The Ardour Global Indexes^SM  incorporate many fields that can impact the growth and development of the alternative energy industry.

Industry Breakdown

Alternative Energy Resources. Companies whose technologies are involved with:

• Solar Power- including photo-voltaic (PV) and thermal
• BioEnergy- including power and fuel
• Wind Power
• Hydro Power, Tidal Power and Wave Power
• Geothermal Power

Distributed Generation. Companies whose technologies produce power at or near the end user. These technologies include:

• Micro Turbines
• Diesel Engines
• Fuel Cells
• Hydrogen Generation and Storage

Environmental Technologies.  Companies whose technologies are involved with:

• Water and Wastewater Treatment
• Air Quality and Emission Mitigation
• Clean Coal

Energy Efficiency. Companies whose technologies are involved with:

• Lighting
• White Tags
• Cogeneration
• Energy Recycling
• Advanced Metering
• Demand Response

Enabling Technologies. Companies whose technologies are involved with:

• Power Electronics
• Advanced Battery Chemistries
• Flywheels
• Superconductors
• Ultracapacitors
• Advanced Materials

Etsy is an online marketplace for buying & selling all things handmade.

Etsy's mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to
 reconnect makers with buyers.

Etsy's  vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice:

Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade.

http://www.etsy.com/

Caucasian (dark-colored) bee originates from the Caucasus region that separates Europe from Asia.

Italian bee is the most common bee in the United States. Its origin: Italy.

This is one of Susan Cobey's New World Carniolan bees.The Carniolans originate from the Northern Balkans, Slovenia and Caucasian mountains.(Photos by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The California State Beekeepers’ Association and the Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion for Reforestation and the Protection of Natural Habitats (TEMA), are cooperating in research and exchange of bees to strengthen the honeybee populations around the world.

Susan Cobey is internationally known for her expertise in honey bee breeding and instrumental insemination. She teaches classes that draw students from throughout the world. A bee breeder and geneticist for more than 30 years, she developed and maintains the world-renowned New World Carniolan stock.

“Researchers are still collecting more samples from collapsing colonies and trying very hard to process those and previous samples to see what may be causing the problem,” said UC Davis Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen, who believes that CCD is not caused by one single factor, but multiple factors, including malnutrition, pesticides, diseases, parasites and stress.

“Nearly every state in the U.S. has some to many beekeepers who are having difficulty with losses that appear to be CCD,” said Mussen, Extension apiculturist at UC Davis since 1976 and a former state and national beekeeper of the year. “Many countries are encountering similar bee losses.  Since we don't know what is causing ours, or theirs, we cannot say that the cause(s) is the same, but it is likely.”

In CCD, nearly all adult worker bees unexpectedly fly away from the hive, abandoning the stored honey, pollen, larvae and pupae. Usually they leave in less than a week, and only the queen and a few young workers remain, Mussen said.

CCD  is not a new occurrence, Mussen said. “Similar phenomena have been observed since 1869. It persisted in 1963, 1964 and 1965 and was called Spring Dwindling, Fall Collapse and Autumn Collapse. Then in 1975, it was called Disappearing Disease. But the disease wasn’t disappearing—the bees were.”

Can we surmise what the future holds for bees? “No, we cannot,” Mussen said. “We hope that this episode will just be one in a number that have occurred, and resolved themselves, in the past.”

At the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture hearing on June 26 to review the status of pollinator health and CCD, subcommittee chair Cong. Dennis Cardoza of California’s 18th District, said that the “importance of bees and other pollinators cannot be underestimated. Nearly 130 different crops—totaling over $15 billion in annual farm gate value—depend on pollination to grow.”

Testimony revealed that the lack of pollinators could further increase food prices. Said Cardoza:  “USDA desperately needs to better coordinate their research and response to this ongoing crisis, and more clearly define their needs so that Congress can adequately respond.”

“Should the CCD crisis continue unchecked, pollinated ingredients such as strawberries, cherries and almonds could become scarce or too expensive to obtain, forcing us to evaluate whether we can continue offering popular flavors that depend on pollinated ingredients because of higher production costs,” Pien said.

Those interested in making online donations to UC Davis to help save the honey bees can access the UC Davis Department of Entomology Web page. Or, checks may be made out to “UC Regents” and mailed to the UC Davis Department of Entomology, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616.

University of California Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey and Steve Sheppard, a professor and apiculturist at Washington State University, Pullman, Wash., are investigating several races of the Western or European honey bee (Apis mellifera), which European settlers brought to America in 1622.
 
The Cobey-Sheppard research team has received semen from the Italian bee, shipped from Italy; the Carniolan bee, from Germany; and the Caucasian bee, from the Caucasus region of Eurasia. The Italian bee is a honey-colored bee that's the most common honey bee in the United States. The Carniolan and the Caucasian bees are darker in color.
 
The semen from the three races will be used to inseminate queens that will be kept in an APHIS-approved quarantine until determined safe to release, Cobey said. APHIS, the Animal and Plant Protection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is charged with protecting and promoting U.S. agricultural health.

Monoculture Doesn't Work with Insects, Either!

