(Reuters) - The warmth generated by human bodies in the Parisian metro will help heat a public housing project in the city center, the capital's largest owner of social housing said on last week.

The building, located in the famous rue Beaubourg close to the Pompidou museum, is being renovated in an environmentally friendly way.

"Luckily, the building is connected to the metro through a staircase," Francois Wachnick from Paris Habitat told Reuters.

The calories emitted by passengers, around 100 watts per person, combined with the heat from trains moving along tracks and the underground location of the metro mean that corridor temperatures are 14-20 degrees Celsius all year around.

The project, which is based on geothermal technology, aims to draw heat from subterranean passages and move it to heat exchangers before supplying heating pipes. The system will complement district heating.

The project should slash carbon dioxide emissions by a third compared to using a boiler room connected to district heating, Wachnick said.

A tender for the experimental project, which is expected to heat 17 flats, will be launched before the end of the year, and work is expected to start in 2011.

But the system, which Wachnick said is also being carried out in Austria, will not be generalized in Paris because of costs and the need to build passages to convey the heat from the metro to buildings.

"We were lucky to find a passageway that allows us to collect the heat directly from the metro, without having to pay to build one, otherwise it would have been impossible," he added.

Article by Mathide Cru; Writing by Muriel Boselli; editing by Jane Baird; appearing courtesy Reuters and reprinted with permission from CleanTechies ]]> Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:20:00 -0700 http://www.matternetwork.com/2010/9/paris-metro-body-heat-help.cfm CleanTechies http://www.matternetwork.com/2010/9/portlands-popular-streetcars-spark-interest.cfm By Christopher DeMorro

This summer I was lucky enough to be able to drive across the county and visit 29 states and dozens of different cities. One city that really stuck out to me though was Portland. It was young, hip, and, although cool in its own right, was not at all my scene (I'm a country boy through and through). What really stuck out to me about Portland though was the traffic, or lack thereof. See, Portland has a rather complete public transportation system, which includes a lot of streetcars.

The streetcars have been a success for Portland, and other cities are taking notice. Combine that with changes to the Department of Transportation's new guidelines for building public transit, and we could see a real streetcar renaissance.

It used to be that there was hardly a city anywhere that didn't have a streetcar line running down most major roads. Before cars became popular, streetcars and steam trains were the most popular methods of travel. Unfortunately, streetcars and trains died together as Americans flocked towards cheap cars and cheap gas. Those days appear to be coming to an end though, and streetcars are poised to make a major comeback.

Portland's streetcar system is a driving factor behind many new streetcar projects. Studies suggest the streetcar lines in Portland have brought $3.5 billion of business investment and resulted in over 10,000 units of housing being built and filled. My experience is that you can get almost anywhere in Portland via their public transportation. If more cities would use streetcars, it would likely lead to similar results, all the while reducing traffic congestion and bringing in jobs. And more jobs is exactly what our country needs.

Source: USA Today | Image: Associated Press

Reprinted with permission from Gas 2.0 ]]> Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:52:00 -0700 http://www.matternetwork.com/2010/9/portlands-popular-streetcars-spark-interest.cfm Gas 2.0 http://www.matternetwork.com/2010/3/shanghai-tower-beginnings-green-revolution.cfm By Jacob Arlein

The Shanghai Tower will be the tallest building in China by its completion in 2014, but that is not its biggest accomplishment. The term "vertical city" has been used to describe the cornucopia of spaces that it will offer including Class-A office space, a luxury hotel, high-end retail, and event space. This aspect still pales in comparison to the building's biggest accomplishment, its innovation in green design.

With wind turbines, a complex rainwater collection system, two envelope layers that surround nine interior sky gardens, and an ingenious design that mitigates lateral loads from wind and reduces the necessary structural steel by over 20 percent, this building is setting the bar high for super-tall buildings. Remarkably, all of these sustainable strategies are being implemented in China.

To further explain the design process and to prove that sustainability in China is not that surprising I asked the Director of International Architecture and lead designer on the project Peter Weingarten a couple of questions regarding sustainable building in China and how the Shanghai Tower epitomized the emerging trend.

CleanTechies: I wanted to start off by asking you what the marketplace is like for sustainable building in China. Is it as popular or as big in China as it is in the United States?

