While it's easy to pigeonhole water supply and distribution as a third world issue, as any fan of the movie Chinatown can tell you, the United States is no stranger to water shortages.  Just last year, a dry spring crippled the water supply across much of the American South.

 

This summer, debate has raged in the desert cities of Southern California as demand for water continues to overstress the supply.  While conservation efforts have mitigated shortages, a new desalinization plant named Poseidon has been approved to fill the gap.

While traditional desalinization plants have been less than environmentally friendly, polluting waters and producing massive amounts of carbon, the new plant looks to mitigate its impacts through a variety of innovative measures. Rather than actively pumping water in from the ocean, it absorbs it passively through osmosis. Additionally, Poseideon uses solar power and energy recovery systems to limit its carbon emissions.

While some sea life will still be killed by the water intake process, the damage is not expected to make even a dent in massive biodiversity of the Pacific Ocean. Eco-friendly industry like the Poseidon plant sets an important example for green projects nationwide while improving water safety and availability.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Composting. Seems so 1960s, doesn’t it? While it’s still a fantastic source of organic material fertilizer for the low-carbon-impact home garden, it also holds fair potential as a source of biomass energy. And thanks to a new state law in Minnesota, more and more citizens may be exploring that option.

The law allows organic waste—apparently anything from orange peels to grass clippings to “animal waste”—to be picked up at the curb by recycling companies. From there, recyclers look to bacteria to digest the waste into not only fertilizers and soil conditioners, but also methane, better known as natural gas.

Aside from small concerns about sanitation—probably the reason this law needed to be passed in the first place—I really like this measure. It provides the opportunity for pretty much everyone to contribute to generating a useful fuel—many transit agencies nationwide use methane powered CNG buses—and allowing pick-up in front of homes in residential neighborhoods may help the practice spread by word of mouth.

It might additionally be in the public interest to pay people based on the biomass they contribute, to give them extra incentive to separate organic matter from the rest of the trash.

 

Used correctly, biofuels can be a tremendous resource for slowing the emission of heat-trapping gasses into the atmosphere. But the tremendous amount of potential carbon savings—not to mention green energy income—offered by the biofuel market may have encouraged some pretty serious corner-cutting on the part of energy producers.

 

A new report from the UK serves as something of a microcosm for the larger problem. While the study found that biofuels’ current share of all road fuel was just under the 2.5 percent target set by the Renewable Fuels Agency, it also showed that fewer than one-fifth of these fuels were produced in accordance with agricultural standards designed to protect long-term crop viability.  While this is disappointing on a philosophical level—it’s tough to answer detractors of renewable energy sources when they can say that green energy isn’t green—the problem also has other, far more tangible side effects.

Not protecting biodiversity, for example, sets up monoculture conditions in which a single blight could leave an entire area barren, leading to problems with erosion and water run-off. This is an especially serious consideration given that plant stock sources are only known for 90% of the biofuels used in the UK. More careful monitoring of  exactly what types of plants are grown and harvested can help keep the balance of existing ecosystems, and will help maintain agricultural sustainability.

Deforestation is also a significant concern, especially given that the destruction of older-growth, non-industrial forests may represent a far more serious carbon problem than initially thought. Industrialized nations such as England and the United States have been able to cite land use change as a value asset in reducing their carbon emissions; clearing land irresponsibly for biofuel growth will reduce or eliminate this benefit.  Perhaps plans to remunerate organizations for preserving forested land, as the World Bank has done, could better preserve the carbon-sinking effects of forests in biofuel-producing nations.

The consensus seems to be that no one technology is going to provide all the answers for the world’s current energy crisis. Everything from economic considerations, such as commodity prices and the cost of labor, to geographical factors, like the windiness of a region, or the richness of its coal and oil deposits, will determine what low-carbon energy sources become dominant in any given corner of the globe.

But with competition from high global food prices, it’s clear that more careful implementation of biofuel technologies is a must; accruing a reputation as an ecologically-irresponsible energy source that makes it difficult for people to feed themselves could cripple the nascent industry before its full benefits are realized.

 

All of HP's products can now bear the SmartWay shipping logo, guaranteeing that products have been shipped entirely through SmartWay carriers. The SmartWay certification program is part of the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to reduce transportation-related emissions. Carriers participating in the SmartWay Transport Partners program track the performance of their vehicles and regularly improve their transportation network.

HP certified all of its consumer products are shipped with SmartWay carriers earlier this year, allowing HP to add the SmartWay logo to consumer product packaging. The company just finished certifying all of its business products — they are now also able to use the logo.

The EPA describes the SmartWay certification as one of their most progressive brands. In addition to providing a competitive advantage for shippers by reducing fuel use, the EPA has also made financing tools available. Those tools can help companies bring their transportation networks up to SmartWay standards faster than they might be able to manage on their own.

