Environmental

  1. Cities Share Advice on Disaster Recovery

    This week’s news that Moore, Okla., had been devastated by another EF5 tornado – the second of that magnitude in 14 years – brought to mind a session at the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference in Kansas City this past February. In that session, titled “Howling Winds and Ominous Skies: Disaster Resilience in the Age of Climate Change,” speakers recounted two extreme weather events and how local officials worked with state and federal agencies to deal with the aftermath and rebuild their communities. A 2007 EF5 tornado that nearly wiped out the village of Greensburg, Kan., and a 2008 flood that spilled over the 500-year floodplain in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, provided lessons applicable to any community that suddenly finds itself up to its neck in mud and mayhem.

  2. Gulf Coast Slow to Recover from Hurricanes Katrina and Isaac

    Earlier this year, during a long spell of snow and cold, the travel bug bit me. My thoughts drifted to the white sands and blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. My fingers soon followed, and in no time I found myself online, surfing vacation rental homes up and down the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. Based on my aversion to crowds and casinos, I selected a vacation home half a mile from the beach in the quiet town of Waveland, Miss. It was just small enough and far enough from the water to be affordable, thus perfect for my husband, our dog, and me. It honestly never occurred to me to connect the list of towns I’d researched, including Waveland, Bay St. Louis, and Gulfport, to any specific events in the news. I knew there were frequent hurricanes, such as Isaac, which struck in 2012. I knew the BP drilling rig explosion gushed oil into part of the Gulf in 2010. I knew Hurricane Katrina had badly damaged the Gulf area, most famously New Orleans, about 50 miles west of Waveland. But that was in 2005. Ancient history, I thought.

  3. Study: Streams Stressed by Pharmaceutical Pollution

    Pharmaceuticals commonly found in the environment are disrupting streams, with unknown impacts on aquatic life and water quality, according to a new ecological applications paper released by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y. The paper, written with input from researchers at Indiana University and Loyola University Chicago, highlights the ecological cost of pharmaceutical waste and the need for more research into environmental impacts. Globally, lakes and rivers are polluted by an array of pharmaceutical and personal care products. Freshwater fish and the invertebrates they eat are increasingly bathed in a weak solution of caffeine, estrogen, antibiotics, and antihistamine drugs – but little is known about the levels at which these compounds become toxic or lethal, or what the effect on our drinking water may be.

  4. Maple Syrup, Moose, and Local Impacts of Climate Change

    MILLBROOK, N.Y. -- In the northern hardwood forest, climate change is poised to reduce the viability of the maple syrup industry, spread wildlife diseases and tree pests, and change timber resources. And, according to a new BioScience paper released by twenty-one scientists, without long-term studies at the local scale — we will be ill-prepared to predict and manage these effects.

  5. Bioneers Define Resilience in Madison, Wis.

    By most definitions, sustainability refers to a community or practice that is stable enough to continue, thus assuring its environmental, economic, and social elements will be available for future generations. Lately another term is being applied by social and scientific innovators who are examining what allows a community to stand up under pressures that might otherwise destroy it: "Resilience."

  6. Public Health Officials Respond to Climate-Change Impacts

    While United Nations member states meet this week in Qatar on their elusive quest for a global response to climate change, state and local public health departments in the U.S. have been quietly preparing their response to climate change impacts at the ground level. Whether in a coastal region faced with rising seas, an interior state suffering from increasing heat waves and wild fires, or the Farm Belt bracing for more intense and destructive droughts, vulnerable populations bear the worst hardships of climate change.

  7. Invasive Species Mitigation Battles $1.4 Trillion Problem

    If your community is fighting invasive species, you know how frustrating and expensive it can get. If you have escaped their invasion thus far, the good news is that you have some extra ammunition in the knowledge gained from battles won. Much of that knowledge is collected and shared by the federal government’s National Invasive Species Council (NSIC) created by Executive Order 13112 in 1999.

  8. City Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan Falls Short

    Timothy Burroughs’ job used to be a lot easier. As one of the architects of Berkeley, California’s Climate Action Plan in 2009, his job these days is more perilous – now he has to make the plan actually work. “My big job right now is to make sure that plan doesn’t just sit on a shelf,” he told a group of municipal professionals and elected officials at the recent Growing Sustainable Communities Conference – Western Region in Sonoma County.

  9. Intergenerational Equity?

    A climate expert this week urged the nation's urban and regional planners to help slow global warming, as the levels of greenhouse gas emissions continue to trend upward. Dr. Andrew Weaver, a lead author of a United Nations report on climate change, addressed several thousand members of the American Planning Association in his opening keynote speech on Sunday at the organization's national conference in Los Angeles.

  10. Urban Forest Management Reaps Big ROI in Chicago Suburb

    Several years ago, Elgin, Ill., parks superintendent Jim Bell was faced with a dilemma. When the city forester position in Elgin went vacant, Bell was given responsibility for nearly 50,000 trees in the public right-of-way. At least 800 of those trees were considered hazardous, posing an immediate threat to the community - their removal backlogged by budget limitations. On top of that, the infamous emerald ash bore was at the city's doorstep, threatening to leave several thousand more trees standing dead along Elgin's city streets. Bell held his breath every time a storm approached. He needed help, and he needed it soon. So, he turned to some familiar allies.

