Reporting on Sustainably Built Environments from Bricks to Cities
Sean Ekins, Alex M. Clark and Antony Williams point out that the companies that manufacture medicines, electronics components and hundreds of other consumer products have a commitment to work in a sustainable fashion without damaging the environment. That’s the heart of “green chemistry,” often defined as “the utilization of a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture and application of chemical products.”
A collaborative study by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a bioenergy research center led by Berkeley Lab, and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has shown that an ionic liquid proven to be effective for pre-treating individual biofuel feedstocks is also effective at pre-treating multiple different feedstocks that have been mixed and densified into a blend.
The Makamaka`ole seabird mitigation project is part of an extensive program undertaken by the company to provide conservation benefits to mitigate potential impacts of the Kaheawa Wind projects several miles away. As part of the company’s innovative Habitat Conservation Plan for its two Kaheawa Wind projects on Maui, First Wind is constructing two fenced enclosures to protect the federally endangered Hawaiian Petrel and threatened Newell’s Shearwater, two native Hawaiian seabirds. The enclosures are located about ten miles west of Wailuku.
This installation represents the 35th completed solar project for IKEA in the U.S., with four more locations underway, making the eventual U.S. solar presence of IKEA nearly 90% of its U.S. locations with a total generation of 38 MW. IKEA owns and operates each of its solar PV energy systems atop its buildings – as opposed to a solar lease or PPA (power purchase agreement) – and globally has allocated $1.8 billion to invest in renewable energy through 2015.
It’s happened to everyone. You’re walking down the street and see the “Pardon Our Dust” sign just as you’re enveloped in a dust cloud. It’s annoying sure, but that dust runoff causes far more problems than a slight inconvenience on your way to work. Dust pollution from commercial and home construction sites is a major environmental problem, and we need to do something to control it.
 |
 |
-----------------
