Sustainablog

Composting is a really green thing to do, right? I’ve always thought so since my Grandfather taught me to do it in the early sixties. Large-scale composting is getting to be quite the rage. The City of San Francisco attracted a great deal of attention with it’s mandatory food scrap recycling program and lots of local wineries are bragging about their use of that compost to fertilize their vineyards.

I just read today about how the Langley Parish Council in England is setting up a village compost and “set an example to small villages as the UK strives to battle climate change.”  Unfortunately, I recently learned that they and San Francisco and the Napa wineries might actually be doing is contributing to climate change.

Climate change science often ends up challenging things we think we know.

Inconvenience

The idea of composting is to provide plenty of moisture and oxygen so that microbes will digest the easily available organic matter and generate a great deal of metabolic heat in the process.  What is left at the end is a sterilized source of more resistant organic matter that can enrich a soil. 

Composting

of wastes is done with very good intentions, but there is the inconvenient truth that even a very well run large-scale compost operation emits some methane.

But if you stop to think about it, as much as you intend to have oxygen available to the whole pile (aerobic conditions), there are definitely going to be micro-sites that are going to lack oxygen (anaerobic conditions) particularly when there is huge oxygen demand during the peak of the process. That is where methane gets made.

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This post was originally published on Eco-Libris blog on July 20.

As part of our efforts to promote green printing, we continue to closely follow the printing industry, keep you posted with printers who have already adopted eco-friendly practices in their business and speak with them on the state of green printing, the trends, the challenges in the present and their plans for the future.

We posted already two interviews with green printers (Greg Barber and Deb Bruner) and today we are happy to have another green printer on our blog: Livio Ciciotti of Monroe Litho (Rochester, NY).

Livio Ciciotti is an Account Executive with Monroe Litho based in Rochester, NY. He is a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Print Media. He has been invloved in printing since high school. Livio is also in the Marine Corps Reserve, an honor graduate from the School of Infantry he now serves with 3rd Battalion 25th Marines out of Buffalo, NY and is preparing for a deployment to Afghanistan.

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I have lived in Europe on two occasions now — for five months in the Netherlands (two years ago) and for ten months in Poland (currently). I have been green-minded since I was a young child, and knew that Europe did better on many green issues. Nonetheless, to come here and live here has given me more insight on the perspectives of the people and more of a practical understanding of why Europe fairs so much better than the US on many environmental issues.

Recently, I came up with a list of seven things that really stand out to me as good environmental practices in Europe that could be transferred to the US. These could all be adopted in the US, but some are more personal in nature and some are more systematic. Furthermore, some of the personal ones regard large, life decisions, and some are much simpler in nature and easier to implement into your life now.

Of course, Europe is not one country and things vary from country to country. Nonetheless, there are also several similarities across borders. I have friends in other countries and have traveled a bit as well, so I hope to be sharing the best of the best.

Here’s the list!
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This past July 4^th some friends and I headed south from our farm to visit the new EcoGrove I Wind Farm in Lena, Illinois, located in Stephenson County (in the northwestern part of the state).

The creation of the EcoGrove I Wind Farm was precipitated by the State of Illinois adopting a Renewable Energy Standard that required the state to generate at least 25 percent of its power from renewable energy sources by 2025. Cleaner air, using an abundant and renewable energy source, and providing various community benefits make wind farm development likely to continue, at least until more Americans change our energy-intensive ways.  From my perspective, however, energy independence is more about breaking free from our fossil fuel addictions to coal, natural gas and oil rather than simply securing domestic sources of energy that are polluting and/or add more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The $200 million EcoGrove I Wind Farm is owned and operated by the sustainability-focused business Acciona Energy North America; its parent company is Acciona S.A., headquartered in Spain. EcoEnergy LLC and The Morse Group managed various aspects of the planning, mapping, permitting, engineering and interconnections for the project.

The EcoGrove 1 Project comprises 67 turbines spread across about eight thousand acres to create a 100 megawatt (MW) wind farm capable of powering over 25,000 homes. Thirty of the 67 Acciona turbines were manufactured in West Branch, Iowa, with the rest coming from Spain. The energy produced is sold to ComEd (Exelon Corporation) which then directs the energy where needed. An additional two phases are planned.

“The upper Midwest has tremendous wind energy potential and EcoGrove is one great step toward harnessing that potential.” said Kimberly L. Smith, Vice President Construction and O&M Services, Acciona Energy North America.

Below are of the few of the benefits in more detail, though our group was blown away by their sleek design of the blades and the way they towered over the emerging cornfields in early summer.

