Brothel offers green discount to cyclists

The Maison d'Envie brothel in Berlin is offering a seven percent discount to its customers who arrive by bicycle. And the gimmick is working too! Brothel owner Thomas Goetz says that the incentive draws in an extra three to five clients per day.

The discount is not only open to cyclists but to any other customer who can prove that they arrived by public transit.

"The recession has hit our industry hard," Goetz told Reuters. "Obviously we hope that the discount will attract more people. It's good for business, it's good for the environment – and it's good for the girls."

Nevermind the Bastille - French to Storm Mediterranean with Hydrogen Yacht

The Zero CO2 - the world’s first-hydrogen powered yacht - is expected to set sail around the Mediterranean Sea next March.

While most sailboats are typically by nature, a carbon-free form of transportation the Zero CO2 will have an electric motor driven by a hydrogen fuel cell. All other on-board energy needs on the Zero CO2 are to be obtained from renewable energy sources.

Zero CO2 is not just a yacht, its also a floating 12 meter laboratory.

The integrated on-board lab will study air and waterborne pollutants on its 10 month research mission with an eye to "develop and promote new energy sources that will replace fossil fuels and consequently lead to a reduction in carbon emissions and an improvement with regards to the greenhouse effect."

Following trial runs in Savoie, France Zero CO2 will be launched in the Mediterranean off the southern coast of France and head for Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Tunisia, Crete, Turkey, the Greek coast, Montenegro, Croatia, the Italian coast, Spain, and the Balearic Islands before returning to Marseilles in December, 2010.

During the mission researchers will also study the feasibility of green hydrogen production. This form of hydrogen would be produced by solar panels and wind turbines mounted on the roofs of port-side buildings.

The odyssey is also a vehicle to raise climate change awareness amongst sailors and promote respect for maritime environment. Now under construction, the boat is to debut at the Paris Boat Show in December.

G8 Moves Forward on Climate Change

The eight richest industrialized nations - the G8 - gathered in L'Aquila, Italy last week to discuss among other things climate change. Unfortunately, the only news that grabbed the world's attention was a photo of who was looking at what.

It was expected that the G8 - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States - would agree that a rise in global temperature of two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels would set off a catastrophic chain of events that would send our planet spiraling out of control ecologically speaking.

The G8 also agreed to greenhouse gas reductions that echo the recent reduction targets passed in the US Congress. The Group mandated its members to cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. This commitment reasserts the targets and principles set out in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and cites the statement adopted in Toyako, Japan last year.

With its new targets in hand the G8 then challenged developing countries to cut global carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050.

China and India do not support such a measure as they believe that it would cripple their burgeoning economies. Other developing countries are particularly concerned that the G8 will not offer financial aid and technical support to help them adapt and meet these targets.

The Italian meeting of the G8 was held in conjunction with the Major Economies Meeting. The MEM is comprised of Australia, Korea and Indonesia, the G8 and the G5 - China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico. Together, these 16 countries account for more than 80 percent of global CO2 emissions.

This meeting marks the last time that all the major players are together until the Copenhagen Conference in December. At that time a new global agreement is expected to be reached that will replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol which sought to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 6-10 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012.

Talks on addressing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions have been ongoing since the Rio Accord of 1992.

Enviro News & Links You May Have Missed This Week

Happy Birthday America! You probably won't find these headlines on the front page of your local papers but they are steps in the right direction.

We also mix it up a bit by adding NGO and environmental resource websites that are worth checking out.

What is the Car Allowance Rebate System?
A Central Texas Water War
Report Points the Way for a Zero Waste Vancouver
Roadsters embrace green racing
Surfing the Nations
Get Started Saving Energy: A Video Guide to Busting Inertia
Top 10 organic fast-food restaurants

Next week Green Works Links will take a look at the first LEED museum in America.

Calculate the Footprint of Your Water Use

The Global Water Tool was developed by the World Council for Sustainable Business to help assess your water footprint and assess risks where water is not in plentiful supply.

Working within an Excel spreadsheet the Global Water Tool can be downloaded along with other supporting information and video tutorials.

It was first developed in 2007 - used by companies such as Dow Chemical and PepsiCo - and updated in 2009 for the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul.

