From Green Right Now Reports

SustainableBusiness.com has released its 8th annual list of 20 public companies that are leading the way to a sustainable economy. The selections are made in cooperation with a group of judges consisting of leading green stock analysts.

Judges select companies across the range of green business sectors: solar, wind, geothermal, smart grid, water, food, agriculture, green building and transport. SustainableBusiness.com said a third of the companies populating this year’s list are “corporate pioneers” — companies with conventional products and services that are greening their product lines.

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By Diane Porter
Green Right Now

There’s a shiny green report card out in Warren County, Kentucky this month.

The county’s school district won the Alliance to Save Energy’s 2009 Andromeda Award for its programs, which include $4 million in energy savings over the last five years, a 28 percent energy use reduction, a daily curriculum that focuses on energy efficiency and Energy Star ratings on four buildings. But the star of their show undoubtedly is the new Richardsville Elementary, a Warren County School on target to become the nation’s first net zero energy public school when it opens in fall of 2010 (see photo above).

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Photo: Illana Halperin

“Boiling Milk (Solfataras)” by Illana Halperin

From Green Right Now Reports

More than 25 New Mexico art organizations and 60 artists will join together this summer to present LAND/ART, a collaboration of environmentally inspired art. This six-month project will examine relationships of land, art and community through exhibitions, site-specific art works, speakers, performances, tours, and excursions through multiple indoor and outdoor venues around the state.

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By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

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.

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Photo: Business Wire

Watt Plaza, a twin 23-story office tower complex encompassing 900,000 square feet in the heart of Century City, has been awarded Gold LEED Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance (EB O&M) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council, making it the first office building in Los Angeles to achieve this distinction in this category.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Georgia is shining a light on recycling by spotlighting the kind of people who just don’t seem to get it.

The Georgia Department of Community Affairs Office of Environmental Management created the statewide awareness campaign that will feature a series of fictitious eco do-nothings. The campaign is designed to spur a change in behavior among a target audience of 25- to 34-year-olds by raising their awareness about the convenience and benefits of recycling.

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By John DeFore
Green Right Now

Ascending through the dense greenery on the way up Rio de Janeiro’s Corcovado mountain, travelers may be caught off guard by the sight of a Toucan or the call of a far-off monkey, they may marvel at the beauty of a wild orchid, and they’ll almost certainly be struck by the size of it — the sensation of being far from civilization, not smack in the middle of a metropolitan area housing well over 10 million people.

Few visitors, one suspects, would guess that this forest is man-made — a mammoth greenification project, dating back over a hundred years, that serves as an example (albeit an over-sized one) of how governments might set out to combat the side effects that office buildings and sidewalks have on both the ecosystems surrounding them and the humans living within them.

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By Harriet Blake

The best teachers inspire. Their grasp and excitement of a subject is contagious. Talking to Bertha Vazquez, Susan Vincent and Patrick Curley, you can’t come away without absorbing at least a sliver of their passion for the environment.

This month the National Environmental Education Foundation recognized Vazquez, Vincent and Curley for their innovative approaches to environmental education. Bertha Vazquez, a middle school teacher at a magnet school in Coral Gables, Fla., won the Richard C. Bartlett Education Award, named after the chairman of the Nature Conservancy of Texas. Patrick Curley, a middle and high-school teacher who works with at-risk students in Jacksonville, NC, and Susan Vincent, an earth and marine science teacher in East Harlem, NY, won certificates of merit.

“Kids have always related to the environment,” says Vazquez, who teaches at George Washington Carver Middle School in the Miami-Dade school system. “Teachers need to look for real-life connections that kids can relate to.”

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Photo: PRNewswire
Methane gas from Waste Management’s Turnkey Recycling and Environmental Enterprise in Rochester, N.H., is collected, purified, and compressed before travelling via a 12.7-mile pipeline to the University of New Hampshire.

From Green Right Now Reports

The University of New Hampshire announced today that it has completed its “EcoLine” gas-to-energy project, which will use purified methane gas from a nearby landfill to power the campus. The five million square-foot campus in Durham, N.H., will receive up to 85 percent of its electricity and heat from the system, making UNH the first university in the nation to use landfill gas as its primary fuel source.

EcoLine is a partnership between the university and Waste Management’s Turnkey Recycling and Environmental Enterprise in Rochester, N.H. Methane gas, a naturally occurring by-product of landfill decomposition, is collected via a state-of-the-art collection system consisting of more than 300 extraction wells and miles of collection pipes.

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By John DeFore
Green Right Now

Opening this week at New York City’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the exhibition “Design for a Living World” explores possibilities for ecological sensitivity in a realm of top-tier design work — from fashion star Isaac Mizrahi to artist/architect Maya Lin — in which conspicuous over-consumption is often the rule.

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By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

Paul Dorn knows that getting Americans to ride a bike to work instead of driving a car is quite the uphill battle. Even on a good day, he says, only a tiny percentage of the nation’s commuters use pedal power to get to their jobs.

He remains undeterred.

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By Shermakaye Bass
Green Right Now

Only a few years ago, you couldn’t give old wood away. Dilapidated barns and falling-down sheds were a nuisance to most people who owned them; they’d actually pay you to come haul the stuff off.

Boy, how things change. Daniel and Amy Balog find it ironic, and exciting, that reclaimed wood has become fashionable. The Tennessee-based furniture makers are riding that trend simply doing what they do best - reusing old things and creating cool, utilitarian designs.

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