BMW, Mercedes plan smaller vehicles for U.S.

American Red Cross advising smoke alarm checks
As the country marks National Fire Prevention Week Oct. 3-9, the American Red Cross is urging everyone to help save lives by making sure their home is protected by smoke alarms.

Read more on West Side Leader & South Side News Leader

New Data Show California Global Leadership in Green Patents, VC Investment, Energy Productivity & Solar Energy …
New statistics released today in the “2010 California Green Innovation Index” document California’s increasing global leadership in green innovation, cleantech venture capital investment, and energy productivity, despite the economic downturn.

Read more on PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance

Move Over Man Cave; Meet the Mom Cave
Moms, are you aware you’ve been suffering Man Cave envy? I wasn’t but apparently a recent national survey by HomeGoods of 1,000 moms found that 56 percent of them don’t even have a space in their home to call their own—but 71 percent want one. Accordingly, HomeGoods identified this as an emerging trend and titled it the Mom Cave ™. A better investment ladies? Pick up a copy of Virginia Woolf’s A …

Read more on GOOD

Gordini puts the va-va-voom back in hot hatches
When it comes to hot hatches the Renault Sport range carries a lot of street cred. Now Renault SA has upped the ante and brought back one of the most legendary names in motorsport

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BMW, Mercedes plan smaller vehicles for U.S.
Automotive News reports on BMW and Mercedes-Benz’s plans to sell smaller cars in the U.S.

Read more on CNET

Input to aid Sabah Tourism Master Plan

Connect with Us
Thank you for the kind introduction. Good morning everyone. Let me begin by thanking the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue – TABD – for providing the venue for this important discussion, and also for its tremendous contribution to building trans-Atlantic economic ties over the years.

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16 exhibitors receive Homedec awards for excellent and innovative products
SIXTEEN exhibitors were presented their Homedec 2010 Quality Award and Good Design Awards by Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade, Co-Operatives and Consumerism Datuk Tan Lian Hoe in a ceremony held recently at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Tan was accompanied by C.I.S Network Sdn Bhd president Vincent Lim.

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Less Is More: Minimalist Adage Proves True for Green Gifts for the Holidays
LAFAYETTE, CA–(Marketwire – 10/07/10) – Looking for the perfect green gifts for the holidays? ECOlunchboxes advises consumers to keep in mind the old adage “less is more.” “When it comes to sustainable giving, there’s nothing greener than a gift that results in less trash, less toxins, less carbon footprint, less lunchtime expense and overall less impact on Mother Earth,” says Sandra Ann Harris …

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ASUS Wins 12 Good Design 2010 Awards
The Eee PC Karim Rashid edition netbook, NX90 and U Bamboo Series notebooks have left their mark at the prestigious G Mark Design Award in Japan. Twelve ASUS products, span notebooks, motherboards and displays, came out winners at the Good Design Awards 2010. The G Mark Award is given to products with outstanding and distinctive designs.

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Input to aid Sabah Tourism Master Plan
Kota Kinabalu: Information gathered from the World Tourism Conference 2010 will become the input for the Sabah Tourism Master Plan study to set the pace and direction of tourism development for the next 15 years.

Read more on Sabah Daily Express

STWA Provides Update on Go Forward Plan for Testing Applied Oil Technology (AOT(TM)) at Rocky Mountain Oilfield …

Nasa back down to earth with Arizona desert rover test
FLAGSTAFF – It may not have all the creature comforts, but Aaron Hulse considers his space exploration rover a pleasant home away from home.That is crucial as he and other NATO experts spend days together in the Arizona desert,…

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The New Mercedes-Benz Vito Van
Drive system: economic engines and BlueEFFICIENCY technology cut costs Chassis: the new chassis offers ride comfort tailored to the user’s needs Interior: a practical and comfortable workplace with upgraded appointments Exterior: unmistakably Vito – the new Vito sports a striking new face LONDON – September 20, 2010: Tough, indestructible and dependable – day-in, day …

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Boeing Projects Steady Growth for Commercial Airplanes Market in Africa
Boeing forecasts that air carriers in Africa will experience steady growth over the next 20 years as air travel in Africa continues to grow with the economy.

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New hybrid bus hits the road this week
PSTA received federal stimulus funding for 14 state-of-the-art, diesel-electric buses.

Read more on ABC Action News Tampa Bay

STWA Provides Update on Go Forward Plan for Testing Applied Oil Technology (AOT(TM)) at Rocky Mountain Oilfield …
Efficacy Could Show Value in the Multi-Billion Dollar Oil Pipeline Market

Read more on Marketwire

NASA Announces Strategic Sustainability and Performance Plan

MU engineering interns help fix costly problems
Nine engineering students from across the University of Missouri System spent six weeks this summer helping companies and communities across the state find ways to save money and reduce waste.

