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There is a significant and growing interest in green design and development by leaders of the real estate community. Through our many news scans, we come across a great deal of relevant and applicable subject matter.
Our objective is to further our knowledge base while serving as a centralized point for articles of interest to our clients and site visitors. Please contact us with any green design or relevant environmental news items.
Please contact us with any green design or relevant environmental news items.
NEWS ARTICLES
Facilities.net: LEED-EB:OM Study Detailing Costs and Expected Savings
LEED-EB Lowers Operating Costs, Report Finds
By Michael Arny and Barb McCabe
April 2009
The LEED for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) rating system has become an important benchmark of sustainable building operations and maintenance. As facility executives consider implementing LEED-EB certification for their buildings, what can they expect the cost of certification to be?
A recent survey shows that the cost of LEED-EB implementation may not be a barrier to beginning an or...more
Bloomberg: NYC Green Industrial Building Powered by Onsite Wind Energy
April 9 (Bloomberg) -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg opened a $25 million building today in the Brooklyn Navy Yard industrial park that is the city’s first with mounted wind turbines and is part of his efforts to create “green” jobs.
The Perry Avenue property is the first multistory structure in the nation to be classified as a “green industrial facility” by the U.S. Green Building Council, a Washington- based organization that rates properties for their effect on the environment, acco...more
NY Times: The Greening of Pittsburgh
In a contemporary retelling of Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare, Pittsburgh is finding recession-era advantages in a slow-growth legacy.
The city, which has lost half its population since 1950, had a well-chronicled change of character over the second half of the 20th century: from a center of the steel industry to headquarters for many large corporations to a much more diverse economy that encompasses health care, education, finance and technology.
As it shrank, the city...more
DOE Issues First Renewable Energy Loan Guarantee to Solar Production Plant
Energy Department Issues First Renewable-Energy Loan Guarantee
By John M. Broder
The Energy Department has tentatively awarded its first alternative-energy loan guarantee, breaking a four-year logjam in the federal loan program.
The $535 million loan guarantee will go to Solyndra Inc., which said it would use the money to expand its production of photovoltaic systems at its facilities in Fremont, Calif. The company said the federal loan guarantee would cover roughly 75 perce...more
US Senate To Work on Crafting Climate Change Legislation
AP Interview: Reid pushing for climate change bill
By H. JOSEF HEBERT – 4 days ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Saying it's time to "take a whack" at climate change, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he plans to push for Senate action on global warming by the end of summer.
The Nevada Democrat in an interview with The Associated Press said the Senate will take up energy legislation in a couple of weeks "and then later this year, hopefully late this summer do the...more
UPI: US Intelligence Chief Lists Climate Change as a Top National Security Threat
The new head of U.S. intelligence and top adviser to President Barack Obama says climate change is a top threat to the national security of the country.
Poor countries, often with weaker governance systems, also will be hit hardest by the extreme flooding or dry spells forced by significant warming of the planet, undermining leadership there and putting at-risk citizens further in harm's way, warns Director of National Intelligence Adm. Dennis Blair.
"The impacts (of clima...more
Reuters: Investors Target Climate Laggards With Investment Concerns
NEW YORK, Feb 18 (Reuters) - A coalition of U.S. investors put companies including Exxon Mobil Corp and coal miner Massey Energy Co on a "Climate Watch" list on Wednesday, claiming the long-term competitiveness of the firms could be hurt by their lack of action on climate change.
"For a company in a major emitting sector ... to not be thinking about how they are going to address a regulated environment creates red flags for investors," Mindy Lub...more
Financial Times: Global Warming Closing In On "Critical" Threshold
Global warming closing in on 'critical threshold'
By Clive Cookson in Chicago
Published: February 16 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 16 2009 02:00
The world is warming far more quickly than scientists forecast just two years ago when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its last reports, according to a series of assessments presented over the weekend.
Chris Field of Stanford University, a senior member of the IPCC, told the annual meeting of the American As...more
KKR Green Pilot Program Yields Significant Operational Savings to Portfolio Companies
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Sealy, Primedia and US Foodservice took part in a pilot program last year that uncovered millions of dollars in savings from reducing waste, fuel, paper and energy use.
Primedia, for instance, saw its bottom line grow by nearly $3 million by cutting more than 3,000 tons of paper from its operations. US Foodservice saved $8.2 million in 2008 by using less fuel in its fleet. Meanwhile, Sealy eliminated 650 tons of solid waste from its manufacturing processes, netting the...more
US Financing Groups Settle Climate Financing Litigation - Will Incorporate CO2 Considerations Into Financings
The government's major financing agencies for overseas development projects reversed direction Friday, committing to scrutinize fossil-fuel facilities for their effect on global warming and pledging to help build renewable energy plants abroad.
