I know I’m not alone in feeling growing anxiety about the changes to the natural world I’ve seen in my lifetime, or in my rising concern as I flip through the newspaper and think that America could be left behind in the accelerating race to a clean energy global economy. But I’ve also seen vivid proof that America can turn action on climate change into American jobs.

For all these reasons, and like millions of Americans, I was relieved and moved to hear President Obama commit to “respond to the threat of climate change” in his second inaugural address and to do so to preserve both America’s unique natural heritage, and our economic promise for our children.

In a  statement on Inauguration Day, NWF saw renewed hope for a secure climate future and underscored the broad public support to confront the urgent climate challenges that face all Americans.

Gov. Granholm at the Department of Energy Saturday.  Photo:  DOE

But for starters, here’s a hot-off-the-presses proposal that gives citizens of every state something to chew on (and a stake in the clean energy economy):

At an Inauguration weekend event at the Department of Energy,  I was happy to get a chance to hear former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm outline a Clean Energy Jobs Race to the Top that would spur states and regions to take advantage of their unique strengths to build in-state jobs and forge state and national energy leadership.

Here’s how it would work

One example of what responding to climate change looks like today. Building more fuel efficient cars and trucks in Kentucky. Photo: Sam Varnhagen, Ford Motor Co.

• Targeting industry clusters and opportunities for competitive advantage;
• Strong business and education partnerships;
• Approaches that spur supply and demand for new energy and technology;
• Partnering regionally; and
• More jobs created

How big is the upside to state action? Big. Take a look at these recent reports that outline the state-by-state and region-by-region benefits of deploying offshore windproduction, or modernizing our electric grid, building advanced vehicles, developing solar power or restoring the Gulf.

Full video of the DOE inaugural event is here, and provides a plenty to spur discussion of the specifics of  the Clean Energy Jobs Race to the Top  and other promising ways to meet our climate and energy challenges.  But whether you care most about jobs and  manufacturing, healthy families and communities, education and innovation, or wildlife and our natural heritage, there’s no doubt that states — in partnership with communities and the federal government — have a powerful opportunity to lead the way into a prosperous clean energy and climate smart future.

Ask your elected leaders and local organizations what they’re doing to respond to climate change and bring clean energy jobs to your neighborhood. You can make an #energypledge about what you plan to do to respond to climate change or meet our energy challenges, or a #GreenWish about what you’d like to see for the environment, wildlife, climate or energy in the year to come.

It was all about the future of energy at an event at the Center for American Progress here in DC Friday morning when CAP released their  new report:  “Regional Energy, National Solutions:  A Real Energy Vision for America”.  NWF authored the Midwest  and Southeast chapters of the report.

Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline runs under the straits of Mackinac. Photo: MDOT Photo/Video Unit

Meanwhile, back at the event,  speakers including Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, described a diverse national clean energy strategy, built on the powerful energy, manufacturing and technology assets of regions across America.  Speakers and the report contrast this diverse clean energy plan to the American Petroleum Institute’s “Drill Baby Drill” vision: more oil and other fossil fuels.  Period.   That vision is conveniently simple.  The impacts, less so.

Fossil fuels play a large role in today’s economy, but we now know that the energy that powered the last two centuries comes with a side dish of volatile prices, environmental, health and safety risks, and it speeds climate change -which, by itself, threatens our economy, security, and sustaining the natural world for our children.

Fortunately, as Friday’s report describes, the energy world has changed.  Today we have a wealth of large scale opportunities that take energy, our economy, and the future of wildlife and our outdoor heritage forward together.  

Large scale clean energy implementation is happening across the country. Graphic: Center for American Progress

 Or, as NWF climate policy director, Joe Mendelson, said about last weeks pipeline “anomalies”:  “The best approach to our energy challenges isn’t building more pipelines, its embracing clean energy solutions that don’t spill or explode”

So whats really happening out there?