Read more on Columbia Daily Tribune

Crazy And Useful Bike Contraptions: Weird Bicycles (PHOTOS)
Interest in bikes as a sustainable and fun way to get around town has skyrocketed in recent years, but bicycle enthusiasts have been getting creative with their creations for years.

Read more on The Huffington Post

Leeds Bradford Airport: All aboard for bus plan
Staff and passengers at Leeds Bradford International Airport are being encouraged to ditch their cars with the launch of its travel plan.

Read more on Yorkshire Evening Post

Cleaning up the bay for guests? • Environment (www.HometownAnnapolis.com – The Capital)
If cleaning up our ecosystems for the health of the planet doesn’t motivate action, perhaps we should consider this: investing in our ecosystems is investing in future tourism. Tourism, which brings in millions of dollars to our local economies, relies on a clean environment.

Read more on The Capital

NASA Announces Strategic Sustainability and Performance Plan
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — NASA has released its Strategic Sustainability and Performance Plan (SSPP) as part of a government-wide effort to achieve goals without compromising the planet’s resources. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO)[[[SHIFTIN …

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Fuel Economy Reform Plan Pulls More Critics

The ambience is the Senate is cold and chilling despite the heat of the fuel economy arguments and proposals. No senator is endorsing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) non-specific fuel economy. Furthermore, other senators are now getting critical during hearings on the subjected fuel economy mandates.

Senators were deeply skeptical about President Bush’s proposal to and rewrite fuel economy mandates for the nation’s vehicles. In a recent Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Nicole Nason, an NHTSA administrator, came under scornful criticism because the administration’s proposal does not set a hard-and-fast requirement for automakers to improve vehicle fuel economy to a specific level.

President Bush earlier announced his proposal that requires a 20 percent reduction of gasoline consumption by the year 2017. According to the proposal, this could be done by significantly improving fuel economy. The proposal also gives the government administration the authority to rewrite fuel economy rules and raise standards without enabling law from Congress. A number of lawmakers support mandating a specific increase that requires for a 35 or 40 miles per gallon average.

“For those who want to do nothing about fuel economy, you’re the perfect spokesman,” U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., told Nason on Tuesday. Automakers and other congressional members with familiarity to the auto industry have expressed their dissent in connection with Bush proposal – they regarded it as ‘too onerous.’

U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Detroit automakers, all in the midst of major restructurings, had created their own problems by failing to keep pace with competitors. “Am I sympathetic to the Big Three? No,” he said. “They haven’t innovated.” In addition, U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said he would no longer support giving NHTSA the authority to set fuel economy standards. Instead he favored giving that amount and kind of power to Congress, since little progress has been made. Further, U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, criticized the NHTSA’s earlier increase on light trucks, two percent a year through 2011, as “miniscule.” “I sense a great deal of foot-dragging, reluctance,” she said.

Beth Lowery, GM’s vice president for energy and environment, expressed the automaker’s toughest resistance to a four percent raise for cars beginning in 2009 and light trucks starting in 2011. Those proposals “are not any realistic measure of what is technically achievable and economically practicable,” she said.

Alan Reuther, the legislative director for the United Auto Workers, also condemned the proposed fuel economy increases. Reuther said they could lead to “calamitous results.” He added, “This could include the closing of additional facilities and the loss of tens of thousands of additional automotive jobs.”

The heat is on and it is unnerving automakers and the NHTSA. General Motors, the Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group and Toyota Motor Corp.’s North American units, are the strongest oppositors at this point. Still, these automakers are exerting efforts to boost fuel economy. Upgrading Ford engines, Volvo clutch, Toyota radiator, Dodge cooling system and Chevrolet’s suspension could etch a milestone in the fuel economy needs.

Niexter: The Green Plan

Apple gives greenies the finger
Apple has refused to allow its iPhones to be included in the UK’s first-ever green ranking scheme for mobile phones.

Read more on Brisbane Times

Paying to be Green | City’s unique character challenges recycling business
The City of Tulsa plans to step up educating curbside recycling participants in an effort to continue decreasing the number of complaints over the recycling service. “Day of service education will be needed forever,” said Michael Patton, executive director for The Metropolitan Environmental Trust a… By Stacy Pettit.

Read more on Urban Tulsa

Green light for $484m wind farm
The state government approves a $484 million wind farm in Victoria’s Western District.

