The City of Houston and Reliant Energy are launching a program to bring plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to the streets of Houston, to demonstrate the important role that electric cars can play in the city’s clean energy future.

Under the program, called the “Power of the Plug-In,” 10 city-owned Toyota Prius cars will be converted to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and 10 vehicle-charging stations will be installed to power them. The Power of the Plug-In is designed to raise consumer awareness and education about plug-in electric cars and to promote Houston and Texas as an electric vehicle center. Seven of the 10 stations will be available to the public, representing the largest public charging infrastructure in Texas, the city said.

“We’re committed to making Houston the nation’s green energy capital,” Houston Mayor Bill White said in a statement. “That commitment begins at City Hall and these clean-running electric cars and the charging stations that will be available to all Houstonians will get us farther down that road.”

The 10 Reliant-provided charging stations will be located around Houston, with public stations at City Hall, the Health Department office at 8000 Stadium Drive and at the Mayor’s Citizens Assistance Office at 9615 Rustic Wood in Kingwood. Reliant chose Campbell, Calif.-based Coulomb Technologies, Inc. to provide its ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations. Coulomb is a leader in networked electric vehicle charging infrastructure and its network will enable the city to administer consumer access to the public stations.

The 2009 Toyota Prius hybrids that will be converted are already used extensively by the city. The plug-in conversion module is the Hymotion L5 provided by A123 Systems, a leader in development of lithium-ion batteries for use in electric cars.

The converted plug-in hybrid electric vehicles can deliver up to 100 miles per gallon, helping to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Studies show plug-in hybrid electric vehicles with a 20-mile electric driving range can reduce vehicle carbon dioxide emissions by up to two thirds depending on the generation source for the vehicle’s electricity when compared with traditional gasoline-powered vehicles.

“We envision thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of electric cars on our roads in the coming years, making Houston’s air cleaner and the city greener,” Reliant Energy President Jason Few said in a statement. “Our pilot project gives both Reliant and the City of Houston the opportunity to learn more about the performance of electric vehicles and the needs of drivers while promoting consumer awareness and education about plug-in electric cars. Reliant is committed to making Houston and Texas the electric vehicle capital of the United States. We think big in Texas and we have big plans.”

Electric vehicles also provide long-term affordability, city officials said. While electric cars generally cost more to purchase, largely due to the high cost of lithium-ion batteries, the vehicles do not require typical engine maintenance, such as oil changes. Electric vehicles are also less expensive to operate because electricity costs less on a per-mile basis than gasoline.

Last week, Reliant and Nissan announced they have reached an agreement to work together to make Houston a launch city for the broader use of electric vehicles by the American public, businesses and public organizations.

The companies said they will advocate for policies that make it easy for consumers to make the switch from gasoline to electric-powered vehicles and will work together to establish the infrastructure of charging stations needed to support a critical mass of electric vehicles.

From Green Right Now Reports

Star Market at Chestnut Hill in Newton, Mass., recently became the first grocery store in the nation to receive US Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Partnership platinum store award. The advanced refrigeration technology in the new store, which is part of the Shaw’s line of supermarkets, significantly reduces its impact on climate change and the stratospheric ozone layer by cutting the use of refrigerants by 85 percent compared with the typical supermarket.

Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, called the store’s efforts “wicked cool.”

“This store shows that smart design and advanced technologies help us right now to better protect our climate, the ozone layer, and our health,” McCarthy said in a statement.

The GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership is an EPA cooperative alliance with the supermarket industry to promote advanced technologies, strategies, and practices that reduce refrigerant charges and emissions of ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gases.

GreenChill partners emit about 50 percent less emissions than the industry average, and have pledged to continually lower them as part of the program. EPA estimates that if every supermarket in the nation joined GreenChill and reduced emissions to the current GreenChill average, the U.S. would prevent 22 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and 240 tons of ozone-depleting substances annually, and save $108 million in refrigerant costs each year. GreenChill has 46 partners, with more than 6,500 retail food stores in 47 states.

Under the program, GreenChill Partner stores agree to:

• Transition to non-ozone-depleting refrigerants;
• Reduce refrigerant charges;
• Reduce both ozone-depleting and greenhouse gas refrigerant emissions; and
• Promote supermarkets’ adoption of advanced refrigeration technologies

Earlier this year, the EPA honored a handful of supermarkets for reducing their use of greenhouse gas refrigerants that deplete the Earth’s ozone layer and contribute to climate change. Awardees included  Sprouts Farmers Market, Whole Foods, and Hill Phoenix.

