MINNETONKA, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NatureWorks LLC, the world’s leading bioplastics manufacturer, announced today that Thailand’s largest chemical producer, PTT Chemical Public Company Limited (PTT Chemical) is investing US$150 million in NatureWorks. NatureWorks supplies its broad family of renewable Ingeo™ biopolymers made from plants to plastics and fibers markets worldwide. PTT Chemical’s investment in NatureWorks, until now wholly owned by Cargill, is subject...

JULIA Gillard will today win lower-house support for her carbon tax package, the most dramatic economic transformation since the dismantling of tariffs in the 1990s, despite rising industry concerns that the $23 a tonne starting price will hit the competitiveness of businesses.

As Tony Abbott demanded the government seek a mandate for the scheme at an immediate election, the Prime Minister accused the Opposition Leader of hypocrisy, citing his reversal of his previous ...

The size and scope of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a topic of ongoing and vigorous discussion. Some stakeholders include sustainability concepts in CSR, while others make distinctions between the two terms, with sustainability considered more closely aligned with environmental activities. The social area, rather than environmental, is where explicit references to occupational safety and health generally are found.

CSR still is in the early stages in most businesse...

Drake & Scull International is to launch a humanitarian foundation that will coordinate corporate social responsibility initiatives to benefit the poorest regions of Middle East, Asia and Africa.

The Dubai-based engineering firm will organise public service campaigns through the Drake and Scull foundation (DSF) that will improve services for targeted communities in the region in such areas as healthcare, education, housing and nutrition.

“We believe that the...

BOULDER, Colo., Oct 10, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Environmental considerations and sustainability issues have long been a part of business metrics and corporate image. The environmental impacts of business first began to be seriously quantified and mitigated in the 1970s, and compliance with government environmental regulations is now accepted as a cost of doing business. More recently, however, sustainability is in transition as a concept and a measure of corporate performan...

 

"Welcome to the newest boom town, Williston, North Dakota."

And frankly, green energy technology advocates are as glum as they can be in polite company over the news that we soon won’t have to care about Saudi Arabia.

See? We told you there was a reas...

As a new generation of EVs emerges in today’s uncertain, sluggish marketplace, fleets may act as the initial savior market.

And it’s not just cars with plugs, but the entire range of alternative fuel vehicles for which fleet sales could provide and sustain demand.

The transition away from petroleum fuels and the internal combustion engine will require “a wide and diverse portfolio” of alternative energy vehicles, each performing the work for which it is best su...

With the world's largest solar bridge under construction, an old mine becoming the world's largest solar power plant, and tumbling solar prices creating huge opportunities to expand deployment, there is a strange disconnect between the naysayers who claim a clean energy economy is pie-in-the-sky, and the real world where that economy is already taking shape. Clint Wilder weighs into the fray over at Renewable Energy World, arguing that despite the media circus surrounding So...

Waste management group Shanks has opened two major recycling and recovery facilities in the west of Scotland, creating 40 jobs.

An anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in Cumbernauld will process 60,000 tonnes of food waste a year, generating enough power for more than 3,000 homes.

A materials recycling facility (MRF) in Blochairn will process 150,000 tonnes of waste and recyclables a year.

Shanks said about £20m had been invested in the two plants.

The AD plant, which is a joint ven...

Re: "Council OKs sending all trash to city landfill -- Officials tout revenue as residents protest, waste haulers vow to sue," Thursday news story.

The article says city staffers estimate the new trash plan will bring millions of dollars in additional dumping revenue to the city of Dallas. The council believes it is a step toward building a massive recycling facility at the public landfill (at taxpayer expense) that will bring economic growth to the area and make Dallas a l...

It seems that most places I look — at work, at conferences, in meetings, in articles on the web — I keep hearing (alleged) business people fretting over things like …

• printing a 5-page document if they only need to read the first and last page
• forcing customers to receive publications in digital form — not because it lowers production costs, but because it’s “greener”
• spending hours removing staples from documents before putting them in the recycling bin
• for...

