From Green Right Now Reports

Star Market at Chestnut Hill in Newton, Mass., recently became the first grocery store in the nation to receive US Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Partnership platinum store award. The advanced refrigeration technology in the new store, which is part of the Shaw’s line of supermarkets, significantly reduces its impact on climate change and the stratospheric ozone layer by cutting the use of refrigerants by 85 percent compared with the typical supermarket.

Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, called the store’s efforts “wicked cool.”

“This store shows that smart design and advanced technologies help us right now to better protect our climate, the ozone layer, and our health,” McCarthy said in a statement.

The GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership is an EPA cooperative alliance with the supermarket industry to promote advanced technologies, strategies, and practices that reduce refrigerant charges and emissions of ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gases.

GreenChill partners emit about 50 percent less emissions than the industry average, and have pledged to continually lower them as part of the program. EPA estimates that if every supermarket in the nation joined GreenChill and reduced emissions to the current GreenChill average, the U.S. would prevent 22 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and 240 tons of ozone-depleting substances annually, and save $108 million in refrigerant costs each year. GreenChill has 46 partners, with more than 6,500 retail food stores in 47 states.

Under the program, GreenChill Partner stores agree to:

• Transition to non-ozone-depleting refrigerants;
• Reduce refrigerant charges;
• Reduce both ozone-depleting and greenhouse gas refrigerant emissions; and
• Promote supermarkets’ adoption of advanced refrigeration technologies

Earlier this year, the EPA honored a handful of supermarkets for reducing their use of greenhouse gas refrigerants that deplete the Earth’s ozone layer and contribute to climate change. Awardees included  Sprouts Farmers Market, Whole Foods, and Hill Phoenix.

Sprouts Farmers Market, which owns stores across California, Arizona, Colorado, and Texas, received a New Partner Award.

New partners pledge to go above and beyond regulatory requirements by measuring and tracking refrigerant emissions that affect climate change and the Earth’s ozone layer, and then setting reduction targets for these emissions. Partners also agree to use only ozone-friendly alternatives in all new and remodeled stores.

“We look forward to a productive and mutually beneficial partnership with Sprouts Farmers Market,” Keilly Witman, GreenChill Program Manager, said in a statement. “The public wants to do business with companies that share their environmental values. By joining GreenChill, Sprouts Farmers Market is proving to consumers that they care about the Earth’s ozone layer and climate system.”

Whole Foods Market’s newest store in the North Atlantic Region, located at Legacy Place in Dedham, Mass., was recognized for its environmentally friendly design, construction, and operations with the Green Building Initiative’s (GBI) Green Globes certification and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) GreenChill certification.

For the Green Globes certification, the Dedham store was evaluated in six categories, including energy, water, resources, emissions, indoor environment and environmental management systems, and received a three out of four “Green Globes” rating. The EPA’s GreenChill certification program promotes advanced technologies, strategies, and practices that reduce refrigerant charges and emissions of ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gases.

“With the combined power generated from our fuel cell and solar panels, the Dedham store is essentially able to generate almost 100 percent of its power needs on-site with clean energy resources,” Kathy Loftus, global leader of sustainable engineering, maintenance, and energy for Austin-based Whole Foods, said in a statement. “We are the first supermarket to use fuel cell technology in the state.”

By generating most of its power on-site with a fuel cell, Whole Foods’ Dedham store will prevent the release of more than 764 metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually, the equivalent of planting more than 175 acres of trees and removing over 90 cars from the road, according to the natural foods grocer. The peak power generated from the photovoltaic (PV) solar energy system is enough to meet the store’s entire lighting power needs.

To achieve a Green Globes rating, Whole Foods used Green Globes’ online and interactive program to monitor the environmentally friendly building upgrades. A GBI-authorized third-party building science expert was engaged to review the building documents, conduct an on-site inspection and assess an official Green Globes rating.

The US Environmental Protection Agency said today it is hitting the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency with a $250,000 civil penalty for federal violations of the Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

The Department of Justice, working on behalf of the EPA,  lodged a proposed consent decree with the US District Court for the Northern District of California against the city and county of San Francisco for releasing at least 940 barrels of diesel fuel — some of which entered into Islais Creek, a tributary of the San Francisco Bay.

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The proposed consent decree requires the city and county of San Francisco to pay the $250,000 penalty and requires SF Muni to implement a training program that will improve coordination and communication during future incidents of this nature. The consent decree is subject to a 30-day public comment period.

During late November and December of 2005, red dye diesel fuel was released from the Woods bus servicing facility, located at 1095 Indiana Street in San Francisco. The EPA estimates at least 39,000 gallons of fuel were released. The discharge of oil into Islais Creek and interference with the pump station were violations of the Clean Water Act.

