Former Toronto Mayor Urges Environmental Solutions

Posted on September 4, 2011 by quest

In his first formal appearance as the Polytechnic Institute of New York University Future of Cities Global Fellow, former Toronto Mayor David Miller challenged the incoming students to tackle what he called the world’s foremost challenge: innovating to solve urban problems. His recent convocation keynote speech this to approximately 560 new first-year undergraduates publicly marked the relationship between NYU-Poly and Miller, a global leader in urban environmental sustainability, economic development and social integration. As Toronto mayor from 2003 to 2010, Miller became recognized for innovations that furthered the city’s environmental sustainability, economic development and social integration. Miller is currently counsel, international business and sustainability, to the Toronto law firm Aird & Berlis LLP and president of Urban Green Jobs, Inc.

Noting that recently the scales tipped so that most of the people of the world now live in cities, Miller told the students: “This fundamental change has an important implication for your studies. No longer will it be sufficient to simply study chemical or computer engineering, or any other technical field and become an expert – it will also be essential to understand the public policy context and challenges within which your research is being conducted.” Using real-world examples from his experience, Miller told the students that engineers and technology will play an increasingly important role in solving these urban problems. He also pointed to ways to have fun while creating solutions. He pointed to the example of the NYC BigApps Challenge, which employs open source code and open government information to create apps to make city life better for residents and visitors.

Jon Stewart Surprises NYU Students

“We have faith in your capacity to learn and make the world a better place,” NYU-Poly President Jerry Hultin told students in his welcoming remarks. “Here at NYU-Poly, you will find a 21st century toolbox of education and research…With our faculty I challenge you to combine the traditional engineering disciplines in new ways, and to set a personal goal to make a difference.” Miller’s role as Future of Cities Global Fellow will include other lectures, as well as teaching and assisting NYU-Poly and NYU in developing programs that connect technology and society to solve pressing urban challenges. Among other projects, he plans to co-instruct a studio class in which students work to increase sustainability in local parks. Urban technology is one of NYU-Poly’s highest academic priorities, befitting its mission as a comprehensive school of engineering located in one of the world’s great urban centers.

Santiago Chiles’s LEED Gold Green Building

High Desert Cali City To Go Net Zero Using Solar Power

Posted on September 1, 2011 by quest

The City of Lancaster, California has taken a historic step towards becoming one of the first “Net Zero Cities” in the world. The Lancaster City Council unanimously approved a Memorandum of Understanding with Beautiful Earth Group for the development of a partnership to establish Lancaster as a Net Zero City. Net Zero Cities produce as much energy from sustainable sources, such as solar energy, as they consume. This dramatically reduces their carbon emissions. New technologies such as energy storage, supply and demand management and the “smart grid” are used to save energy and money — all good news for consumers as prices for oil and energy continue to rise.

Lancaster, known as the “Alternative Energy Capital of the World,” is well situated to benefit from the rapid increase in solar energy investment throughout the area. Applications for more than 4,000 megawatts of generation by photovoltaic (PV) electricity plants have been received in California’s High Desert / Antelope Valley region. This provides Lancaster with a wide range of options to reduce its carbon output by using clean energy coupled with energy saving techniques in the future.

Sour Away

Lancaster‘s goal of becoming a Net Zero City will encourage global investment in the city and will fulfill Beautiful Earth’s mission to supply municipalities and businesses with clean, green energy. “This important agreement will bring new jobs, energy security and a much healthier future to all of us in the Antelope Valley,” said Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris. “The Net Zero City project with Beautiful Earth Group has the potential to increase the quality of living and create thousands of new jobs focused on power conservation, systems to support the smart grid, clean energy generation, and downstream activities related to companies attracted to Lancaster for its ability to supply clean energy for their manufacturing, industrial and commercial processes.”

Pandas microbes making biofuels

Green Icon Lays Out Facts Of The Green Economy

Posted on August 23, 2011 by quest

Written by Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins: Chief Executive Officer of Green For All. Since 2008, these two things haven’t changed: the world is getting warmer and millions of Americans are out of work. They’re not going away any time soon.
Green For All was founded on the idea that those two problems could be relieved with a common solution, green jobs. We’ve seen that this can work; renewable energy businesses are among the fastest growing in the American economy.
We’ve also learned that the green economy holds much more promise than just renewables. The scope of jobs that improve our environment runs from factory workers building high-efficiency vehicles to entrepreneurs selling organic skincare products to businesses that turn a profit recycling waste from shredded automobiles.

In July, the Brookings Institution released a report detailing the extent of the green economy. Some 2.7 million Americans work at green jobs – more than work in the fossil fuel industry. The US Conference of Mayors estimates that number will almost triple by 2040. And green jobs are quality jobs. Median wages are 13 percent higher than the median – and they’re available to more Americans who have a high school degree. Investment in clean energy projects yields more than three times as many jobs as investing in fossil fuels.

