Jodi Summers = Green Real Estate

THE PORT OF LONG BEACH IS GREEN WHILE MOVING MILLIONS OF TONS OF CARGO

April 6, 2013 on 9:22 am | In Act Locally, all, Green Building, Green Workplace, Greenhouse Gas, LEED, Solutions, Uncategorized | No Comments

by Jodi Summers

The Port of Long Beach is blue and green. The water is blue. The port is green, as they have implemented an exemplary green port policy to try and maintain the environment while they are shipping freight around the world.

The Green Port Policy is an aggressive, comprehensive and coordinated approach to reduce the negative impacts of Port operations. Founded in 1911, the 3,200-acre Port of Long Beach is a premier gateway for trade between the United States and Asia. More than $140 billion worth of cargo moves through the Port every year – everything from clothing and furniture to machinery and petroleum. They try to be green while going through this process.

The Green Port Policy, adopted in 2005, serves as a guide for decision making and established a framework for environmentally friendly Port operations. The policy’s five guiding principles are:

Protect the community from harmful environmental impacts of Port operations.
Distinguish the Port as a leader in environmental stewardship and compliance.
Promote sustainability.
Employ best available technology to avoid or reduce environmental impacts.
Engage and educate the community.

The Green Port Policy directs the Port to integrate sustainable plans practices into Port development and operations by actively promoting an organizational culture of environmental enhancement, fiscal responsibility, and community integrity. Current areas of focus are outlined below…

Greenhouse Gases

California passed landmark greenhouse gas legislation, The Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), in 2006. Although the state has yet to formalize greenhouse gas regulations for the port sector, the Port of Long Beach has already begun quantifying greenhouse gas emissions and formulating a plan for reductions. The Board of Harbor Engineers adopted a formal resolution establishing a framework for conducting business while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They have assembled a multi-divisional Renewable Energy Working Group that is currently evaluating Port lands for solar- and wind-power opportunities.

Plans include:

The Clean Air Action Plan and Sustainability

The Clean Air Action Plan, adopted by the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports in 2006, is guided by the three components of sustainability:

1. Environmental Responsibility

· Air quality improvements

· Energy/fuel efficiency improvements

· Advances new technologies

· Creates model for regulators and politicians

· Ecological health side benefits

2. Fiscal Responsibility

· Equitable distribution of financial burden

· Helps the Port maintain its “license to operate”

3. Social responsibility

· Human health risk reductions

· Includes stakeholders in decision making

· Creates jobs

· Process is transparent

· Protects integrity of workers

Examples of Sustainable Practices

The Green Port Integrating Committee’s working group has the task of integrating the Green Port Policy, including sustainability, into all operations.

The Engineering Bureau is in its second year of implementing an American Association of Port Authorities-guided Environmental Management System (EMS), which establishes sustainable storm water practices during construction projects.

The waste paper and container recycling program is conducted in partnership with the Conservation Corps Long Beach, a non-profit organization that educates and trains at-risk youth.

Landscaping projects are conducted in accordance with the Port’s Sustainable Landscape Palette which describes appropriate native and draught-tolerant species for our locale.

The pilot solar car port has been up and running for almost a year. This is the first step in the process that will maximize renewable energy through the Harbor District.

Green Building principles are incorporated into new building design through the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program.

Environmentally-preferable purchasing, for everything from pens to fleet vehicles, informs the way we buy. In the future, we’ll be paying even more attention to carbon footprints, especially with regard to building materials.

The Port of Long Beach is an incredible complex, moving around 115,000 TEUs – Twenty-foot equivalent unit) each month. It’s totally worth checking, if you get the chance.

http://www.polb.com/environment/sustainability/default.asp

http://www.polb.com/environment/green_port_policy/default.asp

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THE BIGGER GREEN PICTURE

April 6, 2013 on 8:19 am | In Act Locally, Green Building, Green Cities, Green Houses, Green Workplace, Greenhouse Gas, Net Zero, Reasons to Love L.A., Solutions, Trends, Uncategorized | No Comments

by Jodi Summers

California is an example of green construction. In 2008, state energy regulators adopted a long-term plan that called for having all new residential buildings achieve zero net energy use by 2020 and having all commercial buildings achieve zero net energy use by 2030. The provisions also reduce water use by 20% and divert 50% of construction waste from landfills.

