People, Projects, and Programs

DOE Awards $106 Million for Clean Energy Research Projects

Harvard Medical School in Boston, the Massachu-setts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and the GE Global Research Center in Niskayuna, NY, are among the recipients of a total of $106 million in green technology grants from the U.S. Depart-ment of Energy (DOE). According to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, the funding was awarded to 37 “ambitious research projects that could fundamen-tally change the way the country uses and produces energy.” The DOE is looking for projects that can effectively lead “the next Industrial Revolution in clean energy technologies,” which will help create new jobs, spur innovation and economic growth while cutting carbon pollution dramatically, says Chu.

Harvard’s project focuses on the development of a bacterium that would use renewably generated elec-tricity to convert carbon dioxide into gasoline. The project received a $4 million grant. MIT received $5 million to work on its concept for a semi-solid flow battery for electric vehicles that costs less than one-eighth of the batteries for electric cars on the market today. The new device could lead to wide-spread adoption of affordable electric vehicles. And GE’s Global Research Center received $3 million for a project where an absorbent liquid turns into a solid powder when combined with carbon dioxide, mak-ing it easier and less expensive to capture the CO2 released from coal-fired power plants.

Telepresence Technology Could Help Create All-Sustainable City Within the next few years, Cisco Systems plans to engage in a grand telepresence experiment: a sustainable city built completely from scratch. According to Marthin De Beer, senior vice presi-dent of Cisco Systems’ emerging technology group in San Jose, CA, the city of Songdo, South Korea,

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will be a global business hub and a sustainable city developed on 1,500 acres of reclaimed land in South Korea along Incheon’s waterfront, 40 miles from Seoul. Cisco, which specializes in telepresence tech-nology, will completely wire the city, allowing people to telecommute and work from home, as well as visit doctors, conduct banking, buy groceries online, and even attend school online. The result will be a traf-fic-free and low-pollution city, De Beer explains. “I believe it will do what the browser did for commerce into your home,” he says. “You used to drive down the street to buy things. Today you go online, and it arrives at your doorstep once you’ve purchased it. Home telepresence would do the same for services.” Cisco projects that the city will be fully online in five to ten years.

Federal Environmental Design Program Fights Urban Sprawl

As it attempts to fight urban sprawl, the U.S. Depart-ment of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it will use the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Envi-ronmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) system to score the location efficiency of applications for $3.25 billion in Sustainable Com-munities Planning Grants. According to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, the LEED-ND green neighborhood rating system will help “lower the barriers to the kind of sustainable development our country needs and our communities want.” LEED-ND integrates green building into community development, helping to reduce sprawl, increase transportation choices, decrease automobile dependence, encourage healthy living, and protect threatened species, says Donovan. Housing and transportation are the two biggest expenses for families, accounting for more than half of the aver-age American household budget, USGBC President Rick Fedrizzi says. Green communities, as defined by HUD, are “economically competitive, healthy and opportunity-rich” and provide an important compo-nent of community development to local, state, and national economies.

MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC. • VOL. 3 NO. 4 • AUGUST 2010 • DOI: 10.1089/sus.2010.9765 SUSTAINABILITY 195

Cisco, which specializes in telepresence technology, will completely wire Songdo, South Korea, allowing people to telecommute and work from home, as well as visit doctors, conduct banking, buy groceries online, and even attend school online.

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Healthy Air Remains Goal, Not Reality for Most U.S. CitiesAlthough cities across the United States are show-ing success in the fight against air pollution, healthy air remains a goal, not a reality, according to a report by the American Lung Association. The ALA’s 2010 “State of the Air” report found that a decade of cleanup measures, including reductions in coal-fired power plant emissions and the transition to cleaner diesel fuels and engines, reduced the levels of deadly particle and ozone pollution between 2006 and 2008. Improvements have been seen particularly in eastern and midwestern U.S. cities and regions, including Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, New York City, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Washington, DC/Baltimore. But 58 percent of Americans—more than 175 million—live in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution. In addition, the report found that some cities, mostly in California, had increased levels of air pollution since last year’s report. The report calls for passage of additional environmental legislation at state and federal levels, as well as individual and coordinated efforts toward a greener lifestyle through, for example, driving less, a ban on burning wood or trash, and using less electricity. The report is available at the ALA website at www.lungusa.org.

Avon Makes Restoration Plans for South American RainforestAvon Products Inc. plans to plant two million trees to help restore the Atlantic Rainforest in South America as part of the New York City-headquartered company’s “Hello Green Tomorrow” campaign. According to Avon Chief Executive Officer Andrea Jung, all trees planted in the Atlantic Rainforest through Hello Green Tomorrow will support the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) “Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign.” The trees will be planted and the restored forest moni-tored by the Nature Conservancy, Avon’s partner in the program. The Atlantic Rainforest is considered one of the most critically endangered ecosystems in the world, with only about 7 percent of its original coverage remaining, according to Jung. In conjunc-tion with Hello Green Tomorrow, Avon has also announced the “Avon Paper Promise,” a comprehen-sive policy outlining efforts and goals for promoting sustainable forest use, protecting forests, and reduc-ing demands on forests. Jung says Avon’s goal is to purchase 100 percent of its paper from certified and or post-consumer recycled content sources within 10 years.

