Video from Bob Harper from Biggest Loser introduces Energy Fitness for Buildings

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is sponsoring the first national energy efficiency contest of its kind, featuring 14 commercial buildings from across the country. While trimming kilowatt hours off is their bottom line, they’ll also save money and help fight climate change. The building that sheds the most energy waste on a percentage basis will be declared the winner at EPA’s final weigh-in on Oct. 26, 2010.

“It’s time for buildings to tighten their belts and we’re happy to help them go on an energy diet,” said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for air and radiation. “Cutting energy use will reduce their monthly expenses and their carbon footprint, showing that environmental protection and economic growth can go hand in hand.”

Nearly 200 applications were received for EPA’s National Building Competition and the 14 finalists will be judged on their energy performance from Sept. 1, 2009 to Aug. 31, 2010. The energy use of each building is being monitored with EPA’s Energy Star online energy measurement and tracking tool, Portfolio Manager. Television personality Bob Harper will also provide energy fitness tips for the contestants through a series of videos that will be available on the Web site.

EPA’s National Building Competition contestants are:
· 522 Fifth Avenue Building, New York, N.Y.
· 1525 Wilson Boulevard Building, Arlington, Va.
· Crystal River Elementary School, Carbondale, Colo.
· Courtyard by Marriott San Diego Downtown, San Diego, Calif.
· JCPenney Store 1778, Orange, Calif.
· Maplewood Mall, St. Paul, Minn.
· Memorial Arts Building at the Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta, Ga.
· Morrison Residence Hall at UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, N.C.
· Sears, Glen Burnie, Md.
· Sheraton Austin Hotel, Austin, Texas
· Solon Family Health Center at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio
· Tucker Residence Hall at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C.
· Van Holten Primary School, Bridgewater, N.J.
· Virginia Beach Convention Center, Virginia Beach, Va.

The competition Web site will provide profiles of each contestant and chronicle their progress as well as feature advice for contestants from EPA and leading building efficiency specialists. Each building will also participate in mid-point and final contest weigh-ins and the results will be posted online at the competition Web site.

Energy use in commercial buildings accounts for 17 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions at a cost of more than $100 billion per year. On average, 30 percent of the energy used in commercial buildings is wasted. Thousands of businesses and organizations work with the EPA’s Energy Star program and are saving billions of dollars and preventing millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions from entering our atmosphere each year.

The study concluded that along with renewable energy being 100% feasible, it was also a reliable and economically sound energy decision.

Interesting side stat: Germany currently has one of the biggest renewable energies markets in the world with 2009 showing a 16.1% increase in the total share of electricity from renewable resources.

Other interesting survey notes from McKinsey:

More than 50 percent of executives consider sustainability—the management of environmental, social, and governance issues—“very” or “extremely” important in a wide range of areas, including new-product development, reputation building, and overall corporate strategy.

Yet companies are not taking a proactive approach to managing sustainability: only around 30 percent of executives say their companies actively seek opportunities to invest in sustainability or embed it in their business practices, for example.

In anticipation of the day, I offer you the following articles for good reading:

Green leader Whole Foods plans to go greener
The Company has plans to reduce its energy consumption 25 percent per square foot during the next five years.

Save energy and money by retrofitting lighting
Retrofits using fluorescent technologies reduce lighting energy consumption (kWh) and lighting demand (kW) as much as 50 percent.

It also catches me up on a bunch of stuff that I wanted to blog about, but ran out of time!

Interesting that the bill’s drafters are across the political spectrum with one R, one D, and one I. This should be interesting to watch.

This VC is invested in a company which turns CO2 into building materials.

“We actually are a perfect environment, economically and thermodynamically, as a raw resource for solar, but it hasn’t taken off,” said Michael E. Webber, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas to the Dallas Morning News.

The PUC’s solar program would be based on the existing renewable portfolio standards, a requirement dating to 1999 for electric companies to include sources such as wind, solar and other renewable sources in their energy mixes.

Texas’ renewable energy standards, among the most aggressive in the country, have been so successful that electric companies met the 2009 goal by 2005. The Legislature responded in 2005 by setting more ambitious targets for 2015 and 2025.

Nearly all of Texas’ growth in renewable energy has been in wind power, which increased fourfold over 10 years. Other renewable power sources remained afterthoughts.

Solar power was especially held back by its cost, technological challenges and lack of transmission lines from sun-rich West Texas to energy-hungry cities.

Legislators recognized the lag with a 2005 mandate that Texas energy include at least 500 megawatts of new power from sources other than wind by 2015. The state also took steps to provide more electric transmission lines.

Interestingly, the DOE announced a new study which was carried out by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and AWS Truewind, finds that the contiguous 48 states have the potential to generate up to 37 million gigawatt hours annually. By contrast, total U.S. electricity generation from all sources was roughly 4 million gigawatt hours in 2009. Texas was estimated to be able to contribute 6.5 million gigawatts of that amount or 17.5%.

Here are the wind potential estimates for the contiguous 48:

In a similar note, I just noticed that TXU Energy, a Texas retail electric provider, is instituting a program to help 400 homeowners lease their rooftop solar. Very interesting.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued an interpretive release on February 2, 2010, entitled Commission Guidance Regarding Disclosure Related to Climate Change. The release does not create any new rules or change any of the SEC’s disclosure requirements. Instead, its purpose is to provide guidance to public companies regarding the SEC’s existing disclosure requirements as they apply to climate change matters.

The SEC states that the four principal areas, which are discussed in more detail below, in which its rules may require disclosure relating to climate change are:

• The impact of existing or pending legislation or regulations that relate to climate change;

• The effect of treaties or other international accords;

• The consequences, both positive and negative, including reputational harm, of regulations or business trends; and

• The physical impacts of climate change.

You can read the full blog post here.

Although the SEC has not mandated anything, this looks certainly like an issue that will soon be commonplace in all US public filings.