A massive tidal power project at the mouth of Great Britain's longest river could create a 10-mile wide, $15 billion (in pounds) dam that would generate 17 terrawatts of electricity per year.

I've always been a sucker for giant engineering projects, from classics like the Great Pyramids to modern marvels including Dubai's world-shaped islands and Taipei 101. I'm not interested beating nature into submission or one-upmanship, but about physically demonstrating humanity's collective intelligence, effort, and drive. The Severn project in the UK combines my build-lust with another obsession: green power.

Developers have had their eyes on the Severn estuary since the late-19th century, first for a shipping harbour, then various electricity projects. The high costs of such daunting engineering has kept these plans from realization, but is now moving ahead.

Two possible versions of the tidal power plant exist, a dam-like barrage and a man-made lagoon. The barrage would let water enter during high tide, trap it, then release it through 200+ giant turbines to generate electricity. The lagoon option, favored by some environmental groups, would feature a number of lakes that would fill and empty through turbines and cover only about 60% of the land area of the barrage.

The barrage option appears to be the most likely, with a detailed plan that's existed since 1989. The next hurdle for the Severn plan is a Strategic Environmental Assessment, which will determine how the surrounding environment will be affected.

The scale of this project is staggering. The span, to double as a bridge between England and Wales, would be more than twice as long as the Chesapeake Bay bridge in Maryland.  According to the Times Online, construction would require moving 18 million tonnes of seabed and 13 million tonnes of concrete, gravel, and other material. To top it off, the design has built-in locks for letting ships pass.

Although UK government officials say the proposal could meet up to 4% of the United Kingdom's electricity needs renewably, it has been opposed by environmental groups such as WWF, Friends of the Earth, and the haughty-sounding Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). And they have a point. The estuary is a protected conservation area and RSPB says an annual average of 65,000 water birds call it home. Damming the area would threaten the sensitive inter-tidal area.

My guess is that the project will go forward, especially with the UK wondering exactly how they'll meet their target of 40% renewable electricity by 2020. As with many of the great building efforts of the past, there are trade-offs between earth and earth-moving, even when you're doing the latter to preserve the former.

With the installation of a single residential solar system, the city of Townsville in Queensland, Australia embarks on an effort to turn itself into a leader in sustainable energy. The system is located on Magnetic Island just off the coast of Northeastern Australia, where Townsville aims to create a "solar suburb." Up to 500 residents and businesses will have solar PV systems installed free of charge. About 1700 other islanders will score consolation prizes ranging from smart meters and in-house energy use displays to CFL bulbs and low-flow showerheads.

In all, the city will receive $30 million (in Koala Bucks or whatever) of state and federal government assistance for the project. Other parts ofTownsville's sunny outlook include plans for a 150 house solar village, an upscale energy-lite apartment complex, and a big-idea sustainable building experiment in the central business district. The city expects to save 50,000 tons of GHG over the next seven years through the improvements.

The project is part of a $75 million (Didgeri-dollars) solar tech trial run by the Australian government intended to demonstrate the viability of solar energy and efficiency innovations. Townsville is one of four 'Solar Cities' chosen from around the country. In other Aussie energy news, Queensland is about to start exploring for local geothermal as well.

During the writing of this post, I found out that Queensland calls itself "The Sunshine State" - Florida to demand a recount I'm sure - and that the City of Townsville is also the setting for the superhero cartoon "The Powerpuff Girls." This 2nd item caused me substantial confusion for some time.

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Green building is gaining popularity, but how about what goes in those buildings... the furniture? It turns out that there is an emerging market in furniture that actually biodegrades

The furniture and housing goods production process involves a significant amount of chemicals. They're used to treat, process and preserve the woods used, flame retardants are applied to textiles, plastic derivative polyester goes into cushions. In general, home furnishings can be pretty toxic stuff. But some textile and design entrepreneurs are focusing on ways to eliminate toxins, opting instead for neutral chemicals and more natural fabrics.

Designer Michael McDonough set the standard in 2002 when he wrote Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, articulating the implications of cradle-to-grave impacts on furniture. Other designers have followed suit, putting significant effort into ensuring that the processes we use in home furnishing are as careful as the ones so many builders apply to green building.

Despite what appears to be faux controversy about what these advances might do to heirlooms, biodegradable furniture would not immediately break down. But wouldn’t it be cool to be able to toss a broken chair into the compost heap rather than into the trash? There aren’t LEED standards for furniture yet, but it looks like that's the direction on the horizon. Watch out Ikea!

