Senator Cantwell Introduces Green Roof Tax Incentives with Help from ASLA
Submitted energy legislation provides meaningful relief on related costs to spur jobs and encourage sustainable design.
As the House and Senate debate over solutions to the nation’s economic crisis, senators and representatives from both sides of the aisle have been proposing ideas on how to stimulate the economy. Though the main stimulus package is the major vehicle aimed at spurring the economy, other pieces of legislation have emerged with specific sectors or incentives in mind.
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (WA) introduced the Clean Energy Stimulus and Investment Assurance Act of 2009 (S. 320), legislation geared toward creating high-wage green-collar jobs and revitalizing the economy through clean energy investments. ASLA worked with Senator Cantwell’s office to ensure that a section of the bill was dedicated to green roof tax incentives.
“In these times of economic uncertainty, growing the green economy and investing in clean energy technologies is the key to job growth and breaking the United States’s debilitating dependence on foreign oil,” said Senator Cantwell. “While installing a green roof may seem like a small step, these upgrades save energy, filter and absorb pollution, and store carbon. As individuals and businesses continue to look for ways to combat high energy costs and improve the health of their neighborhoods and environment, providing green roof incentives just makes sense.”
The intent of the bill is to invigorate the economy through green-collar jobs for design professionals, manufacturers, nurseries, and installation and maintenance professionals. While a major portion of the projects that will be funded as a result of the stimulus package are large “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects, the Clean Energy Stimulus and Investment Assurance Act of 2009 (S. 320), particularly section 506 of the bill, will give a boost not only to the economy, but also to the environment by improving stormwater management, cutting energy consumption and costs, and lowering urban temperatures.
ASLA reached out to Senator Cantwell’s office immediately after the November elections to gauge her interest in sponsoring the green roof tax credit. ASLA and Senate staff then began hammering out language for section 506 of the bill, which gives a 30 percent tax credit for qualified green roof property expenditures on residential and commercial buildings. The language puts the cap at $5,000 on residential buildings and no cap for commercial buildings. The bill also outlines specific, ASLA-recommended language, defining “qualified green roofs” to mean any green roof at least half of which is a vegetated green roof system. The credit applies to any retrofit or new construction green roof.
In addition to the substantial input ASLA received from its expert green roof practitioner members, ASLA also received technical support from the nonprofit organization Green Roofs for Healthy Cities.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Landscape Architecture Student Life for A Prospective Student
When i first got introduced to Landscape Architecture, i never had a prior knowledge that it even existed. I was interested in Architecture and wanted to become an architect, however, architecture had a one dimension sense to it since you only really focus on structure and that's about it. On the other hand, Landscape architecture is a mixture of various practices. To become a Landscape Architect you have to have knowledge of engineering, plants, architecture, color theory, construction, materials, soils, weather patterns, seasonal changes, human psychology, and design. You also have to be an expert in computer software’s like AutoCAD, Photoshop, Indesign, VectorWroks etc...Since when you are trying to present your ideas to a prospective client it has to be in its most attractive graphical form and be presentable. Landscape Architects also have to be able to speak in professional manner when presenting presentations to clients. In order to be successful in this profession you have to stay up to date on current news in "Design World". In order to do that, it is recommend to subscribe to Landscape Architecture Magazines and read about the new innovations in the profession and try to be inspired by them.
Some of the criteria’s for the new student would be to have a passion for the environment and the earth, plus be interested in designing sustainable landscapes that will mitigate the human effect on the earth. And lastly and passion for design and creativity.
Cleaning The Atmosphere Of Carbon: African Forests Out Of Balance
ScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2009) — Tropical forests hold more living biomass than any other terrestrial ecosystem. A new report in the journal Nature by Lewis et al. shows that not only do trees in intact African tropical forests hold a lot of carbon, they hold more carbon now than they did 40 years ago--a hopeful sign that tropical forests could help to mitigate global warming.
See also:
In a companion article, Helene Muller-Landau, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, says that understanding the causes of this African forest carbon sink and projecting its future is anything but straightforward.