Weingarten: That is an interesting question because on the one hand you could argue that it has never not been popular because a lot of the practices indigenous to other countries are typically more sustainable then what we are accustom to. So we come over there and say "well we are going to talk to you about being sustainable" and they say "we are already are, we already have wastewater and recycling programs". In Europe they already all shop with reusable bags. It's kind of an Americanize view if you take that perspective; if you don't embrace their cultural phenomenon. When we come in we don't just talk about the US Green Building Council, which is a benchmark here, we talk about global sustainability. There is such booming economic growth in China and India that these issues have been present there for along time. Sustainable agriculture, indoor air quality concerns, getting rid of coal burning power plants, these are issues that have been very prevalent in those regions for a while.

CleanTechies: That is very interesting and quite different than what most Americans would expect. How did the Chinese bureaucracy affect your project?

Weingarten: The Chinese government has a strong commitment to developing the future of Shanghai as a financial center on par with New York and Los Angeles and where there is a will there is a very strong way. So we are not getting tied in up the typical bureaucratic issues we normally run into. This project is a priority. It is great to be on a project that is on the fast track and that is well liked. That certainly helps.

CleanTechies: Is the Chinese government's influence a factor when you are looking at sustainable practices?

Weingarten: They are pushing for more. We are not just doing because it is an ego `statement; we are doing it to show China's emersion as green, clean and sustainable. There is such an urban vitality there and this project is building on the standard they set with the Olympics.

CleanTechies: How similar is the China Building Council to USGBC?

Weingarten: Well we were using the China Star Program and it is very similar to LEED. I think the core tenants are all the same. The performance metrics are based on a different set of regulations. We use ASHRAE, and sometimes they use ASHRAE but sometimes they use something else.

CleanTechies: But in general they are pretty similar?

Weingarten: It translates very well.

CleanTechies: Is the popularity of the China Star Program on par with LEED in the United States or is it in its beginning stage?

Weingarten: It is pretty popular because the Chinese are very proud of their system.

CleanTechies: I also wanted to know a bit about the sustainable practices you implemented in this project. The rain collection system was really interesting as was the wind turbines you implemented. Where exactly did you put the turbines?

Weingarten: Well, it's a 662-meter building and up that high the wind is very strong. In a super- tall building the wind is both your friend and your enemy. Once you get above 80 stories most private brokers will tell you that the economics of the building don't pan out, because you have so many structural considerations because of the lateral load. With this project we designed the building to mitigate the wind forces by using a curved shape.

We were able to save 25 percent of the ton steel tonnage by not presenting a broad face to the wind. By allowing the wind to flow aerodynamically we mitigate direct lateral pressures. We also made use of the Diagrid System, which allows the wind to flow in a natural way instead of orthogonally like with classic designs. 25 percent savings is huge in the scheme of things.

CleanTechies: How was the whole process of designing the structure to use 25 percent less steel but still hold up to the shearing force of the wind?

Weingarten: We reached a point where we have the technology to accomplish this. Early on it was about technical achievements. It was about figuring out how to design a super-tall building to stand at all. Now we have the technology and we can look to incorporate architectural aesthetics in these buildings in a much more integrated way. This building embodies the integrated design process. The skin, the structure, the facade, its all designed to increase the efficiency of the building.

The way this works, you have got this aerodynamic shape and every 14 floors you have what is called an outrigger truss. That acts like your shoulder. The outrigger trust broadens the base of the building. The broader the base the better it supports itself. A big tall thin building will move more than a tall broad building. What that enables us to do is create a double skin. We built a space between the inner skin and what's really the facade of the building. That creates a sky garden.

That sky garden acts as thermal buffer so you don't have the climate coming right to the face of the building. What that means is that instead of having a completely opaque building you have a clear one. Most skycrapers are essentially opaque to the outside because of the high reflectivity of their windows, a necessity to limit solar heat gain. With the Shanghai Tower, because the facade is not in direct contact with the outside, we could make it completely transparent.

For the first time in super-tall buildings, you will be able to see occupants in the sky gardens, and you get a strong visual connection not only from the inside but also from the outside. With other buildings it is like wearing sunglasses. When you are the street you have no idea what's going on inside.

These experiential sustainable practices are so important to the industry especially with architecture. We have the ability to improve energy efficiency and use daylighting controls, but if we can bring a noticeable change to a building that the tenants will see and feel, that is really the future.

CleanTechies: There has always been an issue of how to make buildings green and look good? How do you combine sustainable building and building aesthetics?

