Sustainability - Greater Greater Washington

Yes or no to urban chickens?

Thu, 30 May 2013 08:54:00 EDT

An Arlington task force will soon decide whether to allow egg-laying hens in residential areas. A group, the Arlington Egg Project, is pushing for the change; opponents formed a counter group, Backyards Not Barnyards. (ARLnow)

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Mundo Verde, Green Ribbon schools highlight sustainability

Tue, 28 May 2013 13:40:00 EDT

by Jessica Christy

All photos by the author.

Schools in the District and Montgomery County make sustainability part of the curriculum with greener buildings and a focus on environmental stewardship. With help from the US Department of Education, they could become an example for other schools around the country.

Sustainable Energy Utility needs more than good intentions

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:35:00 EDT

by Ken Archer

Malcolm Kenton wrote last week about the DC Sustainable Energy Utility's progress toward helping DC residents and businesses save energy. Here is a less sanguine view.

The DC Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU) was created with the best of intentions and much fanfare. Unfortunately, after more than $30 million dollars and nearly 3 years, DC SEU has had trouble even changing light bulbs effectively, and is lagging behind successful programs in other states.

Photo by Elvert Barnes on Flickr.

Energy-efficiency programs around the country have successfully demonstrated ways to assure that communities invest in saving energy, but DC ranked only 29th among states in energy-efficiency programs in 2012, according to one recent analysis.

That's not great, since many states in the South and Great Plains have terrible records. The District should be a leader, or at least emulate the best programs from around the nation.

For example, in Massachusetts, utilities work with local banks to provide 0% interest loans for homeowners and businesses for energy efficiency. This addresses a common and fundamental impediment to efficiency investments at scale: poor access to capital. The public sector's upfront incentives to the banks make the 0% loans possible, which then leverages significant investment capital from the private sector.

Virginia offers basic and straightforward rebates for commercial building energy audits. These audits identify where a building is inefficient (from HVAC to lighting to operations) and catalyze efficiency investments. Once a commercial building owner sees a facility's inefficiencies, and has information about what investments could pay for themselves in savings, they often make sustainable improvements without further incentives.

SEU isn't meeting its goals

DC residents and businesses pay a small percentage of their electric and gas bills to support DC SEU. As a result, DC SEU raised $17.5 million this year and will raise $20 million next year.

The Vermont Energy Investment Cooperation, or VEIC, won a competitive bid from the District to operate DC SEU. Their contract has been renewed each year, but so far, VEIC is struggling.

In fiscal year 2012, DC SEU met just 2 of 6 performance benchmarks the District set for things like reducing energy or increasing renewable energy generation. Their goal was to reduce citywide electricity use by 45,000 megawatt-hours, but they only saved 21,000.

DC SEU even fell behind on creating green jobs, which is one of its main goals. The organization hired just 41 people in 2012, well below their goal of 53.

DC SEU claims that it saved DC residents and businesses $2.8 million in annualized energy costs, but it received $14 million in funding last year. For a group intended to be a "market catalyst," this return on investment is disappointing.

It also counts spillover effects from its work, like customers who don't participate in their programs but are still working to reduce their energy use. This method of measurement may be an industry standard, but it doesn't really reflect DC SEU's effectiveness.

Is the SEU trying to do what it takes?

Nor does the organization's FY 2013 First Quarter report acknowledge any of DC SEU's past shortcomings or the need for any improvements. While the report calls for "strategic enhancements to [their] programming," there's little description of anything other DC SEU's existing efforts, like their programs to replace light bulbs and seal heating ducts.

If this is all the District wanted to do to improve energy efficiency, there was no need to create a new organization. It could have given the job to PEPCO and Washington Gas, which are perfectly capable of doing this kind of work. Meanwhile, DC SEU admits that natural gas consumption has actually increased due to their focus on replacing incandescent light bulbs with high-efficiency bulbs. The new bulbs give off less heat, which means that in the colder months, customers actually use more heating gas to hear their homes and businesses (but save energy in the summer on cooling.)

DC SEU wasn't even trying to balance the modest impact of the lighting upgrades with other programs to reduce heating loads. They spent just $700,000 of the $2 million allocated for natural gas-related programs. Whether this is simply poor management, misplaced priorities, or both, this is clearly not a good sign.

What can be done?

DC SEU needs help. They aren't meeting their goals and they aren't fulfilling their legal obligation to District ratepayers. Meanwhile, the District Department of the Environment (DDOE), which manages the organization, has done little oversight. A lot of the relevant staff has turned over at DDOE. Plus, that agency's main expertise is not in "big data" or the economics of financial leverage in the ways necessary to push the SEU toward bolder thinking and better results.

There's already a strong market for compact fluorescents (and an emerging one for the the even newer LED bulbs). The amount of savings from bulbs is small compared to commercial space, which uses a vastly disproportionate share of energy. With incentives to focus on the greatest possible value, the SEU could do more with, for instance, energy audits for commercial space.

Mayor Gray's sustainability plan puts forward an exciting and laudable vision for the District. It would be a shame if DC SEU doesn't play a key role in making it a reality.

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DC Sustainable Energy Utility saves energy and creates jobs

Mon, 06 May 2013 14:46:00 EDT

by Malcolm Kenton

Five years ago, the DC Council created the DC Sustainable Energy Utility to help the city's growing population use less energy. While it hasn't been perfect, DC SEU can help achieve Mayor Gray's goal of cutting the District's energy use in half by 2032.

Photo by Dept of Energy Solar Decathlon on Flickr.