The SmartWay program also certifies vehicles for consumers. It uses information like fuel efficiency, alternative fuel options and other information to help vehicle buyers make informed decisions. The program also works to educate drivers in continuing green practices after they drive their new rides off the lot.

Image — EPA

Three airline consultancies — Flight Services International of the United States, Sabena Flight Academy Consulting of Belgium and BMB Fuel Consulting Services of Canada — are joining together to help airline companies save on fuel costs. The cost of getting an airplane from one point to another has more than doubled in the last year and airlines are scrambling to keep up with the costs.

The joint venture will be known as Flight Sciences Global Partners and will be headquartered in Brussels. Rather than encouraging airlines to cover rising fuel costs by raising fares and adding fees, Flight Sciences will make use of the massive amount of data generated by airplanes as they fly to create and implement efficiency measures.

"Every day they're complaining about the price of fuel, and therefore selling the blankets and pillows to offset this price. But if you go back to the organization of the airlines, they're not set up to deal with the biggest cost structure," said Robert Callahan, president of Flight Sciences.

Flight Sciences will also consult with airline companies on their efforts to meet the European Union's carbon-dioxide emissions standards, which will go into effect in 2010 for any company operating flights within the European Union.

Photo — John Wardell

Following on a successful test of Allstate's green insurance program in Colorado and Ohio, the company has decided to expand the test to eight other states. Those states are Washington, Oregon, Louisiana, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas. Colorado and Ohio will continue testing through the rest of the year.

The Allstate Green program includes several elements to help the company provide more eco-friendly insurance options for customers, including:

Minimizing paper statements and developing the Allstate Easy Pay Plan which allows for electronic payments.
Incentives for customers willing to use the Easy Pay Plan and otherwise reduce paper use.
Contributions to local environmental projects at no additional cost to customers.

"The positive consumer response to our Colorado and Ohio tests reaffirms our belief in the strategy of designing services and products around the consumer" said Roger Parker, assistant vice president of product innovation in a press release. "Making it easy for customers to save money and help the environment is the ultimate win-win: good for the customer, good for the company and good for the planet."

Allstate's local environmental efforts have been guided by the Nature Conservancy, America's Wetland Foundation and the Arbor Day Foundation. They've focused on conservation and restoration projects affecting the communities testing Allstate Green. In Missouri, for instance, Allstate's contributions will help purchase strategic tracts of land within the Current River watershed. Those tracts will be used for conservation easements for sustainable forestry.

Photo — Allstate

Ikea, the Swedish furniture giant, announced plans yesterday to make major investments into cleantech start-ups with the goal of carrying products like solar panels in their store. Ikea's GreenTech division will invest 50 million euros (approximately $77.3 million) into five categories of companies: solar panels, alternative light sources, product materials, energy efficiency and water saving and purification.

These investments will be limited to companies that have commercial prospects within the next five years — Ikea wants to make sure that these products will be available for sale in the near future. John Stenebo, the managing director of the GreenTech division, said that Ikea is hoping to make its first investments this year. Over the next two years, the company plans to invest in up to six companies. In total, Ikea will eventually invest in up to ten companies — a relatively small portfolio — because the company wants to offer developmental aid to startups. In addition to Ikea's financial help, the company wants to help startups reduce overall prices and create better products.

Stenebo said that Ikea wants to offer cleantech products that are in line with the company's other products. "Really low prices, and they should be of very good quality. That's the only thing we look at, we would never look at anything else, we would discard anything else that doesn't fall into those boundaries," he said. "Whether it's home furnishings or it's greentech products."

Photo — ktpupp

Though booming economically, it's well known that Chinese cities suffer environmental problems unheard of in the West. Thick, soupy smog, heavy ozone, and cancerous rivers all mar the civic beauty of the world’s most populous nation.

But over the next few weeks, as hundreds of thousands arrive in that nation's capital for the Olympic games, they’ll get a glimpse of what could be a far greener future for the Chinese nation.  The Olympic Village is powered by an impressive 64 megawatt wind farm, while hot water for the 12,000 Olympic personnel and athletes at the games is provided entirely by solar energy. 

There’s no question in my mind hat China has all the infrastructure it needs to become the greenest nation in the world. From lithium-ion batteries, to thin-cell photovoltaics, to wind-turbines, the country produces nearly all of the worlds clean-energy technology. 

The question is whether the Chinese government and the Chinese economy are willing to take the short-term reduced revenues that switching to these technologies would require. One thing is certain: with a population of 1.5 billion people about to get behind the wheel of their first car,  the costs of not transitioning soon could be enormous.

As the United States attempts to back away from corn-based ethanol production, it may be sugarcane plantations that step up to fill the global demand for biofuels.

With a far shorter carbon payback time—that is, the time it takes to reduce the amount of carbon emitted in clearing the land and growing the crop— than corn ethanol production, and hardy, long established varieties of the plant. While climate and soil conditions limit the areas of the United States that can successfully grow the crop, many other nations, from Australia to Guatemala, have been singled out by producers as potential growth hot spots.