Weingarten: You have heard of the term "vertical city." This is the first time I think we have actually seen that truly realized. There have been other projects that have claimed to be a vertical city but you can't really have a vertical city if the building is not transparent. You can imagine that there is quite a contradiction as the building is in China, which is seen as closed. Its communist and this project is open, transparent.

CleanTechies: Thank you so much for meeting and discussing the future of sustainability in China.

Reprinted with permission from CleanTechies.com ]]> Thu, 25 Mar 2010 08:42:00 -0700 http://www.matternetwork.com/2010/3/shanghai-tower-beginnings-green-revolution.cfm CleanTechies http://www.matternetwork.com/2010/1/after-2050-will-our-problem.cfm by Steve Savage

Rubber sidewalks are all grown up. Once perceived mainly as a safe surface for playgrounds, rubber sidewalks have developed into a means of preserving urban trees, reducing stormwater runoff, recycling tires, and curbing greenhouse gas emissions. A company called Rubbersidewalks (what else?) began installing the modular units in 2002, and its rubber sidewalk products now appear in almost 100 cities across the country. Even the U.S. military is getting into the act. Plans are in the works to install rubber sidewalks at Coast Guard Island in Alameda, California, and they're being promoted by the Pollution Prevention Program at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

The Benefits of Rubber Sidewalks for Urban Trees
Rubbersidewalks (the company, that is) attributes its core concept to Richard Valeriano, a senior public works inspector for the City of Santa Monica. The original idea behind a rubber sidewalk was to achieve a flexible surface that would reduce cracking around tree roots. In turn, that would reduce the need to cut or drastically trim trees with overgrown roots. Over the course of several years, city workers noticed that the rubber surface seemed to slow the growth of roots while providing the tree with sufficient water and oxygen, helping to mitigate the problem of root overgrowth at the source. The modular installation system also enables workers to remove sections of sidewalk to inspect tree roots, without the need for pavement-breaking equipment that could damage a tree.

The Other Benefits of Rubber Sidewalks
Aside from the potential savings in reduced personal injury lawsuits, the modular rubber surface makes it easier to open and close sections of sidewalk for maintenance or utility work. Seams in the modules enable stormwater to infiltrate into the soil instead of running into gutters. They're handy to use for temporary sidewalks, and they're suitable for surfacing urban tree wells. On the sustainability side, Rubbersidewalks's first-generation product was made from 100% recycled tires. It now offers a second incarnation called Terrewalks, which uses a mix of tires and waste plastic from farm irrigation equipment. As a means of finding a use for the millions of tires disposed every year, rubber sidewalks promise a scale similar to that of recycled tire roof shingles - a big leap over smaller projects like tire shoes and toys.

Rubber Sidewalks and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Walking and biking instead of driving are often cited as effective ways to lower one's personal greenhouse emissions, but the equation skews when you factor in the greenhouse emissions involved in constructing more sidewalks and bike paths. A good chunk of those emissions have to do with concrete surfaces. Concrete is made from cement, which is a significant source of greenhouse gasses. Worldwide, cement is estimated to account for about 5% of all carbon dioxide emissions from human activity, with concrete accounting for about 8% overall. Though rubber surfaces do involve some greenhouse gas in the manufacturing process, there would seem to be a savings in emissions related to transportation, installation, maintenance, and urban street tree health. If there is any way to have your cake and eat it too, a rubber sidewalk could be it.

H/T: Aberdeen Proving Ground Pollution Prevention Program

Image: Derek Diamond on flickr.com

Reprinted with permission from Cleantechnica ]]> Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:33:00 -0700 http://featured.matternetwork.com/2009/7/rubber-sidewalks-give-bounce-concrete.cfm Cleantechnica http://www.matternetwork.com/2009/6/sustaining-the-garden-state.cfm

In New Jersey, while there may be dramatic housewives and Jersey boys, there is also sustainability.

This week, the environment topped the Garden State's A list as municipalities were awarded grant money to continue their green efforts.

The Sustainable Jersey effort is a certification program, one of the first of its kind, for cities and townships across the state that are striving go green while be equally conscious of costs and funding.

Specifically, the program involves municipalities identifying measures that can reduce environmental degradation, using tools and best practices for achieving those measures as well as access to funding opportunities to implement those measures.