Read more at the New York Times.

On a down note as we prepare to enter summer travel season, it turns out that airplanes produce even more emissions than previous studies reported. Air travel apparently generates the equivalent of half the emissions of the EU, a full 20% more than past estimates.

A partnership between the EU and U.S. produced a report, “Trends in Global Aviation Noise and Emissions from Commercial Aviation for 2000 to 2025," indicating that emissions increases will outpace technological advances. This ‘suppressed’ report, kept in the twilight zone after not being featured at a conference last year, indicates that airlines have a long way to go if they're to be fuel efficient, let alone carbon neutral.

Airlines, not included in the Kyoto protocol, have suffered enormous fiscal losses this year, in part due to rapidly rising fuel costs. The top three airlines (American, Delta and United) have begun to charge a $10 per trip fuel surcharge to address the issue. Industry representatives explain that, environment aside, the airline industry has plenty of motivation to focus on efficiency. Continental is testing alternative jet fuels and new models boast 20% fuel savings on 737s.

Something has to give; this year has been one of the worst years for airline customer satisfaction ever recorded.

Read more at Wired.

Not sure how many fans of South Park we have out there, but if you’re reading, does the Uno motorcycle that’s been making the eco-blog rounds remind you of anything?

All joking aside, the Uno does seem like a pretty cool (and far more comfortable) little toy, employing the gyro technology first seen in wide use on the Segway scooter. Tech specs are a bit lacking at the moment (especially top speed and maximum rider weight, the two things likely to be of most concern to Americans), but the device weighs a mere 120 pounds and runs 2.5 hours on a single charge.

While clearly a hit among the tech-savvy and eco-friendly in the USA, the Uno should also be raising eyebrows in China. Not only will China likely manufacture the electric motors that power the machine, but the Chinese government can finally say that the nation’s horrific air pollution finally inspired something other than a boycott.

You might recognize real estate agent Jim Bob Duggar from his famous Discovery Health series, or from the posters of his two congressional campaigns. Still don’t think you can recognize him? Well, that’s ok—just look for the guy walking around with 17 children. 

Oh, and number 18? It’s on the way.

Taking an average American carbon footprint to be 20.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide-per-year, then multiplying that by the twenty people that will soon be in the Duggar family, we find that it would take over 40,000 citizens of Chad to contribute to create that same mass of climate-warming emissions.

I don’t know about you, but I find that pretty darn impressive. And think, that’s just carbon. Imagine the dent the Duggar would put in the environment if you’d calculated their waste footprint, too.

Man, remember 1998? I sure do. Good times, people. The peak of the greatest economic boom in the history of mankind.  Sky-high presidential approval ratings.  Septuagenarians in  outer space. Forget drawn-out foreign conflicts and and foreclosures. Our biggest concerns were “sexual relations” and “irrational exuberance”. Oh, and gas? 98 cents a gallon.

I guess it’s a bit of an understatement to say that thing have changed since then.  And while it’s easy to think of a lot these of these changes as negative, some fairly good things have come out of them. People are realizing they can’t simply expect a house to gain value just because its a house. As a nation, America is now far more aware of its impacts on the rest of the world. And, perhaps most importantly, people in America are looking for new, and more environmentally friendly ways to get around.

One of the biggest growth areas for non-oil powered transit has been in bicycles.  As the most energy efficient means of transport yet created, bicycles offer tremendous benefits in terms of carbon footprint (despite what a few naysayers might think) and in saving space, especially in urban environments. Not to mention the tremendous improvements in air quality, general fitness, road surface longevity, and reduced dependence on foreign oil they provide.

The problem with bikes, however, is that from a motorist’s prospective, they get in the way. The internal combustion engine, while currently struggling with the obviousness of its own mortality, is still king of the urban roadway, and intentionally or not, it feels compelled to remind cyclists of this on a disturbingly regular basis—even in some of the bike friendliest cities in the nation.

While European cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen have had tremendous success integrating bike lanes into the urban landscape, efforts in America have been—how shall I put this?—somewhat less successful. Part of the problem may be that even cycling advocacy groups can’t seem to agree on how to best implement lanes.  Some say separated lanes are the only way to go, others say they’re inherently more dangerous.

