Green press chronicles clean energy evolution

Green jobs, green business and green energy. The terms are batted around like crazy, especially on the clean energy news sites we follow here at the SJVCEO.

And according to a series of studies, the sector is due for substantial growth -- or could be depending on friendly legislation, according to a series of studies.

Here are a couple of stories offering anecdotal evidence of that green surge. Tony Illia of the Las Vegas Business Press does a good job showing the connection clean energy and green practices have to saving money and providing value in a battered economy in his story "Green's monstrous growth."

The gist of the story is perhaps best reflected in a quote Illia got from McGraw-Hill Construction Vice President Harvey Bernstein, who said, "Green growth is phenomenal across the globe. The expansion of green products and services will have a long-term impact on our future economy and ability to build green."

He also quoted Rick Van Diepen, 2010 president of the Nevada chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, as saying, "Developers and owners are seeing the value in green building as a competitive differentiator. The bottom-line decisions are becoming paramount in terms of lowering operating costs."

We've heard the same from Loren Aiton, board president of U.S. Green Building Council Central California, who says building green pays for itself and is relatively cheap on the front end. He said LEED certification adds 4 percent to 5 percent to construction cost and a little more if you go to the ultimate platinum level, but the building's efficiency pedigree speaks for itself in the marketplace for buyers and renters. LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and has become an industry standard for energy efficiency and green building practices.

Another round-up of green energy activity comes from online news service sierra2thesea.com in the story, "Tulare & Kings Counties Going From Nada Watts To Mega Watts."

The Central San Joaquin Valley, sierra2thesea founder John Lindt offers, "is suddenly ground zero for the solar transformation of California." His story lists a range of projects: "Tulare County has attracted 13 applications for special use permits mostly 20 megawatts." Kings County has potential projects from 20 to 5,000 megawatts.

We'll be watching closely.

Photo: Kern Schools Federal Credit Union in Bakersfield, among the first LEED certified buildings in the Central San Joaquin Valley, courtesy USGBC CC.

Postal Service As Model Of Green

Anyone who thinks energy efficiency isn't worth the cost should study the example of the U.S. Postal Service.

The federal agency figured it would cut energy bills at a New York City processing center by $30,000 per year. Instead, the new green roof and other energy-saving measures whacked off a whopping $1 million.

Installing the green roof, changing 1,600 windows and other upgrades slashed energy consumption 40% per month. The crown jewel of the project, the green roof, covers nearly 2.5 acres. Nearly 90% of the original roof was recycled and used during the remodeling. The new roof is project to last 50 years, twice as long as the original covering.

The New York City building is pursuing LEED certification, following post offices in Denver, CO. and Southampton, N.Y., and processing centers in Greenville, S.C., and Troy, MI.

As a result, the Postal Service is more than two thirds of the way to achieving its goal of 30% energy reduction by 2015.

(Photo by Sigal Ben-Shmuel/EKLA)

Home star to provide cash for retrofits

This is a guest post from Houston Neal, director of marketing for Software Advice, an Austin, Texas-based software consultant.

The Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010 -- informally known as "cash for caulkers" -- is nearly here. The bill was passed earlier this summer by the House of Representatives and now awaits approval from the Senate. Supporters predict it will pass before the end of the summer.

In the meantime, homeowners and contractors should be doing their homework. The legislation describes 13 types of renovations that will be eligible for funding. Each renovation has unique eligibility requirements and predetermined rebate amounts. To take advantage of coming funds, homeowners need ensure their retrofits comply with the bill's specifications.

Software Advice, an online technology resource for contractors, recently put together a "definitive guide to cash for caulkers." The company lists all the detailed requirements in an easy-to-read table. It also has combined the retrofits into three packages to help homeowners make the most of the rebates:

• Seal Your House Envelope and Improve Insulation -- Homeowners need to weatherize and seal their house “envelope” before carrying out any serious retrofit.
• Repair and Replace Leaky Ducts -- Ducts are notoriously leaky and inefficient. They are one of the usual suspects in a crime of high utility bills or when rooms are difficult to heat and cool.
• Upgrade Your Furnace and Water Heater -- Improving the heating efficiency of your home will have the biggest impact on lowering your energy costs. Sealing air leaks is a good start, but replacing your heating system could provide real leverage toward cost savings.

To learn more, click here.

