Coca-Cola's Solar Rebuilding in Japanese Schools

Coca-Cola is installing solar panels on Japanese schools to help with the country’s rehabilitation. The Coca-Cola Japan Reconstruction Fund was established under the Coca-Cola Educational & Environmental Foundation. This fund has allocated 1.5 billion yen (US$18.9 million) to integrate solar power into the rebuilding of public elementary and junior high schools damaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Japan’s Cabinet Office estimated last June that damage on the country’s buildings, roads, and ports has reached 16.9 trillion yen, Reuters reported. The World Bank estimated that damage could amount to as much as $235 billion, while rebuilding could take up to five years.

The rebuilding program will be implemented with the support of Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Funding for the school rebuilding will be extracted from the overall 2.5 billion yen fund collected for the reconstruction of the affected areas.

Coca-Cola with the ministry, local governments, and other organizational bodies will select the schools that are eligible for the solar reconstruction funding.

Sustainability initiatives are part of Coca-Cola's company wide efforts. Coca-Cola Japan has been working to reduce energy consumption and introduce renewable energy in business practices. The Japan subsidiary has previously been behind novel programs like the introduction of solar-powered "ecoru/Solar" vending machines.

The Coca-Cola Company aims to maintain a water sustainable business on a global scale, so they developed and implemented a water stewardship strategy, with a global goal to safely return to nature and to communities an amount of water equivalent to what they use in their beverages and their production by 2020. Since 2005, with the help of respected partners like WWF and USAID, Coca-Cola has engaged in more than 320 water projects in 86 countries. Projects have focused on watershed protection and conservation, expanding community drinking water, sanitation access, and improving water for productive use.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Cleanovation 2011: Israel and Texas Working Together for Cleantech

The Texas-Israel Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the Government of Israel’s Economic Mission to the Southern Region will host Cleanovation in Houston on Sep 14, 2011. More than 300 participants are anticipated to attend, along with leaders from Fortune 100, select emerging growth companies and the public sector with many having headquarters in Texas or Israel.

The Cleanovation conference features the best Israeli and Global cleantech companies, it is designed for building business opportunities for cleantech companies in Texas, all of USA and Israel. The event is also designed to help interested parties find optimal partners, customers and identify primary and/or supplemental funding.

The conference provides first-hand access to most sophisticated technologies for energy efficiency, alternative energy, water filtration and more.

Cleanovation has emerged as one of the most important clean technology events (including energy efficiency, water, smart-grid and more) for decision makers and thought leaders from around the globe.

To register click here. Last year’s success may be viewed here. Thursday September 15th, 2011 is the Rice Alliance Annual Energy & Clean Technology Venture Forum, showcasing the Most Promising Emerging Energy Technology Companies. Note: Numerous Venture Capitalists will attend participate.

Featured Highlights

• Conference Attendees : Waste Management, Ernst & Young, CenterPoint Energy, IDE, McGuireWoods, GE Digital Energy, IBM, Chevron Energy Technology Company, Ein Netafim, Clear Results Consulting, Amida, Alvarion, Gnrgy, Enverid, Environmental Energy Resources, DST, Austin Technology Incubator, San Antonio Water System, El Paso Water Utilities, National Algae Association, Beemtech, Green Mountain Energy, The Dow Chemical Company, Waterfall Security Solutions, CDM, Resources Renewable,USA, and more.
• One-on-one meetings to build and fund your business
• Presentations by featured Israeli & US companies
• More than 200 industry professionals expected
• New industry technology
• Break-out sessions and private meetings will be arranged

Quick Facts

• Due to Israel’s scarce natural resources, it is leading the world in water and alternative energy innovations.
• Israel is the Silicon Valley of water. Relative to its small size, Israel has devoted more resources to the development of wastewater treatment and reclamation than any other country in the world.
• Home grown Israeli VC community – Israel has a vibrant local VC community which includes Israel Cleantech Ventures, AquaAgro and Terra Ventures – three firms dedicated to investing in Israel’s cleantech sector.
• The sun shines brightly over Israel - The solar radiation Israel receives is a driver of solar thermal companies.
• Leveragability of tech expertise to cleantech – Israel’s tech sector has flourished through the creation of core technology competencies that are world leading.
• The Bird Energy Fund, a joint U.S & Israeli government fund targeted to fund R&D partnerships between Israeli and U.S companies has been making grants on a regular basis. The Texas-Israel Chamber can help you find the right partner.
• Israeli US Venture Capital Firms firms have already committed to participate in this event representing over $1B in investment potential.

For details, including a list of benefits, click here.

Princeton is Building the Largest Solar Array of Any University

Princeton University is planning to build a 27-acre solar field consisting of 16,500 photovoltaic panels making it the largest solar field for any US college or university. It will produce enough energy to power 700 households. The EPA estimates that the solar array is equivalent of taking more than 1,200 cars off the road, which translates to a reduction of 3,090 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.

The solar array is part of Princeton’s 2008 sustainability plan to reduce its carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. SunPower Corp. is buidling the solar array, which will produce at least 8 million kilowatts per year, while powering more than 5 percent of the school's power requirements and reducing energy costs by 8 percent.

