prweb.com

New York City's New Green Workforce Duo

Envirolution's Win-Win Campaign and CleanEdison Announce Partnership for NYC's Emerging Green Economy. Two New York City Agencies, Manhattan Borough President's Office and New York Department of Small Business Services, Deliver Big Apple Green Collar Jobs Training Programs.

New York, NY (PRWEB) August 13, 2009 -- Two city-endorsed leaders in green workforce training - Envirolution, a New York-based sustainability consulting and green workforce training non-profit and CleanEdison, a national green building consulting and education provider, - today announced a partnership to produce the most qualified green collar jobs candidates in New York City, those who possess both field experience and training for accredited certifications.

The combination of mentored field experience and formal certification training provides a huge advantage to green job hunters

With CleanEdison's comprehensive training in LEED and BPI certifications, we're giving our interns every chance at a leg up in New York's emerging green economy.

Right now, I can't just train the best and the brightest, I need to hire them too. Green industry jobs are playing a crucial role in our nation's economic recovery

I'm eager to review Win-Win's latest grads. They have a great track record with us, as well as with the city.

"The combination of mentored field experience and formal certification training provides a huge advantage to green job hunters," said Janna Olson, executive director of Envirolution's Win-Win Campaign. "With CleanEdison's comprehensive training in LEED and BPI certifications, we're giving our interns every chance at a leg up in New York's emerging green economy."

On August 10, the highest ranking interns among Enivrolution's young adult-led energy efficiency campaign kick-off the CleanEdison partnership by taking sponsored seats in the nationwide green certification trainers three-day course.

The 12 Win-Win Campaign interns are concluding a summer of hands-on energy efficiency analysis provided to New York City's local small business communities. Their CleanEdison-sponsored workshops in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Building Performance Institute (BPI) training and test preparation will help prepare them to enter the workforce armed with the appropriate credentials.

"Right now, I can't just train the best and the brightest, I need to hire them too. Green industry jobs are playing a crucial role in our nation's economic recovery," Avi Yashchin, CEO and founder of CleanEdison said. "I'm eager to review Win-Win's latest grads. They have a great track record with us, as well as with the city."

With its city council poised to adopt mandatory energy efficiency benchmarking in the form of four local building code laws called the Greener, Greater Buildings legislation, New York will follow the new benchmarking trend already passed into law in Washington D.C. and the state of California. The city's goal is to get commercial buildings on an "energy diet" by making their monitored energy consumption data publicly available, as a driver in the real estate leasing market.

Win-Win's Spring 2009 pilot semester recruited 15 students as green workforce trainees ranging in age from 17 to26. These selected interns engaged in the energy mapping of 1,160 businesses in a 55 square block assessment zone in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Of those businesses, 126 were selected for outreach and 36 of the small business owners elected to receive Energy Efficiency Assessments from Win-Win.

Through reporting submitted by Con Edison's Targeted Demand Side Management program, Win-Win removed 25.68 metric tons of carbon per year as a direct result of energy efficiency upgrades undertaken through the program's recommended statewide incentive. Of the 36 small businesses assessed, the total potential carbon-reduction is 597.4 metric tons. And Win-Win's ongoing project management training will provide assistance to those businesses eager to engage incentive upgrade programs with the Fall campaign session.

The Manhattan Borough President's Office endorsed the Win-Win Campaign upon completion of its pilot session and includes Envirolution as a partner in Scott Stinger's Go Green initiative.

In July of 2009, CleanEdison was awarded a significant grant from the NYC Department of Small Business Services to implement green training in the corporate sector. CleanEdison's success in hiring experienced Win-Win graduates for its growing business was the impetus for the partnership between these two organizations. Additionally, all of CleanEdison's courses are approved by many CEU organizations including American Institute of Architects (AIA), Building Owners & Managers Institute International (BOMI), Building Performance Institute (BPI), International Facilities Managers Association (IFMA), and National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES).

As part of their training, Envirolution's Win-Win community energy analysts have already attained experience in administering energy audits and providing project management of cost-saving solution programs for small businesses in the Lower East Side. Emerging to compete in the job market prepared by CleanEdison's certification training will provide the accreditation these interns need to build a professional green workforce in New York City.

Envirolution (envirolution.org) - the managing non-profit of the Win-Win Campaign - is a 501 (c)(3) Sustainability think & do tank located on New York's Lower East Side. The organization is dedicated to providing young adults from diverse communities with green career development opportunities through sustainability education, civic engagement and job training programs. Envirolution was founded in 2007 by recent Yale graduates, Alex Gamboa, Executive Director, and Antuan Cannon, Developmental Director, to provide sustainability consulting and to build programs that have positive environmental, economic, and social impacts.

Win-Win Campaign (winwin.envirolution.org [winwin.envirolution.org) is a green workforce and small business economic development initiative that empowers young adults to be the drivers of sustainable change in their communities while gaining the real world, new economy skills necessary to obtain green jobs in the future. Through training, mentoring and fieldwork, participants become Community Energy Analysts (CEAs) who provide access to affordable, measurable environmental and financial benefits, through energy efficiency assessments for small businesses and other institutions in their neighborhoods. Win-Win is endorsed by the Manhattan Borough President's LES Go Green Initiative, Lower East Side Business Improvement District, Consortium for Worker Education, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, Fourth Arts Block Cultural District, Asian American/Asian Research Institute, Green Depot, and Con Edison.

CleanEdison (cleanedison.com) is the nation's largest provider of LEED Training and BPI Certification. CleanEdison offers everything in the green space from Commercial Energy Audit Services to LEED Consulting to help identify energy-saving opportunities in commercial buildings. CleanEdison's energy auditors are experts in evaluating new ways to reduce your operating costs and increase your building's performance, focusing on improvements and incentives which bring CleanEdison's clients' ROI inside of 3 years.

ECMweb.com

In-Home Monitors Help Customers Save Energy

A pilot program by Seattle City Light, a Seattle-based publicly owned utility, found encouraging results on the effectiveness of in-home energy monitoring displays for helping people conserve energy, the company has reported. In a pilot program the 24 randomly selected participants reduced their electricity consumption by an average of 3%, or 340kWh, over the eight month test. That adds up to nearly $22 in savings. Some saved much more, with the biggest reduction of 4,174kWh, or nearly 20%, which cut the customer’s bills by about $267 during the test period.

“In-home energy-monitoring displays can be an effective tool for those motivated to get the most out of them,” says Lars Henrikson, the energy planning analyst who ran the pilot. “We’re continuing to monitor our test group and to see how their electricity use continues over time.”

City Light plans to expand the pilot through its Neighborhood Power Project in early fall. Annually, the utility focuses on a neighborhood area in its service territory to promote energy saving programs and services and to provide energy education. In-home monitors will provide additional energy-saving opportunities for residents who are looking for more ways to conserve.

