In October, Alex shared an initiative brought to you by Audubon in alliance with Toyota called TogetherGreen. If you remember, TogetherGreen’s main focus is to secure a bright and healthy future for generations to come … but it takes the inspiration and wisdom from dedicated leaders to accomplish such a goal.

TogetherGreen has been fortunate enough to have some of the most brilliant, community leaders on their side, with creative ideas and visions that will steer us even further in the right direction.

Today, you’re being introduced to the Fellows who are going to shape our tomorrow with their creative visions that will ensure a positive environmental change. Awarded by the new conservation alliance of the National Audubon Society and Toyota, Fellows were selected from scores of applicants across the country by an advisory board of environmental leaders.

Forty of the nation’s most promising conservationists will advance their environmental vision and conservation leadership skills as recipients of the first TogetherGreen Fellowships, receiving a $10,000 stipend and assistance in launching local projects to educate a wide range of communities about the environment. Fellows will engage communities in efforts to conserve land, water and energy.

One of the goals of TogetherGreen is to foster diverse leaders and serve communities who have not previously been engaged in conservation activities.

The first year of TogetherGreen Fellowship projects include mentoring youth in Los Angeles Latino neighborhoods; an urban forestry program for African Americans in Gainesville, Florida; and a conflict management workshop in conservation networks in Appalachia.

Other projects range from helping urban students save energy by installing solar panels in their school to mobilizing rural ranchers to protect water quality. Along the way, the TogetherGreen Fellows will develop new and expanded abilities to forge conservation progress in the future.

The efforts of the Fellows will aid people and wildlife around 39 cities in 24 different states. A list and short bio of each Fellow, including their projects, can be found by visiting: http://www.togethergreen.org/fellows.

It really is up to us to secure our environmental future, and we are so lucky to have these Fellows as our role models. I wholeheartedly encourage each and everyone one of you, learn more about these individuals and find out ways in which you can get involved in your state.

Has anyone already attended a TogetherGreen volunteer day? Let us know how it went.

- Julie Hurvitz

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe free for our updates via RSS feed. Thanks for visiting and please do come back!

A Japanese group was able to charge a Li-ion secondary battery with DC power generated by solar cells and supply it to home appliances without using AC conversion.

The test was part of the Development Project of Energy-saving Technologies for Weak Energy Storage Type Eco House.

The program was conducted by Japan’s Ministry of the Environment with an aim of developing technologies to prevent global warming.

Until now, existing home-use solar power systems converted DC power into AC power before supplying it to homes. Power generated by solar cells had to be converted twice because home appliances use DC power.

This new system can boost efficiency use because it directly supplies generated power without converting it, much less converting it twice.

CO₂ emissions generated by a typical home over a period of four hours can be cut by 40%.

Next up, a wooden laboratory building that uses the DC power supply system by 2010.

Get this - the group aims to cut CO₂ emissions by charging Li-ion secondary batteries with hydroelectricity generated by:

1. a waterwheel set in the drain in the bathroom
2. by a light breeze that blows through a room
3. by a man riding on a fitness bike.

Go Japan!

Source: NikkeiBP (Image by Marufish)

Panasonic is planning to spend Y100 billion ($1billion+ depending on the yen rate) to develop eco-friendly energy technologies like rechargeable batteries and solar cells.

This plan is in align with the company’s desire to acquire Sanyo Electric for a sum close to $9 billion.

Sanyo’s strength is in rechargeable batteries (leader in Li-ion batteries) and solar cells (ranks 7th), which Panasonic considers as strategic areas.

“We needed to take drastic measures to secure growth amid a global economic downturn and structural changes in the electronics industry,” said Panasonic’s President, Fumio Ohtsubo.

When the two are combined it will create a giant manufacturer more competitive to ride out a worsening global downturn, with consolidated sales of more than 10 trillion yen, equal to Japan’s No 1 electronics and electrical machinery maker - Hitachi Ltd.

The Panasonic/Sanyo duo will also make for a powerful force in developing eco-friendly technologies, too.

Source: Nikkei (sub req)

How cool is this?

Super eco-friendly Prius-maker, Toyota Motor Corp, has come up with a number of new plant-based resins that they can use to make automotive interior materials such as scuff plates, seat cushions, and so on. The new resins will be used in their new hybrid cars released in 2009.

Toyota aims to make 60% of the surface area in the interior of cars with parts made from these resins. Automotive interior parts are required to be higher in heat resistance and collision resistance than other resin products. Toyota also improved production technologies so mass productivity equivalent to those of petroleum-based resins can be achieved.

Toyota first adopted 100% plant-based plastic, Eco-Plastic, in 2003 for the spare tire cover and floor mat of the “Raum.”

Wow! A car you can grow in your back yard. Well, at least it’s a start.

