The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have proposed new fuel economy labels for cars and light trucks that will score each vehicle with a grade from A+ to D, aiming to encourage adoption of more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Beginning in 2012, new labels will help end the confusion caused by a new generation of electric and hybrid cars, fastcodesign.com reports.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation on Monday released two proposed window stickers designed to make it easier for consumers to compare vehicles.

The new system is designed to simplify comparisons in fuel economy and emissions for those shopping for  fuel-efficient vehicles. Traditional MPG ratings don’t provide all of the  information necessary to compare some hybrids and electric cars, which — depending on how much and where you drive them — might never revert to gas. As a result, car companies such as GM have been lobbying for new EPA standards that make the benefits of green(er) vehicles more transparent to consumers, reports USA Today.

In the wake of sweeping efficiency and emission guidelines that rolled out in April, the EPA is revising the information that appears on cars, starting with the 2012 model year. The new stickers mark the first major overhaul of fuel-economy ratings in 30 years.

The two labels have been produced and are now available for public review on EPA’s website.

The first label gives cars and trucks a grade from A+ to a D, and compares vehicles with three sliding scales. It also gives an estimated annual fuel cost. The rating considers fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions, and directs consumers to a website that has not yet been created, where people can learn more about the ratings and how their personal driving habits could effect them. The amount of money a car owner will save (or spend) over five years would be prominently displayed.

The second label doesn’t use a letter grade. It provides traditional information like city vs. highway fuel economy and estimated annual fuel cost, but improves upon the old design with additional info like greenhouse gas emissions and comparative fuel economy within a vehicle’s class.

“From electric to plug-in hybrid vehicles, we think a new label is absolutely necessary to help consumers make the right decision for their wallet and for the environment,” Gina McCarthy, the EPA’s top air pollution official told USA Today. The changes are required under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, which increases average fuel economy to 35 miles per gallon by 2016, and calls for new labels spelling out fuel economy, greenhouse gas and other emissions information.

Under the letter grade proposal, an average vehicle on fuel efficiency and emissions would receive a B-. Electric vehicles would receive an A+, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles would earn an A and three gas-electric hybrids — the Ford Fusion Hybrid, Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius — would get an A-.

The best-selling passenger car in America, the Toyota Camry, would receive a B or a B-, depending on the vehicle’s engine. Hybrid versions of the Camry would earn a B+. The top-selling pickup truck, the Ford F-150, would receive a C+ or a C, based on the engine variant.

Automakers questioned the proposed letter grades,saying it might affect sales. Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, told the Associated Press “the letter grade inadvertently suggests a value judgment, taking us back to school days where grades were powerful symbols of passing or failing.”  She said a broad range of vehicle technologies were needed to improve fuel efficiency.

A blast of cool air far away from the servers in a Savvis data center triggered a hunt for iar leaks and ended with the discovery of $6 million in savings

Increased focus to comply with regulations and the need to manage risks is causing companies to adopt new strategies to streamline Environment Health and Safety (EH&S) programs. Companies are looking for ways to reduce the cost of compliance, improve the safety of people, product, and processes while at the same time surpass corporate goals around brand equity and share holder value. Aberdeen Group surveyed the EH&S group at 230 organizations in April 2010 to understand the performance, strategies and execution capabilities of some of most mature and successful EH&S programs in the industry.

Market Pressures and Top Performance Revealed

Environmental, health and safety issues are becoming an increasingly important business concern. As new regulations evolve, internal and external stakeholders are increasingly putting their attention on sustainable business, and the need to stay in compliance to these regulations is at top of mind of these companies. The consequences of not being in compliance with EH&S regulations are drastic. It can result in penalties, fines, damage to the brand image, erosion of shareholder value, plant shutdowns, and in some cases even fatalities. Here are four Key Performance Indicators (KPI) criteria to distinguish the best-in-class from industry average and laggard organizations:

Table 1: Top Performers Earn Best-in-Class Status

Definition of Maturity Class Mean Class Performance Best-in-Class:
Top 20%

of aggregate performance scorers

• § 87% Overall Equipment Effectiveness
• § 1% Repeat Accident Rate
• § 0.1 Injury Frequency Rate
• § 10% Reduction in Energy Consumption

Industry Average:
Middle 50%
of aggregate
performance scorers

• § 80% Overall Equipment Effectiveness
• § 2% Repeat Accident Rate
• § 0.2 Injury Frequency Rate
• § 4% Reduction in Energy Consumption

Laggard:
Bottom 30%
of aggregate performance scorers

• § 72% Overall Equipment Effectiveness
• § 11% Repeat Accident Rate
• § 1.3 Injury Frequency Rate
• § 0.5% Increase in Energy Consumption

Source: Aberdeen Group, April 2010

Best-in-class companies are able to effectively manage safety incidents by realizing only 1% repeat accidents and 0.1 injury frequency rate, while at the same time reducing energy consumption by 10%, and performing at 87% OEE. This means that the top companies are not only able to create a safe working environment for their employees but are also able to gain competitive edge in the marketplace by higher operational efficiencies at a reduced overall cost.

