Source: Green Biz

German automaker Volkswagen aims to drop the average emissions from its new vehicles to 120 grams CO2/km by 2015, as part of a “fundamental ecological restructuring” likely to be worth more than €40 billion (US$52 billion by 2016.

The company says more than two thirds of its entire €62.4 billion (US$82.1 billion) investment programme for the coming five years will be directly or indirectly spent on “ever more efficient vehicles, powertrains and technologies, as well as environmentally compatible production.”

VW has been looking to bolster its green reputation since being targeted by campaign group Greenpeace over its alleged lobbying against deeper cuts to EU emissions targets.

The company’s new emissions reduction target would represent a 30 percent cut on 2006 levels for Europe’s largest carmaker, and a sizeable reduction on its current average emissions for new vehicles of 135.5g/km, which sits fractionally below the E.U. average of 136.1 g/km in 2011.

VW said that under the new plan it wants every new model generation to be on average 10 to 15 percent more efficient than its predecessor, while emissions will also be cut from both production processes and manufacturing plants.

As part of the announcement the company unveiled a new €600 million (almost US$790 million) investment designed to expand its use of renewable energies such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric power, in order to achieve a 40 percent reduction in emissions from energy supplies by the end of the decade.

Plants will also aim to reduce water and energy consumption, as well as overall emissions, by a quarter over the next six years.

Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, chairman of the Volkswagen Group Board of Management, also declared that 2013 would be the “year of e-mobility” for Volkswagen, starting with the release of the two door mini e-up!, which will then be followed by further all-electric or partially-electric vehicles from many of the Group’s brands.

“Our declared goal is to make Volkswagen the leading automaker in ecological terms, too,” he said on the eve of the Geneva motorshow, before stating that Volkswagen’s new five year strategy will focus on responsible conduct towards employees, society, and the environment.

“To take pole position and to sustain that lead over the long term, you have to understand all these dimensions of our business and to practice them convincingly at every level,” Winterkorn added. “We are raising the bar much higher when it comes to sustainability.”

BATON ROUGE, La., July 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), today offered its encouragement to recent efforts announced by California Governor Brown, the California Bureau of Home Furnishings and the Senate Appropriations Committee to assess the need for improvements in fire safety standards for home furnishings.

“California should be congratulated for their pioneering standard-setting efforts of 1975, which focused on ignition of furniture foam by an open flame,” said Dr. David Clary, Albemarle Chief Sustainability Officer. “We are encouraged that fire safety standards are being revisited after 35 years because fire remains a very real problem in the United States.  According to the National Fire Protection Association, in the United States alone, fires currently cause one civilian death every 2 hours 49 minutes, an injury every 30 minutes, and one building fire every 65 seconds.”

California’s fire safety standards for home furnishings are embedded in Technical Bulletin 117 (TB117.) California’s TB117 recognized open flames as an important source of home fires. According to the National Fire Protection Association, during the period 2005 to 2009, open flames caused more than one in five of the upholstered furniture fires and 12% of the associated deaths in the United States. A recent study funded by the U.S. government shows fire safety standards that address open flames as a source of fires provide increased escape time and the highest level of safety.

Regulatory efforts since 1975 demonstrate that California TB117 can be improved. For example, in 1988, recognizing advances in science and technology in the interim decade, Great Britain published a stricter standard which considers different sources of ignition and both the fabric and the foam cushioning of the furniture under real world conditions. Research conducted in Great Britain demonstrates that by 2007, the new British standard resulted in 37% fewer furniture fires each year and a 64% reduction in deaths from furniture fires.

Albemarle Corporation supports efforts to strengthen fire safety standards and is committed to delivering fire safety solutions based on sound science.

About Albemarle
Albemarle Corporation, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a leading global developer, manufacturer, and marketer of highly-engineered specialty chemicals for consumer electronics, petroleum refining, utilities, packaging, construction, automotive/transportation, pharmaceuticals, crop protection, food-safety and custom chemistry services. The Company is committed to global sustainability and is advancing its eco-practices and solutions in its three business segments, Polymer Solutions, Catalysts and Fine Chemistry. Corporate Responsibility Magazine selected Albemarle to its prestigious “100 Best Corporate Citizens” list for 2010 and 2011.  Albemarle employs approximately 4,000 people and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. Albemarle regularly posts information to www.albemarle.com, including notification of events, news, financial performance, investor presentations and webcasts, Regulation G reconciliations, SEC filings, and other information regarding the Company, its businesses and the markets we serve.

“Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Albemarle Corporation’s business that are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K.

BATON ROUGE, La., July 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – In a letter to Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB) today offered its support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to finalize its proposed actions on Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Such action will ensure that decaBDE will not be imported into the United States after December 31, 2013.

In the letter, Dr. David Clary, Albemarle’s Chief Sustainability Officer, commented, “Albemarle supports the EPA proposal to amend the PBDE SNUR to designate manufacturing, importing, or processing of decaBDE for any use which is not ongoing after December 31, 2013 as a significant new use.  Further, Albemarle supports the EPA’s efforts to promulgate a test rule for PBDEs if it determines that manufacture (including import) or processing of PBDEs has not ceased by December 31, 2013.”

Albemarle, in cooperation with the EPA, announced a voluntary phase out of its production of decaBDE in 2009.  The company is on schedule to cease commercial production of decaBDE entirely by the end of 2012 in accordance with its agreement with EPA and will limit commercial sales within the United States in 2013 to only transportation and military applications requiring that additional transition time.

While many science-based and peer-reviewed studies have shown decaBDE to be safe in its intended use, Albemarle is committed to delivering safe and effective products with increasingly smaller environmental footprints.  The company’s proactive innovation has allowed it to bring two polymeric flame retardants to market in the last few years:  GreenArmor and GreenCrest.  These polymeric flame retardants, marketed under the Earthwise™ portfolio, represent the latest fire safety technology and provide additional certainty about product safety as they can’t be absorbed by animal or human cells.  GreenCrest has successfully completed review by EPA’s New Chemicals Program and GreenArmor has been submitted for such a review.

About Albemarle
Albemarle Corporation, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a leading global developer, manufacturer, and marketer of highly-engineered specialty chemicals for consumer electronics, petroleum refining, utilities, packaging, construction, automotive/transportation, pharmaceuticals, crop protection, food-safety and custom chemistry services. The Company is committed to global sustainability and is advancing its eco-practices and solutions in its three business segments, Polymer Solutions, Catalysts and Fine Chemistry. Corporate Responsibility Magazine selected Albemarle to its prestigious “100 Best Corporate Citizens” list for 2010 and 2011.  Albemarle employs approximately 4,000 people and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. Albemarle regularly posts information to www.albemarle.com, including notification of events, news, financial performance, investor presentations and webcasts, Regulation G reconciliations, SEC filings, and other information regarding the Company, its businesses and the markets we serve.

“Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Albemarle Corporation’s business that are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Whenever Walmart takes on a project, it creates ripples — if not tidal waves — throughout every industry it touches. So it’s somewhat surprising, looking back, to learn that when the retail giant first began tackling sustainability goals, it followed an anecdotal, aimless route, seeing an opportunity and going after it, without a system.

Of course, Walmart measured its suppliers and products on “everything under the sun” according to Jeff Rice, but it did not have a real framework until it launched the Sustainability Index in 2009.

Rice, Walmart’s director of sustainability, talked about the necessity of having that kind of framework, and of developing a systematic approach to supply chain sustainability — and especially the importance of metrics — during a panel at the Sustainable Brands conference in San Diego.

The Sustainability Index, which is not proprietary to Walmart but open for use by any company, serves as a tool to improve the products its customers favor, integrate sustainability into the business, increase product quality, find supply chain efficiency and drive the productivity loop by reducing costs.

“Building sustainability into the business helps you through the bad times and when things get hard, and through transitions in leadership. We also went through a major leadership transition at Walmart, when (Lee) Scott left and Mike (Duke) came on,” Rice said.

When asked about working with its many suppliers spread across the globe, he said the company approaches the challenge in bite-size chunks, developing a system that works in one country and then applying it elsewhere, so that the key has been to develop practical, actionable tools.