While I appreciate that recent food prices have had less of an effect on the price of sugarcane, since its production for consumption is largely as a refined sweetener or glucose source for alcohol, it still seems pretty clear to me that biofuels are tracking in a direction other than traditional feed stocks. 

Sugarcane may offer some economic flexibility to existing crop operations, allowing producers to take advantage of energy price crunches, but for the most part, I feel algae, cellulosic, and grass biofuels will dominate future markets.

I'm always interested to see what happens to the projects we blog about at Matter. There is so much news associated with the clean tech boom that it's easy to report and move on. Two topics I posted on over the months have resurfaced. Here's an update.

Back in March, I blogged about the SeaGen project, Britain's planned 1.2 MW tidal generator. For the first time, a commercial-scale tidal turbine provided energy to the grid, marking the beginning of the system's commissioning process. Although it only generated 150 kw during the trial, it's a promising first step to its official launch at the end of the summer.

Just last month, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed into law a bill setting a 20% renewable energy goal for the year 2020. Now, the state has passed an effort to integrate cellulosic ethanol into MA's fuel mix. The legislation exempts the biofuel from state gasoline taxes and requires diesel transport and heating oils to be 5% cellusolic by 2013 creates a target of 5%.

Good news. But I'm not even going to try finding out how the Cape Wind debacle is going.

Today, Microsoft, Climate Savers and Verdiem have launched a campaign to bring attention to PC energy waste. While many computer efficiency discussions have focused on data centers, there are more than 1 billion PCs running in businesses and home offices. These computers account for the majority of the energy required by the IT industry. They emitted 40 percent of the total carbon emissions emitted by the IT industry — in contrast, data centers are only responsible for about 20 percent.

The average PC produces 1,000 lbs of carbon dioxide emissions each year. Verdiem has developed a free software package to help computer users reduce the energy that their computers use. That program, Edison, is available for free through Verdiem's website, as of today. The program is designed for the Windows operating system and enhances its existing power settings.

"PCs are the hidden energy hogs of the home and most users have no idea that they are needlessly throwing away 80 percent of their PC's energy," said Kevin Klustner, Verdiem's President and CEO in a press release. "If just 1 percent of all PCs used Edison we could potentially reduce environmental impacts by 7 billion pounds of CO2, which is equal to taking more than a half million cars off the road. By finding ways to embed offsets in our daily life - even something as simple as downloading software - we will create permanent reductions in energy use and have a huge impact on our environment and resource sustainability."

Image — Verdiem

BP and Verenium Corporation announced this morning that the two companies are partnering to accelerate commercialization for cellulosic ethanol. The partnership will create several cellulosic ethanol production facilities in the U.S., and potentially worldwide.

"In partnering with Verenium, we now have the most advanced technology for transforming these energy grasses to biofuels, increasing our ability to invest earlier in the US to meet the requirements for cellulosic ethanol laid out in the recent energy bill. We also have the possibility of enhancing the productivity of our Brazilian assets. Verenium has already demonstrated the technology, making this real and an appropriate fit with our commitment to bring more sustainable biofuels to the market more quickly," said Sue Ellerbusch, the president of BP Biofuels North America in a press release.

Verenium has already done much of the work to create feasible options for cellulosic ethanol, but does not have the sheer infrastructure that BP brings to the table. Verenium will be receiving $90 million through this partnership, half of which is just to license their early work to the partnership, as well as to provide employees' knowledge and expertise. The other half will be disbursed monthly in $2.5 million chunks to fund Verenium's ongoing research.

Photo — Verenium

The CleanTech Business Execution Challenge is in the process of deciding between twenty different cleantech companies. The winner of the competition will have the chance to pitch their concepts to an audience of investors. The challenge is sponsored by Vator.tv, AlwaysOn, KMPG and Matter Network.

The entrants for this competition have significant potential. The following projects are just a sample of the entries: visit the site to see the whole list.

The team behind CarbonCart noticed that while many people have reduced the carbon emissions from their own travels, few make an effort to do the same for their purchases. CarbonCart offers carbon neutral online shopping: every time you make a purchase on CarbonCart, you select an offset project to support so that the shipping it takes to get a new book of laptop to your door is entirely offset.

Serious Materials is a well-established building materials producer. The company has been manufacturing sustainable building materials since 2002. The company is working to create new materials, including their new EcoRock. EcoRock is intended to replace drywall, which requires significant energy to manufacture. EcoRock is produced with no CO2 emissions.

GreenDustries has developed a prototype for greener packaging for the fast food industry. Current food packaging uses about 13 grams of paper to protect a burger or some fries. The founders of GreenDustries, Akiva Buchberg and Gilbert Capy, invented a new type of packaging that holds up to the needs of consumers — no mess, keeps food warm and is easy to carry — while significantly reducing the amount of paper needed to about 2 grams. The secret is a method of pleating paper packaging in order to guarantee a strong package without requiring more materials.

