If you want a green option, try a Trikke. If you don’t know what a Trikke is, try one out for yourself today at GOVgreen!
How Will You Get to GOVgreen This Morning?
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Category Archives: Procurement & Products
GOVgreen Conference Sessions You Shouldn’t Miss
There are a bunch of great Conference Sessions scheduled for this afternoon at GOVgreen, but we’ll highlight two for right now:
- Tools and Resources for Greening the Federal Supply Chain
- Lessons Learned from Space: Greening at NASA Centers
Head over to GOVgreen – at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center – this afternoon to check them out!
Trikke Riders for GOVgreen 2011
If you’re out and about in downtown Washington DC today, you are bound to see a Trikke-riding promotion for GOVgreen 2011 (Wednesday-Thursday at the DC Convention Center). Six hardy riders are covering the Federal Triangle and Independence Avenue (and south) areas handing out GOVgreen promotions and answering questions about the Trikkes. GOVgreen 2011 opens tomorrow with an exhibit floor of over 160 booths with products and services for facilities, energy, transportation and conservation. The exhibit floor is free—and includes a ride-and-drive of eco-friendly vehicles and the chance to try out the Trikkes!
What to Expect this Week at GOVgreen: Activities
There is a show floor full of great vendors, educational sessions on topics that you can use, and speakers sharing insights and information on green government that you won’t find anywhere else. But that’s not all you’ll find at GOVgreen; you’ll find plenty of activities too!
Here’s a short list of hands-on, interactive things to do at GOVgreen:
Blast from the Past: 2010 GOVgreen Show Floor
Last year, Wise Energy joined us at GOVgreen and we caught up with them to learn more about their solar panels. They’re back this year, so we thought we’d re-introduce them to the GOVgreen crowd!
Apps for the Environment Winners Chosen
The EPA has announced the winners of the Apps for the Environment competition. The five winners are:
- Winner, Best Overall App: Light Bulb Finder by Adam Borut and Andrea Nylund of EcoHatchery, Milwaukee, Wis.
- Runner Up, Best Overall App: Hootroot by Matthew Kling of Brighter Planet, Shelburne, Vt.
- Winner, Best Student App: EarthFriend by Ali Hasan and Will Fry of Differential Apps and Fry Development Company, Mount Pleasant High School in Mount Pleasant, N.C. and J.H. Rose High School in Greenville, N.C..
- Runner Up, Best Student App: Environmental Justice Participatory Mapping by Robert Sabie, Jr. of Western Washington University, Bellingham, Wash.
- Popular Choice Award: CG Search by Suresh Ganesan of Cognizant Technology Solutions, South Plainfield, N.J.
Read more about the winners at the EPA’s press release and then check out the apps at the EPA’s competition page. Be sure to visit the competition page, each app has a video to explain its use!
A New Way to Maintain Indoor Air Quality
The example above is fairly extreme, but also convincing. Indoor air quality is an important part of any green building. The product above, from Global Plasma Solutions, kills airborne contaminants and only needs a low voltage power source to do its job.
Also, we hear that Willett Construction Services will put the Global Plasma Solutions products on display at GOVgreen in a few weeks, if you want to find out more!
How Does the DOE Transfer Technology from the Lab to the Marketplace?
On the Radar: Benefit Corporations
California became the latest state to adopt legislation creating Benefit Corporations, or “B Corps.” California followed several other states, including Maryland, Virginia, Vermont, New Jersey and Hawaii, in creating the new corporation class.
What is a B Corp? It’s best explained by contrasting the new model with the old one. The vast majority of corporations today use the standard corporate model. This means they are created with one legally-binding objective: maximizing shareholder value. B Corporations, on the other hand, add a second reason for a corporation’s existence: create a material positive impact on society and the environment.
B Corps exist somewhere between a “standard” corporation and a nonprofit. Americans have seen corporations move in this direction even before states started to adopt legislation creating B Corps. Think Starbucks’ Ethos water. They take $.05 from each purchase and send it to “water stressed countries.”
Now, with B Corps, activities like this will perhaps become more widespread. Read more about Benefit Corporations at bcorporations.net and more about the new California law at sustainablebusiness.com
News of the Week
Here is a brief list of some of the interesting sustainability news articles from this week:
- $1 Billion University Green Challenge Launches
- A ‘Nutritional Label’ for Building Materials & Other Tools for Transparency
- U.S. Capitol Pens Waste-to-Energy Contract
- Virgin to Fly Planes on Waste Gas by 2014
And you’ll find more headlines at CEILeadership.org!
