Bikes, Data, & A Master Plan: 3 Cambridge Announcements

Posted on June 18, 2014 by CEA

There is some great stuff happening in Cambridge that you should know about! Here are three announcements from the Cambridge Community Development Department:

1. Cambridge Conversations: Kicking off the Master Planning Process

What’s special about Cambridge? What could be better? We’re launching our citywide master planning process by collecting feedback on these questions and more. If you work or live in Cambridge, make yourself heard by adding your throughts to our brand new Co-Urbanize site:

courbanize.com/cambridge-conversations

Head to the forum page to contribute your ideas and see what others have been saying. The site will keep you updated on the whole master planning process. It has only just begun.

2. City Open Data Site Live!

See all kinds of interesting information about our fair city, from street tree identification to crime reports to waterplay park locations, and so much more. It’s all here:

data.cambridgema.gov

3. FREE Bicycle Workshops for Cambridge Residents and Employees

Our popular free bike workshop series continues this summer with these great offerings:

There you have it. Lots of great stuff to get involved in and explore. Happy Summer!

Cambridge Unveils Solar Map

Posted on October 2, 2012 by lschwab

In collaboration with MIT and Modern Development Studio, the City of Cambridge has put together an incredible online tool that will help spur solar development throughout the city.

In this “solar map,” to be launched on October 3^rd, Cambridge has been overlaid with a layer of highly specific solar data. Any resident or business owner interested in installing solar on their roof can use the map to access information about their property’s potential without having to scour the Internet. You can click and drag your mouse, browse and choose rooftops at random. Alternatively you can search for a specific address and view information on the solar potential of the building’s rooftop, as well as financial, environmental, and installation details. Color-coding gives you an idea of the varying ability to catch decent sun rays at each point on a roof.

I was able to find out within seconds that my own building, for example, has a total roof area of 1,150 square feet and enough potential to host a 5-kilowatt system. The system would have a payback period of six years and could save the tenants approximately $2,847 per year in energy bills. That’s pretty convincing math. Now, if only my landlord were keen on the idea!

New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, San Fransisco, and Berkeley, CA all have solar maps up and running or in progress. Although some existing solar maps also calculate solar potential, none are quite like Cambridge’s. It is so far unique in that it uses more nuanced data to create as much accuracy as possible. For example, some solar maps assume all rooftops are flat, which can greatly alter a roof’s potential. The map’s creators also calculated solar radiation on an hourly basis, yielding more accurate and detailed information for each roof.

It is becoming more and more popular- and feasible- to power your home with solar energy. Costs have come down exponentially and they are only declining. Cambridge already has a over 110 projects installed on homes and businesses, as many residents have taken advantage of the lower electricity costs, increased property value, and reduced environmental impact that comes with generating over 1.6 MW solar power. It’s clear that there is vast solar potential in Cambridge. This map will prove to be an invaluable tool for homeowners, landlords and business owners who are interested in investing in solar but might not have the time or expertise to find all the answers themselves.

SPECIAL EVENT Launching the Cambridge Solar Map: You’ve Got (Solar) Potential!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

6:00 PM – 8:30 PM

Location:
Main Library
449 Broadway
Lecture Hall

What’s your building’s solar potential? Meet installers, hear from homeowners who have installed solar on their homes and learn from the Cambridge Energy Alliance about the resources available to you! Don’t take our word for it, listen to what the homeowners and scientists have to say. “When the numbers work in such a compelling way, it’s almost hard not to install solar,” said David Neiman, Cambridge homeowner.

Professor Christoph Reinhart of MIT will speak about the science behind the NEW Solar Map. “MIT and MoDe Studio have installed an online tool that predicts electricity yield and costs for installing a photovoltaic system on almost any rooftop in Cambridge. What’s YOUR solar potential?”

Wild & Scenic Film Festival 2012

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Tara Holmes

The Wild and Scenic Film Festival returns to Boston on March 31st! Hosted locally by e-inc, the day long film festival, which includes food, networking and discussion, was started eight years ago in California and changes every year depending upon participant submissions. The national Festival also boasts the reputation as the largest environmental film festival in the United States.

