Glad helps college football with recycling. http://ping.fm/XsoW6

Glad Helps College Football Programs

The average football game produces 50 to 100 tons of waste, so the Glad Products Co. has collaborated with the non-profit Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education to help college football programs in reducing waste for seasons to come.

Glad is providing a series of grants to AASHE college and university members that are designed to help put new sustainability programs into play. The collaboration also includes ongoing awareness and education around waste-reduction efforts in stadiums and tailgating areas.

To help other teams and tailgaters reduce waste, Glad is expanding its 27-year partnership with Keep America Beautiful to support the organization’s waste-reduction and recycling efforts on more than 150 college campuses. Additionally, Glad has unveiled a grant program for high school stadiums or youth sports leagues’ efforts to reduce waste and aid diversion.

Glad will kick off the AASHE collaboration by helping the University of Southern California and its fans implement waste reduction and diversion practices during pre-game tailgates, where an estimated 80,000 fans will be in attendance.

Glad will help USC tailgaters learn how to take steps to go “One Bag” – working toward the ultimate goal of sending just one bag of trash to landfill, with the rest being diverted to recycling and compost. Moreover, through a Glad grant, USC will implement an EnviroRider – an environmentally conscious production rider that serves as a handbook, presenting eco-friendly options and actions within the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It outlines in-stadium sustainability practices to be implemented during games for the 2012-13 football season.

Glad has joined forces with eco-conscious actress and mom Ali Larter to help inspire consumers to take small steps against waste. Glad also has developed a One Bag toolkit, available at GladtoWasteLess.com, that provides a how-to guide on planning and executing a waste-conscious event.

Glad is committed to supporting youth sports programs by providing 10 $2,000 grants and counsel from sustainability experts to help youth stadiums or sports leagues’ waste diversion efforts. Entrants will share a brief description of their need and plan to take their high school stadium, community fields or youth sports league to One Bag status. The grant entry period runs through Jan. 31.

Glad is committed to taking small steps against waste, and supports the Environmental Protection Agency’s goal to divert 80 percent of solid waste from landfills by 2020. Glad introduced the new Glad Tall Kitchen trash bag that is stronger, yet uses less plastic. This innovation saves 6.5 million pounds of plastic per year, the equivalent of keeping 140 million extra trash bags out of landfills annually.

For race fans, if you have a minute, a Dan Wheldon memorial site, to leave condolences & remembrances can be found at http://ping.fm/Qfpcv

Sad day for the racing world. 5 lap salute to Dan Wheldon. Thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends during this horrible time.

New Nike offshoot to invest in green-tech startups Olga Kharif,Matt Townsend, Bloomberg News Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Nike Inc., the world's biggest sneaker company, is taking a page from Silicon Valley's playbook in an effort to cut production costs and foster a new generation of green-technology companies.
The company is setting up a venture-capital offshoot called the Sustainable Business & Innovation Lab to back startups focused on alternative energies and more efficient approaches to manufacturing. The lab also will seek out companies that promote healthy lifestyles, according to a description on Nike's site.
Nike is counting on innovation to help it cope with the economic slump and supply constraints. The Nike Free, a lightweight running shoe, helped boost sales 18 percent to $6.08 billion last quarter, topping analysts' estimates. The company also has sought ways to lower expenses amid rising costs for raw materials, labor and transportation.


More companies are working on these kinds of projects, said John Taylor, head of research for the National Venture Capital Association. In the past, it was mainly technology and pharmaceutical businesses starting venture arms, he said. With research budgets getting cut, a wider range of companies are now looking to startups to help them maintain their innovation.
"We are seeing consumer companies looking at venture capital," he said. "They feel there's an opportunity to look for fresh ideas."
Nike declined to say how much money it will devote to the project. The effort is in its early stages and hasn't made investments, which would need to be approved by management, said Mary Remuzzi, a spokeswoman for the company. "Leveraging innovation in sustainability can be a vehicle for growth," she said in an e-mail.


The risk is betting on companies that don't pan out. In 30 to 40 percent of cases, investors lose most or all the money they put into startups, according to Shikhar Ghosh, a professor at Harvard Business School. Seventy to 80 percent of the time, investors don't get their projected rate of return.
Nike's lab will primarily make equity investments in young companies focused on alternative energies. It will also finance partnerships with government and nongovernment organizations, according to the company's website.