The Los Angeles Green Building ordinance has been heralded as “the most far reaching plan of any big city in America to promote green building practices in the private sector.”

L.A. is on track to reduce the city’s carbon emissions 35% below 1990 levels by 2030. Our goal is the greatest reduction target of any large US city. It takes the state’s stringent CalGreen building codes a step further.

So going forward, we’re good, but we’re still dealing with an existing building stock, and some antiquated customs and equipment all the way around. Restructuring a structure’s infrastructure (say that 3x fast) is not an overnight process. We are sprinting toward net zero construction, yet large parts of the old-style building infrastructure will still dominate the landscape for the next century.

Any improvements and renovations made to your properties can impact the environment. Be conscious of your choices in paint and floor coverings. Anything you upgrade on your properties can be done with green in mind heating, plumbing, and electric all offer green fixes that can save the business money on the long term, and increase profitability on resale.

But some things are a slow fix…we may be building green buildings, but the machinery used to construct the property may not be. You’ve seen those backhoes and cranes bellowing black diesel carbon fumes. Around the shop, some old power tools use 3x the needed energy.

Construction equipment companies are catching on. JCB is aware of their duty to make their plant machinery more environmentally sound. For example, the Scot JCB Digger has numerous variations including the brand new 3CX-ECO with increased fuel efficiency in all aspects of its functionality.

Construction companies – particularly in Southern California – are up to speed on CalGreen construction, ICC codes, and other modern methods. Our fair county is an example of sound building, with cities like West Hollywood, Los Angeles, and Santa Monica offering some of the strictest green construction codes in the country, if not the world. And we’re setting an example for going forward. Today’s green apprentice may someday become the foremen of their own company, selling jobs and their bids.

Green building goes beyond the edifice, it includes the source of the raw materials, and the distance they travelled, the equipment that goes into the building and that goes into building the building. Society is progressing forward at warp speed, and we’re along for the ride. Let’s do our best to contribute to the greater good for now and for generations to come.

http://greenbuildingelements.com/2013/02/07/the-buildings-green-what-about-the-equipment-that-built-it/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-greenbuildingelements+%28Green+Building+Elements%29

http://www.socalgreenrealestateblog.com/?p=2613

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THE SANTA MONICA PIER IS BATHED IN A “GREEN” LIGHT

November 7, 2012 on 6:16 pm | In Act Locally, all, Green Cities, Solutions, U.S. Government | 1 Comment

by Jodi Summers

Old meets new. The century-old Santa Monica Pier has new millennium lighting. The City of Santa Monica recently updated all bulbs that light the Pier to LED versions, which are heralded as being more energy efficient, last longer and provide more focused beams than their counterparts.

Nearly 1,600 fixtures on the carousel, “necklace” lights that surround the structure, flood lights, street lamps and globe lights will get the upgrade, saving 216,000 kilowatt hours per year compared to the traditional bulbs. A portion of the new LED lights will be replacing incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs that burned out some time ago, bringing new life to the pier.

“We will be making this jewel of the city brighter and more sustainable,” praised pier manager Rod Merl.

City Hall received $114,370 for the Pier Lighting Retrofit project and another $554,000 for the wider LED Street lighting project, which served to replace streetlights throughout the city with new bulbs. Savings on the Pier project work out to roughly $39,466 saved per year in energy costs, according to the Office of Sustainability and the Environment. In addition to saving electricity, the new fixtures are expected pier staff a lot of time….particularly when it comes to maintaining the necklace lights that loop around the pier deck, where the globe lights would burn out regularly.

LED lights are more expensive by the piece, but according to the U.S. Department of Energy, a high-powered white LED light can last between 35,000 and 50,000 hours. By comparison, the average incandescent light lasts between 720 and 2,000 hours, a compact fluorescent usually runs between 8,000 and 10,000 hours.

If the new LED lights were on 24 hours a day, they would last 5.7 years, calculated Carlos Rosales, an engineer with the public works department. “Since they only turn on at night, they should last 10 years,”

And they should all need to be replaced at about the same time.

Another benefit to the lights in the eyes of City Hall is how they project their beams.

Unlike incandescent bulbs which scatter light, LEDs are more focused, meaning they do not have the fuzzy “glowing” quality that many are used to.