So what’s an eco-savvy cyclist to do? My advice, as a long-time bike commuter is to stay clear of the lane issue. In my experience, anything that tries to make drivers more aware that cyclists are present, and in fact, welcome, on the roads will make motorists more aware of them, if only slightly. The lanes and signs also encourage more citizens to look to the bike as an alternative means of transport. As seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong says, what cycling—and America—needs is a few hundred thousand more bike commuters.

After all, it’s not 1998 anymore.

Photo by Jeff Archer

If we really want to avert an irreversible global climate crisis by drastically reducing carbon emissions in the next 50 years, we must intensively overhaul our collective and individual plans, according to the first speaker, Patrick McCully, Executive Director of International Rivers. Global reduction in carbon emissions can and must be achieved by promoting wise investments, such as photovoltaic panels on existing rooftops, instead of hydroelectric dams built in developing countries for an often subliminal, misguided reason: generating carbon credit revenue.

Hydroelectric dams may seem like a good option at first glance, but deeper investigation by organizations such as International Rivers exposes flaws in the system. McCully outlined the current situation as viewed through his group's eyes. Nearly 10 years ago, the Kyoto Protocol created the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), now the main program used for international carbon trading. Its goal is to promote sustainable, clean technology in developing countries by cutting costs through the sale of carbon credits.

McCully says the CDM is actually contributing to sales of fake credits with little to no environmental benefit, worsening the climate crisis. The biggest issue at stake is that this baseline-and-credit carbon offset system (as opposed to cap-and-trade) creates legal property rights for something that he believes are false commodities: how can you sell credits for carbon that is "not being emitted"? He asks, are some dam projects only happening because they can get carbon credits? Developers stand to benefit from these lucrative projects for the wrong reasons; in turn, the hydroelectric dams they build can also severely diminish biodiversity and put local human populations at risk.

Rooftop photovoltaic solar panels may be a better option, says Danny Kennedy, President and CEO of Sungevity. Kennedy, who in running a solar power company has a clear self-interest, argues that like the recent global boom in cellphone use, photovoltaic panels can benevolently follow suit. With 14 current rooftop PV options available to homeowners, design and cost will be optimized for widespread use by 2050, potentially earlier with strong political support. As an example, Kennedy cited Germany's desire to accept responsibility for the current climate crisis ten years ago, when it incentivized the uptake of renewable energy solutions like solar and wind power. If Germany did it, why can't the U.S.?

Kennedy argues that rooftop PV panels avoid loss or destruction of habitat when compared to solar projects in western deserts, for example. But I'm not sure that it is the wisest option, or that U.S. adoption will lead to lower prices for solar in developing nations. He says that such panels, though sometimes produced using energy from coal plants in China, pay back this energy in as little as two to three years. Kennedy believes that PV panel use will not only cut your household's energy bill, but it will also help to eventually make the commodity affordable in developing countries desperately seeking electricity.

Increasingly, I hear that we must support "watchdog" organizations such as International Rivers and businesses that promote seemingly brilliant, sustainable tech solutions like Sungevity. IR states that they work to halt benefits to hydro developers through CDM's imperfections, as well as fix the cracks in the system. I'm interested to read about their efforts to change an oft-labeled bureaucratic regulatory mechanism. My previous discontent at the United States' refusal to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol has turned into genuine wonder- is there a silver lining to this? If we keep CDM out of the US, we might do ourselves a favor by lowering overall carbon emissions.

McCully believes that between one-third and two-thirds of CDM offsets are in fact fake. I find such a large percentage difficult to ignore, even if it is one person's opinion.

For further information about dams and their local impact, check out the well-reviewed documentary, "Up the Yangtze".

In what can only be described as an epic win for headline writers everywhere, New Scientist is reporting that some species of birds are learning to adapt to the changing climate.

Global warming has brought earlier springs to the British Isles over the past 30 to 35 years, causing the birds’ primary food source, whose hatching is triggered by temperature changes, to appear a full two weeks earlier.

Still, the clever birds have adapted, and what’s truly striking is that the behavior is almost certainly learned. True evolutionary change would take generations, and likely would not happen quickly enough to adjust to changes brought on by global warming.

But those attempting to marginalize the effects climate change would be wise to note that the great tits’ (had to write it once) success probably cannot be duplicated on a larger scale.  As biologist Marcel Visser puts it:

 “So it looks like all the birds are following a rule – ‘breed earlier in warm years’ – that doesn't work well in the Netherlands…. ‘It's kind of a coincidence that the rule the Oxford birds use happens to work.’”

