Posted by Greenbang on August 28th, 2008
Amid all the hoo-haa, back-slapping and general political razzmatazz going on at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week as Barack Obama officially began his Presidential campaign, there were some interesting green goings on.
It’s hardly going to change the world given the US’ broader environmental policies but every bit counts, right? The Democratic Party’s stated aim is to have the “most environmentally sustainable political convention in modern American history”.
The eco plans started a year before the convention and include initiatives ranging from minimising waste at “resource recovery” (Greenbang’s guessing this is political speak for recycling) stations to measuring the convention’s carbon footprint (with the help of carbon advisor Camco).
There’s lots of the obvious stuff like energy-efficient computers, motion-sensor and solar-powered lights and low toxin paint but some bigger initiatives as well.
One of the more interesting ones is the use of hybrid, alternative fuel or biodiesel for the buses used to transport delegates and media from hotels to the convention centre. One report says brewer Coors has even donated ethanol made with thousands of gallons of its beer waste.
Official Convention vehicle provider General Motors is also offering hybrid, E-85 and high fuel efficiency vehicles. All vehicle miles will also be tracked and included in the carbon footprint calculations.
More on the ‘greening’ of the event at the official Democrat National Convention website here.
Let’s just hope some of this thinking carries through to actual policy if Obama does make it all the way to the White House later this year.
This story is brought to you in association with Delta Simons
Posted by Greenbang on August 28th, 2008
It’s not quite the Oscars, but bean counters body ACCA has just announced the shortlist for its annual Sustainability Awards, and the names to have made the cut show the big corporations are increasingly taking sustainability reporting more seriously.
The awards reward companies for excellence in environmental, social and sustainability reporting - with the emphasis on innovative ways of communicating performance and transparency.
The big multinationals to make the shortlist include (in alphabetical order) Anglo American, BAT, BHP Billiton, BP, BT, Camelot, Co-operative Group, GSK, Shell, Unilever, Vodafone and Xstrata.
But it’s not just about the big boys and a couple of small and medium sized businesses - REAP and Traidcraft - have also made the list.
Winners will be revealed at a ceremony on 3 December 2008 at the British Library in London.
Rachel Jackson, head of social and environmental issues at ACCA, says:
“This shortlist includes a wide range of industry sectors, including small businesses as well. This broad range of organisations shows that reporting transparently and credibly is becoming accepted, albeit slowly, as normal practice. And as the economic climate continues to turn ever-more gloomy, it is now more important than ever for organisations to be accountable for their impacts, and to ensure that corporate social responsibility remains at the forefront of everybody’s business strategy.”
The shortlisting judging panel included representatives from Acona, KPMG, Nottingham Business School and CorporateRegister.com.
Posted by Greenbang on August 27th, 2008
Where’s the record-breaking, trumpet-toting Roy Castle and Norris McWhirter when you need ‘em, eh? A solar powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has set a new unofficial world record for the longest unmanned aerial flight by staying up in the sky for an impressive three and a half days.
The solar-powered Zephyr flew for 82 hours 37 minutes, exceeding the current official world record for unmanned flight which stands at 30 hours 24 minutes set by Global Hawk in 2001 and Zephyr’s previous longest flight of 54 hours achieved last year.
Built by QinetiQ, Zephyr’s development has been funded to date by the UK’s Ministry of Defence, which partnered with the US Department of Defense under their Joint Capability Technology Demonstration Programme, which aims to get cool new technologies more rapidly onto the frontline.
Launched by hand, Zephyr is an ultra-lightweight carbon-fibre aircraft. During the day it flies on solar power generated by amorphous silicon solar arrays no thicker than sheets of paper that cover the aircraft’s wings. At night it is powered by rechargeable lithium-sulphur batteries, supplied by SION Power, which are recharged during the day using solar power.
Simon Bennett, MD of QinetiQ’s Applied Technologies business said in a statementt:
“The trial is a step towards the delivery of Zephyr’s capability for joint, real-time, battlefield persistent surveillance and communications to forces in the field at the earliest opportunity.”
