Executives from 13 major U.S. corporations are announcing at least $140 billion in new investments to decrease their carbon footprints as part of a White House initiative to recruit private commitments ahead of a United Nations climate-change summit later this year in Paris.

Companies including Apple Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Energy Co., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will join Secretary of State John Kerry and top administration officials at the White House for the announcement. In addition to pledges to cut emissions, provide financing to environmentally-focused companies, and reduce water consumption, the companies have said they will procure at least 1,600 MW of new, renewable energy. The White House said in a statement that it expects to announce a second round of similar pledges later this fall from additional companies.

The commitments are being announced as President Barack Obama is looking to build momentum toward a legacy-defining global climate accord in Paris. In addition to company-specific commitments, the corporate leaders on Monday will signal their support for a strong climate agreement out of the United Nations talks. They administration is using the pledges to set an example for companies to find ways to eliminate their carbon emissions.

Climate Talks

“As the world looks toward global climate negotiations in Paris this December, American leadership at all levels will be essential,” the White House said in a fact sheet detailing the announcement.

The administration’s actions are pushing the issue into the 2016 presidential debate. Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, released an energy strategy saying she would both defend and go beyond Obama’s efforts. Republican candidates have criticized the administration’s initiatives as costly to the economy and unnecessary.

Among the pledges, aluminum manufacturer Alcoa Inc. has agreed to reduce emissions by 50 percent from its 2005 levels, while agricultural giant Cargill Inc. says 18 percent of its total energy use will come from renewable sources.

Coca-Cola Co. said it would drive down the carbon footprint of its beverage production by 25 percent over the next five years, while Google says it plans to triple its purchases of renewable energy over the next decade. Berkshire Hathaway says it plans to invest up to an additional $15 billion in the construction and operation of renewable energy generators, while Bank of America Corp says it will increase its environmental business initiative by $75 billion over the next decade, according to the White House

Other participating firms include Wal-Mart, United Parcel Service Inc., PepsiCo Inc., Microsoft Corp., General Motors Inc.

The corporate commitments won’t be the administration’s only major climate announcement in the next few weeks. The Environmental Protection Agency is set to present final regulations that aim to reduce carbon emissions from power plants by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 later this week.

While visiting Kenya over the weekend, Obama repeatedly praised the country for its efforts to address climate change, saying its efforts tor educe emissions “has put it in the position of being a leader on the continent.” And next month, the president will travel to Alaska for an international summit on Arctic climate issues.

©2015 Bloomberg News

For more, see Big Companies, Big Renewable Investments.

Buildings account for nearly four-tenths of U.S. energy consumption through heating, cooling and other electricity use, according to the Energy Information Administration. And if that energy comes from fossil fuels, it releases more greenhouse gases that drive human-caused climate change.

Presentation by Jeff Duce of Boeing

Presentation by Marc Chason of Marc Chason and Associates, Inc.

Buildings account for nearly four-tenths of U.S. energy consumption through heating, cooling and other electricity use, according to the Energy Information Administration. And if that energy comes from fossil fuels, it releases more greenhouse gases that drive human-caused climate change.

Executives from 13 major U.S. corporations are announcing at least $140 billion in new investments to decrease their carbon footprints as part of a White House initiative to recruit private commitments ahead of a United Nations climate-change summit later this year in Paris.

Companies including Apple Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Energy Co., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will join Secretary of State John Kerry and top administration officials at the White House for the announcement. In addition to pledges to cut emissions, provide financing to environmentally-focused companies, and reduce water consumption, the companies have said they will procure at least 1,600 MW of new, renewable energy. The White House said in a statement that it expects to announce a second round of similar pledges later this fall from additional companies.

The commitments are being announced as President Barack Obama is looking to build momentum toward a legacy-defining global climate accord in Paris. In addition to company-specific commitments, the corporate leaders on Monday will signal their support for a strong climate agreement out of the United Nations talks. They administration is using the pledges to set an example for companies to find ways to eliminate their carbon emissions.

Climate Talks

“As the world looks toward global climate negotiations in Paris this December, American leadership at all levels will be essential,” the White House said in a fact sheet detailing the announcement.

The administration’s actions are pushing the issue into the 2016 presidential debate. Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, released an energy strategy saying she would both defend and go beyond Obama’s efforts. Republican candidates have criticized the administration’s initiatives as costly to the economy and unnecessary.

Among the pledges, aluminum manufacturer Alcoa Inc. has agreed to reduce emissions by 50 percent from its 2005 levels, while agricultural giant Cargill Inc. says 18 percent of its total energy use will come from renewable sources.

