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.

“The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a national non-profit trade group committed to protecting the rights and credits of producers in film, television and new media. Given the current climate crisis and the significance of the environmental impacts of film production, a movement is growing to support sustainable production practices,” said Amanda Scarano Carter, Co-Chair of PGA Green Committee West.

While it is the producers who have joined forces to encourage people to limit their environmental impact, they are getting some celebrity help. On the set of “Knight & Day”, Cameron Diaz has been proactive. She made sure there were no plastic bottles on the set, and that recycle bins were placed all around. “It makes it a lot easier when you have someone as influential as Cameron Diaz setting the tone,” said Fred Baron, Chair of the PGA Green Committee.

The committee’s website provides tools for industry professionals to exchange ideas and make suggestions about greening the filmmaking process. In the near future the committee’s website will become an environmental portal for the six major studios and film industry as a whole. It will feature a carbon calculator and a green marketplace where sets, costumes, and movie accessories can be exchanged. “I am very excited about the direction we are going,”  Baron said.

The PGA Green Committee also is taking their sustainable efforts off the set. This past Saturday, they joined with the Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles to green up a Lynwood, California community. The project will put up LEED-certified houses.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Fact: America has an abundance of food.
Question: So why does anyone go hungry in this country?

A potato gleaning in Virginia (Photo: Society of St. Andrew)

Armed with this simple thought, the Society of St. Andrew (SOSA) took up the cause of feeding the hungry in 1979 with the idea of gleaning fields for salvageable produce.

“We do this in two says,” says Carol Breitinger, communications director. “We use volunteers in the field for hands-on gleaning, or we send out trucks to pick up surplus crops that farmers can’t use and would just end up in the landfill.”

Once SOSA obtains the produce, they distribute to food pantries around the country. Breitinger says they salvage 20 to 25 million pounds of food a year with the help of 30,000 to 35,000 volunteers. The volunteers come from church groups, schools, scout troops, and even from the people who need the food.

Becky and Dave Aduddell of Wake Forest, N.C., are two of SOSA’s veteran volunteers. “We’ve been doing this for five or six years now,” says Dave, who is a web programmer for a local community college by day and a bass player by night. The couple was hooked after a friend who was gleaning introduced them to the concept. “It sounded like such an eminently logical idea that we joined him very shortly after he started.”

Gleaning a field in North Carolina (Photo: Society of St. Andrew)

“Our interest in gleaning stems from that great desire within each of us to ‘do some good.’ We like it because it is very concrete and tangible. Writing a check to a charity gives one a good feeling and a sense of satisfaction, but going out and working to glean, then delivering the produce directly to the recipients is a very concrete act.”

The Aduddells bring their gleaned crops to a public housing complex in the small town where they live.

The couple acknowledges that the gleaning process wasn’t a big stretch – both of them come from farming families. “While we didn’t grow up on a farm, we spent time doing farm work as kids, so this is a nice déjà vu for us,” says Dave.

In mid-October the Aduddells joined several hundred volunteers for the 19th annual Yam-Jam, sponsored by SOSA. The group salvaged unharvested sweet potatoes from a 50-acre field in rural Johnston County, North Carolina. The area had already been harvested by professionals. In addition to sweet potatoes, Becky says the group has collected corn, green beans, collards, tomatoes, watermelon, squash and blueberries.

“A good 20 percent of produce is lost in the fields,” says SOSA’s Breitinger. She says the USDA calculates that 96 billion pounds of food is wasted in this country before it gets to market.

Why do farmers leave good food behind? “Sometimes commercial growers must leave one field to move on to the next crop,” says Breitinger. Other times, the produce isn’t “perfect” enough for market – not quite the right size or color, but perfectly edible. Also, sometimes the farmer can’t afford to pay another crew to come through his fields again.

Gleaning a perfect cabbage in Virginia (Photo: Society of St. Andrew)

Farmer Leo Stallings says he has leftovers because there isn’t a big market for produce in Franklin County, the area of North Carolina where his farm is located. Stallings, who has been in the farm business for 40 years, grows a number of crops including sweet corn, beans, cantaloupe, collards, peas, squash and string beans. “This area is not very commercial. There are few markets. Growing is not a problem, but selling is. We don’t have a co-op to handle acres of crops.

“I try to plant about as much as I think will sell. But because the market varies, I often have leftovers.”

Stallings says SOSA volunteers come out in the summer and late fall to salvage his fields. He says he doesn’t mind giving it away. “I don’t want it to go to waste and they give us a tax credit for it.”

