Amazon's Environmental Record May Be As Bad As Its Work Culture

JOHN MACDOUGALL via Getty Images

Amazon’s quasi-dystopian workplace culture is far from its only moral failure in a corporate world that increasingly expects big companies to do the right thing.

Its environmental record is badly smudged. 

Unlike some of its biggest rivals, the e-commerce giant refuses to release information about energy consumption at its data centers. Only last November did it start using renewable energy to power some of these electricity-guzzling facilities. In addition, the company offers to recycle customers’ old devices, but the program is far from comprehensive.

“The biggest hurdle to Amazon becoming an environmental leader is that the company has refused to embrace some basic transparency,” David Pomerantz, a senior climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace, told The Huffington Post by phone. “It’s very difficult for its customers for hold it accountable.”

Amazon’s cloud-computing service, which hosts some of the biggest sites on the web, earns about $6 billion annually. Earlier this year, major clients including Yahoo, Netflix and HuffPost demanded access to their electricity usage data, to no avail.

“Unfortunately we do not release this information to our customers,” Amazon told HuffPost in May, after an engineer for the site requested such statistics. 

An Amazon spokeswoman, reached for comment on Wednesday, pointed HuffPost to a website outlining the cloud-computing unit’s sustainability goals.

“It’s hard to know what is the right amount of disclosure for that kind of information,” Jonathan Koomey, a research fellow at Stanford University, said of the energy usage at data centers. “But I don’t think it’s a proprietary issue at all to say we’re using this percentage of renewable power.” 

Other tech giants, by contrast, have offered more transparent reports on their data centers’ energy consumption. Apple includes its facilities in its annual environmental responsibility report. Google maintains a page dedicated to the energy efficiency of its data centers. Facebook has posted video tours of one of its data centers, touting its energy efficiency since as far back as 2011.

To boot, those three companies have made substantial investments in green energy outside their data centers. Apple last February committed $848 million to a solar farm meant to power its new headquarters. Google has made numerous substantial investments in renewables. Facebook has set ambitious goals to use clean energy to power half its operations by 2018. 

Amazon’s shoddy record on recycling old electronics is put to shame when held up next to Best Buy, the struggling brick-and-mortar retailer whose lunch Amazon has grown plump eating. Despite its financial woes, Best Buy offers free recycling of customers’ electronic waste, including TVs and computers, at its own expense. 

On its website, Amazon says it recognizes “the importance of recycling electronic equipment at the end of its useful life.” Yet, as The Guardian’s Marc Gunther found, Amazon’s own take-back program is limited to its own products, such as the Kindle eReader or failed Fire phone, and it requires customers to mail the defunct device in. At least with Best Buy there is a physical location to which customers can drive.

To its credit, Amazon announced plans last November to power three data centers with renewable energy. Since then, the company has laid plans for two wind farms — in Indiana and North Carolina — and a solar farm in Virginia. 

“Amazon has historically been one of the major tech companies that has been the slowest to embrace sustainability in its business practices,” Pomerantz said. “Amazon really was an outlier until November last year.” 

Amazon’s recent green initiative hasn’t stopped it from opening other facilities that may use fossil fuels. The company faced fresh criticism after the cloud-computer division announced in June plans to open a data center in Columbus, Ohio, a city that relies heavily on coal. It’s unclear how Amazon plans to power that facility.

Such moves could prevent Amazon from shrinking its carbon footprint. If the company opens new locations as quickly as it converts others to renewable energy, its green commitments amount to little more than public relations plays.

“Amazon has started making some pretty significant progress,” Pomerantz said. “But it still lags behind some of its biggest peers and competitors in a big way.” 

Amazon"s Environmental Record May Be As Bad As Its Work Culture

EPA Announces $1.9 Million to Small Businesses to help Support the Nation's Green Economy

 

EPA Announces $1.9 Million to Small Businesses to help Support the Nation’s Green Economy

Release Date: 09/01/2015
Contact Information: Cathy Milbourn, milbourn.cathy@epa.gov, (202) 564-6618, (202) 420-8648

This year’s projects focus on air and climate, manufacturing, toxic chemicals, water, building materials, and homeland security research
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced almost $2 million to 19 small businesses nationwide to develop and commercialize technologies that tackle critical environmental problems.