Created by the Clean and Affordable Energy Act of 2008 and housed within the District Department of the Environment, DC SEU is dedicated to reducing the District's energy footprint. Residents and business owners directly support DC SEU through a surcharge on their electricity and natural gas bills.

In return. DC SEU will give residents reduced-price compact fluorescent light bulbs, rebates for energy-efficient appliances, or even install better insulation and duct sealing in homes. For commercial and industrial properties, which are the District's largest energy users, DC SEU provides incentives and technical assistance for large-scale commercial properties and offers rebates for energy-efficient commercial equipment and lighting.

While states like Vermont, Ohio, and Delaware have sustainable energy utilities, DC SEU is the only one that measures success in terms of both energy savings and economic development. In 2012, DC SEU served 18,795 households in 2012, 60% of which are low-income, and spent $5.2 million with locally-owned Certified Business Enterprises, or CBEs. DC SEU claims that its customers save almost $3 million annually in energy costs, while its efficiency measures produce lifetime economic benefits of almost $24 million.

However, not everyone is convinced of DC SEU's effectiveness. Employees of the utility's vaunted green jobs program, which was supposed to create 100 new jobs every year, say their work was unproductive and "meaningless." Perhaps more can be done to strengthen the training and future job placement aspects of the jobs offered through DC SEU, but one lone program can't be expected to squelch the District's persistent plague of unemployment.

Meanwhile, critics argue that DC SEU has accomplished little other than self-promotion. There certainly seems to be room for better cooperation between DC SEU and pre-existing community organizations promoting solar power installation. But there's always a learning curve when government takes over tasks previously in the purview of the private sector, no matter how poorly Pepco did at promoting efficiency, especially when Pepco owns the power lines and metering systems.

We'll be able to get a better understanding of what DC SEU has accomplished with newly available data on how much electricity, water, and gas buildings in the District consume. DC has assessed the energy and water use and carbon emissions of every District-owned building every year since 2009, but this is the first year that private owners of commercial buildings larger than 100,000 square feet are required to report their energy and water use to DDOE in compliance with new benchmarking regulation. Next year, the requirement will extend to all commercial and multifamily residential buildings larger than 50,000 square feet.

For the past two years, the DC SEU has provided a Benchmarking Help Center assist owners of large buildings assess and report energy and water use. They have fielded more questions about medical offices and small retail outlets in multifamily apartment buildings and condominiums than expected.

"We walk by these buildings every day, but we don't think about how they operate, how much energy or water they use or what's inside," says Help Center spokesperson John Andreoni. "Through the release of benchmarked and reported data, we'll gain access to this information."

This wealth of public data will increase transparency in the market and provide a more complete picture of DC buildings' energy, water, and carbon footprints than has ever been produced. As more efficiency measures are implemented, we'll be able to see how effective DC SEU actually is.

In most industries, it costs less per unit to produce greater quantities of a product. But with energy, the reverse is true. That's why investing in conservation at the consumer level is the most prudent way for governments to reduce energy use and save users money. Not only is efficiency more effective for ratepayers and taxpayers than building new power plants, even ones using renewable sources, it's also better for the environment.

Armed with more public data, DC SEU will have more information at hand to shrink the District's resource consumption and encourage building owners and managers to embrace energy efficiency. If it achieves measurable success, it will not only trim the city's environmental footprint, but keep costs low for all District ratepayers.

5 comments

Outlaw sustainability?

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 08:19:00 EDT

by David Alpert

A Kansas state legislator introduced a bill to ban spending any "public funds to promote or implement sustainable development" by the state or any city or town in Kansas. Fortunately, the bill didn't pass—yet. (Bloomberg)

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DC government runs on hot air

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 08:28:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

All DC government buildings are now wind-powered. The switch saves the equivalent of 32.8 million gallons of gasoline, enough to power 61,000 cars in a year. (Borderstan)

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And...

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:03:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Is Gray's sustainability plan part of an international conspiracy? (City Paper) ... Why raising the ICC speed limit may be a bad idea. (Patch) ... Are DC's commercial rents too high for cool stores? (RPUS) ... Want a $2.5 million treehouse? (City Paper)

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Gray aims high with sustainability plan; can agencies deliver?

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:46:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Last week, the Gray administration unveiled its sustainability plan, which sets some very ambitious, yet very important objectives for 2032, like attracting 250,000 new residents and making 75% of trips happen by walking, biking, and transit, along with fewer greenhouse gas emissions, more access to healthy food, cleaner water, and much more.

This plan is perhaps the boldest statement yet by a mayor about the city's future. Some plans equivocate and promise everyone what they want. The sustainability plan does not. Our future is more walking, biking, and transit, and many new residents who aren't driving, says the mayor. Period.

To achieve these goals, agencies will have to push forward not just on their existing laudable initiatives, but go beyond. To shift the numbers of transit, walking, and bicycle trips, DC must do more than just build the streetcar and incrementally grow bicycle infrastructure. The administration also should set intermediate goals to push agencies to make significant progress each and every year.

Many specific actions are important steps forward

Strong policy statements like this make a big impact. When agency heads and employees look at a potential action, they'll know they should consider it through the lens of these policies. That doesn't mean people won't keep doing other things that confound the goals at times, but one group inside one agency can use these statements as ammunition to argue for policies that support the goals.

The plan also lists a number of specific actions agencies can take in a number of areas, from waste to building energy efficiency to parks and trees. The land use section includes the most significant (and controversial) parts of the zoning update, reducing parking minimums and allowing more accessory dwellings.

