Resources
Archives
-
Recent Posts
Categories
Green Building Archive
-
Ecocity Challenges
Freiburg is known as an ecocity. The newly built neighbourhoods of Vauban and Rieselfeld were developed and built according to the idea of sustainability. The citizens of Freiburg are known in Germany for their love of cycling and recycling.
This past December, as climate talks in Copenhagen commenced, I sat in talks in Istanbul listening [...]
-
Vancouver Aims to be Greenest City in the World
Vancouver is already known for savvy city planning.
Vancouver’s Mayor Gregor Robertson recently announced an ambitious 10-year plan to make Vancouver the world’s greenest city by 2020. Robertson presented the plan to the “Gaining Ground-Resilient Cities” conference at the Vancouver Convention Center. Robertson says that Vancouver is still far too reliant on cars and on [...]
-
Berkeley Solar Finance Plan will be National Model
The program is expected to greatly boost solar installations.
According to Vice President Joe Biden, the solar financing plan that sprouted in Berkeley in 2007 will become a national model. The program, called Recovery Through Retrofit, creates a framework for cities, counties and states to set up tax districts that allow residential and business property [...]
-
The Union of Concerned Scientists Climate 2030 Blueprint for the U.S.
The Union of Concerned Scientists recently released Climate 2030 Blueprint analyzes the economic and technological feasibility of meeting stringent targets for reducing global warming emissions, with a cap set at 26% below 2005 levels by 2020, and 56% below 2005 levels by 2030
-
Financing for Renewables and Energy Efficiency with AB811
AB 811, passed last summer in the California state legislature, authorizes all cities and counties in California to designate areas where property owners can obtain low-interest government loans for the installation of solar panels and energy efficiency upgrades as long as they are permanently fixed to the property.
-
A Short Guide to Setting Up a City-Scale Retrofit Program
Green For All and COWS have just released A Short Guide to Setting Up a City-Scale Retrofit Program (pdf, 308 KB), a guide to designing and implementing energy efficiency retrofitting programs on a citywide scale. The organizations aim to make these retrofits available to more households and to provide good, entry-level jobs with career tracks that are accessible to low-income communities and communities of color.
-
Green Building Ordinances on the Rise
According to the U.S. Green Building Council, in 2008 at least eight states and 22 local governments endorsed green building policies. as compared with just one state in 2004. Many of the measures require new government buildings to meet the council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.