Weekly snapshot of green, sustainability, and efficiency items (Week of Mar. 25, 2012)
Items for the week of Mar. 25, 2012
Federal Sustainability Items
· Dept. of Energy (DOE) announces funding to promote zero emission cargo transport vehicles – DOE announced up to $10 million available this year to demonstrate and deploy electric transportation technologies for cargo vehicles, such as trucks and forklifts.
· White House announces new funding for biomass research and development initiative – The White House announced up to $35 million over three years to support research and development in advanced biofuels, bioenergy and high-value biobased products.
· White House announces new funding to develop lightweight materials for advanced vehicles – The White House announced a new $14.2 million effort at the DOE to accelerate the development and deployment of stronger and lighter materials for advanced vehicles.
Buildings
· China has made unusual progress in adhering to its building energy codes, according to report – In recent years, China has been adding 1.6 to 2.0 billion square meters of new residential and commercial buildings each year, making it the largest market for new construction in the world. Though the enforcement of China’s building energy codes has been widely viewed as fraught with challenges, in recent years China has seemingly achieved unusual progress in improving its compliance rate at both design and construction stages.
· Company launches cloud-based analytics for building management – Honeywell has released a suite of professional services that combines cloud-based tools and analytics to provide enhancements that the company says can reduce utility bills and operating expenses up to 20%.
· Two global organizations call for a global reduction in the amount of energy consumed in buildings in order to strengthen energy security – The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) called for a global reduction in the amount of energy consumed. The IEA and WBCSD formally agreed to strengthen their collaboration in a range of areas, including sustainable energy policies and technologies.
Renewable Energy / Clean Energy
· The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that in 2010, 3.1 million US jobs were associated with the production of Green Goods and Services (GGS) – GGS jobs accounted for 2.4% of total US employment in 2010.
· 20% of Germany’s energy comes from renewables; entire towns strive to meet their energy needs from renewables – Germany is seeing a small town energy revolution: currently there are more than 75 villages and municipalities that are striving to meet their energy needs with 100% renewables.
Utilities
Solar
Solar
· Bloomberg New Energy Finance explains in graphic that solar power has reached long-sought industry goal – Solar electricity providers have reached what experts call the “golden goal” of grid parity, when putting solar modules on the roof to replace electricity purchase from the grid is a good investment for consumers.
· Scottish solar firm becomes largest installer in the UK by fitting 115 grocery stores since Nov. 2011 – Renewable Resources, a Scottish solar installer, has installed over 36,000 solar panels atop 115 Sainsbury’s grocery stores since Nov. 2011.
Water
Wind
· Fenton Wind Farm in Minnesota produces enough electricity to meet 10% of state’s demand – The wind farm spans two counties of Midwest corn country and is an economic engine contributing $800,000 a year in taxes and fees.
· Germany to invest $263 billion in wind farms – Germany plans to build offshore wind farms that will cover an area six times the size of New York City and erect power lines that could stretch from London to Baghdad. The program will cost 200 billion euros ($263 billion), about 8% of the country’s gross domestic product in 2011, according to the DIW economic institute in Berlin.
Webinars and Washington, DC Events
· Webinar: March 26, 2012: Tools and leading practices for implementing green leasing – This webinar will showcase green leasing as a market solution to improve building energy efficiency and is targeted to a broad audience, from building owners and tenant organizations to lawyers and building raters. The webinar will introduce a new green leasing library website offering a one-stop-shop for green leasing resources. (See the Green Lease Library.)
· Webinar: March 27, 2012: Engaging vendors to help consumers save energy – This webinar will discuss Sears Canada’s efforts to reduce its customers’ carbon footprint by sourcing energy efficient products.
· Event: March 27, 2012: Climate Leadership Gala, Washington, DC – This gala will bring together leaders of industry, government and the non-profit community to celebrate achievements, discuss how to remove impediments, and forge a path to a post-carbon future. The gala is the centerpiece of the Creating Climate Wealth Summit (see item below).
