International Society for Industrial Ecology In the News

Clarkson joins in on DANC project, Watertown Daily Times by Nancy Madsen

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:40:29 GMT

Original Article here.

Clarkson University students are helping the Development Authority of the North Country choose between growing tomatoes or harvesting algae with heat from the methane gas-to-energy generators at the solid waste management facility.

Eight undergraduate and masters students in an industrial ecology class during the fall evaluated the viability of using the waste heat to grow tomatoes and algae.

"We try at Clarkson to give students real engineering projects, even as undergraduates, and expect they can do it and work through the real constraints," said Susan E. Powers, a professor in the civil and environmental engineering department who taught the class.

The facility at the landfill in Rodman has three generators that produce 4.8 megawatts of electricity. When a fourth is added, the site will produce 6.4 megawatts of electricity with a byproduct of 23.84 million British thermal units of waste heat energy per hour.

"It was a very preliminary analysis, but both options, from an engineering standpoint, appear to be economically viable," she said.

Algae growth has the advantages of using the heat year-round and having a ready market for the end product, biodiesel production. A tomato greenhouse would only use the waste heat during winter and it would be harder to find an end market.

The students presented their findings to DANC staff on Dec. 1. Creating a business plan, engineering and laboratory pilot facilities would be the next step in the research process, Ms. Powers said. The next step is finding sources to fund those studies.

DANC Chief Executive Officer James W. Wright said those could be a combination of the authority's budget and outside sources.

The two entities joined forces on the project through Carrie A. Tuttle, engineer for DANC and environmental studies masters student at Clarkson.

"This is the first of what I hope will be many examples of the authority working with educational resources in the region," Mr. Wright said. "It brings greater opportunities for the region and fits into our overarching economic development mission."

DANC is pursuing ways to help with workforce development in the region, he said.

"There are a number of activities where the educational resources of the region have advantages that not only the authority, but other organizations, can utilize," Mr. Wright said.

DANC has sought ways to use the waste heat since before the three generators went online in late 2008.

"DANC is to be commended for its commitment to furthering its sustainability efforts," Clarkson President Anthony G. Collins said in a press release.

"Clarkson is excited to have the opportunity to work with this state-of-the-art facility, which shows how sustainability can complement economic development in the north country."

"Making the cut for 10:10: Adnams brewery" Guardian UK by Felicity Carus

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:52:04 GMT

Original Article Here.

It takes 8 pints of water on average to make one pint of beer. That's just one reason why brewing is an carbon-intensive process. But the mid-sized Suffolk brewery Adnams is trying to make its own operations less energy guzzling in the next year. Along with nearly 2,000 other businesses and over 50,000 individuals it has joined the 10:10 climate change campaign, which involves people and organisations pledging to cut their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

Adnams has already made headway. The water footprint of its beer is now down to 3.2 pints and it has made efforts to cut its carbon emissions, with innovations such as a warehouse that stores beer at an optimum temperature of about 11C without the need for heating or refrigeration and energy efficient equipment that recycles 90% of the heat used in the beer-making process. Adnams has reduced the energy used to produce each barrel of beer from 51.4kWh in 2007 to 46.3kWh in 2008. Total carbon emissions for the business in 2008 were 4,000 tonnes.

The company expects increases in energy prices and "polluter-pays" policies, which is driving it to "green" the business and its products – such as its carbon-neutral East Green beer.

It is planning an "industrial ecology" project which will use waste products from the brewing process, such as spent grain, to produce methane that could in turn produce electricity. From next year the brewer will also work with MBA students at the University of East Anglia, who will help monitor its emissions so that the company can report carbon emissions alongside its financial results.

"We are proud of our carbon reduction effort throughout the past few years at Adnams," says the managing director, Andy Wood. "But we are certainly not resting on our laurels."

Key target area for reductions in 2010

Adnams says it has some work to do in its hotels and Cellar & Kitchen stores. The next big challenge will then be to improve the energy efficiency of its pubs.

Area of most concern

Water is a key area. It takes 3.2 pints of water to make every pint of Adnams beer – this is better than the industry average of 8, but the company plans to reduce it further.
Lee has a simple immediate solution: use less packaging overall.

"Are booming bioplastics here to stay?" CNN News by Nicolai Hartvig

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:42:08 GMT

Original Article Here.

(CNN) -- As world leaders and their delegates trod the carpet thin at the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen last week, one environmental solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was literally under their feet.

The 215,000-square-feet carpet at the Bella Center that hosted most of the U.N.'s official events was made using Ingeo, a bio-fibre derived from corn sugars.

According to French manufacturer Sommer Needlepunch and Natureworks LLC, the provider of Ingeo, in shunning oil-based products the carpet saved the emissions equivalent of driving an average car 68,869 miles (110,834 kilometers).

It is one small step in a bioplastics and biofibers industry that is fast developing new alternatives to oil-based polymers and turning them into everything from food packaging to fashion outfits, cell phone casings and medical implants that dissolve inside the body.

Bioplastics are not new.

Henry Ford theatrically swung an ax to show the dent resistance of soy-based car doors at Ford in 1940, when the infant science was called "chemurgy."

So far, bioplastics only comprise an estimated 0.20 percent to 0.25 percent of total plastics use. But several forecasts predict a boom for the once-brittle plastics that are now beginning to compete with traditional PET and polystyrene.

A recent University of Utrecht study forecast that up to 90 percent of plastics could technically become bio-based in the long term and that production could grow by on average 37 percent annually until 2013.

Ceresana Research predicts the largest growth rates in electronics and auto industries. The Freedonia Group, an industrial research company, sees demand growing fastest in the Asia-Pacific region, and some predict the U.S. market to reach $10 billion a year by 2020, a tenfold increase from 2007.

The most recent scientific breakthrough came from researchers at South Korea's pioneering Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

They used a metabolically engineered strain of E. Coli bacteria to produce bioplastic polymers through single-stage fermentation, potentially cutting the cost of the usually expensive process by about 40 percent when the new science is market ready within about two years, according to Professor Sangyup Lee, who led the team of scientists.

"We're basically torturing E.Coli but in a way that will benefit human beings and environments," Lee told CNN.com.

Such achievements take time, Lee said, estimating that the latest advance took the equivalent of 10 people working for five years. But metabolic engineering has created new pathways that allow the science to be broadly used.

"We produce buildings blocks for the existing chemical industries so they don't get frustrated," Lee said.

Restricted by the flow of oil

The bioplastics market has swayed to the price of oil.

"The general rule of thumb, if oil gets above $70-$80 a barrel, it gets very easy to compete on a price basis," said Steve Davies, director of Communications and Public Affairs at Natureworks, which owns the world's largest bioplastics facility.

U.S. company Metabolix recently launched a plant in Iowa to produce more than 50,000 tons per year of its new niche biopolymer Mirel, in a joint venture with agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland. It is pricing Mirel at a premium fit for a game-changer, Dr. Oliver Peoples, Metabolix chief scientific officer and vice president of research, told CNN.

"There's been a lot of overpromising and underdelivering," Peoples said.

"The reality is that anyone who tells you we're going to make this bioplastic for 30 cents per pound based on fermentation technology or cellular sugars is, basically, completely conning you. We're not betting that petroleum will be $200 barrel."

The menu of ingredients in the biomass used to make the plastics is growing -- corn, wheat, potatoes, tapioca, soy, sugarcane and wood are in the production cycle.

