Not only was there a great write-up on how seriously the auto industry is taking efficiency (for both economic and regulatory reasons), there was also an announcement of an upcoming series about trends the magazine believes “to be pushing the envelope of efficiency”. Sample features will include Tesla and the West Philly Hybird X Team. Tesla is a pioneer of battery technology, while the West Philly Hybrid X Team has won all kinds of citations for their entry in a national competition to design a car that can get 80-100 miles per gallon.

The article had a really nice write up on how seriously the automobile industry is taking (mileage) efficiency. This comes from a regulatory basis (the corporate average fuel economy—CAFÉ standards) and a market basis due to how consumer preferences tends to shift when gas hits $3.75/gallon toward higher mile-per-gallon cars. (I’ve seen other sources which say the $4/gallon is the tipping point. Whatever the reasons, I am thrilled to see more investment in developing more efficient cars.

There was a portion of this article that raised some questions about electric vehicles. Some of these concerned an infrastructure for electrics (charging stations), what might happen when batteries are depleted, etc. I think the question of disposing electric batteries is only fair if disposing of regular car batteries is considered as well. As for infrastructure, I have seen an increasing number of announcements of this location or that location being outfitted as a recharging station. Maybe this is part of the reason that, in spite of these questions, the article included a statement saying how AAA is “embracing the role of the EV (electric vehicle) in the future of the automobile”.

That does not mean that electric cars will become the dominant player in the industry any time soon. But it certainly underlines the potential for electric cars to become a noticeable segment in the industry. For example, I noticed that 700 units of BMWs current electric car (the Active-E) are now available for testing in the United States. (I happen to love BMWs, so I really paid attention to this item—too bad I live in the wrong market to qualify for the test.) If companies like BMW, Nissan, Ford, Honda and others gain acceptance over the next few years for their electric vehicle offerings, they will combine with the Toyota Prius to make a very noticeable market segment indeed.

BMW’s new electric vehicle ready for testing
http://ht.ly/8xRB1/

On the environmental side of the ledger, the benefits are less obvious. Many trees (I guess a couple of hundred) were taken out to essentially move the hill and widen the roads. In fairness, it looks like that there was some environmental mitigation done. The remaining hill looks like it has been landscaped. There is also a new water retention pond nearby. I do not like the apparent environmental impacts, but the safety improvements are significant.

I think most roadway projects tend to have limited (if any) environmental benefits. However, one newly opened roadway not very far from me does have clear environmental benefits (vs merely environmental damage mitigation). This particular project is next door to the famous Longwood Gardens.

I should mention that Longwood Gardens is one of my favorite places. I love the variety of gardens there—both the indoor one and the outdoor ones. I also love the fact that my toddler son has a great time whenever we go there. I know I am close when I cross Route 926 and see the big meadow along Route 52. So I was more than a little puzzled when I drove there last month only to find that my meadow was missing. I know my toddler can run off at a moment’s notice, but a runaway meadow? Something was going on.

It turns out that the PA Dept of Transportation had moved the Route 52 I was used to a quarter mile to the east. The old road did not meet current roadway design and safety standards. Unlike most highway projects, this one had an explicit sustainability component–the creation of approximately 23 acres of new trees and the restoration of the natural flow of Pocopson Creek. This was due to a partnership created between Longwood and PennDOT. Longwood provided some funding and design assistance for the reforestation. PennDOT, of course, designed and built the new road.

The 23 acres translates to over 11,000 trees and 30,000 shrubs—many of which will be sourced locally. The specific types of trees and shrubs planted were designed to work together to create an environment that can blend with an existing meadow at the edge of Longwood Gardens. There will also be wetlands with a boardwalk, so I assume there will be public access at some point.

The transportation success of the Route 52 project will be fairly quickly apparent. The success of the reforestation will not be fully evident in 1 year, or in 5 years, but in 50 years. It is very interesting that Longwood is essentially looking for not a 1 year impact, or a 5 year impact, but a 50 year impact.

It would be nice to see every roadway project be judged on both the transportation enhancements and environmental benefits many years (50) down the road. However, I am probably being more than a little bit optimistic in that wish. If there are any road projects being built with both the long term transportation and environmental benefits being deemed equally important, I would love to hear about them.

Sustainability at Longwood Gardens:

http://www.longwoodgardens.org/SustainabilityatLongwood.html/

This year, the county’s Recycling Office, both political parties, several townships, ReCommunity Recycling, and Sullivan’s Scrap Metals have put together a new program to recycle these election signs–frames and all. There were an estimated 200,000 of these signs throughout the county, which would be a huge amount of landfill waste (if they actually got to the landfill). So if you live or work anywhere in Montgomery County, take the sustainable route to getting rid of those now worthless election signs—recycle them!