Designed to inspire awareness and activism, the films showcase themes from across the planet on a wide array of pressing environmental issues ranging from energy resources to species and land conservation. e-inc, a Boston-area environmental education center, has hosted the Wild and Scenic Film Festival for a number of years and continues to draw crowds for this event. Get your tickets early and enjoy the show!

Keystone XL Pipeline Denied

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Tara Holmes

Last week, President Obama stood firm against Republican pressure and big oil’s demands and denied TransCanada’s push for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. This is very good news for clean energy and environmental communities, however, TransCanada intends to swiftly propose a re-route of the massive pipeline through less “environmentally sensitive areas”, which include attempting to avoid Nebraska’s Ogallala Aquifer, an aquifer critical to Nebraska’s natural habitat, livelihood and farming community, never mind its fresh drinking water supply. This point of entry has been the main challenge for the company. It will be interesting to see where President Obama stands on the predicted newly proposed route, which is anticipated to arrive at his desk within two weeks.

The proposed $7 Billion Keystone XL pipeline would carry crude tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, across the middle of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico for refining and will inevitably be a delivery route for oil bound for overseas markets, mainly Latin America and Europe. According to Tar Sands Action, … “Gulf Coast refiners plan to refine the cheap Canadian crude supplied by the pipeline into diesel and other products for export … Much of the fuel refined from the pipeline’s heavy crude oil will never reach U.S. drivers’ tanks.”

For all of the associated domestic jobs being touted by Washington, DC, it’s wise to realize this proposed pipeline will only create a few temporary jobs, at best. This is not the energy market we should be striving for in 2012. We should be instead be investing in clean energy technologies and energy efficiency measures. The Canadian Boreal Forest, where much of the tar sands exist, is currently being leveled for expanded tar sands production. This forest is a pristine habitat for countless wildlife in addition to the rare Spirit Bear , an albino bear that lives only in this region of the world. There are also countless native tribes that call this region home. Sending millions of gallons of crude oil and oil tankers through pristine wild land is no way to secure our energy future or combat climate change. In fact, the pipeline will only accelerate climate change. The KeystoneXL protests that took place in Washington, DC this past summer reflect the urgency to cease tar sands expansion for fear of exacerbating climate change – the tar sands are said to release 10 to 45% more greenhouse gas emissions than combustion of other related fossil fuels.

While this week’s decision by the State Department and President Obama is a wise one, the political and financial might of the fossil fuel industry and TransCanada will fight back. It’s important to realize however that despite the influence of big oil, the voice of the concerned American citizen has played a significant role in this debate, and ultimately, Obama’s decision. With this in mind, it’s time to continue the push for a cleaner energy future – a future that does not include the tar sands.

EPA report cracks down on hydraulic fracturing

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Tara Holmes

The clean energy revolution has never been more critical. In a report released December 8th, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made a direct link between the controversial drilling practice known as hydraulic fracturing and groundwater contamination. For years, hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” a method to extract oil and gas from underground deposits that uses a mixture of sand, water and chemicals to fracture shale rock and release the gas, has been taking place across the country, mainly unabated and unquestioned by politicians and industry professionals.

Now however, it’s official: fracking has been correlated to tainted groundwater that is often entirely undrinkable by area residents and wildlife alike. The EPA report specifically notes high concentrations of benzene, xylene, gasoline and diesel fuel in groundwater supplies linked to wastewater pits and deeper fresh water wells. This indicates the difficulty in tracking all fracking-related chemicals as the gas industry is not required to reveal all chemical elements, a product of a loophole commonly referred to as the “Halliburton Loophole.”

While this particular EPA report focuses on the town of Pavilion, WY; Dimock, a town of 1400 people in northeastern Pennsylvania, has made recent national headlines as well over the question of drinking water quality. In fact, last week residents and nonprofit groups from neighboring areas, including New York City, drove to Dimock to supply fresh drinking water to its residents as the PA DEP had decided to ignore the issue altogether. Cabot Oil and Gas, the company responsible for fracking in Dimock, had recently ended daily deliveries of clean water asserting that “Dimock’s water is safe to drink.” The PA DEP gave Cabot permission last month to stop paying for clean water and a judge, who sits on the state’s Environmental Hearing Board, “declined to issue an emergency order compelling Cabot to continue the deliveries.”