When large growers donate a tractor trailer load of food, SOSA might contact a group of volunteers, often a church group, to sponsor a “potato drop.”

“Imagine 45,000 pounds of loose potatoes dumped into a church parking lot,” says Breitinger. “Volunteers then put 10 to 15 pounds of potatoes into mesh bags. We contact the local food pantries to come to pick it up.”

Second Nature, a nonprofit organization promoting sustainability in higher education, launched the Advancing Green Building in Higher Education initiative earlier this year to help under-resourced higher education institutions with a $1.2 million grant from the Kresge Foundation.

Today, Second Nature launched the Campus Green Builder, a part of the initiative, to help all schools further their sustainability plans. The program recognizes that colleges and universities are in a unique position to influence the future, as they shape the minds of tomorrow, and also that they are large consumers of resources.  While many institutions have already formed sustainable committees, there are still many more in the initial stages.

The website, which bills itself as the first of its kind in higher education, aims to build sustainability by giving all schools equal access to funding and resources for green building.

“Whether someone wants to learn about green building grants, financing renewable energy on campus, workshops on building renovations, hiring the right green contractor, or anything else pertaining to green building in higher education, this site is the go-to place,” said Ashka Naik, Program Manager at Second Nature, in a statement.

The Campus Green Builder offers information and opportunities such as:

• Links to green building resource websites and green building experts’ directories.
• Case Studies to serve as models and learning resources.
• Announcements of green building and campus sustainability events, conferences, workshops and webinars.
• Campus Green Builder Blog for peer-to-peer networking.

The Campus Green Builder is partnering with the United Negro College Fund, the US Green Building Council, the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment and Building Green LLC.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Kimberly-Clark Corp. and upcycling firm TerraCycle today announced they will partner on a program  to enhance the sustainability performance of some of K-C’s product packaging. The new program also will create fundraising programs that benefit schools and communities nationwide.

The new program allows participants to earn funds for their selected charity of choice for every used piece of plastic packaging associated with Scott or Huggies brands that they collect. The collected plastic packaging will be upcycled into affordable, high-quality products available next year at major retailers nationwide, the companies said.

“Kimberly-Clark is already making significant strides in reducing packaging waste from its products, but this program with TerraCycle will help us do even more,” Matt Kolton, brand manager of Scott Naturals, said in a statement. “No longer will all the plastic packaging from both our Scott brand bath tissue, towels, napkins and moist wipes, and Huggies brand diapers be considered waste. Rather, it can be used as a resource in a new generation of products.

Schools, business, houses of worship and even individuals can set up a “Brigade” to collect packaging.  For each piece of packaging a Brigade participant collects, two cents is paid to a school or non-profit group of their choice.

Each of these Brigade programs is diverting product packaging waste from landfills, giving much needed funding to local communities and helping to raise consumer awareness about reusing and reducing.

For centuries, different religions have argued about many issues and even gone to war over some of them. Next week however, they will put it all aside and come together for a common cause — sustainability.

On Monday, Nov. 2, a group of 200 religious leaders from all around the world will meet for three days at Windsor Castle for an interfaith climate celebration. “Many Heavens, One Earth: Faith Commitments for a Living Planet” will be hosted by Prince Philip and is co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Program and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), a faith-based environmental organization co-founded by Prince Philip in 1995 to link conservation and ecology with faith. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations will also be in attendance.

Event organizers hope are gathering the religious leaders in order to present and discuss 30 long-term climate plans for their communities. The group believes that climate change is not only a pressing environmental problem, but also a moral one.

The religions represented at the celebration include Baha’ism, Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shintoism and Sikhism.

“It’s being called a celebration because despite the gloom surrounding so much environmental talk, there is in fact a lot to be hopeful for, and positive about. These initiatives, with their emphasis on long-term practical action, offer a great deal of hope for the future. Also, it can be too easy for individuals to feel crushed by the scale of the environmental challenge ahead - yet without a sense of hope, we cannot motivate people – or ourselves – to make the lifestyle changes needed,” said Susie Weldon, spokesperson for the ARC.

Having to be not only environmentally conscious about the food prepared, caterers also must be ethical and faith-consistent. Throughout all three days of the celebration, all the food will be vegetarian and free-range. Castle caterers are aiming for most of the food to be local, organic, and fair-trade. Also, there will be no bottled water provided to attendants.

