Sustainable Development Focus
Bisnow - May 11 San Francisco's 399 Fremont Street, owned by UDR and MetLife, now features the world’s tallest solar water heating project. The rooftop installation completed by California Solar Integrators (Cal Solar) will make the 42-story luxury apartment building more energy efficient by reducing the gas needed to heat the building’s water. Cal Solar VP Sean Neman says the system will reduce gas heating of the building's water supply by more than 30 percent. In total, heating the water with energy drawn from solar panels will save 12,000 therms per year when compared to older methods.
Facility Executive - May 13 The Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge is one of the biggest public-private partnerships on energy efficiency. The latest results from the Obama Administration initiative launched in 2011 include: 160 trillion Btus of energy saved, $1.3 billion saved, 10 million tons of avoided carbon emissions, 2.3 billion gallons of water saved, and 34,000 buildings and facilities nationwide. These savings resulted from a wide variety of solutions, including upgrades and energy-saving technologies in car manufacturing plants, streetlights, and restaurant kitchens.
Environmental Leader - May 12 General Motors (GM) has turned trash into cash, to the tune of $1 billion in new revenue streams from recycling and reuse. According to the company’s latest sustainability report, GM’s byproduct recycling and reuse initiatives have not only saved money, but also they’ve also generated revenue for the automaker. At the end of last year, 90 of GM’s manufacturing operations (53 percent) and 41 non-manufacturing operations were landfill-free. At these landfill-free manufacturing sites, about 89 percent of waste materials are reused or recycled and about 9 percent are converted to energy at waste-to-energy facilities.
Solar Industry Magazine - May 13 Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, D-N.Y., has announced the closing of four new NY Green Bank transactions, which are expected to generate up to $220 million in clean energy projects, including more than 6,200 residential rooftop solar installations across the state. NY Green Bank investments will also result in up to eight large, ground-mounted solar installations for commercial and industrial users, as well as 400 residential energy efficiency projects.
Next City - May 11 Improving energy efficiency in buildings could not only dramatically reduce carbon emissions, but could also reduce the energy burden on poor households, improve indoor and outdoor air quality, create green jobs, and save a lot of money, according to a new report by D.C.-headquartered research organization World Resources Institute. Each additional $1 spent on energy efficiency avoids more than $2, on average, in energy supply investments, according to the report; implementing efficiency measures now could also avoid locking in carbon emissions far into the future or requiring that buildings later go through costly retrofits. With more than two-thirds of the world’s energy consumed in urban areas, the report outlines eight action steps city governments can take to improve sustainability in the building sector today.
Inhabitat - May 16 The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) opened to incredible fanfare last weekend, as thousands eagerly poured into the newly renovated museum that nearly tripled its gallery space after a three-year expansion project. One of the museum’s new additions is a giant living wall, the nation’s largest public green wall of native plants. The living wall offers a multi-sensory experience that attracts not only visitors, but also local fauna like birds, bees, and butterflies. To save on water usage, condensate water, a byproduct of the museum’s air conditioning units, and stormwater are recycled for use as irrigation. Any runoff from the wall is also captured and reused to reduce water use by 60 percent.
