The endangered desert pupfish in southern Nevada is the latest obstacle to the dream of filling the West with large solar power plants, says an article in today’s Wall St. Journal. Any project that uses water, such as is required for cooling concentrating solar power plants, is a non-starter in the dry desert Southwest. And the construction required for large PV power plants is likely also to damage desert ecosystems beyond repair. If you fly over the Mojave Desert, you can still see wagon tracks from 150 years ago. We should be focusing instead on decentralized solar power (rooftops) and conservation before we commit hundreds of billions to desert power plants. Alternatively, something I’ve advocated for years, is to use the Navy’s bombing ranges in southeast California for PV power plants, since there’s no longer any endangered species after 50 years of dumping bombs there. There’s more than enough land there to power the entire Southwest. (Of course, there is the issue of unexploded ordnance!)

The recent article in Europe’s Property Week magazine says that the companies involved include AXA Real Estate Investment Management, GE Real Estate and ING Real Estate. The scheme is simply called “Green Rating” and will look at energy use, carbon emissions, water use, waste generation, health and location close to public transport. The scheme was launched in Spain last month and is expected to roll out this year in Germany, France, The Netherlands and Italy. A 2010 launch is planned in the US and Japan. Prediction: it’s going to be hard to get traction in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Japan and Germany because of well established domestic rating systems. For example, in the US, more than 20,000 properties are pursuing LEED right now, including 2,500 existing buildings, and there are more than 100,000 LEED Accredited Professionals. It’s hard to dislodge this large base of support. The Green Rating system also appears to lack the truly independent third-party certification that is the primary appeal of the established rating systems, as is the broad base of stakeholders involved in developing each country’s rating system. While the companies promoting the plan are important players, they are by no means the largest property managers and owners, even in their respective countries or spheres of operation. Nevertheless, a better way to look at this new system is that it indicates what I’ve been saying all along: the business case for green buildings is so solid that property owners and managers who don’t green existing properties are going to be at a competitive disadvantage in the next few years.

You’ll have to buy a copy of the ULI Green magazine, but there are a lot of good articles in the issue. My article, Learning from Europe, showcases a wonderful project by Behnisch Architekten, from Stuttgart, Germany, the renovation of an aging health spa in a small town in Bavaria. European designers, planners, developers and builders are aggressively pushing the envelope on low-carbon buildings. My forthcoming book, Green Building Trends: Europe, highlights much of what is happening today. You can order it now from Island Press; should be available in 3 to 6 weeks.

In its latest sustainability report, How We Do Business, Marks & Spencer (M&S) says that in January 2007 it was prepared to invest £200m (over $300 million) during the next five years to implement its 2005 sustainability plan, Plan A, but cost savings made on climate change and waste reduction initiatives have already made it cash-flow positive. M&S says that 39 of the 100 commitments under Plan A have been completed and 24 of the 100 targets have been raised.

The decision to charge 5p for single-use grocery bags has cut the use of the bags by 83% (almost 400 million bags) - the £1.2m (about $2 million) profit generated from the charge has gone to the environmental charity Groundwork. Overall waste diversion rates to landfill are up to 41 percent, while carbon emissions have been cut 18 percent since the 2006-2007 baseline year. Energy use is down 10 percent, even while total store area is up 10 percent, for a roughly 20 percent reduction in energy use per square foot.

Our analysis of LEED-EBOM project registrations shows that LEED for Existing Buildings has registered 1400 new projects in the past 12 months, from June of 2008 through May of 2009, representing nearly 500 million square feet of space. More than 80 percent of all new LEED-EBOM projects are with private ownership. Almost 65 percent of all projects are in just 10 states, with California representing more than 20 percent of all newly registered projects. Private businesses are finding out that it’s easy to rebrand a modern office building, one that has an ENERGY STAR rating, as a green building. Expect the total number of LEED-EB certified projects to more than double in 2009. With a good consultant, most buildings can get the certification within 9 months.

