San Francisco and New York took home awards from COP17, where the World Green Building Council honored the two cities for advancing green building. The council, which announced the awards earlier this week at the climate talks in Durban, South Africa, also recognized Mexico City, Tokyo, Birmingham in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Singapore for their work supporting sustainable building. “It’s a real honor to get this award,” said Melanie Nutter, director of San Francisco’s Department of Environment. “What it speaks to is a number of years of commitment by city leaders, city agencies, businesses large and small – a range of stakeholders who have been part of coalition efforts to move the ball forward by making buildings more sustainable and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” San Francisco received the council’s Best Green Building Policy award. The award marks the third major green building accolade for the city this year. Siemens named San Francisco the greenest city in North America in June. The same month, the Green Building Opportunity Index deemed San Francisco No. 1 among the 30 largest office markets in the U.S. for a second consecutive year. [Read this article]

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The sparse city center forever immortalized in the 1980s by Miami Vice is now a mega-metropolis densely populated by condos and skyscrapers – monolithic structures of steel, concrete, and glass glistening off the waters of Biscayne Bay under the warm Florida sun. And they continue to rise, year after year. Most of these new edifices are significantly more environmentally aware then their predecessors. Downtown Miami’s sustainable practices are usually adopted by people living in the area’s more affluent neighborhoods and not by the average, middle-income-earning Miamian who lives in one of several suburban communities abutting Miami’s city limits. The city of Miami’s shift toward sustainability isn’t limited to the downtown area. Its greening efforts are supposed to spread throughout the city through plans introduced by Miami’s Office of Sustainable Initiatives, which was launched in 2006. “Over the next century, escalating greenhouse gas emissions threaten to dramatically increase the earth’s temperatures and raise sea levels, making Greater Miami one of the most vulnerable urban areas in the world,” the climate action plan states. [Read this article]

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Quick, if I want to replace a 60-watt incandescent light bulb with an energy efficient fluorescent or LED bulb, what wattage should I choose to keep the same level of illumination? If you don’t know, there’s now an app for that. The winner of best overall app at the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Apps for the Environment is called Light Bulb Finder, a free iOS and Android application that helps a user choose the energy efficient bulbs that best match their home’s current lighting conditions. For example, if I want to replace an open sconce, 5” diameter globe bulb in my bathroom with a standard base and a power of 60 watts, Light Bulb Finder recommends an ENERGY STAR 14-watt compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) that fits my wall sconce. Even better, the app estimates the energy savings from changing the bulb, and how long it will take for the bulb to pay for itself. I can then save the bulb to my shopping list, or order it directly via the app. [Read this article]

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Hickory Ridge landfill was once a mountain of trash sitting idle on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia. But now, with its 10 acres of solar panels, the old landfill has been given a new lease of “green” life. “When a landfill is (finished with) taking waste, it basically is dormant and there’s not a lot of uses for the property,” says David Stuart, area environmental manager of landfill owners, Republic Services, Inc. “But its natural attributes – being a tall structure, out of the shadows of the tree line – gives it a unique advantage as a solar project,” he added. The Spectral PowerCap designed by the Carlisle Energy Services is lined with 7,000 flexible solar strips which produces one megawatt of energy. The electricity generated is collected in each panel much like a solar calculator would, says Stuart. But rather than powering a keyboard it goes towards helping power the local grid. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency there are around 100,000 closed landfills in the U.S. providing thousands of acres of property that could be used for renewable energy development. [Read this article]

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The price of heating the average home with oil is expected to jump 10% this year to an average of $2,535 over the winter heating season (October 1 through March 31), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). That’s 45% higher than just two years ago, when the average bill was just $1,752. While only about 8.2 million homes still use heating oil, according to Census Bureau data, a vast majority of those homes are in the Northeast, where long, cold winters require greater fuel consumption. For those who heat their homes with gas, prices are projected to be stable over the next few years. There’s a glut of natural gas available and more is coming on line as new sources. The average homeowner will pay only about $732 to heat their home with gas this season. Heating homes with electricity will cost an average of $954 this winter, down $8 from last year. [Read this article]

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Pike Research predicts the building energy efficiency market will soar more than 50 percent between now and 2017 to $103.5 billion. Among the leading factors: an active stable of energy service companies (ESCOs) and aggressive efficiency policies being enacted around the world. High-efficiency equipment, such as HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and lighting, will become more desirable in the coming years, according to the Pike report, “Energy Efficient Buildings: Global Outlook.” The market for high-efficiency HVAC systems, for example, will more than double to $6.4 billion between 2011 and 2017. ESCOs will see their fortunes rise handsomely as well, with global revenues more than doubling to $66 billion in 2017. A major player in the commercial buildings space, often using energy performance contracts (ESC) to finance projects using the expected savings, they will account for the largest segment in the energy efficient buildings industry. [Read this article]

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