In the transportation section, there are a few promising new steps. Most are things DC already plans, such as streetcars, more bike lanes, and expanding performance parking.

Notably, the plan also suggests exploring a regional congestion pricing system. That's entirely speculative at this point, and the plan says that unless Maryland and Virginia agree, it'd be almost impossible to set up any sort of congestion pricing system. But just putting it in the plan is a meaningful step.

Another significant policy statement calls on DC to "Program crosswalks and traffic lights for improved safety and convenience of pedestrians and cyclists." That's right, it says that pedestrian and cyclist safety should take precedence over vehicle speed. It also suggests timing lights along major corridors for traffic, as groups like the Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade repeatedly ask, but notably recommends timing such lights for motor vehicles and bicycles, not just the former.

To reach goals, agencies will have to do even more

Many of these statements commit DC agencies to go beyond what they have done to date. But is it enough to achieve the even more ambitious goals, like 75% of trips by transit, walk or biking, 250,00 new residents, and cutting in half citywide unemployment, obesity, and energy use?

Transportation goals from the plan (page 12). Click for full plan (PDF).

On land use, the zoning update takes a significant step, but still an incremental one. There are many conditions that will limit accessory dwellings. Reducing parking minimums may make some housing cheaper and make some buildings feasible around the margin, but it does not add to the total amount of potential housing.

According to Planning director Harriet Tregoning, DC could add enough housing for 250,000 more residents just under existing zoning, but that assumes building up to the zoning limit across most of the city. Wholesale redevelopment of neighborhoods is not what anyone really wants.

Rather, it would be better to focus more new housing near Metro stations, streetcars, and high-frequency bus corridors. To do that, though, some administration will have to modify the Comprehensive Plan and zoning to create denser areas somewhere, or even revisit the height limit in some parts of the city.

The Office of Planning also backed away from earlier proposals to also set thresholds where a new development has to set up a Transportation Demand Management (TDM) plan. That now only applies to parking lots over 100,000 square feet, not large garages in many buildings which will contribute to more traffic and inhibit reaching some of the mode share goals.

Can DC reach 75% non-auto mode share?

The transportation section aims to increase public transit's share of trips ("mode share") to 50%, and walking and biking to 25%. There isn't actually data on total trips today, but the plan shows a breakdown of commute trips (which the Census asks about). There, transit had 38% share in 2010, walking 12%, and "other means" (since bicycling isn't a specific category) 4%.

Image from the plan, page 80. Click for full plan (PDF).

That means if we use commute data and count all "other" in the walking and bicycling group (since it's probably fine to also count rollerbladers and Razor scooter riders), transit has to gain 12 percentage points and walking plus biking 9.

Implementation steps include DDOT's current plans to add some more bike lanes and Capital Bikeshare stations, build out the streetcar system, plus recommendations to improve transit connections such as better service for low-income riders and later hours, set up a dedicated source of funding for transit, and make transit systems "resilient" to intense heat and storms that we'll see more often thanks to climate change.

Will this get 12% of commuters to switch to transit, though? Especially while the vast bulk of DDOT spending is still going to projects like big racetracks on South Capitol Street, which will add more car capacity to Saint Elizabeths rather than boosting transit connectivity.

If congestion pricing actually comes about, that could drive the mode shift, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Meanwhile, though, DDOT could meaningfully improve transit by building a network of dedicated bus lanes that make the bus truly an appealing alternative for residents from Glover Park to Fairfax Village to Woodridge.

DC won TIGER grants for bus priority projects from 2009, but those still haven't yielded anything on the ground. Last year, Mary Cheh set up a fund for DDOT to pay for bus projects, but it hasn't done any. H and I street bus lanes are on the long-term regional transportation plan, but if DDOT is making any concrete progress, it's pretty covert, and most of all isn't anywhere in the plan.

DDOT also needs to step it up on bicycle infrastructure. The plan laudably calls for 200 more Capital Bikeshare stations (so far, DC has committed to 87, and 100 miles of "connected" bicycle lanes, compared to about 50 (and not all connected) today, "prioritizing" ones east of the Anacostia.

But as WABA noted in its action alert at the end of 2011 about anemic progress in bike lanes, DC had installed 4-8 lanes per year from 2006-2010, which if continued should put the District at 130-210 by 2032 rather than just 100. Gabe Klein's Action Agenda set a target of 80 miles by 2012, so only 25% more than that 20 years later seems a bit underwhelming.

MoveDC is key

Tregoning, who spearheaded the overall plan while working with individual agencies on the specific proposals, said that these sets of actions aren't supposed to be an exhaustive list of everything to do in the next 20 years. Among other reasons, they wanted to actually publish the plan, not spend endless years tinkering with the lists—a worthy impulse indeed.

On transportation, in particular, the MoveDC citywide transportation plan is the opportunity to create a more detailed list of everything DC has to do. Gray's 50%-25%-25% targets provide a perfect frame for that plan. If a proposed piece of MoveDC moves us toward the targets, it should go in; if it pushes the other way, it should come out.

The 50%-25%-25% also gives MoveDC a high bar to hit. We'll all need to ensure MoveDC is more like the sustainability plan, with clear and aggressive goals, and less like some other plans which try to give everybody what they want and end up meaning little.

Intermediate goals are also necessary

How can we avoid getting to 2032, looking back on this plan, and seeing these great targets but having only moved imperceptibly toward them? The administration could set intermediate goals and really hold agency heads' feet to the fire to reach them.

