Gucci Group said it plans to implement an industry-leading paper policy.

From Green Right Now Reports

Luxury brand Gucci Group said today it is joining forces with Rainforest Action Network and will eliminate all paper made from Indonesian rainforests and plantations and by controversial suppliers such as  Asia Pulp and Paper. The company said this is a first step in its plan to implement an industry-leading paper policy.

Rainforest Action Network officials said they are pleased to sign up the famous luxury house in its ongoing effort to protect Indonesian and other endangered forests. Since the beginning of Fall 2009, RAN has been urging the fashion world to more closely examine their paper supply chains and to sever any connection with paper suppliers like Asia Pulp and Paper who are actively destroying Indonesia’s rainforests.

“The Gucci Group’s actions and commitments confirm its place as an industry leader,” Lafcadio Cortesi, RAN’s Forest Campaign Director, said in a statement. “This move sets a bar for others in fashion and retail and demonstrates the foresight our society needs for our children and grandchildren to have standing rainforests and a stable climate.”

The Gucci Group’s move commits some of fashion’s most famous brands, including Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Balenciaga to perhaps the luxury industry’s strongest paper policy. With its new policy, the Gucci Group has pledged to reduce the amount of paper it uses, eliminate fiber from high conservation value forests, and only to purchase recycled products or those certified by the Forest Stewardship Council by December 2010. With this policy, they are ensuring that all paper categories used by the group, from copy paper to shopping bags, do not come from endangered forests such as those in Indonesia.

Gucci Group’s new policy puts them at the front of a growing list of major companies, including Tiffany & Co., H&M Group, Staples and Unisource who acting to clean their supply chains of rainforest paper and severing relationships with companies who continue to destroy rainforests in Indonesia or elsewhere.

“Standing rainforests are not a luxury, they’re a necessity if the world wants to stop climate change,” Mimma Viglezio, Executive VP Global Communications at the Group, said in a statement. “Our actions are lowering our own carbon footprint, but we hope that they will also raise awareness inside the fashion industry that it’s possible for our industry to make a difference for rainforests and for the climate.”

Worldwide, the degradation and destruction of tropical rainforests is responsible for 20 percent of all annual greenhouse emissions. The carbon emissions resulting from Indonesia’s rapid deforestation account for around eight percent of global emissions — more than the combined emissions from all the cars, planes, trucks, buses and trains in United States. This huge carbon footprint from forest destruction has made non-industrialized Indonesia the third-largest global greenhouse gas emitter, behind only the U.S. and China.

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 10 to 15 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

Man-made chemicals that have long made life easier for everyone from cooks to clothiers are getting another round of scientific scrutiny. They may be related to unhealthy levels of cholesterol, a study released Monday suggests.

Jessica Nelson, one of the authors of a new study of chemicals' impact on cholesterol

The chemicals are PFCs, and they’ve already been proven problematic. The Environmental Protection Agency and the top producers of one PFC (perfluoroalkys) have agreed to eliminate its use and emissions worldwide by 2015.

Even if they were eradicated tomorrow, the researchers at Boston University School of Public Health point out that some PFCs linger in the body a long time – one has a half-life of up to 8½ years.

There are hundreds of PFCs, and science is just scratching the surface of their potential impact on people. The chemicals are used to create non-stick or repellent materials on a laundry list of products. Your cooking pan, that waterproof jacket, your carpet and the packaging your frozen dinner came in all contain PFCs. The chemicals are used in almost every industry, from automobiles to electronics, textiles to cleaning products.

“PFCs have been used for over 50 years,” said Jessica W. Nelson, one of the authors of the study. “It is a large family of chemicals. There has been a fair amount of study in animals, but studies with people have been fewer.”

In studies of animals, there were direct correlations between high PFC levels and a host of illnesses, including cancer and developmental problems, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

“So far, these have mostly consisted of studies in people who work with PFCs and have higher exposures. Studies of people exposed to background levels are just starting to come out,” Nelson said.

Many water-repellent fabrics and surfaces contain PFCs.