Coca-Cola Co. said it would drive down the carbon footprint of its beverage production by 25 percent over the next five years, while Google says it plans to triple its purchases of renewable energy over the next decade. Berkshire Hathaway says it plans to invest up to an additional $15 billion in the construction and operation of renewable energy generators, while Bank of America Corp says it will increase its environmental business initiative by $75 billion over the next decade, according to the White House

Other participating firms include Wal-Mart, United Parcel Service Inc., PepsiCo Inc., Microsoft Corp., General Motors Inc.

The corporate commitments won’t be the administration’s only major climate announcement in the next few weeks. The Environmental Protection Agency is set to present final regulations that aim to reduce carbon emissions from power plants by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 later this week.

While visiting Kenya over the weekend, Obama repeatedly praised the country for its efforts to address climate change, saying its efforts tor educe emissions “has put it in the position of being a leader on the continent.” And next month, the president will travel to Alaska for an international summit on Arctic climate issues.

©2015 Bloomberg News

For more, see Big Companies, Big Renewable Investments.

3D printing is becoming an increasingly versatile and commercially attractive tool. The technology has many applications beyond its roots in prototyping and it is being used to create products such as clothes, cars, musical instruments and even huma...

This working paper proposes flood footprint and accountability to coordinate risk management projects through appropriate spatial planning at river basin scale.

Robots made of 3D-printed muscle and rat spines could help us understand conditions like motor neurone disease and the technique may eventually be used to build prosthetic devices

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Commonly used model teeth are so far uniform in color and hardness. There is no discrimination between enamel and dentin part of a tooth. This condition makes it difficult to train a preparation technique, which is adapted to real tooth substance. The aim of this study was to design and establish a 3D printed tooth with different layers for enamel and dentin for education in crown preparation. A printable tooth with different layers for enamel and dentin was designed, and all 38 fourth-year dental students in the first clinical course in prosthodontics and 30 experienced dentists were trained during a voluntary hands-on course in 2019. Prior to the study, the students had used standard model teeth and real-teeth models in their preclinical education. They had experience in caries removal and preparation on real patients. The perceived benefits of the 3D printed tooth were evaluated by a questionnaire. All individuals in both groups completed the questionnaire, for a 100% response rate. The results showed that the printed tooth was given an overall mean grade of 2.3 (students) and 2.0 (experts) on a scale from 1=excellent to 5=poor. The difference in hardness between the dentin and enamel layer was given a mean of 2.4 (students and experts) and the difference in color a 1.7 (students) and 1.8 (experts). The tooth model with the prepared tooth illustrating an ideal preparation was graded 1.6 (students and experts). In this study, the students had the opportunity to learn a correct crown preparation on a printed tooth with different material properties for enamel and dentin. The learning effect with this tooth model was rated as good on the questionnaire by both students and expert dentists.

In the past decade, significant research efforts have been devoted to mineral chemistry studies to assist porphyry exploration. These activities can be divided into two major fields of research: (1) porphyry indicator minerals (PIMs), which are used to identify the presence of, or potential for, porphyry-style mineralization based on the chemistry of magmatic minerals such as zircon, plagioclase and apatite, or resistate hydrothermal minerals such as magnetite; and (2) porphyry vectoring and fertility tools (PVFTs), which use the chemical compositions of hydrothermal minerals such as epidote, chlorite and alunite to predict the likely direction and distance to mineralized centres, and the potential metal endowment of a mineral district. This new generation of exploration tools has been enabled by advances in and increased access to laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), short-wave length infrared (SWIR), visible near-infrared (VNIR) and hyperspectral technologies. PIMs and PVFTs show considerable promise for exploration and are starting to be applied to the diversity of environments that host porphyry and epithermal deposits globally. Industry has consistently supported development of these tools, and in the case of PVFTs encouraged by several successful blind tests where deposit centres have successfully been predicted from distal propylitic settings. Industry adoption is steadily increasing but is restrained by a lack of the necessary analytical equipment and expertise in commercial laboratories, and also by the ongoing reliance on well-established geochemical exploration techniques (e.g. sediment, soil and rock chip sampling) that have aided the discovery of near-surface resources over many decades, but are now proving less effective in the search for deeply buried mineral resources and for those concealed under cover.

