Government strategy to make ‘polluter pay’, with penalties for difficult to recycle items. Retailers and producers of packaging will be forced to pay the full cost of collecting and recycling it under the government’s new waste strategy. Supermarkets and other retailers could be charged penalties for putting difficult to recycle packaging – such as black plastic trays – on the market …
ICAST Wins ‘Agency of the Year’ Award from the Utah Housing Coalition
ICAST (International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Technology) a 501(c)(3) nonprofit is honored to receive the ‘Agency of the Year’ award, presented at the Annual Utah Housing Coalition meeting, held in Salt Lake City on Dec. 5, 2018. This award recognizes a non-profit, for-profit, or local government agency that makes significant contributions to the community through their leadership and innovations …
Navigating Utility Business Model Reform
Advancing efficient and equitable approaches to update the utility business model—motivated by emerging technological, policy, and market conditions in the electric power sector—is crucial to the grid’s transition to a more secure, clean, affordable, customer-centric system. Powerful trends are impacting the contours of the electric system, including growing policy demands for improved environmental performance, the increasingly widespread availability of distributed …
ACEEE publishes 2018 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard
The scorecard provides a benchmark of state energy policy and progress. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has released its 2018 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard. For the second year in a row, Massachusetts is ranked number one and California number two. The two states shared the ranking of number one in 2016, and this battle to be the top state goes …
End of ‘sunshine tax’ raises hopes for green energy in Spain
Seven years ago, Spain was on the way to becoming a world leader in renewable energy, but after the election in late 2011 of a People’s party government seen by critics as hostile to the sector, there was little or no progress. While Spain has significant land and offshore shale gas and oil reserves, environmentalists and local authorities have blocked …
Certified Green Buildings may have an advantage in capital markets
Research indicates that green certification lowers the cost of capital for real estate investors, according to a recent column at GlobeSt. The reasoning is that certified buildings have a more attractive risk profile and may be more resilient during tough economic times, according to Dr. Nils Kok, associate professor at Maastricht University, the article says. Some studies have shown that commercial mortgages for …
The West Coast Electric Highway Enables Zero Emission Road Trips
The West Coast Electric Highway—one of the longest electrified corridors in the world—is demonstrating that electric vehicles are here for the long haul. In 2008, the West Coast states of California, Oregon, Washington and the province of British Columbia all recognized a simple, but alarming fact: western North America was experiencing significant population growth. That meant tens of thousands more …
3 Ways for Utilities to Encourage Customers to Improve Energy Efficiency
Energy providers are in a unique position in the marketplace in that they want customers to use less of their product. Yet, encouraging them to do so can be a challenge. When customers use electricity, they’re thinking about the task (use a computer, wash clothes, watch TV) they want to accomplish, not the source that’s allowing them to do it. …
ICAST Launches Project SunLight: Bringing Solar Energy to Multifamily Affordable Housing
ICAST Launches Project SunLight: Bringing Solar Energy to Multifamily Affordable Housing ICAST will partner with the Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technology Office to create and pilot an innovative program that overcomes the hurdles of deploying solar energy to low income populations October 30, 2018, [Lakewood, CO] – ICAST (International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Technology) a 501(c)(3) nonprofit social enterprise, …
We’re closer than ever before to producing clean water from thin air
Scientists have figured out a way to harvest water from dry desert air using only the sun’s heat. The device could be a game-changer for the approximately 2.1 billion people around the world who lack immediate access to clean drinking water. The device is made of a porous material called a metal-organic framework (MOF) that’s housed within a clear plastic …