“Small businesses today are revolutionizing the tools available to protect human health and the environment,” said EPA Science Advisor and Deputy Assistant Administrator Thomas A. Burke. “Their technologies are creating new innovative solutions while ensuring a commitment to environmental sustainability.”

Each of the 19 companies will receive a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I contract for up to $100,000 to develop their green technology. When the project is commercially viable, the companies will be eligible to apply for a Phase II contract of up to $300,000 to develop and commercialize their technology for the marketplace.

The following companies are receiving a phase I SBIR contract:

Advanced Recovery and Recycling, LLC, New York, for recycling circuit board components to reduce electronic waste in landfills.

Industrial Microbes, Inc., California, for reducing carbon pollution in chemical manufacturing using a low-cost biological solution.

SioTeX Corporation, Texas, for reducing industrial processing pollution by harvesting silica from rice hulls.

MicroChemica, LLC, Colorado, for designing a microchip system that analyzes and monitors airborne particles.

Waddan Systems, LLC, California, for developing a lower cost, sensor for simultaneous detection of multiple air pollutants for leak detection and air quality monitoring.

3D Array Technology, LLC, Connecticut, for manufacturing low-cost, ultra-efficient and robust nano-air filters to capture pollution from vehicles.

Advanced Technologies & Testing Laboratories, Inc., Florida, for designing a self-regenerative air filter that converts harmful substances in the air into water and carbon dioxide.

Faraday Technologies, Inc., Ohio, for developing a cyanide-free bath to treat printed circuit boards.

TIAX, LLC, Massachusetts, for creating an environmentally benign, stain-resistant coating for textiles.

TDA Research, Inc., Colorado, for developing a cheaper and greener polyurethane coating for the paint industry.

dTec Systems, LLC, Washington, for recovering excess nutrients from wastewater at wastewater treatment plants.

Green Technologies, LLC, Florida, for a sustainable nutrient removal, recovery and conversion system.

LJJW Aquasolution, LLC, Washington, for a novel nutrient recovery system from wastewater.

Physical Optics Corporation, California, for designing a regenerative desalination system for small drinking water systems.

Sporian Microsystems, Inc., Colorado, for developing an in-line monitoring system that better detects a range of contaminants in drinking water.

Metna Co., Michigan, for developing a new, sustainable and low-cost type of concrete with improved durability.

Bio-Adhesive Alliance, Inc., California, for converting and re purposing agricultural waste with recycled roof shingles for use in pavement construction.

Precision Combustion, Connecticut, for developing a re-generable high efficiency filter technology for direct removal of gaseous pollutants from indoor air.

SurfPlasma, Inc., Florida, for developing a novel method for pathogen-removal in water pipes.

EPA will be e soliciting the next round of SBIR Phase I awards later in Sept. 2015.

Information about the EPA SBIR Phase I awards: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/sbir2015phase1

Information about the EPA SBIR Program: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/sbir/

Information about the SBIR Program across the Federal Government: https://www.sbir.gov/

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EPA Announces $1.9 Million to Small Businesses to help Support the Nation"s Green Economy

Renewable Energy Doing So Well That Subsidies Could End: Energy Secretary Moniz

Wind farm, by Flickr user Patrick Finnegan (Used under CC License)

Enlarge Photo

Government subsidies have been an important lifeline for renewable energy, helping to make different technologies viable even when costs are not in their favor.

But at what point will the industry be competitive enough with fossil fuels that subsidies will no longer be necessary?

It’s possible that will happen sooner, rather than later.

DON’T MISS: As Solar Power Spreads, Diverse Users Fight Utility Attempts To Penalize It

The head of the U.S. Department of Energy now believes renewable energy is doing well enough that subsidies could end.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz now believes renewable energy can be cost-competitive with fossil fuels, even without subsidies, reports the Washington Examiner.

On a call with reporters earlier this week, Moniz said the Obama Administration supports an extension of tax credits for solar, but that he believes the industry could continue to grow without them.

Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee

Enlarge Photo

He said recent cost reductions in the solar industry have “been incredible.”

Moniz expects the cost of a rooftop solar panel to quickly fall by 6 cents per kilowatt-hour, which he claims would make solar “extremely competitive” with natural gas and grid-based electricity sources.

