tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10081489500844687942024-03-06T00:58:31.576-08:00New City DesignWatching the evolution to sustainable livingEndurance.Nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00250527329641206652noreply@blogger.comBlogger154125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-53964070207372507472013-08-02T06:28:00.001-07:002013-08-02T06:28:19.097-07:00Washington DC does Energy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.buildsmartdc.com/">Build Smart DC</a> - Interactive, Scalable Building Portal -- Coming to a city near you!!! </span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/08/01/washington-dc-launches-real-time-building-energy-data-project/" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" title="Permalink to Washington DC launches real-time building energy data project">Washington DC launches real-time building energy data project (GigaOm)</a></span></h2>
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<a href="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/screen-shot-2013-08-01-at-5-52-20-pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/screen-shot-2013-08-01-at-5-52-20-pm.png" width="320" /></a>This week Washington DC kicked off a project that collects and
organizes building energy data in granular 15-minute intervals, one of
the first and biggest of its kind. Startup Honest Buildings is providing
the underlying software.<br />
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The District of Columbia this week launched a project called <a href="http://www.buildsmartdc.com/">Build Smart DC</a>,
which aggregates real-time energy information about 25 million square
feet of public buildings in the region. It’s one of the biggest and most
sophisticated of its kind, and shows how governments, both local, state
and federal, <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/07/31/why-the-worlds-governments-are-interested-in-creating-hubs-for-open-data/">are looking to use open data</a> to create economic and environmental value, and increasingly paying attention to the efficiency of buildings.<br />
While some cities like Charlotte, North Carolina, and New York have
created similar projects, Build Smart DC is one of the first that has
access to 15-minute interval energy data. Many energy data projects have
access to daily, monthly, or even year energy data. Washington DC
worked with local utility Pepco to get access to that data, and startup
Honest Buildings created the software and services that collect and
organize the data.<br />
<a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/08/01/washington-dc-launches-real-time-building-energy-data-project/screen-shot-2013-08-01-at-5-17-11-pm/" rel="gallery"><img alt="BuildSmart DC" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-674628" height="392" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/screen-shot-2013-08-01-at-5-17-11-pm.png?w=1178&h=722" width="640" /></a><br />
The rapid data reporting is important because it is far more
actionable than, say, a once-a-month energy consumption recording. So
basically, with 15-minute data, building owners and vendors can see
where there are inefficient energy problems throughout time periods of
the day, like buildings that have lights or heating and cooling that run
at times when occupants aren’t in them. “The 15-minute interval data
distinction might sound geeky, but it makes a huge difference,” says Sam
Brooks, Associate Director, DC Department of General Services.<br />
More sophisticated real-time data also just adds more accountability
to the system. Washington DC is using the platform — which Brooks says
was a small 5-figure investment to get up and running — to both show how
efficient its buildings are, and also can be. The idea is that making
the data available will convince more building owners to retrofit
buildings and add in efficient technologies like LEDs and energy
management software.<br />
While the buildings in the system now are those owned by the District
of Columbia, private building owners will also be able to add their
buildings and organize their data. The group is still figuring out if
private building owners will have to pay for the service or not, and if
so, how much.<br />
Honest Buildings is the startup behind the DC launch, and they’ve
also worked with other cities, and organizations on white-label building
data platforms. The startup closed a series A round of $5 million to
grow its software around real estate projects <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/06/24/honest-buildings-raises-5-5m-expands-beyond-energy-data/">earlier this year</a>.
Honest Building’s investors include The Westly Group, RockPort Capital,
Mohr Davidow Ventures, Spring Ventures, Jason Scott, managing partner
at EKO Asset Management Partners, and Lisa Gansky, author of <em>The Mesh</em>.<br />
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energyoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967291967857112131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-68472295875860611442013-04-14T09:20:00.000-07:002013-08-02T06:22:45.996-07:00Digital Chicago<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://digital.cityofchicago.org/">Digital Chicago Takes Hold</a> through initiatives and innovation enabled by open data and community initiatives. From a growing list of city services available to support for innovative support to new businesses, the city is taking a proactive stance in both providing open data and catalyst resources to stimulate the evolution of their digital community infrastructure.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eTri_I-K1Kc/UWg1mVpFWwI/AAAAAAAAAlk/rcwWBJXNiJM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-04-12+at+10.25.30+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="376" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eTri_I-K1Kc/UWg1mVpFWwI/AAAAAAAAAlk/rcwWBJXNiJM/s640/Screen+Shot+2013-04-12+at+10.25.30+AM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0Chicago, IL, USA41.8781136 -87.62979819999998241.499532099999996 -88.275245199999986 42.2566951 -86.984351199999978tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-12659550375006264712013-04-10T08:29:00.001-07:002013-04-10T08:29:09.776-07:00LA Energy - block by block<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The<a href="http://sustainablecommunities.environment.ucla.edu/map/"> UCLA City Energy Map</a> exemplifies visualization of data that may driving planning and infrastructure decisions. <span style="background-color: white; color: #061a2b; line-height: 21px; orphans: 4;">This map is the product of a year-long partnership with UCLA, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), and the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR). As a tool for visualizing and analyzing the energy usage trends within the city, this map brings greater transparency to the discussion on better energy investments, energy efficiency, and public policy.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tfURxfPXwRA/UWWE0ty5AnI/AAAAAAAAAlM/VPXd3Z6Atq4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-04-10+at+9.25.35+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tfURxfPXwRA/UWWE0ty5AnI/AAAAAAAAAlM/VPXd3Z6Atq4/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-04-10+at+9.25.35+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #061a2b; line-height: 21px; orphans: 4;">The map is the first in a series being developed for the </span><a href="http://sustainablecommunities.environment.ucla.edu/1474-2/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #2b77c5; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; orphans: 4; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Regional Energy Baselines Project</i></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #061a2b; line-height: 21px; orphans: 4;">, directed by </span><a href="http://sustainablecommunities.environment.ucla.edu/about/directors-corner/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #2b77c5; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; orphans: 4; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Stephanie Pincetl, PhD</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #061a2b; line-height: 21px; orphans: 4;"> and funded by the California Energy Commission’s PIER program. </span><a href="http://jackimurdock.wordpress.com/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #2b77c5; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; orphans: 4; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jacki Murdock, </a><span style="background-color: white; color: #061a2b; line-height: 21px; orphans: 4;">an Urban Planning graduate student at the Luskin School of Urban Planning and a CCSC researcher, created the map as part of her Master’s Capstone project. </span><a href="http://gis.yohman.com/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #2b77c5; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; orphans: 4; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Yoh Kawano</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #061a2b; line-height: 21px; orphans: 4;">, GIS Coordinator at the Institute for Digital Research and Education at UCLA helped advise the GIS efforts on this project. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research are critical partners on the project.</span></span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-25483846704350214632013-01-25T05:31:00.002-08:002013-01-26T07:57:54.433-08:00Breaking the Cell Phone Economic Suck ...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Look at the $s sucked out of local communities through the bundeled services provided by your merged entertainment/communications conduit. There must be a better way - a back2theFuture muni model of local services provided by local businesses (see the <a href="http://www.stjohncable.com/">St. John Telephone Company</a>). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Google may show the way ....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/view/510341/googles-private-cell-phone-network/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130125">Google’s Private Cell Phone Network</a> - <span style="line-height: 40.5405387878418px;">A small cell network over the company’s HQ could herald new competition for established carriers.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/sites/default/files/images/goog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.technologyreview.com/sites/default/files/images/goog.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ilings made with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission reveal that Google wants to start operating its own, very small cell phone network on its Mountain View campus. It’s the latest in a series of hints in recent years that Google is unsatisfied with the way that mobile networks control the mobile Internet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Google <a href="https://apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.html?id=132696&x=." style="border: 0px; color: #206f96; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">tells the FCC</a> it wants to install up to 50 mobile base stations in buildings on the <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=1210+Charleston+Road,+Mountain+View&hl=en&ll=37.420132,-122.07113&spn=0.00749,0.013926&sll=37.420463,-122.076665&sspn=0.00749,0.013926&t=h&hnear=1210+Charleston+Rd,+Mountain+View,+California+94043&z=17" style="border: 0px; color: #206f96; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Western edge of Google’s Mountain View campus</a>, just a block or so away from its main Android building. Up to 200 mobile devices will be used on that “experimental” network and the area covered will be small, with indoor base stations reaching only up to 200 meters, and any outdoors ones reaching no further than a kilometer. The <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/01/23/google-creating-wireless-network-but-for-what/" style="border: 0px; color: #206f96; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">WSJ</em> reports</a> that the frequencies used belong to ClearWire, and aren’t compatible with any U.S. mobile device. They are in use in China, Brazil, and India, though.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Google might just be experimenting with devices for those parts of the world. Or it might be trying something more radical. The search and ad giant has been rumored to be exploring the idea of working with TV provider Dish to <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/16/google_sprint/" style="border: 0px; color: #206f96; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">launch a wireless Internet service</a>, has already got into the business of providing broadband (see “<a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/507476/googles-internet-service-might-actually-bring-the-us-up-to-speed/" style="border: 0px; color: #206f96; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Google’s Internet Service Might Bring the U.S. Up to Speed</a>”), and has a history of showing interest in ideas that would loosen the grip of cellular providers on mobile devices and what people can do with them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 2rem;">[</span><a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/view/510341/googles-private-cell-phone-network/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130125" style="line-height: 2rem;">More at MIT Tech Review ...</a><span style="line-height: 2rem;">]</span></span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-62689307584608640842013-01-24T07:48:00.000-08:002013-01-24T07:48:42.275-08:00NY City Unveils Winner of Tiny-Apartment Competition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/01/23/nyregion/22cityroom-micro1/22cityroom-micro1-blog480.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/01/23/nyregion/22cityroom-micro1/22cityroom-micro1-blog480.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span class="caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><a href="http://inhabitat.com/nyc/5-super-efficient-tiny-new-york-apartments/">A peek at the winning design in the city’s small-apartment competition.</a> </i></span></span></div>