After more than 180 municipalities signed up for consideration, Sustainable Jersey reviewed each application and on Monday, announced the 14 winners of this year's funding. Trenton was awarded $25,000 and Highland Park was awarded $10,000, among a dozen others.

Grant money is funded by Wal-Mart as part of their efforts to help the communities they operate in and ramp up their environmental efforts. With this grant money, cities are implementing solar power projects, wind turbines, rain capture and reuse opportunities, building and operating food gardens, and many education programs that inform the public about how they can be green.

"We are absolutely delighted to partner with Wal-Mart and Sustainable Jersey to recognize the mayors who have excelled in addressing sustainable issues locally and for doing their part to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. The Sustainable Jersey grants are going to make a real difference," said William Dressel, Executive Director, New Jersey League of Municipalities.

The Sustainable Jersey program serves, in essence, as a pilot program for other states and the nation. Using the many available funds of large corporations who need the tax deductions relieves government agencies of over-committed budgets while allowing them oversight and the ability to advice municipalities on ways to green their communities.

Having access to funding beyond what the government can provide gives municipalities the opportunity to dream green and dream big. More than just planting a garden, or increasing recycling education, cities and townships can make serious strides in offsetting carbon emissions and increase support for a renewable power grid.

In choosing more than a dozen locales a year to award grant money and jump start green projects, the state creates a competitive process for the environment and can, in a matter of years, look to lead the way in tweaking the state nickname from the Garden State to the Green State. The state has a common mix of citizens that represents a cross section of America, and if itcan go green in a big way, what is the rest of the country waiting for? Perhaps, some more corporate funding.

That's the theme of a new report and video from the Congress for the New Urbanism. Reducing the average vehicle miles traveled per person by just one mile per day would save $29 billion annually, according to a report. "That not a one time stimulus, that's a stimulus every year," said Carol Coletta, the CEO of CEOs for Cities.

Housing prices remain more stable throughout the metro area if they have an urban core, said Coletta, citing data from "Driven to the Brink" a joint CEOs for Cities/CNU study. The study gave an example of the suburb of Buffalo Grove, Illinois, where residents pay up to 28 percent of their income on transportation alone.

Coletta will speak at CNU's 17th annual conference in June 10-14 in Denver.

This year's American Recovery and Act heavily invests in mass transit and transportation, and is indicative of the current shift towards smart urban planning. As architect Scott Sarver points out in Forbes, this thinking isn't new at all -- it's a return to the pre-World War II philosophy of how cities and towns were designed. Governments federal and local are taking the first steps toward undoing the "Levittownization" of the suburbs and restoring sustainability to urban planning.

CNU recently held a contest for a video about the impact of suburban sprawl. The winning video, "Built to Last" mocks sprawl as the greatest threat to humanity. That may be an overreach, but the negative impact on health and economic development is not.

