EPA Recognizes Seven Communities for Smart Growth Achievement (including one in the Bay Area and one in LA County)

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized seven communities with its 2012 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement. The Smart Growth awards are given for creative, sustainable initiatives that better protect the health and the environment of our communities while also strengthening local economies.

The 2012 award winners are being recognized in four categories: Overall Excellence in Smart Growth, Equitable Development, Main Street or Corridor Revitalization, and Programs and Policies. This year’s winners and honorable mentions were selected from 47 applicants from 25 states. The winning entries were chosen based on their effectiveness in creating sustainable communities; fostering equitable development among public, private, and nonprofit stakeholders; and serving as national models for environmentally and economically sustainable development.  Specific initiatives include improving transportation choices, developing green, energy-efficient buildings and communities, and providing community members with access to job training, health and wellness education, and other services.

The 2012 winners are:

Overall Excellence - Winner
BLVD Transformation Project, Lancaster, California
The redesign of Lancaster Boulevard helped transform downtown Lancaster into a thriving residential and commercial district through investments in new streetscape design, public facilities, affordable homes, and local businesses. Completed after eight months of construction, the project demonstrates how redesigning a corridor guided by a strategic vision can spark new life in a community. The project has generated almost $300 million in economic output and nearly 2,000 jobs.

Equitable Development - Winner
Mariposa District, Denver, Colorado
The redevelopment of Denver’s historic and ethnically diverse La Alma/Lincoln Park neighborhood is turning an economically challenged area into a vibrant, transit-accessible, district. The community’s master plan preserves affordable housing while adding energy-efficient middle-income and market-rate homes. Because of extensive community engagement, development will include actions to improve the health of residents, reduce pollution, and control stormwater runoff.

Main Street or Corridor Revitalization - Winner
The Cooperative Building, Brattleboro, Vermont
The Brattleboro Food Co-op, the town’s only downtown food store, made a commitment to remain at its downtown location by constructing an innovative, four-story green building on Main Street with a grocery store, commercial space, offices, and affordable apartments. The Main Street location provides healthy food, new jobs, and housing within walkable distances of downtown businesses and public transit.

Programs and Policies - Winner
Destination Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Virginia
The city of Portsmouth revised its comprehensive plan and undertook a broad review of its development and land use regulations. As a result, Destination Portsmouth prepared a package of new plans, zoning ordinances, and other development policies in collaboration with community stakeholders. The overhaul of the city’s codes encourages development in targeted growth areas and helps businesses to locate in the city while also protecting the character of Portsmouth’s historic neighborhoods.

Equitable Development - Honorable Mention
Northwest Gardens, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Through safer streets, job training and education programs, and high-quality, affordable homes, the once struggling Northwest Gardens neighborhood is rapidly becoming a model for economic, environmental, and social sustainability. The redesigned neighborhood offers a range of energy-efficient, affordable housing choices and is one of the first communities in the nation to receive LEED for Neighborhood Development certification. A local housing authority program also provides disadvantaged youths with construction training as they complete their GEDs.

Main Street or Corridor Revitalization - Honorable Mention
Larkin District, Buffalo, New York
Community organizations and a local developer partnered with the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning to help revitalize the Larkin District, an old manufacturing district located one mile from downtown Buffalo. Architectural students worked with the developer and the city to create a master plan for an urban village that now features new office space, restaurants, apartments, parks, and plazas. New sidewalks, lighting, crosswalks, bicycle lanes, and bus shelters reduce pollution from vehicles by making walking, biking, and public transit more appealing.

Programs and Policies - Honorable Mention
Bay Area Transit-Oriented Affordable Housing Fund, San Francisco, California
The Bay Area Transit-Oriented Affordable Housing Fund is providing loans for developers to build affordable homes near public transportation. At this point, the fund has provided loans for a 153-unit high-rise for low-income families located two blocks from a major transit station, and for a 64-unit building for seniors close to a light rail station that will provide free transit passes for all residents.