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by Lester R. Brown

In April 2005, the World Food Programme and the Chinese government jointly announced that food aid shipments to China would stop at the end of the year. For a country where a generation ago hundreds of millions of people were chronically hungry, this was a landmark achievement. Not only has China ended its dependence on food aid, but almost overnight it has become the world’s third largest food aid donor.

As noted in Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, the key to China’s success was the economic reforms in 1978 that dismantled its system of agricultural collectives, known as production teams, and replaced them with family farms. In each village, the land was allocated among families, giving them long-term leases on their piece of land. The move harnessed the energy and ingenuity of China’s rural population, raising the grain harvest by half from 1977 to 1986. With its fast-expanding economy raising incomes, with population growth slowing, and with the grain harvest climbing, China eradicated most of its hunger in less than a decade—in fact, it eradicated more hunger in a shorter period of time than any country in history.

While hunger has been disappearing in China, it has been spreading throughout much of the developing world, notably sub-Saharan Africa and parts of the Indian subcontinent. As a result, the number of people in developing countries who are hungry has increased from a recent historical low of 800 million in 1996 to over 1 billion today. Part of this recent rise can be attributed to higher food prices and the global economic crisis. In the absence of strong leadership, the number of hungry people in the world will rise even further, with children suffering the most.

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Two weeks ago, we took a look at news from the Congo involving “conflict minerals”: armed groups have exploited the mining of materials such as tin, tungsten, gold, and tantalum, and the people who live near these resources, to fund their fighting. Since then, I’ve had a chance to communicate with David Sullivan, a research associate with the Enough Project, about the issues surrounding the situation in the Congo. David addresses the multiple atrocities — human and environmental — surrounding the trade of these materials, and the actions you can take to ensure electronics manufacturers are aware of these issues.

sustainablog: Oftentimes, situations like these arise from limited economic opportunities. What other means of making a living are available (or could become available) to people in the Eastern Congo? Are there options for these people that couldn’t be as readily exploited by armed groups in the area?

David Sullivan: Impoverished Congolese miners and their families are often entirely dependent on their meager income from mining, and they currently have few viable economic alternatives to lift them out of this indentured servitude. What could be the most promising alternative to mining is agriculture, but the threat of violence often forces Congolese farmers to abandon their fields to flee for safety.

Efforts to end the trade in conflict minerals absolutely must be accompanied by international support for livelihoods and economic opportunities in eastern Congo. Rebuilding roads is a key opportunity, so that other sectors can benefit from trade. Infrastructure projects with guaranteed labor at decent wages can help lure miners out of conflict mines and create opportunities for demobilized combatants. Larger firms can raise miners’ living standards if independently verifiable mechanisms are put in place to ensure that the corporations are not contributing to armed groups, and health, safety, and labor standards are observed at mining sites. International investment should be stepped up in agricultural development initiatives in eastern Congo, which mining has displaced in recent years.  Good models for agricultural investments in mining areas exist in Sierra Leone. Other livelihood initiatives, such as small business development projects, should also be promoted. All projects should be designed in close partnership with miners themselves, and should also be followed up with education initiatives for miners.

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By Leslie Berliant
Originally published on June 17, 2009, at SolveClimate

By the middle of next year, the nine campuses that make up the nation’s largest community college system plan to be completely energy self-sufficient.

It’s a huge step, and it will begin saving money immediately.

The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) started down this path in 2001, the year voters approved the first part of $5.7 billion in bond funding to renovate the campuses.

The LACCD Board of Trustees was thinking about much-needed modernization work and its first new construction in 35 years, but it was also thinking ahead. It passed a sustainable building policy mandating that all new buildings that use 50% or more of bond funding be LEED certified. The board had previously developed a renewable energy plan that aimed for a minimum 10% renewable energy standard.

At the time, the trustees were afraid that anything beyond that would be too costly, says Larry Eisenberg, executive director of Facilities, Planning and Development for the LACCD.

The system’s chancellor and the implementation team saw greater potential, though.

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In just seven years the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has emerged as the premier music festival in the United States, if not the world. With the biggest names in music from genres across the musical spectrum taking to thirteen stages and providing festival-goers with four days of good music, danceable beats and pleasing melodies, this year’s Bonnaroo, from June 11-14 in Manchester, Tennessee will be no different from the last seven.

But in addition to the mountains of music and non-musical activities, the festival, which last year was named one of eighteen music festivals worldwide to receive the Greener Festival award, added several new green dimensions to its already impressive greening efforts.

Like the much newer Rothbury Festival up in Michigan, festival organizers at Bonnaroo have been hard at work finding new ways to green the festival scene and engage fans in discussions, seminars and educational programs about important sustainability topics and the pressing environmental issues of today. In addition to incorporating an environmental mission statement into every vendor contract, festival organizers have built upon past successful sustainability efforts and mixed in some new ones to give festival attendees a greener music festival experience.