“We really don’t know specifically how people are being exposed to PFCs. . . . They’re used widely in industry as surfactants and coatings. They make products resistant to stains, oil and water,” Nelson said Monday. “They’re used in products like pizza boxes, microwave popcorn bags, take-out food wrappers, textile coatings, carpet treatments . . . “

Researchers believe PFCs may enter the body through food and drinking water, ingesting and inhaling air and dust, or directly from products.

So what is the correlation between the PFCs and cholesterol?

The scientists were able to gather blood serum from 2,094 people, making use of a large, varied group of Americans who have been part of an ongoing survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Our study found an association between blood levels of several PFCs and higher levels of bad (LDL) cholesterol,” Nelson said. Of the study participants, the 25 percent carrying the highest levels of PFOS, PFOA and PFNA (perfluorononanoic acid) in their bodies had higher levels of “bad” serum cholesterol.

The study participants with the least amount of those three PFCs had less “bad” cholesterol in their bodies. There was not a clear link between PFCs and body size/weight and insulin resistance, which the researchers also analyzed.

Non-stick cookware has long been made with PFC coatings.

One interesting finding in the study suggests that even typical adults with relatively low levels of the three PFCs in their bodies had higher LDL cholesterol than the general population. This was especially pronounced in people with PFNA in their systems.

The fourth chemical, PFHxS (perfluorohexane sulfonic acid), which has not been studied extensively, did not appear to have a strong link with cholesterol levels.

Researcher Nelson emphasized that their findings are “exploratory, and need to be followed up.

“Our results do not say that PFCs cause higher cholesterol. However, the association that we found – together with what other studies have found – is cause for concern and more research.”

The most prevalent chemical, PFOS, was more common in non-Hispanic white males, and age didn’t appear to be a factor.

The ranks of people with high levels of “bad” cholesterol has been growing, and that is linked to coronary heart disease, among other health problems.

“Despite its limitations, this study contributes to the literature suggesting that PFC exposure may disrupt cholesterol metabolism or homeostasis in humans,” the report said.

The study appeared in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal and is available online. The journal is part of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

The EPA has answers to frequent questions about PFCs, and more information is available from the nation’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

While the world scrambles to find clean energy solutions, somewhere, every minute of every day, saws buzz through a forest, cutting down one of nature’s antidotes to carbon pollution.

Saving forests in the Congo will help save endangered gorillas (Photo: John Martin)

Each year the world loses about 50,000 square miles of wooded lands, enough to fill an area the size of Pennsylvania. The rapid clearing of tropical forests accounts for nearly 20 percent of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions (partly due to trees being burned) — more than all transportation vehicles combined.

Increasingly, though, companies and non-profits are trying to stem the loss of woodlands to curb global warming and save habitat and native economies.

On Tuesday, The Walt Disney Company announced it will invest $7 million to save and restore forests in the Amazon, the Congo and the United States.

The projects aim to fight climate change, improve the quality of life in local communities and save jeopardized wildlife from gorillas in Africa to songbirds in North America.

“Disney has always been a conservation leader,” said Disney President and CEO Robert A. Iger, in a statement. “Now, more than ever, it’s essential to take swift action to preserve our most vulnerable natural environments for future generations and to be innovative in achieving that goal.”

Rainforest Management in the Congo and the Amazon

Disney is giving $4 million to increase protection of forests in the Tayna and Kisimba-Ikobo Community Reserves in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Alto Mayo conservation project in Peru, two vital tropical forest regions.

The programs, managed by Conservation International, will help secure watersheds and save habitat for plants and animals, many of them threatened or endangered, including the gorilla and okapi in the Congo and the Andean spectacled bear and yellow-tailed woolly monkey in Peru.

The majority of Disney’s contribution will finance community management of these forests, help expand sustainable livelihood practices among local villages and provide for an analysis of the carbon-saving aspect of the project.

Both of these tropical forest efforts are expected to decrease carbon emissions by stopping slash and burn agriculture and to benefit local communities economically. CI estimates that Disney’s expenditure will prevent 900,000 tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere over the next five years.