Sprouts Farmers Market, which owns stores across California, Arizona, Colorado, and Texas, received a New Partner Award.

New partners pledge to go above and beyond regulatory requirements by measuring and tracking refrigerant emissions that affect climate change and the Earth’s ozone layer, and then setting reduction targets for these emissions. Partners also agree to use only ozone-friendly alternatives in all new and remodeled stores.

“We look forward to a productive and mutually beneficial partnership with Sprouts Farmers Market,” Keilly Witman, GreenChill Program Manager, said in a statement. “The public wants to do business with companies that share their environmental values. By joining GreenChill, Sprouts Farmers Market is proving to consumers that they care about the Earth’s ozone layer and climate system.”

Whole Foods Market’s newest store in the North Atlantic Region, located at Legacy Place in Dedham, Mass., was recognized for its environmentally friendly design, construction, and operations with the Green Building Initiative’s (GBI) Green Globes certification and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) GreenChill certification.

For the Green Globes certification, the Dedham store was evaluated in six categories, including energy, water, resources, emissions, indoor environment and environmental management systems, and received a three out of four “Green Globes” rating. The EPA’s GreenChill certification program promotes advanced technologies, strategies, and practices that reduce refrigerant charges and emissions of ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gases.

“With the combined power generated from our fuel cell and solar panels, the Dedham store is essentially able to generate almost 100 percent of its power needs on-site with clean energy resources,” Kathy Loftus, global leader of sustainable engineering, maintenance, and energy for Austin-based Whole Foods, said in a statement. “We are the first supermarket to use fuel cell technology in the state.”

By generating most of its power on-site with a fuel cell, Whole Foods’ Dedham store will prevent the release of more than 764 metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually, the equivalent of planting more than 175 acres of trees and removing over 90 cars from the road, according to the natural foods grocer. The peak power generated from the photovoltaic (PV) solar energy system is enough to meet the store’s entire lighting power needs.

To achieve a Green Globes rating, Whole Foods used Green Globes’ online and interactive program to monitor the environmentally friendly building upgrades. A GBI-authorized third-party building science expert was engaged to review the building documents, conduct an on-site inspection and assess an official Green Globes rating.

A field monitor checks a gas meter for leaks. (Photo: Department of Energy)

From Green Right Now Reports

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell announced today that the first installment of $123 million in federal Recovery funds for weatherization will begin to be released Nov. 2, part of $253 million that the state will use for this purpose.

The Governor said the funding represents an unprecedented level of investment that will help to create new, “green” jobs, save money for struggling families, and stimulate local economic activity as weatherization agencies buy required material, vehicles and equipment.

“The weatherization program stimulates the economy in several ways,” Gov. Rendell said in a statement. “It saves money on energy bills for people who need it the most, and keeps those dollars circulating in local communities because families will be able to spend more on food, clothing and other necessities. It also will create new jobs in the growing ‘green’ economic development sector.”

Pennsylvania’s allocation of $253 million for weatherization from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is the fourth largest in the nation; only New York, Texas and Ohio received more. The money will be paid over three years.

Ohio technicians prepare to seal a roof prior to re-insulating an attic containing vermiculite. (Photo: Department of Energy)

In Ohio, the $266.8 million Recovery grant from the Weatherization Program is allowing the state to boost the energy efficiency of more than 32,000 homes. Adding insulation, sealing leaks and modernizing heating and air conditioning equipment will reduce energy costs for Ohio homeowners by an average of 24 percent. In general, the Weatherization Program allows for an investment of up to $6,500 per home in energy efficiency upgrades and is available to homeowners making approximately $44,000 a year for a family of four. The Department of has recognized Ohio as a leader in the weatherization program with 951 homes completed in July 2009.

Ohio allocated funds from the grant to local community agencies and other public and not-for-profit organizations. In addition, 54 independent contractors were hired to supplement existing contractors. It is estimated that by completion of the project at the end of March, 2012, 590 new positions will be created and 487 jobs retained.

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs has awarded $288 million in federal stimulus funding to 66 cities, counties, and eligible nonprofit organizations across the state to weatherize the homes of an estimated 40,000 low income Texans. Overall, the state received $326.9 in weatherization funds, the balance of which TDHCA will award in 2010.

The Recovery Act provided approximately $314 million more in funds than what Texas typically administers each year for weatherization activities. By comparison, the state annually weatherizes approximately 3,700 homes using current funding levels of approximately $13 million.