]]> Fri, 08 May 2009 16:05:00 -0700 http://www.matternetwork.com/2009/5/cul-de-sac-sprawl-leads.cfm John Gartner http://featured.matternetwork.com/2009/4/chinas-grand-plans-eco-cities.cfm By Christina Larson If all had gone as planned, "the world's first eco-city," as press releases billed it back in 2005, would now be well on its way to completion. The visionary project called for a grassy island near the crowded metropolis of Shanghai to be transformed from a marshy backwater into a gleaming community of energy-efficient buildings housing 50,000 people. Waste was to have been recycled as fuel and the waterfronts were to be lined with sleek micro-windmills. The original timetable called for the first phase of construction to be completed by the Shanghai Expo in 2010, enabling the city to showcase its commitment to building a green future. Within 30 years, the planned community, Dongtan, would grow to accommodate half a million people. Today, almost nothing has been built. Some residents have been moved off the island, many of them becoming cab drivers in bustling Shanghai. Although the project was widely publicized internationally, most locals knew little about it. The political leaders who championed the project were ousted in a corruption scandal, and their successors have allowed construction permits to lapse. Meanwhile local environmentalists and academics have recently spoken out against the project in the Chinese press, noting that the planned construction site happened to be located on the last extant wetlands outside Shanghai, home to rare migratory birds. A farmer with fields near the project site told a reporter in 2007 that he hadn't been informed, let alone consulted, about intentions to transform the area. What you will see if you visit the site today, according to Paul French, a Shanghai-based partner in research publisher Access Asia, is that "no construction has occurred there - indeed it's gone backwards as a visitor center previously built is now shut." Dongtan and other highly touted eco-cities across China were meant to be models of sustainable design for the future. Instead they've become models of bold visions that mostly stayed on the drawing boards - or collapsed from shoddy implementation. More often than not, these vaunted eco-cities have been designed by big-name foreign architectural and engineering firms who plunged into the projects with little understanding of Chinese politics, culture, and economics - and with little feel for the needs of local residents whom the utopian communities were designed to serve. "What I have always found amazing about these eco-towns is how seemingly easy it is for people to, first, tout these as a sign of China's commitment to the environment and then, second, be surprised when things fail," writes Richard Brubaker, founder and managing director of China Strategic Development Partners. Shannon May, a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley who has studied the troubled eco-city of Huangbaiyu, wrote in comments posted on The Christian Science Monitor's Web site, "While such highly lauded projects garner fame and money for the foreign firms, and promotions for the local government officials, they leave the population they were supposed to serve behind." The Huangbaiyu project sought to transform a small village in northeast China's Liaoning province into a more energy-efficient community. Part of the vision was to use special hay and pressed-earth bricks for construction. Unfortunately, of the first 42 homes completed in 2006, only a handful were built with the custom bricks. As the magazine Ethical Corporation has reported, cost overruns made the homes unaffordable to many villagers. In other instances, although homes were available, the farmers refused to live in them, complaining that the new yards weren't large enough to raise animals and sustain a livelihood. Among the problems besetting the project were "technical inexperience, faulty materials, lack of oversight, and poor communication," says May, who has studied the site. Oddly, some of the homes were built with garages, although villagers don't have cars. While disappointing, these results shouldn't be surprising. In China, hype comes easy, as foreigners dearly want to believe that anything is possible in this booming country. Initial expectations often aren't well grounded, and people make easy pronouncements with little familiarity of how things work in China. In the cases of Dongtan and Huangbaiyu, the stumbling blocks encountered were not inevitable, and lessons for the future can be gleaned in examining the projects' fate. Some of the problems are common to high-profile, visionary projects across China. Richard "Tad" Ferris, a Washington, D.C., lawyer for the firm Holland & Knights, explains that there exists in China, especially in Chinese law, an "aspirational culture" rather than a "compliance culture" - meaning that implementation and oversight of regulations and plans frequently fall short of reality. Anyone who has ever walked down the streets of Beijing, where sidewalks slabs with raised bumps for blind pedestrians suddenly veer into open manhole covers, knows that paths paved with progressive intentions can be strewn with peril. But there's another side of the story. The most highly publicized eco-cities, including Dongtan and Huangbaiyu, drew upon expertise from some of the most vaunted international architectural and design firms. The vision for an eco-city on the outskirts of Shanghai was first hatched by the international consulting firm McKinsey & Company. The well-regarded UK-based design, engineering, planning, and business consulting firm, Arup, designed what its Web site describes as the "master plan" for Dongtan. In 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair even hailed collaboration on Dongtan as a sign of strong U.K.-China relations. And William McDonough - a U.S. architect, author of Cradle to Cradle, and a celebrated figure in the American green architecture movement - worked on the design of Huangbaiyu, as well as "conceptual plans" for other eco-projects across China. As Wen Bo, a Beijing-based environmentalist and co-director of Pacific Environment's China programs, observes: "I know that some very experienced international firms, including a U.K.