Yesterday, at the Council for Chemical Research 2013 Annual Meeting in Arlington, Virginia, among leaders from industry, academia and the National Labs, The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) unveiled the beta version of the Dow Lab Safety Academy, a digital learning environment that shares Dow's best-in-class industrial safety culture and practices in a quick and accessible format. Explore the Dow Lab Safety Academy at safety.dow.com. The Dow Lab Safety Academy includes dozens of videos featuring lab safety guidelines for a variety of real-life scenarios, grouped under four comprehensive lab safety categories. The website also provides a collection of useful resources such as a chemical reactivity worksheet and an incident alert template, which help promote best practices for safety.

In an effort to continually improve the content and usability of the website, Dow will be seeking feedback from partner universities and other users.

“At Dow, our focus on safety is inherent in everything we do and every decision we make,” said Dr. William F. Banholzer, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Dow. “We routinely share safety best practices with our competitors since we all understand improving safety is in everyone’s best interest. The same is true for university research. Our hope is that by broadly sharing what Dow does internally we can help improve university safety as well as our customers’, national labs or anyone conducting materials research.”

Dow's best practices focus on incident prevention and on spurring a high level of engagement in safety awareness. In 2012, thanks to a combination of smart work processes and procedures, and a focus on safe behaviors, 266 out of Dow's 350 sites went completely injury-free.

“With its excellent safety record and well-known best safety practices, Dow is a reliable source for laboratory safety information,” said William Tolman, Distinguished McKnight University Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at University of Minnesota. “The Dow Lab Safety Academy presents material that is highly relevant to academic researchers, with modules that focus on the types of safety issues we all encounter. It is an excellent resource for students and those working in the chemical industry.”

As part of its laboratory safety initiative launched in early 2012, Dow has partnered with premier research universities to improve safety awareness and practices in the departments of chemistry, chemical engineering, engineering and materials. Through pilot programs with U.C. Santa Barbara (UCSB), University of Minnesota and Pennsylvania State University, Dow is working closely with graduate students and faculty to identify areas of improvement and help nurture a sustainable culture of laboratory safety.

About Dow
Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company connects chemistry and innovation with the principles of sustainability to help address many of the world's most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, renewable energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow's diversified industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 160 countries and in high growth sectors such as electronics, water, energy, coatings and agriculture. In 2012, Dow had annual sales of approximately $57 billion and employed approximately 54,000 people worldwide. The Company's more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 188 sites in 36 countries across the globe. References to "Dow" or the "Company" mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. More information about Dow can be found at www.dow.com.

January 2011 issue posted.

Points of Light’s Civic Accelerator – the first national startup accelerator dedicated solely to investing in civic ventures – announced today the 10 nonprofit and for-profit start-ups selected to participate in its summer program. The ventures participating in the Civic Accelerator all mobilize people to create positive change.

While Points of Light has a 20-year history of engaging people in volunteer service, the launch of the Civic Accelerator marks the first time the organization is investing venture capital funds in social enterprises.

Ten teams, selected from 150 applicants, will gather on May 20 in Atlanta for the start of an intensive, 12-week boot camp which will include mentoring, entrepreneur education, peer support and networking.

Points of Light has offered each startup a $10,000 investment. Additionally, Points of Light will offer two of the most promising ventures – as determined by the entrepreneurs themselves –an additional $50,000 investment at the end of the summer.

The Civic Accelerator is run in partnership with Village Capital, which has launched 22 accelerator programs in the U.S. and emerging markets, serving over 300 enterprises directly addressing poverty alleviation, environmental sustainability and economic development. Founding support for the unique accelerator comes from PwC Charitable Foundation, Inc. and Starbucks Foundation.

The 10 startups participating in the second cohort of the Civic Accelerator are:

 

 

 

EPIC empowers creative professionals to make social change happen.

 

 

 

GenX & Associates helps communities dashboard their social, economic, and environmental data online for local decision-making.

 

 

GraphAlchemist offers Graph as a Service (GaaS) to provide data driven solutions to complex problems.

 

 

 

Neighbor.ly is the funding platform for civic projects.

 

Open Curriculum is an online platform to create, access and share K-12 learning material.

 

 

 

 

Practice Makes Perfect works to narrow the achievement gap in low income U.S. neighborhoods through summer enrichment programs.

 

 

 

Public Lab is a community that develops and applies affordable, open-source environmental monitoring tools to empower citizen scientists.

 

 

 

 

The GREEN Program transforms experiential education around the world, and empowers leaders to break into and disrupt the hottest industries of our time.

 

 

 

 

Jubilee Project makes videos for a good cause that empower, enable, and inspire the next generation of change-makers.

 

 

 

Village Defense provides neighborhoods with a real-time communications system to keep neighbors safe and connected.

"Supporting innovation in the design of sustainable, scalable programs that drive social good is an important part of our giving philosophy," said Chris Simmons, president, PwC Charitable Foundation, Inc. "We are pleased to congratulate the second class of 10 startups selected for the accelerator and look forward to seeing their impact in the areas of education and humanitarianism."

