Nine months since its inception, Retrofit Chicago’s Commercial Buildings Initiative is set to double in size. Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Wednesday that 18 new buildings will participate in the program, bringing the total area to over 28 million square feet.
On January 21, 2013, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced the results from the second year of its cap-and-trade program. Reports submitted from 934 facilities to the end of November 2012 show a further 10% emission reduction from reporting facilities below the year-one (2010) figures, bringing the second year total to an overall 23% emission reduction below the base-year emissions.
The results of the first fiscal year of operation of Tokyo’s cap and trade program are in – and they go far in validating the city’s groundbreaking initiative to introduce a market-based approach to emissions reductions at the urban scale. Reports on 1,159 building facilities show collective emissions reductions of 13 percent over base-year figures; this was due to the active implementation of more than 5,700 measures by building owners to reduce energy use and corresponding emissions.
The City of Los Angeles, a C40 City, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today announced a major expansion of the city’s efforts to combat greenhouse gas emissions from the city’s commercial buildings. The LA Commercial Building Performance Partnership will enable building owners to access free energy assessments, as well as financing at competitive rates to cover up to 100 percent of the cost of their energy upgrades. The program builds on PACE (Property-Assessed Clean Energy) Financing programs that have shown success across the country.
Developers in Seattle have broken ground on a building on the cutting edge of efficiency and sustainability in the commercial building sector. Designed to be net-zero for water and energy use, the so-called living building will be able to collect and use rainwater, generate its own power and compost its own sewage.
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