“Green” fireworks may brighten eco-friendly Fourth of July displays in future

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With millions of people in the United States eagerly awaiting those July 4 fireworks displays here’s a prospect for those light shows of the future likely to ignite a smile on Mother Nature’s face: A new generation of “green” fireworks is quietly making its way toward the sky.

That’s “green” as in environmentally friendly.

Fireworks, flares and other so-called “pyrotechnics” traditionally have included potassium perchlorate as the oxidizer, a material that provides the oxygen that fireworks need to burn. Perchlorate, however, is an environmental pollutant with potential adverse effects on people and wildlife. Pyrotechnics contain other ingredients, such color-producing heavy metals, with a similar potential.
Studies have shown that perchlorate from community fireworks displays conducted over lakes, for instance, can lead to perchlorate contamination of the water. For full details about how perchlorate contaminates lakes after fireworks displays, see a study published in the American Chemical Society’s peer-reviewed journal, Environmental Science & Technology.

Researchers, however, have developed new pyrotechnic formulas that replace perchlorate with nitrogen-rich materials or nitrocellulose that burn cleaner and produce less smoke, according to an article in ACS’s weekly newsmagazine, Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN).

In the article, C&EN Associate Editor Bethany Halford says these nitrogen-rich formulas also use fewer color-producing chemicals, dramatically cutting down on the amount of heavy metals used and lowering their potentially toxic effects.

Some of these fireworks have already been used at circuses, rock concerts and other events, but none have been used at large outdoor displays. The problem: cost. The big challenge in launching these “eco-friendly” pyrotechnics into the sky is making them cost-competitive with conventional fireworks while maintaining their dazzle and glow, the article explains.

The article notes that fireworks manufacturers have little incentive to further develop the new green fireworks because no federal regulations currently limit releases of perchlorate from pyrotechnics.

(The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 154,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.)

Mariposa: The Greening of a Music Festival

Summertime and the living is easy.

This is the time of year when we kick back and enjoy life at a slower pace. It's also when the music festival scene kicks into high gear and whether its rock, jazz, blues or folk there is a festival for every taste and every genre.

High energy concerts take an inordinate amount of energy to run and the single biggest energy use is getting back and forth from the concert. While finding alternative transportation is the greenest thing that you can do festivals are now seeing that there carbon footprint can also be shrunk.

In honor of Canada Day we look at the efforts of one of the oldest folk festivals on the continent and see how after 50 years they are starting to reinvent themselves in a green hue.

Approaching its 50th anniversary next year the Mariposa Folk Festival is also celebrating the 10th anniversary of its return to its Orillia roots. Over the course of its long history the annual event has been hosted in Toronto and neighboring Barrie.

Greening Mariposa, as the new environmental initiative is known, focuses on five key areas to reduce Mariposa's carbon footprint. These measures are: Bring Your Own Cup (BYOC); Composting; Cycling; Souvenir Program; and Virtual Audience Survey campaigns.

"As this is really our first year at such an initiative our focus is to reduce the amount of non-biodegradable waste produced at the festival," says Aaron Howes, Chair of the Green Team, Member of Mariposa Folk Foundation Board of Directors. "We will be aiming for a water bottle free festival and to use biodegradable serving materials wherever possible."

The festival has added water "hydration" stations this year in the hopes of eliminating single use plastic water bottles. The Bring Your Own Cup campaign, primarily aimed at the festivals volunteer base is a case of leading by example. Festival organizers are also encouraging volunteers and attendees to cycle to the Festival.

"Other initiatives include our festival programme and posters being created by Rose Printing who is FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified. We are also moving the audience survey online to eliminate paper usage at the festival," states Howes.

Throughout the festival's three day run volunteers will work the crowds and collect email addresses. Afterward, concert goers will be queried electronically for their thoughts on the Festival and their overall experience in attending Mariposa.

Composting is also being introduced this year and Mariposa has purchased biodegradable cups and utensils for its food stands and beer tent. Compost bins will be set up throughout the grounds with volunteers to sort through the detritus.

While there are no hybrid vehicles to shuttle talent back and forth from the grounds organizers are hoping to make a difference with the artists. "In terms of the artists we will be supplying them with hard reusable plastic mugs to fill up with water over the weekend. And all the supplies used in the Green Room will now be biodegradable."

With the Festival kicking off this weekend, Howes is already looking to expand Mariposa's environmental efforts next year. "In our second year we will be adding to our strategy to include energy usage at the festival amongst some other sustainable strategies."