About the author: Houston Neal joined Software Advice in 2007, just shortly after the company was started. He spends most of his day writing for the company blog and getting the word out about Software Advice's resources. He enjoys researching and reporting trends in software and technology, and has a particular interest in developments in "green" technology.

Sustainability policies proliferate amongst corporations, governments and colleges

Energy efficiency and good stewardship truly have entered the mainstream.

I got an idea of the extent of this when I went on a hunt for energy efficiency and sustainability policies. I came across a fantastically large cross section using a variety of Google searches. I began with government, headed into corporate and then finished with education.

I was most intrigued by the clarity of the college campus plans. Many spelled out energy goals and just how they would be paid for. For instance, Stanford's policy say it has allocated $15 million for major capital improvements to the most energy-intensive buildings on campus and that "new buildings and most major renovations must meet Stanford’s Guidelines for Sustainable Buildings, which adapt the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system and the U.S. government’s Labs21 guidelines to the university setting."

Officials reported earlier this year that the University of California system would "pay about $15 million more per year in energy expenses if it had not implemented efficiency projects resulting from the systemwide sustainability policy.

"UC's policy sets a goal to install 10 megawatts of on-campus renewable energy generation by 2014. To date, 3.5 megawatts of solar power-generation capacity has been installed, including a 1-megawatt facility in Merced which provides about 20 percent of the electricity on campus."

The shortest plan overall is Walmart's: "At Walmart, we know that being an efficient and profitable business and being a good steward of the environment are goals that can work together. Our broad environmental goals at Walmart are simple and straightforward: To be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy; To create zero waste; To sell products that sustain people and the environment."

Here's Montreal-based Dawson College's short and sweet policy:

Dawson shall implement and maintain a College-wide sustainability management plan; Dawson shall develop simple and measurable sustainability benchmarks and performance indicators; Dawson shall promote environmental literacy to the College community, when appropriate, as part of College programs of study and courses.

The reasons so many institutions, corporations and governments have opted to spell out sustainable goals may have a lot to do with esoteric reasons such as making the world a better place for future generations,  addressing global warming or feeling like better stewards of the environment. However, such concepts now transcend the ideals of the activists. Changes made now actually do make a difference -- in real-time cash savings. I read recently about a concept that if everybody replaced a single incandescent bulb in their homes with a compact fluorescent, the energy savings would be the same as taking thousands of cars off the road.

But simple energy efficiency retrofits make a big difference. The payback on many of them is very fast. Those with big utility bills have a huge incentive to make every effort to save money, especially in these recession-enhanced times.

Matt Kistler, senior vice-president of sustainability at Walmart, wrote this in a post on treehugger.com: "At Walmart, sustainability continues to make us a better company by reducing waste, lowering costs, driving innovation, and helping us fulfill our mission to save people money so they can live better. In 2005, when we began our sustainability journey, we learned that taking a leadership role and collaborating with others that share our commitment and passion for sustaining the environment could benefit entire business sectors around the globe."

Sustainability, at least in the corporate world, offers multiple paybacks. Here's to more of that.

Photo: Stanford campus.

Reports say green looks good for jobs, energy

A couple of recent reports spell a bright future for the green building movement and renewable energy.

The green building industry will more than double by 2015 to a market value of $173.5 billion, according to the first of the two reports.

Fort Collins, Colo.-based EL Insights, an online energy industry trade publication, said expansion will proceed at a clip of about 19.5 percent annually from an estimated $71.1 billion this year. The magazine cited increased environmental awareness as the result of the Gulf oil spill, direct investment by large corporations and commercial construction.

Commercial green building is projected to grow by 18.1% annually, the magazine said. This would take the sector from $35.6 billion to $81.8 billion and create a potential 2.5 million jobs, which could expand the construction industry by a third.

"So if you haven't been paying attention to the U.S. Green Building Council, now is the time to start -- the nonprofit offers virtually endless amounts of information on green building studies and LEED certification," writes Ariel Schwartz of fastcompany.com. LEED is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

The second report, "Economic Benefits of a Comprehensive Feed-In Tariff: An Analysis of the REESA in California," contains a caveat. The report by the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley says that nearly 300,000 green jobs could be created in the next decade but their materialization requires passage of the Renewable Energy and Economic Stimulus Act now pending in the state Legislature.

