By Lena Babaeva Coradini

Huh? "Does Salem's Building Disaster Give LEED a Bad Name?"  What is the Salem building disaster?  Well, the LEED Certified Courthouse Square in Salem, Oregon has been declared structurally unsafe, with evacuations actively conducted for the bus service and hub for local government. 

No one knows, or is saying at least, what is causing all the structural issues. Cracked walls and ceilings are the hallmark of what appears to be a buckling post-tensioned concrete slab. The concrete was recently tested and found to not meet the specified strength. Garbage was found in the slab when samples were taken. Claims against the architect and the general contractor have already been settled, but the amounts do not come near the $30 million price tag for the building.

Although the title of the article is eyebrow raising, I don’t think it really makes a clear tie between the building’s structural issues and its LEED status.  Until such a connection can be made, it is unclear as to why structural problems of the building would give LEED a bad name?!

By Lena Babaeva Coradini

Some states and cities out West have considered a ban on plastic bags, but it appears that it has not gained much traction.  Just this week: California rejected the ban on plastic shopping bags  when the bill for the ban failed 14-21 on Tuesday, after a lot of spending by the plastic bag manufacturing industry that argued that the bill would kill jobs.  However, many doubt that this issue will go away:

Environmental groups have long lobbied for statewide bans, but only local ones have passed. The California cities of San Francisco, Malibu, Palo Alto and Fairfax have approved bans, and North Carolina banned single-use plastic and non-recyclable bags last year in the Outer Banks. In January, Washington, D.C., began requiring grocery stores to charge a nickel for disposable grocery bags, according to USA Today.

The proposed ban had gone further than in any other state, in part because of support from the California Grocers Association, an industry group that previously opposed the bill.

“The bill has been amended tremendously,” said the group’s CEO Ronald Fong, adding its revised version pre-empted local jurisdictions from passing their own bag bans. Without a statewide ban, he said stores will face a potential patchwork of dozens of varying local ordinances that could cause “chaos and customer confusion.”

“This issue is not going away,” Fong told USA Today. “The future is in reusable bags. It’s the right thing to do.”

To garner more support, Brownley also removed a provision that would have charged customers a nickel to buy a recycled paper bag. The revised version allows retailers to charge only what it costs them to buy the bags.

 

By Lena Babaeva Coradini

Chattanooga is one of Tennessee’s cities that is gearing up for electric vehicles.

Coinciding with new vehicle launches of the all-electric Nissan LEAF and the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt in 2010-11, additional charging stations will be opened in the area over the next twelve months. These sites may include retail centers, parking garages and lots, grocery stores, cinemas, medical centers, parks and sports venues, the airport, schools and major employers.

The sites are great tourist attraction and there is hope that the stations will be well utilized.   Chattanooga is one of 16 major areas included in the EV Project across Tennessee, five other states and Washington DC.

By Lena Babaeva Coradini

This seems to be a frequent occurrence: "Wind Turbine Projects Run Into Resistance."

Because of its concerns, the Defense Department has emerged as a formidable opponent of wind projects in direct conflict with another branch of the federal government, the Energy Department, which is spending billions of dollars on wind projects as part of President Obama’s broader effort to promote renewable energy.

“I call it the train wreck of the 2000s,” said Gary Seifert, who has been studying the radar-wind energy clash at the Idaho National Laboratory, an Energy Department research facility. “The train wreck is the competing resources for two national needs: energy security and national security.”

In 2009, about 9,000 megawatts of proposed wind projects were abandoned or delayed because of radar concerns raised by the military and the Federal Aviation Administration, according to a member survey by the American Wind Energy Association. That is nearly as much as the amount of wind capacity that was actually built in the same year, the trade group says.

The Defense Department is concerned that turbine blades are indistinguishable from airplanes on radar systems, and they can even cause blackout zones so that planes disappear from radar.  Additionally, clusters of turbines can look like storm activity on weather radar.  For all of these reasons, some argue that wind turbines pose a risk to training, testing and national security in some regions.

By Lena Babaeva Coradini

Interesting news for the building community: "Green Buildings Drive BIM Adoption," according to a new report from McGraw-Hill Construction:

The report, “Green BIM: How Building Information Modeling is Contributing to Green Design and Construction“, produced in collaboration with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA), Autodesk, and 13 other industry organizations, finds that the industry is only now tapping into the potential of BIM to meet their ‘green’ goals.

Case-in-point: The report finds that only 17 percent of Green BIM practitioners are currently realizing more than 50 percent of BIM’s potential for their green goals, but 78 percent of survey respondents who aren’t currently using BIM for their green building projects expect to within the next three years.

. . .

According to the report, as green building become a larger share of construction, the benefits provided by BIM will also be more widely recognized. As a result, the use of BIM will increase as it delivers a more efficient way to leverage digital models for design, construction and operation of projects, according to the report.

Another finding shows that nearly half (49 percent) of Green BIM practitioners use BIM for more than 50 percent of their projects, compared to 28 percent of non-Green BIM companies. Green BIM practitioners are also more intensive users of the software since they both create and analyze models more frequently than non-Green BIM companies, according to the report.

McGraw-Hill Construction studies have found that energy efficiency is the most often cited green building benefit, yielding significant cost savings over a building’s full lifecycle.

By Lena Babaeva Coradini

There have been a couples of editorials and articles around on the EPA's New Fuel Efficiency Labels, which will be implemented in 2012, and which are aimed to help the consumer realize the differences between electric, hybrid and diesel fuel cars.  The labels are currently up for public review on the EPA's site.

