India’s climate change envoy Shyam Saran has said that his country would like the United States to set ‘high-end’ emission reduction goals . Leading the Indian delegation into a gathering of largest polluting nations in Washington, Saran said that United States should aim to emissions targets between 25 to 40 percent. In comparison, President Obama has called for a 14 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 while the European Union has set a 20 percent reduction target. China and India, world’s largest and third largest polluters respectively, have set no reduction targets and are not expected to agree to even lower targets at the Copenhagen meeting to discuss the next climate treaty. Calls for the United States to recognize its historical responsibility and take bold actions to reduce its carbon emissions have risen significantly in recent times. Countries around the world have realized that President Obama intends to go the extra mile as far as environmental and climate change reforms are concerned and they various governments are pressing the Obama administration to transform his promises into real actions. Read more of this story »

See the original post:
India Wants US to Cut Carbon Emissions Up To 40% But Fails to Promise Any Emission Cuts of Its Own

Deloitte and the Grocery Manufacturers Association surveyed more than 6,400 consumers to better understand how sustainability influences shopping behavior and the resulting market opportunities for companies targeting these consumers.

Here is the original post: 
Finding the Green in Today's Shoppers: Sustainability Trends and New Shopper Insights

Green product attributes are evolving into an important brand differentiator for consumers and can serve as a tiebreaker for shoppers evaluating similar products, according to results of a new study from the Grocery Manufacturers Association and Deloitte.

Read more: 
Green Becoming a 'Tiebreaker' in Shopping Decisions, Survey Finds

Image via: Camper Needless to say eco shoes have improved by leaps and bounds over the years. This spring, shoe company Camper & designer Bernhard Willhelm are launching their ready to wear Eco shoe line, made with recycled fibers & tire tread soles , as well as, “refurbished” leather and wood. Sounds sort of crunchy? Well, they’re not. More images after the jump. …

Original post: 
Cool New Recycled Shoes by Camper and Bernhard Willhelm

Teijin, a Japanese company with businesses ranging from plastics to aircrafts to pharmaceuticals, plans to halve its sales of polyester, PET and polycarbonate while increasing other business divisions like bioplastics and recycling.

Read the rest here:
Teijin to Cut Back Plastics Development, Focus on Green Chemistry

Image via: Mills College You know how every end-of-semester when students just toss everything big and small that they purchased over the year but can’t take with them, as they backpack across Europe? Know a few seniors who just ditch their toys (stereos, skis, futons, you know what I’m talking about) as they leave for the real world with real jobs and real, adult apartments? Well Mills College , among the other gre…

Read the rest here: 
Mills College Earth CORPS Creates Campus Freecycle Store

Image credit: US Dept of Energy; Energy In Brief What is the most overlooked energy consuming sector in the USA? Industry. The industrial sector, consuming an estimated 21.4 quads of energy in 2007, uses energy to heat, cool, and light process equipment, warm buildings, run fork lifts, and so on. Strikingly, by these estimates, twice as much energy is consumed by industry in 2007 as all residential and commercial entities combined in that same period. Until now, industry has been the relatively silent player at the Washington DC climate game. Soon to ch…

See more here: 
Graphic Of The Day: US Primary Energy Use

Photo via NY Mag Yesterday marked Obama’s 100th day in office, but if you were within 50 feet of any sort of media yesterday, you already knew that. We marked the occasion with an Obama Timeline of his first 100 days in green . But those 100 days, while certainly filled with a slew of good first steps, are far from definitive in terms of judging Obama’s green agenda. What really matters, of course, is what comes next. And so, in celebration of the first day of Obama’s Next 100 Days, here are a few ideas of what he could and shoul…

Read the original: 
7 Green Things Obama Should Do Over the Next 100 Days

Photo credit: Anvil Knitwear Anvil Knitwear has just launched a T-shirt that’s a complete zero. Not only is it made from 69 percent pre-consumer recycled cotton—and uses less energy and water during production—but it also has a net zero carbon footprint. Earning Carbonfund.org’s CarbonFree certification wasn’t a slam dunk—the sixth-largest purchaser of organic cotton worldwide had to put its recyc…

View original post here: 
Anvil Knitwear Introduces First Carbon-Neutral Recycled-Cotton Tee

One week ago the state of California adopted Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard , which calls for a 10% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from fuels by 2020, with greater cuts thereafter. The legislation requires refineries, producers, and importers of fuels sold in the state to consider the carbon footprint of the entire life cycle of the product (as opposed to just the emissions released during combustion in the engine). Why the concern in Alberta, Canada’s most oil-rich province? While Canada has the second-largest national petroleum reserve in the world , the majority of those reserves are in the Alberta oil sands. Much more energy is required to extract crude from oil sands than using conventional drilling methods, as the bitumen needs to be pried from the sand and clay. The oil sands are so energy intensive that they are being singled out as o ne of the main reasons that Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at a rate that far exceeds most other developed nations (and are over 30% above the Kyoto targets that the country signed on to). Alberta is worried – and they should be. While little Alberta oil is exported to California , the new law is expected to serve as a model for other states and the federal government (many of which currently import large amounts of Alberta oil). As a result, a backlash has begun to flow out of Alberta, including claims of discrimination, favoritism, and protectionism: “What we have here is one state of the US deciding to pass regulations which dictate discriminatory treatment about a product depending where it comes from, not depending what it is” ( Simon Potter, partner at McCarthy Tetrault law firm in Montreal ) “That’s one of the reasons why the protectionist forces in the US … are looking at these types of policies and saying ‘well the environment may effectively be a back door through which we can apply the types of trade barriers that we would like to have anyway’”. ( Andrew Leach, professor, University of Alberta ) “It’s kind of a gratuitous shot at oil sands. Because we had no significant supply going into California, they can make this political statement without much [economic] consequence”. ( Rick Hyndman, Senior Policy Advisor, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers ). “Does it have a possibility of a negative effect on Alberta’s bitumen future? I would suggest I’d be very naive if I thought anything other than ‘yes’ is the proper answer to that”. ( Mel Knight, Alberta Minister of Energy ) What is shocking is how surprised these people seem to be about this legislation. While California is the first state to actually legislate such an approach to greenhouse gas management, the writing has been on the wall for quite some time. The governments of Canada and Alberta have both had their heads in the sand with their continued support and insistence of using intensity-based emission reduction targets to protect the lucrative oil sands. The widespread disdain and criticism of these approaches have come from many circles, including industry, other governments (both within Canada and internationally), and environmental groups. Now this lack of planning and foresight is coming back to potentially harm them and leave eggs on their faces. Image: Gregory Melle at flickr under a CC License Stephen Boles is co-founder of Kuzuka, a marketplace website that will bring a new level of convenience and confidence to carbon offset customers and provide consulting services to organizations that want to assess and reduce their carbon footprint.

Read the rest here: 
New California Fuel Laws Have Alberta Reeling