Most of Walmart’s suppliers have reacted positively, Rice said, especially since it’s shifted methods from the long, detailed questionnaires of the past that collected item-level information, but which resulted in a daunting and time-consuming task for its suppliers.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Photo credit: Switch Lighting

Switch Lighting’s LED bulbs have similar technical specs to its competitors, but the startup is counting on clever design and good looks to stand out in a crowded field. The company plans to make its first three general-purpose light bulbs available this summer to lighting distributors and today is expected to introduce a three-way bulb and a 240-volt bulb for markets outside the U.S.

To learn more about LED bulbs, click here.

Can McDonald’s and “Best of Green” be in the same sentence? At first it sounds like the mockumentary sequel to Best in Show. After all, those big golden arches are not only easy to see from the road, they are still to critics a figurative symbol of a dubious food supply, sprawl and our disposable society. The company is slow to change, too. Not only does it take a new item forever to appear on the menu, but ideas to make the company a more sustainable company are slow to catch on even if they are still just a dream.

But McDonald’s is changing. More of its locations are actually pleasant and even edgy, have wifi and are not the drab plastic prisons in which you spent your 1980s teenage years. On other fronts some catching up is still in order, as with its hazardous attempts at social media campaigns that have left its marketers’ faces as red as those strawberry sundaes. Across the pond in the United Kingdom, the company’s about face and re-about face on sourcing local chicken draw exasperated cries in London and beyond. But around the world, some interesting projects are occurring on waste, energy and green building.

To read about the new green projects, visit TriplePundit.

All branches of the US military are on the pursuit for energy-conscious technologies.

“Militaries that fail to innovate lose strategic advantage. Nations that fail to innovate lose economic edge. Clean energy innovation is an essential strategy for making the United States and its service men and women safer, stronger and more successful,” wrote the authors of the Pew report.

Below are 5 examples of technologies that are employed by the U.S. military that officials hope will turn out to be both environmentally sound and strategically advantageous in the long run.

1. On-Base Electric Vehicles – The military is beginning to make use of small electric cars on base. They are made from recycled plastic and can reach speeds of 25 mph. The military will be slower in rolling out “green” combat vehicles, since performance is paramount to troops’ safety.
2. Solar Power Shades – Solar shade helps to cool the tent that soldiers stay in while 72 panels absorb sunlight to produce two kilowatts of power a day.
3. FED – A Greener Humvee – The Fuel Efficient Ground Vehicle Demonstrator, or FED, would have the same capabilities as the M1114 Humvee but with about 70 percent greater fuel efficiency.
4. Hybrid-Electric Ships – The amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island is the only Navy ship with a hybrid-electric propulsion system, but the goal is to switch more of the fleet over to “green” engines.
5. Biofuel-Powered Aircraft – The Navy and Air Force have already demonstrated that they can fly fighter jets on a 50/50 mix of biofuel and standard jet fuel. The Navy’s F/A-18 Super Hornet flew on a blend derived from camelina seeds.

Innovative polymeric fire safety solution is result of technology license from Dow

(BATON ROUGE, La.) April 12, 2011–Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), a leader in the development, manufacture and marketing of flame retardants, announced today that it has expanded its Earthwise™ platform of sustainable products by introducing a new polymeric flame retardant for use in extruded (XPS) and expanded (EPS) polystyrene applications.

This new technology, licensed from Dow Global Technologies LLC (DGTL), a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW), will be commercialized under Albemarle’s Earthwise brand and provides a stable, high molecular weight, non-PBT (Persistent, Bioaccumulative, Toxic) polymeric technology for use in these demanding applications. This new technology is expected to become the preferred choice to meet critical fire safety requirements for both XPS and EPS.

Albemarle’s agreement to manufacture and sell this premium technology confirms the company’s commitment to provide customers with sustainable, innovative fire safety solutions that meet the increasing demands of global regulations and standards, such as energy efficiency and sustainable design for these thermal insulation materials.

“This expansion of our Earthwise portfolio is another sign of our position as the industry leader in flame retardants, and joins our other key polymeric platforms, Green Armor™ and our family of brominated polystyrene products, SAYTEX® HP-3010, HP-7010 and 621,” said Brian Carter, Division Vice President of global brominated flame retardants.  “Albemarle expects to commercialize this new technology in 2014 and is already working closely with customers to fully qualify the product in both applications.”

Albemarle’s flame retardant business is part of the Company’s fire safety solutions within the Polymer Solutions business segment.

