Posts Tagged ‘reducing emissions’

Sep

28th

“Greener Living” Checkup for Fall… Easy as 1-2-3


Something about the cool crispness in the air signals change!  It’s time to make some seasonal changes to keep you living green, healthy, and environmentally responsible.

One: Eat Green!  It’s a great time to plant some cool season veggies like spinach, kale, chard, and broccoli.  We have the luxury in Central Texas of a long growing season, and the shorter, cooler days are perfect planting weather for many vegetables.  Google your farmers marketcounty + agricultural extension for a list of times and varieties for your area.  If you aren’t a gardener, check out your local farmers markets where you will find organic, local and seasonal choices.  Better for your health (no pesticides, processing, additives) and better for the environment (less fossil fuel used in transportation and production, less packaging waste).  Buying local offers the added benefit of keeping more money in your local economy!

Two: Protect your indoor air quality

Cooler weather may mean more time indoors, so make sure the air in your home supports your health.  Products we use are the source for a substantial portion of indoor air pollution. Because of this fact, it’s essential to know what’s in the products you buy and opt for the most natural and non-toxic choices.  Call me for a “how to” list for making your own housecleaning products- saves money, packaging, and you won’t be adding pollutants in your home when what you are trying to do holy cow cleaneris make it clean and fresh!

After doing your best to eliminate the source of the pollutants, you should ensure your home is properly ventilated.  Have your HVAC system serviced before cold weather arrives, and check to make sure the air exchange is working optimally so you have the right mix of fresh air coming in.  It’s amazing that our indoor air-where we spend some 90% of our time, is typically more contaminated than outdoor air.  I can recommend an HVAC specialist if you like.  You can also use an air purifier in bedrooms, or to address allergies.

Three:  Conserve Energy!

The cleanest energy is the energy that is never used, so get your home energy efficient and you won’t waste money heating the great outdoors. Get weatherstripping fixed around doors and seal around windows.  Put plug covers on plugs (they are basically holes in your walls!). Consider doing an energy audit.  They are inexpensive and will tell you where you need to spend money to save money.MyUse_homepage For most homes, it’s insulation that offers the most bang for the buck.  Programmable thermostats are a great way to manage the temperature in your home cost effectively, and if you are an Austin Energy customer, there is still a program where you can get one free.  PEC has an online Home Energy Center you can use to evaluate your usage and save money.

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Sep

6th

US Market for Green Building Materials


The US market for green building materials is growing at a fast clip, according to a report from Bharat Books (www.bharatbooks.com).  This market was worth $9.6 billion in 2009, but is expected to grow to $31.4 billion by 2014.  That is a healthy growth rate of 26.7%, and the largest segment of thagreen buildingt, structural materials, is projected to grow by 29.2% in that same time period.   The second largest segment is interior materials, then exterior, with projected growth rates of 24% and 20.6% respectively . 

The scope of the report includes the US market for building products that meet these definitions of ‘green’:

  • made from salvaged, recycled, or agricultural waste content
  • manufactured with resource efficient, environmentally friendly processes (minimize waste, energy consumption, pollutants)
  • benefit the built environment (conserve enegy, reduce indoor pollutants)
  • are recyclable at the end of their useful life

The goal of the report is to identify and prioritize business opportunities for providers of green building materials (and investors) that will increase over the next five years as green building technologies increase their market penetration.  It also offers profiles of the top companies in those markets. 

Buy the report or read more at www.bharatbooks.com

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May

13th

Proposed Bill Applauded by US Energy Leader


WSJ’s Market Watch posted an article saying that the CEO of the nation’s Number One renewable energy provider, applauded the proposed new energy  and climate bill. mw-logo-240x70

Lew Hay, chairman and CEO of FPL Group, a top-five electric power company and No. 1 producer of renewable energy from wind and solar power, issued the following statement today on the energy and climate bill introduced by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.):

“Senators Kerry and Lieberman deserve tremendous credit for crafting a proposal that would move the country in the right direction on energy and climate issues. After years of debate and half measures, the United States still lacks a long-term national energy strategy, leaving us behind other countries in building and exporting the clean energy economy of the future. If we are to continue to lead the world in technological advances, job creation and economic security, we need a new approach. The most essential step — which is at the heart of the American Power Act — is to set a price on carbon dioxide emissions. With a gradually escalating price on carbon that begins to reflect the full social costs of emitting greenhouse gases, the country will make a smooth transition from the high-carbon fuel sources of the past to the next generation of low- and zero-emitting domestic energy sources. No legislation is ever perfect, this bill included, but Sens. Kerry and Lieberman have shown true leadership in their efforts to reach a balanced solution that all parties to this debate should be able to support. We applaud their efforts and look forward to working with them to get a bill signed into law.”

Read the full article: http://tinyurl.com/2avojo2

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Apr

8th

First Affordable Electric Car?