 And that’s not good news for a significant portion of avian species.

As any yuppie or DINK worth their salt can tell you, mainstream media and marketing conglomerates love to take large groups of vaguely similar people and cram them into tiny little categories, usually with fun-sounding names.

Time was, anyone who expressed concern about the environment was simply a hippie; tie-died shirt, VW Beetle (not to be confused with the VW Bug), unshorn and bad-smelling. Not so these days, as markets catering specifically to LOHAS and more recently, LOVOS have taken off.

And just in case your head isn’t spinning enough from realizing that you’re not a BoBo anymore, CNN announces today that if you’re a person of means who cares about your environmental impact while shunning the consumerist lifestyle, you may, in fact, be a “Yawn”.

I’ll just give you all a moment to let that sink in.

The Energy Bioscience Institute, funded by the major English oil company BP, is funding its first 49 projects with approximately $20 million. These initial projects fall into four categories:

• feedstock development
• biomass depolymerization
• biofuels production
• socio-economic impacts of cellulosic biofuels development

A complete list of the projects funded is available on the Energy Bioscience Institute website. These 49 projects were determined to be high-priority research, sorted out from over 250 proposals by Institute management and placed in one of two categories: projects (small, speculative research projects) and programs (large-scale focused research). Programs are receiving funding between $400,000 and $1 million per year and may be funded for up to ten years. Projects receive an average of $150,000 per year for up to three years.

The Institute expects to begin its second round of funding later this year, and plans to focus on fossil fuel bioprocessing. In total, BP has funded the Institute for a 10 year program of distributing $500 million.

BP established the Energy Biosciences Institute as a public/private consortium — it’s currently the world’s largest — along with three public partner institutions, the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The Institute’s mission is to advance the application of bioscience research to the energy sector. There have been some concerns about the interactions of the public and private sectors in the person of the Institute — the privatization of public universities is a key concern.

Funding research into alternative energies is one of the best things an oil company can be doing these days. Fossil fuels are unquestionably finite, and the cost of extracting them (as the easy-to-reach fields run out) is rising. The only option for a sensible energy company is to be investing in other sources of energy. Of course, BP is only funding the Energy Bioscience Institute with $500 million. I say ‘only’, because the company’s 2007 revenues were reported as $291.438 billion. The cost of the Institute’s research is approximately 0.001 percent of those revenues. And considering BP’s environmental issues in years past, I’m not quite ready to give them a big old pat on the back yet. Funding research is a step in the right direction, but I want to see BP keep going down that path. They’ve made plenty of advances — offering carbon offsets, an $8 billion commitment to alternative fuels, etc. — but they’ve also been on the receiving end of accusations of manipulating propane prices, human rights violations and involvement with the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and its associated safety and environmental issues.

Photo — Unisouth

Yesterday morning, BizzEnergy, an independent energy provider, announced that the company had installed its 1000th Smart Meter at a UK business. BizzEnergy’s Smart Meter system is meant to put an end to customers’ complaints about the inefficiencies of estimated energy bills. But there’s been some surprising side affects to the installations of Smart Meters, which use GPRS to send actual meter readings to energy suppliers. Businesses with Smart Meters have dropped their energy usage by as much as 20%.

Smart Meters allow customers to track their energy usage, as well — down to the half hour. It also provides information about the costs of energy consumption, which has motivated many business owners to try to reduce costs (and tangentially, environmental impact).

Smart Meters aren’t available in the U.S. at this time, but the specific system isn’t necessary for business owners to learn more about their own energy consumption. Considering the fact that many businesses are experiencing cash flow issues due to the rising cost of energy, I think just having a few hard numbers on a business’ energy consumption is all it takes to motivate owners to make their companies more energy efficient.

Photo — Fatty Tuna

Millipore, the international biosciences company, has made a commitment to cut its carbon footprint by 20% over the next five years. The company’s plan specifically targets waste production and the consumption of non-renewable resources. The company has already began exploring a number of pilot programs, under the leadership of David Newman, Millipore’s director of sustainability.

Millipore has had a number of sustainability programs in place for several years (recycling programs, processing waste water, heat recovery systems, etc.) and the company’s three largest manufacturing sites are certified as ISO 14001. But, according to Newman, Millipore is taking it to the next level:

"We're replacing fleet vehicles with Toyota Prius and Camry hybrids, we've saved over 1 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year through energy efficiency programs, and we're matching 10 percent of our energy usage worldwide with renewable energy sourced from U.S. wind farms…Over the next few months we'll be stepping up our efforts in all of these areas and exploring additional ways to reduce our environmental impact -- through our products and packaging, manufacturing processes and LEED-certified building construction."

