Announcements

Loan Funding For Energy Efficiency and Energy Generation Projects

The National Affordable Housing Finance (AHF) Announces Sixth Annual Readers' Choice Finalists

Affordable Housing Finance announced the finalists of its sixth annual Readers' Choice Awards for the nation's best developments of 2009-2010.  Two were California affordable housing developers. 
 
Green Finalists: 
Casa Feliz Studios in San Jose, Calif.; developed by First Community Housing http://www.firsthousing.com/casafeliz/ 
 
Rancho Lindo in Lamont, Calif.; developed by Self-Help Enterprises http://www.selfhelpenterprises.org/docs/rancho_lindo_green.pdf 
 

Application Deadlines

Green Innovation Challenge Grants: Job Creation in the Green Economy 
  Employment Development Department (EDD) $20 million Green Innovation Challenge Grant program will provide up to five Challenge grants at up to $4 million each to encourage business-led partnerships to develop and implement new workforce training strategies to prepare workers for jobs in a broad range of clean technologies. 
 
Press release: http://www.gov.ca.gov/press-release/15245/ 

Climate Showcase Communities - Request for Proposals is now open  
http://www.epa.gov/slclimat/local/showcase/  
 
The US (federal) Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) $10 million Climate Showcase Communities Grant Program will fund up to 30 cooperative agreements to assist local and tribal ($500,000 set-aside) governments in reducing green house gas emissions while creating replicable models of sustainable community development planning and programs.

Proposals are due: July 26, 2010 (1:00 pm PDT)  
Request for Proposal Number: EPA-OAR-CPPD-10-09  
CATALOG OF FEDERAL DOMESTIC ASSISTANCE (CFDA) NO.: 66.041  
Link to Request for Proposals (RFP): http://www.epa.gov/air/grants/csc_2010rfp_v3_6_3_10.pdf  
 
Agency contact: 
U.S. EPA 
Attention: Jeanette Shepherd 
OAR/OAP/Climate Protection Partnerships Division 
1310 L Street, NW, 
10th Floor 
Washington, DC 20005 
Phone: (202) 343-9792 
 
Questions or comments ClimateShowcaseInquiries@epa.gov

Answers posted bi-weekly http://www.epa.gov/air/grants_funding.html 
 

New Tools

A Guide to the California Green Building Standards Code (Low-Rise Residential - June 2010 
The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) developed A Guide to the California Green Building Standards Code, for residential green building standards for new low-rise residential construction, in collaboration with the California Building Standards Commission (CBSC), stakeholder groups and other state agencies. The new standards include: Indoor air standards limiting volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, limit moisture and improve air quality; a 20 % reduction in indoor water use; a 50 % reduction in construction waste; occupant recycling, maintenance and operation information; and  
a comprehensive appendix for use by local governments intending to go beyond the mandatory code minimum.

Download the Guide and view related publications at http://www.hcd.ca.gov/CALGreen.html 

Smart Mobility Framework

California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) Office of Community Planning, in partnership with US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and in collaboration with other state project partners- the Governor's Office of Planning & Research (OPR) and the California Department of Housing & Community Development (HCD), is producing a planning guide to further integrate smart growth concepts into transportation plans, programs, or projects (e.g., Regional Transportation and Blueprint Plans, General Plans, corridor plans, specific development proposals, etc.) in California.

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tpp/offices/ocp/smf.html 
 
 

LEED ND Officially Launches National Standards for Smart Growth Neighborhood Development 
The three founding partners of LEED for Neighborhood Development - NRDC, the Congress for the New Urbanism, and the US Green Building Council - have been joined by the US Environmental Protection Agency, LEED-ND's first financial supporter, and Smart Growth America, NRDC's coalition partner and longtime collaborator. The partners hope the tool will assist local environmentalists and citizens' groups evaluate development proposals, and provide templates for governments upgrading state and local policies to support sustainable, green neighborhoods. More than 50 pilot projects had achieved LEED ND certification as of December 2009.

Download the system's standards at USGBC http://www.usgbc.org/  under Resources tab

For futher reading: National Resources Defense Council  http://www.nrdc.org/cities/smartgrowth/leed.asp 

California Commissioning Collaborative Toolbox

 The California Commissioning Collaborative (www.cacx.org) has free tools that can help with utility bill analysis. 