· Event: March 27-28, 2012: Creating Climate Wealth Summit - North America 2012, Arlington, VA – The purpose of this event is to identify specific pathways to accelerate deployment of green solutions in the face of low expectations and weak mandates. This high level workshop convenes executives, investors, entrepreneurs, and leaders from the private and public sector.
· Event: March 27-29, 2012: Distributed Wind 2012: A Capitol Hill Event for Small and Community Wind, Washington, DC – This event will include representatives from DOE, Dept. of the Interior (DOI), Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), and the EPA, to discuss small and community wind.
· Webinar: March 28, 2012: The New Scope 3 Standards Uncovered: Measuring Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Value Chain – GHG Protocol recently launched the new Scope 3 and Product standards to enable corporations to measure and manage greenhouse gas emissions across their entire value chain and product lifecycle. This webinar will introduce participants to the standards, provide a business case for their adoption, and review the accounting and reporting requirements.
· Webinar: March 28, 2012: Climate Change Solutions: Frontline Perspectives from Around the Globe (India) – This webinar, hosted by Yale University, will discuss climate policy from India’s perspective.
· Event: March 29, 2012: Value Proposition of Sustainable Roundtable – This roundtable event will discuss what the value and return on investment of sustainability is. How has the regional market changed, and what does the future hold in this marketplace for sustainable projects? How is the regulatory environment evolving, and what challenges and opportunities exist?
· Webinar: March 30, 2012: California Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) update – This webinar will present current updates regarding the California REC market. Participants will learn how California's 33% Renewable Portfolio Standard treats renewable energy certificates (RECs).
· Event: March 30, 2012: Biofuels matchmaking value chain event at USDA – USDA will host a matchmaking day to promote connections between agricultural producers of energy feedstocks (and their related businesses) with biorefiners seeking to produce biofuels for commercial sale and consumption. Officials from the FAA, the Navy, and DOE will also attend.
· Event: April 1-3, 2012: National Symposium on Market Transformation, Washington, DC – This event, hosted by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), will have sessions on energy efficiency financing, energy technologies for efficiency programs, and discussions on Zero Net Energy (ZNE) expectations as well as unintended consequences.
· Webinar: April 3, 2012: World Bank Institute’s webinar on Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) – The recent Durban Climate Conference made important progress toward clarifying the international operational framework for NAMAs, particularly on a prototype registry and core guidance for reporting. This webinar will address the key outcomes of Durban related to NAMAs as well as challenges that NAMAs face.
· Webinar: April 3, 2012: Webinar on DOE’s tool to calculate savings and costs of switching to light emitting diode (LED) street lighting – This webinar will explain the Retrofit Financial Analysis Tool developed by DOE’s Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium. In addition, presenters will provide a guided walk-through of how this Excel-based tool can be used to evaluate the savings and costs associated with converting to LED street and roadway lighting.
· Event: April 3-4, 2012: Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference, Washington, DC – Organizers indicate that this is North America’s largest gathering of advanced biofuels CEOs and senior leadership.
· Event: April 4-5, 2012: Washington Clean Energy Roundtable, Washington, DC – The theme of this fifth annual event will be “Clean Energy, Mobility, and Natural Gas: Energy Security and Economic Development in a Time of Transition”.
· Webinar: April 5, 2012: Selecting and evaluating clean energy technologies for federal facilities – This webinar, hosted by DOE’s Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), will demonstrate how to use the FEMP Technology Deployment Matrix to identify and select clean energy technologies that have high potential of immediate deployment into agency energy-use reduction programs; assess potential benefits; execute market-based deployment strategies; and develop performance metrics to validate effectiveness and justify project funding.