A report released by the Department of Energy earlier this month also claims that the cost of wind power is falling, and that wind-generated electricity could soon become cost-competitive with more traditional sources as well.

ALSO SEE: Some Solar, Wind Power Competes With Natural Gas Without Incentives: Study (Sep 2014)

It claims wind-power prices dropped from 7 cents per kWh in 2009, to 2.35 cents per kWh in 2014.

The drop is attributed to lower wind-turbine prices and installation costs for wind-farm projects, and anticipated increases in production capacity.

For its part, though, the wind-energy industry hopes that subsidies continue.

Ford and Windy Energy Windy System clean-energy pilot program.

Enlarge Photo

The American Wind Energy Association trade group says that the success of wind energy varies in different parts of the country, and that steady incentives are still needed to make it viable everywhere.

The industry needs “stable, predictable policy” to continue at its current rate of growth, Tom Kiernan–American Wind Energy Association CEO–said earlier this month.

MORE: Wind, Natural Gas, Solar Provide More U.S. Power, Replacing Coal

Congress allowed wind tax credits to expire at the end of 2014, but this summer the Senate Finance Committee passed a measure that would temporarily reinstate some form of wind-energy tax credits.

However, it did not address solar tax credits, which are set to phase out at the end of next year.

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Renewable Energy Doing So Well That Subsidies Could End: Energy Secretary Moniz

Brown seeks to broaden California's clean-energy reach in the West

Gov. Jerry Brown is working on an ambitious plan for transmitting electricity across state lines and bolstering California’s role in the region, according to energy officials.

The plan would integrate PacifiCorp, a utility serving six Western states, into the electricity grid run by the California Independent System Operator, which is based in Folsom.

If successful, it could make solar and wind energy available more widely throughout the West — a potential victory for Brown, who has sought partnerships beyond California’s borders in his fight against climate change.

“This would be gigantic,” said Carl Zichella, an environmental advocate who works on energy transmission issues for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “All of California’s climate laws were intended to drive policy in other states and at the federal level.”

The proposal has not yet been formally introduced as legislation, but it is part of the conversation as lawmakers debate measures for combating climate change in the final two weeks of the legislative year.

The governor’s office declined to comment on the issue.

The California Independent System Operator directs electricity from utility companies to 30 million customers in California and some of Nevada.

PacifiCorp produces power for 1.8 million people in six states — Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and parts of Northern California — and operates its own electricity grid.

The two organizations agreed in April to study the possibility of integrating their systems, and officials at both operations said the Brown administration has been working with them.

Possible legislation could include changing the board of the California system operator to include members from other states. Right now, the board is appointed by California’s governor and confirmed by the state Senate.

Brown “has been supportive of the concept of a wider footprint,” said Patrick Reiten, a PacifiCorp executive who handles the company’s transmission system.

Integrating PacifiCorp with California’s grid would require approval from state regulators and the federal government, a process that could take years. But officials said changing the board would be a helpful step.

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Renewable energy requirement creates jobs, Berkeley study says

Chris Megerian

As lawmakers consider new measures to combat climate change, researchers at UC Berkeley released a study saying stronger renewable energy requirements would lead to new jobs.

As lawmakers consider new measures to combat climate change, researchers at UC Berkeley released a study saying stronger renewable energy requirements would lead to new jobs. ( Chris Megerian )

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“There’s a lot of benefit to this kind of geographic expansion,” said Oscar Hidalgo, a spokesman for the California Independent System Operator.

Assemblyman Henry Perea (D-Fresno), who supports the idea of integrating PacifiCorp, called it “one of the most significant policy changes we can make on energy in this decade.”

Boosting regional energy cooperation has been a key issue as California lawmakers consider requiring a greater share of electricity to come from clean sources.

Renewable energy can be difficult to manage because it’s impossible to control when the sun will shine or the wind will blow, and expanding the reach of grid operators could make it easier to ensure that energy supply meets demand.

“California really needs a regional market to be able to continue to build large amounts of renewable energy,” Zichella said. “We need a place to send that energy if we’re going to build more.”

State officials have started requiring utilities to store some excess energy, and a regional system is another way to address the issue.

“We’ll have a chance to send the solar we can’t use to states north and east of us,” Zichella said. And we’ll have a chance to get wind from states north and east of us.”

