The beaches of Hawaii will be a little cleaner; the streets a little neater, now that an effective statewide ban on disposable plastic bags has gone into effect. Although it's not a law at the state level, the bag ban is effectively a statewide ban, since all of the counties of Hawaii have enacted plastic bag bans individually. Of course, it's easier when there are only four counties involved.

Bags are still permitted in some instances, including uses for pharmaceuticals, frozen foods, newspaper delivery, live fish and dry cleaning, to name a few. But non-biodegradable non-reusable bags are otherwise now subject to ban, and businesses that still use them face fines for each day of violation.

image: CC BY-SA 3.0 by Ivy Main / Wikimedia Commons

The US Green Building Council has announced that the planned revision of the LEED green building system which was due later this year has now been delayed until at least the middle of next year. What was supposed to be called LEED 2012 is being renamed LEEDv4 (the current version, LEED 2009, was version 3).

LEED is a developing system, not a fixed standard. Previous transformations have revised and reoriented the rating system, and this has helped to advance the cause of green building.  The intent of the USGBC has been to continue to push the construction industry to make buildings better. However the present perception is that the new LEED pushes too much, too fast. In his letter announcing the change, USGBC President and CEO S. Richard Fedrizzi wrote, "We intend to do everything we can to ensure that the market is ready for LEED v4 because it represents progress on both carbon reduction and human health improvements."

LEED is getting criticism from many different directions. It has been assailed by Congress, which has specifically prohibited the Department of Defense from expending any funds to achieve LEED gold or platinum certification. Arguments over standards for the certification of wood have been particularly contentious. And just this week, congressional hearings on green building science are being held.

Previously on Ecogeek: New LEED for Greener Buildings; New LEED Certification Will Require Energy Reporting

Digital delivery of content for e-readers is a rapidly expanding market. Many assume that, because trees aren't being cut down and used to maufacture paper for books, e-readers (including the Kindle, Nook, iPad, and the like) are a greener way to read books and magazines. But a broader look at the use of these devices that includes the life-cycle of the e-readers themselves paints a much bleaker picture about how green they really are.

The article first looks at the carbon emissions for an average adult reader who reads 6.5 books per year. Paperback books have a footprint of 26 kilograms (over 57 pounds) of CO2, as compared to just under 70 grams (about 0.15 pounds) for the e-reader. But the tables are turned drastically when the carbon footprint of the reader is added in. The carbon footprint for this average reader is almost identical (130 kilograms or 285 pounds) when expanded over 5 years.

But how many people still use 5-year old electronic devices? Assuming a 2-year replacement cycle, the chart shows that the iPad carbon footprint outstrips that for the print reader, and even the more efficient iPad2 has more than double the emissions over a 5 year period. High-volume readers and those who hold on to their electronic devices for longer periods may make the e-reader a more suitable choice, but technological alternatives aren't always all their proponents would like consumers to believe.

link: The Millions

via: Treehugger

When we first heard that the Empire State Building was going to be retrofitted for energy efficiency, we were stoked. Such an iconic building could be a great proving ground for showing building owners big and small the huge benefits of making these types of upgrades and has it ever.

One year after the large-scale retrofitting project was completed, the Empire State Building has surpassed expectations and saved $2.4 million in energy costs. The building saved an estimated 4,000 metric tons of carbon, the equivalent carbon offset of a 750-acre pine forest.

The series of efficiency measures were accomplished through a partnership of the Clinton Climate Initiative, the building owners and a group of organizations including the Rocky Mountain Institute. According to the press release, here are some of the retrofit details:

"The retrofit project focused on eight innovative improvement measures addressing core building infrastructure, common spaces and tenant suites. Improvement measures performed by Johnson Controls and Jones Lang LaSalle included the refurbishment of all 6,500 windows, a chiller plant retrofit, new building controls, and a web-based tenant energy management system. The project partners developed a detailed engineering design and Johnson Controls guaranteed the energy savings through a $20 million performance contract.  With performance contracting, savings in energy consumption from facility upgrades pay for the project over the term of the contract. If the savings are not realized, Johnson Controls pays the difference between the value of the measured and verified consumption and the guaranteed consumption under the contract."

While the core efficiency improvements are finished, there is still more work to be done and more positive environmental impacts to be seen. New tenants are set to build out high-performance workspaces and once all spaces are upgraded, the building will save $4.4 million a year, a 38 percent reduction of energy use that will cut carbon emissions by 105,000 metric tons over the next 15 years.

This type of model is incredibly important. According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, buildings are responsible for 40 percent of energy consumed in the U.S. In large cities like New York, commercial buildings make up 75 percent of energy used, meaning retrofit projects can have an even bigger impact. If every commercial building in New York City took on the upgrades that the Empire State Building has, carbon emissions would be reduced by 4 million tons – the equivalent of a typical coal-fired power plant.

The atmosphere over the Arctic has hit a troublesome milestone: the concentration of CO2 has surpassed 400 parts per million. Stations across the region in Alaska, Greenland, Norway and Iceland have recorded the measurements that have surged since the winter and spring have brought a decline in CO2-absorbing vegetation. While the downswing in carbon absorption happens every year, this is the first time in 800,000 years that the CO2 concentration anywhere in the world has been 400 ppm or above.

Before industrialization, global CO2 levels were about 280 ppm but in recent years global levels have reached as high as 395 ppm. The fact that any area of the globe has climbed above the 400 ppm mark concerns climate scientists that even with many countries rolling out carbon reduction measures, it's not making a difference fast enough.

