Conservation News

The Forest Stewardship Council is a non-profit organization that makes sure wood products bearing its logo come from properly managed forests and ecologically sensitive logging practices. The Council works with third-party auditors who track the wood products – including paper– from the forest to the consumer to make sure they are properly handled the whole way. Learn more about FSC’s paper certification process at:

http://www.fscus.org/paper/.

Using wind turbines has been a major trend in alternative energy. Unfortunately, research from the University of Texas at Austin is looking at how the rising temperatures caused by global warming are reducing wind speeds, making turbines an uncertain investment. Winds occur when there is a strong temperature contrast, but with increasing temperatures, the discrepancy is decreasing. But researchers state that this data shouldn’t discourage wind turbine use, rather we should invest now, to utilize wind potential.
http://news.discovery.com/earth/wind-power-fading-with-climate-change.html

Summer is a time for pools, popsicles, and parching pavement. Fortunately engineers at the University of Rhode Island are researching methods to use this hot heat to melt ice off roadways in the winter, power street lamps and signs, and heat buildings. Because asphalt temperatures can reach up to 140 degrees harnessing the heat would be very practical. Engineers are looking at a variety of methods including placing photovoltaic cells on highways and water-filled pipes under the road that would be heated. These methods promise another method of alternative energy use, diminishing dependence on fossil fuels.
http://www.uri.edu/news/releases/?id=5584

The big-box store announced its plans to mount at least 15 megawatts worth of thin-film photovoltaic solar arrays on the roofs of 30 or so locations in both California and Arizona. The thin-film solar cells, which are fabricated with glass or other flexible materials, are less efficient than the conventional crystalline silicon construction but are much cheaper to produce. Walmart’s commitment to thin-film may inspire other commercial businesses searching for financially viable ways to green their facilities.
http://www.grist.org/article/wal-mart-says-thin-solar-is-in/

All of the United States’ professional sports leagues recently announced that they would like to see stadiums set the green standard. The organizations distributed a sustainable energy and building guide prepared by the Natural Resources Defense Council that their teams could choose to follow. The leagues hope that fans will see and appreciate the green shift and perhaps adopt some renewable practices of their own. Qwest Field in Seattle and Staples Center in Los Angeles have already greened their facilities with huge solar arrays that save thousands of dollars in commercial electricity bills.

http://www.grist.org/article/big-league-sports-join-the-green-team-score-with-solar/

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded 55 grants to teams of college and university students across the country who will design creative solutions to sustainability challenges in the developed and developing world. The People, Prosperity, and the Planet (P3) Phase I awards for the 2010-2011 competition challenges students, working together on interdisciplinary teams, to design and build sustainable technologies that improve quality of life, promote economic development, and protect the environment.

The competition begins in Phase I with the award of $10,000 grants to student teams who focus on a wide range of categories including water, energy, agriculture, built environment, and materials and chemicals. After working on the project for eight months, the teams will bring their designs to the 7th Annual National Sustainable Design Expo on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. At the expo, the projects will be judged by a panel of experts and a select few will be awarded P3 Awards and Phase II grants up to $75,000 for students to further their designs, implement them in the field, or move them to the marketplace.
For more information on 2010-2011 Phase I P3 Awards, visit

http://www.epa.gov/ncer/p3/current.

IBM’s Worldwide Community Grid is an innovative supercomputing network that will allow its users to offer idle processing power to Tsinghua University scientists studying water pollution and treatment. The researchers believe that the grid will help them condense tens of years of required computer simulations down to months.  To join the effort, visit:

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/reg/viewRegister.do

An electrical engineering research team at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan has developed three new circuit designs that consume 80 percent less energy than current technology. The new converter processes, dubbed monotonic capacitor switching procedure, binary-scaled error compensation method and binary-scaled error compensation method, allow for both high-efficiency and faster operating speeds.  The research was recently featured at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference.

http://news-en.secr.ncku.edu.tw/files/14-1083-69157,r614-1.php