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NYU releases carbon reduction plan
From Green Right Now Reports
New York University released its Climate Action Plan (CAP) today, which outlines the first steps toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2040.
 The plan was developed after the university took a greenhouse gas inventory, and it outlines the projects and methods it will use to reduce or offsets its emissions.
NYU officials credited both Mayor Bloomberg’s PlanNYC Climate Challenge and the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) for initiating and helping shape its actions. The school is a signor of the ACUPCC .
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Tags: · American College and University President's Climate Commitment, carbon emission reductions, clean energy, clean energy plans, Climate Action Plan, energy efficiency, green buildings, New York University, PlanNYC Climate Challenge, sustainability
A North Carolina McDonald’s goes McGreen
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
When Ric Richards recently acquired an aging McDonalds in Cary, N.C., he knew the place needed an overhaul. The 25-year-old store was fraying at the edges.
[caption id="attachment_9739" align="alignright" width="253" caption="LED lighting at Cary McDonalds"]  [/caption]
Richards decided to give these particular golden arches a green touch.
Once he’d decided that the building needed replacing, the decision to go eco-friendly was not difficult. Richards knew it made sense from a business standpoint – it would cut energy costs dramatically – and he figured it would resonate with the educated customers living in the Research Triangle region, especially those interested in lower-carbon living.
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Tags: · Cary, Cree Lighting, electric car chargers, green building, hydronic heating and cooling, LED lights, McDonalds, North Carolina, recycled materials, renewable materials, Research Triangle, sky lighting, sustainability
Walmart plans to lower carbon emissions across its vendor network
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Walmart announced a plan to reduce carbon emissions across its global supply chain today, saying it intends to shave 20 million metric tons off its greenhouse gas emissions through 2015.
[caption id="attachment_9424" align="alignright" width="176" caption="Walmart CEO Mike Duke annoucing carbon reduction goals"]  [/caption]
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Tags: · business transparency, Carbon Emissions, Carbon footprint, carbon reductions, Greenhouse Gases, pollution, retailers. product life cycle, sustainability, Walmart
Restaurants going greener to save costs and attract customers, new study finds
[caption id="attachment_1251" align="alignright" width="219" caption="Restaurant organizations of all sizes are hungry for greater efficiency in their operations, the survey found."]  [/caption]
From Green Right Now Reports
Sustainability practices that minimize the impact of restaurant operations on the environment appear to be gaining momentum as the foodservice industry finds ways to measure the return on its investment in green systems and technologies, according the results of a new benchmark survey from RSR Research.
The study, “The Better-Run Restaurant: Environmental Sustainability in Restaurant Retail 2010,” finds restaurant organizations of all sizes hungry for greater efficiency in their operations, particularly those solutions which cut energy costs, reduce wasteful packaging, and can be leveraged to “tell a green story” to diners. While the industry is still struggling to correlate top line revenue with green investments, it does recognize the bottom line benefits of cost savings from energy and waste management.
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Tags: · Restaurants Going Greener, sustainability, The Better-Run Restaurant: Environmental Sustainability in Restaurant Retail 2010
Beyond green buildings: Sustainable communities
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
If you had the money and connections, you could build a snappy green house these days. Sink a geothermal heat pump to tap Mother Earth’s energy, slap up some solar panels, finish it out with non-toxic drywall, cork floors, denim insulation, recycled glass countertops and floors made from sunken ship decking.
[caption id="attachment_8826" align="alignright" width="244" caption="Green house (Image: Axepin/dreamstime.com)"]  [/caption]
But does a green house a green home make? The answer to that is….of course not. Green builders, and those who live in green houses, soon bump up against what some land planners have known all along: It takes a village to bring green to its fullest expression.
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Tags: · congestion, EDF, green building, green housing, green housing developments, green infrastructure, Integrative Design Collaborative, local agriculture, Mass Transit, NRDC, Office of Sustainable Communities, pollution, Smart Growth, St. Charles community, sustainability, sustainble communities, urban renewal, urban solutions
Vancouver will showcase a sustainable Olympics
By Harriet Blake
Snowboarding, skiing and skating will be front and center when the 2010 Winter Olympics open in Vancouver this week. But not far behind is another S-word: Sustainability. Sustainability has generated a lot of momentum, so much so that the Olympic website devotes numerous links to various aspects of the subject.
