What's New in P2?

Discovery could lead to greener drugs manufacture (05/16/2012)
Discoveries made during PhD studies by Victoria University graduate Emma Dangerfield could revolutionise the pharmaceutical industry, by allowing drugs to be made in a more environmentally friendly way. Dr Dangerfield's formula allows drug molecules to be made in five to eight steps, around half the usual number. Instead of petrol, her system uses water and ethanol, delivering environmental benefits and cutting the costs involved in generating and disposing of waste. It also uses renewable raw materials that come from plants, such as trees, corn and rice husks.
www.voxy.co.nz/health/discovery-could-lead-greener-drugs-manufacture/5/123549

How P2 can change the state of green manufacturing (05/16/2012)
When it comes to reducing the environmental impacts of a business, the concept of pollution prevention is one of the most fundamentally important ideas in the sustainability guidebook. The basic concept is simple: Pollution prevention (P2) aims to reduce or eliminate waste at the source by changing production processes, using non-toxic or less-toxic substances, implementing conservation techniques, and reusing materials instead of putting them in the waste stream.
www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/05/08/how-p2-change-state-green-manufacturing

Practically Green: Changing employee behavior via games (video) (05/16/2012)
Several years ago, Susan Hunt Stevens had an epiphany. "I had all these light bulbs go off in my head" about Web-based ways to help people reach their sustainability goals, the CEO of Practically Green said.
www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/05/09/practically-green-ceo-video-employee-engagement
-sustainability

One Degree Can Save More Than You Think (05/15/2012)
Smart thermostats have the ability to save homes and small businesses significant amounts of money. The secret is that people have to actually use the thermostats. Historically, smart thermostats have been vastly underutilized. Difficult to program and easy to override, the majority of smart thermostats were set to 'hold' and never revisited.
www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/one-degree-can-save-more-than-you-think/

Clean Water Services, Ostara to unveil $4.75M water-treatment plant (05/08/2012)
Washington County's Clean Water Services -- the utility that manages waste for more than 536,000 tri-county residents -- has joined forces for a second time with British Columbia's Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc. This time the pair built the world's largest municipal facility dedicated to making fertilizer from water waste.
www.sustainablebusinessoregon.com/articles/2012/05/clean-water-services-ostara-t
o.html

How to Distinguish the Green from the Greenwash (05/08/2012)
After years of making fun of dog owners in the city, I became one myself: a city dweller with a canine friend. Meet Pepper. Of course now I think having a dog in the city is the best thing since sliced bread, but I still feel somewhat ridiculous picking up after Pepper does her business on the sidewalk. Luckily we have those tidy little poop bags to help us out and keep the mess to a minimum. I realize that using an old newspaper is probably more eco friendly, and I may just switch to that, but as I was getting used to this dog walking concept, using the bags just seemed much less disgusting.
www.triplepundit.com/2012/05/distinguish-green-greenwash/

Leaner, faster, greener: Nike's new supply chain goals (05/08/2012)
Nike (NYSE: NKE) is making some big changes to how it manages its supply chain. As part of its sustainability report released Thursday, the retailer said it plans to launch a new manufacturing index in 2012 that will place factories' sustainable practices "on equal footing" with the traditional supply-chain measures of quality, cost and delivery. The index will now include environmental and labor-sustainability metrics, according to the report. And Nike will use that index to evaluate its suppliers.
www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/05/07/nike-sustainability-goals-supply-chain

Cruise-ship industry fighting EPA's cleaner-fuel rule (05/02/2012)
The heavy fuel that oceangoing vessels burn adds so much to air pollution hundreds of miles inland that the United States joined with Canada during the George W. Bush administration to ask the International Maritime Organization to create an emissions-control area along the coasts. Large ships would be required to reduce pollution dramatically in a zone 200 miles out to sea along all the coasts of North America, mainly by using cleaner fuel. The cargo-shipping industry supported the stringent emission reductions. The cruise-ship industry, however, wants an emissions-averaging plan that would allow it to burn the same heavy fuel it always has used in some areas, and it's lobbying Congress for help.
www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/05/01/147291/cruise-ship-industry-fighting.html

Studies Raise Questions about Pavement Sealers (05/02/2012)
Airborne emissions and stray dust from coal tar--based sealers, one of the two main types of products used to coat certain asphalt pavements, may be a more significant human health threat than previously thought, according to three new studies and a review published by U.S. government and university researchers.1,2,3,4 The findings build on previous research on coal tar--based sealers (mostly on environmental impacts via runoff and other pathways) and provide novel insights on pathways of human exposure and the magnitude and duration of the emissions. But "we're just at the very beginning as far as [understanding] human health effects," says Peter Van Metre, coauthor of all four publications and a research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%
2Fehp.120-a192a

