Green A City

Race for Solar City Title

It looks like San Francisco and San Diego are off on a race to be the leading cities for generating energy from the sun, after they both announced ambitious programs to increase solar generation by anywhere from 5 to almost 20 times current city levels.

San Diego unveiled in February a 1.135 megawatt solar plant, and the city said it plans to bump that up to 5 megawatts on other city facilities by 2013. The installation, at its Alvarado Water Treatment plant, is owned and operated by Maryland-based SunEdison at no upfront cost to the city.

San Francisco, currently with the largest city-owned single solar site in the nation with 675 kilowatts of solar operating at Moscone Center that was installed by SunPower (then PowerLight), announced it wants to increase its solar output to more than 35 megawatts from its current total of about 2 megawatts.

New legislation now allows the city to more easily tap a 2001 voter-approved $100 million solar bond, that was a direct reaction to the California's horrific 2000-2001 rolling blackouts. Turns out those rolling blackies were not caused by lack of generating capacity--which was the big myth perpetrated by DC and the media--but were the direct result of Enron and other energy trading companies' gaming the power market.

Whatever. There's more than enough sun, even in foggy San Francisco, to produce a great deal of non-polluting electricity while stimulating regional economic development in clean technologies.

Hello, Phoenix? Other Sun Belt cities?

*************

On Tuesday (11-11:50 a.m.), I'll be presenting an analysis of California city sustainability at the first Green California Summit, being held at the Sacramento Convention Center. Stop on by if you're at the event, which is shaping up to be a Hootenanny for state and local government and business leaders on all things green.

As far as solar goes, Sacramento is no slouch, as it leads the nation in combined individual business and residential solar installations, mostly because of Sacramento Municipal Utility District's (SMUD) efforts.

Which city has the Greenest Fleet???

Las Vegas!!

Most are surprised  that Las Vegas has the highest percentage of alternative fueled vehicles in its city fleet--more than 60% of its vehicles are burning biodiesel, or compressed natural gas or are hybrid electric. SustainLane Goverment released yesterday this ranking.

The top other cities are as follows:

2. Honolulu

3. Kansas City, MO

4. Albuquerque

5. Dallas

6. Denver

7. Phoenix

8. Los Angeles

9. Seattle

10. Portland, OR

These cleaner-fuel vehicles cut air pollution locally, but they also reduce carbon emissions that cause global climate change. They push further development of clean technologies that are likely to be rolled out to consumers, and, alternative fuels provide economic opportunities for regional farmers producing fuel crops--or better still ag by-products that can be used as to make fuel, such as used cooking grease. My latest favorite biofuel is bio-butanol, which is way more efficient than corn-based ethanol, and can be made from a variety of crops.

Final footnote: two of these cities, Denver and Albuquerque, vow to implement 100% alternative fuel fleets by the end of 2007 or so.

Appearance Tonight on KRON 4 TV in Bay Area

If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can watch my appearance this afternoon at about 4 to 4:10 Pacific Time on KRON4 TV's "Rob Black and Your Money." Rob and I will be discussing SustainLane Government's Top 5 US Cities for Cleantech Incubation, including Berkeley and San Jose from the Bay Area.

Top Ten Sustainability Stories for 2006

The year of 2006 in review from the perspective of sustainability in state and local government, presented in order of importance.

Though we have been doing this blog only since May, so much has gone on since then that we are overwhelmed by the evidence that the nation is experiencing a collective tipping point. As Old Abe used to write--to wit:

1. Climate Change Policy Milestones: California, led by Gov. Schwarzenegger and the state General Assembly, passed legislation to reduce climate change emissions by 25% by 2020. Soon after British Prime Minister Tony Blair met with Schwarzenegger and others in a climate change task force, and the English government released the Stern Report. The report, from the former chief economist of the World Bank, forecasted that global economic output would be reduced by 5-20 percent if global carbon emissions increase unabated.