When it comes to social networking, Techtain seems able to overcome the difficulties that have faced former eco-friendly networks. Rather than relying on members of the network to create profiles, Techtain has created an e-commerce system that uses existing connections, such as Facebook. Members list items they want and items they wish to get rid of: Techtain makes connections so that users recycle and reuse items, rather than throwing them away.

You are able to vote between the many contestants who have submitted videos about their work to the CleanTech Business Execution Challenge. Help choose which company has a chance to meet with investors, while learning more about new cleantech businesses currently in development. While these four have interesting plans, there are sixteen more who have worked equally hard to build a successful business.

 

The weak dollar may result in pain at the pump and grumbling at the grocery store, but it’s a definite boon for the domestic biofuel business. A New York firm announced today that they had dispatched their first 15,000 barrel shipment of biodiesel, headed for Amsterdam.  This significantly trims the routes traditionally used by West Coast US producers, lessening the shipment’s carbon impact. 

Europe should be a fertile market over the coming years for US biofuel producers, as European government incentives on cleaner energy, and an innovative cap-and-trade system combine with a favorable exchange rate to make the plant-based fuel a good buy. Plus a greater percentage of European automobiles use diesel engines, putting the fuel in higher demand.

The US firm, Innovation Biofuels, claims a margin “significantly above” 20 cents per gallon on the shipment, in part because its biofuel production involves a wide variety of sources, freeing it from recent price pressures placed on soy and other biofuel crops. That figure yields a profit of over 9.3 million dollars for the entire shipment.

These margins will likely increase as algal biofuels and high-yield, non-foodstock biofuels, such as Miscanthus, gain a larger role in the market.

While some freighters and manufacturers have attempted to green up the Earth’s waterways by taking inspiration from the past, one of the world’s leading wind turbine manufacturers looks to take green shipping into the future. 

Enercon, the world’s third largest producer of wind turbines, and maker of one of the most powerful turbines ever, has built an entire ship of its own, designed from stem to stern for total efficiency. Even the name (”E-Ship 1”) is efficient. 

The centerpiece of the new vessel is a group of four cylindrical turbines that provide additional propulsion through the phenomenon of the Magnus Effect , in which a spinning cylinder in a stream of air creates force perpendicular to that airstream. It’s the same effect that gives a curveball its curve, and when used on a large enough scale, can generate a great deal of force.  

While this technology is also something of a blast from the past—rotorship prototypes were built in the early 20th century, but the lower costs of fuel dampened interest—in a world of higher-priced oil and carbon caps, this high profile design will turn heads and draw interest at ports around the world.

From the slums of Nairobi to the most remote corners of the Andes, clean water is a necessity.  But without significant investment in sanitization infrastructure, this resource is incredibly difficult to provide. But after years of research and development, and cheap, reusable, and nearly universally effective system of water treatment has been developed.

It’s called SODIS, or Solar Water Decontamination, and requires only a source of fresh water, a clear plastic bottle, and sunlight. It sounds impossible, but the science behind it is solid: sunlight contains a great deal of ultraviolet radiation, which disrupts the genetic processes of bacterial reproduction and can destroy the microorganisms cell walls. Ultraviolet radiation also has an ionizing effect on the water itself, creating highly oxidative compounds like hydrogen peroxide, a common household antiseptic. While it may be difficult to believe, all it takes is six hours sunlight to destroy the microbial inhabitants in a bottle of water, rendering it fit for human consumption.

While the physical and psychological benefits of an essentially inexhaustible, reliable water source are obvious, clean water also carries an economic and political advantage. In most city slums, public utilities do not provide water service. Instead, private firms generally redistribute public water at a significant mark up, and with severely compromised quality. But with the ability to store and purify their own rainwater, SODIS gives slum residents a safer, and far cheaper alternative, allowing them to concentrate their income for other necessities.

The method is not without its detractors, though. Some urban residents refuse to employ the practice, either out of distrust of outsiders, the fact that it seems too easy to be true, or because they’ve been able to get by on their current water supply without significant trouble in the past. But the data are overwhelmingly in favor of the practice, with diarrhea cases reduced by anywhere from 30 to 80 percent in areas where SODIS has become widespread.

Still, the practice is not a universal solution. Though SODIS creates lethal conditions for many microbes, it does little to treat chemically contaminated water. While some larger toxins do break down in the presence of ultraviolet light, their byproducts can still be unhealthy to ingest.  The amount of available sunlight can also theoretically limiting the effectiveness of SODIS, but because a vast majority of the developing world lies in close proximity to the equator, this is unlike to be a significant concern.

