Give landlords cash to cut carbon, government told

18.07.08

By Mark Jansen

Select committee of MPs, LandSecs’ Salway and Sir David King recommend incentive scheme

The government should introduce cash incentives to improve the energy efficiency of Britain’s commercial buildings, a committee of MPs has concluded.

The committee also called for the Building Regulations to be progressively tightened to raise energy-efficiency standards and for the wider introduction of display energy certificates.

The report of the All Party Urban Development Group was launched on Wednesday by Francis Salway, president of the British Property Federation and chief executive of Land Securities, together with Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the government.

The report, Greening UK Cities’ Buildings, said the cost of refitting properties to make them greener is often prohibitive. Landlords have little incentive to make the investment when rents and values are unlikely to rise as a result, while energy costs are still too low in relation to tenants’ overall occupation costs to induce them to cut consumption.

The report makes eight recommendations:

• It calls on the government to create a ‘one-stop shop’ to deliver energy-efficiency policies and information coherently

• Owners and occupiers should be given clear advice on how to make easy energy savings

• The government must lead by example. A study by the National Audit Office, published in April last year, found that only 9% of the governments’ new buildings and refurbishments met its own sustainability targets

• There should be a single standard for measuring a building’s energy performance

• A national database should be compiled to compare the energy performance of buildings in use with their initial design assumptions.

• Display energy certificates, which show a building’s energy usage and will be compulsory for large public sector sites from October, should also apply to commercial buildings. Energy performance certificates, which were introduced for commercial buildings in April, only show what the design is capable of

• Building regulations on energy efficiency should be tightened to force changes in behaviour

• Trading standards officers given clear guidance to ensure that the regulations are enforce.

The report concludes that ‘there is scope to consider … a range of fiscal incentives and grants to retrofit buildings and help owners deal with upfront costs’.

The committee of MPs based its report on oral and written evidence given by a range of property industry sources. A spokesman for the All Party Urban Development Group said: ‘The readiness of the private sector to give evidence for this report shows that it is willing to work with the government, but we need a clear vision on how to go forward.’

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Gas Prices May Revive Cities

Urban planners finally see a way to curb sprawl

By Bret Schulte

Posted July 17, 2008

Andres Duany is thrilled by the prices he's seeing at the gas pump. The urban planner and high priest of the New Urbanism movement sees today's (and likely tomorrow's) gas prices accomplishing what he and others in his field have long sought: a wholesale re-creation of the American lifestyle. "The urbanism of the United States has been premised on two things," Duany says. "One is inexpensive land. And the other is inexpensive fuel. Both have led to sprawl."

Sprawl—that scourge of urban designers who prize a tightly packaged city, walkable neighborhoods, and mixed-use development that brings together homes with businesses and shops—may have finally met its match. At least, that's the hope of the enclave of people who study settlement and land use, and who now sheepishly admit they're rooting for high energy prices. "Urban planners have been beating their heads against the wall for decades trying to get Americans to settle in a more compact pattern on the landscape for the very reasons we're starting to see now," says Thomas Campanella, an associate professor of city and regional planning at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill. "To be honest, I feel that rising gas prices...are going to do more for good, sustainable urban planning than the entire urban planning profession."

Sure, they feel guilty admitting it, but high energy prices—gasoline as well as heating oil and natural gas—could prove to be the force that brings the dreams of urban planners to fruition: a greener, more sustainable society that is also a throwback to the preautomobile age, when it wasn't realistic to have tracts of homes miles away from business centers, which were, in turn, miles away from shopping centers. "There are vast swaths of the landscape that are inaccessible to anything but the automobile," Campanella says. "Obviously, we're going to see real changes if oil is going to skyrocket, and I think we can all assume it's not going to return to levels of the past."

On one hand, the story of the car, and the far-flung communities of huge homes and cul-de-sacs they enabled, is a testament to America's enormous economic success. But it has also meant more obesity, pollution, and, say urban planners, social isolation. They argue that in some ways, the quality of life was higher when Americans had less money to purchase things like cars. "The great cities that people love," Duany says, "were the result of a substantially less wealthy nation that had to be far more intelligent about its assets." He notes cities such as New York, Boston, and San Francisco, which were built for people to live close to their daily needs. A fringe benefit: more opportunities for interaction with and reliance on neighbors.

High energy prices could mean more U.S. cities joining those ranks, growing thicker with residents, shops, and employers—as they were decades ago. Together with the foreclosure crisis, gas prices "will really take the sheen off the distant suburbs," says Bob Dunphy, a senior fellow for transportation and infrastructure at the Urban Land Institute. Experts are predicting that city homes, often smaller than their suburban counterparts, could gain value for being less costly to heat and cool, as well as for their proximity to mass transit, shops, and employers. "It's what I call a return to reason," Duany says.

The obstacles to such a retro future, of course, are staggering. Thriving cities are expensive and cramped and hardly family friendly. Shrinking cities, like many in the Rust Belt, are dilapidated, crime-ridden—and hardly family friendly. Few offer a quality public school system. But the biggest changes would have to take place in the suburbs. New Urbanists such as Duany, who champion mixed-use environments, say suburbs must adapt to high gas prices by becoming more like villages. Central shopping should replace big box stores (and their aprons of parking) on the town edge. And entire swaths of city blocks with nothing but houses and cul-de-sacs must be retrofitted to fully functioning neighborhoods, with corner stores and businesses in walking distance. "Communities will have to look at diversifying their land use," says Eran Ben-Joseph, a professor of urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "You'll see more people buying into the idea of a more dense suburb." Public transit would have to not only link to the metropolitan core but to other suburbs, which often have their own employer bases.

That's a tall order that would require billions in public infrastructure investment and a massive shift in taxpayer subsidies from highways to other infrastructure. That's not likely to happen—at least, not yet. At $4 per gallon for gas, Americans are paying an average of about $500 more to fill up a car this year over last year. That may dent the family budget, but it's hardly enough to trigger a wholesale reimagining of the American Dream. Not to mention that new automobile technology that features plug-in hybrids, electric cars, and hydrogen-powered cars may blunt the impact of gas prices and allow plenty of Americans to enjoy life as they've known it for decades.

Nevertheless, changes in settlement patterns are already occurring, albeit incrementally. And if the price of energy continues to snowball, so will the changes in people's behavior. "American zoning has largely separated land uses," says Tom Murphy, a former mayor of Pittsburgh and a senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute. But across the country, officials are already rethinking that notion. California's new effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is requiring some developers to assess how far residents will have to drive to reach schools, work, and shopping by automobile. "That can be reduced by putting a shopping center in the middle of a development instead of the edge," Murphy says. The once prototypical car-centered western metropolis of Salt Lake City is aggressively adding light rail commuter lines. So is Denver. With the help of Campanella and his students, modest Hillsborough, N.C., recently lobbied for commuter rail service to the state's bustling research triangle in Raleigh. Chicago, Minneapolis, and other Midwestern cities are joining their East Coast counterparts in growing dense with condominiums. "That was a trend beginning anyhow," Murphy says. "There's every reason to believe that's going to accelerate significantly."