We hear that China is not very eco-friendly. That may be true in many regards, but not so when it comes to the builders of Asia’s largest railway station - Beijing South. The station is large enought to hold a 747, has a roof area the size of 24 football pitches, can send 30,000 passengers on their way each hour and needs only 150 people to operate. Best of all…the power for the facility is generated by 3,246 solar panels that sit atop a glass roof. This gives new meaning to what’s above a glass ceiling, eh?

China is investing $735 billion over the next 11 years to expand it’s railway system to reach 120,000km (70,000 miles). To think…if all the new stations are green. China has 150 projects under construction and eight more were announced last month.

China definitely takes a beating on environmental concerns, and many of them rightfully so. Can you say fossil fuel consumption and coal power? But, Beijing South is a step in the right direction.

You can find Beijing on a map of China.

Have you changed your habits? Do you commute to work on a bicycle or doing an extra mile walking? Well, good for you. Apparently you’re not only helping the environment to reduce carbon emissions, but you’re also helping yourself to stay healthier.

Researchers at the University of Tennessee and Rutgers University found a direct link between “active transportation” and obesity. As if there wasn’t enough evidence, the study showed that obesity levels in countries where people would rather walk or pedal (to be read Europe) instead of driving cars (to be read USA) are lower. And do we really have to ask why?

Oh and if you needed any stats, you should know that “Europeans walk an average of 237 miles each year and bike another 116, while Americans walk 87 miles and bike 24″. Also, only “12 percent of Americans use active transportation: 9 percent walk, 1 percent ride a bike and 2 percent take a bus or train; over 25% of Americans are obese.”

How about we find a way to help ourselves and the planet at the same time?

Source: Reuters

China’s police in Liaoning province (look it up - map of China) are fighting bad guys AND fighting global warming at the same time.

Talk about dudes! Instead of patrolling the streets in gas guzzlers, the good guys will be found making the rounds on self propelled two wheelers … en masse, en force … on bicycles, that is.

So, is China going back to being the land of the bicycle? It’s not a bad idea considering how much of the world’s resources China is using up right now. Now, if we could just get the bad guys to ride bikes, too, we’d be in business.

Seriously, GP salutes China and her police if they are able to keep law and order and not use up any more of the world’s resources than absolutely necessary.

So, NYC, SFO, Paris! Are you guys reading this?

Image sources by SINA

Dell is trying to reduce the packaging waste by 10% in the next four years. Using green packages for their products - intensive recycling and sustainability programs, the company will help preserve “more than 150,000 trees” and should see a drop in costs by some $8.1 million.

The effort is to integrate an “air-filled cushion technology and renewable materials including molded pulp cushions and recycled High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) thermal-formed cushions”. Most materials they’ll recycle, are milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles - 2 million of these.

Meanwhile, Dell is trying to prove they’ve embraced the “green road” and announced that their Greenprint Advisor, a free web-based resource center is now available for U.S. businesses and organizations to evaluate their green initiatives. It’s expected to go globally soon, too.

Any other manufacturers to at least look green? - via TGDaily

The Japan Meteorological Agency has some new global warming statistics. According to the agency, the pace of global warming appears to be slowing.

“The average temperature in the world in 2008 registering a rise of 0.2 degree Celsius compared with the average rise between 1971 and 2000.”

Even so, it was the 10th largest margin of increase from benchmark average established in 1891.

The slow down was attributed to the La Nina phenomenon. This year’s margin of increase was the lowest since 2001. Japan’s margin was .44 C lower than last year.

JMA computes the averages of 1,200 locations throughout the world and compares it to wherever historical data are available.

My bet is that people living in the NorthEast of the US would like to get a little more out of the global warming monster these days, if they could, eh?

Source: Breitbart
Image: Grey glacier, Lago Grey in Patagonia. By Steve Deger

Biofuels are in the news in Japan.

A Japanese research group is claiming a first - a cleaner/greener production of biodiesel fuel - the “non-catalytic superheated methanol method.”

“At a pilot plant the group was able to continuously produce 400L of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), a biodiesel fuel, out of 500L of raw material oil every day.” They also succeeded in producing FAME from vegetable oil (new oil) and waste edible oil in their tests.

The current method - the methyl esterification:

1. used a complicated refining process which was required to remove side products
2. required repeated cleaning resulting in multiple processes and a large amount of waste water
3. required repeated cleaning to improve the purity of the product also wasting water

However, the new method :

1. does not require a catalyst
2. creates virtually no waste water or liquid.

Image courtesy of griffs0000

Meanwhile, JAL (Japan Airlines) will test biofuels in one of its airliners; 50% biofuel and 50% traditional Jet-A jet (kerosene). It’s “a mixture of three second-generation biofuel feedstocks: camelina (84%), jatropha (under 16%), and algae (under 1%).” The test flight will have JAL staff only, no passengers.

Please be seated while we drink our fuel and fly it, too.