The Nissan LEAF (Photo: Nissan)

From Green Right Now Reports

Nissan North America said it will debut the LEAF zero-emission, all-electric car in Los Angeles on Nov. 13. After Los Angeles, the five-passenger, five-door, gasoline-free car will go on a nationwide tour in the coming months.

The Nissan LEAF Zero Emission Tour will stop in 22 cities, in 11 states, the District of Columbia, and Vancouver, Canada, offering the opportunity for interested drivers, media, civic partners, businesses and university students to learn more about the Nissan LEAF and the benefits of zero-emission driving.

Get updates on the final schedule and sign up for more information at www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car.

Here are the scheduled stops for the Nissan LEAF:

Southern California

• Los Angeles: Nov. 13-17
• Orange County: Nov. 18
• San Diego: Nov. 19-21

Northern California

• Berkeley/Walnut Creek: Nov. 23-24
• San Francisco: Nov. 25-29
• Santa Rosa: Dec. 1
• Sacramento: Dec. 1
• San Jose: Dec. 3-6

Pacific Northwest

• Seattle: Dec. 8-12
• Vancouver, Canada: Dec. 14-15
• Portland, Ore.: Dec. 17-23

Southwest

• Phoenix/Tucson: Dec. 30-Jan. 5
• Las Vegas: Jan. 6

Midwest/East Coast

• Detroit: Jan. 11-13
• Knoxville/Chattanooga, Tenn.: Jan. 16
• Middle Tennessee: Jan. 19-21
• Washington, D.C.: Jan. 26-28
• Raleigh, N.C.: Jan. 29
• Orlando: Feb. 1-2

Texas

• Houston: Feb. 5-6

New York

• New York City: Feb. 9-14

Ocean waves near Freeport, Texas (Photo: National Weather Service)

Ocean waves off the coast of Texas may soon provide the first commercial wave power in the US to generate electricity and desalinate water.

Renew Blue Inc. said today that the Texas General Land Office has granted it the first-ever state off-shore wave energy lease. The company said it will use ocean water and waves to produce desalinated water; the first 100 percent fossil-fuel-free bottled water.

Renew Blue, a wholly owned subsidiary of Minneapolis-based Independent Natural Resources Inc., is the first licensing entity of SEADOG Pump, a technology that uses ocean waves to generate electricity. The company plans to operate in the Gulf of Mexico near Freeport, Texas, to produce 3,000 gallons a day of desalinated water and will bottle and distribute it under the brand Renew Blue.

This will be a small demonstration of what SEADOG Pump technology can do in providing electricity and clean water to regions all over the world that lack fresh water and energy but have an abundance of ocean waves along their coastline.

“Texas is proud to be the initial site of this wave-powered energy innovation,” Rene Truan, deputy commissioner for professional services at the Texas General Land Office, said in a statement. “Renewable energy production on the Texas coast means renewable revenue for the school children of Texas. The SEADOG Pump is another great example of the exciting opportunities that exist and that the Texas General Land Office is working hard to take advantage of.”

Renew Blue will place an off-shore modular platform about one mile off the coast of Freeport, in roughly 25 feet of water. The company said it expects the platform, which is currently being manufactured outside of Houston, to be installed in the fourth quarter of 2009 or the first quarter of 2010.

Independent Natural Resources Inc. said it sees major advantages in the SEADOG Pump system, which is powered solely by the wave energy it harnesses. The company says electric power accounts for 40 to 50 percent of the operating costs in the desalination process, meaning the new pump system should provide significant cost savings and minimal environmental impact compared to the large-scale use of power generated by fossil fuels.

“For the past seven years the SEADOG has been fine-tuned to produce this major accomplishment as the first commercial wave power generation in the US,” Mark A. Thomas, CEO of INRI, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to showcase the SEADOG to the world as an innovative yet simple technology illustrating the ability to extract wave energy at low cost, with high levels of efficiency resulting in immeasurable benefit to humankind.”

The Roscoe, Texas, wind farm (Photo: E.ON Climate & Renewables)

Global energy company E.ON Climate and Renewables today announced the completion of what it says is the world’s largest wind farm near Roscoe, Texas. The new wind complex has an installed capacity of 781.5 megawatts (MW), which can generate enough electricity to power more than 230,000 homes.

