Apps were created for two reasons: to entertain you and to make your life easier. There are thousands of different apps for the Droid and iPhone market to make every aspects of your life simpler like travel, shopping, eating and exercising. But there are apps out there that can not only help you but the world we live in. Downloading apps that could potentially help your quest to save the environment just got easier; here are few apps to download:

Light Bulb Finder: A huge way to help the environment (and your energy bill) is too change out your home’s light bulbs to more energy efficient bulbs. Light Bulb Finder is easy to use and helps you to find the best and most energy efficient bulb replacement for whatever type of light you own. Another feature is the ability to purchase the light bulb through the app or help you find at your local retail store! Free. Available for Droid and iPhone users.

iRecycle: Just about anything and everything can be recycled or reused. iRecycle is an easy to use recycling app that shows you how to and where to recycle an item or product. Choose from their menu and based on your location or zip code, find where to drop off your item. Also you can read eco-friendly news and articles with this app. Free. Available for Droid and iPhone users.

Locavore: An awesome app for the foodies out there. Based on your location, Locavore will point you to the nearest farm or farmers market. Also find out what foods are in season and view a delicious collection of recipes displaying different in season foods. Sounds yummy! Free. Available for Droid and iPhone users.

Treehugger: Based on the very popular and ecofriendly, the team from www.treehugger.com created an app and good one at that! Stay abreast of all things green with news stories, Twitter feeds, podcasts and special articles. Now go hug the nearest tree. Free. Available for Droid and iPhone users.

Not only are all these apps free and available for iPhones and Android users, but they are apps that actually make a difference. Download now and save the environment one app at a time. Happy green downloading!

Article by Laura Backes. Laura enjoys writing about all kinds of subjects and also topics related to internet providers in her area. You can reach her at: laurabackes8@gmail.com.

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It is hard to believe there was a time when we, as a united people on Planet Earth, didn’t really focus on the environment. However, it really wasn’t until 1970 that the collective global eye turned towards the environment and how the global human footprint was making a forever-impact.

In 1972, the United Nations took notice and held the Conference on the Human Environment. Soon enough, diverse constituencies ranging from companies and regulatory bodies to consumers and activists realized there had to be a common framework for talking about the environment, monitoring impacts, and improving how human beings treat the only planet we call home.

It took almost 25 years but, in 1996, the United Nations was able to pass the ISO 14000 family of standards. Today, it is used in about 160 nations. ISO 14000 mirrored what ISO 9000 standards accomplished for quality. Thanks to ISO 9000, everyone, no matter the nation, industry, company, or department, approached quality from the same points of reference.

The ISO 14000 series was developed by the International Organization for Standardization as a multi-purpose tool. To begin with, standard concepts and terminology was created to allow many countries to “speak the same language” when it came to organizational processes and how they were affecting the environment.

It stands to reason that if it could work for global quality issues, it could work for common goals relating to the environment. That’s why, when it comes to sustainability, with a common framework, the private sector, government, and nonprofits can also make faster progress. With these standards in place, countries and companies can address these issues more easily internally as well as externally with international and nation regulatory bodies, consumers, the public, and funding sources — be they investors or foundations.

Secondly, the basic ISO 14001 standard provides guidelines for improving environmental performance. Participation is voluntary. The initial step is a review or gap analysis of all the organization’s processes and what might be on the drawing board. It’s a broad set of guidelines — extending from internal operations such as production to sourcing of raw materials. However, it works because, based on the findings, targets are established. Such analysis and goal-setting also serve as a standard way to comply with and report to regulatory bodies and conduct remedial action.

The third way the tool works is through implementing the plan. Seems obvious, but that’s a major undertaking. Executives have to buy in and then employees have to be trained. A new language is introduced and then systems, procedures, and practices are modified or eliminated if they fail to meet goals. Finally, measurement becomes routine.

The fourth function is continuous improvement. Usually that includes expanding the effort and raising the bar on expectations. At that point, the organization builds sustainability into its overall strategy. There it can become innovative and perhaps even launch breakthrough approaches.

