February 25th, 2010 / 0 Comments
Solana Beach, CA (February 25th, 2010) – Greener Dawn, which focuses on sustainability, clean technology and energy efficiency, has announced an alliance with NBA legend Bill Walton. Bill Walton has joined the Greener Dawn team as their Green Ambassador to help brand and market the company on the local and national level. Bill brings his years of experience from the basketball court, the broadcast booth and the lecture circuit. He is extremely passionate towards the growing clean technology, sustainability sector and is looking to make a major impact in San Diego and beyond. Both Greener Dawn and Bill Walton believe that energy efficiency and renewable energy are the key components to sustained job growth, to reduction in carbon emissions, to economic recovery, and to reducing our foreign oil dependence.
“I’ve centered my life on sustainability and the ability to make a difference in our environment and economy,” says NBA legend Bill Walton. “Without clean air and water we have nothing. Energy production and resource management are two critical elements that touch all of our lives. We need to immediately make a better world model on these essential fronts. That future starts today. I have now found a company in San Diego that encompasses the future vision for energy efficiency, and clean technology. Greener Dawn will be a nationwide leader in this Green Revolution.”
Bill Walton is currently the Executive Director of the Sports and Entertainment division of CONNECT. He was a 3 time NCAA player of the year at UCLA while also being named a 3 time Academic All America student athlete. He is in the Hall of Fame in both basketball and academics. He was the #1 overall pick in the 1974 NBA draft and is a two time NBA MVP. He was part of 2 NBA Championship teams, Portland and Boston. Walton was also the NBA’s 6th Man of the Year in 1986. He is a member of the NBA’s All Time Team as one of the league’s 50 greatest players ever. He was also named one of the top 50 Sportscasters of all time in 2009.
“Greener Dawn is honored to have a leader of such high integrity and credibility coupled with his sensational basketball record join the team,” says Courtland Weisleder, President of Greener Dawn. “Bill’s phenomenal speaking ability and his excitement for the Green Revolution makes him a perfect fit across all of our divisions.”
Posted by Fan Ding in Uncategorized
February 22nd, 2010 / 4 Comments
The last ten years have been rife with concerns about global warming, water conservation, the lack of sustainable or renewable energy sources, and many more “going green” issues. Significant advancements have been made in energy conservation, as well as future climate control solutions. We’ve listed the 10 most notable environmental moments of the decade, as summarized below.
1. Toyota Prius: In 2001
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Toyota Motors released the first ever mass-produced hybrid vehicle to worldwide sales. While pricing was expected to be an issue, the success of the first generation Prius showed that there was certainly a market for hybrid and electric only cars. According to many sources, the Prius is the most fuel-efficient car sold in the U.S., and according to California, it is also the cleanest in terms of smog and toxic emissions. In May of 2008, the Prius hit the 1 million mark worldwide, and the United States made up almost half of total sales.
2. Global Summit: COP15
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The fifteenth Conference of Parties met in December of last year, hoping to find a definitive solution for future emission cuts across the globe. While many different parties seemed to be on the same page, and working very well together, the meeting was a slight disappointment as no specific plans were put in action.
3. Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth”
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In 2006, Al Gore released a simple documentary discussing the hard facts of global warming and climate change. The movie itself was not exactly Academy Award-worthy, as the premise was based on a PowerPoint presentation, but it provided information to the masses that was otherwise unavailable. It is currently one of the highest grossing documentaries of all time, ranked at either 4th or 5th, depending on the source. It led to an unanticipated Nobel Peace Prize for Al Gore in 2007.
4. Company Fluorescent Light bulbs
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Energy-efficient lighting techniques made a big spark in 2007 when CFL sales reached record heights worldwide. There were initial usage concerns to these bulbs, but many people chose them over other options because of their energy efficiency According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, CFL’s use 75% less energy than their incandescent friends. As a result, Australia has already banned incandescent bulbs, and the E.U. as well as Canada are making similar changes for a brighter future.