About Albemarle
Albemarle Corporation, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a leading global developer, manufacturer, and marketer of highly-engineered specialty chemicals for consumer electronics, petroleum refining, utilities, packaging, construction, automotive/transportation, pharmaceuticals, crop protection, food-safety and custom chemistry services. The Company is committed to global sustainability and is advancing its eco-practices and solutions in its three business segments, Polymer Solutions, Catalysts and Fine Chemistry. Corporate Responsibility Magazine selected Albemarle to its prestigious “100 Best Corporate Citizens” list for 2010 and 2011.  Albemarle employs approximately 4,000 people and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. Albemarle regularly posts information to www.albemarle.com, including notification of events, news, financial performance, investor presentations and webcasts, Regulation G reconciliations, SEC filings, and other information regarding the Company, its businesses and the markets we serve.

Whether consumers are watching a television, sitting on a sofa, taking a commercial airline flight, or swallowing ibuprofen to relieve a headache, Albemarle products are there making lives safer and more livable.  For more information, visit www.earthwiseinside.com.

Albemarle Media Contact:  Ashley Mendoza, (225) 388-7137, Ashley.Mendoza@albemarle.com

Albemarle Investor Relations Contact: Lorin Crenshaw, (225) 388-7322, Lorin.Crenshaw@albemarle.com

About The Dow Chemical Company
Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company connects chemistry and innovation with the principles of sustainability to help address many of the world’s most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, renewable energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow’s diversified industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 160 countries and in high growth sectors such as electronics, water, energy, coatings and agriculture. In 2011, Dow had annual sales of $60 billion and employed approximately 52,000 people worldwide. The Company’s more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 197 sites in 36 countries across the globe. References to “Dow” or the “Company” mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. More information about Dow can be found at www.dow.com.

The Dow Chemical Company Media Contact:  Erik van Oosten, (989) 636-5090, evanoosten@dow.com

“Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Albemarle Corporation’s business that are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Carbon Trust launches new footprinting guide
One of the ways to understand your business’s environmental impact is to uncover its carbon footprint. Carbon Trust recently released a free guide to help you do just that. The guide shares how to perform two different kinds of eco-footprinting. The first helps businesses determine the carbon footprint of a particular product’s life cycle. The second helps businesses determine the footprint of the whole organization.

The guide gives clear, step-by-step instructions for calculating these footprints – a great value for free. You will need to register (for free) with Carbon Trust, and the end of the guide is devoted to outlining the ways Carbon Trust can help your business. If you’re looking to turn (or keep) your business green, check out sustainability planning, or consider attending a green conference in your industry.

In an article of Circuitree, Fern Abrams, the IPC’s director of environmental policy. discusses the latest edition of Greenpeace’s guide to greener electronics.  According to Abrams, it began as a way “to use publicity to nudge electronics companies toward better environmental performance” but they are now “asking (companies) to lobby for regulations to require all companies to remove these (hazardous) substances.”

The system deducts points for companies who don’t lobby for Greenpeace’s viewpoints. Abrams continues to say that “if companies do not agree with the Greenpeace viewpoint and do not speak out for fear of retribution, it becomes censorship.”

To read the article in its entirety, please visit Circuittree.

On the surface, Boulder, Colorado seems to be an environmentally-conscious city.  According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, “it was the first to levy a tax to protect open space” and approved “the nation’s first ‘carbon tax’ to fund energy-conservation programs.” But despite the city’s efforts to promote these programs and subsidize efforts like energy audits, Boulder’s residents don’t seem to be taking as much action as the city would have hoped for.  The energy audits provide homeowners and business owners with recommendations for how to be more energy-efficient, yet the city has discovered that very few people are implementing the suggestions.

As a result, Boulder is planning to take its efforts one step further and actually do the work for residents through programs like “Two Techs in a Truck”. Boulder “plans to spend about $1.5 million in city funds and $370,000 in federal stimulus money to hire contractors to do basic upgrades for residents”. The city has chosen to promote these efforts by showing residents the financial benefits of saving energy.  But not everyone appreciates the city pushing conservation on them.

For the full story on the challenges of a city ‘s sustainability, see http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704320104575015920992845334.html

Have you hit some green roadblocks?

