Web Renewal. Internet time is like dog years—a year is a very long time. So the CEIL website—which launched last March—has been redesigned. Please take a few minutes to check out www.CEILeadership.org and tell me what you think.
Improvements include:
• Substantially more news on green government projects from the CEIL staff as well as feeds from a wide range of news sites
• A broad representation from the green blogosphere.
• Improved research section to highlight white papers and resources.
• Improved product directory (coming next week) to make it easy to search for or add new products.
Next week you’ll see the final stage of our spring upgrades—a redesigned CEIL eNewsletter.
So—send us your content! Do you have a white paper on a green or sustainable topic? Have you made a presentation that would be useful to professionals making decisions on sustainability? Do you have something to say on greening the government? Send it to me at [email protected] and we’ll find a place for it on our website. I’m particularly interested in case histories from projects that showcase green success stories. Please be sure that the information is cleared for release and properly sourced—or tell us where to go for permission.
Ann Seltz
President
[email protected]
Water savings can add up quickly
Did you know that an American home can waste, on average, more than 10,000 gallons of water every year due to running toilets, dripping faucets, and other household leaks? Nationwide, more than 1 trillion gallons of water leak from U.S. homes each year. That’s why EPA’s Water Sense reminds us to use less next week (Fix a Leak Week) and to check plumbing fixtures and irrigation system. For more information: http://1.usa.gov/cTBgkx. Also check out Water Sense Product Search which makes it easy to find products that meet EPA’s specifications.
At the federal level, conserving water is a key target of Executive Order 13514. It’s more challenging than some of the other targets because there aren’t good benchmarks on water use by facility (a hanger versus an office building for example) and because water is still a cheap resource in most of this country. Here are some tools that might be helpful:
EPA’s Portfolio Manager – A resource to track water and energy consumption across an entire portfolio of buildings in a secure environment.
Water-Efficiency Guidance for Federal Agencies – Information on how to “implement water-efficiency measures, including the purchase, installation, and implementation of water-efficient products and practices.”
Alliance for Water Efficiency Resource Library – Includes information on everything from alternative supplies of water to drought strategies to green building and codes and standards. A highly valuable resource.
Energy management live on the web From CEIL Blog – Intel Corp. recently launched the website Explore Intel to publicly disclose valuable environmental impact information for its Fab 11 facility in New Mexico. When you go to the site, click on the “Additional Environmental Data” tab to see where Intel’s New Mexico facility is improving and where it may be falling behind.
This is the first time we’ve heard of a company making this type of environmental information so readily available on the web, so we’re impressed. If we’ve missed something though, let us know on CEIL’s Twitter feed.
Sustainable transportation: biking in the city From CEIL Blog –More and more cities are improving the quality of their biking infrastructure to decrease traffic congestion, help meet carbon reduction goals, or help improve public health.
Check out The video at the CEIL Blog makes all of these points in an effective way, and we hear from officials in New York, San Francisco and Portland who verify these positive effects. But one of the most interesting things said in the 4-minute video is how cheap improving bike infrastructure can be. Portland, widely considered to be the most bike-friendly city in America, made all of its improvements (17 years worth) for the price of one mile of freeway.
Graham Parker began his career at PNNL over 36 years ago. His recent work has focused on managing PNNL’s technical support to the Department of Energy (DOE) in the development, promulgation and codification of federal equipment standards. Other significant work has involved identification of technologies and strategies to bring new technologies to the market and assist the private and public sectors to meet energy- and water-efficiency goals and mandates. As part of this focus, he is currently leading the development of a DOE technology procurement for the next generation of high performance windows.
The line of paper, Domtar EarthChoice Office Paper by Staples, will be manufactured by Domtar Corporation and sold to Staples Advantage and Staples.com customers in the U.S.
The brand, like all EarthChoice papers, is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and will meet Rainforest Alliance standards on worker and community welfare.
“We work hard to keep the forests as forests,” said Lewis Fix, Domtar’s vice-president of brand management and sustainable product development. “Third-party certification is the best way to ensure that sound forest management practices are implemented and that all environmental and social aspects of forest use are considered.”
Notice: The GOVgreen Conference and Exposition and its sponsoring organization, The Center for Environmental Organization and Leadership, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Federal government or associated with federal GreenGov initiatives.
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