Green Ump: August 2014

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August 2014

08/29/2014

ZERO WASTE - REALLY?

The race to make defensible zero waste claims is well underway, according to Scot Case.

Lots of organizations, from city governments and universities to sporting venues and events to manufacturers and retailers, are pledging to drastically reduce or even eliminate any waste going to landfill.

Examples include:

City governments: According to a survey of government officials, 14 percent of governments have a zero waste plan, including San Francisco; Seattle; and Austin, Texas.

Universities: The American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), an association of college presidents addressing climate change issues, identifies waste reduction as an important part of any effort to reduce global warming pollution. Several universities are prioritizing zero waste initiatives, including Arizona State University, American University and the entire University of North Carolina system.

Sporting events: The Green Sports Alliance promotes sustainability initiatives among sports teams, venues and leagues. Several of its members have aggressive waste reduction initiatives, including the Philadelphia Eagles, Ohio State football and the Waste Management Phoenix Open PGA golf tournament.

Manufacturers: Lots of manufacturers, including Dell, Kimberly Clark, Honda, Procter & Gamble, Ford and others, have zero waste goals.

Retailers: Walmart, Crate & Barrel, REI and other retailers have pledged to drastically reduce or even eliminate any waste going to landfill.

Some organizations are going beyond public pledges and having their zero waste and waste diversion claims certified by an independent, third-party certification authority like UL Environment.

Companies like GAF, Bridgestone, Mayer Bros. and the Waste Management Phoenix Open are getting claims validated to prove the accuracy of their claims and to gain a competitive advantage among consumers, business partners and investors who value waste diversion and the efficiencies it requires.

Interestingly, other companies are choosing not to have their claims publicly validated, but are opting to go through the same process and having their programs audited. Companies are finding value in the audit itself beyond the well-recognized public relations benefits.

Some of the additional value of a waste diversion audit, as reported to UL Environment auditors, includes:

Making money

Saving money

Reinvigorating recycling and waste diversion program

Ensuring consistent internal measurement

Creating a level playing field

Avoiding making exaggerated claims

Earning Wall Street respect

"What gets measured and audited gets done even better.”

Posted at 03:20 PM in Benchmarking Sustainability, Climate Change, Sustainable Cities, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Infrastructure, Waste | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: certification, Scot Case, third party certification, UL, waste diversion, zero waste

08/28/2014

FROM TOO MANY TO TOO FEW SKILLED WORKERS

The Great Recession became official in December 2007, and by its end, more than 8.8 million jobs had been lost — 2 million in the construction sector alone.

But times change, and after the massive battering, the industry is starting to bounce back. Construction spending is up, projects are more plentiful and optimism is starting to sneak its way in. But now, there’s another problem — a shortage of workers, because so many left the industry to find employment elsewhere.

SMARTBLOG

Posted at 03:43 PM in Current Affairs, Green Business, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Infrastructure | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: Skilled Worker Shortage, sustainable building worker shortages

NESPRESSO INVESTS $500 MILLION IN SUSTAINABILITY

Nespresso plans to spend 500 million Swiss francs ($550 million) in the next six years in an effort to improve the environmental and social impact of Europe’s biggest single-serve coffee brand.

The Nestle SA (NESN) division’s sustainability program will include 15 million francs to assist farmers in Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan, Nespresso said in a statement today. It also plans to increase the recycling of Nespresso capsules and reduce the company’s carbon footprint by 10 percent and become carbon-neutral.

Nespresso is expanding its efforts after exceeding goals set in 2009 to improve farmer welfare through sustainable coffee sourcing. The brand has faced increasing competition from lower-priced systems as well as capsules made by rivals that work in its machines.

BLOOMBERG

Posted at 03:15 PM in Benchmarking Sustainability, Climate Change, Environmental Free Trade, Food and Drink, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Food & Farming | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: $500 Million Investment in Sustainability, Nespresso Sustainability Program, Sustainable Coffee

CODE OFFICIALS RETIREMENT EXODUS

A recent survey conducted by the National Institute of Building Sciences on behalf of the International Code Council (ICC) reveals information that if not addressed in the coming years, may have an impact on the public safety of thousands of communities in the United States.