The report lists sustainability projects and best practices in 10 categories: energy, packaging, anti-littering, recycling, logistics communications, greening the restaurants, greening the workplace, sustainable food and supplier leadership. Slow food activists may not like Mickey D’s, but they’re here to stay, and it’s good they’re trying to do the right thing.

If green buildings are the goal, then a lot of people shoot for the highest ranking possible, which is LEED-Platinum. Without exactly knowing what it takes, many building owners and design teams begin their green building project by proudly proclaiming a goal of LEED Platinum. Usually, rather quickly they find out there is more to making a project “super green” than just declaring good intentions.

This is an excerpt from Jerry Yudelson’s book, Green Building A to Z: Understanding the Language of Green Build.

To read the entire chapter, click here to download the PDF version.

I’m wondering why principals of design firms especially, who’ve feasted off of a five-year growth in business from 2002 to 2007, aren’t willing to dig into their pockets and come up with $10,000 or $15,000 each to invest in targeted marketing and training programs, to gain market share, hire better employees and make their current workforce more skilled. While many firms have laid off 20% or 25% of staff, there’s still business out there to be had. More importantly, clients want to hear something new from you, something that will save them money. A firm with 10 principals should put together a “war chest” of $100,000 to $150,000 for carefully targeted marketing, training and skill building programs. These funds should be targeted at the markets that are still growing: health care, K12 education, federal government buildings, energy-efficient upgrades of commercial buildings, and the like. There’s quite a bit of stimulus money out there that’s going to be spent on design and construction, to soften the blow of the current recession. As as business confidence returns in the second half of this year, you can be sure that clients will remember those firms that were in front of them with new ideas, well financed cost-saving investments, and expanded technical capabilities.

Microturbines are a relatively new technology with significant applications in green building design. By using natural gas as a fuel (also diesel or propane), microturbines generate electricity and hot water, rather than just one or the other. In this way, about 80% of the energy value in the fuel is converted to useful work. Microturbines can range from 25 kilowatt (kW) output to 500 kW, have low emissions of nitrogen oxide, are about 20% to 30% efficient in producing electric power and can produce hot water at 120F to 175F, a range quite suitable for a number of uses, including swimming pools and service water.

This is an excerpt from Jerry Yudelson’s book, Green Building A to Z: Understanding the Language of Green Build.

To read the entire chapter, click here to download the PDF version.

I provide my answers to the question: “Green Jobs, Where’s The Beef?”  as part of a series of short video commentaries on green building trends and sustainable development practices distributed to the public via YouTube.

The new green jobs will come from three areas. The first area is green buildings, both new and existing, where the growth is already tremendous - about 80% in 2008. The second area is renewable energy development, particularly wind and solar. And, the third area is efficiency upgrades for older buildings.

These are the same drivers of future employment that President Obama is promoting in his proposed budget and policy projections. Assuming the President and the Congress keep the momentum going, investments in green building, renewable energy and energy efficiency literally could provide millions of sustainable new jobs over the next four years.

Many of these new jobs in the building and construction industries will be created by the need to retrofit the hundreds of thousands of structures that were built for an era of cheap energy, without regard to environmental consequences. Now, we have to go back and make design and operational changes that are consistent with our new knowledge of the financial costs and environmental consequences of building without sustainability in mind.

This new green building consciousness is crucial for the success of this transition. I learned the hard way in the late seventies and early eighties when I was director of the California solar energy program designed to establish a permanent solar industry in the state. We had a good start, but in 1985 the federal and state governments took the props (tax credits) away simultaneously, and the industry collapsed overnight. For me, this is a valuable lesson to remember today.

What do we have to do to make the growth in green jobs permanent? My list of requirements includes making sure building codes accurately reflect the current realities of global warming and the cost of carbon emissions, establishing governmental economic incentives that will not go away after a few years. Finally, we need to create a lasting infrastructure connecting building owners, facility managers and government agencies to ensure that green practices will guide future construction and operations.

To view the brief video of highlights of Jerry Yudelson’s perspective on green jobs, click here.