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We love sharing “how things work” videos here at CEIL. The technology and engineering behind many green technologies is simply fascinating.
This week, we’re sharing a video that explains how wind turbines generate electricity. So, the next time you see turbines on the horizon, you’ll know just how they are generating electricity for the homes and businesses nearby.
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Green Government Podcast: Episode 3Interview with Sam Pulcrano, Vice President of Sustainability for the United States Postal Service. Join us for a chat with Sam Pulcrano, Vice President of Sustainability for the United States Postal Service. Sam is responsible for unifying the Postal Service’s sustainability efforts across every function and location. Sam has been instrumental in the Postal Service’s “green” environmental efforts, which have brought national recognition from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Performance Track. In this interview, Sam speaks with us about some of the Postal Service’s recent green projects, including experimentation with new fleet vehicles, as well as the green roof on the sorting facility in Manhattan. Sam also discusses Executive Order 13514, and how the Postal Service is working to meet its goals. |
Share your expertise and knowledge with thousands of people at the 2010 GOVgreen Conference and Expo, this November 9-10, 2010 at the Walter E. Washington Center in Washington, D.C.
Academics, researchers, green workers and managers are encouraged to submit papers and proposals for programming at the conference. Submission Deadline: July 15, 2010.
Papers should fit into one of the following topic areas:
To submit your proposal, visit:
http://ceileadership.org/index.php/call-for-papers
I came across a great post on the New York Times’ Green Blog late last week about a new solar light bulb. The durable, rainproof light bulb is about the size of a standard incandescent bulb and can be charged during the day to provide hours of clean, safe light at night. It’s also designed with a replaceable, rechargeable battery so it can be renewed to operate for several years.
While the inventors were primarily thinking about people that live off the grid (whether by choice or not) when they developed the bulb, it’s clear that it will have an impact in the consumer and commercial markets, as well.
“We’ve done everything we can to make this solar bulb affordable and long-lasting so the people who need it can afford it, and reap the benefits, ” said Nokero’s inventor and founder Stephen Katsaros. “There are so many ways this product can change lives: It can help keep families and shopkeepers safe, help students study at night, eradicate indoor pollution, and reduce worldwide carbon emissions.”
Nokero has set up a great press room for the bulb, which you can check out here: http://www.nokero.com/press.php
According to the Defense Science Board Task Force on DoD Energy Strategy, More Flight, Less Fuel, the military is the largest energy user in the federal government. The Department of Defense spends approximately $20 billion on energy and accounts for 80 percent of the US government’s total energy consumption.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has made energy conservation a priority for the Navy. Under his leadership, the Navy has established ambitious goals which include changing the way the Navy and Marine Corps award contracts during the acquisition process to consider the lifetime energy cost of the system; creating a “Green Strike Group” composed of nuclear vessels and ships powered by biofuels; reducing petroleum use in its 50,000 commercial vehicle fleet by 50 percent by phasing in hybrid fuel and electric vehicles; producing at least half the shore-based energy requirements from renewable sources; and ensuring at least 40 percent of the Navy’s total energy consumption comes from alternative sources by 2020.
Examples of how the Navy has begun to implement these ambitious energy conservation goals include:
· Savings of 386,000 barrels of fuel during the first half of fiscal year 2010 as part of the Incentivized Energy Conservation (i-ENCON) initiative which encourages ships to operate in the most efficient manner while conducting their mission;
· Construction of a $613,000 green roof at Naval Station Norfolk to be completed in December 2010; and
· Retrofitting of lighting and HVAC systems in more than 90 naval buildings at four Portsmouth, VA facilities through an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC). The contract, awarded in December 2009, will see a total energy savings of 32,802 million British thermal units (MBTU) per year and an estimated annual cost savings of nearly $687,000.
To learn more about these and other promising practices by the Army, be sure to register and attend GovGreen, taking place November 9-10, 2010 at the DC Convention Center.
Or, if you have information to share about other cutting edge examples, either by federal agencies, the private sector, state and local governments, or anyone else, please submit a presentation idea so that we can consider featuring your idea as a blog and at GovGreen.
I spent a couple of days in NYC last week at the BuildingsNY/GreenBuilding Exhibition–300 booths demonstrating services and products to support the New York real estate market. The show isn’t as big as during the boom years, but the green section is at least half the display area. Green exhibitors ranged from major brands to start-ups and covered the gamut of building and management services and products–all designed to conserve, reduce and recycle. Everyone I talked to wanted the key to the government market–many are already selling to the government but want to sell more. Some are looking for help to figure out how to get started. Interest in the Center for Environmental Innovation and Leadership and the upcoming GOVgreen Conference and Exposition was strong.
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Green Government Podcast: Episode 2Interview with Melissa Gallagher-Rogers, Director Government Sector for the U.S. Green Building Council. Join us for a chat with Melissa Gallagher-Rogers from the U.S. Green Building Council. Melissa is director of the government sector for the USGBC, and the former manager of the LEED government and higher education sector. Melissa is currently the primary liaison to agencies working to green their buildings through the LEED system. In this interview Melissa speaks to us about the LEED green building certification system and future plans that the U.S. Green Building Council has for sustainable green buildings and communities. |
Just a quick post to share an informative presentation from the EPA regarding Federal electronics stewardship.
Federal Electronics Challenge Program Overview
When the US military has a mission, it is generally backed by a strategy, tactics, resources and commitment. The military’s mission to improve energy security and reduce its environmental footprint is no different. As the largest energy user in the federal government by far, the Department of Defense military spends approximately $20 billion on energy and accounts for 80 percent of the US government’s total energy consumption. In other words, the Department of Defense consumes 300,000 barrels of oil per day, according to the Defense Science Board Task Force on DoD Energy Strategy, More Flight, Less Fuel.
In January 2009, the Army released its “Army Energy Security Implementation Strategy” which addresses energy from the standpoint of national security. This means that if the Army, or any military branch, does not have ready access to plentiful sources of energy, it is vulnerable and its mission is at risk. One could take it a step further and say that if the military does not have access to plentiful and cheap energy sources, that it is also vulnerable since the budget of the military has to stretch across all of its resource needs, not simply energy, and so by reducing its energy budget, limited funds can be spent on other critical necessities.
According to a recent Pew Charitable Trust Project report entitled, Reenergizing America’s Defense, the Army has focused its efforts on conserving energy at Army installations through performance contracting and using advanced energy efficiency standards in building design and construction.
The Army has made great strides towards achieving its goals, as illustrated by some of the following examples:
To learn more about these and other promising practices by the Army, be sure to register and attend GOVgreen, taking place November 9-10, 2010 at the DC Convention Center.
Every office has plenty of appliances that are plugged in 24 hours each day. But few people realize that many of those appliances will use electricity even when they are not in active use. To help offices identify which appliances are using the most “phantom power,” Belkin has developed a line of products designed to monitor an appliance’s energy use and even shut it off it off when it is not in use. The first of these products, the Conserve Insight, will be available in July. Read more about these products at the Belkin website.