Nissan Leaf: The First Affordable Electric Car?

If you’re wondering when we’ll finally have an all-electric car that’s both affordable and dependable, Nissan may have the answer. The all-electric, five-passenger Leaf sedan goes on sale in December in select markets, with nationwide availability starting in 2011. The Leaf is highway-capable, as it MEN-AM10-gazette-nissan-leaf_resized400X266can top 70 mph, and its range (about 100 miles) more than covers average commutes. But what really sets the Leaf apart from other electric cars is its price. Starting at about $33,000, the Leaf’s price tag can fall to as low as about $25,000 after tax incentives. Actually driving the Leaf will cost significantly less than a comparable gas car. Recharging the Leaf can cost less than $3 per “fill up.” Sound promising?

This article courtesy of Mother Earth News.  To read the full article, go to http://tinyurl.com/yjweqxr

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Jan

17th

EPA:Stricter Smog Pollutants Limits


Excerpts from Washington Post article by Juliet Eilperin

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed stricter limits recently on the amount of pollution-forming ozone allowed in the air, significantly tightening rules the Bush administration had set for the nation’s most widespread air pollutant.

The new rules, which must undergo 60 days of public comment before becoming final, would help determine the quality of the air Americans will breathe for at least a decade. The change, which represents only the third time in nearly 40 years that the standards have been toughened, could cost industry billions, while preventing thousands of premature deaths a decade from now, the EPA maintains.

The stricter standards would limit ozone in the air to 60 to 70 parts per billion for any eight-hour period, down from 75 ppb. Although the percentage change sounds small, Thursday’s move ensures that state and local governments would face a much stricter air quality test in the years ahead.

The final target that the Obama administration adopts will have major implications for the regulations that state and local officials will have to set to meet the new federal requirements, which will become final between 2014 and 2031, depending on the region. Power plants and motor vehicles are significant emitters of pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and other chemical compounds, which form ozone when exposed to sunlight, but sources as small as gas lawn mowers could face new restrictions depending on what EPA chooses as its ultimate goal.

Exposure to ground-level ozone, or smog, is linked to an array of heart and respiratory illnesses. Smog causes burning and inflammation in sensitive tissues and can harm wilderness areas and farm crops by stunting the growth of trees and plants.

“Smog in the air we breathe poses a very serious health threat, especially to children and individuals suffering from asthma and lung disease, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a statement. “Using the best science to strengthen these standards is a long overdue action that will help millions of Americans breathe easier and live healthier.”

EPA also announced that as part of its new smog proposal it will also set a secondary, seasonal limit to protect plants and trees from prolonged exposure to ozone.

S. William Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, said state and local officials are committed to tackling the nation’s smog problem despite the “daunting challenges” doing so poses. “Though the task of putting new, better standards into practice won’t be easy, it will most certainly be worth it,” he said.

But the administration’s plan could spark resistance among industries that will face new regulatory requirements, including utilities that have already cut their nitrogen oxide emissions in recent years.

Edison Electric Institute spokesman Dan Riedinger, whose group represents the majority of electricity generators in the United States, said “there’s huge uncertainty about what this and other regulatory requirements will entail for utilities and other sectors.”

Children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to smog: Studies show that children who grow up in areas with high ozone concentrations never develop the same lung capacity as those who live in less polluted areas, and that they are more likely to develop asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

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Jan

9th

Warming Car Engines…Gas Waster or Good?


Is it best to let your car warm up in the morning when it’s really cold? Or does that just waste gas?

Although you might think it’s easier on your car to let it sit and gently warm up, doing so is a bad idea for a number of reasons. Most importantly, it does indeed waste gas.

The vast majority of cars on the road today use electronic fuel injection. When your car’s engine is cold, the computer tells the fuel injectors to stay open longer, allowing more fuel into the engine to help it run cold. As the engine warms up, the injectors let in less fuel and everything returns to normal, so to speak. 

The problem is, letting your car sit and idle is the slowest way to bring it up to operating temperature because it’s generally sitting in your drive at just above idle speed. And this method to warm up also invites other problems. Remember that modern cars are equipped with a multitude of devices to help them run clean, including a catalytic converter (sometimes three of them), a device in the exhaust system that works to burn off unburned hydrocarbons in the exhaust stream. A cold engine emits a far higher percentage of unburned hydrocarbons than a warm engine. Unfortunately, the average catalytic converter can’t process 100 percent of unburned hydrocarbons even in the best of times. Importantly, the catalytic converter needs high exhaust temperatures to work properly. Throw in a cold engine emitting a high percentage of unburned hydrocarbons, repeat several hundred times, and you can end up with what’s called a “plugged” converter. In a nutshell, the converter becomes overwhelmed and literally ceases to function. This won’t happen all at once but over time, the end effect is the same: poor mileage and significantly dirtier exhaust.