The Mercure Castle Hotel, Windsor, will host the welcome dinner on Monday — its first-ever vegetarian banquet. Likewise, Tuesday the group will attend a banquet at Windsor Castle prepared by Edible Food Design, one of the castle’s catering companies, which will be the first vegan meal prepared for a Royal banquet. The vegan meal includes roasted pear salad with cobnuts and chicory, Portobello mushrooms stuffed with artichoke and herbs, pearl barley risotto and organic wine.

The event is “the first major, internationally coordinated commitment by the religions to the environment and aims to shape the behavior and attitudes of the faithful for generations to come,” according to ARC’s website.

Some of the unique environmental initiatives that will be announced include:

• new faith-based eco-labeling systems for Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Judaism
• 8.5 million trees to be planted in Tanzania
• all Daoist temples in China to be solar powered
• 10 Muslim cities to be chosen to lead implementation of the Muslim Seven Year Action Plan
• moves to source ecologically sustainable fuel sources for Sikh gurdwaras in India, which feed 30 million poor people every day

With more than  6.5 billion people worldwide, the majority of them belong to one faith or another. There are 2.1 billion Christians, 1.34 billion Muslims, more than 950 million Hindus, 50-70 million Daoists, 24 million Sikhs and 13 million Jews, according to the Atlas of Religion.

“Many of the faiths with which ARC works are part of communities at the forefront of climate change or at the very least, environmental degradation due to deforestation, flooding, crop failures, drought. They know firsthand what kind of impact this has on people in vulnerable countries. The Windsor Celebration will bring together people who have a real insight into the effects of climate change from very diverse parts of the world,” said Weldon.

“The world’s faiths joined together in this cause – if viewed in terms of sheer numbers of people – could become the planet’s largest civil society movement for change. With their unparalleled presence throughout the world, the world’s religions could be the decisive force that helps top the scales in favor of a world of climate safety and justice for future generations… this event will be one for the history books,” said UNDP Assistant Secretary-General Olav Kjorven in a press release.

The celebration precedes the climate-change discussions that will take place in Copenhagen in December. Like many other climate events prior to December, the celebration hopes to make an impact on key leaders who will be attending Copenhagen.

“…the faiths aren’t waiting for governments to finish arguing about what’s needed or who should pay for it. They’re getting on with doing what they can to help the environment, without asking other people to commit to action first but saying ‘this is what we can do and we will do it’,” said Weldon.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

It could be colder in Boston this time of year. With overnight lows in the upper 40s, it’s not the worst or best condition for sleeping outside.

"Sleepers" gather in Boston

Still, that’s what dozens of college students and environmental activists across the state have decided to do to make a point about clean energy and press Gov. Deval Patrick to promote a bill that would power Massachusetts with 100 percent clean energy by 2020.

The students, organized through the student-led Leadership Campaign, began their “sleep out” protest this past weekend with about 70 students and community members sleeping out in Boston Common.

Participants came from Harvard and Boston Universities; from Clark University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute and even from Westfield State College and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the western part of the state. Community members came from all over the state and included ordained clergy, according to organizers.

The plan: To sleep outdoors instead of in dormitories and houses powered by “dirty electricity”, until a plan is in place to power homes with clean electricity. Monday morning, after the first sleep in, students lobbied legislators at the Statehouse.

How long will the students shiver in the night? They’ll be back every Sunday night in Boston Common, and on other campuses students will continue to sleep out through the week,  until early December, if necessary. The activists want Patrick to introduce and pass a bill before Dec. 7, when global climate negotiations begin in Copenhagen. (Find out more about sleeping out on their website.)

“Massachusetts has already led on this issue,” said protest coordinator Craig Altemose. “When the science said 450 parts per million [of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was the safe upper limit], the Legislature passed a bill putting the Commonwealth on track with this target.

“But now the science says 350 is the highest safe level.  We’re now at 390, so we know that the Legislature and the Governor will again step forward and lead us to a clean energy future with accurate science-based targets.”

What the students and activists are asking for is realistic, says Dan Abrams, a spokesman for the Leadership Campaign.

Tents in Boston

“…There have been numerous reports that state that we can get a very high percentage of our energy in Massachusetts from wind and solar alone.  I have read a report that says we can get around 60% of our energy from wind alone. I also have heard of a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists that says we can get 92% of our energy from wind and solar (and that doesn’t include off shore wind or energy conservation),” Abrams said.

But moving to clean energy is not really a choice dictated by how easy or not it will be to shift the infrastructure and electricity generation, he said.