"As well as enhancing genetic diversity, known to increase fitness in honey bees, we're hoping this will result in an increased level of resistance to the exotic and introduced pests and diseases of our honey bees," Cobey said.
 
America's beekeepers reported losing 36.1 percent of their bees over the last year, up from 32 percent the previous year. The survey, commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America, showed that the beekeepers attributed 29 percent of the recent loss to colony collapse disorder, in which bees mysteriously abandon their hives.
 

The declining bee population crisis is particularly troubling, Cobey said, because bees pollinate about one-third of the food we eat, including fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

 
The bee research is funded by the California State Beekeepers' Association and the Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion for Reforestation and the Protection of Natural Habitats (TEMA), founded in 1992.
 
Cobey will be in Turkey Aug. 1 to 14 to participate in the TEMA Bee Project. "One aspect of this is the preservation of Turkey's native Caucasian honey bee," she said.
 
The UC Davis geneticist will teach a honey bee instrumental insemination class, Aug. 16 to 19 at the Middle East Technical University, Department of Biology, Ankara, Turkey.
 
Cobey is internationally known for her expertise in honey bee breeding and instrumental insemination. She teaches classes that draw students from throughout the world. A bee breeder and geneticist for more than 30 years, she developed and maintains the world-renowned New World Carniolan stock.
 
At their request, Cobey will confer with officials on native bee races at the Bee Selection and Artificial Insemination Center at Camili of Artvin Province. The Camili region of six villages is where apiculturists discovered pure Caucasian bees thought to be extinct. They then began queen bee breeding, selection work and artificial insemination. The center officials seek Cobey's impressions and advice in connection with their work.
 
A "bee safari" is also planned to look at the five native races of honey bees in Turkey.
 
Prior to heading for Turkey, Cobey will guest-lecture at the Federation of Irish Beekeepers' Association summer course, July 21-26 in Gormanston, Ireland.
 
Those interested in making online donations to UC Davis to help save the honey bees can go to the UC Davis Department of Entomology Web page, http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/news/howtodonatetobeebiology.html. Or, checks may be made out to "UC Regents" and mailed to the UC Davis Department of Entomology, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616.

Susan Cobey with queen bee cells. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate. Regions of Focus: North America, Hawaii, Caribbean, and U.S. Pacific Islands. The U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research today released a scientific assessment ("Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate") that provides the first comprehensive analysis of observed and projected changes in weather and climate extremes in North America and U.S. territories. Among the findings reported in this assessment are that droughts, heavy downpours, excessive heat, and intense hurricanes are likely to become more commonplace as humans continue to increase the atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Global warming of the past 50 years is due primarily to human-induced increases in heat-trapping gases, according to the report. Many types of extreme weather and climate event changes have been observed during this time period and continued changes are projected for this century. Specific future projections include: Abnormally hot days and nights, along with heat waves, are very likely to become more common. Cold nights are very likely to become less common. Sea ice extent is expected to continue to decrease and may even disappear in the Arctic Ocean in summer in coming decades. Precipitation, on average, is likely to be less frequent but more intense. Droughts are likely to become more frequent and severe in some regions. Hurricanes will likely have increased precipitation and wind. The strongest cold-season storms in the Atlantic and Pacific are likely to produce stronger winds and higher extreme wave heights.

The Conference Board has published a paper in its Executive Action series, Company Approaches to Green Products and Services: What's Working and What's Not. Unfortunately, the document is available only to Conference Board members, but they've been nice enough to share a copy with me, so I'll provide some highlights.

The report written by Bill Blackburn, a Conference Board Senior Research Fellow, is a primer on green products, from basic definitions to explanations of life cycles to the basics of green marketing.

Blackburn knows from where he speaks: The former head of environment at Baxter International, he is author of The Sustainability Handbook, an authoritative reference for environmental managers. Blackburn's insights are complemented by the findings of a research panel, whose members include Aveda, Coca-Cola, J.C. Penney, Xerox, and others.

According to Joel Makower in Two Steps Forward,   the "best practices" Blackburn suggests include:

• Train and periodically update the company's design and marketing workforce, including their management, on the social and environmental issues and trends that are relevant to the company and the type of products and services it offers.
• Consider the issues and trends relevant to suppliers, wholesale customers and end consumer.
• Support two-way communications to ensure marketing reconnaissance and feedback from other key stakeholders and information sources are shared.
• Stay up to date on green product and service successes and failures of other companies, especially peers.
• Inventory current products and services to see which ones may be considered green.
• Identify potential areas where developing new green products or services might be productive; involve outside experts and/or new personnel to help stimulate the discussion.
• Periodically evaluate your progress in greening and promoting your products and services, and how well they stack up against the competition.

Clean Edge has just released the Utility Solar Assessment (USA) Study, making the case that solar power has the potential to reach cost parity with retail-electricity rates in most regions of the U.S. in less than a decade — but only if electric utilities step up to the plate.

The free report (Download — PDF), published in partnership with Co-op America, provides a robust roadmap for electric utilities to accelerate the growth of solar energy.

