EPA Fines Sims Metal $189K for Polluting SF Bay

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice announced the $189,000 fine against Sims Metal Management on Thursday September 18th over allegations that it polluted the San Francisco Bay with toxic metal debris. The EPA charged the company with allowing toxic dust from metal to fall off a conveyor system and into a creek that feeds into the San Francisco Bay since at least the early 1990’s. As part of a settlement agreement, the recycling company will be required to pay the cost of cleanup in addition to the fine.

Sims Metal spokeswoman Jill Rodby said the company has implemented a number of best practices around the conveyor and agreed to the settlement without acknowledging any wrongdoing.

Source: NBC Bay Area

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Toledo, Ohio is getting a new sustainable urban park!

The UpTown Green Park is located at 18^th St and Madison Ave., Toledo, Ohio. There are a number of green features such as a grey water system that will be used in the park rain garden. There are also native plants in the park and most of exciting of all, after 3 years of planning and development it’s expected to open in the coming days!

 

Also much anticipated, is the fate of a near-by and vacant building. Planning for it’s future and creating a budget for it’s goals are already underway. The source writes about the potential for it to become a mixed use, residential and commercial building among other things.

 

Source: http://www.toledoblade.com/Real-Estate/2014/07/14/Construction-of-UpTown-Green-nears-completion.html

 

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Refresing and original videos by @HumanBrainPower

Thepowerofbrain.com produces awesome videos that cover an array of categories such as biology, engineering, construction, technologies, entertainment and more in a captivating presentation.

“The coolest Nature Video Ever [Edited By Roen Horn] is a spectacular slow-motion film about the origin of life among focused shots. In addition to nature shots, their website shows a “Point of View Surgery Shown with Google Glass”, “Holographic Imaging Via Your Smartphone’s Screen”, “The World’s first “Invisible” Tower [South Korea], “Lamborghini Aventador Process Production HD”, and so many more videos that combine education with entertainment.

For your viewing pleasure please see:

 

Source: https://wastetracking.wordpress.com/

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Tiny Houses Big With U.S. Owners by @BloombergNews

 

Bloomberg showed glimpses inside the tiny houses that are becoming big with U.S. owners. In this article: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-09/tiny-houses-big-with-u-s-owners-seeking-economic-freedom.html Nina Glinski wrote about how good owners of tiny houses in the U.S. feel about making the decision to downsize their homes in favor of achieving economic freedom.

The article starts with Doug Immel who recently completed his custom-built dream home that has just 164 square feet of living space and saves him a lot of money which he invests for his retirement.

Aldo Lavaggi, a New York folk musician who lives in Hudson Valley built a 105 square foot home on a friend’s farmland in the Berkshires. His humble abode runs on energy from two solar panels and a car battery. Lavaggi “has money to splurge on artisanal break and gourmet cheeses from the local market” and pointed out that “there’s a fallacy of limited options” where people feel that they must have a full-time job, stellar credit or a lot of money to own a house.

This article looks at a lot of different angles regarding owning a house like the “biggest barrier”, zoning restrictions, and the freedom explained above. We hope that you enjoy, and please tell us what you think on Twitter @GreenHaloUSA or in the comments here!

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Understanding the #energy #efficiency of products is made more scientific than ever by #FLEXLABS

This is the outside of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s new FLEXLAB

 

FLEXLAB is the world’s first energy use lab that will help builders and manufactures test entire building systems down to the component level on a significant scale.

This lab offers solutions for people who bring products to test out and want to use all of the lab’s equipment to do so, to people who want to bring their product to test out with their own machinery and equipment.

Current projects involve measuring energy usage for the Genentech building, PG&E and more!

The lab has 4 stations (shown in the video above) to accommodate a variety of testing scenarios including:

1. “Test-drive technologies”

2. “Individual circuits and meters”

3. “Lighting and plug-load elements”

4. “On-site training”

5. “Compression testing”

and more.

According to the FLEXLAB, there is a problem that buildings are designed to be energy efficient, but once they are being used they end up using a lot more energy than was planned. A new study even pointed out that energy efficient buildings sometimes use more than twice the energy than was expected based on their design.

Here’s an except from the lab’s website about what they offer:

FLEXLAB is the first test bed in the world that can evaluate the energy efficiency of major building systems, as an integrated system, under real-world conditions. Stakeholders can evaluate energy-efficient building technologies individually or as integrated systems in advance of building projects or retrofits, in order to:

• Optimize integrated systems to maximize energy savings
• Ensure occupant comfort and user-friendliness
• Verify cost-benefit numbers
• Train building operators
• Build confidence in new technologies

 

( Source: http://flexlab.lbl.gov/ )

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Store Design in Tokyo Looks Like Unfinished #Construction to Some

Some say that this En Yu-An shop looks like unfinished building. This store features modern crafts that blends traditional crafts with modern design in Tokyo.

Here are some photos of the store, and more pictures can be seen at the link at the bottom.

What do you think?

 

 

Source: http://www.dezeen.com/2014/07/18/wood-frame-tokyo-shop-fumihiko-sano/

 

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Inspirational and #Educational #Sustainability Across the U.S.A.

