Sustainable Development Focus
Del Mar Times - Nov 9 Kilroy Realty celebrated its new solar project with a ribbon-cutting event on November 2 at Kilroy Centre Del Mar in Carmel Valley. The project is part of Kilroy’s commitment to sustainability as well as a contribution to San Diego’s Climate Action Plan that seeks to achieve 100 percent citywide renewable energy usage by 2035. Working in partnership with Nautilus Solar, the Carmel Valley project on Valley Center Drive is one of nine Kilroy Realty properties in California featuring a new solar installation. Kilroy’s six San Diego projects will offset energy usage by 65 percent and generate six million kilowatts annually, power 558 residential homes, and create 138 green jobs in the local economy.
Los Angeles Times - Nov 2 The nation’s largest port complex approved a plan in early November to slash air pollution by encouraging the phase-out of diesel trucks in favor of natural gas and, ultimately, zero-emissions trucks and cargo-handling equipment over the next two decades. The Clean Air Action Plan, unanimously adopted at a joint meeting of Los Angeles and Long Beach harbor commissioners, provides a framework for transforming the massive hub for freight-moving trucks, trains, and ships to cleaner technologies through 2035. But it leaves many details undetermined, including who will pay for up to $14 billion in cleaner trucks and equipment and which industries will benefit. The plan is the most significant and expensive environmental initiative yet by the ports, which have sought to distinguish themselves from competitors over the last decade by pioneering air quality improvements, some of which have been replicated by other seaports and enshrined by California regulators.
Portland Business Journal - Nov 7 Governor Kate Brown has issued executive orders intended to encourage more energy efficient buildings and electric vehicle adoption. A bill failed in the Legislature earlier this year that would have required new buildings to use nearly two-thirds less energy than today’s buildings by 2032. Brown's executive order tries to make up some of that ground, requiring state-owned buildings permitted beginning in 2022 to be carbon neutral, and new residential buildings to hit a federal “zero energy ready” standard beginning in October 2023.
PV-Tech - Nov 10 StuyTown Property Services, the manager of Manhattan’s largest residential property, will install a 3.8-megawatt PV energy system across 22 acres of rooftop space at the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. The building complex on the east side of Manhattan in New York City is home to 27,000 residents and represents 1.7 percent of the population of Manhattan. The rooftop project, which will be comprised of 9,671 solar panels, will be the largest private multifamily rooftop solar array in the U.S., tripling Manhattan’s current solar generating capacity.
Proud Green Building - Nov 10 Denver is the latest city to require rooftop gardens or solar panels on big new buildings, which backers say will keep the outdoor air cooler, make storm water easier to manage, and reduce the amount of energy burned by air conditioners. A ballot initiative mandating environment-friendly roofs in Denver had 54 percent approval in final but unofficial returns last week, according to the Associated Press. Denver joins San Francisco, New York, Paris, London, and other global cities that require or encourage builders to put “green roofs” on large new buildings.
Solar Industry Magazine - Nov 10 San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. has announced that 100 percent of its global electricity consumption for 2017 will be met with renewable energy. The milestone means the financial services company has met the first part of its commitment to purchase renewable energy to power 100 percent of global operations by the close of 2017, with a transition to long-term agreements that fund new sources of green power by 2020. To meet the demand for its more than 90 million square feet of real estate, including data centers, corporate offices, and branches, Wells Fargo says it purchased more than 2 million MWh of 2017 vintage renewable energy certificates.