The project area spans parts of four West Texas counties and covers almost 100,000 acres — an area several times the size of Manhattan. The wind farm has a total of 627 wind turbines manufactured by Mitsubishi, General Electric and Siemens.

North American CEO of EC&R Steve Trenholm said the wind farm is the result of a billion dollar investment, and involved the coordination of more than 300 landowners and 500 workers. “Today is a great day for our company and the team that made this a reality,” he said in a statement.

EC&R is constructing an offshore wind project near London that it says will be the largest offshore wind farm in the world. The company operates wind farms producing more than 2,600 megawatts worldwide, including 1,488 MW in the U.S.

“Texas continues to lead the nation in the development of renewable energy and has more wind generation capacity than any other state and all but four countries,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement. “We are pleased that E. ON Climate & Renewables North America has chosen to open this facility in Roscoe that will further expand our state’s diverse energy portfolio.”

However, Gov. Rick Perry continues to oppose any federal cap and trade legislation.

Yesterday he met with business and industry leaders in Houston to discuss the impact of the proposed legislation in Washington. He emphasized the importance of diversifying the state’s energy portfolio by pursuing innovative energy sources as an alternative to the “burdensome regulations” associated with federal cap and trade rules. And he warned the proposed legislation would increase the cost of living for Texas families and “crush Texas and the nation’s energy producing sectors.”

“Texas has shown you don’t need federal mandates to improve the environment or foster the next generation of energy technology,” Gov. Perry said in a statement. “Rather than emulate Texas’ success, Washington seems determined to cripple our economy by imposing sweeping mandates and draconian regulation. Texans should be wary about a cap-and-trade bill that would not only impose the largest tax hike in the history of the United States, but also inject the federal government further into every Texas home, farm and workplace.”

Perry’s opposition to the Waxman-Markey Bill, also known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act, is a sign that even as the state tries to become a leader in alternative energy development, it faces pressure to balance those efforts against the interests of a deeply entrenched legacy energy industry.  Texas supplies 20 percent of the nation’s oil production, one-fourth of the nation’s natural gas production, a quarter of the nation’s refining capacity, and nearly 60 percent of the nation’s chemical manufacturing.

Add it all up and Texas’ fossil fuel-based energy industry employs 200,000 to 300,000 Texans and represents $35 billion in total wages.

Significantly more Gulf Coast homes and businesses are at risk of disastrous flooding from hurricane-related storm surges than previously recognized by property owners or policymakers, a new study says.

The study also found that government minimum flood elevation requirements for properties vulnerable to storm surge throughout the Gulf Coast region are woefully inadequate. The report comes one year after Hurricane Ike struck and wiped away many of the structures on the Bolivar Peninsula near Galveston last September.

“HURRICANE IKE: Nature’s Force vs. Structural Strength” was issued by the Institute for Business & Home Safety, a not-for-profit applied research and communications organization supported by property insurers and reinsurers. The IBHS study questions the current basis for elevating properties along the Gulf Coast and urges the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to provide greater incentives for building well above the minimum elevations now in place.

More than 50 percent of the nation’s population lives within 50 miles of the coast, with more than $9 trillion of insured coastal property vulnerable to hurricanes. The NFIP, which is the federal government program that provides flood insurance to homes and businesses, also establishes base flood elevation (BFE) levels for properties.

According to the new study’s findings, the BFE requirement for homes on Texas’ Bolivar Peninsula ranged between 13 feet for homes built in the 1970s and 17 feet to 19 feet for homes built beginning in 1983. All but a handful of properties within the first few rows of houses from the coast, built to even the highest elevation requirements, were washed away during Hurricane Ike.

By contrast, the study found that 10 homes on the Bolivar Peninsula designed and built under IBHS’s building code-plus new construction program, “Fortified. . .for safer living,” survived the storm sustaining minor damage. Those homes had outdoor decks at 18 feet that were destroyed, but the homes, which were elevated to 26 feet, survived.

According to IBHS Senior Vice President of Research and Chief Engineer Dr. Tim Reinhold, most homes in coastal areas are built to or slightly above 100-year base flood elevations.

“A 100-year flood means that the level of flood water has a 1 percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any single year,” Reinhold said in a statement “However, it is well recognized in the engineering community that coastal homes built to this level have a 26 percent chance of being flooded or demolished over the life of a 30-year mortgage. This chance increases to about 40 percent in a 50-year period.”

“All it takes is a breaking wave about 2 feet above the base of a house to knock out the bottom floor or destroy a frame house,” Reinhold said. “The chances of destruction can be significantly reduced by employing what has been learned about the importance of proper elevation, which can be relatively inexpensive when building a coastal home.”