-based construction company and the American architecture firm of William McDonough, were involved in planning; it seems to me that they should share some of the responsibility for any problems encountered." Like it or not, China has become a workshop for the world, a laboratory for new technology and global talent seeking to realize their futuristic visions. Foreign architects have designed many of Beijing's most famous architectural landmarks, including the Olympic "Bird's Nest," "Aquacube," and CCTV towers. This international spotlight helps explain both the high hopes - and, in this case, great disappointment - connected with these eco-cities. As Wen tellingly notes, these particular projects were always much better known outside China than inside. The sentiments voiced by McDonough several years ago typified the grand aspirations of the eco-city planners. In a slideshow presentation now available on YouTube, he said, "I will finish by showing you a new city we're designing for the Chinese government. We're doing 12 cities for China right now, based on Cradle to Cradle, as templates. Our assignment is to develop protocols for the housing of 400 million people in 12 years ..." Today, with increasingly critical coverage of eco-cities in the press, McDonough's architecture and community design firm, William McDonough + Partners, is downplaying its involvement in China. According to Kira Gould, the firm's director of communications, "While we have in the past done some very limited conceptual planning work in China, we are not doing any community design/planning work there at this time." Even after problems came to light, Arup continued to promote its involvement in the Dongtan eco-city, although the language of recent press releases and public statements is carefully worded to leave unclear whether the project has been built. A spokesperson from Arup was not available for comment. So why did these plans not come to fruition? In the case of Dongtan, as Paul French explains in a podcast posted on the Ethical Corporation web site, one problem was a feud over who would actually fund the project. "Both sides - Arup, on one side, who call themselves the 'master builders' of the project - and Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation (the Chinese government arm that owns the land) -thought the other was going to pay for it. So Arup thought they were brought in on a project that they would then be able to design, the Chinese would build it, and pay them a large amount of money. The Chinese thought that Arup was going to build the project and that they would get themselves a free eco-city." A second stumbling block has been the highly politicized nature of the project. When former Shanghai Communist Party chief Chen Liangyu, a well-known backer of the project, was sentenced in 2008 to 18 years in prison for bribery and abuse of power, the process stalled. According to Peggy Liu, chairperson of the Joint U.S.-China Cooperation on Clean Energy, "Dongtan got stuck mainly due to the transition of Shanghai mayors." In the case of Huangbaiyu, a lack of understanding of local needs presented problems. So, too, did a lack of sound oversight: no one effectively ensured that plans on paper were consistently translated into projects on the ground. The small plots and mix-up with the eco-bricks are telling examples of the confusion in construction. In order for a green community to succeed, it not only has to limit carbon emissions but actually be livable - and adapted to local circumstances. Without extensive consultation with local people, it's a challenge for foreign planners, even with the best of intentions, to understand what is required to transplant a farmer who grew up plowing fields into a city dweller. (One of McDonough's blueprints, for another planned eco-city in Liuzhou, called for farmers to use rooftop fields, connected by tiny bridges. Whether or not it's a workable ecological solution, one wonders how well recent transplants from the countryside would tolerate vertiginous crisscrossing between buildings.) This is one reason Brubaker stresses the need for more community consultation and a "locally guided process." Other, less-publicized approaches to building eco-cities are now underway in China that so far seem to be making more progress. A partnership between the Singapore government and the local government to build an eco-city near Tianjin looks more promising, in part because money is coming from both sources and the project is expected to earn not only global kudos but money, making a greater level of supervision and follow-through more likely. On the whole, within China, there has lately been more enthusiasm for expanding green building codes than building new cities from scratch. "Enforceable green building codes, with the designers' and planners' willingness to follow them, is very important," says Wen Bo. "Such grand eco-city plans themselves are not eco-friendly." Reprinted with permission from Yale Environment 360. Christina Larson is a journalist focusing on international environmental issues, based in Beijing and Washington, D.C. ]]> Mon, 06 Apr 2009 06:06:00 -0700 http://featured.matternetwork.com/2009/4/chinas-grand-plans-eco-cities.cfm Yale Environment 360 http://www.matternetwork.com/2009/3/economy-stalls-development-sustainable-city.cfm Mesa Del Sol, on the outskirts of Albuquerque, will have everything you'd want in a sustainably planned city. The fledgling city already has green jobs (Advent Solar, Schott Solar) and has been mapped out to be pedestrian and public transit friendly. But the mortgage implosion and credit crunch has temporarily eclipsed all that promise as the development of more than 37,000 Energy Star-rated homes has been put on hold. It's unfortunate that Mesa Del Sol, with its planned smart grid, open spaces, mix of retail and residential properties, and forward-thinking business incentives should be in flux because of external circumstances. I would expect that once the financial bailout has sufficiently recharged lenders' capital Mesa Del Sol will be one of the first places where homeowners will be able to find credit. "Green" banks that understand that lower utility bills and reduced vulnerability to energy price fluctuations make for lower risk loans, should open their doors to potential homeowners. ]]> Mon, 16 Mar 2009 05:40:00 -0700 http://www.matternetwork.com/2009/3/economy-stalls-development-sustainable-city.cfm John Gartner http://featured.matternetwork.com/2009/2/intelligent-urbanization-builds-followers_4851.cfm It sounds a bit like Big Brother, but many leading cities and organizations around the world are looking to “Intelligent Urbanization” as a blueprint for using technology to more efficiently integrate city management, ensure a better quality of life for citizens, and spur economic development.