49ers Stadium Groundbreaking Marks Start Of Many Green Initiatives (04/30/2012)
The San Francisco 49ers officially broke ground on their new Santa Clara stadium site Thursday evening, bringing up the first clods of ceremonial dirt of where their future stadium will one day stand. But project executive Jack Hill is looking to turn this plain old dirt into something more meaningful, as it is planned to be used for the the signature feature of the new venue, the 27,000-square-foot, energy-saving roof. The roof will be the first of its kind in the NFL, using a bountiful garden of native plants to help to soak up rainwater and provide insulation for the tower of luxury suites underneath it. CEO Jed York envisions something similar to the Green Monster at Boston's Fenway Park: "There aren't that many iconic ideas in football stadiums," York said. "It symbolizes what we're doing in that it combines energy efficiency and technology and the fan
sbn.to/I8GDg3

Soldier Field Is One Of The Greenest Stadiums On The Planet (04/30/2012)
With all eyes on the NFL draft, local media seem to have missed the biggest on-the-field Bears-related news this week. And we really mean "THE field." The grass isn't the only thing that's green at the Bears' home field. The Chicago Park District announced that Soldier Field has become the first NFL stadium to earn LEED status for an existing building (LEED-EB). The prestigious designation awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council gives Soldier Field status as one of the greenest stadiums on the planet.
bit.ly/IvLB9w

Gov. Kitzhaber signs OR Green Chemistry Executive Order (04/27/2012)
Gov. John Kitzhaber signed an executive order today designed to boost the prospects for "green chemistry" in Oregon, including requirements to have state agencies favor the least-toxic products in purchasing. The order -- backed by the Oregon Environmental Council and green chemistry leaders in business and academia -- requires state agencies to begin a pilot program for purchasing less toxic cleaning products by the end of this year. It also calls for the Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Administrative Services to complete a plan by July 1, 2013, for revising state purchasing guidelines on other products, such as electronics, furniture and building materials. The order does not specify a timeline for implementing the new guidelines.
bit.ly/IpWLfO

Green Data Centers: Is It Worth Running a "Losing" Race? (04/26/2012)
The "greening" of IT has become a focal point of public and industry attention, debate and innovation given the increasingly rapid advent of digitally-connected, post-industrial societies, or pockets of society in nations around the world. At the heart of this emerging, network-centric human environment are data centers, which are assuming aspects of public utilities due to the voracious demand for data and information.
www.triplepundit.com/2012/04/green-data-centers-worth-running-losing-race/

How a holistic view of buildings can cut energy use and costs (04/26/2012)
Not only are energy-efficient buildings cheaper to run, but they also can be healthier -- and can even help companies attract employees and shareholders. That was the message from green building experts at a recent sustainability conference in New York. "A green building is an efficient building," said Lisa Shpritz, senior vice president and operations executive for Bank of America. "It is a healthy and efficient place to work."
www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/04/25/simple-ways-make-buildings-greener-cheaper

Snake oil energy salesmen & green bamboozlers (04/26/2012)
When a friend of mine who follows clean power and greentech closely sent me Bloomberg's story on Rocketjet, I burst out laughing. We have an unspoken contest over who can send each other the worst scams in the energy and green industries. Rocketjet's hopes for perhaps crowd-funding its water atomic engine that will kick off a "Free Energy Era" is one of the more obvious ones -- enough to draw the attention of the often straight-laced Bloomberg, and also to become a mini-symbol of all that could go wrong with the new crowd-funding act.
gigaom.com/cleantech/snake-oil-energy-salesmen-green-bamboozlers/

Bar Codes Apps Allow Socially Conscious Consumers To Make Informed Choices (04/25/2012)
Consumers are becoming more socially conscious. A Nielsen survey released in March found that 46 percent of global consumers are willing to pay extra for products and services from companies that have implemented sustainability programs. Nielsen defines those consumers as socially-conscious consumers. The survey found that 76 percent of socially conscious respondents said they look for opinion and information posted online by other consumers, and 59 percent said they are more likely to use social media to help make purchase decisions. That is good news for OpenLabel, a smart phone app that allows users to scan a bar code and get crowd-sourced information. At present OpenLabel is in Beta and only available for iPhone users, but Android will follow.
http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/04/bar-codes-apps-allow-socially-conscious-cons
umers-make-informed-choices/