They want your signs!

All the Details:

http://www2.montcopa.org/montco/CWP/View.asp?a=11&q=83273

Montgomery County Recycling Office

http://www2.montcopa.org/montco/cwp/view,a,3,q,82083.asp

My house is all-electric, including electric heat. I am very oriented to ways I can be energy efficient. Additionally, Pennsylvania has PA Power Switch. This means that my electricity rates reflect the market price, not a cap enforced by the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission (PUC). It also means I have to make a choice whether to switch my electricity supplier from my local utility (PECO) to someone else. For residential customers like me, this started back in January 2011. For many businesses, this need to make a “power switch” as to their electric power supplier started several years ago.

Businesses have a couple of options to reduce their electricity usage and bills. They can either lower their overall electricity demand, and/or, they can lower their demand for electricity at specific times during the day. This latter option can be a little tricky because it involves reducing your electricity usage when everyone else is increasing theirs, like on a hot summer day with the humidity over 90%.

The first option is basically implementing various energy efficiency measures. Lighting is often a highly effective way to achieve savings—mostly because it tends to cost less than other options. Something as simple as replacing incandescent bulbs in EXIT signs can have a very positive effect. In fact, a school district near me did a comprehensive lighting retrofit a couple of summers ago and reported a savings of over $250,000! HVAC systems are often more capital cost intensive—but they can have great benefits also. I recently read a case study of a local hospital that saved almost a half-million (500,000) kilowatt-hours per year with their upgrades (and they got rid of the cold spots, also).

The other option is adjusting your electricity usage to the demand in the overall market. This demand response works best when a company has the ability to actually lessen demand at certain times of the day—the times when electricity costs the most. Contrary to widespread popular belief, the wholesale price of electricity varies during the day, similar to stocks. In fact, many electricity suppliers base part of their rates on how much a given business uses during peak system demand times as well as how much they use overall.

So if a business can actually figure out when these high system demand times will be and adjust accordingly, they can receive cash payments immediately and benefit from lower rates year round. This requires a detailed knowledge of both energy usage as well as how their business operations can potentially be rescheduled during the day. Focusing on late afternoon during the hottest days of the year is a good place to start.

I actually participated in a demand response program this summer. I agreed to allow PECO to curtail my air conditioner’s cooling ability for 15 minutes at a time when demand on their system was the highest (the fan still ran). In return, their Smart A/C Saver paid me $30 monthly for 4 summer months to do so. Given my bills, this is real money.

Like myself, the school district, and the hospital, many entities implementing energy efficiency initiatives are saving significant funds by doing so. Energy efficiency is a classic case where being good to the environment can also have very good economic benefits. As the Economist says, it is not particularly glamorous but it works really, really well from a variety of perspectives.

The Economist article:

http://www.economist.com/node/21533432

PUC PA Power Switch site:

http://www.papowerswitch.com/

I became curious about what else a landlord like Brandywine could do on the sustainability front. Brandywine actually has a pretty impressive program. A couple of its elements include green cleaning products and beginning an integrated pest management system for the landscaping outside. Equally impressive from a corporate point of view are the goals for 2011—including a 70% recycling diversion goal (the source of the email I got), a 10% reduction in water consumption—35 million gallons, and bringing 33% of their portfolio into Energy Star compliance. These are all excellent goals—and measurable.

But Brandywine is not the only large commercial landlord in the Philadelphia area marketplace implementing green building initiatives. Another major landlord is Liberty Property Trust. I was actually lucky enough to be able to take a tour of one of their showcase properties—Center City Philadelphia’s Comcast Center. It is truly a spectacular building featuring a 100 foot high “lobby”. However, in order to save energy, only the bottom 20 feet is climate controlled—the other 80(%) are not. That is a lot of energy usage avoided.

The Comcast Center has several other notable features that make it a more sustainable building. The special windows block 60% of the sun’s heat while enabling 70% of the sun’s light to get through. The urinals are waterless (saving an estimated 1.2 million gallons of water). The irrigation system is based on the collection of storm water and re-using that water vs. turning on the taps. This water will be stored in old boiler tanks that were re-purposed and re-used (and saved from a landfill at the same time.).

There are numerous other major buildings in Philadelphia that have significant green elements. The expanded Convention Center, for example, has a “white-roof” which reflects the rays of the summer sun. It also has the energy efficient “Low-E” insulating glass. Both of these help reduce operating costs. In suburban Philadelphia., Centocor put a “solar grove” in their parking lot. This features 8 columns of 70 solar panels each. The panels will simultaneously save $35,000 on energy costs and generate $60,000 in revenue from solar power sold back into the electricity grid.