What can we do to boost transit at least 0.6 percentage points in 2013 (1/20th of the way to the 12 point growth in the plan) and walking and bicycling 0.45 (1/20th of 6 points)? What can we do to get recycling up, obesity down, more buildings retrofitted for energy efficiency, and more parks not just by 2032, but by 2014 and then 2018?

To really hit these goals or at least come close, a next step needs to be a set of intermediate targets, perhaps one for the end of Mayor Gray's current term, and for every 4-year mayoral term thereafter. We should also ask mayoral candidates, in the 2014 race and future races, if they are willing to commit to these targets, both the long-term and intermediate ones, and ask their agency heads to do the same.

At the press conference, Gray noted that this plan's 20-year horizon certainly extends beyond his administration, whether or not he runs for or wins reelection. But, he said, this is a product not just from him but from his agency employees, many of whom still may be around that long. They can reach these targets as long as this and future mayors continue to send clear messages that the objectives in the plan are not just nice words on a paper but a real vision for the future of DC.

16 comments

Sustainable politics

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 08:12:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Some proposals in Mayor Gray's Sustainable DC plan, like pay-as-you-throw or a bottle deposit, are listed as "long term", which basically means it's too politically difficult to achieve right now. (Post)

Comment

An environmentalist says Gray is greener (Sep 7, 2010)
Gray slightly tweaks camera fines to stave off larger change (Nov 2, 2012)
Help clean up DC politics this weekend and this month (May 31, 2012)
Residents unimpressed by non-answers on Redskins "plan" (Mar 23, 2012)
Which mayoral candidate is more like George Bush? (Sep 8, 2010)

Go green

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 08:05:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Mayor Gray's ambitious Sustainability DC plan aims to halve greenhouse emissions with measures like greener buildings and modernized schools and public housing. The plan also includes a pay-as-you-throw plan for trash, where residents would pay by the can or bag. (Post)

Comment

Gray keeps Harriet Tregoning! And others (Dec 17, 2010)

And...

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 08:37:00 EDT

by David Alpert

The Cafritz project in Riverdale Park is officially on hold. (Diamondback) ... Might CFO Gandhi not be around much longer? (Examiner) ... 17th St NE will get 26 solar-powered townhouses. (UrbanTurf) ... DC has a lot of green roofs. (WAMU)

Comment

Improved access to Cafritz development is a step forward (Sep 27, 2011)
With risks, rewards, Cafritz development must be done right (Sep 14, 2011)
Cafritz project tests Prince George's commitment to TOD (Jan 31, 2012)
Can a commercial enterprise succeed if hidden from view? (Aug 18, 2011)
Want a Whole Foods? Add residences, or face traffic (Aug 17, 2011)

Landscape architects envision a greener Chinatown

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:04:00 EDT

by Sarah Lewis

How could Chinatown be a greener and more livable neighborhood? Designers from the American Society of Landscape Architects and Fuss & O'Neill created a vision for an inter-connected series of green "complete streets," with new, safer bicycle lanes, a pedestrian-friendly "festival street," and a central hub for new street-level sustainability education programs right in front of ASLA's door (and below its green roof) on I Street.

All images from ASLA.

There's no time to waste. The city's complete street and green infrastructure guidelines, which are in place, will soon mix with more stringent stormwater policies that impose higher fees on private property owners that create runoff.

To green this neighborhood, any plan has to start with the streets—all of them. Beginning a new green neighborhood means tackling all the alleyways running off I Street that contribute to stormwater runoff. Just as Chicago has done with its innovative green alleys program, the neighborhood could put in permeable pavements along with underground cisterns in key areas that would preserve car access while absorbing water into the ground.

Along I Street, the intersections at 9th, 8th, and 7th streets could become green, permeable ones. What is now a source of huge amounts of runoff in the center of the streets could become a central place for absorbing rainwater into the underlying soils. Additional layers of stone or sand underground could also help boost absorption rates.

Crisscrossing an east-west system of green streets along Eye street would be a new north-south green "festival street" running down 8th Street, transforming an underused, garage-heavy street into an active, pedestrian-friendly zone.

Designed to be like a Dutch woonerf or pedestrian mall, this "B or C street," which means it doesn't get that much car traffic, could be designed to slow down car traffic so that pedestrians could move more freely between the National Portrait Gallery and the commercial complex at K Street.

Throughout this new green boulevard, which could be a pedestrian "arboretum," different materials would designate different realms—those for people or for cars. There would be no curbs, creating a flat plane for pedestrians. For 8th and other streets, redesigning the street so it can evolve may be the way to go. Kent Schwendy, senior vice president at Fuss & O'Neill, said many engineers want to simply lock streets into one use, but he argued that "streets change and their uses evolve. We have to let that change happen."

Where 8th Street meets I, new open grates would feature prominently so that "people could actually see that water moves through this area, even when it doesn't rain. This will help educate people about stormwater," said ASLA President Tom Tavella. But the street-level stormwater management systems proposed for I Street wouldn't be "lipstick on a pig," said Chris Ferrero, who runs urban planning and landscape architecture at Fuss & O'Neill but represent an "integrated series of events, a system."

Some 6 additional feet would be added onto the sidewalks, giving 2-3 feet for "green gutters along the curbs" and another 2-3 feet for a step area to get to bridges that would take people across the new gutters. Intermixed among the new green gutters would be rain gardens, which all inter-connect with the existing tree pits and proposed permeable pavement systems.