Metabolix is exploring switchgrass, industrial oil seed and has been trialing tobacco crops. Algae is favored for its high yield and oil giant Exxon Mobil this year bought into its potential to produce 2,000 gallons of fuel per acre. That's almost 10 times as much as corn, which remains the cheapest and most widely used feedstock for biomass.

Both Natureworks and Metabolix companies see the future in cellulosics such as grasses and non-edible plant parts.

"Crops like sugar cane and switchgrass have the potential to grow in acres where crops can't be grown or those grown are of marginal value," Peoples said.

"It really allows you to produce bio-based, bio-degradeable materials from agriculture without impacting food."

Davies also champions cellulosics: "If you look at our 140,000 tons at full capacity, we would use less than a tenth of the percent of the U.S. corn. We'll get big by getting more competitive in pricing, which means moving to cellulosics."

Persuading critics

Even at competitive cost, bioplastics companies must persuade critics and those confused about how environmentally friendly the different kinds of bio-plastics really are.

"People don't like to deal with complexity. And the answers to all these questions is often: 'it depends'," Reid Lifset, an associate research scholar at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Industrial Ecology, told CNN.

Natureworks' PLAs can be chemically composted into lactic acid and then produce virgin polymer for new products -- yet the composting is still on a post-industrial scale and not widely available for ordinary households.

Metabolix produces a different type, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), which Peoples said will readily bio-degrade in home composting and even in cold oceans.

Lack of composting facilities could push bioplastics into landfills, where certain types would release more damaging methane than traditional PET plastics. Worries that bio-plastics could contaminate the PET recycling stream has some retailers hesitating.

The impact also depends on other difficult variables, including each product's lifespan.

Market growth, stricter government standards for plastics and limits on land filling are encouraging more research into improvements and solutions, but bio-plastics will not be a miracle cure in an "either-or" scenario with oil-based plastics, producers and experts say.

"PET recycling is already very good. Our attitude is that Mirel should be used where it actually makes good sense and not to replace something where there already is a good system," said Peoples.

Said Davies: "Bio-plastics can go somewhere at the end of their life, there are many exciting options for the future,"

"Infrastructure will need to broaden to realize that, but that needn't be an impediment for people to use the plastics today."

Call for Papers: Sustainable Communities with - not despite - Industry: Industrial Symbiosis & Eco-industrial Development / Networking

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:29:15 GMT

Call for Papers: Sustainable Communities with - not despite - Industry: Industrial Symbiosis & Eco-industrial Development / Networking

The 16th Annual
International Sustainable Development Research Conference
Hong Kong, 30 May – 1 June, 2010
www.kadinst.hku.hk/sdconf10/indexin.html

“A New Agenda for Global Governance”

Track: Sustainable communities with - not despite - industry: industrial symbiosis & eco-industrial development / networking

Chaired by:
Abhishek Agarwal, Aberdeen Business School, The Robert Gordon University, UK: a.agarwal@rgu.ac.uk
Ms Tracy Casavant, President, Eco-Industrial Solutions, Canada: tracy@ecoindustrial.ca
Professor Yong Un Ban, Chungbuk National University, Korea: byubyu@cbu.ac.kr
Professor Geng Yong, Chair Professor on Circular Economy and Industrial Ecology, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China: gengyong@iae.ac.cn

Overview

The last two decades have seen an ever increasing interest in Industrial Symbiosis (IS) / Eco-industrial Development (EID) / Eco-industrial Networking (EIN) by policy makers, industry leaders and academics alike. This has led to the implementation of IS programmes and development of eco-industrial parks / networks in many countries.

In attempting to encourage the adoption of industrial ecology (IE) principles such planned initiatives by Government have been supported by the use of a range of ‘new’ environmental policy instruments, with many reported corporate and environmental success stories to date. In addition to government policy and programmes, multi-stakeholder efforts have played a key role in the development of IS/EID/EIN initiatives. This provides a rich area of research, especially in examining the performance of such policy instruments, cross-sectoral partnerships and governance around IS/EID/EIN initiatives, and associated corporate strategies and programmes utilised by the international business community in contributing to broader Sustainable Development aspirations.

This Track seeks to attract high quality papers which aim to be both critical and reflective of recent IS/EID/EIN projects and policy initiatives around the globe. This is important for those of us who are keen to see IE/IS as a meaningful concept in the pursuit of sustainability rather than merely a public relations exercise for Government, Facilitators and Corporate Actors. Both theoretical and empirical papers are welcome, either in full or developmental form, in the following areas:
• Government Policy and Programmes to promote IS/EID/EIN:
- The Performance of New Environmental Policy Instruments e.g. Regulation, Market-based Instruments, and Voluntary Codes of Conduct
- Government involvement in promoting IS/EID/EIN initiatives
- Government-supported education and outreach
- Development of Performance Evaluation Indicators for Eco-industrial Parks/Networks
• Regional multi-stakeholder efforts to promote industrial sustainability
- Cross-sectoral partnerships and governance for IS/EID/EIN
- Regional government and other stakeholders’ role in the development of IS/EID/EIN initiatives
- Role of facilitators in IS/EID/EIN initiatives and success of the facilitation process
- Planning and development of eco-industrial parks / networks; land use planning
- Transformation of existing industrial parks into eco-industrial parks
- Transferability of IS/EID/EIN successful practices from one context (place) to another
• Cases from industry sectors / corporate actors
- IS/EID/EIN success/failure (case studies)
- The impact of IS/EID/EIN initiatives on Corporate / Environmental Performance and regional sustainability
- Reducing ecological / carbon / water footprint using IS/EID/EIN
• Tools and Techniques of IE/IS e.g. internet based resource / by-products matching system
• Evaluation tools and techniques for IS/EID/EIN projects, including environmental impact assessment and life cycle assessment

When submitting your abstract, please categorise it as TRACK “Sustainable communities with - not despite - industry: industrial symbiosis & eco-industrial development / networking” and THEME "Industrial symbiosis, eco-industrial parks and eco-industrial networking and regional sustainability"

Detailed information and link about how to submit an abstract is available at:
http://www.kadinst.hku.hk/sdconf10/abstract_submission.html

In addition to submitting abstract online, please send a copy of abstract by email to a.agarwal@rgu.ac.uk

Deadline for submitting abstracts: December 31, 2009

For further information please contact:
Abhishek Agarwal, Email: a.agarwal@rgu.ac.uk

The Ecology of Recycling

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:17:01 GMT

Click here for full article

While not on the front line  of climate solutions, recycling of waste materials, wastewater, and wasted energy is a locally available and highly desirable means of reducing greenhouse gases. One potent greenhouse gas, the methane emitted from landfills and wastewater, accounts for about 90 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions from the entire waste sector. That amount is 18 per cent of human-caused methane emissions globally and about three per cent of total greenhouse gases, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.¹ Diverting waste bound for landfills and putting it to good use, then, is an obvious and proven means for conserving land and resources, as we have known for a long time; we can now add the knowledge from numerous studies that these practices also bolster climate protection.

This article draws on examples from around the world to describe the climate effects of 1) household recycling and reuse, 2) the cyclic resource flows across clusters of companies known as “industrial symbiosis”, and 3) far reaching policy proposals for national scale resource use. It draws lessons from the system’s perspective provided by industrial ecology, a new field resolutely focused on the flows of material, energy, and water through systems at different scales, from products to factories to countries and regions.