The more I look, the more examples I find of commercial property owners making their properties greener and more sustainable. It definitely seems the wave of the future—one that can’t come soon enough in my view. I am happy that my particular office building is implementing the new single stream recycling system. I am even happier that many other building operators have implemented larger scale projects to make their buildings green and cheaper to operate at the same time.

The array of efforts is quite impressive. The efforts range from something as seemingly mundane as blankets made entirely from recycled materials to exotic as channeling bathroom exhaust fans into the main HVAC system to be re-used for pre-cooling and pre-heating. One hotel even has a rooftop garden that supplies its in-house restaurant. (Now I know why the brunch there is really, really good.) Possibly the most surprising example is a new hotel under construction that I drive past every day. It actually uses wood by-products and recycled drywall in its construction and included a “white roof” that helps to regulate heat to boot. Maybe I should ask for a tour of the site.

This article, from the Uwishunu blog published by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (posted by Allison Stadd), gives a lot more details:

Sustainability in Philadelphia Hotels

http://http://www.uwishunu.com/2011/08/sustainable-philadelphia-eco-friendly-measures-hotels-in-and-around-philadelphia-are-taking/”

A Previous Post about Drywall

http://http://sustainablewritings.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/drywall-wetwall/”

For me, the number one definition of sustainability is made in the USA. I generally think of sustainability as environmental first, economic second. However, in this case, I am flipping my preference list. I would vastly prefer to help keep an American company (and its jobs) in business rather than send the money overseas for something like this. I am not entirely sure if it is the litmus test, but it is pretty close. By essentially filtering on “Made in the USA”, I realize that I am potentially limiting my options, but I want to fully explore these companies first.

While looking at potential beds for my son, I identified 3 companies who make youth collections in the United States—Young America (Stanley Furniture), Vaughan-Bassett, and Lea Furniture, which is owned by La-Z-Boy. I thrilled to learn that all of Young America’s collections are made in the Southeast. However, I was less thrilled to learn that Stanley’s adult collections are made primarily in either Indonesia or Vietnam. Lea Furniture has a similar dichotomy, with some collections (like Deer Run and Austin) being made in the United States, and others (like Lea Elite) being made abroad. Vaughan Bassett seems to be the company most consistently making its line of products here in the United States—they claim 95% of their product is made in the USA.

Vaughan Bassett also has a very nifty program where they essentially replace the trees they use. They had a “one for one’ program which provided 150,000 seedlings to the State of Virginia, which has replanted them in state forests. They’ve also installed equipment to increase lumber yield (and therefore use and pay for fewer trees). Both they and Stanley (at least, the domestically made Young America collections) source most of their lumber from within 500 miles of the factory—75% for Young America, 99% for Vaughan. Young America is also working towards reducing the amount of materials used in its packaging as well as decreasing the amount of hazardous by-products created in the course of the manufacturing process.

Both Stanley and Vaughan-Bassett are members of the Sustainable Furniture Council, a furniture industry organization dedicated specifically to sustainability. Another industry initiative is the EFEC: Enhancing Furniture’s Environmental Culture. This is a program of the American Home Furnishings Alliance focused specifically on environmental aspects of the production process, that Lea Furniture and Hooker Furniture have affiliated with.

For its part, the SFC has a lengthy application where companies detail a variety of efforts in various aspects of sustainability. Examples concerning People, Planet, and Profit (triple bottom line) include whether a company has implemented recycling in its production process, not using virgin wood if at all possible, pays a living wage (vs a minimum wage), implements an energy audit, etc. Their website has lots of good information oriented towards building a community of players within the furniture industry who care about sustainability including but not limited to environmental aspects.

The EFEC is specifically an environmental management program, analogous to the ISO 14001 environmental management standard. The EFEC requires an applicant company to have written environmental goals and a documented process to measure progress to achieving them. Further, EFEC audits the manufacturer when they first apply for registration and annually thereafter. Additionally, the EFEC program has an extension called Sustainable by Design (which Lea qualified for a couple of years ago). This goes beyond the environmental management program to include supply chain management, greenhouse gas emissions, energy conservation, social performance, etc.

This research has actually affected my thinking about which bed I buy. I was always determined to buy a good quality bed for the long term, with underbed storage. I want to buy a bed that is simultaneously American made, high quality, environmentally friendly and affordable. The easiest piece to define has been high quality—I can shake the bed, pull the drawers and decide if the combination will be suitable for my son as the years go by. I begin there as the initial filter, and then went into other factors such as American made and good on the environmental and sustainability fronts.