An EPA investigation found that Muni staff failed to comply with federal regulations issued under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act that governs the management of underground storage tanks. The EPA has asserted that SF Muni’s federal RCRA violations include:

• Disabling an audible alarm system intended to alert operators to an ongoing release of diesel
• Failure to respond to flashing yellow alarm lights triggered by tank sensor alarms in full alarm mode
• Failure to maintain a written log noting the status, source, or reason for alarms
• Failure to use fuel inventory controls to monitor and observe that it was losing fuel from, the tanks at a constant conspicuous rate
• Inadequate containment
• A known kink and bulge in a faulty, braided, flexible hose that ultimately failed
• Failure to timely notify authorities of the release

The spill had originated when a faulty hose ruptured and underground storage tanks overflowed. The released diesel fuel landed in a storm drain where heavy flows from a major December rain storm caused the storm drain to overflow to the stormwater line. The fuel then caused an interference with a San Francisco southeast wastewater treatment pump station. From there, some of the fuel spilled into Islais Creek, which drains into Central San Francisco Bay.

“Facility operators must pay rigorous attention to operational practices in order to protect the San Francisco Bay and our coastal resources,” Laura Yoshii, the EPA’s Acting Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest, said in a statement.

The city and county of San Francisco conducted remedial actions to clean up the spill in 2006 and has also taken initiative to evaluate its procedures and upgrade its facilities to prevent further spills. In addition to the work required by the consent decree, SF Muni has taken steps to decrease the likelihood of any future releases, including:

• Completing all spill prevention, control, and countermeasure requirements and including installation of adequate containment, and the preparation of spill prevention plans
• Replacing the piping in underground sumps
• Replacing the containment boxes under all diesel and gasoline dispensers,
• Repairing alarms
• Installing external alarms with light and horn notifications and a remote alarm monitoring system
• Establishing new procedures to monitor fuel inventory and provide MTA staff supervision for fuel deliveries
• Additional controls in order to quickly identify and respond to releases diesel fuel

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From KGO-San Francisco:

In an effort to protect public health, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District will open the Winter Spare the Air season on Sunday, Nov. 1, and begin enforcing a regulation that restricts wood burning in the Bay Area through Feb. 28, 2010.

A pellet stove

Wood smoke is the largest source of wintertime air pollution in the Bay Area. Certain weather conditions in the wintertime cause the air to remain still. When these conditions occur, the Bay Area Air District calls a Winter Spare the Air Alert.

“This winter, Bay Area residents must check before they burn,” Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the Bay Area Air District, said in a statement. “It is illegal to burn wood or firelogs when a Winter Spare the Air Alert is in effect. Wood smoke pollution is associated with a number of serious health risks and is particularly harmful to children, the elderly and those with respiratory problems.”

This winter is the second winter season the wood burning rule has been in effect. The rule was passed in July 2008.

Between Nov. 1, 2009, and Feb. 28, 2010, the Air District will declare a Winter Spare the Air Alert when air pollution is forecast to reach unhealthy levels. During a Winter Spare the Air Alert, the use of wood-burning devices, including fireplaces, pellet stoves, wood stoves and outdoor fire pits, is forbidden. There are expected to be, on average, approximately 15-20 Winter Spare the Air Alerts during the season.

This season, Winter Spare the Air Alerts will be declared the day prior to the alert going into effect. Each day by 2 p.m., the Air District will issue an air quality forecast. If air quality is forecast to be unhealthy, a Winter Spare the Air Alert will be called for the next day. The Alert will be in place for 24 hours – one calendar day – active from midnight-to-midnight.

Those who burn during a Winter Spare the Air Alert will receive a warning for the first violation and a second violation is subject to a $400 ticket. The ticket amount will increase with any subsequent violations, depending on the severity of the infraction. Residents and businesses that burn wood as their only source of heat are exempt from the regulation.

Bay Area residents can check before they burn by:

• Visiting www.baaqmd.gov or www.sparetheair.org
• Calling 1-877-4-NO-BURN
• Signing up for e-mail Air Alerts at www.sparetheair.org or phone alerts by calling 800-430-1515.

Under the new rule, only EPA-certified wood stoves or fireplace inserts, pellet stoves, or natural gas devices can be sold or installed in new construction or remodels. The new rule also places year-round prohibitions on excessive smoke, and on the burning of garbage and other harmful materials in fireplaces and woodstoves.

