Top Ten List: Sustainable CEOs

Triple Pundit created and published a (non-scientific) survey on their readership's Top Ten Sustainable CEOs.

The list:

1. Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia (Owner/Founder)
2. George Siemon, Organic Valley Company
3. Mick Bremans, Ecover
4. Jeffrey Hollender (Former CEO), Seventh Generation
5. Jan Blittersdorf, NRG Systems
6. BethAnn Lederer, Working Wonders
7. John Mackey, Whole Foods
8. Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan, New Belgium Brewery
9. Eric Schmidt, Google
10. Ray Anderson (Former CEO), Interface Carpet

The results in themselves spark several questions:
Does the perception of sustainability match the reality?
What do the results say about the consumership of the survey respondents?
How did the respondents balance the CEO's positive contributions to people, planet, and prosperity?

California State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund Act

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has recently proposed to tie California state parks funding to proceeds from offshore oil drilling. This is a tradeoff that many, including the California State Parks Foundation, find unacceptable.

When a previous gubernatorial budget proposal aimed to eliminate half of state parks’ General Fund in 2009, then take the remaining half in 2010, California faced the likely closure of more than 80% of the entire parks system. Full closures were avoided only because parks users mobilized last summer under California State Parks Foundation's Save Our State Parks campaign.

In a major effort to secure a long-term sustainable funding mechanism, the foundation supports the California State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund Act of 2010, which is in circulation to qualify for the November 2010 ballot. This funding, when approved by the voters, will provide a stable, reliable, and adequate funding source for the state park system, for wildlife conservation, and for increased and equitable access to those resources for all.

Teaching "Green"

New York City schools put stronger focus on environmentalism
Mireya Navarro and Sindya N. Bhanoo, New York Times, January 10, 2010

Rather than simply covering predictable topics like recycling and tree planting, the Green School alerts students to problems like sooty air and negative media representations of their neighborhoods.

"Green is not just the environment,” Jennifer said. “It's politics, government, social justice."

"We do a lot of things other schools are not doing," said Jose, 15. "I feel like we’re doing something important."

The Green School is a progressive alternative high school in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York that focuses on sustainability, the environment, science, social justice, experiential learning, and career planning. The students are encouraged to delve into local issues that may affect them and their families, like contamination in waterways like the Gowanus Canal, water quality, or the razing of low-scale housing.

"You can't have a kid in a violent neighborhood and say, 'Let's talk about the polar bear,' " said Karali Pitzele, one of the school's two co-directors.

Across the nation, the range of green schools form a fledgling network, finding eager partners in groups like the Sierra Club and the National Wildlife Federation, which provide lesson plans or money for field trips, and in private and government agencies that are making concerted environmental efforts in communities and cities.

Read the complete article here.

One person's trash is another person's treasure

Did you know that there are a multitude of alternatives to the disposal of materials or wastes, which help conserve energy, resources, and landfill space?

Service providers directly connect one-time or regular generators of traditional or even difficult-to-recycle materials with parties that can use those materials. Instead of paying for hauling and disposal, the generator gets revenue and the recipient gets a resource they need, typically at a lower cost or even for free. A handful of the many opportunities for direct recycling, reuse, and repurposing are listed below.

• The mission of Califorma Materials Exchange (CalMAX) is to build reuse markets for materials from businesses, organizations, industry, schools, and individuals, and to find markets for nonhazardous materials that may otherwise be discarded. And, CalMAX is free.

• Pensylvania Material Trader is a free online service established in 2004 by the Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers' Environmental Management Assistance Program. This service is intended to help businesses find users for materials they have traditionally discarded.

• NY WasteMatch is a free service, created and funded by the NYC Department of Sanitation, which facilitates the exchange of used and surplus goods and equipment from organizations that no longer need them to other entities that do.

• Acting as an information clearinghouse, directory, and marketing facilitator for reusable industrial materials, the Illinois Industrial Material Exchange Service (IMES) deals with waste by-products, off-spec items, hazardous and nonhazardous materials, overstock, and damaged or unwanted materials.

• The Industrial Materials Exchange (IMEX) matches up business industrial waste generators with waste users in the Pacific Northwest.

• RecycleMatch is an online market for transforming commercial waste into value. RecycleMatch charges a percentage fee for each match that it makes based on the cost savings and revenue produced from each material match.

• Biomass Trader is a free network of regional marketplaces (currently Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania) for buyers and sellers, as well as givers and takers, of biomass and biomass-derived products.

• The British Columbia Electronics Materials Exchange (BC-EMEX) is a program from the Electronics Product Stewardship Association of B.C., Canada, that promotes the exchange (or sale) of electronic items priced from $0 to $99.