Seattle's Climate Action Plan, released in September, followed up with detailed management tasks for business, local government and citizens in order to reduce the city's carbon emissions. This comes as the US Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement, started by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels in 2005 as a way for communities to meet or beat Kyoto carbon-reduction targets, has grown to include 349 mayors representing 54 million Americans.

2. Boston Requires Green Construction for All Large Buildings: in the last weeks of December, Mayor Thomas Menino announced a sweeping change to city zoning. The new ordinance requires that all buildings over 50,000 square feet be certified by the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Environment and Energy (LEED) standard. Look for this move to spread similar ordinances across the nation's cities. Previously cities have only required LEED standards for municipal buildings. Boston is making this the law for all large buildings, which should give a jolt to the area's green economy, impacting developers, architects, contractors and product manufacturers.

3. Portland to Institute Green Real Estate Multiple Listing Service (MLS) : Portland will as of 2007 have a green MLS for all residential real estate in the city and surrounding areas. Now homebuyers can look up and see if their perspective new or existing dream home has energy efficient appliances, super-insulation  and renewable energy systems. Seattle and San Francisco are said to be following suit.

4. New York's Sustainability Planning: Mayor Micheal Bloomberg this fall put the mechanisms in place for the city's first sustainability plan, with the appointment of a Director of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability and a high-level Sustainability Advisory Council. How these city-led multi-stakeholder efforts evolve will determine the fate of everything from the city's nation-leading public transportation, open space and poor air quality, to its economy and competitiveness.

5. Portland Biodiesel Requirement: Portland (OR) passed a renewable fuels ordinance requiring that the city's gas stations provide 5 percent biodiesel of all diesel fuel sold by July 2007 and 10 percent by 2010. This has stimulated local production of biodiesel start-ups, and will enable local farmers to have a market for biodiesel crops such as as canola, which can be grown in eastern Oregon.

6. Denver Greenprint: Denver launched an ambitious "Greenprint Denver" in July that lays out how the city can integrate development of its transportation, land use, neighborhoods and economy. Backed by Mayor John Hickenlooper, who gave a sustainability themed state of the city address this summer, the effort is happening in conjunction with neighborhood groups, activists, subject experts and business leaders. The city is coordinating the effort through its offices of planning and sustainability.  This is what New York City's plan (see #4 above) could look like in 12 months if Gotham is able to rally behind Mayor Bloomberg's vision.

7. Record Summer Heat Wave: Global climate change went from theory to actuality during the past 18 months with Katrina and Rita, and then with a deadly heat wave this past summer. The heat wave began in California, killing 139 people and hundreds of thousands of cattle and chickens while nearly shutting down the state's electric grid with all-time record demand, before it rolled east into Chicago and New York. New York City and Chicago avoided the high death tolls, but also saw record electricity demand. How will cities prepare for such future events, which may be even more prolonged and intense?

8. Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle Campaign: Mayor Will Wynn of Austin, Texas, spearheaded the Plug-in Partners campaign to get cities, states and government agencies to put in orders for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, which can get more than 100 miles per gallon of gasoline. The campaign, which kicked into high gear in Washington, D.C. in January when Mayor Wynn presented on Capitol Hill, saw at least three manufacturers--Toyota, GM and Nissan--vowing to produce the plug-in hybrid at "some point in the future," possibly even with prototyping in time for January car shows.

9. Oakland (CA) Local Food and Zero Fossil Fuel Goals: Oakland, California, under the outgoing Mayor Jerry Brown administration, launched two ambitious citywide sustainability goals. The city's sustainability office vowed in its Food System Assessment to procure 30 percent of its food locally, with a major study completed outlining how the Bay Area city can improve local food production, distribution and urban-rural linkages. Led by an 11-member oil independence task force appointed by its city council, "Oaktown" vowed to become fossil fuel free by 2020. The city, ranked as #5 on SustainLane's City rankings, is coming on strong as a leader in green city pioneering.