Wood smoke is a major source of wintertime air pollution in the Bay Area and contains harmful pollutants such as particulate matter and carbon monoxide, as well as toxins such as dioxin, which is linked to increased cancer rates in adults. In the winter, wood smoke from the 1.4 million fireplaces and wood stoves in the Bay Area contributes about one-third of the harmful particulate pollution in the air.

The Nissan LEAF (Photo: Nissan)

From Green Right Now Reports

Nissan North America said it will debut the LEAF zero-emission, all-electric car in Los Angeles on Nov. 13. After Los Angeles, the five-passenger, five-door, gasoline-free car will go on a nationwide tour in the coming months.

The Nissan LEAF Zero Emission Tour will stop in 22 cities, in 11 states, the District of Columbia, and Vancouver, Canada, offering the opportunity for interested drivers, media, civic partners, businesses and university students to learn more about the Nissan LEAF and the benefits of zero-emission driving.

Get updates on the final schedule and sign up for more information at www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car.

Here are the scheduled stops for the Nissan LEAF:

Southern California

• Los Angeles: Nov. 13-17
• Orange County: Nov. 18
• San Diego: Nov. 19-21

Northern California

• Berkeley/Walnut Creek: Nov. 23-24
• San Francisco: Nov. 25-29
• Santa Rosa: Dec. 1
• Sacramento: Dec. 1
• San Jose: Dec. 3-6

Pacific Northwest

• Seattle: Dec. 8-12
• Vancouver, Canada: Dec. 14-15
• Portland, Ore.: Dec. 17-23

Southwest

• Phoenix/Tucson: Dec. 30-Jan. 5
• Las Vegas: Jan. 6

Midwest/East Coast

• Detroit: Jan. 11-13
• Knoxville/Chattanooga, Tenn.: Jan. 16
• Middle Tennessee: Jan. 19-21
• Washington, D.C.: Jan. 26-28
• Raleigh, N.C.: Jan. 29
• Orlando: Feb. 1-2

Texas

• Houston: Feb. 5-6

New York

• New York City: Feb. 9-14

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in California said it has received a strong response to the new Conservation Stewardship Program. Applications were received from 412 California landowners, representing 534,101 acres of farm and ranchland and 85,527 acres of forestland for the program that compensates producers for high levels of stewardship and encourages them to undertake additional conservation practices and management.

The 2008 Farm Bill program was made available for the first time beginning in September, 2009.

“California’s agricultural producers respond consistently and positively to the voluntary incentives approach to environmental protection,” Acting State Conservationist Gayle Norman said in a statement. “This just provides additional evidence that our conservation-minded producers and landowners want to attain higher levels of conservation stewardship.”

Congress capped enrollment nationally at 12,769,000 acres per year. Applicants will compete within state and within pools for the same land use and will be told in November whether their application has been accepted. If not, they will have the option to participate in the second sign-up period, which runs through January 2010.

Once the participant has been approved for funding, he or she must develop a conservation stewardship plan and commit to implementing it. The program’s payment rates will be based on a combination of points determined by the producer’s current and planned conservation enhancements. USDA said the payments are based on the cost of the stewardship activities undertaken, income forgone, and environmental benefits achieved.

Eligible lands include cropland, grassland, improved pastureland, rangeland, non-industrial private forestland, and agricultural land under jurisdiction of an Indian tribe. Eligible applicants include individual landowners, Indian tribes, and legal entities.

For information about CSP, producers can visit www.nrcs.usda.gov/new_csp/csp.html or contact their local NRCS field office.

Northampton, Mass.-based non-profit Soldier On, which will break ground this month on a limited-equity housing project for formerly homeless veterans, said the project will use photovoltaic technology supplied by Berkeley, Calif.-based Borrego Solar to supply electricity to its 39 apartments.

Berkshire Veterans Village will house formerly homeless veterans. (Image: Soldier On)

Berkshire Veterans Village in Pittsfield is intended to serve as a new national model for transitioning veterans from homelessness to home ownership. The Soldier On, which has been helping get veterans off the street since 1994, said a second limited-equity housing project is planned for Leeds. The organization said it eventually hopes to take the model to a national level.

Borrego, which has its East Coast office in Boston, designed a 40.32 kilowatt DC photovoltaic power generation system for the project. According to Borrego:

• The system will reduce carbon emissions by 71,012 lbs of CO2 annually.
• The reduction in carbon emissions is equivalent to the emissions from an average passenger car driving 135,625 miles every year for 30 years.
• This system will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 617 pounds over its life. Nitrogen oxides are a major contributor to smog and air-induced respiratory problems.