Read more on Brisbane Times

Are smartphones really that green?
James Murray, BusinessGreen , Wednesday 25 August 2010 at 09:40:00 Or has O2 used its new eco-ratings scheme to move the goalposts and ensure smartphones get good marks? O2 has today earned plaudits with the launch a major new initiative designed to rate the environmental credentials of 65 leading mobile phones and provide consumers with an easy to understand guide to which phones are greenest …

Read more on vnunet.com

Niexter: The Green Plan
ALBERT Arnold Jr or “Al Gore”, is one politician who has used his celebrity status to make a difference to the way we see our planet. This former Vice President of the United States is today an outspoken environmentalist who is passionate about Global Warming.

Read more on New Straits Times

GM, China partner SAIC plan new engine development

2004 NAZA Ria GS from Malaysia – Comments
What things have gone wrong with the car? Fuel consumption increase, less power after changing the timing belt at 60,000km. O2 sensors and air flow sensor failed after timing belt change out.

Read more on Carsurvey.org

Tucson Sticks to the Recipe
The 2010 Hyundai Tucson is a good-looking little wagon that avoids the damning label of “cute.”

Read more on New York Times

Lack of greenbacks stalls greener L.A.
Mayor’s push for clean, sun-powered city with 1 million new trees has fallen short.

Read more on Daily Breeze

Lloyds Banking Group Provides $15m To Support Rss Growth In Middle East
15 August 2010 Dubai, UAE: Lloyds Banking Group’s corporate markets team in Aberdeen has provided $15m million in extra credit facilities to Rental Solutions & Services Ltd (RSS) in order to support the power and cooling service provider’s growth plans.

Read more on Zawya

GM, China partner SAIC plan new engine development
SHANGHAI — General Motors Co. and Chinese partner SAIC announced Wednesday plans for joint development of fuel-efficient small engines and transmissions, focusing squarely on the fastest-growing part of China’s huge auto market.

Read more on Washington Post

APA Awards 2009: Greensburg Sustainable Comprehensive Plan – Greensburg, KS

Greensburg Sustainable Comprehensive Plan Greensburg, Kansas On May 4, 2007, an EF-5 tornado hit the town of Greensburg, Kansas, leveling over 90 percent of the town’s buildings and killing 10 people. Greensburg’s economy and population had been in decline for several decades, so the tornado’s path of devastation seemed like the finishing blow for this Kansas town. The citizens of Greensburg, however, decided to rebuild. This community based their recovery strategy on their respect for the land and a vision of a sustainable future. Meetings were held in open air tents and FEMA trailers to create a plan that goes beyond disaster recovery and aims to overcome population decline and a struggling economy. The plan protects social equity and maintains cultural heritage by establishing a framework for affordable, diverse housing and ensuring the new built environment maintains the town’s cherished rural character while symbolizing the community’s goal of being a sustainable model for other communities. In addition to attracting new high quality jobs to the town, the Greensburg City Council enacted a requirement that all publicly funded buildings over 4000 square feet must be built to the US Green Building Council’s LEED Platinum certification level, the only city in the world with that level of commitment to sustainable building standards.

Spectre of Britain’s first cattle factory: £50m plan for megafarm that houses 8,000 cows in sheds the size of 22 …

XPC Web Hosting Announces Green Web Hosting Initiative
XPC Web Hosting is pleased to announce that we have launched a green enterprise hosting initiative. Over the past month we have successfully moved our entire hosting operation into the RackForce Cloud hosting system located in the GigaCenter green data center in Kelowna, British Columbia

Read more on PRWeb via Yahoo! News

Obama hails auto recovery as US grants Ford loans
CHICAGO (AFP) – The United States will guarantee loans to Ford to help export more than 200,000 cars to Canada and Mexico, President Barack Obama said Thursday as he hailed the comeback of the US auto industry.

Read more on Yahoo!7 Finance

Total talks upgrader plans
The president of the Canadian arm of a global oil giant said his company plans to invest up to $20 billion in Alberta’s oilsands over the next 10 years, but don’t expect upgraders to be built until the economic conditions are more favourable.[...]

Read more on Sherwood Park News

Frank Gehry’s Santa Monica Place Mall Deconstructed in a Green Renovation
Architect Frank Gehry designed Santa Monica Place in 1980. Photo: Courtesy of Macerich. SANTA MONICA, CA.- Santa Monica Place , a 1980 design by the renowned architect Frank Gehry, has been radically repositioned with a green renovation that opens Friday, August 6, announced Dallas, Texas-based architecture firm Omniplan.

