According to an article posted on GreenBiz.com, NRG and Powerspan plan on building the country’s first commercial scale carbon dioxide capture facility in Texas. The plant is designed to capture 90% of the CO2 emitted from the coal-fired power plant capturing some 1 million tons of CO2 each year. The move was intended to preempt anticipated legislation curbing greenhouse gas emissions. This would make that plant the most eco-friendly power plant in the U.S. and hopefully not the last to incorporate a carbon dioxide capture facility. Read the article

Jay Leno has gone green. Who? – the sultan collector of rare and expensive automobiles in an expansive 17,000 sq. foot “Big Dog Garage” in Burbank, CA? During the last year the bimonthly column that Jay writes for Popular Mechanics has become a journal of sorts documenting some of his strides in making his massive garage more green. In a recent article in the Autos section of the LA Times Jay told the reporter about the 54-kilowatt solar power system that he installed atop his garage last month that on some days can power his air conditioning, overhead lights, power tools and still return some power to the city. (image below)

Apparently the 57-year old TV show host has been going over his garage looking for ways to make it more eco-friendly. Why, one might ask? – “My thing with the green situation is: Even if you don’t believe in global warming, don’t you want to screw the oil company or gas company or utility company?”

Among some of the changes Jay has incorporated energy-efficient heating and nontoxic cleaners. The article reads “Leno drives a different vehicle each day, but he tries to minimize the environmental impact. He lives only eight miles from work. He recycles. And, in addition to the solar panels and a wind turbine on his roof, he’s implemented a number of other systems inside his garage that are designed to reduce toxic waste. His parts cleaners are eco-friendly — one uses microbes to eat away grease and grime, the other employs ultrasonic cleaning bubbles. Instead of a gas-operated plasma cutter to saw parts out of sheet metal, a water jet does the job using sand. And refillable canisters of brake and carburetor cleaners take the place of throwaway aerosol cans.”

Watch a video tour of Jays’ garage and his green innovations

Images of Jay’s wind turbines, microbial cleaner and Bagleys best Cleaner

RE: The solar industry

Good News in the Solar Industry –

Don’t you wish your stocks did this! On the day of its’ Initial Public Offering First Solar, Inc. traded for $20. The 52-week low is $23.50 and the 52-week high is $230.00. Last week it hovered around the $200 mark as earnings reports showed quarterly sales increases of nearly 300% - meanwhile the dollar was taking a beating and Bernanke is warning of economic slowdown. According to their website “First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq:FSLR) manufactures solar modules with an advanced thin film semiconductor process that significantly lowers solar electricity costs. By enabling clean renewable electricity at affordable prices, First Solar provides an economic alternative to peak conventional electricity and the related fossil fuel dependence, greenhouse gas emissions and peak time grid constraints”.

Bad News –

Today First Solar ended the day under $190 after taking a $22.11 beating on Monday when rumors that Senate and House Democratic leaders were considering a move to exclude renewable energy out of a pending U.S. energy bill. According to a post on the website of the Solar Energy Industries Association – “there are widespread reports that a decision has been made, at least provisionally, to move energy legislation without a tax title that extends the Solar Investment Tax Credits”. Why this is bad – According to an article on Barron’s, the current tax credit allows commercial system owners a 30% tax credit against total system costs and a removal of the credit could drop demand among commercial customers which accounted for a mighty 41% of 2006 installations.

Contact your legislator to support this self-sustainable, eco-friendly alternative energy source!

PS - Our last post was about Wal-Mart – well, I had to include this little tidbit of info – ironically the estate of John Walton, the founding family of Wal-Mart, owns a controlling stake in First Solar company.

According to the Retail Industry Report 2007 published by Geneva-based research firm Covalence, both retailers are benefiting from their proactive stance on environmental and social responsibility issues. Wal-Mart recently announced that it would only sell concentrated laundry detergent to reduce plastic and water use, promote sales of inexpensive compact fluorescent light bulbs, measure the carbon footprint of seven product category supply chains. Wal-Mart has teamed up with the Carbon Disclosure Project to reduce the impact of seven widely popular product categories - beer, DVD’s, milk, soap, soda, toothpaste, and vacuum cleaners. 20^th Century Fox, has already begun its own supply chain analysis. CDP Chief Executive Paul Dickinson hopes that “By engaging its supply chain in the CDP process, Wal-Mart will encourage its suppliers to measure and manage their green house gas emissions, and ultimately reduce the total carbon footprint of Wal-Mart’s indirect emissions. We look forward to other global corporations following Wal-Mart’s lead and partnering with CDP.”

