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Solar Decathlon shows that homes can run on the sun
By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now
Tomorrow’s leaders are already working towards a cleaner future. The Solar Decathlon, an international competition hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is showcasing solar-powered home designs created by students from around the world.
Students selected to participate were given two years to design and build solar homes, which must be carbon neutral and completely powered by the sun. The projects, many costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, are on display at the National Mall in Washington through Sunday (Oct. 18).
Two thousand students came together to form 20 teams, which are competing to win prizes in several categories, such as best architecture or engineering or “comfort zone.”
The Solar Decathlon Proposal Review Committee, which is made up of engineers, scientist, and other experts from the DOE and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory, selected the teams that they thought had the ability to meet the strict structural and safety requirements. Once selected, each team was given $100,000 to get started. Projects often require more, so individual teams then raise any additional funds.
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Tags: · Net-zero homes, Solar Decathlon, solar home prototypes, Solar Power, solar power demonstration, U.S. Department of Energy, universities, Washington, zero carbon homes
Green getaways: LEED-certified vacation retreats
By Clint Williams and Sommer Saadi
Green Right Now
Sustainability and nature appreciation walk hand in hand. But surprisingly, there are still just a few U.S. vacation venues lodged lightly in nature’s embrace. If you want to “go green” you can camp out all over North America, but you can’t necessarily find a hotel that hugs the woods (or the beach) and boasts full green credentials and white linen service.
Here are a handful of green getaways that nestle nature, but don’t necessarily involve nesting with nature. We set the bar fairly low, requiring that these hotels have mattresses, hot food, indoor showers, and a LEED rating of some sort. We begin with Callaway Gardens, a great place to enjoy a respite from urban hustle amid botanical delights.
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Tags: · Callaway Gardens, Clearwater, Florida, Georgia, Green Hotels, green lodgings, green vacations, Napa Valley, The Gaia Hotel and Spa, The Sandpearl Hotel, The Vancouver Conference Center, Vancouver, Washington
Green Goods: Bac-Out Fresh and Bac-Out Floor Cleaner by Biokleen
Green Right Now Reports:
Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Biokleen has released three new eco-sensitive, consumer products that compete head-to-head with conventional-brand soaps and sprays.
The new products extend the company’s “Bac-Out” and include a floor cleaner, a bathroom cleaner and a “freshener”.
Bac-Out Multi-Surface Floor Cleaner uses Biokleen’s trademark enzymes to clean tile, stone, vinyl and most wood floors. With lime and citrus oil extracts, this convient cleaner leaves a fresh scent and uses no harsh or floor-stripping chemicals.
Bac-Out Fresh is a fabric “refresher” that can eliminate odors on pet beds, curtains, linens and in cars. It uses Biokleen’s proprietary enzymes to “digest” odor-causing dirt and bacteria. Bac-out Fresh is designed to compete with the ubiquitous Febreeze, but uses natural lavender or lemon and thyme oils instead of artificial fragrances.
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Tags: · Bac-Out Bathrom Cleaner, Bac-Out Fresh, Bac-Out Multi Surface Floor Cleaner, Barry Firth, Biokleen, Cindy Rimer, Green Cleaners, greener companies, Washington
West Coast, college towns show most interest in hybrid vehicles
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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Tags: · California, Cars.com, Eugene, Green Cities Index, Oregon, Portland, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Washington
Gardens within prison walls (how to escape bad prison food)
By Sommer Saadi
Green Right Now
Side by side, hunched over mounds of dirt with shovels in hand, students from Scripps College and inmates at the California Institution for Women (CIW) in Chino, California, plant an organic garden. It’s not the most conventional pairing – twenty-somethings in jeans and t-shirts and women clad in prison uniforms growing fresh produce along stale concrete walls. But it’s a pairing that works. And to those involved, it makes a lot of sense.
“The garden is about connecting communities,” explains Scripps College senior and Criminal Justice Network co-leader Adrian Hodos. “These are two populations that don’t come into contact with each other enough. And now with the garden, they do.”