Now, after learning about what different companies are doing in terms of overall manufacturing and environmental performance across their various brands, it is becoming more complex. I might be making this too complicated, but what if a company makes only some of its collections in the United States? What if I am impressed about a particular company’s environmental performance, but that specific collection is imported while others are made here? Or, do I want to stick with what is probably a perfectly suitable American made, relatively environmentally friendly collection vs spending a premium for another collection (also American made, and relatively environmentally friendly collection) that is reputedly “higher quality”. I wish I knew.

Sustainable Furniture Council:

http://http://www.sustainablefurnishings.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=12″

Enhancing Furniture’s Environmental Culture:

http://http://www.ahfa.us/resources/efec/section1/section1_home.htm”

Hooker Furniture Eco-Friendy Furniture Post:

http://http://blog.hookerfurniture.com/2011/06/you-don’t-have-to-sacrifice-style-to-“go-green”-in-furniture/”

Aqua America (my water company)

I got my quarterly shareholder report letter from Aqua America last week. In it, aside from the usual reports of growth, capital programs, etc, is a notation that the 2010 sustainability report had been released at the annual shareholders meeting last month. Not a big deal, just something that the company does. The entire report is available from the www.aquaamerica.com website, via a big button on the front page. This is like the Sherlock Holmes story in which the dog did not back. Sustainability seems to be woven into the fabric of the company.

As some perspective, in 2009 management opposed a sustainability proposal to stockbrokers; in 2010 the company released its first such report with a fair amount of hoopla. In 2011, the sustainability efforts are still there. The tone is different, more business-like. Which probably means that these efforts will continue as long as Aqua’s capital program does.

B Corporation(s)

I noticed that 2 more states have approved “benefit corporations”. New Jersey and Virginia have joined Maryland and Vermont in approving these “alternative” corporate structures. By law, the main corporate purpose for most companies is making money. I am all for making money, especially when the check has my name on it. However, there is an increasing movement in this country of people who want to combine business purposes and broader public benefits.

These laws in general allow companies to declare a public purpose, i.e. to save the environment. So if a company is delivering public benefits in that regard, it cannot be sued for activities in support of that goal.

Philadelphia Sports Teams

Last fall, the Philadelphia Eagles (NFL) announced a pioneering initiative to make their stadium one of the first in the country to be powered by solar, wind, and dual-fuel energy. Six months later, another Philly sports team (baseball’s Phillies) received national recognition for its greening efforts—a 2011 Green Power Leadership Award from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

This is in recognition of an array of programs the Phillies have implemented in the last few years. A few years ago, for example, the team agreed to purchase 100% renewable power, and they have done this ever since. This year, they put in place an organic composting system at Citizens Bank Park. The idea is divert compostable material from the landfills. They also hosted an e-cycle event during last weekend’s series with the Oakland A’s where could come and drop off a large variety of electronics for recycling such as copiers, scanners, and much more. These are only a small sample of their greening program.

It felt really good to see that the original sustainability efforts I wrote about last year in those posts were not one-shot wonders. Rather, they have become part of an ever-increasing array of initiatives embedded into how the business of these organizations is being done.

Previous Posts:

Aqua America

http://http://sustainablewritings.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/aqua-america-releases-sustainability-report/

Benefit Corporations

http://http:/sustainablewritings.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/for-the-benefit-of/

Philadelphia Eagles Renewable Power:

http://http://sustainablewritings.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/fly-eagles-fly/

Upon further review, I have decided that my lawn actually rates pretty well on the sustainability front. This is really most based on what I do not do versus what I actually do. I could dump in fertilizer and weed killers every year, but I do not. I could use the hose to water the lawn every couple of days or so, but I do not. I basically just leave it alone, except for mowing it when starts to look a little straggly— enough to make sure that my property looks maintained. The additional thing I probably should do is to have the lawn aerated each fall. That helps with the soil compaction and gives the grass room to grow.

I recently read an article about “sustainable lawns for a better future.” I was happy to read that my overall regimen of “let it be” was actually pretty much in line with what they (Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia) recommend for keeping a lawn “sustainable”—literally as if I have the opportunity to be the environmental steward of the patch of property known as my lawn. That was pretty cool. The overall philosophy is to not do too much to make my lawn “pretty”.