How does resource reuse affect climate? Cycling energy through cogeneration, reuse of agricultural wastes, or recovery of energy-intensive materials such as aluminium, reduces greenhouse gases. Since most commercial energy is produced from burning fossil fuels, the power generation sector emits more greenhouse gases than any other industrial sector. Cycling materials for use in other production processes reduces the lifecycle impacts, when compared with virgin materials that must be extracted from the earth and then transformed and transported through numerous stages. Recovered resources free up land and capital for other opportunities that would have been required for the equivalent amount of goods to be made from virgin resources. Cycling water means using it more than once, a critical and increasingly urgent practice where water is scarce owing to expected changes in precipitation patterns brought on by climate change. To capture these concepts, industrial ecologists use the term “embedded utility”: the total amount of the water, energy, and materials used for all different lifecycle stages of a product from beginning to end.² Embedded utility is central to industrial ecology: if a product is landfilled, these resources are lost.

Household Waste and Recycling
Study after study in the last five years from Brazil to Canada and from Europe to Asia affirms the ability to quantify greenhouse gas emissions from household waste on a lifecycle basis. Each of these lifecycle studies finds a clear, positive impact of recycling and reuse on reducing greenhouse gasses, principally because of recapturing, rather than discarding, the embedded energy, water, and materials used to make the products in the first place. These studies have included “upstream” (production stage) impacts, such as the effect of replacing virgin materials with recycled ones, as well as “downstream” (waste management) impacts that result from alternative strategies such as landfilling, incineration, composting and recycling. The sum of upstream and downstream amount to a dual benefit from recycling. Even when the emissions from collection trucks and additional transport to recycling facilities are included, greenhouse gas savings prevail.

The scale and mechanism of greenhouse gas reductions for a particular location, however, depend on the specific materials involved, the extent of recovery, the availability of markets, and the mix of fuels avoided through recycling of resources. Recycling metals carries a large energy benefit, while paper recycling often contributes to forest carbon sequestration benefits. Replacing power generated by oil or coal, two carbon-intensive fuel sources, adds more greenhouse gas benefits to recycling than replacing power generated from renewables or hydro energy. Thus, there are no universal claims, but significant regional differences occur when measuring comparative climate impacts from waste recycling and disposal.

There are now many tools to calculate greenhouse gas impacts of different solid waste management options and materials. One example is the Environmental Benefits Calculator of the Northeast Recycling Council in the United Sates, which estimates the environmental benefits of a selected study area based on the tonnages of materials that are source reduced, reused, recycled, landfilled, or incinerated. The Calculator, a Microsoft Excel-based tool, incorporates findings from several lifecycle studies based on “typical” facilities and operating characteristics in the United States.3 The Brazil study measured in detail the greenhouse gas impacts of individual materials, including aluminium, plastic, paper, steel and glass.⁴With some exceptions for mixed or contaminated materials that are difficult to categorize or recycle, a broad array of policy programmes is available to reduce climate-related impacts of waste management. Some of the most successful programmes include recycling pick-up from homes or drop-off at district centres; requiring residents who generate a lot of waste to pay more than those who generate less (“pay as you throw”); instituting policies that originated in Europe and are diffusing quickly in Asia that require producers of goods to play a larger role in taking back products (extended producer responsibility); and assessing fees and taxes on categories of goods such as tyres or batteries, or on landfill use overall.

Industrial Symbiosis
While geographic concentrations of industry are often heavy generators of greenhouse gases associated with global climate change, impacts can be modulated through collaborative approaches. Emerging from industrial ecology is the notion of “industrial symbiosis”: where a cluster of geographically proximate companies exchange material by-products, energy, and water in a mutually beneficial manner, such that waste from one industrial process becomes the feedstock for another. Through such systems, transportation costs and emissions are minimized and embedded utility is conserved, enabling greenhouse gas emissions to be greatly reduced at the industrial scale.

A simple but prevalent reuse of an industrial by-product is fly ash from coal plants used to make concrete. A British expert estimated that there were 600 million tonnes of coal ash worldwide in 2000.⁵ For each tonne of fly ash that is substituted for Portland cement to make concrete, the dual benefit is realized: not only is a tonne of material being diverted from landfill downstream, but assuming reasonable transportation distances, close to one tonne of carbon dioxide is also avoided upstream.⁶ Still, using the United States as an example, over 50 per cent of coal fly ash winds up in landfills.⁷

At the level of an industrial district, there are numerous cases of multi-firm exchanges of process by-products. The most famous of these includes over 20 exchanges across eight member companies and many other ancillary operations in Kalundborg, Denmark. The primary partners in Kalundborg include an oil refinery, a power station, a gypsum board facility, a pharmaceutical plant, and an enzyme manufacturer. They share ground water, surface water, wastewater, steam, and fuel, and also exchange a variety of by-products such as coal ash and synthetic gypsum that become feedstock in other processes.⁸An even larger example is in Tianjin, China where over 80 exchanges of materials, energy, and water across companies have been identified at the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA), which hosts some 60 international Fortune 500 companies.⁹ Preliminary analysis at TEDA indicates substantial greenhouse gas reduction from process energy recovery and energy cascading (such as condensate recycling), significant water reuse, and savings in transport, given the shorter distances these materials travel in and around a region rather than being shipped in from more distant areas. Staff of the National Industrial Symbiosis Program (NISP) funded by the British Government routinely use publicly available conversion factors to assess the greenhouse gas impacts of every industrial exchange they broker across parties. In the last four years, NISP reports having diverted over five million tonnes of waste from landfill, saved nearly eight million tonnes of virgin material from use in the United Kingdom, while eliminating over five million tonnes of carbon emissions throughout its industrial network.¹⁰Far-Reaching National Policy Proposals
Given the benefits to the climate of source reduction, reuse, and recycling over other waste options, it is not surprising that some Governments have been interested in implementing these practices on a national basis. Germany and Japan are credited with the earliest legislation to encourage more recycling-oriented societies. In 1994, Germany passed the “Act for Promoting Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management and Ensuring Environmentally Compatible Waste Disposal” with the explicit goal of conserving natural resources and providing for sound waste disposal.11 In 2000, Japan enacted the “Basic Act for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society” and in 2003, established the “Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society”, seeking reductions in waste disposal and increases in jobs in businesses related to promoting recycling and the sound material-cycle society. Japan has taken this logic to the international community through its “3R Initiative” to urge waste policy based on the 3Rs of “reduce, reuse, recycle” that was agreed to at the G8 Summit of 2004.

Most recently, China enacted, as of 1 January 2009, “The Circular Economy Promotion Law” a progressive and far-reaching policy based on the need to balance China’s rapid economic growth with the realities of a deteriorating environment. The “circular economy” is defined comprehensively in the law referring to the reduction, reuse and recycling of resources during the processes of production, circulation and consumption.

Discussion
It is important to keep in perspective that while climate-related impacts of waste management are significant, many other waste-related issues must also be addressed, from air pollution, to water quality at waste management sites, to land degradation and resource scarcity. In the least developed countries where waste scavenging is prevalent, often in highly organized pods of the informal economy, numerous social, economic, and public health issues accompany waste management decision-making. Still, climate impacts in the waste sector are projected to rise by another 20 per cent by 2030, according to a study by McKinsey & Company. On the reduction side, a full 60 per cent of the potential to abate these increases could be achieved through recycling.¹³Historically, increases in waste generation have had a clear statistical relationship with gross domestic product per capita: the stronger the economy, the more waste. Yet some countries have successfully decoupled economic growth from waste. Even with more income, less landfilling means more source reduction, reuse, and recycling which, in turn, reduces climate impact. Early studies about “green jobs” indicate that recycling and composting create much more employment than disposal, providing opportunities for training, employment, and new investment in next-generation waste technologies. Cascading benefits from technology and innovation for conserving and reusing materials, water, and energy are growing and are likely to make an enormous difference in decreasing climate impacts from waste.