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<span class="caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The entry, “My Micro NY,” packs a lot of
space and light into less than 370 square feet.</i></span></span></div>
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<span class="caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Make it Small - Make it Livable - and if you must, stack them into cities:)</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/garden/24tiny.html?_r=0">But if you live in the country </a>- or have a big back yard </i></span></span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-55566527739676659292013-01-24T07:23:00.001-08:002013-01-24T07:23:26.330-08:00Digital Rights - Sandy Pentland<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #797979; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">You own your data, and you should only share it when you get something back in return, argues Sandy Pentland.</span><br />
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<img border="0" height="0" src="http://c.gigcount.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.11NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEzNTkwNDA4NTA4MzEmcHQ9MTM1OTA*MDg1Njc4MyZwPSZkPSZnPTImbz1iYTJiNmVlYTQ3OTY*ZDZmYWQ2Nzk2NGQ3/MmIzZTFlYiZvZj*w.gif" style="height: 0px; visibility: hidden; width: 0px;" width="0" /><object allowfullscreen="true" allownetworking="all" allowscriptaccess="always" data="http://www.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/1_vj10njqi/uiconf_id/5148671" height="396" id="kaltura_player_1359040845" name="kaltura_player_1359040845" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="704"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowNetworking" value="all" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><param name="movie" value="http://www.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/1_vj10njqi/uiconf_id/5148671"/><param name="flashVars" value=""/><a href="http://corp.kaltura.com">video platform</a><a href="http://corp.kaltura.com/video_platform/video_management">video management</a><a href="http://corp.kaltura.com/solutions/video_solution">video solutions</a><a href="http://corp.kaltura.com/video_platform/video_publishing">video player</a></object></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-67571101689297982652013-01-24T06:57:00.003-08:002013-01-24T06:57:58.055-08:00Megacities: soulless sprawl or shining future? - Carl Björkman<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://forumblog.org/2013/01/megacities-soulless-sprawl-or-shining-future/">Full Draft at Davos 2013</a><br />
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<span class="watch-title yt-uix-expander-head" dir="ltr" style="-webkit-user-select: auto; border: 0px; cursor: auto; font-size: 18.88888931274414px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" title="Urbanization - Geoffrey West">Urbanization - Geoffrey West Intro</span></h1>
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<em>Whether we like them or not, megacities will increasingly become the future of our planet, writes the World Economic Forum’s Carl Björkman.</em></div>
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For the first time in history, more people live in cities than in rural areas. By 2050, the world’s cities will absorb 3 billion people, at which point 70% of the planet will live in urban areas. This represents the biggest shift in human civilization since humankind moved from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement.</div>
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Yet, some cities are more than cities. Some are <em>mega</em><em>cities</em>. These giant sprawling urban conurbations pack people, communities and businesses across vast spaces. There are now over 20 megacities or metropolises (population centres with more than 10 million people) scattered around the world – from New York, which still captures our imagination with its skyscrapers crammed like dominos onto the finite Manhattan grid, to the bustling, colourful and crime-plagued Mexico City, and from the self-assured Beijing, the meticulously organized technological hive of Tokyo, the melting pot of Istanbul, the booming vibrant Seoul, to the grand old lady of cities, London.</div>
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More megacities are sprouting up, although few in the West may have heard of the new emerging metropolises that will play an increasingly dominant global role: Chengdu and Beihei on the north-eastern Chinese coast; Palembang in Indonesia; Ghaziabad, Surat and Faridabad in India; Chittagong in Bangladesh; and Toluca in Mexico. Their cumulative growth is set to usher in a new era of city living, changing the lives of those who move to them – and the face of the planet.</div>
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<a href="http://forumblog.org/2013/01/megacities-soulless-sprawl-or-shining-future/">[More At Davos ...]</a></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-38187660376769231422013-01-24T06:47:00.002-08:002013-01-24T06:47:36.043-08:00Davos - People are Cities<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.weforum.org/sessions/summary/designing-smart-cities">Davos Designing Smart Cities Session Summary</a><br />
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How can cities be designed for urban resilience and prosperity?</div>
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<li style="background-image: url(http://www.weforum.org/sites/all/themes/wef-960/images/ico/bullet-point.gif); background-position: 0% 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">Understand the characteristics of smart cities</li>
<li style="background-image: url(http://www.weforum.org/sites/all/themes/wef-960/images/ico/bullet-point.gif); background-position: 0% 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rethink infrastructure for resilient dynamism</li>
<li style="background-image: url(http://www.weforum.org/sites/all/themes/wef-960/images/ico/bullet-point.gif); background-position: 0% 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">Share best practices and partnership models</li>
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<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Key Points</strong></div>
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<li style="background-image: url(http://www.weforum.org/sites/all/themes/wef-960/images/ico/bullet-point.gif); background-position: 0% 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">Resilience is the capacity of cities to prepare, respond and recover. </li>
<li style="background-image: url(http://www.weforum.org/sites/all/themes/wef-960/images/ico/bullet-point.gif); background-position: 0% 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">Information technology does not make a city smarter or more resilient; rather, the solution lies in keeping the citizen at the centre and providing better, faster and cheaper services. </li>
<li style="background-image: url(http://www.weforum.org/sites/all/themes/wef-960/images/ico/bullet-point.gif); background-position: 0% 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">Planning matters. </li>
<li style="background-image: url(http://www.weforum.org/sites/all/themes/wef-960/images/ico/bullet-point.gif); background-position: 0% 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cities share global values, including the primacy of safety and security, and the importance of convenience. </li>
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<img border="0" height="0" src="http://c.gigcount.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.11NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEzNTkwMzg3NjEwMTAmcHQ9MTM1OTAzODc3MTEyMSZwPSZkPSZnPTImbz1iYTJiNmVlYTQ3OTY*ZDZmYWQ2Nzk2NGQ3/MmIzZTFlYiZvZj*w.gif" style="height: 0px; visibility: hidden; width: 0px;" width="0" /><object allowfullscreen="true" allownetworking="all" allowscriptaccess="always" data="http://www.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/1_gx9shmyn/uiconf_id/5148671" height="300" id="kaltura_player_1359038758" name="kaltura_player_1359038758" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="600"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowNetworking" value="all" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><param name="movie" value="http://www.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/1_gx9shmyn/uiconf_id/5148671"/><param name="flashVars" value=""/><a href="http://corp.kaltura.com">video platform</a><a href="http://corp.kaltura.com/video_platform/video_management">video management</a><a href="http://corp.kaltura.com/solutions/video_solution">video solutions</a><a href="http://corp.kaltura.com/video_platform/video_publishing">video player</a></object>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-14506757097434899572012-05-31T07:37:00.000-07:002012-05-31T07:37:46.752-07:00One Step at a Time - DEVAP is Keeping it Simple<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tech to the Rescue! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Comfort within the new urban environment is crucial to our perception of livability and central to enablement of active communal spaces. Buildings are the containers that, in many geographies globally, will house these spaces and communities. So when we see small advancements such as this one from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) that point to 80% efficiency break-throughs for building HVAC systems - coupled with significantly noticeable improvements in perceived occupant comfort - we are enthused! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Coupled with a productization roadmap that puts the new tech in the field rapidly, we can foresee a time where our urban shells can truly lead to sustainable, community habitation </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/End_Use_Efficiency/NREL-zeroes-in-on-super-efficient-AC-system-for-commercial-buildings-4833.html"><span style="font-size: small;">NREL zeroes in on super-efficient AC system for commercial buildings</span></a></h1>
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A new air conditioning system invented by DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory could well be a promising breakthrough for <span style="color: #0066cc;"><a href="http://energy.gov/articles/lab-breakthrough-desiccant-enhanced-evaporative-air-conditioning" style="color: #000066; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #0066cc;">energy efficiency in commercial buildings</span></a></span>: a compact, cost-effective cooling unit that uses 90% less electricity and up to 80% less total energy than its traditional counterparts. In terms of commercial buildings, that can mean huge cost and energy savings.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Because the system, desiccant enhanced evaporative air conditioning (DEVAP), also is efficient at managing humidity, it can maintain a comfortable atmosphere for building occupants without the need for overcooling, one example of cost saving.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">NREL's Eric Kozubul, co-inventor of DEVAP, explained the system's benefits, technology and its likely path to commercialization in a Q&A which is part of NREL's Lab Breakthrough series.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The outstanding benefits, of course, are comfort for people in buildings equipped with the system: in addition to comfortable temperatures and humidity levels, what they may <i>not</i>experience is the stuffy, lack of fresh air atmosphere common to commercial buildings. And because of the drastically lower level of electricity consumption, building owners should see an estimated 40-80% reduction in their power bills.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As the name suggests, DEVAP is a combination of desiccant (drying) and evaporative processes, neither of them new to the industry. But as Kozubul explained, attempts to put those processes together in the past haven't worked out. "There have been attempts to put these technologies together, but technical issues prevented successful development. NREL took advantage of recent materials advances and liquid desiccant advances to design a compact and cost-effective system." He added that with those injections of new ideas and materials into existing processes, "we demonstrated indirect evaporative cooling with cooling effectiveness never thought possible – and better than any product available today."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Kozubul said commercial buildings will be the first market targeted for a rollout because "the financial and energy payback for efficient air conditioning is much higher in commercial buildings. Once the product is well-established, a residential rollout will surely follow."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He acknowledged that DEVAP needs work before it's ready for a market debut. "DEVAP will require additional development to get it to a field prototype stage. Although the cooling cycle is largely proven through laboratory testing, we need to make it smaller, cheaper, reliable and manufacturable." That will require support from DOE, NREL and the HVAC industry, he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As is the case with so many "breakthroughs," DEVAP didn't happen overnight. NREL has had researchers working on desiccant and evaporative AC technologies for more than 25 years.</span></div>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-16207404577586307812012-05-29T08:41:00.000-07:002012-05-31T07:39:25.426-07:00water<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>It starts outside the Cities:</b><br />
