That is the question facing the owners and operators of over one billion square feet of commercial space that have obtained LEED status under the U.S. Green Building Council‘s green building rating system.

What they (and you) decide will make a big impact, it will mean the difference between one billion square feet of truly sustainable real estate, and one billion square feet of potentially sustainable real estate. The gap between real and potential sustainability lies in the way LEED is perceived. If you think attaining LEED is attaining sustainability, your answer to the "now what?" question might well be "nothing," since you’ve already achieved your goal. But you would be missing the point because LEED does not equal sustainability.  It merely opens the door to sustainability. True sustainability is a process.

Think of it this way. Would you walk away from your garden after carefully planting your seeds? Or would you continue to tender and monitor it to make sure it thrives? With LEED as the seed, what’s next is to ensure that sustainability blooms.

So back to the question. Now what?

Well, first, go ahead and hang that LEED plaque up on your wall. You deserve it. You’ve made a great start. To reach your full, sustainable potential, here’s what you must do beyond LEED:

1. Establish a long-term environmental management system

In a nutshell, this means putting in place a plan to ensure the continued improvement of your building’s environmental performance following a Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. Beyond LEED, this means that other sustainability efforts should be constantly evaluated and added when necessary. This may include programs like ISO 14001 and 9001, ENERGY STAR, supply chain lifecycle analysis and carbon footprint reporting.

2. Measure and manage with a sustainability metrics

Is your building saving as much energy as its LEED certification predicted? Are the bathroom retrofits lowering water consumption? Is the recycling program being fully utilized? These questions can only be answered if a building’s sustainability performance is being measured and managed. Right now, little of that is being done. USGBC research suggests that a quarter of new LEED buildings are not saving as much energy as expected, and that most buildings do not track energy consumption.

The key to any long-term plan is a system to measure and manage your sustainability efforts so that you can set baselines for future improvements, not just for LEED recertification.

Environmental performance should be measured and managed as widely as possible, and should go beyond energy and water use to include purchases (paper, recycled materials, cups, cardboard cafeteria trays, etc.), waste and recycling, heating and cooling days, and other sustainability markers.

3. Communicate and educate

Your building’s tenants and employees have to realize that they do not just work in a LEED building, but that they are in fact part of the green process.

Tenants who are reminded to switch off the lights, for example, can make a difference in energy use. Other tenant-controlled activities like recycling and purchasing should be guided with regular education sessions and the use of informational signs to make sure your sustainability programs are not under utilized.

Because new equipment cannot be run in the same old ways, don’t forget to train your operations and maintenance staff in updated efficiency techniques. They will hold the key to any upgrades you’ve made for LEED.

Externally, your building’s efforts should be communicated through corporate social responsibility reports or the use of a sustainability-reporting framework like the Global Reporting Initiative. These detailed reports document results (obtained using a sustainability metrics) and demonstrate a commitment to sustainable development that will serve to motivate and build on LEED for a lasting green benefit.

4. Conduct management review

As a process, sustainability has to be incorporated into your building’s or company’s overall strategy. Sustainability has to be accounted for in capital budgets, risk management, corporate reputation and other decisions. This will ensure that the sustainability process continues beyond LEED as part of your long-term vision.

Via: www.greenbiz.com

For most of us the benefits offered by the underground Metro system end when the destination is reached. We hop off the train and hurry off to continue with our daily activities. Nevertheless Francois Wachnick, from Paris Habitat, has ingeniously taken advantage of the Metro in a new way.

A public housing project building on the well-known Rue Beaubourg in Paris is being sustainably renovated. The construction will utilize a very unique heating system: it will draw heat directly from the crowded Parisian Metro. "Luckily, the building is connected to the metro through a staircase" explained Wachnick, "this passageway allows us to collect the heat directly from the metro, without having to pay to build one, otherwise it would have been impossible," he added. Constructing public housing on a low budget is not always easy, recycling the heat lost in the underground tracks seems like a great solution to cut down costs considerably.

This low-cost project is based on geothermal energy techniques. It aims to draw heat from subterranean passages, and then move it to heat exchangers before supplying heating pipes. The system will consequently compliment district heating.

It is estimated that each passenger emits about 100 watts of energy in body heat each time they enter and wait in the subway, added to that of trains moving along tracks, the total temperature accumulated in the underground subway system is consistently high. This vast amount of collected energy will provide heating for the building’s 17 apartments.

The low-income housing project is scheduled to finish its renovation next year. Not only does this environmentally friendly renovation take advantage of overlooked sources of energy, it would also slash carbon dioxide emissions by a third compared to using a boiler room connected to district heating. No matter which angle you look at the project from, it always remains consistent in its eco-friendliness.