Below are a few of the pre-festival green highlights, but stay tuned to Green Options for green updates, photos, interviews and reports from the ground at this year’s Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Read the rest of this entry »

Making a list of actions you can take to prevent global warming, or at least reduce your own carbon footprint? One item you may not have considered: move to (or stay in) an urban environment.

Reduce Your Transportation Carbon Emissions by 70%

That’s the conclusion shown by data recently added to  the Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology’s Housing and Transportation Affordability Index. CNT took a look at 55 metropolitan areas around the United States, and found that, in terms of transportation choices, urban living definitely belongs on the list of solutions to stop global warming: “When measured on a per household basis, it found that the transportation-related emissions of people living in cities and compact neighborhoods can be nearly 70% less than those living in suburbs.”

What does this mean for you?
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Written by Stacy Feldman. Originally published May 14, 2009, at SolveClimate

Solar photovoltaics (PV) in the UK will be as cheap as grid-sourced fossil fuels much sooner than expected, a new study by Solarcentury finds.

For homeowners, PV will cross the “grid parity” mark in 2013. For commercial customers, it will occur around 2018. The magical parity date for PV is generally assumed to be 2020 in the UK. Says Solarcentury:

“The proximity to parity heralds the prospect of PV being a compelling investment for the individual, without subsidy, in only a few years time.”

The 14-page report by the UK’s largest solar firm is described as the most “up-to-date and accurate analysis on the investment case for PV in the UK.”

Its main point is that solar PV has precisely what it takes to move beyond a British niche and into the energy mainstream: Its energy potential is massive. It’s getting cheaper all the time. And it’s fast-approaching the holy grail of the solar sector, grid parity.

Time to tap it.

• » See also: Solar Panel Community Bargaining in Sonoma County, CA
• » Get Sustainablog by RSS or sign up by email.

The resource potential from mounting PV on every UK building is huge, around 460 terrawatt hours (TWh) each year. That’s more than the country’s current electricity consumption of 400 TWh. Solarcentury says harnessing just a fraction of that absolute potential:

“would represent a substantial contribution to the UK energy mix and to addressing renewable energy and carbon targets”

On top of that, the price of solar PV is falling “rapidly,” while the costs of fossil fuels are rising. The long-term prognosis for the technology is more of the same, significant cost reductions. That prediction, writes Solarcentury, is “driven by the nature of the manufacturing process for crystalline silicon PV.”

Other research supports this claim. According to a recent report by New Energy Finance, polysilicon prices could fall as much as 43 percent in 2009 compared with 2008 levels.

With substitution to thin film, PV prices could drop even more. (See In a League of Its Own: First Solar Breaks the $1-a-Watt Barrier).

There’s another major factor that will surely drive down PV costs in Britain – the nation’s proposed feed-in tariff, which is expected to be implemented in April 2010. The tariff would guarantee an above-market price for commercial and residential customers selling solar power back to the grid. The plan would boost demand for solar panels and substantially cut costs in the long term.

Jeremy Leggett, executive chairman of Solarcentury, called it an absolutely “vital” measure to help accelerate consumer adoption of solar panels. It will also help the nation achieve its 2020 target to source 15 percent of its electricity from renewables, which it is struggling to meet.

“A burst of premium-pricing for solar energy, of the kind now on offer in 18 European countries, will stimulate a very fast-growing market.”

This isn’t your average energy subsidy, he explains:

“The feed-in tariff will be ramped down over a few years. This is not like nuclear, where the market has to be underwritten with public money essentially for ever.”

The PV market has been exploding in recent years, particularly in Europe, thanks in large part to generous feed-in tariffs. The world’s solar PV installations increased by 110 percent in 2008 to 5.95 GW, according to Solarbuzz’s annual report, Marketbuzz 2009.
Europe accounted for 82 percent of world demand last year.

The UK made up just a tiny fraction of that growth. It could snatch up a much bigger slice.

It’s a bet worth taking for Britain, and for any government, for the jobs potential alone. Don’t forget: Solar PV is one of the biggest job-creating industries on the planet. The striking numbers, from Solarcentury’s report:

“UNEP estimate PV job creation at 7 to 11 per MWp installed; this figure is supported by the German solar experience, where over 50,000 jobs have been created since 2000.”

See also:

• In a League of Its Own: First Solar Breaks the $1-a-Watt Barrier
• Germany’s Coal Boom Highlights Nation’s Big Energy Dilemma
• Why Isn’t the U.S. Embracing Feed-in Tariffs?
• Polysilicon Price Plunge Provides a Ray of Hope for Solar Industry

Image credit: Dominic’s pics at Flickr under a Creative Commons license