The increased demand for innovative biofuels is prompting fuel producers to look for alternative sources of feedstock that are more sustainable.  For example, sugars and starches can be used for the production of ethanol while animal fats and vegetable oils can be used in the production of biodiesel.  Alternative feedstocks include bio-degradable wastes, aquatic biomass such as algae and seaweed, and biomass such as wood, bagasse, corn stover and grasses.

In response to increased demand for alternatives fuels, Albemarle has developed a line of catalyst that will facilitate the production of biofuels from biomass.  These catalysts make up our GoBio^TM portfolio.

Among our GoBio products, Albemarle offers catalytic solutions for renewable diesel and biodiesel production using two primary processes. In the first process, vegetable oils and fats are reacted with methanol to produce fatty acid methyl-esters (FAME or biodiesel). This process utilizes our new  heterogeneous products, GoBio TS-15 or T300.

In the second process, vegetable oils and fats are converted into paraffin via a refinery-based hydrotreating process.  The process also utilizes a heterogeneous catalyst which leads to significant process improvements.   Albemarle’s heterogeneous catalysts have been successfully used in the NExBTL® process, a process developed by Finnish oil company Neste Oil.  The first commercial NExBTL units are now in operation and are producing high quality renewable diesel.

We also interact with a diverse group of companies to investigate their specific biomass conversion needs. In addition to oil companies, these organizations include technology providers and engineering firms.

For Albemarle’s portfolio of biofuel catalyst, click here.

Today, we take for granted that our medicines and juices are pure, our meat does not harbor bacteria and many consumer products may be used safely.

Standards for health and safety have been established by credible scientific research. Everyone relies on the precise analysis of chemists and other scientists to give us peace of mind when using countless products every day. This safety was not always the case.

In the 1920s, it was common for companies to use mercury in laxatives. Under the then-ineffectual Federal Drug Administration, manufacturers did not list the ingredients in their products. Nor were they required to test their products for safe usage. Consumers, and even the drug-makers themselves, were unaware of any hidden poisons.

Contemporary scientists analyzed the biochemical effects of substances found in the home and pharmacy. Their studies revealed that the mercury of the laxative medicine, for example, accumulated in the body and caused death.

The ground-breaking research of these scientists, who carefully built the model for forensic medicine, is the subject of The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum.

The book recounts how, between 1918 and 1936, a team of doctors, chemists and toxicologists developed procedures that revealed how unsafe many medicines and consumer products were.

The importance of reliable scientific research, which occurs behind the scenes before products are brought to market, cannot be over-estimated. As reviewer Matthew Pearl states, The Poisoner’s Handbook will “transform the way you think about the power of science to . . . save our lives.”

For updated science stories, visit Deborah’s blog here.

By GREGORY ZUCKERMAN
The Wall Street Journal

First there was the tech boom. Then the housing bubble.

Now, new profits and investment opportunities are emerging from the surge in U.S. gas and oil production. Innovations in drilling techniques—such as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and horizontal drilling—have made it easier to extract oil and natural gas from shale and other rock formations. That has boosted production and led to billions of dollars of profits for some early pioneers and investors.

“America stands on the verge of a major change that puts it on a course to near self-sufficiency” in energy, says Tobias Levkovich, Citigroup’s chief U.S. equity strategist, who says the energy surge is a key reason to be upbeat on the market and U.S. economy.

“The implications are simply stunning on America’s current account figures, trade balances and even potentially the positioning [and cost] of U.S. military forces around the world,” he says. “The increase in production of shale gas could also add millions of new jobs.”

Investors are eager for an energy boost in a market that has only very recently shown some strength. The broad Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is up more than 6% so far in 2012, after ending 2011 pretty much where it began. The S&P Energy Index is up 4.25% this year.

Much as in previous booms, however, investors risk jumping in after some of the best gains have been reaped. Indeed, the energy patch can be a tricky place to invest. Surging gas production has been a boon to consumers and companies that use natural gas for heating or to make various products. But all that added supply, along with an unusually warm winter, have sent gas prices down nearly 50% in the past year.