“We must take action now to ensure our communities remain safe and protected by an adequate workforce of code officials,” said ICC Board President Stephen D. Jones, CBO. “This survey highlights important needs and ways that we can now proactively begin engaging, training and producing the next generation of code professionals.”

In general, the survey results largely confirmed the observations of code organizations and on-the-ground code officials: the “typical” code professional is older, works at the local level as a jurisdiction employee and has 20 to 30 years of experience. However, there are a few noteworthy findings, which will be important for ICC, jurisdictions and the building industry to be aware when planning for the future.

Just as baby boomers are having an impact across other industries, code officials are aging and making plans for retirement in significant numbers. Nearly 85 percent of respondents are over the age of 45. More importantly, over 80 percent of respondents expect to retire within the next 15 years, and more than 30 percent plan to do so within five years. Such a massive exodus of public safety professionals could have a serious impact on jurisdictions—particularly those with smaller departments—since more than half of the respondents work in departments of nine or fewer employees.

National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS)

Posted at 03:06 PM in Green Building Codes, Sustainable Cities | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: Building Code Officials, ICC, NIBS

GREEN BUILDING INDUSTRY LEADERS CONCUR ON NEW TOOLS

The International Code Council (ICC), ASHRAE, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announce the signing of a memorandum to collaborate on the development of Standard 189.1, the International Green Construction Code (IgCC) and the LEED green building program.

This unprecedented cooperation will create a comprehensive framework for jurisdictions looking to implement and adopt green building regulations and codes and/or provide incentives for voluntary leadership programs such as LEED.

ICC

Posted at 02:57 PM in Benchmarking Sustainability, Climate Change, Current Affairs, Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Apparel, Sustainable Food & Farming | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: ASHRAE, CODE COMPLIANCE, GREEN BUILDING CODE TOOLS, ICC, LEED

08/21/2014

U.S. SUSTAINABLE FOOD MAP

Eve Andrews challenged herself to find someone in every state in the nation who’s breaking the status quo and becoming more sustainable when it comes to production of, access to, and education about food — but in a way that’s characteristic of, or addresses a particular need in, their home state.

Why is she doing this?

"Let’s be real', she says, "The American food system today has some pretty daunting issues. We’re saddled with a farming system that, on the whole, releases a massive amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere (675 million metric tons annually at the most recent tally, to be exact), sucks nutrients from the soil, and leaches chemicals into the water table. And in regions with some of the richest farmland, historically speaking, you can’t buy a fresh vegetable for love or money — but you can get a two-liter bottle of potable sugar and an endless variety of nutritionally vacant foodstuff approximations at any corner store."

Eve is not trying to find out how we got ourselves in this dietary and environmental crisis, but the much, much more important question is how we can get ourselves out of this mess.

"What interests me are the choices that each of these people are making in terms of how to produce food more sustainably. When there are so many problems, how do you pick which one to tackle first? In these fairly nascent stages of turning around the food system, it’s unfair to say that there’s only one correct solution.

If you want to see the answers to her inquiries in each state of our union and the sustainable food production efforts across our land, go to her blog map, click on each state (plus Washington, D.C.) to see 51 answers to the question: How can we build a more sustainable American food system?

GRIST

Posted at 03:52 PM in Benchmarking Sustainability, Climate Change, Food and Drink, Green Business, GREEN USA TOUR, Sustainable Cities, Sustainable Food & Farming | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: American Food System, Food Production Crisis, healthy foods, healthy lifestyles, Local Food, Organic Agriculture, Organic food, sustainable farming, Sustainable Food, Toxic chemicals in foods, unhealthy foods

08/20/2014

INSPIRING REGENERATIVE BIOART ROCKS IN CORAL REEF RESTORATION

Manta - A Biorock coral nursery from Colleen Flanigan on Vimeo.

Colleen Flanigan is a socio-ecological artist. Through visual, performing, and biological arts, she investigates contemporary issues of species endangerment and ecosystem regeneration, specifically coral reefs. Her work encompasses Living Sea Sculptures, conversation-catalyzing alter egos, participatory multimedia exhibitions, and more.