Notes

1 Bogner, J.E., 2007. “Mitigation of global greenhouse gas emissions from waste: conclusions and strategies from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report. Working Group III (Mitigation)” Waste Management & Research, 26 (1), pp 11-32.
2 Graedel, T. E and Allenby,B. Industrial Ecology, 2nd Edition: (New Jersey, Prentice Hall, 2002)
3 See: http://www.nerc.org/documents/environmental_benefits_calculator.html#whatinfo
4 Pimenteira, C., 2004, “Energy conservation and CO2 emission reductions due to recycling in Brazil”, Waste Management, 24 (9), pp 889-897.
5 Tenenbaum, D.J., 2007. “Recycling: Building on Fly Ash Waste”, Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 115, no. 1, Jan 01.
For comparison, 600 million tons is approximately twice the amount of municipal solid waste generated in the US every year according to US EPA.
6 O’Brien, K. et al, 2009, “Case Study Reducing GHG Emissions from the Concrete Industry”, The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment; Springer.
7 American Coal Ash Association, 2008, 2007 Coal Combustion Product (CCP) Production & Use Survey Results (Revised), September 2009.
8 Symbiosis Institute, Kalundborg, Denmark, www.symbiosis.dk
9 Shi, H. and M. Chertow, 2009. “Developing Country Experience in Eco-Industrial Parks: a Case Study of the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area in China.” Working paper. Yale Center for Industrial Ecology.
10 National Industrial Symbiosis Programme, http://www.nisp.org.uk/
11 “Kreislaufwirtschafts–und Abfallgesetz–KrW-/AbfG.” Federal Law Gazette (BGBl) I 1994, 2705
12 The Basic Act for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society, Act No.110 of 2000, Japan. This is sometimes translated into English as the “Recycling-Based Society.”
13 McKinsey & Company, 2009, Pathways to a Low-Carbon Economy.

Adopt new tech to control carbon emissions, firms told, Times of India

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:36:06 GMT

Click here for full article.

MYSORE: Concerned over the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board chairman A
Sadashivaiah on Thursday called upon industrialists to reduce carbon di-oxide emissions by adopting latest technologies.

Speaking after inaugurating an awareness programme on the industrial ecology and eco-industrial networking, organized as part of the National Pollution Prevention Day, he said solid wastes from industries have to be managed well to contain the emissions and thwart dangers of climate change.

The days of pipeline treatment for industrial waste are over and now, industries across the globe are looking for efficient use of resources and disposal of the waste, which is unaffordable to treat if not eliminated at the source level. The concept of industrial ecology takes a systematic approach in understanding the sustainability of materials, energy and waste flows within the system. It offers guidelines for improving efficiency and effectiveness of resource management thus addressing the environmental concerns, Sadashivaiah added.

It is exactly 25 years since the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, which shook the world. The day is obseved to mark its anniversary.

Sadashivaiah claimed that Najangud is one of the developed industrial towns in Karnataka, which has sugar, distilleries, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, electronics, paper and pulp, textiles, instant coffee, engineering, automobile and granite units. Keeping in view close proximity of river Kabini, the board has advised industries to take preventive measures to prevent any danger.

He said he has instructed the Mysore regional KSPCB authorities to conduct a survey among the industries falling under its jurisdiction and promote planting of saplings among industrialists. "The forest department is ready to supply the saplings," he said.

Weslynne Ashton of the Centre for Industrial Ecology, Yale University, USA, presented a paper on introduction to industrial ecology and international best practices on application of industrial ecology in business and resource optimization initiative.

Representatives attached to different industries from Nanjangud participated in the programme at the Regional Museum of Natural History. Senior environmental officer S Nanda Kumar and environmental officer Prakash were present.

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New CD Set 'Ecological Awareness' Helps Wal-Mart Explain Sustainability

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:07:51 GMT

The audio series Ecological Awareness from More Than Sound Productions helps Wal-Mart explain the two pillars of its sustainability initiative - Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and consumer awareness - to private brand suppliers. Click here for link to original article.

Northampton, MA (PRWEB) November 19, 2009 -- Wal-Mart has pledged to address the sustainability of every aspect of its business - from the energy-efficiency of stores to greening the supply chains that produce their private brands. But what does it mean to 'green' supply chains - and how do you tell with certainty which products are ecologically better than others, and in which areas? Wal-Mart is answering these questions in part by giving all its private brand suppliers a CD comprised of edits from the series 'Ecological Awareness' released by More Than Sound Productions (www.morethansound.net), to explain emerging consumer awareness through a process called life-cycle assessment (LCA) - a discipline of industrial ecology fast becoming the international standard to truly assess the environmental impact of a product, process, or company.

Though the use of LCA as a sustainability-benchmarking tool is rapidly spreading, the technique, importance, and meaning of it all remain unclear to many companies. 'Ecological Awareness' explains LCA and sustainability through a series of dialogues between Daniel Goleman, author of 'Ecological Intelligence', and industrial ecologists Dara O'Rourke(of the consumer awareness site GoodGuide), Greg Norris(of the open-source LCA platform Earthster), and health researcher Michael Lerner(of the cancer center Commonweal).

The dialogues with O'Rourke and Norris are in-depth primers on the specifics of consumer awareness and LCA. More Than Sound offered a streamlined version of the series to Wal-Mart that includes only what is most relevant to enhancing business understanding of sustainability efforts. The result is the introductory, made-for-business audio series, 'The Radical Horizon: A Primer on Business Sustainability', (www.morethansound.net/The-Radical-Horizon.php) given to all Wal-Mart's private brand suppliers.

More Than Sound co-released a download entitled 'Leading the Necessary Revolution: Building Alignment in Your Business for Sustainability'. Featuring Peter Senge, MIT lecturer and Founding Chair of the Society for Organizational Learning, 'Leading the Necessary Revolution' offers sage advice and proven methods to advance sustainability initiatives within any organization. As Senge explained recently in an interview with BusinessWeek, "This is a huge challenge for people in companies, because so many companies are dominated by short-term perspective and because lots of people in key positions simply aren't very good or don't care very much about the bigger picture. Watch how the decisions are made. Are they thinking of the value of the company 10 years after they retire, or are they thinking about the value of their stock options this year?" To work with existing mentalities, Senge introduces relational intelligence and methods for bridging assumptions and getting the right people on board. 'Leading the Necessary Revolution' (www.morethansound.net/Leading-the-Necessary-Revolution.php) explains the use of relational intelligence and other proven strategies to champion sustainability within one's organization.

Lyon Graulty from More Than Sound explains how these projects came about. "Given our mission of supporting collective growth, it's only fitting that our products help business get on board with sustainability. People need these tools to evolve and meet environmental challenges. 'Ecological Intelligence', written by Daniel Goleman, one of our lead contributors, provided the basis for these audio series, and we're really excited that it's catching on."

More information on these products as well as the rest of the More than Sound product line-up can be found at www.morethansound.net.

New book expands on concept of sustainability, ASU News by Joe Kullman

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:14:09 GMT

Brad Allenby, a professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, has recently co-authored a book that combines concepts of sustainable engineering with his pioneering work in industrial ecology.

"Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Engineering," co-written with Tom Graedel, a professor in Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, is the first book to fully integrate the two fields.

Industrial ecology broadens the scope of the sustainability concept, Allenby says.

“It looks, for instance, at economic, technological and industrial systems and their interaction with environmental and social systems,” he says.

