When you purchase carbon credits to offset your personal greenhouse gas emissions, do you really know where that money is going or how those credits are counted in the market? The Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) will make sure you do with their upcoming Green-e Certified Greenhouse Gas Reduction Product Certification Program.

CRS has been in the renewable energy certification and verification business for ten years. Their Green-e certification programs provide assurance to consumers that the businesses sporting the Green-e logo meet the program's requirements for renewable energy options. Now Green-e is expanding their certification guidelines to include Greenhouse Gas Reduction (GHG) products.

While most companies assure customers that money spent on GHG reduction products, like personal renewable energy credits, will go towards specific things like planting trees or funding wind farm projects, there are currently no standards or verification processes in place.

CRS hopes to fill this void with the Green-e GHG Product Certification Program, which will set product standards, develop a verification process and release consumer disclosure guidelines.

The details of the Green-e GHG program are still being finalized. CRS is working with a governance board, an advisory group and stakeholders in the development of the standard. While the governance board and the advisory group are made up of industry experts, and environmental organizaitons and businesses, anyone can be a stakeholder and give input on this process. All of the documents involved are downloadable at Green-e.org.

One important factor in this certification process is the issue of additionality, or making sure that GHG reduction products sold to customers are verified, that they aren't counted elsewhere and that money goes towards projects that would not have happened without the carbon market. Strict additionality standards will add credibility to the voluntary carbon market and ensure that your purchase really will make a difference.

Green-e analyst Lars Kvale stresses, however, that regardless of certification, consumers should not buy carbon credits in lieu of reducing their own green house gas emissions.

What we're trying to do with the certification program is to enable consumers to offset their emissions they can't reduce… For example, most environmentally minded folks still take airplane trips and you can't buy a ticket for a renewable powered airplane. That's just not possible right now.

So this is where folks are coming and saying, well if i can't do that, let me do what's the next best, which is to get a reduction somewhere else. Then on balance it will even out with the understanding that yes, it doesn't mean my airplane does not have any impact, it means I'm offsetting that impact. [This program will] enable that to work for consumers. It's not an instead of, but really in addition to energy efficiency and buying renewable energy.

Green-e has invited sellers of GHG reductions to participate, including the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) and Gold Standard. The Green-e GHG Product Certification Program is expected to roll out this summer.

Illustration: Ilana Kohn

Photo: Green OptionsBeneath the electronic lights and rolling LED displays in New York City's Times Square, Yahoo! announced their "Greenest City in America" Challenge today.

The concept behind the challenge is to get individuals to make a difference by taking small actions in their every day lives. Yahoo! co-founder David Filo said he wanted to tap into the half a billion Yahoo! users to encourage greener lifestyles.

People can participate at the Yahoo! Be a Better Planet site. For each action you take through a Yahoo! green site you'll rack up points for you and your city. The city with the most points by June 8 will receive a small fleet of hybrid taxis. Individual participants with enough points will get a free compact flourescent bulb (CFL). Photo: Green Options

Actor Matt Dillon said, "I'm concerned with many environmental threats facing us and I want to do my part at reducing global warming." He encouraged the use of motion sensored lights, and suggested a few things each person can do such as replacing incandescnet light bulbs with CFLs, turning off the lights in empty rooms, walking or taking public transportation and unplugging chargers from outlets.

Photo: Green Options: Global Green CEO, Matt Petersen (left); Matt Dillon, actor (center); David Filo, co-founder Yahoo! (right)Matt Petersen, President and CEO of Global Green USA, stressed that when people take individual actions at home and at work, it will not only improve the lives of everyone but will send an important message to corporations and governments across the U.S. that Americans support the mayors climate protection agreement. The mayors climate protection agreement was initiated by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels to get mayors of cities across the nation to come together to reduce municipal green house gas emissions in leiu of federal support.

The Greenest City in America challenge is just the latest effort by Yahoo! as they move toward greening their practices and operations. Earlier this year Yahoo! teamed up with the producers of An Inconvenient Truth to create an eco-info site 18seconds.org, and last month announced plans to take Yahoo! carbon neutral.

So you want something simple to do your part? Just unplug your cell phone charger.

When your phone is charging it's only using about 5% of the power it sucks from your outlet. That other 95% adds up to a lot of wasted energy, especially if you leave it plugged in minus the phone.

Of course you could get rid of that conventional charger all together and go wireless with Wild Charge, or opt for a solar powered charger. (Solar powered cell phones are still a little ways off.)

Soon your cell phone may even remind you to unplug. Last year, the European Commission's mobile industry task force (led by Nokia) announced that cell phones will include alerts to remind people to unplug the charger once the phone is fully charged.

Amy says: I used to be very guilty of leaving the charger plugged in. Now I've got into the habit of disconnecting the charger from the wall, then disconnecting the phone from the charger. It seems easier to remember doing it in that order rather than the other way around.

