Green Building Blog - Jetson Green

California Finds the Missing Piece of the CO2 Emissions Puzzle

This article was written by Charles Lockwood, a green real estate authority and consultant based in southern California and New York City.  His articles have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Barron’s.

California—the state that invented freeways and suburban sprawl—has become a trendsetter again, and not a moment too soon in our new age of global climate change.  In October 2008, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law SB375, which was supported by environmentalists, homebuilders, and cities and counties.  SB375 will limit the state’s CO2 emissions by curbing suburban sprawl and increasing transit-based development through various incentives. 

If a community plans walkable, mixed-use, transit-oriented growth that reduces automobile use and greenhouse gas emissions, for example, it gets moved to the front of the line for state and federal transportation funds.  If a proposed building is located near a transit line, it will have an easier environmental review process.  Why is SB375 important?

STAR Community Index, Like LEED But For Cities and Local Governments

Keep your eyes out for the newest tool designed to rate cities in their efforts to push environmental stewardship.  The STAR Community Index is like LEED, but it's designed to rate local governments.  With myriad green city rankings and websites trying to calculate the sustainability of local governments,* it's high time for a highly respected, standardized formula for measuring a community's sustainability.  According to ICLEI, the STAR Program will create a process, not unlike LEED, to bring in leaders in the field toward the goal of establishing shared measures and processes for greening communities.  STAR will have tiered levels, with the aim to accomplish the following:

California Adopts Statewide Green Building Code!

[+] California adopts statewide green building code [SF Chronicle]
[+] State adopts nation's first state green building codes [Bizjournal]
[+] California code adopted for all new construction [GreenBiz]

Japanese Zero Emissions Home Unveiled for G8 Summit

In conjunction with The Hokkaido Toyako G8 Summit in Japan occurring right now from July 7-9, 2008, Japan and Sekisui House have released details of The Zero Emissions House, a high-tech, prefabricated home designed in the vernacular of traditional Japan.  As the G8 Summit focuses on various issues pressing on the world right now, representative nations will be discussing the environment and how to deal with climate change.  In that regard, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) is constructing the house a short distance from the summit to show Japan's potential contribution to cutting emissions in the world's built environment. 

AIA Report: 42+ Million People Live in Cities with Green Building Programs!

The AIA has been publishing some interesting analysis of U.S. green building programs, which I wanted to share with all you enthusiasts.  In their report, Local Leaders in Sustainability, the AIA looked at 661 communities, or cities with a population greater than 50,000 people, and conducted research of each communities' green building programs.  The AIA spoke with planners and other officials from 606 cities, getting a 92% response rate.  They found that 92 of the 606 responding cities had green building programs -- or to put that in perspective, over 42 million people live in cities with green building programs.  The report also elaborated on program trends and includes case studies of programs in Portland, San Francisco, Scottsdale, Chicago, Austin, and Atlanta. 

Town of Babylon to Provide Funds to Make 65,000 Homes Energy Efficient!

In an innovative move, the Town of Babylon has set up an extensive program to work with citizens to pay for energy efficiency upgrades for every home in the town.  The basic premise of the program is that the town wants to help residents use less energy, so here's what they plan to do.  They're going to loan up to $12,000 at the super low interest rate of 3% to pay directly for renovation costs.  Under the program, residents get home energy audits that include recommended actions for renovations, including adding more insulation, changing out the HVAC system, etc.  The town pays for the renovations and the homeowner then makes payments to the town based roughly on the reduction in payments caused by having a more efficient home.  So it's quite the innovative system. 

Wind Could Power 20% of US Grid by 2030

Here's some interesting news: a new Department of Energy report claims wind turbines could generate 300 gigawatts of electricity -- roughly 20% of the US electrical grid -- by 2030.  There's already a website in support of the news at 20%Wind.org.  The report doesn't necessarily predict the future of the wind industry, but it paints a picture of what a particular 20% wind scenario could mean for the nation.  The wind industry currently produces about 17 gigawatts of electricity, so we're talking about significant growth over the next twenty-something years.  That said, wind industry growth has been fierce in recent years and is on track to meet these numbers if growth holds pace.

BYOBlue, A Reason to Wear Blue for Earth Day

Here's the deal.  I was going to write about BYOBlue earlier today, but I was cranking away on some green building research and got a little delayed.  So, if you're just reading this today on Earth Day, you still have time.  Architecture 2030 is rallying the nation to participate in the BYOBlue campaign by calling on everyone to wear BLUE during Earth Day 2008 to signify a vote for NO COAL.  So, first, go home and put on something blue.  Second, call Congress at 202-224-3121 and ask for an immediate ‘Moratorium on Coal’ - a halt to the construction of any new conventional coal-fired power plants.  In the past year, fifty-nine conventional coal plants were cancelled (over a third of the 151 planned), so let's get the rest shut down.  It's time to find other alternatives for our energy future. 

Breaking: President Bush Excerpts on Climate Change and GHG Emissions [ +Reactions]

[Live] 2:45 EST - President Makes Remarks on Climate Change !!

Response Links: what people are saying.

[Video] Al Gore, the PPT Presentation v2.0

[Time - 27:54] The optimism of environmentalism isn't about belief, it's about behavior.  And we need a hero generation.  We have the capacity to do it.  Rise to the challenge and lay the basis for a bright and optimistic human future. 

++We Can Solve It