More information: http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/awards.htm

Vulnerability & Adaptation to Climate Change in California

The California Natural Resources Agency and the California Energy Commission have jointly released "Our Changing Climate 2012", the State’s third major assessment on climate change.  This report highlights California's specific vulnerabilities, few of which will be a surprise to anyone:

• The state’s electricity system is more vulnerable than was previously understood.
• The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is sinking, putting levees at growing risk.
• Wind and waves, in addition to faster rising seas, will worsen coastal flooding.
• Animals and plants need connected “migration corridors” to allow them to move to more suitable habitats to avoid serious impacts.
• Native freshwater fish are particularly threatened by climate change.
• Minority and low-income communities face the greatest risks from climate change.

The report maintains that there are effective ways to prepare for and manage climate change risks, but local governments face many barriers to adapting to climate change.

Read the complete report here.

U.S. Army Has Net Zero Vision for National Security

April 16, 2011 By Tina Casey

With its vast stock of vehicles, ships, planes, buildings, lands, and other facilities, the U.S. Department of Defense could foment a green revolution all by itself – and that seems to be just what it intends on doing, starting with the Army. Working quietly for the past couple of years, DoD has been nudging closer to developing an ambitious net zero program for a group of U.S. Army bases. That applies not only to energy production and consumption, but also to water resources and waste disposal as well.
National Defense and Sustainability

You can go all the way back to General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1948 book about World War II, Crusade in Europe, to find evidence that senior military officials have long recognized the limitations of a modern national defense strategy that depends on fossil fuels. More recently, the Department of Defense has adopted a broader sustainability goal, which recognizes that environmental security is a key element in national security. In other words, the U.S. military has adopted sustainability as a national defense strategy. It’s not going to happen overnight but when you look at military bases around the country, they’re a buzz of new sustainability projects from geothermal, solar, and water conservation to biofuels and green roofs.

Net Zero Bases for the U.S. Army
The Army has been working with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on the program, officially dubbed “Army Vision for Net Zero.” With a few tweaks, its mission statement could be applied to just about any green-minded organization or business: “We are creating a culture that recognizes the value of sustainability measured not just in terms of financial benefits, but benefits to maintaining mission capability, quality of life, relationships with local communities, and the preservation of options for the Army’s future.” One standout example is Fort Bliss, which among other programs is looking at taking in waste from nearby El Paso as part of a hybrid solar power/waste-to-energy operation.

Net Zero Water and Waste
A 2008 Defense Science Board report asserted that under the current energy landscape, some bases face “unacceptable risks from extended power losses,” so net zero energy is a priority for the program. However, water resource protection and waste disposal are also critical elements. In the case of waste disposal, part of an individual base’s success will depend on another recently ramped up DoD priority, to reduce or eliminate its use of hazardous or toxic materials such as paints and other coatings, and replace them with safer alternatives.

The idea now is to focus on a small group of bases that are the most likely candidates for achieving net zero in energy, water, and/or waste, and the selections will be announced shortly. They will be used as learning tools by other bases and by the civilian world as well. It will be a big advantage for companies seeking to invest in sustainability, and for local governments seeking public support for sustainability initiatives, to use major military installations as living examples of success. Unfortunately, it appears that not everyone is as interested in environmental security as the Department of Defense is…oh well, you can’t win ‘em all.

EPA Acknowledges Link Between Hydraulic Frac­tur­ing And Ground­wa­ter Contamination

EPA Blames Fracking for Wyoming Groundwater Contamination
Susan Phillips, StateImpact/NPR, December 8, 2011

For the first time, the US EPA has directly implicated the con­tro­ver­sial drilling prac­tice known as hydraulic frac­tur­ing (commonly known as fracking) as the source of groundwater contamination in Pavillion, a small community in central Wyoming. The EPA began investigating water quality concerns in private drinking water wells three years ago at the request of Pavillion residents.