10. Best Practice Sustainability Knowledge Base Launched for Government: SustainLane Government went live in October 2006 with a free open-source knowledge base for state and local government. The site, at www.sustainlane.us, has already received more than 65 best practices and ordinances on sustainability. More than 130 U.S. cities, counties and states have joined the site, with Canada's cities and provinces joining in early 2007. SustainLane will also be publishing a book on its US City Rankings in April 2007 called How Green Is Your City? The SustainLane US City Rankings.

Warren Karlenzig will discuss the SustainLane US City Rankings on The Weather Channel's "Climate Code" show Sunday, January 21st at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, and in The Wall Street Journal later this month.

First High Pressure Hydrogen System

The first high pressure hydrogen system was unveiled today in Maine. Hydrogen systems can generate power from water through electrolysis--without fossil fuel emissions. The new Wiscasset, Maine system is powered by rooftop solar and additional green energy purchases, and is able to provide light and heat for four days' power in the event of a power outage. This type of distributed energy generation means dependable operation of the building's water pump and assured warmth for the environmental education center's occupants--a turtle, an iguana and an alligator.

It also means less demand on the grid, and does away with a compressor. Using compressors has been a nettlesome and expensive part of hydrogen energy projects.

More importantly, it means that Maine is getting serious about boosting its green economy. Not only is the project technology consultant, Hydrogen Energy Center, from Portland, Maine., but the initiative is also being backed by Maine Governor John Baldacci, who signed an executive order pushing development of this potentially clean energy source.

I say "potentially" because many hydrogen critics claim that hydrogen energy will rely on conventional fossil fuel energy or nuclear sources to kick off the electrolysis process, so they say it's not a game-changing solution.

But take note: The Hydrogen Energy Center is also studying how tidal energy can be used as an input in the hydrogen power generation process. Plenty of potential tidal energy opportunities surely abound in Maine--and along other coastal US sites. Tidal energy--harnessing tide or salinity changes from tides--is being used in New York City and is being studied in San Francisco and the Seattle area.

The New Local Economy

Energy prices, the throttle for green sector economic growth,  began a steady rise in March.  Oil is near its historic price levels. Most know that world events--combined with basic supply and (rising) demand--portend that energy prices will remain high and volatile for at least the next few years. 

Meanwhile global observations concerning climate change are starting to penetrate more than insurance company actuarial tables. In the wake of the hottest period ever recorded for the United States for the first seven months of the year, according to NOAA, global warming has entered the average American's consciousness, whether they believe it or not.

Major American cities are responding to climate-related events with city-wide emergency energy efficiency measures. New York's response to last week's heat wave with massive PR and neighborhood mobilization was admirable, as was that of Chicago and Los Angeles. Los Angles County set its all-time record with an all-time record high of 119 degrees.

Long-term energy efficiency is on the short list of most cities, and last week Seattle and numerous other U.S. cities and utilities passed a national action plan for energy efficiency. Some cities such as Denver, with former-geologist-turned-mayor John Hickenlooper, actually modeled the economic impacts of peak oil on the city's economy.

Besides increasing their operational efficiencies, cities could use a more detailed way of analyzing energy flows, so they can then model current and potential energy cost impacts on their economy.

• How dependent are cities on imported energy for buildings and transportation?
• How dependent are local economies on using, enhancing, or distributing globally transported goods?
• How do local energy related jobs balance out in fossil fuels, renewables, nuclear: what's the current and regional value-added potential?
• How much food/energy source/building material/product/service is generated locally or regionally?

There are vast differences in cities' answers to such questions.

In New York, for example, more than 60 percent of residents commute to work without cars while more than 90 percent of Oklahoma City residents commute in cars. People in Oklahoma City spend much more of their income on gasoline. This difference will be exacerbated when oil prices rise--people in OK City will have less to spend on things besides gas. The OK City economy stands to suffer more than New York's, right?

