Let there be light. Places of worship throughout the world are taking this phrase to heart.

The US Green Building Council counts 43 religious projects registered with them, pending LEED certification. The projects include five Jewish temples, 36 Christian churches, one monastery and one seminary.

Not to be outdone is the epicenter of Catholicism, Vatican City, which has worked since 2006 to become the first carbon neutral state. A rooftop garden of solar panels above the Pope’s audience hall was turned on in November 2008. The panels on the 5,000-square-foot roof produce 300 kilowatt hours of energy, creating enough electricity to heat, cool and light the entire building year-round. The Vatican also is in the process of growing a 37-acre forest in Hungary to offset its annual carbon dioxide emissions.

Here is a look at some of the major projects around the nation:

Guess what city just mandated that businesses disclose their toxic chemicals, put a five cent price tag on plastic bags and set up a future ban on the sale of bottled water at city-owned centers as well as plastic take-out food containers?

Portland? San Francisco? They’ve taken some similar measures. But no, the latest municipality to get aggressive with consumer waste is Toronto, Canada’s largest and apparently greenest city.

This week the Toronto City Council set in motion a sweeping effort aimed at reducing the number of plastic disposables – grocery bags, water bottles and take-out cartons – that wind up in the local landfill.

A city news release on the laws outlines when they’ll take effect. The take-out cartons, for instance, won’t vanish for some time. The city has given restaurants until February 2011 to find alternatives, which could be made of biodegradable cardboard or polystyrene compatible with the city’s recycling system.

But the plastic bag fees will begin much sooner, on June 1, 2009, in an effort to push consumers toward reusable bags and totes.

“I’m very proud that Toronto is leading the way. It’s the right thing to do. Waste diversion begins with reduction and Torontonians want to reduce their dependence on disposable products,” said Mayor David Miller in a statement.

Residents have been supportive as Toronto has added several other green measures, said Stuart Green, the mayor’s press secretary. These changes have included a switch to a tiered garbage collection system in which those who generate less trash can use smaller waste bins and pay less, and the addition of organic waste collection, where residents send their compostable table scraps and paper waste in a green bin for curbside pickup.

“Every time we do something, they take it up in droves,” Green said.

The Ethisphere Institute, publisher of the quarterly Ethisphere magazine, today announced a list of what it calls the “Global Sustainability Centers of 2020.”

Listing ten large and ten mid-sized cities (a population of 600,000 was the dividing line), the report honors municipalities who have built “strong and principled foundations” and long-term city planning. While environmental and sustainability considerations are listed first among the criteria, they weren’t the only factors considered; the think tank also evaluated quality-of-life issues like arts and education, transportation, and business planning. For large cities, they break each ranking down into Olympics-like scorecards that weigh each category both as things stand now and as they’re projected for 2020, like this one that scores Toronto.

Among the rankings where environmental planning is singled out, three cities tie for the highest score, 9.7: New York (up from 9.1 today), London, and Curitiba Brazil, which already scores 9.6 and is described here as “the largest sustainable city you’ve never heard of.”

Small cities on the list include Portland in the US, an obvious pick because of its long adherence to controlled growth and foot-friendly avenues, as well as cities in Europe such as oil-free Reykjavik, Iceland, and fjord-minding Oslo, Norway, cited for its “blue green” awareness.

While noting the downsides of city life (“Some studies suggest that buildings and infrastructure associated with buildings are responsible for about 30 percent of all energy use in North America, and probably 40 percent of all material use,” according to a professor they cite), the authors point out that since life in the suburbs — where cars are indispensible — isn’t exactly impact-free, and that the attractions inherent in city life aren’t likely to stop drawing people away from rural areas, “we need role models.”

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media