Carnegie Institution ecologist Chris Field, a leader of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said, “It is an indication that we’re in a different world.”

To that end, scientists have recently discovered that the loss of Arctic summer ice and accelerated warming of that region are altering the jet stream, which is likely to increase extreme weather events around the world.

via Yale e360

Image via flickr user Polar Cruises

If you thought you were seeing Toyota Priuses absolutely everywhere these days, you were right. The hybrid car has gone from a small, niche vehicle to global top-seller in just over a decade.

High demand in the U.S. and Japanese incentives for domestic vehicles were driving factors in the Prius hitting the third-best selling mark in the first quarter of this year, where Toyota sold 247,230 of the vehicles globally and 86,027 in the U.S. alone. The expansion of the Prius family to include four models of vehicles also drove up sales.

Number one Toyota Corolla, number two Ford Focus and the rest of the top five best-selling cars were all smaller, fuel-efficient sedans, which shows a global consensus that fuel efficiency is a necessary feature in a car.

The fact that the Prius has gone from an "alternative vehicle" in 2000 to a full-fledged mainstream car in 2012 means that same evolution is just as achievable for the all-electric models that have hit the market in the past couple of years, especially as charging infrastructure spreads across the country and around the world.

via Bloomberg

Civil engineers from MIT have completed a study in which they have determined that vehicle fuel consumption could be reduced by as much as 3 percent by having stiffer roads. Looking at the way forces interact between the tire and the road, the researchers conclude that, "This has the effect of making the tires on the vehicle drive continuously up a slight slope."

Inefficiencies due to saggy roads are responsible for the use of an extra 273 million barrels of crude oil per year (costing $15.6 billion at today’s oil prices) and producing CO2 emissions of 46.5 million metric tons. In addition to the fuel savings, building better roads would reduce maintenance costs, providing long-term savings and improved national infrastructure.

“We’re wasting fuel unnecessarily because pavement design has been based solely on minimizing initial costs more than performance — how well the pavement holds up — when it should also take into account the environmental footprint of pavements based on variations in external conditions,” according to Mehdi Akbarian, one of the study's authors.

With over 8.5 million lane miles making up the US roadway network, it would take a long time to revamp the entire system. But the results of the study could be applied to make improvements to the way roads are repaired and maintained, leading to a better road system over time.

Public Domain image by Shadowlink1014/Wikimedia

via: MIT News

Geoengineering is the term used to describe large-scale engineering projects meant to manipulate the planetary environment (usually in order to address climate change). Two items related to this topic are covered in this week's SciShow.

The first story notes that scientists in Italy are preparing to examine the supervolcano in the Campi Flegrei Caldera (the area around Naples) by drilling down toward the magma underlying the region. The study seeks to better understand the movement of magma in this area. Sensors will be placed 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) below the surface to gather information. Plans for a deeper bore were cancelled after concerns about the possibility of triggering earthquakes or gas releases.

Also in the news is SPICE (Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering) an experimental method to deploy aerosols in the upper atmosphere (to potentially create a 'global cooling effect' to offset global warming). The British team planning this experiment had to put it on hold due to potential conflicts of interest over patents with some of the technology in the program.

More details about all of this can be found in this episode of SciShow on YouTube.

The 'fuel' used to generate power from the sun or the wind is, of course, emissions free. But we realize that it is necessary to look at more than just the fuel input in evaluating the total impacts of various technologies. Life-cycle analysis (LCA) goes beyond the operational comparison and also looks at the impacts of creating the equipment to harness those energies as well as the effects of decomissioning them at their end of life.

Research by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has looked at a wide range of studies carried out to asess the greenhouse gas effects related to different forms of energy. THe NREL meta-study sought to equalize and balance the different studies carried out by different researchers in such a fashion that they could be compared with each other.

The conclusions show that "greenhouse-gas emissions from wind power and solar photovoltaics are about 5% of those from coal and that nuclear energy emissions are on par with those from renewable energy."

Renewables such as solar and wind produce far fewer greenhouse-gas emissions than coal, oil or natural gas while in operation. But the meta-analysis looked even deeper, at emissions estimates starting with the manufacture of solar panels, wind turbines, coal plants or natural-gas lines, all the way to the emissions estimates for decommissioning the sites.

While it may seem intuitively obvious, the ability to cross-compare between different studies has not been there previously, and this will allow for better comparison between different techologies, as well as giving a more even picture of the benefits of renewable energy.

via: NA Windpower

A significant regulatory hurdle has been cleared in the development of wind power along the eastern shore of the United States. The Department of the Interior announced a finding of no competitive interest for the proposed Mid-Atlantic offshore wind energy transmission line.

The Atlantic Wind Connection has been under development for a couple of years with companies including Google, investment firm Good Energies, Japanese company Marubeni, and Maryland transmission company Trans-Elect sharing the investment. It will provide an electrical grid backbone with the capacity to transmit 7,000 meagawatts of off-shore wind power to the grid.

The proposed project is a high-voltage, direct-current subsea transmission system that would collect power generated by wind turbine facilities off the Atlantic coasts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. The first such offshore infrastructure proposed in the United States, the system's parallel, redundant circuits would total about 790 miles in length.

The Atlantic coast of the United States is a vast, as-yet untapped source of potential wind power. In addition to being resource-rich, it is also a heavily populated part of the country with a great deal of electrical demand, and wind farms along this part of the country can do a great deal of good. The next step for the project will be to evaluate potential environmental impacts.  Construction of the project is expected to take 10 years in total.

via: US Dept. of Interior