5. Extreme Weather
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Between the string of earthquakes across Haiti in 2008, an unprecedented heat wave in Europe in 2003 and the devastating hurricane Katrina of 2005, this decade has had some of the wildest weather ever seen. There is still no specifically scientific evidence that man-made climate change is causing extreme weather, this decade’s fluctuations have provided ample evidence of severe climate issues to come.
6. OED’s New Lexicon
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In 2007, the Oxford English Dictionary added green related terms to its pages such as carbon footprint, greenwashing, and carbon neutral. It generally takes quite a few years for colloquial terms to make their way into reputable sources such as the OED, but the speed at which these expressions made their way into usage with official definitions shows the rapid evolution of going green.
7. Cap & Trade Carbon Trading
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Carbon trading, also known as cap and trade, has been a hotly debated policy with has big plans. The business solutions to counter climate change include free market principles coupled with government regulations. The details are not quite set in stone, but accounting for pollution offsets and creating official emissions trading markets are among the small steps.
8. Renewable Energy
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Renewable energy sources and advancements have grown exponentially since the turn of the century. While there is no cure-all solution for the lack of renewable and sustainable energy sources, many experts have stated that a combination of many standing renewable technologies has great promise for our future. By simply expanding the renewable energy sector, such as wind, solar, and hydro solutions, we can significantly cut emissions while finding long-term solutions.
9. IPCC Report
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In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change met in Paris to compile all existing information regarding climate change. This was the first significant attempt to combine data from around the world for a solution when moving forward. It was deemed “very likely” that climate change was caused by human activity, and that these errors began centuries ago. For the first time, there was a scientific consensus regarding climate change.
10. Price of Climate Change
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British economist Sir Nicholas Stern says that climate change will cost the world more than just a little chunk of change. In a 700-page report, he issued a wake-up call to environmentalists, economists, and people in general by providing the first concrete financial numbers regarding the impact of climate change. In short, climate change will cost 5% of global GDP each year from now until forever.
Posted by Fan Ding in Climate
February 17th, 2010 / 0 Comments
In recent years, the band U2 has become more environmentally conscious and now it looks like U2 would like its fans to join the cause. U2, who buy carbon offsets to balance the greenhouse gases that they emit during their concert tours, have asked their fans to do the same through a project the band has prepared with Offset Options, the first electronic marketplace providing web–services aimed at increasing price and product transparency within the Voluntary Carbon Market. The project is designed to raise approximately $450,000 for various renewable energy power plants such as the Dora-1 geothermal power plant in the Aegean province of Ayd?n in Turkey. You can read more about this story here.
Posted by Fan Ding in Climate
February 10th, 2010 / 1 Comment
The HOME STAR program (not to be confused with ENERGY STAR), also known in the media as the Cash for Caulkers program, is a proposed federal program that would provide direct incentives to American homeowners who invest in improving the energy efficiency of their homes. During President Obama’s State of the Union address on January 27, 2010, he said:
“We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities, and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy efficient, which supports clean jobs.”
Specifically, HOME STAR would reimburse homeowners for residential energy upgrades such as air sealing, insulation, new light bulbs and new appliances. For example, homeowners would be eligible to receive up to $2,000 for implementing at least two upgrades from a list of qualifying measures, or up to $3,500 for at least four qualifying measures. In addition, higher incentives would be available for homeowners who achieve energy savings of at least 20%.
Not only would the HOME STAR program reduce energy bills for the average American citizen, it will also create more jobs in the construction and skilled trade/craftsman market. A $23 billion investment in HOME STAR would support 5.9 million residential energy retrofits and create thousands if not millions of new local jobs in construction and related industries. We believe that becoming a Building Performance Institute (BPI) Certified Home Performance Contractor is a necessary step to secure these energy retrofit jobs. To that end, Greener Dawn offers the only live BPI-accredited training course in the San Diego region.
