Sustainable Development Focus
Orange County Business Journal - Sep 30
The California Energy Efficiency Industry Council named Newport Beach-based Irvine Company one of three Energy Champions for 2016. The council is a nonprofit group in Oakland that supports energy programs and efficiency in order to provide sustainable jobs, stable energy systems, reasonable energy prices, and environmental improvement. Irvine Co. implemented plans to save over 4.2 million kilowatt hours annually in 120 low-rise office buildings in California.
Fast Company - Sep 29
By 2020, if the goals in the state’s ambitious Zero Net Energy Action Plan are realized, all new homes in California will achieve zero net energy, generally meaning they produce as much energy on-site from renewables as they consume in a year from the grid. Thanks in part to its rigorous energy code, known as Title 24, which requires, among other things, efficient lighting, high-performance insulation, and solar-ready roof space, the state already boasts about half of the more than 3,000 zero-energy residences catalogued in the country to date. Sacramento leads the state with 925 units, the most of any American city, and 800 more in the works. While other cities boast the mild climates and high utility rates that would seem to favor zero-energy homes, the majority of California’s are clustered around its capital. The University of California’s 900-unit West Village makes the nearby city of Davis a close second.
Progressive Grocer - Sep 28
Hard-discount grocery chain Aldi has earned LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for its environmentally sustainable distribution center and regional headquarters in Moreno Valley. To meet LEED Gold standards, Aldi worked with Graycor Construction Co. as the design-build partner along with architects and engineers to improve the design and materials used in the development of the facility. Features include: on-site solar panels that provide 60 percent of the electricity at the site, a refrigeration system using ammonia, which is a naturally occurring element and highly energy efficient, electric vehicle charging stations, bicycle racks that promote the use of greener methods of transportation, and water-efficient landscaping and plumbing.
The Guardian - Sep 27
As cities across the world begin to prioritize walkable urban development and the type of city living that does not require a car for every trip, city officials are beginning to move away from blanket policies of providing abundant parking. Many are adjusting zoning rules that require certain minimum amounts of parking for specific types of development. Others are tweaking prices to discourage driving as a default when other options are available. Some are even actively preventing new parking spaces from being built. After San Francisco implemented a pilot project with real-time data on parking availability and dynamic pricing for spaces, an evaluation found that the amount of time people spent looking for parking fell by 43%. And though there’s no data available on whether that’s meant more people deciding not to drive to San Francisco, various researchers have shown that a 10% increase in the price of parking can reduce demand between 3-10%.
Next City - Sep 28
The White House announced last week that it’s pouring an additional $80 million into its one-year-old Smart Cities Initiative, bringing the total investment to $240 million. The initiative was created to help cities tackle some of their most challenging problems, regarding everything from public safety to resilience and transportation, through federal research and partnerships among governments, universities, and the private sector. In addition to more money, more than 70 cities and communities are now involved, and a slate of new programs are coming in the next year. A new Global City Teams Challenge is bringing together “super-clusters” headed up by more than 20 cities to tackle challenges too big for any one city, such as large-scale natural disasters and regional air-quality improvements. More than $15 million will go toward the Better Communities Alliance, a new network from the DOE focused on creating smart, energy-efficient transportation systems and clean energy sources.
Environmental Leader - Oct 4
Cities and corporations are increasingly working together to address climate change, according to a CDP report released this week. Cities, along with more than 5,000 companies, disclosed their climate-related data through CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project. Cities highlighted a total of 720 climate change-related projects, worth a combined $26 billion, that they want to work with the private sector on, according to the report. Cities benefit from partnering with corporations on infrastructure projects because investment from private and public sources can improve their access to financing. These projects are also attractive to businesses because they are typically large — energy-efficiency retrofits or water and wastewater management efforts, for example — with long-term contracts. “In the U.S. alone, the figure was $8 billion in projects reported by the cities,” Maia Kutner, head of cities at CDP said.