Via: Inhabitat

Due to their comparatively early stage of development, OLEDs typically emit less light per unit area than inorganic solid-state based LEDs similarly designed for use as point-light sources. Despite this, OLEDs are used in television screens, computer monitors, mobile phones and PDAs, watches and can also be used in light sources for general space illumination and in large-area light-emitting elements.

But traditionally, OLEDs have had some disadvantages. Probably the biggest technical problem was the limited lifetime of the organic materials (historically around 14,000 hours compared to 60,000 hours of LCD or LED technology). And a second issue has been a color unbalance problem, because material used to produce blue light degrades significantly more rapidly than the materials that produce other color. And there has been also a final problem, the power consumption. While displaying primarily black images with an OLED would consume around 40% of the power of an LCD, the proportion is over three times as much power to display an image with a white background. But quick improvements have changed this situation radically!

Novaled, a leading company in OLEDs for display and lighting applications, has demonstrated white top-emitting devices with a lifetime exceeding 50,000 h and a power efficiency of 30 lm/W at an initial luminance of 1,000 cd/m². It’s by far a better power efficiency than conventional 60-100W incandescent light bulbs (which produces around 15 lm/W) but still far beyond standard fluorescent lights (which can produce up to 100 lm/W). But at least is an important step and there is hope for optimism.

Furthermore, active matrix OLEDs offer colour range equals or exceeds NTSC standards. Contrast ratios in the range of 1,000,000 to 2,000,000:1 make these colours look even more brilliant. And OLEDs refresh takes microseconds as opposed to LCDs’ milliseconds, and there is no loss of contrast at off angles.

OLEDs represent an interesting future for a vast array of completely new lighting applications. By combining colour with shape, organic LEDs can introduce a new way to use light for decorating and creating personalized surroundings. Additionally, OLEDs offer the potential to become even more cost and energy-efficient than energy-saving bulbs. Do you want to see some examples of the potential of OLEDs? Just check this out.

Via: Inhabitat | Novaled

In February 2009 the city of San Francisco announced that it was installing three EV charging stations as part of a pilot project. The aim of the project is to allow the Bay Area attain and mantain state and national air quality standards. Fostering the use of electric vehicles will be a key action to reduce pollution, since in the Bay Area the transportation sector accounts for more than 50 percert of air pollution.

In November 2008, the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose announced their ambitious goal of turning the Bay Area into the electric vehicle capital of the country. In December 2008 the San Francisco Mayor’s office released a nine-point plan to foster the implantation of the electric vehicle:

1.Expedited permitting and installation of electric vehicle charging outlets at homes, businesses, parking lots, and other buildings throughout the Bay Area;

2.Incentives for employers to install EV charging systems in their workplaces and provide similar incentives to parking facilities and other locations where EV charging stations can be installed;

3.Harmonize local regulations and standards across the region that govern EV infrastructure to achieve regulatory consistency for EV companies as well as expanded range for EV consumers;

4.Establish common government programs that promote the purchase of EVs;

5.Link EV programs and infrastructure to regional transit and air quality programs;

6.Establish programs for aggressive pooled-purchase orders for EVs in municipal, state government, and private sector fleets, and future commitment of purchasing preference for EV vehicles;

7.Expedited permitting and approval for facilities that provide extended-range driving capability for EVs in the region through battery exchange locations or fast-charging;

8.Identify and secure suitable standard (110V) electric outlets for charging low-voltage EVs in every government building in 2009;

9.Identify roll-out plan for placement of 220V EV-charging equipment throughout each city including city parking lots and curbside parking.

Via: Cnet News

Under the EU Renewable Energy Directive, established in 2009, the 27 members set the target of ensuring that 20% of its energy consumption will come from renewable sources by 2020. The directive also required nations to ensure that renewables accounted for 10% of the energy used in the transport sector. According to the EU, renewables include solid biomass, wind, solar energy and hydro power as well as biofuels.

In a statement realeased last June 10th, the European Commission declared that only biofuels that meet the EU’s sustainability requirements can count towards the targets in the Directive, to be fulfilled in 2020.

Production of biofuels is under debate since several studies have shown that some biofuels are more polluting that the fossil fuels they replace. For this reason Mr Oettinger, Comissioner responsible for Energy, stresses: “We have to ensure that the biofuels used are also sustainable. Our certification scheme is the most stringent in the world and will make sure that our biofuels meet the highest environmental standards. It will have positive effects also on other regions as it covers imported biofuels".

