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Green the Capitol was a March 2007 initiative, introduced by House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to make the United States Capitol a more environmentally sustainable workplace, and included proposals to make the millions of square feet of Capitol infrastructure a model of sustainability. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
The Speaker charged the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of the United States House of Representatives, Daniel P. Beard, with the task of making the House of Representatives a model of sustainability for the nation. Within a short period of time the program made significant progress in reducing energy consumption; greening all of the restaurants and cafeterias, reducing greenhouse gases; encouraging recycling reuse and diverting House waste from landfills; encouraging sustainable business practices in Legislative Agencies, Member Offices and Committees; and encouraging alternative transportation use for employee commuters to reduce traffic congestion and save energy.
Robert K. Lane initially was appointed as Executive Director of the program in 2008 and served in that capacity until July 2010, when Allison Rogers was appointed as Director. A major accomplishment of the Green the Capitol Initiative was to coordinate with the Architect of the Capitol to convert the antiquated Capitol Power Plant from predominant use of coal, to cleaner natural gas. This initiative substantially reduced the Capitol Campus' carbon emissions and contributed to the enhanced air quality of the Capitol Hill area.
On August 4, 2011, Daniel J. Strodel, succeeded Daniel P. Beard as CAO, and Stephen T. Ayers, AIA, LEED AP, Architect of the Capitol (AOC), announced that the AOC will assume and expand the House of Representatives' sustainability initiatives formerly conducted by the CAO. This will further improve efficiencies in the effort to reduce energy consumption on Capitol Hill.
The CAO's organization brought a number of sustainability issues to the forefront for the House of Representatives, and identified a number of energy and cost-savings measures that the AOC then carried out. To further improve efficiencies and educational resources Congress-wide, these initiatives will now be directed by the AOC whose mission it is to preserve and enhance the Capitol complex.
In 2010, the Architect of the Capitol installed 30,000 energy-efficient light fixtures, and converted 2,700 bathroom fixtures to automatic, low-flow units. These upgrades helped to achieve a 23.3 percent reduction in water consumption in the House Office Buildings from Fiscal Year 2009 to Fiscal Year 2010. In addition, approximately 1,250 bathroom fixtures were diverted from landfills and sent to a local asphalt plant for recycling. The AOC also installed a dimmable LED lighting technology in the Rayburn Cafeteria. In a matter of months, energy consumption for lighting in the cafeteria was reduced by more than 70 percent.
As a result of these efforts and others, Congress's energy reduction efforts have yielded great results. In Fiscal Year 2010, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007) goal was exceeded by reducing energy consumption 17 percent, beating the Fiscal Year 2010 requirement of a 15 percent reduction.
Green building refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planning to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. This requires close cooperation of the contractor, the architects, the engineers, and the client at all project stages. The Green Building practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort. Green building also refers to saving resources to the maximum extent, including energy saving, land saving, water saving, material saving, etc., during the whole life cycle of the building, protecting the environment and reducing pollution, providing people with healthy, comfortable and efficient use of space, and being in harmony with nature Buildings that live in harmony. Green building technology focuses on low consumption, high efficiency, economy, environmental protection, integration and optimization.’
Green computing, green IT, or ICT sustainability, is the study and practice of environmentally sustainable computing or IT.
A low-energy house is characterized by an energy-efficient design and technical features which enable it to provide high living standards and comfort with low energy consumption and carbon emissions. Traditional heating and active cooling systems are absent, or their use is secondary. Low-energy buildings may be viewed as examples of sustainable architecture. Low-energy houses often have active and passive solar building design and components, which reduce the house's energy consumption and minimally impact the resident's lifestyle. Throughout the world, companies and non-profit organizations provide guidelines and issue certifications to guarantee the energy performance of buildings and their processes and materials. Certifications include passive house, BBC - Bâtiment Basse Consommation - Effinergie (France), zero-carbon house (UK), and Minergie (Switzerland).
A Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) is a source of money from which loans are made for multiple small business development projects. Revolving loan funds share many characteristics with microcredit, micro-enterprise, and village banking, namely providing loans to persons or groups of people that do not qualify for traditional financial services or are otherwise viewed as being high risk. Borrowers tend to be small producers of goods and services: typically, they are artisans, farmers, and women with no credit history or access to other types of loans from financial institutions. Organizations that offer revolving loan fund lending aim to help new project or business owners become financially independent and eventually to become eligible for loans from commercial banks.
The Capitol Power Plant is a fossil-fuel burning power plant which provides steam and chilled water for the United States Capitol, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress and 19 other buildings in the Capitol Complex. Located at 25 E St SE in southeast Washington, D.C., it is the only coal-burning power plant in the District of Columbia, though it mostly uses natural gas. The plant has been serving the Capitol since 1910, and is under the administration of the Architect of the Capitol. Though it was originally built to supply the Capitol complex with electricity as well, the plant has not produced electricity for the Capitol since 1952. Electricity generation is now handled by the same power grid and local electrical utility (Pepco) that serves the rest of metropolitan Washington.
Suzlon Energy Limited is an Indian multinational wind turbine manufacturer based in Pune, India. It was formerly ranked by MAKE as the world's fifth largest wind turbine supplier.