More information:
Tree Hugger

A top Chinese legislator has asked the media to help the government in controlling pollution.

During an annual media tour, where journalists representing 28 state media outlets tour the country, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, Wu Bangguo, called for a greater role for the media in raising awareness of environmental issues in China.

Wu suggested that the media should create public awareness surrounding energy use and conservation, and should cover environmental problems facing the country - more specifically calling for in depth reports on issues that get the most complaints.

This 2007 media tour is focused on topics of energy consumption and pollutant emissions - both areas that the central government are falling behind on in their targets. Although much of the state run media is, well, controlled by the state, utilizing the media to help in emission reduction and energy use targets is a good move for the country and could mean we'll see more coverage of these issues (both positive and negative) in China and beyond.

Via China.org.cn

Your credit just got a little greener.

Wells Fargo credit card and bank card customers have another choice in redeeming rewards points. Now, in addition to gift cards or airline tickets, Wells Fargo is offering up wind power. 5,000 points will get you 6,000 kilowatt hours, which they say is "equivalent to the clean air benefits of three acres of pine forest storing carbon for one year." 10,000 points will probably offset your carbon output for a whole year.

The green power points will be available to cardholders in May, which is the same time Bright Planet's Bright Card is set to launch. Bank of America isn't far behind Bright Planet on the US front, and The Barclaycard will hit the UK this summer.

So, the big question is (aside from, "What's in Your Wallet?") will people take advantage of these green credit options or will they stick with the emission intensive air miles? Would you choose to support wind power projects or put your spending power towards travel?

Via Environmental Leader; Paymentsnews.com

Addressing the need for greater public education about oil, President Bush announced yesterday during his weekly radio address that April will now be known as National Oil Awareness month.

Recent opinion polls show a decline in the public's understanding of how important oil is in their every day lives. Sixty-seven percent of respondents said they didn't think oil was necessary or important. Seventy-five percent refused to believe that the US is dependent on oil. The president said he is unahppy with these numbers.

We must start today to educate the American public about the importance of oil in our communities - in our lives. I ask you to join me in this - this awareness campaign and celebrate oil in this month of April. It is imperative that we do so in order to preserve our nation's freedom and democracy. Our future depends on it. Oil is your right - your right as an American citizen.

The month long public awareness campaign will kick off with the televised premiere of a new documentary, "The Joys of Oil". Associated educational materials will be available online for K-12 classroom use, including lesson plans and curriculum ideas for teachers. Virtual tours of oil rigs and the offshore drilling process will also be available on the site.

The president has also called on city and state governments to participate with events in their areas. One Texas town has already committed to hosting an Oil Festival culminating with a parade down Main Street, which they have renamed "Oil Road" in honor of the awareness efforts.

National Oil Awareness month is definitely a step in the right direction and clearly sends the message to other countries that Americans value their oil.

UPDATE: April Fools! 

Vermont Governor Jim Douglas will travel to China in June to help promote the state's green industries and share clean and alternative energy technologies with leaders there.

During the trip Douglas and members of his delegation will meet with environmental and government officials to expand the market for Vermont businesses and products, and to share sustainable technology solutions as a way of helping to reduce the impacts of climate change. The delegation will also travel to the China International Environmental Protection Exhibition and Conference (CIEPEC), an exhibition for environmental protection products and services.

In January, the Governor introduced what is known as The Vermont Way Forward, an economic development initiative to create jobs through technological advancement, environmental leadership and innovative education. Douglas says that this visit to China will help further those efforts.

“An important part of the Vermont Way Forward is my plan to make Vermont a world center for environmental engineering and technology, I believe this represents the state’s best opportunity to influence climate change and to be a world leader in environmental protection and the development of sustainable technology.”

Vermont's environmental technology and alternative energy expertise includes landfill methane recovery and power generating facilities, wind farms, distributed energy research and development, and Cow Power - the production of energy using methane from cow manure.

Via Vermont.gov

The IT industry has come together to make data centers more energy efficient.

Leading computer hardware and software giants have created a consortium called the Green Grid to address their power problem. A recent report revealed that data centers, the backbone of the IT industry, are huge energy suckers. The consortium intends to look at this pressing issue and find ways to solve it.

Their mission statement calls for:

Defining meaningful, user-centric models and metrics; Developing standards, measurement methods, processes and new technologies to improve performance against the defined metrics; Promoting the adoption of energy efficient standards, processes, measurements and technologies.

The Green Grid's Board of Directors includes AMD, APC, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Rackable Systems, SprayCool, Sun Microsystems, and VMware. The consortium has also released three white papers on the topic, available at TheGreengrid.org.

While there is pending legislation in Washington regarding data center energy use, the technology industry is not waiting for mandatory rules to come into effect and are finding ways to self-regulate a growing problem.