· Webinar: April 10, 2012: Improving energy efficiency for existing buildings – This webinar will present the fundamental and enhanced strategies for improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings and enhancing asset value. With a focus on the commercial building sector, participants will learn about the assessment of energy efficiency opportunities, identification of appropriate technologies and strategies, common roadblocks and strategies for success in upgrading existing building stock.
· Event: April 12, 2012: George Washington University Solar Institute Symposium 2012 – As in previous years, the free symposium will feature high-level speakers with globally recognized expertise in solar policy, technology, and industry.
· Event: April 12, 2012: Energy Modeling and LEED – This event will discuss effective energy analysis; setting requirements in order to maximize the benefit of energy consulting services; and anticipated LEED 2012 energy modeling requirements.
· Webinar: April 18, 2012: Wind powering America: Technology update – This webinar, hosted by DOE, will provide information about the technology improvements that are changing the wind landscape.
· Event: April 22-24, 2012: 2012 Efficient Buildings Conference, Arlington, VA – The conference will give specific, actionable information including details on new financing tools. In addition, there will be project case studies and actual data on real-world savings and payback periods for various improvements.
· Webinar: May 3, 2012: Achieving energy security in federal facilities – This webinar, hosted by DOE’s FEMP, will focus on integrating energy security measures into upgrades, retrofits, and new construction projects. Focus areas include islanding; smart grids, micro-grids, and advanced controls; reliability-centered maintenance; emergency planning and fail-safe scenarios; and leading practices and project examples.
· Webinar: May 16, 2012: Wind powering America: Careers in wind energy – This webinar, hosted by DOE, will provide an overview of the wind energy careers from an industry perspective.
· Event: May 14-16, 2012: 5th Annual Utility of the Future Leadership Forum – This event, hosted by DNV KEMA, will feature discussions on the challenges and innovations that utilities are putting forward to build for the future.
· Event: May 19-23, 2012: Climate Ride NYC-DC 2012 – This charitable bike ride covers 300 miles between New York City and Washington, DC.
· Webinar: May 30, 2012: Today’s energy supply, yesterday’s grid – This webinar, hosted by DOE, will include a discussion on how utilities’ generation portfolios are changing, often faster than the grid infrastructure that supports them, and the challenges utilities currently face in integrating new generation and demand (load) response technologies into a grid that was designed to operate a different way.
· Webinar: June 7, 2012: Streamlining Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) for small sites – This webinar, hosted by DOE’s FEMP, will help smaller facilities to contract with energy service companies (ESCOs) on energy-saving projects.
· Webinar: July 12, 2012: Implementing deep retrofits – DOE’s FEMP will host this webinar with the goal of yielding higher performance results than are achieved with standard, individual, and routine energy conservation measures.
Misc.
· Paper reports that due to lack of collaboration between tax and sustainability departments, companies are missing key financial opportunities – The paper, written by Ernst & Young, summarizes the results of a recent survey which gauged the level of involvement of business tax departments with their companies’ broader corporate environmental and sustainability initiatives. The survey results show that there is room for improvement in the integration of sustainability efforts.
· Chicago airports to install electric vehicle (EV) charging stations – The seven EV facilities at both Chicago Midway Airport and Chicago O’Hare Airport will be part of a city-wide network for 281 EV charging stations.
· McDonald’s launches pilot program to drop polystyrene coffee cups – McDonald’s is launching a pilot program to phase out polystyrene beverage cups. The company indicated it is testing replacement of polystyrene with a double-walled paper hot cup at approximately 2,000 of its restaurants in the US, primarily on the West Coast.
· Consumer-products maker unveils online forum to attract outside environmental innovation help - Unilever, the world’s second- biggest consumer-products maker, unveiled a website to gather and assess ideas from outside the company as it looks to bolster sales from new products and improve environmental practices.
· Austria rolls out first for-rent electric vehicle (EV) charging points with accounting systems – The actual use of the recharging point is tracked with a card provided by Wien Energie. All the electricity purchased through the EV stations is from 100% renewable resources.
