Finishing up on Friday's blog

There's lots of troubling weather events going on, including the floods in Russia (and we send our best to our loyal viewers and readers that have lost homes and lost relatives; we pray for you).  Parts of the US are baking and scorching into uncontrolled fires, wrecking havoc on the environment and the economy as people lost homes, time at work and huge money is spent in the aftermath of the destruction.  


Here's part 2.  Again, we think this reinforces the many fears of an overheated Earth that is being to crumble on the edges.  We hope the right changes to our use of natural resources and controlling our waste and emissions will help bring us back in balance.


Thank you to The Guardian for a great editorial:


"In the markets, all this news was taking its toll: prices for corn and wheat were spiking upwards, rising almost a third on global markets as forecasters suggested grain stockpiles could shrink by as much as 50% as the summer wears on. But in the political world, there wasn't much reaction at all.

The Obama administration said it would grant Shell leases to drill for more oil in the Arctic, and they auctioned off a vast new tract of federal coal land at giveaway prices – even though it's the carbon in that coal and oil that drives the droughts and fires. Even that didn't satisfy the GOP, as Mitt Romney demanded yet more pipelines and wells.

Amid it all, the CEO of the biggest oil company in the world, Exxon, gave what may go down in the annals as the most poorly timed – not to mention, arrogant – speech in the firm's history: Rex Tillerson, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations, admitted what his company spent many years denying, that humans were heating the planet. But then he added:

"We have spent our entire existence adapting, OK? So we will adapt to this. Changes to weather patterns that move crop production areas around – we'll adapt to that. It's an engineering problem, and it has engineering solutions. And so I don't … the fear factor that people want to throw out there and say, 'We just have to stop this,' I do not accept."

Against the backdrop of the burning Rockies, it's pretty clear this is not an engineering problem. Engineers, in fact, have performed admirably. One day last month, Germany generated more than half its electricity from solar panels. We've got the technical chops to solve our troubles.

No, this is a greed problem. In the last five years, Exxon has made more money than any company in history. For the moment, Exxon and other's desire to keep minting money – and our politicians' desire for a share of that cash – has conspired to keep our government, and most others, from doing anything to head off the crisis.

And unlike the healthcare predicament, this crisis comes with a time limit. If we play politics for a generation, then weeks like the one we've just come through will be normal, and all we'll be doing as a nation is responding to emergencies. As one scientist put it at week's end, the current heatwave is "bad by our current definition of bad, but our definition of bad changes."

Another way of saying that is: there are disaster areas declared across the country right now, but the biggest one is in DC."

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Enjoy the show

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Kohl's solar initiative powers 30 locations in 2012

From a news release issued by Kohl's Department Stores:

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. -- Kohl’s Department Stores (NYSE:KSS) today announced that the company will expand its solar program by nearly 25 percent in 2012, installing solar at approximately 30 additional Kohl’s locations. While some of the new solar sites will be in states such as California, Connecticut and Maryland where Kohl’s already has a solar presence, additional sites will be located in new solar states for Kohl’s, including Massachusetts, New York and Ohio.

On average, the solar panels will supply 20 to 50 percent of each store’s energy. Construction of the solar panel arrays on the first phase of stores began this spring. Once the installations are complete by the end of 2012, Kohl’s expects to have more than 150 solar locations across 13 states.

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Thanks to Seth Handy, Environmental lawyer and co-host

For sending us a stark reminder of what climate changes can look like as they wreck havoc on our environment. We need, as we've written, to get back in balance on sustaining a global economy, with 7 billion people feeding on that, with sustaining Mother Earth.

Will run this in two parts:  This is from The Guardian:

The Waldo Canyon wildfire burns as it moved into subdivisions and destroyed homes in Colorado Springs. Photograph: Galon Wampler/AP

"In the political world, this was the week of the healthcare ruling: reporters hovered around the supreme court, pundits pundited, politicians "braced" for the ruling, "reeled" in its aftermath. It provoked a "firestorm" of interest, according to one magazine; it was, said another, a "category 10 hurricane".