From a strategies perspective, there are two major themes that emerge from executing a successful EH&S program, that being: improve visibility into operations and optimizing processes, both being selected by a third of the responding companies as the top two strategies. Organizations understand the importance of improving visibility within operations, and having the capabilities in place to provide visibility to critical EH&S data to the right people, at the right time, and in the right form. Coupled with this, organizations are establishing strategies to use this visibility to optimize their day to day processes such as production, maintenance, and safety, among others.

This strategy aligns well with a certain program manager of a multi-billion dollar healthcare products company. Commenting about their EH&S strategy he states, “our EHS system has been very valuable in helping us better understand our business. We are better able to mitigate risk. And on a higher level, corporate can keep track of what is going on at each facility through the real-time reporting capability – and provide assistance before an adverse event were to occur”

An interesting trend was revealed while analyzing the drivers behind organizations focus on compliance. The research showed that depending on an organization’s maturity class there are different drivers behind their focus on compliance. For the best-in-class, these leaders are concerned with the complexity of managing EH&S compliances across global operations and conforming to the compliance of customer mandates. On the other end of the spectrum, we see that the less mature organizations are more focused on cost.

Laggards see that non-compliance directly impacts their bottom line and they want the pain to stop. In order to overcome the compliance pressures, organizations need to view compliance as more than just a cost-saving exercise, but rather view compliance as a path to better overall performance. Indeed, when organizations are effectively overcoming these pressures, and executing an effective EH&S program, they are more likely to perform at the best-in-class level.

Next month we will run part two of this series, in which we will discuss how best-in-class companies execute the strategies discussed in this article.

Matthew Littlefield is Senior Research Analyst, Aberdeen Group, matthew.littlefield@aberdeen.com.

Mehul Shah, Senior Research Analyst, Aberdeen Group

Mehul.shah@aberdeen.com

A new Albertsons supermarket will be one of the first in California to generate nearly 90 percent of its electricity requirements with an on-site 400-kilowatt fuel cell. The project is estimated to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 478 metric tons each year compared to California’s non-baseload power plants.

Fuel cells are one of the cleanest and quietest energy-generation sources available and meet the strictest U.S. emissions standards, says Albertsons. They are also highly energy-efficient and virtually pollution-free.

Byproduct heat from the fuel cell process will be captured and used to warm water used in the store, heat the store when necessary and power a chiller to help cool the refrigerated food, resulting in an overall energy efficiency of approximately 60 percent, nearly twice the efficiency of the U.S. electrical grid, according to the supermarket.

“With the assistance of UTC Power’s fuel cell, it’s our first store that significantly reduces its burden on the power grid,” says Rick Crandall, director of environmental stewardship at Albertsons.

In addition, the store will continue to operate even if there is a power outage, avoiding food spoilage and ensuring a reliable food supply during emergencies.

The PureCell Model 400 fuel cell is supplied by UTC Power. Neal Montany, director for the UTC Power stationary fuel cell business says the company sees strong interest in the supermarket sector for fuel cells because they need power around the clock.

Frozen food processing plants like Carla’s Pasta are also turning to fuel cell power for 24/7 reliable power. They also expect the systems to cut their fuel costs and lower their carbon footprint.

The 55,000-square-foot environmentally friendly Albertsons store, which opens September 1, also incorporates several other energy-efficient features. These include LED lighting in the dairy and frozen food doors that reduce energy consumption by more than 50 to 65 percent, and photo sensors in 33 skylights to measure the amount of daylight in order to adjust the electric light levels accordingly.

The store also uses night curtains, which are pulled over all open cold cases in the evening to seal in the cool air. This reduces spoilage and energy costs by up to 25 percent, says Albertsons. The store also installed water-saving faucets and fixtures in the restrooms to reduce the amount of water use by more than 45 percent.