The energy monitors read a customer’s electricity meter and display the usage in real time, including the cost of that usage. Recognizing how much energy they use and what it’s costing them can motivate people to be more energy efficient.

http://ecmweb.com/ezone/home-energy-usage-monitors-20090910/

nytimes.com

August 31, 2009

Keep Home Cool With Energy Efficient Strategies

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 3:15 p.m. ET

Find yourself sweating inside your house during the long, hot days of summer? Are high utility costs enough to make you perspire on their own?

Strategies such as eliminating air leakage, upgrading attic insulation, and installing a new air conditioning system and ceiling fans help keep your home cool efficiently, and can help save on energy costs in the process. On average, heating and cooling a home costs about $1,000 a year, nearly half the total energy bill for the house, the Environmental Protection Agency reports.

Through 2010, a federal tax credit is available for energy efficiency upgrades for insulation, windows, central air conditioners and heat pumps.

The credit refunds 30 percent of the purchase price for energy-efficient products, up to a total of $1,500. Homeowners can use the tax credit for cooling systems, and many local power companies offer rebates for installing more efficient products.

BEST PRACTICES

There are many ways to make sure your home stays cool in the best way possible, without buying a new air conditioning systems or adding ceiling fans.

First, check to make sure your attic is properly insulated. An uninsulated attic allows too much cool air to escape and too much warm air to enter. Adding or updating the insulation is one of the easiest ways to make a home more energy efficient.

According to the National Association of Home Builders, upgrading inefficient insulation in the attic of a two-story, 2,000 square foot home in Chicago can cost around $1,000, but the tax credit lowers that cost to $700.

Added to an energy efficient rebate from MidAmerican Energy in Chicago for up to $600, the cost can drop to $100. That project will save about $51 in annual utility costs, the NAHB said.

Another tip is to cover windows with shades or blinds, to keep hot sunlight out.

Homeowners can also plant trees to give the home shade. West-facing windows are important to protect because it's typically hotter in the afternoon. Other shade options include overhangs and awnings.

FINDING THE RIGHT PRODUCT

Decide if you need room air conditioners or a central unit. Homes with many rooms would benefit from a central unit, while studios apartments or efficiencies will be more likely to have units in individual rooms.

Also, check the condition of ceiling fans and pick out rooms that would benefit from the added circulation of a new ceiling fan, such as living rooms and bedrooms.

Cooling systems vary in cost, depending on the system size and price the contractor will charge for installation. But count on spending at least $2,000 for a new central air conditioner. Adding ducts to the home will bring the cost up even more.

Room air conditioners typically cost between $150 and $600, depending on the size and model.

When considering buying a central air conditioner or heat pump (which both cools and heats a home), homeowners should ask a local contractor to check for leaks in the house that allow cool air to escape. The contractor evaluates whether ducts need to be sealed, insulated or replaced, and whether windows and doors are properly sealed.

Holes hidden in attics, crawl spaces and basements should be sealed.

The key measurement of a central air conditioner is the SEER rating (officially the ''Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio). The higher the rating, the higher the energy efficiency.

SEER ratings of 14 to 21 are becoming more common, but the system typically gets more expensive as you move up the SEER scale. Proponents of high-SEER systems stress that savings on utilities outweigh the cost.

When looking for energy efficient products, check if they carry an Energy Star rating by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA began using the rating in 1992 as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through better energy efficiency. It includes more than 60 products, which are listed on the EPA's Web site, www.energystar.gov.

The more reliable products are among the most well known in the industry -- Trane, Rheem and Ruud, according to a July 2009 product reliability survey of more than 32,000 readers of Consumer Reports magazine. Other brands include General Electric, Carrier, Lennox and American Standard.

Nearly two-third of readers in the Consumer Reports survey who had a problem with their central air conditioning said the unit broke down for a day, and about one in three reported a complete system failure. About half of those reporting problems spent $150 or more to get cool again, Consumer Reports said.

For ceiling fans, blades sizes range from 29 to 54 inches, with the most popular being the 52-inch model, according to the EPA. Smaller rooms need a fan size of 29 to 36 inches, while the larger rooms take 50 to 54 inch fans.

Standard mounts come with a 3 to 5 inch ''downrod'' -- the metal pipe that extends from the ceiling bracket down to the fan. Longer mounts are available for higher ceilings.

Here's a good tip from the EPA. In summertime, use the fan in a counterclockwise direction, which forces cool air down and gives the feeling of a breeze. In winter, a clockwise direction at slow speed produces an updraft that pushes warm air down into the room.

MAINTENANCE

The easiest way to ensure a long life for the cooling system is changing the filter regularly -- once a month is a good starting point.

Cooling coils should be cleaned at least once a year. Cooling systems in homes with furry pets that shed hair will be more susceptible to getting dirty and potentially malfunctioning.

Make sure the contractor you choose to install your air conditioning system or heat pump is licensed and insured.

The product should have a warranty as well, so fill out the correct paperwork to ensure that you are covered.

Many sellers and installers of air conditioners should have maintenance agreements in which the consumer pays a yearly fee for visits from repairmen to make sure the product is working correctly.

BY THE NUMBERS

So far this year, combined U.S. factory shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps have totaled more than 2.7 million, down 18 percent compared with January to June of last year. That's according to the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute.

The struggling economy may be a reason for this drop, but companies like Rheem are seeing more buyer activity due to the tax credit, said Carrol Basham, an assistant product manager at Rheem.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/08/31/business/AP-US-Service-Package-Home-Cooling.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

chicagotribune.com

eptember 01, 2009

Power play: architects help turn old Sears power plant in Chicago into new charter school

Architects pull different power plays than politicians.

In London nine years ago, Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron took a mighty, decommissioned power station on the Thames River and transformed it into Tate Modern (left), an acclaimed showcase for the Tate Gallery's collection of modern art.

Now in Chicago, a team of architects, foundation leaders and consultants has turned a handsome but derelict old power plant that once served Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s massive West Side headquarters into an inspired (and likely, inspiring) public charter high school.

Named the Charles H. Shaw Technology and Learning Center, in memory of the late Chicago developer who had a passion for revitalizing the beleaguered North Lawndale neighborhood, the building houses Power House High (below), which will welcome its first students Tuesday.

The $40 million project, aided by $17 million in federal tax credits, has recovered the architectural glory of the old power plant, especially in a soaring turbine room with glistening white brick walls and tall, arched windows.

Throughout are energy-saving features, from retrofitted historic windows to geothermal wells, that are expected to earn the center a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Located at 931 S. Homan Ave., just south of the Eisenhower Expressway, the 104-year-old structure is among the remnants of Sears' once-vibrant West Side catalog operation. Chicago architects Nimmons & Fellows melded Chicago School efficiency and classical decoration in the complex, which at its height mailed thousands of orders every day to customers across America.

