By Guest Columnist KATHERINE MOORE, senior director of The Georgia Conservancy’s statewide Sustainable Growth program
This holiday season, I’m thankful for … an easier-than-normal commute.
School is out this week for Thanksgiving break, but if you’re like me, you may find yourself heading into the office at some point to escape from the excess of family time and turkey leftovers. With most metro-area schools deserted this week, you will no doubt enjoy a noticeably smoother and shorter commute.
As lawyers argue in a Washington courtroom over the distribution of water between Florida and Georgia, Fulton County is preparing to nearly triple the amount of treated sewage it dumps into a river that flows into Alabama and the Gulf of Mexico.
APALACHICOLA, FL. – There are no surprises in the groupings of organizations that submitted “friend of the court” briefs in the federal lawsuit filed by Florida against Georgia to get more water out of the Chattahoochee River basin. The hearing began Monday.
Business interests stuck together. Environmental groups stuck together.
By David Pendered Florida filed a lawsuit against Georgia in the U.S. Supreme Court after years of negotiations failed to resolve disputes over Georgia’s consumption of water from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river basin. The hearing began Monday in a federal courthouse in Washington. Lawyers for both sides expect to take up to six weeks to present […]
Atlanta is in the early stages of renovating the green roof atop Atlanta City Hall. Plans call for more seating, the removal of invasive weeds and the installation of plants with a vibrant mix of colors and bloom times.
By Guest Columnist MARILYN A. BROWN, a professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy whose research focuses on energy, climate and environmental policy
In a year marked by ever deepening political divides, an unlikely consensus has formed between Georgia regulators and environmental advocates: energy bills must remain affordable as we transition to a low-carbon economy. My research on sustainable energy policies and the electric utility industry demonstrates that we can best achieve this result by using innovative tools already available to us.
MARTA is expanding its sustainability program and on Friday received proposals from seven companies vying for a contract to recommend and implement steps the transit system can take to further reduce its usage of water and electricity.
A panel that reduces energy consumption in commercial buildings by behaving like fish gills was one of four inventions presented at the recent Energy Summit hosted by the Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge.
Georgia Tech has started work to improve drainage of Tech Green, a green space built as part of the effort to develop a sustainably designed building – the G. Wayne Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons.
By this time next year, Atlanta should have a cogent plan to reduce consumption of water and energy at 181 city-owned buildings, including some at Atlanta’s airport.
In another indication of MARTA’s fiscal recovery and commitment to clean air, MARTA is in the process of purchasing up to 270 new 40-foot CNG buses.
Atlanta became the first city in Georgia Monday to establish a solar plan to install solar panels on public buildings, a major move in the city’s efforts to become more sustainable.
In the end, an Athens-based company didn’t win a big award for its intelligent lighting system to grow plants indoors. But the company did make it to the Top 10, which introduced it to thought leaders from around the world who gathered in Savannah for the international Ocean Exchange competition.
Atlanta is poised to adopt a comprehensive plan intended to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and forestall climate change, much like sustainability initiatives at Emory University and Spelman College that have resulted in their ranking among the greenest campuses in the country.
Three higher ed campuses in Georgia rank among the greenest schools in the nation, according to the ninth annual rankings of colleges and universities released Tuesday by Sierra magazine.
Metro Atlanta ranks fourth nationally on a green building adoption index, according to a new report by CBRE that also revealed a slump in the national growth rate of certification for sustainability or energy efficiency in office buildings.
A committee of the Atlanta City Council voted Tuesday to help Georgia Tech advance its plans to improve the pedestrian nature of the central campus, while ensuring vehicles can still traverse the campus, as Tech pursues plans to create an Eco Commons that is to speak to Tech’s social and environmental ambitions.
Python and yak are on the student menu at Kennesaw State University. So are tomatoes from plants that grow 30 feet long in a KSU greenhouse. As well as lettuce grown hydroponically in the dining hall.
The City of Atlanta has a new director of the Office of Sustainability.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed sent out an announcement Thursday afternoon that said he had appointed Stephanie Stuckey Benfield as the new director of the office.
Benfield, a long time environmental advocate and a former state representative from DeKalb County, most recently has been serving as the executive director of Green Law, an environmentally-oriented law firm.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration has what it describes as, “serious concerns over the accuracy of claims made,” in a March 24 report of an Atlanta City Council committee meeting on the administration’s proposed sustainability program for commercial buildings. The following is the complete text of a column produced by Denise Quarles, director of the city’s Office of Sustainability, in response to the story:
