Advocates Say Climate Right for Resilience Ratings. BOSTON — Climate experts and municipal issuers see the capital markets — investors with more than $70 trillion in assets under management — as valued financing streams for resilience and green projects.
Transparent carrot-and-stick bond rating criteria along resiliency lines would help, they say. "Now is the time to be pushing infrastructure projects," South Miami, Fla., Mayor Philip Stoddard, an aquatic scientist, said in an interview. "By the time sea levels are rising, no one's going to loan us money. " Quirky weather is in the national headlines more frequently. As August began, and just as President Obama unveiled a major climate-change plan, severe flooding hit Tampa, Fla.; wildfires struck Northern California; a tornado touched down in Michigan; and severe thunderstorms knocked out power in parts of southern New England.
Regions such as South Florida and the Gulf Coast are notably vulnerable, though not alone. According to the U.S. Green Magic Homes - Eco House available now, Sustainable homes. What Works Cities - What Works Cities. A Joint Project of NRDC + IMT. America’s First All-Renewable-Energy City. To understand what makes Burlington unlike almost any other city in America when it comes to the power it consumes, it helps to look inside the train that rolls into town every day.
The 24 freight cars that pull up to the city’s power plant aren’t packed with Appalachian coal or Canadian fuel oil but wood. Principles – Circles of Sustainability. The Circles of Social Life approach begins with the proposition that principles for better cities should be grounded in a general framework that concerns the human condition, rather than just a set of proposals that are added together from different current or fashionable concerns.
We begin with the idea that there should be fundamental principles that relate to the basic domains of social life: ecology, economics, politics and culture. Within this proposed framework of four domains it is possible to suggest a very simple set of Principles for Better Cities that are systematically connected but can be readily understood. Strong Towns. On the antifragility of cities and of their buildings. Let us make a brief detour on the concept of “smartness” from the perspective of antifragility, all the more befitting since the concept has of late become rather fashionable in the debates on urban planning and design.
As one can gather from the ending of the previous quote from Taleb, there is one important difference between antifragility and smartness: something can be antifragile without being smart, without intentionality, also “by chance”. Indeed, can an object or a system devoid of intentionality and incapable of design be called smart or intelligent at all? In a sense, the evolution constitutes an example of a behaviour that “works”. But, should we call a thing that works smart, rather than, say, fit? Should the effect of a thing that works be called smart adaptation, rather than simply the survival of the fittest? Let us make a few friendly critical remarks on the concept of smart cities. Then there is the definition by Caragliu et al. (2009): Resilience.io - integrated tools and collaboration for financing and decision making for resilience - resilience.io - network of integrated tools and collaboration for financing and decision making.
Business and government must collaborate on resilience. What integrated sustainability really means. For more than 20 years, I've been among those promoting a more integrated approach to sustainability.
It's not just about the environment and resources, I keep reminding people. It's about systems: understanding their interconnections, the viability of their long-term trends, their limits. And sustainable development is about changing systems — for the better. In my books, articles, training courses, even my songs, I've hit that message over and over for decades. I invented the "Sustainability Compass" to try to make the links between nature, economy, society and human well-being simpler and more intuitive. Resilience isn't the new sustainability — it's a whole new market. I would have made a hopeless librarian.
My desks, both at home and in the office, look as if Genghis Khan’s troops have just passed through. But I know where to find stuff. Happily, too, my brain constantly snaps new organizational frameworks over the wider world, imposing order on apparent chaos. The Transformation of Sustainable Development. Sustainable development is being transformed.
Since its foundation as a set of philosophical principles and values, sustainable development has evolved to a more specific and significant set of applications that is redefining business models, changing the scope of policy initiatives, transforming governance and expanding the voices of global citizens.
Tweetmeme_url = ' From the compliance and “command and control” decision making of previous generations, the growing imperative of sustainable development has given rise to a more dynamic and interactive process at global, regional and local levels. Look at the big picture, avoid groupthink, remember history. Join or die: How utilities are coping with 100% renewable energy goals. On June 6, 2017, Santa Barbara, Calif., became the 30th U.S. city committed to getting 100% of its power from renewable energy.
Just six months later, on Nov. 29, Truckee, Calif., became the 50th city to make the pledge. New York Green Bank seeks $1B in private sector funding for clean energy projects. Dive Brief: New York Gov.
Andrew Cuomo (D) this week announced the state's Green Bank is seeking at least $1 billion in additional private sector funding to help grow clean energy projects in the state. To date, the conservation-focused lending entity has enabled $1.4 billion in investment.The bank's "robust track record" has drawn the attention of third-party entities like pension funds and insurance companies, who are interested in clean energy investments, Cuomo's office said. In Focus - ECOPIA. Feldheim: Germany′s renewable village. Ask the residents of Feldheim to describe their community, and there's at least one consistent answer: quiet.
The village, some 60 kilometers (37 miles) southwest of Berlin, Feldheim is home to 128 residents. On the surface, it's unremarkable. But beneath Feldheim's lone street runs a network of electrical cables and heating pipes powered entirely by renewable energy. 2015 Best-Performing Cities. 100 Resilient Cities. Texas city opts for 100% renewable energy – to save cash, not the planet. Greenest-city-2020-action-plan-2013-2014-implementation-update. מעלות:100% אנרגיות מתחדשות. הבטים כלכלים על עצמאות אנרגטית. Drake Landing Solar Community. Go 100% Renewable Energy : Fukushima Prefecture - 100% RE by 2040. Aizuwakamatsu Castle, Photo credit: Σ64 / wikipedia.org The first stage of the Fukushima wind farm experiments involves construction of a floating electrical substation and a 4-column semisubmerged wind turbine. Stage two includes an advanced spar-buoy floating wind turbine and a 3-column semisubmerged turbine model.
(Courtesy the Fukushima marine wind power consortium.) A diagram showing a few types of floating wind turbine platforms. Photo credit: NREL - National Renewable Energy Laboratory. אוקי מחפשים עוד מידע נפלא כזה. German town goes off the grid. Go 100% Renewable Energy : Welcome. Go 100% Renewable Energy : City of Aspen - 100% Renewable Power by 2015. The City of Aspen's Canary Initiative is a commitment to reducing city and communitywide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 30% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.
Downtown Aspen Colorado on a typical fall afternoon. Photo credit: City of Aspen In 2009 and 2011, the city installed photovoltaic capacity at the water treatment plant. Photo credit: City of Aspen. Britain's First Solar Powered Town? Inspiring Story Continues (Video) Image credit: Solarcentury When I wrote about an entire town's plan to go solar, and its incredibly ambitious short-term goal of generating 30% of its electricity from renewables by 2015, the response was enthusiastic. Finacial Benefits: Town in Mass. saves $400,000 per year in electricity costs with solar & wind.
Scituate is the first town in Massachusetts to power all of its government services using only renewable energy. This Big Texas City Will Soon Be Powered Entirely By Wind And Sun. Georgetown. Third U.S. City Goes 100% Renewable. Aspen is one of three U.S. cities to run on 100 percent renewable energy as of today, according to city officials. The Colorado mountain town is best known for its posh ski resorts, but this beautiful town also has established itself as a leader in environmental stewardship. The city had been using about 75 to 80 percent renewable energy until Thursday when it signed a contract with wholesale electric energy provider Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska, in order “to achieve this final leg of our goal,” David Hornbacher, utilities and environmental initiatives director, told The Aspen Times.