Green Options

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As the largest consumer and small business bank, BofA (NYSE: BAC) can have a major positive or negative impact on the environment. Since March, 2007, the bank has taken on a $20 billion initiative to “encourage environmentally friendly business activity” over the next decade. Applauded by some and criticized by others, just how green is this bank?

Crystalline Tower Office Building in Manhattan

BofA’s new 2.1 million square foot, 54 story tower is being heralded as the world’s greenest skyscraper. This $1 billion glass, steel, and aluminum skyscraper will use significantly less water and energy, while providing a healthy indoor environment.

It features a passive solar design, the use of recycled and renewable materials, and work stations with individual climate controls. Natural elements include the use of rain water and a green roof reduces energy use for heating and cooling. A graywater system will reuse waste water from sinks to flush toilets. A 4.6 megawatt cogeneration plant will generate heat and electricity.

Across the arctic and subarctic, many native tribes still occupy their traditional lands — but most do so in decidedly non-traditional ways. Western products of every description have been adopted by northern peoples, but one of the products that is least suited to the northern climate has also become one of the most widespread: wood frame housing.

All of the materials necessary to build a wood frame house must be shipped into subarctic regions. Once built, a house in the far north must be able to withstand frequent high winds, and be extremely well insulted. Often, the fuel necessary to heat the home must also be shipped in. With fuel costs spiraling ever upward, the worsening of an already severe housing shortage is causing subarctic communities to explore alternative housing forms.

In concert with the opening of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the American Corn Growers Association (ACGA) has announced their endorsement of Barack Obama for President of the United States.

This marks the first endorsement by a major biofuels trade association in the 2008 US presidential campaign, and only the second time in the ACGA’s twenty-one year history that they have ever endorsed any presidential candidate.

The American Corn Growers Association represents 14,000 members in 35 states. Keith Bolin ACGA president and a corn and hog farmer in Obama’s home state of Illinois issued a simultaneously glowing endorsement of Obama and blistering critique of McCain.

Teenagers have been arrested in a state-wide methamphetamine bust in Denali National Park.

The American Corn Growers Association (ACGA) endorsed Senator Barack Obama, becoming the first major biofuels-related trade association to issue an endorsement in this year’s presidential race.

Despite some focused opposition, South Africa has continued to invest in the PBMR project because it makes sense , and provides reliable electrical power to keep lifting the living standards of its population.

The “Economist” debate involves journalists, industry gurus, investors, bureaucrats, and of course economists who have all long been involved in renewable energy. The question:

“Can we solve our energy problems with existing technologies today, without the need for breakthrough innovations?”

This is the defining question of our time.

New innovations, improvements, or breakthroughs are happening all the time in clean tech, especially among renewable energy technologies. Yet technological limitations still plague the various industries. These hurdles include energy storage, energy efficiency, transmission infrastructure and technology, hydrogen power, CO2 capture and sequestration, and producing bio-fuels at an industrial scale. Economics is also a potent issue that both hampers and launches these technologies, hence the host of this debate.

Does energy independence for America mean that we have to extinguish all trade and global relationships? Or can energy independence for America consist of developing our technologies and resources to the point that we have the ability to sustain ourselves while still choosing to participate in the global market?

This is a guest post by freelance environmental writer Tom Schueneman, publisher of GlobalWarmingisReal.com

The debate on whether to lift the Congressional moratorium on offshore drilling and open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska rages on in its acrimonious glory, yet one point has been mostly drowned out in all the posturing - if we need more domestic sources of oil, then why are we exporting 1.8 million barrels of it every day?

There is at least one voice in government asking this question. Representative Edward J. Markey, Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence, sent a public letter to George Bush on Tuesday, saying, in a nutshell,

“Mr. President, keep our oil at home”

Oil exports increased to 1.806 million barrels per day in May, the last month for which data is available, an increase from 1.433 million barrels a year prior. In February of this year, oil exports reached their highest level ever, according to Markey. Almost 10% of U.S. daily consumption of oil.

Well, there you go. An instant source of domestic oil! No need to wait 10 or 12 years for oil from offshore or ANWR.

It’s encouraging to see the increasingly wide assortment and availability of products made from recycled materials, but there’s a problem on the other end: A lot of things aren’t accepted for recycling by curbside collection services, at least not in the US.

As this recent article in Fast Company details, it’s not currently profitable for recyclers to take much beyond the most common, high volume items, like aluminum, paper, and a select few types of plastic. You can forget about candy and snack wrappers. Too many comingled materials, too difficult to create a consistent, usable result on the other end.

But, thanks to Terracycle and companies like mega food producer Kraft Foods teaming up, that’s changing, on a potentially huge scale.

When it comes to the production of crude oil, America does takes the bronze. But it’s a slighted accomplishment, considering that the top oil producers - both Russia and Saudi Arabia - out produce the U.S. by a factor of 2 to 1. In reality, the U.S. only contributes to about 10-percent of the world’s oil supply.