Green Business News - Week Ending October 1st
A Growing Clean Energy Market is Emerging Among India's Vast Rural Poor
A new generation of inexpensive, durable cook stoves could significantly reduce pollution and associated health problems among India's rural poor, a population estimated at 114 million households. Nearly half of this group has no access to electricity, and more than 85% of them rely on firewood and dung for cooking and heating. Firewood and dung fires produce sooty smoke that causes many health problems, as well as premature death.
New products such as solar lanterns, energy-efficient stoves, biomass gasification, and small-scale hydropower systems have been popping up to serve the rapidly growing demand for alternative cooking and electricity products. Since 2004, the market for these sorts of green energy products in rural India has grown an average of 36% per year, and is estimated to grow to more than $2.1 billion.
Wave Power Delivers Electricity to US Grid For First Time
Wave energy company Ocean Power Technologies is the first to deliver ocean-generated electricity back to the US grid. The PB40 PowerBuoy was installed at the Marine Corps Base in Hawaii to test the its ability to produce utility-grade renewable energy. The device is installed almost a mile off the coast of Oahu, and has been producing electricity for more than 4,400 hours. Independent monitoring has found it to have no significant environmental impact.
While wave power lacks the large-scale potential of wind or solar, this demonstration proves it does have certain practical applications, and can be used safely with minimal impact.
Offshore Wind Power Can Electrify Half of East Coast
A new report from Oceana found offshore wind could generate enough power to supply half of the East Coast's electricity. They also estimate wind could produce up to 30% more power than available fossil fuel sources in the same areas. States included in the study are: Delaware, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, Virginia, South Carolina, Rhode Island, Maryland, Florida, New York and Georgia.
The report goes on to recommend a plan for transitioning away from fossil fuels and toward offshore wind power, including things like:
* Removing federal subsidies for fossil fuels, and incentivizing electrification projects.
Grocery stores try setting up fake farmers markets
Safeway and Albertsons supermarkets are among many that have been testing a new tactic to sell produce: setting up outdoor "farmers markets" that look like your neighborhood farm market, but sell the same produce available inside the store. Fortunately, local groups quickly caught on to the marketing ploy and complained, resulting in Safeway changing their sign from "Farmers Market" to "Outdoor Market".
Semantics aside, it's always a good idea to ask where the produce came from and do a little research before buying -- even when you're not buying from a supermarket. An investigation in LA found that many farmers markets were selling produce that came from the same factory farms that supply the major chain stores.
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Source4Style Creates Online Marketplace for Sustainable Fashion
New company Source4Style allows designers to easily source sustainable materials by providing an online marketplace specifically for sustainable products. Founder Summer Rayne Oakes says some designers spend up to 80% of their time hunting for materials, and that finding underlying sustainability data is extremely difficult.
In order for a fabric to be available on Source4Style, a supplier has to provide extensive information, which is then reviewed by a panel. The questionairre is based largely on the Eco Index, which is a tool created to measure the impact of clothing and other outdoor gear. Topics include recycled content, organic content, certificatios, farming processes, fair trade practices and more.
Oakes is discovering that many suppliers are thrilled at the opportunity to provide additional information about their products.
Ben & Jerry's Backs Off 'All Natural' Claims
Ben & Jerry's is voluntarily removing the phrase "all natural" from products that contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil and other ingredients that don't actually occur in nature. This move is in response to a complaint filed by the Washington-based Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). Ben & Jerry's will remove the claim and continue to focus on other core values, such as fair-trade suppliers, cage-free eggs and milk from family farms that don't use bovine growth hormones.
This case demonstrates a growing consumer trend of demanding more than marketing claims, and investigating to make sure the underlying data supports such claims.