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<b>It becomes popularized:</b><br />
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<b>Education is a part of the solution:</b><br />
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<b>With Deep Engineering Focus:</b><br />
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</div>Endurance.Nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00250527329641206652noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-44168179071914784712012-05-29T08:38:00.001-07:002012-05-29T08:40:21.717-07:00Energy Infrastructures: Building from the Edge to the Whole<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">The primary enabler (IMHO) for transformation within the global energy infrastructure is the development of a managed, distributed generation/storage capability. Our reliance upon large, centralized generation and a managed transmission/distribution system is (again IMHO:) the primary driver for continuation of current policy and technology. But a realistic path toward Distributed Energy Resources (DER) will truly lead us toward a sustainable energy future. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The discussion below, by Lux Research's Matthew Feinstein, points the way. And there may be significant momentum to be gained by looking at showcase deployments globally. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/Technologies_DG_Renewables/Solar-plus-storage-gaining-steam-on-both-supply-and-demand-4826.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_content=email&utm_campaign=How%20disintermediation%20could%20rob%20utilities%20of%20their%20customers&utm_term=H-Solar%20plus%20storage%3A%20gaining%20steam%20on%20both%20supply%20and%20demand&cm_mmc=Act-On%20Software-_-email-_-How%20disintermediation%20could%20rob%20utilities%20of%20their%20customers-_-H-Solar%20plus%20storage%3A%20gaining%20steam%20on%20both%20supply%20and%20demand">Solar plus storage: gaining steam on both supply and demand</a></span></h1>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">By Matthew Feinstein<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Though previously a high-priced fantasy, storage packaged with solar on a distributed <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"></span></span></span></div>
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basis is gaining momentum. From the supply side, installer/financier SolarCity is working with <a href="http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/End_Use_Electric_Transportation/" style="color: #000066; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: mediumblue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">electric vehicle</span></a> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">manufacturer Tesla – the two companies share a common Chairman, Elon Musk – on a distributed storage product for </span><a href="http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/Technologies_Storage/Residential-storage-works-on-paper-but-lacks-channels-to-market-4756.html" style="color: #000066; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: mediumblue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">residential</span></a> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">and commercial applications. To date, the companies have installed some beta systems. While still in development, the product will be a battery pack remotely monitored and controlled by SolarCity, with battery technology from Tesla.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Also on the supply side, Bosch plans to leverage its acquisition of Voltwerk Electronics from Conergy for storage products, and LG Chem expects to produce storage products for solar systems in 2013. Battery maker Saft has supplied residential storage systems for solar installations on France's island territories as part of the Millener project.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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On the demand side, two countries that could pilot storage integration with solar are<a href="http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/Business_Global/A-SuperGrid-in-Europe-s-future-4357.html" style="color: #000066; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: mediumblue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Germany</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> and Japan – both markets that have publicly announced a move away from nuclear power. To lower ratepayers' increasing costs due to renewables integration, it's more likely that Germany looks to stabilize solar installations at 2 GW to 4 GW annually, while increasing the share of power derived from low-cost wind – another opportunity for storage integration.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span lang="EN"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">There are a number of factors that determine a market's need for storage, as detailed in Lux Research’s recent <i>State of the Market Report "Grid Storage under the Microscope: Using Local Knowledge to Forecast Global Demand."</i> In solar, don't simply look towards high volumes of installations – rather, storage is necessary to balance intermittency in markets with a high penetration level of solar in their overall electricity mix. Lux Research finds that emerging markets like </span><a href="http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/Business_Global/Brazil-is-driving-the-Latin-American-smart-grid-agenda-Will-it-leapfrog-the-U-S-4654.html" style="color: #000066; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: mediumblue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Brazil</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt;">, Chile and South Africa remain below 2% solar penetration through 2017, indicating that any storage adoption in those markets would come as a result of poor grid quality or generous incentives. A historically strong installation market pushes Germany to 15% penetration in 2017, indicating a much more pressing need for storage.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">It's clear that the necessity for </span><a href="http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/Technologies_Storage/Time-to-give-electric-storage-proper-credit-4569.html" style="color: #000066; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: mediumblue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">storage</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> is increasing in markets that have adopted solar, particularly on the </span><a href="http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/Technologies_DG_Renewables/Utilities-taking-the-lead-in-solar-s-growth-4701.html" style="color: #000066; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: mediumblue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">distributed generation</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> side. However, suppliers be warned: The same price pressure that enacted – and prolonged – the solar shakeout will require low-cost battery packs, even in cases where storage can allow for smaller solar arrays optimized for building energy consumption.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Further, a major wild card is policy: In the U.S., it remains a debated issue whether storage is considered energy-generating equipment, and thus qualifies for the Investment Tax Credit (ITC). European solar feed-in tariff schemes incentivize power generated, but don't account for storage in most countries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In any case, it's clear that storage is less of a high-priced fantasy and more of a probable reality for the solar industry as supply and demand begin making initial strides towards it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><b><i>Matthew Feinstein </i></b><i>is a research associate for Lux Research, which provides strategic advice and on-going intelligence for emerging technologies. For more information, visit the </i><a href="http://www.luxresearchinc.com/coverage-areas/smart-grid-and-grid-storage.html" style="color: #000066; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="new"><i><span style="color: mediumblue;">Lux Research site</span></i></a><strong><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">.</span></i></strong></span></div>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-81067124887202180492012-05-18T09:04:00.001-07:002012-05-18T09:04:39.830-07:00Cities hold the Key - (and note the waste streams!) - Verge London<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Speaks for itself. Those of you that could not attend Verge/London might be interested in the virtual archives of the event. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">"</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Mark Palmer, IBM's vice president for the public sector in Europe, shares some of Riffle’s optimism. “Today’s rapid urbanization is both a big opportunity and a challenge. It’s a big opportunity to make the planet more sustainable,” Palmer said, arguing that greater “instrumentation” -- or gathering hard data to fuel analysis and planning -- is the only route to improving matters."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Why cities hold the key -- and key challenges -- for sustainability</span></h1>
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By <a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/bio/lem-bingley" style="color: #1a6899; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Lem Bingley</a></div>
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Published <span class="date-display-single">May 17, 2012</span></div>
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<strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/topic/verge" style="color: #1a6899; text-decoration: none;">VERGE</a>, <a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/topic/verge-events" style="color: #1a6899; text-decoration: none;">VERGE Events</a></div>
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<img alt="Why cities hold the key -- and key challenges -- for sustainability" class="imagecache imagecache-wide_large" height="225" src="http://www.greenbiz.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/wide_large/Cities.jpg" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" title="Why cities hold the key -- and key challenges -- for sustainability" width="300" /></div>
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Is the increasing urbanization of the world’s population a good or a bad trend from a sustainability standpoint? That was the key question debated by a panel of experts at today’s VERGE conference in London, an event organized by GreenBiz. While some saw significant grounds for optimism, others perceived a less rosy future.</div>
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“I’m definitely optimistic,” said Connor Riffle, head of cities at the Carbon Disclosure Project, a not-for-profit organization that promotes the measurement, management and sharing of environmental information. “Cities let us achieve the efficiencies we need to scale up the world.”</div>
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“It’s absolutely terrifying,” countered Anne Power, professor of social policy at the London School of Economics. “The risks are massive.”</div>
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The majority of urban population growth is in the developing world, she said, and the biggest challenges center on what she earthily described as “bugs and shit.” Can sanitation, water treatment, waste disposal and recycling keep pace with the rapid growth of cities in countries where these challenges are already neglected? “By nature I’m positive,” Power said, “but we face a lot of tough and messy work on the ground.”</div>
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Riffle, by contrast, said that current trends offer a massive opportunity for the developing world to change the balance of power by building modern cities that might be attractive on the global stage. “If you don’t compete [to attract the best people], your city will not survive,” he said.</div>