Growing trees absorb carbon. Dead, decomposing trees release carbon. Researchers expect growth and death to approximately balance each other out in mature, undisturbed forests, and thus for total tree carbon stocks, the carbon held by the trees, to remain approximately constant. Yet Lewis and colleagues discovered that on average each hectare (100 x 100 meters, or 2.2 acres) of apparently mature, undisturbed African forest was increasing in tree carbon stocks by an amount equal to the weight of a small car each year. Previous studies have shown that Amazonian forests also take up carbon, although at somewhat lower rates.
"If you assume that these forests should be in equilibrium, then the best way to explain why trees are growing bigger is anthropogenic global change – the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could essentially be acting as fertilizer." says Muller-Landau, "But it's also possible that tropical forests are still growing back following past clearing or fire or other disturbance. Given increasing evidence that tropical forests have a long history of human occupation, recovery from past disturbance is almost certainly part of the reason these forests are taking up carbon today."
Muller-Landau, who directs a project to monitor carbon budgets in forest study sites worldwide as part of the Smithsonian's Center for Tropical Forest Science and the HSBC Climate Partnership, advises that this newfound sink shouldn't be taken for granted, or presumed to continue indefinitely. "While we still can't explain exactly what is behind this carbon sink, one thing we know for sure is that it can't be a sink forever. Trees and forests just can't keep getting bigger. Tropical forests are buying us a bit more time right now, but we can't count on them to continue to offset our carbon emissions in the future."
See also:
In a companion article, Helene Muller-Landau, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, says that understanding the causes of this African forest carbon sink and projecting its future is anything but straightforward.
Growing trees absorb carbon. Dead, decomposing trees release carbon. Researchers expect growth and death to approximately balance each other out in mature, undisturbed forests, and thus for total tree carbon stocks, the carbon held by the trees, to remain approximately constant. Yet Lewis and colleagues discovered that on average each hectare (100 x 100 meters, or 2.2 acres) of apparently mature, undisturbed African forest was increasing in tree carbon stocks by an amount equal to the weight of a small car each year. Previous studies have shown that Amazonian forests also take up carbon, although at somewhat lower rates.
"If you assume that these forests should be in equilibrium, then the best way to explain why trees are growing bigger is anthropogenic global change – the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could essentially be acting as fertilizer." says Muller-Landau, "But it's also possible that tropical forests are still growing back following past clearing or fire or other disturbance. Given increasing evidence that tropical forests have a long history of human occupation, recovery from past disturbance is almost certainly part of the reason these forests are taking up carbon today."
Muller-Landau, who directs a project to monitor carbon budgets in forest study sites worldwide as part of the Smithsonian's Center for Tropical Forest Science and the HSBC Climate Partnership, advises that this newfound sink shouldn't be taken for granted, or presumed to continue indefinitely. "While we still can't explain exactly what is behind this carbon sink, one thing we know for sure is that it can't be a sink forever. Trees and forests just can't keep getting bigger. Tropical forests are buying us a bit more time right now, but we can't count on them to continue to offset our carbon emissions in the future."
Including Native Perennials In Biofuel Crops Could Keep Watersheds Healthy
Including Native Perennials In Biofuel Crops Could Keep Watersheds Healthy
ScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2009) — Field work and computer simulations in Michigan and Wisconsin are helping biofuels researchers understand the basics of getting home-grown energy from the field to consumers. Preliminary results suggest that incorporating native, perennial plants during biofuels production reduces emissions of greenhouse gases, improves water quality and enhances biodiversity. The results are part of an experimental effort to make biofuels economically and environmentally sustainable.
See also:
"If we can make biofuels sustainable in the Great Lakes region, then we can apply the same methods to make biofuel industries work in other regions," said César Izaurralde of the Joint Global Change Research Institute in College Park, Md. a collaboration between the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., and the University of Maryland.
Biofuels based on the food crop corn have come under criticism in recent years for contributing to high food prices and not reducing greenhouse gases enough. Now, researchers of the DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center are looking beyond food crops to be used as biofuel feedstocks. These "cellulosic biofuels" being studied include a range of herbaceous and woody species, including native prairie grasses.
