About a third of eco-minded grocery shoppers are leery about products labeled "natural" and two out of three say they’d like to see standards set for goods that bear the description, according to a new study.
Recommendation goes out to schools to pre-emptively remove all fluorescent lighting made before 1979 as it likely contains PCBs now being released into air as they break down from age.
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EPA warns of PCB-laden school lights
Europe’s new-ish CLP Regulation on classification, labeling and packaging of chemicals is getting a lot of buzz all of a sudden. Also called just CLP, it entered into force on 20 January 2009. CLP regulation will take companies from the current classification and labeling directives to the globally harmonized system of chemical classification or GHS . CLP is not just an idea, it is a new requirement for doing business in Europe. CLP aspires to facilitate global trade and to promote regulatory efficiency with a harmonized communication system around hazardous chemical-substances. Further, CLP complements the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals or REACH Regulation. CLP is based on United Nations’ GHS The new CLP regulation is based on the UN GHS for a globally harmonized system of classification, labeling for chemicals. For more on GHS, see Top Ten Q&A about GHS . Not all at once but over time, the CLP regulation will replace the Dangerous Substances Directive or DSD and the Dangerous Preparations Directive or DPD currently in place; both Directives will be repealed on 1 June 2015. The CLP Regulation as published in the Official Journal of the European Union is available at the EURLEX website, the official web site of the European Law online journal . For U.S. companies , CLP means certain substances will be more severely classified and more mixtures will be classified. Also, it means companies may have to reclassify, re-label and repackage products, along with making changes to current Safety Data Sheets or updating SDS; also, a change of classification under CLP may lead to new responsibilities under REACH. An analysis of your company’s current conditions is advised. It’s likely that at least minor adjustments are in order. CLP timeline and key deadlines The CLP transitional provisions contain key dates that affect the classification and labeling of hazardous chemicals, substances and mixtures. Spend a few moments with the graphic accompanying this article. As with the previous legislation, the CLP Regulation is intended to be primarily a self-classification system for enterprises. Key deadlines for CLP compliance include: 1. 30 November 2010: Substance classification (according to the CLP rules) 2. 31 May 2015: Mixture classification (according to the CLP rules) The obligations due by these dates — such as changes to Safety Data Sheets — as well as their relationship to the REACH deadlines — are illustrated in the graphic, which is courtesy of European Chemicals Agency. CLP fees NEW: Fees are payable to ECHA under CLP. ECHA sees two fees for two types of requests: EUR 12000: harmonized classification and labeling under CLP article 37 EUR 4000 and up: confidentiality/use of alternative chemical name for substances in mixtures under CLP article 24 Small to Medium Sized companies or SMEs can benefit from reduced fees up to 90%, depending on size. More information on fees is online here (see Annex I and II). ECHA advises companies to submit substance data in timely manner The EU CLP places new legal obligations on companies operating in the EU. By 1 December 2010, companies are required to classify and label their hazardous substances according to the CLP rules. Industry must post substances placed on the market to a central database, called the Classification & Labeling Inventory. The database will be established and maintained by ECHA. On September 10, the European Chemicals Agency estimated that the number of CLP notifications will be in the millions; ECHA advised companies preparing for CLP: “please notify in time.” ECHA says: The first deadline for notification is 3 January 2011. Key information from this Classification and Labeling Inventory will also be made publicly available on ECHA’s website. Confidential business information will not be disclosed to the public. Guidance This Guidance is developed to assist primarily manufacturers or importers applying classification and labeling criteria and it also includes practical examples. It is also assumed to be the guidance on classification and labeling for Competent Authorities in the Member States, Commission services and European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). In certain chapters, such as the chapters on carcinogenicity, mutagenicity and reproductive toxicity, the guidance includes more extensive scientific advice on how to interpret different data used for classification. – Complete guidance doc – CLP guidance overview and Frequently Asked Questions about CLP This article is reprinted by permission from Kathleen Hurley, executive producer of the Actio Communications Network. Actio is a Portsmouth, NH based technology company whose mission is to provide software tools for product stewardship functions such as chemical management and supplier disclosure risk management in an era of REACH, RoHS and Green Chemistry.