The package adopted last week, which consists of two Communications and a Decision, focus especially on the sustainability criteria for biofuels. It contains three measures:

Sustainable Biofuel Certificates: it encourages industry, governments and NGOs to set up "voluntary schemes" to certify biofuel sustainability. Independent auditors are required to check the whole production chain (from the farmer to the supplier).

Protecting untouched nature: biofuels should not be made from raw materials from tropical forests or recently deforested areas, drained peatland, wetland or highly biodiverse areas. The conversion of a forest to a palm oil plantation would not meet the sustainability requirements.

Promote only biofuels with high greenhouse gas savings: only those biofuels with high greenhouse gas savings count for the national targets for renewable energy. Tus, biofuels must deliver greenhouse gas savings of at least 35% compared to fossil fuels, rising to 50% in 2017 and to 60%, for biofuels from new plants, in 2018.

In 2007, approximately 26% of biodiesel and 31% of bioethanol used in the EU was imported, mostly from Brazil and the US.

Via: Europa.eu | BBC

The story of the sciences in the twentieth Century is one of a steady loss of certainty. Much of what was real and machine-like, objective and determinate at the start of the century, by mid-century was a phantom, unpredictable, subjective and indeterminate. What had defined science at the start of the century —its power to predict, its clear subject/object distinction— no longer defined it at the end. In the century just past, science after science lost its innocence. Science after science grew up.

W. Brian Arthur, 1999

Why did the 2007-2009 subprime mortgage financial crisis occur and why did it have its roots in the richest country in the world? Why do the rich get even richer and the poor even poorer, thus increasing the social gap, despite social aids and governmental intervention? Why do entire local communities suffer from environmental problems such as air, water and land pollution, for which engineered-technical solutions and measures prove unable to reverse their situations in the long term? What does human economy have to do with polar ice cap melting, resource depletion and species extinction? Why are there wars still going on in a hyper-communicated, information-technological twenty-first century rational world?

Dr. Capra's book: The Hidden Connections.

Dr. Fritjof Capra, renowned physicist and systems thinker, tries to address this kind of thought-provoking questions in his book The Hidden Connections: A Science for Sustainable Living, by developing a framework for understanding current pressing global problems. The first chapters of his work offer an insight on this framework – a bit hard to digest, but deeply interesting –, where he adopts a systemic approach to redefine life, mind and society. Further on, he identifies the critical issues or areas in which humanity has to focus attention in order to survive sustainably in the short and long terms.

Making some hidden connections visible

Capra shows a broader way of thinking that makes some hidden connections visible, which might explain the nature of problems in modern times. One of the underlying intentions of the book is to question the way in which society addresses and solves problems. Thus, it is common for economists to try to reduce a problem to economic principles they know, as well as for environmentalists to think everything in terms of ecological principles. And then… who can guarantee a proper addressing and solution if all is based on partially conditioned perceptions?

This is one of Capra’s hidden connections: the fact that some of the global complex problems are founded in reductionism-based thinking and consequent decision making. For instance, why do people and companies make decisions predominantly based on money-making, disregarding other important social or environmental aspects? According to Capra, this money-making behaviour is mostly conveyed with reductionist project assessment methods. The fact is that individuals, corporations and even governments may trigger their projects mainly driven by monetary resource constraints, and in the middle ethical dilemmas remain as unsolved matters. Price is a very powerful synthesiser for value in the sense that it enables a person in China to make a decision about purchasing a good from France only by looking at figures. What is behind the price, such as how the product was manufactured, if people were exploited during the process, or whether toxic effluents were released to the environment, are hidden aspects that never get involved in the consumer decision if there is no further communication.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_MDRI-Q76o[/youtube]

Dr. Capra’s lecture on the systems view of life.

In this context, Capra suggests that humanity should be more careful and willing to learn instead of trying to control. He talks about a radical change in values towards a new position in which man accepts his inherent limitations and where decisions are made by looking at the context, assuming one’s place of decision maker as being part of a broader and supporting environment.

Capra shows how mankind builds its own context and thinks its own existence. The Hidden Connections is a book that definitely contributes to the state of thinking that is giving shape to the science of the future.

The event is called “Meeting of the minds: The innovations we need for more sustainable cities”. It is organized by the Joslyn Institute for Sustainable Communities (JISC), _which was born in the University of Nebraska, College of Architecture_, and by the Urban Age Institute. The event will be held in Nebraska, and will last two and a half days, from June 16 to June 18.

