New weekly feature - the best of green

Each week, we'll feature the best green news story from the previous week. Join us to stay on top of what hot in the world of "going green" each Friday.

This week's story comes from Canadian journalist and blogger Tyler Hamilton. According to Hamilton,

A British Columbia-based company called Free Energy International has signed a deal with an undisclosed oil and gas exploration and production company in Alberta, in an area known as Swan Hills. Free Energy will build two 1-megawatt geothermal plants that take hot water — a co-product of oil and natural gas during the pumping process — and extract the heat from it to generate electricity. The $7 million project will tap wells that are around 9,000 feet deep, and temperatures of the fluids can easily reach 170 degrees F in high volumes. After the heat is extracted from the water using heat exchangers, it is used to run an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) power plant. The water is later pumped back into the ground. Free Energy will build, own and operate this binary cycle plant and the oil company has agreed to buy all the electricity produced for the same rate it was paying to a previous supplier.

Read the rest of the story on his green energy blog, Clean Break.

The Truth About Green Business

The Truth About Green Business | The GreenBiz Bookstore | GreenBiz.com

Too many business owners and managers think they need to make a choice between being green and profitable. The author of this book dispels that falsehood and teaches you how greener business practices actually mean more green in your pocket!

We met an example of this earlier in this blog when we met carpet giant and successful business man Ray Anderson...learn why his story could be yours!

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Sustainability makes business sense and carpet maker Ray Anderson proves it!

There has been a belief, no, more than that, a set-in-stone assumption among many business people that a company can either maximize profits OR go green. It was a clear either-or statement. Or so it was thought.

Carpet company owner Ray Anderson has turned that equation on its head. His company's change from one of the worst offenders in environmental pollution and net carbon impact, to one of the stars of the new green business model. The numbers tell his story:

• Net greenhouse gases, down 82%
  
• Water usage, down 70% on average across all product types
  
• Fossil fuel usage, down 60% per unit of product
  
  
• Products now use 25% recycled materials
  
• Production uses 27% renewable energy

And in the midst of all these changes, what has happened to sales and profits?

• Sales have increased by 66%
  
• Profits are up 200%
  
• Avoidable costs saved of $400 million have paid for all the changes in production and materials

Not satisfied with these numbers, nor with the success of the new eco-friendly line, FLOR, Anderson has set a goal of zero carbon footprint for his company by the year 2020.

Sustainability has come of age in the business world!