U.S., European Firms Have Desire, Lack Tools To Gauge E-FootprintsGreen measurement is considered important, but businesses on both sides of the Atlantic lack the cor-

rect systems to track their full environmental foot-prints, according to a report by business software developer IFS in Linköping, Sweden. The study, based on surveys of industry executives in the Unit-ed States, Scandinavia, and Benelux, discovered that more than three-quarters of the companies surveyed believe they should monitor their environmental profile. However, nearly three-quarters of European respondents admitted to not having sufficient soft-ware technology in place to track their environmen-tal footprint. The United States fared slightly better, with nearly half saying they lacked the enterprise software or had limited capability for tracking envi-ronmental impacts. Key reasons for implementing such software included the marketing value of green initiatives, legislation compliance, and cost cutting. The study results indicate that green measurement has “re-entered the boardroom as a business prior-ity in both Europe and the U.S.,” IFS Chief Executive Officer Alastair Sorbie says.

Slower Speed Limit Could Cut Carbon Emissions

A study by environmental consulting firm CE Delft in Delft, Netherlands, predicts that a strictly enforced 80 kilometers per hour (50 miles per hour) highway speed limit could cut CO2 emissions by up to 30 percent. CE Delft researcher and study co-au-thor Mattijs Otte based the findings on the premise that a lower speed limit encourages people to switch to public transport or reduce the number of trips they take on the road. The study also assumes that people will eventually move closer to their work-places, reducing the need for longer trips and further cutting pollution and congestion, Otte says. How-ever, he also points out that the results only apply to the Netherlands and will vary significantly else-where. “In the United States, more people live in suburbs and need to commute, so a 50 mph speed limit simply is not practical,” Otte says. “For a change like this to happen there, it would need to be imple-mented gradually to allow society time to adjust.”

Ecotech Institute Launched for Careers in Renewable Energy

The Education Corporation of America (ECA) in Denver has launched the Ecotech Institute, the nation’s first college focused entirely on preparing America’s workforce for careers in renewable energy and sustainable design. According to ECA President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Moore, the insti-tute’s first campus in Aurora, CO, will offer seven Associate of Arts degrees and a certificate program for people seeking careers in the emerging clean tech economy. Once the campus is fully established, Ecotech will expand across the United States to help fuel rapidly growing industries in the clean energy

The Atlantic Rainforest is considered one of

the most critically endangered

ecosystems in the world, with only about

7 percent of its original coverage

remaining.

196 SUSTAINABILITY MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC. • VOL. 3 NO. 4 • AUGUST 2010 • DOI: 10.1089/sus.2010.9765

A study in Delft, Netherlands,

predicts that a strictly enforced

80 kilometers per hour (50 miles per

hour) highway speed limit could cut CO2

emissions by up to 30 percent.

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sector, Moore says. A study released in February by Chicago-based Navigant Consulting Inc. found that the number of renewable energy jobs would more than double by 2025 if the nation adopted a plan to require 25 percent of its electricity from renew-able sources. Several states currently have renew-able portfolio standards, including Colorado, which requires 30 percent of all new jobs to be “green collar” by 2020.

California Bill Would Legalize Earth-Friendly Cremations

Lawmakers in California are considering a bill that would allow funeral homes to use a biofriendly liq-uid chemical process to dissolve bodies instead of cremating them with fire, speeding up the cremation process and reducing the homes’ carbon footprint. Should the legislation sponsored by Assemblymem-ber Jeff Miller (R-Corona) pass, California would become the second state to allow bio-cremation, also known as alkaline hydrolysis. Florida’s first com-mercial bio-cremation facility is expected to become operational in St. Petersburg by the end of 2010. The funeral industry expects high consumer demand, especially among environmentally aware baby boomers and people who have personal issues about combustion cremation, according to Bob Acher-mann, executive director of the California Funeral Directors Association in Sacramento. Bio-cremation wouldn’t require the state’s 1,000 funeral homes and crematoria to go through a difficult and expensive procedure for obtaining air emission permits from local air pollution agencies, a distinct advantage. On the financial side, however, prices for bio-cremation machines range from $200,000 to $400,000 each, and only a few companies make them. Sales to just a one-tenth of the nation’s 20,000 funeral homes and crematoria would generate $400 million in revenue for a manufacturer, according to Bradley D. Crain, president of bio-cremation machine maker BioSafe Engineering in Brownsburg, IN. For the consumer, the cost would be about the same as a conventional cremation by fire, Achermann says.