The importance of urban areas and cities cannot be undermined, given the fact that half of the world’s population lives in such places. Cities account for more than 70% of global CO2 emissions, and consume more than half of the world’s energy.

During the Meeting of the minds, representatives from governments, the private sector, environmental organizations, and different experts will be addressing a vast combination of topics related to making cities more sustainable.

To see the program, click here

Plan A was launched in January 2007; it’s called that way because “there is no plan B”. The company has the “ultimate goal of becoming the world’s most sustainable major retailer.” The plan is organized in five main pillars, with 180 commitments; among them, making all of their UK and Irish operations carbon neutral by 2012.

1) Climate change

Some of this pillar’s commitments include the already mentioned aim of making all UK and Irish operations (stores, offices, warehouses, business travel and logistics) carbon neutral by 2012. That’s only two years away! Further, they have set the goal of “reducing the amount of energy we use in our stores by 25% per square foot of floor space.”

Another impressive pledge has been to use only renewable energy in M&S stores, offices and distribution centres in the UK and Ireland. Besides, they will work with the WWF to help customers and employees become aware of their environmental footprint and how to reduce it.

Regarding progress in this area, the company’s net operational CO2 emissions in 2008/9 were 18% lower than those of 2006/07, whereas store energy efficiency has improved 10%. Also, now 31% of the company’s electricity comes from renewable sources. More details can be seen here.

2) Waste

Some of the actions to reduce waste include charging 5 pence for food carrier bags. That money is given to Groundwork, which also works in environmental initiatives. Usage of carrier bags has been reduced 60%. M&S aims at sending zero waste to landfills; last year 41% of their waste was recycled. They also have the goal of reducing packaging by 25%; last year non-glass food packaging was reduced about 12% compared to 2006/07.

3) Sustainable raw materials

M&S is working to produce the food it sells more sustainably. Sustainable farming is being encouraged, which includes, among other things, the reduction of pesticide use. They aim at tripling the amount of organic food they sell in the UK and Ireland. Another goal is to reduce water usage in their stores and offices by 20%.

4) Fair partner

This pillar has to do with making M&S trade fairer, by paying fairer prices to suppliers, helping local communities’ development, and “ensuring good working conditions for everyone involved in our supply chains.”

5) Health

Lastly, M&S is working to improve customers and employees’ health. For this, they’ve been working to reduce salt, fat, and saturated fat levels across their food. They are also trying to increase the offering of healthier foods, and labeling these better.

VIA: Planet Green

The CIRS building will generate all the electricity it needs; and all the water it needs will be collected on-site, from rainwater. Stormwater and grey waters will also be treated. As a result, there will be no waste water. Among the many energy sources considered are fuel cells, solar photovoltaic, solar hot water heaters, and biomass (all of them renewable). The building will be completed in spring/summer 2011.

The UBC has already developed an interesting and successful project called ecotrek, which allowed the campus to reduce its energy use over 20%, and water use by 30%. Yearly electricity and water savings are around $2.6 million. Further, greenhouse gas emissions were reduced 15%. Through the ecotrek project, 300 of UBC’s buildings were upgraded and retrofitted.

Going back to the CIRS, the goal is that the building will be a center of research, and also an object of investigation in itself. It is being constructed in ways that will eventually be relatively easy to replicate in other places. This is another reason to make the building as smart as possible, and to look for cost-effective solutions.

In charge of the design is Busby Perkins + Will.

The CIRS is expected to not emit greenhouse gases, and it will produce more energy than it needs. This extra power will eventually be sold.

Great importance is being paid to the health of the people that will use the building. Daylight will be used as the main lighting source. Materials used will be non-toxic. Besides, there will be regular evaluations of the correct functioning of the building, and of people’s comfort and opinions.

VIA: Ecogeek

More: CIRS

As my plane was leaving LA  after TED2010 and I watched the curious man-made landscape of circling streets and repetitive housing, I thought of the provoking book by Stewart Brand called Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto which stated some environmental heresies. The first one, and the one I will examine here, was that cities are green. It is hard to think about New York City, for instance, as a model for sustainability but let’s examine the lifestyle of organic eating, juice sucking, prius driving  southern Californians for a minute. They all live 30 to 90 minutes away from their jobs, so each family has at least one car, usually two, with a big commute twice a day. If we do some math with this calculator from the EPA we’ll see that a typical Californian household emits between 20,000 to 35,000 Kg of CO2 a year.