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Mark Palmer, IBM's vice president for the public sector in Europe, shares some of Riffle’s optimism. “Today’s rapid urbanization is both a big opportunity and a challenge. It’s a big opportunity to make the planet more sustainable,” Palmer said, arguing that greater “instrumentation” -- or gathering hard data to fuel analysis and planning -- is the only route to improving matters.</div>
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<a href="https://presentations.inxpo.com/Shows/GreenBiz/GreenBiz_VERGE_Site/home.htm" style="color: #1a6899;"><span class="image-caption-container image-caption-container-" style="display: block; float: right; margin: 3px; width: auto;"><img align="" alt="" class="caption" src="http://www.greenbiz.com/sites/default/files/slideshow1/v12_slider_300x150_vLondon4.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(220, 220, 220); float: right; height: 150px; margin: 3px; padding: 1px; vertical-align: bottom; width: 300px;" title="Click to visit the VERGE virtual event" /><span class="image-caption" style="color: #333333; display: block; font-size: 10px; font-style: italic; width: 300px;">Click to visit the VERGE virtual event</span></span></a><br />
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Urban populations are more suited to this kind of measurement, he added, and the resulting insight is a necessary step for greater sustainability. “Technology accounts for 2 percent of emissions and rising, but it can help us do better with the other 98 percent,” Palmer said.</div>
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Still, Richard Jackson, head of environmental sustainability at University College London, wonders whether the use of technology will be enough. “Cities have the potential to accommodate mass growth, but the way we do things today, I worry about whether our cities can grow and adapt,” he said.</div>
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<em><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-63059401/stock-photo--d-image-of-the-city-and-people.html?src=baf5ad4e80a1e6de5135ae3ebf4ff76e-1-61" style="color: #1a6899; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">3D image of the city</a> by <span class="spec-value"><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-566638p1.html" style="color: #1a6899; text-decoration: none;">carlos castilla </a></span>via Shutterstock.</em></div>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-68613059917473543612012-05-17T17:58:00.000-07:002012-05-17T17:58:48.633-07:00A Texas Solution: EPA.x.ATT => 13% savings<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/05/15/edf-att-reducing-facility-water-use?utm_source=E-News+from+GreenBiz&utm_campaign=4a3cb2ec95-GreenBuzz-2012-05-17&utm_medium=email" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Cool buildings, parched cities? EDF and AT&T target water savings</a><br />
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By <a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/bio/gwen-ruta" style="color: #1a6899; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Gwen Ruta</a> and <a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/bio/john-schinter" style="color: #1a6899; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">John Schinter</a></div>
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Published <span class="date-display-single">May 15, 2012</span></div>
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<img alt="Cool buildings, parched cities? EDF and AT&T target water savings" class="imagecache imagecache-wide_large" src="http://www.greenbiz.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/wide_large/120515-edf-w.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: left; vertical-align: bottom;" title="Cool buildings, parched cities? EDF and AT&T target water savings" /><strong>Tags:</strong> <span class="terms-short"><a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/topic/buildings" style="color: #1a6899; text-decoration: none;">Buildings</a>, <a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/topic/facilities" style="color: #1a6899; text-decoration: none;">Facilities</a>, <a class="more-terms" href="http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/05/15/edf-att-reducing-facility-water-use?utm_source=E-News+from+GreenBiz&utm_campaign=4a3cb2ec95-GreenBuzz-2012-05-17&utm_medium=email#" style="color: #1a6899; text-decoration: none;">More...</a></span></div>
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We live indoors, we work indoors, we shop indoors, we even often play sports indoors! With so much of the modern American economy taking place indoors, and population centers shifting to warmer regions, the environmental and economic impact of building cooling systems is on the rise. We often hear about the energy needed to power and cool this sprawling infrastructure.</div>
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But there's another crucial dimension that is only just starting to surface: water.</div>
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As water becomes a more expensive, and sometimes contentious, commodity in many regions like the drought-stricken southwest, managing thirsty commercial buildings is going to become an increasingly important challenge for building owners.</div>
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In most large commercial and industrial buildings, tens of thousands of gallons of water flow through a big apparatus called a cooling tower (about the size of a two-car garage, they're usually on the roof), where it evaporates out the top.</div>
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The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that commercial, residential and industrial buildings use approximately<a href="http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/article.cfm/2008/2/3/Water-Doing-More-With-Less/" style="color: #1a6899; text-decoration: none;">47 billion gallons of water</a> each day. And the EPA found that a typical office building uses more than <a href="http://www.epa.gov/oaintrnt/water/lab_vs_office.htm" style="color: #1a6899; text-decoration: none;">25 percent</a>of its water supply for cooling towers.</div>
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Now, with all that water adding up, leading-edge companies are starting to rethink these systems.<a href="http://www.edf.org/" style="color: #1a6899; text-decoration: none;">Environmental Defense Fund</a> (EDF) is teaming with information and communication technology giant AT&T (NYSE: T), which operates thousands of facilities across the country. Together, we're looking to develop operational improvements and best practices that can cut water, chemical and energy use in these cooling systems and improve overall building efficiency.</div>
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AT&T has calculated its water footprint, discovering that just 120 of its facilities accounted for nearly half the company's 3.4 billion gallons of water used in 2010. The company rolled out its <a href="http://www.att.com/gen/corporate-citizenship?pid=17896" style="color: #1a6899; text-decoration: none;">Water Scorecard</a> to pinpoint potential water-savings opportunities and trained facility managers in an effort to increase awareness and understanding of water usage. It was clear that cooling towers represented an opportunity to improve efficiency.</div>
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Together, EDF and AT&T will build on those learnings. We will evaluate facilities and operations for efficiencies, and explore more creative ways to drive water and cost savings. We will look at the whole cooling process and pursue ways to eliminate cooling tower water use by utilizing cool, outdoor air to cool indoor space where feasible.</div>
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Quick calculations suggest that improving operations in the cooling towers at AT&T's largest facilities could save millions of gallons of water per year. Adopted on a broad scale, these solutions could save billions of gallons of water annually.</div>
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For example, if operational improvements were adopted across all existing commercial office buildings and manufacturing facilities in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in Texas, the water savings could be over 12 billion gallons per year. That's equal to the water use of nearly 500,000 homes or approximately 13 percent of the water use in the region. Together, EDF and AT&T have agreed to pilot best management practices and new technology at target facilities, and we plan to share our progress as we move forward with the project. Stay tuned for more updates as we uncover opportunities to improve efficiencies at the water/energy nexus.</div>
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Gwen Ruta, vice president for Corporate Partnerships at <a href="http://www.edf.org/home.cfm" style="color: #1a6899; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="http://www.edf.org/home.cfm">Environmental Defense Fund</a>, spearheads its work with leading multinational companies to develop innovative, business-based solutions to environmental challenges and to drive change through the corporate value chain.<br />
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Read more from <a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/bio/gwen-ruta" style="color: #1a6899; text-decoration: none;">Gwen Ruta</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/bio/john-schinter" style="color: #1a6899; text-decoration: none;"><img class="left" height="60" src="http://www.greenbiz.com/sites/default/files/john-schinter_0.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: left; vertical-align: bottom;" /></a><br />
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John Schinter is the first appointed AT&T Director that leads the group responsible for the operational strategy and execution of programs for energy, carbon, water and waste across the AT&T enterprise and is located in Chicago.</div>
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Read more from <a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/bio/john-schinter" style="color: #1a6899; text-decoration: none;">John Schinter</a></div>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-24610771275582131372012-05-17T17:48:00.000-07:002012-05-17T17:48:22.499-07:00CIVE: A Vision<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Interesting view of a path forward. Replicable and Resilient. Design elements provide cultural skinning as well sustainable operation within working distance of a large body of water. </div>
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My view of granularity may be different, and CIVE does have residential projects more of the scale, if not the particular courtyard style, of the courtyard dwelling. There also is a distinct need for more systems detail (both infrastructure and people) for operational efficiencies. It must learn how to integrate into it's local context/environment.</div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1008148950084468794">CIVE</a></h2>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1008148950084468794">Project Alpha</a></h3>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-85654831246828503802012-05-15T16:29:00.001-07:002012-05-15T16:29:33.573-07:00Testimonial to Success<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a good example of a community system that led to a sustainable balance in their local schools. Transportation, energy use, work/life schedules, and innovative management strategy have led to significant recovery of investment $s</span>.</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20120515/NEWS01/305110047/School-System-s-Green-Initiative-pays-off?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE">School System's 'Green Initiative' pays off</a></span></h1>
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From recycling to HVAC control to bus routes, system finds ways to save energy, money</h2>
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Burt Elementary Paper Recycling Program: Burt Elementary began a paper recycling program this year as part of the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System's Going Green Initiative. Early this month, CMCSS was Green Certified by the County.</h6>
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Burt Elementary students Colton Waggoner, left, Francisco Rodriguez and Taylor Willard transfer paper to a recycle bin. / THE LEAF-CHRONICLE/GREG WILLIAMSON</h6>
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TO HELP</h3>
