Berkshire Unit Bets on Iowa Wind Energy

MidAmerican Energy Co. and Siemens have reached a deal for the construction of 258 wind turbines in western and central Iowa, the companies announced Tuesday.  The turbines will generate more than 593 megawatts of energy, or enough to power 190,000 homes, the companies said. They'll be installed across five Iowa counties in 2011.

Harold Prior, executive director of the Iowa Wind Energy Association, called the deal 'significant' in that it would increase Iowa's production capacity of 3,760 megawatts by almost 16 percent.

Congress' approval of a one-year investment tax credit and a decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that allows the cost of building wind energy transmission lines to be shared by customers will allow foster wind energy development in Iowa, Prior predicted. Read more at Bloomberg.com

Caterpillar Facilities Achieve Zero Waste to Landfill in 2010

In line with Caterpillar Inc.'s (NYSE: CAT) global commitment to sustainable development, two Caterpillar facilities achieved zero waste to landfill in 2010...

Read more at CSRwire.com

GBEST: Best Buy, Starbucks Share Ideas for Saving Energy, Water

Nothing says energy efficiency like 'off',' ' said Best Buy's Hugh Cherne, describing his company's efforts to slash energy use and bring cost and carbon savings to the firm and its customers...  Read more

Xerox Cuts Emissions by 31%, Water by 26% Since 2002

Xerox this week published its annual CSR report, highlighting its progress on environmental and social sustainability.

The company includes data on its year-over-year progress in reducing a number of environmental impacts, as well as its cumulative achievements since 2002. The data show significant improvements across Xerox's operations, including 31 percent reductions in CO2 emissions and 26 percent reductions in water use in the last eight years.

Read more at GreenBiz.com

$5 Gas Prices On the Horizon?

According to former president of Shell Oil, John Hofmeister, Americans will be paying $5 per gallon for gas by 2012 due to growing demand for oil, tighter supplies and inadequate responses by the U.S. government. His remarks were made during his appearance on Platts Energy Week television.  Read more at Domestic Fuel.com

Fireman's Fund Axes Carbon Footprint 15% with Bloom Boxes

Fireman's Fund Insurance Company will soon join eBay, Coca-Cola, Walmart and Google as early adopters of Bloom Energy technology with the installation of six of the company's high-tech fuel cells, the insurance firm announced today.

Fireman's Fund, the first carrier to widely introduce green insurance to the U.S. commercial market, plans to install the Bloom Energy Servers -- fuel-cell energy generators better known as Bloom boxes -- at its headquarters in Novato in early 2011.

The Bloom boxes, which turn fuel into electricity through a clean electro-chemical process, will cost the insurance company about $8.2 million, an expense that is expected to be offset by tax credits and a sharp drop in energy bills. Fireman's Fund said it anticipates a return on investment plus $1.5 million in the next 10 years Read More

Research: Southeast Faces Freshwater Sustainability Challenges -- Environmental Protection

Water scarcity in the western United States has long been an issue of concern. Now, a team of researchers studying freshwater sustainability have found that the Southeast, with the exception of Florida, does not have enough water capacity to meet its own needs.

Twenty-five years ago, environmentalist Marc Reisner published 'Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water,' which predicted that water resources in the West would be unable to support the growing demand of cities, agriculture, and industry. A paper co-authored by a University of Georgia researcher and just published in a special issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers new support for most of Reisner's conclusions, using data and methods unavailable to him in 1986.

Although the paper focuses on freshwater sustainability in the Southwest, co-authors Tushar Sinha, a postdoctoral scientist at North Carolina State University; John Kominoski, a postdoctoral associate at the UGA Odum School of Ecology; and William Graf, a professor of geography at the University of South Carolina, said that the findings have important implications for the Southeast as well. 'It turns out that the Southeast has a relatively low capacity for water storage,' Graf said." Read More

Think Delivers Its First US-Built Electric Cars

European electric vehicle company Think has delivered its first U.S.-built cars to the State of Indiana for use in its government fleet. The 15 vehicles, which were shipped from Think's manufacturing facility in Elkhart, Indiana, contain lithium-ion batteries made by U.S. company EnerDel. EneDel's parent company Ener1 (Nasdaq: HEV) is the largest stakeholder in Think.

'We've made a strategic decision to target initially the many millions of fleet vehicles in operation in the U.S. market,' said Think CEO Barry Engle. 'These fleets can jumpstart vehicle electrification in America's cities and help push the industry past early adopters into mainstream consumer markets. Fleet sales will drive up vehicle and battery production volumes and drive down costs, which will benefit retail consumers.'

Read more at Sustainable Business

U.S. gasoline demand may have peaked, as prices climb

After seven decades of mostly uninterrupted growth, U.S. gasoline demand is at the start of a long-term decline. By 2030, Americans will burn at least 20 percent less gasoline than today, experts say, even as millions of more cars clog the roads.

The country’s thirst for gasoline is shrinking as cars and trucks become more fuel-efficient, the government mandates the use of more ethanol and people drive less.

“A combination of demographic change and policy change means the days of gasoline growing in the U.S. are over,” said Daniel Yergin, chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates and author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the oil industry." Read more

Sustainablility Indexes Proliferate in Emerging Stock Markets

Mexico is the latest country to create a benchmark on sustainability performance for investors as demand for sustainable investment products explodes in emerging markets. The Bolsa Mexicana de Valores’ (Mexican Stock Exchange, MSE) sustainability index will be formally launched at this week’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancún.

Thus far in 2010, the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) and the Brazilian Stock Exchange (BM&FBOVESPA) have signed the UNPRI and several stock exchanges have launched SRI/Sustainability indices including the Indonesia Stock Exchange (the KEHATI-SRI Index), the Shanghai Stock Exchange (Social Responsibility Index), and the Egyptian Exchange (S&P/EGX ESG Index). The Johannesburg Stock Exchange, as part of its implementation of the PRI (UN Principles for Responsible Investment), has upgraded its ESG reporting requirements to include integrated reporting on a ‘comply or explain’ basis, making South Africa the first country to mandate the disclosure of financial and non-financial performance in one integrated report for all listed companies. Read More at Responsible-Investor.com

Will corporate giants achieve what governments can't?

Last week saw some of the world's biggest companies, including Unilever, General Motors and Georgia Pacific, announce wide-ranging corporate social responsibility programs that should sharply reduce their environmental impact. That's great news, writes Marc Gunther of GreenBiz.com, but also a reminder of the extent to which governments have been sidelined as drivers of global sustainability. "Big companies are doing what governments once did, without the democratic controls we have, at least in theory, over governments," Gunther writes.

Here are a few of the specifics:  Unilever unveiled a bold plan to "enable billions of people to increase their quality of life – without increasing their environmental impact."  Chevrolet announced $40 million of carbon reduction projects. Forestry giant Georgia Pacific signed an agreement to protect endangered forests in the southern U.S., winning praise from the Dogwood Alliance and Natural Resources Defense Council.

These companies join GE, Google, DuPont, Shell, Levi-Strauss, PepsiCo, Starbucks and Coca-Cola, among others -- companies that, to varying degrees, are redefining themselves to deal with the long-term trends they've identified, and to meet the rising expectations of business that come from their employees, their customers, communities and NGOs."  And investors.  Read more