“This commitment by Disney represents the largest single corporate contribution ever made to reduce emissions from deforestation and will help build confidence in these activities that generate such compelling climate, local community and biodiversity benefits,” said Peter Seligmann, CEO and Chairman of Conservation International.

Reforestation in the Lower Mississippi Valley

Disney also is partnering with The Nature Conservancy to provide more than $2 million to support a pilot reforestation project in the Lower Mississippi Valley.

Restoring forests in the Mississippi Valley will help preserve habitat and mitigate carbon air pollution (Photo: Emily Whitted)

Working with private landowners in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas, The Nature Conservancy expects to restore up to 2,000 acres of former forest land, planting trees in permanent easements to assure their longevity.

The reforestation will help alleviate carbon pollution and also expand the North American habitat of migrating songbirds and the black bear.

“Protecting forests is one of our most powerful tools in the fight against climate change,” said Mark Tercek, President and CEO of The Nature Conservancy, in a news release. “This innovative project will give private landowners the support they need to join the global fight against climate change and restore local habitats for the betterment of both people and nature. We are proud to partner with Disney to protect critical habitat and ensure these incredible forests will be around for generations to come.”

Redwood Forest Management in Northern California

Disney also will invest $1 million in The Conservation Fund’s forestry work along California’s North Coast, where the group owns and sustainably manages two redwood forests in Mendocino County.
The project was set up to demonstrate that improved forest management, with selective harvests and verified carbon offset sales, can benefit the environment and the economy. Indeed, here in an area rich in natural resources, the well-being of humans, plants and animals are closely entwined: Healthy forests, watersheds and streams are needed to support Coho salmon, steelhead trout, spotted owl and other wildlife — and the people

Northern California Forest (Photo: Matthew Gerhart, Conservation Fund)

that depend on them.

Lawrence Selzer, president and CEO of The Conservation Fund, joined the other environmental leaders in issuing a statement of gratitude for the Disney gift:

“Across America, forests are shrinking; 35 acres here, 500 there,” Selzer said. “The decline is so incremental, it masks a crisis. In partnership with leading companies such as Disney, we are pioneering new approaches to forest conservation and climate change. We’re proud to collaborate with Disney on this critical effort.”

Disney’s forest preservation investment is part of the company’s plan, announced last March, to meet aggressive 3 to 5 year goals to reduce emissions, waste, electricity and water use, and to limit its impact on ecosystems.

In addition to the investment announced today, Disney has recently committed to planting close to 3 million trees in Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest and in the fire-ravaged areas in the mountains surrounding greater Los Angeles through contributions from the  Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund and local donations.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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.

Owens Corning is working with Heritage Environmental Services, the largest privately-held environmental services company in the United States. Heritage will provide dedicated, convenient drop-off centers that will recycle and process shingle tear-offs.

“Millions of tons of asphalt roofing shingles are sent to landfills every year, wasting valuable resources such as asphalt and aggregate,” Bill McDaniel, president and chief executive officer of Heritage, said in a statement. “With the combined efforts of Heritage and Owens Corning, material that would have been wasted will now be reused and made into roads.”

Owens Corning said that recycling glass-based asphalt shingles is a cost-effective alternative to producing new asphalt and helps preserve resources. Last year the Asphalt Institute estimated that the asphalt from recycled shingles has a potential value of more than $1 billion, which is variable upon the price of asphalt.

Looking to upgrade from your old, often unreliable incandescent Christmas lights to those cool, environmentally-friendly LED (light emitting diode) numbers you’ve heard so much about? The Home Depot is offering an incentive to do just that.

Between Nov. 5 and Nov. 15, you can redeem old or non-working Christmas lights and get a $3 off coupon toward the more energy-efficient LED string lights as part of the company’s second annual Christmas light trade-in. Customers are limited to five redemptions, and all of The Home Depot’s US stores are scheduled to participate.

LED lights cut energy use by about 80 percent over traditional incandescent string lights. They also are estimated to last up to 10 times longer.

