This insightful news item about a way of saving money and lowering auto emissions now, and not decades in the future when hybrids will be more common, was sent to me by Emily Boak of The Rosen Group at 212-255-8455 or emily@rosengrouppr.com

The Future May Be Green... But What About Now?

Pick-up a newspaper and flip to any section and you can read about it. Turn on news and wait a few seconds and you can hear about it. What is “IT”? “IT” is the future of “green” automobiles. Laws have been passed that will increase the required MPG and reduce the carbon output that is acceptable.

Currently there are many hybrid vehicles to choose from, most notably the Toyota Prius. Getting over 46 miles per gallon, the Prius sets the bar for fuel efficiency and has less harmful emissions than non-hybrid vehicles. The day that the majority of vehicles on the road are hybrids will be a great day for the environment. However, that day is not in our near future. With 10 million new cars predicted to being purchased this year, less than four per cent will be hybrids. When will hybrids be the majority of vehicles on the road? 2030? 2040?

There are an estimated 196,000,000 licensed drivers who operate more than 220,000,000 non-hybrid vehicles in the US alone. How do we make a “green” impact with these vehicles? The easy answer is, “Buy a new car that gets better than the mileage you get now.” Great in concept but several problems exist:

 Due to current economic conditions, people cannot afford to purchase a new car now more than ever. Over half the vehicles on the road today are “under water” (people owe more for them then they are worth).

 Safety versus MPG. Reports show that many people are scared to move down to a smaller vehicle for safety reasons.

 Price of a hybrid. Estimates show that many hybrids have a payback period of many years.

In order to make a significant impact in fuel savings and CO2 emission reductions, we must focus on the vehicles that are already parked in our garages, not the ones that have very limited scale in terms of numbers on the road or that are still in the concept stage.

Dallas-based company Fuel Efficiency Centers (www.fuelefficiencycenters.com) has the “now” solution: Focus on the Driver- Not the Vehicle. The founders of Fuel Efficiency Centers began testing fuel savings devices last year as fuel prices skyrocketed and the inventory of hybrid vehicles plummeted.

“When gas was $4 per gallon, you could not get a Prius. In fact many used Prius’ were selling for more than a new one”, said Karl Singer, President of Fuel Efficiency Centers. “It was about this time that a light clicked on. The talk was all about what’s coming, not what it already here. And what is here, will be here for a long time. We began looking away from the vehicle solution and honed in on the driver. What if we could alter the driving habits of people in their existing cars? What if we could increase fuel savings by over 30 per cent and at the same time create the incentive for drivers to limit their carbon output? What if we could do that NOW and directly impact the tens of millions of vehicles already on the road?”

In order to modify driving behavior, we must have a self improvement system for the driver, and that is the Fuel Efficiency Adviser (FEA). The FEA is a real-time measurement device that easily plugs into ANY 1996 or newer passenger car or light truck. The FEA informs the driver of the actual real time cash costs and subsequent savings of his / her driving behavior. Most significantly how they handle their gas pedal and braking. With an FEA installed is in your vehicle, you should expect at least a 20 per cent increase in fuel savings (the average has been around 29 per cent).

The Fuel Efficiency Adviser will save most drivers between 200-300 gallons of fuel per year. Each gallon of fuel saved equates to a 19.4 lbs of CO2 reduction. Thus, drivers will decrease the amount of CO2 that they emit by over two tons. With a price of $159, drivers should have a payback between 12-16 weeks and will save $700 per year.

And you will not have to trade safety for savings. You can get hybrid efficiency in your current vehicle by using the FEA. Keep your current vehicle longer. When it is time to trade your car in and get a new one- test drive a hybrid.

Posted by Guy Crittenden at 02:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our new show “Going Green for Green” -- a new program about money-making opportunities for companies in the environmental protection and waste management industries -- has made its debut.

The new show takes viewers inside the business of the environment and should be of interest to people in the environmental services and waste management industries, as well as other people such as professionals in the investment community interested in opportunities for profit in these fast-growing sectors.

The show is the brainchild of host Michael Lavelle and is a joint venture between Lavelle’s company Going Green for Green TV and HazMat Management magazine and Solid Waste & Recycling magazine. Brad O’Brien – publisher of the two magazines – is Executive Producer; each episode is shot by Director Brad Ling, with research and writing support from editor and award-winning business journalist Guy Crittenden and various contributing editors and writers from the magazines.

Each episode focuses on a theme from within the environmental services and waste management industries. Themes thus far have included organic waste collection and processing, construction and demolition waste, and brownfield remediation.

View the episode on opportunities in brownfield remediation by visiting the website for HazMat Management magazine (look under "Video Picks" at www.hazmatmag.com) or by following the link here:

http://www.hazmatmag.com/video/green4green.asp

Posted by Guy Crittenden at 05:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Summer 2009 edition of HazMat Management magazine is out, with its Editorial on asbestos ("Canada's Chrysotile Tears"). I thought readers might also find the following article on asbestos issues interesting, sent to me by Richard Moyle, National Awareness Coordinator of the Mesothelioma Center (Asbestos.com)

Canada Continues to Export Asbestos

While many countries all over the world have placed bans on asbestos, Canada continues to export the toxic mineral to numerous developing countries, including India, Pakistan and Vietnam.

