Green Golf

The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses (ACSP) is an award winning education and certification program that helps golf courses protect our environment and preserve the natural heritage of the game of golf. By helping people enhance the valuable natural areas and wildlife habitats that golf courses provide, improve efficiency, and minimize potentially harmful impacts of golf operations, the ACSP serves as vital resource for golf courses.

Who can join?
Membership is open to golf courses in the United States and internationally, including private clubs, public and municipal courses, PGA sites, 9-hole facilities, resort courses, and golf residential communities. Golf courses must be open for play; those under development or construction may join an Audubon Signature Program.

What’s involved?
Getting involved is easy. To join, simply fill out the registration form and send it along with the registration fee to Audubon International.

Your next step is to take stock of environmental resources and potential liabilities, and then develop an environmental plan that fits the course’s unique setting, goals, staff, budget, and time. Audubon International provides a Site Assessment and Environmental Planning form to provide guidance, as well as educational information to help you with:

• Environmental Planning
• Wildlife and Habitat Management
• Chemical Use Reduction and Safety
• Water Conservation
• Water Quality Management
• Outreach and Education

Based on your golf course assessment, we provide a site-specific report and work with you to implement your plan. The ACSP offers educational information and assistance, but all decisions regarding the operation of the course remain with the golf course itself.

How does a golf course obtain certification?
Certification improves the practice of golf course management. Your course can achieve certification by implementing environmental management practices in the above areas and documenting your results. Certification demonstrates your leadership as a steward of the environment and publicly recognizes and rewards your environmental achievements.

Get involved and get results!
ACSP golf courses receive A Guide to Environmental Stewardship on the Golf Course; an attractive membership art print; a subscription to our bi-monthly newsletter, Stewardship News; and a Certification Handbook to help plan, organize, and document environmental efforts. Membership also includes certification review by Audubon International ecologists and staff support and direct consultation via telephone, written communication, and email. Site visits are available on a fee-for-service basis.

The ACSP is all about results. Participating golf courses improve environmental performance and community relations, reduce liability, save money, and contribute to the conservation of our environment.

What does it cost?Annual registration fee: $200 (US)/$250 (International)

Drugs in Our Drinking Water

A recent investigation by reporters from the Associated Press (AP) found that a wide variety of pharmaceuticals—including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers, sex hormones and over-the-counter painkillers—are present in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans across 24 major metropolitan areas from coast to coast. While the amounts of pharmaceuticals in any given sample may be tiny, scientists are worried that regular and cumulative exposure to even small amounts of mixed drugs could have subtle or more serious health effects on a large number of people over time.

Most of the pharmaceuticals in the water supply end up there when medication is not fully absorbed by the people taking it, and ends up passing through and getting flushed down the toilet. While such wastewater is treated for contaminants before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes, some drug residues remain.

Drinking bottled water—40 percent of which is derived from municipal tap water supplies—provides no insurance against ingesting unwanted medication. And if municipal water systems do not have the firepower to remove such pharmaceuticals from drinking water supplies, neither do home filtration systems designed to treat water after it comes out of the tap.

So what’s a health-conscious water drinker to do? How about moving? Of the 28 major U.S. metro areas examined by the AP, only Albuquerque, Austin and Virginia Beach tested negative for pharmaceuticals in municipal drinking water supplies.

Green Dry Cleaning

In the 19th century, the dry cleaning industry started using volatile liquids, such as gasoline and naphtha, to clean clothing and linens. Clothing is washed with a liquid, not water. The flammability of those early solvents led to the use of other solvents, and today eight out of 10 professional dry cleaners in the United States use the chemical perchloroethylene (commonly called perc) to clean clothes. And although perc is less flammable, it is still an awful chemical to have so prominently in our lives. It is outlawed in many countries, and California plans to phase out perc by 2023, with a ban on new perc equipment in effect soon.