The increase in size and frequency of large hurricanes that make landfall from the Gulf of Mexico also is resulting in more tornadoes that form from the storms, according to a new report from researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

“As the size of landfalling hurricanes from the Gulf of Mexico increases, we’re seeing more tornadoes than we did in the past that can occur up to two days and several hundred miles inland from the landfall location,” James Belanger, a doctoral student in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech and lead author of the paper, said in a statement.

The findings, reported in Geophysical Research Letters’ Sept. 3, 2009, issue and online, are the first to quantify the risk of tornadoes from hurricanes. While it is well known that tornadoes may form in the area where hurricanes strike land, there hadn’t been detailed research because observations of tornadoes were too sporadic prior to the installation of the NEXRAD Doppler Radar Network in 1995.

Belanger and co-authors Judith Curry, professor and chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Tech, and research scientist Carlos Hoyos wanted to create a model using the more reliable tornado record that’s existed since 1995. Their model for hurricane-induced tornadoes uses four factors that serve as good predictors of tornado activity: size, intensity, track direction and whether there’s a strong gradient of moisture at midlevels in the storm’s environment.

The team looked at 127 tropical cyclones from 1948 up to the 2008 hurricane season and went further back to 1920, modifying their model to account for the type of data collected at that time. They found that since 1995 there has been a 35 percent percent increase in the size of tropical cyclones from the Gulf compared to the previous active period of storms from 1948-1964, which has lead to a doubling in the number of tornadoes produced per storm. The number of hurricane-induced tornadoes during the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons is unprecedented in the historical record since 1920, according to the model.

“The beauty of the model is that not only can we use it to reconstruct the observational record, but we can also use it as a forecasting tool,” Belanger said.

To test how well it predicted the number of tornadoes associated with a given hurricane, they input the intensity of the storm at landfall, it’s size, track and moisture at mid-levels, and were able to generate a forecast of how many tornadoes formed from the hurricane. They found that for Hurricane Ike in 2008, their model predicted exactly the number of tornadoes that occurred, 33. For Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the model predicted 56 tornadoes, and 58 were observed.

The team’s next steps are to take a look to see how hurricane size, not just intensity (as indicated by the Safir-Simpson scale), affects the damage experienced by residents.

“Storm surge, rain and flooding are all connected to the size of the storm,” said Curry. “Yet, size is an under-appreciated factor associated with damage from hurricanes. So it’s important to develop a better understanding of what controls hurricane size and how size influences hurricane damage. The great damage in Galveston from Hurricane Ike in 2008 was inconsistent with Category 2 wind speeds at landfall, but it was the large size that caused the big storm surge that did most of the damage.”

Related video:

KTRK Houston: Bolivar struggles to return after Ike

From Green Right Now Reports

SunChips, PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay division’s brand of multigrain snacks, announced it will work with Kroger to raise up to $1 million to help revitalize Galveston, Texas, which was devastated by Hurricane Ike in 2008.

SunChips said that through Sept. 19, when consumers buy two bags of SunChips snacks at any of the more than 2,400 Kroger stores across the US, $1 will be donated until the project reaches $1 million. the funds will be used to create an environmentally friendly park on the famous Galveston Seawall.

The Galveston Seawall is a 10-mile national historic engineering landmark that protects the island from the ravages of the sea. Rebuilding and enhancing the Seawall is a key element in the city’s recovery as it serves as a major driver for tourism.

“The SunChips brand team and Kroger know the revitalization of the Seawall is crucial to Galveston’slong-term recovery, and the city has identified a number of projects to help the effort,” Gannon Jones, vice president of portfolio marketing at Frito-Lay North America, said in a statement. “We can be a catalyst for the revitalization, help start some of these worthwhile projects, and impact the community and the environment in a positive way.”

When it comes to clogged drains, it’s been a struggle to find an effective alternative to the many harsh chemicals that most people rely on to break up trapped debris. But a Houston company has developed a product that is brilliant in its simplicity and has the added benefit of being as green as you can get where brownish goop is involved.

The PermaFLOW Self Cleaning Drain by PF WaterWorks has already won the Best of What’s New Award from Popular Science. It replaces an existing P-trap — that curved section of pipe just below your sink — with an improved version that has been engineered to eliminate the need for secondary maintenance products and procedures such as plunging, caustic drain cleaners and messy drain dis-assembly.