Satellites Show U.S. Led Way in Lost Forestland from 2000–2005

The United States lost more than 46,000 square miles of forest from 2000 to 2005, about 6 percent of the nation’s forested land, according to a first-ever sat-ellite-driven deforestation report from researchers at South Dakota State University in Brookings, SD. Overall, the world lost forest cover of nearly 400,000 square miles—roughly 3 percent of the world’s for-ested areas—during the first half of the last decade. Researchers used images from satellites to moni-tor the degree of forest loss worldwide. The study notes that the forest loss was the result of human

and natural causes. Man-made causes include log-ging and wildfires caused by people; natural causes include natural wildfires and storm damage. Much of the U.S. damage is not permanent, as forests do regenerate, study lead author Matthew Hansen notes. However, the report does draw attention to the fact that “compared to the rest of the world, there’s a lot going on here in the United States,” he said. The other countries in the study were Canada, Rus-sia, China, Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Green Fairs Sprout Up Nationwide alongside Traditional Venues

County fairs may still have hot dogs, carnival rides, and hog races, but the envirofriendly version is catch-ing on, too. Annual events that focus more on wind technology than on deep-fried foods are drawing


The world lost forest cover of nearly 400,000 square miles—roughly 3 percent of the world’s forested areas—during the first half of the last decade.

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increasing crowds nationwide, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. At these events, animal exhibitions give way to presentations of the world’s fastest vegetable-oil-powered car. Cooking demon-strations that used to focus on nonstick frying pans now deal with healthy ways to cook the foods. Cot-ton candy is now made with organic sugar. And there are more extravagant efforts on the way: Washuzan Highland amusement park in Japan has a pedal-operated roller coaster. The Akron Zoo in Ohio sports a carousel built with sustainably harvested wood, painted with water-based color, and light-ed by LED bulbs. Future fairs may run entirely on solar energy, with mobile restroom facilities equipped with composters and trams powered by biofuels. Vendors say it’s a sign of the times. “A couple of years ago, a fair like this wouldn’t have worked,” says Rod Roberts, a representative of Blue Island Plumbing in Fountain Valley, CA. “But more people now are willing to put their money on a green product.”

Survey Shows Envirofriendly Behavior on Rise

Environmentally friendly behavior among consum-ers in 10 of 17 countries has increased over the past year, according to the third annual survey by the National Geographic Society and Washington, DC-based international polling firm GlobeScan. The survey, “Greendex 2010: Consumer Choice and the Environment – A Worldwide Tracking Survey,” found that environmentally friendly consumer be-havior, as measured by the Greendex, has increased from 2008 levels in all but one of the 14 countries polled in both 2008 and 2010, but that suspicion of “greenwashing”—companies making false claims about the environmental impact of their products—is the most significant barrier to further improve-ment. American consumers’ behavior still ranks as the least sustainable of consumers in all countries surveyed since the survey’s inception three years ago, followed by Canadian and French consumers, though improvement was seen in all three countries, GlobeScan Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Hether-ington says. The top-scoring consumers of 2010 are in the developing economies of India, Brazil, China, and Mexico, respectively.

Cushman-Wakefield’s Reed Is Nation’s First Greening Officer

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has tapped the sustainability director of Cushman & Wakefield to become the first chief greening officer for the agency and to lead efforts to make govern-ment buildings greener. According to GSA Com-missioner of Public Buildings Robert Peck, Eleni Reed will be responsible for building a “sustainable,

better performing portfolio as GSA strives to meet its commitment of achieving a zero environmental footprint in [GSA’s] 1,500 owned and 8,100 leased buildings.” Reed served as the director of sustain-ability strategies for Cushman & Wakefield’s Client Solutions Group in San Francisco. The GSA over-sees more than a quarter of the government’s total procurement spending and influences the manage-ment of $500 billion in federal assets, including the inventory of almost 10,000 owned or leased facilities, 480 of which are historic properties. The GSA estab-lished the post of chief greening officer earlier this year to accelerate President Barack Obama’s federal sustainability agenda and drive the campaign within the government’s building portfolio.

UM Puts Water, Corn, and Wood to New Use as Alternative FuelsWhile many universities and businesses are focusing on alternative fuels derived from biodiesel, ethanol, or wind power, researchers at the University of Mis-souri in Columbia are using 20-gallon barrels of water, corn kernels, and old wood pallets to heat and cool buildings, saving thousands of dollars in energy costs. According to Tim Reinbott, superintendent of the university’s Bradford Research and Extension Center, the school is saving about $13,000 per year in propane costs through four projects: water barrels, in which 20 50-gallon solar-heated water barrels placed against the back wall of a small greenhouse gener-ate warmth for the greenhouse plants overnight; a corn burner in another greenhouse, which replaces propane as a heat source in the winter; wood pallets, which are burned and used to heat the research cen-ter’s administrative building; and geothermal heat, captured in a set of underground pipes, used to cir-culate air and regulate temperature for the school’s pesticide supply. Such technology could become a marketing advantage for farmers, similar to how some farmers now market their food products as pesticide free or hormone free, Reinbott says.