The report says the act -- AB 1106 and now in the Senate Appropriations Committee -- would not only enable the state expand its renewable energy to a third of all power generation by 2020 but create 280,000 jobs over the next decade. It also would "increase state revenues by an estimated $1.7 billion" and "stimulate up to $50 billion in total new investment in the state."

A feed-in tariff is defined as a "pre-specified electricity price paid to mid-sized clean energy distributed generation installations ... with rates set commensurate with the projected cost of generation." Said another way: Renewable energy generators would get about what it costs to the produce power.

PG&E opposes measure to curtail climate law

The effort to suspend California's greenhouse gas emissions law has drawn perhaps its toughest foe now that PG&E has aligned itself with the opposition.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. joined companies like SunPower Corp., Recurve and Oak Creek Energy against Proposition 23, which will appear on November ballots and, if passed would effectively end the state's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, or AB 32.

AB 32 requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

"Studies show that unchecked climate change could cost California's economy alone tens of billions of dollars a year in losses to agriculture, tourism and other sectors," said Peter Darbee, Chairman and CEO of PG&E, in a statement. "Thoughtful and balanced implementation of AB 32 is one of the most important opportunities we have to avoid this costly outcome while spurring new clean-tech investment, innovation and job creation in California."

PG&E says it's "working closely with policymakers on creative ways to ensure that the law's vital environmental objectives are achieved at the lowest possible cost to customers and the California economy."

The effort won praise from groups that we're beating up the utility in recent weeks for its support of Prop. 16, which would have made it more difficult for local governments to start their own utilities.

Californians for Clean Energy and Jobs says on its site that "AB 32 has put California in a unique position to lead the clean energy and technology market, both in the United States and abroad." Steven Maviglio, spokesman, said in a statement that "PG&E, one of our state's largest employers, knows that Proposition 23 will kill jobs, drive up energy costs for families and businesses, and deal a blow to California's leadership in developing clean energy."

Expect a tough battle in coming months. The economy is in bad shape and that's the thrust of Prop. 23 supporters' message.

Anita Mangels, spokeswoman for the California Jobs Initiative committee that's backing Prop. 23, told Josh Richman of MercuryNews.com that Prop. 23 "will not weaken, repeal or roll back" AB 32 but "temporarily adjust the timetable for implementing" the costly measure until the state's economy improves.

"Prop. 23 would protect California families and businesses from billions of dollars in higher energy costs that would result from implementation of AB 32. It's no surprise that PG&E would oppose Prop. 23, since defeating the initiative would allow PG&E to increase its rates and its profits at the expense of California's already struggling families and businesses."

Building green costs about the same, despite perceptions to the contrary

Much of the public continues to believe that building green costs far more than it does, according to a recent study.

Some 62 percent of those surveyed indicated there is a "significant premium" to building green, while 42 percent said that premium would tack 10 percent or more to the cost of construction, says "Opening the Door to Green Building," a 24-page study by Shaker Heights, Ohio-based Sustainable Rhythm and the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.

"The perception of cost implications remains a difficult one for the market to address," the study said. "While new studies and data are becoming available that illustrate negligible or no premiums to build green, this message is not being communicated."

In fact, the cost for building green -- depending on what level of green is sought -- adds more like 1 percent to 2 percent to a construction project, according to the Urban Green Council. Of course, much depends on the level of LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, certification. Loren Aiton, a board member of USGBC Central California Chapter, said it may cost a little more, between 4 percent and 5 percent to meet LEED standards.

Even the increased amount is far less than that perceived by the majority in the survey.

Session planned to explain tighter water runoff plans

Did you know that state officials are requiring developers, contractors and property owners doing extensive remodels to have someone qualified on site during rain storms to monitor runoff?

That is just one of the new regulations that the state Water Resources Control Board is putting into place this year (effective July 1) and next as they tighten storm water pollution prevention plans, said Bruce Poulsen of Darden Architects.

Contractors and others can learn more about the new legislation at a workshop scheduled from 2-4 p.m July 15 in Visalia. Cost: $100 for USGBC CC members and $125 for non-members. Space is limited, so sign up at info@usgbccc.org.

Location information and registration details will follow shortly. This is one workshop you won't want to miss, so put it on your planners now.

LAWS, CODES & TITLE REGULATIONS (2010) IN CALIFORNIA