Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 08/31/2007
This is the weekly bulletin of the TURI Library, reporting a selection of recently published titles we have acquired. Our pledge is to keep the bulletin relevant to your work and brief -- no more than 10 titles. You are welcome to send a message to jan@turi.org if you would like more information on any of the articles listed here.
Titles here, abstracts below:
- Helping the carbon nanotube industry avoid mega-mistakes of the past
- Energy efficiency in buildings: business realities and opportunities. Summary report
- European chemical policy and the United States: the impacts of REACH
- Beyond batteries: storing power in a sheet of paper
- As China roars, pollution reaches deadly extremes
- Sustainability: balancing opportunity and risk in the consumer products industry
- Health impacts of estrogens in the environment, considering complex mixture effects
1. Helping the carbon nanotube industry avoid mega-mistakes of the past
Source: American Chemical Society News Service, August 30, 2007
Abstract: A new analysis of by-products discharged to the environment during production of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) — expected to become the basis of multibillion-dollar industries in the 21st Century — has identified cancer-causing compounds, air pollutants, and other substances of concern. Study co-author Desirée L. Plata and colleagues described their work as “totally new,” noting that past analyses of the environmental impact of the emerging nanomaterials industry have been based on the toxicity of ingredients used in the recipes, rather than the actual pollutants formed during CNT manufacture. While expressing concern about the possible health and environmental effects of nanotechnology by-products, Plata said the new data may be crucial as the nanotechnology industry seeks to avoid the kind of unanticipated health and environmental problems that have accompanied emergence of other new technology.
Researchers said, for instance, that they foresee developing, in collaboration with the CNT industry, “green chemical” reactions and filtration systems to substitute for those with potentially hazardous by-products and other ways of manufacturing carbon nanotubes that minimize potentially adverse impacts.
Link: http://acswebapplications.acs.org/applications/ccs/
application/index.cfm?pressreleaseid=2841&categoryid=37
2. Energy efficiency in buildings: business realities and opportunities. Summary report
Source: World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), 2007
Abstract: Buildings are responsible for at least 40% of energy use in most countries. The absolute figure is rising fast, as construction booms, especially in countries such as China and India. It is essential to act now, because buildings can make a major contribution to tackling climate change and energy use.
• Encourage interdependence by adopting holistic, integrated approaches among the stakeholders that assure a shared responsibility and accountability toward improved energy performance in buildings and their communities
• Make energy more valued by those involved in the development, operation and use of buildings
• Transform behavior by educating and motivating the professionals involved in building transactions to alter their course toward improved energy efficiency in buildings.
The project summarizes these findings in this, its first year report on facts and trends having to do with energy efficiency in buildings. This report combines the findings from existing research and stakeholder dialogues during hearings, workshops, and forums with a breakthrough market research study that measures the stakeholder perceptions of sustainable buildings around the world. The report sets out to
establish a baseline of current facts and trends that will be used in the coming months in scenario planning and modeling approaches to assess the needed and prioritized actions for change to affect buildings’ energy consumption.
Link: http://www.wbcsd.org/DocRoot/MGZ84Tu645qCHVrHwCtl/
EEBSummaryReportFINAL.pdf
3. European chemical policy and the United States: the impacts of REACH
Authors: Ackerman, Frank; Stanton, Elizabeth; Massey, Rachel
Source: Renewable Resource Journal, Spring 2007
Abstract: The European Union is moving toward adoption of its new Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) policy, an innovative system of chemicals regulation that will provide crucial information on the safety profile of chemicals used in industry. Chemicals produced elsewhere, such as in the United States, and exported to Europe will have to meet the same standards as chemicals produced within the European Union. What is at stake for the U.S. is substantial: we estimate that chemical exports to Europe that are subject to REACH amount to about $14 billion per year, and are directly and indirectly responsible for 54,000 jobs. Revenues and employment of this magnitude dwarf the costs of compliance with REACH, which will amount to no more than $14 million per year. Even if, as the U.S. chemicals industry has argued, REACH is a needless mistake, it will be far more profitable to pay the modest compliance costs than to lose access to the enormous European market.
Link: http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/wp/06-06USREACH.pdf
4. Beyond batteries: storing power in a sheet of paper
Source: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, August 13, 2007
Abstract: Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new energy storage device that easily could be mistaken for a simple sheet of black paper.
The nanoengineered battery is lightweight, ultra thin, completely flexible, and geared toward meeting the trickiest design and energy requirements of tomorrow’s gadgets, implantable medical equipment, and transportation vehicles. Details of the project are outlined in the paper “Flexible Energy Storage Devices Based on Nanocomposite Paper” published Aug. 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Along with its ability to function in temperatures up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 100 below zero, the device is completely integrated and can be printed like paper. The device is also unique in that it can function as both a high-energy battery and a high-power supercapacitor, which are generally separate components in most electrical systems. Another key feature is the capability to use human blood or sweat to help power the battery. “It’s essentially a regular piece of paper, but it’s made in a very intelligent way,” said researcher Robert Linhardt.
