GreenBiz.com - Resource Efficiency & Waste

A blast of cool air far away from the servers in a Savvis data center triggered a hunt for iar leaks and ended with the discovery of $6 million in savings

Simple steps, such as power management software and using available green ratings can lead to big savings in energy and money for companies large and small.

As the U.S. military musters efforts to lighten its environmental bootprint, the German Army also is striving to march down a green path and has enlisted Johnson Controls Inc. to retrofit the Oranienstein base in Diez.

A team working on lithium-ion battery technologies that can be poured into any shape or woven into fabrics reported progress in using a non-harmful virus to develop high-efficiency rechargeable batteries for military use.

The industry is by and large playing a defensive tactic of improving its energy efficiency, while failing to take advantage of the coming huge market opportunities like the smart grid, which use IT for green.

 A data storage company that takes backs and recycles its customers' old products and a reusable bag maker are among the winners of the latest California Stewardship Arrow Awards from the California Product Stewardship Council.

Consuming smarter goes only so far. We also have to consume less of just about everything, and that bumps up squarely against the business imperative, which is to sell more of just about everything.

Buildings that have changing uses and those that weren't commissioned after construction can be secretly wasting energy. In both cases, retrocommissioning can help.

In the world of energy efficiency and sustainability, the biggest financial and environmental opportunities are often right under a company’s nose. However, if the company does not have the proper tools and data -- or if it is too focused on making smaller efficiency tweaks while losing sight of the big picture -- these larger opportunities can be easily overlooked.

Flooring company Mohawk Industries is aiming to reduce by 25 percent the intensity of its energy and water use along with its greenhouse gas emissions and the amount of landfill waste it creates.

The Ohio-based juice maker also made strides in other 2011 environmental goals, Sunny Delight explained its 2009 Sustainability Report released this week, which spans several areas of its operation, including transportation and logistics, packaging, energy and water use, and waste.

Most Americans overlook efficiency as the most effective means of reducing energy consumption. At the same time, poor public perception of the amount of energy needed by appliances and certain activities may be preventing consumers from making more informed choices when it comes to energy-saving behavior, a new survey suggests.

The industrial chemical Bisphenol A, which has been linked to developmental and reproductive problems and mimics estrogen, is present in roughly 91 percent of the Canadian population, particularly in teens aged 12 to 19.

Funeral directors in northern Belgium want the country to give the green light to resomation, a water and alkali-based process that turns bodies into a mix of liquid and minerals. Resomation uses less energy than cremation and emits significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

 Recycling glass used to be challenge in Kansas City, but a non-profit, brewery and insulation maker have turned that around with Ripple Glass, a company that has its sights set on doubling the city's glass recycling rate.

As property owners tighten building envelopes to make facilities more energy efficient, they also need to be more vigilant about properly maintaining cooling, heating and ventilation systems. Buildings owners and operators who do the former and neglect the latter run the risk of making occupants sick.

Any member of a sprint relay team knows how important the baton handoff can be for the success of the team, even if the goal is to improve energy efficiency, not win a race.

 A packaging material made of mushroom roots and agricultural waste is lowering its energy footprint further with new sterilizing technology.

How can we catch or farm fish in a sustainable way, one that doesn’t deplete the supply or pollute the oceans? A new book looks at the flaws of the past and new, promising ideas.

A new study ranks the impacts that common foods have not just on climate change, but on the water pollution that leads to dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico and other bodies of water.