On 9th Street, creating a new "two-way cycle track," a dual-direction bicycle lane, actually creates an opportunity to create yet more green infrastructure. The bicycle lanes would be protected by a 4-foot "physical separation filled with plants, not just paint and bollards," said Tavella. That physical separator would not only protect bicyclists from car traffic but also help create a sense of place and add greenery.

The street may certainly need it: Wade Walker, Jr, head of transportation planning at Fuss & O'Neill, said the bicyclists he saw on that street were "up on the sidewalks, showing that they didn't feel safe being there."

Lastly, right in front of ASLA, there could be a new parklet, taking up 2 parking spaces, which would be designed to give people a place to sit and view the green roof education video and read signs about the new green features of the neighborhood. Throughout the district, "signage would show what a green street is about, what porous pavements do," said Tavella.

According to Nancy Somerville, Hon. ASLA, CEO/Executive Vice President, ASLA, the next steps will include pitching Fuss & O'Neill's concepts to stakeholders in the neighborhood, starting the fundraising process, and further refining the plans to meet the approval of the many DC government departments involved. Hiring landscape architects to turn the concepts into real designs also sounds like a next step, given the positive early feedback from the DC planning office.

At the end of the intensive, two-day design charrette, Chris Shaheen, who manages the public space programs with the DC planning office, said "we've tested many of these ideas here and there, but this brings it all together. This is what the city wants to do." The city knows, just like ASLA does, that really ambitious proposals like this are needed if the city will reach its goals of making 1.5 million square feet of public right of way permeable by 2016.

A version of this article was originally posted on The Dirt.

17 comments

Landscape architects teach us about DC public spaces (Sep 14, 2012)
Plans envision multimodal "crossroads" at Mt. Vernon Square (Dec 10, 2009)
Plans envision "green street" for C Street, NE (Mar 9, 2010)
With DC stormwater, who pays, and for what? (Jun 22, 2012)
New, greener, safer, better design coming for 15th and W (Sep 28, 2012)

Brooks pushes energy efficiency for DC

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 12:27:00 EDT

by Jaime Fearer

Former DC Council candidate Sam Brooks has been hired to lead a new sustainability and energy division in the DC government. He sat down for an interview about how the District can be a world leader in sustainability and energy conservation.

Photo by Keoki Seu on Flickr.

Since his 2006 DC Council bid, Brooks has been busy making a name for himself in energy efficiency contracting and green workforce development. In February, he was tapped to put that experience to good use as head of the Sustainability & Energy Division at the District's newly-formed Department of General Services.

Q: You're the new head of a new division of a new agency. What exactly do you do?

The Department of General Services constructs, modernizes, and manages the District's government facilities. I've heard people refer to DGS as DC's GSA. That's part of it. When Mayor Gray created DGS, he charged us with overseeing one of the largest commitments to public school modernization in the United States and we're doing it with a steadfast commitment to sustainability. Our portfolio includes 30 million square feet of real estate that encompasses schools, office buildings, fire houses, police stations, recreation centers, and more.

DGS's Sustainability & Energy Division specifically deals with supply of and demand for the government's energy. We acquire the energy commodities for DC government facilities, from electricity to natural gas to water, and we pay the bills—all of which is no small task. In many respects, we quite literally keep the lights on.

But the supply of energy is just one component. A core mission for the Sustainability & Energy Division is to create a portfolio of government facilities that run at optimal efficiency in both energy consumption and cost. From efficient buildings with minimum energy consumption, to first-class stormwater and waste management, to maximizing the District's tree canopy, to even looking at the potential for urban agriculture. My team and I have our hands in all of these initiatives."

Q: What kind of impact do you think DGS can really make in the city with respect to sustainability?

Our agency will have a tremendous impact on the city's sustainability. We are already building from a strong foundation. For instance, all of our new construction projects are LEED certified, and we recently won a national Green Ribbon Schools award from the Obama administration. But there's no doubt we want to go even further. Much further.

Mayor Gray has laid out an inspired vision for the city. The SustainableDC initiative has put forward goals such as reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in the next 20 years. So, it definitely feels like we have the wind in our sails. In my opinion, the Mayor has not gotten enough credit for his bold vision for sustainability. It's a vision that is going to make real change in the District.

Our director, Brian Hanlon, has a goal to lead by example with regard to sustainability and green features in our portfolio. Our goal is nothing less than to become a beacon for sustainability efforts around the world."

Q: Any plans to make some of these goals actionable, to actually get some specific initiatives underway?

DGS has an ambitious agenda over the short- and mid-term and we're moving aggressively to execute this game plan. Here are some examples:

The Mayor delivered on his commitment to energy efficiency with his FY13 budget: DGS has roughly $10 million for retrofits next fiscal year (starting October 1, 2012). A retrofit is a project that removes older, less energy efficient equipment and replaces it with new, more energy efficient systems. We've already mapped out a specific road map for those funds, and anticipate at least $2.5 million in annual energy savings as a result of this investment.

Also, we've recently launched a composting pilot program in 10 schools (including one in each of the District's 8 wards) that's seen an amazing response to from students, teachers, and community members. We're very bullish about this program's prospects and we're looking to make significant progress to reduce DCPS's waste diversion rate this upcoming school year.

Finally, I can only say so much at this juncture, but by next winter DGS will have a building energy monitoring program that I candidly believe other jurisdictions will be lining up to replicate.

Q: What are the department's plans where solar or other renewable sources of energy are concerned?

In just the past few months, we've made considerable headway with respect to renewable energy installations at our government facilities. One of the most exciting developments in this space might be the progress we've made with respect to third-party financing for solar installations.