We installed one in about 10 minutes and found it to be easy and effective. The PermaFLOW has a couple of unique characteristics that are hugely helpful. The first is that it is made of clear plastic, which allows you to actually see the problem you have or — more importantly — see the problem that you are about to have. Second, the device includes a swiper that you turn with a knob, which helps you sweep through debris before a major clog can occur.

These are improvements that are “duh” obvious and yet no one else appears to have re-thought the classic P-trap in this innovative way. (PF WaterWorks has a patent on the design).

Created by two serial inventors who are happy to remain behind the scenes, the PermaFLOW has one other critical design detail. “The shape of the plastic generates significant turbulence and actually pushes debris out, so you don’t have any debris settling in the trap area,” says Sanjay Ahuja, vice president of PF WaterWorks.

He also points out that the design works particularly well with low-flow faucets, something that most environmentally-aware consumers eventually get around to installing.

And while we were unabashedly impressed by how well the PermaFLOW works, Ahuja says he gets fan mail and calls for the new product all the time.

“I had a woman who called me from the West Coast and she said, ‘I want to order two more of these. One for me and one for God,’ ” says Ahuja, laughing.

The PermaFlow is available for $29.95 through Amazon.com. You also can buy directly from the PermaFLOW site. Ahuja says Home Depot is rolling it out in select stores and he expects it will be available through most major home improvement retailers by early 2010.

Related video:

View a demonstration of the PermaFLOW:

From Green Right Now Reports

Houston Mayor Bill White and the Houston Airport System today announced that the City of Houston Department of Aviation has received $8.8 million in Federal Aviation Administration grants to install state-of-the-art equipment at George Bush Intercontinental Airport that is projected to reduce emissions by up to 60 percent.

The two grants awarded through the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program be used to purchase and install solar panels, heaters and chillers in the airport’s central operating plant, which controls the air conditioning and heating in the airport’s five terminals. The upgrades will replace an outdated gas-powered steam generation system currently in use.

“This meets two of our major goals as we continue to improve our airport system – operating more efficiently, and with significantly reduced emissions,” Mayor White said in a statement. “These benefits don’t stop at the end of the runways.”

One of the Bush Intercontinental grants is for $5 million from the FAA’s Voluntary Airport Low Emission program, a nationally competitive initiative designed to reduce airport ground emissions at commercial service airports located in regions of the country with higher than normal pollution levels. The project allows airports to use grants to finance low-emission vehicles, refueling and recharging stations, gate electrification and other airport air quality improvements.

To date, only nine airport operators in the U.S. have received VALE grants and the most recent grant to IAH is among the largest ever issued, Bush officials said. In order to expedite the project the system will be designed and built to order, beginning in 2010 and is scheduled for completion in 2011.

A year after showing up and discovering all the trays had vanished fron their dining halls, many college students returning to campus this fall will find more “green” changes. ARAMARK Higher Education is introducing a re-usable “to go” food container for use at the campus dining halls.

ARAMARK, which operate food services at more than 600 colleges and universities across North America, said it will roll out its new Green Thread program at many of the campuses it serves. The company projects the program will divert more than two million disposables from landfills during the 2009-2010 school year.

“Through our Green Thread environmental stewardship platform, ARAMARK continues to look for ways to reduce our environmental impact,” Michael Leone, Senior Vice President of ARAMARK Higher Education, said in a statement. “The re-usable ‘to go’ container program is the next phase of our ongoing plan to strive toward zero waste and support the sustainability goals of our partner campuses.”

ARAMARK said it successfully piloted the re-usable containers at several campuses last year, including Baylor University, University of Florida, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Peace College (NC) and Salem College (NC). Since implementing the re-usable “to go” containers in fall 2008, Baylor University reduced disposable container usage by 40 percent.

Last year, ARAMARK implemented a trayless dining program at the majority of its campus partner locations, which yielded “significant reductions” in energy, water, cleaning agents, food waste and waste removal, the company said. The new re-usable containers are dishwasher-safe and go through the same cleaning process as the dinnerware used in campus dining halls.

“Student feedback from the pilot program was very positive,” Leone said. “Everyone on campus immediately understood the reduction in landfill waste, when compared with a traditional, disposable container. Our program also commits to recycling these re-usable products at the end of their useful life.”

Green Thread was introduced in 2008 by ARAMARK to encompass a range of environmental stewardship programs and practices that can be offered to its clients.