it would also be a way to reduce energy use for transporting the fruits long distances from the tropics to cities with cooler climates.
says Tim Fox, IME's head of energy and environment. This is food that could be used to feed the world's growing population-as well as those in hunger today.
water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food.
As water, land and energy resources come under increasing pressure from competing human demands, engineers have a crucial role to play in preventing food loss
High oil prices: Fortunately and unfortunatelyhigh oil prices are changing our world in many ways;
some for the good, and some for the worse. Contemplating these changes, I'm reminded of a book I loved as a child, Fortunately,
Such it is with high oil prices. Mass transit Last week, I wrote that drivers in the U s. will be forced to simply hand over the keys to new drivers in developing countries as competition for oil increases.
But there are other reasons too, like lower costs and less stress. Bus and train ridership increased by 2. 3 percent in 2011 over 2010
which are forced by high oil prices but which aren't easily detected in official data.
Airlines As ever, high oil prices hurt the airlines most of All the last time global oil prices were this high was in the first half of 2008,
when I heard airline industry expert Michael Boyd explain at an energy conference that every airline in the world is obsolete at $100 a barrel,
Southwest Airlines, one of the few carriers who hedged their oil price risks properly in 2008
But at today's oil prices, merely being unprofitable is doing very well indeed. Air france-KLM reported a $1 billion loss for 2011,
saying that it had not been able to offset the rising cost of jet fuel. Australia's Qantas Airways reported last month that high fuel costs had halved its profit in the first half of 2011
and that it would cut 500 jobs in a bid to save the company. Airasia X announced this week that it is suspending service to New zealand due to unprofitability,
Also this week, Israel's El al airlines announced higher fuel surcharges, eliminated its service to Brazil
when it ran out of money to pay for fuel, stranding its customers without offering them alternative arrangements.
Unfortunately, there is little that the airlines can do to accommodate an era of permanently higher fuel prices, other than raising their own prices accordingly.
when the global supply of oil will be 30 percent or more lower than it is today,
There's no way that the trucking industry can absorb fuel costs it can't happen, trucking company owner Jim Ganduglia told ABC News. Where he operates in Fresno, California,
So there's a fuel surcharge and without that fuel surcharge we'd all be out of business.
Nowhere is the cost of trucking more evident to consumers than at the grocery store. Fresh produce and other perishables must be shipped promptly no matter
Operators of small fleets, like Phoenix-based HVAC repair shop George Brazil Services, try to maximize their fuel efficiency by switching to more efficient vehicles
000 on gasoline every 10 days, said owner Jim Probst. Larger fleet operators are turning to logistics services to optimize their fleet activities,
Optimizing the behavior of drivers is another fuel-reduction strategy advocated by companies like Dubai-based Dynamic Technical Training.
they have shown that fleet operators of 100 vehicles can save $31, 500 annually in fuel costs.
and engaged in a long campaign to upgrade the fuel economy of their fleets, the main recourse is to simply keep raising their fuel surcharges.
One year ago, the surcharge was 5. 5 percent. Now it's 7. 5 percent,
Farmers Farmers are being forced to find ways to conserve fuel as well. Although most consumers do not realize it,
an estimated 7 to 10 calories of fossil fuel are embedded in every calorie of food that arrives on American tables,
but they are forced often to absorb fuel price increases because they can't pass them along to consumers.
in order to save on fuel. We'll think of ways, maybe make less passes through the field with the tractor than we normally would have.
This highlights a somewhat counterintuitive result of rising fuel prices. While it's true that organic farmers generally use less fuel than conventional farmers,
As we progress into the era of expensive oil, we cannot continue having our food shipped an average 1, 500 miles from the farm to our tables.
High oil prices and the North american recession are destroying the labor arbitrage that once made it attractive to offshore manufacturing to Asia,
Oil and the End of Globalization. Soaring transport costs suddenly change the entire economics of importing everything from cheap labour markets half way around the world,
So much so that triple digit oil prices will soon breathe new life into our hollowed-out rust belts,
and that when oil prices hit $150 a barrel, it begins to reverse offshoring prompted by labor costs.
Logistics managers are increasingly considering it as a way to maintain profitability in the face of rising fuel costs.