In the not-so-distant future, we hope to dramatically increase the percentage of the city's energy supply from onsite renewable sources and to do so with minimal upfront capital costs to District taxpayers.

Q: You came on during a turbulent time for the District government and you've had a front row view of a government that's come under scrutiny in the past year. Is this DC government position meeting your expectations?

The job has definitely exceeded what were already high expectations. There's no hiding that it's been a tough PR year for the DC government, but I must say that I've encountered so many people in our government that are just extraordinarily talented and dedicated to this city. I work with some really amazing people at DGS. We have strong leadership in the agency and throughout the District government as a whole, and we have the support of the council for our initiatives. I believe we're doing some amazing things to make DC a leader in sustainability.

22 comments

Sustainability can save WMATA money, if it's a priority (Apr 11, 2012)
DC slow to distribute cash-for-appliances (Nov 17, 2010)
An environmentalist says Gray is greener (Sep 7, 2010)
Fleet share can save DC more money (Apr 5, 2011)
DC youth employment programs should focus on quality, not quantity (Apr 28, 2009)

Sprawl worsens drought

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 07:58:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

With its increased water use and runoff, sprawl might be worsening the effects of the drought. Increased carbon emissions from sprawl contribute to climate change, possibly making the drought itself more severe. (Streetsblog)

Comment

Can't kill cooperation

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 07:58:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Though Congress has stopped funding the Sustainable Communities, that hasn't stopped government agencies from working together to help promote smart growth. (Streetsblog)

Comment

Smart candidates, smart editorials (Aug 13, 2008)
Congressional fellows can get parking space, not Metro pass (Apr 6, 2008)
Join Tommy Wells for reelection kickoff Saturday (Mar 25, 2010)
Nadler amendment heading to the floor (Jan 28, 2009)
Transportation in Congress roundup: Leaders agree on extension, GOP would kill Amtrak, & Obama proposal (Sep 12, 2011)

Southwest Ecodistrict would repair 1960s damage

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 10:00:00 EDT

by David Alpert

One day, disjointed streets and lifeless blocks around L'Enfant Plaza could become a complete neighborhood with a connected street grid, park space, mixed-use buildings, a museum and more.

Images from NCPC.

That's the vision of the Southwest Ecodistrict plan from the National Capital Planning Commission and a companion plan focusing on Maryland Avenue, SW by the DC Office of Planning.

It is one of DC's greatest ironies that the name "L'Enfant Plaza" was given to an area where L'Enfant's original street grid is least intact. The railroad took over parts of Maryland and Virginia Avenues before 1888, and later projects to grade-separate the rails created a patchwork of roadways at different levels that don't connect to one another.

The federal government razed every building in the area as misguided urban renewal in the 1960s. The extension of 10th Street known as the L'Enfant Promenade was originally designed as a pedestrian mall for cultural buildings, but turned into a largely vehicular roadway between government office buildings. The "12th Street Expressway", a set of off-ramps from I-395, also divides the blocks on either side.

Now, NCPC wants to fix these mistakes from its forerunner, the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, and other federal agencies of the day. On Thursday, it released a draft of its plan for public comment.

Redevelop the Forrestal building

A centerpiece of the plan is a proposal to ultimately redevelop the Department of Energy's Forrestal complex, a mid-century concrete structure that spans 10th Street and cuts off views from the Smithsonian Castle. While historic preservation officials have been landmarking many federal buildings of this type, in this case they prefer to restore the view than keep the building.

That will create many opportunities to right numerous mistakes of that era. The buildings replacing Forrestal, which the plan dubs "Independence Quarter," could also restore the viewshed along Virginia Avenue to the Washington Monument. Despite opening up these views, there's plenty of room to build something with more space than the current complex. That means it could accommodate DOE and also add residences, making the area lively more of the day and bringing in money to fund the project.

The new buildings could narrow 10th Street back to a width more resembling its role in the L'Enfant Plan, which could accommodate vehicles, sidewalks, bicycles and sidewalk cafes without the enormous expanse of sun-baked concrete of the current "promenade." The entire street would gain many more trees along its length.

Promenade now (left) and potential future (right).

These new buildings, and many others in the district, would incorporate state-of-the-art stormwater handling, energy efficiency, waste management, green roofs and more to create an eco-friendly district. A heating and electricity plant, which currently only serves federal buildings, could be rehabilitated to a more modern and energy-efficient system and serve the private buildings as well as federal buildings in the area.

Make Banneker Park more appealing and give it a museum

At the end of the promenade is Banneker Park, a hillside with an attractive fountain and some grass but little else to draw people. Curving freeway ramps on and off of the adjacent Southwest Freeway cut up the park, linking a traffic oval around the fountain to the freeway and nearby 9th Street.

The plan proposes to straighten out those ramps, so that the off-ramp from I-395 skirts just the edge and reaches a new intersection with 9th Street, while an extension of G Street links 9th to the central oval and 10th Street.

The rest of the park would get a redesign to give it more of a sense of place and a more inviting atmosphere. On part of the site, NCPC proposes placing one of the many museums that groups want to build on the Mall. According to project manager Beth Miller, museums haven't wanted to go there yet because it "doesn't have a setting befitting a national museum." The plan aims to give it that setting.

Concept sketch of future Banneker Park.

The plan says that some have suggested building some underground parking for the tour buses that currently idle in surrounding streets, clog the roads and pollute the air for residents and workers. The plan notes that underground parking could be a good idea, but it might also conflict with a museum's security needs depending on the type of museum, and that the museum is a higher priority.