Lawrence Yun, an economist for the National Realtors Association, is already seeing the evidence. Yun was amazed at the 3,000 responses he received from a recent survey of the nation's realtors. "People are now saying affirmatively they want to live closer to town centers and have a shorter commute," Yun says. "And smaller homes mean less energy consumption." Homes in the exurbs are "being hammered on two fronts, gas and heating and cooling costs." Realtors are reporting that they are having a difficult time even getting people to show up at open houses in some distant suburbs. Homes in cities and close-in suburbs are not only selling faster than homes in far-flung suburbs, they are appreciating more rapidly. That's especially noteworthy. While homes inside thriving cities, such as New York or Washington, have always been more expensive than in the suburbs, they tended to appreciate at the same clip. Not any more. Houses closer to the urban core are now outpacing their peers on the fringes. "Areas in the suburbs requiring long commutes are very weak," he says.

Some cities are better poised to take advantage of this trend than others. Namely, those that are already have strong urban cores and public transit lines. Meanwhile, developers are buying up abandoned rail lines, anticipating their revival as people ditch their cars. Duany says he's betting on oil-rich Texas, the very home of suburban sprawl and the derisively dubbed McMansion. "Dallas has more retrofitted downtown suburbs than any place," Duany says. "I'm always betting on Texas. It's such a can-do place." Duany's calling on American city planners to look at Europe's many thriving cities, where gasoline has always been expensive. But, he says, "we can also learn from our own cities of the past"—back when the automobile was the future.

28 ConConserve

Green Path North is a proposed power corridor of 500-kilovolt transmission lines that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power wants to carve through pristine desert and desert communities.

LADWP claims that these transmission lines are necessary to bring renewable energy into the urban city to “diversify their energy portfolio.” Development of renewable energy resources including geothermal, solar and wind, should be our highest priority to replace fossil fuels. However, for LADWP to destroy pristine desert and conservation lands in the process, including condemnation of private property, is not a “green” way to go about it. I further disagree that LADWP needs to own its own transmission lines, when there are existing corridors that were established through years of focus and study and could be the shared with other utilities.

Save The Canyons

As a third-generation resident of a canyon, I have been fortunate to have an intimate connection to a wild place that is integral to our family heritage. The place is in our bones and is where they will someday rest.

Pipes Canyon was established as the first preserve for The Wildlands Conservancy and protected 8,000 acres of pristine desert-mountain habitat and wetlands. After returning from college in Northern California and working as a biologist for the National Park Service, I accepted a position for conservancy as preserve manager of the Pipes Canyon Preserve.

LADWP threatens this land dear to our community with a new transmission corridor that will unnecessarily devastate us. There are other alternatives we have offered to LADWP, but so far their ears have been deaf to us.

The proposal for this new corridor lacks any detail as to how much renewable energy will come over the line, as well as how and by whom the mixture of renewable and dirty power will be monitored.

Threat Of Eminent Domain

The route through desert communities, branded with LADWP survey markers until recently, traverses 30 miles of private property. Thus, unwilling sellers like homesteaders and conservation nonprofits like the conservancy could see their hard-earned properties condemned under eminent domain.

The project threatens conservation lands creating a potential breach with the public trust. Lands set aside for protection with private or public monies would be unnecessarily impacted for this project. Current and future generations would lose the benefits of these pristine lands established for managed recreation.

More Innovative Strategies

LADWP does not need to look hard nor far to see more innovative strategies to tap into renewable energy. Forward-thinking cities, including Palm Desert, have backed programs for home owners to go solar with low-cost loans paid back through property taxes. Los Angeles can meet its renewable energy needs without over stepping its bounds and devastating conservation lands under the misleading project name of Green Path North.

April Sall is preserve manager of the Pipes Canyon and Mission Creek Preserve for The Wildlands Conservancy and chairwoman of the California Desert Coalition, a nonpartisan citizen advocacy group created to stop the current Green Path North. www.cadesertco.org

Anchorage Joins LED City Initiative to Improve Light Quality and Reduce Energy Costs

Municipality Appropriates $2.2 Million for First Phase Installation of LED Roadway Lights

Last update: 5:01 p.m. EDT July 29, 2008

DURHAM, N.C., Jul 29, 2008 (PrimeNewswire via COMTEX) -- Cree, Inc. (CREE:

18.83, +1.58, +9.1%) , a market leader in LED lighting, and the Municipality of Anchorage today announced Anchorage's participation in the LED City(r) program, an international program that promotes the deployment of energy-efficient LED lighting. Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich announced his city's participation in conjunction with an energy-related initiative calling for the retrofit of all 16,000 municipal roadway lights with high-efficiency LED fixtures.

"I am pleased to announce the appropriation of $2.2 million to enable the city to purchase LED fixtures to change out roughly one-quarter of Anchorage's streetlights," notes Mayor Begich. "We have studied new lighting technology extensively over the past several months to validate energy and maintenance cost savings. We also conducted a lighting conference and public survey in March of this year that showed our residents overwhelmingly approve of the new white LED lighting. With this feedback and quantified costs savings research in hand, we are confident in moving ahead with the broad deployment of LED lighting for our roadways."

"Lighting is absolutely critical to daily life in Anchorage. The continental U.S. has more than eight hours of daylight per day. Here in Anchorage, approximately 85 days a year see less than eight hours of daylight. It is significant that this community is at the forefront of adopting energy-efficient lighting," notes Deb Lovig, Cree LED City program manager. "Cree and the other LED Cities welcome Anchorage into the program and look forward to learning from this large-scale installation as the city pushes forward for energy and maintenance savings with LED lighting."

The LED fixtures from BetaLED are expected to use 50-percent less energy than current streetlights, which could save the city $360,000 annually at today's energy prices. The LED fixtures, based on performance-leading Cree XLamp(r) LEDs, typically last up to seven times longer than high-pressure sodium fixtures, allowing Anchorage to better utilize maintenance resources.

About LED City

The LED City is an expanding community of government and industry parties working to evaluate deploy and promote LED lighting technology across the full range of municipal infrastructure to:

 * Save energy  * Protect the environment  * Reduce maintenance costs  * Provide better light quality for improved visibility and safety.   

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 22 percent of electricity used in the U.S. powers lighting. In a world with soaring energy prices based on the availability and control of fossil fuels, and with growing concern about sustainability of the environment, a revolution in lighting is long overdue.