Considering that the majority of people on this planet live in urban areas, and cities consume 75 percent of the world's energy and are responsible for 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, there is no question that cities must learn how to decrease their effects on the environment.

Traditional approaches to reducing carbon emissions have included using less energy, using alternative forms of energy, and capturing and storing carbon. Building upon the principles behind connected urban development (CUD), intelligent urbanization takes a different approach by using information and communications technology (ICT) to supply a broadband infrastructure that will increase the efficiency of traffic flow and increase efficiency and service offerings of public transportation. It will also create sustainable real estate models that incorporate energy efficiency and new work environment models (such as remote working, collaboration and shared space) and enable residents services so they can self-manage their carbon footprints.

Cisco, MIT and the Clinton Global Initiative have partnered with cities such as San Francisco, Seol, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Madrid to restructure city infrastructures so as to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and waste. By closely examining cities’ ecological footprints, CUD hopes to create a blueprint that can be used globally to create sustainable cities. The blueprint must be ICT-based, replicable for use by other cities, able to deliver tangible and operational projects and able to deliver measurable results.

Right now 50 percent of San Francisco’s carbon dioxide emissions come from transportation, 32 percent from building energy and 18 percent from waste. By using ICT, the city will be able to track emissions data and performance metrics, and create solutions for urban sustainability.

One example of technology used for this purpose is San Francisco’s EcoMap – a geo-mapping based, collaboration, visualization and measurement tool for citizens, businesses and the city authorities to measure their carbon emissions and to see the collective results of their individual climate change behaviors. It is a proof of concept of an application that could be used globally to track cities’ carbon dioxide output and allow residents to interact with each other about how to improve their city’s ecological footprint.

The EcoMap lets people compare information by zip code, such as average number of vehicles per person, number of specialty vehicle types (hybrid, SUV, electric, etc.) per capita, number of people who recycle per capita and average amount of waste generated per capita. Then users will be able to use and share this information via a social networking functionality to foster a community based on working together to reduce carbon dioxide. People can upload a personal EcoPlan, upload videos and share their best practices, and use a personal dashboard to track their individual carbon output.

This initiative is so important because individual actions just aren’t enough – governments, schools and businesses need to work with residents to completely overhaul the way people live and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. And I can think of no better city than progressive San Francisco – where CO2-tracking iPhone applications and shared workspaces meet public transportation and clean technology – to lead the way and use technology to better the environment.

SEEA has launched this effort to promote energy efficiency in the Southeast, to “mobil[ize] the City’s citizens and leaders of its institutions and businesses,” and to encourage collaboration between state decision markers and city and county staff to deliver energy efficiency to customers, according to SEEA's Request for Proposal.

To qualify for consideration, a city or county must show that they have local stakeholder and community support for launching energy efficiency programs, establish achievable milestones, be in tune with the locale’s energy needs and opportunities, a funding commitment from local or city-owned utility companies, identify program implementation partners, establish or designate a non-profit oversight organization, and most of all, draft an official letter of intent signed off by stakeholders, utility companies, and all other interested parties that the community is committed to carrying out the energy efficiency program and alliance established through the proposal process.

The proposal accomplishes two much-needed, empowering goals: to require community and customer support, and to help communities dream-up energy efficiency strategies. It is vital that customers are eager for energy efficiency programs as they stand to save money during a recession as well as support a transfer to cleaner energy supplies. Without community support during the proposal phase, implementation can be stunted by a lack of interest in the programs.

Additionally, SEEA’s competition goes hand-in-hand or, watt-for-watt, with the national stimulus and bailout packages where money will be available for communities to offer tax incentives for energy efficiency design and retrofitting in homes and buildings. Before that money is available to states and cities, SEEA is driving communities to have a well-developed plan on how to best apply government money setting Southeastern communities on a successful energy efficiency implementation track. Awarding money to plan energy efficiency programs means that the government money available for these programs is used for just that, not for bureaucratic tendencies, a perfect example of simlutaneously achieving energy and money efficiency.
 

]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:17:00 -0700 http://www.matternetwork.com/2009/2/southeast-competes-energy-efficiency-planning.cfm Andrea Nocito http://www.matternetwork.com/2009/1/eco-communities-come-north-america.cfm

Countries around the world have been increasingly creating new green cities – except for Canada and the United States. Now North America may finally be catching up with a solar city in Alberta and a renewable city in Florida.