So, what happens to your old lights after you part with them? According to The Home Depot Web site, here’s the recycling process:

• The light bulb coupler and the socket plug are manually clipped.
• Three byproducts result and four categories of raw materials.
• Each byproduct is independently shredded for separation, returning glass, HDPE plastics, and non-ferrous copper as well as ferrous steel.
• The prepared separated raw materials are then sent to licensed smelters for re-casting or re-molding, all in accordance with local, state and federal statutes.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Here’s a movie you never thought they’d make.

Coming to the big, or maybe small,  screen near you, a film…about…laundry!

With a short opening feature on watching paint dry.

My laundry

OK, so that’s mean and I’m kidding, but not about the movie.  Drying for Freedom is really in the works, but it’s not  just about your laundry — though it is about your laundry. The movie delves into an issue that’s been popping up all over this green planet, and that is: What will we be allowed to do in the name of conservation or “going green.”

Will we be able to, perish the thought, dry our laundry on the line like our forebears?  (The ones that wore clothes anyway.) This would involve saving electricity and putting it all “out there” for the world to see, which is a valid response to the climate crisis, according to the film’s makers, who have posted a statement about why they feel strongly about this issue.

One might also ask: Will we be able to go pesticide free and let dandelions bloom in our lawn, along with the native wild flowers? Could we go turf free? Can we plant a giant, shimmering solar panel on our roof and not expect a posse at our door? Can we violate our home owners’ association’s mandates to roof with brown or gray asphalt shingles — or could we put up a reflective metal roof to cool our house? Would the glare so tick off the neighbors that we’d be green pariahs?

Drying the laundry, and its ilk, was never so filled with portent.

So I’m planning on seeing this film about our green freedoms, Drying for Freedom, as soon as it’s ready. The film is being made on a shoestring (or should that be laundry line?).

For now you can see a preview at their website.

(For more see our last laundry posting.)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

If you’ve been taking your home green, you know how ideas can feed off each other. Someone gets picky about paper recycling; someone else becomes the food waste arbiter; pretty soon everyone has their eco-role and the household’s carbon footprint is shrinking.

Hotel Triton Lobby (Photo: Markham Johnson)

Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants realized early on that green grows like that.  The hospitality chain, with roots in San Francisco, has a history of putting eco-friendly ideas in place. Even before green hotel or green restaurant designations were developed, Kimpton was experimenting with eco-friendly practices at its San Francisco properties, such as the Hotel Triton, where motion sensors turn off lights and 60 percent of the waste gets recycled.

Non-toxic products, green cleaners, low VOC paints, low-flow faucets – all these turned up in Kimpton Hotels while other hotels were still on the highway of high-consumption. In addition, Kimpton has restored several historic buildings, supporting pedestrian-friendly urban areas. Stay at a Kimpton and you may find yourself ensconced on an eco-friendly mattress, drinking organic coffee and munching on a Clif bar.

Still, as the Kimpton chain grew greener, it had to figure out how to roll out the plan to all of its properties, including those outside of the Bay Area where environmental practices were not as well understood.

By 2005, the luxury hotel group had decided to standardize its green practices, requiring all Kimptons to adhere to an “Earth Care” program. But it didn’t want to impose a rigid top-down program. The solution: Kimpton named “eco-champions” at each of its hotels and encouraged them to form green teams and let ideas bubble up.

“You’ve got to get people on the front lines, who are doing the work, whose job you’re changing, a voice…and they’re right there, they see where the waste is,” said Niki Leondakis , chief operation officer for Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants.

The Kimpton leadership, which currently oversees 48 hotels in cities from New England to California, learned the importance of buy-in earlier. In 2003, when Kimpton decided guests could opt out of having their sheets and towels washed every day, management was surprised that many housekeepers were reluctant to make the change. “The housekeepers couldn’t grasp the idea that they were doing a good job by not changing the towels. They needed training that if the towels were on towel bar, the guest wanted to save water and soap…and it was OK,” Leondakis said.

Today, the staff is more likely to get it, though the hospitality group still treads carefully in determining what clients will tolerate – and remain satisfied customers. That has left several green issues still on the table, such as whether a hotel can reduce plastic water bottles when guests on-the-go seem to expect that perk, or whether guests will accept room amenities in bulk dispensers (foregoing that little souvenir of the trip).