The payoff of basic ISO 14001 can be profound.
• Organizations have clear guidelines for establishing environmental policy.
• Process changes usually reduce electricity costs.
• Compliance and reporting are easier and less expensive.
• Stakeholders are satisfied that sustainability is being addressed and the risk of environmental crisis minimal.

The other ISO 14000 standards are applied for specific functions such as labeling and auditing.

Global standards forge common goals, that’s for certain. But the real work starts at home – in your own backyard. As you “go global’ with your environmental efforts, take the time to measure energy use to make sure your own companies’ systems are in order. A properly working HVAC system, for example, will keep occupants cool in the summer and warm in the winter. However, perhaps most importantly, it will keep utility costs under control every season of the year.

Article by Bari Faye Siegel, a technology writer and marketing consultant at Noveda Technologies, an innovative leader in real-time, web-based energy management, solar PV monitoring and water management. Noveda also offers real-time collaboration tools that leverage social media to educate and empower stakeholder communities and make the smart grid a reality today. For more information, visit www.noveda.com.

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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is outdated and counterproductive to successful enterprise and the global sustainability imperative.

CSR encourages us to incorporate environmental and social considerations into a business-as-usual scenario. This is the triple bottom line approach and is often depicted with three overlapping circles representing economy, society, and environment.

This is a flawed paradigm.

In fact, economy, society, and environment are not three equal parts, but function like nested eggs. The economy occurs within human society, which in turn exists within the natural environment. The natural capital provided by the Earth sustains everything that exists within it. Accordingly, almost every global mega-trend tells us that without a radical transformation of the way we conduct business, a wide variety of risks and pressures will continue to harm profitability across the board.

Speaking metaphorically, the car we are driving is heading toward a cliff. By adopting CSR in its current form, we are softly applying the brakes and only buying ourselves a little more time. In this scenario, going over the cliff is inevitable and simply a matter of time.

Instead, we should be focused on turning the car around.

Most companies continue to ask themselves: “Based on our business plan, what should our CSR strategy be?” But to succeed in the future, businesses must instead ask: “In light of the global sustainability imperative, what should our business plan be?” Massive opportunities await the organizations that come to grips with the root causes of unsustainability and design them out of their businesses.

Companies like Nike, Interface, and The Co-operators are leading the way with sustainability as a mobilizing corporate strategy, increasing their profits, while generating substantial goodwill, and laying the foundation to be relevant in a sustainable future. The leaders in corporate sustainability will thrive as the operating environment inevitably becomes more difficult, leaving the laggards to perish in their wake.

We need to collectively acknowledge that we aren’t doing nearly enough to succeed in the rapidly changing economy of the 21st century, nor enough to create a society that thrives without drawing down our life-giving natural capital.

Incremental improvements are not enough. We are in need of transformational change. Now is the time for Canadian businesses to exit the highway of unsustainability and chart a new course.

Article by Chad Park, Executive Director of The Natural Step Canada, a non-profit sustainability organization that delivers leading consulting and education services. He was recently honoured as one of Canada’s Clean16—the 16 individuals in Canada who have done the most to advance the cause of sustainability and clean capitalism. For more on The Natural Step Canada, please visit www.thenaturalstep.org/canada.

Article appearing courtesy 3BL Media.

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As the last days of the year wind down, Congress scurries around to finish its unfinished business, almost always with "surprises" for the regulated community. 

The House appropriations committee issued a final version of the 2012 Omnibus spending bill last week.  It has, of course, significant implications for energy and environment spending, particularly spending related to climate change.

The omnibus bill cuts spending on climate change programs, prohibits the appointment of a Federal "Climate Change Czar" and cuts spending on climate change research.

Most stunning, of course, are changes to EPA funding.  The summary of the omnibus bill issued by the House appropriations committee states that EPA funding has been reduced by almost 19% in 2011:

The conference agreement funds EPA at $8.4 billion, which is a $233 million reduction below the FY 2011 enacted level and $524 million below the President’s request. Overall, funding for EPA has been reduced by $1.8 billion (-18.4%) in calendar year 2011.