The proposal could still prove controversial with some environmentalists who are concerned about PacifiCorp’s reliance on burning coal.

“This is a moment to ensure the state is taking the necessary steps to protect its own policy interests,” said Bill Corcoran, western director of the Sierra Club’s anti-coal campaign.

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See the most-read stories this hour >>Read the story

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He’s concerned that electricity from dirty sources could make its way into California through a regional system, and he wants pressure on PacifiCorp to phase out its coal production.

Hidalgo said the system would be able to keep coal power out of California: The state’s cap-and-trade system, intended to promote clean air with fees levied on polluters, adds a financial penalty for dirtier fuels, making them less competitive on the market and less likely to be used on the grid.

“We’re seeing virtually no coal entering the state, because the economics don’t work,” he said.

There’s also the potential for opposition from unions, which want officials to focus on building new sources of renewable energy in California and keeping those jobs in the state, rather than on importing electricity from other states.

Steven Kelly, policy director of the Independent Energy Producers Assn. in Sacramento, said a regional system could make it tempting to build facilities elsewhere. Some states where PacifiCorp operates, such as Wyoming and Utah, have right-to-work laws that weaken unions.

“It’s so much easier to develop outside of California,” he said. “It’s a lot cheaper.”

Hidalgo said California’s grid operators are ready to expand their reach in the West, 15 years after an energy crisis led to rolling blackouts across the state.

“The grid has come a long way,” he said. “The energy crisis showed many flaws in the system that have since been cured.”

Twitter: @chrismegerian

Interested in the stories shaping California? Sign up for the free Essential California newsletter >>

Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times

Brown seeks to broaden California"s clean-energy reach in the West

Obama to keynote 8th clean energy 'summit' in Las Vegas

Presidential spokesman concedes his boss was a ‘little glib’.

Businesses should adapt new strategies just as baseball did, Reid said, noting that Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane figured out how to make smarter, more efficient choices by using an “analytical, evidence-based approach to assemble a baseball team”. “We see this renewed focused on clean energy and energy efficiency as a strong milestone in a journey toward a modern American energy economy that will reap enormous benefits for consumers and businesses alike”.

And he pointed out the inconsistency of those who promote free market solutions, except when those solutions point to renewable energy.

To help drive the decentralization, the Department of Energy “is announcing a new push to deploy innovative distributed energy resources like microgrids [and] rooftop solar with battery storage, and will offer loan guarantees for projects like these”, Obama said. The Blythe Mesa plant is expected to produce enough renewable energy to power more than 145,000 homes. But Obama mistakes the Tea Party trying to affect local change as an endorsement for his energy policies.

Under the new rules, homeowners who adopt renewable energy will be able to do so with no cost upfront and pay back the cost of installation over time through property taxes.

Obama said that the Kochs and other libertarian and conservative groups usually tout themselves as champions of the free market.

On the feisty score, he didn’t waste time saying he was ready for the fall’s legislative battles, noting that he had ridden to the fundraiser with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.

Several private-sector firms also announced commitments to support renewable or energy-efficiency initiatives.

Company Executive Vice President of Energy Services Chris Brooks said those jobs will be temporary construction positions. Everybody’s got to seize the opportunity before us.

During the speech, the President highlighted his Administration’s track record on renewables, mentioned individual states’ efforts, plus some solar power technology and business model developments. “That has the potential to hurt a lot of communities, and set back America’s leadership in fighting climate change“. Basically, if you want to more green energy options for your house, the president wants to make them more available and affordable. And I’m all for consumers saving money because that means they can spend it on other stuff.

In a statement, Koch Industries’ Philip Ellender said the company “supports all forms of energy, but we believe they need to stand on their own merits”. Obama didn’t say, particularly. It’s nearly a moral obligation to become greenhouse gas emissions-free.

And this is all on the heels of the President’s Clean Power Plan, which requires states to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. Wind power made up another 20 percent.

There is “a big shift underway that goes beyond simply putting solar panels on your home”, he said in the keynote address.

Obama to keynote 8th clean energy "summit" in Las Vegas

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Brown professor investigating possible breakthrough in solar energy

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Nitin Padture is soft-spoken, so when he describes new solar power technology that he is researching his words are all the more striking because they’re delivered without bombast and with only a hint of excitement.