As we show in the report, states and regions all across the country are proving that they can prosper by implementing new energy technologies at scale. They show that a diverse national clean energy strategy anchored on strengths of the whole nation can build hundreds of thousands of jobs, and revitalize our economy. These solutions are real  and they may include some surprises:

• Offshore wind is the only utility-scale energy resource abundant enough to contribute substantially to the sustained, long-term energy demands of the Atlantic Coast region. Developing just 54 gigawatts of offshore wind in Atlantic waters would generate $200 billion in economic activity and create 43,000 permanent, well-paid technical jobs, in addition to displacing the annual output of 52 coal-fired power plants. (these regional bullets excerpted from CAP’s press release, and fact sheet)

NWF’s own recent report The Turning Point Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy underscores these results and emphasizes the diverse economic opportunities for states from Maine to Florida from robust adoption of offshore wind.  NWF was happy to join Clean Energy States Alliance who authored the Atlantic coast chapter of today’s report on their release.

Building the next generation of fuel efficient vehicles.  Photo: Sam VarnHagen/ Ford Motor Co.

• In addition to revitalizing American manufacturing, the deep oil savings from vehicles now being built in the Midwest under strong new fuel economy standards mean net savings to consumers of more than $54 billion a year in 2030 and will add 570,000 jobs to the economy.

• The Southeast boasts more firms across the high-tech smart-grid value chain than any other region and continuing to lead this transition offers the opportunity to create diverse job opportunities. At the same time, if [through enhanced efficiency], the region were to cut energy use across the region by 16 percent in 2030  consumers would see an annual savings of $71 billion and 520,000 jobs by 2030.

• In the Gulf Coast region, each $1 million in investment in ecosystem restoration can create as many as 36 jobs across a huge range of occupations and skill levels—more than equivalent investments in traditional infrastructure projects.
• The Mountain West boasts nearly unlimited renewable energy resources and these nonhydro projects, either under construction or in advanced development, represent 71,872 jobs. A study by Headwaters Economics found that from 1970–2010, nonmetropolitan counties in the West that had more than 30 percent protected federal lands increased jobs by 345 percent. Nonmetropolitan counties with no protected federal lands saw just 83 percent growth.
• The solar industry in California has experienced significant growth over the past 15 years. Since 1995 the number of solar businesses grew by 171 percent, and total employment jumped by 166 percent. As a point of comparison, the total number of California businesses has grown by 70 percent and employment increased by 12 percent.

These examples are not the only promising clean energy opportunities for the given regions, nor have we covered all the regions or promising technologies for the nation. But they clearly show a wealth of win-win energy opportunities in front of us that deliver to communities,  industries, and the environment across the country.  America’s energy strategy should start there.

Things are heating up here in DC, and for once I really do mean the heat.  Yesterday’s 94 degrees tied the record 1991 high at Dulles and the rest of the week isn’t looking any different.

Keep it cool, and thanks for reading.

Amanda

This week’s stories:

1. Highlight of the Week: Cleaning Up Cars
2. Quote: Rep Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
3. Economic Story of the Week: Smart Grid, Smart Benefits
4. Editorial of the Week: The Long Hot Forecast
5. Garden for Climate Change
6. Deficit deal must kill oil industry tax breaks
7. Happening this Week

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Highlight of the Week

Cleaning Up Cars

The Obama administration took two big steps this week toward making our nation’s vehicles cleaner.

Chevy Volt, via igloowhite/Flickr

On Wednesday, the Obama administration unveiled improved vehicle fuel efficiency labels. The new labels include expanded fuel efficiency information, cost savings, and vehicle pollution data.

“Fuel efficiency labels are a critical tool for drivers as they look to make smart economic and environmental choices,” said Zoe Lipman, the National Wildlife Federation’s senior manager for transportation and global warming solutions. “Strong fuel efficiency standards can cut America’s oil dependence, support our economic recovery, and safeguard our natural resources.”

The Obama administration also announced the federal government will purchase 116 plug-in electric vehicles, including 101 Chevrolet Volts, and install charging stations in five cities. It’s part of a plan to have the federal government purchasing only alternative fuel passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks by 2015.

