Freeing Intellectual Property for the Good of the Planet

With the launch of the Eco-Patent Commons earlier this week, four companies -- IBM, Nokia, Pitney-Bowes and Sony -- joined with the World Business Council on Sustainable Development to do something almost unprecedented: they agreed to relinquish their control over inventions that could benefit the planet in order to spur innovation for the greater good.

Source: GreenBiz Radio

Water Footprint Calculator

Do you know how much water you really use?

http://www.h2oconserve.org/

New Energy Uses for Asphalt

SCHARWOUDE, Netherlands—
A Dutch company (Ooms Avenhorn Holding BV, Civil Engineering) has developed a system to siphon heat from roads and parking lots to heat homes and offices. The Road Energy System is being used throughout the country. Energy collected from a 200 yd (183 m) stretch of road and a small parking lot helps heat a 70-unit, four-story apartment building. A 160,000 ft2 (15 000 m2) industrial park is kept warm in winter with the help of heat stored during the summer from 36,000 ft2 (3300 m2) of pavement. The absorption of solar energy by pavement creates an energy source that can be used despite the normally cloudy Dutch skies.

Source: AP

Climate Counts

Climate Counts is a collaborative effort to bring consumers and companies together in the fight against global climate change. We are a nonprofit organization funded by Stonyfield Farm, Inc. and launched in collaboration with Clean Air-Cool Planet.

As a consumer, you have real power. USE IT.

The Spirit of Now

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The crisis facing humanity today is, at its root, a crisis of consciousness. We are being called to put into practice the perennial wisdom of the ages... This site is offered as a stepping stone in that direction.

People power to warm new building in Stockholm

Body heat rising from the head of an athlete. A project from the Swedish state-held property administration company Jernhuset is planning to use the body heat from hundreds of thousands of people who pass through the Stockholm Central Station each day, to heat a new office building nearby.

"So many people go through the Central Station ... We want to harness some of the warmth they produce to help heat the new building," Karl Sundholm, of the Swedish state-held property administration company Jernhuset, told AFP.

Some 250,000 people pass through the station each day, rushing to catch trains and subways or simply visit the many shops and stores inside. "All people produce heat, and that heat is in fact fairly difficult to get rid of. Instead of opening windows and letting all that heat go to waste we want to harness it through the ventilation system," Sundholm said. He said the body heat would warm up water that in turn would be pumped through pipes over to the new office building, which will also house a small hotel and a few shops and is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2010. "This is old technology, but used in a new way. It's just pipes, water and pumps, but we haven't heard of anyone else using this technology in this way before," he said, adding that Jernhuset expects the system to bring down heating costs in the building by up to 20 percent. Installing the heating system is not expected to be complicated or very costly, Sundholm said, pointing out that laying the necessary pumps and underground pipes might cost a some 200,000 kronor (21,200 euros, 31,200 dollars). "For a large building expected to cost several hundred million kronor to build, that's not that much," he said.

Source: Physorg.com

China announces plastic bag ban

China announces plastic bag ban

The Chinese government says it is banning shops from handing out free plastic bags from June this year, in a bid to curb pollution.
Production of ultra-thin plastic bags will also be banned, the State Council said in a statement.
Instead, people will be encouraged to use baskets or reusable cloth bags for their shopping, the council said.
The move comes amid growing concern about pollution and environmental degradation in China.
China was using huge quantities of plastic bags each year, the State Council, China's cabinet, said in its directive, posted on the main government website.
"Plastic shopping bags, due to reasons such as excessive use and inefficient recycling, have caused serious energy and resources waste and environment pollution," it said.

Easily discarded

Of particular concern were cheap, flimsy bags that many shopkeepers routinely handed out to customers.
"The super-thin bags have especially become a main source of plastic pollution as they are easy to break and thus disposed of carelessly," the statement said.
Shops that violated the new rules could be fined or have their goods confiscated, it said.
The council also called for greater recycling efforts from rubbish collectors, and suggested financial authorities should consider higher taxes on the production and sale of plastic bags.
In recent years, China's rapid development has triggered concerns over pollution and use of resources.
But correspondents say that there is a growing awareness that more needs to be done to protect the environment.

Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7178287.stm

Published: 2008/01/09 07:38:14 GMT

How Green is your candidate?

http://grist.org/feature/2007/07/06/candidates/

Interviews and info on the presidential candidates' energy plans and environmental positions

Presidential Candidates Weigh In on Climate Change

Historically, environmental issues have taken a back seat in national elections. But that appears to be changing. Climate change is moving to the front burner for many of the candidates vying for the Democratic and Republican nominations in 2008. The new awareness results from several factors: A growing consensus among Americans on the left and right that global warming issues must be addressed; concern over imported oil from the Middle East; and the newfound muscle of California's eco-voters, thanks to their state's early primary next year.

Link to complete NPR story

Construction Carbon Calculator

http://buildcarbonneutral.org/

The Construction Carbon Calculator helps developers, builders, architects and land planners approximate the net embodied carbon of a project's structures and site.

Constructing new buildings and sites with the least possible environmental impact involves three important steps: reduce, renew and offset. Offsetting means calculating the project's carbon footprint so it can be balanced by funding resources or activities like renewable energy and land protection — resources that benefit and protect the planet.
This tool estimates the embodied energy and subsequent carbon amounts released during construction. The measurements account for building materials, processes and carbon released due to ecosystem degradation or sequestered through landscape installation or restoration.