The investigation results (read the draft report here) link­ing frack­ing and ground­wa­ter pol­lu­tion could have wide­spread reper­cus­sions. Sev­eral states, includ­ing New York and Penn­syl­va­nia, are in the midst of cre­at­ing new gas-drilling reg­u­la­tions. But indus­try rep­re­sen­ta­tives insist, along with the head of Pennsylvania’s Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion (DEP), that no per­sua­sive or direct evi­dence exists to link frack­ing to water qual­ity impacts. DEP Sec­re­tary Michael Krancer recently tes­ti­fied in Con­gress that the idea that frack­ing pol­lutes ground­wa­ter is “bogus.”

However, the EPA reports that it found high con­cen­tra­tions of ben­zene, xylene, gaso­line and diesel fuel in shal­low ground­wa­ter aquifers that they linked to waste­water pits. The report also documents a num­ber of frack­ing chem­i­cals in much deeper monitoring wells, where several synthetic chemicals consistent with gas production and hydraulic fracturing fluids, such as glycols and alcohols, were detected, along with high methane levels and benzene concentrations well above Safe Drinking Water Act standards. Given the area’s complex geology and the proximity of drinking water wells to the groundwater contamination, the EPA is concerned about the movement of contaminants within the aquifer and the safety of drinking water wells over time.

Alberta-based Encana, which owns the Pavil­lion gas field, told the Associated Press that it has con­cerns about the study. Encana spokesman Doug Hock said that the com­pounds EPA said could be asso­ci­ated with frack­ing could have had other ori­gins not related to gas development. “Those could just have likely been brought about by con­t­a­m­i­na­tion in their sam­pling process or con­struc­tion of their well,” Hock said.

As a follow-up question, the reporter asked the EPA about the health risks of drink­ing the water.  Click here for the EPA's response.

San Francisco's Green Energy Claims Questioned - The Bay Citizen

null (via The Bay Citizen)

Sewage into Energy

Proposition 23

Proposition 23, which would suspend AB32, is on the November 2, 2010 ballot in California as an initiated state statute.

AB32 is known as the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. The act, passed by the California State Legislature and signed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, is California's landmark clean air legislation. AB32 requires that greenhouse gas emission levels in the state be cut to 1990 levels by 2020. The process of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the state is slated under AB32 to begin in 2012.

Proposition 23, if enacted by voters, will freeze the provisions of AB32 until California's unemployment rate drops to 5.5% or below for four consecutive quarters. California's unemployment rate, which currently hovers around 12%, has been at 5.5% or below for four consecutive quarters just three times since 1980.

Read a summary of the ballot measure, a list of its major supporters and those who oppose it, and listings of donors and donation amounts for and against at ballotpedia.org.

Mostly Good Intentions, Though...

Poll: Sometimes it isn't easy being green
H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press, November 17, 2009

A survey released today suggests people have largely embraced recycling and are inclined to turn down thermostats to save energy. But it also indicated that some paths toward a greener Earth aren't as easily undertaken.

The telephone poll, conducted for The Associated Press and NBC Universal, tries to gauge attitudes about the environment. It found that 60% of those surveyed felt either a "great deal" or "a lot" of personal responsibility to protect the environment, while 37% rarely, if ever, even thought about the environmental impact of their actions.

Other results:

• 72% were very likely to recycle cans and bottles
• 63% were very likely to turn down thermostats
• 62% were very likely to buy energy-efficient appliances
• 59% were very likely to use cold water for clothes washing
• 59% were very likely to buy recycled paper products
• 65% said it's more difficult to use less energy than to use less water
• only 23% were very likely to eat less meat

NBC Universal's sponsorship of the poll was related to their Green is Universal week of programming about environmental issues.

Read the complete article here.

World's Largest Carbon Capture and Storage Project

Chevron Australia has awarded General Electric (GE) a contract for the world’s largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) project off the West Australia coast’s Gorgon natural gas field. Chevron estimates the CCS project will sequester four times more carbon than any other project. The project is a joint operation with the Australian subsidiaries of ExxonMobil and Shell. The Gorgon field is believed to contain about 40 trillion cubic feet of gas, about eight percent of the current global capacity. The Gorgon project is estimated to cost approximately A$43 billion for the first phase of development and about A$50 billion overall. The GE contract alone is worth over $400 million.