Sears left in 1973 for the 110-story Sears (now Willis) Tower. More than 30 years later, the power plant appeared to be a white elephant. Its arched windows were either broken or boarded up. Birds flew inside. And oversize rodents lived there.

"We thought they were cats -- they turned out to be rats," said Kristen Dean, president of the Homan Arthington Foundation. The foundation worked with Shaw, who died in 2006, to develop more than 300 homes and a community center in North Lawndale.

The wisdom of the foundation's decision to reuse the power plant is now fully apparent, thanks to Chicago architects Farr Associates, who worked with the Midwest office of MacRostie Historic Advisors.

A palace of steam is now a palace of learning, even if some details, like the steel entrance staircases, are disappointingly mundane. Yet old arched windows (left, at rear of building, with new fire escapes) have been sensitively replaced with double-glazed, energy-efficient glass. And the building's 185-foot-tall, brick chimney has been handsomely restored.

To their credit, the architects didn't strip the building of its grit. On the north facade, for example, smudgy lines formed by old lean-to buildings haven't been erased. Round terra cotta decoration enlivens the brown brick exterior with details like bolts of electricity..

Inside, Farr Associates followed the broad outlines of the Tate Modern, making the three-story turbine room a dramatic great hall and turning the boiler room into smaller but no less compelling spaces -- in this case, classrooms and meeting rooms instead of galleries.

The results are particularly impressive in the turbine room (left), which will be used for school assemblies, a cafeteria, exercise activities and community events. Instead of large sculptural projects, as at the Tate, the room is populated by huge industrial objects, including a big blue chilling machine and a 40-ton gantry crane.

"Every room in this building has a story," said Farr Associates' principal designer on the project, Jonathan Boyer.

The story and spaces are equally good in the building's other half, where giant boilers once turned water into steam. There, the architects supervised the removal of a junglelike thicket of machinery and carefully threaded new floors, walls, corridors and stairwells amid historic features they retained as artifacts.

Windows in some classrooms offer views to the the building's chimney. A coal ash conveyor belt is displayed behind glass.

The school's leaders -- Principal Kothyn Evans-Alexander and executive Chris Reynolds, who works for the school's partner, the Henry Ford Learning Institute of Dearborn, Mich. -- predict that the architecture and artifacts will inspire curiosity and help drive home lessons that books alone would not.

It remains to be seen, though, whether the design will help or hinder teaching. Will boisterous kids turn the hard-surfaced turbine room into an echo chamber?

Even if the Shaw Center lacks the Tate Modern's bracing contrasts of old and new, it is still likely to emerge as a model for recycling historic buildings -- and for harnessing architecture's aesthetic power to a broader social purpose.

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2009/09/power-play-architects-help-turn-old-sears-power-plant-in-chicago-to-new-charter-school-.html

chiefengineer.org

Chicago Climate Action Plan: Is Your Building Ready

By Colleen Kramer, President, Evergreen Supply Company

For engineers, helping reduce their building’s energy consumption and carbon footprint has become not just a luxury but a necessity.

Pressures from building owners, a return on investment for many energy conservation measures, and the need to attract tenants who increasingly want space that is “green,” make energy efficiency critical.

The city of Chicago also requires a certain degree of compliance. In April 2009, the Chicago City Council approved an updated Energy Conservation Code for energy-efficient new and existing buildings: compliance is mandatory.

Climate change is a huge challenge worldwide but it also presents a huge opportunity, according to Karen Hobbs, first deputy commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Environment, who spoke at a recent meeting of the U.S. Green Building Council-Chicago Chapter. “The goal in Chicago is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy efficient buildings,” she said.

Older buildings, such as the office building at 550 W. Washington in Chicago, must be retrofitted to comply with Chicago's Energy Conservation Code to reduce its overall energy consumption and carbon footprint.

David O’Donnell, the Department’s deputy commissioner, echoes the goal, noting that the problem cannot be resolved without an aggressive improvement in energy efficiency.

O’Donnell says Chicago has approximately 300 large commercial and industrial buildings which account for 23 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, 90 percent of Chicago’s power consumption is from commercial buildings. “That sector is particularly important because it can have a significant impact on reaching our energy reduction goals,” he says.

To address the issue, the city developed the Chicago Climate Action Plan (www.chicagoclimateactionplan.org), an aggressive plan that outlines 26 actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and nine actions to prepare for climate change. Chicago’s goal is an 80 percent reduction below 1990 emissions by the year 2050 and a mid-term goal of a 25 percent reduction by 2020.

The Chicago Christian Industrial League building.

As part of its plan, the city has developed numerous initiatives to help “green” local businesses, including the Green Office Challenge, Green Chicago Restaurant Co-op, Green Hotels Initiative, and the Green Museum Initiative.

“ I don’t know of another city except perhaps Aspen, Colorado, that has done the level of analysis we have done on reducing our carbon footprint,” O’Donnell says. Aspen, which is committed to a 30 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and an 80 percent reduction by 2050, cut its emissions by 10.5 percent in only 18 months.

Even the nation’s largest city, New York, has developed a plan, announced in April 2009, to reduce energy consumption by upgrading everything from boilers to bulbs in existing buildings. The program is set to begin in 2013 with 2,200 buildings performing energy audits and a certain number of building upgrades each year for a decade.

Anil Ahuja, president of CCJM Engineers, Ltd., headquartered in Washington, DC, with offices in Chicago, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Michigan, and the author of the book “Integrated ME Design, Building Systems Engineering,” believes that most building engineers are aware of what they need to do to conserve energy in the interior of their buildings. Where they fall short is in understanding how to reduce their building’s overall carbon footprint as well as how to address changing the exterior or “skin” of the building.

“ The skin of the building is difficult to address because there is only so much surgery you can do on it,” he states. “A landmark building is almost untouchable when it comes to changing the exterior.”

Cost to change the exterior is another major consideration. For example, placing window film on a building’s windows will block energy from the sun and save on cooling costs in summer and heat retention in winter. But they are expensive. Most large commercial buildings are not yet able to use solar panels but the city reduced the cost of heating water in about 20 buildings by utilizing solar technology. Rooftop gardens, which have sprouted up on a number of buildings from Chicago’s City Hall to residential structures, have proven to save about 20 percent in a building’s energy costs.

Before engineers and building owners can plan their energy conservation “trip,” they must determine a starting point, according to Ahuja. They need to ask questions such as how your building emissions rate compares to other buildings and whether your building has the potential for a rapid return on your energy conservation measures and investment.