New Rating System To DebutA University of Pennsylvania project designed to turn a set of aging Philadelphia tennis courts into an urban park called Shoemaker Green has been selected as a pilot for the nation’s first rating system for green landscape design, construction, and main-tenance. The program conducted by the Washing-ton, DC-based Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) involves more than 150 sites in 34 states, Canada, Iceland, and Spain. It is designed to be used like the architecture-driven Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system, but is focused instead on landscapes and greenspaces, according to Steve Windhager, director of the Land-scape Restoration & Sustainable Sites Initiative at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (LBJWC) at

While many universities and businesses are

focusing on alternative fuels

derived from biodiesel, ethanol,

or wind power, researchers at the

University of Missouri are using 20-gallon

barrels of water, corn kernels, and old wood pallets

to heat and cool buildings.


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the University of Texas at Austin. LBJWC co-creat-ed SITES with the American Society of Landscape Architects and the United States Botanic Garden. Shoemaker Green was chosen as a pilot project based on its numerous environmentally friendly elements, University of Pennsylvania Media Rela-tions Director Julie McWilliams says. SITES opened applications for the pilot in November and has received more than 300 “strong contenders,” about four times as many as expected, Windhager states. The standards, which use a point system, can be applied to landscaping at commercial and public buildings, transportation corridors, and parks. It’s not neces-sary for buildings to be present, but the sites must be designed landscapes or greenspaces, Windhager adds.

City Dig Reveals Mayans Were Green Builders

The ancient Mayans were green architects, capable of elaborate city planning and urban farming, accord-ing to a report by scientists at NASA and the Univer-sity of Central Florida in Orlando (UCF). After 25 years of intense effort, the scientists have unearthed a complete 2,500-year-old Mayan city that employed a system of green urban architecture with thousands of structures and causeways, tens of thousands of agricultural terraces, and many hidden caves—“results beyond anyone’s imagination,” says Cara-col Archaeological Project co-leader and UCF vice provost Diane Chase. The urban center of the city of Caracol in Belize, is believed to have supported a population of about 140,000 people during the Maya classical period (250- 900 A.D.). NASA satellites using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) tech-nology helped detect and map 77 miles of the city in four weeks, beginning with its system of agricul-tural terraced roofs. “The ancient Maya designed and maintained sustainable cities long before ‘build-ing green’ became a modern term,” Chase explains. NASA and UCF expect to find a treasure trove of information about the Mayan empire as the data col-lected by the LiDAR missions are further analyzed.

Most Americans Know about Green Jobs but Few Seek ThemMore than 70 percent of American adults are famil-iar with the idea of green jobs, but only 29 percent are aware of the growing availability of this type of employment, and only 1 percent have actually obtained, or are considering obtaining, this type of education, according to a survey by the Washing-ton, DC-based Career College Association (CCA). According to CCA President Harris Miller, the higher the educational attainment level of the respondent, the higher the percentage of those familiar with green jobs. Eighty-five percent of col-

lege graduates are familiar with green jobs, com-pared to only 60 percent for those with a high school degree or less. College graduates are almost twice as likely as those with a high school degree or less to know about the growing availability of green jobs (41 percent versus 22 percent). Although green jobs are “truly the way of the future,” the survey shows that public understanding of green jobs is not uni-form and that workers who might form the green jobs workforce of the future, particularly at the lower rungs of the education ladder, need to know more about practical steps they can take to prepare today, says Miller.

Researchers Perfecting Body-Motion-Based Energy GeneratorResearchers at the University of California-Berkeley are perfecting microscopic fibers that can produce electricity from simple body motions such as bend-ing, stretching, and twisting. The filaments, which resemble tiny fishing lines, may soon be woven into clothing and sold as the ultimate portable genera-tors, according to Mihail Roco, senior adviser for nanotechnology with the National Science Founda-tion, which awarded a $350,000 grant for the project. Although it could take three years or more before it hits store shelves, the technology is being hailed as a breakthrough: Researchers envision hikers power-ing their digital cameras while trekking up a moun-tain, or a jogger charging a cell phone in midrun. For now, the “smart power suit” is still a lab experi-ment, according to UC-Berkeley mechanical engi-neering professor Liwei Lin, who is overseeing the development of the fibers. He notes that it would take about 100,000 fibers to produce enough power for an electrical watch and 1 million fibers to gener-ate enough current to power an iPod. But a bundle of 1 million fibers would be only about the size of a grain of sand. “The fibers can soak up the untapped energy produced by the human body, a remarkably efficient natural generator,” Lin says. “The more vig-orous the motion, the more power can be harvested.”