From that point of view, Allenby says, “You look at a factory not only from merely an economic perspective, but from the perspective of its overall impact on environmental and social systems. You look at things like its carbon emissions and how the factory uses resources, and how they are tied to design choices and manufacturing practices.”

Allenby is writing a second book, "The Theory and Practice of Sustainable Engineering," which is designed to provide students a comprehensive introduction to the subject.

The books “are going to further solidify ASU’s leadership in both sustainability and industrial ecology,” says Paul Westerhoff, interim director of the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment.

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The Anthozoans Are Coming to Save Us! Corals Offer Concrete Solutions to Our Carbon Woes, Reuters, by Tom McKeag

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:17:45 GMT

The animals that make up corals are anthozoans, a class of invertebrate within the phylum Cnidaria, which includes a diverse assortment of creatures like jellies, hydroids, and sea anemones. In this mostly marine and entirely carnivorous club you can either float or anchor yourself to a surface, and many do both within their lifespan.

When corals anchor themselves, they do so as attached polyps in large colonies, and they do it by using calcium carbonate, or lime, as a cement. The Great Barrier Reef along Australia's northeastern coast is a huge collection of these colonies, built on the 10,000-year-old ruins of their ancestors' exoskeletons.

Their method for building their homes is worlds away from the way humans have been making cement and concrete, but one company has developed an innovative method for using seawater (which corals also utilize to make calcium) to both make cement and sequester carbon dioxide. But first, we'll look at how corals make their homes.

Coral reef communities in general, and coral polyps in particular, exhibit that characteristic so common in these crowded, diverse environments: interdependence. When real estate is expensive, you find a way to make a living (ask any of my fellow Californians). Stiff competition makes for some pretty creative methods, however, and often they include the mutually beneficial relationship called symbiosis.

The carnivorous corals can't go it alone so they have co-evolved with an algae boarder, a paying house guest who supplies most of their energy needs through photosynthesis. The algae are there for the same reason as everyone else: clear, calm and relatively warm water. For their tithing of sugars they receive the shelter and protection of the corals' limestone fortress. They also receive a daily nutritious dose of nitrates and phosphates from the corals' waste. While this mutualism is beneficial to both parties, it isn't entirely unforced. The corals excrete a digestive solution that causes the algae cell walls to leak their precious food. It's estimated that 80 percent of the algae's sugars go to the corals. An entire ecosystem is based on this relationship that translates the energy of the sun into the building of a massive underwater world.

Corals are extremely sensitive to small changes in the magic formula that makes up their habitat. Even slight changes in temperature, salinity, light and nitrogen can kill them outright. It has been estimated that half of the world's reefs could die out within 50 years. How we reduce and reverse the air pollution that is causing climate change will be critical to the survival of these shallow seas ecosystems. Ironically, the corals themselves may provide part of the answer for us.

Unlike their human counterparts, anthozoans don't make their cementitious homes by mining fossil rock. They don't grind it up, cook it to over 1,450 degrees C and then pound the baked material back into a pulverized dust. No, they just take in plain seawater, and precipitate out calcium and magnesium at normal temperatures and pressure. The calcium is turned into a crystal form of carbonate called arogonite. They secrete this lime out a little at a time while they are multi-tasking with other things like gathering food and having sex. No worries.

I think we could use some pointers from our salty friends, especially since cement production is the third largest source of GHG emissions in the U.S., according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The $11.9 billion industry produced approximately 110.3 million metric tons of cement in 2007, from 116 plants in 36 states. Yearly global production of cement dwarfs this figure: it is reckoned by the Portland Cement Association to be approximately 1.25 billion metric tons, with much of it spurred by development in China and India. Sobering indeed, when you consider that every ton of cement produced is matched by another ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) put into our atmosphere. Happily, there are some companies that are developing ways to make cement production more like the coral's methods.

The Calera Corporation operates a small facility on the central California coast that is testing some of these biomimetic processes. Located next to the Moss Landing Power Plant, the facility has been making small batches of cement by processing CO2 gas through seawater to make first carbonic acid and then carbonates. Their process is proprietary and in patent development, but, if successful, could revolutionize how we make cement and, perhaps more importantly, how we capture and sequester carbon.
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It is an elegant scheme: Take a waste product, CO2, that is so damaging but ubiquitous that governments like the state of California are forced to regulate its reduction. Use this waste as a feedstock, process it through the most abundant substance on earth, seawater, and produce a material that not only can be used for building but permanently entombs the offending carbon. To power part of your processing use the free waste heat from the power plant itself. When you are done, return the unheated, unpoisoned seawater back safely, or pass it on as a pretreated (and money saving) stock for desalinization.

As an example, the Moss Landing plant is a gas-fired electricity generating facility that produces about 1,000 megawatts of power. While it is doing this it is also pumping out about 30,000 parts per million of CO2 into the air. Calera claims that it can capture most of this carbon and sequester a half-ton of carbon for every ton of cement that it makes. Company officials are currently describing their product as a supplementary cementitious material admixture, rather than as a replacement for Portland cement. It is being promoted as a replacement for fly ash, which can be increasingly hard to obtain, and as a better performing portion of a greener concrete mix when 50 percent recycled materials are specified.

The eventual possibilities sound a lot like the interdependent material cycling in coral colonies that we have just discussed, and the industrial ecology practiced in Kalundborg, Denmark. There, for instance, the city's power plant shunts several by-products to waiting, intentionally located industries, including “waste” heat, fly ash, heated seawater, and gypsum (another ingredient, by the way, in Portland cement). A similar symbiotic arrangement of power plant, carbon capture cement plant and desalinization plant seems worthy of study.

This process holds even greater promise for what the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change considers a critical option for reducing climate-changing air pollution: Carbon capture and sequestration. Most any power plant will do as a source of stock; in fact, the dirtier the better. We have a wealth of this waste-turned-resource in the United States. Approximately 2.5 billion metric tons of CO2 were produced in 2006, by 2,775 power plants. Of these, 600 were coal-fired plants that spewed 5 times more pollution (or should we say grey gold?) than the Moss Landing operation. The Calera process would take sequestration one step further by recycling the carbon into a very useable and worthwhile product.

Since Calera potentially provides at least three benefits, pollution abatement, seawater treatment and cement production, the company seems to have the opportunity to engage in several separate markets. This may offer the chance to be as innovative at the business table as at the manufacturing plant. Indeed, a recent article in the Harvard Business Review noted that the company was considering giving the cement away for free while making its income from carbon capture. Whatever their eventual business model, I'm sure the anthozoans will be pleased at their success.

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Tay Ninh Province to get first industrial ‘ecology’ zone

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:13:06 GMT

Bourbon Tay Ninh Joint Stock Company broke ground for the Bourbon An Hoa Industrial Garden in the southern province of Tay Ninh October 30, with a total investment of over VND3 trillion.

Full article here. The industrial zone is located in An Hoa, Trang Bang District, and covers 1,020 hectares. Some 760 hectares will be used for an industrial zone, 76 hectares for housing resettlement and 184 hectares for the port and warehouses.

The project aims to protect the natural and local environment. Each factory will be permitted to use just 70 percent of the area to build house machinery, and cover the remaining 30 percent with trees.

When the industrial zone is operating, it will be given priority for businesses that produce consumer products, household equipment and cosmetics.

The zone will also be able to treat its own sewage.

The industrial ecology zone is an advanced model, which has been already applied in other countries.

A Road Map for Natural Capitalism

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:44:21 GMT

Download the PDF here.

