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Fair Trade is a growing international approach to trade aimed at tilting the balance in favor of the poor. Fair Trade ensures the way we import or export goods is based firmly on the principles of economic and social justice – it provides a way to guarantee our purchases help, rather than harm, those involved in the production cycle. Says Jonathan Rosenthal, co-founder of the fair trade coffee company Equal Exchange, “Fair Trade businesses are here to explore what it means to be of service. Business in our society has lost the notion that it should do more than create wealth and move goods back and forth. It should be of service to the greater society.”“For thousands of artisans and farmers around the world, Fair Trade means the difference between being able to send their children to school or not, being able to afford to buy eyeglasses, or get immunization shots, being able to access clean drinking water – and so many basic necessities we take for granted,” says Chris O’Brien, Co-op America Business Network managing director. The Fair Trade Federation estimates that to date, people around the world have spent around $500 million on fair trade products. What is […]
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*News and Events New York City Joins DOE’s Clean Cities Program on Earth Day Energy Star Awards Honor Energy Efficiency Leaders Toyota Unveils Improved Prius; Ford Previews Hybrid Escape Tucson Celebrates Earth Day by Opening a Zero-Energy Home Penn Doubles Its Wind Power Purchase to 10 Percent GE Hydro to Upgrade U.S. Hydropower Plants*Site NewsPA Windmap*Energy Facts and Tips EIA Expects Lower Gasoline Prices this Summer———————————————————————-NEWS AND EVENTS———————————————————————-New York City Joins DOE’s Clean Cities Program on Earth DayEarth Day 2003 was yesterday, and DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) marked the occasion by designating the New York City Clean Cities Coalition as the newest member of DOE’s Clean Cities Program. New York City uses alternative fuels in a number of buses, garbage trucks, and light-duty vehicles, and 200 natural-gas taxis operate in the city. See the DOE press release at: [sorry this link is no longer available]DOE coordinates the Clean Cities Program, a locally based voluntary partnership of government and industry. Program partners help deploy alternative fuel vehicles and build supporting alternative fuel infrastructure. See the Clean Cities Program Web site at: [sorry this link is no longer available]Although the official Earth Day 2003 theme, “Water for Life,” […]
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by Kirsten Elder Companies in the news APS AstroPower ICP Global Technologies Kyocera PowerLight Shell Solar Systems Design & Technology, LLC Emerging Technologies According to a paper published in the latest issue of Semiconductor Science & Technology, the Hahn Meitner Institute in Berlin has designed an ultra thin solar cell that uses cheaper semiconductor materials than conventional solar cells, and is up to 50 times more efficient. The trick, German physicist Rolf Koenenkamp told edie, is to find a design that can combine a cheap absorber with a cheap substrate. Typical cells that use planar substrates require expensive absorbing materials, so the German team devised an alternative substrate that could be used with cheaper absorbers, while also redesigning the shape of the absorber. The result was a cell with a layer of light-sensitive cadmium telluride (CdTe) placed on top of a layer of porous titanium dioxide. The goal for Koenenkamp is to come up with a cheap, undeveloped absorber that has previously been rejected for its poor performance in a conventional cell. (Edie news, 18/04/03)New Products Kyocera Corporation has announced the introduction of two types of residential solar power generation systems to the Japanese market. Kyocera will release the Samurai, […]
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*News and Events DOE, Interior Department Report Notes Top Geothermal Sites GM and BMW to Develop Liquid Hydrogen Fueling Technologies Zilkha Plans 400-Megawatt Wind Facility in Illinois USDA to Award $44 Million for Renewables, Energy Efficiency U.S., Russia to Collaborate on Energy Efficiency, Renewables*Site NewsEERE Building Technologies Program*Energy Facts and Tips DOE, Other U.S. Agencies Celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd———————————————————————-NEWS AND EVENTS———————————————————————- DOE, Interior Department Report Notes Top Geothermal SitesA report released on Monday by DOE and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) identifies opportunities for near-term development of geothermal energy in the West. Prepared by the DOI’s Bureau of Land Management and DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the report identifies 35 locations for geothermal sites in six western states. See the DOI press release at: [sorry this link is no longer available]The full report is available as a 43-MB ZIP file on the NREL Web site at: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy03osti/33105CD-Lite.zipAn even larger 168-MB ZIP file is also available. In addition to the report, the larger ZIP file includes poster images and Acrobat Reader installers. Download the ZIP file at:http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy03osti/33105CD.zipGM and BMW to Develop Liquid Hydrogen Fueling TechnologiesGeneral Motors Corporation (GM) and the BMW Group announced last week that they […]
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by Kirsten Elder Companies in the news AET BP Solar PowerLight RWE Schott Solar Sharp Corp Sun Power & Geothermal Energy WorldWater Corp Xantrex Emerging Technologies Researchers at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel have said they have made improvements in “solar surgery”, a new technique that uses highly concentrated sunlight instead of laser surgery. The research team reported that it had built compact solar fibre-optic “concentrators” that provide the same power levels and densities as laser optic fibres. The technique can produce the same changes in biological tissue as conventional laser fibre-optic surgery and could provide a cheap alternative to this method. (PhysicsWeb via SolarAccess.com, 04/04/03)Applications Council officials have granted planning permission for a 560 kW solar roof for the main central car park in Woking town centre. The first 140 kW phase of the installation, for which grant funding from the UK government has already been approved, is scheduled for completion later this year by BP Solar. (Solarbuzz.com, 11/04/03) Markets The California Public Utilities Commission will not make owners of solar panels and wind turbines pay a special fee to electric utilities in the state. The Commission voted 3-to-2 to defeat the Cost Responsibility Surcharge that […]
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Angel investors are the most important source of capital for very young businesses.