“We were initially, like, ‘We’re going to get rid of bottled water entirely.’ And we’d offer filtered tap water in reusable containers both in the restaurants, and our vision was to create a reusable container almost like a flask that people paid a nominal fee for and then they’d refill it at a water cooler. But the consumer does not seem to be ready for that,” Leondakis said.

Look for the green teams and “eco-champions” to find a solution. So far, the local crews are forging viable new ways on various fronts.

In DC, Chef Robert Weland at the Post Modern Barasserie in D.C. was the driving force behind an herb garden. He not only uses it in his dishes, but gives tours.

In Portland, at the Hotel Monaco, someone decided the facility could get along without those paper-wasting phone books. Now all Kimptons get by without guest room phone books.

Hotel Monaco Chicago (Photo: David Phelps)

In Chicago, the cities’ three Kimpton Hotels, the Monaco, Burnham and Allegro became leaders in the Green Seal green cleaner certification program, prompted by a mayor’s green initiative. Now the three are among just 50 Green Seal certified hotels nationwide.

The 20-year-old program requires the use of green cleaners, energy efficiency and recycling. (For details, see this listing.)

Using green cleaners prevents water pollution, provides for healthier interior air and curbs carbon emissions. The typical silver-ranked Green Seal hotel saves 400 tons of CO2 emissions every year, said Charlotte Teyraud, a spokeswoman for the non-profit Green Seal.

The Chicago hotels also  advocated for a commercial recycling program, that was eventually put into place with the help of city hall, says Nabil Moubayed, manager of the 192-room Hotel Monaco Chicago along the city’s Magnificent Mile:

Now in the “5^th phase” of instituting the Kimpton “Earth Care” program, Moubayed says the Hotel Monaco has found that going green is working on many levels:

• About 60-70 percent of the hotel’s customers use the opt-out linen/towel program, saving money and water.

• The Green Seal-approved cleaners, which the hotel buys in bulk, concentrated form, are saving the hotel about $25,000 a year. The non-toxic cleaners are healthier for staff and guests and biodegradable. (As for that outdated worry about green cleaners not working – Moubayad says surveys burst that myth. “When we look at guest comments. We have the highest score in the company for clean bathrooms and guest rooms.”)

• The hotel recycles about half of its trash, which also saves money because sending out the garbage costs more in trash fees than sending out recyclables, even in this down-market for recyclable material.

Hotel Monaco room overlooking Chicago River

Green ways are catching on among staff, he says. When Monaco’s valet crew discovered that the dry cleaners they were using was discarding hangers after one use, they were aghast. They went to work to find a solution. Now the hangers are reused.

Guests, too, are contracting the green bug. While they remain a diverse group that’s not easily gauged, Moubayed says surveys show that the majority of people stay at Kimpton because of the hotels’ greener rep.

“We’ve seen a pretty high percentage of guests choosing use because we have a strong Green Care program.” he  said. “We don’t want them to feel like everything we doing is in their face. The (guest room) recycling bin for instance is bronze not bright blue. And the low flow shower heads, we don’t’ necessarily want them to notice that, but it  is helping the environment.”

Moubayad had no special sustainability training before coming to the Hotel Monaco, but he has built on what he has learned through Kimpton.

“I found I had a passion for it,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do., not just from the consumer point of view, but as a human, for the future generations. It’s the right thing to do.”

(Another key way that hotels across the US are greening their profile is by building, retrofitting or tailoring operations to meet standards set by the US Green Building Council. For more on these green hotels, see our recent story: A green wave coming, hundreds of hotels finalizing their LEED certification.)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The US Environmental Protection Agency said today it is hitting the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency with a $250,000 civil penalty for federal violations of the Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

The Department of Justice, working on behalf of the EPA,  lodged a proposed consent decree with the US District Court for the Northern District of California against the city and county of San Francisco for releasing at least 940 barrels of diesel fuel — some of which entered into Islais Creek, a tributary of the San Francisco Bay.

View Larger Map

The proposed consent decree requires the city and county of San Francisco to pay the $250,000 penalty and requires SF Muni to implement a training program that will improve coordination and communication during future incidents of this nature. The consent decree is subject to a 30-day public comment period.

