Camilla Cornell, Financialpost.com
December 19, 2011

When Tom Heintzman travels, he either uses a plug-in hybrid car or purchases carbon offsets for all of his flights, takes public transport from the airport where possible, and uses hotel chains that are powered at least partially by renewable energy. But you would expect that of the co-founder and president of Toronto-based Bullfrog Power Inc., a green electricity producer.

Mr. Heintzman argues there’s a business case to be made for all companies – whether they style themselves as “green” or not – to reduce their transportation footprint.

“We definitely have a lot of polling data that suggest consumers are increasingly aware of companies’ corporate social responsibility and environmental practices and they’re increasingly relevant,” he says.

By Andrew Michler
September 13, 2011

Up to 20 square miles of virgin desert in New Mexico will soon be home to the nation’s newest town, only with a twist — no one will live there. Developer Pegasus Global Holdings (a communication, technology and defense contractor) and the state of New Mexico have announced plans to create a “mid-sized” smart city that they are calling The Center for Testing, Evaluation and Innovation. Details are vague, but the concept is clear enough: design a town that mirrors real cities in order to test sustainable infrastructure and technologies to see if they would work in the actual built environment without fear of disrupting real communities. Think of it as the green version of Westworld – only if something goes wrong nobody gets hurt.

CleanTechnica
December 13, 2011

We have the pleasure of working with hundreds of people every day that want to reduce their energy bills, go green and jump on the solar power bandwagon. And the question we see over and over again is: Just how much do I need and what will it cost? We’ll tackle that question here and show you how we calculate system size and cost. We have simple solar calculators that can do this on our website but so many people have asked how this is actually calculated that we thought we’d give a quick solar design lesson.

Richard Black, BBC News
December 9, 2011

A tiny nation you may well have never heard of fears it may become an early casualty of climate change - and will almost be the first to make its entire energy supply carbon-free.

Kristy Hessman, Earthtechling.com
December 5th, 2011

Eco-friendly, affordable housing. That might sound like an oxymoron, but it’s exactly what is in the works just east of downtown Denver. KTGY Group Architecture+Planning has announced construction of the Bluff Lake Apartments, a residential community of 92 high-quality, eco-friendly units. The project is a partnership between the architects, affordable housing developer Mercy House and the city of Denver.

Reuters
November 24, 2011

Air pollution caused more than 100 billion euros ($134.95 billion) in health and environmental damage, highlighting the need for more renewables sources of energy, a report published on Thursday by the European Environment Agency found.

Europe’s 10,000 largest factories and energy facilities resulted in 102-169 billion euros in health issues, such as respiratory and cardiovascular problems, and environmental costs because of air pollution in 2009, the most recent available data.

Per citizen, the cost was between 200-300 euros.

CleanTechnica.com
November 21, 2011

Feed-in tariffs are a comprehensive renewable energy policy responsible for two-thirds of the world’s wind power (64 percent) and almost 90 percent of the world’s solar power.  With simplified grid connections, long-term contracts and attractive prices for development, that’s policy that works.

BBC News
November 18, 2011

The risk from extreme weather events is likely to increase if the world continues to warm, say scientists.

A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said it was “very likely” that emissions had led to an increase in daily maximum temperatures.

CityNews Toronto
November 15, 2011

A new study says the richest 20 per cent of Canadian households spew almost twice — 1.8 times — the greenhouse gas emissions of the country’s lowest income-earners.

BBC News
November 10, 2011

The Obama administration is to reassess the route of a controversial Canada-US oil pipeline, delaying a decision on the project by up to 18 months.