Peak oil and the new era of higher oil prices may mean that you can't just flit off to Vegas for a weekend on the cheap anymore,
which provides an energy-saving irrigation system--still a work in progress â for its vegetables and fish.
Next-generation biofuels are viewed often as a transportation fuel panacea. A magic elixir that will wean the U s. off of foreign oil without sending the economy into the dark ages.
Advocates have promised next-gen biofuels will reduce greenhouse emissions and end the use of food crops for fuel.
 Now a recent National Research Council report not only raises serious doubts about these often-touted benefits,
said it's unlikely the U s. will meet specific biofuel mandates under the Renewable Fuel Standard by 2022
the consumption volume of renewable fuels hit 36 billion gallons. Â Of that, 15 billion gallons must be conventional biofuels--aka corn-based ethanol
The remaining amount includes 1 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel fuel and four billion gallons of advanced renewable biofuels other than ethanol from cornstarch and that achieve a lifecycle threshold of at least 50 percent.
The NRC expects the U s. to meet conventional biofuel and biomass-based diesel fuel production mandates.
Not a single commercially viable biorefinery exists for converting cellulosic biomass to fuel, the NRC said.
and converting it into fermentable sugars so it can be refined into fuel is too expensive to be commercially viable.
In other words, it can t compete against corn-based ethanol prices or gasoline, for that matter. It's why so much research centers on finding a technological breakthrough that will make biofuels cheaper to make.
The NRC notes other difficulties with cellulosic biofuels including its reliance on subsidies to compete with fossil fuels
and increasing the conversion yield from biomass to fuels--something that's already happening, albeit more at a more limited scale than is perhaps necessary.
A world characterized by high oil prices, technological breakthroughs and a high implicit or actual carbon price.
Yesterday I caught up by phone with Dave Marshall, a Portland city councilor and chair of the Energy and Environmental Sustainability Committee.
Just last week the city council approved an $11 million investment package to make our 50-some odd municipal buildings energy efficient.
so every five years the energy performance will have to increase by 10 percent. Do you have a bike share program, or bike lanes?
and my goal is to make this house as energy efficient as possible. One of the goals I had was to get the house off heating fuel (it was an old cast iron steam system with an oil burner,
and it was really inefficient) and get it on high efficiency natural gas heating system before George bush got out of office.
So now it s that constant process of trying rid my life of petroleum. And getting a good understating of my own carbon footprint.
The state of Maine is more dependent on home heating fuel than any other state. More than 85 percent of homes are heated with oil.
So part of our struggle is to get ourselves off fuel, and that s part of the $11 million bond:
All the buildings will be converted to natural gas, so that ll really help reduce the greenhouse gas load. Most municipal buildings are running on oil.
Natural gas is not only cleaner but it s cheaper. You can see the parallels between what I m doing in my own life and
The trees provide $11. 2 million in annual energy savings, have a carbon sequestration value of $386, 000,
Biochar can be burned just like regular charcoal. In a place like Africa, that's a big deal.
when it's converted to charcoal we can sequester that carbon in the ground. We convert it into a form that will never decompose back into CO2.
you'll see that the charcoal is still intact in the ground and the soil is black.
along with liquid fuel. We're also producing a very low-cost product for the developing world.
Talk about the liquid fuel that can be produced by the device for the developing world. It's called bio-oil.
It's a low-grade crude oil substitute. We can upgrade it to a point where it can run a diesel generator.
It is targeted primarily for operations with a lot of biomass in a small area so forestry operations or large farms, for instance.
Charcoal is big business in Africa. Up to 80 percent of people rely on it as a fuel source.
The price of charcoal is highly volatile. It can be anywhere from 11 cents a kilo to 30 cents a kilo.
We price the biochar according to what the going rate is for charcoal in a village.
That ensures that people can afford it and can use it for whatever purpose they need.
It's a think tank developing low-carbon energy technologies. I also did soil science work with the Smithsonian in Panama.
Hydrogen fuel made from a tiny forest of nanotreeselectrical engineers at the University of California-San diego have built a forest of nanowire trees that use solar energy to turn water into  hydrogen  fuel.
Hydrogen fuel is considered a clean fuel because it doesn't generate carbon emissions. However, the conventional method of producing hydrogen gas relies on energy from fossil fuels to separate the atoms from other molecules like water.
