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Energy Efficiency Takes Root at Habitat for Humanity

Can low-income builders afford the luxury of building green? That question is being tested at some Habitat for Humanity affiliates. The most common green building approach used in Habitat homes – many of which are three bedroom, one bath dwellings built for under $50,000 – is to meet Energy Star ratings. That’s the U.S. EPA’s standard that increases efficiency 20-30% by installing efficient appliances, lighting, super-insulation and by tightly sealing the building envelope. Affiliates also seek ways to boost indoor air quality by reducing or eliminating products that offgas volatile organic chemicals (VOCs). Call this a “light green” approach. “We want energy efficiency to be our standard model, not an upgrade,” says Nevil Eastwood, director of construction and environmental resources at Habitat for Humanity International in Americas, Georgia.Each of the 1700 U.S. Habitat affiliates controls its own building practices, and some want to go further. “We’re open to that,” says Eastwood. “But we’re building homes for people who earn about 30% of the median income for the area, so that doesn’t leave much wiggle room.”To get to “medium green,” says Kevin Sullivan, advocacy director for Habitat’s New York City affiliate in Brooklyn, the group considers practices that are good for […]

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CSR Survey: Are We Making Progress?

Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, just released the results of surveys conducted at the European Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility (Maastricht, November 7-9) and the BSR Annual Conference (New York City, November 9-12).Covering themes ranging from the competitive advantages of implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR), to the impact of governments and markets on company integration of CSR, top-line findings from the nearly 400 completed surveys in Europe and the U.S. include:* CSR is not yet being widely or deeply integrated into core business functions with only 10% of respondents asserting that current integration is adequate.* Senior executives and line managers hold substantially different views regarding the degree to which CSR is successfully implemented in their organizations.* Financial markets are widely seen as offering inadequate incentives for companies to adopt CSR practices.* Government solutions that encourage CSR implementation, though more broadly supported in Europe than the U.S., still face significant resistance in both places.* Three-quarters of respondents expect that there will be legally-mandated accountability measures over the next few years, especially in areas like reporting.While the results reveal real deficits in the delivery and practice of CSR, respondents hold a very strong and ‘bullish’ […]

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UN: Ending Poverty, Environmental Restoration Within Reach

NEW YORK, New York, January 19, 2005 (ENS) – The rich nations of the world have the means and the money – but not the will – to dramatically improve the lives of the world’s poor and heal the environment, according to a major new report from the United Nations. The report from the UN Millennium Project urges the developed nations to double their aid to impoverished countries if they intend to fulfill a pledge to cut global poverty in half by 2015. “The system is not working now,” said economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of the UN Millennium Project. “The overwhelming reality on our planet is that impoverished people get sick and die for lack of access to basic practical means that could help keep them alive and do more than that – help them achieve livelihoods and escape poverty.” One of the eight UN Millennium Goals is specifically related to the environment, maintaining that without a healthy and secure environment many of the other goals will be tough to achieve. The divide between rich and poor is deep and wide. More than half of the world’s six billion people live on less than $2 a day. More than one […]

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FERC Proposes Rule For Wind Power Interconnection

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has proposed regulations that would remove barriers to wind-generated electricity while helping to ensure continued reliability of the national power grid. Wind-generated power is a growing source of electric generation in the United States, but unique technical characteristics may impede the interconnection of wind facilities with the nation’s grid system. In 2003, the Commission adopted standard procedures for the interconnection of generation facilities larger than 20 megawatts (Order No. 2003). The rule sets uniform procedures that a transmission provider and an interconnection requester must follow throughout the interconnection process, including legal rights and obligations of the parties, cost responsibility, milestones for the project’s completion and a process for resolving disputes. Employing standard procedures and interconnection agreements reduces interconnection time and costs, helps preserve reliability and lowers wholesale prices for the nations’ customers, the Commission said. Today’s action will further these goals and help expand the diversity of energy supplies. The interconnection procedures adopted in Order No. 2003 are tailored to more traditional power generation sources. Today’s proposal would include certain technical requirements that transmission providers must apply to interconnection service for wind generation plants. These requirements would be applied in addition to the standard interconnection […]

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Confessions of a Bat Lover – Wind Farms Can Help Save America's Bat Populations

by Mike Tidwell First the good news: A year ago, a very small but very vocal group of wind power critics were repeatedly asserting that proposed wind farms in western Maryland and across Appalachia would put ‘millions’ of migratory birds at risk for collision deaths. Thankfully, a growing body of scientific data continues to show that these projections have been fantastically untrue. It now appears that properly sited wind farms will have zero – ” that’s right, zero – ” impact on resident and migratory bird populations across Appalachia. (Visit www.nationalwind.org/publications/avian.htm for national and regional statistics). But now legitimate concerns have been raised about a new and unexpected development at some Appalachian wind farms: bat fatalities. But before critics of wind power plunge forward with new assertions about a coming holocaust for these friendly flying mammals, it’s important to get the story straight from the start this time. There is growing optimism among environmentalists and wind industry officials that the phenomenon of bat fatalities at wind farms may soon be fully understood and can be quickly and successfully addressed using readily feasible technological responses. The point I want to make is this: The lives of all of us – bats, […]

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