Public Transportation

I think we have all noticed the terrible black ploombs of exhaust that trail many of the buses here in town. In theory public transportation is supposed to help reduce the number of cars on the road, and therfore reduce our community's footprint. However, the RTS bus system in Gainesville is terribly wasteful and I believe it actually worsens the air quality here in town.
The first of my concerns is the terrible state of a number of buses. As we heard from Mr. Davies, diesel is extremely toxic, and the majority of the buses here in town lack even the most basic pollution control technologies. This is due to the age of most of the buses, and the low budget of RTS. However, in many cities, including New York City, they have enacted retrofitting projects that can help reduce emissions by up to 90%. This would be a huge step in the right direction for Gainesville. Here is an article describing such projects. NRDC public trasportation. There are many other viable solutuons to help reduce the toxicity, and volume of the diesel emmissions. Certainly, conservation is a necessary element. I often see empty buses during off peak hours, buses with the engines on while waiting to start the route, and many of the routes have way too many stops. Let's hear ideas about possible solutions, that are viable, cost effective, and would make an impact on the bus's pollution.

Recyclable Cars

It's not my turn, but I thought this was fitting. Ms. Delongpre meantioned in class BMW international has an extensive recycling program, but BMW USA does not. Well, Ford is trying to do just that with their cars, along with shifitng their focus from ineffecient SUV's.
Here's the link: cars.com
Patrick O'Donoughue

Whole Foods goes 100% wind

Boulder deal is largest corporate purchase of renewable energy
By Eric Schmidt, Camera Staff Writer
January 11, 2006

Whole Foods Market has contracted with a Boulder company to offset all of its electric needs with wind power in the largest-ever corporate purchase of renewable energy.
Announced Tuesday, the deal makes Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods the only Fortune 500 company to buy wind-power credits equivalent to 100 percent of its electricity use, according to a news release.

The natural grocer's purchase of 458,000 megawatt-hours in credits from Boulder-based Renewable Choice Energy will replace the electricity used at all its stores, offices and other facilities in the United States and Canada and eliminate 700 million pounds of carbon dioxide pollution in the coming year.

"This is an ongoing commitment that Whole Foods has to the environment," spokesman Scott Simons said. "We really wanted to make a big statement in our communities and say this is something we're strongly committed to."

The company's shift to wind power began in the Rocky Mountain region several years ago and spread across the country, Simons said.

"The Boulder store actually had a very big hand in the wind-power movement," he said. "Louis Karp, who used to run the Boulder store, was instrumental in developing a wind-power program for our company."

Karp, who now works for Whole Foods in Denver, could not be reached Tuesday.
Shares of Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFMI) rose 55 cents Tuesday to $78.18.

Renewable Choice, whose clients include Johnson & Johnson, Sprint and the city of Boulder, acts as a broker between wind farms and customers who want clean, sustainable energy, said Quayle Hodek, chief executive officer. Because it's impossible to direct wind energy to specific locations on the national power grid, the transaction works by selling consumers wind credits equal to the amount of coal- or gas-fired electricity they normally use.

Neither company would disclose terms of the Whole Foods deal.

Wind power generally costs a premium of about 2 cents per kilowatt-hour for residential customers — around $15 monthly on top of an average family's electric bill — Hodek said, although larger businesses can negotiate discounts. [A Gainesville green building project was recently quoted wind power from the same Boulder firm for an 0.8 cent/kwh premium.-DN]

The agreement is an unprecedented sale for Renewable Choice, and an example for other energy users that wind power is a viable alternative to fossil fuels, Hodek said.

"It really helps us on a national level to be able to communicate more effectively with a lot of the other Fortune 500 (companies) that are looking to do this," he said. "And from a residential customer perspective, our customers are always excited when they see more companies signing up."

Contact Camera Staff Writer Eric Schmidt at (303) 473-1628 or schmidte@dailycamera.com.
Copyright 2006, The Daily Camera. All Rights Reserved.

Establishing Rapport

This blog is designed to stimulate thought, dialogue and action related to principles and practices that advance sustainability. Guidelines are as follows:

1. Students are required to post two threads at some point in the semester. We ask that you spread them out. You can post your own thoughts/topic for your thread--or borrow a thread from elsewhere provided you cite the source.
2. The thread's author will, after a 2 week comment period, summarize the thread and all responses in less than 300 words plus a participation list naming all responders. Please email the summaries. Do not post them to the blog.
3. Students are required to respond intelligently to 6 threads per semester, not including their own. Response quality as well as quantity will be evaluated and graded. The faculty encourage students to focus on how the topic being discussed can be actioned; that is, what can be learned about the topic that advances the implementation of sustainability-related principles and practices.
4. Faculty may post their own threads from time to time. Students are required to respond to all faculty posts. This does not count towards your 6 student-post responses.
5. Students must use their real names, no screen names.
6. No new threads after 4/11/2006
7. No new posts after 4/24/2006
8. All work in by 5/1/2006

In order to control spam and content, all students must be invited to be members of the blog in order to post threads or comments. Dave Newport will do this shortly after the beginning of the term.