LED City program participants include Raleigh, NC; Toronto, Ontario; Ann Arbor, MI; Austin, TX; Tianjin, China; Torraca, Italy, and now Anchorage, AK.

About Anchorage, Alaska

Anchorage (officially called the Municipality of Anchorage) is home to some 282,813 municipal residents, making it Alaska's largest city with more than two-fifths of the state's total population. Anchorage has been named All-America City four times, in 1956, 1965, 1984/85, and 2002, by the National Civic League. Diverse and extraordinary scenery and wildlife exist in urban Anchorage and the surrounding area. Approximately 250 black bears and 60 grizzly bears live in the area. Moose are a common sight and are a hazard to drivers, with over 100 moose killed by cars each year. Because of Anchorage's latitude, summer days are very long and winter daylight hours are very short. Anchorage is often cloudy during the winter, which decreases the amount of sunlight experienced by residents. For more information visit: www.muni.org.

About BetaLED

BetaLED, a brand of Beta Lighting, was established to dedicate resources to the emerging use of LED technology for general illumination. Beta Lighting, a division of Ruud Lighting, Inc., provides the lighting market with high-quality, specification-grade luminaires for exterior lighting applications. For additional exterior LED luminaire information, visit www.BetaLED.com.

About Cree

Cree is leading the LED lighting revolution and setting the stage to obsolete the incandescent light bulb through the use of energy-efficient, environmentally friendly LED lighting. Cree is a market-leading innovator of lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting retrofit solutions, and semiconductor solutions for general illumination, backlighting, wireless and power applications. For additional product and company information, please refer to www.cree.com.

The Cree, Inc. logo is available athttp://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=3529

This press release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of factors, including the possibility that actual energy saving may vary from expectations; the potential lack of customer acceptance of LED products; the rapid development of new technology and competing products that may impair demand or render Cree's products obsolete; and other factors discussed in Cree's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 24, 2007, and subsequent filings.

Cree, XLamp and LED City are registered trademarks of Cree, Inc.

This news release was distributed by PrimeNewswire, www.primenewswire.com

SOURCE: Cree, Inc.

Cree, Inc.           Media Contact:           Deb Lovig, LED City Program Manager           (919) 287-7505           deb_lovig@cree.com 

Commuting
Driving Works
Robert Bruegmann 07.29.08, 6:00 PM ET

Recently, there has been a rush by pundits, particularly those who live at the center of large, older cities, to claim that rising gasoline prices will lead inexorably to fundamental shifts in the way Americans live and work. They confidently predict a long-term decline in automobile use, a rise in mass transit ridership, a widespread move of families from the suburban periphery back to the central city and the demise of the McMansion and the SUV.

These predictions are based more on wishful thinking than on good evidence. They are, first of all, suspiciously similar to those made during the oil crisis of the 1970s. Like those of the 1970s, they are based on the notion that low-density suburbs, single-family houses and private automobiles necessarily consume significantly more energy than higher-density urban areas, apartments and public transportation.

This notion is based on an entire set of assumptions that is dubious at best. The first is that we will continue to use carbon fuels for most of our energy needs. This is unlikely. And even if we continue to use gasoline for most transportation needs, the assumption that public transportation will save a lot of energy is unfounded.

Public transportation, which in the U.S. is overwhelmingly via bus, does not use significantly less fuel per passenger mile traveled than private automobiles, because buses get such low gas mileage and carry so few people. This is particularly true once all of the bus runs, including the nearly empty runs outside peak travel times, are counted in. So even with 1.25 people per car, the average car today uses no more energy per passenger mile traveled than the average bus.

The idea that large numbers of families will move from the suburban periphery to the urban center to be closer to their jobs and avoid traffic is also problematic. The pundits tend to think that the rise in traffic in our urban areas has been caused by longer and longer commutes. In fact, the commute between home and work accounts for a surprisingly small percentage of all trips, less than 20%, and that number is falling. So merely moving closer to work would help only if it involved moving closer to everything else that a family does during a typical day.

In fact, the idea that moving people from the suburbs to the city will reduce traffic is probably wrong to start with. The major reason for the growth in traffic in U.S. cities has been that, as Americans have become affluent, more of them have been able to switch from public transportation to faster and more comfortable private transportation. And since the 1960s they have done so without any commensurate increase in the capacity of our roadway system.

For this reason, traffic is typically worst not in our most sprawling metropolises, places like Kansas City, Mo., but in places like Los Angeles, which (perhaps surprisingly) is the nation's densest urbanized area. Because of the vast growth in population and density in the L.A. region but no comparable growth in the freeway network since the 1960s, it has one of the smallest provisions of freeway lane miles per capita of any urban area in the country.

If there were any large-scale move of citizens from the edge to city centers, the rising densities would almost certainly further exacerbate travel problems, because, outside of central New York and Chicago, the percentage of people using mass transit is extremely small. The vast majority of residents would continue to drive automobiles, further choking already congested roads.

Even more basic is the proposition that moving back toward the center would decrease the length of commutes. This flies in the face of evidence that jobs have been moving outwards in urban regions for decades. Today no more than about 20% of the jobs in America's largest urban regions are located within three miles of the city center, and the growth in jobs in the suburbs has vastly outpaced that in the central city.

So much for short-term prospects. What of the future? As everyone's expectations of mobility have risen over the last decades, there has been an ever greater desire to find the most efficient way of getting directly from any given Place X to Place Y. This has given the automobile a tremendous edge over mass transit. With the rapid rise in congestion in many urban areas, the advantages of the automobile have declined slightly, but it is more likely than ever that in the future most people will use some combination of private or rental automobile, taxi or small on-demand vehicle than they will start using those old-fashioned, big-box transit modes, the bus or the train.

Traditional transit use may well increase a little in the short run, as it did in the 1970s, but in the long run it is very unlikely to offer most Americans an effective way to get to most of the places they need to go. Mass transit currently accounts for no more than about 5% of total trips in America's urban areas. To scale this up even to 25% would require a staggering capital expenditure and a remaking of urban patterns that would almost certainly be unacceptable to most Americans.

Yes, the current rise in fuel costs may well bring major changes to American urban development patterns and commuting patterns, but these price increases will hit city and suburb alike. The world is almost certainly on the verge of enormous technological change in energy generation and transportation. It is likely that this will, indeed, fundamentally reshape the way we live, but what these changes will be is hard to say. What is not likely is that this reshaping will look anything like the simpleminded predictions of the prophets heralding the death of the SUV.

Robert Bruegmann, a historian of architecture, landscape and the built environment, is a professor of art history, architecture and urban planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His most recent book, Sprawl: A Compact History, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2005. 