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• Anyone interested in helping the <a class="itxtrst itxtrsta itxthook" href="http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20120515/NEWS01/305110047/School-System-s-Green-Initiative-pays-off?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE#" id="itxthook0" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 100, 0); border-bottom-width: 0.1em; border-style: none none solid; bottom: auto; color: darkgreen; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-family: inherit; left: auto; line-height: normal; margin: 0px !important; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; position: static !important; right: auto; top: auto;"><span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxthookspan" id="itxthook0w0" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-style: none none solid; bottom: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto;">school</span></a> system buy recycling bins can contact Shedrich Webster by email at <a href="mailto:shedrich.webster@cmcss.net" style="color: #004276; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">shedrich.webster@cmcss.net</a> or by phone at 358-4219.</div>
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<span class="pp"></span><strong>CLARKSVILLE, TENN.</strong> — Every Thursday afternoon, Taylor Willard, 11, and Colton Waggoner, 12, pick up the black recycling container in the front <a class="itxtrst itxtrsta itxthook" href="http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20120515/NEWS01/305110047/School-System-s-Green-Initiative-pays-off?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE#" id="itxthook1" rel="nofollow" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 100, 0); border-bottom-width: 0.1em; border-style: none none solid; bottom: auto; color: darkgreen; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-family: inherit; left: auto; line-height: normal; margin: 0px !important; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; position: static !important; right: auto; top: auto;"><span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxthookspan" id="itxthook1w0" style="border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-style: none none solid; bottom: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto;">office</span></a> of Burt Elementary and collect the school’s recycled paper.</div>
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<span class="pp"></span>Blue burlap bags reading “Once is not enough. Recycle” sit in each of the 25 classrooms at Burt. More than <a class="itxtrst itxtrsta itxthook" href="http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20120515/NEWS01/305110047/School-System-s-Green-Initiative-pays-off?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE#" id="itxthook2" rel="nofollow" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 100, 0); border-bottom-width: 0.1em; border-style: none none solid; bottom: auto; color: darkgreen; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-family: inherit; left: auto; line-height: normal; margin: 0px !important; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; position: static !important; right: auto; top: auto;"><span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxthookspan" id="itxthook2w0" style="border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-style: none none solid; bottom: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto;">300</span></a> students and all faculty and staff recycle the paper, and the proceeds come back to the school for supplies.<span class="aa"></span></div>
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<span class="pp"></span>Principal Diana Hara said recycling was previously part of the school’s culture, but it fizzled out. This year, Burt began recycling paper again as part of the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System’s Go Green Initiative.<span class="aa"></span></div>
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<span class="pp"></span>“It’s become embedded in us,” Hara said. “We feel it’s a natural fit with parts of our curriculum. It’s a great way to use taxpayer dollars wisely.”<span class="aa"></span></div>
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<span class="pp"></span>Shedrich Webster, CMCSS operations foreman, said Burt is a shining example of a school working to promote the initiative. Energy consumption there is down 15 percent from last year around the same time. Webster hopes to place a recycling bin on Burt’s campus to encourage community involvement in recycling.<span class="aa"></span></div>
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<span class="pp"></span>Burt is just one of the <a class="itxtrst itxtrsta itxthook" href="http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20120515/NEWS01/305110047/School-System-s-Green-Initiative-pays-off?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE#" id="itxthook3" rel="nofollow" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 100, 0); border-bottom-width: 0.1em; border-style: none none solid; bottom: auto; color: darkgreen; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-family: inherit; left: auto; line-height: normal; margin: 0px !important; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; position: static !important; right: auto; top: auto;"><span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxthookspan" id="itxthook3w0" style="border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-width: 2px; border-style: none none solid; bottom: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto;">schools</span></a> making strides. Earlier this month, the school system as a whole officially became Clarksville-Montgomery County Green-Certified.<span class="aa"></span></div>
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<span class="pp"></span>“We are pleased to see the school system continue to seek ways to minimize their environmental footprint and at the same time maximize efficiencies where possible,” said Montgomery County Mayor Carolyn Bowers in a news release.<span class="aa"></span></div>
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Saving energy, saving money</h3>
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<span class="pp"></span>For the past three years, the system has delved into a smart energy campaign to go green and bring all its facilities under a cost-efficient plan.<span class="aa"></span></div>
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<span class="pp"></span>“It started when our facilities operations (employees) went to a conference to keep up with accreditation, and there was a big push for energy maintenance programs,” said Damian Maloney, assistant manager for plant facilities. “We had a scattered approach. Some schools were doing recycling, but we had nothing systemwide. We came up with an energy policy to save money for taxpayers.”<span class="aa"></span></div>
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[<a href="http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20120515/NEWS01/305110047/School-System-s-Green-Initiative-pays-off?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE">More .Pages .2 & 3.</a>]</div>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-23284995153101552762012-05-04T06:18:00.004-07:002012-05-04T06:18:57.128-07:00It Takes Policy to Enable & Encourage Change<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We know that policy initiatives can make (or break) our march to a sustainable future. The policy framework shaping electrical services in North America are a good example - where policies focused on encouraging electricity delivery from large, centralized generation facilities have long dominated - suppressing innovation and transformation in our energy infrastructure.<br />
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It is with great hope that we see change afoot in the area of public policy initiatives that, from the grass roots level, begin to reverse this 100+ year old framework. The following, describing new building/zoning policies in New York City clearly point the way to how we will change the future by starting from the edge of the grid - making efficient, sustainable buildings without waiting for the transformation of the grid.<br />
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<a href="http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120503/this-week-clean-economy-new-york-city-green-buildings-rooftop-solar-wind-turbines-energy-efficiency-zoning">NYC Takes the Red Tape Out of Building Green</a></h1>
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Modifications to the city's century-old zoning law to promote energy efficient and solar-powered buildings will save residents $800 million a year.</h3>
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By <a href="http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120503/this-week-clean-economy-new-york-city-green-buildings-rooftop-solar-wind-turbines-energy-efficiency-zoning">Maria Gallucci, InsideClimate News</a></div>
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<span class="image-caption-container image-caption-container-" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 9px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 9px; margin-top: 0px; width: 340px;"><img align="" alt="New York City solar map created by the City University of New York. " class="caption imagecache imagecache-home_page_slideshow imagecache-default imagecache-home_page_slideshow_default" src="http://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/home_page_slideshow/solarmap.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" title="New York City solar map created by the City University of New York. The map shows existing solar installations in NYC and gives an estimate of solar potential for every rooftop in the five boroughs." /><span class="image-caption" style="background-color: whitesmoke; border-bottom-color: gray; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-image: initial; border-left-color: gray; border-left-style: dotted; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: gray; border-right-style: dotted; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: gray; border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 1px; display: block; font-size: smaller; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px; padding-top: 0px;">New York City solar map created by the City University of New York. The map shows existing solar installations in NYC and gives an estimate of solar potential for every rooftop in the five boroughs.</span></span></div>
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The New York City Council this week adopted the country's most sweeping green building plan, approving citywide zoning regulations that encourage energy efficiency retrofits and widespread adoption of rooftop solar and wind.</div>
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The initiative, called <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/greenbuildings/index.shtml" style="color: darkgreen; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Zone Green</a>, will help the city slash annual energy costs of $15 billion and achieve its goal of trimming global warming emissions by 30 percent by 2030. The city's roughly one million buildings are responsible for almost 80 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, compared to 40 percent for the national average.</div>
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The Zone Green rules involve 10 modifications to the city's arcane and archaic zoning ordinance. The changes will make it much easier for real estate developers and property owners to upgrade buildings and generate energy from renewable sources, primarily by cutting red tape and permitting costs. </div>
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The city's zoning ordinance—which dictates how tall buildings can be, what they can be used for and where they can be located—was established in 1916 and was overhauled once before, in 1961.</div>
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"Environmental concerns and green buildings were not really understood at that time," said Monika Jain, the Zone Green project manager at the <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/home.html" style="color: darkgreen; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Department of City Planning</a>, in an interview.</div>
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In recent years, that became a problem. "There were several things that the building community wanted to do that zoning [rules] were either discouraging or outright prohibiting," Jain said. Those things included installing rooftop solar systems and energy efficient air-conditioners.</div>
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So in 2008, as part of Mayor Bloomberg's <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/html/home/home.shtml" style="color: darkgreen; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">PlaNYC</a> sustainability agenda, the city's Green Codes Task Force began identifying obstacles in the zoning ordinance that limited the ability of people to go solar and modernize buildings. Using the task force recommendations, the Department of City Planning drafted modifications.</div>
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The rules, which took effect Monday, apply to residential and commercial buildings and industrial facilities. They follow a series of <a href="http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=NY16R&re=1&ee=1" style="color: darkgreen; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">measures adopted in 2009</a> that require building owners to report annual energy consumption data,replace lighting systems and follow strict efficiency standards for new construction and renovations.<strong> </strong></div>