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Quote:

Rohrabacher (G. Skidmore Flickr)

“Is there some thought being given to subsidizing the clearing of rain forests in order for some countries to eliminate that production of greenhouse gases?”

- Rep Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) asked climate change specialist Todd Stern. Forestry experts were dumbfounded, as forests currently absorb roughly a third of all man-made carbon pollution.

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Economic Story of the Week

Smart Grid, Smart Benefits

via World Economic Forum/Flickr

According to a new study by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), smart grid technology investments from U.S. utilities of between $338 and $476 billion over the next 20 years could deliver $1.3 to $2 trillion in benefits over the same period. Grid technology would provide benefits such as power reliability, integration of solar rooftop arrays and plug-in vehicles, reductions in electricity demand and stronger cybersecurity.

One of the major consumer benefits, according to the study, could be a reduction in their energy consumption. Smart grid technologies can improve efficiency and also ease a transition to cleaner energy generation, both of which could also lower overall carbon pollution in years to come.

More on this story: Climatewire

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Editorial of the Week

The Long Hot Forecast

(New York Times)

Chicago's Cool Globes via John LeGear/Flickr

With much of the rest of the nation stuck in climate-change denial or passive fretfulness, Chicago has been planning, moving, doing — adapting streets and buildings to the coming reality of snowier winters, wetter springs and hotter summers. Other cities should pay attention.

City planners examined a century’s worth of weather records and found the long-term trends grim. Using thermal radar, they are pinpointing the hottest areas and finding ways to cool them: removing impermeable blacktop that traps water and heat, building rooftop gardens, planting southern varieties of trees and adding air-conditioning to classrooms. The city hopes that these investments will save money. They will surely save lives. (More…)

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Garden for Climate Change

via NWF

The Royal Horticultural Society conducted a scientific review that has found gardens can play a role in mitigating the effect of climate change. According to the scientists, planting certain vegetation can mitigate the impacts of extreme heat and cold by stabilizing urban temperatures and providing shade and insulation, soak up excess rainwater to prevent flooding, and create habitats for birds, mammals and bugs that increase local biodiversity.

Dr. Tijana Blanusa, lead author of the review, warns that it is important to be aware of the indirect carbon emissions that can result from gardening, such as the use of power tools and the transport of horticultural goods. But she also advises that using plants with multiple uses can increase your benefits, for example, trees take up water, capture pollution, offer shade that can lower energy consumption and provide habitat.

Throughout May, gardeners across the US celebrated National Wildlife Federation’s Garden for Wildlife Month by cleaning up their gardens, making them wildlife friendly, planting vegetables, and becoming official Certified Wildlife Habitats. For every newly certified habitat in May, NWF is planting a tree. But just because May is over, it’s not too late to get certified. And now you can garden for climate change!

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Deficit Deal Must Kill Oil Industry Tax Breaks

Twenty Senate Democrats are putting pressure on the White House to guarantee that any deficit-reduction deal eliminates billions of dollars in tax breaks for major oil companies. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) led a group in sending a letter on their position to Vice President Biden, who is leading talks on the deficit-cutting deal.

“The American people are demanding to know why they are forced to hand over taxpayer dollars to help oil executives enrich themselves when they’re already paying $4.00 for a gallon of gasoline,” states the letter. “That is why a majority of the Senate has embraced cutting oil subsidies as a way to lower the deficit, and it is also why we believe it must be part of any agreement you reach to raise the debt ceiling and lower the deficit.”

More on this story: The Hill, E&E News

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Happening this Week

Wednesday, June 1

Markup of regulatory review and EPA permitting bills, Energy and Commerce, 4:00 PM, 2123 Rayburn

Tar Sands Virtual Town Hall, featuring award-winning journalist and author Andrew Nikiforuk, 8-8:30PM, (877) 229-8493; passcode 15949, contact IallonardoT@nwf.org for more info.

