Hello and welcome back to the Green Gazette! Spring has definitely sprung and I’m hopping all over the internet looking for eco stories that are worthy of your time. Today we look at Easter Eggs, giant retailer Target making a move to greener practices and our first look at how EPA grants are being spread around the economy.

2010 White House eggs

We’ll start with a posthumous look back at Easter and perhaps the most famous Easter egg roll in the US which takes place on the White House lawn. For the second successive year the wooden orbs’ packaging (is an egg an orb?)  is certified as  eco-friendly and made form paperboard approved by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. Incidentally the SFI website has a bounty of interesting information concerning the management and accomplishments associated with developing sustainable forests.  Each wooden egg is branded with the stamped signatures of President Obama and the First Lady. You can purchase replica eggs from the National Park Foundation and they come in four lovely Easter colours. Proceeds from the sale of the eggs support the event held on the White House South Lawn, which is one of the 392 national parks in the U.S. Incidentally I barely understand Easter Egg hunts, so please someone contact the blog to explain an Easter Egg roll….do you then hunt for it following the roll? “Kathy Abusow, president and CEO of SFI adds:

“SFI is happy to play a small role in this wonderful American tradition, We hope the White House and other government entities increasingly use certified products, as it sends a signal when leadership institutions promote responsible forestry by sourcing certified products.”

I’ve frequently remarked on how large corporation can make a huge impact by making fairly minor modifications to their business practices. When you operate more than 1,700 large retails stores that are visited by thousands of customers daily simple mathematics suggests that a difference will be made with every change you enact. To that end I’d applaud mega-retailer Target for adding multiple recycling bins to every single location of their empire. Each branch will offer bins for paper, plastics and perhaps most beneficially electronic devices. Seeing as many people choose to recycle from home for plastics and cardboard/paper I think the electronic option may be very popular. It’s more convenient for me to take old computer monitors or cell phones to a drive up bin at Target than try and schedule a drop off day in the township where I live. Needless to say Target will also be doing the rounds to collect the recyclables and dispatch to the appropriate centers. Better still - when you arrive at Target to shop do so with a reusable bag(s) for your shopping to reduce the scourge that is plastic bag consumption and waste.

Finally something to counter the continued argument about ‘where does the government waste our money’ and ‘they don’t even tell us how it gets spent’. Part of the Environmental Protection Agencies green initiatives in 2009 was the awarding of grant money (totaling some $70,000 USD per business) to 20 different business in 16 states that are creating new innovations to reduce environmental damage, waste or neglect. The awarded companies run the gamut from being involved in green building ideas, greenhouse gas reduction or studies and the improvement of drinking water. The categories announced this week include:

• 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

A comprehensive list of each winner and their specific funding basis is listed on the US EPA site and expect to see each award ‘winner’ adding more details to their respective sites in the days ahead. I’d like to spotlight just two today:

Aspen Products Group - a recognized leader in technologies that enable the clean and efficient use of fossil fuels. Development of fuel conversion products includes systems that generate hydrogen for use in fuel cells, provide high quality heat, clean up exhaust systems, and separate gaseous fuel components.

TDA Research Inc. - In the past two years, in partnership with major companies which are leaders in their fields, we have successfully commercialized the large-scale manufacture of fullerenes,  the Direct Oxidation process to remove and recover sulfur from natural gas, and electronically-conducting polymers that are made easier to process because they disperse in organic solvents.

I’m no scientist but I am glad to see companies such as these are receiving the support to continue vital research and product development that will better the environment.