Ahuja encourages engineers to invest in “carbon benchmarking” to measure the building’s carbon footprint, then develop a plan to address the issue. This benchmarking measurement covers the building itself but may also include energy consumption outside the building. “If 100 people work in a certain building and all drive SUVs 40 miles to get to work, how does that impact the building’s carbon footprint?” he asks rhetorically.

Ideally, building owners will set aside funds to provide energy-conserving improvements at certain intervals. The improvements are especially important for buildings that were built in the 60s and 70s and are in need of renovation.

These buildings are great targets for a sustainability plan, says Ahuja. When the building is renovated, retrofits can be incorporated to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. It’s natural for a building’s mechanical and electrical systems to become inefficient due to obsolescence, equipment and control failures, and deferred maintenance, Ahuja explains. The result is that comfort and energy efficiency suffer. But, significant savings may be realized with relatively little expense. For example, buildings can be updated with heating and cooling systems, modernized water and lighting systems or new windows. The aesthetic upgrades and energy savings that can be realized in lighting alone has made major advances in the last few years.

“ Any building with ten-year-old lighting can realize significant and quick returns on lighting retrofits, installing, for example, compact fluorescent bulbs or LED lighting,” he said.

Making the reductions and changes won’t be easy, but it is critical. As Hobbs put it: the mantra should be “reduce, reuse and recycle.”

http://www.chiefengineer.org/content/content_display.cfm/seqnumber_content/3961.htm

reuters.com

Energy-gulping U.S. buildings ripe for savings

Wed Sep 2, 2009 7:26pm EDT

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO (Reuters) - New York's Empire State Building is doing it, Chicago's Willis Tower is about to start and many more landlords and companies are expected to undertake building retrofits to reduce energy costs.

Spurred by steadily rising utility bills, the need to rein in costs in the recession, a host of government tax incentives and increasing awareness of carbon footprints, energy-saving building renovations are in vogue.

"Things are thriving," said Terry Singer, executive director of the National Association of Energy Service Companies. "There have been a lot of drivers to increased investment," among them new government funding, volatile energy prices and new technology that can reduce energy consumption.

Energy conservation is an unsung hero in the global effort to burn less fossil fuels and buildings account for roughly half of global energy consumption.

Several successive U.S. presidents have championed conservation which is at the center of the Obama administration's proposals to combat climate change.

The energy services industry has grown by at least 22 percent a year since 2004. Additionally, billions of dollars were allocated in the federal stimulus package to retrofit and weatherize government buildings.

"There's this huge untapped potential," said Maria Vargas, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decade-old "Energy Star" program. The agency had put its energy-efficient tag on 6,300 U.S. buildings by the end of 2008, which was 57 percent more than a year earlier.

"More will start doing it, as they realize their competitors are doing it and they realize it makes good business sense," said Branko Terzic of consultant Deloitte's Energy & Resources Group.

The energy services industry, which has a myriad of large and small players, is expected to triple in size by 2013 and there is a reservoir of untapped projects valued by a Pike Research report at $400 billion, he said.

The number of "green" jobs is growing, with the sector one of the few to add positions during the recession, said employment expert John Challenger.

The Empire State Building undertook a renovation designed to save $4.4 million, or 38 percent, on its yearly energy bill. Those savings will repay the cost within a few years.

In June, the owners of Chicago's Sears Tower, since renamed the Willis Tower, unveiled a $350 million retrofit that included replacing the 110-story tower's 16,000 single-pane windows.

INVESTMENT CAN BE OFF-PUTTING

The high cost of energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, improved and automated lighting, high-quality windows, and variable speed motors on equipment may deter executives aiming to preserve capital during an economic slump.

For others, conservation may lack the cachet of tapping into renewable power sources such as solar and wind.

But experts said investment in energy conservation can often be recouped fairly quickly in lower utility bills -- usually in five years or less. Retrofits also allow building owners to attract tenants by marketing them as "green," a designation known to reap higher rents.

Of about 70 billion square feet (6.5 billion sq meters) of U.S. office space, as little as 1 billion square feet (93 million sq meters) have been retrofitted, Terzic said.

To illustrate the potential, McKinsey & Co projected that U.S. investments of $520 billion in building efficiency through 2020 would yield $1.2 trillion in energy savings and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.1 gigatons annually -- the amount emitted by the entire current fleet of U.S. vehicles.

Existing players in the field of energy conservation are Honeywell International Inc, Johnson Controls Inc, Siemens AG, Ingersoll-Rand Plc, and United Technologies Corp. Recent entrants are Chevron Corp, Cisco Systems Inc, IBM Corp, and Lockheed Martin Corp.

Massachusetts-based Bluestone Energy Services Ltd is among dozens of expanding privately-held companies tapping into the demand, having doubled in size last year and again this year.

"Our forte is we work with the utility companies to qualify those solutions for incentive money. We also bundle tax incentives," said Bluestone Vice President Adam Fairbanks.

Future energy savings can collateralize the financing for the retrofit, and utility grants and government tax credits can help defray the initial cost, he said.

A growing number of utilities add a fee to customer bills and then issue grants to businesses for energy-saving projects. Customers who install solar, wind, geothermal or other power-saving systems and appliances can also get rebates.

Vying for the Willis Tower windows contract is Serious Windows, a Sunnyvale, California-based manufacturer of high-quality windows that have insulating capabilities that can rival a building's exterior walls.

CEO Kevin Surace said his windows are the most cost-effective retrofit available, offering up to 50 percent energy savings in buildings in which cheaper windows were installed to save on construction costs.

"Every building I can see from this vantage point needs new windows, every single one," Surace said in an interview conducted next to the Willis Tower. "They could save $1 million a year. As energy costs go up, it becomes $2 million a year."