Thursday, June 2

Markup continues of regulatory reform and EPA permitting bills, Energy and Commerce
9:00 AM, 2123 Rayburn

Hearing on Gulf Coast recovery, Oversight and Government Reform, 9:30 AM, 2154 Rayburn
Markup of energy and water appropriations bill, Appropriations, 10:00 AM, 2362-B Rayburn

Hearing on Alaskan oil and gas resources, infrastructure and access, Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, 10:00 AM, 1334 Longworth House Office Building

Friday, June 3

Hearing: H.R. 909, A Roadmap for America’s Energy Future, Energy & Power, 9AM, 2322 Rayburn House Office Building

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For more global warming news on Wildlife Promise click here.

Green IT is a booming industry, but how can students interested in smart grid or renewable energy technologies distinguish themselves in the field? We asked several experts to describe the way forward in the land of green information technology.

“This is a growth area, and a student that maintains a narrow focus in computer science would find it difficult to get immediate employment in [the renewable energy sector],” explains Dr. Ravi Prakash, associate professor in computer science at the University of Texas at Dallas. Traditional information technology (IT) programs, whether they are offered by a community college or through a university graduate program, maintain a narrow focus on one subject area such as software engineering, computer science, applied information systems technology, network administration, or data analysis and reporting. He recommends that regardless of the focus students should augment their education by participating in seminars and electives that focus on issues like smart grid technology, renewable energy, and other clean tech topics, even if they are offered by other academic departments.

This sentiment was echoed by Michelle Naquin, CEO of the Green Technology Alliance (GTA), who says that students “Should look for programs in known areas of certification that include specific modules on green, clean and sustainability.  The scope of the work and areas of impact make it difficult to create ‘specialist’ programs.”

Prakash goes on to say, “It is extremely important for students to have an interdisciplinary focus-if I’m going to make a tool [for an electrical utility, for instance] that will be used by a different area of specialization, it behooves me to understand how it will be used. Students need to use their electives to broaden their outlook.”

Prakash fosters this interdisciplinary approach by encouraging grad students to work with him on various research projects. In particular, Prakash is researching how the renewable energy sector will be integrated with the smart grid. “It’s a large-scale networking problem,” he says. As tax incentives lead to thousands, if not millions, of home-installed solar systems networked into the utility grid for net-metering purposes, many new IT problems will be created.

Consider, for instance, what happens when thousands of homes are fitted with solar panels, each producing several hundred kilowatts of energy. By comparison, a single coal burning plant will produce thousands of megawatts.  ”The rate at which energy is produced [by these solar panels] and the time at which it is produced is unpredictable, which creates interesting issues for electric utilities trying to meet demands, explains Prakash. “Normally they have baseline amounts and they have backup sources that come online when peak is high. When you add a large number of smaller sources, the variability significantly increases.”

As a result, utility companies will need to find ways to manage many points of data, especially how much energy is being produced at any given point. “The utilities will need to react very quickly to these changes and demand so that they can bring their surplus generators online or offline as needed. Then, all of these data points have to be accumulated in databases. And we need experts in statistical analysis who can optimize pricing, etc so that they can avoid peaks in energy demand to flatten it out as much as they can.”

Fairfield University’s School of Engineering also lacks a formal green focus, but they are developing research opportunities for students interested in exploring renewable energy and smart grid issues. “I have a solar project on campus and we’re collecting data-every 16 minutes we get 20 points of data (during daylight),” explains Dr.  Evangelos Hadjimichael, dean of the school of engineering. “I’m using IT to analyse the data-data collection is accumulated by a computer and the data is collected by a data logger and transmitted to a computer and then we use that computer to collect and manage and deduce the data.”

Beyond formal education, Angela McClowry, co-founder of open-sustainability.org, an organization dedicated to developing a free and open standard for sustainability based on information management, suggests that students can also look to expand their education by getting training in environmental engineering, degrees in sustainability, or certification with LEED.

Students can also get traditional degrees and then learn on the job. Ian Thomson, one of the co-founders of CleanTechies, is working on a number of different projects that make use of conventional software tools for green purposes. Using modified CAD (computer-aided design) programs on ProjectFrog, they’re developing software that makes buildings more efficient, “We show our customers how a building is going to look and how it will perform in terms of its energy,” says Thomson.