Each house has to receive (at least) water, electricity and some bandwidth so pipes, copper cables and fiber optics have to be deployed to cover miles and miles of land. Furthermore, all those lawns require massive amounts of water and fertilizers, let’s not forget we are actually on a desert with almost no rain. Each time they need groceries they go to a supermarket, you need quite a bit of them to cover such big areas, and they all need truckloads (literally) of food and supplies. The amount of energy and other resources consumed by this design is monstrous.

The contrast of this way of living with Californian’s love for anything green is startling. At the TED conference we received an aluminum bottle to refill from filtered water dispensers instead of the typical and stupid water bottle. If 1500 persons consume 3 bottles of water a day for 5 days we would have fabricated a mountain of 22500 plastic bottles. Although you could argue that they can be recycled if properly disposed, it takes quite a bit of energy and carbon emissions to turn that amount of slightly used plastic into usable bottles. I personally think that it is a catastrophe that after installing all those water pipes, people everywhere in the world still consume bottled water. The plastic has to be fabricated from oil using energy to melt and take its shape, then sent to a spring, if you are lucky, and then back to supermarkets all over the world. Then you grab those waters, haul them to your trunk, take them home, drink them, throw them away and probably end in a landfill nearby.

TED had also on display Hybrid Cars by Lexus, and although I applaud Hybrid’s oil efficiency I hardly think that they constitute a solution for a zero-emissions, green way of transportation. There were a few Segways and a few bicycles but most people there had arrived either by car (bad) or by plane (the worst), including myself. I took a flight from Buenos Aires, to Dallas and then to LA. The carbon emissions of that flight were roughly 2,825 Kg of CO2. You can calculate them here.  As one TED U session said, if you wanted to be green going to TED you would have to go walking.

I’d better start walking now to reach TED2011 on time.

A consortium of nine companies called Dansk Microvarme is carrying out a 6-year project to develop the necessary technology and deploy it in the village of Vestenskov. The island generates 50% more wind power than it uses. The problem is that pure wind energy cannot be stored. So, when the wind doesn’t blow, there is a lack of energy, and the village might be forced to resort to fossil fuels. That’s when the idea of hydrogen and fuel cells comes in. The project being developed in Lolland consists of using excess wind power to obtain hydrogen, which is then used in fuel cells to generate electricity and heat.

The fuel cells are part of micro combined heat and power (CHP) technologies. When the hydrogen goes through a chemical process to generate electricity, it also produces heat, which is used to heat homes in the village.

The local government wants to position Lolland as a model for large-scale hydrogen technology. In order to do so, it is progressively developing the technology and making it available for household consumption.

The project is divided into three main phases:

The first one goes from 2006 to 2007; during this period a test/demonstration plant was built to make hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis. Besides, fuel cells were produced, as well as equipment to connect them to the village’s energy supply grid. Basically, the whole thing works like this: there is a plant in which hydrogen is produced, then, hydrogen is sent through pipelines to homes, where the fuel cells are, and there, the electricity is generated.

The second phase starts in 2007 and includes this year. The main aim of this period has already been achieved, which sought to connect the first five households in Vestenskov to the hydrogen plant. Homes were equipped with micro-CHP units which produce electricity and heat. The units are the size of a refrigerator. As I’ve mentioned in the previous paragraph, hydrogen is directly distributed through underground pipes to the houses, from a large electrolysis plant in a field behind the village’s nursing home.

And the last phase, beginning this year, has as a central goal supplying 35-40 households with hydrogen based on the experiences from the test homes. Homes will get a fuel cell module the size of a small central heating unit. It is expected that all the houses in Vestenskov will be connected to the hydrogen system by 2012.

This project is a smart way of profiting from the excess wind power generated in the island. Besides, Lolland has taken what could have been considered a problem (not being able to store wind power) and transformed it into an opportunity; getting stronger in fuel cell technology to become a leader in the sector.

VIA: Sustainable Cities

We tend to consider our way of living as something given and natural. For practical reasons we avoid asking ourselves if our habits are right or wrong, fair or unfair, harmful or safe. The time has come for us to ask ourselves if it is worth keeping our ways and continuing to wreck the Earth. Senge argues that we need to evolve to a different society, in which we relate to nature in a more intelligent and sustainable manner. The author presents several examples of people who have realized that change is needed and have been acting in consequence.

Senge is a well-known management expert and consultant, interested in organizational learning, and systemic theories. He relates his areas of expertise to sustainability, creating an extremely rich combination of ideas. In the book, he includes several practical suggestions for people who are interested in helping organizations become more sustainable. To Senge, anyone is a potential leader, capable of starting a process of change and innovation.

Among his tips, Senge suggests that we need to identify people who care about the environment within our organization. Then we can set up a team, taking into consideration the needs and worries of each person. He also suggests what we can do if our team becomes stuck in a given discussion or problem.