The housing project will give formerly homeless veterans the opportunity to become homeowners, in many cases for the first time in their lives. Veterans will have the opportunity to purchase an equity share that will be held in trust and will be available to them should they choose to move out, or will become part of their estate.

The housing units will be managed by the veterans who purchase equity in apartments. Those veterans will have completed a progression from Soldier On’s shelter in Leeds, Mass. to its transitional housing facility in Pittsfield. In the limited-equity housing project, they will continue to be surrounded by the services they need and the community of support Soldier On provides.

The Oct. 29 groundbreaking event for the project is scheduled to include as speakers Mass. Lieutenant Gov. Tim Murray and Stephen Coyle, CEO of the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust, along with Gordon Mansfield, former Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Department of Energy announced $10 million has been awarded to 16 cities for 40 new Solar America Cities Special Projects. The funds, made through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will enable the cities to increase solar energy use in their communities through innovative programs and policies that the government believes can be replicated across the nation.

The cities chosen for these awards came from the group of 25 large U.S. cities that are part of the DOE’s Solar America Cities program, which recognizes the participating cities as partners highly committed to solar technology adoption at the local level. Those cities already have been given millions of dollars in funds and technical assistance to accelerate solar adoption.

To this point, the cities have used the funding to develop solar financing models, improve solar permitting processes, and create training courses for solar installers, among other uses. The DOE said this new award will enable the cities to scale up their most promising projects and concepts to overcome key barriers to urban solar energy use. The DOE plans to share the lessons learned and best practices from these projects with local governments throughout the nation through a substantial outreach effort planned to launch in early 2010.

The DOE has selected the following Solar America Cities Special Projects:

Austin, TX

• Solar Curriculum Development and School Demonstration Projects

Berkeley, CA

• Smart Solar Regional Expansion and Solar Map Enhancements

Boston, MA

• Solar Evacuation Route

Madison, WI

• MadiSUN Community Solar Financing
• Target Marketing Solar to Businesses
• Solar Business Center

Milwaukee, WI

• Solar Hot Water Business Council
• Solar Water Heating Demonstration Projects and Best Practices Manual
• Property Assessed Clean Energy Financing
• Solar School Swap

Minneapolis – Saint Paul, MN

• Solar for District Heating and Cooling

New Orleans, LA

• Third Party Solar Tax Credit Implementation
• Sustainable Energy Financing District Implementation

New York City, NY

• Smart Solar City Data Acquisition System
• Community Solar Financing
• Smart Solar Virtual Community

Portland, OR

• Solar Now! Regional Outreach Campaign
• Neighborhood-Based Volume Solar Purchasing
• Residential Solar Power Purchase Agreement Model for Utility-Bill Financing
• Neighborhood-Scale Distributed Energy Systems

Salt Lake City, UT

• Solar Rebate Program Expansion and Third Party PPA Legal Analysis
• Financing Options for Mid to Large Scale Solar Systems

San Diego, CA

• Solar Financing Options for Multifamily Affordable Housing
• Solar-Powered Fire Shelter Integration into Disaster Response Planning

San Francisco, CA

• Debt-Financed Solar Water Heating Retrofits for Affordable Housing
• San Francisco Sustainable Financing Program (SF²)
• Commercial Solar Power Purchase Agreement Model
• Solar Financing for Public Schools

San José, CA

• Property Assessed Solar Financing through Joint Powers Authority
• Solar Loans for City Staff
• Qualified Energy Conservation Bond Financing for Revolving Solar Loan Fund
• Streamlined Regional Solar Permitting Process
• Solar Train the Trainer Internship Program
• Solar Career Training for At-Risk Youth
• Green Vision Education and Demonstration Center

Santa Rosa, CA

• Clean Energy Advocate

Seattle, WA

• Community Solar Financing through Municipal Utility

Tucson, AZ

• Creative Financing for Municipal Solar Installations
• Solar One Stop Shop
• Solar Integration into Green Building Codes and Infrastructure Planning

Plastic Package Inc., which manufactures 100-percent post consumer recycled plastic containers, said it will installing the largest cylindrical thin film solar system west of New Jersey to power its operations.

The project will use solar technology from Solyndra.

The Sacramento, Calif., company said it will use solar technology from Solyndra for the project. That Bay Area company recently was funded by a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. Plastic Package officials said the installation will be done by Premier Power Renewable Energy of El Dorado Hills.

The new 208 kilowatt system being installed on the roof will initially handle all of Plastic Package’s peak demand and assist its local power provider, Sacramento Municipal Utility District to reduce its summer peak loads during the hottest part of the day.

The company noted that with solar, the production peaks simultaneously with energy demand. As the sun heats up into midday, power demand increases. With the sun higher in the sky the output from the rooftop solar system is increased.