“The science has clearly stated the world needs to cap the carbon in our atmosphere at 350ppm and we must do whatever it takes to get us below that number; 10 years is how long we are giving our government because it’s very scientifically possible to get to this goal much sooner but it is the politics that take a little bit longer.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Northampton, Mass.-based non-profit Soldier On, which will break ground this month on a limited-equity housing project for formerly homeless veterans, said the project will use photovoltaic technology supplied by Berkeley, Calif.-based Borrego Solar to supply electricity to its 39 apartments.

Berkshire Veterans Village will house formerly homeless veterans. (Image: Soldier On)

Berkshire Veterans Village in Pittsfield is intended to serve as a new national model for transitioning veterans from homelessness to home ownership. The Soldier On, which has been helping get veterans off the street since 1994, said a second limited-equity housing project is planned for Leeds. The organization said it eventually hopes to take the model to a national level.

Borrego, which has its East Coast office in Boston, designed a 40.32 kilowatt DC photovoltaic power generation system for the project. According to Borrego:

• The system will reduce carbon emissions by 71,012 lbs of CO2 annually.
• The reduction in carbon emissions is equivalent to the emissions from an average passenger car driving 135,625 miles every year for 30 years.
• This system will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 617 pounds over its life. Nitrogen oxides are a major contributor to smog and air-induced respiratory problems.

The housing project will give formerly homeless veterans the opportunity to become homeowners, in many cases for the first time in their lives. Veterans will have the opportunity to purchase an equity share that will be held in trust and will be available to them should they choose to move out, or will become part of their estate.

The housing units will be managed by the veterans who purchase equity in apartments. Those veterans will have completed a progression from Soldier On’s shelter in Leeds, Mass. to its transitional housing facility in Pittsfield. In the limited-equity housing project, they will continue to be surrounded by the services they need and the community of support Soldier On provides.

The Oct. 29 groundbreaking event for the project is scheduled to include as speakers Mass. Lieutenant Gov. Tim Murray and Stephen Coyle, CEO of the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust, along with Gordon Mansfield, former Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Sustainable Endowments Institute released the 4th edition of its annual College Sustainability Report Card 2010, also known as the Green Report Card on Wednesday.

Founded in 2005 and supported by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the Institute supports the advancement of sustainability in higher education. It boasts that its college ranking project had a response rate of 96 percent in 2009, giving the Green Report Card the highest response rate of any college sustainability ranking or rating service.

The Green Report Card graded 332 universities on a scale of 1 through 4 on their performance in nine categories:

• Administration
• Climate Change & Energy
• Food & Recycling
• Green Building
• Transportation
• Student Involvement
• Endowment Transparency
• Shareholder Engagement
• Investment Priorities

Twenty-six schools received a 4.0:

• Amherst College
• Arizona State University
• Brown University
• University of California – San Diego
• Carleton College
• College of the Atlantic
• University of Colorado
• Dickinson College
• Harvard University
• Luther College
• Macalester College
• Middlebury College
• University of Minnesota
• University of New Hampshire
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Oberlin College
• Pacific Lutheran University
• University of Pennsylvania
• Pomona College
• Smith College
• Stanford University
• University of Vermont
• University of Washington
• Wesleyan University
• Williams College
• Yale University

Out of the 26 schools that earned a 4.0, 20 belong to the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).

“We believe that report cards like this offer important opportunities to raise public awareness and apply pressure to schools to improve their sustainability efforts.  However, there are other useful considerations too, such as membership in the ACUPCC, whether the school is working towards climate neutrality, and what sustainability courses and research the school is providing,” stated Gina Coplon-Newfield, director of communications and outreach for Second Nature.

The total endowment value of the schools surveyed for this year’s Green Report Card is $325 billion. While the average endowment value dropped 23 percent in the last year, schools are not making cuts in sustainability. In fact, they are using sustainability to their advantage.

“Surprising the skeptics, most schools we surveyed did not let financial reversals undermine their green commitments,” said Mark Orlowski, executive director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute, in a statement. “New financial realities encouraged saving money by adopting environmentally friendly innovations.”

“Colleges are now taking pride in greener campuses and sustainability-savvy investments—increasingly important concerns for parents and students in choosing a school,” Orlowski said.

The Green Report Card allows a person to compare up to 10 schools at a time, filtered by more than 100 categories, such as geographic region, athletic league, environmental studies majors, sustainability jobs on campus, renewable energy use and many other factors.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The exterior of Habitat for Humanity's green project at Ocean Hill-Brownsville in Brooklyn (Photo: Habitat for Humanity -- New York City)

From Green Right Now Reports

Habitat for Humanity – New York City has opened the largest and greenest multifamily complex ever built by a Habitat affiliate in the nation. Keys to the 41 affordable condominiums, which are expected to receive LEED Gold certification, were handed to families at a ceremony Saturday.