Via GreenBiz; The Green Grid

Image source: ENS

The campaign against 11 proposed dirty coal-fired power plants in Texas ended with the announcement of the buyout of utility giant TXU and a deal with environmental groups.Two private equity firms, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company and Texas Pacific Group, will purchase TXU for $32 billion. Part of the deal included scrapping the plans for 8 plants, and increased efforts toward emission reductions.

TXU’s stock had been dropping steadily since the grassroots effort to stop the proposed power plants, led by Environmental Defense and backed by governments, politicians and citizens statewide and across the nation. The opposition has been going strong since utility giant TXU announced their grand coal plans last April.

One could argue the turning point came just a few weeks ago when Environmental Defense began running television ads in Texas markets calling out TXU for their 11 plant proposal.

The ad is reminicent of negative campaign ads that run during political season. It gets straight to the point, making claims against TXU for raising prices to increase profit margins and lays out the potential polluting effects that the proposed 11 dirty coal plants will have. The screen is filled with smoke stacks spewing dirty pollution. The call to action is clear: Stop TXU from building more plants.

The ads worked and elicited a response from TXU to Environmental Defense. They took issue with nearly every statement against TXU in the ad, and responded accordingly. In the letter TXU accused Environmental Defense as spreading information that was misleading, and requested that the ads be removed.

Environmental Defense wrote back and said they would not stop running their ads and that all the claims they made in the ad against TXU were consistent with statements they’ve made publicly for months.

Fast forward ten days later. Feb 26. Environmental Defense has declared a victory in the TXU campaign with the announcement of the TXU buyout. Along with the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Goldman Sachs, Environmental Defense worked out an agreement with the private equity firms.

In addition to withdrawing permit applications for eight proposed coal plants, Texas Pacific Group and KKR have agreed to:

• Terminate TXU’s previous plans to expand coal operations in other states
• Endorse the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (US CAP) platform, including the call for a mandatory federal cap on carbon emissions
• Reduce the company’s carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020
• Promote Demand-Side Management programs to reduce energy consumption
• Double the company’s expenditures on energy efficiency measures
• Double the company’s purchase of wind power
• Honor TXU’s agreement to reduce criteria pollutants in Texas by 20% (TXU’s 20% pledge was contingent upon approval of all 11 plants)
• Establish a Sustainable Energy Advisory Board, on which Environmental Defense regional director Jim Marston will serve

However, not everyone is celebrating the news. A Dallas Morning News article points out that the fight is long from over.

[The buyout] doesn’t resolve the fundamental environmental problems that made the huge fleet of proposed coal plants so controversial across the state and the nation. Solving those would require a longer effort to make basic changes in how Texas deals with energy and the environment.

Texas will still be the largest emitter of GHG, and the deal might make it harder to fight ongoing battles with existing plants and permits in other areas.

Local battles over the three remaining new TXU coal plants and five others that other companies still could build in Texas will continue as well. In particular, TXU’s proposed two-unit Oak Grove facility in Robertson County is the subject of a permit fight before the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Oak Grove’s two units and a new unit at TXU’s Sandow plant in Milam County are the only ones the company proposed that would burn Texas lignite, the most-polluting form of coal. The others would have burned cleaner Wyoming coal. Opponents said they would continue to fight the Oak Grove permit. But Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, who is leading a coalition of cities against the new TXU plants, said the TXU deal could make it harder to defeat that plant.

As part of the deal, Environmental Defense agreed to drop the lawsuit over the proposed plant at Sandow.

An article in the Houston Chronicle cites skepticism that the deal will actually benefit consumers at all.

Overall, this deal is a win for environmental groups. It demonstrates the power of an effective grassroots campaign and that good things do come when groups like Environmental Defense and the NRDC are at the table in the decision making process.

However, the United States is still clearly lacking in federal emission mitigation policy, which should mandate the cleanest technologies available for new coal plants.

Further reading:
Environmental Defense Press Releases: Feb. 16. Feb. 26 (The letters between TXU and Environmental Defense are also available through those press releases.)
The New York Times
Houston Chronicle
Dallas Morning News

Watch the Environmental Defense ad here

Image source: hardCOREware.net

hardCOREware.net, a site devoted to in-depth reviews on consumer electronics, recently compared gaming consoles. But this wasn't just any old test comparing games or special features, they were testing power consumption.

The results: Nintendo Wii uses significantly less power than the PC, XBOX 360 or Playstation 3. Wii comes in at just 18 watts, compared to the average of 200 watts of its competitors during video game play. Even in idle mode, Wii wins hands down.

Since the Wii is leading in console sales over XBOX 360 and PS3, it looks like gamers everywhere are doing their part to conserve a little energy.

Via engadget

Read more about the study at hardCOREware.net