World’s Largest Green-Certified Office Tower Nears ConstructionConstruction on the world’s largest green-certi-fied office tower, the Oregon Sustainability Center (OSC), to be built in Portland, OR, could begin by the end of this year. According to Lisa Abuaf, Port-land development commission manager for the South Park Blocks Urban Renewal Area, the proj-ect—a 165,000-square-foot mixed-use structure on the Portland State University campus—is expect-ed to be a net-zero energy and net-zero water use development. The skyscraper will incorporate fea-tures such as natural lighting, floor plan and building materials that maximize natural cooling, and

“The ancient Maya designed and maintained sustainable cities long before ‘building green’ became a modern term.”


Diane Chase

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solar panels to provide energy and shade. Trees and plants, designed to beautify the structure, will be irrigated with collected rainwater. The building will contain offices for nonprofits that collectively make up the OSC, as well as a campus facility for the Oregon university system, Abuaf says. The city of Portland also plans to locate the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability in the OSC. The project has been scaled back somewhat—original plans called for a building of more than 200,000 square feet—due to a desire to “build something that is replicable, not a one-of-a-kind, never-be-done again type of thing,” Abuaf explains.

Green Roofing Industry Posts Strong Gain in 2009

Despite a severe downturn last year, the green roof industry grew by 16.1 percent in 2009 due to increased public policies and investment activity, according to a report by Toronto-based Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC). For the sixth straight year, the organization’s 2010 Industry Survey of GRHC Corporate Members identified Chicago as the nation’s green roofing leader, with 500,000 square feet of such roofing installed. Washington, DC, was second at 190,000 square feet, the report noted. Green roofs account for an estimated 10 mil-lion square feet of the 4 billion square feet replaced by the roofing industry in North America every year, according to GRHC President Steven W. Peck. Efforts to educate the public about the benefits of green roofing in cities such as Chicago, New York, Washington, DC, Portland, Minneapolis, Milwau-kee, and Toronto, to name a few, are also making a difference, says Peck.

Hospital Redesign Can Cut Energy Use with Huge Savings

A newly constructed, code-compliant hospital can expect to save around $730,000 a year in energy costs, according to a study by the University of Washington’s Integrated Design Lab and architec-tural firm NBBJ, both in Seattle. The study, “Target-ing 100! Envisioning the high performance hospital: implications for a new, low energy, high perfor-mance prototype,” notes that hospitals account for 4 percent of all energy use in the United States, but could reduce energy usage by 60 percent through redesign. It’s a challenging prospect due to the hos-pital’s 24-hour schedule, but can be accomplished through strategies such as heat recovery, daylighting, and thermal energy storage, according to Duncan Griffin, NBBJ’s health-care energy specialist and one of the study’s lead researchers. These approaches can be implemented for less than 3 percent of the cost of the total project, a fee that is expected to be recouped through energy savings and utility incentives within the first five to eight years of a building’s life, Griffin says.

Campbell’s Sets Goals for Water Usage Reduction

Over the next decade, Campbell Soup Co. intends to pursue goals on sustainability and corporate citi-zenship. Most notably, the company plans to reduce its environmental footprint by half by 2020. Accord-ing to the Camden, NJ, company’s 2010 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report, Campbell’s expects to work closely with organizations like the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and Feeding America to cut water use and CO2 emissions by 50 percent, and also “measurably improve” the health of young people in communities by reducing hunger and childhood obesity by 50 percent through health-ier and envirofriendlier food production. It’s off to an early start: Over the past year Campbell’s reduced the water used in food production by more than 9 percent and invested more than $6 million in envi-ronmental sustainability projects, the report noted. Campbell’s President Douglas Conant says the com-pany also plans to achieve 100 percent employee engagement in CSR and sustainability through inter-


The skyscraper will incorporate features

such as natural lighting, floor plan

and building materials that

maximize natural cooling, and

solar panels to provide energy

and shade.

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nal healthy lifestyle programs and educational ser-vices. Editor’s note: For additional information about sustainability initiatives at Campbell’s, see page 205.

NSTAR, MIT Launch “Efficiency Forward” Conservation Program

Boston-based utility NSTAR and the Massachu-setts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA, are launching the “MIT Efficiency Forward” program, with a goal of cutting campus electricity use by 15 percent over three years through innova-tive programs; substantial student, faculty, and staff engagement; and the piloting of new technologies and approaches at MIT. The first partnership between MIT and the utility establishes a new approach for sustainable solutions, according to NSTAR President and Chief Executive Officer Tom May. The target energy savings over the three-year period is 34 mil-lion kilowatt-hours, or the equivalent of the amount of electricity used by more than 4,500 Massachusetts homes a year. NSTAR predicts that MIT Efficiency Forward will save the school more than $50 million over the lifetime of the projects through a combina-tion of sustainable new construction, major renova-tions, and both electric and gas incentive programs to promote new synergies. The company will work with MIT to improve heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), electrical, and lab systems, as well as lighting fixture and control upgrades, in addition to other steps, MIT President Susan Hock-field says.