According to QinetiQ, potential applications for Zephyr include earth observation and communications relay in support of a range of defence, security and civil requirements.
More details and photos on the QinetiQ website here.
Posted by Greenbang on August 27th, 2008
Following on from Greenbang’s article yesterday about the call for biofuel subsidies to be scrapped because they are a ‘waste of money’, this piece of news caught our eye about the future direction of biofuel research.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car - which owns the well known car hire firms Enterprise, National and Alamo and has a fleet of more than 1.1 million vehicles - has made a notable appointment by hiring Dr Richard Sayre, one of the US’ leading biofuels researchers as director of the rental company’s Institute for Renewable Fuels at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Centre in St Louis.
Dr Sayre and his team of 10 researchers will focus on using algae to produce ‘3rd generation’ biofuels for possible future large scale use to power cars, trucks and aircraft.
Among the claimed benefits of using algae as a biofuel source are:
- Algae have a high energy density, the same as conventional diesel fuel
- Algae-based fuel emits far fewer greenhouse gases than gasoline
- The production process actually removes CO2 from the atmosphere
Dr Sayre says in the press release:
“Extracting oil from algae to produce a more sustainable biofuel is one of the most promising and exciting areas of biofuels research today. Algae have significant potential as a clean, renewable, and economical fuel source. And, because algae are not used as food, they are a biofuel source that does not compete with the food supply.
“Biofuels research continues to advance at a rapid pace. The first generation in biofuels research was using the corn plant to make ethanol. The second generation involves using the non-food parts of the corn plant to create cellulosic ethanol. Algal oil – which yields much higher energy density while requiring less land and water than other biodiesel – represents the third generation.”
Posted by Greenbang on August 27th, 2008
Students at the Delft University of Technology won first place in the world’s premiere hydrogen-powered race in Rotterdam.
Formula Zero is the first race competition worldwide that produces pure water as sole emission. The initiative originated to present hydrogen as alternative fuel in an appealing way
Student teams of six leading technical universities in the world have developed their own special vehicles for this contest.
The bodywork of the vehicle is almost completely shaped from Turane resins - one of the latest innovations of DSM Composite Resins. These ‘thermoset urethane’ resins combine the best qualities of epoxies and polyester urethane in one single material.
Edgar van Os, Greenchoice Forze’s team leader: “The DSM products match our desires perfectly. Turane resins flow easily and cure very quickly, so it’s possible to use vacuum infusion to produce large parts that are both extremely light and strong”.
Posted by Greenbang on August 27th, 2008
Posted by Greenbang on August 26th, 2008
Biofuels is often a controversial green subject and think tank the Policy Exchange - a favourite of Prime Minister-in-waiting David Cameron - has waded into the debate claiming that government biofuel subsidies are a waste of cash.
A new report by the Policy Exchange, The Root of the Matter, claims the money spent on biofuel subsidies would be better spent saving forests and peatlands in terms of regulating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
If developed countries spent the same amount of money on preventing deforestation and the destruction of peatlands as they do on biofuel subsidies - a whopping $15bn - this would halve the total costs of tackling climate change, the report claims.
Specifically the UK government is urged to take action by doing the following:
- Abandon biofuel targets and subsidies
- Support immediate action to reduce peatland destruction in South-east Asia
- Build capacity in developing countries to prepare for avoided deforestation
- Provide financial support to kick-start pilot avoided deforestation projects
The UK government is also urged to take action on the European and international stage to bring about a change in biofuel policy. The full tome from the Policy Exchange is here.
Posted by Greenbang on August 26th, 2008
Despite the amount of marketing hype and the increasing number of ‘eco-friendly’ motors being launched, the auto industry is not doing enough to meet proposed climate targets for new cars.
That’s according to a report by lobby group the European Federation for Transport and Environment, which found the average improvement for all cars sold in the EU in 2007 was just 1.7 per cent - a slight increase on the all time low in 2006 of 0.7 per cent, but still way off what is needed to meet CO2 emission targets.
