Owner of Guardian and Observer to tackle 10 issues ranging from environmental management and ethical procurement to employee and community engagementGuardian Media Group, the multimedia business whose diverse portfolio includes the Guardian and Observer, today launches an integrated sustainability vision and strategy to address issues ranging from climate change to ethical procurement.The 'Power of 10' vision is based on the belief that the group, which also includes radio stations, magazines ...Read more

Environmentguardian.co.uk's interaction manager rounds up this week's liveliest debatesOver the weekend John Vidal wrote that food and water are driving a 21st-century African land grab. His analysis told how African land tends to be cheaper: "Ethiopia is only one of 20 or more African countries where land is being bought or leased for intensive agriculture on an immense scale." Commenters deliberated over whether this was indeed a new form of colonialism, how it might feel to be forced from ...Read more

Parents of American activist killed by Israeli bulldozer seven years ago take fight for justice to Haifa courtroomAn Israeli court today is to begin hearing a civil suit brought against the Israeli government over the death of Rachel Corrie, the US activist who was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza seven years ago.The case, brought in a Haifa court by her family, challenges the official Israeli version of events, in which the military said its troops were not to blame. The family hopes ...Read more

Should you be getting an e-reader for the planet's sake? I'd always thought not, but a new study has made me think againThe recent announcement that Foyles are soon to launch the bebook is further proof (as if any were needed) that the e-reader bandwagon is well and truly rolling. News that the New York Times book review will soon be available in e-reader format, meanwhile, also points the way to an increasingly interesting future for what we used to know as the "print industry". The ability ...Read more

Biologists in central California reported finding the first such egg at Pinnacles National Monument in more than a century. ...Read more

The construction and project management firm has installed 1e's PC power management suite on 3,000 computers in Europe, allowing the firm to make quick progress on its corporate-wide energy efficiency goal. ...Read more

Medium-duty trucks, a mainstay for American fleets, produce more than 80 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. Environmental Defense Fund and PHH Arval are now offering fleet managers a framework for reducing emissions from the vehicles. ...Read more

This white paper from Environmental Defense Fund and fleet management company PHH Arval lays out strategies for reducing emissions from medium-duty trucks, which are responsible for more than 80 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. ...Read more

New Jersey residents weary of frequent visits from bears may see a lot less of them come late fall. New Jersey - United States - Business and Economy - History - Organizations ...Read more

eBay made a big push Monday to get consumers to commit to using products over new ones with the launch of a new green shopping website. The company will reward the first 250,000 people who make the reuse pledge with a donation toward the protection of an acre of rainforest. ...Read more

Chief executive Carolyn McCall explains why GMG is committed to making a difference ...Read more

The development of Guardian Media Group's 'Power of 10' sustainability vision and strategy has been the culmination of a two-year process of change.Each business within the group had already been developing its own individual sustainability programme but these were in some cases ad hoc, were not co-ordinated across the group and a lack of reporting made it difficult to measure progress.There were areas of excellence such as the integrated sustainability drive at Guardian News & Media (GNM ...Read more

Speaking at a nuclear energy conference in Washington Tuesday, representatives of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission suggested that a new, long-term policy on nuclear waste storage was sorely needed. ...Read more

Owner of Guardian and Observer to tackle 10 issues ranging from environmental management and ethical procurement to employee and community engagementGuardian Media Group, the multimedia business whose diverse portfolio includes the Guardian and Observer, today launches an integrated sustainability vision and strategy to address issues ranging from climate change to ethical procurement.The 'Power of 10' vision is based on the belief that the group, which also includes radio stations, magazines ...Read more

The countries are the last two major economies to join the agreement reached in December, which calls for limiting the rise in global temperatures. ...Read more

The countries are the last two major economies to join the agreement reached in December, which calls for limiting the rise in global temperatures. ...Read more

Hundreds of homeowners are complaining that their newly installed "smart" electric meters are inaccurately raising their electric bills. ...Read more

Around a third of industrialized countries carbon emissions are exported to developing nations. ...Read more

With 500 members in 42 states and 11 countries, the Eco-Dentistry Association has launched a certification program for green dental practices and named its two inaugural recipients. ...Read more

The documentary-makers exposed an alleged whale-meat smuggling operation at the US sushi restaurant The HumpIt was an action worthy of the eco commandos of Greenpeace or the Environmental Investigation Agency: the sushi sting.Fresh from their Oscar-winning triumph, the makers of a documentary featuring clandestinely shot footage of Japan's dolphin slaughter, have helped break up an alleged whale meat smuggling operation at a popular sushi restaurant in Santa Monica, the New York Times has repor ...Read more

