Sustainable Industries Daily Update

I'm doing the update from our Portland office today where I'll be moderating the Cutting Edge Green Building Products Webinar and announcing our Top 10 Green Building Products for 2009 at 10 AM PST. Please join us if you can. In the meantime,

• The DOE released the first chunk of money from its $25 billion advanced technology loan fund yesterday. The goal is to “create thousands of green jobs while helping reduce the nation’s dangerous dependence on foreign oil.” Ford got $5.9 billion, Nissan $1.6 billion and Tesla...wait for it... $465 million.
• Notice one car company not on that list? Yeah, Chevy and its Volt are not on there. Wondering what's going on with the Volt? Seems to be on schedule...
• Been wondering lately about how much basic energy efficiency measures could save? A new report indicates that studies of the technical potential for easily implemented efficiency improvements show efficiency could lower demand by as much as 30 percent.
• Clean coal? Apparently coal slurry is clean enough to dump in an Alaskan lake according to the U.S. Supreme Court.
• FTSE Group announced that it has launched a new classification system designed to identify companies operating in emerging environmental markets by sectors and sub-sectors.
• In the packaging world, there's a new PVC replacement on the market that is supposed to work for blister packaging, clamshells, display boxes, and containers in the nonfood markets.
• Maybe it's a case of closing the doors after the horses got out? A study by Terrachoice found 98 percent of grocery store products that make "eco" claims that are not entirely true.