August 3, 2008

EAST VILLAGE

The Wind Farmers of East 11th Street

By JOSH WEIL

FIVE years ago this month, the lights of the city that never sleeps winked out. It was the kind of situation that would have been tailor-made for a group of young architects who, in the 70s, took over a five-story tenement that didn’t rely on the city’s electrical grid. They lived at 519 East 11th Street, and they got their power from the wind.

On top of their building, one block north of Tompkins Square Park, stood the first roof-mounted urban windmill in the United States. More than just a tower and turbines, the windmill represented a first step toward urban energy self-sufficiency, toward freedom from electricity costs, and toward a loosening of the energy monopoly.

During the energy crisis in 1976, when a radical young architect named Travis Price first came to New York, this windmill was just a vision. Known as the Solar Cowboy, Mr. Price wore a straw cowboy hat and had a passion for renewable power.

“I was going to bring solar energy to the poor,” said Mr. Price, who is now a practicing architect in Washington. “And I was going to do it in an urban environment, during a recession, and that was going to be my flame.”

Instead, he found a city ravaged by another kind of fire. “A building an hour was being burned in New York,” he said. For a host of complicated reasons, among them rising energy costs, many landlords were abandoning their buildings or worse. Eventually, the city began to repossess the apartment houses and then sell them on favorable terms to neighborhood groups.

But Mr. Price, along with David Norris, a Yale architecture student who joined him in his cause, saw a problem: If the new owners simply reoccupied the abandoned buildings, the high energy costs and other factors would drive them out, too. So, along with an M.I.T. architecture student named Chip Tabor, they bought a share in a gutted tenement on East 11th Street and persuaded the neighborhood’s working-class, largely Puerto Rican community to help turn the building into a model for energy conservation. They installed extensive insulation and the first rooftop solar panels in Manhattan.

“I mean, what was the next step?” said Mr. Norris. “Put up a windmill.”

Finding and restoring an old farm turbine for the windmill was easy enough, but erecting the windmill, even after all the pieces were carried up to the roof, was another matter. “How do you lift this 30- or 40-foot tower straight up on the top of a narrow building,” Mr. Price said, “and not have it fall down and skewer someone? We had no budget for cranes, so we just got several cases of beer and went all down the street and said, ‘Let’s have a party.’ ”

Soon they had 40 people on the roof. “Everybody’s drinking,” Mr. Price said. “It’s a timing issue. You can’t get everyone up there unless there’s drink, but you can’t wait too long or they’re too drunk to work.”

With some pushing and tugging and lifting, the rooftop crowd soon set up the windmill. “It was absolutely harebrained and hair-raising,” Mr. Norris said. “It was in contravention of every known city regulation.”

But politicians soon flocked to 519 East 11th Street. “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” filmed a show on its roof. Senator Ted Kennedy described the structure as “the little windmill that could.”

“We felt like a rock band,” Mr. Price recalled. “We were cooking.”

He would see people doing double-takes, he added. “And then they would suddenly see it spinning, and there would be this really delightful smile.”

SINCE storing energy produced by the windmill was difficult, the group wired it into the city’s power grid. Then, when the building was producing more electricity than it was using, the grid absorbed the overflow.

Wiring into the power grid was illegal by itself, but when the group demanded that the utility reimburse them for the overflow, Con Ed urged the New York State Energy Commission to force the group to disconnect from the grid.

Ramsey Clark, a former attorney general of the United States, came to the group’s aid. “There’d been practically no urban experience like it,” Mr. Clark said of the windmill hookup, adding that the utility was afraid of the precedent.

The group won the case. “The energy commission essentially said to Con Ed, ‘You’ve got to buy their power,’ ” Mr. Norris said. “That was huge.”

But the turbine never worked well enough to provide power for the entire building, which, by 1977 or so, was home to 25 or 30 people. Either wind speeds were too low to generate sufficient power or turbulence from gusts produced a deafening noise from the windmill and caused the building to shake. Moreover, during the major blackout in 1977, unable to get a charge from Con Ed, the windmill provided insufficient power.

Still, until 1985, when a blade was blown off during a hurricane, the windmill produced enough power to light communal areas and heat water. For the next two decades or so, its remnants jutted into the sky until, sometime in the last few years, the tower was dismantled.

Today, interest in urban wind is growing — plans are afoot to build a wind farm on Staten Island, for example — but if another blackout occurs this summer there will be no light glowing on East 11th Street. There will, however, probably be vendors hawking flashlights and batteries, a thought that reminds Mr. Price of the old days.

“I think of that hustle,” he said, “and think of us as the New Yorkers who hustled the wind.”

London Mayor launches UK's first 'green homes' service

Publisher:  Jon Land
Published: 04/12/2007 - 16:18:36 PM

 

 
Mayor of London launches UK's first 'green homes' service

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone today launched the UK’s first ‘green homes’ service to help Londoners cut climate change emissions by offering an easy, one-stop-shop for information on how to make homes more carbon efficient.

The flagship London Green Homes service is unique to the capital, and will offer a free comprehensive telephone advice service, a free website and a paid-for green ‘concierge’ service to provide a hassle-free tailor-made package of carbon saving lifestyle improvements.

The advice service will be highly flexible, offering Londoners advice on any actions to reduce carbon emissions from their lifestyle, and explain how best to save money on energy bills.

The London Green Homes service is part of delivering the Mayor’s Climate Change Action Plan – a comprehensive programme of initiatives to reduce carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2025, including programmes for the capital\'s homes, organisations, transportation and energy supply system.

Sixty per cent of London’s housing was built before 1945, compared to 40 per cent nationally so it is less energy efficient than the UK average.

Over £4 million has been allocated to the Green Homes programme in 2007-08 and it aims to cut 500,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year by 2010.

The Mayor opened the service with Nicky Gavron, Deputy Mayor of London and Darren Johnson, a London Assembly Green Party member, at a specially designed life-size eco-house in Trafalgar Square.

The exhibition house named ‘No 1 Lower Carbon Drive’ will tour the capital to promote the new services, and to showcase ideas to ‘green’ your home.

The London Green Homes Service consists of:

1. The Green Homes Advice Service: An information website – www.londonclimatechange.co.uk - where Londoners can access information and advice on how to reduce their carbon footprint. It includes interactive sections such as a carbon calculator, and advise on what grants are available to make changes

2. A free telephone helpline – 0800 512012- to access one-to-one, personalised advice from experienced staff on how to make your home ‘green’

3. The Green Homes Concierge Service: a paid-for concierge service - which has already been successfully piloted across London and is designed for homeowners who want to make more significant changes to their homes without the hassle. The innovative tailor-made service provides a customised audit of a property, including a thermal image, and a ‘blow door’ test to identify sources of draughts; a report of recommended ways to reduce emissions; and, if wanted, full project management of a programme to cut emissions, including sourcing of competitive quotes. The subsidised service will cost £199 for annual membership. For more information call: 0800 089 0098.