Additional questions have been raised recently about the possible health risks posed by the repeated use of the PETE plastics that SODIS employes (glass containers block some UV light, as do many other clear plastics) to purify water. Studies indicate chemical levels after a single SODIS use are well within safe limits, but some questions remain on the safety of long-term use.  Fortunately a far safer plastic, LDPE, has been proven effective in practice, though it is not nearly as ubiquitous as its potentially phthalate-leaching counterpart.

Researchers from two Madrid Universities have created a material that could vastly improve the conductivity of fuel cells.

The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which analyzed the molecular structure of the super-lattice material, says it improves ionic conductivity by a factor of 100 million.

In conventional fuel cells, the ions have to travel through very narrow gaps in the material. Forcing the ions through requires high temperatures, a big stumbling block that's helped keep hydrogen cars on the drawing board.

The new stuff solves this problem by, um, I'll just let ORNL's Maria Varela explain it: "The new layered material solves this problem by combining two materials with very different crystal structures. The mismatch triggers a distortion of the atomic arrangement at their interface and creates a pathway through which ions can easily travel."

With the hydrogen highway is so much less congested, the system can operate at room temperature, a big plus.

The paper describing this work, published this month in Science, is titled, "Colossal Ionic Conductivity at Interfaces of Epitaxial ZrO₂:Y₂O₃/SrTiO₃ Heterostructures." Well geez guys, don't dumb it down for us.

This makes it the 2nd time in about a week that I've blogged a major (sounding) breakthrough in hydrogen technology. And just when I was about to dismiss it as a bunch of hot gas.

The top ten groups lobbying for alternative energy, at least in terms of money, have been named by the Center for Responsive Politics. So far this year, various alternative energy organizations have spent $11,389,050 on lobbying.

The biggest spender, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, admittedly doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the groups representing the alternative energy industry. The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity has anted up over $1.8 million, more than double the runner up. That money has come from several companies that depend on coal for power production.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the top ten lobbyists for alternative energy are

1. American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity ($1,870,000)
2. National Biodiesel Board ($679,913)
3. Solar Energy Industries Association ($535,000)
4. Clean Energy Group ($492,500)
5. American Wind Energy Association ($460,379)
6. Poet ($360,000)
7. Rentech ($250,000)
8. Green Hunter ($220,000)
9. Noble Environmental Power ($200,000)
10. GridPoint ($172,061)

The center lists hundreds of other lobbying groups that have spent about $6.1 million, divided into batches of tens of thousands. Alternative energy lobbyists are bringing a respectable amount of cash to the table. In comparison, the casino industry has spent $12.7 million on lobbying so far this year, and they've been at the game for quite awhile. The yearly totals for alternative energy groups are also on the rise. In 2007, they only had access to $16,091,075 for the full year. In 2006, it was only $9,252,683.

The money available for alternative energy groups bringing issues to the attention on the federal government has been rising steadily since 2001. While these funds haven't led to perfect legislation on energy issues, alternative energy groups are making a dent on national politics. They may not be spending as much as oil and gas lobbyists ($52,213,268 so far this year) but they may not need to.

Lobbying isn't the only spending that alternative energy supporters have been doing, either. So far in this election cycle, the alternative energy industry has donated $797,899 to various campaigns. The lion's share — 75 percent — has gone to Democratic candidates. That number is bound to increase, as well. Energy is a key issue for this presidential cycle, as well as for a host of smaller races across the country. As the candidates continue to refine their energy policies, alternative energy lobbyists will be there — along with other lobbyists — to encourage candidates to consider alternative energy legislation. It's lobbying in action, and a guaranteed way to be heard.

Photo — JColman

The Cambridge Energy Alliance (CEA) has set a goal of cutting emissions across the City of Cambridge. The municipal organization seems to be the first of its kind in the nation, and has set an impressive goal: eliminating 150,000 tons of greenhouse gases through a variety of measures. That's the same as eliminating the consumption of 15,445,823 gallons of gasoline, 316,450 barrels of oil, or the total energy demand of 12,010 homes.

The CEA made a significant move forward this week. The organization appointed Josh Hassol as its CEO. Hassol has managed equally large tasks in the past, including a 60-person team at the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center. He also has extensive policy and planning experience.

"I am fortunate to be joining an organization that has spent the past year building the critically important infrastructure necessary for success," said Hassol in a press release. "Now, we have begun working with residents, businesses and institutions around Cambridge, and will expand and accelerate our efforts over the next few months. This is a talented and dedicated team. I am grateful to be part of it.

The organization is already making efforts towards achieving its goal. The CEA is in the process of scheduling energy efficiency audits for both businesses and residences throughout Cambridge. Within five years, the organization expects to have 50 percent participation in the audit project.

Image — CEA

The Oregon Public Utility Commission has resolved questions on Oregon law and OPUC regulations on solar facilities. The commission issued an order in response to a joint petition from Honeywell International, Inc., Honeywell Global Finance, LLC, and PacificCorp for clarification on how regulations would apply to solar facilities installed on a utility customer's property but owned by a third-party developer.