In another application, People Power, users can interface with their homes using an iPhone or computer to adjust plug loads, see which plugs are being used, etc. “These are essentially micro smart grids,” explain Thomson. Both People Power and ProjectFrog are being developed by programmers with traditional skills.

So, does specializing in green technology limit IT professionals in any way? On the subject of job security and growth in the green IT job market, Naquin had these thoughts: “IT has and will continue to be a major cost center for every kind of organization and industry. Building skills that improve efficiency from any angle will make a candidate more marketable and ultimately employable. Skills that are in demand are those that can identify and demonstrate improvements in efficiencies, whether in the development or management of IT.  Employers are specifically interested in any that impact cost and/or improve the life cycle management of IT resources for an organization.”

Naquin isn’t the only one who has a positive outlook for green IT professions. Mary Vincent, founder of Green Star Solution (an organization working on green tech innovation) and co-founder of the Green Software Unconference) suggests, “International, governmental, and company regulations and policies are driving many software opportunities, including carbon accounting software.”

Several institutions are in the process of developing green-focused IT programs. The GTA is working on professional certification programs by functional area, but the programs are not scheduled to roll out until sometime in late 2011. The Software Engineering Institute of CarnegieMellon is also researching smart grid technology and working on energy issues using the Smart Grid Maturity Model (SGMM). Additionally, UT-Dallas is making plans to develop an interdisciplinary research center, though this won’t likely be launched for several semesters.

Though the way is not clear cut, with or without these specialized programs students interested in the intersection between technology and clean energy should be able to find their way to a fulfilling career. And though the future looks bright for this sector, our experts seem confident that even those who specialize should fare well should the green IT market fall flat. Prakash says, “When I look at an IT professional who specializes in green energy, they’ll still have done the basic courses in software engineering, etc. They would be easily able to retool and move to other areas.”

McNair Wagner, Robert Boyd and I woke up very early this morning (7am CET = 1am EST), put on our warmest clothes and made our way to the Bella Center for the U.N. Climate Conference. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of different organizations from all over the world represented at booths brimming with information. In a single (although very large) room, I was able to collect materials ranging from the IPCC's report, "Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis" to the special Copenhagen edition of Ode Magazine ("for intelligent optimists"). 

We walked through the exhibition hall, picked up a daily programme and went our separate ways. My first sessions was "Taking Action at Home" with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in the U.S. Center. The main room was full more than 30 minutes before the event began, so I watched on a screen from the lobby just outside. I was in good company, though, because I ran into McNair, Robert and Energy Action Coalition's Executive Director Jessy Tolkan. Administrator Jackson's major announcement for the day was that the EPA has found once and for all that greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten public health and the environment and confirmed the scientific findings that GHGs are at unprecedented levels due to human activity.  Read the official news release here.

Later in the day, I got a look at what communities are doing about those GHGs, in the form of Smart Grid technology (which we've written about before here) and the role of regulators in promoting and developing it in both Europe and California. In case you're not familiar with smart grids, they allow for significant improvements in the efficiency of energy distribution due to better monitoring, controls and storage capabilities. Smart meters would allow homeowners to monitor their energy consumption in real time and power companies could measure actual demand with greater accuracy, enabling them to meet that demand with minimal waste and losses. These grids also have increased ability to manage both central (power plant) electricity generation as well as distributed generation (small-scale solar and wind, etc.). As more and more electric cars hit the road, households will also be able to assist in energy storage (which can be very difficult to do on a large scale), again to prevent waste and energy loss. (Visit the U.S. Department of Energy's website for more information about this technology.)

My last session of the evening was titled, "Sustainable Living or Sustainable Building." Panelists discussed simple changes that we can all make to our living spaces, such as insulation and lighting retrofits, that will not only make them significantly more efficient, but more comfortable as well. The speaker discussing building insulation reinforced my excitement to start weatherization volunteer/training programs throughout the Southeast, which I learned a good deal about just last weekend by attending the BuildINSULATE! workshop at Warren Wilson College. You can watch a video about the workshop here, but also expect to hear a lot more about weatherization programs from me in the future.