The documentary-makers exposed an alleged whale-meat smuggling operation at the US sushi restaurant The HumpIt was an action worthy of the eco commandos of Greenpeace or the Environmental Investigation Agency: the sushi sting.Fresh from their Oscar-winning triumph, the makers of a documentary featuring clandestinely shot footage of Japan's dolphin slaughter, have helped break up an alleged whale meat smuggling operation at a popular sushi restaurant in Santa Monica, the New York Times has repor ...Read more

Seal meat at the parliamentary restaurant has angered anti-cull activists, but the debate needs to move beyond sloganeeringIn a move that seems almost designed to raise the hackles of animal rights activists, the Canadian parliamentary restaurant has begun to offer seal meat as part of the menu. The decision is a not-so-subtle snub at the EU, which last year put an end to seal imports from Canada, due to the allegedly inhumane way that harp seals are killed each spring.As the hunting of seals, a ...Read more

China and India formally endorse the last-minute climate agreement struck at the Copenhagen summitChina and India wrote to the UN's climate secretariat today agreeing to be "listed" as a parties to the Copenhagen accord, the last-minute agreement that emerged from the chaos of the UN's summit in Copenhagen.The action falls short of full "association" and highlights the gulf between the US – the strongest backer of the accord – and the other key nations on how to deliver a global deal to co ...Read more

I always think of maple syrup as a Vermont product, but it turns out, it's made right in my backyard. Groundwork Somerville and friends are celebrating "Maple Month" by organizing their annual Maple Syrup Boil Down on Saturday, March 13th... ...Read more

Brave diver puts hand outside protective cage and into great white's mouth ...Read more

A severe drought is forcing the country -- which is heavily reliant on hydropower for its electricity needs -- to explore alternatives. ...Read more

A severe drought is forcing the country -- which is heavily reliant on hydropower for its electricity needs -- to explore alternatives. ...Read more

Not all dinosaurs were wiped out by the Chicxulub meteorite. We too may be in the midst of mass extinctionEveryone loves an apocalypse, and none more so than the one that sped the dinosaurs to their now legendary status. Having been a popular theory for 30 years, last week scientists finally reached a consensus that it was indeed the after-effects of a juggernaut meteorite crashing 65 million years ago into what we now call Chicxulub in Mexico that triggered the end of the dinosaurs' reign on E ...Read more

New machine by Xeros cleans clothes with beads and a tiny amount of water and may cut household bills by 30%"Dry" cleaning is set to become a domestic activity with a washing machine that uses 90% less water than a normal laundry cycle and could be available by the end of 2011. The device, developed by Leeds-based Xeros Ltd, replaces water with tiny plastic beads that suck up stains and its producers claim it will shift stubborn pounds from household energy bills as well.The Xeros process uses ...Read more

"Orthographic aerial photograph of Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill, in Kingston, Tennessee, taken the day after the event." Photo: Public domain CO2 is Important, But Not the Only Thing David Roberts over at Grist has a great rebuttal of Thom Friedman's latest column in which he and investor... Read the full story on TreeHugger ...Read more

Researchers at I.B.M. and Stanford University said Tuesday that they have discovered a new way to make plastics that can be continuously recycled or developed for novel uses in health care and microelectronics. ...Read more

Jane Bown, Tom Hunter and Daniel Lynch will be among the celebrated photographers auctioning their works in London tonight in aid of the 2009 South Pacific disaster ...Read more

The Global Warming Policy Foundation calls for transparency among climate scientists but refuses to make public its donors. Maybe its new employee can help usThe Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the thinktank set up last November "to bring reason, integrity and balance to a debate that has become seriously unbalanced, irrationally alarmist, and all too often depressingly intolerant", goes from strength to strength, it would seem.Just a few days after its chairman, Nigel Lawson, and dir ...Read more

The Global Warming Policy Foundation calls for transparency among climate scientists but refuses to make public its donors. Maybe its new employee can help usThe Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the thinktank set up last November "to bring reason, integrity and balance to a debate that has become seriously unbalanced, irrationally alarmist, and all too often depressingly intolerant", goes from strength to strength, it would seem.Just a few days after its chairman, Nigel Lawson, and dir ...Read more