Even so, there is a lot of room for growth. Back in 2008, we argued that the green economy held great promise – and could grow to scale if Congress acted boldly. Had Congress passed comprehensive climate legislation, for example, or if they’d enacted the

In Ohio SolarVision Taking Solar Mainstream

CLEAN LA Solar Investing $2 Billion In Rooftop Solar

Posted on July 25, 2011 by quest

LABC President Mary Leslie, a former LADWP commissioner, joined hundreds of solar industry leaders and public officials at a major conference today at UCLA, where she thanked Governor Brown for his leadership in seeking to make California the clean-energy leader. Leslie also said the nation’s largest municipal utility has the wherewithal to implement the CLEAN LA program now, after more than two years of evaluation of CLEAN LA and other sustainable energy plans.With solar industry leaders and public officials working to meet Governor Edmund G. Brown’s ambitious state-wide goals for local, renewable power, the Los Angeles Business Council and a broad coalition of supporters today called on the LADWP to implement the CLEAN LA Solar Plan, which would produce 600 MW of locally generated rooftop solar power, create thousands of local jobs and spur as much as $2 billion of private investment. The plan enjoys huge support among the public, with an opinion survey showing that more than eight in 10 local voters are in favor.

“Governor Brown’s vision enables communities across the state to create renewable energy programs that meet local needs. Here in Los Angeles, we’ve designed the CLEAN LA solar plan to create jobs, foster private investment and take advantage of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal tax credits,” Leslie said. “We call on the LADWP to deliver on the promise of a meaningful local rooftop solar program that is great public policy and a terrific economic development initiative.”The CLEAN LA plan meets important city needs at a reasonable cost, especially when considering federal tax credits available to offset the costs for business owners, the lack of meaningful solar production in the city to date, and the looming state requirements for clean energy. Further, newly released figures show that the solar proposal actually produces cost-savings for the utility’s ratepayers over the course of its 30-year life. LABC, in conjunction with top researchers at UCLA and USC, has conducted several in-depth studies showing that the plan would create as many as 18,000 job-years, while spurring private investment of as much as $2 billion. One job-year is economic investment sufficient to employ one person for one year. Important to the success of the program is taking advantage of federal tax credits, set to expire at the end of 2016, which could finance as much as $300 million of the program.

The CLEAN LA program has a simple design: residents and building-owners would be paid a set rate of return for power generated by rooftop solar panels. UCLA’s studies have found that building owners can be incentivized to participate by having LADWP pay them a slight premium for the power that is generated. This, in turn, grows the amount of local, clean power in Los Angeles. As a result of the economics of energy costs – falling prices for solar panel installation and natural gas prices that are expected to rise over time – the plan actually saves ratepayers money over its 30-year life. The significant environmental benefits come without the high price tag of some other energy programs. The CLEAN LA solar plan would produce 600 MW of locally generated solar energy – enough to power 137,000 typical Los Angeles homes – while providing a significant step toward meeting the state-mandated requirement that local utilities generate 33 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020.

Top Artists To Perform For Solar and Renewable Energy

Green Boot Camp Instructs Teachers In New Jersey

Posted on July 24, 2011 by quest

Union County and Honeywell last week hosted the third annual Green Boot Camp, an interactive workshop focused on best practice instruction methods for teaching energy, sustainability and environmental concepts. As part of the five-day event, 40 middle school teachers from across North America gathered to explore the roots of green technology, sustainable living and environmental awareness by using the Union County Vocational-Technical Schools (UCVTS) campus in Scotch Plains, N.J., as a living laboratory.

“Our objective is to equip teachers with the tools to get students excited about science and engineering, and enable them to understand sustainable practices that will positively affect their families, schools and communities,” said Paul Orzeske, president of Honeywell Building Solutions. “By teaming with a renowned institution like UCVTS, we are educating the next generation of green workers and building a foundation for environmental stewardship.”

Green Boot Camp participants covered a comprehensive set of topics ranging from green energy and greenhouse gas emissions to electric vehicles and the smart electrical grid. For example, attendees worked on course materials to clearly articulate the principles of renewable energy by designing a solar house, and constructing a wind turbine and bicycle generator. In addition to the on-site instructors, Honeywell and UCVTS also invited a host of special guest speakers who specialize in environmental and energy-related disciplines, such as rainwater conservation and building energy management.

Picking Up Money Recycling in Port Au Prince

Executives Without Borders (ExecWB), in partnership with CSS International Holdings, Inc. and Haiti Recycling, will officially launch Ramase Lajan, a “cash for recyclables” program

A Green Career Path Taken

Posted on May 27, 2011 by quest

5 Time-Tested Strategies to Break Out of Your Rut

by Carol McClelland: Ever get the feeling that your approach to your own career has gotten a bit stale? The questions you ask yourself (What do I want to do? What’s my next career move?) deliver the same answers, over and over again.

No matter what you do, you keep ending up with the same answers that aren’t getting you where you want to go. It’s so frustrating! I know, I’ve been there myself. Many times.

When I made my first big career transition and periodically over the last 20 years as it was time for my business to shift and morph in response to the times. In the early days getting out of a thought rut took a lot of effort. Now that I’ve had a lot of practice with this I know what I need to do to shift my perspective to create new options and ideas.

Knowing how to get beyond your rut is essential to any career shift. Hopefully these ideas will give you new insights about how to break out of your career rut!

Ask New Questions

One of the key reasons we all get stuck is that we get into a run with the questions we ask ourselves. After a while each question seems to lead to the same answer. There’s no new juice to give us a new insight, a new thought, or a new outlook on our situation. To break out of your rut, begin by framing new questions. Sometimes just a subtle rewording of your question can lead you to new answers.

-Why don’t I work on my resume? What could I do to make progress on my resume?
-What job should I go after? What kind of work would be most fulfilling to me?

When you are frustrated with your situation, it’s easy to throw up your hands as soon as your inner dialogue has you covering the same territory you’ve