Every county in the United States has a weatherization assistance program to help insulate and upgrade low-income homes. The Warren Wilson INSULATE! crew has come up with a great model that can be easily adapted to any inhabited part of the U.S., which will make homes more efficient (leading to less GHGs emitted in the future), reduce rising energy costs that can account for more than 50% of household spending in certain cases, and train participants in proper weatherization techniques that they can use in their own homes and communities, perhaps even creating a source of income for those seeking employment in the new "green" economy.

“It’s like getting your phone bill and not being able to see who you called and how long you talked in order to make adjustments,” says Greg Dixon, senior vice president of sales for EnerNOC, Inc. The Boston firm provides “demand response” expertise and technology, enabling customers to monitor their own energy use and cut back.

Demand response represents a multi-faceted movement, young but deeply rooted in government, industry, and education. The concept has launched billion-dollar companies and new courses of academic study. Through utility-sponsored programs, it provides new avenues for large-scale energy users to cut energy use, reduce their environmental impact, and often bring in substantial new cash in the process. And the design and operation of university-based demand-response systems employs not only faculty and staff, but often students preparing for life in a lower-consumption world.

Increasing Reliability

In central California, the College of the Sequoias signed up in 2006 for Clean Green California in mid-2006. The utility-backed program was born after blackouts rolled through the Golden State in 2000 and 2001.

University of New Mexico

Grid-emergency “events” happen five to 10 times per year, usually on hot summer days between 2 and 6 p.m. according to Eric Middlestead, Dean of Facilities and Facilities Planning at the college. “Our demand response is primarily to reduce air conditioning,” he said.

With a few computer keystrokes, he or a staff member responds by upping the temperature by four degrees in air-conditioned areas in approximately 40 buildings rooms. Most are set around 74 degrees Fahrenheit normally and 78 during the event. The A/C is switched off entirely in hallways and bathrooms. Energy use typically drops by about 250 kilowatts during an event.

“The first time we did it, about a dozen people called to complain. When we explained what we were doing, they were all very supportive,” said Middlestead. The next couple of times, the school was warned a day in advance by the local utility. Students and faculty were warned as well, and again the response was overwhelmingly supportive.

For its trouble, he estimates, the college will have received between $10,000 and $12,000 during its first year of participation, which is now drawing to a close.

Reducing Consumption

Working and studying at the University of Maryland are nearly 50,000 students, faculty, and staff. Its College Park campus consumes 205 megawatt hours of juice per year. Two years ago, it was eight percent higher, says Mike Krone, manager of utilities operations. Then it enrolled in a demand-response program sponsored by PJM, the Regional Transmission Organization serving the Mid-Atlantic States.

Like his counterpart in California, Krone responds to grid emergencies mainly with the thermostat. “We coast our air supply system during the day, which normally runs 24-7, and shift some of the load to nighttime,” he said.

On a single hot August day in 2007, PJM says voluntary demand reductions in its three-state region saved 1,945 megawatts of electricity. That’s the amount of energy used by a mid-sized city. A 2007 report by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission estimated that demand systems nationwide lowered electricity consumption by 1.4 to 4.1 percent in overstressed systems during peak periods in 2006.

More evidence of demand-response effectiveness is in the energy-trading markets, according to Krone. Megawatt-hours are traded on an exchange much like stocks or commodity futures. Today’s prices exhibit nearly no volatility, in contrast with wild swings as recently as 2003, when a major blackout hit the Northeast.

“The grid has been really quiet,” he said. Krone credits demand-response systems directly for encouraging conservation.

Preparing for Renewable Energy

At the University of New Mexico, a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy is paying for two separate demand-response systems. One monitors a temperature-control system that will use chilled water to cool a single building. The other involves retrofitting several buildings with sensors and instruments to control various conventional heat and ventilation systems.