Label 1 uses a letter grade from A+ to D to give an instant good/bad rating that takes both fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions into consideration. Just below that, the EPA plans to list a not-yet-created Web site where people can learn more about the ratings and how their personal driving habits could effect them. The amount of money a car owner will save (or spend) over five years is prominently displayed, which is effective since cost-savings could definitely draw in buyers who aren't interested in the car's environmental standards. Below that, a range of environmental factors, from CO2 emissions to the presence of other pollutants. And on the right hand side you'll see a QR code, which will let people compare dealer prices and the efficiency of other cars on the spot--pretty useful for anyone on the lot.

The second label doesn't use a letter grade, it's obviously horizontal, and it's a bit simpler. On the second label it's also easy to see the different labels for gasoline cars (top), electric vehicles, compressed natural gas vehicles and hybrid vehicles (bottom). They're slightly modified to show the different MPG ratings when using gas only or an electric/gas mix--an extremely nuanced set of data since some people might not understand how a hybrid car works. It's handled pretty well on the hybrid label.

I am curious to see which of the labels will win out and be considered the best for educating consumers.

By Lena Babaeva Coradini

Scott Adams, the creator of ‘Dilbert’ comic strip, wrote a very interesting and honest look at building a green house and what hurdles he has encountered on his journey that other folks may encounter as well.

By Lena Babaeva Coradini

The United States Coast Guard celebrates the launch in eastern Maine of the first federal facility anywhere to use tidal power located.  A 60-kilowatt tidal turbine was launched in March and is providing electricity to the station’s boats starting this week:

The project shows that tidal power can be harnessed for Coast Guard and other federal facilities, McPherson said. After the 60-day demonstration ends in October, the project will be evaluated in hopes of applying the technology in places such as Maine or Alaska, where extreme tides and fast currents that make tidal power appropriate, he said.

I particularly liked this quote in the article: "'It's just a demonstration project, and it's modest,' McPherson said. 'But I say Alexander Graham Bell just called Watson in the next room for the first phone call. You have to start somewhere.'"  So true.

By Lena Babaeva Coradini

Some good news for Tennessee: Governor Bredesen and Matt Kisber, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, announced the launch of a new $50 million energy efficiency loan program created to help Tennessee companies finance investments in energy efficient technology, as well as retrofits and renewable energy systems:

This innovative economic development program will be administered by Pathway Lending and will offer access to below-market rate loans, financing up to 100 percent of improvements aimed at reducing energy consumption, lowering overall costs and improving profitability. . . .

“Pathway Lending plans to offer below-market rate loans at 5 percent with terms extending to 10 years.  Loans can finance up to 100 percent of costs on projects including building retrofits, equipment replacements or upgrades, lighting and renewable generation projects. 

The loans can be repaid with the energy costs savings derived from each project. The program is the result of a collaborative effort between the state of Tennessee, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Economic Development Administration, Pathway Lending, Pinnacle Financial Partners and the Tennessee Valley Authority. . . .

The Energy Efficiency Loan Program is available to any business seeking to reduce energy consumption in their Tennessee facilities through building retrofits and upgrades, equipment replacement purchases or other energy efficiency or renewable energy projects.  Beginning August 25, businesses may apply online at www.pathwaylending.org with first round applications due by November 1, 2010.

To be eligible for a loan, a business must have a complete an energy audit, assessment or vendor proposal with detailed project energy savings.  Once verified, these energy savings determine the amount and term of the loan and the applicant’s ability to repay the loan with those savings. 

Informational workshops will be hosted by Pathway Lending throughout the state in September and businesses are welcome to attend the events for free.

By Lena Babaeva Coradini

Interesting New York Times piece on the increasing number of banks and commercial lenders that are starting to distance their financial institutions from companies involved in risky or controversial environmental operations.

Blasting off mountaintops to reach coal in Appalachia or churning out millions of tons of carbon dioxide to extract oil from sand in Alberta are among environmentalists’ biggest industrial irritants. But they are also legal and lucrative.

For a growing number of banks, however, that does not seem to matter.

. . .

Still, banking analysts and others suggest that heated debate over climate change, water quality and other environmental considerations is forcing lenders to take a much harder — and often uncomfortable — look at where they extend credit, and to whom.

By Lena Babaeva Coradini

I couldn't resist this headline: "Going Green, Without Being Preachy About It." The article discusses Sean Meenan, a New York City restaurant owner who is "a surprising spokesman for environmentalism."

“Some people get turned off because it’s like guys in lab coats or people wearing Patchouli and Birkenstocks, and they’re like, ‘Yo, this is not me,’ ” he said in an interview, explaining his “softly didactic” approach to environmentalism. Or, as he put it to the girls that morning in a rapid-fire patter: “I found the best way to try to, like, get people inspired and, like, want to do something is to make it fun, right? And make it easily understandable, you know what I mean, so, like, people can comprehend and dig what you’re doing.”

By Lena Babaeva Coradini

Just in time for the long Labor Day weekend, here are some suggestions for holiday road trips focused on eco-tourism.

By Lena Babaeva Coradini

Earlier this week California energy regulators approved the first new solar thermal project in the state in more than 20 years.

By Lena Babaeva Coradini

Driving four thousand miles across Canada in a 1972 Volkswagen is one thing, but when the '72 VW is actually an E-Beetle converted to run on electricity by a team of college students, that's just cool.

By Lena Babaeva Coradini

According to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the United States used less energy in 2009 and increased the use of renewable energy resources. A new report shows that coal and petroleum use were down significantly in 2009 while wind power was up by more than a third. Natural gas use also declined and 2009 saw increases in the use of solar, hydroelectric and geothermal power.

Presumably, some of the decrease in fossil fuel use can be attributed to the U.S. economic climate in 2009, but the increases in alt energy are certainly a positive sign.