Did you know that Chicago, IL has become the epicenter for LEED-certified buildings?

How about the fact that landscaping designed to conserve water is called Xeriscaping and it’s big in Denver, CO?

Freshkills landfill in New York, NY is a landfill that’s three-times the size of Central Park and it’s being worked on so that it can be turned into a park!

Portland, OR is home to the Bicycle Transportation Alliance whose mission it is to create healthy, sustainable communities by make bicycling safe, convenient and accessible.

 

Source: http://ecowatch.com/2014/07/14/ranking-sustainability-programs-u-s/

and 

http://btaoregon.org/

 

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Renewable #energy must be addressed to receive #building permits for single-family homes in Hawaii

Hawaii has become the first state in the US to mandate the installation of solar water heaters in new single-family home construction. According to an article by Mat McDermott from treehugger, this mandate that requires solar waters to receive a building permit, Act 204, went into effect at the beginning of 2010.

Encouraging renewable energy in Hawaii is supported by the facts that 90% of its energy was imported from outside the island chain in 2008 and oil prices have been high. In regards to the mandate, exceptions will be made on a case-by-case basis in forested areas where such a system might be cost-prohibitive or if the dwelling utilizes another form of renewable energy in the building plan.

 

Source: http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/solar-water-heater-mandate-for-new-hawaiian-homes.html

 

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@WhiteWaveFoods earns USGBC’s #LEED certification for New #Construction

WhiteWave Foods is a leading consumer food and beverage company and their milk dairy facility in Dallas, Texas recently received green building certificates! WhiteWave Foods produces Silk®, Horizon®, International Delight® and Earthbound Farm® products. Their 325,000 square foot facility earned the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for New Construction.

This facility includes both a dairy and no-dairy area, there is also a 5,000 hp ammonia refrigeration system, multiple raw milk receiving bays, soy extraction area, multiple batching, filler lines and finished product coolers. This state-of-the-art facility is the result of just 8 months of renovation at a former frozen yogurt plant.

The president of WhiteWave Foods explained that the company is committed to helping people eat better and that how they make their products is just as important as what they make.

Vendingmarketwatch.com’s article on WhiteWave Food explained how the LEED credits were earned for this building:

“The LEED green building certification system is the foremost program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. Green attributes of the WhiteWave facility include:

·  Nearly 90 percent of all demolition and construction waste associated with the project was diverted from landfills.

·  Landscaping that requires no irrigation

·  Fixtures that use 30 percent less water

·  100 percent of wood-based building materials certified sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

·  Nearly half of all building materials manufactured within 500 miles of the site

·  Use of materials and design techniques that facilitate solar reflectivity, helping to address “heat island” challenges associated with Dallas’ urban development. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the annual mean air temperature of a city with 1 million people or more can be 1.8–5.4°F warmer than its surroundings, increasing summertime peak energy demand, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and heat-related illness.”

Since this company’s products are so popular it’s good to know that WhiteWave Foods is committed to our health and how their products are made. This building also employed 300 individuals and LEED buildings are one incredible way to help the planet.

 

Source: http://www.hill-wilkinson.com/markets/food-beverage/white-wave-foods

and

http://www.vendingmarketwatch.com/news/11574721/whitewave-foods-opens-companys-first-certified-green-manufacturing-plant

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Top 10 Ways to Reduce Your #Carbon Footprint!

Here it is, a list of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint according to National Geographic and the folks @GreenHaloUSA

How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

1. Make your home energy efficient.
Your home can be responsible for creating twice as many greenhouse gas emissions as your car. Since half of the energy used in your home helps to heat and cool it, making your home as energy efficient as possible will take big chunks out of your carbon footprint. Steps you can take include: Getting a home energy audit; installing energy efficient windows; insulating your attic and walls; installing a programmable thermostat; turning your thermostat down 2 degrees in winter and up 2 degrees in summer.

2. Drive less.
Combine your trips in the car, so you don’t have to go out multiple times to the same location. When possible, use public transit, walk or bike to your destination.

3. Buy the highest gas mileage car for your needs.
Cars contribute 20 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels; the better your gas mileage, the less gas you burn and the fewer emissions you create.

4. Buy energy efficient appliances.
When replacing appliances, buy Energy Star qualified appliances (these use 10-50% less energy than standard appliances and can save you $80 or more per year).

5. Recycle.
Creating products from recycled materials uses up to 98 percent less energy than producing things from new materials.

6. Replace your light bulbs.
Switching to energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs will save you $30 over the life of the bulb, because these they use about 75 percent less electricity than traditional incandescent bulbs.

7. Buy local food.
Each ingredient in a U.S. meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles. If we all ate one meal per week of local, organic food, we’d save 1.1 million barrels of oil per week.

8. Eat less red meat.
Beef takes a lot of energy and resources to produce. Replace red meat with fish, chicken and eggs and cut your food carbon footprint by 29 percent. Go vegetarian to cut it by 50 percent.

9. Lower your water heater temperature from 140 degrees F to 120 degrees F.

10. Buy carbon offsets for the rest and make yourself “carbon neutral.”

( Source: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/human-footprint/trash-talk2.html )

 

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