That drop has pressured companies like Chesapeake Energy, the second-largest natural-gas producer, which has seen its stock price fall by more than a quarter in the past year, even as it meets success extracting more gas through new techniques. Cabot Oil & Gas was the top-performing stock in the S&P 500 last year, with a gain of 100%. But so far this year, the stock has dropped about 15%, another sign of the challenges for investors playing this new wave.

It’s also true that environmental scrutiny of this drilling is on the rise. And shale extraction is relatively new, so there remains uncertainty about how long wells will produce.

Natural-gas prices may rebound from current low levels, at least over the long term, as more uses are found for this low-cost energy. But for now, analysts recommend that investors focus on companies seeing growing oil production from innovative drilling methods, rather than those sticking with gas. Two larger independent drillers that some investors recommend: EOG Resources and Continental Resources.

Other attractive stocks: Chemical companies and others benefiting from tumbling natural-gas prices. Analysts recommend companies including CF Industries Holdings and LyondellBasell Industries.

As recently as 2005, few held out much hope for any boom in U.S. energy production. Most experts said producers would see a gradual slowdown of domestic oil and gas production, and billions of dollars were invested in ways to import natural gas from abroad.

But in just the last few years, the new drilling techniques have created a new gusher. Among the innovations: drilling down in the ground and turning horizontally to capture more of the gas and oil trapped in underground shale deposits, and using a mix of water, sand and chemicals to break apart porous rock and release oil and gas.

The new drilling methods are “a completely disruptive technology” allowing companies to double and triple growth in energy production in just a few years, says Dan Rice, manager of the BlackRock Energy & Resources Fund .

Some of the most attractive companies are those that have been able to shift from natural-gas exploration to oil extraction. As recently as 2006, EOG saw 79% of its revenues come from natural gas, and just 21% from so-called liquids, which include crude oil. But the company became worried about future oversupply of natural gas and began to focus on oil. This year, EOG says, it expects to see about 75% of revenues come from liquids, and just 25% from natural gas.

Mr. Rice says shares of both EOG and Continental, which has become a major driller for oil in areas like North Dakota, are inexpensive.

He also is a fan of Range Resources and EQT, companies active in the booming Marcellus Shale region, which ranges through states including New York and West Virginia. Others recommend smaller energy producers, such as Houston-based Oasis Petroleum which could be takeover targets.

Some analysts are most excited about chemical companies like CF Industries. Nitrogen production accounts for about 80% of the company’s sales, according to analysts at Citigroup. And natural gas accounts for about 85% of the cash production costs for CF’s nitrogen production, the analysts said, a reason for optimism on the company.

Dow Chemical, meanwhile, is benefiting from falling natural-gas prices because it lowers the price for ethane, “a key material” for Dow’s ethylene production, the Citigroup analysts say.

A riskier stock with potential upside: Cheniere Energy , which once aimed to be a big importer of natural gas. A glut of U.S. gas forced the company to scrap those plans, but it now is hoping to be the nation’s first exporter of liquefied natural gas.

As natural gas drops, and consumers and power companies depending on natural gas benefit, the chemical industry will as well, Citigroup says, because “the chemical industry consumes about 10% of natural gas” in the U.S.

BY MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL

A widespread effort to install solar panels on city schools’ rooftops could save taxpayers millions of dollars in energy costs and create more than 5,000 green jobs, according to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and a report to be released by his office Thursday.

Mr. Stringer, who wants his office to be viewed as an incubator for creative policy proposals as he contemplates a mayoral bid in 2013, accused Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his administration of adopting a sluggish and narrow approach to solar power in the five boroughs.

To read more visit WSJ.com

BATON ROUGE, La., Jan. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB) successfully completed the latest expansion of its Process Development Center (PDC) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by installing a new production train for finished polyolefin catalysts and a number of supporting auxiliaries.

“This new train will add to the capacity in our existing facilities at the PDC,” explains Amy Motto, vice president of Albemarle’s Performance Catalyst Solutions (PCS) division. “The increased capacity is needed to meet the growing demand for finished single site catalysts used in the polyolefin industry including Albemarle’s ActivCat® technology.”

“The project team deserves a lot of credit for completing this project on a highly expedited schedule,” said Jay Roberg, technical director for Albemarle’s PCS and Fine Chemicals divisions. “Not only did the team deliver the project safely, but we were able to produce high performance finished catalysts on specification from the very first batch.”