“The old-fashioned kind of lights tends to cast a wide area,” Merl observed. “One of the things with the new lighting heads, the light pools where you want it to rather than dispersing in all directions.”

Shine on you crazy pearl necklace….

http://www.smdp.com/pier-to-get-new-more-efficient-lighting/110795?utm_source=Santa+Monica+Daily+Press+List&utm_campaign=9cd6cf3bec-SMDP_Daily_Template6_10_2010&utm_medium=email

http://www.socalgreenrealestateblog.com/?p=2331

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LOS ANGELES HAS GREAT ACCESS TO MASS TRANSIT FOR LABOR

September 27, 2012 on 9:57 am | In Act Locally, Green Cities, Green Workplace, Trends, U.S. Government, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

by Jodi Summers

Have you gawked at the morning line of traffic waiting to get off the 10W freeway at Cloverfield? The jobs came to the beach before the mass transit. Think of how much easier the commute will be when the Bergamot Station stop on the Expo Line opens in 2015…

Nationally, more than three-quarters of all jobs in the 100 largest metropolitan areas are in neighborhoods with transit service.

Western metro areas like Los Angeles and Seattle exhibit the highest coverage rates. When combining bus and rail service, they exhibit near ubiquitous transit coverage rates and enable their jobs to access over half of their local labor pools. Los Angeles is better than average? Just imagine trying to take the bus to work in Arkansas….

Pundits say that the typical job is accessible to only about 27% of its metropolitan workforce by transit in 90 minutes or less. Labor access varies from the high of 64% in metropolitan Salt Lake City to a low of 6% in metropolitan Palm Bay, Florida. Studies conclude that city jobs are consistently accessible to larger shares of metropolitan labor pools than suburban jobs, reinforcing cities’ geographic advantage relative to transit routing.

http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2012/07/11-transit-jobs-tomer

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/7/transit%20labor%20tomer/pdf/Los_Angeles.pdf

http://www.socalgreenrealestateblog.com/?p=2359

http://reconnectingamerica.org/resource-center/browse-research/2012-2/where-the-jobs-are-employer-access-to-labor-by-transit/

http://www.socalofficerealestateblog.com/?p=2238

http://www01.smgov.net/cityclerk/council/agendas/2010/20100713/s2010071308-A_files/image032.gif

BIG GREEN > NO MORE PLASTIC BAGS FOR LOS ANGELES

September 7, 2012 on 12:34 am | In Act Locally, all, Green Cities, Reasons to Love L.A., Recycling, Solutions, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

by Jodi Summers

Los Angeles will soon become the largest city in the country to approve a ban on plastic bags. The decision came down in May, as a standing-room-only crowd packed City Hall as the Los Angeles City Council voted 13-1 to approve a ban on plastic bags and impose a 10-cent charge on paper bags at convenience stores and supermarkets in the nation’s second-largest city.

With the council’s action, Los Angeles and our 3.8 million residents become the largest group in the United States to formally endorse a sweeping ban on single-use plastic shopping bags.

“The Los Angeles City Council took a prudent step to protect our environment and bolster our economy,” said Kirsten James, director of water quality for the Santa Monica-based nonprofit group Heal the Bay. “The vote further emphasizes the fact that the days are numbered for single-use bags in California.”

Nearly 50 other municipalities in California have adopted ordinances in the state banning single-use plastic bags and most also ban or impose fees for paper bags. Cal cities that have passed single-use plastic bag bans include San Francisco, Santa Monica, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Calabasas, Long Beach and Carpinteria. Environmentalists hope the move by the Los Angeles City Council will provide momentum for a statewide ban.

“I’m deliriously excited about the passage of this measure. Ever since I first heard about the floating plastic island in the Pacific, while I was still in the state legislature, I have been trying to move the ball forward on banning plastic bags in this state,” said Councilman Paul Koretz, a chief sponsor of the measure, in a statement.

It is estimated that 1.2 to 2.3 billion single-use plastic carryout bags and 400 million single-use paper bags are used annually in Los Angeles. A report by the Board of Public Works cited studies showing that single-use paper bags have greater greenhouse gas emissions through their production and use tan a single-use plastic bag, prompting paper bags to also be targeted.

This concept became too much too soon, and then the bill stalled until City Councilman Eric Garcetti co-introduced a motion that imposed a 10-cent fee on paper bags instead of an outright ban. The proposal is very similar to what has been working effectively in Santa Monica for the past year. Impressed by the model, Los Angeles City Council voted nearly unanimously to endorse the substitute motion.