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE5817EA20090902

Reuters.com

ComEd Petitions ICC to Approve Federal Funding Proposal for Smart Grid

Thu Sep 3, 2009 11:46am EDT

ICC approval would improve utility's application for $175 million in federal stimulus funds.  CHICAGO, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- ComEd yesterday submitted a petition to the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) to approve the utility's application for federal stimulus grants that would fund half of a $350 million Smart Grid pilot. If approved and fully funded, ComEd would add 180,000 customers to its original Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) pilot proposal and finance other technologies to significantly reduce customer interruptions.  ComEd's application was submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) last month. It calls for expanding the proposed AMI pilot and more than doubling the number of customers receiving new Smart Meters from about 140,000 to 320,000 customers in Chicago and 31 other communities. The stimulus funding also would significantly expand investment in other advanced automation technology to make the transmission and distribution systems "smarter" and more reliable.  The petition to the ICC includes a request to allow ComEd to recover remaining costs of the stimulus projects after receiving the 50 percent match from the DOE. The ICC's approval would be in addition to the more than 100 letters of support the utility received from the City of Chicago, other municipalities and organizations for its federal application submitted in August.  "ICC support will greatly increase the chance that the DOE will select ComEd's application, as it will demonstrate strong local interest to put federal stimulus funds into action," said Anne Pramaggiore, president and chief operating officer, ComEd. "By tapping up to $175 million in federal stimulus funds, we can accelerate and multiply Smart Grid benefits to our customers and reduce customer costs."  Earlier this summer, ComEd filed a petition with the ICC recommending a one-year AMI pilot, one of the country's most comprehensive evaluations of how customers will interact with this innovative technology.  If the $350 million federal stimulus project is approved by the DOE and the rider by the ICC, the effect to the average residential customers' bills would be an average 35 cents per month beginning April 2010 - or an increase of about one half of a percent on an average customer bill of approximately $77.  ComEd's proposed expansion of smart grid technologies also will provide useful information to the ICC and other stakeholders as policies for statewide Smart Grid deployment are developed. ComEd's AMI pilot and Smart Grid vision will play an important role in building a more energy efficient and independent future for Illinois by delivering higher levels of reliability and providing customers unprecedented choices and control.  The federal matching funds come from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA), which is designed to accelerate the modernization of the nation's electric system and promote economic recovery through job creation. DOE will select projects for funding later this year, and if approved, benefits from the ComEd application also will include:      --  Creation of about 3,800 jobs in northern Illinois.     --  Deployment of additional smart meters in ComEd's service territory         in combination with advanced pricing and billing options. Additional         customers will receive in-home displays, programmable devices that will         let them control their air conditioners remotely and Web interface         options to help manage energy usage and costs.     --  A unique project with the City of Chicago that integrates smart meters         and advanced technology with energy efficiency incentives in urban         communities targeted for sustainability investments through the Chicago         Climate Action Plan.     --  Dynamic Voltage Reduction technologies to reduce line losses  the energy         that is wasted as power is moved from power generation plants to homes         and businesses.      --  Intelligent substation technologies to improve safety and optimize         maintenance practices while enhancing reliability and operational         performance.    ComEd also applied for federal funding for an innovative test integrating solar power with smart metering dynamic pricing and energy storage to increase reliability and provide more options to manage energy use.  Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), one of the nation's largest electric utilities with approximately 5.4 million customers. ComEd provides service to approximately 3.8 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state's population.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS196013+03-Sep-2009+PRN20090903

philly.com

Posted on Wed, Sep. 9, 2009

N.J. venture uses compressed air to store energy

By Andrew Maykuth

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A central New Jersey company says it believes it has figured out a way in the green economy to make money from air.

Compressed air.

Energy Storage & Power L.L.C., funded by a $20 million investment from utility giant Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., has devised a patented system for storing electricity in compressed air, which is pumped into caverns, abandoned mines, or aboveground canisters and then released when it is needed to generate power.

Such mass-storage systems will be increasingly necessary as more power is derived from intermittent sources such as wind and solar generators. Windmills tend to produce power at night, when customers need it the least.

"As folks have seen renewables come into the market, particularly wind, people have gained a much greater appreciation for the importance of storage," said Stephen C. Byrd, chief executive officer of the company in Bridgewater, N.J., near Edison.

The firm, a joint venture of Public Service Enterprise Group Global L.L.C. and air-storage pioneer Michael Nakhamkin, is in line to get a share of the $50 million to $60 million that the Department of Energy will award this fall to as many as four compressed-air energy-storage projects.

Byrd said the venture's technology was incorporated into several proposed air-storage facilities that were strong candidates for grants, including a 300-megawatt plant being developed by Pacific Gas & Electric Co., of San Francisco.

"I would not be surprised if we had several of those parties win DOE support," he said.

Mass energy-storage systems will become increasingly critical as the nation's energy markets shift to comply with laws favoring renewable power over greenhouse-gas-emitting fossil fuels. Among several alternatives - ice-storage systems, pumped-storage hydroelectric plants, massive battery arrays - the compressed-air systems are considered the most cost-effective.

If renewable power is to constitute 20 percent of the nation's electrical supply - about 9 percent now comes from renewables, mostly hydroelectric - the nation will need 114,000 megawatts of electrical-storage capacity, according to a study published last year by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

"That's about a $342 billion market," Byrd said.

Though compressed-air storage sounds exotic, the process employs technology and equipment already extensively used by oil and gas developers to force hydrocarbons to the surface by pumping high-pressure gas and liquids underground.

And Byrd said storing compressed air in depleted salt mines or gas fields was no different than the technique utilities use to store high-pressure natural gas underground ahead of the heating season.

"We're just storing air. We're not storing hydrocarbons," he said. "So it's much more straightforward."

As the compressed air is released and expands, it becomes very cold and must be mixed with natural gas to drive a conventional turbine generator. The mixture saves about 65 percent of the gas used by a fossil-fuel turbine.

"It does take a little bit of education, but once people understand how it works, it is akin to a regular power plant," Byrd said. "It's just configured in a very different way."

Only one such facility exists in America: a 110-megawatt plant built in 1991 in McIntosh, Ala.

Nakhamkin, the technological muscle behind the Energy Storage & Power joint venture, helped build the Alabama plant. He has developed technology that cuts plant emissions, improves efficiency, and reduces costs by using more standard components.

Byrd said the installed cost had dropped about 30 percent, to $700 to $800 per kilowatt of capacity.

Energy-storage systems make economic sense: Cheap electricity produced during off-peak hours is acquired, stored, then used to generate power during peak hours, when prices are much higher.

The economics have become much more attractive with the push to build more renewables.

Advocates for storage systems say they could be built at the site of renewable-energy production, such as wind farms. But they also might be located closer to markets for the power, even in urban areas, so that they would draw upon long-distance transmission lines during the night and provide some relief during peak hours, when the electrical grid is most stressed.

"If you have storage, you can much more evenly use the transmission system and can substantially decrease the amount of transmission you have to build for renewables," Byrd said. "That's big, and a number of utilities are looking at that."

Some of the systems the company is developing are as small as 16 megawatts and could be built on two acres where the compressed air is stored aboveground in canisters, he said.

Environmental hurdles for a compressed-air plant would be "quite minimal" since regulatory agencies are accustomed to underground gas storage, Byrd said.

"And from an emissions point of view, it's quite benign."

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/business_breaking/20090909_N_J__venture_uses_compressed_air_to_store_energy.html

www.brazzil.com

São Paulo, Brazil, Finds Out It's Not Easy to Be Green

Written by Isaura Daniel

Wednesday, 15 July 2009 05:51

Brazilian merchant Lizete Araújo da Silva, 51, has worked for approximately ten years in a variety store in Perus, one of the farthest neighborhoods from the center of the city of São Paulo. She commutes from the adjoining city of Franco da Rocha and, since 2003, the air as she comes off the bus, Perus, is better for breathing.