Never has the need for clean energy alternatives been more necessary. Fracking is a national energy dilemma: on one side energy companies stand to gain considerable profit on harvesting natural gas, while on the other citizens, eager to make quick money, learn only too late the harsh environmental and health-related risks related to the industry.

The EPA report comes at a critical time. As the U.S. is steamrolling hundreds of new fracking sites each month, we are still hesitant to embrace cleaner, renewable technologies. Fracking is a dangerous practice that is clouded by many political and industry interests. The EPA report is a good place to start for stronger regulation and awareness of a very questionable method of extracting this domestic energy source.

Implementing a Deep Green Tenant Program

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Sustainable Business Leader Blog

by Peter Crawley, EBI Consulting

Cross-posted from the Sustainable Business Leader Program blog. See the original post here.

New England property owners are beginning to understand the benefits of a “green” building: higher occupancy rates, higher rental rates and lower utility costs, to name a few. But working with just the “sticks and bricks” of a building can make it only “light green.”

To go deeper, a building manager must engage the community that occupies the building: the tenants. A building and its tenants are two interconnected systems that must work in-tandem to produce eco-efficiency. Even if a building is built to green standards, it will not perform in a deep green manner if the occupants are not actively participating in green practices. Ultimately, it is the tenants who recycle, conserve water and energy, and choose green modes of transportation. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recognized this and introduced the LEED Operations and Management (O&M) certification. To gain LEED O&M certification, owners must work with tenants to promote a variety of green practices in the building. At the same time, LEED O&M isn’t the only strategy to harmonize landlord/tenant green operations.

Promoting Green Practices

Many progressive landlords, such as Hines Real Estate Investment Trust, are instituting “green tenant” programs of their own design. These programs provide a system to green tenant behaviors as well as better coordinate them with the overall green protocols of the building, such as recycling or transportation programs (In most cases, tenant greening programs also qualify for points under LEED O&M). Another New England landlord, Equity Office Properties, recently completed a greening program for its own office operations and is in the planning stages of engaging its tenants via a similar program.

Landlords with a desire to go “deep green” realize they can only get there via tenant involvement; and conversely, tenants that desire green operations realize they need the landlord to adopt green practices for the building as well. When the two parties acknowledge this interdependence, a fresh, collaborative relationship around green initiatives develops that produces opportunities and benefits for both parties.

The Landlord’s Role

To be successful, tenant greening programs need to be well designed and actively managed by the landlord. Programs should cover at least the following key areas: energy conservation, waste management, water conservation, modes of transportation, pollution prevention, and sustainable management practices.

Key landlord related actions include:

· Clear communication plan and instructional materials to explain program and green protocols of building;

· Program designed to be useful to tenants of various sizes and levels of green practices;

· Landlord willingness to separately track tenant usage information for energy, water and waste;

· Landlord willingness to share cost savings from conservation achievements with tenants, and include “green lease” covenants in contracts.

To prove its commitment to the greening program, the landlord should be willing to fund at least low cost green upgrades, such as occupancy sensors, water faucet aerators and wireless utility meters – which also add long-term value to the landlord’s asset. The landlord should also require third-party building vendors, whenever possible, to track product/service usage by tenant (e.g., for recycling). Additionally, the landlord should research utility company green incentive plans, as well as new greening technologies, and make them available to tenants.

The Tenant’s Role

As for the tenant, key components for successful greening programs include:

· Creating an internal “Green Team” with representation from diverse management levels and operational areas;

· Establishing baseline performance metrics prior to instituting improvements;

· Showing a commitment to tracking metrics to highlight progress;

· Holding educational and training sessions for employees;

· Displaying attractive signage regarding green behaviors (e.g., water conservation, light and computer shut-offs);

· Communicating and celebrating achievements, translated into dollar savings, career advancements and environmental benefits.

