosts

Expo 2020, the world’s largest cultural events conference.

The Dubai plan aims

to use “the best and

most suitable plants

available to give a

wonderful view

for the roads and

intersections in

the city.”

—Taleb Abdul Karim Julfar


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