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The city anticipates the new zoning changes will save residents about $800 million on energy bills each year. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Energy efficiency advocates say they could set a national precedent for overhauling antiquated zoning laws.</span></div>
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"New York taking this step—and taking it in such a visible way—shows leadership and can encourage some competition among other U.S. cities to put this issue of improving codes for energy efficiency at the top of their sustainability and economic development agendas," said <a href="http://www.aceee.org/node/3281" style="color: darkgreen; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Eric Mackres</a>, a senior researcher for the<a href="http://aceee.org/" style="color: darkgreen; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy</a> (ACEEE), a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"Updating policy that's just outdated and is inadvertently discouraging energy efficiency and green building ... is an important step forward," Mackres said.</span></div>
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Russell Unger, executive director of the <a href="http://www.urbangreencouncil.org/" style="color: darkgreen; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Urban Green Council</a>, the New York chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, said he knows of at least one other city, Philadelphia, which has reworked its zoning codes to remove barriers to green building.</div>
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But New York's modifications are the most ambitious and unique in the country, he said, and are largely the result of many years dedicated to sifting through the complex zoning rules and pinpointing very specific areas for improvements. Unger's group headed the Green Codes Task Force and developed some of the zoning changes.</div>
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For instance, Unger said that New York is likely the first U.S. city to tweak its rules for wall thickness in order to encourage builders to insulate leaky exteriors and save energy. In the past, adding inches to thicken walls to trap heat in the winter or cold in the summer would be counted toward total floor space.</div>
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Now, new and existing buildings can improve their "envelopes" without sacrificing space. "It's removing a barrier, but also allowing for things that weren't going to be done otherwise," Unger said.</div>
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While the real estate industry was generally "thrilled" about the new zoning regulations, some changes met resistance from community groups, Unger said. Historical preservationists, for instance, were concerned that letting builders add insulation to outside walls would cover up historic brickwork. Some neighborhood leaders didn't want zoning rules to encourage already sky-scraping buildings to be built taller. Under the modifications, a new building that meets tough energy standards, but doesn't use all the inches permitted for wall thickness, can apply those extra inches to the building's height.</div>
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Unger noted that while some details may continue to cause divisions, he said there's a bigger picture. "Collectively they represent an important shift" in the evolution of green building policy, he said.</div>
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Here are some of the key changes under the Zone Green modifications:</div>
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<li><strong>Rooftop Solar Panels: </strong>Any building owner can now install solar panels, regardless of the building's height, so long as the system doesn't reach over the parapet, or the protective wall along the roof's edge. In the past, panels couldn't exceed maximum height requirements.</li>
<li><strong>Wind Turbines:</strong> Manufacturing facilities along the New York City waterfront can now install freestanding wind turbines, while 100-foot-tall buildings can put turbines no taller than 55-feet on their rooftops. Previously, rooftop turbines were prohibited, and freestanding towers couldn't be taller than nearby buildings.</li>
<li><strong>Green Roof Equipment: </strong>Rules for allowing energy-efficient heating and cooling units, skylights and gardens on rooftops are now less restrictive when it comes to building height and location. Further, food-producing greenhouses, once prohibited on rooftops, can go up on all commercial buildings and schools, but not on homes, apartments or hotels.</li>
<li><strong>Sun Control Devices: </strong>Awnings or shades to block the high summer sun and let the lower winter sun naturally warm buildings are now allowed to project two and a half feet over windows on any building.</li>
<li><strong>Energy Efficient Insulation: </strong>New buildings can add up to 16 inches in exterior wall thickness; the first half counts toward the building's total floor space, the second half doesn't. Existing buildings can add up to eight inches without any floor space penalty. </li>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-6148640355046719362012-04-28T21:12:00.001-07:002012-04-28T21:12:54.287-07:00Re-Birth of Community - Opportunity from Disaster<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Scale informs all of our decisions in planning our new urbanism. The village as a community - lego'd up to the scale of a small town - evolved to a neighborhood of a city. The difficulty of sharing vision becomes one of the primary impediments to sustainability. </div>
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Our home, our village, we shall rebuild it</h1>
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SUBMITTED BY <a href="http://blogs.worldbank.org/eastasiapacific/team/nugroho-nurdikiawan-sunjoyo" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: none;">NUGROHO NURDIKIAWAN SUNJOYO</a> ON TUE, 2011-11-15 15:56</div>
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<em><strong>Available in <a href="http://blogs.worldbank.org/eastasiapacific/rumah-kami-desa-kami-kami-akan-bangun-kembali" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: none;">Bahasa</a></strong></em></div>
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In September this year I visited a number of communities in Yogyakarta, in Java, Indonesia, who were rebuilding their lives and homes after experiencing a series of natural disasters. The reconstruction process which I saw is perhaps in example of post-disaster community participation at their best.</div>
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<a href="http://www.worldbank.org/wb/slideshows/rebuilding-homes-villages-in-indonesia/" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Our home, our village, we shall rebuild it" border="0" height="300" src="http://blogs.worldbank.org/eastasiapacific/files/eastasiapacific/blog_yogyakarta.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-top: 3px;" width="450" /></a></div>
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For progress on reconstruction and rehabilitation after the natural disasters in Java, please visit this link: <a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EASTASIAPACIFICEXT/INDONESIAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:23041265~menuPK:50003484~pagePK:2865066~piPK:2865079~theSitePK:226309,00.html" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: none;">Building on Success: JRF Effectively Respond to Multiple Disasters in Yogyakarta, Indonesia</a></div>
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Do you have experiences on community participation during post-disaster rehabilitation? If you do, we’d love to hear about it.</div>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-29052740769593840892012-04-25T23:18:00.000-07:002012-04-25T23:18:35.661-07:00US Cities in the Global Economy (MGI)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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McKinsey Global provides numerous background insights into urban impact. In this case they focus on US cities and the role they play in the global economy. Do they lead? Do they coordinate with others in global circular economies? Interesting questions and numerous facts (highlighted below). Check it out - and move to a city near you (TIC - really - escape to the desert!)</div>
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<a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/MGI/Research/Urbanization/US_cities_in_the_global_economy" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 36px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Urban America: US cities in the global economy</a><br />
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In a world of rising urbanization, the degree of economic vigor that the economy of the United States derives from its cities is unmatched by any other region of the globe. Large US cities, defined here as those with 150,000 or more inhabitants, generated almost 85 percent of the country’s GDP in 2010, compared with 78 percent for large cities in China and just under 65 percent for those in Western Europe during the same period. In the next 15 years, the 259 large US cities are expected to generate more than 10 percent of global GDP growth—a share bigger than that of all such cities in other developed countries combined.</div>
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Exhibit</div>
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<img alt="Large cities by GDP" height="494" src="http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/MGI/Research/Urbanization/~/media/488D5F1A28654A07A9B8FAC7DE757680.ashx" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="510" /></div>
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The overwhelming role that cities play as home to the vast majority of Americans but also as a dominant driver of US and global economic growth argues for a keen focus on their prospects. MGI sheds new light on the role cities play in the US economy and gauges how large they loom in the urban world overall. Other highlights of the research include:</div>
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<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The United States has a broader base of large cities than any other region, and that explains their greater economic clout.</li>
<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Of the 600 cities that MGI expects will account for 60 percent of global GDP growth by 2025, nearly 1 in 7 is in the United States.</li>
<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Today, the metropolitan areas of New York and Los Angeles are the world’s second and sixth largest, respectively, by GDP.</li>
<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A considerable swath of middleweight cities enjoy relatively high incomes that help explain the great overall importance of cities in the US economy. The country has just over 255 middleweight cities, and the top 28 cities, after New York and Los Angeles, contribute more than 35 percent of US GDP.</li>
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Still, US cities face turbulent times ahead as the economy strives to recover from deep recession. Policy makers must also confront the dampening impact of deleveraging on economic activity, cope with persistently high pockets of unemployment, and manage an aging population over time. Business and government leaders need to find ways through these difficulties if cities are to play their part in the US economy’s growth and renewal. In the past, diverse US cities found many different ways to expand and become more prosperous. Although there is no single recipe for success, starting from a robust platform of economic clout will provide advantages.</div>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-37429754167296554962012-04-25T01:42:00.000-07:002012-04-25T01:56:08.694-07:00Sustainable Operations in the Future City<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.sustainableoperationssummit.com/">The 2012 Sustainable Operations Summit in New York</a></h2>
It's near impossible to attend them all. I'm in Doha - this was in New York - so the net is our medium and allows us to follow the flow from afar. It's about economy - and community flows - and people. At the heart of it - the People:</div>
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<br /></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-20334109189136435872012-04-23T04:47:00.000-07:002012-04-23T04:47:40.972-07:00Grass Roots Solutions - or Big Brother?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Such a choice!!! Will Doig of Salon contrasts alternative tracks to the future in a solid article about our new urban infrastructures. I am of the mind to leverage the power of people to reach to problems and contribute to solutions - through the application of appropriate technologies as contrasted to the big brother master control approach where centralized management becomes the (single point of failure) crutch of a disengaged drone public....<br />
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<h2>Your next mayor: A computer</h2>
Technology is helping cities control everything from traffic to disease. But who should control the technology?