Tenants should realize that in addition to cost reductions, the benefits of a greening program include increased employee engagement and productivity, as well as public relations enhancements.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offers an energy-focused tenant greening program called “Bring Your Green to Work” that includes training videos, tip sheets and posters (See www.EnergyStar.gov). For a program that addresses the more specific challenges and opportunities of their portfolio, landlords can work with consultants to develop customized greening programs. Landlord-sponsored green tenant programs not only reduce building operating costs and carbon emissions, but also improve landlord-tenant relationships, which in turn promote lease renewals and long-term tenancies.

Peter Crawley is the former Director of the Sustainable Business Leader Program and now serves as the Director of Sustainability Services at Burlington, Mass.-based EBI Consulting, an environmental consulting firm offering a variety of green building services.

Mt. Tom Station Cleans Up?

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Tara Holmes

Mt. Tom Station in Holyoke, MA has been a thorn in the sides of local environmentalists for many years. Sitting on one of the most pristine mountain ranges in western Massachusetts, the coal burning power plant has, according to the Conservation Law Foundation, violated clean air standards thousands of times from 2005 to 2010, despite $55 million worth of pollution-control equipment that was installed from 2007 to 2009.

Now, however, the plant plans to comply with more stringent air-quality standards, install air-monitoring equipment, and hire an outside consultant to correct air pollution problems under a settlement announced by the state Attorney General’s Office. In addition, FirstLight Power Resources, the station’s owners, and GDF Suez North America have agreed to pay a $25,000 penalty to the state of Massachusetts and $70,000 for an education program targeting owners of old wood stoves and wood-fired boilers in the greater Holyoke area. It’s important to note however that while burning wood remains a common heating and power option for those living in remote areas, it’s not a clean energy source.

The arrangement between the state and Mt. Tom Station settles allegations that Mt. Tom violated clean air standards in 2009 and 2010, yet there is still much to be done and this story is far from unique. Hundreds of other coal-fired power plants across the U.S. face identical concerns, namely outdated design and poor oversight. It’s thereby critical that the EPA along with local and state environmental agencies increase monitoring and random site checks on all coal-fired power stations to ensure safety and liability until they can be brought offline.

Unfortunately however, in today’s world of increasing energy demand, fossil fuels like coal remain a standard power producer. Growing sectors such as natural gas are advertised as a “clean” domestic alternative to coal, but that too comes at a large price with hydrolic fracturing, or fracking, leading to many questionable health and environmental concerns. Until the clean energy revolution makes a cheaper, mainstream splash in the U.S., stories like Mt. Tom will remain all too common.

Google Pushes for Solar Panels

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Tara Holmes

Google, a company that continues to invest in and push for clean energy technology, has recently announced its newest, and potentially biggest, capital venture: funding a no-cost installation solar panel program for homeowners. While already investing in other mammoth clean energy projects across the US, such as a $100 million investment in the world’s biggest wind farm, the company is now creating a $280 million fund to finance SolarCity‘s residential solar projects. Google essentially aims to erase any initial economic burden thereby moving more rapidly towards installation. Given many homeowners today struggle with the up-front costs of putting up solar panels on their roofs, even with state-funded rebate programs and incentives, such a program comes at an opportune time.

Of course, Google also expects to make plenty of return on its investment. Rick Needham, Google’s Director of Green Business Operations and Strategy, believes that SolarCity is “attractive enough for us to invest given the risks of the project.” Furthermore, Google will reap a 30% federal tax investment credit for installed solar systems. In addition, SolarCity’s CEO Lyndon Rive expects Google’s funding will allow the company to install between 7,000 and 9,000 new rooftop systems. “This is one of the first corporate investments into distributed solar. Historically, most of the investments have been made by the banks. These have a limited amonts of capital that they can distribute, which is a constraint for solar adoption,” says Rive.

SolarCity hopes Google investment will encourage other corporate investment in the solar panel market. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, less than 0.1% of U.S. homes have rooftop solar panels today, however, that number is expected to increase to 2.4% by 2020. Investments like Google’s are important market drivers in the demand for clean energy and renewable technologies and it will be interesting to see how much of an impact Google continues to have in this arena. Countries like Germany, for example, have already pioneered the rapid installation of resident solar panels through widespread government subsidies and incentives and China is not far behind. The US, however, continues to shift between the push for cleaner energy and our continued reliance on fossil fuels. Corporate investments, such as Google’s, may be just the message the US needs in order to help kick-start a sluggish national clean energy economy.