But in the world world, there was news at least as big, but without the cliched metaphors. News that can be boiled down to a sentence or two:

You ever wonder what global warming is going to look like? In its early stages, exactly like this.

Global warming is underway. Are we waiting for someone to hold up a sign that says "Here's climate change"? Because, this week, we got everything but that:

• In the Gulf, tropical storm Debby dropped what one meteorologist described as "unthinkable amounts" of rain on Florida. Debby marked the first time in history that we'd reached the fourth-named storm of the year in June; normally it takes till August to reach that mark.

• In the west, of course, firestorms raged: the biggest fire in New Mexicohistory, and the most destructive in Colorado's annals. (That would be the Colorado Springs blaze: the old record had been set the week before, in Fort Collins.) One resident described escaping across suburban soccer fields in his car, with "hell in the rearview mirror".

• The record-setting temperatures (it had never been warmer in Colorado) that fueled those blazes drifted east across the continent as the week wore on: across the Plains, there were places where the mercury reached levels it hadn't touched even in the Dust Bowl years, America's previous all-time highs.

• That heatwave was coming at just the wrong time, as farmers were watching their corn crops get ready to pollinate, a task that gets much harder at temperatures outside the norms with which those crops evolved. "You only get one chance to pollinate over 1 quadrillion kernels," said Bill Lapp, president of Advanced Economic Solutions, a Omaha-based commodity consulting firm:

"There's always some level of angst at this time of year, but it's significantly greater now and with good reason. We've had extended periods of drought."

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Thanks to the Daily Green

For a very a very good article and reminder.  


Renewable Now is the business side of green; the place where economics and the environment come happily together.  Commerce is not the enemy of Mother Earth.  Jobs can co-exists with clean air and oceans.  We've found, and reported, on many such great stories of smart growth.  We'll find and report on many more.


The question is, will one of those stories be yours?  We hope so.  We'd be happy to tell it to the world.


Happy 4th for America and a world transforming into green.


The Next Revolution Starts Now

"Revolution is sometimes necessary, if never comfortable. Thomas Jefferson knew this when he and his revolutionary colleagues laid out their grievances before dissolving the bands that connected them with the King of England. We celebrate the success of that revolution every year, and for good reason.


This Fourth of July, a couple hundred years later, there's another revolution afoot, with the potential to shake up the way America does business, interacts with other nations and pursues happiness. "Green" is more than a buzzword. It's a path forward for a great nation seeking to produce its own energy, shore up its security and provide sustainable prosperity for its people.
Jefferson didn't spend a lot of ink on energy policy in the Declaration of Independence, but a selective reading of his "indictments" against the King almost sound like a treatise on sustainability. (At least, the whole argument for untangling ourselves from that rotten King of England is framed as aligning human behavior with natural law and the "powers of the earth.")


So, this Fourth of July, start participating in the next revolution, one that embraces good-old American ingenuity and hard work on the path toward a brighter future for our great nation."

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/declare-independence-47062306#ixzz1zgL82Joz

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SC Johnson to Install Two Wind Turbines at Largest Manufacturing Facility

From a news release issued by S.C. Johnson:

Racine, Wis., (June 21, 2012) – SC Johnson continues to build its legacy as an environmental champion with the announcement that it will build two wind turbines at its largest global manufacturing plant, Waxdale, located in Mt. Pleasant, Wis. The company received clearance to begin construction on the turbines, which will put wind power behind trusted brands such as Windex®, Glade®, Pledge®, Raid® and Scrubbing Bubbles®. The turbines are expected to be operational by the end of 2012. . . .