There we find out that hydrogen-fueled buses will transport people at some of the venues, several of the buildings are LEED-certified and many of the medals are made from recycled electronics. And, energy provider British Columbia Hydro has teamed with a local software company, Pulse Energy, to monitor energy usage at the games.
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Tags: · 2010 Winter Olympics, British Columbia, British Columbia Hydro, energy monitoring, green Olympics, hydrogen buses, LEED buildings, Pulse Energy, recycled Olympic medals, sustainability, Vancouver, Winter Games
Do we have to limit growth to save the planet?
(The question “Do We Have To Limit Growth To Save The Planet?” was posed to sustainability expert Frances Moore Lappe by the Corporate Social Responsibility’s Talk Back Blog.)
By Frances Moore Lappé
We humans create the world according to ideas we hold. Our biggest ideas, our frames, determine what we can see and what we can’t. Ultimately, they will decide whether we can turn our beautiful planet toward life…or not.
Two frames I increasingly hear are “Because growth is killing the planet, we need no-growth;” and “We’ve hit the limits of a finite earth.”
Hmm.
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Tags: · agricultural inefficiency, Amory Lovins, Earth's limits, Frances Moore Lappe, global growth, OtherVoicesBlog, population control, sustainability
Solution: Reforestation
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
It’s too bad that that term “treehugger” has become such a term of derision among mainstream society.
A similar thing happened to the word “feminist”; it became so associated with strident protest voices that later generations shrugged it off as polarizing. The next generation of women often said they were “for equal rights” for women, but they weren’t “feminists.” Of course they were feminists because they believed in equal rights for women, they just didn’t want to get on a podium about it. They didn’t want a hot button label. Now leaving aside the argument over whether the new approach has been effective for them, let’s return to the question of “treehuggers”.
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Tags: · "treehugger" treehugger, BarbaraKesslerBlog, reforestation, sustainability, the term treehugger, Trees
Hollywood producers looking for a hit with green ways
By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now
Hollywood’s feature films are greening up their productions thanks to the Producers Guild of America (PGA) Green Committee. Founded in 2008, the committee is reaching out to productions worldwide, reducing their carbon footprint and leading the industry in the fight against climate change. They are replanting trees, keeping Styrofoam out of their catering services, and recycling costumes, paints, props and fabrics.
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Tags: · green living, green practices, Habitat for Humanity, LEED houses, less consumption, Los Angeles, Plastic bottles, Producers Guild of America Green Committee, sustainability
Chicago “GreenTown” conference aims to help communities become sustainable
By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now
GreenTown: The Future of Community is a one day conference that aims to help small, medium or large communities become more sustainable.
Featuring speakers like Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and hosted by Columbia College Chicago and sponsored by the City of Chicago, GreenTown will take place this Thursday in downtown Chicago at the Film Row Cinema. The conference, which is put on by a5 inc. and Seven Generations Ahead, is in its second year and is a carbon neutral event.
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Tags: · brownfield development, Chicago, Greentown conference, Mayor Richard M. Daley, new urbanism, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., sustainability, transit development
Greenpeace zings Trader Joe’s for being last on seafood sustainability list
From Green Right Now Reports:
Greenpeace followed up the release this week of its latest Carting Away the Oceans scorecard with a friendly and fishy demonstration outside Trader Joe’s stores in San Francisco.
 Greenpeace members, two of whom dressed as orange roughy and others who parodied Trader’s by wearing Hawaiian shirts mimicking the store’s trademark uniform, handed out information on why its important to select and buy seafood that can be replenished and also asked prospective customers to sign petition postcards to privately held grocery company.
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Tags: · Carting Away the Oceans, Greenpeace, groceries, Oceans, overfishing, Retailers, seafood, seafood Red List, sustainability, Trader Joe's
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