Sweet solution to energy production, Science Centric News

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:14:37 GMT

Full article here. Sugarcane biomass, a significant waste product from sugar production, could be a renewable energy source for electricity production, according to research published in the current issue of the international journal Progress in Industrial Ecology.

Engineer Vikram Seebaluck of the University of Mauritius and energy technology Dipeeka Seeruttun of the Royal Institute of Technology, in Stockholm, Sweden, have demonstrated that an optimal blend of sugarcane agricultural residues (30%) mixed with 70% sugarcane bagasse (the fibrous residue left after sugar production) can be used to generate electricity at a cost of just 0.06 US dollars per kilowatt hour. That figure is on a par with the costs of other renewable energies, including wind power at $0.05/kWh.

Sugarcane is a giant perennial grass of the genus Saccharum that can be found in wet and dry tropical and partially subtropical regions. It consists of an above-ground bamboo-like stalk with trash, cane tops and leaves and underground rhizomes and roots. 30 tonnes per hectare of fibre and sugarcane juice are sent to factories for sugar production, which leaves 24 tonnes per hectare of waste biomass. Currently, sugarcane bagasse is burnt for onsite heat and electricity production at sugar factories and surplus electricity is exported to the grid. That still leaves 24 tonnes per hectare of waste in the fields.

This waste has a similar energy content to bagasse, Seeruttun says, which could make it technically viable to use this material together with bagasse in a more effective way for electricity production. The 30:70 mixture of waste and bagasse reduces the risk of fouling or slagging of the furnaces used to burn the material.

'The combustion of SARs for the production of electricity is technically and economically feasible and creates opportunities for increasing the renewable energy share in sugarcane-producing countries,' the researchers explain.

The researchers analysis of the economics and technology required to exploit sugarcane waste products effectively suggests that bioenergy expansion from cane biomass would create rural jobs, reduce costly energy imports, and cut greenhouse gas emissions overall. Its use in electricity generation displaces the equivalent of 230 kg of coal for the equivalent amount of energy generated and 560 kg of carbon dioxide per tonne.

They caution that harnessing this bioenergy and biomass potential will require significant increases in investment, technology transfer and international cooperation. Nevertheless, its high efficiency and concentration, mostly in the developing world, should be viewed as a global resource for sustainable development.

National Grid Creates $350k Sustainable Energy Endowment at Clarkson University

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:26:48 GMT

Original Article here.

Clarkson University and National Grid today announced the creation of a $350,000 endowment at Clarkson. The National Grid Endowed Fund for Student Research Opportunities in Sustainable Energy will annually fund up to five summer research opportunities for Clarkson Honors Program students studying sustainable energy.

"Clarkson has a rich history of educating engineers for the energy industry and we are proud to be able to support and broaden its resources dedicated to building our industry's sustainable future," said Tom King, president of National Grid, U.S. "National Grid's endowment at Clarkson University is designed to provide educational and career pathways for bright young students and is an investment in the future of sustainable energy and engineering. The endowment supports National Grid's community involvement goals, which are focused on energy and the environment; education and skills; and community development."

"We are most grateful to National Grid for this generous endowment, which will enable further research opportunities for our undergraduate students in one of the University's signature areas of research, the environment and energy," said Clarkson President Tony Collins. "Partnerships like this one provide our students with access to state-of-the-art research technology, while simultaneously benefitting our nation's energy consumers. National Grid is enabling Clarkson and its students to continue playing a key role in research that will ultimately strengthen the economy of both New York state and the nation."

"This support will enable some of our most promising students to perform cutting-edge research and acquire the skills necessary to contribute to a sustainable future for all of us," said David M. Craig, director of the Honors Program.

The students' research includes areas like power systems, energy education, energy efficiency, energy harvesting and storage, bioenergy, fuel cells and hydrogen fuel, solar energy systems, and wind energy.

"Our need for sustainable energy may be the biggest challenge the world has ever faced," said Prof. Kenneth D. Visser, director of Clarkson's Center for Sustainable Energy Systems. "We are very grateful for National Grid's generosity and belief in the importance of investing in this research."

The students will also benefit from a series of seminars and workshops on sustainability and participate in field trips and team-building activities.

Built upon current and emerging problems in science, technology and society, Clarkson's Honors Program offers unique academic challenges and opportunities for Clarkson's most promising students. The University admits no more than 30 new students to the program each year.

Clarkson recently announced a new minor in sustainable energy systems for all engineering and engineering and management majors. The minor requires courses in technology, policy and industrial ecology, encouraging students to examine the human side of energy issues.

National Grid is an international energy delivery company. In the U.S., National Grid delivers electricity to approximately 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island, and manages the electricity network on Long Island under an agreement with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). It is the largest distributor of natural gas in the northeastern U.S., serving approximately 3.4 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island. National Grid also owns over 4,000 megawatts of contracted electricity generation that provides power to over one million LIPA customers.

Clarkson University launches leaders into the global economy. One in six alumni already leads as a CEO, VP or equivalent senior executive of a company. Located just outside the Adirondack Park in Potsdam, N.Y., Clarkson is a nationally recognized research university for undergraduates with select graduate programs in signature areas of academic excellence directed toward the world's pressing issues. Through 50 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, arts, sciences and health sciences, the entire learning-living community spans boundaries across disciplines, nations and cultures to build powers of observation, challenge the status quo, and connect discovery and engineering innovation with enterprise.

Photo caption: Clarkson University and National Grid have announced the creation of a $350,000 endowment at Clarkson. The National Grid Endowed Fund for Student Research Opportunities in Sustainable Energy will annually fund up to five summer research opportunities for Honors Program students in sustainable energy. Left to right: Honors Program Associate Director Hayley H. Shen; National Grid Vice President, Energy Solutions Services, Susan Crossett; Clarkson University President Tony Collins; National Grid, U.S., President Tom King; and Prof. Kenneth D. Visser.

[News directors and editors: For more information, contact Michael P. Griffin, director of News & Digital Content Services, at 315-268-6716 or mgriffin@clarkson.edu.]

National Science Foundation grant for revitalization study

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:24:29 GMT

MEDIA RELEASE, Original article here

Hilo and Kailua-Kona. How have these two Hawaii Island urban areas evolved in such different ways over the last 50 years?

Researchers at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, the U.S. Forest Service in Hilo, and The Kohala Center, backed by a grant from the National Science Foundation, are going to take a stab at answering this question.

“Hawaii Island provides a model setting to test theories about human impacts on the earth system and about resource constraints on urban growth. Resource management issues are of critical concern for Hawaii Island,” said Marian Chertow, director of the industrial environmental management program at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

“By focusing on the major urban areas of Hilo and Kailua-Kona, this project will provide a comparative analysis of the structure and function of two socio‐ecological systems related through resource exchanges, geographic proximity, and historical and contemporary cultural configurations. Although similar in population and area, these areas have markedly different socioeconomic and biophysical characteristics,” Chertow said. “These areas could benefit tremendously from a close analysis of resource allocation and use and how their patterns of consumption affect the island’s human and natural communities.”

The study is a first step in the Long-Term Industrial Ecosystem Model for Hawaii Island initiated this spring by a local-global partnership that aims to help Hawaii Island decision-makers discover what sustainability means for the island and management of resources.

“Finding qualitative answers to the evolution of East and West Hawaii and other frequently asked questions about how to resolve our island’s significant challenges with energy, food, water resources, and waste management will play a critical role in the revitalization of Hawaii Island’s economy. The entire project supports decision-making through high quality information and independent analyses,” said Matt Hamabata, executive director of The Kohala Center, a partner in the project.