South Korea, China, England and Abu Dhabi, just to name a few, all boast green cities that are constructed of recycled materials and produce renewable energy. The community attempts to live as sustainable as possible and be carbon neutral, in addition to being aesthetically pleasing. It sounds idyllic.

And it’s about time North America catches up. To give the United States credit, after the 2007 tornado in Greensburg, Kansas, the town bravely decided to rebuild everything to LEED-platinum qualifications. But there have been no new towns created and designated as green until now.

Destiny, Florida is a 41,300-acre green community being built one hour south of Orlando. In addition to providing homes in every price range, it claims to be the largest green-planned community in the country and will offer open space, a sustainable infrastructure and preservation of the natural environment. Its hundreds of miles of hiking trails and more than 200 miles of navigable waterways will serve as a vital component of the city’s transportation system, which could keep the residents as healthy as the town.

Destiny also plans to build an International Clean Technology Center that will serve as a hub for businesses and researchers focused on developing clean technologies, renewable energy sources and alternative fuels. The city will also have Florida’s first E-station – a refueling station that will include electric automobile charging stations, and a solar and geo-thermal-powered convenience store.

Further north, Drake Landing Solar Community in Alberta, Canada, is a planned neighborhood integrated into the Town of Okotoks. It powers all the homes with a smart solar energy system designed to store abundant solar energy underground during the summer months and distribute that energy to homes for heating needs during winter. This fulfills 90 percent of each home’s heating requirements and reduces each home’s greenhouse gas emissions by about five tons each year.

Green communities are the way of the future, be they neighborhoods, cities or regions. With the rest of the world in the lead, it’s time America shows it’s serious about integrating clean technology and renewable resources into people’s everyday lives instead of producing more energy-sucking neighborhoods with non-recycleable, non-lasting materials.

According to SustainLane, an organization that tracks the progress of sustainable efforts across the nation and on an annual basis ranks the most sustainable cities, San Diego ranks 26^th on the list. But, the city could quickly move up toward the top 10 with further implementation of the Sustainable Communities Program, which works with schools, communities, developers, architects, and others to build green, refurbish green, and generate renewable energy supplies. While many programs are trying to implement just one of those efforts, SDG&E is giving them a run for their green, money and otherwise.

Director of San Diego’s local USGBC group notes, “thanks to SDG&E’s Sustainable Communities Program, San Diego County has gained significant momentum in the green building movement... working together, we can make San Diego a national model for sustainability.” 

There are a few things to learn from San Diego’s efforts and for those cities on the bottom half of SustainLane’s list. First, energy efficiency is productive at any level. According to Alex Kim of SDG&E, the more than 5 million kilowatt hours of energy saved through energy efficiency measures in the community is equivalent to taking more than 650 vehicles off highways. 

Second, there is profit in taking a risk. SDG&E has set up solar energy generation operations in buildings around San Diego to provide those buildings the ability to generate their own energy while sending excess energy back to the utility company at a profit. 

Lastly, any building can achieve some degree of sustainability. San Diego is working to increase the number of LEED restaurants, an industry not typically built green outside of composting and using local, organic resources. Even though restaurants have missed the early bird LEED special, the house is wide open to bring in sustainable practices helping cities reduce climate change impacts and increase energy and water efficiency. 

Part of their green and smart living must-haves included wiring the house with energy efficient technologies, thanks to a partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). CEA’s technology helps to identify and limit energy consumption from electronics in the home.

More than just any green home (the owners will apply for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification), the project faces some incredible challenges. The home sits off the Rhode Island coast and will need to sustain the common 110 mile per hour winds. The house also faces impacting coastal conditions such as beach erosion, and storm surge. The project will use EnergyStar windows, appliances, lighting and a heating/cooling system, as well as sustainable wood supplies certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to reduce the family’s local and global environmental impacts.

The owners also partnered with other green living vendors in order to showcase that water and energy efficient function can blend beautifully with eco materials and ocean views. “With well thought out details such as a charging station, kids storage cubbies, laundry chute, built-in bookcases and working pantry all built with FSC certified wood by a local master carpenter, the home squeezes a lot into its reasonable footprint,” says the website Greenlifesmartlife.com.