During late November and December of 2005, red dye diesel fuel was released from the Woods bus servicing facility, located at 1095 Indiana Street in San Francisco. The EPA estimates at least 39,000 gallons of fuel were released. The discharge of oil into Islais Creek and interference with the pump station were violations of the Clean Water Act.

An EPA investigation found that Muni staff failed to comply with federal regulations issued under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act that governs the management of underground storage tanks. The EPA has asserted that SF Muni’s federal RCRA violations include:

• Disabling an audible alarm system intended to alert operators to an ongoing release of diesel
• Failure to respond to flashing yellow alarm lights triggered by tank sensor alarms in full alarm mode
• Failure to maintain a written log noting the status, source, or reason for alarms
• Failure to use fuel inventory controls to monitor and observe that it was losing fuel from, the tanks at a constant conspicuous rate
• Inadequate containment
• A known kink and bulge in a faulty, braided, flexible hose that ultimately failed
• Failure to timely notify authorities of the release

The spill had originated when a faulty hose ruptured and underground storage tanks overflowed. The released diesel fuel landed in a storm drain where heavy flows from a major December rain storm caused the storm drain to overflow to the stormwater line. The fuel then caused an interference with a San Francisco southeast wastewater treatment pump station. From there, some of the fuel spilled into Islais Creek, which drains into Central San Francisco Bay.

“Facility operators must pay rigorous attention to operational practices in order to protect the San Francisco Bay and our coastal resources,” Laura Yoshii, the EPA’s Acting Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest, said in a statement.

The city and county of San Francisco conducted remedial actions to clean up the spill in 2006 and has also taken initiative to evaluate its procedures and upgrade its facilities to prevent further spills. In addition to the work required by the consent decree, SF Muni has taken steps to decrease the likelihood of any future releases, including:

• Completing all spill prevention, control, and countermeasure requirements and including installation of adequate containment, and the preparation of spill prevention plans
• Replacing the piping in underground sumps
• Replacing the containment boxes under all diesel and gasoline dispensers,
• Repairing alarms
• Installing external alarms with light and horn notifications and a remote alarm monitoring system
• Establishing new procedures to monitor fuel inventory and provide MTA staff supervision for fuel deliveries
• Additional controls in order to quickly identify and respond to releases diesel fuel

Related video:

From KGO-San Francisco:

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.

In June, Greenpeace released “Slaughtering the Amazon,” a three-year investigation into deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Greenpeace found that people were taking over protected lands in order to expand their cattle ranches. This was not only illegal, but large quantities of greenhouse gases were being released into the atmosphere as a result of the rapidly depleting forests.

Adidas, Nike and Timberland have committed to cancel supplier contracts unless their products were guaranteed to be free from Amazon destruction.

Deforestation accounts for around one fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than all the world’s trains, planes and cars combined, and Greenpeace estimates that the cattle industry is responsible for  80 percent of all deforestation.

Now, just four months after the release of “Slaughtering the Amazon,” positive steps are being taken by some of the big companies implicated.

“Each of the companies, JBS-Friboi, Grupo Bertin, Minerva and Marfrig, declared the adoption of environmental and social standards to ensure their products are free from cattle raised in newly deforested areas of the rainforest,” according to a Greenpeace statement.

Greenpeace says there now will be a strong monitoring of supply chains and clear targets for the registration of farms that both directly and indirectly supply cattle. There also will be steps taken to end the purchase of cattle from protected land and from farms that use slave labor.

Bertin, one of the largest leather traders named in the report, supplies shoe manufacturers such as Adidas, Nike and Timberland. Since the release of the investigation, all three manufacturers have committed to cancel supplier contracts unless their products were guaranteed to be free from Amazon destruction.

“This is an important step in the fight to stop the destruction of one of the world’s most critical rainforests and vital to helping tackle climate change,” said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon campaign director, in a statement.

Gov. Blairo Maggi of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, which has the largest cattle herd in Brazil, has also announced that the state would support efforts to protect the Amazon and would provide high-resolution satellite images for monitoring.

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