Sustainable Development Focus
Business Insider - Jun 6 Summer is coming, and green bonds are blooming. Issuers of such bonds promise to use the proceeds on environmentally friendly projects. There are no hard and fast parameters for what a green bond can fund, but they cover areas like renewable energy, deforestation, green buildings, clean transportation, and water treatment. Global green bond issuance stands at $21.7 billion so far in 2016, up 78 percent from $12.1 billion issued in the same period last year. That's a record high, according to a note circulated by Dealogic, and the volume of green bonds has already reached 59 percent of the total in 2015. Most of the bonds were sold by global agencies like the World Bank, but an increasing number of financial institutions and private companies are joining in.
MyCentralJersey - Jun 4 Nearly three in four Americans (73 percent) would support changes in land use or zoning regulations in their community that encourage transit-oriented development, according to a new America THINKS national public opinion survey by HNTB Corporation. The survey found that more than half (55 percent) of Americans so value proximity to public transportation that they are willing to pay more for their mortgage or rent. This is especially true among millennials who are much more willing to pay more each month than older Americans (70 percent versus 49 percent). The survey also found that the desire to live near public transportation has increased in the last five years among 29 percent of Americans.
ULI San Francisco - May 24 Recent California legislation will require all new residential development to be zero energy by 2020 (for commercial development, the requirement will begin in 2030), and the California Public Utilities Commission has released its Zero Net Energy Action Plan, a market-driven framework for developers. Zero energy buildings (ZEB) produce as much energy as they consume over the course of a year, usually through a combination of efficient design elements and on-site generation. The higher cost and design challenges of building ZEB can seem daunting, but the technology and innovative financing tools required for these projects already exist, such as the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) mechanism. Key design steps needed for a successful ZEB project include using the sun for passive solar heat gain, electricity, and water.
Inside Climate News - Jun 1 The New York State Assembly approved the nation's most ambitious climate change bill last week. The vote came hours after a broad coalition of environmental justice, climate activist, conservation, and labor groups took to the State Capitol in Albany urging lawmakers to swiftly pass the bill before the legislative session ends on June 16. The legislation requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from major sources to zero by 2050. That would demand a near total decarbonization of its economy, and it would put New York among the world's leaders on forceful climate action. To achieve it, the bill gives the state until 2030 to get at least 50 percent of its electricity from clean energy.
Marin Independent Journal - Jun 3 Plan Bay Area, a long-range transportation and land-use/housing blueprint for the nine-county Bay Area, caused a stir in Marin when it was adopted in 2013, and preparations are beginning now to update the plan by next summer. The plan divided Marin. A coalition of neighborhood groups called Citizen Marin asserted the plan would rob local jurisdictions of control over land-use decisions and result in high-density apartment developments that would despoil Marin’s pristine natural environment and small-town character. Concerned Marinites to End NIMBYism countered that opponents were really worried that denser, more affordable housing would attract lower-income, more ethnically diverse residents to the county. A collaboration of four regional government agencies, Plan Bay Area sets out housing and transportation plans in response to California’s Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008, SB 375.
CSUF - Jun 3 It’s been four years since Cal State Fullerton "threw the switch" for a 1-megawatt photovoltaic installation on several building rooftops, which produces electricity equivalent to eliminating 5,181 passenger vehicles from the road annually and will do so over the next 25 years, saving the campus approximately $9 million in utility savings, said Willem Van der Pol, interim associate vice president for facilities planning and management. This summer, the campus is expanding that project with an additional 3.3-megawatt system on the upper decks of the Nutwood and State College Parking structures.