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<img src="http://media.salon.com/2012/04/brainmap07-460x307.jpg" style="float:left; margin:10px" />Three years ago, 100 Parisians volunteered to wear a wristband with a sensor in it. The sensors measured air and noise pollution as the wearers made their way around the city, transmitting that data back to an online platform that created a virtual map of the city’s pollution levels, which anyone with an Internet connection could take a look at.
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It was simple, elegant, effective — and a peek at the urban future, when “smart cities” will collect data of all kinds (in all kinds of ways) and use it to make themselves better places to live. The Paris wristband project shows how these efforts are already taking place, as urbanites conceive of solutions to their cities’ problems through creative uses of technology. It’s urban resourcefulness at its finest.
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But it may not last. The smart-city movement is at a crossroads. With the market projected to be worth $16 billion by the end of the decade, big companies like IBM and Cisco have much grander — and more profitable — ambitions than these small-scale projects. They’re going all-in on smart cities, with designs that supposedly do everything from end traffic jams to prevent disease outbreaks to eliminate litter. “Almost anything — any person, any object, any process or any service, for any organization, large or small — can become digitally aware and networked,” said IBM Chairman Samuel J. Palmisano at the 2010 SmarterCities forum in Shanghai. “Think about the prospect of a trillion connected and instrumented things —cars, appliances, cameras, roadways, pipelines …”
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Indeed, the goal of these companies is not just to participate in the evolution of smart cities, but to connect and control virtually everything with massive operating systems that will run these cities in their entirety. “Everybody wants to be the architects of these systems because then you own them forever,” says Greg Lindsay, author of “Aerotropolis” and an urban-technology reporter for Fast Company. “You could say it’s sort of a land grab.”
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Which of these futures should smart cities shoot for — the bottom-up model or the top-down version? A few weeks ago, Lindsay and Anthony Townsend of the Institute for the Future debated just that question. It’s easy to feel a knee-jerk reaction against the top-down, evil-corporate-overlord schema, but it has some things going for it. Rio de Janeiro is perhaps the closest thing the world currently has to a top-down smart city. Two years ago, IBM built an enormous, Mission Control-like facility for Rio, from which emergency services, transit, traffic, air quality, weather, contagious disease outbreaks, landslides and just about everything else is now monitored and managed. “Eighty interchangeable digital panels project live video feeds from 450 cameras,” is how the Daily Beast described it, “plus a dizzying array of tricked-out Google Maps of schools and hospitals, car accidents … and close to 10,000 GPS-tracked buses and ambulances.”
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It’s an undeniably nimble and efficient method (assuming the system doesn’t crash), and will come in handy when Rio hosts both the Olympics and the World Cup in the next four years. But it also consolidates power in the executive branch and creates an unsettling scope of surveillance. Its greatest novelty, however, may be that the system effectively puts a corporation, IBM, partially at the helm of a city of 6 million people.
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“It has something like 70 different city departments under it,” says Lindsay of Rio’s system. “You create this entanglement where IBM almost becomes part of the city government. You couldn’t untangle it if you wanted to.”
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Not to mention the fact that IBM is a computer company, not an urban planning consultancy. In his debate with Lindsay, Townsend asserted that the companies vying for smart-city dominance “know nothing about cities.” In fact, he said, despite having one of the biggest smart-city divisions in the IT world, IBM just hired its first urban planner last year. Why so little interest in what makes cities tick? “That’s probably the whole arrogance of the technology culture,” said Lindsay. “I think the software industry sees urban government as having failed.” Their attitude is: “‘We will come into your city and we will fix it.’”
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It sounds, frankly, like Robert Moses all over again. New York’s “master planner” was notoriously uninterested in conforming his grand designs to urban nuances, with terrible consequences. Which is why the other way to approach smart cities, from the bottom up — referred to, naturally, as the Jane Jacobs method — is not only less risky, but holds vastly more potential.
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“I always go back to the fundamental question of what cities are for, and what they do for us for free if we let them,” says Adam Greenfield, managing director of Urban Scale, an urban-technology consultancy. Rather than looking at cities as things that need to be be “fixed” by a distant force from on high, he sees technology as a tool to enhance a city’s existing strengths — starting with its residents themselves. “I go back to a book I read called ‘The Uses of Disorder,’ which suggests that cities are about maximizing interface between you and others,” says Greenfield. “You’re connected to a variety of people and providing the city itself with information and insights.”
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A great example of maximizing the urban interface is SeeClickFix, an online platform that lets people report local infrastructure problems, from leaky hydrants to dangerous intersections. Other users can then “Like” those reports, Facebook-style, so city administrators can see which projects their citizens consider most urgent. It also saves local government the expense of monitoring every square foot of the city by itself.
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There are other examples of bottom-up smart city thinking. In Seattle, 500 residents attached electronic trackers to pieces of their trash so that the items could be followed through the sanitation system to pinpoint inefficiencies. In Singapore, a group from MIT is developing a website that will show real-time movements of in-demand urban amenities, like cabs during rush hour. And a New York designer named Leif Percifield is prototyping a solution to his city’s combined-sewage overflow problem, in which thousands of gallons of raw sewage are dumped into the rivers when it rains. It would cost untold millions for the city to fix this problem; instead, Percifield is placing sensors in the sewers that will detect when the overflow is happening, so residents, who can opt to be automatically notified, can choose not to flush their toilets till the overflow has stopped.
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Greenfield admits that these could be seen as a raw deal, government shunting its responsibilities onto the people. “But looked at from another perspective,” he says, “it’s empowering.” It’s a bit like how Twitter has become a place where people get their news — sure, a media company could have built and run a similar system itself, but on Twitter we send the links around for free, and gladly.
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The common thread in all of these solutions is data, and much of it already exists, just waiting to be grabbed. “Your iPhone has eight sensors on it,” says Lindsay. “Think about the number of iPhones per city.” Cellphone signals, tracked en masse and anonymously, could be used to reorient transit service toward where it’s most needed, and to see how many people are visiting a city’s parks. It’s no more Big Brother-like than what already exists — the government can and does access cellphone location data all the time — so why not put that data to work for the benefit of cities?
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Lindsay sees a day when the smart city has become so sentient that we can choose to have our phones make us aware of people in our immediate vicinity who would be advantageous for us to meet. A smart city could eliminate unused office space with a system that allows us to seamlessly share occupancy with strangers whose paths we never actually cross. In the future, we may even marvel that there was a time when cars sat unused 95 percent of the day.
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“The city is already smart,” says Greenfield. “The intelligence is just bound up in the actions and behaviors of its users. If we harness that intelligence, we win.”
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<a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/04/21/your_next_mayor_a_computer/">Original Aricle</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-43151055204183171342012-04-06T09:51:00.001-07:002012-04-06T09:51:37.714-07:00A 1964 View<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">50 years can shift our POV certainly. But it is often productive to look at the our past view on a topic to see if/how we have progressed. What works - What doesn't; these refine and extend our vision. As we build the future, we must inventory the past!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Have you ever wondered what makes some cities better than others? In public access television pioneer George C. Stoney's 'How to Live in a City,' the argument is that it all depends on the quality of the public space. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto; white-space: pre-wrap;">New York City folk singer and architectural critic Eugene Ruskin guides us through unique locales which illustrate the fine line between organic and sterile urban spaces. It all depends on a place’s ability to attract and sustain, even if only momentarily, a sense of community. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto; white-space: pre-wrap;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto; white-space: pre-wrap;">And while some spaces succeed and others fail, one may wonder whether if it was designer’s intention to drive people away, or not.</span></span></div>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-30151425940890659792012-04-05T15:17:00.001-07:002012-04-05T15:17:03.298-07:00Open Source Cities<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Definitely right direction. The semantic representation of global resources is particularly useful. Open Source and Publicly Available!</div>
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<a href="http://www.tedprize.org/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
</a><a href="http://www.opensourcecities.com/">Open Source Cities</a>: aptly named: We live in an urban age. And while technology will
surely make cities smarter and more connected, we know that what makes a
city great is how we experience it as people.<br />
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The good news is that cities are becoming more
open, more liveable, and more aware of their footprint on the planet.