The new ordinance will likely be approved before the end of the year. Large retailers can anticipate a six-month phase-out of single-use plastic bags. There will be a one-year grace period for smaller retailers. All retailers would be required to charge 10 cents for a paper bag as an incentive for shoppers to bring reusable bags to the market beginning one year after the program’s enactment.

“City Council approved a motion that will move us one step closer to making Los Angeles a greener, cleaner, more sustainable city,” noted Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. “The little things matter—removing plastic bags that clutter our streets and damage our waterways will go a long way towards protecting Angelenos and Los Angeles wildlife for generations.”

Cathy Browne, general manager of plastic bag maker Crown Poly in Huntington Park, said the council shouldn’t be mandating consumer behavior and should let the market dictate consumer choice.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in November 2010 approved a plastic bag ban in unincorporated areas that went into effect July 1, 2011, at large stores and on Jan. 1, 2012, at smaller retailers. A lawsuit claimed the 10-cent fee on paper bags imposed by the county was an illegal tax under Proposition 26, but Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant in March rejected the argument in a tentative ruling.

http://venice.patch.com/articles/l-a-city-council-approves-ban-on-plastic-bags-and-10-cent-fee-for-paper-bags

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CLEANING WATER ~ SANTA MONICA CITY HALL HAS CONTROL OF PURIFYING LOCAL WATER

July 18, 2012 on 4:03 pm | In Act Locally, all, Green Cities, Net Zero, Uncategorized, Water | 1 Comment

by Jodi Summers

When it comes to greening a city, Santa Monica is in the national spotlight. The 8.5 square mile city is well on its way to reaching its goal of becoming a Net Zero Energy City by 2020. Acreage-wise, Santa Monica is a manageable size to accomplish those goals; but population numbers make it far more of a challenge than it seems on the surface streets. The City has a nighttime residential population of around 90,000; but during the day, the population swells to nearly 300,000. Three Expo Line light rail stops promises to further green the City and ease traffic in 2015.

Santa Monica is also very protective of its water > half of is from local wells. Didja know, Santa Monica got its name is because of a freshwater spring. This legend dates back to 1769 and the travelling party of explorer Gaspar de Portolà. One of the party padres wrote in his diary that the group found the drip of a Tonga Indian Gabrioleno spring. They called it “Spring of Saint Monica” to recall the tears that St. Monica had for her reckless son, Augustine.

Now called the Charnock Well Field, this City-owned well has been used for drinking water production and treatment since 1924 Horror upon horrors, contamination was found in the water supply in 1996 > the Charnock Well was shut down due to the detection of gasoline compounds (such as methyl tertiary-butyl ether {MTBE}), in the water supply from nearby gasoline stations.

Litigation followed. Santa Monica won. City Hall opened the state-of-the-art Arcadia water treatment facility in 2011. Once again, the spring for which Santa Monica is named, began pumping fresh water to Santa Monica for the first time in 15 years. Huge!

In December 2006, a comprehensive settlement agreement was reached, providing funding for the Charnock Well Field Restoration Project. As you would expect, the City of Santa Monica has designed a state-of-the art water treatment facility; it uses granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration to remove contaminants from the wells. Above and beyond, improvements have been made to the disinfection and softening process at the water treatment facility, including installation of a reverse osmosis system, pressure filtration vessels, a backwash system, new electrical services and emergency generators, and a new sewer line to serve the facility.. In 2011, the spring will be pumping fresh water to Santa Monica for the first time in 15 years, meeting half the City’s water needs.

Recently, Santa Monica won another lawsuit in the efforts to keep its water supply clean, reaching a $39.5 million settlement with the Boeing Corporation. The monies will be paid out over the next 10 years.

This settlement is closely modeled after a 2010 settlement with the Gillette Corporation, the company that paid out for contamination of the Olympic Well Field caused by industrial processes at the former Papermate site. That deal involved similar chemicals and helped create the framework for the Boeing deal.

Now that the law suit has been concluded, City Hall’s aim is to construct a water treatment facility that would not only take the solvents out of the water, but contaminants that might cause problems in the future…such as identified another solvent called 1,4-dioxane that is currently within acceptable levels, but may not be in the future.