Several other chemical companies want to jump into the development of biobased succinic acid, and have announced deals this week
Non governmental organization World Growth strikes back at green groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth stating that their campaigns against the production of palm oil in Southeast Asia are damaging the economic and environmental benefits that this industry is giving to developing countries.
Ford researchers are hoping to develop 100% petroleum-free automotive plastics to make it to make cars totally compostable - as long as they don't compost while being driven of course. In fact, decomposition is one of the 3 main challenges that Ford is trying to overcome since bioplastic (e.g. polylactic acid) is designed to decompose quickly.
Canada's Ontario government wants green chemistry in their industrial landscape, and is investing $13.6m (on top of a $9.1m award earlier this year) in the establishment of a research center to develop and commercialize green chemistry technology.
Chemical companies are clamoring to proclaim their energy efficiency success and I got several emails asking why they were left out from my ICIS Chemical Business' August 17 article "Optimizing Energy - Chemical firms lower energy use with new technologies."
Seems to me that solar is shining bright again from the recent activities I saw the past few weeks. Interestingly enough, most of the news are coming from chemical companies that developed new materials to make photovoltaics more efficient and cheaper.
Starting September 30, manufacturers, purchasers and government agencies can soon evaluate how green and sustainable plastics are via a new "Plastic Scorecard" developed by nonprofit group Clean Production Action (CPA) and sustainability consulting firm Pure Strategies.
September seems to be the month of who's who and top rankings. ICIS Chemical Business (the company I work for) released last week its Top 100 Chemical Companies; Cleantech Group and the Guardian had its list of 100 global clean technology companies; the International Fuel Quality Center (IFQC) updated its ranking of the top 100 countries based on sulfur limits in on-road diesel; and Dow Jones also updated its list of top sustainable companies worldwide under its annual Sustainability Index.
Undertaking a list of who's who in the green chemistry start-up field is a little bit difficult to do as for one thing, promoting their business takes money, and they would rather invest their money in developing their technologies first before spreading out their name. Of course, they still have to get out and get money from the investment world so that's when we (the media) hear snippets of information of who are entering this growing sector.“Low carbon biotech solutions are a good example of hidden or invisible climate solutions that are all around us already today but are easy to overlook for policymakers, investors and companies.” says John Kornerup Bang, Head of Globalization Program at WWF Denmark and coauthor of the report.
The green blog has been neglected these days and to compensate (especially for the male readers..lol) here's a very important news about bioplastic invading the beauty pageant industry.
The US Department of Defense (DoD) is making sure they're fighting for our nation's cause the right way...by going green.
An interesting and very cool idea coming from Florida-based Solar Energy Initiatives Inc. on setting up job training for laid off/out-of-job workers as solar energy installation and maintenance technicians in Jacksonville.
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Here's another preview of the incoming ICIS World Oleochemicals Conference in Berlin on October 20-21.