• For more directly useable and commercial materials (for example, unused construction materials), Freecycle might be worth checking out. The Freecycle Network™ is a non-profit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free, made up of 4,873 groups with 6,877,000 members across the globe. Membership is free.

Green Remediation BMPs

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Principles for Greener Cleanups outline the Agency’s policy for evaluating and minimizing the environmental "footprint" of activities undertaken when cleaning up a contaminated site. Use of the best management practices (BMPs) recommended in EPA's series of green remediation fact sheets can help project managers and other stakeholders apply the principles on a routine basis, while maintaining the cleanup objectives, ensuring protectiveness of a remedy, and improving its environmental outcome.

The first of the BMP fact sheets were recently released:

• Site Investigation
• Pump and Treat Technologies

Links to the BMP fact sheets are available under "EPA Documents and Guidance" on the SURF Links page.

Grace Period for Port of Oakland Truckers

Air board, Port truckers agree on upgrade
Kelly Zito, San Francisco Chronicle, January 5, 2010

A last-minute deal between California Air Resources Board (ARB) and Port of Oakland truckers will allow hundreds of big rigs to operate at the port for two weeks while they work to meet stricter requirements on diesel emissions that officially took effect on January 1st.

Regulations passed in 2007 prohibit large diesel trucks made before 1994 from operating at the state's ports and rail yards and require pricey filters on trucks made between 1994 and 2003.

The ARB said it has located an additional $11 million to aid the truckers. However, last week's showdown between policymakers and the trucking industry will probably play out again in different parts of the state over the next year, when similar rules affecting the rest of the trucking fleet in California - about 1 million trucks - start going into effect.

Read the complete article here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/05/BAML1BDGHJ.DTL

Bottled versus Tap

Created by Online Education

Daily Environmental Lectures, Events, and News from COP15

The San Francisco Carbon Collaborative, in partnership with other regional climate leaders, is hosting a local hub for climate outreach, education, and action during COP15, the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

The Copenhagen Cafe at the Green Zebra Environmental Action Center is a place to gather, to learn, to deliberate, and to act. It is an open and accessible venue for all levels of environmental interest and commitment, and will maintain a direct link between the Bay Area and Denmark during the conference.

The Copenhagen Cafe will be open Monday through Friday, from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm. Each morning, there will be a review of the latest news from the COP15 Climate Conference. The Cafe will host introductory talks on a range of climate related topics during the lunch hour. And there will be panels, discussions, and film screenings during the evening.

The programs are free of charge, but the Cafe encourages registration because space is limited.

Greenhouse Gases Threaten Human and Environmental Health

The EPA today formally determined that greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution endangers human health and the environment. Under a Supreme Court ruling, the endangerment finding is needed before the EPA can regulate carbon dioxide and five other GHGs released from automobiles, power plants, and factories under the federal Clean Air Act. This finding sets the stage for EPA to finalize the GHG standards proposed earlier this year for new light-duty vehicles as part of the joint rulemaking with the Department of Transportation. It also allows EPA to move forward with its "tailoring rule", which will require major sources of GHGs to take steps to limit emissions from new facilities by using Best Available Control Technology (BACT).

Read Administrator Lisa P. Jackson's comments on the endangerment finding here.

Read the Associated Press article about the finding here.

Proposed Amendments to 'New Source Review of Toxic Air Contaminants'

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) is accepting comments through this Thursday, December 3, on proposed amendments to Regulation 2, Rule 5, New Source Review of Toxic Air Contaminants and the Health Risk Screening Analysis (HRSA) Guidelines for this rule.

Regulation 2, Rule 5 prevents significant increases in health risks resulting from new and modified sources of toxic air contaminants based on preconstruction permit review. The program also reduces existing health risks by requiring updated control requirements when older, more highly polluting sources are modified or replaced.

The proposed amendments incorporate revised California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) health risk assessment methodologies for proposed projects throughout the district. The proposed amendments revise Table 2-5-1 to incorporate changes to risk assessment guidelines that have been adopted by OEHHA as of June 1, 2009. These revisions include cancer potency factors, RELs, and emission trigger levels. The proposed amendments contain a toxics tracking provision for each Priority Community under the BAAQMD’s Community Air Risk Evaluation program. Under this provision, the BAAQMD will track and report emissions changes of toxic air contaminants from permitted stationary sources, mobile sources, and area-wide source over time.

On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, the BAAQMD Board of Directors will conduct a public hearing to consider the proposed amendments and to consider adoption of a CEQA Negative Declaration. The hearing will be held in the 7th floor Board Room of the BAAQMD office, 939 Ellis Street, San Francisco, commencing at 9:45 am.