Deli Wang, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the UC San diego Jacobs School of engineering
and his team sought out a way to cleanly capture solar energy without using fossil fuels and harvest it for hydrogen fuel generation.
but to collect carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into a hydrocarbon fuel. Photo:
Located at the US Department of energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, the world Â's most capable computer has just been enlisted this month to carry out nuclear weapon simulations.
The Sequoia will also be used to advance our understanding in the fields of astronomy, energy, genetics and climate change.
While it Â's natural to assume that the crown jewel of IBM computing systems would be a real energy vampire
it Â's incredibly power-efficient. In fact, the Sequoia consumes 7. 9 megawatts, much less than the K computer which uses 12.6 megawatts.
which to channel her seemingly boundless energy: her first grandchild is due in August, and she's ready to take on her new job title
Beijinger s penchant for fried food means that the city s waste is surrounded by a layer of cooking oil,
ground into paste with a bit of thyme oil as a binder (and less recognizable than when served alive).
and kerosene through Fair Priced Shops under a scheme called the Public Distribution System (PDS).
Khera advocates reducing other subsidies like those on fuel (in 2011-2012 to the tune of 1. 4 trillion rupees or $27. 7 billion),
An increasing number of coal and nuclear power plants as well as dams are being authorized to fuel a growing energy appetite.
CSE's latest data also finds that 119 coal mining projects were given forest clearance during this period
which is nearly 25 times the amount of carbon is released annually to the atmosphere from combined fossil fuel burning and land use changes.
Interactive map shows nuclear disaster hotspots Infographic: What is the water footprint in the U s
At 500 times the intensity, the sunlight strikes the system's non-silicon solar cells to generate electricity.
Energy is one of the largest expenses in our business. In fact, we shut down operations during the winter months precisely for this reason.
For instance, Cogentrix Energy received a $90. 6 million loan guarantee from the Department of energy just last week for its 30-megawatt concentrated photovoltaic installation.
New research may bring solar thermal flat panels home Italy's road of solar power Abengoa Solar gets $145 billion for Arizona plant Hawaii says'aloha'to hybrid power plant Images:
create windmills, but we ll never solve the problem and we ll never catch up. It s many steps ahead of us now.
N. J.,-have achieved zero-waste-to-landfill status. Kraft has managed a 15 percent reduction in energy use;
Oh, by the way, energy consumption dropped by 52 percent at the same time, proving that energy efficiency and water usage reduction are definitely symbiotic goals.
Kraft Foods Campbell, N y.,plant offsets 30%of its natural gas needs. Kraft has invested heavily in technology at the two of its plants
and meter energy usage. These technologies help the facility use 50 percent less energy for lighting and 60 percent less for ventilation.
Looking forward, the things to really watch will be Kraft's initiatives with respect to sustainable agriculture and eco-packaging.
Watch for Kraft to become an even bigger activist related to this commodities, as well as palm oil. Deforestation will be another place it places its sustainability investments.
which measures the post-consumer recycled materials content of its packages as well as the related energy and carbon dioxide emissions.
Super limousine is the world's fastest Superbus hopes to turbocharge mass transit Supertruck big rig design doubles fuel efficiency More game-changing car tech:
fuel efficient The world's first 3-D printed car video Bipod flying car works like a Chevy Volt Can air hybrid cars make it on the mean streets?
more carbon dioxide than crude oil, and approximate the emissions of the much-maligned oil mined from tar sands.
The numbers were intended for release in the spring when the EU presents new proposals on biofuels,
Its current biofuel roadmap demands that at least 5. 75%of all energy sold on the market of any member country be biofuel
And with ILUC added to the mix, it looks like some top biofuel crops are worse for the environment, in terms of carbon emissions, than crude oil.
The EU's default value for measuring carbon efficiency for oil from tar sands is 107g CO2 equivalent per megajoule of fuel (CO2/mj.
Meanwhile, crude oil's efficiency value is 87. 5g CO2/mj. Here are the data (g CO2/mj) from the EU documents,
Palm oil-105g Soybean â oe 103g Rapeseed â oe 95g Sunflower â oe 86g Palm oil with methane capture â oe 83g
36g Sugar beet â oe 34g Wheat (straw as process fuel in CHP plants) â oe 35g 2g Ethanol (land-using) â oe 32g 2g Biodiesel (land-using) â
and rapeseed oil--are all the least energy efficient. However, they are also the cheapest to produce, which is why they reign at the moment.
but they are much less expensive to feed than a power mower is to fuel. Won't some people take issue with farm animals trampling all over their dearly departed?
