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\n Top Green Right Now stories

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Green Business Bureau helps small businesses show their green side

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From Green Right Now Reports\n\nPlenty of small to mid-size businesses are environmentally friendly, but organizing those efforts and conveying that commitment to a skeptical public can be another matter. One possible solution: Green Business Certification from the Green Business Bureau.\n
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55 countries offer emission reduction pledges

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From Green Right Now Reports\n\nFifty-five countries that combine to produce 78 percent of all global greenhouse emissions from energy use have offered pledges to reduce that output by 2020, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The group includes China and the United States.\n\nThe national pledges were required under the Copenhagen Accord forged at the climate change talks in Copenhagen in December. Pledges cover the period after the end of 2012 when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol emissions targets expires.\n
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Transportation expert applauds Obama’s rail plans

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By Harriet Blake\nGreen Right Now\n\nIn his Jan. 27 State of the Union Address, President Obama included high-speed rail, stating, \“From the first railroads to the Interstate Highway System, our nation has always been built to compete. There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains or the new factories that manufacture clean-energy products.\”\n\nHe followed that up with a visit to Tampa the next day, where he stated that $8 billion in grants would be going to a Tampa-Orlando-Miami route in Florida, followed by similar rail projects in California and Illinois.\n\nThis is music to the ears of longtime train advocate Anthony Perl, a fellow with the Post Carbon Institute (PCI). The San Francisco-area institute in an apolitical think tank that envisions a world of communities and economies that thrive within ecological bounds. The president's address spurred PCI to send Obama an open letter applauding the speech but imploring him to lead the transition to a post-carbon economy by, in part, preparing for the future with cost-effective energy, such as trains. In addition to his position with PCI, Perl is the director of the Urban Studies Program at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia.\n
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DeLoach Vineyards earns Biodynamic certification

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From Green Right Now Reports\n\nDeLoach Vineyards has earned certification as a Biodynamic farm, as Demeter USA (the only certification agent for Biodynamic farms in the United States) has found the 17-acre estate vineyard and garden fully compliant with organization’s standards. DeLoach becomes one of only 64 wineries or vineyards in the world to earn the distinction.\n\nBiodynamic farming treats the farm as a living organism. The process of converting a farm from conventional to Biodynamic starts with a three-year transition process during which the operation becomes organically certified. Next comes an additional year of Biodynamic-specific practices. All work is governed by the Biodynamic calendar, which is based on celestial and terrestrial movements.
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Audi’s ‘Green Police’ hit the funny bone on Super Bowl broadcast

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By Harriet Blake\nGreen Right Now\nAudi’s 2010 Green Police commercial during Super Bowl was ingenious and hilarious.\nYou didn’t have to be an environmentalist to enjoy the plug for Audi’s A3 TDI clean diesel car. In fact, the commercial pokes fun at the extreme measures an environmentally conscious police force might take:\nArresting a customer for choosing plastic [...]
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GM announces biodiesel-capable pickups

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From Green Right Now Reports\n\nGM announced today that its new lineup of heavy-duty diesel pickups will run on B20 biodiesel, which is a blend of 20-percent biodiesel and 80-percent conventional diesel that produces lower carbon dioxide emissions.\n\nThe announcement was made at the National Biodiesel Conference in Grapevine, Texas.\n\nGM said its new Duramax 6.6L turbo diesel engine has been substantially revised to include B20 capability, as well as meet strict new emissions standards effective this year. The Duramax will power the redesigned 2011 Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra heavy-duty pickups, as well as the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana full-size vans. Chevrolet plans to unveil the 2011 Silverado heavy-duty trucks at the Chicago Auto Show on Feb. 10.\n\n\"B20 capability in our new heavy-duty trucks is the latest addition to a growing number of alternate fuel options offered by General Motors,\" Mike Robinson, GM's vice president of Environment, Energy and Safety Policy, said in a statement. \"We are seeking different paths to fuel solutions in order to maximize efficiency, reduce emissions and minimize the dependence on petroleum.\"
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Recovering chairs, Blugirlart turns throwaways into thrones

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By Barbara Kessler\nGreen Right Now\n\nRecycling doesn’t mean settling for something less. It can mean adding value for less. But the end product might even be better than ever. (Hence, the term upcycling.)\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_8807\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"190\" caption=\"VictorVictoria chair (Photo: Blugirlart Inc.)\"]\"VictorVictoria[/caption]\n\nBut whether a first iteration or an item’s reincarnation is superior hardly matters when the end result makes the owner happy and the object serves its purpose well, maybe even rises above, to a higher calling.\n\nThose who reclaim items for a second or third life are often driven by this reward, the thrill of taking something bound for the trash and rescuing it, restoring it and assigning it to a better life. We’re thinking of artists who meld old garden tools into garden sculpture or carpenters who assemble barn planks into gleaming table tops.
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Getting green meetings on the same eco-friendly page

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[caption id=\"attachment_8796\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"297\" caption=\"The Addison Conference Centre in Texas features large windows to let in light, yet overhangs help block out mid-day heat. (Photo: The Town of Addison)\"]\"The[/caption]\n\nBy Tom Kessler\nGreen Right Now\n\nMuch as a forest fire clears the land and leaves behind essential nutrients to enrich a new generation of growth, the devastation of the travel and meetings industry caused by a global economic collapse has left a few seedlings. One of them is the nascent green meeting industry, which has more than gotten a foothold. In many respects, green meetings are fast becoming the only kind of meetings.\n\n
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Super Bowl XLIV does green

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By Ashley Phillips\nGreen Right Now\n\nThis weekend, while fans get ready for the Saints face off against the Colts at Sun Life Stadium for Super Bowl XLIV, the NFL will be running some of its own green plays.\n\nAll leftover food from Super Bowl events will be donated to local agencies under the leadership of Daily Bread Food Bank. Over 65,000 pounds of leftover prepared food was donated after last year's Super Bowl.\"SuperBowlXLIV\"\n
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Davidson County, N.C., seeing the solar light

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From Green Right Now Reports\n\nResidents in Davidson County, N.C. will be getting more of their power from the sun after SunEdison activated the first phase of a 16-megawatt solar farm there.\n\nThe initial phase is comprised of 14,000 solar panels designed to produce four megawatts of generation capacity. Over six million kilowatt hours of electricity are expected in the first year of operation.
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eBay and RecycleBank hook up to reward re-users

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By Ashley Phillips\nGreen Right Now\n\neBay, the giant online garage sale facilitator, and RecycleBank, the company that figured out how to get Americans recycling by offering them consumer rewards, have announced a partnership in which each company will offer incentives to the other companies clients.\n\nKind of like a swap-meet in the middle of a flea market.\n\nA little history: eBay, the online marketplace that began in 1995, began thinking green in 2007 when a group of employees formed eBay’s Green Team community. The Green Team tries to inspire eBay's 90 million users to \"buy, sell & think green every day\” by offering pertinent eco-friendly tips and sustainable advice.\"ebaygreenteam-logo1\"
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GREENZYS eco-toys to debut at FAO Schwarz

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By Ashley Phillips\nGreen Right Now\n\nComing in April, FAO Schwarz will begin carrying a new environmentally conscious brand, GREENZYS. This eco-friendly line carries books and toys that promote green living and teach sustainable practices to children.\n\nGREENZYS founders, Lisa Keyser and Mark Lieber, have found a way to connect a child’s love for animals with a deep concern for the environment. For example, \"Peat the Penguin\" encourages kids to recycle, reuse, and reduce waste, while \"Violet the Giraffe\" teaches children to protect the environment by reducing their carbon \“paw\” print.\"greenzys\"\n
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