How well these other biofuels will perform against greenhouse gas accumulation depends on the feedstock, how they're grown, how the plant is converted to useful liquids, and where the industry is based. Something as simple as whether the crop needs to be planted every year or takes root can contribute to whether it's an advantage over fossil fuels.
At the DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, scientists are investigating which biofuels crops are best suited to take advantage of the conditions unique to that region -- for example, which grow best in the soils and with the amount of water the region has available. An economic concern is that they do not interfere with the production of food crops. The center, one of three $25 million per year Bioenergy Research Centers established by the DOE Office of Science in 2007, is led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in partnership with Michigan State University.
"One of the objectives of the center is to develop ecological, agricultural, and life cycle practices that are economically viable and environmentally responsive for the production of biofuel crops," says Phil Robertson, a Michigan State University professor and leader of the center's sustainability studies.
Izaurralde presented an overview of the program, which is in its early stages, today at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. For example, he and his colleagues are using computer models to explore regional production of biofuels in Michigan and Wisconsin. The computer simulations include weather and soil information, and many other production and economic factors. The researchers expect to find ways to deploy biofuel cropping systems that are profitable and environmentally sustainable.
Reference: Talk titled The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center: Sustainability in symposium "Biofuels: Consequences for Carbon, Landscapes, and Sustainability" Friday, February 13, in conference room Hyatt Regency, Grand Ballroom A. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2009 Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois. Additional presentations include Implications of Biofuels for Greenhouse Gas Concentrations by Leon Clark of the Joint Global Change Research Institute and Unintended Global Consequences of a Biofuels Industry by John Reilly of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This work was funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Science's Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Genomics: GTL program.
ScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2009) — Field work and computer simulations in Michigan and Wisconsin are helping biofuels researchers understand the basics of getting home-grown energy from the field to consumers. Preliminary results suggest that incorporating native, perennial plants during biofuels production reduces emissions of greenhouse gases, improves water quality and enhances biodiversity. The results are part of an experimental effort to make biofuels economically and environmentally sustainable.
See also:
"If we can make biofuels sustainable in the Great Lakes region, then we can apply the same methods to make biofuel industries work in other regions," said César Izaurralde of the Joint Global Change Research Institute in College Park, Md. a collaboration between the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., and the University of Maryland.
Biofuels based on the food crop corn have come under criticism in recent years for contributing to high food prices and not reducing greenhouse gases enough. Now, researchers of the DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center are looking beyond food crops to be used as biofuel feedstocks. These "cellulosic biofuels" being studied include a range of herbaceous and woody species, including native prairie grasses.
How well these other biofuels will perform against greenhouse gas accumulation depends on the feedstock, how they're grown, how the plant is converted to useful liquids, and where the industry is based. Something as simple as whether the crop needs to be planted every year or takes root can contribute to whether it's an advantage over fossil fuels.
At the DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, scientists are investigating which biofuels crops are best suited to take advantage of the conditions unique to that region -- for example, which grow best in the soils and with the amount of water the region has available. An economic concern is that they do not interfere with the production of food crops. The center, one of three $25 million per year Bioenergy Research Centers established by the DOE Office of Science in 2007, is led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in partnership with Michigan State University.
"One of the objectives of the center is to develop ecological, agricultural, and life cycle practices that are economically viable and environmentally responsive for the production of biofuel crops," says Phil Robertson, a Michigan State University professor and leader of the center's sustainability studies.
Izaurralde presented an overview of the program, which is in its early stages, today at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. For example, he and his colleagues are using computer models to explore regional production of biofuels in Michigan and Wisconsin. The computer simulations include weather and soil information, and many other production and economic factors. The researchers expect to find ways to deploy biofuel cropping systems that are profitable and environmentally sustainable.
Reference: Talk titled The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center: Sustainability in symposium "Biofuels: Consequences for Carbon, Landscapes, and Sustainability" Friday, February 13, in conference room Hyatt Regency, Grand Ballroom A. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2009 Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois. Additional presentations include Implications of Biofuels for Greenhouse Gas Concentrations by Leon Clark of the Joint Global Change Research Institute and Unintended Global Consequences of a Biofuels Industry by John Reilly of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This work was funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Science's Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Genomics: GTL program.
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