Property Assessed Clean Energy Bonds  (PACE) 
Assembly Bill 811, passed in 2008, provides for homeowners to borrow funds at a low-interest to install solar panels and make other energy efficiency improvements, and then pay back the loans over time through their property taxes. But while the Harvard Business Review touted the program as one of the top 10 breakthrough ideas for 2010, the Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, California bond program has been Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac raised concerns the program may violate lending rules by putting counties in a priority position for repayment.

Learn more about the program at the following sites:

Property Assessed Clean Energy Bonds  
www.pacenow.org

About PACE | Renewable Funding  
www.renewfund.com

Solution Center: Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Programs  
www1.eere.energy.gov  

Upcoming Workshops and Conferences

Mandatory Green Buildng Standards workshops by CalGREEN In collaboration with the California Building Standards Commission and the California Department of Housing and Community Development, CalGREEN is offering a series of regional half-day workshops beginning in June 2010 will provide an overview of the new mandatory standards, voluntary tier structure, compliance checklists and code publication dates. Online registration is available now: http://www.green-technology.org/calgreen/  

Publications

The Imminent Commercial Real Estate Crisis and The CRE Solution

The Imminent Commercial Real Estate Crisis and The CRE Solution report recently released by co-author Edward Mazria, CEO of Architecture 2030, recommends a three-year, tiered tax incentive tied to specific energy reduction targets, by building upon the existing Energy Efficient Commercial Building Tax Deduction (26 U.S.C. 179(d)) from $1.80 per square foot to a range of $3 to $9 per square foot for new and existing commercial buildings meeting specific energy reduction targets.  The report concludes "The CRE Solution" would "generate $73.4 billion in new private spending, $15.9 billion in new federal tax revenue, and $5.25 billion in state and local government tax revenue, create 1.3 million jobs, quickly and cost-effectively, decrease building sector energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, increase after-tax cash flow and property values, and reduce loan defaults, new CRE sales, desirability, and investment value and generate billions of dollars in federal, state, and local revenue" 
 
The 14-page report can be viewed at www.architecture2030.org.

 
Costs and Benefits of Green Affordable Housing Study

The Costs and Benefits of Green Affordable Housing study, undertaken by New Ecology and the Tellus Institute, is comprised of 16 case studies of affordable housing projects from around the country. This 200 page report includes in-depth analysis of the long-run financial implications of greening each project and Net Present Value projections for each project. In addition to case findings, we have included sections on recommendations for advancing the green agenda in affordable housing as well as areas for further research. This is the first study of its kind looking at green affordable housing from a costs and benefits perspective. We hope that with this study, a robust, national conversation can begin about how to promote greening affordable housing while taking into account the various costs and benefits associated with the decisions to green developments.

Making Affordable Housing Greener article free for download

New Ecology  Community Based Sustainable Development  (Boston MA) http://www.newecology.org/research-publications 

New Report Criticizes LEED on Public Health Issues

"A new report from the nonprofit Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI) takes aim at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and its LEED rating systems, arguing that they don't do enough to address human health issues. While acknowledging the validity of some issues in the report and inviting EHHI to collaborate with it, USGBC argues that the report contains fundamental misunderstandings about how LEED addresses public health." - Tristan Roberts

http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2010/6/29/New-Report-Criticizes-LEED-on-Public-Health-Issues/

For more information: Environment and Human Health, Inc. www.ehhi.org

Acoustics Overlooked in Green Building Design

Evaluations collected and studied post-occupancy by the Center for the Built Environment at University of California Berkeley have determined green buildings compromise acoustics, including noise control and speech privacy.  The report indicates acoustics have been ignored both by architecture professionals in the design and by the organizations responsible for defining green buildingsat best offering only optional credit, except in LEED for Schools and LEED for Healthcare.

For more information read Acoustics in Green Buildings By Jana Madsen at

http://www.architechweb.com/Content/ArticleDetails/tabid/171/ArticleID/10095/Default.aspx

Forum of Design for the Public Realm - Article/Video

The Water Underground: Center for the Urban Pedagogy staff and student researchers and videographers criss-crossed the five boroughs and assembled a multi-vocal primer on some essential urban infrastructure. We hear from engineers, plant superintendents, construction workers, marine biologists, urban divers, educators, and environmental justice advocates.

Read the article and view the video at http://places.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=13448

BART (Oppose: OPR)

Natural Resources Defense Council, 
Environmental Defense Fund

Irvine Water Ranch District

Sonoma Co. Transportation 
Agency, Sonoma County