The Kohala Center and the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University are working on the long-term project with the University of Hawaii at Hilo, the Redlands Institute, the Institute for Advanced Studies at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, and the Institute for Social Ecology in Vienna, Austria.

Mayor Billy Kenoi’s administration submitted a letter of support to the National Science Foundation, endorsing the work of this unique research partnership.

“The science of sustainability, [or] ‘industrial ecology,’ looks at energy, food, and water sustainability, as well as the unique characteristics of this island, in terms of its social, cultural, historical, and industrial systems,” Kenoi said.

“When we think about how to become sustainable, we see that we need to make a collective effort and work together to change the status quo. Contained in this community are the answers for moving forward into the next generation,” Kenoi said. “We have many assets. This project will help us talk about the gifts we have, including our island leaders.

“This partnership is ideal. It gives public- and private-sector decision-makers access to high quality information and independent analysis, so that we can make informed choices about resource allocation in areas such as agriculture, forestry, energy, housing, and public infrastructure. This partnership helps us work with the fact that we live in a world with limited resources and turn that limitation into ways in which we can be more efficient, create greater local business opportunities, and enhance the health of our ecosystems.”

Hamabata said, “The project offers careful and informed thinking about the future of our island society. This effort will show the linkages across sectors-for example, how high utility costs have a negative effect on the farming industry-just when it is clear that local food production is critically important in light of the fact that we import 85 percent of the food we eat and that we have 10 days or less of food on the shelves.”

“The important point is that we need to talk about and look at the bigger picture to understand how best to move forward in light of this island’s unique local circumstances. The bottom line is that we can do a lot better in maximizing our sustainable use of materials and energy than we’re doing now,” Chertow said.

This work is not new.

The Kohala Center and its university partners have been working with island experts, especially those in the County’s Division of Research and Development, on resource allocation and consumption issues on Hawaii Island since February 2007.

For example, the county Energy Sustainability Plan showed the growth in fossil fuel consumption between 2007 and 2030 could largely be eliminated through efficiencies.

Hamabata gives more examples of the cross-sector linkages-the Department of Water Supply is the largest consumer of electrical power in the county government because of the need to pump water; thus, fixing leaks not only conserves a precious resource (potable water) but also reduces the consumption of electricity, which in turn reduces the island consumption of fossil fuels.

“What this project will do is allow leaders and residents to see these interlinkages. When the project develops the capacity to build scenarios rapidly, using GIS technology, leaders and residents can actually visualize what will happen, given the choices they are about to make. This is all useful and practical stuff. It just makes very accessible useful information and analyses from independent sources,” Hamabata said. “How much better can this get?”

Among other things, the long-term project will generate comparative scenarios-for example, heavy biofuel development versus local food production-which will help stakeholders visualize which futures they want, and which futures they don’t want. These analyses will be of immediate use to the county, but the project will have global benefits as well.

By addressing the concerns of island residents, the regular gathering and analysis of data will-over the years-lead to significant understanding of the complex interaction between human and natural systems. Thus, the resolution of Hawaii Island’s local challenges will have global impact. Indeed, this project positions Hawaii Island as a global knowledge resource.

Existing long-term projects such as the Hubbard Brook research site in New Hampshire in which Yale has been deeply involved and Hawaii Island’s own Mauna Loa CO2measurement facility have been essential for global understanding of environmental phenomena such as acid rain and climate change.

The Hawaii study will add social and cultural depth to the research on natural systems already underway on the island, as well as provide a platform for the synthesis and integration of hundreds of ongoing studies.

Hawaii is a perfect location for a system-wide project-as an intricate, diverse, urban-rural environment, it contains the full complexity of human-natural interactions, but it is a small and bounded environment, allowing scientists to track those interactions in real time.

The ongoing work is projected to cost between $150,000 and $300,000 a year. The Kohala Center and its university partners continue to raise funds for the project.

In addition to the National Science Foundation $145,346 grant, funds will also be raised from national and international research agencies and private foundations.

— Find out more:

www.kohalacenter.org

Finding ways to reduce waste

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:31:49 GMT

Many companies doing their part to be as sustainable and eco-friendly as possible

original article here.

By SARAH STAPLES, Canwest News Service October 16, 2009

It wasn't long after Jill Koehler started selling organic hemp and recycled fleece sleep sacks -- a kind of mini sleeping bag with arm holes -- that the Vancouver baby clothes designer ran into her first eco-challenge: what to do with the leftover fabric?

"I thought, maybe there's someone else who could use it," says the 35-year-old, who turned to an Internet ad service for a solution to the bags of fleecy scraps kicking around her parents' garage. "Now, I just post a quick note saying, 'Come get your bag'."

Kohlr Baby sleep sack bits have been turned into bedding for pets at animal shelters, patchwork blankets for the homeless, school art materials, and crafty "ugly dolls."

And Koehler has come close to her lofty goal of producing no waste at all, or "zero waste manufacturing," a goal that is being taken up by small businesses and corporate behemoths alike.

Canadians generate 35 million tonnes of waste a year, and that amount is firmly on the rise, according to Statistics Canada. Although three-fifths of it could be recycled, more waste is ending up in landfills -- still the most popular means of disposal -- than ever before.

Companies are "especially well positioned to have an enormously positive impact," since they produce over 60 per cent of potentially recyclable waste in this country, says Shirley Thompson, an assistant professor with the University of Manitoba's Natural Resources Institute.

It's a message that seems to be resonating. Demo "green" factories, restaurants and stores have debuted across Canada in the past couple of years -- and not a moment too soon, environmentalists say.

A Burlington, Ont. "green" Walmart store opened in January with numerous energy- and waste-saving features -- from motion-sensing faucets and toilets consuming 22 per cent less water, to an LED storefront sign, food refrigerators whose excess heat is recycled to warm the store, and concrete floors that cut down on the need for harsh cleaners.

To reduce packaging, the source of more than 50 per cent of store waste, plastic film or cardboard shipping boxes are machine-crunched into a plastic-paper-plastic layered "sandwich" bale that's more easily sold for recycling.

A "packaging scorecard" went live across Canada this summer that puts Walmart's global supplier network on notice to reduce unnecessary plastic; while a "sustainability index" being introduced globally -- next year in Canada -- will help suppliers ferret out environmental vulnerabilities in their manufacturing.

Walmart's goal is to divert 80 per cent of its waste from landfills by 2014, and eventually, to produce zero waste and consume 100 per cent renewable energy.

"When you reduce waste, you're taking inefficiencies out of the system, which ultimately means you can lower prices," says Andrew Pelletier, vice-president of corporate affairs for Walmart Canada. "It becomes a virtuous circle for the consumer."

Peter Capozucca, a principal with Deloitte's Enterprise Sustainability group based in Stanford, Conn. calls it the natural evolution of doctrines such as Six Sigma.

"What do you do with scraps? You reuse them. What do you do with packaging? You constantly strive to use less," Capozucca says. "These are concepts that have elevated and grown."

McDonald's, for its part, opened a first Canadian prototype "green restaurant" last December in Beauport, Que. - one of 10 McDonald's worldwide that will showcase novel building materials, along with curios such as electric battery recharging stations, or reserved parking for carpoolers.

On the manufacturing front, General Motors' two "landfill-free" plants in St Catharines, Ont., are recycling or reusing more than 97 per cent of waste, and the automaker has pledged to convert half of its remaining manufacturing plants globally to "landfill-free" status by the end of 2010.

Last year, GM generated over $1-billion in revenue recycling metal scraps alone, plus millions more for selling recycled cardboard, wood, oil and plastic.