Read more on Art Daily

Spectre of Britain’s first cattle factory: £50m plan for megafarm that houses 8,000 cows in sheds the size of 22 …
The industrial-scale farm will house the UK’s largest dairy herd in Western Europe inside giant metal sheds with little access to green grass or sunshine.

Read more on Daily Mail: World News

A Green Travel Plan for Everyone and Every Trip

Simply put, green travel is travel in which a positive environmental impact is kept to a maximum and a negative environmental impact is kept to a minimum. Keeping your carbon footprint as tiny as possible while traveling will help preserve the entire planet, including that favorite vacation spot you always visit. That being said, traveling green sounds like something any traveler would be interested in, right? Right, but although many travelers may be interested in Green Travel it can seem a little intimidating or complicated and not everyone knows where to start. SO, I put together this Green Travel Plan that makes traveling green easy for anyone, no matter what their shade of green. What’s even better is you don’t have to camp out in the jungle or hike from place to place to make an impact (unless of course, that’s what you’re into). Remember, every little bit counts and following any or all of these steps will add up to a world of change.

A Green Travel Plan for Everyone and Every Trip

Before You Go:
Help be a part of the solution by booking with a green organization like the Green Travel Hub by RezHub.com; they actually donate 20% of the proceeds from every trip to an environmental group so that every trip can make a difference. They donate whether the travel you choose is labeled green or not.

Consider booking with Green Travel Options like green hotels, hybrid rental cars, and carbon offsetting programs. RezHub also offers all these programs.

When renting a car, choose Enterprise. They not only have the largest selection of hybrid and fuel efficient cars available for rent, they also take huge steps for the environment. They’ve pledged to plant 50 million trees over the next 50 years, they donate millions to alternative fuel research, and the list goes on.

Look for hotels with a green certifications or a “Green Score.” In the Green Score program, hotels can earn points and Green Branches for each environmental program they have in place. While some hotels may only have one leaf, keep in mind that even one leaf is a step in the right direction. It’s important to support the green efforts that each hotel takes because it shows management that they are doing the right thing, and it encourages further expansion of green programs. Remember, where one leaf sprouts, another is sure to follow!

Offset your Carbon Footprint. Choosing to go carbon neutral is one of the gateways to responsible travel. It’s easy to do, and it’s inexpensive! We suggest offsetting your carbon footprint with Sustainable Travel International and MyClimate. Their program is the best we’ve seen in that it’s comprehensive and supports both kinds of offsetts. They’ll let you calculate your exact offset, or you can choose a standard donation from $1 all the way up to $500.

While You’re There:
Plan to green-up your stay, and feel good about where you’re going. These are some really simple steps you can take to help green up your stay, even if you didn’t book with a Green Scored Hotel
• Encourage the hotel you chose to go green or thank them for the green programs that they participate in! Speak with the management and let them know that green options are important to you.
• If your hotel has a sheets and towels reuse program, use it. If they don’t, start your own! Let housekeeping know that you don’t need them to replace your sheets and towels every day; this will reduce energy and water usage.
• Turn off the lights, air conditioner or heater, and the electronics in your room while you’re out. • Turn off the water when you brush your teeth, and take shorter showers.
• Bring your own toiletries, or if you use what the hotel provides make sure to take what’s leftover home with you.

Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints…
• When you’re visiting a park or any natural setting, don’t disturb the plants or wildlife. • Never buy anything made from an endangered animal or plant.
• Make sure you save any trash until you find a garbage can, and wherever possible save your recyclables for a recycling drop-off. Check out http://www.earth911.org to find a recycling drop off center in the US.

Go local…
• Whenever you can, shop and buy from the local vendors. This helps support the local economy, and submerges you in the areas culture.
• Try to avoid the large chains that carry goods shipped in from overseas. All that shipping creates tons of CO2 and the large chains can push the locals out of business (if you wanted to shop at Wal-Mart you could’ve stayed home, right?) .

Give back…
• Consider volunteering some time on your trip. Spending even just one day volunteering makes a difference. Contact not-profit organizations in the area and set something up before you go.
• Check out the Volunteer Travel Hub where you can find the perfect place to lend a hand. These bite-sized volunteer vacations (short term) are free and can be included on any trip!

When You Get Home:
Write a letter or send an email to the hotel you stayed in, the airline you flew and the rental car company you chose. Thank them for going green or encourage them to do so.

Send an email to greentravel@rezhub.com or post to RezHub.com’s Green Travel Forums, if you tell them about how you turned your trip green, you might even win a FREE trip!

Keep these tips in mind while you’re at home too, conserving resources almost always saves you green in the long run. And remember, it really is true that every little bit counts. If each of us took just one of these steps, imagine the difference it would make. I’ll end with a quote from Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

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