The ribbon-cutting event in Ocean Hill-Brownsville, Brooklyn, included about 10,000 volunteers who helped build the homes, financial backers, faith and community leaders, and elected officials who made the new homes possible.

Homeowner families worked alongside volunteers for more than two years to help construct these homes. (Photo: Habitat for Humanity -- New York City)

The new homeowner families worked alongside volunteers for more than two years to help construct these homes. The 41 families contributed at least 300 hours of “sweat equity” per adult on the project.

“This is an emotional and exciting day for Habitat-NYC and our 41 families, whose lives will be transformed by these healthy and affordable homes,” Josh Lockwood, executive director of Habitat-NYC, said in a statement. “They are a testament to the vast impact New Yorkers can have by working shoulder-to-shoulder to build homes and revitalize communities.”

Esther Huambo, a single mother of two said she was grateful for the many New Yorkers who helped build her new three-bedroom home.

“In breath-taking cold days, with no heat or windows or doors . . . in the very hot days of summer with no air conditioning or fan . . . you came out to work side-by-side with us. You do this out of the kindness of your hearts,” she said in a statement. “On behalf of all the Habitat family partners, and on behalf of my children: ‘Thank you.’”

The block where these homes now stand was a long-vacant, garbage-strewn lot. Habitat-NYC invested $11.6 million to build the complex of three, four-story buildings. According to an economic impact report by HR&A Advisors, the project will generate about $34.5 million over the next four decades – approximately $3 for every dollar invested.

Habitat-NYC families are first-time homeowners earning 45 percent to 80  percent of NYC’s federal median income ($31,905 to $56,720 for a family of four).

By Lynette Holloway
Green Right Now

Collard greens, kale, tomatoes, swiss chard and okra spring from a swath of asphalt amid a bustling sidewalk on Chicago’s North Side. The incongruous site is the Cabrini-Green Chicago Avenue Community Garden, a vegetable and flower garden that was home to basketball and tennis courts more than six years ago.

Enclosed by a chain-link fence, gardeners plant on compost beds shaped like crude graves. It is part of a community garden project conducted by Growing Power, a national non-profit organization, dedicated to helping urban families gain access to healthy food systems. Growing Power, headquartered in Milwaukee, also provides training and oversight for volunteers who participate in the project.

Erika Allen, a mother who uses her art therapy major in her work, is project manager of the Chicago urban garden. She also appears in the critically acclaimed documentary Food Fight, which is about the importance of sustainably produced or locally grown food. She also is the daughter of Will Allen, founder and chief executive officer of Growing Power, who last year was awarded a MacArthur Genius Award for his work in the delivery of healthy food systems in urban areas.

“There are very few of us that do this work in our communities,” Allen said recently, taking a break from her work. She speaks with ease as teens and members of the community chatter among themselves and till their garden beds. Only the occasional vehicle horn disrupts the serenity.

“There are a lot of people who do work in communities of color, but who aren’t from the community,” said Allen, who is of African American and European descent. “That puts us in a unique position to also tackle racism. The people who support power and privilege are also those who support industrial food systems. We believe if you develop a community based food system, you have to deal with the social justice issues as well. To a degree, we dismantle the systems that oppress people.”

Allen enjoys interacting with residents. Many of them reside in what is left of the notorious Cabrini-Green housing projects for which the garden is named. The projects, whose high-rises are in the midst of being torn down and replaced by mixed-used housing, were once known as some of the nation’s most violent.

Allen said she has seen Growing Power help the lives of some residents in terms of the delivery of fresh food in an area where it is sorely needed. The project is comprised of 68 plots and assigned based on a first-come, first-served basis each year. The first round of plots go to people who have gardened in the past. If gardeners fail to reapply within a certain period of time, the plots are reassigned. New gardeners must sign up for an orientation session.

On a warm July afternoon, Allen sat at a picnic table alongside youngsters working on art projects. She interacted with passers-by as she stressed the importance of community based food systems. Brian Ellis, 18, who has lived in the projects for much of his life, was one of them.

Ellis obtained a job at Growing Power four years ago through Youth Corps. He has learned about composting and the value of fresh produce by selling vegetables on market day, he said.

“I’ve been doing composting since last summer,” he said. “I didn’t know about it. You can use it to grow all of this stuff if you break it down until you get a rich soil. I like market days, too because I can take some of the vegetables home to my mom to cook.”