“We’re not putting pieces together – it’s a single, integrated device,” he said. “The components are molecularly attached to each other: the carbon nanotube print is embedded in the paper, and the electrolyte is soaked into the paper. The end result is a device that looks, feels, and weighs the same as paper.” The researchers used ionic liquid, essentially a liquid salt, as the battery’s electrolyte. It’s important to note that ionic liquid contains no water, which means there’s nothing in the batteries to freeze or evaporate.
Along with use in small handheld electronics, the paper batteries’ light weight could make them ideal for use in automobiles, aircraft, and even boats. The paper also could be molded into different shapes, such as a car door, which would enable important new engineering innovations.
Link: http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2280
5. As China roars, pollution reaches deadly extremes
Authors: Kahn, Joseph; Yardley, Jim
Source: New York Times, August 26, 2007
Abstract: No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take decades and big dollops of public wealth to undo. But just as the speed and scale of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut. Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water.
Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union. Beijing is frantically searching for a magic formula, a meteorological deus ex machina, to clear its skies for the 2008 Olympics.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html
6. Sustainability: balancing opportunity and risk in the consumer products industry
Source: Deloitte; GMA/FPA, 2007
Abstract: To ascertain how sustainability will impact the Consumer Products (CP) industry, the GMA/FPA collaborated with Deloitte Consulting LLP to understand the key drivers and trends of sustainability, including:
• An industry assessment to develop a common framework for defining sustainability
• An evaluation of sustainability practices and emerging requirements of key retailers
• Identification of leading practices in managing environmental sustainability
• An understanding of the regulatory environment’s impact on sustainability
Through a series of interviews, surveys and research with leading CP manufacturers, retailers, suppliers and environmental experts, performed during April and May 2007, this study provides an evaluation of business impacts associated with key sustainability initiatives. This study also puts forward a sustainability “path forward” for companies to consider as part of their sustainability journey.
A Compendium of Retailer Practices in Sustainability has been compiled to highlight key sustainability activities in which U.S. and global retailers are currently engaged. The Compendium includes retailers from a range of retail channels: grocery, mass, club, specialty, drug, and convenience stores. The GMA/FPA Sales Committee provided significant input in prioritizing and selecting appropriate retail customers in each channel. The Compendium will be made available as a searchable Microsoft Access™ database on the GMA/FPA Web site to member companies.
The Compendium has been compiled from publicly available sources, and includes specific information on retailer strategies, programs, goals and metrics, governance policies and compliance infrastructure, amongst others. The depth and breadth of information varies across retailers due to the fact that many U.S. retailers are in the early stages of developing their sustainability strategies. Many European retailers have more developed programs largely driven by regulatory requirements and consumer preference.
Link: http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/
us_cb_sustainability-study_june2007opt.pdf
7. Health impacts of estrogens in the environment, considering complex mixture effects
Author: Filby, Amy L.; Neuparth, Teresa; Thorpe, Karen L.; Owen, Richard; Galloway, Tamara S.; Tyler, Charles R.
Source: Environmental Health Perspectives, Article-in-press, Online 30 August 2007
Abstract: Environmental estrogens in wastewater treatment works (WwTWs) effluents are well established as the principal cause of reproductive disruption in wild fish populations, but their possible role in the wider health effects of effluents has not been established. We assessed the contribution of estrogens to adverse health effects induced in a model fish species by exposure to WwTW effluents and compared effects of an estrogen alone and as part of a complex mixture (i.e. spiked into effluent). Growth, genotoxic, immunotoxic, metabolic, and endocrine (feminized) responses were compared in fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) exposed for 21 days to a potent-estrogenic effluent, a weakly-estrogenic effluent before and after spiking with a steroidal estrogen (17F-ethinylestradiol (EE2)) and to EE2 alone. In addition to endocrine disruption, effluent exposure induced genotoxic damage, modulated immune function, and altered metabolism, many of which were elicited in a gender-specific manner and were proportional to the estrogenic potencies of the effluents. A key finding was that some of the responses to EE2 were modified when it was present in a complex mixture (i.e. spiked into effluent), suggesting that mixture effects may not be easily modelled for effluent discharges and when the chemicals impact on a diverse array of biological axes. These data reveal a clear link between estrogens present in effluents and diverse, adverse and gender-related health impacts. Our findings also highlight the need for an improved understanding of interactive effects of chemical toxicants on biological systems for understanding health effects of environmental mixtures.
Link: http://www.ehponline.org/members/2007/10443/10443.pdf
You are welcome to send a message to jan@turi.org if you would like more information on any of these resources. Also, please tell us what topics you are particularly interested in monitoring, and who else should see GREENLIST. An online search of the TURI Library catalog can be done at http://slk060.liberty3.net/turi/ for greater topic coverage.
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