Aug 21 2007

Over 21 percent of publicly traded companies that outsource functions have added "green policies and performance" demands to their vendor contractual arrangements in 2007, and over 94 percent plan on adding clauses or including "green" in their renegotiations processes, according to a recent study by Brown-Wilson Group, authors of The Black Book of Outsourcing. In private companies, 36 percent of executives are currently considering greener outsourcing service agreements in 2008.

Among first time outsourcing clients in 2007, 43 percent included green factors in their selection processes and 18 percent added contractual goals for outsourcers.

August 22, 2007

Cutting greenhouse gas emission need not be distant dream or expensive. Advocates of co-firing bio-mass with coal or natural gas say that it is an effective way for utilities to begin now to reduce their carbon footprints.

Biomass consists of any fuel produced from organic matter. That includes forest waste, agricultural waste, organic waste and municipal waste. Biomass produced from wood chips, for example, can be mixed with certain types of coal before the new compound is combusted. It can all be accomplished, say experts, without having to change the fuel-firing system.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

ELKTON - Workers erected the Thumb area's first commercial wind turbine Wednesday, and heads were spinning even if the structure's blades weren't yet turning to make electricity.

Motorists cruised along Richardson and Gagetown roads in Huron County's Oliver Township, rubbernecking at a turbine where blades reach a peak height of 396 feet above the ground.

''The people were lined up in cars all along Richardson Road as far as I could see to the east, and they were parked in the fields, parked all over the place,'' said Adolph Einhardt, 86, who watched iron workers and crane operators raise the first turbine on Helen Young's farm.

August 20, 2007

In the area of coal, the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is the go-to guy. The cornerstone of all NETL's undertakings right now is the FutureGen, which would be the most advanced coal-fired power plant ever invented. The agency's main ally is the FutureGen Alliance that is made up of major utilities made up of major utilities and coal companies. Various contractors, meanwhile, are assigned to bits and pieces of the deal.