There is also space underneath the 10th Street promenade for parking now, and the plan suggests putting some tour bus parking there as well as stormwater cisterns.

New buildings would deck the freeway and fill in elsewhere

NCPC proposes decking over I-395 between the 12th Street off-ramp and 9th Street with new buildings. These could create more opportunities for mixed-use living and offices and connect the pedestrian realm along 9th and 10th, including the all-important walk to the new museum.

Model showing buildings decking freeway and solar panels.

Farther east, the freeway rises and there isn't room to place buildings over the freeway at street level, the plan says, but it suggests covering the trench with an array of solar panels.

Finally, the plan would rebuild the grid in this area. That ties into the District's Maryland Avenue Small Area, which we'll discuss in part 2.

29 comments

Southwest Ecodistrict looks to fix '60s planning failure (Jul 27, 2011)
Southwest Ecodistrict visions take shape (Feb 18, 2011)
A busy day for NCPC (Jul 10, 2008)
Plan envisions decking railroad, adding 4th track in SW DC (Jul 17, 2012)
NCPC worries about viewsheds in waterfront development (May 4, 2010)

Inadequate transit, sprawl cut off workers from jobs

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 15:02:00 EDT

by Tanya Snyder

If there's a problem connecting workers with workplaces, it stands to reason that there's a problem connecting workplaces with workers. A new report from the Brookings Institution has teased out the subtleties of this side of the transit/jobs equation.

Transit access to employment is especially weak in the Midwest and South. Image from the Brookings Institution.

Last year, Brookings found that, on average, 70 percent of jobs in a metropolitan region are inaccessible to a typical resident via transit. Or at least, it would take over 90 minutes each way to get there.

This time around, Brookings looked at how large a pool of potential employees each employer has access to, assuming those employees would use transit to commute to work. And just as only 30 percent of jobs are accessible to most workers, only 27 percent of workers are accessible to most jobs, they found.

In terms of general access to transit, 70 percent of people in metropolitan areas live in neighborhoods that are served by transit and more than 75 percent of jobs are served by transit. Not surprisingly, the big divide is between suburban and urban locations within those metro areas. In cities, 95 percent of jobs are in transit-served neighborhoods, while in suburbs, only 64 percent of employers have transit service.

The Northeast and the West have better-connected job centers, while the Midwest and the South have more job sprawl and less transit access. In the Northeast, almost 100 percent of city-based employers can take advantage of transit. In southern suburbs, that figure falls to 52 percent.

"The suburbanization of jobs obstructs transit's ability to connect workers to opportunity and jobs to local labor pools," the report concludes. "As metro leaders continue to grapple with limited financial resources, it is critical for transit investment decisions to simultaneously address suburban coverage gaps as well as disconnected neighborhoods." The authors elaborate:

For example, consider the cases of San Jose and Richmond. Both metropolitan areas offer transit service to over 97 percent of city jobs. But while San Jose's suburban transit routes extend well beyond the city core, offering service to 84 percent of its suburban jobs, Richmond's suburban routes stop close to the municipal borders, offering service to only 29 percent of suburban jobs. The end result is that San Jose's overall transit coverage rate ranks fourth and Richmond's ranks 94th. And Richmond isn't the only metro that registers this extreme city/suburban dichotomy. Atlanta, Grand Rapids, and McAllen all show near-ubiquitous transit coverage in their primary cities and limited suburban coverage, pushing their overall coverage rates to the bottom quintile.

This report, like the last one, will likely invite observers to wonder whether it's incumbent on transit systems to undo their hub-and-spoke models and sprawl along with jobs using less efficient service patterns—or whether the solution lies with addressing job sprawl itself. After all, why should struggling public transit systems condone and subsidize employers who chose not to locate near their workers?

Brookings provides a reminder that one way or another, there's a problem that needs fixing: Unemployment is stubbornly high, while in some places there's a shortage of skilled and educated workers. Clearly, there needs to be a better way to connect jobs and people.

After all, commutes have grown longer and longer over the years, and a continued dependence on single-occupancy vehicles is simply unsustainable. The report says:

The nation's average distance to work jumped from 9.9 miles in 1983 to 13.3 miles in 2009.6 Meanwhile, as solo drivers topped 74 percent of all commuters, the average number of hours wasted in traffic increased from 14 hours in 1982 to 34 hours in 2010.7 Just as importantly, there is still a sizable portion of Americans that confront longer commuting distances without a vehicle. The costs of owning and operating a vehicle are such that ten percent of American households in the nation's largest metro areas do not have access to a private vehicle.

Transit can be part of the solution to these problems, and can provide employers with a more reliable way to bring their workers in to work on time every day. But whose job is it to make sure more workplaces are on the transit map? Does the transit system have to build a new line every time some company opens up shop in the exurbs?

Brookings suggests that both public and private sector leaders need to take responsibility for enhancing transit accessibility to jobs. They should route transit to where the jobs are, including in the suburbs, and do a better job of collecting and analyzing data so they can make good decisions, the report says.

But those are all tasks for public officials. What responsibility should private employers take in addressing the accessibility crisis? By locating in a city, an employer will have access to an average of 38 percent of available workers. That same job in a suburb will have less than half the labor pool to choose job candidates from via transit—just 17 percent of the population.

That doesn't necessarily mean there's no transit stop near the employer. But if it's so far out in the suburban hinterland that it would take the average resident more than 90 minutes each way to get there, it doesn't count—that's too long a commute to reasonably ask anyone to undertake.