The conference agreement cuts $14 million (-6%) in clean air and climate research programs; $12 million (-9.5%) in EPA’s regulatory development office; and $14 million (-5%) to air regulatory programs. In addition, the bill includes:

• A 33% reduction to the EPA Administrator’s immediate office;
• A $101 million reduction for the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, which received $6 billion in “stimulus” funding;
•  A $78 million reduction for EPA operations/administration, which includes $41 million
• (-5%) in cuts to EPA’s regulatory programs;
• A $14 million (-6.2%) reduction for uncoordinated climate and other air research; and
•  An elimination of $4 million in funding that EPA has used to delay the processing of Appalachian mining permits.

These are some other provisions in the omnibus bill that impact the green building community:

1. Funding for CBECS may be restored–Funding for the Commercial Building Energy which was defunded this year may be restored, paving the way for updating the baseline building energy data at the heart of Energy Star. Division B, Title III on page 44 provides $105,000,000 for the Energy Information Administration. 
2. New energy efficient lighting standards won’t go into effect– The omnibus bill includes a rider which would prevent the new energy efficient lighting standards from going into effect on January 1st, and actually rolls back standards in effect since 2008 for floodlights. 
3. Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program has $0.00 appropriated for 2012.  The loan guarantees are for eligible clean energy projects (i.e., agreeing to repay the borrower’s debt obligation in the event of a default), and by providing direct loans to eligible manufacturers of advanced technology vehicles and components. 
4. Appointment of Administration “Czars” for climate change and urban affairs prohibited.

A full version of the final bill is available here, a summary from the appropriations committee is here.

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There is nothing magic about the number 7 billion, which, according to the United Nations, became the population of planet Earth sometime earlier this week. The resources available to feed, clothe, house and transport the world’s people aren’t stretched far thinner today than they were yesterday. But it’s good to have milestones like this to cause us to think about where we’re going.

As discussed in this NPR segment, the critical pinch points of a growing population are not so much associated with running out of room, but running out of stuff. The populations that are growing fastest, those in India and Africa, are going to want to live like we do here in the US, i.e., as mega-consumers.

So what’s the big deal? Well, it’s that delivering on that promise of lots of stuff requires vast amounts of energy that currently can come only from fossil fuels and nuclear, all of which come with significant costs to the health and safety of our environment – as well as to us personally.

As physicist Dan Kammen, head of an energy laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley notes, “What’s needed is renewable energy that’s cheap and won’t run out. But by essentially every measure, we’re not moving fast enough.”

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In many parts of the world, including areas of India, central Asia and the Sahara desert where the climate is arid and the landscape barren, these standing crops can soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into oxygen. The new research is soon to be published in the European Journal of Plant Science and Biotechnology.

Though maintaining our current forests is a necessary initiative, Prof. Eshel says, it is not enough to off-set human carbon output. In their quest to create forests that diminish carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, many countries have been converting fertile agricultural lands into forests. But these researchers believed that encouraging growth on a piece of land that was traditionally barren, such as desert land, was a step in a better direction.

To conserve fresh water, the researchers used relatively poor quality water considered, such as recycled sewage water and salt water that was the by-product of inland desalination plants. The final piece of the puzzle was to find a plant hearty enough to successfully grow in the desert. The researchers turned to Tamarix, a botanical genus that includes salt cedar trees and is indigenous to the old-world deserts. Some 150 different varieties of the botanical genus were used, grown in both a common garden setting and in densities that mimicked commercial crops.

The genus Tamarix (tamarisk, salt cedar) is composed of about 50-60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia and Africa. They are evergreen or deciduous shrubs or trees growing to 1—18 m in height and forming dense thickets. The largest, Tamarix aphylla, is an evergreen tree that can grow to 18 m tall. They usually grow on saline soils, tolerating up to 15,000 ppm soluble salt and can also tolerate alkali conditions.

