From Green Right Now Reports

Owens Corning today announced that it is launching a new program that simplifies recycling asphalt shingles
for its preferred roofing contractors. The company said it will be the first roofing manufacturer to connect contractors with convenient recycling facilities through a national strategic alliance.

Based on a pilot conducted in Indiana, Owens Corning plans to will roll out the program nationally, starting in the Midwest. Contractors will pledge to recycle their shingle tear-offs.

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From Green Right Now Reports

The Department of Energy announced $10 million has been awarded to 16 cities for 40 new Solar America Cities Special Projects. The funds, made through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will enable the cities to increase solar energy use in their communities through innovative programs and policies that the government believes can be replicated across the nation.

The cities chosen for these awards came from the group of 25 large U.S. cities that are part of the DOE’s Solar America Cities program, which recognizes the participating cities as partners highly committed to solar technology adoption at the local level. Those cities already have been given millions of dollars in funds and technical assistance to accelerate solar adoption.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Dell and Goodwill Industries International announced they are expanding Reconnect, a free drop-off program for consumers who want to responsibly recycle any brand of unwanted computer equipment.
The program is adding 451 new donation sites in seven states — Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma and West Virginia. The program also will expand in Wisconsin to the Southeastern and South Central parts of the state.

Reconnect is now available in 18 states, plus the District of Columbia.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Cars.com recently released its second Green Cities Index, ranking cities on their interest green vehicles. The list was calculated by evaluating the number of hybrid searches as a percentage of overall car searches in each market, then ranking them.

West Coast buyers, particularly the Pacific Northwest, showed the greatest interest in hybrid vehicles. Eight of the top 10 cities on the list are in Oregon, California or Washington, with Eugene, Ore.; Portland, Ore.; and Santa Barbara, Calif., taking the top three spots.

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From Green Right Now Reports

The Boy Scouts of America announced today that its Boys’ Life magazine has been certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, an organization that promotes sustainable forest management.

As part of its certification program, the Boy Scouts said its printing company, Quad/Graphics, will be required to undergo annual surveillance audits as well as full certification against the SFI standard every five years. The certification process will be conducted by independent, accredited certification bodies and the audit reports will be published on the SFI program’s website.

“At its heart, Boys’ Life is about the outdoors and about teaching our young readers to be good stewards of the outdoors,” Mike Goldman, managing editor of Boys’ Life, said in a statement. “We are dedicated to minimizing our magazine’s impact on the earth while maximizing our readers’ enjoyment of nature.”

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From Green Right Now Reports

Fisker Automotive, the new green car manufacturer based in Irvine, Calif., announced its first North American dealers. The luxury plug-in hybrid Karma sedan is priced at $87,900 and is expected to achieve the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon.

So far, 32 auto retailers have signed on to sell the Fisker marquee when it launches later this year. The company said its goal is to 40 locations in the U.S. and Canada by the end of June 2009.

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From Green Right Now Reports

TruGreen, the largest lawn care services provider in the U.S., announced it going greener by introducing a new lawn care program that includes organic lawn products.

TruGreen said its “Go greener” service will be tested in 38 markets this spring before rolling out nationally in 2010. However, the company says its new natural, organic products will be immediately available nationwide on request.

While TruGreen is not going to be completely organic, the new “Targeted Lawn Care” suite of services will be more Earth friendly. That shift in company philosophy resulted from customer research and is evidenced by TruGreen dropping the “ChemLawn” branding it had widely used.

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By Christopher Peake
Green Right Now

It’s already mid-March and that means the snows will melt and if the ground’s not too saturated farmers will soon be planting seeds for the food that will feed us this year.

Since time immemorial farmer’s markets have been with us: farmers harvest, bakers bake, dairy farmers milk their cows and they all meet at a central location where there’s lots of foot traffic … and they sell. The common theme: the food is fresh.

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By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

They’ve sold the candy bars. They’ve sold the wrapping paper. Perhaps they’ve even sold cookie dough (not healthy) or had car washes (not good during droughts). The problem with typical school fund-raisers is that the kids just end up selling more stuff – at a time when the world could benefit from a little less stuff.

Thus, a green wave of school fund-raising efforts has washed across the country, and companies are springing up to meet that demand. Eco-friendly firms will provide everything from stainless steel water bottles to fair-trade T-shirts, energy-efficient light bulbs to recycled wrapping paper as alternative, Earth-friendly ways of raising money.

No small number of them were launched by environmentally sensitive parents who didn’t like what they saw their kids selling to friends and family.

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By Shermakaye Bass
Green Right Now

Harvesting daylight is an ancient trick – as old as the first man-made structure, as old as life on our planet, actually. Using the sunlight provided by nature is the most basic and simple way to illuminate one’s world. But when it comes to modern, sustainable architecture, the idea is relatively young.

Only in recent times has “daylighting,” as it’s sometimes called, made a blip on the broader green movement’s radar, with industry experts speculating that fewer than 1 percent of all U.S. buildings use natural light in a substantive manner (going beyond windows). The 21st century approach is waaaay more technologically involved than, say, a prehistoric clan setting up its fire pit next to the cave entrance.

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By John DeFore

While the “locavore” ideal is certainly an appealing one — if you eat food produced near you, the thinking goes, you minimize the carbon impact of transporting it to you, support small farmers, and probably get better tasting food to boot — it can be a daunting project to find what’s available, and when, within your area.

Four mapmaking students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison hope to change that, using their data-mining and geographical skills to produce the first of what they hope will be many 100 Mile Diet Maps.

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