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351     2008-06-13    Encyclopedia of Earth Launches On-Line Climate Change Collection.
The Encyclopedia of Earth has recently launched the Climate Change Collection, anchored by an electronic version of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change reports. It also includes articles by climate experts, biographies of individuals who have made important contributions to climate science and policy, a timeline of key events in the history of climate science and policy, a climate glossary, and more. It offers the essential knowledge underlying the issue of climate change. Readers are invited to contribute to the collection.
Reference(s):   (Encyclopedia of Earth, 2008   ) Link(s)*:  http://www.eoearth.org/article/Climate_Change_528collection%29
351     2008-06-13    “Guerilla Gardeners” Turn Vacant Public Space Into Floral and Food Gardens.
There is a growing movement of “guerilla gardeners” who plant without approval on land that is not theirs. In London, Berlin, San Francisco, Miami and southern California, free-range tillers are having nighttime planting parties or solo “seed bombing” runs as they aim to turn neglected public space and vacant lots into floral and food outposts. The activity has been fueled by internet gardening blogs and sites such as GuerillaGardening.org where before and after photos of the latest planting areas are posted. At a time of shrinking city budgets, advocates of guerilla gardening see it blossoming into approved brigades of citizen gardeners helping cities turn wasted space into food and flowers.
Reference(s):   (Guerilla Gardening, 2008   ) Link(s)*:  http://www.guerillagardening.org
351     2008-06-13    Danish Low-Water Street Washer Saves Tens of Thousands of Gallons.
A new water-stingy street sweeper technology has been developed by Nilfisk-Advance, a unit of the $1.2 billion Danish cleaning equipment company NKT. The cleaning machine – informally called a Cyclone – cleans concrete surfaces at pressures of 2,000 to 4,500 pounds per square inch, so intense that it cleans without detergents. Instead of letting water run off to storm drains the Cyclone keeps most water inside an enclosure on the bottom of the truck which allows it to recycle the water some 500-600 times for more washing. In drought-plagued Georgia, one contractor on a typical job (20,000-25,000 square yards of concrete) used about 250 gallons of water compared with 50,000 – 100,000 gallons for machines that don’t reuse water. The contractor stated he was recycling close to 95% of the water normally used.
Reference(s):   (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, June 1, 2008   ) Link(s)*:  http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=19418069
350     2008-06-06    California Bay Area Air Quality Board First to Levy GHG Emissions Fees.
California’s Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board has become the first in the country to levy fees on businesses for the greenhouse gases they emit. The nine county board has decided to collect a total of $1.1 million in annual fees from 2,500 businesses based on the tons of various greenhouse gases each emits. The fees will be applied to refineries, print shops and other businesses that already have air pollution permits restricting their amount of smog-forming gases. The fees will cover the costs of the District’s annual program to calculate and study local sources of GHG and consider ways to reduce them.
Reference(s):   (The Mercury News, May 22, 2008   ) Link(s)*:  http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_9343567?source=email
350     2008-06-06    Community Voluntary Gas Tax Used to Fund Bicycle Projects.
A small group of citizens in the town of Goshen Indiana are taxing themselves an extra $0.50 per gallon of gasoline and giving the money to groups working to break the nation’s oil addiction. Since April the Gas Tax Club of Goshen has already donated more than $400 to a local bicycle club that is providing bicycle-powered curbside recycling, second hand bike recycling, and advocating improved bike paths in the community. The voluntary tax organizers see the initiative as a way “to be more mindful of how much gas we do use and take that negative use of our oil addiction and put it into something that has a positive benefit.”
Reference(s):   (Tribtown.com, May 31, 2008   ) Link(s)*:  http://www.tribtown.com/news/gas_8216___article.html/tax_oil.html
350     2008-06-06    Sustainability “Benefit” Program Requires Changes to Articles of Incorporation.
A new sustainability initiative run by Philadelphia-based “B-Lab” (B stands for “benefit”) has now certified over 100 privately owned small and medium-sized businesses such as Method and Seventh Generation. These “B-Corporations” are certified based on a set of rigid environmental and social criteria using audits of company operating practices. After qualifying through the audit, a B-Corporation must then amend its articles of incorporation to require its board to take into account the interests not only of shareholders but also of “current and retired employees, suppliers, customers” and “the communities and society” in which it operates. Method co-founder Adam Lowry states that the governance change “makes legally binding what we already do as a moral and ethical imperative of business.”
Reference(s):   (The Financial Times, June 2, 2008   ) Link(s)*:  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/670acb38-2e78-11dd-ab55-000077b07658.html
349     2008-05-30    British Survey Teams to Create Climate Change Layers for Google Earth.
A new project, “Climate Change in our World,” is the product of a collaboration between Google, the UK Government, the Met Office Hadley Center, and the British Antarctic Survey. The project provides two new layers, or animations, available to all users of Google Earth. One animation uses world-leading climate science to show world temperatures throughout the next hundred years under medium projection of greenhouse gas emissions. Another animation shows the retreat of the Antarctic ice caps since the 1950s. Users can also access information on action that can be taken by individuals, communities, businesses, and governments to mitigate climate change. “This project shows people the reality of climate change,” states UK Environment Secretary Hilary Benn.
Reference(s):   (EurekAlert, May 19, 2008   ) Link(s)*:  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/bas-nvo051908.php
349     2008-05-30    Germany Bans Chemicals Linked to Honeybee Deaths.
The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has banned a family of pesticides blamed for the death of millions of honeybees. BVL has suspended the registration for eight pesticide seed treatment products used in rapeseed oil and sweet corn. The move followed reports from German beekeepers of massive bee die-off following application of Bayer’s clothianidin to the seeds of sweet corn planted a long the Rhine this spring.
Reference(s):   (The Guardian, May 23, 2008   ) Link(s)*:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/23/wildlife.endangeredspecies
349     2008-05-30    ZigBee Alliance Announces Certification of 19 Smart Energy Appliances.
The ZigBee Alliance is a “global ecosystem” of companies creating wireless solutions for use in energy management, commercial and consumer applications. It recently announced the official certification of 19 products using its Smart Energy public application profile. The products enable wireless communications between utility companies and common household devices such as smart thermostats and appliances, helping consumers manage consumption more precisely on a near real-time basis while choosing from a large global ecosystem of companies supplying interoperable products. Southern California Edison is relying on ZigBee Smart Energy products to connect homes to its industry-leading Edison Smart Connect program.
Reference(s):   (ZigBee Alliance, May 2008   ) Link(s)*:  http://www.zigbee.org/en/index.asp
348     2008-05-23    Well-Being Index Designed to be the Dow Jones of Health.
Gallup and Healthways have joined to create a Well-Being Index created through a survey of 1,000 Americans every day. The initiative is designed to be the Dow Jones of health, giving a daily measure of people’s well-being at the close of every day. Survey respondents are asked a series of questions associated with health and well-being across a range of income and conditions. The Index will be the largest collection of data related to health and well-being of large populations ever assembled.
Reference(s):   (Well-Being Index. 2008   ) Link(s)*:  http://www.well-beingindex.com

 

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Sustainable Practices 2007 is a weekly information service, which has been highlighting innovations in technology, social, and governance models, and sustainable best practices since 2000. It is compiled from publicly available sources and provided by David Schaller, 520-665-1767, daschaller@mac.com