Eco-labels reflecting CO2 emissions became a legal requirement for all new cars sold in France as part of the country's climate change policy.

» Continue reading "France Introduces Compulsory Eco-Labels for New Cars"

ECO-Buy's annual awards was announced on April 27. ECO-Buy is an organization funded by the Victoria local government to encourage the purchasing of green products and services. The awards have presented to seven winning councils which stood out for green expenditure or program performance. These councils have actively purchased green products and promoted green purchasing in their organization in the last financial year. Imformation about winners is available here.

Environmental Finance has reported that Tesco is to invest £100 million ($179 million) in installing renewable energy systems in new stores and reducing its energy use.Where possible, stores will be fitted with wind turbines, solar panels, geothermal power, combined heat and power or trigeneration systems (where power, heat and cooling are produced at the same time). Tesco will also be trialling gasification (converting waste into energy) at its depots.

Leading US publisher Random House plans to invest millions of dollars to raise the proportion of recycled paper it uses to print books to at least 30 percent from under 3 percent at present.

» Continue reading "US Random House Vows to Use 30 Pct Recycled Paper"

ＵＳ.Office of the Federal Environmental Executive announced the recipients of the 2006 White House Closing the Circle (CTC) Awards.

» Continue reading "Office of The Federal Environmental Executive Announced 2006 White House Closing The Circle Awards Winners"

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, along with the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association, has announced a new voluntary environmental performance standard to help large computer buyers make environmentally sound purchases.

» Continue reading "New Standard Helps Purchasers Buy Greener Computers"

GE has released its 2005 ecomagination report, showing that revenues from the sale of energy efficient and environmentally advanced products and services hit $10.1 billion in 2005, up from $6.2 billion in 2004. GE's ecomagination report is available online.

Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN) have carried out a survey to provide information on the policies, measures and practices adopted by selected EU Member States to promote government green procurement (GGP), with particular emphasis on the use of ecolabelling schemes.

Since many EU Member States are known to have adopted non-mandatory measures to promote GGP, this information would be of particular comparative value to some countries in the Far East, which have adopted mandatory approaches to promote GGP.

The summary report can be downloaded from here.

Japan’s Green Purchasing Network (GPN) published new guidelines for toilet facilities (GL16). See GPN website for more information.

Use of organically grown cotton by retail titans, fashion designers and small and medium size companies resulted in a dramatic growth in global retail sales of products containing organic cotton between 2001 and 2005, according to a report recently published by Organic Exchange. During the four-year period, global organic cotton product sales increased an estimated 35 percent annually, from $245 million in 2001 to $583 million in 2005. In the US, such sales increased 55 percent per year, from $86 million in 2001 to $275 million in 2005.
http://www.organicexchange.org/Documents/spring_press_rep.doc

On April 28, 2006, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.(IEEE) published IEEE 1680™, the first U.S. standard to supply environmental guidelines for institutional purchasing decisions involving desktop and laptop computers and monitors. The standard was initiated by and developed with support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
IEEE 1680 and its product registration and verification system are part of the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), which is managed by the Green Electronics Council under a grant from the U.S. EPA. The council will maintain a registry of computer products that meet IEEE 1680 criteria at www.epeat.net starting in June 2006.