Tamarisks are characterized by slender branches and grey-green foliage. The bark of young branches is smooth and reddish-brown. As the plants age, the bark becomes bluish-purple, ridged and furrowed. The leaves are scale-like, 1—2 mm long, and overlap each other along the stem. They are often encrusted with salt secretions. The pink to white flowers appear in dense masses on 5—10 cm long spikes at branch tips from March to September, though some species tend to flower during the winter.

With the first harvest of trees just last summer, researchers have much to process, including analyzing the amount of carbon dioxide the crops have successfully captured from the atmosphere. The answers will determine how much carbon such a crop can offset.

The cut trees themselves might also be used as a source of renewable energy. These biomass or biofuel crops, derived from natural crops, could help to reduce dependence on traditional fossil fuels such as coal. But the question of where to grow crops dedicated to fuel production had to be addressed, since converting agricultural land could have the side effect of creating food shortages.

Arid and previously unused desert lands provide an ideal solution, Prof. Eshel says. To make his approach economically feasible, much more land would be needed than Israel can provide. But similar tracts of land, such as the Sahara Desert, are big enough to grow these types of crops on a larger scale. He adds that what has been done in the Israeli desert can be replicated elsewhere to great effect.

Article appearing courtesy ENN.com .

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For the Win is a guest blog series featuring the remarkable initiatives that young Americans are advancing to win the future for their communities. Each week we highlight a new young person and learn about their inspiring work through their own words. Submit your story to appear in the For the Win guest blog series.

Jonny Cohen is a junior at Highland Park High School in Highland Park, Il. He is an inventor and experimenter as well as the founder of GreenShields. He is constantly working to help the environment. Jonny is a member of the 2011 PARADE All-America High School Service Team, an award recognizing outstanding young service leaders presented by PARADE Magazine in partnership with generationOn, the global youth service division of Points of Light Institute:

When I walk to school, I notice things. In seventh grade I noticed that school buses parked in front of my junior high were spewing exhaust and something had to be done to make this better. Then it hit me! The shape of the school bus was not aerodynamic. I had taken a Saturday class in aerodynamics at Northwestern University. I thought that maybe a shield angled on the front of the school bus that was clear and plastic could redirect the airflow and this could save gas. I told my older sister, Azza, and she liked the idea. (Side note: there were a lot of other ideas that involved loud noises and homemade rockets that she was not a fan of!)

I went to see Mr. Kunal Pujara, the physics teacher at Highland Park High School and he encouraged me to explore more. I entered a Youth Venture science contest, won a grant and built my own wind tunnel in the garage with a leaf blower to test school bus models. I knew I needed a team, so I asked Azza and her friends to help. I went to a Youth Venture Summit and met with other inspiring teens, which encouraged me to enter the Pepsi Refresh contest, where I won another grant. To receive the Pepsi grant I used Facebook and emailed everyone I knew to get people to vote for my project. I never thought I could win! Online voting seemed impossible and I didn’t want to bother people. But you know what? I pushed myself. I sat in the grocery store on weekends and I made presentations at city hall, all the while asking people in my town to vote for my idea so I could get the funding I needed!

In March of my freshman year I was notified that I had won a $25,000 grant and was interviewed on Good Morning America! The computer drawings I brought with me were made by my friend and fellow student team member, Alex Berkowitz. We worked all weekend on them and I was so excited! I realized that I could finally build and test my idea, but I knew that I needed more smart people to help me. I sent out emails and Northwestern University answered. For the past two summers I have had the privilege to work on this project, which I have since named GreenShields with project advisor, Stacy Benjamin and engineering interns, Tim Healy and Matt Filak. There have been ups and downs but that is exactly what makes solving a problem fun.  

The first prototype worked, we saved about 28 percent gas mileage, but it was big, heavy and took time to install. We have been working to make it smaller, lighter and easier to attach. We tested other materials, some worked and some didn’t. We are considering a new scoop design. This is engineering and we need to keep trying until we find an answer.

The most important lesson that I’ve learned is that it’s ok to think up crazy ideas and share them, even when other people might think it’s not possible. As I always say, try to see things not the way they are, but how they could be. Don't be afraid to think or say something different. That crazy idea of yours just might help solve a problem for the environment and the world!  