According to the OPUC's order, both solar and wind facilities owned or leased by a third party qualify for net metering. The order also established that neither solar nor wind facilities owned or leased by a third party will be considered public utilities or electricity service suppliers under Oregon law. This ruling is in line with Oregon law, which specifically describes solar and wind facilities as exempt from the definition of a public utility. This ruling also makes clear that electricity sales from net-metered solar and wind facilities are exempt from regulation by the OPUC.

The OPUC did decline to decide whether there is any federal jurisdiction over third-party sales to utility customers. The commission noted that such a jursidiction was unlikely, however, given that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has already ruled that net-metering is not a sale under the Federal Power Act.

This order makes it easier for developers of both solar and wind installations to move forward and to begin providing power to customers, at least in Oregon.

Photo — Aaron Schmidt

In good news for the United States’ overall carbon contribution, and bad news for countries hoping to cash in on carbon-saving biofuels, an Australian study recently found that many forests contain three times as much carbon as the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had believed. 

While the IPCC figures estimate carbon storage for forest based on trees above six feet and a canopy coverage of a scant ten percent, the Australian study found that older growth forests with trees in excess of 30 feet, and canopy coverages of 60 percent hold more carbon—up to three times as much. The study also found that even well-managed, selectively logged forests were up to 40 percent less efficient carbon sinks than their untouched counterparts. 

By eliminating large plants that literally suck carbon out of the atmosphere, deforestation contributes some 18% of yearly global warming emissions. In the US, continued forest growth actually decreases the carbon footprint by roughly 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide per capita. But in many developing nations, deforestation emissions account for the vast majority of heat-trapping gas emissions. 

This could be especially bad news for biofuel backers, as forests cleared to plant fuel crops may limit the carbon-friendliness of biofuel plantations.

Don’t be surprised if your streets have been missing a few manhole covers lately—bolstered by the same market pressures that jacked the price of oil to record highs earlier this year, commodity prices, and metals especially, are hitting highs across the board. And just as inflation, market volatility, and increased demand have brought record profitability to oil companies, high metal prices have brought prosperity to an unusual source: recycling firms. 

The bulge in recycling company profits may be far less speculative that that of oil, too, especially when you consider that making a new plastic bottle from an old one consumes 80 percent less energy than making a new one from oil. Toss in a still-historically-high oil price, and the deal gets even sweeter. 

So while some US cities continue to essentially ignore recycling, investors haven’t made the same mistake; investments in waste and recycling totaled $622 million last year, easily besting the $245 million figure of 2006. While it’s not an entirely safe bet—commodity busts were a regular feature of the 1980s and 90s—it still seems like an attractive way to make investments that line up with a green outlook.

The SustainPro Conference has announced Senator John Edwards as the conference's keynote speaker. The conference takes place October 29th and 30th in Chicago. The timing is especially notable: just one week before the general election, the first-ever carbon-neutral presidential candidate will speak to over 2,000 corporate executives.

The conference plans to address the issue of corporate sustainability, according to Jay Whitehead, the SustainPro Conference Chair, in a press release: "It tells you how important the SustainPro Conference and the topic of corporate sustainability have become that Senator John Edwards has agreed to speak so close to the Presidential election. As a carbon cap-and-trade policy pioneer who introduced a detailed energy plan before any other candidate in the 2008 Presidential campaign, Senator Edwards will be sharing his mastery of the future of sustainability with North America's largest-ever corporate sustainability audience."

Edwards will target sustainability-era business and career success strategies in his speech. Also speaking is Terry Tamminem, California environmental policy leader under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Tamminem was influential in creating the policies that Schwarzenegger has successfully implemented.

The conference is produced by SUPR Show, along with Kyoto Planet Group — an eco-concious investment management group — and others. More information about the SustainPro Conference is available at the conference's site, including details about attending.

Image — SustainPro

Manufacturers shipped a third more geothermal heat pumps in 2006 than in 2005. We're still waiting on the numbers for 2007, but it's expected that they'll continue rising significantly. In 2005, manufacturers sold 47,830 units, and in 2006 they sold 63,682, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Many sellers don't call their products geothermal pumps, though. According to a post from Consumer Reports, Mark Morelli of Air Connection, Inc. said that the name confused buyers. "Geothermal had always been the name for our earth-energy process, and it was confusing because everyone was expecting to see hot water coming out of the ground. Then my company shifted to calling it a 'GeoExchange' system, but ‘earth energy’ makes it easier for people to relate to what we do." Morelli reported this month that his business has boomed in the last year.