Ken Livingstone, said: "In London, energy use in the homes is the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

"But much of the energy we pay for in our homes is simply wasted, and there are simple changes we can make to cut energy use without any reduction in our quality of life – indeed the average household will save £300 if they carry out the Green Homes programme.

"We know Londoners want to help prevent climate change, and London Green Homes will provide the information and on-going support to enable them do so.

"I am proud that London is now leading the UK in offering a comprehensive and flexible ‘green homes’ service, as part of our wider programme to cut London’s carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2025."

Nicky Gavron, Deputy Mayor of London, said: "The Green Concierge Service launched today across London is hassle free and easy-to-use because it is tailored to each household’s needs. And it will save tonnes of the carbon emissions which are causing climate change.

"The Green Concierge Service is a great example of London working with the other cities who are part of the C40 group - all of whom are committed to sharing knowledge to tackle climate change. We scoured the world for the best scheme and found it in Toronto, who have helped us develop London’s new service.\' 

Darren Johnson, Green Member of the London Assembly, said: "Londoners want to help save the planet and we want to help them do it. This is a unique consumer service, which I believe will become standard practice across Britain in the next few years.

"We are not only helping people to create energy saving homes, but to access other services which could change their whole lifestyle. It is another example of London leading the way and the Government following."

Don\'t miss the 24dash.com audio bulletins for the latest news and information - http://www.24dash.com/podcasts

http://www.24dash.com/socialhousing/29818.htm

S.F. proposes subsidy program to encourage solar panel installation

Charles Burress, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Companies and homeowners who pay to install solar panels in San Francisco could save over 50 percent with help from an ambitious subsidy program, according to city officials who will announce the plan Tuesday.

Some experts say the effort is groundbreaking and, if implemented, could be the nation's biggest such program. The proposed subsidy would be $3,000 and $5,000 per residence and up to $10,000 for businesses. City officials are also proposing a low-interest financing program that would allow residents to incrementally pay back money borrowed for solar installations at below-market rates, possibly via charges on their property tax bills.

When combined with the state's solar rebate program and federal tax credits, the cost of installing solar could be cut in half for San Francisco residents and businesses, officials said Monday. With all those incentives, a typical 3-kilowatt residential system would cost between $16,370 and $18,370, based on current San Francisco installation costs.

"The type of leadership that San Francisco is demonstrating is probably unparalleled," said John Stanton, spokesman for the national Solar Energy Industry Association. "We haven't seen this type of local government commitment and initiative for a carbon-free future."

Claudine Schneider, president of the Solar Alliance of solar businesses and a former five-term congresswoman from Rhode Island, said her organization is excited about the program.

"We only hope that many other cities follow course," she said.

The subsidy and loan plans are separate programs and each must still be approved. The subsidy program needs support from the city Public Utilities Commission and the Board of Supervisors; the loan program needs the approval of both the Board of Supervisors and voters. Supervisors Tom Ammiano and Jake McGoldrick are co-sponsoring the subsidy ordinance.

The target start date for the subsidy program is July 1, and the end of next year for the loan program.

The cash-incentive is the centerpiece of 10 months of work by the city's Solar Task Force, city Assessor Phil Ting said Monday. Ting co-chairs the task force with PUC Commissioner Doug Hochschild.

"We think this is the largest local incentive program of its kind," Ting said.

A few other cities offer rebate programs. Los Angeles Department of Water and Power offers one of the most generous, amounting to about $4.50 per watt, or about $13,500 on a typical 3-kilowatt home solar system. However, Los Angeles customers aren't eligible for the state rebate available from Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which is $2.30 per watt, or $8,900 for a 3-kilowatt solar installation.

Under San Francisco's new cash subsidy, the city's PG&E customers would also receive a base subsidy of $3,000, plus an additional $1,000 if they use a San Francisco installer. Another $1,000 would be provided for customers residing in an "environmental justice district," meaning a neighborhood next to one of the city's two power plants. Solar systems cost an average of $9.99 per watt in San Francisco, meaning $29,970 for a 3-kilowatt system.

The commercial subsidy would be $1,500 per kilowatt, up to $10,000.

"There's no increase in property taxes and no increase in electricity rates to pay for this new program, which is really good news for San Franciscans," Hochschild said.

The cash incentive would be funded by city PUC renewable energy funds, which come from sale of power generated by Hetch Hetchy dam. Between $2 million and $5 million of those funds would be pledged per year for 10 years. The renewable energy funds now provide for solar installation on city buildings, a program that will continue, said PUC General Manager Susan Leal.

"It's another way to make renewable (energy) work in the city," Leal said.

The new loan program would apply not just to solar panels but also to other forms of renewable energy such as solar thermal and wind, Hochschild said.

The program's goal: Grow by 10-fold the amount of solar power produced in the city. Currently, the city produces roughly five megawatts of solar energy from solar panels placed on 666 rooftops, Ting said.

"San Francisco now ranks last among the Bay Area counties in solar watts per capita," Hochschild said. "You're going to see the volume of solar skyrocket."

nline resources

or information about solar installations in san francisco:

www.sf.solarmap.org

et involved

Interested in getting involved in San Francisco's proposed effort to offer additional cash incentives for people who install solar panels on their homes and businesses?

Contact the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission at (415) 554-3289.

Additional information about installing solar power is available at www.pge.com/solar.

The PUC and Board of Supervisors will discuss the programs at future meetings.

E-mail Charles Burress at cburress@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/11/BABGTRMNM.DTL

S.F. proposes subsidy program to encourage solar panel installation

Charles Burress, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Companies and homeowners who pay to install solar panels in San Francisco could save over 50 percent with help from an ambitious subsidy program, according to city officials who will announce the plan Tuesday.

Some experts say the effort is groundbreaking and, if implemented, could be the nation's biggest such program. The proposed subsidy would be $3,000 and $5,000 per residence and up to $10,000 for businesses. City officials are also proposing a low-interest financing program that would allow residents to incrementally pay back money borrowed for solar installations at below-market rates, possibly via charges on their property tax bills.

When combined with the state's solar rebate program and federal tax credits, the cost of installing solar could be cut in half for San Francisco residents and businesses, officials said Monday. With all those incentives, a typical 3-kilowatt residential system would cost between $16,370 and $18,370, based on current San Francisco installation costs.

"The type of leadership that San Francisco is demonstrating is probably unparalleled," said John Stanton, spokesman for the national Solar Energy Industry Association. "We haven't seen this type of local government commitment and initiative for a carbon-free future."