Photo courtesy of Points of Light Institute

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Wind mills are a clean alternative energy supply but not everyone agrees. The Rhode Island General Assembly’s newly enacted laws facilitating the siting, construction and power-purchase agreements for commercial-grade renewable energy projects took a big hit this week. On September 12th, the town of Charlestown, Rhode Island became a U.S. trendsetter in the renewable energy sector when the Town Council voted to pass the first-in-the-country ban on any size or type of electricity-generating wind turbines. The sweeping prohibition applies to large commercial turbines as well as smaller, residential models.

After working for three years to craft an ordinance that was acceptable to residents, the most recent, and heavily redacted, incarnation of the town’s wind ordinance was passed by a vote of 3 to 2. Council members Greg Avedisian and Marjorie Frank were the dissenting votes, while members Lisa DiBello, Dan Slattery and President Thomas Gentz all cast “yea” votes on the ban.

The idea for an outright ban was borne of the mind of town solicitor Peter Ruggiero. This month would have marked the one-year anniversary of the previous moratorium on wind-turbine construction. According to Ruggiero, Rhode Island case law insists moratoria, by legal definition, should be short term, stopgap measures to allow local governments more time to craft sufficient and efficient ordinances.

“It is better, from a legal standpoint, for the town to enact the ban, and work on crafting a new wind ordinance from the ground up,” Ruggiero said.

When the Town Council was asked by former member Deborah Carney how long the ban was expected to be in place, Councilman Dan Slattery stated that the residential turbine ordinance should be ready in three months and an ordinance concerning commercial turbines should take no more than a year to write. The implied concern was to install wind mills with minimal impact on people’s health or the environment where there has been some controversy.

As the 21st century began, rising concerns over energy security, global warming, and eventual fossil fuel depletion led to an expansion of interest in all available forms of renewable energy. Worldwide there are now many thousands of wind turbines operating, with a total nameplate capacity of 194,400 MW. Europe accounted for 48% of the total in 2009.

A 2009 expert panel review, described as being the most comprehensive to date, delved into the possible adverse health effects of those living close to wind turbines. Their report findings concluded that wind turbines do not directly make people ill.

The 85-page study was sponsored by the Canadian Wind Energy Association and American Wind Energy Association. The academic and medical experts who conducted the study stated that they reached their conclusions independent of their sponsors.

The study did allow that some people could experience stress or irritation caused by the swishing sounds wind turbines produce. “A small minority of those exposed report annoyance and stress associated with noise perception…” [however] “Annoyance is not a disease.” The study group pointed out that similar irritations are produced by local and highway vehicles, as well as from industrial operations and aircraft.

Article by Andy Soos, appearing courtesy Environmental News Network.

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I wrote back in January about how more private sector jobs had been created in 2010 than in Bush’s entire 8 years in office. I think this was a significant accomplishment. But there were and are a number of things hindering continued growth, some more complicated than others. But knowing how American voters vote (i.e. with the economy), Obama’s got to find a way to address everything he can to get his job groove back and get re-elected in 2012.

Environmental Regulations are Good for the Economy & Jobs

First things first, environmental regulations create jobs. Of course, the Tea Party won’t tell you this, as its whole (stated) agenda is to limit government efforts to clean up industry.

Numerous macro-scale and micro-sale studies have shown that environmental regulations over the last 10+ years have spurred great economic growth and created numerous jobs. And why wouldn’t they? They make industry develop cleaner technologies (which creates jobs). They make industry do more to take care of the environment we all rely on (which creates jobs). A report by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) found, last year, that clean air and clean water regulations cost the U.S. about $26 to $29 billion from 1999-2009, but their benefits ranged from $82 to $533 billion.

Furthermore, if you think about the thousands and thousands of endangered plants and animals and maintaining healthy biodiversity in the world, it takes people to monitor these endangered species and ensure that they survive.