But some New Yorkers use imported heating oil, while those in Oklahoma use locally available natural gas for heating. And Oklahoma's economy gets money pumped into it by the climbing revenues local fossil-fuel energy companies are earning. New York also has nuclear power in its mix

Cities should begin to put together an equation with these and other key "metabolic" factors to determine their best next courses of action. Obviously there is a critical need to develop and incent energy efficiency and renewable energy. Build green, and green existing buildings and development. Expand public transit and smart growth policies. Attract green industries that can offer products for everything from pilot to large-scale city and regional projects. In doing so, city leaders can design ways of pumping more money into their local economy while reducing urban heat gain, grid load and cutting carbon and other emissions.

Because green technologies and services become exponentially more profitable with escalating energy costs, they can be not only be applied to solve the big expensive problems of the day--global climate change, blackouts, air and water pollution--they are part of one of the world's foremost growth industries.

What city would not want its region to be home of the world's leading provider of  (fill in the blank) technology and services?

As San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said, “Sustainability is important not only for protecting citizens’ health and ensuring a great quality of life here in San Francisco, but also for boosting the local economy with jobs and services in everything from clean technologies to fresh food and green building products produced in California.”

Portland: America's New Biodiesel Capital?

Portland passed its renewable fuels standard earlier this month, which you read about here first when I blogged about the proposed ordinance back in June. As of July 2007, five percent of all the fuel sold in the city must be biodiesel, and that requirement jumps to 10 percent by 2010.

Now comes the money shot. At least three companies are competing for the rights to build processing and storage facilities within or adjacent to Portland, according to Ty Kovatch, chief of staff for city council member Randy Leonard, who sponsored the legislation. A plant processing 100 million gallons would cost approximately $25 million, so were not talking about a ma and pa type of operation.

Think more tax revenues, jobs--both professional and skilled labor--plus more income for regional farmers in Eastern Oregon who grow canola, which can be made into biodiesel. Oh yeah. Less pollution than regular diesel and no overseas escapades necessary to procure, secure and ship it. "The opportunity is for Portland to become the center of a legitimate alternative to the oil industry. " Kovatch said. "We can even export it to China."

Kovatch said Washington State also has a statewide 2 percent biodiesel requirement, so that presents another readymade customer right across the Columbia from the Rose City.

Don't expect biodiesel to overtake regular diesel anytime soon, but there's a lot of money to be made in this market especially as convetional diesel prices continue to rise. Hurricane Katrina's Gulf Coast destruction marked the first time biodiesel became cost competitive with fossil fuel diesel, even without the federal subsidies. 

Now that strife is occuring in the Middle East combined with another hurricane season, anything can happen to oil markets including $100 a barrel prices. Diesel, like gasoline, is refined from oil.

Portland's move will begin to scale the biodiesel industry within the next 12-18 months. Other cities with potential easy access to transport networks and nearby suitable agricultural land--hello Chicago? Austin? Denver? Albuquerque?--should be taking notes.

SF Plugs Sustainability to Draw Olympics

San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom was in San Diego on Friday pitching the city's sustainability progress as the major reason it should be awarded the 2016 Olympics. The number 2 city in SustainLane's 2006 US City Rankings, Newsom argued to the US Olympic Committee that San Francisco's actions to reduce global climate warming and its green activism, combined with a clean environment, it could make the 2016 Summer Games the greenest ever if they come to the City by the Bay.

Sydney also claimed it would hold more sustainable games in 2000. After the event, Greenpeace graded the Sydney Olympics as a "C" in its Green Olympics rating. How San Francisco would fare depends on how much it wants to back the marketing hype with budgeted actions--it surely has more capabilities than any of the other candidate cities if sustainability potential is the deciding factor.

In relevant sustainability planning and practices, San Francisco could arguably outperform other potential 2016 US contestant cities LA, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia because of its expertise in recycling (highest rate for a city in the nation), renewable energy (1 megawatt of solar), a large alternative fueled city fleet (including 700+ zero emission buses) and high public transit ridership. Bay Area air quality is much better on average than the other cities, too.