SJC Receives 7,600-Acre Gift for Land Conservation Easement

Saint Joseph’s College, a four-year, Catholic, liberal arts college in Rensselaer, IN, has received a $40 million gift of real estate from the Juanita K. Waugh Revocable Living Trust as part of its land conser-vation plan. According to SJC President F. Den-nis Riegelnegg, the gift of 7,634 acres of farm real estate includes a restriction that prohibits the sale of the farm real estate by the college and requires the establishment of a conservation easement. The 7,600-plus acres of farm real estate include 19 operational windmills, with an additional 13 to be constructed, that will operate within the White County-based Meadow Lake Wind Farm. Once operational, the 32 windmills will make Saint Joseph’s College the largest private landowner with the most windmills east of the Mississippi River, Riegelnegg states. Juanita Kious Waugh died on Feb. 6, 2010. She attended Brookston schools, graduated from Tudor Hall High School in Indianapolis, and later attended Indiana University. She spent many years managing her farm in White County. She was a Fellow of Saint Joseph’s College. The gift is the largest in the school’s 121-year history, Riegelnegg added.

European Commission Calls for Tighter Biofuels Monitoring

The European Commission has announced a quali-ty-certification process for biodiesel and ethanol and tighter controls on fuels from sensitive areas such as forests and partly drained peat lands. According to European Union Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger, the new guidelines were developed in response to unintentional but less-than-enviro-friendly actions taken by some nations as they attempted to meet the Commission’s requirement to generate 10 percent of their transportation fuel from renewable sources by 2020. Although some of the requirement could be met by use of electric vehicles, most is expected to be met through biofuels, which are easier to come by, Oettinger says. Unfortunately, this has led to some countries cutting down forests or sowing crops on partly drained peat lands to acquire biofuels. Studies have shown that even partly drained peat land still contains significant amounts of stored carbon, which can escape as carbon diox-ide gas once the land is cultivated and contribute to climate change. The certification, which would last five years, includes use of a commission-issued label that fuel companies could display at their pumps, to assure motorists of environmental compliance.

Fire-Wrecked Home Transformed into ‘Net-Zero’ Model

A house in the famed Hamptons that was virtually destroyed by fire in 2009 is being transformed into what designers hope will be a sustainable home that will set a building standard for others to follow. When complete, the nearly 5,000-square-foot, six-bedroom “HGA Home” in Southampton, NY, will be a net zero energy, carbon neutral living space, according to lead architect Ric Stott of Telemark Inc. in Wain-scott, NY. The Hamptons Green Alliance (HGA), a not-for-profit organization focusing on public edu-cation via the web, has targeted transforming this home using the best that building science has to offer with the goal of creating a structure combining visual appeal with sustainability, Stott says. Design features include: super-efficient insulation by using open-cell foam for all outside walls and closed-cell foam for the roof of the house, geothermal heating and cooling, photovoltaic solar power and conven-tional solar power panels, rainwater harvesting for on-ground watering, and smart home-energy man-agement technology. Designers plan to analyze and compare the sustainable performance of the house before and after renovation, and then publish the information “so that homeowners, architects, and builders can make a more informed decision on fu-ture building projects,” Stott says.


A not-for-profit organization focusing on public education has targeted transforming this home using the best that building science has to offer with the goal of creating a structure combining visual appeal with sustainability.

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Stanford Solar Photovoltaic Team Wins MIT Clean Energy Prize

C3Nano Inc., a team from Stanford University, was named the top winner of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Clean Energy Prize for its revolutionary design of increased efficiency solar photovoltaic panels. The national competition was founded by MIT, the U.S. Department of Energy, and Boston-based electric and gas utility NSTAR to accelerate the pace of clean energy entrepreneur-ship. According to C3Nano founder and Chief Science Officer Melburne C. LeMieux, the Stanford team of Ph.D. chemical engineering students devel-oped a carbon nano-based transparent electrode that will increase the efficiency of thin film photovoltaic solar panels by allowing up to 12 percent more sunlight to penetrate the panels. C3Nano was selected from more than 60 other teams from 35 universities because of the potential impact of their technology to enhance existing photovoltaic systems, according Tom May, president and chief executive officer of NSTAR. The MIT Clean Energy Prize provides capital resources and mentoring to help clean energy entrepreneurs from universities across the country to jump start businesses. Now in its third year, the competition has helped launch more than a dozen businesses that have raised more than $65 million from private investors and the gov-ernment.

