Welcome to the July 2008 Green InSight eNewsletter!

Jon Dougal Editor, Green InSight

The new president of ASHRAE, William Harrison, has as his presidential theme, Maintain to Sustain – Delivering ASHRAE's Sustainability Promise, focuses on operating buildings to deliver the energy efficiency inherent in their design, including effective commissioning, improved documentation, and programs to educate and certify building operators.

"If the studies are accurate, we have a no-regrets method to reduce energy use in buildings by 10 to 40%, solely by improving building operations," Harrison said. "All we have to do is communicate and educate more effectively. It is our duty. We are pledged to deliver ASHRAE's promise of sustainability, and to do that we must maintain to sustain, we must train to sustain, and we must influence the operation of our buildings to conserve energy."

This insightful and progressive newsletter is concerned with present energy issues and technologies as well as the future of energy. The information is brought to you in living color, on widescreen digital HD format, and sparing paper use with our long shelf-life, greedy little electrons to deliver the latest from the far corners of the alternative and renewable energy empire to foster sustainable development. We exalt your feedback and contributions of your latest experiences and reactions to our content. Sustainability is not just our mission, it is our passion.

Inflation/Deflation – Why All The Fuss?

By: André Angelantoni
Source: Inspiring Green Leadership (www.InspiringGreenLeadership.com)

The next to the last generation heard almost on a daily basis from their parents the horrors and the fear they still possessed from the inflation that predated World War II. Andre, in the accompanying article, gives our readers as taste of what happened and what is possible in the near future. This is a must read for people under 60.

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TMPs Back Personal Carbon Credits

Source: BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk)
Date: May 26, 2008

UK House of Commons Supports Personal Carbon Trading. The Environmental Audit Committee of the British parliament is urging the creation of a personal carbon trading scheme for all citizens of the UK. The system would provide a set of carbon emission allowances to each citizen and establish a national carbon budget. Citizens would begin each year with the same carbon quota and those who chose to partake in activities that would exceed the allowed limit would need to obtain the necessary carbon credits from another individual. While acknowledging implementation difficulties, the committee said such a system would reduce emissions more effectively than a carbon tax that would fall most heavily on the poor.

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Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance

Source: Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance (www.sustainablebiodieselalliance.com)
Date: 2008

Biodiesel Alliance Crafts Sustainability Principles. A new non-profit organization, the Biodiesel Alliance, has been created to promote sustainable biodiesel practices, including the harvesting, production and distribution of biodiesel fuels. The ultimate goal of the Alliance is to create best practice standards for verifying that all points in the production and distribution chain are in compliance with the SBA?s certification standards. The group?s current draft sustainability principles may serve as a basis for standards and criteria for a biodiesel certification process or as a framework for drafting more specific codes of practice for sustainable biodiesel production and use. Principles include: biofuel production should not damage soils, deplete water production, nor jeopardize food security, but should provide fair compensation to farmers, should minimize and eliminate wherever possible the use of dangerous agrochemicals and should have a bias towards local consumption of the biofuel.

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Trump Organization Finds Gold in Going Green

By: Jon Dougal, Executive Director, U.S. Green Real Estate Council
Date: July 11, 2008

Many international corporations are signing on to the greening of their properties, some later to endorse the others. Durst, Ford, GE, Herman Miller, were early consignees, now one of the most famous real estate magnates has sent the green in greening.

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Watkins Glen Int'l goes Green with Wind Power!

Juice Energy helps Watkins Glen International race towards greener, lower-priced electricity through new partnership

Source: Juicy Energy
Date: July 7, 2008

In May 2008, there was a conference in San Francisco on Eco-cities. The program ran 3 days, had 1000's of attendees and produced only 12 pounds of non-recyclable garbage. Wow! Why can't all conferences do that? Many entertainment and professional venues are not attempting to "green" their events. The process is fun, gains more contributors, participants and makes many people proud of the accomplishment. Another example below.

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Plug In Cars get a Plug

By: Chuck Squatriglia - June 13, 2008
Source: Wired Blog Network (http://blog.wired.com)

The more devices that can run from free energy the less polluting coal fed energy will be generated. The less air pollution will be generated by cars and it follows that the number of children suffering from asthma will be reduced accordingly. Plug in vehicles are the wave of future commuting. The emphasis being on battery innovation, which is fueling great research on the medium.

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Pecos Algae Biofuel Research Preview

By: Beau Berman – July 6, 2008
Source: CBS 7 News (www.cbs7kosa.com)

What some say is the most polluted state in the 48 is finally taking the lead on some energy fronts. Redeeming for sure. From Wind power to diesel regulations, there is progress being made. Wouldn't it be refreshing if some of those Texas oil barons were actually effecting change in a positive direction?

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Japanese Scientists Create Diesel-Producing Algae

Many see energy from algae has some big potential if certain key problems are overcome. From one perspective, it seems that harvesting is the biggest problem. Centrifuges are expensive and delicate machines and it doesn't seem feasible that they round up millions of pounds of water every year to squeeze out a few hundred tons of biomass to be economical or practical.

As one commentator sees it - 1 acre of land producing 10,000 gallons of fuel sounds very promising. But if it takes a $100,000+ machine that has a life span of 5 years just to squeeze out just one acres worth of water this will simply never be profitable for fuel production.

Some think the solution will be biological. Algae that excretes oil is an incredible achievement in the field. It begs one to ask, what is the catch?

The article on Japanese algae says that "breeder tanks" are expensive. And another glitch may be how well does this oil product esterfy?

We've seen some lousy propositions. Just what is wrong with ponds or tubs? Who in their right mind is going to invest in $400,000 in polycarbonate tubes to grow an acre's worth of algae? Or a green house to make algae? We're talking about one of the hardiest life forms out there. It’s like liquid weeds.

Japanese scientists create diesel-producing algae

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Interested in sponsoring our next eNewsletter issue? Contact Jon Dougal at (415) 798-1933 or editor@greenmotion.org.