Particularly challenging is the development of related software, says Andrea Mammoli, associate professor of mechanical engineering at UNM. “The expense is not trivial,” he said. New hardware will include digital controllers and variable-frequency drives for fans. With the resulting changes in airflow will come the need for improved zone control. HVAC vents must open and close in close coordination with changes in fan speed so that the building’s farthest reaches are well served. Most universities have an electronic EMS or emergency management system, said Mammoli. Installing demand-response technology is a matter of integrating it well with the existing system.

The big benefit of demand response, Mammoli expects, will relate to energy production, not consumption. More renewable energy sources are coming online, but because of their intermittent nature, there’s a need to sense their availability and tap them instantaneously. The process will rely on the same sort of sensors and controls now used in demand systems.

Many demand-response systems already gauge inputs as well as outputs. An example is the Leslie Shao-ming Sun Field Station, built on a biological preserve at Stanford University. The building was designed for net zero carbon emissions and a minimal environmental footprint. Reported in real-time are energy data including wattage arriving from the grid or being pumped back into it, propane consumption, solar panel voltage, and temperatures of individual solar arrays.

Typically, the data is viewable in an online “dashboard,” shown in technical bar graphs and histograms. Often it is also displayed in a public place such as the common area of a dorm. The flat panel screen may double as a kiosk for announcements and perhaps a plug-and-play outlet for video games.

Encouraging Conservation

Student-designers at Dartmouth College leveraged the high-profile placement of their dashboard with an appeal to the heart as well as the head. A monitor displays a cartoon-like meter moving up and down with actual energy use. Beside it, an animated polar bear is sleeping happily on an ice floe. But when energy use rises, incrementally, the bear’s plight worsens. Eventually he plunges through the ice and appears to be drowning. Students have reacted with panic, dashing through the dorm to switch off lights and save the bear.

“Charts appeal to the technical side. This gets people emotionally involved,” said Lori Loeb, a Dartmouth professor of computer science. Loeb directs a minor program in digital arts, and conceived of the polar bear idea.

“I haven’t proved this, but my hypothesis is that when you warm the data emotionally, people pay more attention to it,” she said. She and some students are building a business to distribute the concept to institutions and eventually perhaps homeowners.

In Minneapolis, architecture firm LHB is designing a system for Carlton College, located 45 miles to the south. Under construction are two new residence halls that will house 230 students. In one, energy use will be monitored “per floor.” The other will monitor consumption for every suite, says LHB architect Maureen Ness.

“Monitoring individual suites creates an incentive for students to use energy wisely,” she said. “When they see they’re using a lot more energy than their neighbor, maybe they shut off something they don’t need—such as a coffee maker.” Students sometimes set up energy-cutting competitions.

Voluntary responses to demand, as opposed to the automatic kind, are great but not always practical, Ness notes. Systems vary widely, and many rely on a mix of individual responses and system-wide actions by a single administrator. Pre-programmed shutdowns, often sequential and nuanced according to many conditions, may be effective in manufacturing. But university-scale systems are smaller in scope. “They’re talking megawatts. We’re talking kilowatts,” said Ness.

Best practices in demand response necessitate enlisting certain key personnel. Particularly important, said Ness, are the technical people who manage the physical plant. Sequoias administrator Middestead agrees. But the resources are spread thin, he warned. “The facilities department is key, but I have yet to see one that’s overstaffed.”

Any demand-response installation is a positive step, says Greg Dixon of EnerNOC. “It’s like training wheels on your way to true demand-side management. You get the foundational technology to see how you’re doing in terms of energy management. You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”

See More:

Sub-metering Campus Buildings: EPA (PDF)

However, the system has taken some flak recently, with critics citing high administrative costs, a preference for surface-level improvements, and a “checklist” approach as deterrents. The fact that the rating of Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum LEED can sometimes come down to adding a bike rack and installing bamboo flooring is, to some, lacking teeth, and has a much smaller effect on carbon emissions than might be hoped. Depending on a variety of factors, a LEED-certified structure built with local materials and compact fluorescent bulbs can actually be less energy-efficient than its older, better-insulated, non-LEED neighbor. As Paul Erlich of the Building Intelligence Group notes, “The sad truth is that many green buildings today are neither highly efficient nor particularly intelligent, and this is a missed opportunity.”