To show us that change is possible, the author describes various cases of organizations that have been evolving to a more sustainable way of functioning. For example, a Swedish man that works in the car industry reaches the conclusion that cars need to be more sustainable, so he starts developing the biofuel industry in his country, bringing about huge advances in that sector. Another example is DuPont, which from being an environmentally irresponsible company, went to being one of the most recognized organizations for its green innovations.

We now live in the bubble of the industrial era. We need to go beyond it. To do so, we need to think, be creative, analyze things in a more comprehensive manner, and be smart. We need to work together, letting go of past prejudice, believing that even what we may consider to be a voracious capitalist company can do some good.

“The Necessary Revolution”  is an inspiring book that smartly intertwines knowledge from different areas. Sustainability is not just about protecting endangered little birds, but about changing people’s minds, getting them involved in the revolution that has become necessary, and has made each of us necessary for it to happen.

Interactive simulators consist of specific software to which a user can insert information, and get a feedback, based on the inputs added, and information it has already incorporated. The good thing about the simulators developed by the Climate Interactive Program is that they are much more accessible and user-friendly than others.

Climate change is a highly complex phenomenon. It is intertwined with society as a whole, because it is our way of functioning that is causing climate change. To solve it, we must consider a number of different and complicated issues, such as the economics of reducing emissions, policy, legislation, science, just to mention a few. However, decision-makers need to “think clearly about the future”. To address this need for clarity, the Sustainability Institute organization is creating several interactive simulation models.

Sustainability Institute is a think tank dedicated partly to climate change, and it has developed the Climate Interactive Program. Through this program, several experts are working to create software to help forecast the effect of different actions on future climate change. The basic idea is that the user can insert data, and preview its probable effects.

The simulation to which the most effort is being dedicated is C-ROADS (Climate Rapid Overview and Decision-support Simulator). It has already been used by the US Department of State to understand the climate impacts of different national proposals, and to discuss this with other parties to the UNFCCC.

Who is behind all this? Obviously, the Sustainability Institute. Also, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management (MIT), Nike, Ventana Systems, the Society for Organizational Learning (SOL), among many others.

Other simulation models designed by the Climate Interactive Program include the Climate Bathtub, which represents the carbon cycle and climate change; the Copenhagen Climate Exercise, that helps practice for negotiating in COP15; Climate Momentum Simulation; C-Learn; and MIT’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Simulator.

The creators of the simulators want them to be distributed to, and to be accessible to as much people as possible, so as to help foster wise and effective decision-making. The tool they have developed has tremendous potential in helping solve the threatening climate crisis we face. Let’s hope we are intelligent enough to use the tools we have to get ourselves out of this mess we’re in.

More: Climate Interactive

Today, November 15, is the US national recycling day. It is dedicated to fostering recycling among Americans, and to promote the buying of recycled products.

This is the 12^th year the America Recycles Day takes place.

You can find events happening today here .

Its mission is to enhance the exchange of information related to sustainable development and sustainable products between consumers, manufacturers, researchers and others interested in being more environmentally friendly.

It will be situated in the Georgia World Congress Center.

There will be a wide variety of topics addressed, including renewable energies, landscaping, green weddings, and recycling. To see the schedule click here .

For more information, click here .

This will help supply a growing population while attempting to preserve a fragile environment and will be funded by a bond measure. It has been a long time in the making but was forced to resolution by a third dry year, decreased snowfall and the introduction of new pumping restrictions to protect delta fish.

At the centre of these water bills is our need for a sustainable and reliable water system. Legislators, for example, want to require California cities, with some exceptions, to use 20 percent less water by 2020. Clearly, there is a dual issue based on our level of consumption of water and our accessibility to it. They both require large investments, which mean job creation, and we can strongly contribute to one of them by managing our own personal water levels.

California’s Water Woes

The cost of sustainability may be high, but the cost of inaction is much higher. That Californians recognize this and are now investing in their future despite (and because of) serious economic problems should encourage us all to do the same.

Source: msnbc

The project involves 20 lots located in a hill side. It is being directed by Jean Paul  Cazedessus, American born in California, but that has been living in Costa Rica for the past 20 years. Today, the construction of its first house called “Boomerang” has been finished (name due to its roof shape on an aerial view). This project not only suggests building sustainable homes, but also to build a sustainable society with the same goal: living in sustainability.