My lawn is certainly not real pretty. I figure, for example, that I have approximately equal amounts of grass, clover, and weeds. Fortunately, I have also learned that some percentage of clover is more than OK in my lawn. If my goal is to grow a weed-free lawn, this combination of weeds, clover, and grass would be a problem. However, the important thing is that I have no real need to look at a beautiful lawn—just one that looks maintained.

But having a lawn that is merely maintained is not enough in many quarters. I happened to be in Orlando this weekend, and the local paper had a column from someone who wants to replace the ubiquitous sod “grasses” that many homeowners associations demand with some more “Florida friendly” variety—or more native to the Florida environment and not manufactured like sod pallets are. These sod “grasses” look elegantly pristine but are also very high maintenance in terms of water (a critical issue in Florida), fertilizer, and weed-killing pesticides that combine to make these pallets very environmentally costly (not to say financially costly). The native varieties are easier to maintain and are better for the environment.

What struck me about the article is that Florida actually passed a law forbidding homeowner associations from mandating sod grass. Under the law, they would have to allow an individual homeowner to replace sod with some more naturally occurring growth, like trees, shrubs, rocks, and different varieties of grass. Many people in Florida, as well as the other states, live in communities with a “homeowners association” that has the power to mandate the type of lawn you have. So this law potentially affects a lot of people and a lot of lawn area.

I hope the Florida law is part of a growing trend where more and more property owners come to the conclusion that having a pristine lawn is not the goal of lawn maintenance. My attitude is that a lawn should look fairly clean, and generally green—both in color and how it is being maintained.

I checked out some of the videos; one had Commissioner Gary Bettman speaking about why the NHL Green initiative is important. This was good to see, since the Commissioner of the NHL is essentially the CEO of the League. Having the support of the CEO for any company (or league)- wide initiative is very helpful. In another video, he announced that thousands of reusable bags will be utilized (in place of plastic bags) at both host arenas during the Stanley Cup finals in June. Also, sustainability representatives from each of the 30 clubs will meet regularly to monitor and share ideas for things like reducing energy usage.

Actually, the whole NHL Green concept came from the fact that almost all of the clubs, and many of the players, were implementing environmental and sustainability initiatives anyways. The NHL Green program will to some extent coordinate and leverage the existing efforts of the clubs—and provide a corporate structure to promote these efforts via a microsite at nhl.com and other channels.

Some of the individual clubs’ efforts are pretty impressive as well. In terms of physical plant, both the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Atlanta Thrashers play in LEED-certified arenas. (LEED is a designation of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design given by the US Green Building Council.) The Penguins new building is LEED-Gold, and the Thrashers (and co-tenants Atlanta Hawks) retrofitted their existing facility to meet the LEED-EB (existing building) standards. These standards cover categories such as water efficiency, building materials, etc. Aside from LEED-based programs, typical efforts are those like energy –efficiency upgrades planned for the home of the Nashville Predators—the Bridgestone Arena.

Numerous clubs have sponsored various types of recycling initiatives during their home games. The Nashville Predators (amongst others) have implemented programs to recycle aluminum, plastics, paper—and cooking oils. If you happened to have attended the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Go Green Night in March you could have recycled a car or boat battery. If you had ridden your bicycle to this game, you would have gotten a free ticket from the club. In San Jose, you had a chance to take care of e-waste recycling (computers, etc) on your way to one of their games.

The San Jose Sharks had perhaps the most creative promotion—the “Greenest Fan.” Each month, the team accepted videos from fans saying what makes them the “greenest fans”. The overall winner was honored that season finale April 9th, and got 2 free tickets in the bargain.

Many players have also gotten involved in sustainability efforts. For example, Matt Bradley of the Washington Capitals inspired a team effort to reduce bottled water consumption by recycling water bottles and switching to filtered water instead. Boston Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference has gone so far as to demonstrate worm composting for a high school science class (in addition to eating organic food for his pre-and post game meals). Since I tend towards organics whenever possible, I hope that his is not alone.

In addition to all of the above efforts by the league, clubs, and players, fans can get involved also. On one hand, they can sign up for programs like the Buffalo Sabres Green Team, which sponsors river cleanups and provides tips on living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. They also give you a (green) Green Team T-shirt. For the more casual fan, the NHL green has numerous links for sustainable living-my favorite is “get the stink out of sports gear. ” I provide the link below as a public service.

I am enjoying the NHL playoffs this Earth Day. I am also enjoying the combination of sustainability and hockey even more.

The NHL Green microsite:

http://http://www.nhl.com/ice/eventhome.htm?location=/nhlgreen#&navid=nav-nws-grn/

Get the Stink Out

http://http://www.simplesteps.org/questions/how-can-i-get-stink-out-our-sports-stuff/