Cleantech
The latest products, services and cleantech applications and how they are tackling some of our most pressing social and environmental issues.
AT&T, GE Developing Next-Gen Smart Energy Solutions for ‘Internet of Things”
AT&T and GE have announced a collaboration to create the next generation of smart energy solutions for the industrial Internet of Things (IoT), helping to improve the way the energy industry works.The companies say they are jointly working on proof of concepts at the AT&T IoT Foundry in Plano, Texas.
'Clicking Clean:' The Overlooked Opportunity and Scalable Benefits of Sustainable Web Design
A few interesting facts:
IBM, Mars Launch New Data-Driven Effort to Advance Global Food Safety
Scientists from IBM Research and Mars have established a new collaborative food safety platform aimed at leveraging advances in genomics to further the understanding of what makes food safe.The Consortium for Sequencing the Food Supply Chain will conduct the largest-ever metagenomics study to categorize and understand microorganisms and the factors that influence their activity in a normal, safe factory environment. IBM and Mars say this work could be extended into the larger context of the food supply chain — from farm to fork — and lead to new insights into how microorganisms interact within a factory ecology and be better-controlled by new data and science-driven practices.
UK Tool Shows Long-Term Climate Impacts on Energy, Land and Food Systems
The United Kingdom government has launched a new tool to help businesses and governments understand the environmental impacts of energy and emissions policies.The Global Calculator — produced with input from more than 150 experts worldwide — is a model of the world's energy, land and food systems that allows users to design their own version of the future up to 2050 and see the implications for the climate.Soft launched in 2010, the online tool has previously only been used exclusively by governments such as China and India. China has been using the calculator to support the development of its economic and energy strategy, and to train officials on the energy challenges it faces.
WRI Guide Helps Companies Report Emissions From Low-Carbon Electricity Purchases
The World Resources Institute (WRI) has unveiled new guidance for companies to measure emissions from purchased electricity.The first major update to the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard responds to the rapid growth of renewable energy and other major shifts in the electricity market, WRI says. The GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance provides a consistent, transparent way for companies to show how different types of electricity purchases count toward their emissions targets, and will inform corporate decisions on what kind of energy should power their business.
Dow, TNC Building Tool to Help Companies Better Understand Value of Natural Capital
Dow and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) have designed a new tool to help companies estimate the business value from nature on and adjacent to their sites, as well as the public value from lands on-site, according to a new progress report on Dow and TNC's six-year Collaboration.
UK Project Develops New Process to Recycle Fuel Cell Components
Recovery specialist Axion Consulting, Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells Limited and Technical Fibre Products (TFP) have developed a new recycling process to recover high-value materials from waste fuel cells.Funded by Innovate UK, the UK government's innovation agency, the Recover project aims to establish the technical and economic feasibility of recovery and reuse of high value materials from fuel cell membrane electrode assemblies and ultimately to establish the potential for a new UK-based global recycling business.
Report: Consumer Products, Manufacturing Sectors Enjoying Best Financial Returns on Solar
Consumer products, manufacturing and heavy industry sectors are getting the best financial returns on solar power—the most popular renewable power technology for corporates—according to a new report by RE100, an initiative of The Climate Group in partnership with CDP.
BASF's Creator Space Tour Engaging Experts, Citizens Worldwide to Solve Global Issues
Chemical giant BASF is on a mission to connect people and ideas in six locations worldwide with the Creator Space™ tour, a yearlong event series aiming to address challenges in the areas of energy, food and water, and urban living. The first stop, in Mumbai, India, will take place from January 16-23 at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum), with a focus on water sustainability.
White Paper: Growing Number of Companies Using Software Tools to Manage Sustainability Programs
Many companies already use manual systems to collect data on and manage their sustainability programs, but a growing number are using software tools that were professionally-developed for this purpose, according to a new white paper by CSRHub and French software company Tennaxia.
New ROI Tool Helps Building Designers Make Biz Case for Triple Bottom Line
Impact Infrastructure has unveiled AutoCASE, a new cloud-based tool that enables triple-bottom line business case analysis to become an integrated part of a Building Information Modeling (BIM) project design workflow.The analysis tool goes beyond exploring only the engineering aspects of a design to embrace an accounting framework with three parts: social, environmental and financial. This makes triple bottom line business case analysis more affordable, easier to produce and more accessible to infrastructure professionals around the world.
