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Global Positioning
May 20, 2009
Prompted by Andy Revkin's Bracket Time for Climate {Treaty} {Pact} posting on Dot Earth, Nancy joins the conversation about a new global climate agreement and the Waxman-Markey bill in Congress. Read Revkin's post and Nancy's comment.
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Legal settlement funds created from litigation over an old Con Edison plant just might become new building blocks of urban sustainability. Literally blocks. "Greening A Block" proposes to transform a block on the Lower East side into a showcase of energy efficiency and renewable energy. Older environmental benefits programs, like Greenpoint/Williamsburg and West Harlem, never scaled up from model to mantra. Now "Greening a Block" seeks to re-energize the idea of place-based programs to deliver real, tangible benefits. This is an exciting prospect. Download Report »
The Climate Rescue Report
In 2004, the Mayor's NYC Energy Report called for the creation of 2,600 megawatts of new electric power by 2008. The Climate Rescue Report offers a menu of local legislative bills for creating an energy policy and emerging energy economy that are safe, secure and sustainable. Nancy Anderson, Executive Director of the Sallan Foundation, met with contributors to the Climate Rescue Report and contributed to its scope and approach to effective policy analysis. Download Report »
Read the testimony of Sallan's Executive Director about Mayor Bloomberg's PLANYC 2030 to combat global warming while the City grows.
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NYC HPB Panel: The Policy Makers' Perspective, Anderson's Introduction
Our speakers have all tackled projects of real public significance, developed powerful new ideas about how we should build our cities, and ...
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Anderson's Opening Remarks at NY Tackles Climate Change
Every day we see news stories about melting ice caps, record hot weather and Kyoto compliance in other countries. Download Speech »
Nancy Anderson, Ph.D.
We The People
After long months of bill drafting, meetings and more drafting, the City Council held hearings on Mayor Bloomberg’s green building legislative quartet in late June. Full Article »
Bomee Jung
Transparency & Innovation: Open Data For Green Buildings
I'm not old enough to have enjoyed the first hey-day of energy-efficiency and alternative power back in the 70's and 80's, but I do love chocolate and have a vivid recollection of the classic Reese's Peanut Butter Cups commercials from those days. There were several variations, but basically, a person holding a chocolate bar runs into a person holding a open jar of peanut butter, causing the chocolate bar to drop into the peanut butter. They exclaim in dismay:
— "You got peanut butter in my chocolate!"
— "You got chocolate in my peanut butter!"
But, as the slogan goes, they discover that "two great tastes that taste great together", and candy lovers everywhere rejoice in the finding.
Not unlike the chocolate-peanut butter collision, two transformative movements of our time are poised to slam together into a concoction no less delightful than the Peanut Butter Cup (particularly to green enthusiasts of geekly tendencies): the Open Data movement and high-performance green building.
Full Article »
Nora Sherman
An Industry Finds Its Voice
As policy makers’ interest in energy-efficient building operations grows, the New York City real estate and property management industry is charged with transition - can the community find a common voice as it navigates these challenges?
Changes to the energy management practices of the commercial real estate industry represent tremendous opportunity to cut the City's carbon footprint in the next several decades. Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC promises to revolutionize the way that energy is used in the City’s largest properties, first, through offering incentives and, later, mandating appropriate activities and technology. Among the city’s initiatives is a proposal for an Energy Planning Board that will “work with the State and Con Edison to centralize planning for the City’s supply and demand initiatives.” But the Bloomberg proposal does not indicate how the leaders of the real estate industry and representatives of the workforce will participate in the great changes that are to take place.
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