There are a wide variety of geothermal heat pump manufacturers, including a number with Energy Star-rated systems. Those with systems on that list include Bryant, Carrier Corporation, ClimateMaster, ECONAR, ECR Technologies, Enertech Manufacturing, FHP Manufacturing, Heat Controller Inc., Hydro Delta Corporation, Loop Group, McQuay International, Northern Heat Pump, Rittling, Trane, and WaterFurnace International.

Home owners are beginning to consider geothermal heat pumps as options for heating and cooling houses. Typically, such a unit will cost between two and four times as much to purchase and install as a conventional (oil or natural gas) heating-and-cooling system. But geothermal pumps can pay for themselves in a few years. By pulling air from underground (a year round temperature of around 55 degrees), they  can reduce a household's heating and cooling costs by 35 to 70 percent in a given year.

Solar panels remain more popular than geothermal pumps, at least for the moment. That's due at least partially to the many rebates and tax incentives available to anyone who chooses to install a solar system. The geothermal industry has started lobbying to get their own incentives, but the process is slow-going. It's a tough position: business is booming for geothermal pump manufacturers and installers, but it could increase even more if government agencies put the industry on the same footing as solar energy.

There are other factors that make more intensive lobbying and marketing efforts mandatory for the geothermal industry. For both home and business owners looking to install solar panels, there are a number of financial tools now available. Power purchase agreements and energy efficiency mortgages make it relatively easy to buy solar power. There are far more limited options to consumers looking to buy geothermal pumps.

Geothermal heat pump manufacturers are facing another problem: currently, most systems rely on petroleum-based polyethylene pipes. Rising oil costs have made geothermal systems more expensive, so they may need to switch to alternative materials for the pipes to bring down the cost.

Photo — John Brownlow

Wind power in America is growing like the Dubai skyline. T. Boone Pickens hasn't cranked up a single turbine and already another wind energy project promises to surpass his proposal by at least 1,000 megawatts.

Clipper Windpower and BP have entered into a joint venture to build a 5,050 megawatt facility in South Dakota that, when completed, would be the world's largest wind farm. The two partners' 50:50 agreement expands a previously-announced 1,550 MW project.

Called Titan, the ginormous facility will suitably use Clipper's powerful Liberty wind turbines as well, at a hefty 2.5 MW each.

Clipper's current portfolio of projects total 6,500 MW, so this new plan is a big step. James GP Dehlsen, the company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, says the development will power 1.5 million homes and offset 24 billion pounds of CO2.

Clipper appears fond of giving its wind developments noble names such as Endeavor, Victory, and Flying Cloud. The Titan project's previous name was Rolling Thunder, also the name of a Vietnam War bombing campaign. I'm pretty excited about the project, but you guys might want to take it down a notch before people start mistaking your renewable energy sites for domestic military operations.

Carmaker Audi may be bringing a fuel-efficient version of the upcoming TTS to American shores in 2009. Their diesel port of the sporty art car achieved 44 mpg in Europe's fuel economy test, while preserving the look and at least some of the performance of previous models.

Audi, of late, has been perfecting the diesel engine in order to kill engine knock, startup noise, and overall ride roughness. The TTS is the fruit of that labor.

The guys at Popular Mechanics took one for a test drive to see if the car's new thrifty outlook has damaged its street cred. Suitably named London reporter Andrew English says, "Overtaking others seldom needs a single gear change. And the refinement is exemplary, with only a slight buzz through the steering wheel betraying the fact that this is a diesel."

The reviewer also spoke kindly of the auto's styling from the "binnacle" to the "boot," also known as the instrument panel and the trunk. He did, however, have some reservations about the precison of the handling and suspension. It has a top speed of 140 mph and makes the trip from 0-60 in 7.5 seconds. That's two seconds slower than the non-diesel, but still impressive. If your jaw hasn't dropped already, maybe the price tag will do it. It's brother starts at $66k.

Audi is noncommittal about whether it will export the eco-roadster to the U.S. I've written about the painfully unfair availability of stylish eco-cars in Europe before. Maybe this one will make it across the pond and pave the way for some of the EU's other best kept secrets.

Over the past 12 months, there’s been something of a meltdown in the US housing industry, and one of the hardest hit locations has been the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. In Cuyahoga County, there are an estimated 15,000 homes abandoned due to foreclosure, which have attracted vandals, squatters, and arsonists.

To avoid some of the problems, the city has begun tearing down the vacant properties. But rather than redevelop the properties, many local authorities are urging a conversion to parks, yards, and other forms of greenspace.  

With a continuing oversupply of houses, the proposal makes decent economic sense, protecting value of the homes of the residents that remain on one front, and increasing the inherent value of the area with the nearby parks on the other. Residents have even been encouraged to buy up foreclosed plots adjoining their property as additional yard space.

While reducing density generally has a negative effect on the eco-friendliness of a community, this greenspace initiative in Cuyahoga County allows residents additional space to plant trees and hang clothes to dry, while at the same time encouraging outdoor activities that could lead to more use of non-automotive transportation.