Posted by Fan Ding in Residential
February 8th, 2010 / 0 Comments
Now that the Dow is hovering around 10,000 again, private green companies are coming out of the woodwork and filing for IPOs. Here is a sample of some of the better known companies in the media:
Anticipated Green IPOs for 2010
Two instantly recognizable names (for those who follow the green industry) are Solyndra and Tesla. Solyndra was offered a $535 M loan guarantee from the Department of Energy back in March of 2009 as a show of confidence. Tesla Motors, of course, is the auto manufacturer famous for its fully electric Roadster vehicles that are seen as somewhat of an icon. As you can see from the chart, both companies are stuck in the red as far as profit and loss and it remains to be seen whether they can manufacture products with positive gross margins. For now, the promise and credibility of their technology will be the determining factors as to how successful the shelf offerings will be.
Jinko Solar Holdings is expected to debut on the NYSE in 2 days and it will be interesting to see how the reception will be now that the broader market (Dow, S&P, NASDAQ) is in a correction phase. It is interesting to note that A123 Systems (one of the more prominent green IPOs in 2009) shot out of the gate but since has receded significantly from its peak. Jinko, therefore, will be somewhat of a barometer for how investors currently view cleantech stocks.
Posted by Fan Ding in Uncategorized
February 5th, 2010 / 2 Comments
Now that hybrid vehicles have become a permanent part of the automobile landscape, the next step in the evolutionary process appears to be electric vehicles. In 2009, several major car manufacturers such as Ford, Nissan, and Fisker have revealed either plans or near production-ready electric vehicles to be introduced as early as later this year. To date, most of the media hype has surrounded Tesla Motors, the first manufacturer to prove it was possible to produce a fully-electric vehicle.
In the last few years, Tesla Motors has generated a lot of buzz surrounding its fully electric Roadster (retails at $109,000) and there always seems to be a shortage of supply when matched against demand. Just last week, Tesla announced that it was seeking for up to $100M in an IPO filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Two bits of data were interesting: Tesla has sold 937 cars to date and lost an accumulated total of $236.4 million ($30M in 2006, $78.2M in 2007, $82.8M in 2008, $31.5M in 2009). Of note is that most of the cars (~837) were sold in 2009. Tesla will be introducing a production level 4-door electric sedan (the Model S) for $57,400 in 2012 and thus far has garnered a lot of interest.
Two other vehicles of note is the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf. The Chevy Volt is nominally an electric vehicle but it will only be able to run 40 miles on one charge of its battery. After the initial 40 miles, the Volt switches to a small 4-cylinder internal combustion engine (71 hp) to extend the car’s range to over 300 miles. For commuters that drive less than 40 miles per day, this car should be very practical. The Nissan Leaf has a driving range that extends to about 100 miles, which should be more than adequate for most commuters. The driving range should increase with every new iteration, so for those curious about electric vehicles but are wary of the problems of initial adoption, patience will pay off in a few years.
Chevy Volt
Posted by Fan Ding in Uncategorized
February 3rd, 2010 / 1 Comment
Laboratories nationwide are very energy intensive typically consuming 5 to 10 times more energy per square foot than traditional office buildings. Certain cleaning rooms and specialty labs can consume as much as 100 times the energy of similarly sized space. Despite the high energy use intensity levels, laboratories can be designed and retrofitted with energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, and green sustainable practices. Laboratories for the 21st century has instituted an approach to optimizing energy performance in the lab. Some of the energy difficulties include controlling the high cost of ventilation in labs, the effect of heat gain from plug loads and energy waste resulting from different HVAC requirements within the building zones. The mantra should be “reduce, reuse, and recycle.”
Some best practices for promoting energy efficiency in laboratories:
- Benchmark, monitor, and report annually on building energy performance
- Consider energy recovery from exhaust air or process cooling water
- Incorporate energy monitoring and control systems with direct digital controls
- Fume hoods can use as much energy as an entire house so be cognizant of type, location, and size
- Use renewable energy such as solar for building lighting only after energy efficiency is applied
- On-site power generation utilizing cogeneration could be a viable option
It all starts with utilizing the Energy Benchmarking Tool through Laboratories for the 21st Century, which is a resource co-sponsored by the EPA and DOE for laboratories. This allows laboratory buildings to input both their whole building metrics as well as system level metrics in order to compare the performance to other buildings in the database.
Fume Hood
Posted by Fan Ding in Commercial