Enterprise Goes Energy Efficient To Save $50 Million by 2015

St. Louis, MO-based Enterprise Holdings, the car rental holding company overseeing Enterprise, Alamo, and National, plans to reduce energy use and energy costs by 20 percent over the next five years, saving $50 million through its new sustainability initiative. The company’s “20/20 Vision” plan calls for implementation of energy-saving technologies and conservation practices that will decrease the environmental impact of the neighborhood car rental branches and airport facilities it owns and operates. Initial changes, such as using more energy-efficient lighting and switching to energy-saving software tools across more than 7,600 locations will lead to a dramatic reduction in the company’s energy use and costs, according to Enterprise Holdings Sustain-ability Director Lee Broughton. The plan marks the next evolution of the company’s environmental plat-form, which includes initiatives such as a customer carbon offset program; a pledge to plant 50 million trees over the next 50 years; a fleet of fuel-efficient vehicles, FlexFuel vehicles, and gas/electric hybrids; the use of biodiesel fuel in its Alamo, Enterprise, and National airport shuttle buses; and a commitment to alternative fuels research, Broughton explains.

Builder Lawsuit Could Alter View of Environmental Best Practices

When the Riverhouse One Rockefeller Park condo-minium complex in New York City hit the market in 2008, it was labeled by its managers as “being at the cutting edge of ‘green’ technology.” That statement now has the managers in New York State Supreme Court, fighting a $1.5 million lawsuit because their eco-friendly building isn’t green enough for the con-dominium’s occupants. According to the Wall Street Journal, Steven Gidumal and Allison Keeley bought a three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment in 2008 for $4.2 million largely on the basis of claims made by Riverhouse One former manager Sheldrake Organization of Manhattan and current manager Centurion Real Estate Partners in New York City that the property was on its way to being Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certified. But Gidumal and Keeley allege that the management teams stretched the truth to achieve LEED certification. New York City-based attorney Stephen Del Percio, who specializes in sustainability issues, said the case could “sound a warning bell” for green developers as the court tries to determine what it means for a building to be in line with environ-mental best practices.

Carbon Reduction Only the Beginning for Alcatel-Lucent

Paris-based global networking firm Alcatel-Lucent will successfully reach its CO2 reduction target, en-abling it to cut its carbon footprint by 10 percent by the end of 2010—a year ahead of schedule. Ac-cording to Alcatel-Lucent Director of Sustainability Rich Goode, the company will achieve its goal by minimizing waste and increasing recycling at offices, making buildings more energy efficient, reducing air travel, consolidating data centers, and converting to more-efficient computers. But that’s only the start: the company has also set new targets for making its products more environmentally friendly. These include improving the functional energy efficiency of new or recently developed products by at least 20 percent from their 2008 levels and releasing carbon footprint information for new product groups from 2010 forward. Over the next year, it also plans to in-


According to C3Nano founder,

the Stanford team of Ph.D. chemical

engineering students developed a

carbon nano-basedtransparent electrode

that will increase the efficiency of thin film

photovoltaic solar panels.

UPFRONT 3.4.indd 8 8/4/10 4:18 PM


crease the total number of company sites powered by renewable energy by 30 percent from 2009 levels. In addition, Alcatel-Lucent’s new goal is for a 50 per-cent CO2 reduction from 2008 levels by 2020, Goode says.

Breezeway House Earns Certified Passive House HonorThe Breezeway House near Salt Lake City has been certified by the Illinois-based Passive House In-stitute of the United States (PHIUS) as a Certified Passive House. The structure, designed by Brach De-sign Architecture in Salt Lake City, was completed in December 2009 and is the first building in the western United States to receive the honor. Awarded to buildings designed and constructed according to the world’s strictest energy efficiency standard and a very rigorous design methodology, nationwide only 10 homes carry the distinction, architect Dave Brach says. “The standard requires low-tech strategies like very high-R walls and windows without thermal bridges, passive solar heat, air-tight construction, energy-recovery mechanical ventilation, and proper solar shading to prevent overheating,” he explains. A Certified Passive House uses energy modeling soft-ware developed by the German physicist Wolfgang Feist, who built the first passive house in Germany in 1990. The software is open source, predictable, and accurate and allows the designer to optimize the design for cost-effectiveness during the design phase by showing in a very quantitative way what the energy performance of the building will be, accord-ing to Brach.

Olympic Organizers Missing Opportunity to Green Thinking

Organizers of the London 2012 Olympics risk miss-ing a golden opportunity to inspire a steep change toward a low-carbon economy because the public is not being made aware of what the city is doing to create a green Olympic Games, according to a report by the London Organising Committee of the Olym-pic Games (LOCOG). The report, “Raising the Bar,” alleges that the city made numerous strong promises about envirofriendly games—strong enough to win the bid for the Olympics in 2005—but still has not developed a comprehensive plan that details how the city will make these efforts evident. LOCOG Direc-tor Shaun McCarthy states that green efforts have taken place, citing use of lower-carbon cement, low-toxin plastics, and a zero landfill waste target as some of the achievements so far, but admits that nothing stands out in the public eye as anything that will “appear to make a difference from the way things are now.”