An Australian firm appears ready to build a $3.5 billion hydroelectric plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo to power a $5 billion dollar aluminum smelter. ...Read more

Photo: CarFree.us "I knew I was benefiting myself and the environment by commuting without a car, but to see the real impact is very amazing." If you want to get around faster than your feet can take you while doing as little harm as possible, the bicycle is your best option. An unnamed author has recently started documenting his experience with becoming a bicycle commuter, and the results are interesting (and hopefully encouraging enough that others will do the same!). In a recent post, he ...Read more

Image credit: Andrew Zuckerman When Andrew Zuckerman, a renowned commercial photographer, turned his lens on animals, the result was a series of striking images that resonate with emotion. Collected in his book Read the full story on TreeHugger ...Read more

Image: Knossos Induction Lights Are Close, But No Cigar Most people who have been following lighting tech seem to be convinced that light-emitting diode (LED) lights are the future, but it's always good to see new research being done on them. The more sure we are that they're the way to go, the better. It always sucks to invest a lot of time and money into something only to later realize that it's not nearly as good as we were first led to believe (*cough* corn ethanol *cough*). Researchers ...Read more

The Energy Department last week defended its distribution of stimulus funding to some foreign developers of renewable energy projects, saying the grants were creating American jobs. ...Read more

The guys who run FreeGreen, the free homeplan website, are so smart; they could have just hired architects to do plans, and would have had to go to the trouble of deciding which architect to hire; instead they write a brief and run a competition. Now they have the work of hundreds of architects to chose from; established firms with the works in the drawer, young designers hoping to be discovered. But they are not the only ones who benefit; everyone can look, vote and learn from over 400 submis ...Read more

Photo via Nectar For people who aren't satisfied with the fact that the greenest thing about their coffee table is the mug of organically grown joe resting on top of it, finally there's a truly appealing alternative in the Voltpot. Not only does its grassy surface bring a bit of oxygen producing plant-life to your living room--the metabolic process is captured and converted to energy to char... Read the full story on TreeHugger ...Read more

Despite the decision by the European Union last week to approve the cultivation of a GM potato, plant scientist Eoin Lettice argues that consumers will only accept the technology when it provides tangible benefits for themLast week's decision by the European Commission to allow genetically modified potato varieties to be grown in some European Union countries concludes a 13-year campaign by the German chemical company BASF.Ordinary potatoes produce two kinds of starch, but the GM potato Amflora ...Read more

Five Winds International has created a new website to help companies meet supplier sustainability requirements being imposed by retailers. ...Read more

In the midst of a gold rush of clean technologies, some observers believe we're still years from making a dent in the national carbon footprint. But these three shovel-ready technologies show a low-carbon future is already within sight. ...Read more

Survivalism may be going mainstream, what will all the new cave men and off-gridders. But for Heimo and Edna Korth, survival in the wild has been a way of life for three decades. The last humans to be living in the 19.5-million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and living 130 miles above the Arctic Circle, they are quite possibly the most remote Ameri... Read the full story on TreeHugger ...Read more

Photo via The Cove The Cove has made a tremendous impact on people when it comes to raising awareness about the slaughter of dolphins and the dark story of whale meat in the fish market. It has changed lives, riled people up, won its Oscar, and now it just might turn into a new TV Series on Animal Planet starting this fall. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger ...Read more

A national commitment to solar power transformed one community but big subsidies led to unsustainable growth. ...Read more

Dip your toe into the world of craft with this simple project by Perri Lewis: frosting a plain wine glassWhy slave over a slap-up Sunday roast if you only have time to cobble together a slice of cheese on toast? Or start redecorating the kitchen when you can't even find a moment to do the washing up? Making stuff is no different, and there's no reason to take on something that'll eat up your evenings if you only have an hour or so to give over to crafting.Sure, there's nothing like the feeli ...Read more

Seal meat banned by the EU will be served to Canadian MPs in Ottawa to show public backing for the country's annual seal huntCanadian MPs will be served seal meat this week in support of hunters fighting an EU ban on products from the animals.A Liberal MP, Celine Hervieux-Payette, said Wednesday's seal meat menu in the parliamentary restaurant would allow politicians to show their backing for the annual hunt."All political parties will have the opportunity to demonstrate to the international ...Read more