This expansion is the latest in a series of projects that Albemarle is undertaking to meet the growing demand for its metallocene/single site finished catalyst business.  A separate production facility is also being constructed in Yeosu, Korea to help meet this demand.

About Performance Catalyst Solutions
In November 2011, Albemarle’s Polyolefin and Chemical Catalyst division, a segment of its Catalyst global business unit, was officially renamed Performance Catalyst Solutions to reinforce the division’s transition from supplying components, such as organometallics, to delivering high performance catalyst solutions through a finished catalyst product portfolio.  The division is comprised of three business units: Polymer Catalysts, Chemical Catalyst, and Electronic Materials.  Collectively, these businesses provide performance-based products and services that are used in the plastics, agricultural, and electronics industries.

About Albemarle
Albemarle Corporation, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a leading global developer, manufacturer, and marketer of highly-engineered specialty chemicals for consumer electronics, petroleum refining, utilities, packaging, construction, automotive/transportation, pharmaceuticals, crop protection, food-safety and custom chemistry services. The Company is committed to global sustainability and is advancing its eco-practices and solutions in its three business segments, Polymer Solutions, Catalysts and Fine Chemistry. Corporate Responsibility Magazine selected Albemarle to its prestigious “100 Best Corporate Citizens” list for 2010 and 2011.  Albemarle employs approximately 4,000 people and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. Albemarle regularly posts information to www.albemarle.com, including notification of events, news, financial performance, investor presentations and webcasts, Regulation G reconciliations, SEC filings, and other information regarding the Company, its businesses and the markets we serve.

“Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Albemarle Corporation’s business that are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K.

ScienceDaily — A team of undergraduate engineering students at Oregon State University has discovered that blending byproducts from biodiesel production and winemaking produces an environmentally friendly polymer that could one day replace polystyrene foam meat trays in supermarkets.

It may also be valuable in the manufacture of furniture, particle board, fire logs, insulation and even hair gel.

The process is so unique and potentially marketable that the students have applied for a patent to protect their intellectual property, said David Hackleman, the Linus Pauling Chair at the OSU College of Engineering.

“I’m delighted, but not totally surprised, that they can now add to their report the words ‘patent application pending,’” Hackleman said.

Christen Glarborg, Patrick O’Connor, Heather Paris and Alana Warner-Tuhy – all seniors studying chemical engineering – delved into combining glycerin, a byproduct of biodiesel production, and tartaric acid, a byproduct of wine production.

“When put together, those ingredients can make a hard, bubbly polymer,” Paris said.

In the 1880s, the same material was used in the making of varnishes and paints.

“It biodegrades in water,” said O’Connor. “Dr. Hackleman suggested we try to mold it into a tray, like to replace the foam trays under meat in the supermarket.”

But their first experiments resulted in a rock-hard mess: Think of cooking taffy too long, so that it sticks so hard, you have to throw the pot away. The young researchers persevered until they produced a more manageable glue, which they decided to try mixing with other byproducts such as sawdust and woodchips.

Voila! A material that was moldable, though somewhat tacky. So they popped it into an oven to see if it would firm up. It seemed they were possibly onto a particleboard for “green” building.

“Then we found that at 600 degrees, our polymer vaporized,” Paris said. “So we thought, how about ash-free logs or pellets for heating?”

While the students continued exploring possibilities, Hackleman knew enough about entrepreneurship to realize they should begin the process of protecting their intellectual property. He steered them to OSU’s Office of Technology Transfer, where their invention disclosure was brought to the stage of “patent pending.”

The students are now focused on testing and refining the polymer for strength and biodegradability. While it is not yet clear whether or not the technology will make it to commercialization, “it’s certainly a boost for the students,” Hackleman said.

The team won “Best Chemical Engineering Project” and was runner-up for “People’s Choice Award” at OSU’s eighth annual Engineering Expo in May. The team members displayed their research among more than 100 student design projects and product prototypes.

“Producing biodiesel produces a lot of glycerin,” Hackleman said. “Now it seems that even the waste from green industries can be put to another good use – one that can help in the solution to a global problem.”

For more information on green polymer, click here.