The reason is that nearby, large volumes of methane and carbon dioxide have ceased to be emitted into the air and now have a nobler purpose: generating energy. The Perus neighborhood houses one of the projects for generating energy from waste in São Paulo. The site was not chosen at random. There used to be an active landfill named Bandeirantes operating there. Now, the landfill no longer receives trash, but the material that was disposed of at the site for approximately thirty years, now in decomposition, produces the gas needed for electric energy production. In the past, it used to go into Lizete's lungs, and into the lungs of other men and women who live nearby, making the air of those living nearer the site foul, and collaborating to destroy the ozone layer. In addition to the Bandeirantes landfill, São Paulo also generates energy from waste at another landfill, named São João and located in the São Mateus neighborhood. Together, they enabled the São Paulo City Hall, which is in charge of the projects, to reduce its emissions of environmentally harmful gases by 20%, and to make money as well. The initiative results in carbon credits that have already been traded at two auctions, in 2007 and 2008, generating 71 million Brazilian reais (US$ 35.6 million). The funds are used in projects for the communities that live in the surroundings of the landfills. The Bandeirantes landfill is Latin America's largest in terms of household residue, with an area of 1.4 million square meters, and the piping in its power plant receives 150,000 normal cubic meters of gas per day, according to information supplied by Biogás, the company in charge of energy generation. Counting in the São João landfill, whose plant is also managed by Biogás, the project answers to 59% of carbon credits traded worldwide from waste energy generation. Biogás took over the Bandeirantes landfill in 2003, and of São João in 2006. Half the carbon credits obtained belongs to the city hall, and the other half belongs to Biogás. All of the electric power, in turn, is Biogás'. As a result of an agreement signed early on between Biogás and the Unibanco bank, the electric power - 20 megawatts per hour - is used at the banking institution's branches. As a matter of fact, what the bank does, explains Antonio Carlos Delbin, technical director at Biogás, is transfer all of the energy to the grid of the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) in exchange for its electricity bills. Delbin says that 4.5 million carbon credits have already been captured. Seemingly, it is all very simple. Suction pipes are installed at the landfill, and the gas goes through them and into the plant, where it works as an engine for generating energy. That, however, requires investment that is not always profitable. So much so that the São Paulo City Hall has designed energy generation projects for four other landfills. Only two of them received proposals from companies interested in operating the plants. If a landfill is too far removed from the energy grid, explains Delbin, then investment in gas transport is not worthwhile. At the Bandeirantes landfill, for instance, Biogás invested from 3 to 4 million reais (US$ 1.5 to US$ 2 million) for that. At São João, investment totaled 30 million reais (US$ 15 million). The cost-to-benefit ratio is pointed out as one of the reasons for the small number of initiatives for generating energy from waste in the country. The technical director claims that each individual landfill must be assessed to determine if applying for carbon credits and generating electric energy is worthwhile. This type of project is in fact criticized by environmentalists and energy industry professionals. Holding a doctorate in Science from the University of São Paulo (USP), Sabetai Calderoni, whose environmental studies are known worldwide, believes that this is not the best solution for waste, and that in a best-case scenario landfills would not be made. Calderoni, however, claims that for landfills that already exist, it is a good measure. "Methane gas is twenty times more pollutant than carbon dioxide," says the Doctor. In Calderoni's opinion, the best thing would be to have the waste sorted. Afterwards, materials that cannot be reused and have heat-generating power, such as construction waste and wood, would be placed into gasification equipment to then generate energy. Different from the landfill, which has a short lifespan in terms of energy generation - it is capable of generating energy for 15 to 20 years after it stops receiving waste -, this other type of initiative can be permanent, which makes it economically more interesting as well. As long as projects along those lines are not a reality, however, generating light and carbon credits from waste is one of the initiatives in the environmental field that earn praise worldwide. The municipality of São Paulo received international acclaim for its landfills-energy factories. The projects were presented at the summit of the C40, a group of the world's largest cities turned to finding ways for a more sustainable planet, held in Seoul in May. As a result of the environmental work, São Paulo may host the C40 summit in 2011. "Cities and urban settings answer to 75% of carbon dioxide emissions," says the joint secretary of Foreign Relations of the São Paulo City Hall, Flávio Goldman. He recalls, though, that the solutions to environmental issues are also in the cities, by means of policies for urban management, residue management, rational energy use, and incentive to collective transport, among others. With a mayor (Gilberto Kassab) who is concerned with the environmental issue, the city of São Paulo has implemented a series of actions in recent years, such as the 100 Parques (100 Parks) program, by which the municipality, which now has 58 parks, should have 100 parks by 2012. Another such initiative is the Projeto Solar (Solar Project), which makes it mandatory to install water heating systems using solar energy in new buildings, and vehicle inspection, which measures emissions by automobiles, among others. The city has also created a set of municipal laws regarding the environment. http://www.brazzil.com/component/content/article/206-july-2009/10212-sao-paulo-brazil-finds-out-its-not-easy-to-be-green.html

Vietnam News Service

HCM City starts programme to retrofit energy-saving buildings

(17-07-2009)

HCM CITY — The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) and HCM City authorities yesterday kicked off a programme to retrofit buildings to make them energy-efficient.

The programme, which aims to cut energy consumption in existing buildings, is sponsored through former US President Bill Clinton’s Clinton Foundation.

The Clinton programme and the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment held a conference yesterday to discuss the cost-saving and sustainable business model of retrofitting buildings.

Attendees were building and facility owners of commercial centres, hospitals, hotels and factories.

The programme is the first between the CCI and the HCM City after the latter became a member of the C40, a group of the world’s largest cities committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Buildings are responsible for 15 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, which consume one-third of energy worldwide, according to Christopher Seeley, CCI’s Asia Pacific Regional Manager of Retrofit Programme.

They account for about 80 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions in cities.

Retrofitting buildings with modern products, technologies and systems will help reduce emissions.

The programme provides support to building owners who employ best practices, discounted prices of energy-efficient technology and choices on low-cost financing schemes.

The CCI has negotiated agreements with major energy service companies, such as Johnson Controls, Trane, Siemens and Honeywell, who offer energy performance contracts.

It also brings a number of financial institutions such as IFC (International Finance Corporation), Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and ABN Amro to offer financing for projects on competitive terms.

CCI’s Purchasing Alliance provides information and discounted prices on a number of energy-efficient products and technologies.

The programme has helped more than 300 retrofit projects in 30 cities around the world, including Chicago, New York, Bangkok, Mumbai and Melbourne. —VNS

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=02ECO170709

cnn.com

7/20/09

Can computer software account for climate change?