Green Energy Gym technology turns exercise into electricity City looks to sewers to heat homes
The U s. Green Building Council is also considering a plan to give builders Leadership in Energy
Yes to oak trees, no to centralized power grids HOK vice president and co-author Thomas Knittel says we can learn from the ways plants
Energy and nutrients are moved through the ecosystem this way, and the interspecies relationships evolve and adapt to variations in the climate.
decentralized sources of energy to be resilient to a changing environment. This is one of many examples in the report where life's principles from biomes are used to teach designers and architects to build more resilient communities.
The truck uses 30 percent to 50 percent less fuel than the alternative. On 25 of its larger semi delivery trucks, Oakhurst will install side panels that are supposed to improve aerodynamics and,
therefore, fuel efficiency. The dairy figures that it will save between 6 percent and 8 percent in fuel costs based on current driving habits (an average of 30,000 miles annually per truck.
The retrofit should be completed by the end of 2010. The dairy figures it will cut about 7. 6 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually through the retrofit.
Making sense of water consumption (Water Wednesday) The Energy star label has become an iconic way to help people identify the most energy-efficient electronics gadgets, appliances and other technologies.
the EPA believes that it has helped consumers save up to 125 billion gallons of water and more than $2 billion in water and energy bills.
bamboo has provided biomass fuel at power plants in the Philippines. Don't worry graphene. As far as I know,
energy of paper production Wash away pollution: Wear his kilt, her designer dress Car s glass roof by day becomes interior light at night.
A team of scientists including researchers from the Energy department's Joint Genome Institute identified Thielavia terrestris
Why it matters The federal government has mandated that 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel be blended into transportation fuel by 2022.
and converting it into fermentable sugars so it can be refined into fuel is too expensive to be commercially viable.
In other words, it can't compete against corn-based ethanol prices or gasoline, for that matter. Mushroom power Enter the heat-loving fungi.
The Energy department has several research projects aimed at finding heat tolerant enzymes from fungi and microbes such as cellulases that break down plant cell walls and convert biomass into fermentable sugars.
Many cellulases used in biofuel production thrive at temperatures of 20 degrees Celsius to 35 degrees C, according to the DOE's Joint Genome Institute.
the information can be used to improve strains as well as simplify the indentification of other beneficial and harmful mutations, according to the DOE's Joint Genome Institute.
Adrian Tsang, Concordia University via Energy department's Joint Genome Institute Related: Macoma files IPO: A first look inside the biofuels company Related video on Smartplanet:
By reducing reliance on petroleum-based materials and using its own agricultural scraps as feedstocks for new bottles,
and Pepsico. The new bottle will use the bio-based materials to reproduce the molecular structure that is used in petroleum-based polyethylene terephthalate (aka PET),
First, as far as energy goes, the company is striving for carbon neutrality this year.
By the end of 2010, about 39 percent of the power that the company uses will come from renewable energy sources;
However, about 90 percent of the world's water consumption is being tapped to produce food and energy,
Startup Rentricity recovers energy from water systems Water's energy potential highlighted on World Water Day American scientist wins 2011 Stockholm Water Prize 10 ways to cut
even selling energy-efficient light bulbs to help raise the $1. 7 million that was needed for the construction.
hydroponics, composting, solar energy and rainwater capture. Fifth-graders can participate in the school's garden to cafe program, growing tomatoes, zucchini, squash,
Another mandate missed (and by a lot) Another year, another missed renewable fuel production mandate. The Environmental protection agency released this week its 2012 targets for renewable fuels
and once again next-generation biofuels will fall far short of the production volume mandated by Congress.
Meanwhile,  less than one-tenth of 1 percent of renewable fuels produced next year will come  from cellulosic ethanol-- the transportation fuel panacea expected to wean the U s. off of foreign oil
reduce greenhouse gas emissions and end the use of food crops like corn for fuel.