The March on Blair Mountain

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Tara Holmes

On June 5th, roughly 600 activists and marchers began a five day 50 mile hike from Marmet, West Virginia to Blair Mountain in protest of mountain top removal (MTR), a destructive and highly contested form of strip mining. Blair Mountain, one of the last, originally standing mountains in that region of Appalachia to avoid MTR, is also an historical site with battle fields and artifacts dating back to the Civil War and before. It’s also, like many of the pristine mountains in that region, loaded with coal reserves. Unfortunately, for the residents of states such as West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia, MTR is an all too common reality. Current data show that as of 2010, an area the size of Delaware has been mined using MTR techniques and there is, tragically, no end in sight given our insatiable demand for coal-fired power.

The March on Blair Mountain aims to draw attention not only to the environmental devastation plaguing Appalachia, but to the countless union jobs lost as a result of MTR. Before MTR became standard practice, union laborers mined for coal in these same mountains using traditional deep-mining methods. Today however, the mechanization of MTR has made the mining process more “efficient” thereby cutting half the workers that deep mining traditionally employs. In Boone County, WV the state’s most heavily mined county, 2,053 miners working in underground mines produce more than 10 million tons of coal a year, while 1,086 surface miners produce 12 million tons. One local miner was quoted as saying, “MTR is a job killer, it is not a job creator.”

While coal mining alone remains a contested topic for both energy policy and environmental policy, what’s currently taking place in Appalachia is complete annihilation of million-year old mountains and the associated streams and ecosystems that sustain life in that region. Tens of thousands of acres of land have already been demolished – if not irreparably – and water tables are now laden with coal runoff and other debris impacting the health of local residents and wildlife alike. At the same time, energy demand continues to rise, while the Earth’s precious resources remain finite. And mountain top removal is just one of the high-impact energy extraction industries; the Alberta tar sands, hydrolic fracturing (“fracking”) and deep-ocean drilling are all loosely regulated, dangerous and environmentally damaging businesses.

We need a cleaner, renewable revolution for our pressing energy woes and we need clean, green job alternatives and training options for those pushed out of archaic industries, such as coal mining. This revolution also comes in the form of energy efficiency behavior changes at home and renewably sourced energy options from utility providers. The Earth simply cannot sustain current energy demand without an alternative (and immediate) solution on a global scale. Please visit The Last Mountain to learn more about action points you can take and to see clips of the new documentary film coming out this month about Blair Mountain.

Freiburg – Greenest City in Europe?

Posted on June 3, 2011 by John Bolduc

Kaiser Joseph Strasse, in Freiburg Center

I’m on a personal study tour of Germany and Holland to see what German and Dutch cities are doing about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change. The tour is organized by ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, an organization that the City of Cambridge has been a member of since 1999. Our tour leader, Jade Jackson, is leading our group of 4 Canadians and 2 Americans through Freiburg and Dresden Germany, and then on to Bonn to attend the ICLEI Climate Resilient Communities conference. We will end up in Rotterdam in The Netherlands. I thought I would try to share what I see and learn along the way. I hope you find it useful and interesting.

In Cambridge, we often look to Europe for examples of how to make the city more sustainable given that we are a dense urban community that in many ways is more similar to European cities than American. On this tour, I’m looking to see how the cities here have implemented actions that we have thought about, and actions that we have not even considered yet, particularly in regard to adaptation.

Freiburg, of the Black Forest, is our first stop. It might be the greenest city in Europe [or the world?]. Renewable energy is a big focus here. But they also have a very admirable sustainable transportation system, waste management, and land use.

Freiburg’s old city center was largely destroyed in World War II. About 80% of the city center was bombed toward the end of the war. After the war, the city decided to keep the historic street pattern and re-build on the foundations of the destroyed buildings, reconstructing in the historic style. Much larger new development surrounds the old city, but within the city boundaries there are large areas devoted to farms, vineyards, and protected forests; about half of the city is open space. Today, Freiburg is a growing city of about 220,000 people with a major university and service base.