BP Alternative Energy officials have announced plans to build Kansas’ biggest wind farm, the Wichata Business Journal reports.

The $800 million, 419-megawatt capacity Flat Ridge 2 wind farm will sprawl across 66,000 acres in south-central Kansas. The project will produce 500 construction jobs and 30 operations jobs.

The wind energy sector is a targeted growth sector for Kansas City-area economic development officials and is projected to provide as much a...

Fossil Fuel Subsidies Rising Despite Reform Effort

Global fossil fuel consumption subsidies rose in 2010 despite a pledge by G-20 nations to take steps to reduce them in coming years, according to a new analysis.

The International Energy Agency estimated Tuesday that subsidies that artificially lower fuel prices reached $409 billion in 2010, an increase of almost $110 billion above 2009 levels.

The changes “closely tracked the sharp rise in international fuel prices,...

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) -- A Portsmouth scrap metal recycling business is facing $500,000 in penalties from federal environmental regulators for allegedly polluting the Piscataqua River.

The Environmental Protection Agency's three-count complaint against Grimmel Industries also alleges that the business failed to provide the agency with adequate information about its water discharges into the river.

Grimmel has been recycling junk metal at the site since 2002 as a tenant of the Pease...

A WEST coast firm that specialises in refurbishing electronic devices such as mobile phones and tablets has been sold to US company Sims Recycling Solutions for an undisclosed sum.

WASHINGTON — In a remote desert spot in northern Nevada, there is a geothermal plant run by a politically connected clean energy start-up that has relied heavily on an Obama administration loan guarantee and is now facing financial turmoil.

The company is Nevada Geothermal Power, which like Solyndra, the now-famous California solar company, is struggling with debt after encountering problems at its only operating plant.

After a series of missteps that are draining Nevada Ge...

Oct 2 (Reuters) - Valero Energy Corp (VLO.N) completed the $585-million purchase of a 125,000 barrel per day (bpd) Meraux, Louisiana, refinery and related assets on Saturday, the company said in a statement.

Valero paid Murphy Oil Corp (MUR.N) $325 million for the refinery and related logistics assets plus $260 million for inventory on-hand at the refinery in the purchase, which was first announced on Sept. 1.

In addition to the refinery, Valero bought a products terminal adjo...

Advanced biofuels can be commercialized rapidly for military use, on military timelines, with adequate support and coordination of efforts by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Defense and Energy. The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) today submitted comments to the Air Force's Request for Information on the commercial status and market for advanced drop-in biofuels.

Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO's Industrial & Environmental Section, stated,...

The Enquirer has still another article featuring Melink Corp., purveyor of solar electric panels (“Electric bill: Big zero” Sept. 29). Melink’s electric bill is zero. On the other hand, we taxpayers and electric rate payers have paid millions for Melink’s projects, and we will continue to pay until this foolishness is stopped.

Any thought that this is the “sustainable” energy of the future should be tempered with the realization that this “free” energy co...

from The American Interest

As the Energy Department hustled to get another $4.7 billion in loan guarantees for green tech companies out the door before time ran out and the program ended last week, yet another solar panel manufacturer was wilting in the sun, and the green jobs scam was looking more threadbare than ever. Says the WSJ:

Solar-power equipment manufacturer Stirling Energy Systems Inc. has filed for bankruptcy, adding to a wave of troubles in the solar industry amid soft demand, ...

from Forbes

With the lack of a federal advanced energy policy, several states are seizing the opportunity to fill the void.  I was in Columbus last week to attend Ohio Governor John Kasich’s Energy and Economic Summit, which kicked off the development of a comprehensive energy strategy for the state. Personally, I found the opening remarks from Governor Kasich and from Joseph Stanislaw, author and the former president of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, very motivating.

 One thing in t...