GE will supply six units capable of injecting captured carbon 1.3 km underground the Gorgon field. GE will also supply three refrigerant units that will chill and pump 15 million tons of natural gas a year from the Gorgon field through sub-sea and underground pipelines to gas treatment and liquefaction facilities on Barrow Island off Australian coast. Before liquefaction, the carbon will be taken out of the natural gas and injected into depleted natural gas wells.

The West Australia branch of World Wildlife Federation (WWF) opposes the Gorgon CCS project. WWF’s Paul Gamblin said, "We believe it is a substantial threat to one of Western Australia’s most important environmental icons."

Others are critical of CCS projects in general, believing that they encourage fossil fuel production.

"The main objective to mitigate climate change should be cutting carbon dioxide emissions at point of origin," said geologist Gabriela von Goerne of the German branch of Greenpeace. "By reducing fossil fuel consumption, the demand naturally shifts toward energy sources that don’t produce carbon dioxide, like solar, wind and hydro energy."

Read more here, here, here, and here.

Climate Corps Champions Energy Efficiency

Together with partner Net Impact, EDF's Climate Corps program embeds talented MBA students from top-ranking business schools in leading companies to make the business case for energy efficiency investments in office buildings and data centers.

The program just completed its second year. Overall, the 2009 class of Climate Corps fellows uncovered efficiencies in lighting, computer equipment and heating and cooling systems that could:

• Save more than $54 million in net operational costs over the lifetime of the projects;
• Cut the equivalent of 160 million kilowatt hours of energy use annually—enough to power 14,000 homes;
• Avoid 100,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year— equivalent to taking more than 12,000 SUVs off the road.

These astounding outcomes were achieved by keeping an eye on no-cost or low-cost solutions that can provide the largest savings.

Read more here.

Perhaps the World's Largest Dam Removal Project

Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement
Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times, September 30, 2009

PacifiCorp, a Portland, Oregon utility, has consented to the removal of four hydroelectric dams that for decades have been the subject of bitter feuding among farmers, fishermen, and tribal interests along the Klamath River.

The dams, which range in height from 33 feet to 173 feet and are spread across 65 miles of the Klamath, have impaired water quality and blocked a 300-mile migratory route for salmon for a century.

Removal won't begin until 2020, but is seen as vital to restoring California's dwindling salmon stocks.

Backers say the decommissioning -- which still must be approved by the federal government -- would be the nation's largest and most complex dam removal project. The tentative agreement was reached after a decade of negotiations among 28 parties.

Read the article here, and in the San Francisco Chronicle here.

Corporate Water Footprinting Conference

The 2nd annual Corporate Water Footprinting conference and exhibition will take place December 2-3, 2009 in San Francisco, California.

Corporate Water Footprinting will outline the risks and opportunities water poses to business and offer practical advice on mapping and reducing water consumption in products across the supply chain. As well as discussing new methodologies and standards for water footprinting the event will examine how companies are addressing water issues at a strategic level including: corporate engagement on water policy, collective action on water issues, unravelling the water-energy nexus, the development of water policy and regulation, the growing interest of water to the investment community, and corporate engagement with NGOs and activists on water issues.

The conference will include:

• Case studies from corporate leaders in water management and efficiency
• The latest methodologies and standards for water footprinting
• New water policy and regulation development, and how companies are getting involved
• Water stakeholder engagement strategies
• The potential impact of the "human right to water"
• Individual sessions on water market development, frameworks for strategic water management and the water-energy nexus

Expert speakers include:

• Robert Barbieri, Global Environmental Project Manager, Diageo
• Dan Bena, Director of Sustainability, Health, Safety and Environment, PepsiCo International
• Elissa Loughman, Environmental Analyst, Patagonia
• Matti Rihko, Chief Executive Officer, Raisio
• Kirstin Thorne, Corporate Advisor, Global Issues and Policy, Chevron
• Alex McIntosh, Director of Corporate Citizenship, Nestle Waters North America
• Tom Cooper, Corporate Water Programs Manager, Intel Corporation
• Debra Vernon, Manager, Corporate Responsibility, California American Water
• Jonah Schein, Marketing Specialist, WaterSense Program, EPA
• Kasey D. Schimke, Assistant Director, Legislative Affairs Office, California Department of Water Resources
• Adam Krantz, Managing Director, Government and Public Affairs, National Association of Clean Water Agencies

To download the full event brochure click here. To register click here.