"Nuclear power, no thank you."

We met with Franziska Breyer, of the City’s environment agency, who presented the history and overview of the city’s sustainability efforts. Freiburg’s green movement began with anti-nuclear protests in 1973, when new nuclear plants were proposed just across the border in France and nuclear waste storage was proposed nearby in Germany. Those protests led to people thinking that they could not just be against nuclear power, but need to be for something. I visited Freiburg 30 years ago as I was involved myself during college in anti-nuclear protest at home and wanted to see what the fuss was about here. Ironically, as we arrived in Freiburg last weekend, there were again anti-nuclear protests taking place as the Conservative government reconsidered its nuclear policy in the wake of Fukushima and reversed course, deciding to plan to phase out nuclear energy by 2022. So I imagine the protests were part celebratory.

The alternatives Freiburg has come up with encompass energy efficient construction, solar energy, district energy, wind energy, biomass, a well-integrated, multi-modal transportation system, and waste reduction practices. I’m sure we didn’t hear about everything.

Freiburg has set a goal in 2007 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 1992 levels by 2030. As of 2009, the city has achieved an 18.6% reduction. The municipal government has a climate protection budget of 1.2 million Euros, which is largely funded by annual payments from utilities for use of public space for infrastructure. The budget does not include additional funds set aside for energy efficiency subsidies provided to residents (21 million Euros since 2003), investment in public facilities and infrastructure, transportation, and other services.

Frau Breyer talked about the sustainability concept that the city’s efforts are based on. While it is common to think of sustainability in terms of balancing the 3 “E’s” – ecology, economy, and equity, she said in Freiburg they see sustainability as fundamentally based on ecology and that this is not negotiable. Without a sound ecology, there cannot be a viable economy and equitable society. The economy and social welfare flow from this sound ecological base.

The city is working to grow its green economy. The green city initiatives are seen as a factor in attracting green businesses to locate in Freiburg. There are about 1,500 green businesses employing about 10,000 people. Of those ten thousand, about 1,500 people are employed in the solar energy sector.

The energy strategy is based on energy saving, efficient generation, and renewable energy. About 10% of the electricity is supplied by nuclear in Freiburg. About half is produced by co-generation units that also provide heat through district heating systems. In addition to larger co-gen units, there are about 90 small CHP units around the city.

Badenova Sports Stadium roofs covered with Solar PV

Solar energy is very visible around Freiburg. Currently 12.3 MW of solar capacity is in place, producing over 10 million kilowatt-hours annually. For context, the City of Cambridge consumes about 40 million kwh of total electricity annually,which is a small percentage of total use in Cambridge. Cambridge has close to 1 MW of solar PV in place. In Freiburg, solar thermal panels cover about 15,000 square meters. Solar PV has been ramped up by very generous feed-in tariffs created by the federal government, which pays owners for the electricity production. The federal government is now moving to phase out the feed-in tariffs as they believe they have served their function of creating a solar industry. We were told that while the feed-in tariffs have been successful in expanding the use of solar PV, the price of solar PV has not really decreased, which was one of the goals of the policy. And while solar panels are a common sight in Freiburg, they are installed on a minority of buildings.

There are 5 medium sized wind turbines installed on the hills around the city. They produce 14 million kwh every year, more than produced by all the solar PV panels.

Bugginger StrasseHi-Rise, first to meet Passivhaus energy standards

We were told that increasing efficiency in existing buildings remains a challenge. The City has invested 21 million Euros since 2003, which has leveraged an additional 23 million Euros. Generally the funds have been used toward efficiency improvements when buildings are undergoing major renovations. This investment has reached about 3 to 4% of the building stock.

The Vice Mayor said they see the future trend being toward more short-distance district heating, noting the high cost of installing infrastructure, and more micro-CHP.

There is more to admire in Freiburg’s energy practices, including their eco-villages with buildings meeting Passivhaus standards and Plus Energy houses.

Upcoming: Sustainable Transportation and Freiburg’s eco-villages – Vauban and Rieselfeld.

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