Claudine Schneider, president of the Solar Alliance of solar businesses and a former five-term congresswoman from Rhode Island, said her organization is excited about the program.

"We only hope that many other cities follow course," she said.

The subsidy and loan plans are separate programs and each must still be approved. The subsidy program needs support from the city Public Utilities Commission and the Board of Supervisors; the loan program needs the approval of both the Board of Supervisors and voters. Supervisors Tom Ammiano and Jake McGoldrick are co-sponsoring the subsidy ordinance.

The target start date for the subsidy program is July 1, and the end of next year for the loan program.

The cash-incentive is the centerpiece of 10 months of work by the city's Solar Task Force, city Assessor Phil Ting said Monday. Ting co-chairs the task force with PUC Commissioner Doug Hochschild.

"We think this is the largest local incentive program of its kind," Ting said.

A few other cities offer rebate programs. Los Angeles Department of Water and Power offers one of the most generous, amounting to about $4.50 per watt, or about $13,500 on a typical 3-kilowatt home solar system. However, Los Angeles customers aren't eligible for the state rebate available from Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which is $2.30 per watt, or $8,900 for a 3-kilowatt solar installation.

Under San Francisco's new cash subsidy, the city's PG&E customers would also receive a base subsidy of $3,000, plus an additional $1,000 if they use a San Francisco installer. Another $1,000 would be provided for customers residing in an "environmental justice district," meaning a neighborhood next to one of the city's two power plants. Solar systems cost an average of $9.99 per watt in San Francisco, meaning $29,970 for a 3-kilowatt system.

The commercial subsidy would be $1,500 per kilowatt, up to $10,000.

"There's no increase in property taxes and no increase in electricity rates to pay for this new program, which is really good news for San Franciscans," Hochschild said.

The cash incentive would be funded by city PUC renewable energy funds, which come from sale of power generated by Hetch Hetchy dam. Between $2 million and $5 million of those funds would be pledged per year for 10 years. The renewable energy funds now provide for solar installation on city buildings, a program that will continue, said PUC General Manager Susan Leal.

"It's another way to make renewable (energy) work in the city," Leal said.

The new loan program would apply not just to solar panels but also to other forms of renewable energy such as solar thermal and wind, Hochschild said.

The program's goal: Grow by 10-fold the amount of solar power produced in the city. Currently, the city produces roughly five megawatts of solar energy from solar panels placed on 666 rooftops, Ting said.

"San Francisco now ranks last among the Bay Area counties in solar watts per capita," Hochschild said. "You're going to see the volume of solar skyrocket."

nline resources

or information about solar installations in san francisco:

www.sf.solarmap.org

et involved

Interested in getting involved in San Francisco's proposed effort to offer additional cash incentives for people who install solar panels on their homes and businesses?

Contact the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission at (415) 554-3289.

Additional information about installing solar power is available at www.pge.com/solar.

The PUC and Board of Supervisors will discuss the programs at future meetings.

E-mail Charles Burress at cburress@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/11/BABGTRMNM.DTL

GE Real Estate Launches Green Initiative

GE Real Estate Will Assess Environmental Performance of Properties in Which it InvestsCommitment Includes New Partnership With the Clinton Climate Initiative
November 07, 2007: 12:17 PM EST

CHICAGO, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- GE Real Estate today announced a new initiative to green its real estate investment business, a global business that generates more than $30 billion in annual transaction volume across 28 countries. Sustainability will be embedded into its existing investment processes, from origination of investments to underwriting, due diligence and asset management in an effort to improve the environmental performance of assets, to positively impact the health of tenants, and to improve the value of the properties.

The announcement was made at the Greenbuild conference in Chicago, the world's largest gathering dedicated to green building. GE Real Estate also unveiled its new partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI). The partnership will allow GE Real Estate to access the elements of the CCI program as appropriate to improve the environmental performance of its properties. CCI, launched in August 2006, is working with major cities and members of the business community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in large urban areas. GE Real Estate's partnership with CCI was announced by President Bill Clinton, the keynote speaker at the Greenbuild conference.

Ron Pressman, President & CEO of GE Real Estate, said his businesses' sheer size necessitates action. "We recognize that the building sector is one of the largest contributors to GHG emissions, with commercial buildings producing between 30-40 percent of these emissions annually," Pressman said. "We believe GE Real Estate is in a position to reduce those numbers. As one of the world's largest owners of commercial properties with thousands of buildings in our portfolio, and more added each year, we believe we can make a significant, positive impact on the environment and benefit our business."

Pressman added: "We are also pleased to be partnering with the Clinton Climate Initiative. Like CCI, we see an opportunity that has been for the most part overlooked. The green building movement has thus far focused primarily on new development. We see a significant opportunity to improve the environmental performance of existing properties."

President Bill Clinton said he was pleased that GE Real Estate has made this commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "The tools we need to dramatically reduce our carbon emissions exist today," he said. "When it comes to climate change, the hurdles we face aren't technological, they're organizational, which is why my foundation is partnering with cities, businesses, nonprofits and schools alike to design systems and programs that reduce energy consumption. I'm grateful to them all for working to show the world that the solution to the climate crisis isn't far off in the future -- it's in the buildings we inhabit, our civic infrastructure and the way we organize our lives."

GE Real Estate's overall commitment will include the following:

-- Evaluation of acquired properties for financially attractive
environmental improvement retrofits using energy and environmental
audits;
-- Energy and environmental metrics on assets will be tracked, just as
financial performance is tracked;
-- USGBC's LEED rating system and international equivalents will be used
as a framework to benchmark GE Real Estate's portfolio;
-- Learnings and best practices will be shared with GE Real Estate's
customers and business partners to help extend the impact to the
owners of the properties the company finances -- a $30 billion lending
portfolio supporting some 11,000 buildings globally;
-- Engaging partners, customers and vendors across its global network of
more than 5,000 relationships on green issues.

The program will build on GE Real Estate's existing work in the green movement. Inspired by Ecomagination, GE's corporate initiative designed to help customers improve their environmental and operating performance, GE Real Estate has undertaken a number of green initiatives, including projects in development or re-development in the U.S., U.K, France, Spain and Australia. In the US, GE Real Estate also owns Arden Realty, which has an active energy efficiency upgrade program and currently possesses one of the largest portfolios of EPA Energy Star buildings in a single commercial portfolio. In 2006, GE Real Estate lowered electric energy consumption across 10MM SF in 99 buildings by approximately 72 million kilowatt hours. More than 35 thousand metric tons of CO2 emissions were eliminated, which represented a 30% reduction and the equivalent of taking more than 6,500 cars off the road annually or powering more than 6,000 homes every year.