Consequently, Pat Martin, Winnipeg Member of Parliament, is attempting to make the House of Commons proclaim April Fools Day (April 1) an asbestos awareness day for asbestos-related diseases. “We’ve fooled the world with phony science for too long,” Martin says. Much of Martin’s passion on this subject comes from the fact that he spent two years in his youth mining asbestos in the Yukon, completely unaware of the potentially fatal affects.

While asbestos was used throughout the 20th century in many capacities due to it fire-resistant and durable qualities, exposure to it is now considered the only known cause of a rare and aggressive cancer known as mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma does not typically begin to show noticeable symptoms until anywhere from 25 to 50 years after exposure. Because of this, the cancer is not usually diagnosed until it is already in its advanced stages making effective treatment difficult. The average mesothelioma survival rate after diagnosis is about one year.

As of April 2009, Canada is exporting more than 200,000 tons of asbestos each year. In 2005, 61 percent of work-related deaths in Canada were the result of asbestos exposure, totaling 340 people.

While the government is still evaluating Martin’s proposal for an awareness day, the Canadian Cancer Society is in full support of Martin and wants some type of asbestos ban to take effect. They have already asked Prime Minister Stephen Harper to set a timeline for phasing out the use and export of Canada’s chrysotile asbestos.

Many people are under the impression that chrysotile asbestos is less dangerous than other forms of asbestos, but a spokesperson for the Canadian Cancer Society said, “We are stating factually that all forms of asbestos cause cancer.”

The last remaining active asbestos mine in Canada is located in Quebec, which exports 90 percent of all the asbestos that it produces.

The World Health Organization lists asbestos as a cancer-causing substance and reports 90,000 people worldwide die from an asbestos-related disease every year. More than 40 countries have already banned the use of chrysotile asbestos, including the United Kingdom, which banned the import and use of the hazardous material in 1999.

Web links associated with this article:

http://www.asbestos.com/

http://www.asbestos.com/mesothelioma/survivors.php

Posted by Guy Crittenden at 08:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Readers outside the City of Toronto may or may not be aware that the city is in the midst of an extended strike by city workers that has affected a range of programs during the start of the hot summer months; services including daycare, summer camps and (most noticeably) garbage collection. The city has created temporary storage sites for garbage in public parks and skating arenas, etc. News coverage has included everything from whether or not the city can spray disinfectant on the rotting piles to rat sightings. In the end, the situation is forcing residents to ponder how much waste they generate from their consumer lifestyles. Articles in the Toronto Star (for example) have also questioned the value of collecting source-separated organics for what it has deemed to be low-end AD processing/composting. (Note, the Composting Matters columnist Paul van der Werf will address this issue in the forthcoming August/September edition of Solid Waste & Recycling magazine.)

Anyway, I reproduce one recent Toronto Star article below so folks outside Toronto can get a "whiff" of what's going on.

Moss Park residents learn to live with trash

Although not happy about mounting garbage, it 'has to go somewhere'

July 06, 2009
Jesse McLean
STAFF REPORTER, TheStar.com

Joachim Kun has barely noticed the growing mounds of garbage in the middle of Moss Park.

The 62-year-old drifter has been sleeping in the park, on the northwest corner of Queen and Sherbourne Sts., since the weather got warm, and has watched black trash bags slowly fill the nearby basketball courts.

"I really don't notice the smell," said Kun as he lay in the sun, a stone's throw from the temporary dump site.

"If it gets worse, I'll go to the beach. But it's okay right now."

In stark contrast to the Christie Pits site, which stopped accepting new trash yesterday after the city said it had reached capacity – and after two weeks of protests by local residents – many Moss Park-area residents have quietly accepted the influx of trash in their green space.

The park, which sits near three of the city's largest homeless shelters, is a popular refuge for the area's underprivileged. It boasts a playground, a community garden, a cricket pitch and a dog park.

"It's a wonderful spot. But the garbage has to go somewhere," said J.J. Witherspoon, a psychologist who has lived in the area for 16 years.

When the fences were erected 10 days ago, they stretched the length of the park, prompting several complaints from residents that they had been robbed of their public space.

On Thursday, the dump zone was reduced after several fences were repeatedly knocked over.

"I seen people going over the fence to play soccer, to walk their dogs. They didn't like it," resident Danielle Humphreys said.

The trash site is now next to Moss Park Arena, away from the fields where a handful of people played baseball on the weekend.

However, if the current zone reaches capacity, the city would extend the dump site back to the fields, said city spokeswoman Cheryn Thoun.

Perry Missal, who has been lobbying the city to consider an alternate dump site, said restoring the larger site would anger many residents.

"People are just resigned to the fact that the garbage has to go somewhere. But that would change," Missal predicted.

Until it does, it's business as usual for those who use Moss Park.

Jackie, out walking her border terrier, said she hasn't seen a drop in dog-walkers since the temporary dump was opened.

"We just don't go anywhere near (the garbage)," said Jackie, who declined to give her last name.

Meanwhile, Humphreys said she will bring her two sons to the water park until the strike ends.

"We don't like the garbage, but we can't do anything about it," she said

Posted by Guy Crittenden at 02:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)