Princeton will use New Jersey's Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC) program, to help pay for the cost of the array. Under the program, the state will issue one SREC for every 1,000 kilowatt hours of energy produced by the solar array until 2020. The university will then sell the credits to a utility company.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Solar Powered Schools In California

An increasing number of California's schools are using solar electricity installations as a teaching tool. The Foundation for Environmental Education has partnered with Pacific Gas and Electric Company to bring renewable energy education into under-served communities through highly-visible solar installation systems. The Foundation for Environmental Education is a non-profit organization that is seeking to build the next generation of thinkers who will carry the renewable energy torch far into the future. California's Solar Schools initiative will help the state save over $1.5 billion in energy costs over the next 30 years.

The California Solar Schools program works in partnership with solar panel manufacturer SunPower, to help K-12 and higher education institutions across the state take advantage of local solar subsidies that will partially fund the installation of solar panels on their buildings.

The solar panels that are installed as part of the Solar Schools program are all equipped with monitoring systems so that children in that school can learn about how the solar power. “Whether it be a 1 kW solar panel on a pole, or a roof-mounted system on a non-profit building, each is hooked up to an online data monitoring system so that the community can view the energy production of the system and learn about the environmental impact of that system,” the California Solar School’s website says.

Over the next year, SunPower aims to install 90 solar arrays at schools across the state as part of the program. In the San Ramon Valley Unified School District there will be five new solar arrays that will account for nearly 80% of each school’s power requirements. In the first year alone the San Ramon Valley Unified School District will saved $2 million in energy costs.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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The False Choice Between the Economy and the Environment

In debates on the issue of climate change we are often asked to make a false choice between the environment and the economy. However, an intelligent discussion of climate change cannot be framed as a choice between the environment and the economy.

The rise of sustainable business is making it abundantly clear that we can have it both ways. Businesses are adopting new models that both contribute to the economy while minimizing their environmental footprints.

According to a May 2011 Yale Survey, 56% of Americans now believe that protecting the environment improves economic growth and provides new jobs.

Previous polemics argued that you can either have the economy or the environment. Contemporary wisdom reveals that you can have both.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Greenpeace Campaign is Asking Facebook to Unfriend Coal and Befriend Renewable Energy

Greenpeace has been peacefully defending the planet since 1971, now they are asking Facebook to unfriend coal by Earth Day on April 22, 2011.

Greenpeace has played a pivotal role in huge environment victories including:

- Commercial whaling moratorium
- Ban on toxic waste exports to less developed countries
- Bans on dumping radioactive and industrial waste at sea
- 50-year moratorium on mineral exploitation in Antarctica
- An end to large-scale high-sea driftnet fishing
- Establishment of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary
- Ban on all nuclear weapons testing

Today, the fight to save the planet has grown more serious than ever. The threat of global warming, destruction of ancient forests, deterioration of our oceans, and the threat of a nuclear disaster loom large. Greenpeace is actively working to address these and other threats.

Greenpeace's newest campaign is encouraging Facebook to drop coal and commit to 100 percent renewable energy, cutting its carbon footprint and helping in the struggle to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Facebook announced in February 2010 that it is building a massive data centre in Oregon, using the latest energy efficient computers. But the Facebook data center will run on electricity made by burning coal which is the dirtiest source of energy and largest single source of global warming pollution in the world.

Greenpeace wants Facebook to run their massive data-centres on renewable energy, and ‘Unfriend’ dirty coal and dangerous nuclear. Greenpeace also wants to see Facebook be a climate leader and push for strong clean energy and climate policies in the US and around the world.

According to Greenpeace, Facebook uses about 55 percent coal power while Google uses 34 percent and Yahoo uses just 12.7 percent.

Join others in demanding that Facebook commit to stop using coal and choose renewable power for all its servers as soon as possible.

To support this campaign, join Greenpeace's Facebook group and help Greenpeace to get the social networking website to go green. You can also share this post on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.

Greenpeace is also trying set a Guinness World Record by getting more than 50,000 comments for Renewable Energy in 24hrs on April 13, 2011. Add your comment by simply following the steps below:

1. To comment on this post you must first ‘Like’ Greenpeace's Unfriend Coal Facebook page.

2. Click here to leave comments for Facebook staff, in support of renewable energy.

3. Repeat! You can comment more than once - it is still counted in the record attempt!

4. Share this note on your profile to spread the word among your friends!

Greenpeace is displaying your comments today directly outside FB headquarters in California. The best 50 commenters worldwide will get a ‘Facebook Unfriend Coal t-shirts. For more information on this campaign click here.

UPDATE

Greenpeace International has succeeded in setting a world record for getting the highest number of comments on one of its Facebook pages in a single day. According to an email blast to subscribers/members, the world record consists of no less than 80,000 comments in at least 11 different languages on the Facebook Unfriend Coal page. The initial target of 50, 000 comments was met just 11 hours after the call for posting comments on the page was sent out to members.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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