How Green Is It?

Throughout August, All Things Considered (a program on National Public Radio) will examine some of the things Americans are doing — and buying — to help the environment, and if those steps really are as "green" as they seem.

Topics will include:

• Green cars and 'Cash for Clunkers' program
• Bring your own bags
• Green electricity and renewable energy
• Energy Star certification
• Replacement windows and weather-stripping
• Bamboo

Podcasts and transcripts available here.

Turning Waste Into Energy

Onion company is one of a growing number of businesses that use their waste to produce electricity.
Tiffany Hsu, Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2009

Steve Gill recently began using juice from his onion crop to create energy to run his refrigerators and lighting, slicing $700,000 annually off his electric bill and saving $400,000 a year on disposal costs at his 14-acre plant in Oxnard. Gill figures the $9.5 million system will pay for itself in less than six years while eliminating up to 30,000 tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions a year.

"It's a great sustainability story, but it was first a business decision to solve a waste problem," said Gill, 59, who co-owns the company with his brother David. "But in doing so, we solved a lot of environmental problems too."

Gills Onions is one of a small but growing cadre of US companies generating their own electricity on site with waste from their production processes. In addition to plant material, firms are using a variety of feedstocks, including animal manure, vegetable oil, whey -- even beer.

Farmers and processors in California's $37 billion agricultural industry are looking for ways to save money and reduce their environmental footprint, said Sonia Salas, science and technology manager for the Western Growers Association. "Many growers want technology that helps them handle waste," she said. "This is a concept that other operations can definitely use."

Read the complete story here: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-onions-fuel17-2009jul17,0,5226835.story

The Cost of the Cloud

Data Center Overload
Tom Vanderbilt, NY Times Magazine, June 8, 2009

Data centers worldwide now consume more energy annually than Sweden. And the amount of energy required is growing, says Jonathan Koomey, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. From 2000 to 2005, the aggregate electricity use by data centers doubled. The cloud, he calculates, consumes 1 to 2 percent of the world’s electricity.

Much of this is due simply to growth in the number of servers and the Internet itself. A Google search is not without environmental consequence — 0.2 grams of CO2 per search, the company claims — but based on EPA assumptions, an average car trip to the library consumes some 4,500 times the energy of a Google search while a page of newsprint uses some 350 times more energy.

Data centers, however, are loaded with inefficiencies, including loss of power as it is distributed through the system. It has historically taken nearly as much wattage to cool the servers as it does to run them. Because of the complexity of the network architecture — in which the role of any one server might not be clear or may have simply been forgotten — turning off a server may create more problems (e.g., service outages) than simply leaving it on.

As servers become more powerful, more kilowatts are needed to run and cool them; square footage in data centers is eaten up not by servers but by power. As data centers grow to unprecedented scales — Google recently reported that one of its data centers holds more than 45,000 servers (only a handful of companies have that many total servers) — attention has shifted to making servers less energy intensive. One approach is to improve the flow of air in the data center, through computational fluid-dynamics modeling. "Each of these servers could take input air at about 80 degrees," John Sontag, director of the technology transfer office at Hewlett-Packard, told me as we walked through the company’s research lab in Palo Alto. "The reason why you run it at 57 is you’re not actually sure you can deliver cold air" everywhere it is needed. Chandrakant Patel, director of the Sustainable IT Ecosystem Lab at HP, argues there has been "gross overprovisioning" of cooling in data centers. "Why should all the air-conditioners run full time in the data center?"” he asks. "They should be turned down based on the need."

Read the complete article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/magazine/14search-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all