Can Recycling Be Bad for the Environment? (04/25/2012)
It could be argued that the U.S. environmental movement started with recycling. For old-school environmentalists, recycling is such an integral part of the movement that it's difficult to separate the two. And in those early days, back  in the 1980s, the cause was noble and pure: Why throw away products that could be new again? Why not turn trash into raw materials?
www.forbes.com/sites/amywestervelt/2012/04/25/can-recycling-be-bad-for-the-envir
onment/

Egg shells hatch into sophisticated uses (04/24/2012)
A university research project in the UK is looking at useful ways to recycle egg shells, with the potential of saving millions of dollars a year from an item that is usually disposed of in landfills. The projected uses of recycled egg shells include applications in biomedicine and the creation of sustainable packaging.
www.voxy.co.nz/lifestyle/egg-shells-hatch-sophisticated-uses/5/121454

EPA Proposes Rule to Require Electronic Reporting for Chemical Information (04/24/2012)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced a proposed rule to require electronic reporting for certain information submitted to the agency under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).The action is an important milestone in the agency's effort to increase transparency and public access to chemical information in order to help Americans protect their health and environment. Electronic reporting will increase the speed with which EPA can make information publicly available, increase accuracy, and provide the public with quick and easier access to chemical information.
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/98aa9881faa5fdfc852579df004e9af3?Open
Document

Intel still tops on EPA's 'green power' list (04/24/2012)
Intel Corp. (INTC) once again is No. 1 on the Environmental Protection Agency's "green power" list, which ranks organizations based on their use of electricity from renewable resources such as solar, wind and low-impact hydropower. About 88 percent of Intel's electricity comes from green power. The company has ranked No. 1 on EPA's list since 2008.
www.sustainablebusinessoregon.com/articles/2012/04/intel-still-tops-on-epas-gree
n.html

Leather trash turns to medical treasure (04/24/2012)
A protein with growing importance in medical applications can be recovered from leather tanning waste and tailor-made for different purposes using a process that reduces waste and provides a needed product. A versatile and potentially valuable natural material could be easily collected from the abundant waste produced when leather is made from animal hides, according to researchers from Spain who explain their novel process in the journal Green Chemistry. Leather processing generates large amounts of remnant hides that are generally thrown away. But this solid waste is rich in a valuable and medically useful protein called collagen. This new method to recycle or reuse the waste alleviates the dumping, produces a necessary product and increases sustainable manufacturing.
www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/2012/01/2012-0220-collagen-from-l
eather-waste

Military base in Boise going green (04/24/2012)
Members of the Idaho Army and Air National Guard in Boise are ramping up efforts to conserve energy and minimize their environmental impact, yielding accolades and significant savings. Investment in green technology and large-scale recycling in recent years at the Gowen Field base have kept thousands of tons of paper, plastic, metal and wood out of landfills and earned the base the Air National Guard Pollution Prevention Award in 2010.
www.kivitv.com/news/local/148679885.html

Puget Sound can't cure itself (04/24/2012)
Our eyes deceive us on beautiful sunny days. Beneath its glittering surface, Puget Sound is sick. In fact, in some places it is dying. The fact is the entire Puget Sound shoreline from Everett to Tacoma is closed to commercial shellfish harvest because of pollution. Literally hundreds of tons of toxic organic chemicals and metals end up in Puget Sound each year from the cars we drive, the roofs on our houses, wood treatments, wood burning, boat paint, household pesticide use, and other air emissions.
www.heraldnet.com/article/20120421/OPINION03/704229965

Weaverville's Thermo Fisher cutting out waste sent to landfill (04/24/2012)
Tons of materials arrive annually at the Thermo Fisher Scientific plant in Weaverville, where the 558 workers turn sheet metal, glass, wiring and other components into special ultracold freezers for research laboratories to store specimens at temperatures as low as minus 150 degrees Centigrade. But like many industries, Thermo Fisher doesn't see any sense in paying to haul tons of waste out of the plant to the local landfill.
www.citizen-times.com/article/20120422/BUSINESS/304220015/Weaverville-s-Thermo-F
isher-cutting-out-waste-sent-landfill