Millipore’s annual revenues are  $990 million a year and is listed on the S&P 500. Millipore has made a huge commitment to sustainability — and has also made a commitment to developing products geared towards a more sustainable world through environmental applications and healthcare.

The Philadelphia Phillies have gone to bat as the first Major League Baseball team relying on renewable energy for 100% of the electricity needed to run its stadium. Citizens Bank Park will now rely on Green-e Energy — the leading certifier of renewable energy — to provide the stadium with 2 million megawatt hours.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Phillies’ purchase marks the largest renewable energy purchase to date in U.S. professional sports. The team is racking up plenty of firsts to go with their baseball records. The team is also among the three largest purchasers of renewable energy in the city of Philadelphia and in the top seven in the state of Pennsylvania. The initiative is being supported by the Pennsylvania state government, as well as the Philadelphia municipal government — both the governor and the mayor were present for the initial announcement.

The team is in the process of reducing the overall environmental impact of the stadium in other ways:

• Plastics and serviceware used in the stadium must be biodegradable or recyclable.
• Frying oil from stadium concessions is recycled to produce bio-diesel fuel.
• Glass, cardboard and plastics used during games are recycled.
• The team wears green caps for some games to increase fans’ environmental awareness.
• Rain run-off water is used for landscaping.
• Full-time Phillies employees (including coaches and players) receive a one-year credit for using renewable energy at home.
• Lighting is being converted to LEDs.

Phillies president David Montgomery refused to put a price tag on the team’s environmental efforts for an article on MLB.com, but did say the following:

"It is a significant number, but we don't exactly know what it is. We're not sure how much it's going to run. When you're in, you're in. We decided it's the right approach to take. We're excited to join MLB in bringing the awareness to fans about the environment and how to be more conscious about it.”

Major League Baseball has made an overall commitment to encourage teams to go green and have offered support and coordination through their Team Greening Program. As other teams follow up on the Phillies’ lead, commenters may run out of baseball metaphors — the EPA’s administrator, Stephen Johnson has already used a few: "EPA applauds the Philadelphia Phillies for 'playing ball' and protecting our environment by purchasing green power. By being the first major league baseball team to join the Green Power Partnership, the Phillies have hit a grand slam for the environment."

Photo — WallyG

The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles have taken their first step towards completing their joint Clean Air Action Plan, which was created last year. The ports have convinced a number of trucking companies to lower emissions from trucks. They also plan to lower emissions from ships, equipment and other port sources. The goal is to lower total emissions by 45% over the next five years, and truck emissions in particular by 80%.

A key step in the plan is replacing at least half of the 16,000 diesel trucks  operating in and around the port with trucks running on liquefied natural gas. The ports are beginning by banning any trucks made in 1989 or earlier from the port as of October. Carriers including TTSI, South Counties Express and California Cartage have already agreed to make the switch over.

The port authorities have committed approximately $500 million to the change over. They’re working with Texas-based Clean Energy to create local fueling stations, and Clean Energy has already built a $70 million distribution center in the Mojave Desert to service the ports and nearby cities. The fuel distributed by Clean Energy comes from Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and California. More information is available from the Long-Beach Press-Telegram.

Photo — Junk_ID_09

Verysupercool, a greeting card company out of Austin Texas, is Carbonfund.org’s poster child. They are one of only two greeting card companies that use only 100% post-consumer waste paper. And the carbon emissions necessary for their business — shipping cards across the country to the more than 100 stores carrying Verysupercool’s products, for instance — are offset with the help of Carbonfund.org.

Verysupercool is a member of the CarbonFree Small Business program run by Carbonfund.org. Meant for companies with 10 or fewer employees, the program offers an option for carbon offsets that fits into a small business’ budget. The program has effectively zeroed out Verysupercool’s carbon footprint.

Sue Rostvold, one of Verysupercool’s co-founders, advocates small business carbon offsets:

"Our affiliation with Carbonfund.org seemed like a natural extension of our mission. We are excited by the work that Carbonfund.org is doing and are proud to be a part of it. We feel it's important to raise awareness and show other businesses and individuals how easy it is to make our planet healthier for everyone!"