SIG Combiblock, a manufacturer of carton packaging for drinks and liquid foods, has developed a new 1-liter aseptic carton that reduces the carbon footprint of packages by 28 percent, compared to conventional carton packs, thanks to a new cardboard composite.

The CO2 reduction was confirmed through a lifecycle assessment conducted by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Germany. The lifecycle assessment analyzed and evaluated all key factors and processes throughout the lifecycle of the packaging from sourcing the raw materials to shipment from the production plants.

The packaging cardboard composite is made from more than 80 percent wood fiber from Forest Stewardship Council certified sources, reports Reuters.

The packaging also includes a new, ultra-thin polyamide layer that acts as a barrier to protect against odors. There are also fine internal and external layers of polyethylene that forms a liquid barrier and keeps moisture out.

The first company to use the new packaging will be Milch-Union Hocheifel eG (MUH), one of the largest manufacturers of dairy products in Europe, according to the company.

The combibloc EcoPlus carton packs can be processed using standard SIG Combibloc filling machines with a one-time adjustment to the filling machine parameters.

ULC Standards, part of the Underwriters Laboratories family of companies, has acquired the managers of Canada's EcoLogo program in a move that will expand both group's reach in the universe of green certifications.

ULC Standards, part of the Underwriters Laboratories family of companies, has acquired the managers of Canada's EcoLogo program in a move that will expand both group's reach in the universe of green certifications.

Several large commercial lenders including Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and Citibank, say they are starting to shift their involvement away from industry practices that they see as risky to their reputations and bottom lines, reports The New York Times. These include investments in oil and gas development, nuclear power, coal-fired electricity generation, oil sands development, fuel pipeline construction and forestry.

As an example, Wells Fargo recently said its involvement with companies engaged in mountaintop removal mining would be “limited and declining,” according to the article. However, the bank was a small player in the sector, representing about $78 million in bonds and loan financing for these companies from 2008 to April 2010, according to the Rainforest Action Network.

But Wells Fargo’s policy shift follows other lenders including Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citibank that have increased their evaluations of lending to companies involved in mountaintop removal or have stopped lending to them, reports The New York Times.

The Rainforest Action Network, which has led a campaign to highlight financial institutions with connections to mountaintop mining, has said that the policy shifts were reducing the financing to these companies.

But mining associations and companies involved in mountaintop removal mining told the newspaper that they aren’t having any trouble getting financing for their projects.

Other banks including HSBC and Rabobank are also curbing their relationships with companies based on environmental performance. As examples cited in the article, HSBC is cutting its relationships with some palm oil producers because of their link to deforestation in developing countries and Rabobank has developed a nine-point checklist of conditions for oil and gas companies that include commitments to improve environmental performance and protect water quality.

Banking analysts have told the newspaper that the debate over climate change, water quality and other environmental considerations is forcing lenders to take a closer look at their lending practices.

Karina Litvack, the head of governance and sustainable investment with F&C Investments, said in the article: “It’s one thing if your potential borrower is dumping cyanide in a river. But if they’re dumping carbon dioxide into the air, which is not exactly illegal — what do you do? Banks are in kind of a quandary, because they are competing for business, and if they get holier-than-thou and start to play policeman, they risk allowing other banks to take that business.”

Most recently, the Royal Bank of Canada had to respond to pressure from environmental advocates that denounced the bank’s financing of oil sand projects by hosting a “day of learning,” on the environmental issues surrounding the oil sands.

Over the past few years, the focus by lenders on a company’s environmental impact has led to the development of best practices and voluntary standards such as the Carbon Principles, which Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley helped form, and the Climate Principles launched by Credit Agricole, HSBC, Munich Re, Standard Chartered and Swiss Re.

Australian logistics group Toll has launched its fully owned and operated contract logistics operations in China following the integration of the ST-Anda business into the group

Corrugated converter Vanguard Packaging topped Summit Publishing’s second annual Greener Package Awards for packaging sustainability, earning both the Beyond the Package Award and Innovator of the Year.

The eight winners, selected by members of the Greener Package Expert Network, demonstrate that sustainability can be found in a variety of technologies and materials, says Summit Publishing. This year the publishing firm received 98 entries, a 57 percent increase over last year.

Here are a few reasons why Vanguard topped the list this year. In October 2009, Vanguard completed the three-year development of a 250,000-sq-ft subterranean manufacturing facility, adjacent to its existing 150,000-sq-ft underground fulfillment and assembly plant, in the Hunt Midwest Subtropolis industrial park in Kansas City, MO. The operation and facility feature a variety of green initiatives, which have resulted in big sustainability gains and cost savings for Vanguard, according to the report.