The Bay Area is also home to some of the leading sustainability gurus that could fashion a plan for the Olympics if it does win the bid--Paul Hawken, Joel Makower, Sissel Wagee, Mathis Wackernagel, Peter Calthorpe, Dan Imhoff, etc.

Portland Comes up Roses

In about two hours James Elsen, SustainLane's CEO, will be presenting Mayor Tom Potter of Portland with the "Urby" award. The Urby, or whatever we will be calling it, was a trophy made by SustainLane's talented Siberian creative director Igor.

We'll be doing this in the Memorial Colesium as part of the city's 99th Rose Festival and Rose Parade.

The Urby goes to the city finishing highest in SustainLane's US City Sustainability Rankings, and Portland has captured it for the first time.

Last night we had a get-together with about 100 Portland green business owners, government and NGO reps and interested citizens at the Vellum Natural Capital Center. You could hear the birds chirping outside in the lush greenery of the front swale that treats the LEED certified building's parking lot wastewater runoff.

One family came to attend on their four bicycles, because the mother "wanted to see what we were alll about--why we would do such a thing as rank cities for sustainability." Her nine-year-old boy asked a question, after my presentation on all the indicators that Portland leads in, as to "What area Portland did the worst in". (Housing affordability was the answer)
.
Portlanders want to know in so many ways how they can make their city more sustainable. It almost seems like people's primary concern here. Maybe that might seem a little tedious to those in our nation's other cosmopolitan burgs, but I find it inspiring, as do my nine and eleven-year old boys who are also visiting here.

The Max line, which is free around the whole downtown and Rose Convention area, runs more frequently and fuller than I have ever seen in my prior visits here. In the middle of the day or late at night, same thing--full and frequent. Even from the airport it costs only $1.95 to come all the way to the downtown. Then you just jettison your ticket in the recycle bin, as you will no longer need it.

This is the reason ridership on the city's TriMet transit system grows every year, and has been doing so since about 1990, with about 100 million trips expected on it in 2006, according to Portland Monthly magazine, which reported on the city's impressive state of sustainability affairs in a special June issue. While most city glossies focus on society swells and trattorias, leave it to Portland to want to read in depth about their urban growth boundaries, salmon habitat and per capita energy use. 

The last thing I have time to relate on now--the trees. The amazing, mature trees are in parks along streets, behind buildings in seemingly natural places. The city lives in a canopy of green, and the thick, rich compost adorning the trees' root systems looks almost good enough to eat. The city also provides plenty of space for the roots with 6x8 or 6x10 ft. holes so the trees can flourish and the sidewalks are not buckled.

More to come...

#50 Columbus: New Developments

After Columbus, Ohio found out it ranked #50 in the SustainLane US City Rankings, based on all the public and NGO data we used, the city quickly reacted to its low standing yesterday.

We received calls from Mayor Michael Coleman's Communcation Director and the head of his Green Team,  newly appointed Environmental Steward Michael Schwarzwalder.

I spoke with Schwarzwalder and gave him a run-down on why Columbus ranked so low in the study: little public transit or public transit ridership, worse than average air quality and tapwater quality for US cities, little local food in the form of farmers markets, and no LEED certified buildings. I also described how we attempted to contact verious city officials over three-month period to find out what the city was doing in management, with no luck: we spoke with four city officials including the mayor's office, and we were told the city was not interested in participating in our study. No one mentioned Schwarzwalder's role or his work.

It seems he and 30 citizens and experts have been meeting for the past year or so to plan how the city can increase green buisnesses, green building development and incentives, and plan a green business park. They also are looking at increasing parks & parkways and bicycle and pedestrian connectivity between these green spaces.

He told me the city is also redeveloping a downtown 1.2 million square foot building, The Lazarus Store, to meet LEED standards.

All very encouraging: hopefully now city officials will know who to send people to when they want to find out about city sustainability or environmental programs, practices and policies.