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Tags: · Adrian Hodos, California, California Institute for Women, Cedar Creek Corrections Center, Chico, Criminal Justice Network, James Jiler, Organic Food, organic gardens, Scripps College, sustainable living, Washington
Green Apple Festivals will kick off Earth Day in major U.S. cities
By Sommer Saadi
Green Right Now
Do not underestimate the excitement of Earth Day. Trust us. There is a lot to look forward to this year – the Green Apple Festival and Earth Day Network are making sure of it.
The two organizations have teamed up to put together the largest Earth Day festival in America. The event will take place April 17 to 19 (the weekend before the official Earth Day on April 22) and features simultaneous service events in ten major cities across the nation including New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.
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Tags: · 1 House at a Time, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Earth Day Network, Green Apple Festivals, International Bird Rescue Research Center, Los Angeles, Lower East Side Ecology Center, New York City, Planet Green, Seattle, Washington
Wind power growing at gale force in the U.S.
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
The American Wind Energy Association released its annual rankings of industry leaders today, among manufacturers, producers and states with the greatest wind production  capacity.
First the states: Texas leads the nation with the ability to produce 7,118 Megawatts of power, or enough to keep 1.75 million homes in electricity.
It is followed by: Iowa (2,791 Megawatts of wind capacity); California (2,517 Megawatts); Minnesota (1,754 Megawatts); Washington (1,447 Megawatts) and Oregon and Colorado (each with just over 1,000 Megawatts).
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Tags: · American Wind Power Association, California, GE Energy, Horizon-Energias de Portugal, Indiana, Iowa, Iverdrola Renewables, Michigan, MidAmerican Energy, Minnesota, NextEra Energy Resources, Texas, Washington, Wind Power, Wind Turbines
U.S. power plant carbon dioxide emissions dropped slightly in 2008
From Green Right Now Reports
A softening economy and a milder-than-usual winter contributed to a decline in carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants in 2008, according to a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project.
EIP officials noted that the decrease is a departure from the recent trends, with power plant carbon dioxide emissions having risen 0.9 percent since 2003, and 4.5 percent since 1998, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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Tags: · Alabama, Colorado, Environmental Integrity Project, Florida, Georgia, Ilan Levin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, West Virginia
The 17 states seeking to regulate auto emission standards
From Green Right Now reports
President Barack Obama today ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to review its previous refusal to allow California and more than a dozen other states to raise emissions standards above and beyond the national standard. The Bush administration had denied the requests.
“Instead of serving as a partner, Washington stood in their way,” President Obama said. “The days of Washington dragging its heels are over.”
And in what he called “a down payment on a broader and sustained effort to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” President Obama directed the Department of Transportation to establish higher fuel efficiency standards for carmakers’ 2011 model year. The standard, known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE), was established in 1975 in the wake of the Arab Oil Embargo.
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Tags: · Arizona, Auto emissions, California, Connecticut, Department of Transportation, EPA, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersry, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington
Western climate initiative sets emissions targets
September 23rd, 2008 · No Comments
By Barbara Kessler
While the world waits for Washington to act on one looming crisis – the Wall Street mortgage debacle –  states in the Western U.S. acted today on another crisis, announcing a plan to reduce emissions to combat global warming.
The Western Climate Initiative, a collaborative of seven Western states and four Canadian provinces, agreed to try to reduce carbon emissions to 15 percent lower than 2005 levels by 2020.
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Tags: · Arizona, British Columbia, California, Climate Change, Manitoba, Montana, New Mexico, Ontario, Oregon, Quebec, Union of Concerned Scientists, Utah, Washington, Western Climate Initiative
Computer recycling becomes law in Texas
September 19th, 2008 · No Comments
By Harriet Blake
Old computers do not have to end up in the landfill and in Texas, they won’t. Thanks to new legislation (House Bill 2714) that took effect Sept. 1, all computer makers are now responsible for recycling their products.
Texas is the fourth state to have such a law, says Jeff Jacoby, staff director with the nonprofit Texas Campaign for the Environment (TCE), which was one of the bill’s main advocates. The other states are Minnesota, Maine and Washington.
Companies such as Dell, Hewlett Packard and Apple, as well as mom-and-pop operations, are required to provide free and convenient recycling to their customers, or they will not be able to sell computers to anyone in Texas, under the law.
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Tags: · Computers, Electronic Waste, Maine, Minnesota, Texas, Washington
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