Larger, Macro-scale Job Issues

Next, it’s worth pointing out that we’re facing job trends far beyond the realm of the Obama administration, and have been for a long time. As Fareed Zakaria of the Chicago Times nicely summarizes,

… for 20 years, America has had huge difficulties creating jobs. After every recession since the Second World War, once gross domestic product recovered to pre-recession levels, employment also returned to pre-recession levels within about six months.

Wow, right? But that’s not all. A lot of our previous job growth was in government and healthcare, which can’t keep growing at the rates they were.

While the causes for these long-term trends are not certain, two big factors are widely considered to be a large factor:

1. the tremendous growth of IT over the past couple decades has reduced the need for human employees in many businesses and sectors;

2. globalization and relaxing of trade regulations has made it very easy and financially logical for U.S. businesses to relocate many of their jobs overseas to countries where they can pay much less for the work.

How could Obama tackle such phenomena? That’s a hard question.

The Tea Party

I think it’s clear to anyone who has looked into the matter at all that two of our best options for creating good, long-term jobs in the U.S. are by 1. making the U.S. a clean energy research, development, and manufacturing center and 2. investing in large, long-term infrastructure projects (which are sorely needed anyway).

These are probably two of our best hopes for job creation. Cutting taxes for large businesses and the richest of the rich is not going to help. They are already raking in record-breaking profits. If they wanted to spend more money and create jobs in the process, they could now. They’re not.

While Obama has had some success in creating jobs through clean energy investment and environmental regulations, it has been a central goal of the Tea-Party-led Republican party from day one of his presidency (or before that) to make sure he does not succeed, to make Obama a one-term president. That does seem to override it’s supposed interest in creating U.S. jobs and it has held numerous job-creation policies of the Obama administration hostage or trimmed them down so much that the were less than effective.

The fact that making Obama a failure is in line with letting industry pollute at an unprecedented rate makes it that much easier for the Tea Party to block Obama’s best hopes for economic success. Global citizens, Tea Party leaders are not. Solar and wind power pioneers, Tea Party leaders are not. U.S. job creators, Tea Party leaders are not. Protecters of the wealthiest of the wealthy, Tea Party leaders seem to be. And, for now, Obama can’t get much done with them controlling so much of Congress.

But, if he doesn’t find a way to have more influence, exert more power, he could be out of a job in 2012 as well. Peter Nicholas of the LATimes reports:

Pollster Stanley B. Greenberg, who polled for Clinton’s White House, said voters had little patience for political leaders who limited policy proposals to what the opposition would support. “White House officials can “get trapped in ‘what can get through Congress’ and the constraints of that debate,” Greenberg said, recalling similar arguments in the Clinton years. “Voters want you to break out of that” and answer the question, “What are you battling for?” he said.

Article by Zachary Shahan, appearing courtesy ecopolitology.

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Water is one of the big environmental themes and it’s becoming increasingly important in discussions as the issue of scarcity poses a serious threat to sustainability in the 21st century.

With this issue in mind, an organization called travel2change has launched a worldwide innovation contest to identify and fund the most creative ideas or proposals for improving the sustainable management of water in travel destinations.

Proposals can be submitted for any travel destination in any country and should fit in the health, environment, education and sport categories. The ideas pool section of the website gives an idea of what people have people logging on the travel2change social network-style website.

The idea is “to generate meaningful and sustainable proposals about how travelers can make a positive impact on the lives of local communities. The interaction between travelers and host communities is encouraged in order to do something “with” as well as “for” the locals. The emphasis is on sustainable project ideas that rethink travel around the theme of water”, the organizers of the competition say.

The contestant with the best idea on each category will be awarded a trip to the country chosen for the project proposal along with support so that their idea can actually become a reality. An additional participant, chosen to have made the most valuable contributions and comments, will be able to join whichever winning trip they choose from the four categories.

The deadline for the first contest is July 10. The ideas will be evaluated on the basis of of creativity, effectiveness, impact, feasibility and sustainability.

We’ll be watching this space to see if anyone combines alternative energy and water conservation.

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

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