Taking advantage of the hill side, the lots have been strategically located in order to make the gathering of gray water easier and more efficient. This water will be properly treated in a water facility treatment plant that will be located in the base of the hill. All homes will have grass roofs. These roofs not only offer the advantage of great thermal isolation but also will give the urbanization a feeling of dissapearing effect while looking from the hilltop. 

Another thought for the future is to plan investments among residents aiming to seize natural resources to generate energy and harvest their own food. Besides solar panels that can be installed on the roofs, a common wind power turbine mill could be installed taking advantage of the excellent wind conditions of the region. The energy generated would supply all homes and the extra energy produced can be sold to the electrical power company that will help to recover the investment faster.

You can find more information in the next link: www.b-green.org

The state of Hawaii can be made into a sustainable paradise. It is still very far from achieving this goal, but it is on the right path. To begin with, it has a large variety of renewable energy sources, and those with political power have a predisposition to this important change. Today Hawaii depends on 90% of the imported petroleum to generate electricity, the highest level of all of the states of the United States. At the same time, Hawaiian citizens pay the highest energy costs in the entire country. This energy dependence prompted Governor Linda Lingle to look for a change in the state’s energy system. That’s why she is researching and carrying out a series of projects intended to get 40% of the state’s energy from renewable sources by 2030.

The conditions for achieving this are already there. Each of the six main islands that make up Hawaii has at least one renewable energy source. On Maui, there are waves for generating wave energy. On Lanai and Molokai, there is wind for eolic energy. On Oahu, there are solar panels. On Kauai, energy is produced from biomass. And on Hawaii, they are working to convert seawater into electricity. Last year, the Hawaiian government established an agreement with the Hawaiian Electric Company: the idea is that together they will achieve the goal of the island generating 40% of its energy from renewable sources for 2030.

On the other hand, there is no shortage of obstacles. In Hawaii, the greatest consumer of energy is Honolulu, the state capital, but the majority of the energy sources are 160 or 240 kilometers away. Furthermore, the state has six electrical networks, one per island, and none of them are interconnected. Another problem has to do with the social side of the issue. In Hawaii, there is a division between the rural and urban populations. Many of the inhabitants of the less populated areas are tired of receiving orders from Honolulu, with its mega energy plan. There are even groups, such as the Pele Defense Club, that defend the god of fire and the volcanoes, who they call Pele, and consider geothermic energy to be sacrilegious.

Solutions suggested to overcome these problems are: In regards to the disconnection between the electrical grids, to connect them with an undersea cable system. To address potential opposition by certain communities, there are plans to offer support and financing for needs that these groups identify, such as conservation of marine life. One of the individuals responsible for the project stated that the islands are being pressured to supply energy for Oahu, and that they should be compensated somehow.

One of the measures being considered to achieve the goal for 2030 is to reduce the consumption of energy and make it more efficient. One of the proposals consists of reducing the usage of air conditioning in high quality hotels. At the same time, Governor Lingle managed to pass a law that requires family homes built starting in 2010 to have thermal solar panels.

Source:

NY Times

More info:

Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative

Hawaiian Electric Company

The US government is the largest energy consumer in the US economy. Being so, its decisions can influence the economy greatly. What would happen if the government decided to consume only renewable energy? This sector would be given a strong momentum. The energy sector as a whole would partly be driven towards renewable energies.

The Government is investigating and starting to foster this possibility. To start with, it has launched the GreenGov Challenge, on October 19^th. Its aim is to involve all 1.8 million civilian workers and members of the military in suggesting ideas of how the government could become greener.

President Barack Obama said: “As the largest consumer of energy in the U.S. economy, the federal government can and should lead by example when it comes to creating innovative ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase energy efficiency, conserve water, reduce waste, and use environmentally-responsible products and technologies”.

The U.S. government uses almost 500,000 buildings, 600,000 vehicles and more than $500 billion in purchased goods and services each year. Imagine the consequences it can have by deciding to consume specific goods and services.

The deadline for uploading the suggestions at the Challenge website is next Saturday! So, if you are a civilian worker in the US and care about the environment, this is a fantastic opportunity for you to participate.

The best ideas will be given to the Steering Committee on Federal Sustainability, in November.

The General Services Administration has to analyze the possibility of tracking the government’s suppliers’ greenhouse gas emissions. One possible strategy is to require vendors to register with a voluntary greenhouse gas emissions list, and then make their efforts to reduce emissions known. Products manufactured in a least polluting way could be encouraged, and picked over others.

All this comes from the Executive Order on Federal Sustainability signed by Obama on October 5^th. With it, the Federal government committed itself to becoming greener. To access the PDF click here.

