Comments on: Greening Buildings to Create Jobs

By: Jobs in the Green Economy: the Hotspots | Sustainablog

Jobs in the Green Economy: the Hotspots | Sustainablog — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:03:09 +0000

[...] with new ones. That means work. San Francisco’s mayor, Gavin Newsom, talked about what green building means for San Francisco’s future, and I think this is a great [...]

By: Hooch Pin

Hooch Pin — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:34:08 +0000

Promote the FILM INDUSTRY
It employs locals
It creates jobs
It advertises SF
It creates and promotes tourism

By: Croxwell Fawkes

Croxwell Fawkes — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:19:49 +0000

Hey Ag – Could you elaborate a bit?

By: Ag

Ag — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:13:43 +0000

I love it! The 3 amigos– oops, make that pundits– tell Secretary of Energy, who has an extensive engineering background, that he ought to “just shut up”– while the readership swoons over the naive patter of that divine prognosticator, Gavin Newsome. While the “green energy hogs” quickly line up at the federal trough, eagerly anticipating their promised billions of taxpayer dollars. Go figure

By: Gina-Marie Cheeseman

Gina-Marie Cheeseman — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:13:47 +0000

Thanks Mayor Newsom! As a resident of Fresno County, San Francisco continues to be an inspiration.

By: Nan Cramer

Nan Cramer — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:10:14 +0000

Mayor Newsom,
Regarding residential buildings, particularly rental units: I would really like to see incentive programs for landlords to effectively weatherize their tenants’ homes. I don’t know what kind of structure “Phoenician” lives in, but my roommates and I shiver away most nights and wear many layers to keep comfortable in our drafty drafty drafty, non-central-heated first-floor Victorian flat: “rarely need heat” does not apply!
Thank you for all you do to green San Francisco.

By: Taj Chibnik

Taj Chibnik — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:37:45 +0000

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “task force?” Delay and inaction, for me personally. We’ve all seen the news. We’ve all seen or heard about An Inconvenient Truth. What is there left to talk about? The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the unemployment rate at 8.4% for the Bay Area. We need *green* jobs today.
Let’s get to work.

By: Liz Krueger

Liz Krueger — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:15:23 +0000

Diversity of challenges is right. I hope the task force takes on commercial remodeling standards, as well. I was dismayed when my neighborhood corner store upgraded their chilled food display cases to completely open chillers – no doors at all. The old ones were getting troublesome, but at least they had doors! I’m sure the expense of going to higher-quality green technology would have been a challenge for them, but maybe the task force can help identify an integrated-bottom-line approach that generates local employment, reduces energy use and helps small businesses be able to afford the upgrades.

By: will rogers

will rogers — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:52:09 +0000

Here is a music video produced in silicon valley that shows (among other things) that retrofitting buildings is super hip: "double panes"

By: Stevo

Stevo — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:49:17 +0000

This is good. Might I guess that the PG&E arrangement has something to do with decoupling? I’m curious how much of the funds required to get people to be more efficient can be recouped from the utility in this way. Is PG&E being totally cooperative about it?

By: Phoenician

Phoenician — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:46:32 +0000

Not to rain on the parade, but SF has it easy being so temperate. No one uses air conditioning here, and you rarely need heat. Does anyone have advice or examples of how major progress like this can happen in places where it would be much more costly, like Minneapolis or Phoenix?

By: Darien

Darien — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:40:21 +0000

This is great news, but I’m curious about the details. For example – let’s talk hotels, a major part of the building in SF, especially downtown – will we see the kind of simple solutions you see in Europe that require you to put your key in a slot inside the door to get the lights to go on? That way no one ever leaves with the lights on! Probably pays for itself too.

By: Bret Walburg

Bret Walburg — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:39:41 +0000

The other hurdle to retrofitting all applicable commercial lighting in San Francisco is the abundance of small retail stores that just have a handful of lights (but add up in aggregate). As a commission based sales person, working with these small shops equates to a very low net dollar per hour, as they take the same paperwork and time than larger jobs. Further, it isn’t cost effective for my company to send an installation crew to do the job. Perhaps the city could somehow support block-by-block sweeps where a contractor can bid retrofitting the whole block or zone at once? Some food for thought. Thanks Mayor Newsom for recognizing where we can and need to make a difference fast!

By: Bret Walburg

Bret Walburg — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:27:05 +0000

I work in San Francisco providing lighting efficiency audits and project management through the SF Energy watch program. There are still many buildings in San Francisco that are using outdated, inefficient lighting technology. This is the lowest of low hanging fruit, with the opportunity to drop energy use 50% on many types of fixtures. The rebate program is great, often keeping the facility’s payback period to under 1 year (with the rebate program covering 50%-100% of the job cost). Still, many businesses are cash strapped and have a hard time committing to their portion of the co-pay. How about using stimulus funds to create a program where the city covers the customer’s co-pay (making it a $0 upfront cost) and they re-pay through a low interest loan?