LEED Lacks Emphasis on Human Health, Should Be Upgraded

The system considered to be the gold standard for certifying green buildings fails to place enough emphasis on human health and needs to be upgraded, according to a new report from North Haven, CT-based nonprofit Environmental and Human Health Inc. John Wargo, lead author of the report and professor of risk analysis and environ-mental policy at Yale University, alleges that the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program is weighted more heavily toward energy conserva-tion and not enough toward health protection, ulti-mately skewing green design criteria. The LEED sys-tem provides third-party verification that a building or community is built according to several sustain-ability-promoting metrics, including energy savings, water efficiency, and CO2 emissions reduction. USGBC acknowledged gaps in the standard and wel-comed both collaboration and improvement. But the health report also missed or understated fundamen-tal aspects of the program’s efforts to improve human health and the environment, according to Brendan Owens, vice president of LEED technical develop-ment. Some designers also caution that LEED is simply a tool. It has pushed the building industry in important directions and raises the bar for designers and builders, according to Gunnar Hubbard, princi-pal at Fore Solutions in Portland, ME. “Any tool can be used poorly and for the wrong reasons, or cor-rectly and for the right reasons,” says Hubbard. “As we learn, LEED is intended to work with that knowl-edge.”

A Certified Passive House

The LEED system provides third-party verification that a building or community is built according to several sustainability-promoting metrics.

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Rollins College Students To Have Outdoor Classroom

When it comes to taking class, students at Rol-lins College in Winter Park, FL, are literally going back to nature. As part of the Rollins campus-wide “Learning Green” initiative, the school plans to open its first outdoor classroom during the fall 2010 semester. According to Denise Cummings, Ph.D., professor of Critical Media and Cultural Studies at Rollins and a member of the school’s Student Life Committee, the project will take up a small site behind the school’s McKean Hall—conveniently lo-cated next to a lakeside path and across from a 55-acre nature preserve. “People get absolutely poetic when they see this place,” Cummings says. “Some-thing about being outside really generates creativity.”

There are the obvious advantages—“There are many beautiful days out here, and it just makes sense to enjoy them,” Cummings says—and students and faculty can benefit mentally from being in a different type of learning environment. Moreover, the project is one that is visible and therefore tangible in stu-dents’ minds as something that makes an environ-mental difference. Other advantages are financial. For example, here’s a classroom that doesn’t draw electricity for several hours a day, she says. And the classroom can be an additional selling point for admissions counselors when they give tours of the campus.

Common sense, as well as a focus on sustainability, went into the design elements, according to Rol-lins College Director of Facilities Management and Learning Green Project Director Scott Bitikofer.


Benches will be made of a powder-coated, timber-resembling metal that dries quickly after thunder-storms and avoids wood rot. But Wi-Fi access will also be available— an option that actually went against the recommendations of students who want-ed to keep the site as au naturel as possible. The logic: Some instructors and students still need the access during their class time to get work done.

Instructors or student groups may reserve the site in advance for individual classes to allow access to as much of the campus as possible. Thus far, initial test runs with students, administrators, and Student Life Committee members have gone well, with the only complaint being the presence of “a few too many bugs—but that’s also part of nature,” Cummings says. Three other sites on campus are under consideration for future outdoor classrooms, depending on the success of the initial project.

Ban against Use of Genetically Engineered Seeds Reversed

By a 7–1 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has reversed a lower court’s ban against the planting of genetically engineered alfalfa seeds. The decision in Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms, 130 S. Ct. 2743 (2010), means farmers are a step closer to being able to use the product, which was designed to tolerate Mon-santo Co.’s Roundup herbicide. According to David Snively, Monsanto’s senior vice president and general counsel, the decision will be “far-reaching in its look at the regulatory framework that should govern bio-tech crops.”

In 2007, a federal district judge in San Francisco ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had approved the genetically engineered alfalfa for com-mercial planting without adequately considering the possible environment impact, and imposed a nation-wide ban on planting those seeds. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s injunction. Prior to the injunction, Roundup Ready alfalfa was planted by approximately 5,500 growers across more than 220,000 acres. Alfalfa is the fourth-largest crop grown in the United States with 23 million acres grown in 48 U.S. states annually.

In a separate development, Monsanto agreed to pay a $2.5 million fine to resolve misbranding viola-tions related to the sale and distribution of cotton seed products containing genetically engineered pesticides. According to Cynthia Giles, assistant ad-ministrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, the fine is the largest civil administrative penalty settlement ever received under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.

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