Columbia Developing Modeling Platform to Assess Water Risk in the Mining Industry
The Columbia Water Center, a center of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, has received a 3-year grant from Norges Bank to develop a modeling platform to quantitatively assess mining-related water and environmental risks and their financial implications.For the initial phase of the project, the Center’s research team will focus on water-related exposure for the mining of copper and gold.
Bill Gates Tastes Proof of Latest Breakthrough Concept in Wastewater Treatment
Microsoft founder Bill Gates recently took a leap of faith when he personally put the latest technology for wastewater processing to the ultimate test — by drinking water produced from recycled human sewage.
Ford Highlighting Smart Mobility, 25 Experiments Aimed at Changing the Way the World Moves at CES 2015
This week at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Ford is showcasing its latest innovations — aimed not only at advancing its vehicles, but at helping to change the way the world moves.With the Ford Smart Mobility plan, the automaker is focusing on leading-edge work in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience and big data. Ford also announced 25 mobility experiments it’s conducting around the world this year, testing breakthrough transportation ideas to create better customer experiences, more flexible user-ship models and social collaboration that can reward customers.
Philips Gives Madrid's Entire City Lighting Infrastructure an Energy-Efficient Overhaul
In what is being called the world’s largest street lighting upgrade to date, Royal Philips has provided the government of the City of Madrid with 225,000 new energy-efficient lights and connected LEDs, renewing its entire street lighting system to support its ambition of becoming a Smart City.Specifically, the upgrade involves:
Royal Caribbean Retrofitting 19 Ships With Sulfur Dioxide Scrubbers
Royal Caribbean Cruises has announced it will retrofit 19 of its ships with advanced emissions purification (AEP) systems, also known as scrubbers, which will remove more than 97 percent of the sulfur dioxide emissions generated by the ships' diesel engines.The move will place the cruise line ahead of all forthcoming International Maritime Organization Emission Control Area emissions standards, and will ensure compliance with existing European Union standards. The decision to install AEP systems instead of switching to a fuel with a lower sulfur content will ensure that RCL's ships can be compliant everywhere they sail, as availability of lower-sulfur fuels is limited.
Honda Says Customers Care About Dealership Sustainability – and the Customer Is Always Right
Honda is counting on a new way to reach sustainability-minded car buyers: through “green” dealerships. A new “Green Dealer Guide” the company is releasing to its dealers today arguably puts Honda at the forefront of this trend, but it also follows on greater attention that automakers and their retailers are now paying to sustainability.Honda has publicly released the 93-page energy-efficiency roadmap that it developed specifically for dealerships and similar commercial buildings with high energy loads, and is urging dealers of all car brands to take its advice to heart.
Boeing, South African Airways Prepare for First Tobacco Harvest for Sustainable Aviation Biofuel
Boeing and South African Airways (SAA) have announced that South African farmers will soon harvest their first crop of energy-rich tobacco plants, an important step towards using the plants to make sustainable aviation biofuel.Boeing and SAA, along with partners SkyNRG and Sunchem SA, also officially launched Project Solaris, their collaborative effort to develop an aviation biofuel supply chain with a nicotine-free tobacco plant called Solaris. In Limpopo province, company representatives and industry stakeholders visited commercial and community farms where 123 acres of Solaris have been planted.Oil from the plant’s seeds may be converted into bio-jet fuel as early as next year, with a test flight by SAA as soon as practicable.
World's First Solar Road Opens in The Netherlands
The world's first public road that includes embedded solar cells has opened in the town of Krommenie in the Netherlands, NPR reports.The crystalline silicon solar cells are encased in two layers of tempered safety glass, set in a concrete housing. The road is a bike commuter path on a special roadway outside Amsterdam. Power generated by the panels will be funneled into the national energy grid.
Boeing Completes World's First Flight Powered by Green Diesel
Boeing has carried out the world's first flight using "green diesel," a widely available sustainable biofuel already used in ground transportation. The company powered its ecoDemonstrator 787 flight test airplane on Tuesday with a blend of 15 percent green diesel and 85 percent petroleum jet fuel in the left engine.Sustainable green diesel is made from vegetable oils, waste cooking oil and waste animal fats. Boeing previously found that this fuel is chemically similar to HEFA (hydro-processed esters and fatty acids) aviation biofuel approved in 2011. Green diesel is chemically distinct and a different fuel product than "biodiesel," which also is used in ground transportation.