Photo: Monica M. Davey/Feature Photo Service for IBM 13 Billion PET Plastic Bottles are Thrown Away Each Year Certain things are harder to recycle than others. While it's relatively easy to make a new aluminum can out of an old aluminum can, making a new plastic bottle out of an old one is a lot harder. Currently, most recycled plastic is not truly recycled, but rather downcycled to a lesser use. But thanks to a breakthrough in green chemistry by IBM and Stanford researchers, this might be ab ...Read more

Image via Amazon The viral video phenomenon The Story of Stuff has made a big impact on audiences worldwide. Since its release in 2007, it's been viewed over 10 million times, showing we're as fascinated by learning about our Stuff as we are with the items themselves. The short movie with its fun and idea-clarifying animations lays out how stuff is made, distributed and discarded - the take-make-waste cycled as creator Annie Leonard calls it. It sums up our processes and problems in a smart, ...Read more

Report identifies thousands of potential small-scale hydropower sites in English and Welsh rivers that could power 850,000 homes Interactive: Map of hydropower hotpotsThousands of small-scale hydroelectric schemes could power 850,000 homes and produce 1.5% of the UK's electricity needs, according to an Environment Agency study (EA) published today (pdf).The agency mapped the energy hotspots of English and Welsh rivers and identified almost 26,000 locations where turbines could be installed to g ...Read more

The Environment Agency has identified thousands of potential small-scale hydropower sites in English and Welsh rivers that could power up to 850,000 homes ...Read more

Dozens of companies are developing tools aimed at getting consumers involved home energy management but businesses are an easier customer to serve, according to a panel of smart-grid executives. ...Read more

Last month, inspectors found dangerous chemicals in the groundwater near the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor. The situation demonstrates that from the mining of uranium ore to the storage of radioactive waste, nuclear reactors remain as dirty, risky, and as costly as they ever were. If President Obama's recent enthusiasm for nuclear reactors has led you to believe otherwise, you've bought in to the administration's greenwashing of nuclear. From Grist, part of the Guardian Environment NetworkOn ...Read more

Lloyd Alter Many small towns are experiencing a comeback these days; a combination of aging boomers and the green movement, combined with technology that lets people work just about anywhere make them a viable alternative to urban and suburban life. Sami has written extensively in TreeHugger about the Transition Town movement, where people are looking for resilient communities that can survive in a crisis. Smaller cities also have character, walkable main streets, apartments above shops that c ...Read more

Two baby primates orphaned in 2007 are safe now but grave challenges remainIn pictures: Saving Congo's mountain gorillasA baby gorilla claps her palms and leaps to the top of a wooden climbing frame. Another grips the hands of her keeper and swings head over heels with childlike exuberance. The pair play in long grass in the shade of bamboo, fig and wild banana trees.This is Ndeze and Ndakasi, symbols of hope in the struggle to save the imperilled mountain gorillas of eastern Africa.The pair, o ...Read more

Photo via jurvetson So far, kinetic charging for cell phones has been confined to the realm of external chargers (which are only now starting to be actually useful) and concept designs for futuristic phones. But Nokia looks to be taking piezoelectric charging for cell phones seriously. The company has filed a patent for a cell phone - patent appl... Read the full story on TreeHugger ...Read more

Will the government's feed-in tariff scheme which guarantees a rate of payment for renewable energy sold back to the grid tempt you to install your own solar panels or wind turbine?Is now the right time to invest in micro-generation?P Moore, by emailWhat a difference a week makes. When this question was posed last Monday I don't think we could have predicted the level of heated debate the subject of microgeneration and feed-in tariffs would have generated. George Monbiot kicked things off with ...Read more

Chosen insect feeds on invasive species but not other closely related plants and cropsBiological warfare is to be declared on an alien invader, Japanese knotweed, that swamps gardens and rivers, with the release of an insect to eat the virulent weed.The decision by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the first allowing one non-native species, a flying insect resembling a miniature moth, to control the seemingly unstoppable spread of an alien plant.However, it is likely to c ...Read more

Huw Irranca-Davies, wildlife minister, tells Jon Dennis about a plan to introduce an insect predator to attack Japanese knotweed ...Read more

Shares in British waste disposal company Shanks Group plunged nearly 20% this morning after its chief executive said that it has walked away from talks of a buyout by private equity investor Carlyle.Shanks Group ended the talks with Carlyle after if offered 120p per share - much less than the 150p Shanks had been expecting.Adrian Auer, the chairman of Shanks, said: "Carlyle has failed to offer a price which in the view of the board properly reflects the value of the group."Shares in Shanks, wh ...Read more