About GE Real Estate
GE Real Estate (http://www.gerealestate.com) is one of the world's premier commercial real estate companies with more than US$72 billion in assets and a presence in 31 countries throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia/New Zealand. Backed by GE's AAA rating, GE Real Estate offers a comprehensive range of capital and investment solutions including equity capital for acquisition or development, as well as fixed and floating rate mortgages for new acquisitions or re-capitalizations of commercial real estate. With a 28% compound annual growth rate since 1993, GE Real Estate is one of the world's fastest growing and most profitable real estate enterprises. This extraordinary record of success grows out of a reputation for collaboration and partnership; a depth of knowledge and experience and a history of building relationships, finding opportunities and opening doors for more than 5,000 owners, builders, borrowers and brokers worldwide.

GE Commercial Finance (http://www.gecommercialfinance.com) offers businesses around the globe an extensive array of financial products and services. With more than US$259 billion in assets and expertise in the middle-market, GE Commercial Finance provides loans, operating leases, financing programs and innovative structured capital to help customers grow. Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, GE Commercial Finance is a wholly owned subsidiary of the General Electric Company , a diversified services, technology and manufacturing company with operations worldwide.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/AQW10807112007-1.htm

3-day expo seeks to build 'green' awareness
McCormick Place hosts conference and draws acclaim
By Mary Owen Tribune staff reporter
November 8, 2007

A recent interior design graduate, Madhoolica Dear was at McCormick Plaza on Wednesday learning about recycled carpets and cork flooring.Dear, whose future clients will want to be environmentally conscious, is one of 20,000 people registered to attend the three-day Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, which started Wednesday. The conference features more than 850 exhibitors who provide products and services for building "green.""I want to see the new products and stay ahead of the curve," said Dear of Westmont. "Some of the new technology is very interesting. It's like science fiction."

The sixth annual conference kicked off with an announcement by former President Bill Clinton and Mayor Richard Daley about three joint projects between the city and the Clinton Foundation to retrofit buildings and make them more energy-efficient. The buildings will include the Merchandise Mart, the Sears Tower and privately owned, multi-tenant housing.

"Chicago has always led by example when it comes to protecting the environment," Daley said. "The Clinton Climate Initiative will play a major role in helping us reach our goal of making Chicago the most environmentally friendly city in the country."

Clinton, who spoke to a crowd of more than 7,000 people, noted that 75 percent of carbon emissions come from urban areas, and most of that from buildings. "I'm not going to pretend this is going to be easy," he said. "We can do this. But to do this, we have to prove it's good economics."

Before the speech, Clinton and Daley praised the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, the owner and operator of McCormick Place, for receiving special recognition by the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit group that sets national standards for environmentally friendly structures.

The council, which organized the conference, rates buildings on environmental performance based on several categories, including location, water efficiency, materials, energy use and indoor-air quality. McPier was cited for McCormick Place's West Building, which opened in August. The council said the annex was the largest new building in the country to receive the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification.

Exhibitors, which included small and large businesses selling everything from paint to bathroom supplies, said their products would help buildings win LEED certification. Paul DeJuliis, co-owner of Pennsylvania-based Expanko, showed off small squares of cork flooring that he said lasts as long as wooden floors, but don't require an entire tree to be cut down. The flooring is made of discarded bark that was already been holed out for wine corks. "It's 100 percent post-industrial waste," he said. "We just strip the bark off the tree, and the tree can be saved." He said the popularity of cork flooring has started to grow in the last five years and that trade expos are the best way to educate consumers about the benefits. "We're still a small, an almost minuscule, part of the market," DeJuliis said. "It's an awareness factor."

Bill Stacy approached the expo in terms of General Motors Corporation's more than 6,000 dealerships. Stacy, GM's director of strategic operations for dealer networks, said he wants to help dealerships be more environmentally conscious. "If we can help provide a guide for them to improve their energy efficiency, it will be an advantage to the environment. It just makes good business sense," said Stacy, who was looking at an exhibit featuring dual-flushing toilets, waterless urinals and low-volume water appliances.

The conference also features dozens of guest speakers talking about environmental trends in the building industry. Attendees come from more than 40 countries, spokeswoman Taryn Holowka said. This year's conference theme is "Transforming our community," which encourages people to think environmentally beyond a single building, she said. "It's not just thinking about the infrastructure," Holowka said. "We want people to think about the community, walkability and smart development, not just about more development, and combating urban sprawl."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/northwest/chi-green_08nov08,1,1673237.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Can Green Jobs Save the American Middle Class?
By Brita Belli
E Magazine
November 9, 2007

The American middle class -- of which some 80 percent of Americans claim to be a part -- is getting anxious. While there is no carved-in-stone edict about what it means to be middle class, it's the term that Americans hang their dreams on.

It suggests earning enough to get by without struggling; being able to afford health care, college costs and the occasional trip to Disney World. The middle-class ideal is tied to earning power, and it's there that confidence is eroding. Over the last five years, while most workers' incomes have increased slowly or not at all, costs have reached record levels. Housing costs are up 23 percent, college costs up 44 percent and health insurance costs up 71 percent.

And while the traditional economic outlook is bleak, the green economy is taking shape, bringing with it the promise of well-paying manufacturing jobs; of management and sales opportunities with huge growth potential and lots of niche positions for enterprising students and job seekers looking for alternative careers. On the upper tiers of the economic ladder, many CEOs and CFOs are already jumping into green jobs, and online green job directories are heavy with listings for those with established business experience.

What remains to be seen is if the career ladders appearing in every sector, from green building to organic farming, solar installation and sustainable marketing, are available to all or to a select few. With the momentum behind environmental issues, Congress, spurred by advocacy organizations such as the Apollo Alliance and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, is responding with legislation that could ensure a place for America's disadvantaged and disenfranchised in the new green economy. For that to happen, the House version of the new energy legislation -- spearheaded by Hilda Solis (D-CA) and John Tierney (D-MA) -- has to make it through Congress and past President George W. Bush's threatened veto.

The Green Jobs Act, which passed the House as part of the Energy Bill last August with a vote of 241 to 172, contains specific language about using the green economy as a "pathway out of poverty." Of the $125 million that would be set aside for job training in renewable energy, energy-efficient vehicles and green building, $25 million of that would be earmarked specifically for those most difficult to hire: at-risk youths, former inmates and welfare recipients. The Energy Savings Act of 2007 sponsored by Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Hilary Clinton (D-NY) in the Senate allows for $100 million in training for "green-collar jobs," but is not geared specifically toward low-income Americans.

That, says Van Jones, president of the Ella Baker Center, is a critical difference. "There's this whole invisible infrastructure trying to get people who need jobs connected with work," says Jones. "There are vocational training centers, return-from-prison work centers, community colleges. But none of that infrastructure is pointed at the green economy. There are a lot of 'certificate factories' pointed at the pollution-based economy, and lots of people going to night school for jobs that aren't there any more."