So in addition to its list of recommendations to public officials, Brookings should add one addressing employers: Locate where your labor pool is. Don't make them drive alone for 13.3 miles each way to get to work. You'll suck their souls and waste their money and end up with a less healthy, less reliable workforce that shows up in the morning with a fresh case of road rage (or road fatigue).

Sure, transit agencies need to make sure their expansions are keeping pace with development and that their service is staying relevant. But employers need to realize there are good job candidates out there without cars, and those people won't work at a place that's inaccessible to them.

Cross-posted at Streetsblog Capitol Hill.

56 comments

Many urban dwellers still lack option to live without a car (Aug 20, 2011)
Metro beats BART with suburban transit-oriented jobs (Feb 18, 2010)
Congestion report pushes sprawl through flawed analysis (Jan 20, 2011)
Sex and the City: why women and families matter (Feb 20, 2009)
Encourage better conditions for restaurant workers (Nov 9, 2010)

Rio's growing pains

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 08:52:00 EDT

by Thaddeus Bell

The upcoming Rio +20 conference is a chance to show the world a good face, but the visitors will also be exposed to Rio's unsustainable development and trash problems. (Next American City)

Comment

Rat-filled subway vs. Fisher-Price subway (Feb 27, 2008)

Cool house

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 08:33:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

DC's first "passive house," which is a house that requires very little heating and cooling, has almost been completed in Deanwood. The house is based off of a Solar Decathlon house that was originally built on the Mall. (UrbanTurf)

Comment

Solar Decathlon home will house a Deanwood family (Sep 30, 2011)
Solar Decathlon to be held in West Potomac Park (Feb 23, 2011)
Solar Decathlon move a loss for DC, Decathlon, and the US (Jan 31, 2012)
Novel rooftop house is attractive. Is it practical? (Sep 28, 2011)
Lost Washington: Hudson Taylor House (Nov 6, 2009)

Preservation staff reject solar panels on Cleveland Park home

Thu, 31 May 2012 09:52:00 EDT

by David Alpert

If you own a home in a historic district in DC, you can't install solar panels, unless nobody can see them from a street. That's the recommendation from historic preservation staff on a case the board will debate today.

Photo by ell brown on Flickr.

A homeowner on Newark Street in Cleveland Park wants to add solar panels to the roof. The house faces south, meaning that the only side invisible from the street would be the north side which gets far less sun.

The Cleveland Park Historical Society supports the panels. From their website:

CPHS's Architectural Review Committee supports the installation of solar panels on this property, not on the street-facing slope of the roof (which the applicants do not propose), but on more of the west face of the roof than was originally proposed, in order to regularize the array of panels. The ARC is interested in encouraging the use of alternative energy sources in the historic district. It received very strong statements of support from neighbors adjoining the property.

However, the staff report says that according to current preservation guidelines, solar panels are okay but only if nobody can see them from a street. If they can, no solar panels.

In fairness to historic preservation staff, they seem to be trying to follow their written guidelines. Preservation decisions are already so subjective, and the more preservationists can make them predictable, the better.

However, these guidelines are still very vague and leave lots of room for staff or the board to come out differently on similar cases. For example, staff recommended against letting the building replacing the Christian Science church at 16th and I have a penthouse level with occupiable space, and most board members agreed. But, ANC members pointed out, in 2007 staff supported a penthouse roof terrace for the Hay-Adams hotel, right on Lafayette Park.

Listen to any meeting of the Historic Preservation Review Board, the appointed body that makes the ultimate decisions, and few members on either side of the issue talk about how a case fits with similar cases elsewhere or how a project lines up against guidelines; instead, you hear a lot of very personal opinions about whether members "like it" or not.

A bigger problem is the one Matt Yglesias pointed out: The preservation process narrowly excludes every single factor except for historic "compatibility." In most public decisions, officials weigh a variety of factors against one another. Here, the board must ignore the value of environmental sustainability, the economic impact, and even the owner's hardship or religious freedom.

At the previous HPRB meeting, where the board landmarked the 1960s urban-renewal Tiber Island project in Southwest, preservation chief David Maloney noted that there was "not yet public support" for a wider historic district in the neighborhood. As long as the preservation process holds that "compatibility" is the sole factor and overly restrictive guidelines define it so narrowly, it's unlikely there will ever be public support for another historic district.

Anyone who'd rather see no more preservation at all would probably appreciate this conclusion. So, perhaps, do those who only care about blocking development in a select few already-designed neighborhoods and who care little about the rest. Everyone else, however, ought to hope our preservation process can reach a better balance in keeping with the broader priorities and needs of the city.

Update: The Montgomery County Historic Preservation Office followed up with a tweet about how in their county, they're okay with visible solar panels when done tastefully and when it's the only option. A store in Glen Echo Heights got permission to add the panels. DC would do well to follow suit.

Update 2: The board voted 4-3 today to reject the solar panels. In an initial vote, members Andrew Aurbach, Maria Casarella, Graham Davidson and chair Catherine Buell voted to allow the solar panels, while Rauzia Ally, Nancy Metzger, Gretchen Pfaehler and Joseph Taylor voted no. Buell then abstained in a subsequent vote to allow the board to pass a motion.

64 comments

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Historic Preservation Review Board vacancies go unfilled (Aug 15, 2011)
Will preservation be a tool of blatant anti-development? (Mar 10, 2011)
HPRB denies S Street addition (Jul 23, 2010)
Preservation "incompatible" with historic preservation (Jan 11, 2008)