However, since LEED’s launch in 2000 it continues to evolve, and with a new version expected by the end of the year, the guidelines will delve deeper into what it means for a building to be green. The idea of holistic planning will take a more central role, and certification for campus-wide policies, such as purchasing recycled paper or using non-toxic cleaning products, will be a streamlined process that doesn’t require each additional building to re-document. Credits for regional initiatives and building designs that interact better with their surroundings are being considered. Most importantly, credits will be weighted more heavily according to their impact on carbon emissions, making it harder for a carbon hog to be certified.

While LEED guidelines do an excellent job of calculating broad sustainability, new technologies are making it easier to calculate and reduce carbon emissions even in non-green buildings. Demand response, which automatically shuts down unnecessary utilities (such as lights in empty rooms or heat in unused buildings) to redirect electricity at times of peak demand, is one such example that requires only minimal retrofitting. By reducing the likelihood of a blackout and requiring less from the grid, an automated monitoring system can save millions of dollars and tons of CO2 by adjusting usage according to need. In the corporate world, kickbacks to companies who commit to shutting down non-essential systems in their buildings at times of peak demand have prevented blackouts.

This smart grid technology seems tailor-made for college networks, and is already being tested by campuses like the University of New Mexico. UNM, starting with a 200-building audit, will link monitoring and control systems for their utilities. Once the assessment is completed, buildings which require additional smart technology will be retrofitted. Then the whole campus will be linked together by Internet controls and connected to the local electricity grid, as well as UNM’s own solar and natural gas generators, which contribute about six megawatts to the campus. Ideally, this kind of technology will earn credits under revised LEED guidelines, making the USGBC’s recommendations more useful to schools working to reduce their emissions by 80% before 2050, as endorsed by climate scientists.

While there are admitted imperfections in the current LEED program, its greatest strength is its requirement that all designers and stakeholders be involved in the planning from the very beginning. Melissa Gallagher-Rogers, a US Green Building Council manager who works with higher education projects, says, “One of the main tenants is integrated design, the idea that you have all the project members together to talk about the building from day one, and then they stay connected to the building, so if things come up, or you need to be innovative, everyone’s still there to work together. Buildings register so that you don’t have architects designing a building, drawing up the plans, turning them over to the engineers and disappearing.” More than any other organization, the USGBC has brought together architects, designers, engineers, and facilities managers to create a useful system for measuring sustainability and creating buildings that sit a little lighter on the land.

Just the fact that so many people are taking LEED as a given and looking beyond to next steps in carbon-cutting is an indicator of the success of the program. The raison d’etre of USGBC, says Gallagher-Rogers, was never to award points. Rather, the creators hoped to bring about a market transformation, which seems to be the case. McGraw-Hill Construction estimates that green building will constitute 9-10% of the market within the next few years, and that number will only grow, particularly as costs decrease (for some new construction, costs for green buildings are already equal to those for conventional building) and the knowledge base grows. There are currently about 45,000 LEED-accredited professionals in the building field, and demand for their services is sharply increasing. As the process becomes more sophisticated, greener practices will become the norm rather than the exception, making campuses smarter, more beautiful, and ultimately sustainable.

Resources: Several excellent sites exist for information on building green, including of course, the US Green Building Council’s, which includes documentation for LEED and resources for designers, architects and engineers. Also check out GreenerBuildings.com, with a wealth of articles and news, Architecture2030.org, which aims for carbon-zero buildings by the year 2030, and the GridWise Architecture Council which focuses on interoperability and intelligent building technology. If your campus is located in the Pacific Northwest, the Cascadia Green Building Council goes a step beyond LEED and has ideas unique to your region. Finally, download the National Wildlife Federation’s Higher Education in a Warming World report, which highlights examples and practices already being used at colleges and universities nation-wide.