• Story Highlights
• Greenhouse gas emissions software designed to track and then reduce GHGs
  
• Microsoft developed online tool for cities; many more designed for businesses
  
• Worldwide over 3,000 businesses use carbon accounting software; number to rise
  
• Being able to quantify emissions will lead to more effective action say analysts
  

By Dean Irvine
CNN

(CNN) -- Microsoft had trouble solving the problems with its Vista operating system, so what are its chances of fixing climate change?

The global software firm has created an online tool called Project 2 Degrees for cities across the world to monitor their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and, the hope is, then do something about them.

While Bill Gates' company have tailored an online carbon accounting tool for cities, businesses are increasingly turning on to the benefits and need to track their own GHGs, opening up an area for enterprise software companies to provide the best tools for the job.

"A lot of companies are worried and interested in carbon accounting, but don't necessarily feel an urgency to adopt it. But there is enough regulation in the pipeline, certainly in the U.S., that makes it look real and coming in a couple of years," said Scott Clavenna of Greentech Media.

"It will go from a niche of a couple of hundred companies using this kind of software right now to thousands."

The call for more carbon accounting doesn't have any emotive ad campaigns or Hollywood celebrity-backing, instead it uses cold hard data to track emissions and empower those responsible to try and reduce them.

Cities account for only 2 percent of the worlds land mass but produce up to 75 percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, so became the focus for Project 2 Degrees that is a collaboration with software designers Autodesk and the Clinton Climate Initiative.

"This is a long journey for our governments, be they local or national, but we could have the biggest impact by working with local governments as they have the ability to measure what's happening locally in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and to have an effect on the local economy and the local environment first," Matt Miszewski, Microsoft's general manager for Worldwide E-government, told CNN.

Being one of the world's richest and most profitable companies, Microsoft offers it's online GHG accounting tool for free but says Miszewski, it goes further than that.

"We want to show how software can help solve some very difficult issues. A great deal of the importance of this project is to be able to share this information from city to city, region to region," he said.

The first cities that will be comparing their CO2 high scores come from the 56 cities associated with the inaptly named C40 group that is in partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative. New York and Sydney were heavily involved in beta testing of Project 2 Degrees that started last year, and once more results are in it will be offered to around 1,000 other cities.

"It is eye opening to be able to chart actual emissions against targets to see the quantum of emissions reductions required. Typically these figures are not so readily accessed and this will be a major benefit of Project 2 Degrees," a spokesperson for Sydney's local government told CNN.

Who accounts for what?

Even if the tool is working as well as possible, it seems more needs to be done by businesses and cities to accurately collect and measure GHG emissions.

"Higher level guidance should come in the form of advising what emissions to report and provision of data where possible, however each city needs to take responsibility for the emissions it creates," a spokesperson for Sydney told CNN.

Knowing what needs to be reported is a challenge that is being met. The World Resources Institute's Greenhouse Gas Protocol is the most widely used international accounting tool for both governments and businesses, covering the six greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol.

"The World Resources Institute has done a really good job in defining the protocols in the data gathering. What do you gather from where and how do you report it? Now everyone is starting to compare apples to apples," Clavenna told CNN.

It could be a boom area for carbon accounting software developers. As well as numerous start-ups the big players including Microsoft's non-altruistic arm and SAP have begun their own programs aimed at businesses.

"The stakes are high for enterprise software," said Clavenna. "The big players are not aggressively marketing yet, but getting ready to come out with a big product when their customers need it."

Over 200 companies are developing accounting software, according to research by Greentech Media, and over 3,000 businesses are using their products to track their GHG emissions. Big corporations including Dell, Xerox and Pfizer have all been early adopters stretching back to 2002.

Limited carbon emissions regulations, such as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and at state level in the U.S., are in place, and a number of international voluntary programs also exist. Yet most of the early-adopter businesses are responding to public pressure for them to be environmentally-aware and shareholder requests for their business to be greener.

"There have been some light triggers -- stakeholder requests, even in HR, young people asking for proof that their company is green. In a down economy a company can choose to put them aside or table them for a while," said Clavenna.

But more significant factors are on the horizon: "The big triggers are a cap and trade regime, which [in the U.S.] would come through congress and set by the EPA who will say which companies need to report and what they need to report," said Clavenna.

A cap and trade program would mean thousands more companies would have to account for and report their GHG emissions as a market is created to trade excess CO2.

Strict accounting of emissions can also be a means to beat some corporate 'greenwashing', particularly in terms of companies making claims over their carbon footprints.

Ultimately however it is about reducing those footprints and aiming to limit global warming to only 2 degrees Celsius.

"There is a market out there for software that manages cap and trade, both from an intergovernmental aspect and a commercial aspect. Copenhagen will be a tipping point for those kinds of activity to move forward world wide. These folks are going to have an increased responsibility," said Miszewski.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/13/eco.carbon.accounting/

latimes.com

Dubai unveils $7.6-billion mass-transit rail system

The system includes VIP as well as regular-fare cars. Authorities are emphasizing the rail system's luxury and hoping the venture into mass transit will ease traffic congestion.

By Meris Lutz

11:28 AM PDT, September 9, 2009

Dubai, a Persian Gulf boomtown where Porsches share the road with truckloads of South Asian laborers, launched a mass-transit rail system today in an effort to ease crippling traffic that costs the city-state an estimated $1.4 billion a year.

Despite recent economic hardships, the railway in this city of superlatives -- home to palm-shaped artificial islands and the world's tallest building -- will retain a showy attitude. The system will include VIP cars with fares equivalent to $3.50 U.S., more than seven times the lowest cost ticket.

The $7.6-billion automatic rail system, under construction since 2005 and 80% over budget, made its inaugural journey today with several hundred contest winners as passengers, local media reported. Service opens to the public Thursday.

Initially only 10 of the 29 stations will operate on the Red Line. It runs from the airport through downtown, across the Dubai Creek and along the lengthy Sheikh Zayed Road adjacent to luxurious new high-rise towers, some of them unfinished because of the recent global economic downturn.

The Green Line is expected to open over the next year, expanding the system to about 47 stations along 46 miles of railway.

Currently only 5% of Dubai residents use public transportation, but authorities are hoping to raise that number to 20% by keeping regular fares between 50 cents and $1.50, the same as the bus system.

Rapid transit defines public space and life in cities such as New York, London or Paris. Many wonder whether Dubai's rail system can make a difference in a city defined by individualism and gated communities.

In seeking to establish itself as an international commercial center, Dubai championed exclusivity over accessibility, investing little in public space. Authorities are highlighting the grandeur of the new rail system over its convenience. But the system, which will run both above and below ground, might end up changing public attitudes anyway.

"There's a lot of emphasis on this being a luxurious public transportation system, which will distinguish Dubai from New York or London," said Tabitha Decker, a Yale University researcher and a visiting scholar at the Dubai School of Government, who is writing her dissertation on the development of the metro.