Seven other companies also received awards, including Coca-Cola for its 30 percent plant-based PlantBottle. This is the first commodity resin partially derived from plants that is fully recyclable in community programs, which also ties into Coca-Cola’s commitment to recycling via their “Give it Back” campaign, says Summit.

KFC’s sustainable sides container was also a winner. The new polypropylene container and lid replaces the fast food restaurant’s former single-use expanded polystyrene version for side dishes.

Other winners include GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare for its 6-oz Aquafresh White & Shine toothpaste carton, and Ball Horticultural’s new SoilWrap bio-based plantable, compostable plant container, said to completely eliminate 100 percent of the environmental impact of the package, while reducing related fuel emissions.

Household Essentials won an award for its Ironing Board Cover & Pad that eliminates the polyvinyl chloride pouch package. The pad includes a 100-percent recycled paperboard bellyband around the cloth construction with marketing information in nontoxic ink.

Here’s a list of the 2010 Greener Package Awards winners by categories:

Innovator of the Year:

–Vanguard Packaging: Green subterranean manufacturing facility

Food & Pharmaceutical Packaging:

– Coca-Cola: PlantBottle 30 percent plant-based PET bottle

– KFC: Reusable KFC Sides Container

Personal Care/Cosmetics Packaging:

–GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare: Aquafresh White & Shine toothpaste carton with HoloBrite filmless holographic technology

Non-Food Primary Packaging:

–Ball Horticultural: SoilWrap bio-based, compostable plant container

–Household Essentials: Ironing Board Cover & Pad (with Packaging Pouch)

Secondary/Large-Format Packaging:

–Bway: Eco-Pail recycled-content, recyclable HDPE pail

–Cryopak Industries: TimeSaver72 insulated shipper for temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products

Beyond the Package Award:

–Vanguard Packaging: Green subterranean manufacturing facility

Oracle has released its Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management 2.0 (PDF) solution, as part of its Oracle Utilities Smart Meter Platform, which helps utilities manage customer energy and water consumption data gathered from smart meter deployments.

With the smart meter platform, utilities can organize consumption data and turn it into actionable intelligence such as improving service, controlling operational costs and responding to meter-related events and alerts, says Oracle.

The data management solution features a centralized device portal that enables customer service representatives to review current and historical use, while also allowing field service technicians to view metering activity details and manage meter reading schedules.

Oracle says the new version resolves integration issues that exist in the industry today between customer information systems and meter data management systems. It minimizes data duplication and interoperates with Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing for quicker access to customer data without switching between applications.

It also allows utilities to leverage legacy systems with a more simplified IT architecture, which supports the move to time-of-use, intraday or real-time pricing initiatives.

The device portal also contains tools that help utilities view/edit interval data, look for signs of tampering or theft, view/analyze audit records and examine weather patterns to determine use variations from one time period to another.

A recent survey finds that 88 percent of Americans said they would be willing to use a smart device such as a meter, thermostat or appliance if it would help to better manage their energy use.

In addition, smart water meters will help consumers and businesses figure out how much water they’re using and how to save water, says IBM. The same is true for energy consumption.

Microsoft to Build Giant Data Center in Virginia

PCWorld

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Statoil Receives First Delivery of Cellulosic Ethanol from Inbicon

Green Car Congress

FedEx Makes More Efficient Deliveries with Zero Emissions Electric Bikes

The City Fix

OPOWER and Connexus Announce One-Year Energy Efficiency Results

Businesswire

Bloom Energy Fuel Cells a Clean Energy Alternative, But at What Cost?

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Mexico cuts greenhouse emissions by 19.5 mln tons in last 2 years

Xinhua News Agency

Pepco Energy Services Awarded $7.5 Million Performance Contract for One Judiciary Square Energy Retrofit Project

Energy Central

Few air travellers offset carbon emissions, study finds

The Guardian

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its chairman Rajendra Pachauri are under fire after the release of the InterAcademy Council’s investigation into IPCC. The report suggests several changes are needed including changes to the IPCC’s managerial structure and its existing review procedures to reduce errors, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The IAC review says that the IPCC has policies in place for fact-checking its reports but  in many cases they were not followed, and recommends “clearer guidelines and stronger mechanisms for enforcing them, reports USA Today.