“This,” he says in his office at Brown University, “is a game changer.”

Padture, a professor of materials engineering, is talking about perovskites, crystal structures that could be used to replace conventional silicon in solar panels. Making them is cheap and, using a method Padture has patented, also relatively easy.

But the real promise lies in their versatility. Perovskites can be made in layers 1,000 times thinner than a human hair that can be applied to flexible films. They are semi-transparent and can be tinted yellow, red and other colors.

Instead of limiting the placement of photovoltaic panels to roofs or fields, imagine affixing them to walls as shingles or siding or even to windows as a special coating. The possibilities for generating electricity from sunlight could be significantly expanded.

“The vision is painting your house with solar cells,” says Padture.

Padture, who is director of Brown’s Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation, is leading a team of researchers that was recently awarded a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate the potential of perovskite cells. He and other professors and students at Brown are working with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Rhode Island College on the four-year project.

Solar power has spread dramatically across the United States in recent years, but it still represents a small fraction of the nation’s energy mix at only 0.4 percent of total generation, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Despite the rise of leasing schemes offered by companies such as SolarCity and Sunrun, the main barrier for consumers is the high upfront cost of photovoltaic panels.

The cost has come down dramatically over the past four decades, from about $60 a watt in the 1970s to 60 cents a watt these days. But a homeowner could still pay thousands of dollars to buy and install a relatively small rooftop system.

Affordability

Perovskite panels could be part of a remedy. With a price, according to Padture, of less than 10 cents a watt, they could make solar power affordable to many more people. And he’s not alone in believing that they’re a major breakthrough.

“Time will tell, but many of us believe this is the field’s biggest breakthrough since the original invention of the solar cell sixty years ago,” Varun Sivaram, a solar researcher and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in a recent blog post.

Page 2 of 3 – Perovskite crystals were discovered in the 1830s in the Ural Mountains in Russia and named after a Russian mineralogist. Although there are many varieties of crystal structures in the world, very few have the right “band gap” that allows them to absorb sunlight while still being able to generate electricity. Padture calls it the “Goldilocks sweet spot.”

Perovskites hit that sweet spot. They were first used in solar cells in 2009 and were soon recognized as a possible replacement for silicon cells because of their ease of manufacture.

While silicon cells must be fabricated in a complicated process that requires high temperatures and vacuums, perovskites can be made with less fuss in a lab.

Brown PhD student Yuanyuan Zhou demonstrates this in the university’s Advanced Ceramics and Nanomaterials Lab. After mixing a couple compounds in a solution, in no time he is able to separate the perovskite crystals for use in the research project. A stack of solar cells that he has already made rests on a shelf inside a sealed box he is using.

“They look simple to make, but making good cells is not easy,” Padture says while looking on. “We’re trying to come up with altogether new methods. That’s what drives us.”

Padture grew interested in perovskites in 2011 after leaving Ohio State University to take up his current position at Brown. His research until then had focused mainly on composites and high-performance ceramics, such as coatings that could withstand the extremely high temperatures in jet engines.

He read about the first work on perovskites, which was done in South Korea, and thought he could bring his expertise in developing new materials to a field dominated by chemists and physicists.

By 2013, with help from Zhou, Padture developed an innovative way of making crystals using different chemical solutions at room temperature as an alternative to using heat, a more common technique but one that limits production.

Efficiency at issue

The biggest question facing perovskite cells is efficiency — how well they convert sunlight to electricity. Silicon cells have peaked at about 25 percent efficient. The first perovskite cells were less than 4 percent efficient. Advances in research have pushed that number to 20 percent and Padture has gotten it as high as 18 percent. But if the new cells are to compete with conventional ones, efficiency must go up even higher.

As part of the work being funded through the NSF, the research team will look at ways to enhance the efficiency of the cells. Members will also study ways to make them more durable and consider whether they can be made lead-free.

Padture says that solar power holds more promise than any other renewable source “because the available energy is everywhere.” Harnessing all that energy is the challenge. He believes that perovskites could be the key.

Page 3 of 3 – “We’ve tested small samples, but the potential is there,” Padture says. “This could be a transformative technology.”

akuffner@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7457

On Twitter: @KuffnerAlex

Brown professor investigating possible breakthrough in solar energy