"It's about aesthetics and commercialism, but when you combine it with the fact that this is also a public good, this is a bit of a surprising moment in Dubai's history -- it's not fitting into our idea of what Dubai is," she said. "I think it's something Dubai should be proud of."

But some Dubai residents were skeptical about the metro's practicality, pointing out that the initial route only runs along Sheikh Zayed Road.

Ghassan Abdul-Sater, a 26-year-old Dubai resident and Lebanon native in the advertising business, said he will continue to drive to work rather than brave the hassle of public transportation.

"Parking somewhere to use the metro and then get off and walk to work?" he said. "I think I'll have minimal uses" for the metro.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-dubai-subway10-2009sep10,0,2016836.story

San Francisco Chronicle

September 9, 2009

Green buildings standard seen as flawed

Robert Selna, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Revelations that many buildings certified as green under a broadly accepted national standard for energy savings are not performing as well as predicted recently prompted changes to the program and are forcing San Francisco officials to consider amending city rules that are tied to the older guidelines.

The certification program, called the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), is widely seen as the industry standard for green buildings. It uses a checklist and point system that rewards energy-efficient building designs and features such as low-flow water fixtures, bike storage, nontoxic paints and solar power.

Developers have used the stamp of approval as a way to expedite projects through city bureaucracies and charge high rents. Governments increasingly demand that new buildings adhere to the rules.

San Francisco boosted its reputation as one of the nation's most environmentally progressive cities in August 2008 when the Board of Supervisors and Mayor Gavin Newsom approved an ordinance requiring that all new large commercial buildings be LEED certified.

The legislation was based on LEED standards established several years ago and it cemented the rules in place through 2012.

Meanwhile, studies released this summer by the U.S. Green Building Council, which developed the LEED system, suggested that 25 percent of the new buildings that have been approved nationwide do not save as much energy as expected, and most do not monitor their energy use. In June, the council announced a new requirement: Owners of all newly constructed buildings must agree to provide utility bills for the first five years of operation as a condition of certification.

Some construction and energy experts are urging the council to get even stricter and make certification contingent on meeting specific energy savings.

Council representatives note a gap between energy predictions made during buildings' design phases and how much energy they consume when actually operating. Tracking energy use and making it part of the certification process is an important development in the LEED system, they say.

"LEED is about how a building is designed, but we've always understood the building's performance is really critical," said Dan Geiger, executive director of the U.S. Green Building Council's Northern California chapter. "This is evolving in the direction that it should evolve."

San Francisco officials said Tuesday the city has long followed stringent state energy codes for new construction, which has kept building energy use down even before the rules adopted last year. But LEED's recent changes mean that the city should review its own rules before they expire in 2012.

"We need to reconvene the task force that recommended the legislation and makes some revisions way before 2012," said Rich Chien, the private sector green building coordinator for the San Francisco Department of the Environment. "With the changes coming along we could be out of date and we need to address that."

Architects and other private sector experts focused on the environment say the LEED certification system has placed green building practices on the map and that it is now moving into an important phase.

"LEED has done an exceptional job of raising awareness," said architect Jennifer Devlin of the San Francisco firm EHDD. "And the U.S Green Building Council recognizes that tracking energy use is vital to the sustainable building movement."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/09/BU1A19K7LM.DTL

USA Today

September 9, 2009

Study: Denser development may cut pollution By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY Would Americans drive less if they stopped living on big lots far from urban centers? If so, would that reduce pollution and dependence on energy? By how much? Meeting the growing demand for conveniently located homes in neighborhoods designed to encourage walking could significantly reduce the number of miles Americans drive while giving people more housing choices, a national research panel has concluded. How much it would shrink the nation's carbon footprint is not as clear. Such questions, which have dominated the debate over "smart growth" for two decades, are getting the attention of lawmakers. The Senate will debate a bill this fall that would cap greenhouse gas emissions, and Congress asked the National Academy of Sciences to quantify the effect of where Americans live on driving habits. A boost from science After reviewing almost 100 studies conducted over 20 years, the National Research Council — one of the academy's research bodies — released findings last week. The research is potentially significant because it comes from a non-partisan group of mostly academics, scientists and researchers rather than advocacy groups: • More compact development would cut driving by 5% to 12%. "Simply reducing family-lot sizes — say, from 1 acre to a quarter-acre — should reduce vehicle trip distances by bringing origins and destinations closer together," the report says. Denser development can concentrate enough people in one area to attract businesses, public transit, schools and jobs. That, in turn, can reduce the need to drive everywhere. • Denser development will cut fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions. By how much is murky. "It will take awhile for that new development to have a very perceptible effect" on the number of miles driven, says José Go´mez-Ibáñez, chairman of the committee that produced the report and a planning professor atHarvard University. "Even if we started (developing) more compact and densely today, given (that) new housing stock is only 1% or 2% of housing stock every year, it will be several decades before there is an impact." If 75% of new and replacement housing units were built in more compact development — a scenario the report considers unlikely — residents of these communities would drive 25% less. Such a decline would cut carbon dioxide emissions 7% to 8% by 2030 and 8% to 11% by 2050, the report concludes. A more realistic scenario envisioned by the researchers has 25% of future housing in denser communities. The benefits: A 12% reduction in driving but as little as a 1% drop in emissions by 2030. The research suggests that many variables make it difficult to quantify the effect of denser development: • Building more densely won't stop driving if jobs and services are not nearby or if a community is built without sidewalks. • If cars become "greener," driving's impact on emissions will change. • Access to public transportation, such as light rail, subways, trolleys and buses, reduces driving more. Research 'underwhelming' The research council's findings are "underwhelming," says Samuel Staley, director of Urban & Land Use Policy for the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank. Staley, who says Americans should have a choice to live in exurbia if they want to, says the research offers scant evidence that dense communities produce great benefits. "CO2 reduction between 1% and 11%? That's a huge variation," he says. "In order to achieve this, we're talking about essentially not giving people much choice" of where to live. Greater benefits will come from technological improvements, such as plug-in hybrid cars, he says. "What comes out loud and clear is that if the miles we drive continue to grow at the projected rate, you blow your climate goals out of the water," says David Goldberg, spokesman for Smart Growth America, a national coalition that advocates denser development. "The basic message I got from this is that you can't go wrong by pursuing this strategy." In a 2007 report, the Urban Land Institute reached similar findings. "The most important thing is to reduce the amount we drive," says Ed McMahon, senior resident fellow at the institute, a research group that studies land use. "By just building two houses per acre from one house per acre would reduce (driving)." The research stresses that "you could have substantially more compact development without giving up single-family housing," Go´mez-Ibáña says.