 

Changes come quickly in the burgeoning world of biofuels. Case in point: new renewable energy darling Miscanthus giganteus. While the switchgrass relative may have to work on name and branding issues a bit, recent research at the University of Illinois indicates  it produces 2.5 times as much ethanol as it’s biofuel cousin, and is over nine times as efficient at converting sunlight to biomass.

All these numbers add up to make Miscanthus a potentially game-changing biofuel. Where current government plans to produce one-fifth of the US demand for gasoline from biofuels would take up nearly a quarter of currently farmed land in the US—putting massive strain on food supply in the process—this rugged grass would require just under a tenth.

As biofuel development ramps up, more and more I find myself liking the potential fuel source of native perennials, like Miscanthus. Because they’ve spent millennia adapting to their locales in a highly competitive environment, they require the least energy and resources to farm, and thus the lowest carbon start-up cost. Plus, unlike genetically engineered algae, they don’t pose the risk of ecosystem contamination.

 

The California Clean Tech Open is expanding its competition to Colorado. CCTO Director Brian Payer announced this week that the first Colorado Clean Tech Open will begin accepting submissions next spring. The California competition has also made it clear that they're looking to expand elsewhere in the country but have finalized any other programs yet.

The CCTO is working with the support of the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce, a partnership bound to make running the new business plan competition easier. Colorado already has a large number of clean tech companies, as well as other resources that have an interest in encouraging clean tech: the University of Colorado, numerous federal agencies — including the National Institute of Standards and Technology and its work on energy efficiency — and private cleantech companies.

In particular, companies like Tendril are doing well. Tendril announced this week, from their Boulder headquarters, a line up of energy management devices that have already received extensive attention. These devices provide real-time control of a home's energy use. Tendril has already managed to pick up $12 million in venture capital this year, and there are rumors that they might be looking for another $50 million, which they are likely to get.

Colorado has already played host to a number of cleantech initiatives, such as the Colorado Clean Tech Incubator and the Colorado Clean Tech Initiative. Organizations ranging from the Rockies Venture Club to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to the Colorado Entrepreneurial Houthouse Initiative have already been working to provide cleantech startups in the Front Range with the resources they need to move towards commercialization.

Colorado is also the home to the one competition that is often mentioned in the same sentence as the CCTO: the University of Colorado at Boulder Cleantech Innovation Challenge. The Cleantech Innovation Challenge is only open to students, but it provides the same level of business and technical assistance as the CCTO, as well as impressive prize money.

Colorado's success with past clean tech initiatives makes it a clear choice for the California Clean Tech Open's expansion. The structure necessary to support startups is already in place, unlike some of the CCTO's other options. There is also a sense that, with or without the CCTO, Colorado companies are going to continue to focus on the clean tech industry. There are plenty of startups in the area that won't need the lure of the competition to draw them in — though it make their development process a little easier.

Staley High School, the first LEED certified high school, is opening this month for the 2008-2009 school year. The school is located in Kansas City, Missouri and will have 833 students this fall.

Looking at Staley High School, you may not necessarily see many differences between this high school and other new school buildings. But the differences are there. Most of the steel used in the structure is recycled, and all materials came from vendors located within a 500-mile radius. The school's approach to energy is equally green: the heating system is geothermal. Heat is stored underground during the summer and reused in the winter. The building's fixtures are energy efficient — the lights even turn themselves off if no one is in the room. Water fixtures are also low-flow.

The building was designed by Hollis + Miller, an architectural firm specializing in educational and municipal projects. Staley High School cost $89 million to construct.

It looks likely that more and more public buildings will focus on sustainable building in the future. Beyond a commitment to what is best for their communities, most organizations operating such buildings will find the reduced long-term operational costs ideal for their budgets, even if there is a higher initial cost.

Image — Hollis + Miller

Bank of America has committed $20 billion over the next ten years to make their operation sustainable. The most recent move in that direction is the bank's strategic investment in Field Diagnostic Services, Inc. (FDSI). Bank of America will be using FDSI's energy management system in thousands of its banking centers across the U.S. to cut the company's energy costs, as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Richard Cohen, who heads Bank of America's Strategic Investments Group's environmental investments initiative, commented in a press release: "Bank of America is actively making strategic investments that reduce greenhouse gas emissions while helping spark the new environmentally sustainable economy, and our partnership with FDSI is an excellent example of this strategy. Our collaboration with the Bank's Corporate Workplace group to make the investment in FDSI takes this new energy-saving technology out of the laboratory and to a level that can truly impact the environment as well as our bottom line."

FDSI provides a number of enterprise-level energy efficiency tools, including advanced software, project management services and diagnostic tools. In addition to helping their customers become more sustainable, FDSI has a reputation for reducing energy and operational costs. The company is based in Pennsylvania and has fourteen years of experience in energy efficiency technology.

Image — Bank of America