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The documentary Blue Vinyl sends a red alert to manufacturers: win your stakeholders' trust or risk being the subject of grassroots efforts against you.
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Northern Ontario in Canada is home to the first FSC- certification in the Canadian Boreal Forest. The SmartWood program of the Rainforest Alliance and World Wildlife Fund-Canada announced that the Gordon Cosens Forest has been granted Forest Management certification under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) system. Managed by Tembec, and located in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada, this is the largest forest in Canada to attain the highly regarded FSC/SmartWood seal of approval. The Gordon Cosens Forest covers over 2 million hectares (5 million acres) and is the largest FSC forest certification to date in North America. 75,000 hectares of the forest is owned by Tembec; the remainder is crown land, with management supervised by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. In 2001, Tembec committed to certify all its forests by 2005, an area nearly twice the size of New Brunswick – 35 million acres. The exhaustive certification process included in depth field-oriented dialogues with First Nations, ENGOs, forest industry and other stakeholders in Ontario and throughout Canada. Richard Z. Donovan, Rainforest Alliance’s Chief of Forestry, currently in charge of SmartWood’s work in Canada, said that boreal forest management and certification is “extremely complex due to First Nation issues, as well as […]
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Instead of celebrating the Earth for only one day, Aveda, The Art and Science of Pure Flower and Plant Essences, the manufacturer of lifestyle products, targets the entire month of April to raise money and awareness about global environmental issues. This year, that campaign focuses on slowing global warming and protecting biodiversity. Using their worldwide network of salons, spa, and retail centers, and an advertising tag line that reads, “What can you do for the earth today?,” Aveda invites customers to make donations and to sign Global Action Pledge Cards. The network goal is to raise US$750,000 for environmental organizations that preserve our Earth’s ecosystems by reducing global warming. The company also aims to gather 125,000 pledges from citizens to reduce the emissions associated with lifestyle choices, resulting of a reduction of CO2 by 125 million pounds over the course of a year. Aveda encourages its salons and spas to create special events and fund raisers of their own. Frederic Holzberger, president and CEO of Fredric’s Corporation, the exclusive distributor of Aveda products for Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan has one of the most successful territories in the country when it comes to Earth Month. Fredric’s has received much credit […]
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The 2003 World Environment Center (WEC) Gold Medal award for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development goes to Ricoh Company, Ltd., a leading office equipment company. Masamitsu Sakurai, president and COO, will accept the award on behalf of the company’s 74,000 employees around the world at a formal gala on May 15 at the National Building Museum in Washington DC. Only one company receives the Gold Medal each year; Ricoh is the first Asian company to be so honored. The award was established in 1985, and is awarded by an independent jury of international environmental experts to a corporation that demonstrates pre-eminent leadership in sustainable development and contributes to worldwide environmental quality. The signature contribution on which the jury based its decision is Ricoh’s outstanding performance combined with world class energy efficiency technology, reduction of emissions, zero-waste to landfill in production, green suppliers pipeline, and a cutting edge environmental management system globally implemented. Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, the U.S. investment research company that correlates company performance with environmental initiatives, gives Ricoh the highest “eco-rating,” AAA. Oekom, a German corporate responsibility ratings agency also gives Ricoh the highest rating. Among its activities, Ricoh: * established a system to work with suppliers […]
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