By: SoundOffSister

We have told you about cellulosic ethanol before.  Basically, it is any ethanol not made from corn, and, pursuant to a 2007 law, a certain amount of this stuff must be blended into our gasoline.  The problem is that no one knows how to make it in any commercially viable operation, even though the federal government is heavily subsidizing its “production”.

For 2010 and 2011, you, the consumer paid $10 million in “fines” (via higher gas prices) because oil companies did not blend this non-existent material into the gasoline they produced.  In spite of these facts, last week the EPA told oil companies that they must blend 8.65 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol into gasoline in 2012. The good news here is that but for the EPA’s waiver, Congress set the amount at 500 million gallons for 2012.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The Honda Civic Natural Gas took home Green Car Journal’s 2012 Green Car of the Year award at the L.A. Auto Show.

The Civic was lauded for being the cleanest running internal combustion vehicle as certified by the EPA and the only assembly-line produced natural gas passenger model for sale on the U.S. market.

“There is no other vehicle on American highways like the Civic Natural Gas, and this recognition has been a long time coming for Honda,” Ron Cogan, editor and publisher of Green Car Journal, said in a statement.

“The new generation Civic Natural Gas features greater fuel efficiency, a handsome and roomier new design, and tailpipe emission levels untouched by any other internal combustion production vehicle.”

The 2012 Civic Natural Gas is a fifth generation model, running on “a clean fuel that is almost exclusively domestically sourced and typically priced about 30 percent less than gasoline,” the statement said. It retails for just over $26,000 and was selected from a field of five finalists that also included the Ford Focus Electric, the Mitsubishi i, the Toyota Prius v and the Volkswagen Passat TDI.

Only cars that were newly introduced or completely redesigned in the past year are eligible for the award. Last year’s winner was the Chevrolet Volt.

Below are a few green events happening around the U.S.:

Sustainability Across the Curriculum Leadership Workshops
When: Jan 10 – 12, 2012
Where: Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Description: Through an intensive two days of presentations, exercises, discussions, reflection, and planning, participants will become familiar with the philosophy of change in higher education developed through the Ponderosa Project at Northern Arizona University and adapted at Emory in the Piedmont Project. Participants will also experience a range of workshop strategies, hear local experts, enjoy outdoor place-based activities, and dialogue with faculty from around the country as they gain help in adapting this model to their own campus. In a supportive and stimulating environment, workshop members will reflect on their own roles in the transformation of higher education. Readings and materials will also be provided.
Further details: http://www.aashe.org/events/workshops/curriculum

Wild and Scenic Film Festival
When: Jan 13 – 15, 2012
Where: Nevada City, California
Description: Considered the largest film festival of its kind, this year’s films combine stellar filmmaking, beautiful cinematography and first-rate storytelling to inform, inspire and ignite solutions and possibilities to restore the earth and human communities while creating a positive future for the next generation. Festival-goers can expect to see Award winning films about nature, community activism, adventure, conservation, water, energy and climate change, wildlife, environmental justice, agriculture, Native American and indigenous cultures.
Further details: http://www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org/

The Green Biz Forum New York City
When: Tuesday, Jan 24, 2012
Where: Sentry Center New York City
Description: Framed by the 2012 State of Green Business report, the 2012 GreenBiz Forums will convene key thought leaders and sustainability executives to define the trends, challenges and opportunities in sustainable business today, and chart the course for the future. This year, the GreenBiz Forums will feature one-day events in three U.S. cities, engaging stakeholders across industries, sectors, and regions to discuss how, and how well, companies are addressing sustainability in a comprehensive view of the state of green business today.
Further details: http://www.greenbiz.com/events/2012/01/forum-2012/new-york?utm_source=GreenBiz+Special+Offers&utm_campaign=0b3fddbedc-gbf12_01102011&utm_medium=email

CONFERENCE: Minnesota Green Chemistry Conference 2012: Strategies for Growth
When: Thursday, Jan 26, 2012
Where: Minneapolis, Minnesota, Humphrey School of Public Affairs Conference Center
Description: This conference will explore how we can reap the benefits of green chemistry by promoting a healthy business environment for green chemistry here in Minnesota.
Further details: http://www.greenchemistrymn.org/

Let us know of any conferences, events, or festivals in your area.