And Husky Injection Molding Systems, a Canadian supplier of injection moulding equipment used to manufacture plastic products such as food and beverage containers, claims a 94 per cent waste diversion rate for its Bolton, Ont. campus, where everything from light bulbs to food debris are recycled or reused.

Some companies are going even further, redesigning their products to be easier to recycle, reuse or dispose of -- a notion called "extended producer responsibility" that is becoming another rallying cry in the war on waste.

Stricter laws in Europe require manufacturers there to recycle up to 90 per cent of a product's components, and have prompted sweeping product redesigns with a view to minimizing waste and pollution, lowering toxicity and improving recycling, explains University of Manitoba's Thompson. Those are moves that "should really have policy-makers here thinking," she says.

Husky, for example, has just unveiled a new PET (clear polyester) injection moulding system that boosts the amount of post-consumer, recycled plastic in water and carbonated soft drink bottles by up to 50 per cent, reducing the overall cost and environmental footprint of PET plastic packaging.

Shoemakers Nike and Reef have developed styles with interlocking parts that come undone easily, so different materials can be recycled with ease.

And InterfaceFlor Canada, Belleville.Ont.-based subsidiary of a U.S. carpet manufacturer with 40 per cent of global commercial carpet sales, has a way to make new carpet out of old ones by shaving away the nylon pile, melting and fashioning it into new fibres, which are then added to backing that's made from old, chopped up, backing bits.

After reading Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce, Interface Inc. founder Ray Anderson decided in 1994 to turn his company into a model for industrial ecology.

The closed-loop process is one of many waste-reduction measures that have reaped hundreds of millions in savings in a few short years, says Nadine Gudz, director of sustainable strategy for the Canadian operations.

"It's clearly been really good for business . . . And it's a way of doing business that's inspiring," says Gudz.

Sergison Bates unveils woodland vision for Dagenham Docks

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:05:42 GMT

Original article here.

Sergison Bates is to oversee the 30-year transformation of industrial dockland in the Thames Gateway into a sustainable business park

Working with Vogt Landscape, Martin Stockley Associates and Price & Myers, the practice intends to create a ‘working’ woodland landscape for the new London Sustainable Industries Park (LSIP) at Dagenham Dock.

A spokesman for the practice said: ‘The aim is to make the [142 ha] park a wholly self-sustainable enterprise and to develop an industrial symbiosis over time, where businesses use each other’s by-products and share resources.

‘A managed and maintained woodland landscape will provide a strong spatial setting for the park to emerge and develop through to 2040, and fulfils a purpose as a working landscape, as well as physically unifying the park as a single entity.’

The practice was appointed by The Thames Gateway Development Corporation to develop an initial vision, as well as the development framework and future design guidelines for the huge riverside plot which will also house a 16,000 m² ‘clean energy from waste’ plant and a new 3,500m² Institute for Sustainability.

Sergison Bates is working alongside stakeholders the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, the Environment Agency, Design for London, the Port of London Authority, Transport for London and the site’s existing tenants.

A detailed planning application for the infrastructure and landscape design for the first phase of the park is due to be submitted in January 2010.

Minding our Minerals by Saleem Ali, Policy Innovations

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:47:26 GMT

Full Article here. The revelation in the New York Times last month that many green technologies, such as hybrid cars, may depend on a group of rare minerals over which China has a dominant monopoly deserves serious attention by scientists and policymakers.

This news adds to concerns over other minerals with esoteric but essential uses. Consider the element lithium. It is an essential ingredient in various batteries and is largely concentrated on high-altitude salt pans in Bolivia. The Bolivian government will hold a World Lithium Congress in La Paz on October 24 to consider how best to develop this resource without succumbing to a scramble by multinationals.

For too long, environmentalists and industrialists alike have trivialized the importance of mineral resources. Businesses tend to be sanguine about their abundance and environmentalists are contemptuous toward mineral extraction because of pollution concerns or because the resources are deemed generically "nonrenewable." Such epithets often detract the public from understanding the connections between the basic elements of matter, mineral compounds, and modern life.

As an environmental science educator, it is particularly troubling for me to observe how few of my students even know the structure of the periodic table of the elements—our most indelible guide to the science of all stuff. This table exhibits the fundamental constraints over how we construct materials to meet our needs and wants.

Our environmental ambitions are confined by how the elements interact with one another to form minerals. It is from these minerals that we can dream of fueling our future. Whether constructing a dam, a skyscraper, a solar panel, or a silicon wafer, we must contend with minerals from the earth and their constituent elements. Even a productive pool of water lilies requires mineral absorption for growth. Though in the case of vegetative mineral uptake, it is easier to return the elements to their natural state than when they are used to form more permanent infrastructure and machinery.

The distribution of the world's mineral resources is an accident of geography, but it has considerable power to determine the trajectory of human societies. Beyond our own daily metabolic need for calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium for proper functioning, we are in an era of unparalleled consumption of all minerals. How we use our mineral resources, and whether they can eventually be recycled back to productive or harmless states, is a consideration of increasing importance.

Certain resources are destined for depletion if they become locked into built infrastructure or recovery costs prove too high. But this could all change if more attention is paid globally to material cycling and consumer responsibility. We need a global strategy for efficient minerals extraction, use, and reclamation.

Such a strategy would require us to redesign our products and processes, and should be backed up by governance mechanisms that ensure good standards. A useful template may be Sweden's Ecocycle Policy. It urges regulators to consider the constraints on mineral availability as well as the available technologies for reclaiming minerals from products. Even China, a country often criticized for environmental factors, has a "circular economy" initiative which aims to incorporate industrial ecology principles in its regulations.

President Obama has proposed various mining reforms as well as energy efficiency improvements across the country. But America really needs an integrated strategy on material usage efficiency. We need to track what our products contain, how it can be recovered after use, and where the points of wastage are in the system. The term "waste" itself will become increasingly obsolescent if recovery of useful materials becomes the goal of regulation. A good first step at the Environmental Protection Agency is the recent name change from the Office of Solid Waste to the Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery.

In Davos this September a World Resources Forum convened publicly for the first time. Environmental scholars presented a 9-point Call for Action urging countries to "seek international agreements on world-wide per-capita targets for natural resource extraction and consumption to be effective by 2015." While much of our environmental attention is on climate change, we seem to forget the root cause of our predicament—inefficient and inappropriate usage of resources. Along with our focus on emissions, we need to focus broadly and directly on resource efficiency. We must also keep looking for more efficiently extractable sources of minerals in the ground and within our products.

Some environmentalists argue that efficiency only leads to more consumption—a phenomenon observed by the nineteenth century British economist William Stanley Jevons in his 1865 book The Coal Question. Jevons suggested that increased efficiency through technological advancement was actually leading to greater consumption. The Jevons paradox is often presented by environmentalists as an antidote to technological optimism.

While the paradox may well hold for materials and energy usage in cases of growing demand, it is less likely to be valid in mature markets. For example, in a developing economy energy efficiency and reduced costs may lead people to buy more products that use more energy and materials. But in a market with a fairly saturated consumption profile, efficient recycling and energy conservation efforts are very valuable. Such an approach could also allow for productive technology transfer to poor countries. This in turn would reduce environmental impacts more effectively, even if it necessitates more energy and material for the sake of development.

Building on the momentum of the World Resources Forum, it is essential that world leaders consider these connections between minerals, energy, and the quality of life in our material world.

Saleem H. Ali is associate professor of environmental planning at the University of Vermont and the author of Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future (Yale University Press, 2009).

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