Marks & Spencer recently published its fourth annual Corporate Responsibility Report and is available at this link.

The Report indicates how well the retailer has performed on 22 targets established in their previous report. Marks & Spencer is a member of the 2006 Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the 2007 FTSE4Good Index, the 2007 Global most sustainable corporations and a Platinum Company in the 2007 Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index.

Want to view more CSR reports? Sign up at corporateregister.com – it’s free.

Well, it’s here. The sixth annual U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Greenbuild Expo. The Expo is the nation’s, and possibly the world’s, largest gathering of individuals centered exclusively on green building. Since the Expo events started in 2002 they have grown dramatically in popularity and this week some 20,000 building professionals will merge on the new West Building in Chicago’s McCormick Place to delve into the greening of our built environment. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton will be the keynote speaker this Wednesday morning, most likely discussing his foundation’s plan to spend $5 billion renovating buildings to improve their efficiency and resource use. Cities that have adopted major environmental initiatives will also be presenting on the agenda such as Albuquerque’s Martin Chavez and Austin’s Will Wynn. To learn more about the GreenBuild Expo, click here.

Read the article

Wal-Mart, which buys green supplies for its own operations, will now be approaching suppliers with bigger orders as it becomes the buyer for the Clinton Climate Initiative. The partnership will take advantage of Wal-Mart’s purchasing experience and scale and allow Wal-Mart to come to suppliers with bigger orders for deeper discounts. The collaboration is expected to include 1,100 U.S. cities and a climate organization that represents 40 of the world’s largest cities. News of the partnership was announced Nov. 1, 2007 to coincide with a Seattle climate summit of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Clinton Climate Initiative. The aim of the effort is to save cities money on environmentally friendly supplies by buying bulk and to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels to produce electricity. Read article

There is a lot going on with bamboo these days - flooring, bedsheets, baby blankets, and even clothing. Here at Sattler Clothing we have received several inquiries as to why we don’t carry any bamboo apparel. Now we aren’t experts, but this is the latest and greatest data we have. First, there is no debating that a naturally-growing grass that can be harvested after 3 years is more renewable than let’s say - an oak tree, which can take 120 years to grow to maturity. Bamboo is even considered a green building material under current LEED regulations. (Article)

With the salient eco-friendly benefits of bamboo, unfortunately we run into some problems with socially-responsible harvesting. According to a post on treehugger.com, “bamboo expansion has come at the expense of natural forests, shrubs, and low-yield mixed plantations…As forestlands tend to be in hilly and mountainous areas with steep slopes clearcutting has resulted in an increase in erosion until the bamboo becomes fully established.” According to a report published by Dr. Jim Bowyer of Dovetail Partners the best way to know if the forest has been harvested in a sustainable is to check for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certification. As of the date of the report, FSC has not certified any bamboo harvest. Beyond the environmental impact there are several responsible trade concerns.

Sattler Bamboo clothing? Maybe someday. Right now our research leads us to conclude with other respected experts that although we may be able to find some sustainably harvested bamboo”the manufacturing of bamboo into fabric raises environmental and healthy concerns because of the strong chemical solvents used to cook the bamboo plant into a viscose solution that is then reconstructed into cellulose fiber for weaving into yarn for fabric.” (Michael Lackman) I am excited about the prospects for bamboo as a sustainable replacement and if we find a way to identify a supply chain that can both harvest and convert to fabric sustainably then we’ll reconsider. For now, many experts suggest that very, very little bamboo clothing would qualify as sustainable or organic clothes due to the dominant manufacturing process of hydrolysis alkalization and multi-phase bleaching that use caustic soda and bleach. These chemicals are known to create a myriad of health problems and neural disorders and if the manufacturing facility lacks adequate pollution control systems - a common backburner issue for developing countries - these toxic chemicals find their way into the environment through smokestacks or waterways.

What about Oeko-Tex, Soil Association, SKAL, KRAV or some other kind of certification? Of all of them, Oeko-Tex is the most comprehensive certification, but does not certify the manufacturing processes that produced the garment as eco-friendly or sustainable. One process that may show promise is a process that mirrors the lyocell process for wood. In this process the chemicals used are supposedly non-toxic and are closed-loop so that 99.5% of the chemicals used are captured and used again with only trace amounts escaping into the atmosphere, waste water or products.

The facts about Bamboo Clothing article