2Sustain

Last week, Kohl’s Department Stores announced that over the past four years, the company has improved its energy efficiency by more than 20 percent –and saved nearly $50 million in electricity costs.

Kohl’s says 500 of its stores have now earned the Energy Star label from the US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Energy and that beginning in spring 2011, all newly constructed stores will pursue Designed to Earn the Energy Star designation, which is awarded for building designs with an estimated energy performance that meets Energy Star criteria.

The company has pursued a wide range of energy efficiency initiatives, including: (more…)

The past few weeks have been chock full of news about successful sustainability initiatives at global corporations. (For a few examples, see previous posts about  Unilever and MillerCoors.)

Now, Best Buy Co., Inc., is joining in, too, with the release of its 68-page 2010 Sustainability Report, which according to the company, underscores a year of “remarkable success” in implementing sustainability initiatives that emphasize two primary areas of focus: people and power.

For example, Best Buy announced that it has: (more…)

Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will delay enforcing a new lead-paint regulation until October1,2010.

The new regulation, called the Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule (Lead RRP Rule), requires that contractors working in older homes become certified by a government-approved trainer and follow strict safety precautions. Although RRP has been effective since April of this year, the EPA says it is now responding to concerns by the regulated community regarding difficulties experienced in obtaining the required certification and renovation worker training. (more…)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Monday that it has awarded $2.38 million to 34 small businesses to develop innovative, sustainable technologies to protect human health and the environment.

The awards were made to businesses in 16 states, and they  focus on ten key environmental research areas:

• increasing the efficiency of green building materials and systems

• manufacturing innovation

• prevention, monitoring, and control using nanotechnology

• reducing greenhouse gases

• new treatment technologies for drinking water

• improving water infrastructure

• reducing emissions from small air pollution sources and vehicles and biofuels production facilities

• new approaches for cleaning up and monitoring hazardous waste sites

• new tools for homeland security systems. (more…)