The best bet? Even when it’s 10 degrees F outside, start your car, let it run for 30 to 60 seconds to get all the fluids moving, then drive off gently. Your engine will warm up faster, your exhaust system will get up to temperature faster so the catalytic converter can do its thing, and you’ll use less fuel. Which is what you wanted all along anyhow, right?

If it’s below zero outside, it would be a good idea to give the engine five minutes or a little less before you drive off into the frozen wilderness!

— Richard Backus, editor in chief, Gas Engine and Motorcycle Classics magazines

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Jan

2nd

New Climate Change Policy? Displacement.


The Copenhagen climate change meeting might actually turn out to be a success over time. China introduced their plan to limit green house gas emissions which was embraced by most of the world with the exception of Europe and the United States, although Barack Obama made some favorable comments about the Chinese plan.

So what is the Chinese plan? Basically it is one of energy displacement without any caps on emissions. They plan on radically increasing the amount of energy that they will produce from renewable resources (wind, solar, and even nuclear) but will not agree to any caps on carbon emissions. The idea is that renewable energy will always be used before a utility will turn to burning fossil fuel to generate electricity. The more renewable energy you build, the less fossil fuel you burn based on a given demand. If you can grow your renewable infrastructure to the point where you are increasing your renewable energy capacity faster than your electric demand then you will start reducing carbon emissions.

China currently receives only a tiny fraction of its electric power from renewable sources (other than hydroelectric). They will try to double their renewable energy production each year for the foreseeable future. It will take many years of doubling to reach an equilibrium point with an economy growing 10% per year. They talk about reducing the carbon output for each unit of production.

Why are the Chinese using this approach? Cap and trade just doesn’t work for them. They can’t put carbon limits on an economy that is growing 10% per year. If the caps really worked, their growth rate would decline substantially. They are not willing to give up the growth which provides jobs for the hundreds of millions of Chinese looking for work to move out of poverty.

To implement this policy of displacement, the Chinese government had decreed that power companies must buy all of the renewable energy produced even if the price of that energy is higher than the price of energy produced from fossil fuels. Note that the price renewable energy producers can charge is regulated by the government but is typically set at a price that provides a decent return for the company. China will also provide fast approval for renewable projects and will work to build out their electric grid to connect new power sources.

The First Solar deal with China to build 20 GigaWatts of solar collectors by the year 2020 is a good example of this policy at work. China guaranteed First Solar a rate tariff on the electricity produced that would make them a profit if they would build a factory in China to produce the panels. China will build the transmission lines to get the power to market for them. In 2020 China will have 20 GigaWatts for solar power which will mean they will product 20 GigaWatts less power from fossil fuels when the sun shines.

The displacement policy means Chinese wind and solar system producers are gearing up to increase production dramatically. This high consistent demand is allowing them to use scale to drive down manufacturing costs. One day renewable may become cost effective as a power source compared to fossil fuels and China won’t have to subsidize their production. In the mean time China creates whole new industries with tremendous export potential and thousands (millions?) of new jobs. They also don’t have to be heavy handed with energy consumers. Consumers will pay a slightly higher price for electricity as the utility companies pass through the higher prices they pay for renewable power.

Read more at Examiner.com:  http://tinyurl.com/y85gcks

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Dec

17th

On Buildings and Climate Change…


The importance of energy-efficient buildings in mitigating effects of climate change was highlighted Friday at the climate conference currently taking place in Copenhagen. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released a report Dec. 11 urging that buildings be considered as a major component of any strategy concerning emissions reduction.

UNEP’s report, “Buildings and Climate Change – Summary for Decision Makers,” emphasizes that buildings are an area of great potential to impact climate change. The report is a result of three years of study by the UNEP Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative (SBCI), a think tank and partnership between the United Nations and leading companies and organizations in the building sector.

Buildings account for more than 30 percent of worldwide energy use. Fortunately, buildings present vast opportunities to reduce energy consumption and related greenhouse gas emissions. Globally, buildings generate the equivalent of 8.6 billion tons of CO2 a year, according to the report, and this amount is expected to nearly double over the next two decades. Population growth and urbanization are cited as the impetus for new construction growth.

For example, new construction in China over the next ten years will be so prolific that it will equal the size of all existing buildings in the United States, the report says. Investment in new buildings is also expected in South Africa. UNEP warns booms like these will likely double the amount of pollution associated with energy use in buildings.

Along with the report, the climate summit served as the debut of SBCI’s global Common Carbon Metric for Buildings to measure energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions of buildings. The new metrics were created in conjunction with the International Energy Agency, International Standardization organization, World Green Building Council, International Initiative for the Sustainable Built Environment and Sustainable Buildings Alliance as well as private sector companies and associations.