OSHA has recommended that perc be handled as a human carcinogen, and the EPA has classified it as a possible human carcinogen. In addition, according to the EPA:

• Effects resulting from acute, inhalation exposure of humans to perc vapors include irritation of the upper respiratory tract and eyes, kidney dysfunction, and at lower concentrations, neurological effects, such as reversible mood and behavioral changes, impairment of coordination, dizziness, headache, sleepiness, and unconsciousness.
• Effects from chronic inhalation are neurological, including headaches, impairments in cognitive and motor neurobehavioral functioning and color vision decrements. Other effects noted in humans include cardiac arrhythmia, liver damage and possible kidney effects.
• Studies of dry cleaning workers exposed to perc and other solvents suggest an increased risk for a variety of cancers.
• Perc released into the air is also an environmental concern as it pollutes air and groundwater.

ALTERNATIVES
The dry cleaning industry (and industries that support them) would be pretty shortsighted not to be exploring other options, given the increasing evidence against perc. These are the methods currently available:

Petroleum-Based Solvents
Several petroleum-based solvents have been created as an alternative to perc, but they are still irritants and emit VOCs. The most notable one is a hydrocarbon called DF-2000, which is made by ExxonMobil. Now for the tricky part. Any chemical with a chain of carbon is scientifically classified as "organic," like gasoline and perc. Some dry cleaners that have switched from using perc to using DF-2000, claim that they offer "organic dry cleaning." They are using an organic solvent, in the scientific sense of the word, but it can be misleading for the consumer who thinks that "organic" is referring to an all-natural, safe method. DF-2000 is classified as a VOC and it is listed by the EPA as a neurotoxin and skin and eye irritant for workers. If your dry cleaner offers organic dry cleaning, check to see what exactly they mean.

Silicone-Based Solvents
GreenEarth is the brand name for siloxane D5, a silicone-based chemical that has been used for a long time in personal care products. GreenEarth claims its solvent is safe and degrades into sand, water and carbon dioxide. But the jury is still out on this one. California's Air Resources Board conducted an 18-month review of the health and safety research available on D5 liquid silicone. They concluded that while D5 does not qualify for a non-toxic alternative dry cleaning solvent grant program, it does remain an acceptable dry cleaning solvent alternative. In July 2005, the EPA received the final results of a two-year study in rats, which confirmed a significant increase in uterine tumors following exposure to 160 ppm of D5, the highest concentration tested in the study. No significant increase in tumors was observed at lower doses. The EPA is still assessing the health risks.

Carbon Dioxide
This is a new technology that uses liquid carbon dioxide under high pressure. Carbon dioxide (CO2) cleaning uses non-toxic, liquid CO2 (at room temperature) as the cleaning solvent, along with detergent. The CO2 is captured as a by-product of existing industrial processes, thereby utilizing emissions that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. Since minimal CO2 is lost into the air with each load of clothing, its impact on global warming is minimal. CO2 cleaning also uses less energy than traditional dry cleaning, which involves heating the solvent. Carbon dioxide is normally a gas at room temperature. But under high pressure, it converts into a liquid and can act as a carrier of biodegradable soaps in much the same way that water does in a washing machine. And when the dry cleaning cycle stops, it turns back into a gas, much of which is reused. Clothes cleaned in this process dry instantly, are cool to the touch and have no odor. A Consumer Reports study showed that the CO2 cleaning method performed better than silicone-solvent based cleaning (a close second), professional wet-cleaning and traditional perc dry cleaning. This method has been highly touted by environmentalists. Unfortunately, the detergents used in CO2 cleaning may contain some VOCs. The equipment for carbon dioxide cleaning is very expensive and is all licensed by the company that developed the method. It may be a less viable financial alternative for small businesses who could only convert to this method by becoming a Hangers Cleaners franchise.

Professional Wet Cleaning
Most garments labeled "dry clean only" can be cleaned with water through a process called wet-cleaning. This is a time-intensive process that takes some skill and special equipment, so it is costlier. The trick to professional wet cleaning is the computerized operations that allow for precise control in order to gently wash, dry and finish garments.