Thematic collection: This article is part of the Exploration 17 collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/exploration-17

A person who has ingested cocaine will excrete a compound that can be detected from a single fingerprint, even if they have washed their hands

We are increasingly aware that our personal data is a valuable commodity – but just how valuable? A survey has revealed how much people are willing to sell their data for

A high-speed 3D printer is being tested by the US Army for producing spare steel parts near the front lines – it could also make weapons or aircraft parts

Robots made of 3D-printed muscle and rat spines could help us understand conditions like motor neurone disease and the technique may eventually be used to build prosthetic devices

Researchers have developed a set of recommendations to manage the mental health of frontline medical workers during viral outbreaks, such as COVID-19.

Coronavirus: the symptoms Read our LIVE updates on the coronavirus here

Donate at virginmoneygiving.com/fund/FoodforLondonNOW Download Damien Hirst's Butterfly Heart 2020 image here to print out and display in your window

A London hospital trust has opened a "3D printing farm" to produce 1,500 face visors a day for frontline staff.

The UK could start easing its lockdown by relaxing stay-at-home orders and allowing some types of non-essential businesses to reopen, according to a new study.

Peer review moves to Twitter, muddling public health information.

Finlay was married to Joe Exotic during filming of 'Tiger King'

The Comedy Women in Print Prize is the only award in the UK and Ireland to recognise work by funny women

Wales defender James Lawrence has offered an insight into how German football is reacting to coronavirus as players begin to return to training.

Social distancing has made my world smaller. Maybe that's a good thing.

Until now, the size of 3D-printed objects has been limited by the size of 3D printers. In most cases, in order to produce large items used in, say, aerospace, manufactures have had to fasten, weld or glue smaller 3D-printed substructures together. Bu...

A study suggests Australian bushfires were 30 per cent more likely as a result of climate change but there was no clear climate-change driver for local drought.

By: Suzan Onel FDA issued a Press Release on March 28, 2020, reiterating what we all have seen in the news, there is a severe shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) in health care facilities across the country.  In response to the shortages, FDA has issued Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for respirators, ventilators, ventilator tubing

The post Shortage of PPE and other Devices During COVID-19 Pandemic – Is 3D Printing the Answer? appeared first on Kleinfeld Kaplan & Becker LLP.

Researchers at the University of Bath in the UK have developed a 3D-printed microscope design, called OpenFlexure, which is open-source and can be assembled for as little as $18. More complex versions of the design are possible, and the microscope can incorporate full automation and a Raspberry Pi computer. The research team hopes that the […]

3D printing company Formlab​s has received emergency use authorisation (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to print bi-level positive airway pressure (BiPAP) adapters designed by Northwell Health, a New York healthcare provider.

John Dogru, CEO of 3DPrinterOS, spoke to MPN’s editor Laura Hughes about the pivotal role of 3D printing during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a part of the tax conspiracy, Ronald Boyarsky assisted in paying approximately $2.6 million in commissions earned by a printing services broker to third parties, so that the broker and his companies could avoid paying taxes on the income they earned.

An Illinois commercial print broker pleaded guilty today to making false statements in a bid submitted to the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO).

A former employee of two Massachusetts-based customer relationship management agencies that purchase direct mail advertising services was sentenced today for participating in fraud conspiracies and committing tax evasion relating to his receipt of more than $1.8 million in kickbacks.

Modern innovation typically occurs one step-improvement at a time. Some clients initially question whether their new application of an existing technology is patentable. Usually, the answer is ‘yes.’ Under U.S. law (and most other jurisdictions), an innovation to an existing technology is patentable so long as at least one claim limitation is novel and non-obvious....… Continue Reading

In 1996, to head off calls to impeach a life-tenured federal judge for ill-considered remarks about police officers, Chief Justice William Rehnquist cautioned that “judicial independence does not mean that the country will be forever in sway to groups of non-elected judges.” He recalled Franklin Roosevelt’s failed 1937 proposal to pack the Supreme Court by…

A new UK study measures and compares the dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat- and fish-eaters, vegetarians, and vegans.

(Image: Geekbrief)The battle, no doubt, will rage on for some time over which is greener, e-books or the printed stuff. A new item of evidence, however, has been submitted: a report by the Cleantech Group has concluded that in a spine-to-spine lifecycle

Electric cars are the darlings of the green technology futurists. But wait, cries a receding voice, "what about the environmental impact of all those batteries?" Until recently, that lurking uncertainty shadowed the

The future is mobile as businesses dematerialize and hit the road

This industrial designer's 3D/4D printed, life-like forms ask the question of whether we can design and engineer "intelligent" plants that can adapt to environmental changes.

Massimiliano Locatelli is writing a new language of design that reflects the new technology.