In the first such program in California, and perhaps the United States, air pollution regulators are proposing to charge an annual fee to thousands of businesses based on the amount of greenhouse gases they emit. The fee - 4.2 cents per metric ton of carbon dioxide - would affect everything from oil refineries to power plants, and landfills, factories and small businesses like restaurants and bakeries. The air district's board will begin discussing the rule as early as late February and could take a final vote by May.

Two years after Pasadena became one of the first in the country to pass a "green" buildings ordinance, the required environmental standards have been increased for new municipal and large private buildings. The city's LEED building requirements have been increased from certified to "Silver," said Ursula Schmidt, an environmental analyst in the city's planning and development department. Under the new rules, renovations of municipal buildings of 15,000 square feet must meet the LEED silver-level standard, including conserving water by installing fixtures that reduce use by 20 percent over standard buildings.  According to city statistics, nearly 250,000 square feet of commercial and institutional space in Pasadena has already been certified as sustainable.

The U.S. Green Building Council has doubled its funding commitment for green building research grants to be awarded in 2008 to a grand total of $2 million. The Green Building Research Fund was created to spur research that will advance sustainable building practices and encourage market transformation. The goal of the research is to result in knowledge, policies, technologies and tools that will have an immediate and positive impact on sustainable building development, design, construction and operation.

A University of Minnesota professor is challenging LEED, arguing that personal bias has more to do with green-building standards than science. James L. Bowyer, emeritus professor of bioproducts and biosystems engineering, contends that in many cases, the prescriptive standards of those programs are leading people away from green rather than toward it. One of Bowyer's criticisms is that major programs have been slow to move toward adoption of life-cycle assessment/life-cycle inventory (LCA), his area of study. The U.S. Green Building Council has announced it wants to incorporate LCA throughout its LEED programs, but Bowyer notes "the USGBC has a history of implementing change at glacial speed...and NAHB isn't faring any better at incorporating LCA into its green building program. It simply says you can use LCA if you want to, and you get a point for doing it," he says. "But there's no real provision that LCA be used.

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University questions LEED rankings

The Rocky Mountain Masonry Institute, a nonprofit trade association of more than 120 companies throughout Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, will be hosting a panel discussion on proposed changes to LEED.  The panel will include six individuals who have been instrumental in drafting the West Region Council's proposed changes to LEED, and will be moderated by Shahnaz Jaffari, who chaired the Regional LEED Credit Task Force for Colorado. The West Region is one of eight regions which submitted proposed changes to the national LEED Steering Committee that developed the LEED Rating System.

San Francisco's 1500 taxicabs could be running greener if a "Clean Taxi Ordinance" is approved by the city. The ordinance would increase the gate fee (the charge drivers must pay cab companies per 10-hour shift) and an additional charge if the cab is a green cab. The increased gate fee is more than offset by the estimated savings in gas costs to the driver; further the ordinance would require taxicab companies to reduce the carbon emissions from cab fleets by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.

"We are at the beginning of a revolution that is changing the places where we live and work, the products we manufacture and purchase, and the development plans of cities, regional governments and nations around the globe." If this quote makes you curious about the amazing technological advances that are happening right now, "The Clean Tech Revolution: The Next Big Growth and Investment Opportunity" by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder presents a clear, intelligently written roadmap to this new frontier.

For quite some time now, everyone’s been wondering if “green building” techniques will pay on the real estate market. These days, with the housing market in submarine status, the notion that some sort of green designation might help move empty houses is particularly attractive. For quite some time now, everyone’s been wondering if “green building” techniques will pay on the real estate market. These days, with the housing market in submarine status, the notion that some sort of green designation might help move empty houses is particularly attractive.