The Recession’s Silver Lining? The growth of green and sustainable buildings

Last week we found glimmers of hope in the upcoming COP-16 meetings in Cancun; this week we continue the trend in a look at the state of the building and construction sectors. Despite the ongoing economic woes that have spared virtually no regions or industries, one field has been posting solid gains: green building and design. By all accounts it looks likely not only to weather the recession but also to emerge stronger on the other end.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation headquarters, a green building opened in 2001

A host of new studies indicate that the gloom of the overall housing market has not dampened the green building sector. Last year’s Green Building Market Impact Report found a 40% jump in LEED-certified square foot totals over the previous year, with predictions for continued robust growth. Comprising 800 million square feet in the U.S., green buildings have saved 15 billion gallons of water, 2.9 million tons of carbon dioxide and 25 million tons of waste. Additionally, the report predicted strong growth in China, India, the Middle East and Europe. A more recent projection estimated that “green building will continue to grow more than 60 percent in 2010,” in spite of stagnation of the housing and credit industries.

These studies have heartening implications for the wider field of sustainable growth and environmental remediation, particularly in the field of GHG emission control and green development. In the absence of expansive, top-down mandates such as the one that the COP-15 failed to provide, cities, municipalities and business groups are shouldering some of the burden. Using a series of incentives and tax write-offs – such as these offered by the City of Seattle – cities are realizing a double benefit from encouraging green building. Such development not only brings much-needed employment, but the long-term savings in utilities, health and pollution are now starting to offset the up-front construction costs. In a recent profile of Casa Feliz, a new green affordable housing development in San Jose, the Wall Street Journal put simply the bottom line: “Not only are green buildings better for the environment, but they make better financial sense, too…because they come with lower water and energy bills and lower tenant-turnover rates.”

A LEED Platinum certified house in Santa Monica, CA

In the otherwise continuous flow of grim and dispiriting news on the global environment and climate change efforts, the rosy horizon for the green and sustainable building industry is a significant point of hope.

Cancun 2010: The phoenix that will rise from the ashes of Copenhagen?

Written By: Jon Ehrenfeld, Senior Correspondent

Editor: Suzanne Kelly-Lyall, Deputy Director PISA

The COP-16 conference, slated for November 29^th in Cancun, Mexico, seems to be raising fewer hopes than the last round, likely because of the widely publicized and underwhelming results of COP-15. Policy makers on both sides of the Pacific can reasonably ask what can be expect from this next round of negotiations?  Will we see progressive action from the bloc of Asian nations that allied themselves with China in Copenhagen? Or have events in the last year given rise to a new approach to climate negotiations?

Even without the unfortunate example of the last round of UNFCCC meetings, there are warning signs aplenty that delegates at Cancun could come away with a feeling of déjà vu. Some of the largest polluting nations are already trying to backpedal from previously made commitments and downplay expectations. Todd Stern, President Obama’s chief climate negotiator, has already stressed the importance of not letting “expectations far outstrip what can be done.”  The need for leadership on setting realistic carbon reductions, fixing a carbon price, and making a financial commitment to the proposed UN Adaptation fund for countries most in need, Bangladesh for example, is paramount.

In spite of these obstacles, the possibility of real progress at Cancun is not entirely absent. At a recent ASEM meeting (Asia-Europe meeting), Asian nations not only stressed the importance of emerging from the COP-16 with a binding decision markets. In a show of regional leadership, Singaporean minister Lim Hwee Hua even spoke of increasing reduction commitments, “as industries and citizens grow more accustomed to carbon constraints and as technology enables us to do more.” ASEAN as well has gone on record stressing the need for a legally binding agreement as a key step for moving forward.

In contrast to the gloom and doom predications being trumpeted by media and policymakers alike, Cancun may offer ASEAN countries the opportunity to press for real change.   Showing leadership in carbon reductions and pressing for set carbon pricing are two ways in which ASEAN might shift the dialogue away from US/China negotiations and move debate into concrete steps that will improve the lives of the regions most vulnerable groups.

The Promise of Improved Cookstoves in the Developing World

A Traditional Cookstove Setup in Vietnam

The recent news from the Clinton Global Initiative that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is committing $50 million to funding clean cookstoves is fantastic news for the poor in developing nations, particularly women and girls. Spearheaded by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (run by the United Nations Foundation), this initiative will address a pervasive problem that kills over 2 million people a year and sickens countless others.

The topic of cookstoves is one near and dear to PISA: using money provided by a micro-grant at the 2009 PISA Summer Institute on Global Climate Change, a team of academics and researchers from Vietnam embarked on a project to bring clean cookstoves to the village of Ban Nhop, Vietnam. In fact, less than a month before Clinton’s announcement we posted an interview with project lead Dr. Doan Duc Lan about his progress. The team has already completed GIS map surveys, sociological assessments of the village, has designed four improved cookstove models and begun training villagers on their construction. As this project moves forward it is gratifying to see a figure like Secretary Clinton affirm the importance of our work.

A Model of a New Brick Improved Cookstove in Vietnam, developed by Dr. Lan's Team With Support from PISA

One feature of the Global Alliance’s plan is a public-private partnership that will, “work with public, private, and non-profit partners to help overcome the market barriers that currently impede the production, deployment, and use of clean cookstoves in the developing world.” Unlike PISA’s effort – a public-nonprofit collaboration – the Global Alliance plan will, according to the New York Times, use an, “entrepreneurial model in which small companies manufacture or buy the stoves close to their markets.” Such an approach holds promise and peril. Private companies may have resources and assets unavailable to even nonprofit groups with big-name endorsements. There is, however, a risk that a profit motive could introduce a barrier to obtaining the cookstoves. Many of the 3 billion worldwide users of these stoves are simply too poor to buy cleaner, greener alternatives, however they are priced.

In the wider view though, any effort to introduce more efficient and pollutant-free stoves is an important step. We look forward to updating you as the Ban Nhop moves forward and scales up.