Featuring over 700 new businesses, 1,400 listings of green businesses and resources in total, Greenopia Los Angeles is now available online. The site offers L.A. consumers the means to make "green" choices that will reduce their impact on the environment and help them lead a healthier lifestyle. Each business is independently researched, vetted, and qualified according to Greenopia's criteria and rating system, according to a press release. Businesses cannot pay to be in the guide and advertising is not accepted.

The National Association of Home Builders has launched the NAHB National Green Building Program to allow any builder, anywhere, to build green homes — while keeping green practices voluntary, market driven and most importantly, affordable. The program features a dynamic online scoring tool at www.nahbgreen.org, which shows the builder how to accrue points in seven categories: water, energy and resource efficiency; lot and site development; indoor environmental quality; global impact and homeowner education. The program sets point requirements in each category to meet the Bronze, Silver and Gold levels.

San Francisco's Building Inspection Commission recently voted to pass strict green building codes onto the Board of Supervisors. Mayor Gavin Newsom has pledged to sign the regulations into law if the Board approves them. The green building codes, which would be phased in over a number of years, would make new large commercial and residential construction comply with LEED standards. Other new residential construction would have to comply with the GreenPoint Rated standard. The strictest parts of the green codes would not be implemented until 2012. By then the rules are expected to prevent 60,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, save 220,000 megawatt hours of power and prevent the use of 100 million gallons of water.

L.A. County is considering its own Green Building Program, and holding seven public meetings (six remaining) in March to discuss draft Green Building Ordinances. These ordinances cover new construction, expansions and remodels in L.A. County unincorporated areas. Among the requirements are high energy efficiency, drought-tolerant landscaping and low impact development standards.

Americans' appetite for environmentally friendly technologies and consumer products is grossly underserved, with a potential $104 billion in sales this year, according to the 2007 National Technology Readiness Survey. The survey, sponsored by the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business and technology research firm Rockbridge Associates Inc., reveals that 71% of adults are interested in green technology. The $104 billion market opportunity represents the annual sales potential of the 11 product categories measured in the NTRS. More than half, $54 billion, is the potential for sales of "green" vehicles.

Am Energy Department officials said that infrastructure projects like Southern California Edison's Tehachapi transmission lines are needed if renewable power sources are to reach their potential. Ambitious renewable energy targets in 29 states can't be met without projects like Tehachapi, said Kevin Kolevar, assistant secretary for electricity delivery and energy reliability at the Department of Energy. SCE's Tehachapi will be the largest transmission project in the United States when it opens, which is planned for 2013. It will bring 4,500 megawatts of wind power to the state power grid.

Renewable energy in the United Kingdom is getting a £100 million boost from banking giant HSBC. The HSBC Environmental Infrastructure Fund has pledged up to £18 million for a 49 percent stake in Partnerships for Renewables. Partnerships for Renewables is a group set up by Carbon Trust that works only on getting renewable energy projects onto public sector land in the UK. HSBC will also provide a £30 million revolving pot of construction capital, providing about £100 million in equity for projects.

In 2007, the average home builder in the U.S. laid off a quarter of its employees; in 2008, the industry estimates it will sell just 632,000 new homes, its lowest total since 1992. Amid this gloom, however, there's buzz about consumers' shifting demand toward "green homes." Builders with this expertise remain busy despite the bust. In a 2007 survey by the National Association of Home Builders, home buyers said they'd be willing to spend an additional $8,964 on a home if it could cut their utility bills. Throughout the industry, there's a sense that consumers have finally reached a tipping point. "It's taken almost as a fait accompli, that green building is where the market is headed," says Michelle Moore, senior VP at the U.S. Green Building Council.

New Bern, in Eastern North Carolina, is considering signing the Cool Cities Initiative, an environmental-protection plan sponsored by the Sierra Club. The primary aim of the initiative is to reduce heat-trapping greenhouses gases that cause global warming. As part of the initiative, each supporting mayor is asked to sign the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Among the terms of the agreement are stipulations that the city will enforce land-use plans that reduce sprawl and preserve open space, that leaders will make energy efficiency a priority in the city's operations and will increase recycling in the city.

The growth of LEED certification may be opening up business opportunities for companies in the construction waste-management business. Some of the points awarded to a LEED project relate directly to construction waste management. A contractor that recycles, for example, 50 percent of the construction site debris, is awarded one point under LEED. A contractor that recycles 75 percent of its construction debris is awarded two points. “The more points you get, the higher the certification level” said Eric Gradyan, project manager for Reno Contracting in San Diego.

Chilean President Michell Bachelet signed a law requiring the country's electric utilities to invest in nonconventional energy sources (NCES). The law requires that NCES (defined as wind, solar, geothermal, hydraulic and other forms of energy that have low environmental impact) account for at least 10% of the nation's electricity supply by 2024. The bill was unanimously approved by the Chilean Congress earlier this month.