Besides Cabrini-Green, Growing Power has community projects at Grant Park in downtown Chicago and Jackson Park on the South Side.

“Our foundation here is our youth training,” Allen said. “We help build life skills, character development and an understanding of food systems as a job-training component. A lot of our Youth Corps members are recruited from this garden. We have kids who started with us who were 10 and are now 15. Some have recruited friends. ”

Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church on the Gold Coast owns the land, about 2,000-square-feet, on which the urban garden sits, according to Natasha Holbert, garden program manager for the church. She praised Allen’s work in a telephone interview, saying she has been instrumental in helping to build community.

“She’s a wonderful resource to us,” Holbert said. “The great thing about the project is that it’s recreational, too. It’s about building community. We have cookouts every month and play games. There’s also a labyrinth on the recreation side of the land. The entire space is not used for gardening. We try to use it for other things. You don’t have to garden or grow vegetables. You could do a book group. It’s a model program. There aren’t too many gardens that are like it.”

Chris Taylor, the Food Fight documentarian, agrees about it being a model program. He learned of Allen while interviewing Tom Philpott, co-founder of the North Carolina-based Maverick Farms, for the documentary.

“She’s is amazing,” he said of Allen in a telephone interview. “I enjoyed interviewing her for the film. Chicago is at the cutting edge of the urban garden movement.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Photo: Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas

Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas in Austin was the first hospital to receive the LEED Platinum award

For too long, hospitals have been less than healthy – inside and out.

They burn massive amounts of medical waste that spew the carcinogen dioxin into the air. They are energy gluttons, operating 24/7 – creating untold amounts of greenhouse gases and leaving massive carbon footprints. They traditionally have used about twice as much energy as regular office space.  From toxins in lab chemicals to dangerous elements that leach from IVs and catheters made of vinyl plastic tubing, the place you go to heal may not always be good for you.

That is changing, thanks to powerful non-profit groups, architects with green expertise and some of the nation’s largest hospital systems.

The massive Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston removed vinyl composition tile floors and is replacing them with a renewable rubber product that doesn’t need strong chemicals to stay clean.

The new University Medical Center at Princeton will let natural light into rooms, and sensors will lower artificial light as needed, saving energy.

From using old, cotton jeans for insulation to biodegradable bed pans, innovations are appearing in health care systems. Large hospital groups, such as Kaiser Permanente, Catholic Health Care West, the Veterans Administration and the City of Chicago are turning to sustainable and renewable hospital operations and designs, in no small part due to the tremendous cost-savings of reduced electricity and water consumption.

Arguing that junk economics has replaced junk science as the cause of inaction on climate change issues, more than 100 of the nation’s economists have joined to launch RealClimateEconomics.org. The group, which will use economic evidence to support public policy and business responses to the climate crisis, is modeled after Realclimate.org, an effort among climate scientists to dispel what they see as junk science popularized by climate skeptics.

RealClimateEconomics.org is a project of Economics for Equity and the Environment (E3 Network) and is funded by Portland, Ore.-based Ecotrust, an environmental think tank.

The new group launched its web site RealClimateEconomics.org today with a new report from several of its members on interstate differences in per capita greenhouse gas emissions. The report examines why some states have much lower emissions than others and looks at the potential regional impact of policies, such as cap-and-trade, which will impose a price on energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. The report was written by Dr. Elizabeth Stanton and Dr. Frank Ackerman of Tufts University, and Dr. Kristen Sheeran, who is director of the E3 Network.

Highlights of the report include:

• Greenhouse gas emissions, after correcting for interstate trade in electricity, vary widely from state to state. The highest-emission states have more than six times the per capita emissions of the lowest.
• A few states stand out as having energy-related emissions around half the national average of 21 metric tons of CO2 each year. Those states, in order: Vermont; New York and Oregon (tie for second); Rhode Island, California, and Washington (tie for third). Emissions in these six states are roughly comparable to those of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
• On the other end of the spectrum, Alaska, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Louisiana all emit more than twice the national per capita average (for energy-related emissions). Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia are not far behind.
• In transportation and residential emissions, the same six states – New York, Oregon, California, Rhode Island, Washington and Vermont (tie) – together with the District of Columbia, have remarkably low emissions per capita, far lower than the national average of 11 mT CO2.
• Some of the differences between states are based on factors states can’t control; for instance, the coldest states have high heating needs. But some of the differences between states are related to climate and energy policies, the extent of public transportation in urban areas, the level of gasoline taxes and the reliance on coal for electricity generation.