The report also finds that the process used by IPCC to produce its periodic assessment reports has been successful overall, but IPCC needs to strengthen its procedures to handle larger and increasingly complex climate assessments as well as more intense public scrutiny.

Pachauri told The Wall Street Journal in an interview that the recommendations were in line with reforms he has tried to implement. He also said that neither the most recent report, which didn’t look at the science, or other recent climate-science probes have questioned the IPCC’s overall conclusion about the dangers and causes of climate change.

The IPCC chairman was pressured to request the probe after mistakes were disclosed in an IPCC report that won the panel the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The review also calls for an overhaul of the panel’s management, including the creation of an executive committee that would include people from outside the IPCC, and discusses concerns about Pachauri’s work as an adviser and board member for energy firms, reports Reuters.

The IAC report recommends formal qualifications for the chair and all other Bureau members and the creation of a conflict-of-interest policy to be applied to senior IPCC leadership and all authors, review editors, and staff responsible for report content.

The review said the limit of two six-year terms for the chair of the IPCC, was too long and should be shortened to one term, as should the terms of other senior officials on the U.N. climate panel.

The report also criticizes IPCC’s support of specific policy approaches, which will hurt IPCC’s credibility, reports Reuters.

The IPCC controversy began in November when more than 1,000 hacked emails from a climate-research center at the University of East Anglia were posted online. The emails showed that some climate scientists involved in IPCC reports tried to stop criticism of the conclusion that humans are causing climate change.

In addition, IPCC officials were faced with a factual error in their 2007 report: a projection that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035, which climate scientists say is impossible to project, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The United Nations is concerned that focusing only on errors by the panel could undermine the broader U.N. message that climate change is a real phenomenon requiring urgent action, reports Reuters.

Critics of mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions have said that the IPCC errors show the science behind global warming is questionable, reports Reuters.

The next IPCC report on climate change will be published in 2013 and 2014.

Small businesses across the nation are installing solar power systems as a way to offset higher electricity costs and make a little profit on excess energy produced.

As an example, L. Liberato Steel Fabricating in Pennsylvania has installed a 602-panel, 141-kilowatt rooftop solar photovoltaic system that will help the steel fabricator cut its electric bills and generate excess electricity for an additional profit, reports The Mercury Business.

The family-owned business claims to be the first steel fabricator to go solar in Chester County. Kathi Cozzone, Chester County Commissioner, said in the article that the installation will help the country meet its goal to decrease its carbon footprint by 9.7 percent.

The company decided to go with a solar power system as way to offset higher electricity costs due to electricity rate-cap deregulation set for January 2011, which is expected to increase the company’s costs by 30 percent. The system also offered additional income opportunities to sell the excess solar power.

M.T. Ruhl Electrical Contracting, installer of the project, told the newspaper the solar-panel installation cost about $665,000, with about $400,000 of the total cost covered by state and federal grants.

The steel fabricating company expects to see a 3 1/2-year return on its investment, taking into account state and federal grants and the sale of certificates of generation.

In California, Big O Tires shop has joined a small group of East Bay businesses that have taken advantage of the California Solar Initiative program, which provides rebates for photovoltaic system installations, reports The Oakland Tribune.

Since the program began in 2007, 155 businesses in Alameda and Contra Costa counties have applied for state funds to help offset the cost of solar-panel systems, according to the article.

Another driving factor behind the pickup in demand is the drop in the price of solar panels, reports The Oakland Tribune. Panel pricing has dropped from $4.20 a watt in 2007 to about $1.90 per watt.

The 542 solar panels atop of Big O Tires’ Dublin Boulevard buildings generate 50 kilowatts of power, and year round will generate enough power to supply 85 percent of the tire store’s energy needs.

Since March, the store’s utility bill dropped from an average of $1,500 a month to $29, the monthly connection fee paid to PG&E to be connected to its power grid. The business could receive a check from the utility at the end of the first year in the program.

The system cost about $300,00 but a combination of rebates and federal tax credits dropped the cost to $120,000. The business expects a payback in energy savings in about seven years.

France's Environment and Energy Management Agency has launched a program to pump €1.35 billion ($1.71 billion) into green chemistry, solar and other renewable power, biofuel and carbon capture and storage research.

Marketing 27 additional hectares of land at CargoCity South

Part of continuous focus to give FedEx Express customers a competitive edge

Gaining access to the Americas and Asian market

Track shipments online, via email or SMS