For background on the participants, click here.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Underwriting Standards for Sustainable Investments
Pioneered by the Capital Markets Partnership and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the standards are available for purchase here.
Carbon Credits for Green Buildings
This white paper by Donald Simon from the law fim Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean provides a fantastic overview of the value green buildings can have in a state / country with a cap & trade system for CO2 emissions.
Mr. Simon has been awarded the "Green Building Super-Hero" award by the Northern California chapter of the US Green Building Council, and introduced Al Gore at West Coast Green earlier this year. He is also an expert on the evolving practice of Green Leasing.
Click here for the paper
CA Moves Toward Cap and Trade
One component of the CA plan to reduce CO2 emissions is energy efficiency in buildings. Look for incentives to increase building efficiency in the near term.
For an understanding of how a cap and trade system would benefit owners of green buildings, see my post immediately following this one
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Green Building Pays Back
Yet another report in the steady stream... this one takes a straightforward approach to the present value of energy savings ($7-14 per sq. ft.) vs. incremental cost ($3-$8 psf)...
In addition, it also takes a crack at quantifying public benefits such as health benefits and increased transportation savings.
Click here for the full report from Good Energies.
Need to reduce energy in buildings by 1.6% annually
According to the "Green Building Impact Report," the carbon "footprint" of U.S. commercial buildings will need to decline steadily each year by roughly 1.6% — a total of 14% improvement between 2000 and 2008 — to reach a goal of 80% reduction by 2050. The good news is that LEED buildings are ahead of this goal in terms of their own performance. The bad news is that the entire building sector must be hitting these reduction targets.
View the full report here.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Global Energy Efficiency Studies
This post courtesy of information from the blog Our Green Journey by Lisa Galley.
The IEA recently calculated that 25% of final global energy use could be eliminated through energy efficiency in existing buildings!
Following up on that, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) recently studied 1 trillion sq ft of data to estimate what might be accomplished by reducing energy demand and CO2 by jumping over three barriers: organizational, financial, and behavioral. The study is long, but quite revealing.
Friday, November 21, 2008
New High-Efficiency Window Prototype Result of DOE Partnership
A bit futuristic, but quite interesting... and I happen to be working on a market study for these windows right now!
http://www.energy.gov/news/4501.htm
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
State Senator Steinberg - SB 375
Senator Steinberg should be commended for pushing this bill through the CA State Senate. SB 375 will expedite planning and review processes for projects that reduce Vehicle Miles Travelled. The bill itself is more complex, and if you're interested in learning more, read below.
This short video shows him speaking at the Capitol.
TITLE - Californian Senator Darryl Steinberg (28 Oct 2008) – hosted by
California Center for Environmental Law and Public Policy
Talk described the passage of the Senate Bill 375 for transport and
land use planning. The bill aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
from transportation by reducing vehicles miles travelled. Address
urban sprawl and control development in ways to minimize commuting
distances and vehicle km by better aligning the location of housing
and workplaces. Passage of the bill occurred when municipalities,
developers, environmentalists and state government we able to reach a
consensus – “everyone gave up a little and gave a lot”.
By 2011, all major transport funds for capex projects will need to be
approved under SB 375.
In the past there have been major coordinated planning obstacles in
California as vested interests and different levels of government have
squabbled over control and fought for their slice of the development
pie, even if this increased environmental impact.
The main enabling event that allowed the planning bill to pass was the
earlier passage of the greenhouse gas reduction bill AB32. California
is now legally bound to meet very aggressive carbon reduction targets
by 2020. This was a major intervening event that gained support for
aligning interests.
Senator Steinberg is very interested in green job creation, but we do
not seem to be entirely clear about what this means yet. He is
generally supportive of high speed rail, and sees this as a catalyst
for new industry and jobs, while environmentally favorable. He sees
the environmental targets in AB 32 also related to the agenda of
Shai Agassi - Project Better Place
This is possibly the best and most thought-provoking speech I've ever seen. Shai Agassi discusses his personal story and the evolution of Project Better Place
Monday, November 10, 2008
U.S. Legislation Regulating Carbon: Cap and Trade or Tax?
The economist's take on the issue is in favor of a tax over a cap-and-trade system is given in the article below. Former Haas Dean Tom Campbell also agrees. His point is that the incentive to innovate never stops, and attempting to measure 1990 or some past year's levels is both impossible and arbitrary. I agree.
Al Gore Editorial in NY Times
Al Gore presents five key strategies to fight global warming NOW, and as always, some compelling anectodes... note the discussion of energy efficiency in buildings... LEED-EB to the rescue!
Saturday, November 1, 2008
AirAdvice Technology
I found this on Building Energy Performance News. Really interesting technology. They've developed a system to measure energy peformance and translate it into estimates of financial savings, impact on LEED status, and more. Read on...
And on their website, they discuss their LEED consulting:
Thursday, October 30, 2008
RREEF Releases Green Building Investment Report
Lots of great data and takeaways from this report. It is quite lengthy, but general themes include:
- Key Overall Findings
- Trends by Region and Country
- A Discussion of Capital Markets
- Implications for Investors
I highly encourage you to read at least the executive summary. Thanks to Lisa Galley for pointing me to this article.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Google shows off 'extraordinary' building plans
Among article highlights:
- Google plans to build the "greenest building ever" in Mountain View @ 310,000 sq. ft
- Google's VP of Real Estate, Dave Radcliffe, says project is currently on hold because it does not currently make financial sense.
- But, Yvonne Farrell, a LEED-certified architect on Mountain Views' Environmental Sustainability Task Force, says it should cost Google no more than any other of its Class A buildings, and that in the long run (10 to 20 years), it should cost less.
- Editor's note: while this may be true, the value of money today could be more expensive than the time value of money saved further down the road. I'd like to see some hard numbers, although I don't I'll get my hands on their pro forma! :)
Full article at: http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=9809
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
How Oil Prices Literally Drive the Mortgage Crisis
This article / blog post appeared on Our Green Journey, a blog by Lisa Galley, founder of Galley Eco-Capital. I think I forwarded it to a million and one people a few weeks ago, so it deserves a place here
First Article: Thomas Friedman
The first article is by Thomas Friedman, New York Times Columnist, and author of The World Is Flat. He will make many more appearances in this blog!
Title: Bailout and (Green) Buildup
A Summary: As gas prices decline, so does America's incentive to go green. What should we do about it? Friedman explores realistic steps the next president and congress can take.
Enjoy,
Ari
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