Waxdale, the size of 36 football fields, is SC Johnson’s largest global manufacturing facility. The wind turbines will generate approximately eight million KWH of electricity per year, the equivalent of powering more than 700 homes annually, and reduce carbon emissions associated with powering Waxdale by six thousand metric tons annually. The turbines are expected to be approximately 415 feet high.

The wind turbines are the latest in a series of renewable energy production investments at Waxdale. In addition to the practical energy and sustainability benefits, the investment in the company’s Waxdale facility continues SC Johnson’s commitment to manufacturing in the Racine community.

Wind Turbines – The Facts, Benefits

A few facts about the wind turbines at Waxdale include:

• The company expects the wind turbines will produce approximately 15 percent of the electrical energy used at Waxdale.

• The remaining approximately 85 percent of Waxdale’s electrical energy requirements can be produced by two co-generation units installed during the last decade that produce electrical energy and steam. Approximately 27 million KWH per year or 45 percent will be renewable energy from landfill gases used by co-generation unit one; on average, the remaining 23 million KWH or 40 percent will be from methane/clean energy used by co-generation unit two.

• The electricity generated will be the energy equivalent of more than 600,000 gallons of gasoline every year, equal to an average amount of gas used by more than 1,100 cars annually.

• This effort will reduce annual carbon emissions associated with powering the Waxdale plant by six thousand metric tons.

Reducing Resource Use

Sustainability has been a focus for SC Johnson for decades. In late 2011, the company was recognized with a Green Power Leadership Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for their commitment and contribution to the advancement of the nation’s voluntary green power market.

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Listen today on WARL 1320AM and Blog Talk Radio

We'll be live today, 12-1p EST, with tomorrow being the 4th, with a great show on recycling in cities, and looking at the struggles a new company has had in Newport this summer getting full acceptance of their very visible, very usable recycle bins.

Our guests include Karen Weber from Boston Green Fest (which will be a focus of the show in August), Krystal Noiseux, Recycling Program coordinator from RI Resource Recovery, and Mike Debroisse, who will be talking about his city's planned program with Recylebank--something all cities should be looking at.

The show will be repeated in its entirety tomorrow at its regular, weekly time:  Weds, 12-1p.

Also, my co-host today is Seth Handy, environmental lawyer and consultant, and he sent a great update to us on Boston's newest investor in renewable's...take a look:

Bowles' new firm WindSail Capital plans series of cleantech investments

Boston Business Journal by Kyle Alspach, VC Editor

WindSail Capital Group, a year-old Boston firm co-managed by former state energy and environmental secretary Ian Bowles, expects to fund a dozen cleantech services companies in the next two years, Bowles said in an interview.

The firm has funded one company so far, Boston's Next Step Living, with a $2.75 million credit facility a year ago. The company provides efficiency audits and retrofits and employs 300, Bowles said.

WindSail is targeting $1 million to $5 million loans to cleantech companies that have some sort of asset the firm can lend against, he said. That could include solar power installers, LED installers, developers of electric vehicle charging stations and energy efficiency firms.

"Cleantech is making the transition from tech development — lab coats, advanced solar cells— into deployment," Bowles noted. But many of the cleantech services firms don't fit the criteria for venture capital investment or a loan from typical financial institutions, he said.

"Our aspiration is to become a major source of credit for earlier stage cleantech deployment businesses," Bowles said. "As far as I know, no one else is doing this."

Bowles' partner on WindSail is Michael Rand, a veteran of private equity and finance who most recently was a managing director of GB Merchant Partners in Boston.

Bowles, who said the firm is now "actively looking" for new investments, declined to say how much WindSail has raised or plans to raise, or who the firm's investors are (other than himself and Rand).

Other efforts by Bowles include working with NeighborPower, which allows consumers to pay their utility bill using reward points (see Mass High Tech's recent coverage of NeighborPower). Bowles served as energy and environmental affairs secretary through Gov. Deval Patrick's first term, departing the administration at the end of 2010.

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/startups/2012/06/bowles-windsail-capital-cleantech.html

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