The idea of the city is undergoing a reinvention. You could say that the
city is being open sourced, and we are all part of a global
conversation.</div>
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We are busy constructing a platform for citizens
of the world to connect with cities. If you'd like to get involved,
please drop us a <a class="style3" href="mailto:info@opensourcecities.org">line</a>. In the mean time, find us on <a class="style3" href="http://twitter.com/open_cities" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and our <a class="style3" href="http://opensourcecities.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Tumblr</a> blog.</div>
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Livable Cities, Urban Mobility, Citizen Urbanism, Open Data, Ecological Design.
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A global collection of the best ideas on the future of cities. Featuring in-depth interviews with visionary leaders and a survey of rich media content, Open Source Cities explores the discipline and tradition of open source collaboration as a model for systemic change in our collective urban present and future.
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Plans for the site include a semantic “middleware” database of global resources to connect citizen urbanism initiatives with top-down urban planning and policy making bodies.
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<a href="http://opensourcecities.tumblr.com/post/17365702707/block-by-block-cities-tackle-big-problems-with" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bmEukacsK_I/T34Yl4H6qLI/AAAAAAAAAFM/Cfg2ys2FeK0/s640/Screen+Shot+2012-04-05+at+4.11.10+PM.png" style="float: right; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 15px;" width="589" /></a></div>
</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-33229620611695287442012-04-01T16:31:00.004-07:002012-04-01T16:31:41.814-07:00Emission Management at the Urban Edge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One of the base-line metrics going forward. Be it county, state, national, or global. Keeping an envelope (and noting the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/29/uk-greenhouse-gas-emissions-2011">annoncement that UK greenhouse gas emissions were down 7% in 2011! </a> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 1.154;">in the news this week-end). It's a baby-steps path forward. Can we do better in our urban systems by integrated monitoring and management infrastructures. With Individuals being aware of their aggregated footprints. The Urban Dome idea from <a href="http://www.picarro.com/">Picarro </a>is part of that envelope - emissions related to people, working personal and group actions, in their life choices and social context fills out the middle. </span><br />
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Greenhouse gas emission thresholds adopted</h1>
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Thresholds for greenhouse gas emissions that will trigger environmental analysis and mitigation measures were narrowly adopted Wednesday by the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District board.</div>
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Directors voted 6-5, with Grover Beach representative Karen Bright absent, to adopt the thresholds despite objections from individuals and a home builders group.</div>
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But directors removed examples of mitigation measures that might be made mandatory in any local climate action plan over concerns some might think APCD was mandating those measures.</div>
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The board directed the staff to bring the issue back in a year with a list of projects that did and did not meet the thresholds.</div>
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In a separate 11-0 decision, the board asked the construction industry to provide data on mitigation costs for projects that exceed the thresholds.</div>
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Aeron Arlin-Genet, manager of APCD planning and outreach, said the guidelines will help implement Senate Bill 97 requirements for offsetting greenhouse gas emissions as part of the California Environmental Quality Act process.</div>
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“These thresholds will provide guidance to lead agencies, project proponents and the general public on how to implement SB 97 in a consistent and defensible fashion while streamlining the process for smaller projects,” she said.</div>
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Commercial and residential projects would not require analysis and quantified mitigation if:</div>
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<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The development is consistent with an agency’s adopted climate action plan;</li>
<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The project would produce less than the “bright-line threshold” of 1,150 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year — the amount expected from a 70-unit urban residential subdivision, a 49-unit rural subdivision or a 40,000-square-foot urban strip mall; or,</li>
<li style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The project’s yearly emissions do not exceed 4.9 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent for each employee and resident it serves.</li>
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The industrial project threshold would be 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions a year.</div>
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Arlin-Genet said 56 projects are expected to hit those thresholds by 2020.</div>
<span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><br /><a href="http://santamariatimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/greenhouse-gas-emission-thresholds-adopted/article_7fd006da-7bbb-11e1-a71e-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1qpj3BPb2">Read more at the Santa Maria Times:</a></span></div>
</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-77774970013165254252012-03-30T15:24:00.000-07:002012-03-30T15:24:27.982-07:00It's ARPA-E day in the US.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Today is the day that all interested parties get to step up and give notice to <a href="http://arpa-e.energy.gov/">ARPA-E of new and transformative ideas</a>. There are 8 topic areas, 30+ sub-topics and even a catch-all bag called "Other".<br />
While I've little expectation of being awarded and ARPA-E grant, (It's that pragmatic side of me that tells me don't get your hopes up with 5000+ applicants submitting proposals!) I do use these events as a driver to collect my thoughts on various aspects of our transformational, evolutional, path to the future:)<br />
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Last year, we proposed the "<b>EnergyOS: GridNOC</b>" project and also "<b>A Control Architecture for Urban Microgrids</b>". Nice titles and topics to drive us forward. While these were not ARPA-E funded, we are now in the happy position of leveraging the ideas percolated through the ARPA-E experience into showcase pilot installations in <a href="http://www.sojitz.com/en/news/releases/20111108.html">Nagasaki Japan</a> and <a href="http://www.peoplepowerco.com/pressreleases/download/pressRelease031912.pdf">Xiamen China</a>. This validates the return on effort put forward in our participation in the ARPA-E process!<br />
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This year, we have collected our working team <a href="http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/curiosity-what-are-microgrids.html">(Intel Microgrid Labs</a> and <a href="http://www.nextekpower.com/contact">Nextek Power Systems</a>) to provide 4 topics for consideration. These are, again, at the forefront of our view of the needs of the market place and levarage forward on our success of the past 12 months.<br />
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So we will see how the following fare:<br />
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<li>Title 1: DC Infrastructure, Aggregated Contextual Data Streams, and Holistic Operational Management in Buildings</li>
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<li>Title 2: Managing Consumer Behavior & Aggregated Energy Markets: Consumer Engagement through Gamification, Social Motivation, and Community Economic Flows</li>
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<li>Title 3: DC Power Management in High Performance Data Centers</li>
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<li>Title 4: EnergyOS: Building an Open Source Energy Infrastructure</li>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-INHG1pMODVk/T3YyZiIQO_I/AAAAAAAAAEk/atvwC_ZnHkM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-03-30+at+4.22.57+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-INHG1pMODVk/T3YyZiIQO_I/AAAAAAAAAEk/atvwC_ZnHkM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-03-30+at+4.22.57+PM.png" /></a>Interesting topics and ones that, if they should happen, would provide critical elements in our transformed energy infrastructure. Of course, like last year, we won't wait to change the future!!<br />
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People Power - Enabling Green Button and our Transformed Energy Economy!!</div>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1008148950084468794.post-77565456320811241302012-03-28T14:06:00.000-07:002012-03-28T14:06:36.392-07:00It's all in the Packaging: 20x boost to solar (MIT)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/123719-mit-stacks-solar-panels-like-pancakes-increases-their-power-output-by-up-to-20x">MIT stacks solar panels like pancakes, increases their power output by up to 20x</a><br />
By Sebastian Anthony <br />
<a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/123719-mit-stacks-solar-panels-like-pancakes-increases-their-power-output-by-up-to-20x">ExtremeTech</a><br />
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<span id="intelliTXT"><img alt="3D solar power cells from MIT" class="attachment-full wp-post-image" height="353" src="http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/solar-power-3d-stacks-mit-640x353.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 10px;" title="3D solar power cells from MIT" width="300" /><br />
What’s better than one pancake? A whole stack of pancakes! Using the same logic, a team of MIT researchers have stacked a bunch of photovoltaic solar cells together to produce up to 20 times the power output of conventional solar power installations.<br />
Normally I’m the first to drop my jaw in awe at MIT’s latest and greatest innovations, but this one really is a bit of a no-brainer. Basically, photovoltaic cells themselves aren’t all that expensive — according to MIT, they’re only around 35% of the total cost of a solar power installation. The main issue with solar power (and its main cost) is its low energy density, and thus the sheer surface area required to generate a sizable amount of electricity. This is why you need to cover your whole roof with cells to power your light bulbs, and why solar power plants would have to occupy tens of square miles of desert to produce as much power as a nuclear power plant.</span> <br />
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</div><a href="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/123719-mit-stacks-solar-panels-like-pancakes-increases-their-power-output-by-up-to-20x">[More ...]</a></div>Endurance.Nethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00250527329641206652noreply@blogger.com0