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A North Carolina McDonald’s goes McGreen

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

LED lighting at Cary McDonalds

LED lighting at Cary McDonalds

By Barbara Kessler

When Ric Richards recently acquired an aging McDonalds in Cary, N.C., he knew the place needed an overhaul.  The 25-year-old store was fraying at the edges.

Richards decided to give these particular golden arches a green touch.

Once he’d decided that the building needed replacing, the decision to go eco-friendly was not difficult. Richards knew it made sense from a business standpoint – it would cut energy costs dramatically – and he figured it would resonate with the educated customers living in the Research Triangle region, especially those interested in lower-carbon living.

“I felt it was the right thing to do,’’ said the owner-operator whose green restaurant celebrated its grand opening this winter. “We all need to be more geared for sustainability as we move into the future. We need to build buildings or live at home using fewer resources.”

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Yes, that’s a ‘green’ Ferrari

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
The HY-KERS vettura laboratorio (experimental vehicle). (Photo: PRNewsFoto/Ferrari North America, Inc.)

The HY-KERS vettura laboratorio (experimental vehicle). (Photo: PRNewsFoto/Ferrari North America, Inc.)

By Tom Kessler

At the Geneva Auto Show this week Ferrari, a company whose products are normally associated with red, flashed a bit of green. And we’re not just talking about the paint job.

Ferrari’s HY-KERS vettura laboratorio (experimental vehicle) is a hybrid version of the 599 GTB Fiorano that slips in a high-voltage electric motor capable of producing 100 horsepower.  The test car reduces CO2 emissions by 35 per cent.

The iconic company says the hybrid project is aimed at ensuring that Ferrari will be in a position to comply with future CO2 emissions standards, particularly in urban environments. City driving is traditionally where sports cars typically become major fuel hogs because their engines are designed for maximum efficiency and performance at high RPMs rather than the low revs and low engine loads of city driving.

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Olympic Games medal in energy efficiency

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

vancouver_olympic_center3

The Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Center uses heat from ice-cooling operations to warm the building.

By Harriet Blake

Vancouver scored highly as an Olympic venue despite weather concerns. Equally impressive, the Winter Games also scored well in terms of their energy efficiency.

According to Pulse Energy’s Venue Energy Tracker, the software technology that measured the 17 days of athletic contests, the games were the most energy efficient Olympics ever.

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Empire State Building lauded for energy-saving retrofit

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Empire State Building (Photo: Empire State Building Co.)

Empire State Building (Photo: Empire State Building Co.)

From Green Right Now Reports

Retrofitting doesn’t always get the attention that new green building generates, with its “net zero” and passive solar designs.

But the impact of retrofitting can be great, and it comes with the bonus of preserving historic and treasured structures — like the Empire State Building.

The iconic New York high rise, built in the 1930s, has received an award for its 2009 retrofit, which is expected to save 38 percent of the building’s energy and $4.4 million annually.

The Sustainable Buildings Industry Council gave it the “Beyond Green High Performance Building Award”, which recognizes the energy efficiency and air quality improvements made during the retrofit, designed by a collaboration of real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle, the Clinton Climate Initiative, energy efficiency experts Johnson Controls and the Rocky Mountain Institute.

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RFK Jr. explains why nuclear power isn’t green and coal isn’t cheap

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Robert Kennedy Jr.

Robert Kennedy Jr.

By Harriet Blake

As passionate as his father was about civil rights, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is equally so about the environment.

In a lecture in Fort Worth last week, the 56-year-old son of the late Senator, advocated for moving the nation to green energy, which he doesn’t see as encompassing nuclear power.

Coal is not the only power-producing industry that needs scrubbing, said the longtime environmentalist, and nuclear energy is simply not safe. “Nuclear energy is the most catastrophic form of energy. No bank will finance it…[and] no insurance company will insure it,” he said.

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Walmart plans to lower carbon emissions across its vendor network

Friday, February 26th, 2010
Walmart CEO Mike Duke annoucing carbon reduction goals

Walmart CEO Mike Duke annoucing carbon reduction goals

By Barbara Kessler

Walmart announced a plan to reduce carbon emissions across its global supply chain today, saying it intends to shave 20 million metric tons off its greenhouse gas emissions   through 2015.

The reductions will come from Walmart’s own operations and  from “the life cycle of the products we sell,” said Walmart CEO Mike Duke, adding that the savings would be the equivalent of taking 3.8 million greenhouse gas-emitting cars off the road for a year.

“It’s a very sizable goal, as we often do here at Walmart,” he said.

Calculated another way, the reductions represent 150 percent of Walmart’s anticipated carbon growth over the next five years.

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Darden will roll out sustainable restaurant designs

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

From Green Right Now Reports

Darden Restaurants today announced that it has begun a system-wide sustainable restaurant design initiative involving the use of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards in its restaurant design process for all new restaurants and, where feasible, restaurant remodels.

The company, which operates 1,800 restaurants, said the initiative is part of its broader sustainability efforts aimed at limiting business impact on the environment while also enhancing the operational efficiency of its restaurants.

Darden’s three largest brands – Red Lobster, Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse – are designing eight restaurants to achieve LEED certification from the United States Green Building Council. The company said it plans to apply learnings from those eight restaurants to new restaurants and remodels in the future.

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U.S. car fever waning after a century of growth

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

In 2009, the number of cars scrapped exceeded the number of new cars sold.

(This article, originally entitled U.S. Car Fleet Shrank by Four Million in 2009 – After a Century of Growth, U.S. Fleet Entering Era of Decline, previously ran on the Earth Policy Institute website. Lester R. Brown is president of the EPI and author of Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization.)

By Lester R. Brown

America’s century-old love affair with the automobile may be coming to an end. The U.S. fleet has apparently peaked and started to decline. In 2009, the 14 million cars scrapped exceeded the 10 million new cars sold, shrinking the U.S. fleet by 4 million, or nearly 2 percent in one year. While this is widely associated with the recession, it is in fact caused by several converging forces.

Future U.S. fleet size will be determined by the relationship between two trends: new car sales and cars scrapped. Cars scrapped exceeded new car sales in 2009 for the first time since World War II, shrinking the U.S. vehicle fleet from the all-time high of 250 million to 246 million. It now appears that this new trend of scrappage exceeding sales could continue through at least 2020. (See data.)

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Utility will convert Vermont streetlights to LEDs

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

From Green Right Now Reports

Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology, already making inroads in traffic signals and Christmas lights, will get yet another application in New England: Green Mountain Power has submitted a plan to the Vermont Public Service Board to offer LEDs in streetlights throughout its Colchester, Vt., service area.

LED street light. Image: OSARM

LED street light. Image: OSRAM

The more energy-efficient lights would replace worn-out mercury vapor lighting. Already, Colchester’s is the first electric utility in New England to offer an LED rate for outdoor lighting.

If the plan gains approval from regulators, customers will be able to request LEDs when installing new streetlights or replacing old ones. Mercury vapor lights will be phased out over time.

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MIT program will help companies develop sustainable supply chains

Friday, February 19th, 2010

From Green Right Now Reports

MIT’s Center for Transportation & Logistics will launch the Global LEAP (Leaders in Environmental Assessment and Performance) research consortium at its annual Crossroads Conference on March 25, in Cambridge, Mass.

Chiquita Brands and Lockheed Martin are the first commercial organizations to sign up for this new project to design supply chains that meet the sustainability goals that are redefining the way companies operate. Inaugural members have pledged comprehensive support for the new consortium including a financial commitment, in-kind resources, thought leadership, and active participation.

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