The Green Jobs Act is a way of "repurposing our job training," says Jones. He testified before Congress in favor of the bill -- a national version of the Green Jobs Corps his organization established in Oakland, California -- and says the shortage of skilled workers throughout the renewable energy sector is already leading eco-entrepreneurs to hire their college buddies. But there's a larger issue at stake. Unless the green economy is designed to include America's urban youth, they are bound to be overlooked, shuffled back into the same low-wage, go-nowhere retail and fast food jobs with little opportunity for improvement.

"The work of saving the polar bears and poor kids is the same work," says Jones. "If we give the jobs to the people who most need them, we solve two problems."

Many say that $100 to $125 million is miniscule money for such a major economic transition. But the government's initial investment is only meant to be a launch pad, says Kevin Doyle, president of green consulting and training company Green Economy. "The federal government serves best as an innovative leader," he says. "Money from the private sector should be at least five times that much."

Companies taking the risk of implementing new, sustainable technologies won't be eager to bear the cost of training unskilled workers. And that incentive is needed, especially in the educational system, to create a workforce that's ready for the new economy. Until sustainable practices move from testing phase to the norm, as they have in green building, companies need a reason to make the switch. "All economic activity has to be financed," says Doyle. "There are no jobs without money." At the same time, he notes, "We are reaching the tipping point where cost incentives no longer have to come from some strange amalgam of tax incentives. Green is tipping into the mainstream."

Green on Top

The green economy has already opened doors for those in the upper echelon of the business world, the managers, directors, CEOs and CFOs.

"CEOs and senior-level people across a broad spectrum are entering the environmental field in droves," says Rona Fried, founder and president of SustainableBusiness.com which includes a "Green Dream Jobs" online directory. "They're saying 'I'm the CEO of an IT company and I want to put my skills to work for the environment. How do I make that transition?'"
As corporations build environmental strategy into their policy, partnering with nonprofits and responding more quickly to rising public concern for environmental issues, they need strong communicators. "Many companies have environmental managers that are now being upgraded in terms of status," says Dan Esty, director of the Center for Business and Environment at Yale University, and co-author of Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value and Build Competitive Advantage. "To be a successful environmental manager, you need good analytic skills, to understand the environment in a business context -- as a core business strategy."

That's the advice Esty gives his Yale students: if they want to improve the environment, they should find ways to help companies tackle the issues that are important to them -- be it safe drinking water, less urban pollution or protecting the rainforest.

And the growing partnerships between corporations and environmental activist groups have created jobs on both sides of the aisle. Greenpeace and Coca-Cola are now collaborating on hydrofluorocarbon (HFC)- and chlorofluorocarbon (CFC)-free refrigeration equipment. Other high-profile partnerships include Chiquita and the Rainforest Alliance, which vastly improved that company's labor and environmental practices in Latin America; and McDonald's with (among others) Environmental Defense which led to the fast-food chain eliminating those wasteful Styrofoam containers. "There are many more jobs today focused at managing the business-environmental interface," says Esty.

The 300 largest corporations are in the initial stages of crafting a new social frontier, writes author Bruce Piasecki in World Inc. "Enlightened self-interest is what fuels the global equity culture, from the search for fuel cells and biofuels to new ways to package and new ways to power our economy, transportation and computing infrastructure," writes Piasecki, president and founder of consulting firm the American Hazard Control Group. "Business first seeks to sustain and further itself, but this revolution has the side benefit of being good for us all."
While green jobs are often touted as a way to create a solid American workforce, it's the installation and maintenance jobs in solar and wind that can't be outsourced. "The technology, where a big part of the upper money is...it's not at all clear the U.S. will win that game," says Doyle. "Right now there are a lot of technology companies in Spain, Japan and Switzerland."

Turning Blue Collars Green

But those in-country manufacturing jobs are not to be taken lightly. They represent a huge possibility for a new "green-collar" economy to restore a rapidly disintegrating American middle class. The 10 Midwestern states, ideally suited for wind energy development, could see nearly 37,000 new jobs by 2020, according to the Environmental Law and Policy Center, if the nation's renewable energy portfolio were set to 22 percent. According to a University of California at Berkeley study in 2004 (and updated in 2006), "Putting Renewables to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate?" the renewable industry consistently produced more jobs per megawatt of electricity generated in construction, manufacturing, installation, operations and management and fuel processing than the fossil fuel industries. With a 20 percent national renewable energy standard that included 55 percent wind energy, that would equal 188,018 new jobs by 2020.

Kate Gordon, program director for the Apollo Alliance, a nonprofit working for American energy independence, says, "There's been a wholesale loss of manufacturing jobs, which are union-protected, highly skilled jobs. But with wind turbines, solar panels, energy-efficient retrofits -- there's a whole world of green jobs. It's pretty exciting if you can harness it."

Both recent college graduates and professionals looking to redirect their careers need to find ways to plug into this new green economy. As those pathways from conventional to green are still being laid, that's not always easy. But Doyle, who offers consulting and training for the new green economy, says there are two key strategies. One is to look at what skills are needed by all industries to solve environmental problems. All need information management and financing.
"So much starts with gathering huge amounts of data," Doyle says. This includes jobs in information technology, geography and statistics. And whether a nonprofit, a government agency or a business is looking to purchase open space, or evaluating smart growth versus sprawl, people are always needed to find funds. This opens up jobs like sector analysts, green accountants, government finance officers and foundation managers, among others.

The second strategy for green job seekers is to "pick a niche without any sense of ideological blinders," he says. Someone wanting to "fix" climate change would investigate the major sources of carbon emissions -- power plants, automobiles, gas flares -- and focus on finding solutions within these polluting industries.

People on the forefront of this rising green economy see enormous green growth potential within once-suspect corporate entities, from Wal-Mart to Starbucks. "At one point, five to 10 years ago, it was unusual to have an employee involved in corporate social responsibility," says Ted Ning, conference director of LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) and executive editor of the LOHAS Journal. "Now corporate social responsibility is a whole department for large corporations like Office Depot or Trader Joe's." Looking at the big picture, from corporate scandals to Hurricane Katrina to rising gas prices to the conservative ideology of the current administration, Ning says it's "a perfect storm -- people are fed up with what's typically given to them."

Of course, as savvy marketers have realized, the conscious consumer behind many of the fastest-growing green businesses, from eco-travel to organic food to hybrid cars and Fair Trade coffee, are as seduced by the comfort and social status of these items as by their reduced carbon footprint. "People don't have to sacrifice their lifestyle anymore," says Ning. "They don't have to wear burlap or eat sand."

Brita Belli is managing editor of E Magazine.

http://www.alternet.org/story/67138/