Food loss and waste is food that is not eaten. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during production, processing, distribution, retail and food service sales, and consumption. Overall, about one-third of the world's food is thrown away. A 2021 metaanalysis that did not include food lost during production, by the United Nations Environment Programme found that food waste was a challenge in all countries at all levels of economic development. The analysis estimated that global food waste was 931 million tonnes of food waste across three sectors: 61 per cent from households, 26 per cent from food service and 13 per cent from retail.
The United States produced 5.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020, the second largest in the world after greenhouse gas emissions by China and among the countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions per person. In 2019 China is estimated to have emitted 27% of world GHG, followed by the United States with 11%, then India with 6.6%. In total the United States has emitted a quarter of world GHG, more than any other country. Annual emissions are over 15 tons per person and, amongst the top eight emitters, is the highest country by greenhouse gas emissions per person. Because coal-fired power stations are gradually shutting down, in the 2010s emissions from electricity generation fell to second place behind transportation which is now the largest single source. In 2020, 27% of the GHG emissions of the United States were from transportation, 25% from electricity, 24% from industry, 13% from commercial and residential buildings and 11% from agriculture. These greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to climate change in the United States, as well as worldwide.
Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the process of reducing the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a building allows it to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a thermal comfort. Installing light-emitting diode bulbs, fluorescent lighting, or natural skylight windows reduces the amount of energy required to attain the same level of illumination compared to using traditional incandescent light bulbs. Improvements in energy efficiency are generally achieved by adopting a more efficient technology or production process or by application of commonly accepted methods to reduce energy losses.
PlaNYC was a strategic plan released by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2007 to prepare the city for one million more residents, strengthen the economy, combat climate change, and enhance the quality of life for all New Yorkers. The plan brought together over 25 City agencies to work toward the vision of a greener, greater New York and significant progress was made towards the long-term goals over the following years.
A green-collar worker is a worker who is employed in an environmental sectors of the economy. Environmental green-collar workers satisfy the demand for green development. Generally, they implement environmentally conscious design, policy, and technology to improve conservation and sustainability. Formal environmental regulations as well as informal social expectations are pushing many firms to seek professionals with expertise with environmental, energy efficiency, and clean renewable energy issues. They often seek to make their output more sustainable, and thus more favorable to public opinion, governmental regulation, and the Earth's ecology.
The Climate Savers Computing Initiative was a nonprofit group of consumers, businesses and conservation organizations dedicated to promoting smart technologies that improve power efficiency and reduce energy consumption of computers. Formed in 2007, it was based in Portland, Oregon. In July 2012, Climate Savers Computing Initiative combined with The Green Grid and its programs continue within that organization.
Republic Services is an American waste disposal company whose services include non-hazardous solid waste collection, waste transfer, waste disposal, recycling, and energy services. It is the second largest provider of waste disposal in the United States after Waste Management Corporation.
The climate change policy of the United States has major impacts on global climate change and global climate change mitigation. This is because the United States is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world after China, and is among the countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions per person in the world. In total, the United States has emitted over 400 billion metric tons of greenhouse gasses, more than any country in the world.
Micro-sustainability is the portion of sustainability centered around small scale environmental measures that ultimately affect the environment through a larger cumulative impact. Micro-sustainability centers on individual efforts, behavior modification, education and creating attitudinal changes, which result in an environmentally conscious individual. Micro-sustainability encourages sustainable changes through "change agents"—individuals who foster positive environmental action locally and inside their sphere of influence. Examples of micro-sustainability include recycling, power saving by turning off unused lights, programming thermostats for efficient use of energy, reducing water usage, changing commuting habits to use less fossil fuels or modifying buying habits to reduce consumption and waste. The emphasis of micro-sustainability is on an individual's actions, rather than organizational or institutional practices at the systemic level. These small local level actions have immediate community benefits if undertaken on a widespread scale and if imitated, they can have a cumulative broad impact.
Verdiem was a software corporation based in Seattle, Washington. Verdiem is offered by Avolin. The company was backed by venture capital. Verdiem produces the Surveyor 6 enterprise-class PC power management software. Verdiem Surveyor enables customers to centrally control and reduce the energy used by PCs, Macs, and network devices running Cisco EnergyWise without impacting end users. Nearly 700 corporations, government agencies and universities have deployed Surveyor on over 2 million devices.
Executive Order 13514 was an Executive Order, entitled Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance, which U.S. President Barack Obama issued on October 5, 2009. EO 13514 was replaced by Executive Order 13693, titled Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next Decade, issued by Obama on March 19, 2015. The Office of the Federal Environmental Executive, whose name was changed to the Office of Federal Sustainability by Executive Order 13693, is housed at the Council on Environmental Quality within the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Its role is to oversee policy, guidance, and implementation of the sustainability Executive Order.
"Sustainability," was defined as “development which implies meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”as defined by the 1983 Brundtland Commission. As sustainability gains support and momentum worldwide, universities across the United States have expanded initiatives towards more sustainable campuses, commitments, academic offerings, and student engagement.
The Guiding Principles for Federal Leadership in High Performance and Sustainable Building are a set of established criteria developed by the U.S. Government for use by federal agencies committed to "federal leadership in the design, construction, and operation of High-Performance and Sustainable Buildings". Following this development effort, Executive Order 13514 was signed in 2009. Sec. 2(g) requires that: "(iii) at least 15 percent of the agency's existing buildings …meet the Guiding Principles by fiscal year 2015…”.
Daniel P. Beard served as the Commissioner of the United States Bureau of Reclamation, and as the fourth Chief Administrative Officer of the United States House of Representatives.
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