To participate in the GreenGov Challenge click here

The internet is undeniably one of the greatest inventions of recent times. For many of us, it would be very difficult to imagine everyday life without this tool, and it would be unthinkable for those of us who have been educated by it for the past 20 years. When our internet connection is down and we cannot search Google to find a certain piece of information, or read the newspaper online, we feel cut off from the world. Leaving aside this minor exaggeration, the question that we are asking ourselves here is if the internet is a tool that has sustainable or "green" characteristics. In this article, we will limit ourselves to the study of the carbon footprint or the ecological "dark side" of the internet, and we will discuss its benefits in a future entry.

The internet requires a colossal infrastructure of satellites, undersea cables, optic fibers, servers, routers, switches, and a large number of other devices to transmit all of its information to our screens, telephones, and other accessories. Although it is true that a large part of this structure was inherited from the telephone and cable companies, without a doubt, much new infrastructure was also created. According to the New Scientist in the May 2009 edition, the internet currently consumes 152 billions of kilowatt hours annually just to feed the data centers that keep it alive. When all of the personal computers that are connected are added in, it is estimated that overall, the internet may be responsible for up to 2% of CO2 emissions, putting it side by side with the aviation industry. However, this number would decrease if we transitioned the energy grid to use more renewable energy sources and manufactured more efficient computers.

According to Google, the electricity needed for a single search on its web site generates 200 mg of CO2. It is estimated that a thousand searches create the same amount of CO2 as a car driving 1 km. As we know, the internet continues to grow at an exponential rate, and according to the organization The Climate Group, emissions from computers will increase by 280% by the year 2020, generating 1.4 giga tons of CO2 annually. Conscious of this, Google created a 5 step plan with the objective of reducing its carbon footprint and initiating actions that would allow it to become a "carbon neutral" company. Here are the five steps:

Minimize the electricity required by its servers.

Reduce the energy used by data centers.

Conserve potable water by using recycled water.

Reuse or recycle all of the electronic equipment abandoned by its data centers.

Participate with other companies to advance the smartest energy practices.

Without a doubt, the environmental impact of the internet is currently big, and its challenges are not negligible. Improving efficiency is vital, especially if its high rate of growth is taken into account. At the same time, it is key that we improve the efficiency of personal computers, since these form an integral part of this network. In the next edition, we will analyze the other side of the coin – the emissions savings that the internet can bring.

Biofuels have gone from being called the “great green hope” to being considered an ecological problem. Why? The reason is that industrialized countries are only interested in biofuels because they are cheaper, and to them it doesn’t matter where these come from. The problem is that if they are assured of buyers, and the buyers buy a lot, developing countries will use fields that were previously used to grow food to grow crops for biofuels instead.

Basically, there are less and less crops devoted to food, and as if that weren’t bad enough, in countries like Brazil, hundreds and hundreds of acres of the Amazon rainforest are being cut down in order to have more farmland reserved for growing crops of biofuels.

And even worse, since biofuel crops are so lucrative, crops are not rotated, so the land becomes less fertile, and since there are no areas used for pasture in order to not “waste” space, there are less cattle.

This is how an ecological idea is becoming dangerous for the economy and health of many countries. At the Argentine Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial (INTI), the “food versus fuel” debate has taken hold as well; let’s look at the conclusions at which they have arrived.

They have seen one of the main problems brought on by biofuels, which is the abuse of fertilizers. Since there is no crop rotation, the land needs the fertilizers because it loses its natural fertility. Fertilizer abuse translates into surface and underground water pollution, since rain carries pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorous to rivers and underground wells.

The proliferation of these nutrients in the water causes harmful algae to flourish on coasts and statuaries, and finally results in low water oxygen concentration, which causes a chain of problems for ecosystems, since fish can no longer live in water low in oxygen.

The recommendation for sustainable agriculture from the INTI is to support the development of perennial pastures or the cellulose ethanol industry (biofuel) based on wastes, so that biofuel production is sustainable in the long term.

These days we are not prepared to produce ethanol from materials with cellulose, such as plant wastes, corncobs, etc, which are recycled from agricultural wastes, not as replacements for agriculture.

Since this sustainable technique is not viable at this time due to lack of infrastructure, it is interesting that it has government support.

“Perennial grasses such as switch grass take two or three seasons without harvesting to establish themselves. Once established, they can grow for 20 years or more without replanting, if managed correctly,” states the INTI. However, once established, they can provide a source of income for the producer, and it is not an agricultural pollutant, since it requires less fertilizers.

We must look for a way to get out of this problem for rural developing countries.

Source: INTI