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Europe’s CLP Regulation – Overview, Deadlines and Fees
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Justice, Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Office of the Indiana Attorney General have reached a proposed settlement with 13 potentially responsible parties who will pay for and complete the final phase of cleanup at the Cam-Or Superfund site in Westville, Ind. The companies agreed to provide $12 million to complete an engineering design and the cleanup of contaminated groundwater, subsurface chemical breakdown products and heavy metals-contaminated soil at the long-closed waste oil recycling facility. The group will pay EPA an additional $2.4 million to cover the cost of overseeing the work and other administrative costs, and also pay for oversight by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. Project design work is set to begin in 2011, with cleanup targeted for the 2012 and 2013 construction seasons. Cam-Or re-refined waste oil from 1934 to 1987. This is the fourth cleanup action at the site since operations closed in 1987. It was named to EPA’s Superfund National Priorities List in 1998. To date, EPA has reached agreements with private parties to pay $28.4 million out of $31.4 million in total site costs. The 13 responsible parties are: Alcoa Aluminum, Inc.; ANR Pipeline Company; Clean Harbors Environmental Services, Inc.; Consolidated Rail Corporation; CSX Transportation, Inc.; Ford Motor Company; Imperial Oil Ltd.; Ingersoll-Rand Company; Northern Indiana Public Service Company; Rockwell Automation; C. Stoddard & Sons, Inc.; Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company; and United States Steel Corporation. The consent decree (pdf) was lodged with U.S. District Court on Dec. 22, and will be subject to a 30-day public comment period.
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Environmental Enforcement: Cam-Or Superfund Settlement
16 Green Building Innovations of 2010 Jetson Green US Papermaker is Certified ‘Renewable Energy Resource Generating Facility’ in Ohio IndustryWeek More than Crumbs Recycling Today Feds propose fine after LM Wind Power worker’s death Grand Forks Herald COEO: A Sustainable And Socially Responsible Retail Concept PSFK 45 Workers Suffer Carbon Monoxide Poisoning After Leak at NY Plant Injury Board Texas, Virginia companies win contracts to dismantle mothball ships Contra Costa Times
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Roundup – 16 Green Building Innovations of 2010
Real-time management system for home automation to get started in Fios-based pilot project in New Jersey, with wider availability planned for mid-2011.
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Verizon powers up smart-home services
Frito-Lay North America, which has pursued greener manufacturing, transportation and packaging, is launching a major push to reformulate half its products in 2011 so that the snacks are made only with natural ingredients.
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Frito-Lay to Make 50% of Snacks with ‘All-Natural’ Ingredients
The Centre for Sustainable Communications , (CESC), part of Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology, has released the beta-version of an online application that can calculate the carbon emissions of a website. The program, called Greenalytics, calculates the carbon impact of websites by matching Google Analytics statistics with pools of environmental research data and then making appropriate calculations and assumptions that are known about the energy mix in the users’ locations. ”In my research, I want to illustrate the options available when databases are opened up and provide data in a standardized format, which in turn can be linked to environmental data. If you are aware of the climate impact a product has, you can also reduce it,” says Jorge Zapico, the CESC researcher who developed application. For example, to calculate the electricity use of servers, data storage and network infrastructure , Greenalytics looks at the total data traffic generated by the site and an approximation of the energy used by internet per data unit. The total data traffic is an approximation calculated by aggregating the total traffic per page (the size of the page per the number of visits it has), multiplying with a so-called “Weber unit,” a value associated with energy use per gigabyte of data (3.5 kWh/GB), and finally multiplying with the electricity factor of the country where the server is situated for getting the CO2 value. Using Greenalytics, Zapico found that the institute’s website causes the emissions of seven tons of carbon dioxide each year.