This information adapted from greenandsave.com News

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Dec

8th

The Prius Effect


This is a great article written by Bryan Welch, Editor of Mother Earth News, that describes a phenomenon that is worth attention about how consumers “vote” with their dollars…

2010-prius

The experts at the Toyota Motor Co. were persistently wrong about the Prius. They seriously underestimated how popular it would be.

When it appeared in Japan in 1997, the world’s first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid car was not immediately recognized as a serious automotive challenge to the omnipresence of the internal-combustion engine.

The car was introduced to Japanese drivers in 1997. About 18,000 sold that year. On Earth Day, 2000, Toyota announced that the car was on its way to the United States, and the first American drivers stepped into their new hybrid cars in August.

Throughout the next five years, the only way to get hold of a Prius in the United States was by preordering one from the manufacturer. The waiting time for a new Prius was often more than six months. Its popularity was not based on economic necessity. When the new car first launched in the United States, gas was cheap. At that time, regular gasoline was selling for about $1.30 a gallon and inefficient SUVs were in their heyday. Toyota would debut a website via which car buyers could make a “pioneer purchase” of the Prius. About 6,000 American consumers signed up and got their hands on a Prius that first year, and about 20,000 sold worldwide, most of them in Japan. In 2001, 29,000 Priuses sold worldwide. By 2007, Toyota was selling 10 times that — 181,000 cars in the United States alone. And people kept putting their names on the waiting lists. Those sales numbers would have been much higher if production had kept pace with demand.

No other hybrid or fuel efficient car has been nearly as successful. The Toyota Yaris, which gets 80 percent of the Prius gas mileage and costs about half as much as a Prius, sold about half as many units in 2008. At 2008 fuel prices, you would have to drive your Prius at least 50,000 miles before the price difference was paid off in fuel savings.

The Honda Civic Hybrid was a dud in comparison to the Prius. Although its price and fuel efficiency were comparable, the car sold about 20 percent as many units in 2007. Compared with the 159,000 Priuses sold in the United States during 2008, Honda sold about 31,000 Civic Hybrids.

The Civic’s gass mileage, price, technology, reliability and overall quality were all comparable to the Prius. The biggest distinction between the two vehicles was their appearance. The Civic Hybrid looks like any other Civic, except that it has a little “Hybrid” emblem on its back end and a higher sticker price. The Prius looks like, well, a Prius. It’s perfectly recognizable from half a mile away.

So why would the Prius outsell the Civic Hybrid by a factor of five to one? Because the Prius is cool. Its wonky design instantaneously became a symbol for environmental awareness. Driving around in Prius projects the driver’s identity as a person who cares about the planet, and enjoys new technology. The same could be said of the buyers of any hybrid, but the Prius design projects the message more effectively. So the Prius is cool.

Read the rest here: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Rancho-Cappuccino/Toyota-Prius-Effect.aspx?utm_content=12.07.09+HE&utm_campaign=HE&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email

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Jul

14th

Technology for a Low Carbon Future


This report from The Climate Group finds that scaling up energy efficiency and renewable energy while avoiding deforestation can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the short term, and are much-needed steps to achieve global climate goals. Low Carbon Report

From the executive summary:

In recent years the scientific evidence on climate change has become increasingly clear: it is now almost universally accepted that, in order to minimise the risk of irreversible damage to our planet and our livelihoods, we need to strive to keep the average global temperature increase below 2°C. it is also widely recognised that, to achieve this, we will need to peak global emissions before 2020 and then reduce them by 50-85% below 2000 levels, setting interim targets along the way.

Likewise, the political will to act is in place. Heads of government from all parts of the world have declared their willingness to adopt ambitious emissions targets, both individually and collectively, but have wanted to be sure that such goals, while certainly challenging, are practically achievable. This report shows that this is indeed the case.

From analysis of the current status of the major abatement solutions, we draw five major conclusions:

1.We know the technologies we need, where to deploy them and the investment required.
2. The technologies required to meet our 2020 goals are already proven, available now and the policies needed to implement them known.
3. Investment now in the technologies of the future order is essential if we are to meet longer-term targets.
4. Financial support will be needed to enable global deployment of low-carbon technologies but the non-climate benefits are also significant.
5. Copenhagen can provide the spur for international collaboration that will bring costs down and accelerate diffusion and deployment.

Successfully reducing emissions to prevent dangerous climate change is without doubt a huge challenge and will require a revolution in the way we produce and consume energy, travel and design and manage our urban and rural environments. However, the pathway to this revolution is clear and, by means of ambitious international collaboration to develop and deploy low-carbon technologies, well within our grasp. We know what we have to do; this report shows us how.

Click Here to Download Full Report:

http://www.greenerbuildings.com/files/document/Technology_for_a_low_carbon_future_report.pdf

Article courtesy of Greener Buildings

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