Association News
ACEEE ranks eco-friendly vehicles
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) named the year's "greenest" and "meanest" vehicles, along with environmental scorings of all model year 2008 cars and passenger trucks.
Earning the "greenest vehicle" title for the fifth consecutive year is Honda's natural gas-powered Civic GX. Hybrid-electric vehicles also continue to perform well in ACEEE's annual ranking, despite being disproportionately affected by changes to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) fuel economy calculations. The Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid claim spots two and three, while the highly-anticipated Smart Fortwo Convertible and the Toyota Yaris complete the top five, showcasing the environmental benefits of smaller passenger vehicles.
Others on the "Greenest" list include conventional and hybrid-electric vehicles from Honda, Toyota, Mini, and Ford. The 2008 Ford Focus comfortably takes the 9th spot in ACEEE's annual ranking, reversing last year's shutout of domestic manufacturers.
Widely regarded as the pre-eminent buyer's guide to environment-friendly passenger cars, trucks, and SUVs, greenercars.org provides the facts necessary to examine the eco-performance of any 2008 model. Vehicles are analyzed on the basis of a Green Score, a singular measure that incorporates unhealthy tailpipe emissions, fuel consumption, and the emissions of gases that cause global warming.
This year's "Meanest Vehicles for the Environment" list is dominated by European imports; only three domestic models make an appearance. Diesel-powered vehicles continue to perform poorly on ACEEE's annual ranking due to the high levels of environmentally damaging nitrogen oxides and particulate matter they release, despite greater fuel efficiency. The eagerly-awaited 50-state diesel that should greatly boost these vehicles' environmental scores is still missing in this year's offerings. Once again, the diesel-powered Volkswagen Touareg receives the dubious honor of being the year's most environment-unfriendly vehicle, leading a pack of diesel-powered vehicles that includes the Mercedes-Benz GL320 CDI, R320 CDI, and ML320 CDI, and the Jeep Grand Cherokee. Rounding out the "dirty dozen" are low sales-volume sports cars and heavier vehicles: the Bugatti Veyron, Mercedes-Benz G55 AMG, Hummer H2, GMC Yukon 2500, Bentley Azure, and Bentley Arnage.
The vehicle scores are part of ACEEE's Green Book® Online, ACEEE's environmental guide to cars and trucks, available at greenercars.org
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Institute to increase energy efficiency
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen cooperation for research, development and deployment of energy technologies aimed at promoting increased energy efficiency.
The MOU states that DOE and EPRI will to coordinate future activities to accomplish several goals, including research demand response and energy efficiency in buildings, industrial processes, and appliances; development of guidelines and methods that enable utilities to calculate emission, such as carbon dioxide, reductions resulting from these efforts; promotion of digital communication between the electric grid and buildings; testing to develop digital devices that can function as the communicator in energy management systems and smart-grid applications; and analysis of utilities' catalogues of energy efficient technologies. For more information, see www.doe.gov/news/6053.htm
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BOMA lauded by EPA
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International with a 2008 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year award for Excellence in Program Delivery for its contributions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
BOMA International has promoted energy management in commercial buildings through the BOMA Energy Efficiency Program (BEEP), offered through the BOMA Foundation. BOMA International, the only real estate association to receive this honor, was first awarded the Partner of the Year award in 2007. For more information, see www.boma.org
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Global efforts
GENEVA, Switzerland – The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) signed an agreement with the World Economic Forum to join the Energy Poverty Action (EPA) network alliance.
The alliance aims at pooling resources of its members to promote the sustainable supply and use of energy in areas with little or no access to energy. The World Energy Council (WEC) joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in November 2007. For more information, see www.wbcsd.org
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Climate Group names corporate members
LONDON – Four companies have joined the leadership of The Climate Group: Goldman Sachs, a global investment banking, securities and investment management firm; Dow, a science and technology firm; Florida Power & Light Group, Inc., a producer of wind and solar power; and financial news and information services provider Bloomberg L.P. The addition of these four major companies increases the °Climate Group corporate alliance from 40 to 44.
The °Climate Group will work with these new partners to accelerate international action on climate change, with a focus on practical solutions – developing expertise on how business can lead the way to a low-carbon economy while boosting profitability and competitiveness. For more information, see theclimategroup.org
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Joining the Green Grid
SAN FRANCISCO – The Green Grid, a non-profit consortium of technology companies and professionals seeking to lower the overall consumption of power in data centers around the globe, is growing.
Membership now encompasses more than 150 companies. Recent contributor members include ADP, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Saft Power Systems, Inc., Teradata, Vette Corp., Western Digital, and ZT Group International, Inc.
General members include 42U, ADC, Avnet Technology Solutions, BigFix Inc., Blackwave Inc., Broadcom Corp., BULL SAS, Ciena Corp., Compellent Technologies, Corning Cable Systems, CRAY Inc., Degree Control Inc., Dot Hill Systems Corp., EBSCO Publishing, EqualLogic Inc., Excelon Corp., GlassHouse Technologies (UK), Internet Initiative Japan Inc., Interxion, Lee Technologies, Lockheed Martin Corp., National Semiconductor, NetXen Inc., News Corp., NexSan Technologies, NTT COMWARE Corp., NTT Data Corp., ONStore Inc., Platform Computing, Quantum Energy Services & Technologies Inc., RACKWISE, Server Technology Inc., Siemens Corporate Research, Source IT Energy, Syska Hennessey, Terremark Worldwide Inc., Total Site Solutions, Tretecnic Pty Ltd., University of California-San Diego, UTC Power, and Wright Line LLC.
For more information, see www.thegreengrid.org
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EPA and Green Grid sign MOU
WASHINGTON, D.C. – To promote energy efficiency in small computer rooms, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The Green Grid to focus on the greening of computer facilities.
The idea is to use an existing EPA computer room as a laboratory for optimizing energy efficiency, to standardize processes and performance measures, and to share best practices for replication across the country. Computer rooms across the United States accounted for 1.5 % of total U.S. electricity demand in 2006, equivalent to the annual electric consumption of the state of Florida. For more information, see www.epa.gov/greeningepa/facilities/rtp_ncc.htm
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