Sustainable Development Focus
Solar Industry Magazine - Nov 10 Taking another step toward achieving its goal of using 100% renewable energy by 2025, Kaiser Permanente has celebrated the opening of the Blythe Solar Energy Center in Riverside County, California. Kaiser Permanente, a U.S. integrated healthcare system, enabled the construction of the energy center through a 20-year agreement with Blythe owner and operator NextEra Energy Resources to purchase 110 megawatts of the green energy generated at the site, the equivalent of powering more than 50,000 homes. One of Kaiser Permanente’s long-term environmental stewardship goals is to become “carbon net positive” by 2025.
Next City - Nov 11 On November 28, the Los Angeles Metro transit agency will start looking over proposals to build up to 1,000 compressed natural gas-fed buses and 200 zero emission buses, in a major step toward bringing a more sustainable, environmentally friendly commute to the country’s most populous county. But another major victory is that these manufacturers will also be rewarded based on how significantly they create California jobs, particularly for disadvantaged communities, and reinvest in local manufacturing hubs instead of looking for cheaper places to build these vehicles offshore. In total, the projects could bring an estimated 4,500 jobs to the Los Angeles County area and other yet-to-be-determined cities that local transit jobs coalition Jobs to Move America says will play a vital role in the manufacturing and supply chains delivering them to Southern California.
Urban Land - Nov 8 During a session at the ULI Fall Meeting in early November, panelists involved in the ULI Healthy Corridors project discussed strategies for transforming unsafe, unattractive, and poorly connected commercial corridors into thriving places that further the goal of creating healthy and economically vibrant communities. ULI leaders from three of the four cities with demonstration corridors in the Healthy Corridors project, Los Angeles, Nashville, and Denver, as well as from a model healthy corridor in Shoreline, Washington, reported on their progress and their direction for the future. Clare De Briere, chief executive officer and executive vice president of the Ratkovich Company in Los Angeles, said ULI Los Angeles and partners are working on a segment of Van Nuys Boulevard, the main commercial corridor in the Pacoima neighborhood north of downtown Los Angeles. Pacoima is a diverse community with a rich culture reflected in murals and small businesses that cater to the surrounding Latino community. It also faces some of the city’s poorest health outcomes: it is a food desert, with high levels of heart disease and diabetes. The segment is part of the city’s Great Streets project, launched in 2013 to provide better links within the corridor.
Proud Green Building - Nov 10 The city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Green Lodging Program, in partnership with Green Seal, have unveiled the Green4Green incentive program to help Los Angeles area hotels go green. The incentive, according to a press release, is intended to encourage hotels to join the Los Angeles Green Lodging Program by getting certified as environmental leaders through Green Seal. The program covers 50 percent of a hotel’s application fee to get Green Seal certified and 25 percent of the first year monitoring fee. By becoming Green Seal-certified, hotels will offer a healthier and greener experience to the millions of visitors who stay in the city’s hotels every year. Additionally, hotels that get certified will also be helping the city meet its 2020 goals for reduced energy and water use.
Sacramento Business Journal - Nov 9 Three Sullivan Auto Group dealerships in Roseville have installed an extensive $5.7 million clean-energy project that's expected to cut energy use by about 87 percent. The energy upgrade work is being paid for through Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing from Placer County’s mPower program, which pays the upfront cost of the upgrades, and the improvements are paid in annual property tax assessments. This is the largest PACE financing in Placer County, and it is believed to be the largest in the region, said Alexia Retallack, a spokeswoman for Placer County.