BASF gives Seattle Mariners green boost to launch 'Sustainable Saturdays' at Safeco Field (04/22/2012)
On April 21 - Earth Day Weekend - one of the greenest clubs in major league baseball teams up with BASF, The Chemical Company, to inspire its fans to follow its lead and start striking out landfills at home. Well on their way to batting 1.000 in their zero-waste program, the Seattle Mariners currently divert more than 80 percent of their waste stream away from landfills into composting and recycling centers.
seattle.mariners.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120417&content_id=28894240&vkey=
pr_sea&c_id=sea

For Earth Day, NASCAR releases (04/19/2012)
NASCAR on Thursday issued a 'White Paper' detailing the various programs that have made NASCAR a leader in green initiatives across all sports. The data in "The Sports Leader in Sustainability" illustrates the steps NASCAR has taken in educating fans, reducing the sport's environmental impact, and validating green technologies -- both on and off the track.
www.nascar.com/news/120419/nascar-earth-day-white-paper-on-green-initiatives/

Cash vs. Culture: Do Utilities Need a Moneyball Approach to Analytics (04/17/2012)
As smart grid investments are put in place, from advanced metering to distribution automation, analytics are right there with them to help make sense of the increasing amounts of data. Investing in enterprise analytics will be a $1.5 billion industry for utilities in 2012 according to GTM Research, and yet there are substantial barriers that remain for small and large players, according to a new survey from SAS.
www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/cash-vs.-culture-do-utilities-need-a-moneyb
all-approach-to-analytics1/

Developer first in state to plead guilty over stormwater pollution (04/17/2012)
Regulators first saw the muddy runoff washing into a nearby stream after the developer and his team cleared portions of the 52-acre site in Pierce County. Given that stormwater pollution is among the greatest threats to Puget Sound, the state Department of Ecology issued warning letters. Officials spoke repeatedly with the contractor and his employees. When it didn't stop, authorities ordered work halted.
seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017969666_stormwaterarrest13m.html

Facebook, eBay win awards for data center efficiency (04/17/2012)
Facebook and eBay are among the winners of this year's Green Enterprise IT Awards, which the Uptime Institute doles out for advancements in the world of energy-efficient data centers. Dell and eBay took home the award for "Modular Data Center Deployment" for its Project Mercury data center in downtown Phoenix. That data center, which I profiled earlier this month, makes use of standardized racks of gear on the floor and of high-powered but high-efficiency data center modules on the roof. It currently has two Dell modules and two HP units in place, but is looking to add seven more as its computing needs ramp up. Because they're so efficient, the entire facility's Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating, which gauges the percentage of power used for tasks other than computing, falls with each new module.
gigaom.com/cloud/facebook-ebay-win-awards-for-data-center-efficiency/

Nanocrystal-Coated Fibers Might Reduce Wasted Energy (04/17/2012)
Researchers are developing a technique that uses nanotechnology to harvest energy from hot pipes or engine components to potentially recover energy wasted in factories, power plants and cars. "The ugly truth is that 58 percent of the energy generated in the United States is wasted as heat," said Yue Wu, a Purdue University assistant professor of chemical engineering. "If we could get just 10 percent back that would allow us to reduce energy consumption and power plant emissions considerably."
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120417143857.htm

IT Industry Gets a D+ for Green Policy, Labor Practices (12/20/2011)
With the exception of Ricoh, Intel and Motorola Mobility, the IT industry earns dismal grades when it comes to sustainability and social practices, averaging about a D+, Oekom Research AG says in a new report. Office equipment maker Ricoh of Japan and chip producer Intel in the U.S. each earned a B+, the highest grade, and cell phone manufacturer Motorola Mobility earned a B, in Oekom's analysis.
www.greenbiz.com/news/2011/12/19/it-industry-gets-d-green-policy-labor-practices

May 15-17, 2012
REGISTER NOW: WSPPN Training and Conference in Sacramento (Sacramento, CA)


May 17 - 19, 2012
Sustainable Cosmetics Summit (New York, NY)


June 8, 2012
Climate Solutions 4th Annual Breakfast (Seattle, WA)


June 13, 2012
Sustainable Industries Economic Forum (Portland, OR)


June 13 - 14, 2012
Sustainable Industries Economic Forum: Portland, Seattle (Portland, OR/Seattle, WA)


June 15, 2012
SYMPOSIUM: Green Chemistry, Safer Alternatives and Work (Portland, OR)


June 25 - 28, 2012
2012 Northwest Hazardous Materials Management Conference (Spokane, WA)


September 5 - 7, 2012
Green Sports Alliance Summit (Seattle, WA)


September 5 - 7, 2012
Green Sports Alliance Summit (Seattle, WA)