This will be fun--or heads will roll!

Dave Newport bio

Dave Newport was appointed Director, Environmental Center, University of Colorado-Boulder, in December 2005. Dave’s background is in environmental and sustainability research, teaching, publishing, and public service.

Dave comes to Boulder from his previous post as the University of Florida’s Director of the Office of Sustainability. At UF, he researched and published higher educations’ first sustainability report compiled to global business standards, led global efforts aimed at unifying sustainability reporting in higher education, sheparded a plan to make the nation’s fourth largest university “a global leader in sustainability,” launched a zero-waste program that has since become UF’s 2025 target for all operations, and published carbon-neutrality research and planning designed to make the university climate-neutral. Dave also taught UF’s Honors Program Sustainability course, community leadership courses, and lectured extensively on campus greening and transparency.

Like the E-Center’s previous Director Will Toor, Dave’s experience includes elected service in his local community. Dave was a county commissioner from 1998-2002 and elected Chairman of the Alachua County Commission (Gainesville, Florida) in 2000. He championed renewable energy and energy conservation efforts for the county leading to the state’s first green fleet program and significant energy program enhancements, biogas systems, and community-wide greenhouse-gas reduction targets. He also proposed and won broad consensus for a sustainable economic development policy that fostered local, clean commerce. Dave also led efforts to infuse county growth management laws with sustainability principles and practices aimed at curbing sprawl, abating air pollution, enhancing poverty elimination programs, and incorporating full cost accounting into development planning.

From 1986-1998, Dave published print and online environmental news products including Florida Environments Magazine and Environment 21. His publications won numerous awards including the Florida Audubon Society Environmental Journalist of the Year Award, the Florida Defenders of the Environment Media Service Award, the United Nations Environmental Programme Global 500 Award, and the Al Burt Award for Outstanding Environmental Journalism from 1000 Friends of Florida.

Dave previously taught Environmental Science Technology at Santa Fe Community College. He is a specialist in the area of environmental sampling and analysis of water and air media using gas chromatography, atomic absorption spectroscopy, and other instrumental and wet chemical techniques. Dave helped develop many advanced environmental analysis techniques as a researcher for a pulp and paper industry research foundation and as a sub-contractor to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Dave is currently a graduate student completing a Masters of Science degree in Energy Resource Management and Policy from the University of Maryland, University College. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Syracuse University with concentrations in Management and Communications, and an Associate of Science degree from Santa Fe Community College in Environmental Science Technology. Dave is also a Fellow of the American Hospital Association’s Healthy Community Leadership program, a LEED accredited professional for green building by the US Green Building Council, and a Stephen Covey-certified leadership trainer.

Dave has written, published, and presented widely on the topics of sustainability reporting, campus greening, and the practices and principles of sustainability and leadership. Dave has served on dozens of related boards and committees including:

• US Environmental Protection Agency Higher Education Sector Performance Monitoring Task Force (current)
  
• ULSF-UNEP-GRI Sustainability Indicators Working Group
  
• Alachua Conservation Trust, Inc
  
• Sustainable Alachua County, Inc
  
• Community Indicators Task Force, Healthy Communities Initiative of Alachua County, Inc.
  
• City of Gainesville, Florida Sustainability Committee
  
• Florida Association of Counties
  
• International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI)
  
• North Central Florida Regional Planning Council
  
• Florida Society of Environmental Analysts
  
• Alachua County Library District Governing Board
  

Dave remains a board member and Strategic Policy Director for Cross Creek Initiative, Inc., a Florida-based non-profit that works with public and private sector clients on green building, energy, and sustainability planning. In that capacity, Dave has pioneered green building strategies for commercial developers, sustainability initiatives for businesses and community colleges, and community leadership systems for national labor unions.

An avid boater and fisherman, recumbent bicycler, and combined-driving horse-carriage competitor, Dave also plays the pedal steel guitar.

He is married to Nancy Lockhart Newport and together they have five children ages 11-27. Nancy is the business manager of their church and proprietor of their horse-boarding and training farm outside of Gainesville, Florida.

Dave is now a Boulder resident making frequent Florida visits. His family will be moving to Boulder during summer 2006.