Verysupercool’s green efforts were honored in last month’s Greeting etc. — the trade magazine covering the stationery business.

Image courtesy Verysupercool

Turbine designs like Swift’s quiet, round design (pictured) or Aero’s Parapet turbines, are creating more options for architects and landowners working with zoning limits and aesthetic goals. Rather than erecting a large turbine in the back yard, these small-scale systems provide reduced noise, fuss and investment.

Turbines are stereotyped as giant, lumbering metal towers that shred migrating birds, when in fact they don’t need to take up much more of a footprint than a weather vane. This duo of fresh new designs both harness new types of wind energy and are aesthetically kind. Small, roof mounted turbines have an advantage because they not only can use general wind energy, but their location also allows them to take advantage of the thermals hitting the building and moving upward.

Small-scale wind is cheaper, easier to maintain and fix, and is likely to neutralize what can sometimes become a battle with the zoning board. In most cases, roof mounted turbines do not change the height of the building enough to require a special permit. Though compact turbines do provide less power than their large scale counterparts, they can still usually pay for themselves in less than a decade.

Read more at Inhabitat.

The International Bicycle Design Competiton (IBCD) saw a new generation of bicycles that transform into their own container, like jackets that pack down into a pocket. The bicycles can fold, breakdown and pack into an array of types of wheeled luggage.

Shape-shifting bicycles are poised to solve the pesky problem of taking a bike on the bus, plane or subway when you also need it where you’re going. Part of the success of these bicycles is reducing the wheel size. Wheels in shape-shifting bicycles are generally minimal and durable, changing the traditional bicycle profile. This allows the bicycles to reduce the size and structure of other components, like crossbars. All the bikes can break down in some way, and competition favorite Everglide (pictured) folds into its own attached backpack.

The bikes also feature other cool clean tech innovations, like chargers that use the kinetic energy generated by riding the bike, or get this, built in windmills, to power cell phones and ipods. Most bike are made of lightweight aluminum and composite construction to make them easy to carry around. Though not particularly useful to the long-distance tour rider, these bikes might be the saving grace for commuters and travelers who both bike and use public transportation.

Read more at Gizmag.

The Rocky Mountain Institute’s ‘Built Environment’ Team released a new report, “Barriers and Breakthroughs for Multi-Tenant Developments” to address multi-tenant buildings, a logistical pain in the butt for green innovators.

Selecting effective incentives to encourage multi-tenant buildings to adopt green upgrades is proving difficult for an array of reasons. Not only are tenants often contractually prohibited from making substantive changes to their rentals, but if they do, the benefit stays with the landlord, who can also retain the tax benefits. Additionally, landlords have been slow to adopt green design, doubting their return on investment. Environmentally minded tenants are left to lobby their landlords to argue the case for greening.

This is where the Rocky Mountain Institute’s BET comes in. The RMI-BET seeks to make it clear to landowners that making energy and clean-tech investments pay off, in the short and long term, for both tenants and landlords. In fact, it seems that environmental investments in real estate can raise the value of the property and may result in higher rental rates. The RMI-BET report also points to improvements in leasing procedures that can remedy issues, such as incorporating infrastructural upgrades into leases, anticipating renters’ realistic square footage needs, also suggesting strategies for marketing and financing. Read more or get the report at the Rocky Mountain Institute.

Mayor Gavin Newsom wants the citizens of San Francisco to recycle. Everything. Or else.

Newsom, who described himself as “intense” about recycling, is preparing a proposal for a new recycling program that would make recycling mandatory, with violations punished by suspended trash privileges.

San Francisco’s success, manifested in the highest waste diversion rate in the nation at seventy percent, is the result of an array of innovative waste management tools. One is  specialized garbage trucks, which keep glass shards from mixing with paper, easing the recycling process and producing higher quality recycled matter. Another is a creative rate structure, where citizens pay higher rates if they generate more waste. In turn, this encourages participation in a municipal compost project. San Francisco’s compost then fertilizes California’s growing zone, the San Joaquin Valley. San Franciscans also recycle concrete from renovations, which end up back in sidewalks, as well as paint, which is filtered, remixed and supplied to local nonprofits.

San Francisco’s recycling campaigns are getting noticed, more often in China and Germany than in the Midwest, where waste diversion rates lag (but, are ahead of Alaska). San Francisco environmental staff are ‘big in Japan’, frequently called upon to speak to foreign governments about waste reduction strategies.

Read more at the NYTimes.