The EPA considers it one of the safest professional cleaning methods; its benefits include no hazardous chemical use, no hazardous waste generation, no air pollution and reduced potential for water and soil contamination. In terms of its impact on water and energy consumption, a comprehensive study by UCLA found that wet cleaning has only a minor impact on water use and that it uses slightly less electricity and slightly more natural gas than dry cleaning.

The performance of wet-cleaning was weaker than that of CO2 and silicone-solvent based dry cleaning, though it's just as effective, or better than perc dry cleaning's performance. Wet cleaning is a win-win method.

TIPS

• Buy clothing and other fabric items that don't require dry cleaning, saving you money and protecting your health and the environment.
• If you must have clothing dry cleaned at a cleaner that uses perc, you need to know that low levels of perchloroethylene can be brought into your house along with your clothes, and it offgasses into your indoor air. Remove the garments from the plastic bags and let them air in a protected outdoor spot for several days.
• To find dry cleaners that use CO2, go to http://www.findco2.com/
• To find dry cleaners that use wet cleaning, go to http://www.epa.gov/
• To find dry cleaners that use silicone-based solvents, go to for tips on wet cleaning at home.

Compact Fluorescebts Lightbulbs (CFLs) are poisoning us

As the world embraces compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFL) as an energy-efficient alternative to the incandescent bulbs that have reigned supreme for 125 years, a new crop of concerns has arisen about the potential for mercury contamination from the newer bulbs. Though each CFL contains only a trace amount of mercury, landfill managers are worried that large numbers of them ending up in their facilities could pose problems for employees, not to mention surrounding communities.

The EPA recommends switching over to the bulbs for the energy and greenhouse gas emissions savings, but it acknowledges that the newer bulbs pose a contamination problem when they break. The EPA's website provides a detailed outline on how to air out a room and eventually dispose of the pieces of a broken CFL so as not to endanger family members or the environment.

Currently only seven U.S. states ban putting CFLs in the regular landfill-bound garbage, and there are still very few CFL recycling centers. “I think there’s going to be hundreds of millions of [CFLs] in landfills all over the country,” says Leonard Worth of the Illinois-based CFL recycler Fluorecycle.

CFL manufacturers are working hard to minimize the amount of mercury in their bulbs while simultaneously ramping up R&D on other high-efficiency bulbs that do not contain toxic elements (such as light-emitting diode bulbs and high-efficiency incandescents). A solution is needed urgently, as Australia, China and now the U.S. have made big commitments to CFLs in order to lower their carbon footprints.

Coffee fire logs

Anoher great green product!

The Java-Log is a pressed fire log made from used coffee grounds, natural vegetable wax, 100% recyled packaging and free of chemicals. It burns brighter, hotter and produces 85% less carbon monoxide than traditional firewood. It even crackles!!!

The Java-Log weighs 5 pounds, a little smaller than a sawdust log. It comes in a wrapper, which is used to light the log. It burns for two to three hours, the same as a regular log, but it produces three times the flame capacity of wood because of the oils. Whereas, wood has a lot more char and carbon in it.

Last year, over 2 million Java-logs sold. That's 5,000 tons that didn't go into a landfill.

Congressional Resolution Appluades Automotive X prize

People love their cars. They are vital links to our jobs, our community, ourselves. For everything we love about them, cars are chained to the most severe global crises of our time: oil dependence and climate change.

The aim: to break this deadlock through the most radical approach to innovation yet - the X PRIZE.

The Automotive X PRIZE will invite teams from around the world to focus on a single goal: design viable, clean and super-efficient cars that people want to buy.

This will be a race for the ages, with major publicity and a big sack of cash waiting for the champion, and perhaps our future hanging in the balance.

$10 million is up for grabs in international green car competition.

Fifty international teams will vie for the Automotive X Prize, building vehicles that are energy efficient, clean, and safe.