Mineral accretion reefs can be any shape or size, allowing for original seascaping compositions. Both functional and artistic, they evolve into large aquatic topiary-like ecosystems. Rather than artworks about ecology that derive inspiration from nature and the environment, this is actually art as ecology with vibrant living plants and animals. Low volt DC electricity flowing through seawater raises the pH locally to attract calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide minerals to deposit onto a metal matrix; corals readily cement to this natural substrate. They can grow faster and tolerate some environmental stress that normally bleaches or kills them. As more people become aware of the issues of sea level rise, climate change, pollution, and overfishing, it is our time to explore how to resuscitate our ocean biodiversity and protect our shores with interdisciplinary recoralization.

COLLEEN FLANIGAN

Posted at 01:14 PM in Climate Change, Current Affairs, Small Island Nation States, Socio-ecological art | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: bio-art, climate change, coral reef endangerment, coral reef restoration, ecological restoration, environmental art, global warming, OCEANSCAPES

08/19/2014

ANEW CONNECTS THE DOTS

CHANGE FOR BALANCE

A Short Documentary about ANEW, an LA based non-profit that diverts surplus furniture from America's landfills to non-profits all over the world. After hearing Rose Tourje's story, and meeting her network of passionate businesses, groups and individuals, Change For Balance created a documentary film about ANEW.

Since it's release, ANEW has been an official selection at the Catalina Film Festival, Awareness Festival (winning the ECO Award), FILManthropy Festival, Atlanta DocFEST, American Conservation Fest and received Awards for Excellence, Best Visual Effects, and Best Editing.at the LA Movie Awards.

The ANEW non-profit organization, founded by Rose Tourje, connects the dots by providing companies with alternatives to discarding their surplus furniture and other items, matching it to charities, public agencies and underserved communities, to extend the lifecycle through reuse, resale and repurposing; what's left is recycled or considered for energy-from-waste to avoid landfill.

Congratulations Rose, on your vision, passion and compassion in making our world more sustainable in a truly innovative and important way.

ANEW

Posted at 11:24 AM in Award Winners, Benchmarking Sustainability, Climate Change, Current Affairs, Green Business, Innovation, Sustainable Cities | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: ANEW, demolition waste, landfill, re-purposed furniture, Rose Tourje, sustainable furniture

ARCHITECTS WORLDWIDE TO PHASE OUT CARBON BY 2050

At the International Union of Architects (UIA) World Congress last week, member organizations representing over 1.3 million architects in 124 countries worldwide unanimously adopted the 2050 Imperative, a declaration to eliminate CO2 emissions in the built environment by 2050.

ALL of the regional Architect Councils of Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa also signed on to the declaration-- something that has not happened prior in 65-years of UIA history!

The UIA has committed to ethical and socially responsible development throughout the world. With the adoption of the Imperative, member organizations are charged with promoting the planning and design of carbon neutral cities, towns, urban developments, and new buildings, in order achieve the 2050 target.

UIA 2050 / Architecture 2030

Posted at 10:36 AM in Climate Change, Current Affairs, Electric Cars, Energy Efficiency, Precautionary Principle, Solar Energy, Sustainable Cities | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: AIA, Architecture 2030, ethical, no CO2 emissions, responsible design, Sustainable Cities, sustainable design, UIA

08/18/2014

$74.9 BILLION IN BACK-TO-SCHOOL SPENDING

Courtesy of: VerticalResponse

The National Retail Federation recently released its 2014 Back-to-School survey projecting and portraying just how big the scholastic shopping season is -- $74.9 billion to be exact! Now this is a grand opportunity for consumers to flex their purchasing power muscle by selecting only products that are sustainably produced ---renewable, sustainably sourced, natural, non-toxic ingredients, produced by socially responsible companies paying living wages.

This is obviously good for retail sales and businesses, but is this all necessary for their education, and even more importantly, how does this affect the future for these school children in the big picture of climate change?

For comparison, the total U.S. budget for 2014 allocated to addressing climate change is $31.65 billion -- less than half of the back-to-school spending that will take place over the 2-3 months surrounding the beginning of new school year in the United States.

These spending priorities and amounts are reflections that we are likely to be winning in the arena of making businesses sustainable for this season and quarterly returns, but we are also likely to be loosing in the overall effort to create a sustainable world for these school children in the long term.