Incorporating the latest technology, market, and policy breakthroughs, and interviews with key industry players and experts, it shows how a coordinated effort among regulators, the solar industry, and utilities can enable solar to reach 10 percent of U.S. electricity generation by 2025.

Clean Air-Cool Planet and Forum for the Future have just published Getting to Zero: Defining Corporate Climate Neutrality  (Download — PDF), a joint project "developed in the absence of any hard and fast standards for climate neutrality, and out of growing concern that the real value of the concept could be lost in a stream of inflated claims."

"There's no agreed-upon definition of how much of a company's carbon footprint it needs to offset or what's needed to offset it," states Joel Makower in Two Steps Forward.

Getting to Zero attempts to make sense of all this, laying out the boundaries, providing definitions, and recommending company approaches. Among the recommendations:

Embrace a stretching boundary. The key tension surrounding any claim of neutrality remains reconciling the absolute nature of the claim — implying zero net impact — with a practical boundary-setting process. In the spirit of the term, we recommend that companies accept that claiming neutrality implies some responsibility to consider and address broader value-chain emissions. This is not to suggest that companies accept legal responsibility for the direct emissions of others, but rather that indirect emissions be explicitly considered as part of the neutrality process.

Can you tell a building is "green" or "sustainable" just by looking at it?

Usually not!

Green is a method of building that uses subtle techniques such as sourcing local materials, using non-toxic materials, including space for water conserving landscaping, and using solar heat, natural light, and natural ventilation effectively.

Those strategies don't look very different.  Buildings have used bits and pieces of these smart building design and construction techniques for many centuries.  Today's "green" building not only uses these techniques on the outside of the building skins, but internally.  Energy efficient equipment reduces energy use.  Low water flow plumbing reduces water consumption.  Low energy lighting reduces energy  use.  Non toxic and recycled materials are selected for paints and carpets.  Modular  construction such as carpet tiles  vs. wall to wall carpets reduce the need to fill landfills with old materials when they wear only in traffic patterns.

Most green buildings can't  be identified from the street!  So you might like to search online for green buildings in your community and identify some of them.  They make great outings for visiting family and friends!   Taking a tour will give you wonderful insights into local materials, technology innovations, and just smart living!

Real education is about HOW we learn as much as it is WHAT we learn.  And we can now add WHERE we learn to that equation.

The Donald BREN  School of Environmental Science & Management at the U. of California, Santa Barbara is making where students learn and explore a very green environment.

Greening Bren Hall                                                                                         

Bren Hall, which earned recognition as the "greenest" laboratory building in the United States shortly after it was completed, is a physical manifestation of the School's mission and provides a world-class arena for scientific and academic initiative, leadership, invention, and research.  By combining cutting-edge technology with environmentally sound principles, products, and services, Bren Hall has set a new standard for sustainable design. 

Opened in April 2002, Bren Hall is the only laboratory building in the United States to have received the U.S. Green Building Council's Platinum LEEDTM accreditation - the highest level possible - since the USGBC established its LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program.  Bren Hall sets the highest standard for sustainable buildings of the future, and is being used as a model for other facilities and operations, particularly throughout the campuses and institutions in the state of California. In July 2003, the UC Regents adopted a Green Building Policy for all ten of its campuses, and in November of that year UCSB committed to constructing all new buildings to the level of LEEDTM silver. This represents an extraordinary benchmark and demonstrates a serious commitment to sustainability. UCSB's new Marine Science Institute (also designed by Bren Hall's architects, Zimmer Gunsul Fransca) has obtained a silver LEEDTM rating. 

The total cost of the building was $26 million. Building in a sustainable manner with sustainable materials added only 2% to the overall costs, which will easily be recovered through energy savings over time. Bren Hall is proof that cost is not a significant deterrent to green construction.

For descriptions and images of individual building spaces in Bren Hall, please visit our Rooms & Halls, Teaching Labs, and Research Labs web pages.

Awards & Honors

Flex Your Power Energy Efficiency Award (February 2004)

International Interior Design Association Environmental Award (May 2003)

Parade of Green Buildings featured site (April 2003)

Goleta Valley Beautiful Award (November 2002)

LEEDTM Platinum Award, USGBC(April 2002) Commendation from former California Governor Gray Davis (2002)

Commendation from the County of Santa Barbara (2002)

Case Study for the California Energy Commission

Case Study for the California State and Consumer Services Agency

LEED Rating

The USGBC's LEEDTM program is a credit system. The pilot program in effect when Bren Hall was being built (version 1.0) specified a total of 44 available credits, 6 bonus credits, and 10 prerequisites, arranged in the following five categories describing major areas of sustainable design: sustainable site planning, improving energy efficiency, conserving materials and resources, enhancing indoor air quality, and safeguarding water. Click here to view or print the Acrobat pdf document that itemizes Bren Hall's sustainable features in these areas.

Bren Hall achieved a score of 37 points to receive a Platinum rating, the highest available. It surpasses the new Title 24 requirements for energy efficiency standards by more than 31%.

Click here to view the document that itemizes each LEEDTM category and credit, and how it was achieved.