  11. Green City on a Blue Lake is Goal of Sustainable Cleveland

    Andrew Watterson dreams that one day soon he'll bike along a lakefront path seeing a city with flourishing active green space, productive land with many small city market farms and wind and solar farms powering energy-efficient buildings. The city is Cleveland and the area is northeast Ohio where Watterson and some 700 other citizens are totally committed to the "Green City/Blue Lake" dream they hope to realize through Sustainable Cleveland 2019. The city's goal is to provide global sustainability solutions - growing its economy by developing world-class companies that will provide the sustainability solutions of the future. Along the way, Cleveland plans to implement local economic sustainability by creating jobs, saving money and building a stronger community.

  12. No One Wins When Urban Deer Run Rampant

    The image of Bambi being chased through the forest and gunned down at close range might be a chilling thought to some city leaders, but Lloyd Fox can conjure up an even more horrific scenario - one that is all too common in some parts of Kansas and in suburban areas throughout much of the United States. When deer populations swell to as many as 200 animals per square mile, death comes slowly as malnutrition, parasites and disease take their toll. Fox, big game program coordinator for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, said he's seen the results when public administrators fail to take action soon enough.

Environmental Product Announcements

Tuesday 05/14/2013
Company Celebrates Texas Carbon Capture Demonstration Project Achievement
Posted: May 14, 2013

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. -- Air Products recently celebrated the successful operation of a U.S. Department of Energy Demonstration Project that will capture approximately one million tons of carbon dioxide in an enhanced oil recovery project in which DOE anticipates an additional estimated 1.6-3.1 million barrels of oil to be produced annually from the CO2 injection. This unprecedented achievement comes by way of an Air Products innovative technology, is the first-of-its-kind operating at such a large scale, and has not been accomplished anywhere else in the United States.

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Sunday 11/25/2012
Companies Partner to Reduce Hospital Emissions and Energy Use
Updated: November 25, 2012 - 4:57 pm

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- Engineering design and consulting firm Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch and Anesthetic Gas Reclamation, LLC announced that they are partnering to develop commercial applications for technology that recaptures anesthetic gases in hospitals.

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Tuesday 10/09/2012
Energy Points and SustainEdge Launch University Sustainability Initiative
Updated: October 09, 2012 - 9:38 pm

BOSTON, Mass. -- Energy Points, a provider of energy analytics for universal resource management, and SustainEdge, a sustainability consultancy, announced the launch of the Higher Edge Energy Points Solution, a comprehensive trial solution designed to increase sustainability and reduce energy consumption at academic campuses.

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Tuesday 09/25/2012
EPA Releases Guide for Local Government on Resource Conservation
Posted: September 25, 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released a new climate and energy strategy guide for local governments, titled Resource Conservation and Recovery: A Guide to Developing and Implementing Greenhouse Gas Reduction Programs.

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Tuesday 08/07/2012
Argus Launches California Low-Carbon Fuel Standard Price Assessment
Posted: August 07, 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Global energy and commodity price reporting agency Argus has launched the first published market price assessment for California Low-Carbon Fuel Standard credits. Argus' expanded coverage of California emissions markets includes weekly spot assessments of the LCFS credits.

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Wednesday 07/11/2012
Codexis Demonstrates Enzyme-Based Carbon Capture
Updated: July 11, 2012 - 7:17 am

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Codexis Inc., unveiled results from the pilot-scale demonstration of the company’s carbon capture technology conducted at the National Carbon Capture Center in Wilsonville, Al. Codexis developed this patented technology under a license granted by CO2 Solutions, Inc. The field test, on flue gas emitted from a Southern Company’s power plant, shows that enzymes have promise to facilitate CO2 capture at coal-fired power plants. This is the largest scale that enzyme-based carbon capture technology has been demonstrated to date, with the equivalent daily capture rate of 1,800 average sized trees per day.

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Tuesday 07/03/2012
Jacobs Receives Soil, Groundwater Cleanup Contract at Kennedy Space Center
Updated: July 03, 2012 - 12:48 pm

PASADENA, Calif. -- Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. announced it has been awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to support the design and implementation of soil and groundwater cleanups at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

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Wednesday 05/30/2012
System Helps Airports Meet New EPA De-Icing Rules
Updated: May 30, 2012 - 7:05 am

WORCESTER, Mass. -- ThermoEnergy Corporation has said that final rules for airport de-icing operations by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provide an opportunity for the company to help airports protect the environment and save money.

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Tuesday 03/27/2012
Anvil Launches Organic Garden Program with Schools
Posted: March 27, 2012

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Anvil Knitwear, manufacturers of the Anvil Eco Collection for the imprintables and private label apparel markets, announced its sponsorship of the Earth Day Organic Indoor Learning Garden program in partnership with Earth Day New York. The program provides organic container gardens to classrooms in public schools in New York City. Anvil's goal is to equip 10 percent of the city's schools with an organic garden by next year's Earth Day 2013 Celebration.

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Tuesday 03/06/2012
Ecova Earns Accreditation from Carbon Disclosure Project
Updated: March 06, 2012 - 8:12 pm

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Ecova, an energy and sustainability management company, announced it has earned accreditation from the Carbon Disclosure Project as a Carbon Calculation partner. The accreditation reflects Ecova’s success in helping its customers accurately calculate and report carbon emissions with the use of Ecova’s carbon accounting solution, Carbon Manager.

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