RONA Receives "Boreal Award" for Its Wood Products Procurement Policy
RONA Inc., the largest Canadian distributor and retailer of hardware, renovation and gardening products, was rewarded for its wood products procurement policy at the Boreal Awards ceremony held by the Canadian Boreal Initiative in Ottawa yesterday. RONA was one of six winners selected by a committee of the Boreal Leadership Council, which is made up of leading conservation groups, Aboriginal organizations, and businesses committed to taking action to preserve the boreal forest.
Read the rest of this entry »
Naya Waters to Introduce 100% Recycled Plastic Bottle
Naya Achieves Important Industry Benchmark Through Innovation and Ongoing Dedication to Reducing Its Impact on the Environment
Canada-based Naya Spring Water announced today it is the first bottled spring water company in the world to use 100 percent recycled plastic in its bottles. Recycled plastic, or rPET, is made from plastic that was previously used as packaging, then recycled and processed to create new bottles.
Less Waste
After seven years of R&D, Naya’s 100 percent rPET (recycled polyethylene terephthalate) bottles are engineered to utilize plastic waste, which otherwise could end up in landfills. The rPET plastic used in Naya’s new bottle is FDA approved and meets the same rigorous safety standards as virgin plastic bottles. Naya’s pure spring water will be available in the new bottles in the New York City area beginning this month and the rest of North America in early 2010.
Read the rest of this entry »
CH2M HILL Releases 2009 Sustainability Report
CH2M HILL, a global full-service consulting, design, construction, and operations firm, announces the release of its 2009 Sustainability Report detailing the company’s activities for the 2007-2008 reporting period.
The report focuses on the complex and interrelated global issues of water, energy, climate change, and land use/development, and details how CH2M HILL is addressing these challenges internally and in support of its clients.
“Our goal is to both manage the impacts of our operations and apply our creativity and technical skills to help our clients become more sustainable,” says Lee McIntire, CEO. “With the interconnectivity of water, energy and climate change becoming more apparent, CH2M HILL feels it has the responsibility to improve the health of the planet. It is an exciting time to be creating new sustainable solutions in this world of threat and opportunity.”
Read the rest of this entry »
The Truth About Green Business
Gil Friend
–
The Truth About Green Business
– Purchase Online
The Truth About series, is a comprehensive guidebook for executives and professionals wanting to set pro-active priorities for all aspects of their business, including operations, marketing, design, finance, and management, with triple bottom line focus.
Read the rest of this entry »
Ford on the Right Track With Sustainability Efforts
By John Gartner – Matter Network
2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid
The company’s Sustainability Report, released Monday, show gains made in fleet-wide fuel economy (up from 25.3 in 2007 to 26.0 in 2008) as well as a reduction in CO2 emissions per mile, which fell by 3.4 percent. Those gains were in part due to the introduction of two new hybrid sedans, the Ford Fusion Hybrid and Mercury Milan, which each get 41 mpg in the city. Ford is also accelerating plans for plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles, with the first models being rolled out starting next year.
Read the rest of this entry »
Creating Sustainable Markets
Markets do work, but they work according to how they’re designed.
By Paul Gilding, from green@work magazine ‘05
Paul Gilding
.
I still buy the argument. However, if we’re honest we’d have to concede performance to date has actually been abysmal.
Sure, there are some impressive examples of individual companies doing things unimaginable a few decades ago. However, the reality from the point of view of the planet and its people is that the income gap is widening, climate change is upon us and getting worse, China and India are gobbling up the world’s coal (and will soon be emitting the consequences). Then when forecasts in global economic growth are combined with the forecast consequences of what is, in reality, largely business as usual, the situation starts to look very ugly, very quickly.
Read the rest of this entry »
From Principles to Practices
Creating a sustaining architecture for the 21st century, using the enduring laws of nature.
by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, from green@work magazine ‘03
William McDonough and Michael Braungart
.
The Hannover Principles were conceived to lay the foundation for this hopeful, new paradigm. We knew at the time that our efforts were just a first step. Though we were striving to identify universal principles based on the enduring laws of nature, we also understood that our knowledge of the world was incomplete. So, too, was our ability to predict all the many ways in which the creativity of the world’s designers, architects, business leaders and NGOs would push design for sustainability beyond the limits we could imagine in 1992. Thus, we saw the Principles as a living document—a set of enduring ideals and an open system of thought that would evolve as it was put into practice.
Wal-Mart Americas Aims to Reduce Detergent Phosphates 70%
Company makes commitment to more sustainable packaging in the region
Wal-Mart Stores committed today to reduce phosphates in laundry and dish detergents in the Americas region by 70 percent by 2011. Wal-Mart also announced plans to accelerate its drive toward more sustainable packaging in the Americas region by reducing packaging by 5 percent by the end of 2013. Read the rest of this entry »
An Example of LEED Platinum Building Design
Designing a “green” building under the LEED guidelines presents a unique challenge to construction: the building needs to be more energy efficient than required by code. In essence, the code does not anticipate the obstacles of green building issues. With the help of Rolf Jensen & Associates’ (RJA) code expertise, the Genzyme Center synchronized sophisticated engineering and careful design to meet the five core features of the LEED standard’s framework for environmental design.
Read the rest of this entry »
Johnson Controls to Harness Renewable Energy, Improve Energy Conservation Measures for Oak Ridge National Laboratories
Innovative project to generate $8 million annual savings, decrease dependency on fossil fuels
MILWAUKEE – Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tenn. has signed an $89 million energy savings performance contract with Johnson Controls, Inc. to apply advanced energy conservation solutions, including a biomass gasification system, to the campus.
This project is the first signed initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Transformational Energy Action Management (TEAM) Initiative, which is an action plan to dramatically transform the DOE’s energy, environmental and transportation management. TEAM aims to meet or exceed the aggressive energy efficiency goals set forth by the federal government laid out by President Bush, fundamentally transforming the way the DOE manages energy use in its facilities.
