Schneider Electric's head office is the first building in the world to earn the new ISO 50001 certification for energy management systems, the company has announced. Schneider began adapting the energy management system at the Rueil-Malmaison, France HQ to meet the standard in late 2010.
The Climate Registry has awarded its first Climate Registered Platinum status to Eastman Kodak Company and Bentley Prince Street, and its first Climate Registered Gold status to the U.S. Postal Service. The platinum status recognizes GHG reductions of more than 20 percent, and the gold status recognize emissions reductions of more than five percent.
The California attorney general has cited Burlington Coat Factory for selling 23 necklaces whose clasps contained illegal levels of lead. It also cited Styles for Less for selling four necklaces with excess lead, California Watch reports. Burlington Coat Factory was charged with six similar violations last year, and Styles for Less was cited for 13 in February. In 2006, both retailers signed a California settlement that formed the basis of the state's lead-in-jewelry law.
A new report by Zurich Insurance says that manufacturers are opening themselves up to the risk of financial penalties because they are failing to plan properly for new environmental legislation, the Financial Times reports. The report says that only one in three manufacturers feel they are "highly exposed" to these risks, and many of these companies are prevented from taking action by the difficult economy. In a survey for the report, just four percent of respondents said they were trying to reduce their carbon emissions, and only 11 percent were making environmental compliance a top priority for the next year.
The EPA had identified several parts of the country that do not meet tighter airborne lead standards, which states are required to implement. The areas identified include parts of Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Illinois and Puerto Rico.
A couple in Weatherford, Texas has filed a $6.5 million lawsuit against Fort Worth-based drilling firm Range Production Company and Range Resources Corporation, claiming damages arising from alleged contamination of their potable water supply caused by gas drilling and extraction in the Barnett Shale.
The European Commission has given ten member states two months to comply with a directive that requires governments to use their purchasing power to support the adoption of alternative-fuel and energy-efficient vehicles. If the states do not comply, they risk legal action and multimillion pound finds, the EC said, according to Business Green. The countries are Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden and the U.K.
The first plenary meeting of the ANSI Electric Vehicles Standards Panel (EVSP) is taking place today in Detroit, Interconnection World reports.. The panel aims to create a strategic roadmap identifying the standards and assessment programs needed for widespread deployment of electric vehicles in the United States. Companies and organizations that have already joined the EVSP initiative include the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Association of Global Automakers, Audi AG, Better Place, Con Edison, Duke Energy, Eaton, GE, IEEE, Mercedes-Benz USA, Schneider Electric, Siemens, Sony, Southern California Edison, Southern Company, Underwriters Laboratories and the U.S. Department of Energy.