Solyndra can boost production even further by adding a white membrane roof. Solyndra has devised the cylindrical modules that enable its solar panels to capture sunlight over a 360-degree photovoltaic surface.

“If you build a better solar panel, the world will beat a path to your door,” US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement. “Building a better solar panel is what Solyndra has done. Compared to traditional solar panels, these innovative thin-film systems produce more energy for less money and less hassle.”

That approach appealed to Jim Kaye, Plastic Package Inc.’s chairman, and Jennifer Kaye, the company president. The Kayes said they spent the last couple of years researching solar technologies and investigating solar integrators that could provide them with a packaged solution that would help them to offset their increasing electrical consumption as their business grew.

“The plastics business is not normally thought of as a green business”, Jim Kaye said in a statement, “but we are making major strides in that direction by using recycled soda bottles as well as bio-based materials in our products. Now that we’ve added solar, we want to let the community and our clients know, so they can feel comfortable that when they use our packaging, they are part of the sustainable process.”

West Coast Green, a gathering that‘s part expo, part trade show and part thought conference, will be showcasing leading edge green projects when it opens at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco this coming weekend.

One of the largest conferences devoted to the “built environment,” the event attracts speakers with architectural, design and construction expertise from around the nation.

Visitors to the 2009 conference, Oct. 1-3, will be able to see demos of hundreds of products, as well as examples of green design, such as a large hanging garden constructed on a bamboo framework that will be suspended over the bay. The installation aims to show how green can be beautiful and useful, using vegetation to mitigate heat, sequester carbon and improve water and air quality.

The SFH40, an off-grid building for emergency use (Photo: West Coast Green.)

Another demonstration will feature a self-sustaining, off-the-grid building called the SHF40 that could be used during medical or weather emergencies or as temporary housing.

Some 300 exhibitors will be showing green and non-toxic building products; solar, wind and waste reduction technology.

But West Coast Green is also about envisioning what could be, and this year offers several “leadership summits” where participants can learn about retrofitting residential buildings, clean tech and green business opportunities – so they can go forth and pave — or, er, permeable rock path — the way in these arenas. There will also be a “design slam,” a brainstorming session among designers to help green a renovation of a Pier at Fort Mason.

Many notable sustainability experts will be speak, including keynoters:

• Bill Reed, president of the Integrative Design Collaborative based in Massachusetts and New Mexico

• Andrew Winston, founder of Ecostrategies.

• Rebecca Costa, futurist and author, The Watchman’s Rattle

• Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, author of Design Like You Give  Damn

• Peter Darbee, CEO of PG&E, a sponsor of the event and among the companies leaving the US Chamber of Commerce over the chamber’s opposition to climate legislation.

• Ray Anderson, chair and founder of Interface Inc.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom also will address the gathering at the opening Thursday morning. Dozens of other speakers will conduct workshops at the conference, which is in its fourth year.

Another green building conference is fast approaching. The annual GreenBuild event hosted by the US Green Building Council (which administers the LEED certification program). GreenBuild xpects to showcase up to 1,800 products at the Phoenix event Nov. 11-13.

Bay City News
SAUSALITO — Three weeks after their return from exploring a vortex of floating plastic garbage 1,000 miles off the Pacific coast, scientists working on Project Kaisei are focused on how to clean up the giant garbage patch. >> Read the full story

Fisker Automotive announced Tuesday that US Department of Energy will loan the company more than half a billion dollars to create affordable, fuel-efficient plug-in hybrid electric cars. Fisker said it expects to create or save at least 5,000 US jobs among auto suppliers and thousands more to manufacture a plug-in hybrid in the US.

The funds are coming from the US Department of Energy’s $25-billion Advanced Technologies Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program, created by Congress in November 2008 to help promote the development of energy-efficient, advanced-technology vehicles.

The company said most of the low-interest funds will used for its Project NINA, which will produce a next-generation plug-in hybrid expected to be priced around $39,900 after tax credits. The remainder will help finalize development of the Fisker Karma.

Fisker says the Karma’s real-world, annual average fuel economy can exceed 100 mpg. It is projected to deliver an emission-free 50 miles per full charge using a Lithium-ion battery, and a total extended range of more than 300 miles through the use of a gasoline powered engine/generator. Fisker says more than 1,500 of the plug-in hybrids have already been ordered.

By Wayne Freedman
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Concern over global warming has a lot of people concerned with how they deal the very real possibility of rising sea levels. Who better to give advice than those living right now below sea level? The Dutch have discovered that their experience with bad geography might create healthy profits. >> Read the full story