One bright spot in this dismal showing was BMW, which improved the fuel efficiency of its cars at four times the average of the other major manufacturers. The average new car sold by BMW in 2007 typically consumed 7.3 per cent less fuel than in the previous year, leading to a cut in average CO2 emissions from 184g CO2/km in 2006 to 170 g/km in 2007.
In December 2007 the European Commission proposed that new cars should emit, on average, no more than 130g CO2/km by 2012.
Jos Dings, director of T&E said in a statement:
“With the threat of legislation looming, BMW has shown that even premium carmakers can seriously reduce CO2. But the slow response of most carmakers shows that the EU needs to keep up the pressure with challenging, long-term CO2 targets.”
One issue T&E highlights is that German carmakers, including BMW, have been lobbying hard against the fuel efficieny targets, arguing that they should be ‘phased-in’ over several years - in effect this would mean the target would initially only apply to the cleanest segment of the fleet.
Dings added:
“German carmakers want CO2 targets to only apply to the cleanest cars in the early years. It’s the equivalent of demanding that a smoking ban should only apply to non-smokers.”
Other companies that made notable improvements in CO2 reductions include Hyundai Motor (-3.9 per cent) and Daimler AG (-3.5 per cent). But more than half of Daimler’s improvement is a result of the sale last year of its gas-guzzling Chrysler arm, not to enhanced fuel efficiency of Daimler’s cars.
The European Parliament’s Environment Committee is scheduled to vote on the car CO2 law on 8-9 September and the T&E is calling for a target of 120g/km by 2012, in line with an official EU target first proposed in 1994 by the former German environment minister Angela Merkel (now Chancellor). The fourteen-year-old target was supposed to be achieved by 2005 and has already been postponed three times.
T&E claims the 120g/km average target can be met with existing technology including stop-start engines, weight reduction, engine downsizing and other modest improvements. T&E is therefore also calling for a long-term target of 80 g/km by 2020 to ensure that carmakers invest now in the technology needed to dramatically improve fuel efficiency in the long term.
The full report can be downloaded here.
This category is brought to you in association with Tandberg
Posted by Greenbang on August 25th, 2008
Those smart pants at Qinetiq are behind this - a solar-powered spy plane that has stayed in the sky for 82 hours.
Imagine if we could sort the carbon trouble around plane flights - guilt-free holidays.
Unfortunately, these spy planes are generally light-weight, carbon fiber jobbies. Not hulking great air buses with 300 people on board, plus luggage, plus pets, plus music gear for playing gigs…
Anyway - it’s bank holiday in the UK today, so things are a little quiet here at Greenbang Towers. So here’s the Guardian story:
“The flight, at the US army’s Yuma ground in Arizona, more than doubled the record time but, since it was done to test the ability of Zephyr to relay ground radio messages, did not fulfil all the requirements of a world record attempt.
However the aircraft’s designers, at the defence firm QinetiQ, in the UK, think the plane could fly indefinitely. “We think the aircraft, in future, will be capable of weeks or months duration,” said Paul Davey, Zephyr’s business development director at QinetiQ.”
Posted by jumperhead on August 22nd, 2008
Second up for the green investment treatment today is US carbon capture, storage and credit bunch Blue Source, which has just unveiled a partnership with Och-Ziff Capital Management Group.
It’s a whacking great big investment at that: $500m. (Although it’s worth noting the hedge fund has $33bn under it’s belt, so $500m is probably not that impressive to them.)
Och Ziff will put that half-a-bilionl towards emission-cutting projects, which Blue Source will manage. Various reports also have Och-Ziff getting a 10 per cent stake in the company too.
Here’s where the cash will go according to the twosome:
The Och-Ziff investment will support Blue Source’s ongoing development of a “carbon highway” of pipeline infrastructure projects across North America that capture, transport and sequester anthropogenic CO2 that would otherwise be vented into the atmosphere. The company will also invest in climate change projects derived from power generation, fertilizer production, advanced energy conservation, natural gas production and methane management from coal mining, wastewater treatment, landfills and animal management.