The decision was revealed in settlement agreements filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in a lawsuit brought by two environmental groups, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, against the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Inv...more
State of Green Business 2009
Last year, when we launched the inaugural State of Green Business report, we set out to measure the environmental impacts of the growing green economy. We were sobered and encouraged by what we found. Our efforts to measure, for the first time ever, whether and how companies were reducing their environmental impacts revealed mixed results: More companies were doing more things, but moving the needle of environmental progress only slightly, if at all.
This year’s update is a similar mixed ...more
Stimulus Bill Requires States to Upgrade Energy Codes
Legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives includes $3.4 billion in energy assistance grants for states if the International Code Council’s 2009 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) is adopted and administered. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (HR 1) passed the U.S. House of Representatives on January 28, 2009.
The House bill requires governors who want a share of state energy assistance grants to certify their state will adopt an energy code for one- and ...more
Sustainable Industries Journal - 5 Tech Tools For Energy Management
5 tools for energy management
by Sara Stroud - 2.2.09
With demand for power on the rise, and electricity prices expected to climb about 10 percent in 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, tools that help businesses and consumers cut back on energy use are garnering attention—and big money from investors.
In 2008, smart grid technologies and energy management companies scored record venture capital investment, according to San Francisco-based Cleant...more
NASA to Launch Orbiting Carbon Observatory
NASA Shuttle to Observe Earth’s Natural Carbon Sinks
On January 29, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced the upcoming launch of its Orbiting Carbon Observatory, a satellite tasked with providing “the first complete picture of human and natural carbon dioxide sources as well as their ‘sinks,’ the places where carbon dioxide is pulled out of the atmosphere and stored.” Of all the carbon released by humans since the beginning of the industrial revolution, about ...more
Maryland Set to Pass Emissions Reductions Legislation
Climate bill expected to pass Assembly
Compromisse plan has backing of industry, labor, governor
By Timothy B. Wheeler
January 24, 2009
Legislation that would commit Maryland to reducing climate-warming pollution 25 percent by 2020 appears likely to pass this year with Gov. Martin O'Malley's announcement yesterday that he would co-sponsor a compromise bill that has won backing from organized labor, industry and environmentalists.
The governor backed similar legislation las...more
EU Sets Out Climate Proposal for Copenhagen
EU calls for global carbon market
EU emissions cuts are not matched elsewhere in the world
The European Commission has called for a global carbon trading market as part of a plan to tackle climate change.
The EU is already committed to expanding its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), but now it is urging other industrialised countries to join in.
The commission says that by 2015 it wants to link the ETS to other carbon trading systems. The goal is to include emerging economies b...more
International Renewable Energy Agency Formed
A new international body to promote renewable energy is to be established today, in a move that its supporters insist has the potential to replace the global dominance of conventional power with wind, solar and other sustainable sources within a matter of years.
Fifty-five governments have said they will commit themselves to full membership of the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), at its founding conference in Bonn today. A total of 116 countries will take part.
The US...more
Billions in Stimulus Package Focused on Green Tech
A hefty portion of President Obama's $825 billion stimulus plan is aimed at generating a triple play for employment, energy and the environment: The House version of the bill, for example, would put more than $68 billion toward boosting America's green-tech sector, which could in turn reduce the average household's energy bill as well as our costly hunger for fossil fuels.
But will the triple play pay off? Some folks on the sidelines worry that billions of dollars could be wasted on techn...more
Washington Post: Cap-and-Trade Discussions Heat Up in Senate
Gore Delivers 'Inconvenient Truth' Lecture to Senate Committee
Former Vice President Asks Congress to Move Quickly to Stem Climate Change
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 28, 2009; 5:00 PM
Former vice president Al Gore urged lawmakers today to adopt a binding carbon cap and push for a new international climate pact by the end of this year in order to avert catastrophic global warming.
Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Commit...more
State Department Names Special Envoy For Carbon Emissions
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named a special envoy on Monday to lead U.S. efforts to fight global warming and forge new international accords on reducing carbon emissions and developing clean energy.
The appointment -- which accompanied other energy policy steps announced by President Barack Obama -- signaled a break from the Bush administration's climate policies, and Clinton's pick promised "vigorous, dramatic diplomacy."
Todd Stern,...more
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