All posts in News

Source: Environmental Leader.com

California lawmakers are calling for an investigation following two reports that say the state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control refuses to revoke the permits of companies that repeatedly violate environmental laws, and lets hazardous waste polluters operate on expired permits for years at a time.

The reports found that the DTSC has consistently failed to protect communities and the environment from harms posed by toxic waste in the state’s soil, water and air.

According to Golden Wasteland, a Consumer Watchdog report, the DTSC cuts repeated deals out of court with polluters, levies ineffective fines and fails to develop and refer cases for prosecution. The DTSC often awards permits without environmental review, and it has not revoked the permit of a serial violator of environmental laws in more than 15 years, the report found.
Read more

Source: Environmental Leader.com

All over the world renewable energy projects are being delayed or stopped entirely due to the NIMBY or “not in my backyard” phenomenon, this is a case that often involves people in communities who stall developments in their areas due to a variety of reasons. NIMBYism is not limited to the United States, it is global. The amount of revenue and jobs that have been lost or delayed due to public opposition and protest to renewable energy projects is astounding.

Wind farm projects in Staffordshire County, UK, have been delayed due to community resistance. Wind farms would serve as a good renewable energy source for the region, but the community feels the development would harm their rural communities and prevent tourism. The community concerns have now reached the government and the project has continued to be stalled.

In Dennis, Massachusetts members of the community oppose the wind energy project currently going on.  Though the wind farm creates a viable source of renewable energy, many residents complain about the noise of the wind turbines, and would like them shut off at night or altogether.
Read more

Source: Environmental Expert.com

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Green Technology Solutions, Inc. (OTCBB: GTSO) added its voice to a growing chorus of electronics recyclers this week in support of a federal bill that could add thousands of jobs to the U.S. economy.

The Responsible Electronics Recycling Act (RERA), set to be reintroduced in the current session of Congress, bans the export of certain kinds of unprocessed and non-working electronics and e-waste from the U.S. to developing nations. The new restrictions imposed by the bi-partisan bill could create up to 42,000 direct and indirect new recycling jobs in the U.S. with a total payroll in excess of $1 billion, according to a new study commissioned by the Coalition for American Electronics Recycling (CAER).

The study also forecast that the number of jobs will further increase as e-waste volumes rise in the coming years. The EPA estimates that electronic scrap is growing two to three times faster than any other portion of the waste stream.
Read more

Source: Environmental Expert.com and NACWA

Washington D.C. — In his State of the Union Address last night, President Obama focused on the role of infrastructure to a healthy economy and identified climate change and resiliency as national priorities, all of which pave the way for a renewed focus on the value of water and water infrastructure, according to the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA).

WEF and NACWA are heartened by the President’s emphasis on economic recovery and climate change. Water considerations are essential to progress in both areas, and the organizations are encouraged by the potential to advance and improve the Nation’s water programs. As seen in the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, clean and safe water infrastructure is now squarely a key component of any national effort to address the effects of climate change and ensure the resiliency of our communities going forward.
Read more

Source: Green Money Journal.com

Twenty years from now, we will have either successfully transitioned from our current economic growth paradigm to a new model of Sustainable Capitalism or we will be suffering the calamitous consequences of our failure to do so. Likewise, sustainable investing will either remain a niche strategy or it will have supplanted mainstream investing. This is the critical point we must embrace: sustainable investing can no longer simply present itself as an alternative to traditional investment approaches that ignore environmental, social and governance (ESG) imperatives; it cannot simply be for somepeople; it must actually triumph over and displace traditional investing.

The current model of global capitalism – call it growth capitalism – is premised upon perpetual economic growth that must ultimately invade all accessible habitat and consume all available resources.[Footnote 1] Growth capitalism must eventually collapse, and is in fact collapsing, for the simple reason that a finite planet cannot sustain infinite growth. Moreover, the dislocations associated with this infinite growth paradigm and its incipient demise – climate change, rising inequality and extreme poverty, resource scarcity (including food and water shortages), habitat loss and species extinctions, ever more frequent financial crises, to name just a few – will increasingly bedevil global policy makers in the years ahead. The public sector is already experiencing a high degree of dysfunction associated with its inability to confront a defining feature of this system: the need for perpetual growth in consumption spurs a corresponding growth in public and private debt to fuel that consumption, which has roiled financial markets and sovereign finances across the globe.

Meanwhile, the environmental fallout from this infinite growth paradigm is becoming acute. All of earth’s natural systems – air, water, minerals, oil, forests and rainforests, soil, wetlands, fisheries, coral reefs, the oceans themselves – are in serious decline. Climate change is just one symptom. “The problem is the delusion that we can have infinite quantitative economic growth, that we can keep having more and more stuff, on a finite planet.”[FN 2] The problem is an economic system that makes no distinction between capital investments that destroy the environment, or worsen public health, or exacerbate economic inequality, and those that are aligned with earth’s natural systems while promoting the general welfare. Under growth capitalism, a dollar of output is a dollar of output, regardless of its side effects; short-term profit is valued regardless of the long-term consequences or externalities.
Read more

Source: Environmental Expert.com

On January 30, 2013, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) released revised proposed Safer Consumer Products Regulations (Revised Proposed Regulations). The Revised Proposed Regulations are subject to a 30-day comment period, ending February 28, 2013. Memoranda providing background information are available online. The Revised Proposed Regulations are available online.

Below is a summary of the core elements of the Revised Proposed Regulations — Chemicals of Concern (COC), Priority Products (PP), Alternative Assessments (AA), and Regulatory Responses — and any significant changes from prior proposals.

Scope of Persons and Products Subject to the Regulations
Read more

Source: UPSide blog

Every year, sustainability professionals come together to discuss trends and expectations for the future. The meetings, like Net Impact and BSR, buzz with heady discussions about the world’s social and environmental issues: poverty, human trafficking, child labor, transparency, and climate change.

When we get home, business-based attendees have to sort through the aspirational talk to determine which social and environmental issues should guide corporate sustainability programs. Relevancy isn’t always direct or obvious but it’s critical for companies who want to remain leaders in sustainability.

Based on my review, here are the business-relevant trends worth watching in 2013:
Read more

Smart growth policies can help achieve environmental justice goals

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today released a first-of-its kind report showing how low-income, minority and tribal communities can apply smart growth land use and development strategies to create healthy communities, spur economic growth and protect the environment.

The Creating Equitable, Healthy, and Sustainable Communities report describes how low-income, minority, and tribal communities can employ smart growth strategies to clean up and reinvest in existing neighborhoods; provide affordable housing and transportation; and improve access to jobs, parks and stores. The report also provides smart growth practitioners with concrete ideas on how they can better meet the needs of low-income residents as they promote development or redevelopment in underserved communities.
Read more