Business & Economics

WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Commerce has announced a $12 million innovation competition designed to drive technology commercialization and entrepreneurship.
The Commerce Department Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and its Economic Development Administration said the “i6 Challenge” will be held in partnership with the National Institutes of Health and the National [...]

LOS ANGELES, March 22 (UPI) — Actor-director Ben Affleck announced Monday the start of the Eastern Congo Initiative, an advocacy and grant-making initiative.
The ECI said its mission “is to help the Congolese people support local community-based approaches that create a sustainable and successful society in the long-troubled region.”
Additional founding members include Howard G. Buffett, Humanity [...]

MADISON, Wis., March 16 (UPI) — U.S. scientists say they have created a simple and cost-effective technology that uses small amounts of waste energy to turn water into usable hydrogen fuel.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Assistant Professor Huifang Xu, who led the study, said his team grew nanocrystals of two common crystals — zinc oxide and [...]

NEW YORK, March 5 (UPI) — The Empire State Building’s 6,500 windows will be retrofitted as part of an energy overhaul designed to reduce the iconic skyscraper’s energy use by 38 percent.
Milwaukee’s Johnson Controls, which is overseeing the Empire State Building retrofit project, with a team of energy efficiency experts including the Clinton Climate Initiative, [...]

SAVANNAH, Ga., March 2 (UPI) — U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday unveiled a new program that would offer rebates to U.S. consumers who invest to make their homes energy efficient.
The Home Star energy rebate program will save families several hundred dollars in utility bills, reduce the country’s fossil-fuel dependency and “spur hiring up and [...]