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Greenalytics Measures Carbon Impact of Websites
Italian police authorities raided about 150 companies in eight different regions of Italy earlier in December related to as much as $662 million in VAT tax-evasion scams; operations that came a few weeks after Italian Power Exchange (G.M.E), as well as other European registries , halted all trading in carbon credits due to a high number of abnormal transactions, according to EuroWeeklyNews.com. Europol issued a warning in 2009 about the VAT-fraud that is draining from European taxpayers an estimated $6.62 billion. Basically, the credits are purchased in a VAT-free zone, and then sold in a transaction that calculates VAT, but the tax is never paid to the host country. Law enforcement authorities around Europe have made more than 100 arrests in 2010. The actions are part of ongoing investigations into carbon trading scams within the EU ETS . The suspicious trading activities were noted in late 2008, and EU states were authorized to change their taxation practices in September 2009, and many did that. Europol is now investigating the potential that the same scheme has moved in other energy markets, according to the EuroNewsWeekly report. Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol said: “Organised VAT fraud remains a significant criminal activity in Europe. It is responsible for draining huge resources from central government revenues and undermining the objective of transforming Europe into a competitive and greener economy. … Europol is also currently monitoring apparent new trends in this criminal activity, including possible organised crime infiltration of the gas and electricity markets.”
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EU Still Fighting Carbon Trading System VAT-Fraud
For many years car companies have brought out “green” cars which they claim are the big revolution, which will reduce our usage of fossil fuels. The majority of these have been false dawns which have only served to damage the image of the green car industry as consumers become sceptical of anything which claims to be environmental. Another issue has been that being environmentally conscious has tended to come at a price. My firm estimates that getting insurance with a car insurance firm which claims to be environmentally conscious could result in premiums which cost up to 146% more than with conventional insurance firms. The effectiveness and cost of “green” offerings have therefore hindered their adoption. However, all this could be about to change as Nissan launches the first mass produced all electric vehicle. The Leaf is set for a full scale roll out in the USA in 2011 with 20,000 reservations having already been made. This interest stems from the fact that the car is actually environmentally friendly as it doesn’t require fossil fuels and therefore doesn’t emit carbon dioxide gases into the atmosphere. Despite this the car is much quicker than expected, with a top speed of 92mph. The Leaf therefore does what it says on the tin and is not a marketing gimmick. The second impediment to environmental car adoption has been costs. However, Nissan has priced the innovative technology “aggressively” and it is therefore available to buy from $32,780. A number of tax breaks will be offered as an incentive to buy the car, which results in it being available from as little as $25,280. This does still seem a lot when you consider that you can buy a new Ford Focus for $18,790, but isn’t quite so bad when you consider the savings which come with running it. It is possible to save over $1500 per year on fuel alone with the Leaf, with it costing just $220 to do the average 12,000 mile per year average. There are other incentives being planned in different states, with New York governor George Pataki planning an “energy reduction plan” which it is alleged could save drivers of electric vehicles $2000 per year in tax breaks. However, there are two big problems with the Leaf. The first is practicality, with it only being capable of doing 100 miles between charges. This problem is exacerbated by the second problem, which is the availability of recharging outlets around the country. The car is equipped with a quick charge function which allows the batteries to recoup 80% of their power within 30 minutes, but this isn’t an option if there is nowhere to charge it. Plans are in place to change this situation, with the U.S. Department of Energy providing a grant of $114.8 million to a company called ECOtality, which is planning on installing 15,000 charging stations across sixteen states within three years. Even with plans to introduce a second edition Leaf capable of 200 miles between charges in 2015, this still isn’t sufficient to make owning an electric car commonplace. Technological advances are relentless. The Nissan Leaf would have been unthinkable just ten years ago but now the improvements being made to the efficiency of lithium batteries and electric engines are truly remarkable. This is something which will only improve as competition in the green car market increases, with Chevrolet, Renault Mitsubishi and Ford all planning on introducing fully electric vehicles in the coming couple of years. The technology is there; it is the infrastructure which isn’t. It’s all well and good that the government is providing tax breaks to people who own environmental vehicles in order to encourage their adoption but it is not the biggest issue. The government needs to instead channel these funds into the development of an electric charging point infrastructure around the U.S. Oil supplies are dwindling and prices are rising, and the time has come for a viable alternative and people are beginning to realise for the first time that owning an electric car is a viable and realistic option. The government must act; otherwise the country could be crippled when the cost of filling up a vehicle becomes unsustainable. Mark Martin is a marketing specialist at finance price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com .
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The Future of the Green Car Industry