By pursuing new sources of energy and sustainable production, Nike may be able to make its products more cheaply. It also helps the company appeal to environmentally minded customers, furthering an effort already under way. Last year, Nike introduced soccer uniforms that use recycled polyester made from plastic bottles.


In 2009, Nike helped start an Internet project with Best Buy called GreenXchange that promotes sustainability. The idea is to let patent owners collaborate online to find more eco-friendly ways of doing business.


Nike has tapped venture-capital and private-equity managers to run the new operation, including Avi Sahi, who was hired last December after working at the buyout firm Perseus LLC. John Hull, a longtime venture capitalist, also is working as a partner. He previously served as managing director at Marquam Hill Capital LLC and Intel's venture arm, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Nike is considering adding more staff to the effort, including a principal to evaluate investment opportunities and conduct exploratory research, according to its website.


The company isn't the only sneaker maker pursuing venture-capital investments. Adidas AG has backed Hydra Ventures, a fund started this year to focus on creating new consumer brands in apparel, footwear and sports-related areas.


The rivals are following in the footsteps of technology giants such as Intel. Its venture-capital division, Intel Capital, has invested more than $9.8 billion in more than 1,100 companies since 1991.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/28/BUMO1LA7OJ.DTL#ixzz1ZGy9Epk4

Campaign Calls on North America's Largest Stadium to Go Solar

by Jess Leber · September 27, 2011

More than 3,000 people have joined a campaign on Change.org calling on the University of Michigan to commit to using solar energy in its football stadium.

The campaign, created by the Ann Arbor-based Ecology Center, follows a growing NFL trend of renewable energy-powered national sports stadiums, including the homes of the Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals, New England Patriots, and Washington Redskins. Activists hope the petition on Change.org will lead the University of Michigan, home to the Big 10 Wolverines and the largest-capacity stadium in North America, to become the first big-name college football school to join in.

“The UM stadium has the potential to be the largest athletic venue in North America with solar panels, which is fitting with the University’s claim to be ‘the leaders and the best’,” said Monica Patel, policy specialist at the Ecology Center. “Even though the electricity generated won’t solve the climate crisis, it will go a long way in terms of solar energy education — just think of the awareness raised among the 100,000+ fans there on Game Day, and millions of others who tune in. The move would also give real support to Michigan's growing solar energy industry."

The petition, addressed to University President Mary Sue Coleman, Athletic Director David Brandon, and Director of Campus Sustainability Initiatives Terry Alexander, is being circulated online. Supporters also plan to seek signatures at Michigan football games this fall.

“In just a few weeks, the Ecology Center has inspired thousands of University of Michigan community members to make their voices heard on solar energy," said Jess Leber, a senior organizer at Change.org.

In 2009, University of Michigan students completed a feasibility assessment of a stadium solar project, estimating that an installation could divert 776 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The Ecology Center’s campaign is asking University officials to take move beyond feasibility assessments by engaging with Michigan’s solar manufacturers and developing a project to offset some of the stadium’s electricity use and feed it back into the grid during times when the stadium isn’t used.

The petition asks University of Michigan leadership to announce a commitment to solar energy. Today, at the college’s annual EarthFest, President Sue Coleman announced major environmental commitments at the campus, but failed to address this request to use solar energy on the biggest symbol the school has.

Comments from petition signers such as these below can be found here:

Anthony King, UM alum and Ann Arbor resident: “As an alumnus of UM, I was always taught to think of us as the leaders and best, and not just for sports. Here is an opportunity for sports and the social and academic side of the University to work together, and set an example for the nation.”

Gloria Zimet, UM alum and Ann Arbor resident: “As an Ann Arbor resident and UM alum, I see this initiative as a golden opportunity for the university and its talented students to not only support environmental sustainability, but to become nationally recognized for their leadership role by doing so at one of its most beloved and well-known arenas, the ‘Big House.’”

Photo credit: Flickr user mrkum
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NFL stadium Farmers Field, will be the Nation's first Carbon-Neutral. http://ping.fm/cY1V7