The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center in Wisconsin is being touted as the “greenest building on the planet” by U.S. Green Building Council president Rick Fedrizzi. Following a rigorous assessment byLEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), the building was awarded 61 points, the highest rating in the world.

With the second largest solar electric system in Wisconsin on its roof, the Centre has become the first carbon neutral building certified by LEED and a net producer of energy, with a projected output of 50,000kwh of electricity annually.

Read the full article at TreeHugger  

All advertising for new cars in the E.U. will have to carry cigarette-style “health warnings” about their environmental impact, as Parliament responds to the car industry’s failure to meet its own voluntary target on reducing CO₂ emissions. 

Advertisements in newspapers and magazines will have to devote at least 20% of the space to details about the fuel economy and CO₂ emissions of the car, and companies that produce the most polluting cars will also have to pay penalties of up to £5,000 per vehicle, with the proceeds used to reduce the cost of the most efficient cars. 

Read the full article at Times Online

Following an April pledge to be carbon neutral by 2007, Yahoo! announced today investments to offset its 250,000 tonne carbon footprint from 2006. The total cost of the investments for this relatively small carbon emitter will be just $2 million, a paltry sum compared with its $6.7 billion in revenues.

The investments will focus on two projects in developing nations: hydropower in Brazil and wind turbines in India.

Read the full article at Gristmill

Researchers at Japanese carmaker Mazda think cars will in the future run on a water component - hydrogen. Mazda executive Nobuhiro Hayama said Mazda was developing a hydrogen engine with Ford. German automaker BMW is also working on hydrogen technology.

"We have to prepare for sustainable zoom-zoom," Hayama said on Monday. "We have to make a link with the hydrogen society of the future."

Read the full article at Reuters Environment

A new report from investment research firm Innovest uncovers “strong, positive and growing correlation” between environmental and financial performance as companies with sophisticated and comprehensive climate change strategies have financially outperformed their competitors over the last three years. 

 "In the longer term, the out-performance potential will become even greater as the capital markets become more fully sensitized to the financial and competitive consequences of environmental and climate change considerations," the report predicted. 

Read the full article at Business Green

Poweo, the largest of 10 French companies allowed to compete with the big state-controlled utilities since markets opened up in July, hopes to win customers over by offering prizes through a simple online video game. Players have 20 seconds to help the cartoon character Louis perform energy saving duties around the house, like switching off the lights and could win five years free energy as a result. The game can be found at www.jeu-poweo.com.

Read the full article at Reuters