There is no simple way to battle public hostility to climate research. As the psychologists show, facts barely sway us anywayThere is one question that no one who denies manmade climate change wants to answer: what would it take to persuade you? In most cases the answer seems to be nothing. No level of evidence can shake the growing belief that climate science is a giant conspiracy codded up by boffins and governments to tax and control us. The new study by the Met Office, which paints an even g ...Read more

There is no simple way to battle public hostility to climate research. As the psychologists show, facts barely sway us anywayThere is one question that no one who denies manmade climate change wants to answer: what would it take to persuade you? In most cases the answer seems to be nothing. No level of evidence can shake the growing belief that climate science is a giant conspiracy codded up by boffins and governments to tax and control us. The new study by the Met Office, which paints an even g ...Read more

Image via Eurekalert, Credit: Courtesy of Jeremy Agresti, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Just a bit smaller than an iPod Nano, a new pocket-sized laboratory could revolutionize the way biofuels are discovered. The device - a "microfluidic sorting device" - can sort enzymes and compounds about 1,000 times faster than the larger equipment in use today, and thus can sniff out potential for new microbe-based biofuels much faster, cheaper and more energy efficiently, than ever ...Read more

Distributed generation for utilities is part of the mandate. Photo: Solar Dave via flickr. Now this is getting somewhere... Climate Progress reports that the Colorado House of Representatives has passed an increase in the state's Read the full story on TreeHugger ...Read more

Photos via Dell Dell has been one of the leaders of the computer pack in developing more and more efficient computers. The Dell Studio Hybrid shows off how compact but powerful a computer can be, and while the company took a hit from Greenpeace in last summer's green gadget guide for failing to meet its promise ... Read the full story on TreeHugger ...Read more

photo: Kevin Walsh via flickr. You've probably heard the stat that extinction rates are currently somewhere between 100-1000 times historic levels, which is bad enough, but now the Guardian reports the head of the Species Survival Commission for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature says that we've "almost certainly" crossed the thresho... Read the full story on TreeHugger ...Read more

Photo via Osaka University Plastic recycling is often a conundrum. Sorting at home can be iffy, since consumers don't always know what's recyclable and what's not in their area, and some plastic types like bioplastics aren't easily discernible, or recyclable at all. This keeps recycling rates in many areas low. In Japan, only two types of plastics are currently recycled... Read the full story on TreeHugger ...Read more

Vehicles with sensor-driven magnetic devices on their underside suck up energy as they travel over the strips embedded just under the road surface. ...Read more

Researchers said they found a way to break down lignocellulose, the basic structural material of all plants, to make fuel from crop waste. ...Read more

Image from minkyu.co.uk. Last week we wrote an idiosyncratic view of the candidates for the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year awards. With over 100 items in seven different categories, it is an Oscar-worthy show of the international design world's best work of the past year. And the winners are... As predicted: the folding plug! Given the size, weight and general clunkiness of the existing UK converter plug, Read the full story on TreeHugger ...Read more

Image from minkyu.co.uk. Last week we wrote an idiosyncratic view of the candidates for the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year awards. With over 100 items in seven different categories, it is an Oscar-worthy show of the international design world's best work of the past year. And the winners are... As predicted: the folding plug! Given the size, weight and general clunkiness of the existing UK converter plug, Read the full story on TreeHugger ...Read more

While a national commitment to solar power transformed one mining community, generous subsidies also resulted in unsustainable growth. ...Read more

Leaked emails between climate scientists at the University of East Anglia have caused a furore. Phil Jones on how not to get caught out by freedom of information requestsThe "climategate" scandal involving the University of East Anglia has sent shockwaves through universities, but many academics still do not fully appreciate the full implications of freedom of information legislation.The problems at UEA arose when emails allegedly written by some of the world's leading climate scientists were ...Read more

Chosen insect feeds on invasive species but not other closely related plants and cropsBiological warfare is to be declared on an alien invader, Japanese knotweed, that swamps gardens and rivers, with the release of an insect to eat the virulent weed.The decision by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the first allowing one non-native species, a flying insect resembling a miniature moth, to control the seemingly unstoppable spread of an alien plant.However, it is likely to c ...Read more

The groups sued the European Commission for failing to release studies investigating the impact of biofuels on the environment. The commission says the legal action was premature. ...Read more