-and corn-based ethanol to meet the national mandate for renewable fuels in 2012. Unfortunately, this annual ritual of missing mandated production targets is likely to continue.
A National Resource Council report released in October said it's unlikely the U s. will meet specific biofuel mandates under the Renewable Fuel Standard by 2022
Not a single commercially viable biorefinery exists for converting cellulosic biomass to fuel, the NRC said.
The renewable fuel standard requires refiners to either purchase cellulosic ethanol or buy waivers. In other words, refiners have to spend money to meet mandates that can't be met.
E coli bacteria that eats switchgrass to make fuel How do you solve a problem like next-gen biofuels?
such as energy and water. The end goal is to improve sanitation in a world where 1. 5 million children die every year due to diarrhea caused by food
which can be stored in hydrogen fuel cells as energy. The treated water can be reused to flush the toilet or for irrigation.
000 second prize for a toilet that produces biological charcoal, minerals and clean water. The University of Toronto won the third-place prize of $40
RTI International received a $1. 3 million grant to fund the development of a self-contained toulet system disinfects liquid waste and turns solid waste into fuel or electricity through a biomass energy
and produce biological charcoal that be used as a replacement for wood charcoal or chemical fertilizers.
and feedstock costs enough to make their product competitive with corn-based ethanol and ultimately fossil fuels.
wheat straw, switchgrass and other nonfood crops--into sugar which can then be fermented into fuels, feed and chemicals.
  This efficiency improvement is enough to bring the cost of cellulosic ethanol in line with gasoline and corn-based ethanol.
partner with DSM Bioengineering e coli to turn seaweed into fuel Next-gen biofuels in 2012:
and energy use reduction. Rooftops are numerous in New york city, but are not being utilized enough for urban ag Existing green roof incentive programs have not been designed to support rooftop agriculture.
and its future in the U s. is shaky Too bad the performance of energy-sipping LED bulbs has not been universally stellar,
Paris cultural center welcomes lawn-mowing sheepparis The sounds of gasoline-powered lawn mowers could soon be replaced entirely by the gentle bleating of hungry farm animals in The french capital.
deliciously replaced by oil. Still, potato chip factories need a lot of water to make their salty snacks.
We are looking at it with a new lens around where we get all our key ingredients such as sunflower oil for our crisps,
It also means using healthier oils and fewer fats and sugars. We re conscious of the lifestyle change of our consumers,
which include efficiencies in land, energy, water and packaging use. In fact, the company announced its first Sustainable Farming Report yesterday for the U k. market,
In Utah, city officials are working to put sustainability ordinances in place that ease restrictions on urban agriculture and renewable energy.
Not a single commercially viable biorefinery exists for converting cellulosic biomass to fuel, according to the National Resource Council.
Bioengineering e coli to turn seaweed into fuel Fed-backed Range Fuels sells plant for pennies on the dollar Chemical giant BASF invests in biomass-to-sugar startup Next-gen biofuels in 2012:
It is called The Value of Producing Food, Energy and Ecosystem Services within an Agro-Ecosystem.
such as overseeing a  federal energy grant to develop and install electric-vehicle charging stations in public parking ramps and on city streets,
 Modern, net-zero energy homes made more affordable with modular design
Q&a: Irus Braverman, author of Zooland: The Institution of Captivityirus Braverman didn't grow up visiting zoos.
Terrewalk, a second-generation version which uses a less energy-consumptive manufacturing process, has a longer lifecycle
His projects range from developing a factory for producing an affordable coal alternative to teaching students to design products for the other 90 percent, people living on $600 a year or less.
Big companies are realizing they can't continue to operate under the assumption of unlimited access to energy and world resources.
The energy is unlimited not in supply. There's an increasing realization of carbon emissions having a negative effect on the environment through climate change.
There are six billions tons of coal consumed each year. At the same time, the planet produces four billion tons of agricultural waste products like peanut shells.
It would create more affordable energy sources. It would make a positive impact on global carbon emissions.
energy, health and education. People often feel that poverty is an insurmountable problem that can't be solved on a personal or local level.
and is made of starches, proteins, olive oil, minerals and vitamins. It will cost about $3 per meal,
We've always been trying to get the energy that we need in a simpler fashion.
In theory, if we provided enough external energy into the system it could continue to repair itself
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