U.S. commercial building owners could save an average of 38 percent on their heating and cooling bills if they installed a handful of energy efficiency controls that make their heating, ventilation and air conditioning, also known as HVAC, systems more energy efficient, according to a recent report from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Technology invented by a University of California, Davis, researcher that converts solid waste into renewable energy recently debuted as the first commercially available, high-solid anaerobic digestion system in the United States.
EPA is evaluating a proposal from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to designate the state waters of Mount Hope Bay as a “No Discharge Area.”
Two years ago this week, oil began streaming from the seafloor into the Gulf of Mexico following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon platform. All told, the disaster cost 11 lives, released 4.9 million barrels of crude oil, and caused still unspecified impacts to marine life and the Gulf economy.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that it is requesting applications from states, municipalities, tribes, universities and nonprofit organizations for new projects to restore and protect the Great Lakes. EPA will distribute approximately $20 million through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant program during Fiscal Year 2012.
A new analysis by the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the University of Western Australia concluded that in 2010, shark-related diving contributed $42.2 million ($73 million Fijian) to the economy of Fiji. Shark-diving operations generated $4 million that year for Fijian communities through salaries and local levies.
In a study appearing this month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, MIT researchers report that emissions from cars, trucks, planes and powerplants cause 13,000 premature deaths in the United Kingdom each year.
Heidelberg researchers have succeeded in unravelling the defense mechanisms of jellyfish. Scientists working with Prof. Dr. Thomas Holstein and Dr. Suat Özbek from the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) of Heidelberg University, together with collaborators from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), analyzed the proteome, or full set of proteins, of the stinging cells in the freshwater polyp Hydra.
The Andean Amazon is becoming a major frontier for new hydroelectric dams, but an analysis of the potential impacts of these planned projects suggests that there may be serious ecological concerns to take into account. The full report is published in the open access journal PloS ONE.
EPA has issued an enforcement order to AVX Corp. to implement the ongoing cleanup work at New Bedford Harbor, including dredging PCB-contaminated sediment from the Harbor and disposing the dredged sediment to an appropriately licensed off-site facility, into a confined aquatic disposal cell in the Harbor, and into confined disposal facilities to be built along the shoreline.
Colorado State University apparel design and production researchers and students are working to develop natural-fiber outdoor clothing that can charge MP3 devices, tablets, computers, GPS units and cell phones with built-in -- but comfortable to wear -- solar panels. The project is so impressive that it was recently selected to compete in a sustainability design competition in Washington, D.C., from April 21-23.
The use of a more streamlined process to recycle wastewater could have saved Brisbane from severe flooding in 2011 and mitigated recent flood risks in New South Wales, says Dr. Stuart Khan, an environmental engineer at the UNSW Water Research Centre.
The ruckus heard across college campuses this spring was not just because of the NCAA collegiate basketball tournaments. It was also RecycleMania season at 605 colleges and universities. The RecycleMania Tournament, which wrapped up its 12th annual competition at the end of March, is an eight-week challenge that ignites classic college rivalries, rallying students, faculty and staff to increase on-campus recycling rates beyond their collegiate competitors.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Justice, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the Office of the Tennessee Attorney General announced a comprehensive Clean Water Act (CWA) settlement with the City of Memphis, Tenn.
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) recently reported that the consumer electronics (CE) industry dramatically increased its recycling in 2011, advancing the goals set by the eCycling Leadership Initiative.
Officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) are estimating that over 10,000 migrating birds have died so far this year because of reduced water flow to the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon and California. Officials say the final death toll may be close to 20,000 birds.
Entergy Texas Inc. and Lamar University sponsored the Southeast Texas Coastal Resilience Forum last week, bringing together experts to discuss how to make harden coastal communities against more intense storms.
Three federal agencies announced a formal partnership to coordinate and align all research associated with development of our nation’s abundant unconventional natural gas and oil resources.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced $100,000 in funding to assess the need for a new, independent Children’s Environmental Health Center in Puerto Rico. The news was announced by EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck at a meeting of public health and medical professionals at the University of Puerto Rico’s Medical Sciences Campus in San Juan.
Meat consumption in the developed world needs to be cut by 50 percent per person by 2050 if we are to meet the most aggressive strategy, set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to reduce one of the most important greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide (N2O).