“Innovation is core to what we do at Starbucks, and we are inspired by the work of these entrepreneurs and innovators,” said Adam Brotman, chief digital officer at Starbucks. “We are honored to support this valuable program and are looking forward to witnessing the continued success of the teams as they make a positive impact on their communities.”

“We are excited about the new thinking and innovative models we are seeing – and investing in – across the country. The for-profit and nonprofit ventures, with their shared focus on customers and need for sustainable business models, have a great deal in common,” said Ayesha Khanna, president of the Civic Incubator at Points of Light. “We believe their success will engage people in solving critical social problems and strengthening communities.”

“Over the next three months, these enterprises will get the best support and the toughest criticism they’ve ever received from their peers,” said Ross Baird, executive director of Village Capital. “The program will focus on everything from customer validation to financials, and we expect that the collaboration of these amazingly talented people will be a force multiplier for their success.”

About Points of Light
Points of Light – the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service – mobilizes millions of people to take action that is changing the world. Through affiliates in 250 cities and partnerships with thousands of nonprofits and corporations, Points of Light engages more than 4 million volunteers in 30 million hours of service each year. We bring the power of people to bear where it’s needed most. For more information, go to www.pointsoflight.org.

About Village Capital
Village Capital uses the power of peer review and support to shape enterprises making an impact, and to change the way investment in them is made.  Through tested educational programs worldwide, and through a unique peer-selected model, Village Capital provides innovative risk capital to the world’s highest-potential ventures while expanding the scope and infrastructure of the impact investing industry. For more information, go to www.vilcap.com.

About PwC Charitable Foundation, Inc.
The PwC Charitable Foundation, Inc., a section 501(c)(3) organization, makes charitable contributions to the people of PwC in times of financial hardship, and to nonprofit organizations that support and promote education and humanitarianism.

In a project funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Novomer Inc. (Ithaca, NY) has completed the world's first successful large-scale production of a polypropylene carbonate (PPC) polymer using waste carbon dioxide (CO2) as a key raw material.

Climate Minister Greg Barker lobbies EU to halt plans for punitive tariffs against China, as EU leaders back plans for 2030 climate targets

    

By Thomas Hubert, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 22 May 2013 | As the world grapples with implementing a U.N.-backed scheme aimed at slowing forest loss and degradation (REDD+), new research from Cameroon shows that the complexity of the scheme demands expertise from a variety of players within and outside government. “The variety of aspects covered by REDD+ means the Ministry of Environment can no longer be expected to lead the way on its own,” says Denis Sonwa, scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research and co-author of REDD+ policy strategy in Cameroon: Actors, institutions and governance. “It is critical that the state reinvent itself as a learning organization that takes advantage of the expertise offered by other actors in global networks so that it can perform the required leadership and coordination role in designing a national REDD+ strategy.”

Corin Taylor of the Institute of Directors says claims a UK shale gas industry is incompatible with environmental concerns are wide of the mark

    

The vast majority of clean energy investment not coming from VCs is actually a positive indicator for the maturation of clean energy markets

    

By Ana Madigibuli, Fiji Times, 23 May 2013 | Fiji is looking at ways it could improve its logging practices so less harm is done to its forests. This was highlighted during the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) plus strategy workshop in Suva last week. "The workshop is to largely develop the Fiji REDD plus strategy which started in 2011," said Christina Fung, the German Technical Co-operation landuse planning and facilitation specialist, during the REDD plus stakeholders workshop in Lami last week. REDD is a concept that links financial incentives to forest conservation, sustainable management, and enhancing and increasing carbon stocks for credits for carbon emissions avoided and or carbon sequestered.

Representatives approve bill declaring that controversial oil pipeline from Canada does not need president's permission

    

Pump near Daventry could be the first of a nationwide network dispensing the low emissions fuel

    

Pacific nation says up to 2.3MW of wind energy capacity could be installed, helping the country phase out expensive fossil fuel imports

    

Source: Asia Times - Fahima Begum rises each morning at dawn and walks two kilometers to a small pond, the nearest source of fresh water. On her way she passes the rusty old hand-pumped tube well that used to supply water to her village in Bangladesh's arid Barind region until the water table here dropped out of reach.

Source: Manila Bulletin - The 20-megawatt Maibarara geothermal project has successfully secured registration as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) venture sanctioned under the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Source: Washington Post -

Source: Fiji Broadcasting Corporation - Fiji’s outdated Disaster Management policy and plan are currently under review with a view to incorporate disaster risk reduction and climate change into a new national plan.

Source: Wall Street Journal - Residents of this smog-choked city are uniquely prepared for an impassioned discussion of the environment, whether it’s the state of the air or the fears about food and water safety.

Source: Reuters - A slide in solar power costs and a surge in oil prices over the last few years has made solar power a win-win strategy for Saudi Arabia: saving billions of dollars of crude for export while making electricity at less than half the cost.

Source: AFP - The European Union is unlikely to hammer out its new policy on global warming ahead of a global climate deal that could be clinched in 2015, Poland's environment minister said Wednesday.

Source: EurActiv - Europe’s plan to decarbonise its economy by 2050 could be turned on its head at a summit today (22 May) if EU heads of state and government sign off on measures prioritising industrial competitiveness over climate change in draft conclusions seen by EurActiv.